Wednesday, May 7, 2008

The Birds

OK, now we know this isn't the most exciting thing we've ever blogged about, but...... we finally have birds in our birdhouse!! Granted, they aren't bluebirds (since it's supposed to be a bluebird house) but we'll take whatever we can get.
In case anyone is wondering, the bluebird house came from Jen's Papa last year. He had made us a birdhouse from some of the old wood from his Mother's house. So this bird house isn't just any old birdhouse from any old wood - it's special and sentimental to us! Cool, huh? =)

On a side note: No, our whole backyard is not just dirt and weeds (of course we don't take a picture of the birdhouse with grass in the background though....) and yes, we are planning on finishing the landscaping sometime soon. =)

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Museum and a picnic

Yesterday morning, Jen went swimming (yes, it was swimming inside for those who live in Colorado and were wondering "what the heck!!??") with Jenn and Quentin. They had a blast swimming all over the place and splashing around in the water with all the fun pool toys. It was even more fun to have “grown-up time” and sit in the hot tub and exercise a little bit while Quentin went and played with the other kids. ;)

But THIS morning, we all piled into Mike and Jenn's car and headed up to Denver to visit the museum and go on a picnic. We first stopped off at McDonald’s for a quick breakfast, then at King Soopers for a pacifier, and eventually ended up at the museum. We were obviously in no hurry. ;)



It was a great day and we explored all over the place - there's some crazy neat stuff in there! And the view from the museum is awesome too! (Click on any of the pictures for a larger/better view)























After our adventure at the museum, we were starving and went on the hunt for the best picnic spot. We decided to stay in the Cherry Creek area and ended up finding a nice, beautiful, quiet park. The perfect place and the perfect day for a picnic.

View from our picnic spot

Quentin tired out from a long day of fun

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

39 Days And Counting...

(By Greg)

I am taking a break from my studying and thought I'd give you another glimpse into what I'm getting myself in to...

As I sit here, my brain is fried, and I'm trying to do everything I can to memorize these dang formulas. Actually, I'm not supposed to be memorizing them, I'm supposed to be comprehending them! HA! I'm getting close; however, I do have 39 days left, which doesn't seem like a lot of time when I work 40+ hours per week...

So, if anyone can give me some good tips on comprehending these formulas, more power to you! =) If you just want to see what is going into my brain that is so difficult to comprehend, take a look below. (You can click on the pictures for a closer look.) And by the way, these are only a few of the many I need to know:















Thursday, April 24, 2008

Groovy Grad

(By Jen)

So yesterday…… Cheryl finally graduated from college!! Woo hoo!! Way to go Cheryl!! But tonight, a bunch of her girlfriends took her out to celebrate and surprised her at Jose Muldoon’s downtown. Viva Jose!! She was totally surprised!! Only 3 of us were taking her to dinner (so she thought), but once we got there, a whole room of her bestest friends sat waiting to celebrate her big accomplishment. After dinner was done, we walked around downtown until it got dark – a great way to work off all that awesome food and enjoy the semi-nice weather. Congrats Cheryl, we/I love you lots!! =)

Me and my Auntie














Me and my friend Allison - get it? Ha ha!! =)















Since I was out gallivanting the night away, Greg decided to take a break from studying for a bit and go play some softball. He filled in at a double header for his work team and said that he did OK. (To quote him: “Even studs have an off night sometimes!!” LOL) They lost to the other team, but he’s quite the happy camper just because he got to play ball. Now he’s in the shower, but after that he plans to study for a few hours…… so I guess I’ll go and read for awhile. Goodnight!!

Play Date

(By Jen)

Yesterday morning (and afternoon) I went over and had a “play date” with my friend Heather and her adorable son Quinn. It had been about a month since I had seen them, so we figured that it was about time to get together. (We’re not gonna let it go so long next time!!) We played inside, had lunch, played outside on the putting green and on the swings, and then we tired him out, so she put him down for a nap and then we had “grown-up time.” It’s always fun to hang out with Heather. It’s not often that you find good friends who can be real with you.

Maybe he’ll be a golfer like his Daddy someday??














Quinn the cutie!! And look at those beautiful baby blues!!



Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Won't you be my neighbor?

Since we’ve lived in this house, we’ve had at least 5 different families move in and out of the house next door. NONE of which have been in the least bit normal. But then again, what is considered “normal?” We have the craziest stories, and some days as we’re spying through the blinds, all we can do is just look at each other and laugh. Our friends and family probably think that we make this stuff up!!
First, we’ve had the original owners. They lived there long enough to put up blinds and stuff, and then moved out and started renting it to the next 4 crazy families you are about to learn about. They seemed somewhat normal, although we never really got to communicate with them face to face - only through the notes they had left on our front door. Now is where the fun begins……
Second, some of the weirdest people we have ever met moved in. We’ve never spent so much time peeping through our blinds than we did during the time these people lived there. They always put on a good “show” for us. It appeared they had some money by the Mercedes and Porsches they always drove, and usually had more cars than drivers. They always seemed to take their fights outside on the front porch or the lawn and would yell and scream at each other and their kids so loud that we could hear it even with the windows closed!! (But we could spy better with the windows open, hee hee.) Sometimes, it seemed that the Dad would get pretty irritated with it all, so he’d sit in his car in the driveway and sleep. =) Of course we got a kick out of that!! One of their daughters insisted on using our backyard as a play area and a path to her friend’s house, so we had to put a lock on our gate so we could have some privacy in our own yard. Their other daughter would scream at her sister through the screen window upstairs and then go out and drag her off her bike for no reason when she was riding around in the cul-de-sac. They also had these ugly little dogs that would scratch at the fence and growl at us and bark all hours of the night. The day we saw the moving van pull up in front of their house, we went out and celebrated!!
Third, a single guy moved in. Ahhhh, nice and quiet one would think. But no. He had a fetish with cars and motorcycles and collected all these old classics. So he would come outside only to clean and detail them, but would rev them up SO loud when he came and went. He wasn’t the friendliest of people either. We’d wave (and so did other neighbors), but he’d pretend he didn’t see us. Thank goodness when he moved……..
Fourth, were the old people. Just because you’re old, doesn’t give you the right to be cranky and mean. This man apparently hated us and made every effort to let us know it. It all started the night we couldn’t get in our driveway because there was a 4.5 drift covering it, so we parked in the neighbor’s driveway since we “knew” no one lived there. Well, he comes home and honks and swears until we come out and move the car and continues to cuss up a storm for 10 minutes straight about how we need to park elsewhere and not in his driveway. Once the weather warmed up, he accused us (and threatened us through an open window) of putting tumbleweeds in his window wells. LOL. We don’t know where we would have gotten tumbleweeds from..…. but anyways, we watched him yell at his wife, throw things at her, and rant and rave up and down the driveway. Good riddance to them!!
And lastly, we have the drug dealers – or, that’s what we call them. It intrigues us because the UPS truck, and sometimes FedEx, comes every single day delivering packages. The guy is always coming and going (“dealing” as we assume) and they drive brand new cars. When we do catch a glimpse of them, the wife is always decked out with all this jewelry and fancy clothes, but they live like recluses, so we’re not totally sure what the story is with them…. yet. =) And here she comes now….. radio blasting as she pulls into the driveway….
So yeah, there’s never a dull moment around here. We’re just waiting to see what the next moving truck will bring. We wait with so much anticipation that it’s almost like Christmas for us!! =)

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Match Point

It's a beautiful day here in Colorado Springs today!! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and our house smells great with all the windows open. It's supposed to get into the 70's today, so we took advantage of the nice weather this morning and headed out kinda early to play tennis. We're getting better - definitely much better than the last time we played. Jen worked on perfecting her backswing, and Greg learned real fast to "never turn his back on his opponent." ;) Sometimes he loves to hit the ball 100 miles an hour over Jen's head, so she started serving while his back was turned. We kinda kept score, but with all the shenanigans going on, we're not really sure who won and ended up just calling it a tie. Tomorrow it's supposed to be another beautiful day. Maybe we'll go out and play again!!

Last night we had our Sunday School, a.k.a Life Group, party out at the Wycoff's house. We had so much fun eating, playing games, and getting to know everyone better - we hope this will end up becoming a regular thing. We didn't get home too late, but we sure were tired. We even brought home some of the leftover pie that got rave reviews. (Jen made up a recipe and it actually turned out great!!) =)