Brian's Buca Birthday

With Brian's birthday fast approaching, we went out last night and celebrated his birthday. And where did he want to go?? Buca di Beppo!! So we all piled in the car and headed up to Littleton Colorado since the one here in the Springs (his former place of employment) closed in December. He had a fun time catching up with his old boss and co-workers, and we all had a fun time hanging out and singing loud when they brought out the big birthday candles. After dinner, we headed over to Dad and Mom Kelly's house for presents and the famous chocolate birthday cake. It was a late night, but a great night. Happy Birthday (tomorrow) Brian!!!

Q-Dawg

This morning we had fun "playing house" for a few hours as we watched our friends' son Quentin - or as we like to call him, "Q-Dawg." We played and laughed and had a great time with him. He is SUCH a good baby!! Greg even got to change his first diaper too!! We would have gone outside to play as well, but it is SO windy and cold here. Brrrrr!! We can't wait until Spring!!

(Q-Dawg) =)

(Playing at the table)

(Eating breakfast with us)

(Such a good snuggler!)

(We must have tired him out)

2008 MLB Predictions

(By Greg)

Well, it's that time of year again! Although the season is still more than 4+ weeks away, it's never too early to start making predictions for the '08 Fall Classic. Here are my predictions for the 2008 playoffs and 2008 awards:

AL West: Angels
AL Central: Tigers
AL East: Red Sox
AL Wild Card: Yankees

NL West: Padres
NL Central: Cubs
NL East: Mets
NL Wild Card: Phillies

ALCS: Detroit over Red Sox
NLCS: Mets over Phillies

World Series: Detroit over Mets

NL MVP: David Wright
AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez

NL CY Young: Jake Peavy
AL CY Young: Erik Bedard

NL ROY: Joey Votto/Jay Bruce (they both play for the Reds)
AL ROY: Evan Longoria

Catching Up

It’s been almost a month since we’ve posted anything on here, so we thought we would update everyone on what’s been going on with us lately – which has been LOTS of stuff!! Happy Valentine's Day by the way!!

First off, let’s update you about Greg. Last month he received all of his study material for the CFA in the mail – over 35 pounds and 4000+ pages of books and flashcards!! He was so amazed at the amount of material that he made Jen hold his books for a minute just so she could feel sorry for him and all that he will have to endure for the next 2.5 years. He will let any of you hold all of his books as well, so just come on over!! He’s been studying like crazy lately and leaving Jen with a LOT of free time. Basically, that’s been Greg’s life in a nutshell...... work, study, sleep, work, study, sleep....

Second, let’s update you on Jen. Last month, she helped host the annual “Girls Tea Party” at church. This is an event where everyone gets dressed up really fancy (yes, both adults and the little girls) and they serve tea, punch, little finger foods, and "Princess Lannie" teaches the little girls how to behave and act like a lady. She is also still involved every Wednesday night with TeamKid at church, and the latter part of last month, Jen started preparing for VBS. She recently held an admin meeting, and currently is preparing for all of the staff meetings to come this spring. Once, sometimes twice a week, she has also been getting together with quite a few of her girlfriends – shopping, dinner, coffee, jazz clubs, errands, etc. That leaves the house quite quiet for Greg to study. ;) Jen also has entered a new/scary/exciting chapter in her life…. she put in her notice at work last week. There are many plans for this new chapter that we need to pray for wisdom for. The first being, either Jen will go back to school full-time and get certified in Mammography, or she will work full-time at home for a friend here in town, or somehow manage to do both. We’re not sure yet…. but we’ll keep you posted.

Lastly, an update about what we’ve been doing together..... Last month brought about one of our most favorite (and pretty much only) reasons to sit in front of the TV. American Idol!! Call us crazy, but we love that show and watch it religiously every Tuesday and Wednesday night. Something else we’ve been doing religiously has been hanging out with our friends Mike and Jenn (with whom we are planning on taking our next cruise with) pretty much every weekend. They live about 3 minutes from us, so it’s easy to get together for pizza and a movie, or dinner out on the town. Last weekend we were at their house for their son’s first birthday party. It’s so amazing at how much stuff kids get these days. We’re learning that Grandparents are gonna be wonderful things!! ;) 2 weeks ago we headed out to the Broadmoor Hotel here in the Springs to help host a conference that Jen’s work does annually. It was so nice to live in sheer luxury for 4 days and you can be rest assured that we didn’t want to come home!! A week before the conference, we were greeters/ushers/servers at a memorial service for a cadet who went to our church. Even though it was such a sad time, it was also a time of much rejoicing. "We don’t grieve for those who have passed on, we grieve for the family, because this girl is in Heaven “partying with Jesus!!”" (A quote from our friend Bob Collins who officiated the service and did an excellent job.)

On a happier note, we’ve been making plans for some new house projects!! We have lots of plans that will probably take quite awhile to accomplish since Greg doesn’t have a whole lot of free time and Jen can’t possibly do it all by herself. We’re also in the midst of planning some vacations for the year. 2 trips this summer and another trip in the early fall have been planned. Of course we're also planning some fun weekend get-a-way's in between all of this since our usual Friday night “date night” (lately we've been trying out new restaurants!!) doesn't always cut it. And last but not least, we’ve also been having fun hanging out at Mom and Dad Kelly’s house since they got their new pool table. Pretty soon we’re gonna be pool pros!! (We're also gonna get fat since Mom keeps making awesome desserts!!)

So that’s about it. You’re all caught up now. Whew!! We'll try not to let it go so long next time. ;)

Bonfires & Amplifiers

Last night we rounded up the troops and headed up to the Brad Paisley concert at the Pepsi Center in Denver. YEE HAW!! The show opened a little bit before 7:30 with Chuck Wicks (whom we were vaguely familiar with, but ended up really liking) and Rodney Atkins. Of course the best part of the night was Brad's performance - that man sure gives some of the best concerts we've ever been to, and he sure knows how to play a guitar!! We've seen him twice now in Colorado and will continue to do so as long as he keeps coming back!! Even though the weather was in the negatives (UGH!!) and we didn't get home until almost 1:00 in the morning, we still ventured out and had a fantastic time.
Click on any of the pictures below to get a better look. (It's obvious our camera is about to expire on us.) :) If anyone has a good camera that they are absolutely in love with, let us know as we are in the process of researching new cameras. You can e-mail us or post a comment.

CFA Program

(From Greg)

I just heard from the CFA Institute today and I was informed I received a scholarship to help pay for the costs of Level 1 (June 2008)! Praise God!

CFA = Chartered Financial Analyst and this designation is the gold standard for anyone looking to go into Investment Management.

Just to give you an idea of the prestige of the CFA, of the 6.6 Billlion people in the entire world, only roughly 80,000 individuals hold the CFA Charter! Of all the candidates who take the exam each year: 46% pass Level 1, 51% pass Level 2, and 67% pass Level 3!

Today, my social life has ended and my studying life has begun! Take a look at these sites to get some information on what this test entails:

www.testprepreview.com/cfa_practice.htm
www.analystforum.com/121904.pdf
www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/overview/facts.html

Check back in late July 2008 (exam date is June 7, 2008 in Denver) for my results: PASS or FAIL......

P.S. Since the original post, I have received my books and study material in the mail: 36 pounds of books and 4000+ pages of reading material!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

With love, from our family to yours,
Greg and Jen