Steps ARE Convenient

Before the contractor and his crew arrived this week, Glenn had to drywall, tape, sand, texture and paint (I helped!!) the wall where the stairway was going!!  We sure appreciated the contractor telling us to do this as with the stairway in, there was no way the drywall was going in easily!

And finally the steps were put in to get from the main level to the lower level!!  Glenn really appreciated this as before he was walking all the way around the house to get from one level to another!!  (there is cardboard on the steps to protect them till they're sanded and stained)

 Next on the agenda is building the back deck - the guys have a great start on it and it should be finished by Monday so they can install the French doors!

After 6" of heavy wet snow on Wednesday, the weather is beautiful now and expected to be in the high 50's all next week!! 

Fishing and Family

Glenn was excited to take a break from the house and go fishing - he had told me over a month ago that the fishing was supposed to be "excellent" on 3 nights in March so we planned a trip to Denver during that time - was the fishing excellent????  Well, not so much - even though him and Brad went out TWICE for hours at a time, they didn't catch a thing................

And what did I do?

1)  Coffee with Jaime
2)  Dinner with Jaime and Jessi at a Mexican restaurant to celebrate Jaime's birthday
3)  Coffee with Jessi
4)  Attended Destination Imagination to watch Evan and Kenzie perform
5)  Buffalo burgers with the Keppy's
6)  Took Rayna to see "Insurgent" for her birthday and enjoyed the recliners at the theater
7)  Watched 2 movies with Jaime and the kids
8)  Attended Rayna's volleyball tournament

So yes, as usual it was a jam packed weekend but I wouldn't have it any other way!!

Here are a few pics from the weekend!!

Evan was eating fruit loops and lost his other front tooth!!  But he must have thought it was a fruit loop as it was long gone..............yup, he swallowed it!!

A great weekend with everyone!!

CELEBRATE - CELEBRATE!!

And what are we celebrating?  NO MORE HOUSE PAYMENTS!!!!!!  OUR CURRENT HOUSE IS OFFICIALLY PAID OFF!!!

WOW - what a milestone!  Glenn and I have never paid off a house before and it's a great feeling!!  And when this house sells,  the proceeds from it will pay off our new house loan so we won't have a house payment when we move into our new home! 

Retirement is all about going into it without debt - and I'm thrilled to say this last piece has finally happened!!

FINALLY - A House Update!!

It seems like the past couple of months have not been very exciting on house news since Glenn has been working on the plumbing and electric -I'm not sure how many trips he has made to town to get plumbing supplies but guess that's part of it!!  He has been diligently working at the house but it's hard to see the progress sometimes!

Today the crew poured concrete in part of the lower level!!  What a job to get ready for that - leveling the dirt and taking out dirt and putting in dirt and then packing it down!!  And then measuring and deciding one place needs more, another needs less!!  But it was finally ready and I enjoyed watching them work!!

 What a hard, messy job it is to lay concrete!! 

 The finished product  -  or so I thought!!  It's 8:00pm and they're still up there working - using a trowel now on the wet concrete and getting the other 2 sides prepped and ready for concrete tomorrow, as long as it doesn't snow too much tonight or get too cold!!

 Also on the docket for today was filling the deep holes (for the deck) full of concrete!  This deck will be elevated and the plastic on the left side of the picture is where the french doors will be that will lead to the deck!!  Once the concrete is all done and dried, the contractor can return with his crew to build the deck frame and to install the steps from the main level to the basement!!

As you can see, a lot of the snow in back has melted and it's pretty muddy in places - it also LOOKS like a construction zone back there!!!  But I guess that's to be expected!!!

30 Years of Marriage!

WOW - it's just hard to believe that Glenn and I have been married for 30 years!!  We've shared many, many memories together and I can't imagine life without him!!  He is truly one amazing, funny, hard-working guy!!

We celebrated by eating at Carrabba's in Colorado Springs (after a trip to Home Depot of course!!).  The meal was delicious as usual and we ordered our special steaks that we love eating!!

 Yes, Glenn is a little bit sunburned!  It's been gorgeous here and he spent some of the day on the roof of the new house!!

Because it was our anniversary, we actually got to CHOOSE a dessert off the dessert menu!!  Naturally we chose the chocolate brownie covered in chocolate mousse and topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup - we couldn't even eat it all!!

Happy Anniversary Glenn!!  May we celebrate many more years!

Friends ARE For FUN!!

I knew when my good friend Jane turned 70 that I wanted to take her to tea over in Cripple Creek since she had never been to it!!  And then when I found out Joleen was heading this way from Ks., I knew it was the perfect time to celebrate in Cripple Creek!!

I LOVE going to tea with the fancy little sandwiches - the scones with freshly whipped cream - the torts - and the lovely tea cups and saucers!!

This time we even had thinly sliced swiss cheese with large green olives stuffed with fresh garlic - delicious!!

And because it was a birthday, our hostess made a special chocolate cake and it was delicious!!  Part of it even had to come home with us because we were so full!!

A fun time with two special ladies I'm privileged to call friends!!

Still Celebrating!

I was supposed to take Parker to see the movie "Paddington" on Saturday morning - he seemed pretty excited to go until we got in the car and started driving - total silence - even when I would ask him a question!!

 By the time we got to the movie, he was crying and wanted to go home - I called Jill and she talked to him but it didn't help - now the last thing I wanted to do was to drag a crying child into a movie so we just went back home and I promised him I would watch a show with him on TV and bring him a smoothie later on - and he was perfectly happy with that!!

So Jill and I left a little earlier than planned and had lunch at The Chocolate Cafe - a really cute place in downtown Ft. Collins - they specialize in chocolate of course but have a nice lunch menu too.  The desserts were great!!!  This is Jill's - chocolate molten lava cake with ice cream!!

 And this is mine - chocolate ravioli with butter pecan ice cream - very good!!

 And then Jill and I were off to a movie - this is what we found when we got home - Robby and Parker working diligently on the airplane!!  Parker couldn't wait to paint it and the time had finally come!!

 I had a nice evening again with the family and Sunday morning I headed to Denver to spend a few hours with the Keppys.  Gary offered to go out and get us coffee (yum yum) and then Evan opened his gifts.

 Since I didn't see the movie with Parker, I took Evan to see it!!  It was a great movie and I'm glad that Parker didn't see it as I think it was a little too old for him anyway - Evan and I enjoyed popcorn and orange juice at the movie!!

And then it was back home so he could have his cupcake before I headed home!!

 After I got home, Jill texted me a picture of the final airplane product - cute as can be!!

Now I've had my grand child "fix" and will look forward to our next get together which will be Easter!!

3 Birthdays To Celebrate!

Happy Birthday to 3 grand kids!!  Parker turned 4 on Feb 13th, Evan turned 8 on Feb. 18th and Rayna turned 13 today, March 2nd!!  Yes, we have a teenager!!

It was time to head to Denver and Ft Collins to celebrate all 3 of the birthdays along with a special day at Aleah's school which has been on my calendar for a long time!!

Glenn was busy working on the house as usual so it was just me that headed up last Thursday early afternoon to miss the snow - we've been having bouts of snow every other day and luckily I made it to Denver without any heavy snow!!

I stopped at Jessi's first hoping we could go for a cup of coffee and that's exactly what we did!!  And then she told me she had signed up to read for Evan's class that afternoon and would I like to come along and read too?  ABSOLUTELY!!!  Evan was so surprised to see both of us at school and I enjoyed reading to his class!

Then it was off to Jaime's house for the rest of the day and night!  Jaime was sick with a sore throat and Brad had a cold but Rayna was in good spirits to open her gifts!!

 I decided the easiest way to celebrate was to bring Hostess Cupcakes to each of the kids and put a candle in it - and they were all thrilled!!

 Kylan and I had fun playing a game which he mostly beat me at every time!!

 It was snowing when we went to bed so I didn't sleep great, wondering how the roads were going to be when I left at 7:00am the next morning for Fort Collins.  But I shouldn't have worried because the roads were pretty much cleared off and I made great time getting there!!

Aleah's class has a "Mystery Reader" every Friday and Aleah kept asking when Robby or Jill were going to be the mystery reader - she was certainly surprised when I walked in to read!!!

 The kids all sat on a rug and I sat in the chair up front to read to them - it was all going just fine till one of the little boys choked and then threw up - yuck - not a very exciting thing to happen in the middle of the book!!

Jill had also come to school with donuts to celebrate Aleah's birthday (which is in the summer)  So she was totally unaware of that too!!!  She came up front and the teacher put a crown on her head and they all sang to her - so cute!!!

 I drove back to their house and Jill headed to work after the snacks - Parker was pretty excited to see me and we played games till Aleah got home from school!!

Then it was time for Parker to open his gifts!!  One of them was an airplane to put together (with Dad of course) and then you got to paint it and put stickers on - he was so excited about it and couldn't wait to put it together!!

 And then it was cupcake time with him!!

 We all watched a movie together before the kids went to bed and then it was adult time movie!!  What a great day!!

To Be Cont'd..................................