May Birthdays

How nice that we will now have 3 birthdays to celebrate in May and they're all close together!!  Gwyneth of course was just born on the 18th, Glenn turned 63 on the 22nd and Kylan turned 8 on the 25th!

Since we were already up in Denver, we celebrated Kylan's birthday early!!  Jaime's brought 3 kinds of ice cream over to Jessi's and we all enjoyed eating Glenn's and Kylan's favorites!!  Then it was on to the gifts!!

Glenn had to work on his birthday - no rest for the weary - but we did knock off early to go out to dinner with Dick and Jane.  We ate at English Dockside in Co. Springs - we've eaten there once before and it was excellent, as it was this time!  Since none of us had ever eaten a "Po' Boy" before which is their speciality, we decided to order one for an appetizer - the waiter suggested a blue crab one and my oh my it was good - I'll be ordering that the next time we go!!

We loved the fresh shrimp on ice they brought out as a complimentary appetizer too and then the entrees arrived - grilled shrimp for me and it was great!!  A brownie sundae with lots of chocolate and whipped cream completed our meal!

Glenn will be receiving a new boat cover for his birthday gift from the kids and me - much needed as this spring a huge rip split his old cover!

Happy Birthday Kylan and Glenn!

Introducing Gwyneth Hope Keppy!

Jessi always said she wanted to have their baby on May 18th - I even guessed May 18th in their online guessing game even though her due date was May 22nd (Jessi and I both have a thing for the number 8) - so when the phone call came in on May 18th about 6:15am, I was not surprised!! 

I grabbed my previously made list and quickly packed - took a quick shower - and less than an hour later was on the road to Denver along with all the other commuters!  Gosh am I glad I'm not one of them!

Jessi's contractions had basically stopped by the time I got there so we went for a long walk to get things going again - Jaime arrived - and Jill arrived - and by late afternoon she was in full labor mode and the midwife and her helper were en route!

At 7:20 that evening, Gwyneth was born!  How exciting for all of us to be present when this little bundle of joy came into the world!  She was 7# 2oz, 20 1/2" long and of course cute as a button!  I was so excited when I found out her middle name was the same as mine!!

 Glenn drove up the next morning since it was raining at home and he was anxious to meet his new grand daughter!

 Although Jessi had some boy clothes on hand from a friend, she had no girl clothes!  Now that was the perfect job for Jaime and I - shopping for newborn girl clothes!!  We hit a couple of thrift stores and made a haul, along with the new outfit she wore below!!

 I happened to capture a cute little smile when I was holding her - a little blurry but oh well!!

It was fun to hold a little one again and snap picture after picture!!  This Nana couldn't get enough of her!!

 And now they are a family of five!!!

Welcome to the world - Gwyneth Hope Keppy!!

Up, Up And Away

One of the MANY projects that is on the list to do for the OLD house is to remove the hot tub and then repair the deck!  Our hot tub has had some major problems and we finally decided a few weeks ago it just wasn't worth fixing.  So that means pulling it out of the deck where it sits and then rebuilding the deck as the hot tub sat at ground level and the deck was built around it!!

Today was the day!

 The hot tub did NOT want to come out - since the deck was built around it, there were places that just wouldn't clear the tub.  Finally Glenn took the chain saw to the deck and cut off a few inches on a couple of the sides - that did the trick!!

 I thought for sure the hot tub would come crashing down but the ropes and chain held!!

Whew - what a nice job to be done with!! 

The Monday Blues

I'm sure glad it's Tuesday because Monday was the pits!!  And I always say, when you have a bad day, just know the next day will be better!

Glenn has been working on the plumbing for a long time at the new house - but he has a leak somewhere as the pipes won't hold air for very long (and that's a requirement of course to pass inspection) so he is on Day #3 of trying to find the leak!  What a process - I did go up and help and did discover 2 leaks but there is still another one somewhere - we're just praying it's NOT under the concrete!

It was laundry day so I was on my 2nd load and happened to go down to check the dryer and it's a good thing I did as the laundry room was flooded with water!  I raced over in the water to shut off the washer as that was overflowing but even shutting off the washer didn't stop the water from coming in - I raced back out to shut off the water main and then of course remembered I could have shut off the valves right by the washer too!

After mopping up water with most of the towels in the house, I dipped water out of the washer till it was at a normal level and then let it go through the rinse cycle and spin out - Glenn was home by this time and I told him what had happened but I knew I had to get the water out of the washer before we would be able to move it out and see what the problem was.

When I lifted the lid and started taking the clothes out, I noticed they were all covered in small bits of stuff and there was a lot of sand in there.............what a mess shaking all of that stuff off the clothes!  I went ahead and did a load of towels then and stayed down in the laundry room the entire time and it worked just fine - all I can think of is that the pipe or hose was getting clogged with whatever and when I turned off the water and then back on, it all came out in the load of clothes.  Trust me, I will stay downstairs the next time I do laundry and make sure it is STILL working OK!

And while I was up at the new house helping Glenn, I told him he needed to stop and build a fire in the stove as it was so cold up there - and he told me he had no dry wood (remember all the snow we got?) and he couldn't split any because his chain saw was broke down.............Bummer!

Let's hope the rest of the week goes a little better!!

Mother's Day

Jaime soon joined us at Red Lobster and said the roads were already slick and slushy!!  But that didn't dampen our spirits!  Yummy drinks were ordered!  (The lighting was NOT great in this restaurant!!!)

 And then it was time for my Mother's Day gift!!  Check out that cute wrapping paper!!

 And here it is - my BLOG BOOK for 2014!!!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this gift each year!!

 After a great meal and lots of fun talking, we headed back to Jessi's in the horrible weather!!  Jill's headed back to Ft. Collins that night and we finished watching a movie and the snow!!

I took this picture Sunday morning - and not a 1/2 hour later, a huge branch in front came down and about came through the glass sliding door!!  It was heavy, heavy wet snow!!

 Gary and Glenn fixed us a great breakfast and then we headed on home - yes, lots of snow our way too  -  check out our deck as the snow from the roof all came down on it!!  HMMMMM - wonder how soon that stuff will melt!!!

It's WET, WET, WET

I think the rain has taken over the forecast for over a week now...............every day - gloomy skies and maybe a few minutes of sunshine..............I'm really getting tired of it, although I know the wet weather is soaking the ground and helping our chances of less fires this summer.  Still..........I'm used to seeing the sun EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

It's also playing havoc with trying to power wash and stain our decks!  It's a little tough to start that major project with rain in the daily forecast! 

Glenn was supposed to have a couple days off this last weekend to fish up in Denver but you can bet he didn't get to go fishing!!  We headed up Friday afternoon and hit horrible heavy rain - you know the kind where your windshield wipers are going as fast as they can but still can't keep up!!

We actually sat in the car at Jessi's house for about 10 minutes till the weather let up!  Jessi was excited that I had brought up 6 meals for her freezer and friend Joleen had sent 2!  In between rain storms, Gary grilled up some buffalo steaks and they were excellent!!

Saturday we headed to Jessi's office for treatments and while the guys went in another direction after that, we headed to coffee!!

 Jill and her family arrived shortly after we got back to Jessi's place - unfortunately we were stuck inside all afternoon with the rain and the cold.  Gary had a HOT fire going in the fireplace and the kids were all sprawled out watching a movie in the afternoon!  Jaime was working so Jill brought Kylan over as Brad and Robby were busy installing security items at Brad's place.

 It was raining hard when it was time to leave for dinner that evening!  I snapped a cute picture of Jessi before we headed out - due date is May 22nd so it's coming right up!!

Just as we sat down at Red Lobster, the blizzard started!!  The snow came down hard and heavy and fast!!    TO BE CONT'D................