A Year of Change

Not sure why they call it the catwalk so I looked it up. It’s said it’s because models walk like a cat with their feet narrower than their body. If I was a cat I’d be offended and sue! #catwalk! Well anyway today Jag will be walking the catwalk at Denver Fashion Week. Lori and Jag need to leave around 9 and the show is at 4. If anyone wants to go (Ali ?) call Lori. I need to stay here with Ty to help him get caught up on his school work.

Last nights performance was great. Typically on the last nights performance the kids ad lib a bit. Jag threw in a line or two which was really funny. After the show we went to the Savin’s for some great food. George made great Mexican food and Lindsy made great Chinese food. We scarfed out like we hadn’t eaten for weeks and were stuffed when we left. We made it home by 9:30 and Jag, Ty and Emma were watching a movie. We went to bed pretty quick.

Next up is basketball practice which starts at 6:30 am tomorrow morning so the boys need to get ready for that. It’s every day this week and then next week is Thanksgiving week so not sure what the schedule is then. I’ll be cleaning a bunch today while Lori and Jag are gone. Hope they’re not too late. That’s it, God Bless.

First off, thanks to those of you that sent Jag congrats. I’m sure he received them but they have no service at school and then the play preparation began so if he didn’t respond, I’m sure he will. The second performance of the play was last night and by all accounts was great. Lori went and I stayed home and washed sheets and cleaned. After the show we were all going for sushi but Ty was sick so I met them on the road and took Ty home (who promptly fell asleep) while Lori went to Matsu with Jag. They called Lexi and Emile who joined them and they had a blast. Lexi is Jag’s best friend and Emile is a close second.

Jag still has eye makeup on from the show. Today Ty has a lot of work to try to catch up on before they go to school at 4:30 for the last show. After the show we’re supposed to go to the Slavin’s for a Mexican Chinese food cook off between two great chefs. We might need to drop Ty at home if he’s still sick.

Robi and Robert are coming up next March to go to the Eagles concert with us. The boys were so so about going and Robi and I were talking about it so it’ll be great. We’re sitting in the 12th row. I brought up a lot of extra wine from Denver yesterday. I dropped some at a few places and loaded the rest into the garage. I think today after the gym and going down to the house, I’ll pack up some things around the house we won’t need until we move in the Spring. It’ll still be 4 months but that’s only like 120 days! Have a great weekend and God Bless.

Last night was the first performance of the boys play. We weren’t sure what to expect but it was amazing! Both boys were great as was the entire cast. It plays again tonight and tomorrow night, they should be proud of themselves. Both had a little bug and while Jag kicked his, Ty is fast asleep.

When we all arrived home we started making something to eat. I opened my computer to check my email as I’d been gone all day. One email was from Baylor University in Texas and it said “WE HAVE A SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR YOU!“

It then said “log into your Go Baylor account”. Not thinking much of this I asked Jag if he’d seen this and he said no but he’d check his phone. About a minute later he calmly looked up from his phone and said ” I’ve been accepted to Baylor and they’re giving me $72,000!” Lori screamed “what?” and I said “are you sure, $72K?”. Jag read the email again and sure enough, they want him and are offering tuition money of $18K a year for four years. Now he also just turned in the scholarship essay they requested last Monday so he could get more money from them too. I said “it’s kind of surreal” as it really hadn’t hit me yet and Jag said he felt the same way. We were sort of in shock as you usually don’t hear back from any University in mid-November and we weren’t expecting it as he just turned in his application November 3rd. In any case we all were all smiles and happy as this is a big freakin deal! The coolest thing is this helps take the pressure off as he now at a minimum has been accepted to a top Division 1 school and they gave him money! Everything else is gravy. He has a number of other applications out there too. He has until May 1st to decide where he goes. I think he’s the first senior that’s heard back and been accepted to a college from his class. We’re very proud of him as he’s worked really hard for this.

I’m off to Denver early to pick up some wine. I was also at the house yesterday tweaking a few things and the roof is on the living room. This made the room seem so much larger than before the roof was on. It’s coming together really well.

That’s it, time to go, have a great day and send Jag a congratulatory text or give him a call if you have a chance! He deserves it!

God Bless.

Tonight is the first performance of 12 Angry Jurors. This week has been hell with the boys getting no sleep and homework suffering. They have 3 shows over the next 3 days. Then Sunday we have the fashion show in Denver. Never stops.

Lori had a situation at work yesterday morning so she had to cancel her workout at the last minute. I made it to Aspen and back in good time. Today I need to clean the garage again as I think something fell on a can of paint as it smells like paint out there.

It’s been cool in the mornings but no snow or anything. I think we’re supposed to get a dusting maybe Sunday. Time to get moving as it’s 6:30. God Bless.

Somedays just don’t go the way you want them to. Yesterday was one of those days. To be fair, we are all super tired. The icing on the cake here is the boys having theater practice until at least 8 pm every night. This cuts into homework time, social time and worst of all, their sleep. The kids still get their full load of homework which isn’t really fair. We’re not happy and neither are the boys. Today or tonight is the last practice as the show starts tomorrow. Can’t wait until it’s over.

I was down and up yesterday in pretty good time. Harley went back to daycare for the first time in a month and had fun playing with her friends. Lori is headed to the gym and I was going with her but we decided I’d better stay home to make sure the boys get up and out the door on time. I’ll meet her around 8:10 to drop the car off to get the tire fixed. Then it’s off to Aspen for me. Have a good day, take care and God Bless.

All week long the boys stay at school until 8pm getting ready for the production of 12 Angry Jurors this Thursday. This really makes for a tough week as they both still have homework and little to no time to do it. Wish they would have passed on this show but it is what it is. Ty said a lot of kids still don’t know their lines.

Our car is sitting idle until they get a new tire up here tomorrow as this one too is not repairable. Unbelievable. I’m turning in the receipts to the Homeowners Association to get reimbursed.

Lori has an early meeting and I need to take her so we need to get moving early. Hope all’s well, I think Tom is putting his tree up this weekend, about time! Take care and God Bless.

We awoke early and were on the road to Eagle by 9. Both boys were out the door right behind us on the way to theater. About 2 miles from the Eagle exit I had that “oh shit” light show up on my dash again. I had another flat tire! This time it was the left front. I made it to the exit, put some air in it at the gas station and drove up to the house. This time it took me about 12 minutes to jack up the car and change the tire. I’m getting fast at this. There’s a nail in the tire from the roofers, super. Hopefully (I think so) they can just patch it this time. We’ll drop it off at 8 this morning at the tire place.

Lori and I hung out after getting home around 1. She made chili which took over an hour and then the boys made it home around 6:15. Jag is skipping the first two periods so he can get his 500 word essay in for some scholarships at Baylor. The notified us on Friday which seems like pretty short notice.

No snow up here, just a few flakes here and there that look like ash they’re so light. The driveway isn’t covered or anything. I have some work to do around here today and then Aspen tomorrow and Denver Wednesday. Then Thursday is the show (theater) which runs through Saturday and then Sunday the Denver Fashion Show and then we have something Monday the 18th and two events Tuesday the 19th. I can’t think any farther ahead than that.

Have a great day, God Bless.

Ok, the gala was fun. Had to get that out front. Now to the nitty gritty, the food sucked, was literally inedible, the band was worse than they were a few years ago, the auction items were not very good and it was so hot before they let us in for dinner that we had to keep walking outside for some fresh air. Now for the fun part. We really do have a good community up here and everyone pretty much knows everyone even if not well. You recognize every person from some place you’ve been or something. As an example a nice couple came up to us and reminded us that she showed us a house 3 years ago or so. So we do have that small town togetherness which is nice. The school community is even smaller as we all have a common goal of creating and maintaining the coolest place in the World a kid can go to school. I complain about the money a lot, as it is a lot of money, but there’s no other place where a senior and a 3rd grader walk down the hall together talking about their day or just life. By the way, for Intraterm in February, Ty is on the Chicago trip which was his first choice and Jag is on a open deck sailboat in the Keys off the coast of Florida for a week with Outward Bound, tough life huh.

Our table was right up front! I think it’s because I complained about being right in the back last year. Melanie and Lori got to dance a bit with a dozen other women when the so called band started but as I said the band was sooooo bad I just couldn’t. At the end when we were leaving Marty saw his bill on his phone of $921 and was not happy. He thought Melanie bid on a bunch of useless junk. Lori looked at his phone and said “no, she only spent $371”. It came to me when we got in our car that the other $550 was for the tickets to the gala. We called them from our car driving home and told them and then Melanie said on speaker phone said, “aha, see, you mother fucker” to Marty. She said it in jest but said it like 5 times in a row making us laugh nonstop. Mel had a few cocktails so it was really funny.

Today we’re hanging out as the boys have theater from 10 until 6. Yesterday Marty and I put the new dryer in around 10 am and Jag went to basketball and Ty to the skate park. We’ll head back down to the house today to check some things out. So time to go and get everyone up and moving. Looks like Jag and Emma are “hanging out” together again. We (Lori and I and Emma’s parents) found this out from some other parents last night who found out from their kids, ha, small town advantage! Oh well, that’s fine, Emma’s a good girl. God Bless.

Tonight is the school fundraiser but today I need to finish installing our new dryer. I took off early for Lowes in Frisco as their web site said they had 7 in stock. When I arrived though I was told I couldn’t buy one until 3 in the afternoon? It seems they were unloading a semi and couldn’t get to them or something. So home I went. I bought one at Home Depot instead. I managed to get the old one up the stairs and outside by myself. I bought one of those strap things that looks like a giant Baby Bjorn and muscled it up the stairs one by one. Our new one spent the night in the back of my truck and Marty and I will take it down at 9 this morning. Then I should be done.

James is coming up at 11 to pick up some things like our broken dryer, some old mattresses, some chairs and other stuff we’ve had in storage or the basement for 3 years. The good thing about the dryer breaking is it forced me to clean out a bunch of crap so I could get it out of the house, ha.

The party tonight should be fun as we’re sitting with Marty and Melanie and Jennifer and Tom who are all fun friends. We all went to the Rolling Stones together. Jennifer and Tom’s new house is supposed to be done in February. Sadly I’m thinking March or April for us as you can’t pour the concrete for the driveway and patios until the ground is not frozen anymore. We could do it while it’s cold but that would cost more, ugh.

Time to get moving so we can get to the gym before Marty shows up. Have a great day, God Bless.

So yesterday I got the car back but last night our clothes dryer stopped working. It still spins but doesn’t heat up. Are you kidding me? I can either try to repair it today or just replace it. Looks like I can buy a basic one for $350 after rebates and since the one we have is about 13 years old, I’ll probably go that route. Just another pain in my ass. In our new house the laundry room is easy to get to right off the garage so no going up and down stairs like I’ll have to do later today!

Tomorrow is the school Gala. It should be fun. Today Ty has a big mid-term in Science. Not sure what all Jag has going on. They finally finished our roof and gutters yesterday. I swept the entire driveway to make sure there were no nails or anything that could puncture a tire.

I went to the appliance store yesterday and also the fireplace store. We had to switch a fireplace in my office. Things are moving fast, thankfully. That’s about it, time to get moving. I was going to Aspen today but now with the dryer debacle that’ll have to wait.

Have a great day, God Bless.