A Year of Change

As it turns out, Lori is all in and now the new Practice Manager at Denver Plastic Surgery. Her plan of working until 3 or so Monday, Wednesday and Fridays hasn’t really happened as she’s been there until around 5:30 or 6pm each day! We think (hope) this is just temporary as she’s cleaning up the mess left by her predecessors. She’ll settle in but it’ll take her a couple of more weeks. Anyhow she’s making more money and we’re trying to look at that as the positive. This will help with the never ending influx of medical bills that are still arriving. Too bad it didn’t happen a month or so ago as some of the natives (medical collection agencies) are getting pretty restless! The tax guys aren’t too happy either. God willing, this will all soon end.

I picked up Jag at 2:45 but we couldn’t find Ty, turns out her had jump rope club and we forgot. I took Jag for a quick hamburger and then we went back to get Ty. Then it was off to Sports Authority for $200 (uggh) of much needed, mandatory, baseball gear. We then went for another hamburger for Jag and one for Ty. When we arrived home Ty asked why he didn’t get two!

I then began to get ready for dinner and finish the laundry and dishes. It’s like I’m Mr. Mom. Today I need to finish some work and remember to pay the first half of the property taxes. Then we have baseball from 4 to 6. Tomorrow is Ty’s Destination Imagination presentation and we need to leave the house by 6:30am! I think we’re done by 10:45 or 11. Then lots to do to get Jagger ready for Outdoor Lab and on and on it goes. Oh yea, the cool weather and snow are headed back, super.

Take care and God Bless

It’s 4:57 and I’ve been up for 15 minutes or so but am already feeling behind. I need to get to the gym and then get back and box up some more vino. Yesterday the Chicago samples went out and today hopefully I’ll send North Carolina. Then I’ll only have Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, New York, Alabama, South Carolina and Wisconsin to go. On top of that, I need to ship out a dozen or so boxes to my team here in Colorado, then the house can start getting back to normal.

The boys had early release yesterday and then Ty went to D.I. We picked him up and then the boys and I went to Jag’s baseball practice. He did well for not picking up a bat for 4 months. He’s developed physically since last fall and has a really nice swing.

Mom arrived home a bit after 6. She’s going to ask for more money today as she underestimated the job, so did I!

Time to run and finish up my coffee with cinnamon and a splash of vanilla extract (I gave up dairy) and get to the gym.

God Bless.

There’s not much but there’s a few inches and its cold. Jagger is supposed to have baseball practice tonight but I don’t know how as the field will for sure be wet and muddy even if it warms up. We’re on a roller coaster as by tomorrow it’ll be 60 and then more snow Saturday. The weather just can’t seem to make up its mind.

Lori is working hard as am I. I boxed and shipped 20 boxes of wine yesterday and will do the same today. There are tons of crashes on the roads so those of us in Colorado will need to take it easy. I need to get moving and go gas up Lori’s car and make sure its full of window washing fluid so I’d better get moving. She hates to get gas, so much that she’ll just run the car empty, I think she never looks at the gas gauge!

Hope all’s well, gotta run, God Bless.

Around noon, after much negotiating on the phone, I received a call from the trucker and he said he was just leaving the Denver Airport. Amy from my custom brokers in Chicago who helped me secure delivery yesterday rather than today, told me it’d be late in the afternoon before I should expect delivery. Well, the trucker, who’s been delivering to me for years, and who I always give some wine, jumped right on it and was 3 or 4 hours early.

I was up north but made it home about 5 minutes after he arrived. I told him he made good time and he replied, “and yea, I even stopped for a drink” and he didn’t mean soda pop either. He’s a nice guy with about 3 teeth, a beat up old cowboy hat and tattoo’s up and down his arms. He’s nice and like I said, has been my driver for 4 or 5 years. James, who used to take care of my dad, showed up, as I hired him for a couple hundred bucks to help carry it all in. Dr. Gander, the 70 some year old dentist who you’ve heard me talk about, stopped and helped also. It only took about an hour to move the 250 cases and now the house is packed.

Today I’ll need to repackage about half of those and get them ready for Fed Ex tomorrow. Meanwhile Lori was at work until about 5 or so, the boys well, were boys and that about wraps it up. It’s 4:49 now and I need to get to the gym before all the work I have here so time to run. Hope all’s well, here’s another couple stories to chew on, God Bless.

4 – Fourth Important Lesson. – The obstacle in Our Path. 

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a

our condition. 

5 – Fifth Important Lesson – Giving When it Counts…. 

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a

sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Think about that, have a great day!

Where did the weekend go? Last night the good looking one and I were saying it’s like we didn’t even have a break. It’s 6am now and we’re on the move. Hopefully I’ll get wine today as tomorrow it’ll be much colder and maybe snow. I have lots to do today though so it’s a double edged sword.

Check these 3 little stories out, something different for the day,

You can now call the misses again as she has a new phone. We never found hers despite searching everywhere, she even went back to the church where I went. Oh well, can’t dwell on the negative.

Yesterday, besides spending 3 hours in a packed Verizon store, I managed to get some groceries, pick up a new vacuum at Sears, clean out the garage and take 4 boys to Buckaroo’s for Ty’s belated birthday celebration. The last chore was the worst. Buckaroo’s is in the mall and it was like a third world country. Not very many white or english speaking people, I felt naked not being armed!

Last night we had some snow, I’m not sure if it was expected or not but I was surprised. Today I’d love to get a start on my basement as I’ve been putting it off for what seems like years!

Peggy was gone most of the day to Cherry Creek and even drove down to Colorado Springs to look at some Old English Sheepdog puppies as that’s what she grew up with and has been thinking of getting one. They had three and she didn’t care for any of them so she came home empty handed. Then she was off with some girlfriends to Toby Keith’s new bar across town. I’m not sure when she made it home. I told her not to stay out too late! She’s headed home to Aspen today but she’s a great house guest as she’s never really here! She’s always going here, there or somewhere.

My wine will arrive via British Airways in Denver this afternoon and hopefully clear customs by 6am tomorrow. If we’re lucky, it’ll get to me tomorrow. Then the work begins, I know I have 50 cases of 12 bottles each that need to go out by Wednesday at the latest. If the wine arrives Tuesday, it’ll be a long, long day! Lori of course will be at the office. Throw in housing taxes due on the 28th, Colorado State 2013 taxes due now, a payment on Federal taxes due on the 20th, and one to the accountant, and there’s a crappy week. It sure gets old, the more you make, the less you have!

Oh well, guess I’ll run, everyone is still sleeping, the boys (Vinny spent the night), Peggy, Lori, Ty and Jagger. It’s just Mojo and me and he’s outside enjoying the dusting of snow. Have a great day and God Bless.

Hard to believe it but a week from today will be the first day of March. Summer, then Fall, then Christmas will be here before you know it! Ok, that’s a little bit of a stretch but once again, it seems if you blink, you’ll miss a month or even worse, a whole season.

Lori worked late last night and this will be the norm soon as she’s going to be the new Practice Manager at the office, at least for the next three months, until summer. She and Dr. Rodgers decided that this would be the best thing for everyone as Lori has really straightened things out quickly and has everyone back on track. Plus the entire staff has pretty much elevated her into the position already. In other words, she’s been functioning as the leader at the Practice for the past few weeks anyhow. Of course there’s things she doesn’t know like OSHA and HR (human resources) that she’ll need to get a handle on but she can do it.

She’ll work Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from about 9 to 2 or 3 or so, and then 9 to 5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays which are Dr Rodgers office days. Her schedule will be flexible enough so if she needs to leave early or stay late, depending on what’s going on, she can. So we’ll see how the next three months go (until June) and then she’ll decide if she wants to keep it up or back off. In any case, she’ll need to cut her hours in summer when the boys are out of school. So, congratulate Lori on her promotion. She’ll of course make some more money, not as much as she’s worth, but it all helps.

Last night Peggy insisted on taking us to dinner. We were supposed to go downtown for an 8:15 reservation but by the time Lori arrived home around 6, she and I were too tired. Thankfully Peggy realized this and said we didn’t have to go out. We were relieved and decided to order some food from around here, but then ended up going to the Bonefish Grill that’s pretty new and close to us. Our mutual friend Michael, (who actually introduced us to Peggy) joined us and we also took the boys. We all ended up back at our house around 9 or so. Michael is going to Hawaii for a month, a week from today, as his sister has a house there and she’s off to Burma for a month. Peg is going over for a week to get some sun too. If we were not going to Belize, we could go there for Spring Break as it’s apparently pretty good size and above Diamond Head. He just bought a used (but it looks like new) Porsche he wants to leave with us for the month. Not sure of we have room in the garage but I said I’d check this morning. Of course he said to drive it all we want. Maybe we can fit it in one side of the garage.

Today Ty has D.I. from 2 until 4 and then a sleep over here with Vinny as he never had his birthday party. I’m sure cake and ice cream will somehow be involved. Lori lost her cell phone and we can’t find it anywhere. I drove back to the church where Jagger had his concert but they couldn’t find it. I’m sure some kid has it and we’ll never see it again. There goes $500, I’m really bummed.

Guess I’ll run as it’s almost 6:30. Everyone is still sleeping but I’d better see what I can move around in the garage. Have a great weekend, take care and God Bless.

Lori was at the office, Ty had jump rope club (did you know there was such a thing?), Jagger had Honor Band, Peggy was arriving from Aspen and I had lots of work.

I picked up Jag at 12:15, brought him home for a quick snack and then dropped him and his bass clarinet at Faith Christian Academy where he and kids from 90 other schools practiced from 1 until 6pm. The best of the best were chosen from each school, usually only 1 kid per school but 2 from our school. The performance started at 6:30 and went for an hour, everyone was great and we were very proud of him.

Ty went to Vinny’s and we picked him up after it was all over. Meanwhile Peggy showed up and let herself in with the key we left her and will be with us until tomorrow or Sunday. She insists on taking us some place special for dinner tonight.

This morning Peggy needs to go to Berthoud to deliver a refurbished trunk she found for her 38 Rolls Royce as it’s being trailered to San Diego for a car rally and she wants to have the trunk put on the car. Then she’s going to lunch with her friend Mimi who is a curator at the Denver Art Museum. Lori will head off to work at 8 or so and I have a sales meeting at the distributor at 10:20. The boys of course will be at school, so lots going on.

Jagger woke me at 5 as he has been up since 4 doing his homework that he didn’t get done due to the band performance. That’s it, time to run, hope all’s well, God Bless.

Yesterday afternoon was Jag’s first baseball practice of the season. It was supposed to start January 19th but the Bronco’s were in the playoff’s (don’t remind me) and then it was frozen outside. Our coach is great and we knew him from last year as his son was on Jag’s team but he wasn’t the coach. It seems like we have a great group of boys. By the time practice was over at dusk, it was cold. You could tell all the boys were glad to get in their parents cars.

Meanwhile Lori and Ty were at D.I. until about the same time meaning 5:30. We all made it home a few minutes later. Today Jagger leaves school at 12:30 to go to Faith Bible Chruch/School where he’ll practice all day with the All County Band until 6pm and then put on a performance. It seems he was one of two kids chosen from his school to be in this band. We thought he was the only one as they usually pick only one kid per school but from ours, they ended up picking two!

Peggy, our friend from Aspen, is coming down this afternoon to stay with us for a few days so we’ll all probably go to watch Jag depending on when she makes it down.

Lori has been working hard at work. She’s basically the interim office manager right now handling all the things required to keep everything running. We had a little dusting of snow last night, just enough to coat the ground. Looks like we’ll be stuck in this pattern of 30’s and 40’s with light snow on and off for the next week or so.

No letters or anything today, I’ll try to give it a rest. Hope all’s well, take care and God Bless.

No comments? Lori says you are all still trying to absorb yesterday’s post. Hope it wasn’t too much, as it’s hard to argue with if you honestly think about it. Our Country and more importantly, its people, have lost their way, no doubt about it. Now I’m not saying everyone has, but the majority, yes they are gone.

So onto the day, Lori was at work all day long and I too was busy. I did go see Libby, our dermatologist friend, who shot concentrated salt water into some veins I had on my legs to make them collapse. Libby and her husband Carl, our good friends, are coming to Belize with us and offered to get rid of these for me before we go. Now I have ski socks on after some 20 or 25 injections as Libby never does anything half assed. She found veins that hadn’t even surfaced yet, oh well, if you’re going to get it done, might as be all at once!

The wind seems to have died down a little. It was warm and nice today. Lori had a tough day but she figured everything out. Today she’s leaving at 8am for another long day. She feels ok but did have cramps. We all know she never takes it as easy as she should.

Guess I’ll go, hope all’s well, to follow up on yesterday’s letter, check this out. I’m sure you’ll like it much better, God Bless