A clean room!

Well it took most of the day but I finally finished Ty’s room. He must literally have 50,000 Lego pieces, and they were everywhere. I had to move his bed, lift things up, look on window sills, even under blankets and sheets, no wonder he prefer’s sleeping with Mom. Good news is now he’s all jazzed on spending time and sleeping in his own room! We’ll just have to make sure he stays on top of it this time. A big part of that will be no longer letting his room turn into the neighborhood play room where kid after kid plays. I think we’ll send a note around the neighborhood or take out a billboard, or better yet, leak the info to Jagger and his friends and it’ll make its way to everyone via social media before you can blink.

Speaking of Jag, he was tired last night and went to bed at 9. I let him stay up to see how long he’d last and as I suspected, it wasn’t very late.

Today Lori gets home around 4:30pm. The Bronco’s play at 11 and I still need to clean up the mud room. Lorenzo arrives tomorrow and I need to wash the car. It’ll be 29 today for the high which will be nice. At least I have the laundry done and the kitchen clean. So in closing, take care and have a nice Sunday, God Bless, now check this out,

Will you give this to my Daddy?

As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support ‘Red Fridays.’ 

Last week I was in Atlanta , Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.

When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I’m not alone. I’m not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.

Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said ‘hi.’ 

The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.

The young soldier, who didn’t look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her Daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter’s name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.

When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.. 

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, ‘I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.’ He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying ‘your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.’

The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event. 

As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it’s good to be an American.

RED FRIDAYS —– Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the ‘silent majority’. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers.

We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many American, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of Americans supports our troops.

Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.

By word of mouth, press, TV — let’s make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.

If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once ‘silent’ majority is on their side more than ever; certainly more than the media lets on.

The first thing a soldier says when asked ‘What can we do to make things better for you?’ is…We need your support and your prayers.

Let’s get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.

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More snow and cold

It’s baaaaaack, today we’ll get some more snow and colder temps. Lori made it safely to California and I guess Bob’s pretty weak. Ty had a basketball game and Jagger went to Movie Night at school and must have sent 200 texts (literally) yesterday and was up until 1am! And by the way, the girls are on the hunt! They call, come over, text, take his picture and post it to Instagram and more. By the time we left the basketball game at 9pm to go pick him up he hd received a text telling him the score of the game and that his dad (me) left right away when the game was over and oh yea, that the game was boring without him there, all of course via text from some girl at the game! I have a feeling this is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

Today the boys are I are going to begin tackling the house. I’m determined to get Ty’s room  and the mud room cleaned. That will be a victory equal to winning World War II if I can accomplish it. Later this afternoon I’m going to take the boys to see Dumb and Dumber Too at the movies as it just came out yesterday.

Ty is up with me now and I need to get to they gym and back by 8:30 so time to go. Hope all’s well, God Bless. Can’t wait for Mom (Lori) to get home tomorrow.

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Off to California

Today Lori is off to California until Sunday. Meanwhile the boys and I will be cleaning this mess we call home. I just cannot stay ahead of it. The whole house is just a freakin pit. Tonight Ty has a game at 8pm which will put us home around 9:15. Tomorrow I have a meeting on a new business in the real estate market and on top of that, it’s supposed to snow. I’m sure our power bill is going to be $400 or $5oo dollars this month as you can feel the cold air just blowing in under our doors even though we have blankets on the floors and windows. You have to love old houses, we got to move.

Hope you enjoyed Lori writing half the post yesterday. I’m getting burned out on it so we might just need to convince her to take over.

That’s it, God Bless

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Cold but getting used to it

It’s -8 right now but when I went outside in my flip flops it didn’t seem all that bad. Yesterday though I had to drive to Vail and back and the main issue was the snow. It was a beautiful drive with fresh big snowflakes falling from the clouds non stop. By the time I arrived at Vail around 11:30, it was dumping. When I left at 3:15, 6 inches had accumulated. The drive home wasn’t so bad but there were lots of semis in the road. My satellite radio started playing Christmas music so I listened to that most of the way home. That particular station focused on songs from the 40’s to the 60’s so it was guys like Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, The Lennon Sisters, Louis Armstrong, Mel Torme, and more. Did you know that about 20 different people sang the Christmas Song? You know, the “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” song? I swear I heard every version after driving 600 miles over the past two days. I think I like Steve Lawrence’s version the best. You old people probably remember him better than me, I think there was a Steve and Edi Show or something like that.

Anyhow I made it home safe a little after 5pm and Lori closed the shop 30 minutes early so she arrived about the same time. Of course the house is a mess and we had nothing for dinner so we loaded up the kids and headed to Simms Landing for dinner. We really have no good restaurants out her in our part of town and Simms Landing did nothing to change that. The food was so so which is about the best you can hope for out in our part of town.

Today we’re all at it again. Lori goes to California tomorrow and comes back Sunday. Not good timing as we have Lorenzo arriving Monday and there’s lots to do around here but she needs to go as she hasn’t been there for a while.

Skiing starts in a week or so and I still haven’t figured out how to get the kids their passes which I’ll need to as there all gung ho on going. Maybe if anyone is trying to decide what to get me for Christmas, just send some cash that I can use towards their passes.

Guess I’ll run as I have lots to do in the office as I’ve been out for two days. It was – 14 last night at the airport which is where they track temperatures and it was a record for the 3rd day in a row. I think tomorrow it’s supposed to be in the 20’s which will feel like summer.

In closing, how about the architect of Obama Care being caught on video saying this is how we need to hide the facts about Obama Care to fool Americans and capitalize on the stupidity of the voters, nice, really nice.

On both sides of the Capitol, leading conservatives said they may call economist Jonathan Gruber to testify about his remarks, which were made last year and surfaced this week in a video on social media. In the video, Gruber suggests that the administration’s signature health-care legislation passed in part because of the “stupidity of the American voter” and a “lack of transparency” over its funding mechanisms.

“The strategy was to hide the truth from the American people,”  “That is a threat to the American republic.” Turns out they blatently lied and conspired to manipulate the facts, to get socialized medicine pushed through. What confuses me is that this surprises anyone.

God Bless

 

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6am, – 14 wind chill

It’s cold, really cold. Today the high today at our house will be about 5 degrees. I made it to Aspen yesterday and after I was over the Continental Divide, it was 20 degrees or more warmer. In fact in Aspen it was about 3o verses 10 or 15 at home. A bit after 3pm I headed out for Denver and decided to go over Independence Pass as it was still open. Normally it’s closed by now as it is about 12,000 feet high but if they said it was open, I was going to take it to save at least 45 minutes. 30 minutes later I was at the top of the pass and thankfully was driving the big 4 wheel drive truck as the Pass should have been closed! The wind was blowing so hard that drifts were being created in minutes from snow being blown up the sides of the mountains. It was surreal as it was like being in the Himalaya’s or something. Anyhow I managed to make it home by around 6pm.

Today I’m off to Vail somehow. Should be an adventure.

Doug’s computer had a glitch so I’m taking over.

The weather outside is frightful…I wish we could all stay home. I have a lot of paperwork to get done at work for the month end October and I need to get payroll ready for Monday. Those are my least favorite job duties.

Ty went to a friends yesterday and Jagger went home with Uncle T. Today Jagger will go with Uncle T again and my plan fell through for Ty….so he may go to Uncle T’s as well(if T & A will take two.

Doug is heading out to brave the weather to shovel the snow and get the paper….better he than me!

Jagger is hungry, so off I go.

Have a great day, stay warm and God Bless!

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7 degrees at the house

5am, 7degrees, not sure what the wind chill is. Anyhow in 4 hours I’ll be off to Aspen for the day. On the way I’ll get to experience great views, icy roads and cold temperatures. My event starts at 1 and ends at 4 so with no problems on the roads, I should be home a little after 7pm.

Lori is going to California later in the week so with our schedules this week I’ll get to see her a little bit on Thursday but that’s about it. The cold doesn’t seem to bother Mojo and it’ll be in the 20’s today so I think we’ll leave him outside as that’s what he’d prefer, but we’ll see.

I don’t really feel like writing much today so guess I’ll run. Sometimes it’s just not in me to share a bunch of stuff, so that’s it, God Bless.

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Cherish life

Well it’s 4:45am and I just woke up with a beeping sound from a phone off the hook. I didn’t sleep well anyhow as I have some obligations I need to figure out how to take care of. I made my way downstairs and put on the coffee and fed Mojo as usual. Next up I looked at my phone as I always do to see if I had any calls or texts in the night. This is when the day when south. I had two texts, one from Jody who works for me and I’m very close with (I hired him about 6 years ago when he came to Denver for a wedding) and my partner in Seattle who had talked with Jody. It seems Jody’s dad committed suicide last night. I was going to say unexpectedly but then you’d hope whenever something like that happens it’s unexpected. Anyhow he and his wife and another couple were headed to Italy and Slovenia later this week and of course that trip is now off. Sorry to start the day off with such depressing news but it made me stop worrying about taxes and other pressures right away and instead focus on how lucky we all are to be living the lives we do. Every day we need to be thankful for what we have, not dwelling on the bad and on what we don’t. Life is a gift and we need to cherish it and live it to the fullest every waking minute.

Now to yesterday. We arrived home about 10 am and proceeded to clean up around here and get ready for the cold temperatures which will arrive later today. It’s going to be in the teens by tomorrow and probably zero or below later in the week. We took some blankets and put them up on all the windows with thumb tacks as this really helps keep the cold out and the house warmer. It was also a good time to dig out the gloves, mittens, coats and hats that will be needed this week. Last up was a trip to two stores to get the boys new snow boots as they both needed them. Too bad we can’t rent them like snowboard boots!

Tomorrow I’ll be driving to Aspen and back for the day and then Tuesday, Vail and back. There’s about 10 hours in the car in two days! I should go to Telluride and Durango Thursday and Friday but we can’t swing it with Lori’s work as that’d be about 8 hours away. We need to find someway to get the boys from school Tuesday and Wednesday as it is.

Lori made some ham and bean soup yesterday which we’ll no doubt be warming up tonight. I’m sure some other stuff happened but can’t think right now as I need to go call Jody.

So, take care, God Bless and please take a moment to cherish the day, your family and friends and your life. Don’t take anything for granted as it can change in a moment!

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A busy day

Well Saturday was as busy, if not more, than a weekday. We managed to get to an important account of mine twice, get the boys their snowboard boots for the season (at a discount I might add) and secured a weekend snowboard camp for them that focuses mainly on attitude and personal growth for kids while snowboarding. Throw in a bunch of hikes with Mojo and a visit to our friends house and we were busy.

Today we might hit the Mount of the Holy Cross Church up here in the mountains depending on time before heading down the hill to home. Surprisingly it’ll be colder in Denver tomorrow than it will in the hills, just the way the jet stream is moving.

We both have lots and lots to do this week but I guess you’ve heard that before. We were going to go to the meet and greet with the U.S. Ski Team yesterday but it was at Copper Mountain at 5pm and we were running too late and figured there would be a big crowd anyhow.

We’re weaning the kids of most tv these days except for the MeTV channel which is all the old black and white shows from when we were kids. I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show and more are now all the kids favorites. At least it’s good wholesome entertainment. Ty did notice that there were no black people in Leave it to Beaver and asked why. I told him there weren’t as many around back then, especially where Beaver lived.

Lori’s had a bit of a headache for a week or so but it’s muscular so she just needs some rest. Hopefully a day and a half in the mountains helped. Hope everyone is well, take care, stay warm, (if you live in Colorado), and God Bless.

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Here comes the cold

Yesterday was another blur that ended up with Ty’s basketball game at 6pm. They played 6th graders that looked like the Los Angeles Lakers. I think the final score was like 30 to 4 but am not sure as they turned the score board off! Right after that we loaded up the car and headed out of Dodge for the Ranch. 2 hours or so later we were in the mountains with Mojo in tow.

It’s cool outside but nice for the mountains in November. This is the last warm weekend up here I’m afraid until Springtime. On Monday the Arctic vortex, or whatever is the latest term weather people use, is due to arrive. In the city it’ll be like 30 something for the high and in the teens for the low so you know it’ll be cold at 8000 feet or more. Driving up last night it was a full moon so you could see the blue sky and white clouds all while dark. It was like it was daytime but someone turned off the lights.

Today we’ll get in a hike and some exploring down by the river. Off season up here is just about over as many of the ski areas are just opening. The girls Olympic team is training right now at Copper Mountain but Vail still isn’t open. There’s no snow on the ground until later this week, but Loveland, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Copper all opened this week with limited runs available. We have to rent the boys their snowboard boots this weekend. We still haven’t managed to figure out how to get their passes yet so that’s another thing on my list. The real season (when the tourists arrive and all the restaurants open) is right at Thanksgiving. Up until then it’s just mostly locals.

We’ve been invited to the Snow Ball which kicks off the 2015 World Championship Season. This is a big deal as tickets are almost unattainable and even if they were, we couldn’t afford them. Here’s the info, should be a lot of fun with all the Olympic athletes and our friends. Thankfully it’s in Denver. For those of you that don’t know, the World Championships haven’t been here for about 20 years and is basically the Olympics without the ice skating and stuff! Our friend Heidi is one of the people on the committee and she bought a table and asked us to be her guests, we can’t wait! Here’s the info,

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That’s about it, hope everyone is well, take care and God Bless and Go U.S. A. !

p.s. Tom and Ali, we’ll try to get Bode and autograph from Bode! If you happen to drive by the house today, please pick up our newspaper so it doesn’t look like we’re gone. Don’t worry about the lights, thanks! Home tomorrow

 

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Friday finally

Here’s a comment from yesterday,

Robi says:

I’m happy and I’m happy that you are happy cause sometimes I think the political stuff is gonna give you a stroke – hehe! I must also admit your political blogs are very informative. I don’t always get to the paper or news so I do appreciate the lessons. What’s the saying “out of the mouths of babes” Ty is too funny!

Well thanks for the comment sis! I know others are reading but don’t want to comment on politics. Tuesday though was one for the ages so I had to bring it up and don’t worry I would never let it get to me bad enough to stress me out.

Today we have lots going on. Tonight Ty has a basketball game at 6pm. I’m in Vail next Tuesday for wine tasting and then will probably drive home. Then on Wednesday I’ll drive to Aspen for another tasting and then again drive home. Thursday and Friday the events are in Telluride and Crested Butte. I’ll probably skip those two as they’re 6 hours or more driving from Denver and the weather in the mountains is supposed to be bad. These are the fall tastings the distributor puts on each year before the ski season gets going in the mountains.

Snow and cold temps next week, bring it on. Lori is busy busy busy as usual. Both boys grew this week, you can actually see it! We need to rent snowboard boots for the boys right away. We just found out (or realized) that the kids are off school all Thanksgiving week! We’d like to try to go skiing. Lori is going to see if she can get the Wednesday before turkey day off. We have a place in Aspen we can stay at for free as our friends are at their house in Florida. The boys get to ski free for 4 days in Aspen but not Vail during the holiday week so we might end up there. I’m getting a couple of permits to cut down our Christmas tree as they’re only $10 bucks. We’re going to try to take my Mom this year just for fun.

I ate chili all week and Lori ate cabbage soup all week. I had to throw out the chili finally yesterday (been eating it since Sunday) as I used way too much garlic and its been giving me heartburn lately. Lori meanwhile has to be sick of cabbage soup.

Guess I’ll run as kids have school and I’m getting a haircut at 9am. Hope all’s well, take care and God Bless.

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