A Year of Change

Well it’s here, another vacation for the boys! This time they’re off for 10 days and won’t return to school until March 31st. We never had so much time off when we were kids as I’d surely remember it as would my Mom.

Last night I drove to my sales meeting around 5:45pm and was home by 7:30. Lori made it home around 6:15 or so and the boys were patiently waiting for their dinner.

Spring officially begins at 4:45 this afternoon. Hope the warm weather comes with it. Lots to do today, I made more progress on the basement yesterday and hope for some more today. Lori has to leave early to be at the office by 8am to take a patient down to the OR (operating room) and get her checked in. Yesterday they had to cancel a surgery at the last minute as it turns out the patient didn’t take her pre-surgery antibiotics. Luckily Dr R discovered this or there could have been some tragic complications. Never a dull moment down at the office. I keep telling Lori they should do some kind of reality tv show.

That’s it, time to run, have a great weekend, God Bless.

It’s raining outside right now and snowing in the mountains. Hard to tell if this is the last snowstorm of the year or not. Sometimes it’ll snow in June, especially in the mountains.

Last night was a community meeting at Manning. Lori was late getting home from work and I was shipping wine and on a call so we missed it but Jag stood up and spoke to the school board and crowd. He was there in his official capacity as Vice President of Student Council. He was supposed to be President next year but the current Pres had a crush on him and apparently he didn’t reciprocate. Oh, the intricacies of politics!

Today I need to ship a few more boxes of wine and then have a sales meeting across town from 6:30 until 6:40pm. Lots of driving for 10 minutes of speaking but it’s my once a month chance to get in front of the team.

We’re slowly but steadily making progress around the house. The trash guy is getting used to larger loads from us every Thursday. We plan on carpeting the basement pretty soon depending on finances.

As I said the other day, I’m also trying to figure out how to get a few new bicycles. Spring will be here soon and Lori really needs a new form of exercise for her head and body just to feel better. She definitley cannot run anymore due to her neck fusion so we’re going with bikes.

I don’t really like to talk about money but yesterday was a big day as we made the last payment on her $71,000 neck surgery from November 2013. $400.31 was my final payment and now we’re all done with that bill. I think I’ll frame it! Next week we’re supposed to start paying on Jagger’s $1026 hospital bill! Throw in $1700 to the State of Colorado for unemployment taxes (not sure why I have to pay those???) and it’s been an expensive month. Oh well, enough about bills, everyone has them.

Next week is Spring Break and we’ll be skiing a bunch. The boys are off until March 31st! I think we’ll get a good week in and Spring skiing is the best anyhow.

That’s it, hope you all are well, God Bless.

It’s 6:45am which is about an hour later than we should get up! Last night Jag had his music concert which was great and before that the day was filled with work and errands which is just like today will be too. I have a haircut at 9am and then an appointment at 10:30 up north before having to box up some more samples to ship this afternoon.

We’re supposed to have baseball this afternoon, weather permitting, but Jag has to leave early for a student council meeting at 5:30 regarding the proposed school move. I’m making progress on the basement. It won’t be long until it’s all clean and we’ll be putting in carpet!

Lori is taking next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off so we’ll need to go do something. That’s it, time to run as we’re all late, God Bless.

When I went out to get the paper this morning, you could tell it was much cooler than it was yesterday. Not sure what the high is today but it won’t be as warm as yesterday as we hit 81 degrees in the afternoon at baseball. Jag was striking guys out left and right.

Today after school, Jagger and his classmates are staging a protest against the school board that wants to move his school to this dumpy school in a crappy neighborhood, a few miles east. It seems two of the board members are also on the planning commission that wants to build a bunch of houses near his current school. In any case, it’s a bad idea and everyone except these two guys in power are against it. I guess it’ll be on the local news. I’m also sure it’ll probably make no difference but you have to try.

After that Jag has a music concert at school at 6pm. We were supposed to go to dinner with friends but had to cancel right after we made plans yesterday as Jag told us about this when I picked him up from school.

Today is St Patricks Day so make sure to wear some green. I have lots of work and need to deliver and ship some samples and Lori has clinic. I need to go by the bike shop and see if they want to trade for some bikes as we’re short two bikes for the family and planning on riding a bunch this summer. We had to get rid of our road bikes after Lori’s surgery as she can now only ride a mountain bike that is more upright. Donations will be accepted until this weekend, ha ha. Of course the main criteria for Lori is the color.

Last night when we went upstairs she found her antique Limoges vase broken laying on the floor. It seems the wind blew the window shades into it and knocked it off the ledge as she accidentally left the window open and shut the shade when she got out of the shower. We’ve had that vase since we first moved here. I remember we borrowed a few hundred dollars from Tommy when we bought it and drove back to the antique fair to get it as we had no cash when we arrived in Denver. No way to repair it either so it was sad.

That’s about it, hope all’s well, God Bless.

Well, we’re starting to look like California as we’re having a shooting almost daily and with just one real warm day, we already have fire danger. Throw in our democratic controlled house and Governor and we’re pretty dark close. Thankfully we have a republican controlled senate and most of the State is still red. If we could just stop Californians from moving to Colorado, we’d be ok. Of course, family is excluded from that statement.

It was almost 80 degrees yesterday which set a record. It’ll be warm today too before some rain or snow returns later in the week. The kids are back at school for one more week before being off from the 20th until the 31st for Spring Break. We’d love to go somewhere but are not sure we can spend the money so as I said a few days ago, it’s probably skiing next week.

I cleaned out the cabinets in the mud room and Lori got a start on Ty’s room but that’s as far as we got. We did climb the stairs at Red Rocks a few times and hike the hills which was a good workout. I’m sure our legs will be sore by tomorrow.

I’ll abstain from politics but the economy, even though it seems fine, is really not. I personally wouldn’t leave all my money in the stock market but that’s just me, and Warren Buffet. 77 degrees today, whoo hoo! Baseball from 4 until 6 and then homework and dinner. That’s it, God Bless.

Spring is on the way although we could and probably will, get another snowstorm or two. But today it’ll be in the high 70’s, maybe even 80 degrees.

Ty had Jack sleep over and the two of them were up until about 1am playing with Vinny and Jude on the phone and their video games. It’s 8:40am now and we’re dragging their butts up to Red Rocks for some morning exercise. Jag too stayed up and is still sleeping as he tends to do.

We’re trying to figure out how to get a truck shell for our pickup so we can take Mojo along on all our Spring adventures this year. My connections at the Chevrolet dealer called the company they use and arranged for us to get dealer pricing but it’s still a good chunk of change so we’ll see. We sure need one though otherwise Mojo stays home.

Our anniversary is coming up in 10 days. This will be our 15th wedding anniversary! We’ve managed to do a lot in 15 years which is good because in 15 more, we’ll be 65 and 73, we’d better get busy! We didn’t get much cleaning done yesterday but did get somewhat organized to do so today. We’ll have to get on it after our exercise but with it being so nice, we would prefer to be outside.

Guess I’ll run, Ty and Jack are back upstairs I think on their video game. Mojo is outside and Jag’s still sleeping. Meanwhile Lori is on the couch drinking some coffee and I’m having a quarter of a cup as I’m too lazy to get up and make tea.

Have a nice Sunday, God Bless.

Last night Lori, Jagger and I joined my friends Leon, his wife and 16 year old daughter for a great dinner at Elways. We really like them and may plan a vacation together in the future like going to Wyoming in July or August. Today they fly home to Dallas around 2pm.

Meanwhile we’ll be deep in Spring cleaning around here. There’s so much to do you don’t know where to start.

I made it to Vail and back driving up and down through a Spring snowstorm that was worse at 6:30 in the morning than when I came back around 10am.

Ty went to Kids Night Out as that seems to be a regular fixture on his social calendar. He won’t be happy that he needs to clean his room today. We’ll of course have to help.

Mojo and his new friend (the raccoon) seem to be getting along. The coon sits in the tree looking down at Mojo and he runs circles around it jumping up on the tree every now and then. As long as one stays in the tree and the other stays on the ground, all will be fine.

That’s it for today, time to run, have a great weekend, God Bless

This morning I’m off to Vail and it’s raining a little bit outside right now. Last night it took us a few minutes to get Mojo in as we have a raccoon living in our big tree in the backyard. We’ve known he or she was there for awhile but last night was the first time we saw her. Mojo has been trying to climb the tree for a few weeks which is how we knew we had a new neighbor.

Lori came home early (for her) around 5:45 last night. I think she’s finally figured out she doesn’t have to stay until 7 every night. No baseball today as the fields will be too wet. We’re maybe going to dinner tonight if our friends from Texas make it down from Vail in time and if they’re not too tired.

I need to run as Lori’s car has no gas in it and I don’t think she’s ever filled her own gas tank since I’ve known her. That’s ok, I’m happy to do it, just one of those things. She does lots of other things to make up for it.

It’s been maybe a week and a half or so without coffee and I think I’m more level headed, not so many ups and downs in my energy levels, plus I like tea. Ty and Vinny and the whole school, (in his words) are going to Kids Night Out again tonight. He gets home around 10:15 which means we have to stay up and wait for him, uggh.

That’s it, have a good weekend, God Bless.

Ok, it’s 5am and I’m up, coffee is made and Mojo is fed. Looks like I’m back to getting up early. It was finally nice outside yesterday but is supposed to rain or snow lightly tonight. Tomorrow I’m off to Vail so I hope it stops today although I’m planning to get in a half a day skiing in, yea!

Kids and Lori are asleep, of course. We had our first outside baseball practice last night and Ty and Vinny came along to play at the park. This morning Sears comes to fix our microwave which thankfully is under warranty. Then I need to run to Fed Ex and UPS which are on opposite sides of town, of course. After that a quick haircut at noon and then home for some computer work and then a trip to an account or two.

Looks like the Rolling Stones are coming to Red Rocks! I already have my friend who knows the promoter on it as this will be the show of a lifetime and probably their last tour. Being at Red Rocks, the outdoor amphitheater, will be epic, we can’t wait. I’m sure it’ll sell out in 2 minutes.

That’s it, trying to pay some taxes this coming week which are only a month or so late, oh well, you do what you can do, right? Other than that we plan on getting some more cleaning done this weekend while it’s warm. Tomorrow night we’re going to Elways for dinner with our friends from Texas who have been in Vail this week skiing. That’s it, hope all’s well, but can you believe the arrogance of Hillary, words cannot describe it!

God Bless

It’s warming up like into the 70’s today. We were trying to decide what to do for Spring Break and with Lori and I having to work, we’re going to do a lot of day skiing. This means driving up and back each day but at least we’ll get in 5 or 6 days of Spring skiing. I’ll be up Friday for a few runs while visiting my friends from Texas who arrived yesterday.

Today though, it’s more work and school. It’s 6:40 now and we’ve all been tired due to daylight savings time. It might also have something to do with me quitting coffee. So time to run as we’re already late. Hope all’s well, God Bless.