A Year of Change

This morning the boys are going snowboarding! Its long overdue and school starts tomorrow so its off to the hills. Our friends Amie and Ty are going and Ty is teaching the boys as I guess he’s quite the boarder. We should be back a little after lunch as I don’t see them lasting all day long.

Yesterday I accomplished a lot with work. Mom took the boys and Ben sledding and then before you knew it, it was dinner time. Ty had D.I. and then an eye doctor appointment that we had to leave as we had left Jag with the neighbor who was leaving at a certain time. We sat in the waiting room for almost an hour past our scheduled appointment time, unbelievable! I just hate it when you have an appointment at a specific time and then you sit and sit waiting to get it. It’s as if they don’t respect your time, if they’re going to schedule an appointment time for you, they should get you in at that time or call you and tell you they’re running late!

Lacey seems to be doing fine since we put a rug down for her. She just needs something to  give her feet some traction. She barked this morning and I thought it was for me to come down and get her up but she got up just fine as soon as I came down and headed over to her bowl looking for breakfast.

Tomorrow we’re back in the mountains in Vail for Lori’s follow up appointment. We’re praying she’s ok after the chair collapsed on New Year’s Eve and her head hit the wall. She’ll get an x-ray and then we’ll know.

It’s only the 7th but the month will be over before you know it. Time just flies by these days. No one responded to the post from a week ago asking what you are going to do this year that’s different or that you always wanted to do. What gives? Have you all done everything in your life you ever wanted to? Everyone has some unfulfilled dream or wish like going to Paris or swimming with sharks, hiking the Great Wall of China, or something. Let’s play a game since no one can come up with anything. Let us know what you’d like to do, regardless of cost or any limitations. If everything was possible, what would you do? We’ll expect some sort of answer from everyone, this is mandatory so get on it!

Take care and God Bless.

Starting today we’re back at it in full force. The kids start school this Wednesday and I start traveling next week. Outside it’s cold, really cold. The rest of the country, especially the northern half, is in a deep freeze. Temps in some states are 20 below with wind chills two and three times that. It’s almost biblical.

Ben spent the night and is with us all day long as his parents are both back at work and as I said, the kids are still out of school. I started on the basement yesterday but have a long long way to go. Lori wanted to clean upstairs but I made her sit still for most of the day. We pulled back in the big chair from the other room which seems to be better for her neck.

It seems like everyone has the flu but thankfully, knock on wood, we’ve managed to avoid it. No morning paper yet but Jimmy across the street was shoveling the walk before he heads out to work. It’s 5:45 and yes its cold.

The 49’rs beat the Packers in a close game. Grandpa Bob called within seconds of the game ending telling me to tell my Mom he sends his condolences. I told him he’d better call her and do it himself as I’ll probably give her a week to calm down! The Chargers beat the Bengals so they’ll come to Denver next Sunday to play us, bring em on!

Time to stay after it, we’re in the de-cluttering mode and determined to downsize. There’s so much stuff, we need to start with one room at a time and do what we can do.

Lacey is not doing very well. Her back legs just give out on her. She’s skinny all over and is just getting old. She doesn’t seem to be in any pain though and will still eat a whole bag of dog food if you let her. Ali told Lori about a dog acupuncturist that we might try but first will take her to the vet.

It was 2 degrees when I came down at 5:30 and is now minus 6 but feels like 25 below! That’s the wrong direction but it’s supposed to climb to the high 20’s today, let’s hope so.

Time to run as it’s almost 6 and Jag and I are going to the gym. Take care and God Bless.

Yup, it’s cold. When I went out in my flip flops and shorts to get the paper, you could tell there was a chill in the air. The wind is the reason it feels so cold outside. After today I think its supposed to warm up so this is our last day of cold temps.

I took Jag to the gym yesterday and signed him up and he had his first workout with weights. You have to be 12 to join and he’s been wanting to go for a long time. I had to make sure he used light weights and had proper technique as he was all gung ho just wanting to lift as much weight as he could. I’m sure he’ll be sore today or tomorrow for sure. Anyhow good for him for wanting to work out. I told him if I sign him up, he needs to start eating properly, shower after each visit and get good sleep, those are the rules.

Football was unbelievable. The Chiefs blew a 4 touchdown lead in an epic collapse. I was hoping at the end that they’d win as they had 4 or more guys get hurt and were really depleted. If San Diego loses today, we’ll play Indy. I think Peyton (our quarterback) and the team wants revenge on both of the teams left so it really doesn’t matter who we play. New Orleans won so they’ll go to Seattle so whoever wins the Packer 49’r game will go to Carolina.

We were going snowboarding today but the traffic is moving 4 miles an hour making the roads impassable. We had friends that took two hours to go about 5 miles yesterday and had to turn around. Tomorrow the year really starts as this week still was sort of a holiday week so time to get busy.

Hope everyone is well, lots going on here behind the scenes, take care and God Bless.

The snow is back and so is football. The Broncos of course have a bye and don’t play until next week but there’s four good games on this weekend. We want to take the boys snowboarding tomorrow morning but I don’t know as the roads are really bad in the mountains.

We did manage to throw out 5 large trash bags of stuff that needed to go yesterday but I’ll bet we have 25 or more to go. Lori had to go to the office yesterday so I took the boys grocery shopping and to the bank and lunch before coming home and cleaning the kitchen and living room. First you need to pick everything up, then vacuum and then mop before putting everything back in place. It’s not a small chore!

Lori made tortilla soup and will make some more enchilada’s today for the weekend. Ty left at 6pm to go to his friend Scott’s house for a sleep over so it was Lori, Jag and I hanging out for the night. I think we all went to bed at 10.

I was going to go downtown last night to see my buddy Matt before he heads back to Georgia for his last two weeks of Homeland Security training and then he’ll graduate and be based in Denver. You might remember Matt as he’s my hunting buddy. I might try to run up to his house to see him today as I just wasn’t up for going downtown last night, I must be getting old, ha ha.

It looks nice and peaceful outside with the fresh blanket of snow lying undisturbed. I just shoveled the walk in my flip flops so i could get to the morning paper, you don’t see too many old people doing that!

We’re hoping Lori doesn’t have a headache today as she’s had one on and off since hitting her head on New Years eve when the chair she was sitting in collapsed. Hopefully this will pass soon and she didn’t aggravate her fusion or other discs. We have an appointment next week where they’ll take x-rays so we’ll know more then. Wait, she just woke up and is 99% headache free so that’s good news as the other headache doesn’t go away, even for a moment! Thank God.

Have a great weekend and God Bless.

In our never ending quest to simplify our life, we are continuing to downsize. If we haven’t used it, worn it, or played with it, in a year, it’s gone! We can throw out half the stuff in our house and still have too much.

We actually lowered our car payment and upgraded our car yesterday due to all the year end sales going on. Of course it took me 6 hours of haggling but it was worth it as our old car was falling apart. I’ll start cleaning the basement today and Lori will start upstairs.

The boys are going to have to get started on their rooms all alone. They’ve been playing non stop and now we need them to contribute a little bit to cleaning up around here.

So, doesn’t sound like you’d like to be around here today does it. On top of all this, Lori has to go to the office today to continue to work with the new Office Manager who asked for her title to be “Office Administer”. When Lori questioned her saying don’t you mean Office Administrator, she said, “yes, Office Administer” and then finally corrected herself after more prodding by the misses. Thankfully we’re a “fire at will” state. Oh boy, doesn’t sound like this ones going to make it!

The cold is coming in tomorrow, 6 to 10 inches of snow along with temps around zero. The upper mid west and north east are getting wind chills in double digits below zero.

So, it’ll be a good time to continue cleaning up around here.

Hope everyone is well, take care and God Bless.

Most people won’t start working officially until next Monday but we’re already in full swing around here. Lori has to go to the office today and tomorrow and has a conference call at 8am this morning while I too have lots going on. I am planning on taking the boys snowboarding tomorrow if I can swing it. Today I think I’m downsizing (trading in) one of our cars (the Suburban) to lower our payment but we’ll see.

It’s 6am now and Jag has been bugging me to go to the gym and now since he’s 12, and can go, I’m going to take him. He’s super excited and been asking to go for some time.

Snow and cold temps were still here yesterday and it’s supposed to get to 46 today but then snow and cold come back this weekend. Lucky the Bronco’s are not playing this Sunday. It will be about 5 degrees when the Packers play the 49’rs this Sunday in Green Bay. My Mom of course will be cheering for the Pack while Grandpa Bob and the rest of you in California and probably Lori too (although she never likes to take sides) will be cheering for San Francisco. I think the boys and I will turn into Switzerland and be neutral for the day.

Ben spent the night and the boys played and played. Yesterday Colorado made “pot” legal so lines were out the door at all these pot shops. Guess we’ll have lots of stoned people walking around town from now on. Maybe violent crime will go down and potato chip sales will go up!

Time to get Jag up and get moving. Hope everyone is well. Take care and God Bless. Hard to believe it’s 2014, just think about that! 2014, WOW!

Well here we are, 2014, sounds pretty surreal if you think back to the 80’s, 90’s or the dreaded Y2K, the year 2000. We sure have come a long way, and boy did it go fast!

Last night turned into an impromptu party with our friends Amie and Ty, their daughter Tinsley and Rollie. At the last minute two friends of Amie’s also joined us for a bit before they had to leave as the woman wasn’t feeling well. My question was if she wasn’t feeling well, why did she come over in the first place? Anyhow once they left, the rest of us all sat around and played this hilarious new board game that was a gift from our holiday party. I don’t remember the name but it was lots of fun! At one point during the game, Lori’s chair just broke (under the weight of her massive 125 pounds) and she fell to the floor! Everyone was laughing so hard and thankfully she was fine.

The time went by so fast (as time does these days) that before we knew it, it was 11:45pm. We all rushed into the room and turned off the Disney Channel and switched over to see the ball drop. I think this is the first time in 10 years we made it until midnight. By 5 minutes after midnight, everyone left and I began the chore of cleaning up. For some reason it seemed worse than when we had 40 people at our holiday party, but as I do, I managed to get all the glasses and dishes done before heading up to bed. I just can’t wake up to a big mess with caked on food and dirty dishes.

Lacey woke me around 5;30 or 6 so I came down, fed both dogs, let Lacey out and back in and the headed back up to bed. It wasn’t long until Lacey was barking again, for what I don’t know. Finally after coming down a few times to see what she needed, I figured out she just wanted somebody to be downstairs with her. So here I sit, writing away, while everyone else is sleeping.

This is the beginning of the 4th year of the blog as we started December 31st, 2010. Hope you all have enjoyed the ride, maybe when the boys are older they can take the best parts and write a book or make a movie. That’s why it’s so important that each of you contribute with comments from time to time. You want to be immortalized don’t you?

Lots of people are sick and I mean really sick, with the flu. This seems to be the worst year ever on record so wash your hands and try to stay healthy.

We wish all of you the best for in 2014 and hope it’s everything you want it to be. Take care, God Bless and give us a  call, Happy New Year!

Today we get to say goodbye to 2013. In some ways it was a good year, the Broncos and 49’rs are doing great, Lori’s surgery went well, work is going well, but in many other ways, it just seemed kind of off. Lots of us had some sort of health issue, some we’re still dealing with, the headway we made as a family on bills hit the wall and in some cases, even reversed, and many other little things like stuff breaking around the house and medical costs and taxes going up. Throw in many of our rights as being eroded and it was at best a toss up year. The good thing about time is tomorrow is always a fresh start, and tomorrow is the quintessential fresh start for all of us that comes once a year!

Most of us don’t measure time in hours or weeks or days but rather by events or things we remember. Things like Jag making a double play in baseball or Ty standing up for some kids that were getting bullied at school or a vacation or even small things like us going to the Stock Show rodeo last January, or a holiday, party or bbq and on and on. The point is to get up and get out there and do something you’ll remember!

Most people also set some sort of New Years resolution. It might be quitting smoking or losing weight (two of the most popular) or in our case, our never ending quest of eliminating debt. But this year I want to challenge everyone to set a resolution or goal that’s a little different. Think of doing something you always wanted to do and set a goal to do it. Uncle T was a great example of this last year when he decided he was going to learn piano, and boy, he did. Granda Dixie and I were talking yesterday and she was saying how much she misses Oklahoma, well Dix, you need to go! Sure they’ll be challenges like Pa Don making the trip but like they say, if there’s a will, there’s a way! My sister Robin and I were talking saying this year no one should buy anyone any presents for Christmas and we should all go to Hawaii instead. Our challenge was how to convince our Mom to get on a plane. So, I think you get my point, think about it today and decide what you’d like to do, learn a language, take a trip, learn a new skill, anything, but make a point of setting yourself a goal of something you really would like to do but never thought you could. I’ll bet you’ll surprise yourself as like my Mom, (whose pretty darn smart), used to always say, you can do anything you want to do, if you want it bad enough.

We’re super excited for 2014, mostly because we get to leave 2013 and all it’s troubles behind. Plus there’s just something about the year “13” that never quite sounded right. Hope you are too!

Yesterday we had some sort of snafu with Kristin’s flight. It was somehow changed by a computer glitch and we had to scramble to get her on a 6pm flight. In the end, all was well and she made it home. Before she left, Lori, her and the boys went to see the new Hobbit movie which I’m told was really good. It was really nice to have her here and she had a great time too. Her and Lori are working on Lori’s big 50th birthday plans as it’s coming up this year! Mark it down now (May 4th) as it should be quite the party!

Lacey our poor lab is really struggling. Her legs are giving out on her so we have to lift her up from time to time to get her on her feet. We’re trying to get her into the vet to see what we can do. I’ve stopped getting upset about getting up in the middle of the night and just do it, as does Lori, as she’s our dog. Hopefully she’ll be ok for a while. We’ve been giving her ibuprofen and Benedryl which seems to help. Mojo of course is his usual playful self.

This evening we’ll just be staying home, laying low. As I said before, we never go out on New Years. I’ll call my Mom and see if she wants me to get her some herring as she always eats some on New Years. Anyone else have any traditions? If so, let’s hear them. Well that’s about it for me, we hope everyone is well and remember there’s always tomorrow, so let’s all cowboy up and hit the new year with vigor and gusto head on! The other option is to just limp on in which I wouldn’t recommend!

Take care and God Bless.

It’s 7:29pm Sunday night and Lori and Kristin are watching a movie and I’m watching my computer hoping my team hangs on for the second half of the Philadelphia Dallas game tonight as then I’ll be the Super Bowl Champion in my ESPN Fantasy Football League.

Lori made chicken enchilada’s and a pineapple upside down cake today for dinner. She and Kristin also took the boys sledding over at the school while I watched some football. I cleaned up the house and did a bunch of laundry in between games and when you throw in a convincing Bronco victory over the Raiders, it was a great day. On top of that, the Green Bay Packers also won in the last minute which makes my Mom happy happy happy!

Thanks for the birthday wishes from all of you by phone and for your comments. Hard to believe it’s almost 2014! I have a quick conference call in the morning and then Kristin’s flight back to Los Angeles is at 3:30. We’ll be laying low and cleaning up around here for the next few days getting ready for the New Year.

Hope everyone is doing well, I’ll update the post first thing in the morning before I go to the gym (haven’t been in 3 or 4 days as I’ve had a cold) to let you know if I won as I know you all can’t wait to hear!

Oh yea, San Francisco won too, also in the last minute!

News Flash, I’m the 2013 ESPN Fantasy Football Champion!

Take care and God Bless.

Last night Lori, Kristin and our friend Rollie and I went to Elways for a quick dinner. It started to lightly snow on the way there and by the time we were through, it was snowing and blowing in full force. With my back sore, we didn’t go to Vail which was a good thing as the roads were packed and bad and the snow was piling up. I have a few texts on my phone from friends wondering where I was.

While we were at dinner, Gracie (Kristin’s little rescue dog) took a nip at Ty and barked at Lacey who was too close to her crate and dog cookies. Ty is fine but Gracie was in time out for the rest of the evening. I went to upstairs to lay in bed around 9 to help calm the boys down and Lori and Kristin stayed up until after 11!

Today we will take it easy and watch the Bronco game. It’s my birthday today so hopefully they’ll win. The girls did get their nails done yesterday so maybe they can get massages or something today. Our friend Tina who owns the spa has been gone as her dad passed away on Christmas Day, we all feel bad for her.

Lacey woke Lori and I around 5 and my sweet wife got up since it was my birthday but as soon as she fed her and came back to bed, I knew Lacey would be barking again, so I got up and came down. Lori needs to take it easy on her neck as once again, she’s doing too much. We or she, took down our little tree in the tv room along with the rest of the decorations only in that room. I bought a couple of chickens yesterday so we’ll lay low and cook at home today. Hope everyone is well. We’re trying to plan out a trip to California in the New Year and will keep you posted. I know I’m in New York mid January but after that might be a good time to try to drive out. Of course I’ll need to work around any Bronco playoff games and the Super Bowl!

Take care and God Bless.