Friday, September 30, 2005

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Exhausted


It's done, we're moved. A couple of bruises, every muscle aches, but we're in our own home!

The closing table stuff went well. It was nice to meet the original owner, but I wasn't overly thrilled to see our lender again. Yes, things at the bank got resolved, and she did seem remorseful for all we went through. But the first time you see someone after they've hurt you is always awkward. Elijah was great for the closing stuff, he amused everyone with his new funny face he makes (he puckers his lips like and sniffs loudly). The rest of the day was stressful for him too. I'd like to say we all slept great, but we didn't. Perhaps tonight.

Thanks again for everyone's prayers. We truly are blessed.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Would You Believe...



Don Adams has passed away. Loved him in Get Smart. Voice of Inspector Gadget. Hilarious in Back To The Beach. I hope this will push them to put Get Smart out on DVD.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

What A Croc!

Oh yes, I did it. I bought myself a pair of crocs. I needed a pair of shoes I could just slip on and go, so this certainly fits the bill. Mock me if you must, but they are comfy.


I'm getting new glasses today after church. I wanted new frames, even though my prescription hasn't changed in the last 4 years. My magnetic sunglasses were thrashed, so I went the route Geoff did with Transitions. Yes, I've heard they don't get as dark in the car, but I don't drive much anyway.

I was a little deluded when I thought the house was 50% packed. It wasn't, but we made good work yesterday, and we're on track for today. We've mapped out our last meals, so I know what dishes can go. I stand by my belief that we would have been ready without the setback Monday and Tuesday. The apartment is filled with boxes, and it makes getting around a little challenging. Also presenting a challenge is we chose to move on Wednesday, wanting to get into the house asap. Which means our friends with dayjobs (and who doesn't?) aren't able to help us pack up the truck. We are holding out hope we'll have help unpacking though. I plan on asking my neighbor who is home in the day if he'll help out. Moving big furniture is man work, that's just how I feel. :)

Time to sign off. I'll close with a quote from Sleepless In Seattle.

Jonah Baldwin: Talk to her, dad. She's a doctor.
Sam Baldwin: Of what? Her first name could be Doctor.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Mystery Solved? Or Just A Tease?



Got this clue today from thenamelessnovel.com. The Terminal Taxi? Hmmm. The cover of book the twelfth looks like it has characters dressed as bellhops, or elevator operators. Just a few more weeks, and we'll know for sure. I'll have to borrow the car from Geoff on the 18th so I can be at the Tattered Cover to buy it.

Cats Rule

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Gary Gets A Treat



I couldn't find a picture of our car, so I put up one of his namesake. With Geoff having to drive to Boulder once or twice a month, and winter on its way, we decided we should get new tires and get the car realigned. Wow, what a difference! It's like driving a new car. Very enjoyable.

The short version of what transpired this week was we thought everything was fine with the loan, we found out it wasn't and we lost the loan and the house. The bank screwed up, and the bank came up with a solution to appease us. So we are getting the money, and we won back the house. But it was a heart wrenching experience, that has left us very distrustful. We put our faith in Jesus to resolve it, and comfort us.

We go back to waiting to close (next week), and will scramble to move and clean. We are elated we won't be staying here, and that the dreams we thought were lost, are not.

Mary & I met for lunch at the museum yesterday. I love hanging out with her, and I hope she doesn't move. We saw Jeff, who wasn't overly social, he was hanging with his new department. He did offer to give us a behind the scenes look at the Zoology collection in the future.

Well, back to packing. I'll close with a quote from Family Guy.

Peter Griffin: Yes, we all enjoy the Bible in this house!
Francis Griffin: Really? What's your favorite book of the Bible?
Peter Griffin: Ah... um... ah... the one where Jesus swallows the puzzle piece and the man in the big yellow hat has to take him to the hospital?

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Praise The Lord!



After being on an emotional roller coaster ride the last 3 days, it's nice to see the ride slowing to stop. I may write about it more later, but we took some hard blows, spent a lot of time praying, yelling, and crying, and now things are good.

We aren't moving this weekend, we will move next week.

Thank you to the prayer warriors, thank you Lord Jesus for hearing our prayers.

1 Peter 1:6-7

One Down

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

When You Feel Like Crap

You just look at him and it makes everything better.

Monday, September 19, 2005

James 1:20

The Final Countdown

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Even with the house only 50% packed, I feel at peace about all the work left to do. At least I do today. We've mapped our last meals here, so I know what dishes we need, and I can take care of more kitchen stuff. So long as the bank people are doing their thing to make the loan money ready for Friday, everything will go smoothly.

We did some house shopping this weekend, and we bought furniture for the living room. We are really happy with it, and it will get delivered after we move in. Here's a picture of it, sadly you can't feel how soft the material is.



I'm going to the eye doctor tomorrow. I've been wanting to get new glasses for a few years, and I wanted to take advantage of the eye doctor being across the street from us. Wednesday Mary and I are having lunch at the museum. Martin (Mary's husband) has been told by his work they want him to move. They offered 3 different cities, but really they want him in a specific one, L.A. Mary refuses to move to L.A., saying she does not want to raise her kids there. Plus, the company would not pay for a cost of living increase. She said he may just leave altogether and get a job with a different company. It wouldn't pay as much, but they could stay here. She said once they (the company) asked them to move to Alberta, and Mary considered it. Martin is a geologist that works for an oil company. So yeah, Alberta would be a good place for him. Time will tell what's going to happen, but Mary won't make an decision until the school year is over.

I didn't watch the Emmys, but I flipped to it a few times. I LOVED Felicity's dress, but then I always love her dresses. I was thrilled to find out she won, she deserves it (I don't watch Desperate Housewives, I'm a die hard Sports Night fan). I was also lucky enough to have flipped at the right time to see Zach Braff present with Hugh Laurie. I thought they made an good pair. In other tv news, I have convinced Geoff to give a new show a try, so we'll tune in to Kitchen Confidential tonight. Hopefully it will be a good show. I only get to adopt one new show a year, but this looked okay. I realize I'm taking my chances by picking a Fox show. They are so quick to axe shows, so who knows how long it will last.

I'm going to close with a quote from Blackadder.

Captain Darling: I'm as British as Queen Victoria!
Captain Blackadder: So your father's German, you're half German, and you married a German!

Friday, September 16, 2005

Shouldn't Balloons Rain Down From The Ceiling?

I downloaded my 100th song from iTunes today. I half expected there to be some big celebration. Now before you start making comments on how much money I've spent, let it be known that I did get some songs for free, some were won on bottle caps, and yes some were bought. My first song (bought on 12/1/03) was Unchanging by Chris Tomlin. The 100th song (bought 9/16/05) was Love Shack by the B-52's.

Incidentally, I'm at 113, since along with Love Shack, I bought the latest Michael Bublé album, It's Time. Now we just need to get an AirPort Express for the new house so I can listen to my music downstairs while the computer is upstairs.

Dad's Birthday

It's the same old song
But with a different meaning
Since you been gone


It's a day to crank up the Motown and play some classic 60s music.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Please List Any Allergies: September

My allergies started acting up today. A year ago tomorrow, I had the worst allergy attack ever (Heather was here, we went to Garden of the Gods, and something in the September air set me off). It's not as bad as it was then, thank goodness. Today, I was fine, I left the house to run errands, and I haven't been the same since. I hate spending the day with a box of kleenex. At least I'm not pregnant, I have more drug solutions than I did then.

While we are furniture shopping, we have been discussing about what we want our home to be. That way we know what kind of furniture we want to get. We really want our house to be a place to entertain, a place for our small group to meet, and a place to kick back and watch movies. We love having guests over, and our place here hasn't allowed for that (location and space). We are also prioritizing the things we need and want for the house. There is one luxury decor thing I want, and I asked Geoff to see if we can set aside some money for that. We'll see where things are at after we move in.

Well, I have to go fight off my allergies, so I'll close with a quote from That 70's Show.

Michael Kelso: Well, that's Canada... Yup, good ol' Canada. They don't make generalizations about people because they're too busy playin' hockey or gettin' drunk or puttin' maple syrup on their ham.

Monday, September 12, 2005

At Least It's Warm

We did a lot of nothing this weekend, but at least it was warm. More window shopping, some packing, and watched a ton of HGTV. While I was at the mall on Saturday, we stopped in the Apple store to get our mitts on the iPod Nano. Man it's even better in person. Super lightweight, and slick. My current iPod is the 2nd generation, they stopped making updates and selling accessories for it months after I got it. I broke the belt clip on it within a few months, the remote broke a few months after that. So yeah I sometimes covet a newer model. It still serves me well for walks, but the two features I want a Nano for are storing pictures of Elijah, and making on the go playlists. It's fun to dream (right Lisa?).

With the buying of a house here in CO, it has solidified for me that Colorado is home. Until now, I've been holding onto a dream of moving back to CA and being amongst those there I love. But we could never afford a home like this in CA. God lead us here for a reason, His hand has been on the whole house buying experience, this is where He wants us to be. Pastor Jim's message yesterday confirmed it, and I feel like I'm okay with it. Besides, this country isn't so big that traveling across a few states is so hard. :)

I'm getting close to 9 hours sleep each night, but I sure don't feel rested when I wake up in the morning. I'm having bad dreams, or some little sound will disturb my sleep, or my mind is racing with house stuff. I can feel that I'm carrying tension in my shoulders. I'm hoping this phase will pass.

Well, speaking of sleep, I'm going to try to have a nap. I'll close with a quote from The War Of The Roses.

Gavin: Oliver, my father used to say that a man can never outdo a woman when it comes to love and revenge.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Friday, September 09, 2005

Runaround Sue

Yesterday we drove Geoff to work, then I took the car to go to Mom To Mom (which was great). After it ended, I got in the car and drove to Social Security, taking the extra long way because I was in the wrong lane and ended up heading toward the new house. Once I got to SS, it was a 125 minute wait for a 1 minute process of them verifying my identity on paper to give to the home loan people. Argh! Now I was very annoyed, but I have to realize there were two factors that made the visit to SS longer than it should have been. #1. I went at noon, so half the workers were on lunch. #2. Another portion of the employees were out at Lowry helping out the recent LA evacuees who have come to Denver. Ideally, there will be no reason for me to ever return to SS. But I can look forward to a long wait when i have to renew my driver's license in March. Joy!

We're cat-sitting for the next couple of days for Paula, Simon's mom died. She doesn't know how long she'll be gone, she is helping Simon with the funeral arrangements. Paula seemed okay, she said she just spoke to Simon's mom a few days ago. I'll have get to Hallmark to get a card for Simon.

No plans have been cemented for the weekend, which is nice. We may try and get some boxes, I might convince Geoff to take down the spare bed to make room for boxes, or we may do a whole lot of nothing. A flexible weekend is a great thing.

I'm going to close with a quote from The Simpsons.

Rainer Wolfcastle: [singing] Mein bratwurst has a first name, it's F-R-I-T-Z / Mein bratwurst has a second name, it's S-C-H-N-A-C-K-E-N-P-F-E-F-F-E-R-H-A-U-S-E-N.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Nano Nano!



Gotta get it in black! When is Christmas? And I have my birthday in January? Sweet! Lisa wants one too.

Doing Fine And Dandy

People ask me if I'm tired of all the paperwork that comes with a loan & buying a house, but I'm more sick of all the little things that require annoying errands. Rather than dwell on that, I'll post on...

Why I Love My Bank

It pays to get to know your bank. When we encountered a problem trying to deposit a Canadian check on the weekend, I went back yesterday to see the manager. We stressed all weekend about what we would do if we weren't able to get it deposited. But the manager was as resolved as I was in finding a satisfactory solution. It all worked out in the end, with Scott (manager) using a few tricks up his sleeve. As he put it, I'm a loyal customer, there should be some trust between us. I mean, hello, I'm there like once a week. It's nice when you have contacts that know you. Sadly, I'll have to train a whole new branch on depositing Canuck checks. Small price to pay for a bank that goes above and beyond for me.

Mary and I had plans to meet at the museum for lunch, but it's been pushed back a week. I hope we'll still be able to get together even though I'm moving to Aurora, and she lives on a whole other side of Denver. She's never quibbled at a little bit of driving. Plus her girls would be crushed if they couldn't see Elijah once in a while.

We have the house inspection today, which Colin says is neat and enlightening. I would hope that since the house is only 3 years old, it won't have big fixes. But I feel like I'm prepared for anything. I'm bringing Elijah's swing (so he can be amused), the camera (to take more specific pictures), and the tape measure (to measure rooms, and the back yard for Glen who wanted to know how big it is). We are anticipating it will take about 2 hours, and he came recommended by someone Geoff respects. I may try to get Geoff to post about the inspection.

I'll close with a quote from Tomorrow Never Dies (Geoff is sweet on Michelle Yeoh).

James Bond: You were pretty good with that hook.
Wai-Lin: Thanks. It comes from growing up in a rough neighborhood. You were pretty good on the bike.
James Bond: Thank you. It comes from not growing up at all.

Monday, September 05, 2005

House This House That

I feel like our whole life is revolving around the house. It's mostly what we talk about, all our decisions now are based on the house, it's all other people want to talk about with us. We feel very blessed to be where we are, and we've waited a long time to be here, so I don't feel bad wanting to celebrate this step. We're 28 years old, we have 8 years of marriage behind us, and Geoff finally has a permanent job. We've paid our dues, now we get to pay a mortgage. :)

I feel just ill when I think about the devastation in New Orleans. I feel such sorrow for those who lost loved ones, all their possessions, and for a city that will never be the same. I pray these people can rebuild new lives, and I pray that we can stop blaming others and just try to move on. I understand the hurt though, and I understand that like a death in the family, everyone will respond to it in their own way.

This week (this whole month) I got a lot going on. Tuesday morning is Elijah's 6 month check up, and a trip to the bank. Wednesday afternoon is the house inspection, which I think may be fun. Thursday is Mom To Mom. Somewhere in there, I'm still hoping to pack.

Well, that's about it. I'm going to close with a quote from Contact.

Michael Kitz: Your having sent this announcement all over the world may well constitute a breach of national security.
Ellie Arroway: This isn't a person-to-person call. You can't possibly think that a civilization sending this kind of message would intend it just for Americans.
Michael Kitz: I'm saying you might have consulted us; obviously, the contents of this message could be extremely sensitive.
Ellie Arroway: You want to classify prime numbers?

Saturday, September 03, 2005

No More Quarters!



We bought a washer & dryer today (Kenmore, from Sears). It will get delivered after we move in. There is a huge sigh of relief in knowing my days of needing quarters to do laundry are numbered. :) Imagine, not having to leave my house to wash & dry our clothes.

Misc Thoughts

You might want to check out Geoff's blog today. ;)

There are rumors circulating that the 2006 season of Scrubs may be its last. Or at least Zach's last season. This would be a shame, because it's the best show on tv, and I would still tune in to Scrubs without Zach. Time will tell what will become of this.

There was a very funny ad on tv months ago, and it has since been altered. Did you notice the Aspercreme ad changed? It went from the funny, "You bet your sweet Aspercreme" to "You bet if it's Aspercreme". Did people complain? "Cause I thought it was clever marketing. Who knows! I still sing the previous version when I hear it.

I had a great time at my Mom To Mom meeting. We have a wide range of ages and family sizes. Elijah did fine in the nursery, he was one of 3 babies there, and the cutest. He was happily playing in the saucer when I went to get him.

Not much else is going on. I'm looking forward to a weekend of relaxing, cleaning, and organizing. Throw in some window shopping and a trip to Peet's.

I'm closing with a quote from The Daily Show. Lewis Black is hilarious.

(Back In Black segment)
Lewis Black: Now, we all know the best medical advice doesn't come from the church or some machine, but from the people you trust the most: celebrities! Actor and lovestruck Scientologist Tom Cruise appeared on the Today Show last Friday, where he shared his beliefs on mental health.
Tom Cruise: I've never agreed with psychiatry, ever. Before I was a scientologist, I never agreed with psychiatry. And I know that psychiatry is a pseudo science.
Lewis Black: Unlike scientology. I mean, that's got science right in the name!