Birthday and Red Rocks

Above: DH with niece and nephew. Cheese!
Red Rocks in June

It is a vertical challenge to get to the amphitheater

A & K

DH's sister-in-law and brother

Downtown Denver in the background

DH (r) with his bro

Me and DH
my hair is getting long

John Denver tribute at Red Rocks

June 2009

Vedauwoo and Ames Monument

It was May 2008 when Drew was last at Vedauwoo. That was right before all the problems he had with his hips, legs, and then cancer. Now that he is in remission, DH wanted to take him up to Vedauwoo again so that we'd all have good memories of the place.

Ames Monument

Rocks at Vedauwoo

May They Rest in Peace

Who is this guy?

Who is he? My hubby! And he is darn cute.

New Addition

Here's my cousin Missy's new baby, Kaili. So cute! I've also included some pics of my mom with Kaili and my mom with her doggy Chelsie.

Best Gatorade Commercial Ever

Fold me, you will

My friend Glaistig folds origami. Whenever she sends me a letter it is always folded so neatly and intricately into some unique design. Most recently she sent me a Yoda finger puppet. The one above is a more complicated version which she said is her goal to learn how to do.

Little Helper

Here's Mickey helping me with the puzzle.

The above photo is actually the first one I snapped of him. He had just jumped up in the chair and was peeking curiously at the table top.
Then he switched seats and sat on the other side of the table. He is a funny kitty.

The puzzle is a 1500 piece Ravensburger puzzle. I am thinking I should have gotten a smaller puzzle instead.

More Snow!

Above: this is the snow last night
Above: And this was the same picnic table this morning.

We really got dumped on, and it is *still* coming down.

Here's what our walk and driveway looked like this morning.

I am a W-O-M-A-N!

Snow in April

These are Sherbert's paw prints in the snow.

She loves the snow!
DH's car buried in snow.

Our front yard.

Me after brushing the snow off of my car.

It was coming down pretty fast.

When I left work, I came out to my car buried in snow.

Outside of work.

Dear Sir Obama

January 16, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
Dear Sir Obama: Presidential Advice
By JORY JOHN

Every day after school about 65 children come to our center to get help with their homework. The place is always vibrant, but on Nov. 5, 2008, the 20 tutors in the room essentially played zone defense to keep things in order. For the students, the election of Barack Obama had overturned their world.

The children had been interested in the election all year but few of them, truth be told, really thought Mr. Obama would be elected. When he won, their talk quickly and excitedly turned to what would happen next.

We decided to channel this energy into a writing assignment. We asked our students — not just those in San Francisco, but ones in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Boston; Chicago; Los Angeles; New York; and Seattle — to offer their thoughts, hopes and advice to Mr. Obama in handwritten letters (many of which came with drawings). Here is the result of their work; some letters have been edited for space.
•
Dear Sir Obama,
These are the first 10 things you should do as president:
1. Make everyone read books.2. Don’t let teachers give kids hard homework.3. Make a law where kids only get one page of homework per week.4. Kids can go visit you whenever they want.5. Make volunteer tutors get paid.6. Let the tutors do all the thinking.7. Make universities free.8. Make students get extra credit for everything.9. Give teachers raises.10. If No. 4 is approved, let kids visit the Oval Office, but don’t make it boring.
— Mireya Perez, age 8, San Francisco
•
Dear Obama,
If I were president I would have fun, because I could run fast.
— Kenja Zelaya, age 6, Los Angeles
•
Dear President/Mr. Obama,
The best thing about living in the White House would be running around like a maniac. The thing I would like least is the work.
— Holly Wong, age 9, San Francisco
•
Dear President Obama,
I am small, quiet, smart. I love to swim and play basketball. My mom and dad are from the Dominican Republic. I am going to the Dominican Republic next year. I think you should try to change the world by building shelters for the people who live in the streets. It’s the beginning of January, and it’s cold. Good luck being the president.
— Pamela Mejia, age 11, Boston
•
Dear President Obama,
Here is a list of the first 10 things you should do as president:
1. Fly to the White House in a helicopter.2. Walk in.3. Wipe feet. 4. Walk to the Oval Office. 5. Sit down in a chair. 6. Put hand-sanitizer on hands. 7. Enjoy moment. 8. Get up.9. Get in car. 10. Go to the dog pound.
— Chandler Browne, age 12, Chicago
•
Dear President Obama,
If I were president, I would tell people to not talk too much. It wastes time. I’d also say to war: no more, no more, no more!
— Catherine Galvan, age 6, Chicago
•
Dear Obama,
I have grown up with a very liberal mom and a very conservative dad. Thank you for bringing my parents somewhat closer together. :) You are my idol Mr. Barack — I am partly African-American and I am very happy to see an African-American leading this country.
— Olivia Roper-Caldbeck, age 12, Seattle
•
Dear Pres. Obama,
Good job on winning. I heard about Area 51. I wanted to ask you if there are any U.F.O.’s there. I think that you should tell people in public the truth about Area 51. You would just maybe say, “That we will take care of it.” And do it.
— Edwin Jara, age 9, New York
Dear President Obama,
Could you help my family to get housecleaning jobs? I hope you will be a great president. If I were president, I would help all nations, even Hawaii. President Obama, I think you could help the world.
— Chad Timsing, age 9, Los Angeles

Obama Drawings by Children

Children draw pictures of president-elect Obama.

Ninja Kitty

McAlister's

Tonight we went to McAlister's Deli with a good friend. DH and I both had baked potatoes. McAlister's taters are HUGE. They are actually two regular sized baked potatoes put together to look like one potato. I tried to look up nutritional info before we left the house, but they don't have it posted to their website at this time. I think that is on purpose -- they don't want us to know how fattening these things really are. Baked potatoes are supposed to be somewhat healthy, right? Probably not when you eat two huge ones at one sitting smothered in bacon, cheese, and who knows what else. LOL. Actually DH had a veggie baked potato. It did have cheese but otherwise looked pretty healthy. I got the plain BP but added butter and sour cream, so not exactly a "low point" meal.

I did recommit to WW this week. I went last night to the local meeting. The leader is actually someone we know from church. If I had known she was a WW leader I may have gone back a lot sooner. She is certainly dynamic and I am excited about going to the meetings for support and guidance. I am still doing eTools, too, which is helpful for me.

Hope everyone is doing well. We are doing great. DH took some extra vacation days so he had an extended winter break. Tomorrow is his first day back. Me, I have a dentist appointment in the morning and physical therapy after work (for my finger). I took Friday off so I could have one three day weekend before school starts back on Monday. Students! We love 'em. :)

Walking

DH and I took a walk wi/the dogs. It is supposed to drop 30 degrees tomorrow so we wanted to take advantage of the "good" 44-degree weather.
Drew & Mattie look to their Alpha.

The lake near our house. I walked around it twice and DH and the dogs did 3 laps, which is their usual distance.

We ran into some neighbors. They were our walking wi/their dogs and kids.