Monday, July 23, 2007

Happy Birthday

Today is Cade's 7th birthday. When asked to smile for the camera this morning, this was what I got. Yesterday we had a small party for him, a friend from day camp & few family members. The theme was, of course, Spiderman. He even had a black spiderman head pinata. The cake unfortunately was not very good. We ordered it from Whole Foods, because Ellen had really good cake from there a couple of weeks ago. The cake was only about 3/4" thick & had about 1/2" of frosting on it. We will not be getting a cake from there again.

Today at day camp, Cade took cupcakes to share for lunch. And while having his afternoon popcicle, the lead singer from Papa Roach joined them for their snack. Why he was there, we're not really sure. Cade said he was bringing his son to the pool. Very random.

And tonight for dinner we had Noodles. (No, I did not choose it, he did.) He even passed up going to Dave & Buster's to go to Noodles. I know, he's a little strange.

Here is his favorite present: And he also got some decals to add to his bedroom wall. So now he has glow-in-the-dark buildings with Spiderman flying across them. Now I think I need to add some webs to the wall...



I will get our website updated in the next few weeks with more pictures. (First, I have to figure out what my husband did to get his real estate page there instead of our personal page...)

Friday, July 20, 2007

I'm going to hurt tomorrow

So one of the cool benefits I get at work is weekly yoga classes at lunch. They are Wed & Fri. (Pilates is on Mon, but I'm not up for that yet.) I did my first yoga class today. Fridays the class is held outside by the lake. Luckily today it is not too hot, only 86, and there was a little bit of a breeze the last 15 minutes or so. The class was small only 9 people and the instructor.

I forgot how much I enjoy doing yoga. I love the relaxed, yet energized feeling that you have at the end of class. And the teacher was fabulous. She was one of those spiritual, earthy teachers. All through class she was talking about how these poses were tying us to nature, pull the energy from the sun & ground ourseleves in the dirt. I used to think teachers like her were crazy, but after having peppy cheerleader-type teachers, I found I enjoy yoga better with the crazy teachers.

Of course, since it has been 4 years since I regularly did yoga, I am going to hurt like crazy tomorrow. Guess I will just have to get up & do one of my videos.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Yippee!!!

So my genius husband never blew out our sprinkler system. One cold December day the back flow valve broke & we had a slight geyser in our front yard. So I have spent the entire spring & summer without a sprinkler system.

Since it takes about 4 hours to water my entire front & back yard, it didn't happen very often. So now I have a very lovely dead grass/dandelion yard. It really a joy to look at :)

We were finally able to bring out the sprinkler guy. After only $161, we now have a sprinkler that works again!!!

AND he says if we start watering it daily then it should actually get green again THIS year. I don't have to wait until next spring to have a green yard again. Yippee!!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Sick Kitty :(

Last night we came home from dinner to a house that smelled like shit. Literally. I thought that I has smelled something when I came home from work, but couldn't find anything so I figured it must have been outside.

While Cade was getting ready for his bath, Ben found the reason for the smell.... Poor Bailey did not feel good & had gotten sick on the dressing room floor.

After getting the room cleaned & the litter box cleaned, I headed to the grocery store for some fresh litter, an additional litter box & some of those cat wipes. We tried to use the wipes to clean Bailey, but she HATED it & hissed and clawed until she wiggled away from us. We both have the marks to prove how much she disliked it.

Since she still was not clean, I decided she needed a bath because there was no other way to get her clean. It was the first time I had ever given a cat a bath. Having heard horror stories, I was ready for the worst. I suited up with my cleaning gloves & Ben went to find the kitty. Miraculously she did better than expected. As long as only her back paws were in the water, she didn't squirm much & I was able to get her clean. I had the faucet on the whole time & she even played with the running water a little.

And since Ben held her so she could not see me cleaning her, I was able to dry her off with ease. She felt safe & happy that she was out of the water.

Since no blood was drawn during the bathing experience, I will now be torturing my kitties with baths a couple times a year :)

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Happy Anniversary to me, Happy Anniversary to me...

Today was Ben's and my 1st anniversary. So what does one do on a one year anniversary? Well, I cleaned the house & Ben did an open house. We did have fun in the afternoon though. We went to the driving range & spent about an hour hitting golf balls. Then we got ready to go out to dinner.

Not very exciting I know. We plan on celebrating in August after Cade goes back to Delaware, though.

For dinner, we were originally going to go to our favorite steak restaurant, Steak House 10. But they are not open on Sundays. So we went out for Italian instead. The restaurant that we went to is called Gaetano's. It has been in Denver since the 1930's. The food was very delicious.

And for dessert we get to have wedding cake. The place we got our cake from gave us a free 1-year anniversary cake so we do not have to eat freezer burned cake.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Fireworks & Work

We got to see an amazing fireworks show last night! We went to Progress Park again. It's a small park in Arapahoe County, right by Pirate's Cove. We were watching a show a few miles away when all of a sudden there was a HUGE boom behind us. I jumped about 3 feet into the air & the show began. We were so close that the shell casings & carbon bits were landing on us. When you are that close, the fireworks are amazing!!!!

I started my new job today. It is going to be a much more manageable position where I can actually do a good job, not just whatever it takes to get the job done. I have the world's smallest cubicle for the next month until my dept moves into a separate building. So far it seems good...

And here are a few pictures of the floors now that the furniture is all in place. The dining room floor still needs the gunk cleaned up & to be polished. But otherwise, I am happy with how they turned out. The added bonus is that the front of the house is no longer 8 million degrees; it has dropped to about 5 million degrees! That's what I get for having a west-facing house. though :)




Tuesday, July 3, 2007

It's legal

I am now legally Susan Edna Grisinger. I spent the morning at the DMV & Social Security office getting my name changed. The DMV wasn't too bad. I won't know how the picture came out until my new lisence arrives in the mail....

The Social Security office was another matter. I was not there for long, maybe an hour, but it smelled bad, the air conidtioning was barely on & everyone was complaining about how long it was taking. When I came home all I wanted to do was take a shower.



In other news, both bedrooms to our condo are now painted. We chose a very nice neurtal called "Antique White". It looks great with the white trim & cherry floors. We had a couple look at it last night to do a lease to buy option. Hopefully they liked it & do not want us to paint the rest of it. But we are offering to paint it all in the antique white if needed. What do you think of the color?




On Sunday, we went 4x4 in Georgetown up Saxon Mountain so that we could get out of the heat. The car read 107 degrees on our way up!!! It was an easy trail with many tight switch backs so that my sister could work on her 4x4 skills. We made it about 1/2 way up the trail before Cade was feeling sick so Margaret (my sister) turned her Jeep around so we could head back down.





Here is a very pretty view while we were stopped so I could unlock my seat belt. Riding on a rocky road in the back seat while being busty is not fun. I have a bruise on my shoulder from the seat belt. This was about the only picture that came out clear. It's kind hard to hold a camera steady while driving over rocks :)






These are 2 rocks that my sister expertly maneuvered around without getting a single scratch on her beautiful red Jeep.





And here is where we took a right instead of a left & had to turn the Jeep around. The road became even too steep for the ATV'ers that came up behind us. They helped Ben turn the Jeep around. Where the guyin the white shirt is standing is pretty much the edge of the cliff. I didn't think to take picures of the steep hill or how high we were until we were back on the highway home. After a 12 point turn or so, we had the Jeep turned around & Maragret drove us back down the mountain.