HALLOWEEN 2010

 The 2nd Annual Pumpkin Carving event with the NEE family! 1 addition to this event this year, was caramel pop corn!

Before and After

Well as soon as we bought our house, and even before we bought it, there was a ton of work that we had to get done.  It all started with the painting from Sadie and Lisa and that made all the difference in the world. We then moved on to the kitchen and that was it own beast.  Pretty much everything in the whole kitchen needed to be replaced.  When you would walk into the old kitchen it was like stepping back in time. We ended up laying tile, building new cabinet doors, painting the old cabinets, re-texturing and painting the walls putting on a new counter top, and rewiring some of the lights. All though it isn't complete it has come a long ways since we have first moved in. Sadie is keeping me motivated and we are completing this massive project together and it has been very fun. 

Did somebody say homemade ice cream????

So Tel and I tried out our ice cream maker. Well we actually decided to make homemade frozen yogurt (raspberry). Raspberries were 4 for $5 at Albertsons! So our conclusion was we prefer store bought ice cream! We didn't like the consistency of the ice cream, it was more like a smoothie. But it was fun making it. Next time we will try making ice cream, and not the frozen yogurt.

Garage Sale Bargain

Below are our latest Garage Sale Bargains. We got all 3 items for $13. We thought that was just great. I have been wanting a bread maker and a pressure cooker, but just didn't want to let loose with the cash. But I could let go of $13 on one Saturday morning

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Girl's Weekend in Colorado Springs

This year's Labor Day weekend was spent with the Myer's girls. Lorraine, Rachael, and Tauna drove to Colorado Springs to Lisa's house, where I too, met up with them. Friday after work, I drove on my merry little way to Colorado Springs. I listened to XM radio 20 on 20 for the entire 8 hour drive, minus the time I talked to Sash on the phone. Saturday morning we went and toured the Olympic training center.

 We then went for a drive up to Woodland park and had lunch at the Hungry Bear. I bet you would never guess that their entire restaurant was filled stuffed teddy bears. AND our waitress even had a bear paw tattoo on her neck. You can't tell me that you have ever ate lunch at the Hungry Bear and had a waitress who had a tattoo of a bear paw. So that was basically an experience of a lifetime.

After our hungry bear lunch, we rode the cog railway up to Pikes Peak. We rode up to over 14,000 ft in elevation. AMAZING. It was amazing views, and we could also see Kansas (i'm not quite sure what was Kansas, but that is what our tour guide told us). We even saw a marmot and a mountain goat/sheep (we didn't really know what they were). It was awesome. Tauna even bought a $4 picture book of the cog railway trip!

On Sunday, we all went to Lisa's single ward for church. She has a lot of members in her ward from the air force academy and it was bring your parent week for the cadets. So that was different and interesting. After church, we had yummy lasagna. That night we went to seven falls.

After dark the falls are lit up with different colors. It was really pretty. We walked a few stairs for preparation for the Incline hike that we were doing the next morning.

Monday morning, after a weekend full of anticipation, Lorraine, Lisa, and I left Lisa's house at about 5:30am to go hike the Incline in Manitou Springs. It is a hike that is 1 mile up and gains over 2000 ft in elevation. There are over 2700 stairs. It took us 1 hour and 15 minutes to hike up that 1 mile. It was great once we were on top. My goal for next time is 1 hour. Officially, the Incline is private property, and by climbing it you’re trespassing. But that doesn’t stop folks from running… well, scrambling.. well, trudging up the rigid steps.

The average grade is just over 40%, and the steepest point tops out at 68%. Yes, at some point I had my hands on the railways ties ahead of me to literally climb!

At the Base of the hike, Approximately 5:30/6:00am.

View of the sunrise during our hike

Trespassing with the rebel herself, Lorraine

Break Time

At the Top!!!!

And no, we did not walk strait back down the stairs like some people do, we went down the back side of the mountain.

So after our quick get together, we all headed back to real life, mine back in NM.

1st Year of Marriage

Tel and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary on the 29th of August! I would conclude that we have had 1 busy year behind us. Tel surprised me with pearls, a necklace and earrings. I love them. 

This is a little recap of some of the main things we did this past year:

·         August

o   Married

o   Cancun, Mexico

·         September

o   Moved to New Mexico

o   Did fall career fairs

·         October

o   Moved into Mesquite house From Ural House

·         November

o   Myers visited Carlsbad

o   Lotts visited Carlsbad for Thanksgiving

·         December

o   Went home for Christmas

·         January

o   Superbowl party with the Nee’s

·         February

o   First time being called into young women’s, primary, and nursery

o   Tel’s first time being called into Young Men’s

·         March

o   Went to Big Bend

o   Sasha came and visited for her spring break

·         April

o   Went to SHRM Conference in Florida

o   Went to Disney World, Epcot, and Universal Studios

o   Bought our first house-April

o   Painted the entire thing after having it retextured, tiled kitchen, put new baseboard in bedrooms, Lisa came and helped!

·         May

o   Went to Idaho/Utah for career fair and Sasha’s graduation

·         June

o   Went to Ruidoso with the couples (Will, Katie-Jo, Lawrence, Sarah)

o   Passed PHR exam

·         July

o   Went to Cloudcroft for 4th of July with Brady and Brit

o   Went to Estes Park in Colorado

·         August

o   Tel got accepted and started the nursing program

Will Merchant Softball Tournament

Tel and I played in a 3 day tournament this past weekend for the Intrepid Team. We played 2 games Friday night, 3 games Saturday night, and our team played 3 games Sunday (Tel and I didn't play). We had a good time. I now have a great story for when anyone asks me what the dumbest thing I've ever done was. We had a 10pm game on Saturday night and I was catching. There was a runner on 3rd base and I had the ball at home plate and the runner was off the bag. So I threw it to 3rd base, and I ended up pegging the umpire in the back of the head with the ball. I was so zoned in on the 3rd baseman, that I didn't see the umpire in my line of vision. When the ball hit the back of the umpire's head, it made the loudest noise ever. Which was then followed by complete silence. All the guys in the outfield even herd the THUNK. I was so completely embarrassed. The poor guy...But our team still won the sportsmanship award, so I didn't completely blow that for the team. 

So we ended the tournament in second place.