The Amazing and Talented Coley

SURPRISE!!!

For my 30th Birthday my friend Jenni planned a fun filled day of surprises. Here is a "picture story" of the events. A HUGE "THANK YOU" to everyone that made this day so memorable. 

The events started 2 weeks earlier (at least the part I was aware of). Jenni wrote a poem about our "western" day giving me hints as to what we would be doing. With the cowgirl hat and bandana, the only thing I knew was that it would be a day filled with surprises, one being some type of horseback riding in the morn' and a full supper in the evening. 

Here is a shot of me and mom getting ready to go horseback riding.

Mom and I decked out in our western wear.

The organizer, Jenni, and the Birthday girl.

We thought this sign was so funny...remember we are teachers and know about "time-outs".

The three of us, can you see the rain coming?

Me on Smokey and mom on Undertaker. Yes, the horse mom rode was named undertaker because it used to pull a hearse.

Riding through the Garden of the Gods. How cool is that!! Thanks Jenni!!

My mom, a true cowgirl from Oklahoma.

On the way home from riding, I got a phone call from my friend Heather in California. She was supposed to come out at the end of the month to visit me. She called to wish me Happy Birthday and I walked into Jenni's house still on the phone with Heather asking her when she would be coming and THERE SHE WAS!!! She was in Colorado!!! The BEST and BIGGEST surprise of the day!! Jenni and Heather had never met and worked this out months in advance!!! As you can see in the next photos, I was truly SHOCKED and VERY happy to see Heather! I am so blessed to have such great friends!

You can see the phone in her hand...

After the hugging and shock wore off (some), we headed to Garden of the Gods to show Heather the cool rocks near our house. 

That evening we headed to The Flying W Ranch to eat "some grub". They have a full dinner and wester show. Heather is ready in her cute cowgirl shirt. It was so sweet of her to fly out and see me especially 5 months pregnant! Isn't she adorable? 

Friends from my church group came to share in this special day. This is Brenda in her western wear. 

The whole gang! (Jenn, Rob, Gillette, Mom, Me, Heather, Cecil, Brenda, Kevin, and Jenni)

We all took turns taking pictures in front of the wagon.

Me and Heather

Me and Mom

Brenda and Cecil are so funny

Me and Rob and Jenn

Me and Kevin and Jenni

Me and Gillette

Happy 30th Birthday! Gillette brought me a cake with candles, napkins, hats, and a tablecloth all with the western theme!!

Kevin and Jenni

New Stove and Barstools

Showing how the barstool matches the chair.

The smaller oven on top

The stove and fridge

The whole set up

Okay, so I don't have a cute child to show off, so I am totally into my "new" home and updating it. Ted and I got a stove today and I LOVE it! It is a flattop with (drumroll, please...) my favorite feature --a double oven! The smaller oven heats up in minutes and can cook just about anything. The lower oven can be used for the bigger items. I am super excited because I bake Christmas cookies and have friends come over to bake too and this way we have two ovens. Also, it will save on electricity by just using the smaller oven for most recipes. (You may have noticed the vent does not match. That was a whole fiasco. We ordered an over the counter microwave to match the stove and the store did not tell us we might need an outlet installed in the cabinet above the stove. An electrician came out and said it would cost around 800 dollars to create another circuit to get an appropriate "up to code" outlet up there! We said, 'No thank you, not right now.' So we will either get a vent hood that matches for around 150 or get a microwave installed up there later.)

We also got a really good deal on a table and chair set (all hardwood) and just got the matching barstools in! Here are some pictures. 

I just finished my last graduate class until September and have made straight A's so far! 25 graduate hours in Educational Leadership from UCCS in the last 9 months! Whew! I am tired! Our last professor went around our class and asked each of us why we were pursuing a Type D license (Administrator's License). My answer got a laugh out of everyone. I was completely honest when I said, "I am doing this to keep busy while my husband is in Iraq. I thought it would be fun." I have to say, it has kept me busy.  I am still one of the Co-Principal's for Summer School. We are half way through. Only 10 more days! :)

Coley working on her tan

Coley loves to go in her new backyard, or park as I think she thinks of it. Last weekend we had a lot of sunshine one day and Coley decided to go out and lay down on the patio. I had her sit up for a picture and she was enjoying the sun so much she slid right back down. I wish I had it on video, but you can sort of see it in the pictures. Lately it has been rainy constantly and I just wanted to reflect on a very sunny day. 

Moved in

Poor sleepy dog...she followed me around everywhere and by about two she laid down on the bed for the rest of the day.
A view of the family room from the catwalk upstairs
Obviously, our new bedroom furniture. I took these at 10pm on Saturday before I had a chance to get the tags off. Please excuse the mess...Coley got in the picture wondering, "Mom, when are we going to go to bed?"

The dining room
The Kitchen with the new Kitchen Table.

Well, on Saturday from 8am to 7pm, we had movers come pack up and move our stuff, 3 furniture deliveries, cable installation and 7 friends unpack our stuff (and a partridge in a pear tree, just kidding about that part). WHAT a day!! Coley and I are still recovering! What amazing friends we have. I could not have done it without them. They got all of the kitchen stuff and bedroom stuff out of boxes.  Since pictures speak louder than words, here are some pics of our wonderful house. By the way, I didn't know this, but it is possible to obtain live animals when you close on a house. We now have koi fish in the pond out back. Hopefully, they will be finding a new home this week. They are beautiful fish, but Ted and I are just not fish people. 

New Furniture for the House

I am SOOO excited about moving into the house!! This week I have been shopping like crazy!! There is a furniture store in Colorado called Woodley's Fine Furniture and I found the neatest kitchen table there! I thought I would share it with you. It is solid birch wood, 42" round (with a 18" leaf), pedestal table. It comes with four chairs. It was 1/2 off of the original price in the clearance section. THEN another 1/2 off of that for a promotional they had!!! I got the table for a steal. It has a honey stain to the top of the table and seat of the chairs and a red/brown stain to the legs of the table and back and legs of the chairs. I got two matching swivel barstools to go with it! I think it will look great in our kitchen!!

Also, Coley is healing really well. She got her bandages off this week (finally!). I won't post the pictures of her paws. The incission is pretty long and the hair has not grown back. The pictures are sad to look at. But, she is a good girl and is not messing with them at all. She is ready to play again! The vet said she is ready to go play and take a bath, so I will take her tomorrow ( I wanted to give it a couple more days to be on the safe side).

The ornaments of a house are the friends who frequent it

 

We are buying a house!! Ted and I found a house in our neighborhood we love! It is one and half miles from the condo we are renting which means it is close to everything we love now (Garden of the Gods, church, Ute Valley Park, the west side of town...). We saw it when Ted was in town and he walked the neighborhood with Coley, stopping at the Starbucks not even half a mile from the house. ;) It is real close to the Flying W Ranch. It is a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 2 story with a basement, 2 car garage house built by Keller in 1993. The backyard has a pond. I will try to keep Coley out of that! The finished basement has a wet bar and a rec room with plenty of space for Ted's pool table. We love it!!! We should close on April 27th and will move in our Colorado stuff the first weekend of May. We will move Ted's stuff in Georgia out here in the fall.

With all of that being said, we would love to have you come visit our home in Colorado. Whenever you are here you have a place to stay. Please come see us soon!

Hawaii 2009

Whale watching on the Gemini

Rainbow

Mama and Baby Whale

Playin in the sand

Biking down the mountain

Those helmets are heavy. Can you see the sugar cane fire in the background?

The summit of the volcano was 10,000 feet. It was COLD. I am not used to humidity. We are in shorts, long pants, AND wind suits!

Watching the sunrise above the clouds at 6,500 feet.

BBBBBBRRRRRR!!!! IT'S COLD!!!!

AAHH!! Reading and Relaxing.

Going to dinner in the jeep.

The cliff Jenni and I JUPMED off!!! We felt so brave. Later found out it was only a 15 or 16 foot jump, but still felt pretty pumped about it. It reminded me of the jump the girls do at the end of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II. 

This is the view from the hotel. Can you see the black rock where we jumped from?

Well, when you are in tears by the end of your trip to Hawaii, you know it is good to be home. (Even if you go from 80 degree sunshine to 20 degree's and a blizzard). It started before I left. Coley had surgery and I left her in great care, but with bandages and medicine. My first day in Hawaii I got a TERRIBLE sunburn. (Word to the wise, don't use the spray sunscreen!) I now have streaks of peeling from the burn! Ouchie! The sunburn was so bad, not only did it hurt to move or put clothes on or go outside in the sun, but I was nauseous and had an excruciating headache for two days. By the fourth day, our last, my credit/debit card was lost by the waitress at a restaurant! It was found (and now returned) between the lime juice bottle and Jack Daniels at the bar. They called as I was boarding the plane to go home. The plan was to jump on yet another plane to go to California to see friends and run a race, but the airline called and canceled the flight, I am guessing due to the blizzard that came in the day we got home. 

I did get to snorkel with sea turtles (so cool by the way!). I also LOVED sailing and seeing humpback whales! We got to ride around in a jeep, eat at some cool places with great food, and see some neat shops, and walk in the rain forest. Oh, and my friend Jenni wanted to bike down a volcano one day so we did that. It was a sunrise ride, so we were picked up at the hotel at 3am, dropped off at the top of the volcano to see the sunrise (pretty cool) and then biked from 6500 feet to 0! Our average speed on the bikes was 24 miles per hour, downhill on switchbacks!!! So cool!

Overall, a good trip, but glad to be home. Coley is doing better. Finished up most of her medicine and will have her last bandage change tomorrow night. These are from the trip. Can you see the terrible burn streaks???