Good news and a growing belly

Jay tried to post about this yesterday, but the internet was not cooperating at all...so I have posting duties today.

We have fantastic news! After about 8 months of waiting, we finally got an offer on our house in CA!!! We are excited but trying to stay realistic and not get our hopes too high because, of course, everything has to get through escrow before we officially can put on that "sold" label. Our realtor feels confident about the offer though and the buyer had a pre-approval letter, so all should go well. Please keep praying that everything goes through as it should!

Since we are feeling pretty good about the sale going through in CA, and since we've had all this time to look at neighborhoods and houses here (I'm positive we've walked through at least 100 houses since we've been here), we also decided to put an offer on a house here. I think it's really God's timing because there's this resale house we really liked on the market before the holidays but they pulled it for a few months and are planning on putting it back up in spring. Well that realtor knew we liked it and he has been calling our realtor quite frequently to see how we're doing and to let us know that even though it's not technically on the market we can purchase it. The ironic thing is that not only is this house available, but the one we put the $5 hold on several months ago is also still available - and now finished being built. We did go by to check that one out, and the lot is really the selling point (views and open space and a park accross the street), but when we walked in it just didn't feel quite "right" and, even though it is a bigger house, that means a bigger price tag, and we just don't want to be in the same situation we were in back in CA - strapped to a mortgage.

So here is a pic of the resale house that we are going to put an offer on this week:

Another cool thing that I just found out about the neighborhood is that there are several families with new babies on the street and also a couple who are due soon! And it sounds like everyone is pretty neighborly which is really something we're wanting in a neighborhood. It's on a culdesac wich also helps that community feeling, I think.

Speaking of babies, the one inside is growing and doing well. My drs visits have increased to every 2 weeks now, which means I'm officially in the 3rd trimester! Wow, the time has really gone fast so far. Here is the latest picture, or as Jay likes to say, the January belly:

Christmas, New Year's, Anniverary, and The Son of Holiday Blizzard

But first thing's first... check out how cute my wife is pregnant... check out that belly (we're at about 25 weeks)!

Since we've gotten extremely lazy about this blog since we started using dial-up, we've missed a few weeks, and Jenna keeps telling me I need to do an update.. so here goes.

After the Holiday Blizzard of 2006, we dug out and I was able to go out and buy a couple of presents on the 23rd (as per my usual routine), but alas no snow shovels to be found... We got another light dusting of snow on Christmas Eve, which was just enough for effect. It was really picturesque to come out of church after singing christmas carols to some light snowfall, and come home to some hot cocoa and a warm fireplace.

Christmas morning, therefore, was nice and white (all the dirty road-snow had been covered over). This was the scene from our living room:



We went down to the Heldts and had some tasty Christmas dinner at their house, and admired the depth of the snow in their backyard (which I still don't see any snow angels in)

We went back to work for the week between Christmas and New Year's, only I actually got just 2 1/2 days in, because Holiday Blizzard #2 (aka Son of Holiday Blizzard) reared it's ugly head on Thursday afternoon. Not wanting a repeat of the previous week's adventure, I decided to bail out early while I could still get home. Luckily we avoided the worst case scenario, and a second weather system battled off the worst of the storm and kept it in southeast colorado (where I heard 30,000 cattle died, and there are snowdrifts up to 15 feet!). We still got about 10 inches of snow, however, making the freshly plowed roads completely nasty again. Our parking lot is still icy and rutted... but at least we don't have 15 foot snowdrifts...

New Year's Eve Eve was our FIFTH anniversary, which we wished we could have been a little more extravagant with, but given our budget, we made the best of things and went to Bucca Di Beppo in downtown Denver with a gift card we had gotten from Jenna's aunt for Christmas. We weren't quite prepared for how cold it was that night, and both stepped in puddles of melted snow and ice up to our ankles, but despite the freezing cold soggy feet, we had a good night celebrating five years of marriage (and 8 years together total!).

The next night, we decided to check out the downtown scene for New Year's Eve, since this is our last year without a baby to tote around and put to bed (I guess we still had a baby with us, but in a convenient carry-on pouch in Jenna's belly). We first decided to wuss out and go to the 9pm fireworks show and take off before the drunks were out, but we missed the early train (which were running for free), and ended up getting there around 10:30. We hung out for a little while, got some hot cocoa at Starbucks, watched some obnoxious drunk people for a while, and decided we really weren't New Year's Eve types, so we rode home around 11:15 or so. It made us realize once again that we're just not really into crowds. We walked in the door just in time to watch the last 30 seconds of the countdown on TV!

For some reason every year I get less and less excited about the clock striking midnight... It's nice and all, but some people just seem to get unnaturally fired up about the date changing.

Anyway, I hope you all have a happy new year. We resolve to attempt to make an effort to try and update this sucker a little more often (how's that for weasel-words).

I "heart" Colorado

No new pics today, but I just wanted to post about how awesome Colorado is and how awesome our neighbors are. Today I did not have to go to work, but I really, really, wanted to get to the grocery store, and also my friend and I had planned to do some baking together at her house before all this happened. Her neighborhood got plowed (but only because all her neighbors got together and paid someone to do it!) so I knew if I could only get out of our parking lot it would be clear sailing. Plus I do have to work tomorrow so I thought better to test the conditions today so I know what I'm up against tomorrow.

I was watching out the window all morning to see if people were having any luck getting out of the lot...not really. People kept getting stuck, so I kept waiting for the plow to come. Nothing. I checked again and there were several people down there all shoveling so I thought I'd go see if they were actually going to try to leave or what. They were trying to get out to go grocery shopping, too, and one girl trying to get to work. Everyone was so nice and super helpful. Since Jay had already shoveled my car out yesterday, all I had to do was get backed out and then drive down the parking lot to the main street. This super nice girl who has lived in the snow forever offered to do it for me - how awesome! She actually did get stuck a couple times and luckily there were many people around to help with a push. She drove all the way down the parking lot for me and basically gave me a little lesson and demonstration on driving in the snow. Awesome!!!

So, as I reflect on today and yesterday and all the people and camaraderie, I am just thinking how blessed we are to live where we do and how awesome it is. This would NEVER EVER happen in southern California, especially Orange County (neither the snow nor the awesome people!) Things like this really bring a neighborhood together and I just pray that wherever we end up buying a house will have awesome neighbors, too. I'm sure mostly what people are hearing in the news is all the bad stories, but I have a completely different perspective on the whole thing. Plus, talk about being forced to slow down around the holidays and think about what Christmas really means. People couldn't go shopping at the malls (or anywhere) and most people were forced to take the day off of work. Get rid of the commercialism and stress and take some time off and get to know your neighbors. Give me a snow day anyway!

(By the way, when I got back today I parked in the lot next door, which is also the same condos, because somehow they were lucky enough to get plowed - or maybe they just payed someone!)

OK, I lied, I found a pic that we haven't posted yet. I took this yesterday when the sun came out. Our condo is the one on the top. That is our balcony that Ella likes to hang out on when it's not covered in snow.

The Aftermath...

Well, the rest of the day was a lot mellower than yesterday. The storm wrapped up around noon, and shortly after we started spotting neighbors outside shoveling to get their cars dug out for tomorrow. We don't have a shovel yet, so I decided to head down and see if I could score one to dig Jenna out. The lady I helped get her car unstuck yesterday lives downstairs, and I borrowed hers for a while. A plow is supposed to clear a path in our parking lot, but they seem to be pretty in demand today, as the storm just ended. Hopefully they'll come by in the middle of the night like they have in the past.

You really get to know your neighbors during stuff like this. It reminds me a lot of the neighborhood atmosphere after the Northridge Earthquake... Everyone comes outside and helps each other out. We met four or five neighbors just being out there and digging through the snow. One neighbor brought out hot chocolate for everyone, although it was kind of warm out (notice I ditched the sweatshirt pretty quick). It took longer than I thought to just get the area behind jenna's car dug out (creating a driveway for three cars) - probably about three hours when all was said and done. But, what else was I going to do anyway?

Jenna took Ella for a walk (in her blizzard coat), and we confirmed that she absolutely loves the snow, as does every other dog. There were a bunch of other romping dogs out there during the "shovel party".

So, we survived one of the worst storms in Denver history, and got to meet some neighbors in the process... We're thinking of changing our christmas lists to add: Snow Shovel, Snow Shoes, Cross Country Skis, and, possibly, a Snowmobile?

Snow totals as of 2:00pm were 31.0" in Aurora, and 24.0" in Denver. That supposedly puts us in the top three storms of all time! They haven't released the "official results" yet, but a lot of people who have lived here for decades say they've never seen it like this before.

...and yet we STILL like it here...

Here's some pics of the day:





... by the way, don't expect 2 blogs a day ever again (except of course, maybe when the baby is born) this was just an exceptional day, I don't want to raise expectatios too much..

The Blizzard of 2006, and a Snomobile Adventure!

Wow, what a day yesterday!

We woke up in the morning, looked outside and saw a fairly typical amount of snowfall. We'd heard 4-5 inches were expected, and it looked pretty benign, so Jenna went to work down the street at Old Navy, and I headed downtown via light rail. In the car on the way to the station, I was surprised to hear phrases like "the worst Blizzard since 2003"... but I continued on. The pic below was the scene when I left work around noon, right after a postal worker ran past me in SHORTS!



I got to work on time, and just about everyone was there, but the snow was coming down harder. We got an announcement around 10am that the front desk was closing at noon, and everyone should head home when they feel they need to. So I left around 12:30, and got on the train south. Our train had all kinds of mechanical issues with the doors and supposedly the track switcher was getting jammed up with the snow, so my usual 30 min trainride took over an hour.

After getting to the light rail station near our place, I decided not to try to drive, after watching cars slide around and talking to Jenna about her drive home and all the people stuck in our parking lot. So I chose to take the bus that runs near our apartment. I found the right stop, and huddled inside the bus shelter with about 10 other people waiting to go east. We were in there a while, and started doing stuff like packing snow up against the bottom of the shelter to keep the wind out. We waited about a half an hour (some had been there for 45 minutes before that), and their bus came, but not mine. I waited for another hour, with a short break to hop into my car for a quick warm-up, and the bus still hadn't come, and the other buses were getting stuck in the quickly accumulating snow. So, I decided to walk the 1-1/2 to 2 miles home, rather than spend the night in the parking structure.

I walked for a while, and quickly realized the snow was tough to walk in, but not impossible. I got past the freeway offramp, where I saw cars fishtailing everywhere, and continued down Parker road (major arterial) slowly. Pretty soon, I heard a loud engine noise, and turned around to see a guy in a SNOWMOBILE pulling up next to me. He said "Hey, do you want a ride?", and I gratefully accepted, having no other alternative. I hopped on, and he hit the gas.. It felt like we were flying down the road, we were probably going no more than 40 mph, but with all the stuck cars and trucks, and the blizzardy conditions, it felt like light speed! I originally just kind of cautiously held on to the guy's sides, but when we started going fast I clung pretty tight, thinking I was going to fall off at any moment! It was pretty hairy weaving in and out of traffic and going over bumps and whatnot, but we made it pretty quickly to my destination, the big intersection near our apartment.

I hopped off and thanked the guy for the ride, and immediately saw a car stuck in the snow. I asked the guy if he needed a push, and he said, no, there wasn't anywhere to go, and he'd just seen two other rear-wheel drive cars get stuck trying to get into the parking lot he was heading for (the same strip mall lot I was planning to park in if I drove), so he was just going to leave it in the median and wait for his friend to get there.

So I trudged through the snow taking a shortcut to get through to our complex. I got to our parking lot, and found another neighbor stuck in the snow, trying to park somewhere. So after changing into some snow clothes, I spent the next hour with some other neighbors getting her unstuck and situated.

Finally we spent most of the night sitting by the fire and watching all the news about stranded motorists and people stuck at the airport... what a crazy day.

Today is a "snow day", so we both have the day off, and we're just hanging out looking at all the white stuff piled up everywhere... over 2' officially last I heard, but Jenna's car is basically covered as you can see in the pic below from this morning (all you can see is the two windshield wipers sticking up!)

Ella hated going outside last night (it was a lot windier and more miserable out), but this morning she was loving it! In the pic below she's standing in a tire track from a Forerunner that somehow made it out of the parking lot this morning...


White Christmas indeed!

Christmas Parties and Old Snow Days

Jay's work had thier Christmas party on Sat night. It was really nice - we had gourmet sit down dinner in the Denver Art Museum which was pretty cool. I wish we would have gotten a picture of us actually there (we forgot the camera. But Jay did take a pic with his phone, so if he blogs separately maybe he'll post it...but it's nothing worth shouting about. You can barely see the museum behind us.) Anyways, this pic is us at home when we got back, because I didn't get all dressed up for nothing!

And Jay took a couple pictures of downtown when it snowed a couple weeks ago, and since we haven't posted them yet, might as well do it now. Enjoy...

Thanksgiving Escapades + Christmas Decorationg

Jay and I flew back to CA for Thanksgiving to see the families and have some wonderful food. Jay's mom made a big feast on Thanksgiving day that the whole family was invited to, including my parents. As we flew in on Thursday morning, it was quite a long day but the meal was the perfect ending! Friday was a little celebration for John's (Jay's Dad) 60th birthday. I believe his actual birthday is today, but we celebrated while we were there. Part of our celebrations included walking up to the stable where John has his horse and I got to take the kids around on rides (pictured here w/my youngest niece, Kaity). Then on Sat we went up to my parent's house and had another fabulous feast. You just can't get enough Thanksgiving dinner so I had asked my mom to make something for us on Saturday, too. Sunday we drove down to "the OC" to visit Rock Harbor church and see some friends and also to pick up our winter clothes which we left packed in boxes in the garage. Who knew that we wouldn't have sold the house by now and had all our stuff moved out already... So we got some essentials, like coats and sweaters! It was just in time, too, as when we got back Monday the temperatures dropped into the single digits. Still not cold enough to make us want to move back to CA though!

Now we are home and I've started my new seasonal job at Old Navy to make some extra money. So far it's going well - nothing like some retail work to put you into the holiday spirit! Nice segway into holidays, don't you think? So yesterday Jay and I decorated the little Christmas tree that Mike and Rachel let us borrow (with decorations and all!) I did buy the big white balls you see on the tree, since I found them at Goodwill for $1.50. They may be a tad out of place on the small tree...the tiny balls and ornaments that Rachel let me borrow fit the tree much better. Oh well, I'm a sucker for decorations. So we decorated and listened to Christmas music and then afterwards watched my all-time favorite Christmas movie, Elf, while eating home-made cookies that my parents baked and mailed to us! They were soooo good and added just the perfect touch of homey holiday cheer. The only thing missing was eggnog, which we did have the other day but we drank it all already and I forgot to buy more. Jay took this picture with the lights on the balcony railing outside and you can also see the trees lit up in the back which are trees that the condo assosiation decorates for Christmas. Everything is really decorated up around town, these Coloradans really get into thier Christmas decorating!



And last but certainly not least is the latest picture of my growing profile. I go to the doctor this Thursday for my next check up and another ultrasound to check the progress of the baby. We were actually really blessed when we went up to Palmdale over Thanksgiving because my mom's friend is a nurse practicioner in an OBGYN office and she did an ultrasound for free so my parents could see the baby! That was really, really nice of her. Anyways, at my appointment they will do all kinds of official measurements and everything, and we could find out the sex if we wanted to...but we'd rather keep guessing (and keep you all guessing, too!!!)