{we're bona fide coloradans now}

Why are we NOW officially Coloradans, you might ask? Because the first snow has come and gone, and we weathered it like pros... that's why. Granted, it wasn't exactly a winter wonderland around here. But I'd venture to say we got an inch or more, and even more importantly... I drove... in my car... WHILE it snowed, and lived to tell the tale. I'll update when we get a heavier snow and let you know how that goes. But for now... victory.

We have been surprised by how much we like Denver. Of course we figured we would like it, but I don't know that we anticipated how quickly and easily we would settle into life in what is proving to be a fun, laid back and overall great city. We live in a great area of town where we're close to everything that you want to be close to, but still a short drive to some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen in real life. It's just lovely here.

Maurice is doing great in school, though I will admit that grad school is keeping him a smidge busier than I would have hoped. I can remember I time in recent history when the only time I saw him for 3 days was when he was asleep. I would wake up and head to work before he was up, and by the time I got home, he was already working hard in the office and I would fall asleep hours before he was done. I guess such is the lot in life for the wife of an architect. To be fair, I was warned well in advance of the long hours they put in, and one of Maurice's most admirable qualities is his talent and hard-working attitude, so who can complain.

I got a great job working at a public relations firm in downtown Denver, and am loving it so far. As most of you know, jobs were one of the things that had us a little nervous in this whole moving situation, but just as I suspected He would... God abundantly showed His faithfulness to His promises to us. I am loving my job, it's keeping me working hard, and I have great coworkers that I'm forming fast friendships with. I am daily aware of how blessed I am to have a job.

And how time has flown... Thanksgiving is right around corner! A small part of my excitement is knowing the turkey time is coming, another small part is knowing that Christmas is following close behind, but MOST of my excitement is because we have family coming to visit us. Ashlie and Marty will be spending the whole week of Thanksgiving here with us, and Stefanie and Adam and the kids will also be up that week to visit both us and Adam's family here in Denver. We are so excited to get to spend time with all of them, and to play with Sofia and Judah. AND... I get to cook my first Thanksgiving meal, and I'm honestly pretty pumped about it. It finally gives me a reason to use some of our fancy wedding gifts that I've looked so longingly at for the past year or so :)

So that pretty effectively brings us up to date! And even though surviving the first truly cold and snowy days may make us Coloradans... we will always be Texans first and foremost.

{... and add to that list}

So it would appear that I left someone off the list yesterday, who has something truly exciting in their future. My photographer extraordinaire friend, Tom Campbell, is going to have some of his photos featured on the October 10th episode of "Extreme Home Makeover". Normally, I would find news like this to be pretty surprising, but such is not the case with Tom. He's had the opportunity to photograph more than a few high-profile figures in recent years, and is an outstanding sports photog, so it was only a matter of time before the world took notice! So check him out on "EHM", and check out his photography at www.thomasandpenelope.com, and at www.thomasgcampbell.com. My links aren't working, just fyi... so be a dear, and copy and paste.

{i'm about to shamelessly plug my friends and family}

So now you've been warned.

It seems that there's been some exciting developments in the lives of some friends and family, and I'm just plain too excited to not share them all with you.

My cousin Hannah is one of those people so artistically inclined that you want to roll your eyes, but you just like her too darn much. Her scrapbooking days opened the door for her to foray into making all sorts of greeting cards. How would I describe these cards? Cute, chic, fun, unique, inventive, trendy.... take your pick. I love them, and I wouldn't be writing about them if I didn't know you would love them too. For those of you who may be in the Ft. Worth area, her cards are being sold at a boutique in Burleson called Abernathie and Fritz. The rest of us non-forthworthians can find them online at www.bananahannah.com.

Kristen Minor. You've heard about her before and odds are you'll be hearing about her again sometime in the future. We've all seen those Dos Equis commercials talking about the most interesting man in the world... well Kristen is easily in the running for the most interesting woman in the world. Last year, Kristen and her husband Matt took a trip across North America in their sidecar-toting motorcycle. Their journey roused so much interest that it was covered in the San Antonio news. They began an appropriately titled blog that chronicled their journey at www.bugsonmyface.com. Their passion for photography has now turned them down the underwater photography route, and being the fearless adventurers that they are, what did they do? Move to Bonaire, of course. They've now begun documenting their new home and photography on the same blog, and believe me when I say, it is a worth-while read. I've checked in and caught up on their life a few times since they left, and when I look at the photos they've taken, the whole room just gets sort of quiet. In my head, I can hear the enya-esque music from the underwater exhibit at seaworld. Truth be told, every time I read their blog, I'm reminded how indescribable God's creation is. I'm proud to call Kristen my friend.

And in news of friends of long ago... this just had to be shared. Before we left San Antonio, I was driving down the highway on my way to work one day and had my radio on KLove. A song came on that I hadn't heard before, but I liked it. I might have even said out loud, "I like this song." The DJ announced afterwards that the song was "My Help Comes From the Lord" by a band called The Museum led by Ben Richter. You can imagine my surprise at hearing this, since I went to school with Ben Richter back in my Castle Hills days. We hadn't kept up all that well, but I was so proud that an old friend of mine was using his talent for God, and to see the success that they were having. They have an album out that you can purchase on itunes, and as a closet music snob... I would recommend you give it a listen. AND... they had the opportunity this past Sunday to sing the National Anthem at the Kansas City Chiefs game. You can't tell me that's not cool. You can watch said performance at www.youtube.com/themuseummusic. Ben Richter and I sat together in world history in 10th grade... and I'm not saying I inspired his musical creativity, but I probably did. You're welcome Ben Richter.

So that's my exciting news to share in with my friends and family. I'm proud to know such talented people.

{why i love denver so far}

- I remember what August feels like in Texas. Today in Denver... high of 83 degrees.

- 3 Crate and Barrel locations to choose from.

- 4 parks within 10 minutes of where we live.

- Everyone's in great shape. It's inspiring.

- If the Rockies hit 7 or more runs in a game... you can get 4 tacos for a dollar the next day at Taco Bell.

- The visibility of mountains from anyplace in the city.

- Fat Sully's Pizza (see last post).

- The availability of hiking locations to work off all the pizza.

- Minimum speed limits signs.

- The fact that even though I already don't like the mayor, I can still make fun of the fact that his last name is Hickenlooper.

- The easy-to-navigate layout of the city.

- Farmers Markets.

- The fact that I know we've only begun to discover Denver.

{Fat Sully's... proof that God loves us}

I love New York.... as does anyone who is of sound mind. The reasons that I love New York are great in number, but close to the top of that list would have to be the pizza. I know there is a long-standing and epic battle over whether New York style pizza or Chicago style pizza is best, but I am unequivocally and unapologetically team New York. I don't even know that I've HAD Chicago style.... but I can't imagine a circumstance where it would be better than a hot, fresh slice of pizza, so big and so thin that you can't eat it without having to use both hands and/or fold it in half.

But be aware... there are many cheap imitations out there. San Antonio can boast only one authentic New York style pizza joint that I have found (Pizza Bella on Nacogdoches). So when we moved to Denver, I made it my own particular mission to hunt down the best New York style pizza in the city. The first week we were here, I ordered a pizza from one place, and I will admit, they were close. But the slices were entirely too small.

And then we found it... Fat Sully's New York Pizza. As a New York pizza enthusiast, I am about to make a bold statement. Fat Sully's New York Pizza has the best New York style pizza that I have ever had outside the confines of the city of New York, and I would even say that it's better than some of the pizza I've had IN New York. It is superb and as authentic as they come.

What makes it better than some of the pizza that I've had IN New York, is that it is made fresh before your very eyes. Even some New York places will leave a pizza sitting out all day and throw a slice in the oven to warm it up when ordered. At Fat Sully's, the dough is always flying about as they whip up fresh pizza after fresh pizza. I've included a picture to show the size of the pizzas as well. As their slogan states... they're "Big Ass Slices" (sorry mom).

But I haven't even told you the best part. $2.50 a slice. I rest my case. If you're ever in Denver... hunt it down, because you won't regret it. Unless you're team Chicago, in which case, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

{things to distract me from packing}

With our pending departure for Denver, my last day at work was over a week ago. Since then, I've been faced with a bit of a dilemma day after day of what to do with all of this time off. I could pack... OR I could do something else. It would seem that doing something else won out most of the time. And now I will show you the product of choosing something else besides packing.

One thing that I should know better than to do, is to go to Hobby Lobby when I'm bored. I go in on a mission, and then after about 45 minutes of wandering the aisles, I will almost always find myself a little project. But this time I had a good reason. If you'll remember, when my niece Sofia was born, I painted a little box for her with her name on it. Well now I have a little nephew on the way, and wouldn't it only be fair that he get something too? Bear in mind... I am not a particularly creative or artistic person. I assure you of this. My husband is the artist, no question about it. But this is actually pretty easy. The only supplies it took was a wall-hanging made of unfinished wood, a little acrylic paint, and a few paint brushes. And voila, a fun little art project...

I was also helping my mom throw a baby shower for Stefanie this past weekend. Typically when we throw a shower, my main job is to find a cake. For a baby shower, I thought it would be a fun change to do cupcakes instead, so I began visiting some of the cupcake shops and bakeries in the area. I was truly shocked to find that they have the audacity to charge as much as $3.50 PER CUPCAKE, even when you're buying as many as 2 dozen cupcakes at a time. I left the last cupcake shop annoyed, and thought to myself "I could make the cupcakes for much less than that, and probably do a better job." So that's what I did.

I used to make cupcakes in college from time to time, so I was a little rusty with my cupcake skills and had to get the hang of it again, but I had forgotten how much fun it is to decorate them. These were french vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, all with chocolate buttercream icing. The blue and green confetti are store-bought and made of sugar. I did, however, make the birds out of fondant. I'd never used fondant before, so I was pretty proud of these. I may just have to start making cupcakes more often.

All in all, I had a lot of fun distracting myself from packing... but with our move now only 2 days away, it can no longer be avoided. We've gotten a lot done, but we still have a lot to do. So next time you hear from me, I will be reporting from Denver! I will hopefully post a few pictures of the drive and our first few days there. So until then!

Cheers

{may... the abridged version}

We thought that once we'd made the decision about where we were moving, we could finally breathe a sigh of relief. After all... that was the hard part, right?

Wrong. If memory serves, I don't think we've had more than an hour to relax at home since April. I am happy to report though that we DO now have a place to live in Denver. I can't say that I've ever signed on an apartment that I've never personally laid eyes on, which under normal circumstances, would be a little unsettling... but we researched... literally... every apartment, townhome and rental home in the greater Denver area, and we feel completely confident that we've found the right one for us. Not to mention that it's double the square footage of our current apartment. That rocks pretty hard in our opinion. So once we are settled in, there will be pictures of the new place. We're very excited about it.

We have a few hopeful leads on the job front, but nothing set in stone yet, so if we had one prayer request in this whole moving debacle, that would be it. Pray that God opens up the perfect jobs at the perfect time.

We took our little anniversary trip to Canada, and it was a blast. It was relaxing and adventurous all at the same time, and it was completely different from any vacation we'd ever taken. I don't know about the rest of Canada, but the parts that we saw were absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, I suffer from a little affliction known as altitude sickness, so there were a few hours of repeated nauseousness as we drove up into the mountains to go horseback riding, but by that evening, I was feelin' good again. I know what you're thinking... you're moving to Denver and you get altitude sickness? I don't know what to tell you about that. We'll see how it goes.

I genuinely dislike downloading pictures to this blog because of it's dreadful slowness, and because there are so many, I will again employ the usefulness of redirecting you to a link where you can find pictures from the trip. Hope you enjoy!

We're about to take a very welcomed break from moving plans to celebrate Maurice's sister's wedding, and we're so excited to be a part of the joyous occasion. So until next time...

Cheers!