The Grunter

The other night I was sleeping peacefully and a sound woke me up.


I can only describe it as a grunt...

I opened my bleary eyes and tried to focus...

This is what I saw standing next to my side of the bed:



(Note: This is not a picture from 3ish in the morning, I am not together enough to grab my camera and snap a picture after being woken up out of a nice peaceful sleep.)

It grunted at me again!

I scooted my way toward the middle of the bed, he backed up, then jumped right up there next to me with his head on my pillow! We promptly fell back into a nice peaceful sleep :)

That my friends is what you get when you grunt on mama's side of the bed during the night....do that on daddy's side and the response would be a bit different...

P30X

Well I waited a few months for the requisite exercise/get in shape post. I thought you might appreciate that :)

Around the end of last year and the beginning of this year we decided to get our butts in gear, work out and eat healthier. This was not a New Year's Resolution, though it was that time of year. I decided not to post about it, because I didn't want it to seem like the standard New Year kick that only lasts a couple weeks at most.

So here we are 4 months into the year, I can't believe it is May already! I have to say that so far so good!!!! We decided to go with eating along the premise of Body for Life. It allows us to eat regular food and is easy to follow. We've been going to the gym, initially using the weight machines, bike, treadmill and a few other cardio machines. Then James and my brother were talking about P90X, my brother decided that you can commit to anything for 30 days so they challenged each other to do "P30X". I decided to do the P30X with James since we usually workout together at least some of the time...besides I'll try just about anything!

Life got a little crazy and we all got delayed starting for a week or two, but then we jumped in. We stayed with the Body for Life eating and started P90X we made it through the first 30 and actually enjoyed it! We didn't always make it through the entire workout (especially the abs) both due to time and energy, but I think it went pretty well. Along with this James has been doing Couch to 5k which involves run/walk intervals. I've gone running a few times, not as much as I'd like (hopefully that will change) and playing hockey. After the 30 days we decided to continue, we chose to change to Doubles which has us doing cardio in the morning on lifting days. Some days it works out, others it is just too crazy but still good...we are down to a few weeks left and we are feeling good! Can I just say that I love lifting weights!!! Sorry, I'm a little odd but it really is fun! We started off using resistance bands, but quickly realized that it wasn't going to get the job done, so we've been using the free-weights at the gym and are enjoying it!

James has started swimming again; he's been getting up early almost every morning to go to the gym to swim before heading to work, I am very impressed and proud! I am looking forward to the summer hockey season starting as I will be playing two nights!!!!! We are also looking forward to Warrior Dash in August!



As a side note, we are going to need new kilts (or fairly major alterations) for this year; these are just way too big on us :)

We are feeling good and enjoying our time together whether we are just hanging out or working out! I am looking forward to a wonderful, active and productive summer!

Spring!!!

I love when plants start coming up in the spring! It always amazes me that after all of the cold and snow; spring comes and plants start popping up! It is a beautiful sight to see flowers blooming, green grass and trees pushing out leaves; a great reminder of the blessings of life!

Last year we planted some bare-root strawberry plants and were excited to see that they took root and grew. Late in the fall they started to die back and go dormant, my wonderful in-laws brought us some straw that we needed to cover them during the winter. Somewhere around late March or early April we started to see green leaves come out :) and now this is what we have:

Strawberry plants!!!!! I hope they continue to do well and that we can get a decent crop of strawberries this year. I still need to build a cage for them in order to keep the birds and rabbits from eating the precious strawberries that grow, hopefully I can get that done in the next couple weeks.

We also started some seedlings to grow stuff in our garden this year (we still need to haul some more cinder blocks for that). So far they are doing well. We started seeds for tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet and hot peppers, cabbage and a few other things. Here are our 1 and a half week old seedlings:

This year will be mostly an experiment to see what grows well in our garden. As long as something (other than weeds) grow in it I will be happy :)

I have wanted to grow some herbs indoors for awhile now. However, our punk cat likes to eat anything plantlike that resides in our house (including pineapples). I am not opposed to growing herbs outside, except that it leaves me without fresh herbs in the fall and winter. I came up with a solution :) I got some hanging baskets at the Dollar Store and am going to plant them with herbs and hang them in front of our kitchen window. Jules could make it up to them, but hopefully will not. Right now I have the baskets hanging from the blinds until I can put the hooks in the ceiling, so I'll post a picture later. But for now, here are our little basil seedlings:

We had snow the other week, but the strawberries seem fine, we also planted some raspberries that seem okay so far. I am looking forward to some more home improvements this summer and hoping I can develop some sort of green thumb!

Soap Overload!!!

You would think that with only two of us, we would hardly have any laundry to do...but it seems that there is a never-ending supply. God help us whenever we have kids!

Thankfully my wonderful hubby does most of it. I usually fold and put most of it away or fold it and leave a nice supply of clean clothes on our table :D

Well, I've gotten sick of paying so much for laundry detergent. I've read several blog posts about making your own laundry soap and decided to try it. The final recipe is from a combination of the different recipes I read.

What you need:

1 cup of Washing Soda (Not baking soda)
1 cup of Borax
1 bar of Fels-Naptha Soap
a 5-gallon bucket
LOTS of Water

1. Grate up the bar of Fels-Naptha soap add to a pot with 6 cups of water.
2. Cook on Medium-Low until the soap melts (don't let it boil).
3. Add 1 cup of Washing Soda and 1 cup of Borax and stir.
4. Cook on Medium-Low for another 10 minutes or so (a couple of the recipes said to cook until it got thick -honey consistency- but mine never did and I lost patience, besides many recipes didn't mention it getting thick)
5. Add a gallon of HOT water to your bucket and carefully pour in your soap mixture, stir to combine.
6. Add hot water to your bucket until it is almost full (leave a little space so you don't spill).
7. Cover and let sit over-night or until cool. It will separate into a gel on top and liquid on the bottom.
8. Once cool you can either use an immersion blender to mix it all up....or use your hands like me :) just smush up the gel and mix it with the liquid as much as you can.
9. Take a clean laundry detergent container (or other container of your choosing) and fill it Half-full with your soap mixture, add water to fill up the remainder of the container, close and shake!
10. Shake container before each use and use 1/4 to 1/2 cup in your washing machine. I checked several places and found that this is safe for front loading washers.

So if you paid attention you've realized that this ultimately makes 10 GALLONS of laundry detergent!!!!!! We have been using it for a couple weeks now and are Extremely happy with it, it seems to work as good if not better than our previous name-brand detergent! WooHoo!!!

Now for the cost:
I got all of the ingredients (minus the bucket which we had and water) in the laundry aisle at Walmart:
Borax (box with enough for several batches) less than $3
Washing Soda (box with enough for several batches) less than $3
Fels-Naptha soap (1 bar) less than $1

Total is less than $7 for 10 gallons of laundry soap!!!

Okay, so back to the soap overload :) This is so cheap and makes 10 gallons of soap, even with our never-ending laundry supply it would take a lot of time to go through, so if you want to try it or have run out of laundry soap or whatever and live close....bring me a clean container and we will fill it half-way with soap (other half needs to be water) and you can try it out and help lighten our supply! I want to keep enough for a couple bottles, but that still leaves several gallons to give away.

Just so you know, the clothes come out smelling clean but no other scent, if you want a scent you can just add a bit of essential oil in your scent of choice to the soap container.

Yummy Veggies :)

I like vegetables, my husband likes vegetables and actually our dogs do too :)

Anyway, just because we like our veggies, that doesn't mean they have to be boring....

I went to the store the other day and got a lot of stuff, including some brussel sprouts. I know most people cringe at the thought, but give them a chance.

I cut off the ends and took off any bad outside leaves (there weren't many, they were very fresh) and cut them in halves or quarters. Then I mixed up some dry ground mustard, paprika, salt, pepper, minced garlic and oil; I tossed the brussel sprouts in the mixture I made and roasted them at 400 for 20-30 minutes (Sorry I don't know the exact time, cause I just checked on them every so often and would just add a little more time. I let them roast so they got a nice golden color and some of the outside and loose leaves were browned.

I planned to grill some chicken for dinner and thought they'd be a nice side, but I don't know if they will make it that long.....They are awesome!

Here's a pic to pique your interest, give them a try:

One Word.....

We missed church last week because I was sick. However, our pastor sent us the notes so we wouldn't miss out. One of the challenges was instead of the typical new year's resolutions (which most of the time get broken) was to come up with one word.

It is easy to think of things that I want to improve on, but narrowing it down to a single word was difficult. I spent the week thinking and praying and trying to determine what my word should be. It wasn't until we were driving to church in a heavy snow on slick roads that I committed to it.

The drive wasn't what committed me though, it was my husband asking me. I had been bugging him all week to tell me if he came up with a word and what it was, but he wouldn't tell me. Well, on the drive this morning he asked me; I said I wasn't sure yet. I finally told him that the word that kept coming back to me is "focused". However, once I said it, I decided that was it. I had wrestled all week long trying to come up with something else and I ended up where I started. I finally got James to tell me his word, but if you want to know you'll have to ask him :)

I am not entirely sure how my word will affect me, but it definitely gives me a lot to think about. I hope that when I get distracted by things in life that I can stop, think about what I need to be focused on and then follow through. Sometimes that may be the thing I was working on in the first place and other times it may be that I need to shift my focus somewhere else; but I hope that I will take the time to determine where my time and energy (my "focus") is best spent.

I think this was a great challenge and I encourage you to try it!!!

Happy New Year!!!

I can't believe it is already 2011

2010 went by way too fast, I guess that means I am getting old :(

We had lots of people up to our house for Thanksgiving this year, it was a great time with LOTS of food! It was fun to cook so much in our own home and have family and friends come to visit. We missed seeing those that couldn't make it, but enjoyed not having to travel.

Christmas was again a great time with friends and family! Each time we get together I am reminded how blessed I am! I couldn't ask for a better family, in-laws, extended family and friends.

I hope to be better at updating my blog this year :) we'll see if I can keep up with it; I apologize in advance for any ramblings that may occur in my attempt to do so...

Since it is much more fun to see pictures than just read, here is a pic of my new "toy"



It is my hope and prayer that all of us will have a wonderful and prosperous year!

Surprise Stop!

On Friday, in the midst of our basement cleaning, I got message from my brother-in-law.


I didn't realize I had a message until a few hours after he left it, but it said something to the effect of "We camped in Rocky Mountain National park last night and got rained on and since we are so close we were thinking of dropping by for a visit."


I called and said that hopefully I wasn't responding too late, and that I hoped they know they are always welcome and still planning to come. Ed said that they were still planning on it....YAY!!!!


They called when they made it to town and got to our house a little after 4. We came inside so they could relax a little and then my niece asked to go to the park. We usually take the kids to a big park in town, but it is a few miles away and requires driving. I suggested a small park a couple blocks away so they wouldn't have to get back in the car :)


It was a nice little walk to the park and ended up being a great spot! There were swings, slides and plenty of nice grass. I even snapped a few pictures with my phone:

James called saying that he was done working and almost home, just and we were getting ready to head back so we didn't get rained on. He beat us home by a couple minutes and Cordelia wasted no time running inside to surprise him!

Ed made steaks and corn for dinner and we had smores (made over the grill) for dessert! The kiddos got baths and everyone had nice dry beds! Ed and James played video games a bit and Rachel and I hung out talking.

It was a nice visit, and we are so glad that they were able to come by....such a great surprise!!!!!

Vacation?!?!?!

So we had been planning for a few months to go camping at Arches with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and were really looking forward to it! Fortunately James got work with both Boulder County and the City of Fort Collins for the summer (yay work!!!) unfortunately this also meant that he had too much work to be able to take the time off needed to go on this vacation. So although we are happy for the work and subsequent income, we were really bummed not to go camping with family.


I decided to still take Thursday and Friday off and tackle some of our basement cleaning. Once I mentioned this intent, my wonderful mother (aka. the cleaning and organizing Queen) offered to come up to help me. She promised to be nice since I take after my dad in regard to "stuff" as in I am a complete pack-rat! I like to do a lot of different projects and have all sorts of supplies and things to help me accomplish them all...even if it won't happen for 10 years :) I like knowing that if I need something that I have it and don't have to go out and buy something new.


So, my mom came on Thursday afternoon and we went to lunch and then worked downstairs for about 2 hours before calling it a day and making dinner. We then started up again on Friday morning and worked for most of the day. It turned out great, we threw some stuff away, made a trip to the thrift store with stuff to donate, found a couple things my brother could use and mostly just organized all of our (mostly my) stuff. Here's the result:

Isn't it great! Now we just have to finish the other half :) Which is not near as bad as this half was. We've worked on the other side before and it is mostly books that we are going through (we have ALOT of books, even double-stacked they don't fit onto our bookshelves). We've turned in several boxes to the used bookstore and have several more that will be going that route as well. Hopefully we can manage to cut down enough that they fit on the shelves we have. Ultimately I want to build floor to ceiling bookcases and make a library, but that will be sometime in the not so immediate future.

Thanks Mom for your help, you were GREAT!

It's been a busy few days, cleaning downstairs was just the start. I'll update more soon!

3 AM Alarm

So on Saturday night/Sunday morning at approximately 3 am OC (one of our dogs just in case you didn't know) barks. He has a loud bark anyway, but at 3 am when you are trying to sleep, it seems even louder. James yells at him to "Shut UP!!!" possibly other words were also in that mix :) I am pretty sure I yelled too, but probably without any added expletives.

Usually OC will settle down pretty quickly, but he was going nuts! Then we listen and you could hear a screaming animal sound. James jumps up and runs into the living room to look out the window, he leans on the chair which starts to recline and slams himself into the window. So I am not only hearing this crazy animal scream but also a yell from my husband trying to injure himself.

So I get out of bed and we look out the living room window and see out neighbor out there with a flashlight looking for something, and then he heads back inside. We opened the window and this animal scream is pretty loud and slightly terrifying. It eventually stops and James starts looking something up on his computer.

He plays something like this:






Oh My Gosh!!!!

Do we seriously have a mountain lion in our neighborhood?!?!?!?! I thought the sound seemed bad, but had not even considered that it might be a mountain lion! Of course our crazy dog decides that since he is up and we are up and he heard something outside that he should also be outside. Not gonna happen tonight!! Thankfully since the sound stopped, he wasn't quite so insistent on being let out.

We went back to bed and eventually fell asleep. OC passed out long before either James or I and I am not sure Baxter even woke up throughout the whole ordeal!

In the morning I looked out the windows just to make sure there were not any large cats lurking in our yard or trees before I let the dogs out.

We we fed the animals and headed out for church. On the way, James called his dad; both to wish him a Happy Father's Day and to tell him of our EARLY morning adventure. He left a message.

Just as we got to our pastor's home, Clyde calls James back so we wait outside while they talked.

James went through the crazy story.

Clyde (my wonderful Father-in-law) informs him that it probably was a fox, as they sound very similar but louder.

So we are feeling quite a bit better by this time. I know there are foxes around, but never would have thought they would sound like a mountain lion.

When we got home, our neighbor was just pulling up as well, so we head over to their house to see what they know.

She states a similar story of their dogs going crazy and her and her husband went outside with the flashlight. Sure enough, he found a fox in the middle of our cul-de-sac screaming its head off!

Apparently he chased the fox off and it went down the road and then came back, so he chased it off again and it stayed away.

Here's a clip of a fox screaming for your enjoyment. :) Not pleasant anyway, but even worse in the middle of the night:

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have pictures this time!!

Well a few at least...

We've been busy with yard work lately! We also made a trip down to my in-laws for Clyde's annual surprise birthday party to himself :) it was a great chance to visit with family and see our wonderful nieces and nephews!!!

So since we have mostly spent time on our yard, here's the update:

We shoveled out the old bright orange mulch from the front, cut down and dug out the roots of two aspen trees then planted some boxwood bushes, a contorted filbert tree and surrounded it with nice rubber mulch.

After several years of trying to get the grass to grow (or at least survive) in the front yard, we have decided to give up on it. We dug over about 5 feet from the driveway and reconfigured the retaining wall blocks to create a wall and a mostly level space in front. We are in the process of digging up the dead grass and some dirt from this mostly flat area so we can bring in sand and flagstone. Then we will have a nice little patio to enjoy in our front yard!!! Our goal is to have it finished by the 4th of July!

In the midst of redoing our front yard, we are also building a raised garden in the back. The plan is to build it three cinder blocks high and we are just about done with the first level! It's taking awhile to level the individual blocks. However, once the first level is done then it will just be a matter of getting more blocks and stacking them. Ultimately we plan to pound re bar in a few spots for stability and then put a wood topper around the whole thing. My wonderful in-laws are going to bring a load of horse manure/compost for us to add to the dirt so we should be all set for next year. We have started a few plants in pots that we would like to transplant into the garden this year if possible, but next year we want to go all out!

A few weeks ago we put up lattice on the side of our garage and planted grapes. The grapes are not looking so good, but I still have hope. If they don't work out, we'll try again next year.

We also planted hops rhizomes between the grapes. We have eventual plans to try home-brewing, so the hops will come in handy. The most exciting thing is that they are actually growing!!!!

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These are three separate plants, but they didn't have any real growth when we put them in. We are very excited for our hops!

We planted strawberry plants near our front door and they are taking off, we are looking forward to some fresh strawberries this summer! I will probably need to cover them soon since I think one (or several) of the local bunnies have been nibbling on some of the leaves. Also I would like to eat some of the strawberries that we grow and I know the birds like them too as would the bunnies.

Anyway, there's a recap of what we've been doing. I will try to update more often!

Hockey Playoffs!!!

So we played our first playoff game of the season last night and pulled off a nice win over the team ranked ahead of us. Everyone played a good game, lots of good passing and shots and a great job by our goalie! It is always nice to start off with a good win.

The local CHL team the Colorado Eagles got off to a sad start with 2 home losses in their 7 game series. They are on the road in Bossier-Shreveport for 3 games now, so we'll see how they do.

The Avalanche are holding onto the 8th spot in their conference to make the playoffs with 7 more games to play. Hopefully they can hold on and do awesome in the playoffs.

Have a wonderful week!!!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Happy Birthday to my Sister-in-Law, what a great day for your birthday!

Two years ago, my hubby proposed :) three and a half months later we were married!

Today was beautiful, nice and sunny I just wanted to play outside. Instead I worked inside from home. However, I did take a break to go pick up a corned beef at the store. I put it in the oven with potatoes, carrots and cabbage. It smelled so good that we had dinner at 4! Mmmmmm, I love corned beef and cabbage add a nice Guinness and it is pretty much a perfect meal :)

I have pictures of the meal, but can't find my memory card reader right now....hopefully soon!

I promise I will still post the scone recipes. I actually have an even better one than the others I told you about, but I'll post them all and you can decide.

Enjoy the rest of your week! I am going to try to get out and enjoy some sun before the snow comes back (apparently on Friday....blah)!

I think I am addicted....

To scones and lemon curd!

Since tea back in December, I have been wanting scones. My mom gave me a quart of buttermilk a few weeks ago so that I could use it before it went bad (she had no use for it).

Originally I was thinking that we could make overnight oatmeal (very good and easy by the way...you stick everything in a crock-pot at night and wake up to delicious oatmeal) because James likes to put buttermilk on it. However, we didn't have all the stuff and I didn't want to go to the store.

I remembered seeing some recipes for scones using buttermilk. So I've made scones every few days for the past couple weeks.

James liked the first recipe the best, they were not sweet at all so they paired nicely with the boysenberry jam we had. They held together well and were quite tasty.

The second recipe was a little on the sweet side, but initially I liked it a little better. James was not a fan of this one.

The third recipe, listed as "Irish Scones" is my favorite. In fact I am eating one right now :) They are a little sweeter than the first but not as much as the second, I think it is a good balance.

In the past I have always made flavored scones. It was fun and creative and included maple pecan with maple icing, blueberry topped with caramelized almonds, apple cinnamon with cinnamon icing and many others. Lately I've gone with plain scones, maybe with a little vanilla but that's all.

I have nothing against the fun flavored scones and enjoy coming up with new ideas, but.....

I have discovered the greatness of a nice warm plain scone with lemon curd spread on it. I've had lemon curd a few times, but had it again at tea with a nice warm scone. Thus my newest obsession!!!! Lemon curd had a nice lemon flavor with a slight tartness that tastes so yummy!

Anyway, just wanted to share. I will try to put up the scone recipes later if I have time and if you are interested. I got the lemon curd at the grocery store right with all the jam and jelly.

Have a great day!

High Tea

A couple weeks ago, I drove down to Denver to meet my mom and some friends.

I drove to my parents' home where I enjoyed some coffee and the company of my mom and dad.

Then my mom and I ditched my dad and went on to pick up Penny (we were celebrating her birthday), Gina and Penny's daughter-in-law Lola. We drove over to the Brown Palace. As soon as we got to the door, Lola recognized the doorman (not sure if that is his official job or title, but that is the best I can do). She talked with him a bit as we headed inside because it was COLD...not as cold as it is right now, but it still was nice to get inside. The hotel is beautiful!

We were there for the Afternoon High Tea! We each got to pick the tea we wanted and got our own little teapot (mom got coffee), then the food started coming. We got chocolate sea salt truffles, scones, tea sandwiches and all sorts of desserts. Gina and I also had a Prosecco Bellini, Lola got the Kir Royale...we even got seconds. Whenever we started to get low on food, or hot water for our tea they brought more. It was a great time to hang out with the girls and everyone at the Brown Palace was wonderful!

Here is the our group:

We even got to see the Eisenhower Suite (because of Lola's connections)!

It's Cold!!!

I'll try to put up some pics and a new post this week!

Right now I am cold! We got about 8 inches of snow this weekend and there is more coming.....

I'll keep the coffee pot going and try to get some work done so that I can post something more interesting for you :)

Semper Fi

November 10, 2009 marks the celebration of the 234th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Happy Birthday Marines!

Veteran's day is tomorrow on November 11th and I truly appreciate all those who serve, but I have a special place in my heart for the Marine Corps.

I spent about the first 18 years of my life as the daughter of an Active-Duty Marine (my dad is now retired from the Marines, but a Marine none the less). I would not change this experience although it was not always the easiest upbringing. I think this is why I am so thankful not only for our soldiers, but for their families as well.

If you know anyone who has or is serving, please thank them for their service. The freedoms we enjoy, even the freedom to disagree has been instituted and protected by these men and women.

Thank you to all of the families, your support of our servicemen and women allows them to do their job. Your service to our country in enabling them to protect our lives and freedoms is more important than we may realize. THANK YOU and GOD BLESS!

Thank you to all those who have and are serving. You have sacrificed so much to allow us live free, let us not take that freedom for granted. THANK YOU and GOD BLESS!

Here is a link to the GoDaddy site for the 234th Marine Corp Birthday

Here is the link to the "Warrior Song" for the Military

Working Out...

So at some point in time, James and I decided we wanted to get back in shape. Even with playing hockey a couple times a week, both of us are far from the strength and endurance that existed 10 years ago.

James swam competitively in high school and I ran track and trained/competed in Tae-Kwon-Do. Both of us were in great shape! So maybe that is why I feel that I have fallen so far.

Anyway, we've gone back and forth in the past and not really stuck with anything in regard to getting back into shape and a healthier lifestyle. I think what helped this time is that James wanted to get back into swimming and started things off, I decided to tag along.

We joined the Chilson Center in Loveland, which is the city recreation facility. It is reasonably priced, has good equipment and very important: it has a pool! We are loosely following the Body for Life program. Which means we alternate weight lifting and cardio six days a week and then have a day off. You are supposed to eat six meals a day with portions of protein and carbs about the size of your fist for six days and then you have a free day each week.

We've been really good about the exercise portion (it's been a lot of fun) and pretty good about the food. I have never been big a fan of diets, I like food too much, but this eating guide works fairly well. Meals are a little smaller, but still plentiful and we are usually full, plus eating six times a day is a lot! Mostly you are watching portions and limiting sugars and fats (did I mention we are "loosely" following this? I think James is doing better than me though), the best part is that there is a "free day" for food too! On your free day, you can eat whatever you want....Big City Burrito here I come!

Anyway, we are a month in and feeling pretty darn good :) James has been swimming some and attempting to teach me proper strokes (poor guy). I can swim fine at least in the ability that I am not likely to drown, but I like to swim underwater and never really worked on specific strokes. I love the water and we spent lots of time in the pool growing up and in the ocean, but not so much time on technique. James is a patient teacher with his crazy wife though and we are having fun!

I enjoy our weight-lifting days a lot. Chilson has lots of great free-motion weight machines to work all sorts of muscles. I feel good about the weight I can lift with my legs, not so much with arms, but I know I'll get there.

I'll try to let you know how it goes, but so far so good! I am thankful that we are doing this together, because it is good motivation when you have someone else to go with you to the gym and when both of us are trying to eat healthier.

One other cool thing is that Chilson has a "points program" going on where you get a card signed off when you go to the gym and you accumulate points that you can turn in for prizes. Most of the prizes are gift certificates to local restaurants! In a month we have received over $5o in gift certificates (that pays for the month's membership). The program only goes through this month, but it's a good extra incentive to get to the gym and hopefully they will start it up again in a few months.

King of Fruits

James had big plans for Vegas this year.

They included buying and trying the "King of Fruits": Durian

A few weeks before we left, he was watching a show on the travel channel and the host tried Durian for the first time. Apparently the smell was similar to rotten onions and stinky feet. Now doesn't that sound appetizing?

So after this wonderful description James looked up where you could get Durian. The closest place he found to our Colorado home was a Chinese market in Las Vegas. This market also happened to be located only 2 miles from out hotel.

So James and I along with our friend Shannan ventured to this market. It was actually pretty cool, there were tanks of live fish (to buy and cook..or not I guess) and bins of live crabs. I was laughing at a guy who was trying to capture a crab with tongs and put it into a bag to buy... I think it took him about 25 tries to get it in the bag. What can I say, I am easily entertained!

So we walked through the store looking at the interesting mix of normal food we see at the grocery store and unknown stuff with Chinese writing. We ventured to the produce department to find James' Durian. We found all sorts of fruit, but could not find the "King of Fruits" :( So we got some dragon fruit, jujube, star fruit, and a young coconut. Then before hope was lost (also before James would start to cry, although there was a slightly disheartened frown on his face) we found the Durian! It was in a freezer near the produce section. You would think that since the description of the smell was so lovely and the fact that it is kept in a freezer that we might be detered from obtaining this item; nope, not one bit. We decided to ask an employee if they had a suggestion on how to open the Durian, and the response was ".......no" with a slightly scared look on his face. I am not sure if it was due to a lack of understanding of the language or just thinking we were completely stupid to want to open this fruit. So with no assistance in this matter, we chose to purchase a small (cheap) knife so we could cut it open.

We left our purchases in our hotel room since we had the hockey game to go to, besides the Durian needed to thaw.

Late Saturday night when we made it back to the hotel, our tasting was to begin.

James was very excited to have his Durian:



He thought it smell a little like a melon, and even gave it a sweet little kiss:


Ready for dissection! I got volunteered for the honor:


Alas it is open:


It has a custard-like interior with large seed pods:


Shannon takes a whiff...


And a taste....not impressed

We have all tried it at this point, but James just can't throw it away and decides to go for round two...

A nice big piece, can he do it?

He's going for it!!!

And....

Nope, not gonna happen :) I missed getting a good picture of his gagging face (you'll just have to imagine it). By now the smell is very......ummm....potent! The taste is similar to raw onions that have been sitting out for awhile and the smell is a lot worse. We wrapped up the "precious" Durian and threw it in the trash: not in our room, not in the hall, not in the lobby but in the trashcan outside of the hotel. See we do have some common sense!

So if you decide that you need to try the "King of Fruits" do so at your own peril or at least that of your nose and gag reflex. It took a day for the smell to dissipate from our room, but the memories will last.

Vegas Hockey Baby!!!

Frozen Fury XII

This was the reason to go out to Vegas last weekend, not that I would mind going to Vegas pretty much anytime...

We showed up for the morning skate, just like we have the past two years. When we got to the rink the Kings were still on the ice, so we watched the end of their practice. When they started leaving the ice, we were all told by the ushers that we had to leave the rink. We sat down outside the doors waiting to be allowed back in.

An usher announces to everyone waiting that the Av's practice is closed and we will not be allowed in to watch and should leave.

Well, this is a familiar situation since it pretty much went the same way each year.

We remained seated on the floor to wait.

About 10 minutes later a supervisor (or at least someone in charge) comes up to the ushers and tells them that the Av's say to let the fans in to watch in about 15 minutes. So we hang out until they open the doors and let us in :) glad we know not to be too upset when they tell us that practice is closed, it never stays that way!

We watched practice, which was cool as usual! I just like hockey (even had fun watching the Kings practice). They had the front 12 rows or so taped off so we didn't get as close as usual so no pics, but it was still fun!

After practice we waited for the players to come out. We got autographs on another hat and on some pucks as well as some pictures.

James and I with Stastny, he might be sick of us by now since we have a few pictures with him already. Hopefully he can stay healthy this year, it will be exciting to see him play.



James and I with Smyth...It's a bummer to lose him to the Kings, but I hope he does well!



James and I with O'Reilly, he seems to be a good addition to the team from what we've seen so far.

Me with Liles, hoping to see some good strong defense from him this year. I think he's my favorite player right now, maybe I'll even get a jersey this year...

James and I with Koci, he is a big guy with some grit that the Av's need.

Jeremy and James with Weiman. He's been sent back down to Lake Erie, but a great goalie! Jeremy was excited to talk with him for awhile since he knows him from when he played for the Colorado Eagles.

I won't bore you with too many pics of the game, mostly because I didn't get any really good ones. Here is a pic during warm-up before the game.

Koci's fight!

Random pic during the game, but you can see Stastny #26.

It was fun to watch hockey as usual, but the reffing was awful! The Av's gave a good effort, but had to kill several penalties and deal with lame calls including a penalty shot. They ended up losing by one goal :( However, this was just pre-season and I look forward to seeing them kick butt this year!