California

Hello.....it has been too long. In fact it has been ridiculously long. My camera has been unable to download pictures for months now and it has made me a bad blogger.
I am living in California now. I get to help raise my niece and it is AMAZING! It is my favorite part of my life right now.

The Almost New Digs....

Today was a great relaxing day. Sarah, David, Siena and I went to my soon to be new house and hung out poolside. My housemate Kyra was out of town and told us to come on over and get a feel for it...ohh we did......
















....a few shots of the house, the views, the pool and the fun!

Re-Do On Life

Hello there. Crazy days that we live in. I am moving. I am leaving my beloved Leadville. I feel positive about this move. I am having a hard time wording my feelings but I am going to try......I have been blessed with so many opportunities and quite frankly spoilings in Leadville. I feel like I am no longer doing good things with my power there....see this is where it starts to sound super heroish....... It is the the one thing that has gone through my head though when considering this move.
I am realistically excited about about this move I suppose. I fear my down spiral which is o.k. I know it is there and I know I will make it through to the other side. It's the lonliness....the darn lonley feelings. I am moving to be with my family. My sister and brother-in-law just had a baby....a life changing....beautiful little girl. I weep just thinking and writing about her. I am so in love. She smiles, I weep, she cooes and I melt. I talk to her pushing the stroller...I swear I could hit a wall and not know it. She is my focus.
I am going to miss my roots, my adult made family that I have created in Colorado. That is scary and big and real to me. I make strong connections with people. My friends are my world. It is such a strange feeling....I am sitting here, in the dark, in my sisters house, while she and David make this great meal and my heart is breaking for a place that I haven't even left yet. On the other hand, I know that this is a good move. I know it is a posivite move and I am happy that I have decided to embark on it. That is my logical side....even emotionally I think it is an amazing step for me...the stagnation that has filled me as of late has left fear brimming over with self doubt and mind chatter. I am excited to kick out my crap and grasp on to my deep spiritual knowing that I have placed aside for a while. ....The universe only brings me good...I am safe!

EXHAUSTED

I don't have much to say...just trying to get back into the habit of writing again. Things are going alright here. I am having difficulties staying motivated to go to work...it turns out that I am VERY sick of restaurants right now and am screaming for a change. I have sent away for some information on a few schools on the front range and am excited to see what they have to offer me. I am looking into becoming a Nutritionist ...with the whole gluten thing it has become a huge passion of mine...add to the list of my passions....
I am also just wanting to be in California right now. I am really excited to get out there and meet my neice. She is beautiful and surrounded by love...can't wait!

Holy Crap

I can't believe it has been since October friggin 08 that I last wrote. Changes changes, always changes. Life is good. I am continuing my learning process about myself and surroundings...spiritually, socially and physically. Trying to stay centered yet let go some....how do you find the balance?
I am living back in my favorite spot in Leadville. I have GREAT views and neighbors. There are 11 dogs on my block...That is one side of the road between 4 houses. It is great. It keeps snobby people away. We all love it. We all help watch each others dogs too....so nice.
I am single and really liking it. Sam and I have remained good friends and really both want to stay in contact with each other. he is moving at the end of the month. I am very excited for his personal adventure to begin. Hopefully he can gain some clarity on what he really loves and what his true passions are in life. It's funny how alive he has become since we broke up. He notices it too. He was so bogged down by his past that he couldn't enjoy his present...he is starting to...YEA!! He is a beautiful man.....enough about him though.......
Having a great summer...walked out on my job that was eating away at my soul and making me cry daily....best move in a while for me. Took my buddy Emily with me..got new jobs at a popular restaurant in town. Making double to triple the cash and no responibility except to show up and waitress!!!! It rocks! Thinking about the possibility of living somewhere else....not that I am moving, but considering the possibility. Everything is open and I am free...I LOVE IT!!!!!

Days Off

Today was my first REAL day off in a long time. No one could call in sick or bored or just for fun or anything. It was blissful. I hung out all day. I sat in the back yard with the dogs and took some great pictures. It was the first day that I have been able to play with my awesome camera my mom got me. Soo nice. Here are some shots ..............

Rooms.....

More Rooms.......

Yippie Skippy.....

We rented out our old house today!! So happy that our plan worked. The renters want to move in on sunday..which gives us very little time to get all of our stuff out and clean the place. I am overwhelmed at the moment and waiting for the dish network guy to come hook us up. He will be here between 12 and 5...gotta love that. I have a few new pictures, but only of the living room. I won't post anymore until I'm done with each room...

This week, my friend and co-worker, Olga, passed away. She had a stroke a few nights ago and that was that. She left behind five children and a husband that hasn't worked in two months. They haven't paid rent in two months and I'm sure their are other bills too. It is so sad, so terribly sad. I went to the viewing yesterday at their house. I have never gone to anything like that before. It was actually pretty normal feeling being that Olga was just laying there in the living room. They couldn't afford a casket or embalming, so there she was, on a gurney, with everyone sitting around on the sofas. It was like she took the place of the T.V. for the day. Very few people there speak english and all were praying in spanish. Her sisters and brothers all came in from Texas and California. She would have loved to have comforted them...thats what Olga did, she took care of everyone. She was always beyond her limits which was frusterating to watch knowing that she didn't keep anything, time, energy or money for herself.
Pinche Olge, you will be missed

My sisters blog......

I was down and out on the computer world for about a week, about a week ago......I am back on now and I have some tome this morning to wander.....so I checked out one of my fave blogs. Sarah, my sister, wrote about childhood memories. My memories do indeed match hers. Using chunky peanut butter when we were out of tape to hang my cool posters in our room is a top one. Sarah also had a tape recorder which we used almost daily for a while. We would record ourselves, our cat purring and our dad snoring...which would always make us giggle and our laughter would drown out the snores and eventually wake our dad. He never thought it was as funny as we did. We also had a radio flyer wagon that Sarah would talk me into taking down the big dead end hill that we lived on. I would also take "the nerd mobile", my small big wheel type trike, down the same hill. I would get so scared that I would bail half way down every time. I still have the same reaction to speed and fear....probably why I have never been able to ski or snowboard.
Pistachio pudding facials I remember very vividly...do you remember how mad mom was at us?? She had a client over to look at wedding rings and Sarah and I were in trouble for being bad at dinner.....punishment was to sit at the dining room table and finish dinner, which included the pudding. Sarah told me to do it so I did. Our mom came in to introduce this woman to us and there we sat, laughing, with pistachio pudding dripping from our faces. There are so many more too...making perfume in our fort...climbing our trees and getting yelled at from my elder siblings for climbing THEIR trees....mine was the smallest and you couldn't really even climb it. They were our space ships.

Paint, paint, paint

We are going to start painting the interior of our new place on monday!! Jenna, the current owner, is a great lady and feels that the house is ours and we can do whatever we want with it. We brought all of the dogs over yesterday for the first time......they loved it. We hung out there for about 5 hours. We had our first guests stop over too...Steph, of course, was there and our new neighbors a block away that are good friends of mine. They have a 12 yr old and a 1 yr old...Turkey let Jade, the 12 yr old hold her and then chose to sit on her lap.....amazing!!! Akai barely even freaked out when they came over. We are so excited.
Tonight Steph and I are going down to Telluride and Ouray for a running race she is in. We are bringing Zucca and camping out tonight and hotspringing it tomorrow. It should be a lot of fun. We are going to stop at a friends house that just had sled dog puppies.......so steph may be coming home with a new baby!
I got offered a great job in town yesterday. Our local coffee shop proprietors offered me the job of general manager......seems to be my place to be these days......We are getting together on monday to discuss the details. I am pretty excited about it though. It is a block away from our house, it would be a day job, they are talking about benefits, paid vacations and bonuses! I just really feel like both Sam and myself are living the lives that we want....FINALLY!!!
Sam moved out here to work in the ski and food industry...and now he is running the food and beverage department at Ski Cooper. I moved out here to............well, I always wanted to live in a small mountain town...and I've been figuring out the rest along the way.

Patience......

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
pa·tience Audio Help /ˈpeɪʃəns/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[pey-shuhns] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
2. an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience with a slow learner.
3. quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence: to work with patience.

This is a word that has never been used to describe me by anyone that knows me. The 15th of September...close? yes...but yet so damn far away.
I am so excited to move into our home. We finished picking out all of our interior colors last night so now I want to get in there and paint NOW. I can't wait for you all to see the place...so beautiful.
Akai is a funny one...every time we have driven by the house she gets excited and starts sniffing like crazy...she smells the place on us...so she and I spent a few hours there a couple days ago. We threw the ball, marked up the yard, drank some water, did some people watching and even took a short nap. She likes the house and yard...she is the decider in the family.
First thing we will do to the house is add on a prison-style top to the fence. Ottis has multiple scars on his stomach from years of escaping fences. The only thing that has worked is to have a top that is bent in with chicken wire and posts. That should scare anyone from building on the empty lot next to us.
We are going to leave the exterior of the house the way it is until next summer. We have a few ideas for paint though....duh. I have a friend that is a Leadville history buff and she is going to check on the historic paint of this house...if we like it then we will do that..if not...reds, yellows and oranges...Casa De Fuerte. The House of Fire.
Must get ready for work now...the dogs are about to eat me.

YIPPIE!!!!

We signed the papers to start us off today!!!...we move in sept 15th!!!!!!!!

OUR NEW HOME!!!!

So, this afternoon Sam and I are driving over to Dillon to sign the papers for our NEW HOME!!!! We are doing a lease option until we sell our house...it is beautiful...we love it. Here are some pictures........



Here is the whole lot....the house, the aspens and the private parking where my car is (five spaces)
Close up of house...fun paint time!!
the view to town....
The back yard from the back fence
view from the porch...big yard

The Insides of Our Home

This is our living room
...another shot of the window detais....
The bay window
this is our front door/ mud room...equipt with hooks for coats and a basket for leashes....it has a cute round window in it too...Our office from the front door...

More Inside Pics......

This is our office/ formal dining when family is here/walk thru to every room.....
Duh......
This is the detail on one of our kitchen windows
The kitchen going out to the back yard

Kitchen facing the office

more pics.....

The One

Here it is...we absolutely love it. We are putting in an offer. It has everything we want. We talked to the realtor about different financing and living options. She said that we could rent our house out as soon as tomorrow if we wanted.....not to say that we are but it is a possibility. So, we could move into this house and rent ours out for at least as much as the mortgage and still have it on the market. We are also looking into a lease to own option with the owners of the house until we sell ours...for financing purposes. It is such a perfect lot...We can build a garage and have a HUGE yard for the dogs. It has a gas heater that we can switch to a wood burner with no problems and it has a claw foot tub. We shall keep you posted!!!!

Day Off

Wow...what a busy three weeks. I am so glad that the craziness of the 100 mile races is over. Today Sam and I are cleaning all the bad out of our house. I have been scrubbing the grout of all the tiles with a toothbrush and getting the muck off of the walls while Sam is industrial steam cleaning all of the carpet. The place is looking and smelling great, which makes both of us feel more confident about selling it. We have been looking at quite a few houses and are learning a lot about the process. We put an offer in on the first house we looked at, possibly a bit immature and impatient on my part...but I'm glad we did it...we have since terminated our contract due to a sketchy inspection and have seen the complete extremes of houses since. The market in Leadville is a funny one. Today we are looking at a CUTE little Nebraskan grandmas house on two city lots that is located a block from the main drag. It has original hardwood throughout. It is smaller than we have been looking at, but we are realizing we don't need much house space if it has the spaces we need and a HUGE yard.... This house is also quite a bit less expensive then the others. We have gotten some REALLY good ideas for yards and fencing too...so with the money saved on house space we can do exactly what we want in our yard. We are very excited for the whole process and thrilled to buy a home that we really want. I'll take pictures of the one we look at today with my new camera I got for my birthday.....thank you again mom and dad!!!