One Year!

One year ago today I arrived with Nate in Colorado!!! I can't believe it's been a year already... so much has happened in the last year... we've moved twice, Matt started a great job that he loves, I got and got laid off from a job, we got married, welcomed a niece and are starting to settle into life in Colorado Springs. We are enjoying being much closer to California and it's easy to make the less than 2 hour flight back home (we still call CA home!) We've had family members visit and are looking forward to more friends and family coming this year. As I've said before, we would love to be back in California near our families, but if we can't be there, Colorado Springs is a great place to settle down. We are looking forward to the future all it has in store for us!

My Parents Visit

My parents came out for a visit for 10 days and just left yesterday! This was actually the first time I wasn't working when they visited, so it was great to spend so much time with them. They arrived on their 38th wedding anniversary so we took them out to Marigold's for a great dinner. Their first weekend here was a cool and rainy one, which was a welcome relief for me since we had recording breaking high temps right before they arrived. On that first Saturday we drove down to La Junta (where Matt attends clinic about once a month) and checked out Bent's Fort which was a post along the Santa Fe Trail. It was impressive and the re-creations were cool to see. On that Sunday we checked out some open houses, and found a house that was absolutely perfect! Unfortunately it was out of our budget at $1.3M, but in comparison to what that same house whould have cost if it were located in California, it was a steal! It was amazing, and the backyard was incredible too! I think my Mom could have moved in immediately!

Last week we went to the Zoo where we got quite a show from the animals. Many animals that are often sleeping were up and about. We got to the the tiger walking around and making noises, saw both grizzly bears up close and personal when one went swimming and the other decided to sit and pose for pictures at the window. Incredibly impressive and I hope that's the closest I ever get to one!!! Of course the moose was still sitting down... I've yet to see him stand and it's annoying! But then... we walk into Primate World where we come upon two orangutangs having sex!!! I'm not sure if they only have sex for mating purposes or if they actually do it for pleasure, but she didn't seem that thrilled. It was funny because we felt like we shouldn't be watching, but couldn't look away either! My Mom and I got hysterical when she just started throwing things back at him as if to say, "Whenever you're done..." It was a crack up!

The rest of the week we checked out Old Colorado City, ran some errands and just hung out and relaxed. Of course we caught the last 2 games of the Laker/Celtic championship. This past Saturday we took a scenic drive to Canon City and areas southwest of Colorado Springs. We checked out this pizza place that the Canon City website was the best around, and really it was the best pizza I've had in Colorado... too bad it's 45 minutes away!!! But then driving around and through the mountains, we saw some of the most beautiful and scenic landscapes we've seen since living here. Huges ranches on lush greens with spectacular mountain ranges in the background... so amazing and beautiful. We ended the day with drinks and food at the Broadmoor Bar. It's beautiful facing the mountains and we enjoyed a relaxing time. Such a perfect way to end their visit to us.

Our New Friend, The Fox

Shortly after we moved in Matt told me about the fox he saw in our backyard, but I had yet to see it... until today. This morning the fox came in the backyard, took a bath, did some stretches and then curled up and had a nice nap. He is really beautiful. Nate saw him from our upstairs bedroom window and surprisingly didn't get all worked up about him... but he did watch him very intently. Maggie and I left to run some errands and unfortunately he was gone by the time we returned. I'm really enjoying getting to see wildlife (fox, deer and occassionally bear!) wander around... especially being from Southern California where that is very rare. I'm sure he'll be back and I'm looking forward to seeing him.

Planting the Garden - Day 1

Matt finally got a chance to start planing the garden today! Even though it was still VERY windy, and pretty warm outside today, Matt really had to get the garden going. So he and Maggie headed down to the garden (I stayed at home) and got started planting.

He put in a trellis (on the left side of the picture) that he built for sugar snap peas. He put in the teepee poles (above the trellis to the right) for the cucumbers. Mini-greenhouses (the small green round plastic containers in the middle of the picture) are put over the peppers (green and red) to protect them from the wind while they are still small. And finally the "Walls of Water" (the larger green tube-like containers on the right side of the picture) look kinda like "otter pops" put together and act as protection for the baby tomato plants. I came down to bring Matt some water hose attachments and ended up being put to work helping him to fill each individual tube of the 12 walls of water we put in!

So today he planted: peas, eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, and pumpkin. Still to come are: corn, more tomatoes, more peppers, pole beans, summer squash, zucchini, tomatillos, carrots, onions (yellow, red, and white), garlic, leeks, broccoli and brussel sprouts.... he's got a lot left, but he got most of the time consuming structures and plants completed today so hopefully the rest will go more quickly!

Here's how the garden is progressing:

I Hope I Have a Green Thumb!

Matt's Mom, Maggie, is visiting us this week. I had decided that I wanted some sort of potted plant on our front porch at the front door, so today Maggie and I headed to Home Depot. She used to own a flower shop, so her knowledge of flowers is so useful to me... especially since I don't know anything about plants or flowers. We worked together and put this together, picking out the pot, the flowers (Calmis that will climb up the railing) and trailing plants around the edge. It turned out great and looks beautiful at the door. I'll try not to kill it...

Herb Garden is Planted

Matt is in charge of his huge plot at the community garden, so this year I chose several herbs to plant and am going to take care of the herb garden at the house. I do not have a green thumb at all, so I hope I don't kill them!!!

Some we bought as plants already started and others we bought as seeds. We got 3 pots and got them planted today! We have rosemary, basil, cilantro, thyme, garlic, chives and oregano. The cilantro was a bit limp when we planted it (as you can see in the picture below), but since watering and letting it soak up the sun, it's perked up! I can't wait for them to grow and to cook with them!

Large Pot - Rosemary (plants) and Basil (seeds)

Medium Pot - Tyme (plant), Oregano (seeds), Cilantro (plant & seeds)

Small Pot - Chives (seeds) and Garlic (actual garlic from the market broken up & put in soil)

Crazy Quilt is Up

Two Christmas' ago Matt Mom has his great-great-grandmother's Crazy Quilt framed for him. A Crazy Quilt is a collection of items and fabrics that women would put together to practice their stiching. He absolutely loved it, but since we lived in CT at the time, we couldn't get it back to the apartment. And at the time, we were still hoping that Matt could find a job in California. But we ended up in Colorado Springs instead and my parents were nice enough to bring it with them when they drove out in March. We were just getting ready to move in April, so we didn't do anything with it then. Finally we got the Crazy Quilt up today in the family room and it looks beautiful!!! I'm sure it'll be a conversation starter when people come in and see it!!!

Garden Update

Matt spent the morning over at the community garden getting his plot reading for planting. He prepared the soil and set up the borders according to his diagram. Memorial weekend is typically the time to plant here (May can sometime still be cold... we got a bit of snow just a couple of weeks ago!). He's also gotten some "walls of water" and "mini greenhouses" to help protect the baby plants from the windy conditions at the garden. These sit over or around the plants. Apparently wind is quite a concern at this garden, as we learned today. Gusts were up to 40mph all day, and if Matt had already planted the baby plants without any protection, many of them would probably have died.

Plot Before

Plot After

This afternoon we went to three different nurseries to find all the plants he needs. We bought corn, many types of tomatoes (romas, heirlooms, beefstakes, early girls, pineapple, brandy wines, yellow pears and a few more), red peppers, green peppers, brussel sprouts (I'm not too thrilled about these, although I've never tried them!), broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkin, beets, leeks, carrots, peas, pole beans, onions (white, yellow and red), cucumber, eggplant, and tomatillos. We also got a couple of herb plants that I needed for my herb garden: tyme, rosemary and garlic. We even picked up some cat grass for Nate so he doesn't feel left out!

Here are the plants we bought... Matt also has MANY packets of seeds to plant. He still has some of the structures to build for the pole beans and cucmbers, and then we are ready to go!!!

I'll update the blog as the garden is planted and as the veggies come in!!!

We Shopped Til We Dropped!

We did a ton of shopping for the house this weekend! Since our first guest (Matt's Mom) is arriving next week, I wanted to get some items for the house to get it more decorated, personalized and feeling more "homey". So we hit Gordman's, Home Goods, Cost Plus, Costco, etc on a mission to get a list of items I had made. We found some great items and got some good deals... large frames for wedding pictures on the mantle, candle hurricanes for the mantle, DVD baskets (finally... been looking forever!!!), Flour/Sugar/Tea/Coffee containers (using the remainder of our Williams-Sonoma gift card), guest bathroom accessories/shower curtain, a very cool gel kitchen mat... it was exhausting, but I'm so excited to get the house more put together.

Beautiful new frames (wedding pics soon!) & Hurricanes on the mantle

Containers from Williams-Sonoma

Our "gel" cooks mat... so comfy!!!

Finally... our DVD basket (more on order)

Guest bathroom accessories

We've also gotten a dobule curtain rod for the front room, sheer curtains, and then some new curtains on order. Once they come in, we'll put them up, and then our front room won't feel so "on display" to the neighborhood! I just want to get a few finishing touches and then we'll be set for awhile. It's looking beautiful!

We also decided that we want to turn our "fireplace room", a downstairs room with the only fireplace in the house that currently remains empty... except for the beautiful mantle items above, into a library room. So we want to get some nice bookshelves, some comfy leather chairs and a table. This room will take some time, finding items we like and buying them when we can afford them. But I think it'll be really nice, especially with a nice roaring fire! I can't wait to see and hear what our guest think of how we've gotten the house put together!

Go Sox!!!

Matt and I went to our first Sky Sox game of the season. The Sky Sox are the AAA team for the Colorado Rockies. We went to a couple of games last season and it was great. Tickets are cheap, the stadium is small, so where ever you sit, you are so close to the field! There are always great seats available, even if you just walk up to the box office.

The weather started out beautifully today... white puffy clouds, blue skies and temps in the low 70s. Of course, because this is Colorado Springs, the weather didn't stay that way. About half way through the game, the clouds rolled in, the wind kicked up and the rain started to fall. Luckily the rain didn't come down hard or last for long, but it's still very typical of here! After about 20 minutes of rain, the clouds moved on and the sun came out again.

The Sky Sox were playing pretty well... they got some runs off some errors the other team made. In the end they won 12-8. We left about the 7th inning when they were up 10-2, so they lost some ground in those last innings, but were able to keep the win.

Afterwards, we did more shopping for the house (more on that in another blog) and grabbed some dinner. A very fun day... looking forward to seeing some more games this summer, especially with friends and family! (We got their schedule on our new magnet below!)