Friday, September 30, 2011

MEME (via cool guitar playing guy in England)

Stole this off of Rock Chef who stole it off of someone, who stole it off of someone.  How do these things start?    His answers were cooler then mine, but he's a guitar-playing-English-dude so what can I say.


Here are my answers to some random questions:

1. Name someone with the same birthday as you.   I can’t think of anyone famous, but a friend from nursing school, Denise, has the same birthday.  When we could remember we’d try to have lunch together to celebrate.



2. What has been your favorite age so far? I’m liking my 40’s.  I’ll like them a lot more when I’m done with my Master's program.



3. Where did you meet your husband? I was working in a dry cleaners when I was in high school.  Jason came in to be his friend’s wing-man, the friend was trying to pick up my friend who was also working there.  They never got together, but Jason and I hit it off.



4. How many children do you have? 2 boys -- they are my life


5. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people?  No, but I did read one of my poems in front of a cafĂ© crowd during a poetry reading.  It was one of the worst experiences ever.  I am not, nor will I ever be a public speaker.


6. What’s the first thing you notice about your preferred sex? Eyes, color doesn’t matter they have to look kind.  After that, looks don’t matter at all they just have to be smart and funny (I’m lucky to have the entire package, beautiful eyes, great smile, super funny –he makes me laugh all the time – and he’s smarter then I am)


7. What really turns you off? People being mean.


8. What do you order at Starbucks? Grande non-fat Hazelnut Latte.



9. What is your biggest mistake? Ooooh, so many.  The biggest right now is not taking care of myself, eating too much and not exercising.


10. As a child, what did you want to grow up to be? So many things, even now I’m not sure there are just so many things to do.  I always thought it would be fun to major in ‘level 100s’ and know a little about everything.


11. Say something totally random about yourself.  I have to have my feet covered when I sleep.  It’s a throw back to being afraid of the monsters under my bed…apparently my child brain thought I was protected by the sheet.




12. Do you still watch kiddie movies or TV shows? Only when I have to.



13. Did you have braces? No.



14. Favorite Social Network? Right now I’m really hooked on Pinterest.com  It’s a great place to ‘pin’ things you find on the web that you find interesting and you can retrieve the info later.  It’s social because you can ‘follow’ other people’s boards and see what they find interesting.  Not as much interaction as FB stalking or blog friendships, but it’s a great way to procrastinate.



15. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you? So many…I swear those nights when I’m dead tired and Jason does the dishes.  It seems like such a small thing but my ‘love language’ is acts of service  and for Jason to do that little thing it makes me feel loved and cared for.



16. When do you know it’s love? When you draw a stick line in Pictionary and the other already knows what you’re about to draw (Jason and I can’t play as partners anymore because people think we cheat)



17. Do you speak any other languages? Not anymore, Spanish was my first language (well bilingualish) but my parents stopped speaking it and I didn’t remember any of it.



18. Have you ever been to a tanning salon? Before my wedding, I wanted to get a good base going so I wouldn’t burn when we went to Mexico.



19. What magazines do you read? Decorating and Cooking magazines.  Someday I’ll have time to do those things again.



20. What is playing on your iPod right now? Rolling in the deep by Adele.  I don’t know what happened but somehow my Ipod and Jake’s (my 12 year old son’s) I-pod music was combined.  He’s not too happy about it because really what 12 year old boy wants ABBA on his play list.



21. Have you ever ridden in a limo? Yes, went to Mexico a company retreat and a group of us went into town in a limo, it was cheaper then using a bunch of taxis.  It wasn’t as glam as I thought it would be.


22. Has anyone you were really close to passed away? My dad.  I was nineteen.  I still miss him.



23. Do you watch MTV? No.


24. What’s something that really annoys you? Mostly myself. I need to learn how to shut up sometimes.

25. Which television show were you sad to say goodbye to? Big Love – my fascination with polygamy borders on obsessive.



26. Can you dance? Nope I have the girl version of white-man-overbite-syndrome (I take more after the WASPy side of the family rather then the Cuban side in this respect)



27. What’s your favorite place in the world? This is not a fair question.



28. Have you ever been rushed by an ambulance into the emergency room? No – thank goodness.


29. If you could meet anyone (dead or alive) who would it be? Also, not a fair question.  Maybe Jesus, I would like some clarifications and frankly would like to make some suggestions.

30. If you could change one thing in the world for your child, what would it be? I hope they have a world…..


Jason and I in 1986
Should you find these interesting questions and also want to answer them for random strangers I would love to see your responses, so let me know in my comment section so I can come by.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Boreas Pass -- Fall Foliage

Yesterday we took a trip to the mountains to see the fall foliage.  Colorado doesn't get that really pretty variety of color you'd see on the East Coast but we do get mountain sides of gorgeous golden Aspen and it's worth a day trip.

 Found some friendly horses in Como off of Hwy 285.

 Going up the pass, eastern part of the Divide.
This pass is a dirt road and closed November to June.  Might I add a warning ladies, if you decide to do this, wear a sports bra....just sayin'.

 Jason pretending he's falling off the side of the mountain.  He thinks he's so funny.
 At the top of Boreas pass, Continental Divide.  This is a section of the old railroad that originally went over this Pass.  We're at timberline.  It was a good 25 degrees colder then Denver.





 I will most likely never get these two to smile at the same time.  
 Most of my pictures are like this!
If only.....
 My hubby is so cute....
Before the railroad this was a wagon trail for settlers and Gold Rush guys....I'm so glad I'm not a pioneer...and now I know why my ancestors stayed in Denver...one look at that mountain range and I'd be saying, 'no thanks, that's fine, I'll stay right here thankyouverymuch!'.

I think he's smiling because his brother is not in the picture with him.  Maybe Christmas pictures this year will be two separate pictures of the boys.

 West side of the Divide.  On the way to Breckenridge.
And we ended the day at our favorite Breckenridge eatery, The Motherload.


Even though it's not quite in the 'city' it was Sunday, I linked up here:


Unknown Mami

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

My baby is NINE

 9/20/02
 Isaac and his proud big brother, Jake

 First Birthday and chocolate is still his favorite!
 Second birthday
 At Jose and Gina's wedding
 At my RN pinning ceremony
Vail, 2010

I can't believe how big he's gotten.  We're so proud of the little man that he's become and are looking forward to seeing who will be in the future.  

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Master Bathroom Remodel

The Before
I have no idea why the previous owners picked these colors and why oh why have carpet in a bathroom  -- and blue carpet.  It feels so unclean to me.  This was one of those, must look beyond and see the potential.  Okay this whole house was like that.  The master bath and the master bedroom were that on steroids.  The master bedroom had the same color, blue carpet and --I kid you not -- red moth eaten velvet drapes.


The After

It took about two years of living with the above and then about a year of working on it.  It was a combo of us doing things ourselves (okay, who am I kidding, Jason did all the work) and hiring out some of the other stuff.  Me? I picked the stuff out, it's really hard work, honest.

 We took the shower out and built a closet for the washer and dryer.  We made our bathtub a tub shower combo.  For us it was a much better use of space and it brought the washer and dryer from the kitchen to the second floor.  Yes, you read that right, the kitchen....did I mention this place was a major fixer-upper?

 This was my ten dollar buy at Lowe's.  Love it, with two boys and a hubby I so rarely get to splurge (and ten dollars, not really a splurge) on girlie things.  The big burly guys who moved in the washer and dryer loved it, one took a picture of it with his phone.  Whatever floats your boat, I guess.
 This skylight was already in.  The thing about sky lights in the bathroom is the steam collects way at the top and bubbles up the paint.  There's also metal holding the glass and it gets little rust dots.  Jason treated it and then put in some moulding, it finished it out pretty nicely and we don't worry about the paint chipping and bubbling any more.  I love my brilliant husband.
 I can't find my before picture here.  But it was two sinks and a vanity and it got so cluttered!  So we did two pedestal sinks and a cabinet.  I'm not going to show you the inside because that's where the clutter went.  We did put in two outlets in the shelves for hair dryers, tooth brusher, razors, etc.  That was my idea (see I did work on this project).  Jason did the wiring and putting in the cabinet, paneling and sinks.  He's handy.
 Funny story, Jason got a new toy for this job, a nail gun.  He got so nail gun happy with the paneling that he didn't realize he nailed the sliding door into the wall.  Oh were choice words flying there for a day or two.  He's still handy and brilliant though.
 Our washer and dryer closet.  We kept the shower floor in which we thought was a good idea until we realized that only one brand would fit into the space.  Next time we would rip it out and get one designed for washer and dryers.  Live and learn.
Jason built in some shelves for detergent.  Handy.
We also put a window in in the bathroom to get some more ventilation and light.  We put in a jet tub and subway tile...love that look.  The floors are eighteen inch dark gray porcelain tile.  We hired out the window, tiling, mudding and taping the closet and texturing the bathroom, everything else Jason did.  He's a saint.

So happy with it.

Linking up here:




 and here


here too