Home Sweet Home- Our Chic Shoebox- Sprint Tri

Ignore my obnoxious commentary :)  But here's our new home sweet home!

So besides loving our place, I also love the common areas and courtyard at our building.  I grilled last week while Frank watched the game & asked for another root brewski....

And I love that a block away from us is the Platte River Trail that goes along the river on both sides, is paved, and avoids traffic.  It goes 12ish miles north from our place, and really far south from our place, but I just haven't gotten to its southern end yet :)  Frank and I have an hour long walk loop that we like, that has a midway relaxation spot on the rocks at the tiny sandy beach at a fork in the river.  Lots of parks along the trail. 

I just feel right here.  It's the perfect place not only for the Rover and my Chacos.  It's the perfect place for someone who loves to run, someone who loves to bike, someone who can't stand commutes, someone who likes adventures, and someone who likes clean modernity. The ward is a perfect small little ward with lots of wonderful young couples -an extremely supportive, diverse, & friendly group of urbanites.  Memorial Day weekend was fun.  I went over to a new friend's house Sunday night for a BBQ- I had met Jamieson at a boxing class I took.  She & her husband moved here almost a year ago from Michigan.  Had a great time, met more people, the California Turkey Burgers were a hit, sunned a bit, hung out & relaxed. 

Monday mid-day I went with two couples from my ward Brandon & Stephanie and Rick & Rachel to Stephanie's parents' house in Castle Rock for a BBQ and pool party then hike in Castlewood Canyon.  I got to chill poolside in my SPF 100 :)

Monday night Frank and I went to a friend Molly's house, a girl I who used to be in our ward but just moved out of the ward boundaries and who teaches yoga at the studio I go to.  Frank & their viszla puppy Penny had a play date, but Frank mostly spent the evening running from her while she (she's only a few months old) flopped and pounced around trying to get him to play.  Sadly, this is the only picture I took of the awesome weekend- oops- but it happened, I promise.

Miss you, Doug!!!!  Can't wait til you're out here & we get to do fun adventures, hikes, parties, & BBQs together!  Until then, Frank still struts around claiming to be man of the house.  He needs some humbling.... I apologize if this post seems a big discombobulated, but it was composed as various drafts over the last few weeks.  On Saturday June 5th I completed my first sprint triathlon, the Boulder Sunrise!  It was sad b/c Doug wasn't there to support me, but it was still a lot of fun.  Friends Joe & Tiffany came out to cheer for me and I met a new friend Morgan there, with whom we've planned to do more races.  I completed the sprint tri in 2 hours 6 minutes.  Middle of the pack-ish.  I'm cool with that.  I didn't do too well on the swim portion (open water swim in the Boulder Reservoir) but I made up for it by passing tons of people in the bike portion (even passing some men who had a 5 minute head start over all the women b/c of the different heats).  It was a fun new adventure!  Tagline of my life this year, right? :)

Here's a link to more pictures, of which I'll probably order one of the running ones.  I'm sad I can't find any of me on my bike!

The last session of the Ten in Six ended on Monday June 7th & the next one will begin on Monday June 14th.  All you ladies who want to jump on are more than welcome!  Check it out.  The last month or so, I've had a small but persistent little pain in my right foot, towards the outside middle.  It has gotten worse and kills when I twist or stretch my foot, but is ok when I'm just relaxing or moving around without much foot flex.  Therefore, running will be on a backburner for me for probably a month while that heals (probably a tiny little fracture), but stiff-soled bike shoes & biking don't hurt it at all, so I'll be hitting that workout up a lot more in the coming months!  Speaking of which, Doug's riding in the Trek 100 century bike ride tomorrow in Waterloo, Wisconsin.  Wish him good luck on Facebook!!  Good luck, Doug! 

And in the news department.....I have a new business in the works- hopefully I'll be posting more annoucements, website, etc. soon!  It's all I can think about. It's so awesome having a little spark of something to daydream about, watching that spark consume you in a huge blaze.  It's a personal training, boot camp, and race training business.  But yeah, details being worked out.  I mean, more details than my pages and pages of sketches, and 4 year business plan all typed out :)  But wait & be patient!  It'll be awesome......

Moved In

The apartment is 99% set up and I'm feeling great.  A whole week of sleep deprivation, box paper cuts, stubbed toe, and Mountain Dew and it's nearly home sweet home.  There are a few more finishing touches I want to put on the place before posting pics of it for you all to see- namely some fun bike mounts I ordered online that are supposed to be delivered today.  But here are the pics of the empty place I took right after we got the keys on May 14th but before we moved our stuff in May 15th.  I will spare you my lame commentated video :)

Doug, Matt, & Frank drove out the Penske truck wth all our stuff in it May 13th-14th and got here to Denver late the 14th.  It was soooooo good to see them!  Thanks for all your help, Matt.  We really really really appreciate it and had fun. 

The move-in on Saturday morning the 15th went well.  One guy from EQ came and two couples in our new ward that I've become friends (they're also new) with came to help and Stephanie helped me get the kitchen functional way faster than I would have on my own.  We found out the next day at church that there were other guys from EQ that had tried to come but couldn't find us (there were soooo many moving trucks outside our building that day w/ people moving in! :) ).  Everything was in within an hour.  It was great! 

Matt flew home on Sunday morning & then Doug flew back to Wisconsin on Tuesday morning.  Doug's in Janesville for a while and still working full-time at his job there b/c he hasn't gotten one out here in Denver yet.  So it's been a week without him again, though I've got the puggers this time.  He has a few things lined up and applications out and has been networking like crazy, so hopefully something soon will work out so we can settle in TOGETHER :)

To be continued.......... "Home Sweet Home" ........

Welcome to Colorado!

So the "Farewell, Wisconsin" and the "Welcome to Colorado" posts overlap chronologically, and we're technichally still in this transition, but not after this Friday! What what! :)

I already mentioned Doug and I got to play out here in Colorado April 14th-19th, before Doug flew back to Madison.  While we were here, we explored downtown, apartment hunted, checked out our new church (we tried to attend but doors were locked and a sign on the door said it was Stake Conference Sunday at the stake center-a different building), checked out my office, and hiked all day at the Garden of the Gods.  Here are pics from Garden, pic of my new office, pic of our new ward building, pic of our new loft building, pic of our new neighborhood, and pic of a cool run I did around Barr Lake in Brighton.

How have I been filling my time without my hubby, my puppy, or a place to call my own?  Lots and lots of hot yoga, running, cycling, and swimming :)  I am registered for my first sprint triathlon (750 meter swim, 17 mile bike ride, 5k run) on Saturday June 5th in Boulder, CO.  I  have been taking coached swim lessons twice a week in preparation for that.  I have been doing a bunch of hot yoga. I've been developing friendships with new people in the ward- including having gone to yoga w/ one ;) Yay!  Still haven't found a running buddy here, but I'm hoping I will soon.  I checked out 3 different running clubs.  I am just finishing up the second week of another awesome 10 in 6 challenge (http://www.teninsix.blogspot.com/).  I am trying to keep my mind off of spending tons of $ on decorating our new apartment :)  I am commuting into work 45 mins each way.  I am hanging out w/ Joe & Tiffany & their 15 mo old daughter Madison- the AWESOME people I've been staying with the last few weeks- gone to a family shin dig w/ them, walks, playgrounds, shopping, etc.  And I've been working LOTS of hours at my new job.  Let's just say, I should be wearing a firefighter uniform for how many fires I'm putting out in the office!  Cleaning up a lot of messes from former AFRs on the team.  Learning a lot.  One of the Wealth Management Advisors I work for told me the other day, "Da*#, Sarah, you know your sh*#!"  Which made me crack up.  Yup, I'm awesome :)  and I got told I was "fantastic" by the other WMA I work for.  Glad to see I'm being totally utilized and appreciated!  Definitely a million times faster paced than my old job- but I'm still afloat!

New Apartment

We got all moved into our new apartment on July 18th! Thanks to the friends who helped, it got done in just a couple hours, then it took us a couple days to unpack. Now it's home sweet home :)

It's Settled Then

Tuesday June 30th we are moving out of our place and putting all our stuff in storage. We are renting the garage of some friends in the same condo building we're moving into, so we'll only have to transport all of our stuff once- yay! Austin & Andrea are heaven-sent angels for sure. Then the evening of June 30th I'll be scrub-a-dub-dubbin' our old place. We are renting a room from the 30th through the 9th from another friend- Amy- who regularly rents out a room in their house and it just so happens to work out perfect that their current tennant is moving out this week- and it was cheaper than a few other options we had- but again thank you for the angels who all offered to let us crash at your home! Then we're going on vacation the 9th through 17th (Nauvoo, Utah, & California). Then on Friday July 17th through Saturday July 18th, we move into the new place!
I am so incredibly grateful that things have fallen into place so well over the last 5 days. It's going to be a busy and crazy month, for sure, but at least I don't have to worry about being homeless (still a shame Doug didn't want to camp w/ me for 17 days...muahhahhahahaha). I feel so blessed!

(These pictures just made me crack up- haha! I am so glad to already have two non-donkey and non-bicycle vehicles lined up to make the move go smoothy & quickly)

My Hot Date Night

It's been a low-energy frumpy kind of week. Nothing fun to post. Except my hubbie is amazing.

But while that amazing hubbie is at work all night, I have a really hot date night w/ this stud named "messy apartment." I'm not stepping out on my lawfully wedded, it's more of an open marriage and he understands.

First, "messy apartment" is taking me out on the town to Woodman's, this really fancy place to get something to eat.



Second, "messy apartment" is taking me back to his place to get down with the dirty.





Then we'll count our millions.



Then maybe if I'm lucky, he'll tuck me into bed early.

Bon Fait

Our office nook project is finished after weeks of hard work!

Whew! The main structures of the desks were freebies from the curb of two towers that are meant to flank an old entertainment center. Doug & my dad made the desktops & trimmed the bottoms. My mom & I sewed the covers. The main structures of the bookshelves were freebies from the W8s basement (thank you!). Doug and I put in vertical supports, turned them upside down, removed one of the shelves so it's a hutch, added L-brackets and extra screws for support, and added bulletin board material in the hutch area. Then it all got wood filler, sanding, and a dark brown coat of paint. And voila! A cheap office!

(we took the picture of Matt's autograph for his archives)

A Work in Progress

Last Saturday, Frank and I took a road trip down to Batavia, IL in the newly-operating Mater to pick up some freebie 20-yr-old bookshelves from Doug's parents' basement. It was a really hot but really gorgeous day in the wonderful sunshine! Yes, my left arm got a little pink, but nothing a Starbucks double choclately chip blended creme frozen drink couldn't cool down!!!!! (BTW, those are AMAZING! As is the Strawberries-n-creme. None of the blended creme frozen drinks have coffee in them.) Mater ran like a champ. Frank could barely stop panting, just stopped long enough to pass out for little naps. At Doug's parents' house, I only hung out there for like an hour with his mom, but we took the herd of four pups for a walk around the park and munched on some fabulous wild mulberries (definitely going to plant one of those in my yard someday). Got the bookcases loaded up with ropes and knots that would shame a boyscout, then drove home. And voila! I set to work! last night and today we put in the dividing veritical pieces of wood and we intend on using the bookshelves upside down. Tonight I'm painting them the dark brown to match the desks (fossil mosaic) we built last weekend.

I'll post the pics once it's finally done! The desks are so sweet :) I'm so excited to get all my books out of the boxes in our storage closet!

Happy Winter!

Frank and Mom, enjoying a snowy walk!

Frank and Dad, my 2 sexy studs! View from our back door & patio...

Frank's desicration of the pristine snow... can't pee with a leg lifted yet, though Doug's tried to show him how.....

Blizzard

Last week Wednesday 2/6 we got blasted with 14" of snow in a 12 hour period. Here are some pictures of our buried cars and itsy bitsy frozen Frankers. It took us about an hour or two to dig out the cars....and Frank was very worn out from watching all the hard work from the window! (Oh yeah, in December, we sold Doug's Audi S4 and then over the next month got 2 different cars in its place- Sarah got an Audi A6 and Doug got a Volkswagon GTIvr6. Then there's always been Mater- our Ford Ranger truck that currently doesn't run----hey hey, it's Wisconsin at its finest! If only we had a front yard to put it in and let the weeds grow to hide it....It's Doug's GTI that's buried! Darn snow! And it's snowing again today! :) )



Volkswagon on right, Mater on left

Hard workin' Doug! We waited until later that night when it was done snowing to dig out for the next morning. Doug's classes and work were cancelled the day of the storm.

All Dug Out! We threw a bunch of snow in the back of Mater so we didn't have to walk far with our heavy laden shovel...

All tuckered out!