BAM

Yours truly installed a ceiling fan ALL by herself.  Didn't even have to call Dad (who was on Red Alert).  I watched this video to learn how to uninstall one, and after maniacally checking to make sure I had indeed turned the power OFF, I took down our old one and installed this bad boy we randomly spotted, and subsequently purchased, at Lowe's.

 And just in case you thought I was passing off a ceiling art installation as a fan that didn't actually work:

Mike did help me take it down and use different screws in the ceiling bracket.  Unfortunately the directions indicated to use the previous screws already in the housing box, which were crap and made the fan wobble.  NOT my fault.  So I consider it installed alone (but, in an effort to be full disclosure, Mike did help perfect).

I am Woman.  Hear me cuss up a storm while installing light fixtures, but appreciate my ability to follow directions implicitly.

Christmas Goods

So much love surrounds this oven!

EPIC Redeaux

We made quite the Cheese Plate haul in both Christmas gift exchanges this year.  We decided to put it to good use!  Thanks, everyone!

The Itch

I suddenly got the urge to be fantastically biz after we got home.  So I decided to follow the Art of Manliness' Maintenance Checklist.  And, because I have zero shame, I would like to show you what the coils of a fridge that has not seen a vacuum in almost five years look like:

After a very good vacuum and one lost (and after 30 minutes retrieved) Swiffer duster, Quivas' efficiency just went to Level: Epic.

Be glad I didn't show you the range filters.

A Very Quivas Christmas 2013

This is our new Clayton Christmas tradition started last year.  We get gussied, head to Via Toscana, and then head home to open presents by the light of the Christmas tree!

This year we added a very nice bottle of mead thanks to Meadery of the Rockies.  It was insanely tasty.  We'd been saving the best (and last) bottle from our 2013 Palisade trip for a special occasion.  This seemed appropo.

Wake Up Call

I woke up the day after my birthday (the day we were all headed to Black Hawk for a big birthday celebration) to a 3:30am phone message from Leslie.  I can write about it now (that I'm super late on updating the blog) without getting emotional, but at the time our worlds were rocked.

Tommy came out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth, and just fell over.  He was unresponsive, couldn't speak, couldn't move.  The ambulance took him to the nearest hospital, which quickly determined he had suffered a massive stroke.  They loaded him onto a helicopter to be taken for surgery at Swedish Medical, the premier stroke hospital in the state.  And they told Leslie to say goodbye then, because no one knew if he would make it there, much less into and out of surgery.

I ran to her house to pack her a bag and pick up her pup, and as people began descending upon the hospital, we were one of the many who showed up to show love to this incredible couple.  With hindsight, Tommy is doing just incredible.   He's regained his speech and mobility, he's slowly and surely recovering to his self again.  It's been inspiring to watch.  But it was a terrbile day as friends, helpless in almost every way.

We canceled the trip and remained in shock for most of the weekend.  The Groesbecks came over to spend the Friday evening, and that was when I cried.  I just couldn't believe this had happened: to someone we knew and loved, to someone so young.  It resulted in a group hug which Mike made less awkward with some sort of funny comment I don't remember now.  But I was, and am, so thankful for the life I have, and the friends I have in it.

Kona milked the evening for all it was worth; Max was just confused.

R Squared

Due to limited space in Sunny (a Taurus), this year I decided to do all of my Wetterling and Firethorn Christmas Gift Exchange shopping online on Amazon.  Not to sound like too much of a commercial: Amazon Prime is one of the best purchases we've ever made.  Free shipping, the option to gift wrap, easy organization.  And I don't have to do anything but click "Purchase".

And, you know...pay for it.

Anyway, I did end up spending quite a bit of money on gift wrapping due to not completing the task myself.  So by the time I started thinking of wrapping the presents under the Clayton Tree, my brain (and wallet) were starting to hurt.

So I gathered some items from the basement: an old dictionary and essays book, glue sticks, some butterfly stickers and paper that I'd purchased last year at Hobby Lobby for a project that never transpired, random blank tags, some cut up fabric from my crochet rug I'd hoarded because I loved it so much, and (this part is my favorite) some butterfly decorations that I'd randomly saved from Step Child's wedding because I have a thing for butterflies.

The road to hoarding is paved with "I could use this some day".

But in this case I was correct.

I then took the plethora paper bags I've had under my sink since birth...or at least since I moved here...including one from a 2007 meeting at the AmericInn in SLC, several TJ's, and some Christmas Bath & Body bags...

 And turned them into this:

 Yes.  That is a bow made of out plastic King Soopers bags.  Go on...appreciate.

The tags say "Meke" and initials for "Love of my Life" because that's how we answer the phone when the other calls.  I had the stamps from this project.

Book page wrapping.  More crochet rug fabric ribbon and yet another KS bow.  And a Mason Jar.  Because really, why the hell not.

Best part: the tissue I already had on hand (or grabbed out of Amazon boxes in some cases) thanks to learning to save every piece of tissue paper from every gift ever given maniacally (love you, Mom!).

So that brings the Total Cost to: zero dollars.

I also emptied out a plastic tub (because really who needs 27 pillows) so I can put all of the wrapping (besides the small square packages wrapped in book pages) accoutrement away and re-use it all next year.

Recycling FTW.

Glow

Kona loves to lay under the Christmas Tree/

Rough Go

We almost didn't have a tree-topper this year...

Star Chaos.

Guess Who's Back!

Comfy

Keebler spends so much time under my desk when I work from home that I finally put a blanket there for him.  At first he wasn't quite sure what to think about it...

Now he's just testing it's consistency.

Fall Comes to Quivas

Oops

These are actually over a month old...but at midnight one weekday night, we started hearing sirens.  Then we saw the lights.  Then we realized the house was on fire!  Not ours...the people across the street (who we ended up meeting at the Quivas Cul de Sac Pot Luck).  Turns out their breaker box exploded.  The firemen had to come back out 3 times because the fire continued to burn in the siding but couldn't be seen.  Craziest thing that's happened since someone crashed into our garage trying to get away from the cops (before we moved in).  Always interesting at Quivas.

1st Annual Quivas Cul de Sac Pot Luck

This's happening.

26 people later and, while exhausted, I feel the level of community on Quivas has reached a new level. And that level is: epic.

In Plain Sight

We have rabbit issues.

"What I Kept!"

I went through my sweaters.  That was freakin' EMBARASSING.  I kept what I actually wore and was able to fit back in my sweater cases (I'd had a pile on the floor of one closet for a year).  My friend Corrie took the massive bag, didn't judge, and instead sent me a photo of everything she wanted!

Made. My. Day.

The New Dave Ramsey

Kona is very into it.

How I Roll

I am tight with the guys at Laptop Hotline.  So when I called to ask if there was any chance we had an extra docking station, they snuck me one for my home office, and overnighted it to my house.  Add in the screen I found when cleaning out the crawlspace and I've gone aaaaaaaall Matrix up in heya.  

Appreciate.

Floored

I was really kidding about the Lakeside Property bit.  This is just unreal.

I told Mike hours later, the thing that hit me the most as we wondered if the flooding would stop, if it could reach the house, what we'd bring if we ended up being evacuated was: why do I have so much crap?!

There was a scene in an Amy Adams movie where, at the suggestion of the guy she ends up falling for, she pulls the fire alarm in her swanky NYC apartment to see what her fiance, and what she herself, would scramble to take "if the house was on fire".  It's easy for me to speculate, not having just lost my house to a river, or, like some people we spoke with last night, having a house I can't go back to because the infrastructure of my entire city is gone.  But as we thought about a list of what we'd take if we were told to leave, I was surprised at the lack of "stuff" on it.

That being said, all my legal documents and IDs are now safely stored in a fire/water-proof safe to be grabbed at a moment's notice.  And, we're discovering, fear is a formidable foe to a budget.

Who would've thought flood insurance might be a good idea.  In Colorado.  Where it's sunny 300 days of the year...