One of my favorite things...

I love books. I love reading. I love libraries. I remember my favorite gifts growing up were the books I received. When I was living in Castle Rock after college, I remember coming home from the library with 10 books a week, and reading them all before the end of the week. And today I got to go do one of my favorite things, I got my library card! AND I checked out 6 books! Not quite 10, but I've got to work my way back up to that number. :)

Yay for favorite things!!!

Springfield, CO

I was born in Springfield Colorado. It's an itty bitty town in the South Eastern corner of Colorado, population 1,302. I was born there and lived there for about 6 months. After that I went back just about every summer to stay with my grandma for a couple weeks. It was my second home growing up.

This weekend we went back to visit. Hubby had never been. He got to see my grandma's house, my cousins' houses where I spent all my time, the pool that we would hang out in when it got to be in 110s, the church we went to, and the drag we would drive every night. It was fun to see his reactions to the small town that I love. :)

On our way there I took pictures for my dad of some property. This is what the landscape is in Eastern Colorado; flat and dry. Thought the sun rises and sets are beautiful!

It's funny how when you've been gone for a while you forget how much you missed it.

Still alive...

Yes, we are still alive. Life has been a rollercoaster the last few months. And we still haven't come to a complete stop. But after receiving txt from friends lately regarding my lack of blogging, I decided an update was long over due. Maybe this will also make regular updates a little less daunting. :)

On September 5th I gave my two weeks notice at TCV. Hubby and I decided to trust God and jump...into the wide open state of Colorado. We both felt it was time to be close to some family and mine family was the final choice. With much complaining on my works part about losing me, they threw me a party on my last day, September 19th. I know I'm going to miss all those smiling faces and the friendships built there over the last two years.

We spent the weekend packing and saying goodbye to our church. There were many tears and well wishers. Z&A woke up at the crack of dawn Monday morning to send us on our way. Along with "The Excommunicated Seminary Wives Tale" - the story of our time together the last three years. That produced laughter and tears. :)

Moving was quite an adventure. Mike drove the moving truck with me following behind in my car. And yes, I took pictures while driving. :) And Mr. Peanut kept me company. :)

Hubby driving the Penske truck, towing lil' blue... There's lots of pictures of the back of Hubby, I just can't help checking out his rear. ;)

After 12 hours of driving we stayed the night in Ogden, Utah. Tuesday morning we started the last leg of our trip, which turned out to be only 8 hours long.

Do you see the mountains???? We're getting close (or so I thought...it was still like 5 hours).

I got a little slap happy being in a car by my self for 20 hours...I liked the back of this truck. :)

As we cross the boarder of Colorado this giant buffalo greeted us.

And of course, the Budweiser plant was sighted from the road and pictured for my beer loving friends. :)

Finally pulling into Denver with massive traffic, tall buildings and the home of the best football team ever. :)

We had a good nights rest and caught up with the family some just to hit the road the next day with my mom and nephew in tow as we checked out apartments. We soon discovered that with the decline in the economy comes a much tougher apartment search. At just about every apartment we stopped as we were informed that you needed to have a combined income of three times the rent...what???? That's right. So, with Hubby working about 30 hours a week and me unemployed, we were out of luck. Thus came the basement plan! Yup, we moved into the parents' basement. Which I should tell you is an unfinished basement that use to house mice. Luckily my dad helped clean and sanitize it and we somewhat got our bed down the narrow stairs with a bit of maneuvering and we were set. It does get somewhat cold now that the chilly Colorado weather has set in, but we have lots of blankets and our own personal space heaters in each other.

Hubby is enjoying his job at the bowling alley even though it can be slow and boring. And I'm doing some computer/research/photographic work for my dad while I continue searching for a job. I am also helping my mom out around the house, taking her to Dr. appointments, and helping with my cutie nephew. He's fun to take pictures of too. :)

Isn't he just a ball of joy??? :)

After living in Colorado for a total of two weeks I headed back to the dreary city of Portland for some spiritual refreshing in the form of some friends and Women of Faith. I stayed with Kimmy in Salem and we made the treck to Portland every day to enjoy speakers, worship, laughter and tears. I know I grew in those two days and God tried to teach me yet again about patience and trusting him in all things. I keep trying to say to him each morning, "Okay God, I don't know where You're going today but I'm going with you."

Thus is the update on our lives. We are taking pleasure in the company of family. We are enjoying the beauty of the mountains and the fall colors. The cool air brings a promise of snow. And the holiday season around the corner has me excited as it always does.

This weekend it's even off to Gram's we go. :) Time to introduce Hubby to the town I was born in and the place I enjoyed my growing up summers.

Still alive

I promise, we are still alive. As I type Hubby and I sit at Starbucks using the internet, trying to find apartments and jobs. We did make it to Colorado on Tuesday night after about 20 hours of driving and a night in Ogden Utah...which was not all that nice. :)

I will try to update as life progresses, the problem being...no internet. :)

But life goes on and we are alive. Just thought you would all like to know! :)

We love and miss you all!
Love, Melps

What's going on?!?!

Life has been busy that last 2.5 weeks! We had a swim date with a 9 month old, we drove to Bellingham and hung out with my best friend from high school and her family, we didn't get the Massachusetts job, I got my hair cut...life has moved by quite fast. All that and the fact that our Internet is no more at the house has resulted in me not updating the blog. Sorry. Pictures will follow of all of that, but unfortunately I have to update at work and that makes it a little difficult. Soon, soon. I promise! :)

Belleque-Rogers Wedding

We made the 8 hour drive on Thursday/Friday to Montana for a wedding. Our friends Kris & Thomas' wedding was Friday night. We've both know Kris since she was itty-bitty. I think both Hubby and I babysat her and her brothers at one point. She met Thomas when she was living in Oregon. He is perfect for her.

Last night was the wedding. We gathered at the church that we all grew up in on a 90 degree evening. The wedding was beautiful and the reception (a lot cooler outside) was just as beautiful and lots of fun! There was sweets and dancing and sparklers.

Nick could NOT get the screen to go up after the slide show,
when he finally did get it there was applause. :)

Kris looked so beautiful!!!

Lighting the unity candle.

So much love

"You may now kiss the bride."

They couldn't get out of there fast enough! Married at last!

Listening to toasts

Cutting the cake

They were nice to each other with the cake

Asher was excited to dance!

They're so cute!!!

Father-Daughter dance

First Dance

Kris danced with all of her brothers. This dance was with Andrew.

This was with Nick, the older brother.

And Sam, the goof ball.

Sparklers were the favors.

We lit the sparklers in the parking lot.

They were trying to NOT catch Kris' dress on fire. :)

The bouquet toss

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Rogers! :)

Wedding Weekend

We are in Montana for the weekend. Our friend Kristine got married last night. It was a joyous occasion with lots of wet eyes and laughter. I'll post photos later. We're off to play games with Hubby's family!