Married to an Engineer

I find it humorous when my married friends tell me about how their husbands try to fix things around the house... and ultimately they have to call a professional. You know what I'm talking about.

Well, on that note, our home was built in the 1930s and up until now no one has put an air conditioner in it. You may think that one wouldn't need A/C in Colorado... but that's not so true. It gets very very hot here because the sun is so intense that it really heats up the house. It gets up to the 80s in the daytime. Okay, I may have gotten a little pampered living in this great weather (and yes, I love the dryness of this state) - but the 80s is just too hot to be comfortable in when you're trying to relax at home. I've had friends in the same situation and they actually go to the movies or shopping just to be in a cool place for a few hours. Too funny... and kind of sad actually.

Thankfully we have an attic fan which pretty much sucks the cool air from outside (can only be done in the evenings and early mornings) and takes out all the hot air. Great invention - very cheap - but we needed something to really cool down our home and not just blow semi-cold air inside.

Well, here comes my wonderful husband with a funky blue spongy square and he completely wets it, sows it to our window screen and turns on the attic fan and wha-la - we have nice cold air coming in our home. But oh no, he was not done then. He nails wooden supports to our home, gets a random bucket and buys a pump at a garage sale.

The water that is pumped through the spongy square makes the air cool and it gets sucked into our home for a nice pleasant temperature. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but that's really all you need to know. Ahhhhh - cool air at last! All for only $9 instead of $250 for the official kind - Chris wanted me to mention that. HA!! :-)

See it for yourself - not so pretty, but it does the job.

Kinda quirky, huh? Despite the embarrassment of this device hanging from our window, I can say I married quite the inventive man. And for this I can say that I am proud of having married an engineer. My hero.

Our little graduate

That's right. Our little Chancho recently graduated from his obedience school with flying colors. We are so proud! :-) The best part is that he got to be around other dog owners and their dogs. At first he would show his teeth to anyone or anything that got close to him. By the end of the classes he was wagging his tail at almost everyone who wanted to say hello. The funniest thing about the whole class was that we learned very quickly that Chancho is a teacher's pet. Ohhhhh he loved it when it was time to learn. He would sit very still and stare at the teacher as she instructed the other dogs. He would stare and stare very still until she finally came to him (which seemed like an eternity to him). She loved Chancho because he would do anything to please her. He was probably the best behaved dog in his class (except at first when is was scared of everyone). We also learned that he's a teenager with very little patience. There was a little puppy in the class that would always hop around him in excitement. What did Chancho do? Show his teeth. Of course. He never did warm up to the pup. We also learned that Chancho is very stubborn (yes, mom and dad, just like me). He obeys when he wants to. We go for a walk every morning and before we go out, he choses if he's going to be good or not. He has surprised me many times how in that he doesn't pull the leash at all...and then there are some days when all he wants to do is chase the squirrels and birds and pull away he goes. Sigh. Yes, those are the days that are not so fun for me. That little stinker!
We are almost to the point where we can take Chancho to the park and let him roam around and come back when called. I dreamed of that day! It's going to be so fun to take him out and play fetch. We are also looking forward to the day he gets excited about water. Supposedly Viszla's love to play in the water. Not ours. Well, not yet at least. He's finally starting to gain confidence, so we'll see how long it take to make him the water loving dog he's meant to be.

Garden Update: Bad news: our peaches that were growing (yet still green) have been stolen!!! Yes, stolen by either those crazy birds or squirrels. Only two itsy bitsy ones are left. We also got our blueberries eaten by crazy wild animals. We are crossing our fingers that our strawberries, peppers and tomatoes will be left alone when they're ready for harvesting. Our apples are doing okay - we don't care if those get eaten as we have PLENTY and would prefer they get eaten rather than have to rake every day to pick them up off the sidewalk, street and from the top of my car.

Spring Blooms

Seasons...that's something I didn't truly get to experience in Texas or Florida. What a different story it is here in Colorado where things are very much marked by its season. Ski season is from around December - April. Rafting is generally from April - June. Mountain biking and hiking is around May - August. And the cycle continues. Chris has had to get accustomed to this as he was used to being able to mountain bike whenever he desired...not so much here.

I've also noticed how the seasons have almost orchestrated how our flowers bloom. Our beautiful red tulips emerged in late April and quickly disappeared. Then, suddenly, we had amazing lite purple irises dancing right next to our home. So fragrant and a joy to watch. The sun had their way with them, BUT low and behold our abundant roses in red, white and pink came into center stage.

All of our trees have bloomed in the same way.

All these things have really reminded me of God's plan and how every season happens for a reason. Things come and go in our life and we can choose to take something positive from each experience. I love the imagery of a symphony and how the director tells a story with the variety of instruments at his disposal. It's comforting to know that God is our director and we get to trust and lean on Him. Who knows what next season will bring... perhaps a few strawberries, tomatoes and bell peppers (our very first baby bell pepper is shown below).

Where should we start?

Well, we'll start with the basics. Chris and I got married in October of 2005 near Dallas, Texas. We decided we wanted to move from Texas to a place where we can explore our adventerous side and get a break from the heat. After considering several cities, God led us to move to Denver, Colorado. Soon enough we were caught in a huge blizzard (one of the cities biggest) - and then, of course, we got to play in the snow and begin skiing/snowboarding.



We've been here over a year now and love all that we've gotten to do. We've bought our first home, adopted our first dog (Chancho), rafted, kayaked, hiked, mountain biked ... and look forward to so much more (yes, like camping). So, back to adopting our first dog - he's become a huge part of our lives. Chris and I laugh daily at all the silly things he does. By the way, he's a Vizsla. We named him Chancho as a joke as the name means porky. As you can see by the picture below, that he is definitely not porky, he's very well built, slim and tall. His height actually makes him quite clumpsy though - which again, makes us laugh.

We also love having a dog as we are getting to know our neighbors so much more now. It's great to be surrounded by super nice people. A huge perk is that our neighbor is a great gardener and we get to benefit from his crops.

We are glad you will be joining us in our adventure and we hope to update you frequently.

On to the next adventure...