It's a Date!

We have a moving date!! If you've been reading this blog, you know that we were originally planning on moving at the end of July. Our friends even threw us a going away party on July 12th! Lately, they've been joking that they'll have to throw us another one. :) In other words...we've been waiting around for quite awhile now. I'll admit I haven't been quite as patient as I could've been. By the way, this is a photo from said going away party. Left to right, that's Ron, Shawn, Eric, and Mwila. :)

But early Tuesday morning, I got the phone call I've been waiting for. A lovely woman named Bea called to schedule our move. Within 15-20 minutes, I was given most of the information that we need! She did tell me to stop packing. (OK...if she insists!) The movers will actually pack for us, and she confirmed a little later in the morning that the movers will be here to finish the packing on Monday! Yep...this Monday coming up! And then they'll load up the truck on Tuesday and head out to Seattle! As I'm writing this, it's late on Tuesday night. That means that one week from right now...this apartment will be empty! The local moving company called me this afternoon to confirm our moving dates and final destination, and they also told me that they're sending someone over tomorrow morning (Wednesday) to do the site survey. Basically, this will let the company know how much junk we have to move. :)

My new friend Bea also put me in contact with a vehicle transportation company. We've decided to drive Shawn's car to Seattle, but his new company will pay to have my car shipped out. I'm not sure what date that will be happening (still waiting on a confirmation email), but sometime within the next week, my little Neon will be put on a truck and given a ride to Washington.

I'm a bit amazed at how quickly things moved once they got started! Now all we really have to figure out is which days next week Shawn will be here and when we're going to do the road trip (which I have to admit I'm looking forward to...we've never done a big road trip together, and I've never seen any of the country we'll be driving through!). Oh...and we still need to figure out what to do with our fish. :(

Denver Diner

Although Shawn and I enjoy hanging out with our friends, and even though I really am a night owl, we don't often stay out really late anymore. But last night, we decided to make an exception. After picking Shawn up at the airport, we stayed downtown, hanging out with a couple friends. But the true highlight of the night was our visit to the Denver Diner. The Denver Diner is a restaurant right on Colfax and Speer. I've only been there twice now, but Shawn has always commented that he thinks it's funny that this 24-hour restaurant actually has a 2:00am rush...just as the bars are closing. Compared to the drinking crowd, we got there relatively early, and by the time we left (after having "breakfast," around 2:30), the place was packed. I needed to use the restroom before we headed home, and this is really where my fun began. I'm going to attempt to tell the story, but I need to acknowledge that it's probably funnier when I tell it in person and can add facial expressions and motions. But I'll do my best.

First, I entered the bathroom to discover that there's only one stall, and someone was in it. As I stood there waiting, I was eventually joined by two other women, one of whom quite obviously really had to go (based on the wiggling/bouncing dance she was doing). After a couple minutes, the door to the bathroom stall burst open, and a very drunk girl in a short, strapless dress (with a cell phone tucked into the top of it) stood there. She kept one hand on the doorknob to steady herself, and she looked at the three of us with a vacant stare, swaying a little bit. I asked her if she was okay, and she kind of nodded and stumbled out of the way. Once I was in the stall, I realized she hadn't flushed the toilet, so I took care of that for her. I could hear the three of them talking while the super drunk girl attempted to wash her hands. The "dancing" girl said, "Honey, let me help you. Your nipple is showing." They were all still in the bathroom when I came out of the stall, so I attempted to head for the sink. As the next woman went into the stall, I heard her say "Oh, hell, I'm not going to bother shutting the door." I looked in the mirror...and sure enough, she was doing what she needed to with the stall door wide open. The first drunk girl decided at that moment that she was leaving the bathroom, so she opened the door...and anyone who happened to look in from the crowded lobby area could now see the open bathroom stall in the mirror. I attempted to shut the stall door with my foot while I washed my hands, and that eventually worked. Meanwhile, the girl who came in obviously in dire need of using the restroom began crossing her legs, bending over at the waist, and bouncing up and down a lot, "Saying, oh man this is bad. I'm going to pee my pants. This is gonna be so embarrassing." I thought that was the perfect time to leave the bathroom.

Once we got to the car, I told Shawn the story. We had to agree that watching drunk people can be really funny...especially when we're not drunk ourselves and can truly appreciate the absurd things they're doing!

Shawn's hike

A few posts down, I already told a little bit about Shawn's big hike last Saturday. He climbed Conundrum Peak, which is near Aspen. He tooks tons of pictures, which, frankly, make me wish that I would've gone! Actually, Shawn thinks that it's within my abilities (in other words, not too difficult for me), but he thinks parts of the climb would've scared me. There was snow in places, and there was frost on a lot of the rocks before the sun hit them. Frost+rocks=slippery surface! And yes, the thought of slipping off a rock and tumbling down a mountain does scare me. :) Here are some pictures from his day of hiking:

In moving news, Shawn called the relocation company today to let them know that I hadn't heard from the moving company yet. The relocation company then called me to let me know that the person who was supposed to call me and schedule the estimate has been out this week. That person will call me on Monday. I said okay and hung up. What I really wanted to ask is why they "assigned" us to a person who is out all week, when the relocation company knows that Shawn's start date in Washington is Monday? And if it's not okay for me to wait until Monday for them to call...what would they have been able to do about it at 5:00 on Friday? But anyways. As long as our current landlord doesn't kick us out of the Colorado condo on Tuesday, we'll be fine. It'll all work out. I just keep telling myself that. :)

Okay...maybe not

Towards the end of the day on Wednesday, Shawn let me know that the relocation company will be calling me. The first step in the process will be having a guy come over to do an estimate. I'm not exactly sure what this is an estimate of, since we're not paying for it. An estimate of how much space our stuff will take up in their truck? How much time it will take them to do it? Anyways, my impression is that the actual move will be scheduled after the guy comes to do the estimate. Shawn was told that the relocation company would call me within 48 hours. Considering how everything else has gone in this moving process, why am I not at all surprised that I didn't hear from them on Thursday?

Therefore...I'm assuming that we're not moving this weekend. :) At this point, I'm hoping for next weekend, which means we will have to miss the wedding in Texas we were supposed to be going to. I'm bummed about that...it would've been a lot of fun.

I did spend some more time packing today, although I'm lacking the motivation now to really hurry. The bulk of our stuff is packed, though. I mainly have our clothes and part of the kitchen left. I also went over to the school to have lunch with some of my former coworkers. It's always nice going there...people seem genuinely happy to see me, which makes me feel loved. :) Then tonight, I went downtown and had dinner with Shawn's mom. We went to a place in Cherry Creek that serves nothing but crepes, and it was really good! I had the "Poulet au Gratin" crepe, which is diced chicken with wild mushrooms in a white wine cream sauce with ementhaler cheese. And for those of you who know my picky eating habits well (Lis), yes...I actually ate it and enjoyed it...even the mushrooms! (Until, of course, I noticed that I was about to eat a mushroom, at which point I had to shove it aside. But if I didn't pay attention to a particular forkful and it contained a mushroom, I ate it.)

I was able to upload some pictures from Shawn's camera this afternoon, but considering that it's now after midnight, I think I'll wait until tomorrow to post any of them. (Sorry, Court.)

Busy Week

As of this afternoon, Shawn and I are still hoping that we'll be able to move this weekend! His official start date at the new company is Monday, so he was able to talk to Human Resources today and get things moving a little faster. According to the guy he talked to, we "shouldn't be surprised if the relocation company can get the moving truck here this weekend." Here's hoping!

In the meantime, I've been trying to get lots of things done here in Colorado while Shawn is working in Seattle this week. I've had the normal errands to run...grocery store, Walmart, library, bank, post office. I finally fixed a shirt last night that had ripped (on a seam, fortunately) a couple months ago, and I've slowly been doing more sorting/purging/packing. I downloaded and printed the voter registration forms so that Shawn and I can vote in Washington in the upcoming election.

As soon as we know for sure that we're moving this weekend, I'll have to call all the utilities...cancel/stop the utilities we pay for here, and set up all the new ones in Washington. I'll also need to call to change our car insurance, and I still need to finish filling out the paperwork that will allow me to start subbing as quickly as possible after we move. And, of course, I still need to finish all the packing.

I don't have plans for much else this week, so I will try to post some pictures of recent events later this week. We have pictures from Shawn's hike last weekend, and we also got the images from our photographer from the wedding! So I'll try to post some professional wedding pics later this week, too.

Recent update

Since Shawn took a week of vacation and stayed here in Colorado last week, we actually were relatively busy (or at least Shawn was). He managed to get outdoors and do something fun almost every day last week! I guess I just wasn't in the mood to post much, though, so I'll try to do a recap today.

On Wednesday, our friend Jarid came "up the hill" and he and Shawn went biking in the open space park near our apartment. They were gone a few hours and then came back here for lunch. The original plan was for them to go back out biking at a different park in the afternoon, but Jarid's bike broke somehow (something got bent...), so they ended up just staying here and playing the Wii all afternoon.

On Thursday and Friday we didn't do much. I think Shawn went out biking at some point each day. Shawn actually went to bed around 8:00 on Friday night, and then he got up just after midnight. He was out the door before 1:00am to drive to Aspen to do a big hike. I, of course, stayed home and began worrying around 2:00pm. And of course, I had nothing to worry about. :) Shawn called me around 3:30, saying he'd already left Aspen and was on his way home. The hike just took longer than I expected. And apparently the drive up to the trailhead took longer than even Shawn was expecting. He said it was a rough drive, even for him in his Montero!

Saturday night, we had plans to have dinner with Jarid and Sarah. Originally, we thouht we would go to Oktoberfest in Denver. However, with the combination of Shawn being tired, having to park really far away from the festival, rain beginning to fall, and walking right past one of our favorite restaurants, we all decided to have pizza for dinner instead. Afterwards, we went back to Jarid and Sarah's to play a little MarioKart before heading back up the hill.

And finally Sunday...we didn't do much. We went to church, and Shawn took a nap while I watched football. Actually, he woke up towards the end of the first quarter of the Broncos game and finished watching the game with me. We then just lazed around the apartment until it was time to take him to the airport. Hopefully, this will be the last time I have to take him to the airport on a Sunday evening to fly to Seattle!!

Pictures

For those of you who may actually follow my blog, I apologize for not posting more this week. With the sad news about my friend Jill, it's been kind of hard to do "normal" things. Her funeral is on Saturday, so please keep her husband, her family, and her friends in your prayers on Saturday.

Instead of posting new info, I thought I'd post those whale watching pictures I promised last week. Like I explained, Shawn and I went whale watching around the San Juan Islands almost two weeks ago. The day was absolutely gorgeous, and we did see some Orca whales. All of the following pictures are from that day, and the big, snow covered mountain you see is Mt. Baker. FYI...Mt. Baker is only approximately 11000 feet high, which is quite a bit shorter than a lot of the mountains in Colorado (where we have 53 peaks over 14000 feet high and 756 peaks between 13000 and 13999 feet high!!). Also, you can click on any of the pictures to get a bigger version.

One more update

I'll admit that I'm having trouble thinking of how to start this blog post. Nothing really seems appropriate right now. My friend Jill caught pneumonia on Tuesday night. She passed away at 6:30 Wednesday morning.

I know that many of you have been praying for Jill and her husband over the last week. Please continue to pray for peace, especially for Jill's husband, JT. He said that she went peacefully and was in no pain, but I can't even begin to imagine what he must be going through right now. Please also pray for all of the girls on the knot/nest who are friends with her. It's hard for all of us right now to have lost one of our own.

Rugby and Rocks

Last Saturday, Shawn and I drove from Seattle up to British Columbia so that Shawn could play rugby. It was the first time I'd been in Canada in years, and I'd never been to BC. We've agreed that we'll have to go back soon. The games were played in a small town called Delta, and it was only about 10 miles north of the border. We could see Vancouver from across the fields, though.

I'll admit that it felt a little strange to watch Shawn playing for a different team. This should be fun, though. It's a long explanation, but basically, this team plays for a harder/better division than Shawn's team back in Denver. It will definitely mean more travel to games, since some of their games are against Canadian teams. We've been told that they always play one game each season up in some town in British Columbia that's a 5 hour drive north of the border (in addition to the 2 hours it takes to get to the border). What's especially fun, though, is that this team does play a game in Denver every year, too, so we'll definitely have to travel with the team for that game! (Shawn's wearing #1, by the way.)

We flew back to Colorado on Sunday and didn't do much on Monday. On Tuesday, we decided to go rock climbing. We went up to Eldorado Canyon. We didn't get much actual climbing in, so we're actually hoping to go again on Sunday afternoon. The picture I'm including isn't the rock we climbed this time, but we have climbed it before. And it was the inspiration for the groom's cake at our wedding. :)

Update on Jill

When I wrote the last post about my friend Jill, everyone (her doctors, her husband, etc.) thought she probably only had a few days to live. In fact, when she and J.T. were first given the news last Monday, they were told she might only make it a few more hours.

However, as of today...there seems to be progress! The doctors have been able to begin draining fluid from Jill's tumor, and they've removed tubing that was preventing anything from getting into Jill's stomach. This means that the issue they were planning on correcting with surgery last Monday seems to have more or less corrected itself! And, even though the doctors had all agreed last week that there was no point in doing more chemo, Jill's oncologist has decided to come up with a chemotherapy plan to give her a shot at shrinking the tumor.

As J.T. said this afternoon, for someone who was supposed to only have a few hours to a few days a week ago, she sure has come a long way. I have to believe all of the prayers are working, so please keep them up.

Please keep praying for more miracles for Jill!! (By the way, this is a picture of Jill and J.T.)

Jill

Please pray for my knottie friend Jill. She was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer last October, just two months before her wedding. She and J.T. were still able to get married, but it was a simple, scaled back wedding since she was too sick to handle the big affair. For the last few months, she was still having some issues, but overall seemed to be kicking the cancer's butt. She had surgery in June to remove the rest of the tumor in her abdomen, and even though the doctors had to take her spleen, one of her kidneys, and part of an intestine, I was under the impression that they thought they got all of it. Jill then had another medical issue a few weeks ago, and they were planning on doing surgery this past Monday to correct it. However, before she went in for surgery, the doctor came in and told her they weren't going to do it. Instead, he let Jill and her husband know that her recent symptoms are indicating to him the "end of her life cycle." In other words, there's nothing else the doctors believe they can do for Jill other than to make her comfortable until she dies.

Jill and her husband J.T. are praying for a miracle. Please join us in praying for that, too. Also, please pray for strength and for peace for both Jill and J.T. I can't imagine how hard this must be for them. Jill just turned 25 in August.

New Apartment!

Yesterday, Shawn and I put down a deposit on a new apartment! It's the apartment that we actually chose quite awhile ago, but we've been waiting for all the paperwork to go through with Shawn's new job before we put any money down. It's definitely going to be a more expensive place to live than we're used to, but around here, I don't think we really had much of a choice.

The new place is close to Shawn's job, and it's across the street from a lake. The complex has a swimming pool, hot tub, and fitness center that we can use, which will be nice! Our apartment is a 2 bed/2 bath place, with about 1000 square feet of space! The kitchen is gigantic compared to what I've been living with for the last 2 years...so I guess this means I'll need to learn to cook! We also have a laundry room with a full size, side by side washer and dryer. I think it's a sign that I'm getting old when I get excited about having a full size washer and dryer! Our unit is on the top floor of the building, so no one is above us. It's also a corner unit, so we don't share any walls with other units, either, and we have extra windows for more natural light!! (And in this climate, I think we'll need all the natural light we can manage to get!)

In order to post pictures at this point, I'd have to post the link to the website, which also gives the address. In the interest of internet safety, pics will just have to wait until we move in and I can take them myself. Oh, and speaking of that...we'll be moving in on October 7th. Looks like we'll be staying in a hotel for at least a week or so, but that's not a big deal. And Shawn's new company will pay for it. :)

P.S.- If I actually know you and you're dying to see pictures of the complex, shoot me an email or a message on facebook and I'll send you the link to the complex website. :)

Whale Watching

On Sunday, Shawn and I went whale watching. I made reservations for us awhile ago so that we wouldn't be tempted to sleep in on Sunday morning. :) We left the hotel around 7:30 for the drive to Anacortes, Washington. The organization that we chose to go through is the same place that we used for sea kayaking a couple years ago. Once we checked in at their store, we drove over to the marina and waited to board the boat, Island Explorer 3.

We left from the marina in Anacortes and sailed through the San Juan Islands. The San Juans are north of Seattle, but west of Victoria, British Columbia. If you click here, you can see a map of the islands, and the inset map also shows you where the islands are in relation to the rest of Washington.

The entire trip was about 6 hours long, and it was beautiful! Not only were we able to enjoy being out on the water, watching the islands as we passed by, but we saw quite a bit of wildlife, including harbor seals and harbor porpoises. Our captain let us know that we actually did go into Canadian waters, but we eventually found a transient pod of Orcas!

Apparently, an Orca pod is normally only about 3-5 whales, and this one was comprised of 4 Orcas. There were 3 females and one male, and it was obvious even to me which was the male. A female Orca's dorsal fin is about 3 feet tall; a male's dorsal fin is about 6 feet tall! We probably watched them for about 60-90 minutes. It was amazing to see these creatures in their natural habitat! According to the captain of our boat, Orcas are an endangered species, so he couldn't take the boat any closer than 100 yards from them, but a couple times they came closer to us than that.

Shawn was able to get some pictures of the whales, but again, I don't have the cord here to upload the pictures. I'll post them next week, when we're back in Colorado. In the meantime, here are a couple of professional pictures! :)

Seattle Mariners

Tonight, Shawn and I decided to go see a baseball game! Neither of us had ever been to Safeco Field, and tonight, the Mariners were playing the Yankees. We had a good time! Almost as soon as we entered the park, I was struck by how similar it is to Coors Field. Makes sense...it was designed by the same architect, and the goal all along was to copy some of the features of Coors.I wasn't expecting there to be much of a game. Seattle is the worst team in the American League, and the Yankees, of course, are pretty darn good (although not really in the thick of the playoff hunt at this point...for the first time in 14 years!!). Seattle's lost the last 8 games they've played against the Yankees. And to top it all off...Seattle was starting a rookie who is attempting to make the transition from the bull pen to a starting role. This was Morrow's first ever Major League start, and in his longest outing in the Minors, he'd only thrown 82 pitches.

I noticed in the 4th inning that the Yankees didn't have a hit. This went into the 5th...and the 6th...and the 7th...and the 8th!! There was definitely excitement in the air, and I was really hoping that I was going to see my first no-hitter! Especially cool considering that this was in a rookie's first start in the Majors! And then...with 2 outs in the 8th inning...pinch hitter Wilson Betemit hit a ball over the head of Ichiro in right field for a base hit.

But we still had a great time. Shawn really enjoyed his garlic fries, and I think that the "Major League Mariner Dog" is one of the best stadium hot dogs I've ever had. I did take some pictures, but I forgot to bring the cord that would allow me to upload the pictures to the computer. I'll post them after we get back to Colorado!

Breaking News!

Shawn turned in his paperwork to Human Resources this morning and officially accepted the offer of employment! It just occurred to me that I don't actually know what his official start date is, but instead of being a contracted electrical engineer, his job title will now be "Systems Engineer Level Two." I'm told the "Level Two" part is very important. :-) Now we just need to wait for the results of his drug test and his background check to come back and we're all set to start making specific plans for the move. Assuming there's nothing he's been trying to hide from me, we're good to go!

Our Tuesday

So once again, I find myself blogging from the computer in the hotel lobby. I must say, despite all the perks (maid service every day, hot breakfast, treadmill, pool, and hot tub), living in a hotel is not a whole lot of fun. It probably wouldn't be that bad if I were going to work every morning, like Shawn does, but for me, it's a lot like being at home, except that I have to leave the room for at least a few hours every day so that the maid can clean.

Yesterday was our first day here. Not a ton to report. I got up and took Shawn to work so that I could have the car during the day. That's almost always the way we do it. Once I got back to the hotel, I had breakfast and checked email. I used the treadmill. Shawn was impressed when I explained that I did a 2 minute run/1 minute walk pattern for most of my time. I started later than I intended to, so I only went 2 1/2 miles, but that means that I actually did more running than walking!

I picked up Shawn for lunch, and then I spent a couple hours in the afternoon sitting in a park, reading. Yesterday was definitely the nicest day I've seen here in all the times I've visited. It was actually sunny all day! And even though it was only in the upper 60s or low 70s, I actually got hot sitting in the sun. After my afternoon in the park, I picked up Shawn again and took him to get drug tested for his new job. I warned him not to eat any poppy seed bagels that morning. :)

Last night, I drove with Shawn to West Seattle for his rugby practice. It's a nice part of town I hadn't seen before. And driving down I-5, I had a great view of Mt. Rainier, which is normally obscured by clouds.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. It's certainly not that I haven't had time...I just haven't been feeling like I have much to say.

However...Shawn did finally receive his official written offer of employment on Friday! We've been given all of the information about things like salary and benefits, and it all looks pretty good. There's even a very generous "relocation package," so we don't have to worry about moving expenses to get us to Washington!

This weekend, we haven't really gotten much done in the way of moving prep. We went to Shawn's team's rugby match on Saturday afternoon. Since he hasn't been at practice in awhile (and since everyone thought we'd already moved), Shawn didn't play in the A-side game, but he did get to play the B-side game. Afterwards, we went to Gibby's with the team for a couple of hours, and then we went downtown for a surprise birthday party for one of our friends. Her birthday actually isn't until late September, but everyone figured holding a party for her in August would be the only way we could ever manage to surprise her.

Yesterday was church and being lazy. We also went to Shawn's mom's house to help her move some things and to have dinner with her. Shawn went through his clothes to make a big pile for Goodwill. Today we intended to get up early and go rock climbing, but we ended up sleeping in instead. After going out for brunch, Shawn went out for a mountain bike ride. He's currently in the process of cleaning the gravel out of his elbow. And in about an hour, we're heading for the airport!

Before we actually knew that Shawn would be getting his written offer, we had decided that I would go with him to Seattle this week, so we leave tonight. We're actually staying out there through next weekend, so by the time we come back, it will hopefully be time to pack the last remaining things, put everything in a truck, and head out! I'll try to be better about posting this week, but I'll be doing it from the hotel lobby.