Here Comes the Sun

I think we are finally having spring here in Colorado.  Don’t worry, it is only April 28.  I never thought I’d say this but we have found a place with weather just as moody as Utah with worse drivers and more construction.  I know.  Blasphemy.  But it is true.  But we still like it here.  Luckily, we only have to go to Denver once a month and they just got the building plans for the Fort Collins Temple approved a month or so ago and just announced that Fort Collins is getting a Costco.  So some day, we will never need to go to Denver again.

Anyway.  We have been taking advantage of this beautiful weather.  We are both starting to bike to work (which saves on gas.  Yay), running in the morning is much more enjoyable, and we are going on more outside adventures.

Yesterday was an epic day.  

We got up early (5:15), and were successfully out the door by 6:00, and dressed and ready for the 7:30 session at the Denver Temple and it was awesome.  (But very very cold in there.)

After that, we drove up to Red Rocks and did a 45-50 mile bike ride around Denver.  It was awesome.  I say 45-50 because they had tons of construction on the trails which = detours and we got a little lost a few times.  But we made it and it was awesome.  The only draw back is that each of us thought the other had put the food in the camelbak = no food.  For 45-50 miles...let’s just say when we biked past a greasy spoon toward the end, I even thought it smelled good.  

We got to the stadium and realized how far north this ride took us and were amazed.  So there is Denver.

After that, we went to Costco, came home, washed the truck, cleaned the bikes (Derek) and kitchen (me), and watched a movie.  

And....we got very sun burned.  You should see the line on my legs.  We didn’t even think about it being 74 degrees for the first time and our shining white legs got the brunt of that one.  We definitely learned our lesson there. And I am such a sun screen nazi anyway, so I am slightly ashamed of myself.

Other good news.  

I started my Youth Outdoor Adventure Coordinator Position at the gym.  I have a stack and I mean a stack of climbing, mt. biking, hiking, backpacking, etc. books to go through.  I get to not only work on the 2 week camp, but my boss wants me putting together day trips, and doing outreach, designing marketing material for hte marketing dept. etc.  I am so stoked.  It is going to be so fun.  And, whatever trails, climbs, rides, etc. I decide to do, I get paid to go do them prior to taking the kiddos to ensure they are appropriate.  And then I get paid to do them again with the kiddos.  

This = awesomeness at its finest.

Derek is loving his work.  He is starting to get his own patients.  He has gone from fly on the wall, to assistant, to being mentored/watched, to his own patients while his instructor has different patients in  4 months.  They say he is way ahead of the game and his instructor and secretaries have been putting in good words to the boss men...

This = awesomeness at its finest.

Other than that, life is good.  Just taking it one day at a time and loving every second of it.

 Here are some pics from last week's adventure.  I just realized I never shared.  We went up to Red Feather Lakes so Derek could fish but they were all completely frozen over. Not what we were expecting.  So we bushwhacked our way up the side of a snowy mountain (without snow shoes because we forgot them) and it was awesome.

Panoramic shot from the top.

Simple Things

I feel like kneading bread is the adult version of playing with play dough.  I had this realization while making my weekly batch of bread.  (Can you tell I have been with children for the last 7 days?)

Also, what kind of nuts are in honey-nut cheerios.  I thought of that as I put honey on some cheerios for a mid-morning snack.  Thinking, ‘Hmmm...this is like honey-nut cheerios without the nut.  What kind of nuts are in them?’

Oh the simple things in life.

Baby Whisperer

Yes, I am a baby whisperer.

It is a recently discovered talent.  And no, I don't have a baby.  I am pretty sure I would have mentioned that one at least one time on my blog.

No, I am nannying for my sister while she and her husband get away in Italy.  They have three kids.  8, 3.5 (she makes sure we know about the .5 part), and 13 months.  It has been great.  I flew in to SLC on Sunday and my sister and her hubby left Monday morning early.

Anyway.  My sister's kids don't sleep or eat when they are little.  The 8 year old will sleep.  But she is a very picky eater.  But I can work with that.

I may still struggle getting the 3 year old to eat.  But that is okay.  She isn't starving by any means.

However, the baby boy.  Who doesn't eat that great without distractions and doesn't sleep through the night still....not true.  He will eat for me, take bottles from me (he just just just got weaned like a week ago), and drumroll....has slept through the night every night.  He goes down so easy and sleeps all night.  I don't know what it is, but I got it.  Hopefully my sister and her hubby will get to continue sleeping all night when they get home fro vacation.  Because they haven't had a good night's sleep in over 4 years.

Great News All Around

March sparked a new era for us here in Fort Collins.  

As you all knew, I was not liking the whole insurance thing-ma-gig.  So I quit.  I am not normally a quitter.  But I straight up quit.  And ever since that moment, our lives have been so blessed and infinitely better.

We are happier.

We are seeing blessings from our sacrifices to do what we know to be right.

We are spending better time together (the nicer weather may or may not be a factor)

We are making friends

Etc. Etc. Etc.

I run most days of the week with some girl friends I have made in my ward and it is super fun.  A few of them are training for a 1/2 marathon UP PIKE’S PEAK.  Yes, they intend to run up Pike’s Peak.  I told them I would just hike it earlier that day and meet them at the top for free.  But we have a really good time.

I have been working for my home teacher’s Home Health Company cleaning/being a companion for 4 older people.  And that has been great.  I nannied for a week for a gal in my ward and that was super fun.

But this week...drumroll please.......

I GOT 2 JOBS AND THEY ARE JOBS THAT I WANT AND AM EXCITED ABOUT AND DON’T MAKE ME WORK NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS!  (Okay, one might require a few Saturdays, but you will understand why I am okay with it).

I am the Youth Outdoor Adventure Program Coordinator for a local gym chain called Miramont Lifestyle Fitness.  I am so stoked.  I did what I have deemed “Pulling a Sven” named after one of my best friend’s husband, Sven.  He has the ability to walk into a place and say, “You need my skills.  Hire me.  And give me free stuff.”  

So I saw a flier for the program.  They weren’t advertising for employment.  I just thought, “Man, I wish I was a kid.  Hey, I know how to do all these things.  I should see if they need any help.”  So I did.  Mind you, that was in January.  I got hired on Thursday.  So it was a 3 month process.  But I got the job.  I got the job.  But, it is full-time seasonal.  From May-August(ish).  I say ish incase the program rocks so hard that we can keep it going with weekend events etc. during the school year.

Fingers crossed.

But even if that doesn’t work out for the fall/winter, it is okay.  Because job # 2 is working at Webber Middle School (which is less than a 5 minute bike ride from my front door) as a Health Tech.  Basically I am assistant to the school nurse.  And I work from 8-2:30 M-F and then I head over to the gym.  Once school gets out in May I am full-time at the gym all summer.  It is going to be awesome.  And if the gym doesn’t work out for fall, I have the school.  Hooray.  We are seriously so grateful.  Such a blessing.  It just goes to show that sometimes you just have to stick out the hard times and keep on trying and doing all you can.  You can’t let yourself get discouraged (although I assure you, I did), and you will get what you need in the long run.  Eyes on the prize.

Another exciting thing is that we are running the Colorado Spartan Race in just less than a month.  May 4.  We volunteered last year so we get to run it for free.  (Well $16.  There is a $11 insurance fee/person and a $10 discount for full time students.  So when you factor everything and and add in taxes.  It was like $16 for BOTH of us.)  I know.  Nice.  And one of my good friends, Chesley, is running it with us.

So today, was great.  We woke up at 5:30.  Went and watched the sunrise and bouldered a wee bit by Horsetooth Reservoir.  Then we ran to Troutman Park (by our house) and did Spartan Training.  This consited on a circuit that went something like this.

High knees over 12 benches 3x.

Hurdles over waist high fence 8x (my hurdles that means Derek hurdles and Katie plants her hands and jumps over)

Scale chain link fence 4-6x

Monkey Bars as many as you can

Climb up the side pole of the swings and traverse the top bar and slide down 1x

Pull Ups (or hang there if you are me)

Traverse parallel bars 1x

Slide under a cave, climb up play ground and go down slide 3x

That = 1 circuit.  We did it 3 times, but the cave part only once.

Then we ran to the gym, did power flow yoga with Danny (best Latin instructor man ever), ran home, showered and went and watched conference with Chesley and her kids.  It was an awesome day.

Easter

Happy be-lated Easter everybody.

I love Easter.  It is such a beautiful holiday where we can reflect of the miracle of the resurrection of Christ and all he has done for us.  I really would be nowhere without His guiding influence in my life.

This was our first Easter 100% on our own.

Our first Easter, we were technically on our own living in the blue house in Provo.  But we still spent it with family.  Not this year.  But it was good.

Church was great.  Derek sang with the ward choir and they were very impressive.

The weather was fantastic.  I feel like the past 5 or so years have been horrible weather on Easter.  But it was high 60's.  We went on 2 long walks, played in a park, and just sat outside and talked.

We had a feast to the likes of our household has never known.  We big time splurged.  (In that we bough Derek a rotisserie chicken.  Yes, he got an entire chicken.  Don't worry he didn't eat the whole thing yet.)

But it was great.  I made homemade whole wheat rolls, honey glazed carrots, and a baked sweet potato (for me).  Derek made the salad, mashed potatoes and gravy (for him) and had his chicken.  And to top it off, I made some vegan spiced carrot cake cupcakes and they were amazing.  I may or may not have eaten one for part of breakfast this morning and that is not an April Fools Joke.  You can find all the recipes to those on my cooking blog, delishbykt.

Hope you all had a great Easter too.

Snow Day

Well, our plans for this Saturday changed slightly.

We were going to go to Denver to go to the temple after I got done with work at noon.  However, we woke up to 6ish inches of new snow from over night and it was still snowing.  And knowing what we know about how well they don’t plow the roads in Colorado and how well people here don’t drive in the snow; we figured maybe the 70 mile drive to the temple wasn’t such a great idea.  (And yes, that is 70 each way.)  So pray for good weather so we can go next week and keep our commitment of attending 1x a month.

Anyway, after a morning work out and then 3 hours of light housekeeping for an elderly lady in Loveland, I returned to Derek making lunch.  How nice of him.

After that, we were ready for adventure.  So we busted out the snowshoes and decided to head up Poudre Canyon to a popular trail called Grey Rock.  (We figured the way would be well trekked out because this is one of the most popular hikes around, hence why we haven’t done it yet.)  So we get there and not a single car in the parking area.  Usually the sides of the road is lined with cars.  If this doesn’t bring a smile to your face?  What will?  Knowing we are going to be the only people on the trail.  That my friend, is awesome.

So we set off.  It seemed as thought at least one other person had been there that day.  So we just followed the footprints in the snow.  Unfortunately for us (and our snowshoes), there was only about 3-7 inches of snow on the trail (depending on the height of roots and rocks), so the snowshoes weren’t merited.  We carried them for roughly a mile or so and then decided we weren’t going to need them, so we stashed them.

It was awesome.  Really pretty views.  It started to snow again just after we made it to the top.  Perfect in every way.

After hitting up the store and having breakfast for dinner (aka eggs for Derek and smoothie and toast for me) we did something I haven’t done in a long time.  We built a fort in our front room and watched Shakespeare in Love.  (I have it edited).  Love that movie.  One of the few chick flicks I have ever made Derek watch with me.  And he was a very good sport about it.

All in all.  A good Saturday and a good snow day.

Tender Mercies

I must say, since moving I have been a lot more aware of the Lord's hand in my life.  I guess it is easier when life is harder.  Also, when you are not saturated by people of your faith like I was in Utah.  I guess there was so much I took for granted.

Like I posted earlier.  I was all set to be an insurance agent.  I paid for my study material.  I paid to take my tests.  I studied my brains out.  I passed my tests.  I paid for my license.  I started field training.  I made phone calls.  I set appointments.  I traveled a bunch.  I met with people in their homes.  I worked on memorizing my scripts.  I saw policies sold.  I saw policies not sold.  I was ready to actually start doing it myself with my trainer.

I was miserable.
Derek was miserable.
We never saw each other.
I worked nights, weekends (Sunday included.  But at least I could go to church first).
And I thought, 'This is not worth it.'

So I quit.  I quit before I ever wrote a piece a business which means I gave them a month and a half of my life and didn't get a dime.  I didn't even get my license payment reimbursed because I never wrote business...oh well.  When life deals ya lemons.  Sometimes you just have to suck on them and enjoy the funny faces you make.

So I quit and immediately blessings started to flow.  Instead of being the headstrong, independent, I can do it all by myself type of person I normally am, I let people know about our situation.  And guess what.  People will actually help you if you let them in.  Amazing.

Anyway.

We'll just say I believe someone has their hands in our lives.

We have strengthened testimonies of paying tithing and fast offerings (even when it hurts).  Literally, closed out a bank account that had a balance of $25.  Oh wait, $200.  What?  Selling text books for more than they are worth.  Getting reimbursements we aren't expecting.  Seriously.

Then there was this.

I quit Monday morning (2 weeks ago now) and that afternoon I had a ver part-time job from my home teacher.  I am a caregiver for his home care business.  I provide companionship and house cleaning.  The only problem with cleaning other's houses is it makes me have no desire whatsoever to clean my own house...oh well.

And I landed a bunch of interviews.  One of which I have already had a 2nd interview with.  So fingers crossed and knees bent that that one goes well.

Also, just today, a gal in my ward was like hey, my babysitter broke her arm and I know you are looking for work.  Would you like to babysit my kids for me?  So I will be babysitting for her 4 days a week now.  So that is awesome.  Motherhood training right?

And the best part.  Even though this is pushing us longer with no income.  We are so much happier.
Which goes to show that I have been right all along.  Money does not = happy.  I would rather be poor and happy and enjoying all life has to offer than rich and miserable, missing life because I was working too much.

All I have got to say is life is good.  Life is great.  When life brings you lemons.  Use them.  Lemon is great.  It helps with sore throats.  And has a wonder flavor.  And is anti-bacterial.  And makes you make funny faces when you bite them.  Just as lemons are super useful, so are trials.