Is It Spring Yet???

From Mike:

Oh man, for some reason, I haven’t had time to write a blog! Well, actually, I’ve probably had more than enough time, just no energy…sorry! Anyway, this one may be a bit long, but here goes…

In January, we started reading through a book called Sacred Marriage with Heather and Daniel. The book is fantastic!! We both would highly recommend it to any and all married or engaged couples. The author looks at marriage from the standpoint of making you holy, rather than happy. It’s given us all a fresh perspective on how we approach various aspects of our marriages and it’s been really fun and enriching to read through and discuss it with such close friends. We get together (almost) every Thursday to go through the questions in the back of the book, and it’s been great!

On the 17th, Katey and Alex put together a Murder Mystery Dinner at their house in Centennial. It was great! Our particular mystery was called “Murder on the French Riviera.” We both got our character assignments and began putting together our costumes a few days before…I was the gardener, and Kelly was the hot young Scottish secretary who doesn't like wearing her glasses (that was actually in the character description the company gave us)! When all the guests had arrived, we immediately got into character and tried to show off our best French accent. The murder mystery was a bit confusing at first, but after awhile we got into the swing of things and the true story began to form in our minds. Unfortunately, the conclusion to the mystery was fairly anti-climactic, but we all seemed to enjoy ourselves, and decided that perhaps next time we would visit one of those professional murder mystery houses that host them for you.

Kelly also started working towards earning her second bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies in January. For now, she’s taking a Statistics class at Front Range (to fulfill a CSU core requirement), and a Human Development course at CSU, both are online. Aside from the math class, she seems to be enjoying herself and learning a lot, so hopefully that will continue as her course schedule gets more intensive!


Probably the most exciting thing that has happened since our last post is the engagement of my brother!! He had both my family and his (now fiancee) Amanda's family meet at Davidson Mesa (which has an amazing view of Boulder Valley) because that's where my parents got engaged. We tried to hide while he and Amanda arrived, but there is a serious lack of hiding spots up there! Anyway, he parked, walked her over to us, got down on one knee, and popped the question. It was great. We got the whole thing on video. Afterwards we took pictures and sipped champagne, then drove into Boulder for a celebratory lunch at the Olive Garden. Good show Bryan!

Later that night, we celebrated Carter’s birthday downtown with an Asian Fusion dinner at Ling & Louie’s, followed by dessert and drinks at The Tilted Kilt nearby. It’s always a good time when the whole gang gets together, and this was no exception. Though for some reason, most of my memories from that night involved watching Carter eat something with whipped cream on it…

Kelly and I started teaching the 5-year-old Sunday school class at church twice a month. It’s been so fun getting to know the regular kids and all their little quirks. I had never really worked with kids that age before, but it’s a great age! They rarely cry, they can talk, and they haven’t noticed the opposite sex yet…a far cry from most middle schoolers! :P

The first Sunday in February we went to Ben and Nicole’s annual Super Bowl party. Unfortunately, we were among the few people rooting for the Colts and drew a lot of jeers from the unusually large number of Saints fans there at the end. Oh well, it turned out to be a great game and we were happy to see the Saints win their first championship.

A few days later, we got the wheels moving on the next stop in our “Alphabetical Tour of the United States” by booking an Alaskan cruise! We’re planning to leave Seattle on Norwegian Cruise Lines in August for a 7-day cruise through Glacier Bay to various ports in Alaska…we can’t wait!

The following weekend I went to see “Wolfman” with Daniel and company for his birthday…the movie was actually a lot more entertaining than I was expecting! We went to Noodles for a bite to eat afterwards and then parted ways. It was a fun, but short, celebration followed by terrible misfortune. I went to my parent’s house to do our taxes afterwards and got some shocking news. Apparently, we made a lot of money last year, and the government didn’t take out enough from our paychecks…so now we owe a truckload of taxes! Suffice it to say, we’re cutting back on a few things over the next few months to save up the money to pay it all.

In light of our tax situation, we decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day at home a quiet, romantic fondue feast. Kelly had me watch her all-time, favorite romantic movie, “Up Close and Personal,” with Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer while we gorged ourselves on yummy cheese fondue, steak, chicken, and chocolate-dipped strawberries and other goodies. Overall, it was a great night and a whole lot cheaper than eating out and going to the theater!

I know we’re not Catholic, but Kelly and I kept with tradition and gave up a few things for Lent. I gave up candy and watching “Family Guy,” and Kelly gave up tortilla chips and using the computer after work. I have a feeling this may be tough for both of us, but hopefully we’ll use the next 40 days to better ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. Please pray that we use this time wisely, and to the glory of our Creator!

Last week Nathan and Emily flew into town to see family, which meant Kelly monopolized a lot of their free time. It began Wednesday night with a CSU basketball game in Fort Collins, lunch on Thursday, dinner at Sushi Hai and drinks at Fado on Friday, and ice skating on Saturday. The ice skating was probably the most fun part of the weekend. Nathan, Emily, Beth, Carter, Lynnette, Kelly and I drove up to Evergreen because Kelly had heard from a coworker that you can skate on Lake Evergreen in the winter. It was awesome! The entire frozen lake was full of kids and families skating, playing hockey and broomball, and even a few ice fishermen! I got to show off my serious lack of balance and coordination while slowly sliding around the ice; desperately trying not to fall and humiliate myself. It was a blast, and afterwards we all drove into town for lunch at Beau Jo’s. Yum!

Tuesday night we had Kacy and Tara over for dinner. Believe it or not, it was the first time they had been to our house! Much to Zora’s dismay, they brought their two awesome dogs, Stewie and Champ, who are just about the cutest, sweetest, most well-behaved King Charles Spaniels you have ever seen! Kacy and Tara put on a show to demonstrate how well-trained the dogs are. It was so cool to watch them sit, stay, lay down, bow, shake, roll-over, and even do figure 8’s around Kacy’s legs…and they’re still only puppies!

Tonight we are going over to Brian and Angela's for dinner to meet her brother Brian and Brandi's new baby-- Bree. We are also gearing up for Hannah and Simon's wedding next week, which should be a great celebration!

I think that about covers it. I hope you all are blessed and well. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad spring is just around the corner! Until next time!