Construction begins...

We filed last week for our permit to refinish our basement and this week we were approved. It cost $800 - yikes! (And that doesn't include the 4 inspections that we'll need at about $150 each!) It's a really good thing we're going to do most of the work ourselves! Today we are headed to the "Depot" to pick up STUDS! How exciting! I can't remember how many we need, but it's over 100 I think! I'll either be good and strong at the end of the day or sore and exhausted! I'm guessing the latter! I sure hope Tom is around when he's ready for the dry wall!!!

I don't think we'll go skiing this weekend, although Stupid-bowl Sunday is usually a great day to go because no one is there! Back to the slopes next weekend though - the snow is probably wonderful - they got dumped on this past week!

I learned this week that my bus to Denver (FREX) may either have their service reduced or eliminated all together. If this happens it could mean early retirement for me until I can find an "at-home" job or something in Castle Rock. I'm going to the hearing on Wednesday. There are a LOT of us who ride daily and even the drivers are really pushing attendance at the meeting, so hopefully we'll manage to keep the service or some version of it. I'm trying not to stress too much yet. But I'll be happy to take any prayers you can give to keep my link to the city running!

Off to move furniture and carry those "STUDS"!!! Happy Saturday!

What's in a Name?

Here are some fun questions that you can answer and share about your name :) Let me know if you play along!

1. What's your full name? Susan Lynn Jarger Schwarz - although I do not use Jarger (well except in my email address only because of my HS reunion.)

2. What do your parents call you? Sue but when I was little and they were mad, they'd start with "Eddie... Kathy..."

3. What do your grandparents call you? They probably called me Susan mostly

4. What do your friends call you? Sue, Boogs, but NEVER Susie - I would have to hurt someone if they called me that!!!

5. Do you like your name? I didn't like it when I was a kid, I even tried to spell it different ways to make it better - like Sioux! Now it's fine I suppose. It doesn't really matter anymore!

6. If you could change your name, would you? Maybe

7. What would you change it to? I've always loved Sydney!

8. Do you like pet names (sweetie, honey, babe, etc.)? Not really

9. Does it bother you when people use your middle name? I've never had anyone call me using my middle name!

10. Who named you? Mom and Dad

11. Are you named after someone? I was born on Easter Sunday, 4 weeks premature and I was suppose to be a male... they had no name for me for 3 days! After many suggestions they ended up with Susan, which means "Lily" in Hebrew - as in Easter Lily flowers! It sure beats Bunny!

I'm Banana's for You!

Isn't he adorable? I got these cute monkey stamps to use for Valentine's Day! They are easy to color and so fun! Then I found this striped paper tucked into a magazine I got from Australia almost 2 years ago. As I colored the image, I realized they would go nicely together. And the best part - the colors satisfied the Seasoned Survivors February Challenge! -- use the colors green, blue, and brown and a red heart! -- OK, so I'm a week or so early in posting for this challenge - when has that ever happened before? Try NEVER! But how could I not? It really made my night! OK Patti, I'll try to make something else in February as well!!

We're off work tomorrow - I'm finally taking my Christmas holiday that I ended up working. First we're headed to City Hall to get a permit to begin the construction on our basement. Now that Tom is in town, we're hoping he'll help Dan get that finished this Spring/Summer! Then we're off to the mountains for another skiing weekend! It sounds like we have lots of friends up there in Breckenridge this weekend! Hope we gets some fresh powder as well!

Have a fun weekend everyone!

What is a Blue Bird Day?

Blue Bird Day = Blue Sky Sunny Day

If you didn't know that, you must spend WAY TOO MUCH time inside!!

Blue Bird Day(s)

We headed up to Arapahoe Basin yesterday to ski with Tom and Melanie's friend Michelle and we were dealt an absolutely wonderful "Blue Bird" day! This was the first one this year and I was thrilled to ski in such lovely weather! It reached about 36, which is pretty warm for the highest ski resort in Colorado! We skied the back-bowls and front mountain and had an overall great time!

We were fortunate enough to stay up in Breckenridge overnight at Tom's place and early this morning we headed further West to Beaver Creek. Moira and her girls joined us for yet another amazing "Blue Bird" day! Today I jumped into the bumps, skied a few blacks and felt great at the end of the day! This was day 10 for me this season - yippee! Everyone agreed it was a wonderful day!

After a long car ride home, I'm headed to the couch to unwind and fall asleep!!

Where have I been?

Great question!!

Unfortunately my priorities were shuffled around these past few weeks and I've had blogging at the bottom of the list. Not only writing but reading other's blogs as well. I hope that as this month continues on I will find more time and energy to keep up the blog! Hopefully you missed me??!!

During the week I've spent most of my day working both at the office and after hours at home. And on the weekends, we've been going skiing! January 6th was Dan's birthday, so last weekend we spent up in the mountains of course! We skied at Vail on Saturday and Breckenridge on Sunday! It was great - lots of powder at Vail and I "jumped" into the back bowls! The doctor said, no bowls right away, but after 7 days of skiing previously I was ready! I'm still struggling with the "endurance" issue, but my knee is doing great otherwise!

We finally got our Christmas tree down this week, but I'm still trying to find the energy to put everything away in the basement! And once the snow is melted I can pull down the outside lights! Of course, by the time I find time it will snow again!

This weekend we're, you guessed it, skiing again!! We're going to hit A-Basin on Saturday and who knows where on Sunday! They're all getting lots of snow, so it really doesn't matter! The only issue we just realized is that it's a holiday weekend - MLK day. That means crowds. Yuck! I'd like to try up the (Beaver) Creek on Sunday - we'll see!

I'm anxious to get some scrapping done and some things posted next week. Keep your fingers crossed!!!