Christmas with our 5 Grandaughters

We are so blessed with these grandaughters. They had so much fun today opening presents and playing with each other. We went to Christmas mass this morning and they were very good.

We are missing Rena, Nathan and the boys but we know they are having a wonderful time in Germany.

I have to work tomorrow but Dennis is off. The jobs are going well and it is getting easier for each of us but I am finding the training fairly stressful.

I have a cold and my voice is almost completly gone so I am off to bed early tonight so will keep this short.
Love to all, Dana

Christmas Fun in the Snow

Katya and Charlie had an absolute blast in the snow. We went sleding and playing in the golf course. What a beautiful day with beautiful girls.

Jobs and the Holidays

Well, Dennis accepted a job with a company in Fort Collins that delivers packages and he started yesterday! It's kind of a bummer because Candace and the girls are arriving tonight. (Their plane has been delayed for 4 hours so far---poor girls!) Then on Wednesday Brenda, Craig, Katya, Reagan and Elsie will arrive. At least we will both have the weekends off while they are here but neither us get the day after Christmas of the day after New Years off.
Dennis will be doing residential and business package deliveries using our own van. The pay is pretty poor and it will be long days at first until he learns the area. I have had two days of training at my new job. So far I am not very excited about it but I am trying to keep a positive attitude and hope I can learn everything and pass the tests.
It continues to be very cold here and there is still snow on the ground and we might get more this week.
We had a wonderful "open house" last night with our new neighbors. We even invited our landlord and his wife. They are so nice and most of the neighbors know them so it was extra fun that everyone got to see them. Dennis made his famous chili and tamales and I made a nice vegetable soup and of course we had tons of snacks and corn bread and cookies. It was quite a success and we are blessed to have very nice neighbors.

Surprise Visit from Goofy Boys

While I was working hard at Target this past Saturday, Dennis got a surprise visit from the Kirkland's. He had gone shopping earlier and had plans to make cinnamon rolls in the shape of a Christmas tree. So the boys got to help make them and eat them! They had so much fun and of course posing for pictures was fun too. And I got some left-overs when I got home. They were very yummy!

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Dennis and I went to mass yesterday for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It's interesting that in Corona they hardly every had "holy days of obligation"; they just combined the Holy Day with the next Sunday's mass. But here we were told that December 8th was a Holy Day of Obligation which means we as Catholics should try and attend mass. So, we went to the 8:30am mass and it was packed! All the school kids were there and they even had a children's choir and kids doing the readings. It was such a joy filled celebration honoring our Mother Mary who bore the Christ child. We really felt blessed to attend and I wanted to share it with all of you.
Love, Dana

Longmont Quilt Guild

It is hard moving to a new place and hard trying to get to know new people. I always knew that the first thing I would do is join a quilt guild which I did. It is a nice group but not the same as the Raincross Quilt Guild I belonged to in Riverside CA. This guild is very active, has speakers every month and does a quilt show each year. I joined just one month before their show and was able to enter 3 of my quilts. It turned out to be a great way to get to know people. Several of the ladies commented on my quilts which was so nice. I was also invited to join a small "art quilt" group which meets once a month. I have not been able to join them yet but hopefully in the new year. In the mean time I was asked to be a member of the "program committee" which I have said yes to. This committee plans all the programs, speakers and classes for the year. I am very happy to be asked and the first committee meeting is next week. One of the present committee members lives very close to us and has even offered to pick me up and bring me home after the meeting. Also, I ran into one of the other guild members at Walmart a few weeks ago and we chatted up a storm. Such a great way to meet people!

Winter Wonderland

Everything is white and cold!!! It was 0 degrees on my way home from work tonight!!!! What are we doing here???

Role Reversals

It is strange that I am working and Dennis is not. I'm not sure if he likes it but he has been great about doing "house" stuff. He has been doing all the dishes and most of the house work and laundry while I go off to my job. Yesterday he went to Home Depot and bought sand bags to weight down the van for winter driving. He also came back with a cute Christmas rug for the front door and some Christmas lights which he hung on our patio. The lights look so great because you can see them as you drive down 17th which is the main drag behind our house and across the lake.
The job at Target is going well. It's amazing how fast 8 hours goes by now that I am more familiar with what I am doing. I mostly do "pulls" which involves pulling flats around the store and stocking the items on the shelves. I carry a PDA so I can scan things and find out exactly where they are located. I also have been cashiering more. The policy at Target is that there should only be one guest waiting while another is being rang up. So all the time they call for extra help at the registers. It is hard to stop what you are doing and go to the front especially since I am still nervous about cashiering. I do fairly well but sometimes I get stuck and have to ask for help. My hours have been mostly the "mid-shift" which is noon to 8:30pm and I have been getting 35-40 hours a week. I would like the job a lot more if it paid better but I guess beggars can't be choosers. I will be starting my new job on December 15th and the learning curve will begin all over again --oh Lord, give me wisdom to retain all this new information!
Dennis has not had any luck on the job front. He looked into a seasonal job with FedEx but you had to have driving experience in the last 3 years. Crazy to think he drove trucks all those years and now someone won't even consider him. He also called about a job driving for a medical supply company and they may call when they have an opening. In the mean time he is still doing research about a drug-testing franchise company. Neither one of us is too excited about it but are trying to keep open-minded about the idea as it could be a good opportunity.

Ready for Work

Here I am ready for work in my red and khaki and with my "New Team Member" badge!

Working Woman Update

No, I did not say working "girl", I said working "woman"!

My job at Target is going good but I have to say working 3, eight hour shifts the last 3 days was tough. My feet are not used to it!!! The work is not hard and I really like my co-workers but I don't know if working retail is something I want to make a career of. I have been mostly working at doing back stocks and facing-up shelves. It is a good way to learn where everything is and I am starting to get more comfortable asking guests "Can I help you find something?" and not be terrified that I won't be able to help them. I am learning how to look things up on my PDA (I'm not sure what it stands for but it is the hand-held scanning device. It is super helpful! I am off today and tomorrow and then work from 5pm to midnight on Wednesday. On thanksgiving I work from 11:30 PM to 7:00 AM---that is going to be very HARD! At least I will get to have turkey dinner with Dennis. (Rena, Nathan and boys are going to see Candace and the girls in Hanford for Thanksgiving.) After Thanksgiving I will go back to working 12:00pm to 8:30pm five days a week.

But....in the mean time, I went and took an assessment test with an employment agency today for a customer support job with IBM. I passed the test!!! Yeah! I'm not getting too excited though because I still have to go through a 3 week training period with tests at the end of each week. It is my understanding if you don't pass each week's test, you are dropped. The job will be helping people who are having problems with their Intuit Tax software. Yikes, sounds scary, I hope I can do it. SO, I go for a orientation on December 7th and start training on December 15th. The training is paid and it will be M-F from 8am to 5pm. After that you have to be willing to work any times between 6am and 10pm. I hope I get the early shift..... The job will pay only a couple of dollars more than Target but the hours will be more regular with weekends off and it is only about 20 minutes away. So, I will most likely be quiting Target soon but I think i will wait until the orientation at IBM to make sure everything is a go.

I am babysitting the boys today because Nathan is out of town and Rena had to go to work. I had a great time taking them on a "hike" on the hill behind the house. We had a picnic of banana, granola bars and mints and we discovered some deer prints, some deer poop and found a really cool place in the trees to hide from people walking by. I told them the the place could be their secret fort. It was very fun!

We had a little bit of snow last Thursday morning but since then it has just been cold. Well, actually the last two days were not very cold. I'd say about 50 during the day and a little below freezing at night. It is now VERY dry--all the stores sell tons of humidifiers!

Dennis doing good being a house husband and still looking for job and business ideas. More on that later.

New Wall-Hanging Quilt

I started this little quilt with my friend Debbie before we left Corona. Debbie found the pattern in a magazine where you used coffee filters cut into quarters to make the fan shapes. It was a very fun project and nice to have it finished.

I used it for practicing my free motion quilting. I'm still not all that good at it but I'm getting better. I especially like how the quilting in the border turned out.

Then I added some embellishments to the quilt. Fun!

And now it is hanging in our dinning room. Thank you, Debbie for your inspiration in making this quilt. Now you need to get yours finished!

Fun in Steamboat

We thought Grant looked so funny wearing his dad's bike pack and drinking water out of the tube. We told him he looked like a Ghost Buster!

We visited some of the "springs" that Steamboat Springs was named after. Rena and I rode out bikes to most of them the day before and then we took the guys the next day. I think there are 9 different springs all together and the boys were (especially Carsten) were very interested in them.

Here is a picture of the river and the trees getting ready for winter. We were lucky to be here before the weather turned.

It was pretty cold out our last day in town and the boys had to borrow beanies from Dennis and I.

I love this shot of the boys with the grass and trees in the background. Rena and I and Nathan and Dennis rode mountain bikes off to the left of this area the day before. It was pretty funny because the guys rode for a little less than 2 hours so that Rena and I would have time for a ride. So nice of them because we ended up riding almost 3 hours, got back after dark and got lost finding the condo! It was QUITE the adventure, for sure!!

Steamboat Springs

The kids bought us a night at a condo in Steamboat Springs for our anniversary and we took Rena, Nathan and the boys with us! We had a blast and the fall colors were awesome.

Here is Grant and Carsten looking at a caterpillar. The boys love bugs and animals.

Carsten riding a fake horse in front of the famous outdoor shop in town.

The condo was amazing---plenty of room for all of us. Dennis and I had a nice bedroom with a bed so high I almost fell out of it when I got up at night. The boys slept in the other bedroom in twin beds and Rena and Nathan had the pull-out bed in the living room.

We played a rousing game of Scrabble that Nathan won. Some of the word we came up with were questionable but Nathan had an app on his cell phone where he could check and see if the words were allowed or not and all of the ones you see here were allowed by the official Scrabble rules. Rena started out the game with the word "ass" in the middle of the board.

A job for me....

Well, I was hired at Target today for a seasonal "sales floor" position. I think it will be a fun job but the pay is very minimal. I am still looking for something more promising and Dennis continues to look for businesses. We are both discouraged but will NOT give up.

Jobs Update and More Snow!

Well, the job I applied for and interviewed for at e-quilter did not work out. I was not really surprised and not that disappointed although I would have accepted it if they had offered it to me. It turns out someone at the company is being put in the position. Besides that I don't think they were convinced I would be happy only getting one week vacation a year. They are right about that!

So, I am back to putting in applications and trying to improve my resume. I am also helping Dennis look at business opportunities. Right now he is looking at a tax preparation business, a carpet cleaning business, an Aamco dealership, a re-usable box business and a drug testing franchise. It is all very time consuming and stressful but we are continuing to go to mass most mornings to pray for guidance and to the gym most days to stay in shape and deal with the stress.

The snow had all melted and the golfers were back out on the course but we got another blast last night. It sure is beautiful and as Ed Farnum says it is a good time to not be working. Ha! Here are a few pictures.

Job Stuff

Dennis decided to turn down the position with Little Debbie's. He spent a lot of time doing his due diligence and decided that the route did not have enough potential to earn the income he was looking for. If he thought it had more potential he would have been very willing to get up at 4am again and do route work. It is something that he knows and would be good at. Some other negatives were no vacations and possibly working on weekends. Besides that we were both concerned about the physical aspect of the job and the wear and tear it would do to his knees. So it's back to square one....

As for me, there is a possibility in the works. I applied for a "customer service/receptionist position at a on-line fabric warehouse! It is an amazing story because my mom and I had just gotten back from lunch with a friend of hers who lives here in Longmont. When we were at this lady's house mom mentioned that I was looking for work and she mentioned checking at "equilter" because they are a big employer in Boulder. Well, when we got home I was looking at the Craig's list job postings and there was an ad for the job at equilter. It fit me exactly! Plus, I had just re-vamped my resume that morning thanks to a friend of Rena's who works in HR. I sent my resume off right away and then we left to go see Carsten and Grant when they got out of school. When we got back there was a message on our phone from someone at equilter. The message had been left 10 minutes after I sent my application!!! I called back and was given a phone interview. I went for a "live" interview Wednesday and it went well but I still have to interview with the head of the department next week. In the mean time I am still applying for other jobs in case this one does not work out. It is not a great paying job but it would be something and it is only a 20 minute drive and is in a field that I love. More later.......

First snow!!!

This was how our back yard view looked this morning!

And the front yard.....

Here is our California van covered in Colorado snow.

Dennis shoveling the drive way. Thank you to the Kirklands for the shovel and the Faulkners for beanie and gloves!

More fun at the pumpkin patch!

A beautiful day at the Pumpkin Patch in Longmont.

Carsten and I sitting in a "piggy" car in front of all the weird colored pumpkins.

The boy in the corn maze with baba.

Feeding the goats.

The boys are great with animals even though their parents want nothing to do with them.

Pumpkin Patch

We took the boys to a local pumkin patch last Friday. They had a blast pulling wagons around, looking for pumkins and playing on all the fun features.

I took Carsten to this same pumpkin patch 3 years ago and at that time he was afraid of this same pumpkin! I told him about how he was scared of it and now he just thinks it's funny.

Carsten mid-jump on the jumper toy.

They could have played on the jumper all day!

It was VERY hard to pick out just the right pumpkin!

jobs.....

Well, I am finally giving in and going to a temp agency. I have been applying for many, many jobs but am not getting called. (I am starting to regret not wanting to commit to a year of working for Wanda in the Denver area.) I took a long assessment test yesterday for the temp agency and did not do very good. Well, I did okay on the data entry and typing part and average on the Word and Excel portion but terrible on Outlook. I really need to brush up on my skills! I have an interview this morning at the temp office and it will be interesting to see if they have any ideas for me.
Dennis is going on a "ride-along" today for a distributorship with Little Debbie's snack food. He would be an independent contractor and would have to buy his own truck and computer. Neither one of us is too excited about him getting into route-sales again. He had to get up at 3:30 this morning to meet the manager! He is not used to early hours any more and with winter coming up it would be especially hard. I will let you know more in a couple of days.
Love, Dana

St. Catherine of Siena Chapel

We passed this cool looking stone church on the Peak to Peak highway when we were sight seeing with our friends Ed and Donna. Ed suggested we turn around and check it out. It was an amazing old Catholic Church and there was a picture of Pope John Paul II visting here in 1993. Thanks Ed for leading us to here!

Elk in Estes Park

We could not believe there were elk hanging out in a golf course and open fields in the town of Estes Park. It saved us a trip into the National Park! Apparently they move to lower elevations this time of the year. The last picture shows Stanley Hotel and the beautiful mountains in the background.