Housekeeping in 300 square feet.

I think we have a tent that claims to be 100 square feet...according to my estimation, that must be about the same size as the bedroom in our first apartment--egads..

Ok, let's see what we having going on in this living room area..on the left are a chair that left us, went to Sister A, was recovered and now (with its twin) is back in my living room (Excellent). Lamp behind chair broke when we moved to Colorado and is no longer with us. On the right is the best couch we ever gave away (pillow and blanket are currently on the futon in the family/bonus room).  Chess board still sits on subwoofer (yes, that large black thing is a subwoofer).  Basket to its left now hold hangers for the kids rooms and is sitting on a beer box that currently holds the "extra" school supplies that won't fit in my desk.  Glass top coffee table was rescued from near the dumpster by us, the day we were moving in...and the day we moved out we carried it out to the dumpster and watched another couple immediately carry it inside their apartment.  Curtains now hang in The Girl's room. Best things about this room/wall were the large windows (so we could see grass and trees!) and the metal wall that magnets could be attached to.  Worst things about this room (other than the tiny size?) were the large windows and metal wall that let in a lot of heat and cold!

While not technically another room (the couch is just outside this picture--the table was pushed right up against it), this is the "dining room".  No, I don't know why there is such a big bowl of chips either (looks like a party--there is sandwich meat and cheese there).  The small round table under the plastic flowered tablecloth traveled to Denver with us and then back to the Midwest with Sister A....and it promptly fell out of her moving van and broke into a million pieces...bye, bye, table.  The cord near the over goes up to a vent fan that we removed and put in an air conditioner.  The black chair went to my parents house, moved to South Dakota, was repainted, and gifted to one of my kids with Purdue decals a few years ago.  Funny story about the stove--it is identical (actually the whole apartment is identical) to the stove from the campus housing apartment I lived in when Mr IM and I met.  My roomates and I decided to make cookies once and discovered that the oven is too small for a "normal" size cookie tray...blink, blink...ummmmm...so I own a very tiny cookie tray....Best thing about this room was tons of cabinets--almost as many as I have now (or not...hard to tell)

And these last photos (that I was too lazy to take individual photos of, but are cute anyway) show our first meal in the apartment...Some kind of chicken and rice...it was tasty and  we used the china and flatware...but we haven't made that recipe for years...maybe I should try to hunt it down and see if it is any good!

The real saving grace to this apartment (other than being able to store stuff in my parents' garage) was the fairly large storage locker in the basement near the laundry room (the locker was a great place to store the laundry detergent and all the things we didn't open until we moved to our 3rd address in Denver) and those fantastic cabinets in the kitchen.

Happy 20th Anniversary to us...

A long time ago, in a place fairly far away, on a very, very, hot June day...these two kids stood up and promised each other a happily ever after...

After the ceremony, across the street from the church ,at the fountain where Mr IM proposed

And even though it hasn't been all smooth sailing (car engine disasters, anyone?)
Three cities, five addresses, two kids, two dogs, three cats, and seven cars later...
I have to admit it has been quite a ride!
Happy Anniversary to us!

 A few other photos from that day--please excuse the "I used my phone to take photos instead of scanning"....

"Pledge daughter" and still good friend, J, and I

Roommate C, Sister A, and J...somewhere there is a photo of them doing the "see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil"....

 

Arriving at the reception

Sister A, Friend R, Friend M, and R's mom

Our own wedding crasher(s)--technically I don't think any of these young men count as crashers--on the right is my brother's college roommate, C, in the center my brother, and on the left, my brother's good friend, R, who actually lived with us for a year...J and C played at the wedding and even if R didn't have an official invite, I can't imagine not inviting him

And this classic, that my brother still giggles about--the tossing of the garter, with his roommate out in front to catch it....

Just another Saturday in Castle Rock

Not content to stay at home, but not feeling up to driving anywhere there might be traffic, or flooding, or flooding with traffic... (we hear the rain may be done for a while, by the way), last weekend's "trip" was just to downtown Castle Rock.

A little street festival action at Festival Park...

 It was supposed to be the "Ducky Derby"--where the local Rotary Club sells numbers and then throws hundreds of ducks with numbers on them into the creek--however, the creek is so high that this is the only duck sighted..

 A local "all girl" band warming up...too bad The Girl wasn't with us.

 Resting...Just before this we ran into our neighbor ,who not only owns a local plumbing company, but had one of his teenage sons, dressed as a plumber, in a dunk tank, with donations to the local women's shelter gaining participants three tries.  The Boy dunked him in one try, then cackled hysterically as neighbor boy doused us all with a squirt gun....We didn't stay to ride the golf cart train, because, well, after you've ridden it around the neighborhood a million times, why ride it at the festival?

We ended our morning out with a late brunch at Pegasus on the Square (yummy)--The Boy had his usual (gyro sandwich)... mmm, tasty...and then we headed home to transplant some more plants, dry some out ,and water others...ah, the life of a (sub) urban farmer....

20 years?

Nope, not our anniversary (yet)....it has been twenty years since my sister-in-law's high school graduation--yowsers...(and congratulations, A, by the way!)

Why, you may ask, do I remember my husband's little sister's graduation date?  Well, it actually is related to our wedding anniversary, so it is theoretically easy to remember.  And, I'll admit, I actually don't recall which day of the weekend 20 years ago her graduation actually was--I believe it was Saturday, and the date stamp on the photos says 6/17/1995...so thanks to the internets, I can confirm that it was a Saturday...

The week before our wedding, Mr IM and I took a whole week off and flew to New Hampshire for his sister's graduation and some pre-wedding festivities with folks who wouldn't be able to make it to Indiana for the wedding.  This meant that we had a week of vacation before the wedding (which worked out well, with the New Hampshire trip and the last minute wedding activities), but meant that we only took the Monday after our Saturday wedding off work--both of us headed back to work on Tuesday, and in Mr. IM's case, discovered that the company had  gone out of business...but that is a story for another day...

As I recall, we left Indiana after work on Friday, flew to New Hampshire, went to graduation on Saturday, went to a bridal shower (and had lobster on the seacoast on the way home) on Sunday, flew home on Monday or Tuesday in time to greet our wedding guests who started arriving.  The bridal shower was at Mr. IM's grandparents' house, on the golf course in Maine, so part of the entertainment was watching "the boys" golf.  Somewhere in there, there was a slumber party-esque morning, during which Mr IM's mom presented all of us (Sister A, Mr IM, me, and our best man, who apparently slept on one living room couch while Mr IM slept on the other) with gifts.  I must have those photos somewhere...hmmm... I wonder where...they were classics..disheveled hair, no make-up...we were quite a quartet..


It was a whole week of parties--here is Mr IM's little sister hugging A, who was our best man later that week (no clue who the person in the background is...creeper...)

I am guessing that this is an open house for Sister A's graduation, which means there was one more party worked in there somewhere....The couch looks familiar, but no clue who the girl on the left is.  (Sister A is in the middle, Mr. IM on the right...with his arm on a pillow that might be in my living room as we speak...it doesn't look quite right, but it would have been 20 years cleaner then...)



This gem is a TBT worthy photo--don't be surprised if you see it on my Facebook page... these are the older siblings  (and a few friends) of the class of '95 graduates who were the class of '92...





Sometime after this weekend of parties, Mr IM's dad filled a UHaul with stuff (stuff for Sister A, who attended Purdue that fall, furniture that my in-laws were "donating" to us, and wedding gifts from the shower....) which we unloaded into our 300 square foot apartment (photos to follow in a later post, for your amusement).

So, Congratulations to Sister A and the rest of the Gilford graduating class of 1995!

Throwback Saturday...

Last weekend while we were out driving around last Saturday we reminisced that Bishop Castle had a lot in common with a sketchy place we stopped to use the bathroom on a trip to Arizona many years ago.  (Maybe just the state of the restroom facilities...both were sketchy, at best).

Let me transport you to 11/30/2008.....

This place is somewhere in Arizona, we think...although it could be in New Mexico...we could find out (I think) if you really want to know.  We stopped at this place primarily because ,well, some of us had to use the restroom, and secondly because it has dinosaurs--who can say no to animatronic dinosaurs?

The highlight (and often quoted) of the stop was when The Girl (age 7) saw this beautiful blob of glass and asked us to buy it.  Mr. IM replied with something like "no"...to which The Girl asked "Can we steal it?" (According to Mr IM, the price tag said something like $2000, yes, two thousand dollars)

Mr IM also had this photo as his profile picture for quite a while--keep in mind that the ostriches do bite...

In both cases we survived the restroom facilities and had a good time giggling afterwards....

National Donut Day!

Yeah, Yeah, I know National Donut Day was a week ago...but in the interest of spreading out my blog entries..here is our National Donut Day Entry...Here's our recipe...Super Easy Donuts

 Gathering our ingredients...

 My antique donut cutter--It is from my mom...possibly was my grandmothers, but in any case is identical to the one my mom used when I was a kid.

 Donuts in process--we made holes, too!

 I used a lot less than the quart of oil called for--about a cup of coconut oil and a cup of vegetable oil (I only had a cup of coconut oil left).  I used my cast iron skillet and the thermometer that came with our "fryers" that we use for cooking lobstas...

 About a minute to a side and voila..donuts!

Yummy!

A Day Trip in Colorado

Even though we've lived in Colorado for almost 20 years, there still are an amazing number of "tourist traps" that we have somehow missed.  Today's  "missed treasure" is Bishop Castle.  Bishop Castle was built by a single man, beginning in the 1960's.  You can read all about it on his website.
A couple weeks ago, Mr. IM's law partner visited with his daughters and inspired us to go.

 On the road on a gorgeous Saturday morning...

 Surprisingly, the castle is located right off the road-we parked on the side and crossed the highway to join about 250 bikers and a few other tourists driving cars.  Check out that dragon!  Wow!

 This is quite a project for one person--wow!

 We stood at the bottom for a few minutes and admired the castle while deciding what to do first...

 There go Mr IM and The Boy--I decided to stay nearer to the ground.  Mr. IM said something like "oh, just come up, you can just turn around and come down" (later, while watching someone come down these stairs he said, "gee, I wouldn't want to come down those steps!")

 And up and up and up....

 While the boys explored up high, I explored ground level--some interesting things to see.  I also had a funny exchange with another person whose feet were firmly planted on the ground while his friends/family went up--he said, "Not going up?"  I said, "Nope...not gonna do it".  He said, "Yeah, I jump out of airplanes for a living, but I'm not going up there--no chute..."

 I was later convinced to go up two levels using these stairs--it wasn't too bad, since it is enclosed.

 This place really is cool!  I guess weddings and parties can happen here--some of the stairs would be very interesting in heels, but then again, so are grassy meadows...

 Here we are, up one level of stairs--actually a fairly large "party room"--very nice--flat floor

 beautiful stained glass..

 Secret passage?

 View from another floor up--beautiful scenery and large room--if you can get to it, it would be a great wedding/party site!

 Cute bear from the very bottom floor--he is pretty cute.

 I think he might be crying--this is when we wouldn't buy the $50 sword from the gift shop.  I contemplated a $30 purse...then noticed that it not only had a Colorado flag, but also a marijuana leaf.  Hmm.  Not really my style.

 Viet of the scenery, including porta potties (for The Girl, because of her love of porta potties, of course)

 The boys went up in the gatehouse--I again stayed close to the ground...

 Up they go...

 The Boy, waving from the top

 One last view as we head out (look how blue the sky is!  After a month of (unusual) rain, it is soooo nice to have  blue Colorado skies again!

 Couldn't talk about this without showing this shot--motorcycles lined up along the road as far as the eye can see!  The Castle is on a "ride route" and since there are porta potties and snacks, it is a popular stopping point!

 Now what? you ask?  The open road (with Pike's Peak in the distance)

 Ah, What is this?  Well, this, my friends is THE Supermax facility for the United States...name a terrorist and they are probably contained here.  This would be the facility that was "being populated" in the movie Con Air...

 We rounded out the day by driving home past Castlewood Canyon Park--causing The Boy to ask if we could hike there (no...it has been raining for month...anything with the word "canyon" in it isn't a good hiking spot until the water levels go down!)

And home before the thunderstorm!  Whoo!
A great day trip--lots of fun and very pretty!