Chihuly at the Denver Botanic Gardens

The company that Mark works for gives all of their employees one Friday afternoon off per month so that they can schedule doctor's appointments, repairmen, etc.  Since Mark has been here in Denver he hasn't done much with his afternoon off but now that I'm around things are a-changin'!  

This past Friday we took advantage of the beautiful fall weather we have been having and we decided to go to the Denver Botanic Gardens to see the Chihuly exhibit before it left.  It's only scheduled to be here through the end of November and we wanted to go before it got too cold. 

I really didn't know much about this artist before we saw his work, other than he was a "glass blower". Well, he is a glass blower but on a really HUGE scale.  Both Mark and I were very impressed by the size and scale of his works.  And placing his art in amongst the gardens really made for a beautiful display.  

  There are glass balls that float in the water, delicate translucent flowers and neon glass towers that are over 50 feet tall 

It's really hard to take pictures that show just how big these pieces are and how detailed they are. For instance, the red spears were at least 6-7 feet tall.  The blue ones were 4-5 feet tall.  The white flowers were about 3 feet across.  Although they look fragile, they have withstood several baseball sized hailstorms this summer and they didn't break.  There were several pieces that looked like they came off the pages of a Dr. Seuss book. 

Some of the pieces are HUGE!  This one was probably 12 feet tall. 

This one was even bigger.

 These balls were 42" 

The grounds themselves were so beautiful.  They had formal English gardens, Oriental gardens, desert-scapes, a Monet inspired pool, and much much more.  

We walked past this gentleman when we first got to the park and he was still sitting there an hour later.  He was snoring both times we passed him!  I guess he wasn't as interested in the Gardens as most. 

We both agreed that we need to come back in the spring and summer to see the gardens in their full splendor.  

Busy Weeks

I'm pretty sure I'm behind in all sorts of areas in my life…including keeping up this blog on our lives. 

Last Monday our furniture was delivered. And I thought that I was going to be so happy to get our home settled.  But I have decided that the moving company wanted to play a cruel joke on me.  It almost seems that the movers took one thing from each room in the house and put in into one box, sealed it and then repeated the process.  I will open a box that has stuff that all originated in one room in the Odessa house and I will find odds and ends from a half dozen other places in the home.  Its made it a little challenging setting up our Denver home but it's getting there.

The weekend of October 26th, Mark and I flew to Texas to spend Parent's Weekend with Henley.  Delaney drove in from Austin and both of their boyfriends came in as well so we had the whole bunch of us there to enjoy the weekend! Friday night we all hung out until everyone arrived and then we ate at Fuzzy's Tacos. Saturday morning Delaney and I joined Henley at her sorority breakfast and we got to meet her Big and several of her other sorority sisters.  The other gals were all very sweet and I can see why Henley chose to join this sorority.

The guys were on their own and ended up eating "The Best Chicken Fried Steak in Texas" at Jake and Dorothy's Cafe. The best story about Jake and Dorothy's is that a few weeks ago a huge raccoon fell down from the dropped ceiling into a roomful of diners.  Seems that the raccoon had been living there for a while based on the size of him!

Jake and Dorothy's Cafe

Since Mark had not seen Tarleton in years, Henley gave us the grand tour of campus and we all went to the football game on Saturday night, followed by a great meal at Montana's. We had to leave fairly early on Sunday so after a good breakfast we said our goodbyes and headed home. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the girls and their guys. 

The whole gang: Blaine, Henley, Sandie, Mark, Delaney and Zach

Henley and Delaney

Our Tarleton Texan Henley and Blaine

Delaney and Zach

This past Saturday Mark and I emptied his apartment and watched our Horn's play ball.  We were hoping that we could catch a glimpse of Delaney since she was at the game.  But we didn't.  We spent the rest of the day unloading boxes and putting stuff away.  I don't think we even put a dent in the pile…

So Sunday we both decided that we were going to play hooky from unpacking and we headed up to Rocky Mountains National Park.  And were we ever glad we did.  The leaves had peaked about a week ago so we didn't get to see the oranges and the reds that we had hoped to see but the mountains had 2 days of snow last week and the landscape was absolutely stunning. It's interesting that the mountain range was originally named "Never Summer Mountains" by the Indian tribes that lived in the mountains and we could see why.

Granby Lake

Never Summer Mountains

Almost at the top

At the Top

We started at the bottom of the park and drove north along the valley floor before climbing to over 12,000 ft at the top.  Midway through the drive we stopped at Milner Pass where the Continental Divide is located. The wind was blowing and it was pretty darned cold but nothing compared to when we got to the top of the Pass.  Whoo dogie was it windy and cold.  

We ended up back in Estes Park and they were having their annual Elk Festival.   So we stayed for lunch and enjoyed the bands that were playing at the park and walked around the shops to stretch our legs after riding in the truck all morning.  

On the way out of Rocky Mountain National Park we ran into a TON of elk that were right off of the road so of course we had to take pictures of them.  It is the start of the rut so the bulls were bugling at the other bulls while trying to herd their harems away from the other bulls.  It was funny because we saw a couple of cows run from one harem to another while the stupid bulls were bugling at one another. 

Life in Colorado is feeling more normal every day.  

Welcome to Colorado...Finally!

Yup!  We made it.  Or at least I'm finally here in Colorado.  Needless to say I have been quite busy with the move.  

Okay, to get you up to speed:

After the delay in getting the bank appraisal the mortgage company for the buyer of the Odessa house had given us a preliminary closing date of September 22nd.  When I called the moving company (that I had cancelled on not once but four times this summer) and asked if we could get a moving date around the 22nd, they told me that the only moving date they had available in September was Friday, September 12th and Monday the 15th.  I was really concerned about having the house packed up that early; only because if the contract fell through, we would be left with a home with no furnishings.  And an empty house doesn't show as well as one fully furnished.  But we had no choice so I scheduled them to come.  

On Thursday afternoon the 11th, our realtor called and said that the closing date had been moved up to September 15th and that the buyers wanted possession of the house that day.  Gulp!  I hadn't planned on that little wrinkle.  But has luck would have it we had already scheduled the movers so we were packed and loaded by about 7:30 Monday evening.  The closing went smoothly and we were officially "homeless" by 2:00 pm. 

I spent the night at Joyce and Paul's (thanks guys) and spent Tuesday closing bank accounts, making changes of address, and such.  I spent Tuesday night again with the Piepers and on Wednesday Joyce and I had our "Last Supper" at Oie's for lunch.  After a quick goodbye I hit the road and drove to Santa Fe.  

I hadn't seen my brother and his kids in about a year so I figured it would be a good stopping point for the night.  I got in about 6 pm and soon after Rob and I went to Zoe's work so that I could say hello to her.  (August was unavailable that night so Rob arranged for us to take him to school the next morning)  Rob and I had a great dinner at The Shed (yummy Chili Verde soup) and then went to the Hotel St. Francis and had the most amazing margarita I have ever laid my lips on.  Sage Margarita.  Say it again.  Sage Margarita. Holy mother of all margaritas.  If you ever get the chance to try one of those puppies -don't pass up the chance. 

After a leisurely breakfast at Rob's, we said our goodbyes and I drove into Denver and managed to hit rush hour traffic in not only Colorado Springs but in Denver as well.  Ugh…welcome to Colorado.

On Friday we went out to the house.  It was the first time I had seen it in two months.  It is absolutely gorgeous!  Mark had done a preliminary walk-thru on Wednesday and the contractor told him to come back by with me sometime over the weekend to do our own walk-thru and asked us to red tag anything that we wanted fixed.  By the time Mark and I finished, it looked like the house had chicken pox.  The painter has quite a lot of touch-ups to do before the final walk-thru tomorrow.  

Speaking of tomorrow, we close on the house at 2 pm!!  Happy day!!

On Saturday Mark and I drove the Peak to Peak scenic route to look at the fall colors.  

We knew that we needed to be on the road early because the traffic gets heavy the later in the day it gets.  So we were on the road by 8 am.  As predicted, the colors had started to change and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous.  

The route starts in Center City which was once a mining town but has been invaded by several large casinos.  It has a pretty downtown area that we passed but since neither one of us is a gambler we went on down the road.

We stopped all along the road and took pictures and took in the scenery.  The gold colors were at their peak and they say that the reds should be in full force within the next two weeks. 

The route ended in Estes Park and as luck would have it, they were having a Beer and Brats festival that day.  

We stopped in at the festival and sat on the grass and ate our brats, I drank my beer and we listened to a great John Denver cover band while eating our lunch.  Afterwards, we walked around the downtown area and Mark found a place to buy some peanut brittle- our only purchase in the tourist town!

Of course if you're in Estes Park you have to go to the Stanley Hotel.  Well, seems like everyone else in Colorado had the same idea and they were only letting guests inside of the hotel that day.  Dang!  

But we did manage to find the resident herd of elk hanging out at the golf course.  They didn't seem to mind all of us gawking at them and the bulls even put on a bugling show just for us.  

On Sunday we went to the Parker Fall Fest.  

It was held in the downtown park and all-in-all it was a nice afternoon.  There were vendors set up in the downtown area and they had a HUGE farmers market that we took full advantage of.  That night we stuffed ourselves on fresh corn, tomatos (me) and peaches.  It was a great end to a great first weekend in Denver!

House Issues...

Oh the sad tale of our attempt to sell this house.....where to begin.

The people that have the contract on our home have a VA loan.  We knew that accepting a VA loan was going to be a little more complicated than a regular contract but we were willing to help a vet out.  Everything went along well until we had the bank appraisal.  There are only 2 VA appraisers in this area so we were put in line to get the appraisal...and as it turned out it took almost 3 1/2 weeks to get the appraisal done.  The appraiser came and did his job on a Wednesday and told our realtor that he would have it back to the bank by the following Monday.  Well Monday came and went, as did the next Monday, and the next Monday.  So our realtor called his office and was unable to contact him for the next two weeks.  Seems he went on vacation and won't return until tomorrow.

In the meantime, the closing date had been changed from August 29th to September 3 to September 5th.  But since the appraiser didn't get the appraisal turned in within the mandated 10 days, the mortgage company for the buyer has said that it will be a minimum of 21-28 days to get it thru underwriting once the appraiser gets the appraisal to them. Who knows when he plans on getting the appraisal to them...

To make matters worse, we were supposed to close on our home in Denver on September 11th.  When we realized that it was going to be iffy as far as making the timeline work for the two closings, Mark called the builder in Denver and asked if we could push the closing date back a few weeks.  He was met with a very decided- "No".  Well now that it is a definite that we can't close on the Odessa home by (at least) the 16th and possibly the 23rd Mark went to the builder again and explained our predicament. Fortunately the lady he spoke to the second time has agreed to push the closing to the first week in October.   

In the meantime Mark is in Denver and I remain in Odessa.  We really don't feel that we should leave the Odessa house unoccupied- we've already had issues with other realtors leaving the house unlocked and the burglar alarm off, people walking around the property looking into windows, neighborhood kids turning on the water in the backyard and leaving it running, etc.  It's been a very discouraging 5 months.  

On a good note, Delaney is in her new apartment in Austin and Henley is in her apartment in Stephenville.  Both places are very nice and they both are very happy with where they are living.  

Here are some pictures of Delaney's apartment:

And here are a few of Henley's.  She is supposed to send me pictures of her kitchen and living room. 

I'll keep you posted on any new developments. Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers said that things start working out in our favor.