Lo is Here!

Ruth and I are really excited. Our good friend Lorin (one of the bride's maids) just flew into Denver this afternoon. Josh drove up to pick her up since Ruth and I were both at work. They're hanging around Denver for a while and coming back here tonight when Josh gets finished with his night-class at the downtown UC Denver campus (where he's getting his Masters Degree in International Marketing). Lo is going to check out the 16th street mall and other attractions in downtown Denver for an hour. We had big plans to check out all the sights like Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods, Cave of the Winds, etc. but it looks like to snow storm that came last night and hasn't let up yet may put a damper on things. We'll need a lot of sunshine to make it to the peak by Saturday or Sunday.

Meanwhile, I leave for Seattle on Sunday (flying from Colorado Springs) and don't return til Friday. I'll be sure to blog a lot while I'm out there and take a lot of photos.

Also, Josh has found a full time position working for Weidner in Denver. He is going to live onsite and his parents are coming to help move him in next weekend.

Ruth and I have also been taking advantage of technology and video-chatting with friends and family. Ruth uses Skype (username: ruthamoll) and I use iChat (username: stevensingsongs). We love to chat. Let us know and we'll meet you online! :)

I haven't been boycotting blogs, there hasn't been anything new. I've been working pretty regularly. Most days I take my lunch which consists of frozen vegetables with a dash of oil and garlic salt. Sometimes I'll bring clementines if we have them. I am reading Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughter House Five during my lunch hours and I'm almost finished with it. It's a great book that I would recommend to anyone. Ruth eats lunch at home before she goes to work. She usually eats a frozen pizza or left-overs.

This weekend I have a three day weekend. I'm really looking forward to it. This will be my last weekend until I go to Seattle on the 31st for a week of MIT training. We have talked about going to do something fun. A coworker suggested going to the Colorado Hot Springs, but I think it may be more than we want to spend for a weekend. I heard of great hiking trails that intersect with some wild hot springs in the mountains. I will definitely have to try those sometime.

Other than that, our lives aren't too thrilling. I have decided that I am going to start jotting down my ideas into an essay. Mostly, about the government, economy, modern-lifestyle, environment, and religion. Most things fall into those categories. It will be an ongoing expedition that will involve a lot of valuable criticism from my friends and family. I am sure my opinions and values will grow in the process.. Enough of that for now; it is only an idea.

Day Off

Well, today was my day off. It was a great day, but it will stink on Saturday when I have to go in from 9-5. We went to the dog park again today and we were there for two hours. Not only did the dogs get a lot of exercise and social interaction but humans do too. Every time we go we walk the perimeter (which includes a huge hill in a corner) and often stop and talk with other pet owners. We've learned a lot about the Springs chatting with locals. Almost everyone is an immigrant from California, Texas, or the Midwest. Every once in a while we meet a native.

Since it was my day off, Madison and I went to the Ute Valley Park for a hike; just the two of us. As we climbed through the trail we reached a summit of boulders and stopped to take a seat and enjoy the view. I sat and contemplated many things about life and happiness and God's role for me. I watched Madge explore, in and around cracks in the boulders over looking the valley. She is my teacher of ultimate virtue. After we came home and ate dinner, I was reading Thoreau and I found a passage that best summarized how I felt on that boulder. Thoreau writes:

Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine.

So I refer to Thomas Merton from the Abbey of Gethsemani when he writes:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that he desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

To go back to Thoreau:

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.

Now we are home, fat and full. Ruth has started her classwork and we will occasionally discuss her readings in "Diversity in Education." For the most part it is a relaxing evening with soft music and dog cuddling. Unfortunately, Madison is gassy and forced Josh to leave the room.

c'est la vie!

Weekend

TGIF! (yesterday)

Now that we're working all day, we don't get to enjoy the sunlight during these dark months in the shadows of the mountains. As the days get longer, we do enjoy a silhouetted Pike's Peak in the sunset on our way home from work. The native Ute indian tribe called it Sun Mountain because it is the first piece of land to feel the sun's warmth every morning.

Since today is Saturday, we tried to take advantage of our day off by seeing the sights and spending some quality time with our dogs. We slept in and took them to the Bear Creek Dog Park this morning. It was busy since today was in the 40's after a subzero week. They ran and chased and played for over and hour, up and down the hill, even through a cactus plant. We had to due an emergency operation to pull a few thorns out of Oscar's paw. He was back on the ground in no time.

We then took them to Garden of the Gods again for a hike around the rocks. It was also busy with hikers, climbers, runners, cyclists, and of course dog-walkers. We took the camera since it is such a beautiful day and we got a lot of really good shots. You can see a lot of the pictures we took by clicking on the link HERE. We will also post them on the shutterfly account as well. After Garden of the Gods, we went to Manitou Springs to get lunch. We had a really good time as usual walking through the shops. Once, the sun started to set, though, it became pretty chilly and we decided to come on home.

Now that the daylight is gone, we are home in the apartment. We'll settle in and maybe watch a movie (500 Days of Summer). We've made a tradition of playing a card game called San Juan every now and then. I may try to see if Josh wants to play racquetball again tonight. So far we've played every night this week. The night is young.

Pictures

Check out some new pictures by clicking HERE!

Enjoy!

Monday January Fourth

Well, today Ruth and I started our new jobs. I worked at The Retreat at Austin Bluffs as a MIT (manager in training) and Ruth started orientation at La Petite Academy. She is going to run an after school program for kids starting at 1 year old to fifth graders. She even has her own classroom. It is part-time work for now but it could become a full-time position very soon. It works out great since she is still writing curriculum for the Malawi program for Ball State as a graduate assistant. She is also working on her masters degree in education online through Ball State.

Our friend Josh is here now. He is doing some graduate work for the University of Colorado in Denver and is staying with us while he looks for apartments. We really enjoy having him here. He cooks on Monday and Friday and so far we have played card games, done yoga, and played racquetball together. He really enjoys our dogs as well so when we have free time we try to frequent the 34-acre Bear Creek Park off-leash dog park (which was ranked one of the top 10 in the country). It is an awesome place with a giant hill and a creek. Unfortunately, we have to check Oscar's feet for needles from the indigenous cacti. We also live across the street from Ute Valley park which has great trails and hills. We even took the dogs to the Garden of the Gods and hiked for two hours on the trails and sidewalks around the giant rocks and big-horn sheep preserves.

The altitude may be taking a minor toll on our bodies. Ruth had a migraine over the weekend (first one in years) and I came down with a slight head cold. We've started drinking lots of water in order to subdue these new symptoms and so far it's working.

Tonight, however, we have home-made ice cream and brownies. :)