The Orchard Church

This morning we visited the Orchard Church, which meets at the rec center right down the street from us. They had put a flier on our door yesterday, so we thought we would give it a try. I had a really good time, so we may even go back next week. They will be celebrating their 1 year anniversary. They said they have a regular attendance of between 80 and 90, and there were 109 people there today as a result of the fliers. They had a contemporary band with bongos, drums, bass, and guitar. The pastor even played the drums! Most people there seemed pretty young, a lot even younger than us. If you would like to see their website, it is www.orchardchurchonline.com.

~*~ Ashley ~*~

An Update

Thursday night Tinkerbell wouldn't sleep. At first she just didn't want to, then she couldn't. She seemed really scared for some reason. She would fall asleep, then jump up really fast and look around like she was scared. The only way she would sleep was curled up under my chin with her head on my neck - which of course doesn't let me sleep very well! From 1:30 am to about 5:30 am I bet she jumped up at least 20 times. Needless to say, I went to work tired on Friday!

I was very very busy at work on Friday, which means Monday will be even busier! I got 13 blood samples on Friday, so on Monday I have to harvest those 13, plus the 12 from Thursday. There are 5 tracks to harvest, and usually there are 1 or 2!

Friday night Steve went to Friday's to have a drink with Kevin since we haven't seen him since the weekend he moved here. I was going to go, but I was exhausted. I put both the dogs in their cages and pretended I left with Steve and just went to bed. I went to bed at 8:30! Boy did I need it. When Steve got home around midnight, the dogs didn't want to sleep since they had been in their cages for nearly 4 hours. They got in trouble and sent to their cages for the night by Steve. I slept so good! We accidentally slept until 9:30, which we haven't really slept past 7:00 since we got Tinkerbell. The first thing I did when I woke up was asked him if we could put them in their cages every Friday night, haha.

Today we really didn't do much. I did laundry, cleaned up a little bit, and tried to balance the check book for about 4 hours. I am still $30 off, but that is a lot closer than it was when I started! Steve went to FedEx to ship some packages and drove his camaro through the Grease Monkey car wash. Then he came home and spent all day in the garage cleaning it a little bit more and taking stickers off. He took pictures to start the journey of selling it! He also put the Sirius Satellite Radio in his new car. Other than those boring things, we didn't do much at all today!


~*~ Ashley ~*~

BUURRRR!!

The wind started coming in from the mountains yesterday evening, and boy was it cold! It is 8:00 am right now, and only 41' out! Fall started last week, and is supposed to be over this week.

For those we told me have a view of the mountains, we were not lying! The first picture was taken yesterday. You can even see the wild horses that give our condos the name “Wild Horse Ridge.” The second picture was taken this morning, which shows the mountains got snow last night. To see some more mountain pictures, click here.

The pups had big days yesterday. Tinkerbell got to go to the vet for the first time with us to get some more puppy shots. The vet said they would probably make her tired, so we should have probably went right home, but we didn't. We stopped to get the oil changed in my Trailblazer since it was about 2,000 miles over when it was supposed to be changed. They let us bring Tinkerbell into the show room, and all of the salesmen were playing with her. They even gave her water and a "Bozi Bear" which was like their little mascot. She had a lot of fun. Then we went to PetsMart to sign her up for puppy class. That will start on October 9th. There is an older lady who works there with 2 boxers, and she has been asking us to bring her in. We were there for 2 hours! The lady really liked her, and it thinking of getting a third boxer now. She is really nice, and keeps offering to baby sit while we go to Ohio in April for Dani's wedding. We went to Arby's afterwards and ate outside on the patio with Tinkerbell tied to the table. A 4 year old girl petted her for a little bit, and she was very good for that too. We finally took her home about 5 hours after her shot, and she was asleep for a very long time!

Next we took Lilliann to the Bark Park for a Boxer meet up. 26 boxers RSVPed to come, and we think about 20 of them made it. I have never seen so many boxers together in my life! It was really funny. We stayed there for an hour, but ended up leaving earlier than we normally would because the wind was really starting to pick up, and sand was blowing in our eyes. She had a really good time! To see all the new doggie pictures, click here.

Today will probably be a relaxing day. We bought Grey's Anatomy season 2 on DVD, and need to watch the ones we haven't seen by Thursday when the new one's start. We love that show!

~*~ Ashley ~*~

SLEEPY

Happy Birthday Heather!

We hope you had a really good birthday :)

Today was a really long day at the Colorado Genetics Lab. I have been exhausted all week, and today I was really struggling to stay awake. The morning went pretty fast. After lunch, I had an hour and a half computer seminar which just about put me to sleep. We are getting all new computers this weekend, so Monday will probably be pretty hectic with no one knowing how to use the new computers.

Not much happened here this week. We got baby gates for the 2 sets of stairs we have to keep the dogs from running up and down all the time. I am sure we will need them at Christmas time for little Hannah too! Steve didn't really want to invest in them, but I told him SOMEDAY we will need them, haha!

Bryce and Jenny spent the night last night, but I didn't get to see them. I was ready for bed at 8:00, but they were supposed to get here at 9:00, so I made myself wait up. At 9:30 they called and said they just left Colorado Springs, so they didn't get here until 11:00. I went to bed the second we knew they were going to be late. They had to go to the airport at 4:00, so they were also long gone by the time I got up! Sorry guys!

Tomorrow we are taking Tinkerbell for her first vet visit. Then I would like to take both dogs on a small hike. We will see what happens! I have been so tired this week, that I really just want to go to bed and sleep all weekend, but Tinkerbell won't let that happen!

~*~ Ashley ~*~

The Tired Weekend

Saturday Kevin and Kenny got here from Ohio. We went to lunch and went to the pool for a little bit. That night we went to the ESPN Zone to watch The Ohio State University football game. It was huge! There were so many people there, we never even got a table during the 3 hour game. Luckily we found some seats in the bar, and just ordered a bunch of appetizer for dinner. After the game we walked to the completely other side of Denver (NOT OUR IDEA) and went to a really stinky bar. It really smelled like a litter box or something. If I would have been drinking, I wouldn't have even been able to swallow anything because it smelled so bad. We stayed there about 20 minutes, then went to some Asian Karaoke place. It was pretty funny. The same 4 people kept singing, and they were all horrible. Then we had to walk all the way back to the car on the other side of Denver. I had been up since 6:30 am, so by the time we got home at 2:00 I was exhausted. Of course Tinkerbell got me up at 7:00 am the next morning, so I didn't get that much sleep.

On Sunday I needed to take a nap all day, but never got the chance. We went to Eric and Lauren's house (Kevin's brother and sister-in-law) for a little barbecue. I was tired by 8:00 and almost fell asleep in their yard. Steven said they probably won't invite us back because I looked like I was having a horrible time. But really I was just fighting with myself to stay awake! The second we got in the car I fell asleep. We got lost about 100 times trying to go home because all the entrances to the highway we needed were closed, so I got some good sleep time in the car! We got home at 10 and I went right to bed.

Today at work I was still tired. I had a VERY busy day because we had 3 tracks to harvest. Each track can have from 1 to 10 tubes, and all 3 tracks today had 10! Each track takes about 5 hours, so you have to synchronize all 3 so you can fit it into one work day. It was quite hectic! Each harvest has 8 steps that all have to be timed with a certain amount in between. So today I had 3 timers going, and beeping all over the place, and I had to know which step I was on on each track. Needless to say, I have a small headache tonight! I actually had to work 30 minutes overtime to get everything done today.

Kenny and Kevin came over and we went to Bennigan's for dinner tonight. When we got home, Steve taught Tinkerbell how to sit in about 5 minutes. She will be 10 weeks old next Friday, so puppy school will start very soon! She seems like she will be a quick learner!

~*~ Ashley ~*~

LONG Weekend

The first weekend with two dogs was not that bad. The three day weekend did seem extra long since I had to get up at 7:00 on Saturday, 6:45 on Sunday, and 6:30 today to take out Tinkerbell. She better not wake me up before my 6:00 alarm in the morning or I will not be happy! Needless to say, there were a lot of naps this weekend!

Lilliann and Tinkerbell seem to like each other a lot. Tinkerbell cries and howls every time Lilliann is in a different room or outside. Today they were pretty calm around each other, except for play time. We think Lilliann is going to be the follower. She lets Tinkerbell take her treats, bones, and toys right out of her mouth. She doesn't even growl or bark at her. Tinkerbell bites Lilliann like crazy though! She will bite her lip and pull as hard as she can, and Lilliann just looks at her. They are really funny to watch!

~*~ Ashley ~*~

New baby!

We FINALLY got to bring home our new baby yesterday. She is so cute! It has been hard work getting Lilliann used to her. I think Lilliann is a little scared of her, but very curious. She always wants to lick and smell her. She has to be constantly reminded to "be gentle" because the entire puppy is about as big as Lilliann's head! She knocks Tinkerbell around a bit. She always tries to corner her under a table or behind something too.

When we went to bed, I pushed the mattress (since we STILL don't have our bedroom furniture) at an angle to the wall to make a triangle. Then I put down pee pads and a blanket. The puppy was exhausted, and I think she would have slept through the night, but Lilliann kept coming to the crack between the bed and the wall and smelling. Every time it would wake up Tinkerbell and she would cry. After 2 hours of this, we put her in bed with us. It was something I didn't want to do because Lilliann would be jealous, but we had no other option than not sleeping! Tinkerbell slept all night, and Lilliann slept about 5 minutes!

She woke up at 7:00, and I took her outside, fed her breakfast, and played with her for an hour. Then she started to fall asleep in my lap, so we went back to bed for an hour! So far today there have been shifts of playing, sleeping, and trying to make Lilliann stop bothering her. I think after a few days they will be alright together and be friends.

To see all the pictures we having taken so far, click here.

~*~ Ashley ~*~