Cooking with the Leonards!

And by that I mean Aaron! It's that time of year again, Christmas cookies!!! On the menu this year, my favorite; Peanutbutter Balls, Russian Tea Cakes, Wreath cookies and of course the Gingerbread Houses! Now that we have a kitchen where we can actually walk around it's much more relaxed!
We're going to attempt 8-10 houses that my family will come up and decorate in a few weeks. I'm having a hard time with the peanutbutter balls because he left the dough out and I keep walking by stealing bites here and there, if I keep this up we'll have to start all over, Sad Day!
The best part is the family room is just off the kitchen and we can see the TV from the counter so we're watching all the classic Christmas Movies while we bake.

1st day of Fall or Winter??

We've headed up to Frisco, CO for a few days. Little did we know we'd be in a Winter Storm Warning! That's why we love Colorado. We're having way too much fun up here with mom and dad. They brought up bicycles and I'm thinking we should have brought the snow shoes instead! The best part is seeing the colors that are starting to change with snow on the ground. It's just beautiful. Well off to play in the mountains some more today!

Wow

So I'm such a slacker, June has been way busy. I amd going to try and update this soon... Weekend camping trips, Fathers Day on the Lake, Crazy Weather and Tomorrow Aaron's sister and our neice comes to our house. You can bet there will be pictures to add!!! Hope to have a spare minute to update this

SPRING BLIZZARD!!!!!

So we woke up this morning to quite a blizzard. We've gotten about 11" of snow so far. It's 3:36 pm. Aaron made it to work 26 miles North in Ft. Collins. I haven't left the house!! I've been busy making brownies, hot chocloate. Have a fire going in the fireplace. Oh ya cleaned the house and laundry. We're supposed to have our open house this Sunday. The storm is supposed to clear out tomorrow am and be in the 50's Saturday and Sunday. So I just have to scrape the deiveway and sidewalk. Should be fun in the wind!! The crazy thing is... I love it! I got out my snowshoes so if the wind dropps off, I may go for a "walk" around the neighborhood!

Hanging out with the family

This week my Sister-in-law had to be admitted to the hospital for some abdominal pains. Come to find out there is an issue with her pancerias. The good news is I got to hang out with my nephew and nieces for the day. They moved to Colorado from LA last summer and moved in not to far away from Dad's firestation. So they got a 1 on 3 personal tour of the Fire House. They loved it!! Even the 2 year old thought it was "pretty". Here was our day...

Life finally back to normal

Whew, moving is hard work and I never want to do it again! We finally got the last box moved and all the extra trash to the dump. You don't realize how much unnecessary stuff you actually have till you pick it up piece by piece and put it in a box to go back to the basement. I was very proud of myself and got rid of a bunch of stuff. It's still in the basement, but it's in a garage sale pile.


The fun part is now we can decorate and make this house ours. I'll take some pictures when the random clutter is put away. Still have hammers and screwdrivers in random places. My dad hung a book case for me only it didn't match. Well I found left over paint from the owners and painted that sucker purple!!! It matches the walls now and looks like a Barbie Book case. No mom, you can't store your 50 some Barbies...it's MINE!!!

And now the work begins

So now that we're proud home owners, the work begins, while testing all the pipes we discovered that the outside sprinkler valve cracked as well at the master shower. The only good thing is that the back of our shower is our vanity with easy access. New patch of drywall, some texture and paint and it's brand new.
My grandparents came up this past Monday to "see the house" well they saw it all right, ever square inch. Grandma set her self to cleaning baseboards, closets, behind toilets, and windows. Grandpa started taking down the blinds in the kitchen so we could start ripping that down. Today we primed the kitchen and tomorrow while Aaron and myself are at work, Dad and Brian are going to come up and texture so we can paint and hopefully get moving in soon. While grandpa and I tackled the kitchen Aaron and Dad set to some demo work, the section above the fireplace had a TV cut out, but not one that will fit our flatscreen so they set to tear out the old and build in new. That too needs texture tomorrow and paint and then we'll be set there. In 3 days we've moved almost everything. Just the stuff we need to live is still at the old house and hopefully as soon as we get a fridge we can move on over!!!! I can't wait, I'm tired of living on chip and warm pop. We'll off to bed so I can go to work and rest!!!!

It's finally ours!!!

Paise God! We finally have official word the house is ours. All we need to do is close. Which is set Jan 27. We'll get the carpets cleaned, get new appliances, take down the wallpaper in the kitchen and do a little remodel job above the fireplace so Aaron's TV will fit. We're aiming to move in the 2nd week of February. I'm giddy I'm so excited, this has been a long 22 weeks.

Happy 2009!

Well hopefully this year brings a house, and a full time job in Northern Colorado for me, we'll see what God's plans for the Leonards' are...

Aaron and I "rung" in the new year with our best (colorado) friends. We played Monopoly on Aaron's new Xbox until 11:57. Then we watched New Years with Carson. Very exciting I have to tell you. We took these "New Years" pictures, then we kicked out our friends and went to bed!

Gingerbread Houses

Our new Christmas tradition is decorating Gingerbread Houses, this is year 3. I have a feeling we'll be doing it forever, and I hope we do. It's so fun, although we all get stomachaches when were done! Maybe if we put candy on the houses and not in our mouths! Mom was telling someone at bowling she was going to her daughters to decorate houses, and the lady said "Oh she must have children." NOPE! 6 grown adults sitting around a table full of candy and having a great time. We've learned from years past that the houses can't handle too much hard candy, last year mom's roof slid off!!! We've learned that piles of icing make cute snowmen, until they fall over. Friday, I was at Childrens Hospital and learned Necco candy make great shingles. Two years ago we learned from Brian that powered sugar makes great snow, and a lot makes a blizzard! (and a mess!)

The tradition handed down is that your supposed to give your house away to someone who needs (cavities). I usally take mine to work, mom's giving hers to her Sunday School class because they were so good in their Christmas play last weekend. I think Dad's is going to be a Christmas Eve family treat.

Nothing Much

Looking back I realize I haven't posted in a while. The truth is not much more is going on. We're still waiting on the house, I think were week 13 or 14, I've honestly lost count. How ever long ago Labor Day was. With Aaron on "short term disability" the lenders are "hesitant" to lend to us right now until Aaron can get working and right now there isn't a spot for him on light duty to fill 40 hours a week. He can work about 20 but then we loose the AFLAC.
I didn't get the full time spot up here in Ft. Collins so I'm staying full time in Aurora. I love my my team but the upper management is getting old, the drive is getting old and to top it off E-470, the toll road I take to work to avoid I-25 & I-70 at rush hour is going up the first of the year.

Week... 13!!

Yes, that's right folks, week 13.
We've been attempting to buy a house for 13 weeks now!! We were told by the bank that we needed to increase our orginal offer by $5200.00, so we did. We send in Aaron's most current pay stub and bank statement. You'd think we would be set... WRONG! Since my addorable husband went and broke himself he's been on short term disability for about a month now. Which our lender didn't like, They'd rather have a paystub with hours worked. ARG! Aaron had a Dr.'s apt this morning, and he's been blessed to do light duty. Ya!! So hopefully after he's got a pay stub we can try again.
He was also told he can take his boot off and can sleep in bed again, he's not enjoying sleeping on the couch very much.

Also I wasn't offered the full time position at Poudre Valley Ambulance. I cried. But I guess I'm not supposed to work there full time. This is a real test for me because I hate my drive into work and the toll road (which I use to get to work) is going up, and to top it off the house were I stay with my friend isn't the mose plesent living environment!
Well that's all for now, hopefully I'll have house news soon.

My Broken Hubby

So my hyper active husband is now confined to a couch. He pulled his achlies tendon and is out of work untill about January.

He was playing soft ball, caught the ball and stood up to throw it, he said he felt this burning shooting pain and went down. He got help off the field. I went over and he said we needed to go to the ED. The doc did an ultrasound of his leg and confirmed what we knew. Surgery was in the near furture. He was in a walking boot for 2 weeks. Had surgery on the 21st of Oct. Had a cast for 3 weeks, now he's back in the walking boot for 3 weeks before he goes back to see when he can start physical therapy. He's been putting in hours and hours on the computer, it's pretty much the only activity he can stand to do without getting too stir crazy. I'm acutally surpised he let me on the computer tonight! He's actually upstairs playing video games now. I told him when he can walk again I'm getting rid of the computer and TV for like 2 months!

Oh and my friends's husband Chris had a foot injury also so they were the "gimpy twins"! His other friend Chris than sprained his ankle. I've decided he can't play with his friends any more, they all end up hurt!

Still Waiting...

So we've been trying to by a house now for the past 11 weeks. I believe we started this process around Labor Day. It's quite frustrating. Although it's been so long now I sometimes forget we're even in process. I'm only reminded when someone asks or I go into my craft room which is literally half full of empty boxes. I refuse to pack until we know for sure. Good thing, half of the thing I was planning on packing I've needed.

Steamboat

We spent a wonderful week with Mom, Dad, Brian and his adorable girlfriend in steamboat. I won't say it was relaxing, we hardly sat down, bike rides, waterskiing, hiking, you name it we did it.

House quite a headache

Aaron and I are in the wonderful process of trying to by a house. We're in week 3 of not knowing what's going on. We put the bid on the house at the begining of September with a tentative closing date of the 24th. As of now I doubt this will happen next week. We're getting e-mail updates fron the listing agent by way of our Realitor. The owners have accepted our offer, we're just waiting for their bank to accept it. I'm having a hard time not getting to excited. That would make a "NO" that much more painful. I keep wanting to buy stuff for the "new house" towels, rugs, etc. I got a car load of boxes that I refuse to pack until we have an answer one way or another. A friend from work gave us a dog house for the dog we don't have for the house we don't have. She was going to get rid of it anyway. Someday we'll have a house and dog, I was just looking to the future, that's all!

Here Goes Nothing

So I'm new to the bloggins world. Please be kind