A lot of an update

Wowza, I have not written a post in FOREVER! We've been busy busy and it has been easy to eliminate blogger from the to do list lately. But now here we are, its almost MARCH and there are all sorts of things to share.

Work Work Work...

okay, this isn't work, but I don't take pictures of myself at work... so, this is me.

I have two pretty new managers and some changes to our cooking procedures so its been busy at work even though this is the "slow time of the year." Sales are up from last year, so that is always encouraging. And, business slowly starts picking up faster and faster from pretty much now until... well until we are slammed all the time (about mid May). We just keep building towards being ready for that. Progress is being made on the the two new restaurants my company is building this year in Colorado and things are good though there is always a project of some kind when you are the boss. Oh! I also got to go to Albuquerque for my first ever big girl business trip the end of January. It was for a GM conference. Fancy pants, right?

Pete...

Peter snowshoe trip January 8, 2012

Is still working towards having his own business. Well, he has the business, now its the making it successful part. Some days he finds more discouraging than others but for the most part he is excited about being his own boss and the work he is doing.

Ursa..

Is a little brown dog who loves to run and jump and play ball and cuddle. And she does all of those things every day, so her life continues to be pretty perfect.

My Health...

snowshoeing in horsethief park, January 2012

My favorite Pinot Noir lately. Not only is it called middle sister... the pinot noir is called goodie two shoes. Yep, that was me in my family all right, except that those would be boys on each side of me...

Seems to be good. While I got caught with my first cold in over a year the end of January, it passed quickly and I continue to feel increasingly better. My energy level is WAY up relatively speaking, I've been working out some, and we've been eating much better. So the prognosis, at least from my perspective is going to be as good as it can be when I go back for my six month post-op ultrasound in April. I do still have sensitivity in my belly from scar tissue (and just my actual scar that still itches a lot, thank you dry winter) so I tend towards skirts, leggings, and pajama pants. Pete doesn't seem to mind the super casual wardrobe choices, and his opinion is all I care about.

Our life...

Has been non-stop! In January we bought our first major appliance together, a used fridge off craigslist. After nearly a year of trying to make eating at home a priority with only a small  (not the miniest mini fridge, but pretty darn small!) refrigerator, we decided it was time to upgrade. And we did. It was a minor investment for something that has made a major change in our lives. We make dinner at home almost every day (at least 6 nights a week), eat way more vegetables, are constantly trying out new recipes... and to share in the joy of all that is the fact that Pete has been helping with the cooking... AND EVEN THE DISHES!

Steak, eggplant puree, and green beans 

We started the year putting our Christmas gifted snowshoes to good use, but in the last month, there hasn't been enough snow nearby!

Frozen waterfall, horsethief park

 We have still been doing some hiking and been making pretty good use of our gym membership. No camping recently, but we are excited to get a trip in SOON. We did buy an awesome map of the pikes peak area and have all sorts of day and camping trips planned.

I discovered this on pinterest. Cook apple over fire, peel off burned skin, roll in cinnamon and sugar. SOOO Good! You'll never think about a s'more again!!!!

 We went up to try and find a WWII era plane crash on a nearby mountain but it was very very windy and the area was rather snow covered, so we will have to look again another time.

Blodgett Peak. World War II era crash on other side. We hiked and hiked, but the 50+ mile an hour winds got to us, and we headed home before finding the crash site.

From the summit of Blodgett Peak. Gorgeous views, I wish the wind hadn't been blowing us over!

More recently, we bought a car!!! After YEARS of talking about how we should have two vehicles for two active, working adults, we did it and bought one. Just this past weekend we found a red 2009 Toyota Rav4. I LOVE IT!

We christened the new car with a drive and picnic up Old Stage Road. Less than 24 hours and in need of a carwash... yup! Definitely our car!!!

 It is a big upgrade from driving a '98 jeep which while we still have and love, but we are looking forward to being able to put less miles on it as it is... getting up there in age and miles.
We have also stepped up our home brewing with two batches (and a third to start in the next couple of days) working currently. Up first is an India pale ale, very hoppy.

Secondary fermentation in glass carboy. Currently there, Celebration Ale

 We just bottled it tonight.

Bottling.

 And while it smells amazing, it has nearly three times the hops we have used in past recipes and I'm no hop-head... but that won't keep me from giving it a try in two weeks when the bottling phase finishes and its carbonated. We also moved our celebration ale from primary to secondary fermentation.

That means about three weeks to finished and wow does that seem like it will be the most perfect beer in the entire world. Our next batch will be a dunkelweiss. Pete is a fan of dunkels because of his time in Germany, I am excited about this because our favorite beer ever was a micro brew called "pompous ass" (dunkelweiss) at the San Marcos Brewery in California. We are far from San Marcos, but our version of a dunkel is just 4-5 short weeks away. The other wonderful thing at San Marcos was their hot wings. Pete says there is nothing better with Dunkel than hot wings. Perhaps we will have a hot wings and home brew party when its ready.
As wonderful as life is, there are still moments of grief.

 They are getting smaller and further between for the most part, though as Carter's birthday grows ever sooner, I hesitate at what the day will bring. I probably am dreading it and imagining it to be worse than it actually will be (or that is my hope) but much like the other days I expected hard (mother's day, the 6th of every month this past year, etc) I am just trying not to set my expectations of what I can or cannot do. I've come up with some ideas. Doing good deeds to brighten someone else's day, finally placing the geocache we had made in her memory (see more about another of our strange hobbies, geocaching here). But... I think we will just take it as it comes. Gently, slowly, doing whatever we need to do to keep our sanity... similar to how we have approached much of the last year.

I am crafting... I've done some small projects as time allows. I enjoy each thing I come up with... but with work and all the hobbies we enjoy together, crafts are not the first priority...

Needle felted bunny and honey bees