In short, we had a great time at my sister’s wedding reception in August, we searched for a new place to call home, John left the country and spent some time down under, I searched and searched and searched and searched for houses, John came home, we found a house, bought that house, and now we have a home.  I’m sure there are about 100,000 little stories I’m no telling, but for the time being I think this will suffice.

This has turned out to be a year that I will never forget.  Some of it good, some of it bad, some of it scary, and some of it sad.  This year has forced me to step back and appreciate every single day.  Every single moment.  Every beautiful sunset over the mountains.  Every time I get to tell my family I love them.

I am thankful this year that I got the opportunity to live.  I am thankful for the love of my life and his ability to love me when I don’t deserve it.  I am thankful for clean water, food and a chance to breathe clean air.  I am grateful for everything I can afford: my clothing, our car, our home and everything in it.  I am thankful that my husband had 3 weeks off to help move into our new home.  I am thankful for my friends near and far who have supported my decisions and shown me a love that sometimes I don’t feel capable of.  I am thankful for my family who keep it real, keep it lively and keep on loving.

There’s so much more that I’m thankful for but this tops my list.

I certainly could not have said it better myself.  A Tale of Two Cities, or 3 moves, or whatever.  With 4 months left to the year I can only imagine what is left for us to endure.

The beginning of the year meant recording a new album for John and separation for our married life as he was spending more time in Nashville then in Denver (From March-mid July John was home about 35 days).  We thought we’d be adventurous and try a move here in Denver, closer to the city and our friends.  I was hoping it would cure my loneliness and aching heart.  It ended up being a complete nightmare after our home was being stalked and someone tried breaking in while we were sleeping.  It ended up being the last on a long list of experiences that drove us out of that home.  It’s a horrible feeling knowing someone is watching your every move and calculating their own.  So we moved back to our previous home and started over.

As much as I thought life would settle down it proved me wrong.  We took a vacation back to MN to visit with family and I spent some time with my dying grandmother.  I held her hand and talked with her as she was slipping away from this life.  The morning after our return back to Denver she passed, and my other grandmother took a fall that fractured her spine.  So we hopped another flight and spent even more time in MN.

Things were calm for a bit but that must have been boring for us.  I traveled to see John over the 4th of July weekend.  I started off in the exciting city of Omaha and we stopped over in Madison for the 4th.  John had recently purchased a moped and in the wee morning hours of the 5th, in a parking lot somewhere outside of Madison, he took a trip over the handle bars of his bike.  It didn’t seem that bad at first but it was and we ended up in the emergency room at Meriter.  7 stitches, some nasty bruises and scrapes later we were on our way.

So here we are in August.  Life appears great.  John’s had a super light touring schedule, we were settling into our home and enjoying our time together.

And then we got a letter in the mail.  It wasn’t from anyone we knew.  It was from a real estate company, informing us that the property we are currently living in is being foreclosed and going into auction.  WHAT!?  So I contacted our property management company.  They said they didn’t know a thing about it and would contact the owner.  So we waited a day or so.  I was thinking it was a mistake.  Certainly we always paid our rent on time, we even agreed to a higher rental rate in order to have a more flexible rental contract.  But oh, it was right.  On Friday August 21th our property management company called to let us know that they were immediately terminating their contract with the owner (they don’t work with foreclosed properties) and that our current contract would be transferred to the owner.  After talking with the owner we discovered that the property is in foreclosure and while she’s working to try to save it, it has been scheduled for public auction and we are going to have to move.  Fortunately for us, our contract goes through the end of November and the auction is the beginning of December and so we will be able to stay until the end of November unless something else comes up.

So the moving boxes are out and ready.  I’m thinking for my 3rd move this year I should be an old pro!  We’ve already purged many of our unused items and scaled down what we didn’t need.  We’re hoping to stay in the Denver metro, but I’m not quite sure where.

I know I’m going to look back on this some day and laugh.  In fact, I’ve been laughing at a lot of this along the way.  Through all of the craziness we’ve experience more good than bad and we are sincerely blessed to have this life.  I can’t wait to see what the autumn brings!

We needed to move on quickly as we were preparing for our friends to visit us from Arizona.  We had a wonderful time!  It didn’t snow much for them but I think they enjoyed the weather regardless.  After they left we got a good foot of snow.  Yippee!!!

pre-snowstorm

John left to head back to work, and our home was eerily quiet.  So quiet in fact that I decided it was time for us to move into the city.  I’ve been looking to move closer to downtown since last fall, but just didn’t see anything that appealed to my list of demands (or our price point!).  Sure enough, as soon as John hit the airport to go out of town I found our new place.  I viewed it, liked it, and signed on it that weekend.  Once again, John has proven to be the most trusting, patient husband I know.  He has yet to see a home that we move into before we actually sign the papers on it.

So now we’re painting and making that little house our home.  We’ve been slowly moving in between John’s trips and my work schedule.  We’re excited to be nearer to our friends and walking distance to downtown.

John’s busy recording a new album in Nashville and I’m finishing up my last weeks in the school district that I’ve taught in for almost 4 years now.  My how time flies!  Speaking of time, thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate my birthday.  It was a blast!

Now I need to start planning for John’s big 3-0 coming up this summer.  Dang, I’ve never been married to a 30-year-old before…

It hardly snowed here in Denver, in fact, the weather was rather pleasant.  Being a child of the upper mid-west, we had our share of cold, wet winters.  I remember as a child, waking up to snow so deep I could hardly see over the top of it.  It was great!

I always liked the snow, just not the cold.  I still say it was the cold that drove me away from MN, but it’s the warm hearts that keep bringing us back.  Ha!

A couple weeks ago my friends and I filled some Ziplock bags with food and headed out on the Denver streets to pass them out.  It was a slow start for us.  The night was the coldest of the year so far and most of the homeless and destitute could be found in lines to get into shelters.  We passed out a few bags, but the one that I remember in particular was a man who we saw on the side of the road with a grocery cart of his belongings.  His appearance was not that different from the other people we saw on the streets that night.  His words, however, were simple, profound and encouraging.  When we asked him if he’d like some food his response included a huge smile and he said, “God always provides when you need it the most.”  Those words stung me, as I am often caught up in the materialism of our society.  We are faced daily with commercials and advertisements telling us we need more, newer, bigger and better in our lives.

Last week our church headed out to a care center called Park Forest.  Members of our church could “adopt” a resident and provide that person with gifts that were requested.  I was pretty bummed because by the time I made it to church (we had been out of town) all of the names had been taken.  I mean, this is a wonderful problem to encounter, but last year we really enjoyed helping out and I was looking forward to participating.  So I threw myself something short of a pity party and had decided I wasn’t going to go to the gift giving since I had nothing to give.

As my week progressed, I received a call from John inviting me to go to the Leno show.  I had thought about it, but just couldn’t justify it in my mind.  No problem, until the day of the Park Forest party.  John continued to text me that day, sharing all the fun happenings of the Leno show.  The surprise appearance of Fred Willard, the elaborate set, Tom Wilson and his amazing kindness, and Jim Carrey as one of the guests.  My full on pity party had begun.  As I was moving through my day it started to hit me that I was being a selfish twit.  I had so much to be grateful for, and yet here I was feeling sorry for myself because I was missing out on one day of walking past celebrities in hallways.  I pulled myself together and made plans to go to Park Forest.  It was one of those nights where images are burned into the back of your mind forever.  Some of the requests from the residents were elaborate.  HD TV’s and iPhones.  Other’s were so simple it broke my heart.  Socks, sweatpants, Oreo cookies, and apple pies.  We take for granted the fact that, for the most part, we can just go to the store and buy the food we want.  We buy the name brand clothes that fit us best and are in style that season.  There were few name brands mentioned on the Park Forest gift lists.  Mostly the name brands were for foods.

I met some of the residents and spent time passing out gifts.  Perhaps the most touching moment of my night was went I happened to see a man who had asked for a Teddy Bear.  He sat in the party room for the entire evening hugging the bear as if it were his only worldly possession (which it very well may have been).  I wasn’t there when he received it, but I heard he cried when he did.  I heard that most of the people in the room teared up as they watched.

This was a great lesson for me as it’s easy to become wrapped up in ourselves and what we feel we are missing in our lives.  The reality that we need to be reminded of is that there are so many among us that have much less.  As I was cruising Craigslist this holiday season there was a woman requesting food.  I felt compelled to give her a gift certificate to a local grocery store.  I tried to do it as anonymously as possible, but my e-mail address was attached to my request for her address.  After sending the gift, I received an e-mail back.  This woman said she has worked her whole life, but was diagnosed with cancer and soon lost her job and ended up on disability.  Her disability was meager, and by the third week of most months she was out of money and food.  She only requested leftovers from peoples meals to help her through the final weeks of the month.  Her embarrassment of having to ask for food was evident in our communications, but she said she was desperate.

We begin to realize the importance of the little things in life.  The joy of seeing a smile on someone’s face, the blessings of being able to afford the basic necessities.  My life is filled with many blessings that I will forever be grateful for.  I hope that my life will be filled with humility and grace, patience and understanding for those in the world around me.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

We always had good times going to our friends house and playing flashlight tag until the late hours of the evening.  They had a HUGE yard with a densely wood area behind a huge open field.  There’s nothing like running around in the dark, with a flashlight (often turned off), in the woods nonetheless, and trying to chase down kids that were often 3 or 4 years my senior.  I never won.

There were also the countless house parties I enjoyed throwing.  One Halloween in particular, I was having a party and my parents noticed some teens helping themselves to our table of goodies (not unusual in a household with two teens and a plethora of their friends).  I came inside (the rest of my 15 or so friends were outside playing capture the flag) and confronted the group eating our food.  Turns out, they were some trick-or-treaters who noticed our spread and invited themselves in.  How flattering for us, how unfortunate for them.  They were promptly removed and on their way.

Aside from that, I don’t remember trick-or-treating until I was a teen.  Mom says she took us when we were little, but at my old age I can’t seem to bring back those memories.  As a teen I found that you really have to dress up if you’re going to convince people to give you candy.  What a neat idea.  Dress weird, try to scare people, and then they give you candy and smile.  We ate candy for days.

My first Halloween as John’s girlfriend (this was 9 years ago), John’s band Ace Troubleshooter was playing a show at a local college.  I remember hearing that John was going to be dressing up, but I could never have imagined the spectacle that would be John’s costume.  I remember walking in with my friends and seeing: a skinny guy with a guitar, dressed with a yellow chicken mask, tights, red short shorts, some sort of shirt and a cape.  Hilarity ensued.  It was AWESOME!  I think that was the last Halloween John and I spent together (but that has nothing to do with his choice of Halloween costumes!).

Tonight I’m ready to spend Halloween #2 at my friend Whitney’s house.  They live in a great urban neighborhood with lots of exciting activity always brewing.  If all goes well we’ll feed lots of trick-or-treaters, drink our fill of punch, and maybe see some scoundrels being arrested in the park.  I LOVE IT!

We were close friends growing-up, spending countless hours together through some of what were the the most awkward years of our lives.  We chased boys, drove cars (even crashed them) and broke curfew.  We had fun and talked about our feelings.  As we got older our lives were filled with changes, some good and some bad.  We moved away from home for adventures of our own.  We were living our lives.  Then, at some point, her pain overcame her ability to cope and she took her own life.

It’s never easy dealing with the loss of someone you loved.  There are so many emotions mixed up and so many questions left unanswered.  I don’t cry because I feel bad that I have lost a dear friend.  I will feel that pain inside of me for the rest of my life.  I cry now because someone I loved was in so much pain that they couldn’t deal with it anymore.  I can never understand how she felt just moments before deciding that she couldn’t go on and live this life any longer.

This isn’t the first suicide amongst my friends.  Unfortunately, this is now the third.  The third person I knew whose life was cut unnecessarily short.  I know this topic can often be very controversial and difficult for many to discuss.  It certainly is for me, but that hasn’t stopped me from learning more about it and trying to educate myself on the many topics surrounding it.  There are a lot of feelings mixed in with suicide and death.  A lot of things we’ll never have answers to.  We all have to work through our pain the best way we know how.

I hope to never have to deal with this form of death again, but there are few guarantees in this life.  For now I can love and let my love be known.  I can encourage those around me and look for ways to help those that may need it.  I can keep looking for that bit of sunshine when the sky seems so overcast and cloudy.

June/July marked the four year anniversary of my move out to Denver.  Amidst fire and flood I packed everything I owned four years ago and drove about a thousand miles to my new home.  It’s always a very sentimental time for me as I reflect back on all the inspiring moments which put together the puzzle pieces of my move.  Well, really, I just wanted to leave the arctic winters behind.  I don’t like it when the bottoms of my jeans are wet with salty slush and the only way to warm-up is to sit in the middle of a flaming fireplace.  Cozy, but not practical.  So I moved.  John laughs at me because there are many days when we’ll be driving around the town and I look longingly out at window and say, “I love Denver.”  I just love living here.  I love my home, my friends, the city, my church.  I love the mountains and the seasons, I love the skyline and the streets.  I love watching the sunset every night and never seeing the same thing.  I love how amazing it feels to be 12,000 feet above sea level riding the perfect run on a refreshingly chilling day.  I can hear John laughing as he reads this because I honestly tell him how much I love Denver, like, once a day.

Speaking of John I got to see him recently on the Warped Tour.  Now, I’ve been a longtime fan of Warped.  I started going back in the mid-90’s and even headed over the Wisconsin to see the Warped Tour play alongside Ozzy Ozfest.  That was a crazy, crazy day.  I still have nightmares about all of those old tattooed ladies who must have accidentally crossed over to Warped Tour thinking that they were at Ozfest 15-years prior.  Gross.  Lots of sagging and gross.  Anyways, I’m sidetracking now.  So I got to go see John for their Boston-Long Island run.  It was a great time.  Boston is a cool city and I enjoyed Chinatown (there is definitely no Old Spag Factory in Chinatown, regardless of what google maps says), as well as the public transport and the overly protective amounts of plexiglass at the ticketing counters.  Mansfield was so great, but mostly because it rained!!!  I love hard downpours.  You know, the kind where you’re just soaking wet and there’s simply no way around it.  That doesn’t happen here in Denver, but I remember it from my childhood and I love it!  So we were riding our bikes to McDonald’s and sure enough, it rained on us and we had another mile long bike ride home.  It was fun, although it rained so hard I could have used a pair of goggles.

In New Jersey I got to meet John’s cousin (I guess mine now, too) and his wife and friend.  Very cool times.  His cousin has a chainsaw injury on his hand that I was somehow drawn to.  It’s like, you just can’t look away.  Gross, but kinda cool (after the fact that is).  That night I had my first Philly Cheesesteak.  My only comment is, “huh.  So that’s what all the hype is about (slightly sarcastic but mostly quizzical)?”  I might get beat up for saying that.

I’m back home now and getting back into my routine of work and play.  It’s hot and dry as most desert summers are.  I’ll need to start preparing myself for the Fall of weddings.  Not that weddings are falling, but that they are happening to fall during the Fall.  You get my drift. Anyways,  we have a couple weddings this Fall.  John’s brother shall be betrothed in Canada (eh) and my sister is taking the plunge in Mexico.  We have yet to attend a wedding in the states this year.  How bizarre.  I hear getting married in the states during the fall is so overrated.  I couldn’t agree more…

Here’s what Thundersnow is:

“Thundersnow is formed when temperatures in the lower atmosphere is relatively warm (it was 48 degrees Friday afternoon). The air is then lifted quickly. Because warmer air can have a higher moisture content there are lots of liquid water droplets in the clouds.

These droplets are violently smashed together in the rapid up and down drafts in the cloud. This ionizes the droplets, creating positively and negatively charged water droplets. Just like shuffling your feet over carpet this creates static electricity. When the static electricity is discharged it is lightning.

Thunder is the shock wave that the air makes as it quickly expands when the lightning passes through it, then contracts after the lightning bolt dissipates.”

Our rental car was one of those fun little keyless wonders. How odd to just push a button to unlock the doors, start the engine or brew a cup of coffee. We quite easily found our way downtown and settled into our not-so-luxurious but ever-so convenient hotel room. We would later learn as the evening progressed that our hotel parking lot was a meeting spot for persons with loud outdoor voices and the inability to close a car door in the first 4 tries. How nice for them.

Our weekend was spent shopping, walking, and exploring the streets of Seattle. We really enjoyed the Pike Place Market as well as the downtown shopping district!

Although overcast and rainy most of the weekend, I really enjoyed the weather. How nice to have a few days of constant downpours and dark skies. It even snowed a bit which I guess is unusual for that area. The snowflakes were of the large fluffy variety and soaking wet to the bone.

All-in-all my favorite part of the town was a little area called Capitol Hill. We only had a few passing moments to spend there but we instantly knew we’d be back.

On a sad side note, Monday night was Dave’s last night on tour with RK. While they have a couple more shows together, I couldn’t help but shed a few tears of sadness at the thought of not seeing Dave out on tour again. John always has stories about himself and Dave and all the little things they have in common and oddities they share. Like leather gloves and a love for Star Trek. Dave played a bit of guitar in John’s old band and we’ve known him for quite a long while. I know from past experiences that friendships can easily span thousands of miles and so I know that we’ll be seeing Dave again, but my heart was still sad.

Anyways, we had fun at the shows, and less fun driving on the flooded roadways, but overall our trip was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to get back to Seattle. Hopefully sooner than later…