Snowed in...

So Denver got hit with a respectable winter storm over the past couple days, totaling up to 27 inches in some parts of the Mile High city. While this type of snow might not shut down a robust Midwestern city, we Coloradans aren't used to snow that lasts longer than 24 hours. Snow removal in these parts is almost exclusively the sole responsibility of that giant ball of burning gasses in the sky (a.k.a. the sun).

At any rate, I have benefited from two consecutive snow days and am crossing my fingers for a third! I know I sound a little greedy, but if you had twenty pairs of eyes staring at you all day you'd be ready for a break too :)

On my first snow day I drove Amanda to work, and hung out at the Hospital cafeteria catching up on grading until the campus was officially closed in the early afternoon. We took advantage of the free time and headed to the mall with Amanda's brother Greg. We capped off the night with a riveting game of Rook.

Day 2 wasn't quite as eventful, but equally delightful. Amanda had the whole day off too and we hung out at her apartment most of the day watching movies and only left once to get some groceries.

Anyway, the scrumptious aroma of pumpkin pie is beginning to fill the air. I’m going to investigate…

Still house-hunting

For the past two months Amanda and I have been looking for a house - after all, what better way to decide what to put on our registry than to buy a new place and see what needs to be added! Anyway, it's been a painfully slow and slightly frustrating process thus far. We started out looking at townhomes and steadily bumped up our price limit after not finding exactly what we wanted. There have been a handful of houses we liked and a few we even put offers in on, but the long and short of it is people out here think it's perfectly ok to list their house for $30,000 above the appraisal rate! We still have our fingers crossed to get a deal done before the tax credit expires at the end of November.

This past weekend Justin and Sarah were in town with their two little ones, shopping in the big city and visiting friends and family. This gave my bride-to-be the opportunity to talk about dresses with her flower girl, Anna. While she was dissappointed that the wedding wasn't actually happening this weekend like she thought, she is still very excited to dress up like a princess next summer.

I also got to play baby-sitter as Justin and Sarah went shopping. Since Amanda was conveniently at work I had to roll up my sleeves and change my fourth diaper ever - and it was a solid one! Little Johnny sure downs his protein shakes :)

And on tap we'll have...

Coors light (this is a nod to our Rocky Mountain neighbor, Golden) and Pearl Street's Down Town Brown - really, did you think Amanda would want to serve anything less?

Next, this is where I'd tell you exactly what the menu is, except - as will soon be verified by the inventory we took at our first pre-marital counseling session - I’m not the best listener and can't remember much more than chicken and beef. Oh, and this will be served up buffet style, so you can have as much or as little as you like!

Ok, those are minor details compared to everything I else I have to report on. So things really fell into place while Amanda was home a couple weekends ago. Besides arranging the church and reserving the reception hall, she also found her dress (the exact one in the picture she had been carrying around as the example of what she wanted!), her bridesmaids’ dresses, a DJ, a cake maker, a florist and a caterer. Needless to say, she keeps making my job easier and easier.

We also started our pre-marital counseling a little over a week ago with Dave. We got out our #2 pencils (well, actually they were Dave’s) and took a 165 question scantron test with Likert scales and all – made us feel like we were back in school! I have to admit I did peak at some of Amanda’s answers, but it’s hard not to resist when half of the questions she’s answering were about me. Some of the questions really made us chuckle – like the one that stated, “I am often embarrassed by my partner”, or “My partner is a good listener.” Anyway, we’re excited to get the results back so we can start to discuss her strengths and my weaknesses :)