So many things have happened in the almost TWO months since I've written on this thing. In no particular order, here we go...
First, these are my boys right here... my dogs.
These guys battled through another tough season and regardless of the record, I think we came out on top. I wish I was this awesome when I was five.
Julie (aka Hoolie) is a relatively new friend of ours - who hasn't been over in a while :( - and she has just been awesome to have around. She is a youth ministry leader for St. James Pres and had to figure out a service opportunity for her kids for a day. Well, we were pretty surprised and excited when she decided our
backyard would be it. We still hadn't finished our patio and had millions of bricks we ne
eded out of our garage. They were amazing. I left in the morning for a Cucumber game and by the time I got back, they were finished. It was like seeing/feeling the other side of the service projects I had been involved in... when you're doing the work, you don't really understand how much you're truly helping... but when it's being done for you, it is simply incredible how much work gets done that would have taken us weeks or months to complete.
A week or so later, we "hired" out a couple people from The Annex ministry in Boulder to
finish up the yard. Every year, the Annex sends 20 or so college students on two month long mission trips around the world on a program called Messenger and a bunch of people volunteer to help raise their support. So the money we spent went towards those 20 or so people leaving this summer for the Philippines or Kenya or Swaziland or Greece I think (Katie, Chaz and I went on Messenger to Hungary, Swaziland and Austria respectively). So anyway, Becka Phillipson and Jacob Oliver came and worked with Jeff and some others to fine tune the back yard.
Thank you for all your help guys. Our yard and patio is a big part of this house and what we want to do. It wouldn't have happened without you. And neither would this:
With our next door neighbors, the house and our next door neighbors put on a Memorial Day party on Monday. We handed out flyers and invited pretty much everyone and anyone. It was... phenomenal. I don't know how many people came, but it was a lot. We were worried because of the rain, but that didn't seem to stop anyone. We had neighbors and friends and family and neighbors and friends and family and friends and family and neighbors came. We had food and music and dancing (really just me and Britt had a dance party, everyone else was a little shy) and threw the baseball and played with Kiley and it was so sick. If you were there, you know. If you weren't, make sure you come next time/get invited cause you are anyway. Everyone came and everyone was instantly family. People from the band were hanging out with people from Brittney's work. My mentee's family was meeting my family. Neighbors finally know each other's names and know they have friends down the street. It was family. I can't explain it differently. For someone who missed out on that for most of his life, it was so awesome to see. I can't think of a better day I've had here. Thanks to those who came. Love. So awesome.
Every week we have a meeting host who picks an activity or whatever for us to do. In the last few weeks, we've had yoga in the park (Brittney has found her calling), competed in video games (Pete won... barely), went to a Speakeasy Tiger event, and last week we gave each other nick names:
Peter - Petre (A Land Before Time) (2nd place was Twinkle Fingers)
Katrina - Wiglet (2nd place was Katarunga - yoga reference - but Jeff really really liked "Kat Box")
Lindsey - Phil (Mary started with "Fulfill", but it then became just Phil... you can thank the boys for that one) (2nd place was maybe "Chefoodador" - Katie gave everyone dinosaur names)
Chaz - The P.P. (a very close second place was "Slippy")
Kelley - Fuckles (a combination between funny and chuckles... 2nd place was Buckcrackalacka)
Jeff - Fuzzy Limone (Jeff's were hard because he was the last one and we were all really tired but I named him Hyperbolic Chamber because he uses a lot of hyperboles... I still think it's the best)
Katie - El Bronto (because she likes brontosaurouses... she came up with this one herself) (2nd place was Pickles)
Brittney Fu - Lordshiod (when she types "Josephine" into her phone, Lordshiod comes up instead so... yeah)
Mary - 'Boot (2nd place was Maryboo... we have this joke that Mary should go to Caribou - where she works - and pitch the slogan "Caribou, we care aboooot everyone" so thats where the boot and boo comes from)
Miscellaneous stuff:
Kiley had a skin biopsy done on her rash... Three vets and CSU don't know what it is and so it is now being shipped to Purdue to be looked at by the Gregory House of veterinarians. I graduated. Britt cut two strings from a shirt thing and then tied them together and wore them on her head and she really looked hippie-like... I guess you had to be there. Speakeasy Tiger looks to be on the road of stardom. They are playing at Red Rocks Ampitheatre at some point this summer. We went to one of their shows last weekend at an outdoor venue and danced in the rain... it was sweet. They are sweet. You are sweet. Hmmm... I need something salty... BRB (be right back). At dinner the other night, I remarked to Chaz, "Do you suppose there will be a dishes fairy who comes tonight and cleans all our dishes for us?" He responded, "Yeah, in a pink thong and pink boa." He was right... It was awesome. The Cucumbers are done with another season. I'm pretty sure we only won one game, but trust me, we are winners. They are the coolest people on this earth. Go to my album on facebook to see pictures of them.
the house '09 - '10 report: Brittney is in. Chaz is in. I am in. AND (collective gasp) we have two new members! Robby Cella and Emi Reeves will be living with us, whether that may be, attempting to live as a family and create real community for each other and others. Robbie is a handsome, strong, smart, good-looking, striking, and gorgeous man that plays Halo. So I'm pumped. I don't know Emy very well, but word on the street is she straight up dope. And if I've learned anything this year, everyone is dope. So Emy, I'm excited to see just how dope you are. Dope. So we have five. We'd like five more... we need to tell our landlord if we're staying in this house or not on July 1st.
