New Shoes...

It's hard to tell in these pictures, but they are a deep eggplant purple wedge
made in Italy.

We had an extended silent auction at work where we were able to bid on some pretty cool items for a much discounted rate all to help the museum. They were all leftover from the Museum's Big Birthday Bash @ the end of May. I won 2 things. I guess I should use the term won loosely as I actually paid $57 for them, but hey it was a steal. I won a several hundred dollar facial from a nice skin care spa, which I'm going to let Jesse have and a pair of retro looking shoes that retail for $525. Jesse thinks I should sell the shoes. Part of me wants to wear them and part of me is terrified to wear them, because I know how much they're worth & knowing me I'll scuff them up. I see where he's coming from. I could sell them on line and make a sweet profit, but I kind of want to keep them and pretend I have money. When will I ever have a pair of shoes this nice? NEVER! that's when. I think the most expensive pair of shoes I ever bought myself cost $50 and those were essential snow boots. Let me have my Sex in The City girly moment and enjoy my expensive shoes. Maybe they'll live in my closet for a while and I'll pull them out to look at them, but never wear them until one day when I'm desperate for money and I sell them on eBay. Who knows?

Ideal Fathers...

On Father's day 3 years ago the original members of Ideal Father's held their 1st live show in a basement @ a house party. Oh how far they've come! Congratulations on 3yrs as a band and congratulations on making it this far. Cheers to the future!

Happy Father's day to all the Fathers out there from your Ideal Fathers.

Happy Father's Day...

In my family Father's Day is a big deal. We have a yearly tradition where all the dads get up early to go fishing (my dad's favorite past time) and then the kids & the ladies meet up with them around 11am for a big beautiful brunch. The tradition started years ago with our immediate family & the Powells (my parent's best friends), but since it's inception the tradition has caught on and added lots of new members. Since I moved to Denver this has been one of the many traditions that it kills me to miss. I haven't been fishing in years, but going fishing with my dad & brother are some of my best memories as a kid. Happy Father's Day Daddy Father John! I miss you & mom & and I really wish I could have been there with you to celebrate today.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, especially Jared. We're glad to hear you are home safe & hope you get to enjoy your 1st father's day.

Westword Music Showcase...

This year the guys got to play the Westword Music Showcase. They played the first time slot @ noon on Saturday, but they still managed to pull in a big crowd. They enjoyed playing early and still having time to check out all the bands they wanted to. Mike P. (the drummer) made breakfast for everyone that morning and then the guys headed down to get set up before the show. I met them down town later in the day. It was a long hot day that ended in a crazy rainstorm. We ended up heading home around 6pm even though the shows continued on until 9pm. We were both so exhausted. The awards ceremony from all the online voting doesn't actually happen until next month, I guess, so we're still waiting to hear how well they did for that. Keep your fingers crossed and go Vote if you haven't yet. The link to vote is in a previous post. Follow the link for a review of the show on Westword backbeat website.

Mike King (the bass player) had a little fun Nintendo-izing the song Failing @ Friendly is Not an Option and turning it in to Failing @ Nintendo is Not an Option. Follow the link to the Ideal Father's Myspace and Check it out.

Craft time...

With all the birthdays, graduations, mother's day, father's day, babies being born we've decided that making our own cards is the way to go. We try to get cards out to everyone, but please don't be offended if we miss your day. Jesse's got 6 siblings several with spouses and 7 nieces and nephews that we're trying to keep up with. Anyone more distant that the immediate family is often put on our back burner. I have tons of left over supplies from my hay day @ Micheal's Arts & crafts store. It really paid working there, not money wise, but free stuff wise for sure. We also decided to make most of our cards into post cards. They're cheaper to mail and quicker to make. Jesse draws them, I color them, and we both write messages. Here are a few examples we've been working on today. It's a nice weekend project for us to do together. I know Jesse enjoys having a creative outlet and a reason to draw. I always enjoy crafting and we both really enjoy our crafting time together.

Certifications & all that Hoopla...

Today I finished my Red Cross trainings. I'm now officially certified in Babysitter's Training, Standard First Aid, Fundamentals of Instructor Training, Lay Responders First Aid/CPR/AED, and CPR-Adult, Child, & Infant. Basically what this means is that I am now going to be in charge of teaching the babysitter boot camps that the museum will be putting on next year. I'm going to be in charge of developing the curriculum, marketing, buying supplies, and I will be the lead teacher for them. After passing my certifications I also became a volunteer for the Mile High Chapter of the Red Cross. This means I will either teach or assist in teaching CPR & First Aid Classes all over the Denver Metro Area. I'm currently working on getting my blood born pathogens & universal precautions certification, but I hope to have that done before the end of the week. This ones a self study with a mail in test. Thank goodness, I was getting burnt out on the 9hr classes everyday.

On a separate note Jesse and I have been working out nightly for the last week. Not your typical work out by any means, but a fun one for sure. I mentioned to him some time ago that I had tried hula hooping with some kids that I babysit for and was less than successful. Its something we all did as kids and it came so naturally to us, but try doing it now and see what happens. I dare you! It's a lot harder than it looks. We heard somewhere that it was a good work out for your abs and once you get good at it you can make a full on work out with it. Hmmm... I'm all about reliving childhood games (I'm a jump rope fiend), so I went out and bought a hula hoop. Needless to say we both tried and failed then we got up and tried again until we found our rhythms. Let me tell you everyone has a different one & some people hoop to the left while others hoop to the right. I'm a lefty and Jesse seems to be a righty. We've been taking turns hooping nightly. It's probably the most hilarious thing you'll ever see (two adults hula hoping terribly and coaching each other through it). We end up laughing our butts off which is a work out in itself. We'll let you know if the work out really works, but so far we've just begun to feel the burn. I can hear Jesse hooping away in the other room as I type. He's watching the basketball playoffs and hula hooping. Oh what would the neighbors think if they looked in our windows right now.

A week of 1st Aid & Old friends...

Ryan & I @ breakfast. We're old P.E. buddies from Highschool. Our lack or physical abilities & similar senses of humor brought us together on the sidelines.

What a week! Jesse decided to do a cleansing diet. He decided it was the only way to help him start eating healthier and loosing weight. I personally think we eat pretty healthy for the most part, but that was his thing. I was supportive, but I didn't participate so it was a rough week. He was missing certains foods, so he seemed bummed all week. Tuesday was a crazy long day at work with record setting numbers for Target First Free Tuesday nights. We hit nearly 3,000 visitors that day. Yikes! It brought up issues of capacity in the museum and lots of important talks about improvements for expansion. Wednesday was another long crazy day @ the museum and then the 2nd job. Thursday we got home I changed into my pjs and passed out on the couch by 6:30pm. Friday I spent prepping for the 9Health Fair event I'd been planning the last 6months. The event was scheduled for Saturday & I was going to miss it after all my hard work, so I wanted to make sure everything was ready for the crew. Saturday I missed out on the Health Fair which I heard went well, but was a little slow due to the amazingly gorgeous weather. Who wants to be in a museum when it's 80 degrees out? I'm hoping they took lots of pictures like I asked them too. If so I'll try to post some soon. Saturday I was in a Red Cross class all day long. An incredibly long class to get CPR & 1st Aid Certified. I'm already certified through the American Hearth Association, but apparently life saving techniques slightly differ between the 2 organizations so I had to become certified through them as well. Weird! Anyhow I passed with flying colors. After class I was off to babysit where Henry decided to test my 1st Aid knowledge. He decided to face plant into the sidewalk not once, but twice. I felt awful. I was watching the kids for 2 & 1/2 hours and by the time his parents got home it looked like I had been beating him the whole time they were gone. They may never ask me to babysit again. I honestly think I felt worse than he did about the whole thing. Poor kid. Sunday my weekend begins... today I planned on doing a whole lot of nothing, but an old highschool friend called & said he was in town for a job interview. Jesse & I got up early this morning and met up with Ryan Beaman for breakfast @ his fancy Hotel. Sounds like Ryan scored a pretty sweet deal with this new job offer and he might be moving here in a few weeks. Congratulations Ryan! Give us a call when you get to town & we'll take you to drag queen brunch @ Bump & Grind to celebrate. Now I am off to relax my weekend away. Hope you all get to do the same.