Finally!

When we got back into the States, I had a message from the pharmacy recruiter at City Market (Kroger Co.). We've been talking off and on since March, and there haven't been any openings yet. Finally, they have a full time position in Breckenridge for me. So I gave Walgreens my two week notice and will start on July 13th. I am so excited to have a change like this. Walgreens has been yanking my chain for far too long now, and it feels good to be out. I get a $2 raise, a bonus, and most importantly the schedule I want. How could you refuse an offer like that?? Plus, I get to move up to Avon with Bruce sooner:) Oh yeah, my schedule will be Friday thru Monday, just like Bruce's, so we will have 3 days off every week together!

Mexico

After moving the contents of our house into storage, we took a much needed vacation to Mexico. Bruce's whole family went, so we got a chance to catch up and spend some time with them. I was loving the sun. CO has been unseasonably rainy this summer. Bruce and I certainly tried our best to get our money's worth out of the all-inclusive alcohol. The food was pretty good too. We did a day of snorkeling and touring some Mayan ruins. Other than that, we just relaxed at the beach and pool. Will put some pictures on if Bruce ever gets our internet up and running. I am using my friend Sam's computer from time to time while I am staying here.

Bad Daughter

I feel terrible. Mom called last night and said she heard I sold my house. I forgot to call her and tell her!! This facebook and blog stuff makes you forget that not everyone is online!! And I should know better, since I just got on facebook and don't keep up my blog very well. Oh well, she said she heard from one of the other kids. Bruce is going to take the computer up to the apartment with him this week, so now that I'm finally online, I'm going to end up completely offline for awhile. When we close on the house, I'll be moving in with some friends of ours here in CO Springs. I'll be there until Walgreens opens. The new timeline is mid-August, for whatever that's worth.

My Favorite Things

Skiing and Beer. What else do you need? I can't believe we haven't figured that out until now!! We went to a kegger at A-Basin this weekend. It was a really good time, even though I really didn't ski that much. Between trying to teach someone to ski and drinking enough beer, I didn't get many runs in. We did meet some people from OH, which was kinda crazy. They were from Lima, and know all about Putnam Co. We brought along the polish golf and polish horseshoes games that the guys made for us when they were out here. Everyone was really interested in the golf game. Someone had a chair on two skis and people were sitting on it and going down the hill. It is actually pretty hard to steer and not tip over. After the party we also hung out at the Goat in Keystone and stayed in a hotel there, since no one was driving anywhere that night!!

Update

I'm sure everyone has been on pins and needles about the sale of our home. Right... So we did get an offer, which was 10,000 below our asking, we countered to a more reasonable arrangement, and the buyer accepted. So we are now under contract!! I don't want to get too excited because there is so much that can go wrong. Still, we are little closer to the ultimate goal. We are not sure what that is anymore, but it does involve moving to the mountains somewhere. I'll keep you posted though.. Hopefully this all makes sense, I am on beer ????

What a Weekend...

This weekend, which of course, is the middle of my work week, pretty much sucked. Customers were so grumpy and impatient, I guess because it was crappy outside. We had someone in lane 2 of our driveway just blaring her horn so she could be helped, when the tech was helping someone in the other lane. When the manager tried helping her, she just yelled at her. That's a good indication of how most of the weekend went. Today, I found out that one of my techs broke her arm, so we are going to be completely short-handed for awhile. And oh yeah, some old dude ran his SUV right into the front door of the store this afternoon. He said his foot slipped off the brake! Here's hoping tomorrow gets over with quickly.

Optimistic...

We actually have 2 people interested in the house right now. One is coming for a second look Friday and the other said he'd give us an answer by Monday. I hate to get too excited, but this is the first good news we've had in awhile. Unfortunately, there is more bad news on the Walgreens front. My store is not slated to open now until July 9th. This is getting ridiculous!!!

Caught Up?!

Hopefully that counts as being caught up. I'll try to get on here more often now. I do have a showing on the house tomorrow, so I better get things sparkling. Bruce has to work an extra shift tomorrow, so I am not going up there until tomorrow afternoon. We will go skiing Wednesday at the Basin after looking at a house in Eagle Vail that we probably can't afford.

Skiing Friends

We met up with some friends that we made in Chile this winter to ski. Jim and Margory live in Asen, so we called them up when we made plans to be there for 4 days. We met Jim, his son James, and 2 of his buddies at Aspen Highlands on what turned out to be a truly epic powder day. It had snowed a foot overnight (when we went to bed at 2, there was not a trace of snow on the ground in town), and continued to dump at least another foot throughout the morning. We did some runs on Temarity, which is some of the steepest inbounds skiing in CO, then hiked the bowl. Boy, am I out of shape. That run from the top of the bowl, though, was the best run I had all season, so it was worth it:)
We also skied with another guy we met in Chile, Will, who lives in Denver. He came up on an obscene powder day that actually stranded me because the roads were so bad. I got an extra ski day in Vail!! (First time ever I haven't made it back home to go to work in 5 years of commuting to the mnts to ski-so I deserved that one). That day, he led us all around some out-of-bounds terrain to get some air off cliffs and rocks. I actually landed one really good!! A week or two later, he and a friend took Bruce and I up on Vail pass for some snowmobile accessed skiing. One person drives the snowmobile while the other is dragged behind on skis up the mountain so they can ski down and meet the snowmobilers at the bottom. This is also very tiring and makes me realize how out of shape I am this winter. It was a very amazing experience, though. We even cooked bratwurst out in the bush. Hopefully we'll get the chance to do that again sometime.

Mud Season

We are now in what is known as Mud Season in the mountains. Most ski areas are closed (A-Basin and Loveland on the continental divide will remain open thru May or so). The snow is melting, nothing is really blooming yet, you can't go hiking up very high, or Jeep Trailing, so there isn't a whole lot to do up there. I've decided it's Bruce's turn to do some driving, so he came home last week instead of me driving there. It was so nice to have a week off from driving. And we had some serious shopping to do. There are so many great sales right now, so we went a little crazy. But I needed stuff for Mexico, and Bruce and I both needed some work clothes. I'm not looking forward to those credit card bills. We also got some yard work done, and Bruce changed the oil and rotated my tires on my Subi. Can you believe, I've put almost 10,000 miles on my car since October??

Enduro

On April 15th, Bruce and I competed in the 20th Annual Enduro at Arapahoe Basin. We've been talking about doing this for a few years now, but it never worked out until this season. It's a race to see how many runs teams of 2 can complete off the Pali lift (all black and double black runs) in 10 hours (7am to 5pm). We were unsure of the details when we signed up, but there are 20 runs and you have to do them in order, starting at whichever one they draw for you. Also, the race starts with a shot gun start, everyone runs 30 yards to their skis, clicks in, and skates/ muscles their way to the lift. These people that do this competition every year are HARD CORE. Keep in mind, it takes 7 minutes to ride the lift up. The record is 71 runs, the winner this year got 69 runs, and Bruce and I got 55 runs. It's actually not that bad for the first time. Now that we know more, I think we can do a lot better next time. Being a girl, of course, does pose a problem when it's time to pee. There are no bathrooms on that section of the ski resort, and you would lose so much time going to the other area. I had to go in the trees... keep in mind, we are on a very steep mountain, so that was interesting. I'm not sure, short of wearing depends, what else I can do to save time... Oh well, I have a year to figure that one out:) We had a bast, even though I was sore for days afterwards.

These are probably out of order, but I wanted to put in a blog about Christine and Paul's visit to CO. They got a deal at Copper Mountain, so Bruce and I met them just for one day of skiing. We probably should have known this would happen, but we ended up crashing in their condo that night. After a day on the slopes, we all hung out in the AMAZING hot tub and pool that they had just outside their condo. I don't remember for sure (hmmm...) but I think we were in there for a good 5 hours or so. Talk about a prune!!! Hey, we were just trying to finish off all the beer before heading out to the bar for more expensive beer. Anyway, it did get a little crazy, but it was nice to catch up with Christine and get to know Paul some more. He really is a fun guy to hang out with. So it was kinda late by the time we decided to find some food. Luckily, there was still one place open. To get there, we decided to walk across this pond that I assume is a skating rink when not covered in snow, and Paul did not realize what it was. He slipped and fell right on his head. He had a bump for awhile but is ok. So we get there and the menu was a bunch of greasy bar food and we ordered one of everything just about. Hmmm.. I wonder why Bruce got up in the middle of the night to puke...?

Ben and Brian Visit

When Ben and Brian came out to CO, we did our best to wear them out every day. They came to C Springs for a couple days, then the three of us drove up to Bruce's apt. in Avon. The first day, they rented crappy skis and were just getting their feet under them at Beaver Creek. The second day, we had 5 inches of powder in Vail, so we figured we could take them down some harder runs. They seemed to really like it, even though there was a lot of falling down. That night, they were worn out. Bruce and I ski hard every day and party just as hard at night. It was interesting to see Ben especially not be able to hang at the bar:) We ended up skiing a third day, and by then the two of them were LOVING the powder snow. That morning, Vail reported another 5 inches, and we had another good day on the mountain. There was only one scary moment when Brian almost landed on top of Ben on a woopdeedoo and knocked the wind out of himself. Anyone else want Bruce and I to guide them around a ski mountain?? (more pics of their trip here on Snapfish family page)

Catching Up

Hey everyone. I am officialy the worst blogger out there. The ski season came and went and I didn't post anything. That should be an indicator of how hectic it was. I'm assuming no one wants to here any more complaining about Walgreens, etc. They keep telling me different dates on when my store will open in Dillon, so I've interviewed with City Market (Kroger Co.). Now it's just a matter of will they have an opening first, or will Walgreens open first. Anyway, at least we had a successful ski season. It was wonderful living at the base of Beaver Creek and being 5 minutes from Vail. I will do a post for Ben and Brian's visit and a few other significant events over the winter.

Update on the Move

Our house has not sold yet. In fact, only 4 people have even looked. I found out last week that the Walgreens in Dillon will not open now until March. Unfortunately, Bruce had to accept the job at City Market in Avon and he has to start Dec. 8th. The good thing is, they have an apartment above the store that he can rent for $700 per month, which is a sweet deal for that area. (ie at the base of Beaver Creek). So we are glad we bought the epic pass this year, which gives us unlimited skiing at all Vail resorts with no blackout dates!! While Bruce is up there living the carefree bachelor life, I'll be taking care of everything here. Yay.... I'll be driving up as soon as I get off work Mon. and coming back home either Wed. night or Thurs. morning. We will only be keeping the house on the market until 12-15, and if it hasn't sold, we'll put it back on sometime in Jan. At least I'll have a place to live if it works out that way.