For Ryan.

 

I received some devastating, utterly horrible news this weekend. 

Before I explain , I must give a back story. I used to work at a daycare center in the late 90’s where I met a lot of fantastic children and their families.  At some point, we all moved on from this daycare center, but I was fortunate to be able to still hold a relationship with the families.  A couple of them I was blessed to be able to nanny/babysit for.

Thus begins my story of Ryan S.  In 1999 I would frequently watch Ryan and his brother while their Mom was taking on studies for school.  During this time, we all developed a friendship. Seriously the sweetest family ever.  I would visit with them, and go to dinner with them, and I was always so excited to get to watch the boys.  I remember once Ryan and I stayed up late to watch Saturday Night Live.  (Umm. He was in 3rd grade at the time. What the heck was I thinking?)  Britney Spears was hosting for the first time.  I don’t think he made it all the way to the end of the show. His brother was younger, so he was more into building with Legos….and going to sleep at proper times that young boys should.   We watched movies together, and they always got a snack. Ryan loved popcorn, and his brother loved Oreos.  One movie I showed them was Ever After. Ryan LOVED it!  He even wanted to run through scenes after we watched it. It kind of became our “thing”. He was the sweetest little boy.  Both boys were well behaved, and polite as can be.  They moved back to Texas the following year….and that was very hard!  I grew to love that family!  Every once in a while they would come through Colorado, and I’d get to see them, which was fantastic!! 

I am so thankful for Facebook!  This social media made it possible for me to see what my Texas friends were up to, and how life was going for them.  Ryan and I would message back and forth a couple of times through the years.  It was nice to still be in touch, even though he was a busy College goer. 

Sadly I got news this weekend that he passed away.  He was 21.

Even though I wasn’t a direct part of his life anymore, I still ache.  For his family. For his friends.

I’ve been re-living the time I got to spend with him. I think about his brown eyes.  His tender heart.  His cutie cheeks.

I’ll miss you, sweet boy.

This one’s for you.

Ryan LOVED this song, too!!

 

***If you’ve read this, please pray for this family. Ryan also has a younger sister, and they all need strength to make it through this. Thank you.***

Gus and other things.

We’re dog sitting for Gus until next Wednesday.  Here he is sleeping away on the couch.  Poor Sox is hiding in the basement on an almost permanent basis.  He comes upstairs only if he knows for sure that the dog is outside, although a couple of times he has snuck up while Gus was just sleeping on the couch. Then he sees the dog, totally chickens out and books it back to the basement. 

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The summer has started nicely with the girls. I saw a recent idea on a blog about finding little stones, painting them, and then leaving them in a park for someone to find. We decided to do it, and the girls had a great time!

The oldest girl is going into 8th grade, and she painted and then drew the birds onto this colorful stone.  She held onto that one.

 

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We went to the Bagel Deli the other day and had a couple of sandwiches.  The last time we were there was a little over a year ago. How do I remember this? Because we went there for breakfast that day, and Jeremy went to work right after….and that night he came home without a job. We heard about this place because it was featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network.  I had the Pastrami. It was so huge I couldn’t even finish it.

Jeremy had the Rueben.  He got only the half sandwich and this is what it came to the table like. Totally HUGE!!!

Needless to say, we both needed a “to-go” box!  They were oh so good though!  What a nice splurge!  We went to Ikea afterwards to work it off a little.

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Highlands Ranch seems to be the soliciting capital of the world!  I’ve put several “No Soliciting” signs up by the door bell, but it just hasn’t seemed to be working. They still ring the darn doorbell!  I went out to the side of the house to turn on the faucet to water the flowers yesterday, and I looked down and saw my sign in the dirt!  No wonder it hasn’t been working!  So I decided to get crafty, and made a sign, put it into a frame, and got some Command picture hanging strips to hang it above my doorbell.

Here is the finished product. (I especially love that it won’t hurt the house since I didn’t have to put a nail into the siding.)

Lisa

Sausage Fingers….

It’s no secret that I’ve gained some weight since I got married. For the last couple of years I have been unable to remove my wedding rings to be cleaned.  After my good friend Katie had a mishap with her diamond falling out of her prongs, I became more afraid that the same would happen to mine! 

I’d always had the thought in the back of my mind that something could happen to my diamond because I’ve not been able to take it in to be serviced and checked over.  Well…I was lying in bed one night, and the ring was loose on my finger, so I tried to take it off.  It made it most of the way off, and I got so excited I started screaming like a child asking Jeremy to help get it all the way off!  It’s now sitting in it’s case waiting to be cleaned this week! Yay!

 

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On Saturday Jeremy and I had a half day in Golden.  We went on the Coors Brewery tour, which I hadn’t done in years!  It’s now a self guided tour, and you have this device that you hold up to your ear like a phone, and it gives you information on the specific part of the tour. (And for anyone who’s a germ freak like me wondering, they do bleach wipe them when they are returned. Thank God!)   After that we went to our favorite restaurant in Golden,Woody’s pizza.  Best salad bar ever!  Here are a couple of shots from inside Coors.

P.S. Adolf Coors was only 13 when he brewed up his first batch of beer!

Copper Kettles for brewing:

What’s on the menu:

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I’ve seen people with little lamps in their kitchen, and I’ve grown to really like how it looks. I have a couple of friends who have them, I saw them on Malcolm in the Middle, and on Modern Family, and my Mom has one in her kitchen. It adds a little bit of cozy ambiance that I wanted to add to my own kitchen. I’ve looked all over the place for the perfect one and I couldn’t seem to find anything. Fast forward to an impromptu trip to Wal-Mart the other day, when I spotted this little gem!  It’s a nice little addition to the corner by the sink. In fact, I kind of want to go get another one. By the way. The shade was 4$ and the base was 5$

Sorry this was a boring post. I’m just getting into Summer mode and the different job hours, so not much has happened that’s worth a post. Till next time.

Lisa