I was driving home from Kristen’s concert when a deer jumped out of the ditch and hit the back bumper of the car in front of me. No, it wasn't Kristen.
The driver, complete with a student driver bumper sticker on her car, didn’t even stop or slow down. She had some definite damage to her back bumper as I watched the tail light bounce onto the road. The deer was badly hurt but still alive.
While it is a LOT of work, Chris is loving his new job and the impact that is able to make in his company.
He has been with Logic Monitor for 9 months now and has hired 3 new people to his team. His boss loves him.
He travels mostly to Austin, TX every couple of weeks to meet with customers, his team, and other co-workers.
And, he is pretty excited that he gets to travel to London in April for a week. It will be his first international work trip in four years! He has definitely missed the travel.
Kristen is playing tennis on the high school girls' team this Spring. She is excited to be on the Varsity team this year.
I attended her first match. So chilly.
Next week should be in the 60s and so much more pleasant!
Chris found a cool concert for us to attend. Because Misha gets discount tickets as a student, she and Sam purchased their tickets and Chris got some for him, Kristen, and me.
We drove to Denver on Friday evening after Kristen finished tennis. It was tight timing as we wanted to fit in some dinner before hand.
After we picked Misha and Sam up from their apartments, Misha ordered food online from Chipotle. It was a good thing we got there in the time we did as Chipotle was a bit of a walk for us. We snarfed down our dinner and rushed back to the Boettcher Theater at the Denver Performing Arts Center.
The tickets for Chris, Kristen, and me were "almost" at the top of the theater. It was chair seating and we pretty much had to lean against the padding half wall in front of us to see the stage below.
Luckily, Misha came to find us at intermission and we moved down to sit in the empty seats next to her. Much better.
The performer singing the Queen songs was Brody Dolyniuk and his rock band. They sang some early Queen songs that I wasn't as familiar with, and then some (mostly in the second half) that were a lot of fun: Bohemian Rhapsody. As an encore, he sand "We Are the Champions". So fun.
One of the amazing moments of the night came when Brody sang, "Who Want to Live Forever?" As a Ukrainian, he dedicated the song to the people suffering from the invasion of Russia. Members of the audience turned on their camera flashlights throughout the song and gave a standing ovation at the end. It brought tears to Brody's eyes.
Kristen ran to the grocery store to pick up some stuff and came home with a bouquet of flowers for me.
I love her thoughtfulness.
I was walking down the hall after church today and saw one of my former seminary students.
I casually touched his arm and asked, "How is seminary?"
He responded, "Good, but I miss you."
He made my day.
Aha moment today.
I always thought Jacob served for seven years, married Leah, and then served another seven years before marrying Rachel but it was only one week later that he married Rachel and then he served another seven years after he married her.
Genesis 29:24-28
24 And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid.
Kristen flew out to Utah to spend Presidents' Day Weekend with Amy.
She was confident in just having me drop her off at Departures and then making her way through security to the train and then boarding.
We figured Chris would be arriving at the airport a couple of hours later, so if Kristen had any problems, she could just wait for him.
She left out of gate B41 and that's exactly where Chris deplaned later in the morning.
Amy picked Kristen up from the Salt Lake City airport a couple of hours later and they set out to have a fun weekend together.
From the pictures I received, they went to the gym together, had a sisters' date at the nickel arcade, went bowling together, and shopped.
Kristen was not at all anxious to come back home and get back into the routine of school. She's pretty much over school altogether at this point.
Chris and I picked up Kristen from the airport Monday evening after meeting up with Misha for dinner in Denver. Always good to see Misha.
It was a ski day for Chris and a quiet weekend for me. Chris bought a ski pass for discounted tickets and was happy to find a friend who was available to go with him.
They left early Saturday morning to get to Loveland Ski area before the parking lot was filled. Chris said the lot filled up shortly after they arrived and no more skiers were allowed into the parking area.
It was a beautiful day full of sunshine and pretty nice temperatures with minimal mishaps.
Chris arrived home from being away in Austin, TX for a few days with arms his laden with a suit jacket, his suitcase, a backpack, and a dozen roses for me!
Just before Amy was finished work, some guy ran into the front entrance of VASA (fitness facility) and yelled that they needed a defibrillator at the Red Lobster across the street.
Amy grabbed the defibrillator and she and another coworker ran over to the Red Lobster. Fortunately, the police were already there working on the guy and quickly grabbed the defibrillator from Amy.
She left once the ambulance arrived but didn't think that the gentleman ever regained consciousness. Kind of a scary "get your own heart pumping" way to end a day of work!
It has been a loooooong three years with braces for Kristen.
When she first met with the orthodontist, she told her she won the lottery in our family for needing the most orthodontia.
And thus began three years of pain. Kristen had the braces applied to her teeth, and not long after that, she went to the oral surgeon for jaw surgery and to have her wisdom teeth removed.
From there, she had appliances and gizmos in her mouth that made me want to cry. It made her cry for sure and she endured lots of pain and discomfort.
Not to mention that her original orthodontist had to quickly retire due to health problems and the new orthodontist said she would need these piston-like gizmos to move her jaw. Not fun! And he added about 9 extra months of torture.
Hallelujah! The angels sang today as Kristen finally is brace-free (though she does have retainers to wear 24/7 for the next eight weeks and then probably at night forever more).
Before Before
Before
Doesn't she look amazing? And happy?
Using her money earned from work, Kristen purchased her first phone yesterday.
She has been using an iPhone 8 for a number of years and was more than ready to have a phone that would stay charged throughout the day.
She was looking at driving to Boulder to pick up the phone, but then Apple required that the person on the T-Mobile account also go with her. That was a huge chunk of time out of my day.
The other option was to pay a small delivery fee; she chose that option and a lady dropped the phone off at the house a couple of hours later. Easy peasy.
Kristen and her boyfriend, Kyle, are having a lot of fun together. I like that they are creative in their dates.
For Valentine's Day, Kyle surprised Kristen with a homemade dinner complete with all of the decorations too. Kyle made spaghetti and meatballs with cheesecake for dessert.
Misha has decided to take a few extra classes and get a minor in Photography.
This semester she is taking a dark room class where she gets to develop her own photos.
While the process is often long, she is really enjoying it. She thinks it is amazing to see the photo suddenly appear before her eyes.
Kristen auditioned and was accepted into honor choir this year for our school district.
The workshops for the day were hosted at her high school, so it was nice that we didn't have to go too far for her performance in the evening. MHS does not have the biggest auditorium in the area, but I think they were able to squeeze parents, families, grandparents, and the students in for the performance.
If you were looking at this picture straight on, Kristen is in the 1:00 position (just below the blond girl not wearing a mask).
Misha sent a screenshot of her name on the honor roll at CU Denver. We are proud of the hard work she is doing. Glad, too, that she is enjoying school at CU Denver.
Kristen picked up her new glasses and happily sent a photo to her family.
Something exciting is coming for Kristen on the 15th. I'll post more later.
Misha and Sam celebrated Valentine's Day early since Sam was out of town the next weekend for her grandfather's funeral.
They had reservations at Maggioni's in Denver and then attended the ballet Romeo and Juliet.
