This past month has been busier than usual... which is funny, because my busy is probably most people's 'normal', but I'm glad to have finished off the summer having fun and keeping busy! During August the kids and I spent a lot of time at the pool and even though it is still open (!!), it hasn't been really hot enough to make me go through the work of getting me and two kids there for an hour or two : )
At the end of August, until September 7th, my sister Kim and her husband David came out for a visit! We got to spend a day at the pool with my parents and sisters, went to Focus on the Family, the Butterfly Pavilion (where Kyla held a tarantula!!), Manitou Springs and the top of Pikes Peak, the Colorado Balloon Classic over Labor Day weekend, an Air Force football game, 4 Wheeling up near Woodland Park AND did a few photo shoots, for good measure ; ) Whew! Of course, since my sister is the photographer, I didn't really take my camera with me, and if I did, I don't think I used it much... so I don't have many pictures from their time here! Hopefully they will blog all about it and add LOTS of pictures... right guys?? **UPDATE** Thanks Kim : ) Read about their trip here and here! I always have my phone with me, so I was able to snap a couple of fun pictures.
Butterfly Pavilion
At 14,110 ft., when you look out the window its almost all sky!
Cadets lining up for the game
...to march out on the field
Skydivers!
Kyla's first football game! She loved it and was a trooper the entire time.
Oh, I almost forgot! One night Kim and David took Kyla and Colby out to the Flying W Ranch and Stephen and I had a date night! Here's all the evidence I have of that ; )
Funnel Cake Straws!
at least I get pictures of the important things, right? ; )
Besides Kim and Davids' visit here, which was the highlight, of course! We also had the daunting task of finding renters... twice... and then THREE times! I had
mentioned that we found renters in July, but they bailed before they moved in, since we had found them so quickly I was able to take our ad down almost as soon as I put it up, but when we lost them and I put the ad back up, it went back into it's rightful spot... at the bottom. It took almost two weeks to find another renter for the townhouse, but we did and she is great! Hey... at least she moved in and pays rent! What more could we ask for??
Funny you should ask...
see, we came into another investment opportunity... we'll call it the Costilla house.
It's a charming little house surrounded by open space, it was built in the late 1800's and was even a pit stop on the Pony Express! The inside is cuter than cute, perfect color with lots of moulding yet updated, it was JUST remodeled, new roof, windows, insulation, radiant heating, flooring, paint, kitchen, bathroom... everything AND the reason we got the house, it because it has a large shop on the property with plenty of space for parking trailers, truck, mowers and ATV's... everything Stephen has been looking for and more for a shop for his business. This way he can have what he needs all while renting the house out to pay for the shop, essentially.
Well, it only took about a week to find renters, really this isn't bad (two weeks isnt' bad either) and what do you really need in a renter? really? Someone who will move in, pay the rent on time and, oh... how about NOT burn the place down.
That would be good too.
Needless to say, we have been busy. I am so thankful that it didn't work out to put Kyla in preschool this fall. The more I think about it, I know it's not the right thing for us. As much as she would have loved it, I want to get into the habit of learning at home, or for me, incorporating teaching into everyday things more and more so that when she is in school she will already know that I will be involved in her education and learning will happen in school, but also at home.
My next goal to hit hard, is to get Colby to the place where he is happy and excited to go to childwatch/VillaKids/the church nursery/Sunday school... anywhere away from me and not scream and cry as he is being taken away from me. If you know him at all, it might be hard to think he does this (or maybe its not) because he is a happy, easy going guy. I'm not constantly with him when we are in our house, but when we leave it's another story, and I need to be able to get to the gym for some alone time, and some working off that 5lbs time. This is already really long, but if you have been there, have any advice or ideas of what we could do, I would appreciate the help! Kyla was also SO willing to leave me and play with the kids... sometimes a little too willing ; ) So it's just really hard to see C having such a hard time with it, not to mention it makes me feel like a terrible person to leave him like that.
If you're still here, thanks for reading ; )
