Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Guest bathroom finished!















That's it... ! Our guests can have their own bathroom now :) The kitchen bar is also finished, and the baseboards are up and drying! We are super psyched to be done, and it's perfect timing: we are going to be climbing outdoors as much as we can in January, no more house work! Speaking of work, working in the ER for me is much better, I am getting used to the insanity there, and I can't wait for Brendan to bring me a patient in the middle of the night, hehe! I also can't wait to go climbing... I feel like I haven't touched real rock in a long time (it has really only been a few months, but it feels way too long!) Hope you guys are ready for Christmas...??! We're still waiting for the good snow dump to get the skiing season going here. I can't believe it's the end of the year already! I know it is though when I see people psychotic about the holidays! We are ready for the new year, this last year has been super busy for both Brendan and I, but I think we're set now!! ~~Chloe

Monday, December 7, 2009

Bathroom project #1: mission accomplished!


Oooh yeah: our bathroom is done! Brendan told me he "wasn't into painting"..... I should have known it was fishy! I told him I'd love to take care of the painting... It is actually into sanding that Brendan wasn't into... It's ok, I sanded, inhaled all the dust... (less cleaning that way!) and finally painted! We're still working on finishing the bar/counter in the kitchen, and the guest bathroom... so I'll put up more pics ;) -Chloe

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Made It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!










...so I made it!! I graduated from my fire academy and am now officially a paramedic/firefighter. It was a long 3.5 months, but it has come to an end. It was a very interesting process for me, to say the least. The fire service is based on paramilitaristic type of structure in order to function effectively and efficiently in times of crisis and emergencies. This is very important and effective, but there are less desirable side effects to this situation. The academy is part of a test of one's personality and ability to adapt to a very different environment. I was very careful to capitalized on my ability to adapt to a very different environment. Especially with my background and where I come from, I did find it challenging at times. Graduation was good because it brought the academy to an end, but thankfully that ceremony only needs to be done once. Some of you may wonder why I would put myself through such a process. For one, everything changes once I go "online" (meaning start actually working in the field out of a firehouse). The academy is a place to learn a lot, but it is also a big long test. As with many tests, there are issues with the way it is run and its effectiveness, but like many tests, it basically tests your ability to adapt to that test, and inevitably, the strongest tend to come out on top, and ultimately that's what happened. Out of over a 1000 applicants, 14 were selected for this academy and 13 ultimately graduated. We work for one of the best fire departments in the nation. It is very progressive with its vision and practices, well funded and sets the standard high. We have some of the best medical, fire and emergency equipment available in the world, and this department is actually rated as the fittest fire department in the nation. I have to admit as to my hesitation about the people that I was going to have in my academy, but ultimately, I ended up with a really cool group of guys, and we did have a lot fun. Now that I am online, and actually running 911 calls, the people I work with are just as awesome, and this is an awesome job, even when I have to get up at 3am to run some guy with abdominal pain to the hospital. Not to mention my schedule now is great! I still have a lot of work ahead of me as one of the "new guys" online, and going through what is set up as a three year apprenticeship, but it's all a lot more fun from now on!!
-Brendan
P.S. Here are some more academy pics and a video of one of our "entanglement" drills.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Moving on!



















Hurray! Brendan has graduated, we are super happy!! We get our life back, and we have lots of things we want to do: we are re-doing the 2 bathrooms, and we have lots of climbing to do! We climbed in the gym yesterday, went for a run and attacked the first bathroom today. We debated where to go climbing, but decided to stay home, because everybody is out climbing this holiday week. I finished sanding, Brendan took the old crappy formica counter top off, cut the new bamboo one, and... it fits!! The hole for the sink, a little bit of varnish, and it'll be good!! We also put the bamboo paneling on the wall. Tomorrow I am painting the cabinets (today I put the primer layer on)... and it will be blue and bamboo ;) More pics to come!!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Winter project

Brendan is done in a little less than two weeks... ooooooh yeah! We are both ready to get our life back and we have stuff we want to do in the house... The winter project will be to get our two bathrooms done, and we have two themes: blue, and bamboo! We haven't done much climbing outside lately... going to the climbing gym... about every other day! I am babying one of my knees, and for now it's not happy... so it gives me time to get stuff done at home! I have cabinets to sand, and paint to buy!! We''ll post pictures when it's all done and pretty :) and as soon as the bathrooms are done, we're going climbing in Hueco! ~ Chloe

Monday, November 2, 2009

Still Breathing...for now...








Hey, we're still alive!!! I know our blog has been severely neglected lately and I apologize for that. I have been extremely busy lately. I got a job with a fire department and am currently going through their fire academy. It has been up at 4am, start the day with morning workout at 6am, and on the drill ground until about 5:30/6pm Monday through Friday. Every week has a been a series of tests, with which everyone is another opportunity to lose my job if I don't pass. Anyways, there has been much going on, but I don't really have time to update on it all right now. You'll just have to wait until I graduate and have a little more time. If all goes well and I pass all my tests, I graduate on November 20th. After that the schedule will be awesome: work two days, get four days off: that means lots of climbing!! Enjoy the few pics from my academy time.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

My mom in Boulder!





My Mom came to visit for the week-end, and she didn't miss not having to deal with snow storms between home and the airport!! Now that we live in Boulder the airport is 40 miles of freeway away, super easy!! We hiked around at Rocky Mountain National Park, went to yoga, biked around Boulder, and had a really sweet week-end! Pretty short, but pretty sweet :))

Brendan is studying his butt off for his fire academy, reading hundreds of textbook pages every day, and climbing in the gym in between chapters! His schedule sucks, it is a Monday thru Friday deal, 6am to 5pm every day... We see each other when our schedules match, and we can't wait for the end of the academy to get our 3-4 days of climbing a week together back. It is coming and we both know it, so we're hanging in there! We still run, climb, and cook nice little dinners for ourselves, we just share them together a lot less! TWO MORE MONTHS...! We think it will be worth the trouble :)

My job is going ok, either I am getting used to the craziness, or we've had more mellow nights lately. Or, we have better staffing! Being well staffed is a big deal in this place. When we are short-staffed, I have horrible nights, running my butt off all night, not having time to eat or pee, and feeling like I am so overwhelmed I might make mistakes because I have so much to do and so little time to get it done before it is a problem! With nice staffing, we help each other a lot, get the job done well and then I really like it...! Winter seems to be just around the corner and mornings are chilly already, but it sounds like it won't last too long and we'll get a few more warm days before the real winter.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Our new home



























And finally, pics of the new house!

Fefe's visit to Boulder!







When we moved to Boulder, two months ago, I told my sister how awesome it was and how she should really come check it out at one point this summer. So she took a ticket, and then we found a place to buy, and decided to move again... so her vacation consisted of helping us move :))))) But she was still excited and such a good sports! She packed in, packed out, carried in, carried out... she and I basically moved out of one place and into the next, while Brendan was starting his new job at West Metro. We'd get up, have coffee, start working, and work until one of us got real hungry (ie: real sick of these damn boxes). We'd go grab a bite, get coffee, and go at it again. Brendan has been doing 5 eleven hour shifts a week lately and it has been keeping him busy. So yeah, my sister and I picked up the boxes! We also hiked and walked around Boulder, dipped in the river, and she checked out Denver a day I was at work. It was super fun to hang out with Fefe for a while!!! For a reward, she got to be the first one to use our guest room in our new place ;)

Utah with Bob and Lisa








































OK, I am trying a new sport: retroblogging! I have to get on the blog because the number of posts I want to put up is getting too big!! So... back a few weeks: we met up with Bob and Lisa in Utah, not far from Lake Powell, and while everybody around was at Lake Powell, we were alone in the desert. Super sweet! We spent 2 days with Bob and Lisa, who introduced us to something new for both Brendan and I: "doing a canyon"! like these two say. We are used to climbing up rock, and Bob and Lisa are pros are going down rock... So we learned to slide and scramble down!! You should see these two rock the canyon... Lisa uses about a pair of shorts per canyon she said, and she has the sliding down narrow passages pretty fine-tuned! I worked with Lisa in the ICU in Grand Junction, and it was really fun to catch up. Bob is also a nurse, so all 4 of us could equally share climbing and nursing crazy stories... beware of camp fire time!! Bob and Lisa are absolutely into the work hard play hard mode as well, so it was very fun to spend time with them. I am attaching a few pictures for you!! -Chloe

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