The End of the Line!

Well, it looks like after 6 years, mom and I have yapped enough and posted enough pictures to fill this blog site.  We can no longer post here so we hope that you will join us at jordanhazel2.blogspot.com for our continued adventures.  I'm sure there will be many more to come and we look forward to seeing you there!  Add us to your favorites list!

The Kitchen Evolution and a Possible New Career for Dad

We apologize for missing last week's post- we were just a little overwhelmed with home improvement projects, but I think you'll find it was worth the wait!

Our missing week was good- I only had four days of school because we were off for election day.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day so we headed to the zoo with my friend Sophia and her mom.  We had a really fun day and Sophia and I spent most of the day writing our "zoo book".  This entailed stopping at every single animal, drawing a picture of it and writing it's name.  Mom and Ms. Chris were very torn between letting us continue on this educational path or actually seeing more than 5 animals.  Apparently, Sophia and I were a little slow.  Anyway, we made it and it was good.  The rest of the week was pretty quiet.

Friday night, we started tackling our kitchen.  It was one of those kitchen's we thought we could live with for awhile with some touch paint etc.  But it turns out, we couldn't live with it.  It was gross.

So here is our Before Before picture- what it looked like when we bought the house.

Here is the After Before picture.  Dad put a lot of time and energy into painting the cabinets and they looked really nice. Until we started using them.  We had paint chipping off if we just looked at the cabinets funny.  Apparently, you can't really paint fake wood and make it stick.  

So we lived with that for a couple of months until we couldn't stand it anymore and that is how we ended up at IKEA on a Friday night buying a new kitchen.  We spent last Friday night emptying the cabinets and then Dad spent Friday night and Saturday morning putting cabinets together.

The old, empty kitchen...

The old, even emptier kitchen....

The rest of the weekend was spent putting in the cabinets, counters, sinks and faucet.  And we ended up with this!  The After After picture.

And we love it!  Mom loves, loves, loves her extra counter space, her extra cabinet space and not having paint chips in the food.  It's awesome!  So, while the project was a little time consuming, it was relatively easy judging by the lack of expletives flying from the project room.  Mom only heard 3 or 4 outbursts the whole weekend and that was mainly when we were dealing with our stupid microwave.  We got it done just in time for Grandpa Vern and Grandma Sue's arrival on Monday for Thanksgiving.

So onto this weekend.  We didn't really spend much time together as a family.  I had a birthday party Saturday afternoon and from there, I went directly to Sophia's house for a slumber party.
While I was out, mom and dad took advantage and went out to celebrate their anniversary at a really yummy tapas restaurant.  The highlight of the evening was the peanut butter and chocolate ice cream they got to eat since I wasn't around.
I got home Sunday around 11 and my friend Cami called wanting a play date so I headed there for a few hours and now finally, I'm getting ready to crash.  Whew- it's tough being so well liked!
Grandpa Vern and Grandma Sue arrive tomorrow for Thanksgiving and we are very excited to see them.  I'm sure we'll have lots to report next week.  Have fun and eat lots of turkey!

Happy Halloween!!

Aaaaaahh, another good week in the books!

I had my final soccer practice of the season on Tuesday which I was very happy about.  I love practice once I'm there but I whine incessantly about having to go.  Mom is happy to be done with that battle for now.

Wednesday was, of course, Halloween!  It was a party from sun up to bedtime.  I got to wear my costume to school and we had our party and costume parade and then we got back to "learning", in the loosest sense of the word.

Dad got home nice and early so we got pumpkins out and lit, I got my pillow case ready and then mom and I headed out to my best friend's house for a night of candy gathering.

We had an awesome time- we finished off Cami's neighborhood and then headed over to another, even more awesome neighborhood.  It was like a scene out of the movies with a bazillion kids running around, houses decorated and just general happiness.  (That may have had something to do with a lot of the adults wandering around with beer and wine.  We love Colorado!)
Our favorite house was super scary but we kept going back for more so it couldn't have been that bad!

While we were out doing our thing, dad was extremely busy handing out candy at our house.  Mom and I bought four bags of candy and dad ran out.  He started going through my old candy and handing that out and then finally turned the lights out because he was tapped out.  Mom was a little worried that we were going to wake up and find toilet paper and eggs in our yard because we were "that house" that handed out crappy candy.  So far so good though.

The rest of the week was pretty quiet because I had to recover from my crazy night Wednesday.
Saturday, I had my soccer game and wonder of wonders, we won again!!  I had an assist ( which is a miracle itself in this league) and a goal.  We won't talk about the goal I gave up as goalie.  We ended up winning 3-1 and it was awesome.
Saturday night, mom and dad had a bunch of dad's co-worker friends over for dinner and to keep me from getting bored and causing problems, I got to have my friend Cami over to spend the night.  Everyone had a fabulous time!  While the adults were down stairs chatting and eating, Cami and I were firmly planted upstairs in mom and dad's room watching movies and eating our dinner.
What you can't see in the picture are the pizza boxes, candy wrappers and chocolate milk containers scattered all over the floor.  Like I said, it was  a fabulous evening!

Sunday morning, Cami and I hit the park and then she headed home.  We had our final soccer game in the afternoon and I was pretty much an exhausted wreck but we won!  Again!  No goals for me today because it was all I could do not to break down in tired tears every 2 minutes but I'm glad we ended our season on a happy note.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at home.  Dad has started putting together our cabinets.  Mom was little worried when she heard the first curse word less than 5 minutes into the project but it has been smooth sailing since then.  The cabinets are all together and are just waiting to be hung.  Of course that involves emptying the current cabinets and ripping them down but that will be a piece of cake, yes?

Hope everyone has a great week and don't forget to vote!

An Unexpectedly Good Weekend!

We are continuing to celebrate fall in all its glory this week.  It was also a bit of a recovery week for us, because you know how crazy our company was!  

Mom and I came home on Monday to a yard full of leaves and really nice weather so I grabbed the rake and started making my pile of leaves.  Just like last year, I absolutely could not wait until I got to rake leaves and jump in them.  It is the ultimate fall pleasure!

We did eventually get the leaves into bags but I loved the leaves so much that I insisted mom keep the bags of leaves so I could jump in them later.  The bags have mysteriously disappeared though.   Hmmm- maybe the Great Pumpkin has something to do with it?

The rest of the week was pretty low keyed with soccer on Tuesday and not much else the rest of the week except for the 3 inches of snow we got on Wednesday night.  Since we are such experts in this whole Colorado/snow thing 3" isn't even picture/blog worthy anymore
On Friday, dad got home early so we headed out for an early dinner at Lodo's and then to IKEA where we spent the next bazillion hours ordering new kitchen cabinets.   Mom and dad have finally had it with our paint chipped, broken drawered, cabinets not closing kitchen.  Dad is taking on the project of building and installing them but since he worked in a cabinet store many, many years ago he should have this under control.  Right?


Saturday ended up being the best day of the week.  Mom was on call for work but there were no patients so she got an unexpected day off.  My soccer game was cancelled because there was still snow on the field so I had an unexpected day off too!  It was glorious!  We made the most of our day and headed down to Elitch Gardens for their Halloween festivities.
They had grave yards, cob webs, hay mazes and best of all, candy!

Dad and I rode a few rides (mom got lucky because I forgot all about Twister Two so she didn't have to go.)

We did all go on the ferris wheel and headed up the observation tower for a really cool view of downtown Denver.

Sunday was a fun day for me- got to sleep in, help dad rake more leaves and then had a play date with my friend Maddie.  When mom left, Maddie and I were half way up the tree in her front yard.  Mom kept waiting for the "broken arm" phone call but I survived.  Imagine that!
When I got home, dad was busy getting started on our cabinet installation!  How is that for service?!  Ordered Friday, delivered Sunday.  So far, we only have one cabinet up but mom loves it already because unlike our old cabinets, these fit the kitchen so our fridge doesn't stick out into the hallway anymore!  And so far, only 1 curse word, 2 bumped heads and 1 rotator cuff strain.  Not a bad day's work!

Hope everyone has an unexpectedly good week!

The Streak is Broken!

Wow!  This has been a super good, super fun week for us.  Monday and Tuesday kind of stunk it up because Dat dat was out of town again but he got home in time on Wednesday to read me a story before bed.  And play a little Skylanders.  Dad was just getting resettled when Uncle Adam, Aunt Erin and baby Sophia rolled into town on Thursday.  We were so very excited to see them but especially Sophia.  We haven't had a chance to spend any quality time with her since she was born so we were ready for some good bonding.  I think we may have overwhelmed the poor girl at first because it was the only time all weekend we heard her cry but she settled in pretty quick.

Just as we were getting settled, Heidi, Josh and their 4 kids rolled back into town from their 4 day camping trip.  They swung by our house, dropped the kids off and the grown ups headed out for a very fun dinner.  The kids had an equally fun night back at the ranch without grownups.  Just a good night all around.

Friday morning, dad headed off to work while Uncle Adam, Aunt Erin, Sophia, mom and I headed to our most favorite breakfast joint- Snooze.  Mmmmmmm!  What a great way to start the day!

After digesting our light, healthy breakfast, we packed up and headed to the zoo.  It was a little cool, so the animals were pretty active.

We had a quiet evening at home and everyone hit the hay kind of early.  Luckily for mom and dad, Adam and Erin go to bed early too so no one felt awkward about wanting to go bed at 8!



Saturday had a slow start, with sleeping in, breakfast, skylanders etc.  

We did manage to get out of the house for a little sports lesson.  Auntie Erin was a pretty decent soccer player in her day so she drilled me on the finer aspects of playing goalie....

And then Uncle Adam did his very best to strike me out with his pitching skills but I ran his ERA up pretty high.

Haile even joined us to keep Sophia in line...

We came home, ate some lunch.....

and then headed out for my soccer game.  (There seem to be a lot of pictures of Sophia.  Whose blog is this, anyway??)

And here is some of the most awesome news of the whole weekend.... The Pink Jets FINALLY won a game!!  AND, I scored both of the goals!!  Adam and Erin must have been just the motivation I needed. I did all my awesome goal scoring in the first half and was goalie in the second half.  Despite losing focus occasionally (OK, a lot), I was able to protect our lead and we managed to hang for a win.  Whew- that was a long drought.

After that awesome win, we came home to grill burgers and to make caramel apples.  What a perfect ending to a perfect day!

Unfortunately, all of our company had to leave on Sunday morning.  We had such a fun weekend and can't wait to see Sophia again.

Sunday afternoon, I had my makeup soccer game from last Saturday.  It was a tough game because 3 of the girls couldn't make the game so we only had one sub.  It was a hot, tiring afternoon but we managed to tie the game 0-0.  We came so close to scoring so many times, it just didn't happen for us.  Oh well, at least it wasn't a loss!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

SKYLANDERS!!!! Oh, and dad came home too.

Well, we made it.  Dad finally, finally got home Wednesday night and we were so very happy to see him.  I heard his car pull into the garage, I ran out and let out one of those squeals you only see in movies and gave him the biggest, longest hug ever.  It's good to have the whole gang together again, even if it is only a gang of three.

We had work and school on Thursday but we all had Friday off so we had a Fall Family Fun Day Friday.  We all slept in (except for dad who was up 3:30 because that is 8:30 Norway time), had a leisurely breakfast and then headed to the pumpkin patch and corn maze.  It was a gorgeous day for it too- not like the rainy, sleety, freezing day we had the last time mom and I went.

This pumpkin patch is about the coolest patch we've ever seen.  The pumpkins actually grew in this field and you picked them off the vine!  Crazy!  The only pumpkin patches we had in Arizona, the pumpkins were trucked in and put in the fields.  The wonders never cease here in Colorado.  We ran into my soccer coach and her girls so I got to hang out with them for awhile which made for even more fun.

We each picked our pumpkins and hauled them back to the front of the field and then headed out to the corn maze.
This time, since the weather was nice and we had dad who is navigator extraordinaire, we decided to do the big maze.  We got a map and I was in charge but somehow, I got us hopelessly lost.  Which is half the fun, yes?  Dad took over and got us straightened out and we made it out alive.  Mom was just following along, thanking her lucky stars she didn't do this maze with me and Cami last week.

After the corn maze, we picked our pumpkins up from daycare (cuuuuute!) and headed to Target.
Dad always brings me something when he goes on these long trips and this time, he got the Skylanders video game.  I have been begging for the Skylanders for months and it was going to be my Christmas present.  But, since dad was already up at the North Pole, he just picked it up early from Santa and brought it to me.  There are a whole bunch of interchangeable characters and since my starter set only came with three characters, we had to make an emergency Target run to get more.

Dad and I spent the rest of the day playing Skylanders and now mom has one more thing to threaten me with if I don't behave.

Saturday was yet another rainy, cold day and my soccer game was canceled.  That was perfectly fine with me because it was more time to play Skylanders!

Sunday was beautiful- warm and clear blue skies.  Mom and I headed to church and ran some errands.  Then because it was such a great day, she and dad forced me to the park so we could play outside and get some fresh air.  I grudgingly admitted that I had fun, even if it wasn't Skylanders.

That afternoon, mom's college roommate and her family rolled in for the evening.  They drove all the way from Indiana (with an excruciating drive through Kansas.  Mom and her family did that drive once when mom was 13 and it was so bad and so boring that she still remembers it.  We won't drive through Kansas) to go camping in the Rockies.  We had a great time catching up and I introduced the boys to...........Skylanders!  Hard to believe, huh?

The Shenks rolled out Monday morning and dad left for yet another trip (short one this time- only 3 days) so mom and I are on our own again.  Uncle Adam, Aunt Erin and baby Sophia roll into town on Thursday and we are so very excited to see them!
Have a great week!

The Week in Review

We had a hard time coming up with a title for this weeks blog- there is so much to report!  We're going to go with a chapter format this time- all kinds of fun and excitement here in the Goedel Household!

THE SLOG

We are on day 9 of our 12 day slog without dad.  Mom and I are hanging in there pretty good with not too many disagreements to report.  We are living from the Whole Foods hot bar because that is way more fun for me and way less work for mom.  Mom has also given up on trying to keep her workout schedule as that would involve getting up at 4:30 in the morning and it just isn't worth it.  

We did have a fun night out on Thursday.  My school had a school night at a local restaurant and 20% of our bill went to my school.  Mom thought that was a good enough reason to go (and it was another night of not cooking).  It was kind of a see and be seen evening with a ton of people and kids from Heritage including most of my Girl Scout troop.  I didn't sit down for most of the evening and mom got some adult time with the other parents so it was a win/win.

Dad comes home on Wednesday and it won't be a moment too soon.  We miss him!

WE AREN'T READY!  (WELL, MOM ISN'T READY!)

We had our first snow fall on Friday October 5.  It was about 2 weeks earlier than average and mom is none to excited about it.  Luckily, it was just a tiny little bit that was gone by noon but still.....waaaaaay to earlier for these shenanigans.  It remained cold and gross all through Saturday.

On the positive side, I got my first hot chocolate of the season Friday night AND my winter gear (boots, gloves, coat) still fit!  Mom was super excited about that one!

THE CORN MAZE!!

We had a very quiet Saturday because it was sleety, rainy and cold.  Mom cleaned the house from top to bottom and I watched a lot of TV.  Mom had invited my best friend Camryn for a sleep over Saturday night so we picked her up about 3 and headed to a corn maze near our house.  Now, you would think the nasty, cold weather would keep us inside but we have been through one winter here, so we feel like we are true Coloradoans (ha!).  We put on our extra warm clothes and headed out.
There was a nice big fire that we hung out before hitting the maze and after getting done.

We tackled the mini maze because apparently the big maze took over an hour to complete and we weren't up for that.  We got through the mini maze pretty quick and ended up doing it twice.  Then we found this awesome huge spider web and played until we couldn't feel our toes anymore.

We came home, snuggled up into blankets and drank more hot chocolate.  Cami and I went to bed about 9 but didn't actually go to sleep until 11.  And then we were up at 6:30 AM.  It was going to be a looong day!


THE VICARIOUS TRAVELOGUE


So as you many remember from last week, dad is in Norway for work.  He has been in Oslo for most of it but did make a trip above the Arctic Circle to check on the big round balls.  You know, to make sure they were still big round balls.  They are, so he came back.

The big round balls are on the island of Svalbard, located on the blue dot at the top of the map.  It is a little bit cold there and the signs are really, really big.

Dad was hoping to see some polar bears but all he saw was the inside of the big round balls.  And snow.  And ice.  He did get to drive some cool, special Arctic car that may come in handy here in Denver in January.
He made it safely back to Oslo and was able to take his bike out for a few rides and got some more cool pictures.

This is the ski jump at Lillihammer.  He rode to the top of it of course.





THE GRAND FINALE

On Sunday, Camryn went home about 10 but her most awesome parents insisted that I come to their house for a few hours to give mom a chance to get her grocery shopping done.  It was just what mom needed.  When she came to pick me up, she found me deeply engrossed in making rockets.  My school has a rocket club and Cami's older sister is in it.  Turns out her sister has a friend whose dad is an aeronautical engineer here in town.  He came over to Cami's house and we spent the afternoon learning about rocket propulsion and making little match rockets.  It was so very cool!

 All in all, mom and I are hanging in there pretty well but that doesn't mean we aren't counting the days until dad comes back.  Have a great week!