…when you’re down to your last butternut squash. That’s right, folks, we went from
to
I must admit that a few of them went bad while they sat around, so probably 3-4 went straight to the compost. This guy was the only one that had a major blemish, so I’m a little worried about it, but we’ll hope for the best. Until we meet again this fall, it’s been fun, butternut squash.
Two weekends ago, the Fykes came to visit us. We spent a couple of fun evenings at a condo “near” Winter Park that we got at the YES auction. We spent the first day skiing, but they haven’t had much snow out there in a while. We hit numerous icy spots!
Due to the weather, we headed back to Denver the next day, stopping by Red Rocks on our way home. Thankfully it was much warmer than when Adam came! We can’t wait until their summer concert schedule comes out, because we’d love to catch a show there.
Sunday afternoon, we went to Mt Falcon Park in Morrison, CO to do a little hiking. The trail was icy here and there, but we had a good time.
It may not have been the best-timed weekend, but we were so glad to see the Fykes!
Two weekends ago, we skiing at Steamboat Springs. A few college friends were coming in town, and we were able to stay with our friends Gabe and Nina. This was my first time at a “real” ski resort. Fancy place, fancy people. The slopes were great for me, as they have a number of runs that have minimal “sloping.”
Oh, an update: Right before Christmas, I went on snowboarding day #2. It was rough. I wasn’t giving up yet, but I did have a bruised tailbone for around a month afterward. Joel decided we should both go back to skiing, and I happily agreed. I bought some cheap skis on Craigslist and some boots on ebay, and I am set. I would have been miserable at Steamboat if I attempted to snowboard. Joel is still snowboarding, so I haven’t figured out if he really thought he would go back to skiing when he made his suggestion, or if he was just trying to make me feel better… Either way, I am a content green-level skier. The main reason I wanted to snowboard anyway was because I hate walking in ski boots. 
Lee, Gabe, and Joel on the slopes
Us at a mid-mountain overlook
Notice the helmets - we highly recommend them!
Slightly blurry view from the condo. Did I mention that Gabe and Nina have access to an amazingly located condo?? (yes, that is the main gondola right there)
I just read this article, and I thought I’d make a post about meat: http://simple-green-frugal-co-op.blogspot.com/2010/01/going-meatless-whats-your-reason.html
We eat meat. That said, we somewhat “carefully” eat meat. I do often wonder whether I should be allowed to eat meat at all, as I am not currently willing to slaughter it myself…and I don’t even want to cut up a chicken at this point. It seems reasonable that I should be willing to fully prepare most things I want to eat.
Anyway, my family gave up red meat maybe 10 years ago for health reasons, but I’ve generally eaten a lot of chicken and fish (fish production is a whole different issue!). We’ve reduced our chicken/fish consumption over the past couple of years as we’ve realized how good some other things are. Gardening helps us too. Everyone knows that meat not produced on a factory farm is more expensive, but we decided that such meat was the way to go (healthier, no antibiotics that might make me resistant to them, not killing the environment, etc.). So, to offset the increased cost of buying sustainably produced meat, we just eat less. It works well for us, and we stretch the meat further when possible.
I’ve been hearing more and more about “Meatless Mondays” and the massive impact it would make if everyone did it. It seems like a great idea!
Weekend before last, we headed to Echo Lake to snowshoe. The highlight of the day was our first experience on a frozen lake!
We also headed to Evergreen, CO to Three Sisters Park. We had a great time hiking and scrambling up the 3 big rock formations. On the way out there, we saw a team playing hockey on a frozen lake…and we thought that was just in the movies.
Click to enlarge any pictures.
Our hearts are heavy this week as we learn about the devastation in Haiti. I am frustrated that this happened in the one place in the western hemisphere that is the least able to help itself. I am frustrated that the news media is so enamored with finding out the death toll. I am frustrated that aid can’t get in because the roads are so bad.
What am I not frustrated about? There are a number of great organizations out there who are ready to help. When we give to new charities, I like to look up their stats to make sure they are actually stewarding their money well, rather than spending it on fancy fundraising dinners, etc. Here are some basic figures from Charity Navigator. Although these show who spends prudently, it doesn’t tell you who can have the biggest impact or who has the best resources in Haiti. I don’t know much about a number of these organizations, so sorry if they aren’t great, but the numbers mean something!
*Listed in order of highest percentage going toward program expenses
*Name of charity links to their website. Program expense % links to their Charity Navigator page
*The number of stars is assigned by Charity Navigator and is based on the above factors plus organizational efficiency and capacity (and yes, there are charities with 0 stars!)
| Charity | Program Expenses | Admin. Expenses | Fundraising Expenses | Charity Nav. Rating |
| Nazarene Compassionate Ministries | 93.7% | 5.5% | 0.7% | **** |
| Save the Children | 91.7% | 3.7% | 4.5% | **** |
| American Red Cross | 90.1% | 5.9% | 3.9% | *** |
| Samaritan’s Purse | 88.6% | 4.9% | 6.4% | **** |
| Doctors Without Borders | 87.3% | 1.1% | 11.4% | **** |
| World Vision | 86.7% | 4.6% | 8.5% | **** |
| Compassion International | 83.1% | 8.0% | 8.8% | **** |
| Oxfam America | 80.1% | 6.1% | 13.6% | **** |
| Healing Hands International | 78.3% | 10.8% | 10.8% | *** |
So for now, we pray and give, pray and give…
We have returned from our former home to our new home. The break was long and quite nice, almost the perfect number of days. We spent a lot of time with family and a little time with a lot of friends.
Here are a few highlights (starting with a non-highlight) from our trip.
1. We ran into terrible weather on our trip home. What should have been an 18 hour trip plus stops turned into nearly 27 hours, including 2.5 of sleep stops. We won’t make that trip again in the winter!
2. We ate lunch on Christmas Eve at Baja Burrito. Due to their extremely long holiday closure, that was the only meal of our entire visit that they were open. Glad I called ahead. Long live pineapple salsa.
3. We spent a lovely Christmas Eve with my family, eating at Finezza and exchanging gifts. Christmas brunch with my extended family and a somewhat polite game of dirty Santa rounded out the festivities on Christmas day. I can’t number how many failures to take pictures this makes for us.
4. We went to Birmingham and had a couple of nice relaxing days with Joel’s parents. Although better than my family’s event, we only managed to take approximately one picture.
Susan opening her mp3 player
5. We spent most not-previously-committed breakfasts, lunches, and dinners catching up with friends. (Williamses, Harrises, Wrights, Mankins/Smiths/Huffards for Joseph’s birthday, Otts, Joel’s old coworkers, Duty, Baxters, Youngs, Brittney, and Brad. Phew!)
6. We saw even more friends at the nice potluck Duty hosted on New Years’ Eve. We were the old, boring, married people who weren’t feeling the next party (so stereotypical, right?), so we finished the night with a movie since some other plans didn’t work out.
7. A celebration with my mom’s side of the family on New Years’ Day, minus my traveling brother, was the final event.
Dad, Jennie, and Elizabeth about to open gifts
About to open my books from Grandmommy
Breanna, Chad, and Emily
8. We had great weather on the drive home and had a much needed, fun visit with the Mortons in Newton, KS.
The Mortons and us
We are really thankful that Joel got so much time off of work so we could make the trip!
The 5th annual Joel and Lauren Christmas card is here.
Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/yb6r9n5
I made my stab at snowboarding over the weekend. Our friend Megan was nice enough to loan me her gear while she learns to telemark ski, so that was very helpful. However, just having gear doesn’t guarantee anything! We went to Loveland Ski Area, and I took a lesson while Joel snowboarded. The lesson was very helpful, but it will take a good bit more work before I am anywhere near comfortable riding. I think I fell on my knees about a million times, so they, along with most of my body, were feeling a little rough afterward.
Here is a word to the wise: When you are doing anything at a high altitude, be sure to drink PLENTY of water, and take ibuprofen in the morning if you are prone to altitude sickness. After my lesson, Joel and I were eating lunch. I started to feel funny, and then I told him I was going to black out. And that I did. It was the weirdest experience: I felt like I was dreaming for a little while, and then Joel and two other people touched me, and I woke up (still sitting in my chair). A patroller took me down to the first aid area, and they asked me a bunch of questions. All we could figure was that I didn’t drink enough water, because I felt fine otherwise. Later, Joel and I realized I didn’t take any ibuprofen in the morning (which has seemed to help my altitude problems), so that may have been part of it also. So, what’s the moral of the story? Remember that high altitudes aren’t the same as low ones! I’ll have to wait for another weekend to try my hand (feet?) at snowboarding again…
Last weekend, Adam came to visit. Somewhat similar to when mom came, he brought terribly cold weather with him. And I mean terrible…it was the coldest we’ve ever felt in our lives. I think -10 was the lowest we saw! We made the most of it and still did everything we wanted to, but it would have been much more pleasant had it been warmer. I’ll be honest – if he hadn’t been here, I probably would have made serious efforts to stay inside the whole weekend.
So, what did we do? We had dinner with a couple of friends from Lipscomb who live here, snowshoed (loved it!), damaged our car a bit, got the car fixed, visited REI, toured the Coors factory, went to the Tattered Cover bookstore (which is super cool by the way), got fish tacos at Wahoo’s, saw a sneak preview of Invictus, went to Boulder, stopped by Chautauqua Meadows, went to Red Rocks, and ate at Watercourse. And froze. Phew. Here are some pictures (captions under each picture):
All of us snowshoeing (click to enlarge)
The Flatirons at Chatauqua Meadows; Joel and Adam at Chautauqua (click to enlarge)
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
This was probably the most out of breath I've been in my whole life. I do not recommend jogging then climbing a ton of stairs at 6200 ft when it's -5 degrees!
Adam and me at Red Rocks; Joel and me at Red Rocks (click to enlarge)