My Choice {Day 31}

I've thought for a few days (ok, a week. Well, two weeks. :)  about how to end this series. It's been tons of fun documenting every step of our move and trip out here, and how we are settling in. As I've talked about all month, our life has changed dramatically over the last two months, and it has been an adventure! I wouldn't trade it for anything. Really.

That first day in our new apartment, when Lover went to work, I was home with the kids, alone, in a new place, without a car, and no one to reach out to. To say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement. Those next couple of days were hairy. I alternated between "hurray! we are in Denver and I'm so excited and I love everything!" and "oh my gosh, what have we done, I'm so scared!" I spent a couple of days like this, and it culminated on Friday at lunchtime where I literally just put my head down on our (card) table and sobbed my heart out. The kids were understandably concerned, and gave me sweet hugs and watched me with big eyes.



And that's when I realized that I had to make a choice. Life here in Denver was going to be hard, because life everywhere is challenging.  And I could either wallow in the frustrations and focus on the negatives, or make a choice to find the good in each day. I've started keeping a thankful journal again, and for a time I had a big poster on our wall where I wrote things I was happy about down too. When people ask me how things are going out here I don't sugarcoat it, but I make a conscious effort to focus on the positives. Like 300 days of sunshine! :)

I have to make a choice to push myself out of my comfort zone and make friends. My default is to be the quiet girl in the corner, observing. But I know that for my sake, my husband's sake and my kids' sake, we need to get connected here. So I'm making the choice to be friendly and extend myself to others. It's challenging sometimes, but we are loving the MOPS group we're attending, our life group is full of young families like us, and we are starting to recognize faces at our church.



So much of life is a choice. Years ago I made the choice to invite Jesus in my heart, and that set me on an irreversible path that would shape the rest of my life. Each day living as a Christ follower is a choice - whether to follow him or live for myself that day. Whether to live that day with joy in my heart, or to live focusing on the negative.

We made a choice to move here, and it was a great one. Each day since then, I'm making the choice to live here fully, to find the good, and to live each day with joy. I'm so glad we moved here, and I'm happy to have documented the process so we can look back on this through the years and remember the adventure. Thanks for reading along with me as I rambled on for more than a month and a half! :)

The Apartment: One Month {Day 30}

I'm trying to document the progress in the apartment on a month to month basis. This first month was all about finding a comfy bed and couch, and a proper table and chairs so we could eat meals as a family. You know, the little things that make it feel like home. For the first two weeks here we had none of those things and... it was not exactly fun. Although Javi did enjoy doing gymnastics on the card table that we found at a thrift store.

We had every intention when we moved out here of walking into a few furniture stores, placing orders and walking back out. And we so tried to do that when we got here. We visited several stores, and debated mightily on the virtues of the $600 couch versus the $2,000 couch. In the end though, we realized that we are just not the sort of people who buy brand new furniture. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing that, but it just isn't us. We'd rather buy good quality, used furniture on Craigslist, give a little spit and polish, and use our leftover hundreds towards something more fun like travel. So - the only brand new furniture that we have purchased so far are our mattress and bed frame from IKEA, and three Poang chairs, also from IKEA.

Ready to see our place with some stuff in it? :) First up is our bedroom, which so far contains a bed and a lamp. We're using a box and a tote as nightstands, and our clothes are all in the closets. I'm on the hunt for a little dresser for my side and a nightstand for Lover's side, and of course some curtains. But I think that will be it for furniture in here. We don't need more storage, and I'm loving the open, uncluttered feel of our room. We found the comforter set at Marshalls and I love it.


The kids' room is still a mishmash. We kept KK in her pack n play for the first month to keep there from being one more change in her life. She loves it so that hasn't been a problem. Plus, in the mornings when Javi wants to play with her, he just tips it over and lets her out. :) Crazy boy.





Javi sleeps on the blow up bed, or sometimes on the crib mattress under the changing table, or sometimes in the chair, or the floor, or in places like this or this. Someone called him an Adventure Sleeper and that couldn't be more true.



 

We haven't done much in the bathrooms, but the kids' bath is looking cute with their towels hung up, a bright bath mat and KK's headbands on one of the towel rods. Easy peasy.

The dining area is coming along nicely. We found these table and chairs on Craigslist for $125. The people lived almost 45 minutes away, out in the middle of no where, literally on a dirt road. The table and chairs are super sturdy and not too precious, and the round table fits really nicely in this little nook. We hung curtains just to soften things up a bit, and not have to deal with those ridiculous vertical blinds everyday. In fact, I took the ones on the little window there down and stored them under our bed. I think the rest will stay up in the apartment, but those one were driving me nuts. I left the brackets up and will just rehang them when we move out.



We put a fifteen dollar rug from IKEA under the kids' side of the table, since the whole place is carpeted. That was a good call. It requires cleaning/picking up/vacuuming every day, but it's keeping the carpet underneath relatively unscathed.



On the other side of that skinny wall you can see on the left hand side, we hung the kid's growth chart, one of the things we brought with us from New York. There's their basket of toys too, which is working out well in that spot. See how high the ceilings are here? I have some plans for that back wall, just waiting on a new shipment from Amazon since the last one arrived damaged.



The kitchen hasn't changed much, a few things on the fridge and a few decorations. I found that mirror at a thrift store, and you'll see another up on the mantel for now. I'm thinking once we buy a TV, that will go on the mantel, and the other mirror will join this one over the cabinets. It would be fun to have a collection of mirrors up there, right?



I found that big, awesome clock at Goodwill for $9. I love it and I am so happy that it works! I may end up tweaking it, because that is what I do, but for now it looks great and, I can read it from the couch which is awesome because I am blind. :)



Last up is the main area. The curtains are from IKEA, one of the few places that has curtains long enough for these tall walls that don't cost a fortune. I love the punch of color. How do you like our fancy schmancy coffee table? :) The Poang chairs fit perfectly on the side of the fireplace - someone asked about having white chairs and I mentioned they are washable. True, but we've discovered that fitting that foam back in the covers is a pain in the you-know-what. But - they're working out well.



And, our "new" leather couch. If I had to guess, it's fifteen to twenty years old, but in absolutely solid condition. We wanted to try some new things out here, and one of them was leather. We got this for $90. It had some severe fading which I have discovered was partly fading, and partly just a lack of care. I ordered some leather conditioner and I'm on coat three, and it is making such a difference. I'll do a whole separate post on the different products I am using to restore this couch, but suffice it to say, it's looking a lot better. And it is soooo comfy. Love it. That wall above the couch is screaming out for a big piece of art, wouldn't you say? :) By the way, I wasn't sure if I would like white walls (these are a warm cream) but I love it. It's light and bright and unifying in such a small space.



Here's the mantel today. There's the garland I told you about! Very high tech - felt leaves hot glued to raffia, but it makes me happy. :) I'm on the lookout for a bookshelf that will fit  nicely in the apartment, so eventually all those books will move. All of the tech hookups are above the fireplace, so the big mirror does a good job covering up all the stuff and wires up there.



I'm so glad I brought the infinity light, it took up no room in our boxes and we desperately needed a light in this corner of the room. Who knows if it will stay there, but for now it's working great.



And lastly, one of the first things I hung up was this posterboard of good things that are happening to us here, along with two fun, colorful decorations. Hanging my guitar makes it both an art piece and keeps it mostly out of reach of the bambinos.

So that's it! A little tour of our place one month in. We've made a lot of progress and it's really feeling like home.

Wildlife Refuge {Day 29}

So we are all recovering from a nasty stomach bug - Sunday and Monday were absolutely awful but it seems today that everyone is on the mend. Thanks so much to those of you that were praying for us!


We live just south of a huge wildlife refuge. Apparently it used to be an arsenal for the Army where they manufactured chemical weaopns (!), and was later cleaned up and converted to a wildlife refuge. We went there last Saturday to check it out. It's huge and free, and the website said we might see all types of birds, whitetail deer, mule deer, prairie dogs, coyotes, pelicans and.... bison!! I was so excited to see the bison.



However, lots of the refuge was blocked off to visitors on the day we visited. The day before there had been a series of controlled wildfires that we had noticed in the sky, so I'm assuming that had something to do with it. We drove all throughout the places that we COULD visit, and saw a few deer, lots of prairie dogs, some cool birds, but sadly, NO bison. Such a bummer. I joked that we saw more wildlife on some of our trips out of the city to pick up furniture.



But, there were some absolutely beautiful views, and we did see a few animals. We'll definitely try going back there again sometime to find those bison. Because, seriously, who doesn't want to see buffalo!?! :)



 









I think this would be a great place to head back to when it's a little colder and we can't do as much outside. It would be a nice place to drive through, see some animals and then head back to the warmth and comfort of our cozy house! :)

Barns and Sunlight {Day 28)

I found these pictures from sometime on our road trip, I think maybe it was in Ohio? We had grabbed dinner at Olive Garden and were driving back to the hotel, and I begged Lover to stop at this barn. I loved the texture of the old barn and the light was just breathtaking. We took some pics down at the barn, then walked up what turned out to be a guy's driveway to get some pictures of the setting sun. He was surprisingly cool about us trespassing just for a picture! On our way back to the hotel the sunset was amazing so we stopped right on the shoulder and I snapped a few more pics. Gorgeousness. Enjoy!

Lil' Cowboys and Cowgirls {Day 27}

We didn't do anything for Halloween, since we are all recovering from a nasty cold and little sleep this week (among other reasons). But in searching through my pics for these last posts, I came across these adorable photos of the Western wear store that we checked out one morning while waiting for IKEA to open up. I never realized how seriously people take their boots and cowboy hats - there were every size, shape and color available, from tiny tots all the way up to big and tall! Anyways, kids in cowboy hats - adorably cute and we nearly succumbed and bought them boots and hats. But in the end we were able to remain strong and left without purchasing anything!

16th Street Mall {Day 26}

Happy November 1st! :) Thanks for all your kind words on my post about courage. They meant a lot to me. Now, I've got six posts left to finish this series, so let's get started, shall we?

Denver has a really cool pedestrian street called the 16th Street Mall downtown. We drove down there one evening to walk around, explore and eat dinner. We grabbed sandwiches at Jimmy Johns and then just strolled and meandered our way down the street. We encountered all sorts of interesting things!

The first thing we encountered was this lady walking around with her snake. I can't remember what kind of snake she said it was - maybe a python? But she let Javi hold it which totally made his day. My hand is in the picture because both she and I were saying "don't squish his head!"



It looked like during the summer there is a ton of stuff going on at the Mall. It reminded me a lot of Bryant Park in New York City, lots of free events for residents of Denver. We'll definitely be back another time to explore some more. This cow was really cool, covered in facts about Denver. Did you know that Denver has a ton of parks, and gets 300 days of sunshine a year? Eat your heart out Rochester. :) The kids loved "riding" the cow.



Down at the very end of the street were these metal buffalo sculptures "mommy, take my picture with the more cows!" that the kids thought were pretty awesome. Javi wanted a picture with each one, which made me laugh. Javi, by the way, is holding a book on sights and attractions in Denver, which he studied very seriously as we walked the street.





The kids spotted this other cow (steer?) and wanted to sit on this one too, so we crossed the street so they could sit on it. However, there was a couple there, dressed as mimes, that thought we were coming to see them, and they put on a little show for us. They were truly terrible. We couldn't understand anything they were gesturing about, they inserted themselves in the picture of the kids - it was laughable how bad they were :) See how KK is like - who are these weirdos?



Peanut walked a ton of the way, which was really impressive. She insists more and more on walking like a big girl and not riding/being carried like a baby. By the end of the night though, she was getting tired, and spending lots of time snuggled in Daddy's arms. These two melt my heart.



There were some definite characters out on the streets that night. Several people begging (some with clever placards and some just walking up to people) for weed, beer, money or food (in that order!). The terrible mimes. A guy dressed up a in a huge dragon or crocodile costume that made him about six and a half feet tall, who stopped to talk to us about his daughter from inside the creepy costume. The fun just never ends! It was an entertaining evening and a nice way to spend time together as a family. Oh, and then when we got back to the car, Javi wanted to take my picture. So there you go. :)