Weekly Email

Hi Mom,

Just catching up after a good long holiday break.  I took Wednesday off and then Thursday/Friday were holidays for Thanksgiving.  So, It was a nice 5-day weekend.

We had a great time with Ken and Mona.  They got in around 12N on Wednesday and left this morning around 8:45am.  We watched a lot of football, played dominos, watched movies, ate and went on a couple of drives.  Thursday we ate around 2pm after Theresa prepared all day - funny to fix for 6 hours then to eat it all up in 10 minutes.  We watched the Greenbay/Detroit game on Thursday, Tigers/Jayhawks on Saturday, and Denver/San Diego + KC/Pittsburgh on Sunday.  Saturday night we watched Secretariat - good one to watch again.  On Friday we took a ride in the Prius around Boulder - new neighborhoods, church, CU, Boulder High, Centennial.  Saturday Chloe drove us up into the mountains - Nederland, Eldora, Ward - the roads were surprisingly snowy higher up.  We tried to head to the theater on Saturday afternoon to see "The Descendants" but it was sold out.  The girls stayed and saw "Twilight: Breaking Dawn" and the adults just went home.  Sunday morning I played at church for both services.  Ken and Mona went to mass at Sacred Heart then met up with Theresa and Megan for breakfast at IHOP afterwards.

The girls and I put up our Christmas lights and Angels on Wednesday while waiting for Ken and Mona to arrive.  It was almost 70F so it was too nice a day to pass up climbing on the roof.

Chloe and Megan also went to check out the black Friday sales at 6:15am. Chris Leitz picked them up with Clara and dropped the girls off at Target first.  Then Marlys took them from Target to Flatiron Crossings Mall from around 8am to 1pm.  They were wiped out.  They came home with some finds but I don't think they were overly enamoured with Black Friday.  I guess they just had to experience it first hand.

Everybody is back to the routine today. Theresa had some doctor appts down this way today so I met up with her for a hotdog lunch at Costco.

I'm sure there are a million other details too but....

luv u,

Jeff

Weekly Email

Hi Mom,

Nothing much to report on here....

Theresa has been a busy bee cleaning for Ken and Mona's arrival.  We are excited that they decided to come out for Thanksgiving.  I think they will drive on Tuesday, stay the night somewhere and arrive on Wednesday - and then depart the following Tuesday.  I think I might try to take Wednesday off to add on to the Thurs/Fri holidays.

Looks like mixed results on our football teams UofA, MU win, KU, CU, Army lose.  Missouri Basketball tonight on TV against Notre Dame.  I've got the DVR set up for that since I have BSF tonight.

I played on the worship team yesterday.  And Theresa helped with Operation Christmas child afterwards.  Megan went to 29th street shopping with Clara and then to her gymnastics meet - she was gone from 12-9pm.  Meanwhile, Chloe slept all day.  I guess she was just wiped out from school and now has the thanksgiving break to catch up a little.

Don't know much more than that :-)

luv u,

Jeff

More Weekly Email

Hi Mom,

A few things I didn't mention in my weekly update....

Reading all the news about Gary Pinkel getting busted for a DWI :-(  Oh dear.  I have to say he handled it well.  Took his punish, was sincerely apologetic and assumed full responsibility.  Missouri needs a win or two against Texas Tech and/or Kansas.  They've had an uneven year.

Also, Theresa and I watched the 20/20 special with Diane Sawyer on Gabby Gifford.  AMAZING!  Wow, what she's come through in 1 year.  We really enjoyed watching it - laughed and cried and were inspired.

My friend who's daughter (Laura Triem) was hit by the light rail train is going through serious brain trauma.  They had to open up both the left and right side of her skull to release pressure and they are fighting some infections.  She is in an induced coma.  But they have moved her out of ICU so that's positive.

Well - those popped into my head and I thought I would write with a quick update.

We were in last night with Megan (Chloe went over to a friends house) and watched "That Thing You Do" - fun movie!  Not sure what we'll get up to today.

Luv u,

Jeff

Weekly Email

Hi Mom,

Just a quick update since I didn't write last weekend.

Friday night we had a fun outing with the Lietz's.  We went to Noodles and Company for dinner and then to Fairview High School's musical production "All Shook Up" based on Elvis Presley music.  It was really fun and so well done.  They always do an amazing job.

I guess Colorado was the better of the two lousy football teams on Saturday (CU 48 UofA 29).  It was windy - 75 mph winds!  Missouri had an upset win over Texas.  The real football talk around hear has been the Denver Broncos and Tim Tebow.  You can't go 5 seconds without hearing "TEBOW" - love him or hate him.  I didn't watch any football this weekend.  I've kind of been following the beginning of college basketball.  KU lost last night to UK.

It was Theresa's birthday weekend and she wanted to go to IKEA.  What an experience.  It's huge - kinda like the disney land of modern furniture.  They funnel you through a specific traffic pattern and dump you out in the gift shop :-0  Afterwards we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and pigged out (so much so that i was kinda sick later in the evening).



Sunday was a fun Sunday at Calvary.  It was pledge card Sunday for the Building Fund drive.  They had a special extended music worship time with the band and a praise choir.  I played in the band and Theresa and Megan sang in the choir.

Megan went to school with Chloe on Monday morning to shadow her.  Getting a feel for High School.  She'll have to decide between Boulder High as her home school or open-enrolling at Fairview.  I think she's leaning towards Fairview.

Monday night I didn't go to BSF so I could hang with the girls on Theresa's actual birthday.  She's sporting a brand new iPhone 4S as her main present.  Along with lots of cards, money, flowers, lunches, dinners....  I think she was feeling special :-)

We went to pick up our 'pilot' car last night.  It's a yet-to-be-release Toyota Prius that is a combination plug-in electric/hybrid vehicle.  We get to drive it until January 17th.  I brought it to work today... averaging over 100 mpg.  It's kinda weird when it's running on battery only - it doesn't make any sound at all.  It will be interesting to see how the program goes.



Well that's all I know for now.  I know I leave out lots of details - but it's amazing how quickly I forget what happened yesterday much less last week!

luv u,

Jeff

Weekly Email

Hi Mom,

I was busy last week. But mostly I just forgot :-(. Thanks for news on Tom Shrader's wife. I hadn't heard that. I'm still listening to his 'tapes' (CDs now really - but when I started listening they were cassette tapes :-).  They are a bit delayed so he hasn't mentioned anything in the current set of lessons I have in the car. She got to see a lot of things before she died - weddings and grandbabies. I know he thinks it's a celebration that she's with the Lord. But still hard. 

Theresa's next door neighbor, Paul Bowman, died last week as well.  He was an interesting individual - the obituary describes a lot of the things he did.  I was amazed at all the different jobs. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/kansascity/obituary.aspx?n=PAUL-BOWMAN&pid=154290889

We've had a couple of snows since I last wrote. The first one was 12" and the second one was 7". Both on Tuesday night into wednesday morning. They are predicting some more for this week too. It was really wet, heavy snow bringing down a lot of branches. We lost an aspen tree out front. And some minor limbs in the back. There were still alot of leaves on the trees that the snow yanked down. Now I need the snow to melt so I can rake leaves. 

Chloe had her first mandatory 'behind the wheel' lesson today. She has to take 6 hours total. 2 today, 2 on tues, and 2 on thurs - then she's done. come January she'll be set to get her license. The intructor said she did great and he had no doubt she could pass the test today. This is just a formality. We've been driving together a lot so she is ready. He said some kids come with no driving experience at all. 

Megan had a birthday party sleep over last night.  We don't usually do Sat/Sun sleep overs but it was a special occasion.  We went to her honor roll breakfast on Friday morning.  That was a fun way to honor her hard work and studies!

We talked with Steve and Julie last week to help them figure out flights for Christmas.  We'll probably be arriving and departing around the same time.  So, I'm not sure how we will sort out pickup and drop off for them.  It might have to be a shuttle.  But we'll figure it out.

Halloween last Monday was a pretty big deal as always.  I had to go out to BSF so I missed it.  But Chloe, Megan and friends did go out and cleaned up.  Theresa manned the home front and probably handed out over 400+ pieces of candy.  As I was going out, cars were parked up and down the main street bringing kids in from other neighborhoods.

We watched a cute movie last night - "The Perfect Game"- about a Mexican team that won the little league world series in 1957.

I cleaned out the 3rd bay of the garage.  I don't know if I told you but we are participating in a study through the University of Colorado on electric hybrid cars.  We get to drive a plug-in Toyota Prius for free for 9 weeks.  We just have to write about our experience in an online journal weekly.

I think it's been over 5 weeks on the new job now and it's going great.  I'm finally starting to feel a little more comfortable and making a contribution.  I still have a lot to learn.  But so far so good and I'm enjoying it.  I also got all the rulings from the state of Colorado for my Intrado unemployment claim and vacation pay... the big corporate america company wins - no unemployment pay, they sided with them and no vacation pay, once again siding with the company.  Intrado won but in the end I think they lost their humanity.  I should start a protest - 'Occupy Intrado' :-)  the "1%" sticking it to the worker.  Oh well - moving on.

Well that's all I know for know.  Good to catch up finally.  I still have to cram on my BSF for tomorrow night.

luv u,

Jeff

On Nov 2, 2011, at 6:49 PM, StuSherard@aol.com wrote:

Hi Jeff,

You have been busy----no update last weekend--------------------------------------??

I have been busy too.

You probably will get this notice by e-mail, but I just wanted to make sure you knew this sad news----Tom Shrader's wife died(cancer).  She lived 2 years beyond the 5 year time frame they gave her.  So sad!!!

I am wondering if you will get more snow this weekend(?)

Dad said the game at West Point(Fordham) Army 45-Fordham 0 was a white out & snow almost up to their knees!!!!

I hiked today---not long hike at all(beautiful weather--up the top of Mt. Lemmon)---went to prayer time at 3p.m. & now off to Gas Light Theater.  I will always remember going for the first time with you all to celebrate Stu's 40th birthday.  Theresa wanted to join up right then.  Do you remember it?

Time to go!!!  Bye, Mom