Let Me Show You Our Weekend

 Me n Cami

 Luke

 Top L-R: John, Neola, Luke, Me

Bottom L-R: Kyle, Mark, Cami

 My M-i-L Neola is faaaaamous for her candid photos!

I've taken to posing for them. Meet the many faces of me:

 We had some pre-wedding shopping to do but the stores didn't actually open 'til 12 and we met at 10. Prompt Starbucks Pinochle:

 These dress-up cuties!

My cousin Lindsay and Dasch!

After two days of snow.

 In our Magrathea Scarves!

Waldo Canyon Fire

Well I think you could say the Waldo Canyon fire has been a influential part of our lives here in Colorado Springs. We are thankful to hear that the fire is now 98% contained. For a time there It was as though the whole city was on hold. Watching an holding their breath. Pun intended. It stank like a campfire up on here. There was quite a predicament as much of the housing in our area does not have A/C. We were experiencing record high temperatures and the health department was suggesting closing up windows and doors for smoke.
We have a semi sufficient window A/C but I definitely headed to the down town library for a break. It was hotter than Fresno for at least a week. Crazy.
It was interesting to see all the activity from our balcony. We were never in an evacuation zone but could see a lot of what was going on. In these pictures you can see aircrafts preparing to and attacking the fire with slurry, a fire retardant.



In the bottom picture the plane is dropping the red slurry on the perimeter of the fire.
All it took was a change in wind to cover our city in a Fresno like smog.



It was fascinating to see how social media effected the news coverage.
I moved my cooking outside to remove as much heat as possible from our apartment.



When our typical of the season afternoon rain finally came in, it was as if it soothed the city.







Last I heard 348 homes were burned in the fire. Firefighters are continuing to work to have the fire 100% contained. We continue to pray for all involved and those who are continuing to be affected by fires elsewhere.
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Colorado is Burning

There are/have been quite a few fires in Colorado this summer. Here in Colorado Springs we're experiencing record high temperatures and on Saturday we got a fire of our own. 

 Here you can see it from the our grocery store parking lot.

 As the day starts to fade into evening this is what we could see from our apartment balcony.
Below, you can see this normally empty section of parking lot, full of fire spectators who were all ironically watching the fire and smoking.

 The record high heat (into the 100's) combined with smoke in the air create quite the Fresno Smoggy effect and seems to be effecting the health of my neighbors. The two emergency vehicles are two of four that I have seen in the last two days.

 The horizon of the fire had spread by today.

 This evening the wind changed direction and blew the smoke in even worse. I though someone was cooking bacon or something else yummy when all of a sudden I realized it was major smoke! Shortly after, when I went outside, our view of the fired was terminated, but my cousin Tom sent me these pictures. He lives toward the north end of the city which confirms that the fire is moving north.

Please pray for the fire fighters! I'm feeling rather miserable with all the conditions, I can't even imagine how they're feeling! Please also pray for those displaced from their homes and those in fragile health conditions. Luke and I are young and healthy and are experiencing the side effects of the smoke, I can't imagine how others are doing.

Packing A Bug

Well folks, I made it to Colorado Springs! I am happily reunited with Luke and loving it! BUT first, I had to pack my car up. I thought I'd share the process with you! 

It all starts with this perfectly empty palate.  

 Then it turns into this:

 I said "Good thing I'm not claustrophobic." Ruby's mom says "Good thing you're short." All true. This is what the back looks like. I try and cover it all with sheets or a blanket to kind of protect it from prying eyes/sun/whatever. That's what my dad did so I do it too haha.

Now the trick to packing this curvy lady car is to chink all the gaps with clothing. Square boxes don't perfectly fit the curves so I stuff my clothing between all the gaps as I go.

 Here are all the clothes I removed from that last pictured space!

Now here's the back without the blanket. See how I've used my clothes to fit the curve of my trunk! I'd also like to think that they protect the boxes from the rather emphatic trunk closing I have to do when the packing is done. If I don't use great force, that baby wont close and I'll have to look at my trunk light the whole way.

 So here she is, outermost layer of clothes removed. Still looks pretty full eh?

 Here's the box full of clothes! It would have never worked if I had tried to put that whole box in there!

 Sweatshirts are good for filling the bigger gaps.

 Next trip. More clothes, but I've got some boxes too.

 Third trip, getting the smaller boxes out.

So, now is the right time to mention that we live on the THIRD FLOOR! I'm starting to feel the burn.

We're finally starting to get somewhere! 

I use the crates I pack things in for shelving wherever I'm living. Luke doesn't particularly like them, but gosh gee golly they're convenient. I cushion the very bottom of my car with coats and squishy clothes, then put the boards down so I have a completely flat surface for my cutting mat. Essential for quilting! Also essential it stays flat. Then I also have a completely flat surface for my biggest foundational boxes that fit perfectly under the bed. Everything has a purpose/place in packing, storing and living.
Here are some of the things that were in my car.

Here are the shelves before being readjusted with the big boxes Luke brought up for me. (Sorry, I had already started unloading them before I thought to take a picture.

Here they are after I reconfigured them.

They're not particularly pretty but they're functional in our tiny apartment. They're especially convenient because we still don't have all of our stuff all together! We have some at John and Neola's, some in storage in Fresno, a bit at my dad's and I still have some at Tanya's! Gosh gee golly I'm looking forward to being all in one place!

Spring Break 2012

Cupcakes. Twice. The cupcake truck now has a shop down town. It's fabulous because the comfy seating makes it a nice place to enjoy the cupcake as well!



Saturday1:



French toast (blue) maple bacon (purple) zippy lemon (red). French Toast was my personal favorite for the day.



The Saturday before Easter was earl grey and banana.
The Easter bunny stopped by.



...and even his eggs.












Until she broke something and spent 3 hours cleaning up the mess. Wooops.
The masters was on. I had favorites. None of them were Tiger.



Also I worked on homework. A lot. I had a major project due right after spring break and it consumed more time than I would have liked.
The greatest thing about this trip was that it was the last one. I'll be done with school in May and headed back to live with my Luke again! What a relief that will be!



I miss that guy.
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