time's flying when things get crazy!!

So... the 1 year anniversary is coming up next week! Holy cow! Is it really next week\? Wow!! It really doesn't feel like a year already. Well, ok, in some ways it does feel like a year, in others ways, though, it doesn't feel even close to a year. It truly is amazing how time changes depending on who you are with AND what part of your life you're in. Example: Now we're married and time seems to go so fast, but when we were engaged (and living apart) time went soooo sloooooow. Also, high school went by so fast (it didn't seem like it at the time) and now, each work week seems to drag! But I'd like to sum up the events of our first year. Mark and I have been "flashing-back" lately and it really has been a crazy year for us!

We moved to Denver!! Packed all our stuff and moved to the other side of the Rockies! I know that, in moving, Mark and I were able to strenghten our realationship and build the best possible foundation for our family : full and complete trust and reliance on one another.

The break in! A fellow resident at the apartment complex started banging on our door at 3 AM one day. In a drunk adventure, he thought our apartment was his apartment. I woke up to the banging on the door, and then I pushed Mark until he was awake, Mark when to go tell the guy to go find his own apartment while I called the cops (YOU try reasoning with a drunk that has numeric recognition failure!!) Well, next thing we knew, the guy had kicked in our door and was standing in our dining room! The cops came and took care of everything, but it was still pretty scary!

Snow + front-wheel-drive minivan + mad dirtbag with undamaged fender = Collards buy dirtbag a new bumper cuz he's a sissy. So ends up that snow on the mountains makes the roads slick. Well, Mark was slowing down for a red light, caught some ice, and tapped into this dirtbag's fender. Mark couldn't see any damage, but the guy decided to take it in anyways, long story short, we ended up buy him a new bumper or pool table or whatever he bought with the check we sent him. Dirtbag....

Home to the Wisco: So Mark and I travelled home to Wisconsin for New Years and my 22nd birthday! we stated flying out from Denver to Minneapolis, we made it to MN, then our flight to Green Bay was cancelled, we ended up staying the night in Minneapolis. We next flight we could get was at 3 pm to GB, mom got on the horn with airport, showed them who's boss and we got on a flight to Millwaukee, Tim picked us up and we drove to GB with him. Wait, our luggage went to GB so we had to stop at the airport there to pick it up. We did end up getting to the parent's house, and had a lot of fun while we were there! Everybody got along and were even picking on eachother like mad! All the kids had fun with their new brother! We took family pictures! It was a great holiday!

Headaches and heart surgery ~ So since back in August (since about the time of the break in) I have had these massive migraines. I went in to a doctor, and he tried everything at once, I went to an eye doctor, I went to the chiro, he chnged my diet, he put me on tons of meds, but then he suggested I go to a Cardio Dr, just to check on my heart. Well, ends up there was a hole in between the chambers of my heart (the oxygenated blood was mixing with the un-oxygenated blood, it's not supposed to be!) So, in Feb. I went in for open heart surgery, and 5 days after going in and getting my heart man-handled, I was sent home. The recovery process wasn't nearly as painful as I expected it to be! I'm happy and healthy! Everything is going great now, although, the headaches really haven't gone away, we're still trying to stop those.

Family visits : Well, during the open heart surgery, Mark's brother, Kurt, and my mom, Brenda, were able to come out and help! For the whole month of February, we read books, played video games and cooked food. It was pretty fun, minus the whole open heart surgery thing.... It was so nice to have family here when I really needed them! It was also nice to have room for them in the house!

The apartment (dun dun dunnnn)..... When I moved to Denver, I found an apartment online and signed a 1 year lease, thinking we wouldn't have thing come up, and nothing to worry about for the 1st year. (Yeah riiigghhhtt!! Boy was I wrong!) When we found out about the surgery, we tried to get out of the lease, (I figured I wouldn't be able to walk up and down 3 flights of stairs after the surgery!) well, they wouldn't let us break the lease, so we found someone to sublet it from us, meanwhile, we found a cute little 2 bedroom house for the same as we were paying in rent! We though things would be perfect, NOPE!! She ended up staying for 5 months while only paying for 2. The lease was up in April!! Geez!!

HOUSE! It's a super cute little 2 bedroom house with a fenced in yard and a garage! It's actually one we looked at while it was on the market, but I thought it was too small (guess it fits now, huh?!) But I added a garden in back (thanks Mark and Kurt). I painted on wall in the living room sage green, and one wall in the office orange (it really does look pretty cute.

In gunsmith days, it's only been 6 -So way back in August, Mark took apart one of his shotguns. Took apart so much that he took it to a gunsmith to put it back together. He took it to the gunsmith because we figured the guy would put it back together real quick, and if he saw any problems with it, he'd fix it! That was 10 months ago!! He'd told Mark he's fixed them and they are ready to be picked up 3 times now, each time he comes up and says, his buddy is shooting them at the target range! He's definetly lost them once, he's gotten them confused with someone else's guns at least twice. So Mark finally cornered him, and the guy admitted to losing them. Thank goodness he's not going to charge a babysitting fee, and that he is finally going to be fixing the guns. We'll let you know when we get the guns back!

Floppy-eared, speckled, bunny-looking thing! Well, I brought up the idea to Mark, he laughed it off at first. But then I started looking online, and found one! I found a pure-bred German Wirehaired pointer pup for only $100! (Papered pure-bred pups cost around $800-$1500!!) BUT the puppy was in Arizona! Mark and I discussed it more, and then we talked it over with out landlord. Then we went down to Camp Verde, Arizona to pick up our pup!! (We picked the weekend we did, because Steve and Heather were coming out, and they got snowed in at Rawlins, and headed back to Utah, Mark and I had gotten off work early, so we headed down to Arizona (where it was NOT snowing) and got our puppy!) We got the pup when he was 8 weeks old and he is the freaking cutest thing ever!! Mark was set on the name Sancho, but I think (and he thinks) that Sancho is a mix-mutt name. I had been tossing around Bulllet or Bandit. After a little bit, we decided on Bandit, he's got a spot of white on his nose, like he got into paint... Plus, he's sneaky and tricky, and he's always hiding my stuff!! It's been alot of fun having the rat around, he's way cute an even though he doesn't look like he has a beard yet, you'd be surprised just how much water will drip out of it when he's done taking a drink!!

The Land Cruiser meets Ogden Canyon..... I had been buggin Mark to bring the Land Cruiser home to Colorado for a while now, and we said the next time we head to Utah and it doesn't snow or rain, we'll bring it back. Well, I was so excited for it! We had it on the tow-bar and we were heading home to Colorado! We made it into Ogden Canyon and she started to wobble... I asked Mark when should I be worried about the wobble? And he looked in the mirror and said very calmly, Now you should be worried. And at that point, we started to spin. We were just spinning, the Cruiser was rolling! It popped off of the tow-bar, and the doors, top and wind-shield of the Cruiser were all smashed to pieces, the back left tire was 100 feet away next to the median. We were very lucky to not have gone with the Cruiser. We had people stop and see if we were ok, they all said that when they had towed something, it rolled and took the tow vehicle with it for the roll. Well, Mark's dad came and brought the Cruiser back to Utah, Mark and I headed on our way home. We got passed Rock Springs and on our way after a BK stop, and the front right tire blew out on the truck... We fixed it with the spare, but it was just an awful day! Thank goodness that was end of our bad day!

Feeding young minds. Mark and I were called to be primary teachers at church a while back. We instruct the 5 year-old bunch. We used to have 10, one moved out, and 2 moved in, so we are up to 11. They are cute and rowdy group! It's been alog of fun to teach them, and make it fun for them to learn. One thing they always remember (no matter what topic we're on!) is faith, and they smack the back of their heads when FAITH is said, cuz Mark taught them that faith is like the back of their head, they can't see it, but they can feel it and know it's there! They're pretty cool kids!

Friends and family in the ward! I moved to this ward last April, when it was just me, and Mark was still in Utah. Right away I had people come up to me and make friends with me. I can never say how very grateful I am to the sisters in the ward. I've felt welcome and comfortable in the ward right away, and that's amazing because it usually takes me a while to adjust to a new ward and find friends. The ladies in the ward have been so amazing and wonderful! The men have been way nice to us, too, and Mark has made a bunch of friends. There are guys in the ward he can hunt and fish with, and play football and softball with. I absolutely love this ward and I am so glad I've been here, I've made some really good friends here! Thank you!

Well, we've have a pretty amazing and eventful year, as you can see. We went thru alot, but I'm glad I had Mark next to me thru it all. I adore him, and he really is my best friend and true companion. I couldn not have been strong thru and been able to handle all we went thru (and still are going thru) without him. He is the strongest person I know. I am so very blessed to have him by my side forever. I love you. This first year has been absolutely amazing!

Love always, bry and mark!