To Blog or Not to Blog

Well, I'm told that I have to blog. Evidentally, one of Diane's good friends daughters was complaining about not having updated the blog in a while. I told her to tell her that if they would have come out here to visit like they promised (twice in the past two years) they would be updated with everything. We are still waiting for their promised visit.

What is new in the Colorado Tepen's world. Absolutely nothing. The basement is still not finished. The kids are still the kids and believe it or not, Diane is still the same.

I was upstairs folding laundry and looked out the window this afternoon and couldnt believe what I saw outside in our backyard. Diane was holding a bag of dog poop....you say, big deal; you have dogs so I'm sure you see that all the time. Well, in the past six years or so, I dont think she has picked it up a single time. I know for sure that is true since we've lived in this house. I'm hoping this becomes a habit for her.

The kids are growing like weeds. They constantly want to be outside. It has finally been warming up enough outside to let them out of the friendly confines inside the house. They love to go into the backyard and play in the sandbox and kick the ball. They both like to kick the ball, whether it is back and forth with me or just down the hill where they will chase it and bring it back up to do all over again.

How many bites does it take to eat an M&M? For most people it is just a single bite. For Mia it is usually three or four. She likes to enjoy each one as much as she can. In our war against diapers, we have been enticing them to use the potty by giving them an M&M each time they use the potty. Mia has been pretty good about it, when she feels like it. Wes, on the other hand really had no interest at all until lately. He would sit on it, but it was more a game than anything. The last couple of evenings, he told us he needed to go potty. We took his diaper off and he went pee. Not just once, but like three or four times in an hour. After the first time he insisted on running around naked, after eating his M...both Mia and Wes call the M&M's just "M's". Since he was naked anyway, I guess he was saving up and several more times he would just head into the bathroom on his own and do his business. We would be sitting here and then hear the potty start singing and them he would run out with the little dish of pee in his hands yelling, I went potty, I went potty, I get a M. Now if we can just get his aim a little better because he always seems to leave a pretty good mess on the floor too.

The kids went to their first baseball game. We took them to opening day of the Rockies game, who won 7-0. Will probably take them to another game when the Cardinals are in town. Deck them out it red and have them cheer for the Cards.

We got another new addition to the family a few weeks ago. I've been wanting to upgrade my smoker to something better than what I had. I started looking around and doing some research into them. Everything I found was very expensive and I had just about given up because I didnt want to spend the more than $2000 to get one. I chanced upon a used one up in South Dakota from a lady whose husband just died from the H1N1 over the winter and needed the money to pay hospital bills. I couldnt believe my luck, but how crazy would people think I am to drive 6 hours each way to go buy a smoker. Thought about two seconds and realized I didnt really care, so I made the drive with my friend Chris to go pick it up. We spent the night and hit the town hard. I cant remember the last time I shut down a bar. Granted, it was only 8:30 in the evening, but they still were closing down. Nothing else was open except for American Legion, so we decided to just get a six pack and head back to the room. What a friday night. I'm not sure what is worse driving through, Kansas or Wyoming....very close call. Tried it out last weekend, cooked up six slabs of ribs and two whole chickens, invited some friends over and had a nice feast. Love the new smoker. It cooks awesome. It burns wood instead of the charcoal like my last one. So, if you are driving into Denver to visit, feel free to load up with a nice load of apple, hickory or oak and come on by.

Nothing else new here. I'll try and update a little more often in the future. Feel free to visit. I could rant and rave about work, my brothers psycho ex-wife who I seem to hate more and more every time I hear her name and several other things but I'm sure you dont want to hear all about that. So, have a great spring and summer and come check out my new smoker.