Our New Roommate

About a month ago Koa started whining and barking at the chimney one morning. I kept yelling at her to get away and eventually I walked over to the chimney and could hear some fluttery noises inside. I figured it was birds. For the next week or so I could still hear the noises and Koa was still chomping at the bit to get to whatever was inside there.

Finally a couple of weeks ago I told Peter that we were going to have to find out what was in the chimney and get it out because Koa was on the verge of losing her mind--which in turn was putting me over the edge as well!

I refused to go anywhere near the open chimney so Peter grabbed a flashlight and stuck his head into the fireplace. At first glance he thought it was a bird. But then the furry critter turned and looked at him!

He closed the flue (after cursing!) and said, "Uh, that's a raccoon!."

I photographed the culprit a few nights ago:

She crawls up that drainpipe to get to the chimney. I can hear her come and go. She leaves around nine o'clock every night and usually comes back around four or five in the morning. The other night I heard her start to make her descent so I scrambled outside and turned on the porch light. She started back up the drainpipe. I yelled for Peter so he could come see her and then I grabbed the camera and snapped a few shots.
She is much bigger than we anticipated! And she was kind of hissing at us. It was really creepy.
We are pretty sure she has babies in there and some mornings (around the time that momma returns, the babies go crazy!) Peter and I have laid in bed and just listened some nights. It's so loud sometimes that I think they are actually IN our living room!

Why havn't we had her removed yet? Well, animal control will not come get her. You have to call a private company. It turns out that it would be no less than $300 to have her removed. That does not include removing the babies and capping the chimney.
Peter and I both hit the internet in search of tips to get rid of them and we have tried a couple of them. We have placed a radio in the fireplace and turned it up really loud during the day so that it would be uncomfortable for them while they are trying to sleep. (Peter almost died laughing because the website suggested tuning it to talk radio or hard rock! He was curious what would happen if we got the punker raccoon who actually liked hard rock. Wouldn't we then be encouraging her to stay!? hehe We also thought to just play some Rush Limbaugh for a few hours--that ought to get her out in a hurry, eh?) Along with the radio we also poured ammonia in a bowl and placed that inside the fireplace so that the fumes would also make it an uncomfortable living space. Neither of these worked.
I spoke with a woman at one of the companies and she was also fairly certain that this raccoon just nested here to have her babies and that she will soon leave on her own--and take her babies with her. She told us to give it a little bit more time and then have them come out and cap the chimney once they are gone.

While I am tired of Koa barking and whining at the fireplace, and tired of the chittering coming from the chimney at various times during the day and night, I do feel better just giving Mrs. Raccoon her own space and enough time for the babies to get bigger so that they can all leave on their own.
Hopefully this happens soon!!!

Ella Turned Two!

Without further ado...here are Ella's B-Day pics!

Got her up and dressed for her party.

Ran some errands, brought home the balloons and the cake.

Opened presents!

Andrew, Connor, Izzy, Me, Ella

Typical girl-loves phones!

Connor scoping out what to play with next!

Izzy Busy checkin' out the Sesame Street book

Her Tink costume. Had to stuff her in it that day. She's still not a huge fan of it, but I'm sure soon she will love to dress up.

All in all it was a great day. We had tons of family and friends stop by to celebrate with us and each one of them made it a very special day.

Here's some more pics:


Look how long her hair is

Looong hair!

Odd new hobby: cleaning out the lint between her toes. She can sit for quite awhile and do this.

Gotta get both feet!

Rockies game! Apparently Ella is really funny!!

Connor loves to hug. Ella...not so much.

Momma and Ella

This month has been crazy busy. It started off with Ella's birthday party and will end with a bar-b-que at my Aunt Roxanne's house for Memorial Day. We have been busy with work and trying to entertain the kids. Blake finished up baseball just in time for Peter to start softball. I have also been hunting for jobs and will going on an interview this coming Monday (wish me luck). My last day at the school is the 21st. These last few weeks have been tough not knowing what I will be doing this summer. Peter and I would like to make plans but they will depend on whether or not I am working. So hopefully in about a week I will know what's going on.

Blake will be finishing up school at the end of the month and heading to Texas at the beginning of June. I am trying to plan a day trip before he leaves. We may head down to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo since we have never been there.

The weather here has been rather disappointing. The rain and the snow is still hanging on. Hopefully it starts to clear up soon.

We are all looking forward to sunny Colorado days.

Busy Bees

Pics and updates:

Blake, Tina, Peter and I went to the Taylor Swift concert last weekend. My camera ended up dying half way through the concert, but Tina was able to get some good shots.

Easter Sunday--sitting with BooBoo and talking to Granpa on the phone.

Checking out the loot.

Pink egg!

Blake was very helpful, showing Ella where to put her eggs.

Easter smiles

Our pitcher!

Chillaxin'

Lorelei and Ella at Barnes and Noble

Ella at Seaworld

Lorelei in her front yard

Ella playin with a Lorelei's bike.

Playin' together

Raga'muffins!

The Hanley's are staying busy this Spring. After I got back from the trip to San Diego with Ella, I jumped right back into work where I am pitching in extra time to work baskeball and soccer games and to do some afterschool tutoring. I also had an interview last Friday and am waiting to hear back from them sometime this week!

Peter has started to play tennis on Saturdays so now he is playing three times a week. (Which isn't really much for him-I'm sure that will increase as summer nears). He will also be adding softball to his schedule one night a week.

Blake baseball season has started. He has pratice once a week and games on Saturdays. He has improved tremendously since last season! He is so fun to watch. He is a great pitcher and has given him self the goal of hitting one double each game. He is 2 for 3 on that goal and just plans on hitting two in one game to make up for it!

Ella continues to add words to her vocabulary each day. She is also getting better at pronunciation. For ever she was calling my mom "Grager" and over the weekend she all of a sudden started saying "Gramma". She also is becoming better at using "yes" and "no" to answer questions. The next journey for her is potty training. I think I am going to attack this one pretty slowly.

The weather has been gorgeous the past few days. A bit windy, but still warm. We just got back from the park where Peter and Blake played some baseball (with Koa's help) and Ella and I played on the playground.

Spring Storm

(Didn't I Post Similar Photos Last Year At This Time??)

Colorado Spring is here again! We are set to get 6-12 inches tonight. Yay!! Maybe we'll actually have a snow day tomorrow!

Pretty purple flowers hopefully hold up.

This was at about 5:30pm

This is an hour later!

(And that's Blake--not Peter!)


Blake and Ella coloring--trying out the new Tinkerbell table!



Heellloooo Nurse.

She likes to play Peek-A-Boo with her fav bwankie.

Filling up her cup for bathtime.

FINALLY! She has learned to enjoy bathtime!!! Yay!!!

A few quick updates:

On th job front: I have had two phone interviews over the past two weeks and am waiting to hear back from the managers. One is a position at University Physicians which would back on my old stomping ground-the Fitzsimons campus. The title is Education Coordinator, which is a fancy term for clerical work that keeps the training department running, also it sounds like some upkeep of their website for providers...something like that. It would be quite a bit less than what I was making at the credit union. The other job is for a Senior Accountant at Credit Union of Colorado. This is definitely more up my alley. The only downside is that it is located downtown. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

I am on Spring Break next week...finally. And last minute I scheduled a trip to San Diego to see Whitney and Lorelei!!! I can't wait. It's just me and Ella so I'm a a bit nervous about the flight, but am thinking she'll just sleep anyway so it shouldn't be too bad. We'll see.

On the kid front: Blake starts baseball this week. Yuck in this weather, but what can ya do?! He just wrapped up CSAP testing a few weeks ago and has been off track for March. He just got back from a trip to Texas with BooBoo. We're glad he's back! He heads back to school next week and then will be taking a short trip to Toronto with BooBoo. This kid has been far more places then I will probably ever go!!! Lucky! He and I have both read the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (which I highly recommend) and the movie just came out last week so we plan to go see it ASAP!! It looks hilarious!

Ella is growing and learning faster than we can keep up. It's crazy. Every day her words get easier to understand and she adds multiple new ones a day. It's so much fun. She still is weird with her sleeping in that she gets up and wants to go sleep on the couch. I'm not going to worry about it. When she's old enough to understand I will start explaining that normal people sleep in their beds allllll night. heheheh.

My goal is to have her sleeping in the bed and potty trained by the time we have the next one.

What!? Next one!!?? Yep....I've had baby brain for the past few months and can't stop thinking about little ittty bitty babies. I was driving somewhere the other day and a sign said "Got programs?" And I swear I thought it said "Get pregnant?" It was so weird! Anyway, sometime this year hopefully we'll jump on the baby train....we'll see.

Anyway, those are the updates. I'll be in touch after our trip to San Diego....70 degrees and sunny--here we come!!!!

Can't Wait for Spring...Break

Happy March everyone. Again not too much going on in our end of the pond, but thought I should put a few pics up.

I'm a few months in to my new job and have to say that it has been quite the eye-opener. The way schools are run is something I am not used to at all. The good things come in the way of having less oversight when it comes to daily duties. I don't feel like I am being watched like a hawk. The bad things come in the way of having to deal with pre-teens who have no respect for adults. It's disheartening. The nice thing though is that its a K-8 school so when I want to kill the 7th and 8th graders I can turn around and get a huge lovey hug from a 1st grader who still likes me!

All in all I have enjoyed my experience. And at this point it is going to be a pretty brief experience. The district has to make a 20 million dollar budget cut for next year and so I (along with most of the paraeducators) are on the chopping block. I'm bummed that I won't be able to keep my foot in the door for future prospects, but am not going to fret because I know many more people have it worse than I do. Our principal has been nice enough to keep us abreast of the situation so I have already started applying for other jobs. I am under contract and will paid through July, but I would rather find something now and not have to take Ella out of daycare and then put her back, so keep your fingers crossed for me that I find something before the end of May!

Peter is out of town now. He has traveled twice in the past two months for work. It has only been for a couple of days though so it hasn't been too bad.

Blake finished up an excellent basketball season a few weeks ago. He seemed to really enjoy it. It was fun to watch him play and improve throughout the season. He starts baseball here in the next few weeks. ( I personally think it is far too cold to be thinking about baseball just yet!)

Ella is a talker (like her mama). And she's bossy (like her mama). She like to tell you to sit down and if you don't hear her or ignore her, she yells, "Siiit down!" It's so funny. She also likes to name everything. If there's a bunch of us in the room she will go around and point and say, "Daddy, Mommy, Koa, Bwake, Daddy, Mommy, Koa, Bwake" and just keep going. Or if she is looking at a book, she likes to name everything on the page, she is getting really good at remembering what things are called after I have told her once or twice. She has a few Sesame Street books and she picked up "Big Bird" after only telling her a few times. She's also starting to distinguish between different drinks. Before, all drinks were "Milk", but now she knows, "milk", "water", and "jui" (juice). She still a fruit fiend. And everything is affle (apple), she calls bananas and oranges, "affles", but for some reason she knows blueberries are "bluebers". Weird.

Anyway, here are some recent photos. Take care, and love you!

She says "cheeeeese" now!

I was trying to show how long her hair is now.

Got the pillow and the cell phone, got her legs crossed. Ya know, just chillin'



Perhaps the biggest news! Ella's new big girl bed! Yay! For the most part she sleeps in it all night. For some reason she wakes up at about 5:30 and wants to go sleep on the couch. Whatever....
The pic above-she likes to "pretend". She crawls in the bed pulls the covers up, demands her "bwankie", lays her head on the pillow and says, "Sweep?"

Say Cheese!

Okay, so I have lots of pictures finally posted. I apologize for the delay. You'd think since I work less I would have more time to do this, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Anyway, here are photos from December. I don't really have too many others after that. I never seem to have the camera around lately for those perfect moments.

Ella in her grass skirt-a Xmas gift from the Gomes'

Celebrating the New Year!

We let Maddie and Taylor have Sparkling Grape Juice in REAL champagne glasses to ring in the New Year! Don't those bathrobes crack you up!?

Going shopping with her new cart-a Xmas gift from Patrick and Kelly. She put the baby in there all by herself.

Maddie and Ella coloring.

Ella taking a rest in the cool play tunnel that Papa got her for Xmas.

Figuring out how to use the spoon!

Connor and Ella playing at the diner that Boo Boo got Ella for Xmas. It's a kitchen on one side and the diner on the other. It even has a little jukebox that plays music and a bell to ring for service. Ella loves this! She plays with it all the time!

I felt like Ms. Hannigan this day! My floors were shining like the top of the Chrysler building! They all wanted to play with the mops and brooms. Who am I to argue....heheh

Maddie handing out presents on Xmas morning.

Blake and Ella in the tent that came with the play tunnel.

Roasting marshmallows using the handy electric marshmallow roaster turny thingy that Santa brought for Peter and Blake.

Eating marshmallows!

Showing off the jewels that Tina got her for XMas. The earrings (which she loves) and the pretty heart necklace that matched her outfit perfectly!

Blake's itchy fingers just dying to open that present on Christmas Eve

So that's that. It was a ton of fun to have the Gomes' stay with us. I loved spending so much time with them. Maddie and Taylor are wonderful nieces. I love them so much!!!

Ella is a little chatterbox these days. She just goes on and on. She's fairly easy to understand, but there are still a few things that I don't quite understand.

As of last week she started sleeping in a twin bed that we bought her. It's been so nice to get her out of our bed! She seems to be doing fine with it so far. At most I have to go in twice a night and just sit with her for a few minutes until she falls back asleep. No complaints from me!

She's rolling up on two pretty quickly. I can hardly believe it!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. (Seeing as how this didn't take me that long to update, I should hopefully be better about updating it more frequently! heeh...yeah right).