Winner, winner, chicken dinner!! (or dog food... again)

Did you guys know that Maggie is the luckiest little puggle in the world?? A few months ago, Maggie (who is a proud member of the Puggle Posse) won a new dog bowl from Mr Puggle. We watched the video and thought, surely there is a different puggle named Maggie, my little Maggie has never won anything! Well, she was the winner!!

And, she is so lucky that she got some goods for her sister as well! Mr Puggle sent us TWO dog bowls and even setup a store full of Sadie and Maggie swag. Yep, Christmas gifts are already purchased and it's only May!

Here are the girls, enjoying their new bowls! Thanks Mr Puggle!! And if you are jealous of these amazing personalized bowls, get in touch with Mr Puggle's mom, she is amazing at this stuff!

Slooooow... progress?

Has it really been a month since we started diggin' in the back yard?!?! The crazy spring weather in Colorado played a part in the delays, but man is this taking a looong time. Here are some pictures of the progress. I really hope to have everything done next week at this time. Maybe a Memorial Day BBQ should be in the works??

Here is the backyard, with the new fence and GRASS! It looks like a different yard. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but the previous owners did some weird stuff in the yard. Basically, they buried their yard with 4 inches of dirt. When my landscaper started tilling up the dirt, they found rocks cemented together under the first layer of dirt, an extra sidewalk, and lots of landscape fabric. Fun. Just a bit more clean up and some trees and this part will be looking good!
And the front yard! I think the grass looks so nice compared to the crazy groundcover that was there! In the mulch, we will be putting some plants in, see below...

And another shot of the front yard. Much better.

And last but not least, here are a few of the plants that will soon be in the front yard! The guy is actually put them in right now as I type this.

So progress is happening, just a little slowly, but what else is new! I have come to expect seriously long delays when doing anything around this house.

Operation Cleanup the Chaos

Well folks, there is something to blog about again... Starting today, the landscaping is getting an overhaul. The jist of the makeover is basically to remove all the chaos that has accumulated over the neglected years and replace with easy to maintain grass including a sprinkler system!!

Here is the "before".

Starting in the front:
There are at least 5 different types of ground cover, plus grass in this mess. Scraping all of it out will be step 1!

The hardest decision was what to do with the area between the sidewalk and the street. I almost went with rocks, but I just couldn't do it. The new plan is grass with some flagstone pathways to the street.
And to keep you from getting bored I talked my little models, Sadie and Maggie, into getting into the pictures!
Last Friday, the demolition actually started with the removal of some sidewalks in the back yard. Gotta think about tricks to keep the pets in the yard when the back fence gets ripped out!

Here is Sadie, getting ready to see some changes on her favorite part of the yard.

Keeping the grass and the dog, all else will change.

Even the deck will get overhauled. How many dogs can you find in this picture??

Aside from the landscaping, there are just a few other updates to mention. I have a roommate!! Woot! Jill makes my life more fun and gives me someone to watch Millionaire Matchmaker with, someone to drink on the deck with, and someone to motivate me to pick up more and get organized, and she even vaccuums!! I'm so lucky that she wanted to move in!

This is the most random tagging I have ever seen. Who tags my garage with the word LOVE! that's just non-sense. And super annoying.

And one last picture. I've seen this little face in the window so many times, I can't keep count. I wanted you all to see it to, isn't she cute?

I'm so ready for the summer! Bring it on!

And save the date for a May Day party - May 1st - assuming the landscaping is done, which it should be! It will be a little house welcoming for Jill and (hopefully) an enjoy the landscaping party.

Snuggle Puppies

Dogs, dogs, dogs... Sure seems like my life revolves around these two bundles of fur!

I have come to the realization that my dogs love their comfort. I am constantly amused by how well they seek out the most comfortable places they can find and hunker down. Here are a few pictures that are no exception.

Ah Sadie, could you get any more comfy?

I swear it looks like she is smiling in this picture!

And Maggie, laying on a bed on a bed! I found this old bed of hers and washed it. It was sitting on my bed and she decided to snuggle down!

"Yes, I know I am too big for this bed. No, I don't care."

And just for a little size comparison, here is Maggie in the same green bed when she was about 3 months old:

Wow has she grown!

Right now, Sadie is snoring away on a bed in my office and Maggie is outside looking in the window at me. I love my doggies!

My Heartbreakers

This is the last day for the Bronco Blue blog... I do indeed have the blues, but tomorrow I will suck it up and move on...

6 months ago, I would have been pleased to know that the Broncos would finish 8-8... But then the Broncos did the unthinkable and won 6 games in a row! Since the AFL-NFL merger, only 2 teams started 6-0 and issed the playoffs. Now there are three teams with that distinction. And I think it is important to point out that we missed the playoffs by TWO games, not just one so that makes me sad too.

I had perfect attendance this season for the first time in my life and there were some highlights for sure! For starters, I have to say that the weather this season was INCREDIBLE!!! The coldest game was Oct 11th against the Patriots where I think the high was near 30 degrees. Even the Thanksgiving day, Dec 20th and Jan 3rd games were in the high 30s or low 40s! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect season from that respect!

I got to see the team wear their tradition blue uniforms:
And my personal favorite, their orange jerseys:

And for a couple of games they wore these AWESOME throw back jerseys! I almost didn't recognize the team in yellow and brown, and for more than one reason!

While I didn't necessarily have a favorite game, I would have to say the super-close-until-the-final-seconds Oct 4th Cowboys game (win of course) was one of the standouts. The weather was amazing and I got to sit with three of my favorite people!
Look!!! I'm wearing flip flops!!

One of the other highlights of the season was getting to spend so much time with my BFF. Over the past few years, I was missing her a ton and it was great that we got to share so many Bronco games and amazing memories! I can't believe I don't have a single picture of us, but I'll be sure to take more next year!

So, I am almost ready to close down the season that could have been. I am still anxious to hear about the offseason and the amazing coaching decisions yet to come (right?) but until next August, I will find some other passion besides the Broncos. It was a roller coaster ride of a season to be sure.

Upgrade, Oh Yeah!

The Broncos broke my TV. No seriously, my TV died during the Bronco game on Sunday and I am not sure I can blame it!! I'm glad we have a little over a week to get ready for Monday Night against the Steelers with 40% chance of snow!!!

I've been wanting to get a new TV for a while, and I knew mine was starting to flake out. A few times during each viewing session, the screen would just turn itself off. Sound still worked, but the screen went black. Turning the TV off and on solved the problem so there wasn't a reason to buy a new TV. Until Sunday.

Here is my "small" old TV:

And here is the new 47" with a picture of Michael Phelps on it that I bought at Sam's:

Unbelievable difference. In the past 12 months, I have wasted approximately $240 on HDTV. I had no idea that football players looked that detailed when you pay Comcast for HDTV because my TV wasn't big enough for the details. After some half hearted Halloween cleaning, I spent the evening giggling at how close everything was and otherwise enjoying my new toy.

No comparison, right?And for my girl-power story of the day, let me tell you one other part! So, the TV weighs about 61lbs according to the box. And about 90lbs with the box included. I got this sucker into my house and set up ALL-BY-MY-SELF!!! I almost called to see if I could borrow Mike, but then the engineer in me took over and I did it!! Let's just say the couch helped a bunch!

My only other thought??

Maybe I should have gone bigger!

Happy Birthday Puggle!

This morning, I'm especially happy that 2 years ago today a litter of little puggles was born, just in time for Christmas 2007.

Here's my Maggie telling all of you how old she is. We did it three times so you can see that, of course, she really understands all this.

Anything for a treat mom!

Love her!