Home Sweet Home

We closed on the sale on our house today, and who could believe, it's now officially ours!

Front of the house - left side

Front Door

We have decided to move into the house on Saturday 22nd Nov. We will spend this weekend doing a few little things around the house, a little painting and cleaning before we move in. Chris and I have been pricing what we would need the past few weeks, now, we can shop up a storm, to furnish our new house.

Our amazing agent - Carole and Chris

View of the back garden

The other side of the back garden

Master bedroom

Staircase to top level

Dining Room

My Man and I

The basement level - Entertainment centre and gym (to be)

My amazing kitchen

Family Room with a fireplace

Well, I'll keep you all updated on the move and what the house looks furnished.

A great start to the weekend

What better way to start the weekend than with a BBQ, great friend and a fine wine. Melissa invited everyone round to her place in Highlands Ranch on Friday for a BBQ (braai for my South African readers). I got to meet some of her old University mates. Art (Melissa's new man) and Chris did the grilling, while the girls talked up a storm, safe from the very chilly evening air.


We had a great evening, maybe a little to good, with a pounding headache the next morning.



Kelly, Melissa and I

My very special Canadian gal

Melissa and Me

Art and Kelly

Chris listening to the crazy girls

Good old captain!

Kelly, Me, Kelly and Angie

Art and Melissa

Kelly and Angie

The grillers - Art and Chris

The Kelly's x 2

Chef extraordinaire

Thanks Bowman, next one's at my new house - House warming (-:

New President of America

It's Election Day, 20 months of campaigning and driving their messages to the nation is now at an end. Obama and McCain have reached the epic point of who will be selected as America's next president.

It was clear, as everyone streamed to the polls, that Obama had a lead on the swing States (those States who could swing the deciding vote), with Obama winning PY early on. It seemed to set the trend of the day, and at the end, Obama had a landslide victory over McCain.

Our new President, and first black President of the United States - BARACK OBAMA!

In his acceptance speech, Obama drove home the message so many have heard during his campaign" "It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America,"

Our very own ex-President, Madiba (Nelson Mandela), commented "Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place."

I am looking forward to see what happens next. Obama has his challenges ahead of him, having to raise taxes for a start to pay for the "Bail-Out" on the NYSE.

I think that his wife and now First-Lady, Michelle Obama will do a good job. She seems strong and has a good raport with the people.

For some great news reviews, check out abc news: http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=6189422&page=1

It is great to be here, in the USA at this historical time, to witness a new era of leadership.

Good Luck Barack Obama!

Celebrations!!!

Houses, Halloween and Time....

This has been the most exciting week!!! We had so much to Celebrate!

The story starts off like this. About 2 weeks ago,I persuaded Chris to go and look at homes to rent. Apartment living has been great up to this point, now it's time to have some space and a garden to potter around in. Well, the short of it is, that I fell head-over-heels in love with a house that's for sale. We then decided to not be too hasty, and do some research (that's my analytical hubby talking). After looking around the neighbourhood for a while, we decided that the house that captured my heart was the one.


Our new house (holding thumbs)

It's a stunning home in a beautiful old neighborhood with lots of trees called Coventry. Our agent started calling it the "Lake House" because it's on West Lake Ave.

The house has 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, dinning room, family room, 2 car-garage, fully finished basement with a 5th room and entertainment area. It's still in the Little ton region, close to the foothills of the mountains. The house has recently been remodelled and has a stunning garden.

A closer view of the front

The view from our street, West Lake Ave - stunning

We will hopefully close in about a weeks time, that's when money's get transferred and the house becomes ours.

Our own little lake which freezes over in winter, which you can ice-skate on

A little walking path through the private neighborhood

Another view of one of the many pathways in Coventry

So, as you can see, there's more than enough room for you all to come and visit me (-:

On Friday, we also celebrated our first Halloween.

It is amazing to see everyone get into the Halloween spirit. Most people decorate their homes, with pumpkins, ghosts and other scary things. Everywhere you look, people are either selling pumpkins, carving pumpkins or having pumpkins festivals.

Chris and I had to laugh, we were all prepared for the trick-or-treater's and bought some sweets, but the only person to knock on the door was a political surveyor. She got a chocolate anyway. We must have missed most of them when we went out to dinner.

Homes beautifully decorated for Halloween

Hanging Ghosts

The giant-spiders return - yikes

The celebrations continued as Chris's clearances came through from Wells Fargo, and now has the all clear to start work on Monday. He is so excited, and looking forward to some new challenges.

I can also not believe that Chris and I are going to be in the US, at the time when history is being made. It's finally election time. Will it be Obama or McCain? Well, Tuesday the 4th is the day! The media hype is at a all time high, and hopefully will settle down after the election. Not sure how many more political ads I can handle.

On Sunday morning, Colorado also saw it's winter time change. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the clocks would be turned back an hour. This means I no longer have to drive to work in the dark, which slightly confuses my internal clock as I feel I should still be snuggled in bed.

So, with all that exciting news, I look forward to the next few weeks. My parents arrive in 6 weeks time. Hopefully we will be all moved in by then, and ready to have a snowy white Christmas in our new home.

Jobs, Man-Maids and friends

Last week Friday, my Hubby got the call he's been waiting for since he started job-hunting in June - The Job Offer call. Yup, Wells Fargo, one of the biggest banks on the West coast, and now the East coast with the acquisition of Wackovia, has offered Chris a Marketing post in Downtown Denver.


We are very excited, well, I was until I realised I'm losing my maid. Now looks like I have to wash, clean and iron on the weekend's - mmmmmm, not to keen on that. I see some key negotiations coming up.




Generally life is great. Melissa's new man in her life - Art, invited us over for a BBQ (I still call it a braai). It was starting to get cold, which gave me the perfect chance to try out my new UGG boots. (Toni, eat your heart out).

Melissa and Art

My Hubby and I

Melissa and I

My new UGG Boots

They have sheep skin inside and are super warm, all the girls wear them here.

Tuesday and Wednesday saw some very cold weather blow in, tons of snow on the mountains (check out Chris's blog for some pics). I can see the mountain peaks covered in snow from my office - the most amazing view. Driving home from work yesterday I even encountered a couple of snow flakes.
View of the mountains as I leave my office

I think fall is just about over, definitely feels like winter to me. Of course Melissa, who's Canadian think I'm mad, and keeps telling me it's still warm compared to what's coming - Do I run now???


Last night saw the temps fall to between 25-32 (-4 to 0ºc)


They should get warmer over the weekend, but tonight is still set at 32 (0ºc)




Other than that, life in Denver's great. Fall has been amazing, all the colours of the trees. Now everyone is gearing up for ski-season.



Fire Red colours of Fall


This weekend's busy, dinner with Mel and Jenni on Sat and lunch with Fred and Lorraine on Sunday. We also need to go shopping for Chris, ties and shoes etc. Exactly what I do best.




Until next time - Mwah

Brrrrrrrrrr

Ok, I know I was really excited about my first winter in Colorado. I had these wonderful dreams of snow, gluwein, wearing lovely scarfs and boots........

Ya Right, we had our first cold snap this weekend, and I nearly froze to death. Monday morning brought a rude shock to my system, when, trying to leave for work, my car was covered in ICE, the temp in my car was probably 3 degrees less than the zero temps outside.

Thanks to Chris, he put this stuff in my wiper water, which basically dissolves the ice. Unfortunately it does not help for the hypo-thermia.

Me leaving the House - (-:

Anyway, ski season has started, and Arapahoe Basin is the first ski slope to open. Who know's, maybe well take all that fancy gear of our's and try it out this weekend, after I stock up on more thermals.

Other than my little African "ass" trying to adjust to this Colorado winter, life's good. Chris is still job hunting and we are hoping for some positive feedback next week.

Chris won best speaker at Toastmasters this week, I did my first evaluation speech, but did not win )-:

At least one of the Seagram's are bringing back the awards. Well Done Chris!

Last weekend I Volunteered in the SAP Kipp School Volunteers day, which was great fun. The project was to plant some plants and put in a irrigation system. The weather was freezing and rainy, but with all the digging and shovelling, we soon worked up a sweat. I felt like I had been rugby tackled the next day, who knew gardening was such a work-out.

It was also Jaclyn's birthday, and so went all had to dress up and go out to dinner. The restaurant was in castle Rock, a stunning little spot, with fusion cuisine.

The gals, Jaclyn, Me and Melissa

Melissa and Art

The yummy cuisine

Other than that, it seems that the market's are recovering slowly, the big presidential election is almost a month away, and so far, I'm not sure if McCain or Obama are leading the race.

We have a busy weekend ahead of us, dinner with Melissa and Art on Friday, and the dinner with Mike and Marianne on Sat - Socialites!