Its been a while

Its been several months since we posted. Sorry! Life has been hectic, but fun. We have been very busy with work, soccer, friends, and family. We have been very fortunate in that several of our weekends have brought us visits from a broad spectrum of friends and family from around the nation. This coming weekend is the first weekend that we will have that has nothing going on (since as long as I can remember).

Melia is now potty trained. No more diapers in the Daugherty household! That gets both a big Amen and Woohoo!

After a few weeks off, soccer practice for Jake and Caleigh is back in full swing.

Christie is back to teaching and seems very happy about it. We will post more details later.

The kids all went back to school today. First days are always traumatic!

That is the 37,000 foot view of what is going on today. Exciting...huh?

On the Way Home

We left Las Vegas yesterday at 9:00 am. We had a great time with the Hirsch family. We did not want to leave, although I am sure that they were ready to get us out of there! An invasion of seven people is no small task, especially for five nights! Hey, we are just one "wild and crazy" family. Jake is very bummed and did not want to leave. He and Sam really reconnected well. Jake would leave the Springs and move to LV today if he could. All of the adults and kids got along just like old times. It was so much fun!

Yesterday we hit a wonderful snowstorm in New Mexico. Let me rephrase that...we hit a blizzard that made national news. This goes along with seeing a bright, vivid rainbow in Vegas, a brief hail shower in LV, and rain in the desert on the way home. The snow storm stretches all the way up past Denver. We hunkered down last night in a Holiday Inn halfway between Gallup and Albuquerque. It is supposed to snow sporadically throughout the day. We have about seven hours drive under normal conditions. We will see how long it actually takes. Maybe we will now see a meteor shower and a hurricane.

Baptism

We went with Jason and family to the church he pastors. Today was water baptism day at Epic Church. The whole service was very cool and I am so happy we chose this week to visit the Hirsch family. They used an inflatable pool to baptize 3 people in the first service and 5 in the second. Besides the 8 scheduled people, they also had 3 other individuals come up during an open invitation for baptism. It was fun and refreshing to watch an open, organic, free church in motion. The presence of the Holy Spirit was definitely in da House!

One of those that was baptized today was Sam. We got to watch Jason immerse his own son today. There is nothing like watching a father baptize his own child! It chokes me up. Here are some pics.

The baptism tank:


The water was cold:


The testimony:


The "old man":


The "new, cleansed man":

Off for some family/friend time.

I got home after supper last night and immediately went to join my family and friends to say goodbye to a buddy that is being restationed to Korea. He currently is a copter pilot, was a tank operator, and now is going fixed wing. He definitely has some stories! We got home late last night, I finally slept in my bed and I must admit...it felt so good. After a home office day today we pull out for Vegas. Everybody is so excited! The older kids really can't wait to see the Hirsch family!

Christie, Maci, and Melia went to the zoo here earlier in the week. The zoo is on the mountain side and they loved it. Here are a couple of pics from the zoo:

Update

Sorry to everyone! It has been several weeks since we last posted. Life has been crazy for me and work has demanded a lot of my time, as well as a lot of travel. We are all doing well and have adjusted quite well to Colorado Springs.

Christie is doing fine and talks quite often with the ladies in the cul-de-sac. She has also been making cakes. She just made a sweet 16 cake for our neighbor, and has been making smaller cakes for one of our other neighbors to take into her clients. She is enjoying the "cake time". I keep telling her she should pursue it as a job...but we will see.

The kids are doing very well. We got the teacher reviews (for 3rd quarter conferences) back on Caleigh and Josh. Caleigh's teacher would not stop raving about her. It was sort of obnoxious :). Josh's teacher called him "mature" and already set for 1st grade (ahead of where he should be). Our Josh...mature???? Jake earned straight A's for the 3rd quarter and is playing on an elite soccer team. He has finally come around to living in CS, but still misses his friends back in K-Town.

Next week is spring break for the kids. I have a dealer in Las Vegas, so we are going to join my business trip with family time and run down and see the Hirsch family in Las Vegas. The kids can't stop talking about it!

I will post some recent photos when I get back home.

Comments

Christie has received a good amount of email regarding the posts. She and I would much rather see the "replies" come in the comment portion as then everyone can see what the responses are. Even the kids can check it and see. Do not be afraid of leaving the comment. It can generate some good conversation.

Updates from Colorado

Christie has decided to take the springtime to start a babysitting business in our house. She will eventually go back to teaching, but for the time being she would rather be at home with Maci and Melia. She posted an ad on craigslist yesterday about noon and had a response back in a few hours. It appears that she will be watching a 2 year old and an 8 week old baby. The mom and kids came over last night to check everything out. She will be bringing in about $175 a week (for Monday through Thursday) and still get to stay home with Maci and Melia. She will get the best of both worlds, food money and staying at home. Life is good!

Jake has adapted well to his new soccer team. He has Tuesday and Thursday night outdoor practices at UCCS and and then plays indoor games on Friday and Saturday this week. The coach is outstanding and very demanding. Even a missed pass forces the boys to do pushups or crunches. Last night the team had to do 65 pushups, 35 crunches, and a lot of running during the 90 minute practice. The workouts were not for goofing off, but for blatant mistakes made on the field. Jake didn't mind as the team works well together. The team has already accepted Jake, and joke and talk to him all the time. Jake is pretty happy right now.

I am trying to figure out where to go to school. At Carthage I was a junior in standing with dual degrees in English and Religion. To continue the Religion degree I have to go to a Christian College out here and that puts a hold on the English degree. I am thinking about going to the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs to finish my undergrad work. The decision is what to do about the Religion degree. I don't really want to be a pastor, so the degree is not required for a future career, but it would help for a paraministry career. On the other hand UCCS has a lot of night courses offered from their History department and I really love History. I already have a few History courses from Carthage that would transfer so that may be the route I take.

My job has changed a little out here. Instead of calling on a mix of AG and CE dealers, with the dominant portion being AG, I will be calling on only construction dealers. That is great in this tough economy. Yes, I am being sarcastic! To make matters more interesting, I will have a new boss. He is gay. I have spent the last few years trying to change my ways and learn tolerance. I have done pretty well at it. Unfortunately, the jerk tried to kiss me and told me I was "absolutely gorgeous" when the whole team was in Phoenix a few weeks back. I was so repulsed. I don't roll like that! Nobody saw it so it is my word against his. I now understand how ladies feel when their boss exhibits inappropriate behavior. I wanted to kill him, but I have a wife and five kids to support so I just walked away. Tolerance just went out the window! The next year should be real interesting...

Nap Time for the dolls

Maci and Melia decided that some of their dolls were tired. Many, many more dolls stayed awake in the bedroom. Thank God for small victories. Anyway, they put a few dolls down for a nap while they watched Dora. Yes, they were reading to their dolls....

The hawk is back!

Yes....the mohawk is back. Josh has been driving me crazy to hawk him up again. He had to grow his hair "normal" for CLS kindergarten. Now that he is in public school...the hawk is allowed. And yes, that is taken outside today. Yesterday was t-shirt weather once again. The weather in January is fantastic here! We are not missing the weather in Kenosha at all!

Desi's New Friend

Here is our new dog. She and Desi are already getting along pretty well. Her name is Calypso. She is a 2 year old mutt that came from the local Humane Society shelter. She is very sweet and mild mannered. She walks very well on a leash and readily obeys simple commands like 'sit'.

She is very skinny and it seems as if a male figure may have abused her. She has taken well to me, but is still quick to cower and shy away if I approach her too fast. She gets along great with Christie and the kids. She has yet to growl or bark and has not had one mean tempered moment with anyone. She has been nothing but a wonderful dog so far!

She loves treats!!!

Desi is very jealous of us showing Calypso attention, but over all she is doing well with her new friend. The dogs do play together in the back yard like old school chums....

Can you find the birthday cake?

Our neighbor's birthday was January 22nd and mine is January 28th. We decided to have a joint birthday party and invite the cul-de-sac as well as some people from outside. We had a good time, enjoyed great food, lots of beer, and a birthday shot from ole' Jack. What did we have for food? We went back to our roots and did it up Wisconsin style. We had beer soaked bratwurst, cheddarwurst, hotdogs, baked beans, tater salad, chips and some other dishes that the neighbors brought over. Beer? We went with good ole fashioned PBR. That's right, you can actually get Pabst Blue Ribbon here in Colorado. All were well behaved with the exception of Nate and I. What else is new? Christie says we are like little kids and idiots when we are together.

Christie made a camo cake for Nate and I. It was so cool. Everyone loved it. Here are a couple of pics from the cake. The first one is so you can see the camo, the second one is the finished product, and the third one is Nate holding the cake.

Too Young for Makeup!!!

Melia decided that she was old enough for makeup and decided to paint her face. She found some strawberry lip balm and did herself up. Mommy and Daddy were so proud. Notice how she got her eyes, cheeks, and lips. She knew what to do...just went a little overboard.