Christmas in NYC

Wow ... I can't believe it's been such a long time since our last blogs! First off, we hope you and your family had a fantastic Christmas! Christmas has come and gone and it was quite different for us this year. Reflecting on our last Christmas holiday, this was the exact opposite! We were in London last year where the subway and buses close for 2 days. This year was Times Square, Manhattan, New York where restaurants stay open as well as transportation! We arrived in Times Square on Saturday the 22nd after traveling for over 12 hours. Our hotel for the first two nights was ... well ... a place to rest our heads. We kept ourselves pretty busy in the city that never sleeps, so that hotel suited our needs perfectly. Some of the many sights we saw during our stay in NYC was: Broadway district, Chrysler building, Empire State building, Ground Zero, Wall Street, Hudson River, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Fifth Avenue shopping including Tiffanys, rode in a horse drawn carriage through Central Park. Most of these sights were via a double decker bus tour that we were able to hop on and off at. Our 2nd hotel was a big step up from the 1st one ... more like 4 stars more of a step up. Our one star room soon became a 5 star room with a little 2 block walk through Times Square. :)
It's 1:20 a.m. right now, so if this blog seems a little random and unorganized, you'll know why. :) We are currently in Washington, D.C. and are loving it ... we love it so much that we are staying an extra day here before heading back up to NYC. More on DC later ... enjoy the pictures!!!

Exciting News, Fall Out Boy Concert, Exciting News, "December 'Round the World", exciting news, new toys, and EXCITING news

What is the exciting news you say? Well ... I'm going to make you read the other news first. :)

Fall Out Boy was yet again another good concert, but not as fun as the last one. I'm not a huge rock-n-roll fan ... or even pop music ... but I was blown away with their last tour in June that I was excited to go again last week. Bad news was that the bass guitar player broke his foot on stage before getting to Denver, so it made the concert not as exciting. The electric and bass guitar players were the best parts of the show; they would do 360 degree turns while playing their guitars! No one was spinning at this concert. The other reason I didn't like it as well as the last one was because it was inside ... I love being outside; but I'm also glad we didn't have to sit outside in the 20 degree weather! The set was fun. Here is a picture of the opening set.

I am finished with one of three elementary music programs. The fourth grade classes performed a program called "December 'Round the World". I ran the program differently than the previous years' music teachers, but all my 4th grade teachers and helpers really pulled it off! I was told by my assistant Principal that it was the best program he's ever seen. :) YEAH! Thanks to all that helped and the hard work those 4th graders put into it. Next up: December 11th "Santa, You've Got Mail" by the 5th grade classes and December 19th "December in Our Town" by the 3rd grade classes.

We have added many new toys to our entertainment room downstairs. This is a picture of our new billiards table my husband likes to beat me at. Also pictured is Zack and I getting ready to watch a movie in our theatre room that was finished by our former houseguests while we were in California. (Sorry it took me so long to post a pic!) Fletch has also put up the dart board and updated our theatre room. We now have a 1080 projector and a PS3 which was bought mainly for the blu-ray disc format primarily. If you haven't stopped by yet, feel free to show up anytime! We love having visitors!

Okay, okay ... if you've skipped down to this part, you are a bad-head! You must read the other parts after I reveal the exciting news you've all been waiting for. Are you sitting down? Are you ready for this???

I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!!! WOO-HOO!!!

My darling younger brother called me to see what our travel plans are for the summer and told me we may want to stop by St. Louis to meet my future nephew/niece in July. Tahli is about 11 weeks now? I can't remember. Hopefully they'll comment soon. Boy, oh boy, the pressure is finally off Greg and I to give mom her first grandchild. Whew. Thanks, Tahli! You're the best. :) (Kim, you're next).

Sad, sad, sad news

I just found out some really sad news. If you're from St. Louis you probably have met us at Bandana's BBQ. This summer we didn't have our reunion there because there was one in Denver. Unfortunately the residents of Lakewood and Denver never found out about this great secret and now it's gone. :( Fletch and I are going up to Denver this evening to see Fall Out Boy at University of Denver and I was really hoping for a nice dinner at Bandana's. Not only the fact the restaurant is gone, but I am running out of my sauce!!! If you're from St. Louis and you want some Christmas gift ideas from us, SEND US SOME SMOKEY BANDANA'S BBQ SAUCE!!!

Yes, we participated in the yearly Black Friday shopping this year. I'm wearing my new tennis shoes I bought. Our shopping was a little different this year. Instead of waking up at the crack of dawn, we went shopping at midnight!!! Yes, you heard me right ... some stores at the Castle Rock Outlet Mall were open at midnight to start off Black Friday!!! It was a cold 15 degrees, but the lines weren't too long. The longest line was (shockingly) to the food court!!! I guess not everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving meal!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day! We had some friends over and had a lovely meal. It was a meal for a lot of firsts: London's (9 months) first Thanksgiving, Alyssa's (22 months) first Thanksgiving meal, and our first Thanskgiving dinner in our new home. It was really lovely to have friends and be able to talk to loved ones on this very special day. Thank you all for our years of friendship and love! We are very thankful for each and every one of you and pray God's blessings to continue in your lives.

Finally an update!

Wow ... sorry it has been such a long time since our last update. We have had numerous requests from all over the world, so here it is. :)

A few days after we returned back from our California trip Fletch fell very ill with ... well ... I won't go in to details, but it was terrible. His worst complaint was dehydration. Thanks to Phil, our houseguest, for suggesting an electrolyte drink. It definitely helped!!!

Unfortunately Fletch was recovering while my parents were in town. We had quite the house full of guests for the 1st night. We were extremely blessed to have every bed filled: Phil & Leslie, Levi, my parents, and us. My parents also brought their very large greyhound, Lance. He did great on the trip in the vehicle. Zack enjoyed Lance's visit as well and I think Lance did a great job at tolerating the puppy. Now Lars had to hide for a few days, but he came out from hiding after Lance left. Simba didn't let anyone push him around and he stood his ground ... most of the time. :)

We had a great visit with my parents just hanging out at the house and taking our dogs for walks. It seemed like a short visit because we tried to encourage them to stay a few days more but the inevitable had to happen sometime ... they had to drive home at some point. Fletch felt like he barely got to see them because he was in the recovery stage and trying to catch up on work while they were here. In the long run, it was best they left. I came down with the illness the next day after they left ... I don't ever want to be dehydrated again! Oye! I had to stay home from work for 2 days which was bad because I'm trying to get my 3rd, 4th and 5th graders ready for their music programs starting on November 29th!!! The students are doing quite well, though. My stress level is very low at this point. :)

We had one of my ex-coworkers from Ellicott Middle School and her husband over tonight. We love entertaining and were glad to catch up with them. I haven't seen Joni since my last day at Ellicott in May!!!

On the other side of the family the big news is Fletch's parents are coming over the pond for a visit in late April!!! The four of us are already making plans for travels during their visit. There may be a father/son visit to the motherland ... England ... to see Tom's family while Heather and I stay home working on crafts and sewing. :) The four of us will head off to Washington/Canada/Montana in early June. We are all getting very excited, but I'm sure Tom and Heather are extremely excited. Heather missed America the day she arrived back in Vanuatu after their last trip here (March/April 2005).

Here are some more pictures from our trip to California. The one on the left is of Fletch inside a jail cell on Alcatraz Island. The one in the middle is one of the many staircases in the Winchester Mystery house. The steps are said to be really tiny because Mrs. Winchester had arthritis and was having difficulty taking the stairs. The picture on the far right is a crazy picture of us driving north on the side of the Southbound lanes of Interstate 5 in Los Angeles during that big wreck. Those poor trucks had to stay there until all the cars were able to move out of the way!!!

We've updated our basement in the form of a game room. Fletch put a pool table together over the past 2 nights. We also bought our first blueray player ... in the form of a Play Station 3. Fletch is also very excited to get a hand made guitar amp from Germany called a Diezel Herbert.

All is well here in the Whipp household. The weather is unusually warm at the moment, but I'm not complaining ... Fletch on the otherhand is waiting for snow. :)

Well it's getting pretty late, so I'm signing off for now. Thanks for the messages to update the blog!!! :)

Our last day & Cats, Dogs and Whipps are reunited

We have arrived home SAFE AND SOUND! We came home to a couple loving cats and an excited puppy who has grown!!! We also came home to a BEAUTIFUL COMPLETED THEATRE ROOM!!! Thanks to the McCallum family for doing that in our absence!!! The 7 of us (Lars didn't participate) watched Jurassic Park II together while sipping our free champagne (from the resort at Knotts Berry Farm) and eating popcorn.

Let's back track to our last day in California. The day can be summed up in one word: TRAFFIC!!! We had terrible traffic getting back into San Francisco Friday morning to catch our ferry to Alcatraz, but we made it! The tour was really good. We have gone on a few walking/audio tours in the past and both agree this was one of the best tours! The narrators were 4 former guards and 4 former prisoners. The sound effects made it sound real and the directions were clear: even to the point of seeing the pock marks from when hand grenades were used during the Battle of Alcatraz. We also watched a movie about the history of Alcatraz and learned that it was first used for military purposes, as a prison, and the American-Indians tried to take control of the island to use it as a university for Indians until the National Park Service took it over in the '60s. We really enjoyed ourselves, even in the rain. Mouse got a lovely parka as a result of the rain (pictures later).

Once again we found ourselves in San Francisco traffic, but were enjoying each other's company and getting further in our book on CD. Once we got moving we were enjoying some beautiful rolling hills and great weather. Until ... Los Angeles traffic. LA rarely gets rain and when it does, the drivers don't have a clue how to drive in it. Our houseguests heard about the I-5 accident on the news here in Colorado Springs, so you may have heard about it as well. There were 15 trucks that collided in a tunnel going southbound on I-5 on the north side of LA. 5 trucks caught on fire. (The picture on the left is from latimes.com taken by Mike Meadows / Associated Press on October 13, 2007.) One person is still missing. 10 were taken to the hospital, and now 3 are dead. (The picture on the right is from latimes.com with a caption: The driver of the mangled truck on the right was able to walk away from his vehicle with minor injuries before it was engulfed in flames, according to CHP officers on the scene. Picture taken by Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times on October 13, 2007) The interstate is still closed in both directions and won't be opened until Tuesday at the earliest for the southbound lane. The northbound lane may not open for a while longer until inspectors can determine if the tunnel/bridge is usable. The trucks were burning in a truck only lane which happened to be in a tunnel that truckers say is hard to see in good weather.

The chain reaction began when two trucks collided on the I-5 late Friday.
(Mike Meadows / Associated Press)
October 13, 2007 (from latimes.com)

So back to our version of the story. We saw a sign stating there was a truck accident up ahead of us, so when we were at a dead stop on the interstate, we had an idea of why. We were able to pick up a station on our Sirius radio that gave us updates on LA traffic and quickly found out there were burning trucks in our way. We realized we'd be sitting there for a while, so we shut the lights off and continued listening to the repeated message on the radio. Fletch wanted to take a nap, so we switched seats. While he was trying to sleep (a little hard with the excitement around us), we noticed a Saturn going in reverse on the shoulder. I instantly said, "What an idiot! The cops will be getting him!" Then we saw a car driving forwards, north, in the southbound shoulder! Then we saw another car, and another, and people out starting to walk around questioning what was going on. It was raining at this time and we were enjoying our warm dry car, we decided to stay inside. Then we saw cars going north on the shoulder on the other side of us. Once a car beside us starting going, making a way for us, we decided to become what Melissa said "an idiot" and break a few laws as well. We were probably one of the first 50 cars to do this, so we thought the cops in front must be giving the cars the go ahead to do this. We had to do some curb jumping at one point because a trucker was on the shoulder and not able to move. Thanks to Fletch for getting out to see if we could jump the shoulder! I didn't think we could do it!!! There were a few sport cars that were stuck on that shoulder. Poor people! They thought they were free!!! We spent the next 3 hours following a truck (that didn't get past the stop point, so he wasn't stuck on the freeway with the other big rigs) hoping he would lead us to a passable point southbound on I-5. Again, that was my husband's street smart idea! We finally made it through. Our first time of arrival was set by Mandy (without breaks) for 10:33 pm. After the San Francisco traffic it was moved to 2:10 am. Now after this accident, it was going to be 5:30 am. We still saw a few more accidents on the way, but nothing as major as that 15 truck collision accident!!!


The lady at the hotel in San Diego was quite suprised to see us show up at 5:30 in the morning. As we were checking in, others were eating breakfast. Now that was a sad sight to see! After sleeping for 3 hours, we started our journey home. It was amazing that we stayed up as late as we did watching the movie last night! We made up for it in the morning, though ... we slept 10-11 hours (Fletch got up earlier than I did).


It was an awesome vacation, but we are so thankful to be home!!! I need to unpack, so some laundry, and upload more pictures. Keep checking the blogs for updated pictures!!!

Wednesday: Driving up north

We started our trip to San Francisco with no plans other than visiting a few places. Our drive was uneventful. We started up the Pacific Coast Highway from South/Central LA up through Malibu and the beach cities for about 2 hours before we went inland for a faster route. Once we got to San Jose, we decided to call it a night and asked Mandy to show us the closest hotel to our first destination: Winchester House. She took us to a fantastic shopping area with Gucci and other pricey shops. We ended up asking her for another hotel because we thought that area would be a little too pricey for some travelers looking for a bed!

The next morning we took a tour through the Winchester Mystery House. It is believed to have been cursed because the owners' baby died within 6 weeks due to ill health and Mr. Winchester died a few years later of tuberculosis. Mrs. Winchester believed the house was haunted by the ghosts of the men that died from the rifles the family made during the Civil War. To distract the evil spirits, Mrs. Winchester installed doors that led to walls and stairs that went up to the ceiling. The tour went through the entire house of 1 mile. It was ... interesting ... to say the least. I'll have pictures posted later once we get home (we are waiting for our return flight to Colorado Springs right now as I type).

The last part of the day was our business portion for the San Francisco area. Fletch is a huge fan of Mesa Boogie amps, so we took a tour of the factory in Petaluma (south of San Fran). Fletch was in amp heaven!!! He was able to find a good deal on a Mesa Boogie thingamajingy on Craig's List the night before, so we picked up the item on our way back to San Fran after the tour. Our last two business stops were Guitar Center stores in San Francisco (where we scored great street parking right in front of the store!) and San Jose. Of course we ended our business trip with a business dinner ... at Chevy's.

We enjoyed the previous night's stay at the hotel so much, we decided to stay another night to make it easier on ourselves (packing our stuff and the car to finding another hotel in San Fran ... more expensive ... and unpacking/packing all over again was getting annoying).

Our plane is about ready to load. I will blog our tour of Alcatraz and our VERY eventful drive back to San Diego once we get home. All I have to say about our trip home is check out the latimes.com today to see front page of a 15 truck pile-up that caused 5 to catch on fire causing us a 3 hour delay in arriving in San Diego!!! Pictures tomorrow after I rest up (I slept 3 hours last night!!!)

Wineries (Sunday)

Oops! I forgot to blog about Sunday!!! We spent a few hours in Temecula (just north of San Diego). We have a favorite restaurant there and had lunch ... Sweet Lumpy's. Melissa tasted wine at 2 wineries, but we only did 2 because she could taste the wine as well with her cold. :( We then checked into our hotel in Hollywood and visited a Guitar Center. This is the business part of our trip ... guitar shopping!

Leaving LA

Carson Daly: we watched last night's episode. Melissa saw Fletch's head banging to the music and Fletch saw Melissa shake her hair around. Yeah! We were on t.v.! Isn't that what Hollywood is all about???

It's official. We are both sick with the flu. Day 6 for Melissa: I am starting to see the end of the tunnel!!! Day 2 for Fletch: PLEASE PRAY HE DOESN'T HAVE IT AS LONG AS MELISSA DID!!! I have learned my lesson and have promised Fletch that when I get sick I WILL take a day off of school to get better! I feel bad that I didn't during my 1st cold this season (back in September) and now we are both paying for it. This is the 3rd time I have gotten sick in 6 weeks ... and have given it to Fletch twice!

Enough of that ... yesterday we went to Knott's Berry Farm. Fletch found his smell (and was able to still smell) that he remembered 27 years ago. Unfortunately Melissa wasn't smelling anything. :( The park employees were expecting about 2000 visitors! We think it was below that count. We had to wait in line for 2 rides ... and that was only about 3 minutes to wait in! We were able to ride all of the rides ... some of them 4 times!!! We heard that Disneyland was crowded over the weekend, so we can probably say that if you want to visit themeparks ... GO AFTER COLUMBUS DAY!!! It was sweet. :)

After the park closed we came back to the hotel for a little rest and drugs then headed out to Beverly Hills to see the stars homes. It was getting a little late, so we only saw Sylvester Stallone's home, Bill Cosby's former home and Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes mansion.

Our room at Knott's Berry Farm resort is FANTASTIC! They gave us a room with 2 queen size beds (just perfect for 2 sicklies), a bottle of Champagne (which we'll enjoy after we're finished taking our meds), a parking voucher, 2 tickets to the park, $30 dinner voucher and 2 breakfast buffet vouchers for under $200! We figured it's costing us $14 to stay in this lovely room!

Today we're off for the Pacific Coast Highway. There are no more hotel reservations and we're going to take it easy. We'll be visiting Hearst Castle, Winchester Mystery House, Mesa Boogie factory, Alcatraz, and possibly the Avenue of the Giants (depending on how we feel). We're not sure about internet connection because we don't know where we're staying for the rest of the trip. If we can find free hookup at Starbucks, we'll update the blog!

Thanks for reading. We need to go enjoy our FREE breakfast BUFFET and start heading out.

Love,

Fletch and Mouse

P.S. Note from home: Zack was bothering Simba at the beginning of the week (enough to make us wonder if we had to take him back) but they are now best friends! Lars is being Lars ... hanging out by himself. Simba was crying a lot the first part of our absence, he's calming down a little. Zack has learned how to lay down! Thanks Phil, Leslie and Levi!!!

LA

Okay ... I sent the last post with only 60 seconds to type it because we were flying out of the door to get to the NBC studios on time. We thought we didn't make it, but they welcomed us in ... into the 1st row!!! We were at the taping of NBC's Carson Daly show for Tuesday and Wednesday night. We were able to see Brian Welsh's interview which was someone we had prayed for in the past! Brian used to be a guitar player for the secular band Korn until he became a Christian a few years ago. We prayed for him a few times after his transformation into Christianity. What an awesome opportunity to be in the audience while he was being interviewed!!! We also got to see Leslie Bibb (an actress from Talagada Nights) being interviewed. The musical guests we saw were Hurricane Chris and Ryan Shaw. We never heard who any of these people (besides Brian Welsh) before tonight, but you may be able to see us in the front row of the musicians!!! Fletch and I were right up front screaming and yelling ... like we were HUGE fans of these guys! ;) It was really fun!!!

We are having a great time in our Mustang driving around LA with Mandy. Fletch is quite the LA driver now!!! It's so much easier when you have someone navigating who knows the area!

We didn't get a chance to catch up with our friend Dave yet ... we hope to tomorrow after Knott's Berry Farm closes.

Please be praying for Melissa's health. She has been battling a cold ever since we left Colorado and it is still lingering on ... especially at night time. We are still able to go about our day as tourists, but night time is not the best time for Melissa. Thanks!!! Tomorrow we're off to Knott's Berry Farm, hopefully to catch up with Dave, and possibly touring around Beverly Hills and Bel Air (again) ... but this time with a map of the stars' homes!

Carson Daly

Watch it tonight! We're in the live audience!

More later.

Saturday: San Diego

Wow. What a first day! It's hard to imagine we still have 7 more days to go! The first thing we did today was go to the San Diego Zoo. Melissa had fond memories of going there with her older brother in 1997; the last time she went there was with her friends in 2002, but it was raining and most of the animals weren't out because of the rain. This was the first time for Fletch to go. We had a great time. The pandas were sleeping the first time we saw them, but one was awake and eating the 2nd time through. The weather was perfect and we had a great time!

In the evening we drove downtown to the waterfront marina area to board the ship we would be having our dinner cruise on. After a 3 course meal Fletch and Mouse retreated downstairs to the dancefloor! It was hilarious seeing much older couples raisning their blood pressure to old Michael Jackson and Salt N' Pepper tunes....

San Diego is a beautiful, clean city, several charactoristics reninded Fletch of Brisbane. Navigating is very easy. Largest highway to date was 12 lanes!

Sunday's activities: wineries, drive to LA, hanging out with Mouse's college friend (who just got of tour with Hilary Duff).

Friday: Travels and San Diego

We started the day off with Melissa going to work and Fletch getting ready. Usually it's the other way around;Fletch enjoyed a nice relaxing morning before traveling!!! Our house guests were able to take us to the airport. They received a nice surprise ... they thought we were flying out of Denver! :) There was only one exciting (or annoying) thing at the airport: a lady with a child was cutting in front of the security line (no one said anything to her) and was quite upset when the officers had to examine her bags. She had a lot of liquids for the baby in there, but didn't tell the officers before putting her bags on the belt. She was causing a little scene telling them if she was late they better pay for her to get the next flight out. Obviously she doesn't fly often. Hopefully she has learned that if traveling with a child, don't be late! We saw her at the gate, but no one was sitting there. Either she missed her flight, was able to get on the next one, or was carrying a fuss lying to the officers so she could get through security faster. I hope she had a better afternoon than her morning!

We flew JetExpress. Lovely plane ride. They surprised us by not only offering drinks, but a lunch (sandwich or pasta with peanuts and cookies), snack (peanuts or cookies) and a mint at the end of our flight! The ladies at lunch were just talking about how planes don't offer just snacks anymore ... well it's changing! :) Our flight was only 2 hours and 20 minutes, but the plane hit a bird before landing in Colorado Springs. We had about 30-45 minutes to wait on the plane while maintenance checked out everything.

Karen was our assistant at Hertz rental car. She was so sweet. She asked us if we wanted to upgrade to a Ford Mustang, but we said no and asked about 5 different cars to upgrade to. What a patient woman! After about 30 minutes we decided on a Mustang. I apologized to her, but she was quite professional and was a lovely lady! We are riding around California in a silver Ford Mustang (not a convertible ... there weren't any available).

Our first stop was the Carvin guitar factory. We have been there before (June 2006) but didn't have time to look around. Fletch brought one of his many Carvin guitars to get some items put in it (don't ask me what he's doing to it ... let's call it an upgrade) and had a blast looking around at all the Carvin guitars. Fletch is definitely a Carvin guy! Visitors to our home can tell he enjoys Carvin guitars. :)

After the factory we went to a popular fast food joint ... In and Out. Under $5 for a meal ... like the old days. If you are ever in California or Las Vegas, you must stop and eat at an In and Out place. It's tradition! Up to this point our newest member of the family, Mandy, got us to each location without hassles. She had a little problem communicating to us how to get to our hotel. We had to turn around about 3 times. Hopefully she'll do better today. She'll be navigating us to San Diego Zoo and the location where we will catch our dinner cruise at. Can you guess what Mandy is? Comment below if you think you know!!!

Fletch, Mouse & Mandy

California, Here We Come!

We will be leaving today for a much needed vacation! Stay tuned for pictures and blogs daily while we are in California! Here is a brief list of our itinerary:

10/5-7 SAN DIEGO (Carvin guitar factory, San Diego Zoo, dinner cruise)

10/7-10/10 LOS ANGELES AREA (guitar shops, trolley tour, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Knott's Berry Farm)

10/10-10/12 SAN FRANCISCO area (Mesa Boogie factory, Alcatraz, possibly Avenue of the Giants)

10/12-10/13 make our way back to San Diego

10/13 fly home

Thank you in advance, McCallum family, for taking care of our pets and our home! You are a HUGE blessing!!!

My brother is gone ...

... from the country, that is. I am so sad. It's funny how I feel so apart from family when they go on vacation ... even though they live in St. Louis and I'm in Colorado Springs!!! Sean and Natalia: I hope you have a FANTASTIC time in Australia. I'm jealous. I want to go back. I still can't believe my little brother has gone to Australia more times than I have. Bring me back a Christmas goody, please!

Comment, Please!!!

Okay I have figured out why we haven't received many comments. It's because the settings said that only blogger members can comment. I have changed it now. ANYONE can comment. :)



Feel free to do so. :)

Fletch and Mouse's New Addition

Hi Friends! We wanted to show you our families newest addition, a 4 month old Labrador retriever puppy, we have named Zack. We got him from the Retriever Rescue of Colorado this afternoon in Denver. He was very well behaved on the way home. Lars and Simba are cooly accepting of him, but prepared to dab him if he gets too close at this stage.

-Fletch

Buying a house

No one told me that if you buy a house you are constantly fixing it up! Our theatre room is almost complete. It looks finished (painted, wall is up, electric boxes are in) but we still have more work to do. It's starting to get cold here, so our next time cruncher is to use Eli's power painting thingy to paint the crown molding outside before snow hits. Fletch is counting down the days until that happens ... next month we'll see snow. I miss fall.

Our roommates are here safe and sound and their stuff arrives tomorrow. It's been great having them around keeping us company. Please be praying for their job interviews in the next week. Leslie has one on Thursday and Phil has his 3rd interview at Focus next Wednesday. Levi is back at school (online) and is keeping himself busy working out of the house on computer programming stuff. The only programming I'm able to do is this blog, myspace, facebook and now I've "pimped" this site and my myspace page. What do you think of it? Pretty? :)

Our handyman is here installing our new fan in our bedroom and installing our old bedroom ceiling fan into the guest bedroom upstairs. The one in our bedroom matches the one in the living room ... it was one of the great qualities that Fletch loved when we were looking at the house. After our roommates moved in, we quickly found out that the hot water faucet in the shower wasn't used enough ... it broke within the first couple of days. Handyman Bill fixed that, too. Fortunately he is an electrician and plumber that doesn't cost an arm and a leg! If you're in the area and need a handyman like Bill, let us know! He is also doing work at Eli and Cami's as well!

That's all I have for now. Feel free to leave a comment anytime soon! (My own MOTHER hasn't even left a comment!)

NEW ROOMMATES!!!

In case you want to stop by, or give us a call on the home phone ... I wanted to let you know that Phil and his family (Fletcher's mentors from Australia) will be staying with us starting tomorrow. We are very excited to have them back and are excited to be able to bless them with shelter under the roof GOD has blessed us to take care of. Feel free to stop by to say "aloha" to our guests from Hawaii!!!

Labor Day Weekend & Cousin's wedding

We have had a nice quiet weekend with friends and painting. The wall is officially up and done in the theater room. Fletch and I spent a few hours late last night painting it. We will need to add a second layer of paint later on and we still need to paint the ceiling a dark color. We are getting closer to having it hooked up! Our goal is to have it up and running by October when we have visitors coming over.

I want to take this time to say congrats to my cousin, Andy, on his previous wedding day. It looks like you made it through, cuz! I am saddened I missed yet another wedding in my family due to the distance we are from family. We still welcome all family members to enjoy a nice relaxing holiday here at the Whipp household. :) Congrats, Andy and welcome to the family, Jessica!

Great! Now that I know non-American residents are reading this ...

... I guess I will continue to blog. (Little add for my cousin Aaron with a great blog ... aaronorear.com ... who resides in Canada//also for David who is a friend of Fletch's from Australia//and Lalayena who also is a friend of Fletch's from Australia). Thanks for the comments friends. AMERICAN RESIDENTS ... GET ON THE BALL. ;)

Hmmm ... what can I write about today? It is FINALLY cooling off in our neck of woods. It's been in the upper 80's/lower 90's for about a month now. Not very common for Colorado Springs. I think it's going to get down to 58 degrees tonight. Woo-hoo!!! We have the air off!!!

Our friend, and Fletch's guitar student, Chris has been back yet again working on our theatre room. He is such a trooper ... even though he HATES working with materials involved in building a wall!!! We plan on blessing him and his wife (who is an ex-coworker of Melissa's from Ellicott School District) with a fun evening out.

We are planning our fall getaway. We plan on flying out to Las Vegas then driving to California for some guitar shopping, whale show watching and beach picnicking vacation time. :) When we return, we plan on having TONS O' VISITORS come see our new home. If you are planning on visiting, let us know SOON because we will have Fletch's mentor and his wife and son staying with us at that time as well. We have plenty of room ... or our neighbor/friend (the Olympic athlete) could put guests up as well.

Enough rambling for tonight. I need to make some macaroni and cheese for dinner. Fletch is at rehearsal for our church's Concert of Praise tomorrow night. Included is a picture of the worship team on Mother's Day. I will try to remember to take the camera and get a better picture tomorrow night!

Hello? Is anybody reading this???

My blog for the evening is my thoughts on whether or not anyone is reading these blogs. If you are, please send a comment so I know you're out there! ;)



In the meantime, enjoy a photo of the next stage of the theatre room, one of our guest bedrooms and a very cute picture of the boys!

We love our boys

Here are some cute pictures of our babies. We love our cats soooo much!!! They are very friendly and love people, so if you are allergic to cats and come visit us, please let us know! Otherwise they will come sit next to you and will have a chat as long as you give them attention. Lars is the black cat that we've had since November 14, 2004. Simba is actually our 3rd cat (replaced our sick kitten, Rafiki, that we put to sleep November 27, 2005 ... see 1st post in July) who has been with us since November 29, 2005. Lars is very soft and is a purebred (you can tell by the tips on top of his ears); Simba is the talkative one. He even talks to Melissa when Fletch puts the phone to Simba while she is at work!!! Very cute!!! These pictures were taken within the last 3 days. Enjoy!!!

Update

Sorry for the lack of communication!!! Melissa is almost finished with week #2 at school and is loving it!!! Once we find the charger/adapter to download pictures, we'll post some pictures!!!

Fletch had a WONDERFUL birthday here at the house ... we had 29 guests show up for some burgers, hot dogs, fellowship and great birthday wishes! Again ... more pictures to come once the charger/adapter is found. :)

Fletch and a guitar student (an adult one of course) have been working on the theatre room downstairs. This picture was taken with Melissa's old camera ... the french doors are not quite in just yet, so if you come over please don't open them. ;)

Melissa had her open house at school tonight. Fletch forgot about it ... which is great ... because Melissa came home to this wonderful array of gifts!!! It's great he forgot because it's definitely considered a "just because" array of gifts ... not a "good job at your new job" gift. :) Fletch definitely gets the husband of the year award!!! (guys ... he does consult husbands/fiance's/boyfriends for free).

Fletch's mentor, Phil McCallum, and his family stayed with us for one night. Leslie and Levi went back home, but Phil came back shortly after they all left for 10 days. It was so great to have him here. They will all be back in a few weeks to stay for as long as they need to in order to find a house. Please be praying for Phil as he is seeking a position at Focus on the Family. He had the honor of having a 3 1/2 hour luncheon with H.B. London before he left!!! Things are looking good there!!!

Looks like the Whipps are booking up their household quickly. If you are wanting to visit, please contact us soon so we can arrange rooms. :-) Phil, Leslie and Levi will be here in September (for as long as they wish); Ma & Pa Orear are coming on October in addition to Greg and Kim. Christian Jorgensen may be visiting with his friend after he visits his sister (Melissa's sister-in-law) in St. Louis. PLUS we are taking a roadtrip to California one week in October. Fun times ahead for the Whipps!!! STAY TUNED ...

Back in school ...

Yep. You heard it right. Melissa started back at school after 9 weeks of splendid bliss enjoying the home and summer sun. New teachers had to report to new teacher orientation at Skyview Middle School on Monday and Tuesday. All teachers reported back on Wednesday. Students start on Monday!!! YIKES!!! To top it all off, the school just opened back up after mold was found almost 2 weeks ago. New pictures will come once school starts!!! GO STETSON RAIDERS!!! :)

Our friend, the Olympic Athlete

This is a picture of our friends Eli and Cami! Eli just won an automatic spot on the 2008 Modern Pentathlon Olympic team!!! Congratulations, Eli!!! You can read all about his latest gold medal at the Pan American Games in Rio on his website: www.elibremer.com

Wall Art

We went to Sam's Club to get some food and walked out yesterday with a couple prints and our metal wall art. It is a lovely bronze colored 3D contemporary piece (actually 5 pieces we put together) that really adds to our contemporary room.

I'm adding some pictures of our trip back to Missouri and Cedar Point (in Ohio) as well. We went back to visit with Melissa's family and friends in St. Louis and took a side trip to Sandusky with the Granthams (friends from Melissa's high school). Melissa was quite excited to meet the new family member as well, Lance the retired greyhound her parents rescued. We had a lovely time, but it was hot and humid! We came back even more appreciative of our new home and awesome climate!!!

All About God, former mentors, and birthday parties

Today we sat in on a presentation of AllAboutGod.com ... all I can say is WOW!!! Our friends Greg and Candy are taking the gospel to the next level ... the kind of level that is right on our level ... through the internet!!! Straight from the website, they say, "We write compelling websites that reach out to skeptics, seekers, believers, and a hurting world with powerful evidence for God and the Good News of Jesus ... Simply, our mission is to share the Good News with the Globe via the World Wide Web!"



Please check it out!!! AllAboutGod.com



On another note, Melissa had the honor to attend a former student's 16th birthday party out east. She was able to catch up with 3 former students and the birthday boy's family and friends. It was fun to hang out with them!



Fletch and I are getting an exciting opportunity to catch up with both of our mentors!!! Melissa's mentor at Ellicott left after her 1st year of teaching to teach in China. She came home to take see her family; Melissa is looking forward to catching up with her before she goes back mid-August. Fletch's mentor from Australia has contacted us as well! Pastor Phil is integral in getting Fletch hooked up with a Bible believing church and helped to build a firm foundation for Fletch's faith. Last we heard, Pastor Phil was preaching at a church in Hawaii. Now the family is praying about a job opportunity at Focus on the Family! We are looking forward to hosting them for a night while he interviews at Focus later this month. In the meantime, he is speaking at a church in Greeley next week and is flying into DIA tomorrow. After 5 years of separation, Fletch will get an opportunity to reunite with a very special man in our lives! We plan on going up to Denver tomorrow to have lunch with the family.

Welcome

Here we finally starting a blog for friends and family all over the WORLD! I've decided to start our journey with our lovely timeline! Don't go too far!!! Buckle up for a fun ride!!!

• June 16, 2001: This is the date Melissa opened the e-mail from Fletch. We both had a profile on ChristianCafe.com for different reasons (Melissa wanted to be silly; Fletch was looking for American musicians to network with prior to a tour in 2002).


• July 4, 2003: We met in person for the 1st time at Brisbane airport! Melissa stayed in Brissie for about a week prior to their trip to Townsville and Darwin to visit her friends (Fletch shouted the tickets!). We made a decision during this trip to take our relationship to the next level, but not officially with the engagement ring.








• October 3, 2003: Fletch flew to St. Louis and proposed to Melissa (with help from her family, Becky and Amy). He spent about 10 days with Melissa during her time off from work (in between jobs). He traveled to Missouri (obviously) and Illinois (to meet both Grandparents and Uncle Bill and Aunt Barb).




• December 2003: Fletch flew back to St. Louis for a visit. We traveled to Wisconsin for a good old fashioned Orear Christmas!








• March 2004: Fletch flew back to America, stopping in California for a few days prior to visiting Melissa in St. Louis.








• July 23, 2004: Fletch immigrated to America! Melissa met his parents for the 1st time as well!


• July 31, 2004: We tied the knot!










• Honeymoon: We flew into Denver, drove to Colorado Springs (where Melissa received a job) up to Estes Park, Boulder, Denver and flew back home to let our family (and Melissa's work) know we were moving to Colorado Springs in 2 weeks time!
  
  
  
  
  August 24, 2004: We moved to Colorado Springs. We stayed with a lovely couple (Jan and Chick) until mid-October! What a blessing they were to us!!!







• October 2004: Fletch was able to start working, thanks to Homeland Security taking a few months to get his social security number! We were blessed to have picked up a guitar studio at Fall River Music just when another guitar teacher was moving (of all places) to MISSOURI! Fletch was able to get 25/30 of his students! Thank you Jesus!

• October 29, 2004: We moved in to one of Melissa's co-worker's basement during our transition to our new condo! Thanks Shane and Crystal for your help!


• November 12, 2004: We moved to our 1st home: 4549 Lamplighter Circle. That night we adopted "Lobo" (we changed his name to "Lars"), a fun caring beagle that christened our carpet downstairs!






• November 13, 2004: We gave Lobo back to his former owners. We realized we didn't have a yard big enough for him (plus he scratched at our neighbor's door and howled all night).


• November 15, 2004: We adopted Lars (yes, we were obsessed with having a pet named Lars) from the humane society ... a beautiful domestic short-haired black cat.










• Christmas 2004: We surprised Melissa's family with a visit during the Christmas season.
  
• February 2005: Fletch received his green card!


• April 2005: We took a proper vacation to Orlando, FL! Fletch came back with e-coli and had a lovely 6 week recovery (after 2 visits to the hospital!).


• July 2005: Melissa received her 1st teaching job teaching 5th-12th grade instrumental music at Ellicott Middle and High Schools! She continued working at Safelite on her Friday and Saturdays off.


• September 11, 2005: We adopted Rafiki, a domestic short-hairred brown tiger cat. He was such a little thing!


• October 2005: We attended Mr. Olympia contest in Las Vegas. Correction: Fletch attended. Melissa scrapbooked in the hotel room. We stayed at the Orleans hotel.


• Thanksgiving 2005: We took the boys to St. Louis for Sean and Tahli's wedding reception. Rafiki got sick within the first 90 minutes of the trip, stayed overnight in the hospital on Thanksgiving night, had surgery to remove 6 inches of dead tissue on Friday, came home on Saturday, quickly whisked back to the hospital Saturday night.



• November 27, 2005: Rafiki Whipp was put to sleep due to another surgery needed to reattach his intestines. WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU!


• November 28, 2005: We started our trip back to Colorado as a family of 3. Got stuck in Kansas due to a snow storm!


• November 29, 2005: After we arrived home from our terrible trip, we threw our bags into the living room, set off for the humane society, was unlucky finding a replacement for Rafiki, went to Pet Smart, and found our little guy, Simba Rafiki Whipp! He had a brother just like Lars, and Lars thought Rafiki was back. The poor boys were scared of each other and didn't know what was going on! Lars went into a depression the remainder of the winter season due to his loss of his best friend, Rafiki.


• December 2005: Another trip to Las Vegas to catch up with Ross, Kerryn and the kids! It was such a surprise to hear they were in the country! We stayed at the Excalibur. We had such a wonderful time with them and are looking forward to our next get-together!
• Christmas 2005: Our 1st Christmas at home!

• March 2006: Mum and Dad visit for 5 weeks!

• Spring Break 2006: Melissa went to St. Louis for Greg and Kim's wedding the 1st weekend. That Monday, the 2 sets of Whipps flew off to Las Vegas (stayed at Circus Circus), drove to the Grand Canyon, Anaheim, San Francisco, Yosemite, Death Valley and back to Las Vegas to catch a flight back to Denver.



• July 2006: We took a camping roadtrip up to Mount Rushmore. We stopped at Devil's Tower on the way up and Crazy Horse Memorial on the way back.


• December 25, 2006: We flew to London to find out that the town is DEAD on Christmas and Boxing Day! The tube wasn't even working!!!


• December 28, 2006: We took a train down to Brighton to hang out where Fletch grew up.


• December 31, 2006: Back to London for New Year's Eve.


• January 1, 2007: Started the New Year in Paris! We stood under the Eiffel Tower for 2 hours in the cold rain to get up inside ... we only stayed about 10 minutes because we were frozen! The next night we did a tour that included dinner in the Eiffel Tower and a river cruise on the Seine river. It was a splendid way to end our Parisian vacation!


• January 3, 2007: Melissa's dream came true! We arrived in ITALY!!! We spent the next 3 days touring Rome: Colesseum, Vatican City, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum.


• January 6, 2007: Back to London for one more night in Europe.


• January 7, 2007: Home!


• January 8, 2007: Fletch gives up his ebay business as a full time job to spend more time with the Lord and in ministry involvement with the church.


• January 9, 2007: Owner of Fall River Music tells Fletch the store will be closing it's doors the end of the month. Instead of freaking out, Fletch goes on a fast that lasted for a week. It was confirmed that he should continue teaching, and was able to partner with Jim (another guitar teacher from Fall River Music ... that didn't bail out on the owner when things looked shakey). They have a studio 3 times larger than their last one with their own hours for the same price! Thank you Jesus!


• February 2007: Fletch sells his rental property in Australia! Time to seriously start looking for a house! We knew Eli would help us find our home!


• March 3, 2007: We moved to our dream home in St. Andrews subdivision: 2320 Pinhigh Court. Such a blessing from the Lord! We need to still name our home, but are looking for a Hebrew translation for restoration possibly. This house is a home of restoration because the man who owned it before us, through counseling at his church, reconciled his marriage and moved to her home up north.


• June 2007: We took a humid trip back to St. Louis so Melissa can see a baseball game at the new stadium, go to a winery (rained out), go to a Whitaker Jazz Festival Concert (rained out) , see Greg and Kim's new home in La Plata, and take Fletch to Cedar Point (with the Granthams). It was a nice trip to catch up with family and friends, but very hot and humid!


• July 12-15, 2007: Wayne and Danielle of Gladstone, Australia became our 1st over night guests! Wayne is a friend of Melissa's from YWAM; Danielle hung out with Tahli and Fletch when they all lived in Brisbane. What a small world! 1st Fletch's friend and Melissa's brother get married; then our friends marry each other!
  

Whew! I told you it was a whirlwind! Stay tuned for more adventures with the Whipps including involvement in ministry, future children, future dog (?) and Melissa's new job!