407 Revere Street Aurora, CO 80011

Well, only took 24 hours and our first family house is now under contract to someone else. We have been extremely blessed to have called this house our home for the last 4 years and I will always remember this as the house where I brought home my 2 babies and where we grew into the family that we are today. It wasn't without struggle, every room in this house is rich with stories and contains the sweat of Mimi & Pappy, Nana & Granddad, Caleb, Sarah & Jeremy, Holly & Aaron and of course my beautiful wife and yours truly. I cannot thank y'all enough for your help and support. Some of my vivid memories are...

• Painting the entire house while Cindy was prego

• Staining the fence with Aaron

• Mimi & Pappy making a beautiful Kitchen counter-top

• Doing the house base boards with Caleb & Pappy. 

• Multiple trips to the Aurora dump

• Pappy & Cindy completely remodeling the main bathroom. 

• Grandad and Cindy remodeling the master bathroom. 

• digging up the old cement clothesline with Caleb

• Cindy, Grandad & Nana making a garden. 

• Me and my massive Demoing of the basement and kitchen. 

• Resanding/Finishing all the hardwood floors

• Cindy patching missing boards on the floor of the master bedroom. 

• My love/ hate relationship with the $10,000 bathroom remodel that we ended up having to cut a whole in the ceiling 3 times to locate a leak, it grew mold, the baseboards warped, the drywall got cracks, the leak found out was coming from the master shower which wasn't installed properly to began with!!! (Maybe I'm  not going to miss this house after all!) 

- And so much more!

I will truly miss this house and I will look back on it and our time in Colorado as some of the best years of my life! 

 

The Mercy Prayer

I have been given the wonderful honor of being apart of Colorado Community Churches lead pastor Robert Gelinas' new book launch team. The book is called "The mercy prayer" and it is a powerful look into the always answered prayer in the bible. I have read two chapters so far and believe that it has blessed my life already and I am excited to continue to read and grow. Part of my gift back to Pastor Robert is my reviews and feedback in the form of social media in order to help promote the book that comes out July 30th. I also have the privilege of giving a e-version of the book, absolutely free to the first person who responds back to me with your email address / Name!!

The web address for the new book is http://mercyprayerbook.com  

Stay tuned for a full review of the book in about a week, I hope that you enjoy hearing about this book and take this to learn more about this simple prayer. 

Bethany's cute quote of the day

Me: Bethany, did you know that I love you more than a million kitties!?
Bethany: Dada, I am not a kitty!

Family pictures / June 2013

Colorado

Well, after 8 wonderful years its time to start saying our farewells to this sate that has been such a blessing to me and my family. Let me back up, about 2-3 months ago I had a light bulb go off in my head that said in part ..."why not move to the Dallas, Fort Worth area?" I started to think about it, thought about it some more...then called Cindy to discuss my crazy idea. We talked it over for quite a while on the phone then vowed to continue the conversation on-going. As we talked about and prayed about this idea we just couldn't come up with any negative reasons not to go. Sure we love living here, we have a great house, good job and close to nana and granddad but the positives just keep on mounding. First, I was excited to get Bethany & Jude closer to more family. DFW is the central location for 90% of our family. 2nd, it could be a step up for me career wise at Whole Foods. 3rd, we have quickly outgrown our house and we would be able to purchase a step up in housing in Texas as well as the fact that it is cheaper to live in Texas. Because of all those reasons we felt that we needed to carefully consider the possibility that this might be exactly what our family needs to take a step forward & upword. One major hurdle was Finding a job. I looked outside Whole Foods because I knew that it was a long shot of me getting the same position or level at Whole Foods that I had worked so hard to obtained in Colorado so I didn't even apply for that job and applied for a lesser position. I got an interview and was not given the job because they said I had the skills of an Associate  Team Leader (my current position). They then contacted another recruiter and got me an interview for an Associate Team Leader job! I was humbled but excited for the opportunity and drove down for the interview. I receive word back the next day that I got the job and the pay was even more than I could have dreamed of. Wow, when God blesses you when you are faithful and trust him he doesn't hold back!! I am just in awe, daily, as I watch the Almighty's hand at work in our lives and can't wait to see what comes next....one more big hurdle to jump though, selling the house. Be praying. I know God will be faithful. But anyway, back to Colorado. So many wonderful things happen to me and my family here that I wanted to list a few...David letterman style (not in any order)

10. Colorado Community Church

9. Our 1st house

8. I meet the love of my life and got married here!

7. Bethany

6. Jude

5. Snow and cold weather 

4. Wonderful careers 

3. Culinary school / Teaching licenses 

2. Friendships / Nana & Grandad 

1. Love , Love, Love!!! 

Thanks Colorado   

Panera Bread...thanks!

Well as I sit here I am no longer an employee at Panera bread. I was extremely fortunate to find this job which fit into my schedule with whole foods market for the last year and a couple of months. This was a gift I wanted to get to Cindy and my entire family, The gift of Cindy not having to work outside the home. I know my family has been blessed beyond measure because of the fact that Cindy has become the house manager and was and is able to raise our two wonderful kids. What this means for me is freedom, Freedom to have a good nights rest, Freedom to spend more time with my beautiful wife, And freedom to play with my kids. I'm proud of what I accomplished at Panera but also proud of the fact that I'll be going down to just one job. A big thank you to my wonderful wife Cindy for supporting me this last year and a couple months and also supporting my decision to go back to one job. Goodbye baguettes... hello sleep!! 

Quotes of the Day

Bethany Anne Hall Presents...

Top 2 quotes of the day!

1. Bethany and I took a quick Dada/Daughter date to share a cola and grab some healthy snacks (candy) at the local gas station. We grab my reusable 100 oz cola cup and took off, We had a great time and went home to enjoy our sugary treats. I poured Bethany a cup of cola and after drinking some of her drink she turned and looked at me and asked "Did you put salt in this?" I replied "No". She took another sip and turned back to me and asked "Did you put salt in yours?"
2. As a result of all the sugar that Bethany had ingested only a few hours before she had trouble falling to sleep. I was getting ready for my overnight shift and saying goodnight to everyone and Cindy was still trying to get Bethany down. I checked on them and Bethany started trying to get me to convince Cindy that she needed to get up and that she wasn't tired. She insisted on seeing me to the door and as I was giving her a goodbye kiss Bethany whispered in my ear "I need you to get me some more sauce" (sauce is Bethany word for Hot Tamales the candy)

I love Bethany's personally and her sense of humor and the cute, smart things that she says everyday could fill a book but I thought you might enjoy these two gems.