Category Archives: Greeley

Posts about Greeley, Colorado or the Greeley area

Puerto Rico Prep Time

Can you believe it has already been 2 months since Britton’s memory/health scare? Me either! He went back to work this week and our schedules have normalized once again. However, what is in the back of our minds (and sometimes in the front), of course, is our move! This is a big deal for us because we have lived in our Greeley, Colorado house for nearly 10 years now! Talk about time flying! Now that we have only 8 or 9 months until we move we are seeing how much really needs to get done!

Thankfully we have already made our checklist and have started working our way down our timeline to Puerto Rico at a nice pace. We are certainly on track, but just like any major event (say, planning a wedding for instance), most things have to wait until just before the actual event is about to take place.

In the mean time, we have accomplished a few tasks on our lists. One of those was to find Kitty a pet carrier that was airline approved. We found a Sherpa brand soft-shelled cat carrier on Craigslist for just $20. Brand new they cost about $70, so we thought that was a decent deal and Kitty seems to like it ok.

Kitty and the Carrier
Kitty and the Carrier

Britton in carrier
Britton liked it more! 🙂

We also pulled the trigger on buying new carpet for the upstairs of our house. Now that Schnoodle is gone and we will be renting out  the house when we move, it makes sense as an investment to fix it up for the future tenants. Plus we will be able to enjoy it for these next few months. I believe they will be installing it this weekend, so stay tuned for the before and after transformation.

In order to install the carpet we have to move off all of our furniture and anything else that is on the carpet. That has helped us to see more clearly what we will be dealing with in terms of “stuff” when we actually move. It’s kind of astonishing how much “stuff” we accumulate over the years. And we have consciously tried not to buy or accumulate!

Basement Stuff 2
Stuff from around the house now in the basement -clothes, shoes, computers, pictures, guitars, etc

I am starting to see the wisdom in Britton’s view of starting fresh in Puerto Rico and not bringing much with us. For one thing we will be living in a studio cabana when we first move there and two, it is going to be difficult to transfer/ship a lot of our life and belongings there. Already a few of the items in our “first moving bag to PR” ended up getting broken in transit even with the “Fragile” warning. So…we have a lot of stuff to clear out one way or the other. It is eye opening to realize that our stuff is just that -stuff- and it feels good to have a clean slate. But it is still difficult to sort through especially when you’re a sentimental and collecting type like me.

Overall, things are swinging right along during this Puerto Rico prep time and we are still on course for our tentative move date. As it gets closer and closer, our dream life of Puerto Rico and “real” world  of Greeley life are starting to converge and it is very exciting!!

Tall Yard 2
Soon we will be back here!

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (2)
  • Interesting (1)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Cabin Fever

Snow’s been coming down and it has been pretty cold. That means lots of movies and reading. And thinking about Puerto Rico.
For a peek into our mind, here are some of our books:

Compact Cabins
Cabin Designs -A different kind of cabin fever!

How to buld with stone, brick, concrete and tile
How to Build with Stone, Brick Concrete and Tile

I think there is a theme here….

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (0)
  • Interesting (1)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Our First Moving Bag to Puerto Rico

Since Britton is going down to Rincon in a little more than a week for  a short trip to check on the property, get a little work done and help our friend in his search for a Puerto Rican property, we thought we should take advantage of this trip to send some of our stuff with him.

So we went down to the Arc, a local Greeley second hand thrift store, to look for a suitcase that we could fill up and then just leave there AKA our first moving bag to Puerto Rico.

Suitcase
We found this suitcase (now filled and ready for PR) for $1.25!

It was a little hard to decide what to put in the suitcase because, after all, we still need to live here for another 9 or 10 months. But we filled it with stuff that we thought would be handy there and that we could live without here (and that weren’t really that exciting for possible thieves). For instance, our juicer, waffle maker, some glasses, some plates, our fish platter, an extension cord, hammer and screw driver and a few knick knacks.

Britton really just wants to start out fresh down there and buy everything, but I reasoned with him that for everything that we bring and don’t have to replace at retail price we will save a lot of money. One checked $25 bag full of $200 worth of stuff saves us $175 in replacement cost. Plus, shipping 50 lbs of stuff via mail would be a lot more than $25.

So if you see someone sporting this exciting and fashionable 1980s brown luggage with a red racing stripe, you can say ‘hi’ to Britton. ha!

Also, while we were at the Arc he also just happened to spy this pair of Doc Martins, that fit him, for just $8! Awesome deal and he loves them!

Doc Martins
Doc Martins

 

 

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (3)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

We’re in the News…Again!

What a cool way to mark the start of the new year…to be on the front page of the newspaper (in a positive way).

Cassie and Article

This week we were interviewed by a Greeley Tribune reporter about our experience with the Weigh and Win program, a program that truly is a Win-Win proposition: lose weight and get paid an incentive! Today, the story came out in the paper and online.  They charge to read the whole thing, so we took pictures of the hard copy if you want to read it (click to enlarge below).  As you may remember, we were on the cover of the paper a few years back after the whole backyard chicken debacle, but this time it is much less controversial.

Tribune Front Page Weigh and Win Last page
Click images to enlarge and read full article

Britton and I have really enjoyed being a part of this program and wanted to spread the word about it, and so we didn’t hesitate to help out with the article. We both have lost almost 10% of our initial body weights -me around 14-15 lbs and BK around 16-18 depending on fluctuations. We were both slightly overweight (but not obese) for our heights and now are very close to a healthy range.

Here are our then and now pictures from the Weigh and Win kiosk (after all what’s a good weight loss story without before and afters! 🙂 )


   bkbeforeBK After
Britton Then and Now

cassie beforecassie after
And me…

A few minor things to clarify from the article: It says we did it without exercising and that is not exactly what we said, we said that we didn’t add any extra exercise to achieve this weight loss. Even before attempting weight loss, we have always made walking or some form of movement a daily part of our routines and lately we have done a few yoga classes here and there too. It’s just that 80% of weight loss and maintenance comes from our food choices. Exercise is awesome, but it takes a whole lot more effort to run 20 minutes than to just not eat that extra cookie. 🙂

Also, a note on the incentives: we each make about $15 every quarter for each 5% bodyweight loss we achieve (it’s more for people with more to lose).

I would encourage anyone in Colorado (or if they expand elsewhere) to sign up for this program. I truly believe that most things in life are win-win situations if you simply change your frame of mind, and in this case, the win-win is not too hard to find in losing!

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (2)
  • Awesome (4)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)