Climbing Mountains to Move Mountains

After being off my bike for MANY, MANY months, I am back in the saddle.  The whole "mandatory hiatus because your knees hit your belly with every pedal stroke" really put a damper on biking.   What better way to ease back into it than sign up for an organized ride?  Yup, and not just any ride.  The Ironhorse Challenge.  A 50-mile ride that climbs two mountain passes for 6,700ft of total elevation gain.  What was I thinking?!? And training in April and May in the mountains of Colorado? That is an adventure in itself.  It has been challenging and entertaining all at once. 

Now, to add to the excitement, I have decided I am going to make it a fundraiser for a really special cause.  A couple of missionaries I met in Kenya have moved to Burundi to start a medical school to train local doctors there.  The faith and effort and determination of this group of young families is truly inspiring and I urge you to visit their blog (mccropders.blogspot.com) to learn more about how they are reaching a large number of people with such limited resources.  I will match all pledges, donations, sponsorships, pity monies.  Please contact me if you want to participate! Help motivate me (and my legs) to get me over those mountains.

Back to the Future

We will proceed in an orderly, logical fashion, being the type-A surgeon that I am.  In other words, I am starting with the recent stuff, because, well, it is happy and fun, and squishy.  Yup, babies are squishy.  Yup, we had another one of those  suckers.  Just ordered him right up from perfectsquishybabies.com. Yup, all those weird 'mom worries' about thinking the second one can never be as good as the first went right out the window as soon as little Paul showed up. Pretty amazing how this whole parenting miracle is put together.  Humbling and hard and exciting and truly the best job on the planet.

 And Luke, he is basically convinced that Paul was special ordered just for him.  He is proving to be the best big brother ever, whether it is bringing the wubba to make Paul stop crying or finding a blanket to swaddle him in for his nap.  Paul is the first thing Luke wants to see in the morning when he wakes up and there are lots of kisses and hugs saved only for the baby.  Pretty sweet-just hope the newness doesn't wear off too soon.

Hiatus longus

 Can't blame it on writer's block-you have to be a writer for that to happen.  No natural disaster or big glamorous trip to an exotic place without internet.  No, just a little something called life.  I have not created a single blog entry, posted a single picture, or even really thought about this little site at all.  And we Judki have LOTS to share.  Like in a change your life sort of share. Some good. Some not so good.  But it is all life.  And I will work on getting caught up-just stick with me because it might take awhile. 

Deep Thoughts

Happy Winter.  It is finally snowing.  We are moving next weekend.  Perfect timing, don't you think?

Love, Luke

Our new address is

1580 Jupiter Drive

Montrose, CO 81401

Sampson and Delilah (aka Dad)

There were no tears.  There was no anguish.  There was no gnashing of teeth.  I must say, it went quite smoothly, even uneventful if you will.  Unless you count the piles upon piles of lusciously long locks that fell to the floor without so much as a moment of silence.  And what were we left with? Imposter baby!  Smells like our Luke.  Sounds like our Luke.  Definitely, does NOT look like our Luke!   

A beautiful young boy who will soon learn the words, "I will have it high and tight, please sir."  Bye bye little baby.  Hello, young man.

Skiing superbaby!

Now, I know Luke has already been skiing-you can see it here. We now have added a Patagucci snowsuit, his first ski pass (who is the lucky mountain to have claimed the soon-to-be-famous skier's attention--Crested Butte, of course!), and some ridiculously tiny skis for the little man.  Watch out world, we have a natural on our hands.  Oh yeah, how could we go anywhere without Wubba, the eternally present sidekick.

Just when you thought...

Excitement you say?  Give me excitement? Ok, you asked for it.  Just when you thought the Judki clan could not get any crazier with our hectic schedules, racing toddler, and arguably psychotic Labrador  we went and bought a house.  Yes, a house.  And then we gutted it.

  Now, I do not me 'we' in the technical sense of Tim and Sarah.  Between our day jobs and aforementioned toddler/psychotic dog combo, there is no way we are crazy enough to tackle that project.  Plus, we like to ski, snowshoe, skate-ski (yes, Tim found yet another sport to gear up for), ice climb, and occasionally even hang out in our free time and we heard DIYers, well, basically DIY all the time.  Weekends.  Nights.  Mornings.  No thanks, we will pass on that crazy.
  We hired a meticulous, honest, Type A general contractor and entered into the wonderful world of home remodeling.  Yikes.  Who cares about picking out toilet paper holders?  Or cabinet pulls?  Or wall texturing?  I am learning a lot about subfloors, plumb walls (or out of plumb, in our house), and electrical inspections (you are responsible for prior homeowners sins, by the way).  
  The project is about halfway completed and we are finally entering the home stretch (I think).  Pray for drywall hanging, paint spraying, and tile laying so we can move into our current construction zone by the end of the month.  Oh yeah, and carpet laying, faucet caulking, and door hanging.  And vanity installing, light fixture assembling, and mantle building.  And...