About melissius

A Canuck living in beautiful Colorado. Happily married (Geoff), mom to two handsome sons (Elijah & Miles). I am a follower of Jesus Christ. Life is great.

Top Chef Tour


Richard Blais

 

Saturday May 7, the Top Chef Tour stopped in Denver. This was our 2nd time seeing the tour, and we were thrilled that Richard Blais, our favorite and winner of Season 8 All-Stars, was back in the Mile High City.

The set up was different than the previous year. Instead of having the chefs prepare a dish for us, the two chefs would have a “quickfire”, and we would get to taste both dishes. His competitor was Vail, CO’s Kelly Liken (finalist in Season 7).


Kelly Liken

I knew ahead of time they would be preparing fish, as it was voted on in a poll on Facebook. Yeah, you know I don’t eat fish right? But this finicky foodie made herself take a bite out of both salmon dishes.

Okay, here’s my foodie fail, I didn’t take pictures of the food! I was too busy taking pictures of Richard.

Richard produced a salmon & mustard sauce, while Kelly went the non-cooking route of raw salmon on a cabbage & orange salad. The judges they had sit in, chose Kelly’s dish. Perhaps because they were sandwiched in between the two cooking stations, which were adding to the heat of the sunny Saturday.

Afterwards, I got in line to get a picture with the chefs. This years tour was more widely attended, so I didn’t get the chance to talk to the chefs (pout). I’ll just have to pretend that Richard totally remembered talking to me last year.

Playing At The Park

Play structures at Red-Tailed Hawk Park

I discovered a new park in my area, just a short drive from our house. In a few years, we’ll all be able to ride our bikes there, it’s that close.

 

Red-tailed Hawk Park (located on Aurora Pkwy, between Arapahoe & Gartrell) offers
* two play structures
* two swing sets (one for small kiddos, one for big kids)
* a rock to conquor
* covered picnic tables, uncovered picnic tables & grills
* a bathroom
* A small spray park

The rock to be conquered

A view of the tables, grills & bathroom

The park is accessible by bike, which connects with the Piney Creek Trail. There are two small parking lots, one near the spray park, and one near the main playground. But there isn’t much of a walk between them.

We went to play today around 10:30am, and the summer sun made the slides a little hot. The spray park doesn’t turn the water on until 11am. Factor that in when you are making plans to go play.

Where Am I

Yeah, I’ve been avoiding my blog.

Last weekend I had a few things sting me. I was feeling left out, and it sucked. It came at an odd time, since I was feeling really good on Thursday night, when I had gone out with my fellow Mile High Mamas to explore Golden, CO. I laughed so hard I was crying, and felt like I was really connecting with these ladies.

I guess I need to spend some time deciding what I want to do with my blog. I love connecting with people on Twitter, and to a lesser degree, on Facebook. But I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing with my blog. I don’t feel motivated to write, and most of the time I don’t feel like I have anything to share that would interest other people.

Hopefully a good idea will spurn me into action.

Luck Or Divine Intervention

Today I was chatting at the church office with the other Melissa, and realized I was running late to get Miles from school. I did my best not to speed all the way there. But my speedometer was pretty steady at 5 miles over the limit. My eyes darted frequently between the clock and the speedometer. A car behind me, unhappy with my speed, pulled out into the next lane, sped up and pulled in front. I followed this car for several miles. Once I was on Smoky Hill, I knew I was in the home stretch. I still had 10 minutes to go, at least. And the clock told me I was going to be late. I prayed, Lord, please don’t let me get a ticket. I know which parts of Smoky Hill the police love, and there I was. I played in my mind being pulled over, being even more late to get Miles. I told myself, don’t speed, just stay the course.

Speedy car from earlier, booked it down the road, and then I saw a police car. He turned the corner slowly, pulled up right behind the car, and flashed his lights.

Shocked, I just uttered, “Holy Hannah. Thank you God, that it wasn’t me”.

I know I could get a ticket for going 5 miles over the limit. I just thanked God that He didn’t allow that today.

Oh My

I will try to move my archives over to this blog soon.  It’s just an overwhelming thought, and I hope it doesn’t turn out to be a big job.

I’m also trying not to be overwhelmed by the ministry I got roped into leading. I felt that the church needed it, and with no one else stepping up to do it, I had to say I would.  My goal is to develop a team of people to work alongside me.

The last two weeks in bible study (Beth Moore’s lecture series on the book of Revelation) have totally blown my mind.  I’ve discover things I never thought about, and it’s made me realize I need to prioritize.

I was watching the news the other day and a woman who had lost her husband said, He was my whole world.  And while I love Geoff, he isn’t my whole world.  And he shouldn’t be, God should be.  Either God comes first, or I’m replacing him with something else.  It’s been weighing on my mind.  Because I want to be there, but I’m not. Thankfully God doesn’t leave us where we are, He molds us into who He needs us to be.

So I’m allowing myself to be a little overwhelmed with ministry, because it will stretch me, and hopefully mold me into the servant He needs to help His people.  But I do need prayer, because I feel vulnerable to attack.

That’s where I’m at right now.

(Apologies to my husband and other grammer nerds: I’m probably still using two spaces between sentences. Old habits die hard)

Where I Have Been

I’m hoping someone has noticed I haven’t been blogging. Where have I been?

My focus to love more, serve more has put me in charge of a new ministry at our church. Reaching out to those going through big life stuff (babies, death, illness). And since this is still in its infancy stage, it has been a lot of work.

I’ve also been figuring out what to do for the boys birthday parties. I thought it best to host two small parties rather than one large one. But I awoke this morning at 6am stressing about Miles’, which is next weekend. And no one has rsvp’d yet. So I will have to spend today & Monday tracking those parents down, asking them if their child is coming. And the stress comes in when I think, what if no one comes?

I promise, this weekend I’ll write a real blog post. Something that will hopefully get you thinking.

Did I hype that too much? 🙂

The Boys

Figured I was due to update on the boys. Especially since this is an actual source for people to hear things.

Miles.

Preschool going well, and I really hope once he turns 4 next month, we’ll be passed the horrible threes. Those are way worse than the terrible twos. We’re continuing to work with him at home with his speech. Ms. Trish sends home updates every week, things we need to follow up on.

He is celebrating Culture Day on Feb 1st, and I’m tasked with making a poster about Canada. Wanted to prepare a Canadian treat, but we don’t have the snow required for that. May try to convince Geoff to make butter tarts instead.

Elijah.

He still enjoys Kindergarten, and continues to thrive. His teacher, Mr. C, has asked Elijah to play a major role in the Kindie play in February. It took some convincing to get Elijah to say yes, as he had some concerns. Namely that he didn’t want to be the villain, and he was worried kids would laugh at him. They are performing The 3 Piggies Opera, and Elijah is the Big Bad Wolf. He seems to be over his issues, and has his lines memorized.

Other than a 24 hr bug last week, both kids are healthy & doing well. They have been planning their birthday party since November, and have their hearts set on doing a Pirate theme again. If you were thinking of sending a gift, please- no toys. They received so many at Christmas, I’d rather we didn’t add more. Books, movies, games, gift certificates are all good ideas. I’m trying to add those items to their Amazon wishlists to help you.

A New Year

Today is my birthday. Ask me how old I am, I’ll tell you I’m a year older than I was last year.

It’s not that the number bothers me. Okay, it bothers me a little. But I have found that a lot of people are bothered by the number of years they have lived and the goals they have not achieved.

Growing up, I did not have many goals, if any. So I don’t really feel like there were things I should have accomplished by now. But I do feel, almost daily, that I should be doing more with my life. And I’m certain I should be savoring more moments.

So in 2011, my goal is to reach out to more people. Foster new friendships, strengthen old ones, forgive easier, love more. This is going to require a lot of prayer, and courage to stretch myself to the point of being uncomfortable. I know that while this year may hold more joy, it will also come with hurt. I truly wish for good health for my family & loved ones. And that 2011 holds more tears of laughter than tears of pain.