1200 Miles West

On Saturday, I joined a team of co-workers to participate in a local Habitat for Humanity project in Englewood, CO. We arrived shortly before 9am and after checking in we picked out our hard hat, glasses and gloves. As you can see from this pic, I was ready to go!

Here’s a team picture that I snapped before the work started. Pictured - Thomas, Sara, Heather, Ronnie, Jaala, Aimee (from CSIA) and Terri. Some how both Brent and Jesse avoided the group photo, but don’t worry I got plenty of pics throughout the day.

We were assigned the task of painting and everyone on the team seemed to think that was a good fit. There was another team assigned to “our” house. They must volunteer on a regular basis as they had a pre-existing team name which was “Hammer Heads”. They worked on the two sheds that were located in the extremely muddy area behind the house.

Here’s a picture of the house before we got started.

Jaala immediately volunteered to go up high and paint the top section of the house using a 24 foot ladder. After working to position the ladder so that it was stable (the ground was in the process of thawing) she was up and at it.

Heather, Thomas. Terri and Brent volunteered by be on porch duty. They spent a good portion of the morning applying stain. After lunch Brent inspected the team’s work and he decided to fire Heather as she missed the inside of her section of the porch railing.

We definitely got a good workout during the day. Here’s some of my favorite snapshots from the rest of the day…

My mom was a little worried that I’d be working with power tools, but this is probably the most dangerous position I was in all day. I’d like to think that I was just “hanging” out.

We were also fortunate enough to meet both of the future homeowners as they were on site painting with us. Surprisingly we painted the ENTIRE house! From top to bottom and Kathy who was our Habitat coordinator was over joyed at the amount of work we were able to accomplish. She also invited us back to participate in the dedication of the house once it’s done. I plan on attending and hope others from the group will join me.

The consensus at the end of the day was that we all felt good about the job we did and wondered when and how we could contribute our time and skills again in the future to help more families in the Metro Denver area.

Special thanks go out to Ronnie (our co-worker) and his Mom as she sent an official King Cake from Louisiana, along with beads and masks to help us celebrate. Ronnie whose family hails from Louisiana helped Indigio get into the Mardi Gras spirit by preparing homemade Hurricanes.

Ronnie (our in house drink master) and Brandon are featured on the left and Lana (our resident rock star) appears on the right.

There was a little confusion as to what holiday we were celebrating, but all in all a good time was had by all!

Wayne, our resident Photoshop guru here at Indigio, created this for me in honor of my birthday:

Those are really my eyes, nose (even though I don’t like to admit it!) and my mouth. Can you believe it?

Wayne’s a talented man, here’s a picture he did for Mike.

Not sure why he picked the Indian theme, but it worked out well, don’t you think? He has a nice weather look to him. Hopefully that’s not a reflect of me!

Regardless, we hope you enjoy these photos as much as we did!

It sounds like a fun house, however Mattie’s House of Mirrors was a fantastic venue for the annual Indigo Holiday party. When we arrived shortly after 7pm, there were 20 or so people enjoying drinks and appetizers on the lower level. I immediately handed my coat to the door man and bellied up to the bar to get a drink.

During the first hour, we mingled with co-workers and met their spouses, significant others and/or dates. Here’s a few pictures that were taken during the mix and mingle hour:

Around 8pm we headed upstairs to find a seat for dinner and place our orders. I have to say that the staff at Mattie’s was excellent and I would recommend it for small to medium sized corporate parties or social engagements. The food was fabulous. I started with the spinach salad, followed by a filet mignon that was perfectly cooked medium rare along with veggies and potatoes. After the dinner I enjoyed my creme brulee and was happy that I could relax during the awards ceremony.

After the awards had been presented, they cleared away some tables and the dancing started. During the first few songs, only a few of us were out on the dance floor, but after Tim’s various rounds of tequila shots, the party really got started.

Here’s some additional snap shots from the late night festivities:

Thomas was fortunate enough to sit with the recipients of the “Weather Girls Award” Terri Hill and Heather Sharp. Ladies as you know, I wasn’t involved in the awards portion of the night, so you know who to blame for this!

There were a few “mock” awards presented during the evening, however due to the fact that our family reads this blog, I’m not going to include all the details. Also, if word gets out…just keep in mind that it’s not true as the award that Mike and I received could have also gone to Dale and Tom!

If you weren’t there to witness Lana’s mad dancing skills, you missed out! She busted a move like no other. I think we need to start calling her Dance Master Lana.

By the way, I took over 100 pictures, so not all of them will be displayed on the blog. Those of you who were nice enough to entertain me and let me take your picture, you’ll get your copies via email.

Even though Dale wasn’t feeling well (maybe that’s who gave me this awful cold that has been plaguing me for two days now!) he always has a smile to share. Thanks for all your hard work on the holiday party - it was a HUGE success!

If I would have planned it better the five of us that we call the Indigo Girls would have been in the picture, but this one is just as cute with only three of us. BTW…I know what your thinking, but for those of you who work at Indigio, how many times has someone asked you if you work for the Indigo Group? Well, we are now using it to our advantage!

Ready for dancing pictures? Here you go…

The above pictures were some of my favorites. Jim’s Saturday Night Fever moves were fantastic while Jessica tore up the dance floor with everyone…including me. Thank goodness I don’t suffer from motion sickness because that girl swung me around so many times, I was seeing stars. I thought the picture of Tim watching Tom cut the rug was great, but maybe that’s because I could see myself dancing in the mirror. And for those of you who think this blog entry is all about embarrassing dancing photos of everyone else…I even included one of me!

As the night progressed and more tequila shots were handed out the dance moves got crazier. Can anyone tell me what Mike Higgins is doing in this picture?

This may be the last picture of Mike with his glasses on. Take a good look because the following day we headed off to TLC 20/20 to get his eyes “fixed”. Read his blog post about his experience with Lasik if you haven’t already.

As the night wore on, things settled down a bit, but surprisingly a majority of the staff stayed until they kicked us out. I think it must have been almost 1am.

All in all, it was a holiday party that I will always remember. At this point, I’m already looking forward to next years festivities and honestly, I wouldn’t be disappointed if we had it at Mattie’s again. The food was great, the service was even better, plus it was the perfect size for our group! Just enough room for everyone to get their groove on!

If anyone has any pictures that they took that they’d like to share…by all means send them on over!