Snow Day

It has been quite awhile since we've updated
our blog, so today is possibly the best day to do so as I am sitting in our warm apartment watching the snow fall outside.

Jesse and I were able to travel to St. Paul, MN this past weekend for our good college friends wedding. Jesse was a groomsman in Trevor and Kierin's wedding and we had an amazing time at the wedding with several of Jesse's old college roommates. Here are just a few pics from the wedding and hanging out with all our friend.

Now to brag about my husband a little :)

Jesse is doing absolutely amazing at his job.
He is now on his second promotion
and working as a product marketing manager
for CodeBaby.
Whenever I visit Jesse at work I get
several praises about Jesse and how
great of a team player and mentor he is to
those he works with.

That's my husband :)

So...somewhat of a short post, but we will update again soon with
pictures and stories from our trip to Hawaii!
We leave Friday to enjoy our "free honeymoon" that we won last
May and are finally using!

Last but not least, Happy Birthday Nick and Connor! We love you :)

San Francisco

I know this is a belated blog update, but better late then never. Jesse and I visited San Francisco 2 weekends ago for a short, yet amazing weekend away. Jesse was able to take a marketing class for work and we decided to fly out early together and enjoy the weekend in such a fun city before his class began.

As soon as we arrived to our hotel, we knew what we wanted to do first....eat some In-N-Out.
To make our first adventure even better, we took a Trolley!
Here's my hilarious husband taking in the moment....

And our favorite site to see that morning :)

After our DELICIOUS lunch, we decided to walk around the town and explore on our own. We were enjoying the business downtown area of San Francisco when all of the sudden we found ourselves in China town. I had never been in such a crowded area! There was a great street market going on when we arrived and took the opportunity to create a Where's Waldo scenario to find me, instead of Waldo:)

A few pictures from the business downtown area..
















Saturday morning we decided to rent some bikes and ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. A bit chilly, but worth the experience.

This is about how close we got before we turned back around to meet our good friends Nathan Cremisino and his girlfriend Sarah Madrid with whom we traveled to Alcatraz!














We boarded the ferry for our night tour of Alcatraz and had an absolute blast! We debated on bringing some sleeping bags and hiding out on the island for a scary night alone...but decided against it.





















Here is the view from the prison to the city of San Francisco. Imagine seeing this view every day, yet trapped for years in the maximum security prison that Alcatraz was known for.


After I left for home on Monday, Jesse continued to enjoy the beauty of San Francisco. Here area few pictures from the Coit tower. From the tower you can see the entire city!

One year older

Sunday was Becka's and my birthday, and although Becka feels I am years older, we in fact are both now 23. It was a great day full of family and friends. I was scheduled to work until 3 and had a great day with all of my coworkers and then came home to celebrate with Jesse, Becka, Mark, Christie, my brother Paul and his girlfriend Jaya, and our friends Sarah, Ash and Courtney. Mark cooked one of the best meals I have ever had..it was DELICIOUS. It was truly a great evening with people we love so much. Thank you everyone for coming! Here are a few pictures from the birthday weekend.

Here is a picture of my new sleeping bag that Mark and Christie gave me.
I LOVE it and now will be able to truly enjoy WARM camping!

Becka and I showing that although we are now 23, we still act much younger :)

Monday was also included into the birthday celebration because of the holiday and the fact that Jesse had off of work! We started the morning with breakfast at the Manitou Pancake and Steakhouse. Good choice for Becka and I, not so much for Jesse, unfortunately. After breakfast we headed to the batting cages!! Instead of writing about it, I think I'll just let you watch a video of Becka and Jesse.

After the batting cages, we drove up to
Green Mountain Falls where they have a small lake.
To our pleasant surprise, it was frozen over!
Many people had brought their ice skates
and were enjoying the lake in its winter glory.
We however, with only our shoes,
decided to just slide around.

It was tons of fun!

As you can see, Gracie had a blast too.

Major Update

The holidays are over and here's a look back for all of you into what Jesse and I were up to. To start, however, Jesse and I wanted to thank everyone who contributed to our Christmas gift to World Vision. With all of your help we were able to raise $1800! Thank you so much for blessing people who truly are in need.

Before my brother, Paul, and his ladyfriend, Jaya, gallivanted off to Florida to visit my family, Jesse and I were able to celebrate (belatedly) Jaya's birthday. Here's a pic from our dinner at Elephant Bar. We had such a great time and to be honest, we really love them :)

Now to Christmas day! Jesse and I spent Christmas Eve night at the Marbles, and when we woke up we spend some great quality time with Mark and Christie. Nick, Brittney and Connor came over a little after lunch time and then the fun began of watching Connor open his gifts and be his funny self!

During our Christmas dinner, Connor showed us one of his new tricks. He got pleanty of laughs from all of us:)

We were lucky to be able to spend a few days with Mark and Christie because of my 4 days off from work. So...we brought our friend's Wii with us! Here's a hilarous look at Mark and Christie boxing against each other. I've never seen Christie laugh so hard!

And now...introducing the line-up for the 2009 Manitou Marbles!!!

We went to the batting cages the other day and had a blast. Tried to be tough.
Merry Christmas, Happy Year New, Etc. from the Manitou Marbles.

Snowflakes and Smiles

This weekend held a great surprise for Jesse and I....the annual Manitou Springs Snowflakes and Smiles Parade! Maybe the corniest name for a parade ever, but is was great to watch.

Here's a glance at the band practicing before the parade began. They sounded great except for one horn player who made their sound a little... off. VERY off. Still fun :)

Our view from the balcony. It was pretty darn cold and windy, but the blankets made it perfect

SANTA!! There were a few Santas there, perhaps a little confusing for the kids.

The end of the parade- a street sweeper

After the great Saturday, Jesse and I were able to spend together, we ended the day baking Christmas cookies with our good friends Sarah and Ash. Every Christmas my mom, Becka and I spend a whole day baking dozens and dozens of sugar cookies and decorating them as best we could (Becka's are always the most creative). Since we're not able to continue the tradition again this year with my parents in Florida, Jesse and I continued the tradition here at our home. We had a blast and all the nurses at my work who enjoyed the cookies raved about them. We hope next Christmas we will be able to continue the tradition in Florida :)

"And when life gets you down, don't forget to [snowflakes and] smile[s]."
-Jesse and Kate Marble, 2008

Christmas 2008

We love Christmas time. Not for the cable channel that shows Elf 24-hours straight (which is great) or all the exciting holiday events, gatherings, etc...but rather for the spirit of giving that is ignited in everyone. Also, for the fact that I'm sitting out on our front balcony and the trumpet band is wandering Manitou playing Christmas songs. Unfortunately the positive aspects of that giving spirit gets hijacked by the frenzied shopping and a common feeling of being overwhelmed by the sales, commercials, and materialism.

So we're doing something different this year. It's pretty simple: no gifts. Well, not in the normal sense. We've called our families (some of you reading this) and told them we're not giving them gifts. Also, we don't want any gifts. Instead, whatever amount would have been spent, we'd like to donate to a good cause.

We'll be donating that money to World Vision. They provide countless services to needy areas around the world and we want to donate towards providing clean water to a village that doesn't currently have access. To read more about World Vision, their Clean Water programs, and other things they provide, check our www.WorldVision.org

We would love participation by anyone else who's interested as well. Please pass this along, recruit friends, and consider participating yourself. We already have several friends/family members who are going to be donating money instead of scurrying around trying to think of gifts that aren't really necessary.

So instead of receiving gifts on Christmas day, our loved ones will be receiving cards that simple say: "Merry Christmas. We didn't buy you a gift this year. Instead, $X has been donated to World Vision in your name. With this gift, World Vision is able to provide clean water to X people."

Let us know if you'd like to participate. If we can raise $5390 for World Vision, that would be enough for a 60' well that would provide 600 gallons of clean water per day. That's enough to provide for a village of 150 people, year round.It's a huge goal, but we'd love to make it happen. Please consider taking part. Call or e-mail me at jessemarble@gmail.com if you have other questions or want to participate. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays :)

**This wasn't our idea. The youth pastor at our church has challenged the high school and middle school students to do the same. Read the article from the Colorado Springs Gazette here.
$450Billion (with a "B") will be spent on Christmas this year. Wow. Consider that noted economist Jeffrey Sachs believes we could effectively eliminate abject poverty worldwide if developed nations increased current aid from $65B/year to $135-195B/year by 2015. We could do that twice in one Christmas season.

A couple of bonus things:
1) Watch this and I dare you to not smile. I just like to smile. Smiling's my favorite.
2) This if funny if you've never seen it. Elf Yourself.
3) Santa Claus is coming to town. Well, he came to our town today. On a Harley. With a police escort. Followed by about 500 other bikers doing their annual Toys For Tots ride. Very loud. Here are a couple pics and a video.

You can see why this woke Kate up. (She worked her final night shift last night. For a couple months at least. Her husband thinks this is a good thing. )

6 Months of wedded bliss

Today was our 6 month anniversary! Here's a quick look back at the most wonderful day of our lives...

To celebrate, Jesse went to work and I played on our new computer :) Just kidding. To celebrate I made a delicious dinner and we enjoyed a walk around Manitou. To top it off, I was able to take the night off of work because there were so few patients! Jesse also surprised me with a very pretty wedding band that I absolutely love. I have to say that I married the most amazing and thoughtful man alive and I have loved every moment of our marriage and feel incredibly blessed. We've heard so many people say that the first year of marriage is the hardest, but it has flown by with ease and we can't wait for more.

Chicken Parmesan, pasta and sparkling cider for dinner


While we were walking around town, there was a fair trade market at one of the restaurants. Inside we met a man who started a local Colorado organization who raises support for several villages in Africa. Their website is www.africabags.org. Among many things, they sell "africa bags" which raise enough money per bag to purchase over 40 punds of maize, feeding a family of five for at least a week. We purchased 5 bags and several cards made of recycled paper. Jesse and I are realizing more and more how important it is to help those in need during this Christmas season, instead of thinking of ourselves. We hope you take the time to help someone else this Christmas season.