Millards In The Mountains

The Cards Are Officially Stacked

2011-10-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

**I wrote this post last week. It has just taken me a couple weeks to get up the guts to post it.

Once again, it's time for my once-monthly blog update. I honestly didn't intend for my posts to become so infrequent, but it seems that I can only motivate myself to blog when I really have something to say these days. Sure, I have plenty to blog about lately, with all of the wonderful weddings and other events we have attended in the past month and a half or so. I have a few pictures too! And I fully intend to write a big long post about all of our wonderful trips to Kansas. But that's not REALLY what's been on my mind lately.
Matt and I have decided that it's time to open up about what's going on with us in the past couple months. A peek into a very personal issue that has taken a while for us to fully accept and be open about. Basically, we are at the beginning stages of infertility "investigation." About a year and a half ago, we decided to start unofficially trying to have a baby. We knew we might experience some difficulty with this, mostly because of the possibility of negative side effects from chemo and radiation Matt was given during his childhood fight with cancer. Both of us were not 100% positive that we were ready for a baby, but we figured if there was even a chance that we would have problems, it would be better to figure it out sooner rather than later while we have age on our side.
Fast forward to a few months ago. It had been over a year, and no sign of a baby. Not even close. So we went to see my OB/GYN and had a few tests run. A few days later, she calls and asks us to both come in to her office together. Not a good sign. She suspects that the side effects of the drugs are at least part of the reason we havent been able to conceive yet and refers us to a local reproductive specialist.

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Have you ever felt like maybe you are in the right place at the right time? Even though we don't know much more at this point, I certainly feel like we are where we need to be right now. It turns out that the reproductive medicine clinic we were referred to is located approximately 10 miles south of our house. It also happens to have one of the highest success rates in the country. In fact, infertile couples come from all over the world to seek help from this office. Ironically, I was watching one of my favorite reality TV shows, "Giuliana and Bill" about two weeks after I booked our fist appointment with our specialist, Dr. Schoolcraft. Out of the blue, G & B (who are also struggling with infertility) started talking about travelling to "a clinic in Denver" and then ended the episode sitting face to face with our exact doctor! Maybe I am naive, but I took great hope and comfort away from that episode, even with all of the questions that we have yet to answer about our own unique case. I felt even better after own meeting with Dr. Schoolcraft. He ordered us both to have some more tests done and then suggested that we "re-group" when we know more. But he never ever made us feel like we didn't have hope. I know most doctors would never say anything so extreme right out off the bat, but it was nice just the same.

I went in for my tests a couple weeks ago. As it turns out, Matt and I both bring our own set of issues to the table. Nobody I spoke with really seems concerned about my particular case. But this afternoon I still couldn't help feeling that the cards are officially stacked against us. It is, after all, just one more thing to be concerned about.

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So how do we feel at this point? Despite what we do and don't know right now, we are still optimistic that we can still have a baby between the two of us. And even if we can't, we still have many other options. We don't mind talking what we know so far (hence the blog post), so we won't be offended if you ask. And of course, we are still over-the-top excited about baby/kid news of any sort. New pregnancies, pregnancy stories, the birth of babies (see previous post), stories about infants and kids growing up...you name it. Bring it on! The last thing we want is for anyone to feel like we can't deal with their happy news just because we are having our own struggle. Yes, we have baby fever. But that just makes us want to cuddle your kids MORE (and read any blog or Facebook status you happen to want to share as well. :) )

Thanks for stopping by the blog and listening to this difficult post! Love and *blog* hugs to you all!

It's A Nephew!!

2011-09-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would take a moment to share a few pictures of the newest addition to the Millard family.

This is our nephew Tate William Millard, born on Sept. 10, 2011. He is such a sweet and precious (and very happy) baby! He was not even 24 hours old in this photo.

Proud parents, Mark and Talicia. What a beautiful family!

Matt and I were thrilled to get to meet this little guy while we were in Kansas last weekend.

I could have held him forever!

Congratulations to Mark and Talicia!!

Advice For My Brother

2011-08-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

A monumental event has occurred. My little brother is officially a college student! He moved in to the K-State dorms this weekend and ever since, I have been re-living MY Freshman year (via some MAJOR stalking of his Facebook page.) :)

The thing about having a brother who is 10 years my junior is that every time he does something momentous (like go to college), it reminds me of how long ago those events were in my own life. I know I say it over and over again, but time has seemingly FLOWN by since my own move in to this glorious building.

Ahh yes, Ellsworth Hall: my first of many homes away from home.

This is me ten years ago during move-in day at KU.

When I look at this picture, I am amazed how much has changed since then! And I wondered what advice to give to my brother to prepare him for such an amazing period of his life.

Sure, I have been handing Brennan bits and pieces of my infinite wealth of knowledge when I can. For example:

"Don't wait until after classes start to buy your books or you will get way behind on your reading."

"If you and your roommate both loft your beds, you will have WAY more space in your room."

"Don't buy the 21-meal plan unless you really think you will eat in the cafeteria for every single meal of every single day." (The KBSI refrigerator full of leftovers is ALWAYS an option if he gets hungry.)

But all that is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Now, I know Brennan and I are not going to have the exact same college experience. For one thing, he's a GUY. For another, he is at a completely different university. (One that is, well, really close to home).

But here's what freaks me out. Ten years ago at this time, I was:

-Realizing the amazing and scary feeling of being (almost) completely independent and on my own.

-Making awesome new friends and realizing how much my "old" friends meant to me at the same time.

-Unknowingly (at the time) meeting the love of my life.

-Finding out that studying in high school and studying in college were two entirely different concepts. (And subsequently emailing my high school English teacher to thank her for preparing me to write for college so well.)

-Realizing that my metabolism was no longer made of steel.

-Realizing that I still needed my mom and dad to take care of me when I got sick after spending a week at home with mono.

It is crazy to think that Brennan will be experiencing some of these things in the next few days, weeks and months! (Hopefully, he will avoid mono!)

After all of this reminiscing, I came to one conclusion. The best advice I think I can give right now, is for him to recognize that this is a momentous time of change in his life and embrace it!

I can't wait to see what lessons he takes away from college, and the person he is 10 years from now!

And now, I will leave you will a couple other 10 year old moving day photos. :) Thanks dad!

June Recap in Photos

2011-07-17T17:54:00.001-07:00

June was a busy month around here! I managed to snap a few photos here and there. That's better than I have been doing this month.

*I apologize in advance for the spacing of the photos as captions here. Does anyone have any tips for better photo settings in Blogger??

At the very end of May, we drove to Manhattan for my brother's high school graduation. I can't believe he is a college student now!! He will be attending K-State this fall. I guess you could consider us a house divided, except for the fact that I am the only one in my immediate family who ventured out down the road to KU! :)

The first weekend of June, Bill and Barbara came out for a visit on their way down to Santa Fe. We took them for a hike near Clear Creek.
There has been so much snowfall and rain this year and Clear Creek was gushing water. I had never seen it moving so fast.

My friend Liz has been bring out my inner artist. She discovered a place downtown called Sipping and Painting, where they literally walk you through a painting. My first one was "Colorado Wildflowers."

We went back a week later and did this one as well. I can't remember the title, but it turned out well except for the bench, which i goofed up pretty badly!

For Matt's birthday, we went up to Ft. Collins to see one of our favorite bands, Jack's Mannequin. Since Susie's birthday was so close as well, we all surprised her with the tickets. The four of us had been wanting to see them perform for a long time, so how perfect was is that they were in Ft. Collins for Matt and Susie's birthday?

At the concert. My head is cut off...one of my more flattering pictures! :)

Later that week, I finished one of my stressful classes. I had to present my project to the class conference-style. Pongo was a fan of my presentation! :)

As you can see, June was a fantastic month, filled with many of our favorite people. It's hard to believe half of July is already gone as well! We have spent much of our nights and weekends bumming around, watching the seasons of Lost and just preparing for our busy busy fall. We had a fun 4th of July weekend, most of which was spent at Coors field watching the Royals take on the Rockies. We went to two of the three games, and ironically the Royals won the one game we DIDN'T see on Sunday. Last weekend, we finally made it up to the mountains for a camping trip with Nick, Carlene, Becky and Jim. Becky and Carlene were both roommates of mine in college. If Anne had been here, we would have had the whole group! I didn't get any pictures during camping because my camera battery was dead. But good times were had by all!

I think that's all for now!

Hotel Del Millard Open For Business!

2011-06-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

Yes yes, i have received so many people reminding me that my last post was EASTER! It is hard to believe that is so. But I have a good one for you today.

The guest room at Hotel Del Millard has been getting a face lift, and a rather major one at that. I was a little worried about taking this on myself (with plenty of Matt's help, of course). I would NOT label myself as a decorator. My tastes are, well, eclectic to say the least. But it was time for us to make a presentable space for our guests to stay. I was certain that I had taken some "before" pictures, but when I checked the cameras, they were nowhere to be found! Pre re-model, the walls and ceilings were all baby blue. One wall was checkerboard pink, orange, blue and green. The outlet and light covers were pink. And the extent of our furniture in there was a bed, a chair and a giant TV that wasn't even plugged in!

The first step in the remodel was to get rid of the TV. It was gone within a few hours of posting an ad under "free stuff" on Craig's list. Then we took the bed apart and took everything else out of the room, which wasn't hard since there was nothing in there to begin with! :)

We took a little hiatus to go to Manhattan for my brother's graduation. The following weekend, Matt had to work, so it was up to me to cover the floor, tape the baseboards, window, closet and door, and then get to work painting! We chose a neutral light gray for the walls and a bright white for the ceiling to make it stand out. I have to say that I really love the paint with primer. We only needed one gallon of each color to finish the whole room, and we have some left over! One coat of the gray and two of the white were all it took.Matt and I already knew the room would have a red/gray/black theme because we spotted a comforter set we both really liked at Kohls. I had a 30% off, plus some Kohl's cash from a previous purchase, so we got a really good deal on the bedding. In the past few weeks, I have slowly searched out and collected the rest of the pieces. My favorite part was putting it all together and watching everything match perfectly, to my surprise! Here is the finished product! I was torn between a red rug and a black rug. I chose red for two reasons: Black would show every. single. dog hair that manages to get in the room and the end tables and seat/storage unit were already black and I wanted them to stand out.

This is my favorite item we got for the room. It's a seat, but it also could be a luggage "rack" and it stores extra blankets and pillows in its belly for extra cold nights.

We also painted the outlet covers a deep red. They really stand out against the gray wall...I love it! We got the room done today, literally hours before our first guests will be staying in there. It was definitely the motivation we needed to finish the room. There are still a few things I would like to add, such as a couple pieces of art for the walls, and perhaps a small table with a little flat screen TV eventually.

Like I said before, I am so thrilled with how the room looks so far. I think I ALMOST have this decorating thing down. Almost.

Just The Two of Us

2011-04-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

This is my official "Happy Easter" post. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, wherever you were and whatever you were doing. Matt and I had a very quiet weekend, which was much welcomed but somewhat strange at the same time.

Nevertheless, we did it up right. Our Easter activities inlcuded standing in the back of church for mass (despite arriving 20 minutes early), an Easter egg hunt in the house and yard, Easter dinner and even a visit from the Easter Bunny himself! :) Below is a picture of our dinner, which involved way more food than two people could possibly eat. (Hooray for leftovers!)

I was able to use and incorporate a lot of family heirlooms and traditions into this meal. I finally pulled out my Grandma Govert's Noratake salt and pepper shakers (hidden behind the bunny centerpiece). They match our china really well, and I love that they are an Irish heirloom from my grandma. I used the springy yellow serving dishes, which were a birthday gift from my dad. I ordered a Honey Baked ham and made cream cheese corn, which are typically found on the table at Matt's family dinners. All in all, it was a very pleasant day.

In other news: Perdi has been on a diet for about 4 months now. As of last week, she has lost over 3 lbs! Only 3 more to go, and she will be at her target weight. I am so proud of her, although the poor dog is HUNGRY. Last night, she finally figured out how to open the "dog proof" dog food containers. I figured it was only a matter of time. They were promptly moved to the pantry. Don't worry, we are not starving our poor dog! She gets carrots to supplement her diet, which she seems to really enjoy. Although she would have MUCH rather have had a piece or two (or 20) of the Easter ham. :)

Only 5 days until the big marathon. I am getting nervous and am starting to ask myself what I got myself into! It will feel so good to have this milestone behind us. However, we fully intend to keep running after the marathon, just maybe not such crazy distances every week.

My next blog should be a "before" post of our guest room project. We will be giving that room a face lift in the next couple weeks. I am picking out paint samples this afternoon...EEK!

Half Marathon #2

2011-04-11T09:28:00.001-07:00

This weekend was a busy one. We were lucky to have our good friends Jake and Meredith come out to visit us. They flew in on Friday night and we stayed out way too late catching up! The main reason for their visit was to participate in the Platte River Half Marathon relay on Sunday. So on Saturday, we decided to help them prepare for running in the altitude by going on a hike near Golden. The first trail we picked was a little too trecherous. But we did find a second trail which turned out to be a really nice hike, although a little windy. We were so lucky to have great weather the entire weekend for all of the outdoor activities we participated in. Sunday was race day. We prepared by eating a big pasta dinner at Olive Garden on Saturday night. Then we went home and had a quiet evening watching a movie and falling asleep shortly after. All through the week, the forecasts were calling for rain/snow on Sunday, but when we woke up, it was a typical bright and sunny Colorado day. Perfect running weather, except for the gusty wind that persisted all weekend. The race went really well. It was almost entirely downhill, except for the last mile, which required us to run up and over a bridge/overpass. My mentality was to run faster to get it over with or give up and walk. We ended up running faster and finished the half marathon with a personal best of 2:03:06. That's three minutes shaved off of the half marathon we ran last fall! Jake, Mere and their friend Heather ran the relay, which consisted of two people running 5 miles and the third person finishing the last 3.1 miles of the race. Jake ran first. He took off pretty fast, but I managed to catch up to him eventually. (Matt had to stop to use the restroom at the very beginning, but he eventually caught back up to me.) When Jake finished his 5 miles and Mere started running, I couldn't keep pace with her very long at all! It was a fun race, made even better by having so many friends to run with. Here are a couple finish line pictures for you!

The countdown is on for our full marathon: less than three weeks!!

A Short Run

2011-04-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

My photo blog had a good run. We made it through January and February. Two months! However, as you can see, it has gone downhill since then. I was thinking I would compensate for the month of March by posting 31 (of the 700+ ) pictures from our trip to Ireland. But then I realized I haven't really been taking photos from April either. The thought of getting caught up at this point seems unrealistic. But I still plan to post our favorite Ireland photos at some point!

I have really been enjoying the past two weeks. I finished my 6th Master's class on the 23rd of March. The next one starts next week, but it is SO nice not to have to think about school for a while. I have been working on lots of sewing projects and getting caught up on marathon training. My list of sewing projects keeps getting longer and longer, but I am equally excited about each one. It is so fun to be able to make things exactly as I want them, even if I still need quite a bit of practice with my technique.

Last night, I made this pillow for the living room.

It looks really nice with our living room rug and couches. I was browsing the remnant fabrics at JoAnn and I spotted this pattern. I picked it up, even though I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with it. As soon as I got home, I knew what i wanted to do with it, and finished it in about an hour.

Did I mention that Matt is in Wisconsin on business this week? With him being gone and my break between classes, my boredom has turned into productivity!

Where Has February Gone??

2011-02-25T19:11:00.000-08:00

With the exception of last week, this month has flown by so fast! Before I know it, I'm 11 days behind on photos again! Last week was just a stress overload for so many reasons, but mostly school. My lab was due on Wednesday, and while I worked on it every night for hours, i didn't get it figured out and turned in until Thursday afternoon. My professor this semester is something else! I am thankful that Penn State only recommends taking one course at a time. I think they are spot on with this one!

So what else have we been up to lately?

February 11:

My guys relaxing at home on a quiet Friday night. The top of the couch is Pongo's favorite spot to sleep, no matter what couch he is on.
February 12: We went up to Copper to ski with our friends Nick and Carlene. This picture was taken during our lunch break a the car.

The snow wasn't that great, so after lunch, we decided to spend the afternoon tubing instead. It was our first time to try tubing, and it was so much fun!! Here are Matt and Nick going down the "fast track" together.

February 13: A photo of the mountains at Copper. I will never ever get used to the beauty of these mountains!

February 14: Valentines Day!! I came home to find all of this "love" waiting on the doorstep and in the mailbox.

February 15: This is the cake I made for dessert on Valentine's day. We ate it all week, so I figured I could post this as today's picture. It's ingredients include: german chocolate cake mix, condensed milk/caramel topping melted together, crushed Heath bars and Cool Whip on top. I added the raspberries for decoration.

February 16: We went out to dinner for Liz's birthday up in Westminster. Liz and I have ONLY known each other since I was born (I'm 2 months younger), so I couldn't possibly miss another birthday. :)

February 17: I took the puppies for a walk as I normally do after work. Perdi was so impatient for me to throw the ball that she didn't want to take the time to pose for a picture! She just kept jumping for her squeaker tennis ball instead.

February 18: We headed up to Ft. Collins for a little getaway. We went to the Rio for their infamous margaritas. Matt ordered a "mini" margarita. Look how cute it is!!

February 19: Susie and I worked on our quilts some more. And guess what? We finished them!! Granted it was Saturday night at 2 am. But we were determined to get them done and we did!

February 20
I rest my case that Pongo's favorite spot is on the top of any couch. Here he is, on top ofTed and Susie's couch. Perdi opted for the fuzzy blanket, probably because she was guarding some bones that she buried in it.

February 21: Matt and I ran the furthest distance either of us have ever gone to date. 19.1 miles!! It's hard to believe that to complete a marathon, we will have to run 7 more miles on top of that. We ran an "out-and-back" course, meaning we ran out 9.5 miles and then turned around and ran the same route back. By the time we turned around, we were almost to downtown Denver! This picture is of the socks that save my life on every long run. They keep my feet really dry somehow, and do a great job at preventing blisters. I like how they are marked with an "L" and "R" to mark which sock goes on which foot. I have never had socks where that matters before!

February 22:
This is a random picture I found on Matt's camera from our Janurary trip back to Kansas, but I realized I haven't mentioned this cute little guy on my blog yet! This is my new puppy "nephew" George. He is Alissa's newly adopted puppy, a very cute and sorta shy Lhasa Apso. He enjoys shredding paper and walking in circles. George is very quiet and well behaved. I have to admit that I wish our beagles would take on a few of George's behaviors sometimes! :)

February 23: This is the strawberry freezer jam that I made myself. I never knew that making jam was so easy! If you come visit us, rest assured that at the very least, we will have lots of fresh jelly for your toast! :)

February 24: Matt and Pongo sleeping are taking full advantage of my finished t-shirt quilt! I love how big it is. It covers me from head to toe. I hate bankets where my feet stick out the bottom when I pull it over my head. A quilt this big was a challenge to sew, but it turned out great, for my first real sewing project! I have a couple more projects in the works already. I will post them as I go!

February 25: I know, so many pictures of the dogs on this post! I rarely ever catch these two snuggling together, so I thought this was absolutely adorable!

Early February Photos

2011-02-10T19:28:00.001-08:00

The first week of February was pretty uneventful. I apologize in advance for the lack of creative photos here today.

February 2: Bananas are the one food I eat every single day. However, last week i didn't gt to the store and so we didn't have any around. My body didn't like that much. I will make sure we have bananas from now on!

February 3: I have blogged about my love of doing laundry before. It's so weird and I can't explain it. It's just something that kind of relaxes me somehow. Maybe because it's so mindless.

February 4: Ok, there is one caveot to the whole laundry thing. I hate socks. I would prefer to leave them in a giant pile and never deal with them.

February 5: I went to Ft. Collins for a couple of days of sewing with Susie. The pups came along since Matt had to work. Pongo, again thinking he is human, decided he wanted to do some sewing as well.

February 6: I got quite a bit done with Susie's help. I finished sewing the top 4 blocks on. We went shopping for the rest of the materials and I got some black fabric for the edges, batting for the middle, and some soft gray fleece for the back. I still have to sew the layers together and then cover everything with a bias strip (some quilting lingo I learned). But the darn thing is looking great and it's so big I could barely get it all in one picture!

February 7: Matt made his secret recipe! It was soooo good! He ended up making Shepherd's Pie with Andouille and Italian sausage as the meat layer. It also had another secret ingredient that made the whole thing extra amazing. I think I will keep that a secret for now.

February 8: We got a ton of snow. Some of the snow in this picture is from the previous two or three storms that haven't melted yet. But seriously, our little house might be buried soon if this keeps up!

February 9: We officially planned to head up to Copper this weekend so i thought I would post a picture from the last time we were there, just a few weeks ago!

February 10: Today, I drove all over Denver to sell a couple of tickets to the KSU-CU game on Saturday. We had a bunch of extra tickets to this game and the Nebraska-CU game on March 5 because CU makes the KU fans buy two other games in addition to the KU game. It drives me nuts! But at least I was able to sell these. $45 bucks...yeah!!

Some More Catch-Up

2011-02-07T18:49:00.001-08:00

Let's see...where did I leave off?

Jan 27:

I'm not sure why I keep blogging about Christmas presents, but one of Matt's presents was two tickets to the KU-K-State basketball game in Lawrence. We flew to KC for a three day weekend with family, friends and KU Basketball.

January 28: I guess I didn't do a good job of taking pictures because all of the ones I found were from gameday on the 29th. Before the game, we went to eat at El Mezcal in Lawrence, which was one of our favorite restaurants in college. This picture of unhealthy food pretty much sums up our weekend. For lunch on the 28th, we had Oklahoma Joes BBQ after a 12.5 mile morning run. That evening for dinner, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings with Alissa and Anne. Jake and Meredith also met us there, and they are newly engaged! We have a lot of weddings to attend this fall, but that is another post. Then of course on the 29th, we had El Mez. This is a picture of the best cheese dip on the planet. Not kidding.

January 29: GAME DAY!! After a wonderful breakfast and a couple hours of Super Mario for Wii with Alissa, we headed to Lawrence for lunch and the game. We also picked up a few goodies at the Jayhawk Bookstore. KU stuff is hard to come by out here in Colorado! Here is Matt in front of a mural in Allen Fieldhouse.

January 30: We flew back to Denver in the afternoon. Then it was time for me to hit the books! I had a huge work load of homework due the following Wednesday. Speaking of books, this is my huge textbook for this term. Can you believe I lugged it to Kansas and didn't even so much as open it while I was there?!?

January 31: More frantic studying on my part. Perdi tried to help, but she got the same results that I usually do when I stare at the computer too long.

February 1st: More studying. But on another note, we have been getting a little frustrated lately with the lack of running opportunities with all the snow we have been getting lately. It seems like just as soon as it warms up and the snow melts off the paths, the next storm moves in. Sometimes the snow doesn't even get chance to melt before more comes down! We found a decent solution for the short weekday runs, (**Unless the high temperature is -2 degrees, as was the case most of last week). We got these shoe attachments called Yaktrax. They go around your normal running shoe and give you more traction in the snow. They work well for traction, but it takes a lot more energy to run in them!

Well there...I got a little more caught up and finished my first month of daily photo blogging! I have to admit that it is really hard to remember to take my camera everywhere and more importantly, to take pictures! Its especially hard when I get behind...I have got some good photos yet to post of this past week. I will get those up tomorrow. I really like reading your comments, so please add them if you are enjoying following this project!

A Few Days' Worth

2011-02-01T07:26:00.000-08:00

Since I left you hanging with January 19's picture, I will get right down to a few photos to try and get myself caught up after a busy couple of weeks. Don't worry...I haven't abondoned my project! I might even sprinkle a few extras in here to make up for my absense. :)

January 20: Not a particularly exciting day. I filled up the gas tank in the Highlander. Ouch.

January 21: Anne flew out to Denver for a visit. I picked her up Friday evening and we downloaded old school Super Mario Kart for the Wii using a gift card I got for Christmas. It was fun to play Mario Kart just like we did during our good ol' college days!

January 22: We drove up to Ft. Collins and took a tour of the New Belgium Brewery with Becky and Jim. That was probably the most beer I have ever gotten during one brewery tour! At the end of the tour, they provide post cards which you can fill out as you sample the last two beers. We took advantage of the free postage. :)

January 23: We took Anne up to Copper mountain for her first skiing experience. Jim, Becky and their friend Scott came along too. Look at Anne skiing like a pro on her first day!

January 24: Poor Anne had to hang out at the house with the dogs while we worked. This picture is actually from Tuesday the 25th, but I am subsituting it for the 24th since we did so many things on the 25th. These are our pretty toes after a pedicure before the CU-KU game on the 25th.

January 25th: We drove up to Boulder for the CU-KU basketball game. I didn't take any pictures because the game was so intense and I was busy being mad at the CU students, who were chanting things that would make me embarrassed to be a CU fan. After the game, we drove back down to Denver and had a pizza dinner at Anthony's near our house. Don't worry...we didn't eat the whole thing in one sitting! :)

January 26: Matt had the day off, so he and Anne did some shopping and Matt bought something he has wanted to get for a long time. It's Andouille sausage and I am really excited to see what he is going to make with it. I'll keep you posted on this one.

More of the dogs

2011-01-21T05:22:00.000-08:00

Looking back at the pictures i have taken this week for the blog, it seems the common theme was our dogs.

January 18:

This is definitely a daily occurrance: As soon as I drag myself out of bed in the morning, Pongo immediately takes over my spot. He puts his head on my pillow and snuggles in under the covers. Evidence #2,946 that this dog thinks he is a human!

January 19: In the spirit of decluttering, I decided to go through our tupperware drawer and get rid of the pieces that we never use or just plain need to get rid of. As it turns out, old tupperware cab double as a dog chew toy! Perdi snatched this one off of the kitchen table and proceeded to kick/chew/carry it all over the house. At first, I though I should take it from her, but she was so engrossed in this new "toy" that I just threw up my hands and let go at it. Hey, it's better the old tupperware than say, my shoes or couch pillows! :)

Challenges

2011-01-18T08:33:00.000-08:00

This week has already been a challenge. I am trying to get over a nasty habit I have started, in which I find myself tossing and turning all night on Sunday night, causing me to only get a few hours of sleep to start the week! This little setback is making it hard to get things checked off my list when all I want is a nap when I get home!

Which brings me to the photos of the day...

January 17:

There are upsides to being so tired. For example: I know I am really tired when I find myself falling asleep laying in the dentist's chair as the hygenist grinds and polishes away. The upside? I am usually a tense, nervous mess during cleanings because I hate the feel of metal scraping against my teeth. Not this time though. Impressive, huh? :)

January 18:

I was delighted to finally receive my GIS Certificate from Penn State in the mail. I am so proud of this thing. It represents the successful completion of my first year of the Master's program.
However, my delight over the certificate was quickly replaced by frustration during my attempts to get the latest and greatest version of ArcGIS installed on my computer so I can start my homework for my current class. It took 1.5 hours to uninstall the old version and another hour to install version 10. Let's just say I didn't get much done in the way of homework last night. I have a lot of work ahead of me this evening.
In other school news, I have officially submitted all of my materials for official acceptance into Penn State's Master's in GIS program. I think I mentioned this before, but so far, I have just been taking classes on a non degree-seeking basis to make sure that I can be successful in Penn State's environment. (I wish I had been encouraged to do this at Purdue). Penn State also doesn't recommend that students officially apply until they have finished the GIS certificate because the competition is tough to get in and having some class work established at PSU helps them in the decision making process. I won't hear until March 1 if I am in or not, but if I don't get in this time, I will just keep taking classes and apply again in April!

Weekend Photos

2011-01-16T20:53:00.000-08:00

We had an absolutely wonderful weekend up in Steamboat Springs. I have some catching up to do on my photos, since I didn't turn my computer on ONCE while we were there! This little trip was kind of spur-of-the-moment, but seeing as most of our weekend trips are spent back in Kansas, (or at least outside the state of Colorado) it was great to get to explore a little bit more of the state we live in.

I believe that the last time I was in Steamboat was when I was 7 or 8. I used to take vacations there with my Grandparents and Aunt Alice in the summer. I didn't remember much about the town when we got there, but perhaps that was partly due to the fact that it was covered in a couple feet of accumulated snow.

We stayed in a fantastic condo above downtown Steamboat, which brings me to my first photo:

January 14:

Our unit was on the third floor. Everything was pristine...it was like no one had stayed there before! In fact, we could have purchased the unit ourselves for a mere $780,000 or so! Very tempting... :) Ok, so the purchase price may be a little unrealistic, but the "last minute" deal we got on renting was reasonable, especially since we were able to split it with Ted and Susie.

January 15:

While the guys skiied, Susie and I wandered around downtown. We found the cutest little kitchen gadget store, and had lunch in a wonderful little coffee/gelato/sandwich shop. We even drove around town a little and managed to not get lost!

This is the street view of the ski slopes from downtown Steamboat. The top of the mountain was shrouded in clouds the entire weekend! Matt and Ted said that one of the sides of the mountain was a white-out while they were up there, so they had to ski on the other side. Crazy! Later that evening, after the guys got back from skiing, we headed up to the Strawberry Park natural hot springs. This place was pretty amazing. First of all, 4 wheel drive is strongly recommended to get to the facility during the winter season, so that should tell you a lot right there. It was about 10 miles from our condo, and most of that was uphill mountain driving. It was dark when we got there, and so we had to kind of feel our way along the path to the pools. Luckily, there was quite a bit of moon light. One pool was uncomfortably hot. Another was FREEZING cold. Thankfully, there was one that was right in the middle. Matt did jump in the cold pool for a brief moment, crazy guy!

After all of that activity, we were very hungry so we showered and changed and had dinner across from our condo at Beau Jo's pizza. This pizza chain is all over Colorado and it's WONDERFUL. Funny that it took a trip to Steamboat to get us in there. :)

When we ventured out to dinner, the most beautiful snow was gently falling. This photo made us all laugh because my camera caught one of the snowflakes, leaving a white dot in the middle of Susie's face.

January 16:

We got home around 3:15 today. The puppies were so happy to see us when we picked them up from the kennel. They are really tired after playing all day for the past 3 days.

I am ready to back up to Steamboat already! It was nice to have some time to get away and have absolutely no responsibilities to worry about for a couple days. This week is going to be crazy though. I need to ramp up on running, get a bunch of things done for school, and clean the house really well. No wonder I miss the weekend so much already! :)

200th Post!

2011-01-14T06:27:00.001-08:00

Today is my 200th post on this blog. It's funny though...I don't really have anything profound to say. All I've got is yesterday's picture, a few hours late. I think it pretty much speaks for itself. We love trivia!

January 13:

Everyday Living

2011-01-12T20:45:00.000-08:00

I really want to focus this photo blog project on small "everyday" things we encounter. Some days, I know I will struggle with this, as our schedule can get pretty mundane. Work, work out, walk dogs, etc. I do also still plan on doing longer posts when bigger events happen. For example, yesterday's post was a hint about our upcoming weekend ski trip in Steamboat. There are so many things to do there that there is no way one photo could possibly sum it all up, unless I forget my camera or can't find the battery charger. Actually, both of those are legitimate possibilities at this point! Thank goodness for cell phones or this project would have miserably failed by now. :)

But back to the everyday events:

January 12: Our dinner.

One of our favorite things to do in terms of dinner is throw some filets on a broiler pan and boil some asparagus. We have discovered that we really need a better ventilation system for our oven though. Grilling steaks inside makes so much smoke and our pitiful little fan can't take care of it all, so the oven is usually smoky for a few days afterward. Another thing I pondered tonight is how asparagus is a lot like broccoli to me. I love the top part and just kind of tolerate the lower half. We drizzle ours in some EVOO and grilling spices when it's done boiling (bright green in color.) And of course, everyone has their own version of mashed potatoes. I think i will keep mine a secret. :)

Weekend Preview

2011-01-11T20:12:00.000-08:00

January 11:

Today's photo provides a hint at what our weekend has in store. It was taken in Estes Park at Thanksgiving from the front porch of the Stanley Hotel.

Our weekend plans involve neither the Stanley nor Estes Park, but one thing is for sure: mountains are definitely going to be involved! :)

Late Night Adventures Downtown (On a Monday!)

2011-01-11T06:33:00.001-08:00

January 10:

Did you have a set bed time when you were a kid? Did you ever want to go to a concert on a school night, but your parents said "NO!". Well it turns out that they were pretty smart. Against my better judgement, I agreed to go to see Dashboard last night. They are one of those bands that we have seen many times and just can't pass up. Especially when it's a 10 year anniversary concert of his first album.

Don't get me wrong. It was an awesome concert. I always enjoy the music, even though I don't actually know a lot of the older stuff. I watched one girl last night sing every. single. word. Here's where the story begins. For last night's concert, we were under the impression that it would begin at 6:30. I thought we would be home and asleep by 10 at the latest since it started so early. Turns out, the concert didn't start until 7:30 and there were no less than THREE opening bands. (BTW, Lady Danville is fantastic!) And then Dashboard proceeded to play for at least an hour and half. At least that's how long it went before we just up and left. And then the real adventure began. We took the light rail downtown to avoid the icy and snowy highway and associated traffic/accidents. We missed the return southbound train at Union Station by a mere minute or two. It turns out that at 11:30 pm on Mondays, a minute or two could cost you hours! The trains are not running particularly frequently, and apparently not on schedule either. We waited a half hour for a train that didn't show up. Luckily during that period, we could wait inside the warmth of Union Station. When the train didn't show up, we took a bus to another line, where we had to wait another 20 minutes outside in the elements where the temp was quite literally 0 degrees and the wind didn't help matters. We finally found a train and got home at 1 am. I don't think I have ever been more thankful for a warm house and an even warmer bed.

After last night, I have decided that I will not be attending concerts on weeknights anymore. I am doing pretty good today, but I can't wait for an afternoon nap when I get home! Anyway, the picture above is Dashboard. We had a really cool eagle-eye view from a stairway balcony. Being there early certainly paid off in that respect!

I Spoke Too Soon

2011-01-09T18:44:00.000-08:00

Before we left for Christmases in Kansas, Denver had barely seen a single snowflake (except at Thanksgiving), while the mountains were getting epic amounts of snow. I know I made this fact fairly well known while we were back in Kansas. Well aparently, I spoke too soon! Today, we got 5-6 inches of snow and it's still coming down! I shoveled the driveway three times because it was Matt's weekend to work and I wanted to make sure we could both get in and out for work tomorrow. I love the snow, as long as I don't have to get out in it. Tomorrow morning, I will probably be grumbling at it as I slip and slide my way into work. And now I present the photos of the day.

January 9:

Friday Night

2011-01-08T18:11:00.000-08:00

You get two pictures of the day in today's post. I have been feeling slighty out of sorts lately. Last week, i didn't sleep well and just couldn't get caught up. I came home yesterday and crashed for two hours on the couch with the dogs! At any rate, the picture of the day didn't get posted as I had hoped. I am going to make every attempt to get these up every day so that there will be a new post to read each day!

January 7:

Last night after my big nap, Matt and I went for a short run and then met up with these fun ladies (my friends and former roommates Carlene and Becky) to catch up a little and celebrate Carlene and Nick's recent engagement! We intended to go bowling, but since the line was an 1.5 hours long, we settled for dinner at Rock Bottom instead. Yum!

January 8:

I have been pretty worthless today. We managed to get an 8.5 mile run in this morning before the temperatures drop and snow moves in tomorrow. It is Matt's weekend to work, and I am usually pretty productive on these days. However, I proceeded to take ANOTHER two hour nap this afternoon. On a positive note, I am feeling much better, so hopefully I will get my list accomplished tomorrow. Anyhow, today's picture is of another Christmas gift I wanted to show you all. It is an afghan that my dad had made from a picture of Pongo and Perdi. You might recognize the picture from an earlier blog post. It amazes me how real the dogs look! Oh and for a size reference, the afghan is laid out on our couch, so it is pretty big! Pongo likes to lay on himself when we have the blanket spread out like this. :)

Tassimo!

2011-01-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

Photo of the Day: January 6
Meet our new favorite coffee brewer, the Tassimo. It makes everything from lattes and espressos to just a plain ol' yummy cup of coffee. Seriously, I may never need to go to Starbucks again. They are THAT good! Plus Matt even let me go get those super cute little espresso cups to go along with it! :) This was a Christmas gift from Matt's mom...I will stop taking pictures of Christmas gifts eventually. Promise!

Finally, A Run!

2011-01-05T19:58:00.001-08:00

Photo for January 5:
The first run run in two weeks after a break for the holidays. 5.5 miles on intermittent snow and ice was a bit more than I bargained for, but I NEEDED to get out there. I am so sore from tonight's run and P90X last night. It is amazing how two weeks can pass and my body seems to forget what I have been training it for for the past few months. But at least I didn't have to do that run in the dark like my husband! I love how he is just as committed to marathon training as I am, if not more so! I freak out on ice and snow, even when I can see it. He fearlessly runs it at night with a head lamp.

January 4: Photo Of The Day

2011-01-04T11:26:00.000-08:00

January 4:

2011 marks 100 years of being my company being in business. To celebrate, we have gotten a new logo and lots of new goodies to go along with it. Some of these goodies include a new mug and some yummy cookies!

Resolution: 2011 in Photos

2011-01-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

As you all can see, this blog has really gone by the wayside. I have been trying to think of ways to get myself more motivated to blog, because I enjoy it and I know many of you enjoy seeing what we are up to. So I have decided to borrow an idea from one of my Facebook friends, which I think will be the perfect solution! My new year's resolution (one of them) is to do a daily photo journal of 2011. I am not a great photographer, but at least I will be able to remember every day of this year, no matter how significant or mundane the photo may be. They say that every photo tells a story. I have yet to decide how much of the story I will tell through captions, or how much i will let the photos speak for themselves. I have a feeling this will be a constant work in progress.

Here goes! (I already have some catching up to do!)

January 1:

After a long, cold, late night of handling furnace repairs and ringing in the New Year, Perdi and I were both tired and spent some snuggly time under a warm blanket on the couch. Matt captured this photo...maybe one of the cutest Perdi poses to date!

January 2:

This is my prized Christmas gift from Matt. My very own sewing machine! I got some great lessons on how to use it and how to sew in general from my friend Susie, who has the same machine. My first project: a t-shirt quilt comprised of 20 shirts from junior high to high school. I only started this thing 10 years ago...it's about time I finished it! I am addicted to sewing now. I love it. I can't wait to start on some other projects after this one!

January 3:

A peaceful, snowy walk with the dogs at sunset. My phone's camera doesn't do the sunset justice! Unfortunately, the paths are still too snowy to run on. I am going stir crazy to get out again, but the last thing i want is to get injured right now!

A Little Excitement!

2010-12-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

I am working on a big photo blog post now that class is over for a month or so! But in the mean time, check out this link to a video of some recent excitement in the news that involves my company!

http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-small-plane-makes-safe-emergen-121410,0,3217131.story

About That Half Marathon We Ran...

2010-10-31T12:48:00.001-07:00

I figured it was about time to post about the Denver Rock 'n Roll half marathon we ran TWO WEEKS ago. I knew that running a half marathon would give me a good idea about whether or not I could handle a full marathon. I knew I would either think "that was awesome, I can't wait for the full marathon" or "no way will I be running TWICE this distance!"
The night before, we had a yummy pasta dinner at Olive Garden, courtesy of Arlene and Ron. We got a good night's sleep and woke up ready to run, albeit a little bleary eyed at 5:15 am.
As it turns out, the half marathon was a great experience for both Matt and I. We got off to a bit of a rocky start, since our light rail train didn't get us downtown until 20 minutes before the race started. We basically had 20 minutes to us the restrooms in the convention center, walk (RUN) the 4 blocks to the race start, check our gear and get to the starting line.
But we made it, and once we got started running, everything was fantastic! The race as a whole was very entertaining. There were lots of spectators cheering us on with signs and cowbells. My favorite sign said "Your Feet Hurt Because You Are Kicking So Much A**!" :)
I liked the Rock 'n Roll marathon because they had live bands playing every mile or so. They were really good, and it made me wish that I could linger a little and listen longer. But we had a race to run!
Matt and I challenged ourselves to run 10 minute miles so that we would finish in 2 hours and 15 minutes. We barely kept this pace at the beginning. I think this was partly due to the fact that it was so crowded that it was hard to find a good "pace." Once we got about halfway through the race, I guess adrenaline kicked in and we really picked up the pace. Our final time ended up being 2 hours, 6 minutes and change.
Around mile 9 or 10, someone was handing out "Gu." Gu is an energy substance that comes in little packets. I can't really describe its consistency other than that of toothpaste. There are lots of different flavors, like vanilla, mandarin orange, berry, etc. By the point where we were offered Gu, I was HUNGRY, to I took one. It was a bad idea at first. When you are thirsty, a pasty gooey substance is not the best thing to put in your mouth. Luckily, there was a water station not far afterward.
I think the Gu did give me some more energy, because we finished the race strong. The best part about the whole thing was getting to see parts of Denver that I had never yet been to. Such as City Park (zoo, museums) and Cheeseman Park, which is just a beautiful pedestrian park.
When we crossed the finish line, I definitely had a "runner's high." I felt like I could have kept going longer. Perhaps not another 13.2 miles, but a marathon definitely didn't seem impossible. It actually made me really excited to sign up for a full marathon. As a matter of fact, we signed up last week for the Nashville Country Music Rock 'n Roll Marathon, April 30, 2011. It is nice to have another goal to work toward now that the half marathon is over.
Here are a few pictures at the finish line. I would have liked to take more along the way, but i didn't really think about getting out the camera while we ran.

Enjoying a celebratory beer in the MGD64 beer garden after the race.

Downtown view from the finish line festival.

Pongo and Perdi Say...

2010-10-31T12:43:00.001-07:00

Happy Fall to you all!!

Weekend Home Update

2010-10-03T20:23:00.001-07:00

I have been antsy to spruce up our front entry hall. For one thing, it's just empty and unwelcoming. It also drives me nuts that shoes just pile up there. Not something that really welcomes people into the house. See for yourself!

Not very welcoming, am I right?

Luckily, Matt and I happened to wander into World Market this weekend and found the perfect solution. It required me to drive to two different World Markets, on opposite sides of Denver. Matt had to do a little bit of work too. :)

Here is the finished product! A coat hanger, shelves, and matching bench/shoe holder. We are so excited about the outcome! Pongo didn't get off of the bench part all evening, so we know he loves it!

Close up of the shelving unit.

And the bench. Apparently, we will have to ask Pongo's permission to sit on the bench, since he has claimed it as his own already. I think it has been a successful decorating weekend!

Running Ramblings - 7 Weeks

2010-09-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

Matt and I are in week seven of 26 of marathon training and rapidly approaching the date of the Denver half marathon (Oct 17). It hardly seems like we have been training for nearly two months. I thought this would be a good time for some initial reflections.
Running has always been my favorite stress outlet. When I am upset, I lace up my shoes and hit the pavement. I had a good 5K loop mapped out around the old neighborhood before we moved, but never ventured much further than that in terms of distance. I never really had a good reason to break that 5K habit until now. Click here for a recap of why we decided to run a marathon if you don't know already.
When I looked at the marathon training schedule to see what all it would involve, I was actually pleasantly surprised. The biggest commitment is actually the "long runs" which are scheduled on weekends. We basically add a mile each week until we get to twenty-two miles, and then taper off a few weeks before the marathon. After one or two "recovery days," two or three short runs (3 or 4 miles) and one Farltek or cross training session are all that is required during the week. Since I was already running 5K's regularly during the week, it was no major adjustment to my schedule except to make sure we fit those long runs into the weekend. So far so good!
It is amazing how my perception of running has changed now that I have such a lofty goal in mind. A couple months ago, I never would have thought I could run 7 or 8 miles. This weekend, we will run 10 miles and I am honestly looking forward to it! Each long run is a new milestone for me in terms of distance. In high school, I never did like distance running much, so I skipped cross country against my track coaches' advice. Hind sight is 20/20, as they say.
I have definitely started to notice "battle scars" after such long distances including but not limited to chaffing, blisters, and dehydration. However, I have been able to find solutions to every single one! Oh, and no one ever mentioned how running so much would make me want to eat EVERYTHING in sight! I am constantly hungry.
Despite the battle scars, there are also plenty of benefits that I have observed. My lung capacity is amazing. My legs and thighs are toning up. (Now if only every other "trouble area" would just follow suit...) I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and am dead to the world until my alarm goes off. Four mile runs feel like a walk in the park. I am getting faster, little by little.
I don't think I would be nearly as excited about my workouts if I couldn't track my progress like I can with my new phone. I downloaded an app called Runkeeper. It uses my phone's GPS to track distance, pace and elevation gain. It also estimates my calories burned and saves each "activity" online so I can track my progress. It also posts everything to Facebook, so EVERYONE can keep track of how we are doing. :) The main downside to Runkeeper is that the GPS on my phone sometimes screws up and throws everything way off. Still, this is the first time I have been able to get anything like that to work. Plus, it's good to have a phone on me in case of an emergency. I never used to bother bringing it along.
Another tool that I recently acquired for the long runs is a running belt, with bottles that clip to each side so that i can easily carry fluids with me and hydrate along the way without stopping. This definitely helped with my dehydration issues. But I also make sure I drink lots of water during the day before and after I run. I especially like having the belt because I can train myself how much to drink without getting cramps. During our 8 mile run, I drank way too much at once and ran doubled over for the last mile. Last weekend, I limited myself to a couple ounces every mile or so and discovered that it was refreshing and didn't give me cramps at all. Its good to know all of this stuff before the actual race, where they will offer cups of water every mile or so. Now I know why runners never drink the whole cup, and dump the extra water on the volunteers instead. :)
Unquestionably, my best running tool of all is Matt. There is no way I would be on track without him. He keeps me motivated and makes me push myself to go faster when I settle in to a comfortable (lazy) pace. He is ready to run with me even after long days at work when we just want to sit down to dinner and some TV. I was so glad that he willingly took on this challenge with me, and I am happy that he will be at my side during the races to keep me going when I am sure I will want to quit.
It will be interesting to see how this training progresses through the winter. The days are getting shorter already, limiting our available time in the evening to run. Soon enough, we will be getting snow and freezing temperatures. The temps don't bother me nearly as much as snow on the ground when I have to watch every step. But then again, I have never run more than 3 miles in extreme cold, so it might become a factor as well. I know winter will make this more challenging, but we will just have to plan around the weather and hope for the best!
I think that's enough running rambling for now.

One Last Hoorah

2010-09-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

We went camping possibly one last time last weekend. I say possibly because it was 90 degrees here today, so it hardly seems like summer is over. The only clue to indicate the onset of fall were the beautiful aspen trees turning a beautiful fall yellow up in the mountains!

Our partners in crime, Ted and Susie met us to camp. We took an impromptu off trail hike, but couldn't get very far since the campground was surrounded by private (fenced) property.

The gorgous trees turning colors.

Our trio of beagles: Bagel, Pongo and Perdi.

The guys kept plenty busy climbing rocks.

And drinking oil cans. :) Cheers!

Pongo hung out in the tent as usual. He was perfectly content to do so.

Susie and I discovered we had matching flavors of vitamin water in the morning.

Ted cooked some wonderful scrambled eggs over the open campfire for breakfast.

It was nice to have one last quick camping trip before the seasons change. I hope fall comes soon now. I am getting a little tired of these 90 degree days!

Refreshed

2010-09-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

This week was a short work week for me. I took a 5 day weekend starting last Friday through Tuesday. I came back to work on Wednesday feeling incredibly refreshed and productive. Since I hardly ever take that much time off work at once, it was great to get away from the office for a while and just enjoy the company of good friends. I certainly made the best of my "staycation."
So what did I do with my 5 days of freedom? Here is a short recap:
Thursday evening, Matt and I attended the Great American Beer Festival in downtown Denver. We went to this last year and had a great time. This year was no different...SO MUCH FUN!
Friday, Matt and I drove up to Ft. Collins to watch the KU football game with our friends Ted and Susie, who just moved to CO about two months ago. While the game didn't come out the way we would have liked, we did enjoy some fantastic homemade chicken enchiladas made by Susie. And Bagel (their beagle) even treated me to a few of her cute playful howls that I love! While the guys played video games, Susie and I discussed home decorating strategies and planned a short camping trip for this weekend. Can't wait!!
Saturday was filled with more time with college friends. Carlene and I went out and did some fun shopping. Later that evening, we met Jim, Becky, Carlene and Nick downtown for dinner at the Rio Grande and ended up prowling around the 16th St. Mall for a few hours after that.

Sunday was another busy day. It was time for Matt and I to do our "long run" for the marathon training: 8 miles. Unfortunately, it was a hot and sunny morning. But a slight breeze made the run bearable and we got through it in an 1 hour and 24 minutes. Each week, we add another mile to our long run, which means this weekend will be 9 miles! So far, my body has not had any objections to the physical challenges of running for hours on end. But more on that later. I am forming a blog post about our marathon training thus far.

After the run on Sunday, I had to take Matt to the airport. He went to Madison, WI for a conference from Sunday-Thursday. Luckily, my friends Tazz and Jenn, and their 14 month old son Landon came in for a visit shortly after I got back from dropping Matt off, so I didn't even have a chance to be sad or lonely!

We spent Monday and Tuesday doing fun Colorado-y type things such as having lunch in Boulder at the Walnut Brewery, doing the river walk in Estes Park, and hiking Table Mesa in Golden. We also went to the Denver Aquarium. Landon loved all the fish--it was so cute to watch him get excited about them all! I made Tazz run a 5K with my on Tuesday evening. He was such a trooper because running in the higher altitude takes some time to get used to and he set a pretty fast pace! It was great to have a temporary running buddy in Matt's absence.

The picture below is Tazz, Jenn and Landon at the bottom of Table Mesa. It was so great to have them out here.

Matt is home now and we have a lot to look forward to this weekend: a short camping trip with Ted and Susie, and a 9 mile run to be specific! I am glad to have him home. We are watching season 6 of Grey's Anatomy right now and it was hard not to watch it while he was gone. I guess I missed him a little too. :)

And of course, I couldn't end this post without posting one of my favorite recent pictures of the beagles. I snapped this one with my phone's camera on one of our daily walks in the neighborhood park.

Slacking: Big Time

2010-09-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hi. How can it possibly have been a month since I have last blogged? I used to be pretty good at keeping you all semi up-to-date on what we have been up to. I have a few pictures to post from our labor day weekend visitors. Those of you on Facebook have probably seen these already, but I will post some here as well. Maybe by Christmas. :)

Here is one that you Facebookers haven't seen, taken from my phone.

Matt, Alissa and I decided to do some mini golfing in the beautiful weather on Labor Day. This course is about 2 minutes from our house and pretty entertaining. Anne and I did this course when she was here in July, so I had a one-up on everyone. I like to think that's why I beat Matt by one stroke anyway. :)

Matt and I are continuing to train for our marathon, which we still haven't officially picked out yet. I have my heart set on Little Rock in March, but we have until Nov. 1 to decide for sure before the registration costs go up. We haven't done any seriously long runs yet. I think the longest has been 6 miles. We got a little off track with the holiday, but just getting out and getting my "running legs" back in the fantastic summer/fall in-between weather feels great.

Did I mention that we have some fantastic trails in our new neighborhood? Here is our typical route map.

I feel OK publishing this because we alter the route daily, depending on how long we want/need to run. But I know some people (Dad) have been curious to see a map. We tend to loop Los Verdes country club on the High Line Canal Trail for a nice 4 mile loop. This is a gorgeous run, and it is also somewhat entertaining to watch the golfers as we run.

*Side Note* The trail systems through Denver are maintained by the Colorado State Parks, an organization that has lost a lot of my respect this year. They recently decided to fence their fabulous off-leash dog trails in order to make the parks more "equine friendly." I loved walking Pongo and Perdi through Cherry Creek State Park almost daily and was saddened by this news. But what I really and truly don't understand is why a dog owner can get a ticket for not picking up pet waste properly, and yet every day, we are constantly stepping in horse droppings left in the middle of the otherwise nicely paved and maintained Cherry Creek and High Line Canal trails. I know it's not convenient to stop and pick it up when you are on a horse, but come on. Lots of other people use the trails every day to bike, run and even walk dogs (on leash, of course). All I am saying is that we don't leave Pongo and Perdi's "business" in the middle of the pavement. We could get a ticket if we did and it's just not polite. Uh oh...I feel another letter coming on! :) *End side note*

As it turns out, Matt and I will be returning to Kansas in October, November AND December this year. We are attending a wedding in October, Thanksgiving in November and of course Christmas in December. This is the first year that Matt gets both Thanksgiving and Christmas off, so we are going to take full advantage. We might be a little tired of driving after this year!

One More Thing

2010-08-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

I figure it's about time that I catch all of you up on the lives of the Colorado Millards. We have been very very busy (i know, always the same excuse!) with the move to our new house and various other committments. I think I am almost ready to take some house photos, as we are unpacked enough that I can show it without there being boxes everywhere! That will most likely be my task for the weekend.

On Sunday evening, Matt and I returned from a fabulous weekend in Kansas City. It was not nearly a long enough time to spend there! Our main purpose for the trip was for a Walter family reunion. We stayed down on the KC plaza and did totally relaxing things such as swim, eat and hold lots and lots of babies! I was so happy to meet all of my cousins' children and catch up with everyone. Grandma Helen even flew all the way from Grand Rapids to join us.

Of course we got to catch up with Matt's family too. It always seems like there is never enough time to go around between everyone when we get back to Kansas. I am always surprised at how many things are still the same since we left, and also how many things have changed at the same time.

One of the very major changes to face was the death of my friend and former co-worker, Ryan Goddard. He passed away from a year long battle with cancer on August 2nd, at the age of 29. His death really hit me hard. It is never an easy thing to lose a friend or family member. I think losing Ryan was especially hard though, because he and I were at similar places in our lives. We were close in age, and he and his wife had barely been married two years at the time of his death. Not to mention the fact that we worked long hours in the secure room at Western Air Maps and when you work that close to someone for so long, you just really get to know every side of them. When you are young (and old, I suppose!) you like to feel like you are invincible. I think Ryan's death really taught me not to take anything for granted, because death can happen at any age.

My friend Tazz and I were talking on the phone about something we could do to show our support for Ryan and his family. I think we came up with the perfect solution.

We are going to run a marathon in order to fundraise for the Goddard family, since the hospital bills from Ryan's battle with cancer are so overwhelming. A few people have asked if I wanted to run marathons in the past, and I have always declined. Too time consuming. Too daunting of a task. You want me to run HOW many miles!?! The thing is, I have major inspiration to do this now. Ryan faught cancer with everything he had, even though it was very time consuming, no doubt a daunting task, and no end in sight. I am doing this for Ryan and his family, and also to keep myself healthy. Oh, and Matt is going to do it with me! Between Matt and my Western Air Maps co-workers, we will have a great team of runners for Ryan.

We still have a few details to work out. Mainly, to pick a marathon to run in! But in the mean time, I have registered Matt and I for the Denver half marathon in October for practice. I am so excited!

Mid Week Fun

2010-08-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

Just a little video to lighten up your week. We are in process of trying to make plans for Labor Day weekend this year, and it made me think of our labor day last year. Here is a clip!

BTW, this is Matt :)

Here are the pictures:

That little Chunk (Perdi) wanted to say hello to our friend the Marmot!

Hope you enjoy the pictures! Hopefully there will be more soon!

In Disbelief

2010-07-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

I am not a parent, but I do hope to have kids someday. Sometimes, it seems like this is just too harsh of a world to brave raising children in. This morning, I read my cousin Abbe's blog and have spent the rest of the morning in sheer disbelief that something so horrible could happen, and hit so close to home. Though I am not super close to Abbe and Adam, I do know that they are a couple of the most devoted parents around. I know this because Abbe's blog is "brutually honest," which is something I really appreciate and have a hard time incorporating into my own blogs. Words can't describe the pain I feel for their sweet family.
I wanted to pass along the Dolls' story. Please read Abbe's blog "Breaking the Silence."
http://dollfamilyzone.blogspot.com/2010/07/breaking-silence.html
I have it linked in my blog reel as well. You will be sad, you will be angry...you will probably go through quite a few emotions like I did. But please...all you parents (or future parents) out there: remember this story and talk with your children. It's never too early!

Dreaming of Floyd

2010-06-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me explain the title of this blog before anyone starts worrying that I am thinking of another guy. :) You see, in 15 days, we will be closing on our NEW HOUSE, which happens to be on a street called Floyd Place.
I used to think that I would be really sad to leave this rental house. It's the first house we called "home" in Colorado. This house rescued us from homelessness when we were crazy and stressed, moving from Kansas City without an actual address to give to the movers. My side of the family had our last real family Christmas in this house. We have hosted so many dinners, parties and barbecues, and housed countless numbers of visitors over the past two years. We have so many memories in this house, that it's hard to imagine living anywhere else.
I am a pretty sentimental person, so I think this move would have been a lot harder had our current landlord not intervened. About a month ago, he called and said that he was going to have his son in law put a new roof on the house. He mentioned numerous other assorted projects, including new counters in the kitchen and some new windows, but he implied that these could wait until we moved. We agreed to facilitate the roof and windows (which involved giving our house key to the handykid), not knowing what we were really getting in to.
B, our landord's son-in-law has been at our house for the past 2.5 weeks working dilligently on the roof. And the new roof looks great, I must say! However, the loose nails and tar paper that liter our deck and back yard are not so great. It appears that when he finished last Friday, doing a little pick-up was too much to handle. So we spent the weekend dodging said items on the deck and hoping that our dogs wouldn't come in the house with a bloody puncture wound until I just couldn't handle it any more. The yard hadn't been mowed in weeks and it was turning into a swamp. So i gave in and filled two trashbags full of roofing debris before I felt I could mow properly.
I am also not thrilled that B's air powered nail gun and other tools are residing in my garage spot. I'm sure I have grumbled about this a fair amount to way too many people, for which I humbly apologize. However, nothing set me off as much as B did yesterday when I got home from a not-so-great day at work. He informed me that the windows would not be ready until June 29, so he would be focusing his attention on the kitchen counters instead.
*****RANT ALERT*****
Ok, the roof was one thing, and the windows need to be done in a BAD way, but Matt and I did NOT sign on for having our kitchen torn apart while we are still paying rent and living inside this house. I was politely informed last night that I would need to remove everything from the counters by today or Wednesday so that he could begin work. He did not ask if this would be a bother to our lives or schedules even though I later volunteered the information that we would be heading out of town starting Wednesday. B also made a comment that it would be hard to do the windows with our stuff in front of them (living room and office). I really wanted to snidely remind him that we do in fact LIVE in the house, but I kept my cool and he left.
What is a girl to do when she had set aside the evening to finish a boat load of homework, and is suddenly told to spend that time packing up her kitchen instead? Naturally, I broke down and had a good cry. :) And I didn't pack a single thing last night. Today, he must have found other projects, but he wisely wasn't around when I got home.
Today Matt called our landlord, who is in Atlanta for a conference and didn't seem to want to be bothered by these issues. And we don't really have too much of a case to argue, since he somehow already knows that we will be heading to Kansas after work tomorrow. So tonight, we took everything off the kitchen counters and I packed up the china for the move to Floyd, in order avoid any chance of it being broken. I'm still not thrilled about the constant parade of people through the house (between the repairs and the rental showings.). But I know that when we move, WE will have control over what happens in our house, and that is an amazing revelation at this point.
I am hoping for some magical changes in the rental house when we get back, so that we can enjoy our last couple weeks in our first Colorado "home." Old counters out, new ones in and finished. Kitchen swept and cleaned like no one was even in there. Remaining mountains of roofing debris to magically disappearing from the yard. Garage spot clear and open for my car again. Garage door opener waiting for me on the new counter. And most importantly, for these household projects to be DONE until we are outta here. I laugh even as I type out this list of "hopes" for our return.
In the mean time, I will enjoy my time in Kansas and keep dreaming of Floyd when we get back! And I promise for a more uplifting blog (and maybe some recent photos) soon!

The Angry Ranger Story

2010-06-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have seen my status on Facebook earlier this week about our disappointing Memorial Day camping trip. As promised, I am blogging today to tell the story of the state park ranger who ruined our weekend.
Early last Saturday afternoon, Matt and Alissa and I and our friends Nick and Carlene arrived at our reserved campsite at Golden Gate Canyon State Park (GGCSP) for a long awaited weekend camping trip that we had on the calendar for months. We wasted no time setting up our tents and unpacking our cars. A couple hours later, we noticed a state park ranger approaching our campsite. He noted several violations in our campsite, including our three tents on the pad (only 2 are allowed) and the fact that we had Perdi teathered around a tree with her leash. He asked us to take down a tent and tie Perdi to the picnic table, which we immediately did. He left shortly after that. We were slightly annoyed at this, but didn't really think much of it for the remainder of the afternoon.
We enjoyed our afternoon, playing board games, snacking and having a couple cold beers. We noticed that some storm clouds were rolling in, so we hung up a tarp over our picnic table to have shelter from the rain. It ended up raining and hailing for a couple hours. We were cold and miserable, but we stayed pretty dry! It even hailed for a while, so we were especially glad to have the tarp up.
At dusk around 9:30 pm, I went to the Highlander to put some food away so we didn't attract any bears. I noticed the ranger's truck pull up as I was heading back to the campsite. Two rangers got out of the truck and headed directly to our campsite, which was set back in the woods a little bit and not visible from the road. I got back to the site before them to warn everyone that our ranger friend was back.
This time, he had a really bad attitude with us. He asked us why we had the tarp hung up in the trees. We reminded him of the hailstorm and said we would take it down right away. He asked us if we had ever camped in the state parks before and we said we had camped there on numerous occasions. He also asked if we had ever been approached by a ranger before, and we said no. He really thought that was funny...he asked us if that was the case, then did we remember what he had just talked to us about yesterday. Since we had arrived at the park that very afternoon, we had no idea what he was talking about. We told him he had talked to us earlier that day and that we had complied with his requests, but he didn't seem to remember that. He had it in his mind that he had paid us a visit the day before, and that we were deliberatley disobeying park rules.
We were all really flustered by then, as we were no more in violation of camping rules than any other campsite. (lots of people had trash bags and clotheslines hanging in the trees and one campsite with a family was way over the six person limit.) What really freaked me out was when the ranger asked if we were aware that quiet hours were at 10 pm. Since it was about 9:35 by this point, we didn't know why he was asking. Matt politely asked if anyone had complained about us being too loud, as we tend to have animated conversations at times. I thought the ranger was going to use a taser on Matt for asking that question. But he said that there had been no complaints. We told him that we would observe quiet hours and the rangers left without visiting any other campsites with the same "violations" (or worse) than ours.
We were angry and perplexed after that confrontation. We had not been being loud or obnoxious. Frankly, we had been sitting under a tarp in the rain for hours not doing much of anything. We tried to think of ways that we were over-reacting or being dramatic. But the fact of the matter was clear: we were the only "young" group of campers in a campground full of families and older couples. We had clearly been targeted because of our age, with the assumption that we were there to be loud, drink and party all night. Ironically, we went to bed shortly after the ranger left. We didn't feel like staying up to risk another visit.
We had a nice conversation with the head ranger the next morning. Ranger Todd asked us to provide written documentation of what happened. He even came to our campsite and picked it up himself. Finally we were being treated with respect! Ranger Todd promised to address the ranger who had visited us the previous evening and apologized for how we had been treated.
We decided not to stick around and find out if he would follow through with his promise. We didn't want to risk another night filled with visits from that ranger, since we knew he would be on duty again after talking to Ranger Todd. We took a quick hike, packed up and left. Luckily, we were able to salvage the rest of our weekend with Alissa, but she still didn't really get to experience camping with us, which was the main point of her trip.
I wrote a two page letter to the Colorado State Parks Board on Tuesday and mailed it to the Denver Admin office as well as GGCSP. The way we were treated was completely unwarranted and very frustrating to five responsible adults who simply needed a couple days of solitude and relaxation in the Rocky Mountains.
Some children go through an "awkward" age. I know I certainly did, probably for most of my childhood. :) But I believe that we twenty-somethings are still in an awkward period in our lives. We are working HARD at so many aspects in our lives: careers, relationships, educations, friendships, and on and on. We want to be taken seriously. We want to prove to the world that we are responsible and capable and that we can handle it all and succeed. And, like anyone else, we just need a chance to get out of computer/cellphone/reality and relax for a while. It is so upsetting to me that five twenty-something friends can be written off as loud drunken partiers with just a simple glance. That is all it took for that ranger to judge us.
GGCSP used to be my favorite place to camp. It is beautiful and set way up high in the mountains. The scenery is breathtaking. At least it used to be. I hate to say it, but I don't know if I will be able to go there again without feeling the dissapointment of last weekend.

On Our Way!!

2010-05-21T06:57:00.000-07:00

We are moving right along on our path to home ownership. Sometimes I wonder if this is supposed to go so smoothly, but I won't think too much about it until we close on June 23. The latest news is that the house passed inspection with flying colors! There were a few minor odds and ends to take care of, but the seller agreed to fix a sprinkler zone that wasn't working and replace a cracked window. So when we move in, the place will be almost flawless! I kind of didn't want them to fix EVERYTHING...Matt needs a few projects to keep him busy. :) I suppose the first thing on our list will be to replace the patio roof. It is pretty shot, but since it doesn't affect the inside of the house, we didn't ask the seller to do it. We also thought that would be a kind of fun project to tackle ourselves (and any handy volunteers who might want to come help). :)

Matt was playing around with some of the photos of our house last week. They are the same ones that are online, but he has put captions and various notes around them, so I thought I would post them here.

The kitchen is by far my very favorite part of the house. Lots of counter space and brand new appliances. I can't wait to get cooking in there!

We Found One!

2010-04-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

I am really excited to announce that we are under contract on a house!! After searching and searching through a sea of suburban houses in south Aurora, they all just started blending together. There were major disappointments with all of them, mostly due to the fact that the lot sizes are SO small. What do people do with their pets when they move on to a like that?!? We were also having doubts about if we were really ready for that particular lifestyle.
So on Monday, we focused our search to an older neighborhood in the actual city and county of Denver. This area is in a good central location for both of our jobs and is much more accessible to the highways. It's still moderately suburban but it reminds me a little of Roeland Park, where we lived in Kansas City. HUGE trees, older houses and best of all, no HOA's and WAY lower taxes. It's a little funny, because we had originally skipped over this house when we saw it online based on the fact that it is a ranch style house (we wanted a two-story) and because the outside is pretty funny looking. But I guess we re-learned our "Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover" lesson. It's a good thing we have an awesome realtor who put the house on the list for us. The whole house has been remodeled and the floor plan is not like your typical ranch. Added bonus: the hot tub is included and it's been well maintained like the rest of the house! :)
Anyway, we decided to put an offer in that same evening and had a response by Tuesday afternoon! The seller acctepted our price offer, but wanted to push back the closing date. *Insert a bit of drama and a really long, dull story here.* If you recall my first blog entry about our move to Colorado, it just wouldn't be right for us to BUY a house without some drama if we could barely manage to rent one. :)
So, as of yesterday morning we are under contract! Hopefully the rest of the process goes smoothly. But if not, at least it will make for some good blogs!

House Hunting, Abbreviated

2010-04-12T21:00:00.001-07:00

Question: How do you pick ONE?!? There are so many to choose from!

Softy

2010-03-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about volunteering somewhere lately. I miss doing volunteer work and I want to give back. In college, my roommate Anne and I decided to volunteer at the Lawrence Humane Society. We only went once or twice. We basically just took the dogs out on leashes and walked them around so that they could get out of their kennels and get some fresh air. I didn't understand a lot about dogs then and I was kind of scared when they protested so hard against getting back in their cages. It was hard to see animals in that condition, and even harder to see the "countdown" on the time they would be at the shelter. I just wanted to take them all home, but most of them had serious health or behavior issues that I would not have been able to begin to address. (Not to mention the fact that we lived in the dorms!) Still, the cruelty that some humans seem capable of inflicting on innocent animals was too hard to deal with.

Fast forward to today. After work, I went to the mall to pick up a couple dress shirts and ties that Matt showed interest in. (He almost NEVER buys himself new clothes, and it's hard to pick out things he likes, so when he shows interest in something, I am THERE.) Anyway, I digress.

As I walked through the mall, I happened upon a pet store. Of course I was immediately drawn in by all the little puppies in the windows even though in the back of my mind, I knew it was a bad idea to go in.

After a few minutes of admiring how cute they all were, I started to get really sad. First of all, NO ONE in the store was actually puppy shopping. Kids were laughing and pounding on the windows of the cages. The dogs were all basically on display. I wondered how often they were let out of those 2x3 ft cages, or how often they even got to breathe fresh air. I wondered what happens to the puppies if they didn't get purchased by the time they are too big to be on display.

I wanted to slap down my debit card and buy them all! Granted, that's probably 40 dogs...but you know we have two beagles, what's 40 more puppies in the grand scheme of things! :)

I'm just kidding about buying all the puppies, by the way. I probably wouldn't have a husband anymore if I pulled something like that! Plus, if I HAD bought all the dogs, the pet store would just put 40 more on display tomorrow.

I watched two little beagle puppies playing in the storefront window and then tore myself away. I went home and took my own beagles out for a long romp in the sunny dog park. I may not be able to save the puppies of the world from the horrors of pet stores and shelters. But I can be glad that my own two sweet dogs are not in that situation.

And I am thinking that I might give the animal shelter another try...

Written Out

2010-02-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

I just realized over the past couple of days that probably the main reason I haven't been blogging as much lately is because of writing overload from class. While my second Penn State course has been much easier to handle overall, it really is a lot of writing with the weekly papers we are asked to compile. It seems I dump all of my (somewhat limited) creativity and energy into those darn papers and by the time I am finished, it's hard to write a blog post!
Luckily, I have some pictures from my new camera to post, which rescues me from having to do TOO much writing tonight. (I finished and turned in my homework last night, so I'm off the hook with school for a couple days.)
First off, I have to say that I LOVE my new camera. It's super small so I can take it anywhere. It's super thin, so I can put it in my pocket. Oh, and did I mention that it's PINK?!? :) There will be no excuses for not having lots of pictures now, unless I forget to bring it along with me. So far, I am doing pretty well. I have a whole montage of pictures for a peak into our lives over the past couple weeks.

Sorry for how weird the formatting came out. The way I arranged it was way different from the way it ended up being published.

The pups got a new bed for the living room. They really love snuggling down into the blanket we put on top. And it's round, so hopefully Perdi won't be tempted to chew on the corners and pull out the stuffing. :)

Perdi still likes to chew on bones...
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And it has been snowing off and on in Denver quite a bit. Nothing substantial, but enough for us to have needed to shovel the driveway a few times! The mountains have gotten at least 7-14 inches of fresh powder, which means we will be skiing this weekend!

Pongo went to work with me last weekend. He is so good, and just sleeps on his blanket under my desk while I work. He is great company when I am there alone.
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Last Sunday, we had crock pot roast with potatoes, carrots and roasted asparagus. It was SOOOO good, but smelling it cooking all day long while we were home was pure torture. :)

This is how I like Perdi the best...when she is passed out and super tired. In other words, NOT destroying anything!

On Monday, I came home to a funny sight. Perdi had chewed a hole in her kennel blanket and had gotten her head through it! It looked like she had gotten cold and wrapped herself up snug and warm.

This week and next week is "5280 week." Basically, its Denver restaurant week, where lots of really fancy restaurants offer nice meals for $52.80 per couple. On Tuesday, Matt and I ate at Fogo de Chao, a Brazillian steakhouse where lots of waitors bring you every possible kind of meat you could ever want on skewers, as much as you want until you are full! I went in thinking, "I will limit what i eat tonight." WRONG! You can not do that at a place like this. They start you off with a salad bar, move on to the meats, and end with a dessert.

Matt and I were so full after dinner that we had to walk around a little bit before getting in the car to go home. We got some cool pictures of the pedestrian bridge (left) and Union Station (below).

Last night we went to Old Chicago because they were having a drawing for St. Patty's day prizes. Matt won a T-shirt and I won this cool hat.

Matt emailed an ESPN blogger who had written a post about how the KU-MU game would be one of the better games to watch at the end of the regular season. Matt pointed out that if KU wins the rest of their games this season, the KU-MU game would be their 2000th win, which would add to the appeal. The ESPN blogger emailed him back! He was mighty proud of this...

Well there you have it! Tonight is a relaxing blog-with-a-movie-on type night. I will probably fall asleep warm in bed within a half hour or so. It has been a busy week as usual.

55.5 Hours

2010-02-16T20:07:00.000-08:00

SOOO, you've probably been wondering what's been going on in our world lately, huh? Don't worry, this blog freeze hasn't been intentional this time. Everything is fine here!
Ever since the new year, we've been in crisis mode at work. We have a huge project due at the beginning of April and we've got a long way to go to get it done! I'm doing all I can to help. Getting up at 4 am to get my hours in before the night shift, training new hires and working A LOT. Last week I logged 55.5 hours (as per the title) and I probably would have done more if I had my computer longer! Funny thing is, time seems to FLY at work because we are so busy.
I've been frustrated for a while, but it's nothing I can really go in to here. Work is demanding. School is demanding. Running/jogging is lacking. Sometimes, it all seems so overwhelming until I get a little break somewhere. Last week, it was Matt cooking dinner and taking the dogs to the park so I didn't have to worry about it. This week, it was almost crying when I got to the end of my weekly school project to find this statement:
"No lesson report is required this week."
Whew! Huge sigh of relief there. Those reports take a good 3-4 hours to compose sometimes. At least for the week, I can come home and run or nap (or blog!) and do as I please! Case in point today. I took the dogs to the dog park AND blogged! I even re-potted a plant and bought dog food!
Valentine's weekend went way to fast, as most weekends do. I got home on Friday and Matt couldn't wait to give me my V-day gift. Although we had decided to keep it low key this year, he decided to buy me a new camera! (It's partly my birthday gift too.) Of course, I really felt bad when all I had to give him were Seasons 2 and 3 of "How I Met Your Mother." They didn't quite compare to a camera!
We had a nice dinner at home on Saturday and watched one of my favorite "chick flicks." (P.S. I Love You, for those who are wondering.) Both of us were so tired that we went to bed early and got something like 11 hours of sleep!
Sunday afternoon, we took advantage of having a free day and drove around looking at houses for a few hours. We still have no idea what part of town we want to settle down in, although we are leaning to areas pretty close to where we are now to keep our commute times down. We would love to live on the west side of town somewhere closer to the mountains (or in them!), but it's hard to justify adding hours of driving to our already long days right now. Plus, we like being close to the light rail and have a lot of our necessities down here (doctor, dentist, vet, etc.) So I imagine it's smarter to stay where we are, location wise. I really just can't wait to move in to a place of our own, but just the beginning stages of house-hunting are already stressful and we haven't even enlisted a realtor yet! (Maybe that's why it seems so overwhelming.)
Well anyway, that's a quick update for you all. Hopefully I will have lots of new pictures to share in a week or so! (We returned the silver camera because the pink model could only be ordered online and I decided I could wait a few more days for the pink one.) :) I already have a backlog of pictures from the past month or so I need to share. I hope you all enjoyed the video of our howling beagles!

For Your Viewing Pleasure

2010-02-16T19:53:00.000-08:00

Matt basically had a 5 day weekend starting last Thursday, which meant our puppies were free from their kennels for 5 whole days! Five days of freedom sure makes for some angry dogs when they have to return to slumber during the day. And you can be sure that let me know about it!

Among other things, Perdi is learning to howl! Most of the time, it's just little barks and yips. But when she howls, it's pretty darn cute. Hope you enjoy this video of the dogs "voicing" their thoughts about being alone all day when I got home. :)

New Years at Keystone

2010-01-13T20:37:00.000-08:00

I'm slowly but surely catching up on blogs. I know I skipped a pretty major post; Christmas! Can you believe we didn't take a single picture? I seem to get my blogging inspiration from pictures, so I'm still trying to decide what to do about that one.
Anyhow, to celebrate the turn of the decade, Matt and I decided to head up to the mountains for some skiing, relaxing, and some COLD weather!

The worst part of skiing in my opinion, is riding the lift. It's so cold in the wind.

I spent a lot of time in the lodge. The snow conditions weren't great. It was pretty icy in some spots. I don't like ice...I can't control myself very well when it's like that and I just get really tired! Also, there were TONS of kids on my favorite run. They were stopped all over the slopes and it's hard for me to get going fast when I'm scared of running over one of them!

Cheers to a new year!

We look kind of dorky in our goggles, but it's so pretty on top of the mountain. Unfortunately, my goggles met their demise when we got home. Perdi found them on the couch and pulled all of the foam padding off from the edges! She is such a frustrating dog sometimes!

I will never get tired of this view!

After skiing, we went to our hotel, hopped in the hot tub for a little while and then showered and went out to a movie. We saw The Blindside, which was very good! I don't know...i didn't cry like I thought I would! All of the actors did a great job. Especially Sandra Bullock!

After the movie, we walked back to the resort and rang in the new year at the Kickapoo tavern, which is where we usually go after a day of skiing to unwind. It was really crowded, but lots of fun still. I was so tired though, so we left shortly after midnight and went to bed. We spent a few more hours on the first on the slopes before heading back to Denver.

I've been reading lots of "New Years Resolution" blogs. I thought about making one too, but I'm like most other people and am not very good at keeping new years resolutions. I've continued my running routine pretty consistently since April, so I don't want to jinx it with a resolution! :) I guess my other resolve is to put in as many hours at work as I possibly can to get our big project done by Apr. 1. It's going to take a huge effort, but I'm up for the challenge! Hey, it's only Wednesday and I've already banked 41 hours. (Granted, I worked the weekend so I could take Friday off for our return to KC.) Still, I am glad to have this goal in front of me and the extra income will be nice as we set our sights on buying a house.

Handy Men

2010-01-05T18:50:00.000-08:00

2010 has started off a bit rough as far as the functionality of our house is concerned. A few weeks ago, the kitchen sink disposal quit working. Thinking that we had accidentally broken the on/off switch somehow, Matt decided to replace it this weekend. What an ordeal that was! After a couple trips to home depot to get the right switch, and finally locating our breaker box (which is on the outside of our house?!?), we were ready to get to work. We discovered that our breaker box is not properly labeled when Matt got his first taste of electric shock while unscrewing the old switch. So we turned off almost every circuit in the house just to be safe! Unfortunately, after all was said and done, the disposal still doesn't work.
In the same day, we found out that our hot water heater went out! The first two showers of my new year were icy cold. Let me tell you, there are not many things on this earth that I despise more than cold showers. After some investigating in the basement, we found out that our water heater was leaking water. We decided to call the emergency maintenance number "just in case the leak got worse." (Hello: After two cold showers, I would consider just about anything an emergency to get my hot water back! :) )
The maintenance man came Sunday morning and finished fixing the heater just in time for us to head off to the Chiefs-Broncos game. (more about that later) I honestly didn't intend to blog about our household woes today, but it provides a perfect transition to another "Rewind" blog: Matt's dad's visit back in early December.
Having a little spare time after his recent retirement, Matt's dad came out to visit us for a few days. He and Matt spent a lot of time doing "handy" things around the house like repairing electrical cords that Perdi severed off during her puppyhood (including my favorite lamp, which I am thrilled to have working again!) and building a little TV stand for our bedroom so that we could see our TV over our huge tall bed. It was so nice to have all of those little things taken care of so that I wouldn't have to think about them anymore!
Perhaps the thing that I personally am most thankful for, is the help and research Bill provided in getting new tires for the Civic. We got some great new tires for a super price. Even the service people at Sears were impressed at the deal we got! And it was perfect timing too...we got a pretty big snow storm the following week and the Civic drove like a whole different car! I felt so safe, and I wasn't the slowest person on the road for once! :)
Well, we didn't make him work the WHOLE time! On Saturday, we went up to Fort Collins to do some brewery touring. The first place we hit up was the Anheuser-Busch brewery. I thought this operation only existed in St. Louis, but I was wrong! It was quite a fascinating facility.

It was a great day for a tour, even if it was a little chilly.

This sign records the total number of bottles and cans brewed by Budweiser to date. Pretty impressive!

The barrells of beer seemed endless! Down in the lager cellar, we learned about that addition of beechwood bark is what gives Budweiser its distinctive taste. We even got to take a piece of the bark as a souvenier! Perdi enjoyed destroying mine when we got home, which is primarily what took it for in the first place.

We were fortunate that on the day of our visit, we could go visit the Clydesdales in the stables and even get pictures with them. They are a lot bigger than I imagined, and very beautiful creatures.

The stables were very clean and I was glad to see that the horses were taken care of well. Of course, when the stable is part of the tour, I wouldn't expect to see the horses living in squalor...

We all got a picture with Wheeler, one of the "retired" Clydesdales. He still gets to pose for pictures, but he doesn't have to pull the Budweiser carriage anymore.

Wheeler's feet were almost as large as this little girl standing next to him!

Enjoying the view outside the Bud brewery...

Next, we headed over to the O'Dell Brewery, which was quite a bit smaller. I suppose it's considered to be a microbrewery, although they distribute to quite a few states.

We started off with a sampler of a few of their beers. (I don't like the dark ones, but the rest are really good!)

Stacks and stacks of BEER!

The O'Dell tour was pretty informal...our tour guide had a beer in his hand the whole time and was really low key and invited questions at any time. I liked this tour better than the Budweiser tour, where a hired college-age gal didn't really have much enthusiasm for her job. The O'Dell guy was enthusiastic and engaging and entertaining.

Matt and Bill posed outside the O'Dell brewery. Awww.... :)

I couldn't end this post without a couple pictures of our pups. We must have done something to wear them out...these kinds of moments are pretty rare!

The beagles enjoyed some quality snuggle time on the couch...

They were sad to see him go!

I think we got Bill to the airport just in time. That snow storm I mentioned earlier was heading in, and it delayed his flight a little, but he got back to KC before the worst of it hit. It was great to have such a handy guy come visit...we had a fun and productive weekend all in one!

Rewind to Thanksgiving

2010-01-02T20:34:00.000-08:00

It is time for me to begin playing catch-up on all the time that has passed since my last blog. The past month or so has been pretty bleak and hard. I guess I should further specify that time frame as right after Thanksgiving to right before our trip back to Kansas for Christmas. Life has thrown me a couple curveballs that I never knew would be so hard to deal with. I didn't really feel like "myself," and certainly didn't want to pass along any negativeness to you all. I didn't want to blog about happy things during a time where I found so little to be happy about. Even though there were many bright spots that are most certainly deserving of a good blog.
I feel a lot better now. Maybe it's because my class is over and it got really crazy at the end, or because the stress of the holidays and travelling is behind us. Or maybe it's because things are a lot different now with my family and I am beginning to accept that; well most of it anyway. I am able to look back now and be thankful for the good things in my life. My husband was been amazingly supportive. There were a few nights where I couldn't stand to be around me...so I don't know how he did it! Also, forming new friendships and relying on old ones really held me up. It's great to have people around me who remind me that I'm not crazy for feeling the way I do sometimes.
Anyway, enough about all of that. I am being too vague and too specific at the same time. But just know that if I have seemed distant or unavailable lately, it's not because I don't value our relationship, it's just because I haven't been particularly enjoyable company for a while! :)
What I really intended with this post was to recap our wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. I know, I know. I've been reading all of your blogs about Christmas and New Years. I'll get there too, but for now I'm rewinding a little...

I am lucky to have an awesome family who comes to my rescue on holidays when Matt has to work and my clingy self doesn't think she can handle a holiday "alone." I must also add that I am so appreciative that Matt is OK with me embarking on adventures with my family, even though it means I'm not there when he gets home from work for a couple of days.
Anyway, my dad and brother joined us in Colorado the day before Thanksgiving. They got here Wednesday evening and Brennan proceeded to trick me by calling my phone claiming that they were lost and in need of directions (from a street I had not even heard of), when in fact he was standing on the front porch!
We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday before Matt had to leave for work. I got pretty much everying cooked myself (besides the Turkey, which I ordered from Honey Baked), except the pumpkin pie and fresh veggies, which Brennan helped with. After the dishes were clean and the food was put up (and Matt was at work) we hopped on the light rail for a walk through Confluence Park downtown. Brennan and I had been there during the summer and were captivated by a live jazz festival as well as watching people and dogs alike wading in the river. Well needless to say, not much of that was happening in November and the park wasn't quite as charming as before. We did see a fox running toward us, which was really cool. You don't see many of those downtown...
Friday morning, we left Denver for a couple of days of mountain relaxation up near Estes Park. But first, we stopped in Fort Collins to see some family friends and the rennovations they are doing on their house. We had a nice lunch after looking over the house, and then headed up to our cabin.

The cabin is properly named "Solitude." There were a few other places nearby, but at this time of year, it was pretty quiet. My favorite part was the view of Long's Peak from the kitchen window. (Long's Peak is a 14'er, and it's next on my list of 14'ers to hike.) Below is a picture of the view that i loved. You can barely see the peak with all of the clouds!

To finish off Friday evening, we watched the movie "Knowing," which would have been a great semi-scary movie to watch up in a secluded cabin, if the TV hadn't been so small! You couldn't really get the real picture of what was happening. Fortunately for me, I had already seen in on our nice new 50" HDTV so I knew what was going on. :) Otherwise, I probably would have lost interest pretty fast.

Saturday, we ate a big breakfast in Estes Park at a little diner. It was fantastic food... I really do enjoy both breakfast and diner food when I let myself indulge so the combination was perfect. Plus, they had hazelnut coffee which is my absolute favorite. We were so stuffed after that and we felt like a little hike would do us well. We found a trail on the way back to the cabin which wasn't too strenuous, but it had some pretty views. Above, my dad and brother pose along the trail.

On the hike, we came across a beautiful buck. It didn't seem to mind us too much. It walked right up and across the trail behind us.

At one part of the trail when Brennan and I scrambled up some rocks, we could look right down to the highway! It creeped me out a little, so I didn't get too close to the edge. But I had to get a picture!

We continued spending the day driving around the countryside. We stopped to photograph this beautiful church with Longs Peak in the background. How awesome would it be to get married here! Or even just go to church every sunday in a place like this, with the beauty of nature all around you?

Another place we drove was to the town of Raymond, where my dad used to vacation as a kid. We were trying to find the place where they stayed, and also find some batteries for his camera when we stumbled across the "Raymond Store" where we were successful in getting some batteries. This store was run by a rather interesting man, who obviously loves the area he lives in. It was also evident that not many customers stop in at his store because he proceeded to tell us EVERYTHING under the sun about the Estes Park/Allenspark area and all of the trails, mountains and history of the area. It was nice to chat with him, but it definitely took some effort to get out of the store. :)
I enjoyed driving along Raymond Road. You would never know the town existed if you didn't drive it. The town is in a little crevace or canyon (that's the best way I can describe it) tucked between a mountain and the highway above. I love little hidden forgotten places like that!

More on our accomodations really quick. I have always wanted to stay in one of these A Frame style buildings. The light was amazing and the view out of the window was even better! I loved waking up in the mornings to see pine forest and mountains all around.

The inside of the building was cool too. The high ceilings were awesome. My dad's bedroom was up in that lofted area.

Another view of the outside...

It was sad to leave on Sunday morning, but Dad and Brennan needed to head back to Kansas and I was eager to get back to Matt and the dogs. I cooked a small breakfast of eggs and sausage before we left. I also took this picture of Brennan lurking around the cabin. :)

I am so glad we got to spend such a fun weekend up in the mountains. It's times like these that will be remembered for a long time to come!

Don't Worry...

2009-12-30T05:28:00.000-08:00

Hello loyal readers! I'm sorry for the long hiatus from blog posts. Unlike before, I have taken this break from blogging on purpose. I should have given you all a little warning, but don't fear. I have several blog posts in the works which span events from the past two months.
It's hard to believe that we are only a couple of days from 2010! I just want you to know that I will be resuming my normal blogging tendencies with the start of the new year. With my first class and the holidays behind me, things are getting back to normal for the most part, which is what I desperately need. Thanks for being patient with me and please stay tuned!

Mundane

2009-11-18T19:00:00.001-08:00

I admit that I haven't had much to blog about lately. Life has been routine and mundane. But before I get going too much, I have to warn you all that the "r" key on my keyboard is being funny, so if a word is missing an "r," please bear with me and don't think I'm bad at spelling! Although I probably do plenty of that with any particular blog.
One thing on my mind lately is how long it's been since we've been back to Kansas. The last time we were back was the 4th of July! And yet time has FLOWN by since then and we've had so many of our friends and family come out that it doesn't seem like that long of time has passed. Anyhow, I am getting super excited for Christmas when we will have 5 whole days in Kansas! That is pretty impressive, considering the combination of Matt and my work schedules. :) I can't wait to see everyone.
I've been really busy with school, but I am really really enjoying it and I'm soaking up everything I can because I can use it at work too. I just finished a project on map projections, which was pretty basic stuff, but at the same time, just remembering all of it as a "refresher" really helps me put things into perspective at work. We also have weekly quizzes and chapter readings that really make me dust off my brain and think critically about things. My biggest irk is that I think our professor likes to try and trick us with the wording, but it could just be all the dust speaking. It is so nice to have one of my co-workers in the class too. Our discussions are very helpful to my success (so far) on everything.
And I can't sign off without talking about Matt and the dogs. Matt gets back tonight from one of his bi-monthly trips to Madison, WI. I have to say that I will be glad when these are over. The only realy benefit I get from him being gone is a couple evenings of distraction free time to focus on school. :) But when he is gone, it reminds me of the past year when he was on evenings and we rarely saw each other. Anyway, I'll stop my complaining now because he only has one trip left, at least this year.
Perdi is learning lots of things from her brother, Pongo, and not all of these are good habits. But by far one of the cutest is that she is learning to howl. Until a few days ago, she mostly just yipped and yapped. But one day, she was out on the deck and Pongo and I were howling together as we usually do. (I know, it sounds weird, but it's how he tells me he's mad at me for cooping him up all day.) Well Perdi started howling out on the deck when she heard us. And now she howls with Pongo and I when I get home in the afternoon. It cracks me up! I am such a sucker for the beagle howl. (Unless it is 11 pm and Pongo thinks he hears something we should know about.) Perdi can't howl very long before she starts coughing, which makes it that much cuter. I have to say that Perdi is smarter than I give her credit for, since she has been picking things up from Pongo lately. She just prefers to use her wisdom the destruction of things rather than to do tricks and other fun things. :)

Scaredy Dogs

2009-11-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

Our dogs are scared of cats. It's a fact of life. Pongo spotted a cat in our yard after we got home from a family walk last night. He howled and howled, but wouldn't go near it! I believe the reason for this is that he and Perdi were both exposed to our cats Zenda and Cali (who live in Manhattan) at young ages. Zenda promptly swatted them in the head when the curious puppies got too close to her. They have been scarred for life and scared of all felines ever since. Even metal ones.

They were getting braver by the time we took this video. I wish we had grabbed the camera sooner. It was so funny watching them run and howl at a metal cat decoration!

By the way, if you can't see it, there is a tennis ball underneath the cat that they are trying to work up the courage to snatch. I think we say something about it in the video, but it makes more sense if you know what they are trying to do.

Answer: Winter

2009-10-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

The question I posed as the title of my last blog entry has been answered. It's winter! I'm sitting at my house this morning with a good cup of coffee and plenty of time for a good blog, which is somewhat rare these days (the time for blogging, not the coffee). It has been snowing constantly since about 7 pm tuesday night and continues to do so as I write. Needless to say, 14 inches of snow is nothing I want to drive in, 4WD or no.

The snow on our deck yesterday afternoon.

I took this picture when I got home from work yesterday. The roads actually weren't very bad yet (just wet) and I'm glad I got in a full day of work while I could!

This is the same exact bush this morning. I am usually pretty brave when it comes to the snow and getting to work since I live closer to the office than many of my co-workers. This was definitely enough snow to keep me home.

I know there are not 14 inches on top of the fence, but I don't think that much snow could even balance up there. Our fence is a 6 ft privacy fence, and granted the snow has drifted quite a bit up against it. But this is just crazy for the first "snow event" of the winter!

Our little grill is almost buried! We should probably take pity on it and move it into the garage.

Matt dug a path off the deck for the dogs. Our poor pups can barely see over the top of the snow when they get out in the yard! Pongo has it all figured out though. He knows where the ground slopes upward, so he heads that way and the snow only comes up to his chest there.

To illustrate what the road condidtions are like this morning, i took this picture of our street.

Sorry that this is a little out of order...I took this last night and thought it was a pretty cool picture with the snow falling.

This is a video of Perdi running around in the snow yesterday. She does love snow, but it makes her really hyper.

Perdi is stir crazy today. Luckily Matt took them to the dog park tuesday afternoon. I knew they wouldn't be able to get out and run for a couple days anyway. We took them for a walk/jog up to the Albertsons yesterday evening, but it's hard to really get anywhere by foot or car today, so we're trying to keep her subdued with bones, toys and playing fetch indoors. She has already gotten into many things, including one of Matt's ski gloves. :( She didn't do too much damage before I caught her though.

Well I do have to venture out today in a little while. I am scheduled to have my permanent crown put on and I don't want to delay that any longer. I want to be done with that dentist! Plus my temporary one is broken. Thank goodness the dentist is just down the street, I have 4WD, and the Denver road crews are working their magic clearing the streets as best as they can. I sure wish I could get one of them to come dig the car out of the garage though!

UPDATE: Matt had the day off already since he worked last weekend. He shoveled half the driveway so I could get out and go to the dentist. I made it there and back just fine, but my permanent crown didn't fit right so I have to go back AGAIN after they have it modified. It's days like this that made me so glad we own an SUV. The Highlander does very well in the snow but it is not infallable, as I learned a few weeks ago when I had trouble stopping on a downhill slope before the roads had been treated.

It is so nice to have some time to spend holed up with my husband and my dogs. I am also glad to have some extra time to work on a project that is due for my class on Tuesday. This snow is definitely a mixed blessing!

Fall or Winter?

2009-10-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

We have had a pretty uneventful weekend here, which allowed me to get caught up on many of the things I have been meaning to do for weeks now. It was great to pick up Matt from the airport on Friday after his technologically challenged week. I wasn't sure how I was going to know when to leave the 45 minute parking area to pick him up, (we cheat and do our pick-ups at the departures place because arrivals is always a zoo) but I figured the worst thing that could happen was that I would circle the airport a few times until he showed up at our designated spot.
Our plan ended up being that Matt would call me from a pay phone, with the instructions for me not to answer so that he got his money back. :) I know, we are cheaters of the system, but it worked without a hitch! We had a nice evening in, since we were both exhausted from the week. I mustered up enough energy to make a steak dinner though, and then ended up having to clean up too because I was in trouble for watching the season premier of Grey's Anatomy without Matt. I couldn't help it...it was just taunting me to watch it on the DVR! So while Matt watched, I cleaned up and made brownies as a peace offering. :)
Saturday wasn't as relaxing as I would have hoped. Matt had to work and I am babysitting some image transfers at work, so I ended up going in for a while too. But before that I went running and took the dogs to the dog park so that they would be good for me at work (I usually bring them with me when I go in on the weekends.) It turns out that the dog park wasn't really necessary. While Pongo mildly enjoyed it as he usually does, Perdi was tired and lagging behind the whole time. She was so tired that she could barely make the jump back up into the Highlander when we were done. She slept the whole time we were at work too, which was when I knew something is definitely off with her. Usually, the dog park wakes her up and makes her hyper.
Question: Can dogs get colds? Can they get H1N1? Perdi has continued to sleep the ENTIRE weekend and she has major drainage from her nose. She also won't eat. This time, I am not making the mistake of going to the emergency vet. (It's not an emergency if she's just sweet and snuggly, right?) I figure we will just ride this one out and call the vet tomorrow if it's really necessary. I swear, our dogs see their doctor more than Matt and I do!
I have spent a good chunk of last night and tonight catching up on school work. I am really enjoying Penn State's program. It's paced much better and the materials are certainly way more relevant to my job. I can't fathom what kind of state of mind I would be in right now if I had continued with my Aeronautical Engineering class at Purdue.
Now, I will explain why I titled this post the way I did. This afternoon, I spent a delightful two hours raking up leaves in our front yard. It was a great afternoon to do it...the leaves were slightly damp but not soaked. (They were heavy enough that they were easy to grab without them flying all over the place.)
The funny thing was that it was pretty cold out and it was snowing off and on the entire time, which made me wonder if it is really fall or if we have moved straight into winter? We have already had a couple decent snows over the past two weeks. It just seems like it went from being in the 70's and 80's straight into the 40's and 50's. It's like we skipped a major interval in there!
Well anyway, the small-ish tree in our front yard somehow manages to produce an exorbinant amount of leaves and I filled 10 of those huge paper lawn and refuse bags, as well as one large rubbermaid trash barrell. At the end, I was starting to wonder if 10 bags were going to be enough or if I would have to run back to Home Depot for more. As soon as I was done raking, I went inside and took a shower to warm back up. I don't think I was in there for more than 20 minutes, but when I got out, i happened to notice that our skylight was covered in a layer of snow and it hadn't been before. (None of the previous snow sessions had really stuck.) Sure enough, I looked out the window and everything had been transformed into a winter wonderland in 30 minutes! I finished raking just in time, apparently. I took the opportunity to take a little nap on the couch under a pile of blankets with my sick little puppy.
All in all, I'd call it a productive weekend! I can't believe tomorrow is Monday already...

What did we do before cell phones?

2009-10-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

If you are trying to get ahold of Matt and can't seem to reach him lately, please keep reading to find out why! If not, keep reading anyway! This is a pretty good story, at least in my mind.
It seems Matt and I can't do anything the simple way sometimes. As some of you may know, he is in Madison, WI for a few days of training for his new job. This week has turned out to be one of the longest weeks I can remember in a while. I'll tell you why:
As it starts out, Matt decided to charge his cell phone in the car during the drive to DIA. He left Tuesday evening, so I was able to drive him up there and drop him off. We were lucky when we got to the airport, as it wasn't very crowded at all in departures. I ran in to the terminal to use the restroom real quick as I knew I would hit bad traffic on the way home. When I got back, I said goodbye to Matt and headed home. As I was sitting in stop and go traffic on I-225, I heard a vibrating sound coming from the console. I looked down and saw Matt's phone, still on the charger. He was calling it from a pay phone. My heart immediately sank. I was already 20 minutes out from the airport and with a little over 40 minutes until his flight was sheduled to take off, I knew there was no way I could get turned around and back up to the airport and park with enough time to make sure he got his phone before the plane left. And even if I did, how would we get it through security?
I figured if I could find a post office before 6 pm, I could overnight the phone to him. But it was 5:45 and traffic wasn't moving at all. I knew I wouldn't make it to the post office by our house in time, so I got off the highway and drove around for a while looking for another one. I passed TWO PetCo's and three Wal-Marts, but not one post office. All in all, it was a frustrating and un-productive evening. I gave up and went home.
Soon, I started getting texts from Matt somehow. It turns out, he had downloaded a texting application on his i-Pod. Well that was a start...we are used to communicating through texts after the past year. At least he could text me when he landed and got to the hotel so I could call him there.
The solution couldn't possibly be as simple as an iPod texting app. Sure enough, yesterday Matt's iPod goofed up and won't work again until it hooks up to his own home computer. He could try to hook it up to the laptop he is borrowing from the hospital, but since he didn't login to it while it was on the hospital's network, it doesn't recognize his username and passwork. He can't even use the laptop! He is locked out of it. Are you all laughing by now? :)
Poor Matt. He has no way to entertain himself in the evening, except the TV in his room and the computer in the hotel lobby. I know he has also been out walking/running around the hotel. He walked to Target last night and said he was ALMOST tempted to buy a Netbook. It's probably best that he didn't though...with his luck with technology this week, we wouldn't want to ruin a brand new laptop somehow!
Not being able to talk or at least text him has made this week drag. I hate knowing that I can't get ahold of him if I really need him and I miss getting a quick text every now and again from him, telling me what he is up to.
SO, if you can't get ahold of Matt, this should explain why. Don't worry, he is doing fine and enjoying his training. But all of this has really made me ponder how we even functioned before cell phones!

In A Blink

2009-10-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well I blinked and half of October passed by. How is it possible for time to pass so quickly sometimes? My best guess is it's because we've had so many awesome visitors in the past couple weeks. So guess what? Another huge picture purge is awaiting you later in this post.
I must say, with my lack of posts lately, I feel like I have been getting away from keeping you all updated with the events going on. I put up pictures way late, after I have forgotten many of the things I meant to say. I am hoping that after Matt and I get in to more of a routine with our new schedule, I'll be able to update with more regularity and more detail. Right now, I am trying desperately to cling to the things that are high on my priority list (primarily school and daily running) and adding things like cooking dinner and making sure that the dogs get plenty of excersize since they are cooped up a lot more now. I find that by the time all is said and done, it is so easy to put off a quick blog post in exchange for a relaxing hour of TV time or even just falling into a dead sleep in the comfort of my bed. :)

So, without further ado about my shortcomings as a blogger, here are some pictures as of late.

Two weekends ago, Amanda came out for a weekend in Denver. Apparently, we only documented her trip on Liz's camera...I only had four pictures on Matt's that were post-worthy. But I definitely love this one. I love that we are all still friends after all these years.

We spent an evening at Dave and Buster's, which is basically an arcade for adults. Matt and Liz's friend Tristan (pictured here) enjoyed this virtual game of some sort. Matt won 430 tickets playing Deal or No Deal. And it turns out that if he had kept going, he would have won 800 tickets! I only wish I had that kind of luck!

The next day, we took a drive up in the mountains because it had been cloudy and cold and I was determined for Amanda to see the mountains. Well even up in them, you couldn't see much. It was so cold, as you can tell. But Amanda and I still dipped our toes in the water.

It was actually really cool to see a layer of frost (not snow!) all over the trees. It was kind of an eerie sort of pretty. Matt and I had never seen anything like it yet out here, but we don't usually take that drive any other time of the year but summer.

We also spent quite a bit of time downtown eating, talking, and getting pedicures at the most random hole-in-the wall nail place that possibly exists in Denver. But my toes STILL look pretty, which is awesome. Other highlights include going to a movie and watching the KU football game on TV while wrapped up in blankets. Poor Amanda...she really didn't get to see much "nice" weather the whole weekend.

I know this is a pathetic write-up of her visit. Like I said, the detailed posts are something I really need to work on. I write it all in my head as I experience things, and then it all escapes because I don't blog fast enough! Oh well, we had a fantastic weekend all in all.

We had another visitor last weekend. Anne, my roommate from college, came out primarily for the KU-CU football game in Boulder. Just call us Hotel Millard!

Apparently, we didn't take any pictures at our tailgate either. But it was because we were too busy having fun. Carlene, Nick, Becky (our 4th roommate my junior year), Becky's friend Christy, Dave, Mary, Todd and others all showed up to show their KU spirit. Unfortunately, KU lost a heartbreaking game. That definitely put a damper on the evening.

Sunday before Anne left, we went up to the mountains, again on our favorite drive into Golden, along Clear Creek. The weather was much more cooperative at 70 degrees! The river was beautiful and sparkly.

...except Anne had an unfurtunate encounter with the creek when a rock she was standing on tilted as she stepped off of it. :(

After lunch at Woody's in Golden, we drove up to Lookout Mountain above Golden. We got some great pictures and saw some fantastic views. I love this one of Matt. He looks like he's the king of the world!

Me, above Golden.

We tried on some funny hats in the gift shop at Buffalo Bill's grave. I laughed so hard I cried when Anne put on this one.

Anne "Annie Oakley" is shooting at me, "Buffalo Bill" here. I was supposed to be looking scared, but's more of a mean face.

Matt let me be Annie in this one. I think my head looks abnormally large though. :)

I am so fortunate to have so many friends come out and visit lately. It's wonderful to see familiar faces...we haven't been home to Kansas since July! Poor Matt though...I think he is ready for some male company after having so many girls around. :)

Strange and Good

2009-10-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

Matt has been home at night for almost a week now and I thought I would share some of my thoughts on how we've been doing so far. Needless to say, I am so happy that our schedules match up better, allowing us to spend more time together. It will take some time for this to feel "normal" to me though. My mind keeps thinking this is just short term. We have made the best of our evenings, with a trip to the dog park and lots of catching up on past seasons of shows we used to watch together. (I can't believe I missed a whole season of Grey's Anatomy! It's SOOO good!)
Other than that, not a lot has changed on my end. I have continued to run and do a lot of my normal evening routines (like messing around on Facebook). We have been cooking dinner and eating in together every night so far, which i absolutely love. I have not had much motivation to cook evening meals for the past year. It seemed silly to cook for myself, even though Matt enjoys leftovers. I can tell I am going to run out of dinner ideas quickly, so I better start browsing all of my cookbooks and recipes from the wedding/showers for some new ideas.
The dogs are not as happy with the new arrangement. They have to spend a lot more time in their kennels, although we are going to spoil them and let them socialize at doggy day care once a week. That's where they are today because Matt and I have a softball league game tonight and we didn't want to confine them all day and evening. They seem to be fine as long as they get out the park when we get home. Pongo has seemed a bit depressed ever since Matt and I started business traveling in August. He worries me...he's such a smart and emotional dog.
I am wondering if we will even will end up having our softball game tonight...it's cloudy, misty and forecasted to snow today and tonight! I love Denver...three weeks ago it was sunny and mid 80's! Now it's practically winter. I can't wait to ski!
I guess if you want to hear more about our new lives/schedules, you will have to pester Matt to write a post of his own here. I know he likes his job so far, and I am really hoping it continues to be that way. The best way to describe things right now is strange and good.
I may be posting again this evening...I have an appointment with my horrible dentist this afternoon to hopefully finish my crown. Hopefully it goes better this time and I come home with no stories to blog about. (I.e., her accidentally drilling my tongue instead of my tooth, like last time.)

Festivals and Races

2009-10-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick post of some highlights from the past couple weekends.

On Sept. 26, we had fun attending the Great American Beer Festival. Uncle John sent us some tickets to the Members' Only afternoon session and we had a blast. We hung out at the Boulevard booth a lot, but we also sampled many other good brews and some not so good ones as well! There was just about every type of beer, and every flavor to try. For example, Matt had a peanut butter beer...I wasn't brave enough to try it!

This past Sunday, we participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. First off, I really want to thank Bill, Barbara and Arlene for donating to this excellent cause. You all gave us extra motivation to get up out of our warm bed at 5 am on Sunday morning and head downtown to run the 5K.

It was REALLY cold before the sun came up, which was right about the time the race started at 7 am. We wore our sweats and coats for as long as possible, but eventually we had to depart with them. Thank goodness one of Matt's co-workers knew one of the vendors, so we could leave our stuff safely in a tent.

Here is our group of 5K runners after the run. The capes are kind of a funny story. We went to a booth before the run and the people told us to do something goofy and they would give us the capes. So Matt did a cartwheel in the middle of Auraria Parkway (it was blocked off from traffic). So the 5 of us ran in our pink capes.

There were 62, 000 participants in the run, walk and family walk, which all took place at different times, thank goodness. The run alone was hard because we didn't even start running for the first few minutes due to the course being so crowded! They shut down an entire section of downtown Denver for this event. At one point, we were even running on an on/off ramp for I-25! That sure is something that doesn't happen every day!

We took the light rail so that we didn't have to mess with parking. There were many other riders dressed in pink as well. They had extra trains lined up to accomodate all of the people!

I had so much fun at the race. I am definitely going to participate in it again next year!

October Welcome

2009-10-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

I am having a hard time believing that it is already October! This whole year has passed so quickly! The weather seems to have changed in sync with the month...the high today is 51 here and I broke out my first sweater of the season to wear to work! The wind started picking up last night as Liz and I left the Rockies game and continued through the night. In fact, the wind gave us quite a scare this morning.
After my shower, I got the dogs up to take them out to potty. As I walked down the stairs, I sensed that something wasn't quite right. It was cold and drafty and I could hear the wind very clearly. When I got to the entryway, I saw that both of our front doors were standing wide open! I got really freaked out and thought someone had broken in, and that there was someone in the house so I ran back upstairs and woke up Matt.
Well it turns out that everything was fine, and the wind blew the doors open. Matt deadbolted them back in place and went back to bed. I am very thankful that we live in such a safe neighborhood. But I was still shaking even as I drove to work a half hour later. Who knows how long those doors were standing wide open!
What a crazy morning...I'm looking forward to a breezy walk in the dog park this afternoon followed by a quiet, cozy evening at home.

The Final Countdown

2009-09-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

This week marks the final week of Matt and I working opposite shifts! We have been planning all of the things we are going to do together once we finally have our evenings back. Among these include making dinner together, watching Thursday night TV, working out/running, (I am hoping Matt will inspire me to lift weights because I am doing pretty well by myself in the running department) and GOING TO BED BEFORE 11 PM! The going to bed earlier part is what I am particularly looking forward to, besides just getting to spend more time with Matt in general.
The dogs are going to be unhappy for a while. It's going to be an adjustment for them to be in their kennels during the day. In preparation of this, we bought Pongo a bigger kennel. He still has had some issues with his kennel, so we thought a bigger one might help. I really just wish we could leave them out around the house. I still think that day will come eventually. As for now, it seems I can't even leave them alone in the yard for 30 minutes!
When i got back from my run tonight, I found our neighbors' son desperately trying to grab on to Pongo while Perdi tried to dig herself out from under the gate. Apprently, a cord of wood and a large blue trash can stacked up against the gate can't even keep our dogs in the yard! They dug under the gate, moved the trash can and ran all the way around the block to our backyard neighbors' house. And this is the second time in a week it has happened. There is no containing those beagles.
Matt and I signed up to do the Race for the Cure on Sunday. We will be getting up early to run a 5k and support a good cause. I hope that all my 5k training pays off, but it will be fun to get up and join in the fun. Really, I just want get a better time than Matt. :) The thing I am most excited for this run is that the race takes places downtown at the Pepsi Center, so the trail is bound to be nice and FLAT!

Nashville!

2009-09-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

A little over a week ago, I got back from a fabulous weekend in Nashville! I went out to visit Amanda, one of my very best friends from high school (and that still stands today, of course!) and her sister, Megan. They had all kinds of plans for my weekend visit. I collected lots of pictures to share since it was my first time to ever visit Nashville.

Friday, we did some sight seeing. This is one of the signature buildings in the skyline. It's nicknamed the "batman" building. I thought it was awesome and I have several pictures of it.

Another view of batman's towers. :)

This is more of downtown Nashville, where a lot of the "honky tonks" are. The Stage is a pretty famous one. I must say that all of the groups I heard playing could have fooled me for big-time country acts. Even a girl singing in a karaoke bar sounded like a pro!

Did you know that they moved the Parthenon to Nashville? Just kidding...but it's an exact replica!

These next couple pictures are of strange/interesting random things I spotted around town.

Huh? I've surely never seen a speed limit of 24 before!

A gas pump had a boulevard sticker on it!

I came home with some genuine cowboy boots. But before I got them home, I HAD to wear them out to the bars!

Singin along to some country tunes...so much fun! It's fun to go out and hear some country music once in a while, but they played other stuff too!

Me and Manda...I miss her!

Megan and her boyfriend Jim were so much fun! Jim was a great sport and drove us girls around town and Megan invited all of her buddies go out with us on Friday night so that we had a big fun group! It was awesome and all of her friends are very nice...and super smart! (They are all in the doctoral program at Vanderbilt.)

Saturday, we attended a wine festival on the river. It was a gorgeous day in general...

...with the exception of some intermittent showers. Good thing we had the ponchos!

The view was incredible...the river below us and the skyline around us! And the wine was fantastic too. :)

Other highlights of the weekend were touring the Grand Ole Opry at Opryland, having breakfast with Becky, a friend/roommate from college, sampling sushi and watching line dancers and live music at the Wild Horse Saloon downtown. I honestly can't figure out how people know how to line dance. I am lucky I figured out how to do the Electric Slide! I was very impressed.

Amanda is coming out for a Denver visit in two weeks, so the pressure is on to top the fun weekend I had in Nashville when she comes out here! I am so excited for her visit. It is awesome that we get to spend a weekend together two months in a row! Thanks for a fantastic weekend, Manda and Megan!

A Cute One

2009-09-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

By popular request, I am going to post a photo from two weekends ago. Actually, I asked Matt to post these since they are on his camera/computer, but he didn't get to it before he left. In his defense, he did have to work and take care of the dogs since I was away in Nashville this past weekend. I am working on a post from my trip, but in the mean time, enjoy these photos!

Let's play a game: In the above picture, which of these "people" do not belong?

If you guessed this one, you are correct! It was the funniest thing. Pongo decided he wanted some French toast too, so the second Matt got up to clear his plate, Pongo hopped up in his chair! But he just sat there and waited, like someone was going to serve him a plate. He was very patient and polite. If he could talk, I bet he would have even said "please." I think that dog thinks he is TOO human sometimes. It's our fault...we spoil our dogs. But we do not let them sit at the table, or even eat human food for that matter, so this was pretty entertaining.

Perdi thinks she is a human as well. She curled up in the freshly made guest bed and even laid her head on the pillow. What are we going to do with these guys?

Visitors and a Legacy

2009-09-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

It was fun to have Arlene and Ron out here for a couple days last weekend! Of course I didn't take enough pictures, but we just relaxed most of the time. They got here Friday a little before noon. It was a gorgeous sunny day, only around 72 degrees out. I couldn't stand to sit at work and since I already had quite a bit of overtime, I took off around 1 pm. We ended up taking a walk through the dog park to enjoy the weather. Perdi made us all laugh with her yelping as she chased Pongo around. She's quite loud when she gets going, but it's cute.

I made one of our favorite chicken/pasta dinners Friday night after we went to do a little wine tasting. We also had fresh bread from the bread machine, which I enjoy making but don't do enough of it!

I was ready for bed at 9:45 pm, which is pretty early for me. But after the wine and the food, my body was craving sleep! Saturday, we drove Ron and Arlene around Denver to show them where we work. We also had lunch at Pat's, our favorite cheesesteak restaurant. We watched some football in the afternoon and then went downtown on the light rail for dinner at the Chop House. It was SOOO good. Very fancy too.

They left Sunday before noon, after a breakfast of French toast. We sent them off with a bag of snacks for the road. :) It was a bit of a role-reversal, as Matt and I are usually the ones who get the breakfast and bag of food before we drive back to Denver.

Sunday afternoon, I went for a run and noticed that the tall mountains were capped with snow. It is becoming one of my favorite things to see the first snow in the mountains from town. I was very excited...ski season will be upon us soon!

The other excitement of the weekend is that I won in BOTH of my fantasy football leagues. It was pretty close in one of them...but it is pretty uncommon that I win so much right off the bat. I hope this keeps up!
__________________________________

I have been captivated lately by the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, so I thought I would write a bit about my thoughts on this tonight. I know his death occurred a couple weeks ago, but the health care debate has been raging on since then and he was such a huge proponent of health care reform.

I have never before been really captivated by the whole Kennedy family, at least not to the degree that our parents' generation was. I am mostly claiming ignorance here...I just have never done much research on the Kennedy's. Most of their tragedies occurred before I was born. In fact, I didn't even know that Ted was the youngest of the Kennedy brothers! How sad is that.

I have been learning much about Ted and the Kennedy family lately, after reading an article in People Magazine about senator Kennedy's life. He is also a pretty common topic in some of the podcasts I am listening to, which I am a couple weeks behind in. Of particular interest to me is the fact that Ted Kennedy had been a senator for 46 years. This is incomprehensible to me. The man had been in office for 20 years already when I was BORN!

I know he had many downfalls, including the whole incident at Chappaquiddick and lots of drinking problems. But I was touched to hear about his compassion for the sick and uninsured people of the U.S., and that he really got involved in health care reform when his son Ted, Jr. was sick with cancer. He met many people who couldn't afford their health care, and felt so grateful that he could afford health care for Ted Jr's cancer treatment, that he devoted the rest of his senatorial career to fixing health care in America. In addition, Ted Kennedy also helped some people pay for their medical treatments from his own pocket.

I am really glad that I have taken a few hours lately to research and learn about the Kennedys. I think I understand more about the fascination previous generations had with the family. I have definitely been swept up in it as of late. I can't help but feel that with Ted Kennedy's death (and Eunice Kennedy Shriver's death a few weeks ago), the end of a major political legacy has come. However, I do hope that our leaders continue to dilligently work on the issues with our health care system in the near future with the same passion as Senator Kennedy has done for the past 46 years.

Yale Alum

2009-09-07T19:31:00.000-07:00

I hope you all enjoyed Alissa's guest blog. I certainly did, and I hope she comes back soon (to visit and to blog)!

Matt and I got back safely on Monday after a wonderful 3 day camping trip to the Collegiate Peaks. If any of you fellow Coloradans (or anyone for that matter) out there have not experienced this area, let me tell you that it is absolutely one of the most beautiful areas of Colorado that there is to see.

Saturday, we got to our campsite around noon and got everything set up. We had a whole afternoon ahead of us, so we decided to go for a 6.5 mile hike with the dogs. I am kicking myself for forgetting the name of the trail. It was a beautiful hike, and not overly strenuous. Here are a few pictures. Most of them are of me because Matt takes much better pictures than I do with his camera. :)

Perdi basically pulled me along the entire way. She has so much energy. But more on that in a little bit...

There was a beautiful lake at the top, but we didn't stay long because of the impending storm clouds. Even I won't tempt mother nature on top of a mountain.

Saturday night, we went to bed pretty early because we had a big hike ahead of us Sunday: Mt. Yale, elevation 14, 202 ft!

I wasn't sure if we would finish the hike because of the dogs. I didn't know if they could make it up a 14,000 ft peak. This is the top of Yale, before we got above tree line.

They have had the Lepto vaccination, so we let them drink from the stream.

As soon as we broke through the tree line, the views were INCREDIBLE. It was like we were literally on top of the world. You could see forever.

The summit of Mt. Yale, covered in clouds.

Still hanging in there after, a couple hours in.

We were literally scrambling up rocks and dirt to get to the top. It took us 4 hours, but we finally got close to the top. We still had some bouldering to do after we got to this point. The dogs were doing pretty good at climbing over the rocks, but when we got about 25 feet from the very very top, I started getting really freaked out. I was clinging to these rocks and all I could see around me was sky and mountains in the distance.

I don't usually get scared of heights, but I guess I learned that when there is nothing around to catch me if I fall, I freeze up. I know I was also worried about Pongo and Perdi falling off the mountain, so that didn't help at all.

Mt. Harvard was covered in storms. This is exactly what you DON'T want to get stuck in. Mt. Princeton looked about the same. We were lucky....Yale was clear when we got to the top. But we didn't stay too long because the storms were moving fast.

We did manage to eat a quick lunch and rest our legs for a few minutes. I knew I couldn't make it back down without some nourishment and some rest. It was an intense hike, to say the least.

Here we are at the top...beagles and all! I was so proud of them for making it to the top. I could see that Pongo was getting tired. He would sit or lay down whenever we stopped for a break. Perdi, on the other hand, pulled us to the top. Which ever one of us was holding her leash would get way ahead of the other. When we tried to stop and catch our breath, she was tugging at her leash to keep on going! I could not believe how much energy she had. This was one time I was happy to have her instead of Pongo (who is ususally better on the leash).

View looking down from the top of Yale.

Anybody know what this little guy is?

On the way down, we had to let Perdi off her leash. She was tugging so hard that she was making Matt lose his balance. She was excited for the freedom and discovered a marmont on some rocks! It was "chirping" (that's the best description I can come up with) at her. She didn't quite know what to think about this weird creature that kept taunting her. I did not want her going near it (I don't know how aggressive they are), so we finally got her back on the leash. It was still cool to get to see a marmont so close up.

In all, the hike to the top and back down took us 6.5 hours including breaks. We were so tired when we got back and immediately hopped in the tent for a nap.

I guess it takes a 1/2 day hike to the top of a 14,000 ft tall mountain to really wear Perdi out. But she was TIRED.

I am still incredibly sore from the hike 3 days later. I went for a run yesterday thinking that it would help. I didn't feel much pain during the run, but the moment I got home, the pain returned. I haven't been this sore since the first time we skiied last November. Hopefully skiing won't hurt so much now.

It was sad to leave the campsite. I couldn't help but think that it is probably our last campout of the summer. I love camping in the mountains so much. Especially in the Collegiate Peaks at 10,000 feet.

This week, Matt and I are preparing for a visit from Arlene and Ron. They will get here Friday and stay for the weekend. We can't wait to show them our (hopefully clean) house and our favorite places around Denver! Speaking of which...I better get back to the house. This is a great opportunity for de-cluttering and getting out the fall decoractions!

A Guest Blog by Matt & Laura's Favorite Guest

2009-09-04T17:53:00.000-07:00

Hi from Kansas!

This is Alissa Millard, sister/in-law of Matt and Laura, the most recent visitor of these two wonderful people, and most importantly their most awesome and favorite guest! I don't know why, but Laura has trusted me to guest blog about my week out there. This will be fun! Coincidentally I'm wearing my Denver shirt right now.
Can you tell we're siblings?! What is Matt lookin at?

I jumped at the chance of getting a cheap flight to Denver even though I had no money to begin with! I can't pass up an opportunity to see the mountains and some amazing family. I got there on a Friday evening (not the best time to be picked up at the Denver airport by your very kind sister-in-law, fyi) and stayed until Thursday afternoon. I was treated like royalty the entire time. These two people know how to make you feel at home! It was wonderful. We had a great time doing lots of things, but to be honest we could sit around doing nothing and still have a wonderful time.

Laura took me to the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown right away since Matt was working. It was great to be down there at night and to have good conversation. Saturday we set off an adventure. I was going to really camp for the first time in my life. The last time I was out we tried but didn't reserve a spot in time. Well, the gods are most certainly against me being in their wilderness. I don't think I'm that much of a threat, but they made sure that everyone in a 100 mile radius was camping in all of our prospective spots! However, I had never seen this part of Colorado before and it was gorgeous. Pongo was a little stressed, though. I know it was frustrating and I was a little bummed we didn't get to camp, but I still enjoyed the day. Plus, we spent the night trying different beers, eating a cookie, and playing BigBuck Hunter at Old Chicago! :) Sunday made up for our disappointment on Saturday. We went to Breck for the alpine slide and a fabulous hike. Matt reminded me of one reason he is arguably (after me of course) the most awesome person I know with his freestyle walking talent. Even with a few minor trips. The drive back was especially beautiful as we all experienced Loveland Pass together. That is truly an AWEsome scenic drive.

Pongo wanted to check his fan-mail.

I always see a little bit of the little kid in Matt. :)

This was on our hike. We took a break to numb our feet in the creek.

I love pictures of the dogs play fighting! Pongo especially looks so vicious.

The rest of the week was fun because I got to be with Matt and Laura individually and together. Of course being with the puppies was great as well! I love them. Matt and I cooked lunch one day, Laura and I went out to dinner twice, and we watched some movies and TV. Laura's kickball game was entertaining and enjoyable to watch. We went on a few walks and Matt and I took the puppies to the dog park one day. They were very misbehaved for that hour! Laura usually gets the misbehaved dogs, as they are sleepy and cuddly and perfect all day, then get excited at night. Most days while Laura was still at work and Matt had left, the dogs and I cuddled on the couch together while I read - perfect!

Perdi did not want me to leave. I was sad to go.

THANK YOU to Matt and Laura for being the best hosts, as well as brother and sister-in-law. The conversation was great and so was the beer. :) I will be back soon. Until then, signing off.

Peace, Alissa

Outblogged

2009-09-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

I certainly can't let my husband out-blog me this month. He already has 2 posts in September! So I figured it was about time to get on here and write something. The thing is, the words just aren't coming to me tonight. And I don't really have a lot of pictures either. I will after this weekend though! Matt and I will be spending our Labor Day weekend camping in the Collegiate Peaks at 10,000 ft, despite many other invitations and goings-on that we could/should be attending. Sometimes, you just gotta get away. We seem to be doing that every chance we get these days! Perhaps we'll be a more social couple once we get on the same schedule.

Anyhow, I thought I would also take the time to write a few notes on my business trip to Dayton. It was a pretty routine week for the most part. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to train. Luckily, there were only three of them and one guy probably knew as much or more than I did, which helped a lot! A week of business travel was a little overwhelming, mostly because I spent so much time at work, or at least with work people. My brain didn't have much time to decompress. Also, it was really hard to eat out three meals a day for a week. My body did not like that at all. I like having the chance to eat at least one light meal a day.

Lucikly, the hotel where I was staying was right across from Wright State University, which offered a safe place to run in the evenings. Literally, it seemed there was a police car on patrol around every corner I turned. Looking back, that could have been a sign that i was NOT in a safe place. But I never got that impression, and I returned to the hotel safely each night, which I suppose is what matters in the end.

Here is the Wright State Campus...one of the few pictures I had a chance to snap.

It was really pretty in the sunset.

Toward the end of the week, I almost felt like I actually worked/belonged in the Dayton office. I was so used to getting up and going to work there and seeing that group of people. I was really glad to get to meet so many of the co-workers I interact with on a daily basis via phone and/or email. It's nice to be able to picture who I am talking to on the phone now.

One of the highlights of the week was having dinner with Jaime, Andrew and Abigail on Wednesday. We had dinner at the Olive Garden, which is always one of my favorites. I can't belive how big Abigail is getting. She is talking a lot too, but she wouldn't say my name. :( I am so glad that they could make the drive up to Dayton!

On Thursday evening, we headed to a Mexican restaurant for a farewell dinner. I thought this sign was funny.

Why would they need to advertise this fact? Yikes. Well, the food and margaritas were good anyway. :)

It was good to get back to the Denver office and the familiar faces, but the week in Dayton was definitely good and productive. I think everyone is trained and on the same page, so we are ready get down to the grind and finish these airports now.

That's all you're going to get from me tonight folks! I am plum tuckered out. I'll be sure to snap lots of camping pictures this weekend and try to get them up...within the next month. :)

Recent Developments

2009-08-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

It was strange coming home tonight to no Matt. He has been home both Tuesday and Wednesday night, as those were his days off. I could definitely get used to having him home at night! It will be that way in about a month though. We are getting close!
I am not really thrilled with the hospital right now...it seems they have to make things as bad as possible for us before Matt switches to days. (I know this is not on purpose, it seems like they have thrown a lot our way lately.) They switched his days off (normally Thursday and Friday) to Tuesday and Wednesday. It was just nice for him to have a 4 day weekend after working so many days straight. Also, he has to stay at work until 11 pm now (a half an hour later than normal) because they suddenly felt that there was too much overlap with the day shift. Add to that the fact that he will be gone a total of a month for training between now and December...
I just keep telling myself it will all be worth it when things are finally back to normal. And it will. I do have to admit that it was really nice to have Matt be able to go to my last kickball game with me last night. I think our team captain was successful in recruiting him for next summer. It didn't take much convincing. :)
After starting my second Master's class this week, I have officially decided to switch programs. I am really frustrated with the lack of classes available to distance students. Both semesters, I have enrolled in classes that I am excited about, only to be told a week before the semester starts that they are not offering the distance section due to lack of enrollment. This semester, I was re-assigned to a class that is completely over my head and not of real interest to me.
On the bright side, I am switching to Penn State's GIS Master's program where they offer every class every semester. The classes are only 10 weeks long and I will finish the program 2 years faster than I would at Purdue. AND there is a girl that I work with who is starting the program as well, so I will have someone to study with. I feel so much better about this change, even though I love Purdue as a whole.
Looking over the Penn State course list, I can already see how much more relevant they will be to my everyday work life. Honestly, I don't now how I am going to be able to pick two elective classes out of the list of 10. I want to take them all!
So that's about all i have for tonight. There is plenty more to blog about, including my trip to Dayton and our upcoming list of activities and visitors. So much is going on...I feel like the summer has flown by in an instant. Soon it will be time to break out the ski gear again...

Finally, A New One

2009-08-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

The rush of life is certainly surrounding me right now. But as I noted on Facebook tonight, I love the feeling of being busy, of having a purpose. Today, I spent over 11 hours at work...they went by in a flash. That usually never happens unless I'm busy and don't look at the clock. I am starting to really understand and appreciate my job. Or maybe I just have a renewed outlook on things after spending a week in the corporate headquarters in Dayton.
Anyhow, I have several blogs I have been meaning to publish for a couple weeks now, so I'll get started with the first. I am feeling a bit groggy tonight, so the rest of this blog will consist primarily of pictures from Alissa's third visit to Denver. As I said, this was a couple weeks ago. But better late than never!
On Friday night, I picked Alissa up from the airport and we headed downtown to grab a bite to eat. It was such a beautiful evening and we sat outside and watched the random people walk by. There were some interesting ones for sure...

Saturday, we tried to go camping. Matt and I weren't prepared and hadn't reserved a campsite, so we decided to drive up and look for one. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a SINGLE campsite, and gave up after driving around all day. I think all of Denver must have been camping that weekend...

Here is Perdi riding along with all of our camping gear.

Sunday, we went up to Breckenridge to ride the Alpine slide. (This is becoming one of my favorite places to take people.) We also went for a hike.

Here's Matt attempting to "freestyle walk" in the woods...and failing. :)

This one is pretty cool.

On our way back, we drove up over Loveland Pass. It goes up above tree line and is SO beautiful. You can also see the mountains that make up part of the Continental Divide.

Atop Loveland pass.

Wednesday, Alissa came to kickball with me. She got some great city shots of the mountains.

This is the view of downtown from the kickball park. (Cuernavaca Park).

The crazy pitcher with mismatched socks.

An action shot of me kicking. We lost the game...:(

It is so fun when Alissa comes out here. I particularly love all of the great conversations we have. I couldn't ask for a better sister-in-law!
*Alissa, I think you should do a "guest blog" and post some of your pictures. Let me know if you are interested!

All In a Week

2009-08-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

Work life has been pretty crazy lately. Things are really getting into high gear on this year's airports and I am starting to realize just how many hours of overtime I will be putting in during the next 8 months or so. This is a good thing...as my supervisor says, "job security!" He and I will be heading to Dayton, OH next week to train our fellow photogrammetrists how to do the aerial airport surveys. I am a bit apprehensive, as this is my first official business travel and we will be gone a week! Not to mention the whole training part...I have a lot of things to finish up and prepare before we leave, including one incredibly difficult airport in the Appalacian mountains.
Purdue emailed me yesterday to tell me that they are cancelling the distance learning section of the remote sensing class I was going to take. They have done this both semesters I have been enrolled now, making me wonder how I will ever finish this degree. I really want to take the classes that pertain most to what I do, but that is proving to be rather difficult.
The funny thing is that they made me complete a "Plan of Study" to map out every class I would be taking each semester for the next 4 years. It had to be signed by my entire committee of advisors (four professors total). Every time I change the plan, they have to re-sign it, and considering I only have about half of the signatures I need just for the original plan and I submitted it in April, this is going to be another challenge if Purdue keeps cancelling the classes I have listed. I did get enrolled in another class, which I am positive is going to be a lot more of a headache. It's another satellite positioning class. It seems like I just can't avoid those, even though I had to drop the one I started last semester. I hope this one is better.
Through all of this craziness with work and school, it has been absolutely GREAT to have Alissa out here staying with us. She flew in last Friday evening and we have had some fun adventures since then. I will save those stories for another post. It will be sad to see her leave tomorrow...I am getting so used to having someone be at home with me in the evenings again! I know Matt enjoys having Alissa around in the mornings with him as well. It will be so nice when we get on the same schedule again! But we will still enjoy having guests at our house just as much. Perdi will also be upset when Alissa leaves. Her whole body shakes when she is wagging her tail around Alissa. Perdi also checks Alissa's door every morning when I take her and Pongo out, just to make sure that it's not open. She gets really excited when Alissa wakes up, so I hear.
Well that's about all the news I can think of for now. Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

Vacation Recap

2009-08-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

It's been really hard to find time to blog lately! So many things have been going on since we got back from Rhode Island...I am finally sitting down to recap our trip (before I forget everything!). I have plenty of pictures to share so get ready!

We left Denver bright and early on the 31st...and arrived in Newark, NJ 3.5 hours later, where we were delayed for another 4 hours. Ugh! We got a picture on the plane to Providence, but we were so tired of airports and planes by the time this photo was taken, and just tired in general.

We spent some time Friday night catching up and chatting on the porch. It was nice and cool (though pretty humid by our Denver standards!) and fun to catch up with Ted and Susie, who are good friends from college.

Saturday morning, we had an awesome breakfast at a local restaurant. This is my cheddar broccoli omelette...SO GOOD!

After breakfast, we walked through downtown Newport to burn off some of the food. We pretty much walked everywhere while we were there, which was wonderful especially since I didn't run once! :)

This is Ted and Susie's house. It was really close to downtown Newport, the beach, and pretty much everything!

Later on Saturday, we took a drive along the coast. It was so gorgeous. We stopped a Brenton Point and walked down the coast a bit. Matt got some great pictures of the waves crashing.

This is bagel the beagle, who came along on our coastline drive. She looks mean here but it's all an act. Bagel is a very sweet and well behaved beagle, by our standards!

Saturday night, we had a great time dancing the night away at the Dockside, which was a bar/club. They had a great cover band and we ended up standing right up at the front by the stage.

The Newport bridge on our Saturday tour of the Navy base.

Sunday, we walked along the Cliff Walk. It was really foggy and overcast...my favorite weather! It made the ocean so mysterious. I think I liked it this way the best.

Susie and I on the Cliff Walk.

Just one of the many huge mansions in Newport.

Matt pretending to be the "King of the World" on our Cliff Walk adventure.

Foggy Newport on our walk back to Ted and Susie's.

Monday, we went down to the beach for a couple hours. It was a beautiful sunny day and a couple hours was all it took to get a little burned...ouch! The beach and ocean were full of red algae...that's what we're standing in here.

Newport Beach (in the sun this time). :)

Walking in the Atlantic. I had to at least put my feet in, even though I really hate water I can't see in.

We decided to climb up to the Cliff Walk to get back. Boulders and wet flip flops made it rather difficult, but we made it!

Later that afternoon, we went sailing! Ted and Susie had just learned and gotten certified to sail. It was their first time out by themselves, but they could have fooled us! They did a great job. Here are our wonderful hosts out on the water.

Matt and I with the Navy war college in the background.

Susie and I ran the jib sail. (it's the little sail in front.) I got to practice my sailing lingo as well. :)

A cute picture of Ted and Susie with the Newport bridge in the background.

Matt on the front of the sailboat, being a daredevil.

This is Matt's lobster dinner at the Black Pearl Monday night.

And here he is playing with his dinner.

Most of you probably know that I am not a big fan of seafood. For the record, I did actually try some lobster! I am still not a big fan...but I tried the clam chowder as well and it was pretty good!

A farewell photo at the Providence airport Tuesday morning. My face is so burned...

We have only been back in Denver for a week, but I am so ready to get back on a plane and go back! I love the Northeast (and some certain people there). :) We hope Ted and Susie can come out to Denver soon so we can return the favor and take them on all of our favorite Colorado adventures!

Hold, Please

2009-08-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

As you all know, Matt and I spent the previous weekend in Rhode Island on vacation. We had an amazing time and I am working on a full long blog with pictures for you. I figured that since it has been a week since my last post, I would do a short one in the mean time.
I thought it would be awesome to come back to a 3 day week after a fantastic weekend. However, I got to the office yesterday morning with an inbox full of emails and the news that I will be travelling to Dayton for a week to train some folks in our main headquarters. I am excited at the chance to do some business travelling (in 2 weeks!) but slightly overwhelmed at the thought of training people with more experience than I have, as well as other events happening in life right now.
On a much MUCH more positive note, we are getting ready for Alissa’s third visit. I will pick her up from the airport tomorrow after work and I couldn’t be more excited! We are going to try to do a little camping this weekend, but if that doesn’t work out, (campsites are hard to reserve nowadays) we have plenty of other options to fall back on. I’m hoping that at the very least, we can go for a hike or just spend time up in the mountains. Summer is here for sure…it’s hot and dry (but at least not humid) during the day in Denver. It was pretty warm in New England too, so a mountain getaway sounds like the perfect thing to do this weekend.
Luckily, it cools off nicely at night in the city and I can still get some good running in. Last night I ran after dark because I didn’t get home from kickball until 8:45. I thought I would be out of shape after taking almost a week off, but I felt great and kept a nice pace. It was breezy and I could see lightning flashing off in the distance around me. I can’t explain enough about what running does for my sanity. Yesterday, I was so distracted with a million things going through my mind all day. After my run last night and a decent amount of sleep, I feel so much better today. For those of you who have problems sleeping, I would highly recommend a daily jog if you have the time. : ) It really clears the mind and gets you physically tired as well.
And one last bit of news...Matt has been given an official date for starting on the day shift. Drum roll please.....

October 5!

It is so nice to finally have the day in black and white. I can handle the next two months just fine, now that I know the end is in sight. A celebration is in the works...
I think that’s about all I have for now. Hopefully the New England post will be up tonight!

On Our Next Adventure

2009-07-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

I have been finding it hard to create blog posts lately. Trust me, I've tried. It’s a combination of fatigue from losing so much sleep while Perdi was sick this weekend and really just the lack of anything super interesting going on our lives right now. Matt is on day 10 of 1o straight at work and he is understandably burnt out at the moment. Luckily, we are leaving for a 5 day vacation in New England tomorrow! We are going to stay with our friends Ted and Susie and their beagle, Bagel. We always have a blast with them, and I don’t think tomorrow can get here fast enough! I am also excited because I have never been farther northeast in the U.S. than Washington, D.C., so it will great to experience life in New England.
So I suppose that is something interesting that is going on. : ) We had originally intended to spend part of the weekend up in Prince Edward Island, Canada for my cousin Andrew’s wedding. However, we didn’t know what Matt’s work schedule would be like since he was applying for the new job, so we decided not to buy the plane tickets to PEI just in case Matt would be travelling for work/training during that time. He had already requested the time off, so we decided to capitalize on the opportunity and head to Rhode Island when we learned his training wouldn't start until September.
Admittedly, it has been hard to focus on the trip when I was so worried about Perdi (and what we would do with her while we were out of town). We can’t board her since Bordatella is so contagious, apparently even if the dogs have been vaccinated. My friend Liz has been a lifesaver and is watching Perdi for us. I can’t tell you what a relief it was for us to find a place for Perdi to go. Poor Pongo will be at City Bark alone this time…but he will get to play with lots of other dogs during the day and perhaps get a much needed break from Perdi’s constant energy.
So planning to get the two dogs to opposite sides of the city has been a bit of a stress for me. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 7 am, so it all must be done tonight. I’ll be doing lots of driving and errands tonight for sure. Hopefully I can fit runningin there somewhere too. I know I won’t be doing much of that this weekend because we have all sorts of other fun things planned. I also need to pack sometime...oh heavens, I might not even sleep tonight! : )
On a different note, the weather out here has been absolutely incredible! It’s been rainy and overcast with highs in the low 70’s for the past couple days. My favorite! On my run last night, I had to wear a sweatshirt and could smell the smoke from people’s fireplaces. I really thought it was fall already! Ironically, I have been hearing from some folks in Seattle about temperatures being in the mid 90’s! We must have stolen their weather…and we’re not giving it back either! : )
Matt and I will be sure to take lots of pictures in NE and have a good post or two to share in a few days. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Update on Perdi

2009-07-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

It turns out that the Emergency Vet was completely wrong in her diagnosis for Perdi. We took her in to our regular vet today and got a completely different story! It turns out that Perdi is suffering from a case of bordatella (aka "kennel cough") and she has nothing obstructing her GI tract! She picked up the bordatella from the doggy day care, even though she is vaccinated against it. Even though our dog is still pretty sick (she has the beginning stages of pneumonia) this is a much better scenario for Matt and I to digest. At least we are no longer looking at the possibility of surgery.
Let me tell you that I could not be happier with our vet. Matt took Perdi in this morning after a night of coughing and vomiting last night as I mentioned before. I picked her up this afternoon, and she is a different dog! She ate two helpings of dinner and kept down a bunch of water. She also had her meds and has been resting all evening and best of all, rarely even coughing! She is definitely on the mend. I just feel so dumb for even taking her to the emergency vet...it was a waste of time and money for sure!

Well I'll end this story with a few pictures.

Here is Perdi on Saturday morning after her first night of sickness. She was so sad a mopey.

As I mentioned before, she looked like a little camel with all the fluids they injected to keep her hydrated.

Another view of her "pouch."

Pongo has been very well behaved since Perdi got sick. I think he is just as worried about her as we are. They look so cute here sitting together.

Now I am off to get some much needed sleep!

Sick Pup

2009-07-26T14:53:00.000-07:00

*Please bear with my tired ramblings on this post today. You will soon understand why I might not be making complete sense today…
What promised to be a rather mundane weekend of working and cleaning turned out to be quite a bit more! On Friday, I went home from work a little early, just from pure exhaustion. I promptly fell into bed and took a much needed 3 hour nap. Around 7 pm, I woke myself up in time to participate in my new tradition: 10k Friday. All was well that night as well as all day Saturday (Matt and I both headed to work). I got home around 7pm and took the dogs to the dog park before it got too dark.
That night when Matt got home, we went to a late showing of Harry Potter (which was pretty excellent for the most part). It was about 1:30 am when we got home and got settled into bed. Around 4 am, I woke up to hear Perdi getting sick. She continued to get sick and cough for the rest of the night and all day Sunday. I tried to keep her outside as much as possible, because whenever I would let her inside, she would make a mess, which seriously hindered my attempts to get the house clean, do laundry, and a few other miscellaneous tasks.
I really got worried around 8 pm, when she was coughing up blood for the 5th time. Of course, internet research freaked me out even more so I called the emergency vet, who recommended bringing her in immediately.
So that’s how I spent Sunday evening. They took some x-rays of Perdi’s belly and discovered that the problem is a rawhide that she swallowed WHOLE! She was discharged after an anti-vomiting medication and a huge injection of fluids. (She couldn’t keep water down at all.) She looked like a little camel when we left. I took pictures and will try to post them tonight. The emergency vet thought it was too soon to do anything drastic. Since it’s a rawhide, she hoped it will digest on its own in time.
Last night, Matt and I got about 2 hours of sleep. Perdi coughed and hacked all night and the only thing that seemed to calm her a bit was for her to lay near us on a towel. So we pulled out our hide-a-bed downstairs and camped out in the living room (to spare our new bed and nice clean sheets). I was almost sick with worry myself, which kept me from sleeping almost as much as the physical noise of Perdi clearing her system. Matt took her in to our regular vet this morning and she is still there being monitored. They think the cough may be due to an outbreak of Bordatella at one of the places we take them for day care. And even though she has been vaccinated against it, I do have to admit that her coughing sounds a lot like Bordatella (based on how Pongo sounded when he had it).
Perhaps the most stressful part of this whole ordeal is that we are leaving for Rhode Island on Friday morning. I am really hoping Perdi is recovered by then because I don’t know what to do with her if she is sick!
If there is even one upside to this situation, it is that Perdi has been the sweetest, cuddliest dog for the past couple days. She is normally pretty independent so it has been kind of nice to have her snuggle next to me for comfort. Oh my, it is sad how much our dogs are like children! I hope our little girl gets better soon!

Mile High Music Festival

2009-07-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hello all! This is Matt and Laura posting tonight together! Last Sunday, we attended the Mile High Music Festival. We spent all day (afternoon to evening) wandering from concert to concert listening to some great music from many different genres. It was a blast! Perhaps even more interesting than the music was all the people! Specifically the "hippies" and wannabe hippies. We spent a lot of time people watching as well. :)

We also took a lot of pictures at the concerts. We will start with the last concert we saw and work our way to earlier in the day, because that is the way the pictures loaded.

Our favorite concert and one of the main headliners was The Fray. I (laura) know pretty much every one of their songs and was super excited to get to see them. We got to the stage an hour and a half early to make sure we got a good spot. And we did! The only thing that put a damper on the concert was the couple that showed up 10 minutes before the show and tried to squirm their way into a couple inches of space in front of us. We were not particularly thrilled about that.

So this first picture is at the end of the show. Here is the group together just before they left the stage singing "Happiness." We loved the message they gave before the song started...they dedicated the song to those who were struggling in this economy and told them to have hope. What a great song and message to end with!

This is the lead singer, Isaac, with some crazy effects of the lights glowing off his white shirt. Cool picture...

This is the lead singer off to the side of the stage, also shown on the huge TV.

This guy is SO talented. He is an amazing singer, piano player and guitar player. I'm assuming he is also good at song writing...they are all wonderful. They write all of their songs based off of their life experiences.

The stage during the encore break. Lights trickled down and looked like tears.

They had a great stage set for the show, for as many concerts were played on that stage before them!

As with any good performer, he gets really into the music. It's really cool to see the drummer illuminated in red too. :)

Matt takes awesome pictures...this one is cool with all of the lights during the song.

I think this was my favorite song..."Never Say Never."

This is one of Matt's favorites because it gets the whole band with cool lighting.

Above the stage, they had black and white videos of each of the band members as they performed.

More cool lighting from above...each one manned by a real person sitting above the stage, moving the lights like a 3D video game.

Storms came through before the show and it got really windy. I would have been davastated if they had cancelled the show. But we were in luck and missed most of the bad stuff. It cleared up half an hour before the show started. As you can tell by all the pictures, we REALLY enjoyed The Fray's performance. We have a couple videos too...

Another show we went to right before The Fray was 3Oh!3. They are a younger group, and mostly do rap. They really got the crowd going! This is us right before the last song.

The Colorado Rapids stadium. We discovered that the bathrooms in there were much better than the port-a-potties in the park.

Resting a bit while enjoying Buddy Guy.

Here is Buddy Guy singin' the blues.

Another great concert was Mat Kearney. He does alternative music and we have his first album. He can do what I call "soft rapping" on the spot. It was great!

Singing a duet with one of his band members.

We were really close to the stage for this show!

They had the speakers held up by a giant fork lift in the tents.

Our very first concert of the day was Jack's Mannequin. It was our second favorite performance. For some reason, they had characters from Gumby and Boston Celtics figurines on stage. Can anyone explain that one to us?

This is another MAJORLY talented lead singer/piano/guitarist.

He even jumped around on the piano. It was awesome and really got the crowd excited for it being so early in the day.

A larger view of the stage while he's singing on top of the piano.

We had a great day together at the festival. We decided it is a "must do" on our list for next year. We will probably try to go the entire weekend next time. Anyone who is interested in joining us is certainly welcome. You can't find more variety of music (rap, hip-hop, alternative, pop, blues and more) in one place very often. Just make sure to bring your tye-dyed clothes and Birkenstocks! I felt a bit out of place in my outfit. :)

Brennan's Visit (Cont'd) and Weekend Visitors

2009-07-21T05:03:00.000-07:00

Man, I am really getting behind on my picture posts. We have had all kinds of activity going on lately, hence the reason I have only posted 4 times this month. I have plenty lined up, if I can ever get them done. Anyhow, two weekends ago when Brennan was still here, our aunt Alice and cousins Audrey and Jack were out here on a visit. We had a great weekend with them and did lots of things...here are some highlights:Saturday, we took the cog railway up Pike's Peak. Here are Brennan, Jack and Audrey posing in front of a train engine (not the one that takes you up Pike's Peak though).

The ride to the top is about an hour and 15 minutes. We only had 45 minutes to spend at the top of the mountain! We did have time for a quick lunch and since it was a gorgeous day, we ate outside. Here are our visitors enjoying lunch. I was hurriedly snapping pictures because at this point, we only had about 10 minutes left!

Last time Matt and I did this, we went up in a blizzard. The view is so amazing when the weather is nice. You could see the western slopes in one direction and all the way to Kansas (or so they claim) to the east. I could have sat up there for hours enjoying the view!

A quick picture before getting back on the train. Audrey is not in the picture because she was scared the train would leave us. In her defense, they did warn that you would become a hiker instead of a passenger if you missed the train. :)

After the cog railway, we stopped at the old arcade in Manitou Springs so that the kids could play games. I admit, I can't resist a game or two of skee ball when we go there. Brennan and Jack were racing each other in this picture.

The drive back from Colorado Springs was an adventure. We had an interesting time finding a gas station and then got stuck in MAJOR traffic on I-25 due to an accident. It took us 2.5 hours to get back on a normal 45 minute drive. I will NEVER get used to traffic out here...it is so aggravating, but i've already said that many times here.

I didn't get any pictures from Sunday because I had to go into work for a while. Brennan, Alice, Audrey and Jack took the light rail downtown to the aquarium where they met up with John. Then they came back to our house for some ice cream cake in celebration of Matt's new job. They capped the evening off with some swimming at the hotel (Brennan went along too). We were all tired after the weekend, but it was so fun. It was awesome to have so much of my family in town!

This past week has been pretty mundane, but busy at the same time. I was eager to get back into my running routine after taking a week off. I also put in lots of overtime at work and just tried to get caught up on errands and chores at home. But it was definitely worth getting behind on these things to have so many visitors!

Pictures from Brennan's Visit

2009-07-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a post I know Brennan is really looking forward to. He spent all of last week out here with us. It's hard to believe that I drove him to the airport on Monday...seems like he's been gone longer than that.
Unfortunately, I had to work most of the week, so I didn't get to spend as much time doing Colorado stuff with Brennan as I would have liked. But I know he enjoyed exploring the city. It impresses me how he can get pretty much anywhere he wants using the light rail system. I know he spent much of the time that I was at work hanging out downtown. He even made it to the state capital building...I haven't even been there!
So here's how the week went. Brennan rode back with us from Kansas City on Monday. He had just gotten off an airplane from a week in Martha's Vinyard with my mom and grandpa. And the week before that, he was in Austin, TX with my dad! I liked to call it his whirlwind US tour.
Perdi did so well and slept almost the entire ride back from Kansas City, and we are pretty sure it's because Brennan was there to keep her company in the back seat. She still tries to go into the guest room every morning to see if Brennan's there. I think she's depressed that he's gone. She seems to get really attached to our visitors, as do I. :)
I should also mention that on our drive back to Denver, we stopped and toured Mark and Talicia's new house, which was awesome! We're really glad it worked out for us to see it. The house has a lot of really cool features...and now I'm getting even more stir crazy to buy a place. Perhaps in the fall, we'll actually have time to seriously look at some houses. Matt just accepted a day shift position which should start sometime in October, so it looks like our time apart is coming to an end. YAY!
OK, back to the recap of last week. Wednesday evening, I had my kickball game downtown, so Brennan met me there and cheered us on. He must be our good luck charm...we won the game! (We've lost the other two when he hasn't been there.) We scored 9 runs in one inning! I brought my camera and meant to have him take some pictures of us playing, but of course I forgot to mention that to Brennan.
Thursday is when the real fun began. After work, we decided to head to the Denver Aquarium. It was a great day to go...not very many people were there so we got to see everything and take lots of pictures.

I know this is not a fish...it's a rattlesnake! There were four of them in there. Creepy stuff. They look grumpy and mean just laying there, but this one was on the move. I took a video.

You could feed the sting rays by hand if you wanted. They were in a little pool-like area and you could walk up and touch them! Sometimes they would swim right up to the edge and flap their fins out of the water. I think that was their way of begging for food. :)

A giant sea turtle like in Finding Nemo.

Again, this guy was not a fish, but he seemed content to be sleep in the aquarium. Look at his giant paw!

This lobster looked like he was watching US.

A pirhana. They look pretty and innocent but I was sure happy not to be in the water with them!

Colorful starfish.

What kind of a fish is that?!? Looks like Brennan decided to go for a swim. :)

Brennan in the underwater tunnel...surrounded by sharks! (But you can't see them in this picture.)

The cheesy picture they make you take at the entrance...but I purchased it for two reasons:

1. They weren't charging an outrageous amount like most places do for one photo.

2. It's hard to get pictures of the two of us when it was just the two of us at the aquarium.

Friday, I was able to get the day off so that I could take Brennan up into the mountains. He had spent the whole week in the city, so I figured we were due for a mountain adventure. This lead us to the Breckenridge "Fun Park" as they now call it. We did all kinds of things that we used to do on Walter family vacations. Does this look familiar to anyone?

It's the good ol' alpine slide! They have added a third track, but don't be fooled by how much longer it looks. The curves are wider so you don't go as fast. Everyone who went on it was pretty disappointed. What clued me in was the sign at the top that said "If you are over 175 lbs, you might have trouble keeping your sled in motion." Brennan and I stuck to the two original tracks.

Guess what? You can get your picture taken on the slide too!

Brennan's is way better than mine.

I sent Brennan on a final run by himself so I could take some pictures of my own. Here he is heading up the lift.

And here he is at the bottom. He got trapped behind quite a few slower riders on the way down.

Posing with the "sled" you ride down on.
Breckenridge looks so different from when I last saw it, which was this past winter. I learned to ski here! I didn't even know it was the same area until I saw the ski school place and then I found the very first run I did (lift 7). Not surprising, it looks completely different in the winter when it is covered in snow and skiiers.

The fun park was exciting to see too. They have added some new things, such as mini golf and a big rubber swing that you can do flips and stuff on. We wished all of our Walter relatives could have been there like old times. We even did the big maze again. Yep, it's still there! Brennan did it 3 minutes faster than me. Harumph.
After the fun park, we decided to take a hike. Literally. We were able to find the same trail that we hiked with Alissa last fall. Brennan and I went a little farther today and found a flowing mountain creek to put our feet in. The water was FREEZING, as is to be expected from fresh snow melt.

I miss my little brother a lot since he has left. I had a great time having him here, spending time with him, and just trying to spoil him a little.

You are probably wondering why I haven't mentioned the weekend activities yet. Well stay tuned...that's a whole different post coming soon!

4th of July Picture Post--Finally!

2009-07-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting my 4th of July pictures up! This past week has been jam packed full of work and activities, as Brennan spent the whole week and weekend here in Denver with us. In fact, I just dropped him off at the airport this afternoon. The house is eerily silent now, so I figured I'd take the time to finally put these pictures up. Also, there will be at least two more picture posts this week to document Brennan's visit as well as the weekend activities with Alice, Jack and Audrey.
But for now, please enjoy a photo documentation of our trip to and from KC!

On Thursday (July 2nd), we set off for our drive to Kansas City. Perdi was content only to sleep on her dad's lap. She got pretty comfy there.
We thought this little camper was funny because you couldn't see the truck in front that was pulling it, so it looked like the camper was driving itself. In retrospect, it's not that funny...maybe it was just Eastern Colorado delirium kicking in.

Perdi is NOT drinking Coors light. She is drinking water from Matt's mug that he got at the Coors brewery one time. She was a thirsty girl and it was the closest vessel we had at hand. Makes for a cute picture though!
On Friday, we had a gathering at Matt's aunt and uncle's house. We had a giant buffet of yummy mexican food (with LOTS of rice :) ). Matt decided to bring back an old family tradition and got his cousins NERF dart guns. It made for endless laughs and jokes, and was just all around great entertainment.
I'm glad I'm not the one taking this picture! But if you look closely, Matt caught one of the darts mid-flight! (Can you see the white streak on the middle left side of the picture?)

On the 4th of July, we headed out to Kauffman stadium for the Royals game. We had so many friends and family members come with us. It was a blast! Matt took this awesome patriotic picture of the flag and fountain.

We had a tailgate before the game, as is common at the Royals games. This is something I really miss doing, since the Rockies stadium is downtown and most people prefer to go to the bars and clubs before or after the game.

Here is my awesome SIL (sister-in-law) Alissa. I just liked this picture. And I felt she deserved a picture of her own after I left her in the back of the Highlander on accident. :) Sorry Lis!

Anne came with us! It was so awesome to see so many friends gathered in one place. We got to meet Jake's girlfriend, Meredith. Aren't they a cute couple?

Here is Matt with the newly rennovated Kauffman stadium in the background. It looked amazing!

Some more of the new additions to the stadium... On Sunday, we had a gathering of family at Arlene's house. We ended up spending much of the afternoon outdoors. It was a beautiful day...certainly didn't feel like July.
Alissa showing off her bocee ball balancing skills.
Visiting in the shade outdoors.
Snuzzling our puppies outside. They were well behaved, for the most part. Pongo was really antsy and kept barking everytime he heard a noise in the neighbor's yard.
Perdi tried to rig our game of bocee ball. She actually picked up the little ball one time and ran away with it. Silly girl!
Our pups were tired on the ride home.
We picked up an extra passenger in KC! Perdi fell in love with Brennan and snuggled with him in the back seat all the way to Denver.
Pongo is so scared of the car. He had to have a sleep inducing drug.
Matt drove through all of Kansas. Brennan drove through Eastern Colorado. I drove through this.
The storm included large hail, torrential rain, lightning, thunder...the works! And then we hit traffic in Denver. I didn't drive much, but I got the most stressful part of the trip, that's for sure!

We had a great weekend. It was so great to see everyone. Come visit us soon!

A Different Anniversary

2009-07-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

I’m in quite the reflective mood today. It’s been exactly a year and a day since Matt and I packed up our lives in Kansas City and moved to Denver. How ironic that we drove back from a long weekend in KC yesterday, exactly a year from the day we moved! We even had my brother along with us again and he was with us last year as well.
When I think back to a year ago, I can’t believe how much things have changed. It doesn’t possibly seem like a whole year has passed and yet we have done so much, had so many visitors and been so many places that I can’t believe we fit it in to a whole year. On my way to work, I was thinking about how many things I didn’t even see coming when we first arrived in Denver. I made a list of some of these...

One year ago:
- this city felt so strange and unfamiliar.
- I didn’t know what it would feel like working opposite shifts from my husband.
- life felt more like a long term vacation than a daily routine.
- I had no idea how much I would miss my friends and family in Kansas. (It doesn’t fade away over time either!)
- I hadn’t discovered my love of camping, skiing and all of the other “Colorado” activities we do.
- working on my Master’s was just a small thought in the back of my mind.
- I only had one (mostly) well behaved beagle to keep an eye on.

Matt and I both agree that this move was a great thing for us. We are both very happy with our jobs and we love that we have this chance to experience a new way of life, new people, new environment, etc.
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Matt had an interview at the hospital today for a day position working with the pharmacy computer systems. He said it went well…we should know more by the end of the week so I’ll keep you updated.

4th of July pictures and post to come shortly!

Growing Up

2009-06-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

I don't have a whole lot of thoughts tonight, except around my little girl pup. Perdi finally seems to be growing up...or at least maturing a little bit. I have noticed this mostly in the past week. I still don't trust her to be out of my sight for very long, but this week, whenever I realized I couldn't see/hear her and went to find out what she was up to, I would mostly find her either chewing quietly on a bone or sleeping in her kennel! *Long sigh of relief*
Also, Perdi did us a big favor and let us sleep in as long as we wanted this weekend; another sign that she is growing up. Granted, one of us still has to get up and let them out early in the morning, but Perdi has been quite content to hop back in to bed and settle down for some more sleep. *Another long sigh of relief*
I am happy to see her moving out of puppyhood. She has put us through quite a lot the past few months. (Many of our lamps are out of commission due to chewed and severed cords, for example.) She still has her aggravating moments, but I have found that they are gradually becoming less frequent. She is also doing quite well with her leash, now that I have been leash walking them in the evenings. However, today I braved the dog park once again...
Speaking of the dog park, I must share a quick story. Currently, there is a four foot deep trench of water that has been carved from all the snow melt and rain runoff from Cherry Creek to a small lake in the dog park. Today, it was probably only half full of water, but still running pretty furiously. Pongo and Perdi and I were walking past the trench on our way back to the car. I had my iPod on and was whistling along to a song when I heard a big SPLASH. Apparently, Perdi had tried to jump the trench, didn't make it to the other bank and landed in the water.
I think this scared her because the water was rushing by so fast and she couldn't touch the bottom. The poor gal clung to the bank with all her might. I was encouraging her to climb the bank, but didn't really see how she was going to get out. Before panic could set in (for me), a nice man noticed what had happened. He jumped the trench and pulled Perdi right up! He said he was used to rescuing his friend's dog, so it was not big deal. But Perdi thought it was a big deal and gave him a couple sweet kisses on the face.
Sometimes I wonder about that dog. She is quite inquisitive and not scared of water at all. Even after falling in the trench, she was splashing around in the shallow part of the crossing only a minute later!

This City

2009-06-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

Usually I dread weekends when Matt has to work. This weekend was one of those weekends, but I think I really made the best of it, for myself and for Matt. It all started on Friday. Nick and I planned a surprise birthday party for Carlene. I left work a little early to get things ready for the party and ended up getting home right as Matt left for work. That was probably the worst part of the weekend. He was upset that he didn't get to see me more and I felt incredibly guilty for not being there sooner, since I got off work early anyway. Not fun.

The party was great though. Carlene was surprised and we had a good turnout thanks to Nick and his mad emailing skills. :) Poor Carlene...she had just gotten off a plane from a week long business trip in Phoenix and was probably exhausted.

Here are a couple pictures of the birthday girl...

When I got home from Carlene's on Friday, I was SO tired. I fell asleep until Matt got home at 10:45. He convinced me to get back up and go out to Old Chicago with some of his co-workers. Well I can never pass up Old Chicago, so I went but I probably looked like a walking zombie. We came home at 12:30 and the puppies did NOT want to go to bed, and I certainly can't blame them. We watched TV for an hour and finally got them calmed down. Luckily, they let us sleep in to an embarassing hour on Saturday morning.

Since we slept in so late, Matt and I didn't really get to do much together before he left for work. As he was leaving, we was going to run out and give him one last goodbye kiss, but as I opened the front door, I nearly screamed as my foot came inches from stepping on a dead baby rabbit that some neighborhood pet had left as a "gift" for us. Oh my, that was so gross. I promptly got it cleaned up and decided to go for a run. I also took my poor dogs to the dog park for the first time in at least a month and a half. I felt like I owed it to them after neglecting them on Friday, and they LOVED it. They were both exhausted when we got home.

So here's the funny part of the weekend. Saturday night was basically a repeat of Friday night for me. Carlene had invited me over to BBQ on Saturday for her birthday and I had accepted, to further the element of surprise on Friday. She said I could still come over if I wanted, and I decided to go as opposed to staying home by myself. This time the puppies got invited to come along, and they had fun exploring a new yard. Perdi even buried a bone behind a bush to prove she was greatful for getting to come along.

When Matt got home that night, we decided to go out to "our" Old Chicago. (When we meet up with his co-workers, we go to a different one that is more convenient for everyone, but not nearly as awesome.) "Our" Old Chicago is so great. Sometimes we sit at a table, and sometimes we sit at the bar because that is where our favorite waitors serve. Last night, we sat at the bar because Dave the bartender was back and we hadn't seen him in a few weeks.

I decided to get a half order of nachos but Dave convinced me to get the full order because they were cheaper with the happy hour special. I knew there was no way I could eat a whole order of nachos myself. (Matt got himself a pizza, so he was no help.) So I offered half of my nachos to Dave the bartender, who happened to be really hungry. He was so greatful for the food that he comped a couple of our drinks! It was also fun because the other waitor came up and talked to us some too, even though he wasn't our server. I love feeling like we "belong" there. I guess that could also be a sign that we go to Old Chicago too much...but it is nice to have a place to fit in, in this city.

Today was pretty mundane...cooked brunch for Matt and I, went in to work for a couple hours after he left, took the dogs to the dog park again, ran and cleaned. I definitely needed a day just to get stuff done after such a busy weekend. Now it's back to the daily grind for a few days, then we set off for a 4th of July visit to Kansas City!