Millards In The Mountains

After taking a long hiatus from blogging, i have so many blog ideas. We have had so much going on since my last post over a week ago. This year, we spent Christmas away from Kansas for the first time ever (that I know of). My family drove out here to spend the holiday with Matt and I. I really appreciated this because Matt had to work every day this past week and I would have been so lonely without my family. On the same note, I hope that Matt working Christmas wasn't too hard and lonely on him. It's a hard time of year to have to work so much! Tuesday, I got home from work and errands and baked, baked, and baked some more. I made ginger snaps, peanut butter cookies with Hershey's kisses, and apple pie, butterscotch oatmeal cookies, chex mix and chex Muddy Buddies. My family got here right as I finished up. I know they had to battle snow and high winds to get here. The odd thing is that Denver didn't get more than a few flurries here and there, even though we were in an...

I am one day late with this post, but trust me, I was so tired last night after skiing that I wouldn't have been able to form a coherent sentence . Yesterday was Barbara's birthday, and since I have been TRYING (I emphasize that word) to write a few nice words about as many people as I can on their birthdays, I really feel bad that this is a little late. Like myself, Barbara is a (semi) recent edition to Matt's family. She and Bill were married in the spring of 2006 and I was one of the lucky ones who got to be there. Ever since then, Matt and I have been treated to nothing short of wonderful hospitality and excellent meals every time we are over at their house, even when we have two ornery beagles in tow! Barbara is very dedicated to her family and her students. It is always fun when we are all together at birthdays, holidays or just ordinary gatherings. My favorite was the "Cars" themed birthday party we attended this past March. Barbara has done a great job ra...

I am pretty exhausted tonight after taking dinner to Matt and the pharmacists at the hospital, then fighting massive crowds at the mall just to get a few last things for Christmas. I'm done except for Brennan, who can't seem to figure out ANYTHING (besides a car) that he wants for Christmas. Since my creative juices will soon give way to useless rambling, I will tell this story. Matt let me drive the new car today because he knew I would have shopping and errands to do, plus I could get it ready for skiing tomorrow. While I was picking up the orders for the pharmacists at Chipotle, I noticed a few police cars parked outside the restaurant. When I had paid for everything and left Chipotle, there were three policemen gathered in front of the Highlander. Here is the conversation that followed: Officer: "Maam, is this your car?" Me: "Yes, is there a problem." Officer: "What kind of gas mileage does it get?" Me(baffled): "17 in the city, 23 on the ...

Well I promised a new car post, but this is much better. Today is Alissa's birthday, and even though the day is almost over, I am going to dedicate this post to her. Alissa is one amazing person. She is passionate about everything in her life from school and AKPsi to love, friends and family. Again, I am fortunate to now officially be included in the "family" section of that last sentence. Alissa is one AMAZING photographer. And not only that, she is organized with her photos and shares them for all to see. This is a stark contrast to myself, who can barely manage to even get a rough set of wedding photos printed! Anyhow, I always love seeing the photos she takes. Alissa was among the first visitors we had out here in Colorado. She has no idea how much her trip helped ease our transition out here. She even flew us our favorite beer in her suitcase! She is also a wonderful "aunt" to our beagles and their tails are always wagging when they see her. Imagine this: h...

I decided to watch a movie tonight while waiting for Matt to get home. However, I was just on the phone with my mom and I think she could definitely use some cheering up with all the stress she has in her life right now. So I decided to watch Love Actually through her eyes since I've seen it so many times. I am going to do this and see if I should recommend it to her as a cheer-up kind of movie, which is definitely what it is for me. It also really gets me in the Christmas Spirit. I don't know if she even has enough time to watch a movie nowadays, but my family is coming out for Christmas in two short weeks, so I may MAKE her sit and watch this with me, if I approve of it as I watch it this way. It really does add a new perspective on the movie for me as well. And still, it is making me teary eyed and goose bumpy even after the umpteenth time of watching it. It's definitely a new holiday tradition, started many years ago in college with a wonderful awesome friend. You know ...

I haven't posted any pictures for a while, so I thought I would do that tonight. However, when I looked through my most recent ones, all I could find were pictures of the dogs (big surprise!). I realized that we didn't take ANY over Thanksgiving, at least with my camera! We got Perdi her own bed. Here are the dogs sleeping in their beds. Every once in a while, everyone will settle down for a nap. Here, even Matt indulged. We have noticed that Perdi likes to "bury" things. This really intrigues us, since Pongo never did it. The vet gave us the "all clear" to give Perdi flat rawhides, which has been a livesaver. She chews them down a little and then buries the rest. She buries them under the couch, in her bed or Pongo's bed or under the Christmas tree. Tonight, she buried one in her kennel, which I'm going to take as a good sign. It is so funny to watch because she digs a "hole" with her paws, inserts the bone, and then covers it with air di...

It snowed so much here last night that this morning when I took Perdi out (after she slept ALL NIGHT!!!) she disappeared in the snow as soon as she was out the door! I'd say we got a good 6 inches and that was the non drifted snow. It's a good thing she likes to be outside, snowy or sunny. However, Perdi really drove me nuts last night. She told me she needed to go out, so I opened the door immediately and she did her business. Not a minute after she got back inside, she went on a blanket. Ah, I guess its one step forward, two steps back with her. Still, she is really learning to go to the door and let us know, which is so exciting. Work was really crazy today. I'm still trying to keep up with the airports, and we are getting work in the secret room too. My supervisor lives in Colorado Springs at a much higher elevation so when it snows, he has problems getting to work and didn't make it in today. Of course, everyone else in my work group had just finished a big project...

I've been meaning to write this post for days. Matt and I had our first ski trip this weekend. It was so much fun and I can't wait to go again. Yes, it was painful but let me explain. We got up way early for a Saturday (5:30 am), got dressed and left the puppies in their respective places. We met up with Dave and Mary at 6:45 and headed to Breck. The drive wasn't bad, not too much traffic. But when we got there, it took us 45 minutes to park! We got to the top of the mountain just in time to start our day of lessons. We started with the very basics: sliding around on one ski, going up a magic carpet (mini lift that you stand on) and stopping using "pizza." (pointing your skis together) Before lunch, we were already up the lift to the bunny hill. At first, I wasn't really concentrating on turning myself to control my speed, rather, I used the "pizza" all the way down. That got really exhausting and my teacher made me follow him to see how I should be ...

For some reason, I am very jumpy tonight. I don't know why I'm so on edge, but I have been very productive tonight, despite this fact. I decided to try a brand new recipe since I already had most of the ingredients. I have been watching a show on TLC called "17 Kids and Counting." It is crazy how many kids are in this family but they are so resourseful and live without debt! (They make their own laundry detergent.) The other night, the mom was teaching the young boys how to make Tater Tot Casserole, and it looked really good so I tried it. Mine turned out very well, although it is almost the same thing as Shepherd's Pie, sub tater tots for mashed potatoes. Yummy! I hope it reheats well for Matt. I feel silly cooking for myself but he really enjoys having leftovers. I also baked a loaf of pumpkin bread, so the house smells delicious. It was just a quick bread mix, but I figure we can have it for breakfast on Saturday on our way to Breckenridge. It snowed all day lo...

I don't know how you moms out there do it. I am in a constant battle to keep my house clean and I don't even have kids. I don't know how so much STUFF can just accumulate so quickly and I just can't seem to get organized. Our Dyson is in constant use and no matter how often I vacuum, it still faithfully fills the canister every time. It makes me wonder how much good our old vacuum even did. But with two dogs coming in and out of the house, it sure is nice to be able to know I am not wasting my time with the vacuum anymore. Perdi is getting so big. We will have had her three weeks on Friday. She is beginning to tell us when she needs to go outside (instead of us just guessing and putting her out). She still has the occaisional accident. It is fun to watch her personality emerge. Yesterday, she ate her dinner and decided that she wanted more, so she carried her bowl to me. She did it with Matt again this morning. I also replaced her "snuzzle buddy," which I burn...

I am finally getting to my Thanksgiving post. It seems, as always, that there are a million things to do when you get home from travelling. Unpacking, laundry, catching up on sleep... I have to admit, I was a bit stressed about travelling with two dogs, one being a two month old puppy. First and foremost, I have to thank every one of our hosts (Dave, Sheila, Mom, Dad, Bill, Barbara and Arlene) for putting up with us! We were a bit high maintenance with our brood of dogs this time around. THANK YOU ALL!!! We had a great weekend, despite spending much of it on the road. We were lucky in that we got to see many of both of our families and have three official Thanksgiving meals. Needless to say, I am back in the routine of running again. I don't want all of that food to catch up to me! I have been giving the dogs "the slip" so I can get out and run on my own. Today, it was warm so I left them in the back yard to play. I don't think they hardly noticed my absense. Ahh, I r...

Well Matt certainly has taken the reigns with our blog lately. I love it. I love reading what he writes about our lives from his perspective. I hope he keeps it up. I am very happy that this week is only 3 days long. I can’t wait to travel and see so many of each of our families. I can’t believe how well everything worked out, trying to organize 3 different Thanksgivings. Matt and I are going to be stuffed with food by this weekend. I am excited about driving and not having to limit what I bring back. It would be nice if we were making the trip in a nice new Highlander…but we are not done looking and test driving yet and my civic will really save us on gas. Plus, we want to compare prices in the Kansas City area. I am looking forward to heading to the Honda dealership to look at the Pilot. Anyhow, I promised good news so here it is. Today I was officially accepted to Purdue University for my M.S. in Geomatics! My heart was beating so fast as I opened up that email. (Yes, it’s email now...

Just a quick post about the weekend. I am getting excited for thanksgiving break and seeing family and stuff. I have had a good amount of time off of work now and am going to be able to use it to actually go home. Plans are to see Lor's family first in Kingman and then head to KC for my family. It will be fun and filling as I'm sure we will get lots of food. Hopefully we can see some friends somewhere along the way. This weekend we were just kinda lazy. It was fun. We did manage to do some research and test drove a couple of cars. It takes a long time to do that when the sales people talk a lot. We are looking at something a little bigger (SUV-type) so that we can have room to travel from here to the mountains to home with the dogs and other large objects (i.e. skis). We started with Toyota because we have friends with the 4Runner who just love it, so we wanted to look at that. While we were there we wanted to look at the Highlander also. Both of the cars we liked. I...

So, this is Matt again. It had been a while (ok a really long time) since I last blogged here for y'all and thought I would start up again. I will try to do more regular posts to give everyone my point of view on the world as well as some more pictures that, at this time, are only on my computer. First things first, the puppy!! Perdi is soooo cute. I know Laura felt bad a little bit about getting another dog cause we had it so good with Pongo, and he had it so good with us, but now he has a buddy to play with. They are really cute together, whether they are just laying there or chasing each other in the back yard. The thing that gets me about Perdi is her eyes. She has these bright green eyes. I just melt when she looks at me all tired with her eyes. Here is a pic that I took to demonstrate: Here is another one with her just being cute, same day: And now an obligatory picture of Pongo being cute. This is when we were driving with Susie to the mountains. I just love the p...

Life is certainly more entertaining these days. I am so proud of Pongo for getting over his jealousy and becoming a great "big brother" to Perdi. I have received some great tips from friends and the internet today for crate training and Perdi is already making good progress even though she is still a bit young to be left in the crate for significant periods of time (aka, an hour) but she is just starting to understand that she can go in there and hide from Pongo. He sometimes gets a bit too rough with her. We'll see how tonight goes, sleeping wise. She's chewing a puppy approved bone. Sleeping in the sun. I'm still contemplating options for thanksgiving. My mom sarcastically said we certainly picked great timing to get this dog, with the holidays coming up. She is right, of course. One of my co-workers offered to watch Perdi, which would certainly make things much easier. The only drawbacks are that she couldn't meet all of her Kansas relatives and we also ri...

Well call us crazy but we brought another little beagle home to join our family last Friday. Her name is Perdi (to go along with the 101 Dalmations theme) and she is a dream to train so far compared to Pongo. For example, she sleeps in the car instead of panting wildly. Her biggest downfall is the crying (shrieking) at night. It gets better each day though. So we are going through the stresses and sleeplessness of puppy training again. I think this must be like what having a second child is like. Luckily, the weather is cooperating wonderfully for potty training. Pongo is sharing his things well, including his water bowl. At first, he just wanted his space, but he is warming up to her and even plays with her quite often, even though she is so small. I love having a girl dog! Here, I have her dressed up in a little pink hoodie. I know she'll grow out of it, but I wanted to have a keepsake of her size when we got her. Almost everyone I have asked advice about beagles on has told me...

Here are some of the pictures from our latest trip back to Kansas. A view of the plaza from atop the Intercontinental Hotel. (That was where the wedding and Sunday brunch were held.) Ahhh Kansas City, we miss you! Sunday evening's hike on the Konza Prairie with my family. My camera is horrible at night, but I thought this picture of my mom was cool. The brother and I. Posing with my husband. I LOVE THIS PICTURE. I still love the view as much as any out here in Colorado. Yikes, a HUGE wolf spider! I almost stepped on it. Crossing the bridge, no more than three people at a time as the signs warned.

Here’s a new topic, strange as it may be: automatic toilets. We have them at work, and while I understand the idea behind them, I think they are dumb. Maybe it’s just the ones I deal with every day, but these things are so sensitive that as soon as I am one second from sitting down, they decide to flush. Not only is this a waste of water, but it’s annoying, especially if you really have to go to the bathroom. I’d rather just use my foot to flush… Now I am a good girl and wash my hands after I use the bathroom. But some of the ladies in this office building crack me up. They won’t even touch the door handle after washing their hands. (Sorry if you are one of these people.) I hate germs as much as the next person, but the reality is that they are everywhere. We are constantly in contact with them and no matter how many precautions we take, they are going to get on us unless we live in a bubble of Purell. Using the handicap button to automatically open the bathroom door is silly. And it l...

Yep, that's the most creative title I could come up with today. There really is no theme to this post so I guess it's fitting. I feel like I always talk about the same things anyway. I am in a major posting rut with new stuff to say. Anyway, here goes... I can’t believe it’s November already! The Christmas decorations are going up and it’s getting colder, yet I have not seen or heard any songs or commercials via TV/radio. Perhaps this is because I don’t watch nearly as much TV as I used to and I listen to talk radio almost all day. I read a lot at night for fun. I am going to miss that if/when I start school again. I still haven’t heard anything, but it’s only been 5 days since the application due date. I hope I can finish the Twilight series before then. I am on book 2 of 4 and can’t put them down! I’m sure many of you know what I am talking about. I am anxiously and selfishly awaiting the upcoming weekend. It’s going to be a Matt/Laura weekend unless we get any invitations fr...

This week has not been the best for sleep, at least in my case. I realized it is not a great idea to start the week by hopping on a flight from KC to Denver on Monday morning and then jetting straight to work after that. We had to get up at 5 am Kansas time (4 am Mountain). I could barely make it the 8.5 hours I spent at work that day. Tuesday was normal, sleepwise, which meant I still only got 6.5 hours of sleep. Any progress I made was all for naught though yesterday night. I stayed up past midnight watching the election results. This was my own fault. Tonight I got home and immediately fell into bed. No running, no dinner, NOTHING. It felt SO GOOD. I did worry Matt by not responding to texts or phone calls for 4 hours. But sometimes, you've just got to turn everything off in your life and let your body get what it needs. In my case, a huge helping of sleep. Matt and I had a wonderful weekend back in Kansas. We were attending a friend's wedding, which was not only beautiful, ...

Girls' night out in downtown Denver. We opted for Rock Bottom Brewery. So fun! We need to have more! Elk in Estes Park. Amanda and I stopped for some pictures after shopping all afternoon. There were tons of them! Amanda with Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park in the background. Same picture, just me this time. We had trouble finding someone to take one of us together. Sorry for the shirt, all you McCain supporters! I guess it's no secret who I voted for... Walking around at a stop in Rocky Mountain National Park. I think we both had a little altitude sickness. We went up higher than I ever went before. There was snow by side of the road. A horrible picture of Casa Bonita. Trust me, it was over the top with decorations, a live Mariachi band and tables everywhere! We got to see the cliff divers as we ate. Like I said, over the top but so much fun! Skip to this past weekend. This is the one picture I have of Toddtoberfest. Notice our awesome hanging skeletons and ot...

Welcome to the new 2008 edition of getting to know your family and friends. This is my rule (I changed them from the email): Anyone who reads this blog must start their own and make this their first post. They must also send me a link to their new blog in my comments section. :) Harsh, I know. Anyone who already has a blog is also welcome to fill out this survey. I tag you all! 1. What is your occupation right now? Photogrammerist and hopeful Master's student 2. What color are your socks right now? not wearing any, but I should be. It's cold... 3. What are you listening to right now? dogs barking in the neighborhood. 4. What was the last thing that you ate? Taquitos. I got home late and needed something quick for dinner. 5. Can you drive a stick shift? No 6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My dad and Matt. 7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Most definitely...she's my sister! :) 8. How old are you today? 25 yrs 9. What is your favorite sport to watch on T...

Tomorrow I will hit the "submit" button for my Master's application. I am terrified of this button. After I click it, I will hold my breath for a few weeks until I hear back from them. The letters of recommendation have all been written. My resume and statement of purpose have been attached. My GRE scores are in place. Why can't I hit the button? I think it's because I know what I am potentially signing myself up for . Goodbye free time! I have enjoyed you so much. In other news, our latest weekend visitor left this morning. My good friend Susie (from meteorology school and beyond) was here for 4 days. She helped us plan and decorate for Toddtoberfest, which went fabulously. It was great to see everyone, even though it was a somewhat low key version of previous Toddtoberfests. We also took Susie for a hike in Roosevelt National Forest, one of our favorites. We packed a picnic lunch but it was COLD when the wind blew so we made lunch a short stop. Susie and I also ...

I just woke up from a much needed 2.5 hour nap. I was so tired tonight that I even skipped running today. I am really struggling with the sleep schedule of Matt being on nights. Usually I am motivated to stay up late to see him when he gets home because it's the only time we have to talk person to person during the week. If I do manage to fall asleep, I am awoken by a jumpy barking dog when Matt does get home and it's really hard to fall asleep again after that. It is a dilemma. My work wants me to move to the night shift for a couple weeks. This sounds like a perfect solution to our schedule right now and it was something I had initially hoped for. However, I am having a hard time being excited about it right now. I am a creature of habit and have a great routine to my day. It will all get thrown out when I go on the night shift. I do have quite a few things I am doing in the evenings now like rec volleyball and professional societies. I am having a hard time knowing that i wi...

I always mean to update my blog so much more often and then DAYS pass and I realize how bad I am at keeping at it. Matt and I are on day 7 of his 10 day work marathon. He had to work 10 days straight but he gets Thursday and Friday off as well as the weekend. I still have to work though, so it's more like 12 days of us chatting when we can. At least our cell phone plan has unlimited texting. We are really taking advantage of that, but I hate that our source of communication has through two cell phones for this long. I especially don't like talking on it at work because I feel like I disturb all of the people around my cube. Ahh well, this is just me being frustrated. We are both very happy in our jobs and when we get time together, it feels so much more special. Well Liz and Amanda gave me a nice break from my self-pity this weekend. We had a fun night in downtown Denver on Friday. Well, I hope Liz did. Amanda and I tried to set her up with the waiter, who was lavishing attenti...

The past couple of days have been a whirlwind. Work has been crazy, especially now that I have a goal to meet on percentage completion. Its frustrating that I seem to be the only one making the numbers go up, but I'm sure there's a good reason. I know my hard work is being noted though. Last night, we won our rec volleyball game. I was ecstatic! The team we played had a couple of really big jerks. One guy decided it was good sportsmanship to call balls in that were on our side AFTER we called them out, just to try to throw us off. Come on, this is rec volleyball. It's supposed to be just for fun. But I found myself getting really bothered by this team and the way they were acting. It made the win feel so good. Today I worked over 11 hours and then headed downtown for a Photogrammetry "Rogues" meeting. It's really just a social networking group that gets together once a month. I made some great contacts out here in Denver. It was also eye opening to see so man...

It's hard to believe that another weekend has passed. It seems like I spend all week counting down to the weekend, especially nowadays since its when I get to spend any substantial time with Matt. We had planned to camp one last time for the season because most campsites close at the end of October. Of course the weather promised rain, snow and cold temperatures which NEVER happens unless I want the weather to be nice (example, Jake's visit in August). So we nixed our camping plans and did what anyone would do in the snow...headed up the tallest peak on the front range, Pikes's Peak! That's right! We put our lives in the hands of the cog railway conductor and headed to an elevation of 14,110 feet! I thought the storm had blown over because we were less than 3 miles from the top and no snow in sight! Then it started. When we left the train, winds were blowing at a constant 40 mph and gusting at 70. Snow was pounding into our jeans. This was the view: This was the view fr...

Jaime tagged me again, hence my second post of the day. :) Check out her answers too! http://jaimeschechter.blogspot.com/ Here are my seven random facts: 1. I don't like to clean that much but I have this strange enjoyment with doing laundry. I only like to do it if there is a lot to wash. I think it gives me a sense of accomplishment when I am finished. 2. I have an obsession with Maurices clothing. Probably 1/2 of my wardrobe was purchased there. It fits and its just my style. 3. Running has become a habitual part of my day. I have a hard time talking myself out of it. A few months ago, it took tremendous effort to to talk myself IN to it. I don't know what I'm going to do when winter gets here. 4. No matter what, my mood is dramatically better on rainy and overcast days. 5. Three months ago, we moved from KC to Denver and I still don't feel like we're close enough to the mountains. 6. I still can't believe that the #1 item on my Christmas wish list this year ...

Yesterday, I took Pongo for a trial run at a local vet. Matt read mixed reviews on this place and I have to admit that I was not impressed. I guess I really got lucky in Overland Park. I needed a vet immediately when I got Pongo because he had worms and parasites so I took him to a vet across the street from my work. They were WONDERFUL. The issues I have with the new vet are as follows. First of all, they told me that Pongo doesn’t need to be on heart worm guard pills anymore which immediately sent up a red flag. I think I’m just overly worried about this issue since Pongo had every kind of worm imaginable as a puppy. They also said he doesn’t need to be on flea and tick meds anymore because it’s too dry out here for fleas. While this makes sense, I also worry about mosquitoes which seem to be in abundance here as well as ticks which are possible to come in contact with when we camp. While eliminating all of his meds would be a lot cheaper, my gut feeling tells me it’s a bad idea. We ...

After 5 months of marriage, Matt and I officially graduated from our full size bed this weekend. It was a necessity. We finally had some free time together and decided to spend it searching for that perfect mattress and bedroom set. We still haven't settled on the furniture aspect, but the new mattress is glorious! To go from a full size to a king size...you can imagine how much more room we have now. The other cool part about it is that we finally got to open up, wash and use our new bedding that we got for the wedding. Since we registered for king size everything, we hadn't gotten to use it yet! In all actuality, I think I sent my body into shock by switching to a nice mattress and nice sheets all at once. I basically had a little trouble sleeping last night. So did Matt. We figure it's just because we haven't molded out our spots in the bed yet. Also, it smells kind of funny because it's new. Nothing fancy yet...except for our pretty new comforter! We even forgot...