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...