Millards In The Mountains

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!

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 c...

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.

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....

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 ...

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 do...

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 pos...

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 a...

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 g...

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...

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 yar...

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 ar...

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 ...

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,...

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 ...