New Year's Eve!

I have so much to post about but most of it isn't very nice and back to my Mom's advice if you don't have anything nice to say...

But the few that I can't keep to myself.

1. I have found a new reason not to appreciate the "Make My Day Law". For those of you that don't know this law, it states that if someone is on your property against your wishes (i.e. breaking in to your home) you have the "right" to shoot them without being prosecuted. It has always bothered me to some degree that we as a country can argue so fiercely about killing an unborn child through abortion and executing a mass murderer through the death penalty, but when it comes to someone breaking into our home we have every right in the world to shoot them thus taking their lives. Does anyone reading this know how many hoops a police officer has to jump through after firing their weapon with or without a fatal shot, but again we as civilians can open fire without question. I know the age old saying that an armed society is a polite society but at what point do we still get to live our lives without fear that the guy driving next to us is going to open fire because I didn't use my blinker. The reason that I bring this up is because here in Colorado Springs we recently had a home owner shoot and kill a man in his early twenties for being in his back yard. Of course at first thought everyone assumed this young man was breaking in, but no he was just someone that had too much to drink at a football party and thought it was his house and he was trying to open up the back door. I have been this drunk before (not that I am proud of it), the kind where you can't even walk much less be asked what your address is and yet no one shot me. Of course we will never know if the home owner opened his door holding on to his gun and asked the stranger what he was doing, but I believe I am safe to assume that he did not...the slurred speech would have given away the intruders true intentions. So this day I say a little prayer for all of my friends after parties, please let us the DD's in the world know your address before we drop you off.

2. New Year's Eve resolution...I can't seem to come up with one. I gave up on weight loss ones years ago and it wouldn't help much this year anyways. Let's revisit some of my older resolutions, one year I resolved not to hand out my phone number at bars anymore (which made it so I didn't have to avoid my cell phone rings but it also made it so I didn't have a date for years...seems like a fair trade after all I pay for the cell service I should be able to pick it up at anytime). I have resolved to shovel the driveway after it snows after falling on my butt too many times to count from the ice mounds. Make my bed in the morning, keep my bathroom clean both of which have enabled me to feel slightly more like an adult. But this year I am drawing a blank, I suppose I have until midnight tonight to come up with one.

On a more positive note...Happy New Year's everyone, I wish we could be there to hug each and every one of you!

Back in Colorado.

It's always bitter sweet to be back in Colorado especially when we leave Indiana. Home is home and the animals miss us terribly when we are gone, but being back in Indiana as often as we have been able to makes it another home back there. Which means I start taking it for granted, if we could just move Colorado and Indiana closer to each other.

We had an amazing trip and already miss everyone back there so much. It was awesome to be back for Christmas because everything was so well decorated and felt so cozy and warm. And we were able to make it to Joe's grandparents house for their annual Christmas Day celebration, I can't tell you how much family traditions mean to me. After just reading my Aunt's blog about missing my grandparents I am even more grateful for the trips we make to visit family.

On another note, we just started week 20 of my pregnancy. Crazy to think we are half way. When we were back in Indiana Laura and I would start talking about what a miracle it is to think we have human beings growing inside of us but then we would get too far involved in the thoughts and have to change the subject before we started crying.

I should get back to work...Hi to everyone back in our second home. We love and miss you! :-)

Jeans...terrible Jeans.

So I decided I should buy a couple of pairs of new jeans (I haven't bought any in a while). Being that my waistline is growing with or without my permission I wanted to grab the size bigger so they will fit longer. Well that size of jeans is apparently the cutoff to morbidly obese. I put them on and they looked like clown pants, I would have to fold over the waist just to get them to be belt-able. Instead of having a couple of pairs that I could fit in for a while I opted for the non clown pants that will need to do some major aerobics to fit in here in a month. Grrr-eat, just what I need more clothes I have to stretch out just to wear. Needless to say I don't consider this a successful shopping day.

Quitting....

Perhaps I was just raised differently. Wait scratch that, I WAS raised differently.

We just had a girl quit on our basketball team because "she wasn't happy". The only thing I can say about that is she must have seen how hard college and the military truly are. Let's not forget that the Air Force Academy is not only one of the best educations you can get, but also one of the only ones that doesn't come with a student loan but rather a career. Sure it's different, I mean hell you learn to fly planes that sounds a little different than what Colorado College has to offer. The issue I have with this particular player quitting is that it leaves us with only 6 girls on the team, unfortunately injuries are rampant on a college team. Which also means if we lose one more player our season is done. I can already imagine the conversation between my player that just quit and her parents "Oh honey, if it's too hard just come home...". Whereas my Mom would have said "Oh, suck it up...life's hard."

On that note, all I have to say is thanks Mom...you made a person that doesn't quit when times get hard.

Ahhh Colorado.

Colorado cracks me up. It snowed last night, nearly 3 inches. Now for those of you that remember my last post that is nothing compared to the 10 inches we got the other day. But the schools are canceled today, not the other day just today. Like as if they had extra snow days and forgot to use one the other day. Although it did allow the ten year old from down the street to stop by and make 10 bucks to shovel our driveway. By the way I love paying kids to do things like that, what an awesome way to get kids some extra money and make them accountable for their workmanship...oh yeah and I didn't have to put on clothes yet this morning always a plus.

I had another doctor's appointment yesterday and first off everything is going along just wonderfully and secondly I guess by now I should be able to feel the baby. I can't feel it at all and someone told me that it may feel like gas bubbles. Hmmm, for me because I eat so many crazy things I have basically had some kind of stomach issues for the last 20 years. I hope the baby will eventually grow into big boy or girl moves that feel more like something I may be able to recognize or better yet not recognize at all so they will feel foreign.

I missed the month of November!

Wow, I just realized that I missed the entire month of November in the blog world...how shameful.

So here are some updates...

We just got back from Mexico which was a wonderful time as always, and I managed to find plenty to do without scuba diving or drinking my body weight in Cervases. The boys went golfing several times, I opted out simply due to cost...after all it was the only thing on Joe's mind and for me it would have just been pretty cool. I did come along one day to take pictures and drive the cart.

It is officially winter here in Colorado, we got 10 inches of snow this weekend and are having firewood dropped off today. We went snowboarding one time before Mexico and while there wasn't very much snow on the ground it was still fun. I am not sure how many more times I will make it up though, my schedule is so busy and I only have until January 1st.

The pregnancy is still going along the same, which for those of you that don't ask me twice a day (thanks Mom) the answer is completely unnoticeable. I haven't gained weight, or been sick or any of the other adverse reactions that I read about in What to Expect When You're Expecting. In fact I was talking to one of my friends the other day and it feels more like I am preparing to get pregnant, like eating better, taking vitamins, and not drinking rather than already pregnant. I am completely thankful for this and could not even imagine how it would be different if I were sick or felt awful all the time like some of my friends have. I am just into my 4th month now and patiently waiting for the 5th month to find out the sex. We just got back all of our genetic tests and we have a 90% assurance that we will have a baby without a severe genetic disorder. Just one of the many things Joe and I have to be thankful for. I must admit that I am slightly taken back by the fact I can hide a melon (the current size of my uterus) and a navel orange (the size of the baby) in my midsection without gaining a notch on my belt.

Although as I am writing this I can think of one thing that has changed, I am so absentminded. In fact I just rebooted a server in the middle of the day for no reason...why because the button was sitting there, must have been entirely too tempting for my little fingers. I have to date dropped 4 entire bottles of condiments only to explode on my feet while Joe is watching asking if I am ok. The dishes aren't safe around me anymore because I just seem to let go of things, almost like I forget that I am holding on to them.

So that's an update on our lives here...I PROMISE to blog more this month. :-)

Well the cats out of the bag...

Well I think the 5 people that would read these posts have been all caught up on our recent events. And just because I need practice saying it, I'm pregnant.

The first question everyone all asks is "are you excited?"

Hmmm, that's a tough one to answer. You never want to look at someone who is clearly excited for you and say umm not really, more like terrified with a little bit of overwhelmed. So I am practicing saying "I sure am".

So now to clarify my response...each and everyone needs to remember that you are looking at the girl that while she was growing up played barbies but was their maid because she didn't like it when their house was dirty. Loved her Lilian doll (my cabbage patch doll), but only because she could learn how to braid hair...and in my house if you knew how to braid hair and would play with Mom's hair you could stay up late and watch extra TV. I can't hold babies unless they are dropped off on my lap while I'm not paying attention, but you can be sure that I won't ever walk around with them because after all what happens if my legs give out or my knees buckle and we both go down. I can't even look at tummies when babies are kicking because they scare me, what if the foot makes it out of the skin, should I push it back in? I went in to my blood drawn, apparently they need my blood worse than I do, and she brought out 5 vials to fill. I looked at her and asked am I going to pass out if you take that much blood, she laughed and said no. And then I proceeded to ask if I could get some juice just in case, again she only answered me with a laugh. Drawing the blood went off without a hitch but I still have a bruise on my arm. Of course I should get used to having my arm hurt because they are forcing me to get a flu shot, even though I said I haven't ever got one and better yet I don't really think I have ever gotten the flu, to which my doctor said well you've never been pregnant either, you're getting the shot. Luckily, in a 2 hour visit with my new doctor she already knows how to deal with me, it's like sitting at the table and having Mom say just eat it and shut up. Oh yeah and I'm taking vitamins which I think it a cruel way to get back at people like me that don't have morning sickness...what is in these little capsules of death that could possibly make my stomach hurt so bad. I can drink both vinegar and hot sauce directly out of the bottle, but can't ingest these pills without feeling sick. I did speak with a friend the other day and she gave me a good idea, take them before you go to bed and sleep through the sickness, that's helping.

One of the funniest things that has happened is the fact that Joe has not came to any of my doctor's appointments yet, I mean why would he come to a lab to get my blood drawn or an annual physical. But he is apparently distraught at the shear thought of this, every time I make it home with more paperwork (who says having a baby doesn't come with instructions) he looks at me and says really babe another appointment you wouldn't LET me go to. LOL, awesome! Do you want to come and sit in the waiting room while I get weighed, poked and proded? Then his face changed and asked well she didn't poke you hard right and like hurt the baby? I was able to pass on the blood lady's laugh at this point, and say I think we were both ok.

In honor of good friends...

J and I live together along with 3 boys, any girl reading this post knows that means we get a lot of grief for simply being ourselves. Anytime we are discussing the injustices we see in the world the boys either try and fix the obvious issues or make fun of us for carrying on. Yesterday while the boys went golfing (we opted out rather than going) we decided to go eat lunch together and perhaps see a movie. We never even saw a movie but rather spent the last 4 and half hours of the day sitting in comfy chairs at Starbucks. Granted we only worked through some of the planets issues, but it made both of us feel better to be able to be "unrealistic" (as the boys call us). Laura, Anne...you've heard me talk you know the kind of grief I would get. While sitting there I looked around at one point and there were several other groups of girls just talking it out, and I realized girls actually need this, apparently even girls who live together.

It is a cold and foggy day in Colorado especially after it was 75 degrees all weekend. The first ski resorts opened last week but only have a little bit of snow. This leads to "rock boarding" named this because some the larger rocks are not all the way covered up and will scratch the bottom of our snowboards. Because we all ride nice boards we skip this part of the season but hopefully we can hit the slopes a time or two before we head off to Mexico for Thanksgiving.

Here's a picture of the volleyball team on our last night of play, and yes you've guessed it...just as the theme to my post it was cold that night.

Just because...

Just because I haven't posted in a while here's some updates.

• Basketball season is keeping me so busy I have to schedule in laundry, which happens to be a new low for me.
• Work has been oddly quiet, it's almost the calm before the storm. We are set to have layoffs at the end of the month so everyone must be frantically searching Monster.com.
• Joe's business has been busy, of course he is still finding time to golf but I guess when it comes to passions Joe will find time.
• Our hot tub broke keep in mind it is only 3 months old so we're quite bummed, the parts are on order, blah!

Here's a picture of us at the Air Force Football game tailgating before it starts. That's me, J and Kellie!

Basketball Season

Last night marked our first official basketball practice. I cannot explain how excited I was, the squeak of shoes, the balls dribbling, the coaches (myself included) yelling "hustle" incessantly. It's going to be an amazing season. I found myself intimidated by their talent at first until I realized they needed to hear what they were doing right and what they could still work on. I came home with a giant smile on my face and asked everyone...when was the last time you were yelled at by a coach? Of course all of us said back in High School, which for our house was over 10 years ago minimum. And I just shook my head and said it was awesome to be back in a competitive gym where coaches are yelling. I loved coaching my boys for the last three years but when you are 12 years old you don't learn well when people are so hard on you, so I always took the intensity down a notch, but with these 11 girls...here we go. Girls crying, running out of the gym to throw up...yep basketball season is here and it feels great. I know I sound sick to those of you that haven't played, but I assure you basketball is 80% mental and the rest sweat. Nothing works better than to get them down as far as they will push themselves and show them they are still standing and better yet still standing as a team.

Working away my life.

So last night Joe and I went out to eat and to watch Oliver, we had a wonderful time and I couldn't have imagined better food, company or performances. When I got home I checked on work because I had been working on an issue all day, sure enough it still sat there (as with most things you don't actively fix). I started it up and worked for a while more, still to no avail. And just as if the comic world was laughing at me, my cell phone rang at 4AM this morning. I cleared my throat several times in an effort to sound as though I was not sleeping (why do you always do that, as if it were a sin to be sleeping when someone calls). Sure enough waiting on the other end was another issue. Up I go and back to work again, I'm not entirely sure if it was 3 or 4 hours of sleep I got but either way much less then I needed to operate efficiently. Here I am staring off into the void, two issues resolved, but at the end of it all while in my little world it was a big deal, truly it didn't start or stop any earthly orbits.

It's chilly out today so I am thinking about what I should make tonight for dinner. I love cooking in the winter, we don't have air conditioning in our house so I try not to run the oven anymore than needed in the summer.

I am watching "Hanging Up" right now, and two things I am noticing are coming true in this movie. First, we (our generation) are turning into the real life grown ups. The movie is about three sisters who's father is being put in the hospital with memory issues. And it is dawning on them that they are the grown ups, they have to make the choices not their parents. This movie is obviously hitting close to home with me because of my Dad being ill and watching the sisters deal with it reminds me of us kids. Secondly, this is probably the last movie Meg Ryan was in before she went and got her new "Joker" face lift. Why do women do this to themselves...I know the answer, they can't possibly show their age in their industry, but I so wish they would.

My Weekend...

My weekend was wonderful, as are most of my weekends.

-My presentation on Friday went wonderfully and not only did the ONLY intern want to work with me, but they want me to take my self esteem workshops more city wide and partner with TESSA during their high school and middle school presentations. So I will be doing the DOVE workshops and my own home grown presentations about self esteem. Very exciting! Of course Friday evening when I got home there were already quite a few people over at our house (that’s pretty usual for our home) so I decided due to my new found excitement I would attempt to drink away my feeling of sickness. Wow, was that a good plan. Saturday now reads…
-Saturday was spent in my PJ’s generally saying how awful I felt, the day did not include a shower or even a step outside.
-Sunday however I was back to my usual self waking up early to make some red Chili for our second annual Chili cook-off. This year it was held over at one of our friends house and due to it being my birthday Joe made everyone vote for me or he would slash their tires. While everyone didn’t vote for me I am absolutely sure I got some birthday votes, but I’ll take the trophy and they can challenge me next year. Joe was as always amazing and got me golf lessons, and we are going to Oliver tomorrow night. I have a passion for seeing anything live…imagine a life without do-overs and retakes. He also had an ice cream cake and party favors waiting at our friend’s house. While I was standing in their kitchen my youngest brother walked in and I just stared at him and said “well how the hell did you get here?” (keep in mind he’s 12). Sure enough in walk my parents! What a wonderful surprise…apparently Joe got on the phone with them and had my Mom enter the chili cook-off too. When I got back in the car I had an amazing signing rendition of Happy Birthday left on my cell phone by apparently an Indiana Choir (thank you guys!).
-Monday was work filled as always, but that’s life. Tadd and I did try out a new rib recipe for dinner which was amazing.
-Today…well we have our first game in our volleyball tournament tonight and it’s Biggest Loser night. Yahoo! I love that show even though I usually cry through most of it, but what else is new. Everyone on the show is just so exposed, I know when I workout I get to that excruciating tired spot and feel more vulnerable then I do in those reoccurring naked in front of the classroom dreams.

Blah...

Well I feel like I was hit by a bus. I wish I could say it was the bottle flu at least at that point I know I would have had fun last night, but no. Instead my allergies continue to get worse with no end in sight (when does it start snowing again?). When I was a small child I had horrendous allergies and was constantly taking some sort of medicine for it until we went into the doctor and he explained to my Mom and I that we were drying up my sinuses with the medicines

thus making it so they would have to “wash” them out. And yes for those that are wondering that is as unpleasant as it sounds. A month ago I was taking my medicine about twice a day and continuing to feel poorly and then it dawned on me…stop taking the medicine and let my body muddle through it. Here I am muddling/whining through it. I have actually lost count of the amount of times snot has ran down my face, thank goodness at least Joe loves me. The snot that does not escape down my face is ingested thus leading to a severe stomach ache. Ho hum.

On a non body fluid topic, we went and played golf last night and I was inches from getting my very first birdie. For those non golfers out there that means I would have been one shot under what they “recommend” as the number of shots for that hole. Yahoo!

Here's a picture of golfing last night...with the mountain backdrop how could I not LOVE Colorado! (Sorry about the quality it was taken via a cell phone).

Because I promised...

Here I am from sunny Colorado, because I promised Laura. After all I could not possibly lose my daily updates from Indiana.

So what am I doing today? Well, I am working away right now and will be taking a break in a few to run to the gym. My favorite thing to do at the gym is workout in the cardio cinema room, which is a dark room with a 17 foot TV screen where they show movies. As most people know about me, I am a movie fanatic, owning nearly 800 titles of my very own. I can watch the same movie again and again without getting bored, so this is truly the best gym ever for me (Spiderman 1 is playing today, luckily I have only seen this one 20 or so times). :-)

This afternoon I have to finish preparing for a presentation I have tomorrow at TESSA (the domestic violence organization I work with). We have a meet and greet tomorrow where the new interns are introduced to each of us and given the opportunity to pick someone to work with during their internship (I hope I get someone nice, LOL). I will also be starting up self esteem workshops for girls and have to give a run down on that curriculum. I am so excited about these workshops...scariest statistic I have heard this week...51% of girls age 8 believe that they are overweight. Well as with most everything that touches my heart, I believe that I can make a difference and because of that can't sit back and not act. I just completed my Dove training to become a facilitator of their self esteem workshops so I already have a good idea of how to approach the audience, that coupled with my experiencing in my Family Nights (the group I run at the SafeHouse) I think I should be ok.

Speaking with my Mom yesterday morning, I was mentioning that I was going to start a blog and sure enough she couldn't resist and started one herself. For those of you back in Indiana one of the things I miss from when I was younger is that my Mom used to write the editorials for the local newspaper. She is an amazing writer with a great sense of wit and intelligence so I am excited to read her blog daily also.

Goodbye until tomorrow...