Catch Up...

It's been quite a while since I've been on here, life gets crazy sometimes, but I've got lots of news, pictures, and great experiences to sum up on here. :)

I'll start with Septemeber. In the first part of the month I took a long weekend and traveled to Maryland to Celebrate Olivia's 1st birthday! :) She is such a beautiful baby! :)

This is a ball pit she got for her bday... Oh goodness!


Livi and Daddy taking a nap together! :)


And finally, the birthday princess at her party! :)

I spent the bulk of September (and part of August and part of October) looking for a house to purchase. In the middle of Septemeber I finally found a house I loved! It was a little bit further away from my work than I was hoping to purchase, but it was a PERFECT house for me. I put in an offer and was "under contract" on the house, but it was a short sale, so the deal was still awaiting bank approval. For some reason after a few weeks fo waiting, I suddenly had second thoughts, and my gut insitinct told me to pull my offer. I'm still sad thinking about it, I really did feel like that was a perfect house for me. :(

Near the end of Septemeber, I took another trip, but this time back home to Indiana for my friend Amanda's wedding. Randi (my best friend) and I decided to meet up in Chicago a few days before the wedding, and, we went out one night, it was awesome! :) We pretty much just went to dinner, and then went bar hoping, and back to the hotel to sleep! Here's a few pics from that leg of my trip:

The next morning, we rented a car and drove home to Indiana for Manda's wedding. It was a weekend full of fun. Seeing Family, Friends, and and catching up was soo good. It was the first time in almost 10 years that ALL of use girls in my group of friends had all made it to one destination at one time. AMAZING!

Once I returned home, I came back to an incredibly hectic work schedule. I had worked only 1 Friday in all of the month of September (between a holiday and two long weekends), I'd had a few very short weeks one after another, after another, after another. On top of already behind as a result of all of this, I returned to the office to do two jobs for the next 3 weeks. My coworker (whom is solely responsible for the entire companies payroll, took a vacation through Europe. The third day I returned, my boss (the only other employee in the accounting department at this point in time) came down with H1N1. So... the next few weeks were EXTREMELY stressful for me.

On the Monday of the 3rd week back, we learned that our company (whom I've worked for for almost 3 years) has decided to relocate our corporate office to Cheyenne, Wyoming. For those of you that do not know, Cheyenne is about 100 miles north of Denver.

I'm so bummed. Cheyenne is just not where I saw myself and my life going. But, in this job market, it is hard to give up a great job.

So, I am still undecided as to what I am going to do. There are so many variables effected by my decision, and no matter how much I think about it and try to weigh my options, the decision just doesn't ever seem to get easier. :(

None the less, I am required to decide by 11/23 weather I will relocate to Cheyenne, or give up my job to remain in Denver.

If Doni ever sees this, she'll kill me, but I couldn't help but post them... :)

My oldest sister emailed me last week and asked if I could scan in a few pictures of her as a baby. I guess they are doing some thing at her work where they have to guess whose baby picture it is.. etc. So, I started looking through all kinds of old pictures we have, and boy oh boy do we have a TON of pictures.

In doing this though, I realized that Olivia really looks a lot like Doni... the light eyes and dark hair... awe so cute! So... I thought I'd share a few pictures.

Let me remind you, Doni was born in 76, so some of these pictures are pretty old, as you can tell from the outfits/wallpaper/blankets, etc. :)

When I get more time, I am going to scan in a lot more pictures (not just of Doni), but older pictures, that are fun to look at! :)

Here we go again....

Today I had the sudden realization that I have less than a week before classes officially start again.

I hate that I am not excited for the semester to start. I want to be excited, but instead I feel like there is a huge dark cloud looming overhead. Going to school is so much work when I'm already working full time. I literally feel like it drains the life out of me sometimes. Last Spring, I took a course load that overwhelmed me beyond belief, and now, only 3 months later, I can't even exactly remember what classes I took. Needless to say, I don't feel that I'm taking a lot away from some of these classes, which only makes me resent them more.

All of that being said, I want my degree, and I know that as much as I hate this right now, in the end it will be well worth all of the hard work, sometimes its just hard to see that. It seems so far away. But.... like I've always said, somehow, someway, I'll get there, and I'll find a way.... no one can stop me, including myself. :)

As I finally went to purchase my textbooks this morning, I realized just how much I benefit from my job here. WOW. My tuition for three classes was nearly $1000 per class.... my text books were almost another $500...
On top of already liking my job quite a bit... and all of the other benefits I receive... I almost have to consider them paying for all of that every semester like another $7000 a year in income! Just another reason to be thankful and count my blessings!

On another happier note, I have an interview with the Big Brothers Big Sisters group on Friday, and I am very excited to be involved with the program. :) The process of becoming a "big" is a lot longer than I'd imagined, but it will likely be a good thing. Last week I attended a group "training", really it was just a session where they tell you about the program, what is expected, what is prohibited, etc. And, even that was fun for me! :)

I met a lot of like minded people there, and I hope that I'll get to see more of them at future events with our "littles." In addition to that training, I'll undergo a 1-2 hour interview on Friday, undergo a background/driving history check, and they will contact some of the references that I listed on my application. I kind of feel like I am interviewing for a job, LOL. But, I think its a good thing, it keeps people from getting involved with the program for the wrong reasons, and kind of protects the kids from being hurt in the process.

In other news, one of my best friends ever found out on Friday she's having a little girl! :) I can't freaking wait to meet her! :) Kind of scarey to think we might have another "Susie Homemaker", I mean Kellie, running around! Then again, there are a lot worse people I could think of having 2 of! :) Only kidding, I love my Oscar, and I hope her little girl is JUST LIKE HER, I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have 2 of!

Here is a random Melody of pictures from the last few weeks.... :)

Can you find Mars? :) He's become obsessedwith pillows, he loves to sleep in the pillows on the couch, on the bed, anywhere he can find pillows really! :)
Milo will hang out anywhere, as long as I'm not far away... he's quite attached to momma!

Olivia has learned to crawl! :) At 11 months old, she is officially mobile! I can't wait to see her for her first birthday next month! :)

This is my friends baby, Calvin. And I just had to include him because he's just so stinkin cute!

A few weeks ago, Amy and I played Dance Dance Revolution (on Wii) until 2 in the morning. Seriously, I haven't laughed so hard in years as I did this night! :) If you haven't tried this out yet, definitely do... yeah you can make a fool of yourself, but its 100% worth it!

And Finally.... Kate. My other, lesser known, niece. On August 3rd, Kate turned 5 years old! :) What a beautiful little girl she has become. I wish more than anything in the world I could see her, but none the less, I'm happy to at least be able to see that she is thriving, happy and healthy. :)

Why is it that fall always becomes chaotic for me?

With Summer not really feeling like much of a summer this year, I'm starting to wonder why everything I do always seems to be in the fall. It always seems like my life is so boring for long periods of time and then all of a sudden its like I hit the gas and everythign happens at once.

I guess a lot of it is just the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, September/October Birthdays: Me, mom, Doni, Amy, Olivia! That and it seems like I tend to travel more and have more events that time of year.

September last year I had planned everything out just right, including a trip to Maryland to help with Olivia and the house after Kristyn had a C-section. But.... Olivia decided to come 2 weeks early! It was a wonderful surprise, but also unexpected. Don't get me wrong I loved going out there. But, she also just so happen to come just a a week before Kellie's wedding, which made the timing a little more difficult in addition to needing to change my flight and re-arrange my work/dog schedule as well! Then of course I had Kel's wedding! In the midst of this time period we sometimes celebrated a few birthdays here and there too. Did I mention that I'm also going to school full time and working full time somehow?
Then came Thanksgiving, and Doni's decision to move to Ohio (which meant she was traveling back and forth and I had her dog as well for almost 2 months). Holidays in general are just stressful in my family, and last year definitely was no exception.
In December, Eric and Kristyn and Olivia came out for 11 days, which also was fun, but it was a bit more stress, in addition the usual holiday stress. Then January came, and I had kind of dumbly and inconveniently planned a trip to see my best friend in Florida. Don't get me wrong I love her, but the trip didnt' turn out the best. Unfortunately the humidity coupled with her cats shedding was very dangerous for my breathing! Which made me miserable for the majority of the trip.
The week I got back I was already in the process of moving, and starting new classes for the semester. Which also means that in the meantime of all of this, I had been looking for a place to live, re-registered for classes, and had a going away party for my oldest sister whom moved to Ohio.
By the time February rolled around I was redy for a break and to relax and try to catch up both at work and at home (unpacking), and on school work. And just 2 weeks in I decided to buy a new car too! LOL.
Since then, things have calmed down, thank goodness, I don't like that much stress!
But... .now I'm looking at my schedule for this fall, and I'm worried it might turn out similar!
Already in September I have a wedding in Indiana, and Olivia's first birthday family bash in Maryland. In October, I have one week where I will be doing 2 jobs at work, one of them being payroll which I have never done by myself at this job! I am supposed to go on a girls trip the week after that with my mom and sisters, but have still not really decided if I am going to end up doing that or not. A friend from California thinks he might come out here the last week in October just to visit for the first time. Randi, my best friend is likely coming out to visit in November, maybe with another friend as well. And then I start the Holiday season with my family all over again! Oh and of course I start new classes in August again... can't forget that!

YIKES, looking back at last year, I don't know how I made it through that 3 or 4 months!!!!

WOW.... Long Day.

It is going to be a long day.... my office normally consists of anywhere between 8 and 15 people depending on the day. There are 3 of us in the accounting department. 4 people in the in the Engineering Department. 2 Administrative assistants. 1 Environmental Health/Safety Specialist, 1 HR Executive, and the President of our company.

Today... it is ME and 1 Admin assistant. This is a very bizzare, and probably going to be a very LONG day.

The States I've Visited

In Red are all the states I have visited... in Grey are those that I haven't made it to yet...


I was thinking I'd been to a lot more states than this...

I need to get traveling some more.

I want to someday visit EVERY state... :)

Anyone want to go on a road trip?

A time to be thankful...

I am thankful everyday for the things, people, and experiences I've had and continue to have in my life. This week however a few incidents occured that reminded me how blessed I am.

Last week I was pretty mad because my review did not come back as great as I'd hoped and really thought it would. Don't get me wrong, it came back very positive, and I got another 5% increase. But... I was expecting them to review and likely even change my title, and well they didn't. :( Oh-well, as my boss said, a title is just a title.

So reminders of what I am thankful for...

1. Today, I learned that after 40 years at the same job, my roomate's father was fired from his job. He had worked at the same job, worked his way to the top and everything since he was 18!

2. This morning I also learned that a close friend's husband was let go from him job. He is the bread winner in their family, works in the auto industry, which as everyone knows has been hit terribly, terribly hard in this economy. They have a 3 month old baby currently.

Both of these served as a reminder that perhaps I was being greedy wanting more than I'd gotten from my review.... and so, despite the hardship it created for them, I'm thankful for the realization it gave me.

I have a million reasons to be thankful for my job, and some of them include:

a) I have almost no stress
b) I am blogging at work, lest I say more?
c) I like my boss a lot, 95% of the time.
d) I am paid pretty well.
e) I have 3 weeks paid vacation.
f) ALL of my insurance (medical, dental, vision) cost me $40 a month (quite a benefit considering I paid $280 at my last job).
g) My school is paid for.
h) I get every other Friday off
I) I have unlimited sick pay, which I can use for Doctor's appointments
J) Really, if I think about it, there are probably a whole alphabet of reasons to be thankful.

I also realized this weekend how thankful I am for my boys. On Saturday, I drove to Loveland to help a friend (same one who's husband was just let go), prepare their house for sale. We worked out butts off in the yard and house all day. I took my boys with me, and they ran and ran and ran in the yard... they have a HUGE back yard, and there were other dogs there to play with too.

From the first night I brought them home, until February when I finally purchased a new vehicle, Mars has gotten sick in the car every time we got in. I don't know if it was the stress, the fear, just plain carsickness, or what, but every time we went somewhere the poor thing would get sick. I've worked with him over and over, and things got better (mostly just drool, and rare puking). Since I bought a new car (much higher seats) in February, Mars has never gotten sick again. The key though is that he needs to be able to put his face out the window and feel the wind. So, yes, I am the weirdo that drives down I-25 in the winter with my dog (and sometimes dogS) sticking his head out the window. Whatever it takes, to make him not get sick.

So this window open thing has become the norm.... so saturday...we drove to Loveland, window open. Made it there, played all day! :)

On the way home, I ran through Chick-Fil-A to get a Cherry Coke... I love Cherry Coke! Weaving my way out of the parking lot, I of course drove in front of Petsmart, Pier 1, Target, all of those stores in Centerra. About the time I got in front of Pier 1, this young couple with 2 little kids were about to cross the walkway, I slowed down, let them cross, and then took off again. Seconds after taking off I realized, Mars had just JUMPED out the freaking window!!!!! My freaking dog jumped out of a moving vehicle. Milo, the sweet innocent little thing... looked out the window at the ground, trying to figure out where his big brother had just gone!

I of course immediately put the car in park and jump out. I am mortified even when I am out, I can't see him... the first thing I think is... OMG did I hit him? My heart stopped beating for a second. And then immediately, I see Mars run to these sweet little kids that are just now entering Pier 1 with their parents. Thank you god for this mother, she smartly grabs his collar for me and holds it til I can get to her.

In the end he is fine, not a scratch on him. But... for that brief second I panicked, and it made me realize I really do love that little brat. Even though he is a TON of extra work (I swear he is more work than a mastiff would be), I love him so much. My life would not be the same without his crazy, silly antics.

So, the moral to all of these ramblings... this week... I am thankful. For my life, for my job, for my health, for my dogs, for my friends, for all of the experiences I've been able to have, and those yet to come.