It's the end of 2004!

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone!

First to get it out of the way, sad moment for me at WnW last night. Had an older dog come in. He was a 13 yr old lab. He has breathing problems. It’s quite apparent. He pants in a funny way all the time. The owner was telling me that the surgery to repair the dog’s malfunctioning windpipe is too complicated for a dog his age. His windpipe simply doesn’t want to expand and contract anymore. The owner said they are just helping to make his last days comfortable. Made me so sad to hear it, I had to go and hide in the office until they left. Thank goodness Dan had given me a project to do on the computer, so I could justify hiding back there.

What is it with pets? We take these critters in, we love them, nurture them, and they rely on us to sustain them, feed them, love them, make them better when they are ill or hurt. In return they are there with their unconditional love. They show it by greeting us when coming in the door, by giving us those long loving looks, by putting their head on your leg and looking up at you with those big brown eyes (Petey), or by kissing you until you think there isn’t an inch of you left not covered by dog slobber (Buddy). Buddy was who got me through the tough times of my divorce. He let me just put my head on him and cry. I am so thankful for the two wonderful dogs I currently have. I just don’t know what I would do without them! I wish they could live as long as we do.

Okay, let’s get away from the sad stuff now…

So, here we are at the end of 2004! What a year! What a GREAT year for me! I managed to stay employed all year! As did hubby! We had such an awesome wedding, and we were so incredibly happy to have all our friends and family here with us to celebrate. We still haven’t been able to find the right words to describe how wonderful it all was! We have watched our friends’ families expand. We have dealt with another close friend having cancer. We have dealt with surgery and broken bones. We have seen friends achieve their dreams of buying their first homes! We have had a few deaths also. We got 2 honeymoons! We have had a little bit of everything this year! It’s been a great year! And with my new wonderful hubby at my side, I look forward to many many more wonderful years to come. I look forward to more expanding families, more healings, and more dreams coming true!

So, what are my resolutions? Well, I resolve to try to get back to a size 8. I resolve to have less cavities, help my hubby eat well and exercise, maybe he can get down to a size 8 too! I resolve to continue to let friends and family know how much each one of them holds a very special place in my heart, and that I never take any of them for granted.

So, let’s raise our glass to each other! I toast you and your family, I hope the New Year brings you much happiness, and many dreams fulfilled!

Love you all!!

Useless info

Here is some useless informaion about myself for your reading pleasure:

1) Name the last four things you bought?
bison bones (for the pups on New Years Eve)

4 fillings

groceries at Sam’s (For New Year’s Eve)

A pair of cargo pants at Old Navy

2)Name four drinks you drink regularly?
water

Coco

Malibu and Diet/caffeine free coke

7-up or sprite

3)Last time you cried?
my birthday

4)What’s in your CD Player?
Clay Aiken

5)What’s under you bed?
LOTS of Petey fur

6)When did you wake up this morning?
Alarm went off at 6:00 but I didn't get up till 6:30

7)Current Hair?
Ponytail. (What kind of question is that, anyway?)

8)Current clothes?
khaki’s, t-shirt, corduroy shirt over

9) Current desktop pic?
Petey

10)Current worry?
no worries, except maybe how many mice are still in my house that I don’t see

11)Current Hate?
Dry skin

12)Favorite place to be?
my bed with my heating blanket on and lots of time to sleep

13)Least favorite place?
Wal Mart

14)If you could play an Instrument?
I would be rich and famous in a rock band! DUH!

15)Favorite color?
I really hate to play favorites, but I guess I would choose a shade of blue

16)How tall are you?
5' 5"

17)Favorite expression?
Holy schnikeies Batman

18)One person from your past you wish you could talk to?
Too many people to go back and destroy for me to choose

19)Favorite day(s)?
any of them that I have off from both jobs

20)Where would you like to go?
at the moment, to lunch, I am hungry!

21)Where do you want to live when you get married?
Well I already live where I am married so this question is N/A, plus I would want to live where my husband is!

22)Favorite Food?
All of them, except liver and a few select others

23)Color of most clothes you own?
grey or blue probably

24)Number of pillows you sleep with?
2

25)What do you wear when you go to sleep?
pajamas! Why, does someone else wear a flack vest or something?

26)What were you doing at 12am last night?
Checking the inside of eyelids for leaks

27)How old will you be in 10 years?
I will be 29 (again)

28)What will you be doing in ten years?
If we are dreaming here, well then I will be living in a mansion with my husband and 2-3 kids with a nanny, a staff to keep the house clean, and 3 dogs, and living the lavish lifestyle!

29)Do you have braces?
not currently

30) Are you paranoid?
yes, why, was someone asking if I was? Was is the government? They are watching you know…

31)Do you burn or tan?
I try to do neither.

32)What is the brand of your wallet?
Coach!

33)First piercing or tattoo?
My ears were pierced when I was 13.

34) First enemy?
oh, let’s not think negative thoughts

35)Last person you yelled at?
Probably Buddy. But I try hard not to yell at anyone.

36)Last crush?
Ty Pennington… he’s a hottie! Still have a crush on him!

37)Last thing you ate?
an apple breakfast bar

I think I need a new job....

My aching mouth....

My dentist must love my family. Between my sister and I, we keep him employed! Today was my day to finish the last 4 fillings. My mouth hurts pretty bad now. These were all on the bottom left portion of my mouth. The bottom portion of the mouth is harder to numb, and even harder for me! I ended up having to have 3 shots of novicane. But it’s all over and done with now. PHEW! Hopefully I am done with fillings for a while!

Back to WnW tonight. I worked last night also. I was the closing manager, so I had everything done before 9pm, so once we locked the doors, I just had to enter the info in the register, turn off the lights and arm the alarm. I think we clocked out at 9:11pm, a new record! I work tonight and tomorrow night, then I have 2 days off from there.

Good news here! Look like Hubby is going to go back to school for his Masters Degree! Yea! He has wanted to do it for some time, and finally I think he is going to do it! He meets with the admissions department today. He would get his degree from Colorado Technical University. I am very proud of him!

So this is what 30 feels like?

I had 2 days off in a row, from both jobs this weekend! So that is what weekends were like? But Sunday it was back to work. WnW. Yes, I worked on my birthday. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do! I can't belive it's been over a month that I have been working both jobs now!

Started off my birthday morning by hubby’s mom singing Happy Birthday to me over the phone! Then Hubby took me to breakfast. I headed to work from there. He went to the store to get fixin’s for dinner. He then stopped by my work with a cake, balloon, roses and cake eating accessories (plates and plastic wear). What a guy! My balloon said Happy 30^th Birthday, though… I think a plain Happy Birthday balloon would have been much nicer. No need to announce to everyone how old I am. But I know he did it on purpose to announce what Birthday it was this year.

The store was pretty quiet all day long! We were having $1800 days before Christmas, and yesterday was a $700 day! Pretty slow... I had to work until 6pm, and I was out the door at 6pm, like a shot. There were others there to stay with the manager to close up! Good thing!

Several messages and emails were sent to me with Birthday wishes! Thank you all for the Happy Birthday wishes. I especially liked how the Carters (both of them!) sang Happy Birthday to my voicemail!!

The rest of the family came over for festivities. Hubby made Cuban Tuna, broccoli, and rice. He had the table set out really nice with wine glasses and everything. I couldn’t believe it was our table! After our delicious meal, I got to open my mound of gifts! There were many of them! To the Carter’s: LOVED the JG fleece! I was going to wear it today, but couldn’t find where hubby had put it!

I got dog books, and good old fashion money (thanks Dad and Mom and Dad K!), and fan zone passes to the race in Daytona (thanks Mom)! There were lots of other good gifts also. I am sorry if I can’t remember to mention all them here, I am a bit sleepy this morning!

I am not working at WnW tonight, so we are going to go to Sam’s and get everything we need for our New Year’s party. I think I will work a ½ day on Friday and then ½ day on Monday January 3. We were given Jan. 3 off, but not New Year’s Eve. Due to the fact that the New Years Party is at our house, I prefer to at least have that afternoon off to get stuff ready. Hubby has the whole day off. (Lucky guy!)

I work WnW Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Phew, I am tired just thinking about it. Or maybe I am just tired. Oh yeah, I think that’s it.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! Here’s to making it to New Year’s!

PS: My husband will now be referred to as Hubby, just as a little bit more privacy for us.

HO, HO, HO, Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful day like we did! On Thursday I only had to work about a ½ a day. My boss was nice and let me go home, due to it being Christmas Eve Eve. Brian also left work early, so he picked me up about noon. We went to lunch with my boss at Chili’s before heading for home.

I spent the afternoon doing not too much of anything. I sorted laundry and took a nice long nap. I had to be to WnW at 4:30pm, so about 4pm, I headed out in my Kia. It was still pretty slick, but I made it to work, going at a SLOW rate of speed. While I was at work that night it started to snow again. We just got another dusting on top of all the other snow we had, but it was COLD! It was about -3 when I left work to head for home at 9pm.

Rick and Brian were playing scrabble when I got home. I joined them in the next game; however I didn’t do a very good job, and came in third. Oh well, I was playing the 2 Scrabble kings, so what could I expect. I would like to play Taboo with them though, I am much better at that game!

Friday morning I woke up about 7:30am. I started doing lots of laundry. I must have done 5 or 6 loads! It’s hard to find time to do the laundry working 2 jobs, and I still won’t let Brian touch it. So, I get it done in mass quantities when I can. While the loads were going I wrapped and wrapped and wrapped. I had not yet wrapped any gifts for my family yet. Brian and I headed out to get some breakfast about 10am, and when we got back, we backed the Jeep into the garage so we could fill it with gifts. We had so many large gifts we had to take 2 cars to get down to my parents house!

We filled the Jeep with all the gifts, then put away the mountain of laundry and then packed up everything else we would need for the night. We loaded the dogs in my car and we headed off down to my parents house. We arrived about 6:30pm. Originally Suzi and Zak were expected to arrive at 8pm. However, they got on the road late and they got there about 9pm instead. We played Uno until they arrived. Once they got there, we had our large Christmas Eve dinner. We had prime rib, and potatoes as well as asparagus and a few other things. It was delicious. After that, we headed to bed.

I woke up about 7:30am Christmas morning and was not able to get back to sleep. I got up to get dressed. Seems Zak had been up since 5:30am. Finally Suzi started to stir as well as Brian and the rest of the house. I think we finally got to opening gifts around 9am.

There were gifts galore! Big ones, small ones, yellow ones, blue ones… It was just like a page from Dr. Seuss. Brian had the most gifts out of everyone. How does he finagle that?

We distracted the dogs from getting into everything by giving them the bones from the prime rib the night before. It worked like a charm. We were able to open gifts in peace.

Best gifts of the day? For Brian, he said his Hokie Bird Feeder from his sister. For me, my Jeff Gordon car I really wanted and thought didn’t exist from my mom! (Plus the Daytona tickets, however I all ready knew about those). For Suzi, it was the sewing machine Brian and I gave her and for Zak it was his Nintendo DS that my mom gave him. Hard to say what my parents liked best. The dogs love everything they got!

Mid morning we broke for breakfast, which was yummy! After the presents were all opened, we opened stockings. After every piece of wrapping paper was ripped of every gift imaginable, we took a break and waited for dinner. Zak played with his Nintendo, Suzi got all their gifts organized, Brian and I took a short nap and then Suzi and I played some Uno.

Then we had a delicious dinner with Ham, cheesy spinach potatoes, broccoli, squash, and yams. After that a family game of Pictionary, that Brain and I were the champions of!

After that we packed up the Jeep and my car and headed for home. The dogs are now sound asleep at our feet in the office. They had a LONG day, ya know! We have got most of our gifts put away, and the pictures on line. You can view them at: www.dooh.com/pics

You will notice a few with jelly beans and my mom making some odd faces. We put some of the Harry Potter Beanie Botts (or something like that) in her and Suzi’s stocking. They make ear wax flavor, and soap flavor, along with dirt and earthworm, spaghetti, grass, sardine, and a few other ODD flavors of Jelly Beans. Oh yeah, and vomit and booger flavor (really, not kidding!). My mom had just tried the soap one. It tastes like soap! I tried one also. We tried most every gross flavor there was. The vomit we spit out, as well as the booger one. They tasted pretty bad. But we had fun trying them. Grass didn’t actually taste too bad! Dirt tasted like dirt!

We all got many many wonderful gifts from many wonderful people! Thank you all for thinking of us! And thank you all for the wonderful gifts! Brian and I feel very lucky and blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family members!

And now, it’s getting late. Time to go to bed so I can wake up early tomorrow to go to WnW.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

What a crazy couple of days! It started snowing on Tuesday night. I had to work at WnW. It snowed, and snowed, and snowed. We woke up to about 3-4 inches on Wednesday morning. So, we got up and went to work. Brian went in his Jeep, and I went in my Kia. As soon as I started driving I thought, ‘ugh, these roads are pretty bad’. Then I thought ‘maybe I should turn around and stay home’. But I didn’t, I decided to trudge on to work. Big mistake. I was just about to turn into the driveway of my work, and I started sliding. BOOM, I hit the curb. This was my first time of driving on snow that I slid and hit a curb. I was not happy. After I was at work for about 2 hours, my boss told me to go ahead and go. So, I left and went to get my car looked at. I ended up having to have a front and rear end alignment. But, thankfully there was no major damage. I finally made it home about 11am and I crawled in bed and slept until 2pm!

After that I got up and made some chili! It seemed like a great day for it. Brian came home about 4pm to pick me up. He took me over to WnW to work. I worked until 9pm and Brian came back to pick me up. It was still snowing!

This morning we woke up to the snow finally having stopped. Looks like we got 4-5 inches total. It is supposed to snow off and on all day today. Brian drove me to work in the Jeep this morning and he will take me to WnW tonight. The roads are really slick for some reason! It is also REALLY cold. They are saying we will have a white Christmas in the way that this snow will not melt before then, but it’s not supposed to snow on Christmas. Tonight’s supposed to be really cold!

All I have to say is: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

I took both dogs to WnW last night for a bath. Seemed like a good idea. But taking both dogs at the same time is some work! I managed, while promising myself that I would never take them at the same time again! They will have to make separate trips from now on. They actually behaved quite well, it’s just a lot of work to wash one while the other one pins you to the tub with his leash. But, both pups are now clean, smell good (to us humans) and happy. They got a treat on the way out, so it was even better!

So, my day job is pretty slow right now. I know I have said it was slow before, so imagine it now the week of Christmas… Yea, really slow! So, to pass the time, I have been reading more blogs. I came across someone who had done up this little list for themselves so I figured it would be fun for me to do also! So, here is a little bit about me you may have not know before!!

ten things I really liked when I was a teenager that I don't much care for now:
1. leg warmers (really more like pre-teen years, WAY pre teen)
2. jelly shoes
3. Barbie dolls
4. jelly bracelets
5. parking-lot carnivals
6. MTV
7. VH1
8. Saturday night Live
9. horror movies
10. Meatloaf

ten things I didn't much care for when I was a teenager that I really like now:
1. my sister
2. traveling!!
3. the beach
4. coffee (all though I can’t have it anymore)
5. country music (but not all the time)
6. most vegetables
7. naps!
8. playing cards
9. being busy
10. blue cheese dressing

ten things I've never much cared for and very likely never will:
1. chows (dog breed)
2. exercise, all though it must be done!
3. cooked fish
4. liver
5. my eyes
6. mean people
7. flare leg jeans
8. taking off and landing in an airplane
9. platform shoes
10. regular stuffing at Thanksgiving (I know, I am odd)

ten things I've always really liked and very likely always will:
1. Life
2. Laughing
3. dogs
4. snow
5. bubble baths
6. my family
7. Christmas
8. having close friends
9. shopping
10. driving

I need a nice long nap!

I sure have been busy the last few days! Friday night we went to my parent’s house picking up the dogs from our house. We dropped the dogs off and picked up my mom and went up to the Zoo for the electric safari. It was fun, as usual. The night wasn’t too cold, kind of just a crisp night. We fed the giraffes, and watched a hippo swim laps in his pool. The otters were quite active and the tiger was sleeping in front of the window. So, it was a good night at the zoo. Colorado Springs Utilities solicits their employees for help hanging all the lights. Brian hasn’t gone up to help yet, maybe next year! The Utilities are a big sponsor of the Electric Safari.

After the zoo we dropped Brian off downtown so he could catch up with his friends. They were having a guy’s night. They went to dinner and then to a late movie.

Saturday I worked at WnW on Uintah. It was sooo busy! Mid afternoon we had a line of 5 dogs waiting for a tub! They even called the Woodmen store and had them send down an employee to help us out. Every one wants a clean dog for the holidays! You wouldn’t want Santa seeing a dirty dog when he comes down the chimney!

While I was working Brian went to the motorcycle show in Denver. This is the first year in the last 3 years that I didn’t go. There are always lots of pretty bikes to look at. Brian and a large group of his friends all went. It sounds like they had a pretty good time.

After that exhausting day working, I went home to change to hit the road again. Brian had picked up Adam (the cadet) and we all got in the car to head to Denver. We had my SH Christmas party at Dave & Busters. That is an adult arcade. It has all kinds of video games that adults like to play, as well as pool tables, and shuffle board. They also serve food and alcohol. We stayed there pretty late and then headed for home.

Sunday was back to work for me again. This time at my usual store, on Woodmen. They haven’t really advertised that the store is open for business. They did finally put Now Open banners up on the signs outside. So, we were not super busy on Sunday. We did about 30-35 washes that day. It should get busier as people realize the store is open. But apparently Christmas time is their busiest time. The weekend before Christmas last year, at the Uintah store, was the busiest days of the entire year!

Early Sunday morning, Brian took Adam to the airport. Adam was heading home for the holidays. Brian and Rick hung out at home all day wasting the day in front of the TV. That was their plan. They ordered Pizza and played some games as well. Then our friends Tony, Kelly and Kinsey joined them for a while.

When I got home from work, we were off again. This time to the WnW Christmas party. They held it at a restaurant called The Warehouse. It’s a great place! Locally owned, with a small art gallery. The food was pretty tasty, and we had the white elephant gift exchange. The hot item for the exchange was a $20 blockbuster card with microwave popcorn. Brian must have had it in his hand several times. He really wanted it for our theater. But, alas, the owner also really wanted it. So, finally we let him have it and I ended up with chocolate bars and a fondue kit. Brian ended up with Homer Simpson slippers. They are cute, he likes them, but they are too small for his feet.

After that, we went to my parent’s house to pick up the dogs. With all of our running around all weekend, we figured it would be best to have them stay with Nana. They helped Nana bake lots of Christmas goodies. They were in charge of cleaning up any spills that might happen while Nana was making cookies. And they know that is their job. So, they sit RIGHT under her feet trying to initiate any spills. They know how to try to make things work to their advantage.

At one point I called on Sunday to see how they were. My mom had left the kitchen for a few minutes to talk to me on the phone. Buddy came in and started telling her how she should be in the kitchen, not sitting on the phone chatting. He was expressing his feelings very loudly.

Last night the wind was HOWLING! The news guy said that there were gusts up to 60 mph! It kept me up most of the night. I really want to invest in one of those sound machines. I think we will be getting one very soon, especially before New Years. Tony and Kelly are planning on attending our party, and Kinsey goes to bed before the festivities start. So, if we have a noise machine, we can turn it on to help block out the party noise. I have heard that Target sells a pretty good one in the Baby Dept. I guess at some point I will have to get over there to get it. I think I will wait until after Christmas though! It’s going to be too much of a madhouse before.

I don’t have to work at WnW tonight, but we (the dogs and I) will be taking a trip over there. They need their Christmas baths. Actually they just need a bath. They are stinky dogs.

I sure could use a nice long nap…..

Blogging

I have recently discovered that small button in the upper right hand corner of my blog screen. See it? The one that says next blog. Yes, it’s my new friend. I have been using that button the last three days. Things at my day job are as exciting as ever (dripping with sarcasm) so I have plenty of time to try out that button. I have learned many things! Some people use blogs to advertise, some to hold conferences, some to pass along information, but most use it as a mode of communication (like myself). I have come across several sites run by teenagers where there are about 20 girls all contributing to the same site about how boring homeroom is or what they did when they finished their homework. I have seen lots of pictures of people I don’t know, seen languages I don’t recognize and read all about college students excited to go home for the Christmas holiday. I guess the big lesson to learn is that anyone can hit that button and land on my blog. So, I guess I always need to be wary of what I say.

With that said, I will now speak in code. The crow flies at midnight. No, just kidding. I will just refrain from putting people’s full names, address, social security numbers and mother’s maiden names on here.

Of course Mr. Computer Security (Brian) I am sure is nodding in agreement with me as he reads this. But nothing is really safe anymore anyways! We watched the movie Sneakers the other night. I really like that movie and have ever since the first time I saw it. I am not sure why I like it, since it’s not a chick flick and Brad Pitt’s not in it, but I do. Brian likes it for the obvious reason: it’s about breaking into computer systems. While watching it he says to me: this just goes to show how with enough time and money ANY security system is able to be hacked!

While also reading strangers blogs I have learned that there are some very good writers out there. I am not a good writer and my blog is not nearly as interesting as some I have come across. I have read about a grandmother having surgery, a sick dog and a father who had a stroke. But, hopefully my blog is exciting to those of you who read it!

So, not much has been new here. Last night I didn’t have to work at WnW! Brian has been in class all week here at my office, so we carpooled yesterday and stopped at the Post Office on the way home to pick up a package his sister had sent us. Then we ran home, let the dogs out, fed them, let them out again, and we were off to run some errands. We finished up the night at Macaroni Grill using up a gift certificate we received at a holiday party a few weeks back.

We carpooled again today. After work we will run home, get the dogs and go down to my parent’s house. We are going to go to the Electric Safari at the zoo tonight. I am looking forward to that! We go every year and I love it EVERY year. It’s a big part of Christmas tradition for me.

We are taking the dogs to my parent’s house as we need them to be taken care of this weekend. Tomorrow, I work at WnW all day and Brian is going to the motorcycle show in Denver. Then we have the SH Holiday party in Denver at Dave & Busters. Sunday I work all day again, Brian will be running cadets from the Academy to the airport and then we have our WnW holiday party at a restaurant downtown. So, we will pick the dogs up Sunday night after that party. I will miss being at the house without them, but we won’t be at the house that much.

Question of the day:

What would you wear for camouflage if you were hiding in a gingerbread house?

I think I would wear a mix of Twix bars and Junior Mints.

Now Open!

Well, the store is open! I can’t believe it! We did about $350 in sales yesterday, our first day open. We hardly have a cash register, it’s facing out into the store and we don’t even have a counter for people to put stuff on! But hey, we are open! The wash area is not open yet, and won’t be for a few more days. Last night I worked. I learned how to close, which is good because I start closing by myself on Wednesday. (Yikes, that is tomorrow!) I guess the good thing is that as of right now, no one has any idea how to work the new computer system, so we are all winging it together. Hopefully soon we will have it all figured out! Hopefully soon we can have dogs come in for washes. That is what makes the job fun! At least on Saturday I get to work over at the other store (you will probably hear to me refer to it as the Uintah store). Each store is understaffed and they are thinking that the Uintah store is going to be swamped this upcoming weekend. I got to be the lucky one chosen to work over there! Fine by me! This way I am guaranteed some dog interaction! Putting price stickers on stuff and making displays in the new store was starting to get rather old. It was still fun, and something to do, however it’s not why I took the job in the first place.

Brian stopped by the store last night to bring me dinner and to check out the place. We found a few things we will need to invest in for our dogs, but I think I will wait until a little down the road when we are more organized!

What day is it?

It’s Monday again, I think. I am not really sure anymore what day it is! I worked all weekend. I worked Friday night at WnW and the back again early Saturday morning. I wanted to get in early so I could get out early. I had to go home and take a shower before our fancy dinner.

We had our annual Friends dinner. A few years back, Brian’s group of friends decided that they should all hold a Christmas get together and treat themselves to something nice. Most of them did not have a Christmas party to attend for their own job, or they didn’t want to attend the one for their work, so what better way to celebrate the holidays then with friends! This year we went to the Peppertree Restaurant. It’s a pretty high end fancy (expensive) place. The food was pretty good, I cut my steak up with my butter knife. It was very expensive, but it was nice for a treat!

From there we went to Ken and Tina’s house. They just purchased a new home in University Park. That area of town has large newer homes. They do have a nice (and large) house. We spent a bit of time there chatting before heading for home as I had another early morning the next morning.

So, back to work 8am Sunday morning for me. We were putting price tags on everything. I was very happy to do that, because I know as a consumer, how much easier life is when there is a price on the item you are looking at!

We have everything out of boxes and on shelves or in the stockroom. However, our computers were not working, so as of 5:30pm last night when I left work they still did not have any cash registers. The owners wanted to open the store today, but if they didn’t get the cash registers functioning last night, we weren’t going to be able to open today. Regardless, I am working tonight also. I adjusted my schedule at SH to work 7am-4pm, and then I will work at WnW 4:30pm-9pm. I have to work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights this week.

As far as the store goes, it’s just not done. The cash register area doesn’t have all it’s walls, the bakery area only has framed walls and nothing is hooked up. Also, we only have 2 working wash tubs and no dryers. I think it will be a while before the wash area is ready. I hope on Thursday, my first night off from there, I can bring my dogs in for a wash! I am not sure why they are rushing to open when the store is still such a mess, but I guess they really want to try to start moving the merchandise.

I am glad that with the holiday’s coming I will get a few days off for a break! I will have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off from both jobs. And then I have New Years Day off from both jobs. I will only have to work at SH for New Years Eve and maybe my boss will be kind and let me out early!

Pain in the mouth...

Ever had a bad day? I had one Wednesday. Yesterday wasn’t much better. Nothing major, just a few things that make you want to crawl into bed and just sleep the rest of the day away. It started Wednesday with my 6 month cleaning at the dentist. I am not so fond of the hygienist there. I really like the dentist and his wife who works in the front office. But, I don’t much care for this hygienist.

After my somewhat painful trip around my mouth and a panel of x-rays later, it was determined that I had 7 cavities that needed to be filled. Yes, 7. Lucky me, they squeezed me in yesterday to get the first half of them done. Yea…

So, I left the dentist Wednesday with a sore mouth and knowing in 24 hours I would be back. From there it was to my job at Security Horizon. It was pretty slow, which made for a long boring afternoon. My boss from Wag ‘n’ Wash called mid afternoon and said that the contractors were not done, like they had said they would be, but there was still work for us to do. I agreed to go in for a while after I left Security Horizon and got some food.

So, on the way to Wag n Wash I went through the drive through at Taco Bell. I got one of the meals that came with a LARGE cup of Sprite. Well, I made it about a mile, and I found out the hard way that the lid was not on tight. After making a turn, the cup tipped over and Sprite went everywhere. My cup holder was literally half full of Sprite. And of course my garage door opener was at the bottom of this lake of Sprite. Well, by the time this happened I was only about a block away from work. So, I just went to work and left the mess.

I worked for a few hours. I got the wonderful task handed to me of mixing the shampoos and conditioner and filling the bottles of shampoo and conditioner that we give out to clients. When we get the shampoo and conditioners in, they are in large jugs in concentrate form. We then mix some of the concentrate in another jug with water. From there we pour it into the smaller travel size shampoo bottles. That is what I did Wednesday night.

Wag n Wash has all kinds of different shampoos. The have the basic house shampoo, one for white dogs, one for black dogs, oatmeal, honey almond, flea shampoo, skunk shampoo, one for bronze dogs, and a few other that escape my memory right now. But they all use just one cream rinse. It’s an apricot one. I had to fill a bunch of those up. That smell from the apricot cream rinse just makes me smile. It’s amazing how much a scent can have an effect on you.

I had to call Brian on the way home to open the garage door for me, since my opener was full of Sprite. I took it apart and cleaned it out with water and it worked just fine the next morning. My boss at WnW (Wag N Wash) was giving me a hard time that I could take a straw and drink right from the cup holder on my way home. I told him I had to row my Sprite boat home. I cleaned it up as best I could when I got home.

Thursday was back to work again (SH). Then in the afternoon I was off to the dentist. Like I said, I really like the actual dentist. He is very good at shots. He did two shots today, and I never even felt them. I was so numb that even my eye socket area is numb, which really is an uncomfortable feeling. It took about an hour and a half, and I got three of them filled. I go back on December 29 for the other 4. Yea.

Off to WnW that night for more prep work. We are starting to get down closer to being done. We should just be really cleaning and stocking the next few days. I have all ready received my first paycheck from them. When I got to work they had me doing data entry in the computer, which is in the little office in the back room, which has no heat vent. I was freezing! So after about 2 & ½ hours back there with my coat on, I couldn’t do any more and I went out into the main store and hung leashes and collars. As of right now they are planning on opening on Monday. We shall see! The contractors had said they would be done on Tuesday, but they are still a long way from done.

Both owners were there last night. They are really neat people. They are both so nice and pretty funny! I think I am really going to enjoy working for them.

I think my fish, Sushi, has bad vision. He only sees about ½ the food I put in his water. The other ½ usually sinks right next to him! Other than the vision issue, he’s a great fish! I need to clean his water pretty soon.

Lots of working...

Friday night we did go out with our friends. Tracy and her fiancé Scott came over for cocktails first and then we went to Champs. I had a sesame seared tuna salad that was incredibly good!! We sat and chatted in the restaurant until 10pm. Traci and Scott are such great people! It was great to spend time catching up with them!

Saturday morning came early. Brian had to teach a class starting at 8am. So, he had to get up like it was a normal work day. I got up with him also, because I had to make garlic mashed potatoes to take to the holiday party that night. So, I spent the first part of the morning cooking and mashing potatoes as well as getting the asparagus ready.

After that I headed off to Wag ‘n’ Wash. Saturday we spent moving dog food and doing inventory. I moved so many 40 lbs bags of dog food, that I could all ready feel my body getting sore by the end of the day. I left there and rushed home to take a shower so we could head out to the Christmas party.

We went to Brian’s boss’s house. He lives in the Reserve at the Broadmoor, way on the south end of town. He is about 10 minutes south of my parents’ house. It was just the Colorado Springs Utilities group, so Brian, his boss and their 2 other co-workers, plus spouses and a few kids.

Everyone brought part of the meal, and Eric (the boss) and his wife provided pork chops with apples. They had the table set beautifully, with their good china and candles and such. It was a fabulous dinner!

Sunday morning it was back to work for me. We started off by doing lots of inventory. I was so glad to just be able to sit and count. My body was so sore from moving all the dog food the day before. We got it all done about lunch time, and then after lunch we did little stuff to get the store ready. It looks like it will be next Monday that the store opens. That is if the contractors really finish this week like they say they are going to, however, since they are all ready months overdue, who knows.

During the middle of the afternoon, the manager approached me and asked if I was interested in being the assistant manager! I said YES! It comes with a raise and a few more hours, but they are still working with me and my schedule for Security Horizon.

I worked there until about 5:30pm, when we just really didn’t have any more to do. I swung through the grocery store on the way home. Brian was making green beef curry for dinner and we were having some friends over. I had to pick up some of the last ingredients. I got home and Brian and Rick were just hanging out. They had watched the Bronco game that afternoon. Later Cheryl and Waldo came over and we had Brian’s delicious meal!

This morning I brought my desktop water fountain into work. We tend to get shocked all the time at Security Horizon. I read in the paper this past week, Helpful Heloise, someone who was complaining of the same problem. Heloise suggested bowls of water, or a desktop water fountain. I thought, hey, I have one of those! So, it’s now up and running and I will see if this helps with the shocking issue. I hope it works. And it looks better than just a plain bowl of water!

FOOD!

The holidays are here for sure. I can all ready feel my waist expanding. Today the office down the hall, AIG, invited us for an Open House. They also provided lunch! So 2 co-workers and I headed down to be neighborly (and to eat free food). It was mostly homemade food. There were some sandwich trays, but the rest people in the office had made. It was pretty good. I stuck with the cocktail dogs and meatballs.

Tonight we are going out to dinner with some friends we haven’t seen in a long time. It’s actually the agent that sold Brian the house. Plus she and I used to work together at Assist 2 Sell. She is now engaged and sounds like life is treating her well. We are looking forward to seeing her again.

I get to work at Wag n Wash tomorrow. But it’s only stocking the shelves. If we are stocking the shelves, we must be getting closer to opening! I hope we do open soon!

After that, I have to run home and change and then we are off to our first official Holiday party. This one is with Brian’s co-workers, just his security group. We have to bring all kinds of stuff to this party. We have to bring 2 white elephant gifts, a $40 gift certificate to a local restaurant, a vegetable and a side dish! Thankfully this is the only party we have to bring this much stuff to, otherwise we might go broke just taking stuff to holiday parties!

Sunday I will most likely be working again. I am scheduled to, however I guess it depends on how Saturday goes! Meanwhile Brian will have friends over to watch the Bronco game. I will get to join them after work for dinner, a cook out at our house.

I found out today that some other good friends of ours, Stacy and Todd, became engaged in October. We are very happy for them!

Happy Anniversary!

What a wonderful husband I have! I received a delivery of flowers yesterday for our 6 month wedding anniversary. I received 6 roses, I guess one for each month?! They are on my desk at work and smell heavenly! I am such a lucky gal!

Well, I am so excited to really get working at my second job! But, after talking to the owner today, it looks like it may be a while yet. Possibly this weekend we will be stocking shelves. But he just isn’t sure yet. There is still no running water, and since it’s a dog WASHING place, water is pretty essential.

We had one of our neighbors over for dinner Monday night. She is a gal who is a drug rep and I met her when I was working at Pikes Peak Mental Health. She moved into our neighborhood this past summer. I noticed her out mowing her lawn this summer and finally caught up with her a few months ago. We have invited her over a couple times, but she is a busy gal, and always had something going on. Finally she was able to make dinner Monday night. She is so nice! Turns out that Brian and her were at UNC at the same time, in the same dorm! They were probably just a few floors away. And as we had more conversation, she kept saying: oh I know their older brother (or sister). Turns out we know a lot of the same families. Kind of crazy!

Brian has been pretty good about using the treadmill we purchased recently! I haven’t been as good, but I have been busy! I finally got on it the other night and walked a good fast mile. UGH! It was a lot harder than I expected it to be! Now, I just have to stick with it, like Brian is!

I am almost ready to send Christmas boxes out! I have my first one done! I hope to get a second one done tonight or tomorrow! It will be so nice to have them in the mail and on their way!

Holiday Parties

Can you judge how large your circle of friends is by how many holiday parties you have to go to? If so, well then, I have a very large circle of friends! This is always a blessing! Brian and I have packed schedules! We have a party just about every Saturday and Sunday to attend every night for every weekend between now and Christmas! Today I added one onto a Friday night! So far, we have only had to turn one down!

I love the Holidays! I love the food, the family, the friends, the traditions, and the snow! I love it all! I am so glad it is holiday time again and that it's here for a few weeks!

Brrrrrrrr!!

It’s is cold outside! It’s 10:10pm on Sunday night right now and it’s 14 degrees outside! We just finished watching the Broncos loose to the dreaded Raiders… Uugh! Esten came over with his mom and dad, and we all watched the game in high definition in our Theater. But what a sad ending it was!

Well, I worked yesterday at the store on Uintah (Wag N Wash). Man, did I ever have fun! It wasn’t as busy as they were hoping it would be, but we had washes come in and out all day. I worked from open to close (10am-5pm). I had fun with all the different dogs. And we get to carry treat pouches to give treats out to puppies. It’s great!! I got today off because the new store isn’t ready and they have nothing for us new people to do. They offered us hours at the other store, but since I don’t need the hours, I opted for a day off, which worked out really well.

We were planning on picking up Adam, our cadet, at the airport around noon. We were surprised by a phone call mid morning from our newest cadet, Chris, asking if he could come over for the afternoon and meet us before he had to be back at the Academy. So, Brian went to pick him up while I went and got Adam from the airport.

Right about 10:30am the snow started to fly. We had gotten only a dusting overnight, and the forecast was for a lot of snow today. On my way to the airport the roads were still pretty clear, but it was snowing pretty hard. On the way back, just about 20 minutes later, the roads were starting to get slick and snow covered. It’s pretty much been snowing ever since. It’s supposed to snow through the night, but we are only supposed to get 2-4 inches.

All three cadets spent the day in the basement watching TV. After about an hour of them all being down there, I mentioned to Brian that it sure was quiet down there. Usually we can at least hear a movie or video game going. Brian went down to check on them, they were all sacked out. About 2 hours later, I went and checked on them and they were still all asleep. We woke them up about 4pm for dinner. About 5pm Brian took them back to the Academy so he could be home before the game started.

Well, back to my regular job tomorrow I guess. No dogs there, though. :( But hopefully the new store will be open by next weekend and I can work there. They have me scheduled for every weekend between now and Christmas. And they are working with my schedule for Holiday Parties. The weekends are the busiest time, so I am looking forward to it!

Busy busy busy

Well, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did! We had 1 cadet for the holiday this year. Ian, our freshman decided not to go home for the short holiday so he celebrated Turkey Day with us. We all, including the dogs, ventured down to my mom's house in the afternoon and had a late Turkey dinner. With all the good food, of course!

Friday I started my part time job. They are still trying to get the new store completed, so yesterday was a hard labor day. We cleaned shelves and moved stuff around. We really worked hard, I am pretty sore today. Today I am going down to the store that is open, the original one, to train. This should be fun, Saturday is one of the busiest days! I can't wait to see how fun it is! Then Sunday its back to the new store to help out getting the store ready for the grand opening! The owner still isn't quite sure when it will be, but I would guess within the next week or two. The contractors were still working away yesterday, and there is still a lot of work to be done. There is no running water in the building yet, so that makes it hard to wash dogs! Also only half the parking lot is done, so there is no where to park. And lots of other little things to be done still inside.

We are expecting a major snow storm tomorrow! Sounds like we are supposed to get lots of snow! I sure hope so, that would be fun!!

Well, hate to make this short, but I have to go and get ready to go to work! Hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

California

Well, we got back late Sunday night from California. We (my mom and I) had a great time! We left my house at 5:30am Friday morning and drove to Denver to catch our flight. We were on a direct flight into Orange County. We landed about 10am, got our rental car and hit the road. We were at Scott's house by 11:30am. We stopped at a "vista point" to look at the ocean on the way down.

After we got all our luggage in the house, we all headed out to In and Out Burger for lunch. Scott's girlfriend Eva is currently here visiting from Lithuania. After lunch we headed out to do some driving around and looking. We drove to the beach and saw the home that was in the movie Top Gun (my favorite movie). Then we went and walked on the beach, I was daring enough to stick my toes in the water. It was chilly, but not freezing.

After a while we drove down to La Jolla (pronounced La Hoy-a). There is a beach there nicknamed Seal Beach. That is because that is where all the seals come and sleep. There must have been 30-40 seals all lying around on this beach napping! They were all so cute!

After that we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and the back to Scott's apartment. We played a game of Uno and then went to bed, as we were wiped out from our travel.

Saturday we got up early and after a large breakfast we went to the Wild Animal Park. It's affiliated with the San Diego Zoo, but it's not near the zoo. They have lots of different animals there, mostly African or Asian animals. They have a large savannah type area that you can take a train ride and look at. They have tons of rhinos and giraffes. Lots of antelope and deer. All kinds of cool animals to see. We spent the day there. We saw the elephant show, and we fed the lorikeets (not sure of the spelling) nectar. It was a very neat place and I really enjoyed it. I think everyone else did also.

That night we grilled steaks and had baked potatoes. Then we played a game of Monopoly. Eva really likes that game. Once again, it was an early bed, as we were all wiped out.

Sunday morning we had another big breakfast. We watched the exciting race, and with 15 laps to go, my mom and I had to hit the road to drive back up to Orange County to catch our plane. It was an uneventful flight home, other than the rear bathrooms being out of service. We got to my car okay and headed for home. Colorado Springs had a snow storm while we were gone, so we hit some slick spots close to the house, but other than that, it was okay.

Monday morning came early! Another week started! At least it's a short week!

Happy Birthday to my buddy Adam!

My Friday

Today is my Friday, even though it's Thursday. My mom and I leave for California in the morning. We are off to visit Scott and spoil him a little bit. We have to check up on him and see how he is really doing. He has been receiving chemo for about a month and a half now.

We fly out of Denver about 8:30am, so that means we have to be on the road by about 5:30am. UGH! EARLY! But, we have a direct flight right into Orange County (John Wayne airport). Saturday we hope to go to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. I am looking forward to it, we should have a lot of fun!

We woke up to snow falling this morning. The weatherman on TV kept telling me it was raining in town, but big white flakes is really more like snow, not rain. It is supposed to snow pretty much all weekend, so Brian will have lots of snow to play in.

It's been a busy week here. I have been trying to get most little things done that I need to get done. As of Monday I start a part time job. I happily accepted a job at Wag 'n' Wash. They are opening up a store not to far from our house. It's a store where you can bring your dog to wash them! The have large off the floor tubs, and Wag 'n' Wash provides the towels and shampoo and stuff. The nice part is that you wash and dry your dogs, and then you are done! You don't have to worry about washing towels or cleaning the hair from the drain! (That will now be my job). I should be able to take my dogs to work with me some nights. Plus they have a retail side of the store where they sell food, and toys and homemade treats. This is going to be their second store in the Springs, and there is actually a baker at the original store who makes all the wonderful homemade treats for the pups. I know Buddy and Petey love everything we get from there.

My current job is going to work with me and let me shift my work hours the day I will work at Wag 'n' Wash to work and hour earlier, so that I can get more than 4 hours in at Wag 'n' Wash for evening shifts. I am really looking forward to this! Since I love dogs, I think this is such a great opportunity for me!! So, I am going to be pretty busy! The Wag 'n' Wash should open up the first week of December. Next week we are going to be loading the store in, with all the merchandise and such. I am so excited!

The radio station I listen to while I am at work has now moved into Christmas mode. As of today, they play continuous Christmas music. I don't know if I can listen to that much Christmas music. It's still a little too early for me. I think I am going to need to change the station for a few weeks.

Happy Birthday to Brian's Dad, Hank! Today is his birthday and we send him Happy Birthday wishes!!!

Short Weeks!

I have three short weeks in a row! Last week I had Veteran's Day off. This week I leave Friday morning for California, and next week is Thanksgiving! That is so great! It's going to be tough to work a full week, that last week of November!

Not too much is going on here. My foot is a lot better. It's a bit sore sometimes, but its okay overall. In fact I need to return the crutches to get my deposit back, soon!

Sunday was a foggy day. It was nice to stay inside and sip cocoa. I had another 'Craft Day'. I had friends come over and we all worked on crafts. It ended up that we were all cross stitching. It was fun! We had the race on while we were working, so I did get to watch the race.

Lots of Birthday's out there! Mr. Curless had his birthday last week. Barbara Carter had a big 30th birthday Sunday. Hank's is Thursday! So a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY going out to all you Birthday people!

Tonight we have a neighborhood meeting. Should be interesting. I am not fond of our new President of the HOA.

We got a wedding present last night. There was a big box on our porch when we got home. Mike, Lucy and the flower girls sent us a popcorn popper! It's so neat, it's designed to look like an old fashion one, but it's tiny! You put the kernels and oil in the pot and then it pops it, and when it's done, you flip the pot over to dump it into the bottom of the popper. It's so neat looking! We are very appreciative of it!!

It's snowing!

Well, I stayed off my foot all day Thursday like the Doctor ordered. It wasn't any fun, but, I guess it had to be done. Friday I was back to work. I stayed off my foot as much as possible. But, I was walking on it. It felt okay, a bit sore.

That night I went out and got a few errands run. I had a few stores I wanted to hit to start Christmas shopping. Our list was pretty big and Brain had football games he wanted to watch on Saturday, so I got some of the running around done Friday night. This year, I knew pretty much everything I wanted to get. It wasn't a matter of walking around aimlessly trying to find the right gifts for people. That makes it a lot easier when shopping. Plus, I would say I did about 35% of my shopping on line. That makes it really easy!

Saturday morning we woke up to snow! They had predicted it, but it's still nice when the weathermen are right! I made muffins and after breakfast, we headed off to work on our list! We got a lot of running around done. But, after a few hours, my leg was hurting so we decided to head for home. The one place we didn't make it to that was on our list is the grocery store. So, I will stop there in the morning.

We got home and Brian watched football while I put my leg up and caught up with friends on the telephone. Later Esten came over for dinner and then Rick later on. We played Dominoes and watched Star Wars in the theater, while drinking hot chocolate. It's 11pm now and we are getting ready for bed. It's still snowing! We probably have 2 inches, but it's so peaceful out right now. I hope it snows most of the day tomorrow also!

Ouch!

Wednesday was a cold, cloudy, WINDY, day. WINDsday as Pooh would say. It pretty much flurried off and on all day long. The wind was HOWLING about 4:30am Wednesday morning, and it was raining pretty hard. I could hear the driving rain pounding our bedroom window. Due to the way our house sits and weather usually flows around here, that was pretty unusual. When I went downstairs to let the dogs out, our side gate was open. That was how Petey got out one time before, so I am always careful to check the gate, especially when it's windy. So, I went down and shut it, let the dogs back in and went to work.

When I came home for lunch, the gate was open again. (It was windy!!) So, I went down to shut it. On my way back across the yard, I turned my ankle somehow and fell to the ground. I landed on my hands and knees. I got right up and went back inside. Other than a small grass stain on my jeans, I thought I was okay.

But, by mid afternoon, my foot and ankle started to hurt. I came home from work and it got worse fast! Brian was stuck at work, which is unusual for him. By 6pm, I couldn't even put my foot flat on the floor! I had it up on a pillow with ice on it. About 6:15pm I called Brian and told him I had to go to Urgent Care, my foot hurt so badly. So, he came home, we picked up Burger King for dinner on the way, and went to Urgent Care. We got there about 7:15pm. The doctor saw me, poked around my foot and sent me to x-ray.

Good news was that nothing was broken. But, since I couldn't even bear weight on it, I had to be put in a splint. Looks like I sprained my foot and ankle pretty good. So, they put a lovely splint on it, and told me to stay off of it for at least 24 hours and sent us on our way with a pair of crutches.

Thank goodness I had today off work (Veteran's Day). So, my plan of getting my Christmas shopping done was squashed. I have just taken it easy today, hobbling around the house on crutches. We have watched a movie and just taken it easy. I should be back on my foot tomorrow. It sure did make me realize how lucky I am to have all my limbs in tact and useable. I guess I had been taking that for granted!

True or False?

I don't know about everyone else, but I tend to get lots of emails that make me say: is this true? Recently a friend sent me an email saying that there are these flesh colored spiders living in toilets that have deadly venom from their bite that have killed 5 women. Sounds Scary! Makes you wonder, is it true? There are the emails about add your name to the list for a school project, or don't buy gas from certain gas stations. I know that these messages get sent around because people think they are true and they care about people and want their friends and loved ones to be safe. However, 99% of the time, these emails are false. I always research those messages before I think about sending them on. I hope you all do the same. If we all do just a bit of research, we can hopefully cut down on the amount of false messages floating around out there.

There are several ways to look things up. First there is www.snopes.com. Or, you can Google anything! I Googled the spider message and found many many sites saying that the message was false and why it's false. If you aren't sure if something is true or not, and you don't want to look it up, please feel free to send it to me, and I will check for you. I just hate seeing these messages go around that are not true, but contain some scary scenarios!

Thanks for doing a bit of research before sending these types of messages on!!

New Fisette in the world!

Well, Madeline Bellamy Fisette arrived on Thursday! She and Mom (Erica) are doing very well at a hospital in the Chicago area. She was 8lbs and 5 1/2 oz! I was so happy when Matt (my cousin) called on Friday night to tell us the good news! We are so happy for them, I know Matt will be a terrific dad!

Brian's parents are off on a week long golfing trip to Hilton Head, NC. I hope they have beautiful weather and a great time!!

Thursday we watched the movie 'Miracle'. What a good movie! You know what happens in the end, but it was neat to watch the whole thing on how they got there!

Not too much has been going on here. Friday night we went over to Glenn and Alexis' house to celebrate Glenn's birthday. We played pool and ate munchies. It was pretty fun.

Saturday we got up early and got my car back to the garage, it has developed an oil leak. And oil leaks are NOT GOOD for the environment! The oil will wash into the aquifers and eventually into the ocean which harms dolphins and lots of other sea life! So, even though my car only drops a drip about once every 3 days, I want it fixed! So, they had to order a part and it will get fixed next weekend.

We also brought Brian's car in. It was due for an oil change and the works also. After that Brian went to get a haircut while I took the dogs to the Vet to get their nails clipped. (That is one of those things that I vowed to do at the wedding). After we got home, I did the lovely task of collecting dog excrement in the back yard for removal. After I finished that, Brian and I cleaned the garage out. It had been getting messy and disorganized over the last few weeks. Plus we couldn't get our cars in the garage, and with winter coming, we wanted to get them inside. So, we now have it back to the condition where we can park all 4 vehicles inside! After that fun, I gave each dog a bath because they were pretty stinky!

Saturday was my dad's birthday, so we went down to celebrate with him. Suzi was also down for the weekend. My mom made a New England boiled dinner: corned beef, cabbage, turnips, potatoes, and carrots. MMMMmmm, it was so tasty! I love it! We had homemade apple crisp for dessert.

For his birthday we all chipped in and got him a cell phone. It is something he has really been wanting. We showed him the basics of how to use it after dinner.

Sunday we got up late and had a lazy morning. I got all the Halloween decorations down. I sorted through all the catalogs I get and found things to order for Christmas gifts. We ate waffles for breakfast, compliments of Brian! After that, Brian started a project he has wanted to do for quite some time. We have a ton of COAX cable on the outside of our house on the back of the garage from all of the satelites and cable and everything coming into the house. Brian wanted to move it all into the garage to be more protected. So, Glenn came over and helped him move it all.

While they did that, Alexis and I went to Kohl's. Zak gave me Friend's and Family coupons good for this weekend only, for an extra 15% off your total purchase. So, we took our coupons and went shopping. We had fun, I got about 3 sweaters for Christmas time. I got one Christmas gift, some socks for Brian and a Halloween table cloth on clearance! So, THANKS ZAK for the coupons!!

When we got back to the house, they had just gotten the satellite hooked back up and the race was on! So, we watched the race for a while and then Glenn and Lex took off for home. We finished watching the race. Jeff came in 3rd at the last minute, what a bummer! If he has good weeks the next two weeks, he could win the championship! That would be awesome!

It was pretty quiet around our house the rest of the evening. We had a steak dinner and watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I love that show! The family that they did the house for last night was so great!

That is about all that is happening here! We only have a 4 day work week this week. Both Brian and I get Thursday, Veteran's Day, off! Yea! I hope to get a lot of Christmas shopping done that day!

Daylight Savings Time

One really bad thing about Daylight Savings Time: dogs don't understand it. I have tried to explain it to them, but they just don't get it. Can't say I blame them though, since I don't really understand it myself.

The dogs are used to eating at 6pm every day. 6pm, not a minute later. So, imagine how life is now that we have set the clocks BACK an hour. From the minute I walk in the door at 5:05pm (now) they are driving me bananas. Their stomachs are telling them: hey, we should have eaten 5 minutes ago!

Then I make them wait, after all, it's not 6pm yet! But they are bouncy and jumping on me and barking. They want to eat NOW! They say: don't you know it's PAST our eating time?! So, we have to slowly adjust them to the new eating time. It takes some work. I can usually make it to about 5:45pm before they drive me absolutely insane. Last night it was 5:30pm.

We will aim for 5:30pm for a few nights, then 5;45pm for a while and then work our way to 6pm. Probably by the time we get them adjusted, it will be time to spring forward and then they will wonder why we are feeding them early. But I have a feeling I won't hear complaints then!

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First Snow!

This weekend I drove up to Greeley on Saturday. Suzi and Zak had a play they wanted me to see, Jekyll and Hyde. Zak was in charge of the sound and Suzi was a part of the lights and costume designs. Brian wanted to go also, but he was unable to.

When I got to Greeley, I took Suzi and Zak out to dinner at one of their favorite restaurants, Johnny Carinos. They have good food, and their Italian Nachos to start things off are very tasty!

We went and saw the play, which was very good! I had never seen Jekyll and Hyde before. Of course, everyone knows the baseline story, but it was very good! After the play I stayed at Suzi and Zak's house overnight and left in the morning.

I made it home just in time for GREEN, GREEN, GREEN! The race was a good one. I would have like to have seen some better results, but I was happy that Jimmy won! After the race we had an early steak dinner, and then I took Adam back to the Academy while Brian watched the end of the Bronco game.

I made it back just in time for our first trick-o-treaters! Our first one was a little girl about 3 years old dressed up as a Care Bear. She was so cute! Brian and I got into the Halloween spirit also. I dressed up as a 50's girl with a poodle skirt and Brian wore a large black sheath with a hood. He had a mask to wear, but he didn't wear it. Overall we had about 60-70 kids. I had bought 2 large bags of candy and 3 smaller one. We probably only have about 1/2 a large bag left and we gave 2 pieces to everyone. We were rather disappointed to see how many people didn't have their lights on. About 1/2 the houses right around us were not handing out candy.

They had predicted snow for Halloween evening. About 7:00pm it started to rain. I am not sure when it turned over to snow. At 8:00pm we turned out the lights and went into the basement to watch TV. When we came up later to go to bed, there was snow on the deck! It was still snowing a little bit the next morning, but the wind was howling! On my car, I had about 3 inches of snow on my hood, and there was a drift next to the car about a foot deep. It was cold and windy all day, and by mid afternoon the sun was back out. Last night it dipped into the single digits! Brrrr.

So, today is cold again. They are saying possible snow later this week! I hope so! It's great to see it again, and now that I only have to go a few short miles to work, it's even better!

Other than that things are pretty much the same here. We want to wish a Happy Birthday to Trey F. (ring bearer) and to Chris and Christina!

We are all still patiently awaiting word from my cousin, Matt, about a baby arrival! Erica was due on Halloween (I think, or the 30th). So, it should be any day now!!

Congrats to our friends Chrissie and Ed on their move into their new home! Hope the move went smoothly!

Well, things are crazy at work here, so gotta run!

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear ELAINE! Happy Birthday to you!!!!!

Florida, here we come, again!

My mother went with her friend, Syl, to visit Syl's mom in Kentucky. Seems that Syl's mom won 2 tickets to the Daytona 500 in a church raffle! Guess who is lucky enough to be on the receiving end of the tickets?! That is correct....BRIAN AND I! So, we immediately made airline reservations and hotel reservations. Of course, the closest hotel we could get was 26 miles away from the track, but hey, not bad! And to get the cheapest airfare we are going to be there for a few days. We have decided that in order to pass the time until the race, we are going to make a stop at Universal Studios and after the race a stop at Brian's Uncle's house (the flower girls).

For those of you who are going: Daytona 500? What is that? Well, it is the SUPERBOWL of NASCAR. It is the first race of the season. For them, that is the biggest race of the season. That is THE race, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FL. Woohoo, and we will be there!! I can hardly wait!

Other than that, things are the same here. I feel like turning 30 this year is like having to take your car in for its 50,000 mile overhaul. I have been to the doctor's, had blood drawn after not eating for 12 hours, I have an appt with the eye doctor next week and the dentist next month. Good grief! Guess I have to check in with everyone to make sure my engine is still running smoothly, so to say...

Good news from Brian's mom. She just accepted a position with Radford. Yes, she used to work there, but this is a NEW, EXCITING position. This is something she has always wanted to do and also in the field she got her degree in recently. We are very happy for her!!

I will be heading up to Greeley this weekend to go see a show that Suzi and Zak have both worked on. Brian will have to stay home, as it looks like we will have cadets at our house this weekend. They can have some guy time together.

Brian's cousin's wife, Kim, just had her Achilles heel operated on. Sounds like it was painful! So, we send get well wishes her way!

Oh, and GO RED SOX!!!!!!!

Finally, a race!

We finally got to see a race! It had been 3 weeks without seeing a race! Due to all our travels and the way the races fell, we missed 3 of them! Which was a bummer, because I really liked Jeff's (Gordon) car last weekend! It had a different paint scheme, mostly all silver! Very slick looking.

I am on a fantasy racing league thanks to my brother-in-law, Vince. All season long I was doing so poorly! As of today I am in 2nd place! Vince has always given me a hard time about being in the bottom of the heap, so now I get to give him some grief as for the past few weeks, I have been WAY ahead of him in the standings!!

Yesterday we just chilled out and watched the race. Which after it was over they reported the sad news that a Hendrick plane had crashed. Very sad news, that is who Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Brian Vickers race for (Hendrick Motorsports).

After the race we went to dinner with the DJ from our wedding, Doug, and his girlfriend. We met them at a restaurant in Green Mountain Falls called the Black Bear. It was very good. It's a fancy restaraunt that also serves burgers and chicken fried steak. It's interesting, and we had a great time. It was good to catch up with Doug.

Our Grand Opening of the Theater went well on Friday night. We had about 14 people show up. It seemed to all go by so fast, but it was nice and the movie was good. It showed off the many features of the theater.

Saturday I had a "Craft Day". I invited all my girl friends over to work on crafts. It ended up that only 3 people showed up, but it was fun! Shallyn made a beach blanket for her in-laws and I taught my friend Susan how to cross stitch. Her sister-in-law came with her and also worked on cross stitch. I will try another craft day in November, see if I can't get more people to show up for the next one.

Well, I am finally going to post the links to our Honeymoon pictures. We have been trying to get them all straightened out. Some of them are still needing to be rotated, but you can get the jist, and some of them are so great to look at! Enjoy: http://www.dooh.com/pics/2004/2004-10-09-DW

Grand Opening

Tonight we are celebrating the "Grand Opening" of our theater. Since we have recently put the overhead projection system with screen in the basement, our theater is now complete. We also have digital surround sound and stadium seating. We will take pictures tonight to share with those of you who are unable to join us for the opening.

Just like any opening, there will be a social event before hand. We will serve wine and cheese. Once we are in the basement, there will be candy, licorice and popcorn. We are showing the movie 'The 5th Element'. We choose this movie so that we can show off the color and sound of the theater. Brian made up a wonderful invitation if you would like to take a peek: http://www.kirouac.org/theater/invite/

Other than that, we are still trying to get back into the swing of things. We have both felt wiped out this week. Probably due to lack of sleep from last week and the time change and everything. This weekend should be pretty relaxing and should allow us to get some 'down time' in.

I forgot to mention a very Happy Anniversary to Greg and Dianne and also to Mike and Lucy! Both couples' wedding anniversary was Wednesday. And also tomorrow is Mike and Kelly Kirouac's Anniversary! Congratulations to all of you!

My allergies seem to be acting up again! I must be allergic to falling leaves! Because I don't know what else it could be.

Brian and I have been pretty good about getting out and walking. Both our doctors were on us about exercise, and it's been a while since I had been walking. So, we both hold each other accountable to make sure we get out and do it. Plus Buddy is starting to look a little pudgy again. So, all 4 of us can benefit from walking. Hopefully we can be good and keep it up!

We have recently taken on another AFA cadet. We had signed up to sponsor 2 this year, but we had only seen and heard from 1 of them. We recently found out the other one moved on to another family that he all ready knew. While we were in Florida, the sponsorship office left a message asking us if we would take on another cadet, because his sponsor family was transferred out of Colorado. We gladly accepted and we hope to meet him soon. So, now we have 3 total again. We haven't seen much of Adam this year, hopefully he will come over once and a while still.

Well, that is about all that is happening here! Hope everyone is well!