Make Time

Wedding Shots

So tonight I finally got my wedding pictures transferred from the cd they're on - to this spiffy (no longer new) computer that we have. I'd probably have done it months ago if I'd realized that the computer would transfer them automatically without me having to mess with them. I'm so uninformed.

A couple of wedding pictures before I go to bed. This first one is the memorial candle for my brother, Matt, which my mom bought us. (The candle, not the brother. I think him she got for free ;) ). I try to remember to light it again on his birthday and stuff.


This is probably my favorite of our wedding pictures. Matt's memory candle is shown here and the spacing of the picture is almost as though he's standing beside me - which I like to think he was.


And here's one with me and my big brother and my nephew, who looked especially dapper at my wedding in that tux. He's a handsome kid, what can I say? Gets that from my side of the family. :D

I'd post more, but it's going on 11pm and now that I work...well, if I'm not in bed by 10:30, I start to twitch a little bit. I'm so old. Mike and the cats are waiting for me. And if I nudge Mike when I'm crawling into bed, there's always a good chance that he'll say something amusing in his sleep. Monday night I bumped him as I crawled in and he mumbled something. Thinking he was actually talking to me, I said, "What did you say, babe?" To which he replied, "I told you to wait in the car. Can you wait for me in the car?"

Krabby Patty

I guess apologies are in order again. I didn't mean to freak everybody out with that last post. Nothing is wrong on this front - I've just got the blues. As most everybody knows, I got a job at a law firm downtown, which I started immediately after we got back from vacation last week. So, I've got the "hate my new job because I don't know anything yet" blues there. Doesn't everybody hate the first few weeks of a new job? I hate starting a new job. Plus I've got the "now I work full time when before I worked 8 hours a week" blues. The "still have insomnia, but now I have to get up at 6:30am for work" blues. Plus I've been snappish with Mike and generally cranky. I'm crabby, tired and I miss my mom.

On the plus side, I'm slowly figuring out a little more each day at the new job and the sheer exhaustion of barely sleeping the first few days of work is insuring that I'm generally able to sleep better at night. I'm still bummed about being at work from 8-4:30, but I have my first payday on the 30th and I'm hoping that money will go a long way toward soothing that woe.


Anyway, I'm adjusting. People work - it's a fact of life. But I haven't talked about it because I didn't want to spend my time off talking about something that now takes up so much of my time.

Still, I'm fine. Tired, but fine.

But thanks for worrying about me. :D

Apologies

I know. I haven't posted in a long time, but I haven't felt much like talking and, currently, I don't have much of anything of a positive nature to share. So I've kept to myself.


One can only hope that I'll be out of the shade and back into the sunshine very soon. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers. :D

Random Pictures

A few random post-Colorado pictures. Mike bought this for me in the Denver airport. Mike has acknowledged the strong, eternal bond that Johnny Depp and I have.


At home, I found a letter from Kristie telling me that my cats had been very good for the most part, although Meme spent the weekend hitting on Kristie's boyfriend.


What can I say? She's a bit of a tramp. We've had discussions with her about "boundaries." I don't know if it'll do any good.


Furio's extremely glad that his daddy's home. Here are the boys watching 3:10 to Yuma.


Mike bought a new scale at Walmart last night and I started to take a picture when he made this weird face! I told him that his silly behind was going on the blog exactly like that - so here he is!

I'm working on a post discussing the fairly awful trip home that we had, but we got home just after 5 am on Monday, so we slept a good portion of Monday away and then today I haven't felt very good, so I'm not done with it yet. Be patient and I'll finish it when I'm feeling a little bit better.

Also, as most everybody is aware, I think - I posted some pictures to go with the Colorado posts. I'll probably post some more when I'm feeling better.

Our New Gear

Here are pictures of our new Air Force Academy threads.

Colorado - Day Four

Today was totally low-key for us. We had talked about driving to New Mexico, but decided that we'd rather stick close to home. We slept in a little bit. I woke up and found that I was ahead of everybody except Cole, who was sitting on the floor at the top of the stairs. He was waiting for Mike to get up and play hockey with him.

It wasn't long before everybody was up. (Thanks, Peyton!) :D We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and the boys went outside to play hockey on the newly snow blown driveway. Sara and I decided to go out and do a few girly things. I got a hair cut - too cute!

And we stopped at Hobby Lobby. I talked Sara into letting me teach her to knit...


and, of course, she's a natural. She can knit like a pro and she can bind off.

Tomorrow I'll be teaching her how to cast on her stitches before Mike and I head for the airport in the evening.

After dinner, the first annual Western Division Dicey Tournament took place. Cole won - eeking out a victory at the last minute. Fun, fun, fun!!

Mike and I are mostly packed up with our clothes for tomorrow lain out, so that there will be no mad rush to throw everything in the suitcases tomorrow. Neither of us is quite ready to head back to Chicago and "the real world." We'd like to hang out here for a few more weeks.

But, alas, all good things come to an end and tomorrow we'll be winging our way back to the Windy City and the kitties who probably miss us. I'll be happy to see them...but I'll be counting down the days to our next vacation!

Colorado - Day Three

Today has been crazy! We've been on the go since 8 o'clock today (actually yesterday now). We got up early-ish and had breakfast with Sara and "the Carters." Mike has trouble remembering their last name sometimes and when he's referring to the boys, he'll call them "the Carters."

After some breaky, we hit the road and went to Garden of the Gods. Sara took about a million pictures of us and we bought some postcards. (My favorite thing! I love them.) Then we walked around awhile and took even more pictures before heading back to the Visitor's Center to have a light lunch (Mike had a buffalo burger) and watched a short film about how the red rocks were formed.

After Garden of the Gods, we went to Focus on the Family bookstore, where Denver Broncos kicker, Jason Elam, was autographing copies of his new book. Mike bought a book for himself and Sara bought one for the boys. Cole brought along his football card to have it signed as well. There was a bit of a tense moment when someone said that he wouldn't be autographing anything except books, but in the end - he came through for us! Cole and Carter got to try on his Super Bowl rings and everything! I felt a little bit like a fraud - in line with all those Broncos fans. I don't even like the Broncos and I have no idea who Jason Elam is - even though he apparently holds some sort of record. Dunno. He seemed very personable, though.

Then we headed over to the Air Force Academy.

Mike and I stimulated the local economy once again - but wait until you see Mike in the AFA jacket that he bought...HAWT! We looked around, shopped, watched a video about the every day life of an Air Force Cadet. Then we went outside and Mike wanted to take the trail over to the Chapel, which is beautiful!

I was reluctant, but decided that if everybody else was up for it, then so was I. It wasn't a long hike, but it was a lot of up hill, downhill, up hill again.

And it was freezing! We'd left our puffy coats in the car thinking that because we'd be walking, we'd be too hot in them. Wrong. Definitely wrong. By the time we'd hiked down to the Chapel, gone in and looked around and hiked back to the Visitor's Center, Carter was certain that his fingers would never function properly again!

We came home and had a quick bite with Sara's husband, Bill. We decided that we would take in the Air Force/Denver U hockey game that night. We walked outside to find that it had started to snow while we were inside. Extremely hard! It was quite a bit of a white knuckled trip back to the Academy, but once we were there, we had a really good time.

Cole and Carter sat with Mike, so that Mike could explain a bit more about what was going on during the game.

I sat with Sara and Bill and tried to field any questions to the best of my ability. Air Force knocked off #4 Denver with a score of 5-2! I'm hoping that we've opened up a new sport horizon for the fam. Mike has inspired Cole, at least for the short term. Immediately after we got home, they started playing a little "carpet hockey."

Cole won two mini-games in overtime. I was called upon for awhile to drop the puck for their face offs, but I was tired and retired my referee strikes after only a few plays.

I suspect that tomorrow will hold in store for Mike a lot more street hockey.
We had thought about road tripping to New Mexico, but the weather and the price of gas have given us pause and we decided that we'd rather sleep in and stick close to home tomorrow.

It's bedtime for me! I've had such a good time, but I'm ready to sleep where I sit!

See you all in the morning!

Happy Birthday!

Today would have been my mother's 59th birthday. This is the second one that we've spent without her and I'm happy to report that this year, I'm able to remember her with many fewer tears than last year. It's still hard to be without her on her birthday, but this year I've been able to focus on remembering her life rather than thinking about her death. I think about all those little "Mom" things she always did for us - how she sweet talked her furry, weiner children - the way she always did what needed to be done without expecting thanks or praise - the fact that she tried to keep us from worrying about her - knowing that even though she is no longer with us, other people on this Earth are alive today because of her skills and knowledge of nursing - knowing that if she were alive, she'd be bragging to everyone who would listen about my recent graduation -- knowing also that even though we miss her and mourn her still, she is with God and Matt and that she feels no pain, only joy. And I'm grateful.

I'm glad to be spending this day in Colorado. Everything's closer to Heaven here and I know that wherever Mike and I walk tomorrow, she walks with us.

I love you, Mom. Happy birthday!

Colorado - Day Two

Mike and I drove to Wyoming today! No - seriously.

The day started out when Mike roused me at 8. Waaaaaay too early. We showered and headed downstairs where we had some breakfast before we headed out to Denver for the day.

We were planning on going to the U.S. Mint and then stopping at an outlet mall on the way back to Colorado Springs. We went on our tour of the Mint and stopped off in the gift shop - where we stimulated the local economy to an almost outrageous degree.

Once done, we walked back to our little rental car. Mike suggested walking around a little bit to take some pictures. I agreed and we snapped some shots during a short, but nice walk. In a side note, I was really surprised at the number of pan handlers in the park. One man kept shouting, "Jesus loves you!" at us at the top of his lungs. Unsure of how to respond, I just said, "Yes, He does! Thank you."


Once more back at the car, I suggested to Mike that we drive through one of the Arby's we'd passed on our way back to the outlet mall. Mike was like, "Oh...does that mean you don't want to go to Wyoming?" He'd suggested it that morning, but I had been under the impression we'd decided not to do it. Wyoming is about 70 miles north of Denver. I decided that if Mike really wanted to cross over into Wyoming we should do it today, because we were already in Denver and going at a different time would mean another trip up to Denver.


And so, we ended up in Cheyenne, WY. We bought a few postcards and headed back to Denver. We stopped at an outlet mall on the way back, briefly and I picked up a couple of things. Then Mike asked if we could stop back in Denver at The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. So I made him call Sara and tell her we'd be late getting home and not to make dinner for us.


We had a lot of fun, but I'm really sick of being in the car. I'm ready to stick around close to home these next few days and hang out with the boys. Mike's in football Heaven here. He's already talking about when I can arrange vacation during the late summer/early fall so that we can come back when it's not so cold and do some mountain climbing and rafting and whatnot. He told me today that he could "totally live here." It is really nice and there's tons of things to do!

We can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

A Favor

Oh - and can you guys do me a favor? I lit a candle for my mom just now, which will burn for a couple of days - but can you guys make sure and light a candle for her while I'm gone? Thank you! :D

You Have Got To Be Kidding...

I can't believe I'm sitting here at 4am. We're leaving in an hour and a half to head for the airport to fly away to Denver. Mike's cousin is staying here over the weekend with a couple of friends in exchange for feeding los gatos for us so we don't have to hire anybody. As a result, Mr. Clean was up until the wee hours of the morning trying to make sure everything was as immaculate as possible - quite a feat considering I'd pretty much ripped the place apart while getting ready to go on vacation.

I went to bed at about midnight - telling him to come to bed soon, because we had to be up early to catch the bus to O'Hare. I can't see the logic in working himself to death to clean the house -but that's me. The house wasn't (and isn't) unsanitary - just cluttered. Kristie would never have complained about it and I don't really know her friends - so they can complain all they want! (Although I'm fairly certain they wouldn't complain too much either.)

Anyway, I woke up just a few minutes after three and Mike still wasn't in bed. I came out and got on him about staying up all night. He said that he'd oversleep if he went to bed now. I was so irritated. That's why you go to bed when your wife suggests it, dang it! When will they learn?! I went into the bathroom and was like, "Oh, hell." - because I knew I was going to go out and offer to stay awake while Mike went to bed for awhile. Actually, I thought he'd refuse. :D He must have really been tired, though - because when I made the offer, he just looked at me for a long moment. Then he was like, "You can wake me up early and go back to bed while I shower and then I'll get you up last minute before we have to leave."

And so here I sit - slapping myself around to stay awake and drinking water like it's going out of style. What the heck right? I mean, we're in this life together, so why not look out for Mike for a change. He looks out for me most of the time, so I guess I owe him one.

There'll be plenty of opportunity to sleep on the way to the airport, while we wait for the plane and while we're on the plane - so by the time we get to Colorado Springs we'll be refreshed and friendly. But everybody between here and there had better stay the hell out of my way.

(Yeah, I know it's an old grumpy picture - but my camera's packed! What can I do? :D) Have a great weekend everybody! See you when we get back!

Hindsight

So - I'm knitting a hat. I've been playing around with a bunch of different patterns lately, but I seem to come back to hats. This is the pattern that I'm using for my hat, although I'm using that fuzzy yarn, so it doesn't really look much like this one.


I think this color choice was a mistake. I'm knitting with a combination of white yarn and blue "fun fur." I had hoped that it would put you in the mind of a blue sky with big fluffy white clouds.
I'm disappointed thus far. But, I'm also past the point of no return, as far as that goes. I've still got quite a bit to finish, but I've knitted enough that the thought of pulling out all that work is not an attractive option.

And so, I'll finish it and move on to another project. Does anybody need a fuzzy blue and white hat?

Yowza!

I just found this old picture of Mike and I (I'm in the light blue shirt - he's got his arm around me) from 1997. I've always thought (and still do) that Mike was an extremely attractive man. But look what a stone cold fox he was back in the day! Whew. I'm getting weak kneed just looking at him. ;)

A Post Full of Handsome Manliness

Mike was insistent that I take a picture of him with "the F man" this evening and so I thought that I'd better post it, because the two of them are uber cute together. Plus, I think that this picture really showcases the weight that Mike's lost! He's doing so good about making healthy choices and avoiding pitfalls like fast food. YaY, Mikey!

Trip Tic

We got brochures from Colorado today! YaY! Thanks, Sara. It was hard, but I waited to open it until Mike and I were home together. He asked me what I'd gotten from Sara and I told him that it was for him. He pulled it out and was like, "Oooooooh, yeaaaaaaaah." Here's Mike making his first elimination from the full stack of brochures.

Eventually (in an hour or so) he had it paired down into three piles. One pile of things that were out of season and better suited for another trip. One pile of his first choice things to do and a pile of things that weren't a priority. Then he pulled out the guidebook to cross reference everything. He got out green sticky notes to make sure he had everything marked that he wanted to do.

And yes, he even brought out the legal pad and marked it off into days and made a list of things that would be appropriate to do on which days - which, he says, he'll adjust when he knows how willing the McC's are to be tour guides and what days Sara's hubby will be off of work to maybe be available for manly bonding things. He told me today that he's practicing his "man hug" for when we get there. (Three guys in the house.) I was like, "Please don't hug anybody the first day - I don't know their stance on hugging." He just giggled.


Mike was especially tickled by this entry in the Colorado guidebook which says that "your Denver cousin is almost obligated to take you here" - because we're actually going to visit my cousins. I have two words for Mike. Easily. Amused.

Ahhhh...vacation. The closer it gets, the more I look forward to it. Which is saying something, because I've been really excited about it for several weeks now!