Whoa!

I haven't posted since May of 2009 (when we were in Europe). What's happened since then?
1. We had a blast the rest of the trip and came home.
2. My friends asked me why I quit blogging (sorry Kathy, as you were ever-so-diligent to keep checking....) :)
3. We decided to start a family.
4. We had another nephew (and discovered we were pregnant the day he was born!).
5. We had a baby boy - and my life was forever changed.
6. I stopped sleeping - and watched a LOT of Cosby and Family Matters re-runs on Nick-at-Night.
7. A bunch of my friends had babies.
8. My best friend visited.
9. I took time off, then went back to work (as a Geologist and Environmental Consultant).
10. We took many mini-vacations with friends and visited family.
11. I changed careers (sort of) and now work (and love!!) the Environmental Health & Safety Office at BSU.
12. We had another nephew.
13. I started tap dancing.
14. Seth went back to school.
15. I linked to a blog about our son's daycare happenings, and noticed I had a profile thanks to my Mom's questioning how many nephews I had (hmmm...) (Thanks, Mom!).
16. I saw that there was a blog linked to said-profile ("What's that?").
17. I clicked on it, and saw it was mine (Whoa!).
18. I was embarrassed that someone might click on my profile and find that I had a blog which has been ignored since 2009.
19. In addition to my yearly resolutions to: (a) always put the van keys back when I'm done, (b) wear more scarves, (c) learn all the words (and be able to sing) the Animaniacs' song "Nations of the World" (this was a goal from last year, but I didn't make it) - I added (d) update blog.
20. Sat back to take a breath, be amazed at what has happened in 3 years, and gave thanks for all of my blessings!

Still having fun!

We're just finishing up sightseeing in Rome, and are headed to Florence this afternoon. I've always heard it's hot here....and it's only May!! We had some minor hiccups with our timing yesterday afternoon (got to the Forum too late and it was closed), but it worked out for the best. We were able to catch it this afternoon after the Vatican. Now, we're on to the next stop and more fantastic art. I can't believe how old everything is here. There's Roman rubble just laying around all over....some of this stuff, if we had it in the U.S., we'd put it behind bulletproof glass in some museum....here they use it to stand on and sit on. Fantastic!

Europe!!

Just want to update quickly. We're 5 days in to the 12-day trip, and are having a blast. Right now, we're sitting in a cafe in Prague, and it's beautiful here! We would come back in a heartbeat. We did the beer, sausages and pretzels in Munich, have had the beer and pig knee in Prague, and I think have managed to eat at least one serving of gelato each day...and we're not even to Italy yet! We head to Rome tomorrow, where we look forward to more fun to come. That's all, folks. On to the next spot...!

Well, ok...now it's May!

Back in January I was wondering how we were ever going to wait until May for our trip. Apparently, I decided that the best way to wait was to try to think about it as little as possible, and avoid blogging about anything at all!! While that was kind of lame of me, I did make it clear at the beginning of this whole blogging experience that I usually got really excited about "journaling" when it came to picking out the journal...then had a tendency to let it slip by the wayside. Guess I was right about myself! :) However, now that our fantastically exciting trip is ONE WEEK AND TWO DAYS away, I'm ready to focus again.

What's been going on in the meantime....well, we've been working a lot. Other than that, we've had some fun with friends and family coming into town, and a visit we made to Seattle....and spending time with lots of friends around here.

Now, we're honing in on the trip actually being here. We've been finalizing plans, printing confirmations, double- and triple-checking the details, and making laminated copies of important documents (did I mention that Seth and I may have a tendency to be slight over-planners)? :) Anyway, Seth has been working ridiculously hard the past few months doing research, building the itinerary, and booking sights. I, on the other hand, went weeks at a time without doing a thing, then had a few furious days here and there where I could think of and do almost nothing else. I finally finished reading the last of the guidebooks, and now I'm feeling good and ready. About having to be on the plane for that long....we'll see how that goes!

Until next Tuesday, we are furiously washing our hands and coughing into our elbow-pits to avoid the swine flu (what amazing timing for that pandemic, huh?) and tying up all the loose ends. We've got some friends that will be house/pet sitting for us while we're gone - and that's helping a lot to ease our minds. I plan on updating this blog a bit while we're over there...so stay tuned! I also picked out a really pretty new journal that we're going to take with us....I wonder if I'll actually write in it?!? :)

How are we going to wait until May?

So, now that we've booked our flight to Europe....I can hardly stand my excitement!! I mentioned in a previous blog that we're going (in May) - it's one of those things we want to do before we have kids, and we finally have enough vacation to do it! Since we made our reservations, and it's REALLY happening, pretty much all I want to do is trip planning. Most of our weekends are being spent reading guidebooks, searching the internet for places to stay, daydreaming, wondering how we're going to pack, and watching Rick Steves. :) The picture here is of Vernazza, one of the cities in the Cinque Terre, Italy - and currently the background on my computer screen. :)

For those of you who don't know the specifics, here's where we are planning to go (times vary a LOT - and we're going to maximize time in Prague and the Cinque Terre). The places we're visiting are:

Frankfurt (just fly in)

Munich

Salzburg (Sound of Music tour, here I come!!)

Prague

Rome

Florence

Cinque Terre

Milan (just for flight)

and London.

We're so looking forward to the trip - and actually I think it will be the longest trip that Seth and I have taken together...even longer than our Honeymoon! If anyone has input for ideas (places to see, stay, definitely not miss...whatever), we'd definitely appreciate it! I know we're going to end up hitting some snags...it's inevitable....but I'm sure we'll come home with good stories, many pictures, and hopefully not too many extra inches around the wasitline! :) I hear there's lots of good food in Europe, and the Cinque Terre is the birthplace of pesto!!!

A good time was had by all!

Ah..another Christmas come and gone. I think the most exciting time of the year is Christmas morning. Even though I am 28 years old (counting the days until I turn 29 for the first time), I couldn't sleep the night before Christmas. Was it the chocolate fondue I had at my coworker's house...couldn't have been that! How about the coffee that I had to wash down all the fondue...nope, no way that keeps me awake... I'm convinced that I was just excited about Santa and all the other Christmas magic! I woke up at 2:30am on Christmas morning..and went out in the living room so I didn't wake Seth. I turned on the tree and was watching Christmas shows on tv...and who comes out into the living room but my sweet, sound-sleeping husband! He tried to go back to bed, without success, and was reading for the next couple of hours. I think we both had the Christmas spirit so badly we just couldn't stand it!

Anyway, we managed to wait until about 8:30am before we tore into everything. And what a fun Christmas it was! :) Despite the fact that we weren't with our extended families (this was the first year that we weren't with one or the other), it was a really fun time...and totally felt like Christmas!! We went over to our friends' house for Christmas (Day) dinner, and had spent Christmas Eve with one of my coworkers and her family...even though we weren't doing anything that we traditionally do, I think it felt like Christmas because we were together (and because it was snowing...hard!). Now, we're back to work, the leftover treats are all in the garbage (although I may have had a final bite of everything as it went into the can...), and we're anxiously awaiting another party where we can say goodbye to 2008, and welcome 2009!

We can't see the lawn anymore...

Here's a picture of Mrs. Claus for your Christmas enjoyment! From everyone I've talked to, it seems like the snow is hitting the entire country - or at least the entire Northwest! I know that it's creating havoc for all of the holiday travellers (and I really hope it backs off a bit and allows everyone to get where they're going for Christmas), but I just think it's so pretty! Maybe I'm able to enjoy it more because I'm not going anywhere, but I think the snow, this year, has put me in the Christmas spirit more than in years past. As soon as it started snowing, all I wanted to do was bake cookies and watch Christmas movies. I've already seen Christmas Vacation, White Christmas, part of A Christmas Carol, the Garfield Christmas special (which used to be my all-time favorite...and I hadn't seen it for years!!), some kids show called Cranberry Christmas, endless cheesy Christmas movies on Lifetime, ABC Family, and the Disney Channel, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas....can you believe I haven't seen Charlie Brown yet? In fact, I'm having so much fun with the whole Christmas thing, I'm finding it very hard to focus on work this week. Good thing it's a short one. I hope all of you are feeling as Christmas-y as I am!

The lawn!

Oh crumb. Apparently, it's been just under a month since my last post (just barely under!) At long last, I have pictures of the lawn. It's looking lush and green! In fact, I think it's likely the greenest lawn in the neighborhood right now. Still a bit patchy in front, but we're hoping that fills in better in the spring.

To catch everyone up on all the other odds and ends in our lives, we had a nice Thanksgiving (my parents came to visit for the week and we had some other friends join us for the turkey dinner on Thursday). Seth and my Dad deep fried a turkey (actually, 2 so we would have lots of leftovers), and did a wonderful job. The only scare was Thanksgiving morning when we opened the box to assemble the fryer and discovered the hardware and instructions were missing. Thank goodness for WalMart and their being open 24-hours that day! :) Other than that, it's been work, work, work. Our company Christmas parties are this weekend (one Friday and one Saturday), and we're going to dinner and bowling for both! The other exciting thing we did this week was booking our flight to Europe! We're going to Europe for 12 days next spring...and now we REALLY have to go because the tickets are non-refundable!

I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll try to be better about this thing!

It's been awhile...

Oops. So, I started this blog with the caveat that I'm not very good at journaling and didn't know if I would keep up with this. Apparently, I'm pretty good for 2 months (more than I can say for journaling). :) Here's the deal... I decided after my last post that my next one would involve pictures showing the progress of our lawn (which is growing and green, by the way). Since I haven't gotten around to taking pictures, I never bothered to log on here and say anything else...the best laid plans and so on and so forth... Lame. Instead of waiting until I got around to taking pictures, I decided to just log on and write about nothing if I needed to, because honestly, the guilt of not getting around to this is weighing on me.

Here's the good news about waiting awhile for a post, a lot has happened since the last post. The bad news? When I get on here to write, I can't think of anything in particular. It's like when you were a kid and one of your friends would ask "What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?" Umm....well...(cricket, cricket)...can't really think of anything... Does that mean that nothing embarrassing has ever happened to me? Uh, no. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, I do recall an incident in college when exiting a Chem 101 lab (in full dorky freshman lab gear...coat, goggles, the works) I tripped up the stairs of Fulmer Hall (yes, up) and ended up sprawled out on the ground in the courtyard outside the building...good thing it was lunch time so the courtyard was full of students eating lunch. That was fairly cool of me. :)

Anyway, there it is. I did it. I posted something! The other good thing about not posting for a bit is that nothing bad has happened. Seth and I are just plugging along with life, and really I'm very fortunate to be able to say that. I know there are a lot of people that have daily struggles with health, finance, family, work, etc. and I really have it very good. Especially on this day, Veteran's Day, I want to say thank you to all of those who have served our country (including many of my extended family members, friends, and my dad). If it wasn't for all of you, I wouldn't have the opportunity to have this life, in this country, in which I am truly blessed.

Trick-or-Treat

I don't know what it is about Halloween that makes me want to be a kid again so badly. Every year I have this overwhelming desire to dress up (and eat candy...but that's not just on Halloween). It was always such a fun holiday at our house - and we had a unique trick-or-treating experience. Since we lived on a farm and our neighborhood encompassed about 10 square miles, trick-or-treating was an all night thing. We would get home from school, have dinner, dress up and head out in the car with Mom and/or Dad to make our rounds. Each stop on our route meant not only getting candy, but we "went visiting" and were at each house for at least 30 minutes. Better yet, since Andy and I were the only kids in the neighborhood, we didn't get little fun-size bars....but KING size! :) How fun is that for a kid? One of my neighbors always made popcorn balls - and every Halloween, without fail, I have this craving for a popcorn ball!

Now that I'm older, I enjoy seeing all the kids stop by in their cute, little costumes. There are some very creative people out there! Until I have my own kids, my poor doggie has to deal with my love of this holiday. Last year she was a bumble bee, and this year she has her choice between a rooster or a pumpkin. :) She hates it. Happy pumpkin carving!

Distracted!

Today is my company's open house for our new office. When I started, we were located in a cute part of town, in a very old building where we kind of had make-shift "offices." While it was fun, and "eclectic," we were happy to upgrade in July. Now, we're away from the excessive traffic, and right by the river...where I'm noticing the view gets better and better as the fall leaves change! Now that we've been here for 3 months (yeah, it takes us awhile to plan a party....in fact, I think this was the first year we actually had our summer party before it snowed) we do know how to have a good time.

Because of the party planning, I'm not doing very well at staying billable this week (which is not so good, in my line of work...). I have spent many hours getting ready for a big presentation I have to make next week, and spent most of yesterday shopping for office accessories with one of my coworkers! How can I help it that we have good taste? I mean, SOMEONE had to decorate! :) So now, I'm 13 minutes away from the start of the open house (i.e. schmooz-fest), and I can't seem to make myself do any work of value. Instead, I enjoyed my first Starbucks Doubleshot (in the little cans...and my goodness, how do they get 140 calories and so much deliciousness in such a small can), blogging, thinking about how much I don't like wearing tights, and trying to figure out what kind of picture I want to hang on the wall in my office. Here's to a productive week! :)

Six weeks to a greener, weed-free lawn!

So, we made it! About an hour ago, our lawn was finally hydroseeded!! I swear, Seth and I have been spending every waking moment (when we've not been at work) raking, piling leaves and branches, spreading dirt, weed-whacking, mowing, power raking, etc.....until this moment. For the first time in a month, I have no idea what we're going to do tonight....I'm sure the inside of the house could use some attention, but maybe I'll put that off for a few more days.

It's been difficult getting things ready, but I'm proud of the fact that we did it. If our original plan had worked (where we were going to hire someone to help us do all of this...and he bailed on us...) we wouldn't have had the satisfaction of doing it ourselves! :) We spent last night making the finishing touches...and I had to go do an emergency raking of the backyard at 11AM because the wind was blowing leaves off the tree. Whew.

Now, our lawn is green for the first time in....well, ever (even though it's just a green dye that will fade in a couple of days). The hydroseeding company is expecting us to have approximately 3" of growth in 6-weeks! For those of you in the Treasure Valley, if you ever need any hydroseeding done, let me know and I'll be happy to recommend this company. Also, if any of you are looking for landscaping assistance, I will also give you the name of the guy who bailed on us....don't use him! :)

I think Maggie will have the hardest time over the next 6-weeks. We've put up a temporary fence to keep her trapped in one section of the backyard when she's outside. Although it's plenty large, she realized this morning as she went tearing after a squirrel that she cannot get through the fence with her face.

If you're thinking of going to Mexico - don't.

So, by the day after my blog posting, a bunch of people scared us so much about Mexico that we changed our plan. We (my client, Nicole - who is about the same age as me and is awesome) decided that we would just drive to the border, park, walk across, take a picture of the "Welcome to Mexico" sign and go back to the U.S. All the best laid plans...

We made it to Mexico (accidentally went too far before turning off the road, and crossed the border). Oops. We tried to pull over, and got lost in the city...which is disgusting and scary. By the way, once you are there you will stop seeing signs for how to get back to the U.S. We saw this police officer, and turned down a road to ask for directions. Apparently that was a mistake too, because he took Nicole's license and said he was going to issue a ticket for going the wrong way on a one-way street (which, by the way, we weren't doing). Then, he threatened (in Spanish) to send us to the police station. Someone else the night before we went said to be careful because they will just throw Americans in jail for anything...and we were starting to think that was going to happen to us. There was this random guy behind the cop (which at this point we had decided was fake) and he was making the signal for "money" with his hands. Ok, so apparently we're supposed to pay this guy off. I had $67 in my wallet, and I thought there was NO WAY he was getting my $50 bill. So, I offered him $10, and he said "No, I need $20." So, I found another $7, and we paid him off for $17 to escape from Mexico. The rest of the story involves getting in the wrong lane to cross back to the U.S., and having to back up. We were in Mexico for less than 10 minutes. We weren't even hungry for Mexican food, and ended up at Joe's Crab Shack for dinner.

Now, I'm trying to make my way back home...and have been stuck in the Houston airport for the last 7 hours. My flight to Denver is 3 hours late, so I'm missing my connection from there. Once I get to Denver (supposedly around midnight), I am going to a hotel, and am on the first flight out in the morning...which I just discovered is on a PROP plane. This trip has gotten so bad at this point that it is laughable. At least I'm going to have plenty of hours this week...so far I'm at 63 and counting! :)

After 28 years, I'm going to make it to Mexico!

I realize I've been bad about updating this lately, but we've had about a thousand things up in the air lately...namely, me. For those of you who have been to our house, you know that our yard is ugly. It's ok, we know too...it's been ugly since the day we bought the house. This year we've finally started the "improvements." We had our sprinkler system updated, removed two dead trees in the back yard, and are getting ready to hydroseed! We've had a series of circumstances the past two weeks (long story that there's not time for now) that resulted in Seth and I working our tails off to try to get things ready last weekend. Yes, the first rainy weekend in 6 months! :)

Anyway, we didn't quite get there...but we have the hydroseeding guy coming by tomorrow to evaluate our progress and tell us what we have left to do. We're racing the clock a bit since we have a big tree who's leaves are getting more yellow by the day....but we'll get there. We cleared 60+ bags of lawn waste last weekend, so even if we get stuck waiting until fall, we're SO CLOSE!

We might have gotten it done this week, except I'm in Texas! I was sent to McAllen this week for work...and it's a new place for me. I knew it was close to Mexico, but I had no idea how close....10 miles! So far, in my 28 years of life, my only international travel has been to Canada. Now, I'm going to make it to Mexico! Not that a border town is going to be the most glorious place, but my client and I just want to go down to take pictures at the "Welcome to Mexico" sign...or whatever that is in Spanish, and eat something. Don't worry, we won't drink water! Ole!

The terrible, horrible, no-good.....actually, it wasn't that bad...day

I don't know what's going on with this week, but it's like I've entered the twilight zone. I am not productive at all at work, and yesterday I had the weirdest day that I just ended up coming home. When I got there (and was explaining to one of my coworkers that Seth and I want to stay put for awhile), she told me that our client wants me to go to Texas next week. Oh, goodie. So, I need to try to reschedule book club, but I don't even know what days I'm supposed to be gone...let's make a decision, folks.

At noon, I left to meet Seth to have a quick lunch and donate blood (one of his bank branches was having a blood drive, and we were both going to donate). Come to find out, you needed an appointment, and they only had one opening. Of course, I got it. Goodie number two.

After a good, solid meal I donated (for the first time since high school...and thank goodness, I didn't pass out like before!) Afterward, I was heading back to work, stopped at a light to turn right, and CRUNCH. I got rear-ended. Goodie number three. Sometimes you have those days where you feel like you just should have stayed in bed.

Fortunately, I was fine, she was fine, and she felt really awful....she said "Oh, and you just went and donated blood..." which after the fact I thought was kind of funny. I expected the bumper to be dented, but there's really nothing but a scratch. Crisis averted.

So, I continued to the office to deliver the Diet Coke (requested by my coworker), and turned around and came home. Today, my arm is healing from the blood donation, the car is sitting peacefully in the driveway, and I am working from my living room!

Weekend plans

We've finally made it to Friday! I celebrated this morning by going out for a quick breakfast with some of my coworkers. Have you ever noticed that restaurants make better toast and pancakes than you can make at home? No matter what I try, I cannot duplicate the taste of restaurant pancakes. As for the toast, I suppose if I soaked mine in butter it would taste just as good. :) Yummy.

This weekend is Seth's Grammy's 90th birthday! We wish we could have made the trek over, but there doesn't seem to be time to fit a long trip into a short weekend. We will surely be thinking of her, and the rest of the family, as they get together to celebrate! Hopefully, we'll be able to make it there for a visit sometime this fall (November?) She's a fantastic lady (and made a fabulous ring bearer!) and we all love her very much. Ninety years is definitely an accomplishment!

As for our weekend, we're going to be relaxing with a couple of our friends, listening to the Cougs vs. Baylor (although we were going to watch it tomorrow, it's now happening tonight due to hurricane Ike), and getting ready for next week!

Was that really football?

I really hope that none of you made the unfortunate mistake of tuning in to watch the Cougs take on Cal. Don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan, and will always be - no matter how bad it gets. But really, did someone send the football team out of town and try to fill in with people off the street? I do not remember any game, in recent history, in which we were that badly beaten - embarassed. Time to turn it around!

Fortunately, Saturday was Seth's birthday and we were not watching (we were golfing - which, as far as my golf game goes, was just about as ugly as the football game)! :) We tuned in about halfway through the 3rd quarter to see the damage, then shut it off and went to dinner. I think it's best we forget about this one, and get ready for next week. As for the team, I hope everyone is running - all week, on the way to all their classes (uphill both ways), and during practice.

Blogging 101

So, I decided that I would give this blogging thing a shot. We miss our families and friends so much, I was thinking this is one more 'electronic' way we can keep in touch, and keep everyone updated on what's going on in our lives. I mean, when you talk to someone after a long period of time, you never remember to mention the mundane, everyday things that happen...like "Oh, on the way to work, I spilled my coffee in the car." So, I'm hoping this can be the place that I put info like that so I don't have to remember later!

I'm not totally sure I'll keep up with this, but I thought it was worth a try. It seems a bit like journaling - which I have never really been good with. I am always more excited about picking out the cute journal, then write in it for maybe a week at the most, before it just turns into a really nice, blank notebook. So, I got the background set up on this thing (not as fun as buying a journal, and I discovered I am not as computer savvy as I thought)!!

So, welcome to all of you who decided to come read this. If you follow my posts at all, you should discover certain things about me: I love Fridays, a lot of my day-to-day entertainment revolves around the funny things our pets do, I love Seth, I am a very happy person, I am quite nerdy (and proudly so) when it comes to discussing things like geology, I type in 'stream of consciousness' and don't always re-read what I write, and I use A LOT of commas and parentheses! Oh, and exclamation points!