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Weekend oh Weekend

I still need to post about our amazing parties from last week, but I spent my weekend just having fun and relaxing. So maybe I’ll get to that tomorrow. I was so exhausted after the parties that I really took it easy on Friday … I hardly did anything. I folded some laundry, had lunch with my family and had one helluva nap. Mmmmm …. nap. That evening our friends and their three kids came over and we lounged at the pool and ate pizza and watched the kids play in the water. It was pretty darn nice. Continue reading “Weekend oh Weekend”

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Big Week

While I’ve been off working on the parties for our company’s 50th Anniversary (a big deal unto itself – more details tomorrow, hopefully), my kids have been having a banner week. Monday Ben started preschool at the same charming little school Tabby’s been attending for two and a half years.

It is only a 6 wk summer camp and he starts “real” preschool in the fall, but he is having a great time. He brought back glowing reports of his big day and the crafts he did and his one disappointment (he didn’t get to have a pony ride during recess because he didn’t know to get in line in time). He and Tabby are in the same class and she is loving showing him the ropes.

Tabby herself is having quite a big week. After making amazing progress last weekend while camping with her bike sensei, Uncle Mikey, she has been eager to ride again. They rode bikes on Tuesday night and she was doing well, but last night while they were at Uncle Mikey’s house while we were at the party, she went from 2 week balance bike to fully riding a “two wheeler WITH pedals” as she’ll proudly tell you.

This amazing transformation is wholly on Uncle Mikey helping her out and her absolutely amazing determination. I’m proud to say Matt and I had nothing to do with it! It is really cool to watch your kids just take flight on something completely separate from you.

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Camping in RMNP

We spent last weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park, home of breathtaking views of the Rockies and some truly amazing trails and wildlife.

And for a few days … our campers. We stayed at Aspen Glen Campground. I swear to you, Matt has some sort of genius for picking great campgrounds. This one compared to some of the others wasn’t quite AS amazing, but in RMNP, the pickings are slim because it’s so popular. Continue reading “Camping in RMNP”

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What I’m Behind On …

Two days of parties starts tomorrow. I’m busy like no other. 1000 things are running around in my head making it impossible for me to sleep. Just a list of things to catch up on/resume when I finally surface … I mean besides the blog. Hopefully setting it all down in black and white will clear my mind so I can sleep.

  1. spending time with my kids and husband and friends
  2. the rest of my normal work
  3. eating proper food … the kind that comes from my own kitchen and has vegetables in it
  4. running and attending bootcamp
  5. housework
  6. paying bills and dealing with paperwork type things
  7. random errands like Goodwill
  8. photography and random projects I’ve been considering
  9. reading other blogs (I will likely give up and mark most as “read”)
  10. sleep

Looking forward to all of this being done done done. Cheers!

 

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My Poor Neglected Blog


We just got back from our camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. I have to say this was about the hardest camping trip I’ve ever been on, not that it wasn’t great fun – it was – but we were all sick. Sleep wasn’t great. Heads were stuffed. Ben kept waking up with a bloody nose. We got back later than I wanted and we’re exhausted. EXHAUSTED.

Still no rest for the wicked. Back to work tomorrow. Evening out tomorrow night. Tons to do before the parties on Weds & Thurs. I don’t even want to think about it. Full weekend update hopefully tomorrow. Kids had a great time even if they were sick. Cheers!

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On the Tube

I have been bringing home my laptop a lot lately. Like A LOT. Like it practically never leaves my side. So when I’m at home and I need to pull it out to do some work, I like to turn on the TV for a little mindless entertainment and reward. Between the laptop and the treadmill, I have been logging more TV time than in a looong while. Here’s what I’m digging:

18 to Life is a cute sitcom about a couple of crazy kids, nextdoor neighbors, who fall in love and up and get married at age 18. They come from different (liberal vs. conservative) backgrounds and wind up living in the attic of the boy’s parent’s house. Hilarity ensues as they figure out how to be married and the in-laws clash. It’s pretty funny and not cliched. You can find it on Netflix streaming.

 Easy A was recommended to me by a friend. It’s a “teen comedy” about a girl who lies about having sex with a boy to help out his reputation … then she becomes the fake school slut and gets paid (in random gift cards) to not have sex with a bunch of other guys. Sounds pretty typical, but the humor is smart and clever and even thought-provoking. Her parents, played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, are wicked funny and steal every scene they’re in. Matt, though skeptical at first, ended up really enjoying this too.

 I have been running (literally and figuratively) through Grey’s Anatomy – I gave it up when I was pregnant with Tabby because terrible things kept happening to moms and unborn babies – and have now finishd off season 7. Next I have decided to go back and watch Felicity from beginning to end. I think I missed a season or 2 in there somewhere. After that I was thinking about checking out Dawson’s Creek because a friend has been watching them and her recaps and takes on them are hilarious.

Matt and I have almost finished up Star Trek: Enterprise which I find just this side of tolerable, though Matt likes it a little more. We hardly ever get time to watch TV together, so it goes slowly. Next up we are working our way through Castle which we both love a lot. Dr. Who may be on the horizon as well since it scores so huge on the geek-o-meter.

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Lastly, since ABC family thoughtlessly cancelled Make it Or Break It, I am bereft of good clean silly teen fun … tonight I plan to check out Bunheads, the new ballet driven teen drama from the same network. It looks to have good potential. What can I say? I’m 13 at heart.

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Way of the Weekend


I’m having a little trouble keeping up. What day is it again?? Oh yea, Monday. See right now all the days are kinda blending together. Our big party at work is just 10 days away and I’ve been working around the clock on various things, mostly giant banners that are going to the  printers soon … like tomorrow. These banners are 10′ x 3′ and so just doing the designing of them on my computer is err … kind of excruciating. Saving takes MINUTES. Half of the normal operations I’d do for texture or whatever, I can’t. It’s a new experience for me and while I’m sure I’m learning a lot, it’s on the frustrating side.

But I did take some time off this weekend to do the normal things like laundry and swim lessons and grocery shopping. We also spent a couple of hours (at two different times) going over the piece of land we’re interested in buying. My sister and I took my mom to an amazing restaurant to celebrate her birthday and we went to a graduation party for my cousin.

Saturday we even snuck away for a little while to go for a great run on N Table Mesa … a 5 mile jaunt that starts out by going straaaight up. It was super hot on Saturday and there is practically no tree cover there. I ran out of water like 2 miles in. But the views were incredible and as usual I felt great (ish) after the run. I chugged a whole (GIANT) Gatorade afterward. It was excellent.

But the week is here again. Everyone in the house has a cold and we are just trying to make it ’til Friday when we have our next camping trip to look forward to.

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On Her Way to the Top

As I mentioned, Tabby started her first rock climbing course last night. She has been looking forward to this for a while, ever since she saw some of the little kids climbing over a year ago. The class starts at age 5 and so we signed her up for the first one available. I unfortunately missed her first class since I had to work late, but I understand she was one fearless little Gecko, climbing swiftly up the wall. The class is an hour and 15 minutes long, which is by far the longest class/sport she’s taken. Even soccer was only an hour. But she really seemed to take to it.

She described the process of getting down for me when we met up for dinner. “You just have to let go, but then the wall kind of holds you, so you have to kick away and let yourself fall. But it’s OK because it’s just a little bit and the rope holds you.” I can’t wait to check it out in person.

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It’s a Big Week

There are lots of cool things happening this week. My father-in-law is having a birthday (Happy Birthday, Sandy!). My cousin Tana is graduating from high school (Congrats, T!). We are celebrating my mom’s birthday, though it was actually last week, and Tabby is starting her climbing class (charmingly called “Geckos”).

But the big world has a couple of neat events going on this week too. Today and tomorrow you can see an almost once-in-a-lifetime event, the Transit of Venus. This means that Earth’s and Venus’ orbits will overlap and for about 6 hours and you will be able to see Venus as a dark spot on the sun. Folks in CO will be able to see it starting around 4 PM today (using one of these safe methods or via a live webcast). Though it happened just 8 yrs ago, it will not happen again for another 117 years and while I’m planning to be around, I figure I better check it out this go around just in case.

So that’s today. Then there’s tomorrow. Tomorrow is National Running Day! Can I get a YAY??? It’s a day to celebrate the sport of running and encourage others to give it a try. Their campaign got me thinking about why it is that I run. It’s many reasons for me:

  1. for physical fitness – you’d be hardpressed to find a more effective calorie burning workout out there
  2. because I like to eat – and I don’t want to be tied to super strict eating just to maintain my healthy weight!
  3. because it’s fun – I truly enjoy my miles with buddies or solo on the treadmill
  4. because it’s therapeutic – running erases all the stress that accumulates over the course of a day.
  5. to enjoy the outdoors – I can’t tell you all the beautiful views I’ve seen during my runs.

but it all boils down to one thing: I run to feel great! All of those reasons come together and makes me feel awesome! I never regret a run, even a “crappy” run. I am always glad I put in the effort. If you haven’t ever given running a fair shake before (think laps around the track in gym class – that’s no way to build enthusiasm for running, IMHO), I really encourage you to give it a try. Couch to 5K is a great place to start.

To celebrate National Running Day, I will be going for as long a run as I am able to fit in tomorrow morning before work. I would rather be doing a nice run date with Matt or a group run with my girlfriends or checking out a new trail, but Wednesdays are tricky and a solo treadmill run will have to do. It’s still a run!

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Camping at Turquoise Lake

Our second camping foray for the season was a decided success. We left Denver around 2 on Friday and were at the site around 4:30. When we pulled up we could hardly believe our eyes. We had a giant parking-lot sized place to put our campers and then down the hill, we had a ton of picnic tables, grills, fire pits and lots and lots of woods for the kids to roam around in.  The campsite was remarkably secluded and the bathrooms were right along our site as well as drinking water taps. The woods the kids played in were hemmed in by a road but the road was up a somewhat steep embankment so not easy to wander on to. And the lake was just a half mile away. Continue reading “Camping at Turquoise Lake”