Grown-Up Baby

Well, I was supposed to leave for a business trip on Monday for the entire week in San Diego. However, I cancelled that trip and attended my Grandfather's funeral on Tuesday. I am very glad that I ended up going. He was my first grandparent to pass away and it was much harder on me than I thought it would be. My cousin did a great job on the eulogy and my other cousin put together the slide show. We then left on Tuesday evening and drove back in the snow.

Which brings me to yesterday--we were snowed in--again. This time it really was more ice than lots of snow with some wind by the evening. My husband had the day off and we watched movies, baked, and got our Holiday party invitations printed.

Which brings me to today--I'm sick. 6am it hit, and well, I am finally now able to sit up and drink water (will be considering saltines). Now really if I had to pick a week to be sick, this was the week. I've had the privilege to work from home this week and just keep up on my emails and phone messages. But seriously, I was hoping to do some Christmas shopping, decorating, and visit with my friends -- so much for that (at least today!) . I just don't handle pain at all anymore. Really, I could consider myself a grown baby :)~~.

So today I will be laying here on the couch, watching movies, and enjoying the fact that my beagle is snuggled up to me keeping me warm! And now its time to lay down and rest...

Thanksgiving Briefing

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving with Greg's family at the farm. I really liked the way his mother helped do the table settings -- below is a picture. My mother-in-law did pilgrim hats with chocolate cookies, peanut butter cups, and frosting to add the needed touches -- I really thought it was the neatest thing!

I rode out to the farm with my two sister-in-laws late on Wednesday night, since all the boys had gone out early. Really was such a great trip and made the 3hr drive much faster! I also had a first since I'd moved to the Springs -- it took me 2hrs to get from downtown to end of Castle Rock! Now, for those of you who don't live here, normally that is about a 30-40 minute drive. Oh yea, and then I still had most of Denver to drive before the sister's house. Thank goodness I had my toll transponder and drove in the commuter lane the entire time. I felt like I was in New York again with the traffic that I was putting up with!! Grid lock is not the norm for Colorado. But all in all, we arrived at the Farm around 123oam --a few starbucks and dinner at Red Robin later!

This Thanksgiving has been rather hard for me. My Grandpa passed away last weekend. He had been sick from a cold and had alzheimer's for about 5yrs. But still, it was hard for me to just realize that Grandpa is gone -- he is up in Heaven laughing and telling his jokes and his mind is whole. I loved him so very much. I'd never really seen him with the alzheimer's because he was put in a nursing home when I was still working Overseas and when I quit doing that it took until last year to be able to go visit him. My cousin and I drove up last week on my only day in town to see my Grandpa in the hospital and I'm so very glad that I got to hold his hand and talk to him one last time. I am just grieving much more than I thought I would -- yesterday we walked into Greg's Grandparents house and it had that same "farm" smell that my Grandpa's did and I lost it; I was so overcome by emotion all of a sudden. You can read a small article and see his picture here. His service will be on Tuesday and I will be doing music with my cousin. Am ready to do the service and to say 'good bye'.

Today we left the farm and drove a few hours to see my family -- I will probably stay here most of the week. Am excited for the rest and time with my family. Though tomorrow is going to be cold, I think we will brave it to make the CSU/TCU game!

Decorating Season!

Well, Greg and I took last night to spend time together and get our Christmas tree put up. Normally we wait till after Turkey Day, but this year we're so busy that this was the time to do it! We will be gone for Thanksgiving, and up until this morning, I was going to have to leave for a week long trip for work immediately after Turkey Day, so we took the time we were both home to watch the Broncos and set up the Christmas tree. Now my house is a slight mess! There are no window coverings up so that we can do the garland and lights around all our windows, there's no real place to sit since all our christmas bins are out until we can decorate, BUT..the tree is up! At this moment it just has lights, but I'll be happy with that until December. Greg is travelling before Thanksgiving, and it always helps fill in our [I think] huge for one person only living room. Below are some pics. (this is more for my family's enjoyment, but Im sure there are some of you who will find these funny, so please, laugh....)

Me setting up the tree

Milo facinated at the Santa hat. He wanted the snowball at the end!

Greg lighting the tree

Milo posing for final product (yea, we had to bribe him with a piece of popcorn to do this.)

Guess we wore him out!

Weddings, Adoption, & Other Random Thoughts

Here is my handsome husband at his brother's wedding! I love weddings now. I mean, I've always enjoyed weddings, but since I've been married, I've loved the ceremony so much more. I love listening to the vows, sermon, & the rituals. Maybe it's because they all have so much more meaning to me. I just have to say this evening that I love my husband so very much. He is my completer and protector. He makes me laugh and he comforts me. I love you babe!

Augh...it has been a VERY LONG WEEK. I will not discuss or process at this time on the blog, but I am so very thankful for 24hrs off before I go 100% again.

I am finally on my weekend now as of this afternoon! I have tomorrow off before I head back into a busy week -- I'll only be in the office on Tuesday this week, while I'll be out the remainder of the week travelling for classes and also attending activities for the National Adoption Initiative. Just a few stats to throw out for those in Colorado: 777 children are free to adopt(parental rights have been terminated) currently in the State. There are 37 of those kids in my home county. At any rate, the link above is worth checking out. I have a wonderful opportunity to go to a fundraiser for a local Adoption Agency next week and am excited to see how Faith Partners will get involved even more at the local level.

Now, since I'm home & have had some dinner, I get to watch my favorite (and yes, somewhat cheesy) tv show, 7th Heaven.