Walking on Sunshine

Today was a beautiful day! The sun was out and the temperature was around 60. It was fabulous! We made our way to a park for fresh air and sunshine. We had a picnic, Max enjoyed playing fetch, and Canaan enjoyed the playground.

I tried to get a picture of Canaan holding Jude...this was the best I got. She wasn't too sure about holding him so he's just laying on her.

big Saturday

Today we converted Canaan's crib to a toddler bed (her room doesn't have room for anything bigger at this point). I am shocked that she never climbed out of her crib. I was waiting until that happened to convert her bed because I thought we would have daily battles for a while to get her to stay in her bed once she could easily get out. She was excited about Matthew working in her room this morning and, of course, had to help. She took a nap this afternoon and went to bed this evening without any fuss. I hope this continues!






After her nap, we went to a local zoo. I was sorely disappointed by this zoo (it may be the worst I've been to). The best thing I can say about the zoo is that it wasn't crowded so Canaan was free to run around. And they had a great collection of statues of all kinds of animals that were not at the zoo. Canaan enjoyed seeing the animals (pronounced "emuls" by Canaan) that were there and desperately wanting to get in the water features she saw. They had a lot of really pretty birds. It was a beautiful day. Next time we'll try the other zoo and go earlier in the day in hopes of catching more activity.

1st Picnic of the Summer

We had beautiful weather last weekend. It was sunny and in the 70s. So we drove out to Mount Si Park and had a picnic. We got there around 1 pm, and we were the only people in the park. We picked a spot in some shade. The only thing I forgot were the blankets I had put on the couch. We had a couple of towels in the back of the car that were big enough for sitting on. We lounged around, Canaan blew bubbles, and Max played fetch. It was a lovely Saturday afternoon.

15 Weeks & Labor Day Weekend

Canaan met some more friends over the weekend. Wade and Michelle are the first couple friends that Matthew and I made after we got married. We have known them about 6 years and love them dearly. We had a fantastic weekend with them! We enjoyed hanging around the house, eating, seeing a local attraction, and fellowshipping with them. We have missed them and really loved spending time with them over the weekend. Canaan was fascinated by Michelle, and anytime we were in the car she was watching Michelle (as evidenced in the photo below).

• Canaan is starting to touch her toys and hold them in her hands. She tries to put them in her mouth but is not very successful with that part yet.
• When I get home in the evenings, I find myself asking Matthew this question a lot, "Has she been doing this?" He works with her a lot during the day to teach her things. She's a good learner up to this point.
• Canaan used to take any pacifier. Now she generally turns them away and will suck on her thumb if she desires to suck on something. She also will put 1 to 4 fingers in her mouth to chew or suck on.
• She still has quite the sensitive tummy. I am still on the elimination diet, but there are days that she has some tummy issues.
• Canaan plays with her tongue a lot. She could spend hours (a bit of an exaggeration) just sticking her tongue out and then putting it back in her mouth. We have no idea what she's doing.
• I mentioned this earlier, but she laughed for the first time last week. We haven't gotten her to do it again yet. She has come close though.
• Canaan enjoys the toys hanging over her bouncy seat and play gym. She is more interested in them than she has been.
• She now fits comfortably in 3 to 6 month footed pajamas.
• She sleeps in the "surrender" position with her hands up by her head.

Kooza

My parents came into town over the weekend and babysat while Matthew and I went to see our 6th Cirque du Soleil show. We were away from home almost 9 hours. We had a nice date with the show and then dinner at a restaurant we have talked about trying since we moved to Colorado. I worried more than I should have about leaving Canaan for so long…not because I was worried about her care but because I didn’t want the grandparents to have to deal with a fussy baby for 8 or 9 hours. Thankfully, she was only fussy toward the end of the evening.

Neither of us really understood the story of Kooza. The others we’ve seen definitely have been more cohesive with the story being evident. I looked at the website today to find out what the show was about. I definitely didn’t get this from watching. Allegria is the best show we’ve seen. It was also the first show we saw. I’m not sure if that is why it was the best or not. We still really enjoyed the show. The performers can definitely do some incredible (and sometimes gross) things with their bodies. We have a lot of questions about these shows…how much do the performers train, what does the chef prepare for meals, what kind of insurance do they have, what happens when they can no longer perform, how often do they sustain injuries, etc?

This is a better photo of my new hair cut. I think Matthew likes it even though he thought I should keep my hair long. I forgot to mention in my earlier post that I have been losing hair like crazy. Matthew thought I should go to the doctor. But I started reading online, and found that around 3 months after giving birth, you lose a lot of hair. Apparently the hormones during pregnancy cause you to lose less hair than normal. After giving birth, you lose all the hair you didn’t lose during pregnancy. I thought about taking a picture, but it was pretty disgusting.

Weekend Extravaganza

This past weekend was a lot of fun.

• My mom and Matthew's sister and niece came into town for my baby shower. I knew my mom and sister-in-law were coming, but I did not know my 18 month old niece was coming. It was really great to see all of them.
• I had to go to a work event after picking my mom up from the airport on Friday morning. I wasn't looking forward to the team event but was convinced to go by my supervisor. Boy am I glad I went. We first went on a tour of one of our stores that will be opening in the middle of June. I got really lost getting to this store so we were about 30 minutes late. We joined the tour once we arrived and then went to another of our stores for lunch. My team had planned a baby shower for me where we ate lunch and cake and I opened a very generous present from them. It was really fun and it was fun for my mom to be there as well.
• Saturday was my birthday and baby shower. The last time I had so many people around on my birthday was at my rehearsal dinner 6 years ago. I really enjoy birthdays so it was fun to have so much family and friends around. I had a really good time at the shower. There were people there from my Sunday school class, Matthew's previous job, my job, and some of Matthew's family from other places in Colorado. The family then came over to our house for dinner which one of them had prepared beforehand.

• My mom made my favorite birthday cake. When I was a kid, one of her friends made this delicious chocolate sheet cake. I liked it so much that I think I embarrassed my mom by asking this friend to make the cake for my birthday. She did so and then when I turned 16 she and her husband showed up at our house with a cake straight out of the oven. It is truly delicious!
• Sunday was mine and Matthew's 6th wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe we have been married six years. Time sure does go by quickly. My sister-in-law and niece had to leave Sunday morning. While Matthew took them to the airport, my mom and I did a bit of shopping. Later in the day, we helped Matthew hang the Roman shade my mom had made for the nursery. I still need to take a picture of that to put on here. I'll do that on another post.
• My mom fixed 8 to 10 meals that are currently in the freezer for us to use between now and when the baby makes her arrival. Isn't that great? She knew that days are coming when I will get home from work and not have a desire or the energy to fix dinner. While she is here after the baby comes, she is going to fix us some more meals to put in the freezer. She was in the kitchen most of the weekend doing this. (By the way...while checking out at the grocery store when my mom bought groceries for these meals, the checkout lady said something about me looking 22. I lost 10 years this weekend! It was an awesome compliment even though I know she wasn't being truthful.)
• After some BEAUTIFUL weather last week, it snowed Sunday night/Monday morning. We ended up leaving at 5:45 yesterday morning to take my mom to the airport. It took us about 2 hours to get there in the traffic and snowy conditions, but about half that amount of time to get back because the snow had already stopped. It was crazy weather. I really hope that was the last snow of the season. I think out of 4 anniversaries spent in Colorado, it has snowed around 3 of them. This is not a very good picture because I took it before we went to the airport, but you can somewhat see all the snow that is on and around our tree.

• One thing that has become very apparent is that we are going to have to work on teaching Max the difference between his toys and Baby Girl's toys. Does anyone have any advice for this? He pretty much thinks any toy on the floor (or anywhere else for that matter) belongs to him. He wanted to play with all our niece's toys as well as anything that I was messing with in the baby's room.

The Big Game

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that my parents were in town last weekend. It was a cold weekend and we mostly stayed inside. We watched several baseball games and the big UT-OU game and played some dominoes and cards.

Growing up, I considered myself an OU fan. My parents are from Oklahoma and when we traveled there to visit family (all my parents’ brothers, sisters, and parents lived in Oklahoma) during the holidays, we always watched OU football games. Out of all my relatives there, I can’t remember anyone not being a fan of OU. THEN I moved to Colorado. I do not know if it is like this in the other 48 states, but people in Colorado think Texans are the MOST obnoxious people. They don’t even give you a chance if you are from Texas. When we first moved here, I was entirely annoyed by this. Over the years, however, I have adopted a new outlook on this silly expectation. Now my aim is to become that obnoxious Texan. (Am I proving their point?) Matthew graduated from UT so I have now jumped on that bandwagon. In fact, I think I’m a bigger fan than he is. So half the people in my house on Saturday were rooting for OU and the other half were rooting for UT. I would like to claim that Max was rooting for UT as well, but frankly he doesn’t care about football unless he is involved in the playing. Either way, someone was not going to be pleased with the outcome of this game. Fortunately for Matthew and me, it was my parents and not us. I can’t say I would have liked to have been at the game, but I would have liked to have a Fletcher’s corny dog from the state fair. That is the best corn dog I have ever had. YUM!

Sunday our pastor started a series on Genesis. He was really energetic and excited about his sermon on Genesis 1. I cannot tell you how many times I have read Genesis 1. I hate to admit that sometimes I wonder if I will get anything out of a sermon about a scripture I have read umpteen times. (That is terrible for many reasons, but especially because the Word of God is living. God can always use a scripture I have heard over and over and teach me something new, minister to me in a new way, or give me understanding that I didn’t have before. It is something that I should expect when I come to the Word.) I think the neatest thing the pastor said was the following (this is my paraphrase). Genesis 1 teaches us that there was an order and purpose to God’s creation. While we may not have all the details, we have enough to know that God purposefully created all that exists. This also teaches that as with all His other creation, God purposefully created ME. Because God created me, I have worth. Isn’t that wonderful? I am pretty sure that I have never thought of myself when reading about the creation of the universe. The pastor made sure to point out, on the other hand, the big bang theory which teaches everything is here by accident also teaches us that we are here by accident.

Sunday after church and lunch, we headed up to the outlet mall as Matthew has needed new work clothes for seriously 3 or 4 years. We hit a HUGE sale which was fun. And then we had dinner at a local place that was one of our favorites when we lived in this particular city. I ordered the creamy jalapeno soup which is YUMMY!
All in all it was a fun and relaxing weekend. And I was thankful to be inside during the cold weather. And one funny thing happened…my mom got locked in the bathroom at our house. The casing that holds the part of the door that goes into the door jam to close the door came out of the door into the door jam. Matthew had to pass a screwdriver under the door so she could pry her way out. Hopefully, he will take care of that soon so it doesn’t happen again. Until then, I’m going to be wary of closing that bathroom door.

Happy Days

After several gloomy days (due to weather, sadness, and bad attitude), I would like to report I am have had several happy days.

God is so good and has blessed me in so many ways. Early this year I happened upon this blog where Ann wrote about a thousand gifts and recognizing every day things to be thankful for. There are things all around us every day that are blessings from God. I often do not slow down or pay attention to recognize these blessings for what they are...blessings from the very hand of God.

Once I read her post, I started a journal where I record what I am thankful for. There are days when I will list 10 to 12 things. There are days and sometimes weeks that go by where I don't write anything at all. I have been very sporadic in pulling out my journal, but it is something I want to continue to work on.

This weekend was full of happy days. Friday I ran fun errands after work. I went to a new (new to me) scrapbook store and was so inspired and excited to get started on something crafty. I have been lacking that inspiration for quite a while. Saturday Matthew and I went to see Wall-E. Then I came home and got started on a scrapbook. I have really enjoyed looking through old pictures and putting them together in a way I have not done so before. I have felt creative. It has been refreshing. Sunday was a wonderful day of worship at church. Matthew and I both came home very thoughtful about the sermon. Our pastor has been at the church a year and has recently been sharing his vision for the church. We are both excited about what is coming.

Tuesday evening I had dinner with a girlfriend. I hope this relationship will develop into a treasured friendship. This is the first time I have done anything with a friend since I've been in Colorado. Isn't that sad? It has been very difficult and slow to make friends here...that is the understatement of 3 years (we've been here 3 years!!!). I was so excited about this dinner. I called Matthew beforehand squeeling because I was so excited. I believe the Lord really blessed our time together. We had some really meaningful conversation about what's going on in our lives. All I can say is that is was so wonderful...I am thankful for that 2 1/2 hours this week. I hope it will happen again. I have been treasuring that time all day today.

Sunday, Monday, happy days

Tuesday, Wednesday, happy days

Thursday, Friday, happy days

Saturday, what a day

rockin' all week with you

No more excuses

I have no more excuses for avoiding a regular workout (I didn't really have any good ones before, and I'm very good at making up excuses). We had the opportunity through a guy at Matthew's work to purchase this equipment back in February for a very good price. It is in good condition and appears that it was not used much by the previous owner. Three guys from Matthew's office helped him disassemble the equipment, carry it upstairs from someone's basement, haul it over to our house, and move it into our garage where it sat for several months. At the beginning of July, I finally decided where I wanted it to be set up and Matthew and a friend moved it into our basement. Carrying anything that heavy and awkward shaped is quite an ordeal, but they did it without creating any holes in the walls or flooring. I call that a successful venture. Yesterday, Matthew finally put it together for me which also proved to be a lot of frustrating work.

After all that time and work, it is now ready to be used. In fact, we both used it this evening. My hope is that I will begin to work out more regularly and maybe even be disciplined enough to do this before work each day. I have the hardest time getting out of bed in the morning, but I know it would give me a great start to the day to get my exercise in first thing. Something about starting the day out that way helps me to make better food choices during the day. I know that it's completely mental, but that is just the way it is with me. We'll see how it goes. Isn't it nice?


This weekend we also finally painted the frame that Matthew made for the basement. We hung it yesterday, but while Matthew was putting the exercise equipment together it fell off the wall and came apart. Hopefully, he'll fix it this weekend and we'll have it back up on the wall. He isn't thrilled with this style of letters, but I think this looks very nice.

Have you ever done something someone asked you to when you didn't want to?

We had another good weekend. It went by so quickly!

Friday night we went to some friends' house to celebrate the wife's birthday. There weren't many people we knew there so Matthew and I spent a lot of time together.

Saturday Matthew's family friends came through town again and stayed the night with us. I went with the woman to Boulder (a 2 hour drive from our house) to help their daughter pack for her big move next weekend. We drove all that way to pack 10 boxes of books (while she was camping and hiking). We had dinner in Boulder and then drove back to the house. That was 6 hours of my Saturday that I would have rather done something else.

Sunday we had a lazy day. We went to see "The Dark Knight" with our neighbors. We saw it on the IMAX. It was a good movie but really dark. I did enjoy seeing it though. After dinner at Red Robin, I went to work for about an hour. Then we FINALLY hung something on the wall! We have been here over a year and a half and just hung the first something on the wall. I cannot believe it took us this long. We are going to hang a frame around these letters, but we're still working on that. Matthew is building the frame and then I will paint it. I was so excited to finally have something up. Yeah!!

Productive Weekend

I would say we had a fun and productive weekend. Friday after work, our neighbors came over to eat blue cheese burgers and watch Firefly. If you haven't seen Firefly, I would recommend it. It is a science fiction tv series that only ran for one season. I am not the biggest sci-fi fan, but this show is hilarious to me. I would describe it as something between science fiction and western. It is quite entertaining.

Saturday Matthew worked on staining the fence. You should have seen Max while this was going on. Matthew put him in the backyard while Matthew was on the outside of the fence. Max generally wants to be as close to a person as possible. So he laid against the fence which meant that he got stain on him. I wanted to take a picture of this, but I knew as soon as I opened the door Max would come running. So I didn't even attempt the picture of Max laying next to the fence. It was funny though! While Matthew stained the fence, I ran some errands and played with Max. I went to PetSmart while I was out. A rescue organization was there for pet adoptions. I saw THE CUTEST puppies there (of course, I say that pretty much any time I see puppies). They were a mix of sharpei and rotweiller. I seriously considered bringing one home. You should have seen them. We then cleaned out the window wells. A couple of them were filled with tumble weeds and trash. While Matthew was in one of the wells, he found a tiny frog. I have no idea where it came from, but we freed him into the yard. Hopefully, he hopped away to a new home. We spent the afternoon with our neighbors at the movie theater watching "Hancock." I really enjoyed the movie, but Matthew wanted more background on the main character. We all wanted to go see The Dark Knight but knew it would be crazy to do so over the weekend. We'll have to go another time. Saturday evening some Merritt family friends stopped by on their way through town. The couple and their daughter (who now lives in Boulder) took us to dinner and then stayed the night at our house. The couple is going on a motorcycle trip and will be staying the week in Pagosa Springs. They left their truck and trailer here and took their motorcycle to Pagosa Springs. They will come back through next Saturday and stay the night again. It was nice to see them (I met them a little over a year ago when they came for a ski trip) and here funny stories about Matthew's growing up years in Tennessee.

Sunday morning our friends took us to breakfast before they left town. Afterward, Matthew and I had a semi-lazy day. We were both exhausted for most of the day. Matthew finished staining the fence while I hung curtains on our sliding door. I can't believe it took me a year and a half to get anything hung over that door. It is completely silly. I would still like to hang other curtains over or around the door as well, but that may never happen. It is seriously amazing that we have chosen anything for our house as Matthew and I have polar opposite taste in most things. We may never find a compromise for the curtains. I'll let you know if/when we do make that compromise though. After hanging the curtains and playing with Max in the backyard (during which I had to get the ladder to retrieve the Flying Squirrel that I threw onto the roof), I dislocated my knee (for the 4th time) while heading into the house. I have no idea what happened because it happened so fast. So I've had a sore knee this week. We took Max up to the pond to let him swim (and to clean him off a bit). That is definitely the easiest and most fun way to "give him a bath." Even though no soap is involved, he always smells nicer and is so soft after swimming. He had a great time as usual and this time Matthew got in the water with him. He didn't know what to do about that. He would retrieve the ball but didn't want to get out of the water while Matthew was still in there. When we got home, I watched "The Memoires of a Geisha." I thought it was an interesting movie. I'm not sure if I would recommend it or not. I did enjoy it though and thought the main characters eyes were beautiful.

All in all, it was a fun, relaxing, and productive weekend; however, Matthew is responsible for most of the productive-ness. I think the things he took care of have really made an impact on how the place looks...and that makes me feel nice and at home.

Weekend with my Folks

My parents came into town last Thursday for a weekend visit. For some reason I expected them around dinner time, but they didn't get here until around 7:30 or so. I am always excited to see my parents and this weekend was no exception. I couldn't sit still inside, had done all the cleaning I was going to do, and couldn't even eat dinner I was so excited. So I paced around the yard waiting for them.

Friday they did a little sight-seeing around town while Matthew and I worked. We all met up for lunch at Mimi's. If I haven't mentioned it before, I really enjoy eating at Mimi's. The highlight of a meal there for me is the buttermilk spice muffin. It is delicious! I told Matthew that I daydream about that muffin. He thinks I'm weird, but it's true! It's not a daily daydream, but I think about that muffin from time to time. Friday after work, we ate dinner and then just rested at home. It was a nice and relaxing weekend.

Saturday morning we slept in a bit and had breakfast. While my mom and I went to a fabric store and did a little other shopping, my dad and Matthew worked in the garage. Matthew started a work bench with his dad over Thanksgiving. After the holidays, we bought some workout equipment that stayed in the garage until last weekend. Since it was now out of the way, Matthew had room to finish his work bench and start organizing the garage. It was a beautiful day - I believe the high was in the 70s. So it was a nice day to be outside and working in the garage. Once we got home, mom and I played with Max and then fixed lunch. We hung around the house for a couple of hours and then went to the Pikes Peak or Bust rodeo.

I always enjoy a good rodeo. It's been a couple of years since I've been to one. We had a good time! (Don't Matthew and I have the same smile? That's a little weird.) I have to say there was an interesting prayer before it started that I didn't quite understand. One minute the guy was praying about Americans supporting our military and the next he said something about everyone else shutting up. I have to say I have never heard the words "shut up" in a prayer before. I also have never heard people cheer so loud during a prayer. It was quite interesting. My favorite event was the Mutton Bustin'. It is hilarious if you've never seen it. Little kids wear helmets and try to ride sheep. They basically lay on the sheep's back and hold on for dear life. Generally, they slide around and end up falling off pretty quickly. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I took some pictures. This is the best one I got. Hopefully you can see the little guy riding the sheep. We also witnessed something funny during the steer wrestling. The first guy to participate in the steer wrestling got off his horse to wrestle the steer but landed in front of the steer. The steer just jumped right over him and trotted off. My dad said in 50+ years of going to the rodeo, he has never seen that happen. I'm sure the cowboy did not think that was funny, but it was one of the highlights for us. And while this was a PRCA rodeo and not a ranch rodeo, they had teams participate in a wild cow milking event. That is generally entertaining, but this time all the teams competed at the same time. Everything was happening so fast, I pretty much missed the whole event. I'm not sure why they planned it that way or if anyone else saw anything that happened.

Sunday we went to a breakfast buffet at a local hotel (one of Matthew's favorite things to do). Again, we had a lazy day at home relaxing. We spent some time at Home Depot getting some stuff for Matthew to continue his work and organization in the garage. I'll have to take a picture at some point so you can see how nice it looks. We also stopped by Smoothie King which has recently opened here. This was Matthew's favorite place when we lived in Austin. He was almost heart-broken to find there were no Smoothie King's in Colorado when we moved here. Thankfully, our good friends N and M saw it when they were here over Memorial Day. We had no idea it was here. Sunday evening, I took Max out to do his business and found two dogs in our yard. One was an older golden retriever and the other was a puppy. I probably walked around our neighborhood at least 30 minutes trying to find their home. It turns out they belong only a couple of houses down from us. That puppy scratched up my back pretty good by jumping up on me as I was walking. They were very good at following me around. The older dog would stop every few houses to rest. I felt so bad once I learned they lived so close. I was happy to have found their home though. The thanks I got for delivering them safely home..."Where's our third dog?" "Umm....I only found two of your dogs in my yard. Sorry." It turns out the third dog was still in the backyard. When I got home from that adventure, we watched "Something the Lord Made". We all really enjoyed the movie based on a true story. Those tend to be my favorite movies.

I have to say that no matter what we do, I always enjoy spending time with my parents. I think the older I get, the more true that statement is. I really appreciate the people they are, the way they raised me, how they have taught me what is important by the way they live. I like to hear about how they grew up and stories from their childhoods and adult lives. I have known it all my life, but it is still good to know they love me. And even though she probably wouldn't admit it, I think my mom likes Max. Several times during the weekend she played fetch with him and it was her idea.

the week that was

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of last week I had to work in Denver. Rather than staying in a hotel, I decided I would drive home each night. I am not fond of being away from home or staying in a hotel by myself most of the time. Wednesday and Thursday I put 357 miles on my car. Needless to say, much time was spent in my car last week.


Because I was so busy with work, I didn't remember until Wednesday that Max turned 10 months old on Tuesday. So this is his official 10 month old picture even though I didn't take it until Wednesday. He doesn't look upset though does he?













It was a warm week. We got to 90 several days. We have air conditioning, but the air does not circulate well in our house. The basement has to be several degrees cooler than the main level. So here you see Max taking advantage of the box fan we have at the top of the stairs. He is still one smart puppy.









Last night was a very pleasant evening without any breeze. That seems quite unusual for our area of town so we took advantage of it. Matthew read outside while I played with Max. We built this house (not with our own hands though) about 2 years ago. Many of our friends mention they wish they could do the same. We got a fantastic deal because Matthew's company also owns a home builder. Anyway, I took this picture to show you "the grass isn't always greener." In fact, ours is currently infested with red top (a weed). We also have a drainage problem you can see in this picture. The brown spots are places that actually hold water. We saw a bird stop by for a bath in one yesterday. That was first! We are going to have to do something about it soon because the ground is starting to smell. It is seriously disgusting and made playing in the yard last night seem like a bad idea. It didn't stop me though...I guess I had that thought after the fact.

Tonight we had a cul-de-sac party. Someone pulled their grill into the cul-de-sac. Everyone brought their own meat and drink and a side or dessert to share with everyone. Of the 9 houses (I think there are 9), only 5 were represented but we had a fun time visiting and eating. Here are a couple of pictures I took. Max was howling in the backyard so we decided to let him and see how he behaved. He literally went to each person as if to say "hello". A couple of kids played with him. He behaved very well. He was completely warn out. Matthew took him earlier in the afternoon to the lake to let him get some exercise swimming (and to clean him off from our disgusting yard). He is passed out next to me while I am on the computer. I hope he'll sleep well tonight. That would be a nice treat for us all.
















All in all it was a good week and weekend. And here we go again...