My Christmas Decorations

I think I am finally finished decorating the outside of the house for Christmas! I am really excited about how it turned out and even more excited that I didn't fall off the roof while putting the lights up over the garage! I have never thought that I was afraid of heights, but getting the lights up there was not easy. I had started hanging them on the end of the garage that is touching the house and was able to use the small ladder, but once I reached the other end, I realized that I could not set the small ladder on the rocks for fear of it falling over, so I had to break out the huge (and very heavy) extension ladder. I might add that simply maneuvering the enormous and heavy ladder was very difficult as was trying to get it leaned against the house. Once I was finally able to get the ladder against the house, I climbed up onto the roof and then I just sat there for little while contemplating whether or not I was actually going to be able to accomplish the task (which was literally hanging the lights on the last one foot of the garage). I probably sat there for a full five minutes pondering what would happen if I did indeed fall off the roof...would anyone hear the splat? Would I just lay there until someone drove by? Or would the neighborhood kids finally decide to come check out why the new neighbor girl was just laying on the ground? Well, I finally put these morbid thoughts out of my head and completed the task at hand. Then came the last fun part...getting back onto the ladder from the roof. This also took some contemplation, but I eventually decided that I was being silly and that I am a carpenter's daughter and that my dad would probably be very disappointed to hear this entire story so I got on the ladder and made it to the ground! Yay! Success! Then I tried to get the ladder down from the house and luckily it missed me and my car and smashed down onto the concrete...a very loud crashing sound which did alert a few of the neighborhood children. After telling Joel this story, it has been determined that I will never be getting on the roof again by myself, nor will I be attempting to use the extension ladder ever again...I guess we know who will be taking down the glorious Christmas lights from now on!!! Ha! Well, enjoy the picture!

A few pictures...

Hello?

I'm not sure if anyone even looks at this anymore since I have been so terrible at keeping it updated, but I thought, what the heck, I will write a little update. Let's see...since the last time I made a post, my Kendra got married, I bought a house, I started a new job, I got engaged, my Kristen Olsen and my Kristen Kaufmann (cousin) got married, my Sarah moved to Montana, and my Kelli is going to have another baby! Wow, it is crazy how much can happen in just a few short months, and I'm sure that I left out a ton of other things that I can't even think of right now! I made it through another Thanksgiving out here in CO with none of my family (very hard, but I managed). I spent the day at my friend Dawn's house...her son is a chef and made a spectacular meal. It was a really nice day and I am so thankful that I had some wonderful people to spend it with.


Friends, whether near or far, old or new, are priceless.

So today I will be continuing my Christmas shopping...I have a lot to do and am clearly putting it off as I sit here in front of my computer at 10am on Saturday morning. If I was smart (or motivated) I would be showered, fed, and out the door already. I will get there eventually! I have started decorating the house for Christmas and am having a lot of fun doing that! I will try to post some pictures once it is all done! If Joel was already here, he would be outside hanging lights all along the roofline of the house, but I guess that is one thing he has to look forward to being that he will be the husband next year! Ha! I hope he knows what he is getting into with me!

The wedding plans are moving along. It is hard being away from my mom during all of the planning, but through e-mail and the phone we are managing quite well! The next things on the list are the photographer and the DJ so hopefully we will get those crossed off. We are pretty sure who we are using for the flowers and the cake, the invitations are in the making, I have already ordered my dress, and the bridesmaid dresses are picked out! So, I have checked quite a few things off already! The big day is going to be 08-02-2008 and I am so excited!

Hmm...well, I can't think of much else right now so I think I will sign off and get on with my Christmas shopping! I'm sure I will be meeting half of the population of Denver at the mall, but 'tis the season I suppose!

Easter Decorations

On a much lighter note than my last post, here are my Easter decorations that I have up.

I haven't had any visitors since I set everything up and I will probably take them down soon, so I thought I should at least post some pictures! Enjoy!

"Sick as a Dog"

I now understand the meaning behind this phrase because my dog has been so sick for the past few days. I know that she isn't the sickest that a dog can be, but I have had enough. I just feel so bad for her because I can't imagine how she feels. I can say that I am miserable from dealing with this for the past two days, but she is probably extremely miserable. I won't go into too much gory detail, but it all started on Friday morning when she decided to eat part of a bar of soap. Now, I take partial responsibility for this because I left the linen closet door open while I was taking a shower. While I was showering, Leiya dug through the closet and found herself a little "treat"...once I discovered what was going on, she had already ingested quite a bit of the soap. Since then, I have been cleaning up vomit and feces like it is my job. My vet recommended giving her some plain yogurt with her food so I am hoping that it starts to firm up her stools and soon! I can't handle this for very much longer. I have had to keep her locked up in the bathroom with towels all over the floor so that she doesn't make a mess of the carpet. Of course she hates to be locked up all my herself so I took a two hour nap on the bathroom floor with her today so that she wouldn't be so upset (and yes, this is how I have spent the majority of my Easter Sunday). She seems to be feeling a little better now, but we are making trips outside every 20 minutes or so. Leiya did get an Easter basket today, but unfortunately she doesn't get to have any of her treats until she is all better. If only I could bribe her to get better!

Happy Easter or Merry Christmas??

I was very surprised this morning to awaken and find that it had snowed overnight and was still snowing! I type an exclamation point as though I am very excited about the snow, but the truth is that I am so over snow right now. It is April for crying out loud...and for that matter it is Easter and we are supposed to be able to wear cute spring dresses and strappy sandles to Church. Well, I pulled out my winter coat, hat, and snowboots for Church today. There is quite a bit of snow on the ground, but it has stopped snowing (for now anyway). Knowing how the weather works here in Colorado, I wouldn't be surprised one bit if the sun came out and it was 70 degrees tomorrow. We'll see I guess! Happy Easter to everyone whether the sun in shining or the snow is blowing!!

Updated Pictures of Leiya

Since I haven't had any new pictures of Leiya on here since her "accident", I thought I had better let everyone see how great her eye looks! We went to the eye doctor again on Thursday and got an excellent report. We won't have to go back there anymore now because she has healed so well. She is blind in her right eye, but it has definitely not affected her personality one bit! I am just so happy that she is able to keep her eye and that it is healthy and comfortable for her. These pictures are of her with the Easter presents that Joel's parents and aunt and grandma sent to her. It is so funny to watch her open her gifts...she is just like a little kid ripping into everything!! I think I took about 50 pictures of her opening them!

St. Patty's Day in Steamboat

The next weekend after Joel was here, Sarah Poeppel came out to visit and we headed up to Steamboat for St. Patrick's Day weekend. We stayed at a really nice condo which Marcia hooked us up with and we had a shuttle that picked us up from our door and took us to the mountain for skiing/snowboarding. It was great! Aside from a little speeding ticket on the way up there, the weekend was terrific. Marcia's fiance Luke suprised us with a keg of green beer and the weekend was off and running! After two nights, we had the keg finished off! Notice the "closet" where Pep and I slept for the weekend! It was actually very comfortable! We had awesome weather and the weekend was fantastic!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

We even got to cheer the Jayhawks on to a Conference Championship!!

Joel's Trip Out West!

Joel came to visit over his Spring Break in March for a whole week! We had a lot of fun and even fit in some snowboarding at Keystone. The rest of the week we did some shopping and ate out at some great places! Leiya and I miss him a lot already.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's flowers from my baby in South Dakota!

Leiya's Eye Injury

We had a little bit of an unfortunate event over the weekend...Leiya injured her eye and had to have emergency surgery. She is doing very well, but we won't know how well she will recover for a few weeks. Her eye is sutured closed and will be for three weeks. She is on five different medications, but she is really hanging in there. Keep her in your thoughts!

I'm going to try again...!

I really need to keep up with this better, so since I am awake I thought I would just write a quick update. I am doing very well out here in Colorado, although have friends, family, and boyfriend back in South Dakota does make some days harder than others...especially with new baby Josie! I am flying home for the holidays on December 19th and I seem to be counting the days. I have begun to have a bit of a social life here which is good, because I was a little bit lost at the beginning when Joel left. Getting out of the comfort zone of my little apartment has proved to do me some good! I am meeting lots of new people here in Castle Rock and have started to explore the town little by little. There are so many neat shops here and just little places to visit. I am also having a lot of fun with Leiya. Being a puppy mommy is a little more challenging than I thought it would be, but it is worth it. We have started puppy classes and she is actually doing very well. It is up to me to practice her training with her. She knows how to get the treats out of me so she is getting to be a little pudgy!! One of my friends has a puppy in the class too, so we do playdates with them and we hang out and have wine! It's fun! That's about all I know for now!

Happy Halloween!

Here is a picture of Leiya in her Halloween costume! She is a skunk and she is definitely not a big fan of her costume! It was a chore trying to get her to pose for a picture, but I thought it was pretty funny! Happy Halloween!