The bowl...

It's that time of year again.  Everyone dresses up, knocks on a few doors, maybe go to a party or two, and siting out for everyone to see is the bowl.  For kiddos, this is just plain awesome.  For adults, it can be one tempting and teasing centerpiece.  I'm talking about the candy bowl.  It just stares at you through out the evening and well after all the trick or treaters are done for the night.  Those of us that are smart fill it with candy that they despise and wouldn't dare touch.  Others of us, like me, make sure it's overflowing with all kinds of the good stuff, especially chocolate! 

Since last year was kind of a bust and we were left with almost 2 bags worth of candy, I decided to go with 2 smaller bags this year in hopes that we won't have much left over.  Now, I love candy just as much as the next person, but there's something about Halloween that makes the candy so much better!  Maybe it's because you have to work for it?  All I know is that we're only taking Logan to 4-5 houses so that he doesn't get too loaded up because we'll be the ones that have to enjoy it for him since he doesn't have any teeth. 

Halloween is the kick off holiday for bad eating for the rest of the year.  I know this, you know this, but yet we really could care less.  If it only comes around for a few months in the year, we might as well enjoy it right?!  This year I'm going to do my absolute best to keep my sweet eating in check.  Wish me luck, because I"m going to need it! 
 

Productive life

I've discovered something new about myself this morning, I LOVE to cook before 7am!  Trust me, I know how absolutely absurd and crazy this sounds, but it's so cool!  I love knowing that before I leave the house for work, there's something already made or in the process of being made and will be waiting for me when I get home!  This morning I was up a little earlier because I had to drop Bryan off at work since his truck is still being fixed.  We've had a roast thawing for about a day and I decided it was time to do something with it, so in the crock pot it went!  I diced up some potatoes and carrots and threw them in with it.  Since I was already in the kitchen and in the mood, I cooked some chicken breasts and put both Bryan and my lunches together. :)  I even had time to shower, do my makeup/hair, get Logan ready, and we were all out the door 15 minutes EARLIER than I usually am when it's just me and the little man!!! That in itself is a complete victory for me :D.

It's definitely the little things in life that help to put you on track for a great day.  I've found mine (along with a nice glass of wine and chocolates), I hope you find yours!  Have a great Tuesday everyone!!

How could I forget??

I guess with everything going on these past few days I've completely forgotten about my AMAZING 5 day vacation last week!  It started off with Logan and I picking up my sissa and niece at the airport.  We were too impatient to wait in the car so we went inside to look for them. 

After grabbing their luggage we ran some errands and then made a pit stop at Chik-fil-a for Bren since she's never been eaten there before.  I forget how yummy that place is.  We basically chilled at the house for the afternoon and evening since we had a big day ahead of us on Friday.  After waking up bright and early, we grabbed some coffee, Cheerios, and then were on our way to the Denver Zoo!  It was both Logan and Ava's first trip ever to a zoo and they couldn't have been more excited (ok, so us mom's were excited for them).  The kids loved the fishies, monkeys, and antelope the best.   

After we made it through the zoo, the little ones each got a stuffed animal to remember their big trip.  I got Ava a pink monkey with a Denver Zoo sweatshirt, and then Auntie got Logan a little Lemur.  He absolutely loves that thing and drags it everywhere!  Since it seems to be the tradition every time Bren comes to Colorado, we had to make a trip to Boulder that night for some delicious Pasta Jay's for dinner.  As always, the food was amazing and we walked out of there feeling as though our stomachs would explode at any minute.  The next morning we ran around the house trying to get everyone ready as fast as we could.  Unfortunately, both of the little ones decided that they were going to be butt heads and scream and cry and whine every time they weren't being held or given attention!  I've never seen either of them so crabby.  Once we finally made it out of the house, we decided to swing South to the outlet mall in Castle Rock before having to make our way to the airport. 

It was sad to see them leave again so soon, but I had a flight of my own to catch!  I was sooooo excited to see my best friend.  The last time I'd seen her had felt like forever ago.  As soon as she picked me up, it felt like we'd never missed a beat.  That's how it always is and I love it!  Since this was the first time ever that I'd gotten to spend more than 1 night away from my baby boy, I was going to make the most of it and let my hair down.  A trip to the liquor store was needed as well as picking up a few friends to help welcome me to Texas.  After a few drinking games and a clock striking 5am we decided it was time for bed.  Sunday was supposed to be a craft day, but a combination of lack of sleep and the fact that most stores are closed meant that we were just going to chill and watch movies.  It was something that we used to do when we lived together and it was just what we both needed.  Monday morning we rushed to the store to pick up our supplies and crafted at the house before we had to leave so that I could catch my flight.  It wasn't the best idea to choose the airport that was 3 hours away, but it gave us a chance to chat on the way back before I had to leave. 

It was a much needed vacation to say the least.  I can't wait to see her again as well as the rest of my family.  Who knows, the holidays are coming up and we might have some visitors or have to do some traveling of our own. :)

Is it Friday yet??

Do you remember how I mentioned earlier about how I'm ready to move to another state?  Well, now I'm really, REALLY ready to move!  This morning started out ok, but has since gone down hill very fast.  As many people have discovered after looking out their front window, it snowed last night.  Here in Colorado it rained pretty hard for about 3 hours and then decided to turn to that white fluffy stuff I despise.  When Bryan went out to clean off his truck this morning, he discovered his windshield had a huge crack in it.  Awesome.  One more thing to fix on his truck ::pinches bridge of nose::.  Not 2 hours later I get a call at work saying that Bryan was in a car accident!  WHAT THE HECK?!  I swear the universe is conspiring against me for having such a great day yesterday.  Luckily everyone was ok, but his truck won't start and his front end is entirely messed up.  It's being towed to the shop to be looked at now.  Even if it is fixable, it's going to cost an arm and a leg and my next paycheck to fix!  Someone, anyone, please just shoot me now.  Needless to say I'm a bit frustrated this morning and my nerves have taken just about all they can handle. 

Have you ever resented anyone to the point that you wanted to strangle them no matter what they do?  Well, that's roughly how I feel about this state.  Everything bad thing that happens, every element that is out of my control, I seem to be blaming it on this aggrivating state.  I know a good chunk of it is my fault/responsibility, but I can't help but think that if we were living somewhere else none of this would happen.  Things would be different.  The truth is that it doesn't really matter where we are, all of these things are possible to happen anywhere, but I'd just rather they happened in one of those other places and not here in Colorado. 

That said, I spent a good chunk of my afternoon yesterday looking at Craigslist for job openings in Texas and California.  I'm determined now more than ever to find a solution to my obsession with moving to a new state, even if it means that I'll have to work 3 jobs just to get us going while Bryan finds one.  I just need out of this damn state AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!.....Ok, I'm better now.  As long as I keep breathing and working I should be alright for now.

Here's to hoping tomorrow is a better day!  Stay safe and warm my friends :)

Good thoughts

Good afternoon everyone!!  I've been up since 5:30 this morning, had 2 cups of coffee, 2 cups of tea, cleaned the downstairs, and completed a training course at work.  Can you tell I'm just a teensy bit wired??  I blame the kiddo.  I'm allowed to do that, right? 

So have you ever woken up on any given day and just known that it's going to be a good day?  I hope so, because it's a great feeling.  Lucky me, I got this feeling this morning, on a Wednesday of all days.  As you've already heard, I've had a very productive morning.  I'm looking forward to getting off of work more than anything, though.  There's a recipe sitting on my counter top for an amazing knock off of Olive Garden's Zupa soup that I've been dying to try!  Since it's gotten a bit chilly here, soup is the perfect comfort food!  It's actually supposed to snow today (fml) so it looks like I'll have to make an extra large batch to last me the rest of the week. 

And now onto the next random thought: I want to move!  We've been living in Colorado for the past year and a half and I've gotten the moving itch, bad!  Don't get me wrong, I love our townhouse, my job, and the great scenery, but it doesn't really seem like it's enough to keep me here.  Bryan wouldn't exactly shed a tear if he had to switch jobs either.  Now for the kicker, this moving itch doesn't necessarily mean that I want to move back to Minnesota.  Actually the top places on my list are Texas or California.  I was recently in Texas and I absolutely loved it!  Aside from the terrible radio station selections, the weather is beautiful and sunny!  The people are pretty friendly, and there's a ton of things to do down there.  Also, Bryan has a few friends that live in Texas that we could get together with, and more importantly, Megan is there!!!!  After getting to see her this past weekend and just hang out for a few days, I've realized that I miss her more than anything!  She keeps me grounded, I can talk to her about anything, and we are always laughing when we're together.  This is why we refer to each other as "wife". 

Now if we don't move to Texas, I wouldn't necessarily mind if we moved back to California.....because Bryan wants to get back into the Marines.  I would really like for him to get back in to be honest.  Military life suits him and civilian life just isn't working out the best.  He misses the structure, the principles, the discipline that comes along with it.  If someone is being stupid or makes stupid mistakes over and over again he's able to actually do something about it to fix the problem.  That's the world that he fits into.  Granted I'd be farther away from family and most of my friends again, but if and when he'd deploy, I could always come back and visit for like a month or more at a time!  It wouldn't be the end of the world, and I know that he would finally enjoy his job again. 

The biggest bummer is that even if we did want to move, we couldn't do anything until next year anyways.  Between me finding a position that I could transfer to within my company, to Bryan waiting to hear from his lawyer about some unresolved issues, it could be as long as a year or better before we'd even be able to think about moving.  :(  I feel like we're both meant for bigger and better things that won't happen for us in Colorado.  It sucks, a lot, but until we know for sure I'll just have to keep thinking good, happy, positive thoughts to get me through it. 

Let's try something new shall we

As some of you may have noticed, I've once again tried to change up my blog with some new colors and such.  It's nothing too crazy, but hey, it's a big accomplishment for me.  I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing when it comes to html code.  It literally looks like gibberish to me!  Looks like I've got another thing to add to my list of things to do: learn basic html code (or at least enough to make my blog cute). 

Today is a very stressful day at the office, more so for my boss than for me.  She recently interviewed for a position that would move her from Colorado to California!  I'm so jealous of that lucky bitch  so happy for her!  She finds out tomorrow if she got the job, but until then we're both biting our nails in suspense.  If she does get offered the position that means she would be gone before the end of the month, and we'd once again be without a Property Manager for who knows how long.  I'd love the opportunity to take her position, but I've only been with the company for 8 months and I'm just finally starting to get comfortable with my position as a Leasing Manager/Assistant Manager.  Granted, I doubt it would be too difficult to learn the ins and outs, but I'd rather wait until I feel ready for a big jump like that.  One of my biggest weaknesses is that I don't adapt to change very well, and too much change in a short amount of time has been known to send me over the deep end.  Hopefully we can both keep it together long enough to make it through the rest of the month. 

It's Thursday, which means this time next week I'll have picked up my sissa and niece at the airport and be squeezing the poop out of them both giving them lots of hugs and kisses!  Looking forward to spending a day in Boulder eating at Pasta Jay's and strolling down Pearl Street, then going to the Denver Zoo on Friday!  I'm crossing my fingers that the weather holds out and is nice for us.  Any who, I hope everyone is having a great Thursday and finding something new to do :).

Next week!!

 

Time is precious and we should never wish it away, but in this instance time just simply cannot move fast enough.  Next week Thursday my sister and niece are coming to visit me in Colorado!  I haven't seen them since the beginning of August and miss them terribly.  To some people 2 months doesn't seem like a long time, but when you're used to being able to seeing your friends and family everyday (or whenever you'd like) for the past 22 years, it makes even a week feel like forever.  Even though they're only going to be here for 3 days I couldn't be more excited. 

To make it even better, the typical bitter sweet trip to the airport to drop them off won't be half as bad this time because I'm leaving at the same time they are!  Unfortunately I'm not going back to Minnesota with them, but I'll be flying out to Texas to see my very best girl, Megan, to help her move into her new home.  I planned it so that our flights leave at about the same time so that way I can go through the airport with them and enjoy every last second I have with them. 

I come back to Colorado on Monday, and to make it even better one of my friends is throwing a halloween/birthday party for herself on that Saturday.  It's a 1920's (flapper girl and zoot suits) zombie themed party.

I'm all for the 20's theme, but I'm not particularly a fan of the whole zombie thing.  Granted I'm pretty sure all I'd have to do is wake up and not shower and I'll pretty much have the costume and make up part down!  I can't wait for the day when Logan decides that sleeping in is a GOOD thing!  I'm not sure I can do this whole 2am and then again at 5:30am wake up calls every day for even the next 2 years.  This could be exactly why I don't plan on having any more kids for another 3-5 years....or possibly never.  More on that subject later. ;)  Oh, and for the record, Logan will be going as a monkey for his first Halloween!

I hope everyone has their Halloween plans and costumes all picked out and are excited for a fun year!