I have a LOT of Christmas presents to make... but instead I made this. After all, what's a girl to do with a clearance Target necklace when the paint starts peeling off? Add pom poms, obviously.

Runza

The up-side of being sick for a few days? Having a Runza for lunch that you brought back from NE, that you finally feel good enough to eat. Let's hope, anyway...

Carrie said it best, "A two-day old Runza is better than no Runza at all."

True, so true.

Turkey with a side of stomach bug, anyone?

I made it home to Nebraska for Thanksgiving! (Oh yes, and Travis, too!) It had been a couple of years so I was so excited to come home and have a nice, long weekend with family and friends. And I wanted to show Travis some more of O-town, too, but, well, that didn't really happen...

We arrived on Wednesday evening and my bestest ladies all came for dinner/catch-up time. We always have a great time when we are all together just talking about randomness, and one of our favorite topics is how we are all so different, yet such great friends. That, and why Edum will be/was late :) Katie mentioned how her husband had a stomach bug and it seemed to be making its way around Omaha. (wow, must suck to be Matty!)

On Thursday my parents hosted Thanksgiving. And Alex made a sign for the door, just in case anyone wasn't sure where to go :)

It was gorgeous weather, so we took some family pictures and played outside...

 (Why yes, the playhouse is decorated for Christmas)

And there was a turkey carving contest - Travis v. Nathan

Alex declared Travis the winner because he didn't break the wishbone!

A great Thanksgiving day! And then at about 9 p.m. I started to feel a bit iffy. I thought maybe I was just overtired but nope, BAM, stomach bug hit, and hit hard. (Also hit Mom, B, and Edum, too) Nasty little bugger. Anywho, all the things that were schedule for Friday (and most of Saturday) were negated due to the fact that I spent the whole time in bed. No black Friday shopping, no 5th birthday party for Ella, no zoo, no Christmas decorating... So Travis and Dad bonded... a lot. They put up Christmas lights outside, tore the deck off the back room so my parents can reside the house, they went to The Bullet Hole and did a little target practice, watched James Bond movies, and ate some wings. All while Mom and I continued to sleep and try to force down a piece of toast and some gatorade. Travis was definitely a trooper!

Saturday evening we finally felt good enough to venture out of the house so we went to the Haug's to celebrate Ella's belated birthday. Luckily, she didn't seem too upset that we missed yesterday and was happy to continue her celebration!

The fairy collage was definitely a hit (Breckenridge toy store is the BEST!)

Then T-dizzle and I headed downtown to take in the lights.

And now it is time to pack up and head back to CO tomorrow morning - where did the time go?!?

Weekend!

Last weekend (after the craft-fest) was spent in Breckenridge.

Looking like winter!

We dropped T-dizzle off at the lift...

 And then Krista and I spent the day browsing the shops, drinking coffee, and freezing our toes off. And we found the best meat pie shop where I sampled a macaroni-and-cheese-with-bacon pie. YUM! (And by sampled, I mean "ate the whole thing".)

You're a mean one...

Alien ear muffs, anyone?

And now it's the weekend again - YAY! Heading to O-town tomorrow and I'm SO excited!!

Glitter

While browsing Pinterest this morning (www.pinterest.com - watch out, it is addicting!) I came across several craft/DIY projects I really wanted to make. Like, now. So I headed to Hobby Lobby and ended up with enough craft supplies to last me through next November.

This one was the easiest, and I really like glitter, so it made it to the top of the list.

The supplies. 

(Yes, Mom and Lori, those are the glitter shakers from 15 years ago! How I ended up with them, I'm not sure. But you'll be happy to know there is still glitter in them!)

A lil' Mod Podge, a lil' glitter...

And voila! 

Yes, a different bowl would offer better presentation, but this will have to do for now :)

Much love from the Rockies!

Thoughts

Music City, USA

Here I am in Nashville for work! I spent the day at the study abroad fair at Middle Tennessee State University (which is is Murfreesboro), but my hotel is in Music City itself! Well, really it is closer to the airport than it is to anything else, but such is the life of work travel, eh?

A few musings...

At the continental breakfast this morning I was the youngest person by two generations. I enjoyed listening to them re-live their evening and say things like "That music was just so LOUD!", and, "Those chairs at the last place were just so hard - I ended up sitting on my jacket for extra padding" and, "Was that the original [fill in name here that I can't remember]?? I thought she was dead!"

It has rained. A lot. Every day.

No one has called me sugar or sweetie. Disappointing.

This evening I got back to the hotel pretty beat. I'm flying back to Denver tomorrow and I felt like I should at least see something Nashville, so I headed out in Rental Rio (my car) in search of the Grand Ole Opry. I found the Opry movie theaters, Opry IMAX, multiple Opry hotels, and a Bass Pro Shop at Opryland (among other things of a similar theme). Hmm. Then I realized I had no idea what I was actually looking for because my memories of the Grand Ole Opry are of watching the Oak Ridge Boys perform on stage at the Grand Ole Opry... from my Grandma's TV. With the volume at full blast so Clarence could hear it :)

SO I still don't know if I actually found it, but I did manage to snap this photo before my camera battery died.

And if anyone can explain to me why the speed limit is 24 mph around this area, I would truly love to know.

Much love from, umm, Tennessee!

Ahhh

So good to have friends from home come visit! This weekend I picked Ash up at the airport and said, "I know you're a good friend because I don't have anything planned and I didn't clean my apartment." Yup. I told everyone here that my friend from the zoo was coming to visit... which I guess could sound a little strange if you didn't know that I worked at the zoo. Ah well. 

What a fun weekend!

We did a lot of thrift store and antique browsing, and even stopped at Shepler's to try on some boots

We waited a longest 10 minutes of our lives at a pizza joint downtown on Friday night. I'm not sure if the pizza was really that good or if we were just that starving!

Modeled some hairnets and sampled some tea at the Celestial Seasonings factory

Spent the night boot-scooting at a friend's 30th bday party at Grizzly Rose! But my heart still belongs to Guitars & Cadillacs.

BUT the Grizzly Rose does have a bull. Score.

Heading up to Estes! Had to stop at this lovely little coffee shop along the way

Checking out the Stanley Hotel. (Trust me, it's back there.) Brrrrr.

What a GREAT weekend with a fabulous friend! Thanks for making the trip, Ash! 

Won't you NOT be my neighbor?

So I have some noisy neighbors. And by noisy, I mean screaming-violent-fights-at-4-in-the-morning-in-which-every-other-word-consists-of-the-f-bomb noisy. Not. Cool.

I decided to call and complain to the management of our apartment complex. Originally I thought it was the person directly next door to me - after all, I can hear every word they are yelling and things being thrown against my wall. When I spoke to the manager she asked if there was any way it could be the people below him, as they had received complaints of that nature before. I didn't think that was the case, until last night. After close listening, (actually I didn't have to listen closely, they are just THAT loud) I realized it is coming from the floor below.

2:15 a.m. - I wake up to the screaming of profanities, yet again, and something hit the wall. I covered my head with a pillow and tried to ignore it, yet again.

3:45 a.m. - Admit defeat. I decided to call our apartment security company to see if they could take care of it. When I told the lady the apartment number she said, "Oh, we'll just call the cops. That is what we've done in the past because the cops usually have to go in there and separate them." Greeeeat. I'm not sure if she actually did call the cops, but I did fall back asleep

5:15 a.m. - Awoke again to more violent arguing with the man yelling something along the lines of "Did you call him? Did you f-ing call him? Did you? Did you?" And the girl responding, "Shut the F up you bleepety bleep bleep bleep!" And so on.

Were they talking about the police? Or maybe just another guy? Not sure. Regardless, it continued through the morning and even after I got out of the shower at about 6:45. What do these people DO all day that they have nothing better to do than argue ALL night long? Seriously.

So I called my management office again today and was told that there is really not much they can do because they are moving out anyway. GREAT! When?? Dec. 3rd.

Are. You. Kidding. Me.

It's only a few weeks away!, she says. Right, but there are going to be a lot of sleepless nights in those few weeks. I graciously offered to switch places with her for the duration of their lease, and she declined.

So I'm at a loss. I don't know what to do. I don't want to continue to stick my nose into other people's business, but if you heard this, trust me, you would want to call the cops, too.

It is going to be a long few weeks... but I do enjoy the angry puppy picture :)

Countdown

It has been a long, trying week (and yes, it is only Wednesday) but that doesn't matter because in 34 hours Ashley will be here to visit! A Friday off of work? Great. A Friday off of work AND a long weekend with my Ash? Lovely!! Now if only GTG were to make an appearance...

 Can't wait!!

Hot Chubbin' and Fondue

This weekend I headed up to the mountains to spend the weekend in the ski house that Travis and some (okay, a lot) of friends have for the season. The ski house reminds me a lot of the lake house, only ski-themed. Obviously.

I didn't hit the slopes for opening weekend like the rest of the crew did (partly because my skis are still getting adjusted and partly because I didn't want to die,) but it was still a nice, relaxing time. Now if only warm weather, a lake, a boat, water skis, and my besties were involved ;)

Yup, snowing. 

Back from the slopes and "Hot Chubbing" AKA, drinking Old Chubb beer while in the hot tub. Ideally out of gigantic gas station mugs while 2 inches of snow piles up on your hat. 

Time for fondue!

Travis and Ben relived their days at The Melting Pot (music included) and had a little too much fun doing so

Jill - "You know Travis, you could make me fondue more often."
Travis - "But then it wouldn't be a treat."

Touche.

(That'll spill the pop.)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

(You are 7 too, right?)

Happy Birthday Alex!

I can't believe you are 7!   Holy cow!!

And, as promised, Jill and Travis vs. The Couches.

Travis had a plan for moving last weekend. Rent U-Haul van. Pack U-Haul van. Unload U-Haul van. Then go purchase couch at American Furniture Warehouse while still in possession of U-Haul can. Unload couch, make another run with U-Haul van, then drop it off by 2 p.m. And done! Viola! Well, not really...

It all went smoothly until we backed up the van to load the couch in it and the employee said "You guys picked the heaviest couch in the whole store!" Granted it does have to recliners, but maybe he says that to everyone. He must say that to everyone, right?

Drive to house. Back up to back door. Unload couch from van. Holy crap that guy wasn't lying, this is the heaviest couch in. the. world. (Yes, heavier than the pull-out that I've been moving around for the past few years!)

Maneuver couch as many ways as possible to try and get it through the doorway and NOT break an arm, leg, or back due to the weight of this thing.

Admit defeat. Call American Furniture Warehouse. They'll take it back and give him a full refund? Great! Just load it back into the van. Wait. Get that back INTO the van?? You must be kidding me. Okay.. lift with your legs...

Effortlessly (ha!) get couch back into van. Drive to American. Drop off couch. Buy new couch (because after all, today is the day we have the van...) This couch is smaller, it will fit. Right? It must fit. Yes. Confident.

Same guy loads couch #2 into the van and says, "How did that reclining couch work out for you?" Ha ha ha.

Drive back to the house.

Maneuver couch as many ways as possible to try and get it through the door. If we just had an extra inch it would totally fit, right? Let's take off the door. Remove door. Again, maneuver couch as many ways as possible to get it in.

Admit defeat.

The front door is just a smidge bigger.. let's try that. Load couch back into the van (yes, again) and drive to the front of the house.

No close parking. Must park across the street and carry couch. It is light, after all. (Umm, lighter than the last one, yes, but is is still a couch.)

Maneuver couch as many ways as possible to try and get it through the door. Gets stuck in door frame. You have GOT to be kidding me. This. Will. Fit. 1...2...3... HEAVE! I nearly got thrown down the front stairs with the couch but that is beside the point. It is in!! And never leaving. At least not with my help :)

Van did not make it back by 2 p.m.   Jill made Travis buy her dinner :) And Travis had to reattach the door.