girlfriend can HIKE!

today i took the kids hiking. i have realized if i don't write something on the calendar, we don't do anything. so on days that are blank i'm writing in "hiking" or "swimming" or some activity. i gotta keep these kids moving.
anyhow-today it said "hiking", so we went hiking. me and the kids and tatum tu-tu. i put peanut in the back pack and decided this time i'd let sweet pea hike on her own two feet. she has tons of energy-why should i carry them both? she did AMAZING! we went just over a mile and all of that (except a couple little parts where i carried her because it was uphill) she hiked on her own two feet! i was amazed. gravely, rocky cragy, dusty, solid rock, all of it-she hiked. it got pretty windy and she loved the way the weeds waved in the breeze. she went to walk into them and i told her she needed to stay on the trail. i wasn't sure if there would be snakes in the weeds. we then spent the next 5 minutes pointing to the weeds and saying "nake!....nake!....nake!" finally i said "let's talk about something else." i kept thinking she'd just seen one and was tired of jumping out of my skin. then later a HUGE gust of wind came and about knocked us over. i said "whoa! windy!" and then everything was "ndy!....ndy!....ndy!"
tatum thoroughly enjoyed getting to go and take a nice looooong walk.
seriously, i couldn't ask for more perfect kids for me.
here's a picture i took on my cell phone of us looking down on our car.

Yellowstone

Everyone's been telling me that I should save Yellowstone for last because it's so beautiful. Well it is beautiful, but even if I went every year for 10 years I could still not see everything there is to see there. It was really beautiful. The first day we hit old faithful and some geisers because i didn't want to get to the last day and not have seen it. we met a geiser groupie and she told us all about this particular geiser. she went on and on and squealed in delight with every spout of steam then begged it not to leave her when it started to dwindle. passionate, yes. odd, very much yes. she was thrilled when i asked her if she was the groupie for that particular geiser and told me she sneaks into the park every chance she gets since she lives close by and times it so she can see it fill up, go off, and drain. she was full of some very helpful information.
then we saw old faithful, which really had me puzzled since it wasn't near as big as some of the other geisers but it was very reliable thus the name old faithful. not old big and faithful.
the next day we went to manmouth springs. paul had been telling me how gorgeous it was and no matter what we did we HAD to go see manmouth springs before we left. it was quite a drive. it's 30 miles between spots and we were staying about an hour away from manmouth springs. i told him it'd better be some spring for the drive because sweet pea was sick and tired of her car seat and it was only the 2nd day. we got up there to find out that it's different week to week, month to month, and year to year. i thought well, surely it's more beautiful from the bottom. let's go down there and hike up instead of hiking from top to bottom. well. um. it was one of those weeks apparently because it was pretty dry. as in bone dry. except for a couple trickles. we did get some cool shots nonetheless. it was kind of a let down to Paul and i laughed and said "is this your central city?" when my parents came out to colorado my dad kept RAVING to my mom about how wonderful central city was. the last time he was there was in the 60's and it has since become a gambling town. it's great for those who vacation in vegas. it's not for anyone else. it was a major let down to my dad when he went as an adult. paul suddenly felt his pain.

in sweet pea news-she did very good. she's a very good traveler. she did get bored saturday on our way between yellowstone and casper. i caught this shot of her, which i can share, when she got ahold of the paper towel roll.

she loved camping and sleeping in the sleeping bag. i wrapped her up in her quilt, then shoved that down into the sleeping bag so she was a little burrito. here's another shot i can share. tatum got to come along at the last minute and she was very certain to stay close to sweet pea. the first night sweet pea slept in the pack and play and tatum slept right next to her. no blanket or sweater. she froze. but would not leave sweet peas side. after that i kept sweet pea a little closer so i could check on her easier during the night.
she did really good every night but one. one night she had some night terrors and screamed bloody murder. i picked her up-she was sleeping right next to me-and talked to her and paul talked to her and finally i turned on the light and realized her eyes were still closed. as soon as she woke up she did fine.
everywhere we went i would hear women cooing and talking baby talk and wonder "what language is that?" and i would glance over my shoulder to catch them talking to my backpack. sweet pea loved it. soaked up every bit of it. one time i heard "oh there's that cute baby again." it was so cute. no matter what nationality you are or what language you speak this baby melts your heart. she learned to smile for the camera this week-which people thought was adorable. and she learned to wave and have people wave back. that was especially a thrill for her. she has started saying "hi" when she waves now, but it comes out as "eye!" it's super cute. but then, everything she does is super cute. so all in all for our first family vacation i wouldn't change a thing. it was sooo sooo sooo much fun.

birthday weekend

last night we went down to paul's parents to celebrate his birthday. it was so much fun. and i FINALLY got to give him his present. Here's the progression of his birthday. this is him in the morning when he was on his way to work...tatum always sits closer to paul:
then after work we all went out to his parents to grill out and we all ate dinner with birthday hats on:

and then the elastic got to tom's blood supply and he got goofy:

the kids said tom's head looked like an ice cream cone:

then he got his present:

this is the look on his face shortly after he saw his jacket:

then he tried it on...still with his birthday hat on:

and after i took the picture we realized that the back was reflective.
then we had birthday cake...dawn got one with reeses peanut butter cups in it. mmmm:


then today we all went for a hike at garden of the gods. that of course was my favorite part of the whole weekend. i LOVE hiking:

that is pike's peak behind us to the right. the mountain to the left is cameron's knob. it's not bigger than pike's peak, it was just closer. so don't be fooled. pike's peak IS still the biggest mountain in colorado.
then we bee-lined it back up to church so i could do my first week of helping in children's church. i am helping with the 2nd to 4th graders and i, of course, sat next to the naughtiest boy in all of children's church. he could not be controlled by anyone. afterwards i said to the other leaders "ok, so since this was my first week, please tell me that kid was not 'normal' for children's church." they said he was not. he was also the biggest 4th grader i've ever seen. and by that i mean, i think he was a little closer to 6th grade than he was to 4th grade. then we went out to dinner with linda and denny, the couple that gave us all their granddaughter's old toys. it was so much fun but by the time we got home tatum was glad to get out of the car. *whew* what a weekend. and it's only half over. woooohooo!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

Today we took a hike with some good friends, Jason & Liz, that we met in a small group when we were living in DC. Now they live here in Longmont about a hop skip and a jump away from us. I think they have hiked more of Colorado in the short time they've been here than we have in the entire time we've lived in Colorado combined. We had so much fun today I think we might make it a New Years Day tradition. Which made today the first annual New Years Day hike. It was GORGEOUS. I found out that I am WAY more out of shape than the mean old wii told me AND my lungs are about the size of peas. We didn't make it as far as we had hoped. It's about 1 mile an hour pace when you're hiking in snow AND we couldn't find the trail after a couple miles. On our way back we realized there was a lake 1/2 mile up in another direction on another trail. We headed up there and found the lake frozen SOLID! We played on that for a while and took lots of really cute shots. Here's one of them. I have no idea why my hat is down over my eyes, other than the fact that it was cold and snowy.

As you can see, Tatum is still a little reluctant about the new camera.

And here's another cute one of our family. I think this will end up being our foster photo.

longs peak

today i went with josie to hike longs peak. her daughter peggy came with us and it was so fun. and so good to have her along. she knows how to push josie and not push josie too far. so it was nice to have her along. and we have a TON in common. who knew? we actually go to the same church, except they just switched churches recently right as we got there. bummer. she is a lot of fun and someone i can really talk to. hopefully we'll get to know each other better in the days to come. but, i'm exhuasted so i gotta go to bed. but you can go here to check out all the pictures. i had WAY too much fun. i'll post some more details tomorrow.

what did i do?

today i'm having serious doubts about this whole going to work and leaving tatum thing. do you see that ticker? the hoola dancer is all the way down to one day!? i think doggie day care will be good. thankfully she passed her interview saturday morning. whew! i felt like i should have dressed her up in an argyle sweater vest and knee socks. i had no idea it was so ivy league to get into a doggie day care out here. so she'll be spending her tuesday mornings with Mrs. Doolittle and i'm still working on rocky hill ranch for thursday's. oh man i hope i'm doing the right thing going back to work. =(
after her interview we took her camping this weekend with our church group and had a LOT of fun. when i went to pull the camping gear out friday night to get ready tatum started hopping waist high. i told her not to get so excited, we weren't gong until the next day. AFTER the interview with mrs. doolittle. it didn't make much difference. when i pulled out the tent she started running laps around the basement. then i went upstairs to check email and she was whining so bad i thought she had to go outside. so i went down there only to find her staring at the heap of camping gear by the front door and sighing as if to say "i wanna go NOOOOOOWWW!!" again i explained, not until tomorrow. she had SO much fun once we got there. there was another dog there, kanga. tatum and her had to work out some kinks but in the end tatum understood that kanga has a much bigger personal bubble than she does. she was dirty when we got home so paul combed her out.

she hates to be combed out but she does much better when paul does it because it means undivided attention from him so she behaves much better.

then she fell asleep for a couple days like this.

fair warning

we were going to take a quick hike last night after dinner at a nearby trail until we saw this and decided, we really don't know the difference well enough to venture into the woods alone just yet.

In case it's too fuzzy to read, here's what it says:
Due to the frequency of human-bear encounters, the B.C. Fish and Wildlife Branch is advising hikers, hunters, fishermen and any persons that use the out of doors in a recreational or work related function to take extra precautions while in the field.
We advise the outdoorsman to wear little noisy bells on clothing so as to give advance warning to any bears that might be close by so you don't take them by surprise.
We also advise anyone using the out-of-doors to carry "Pepper Spray" with him in case of an encounter with a bear.
Outdoorsman should also be on the watch for fresh bear activity, and be able to tell the difference between black bear feces and grizzly bear feces. Black bear feces is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear shit has bells in it and smells like pepper.

new best friend!

so i have a new best friend. this is not to say that my old best friend is going to be replaced but it is to say that i have someone to talk to and do things with here in longmont. i'm so excited. it all started when tatum wanted to say hi to a beagle when we were on one of our walks. turns out buster, the beagle, and tatum are soul mates. they love each other. and when we are out and another dog is out then buster comes out tatum wants nothing to do with the other dogs. she only has eyes for buster. i think it's a bit of a crush. good thing she's been spayed so we don't have to deal with the teenage pregnancy years. anyway-i'm getting sidetracked. busters mom is josie and me and her really clicked. she reminds me of judy hanks, for those of you from champaign. but not in a mentor way, in a she's-fun-and-i-want-to-hang-out-with-her way. and then last night they called to see if we'd want to come over for drinks. hello! yes! so we went over there and we got to talking and she told me she's recently lost over 50 pounds on weight watchers. i had no idea because to me, she's always been this small. then later-this is when i knew it was meant to be-she said "would you ever have any interest in hiking longs peak this summer?" YES! so august 10th-ish we are going to go do that. i guess you have to start at 4am so we're taking the tent and sleeping bags and we're gonna sleep at the base and then hike up that morning, see the sunrise, and then hike back down. i am so excited.
so she's my longmont best friend.
my jacksonville best friend, it's a tie. i have three. they are each my best friend but in different ways. sort of like how heff has holly bridget and kendra. i love them each but they fit different compartments of my life.
i have andrea, who sadly, i don't have any pictures with (my time was way too short.) she fits the compartment where i just need someone my age that understands and i can let my hair down and she relates to me on a christian level. we have the same beliefs and that's so important. with out that little part it's hard to truly connect. but she's there for me. she lets me have a bad day and knows that i'm still a christian. i don't have to be careful around her and i love her for that.
then there's debbie. she is not a church-goer, but to say she's not a christian is kinda hard for me to say. i'm hoping some day she'll find herself back in church but she has a lot of hang ups about it and rightfully so. but i'm of the belief that just because you go to church doesn't make you a christian, and vise versa, just because you don't go to church doesn't mean you're not a christian. she's been let down by alot of people. i hope i'm never one of those people. she is the best person to sit on the front porch and have a glass of wine with. oh i loved days when we did that.
and then there's voncile. we connected deep down inside my heart. she has a beautiful garden. it was such a retreat, an oasis in the neighborhood. she helped me make my yard go from this to this:

I only have a couple pictures of Voncile but this is the only one of us together. She was so much fun. We would go out in the yard and giggle and giggle until we were too hot or tired to lift another shovel. see, i can't help but use capitalization when i talk about Voncile. she really got me into gardening and i really needed that outlet when i was going through the miscarriage. i would see beautiful plants and flowers and although i couldn't create human life, i could garden. it gave me something to give life to. it was very theraputic.

she taught me all kinds of things about southern hospitality and the unwritten rules of the south. things like, you should never EVER say thank you for flowers. but it is acceptable to say "i appreciate the flowers." she was relentless with that rule. and if you hear a neighbor is sick you should always have some homemade soup in the freezer that you can warm up and take over there. i will always have some form of food in my freezer now after living across the street from Voncile. i miss her more than she'll ever know.

Hope

this is how i'm feeling right now. just a small ray of sunshine hope through the very grey trees. but it's still a ray right?
i have an interview on monday with a company here in town for a closing coordinator position. i can totally do the job, the job description lists EVERYTHING i have done for the last 6 years. it doesn't look like it will be challenging necessarily but i want to go talk to them and see how i feel about it. see what their volume of business looks like and see if the office staff is heavily medicated or more crazies just under the radar. the hope of having a normal office again is not even in my scope just yet after the hullabaloo i've been working with so no high hopes in that category. keep your fingers crossed for me.

on another note-now instead of my part being sun burnt from hiking, it's now peeling. so my head looks like that of a junior high boy not quite in tune with daily shampooings. let's hope that has resolved itself by monday!

CDT Hike

this weekend we hiked a 13 mile section of the Continental Divide Trail and paul's parents came out with us so it was fun. we brought tatum and she loves hiking especially if she can find snow out there. i posted some pictures to our flickr page. tatum's feet got pretty sore. she's still laying around the house now. we've given her 3 baths so far and i think the mud is finally out of her hair except for a couple spots on the backs of her front legs.

on baby news. thursday and friday were really tough baby wise. i have an appointment with a specialist on july 18th. we'll see what they have to say. i had to take another preg test this morning because STILL no sight of the ole period. but i wore a white skirt to church and sat down and thought "what was a i thinking?" and sure enough, got OP when i got home. thank GOD she waited for me to get home and didn't bust a move on day 37 of my cycle while sitting in church. whew.