Rhythm of Life

Camping and...

2009-08-27T21:03:00.004-06:00

HIKING! We're hiking Mt. Elbert this weekend. It's a 14er- one of Colorado's 53 14,000+ ft. mountains. Yeah, I'm about to hike up 14,000 feet. That's almost 3 miles high. We'll be hiking about 9 miles total. Our hike will start at 5AM on Saturday and we'll hopefully be down by 2 or 3. Since we're starting so early, we're going to camp out the night before. I haven't been camping in about 3 years and there's a little bit of a bear problem happening in the mountains right now. Let's hope we all live.

So to get ready for this trip, Krista and I had to pull out the winter digs...

Yeah, those are battery heated socks. It's going to be 35 degrees tomorrow night! In August! The plan is to sleep in the car if I get too cold. I know, I'm such a wimp. I'll give you an update on how it goes.

My New Spaces

2009-08-17T21:45:00.010-06:00

Here are a few pictures of my new room!
And here are some before and after pictures of my new office...

Before

Before
And After

Design on a Dime Office Makeover-
Lamps: $30
Big Orange Chair: $10
Rugs: $11 for both at Pier One
FLMS Bulletin Board: $10
Paintings: Free (I did them)

TOTAL: $61- not too bad

New Job!

2009-08-12T20:06:00.004-06:00

My new job is so much fun! I think I posted last time that I was going to be working in Elementary Schools, but in the true fashion of school districts, I showed up last Wednesday and found out that I'd be in a Middle School 4 days/week and an Elementary for one day/week instead. I am loving it though! Granted, we won't have any students until Monday, but all of the people I work with are fantastic! I have a huge office which is pretty unheard of and it's almost decorated. I'll post pictures when I get all of my papers put away.

I am really lucky this year because a friend of mine, Krista, is letting me rent a room in her condo- so I get to live closer to work and best of all, live with a great friend! I'm a little north of the city, but other than getting used to driving again, it's awesome! We have the best sunsets here...
... this is the view from our back porch. I eat dinner or read outside a lot, just so I can watch the sunsets. They're so different every day!

Last weekend my step-sister, Erin, and best friend, Claire, came to visit. I was really glad to have them here during my first few days of work. Things were really busy, but it was good to come home to people that I love! We went to a concert, for a nighttime cruiser ride in downtown denver (with a few hundred other people!), hiking, to a few breweries, and had a great time!
Here's us on the Cruiser ride- the theme was sci-fi. We didn't get too into our costumes.

Grad School Classes

2009-07-30T15:02:00.002-06:00

I am finished with them.

Today was my last real class of grad school! I have to go to 10 more over the next year, but those don't even have assignments and are just to talk about out internships. Speaking of internships...

I have one! A paid one! I'll be the School Psychologist Intern at the only two elementary school in a small district northeast of Denver. Which basically means I'm the mental health person for both of those schools. I won't have any direct supervision- we had that last year in our Practicum and internship is where we practice doing everything on our own. There will be lots of people I can call if I need help though. I'll start next Wednesday and it should be fun. I don't know what to expect, so I'll let you know how things go!

text google

2009-07-23T22:39:00.003-06:00

Did you know that you can send texts to google and they will send information back? It's true. You can send a question like "Who is John Doe?" and they will send an answer back. It's usually something like an address or phone number, but sometimes other random info too. You can also text the name of a place and get the address sent back to you. You could type "wine store broomfield, co" and they'll send you a few names and addresses and phone numbers. This might be one of the coolest things I've learned all week!

To do it, you just send your text to 466453 (google)

Wedding Dress Shopping!

2009-07-22T22:27:00.002-06:00

Since Craig and I were engaged in March, I've been on a few trips to look for a wedding dress. I went to several places in Nashville with my wonderful Maid of Honor, Claire, and found a few dresses that fit well. None of them were what I was looking for, but I got some good ideas about what would look the best. I mean, have you ever been in one of those places?!? I don't know how anyone knows where to start. All the dresses look more or less the same on the hanger until you know a few specific features you're looking for.

I also got to go to a few places in Macon to look for a dress with my mom. That was really fun. Even when strange people are looking at you in your underwear and using bright orange electrical clips to hold a dress on your body, it's really fun to try on as many dresses as you want! I am not someone who will ever put on a dress and think it's "the one"- there are so many great ones!

So with all of my ideas in mind, I found a bridal shop near my new home in Broomfield that had a lot of dresses at great prices. One of my bridesmaids, Krista, and I went tonight to look for a dress. I'm pretty tired of thinking about my dress and am ready to move on to thinking about other things (like shoes and stationary!), so I was in the mood to make decisions. I tried on 4 dresses and have narrowed it down to 2! No, I'm not going to write about them on here- that's the one secret I get to keep from Craig for the next year! The dresses are beautiful and not at all what I had in mind when I first started my search, but now I couldn't imagine anything else.

Back at it...

2009-07-22T22:21:00.002-06:00

So I haven't been very good at keeping up with the rhythm of the blog lately. I haven't felt like I have anything to say and that may be true. But I started the blog so family on the other side of the country could keep up with my Denver life and I feel like I could do better to write about what's going on out here. It'll probably be good for me too. I think everyone could stand to be a little more self-reflective.

I'll probably be writing a lot about wedding planning and my new job, but I'm going to try to add a few little extras in here. So family (and friends) let me know if you want to learn how to know when I update the blog. It's as easy as looking at your google homepage!

ENGAGED!!

2009-04-09T23:29:00.002-06:00

Craig and I are engaged!!!! The proposal was a complete surprise to me. I went to Munich to visit Craig while he is in brewing school there. I got there on Saturday a few hours before him so I searched for the hotel even though it was right outside the train station! I must have walked past it at least 3 times in 2 hours before I realized where it was. Note to readers: when traveling, write down the address or at least street name of where you're staying. Once I found the hotel, I left my bags and went to see Munich! I walked through a few parts of the city and then found a cafe to have a late morning beer. (I mean, it is Munich!) On my way back to the hotel, I found a grocery store and bought some sandwich stuff and snacks for the week. I was expecting to go back and take a nap before Craig got to Munich, but he was already at the hotel... and I think a little worried that I was lost!

On Sunday, Craig suggested that we take a walk to this palace that was "really close by." We had coffee in the hotel lobby and headed out. After 2 hours of walking, we finally found Schloss Nymphenberg. The walk was nice though.... I haven't seen Craig much in the last few months, so any time I get with him is good. We walked through the palace and decided to see the gardens before they closed.

Halfway around one of the lakes, i needed a break. We sat on a bench across from the Monopteros and watched the swans and ducks. After a while we continued walking. Looking back on all of this now, I can't believe that I didn't know what was coming. We took another break when we got to the Monopteros because Craig said it was really cool and we should "check it out." We sat there for a while, but I was pretty rested so I got up to go. As I was jumping off the bottom step, Craig caught me and sat me down. (Still clueless...) He looked up at me and said "I'm on a knee." I was shocked- can't believe I didn't realize what was going on! After he said some sweet things, Craig asked me to marry him! It was perfect. And he let me read the things he forgot to say later :)

We celebrated with the cheapest meal we could find- Sandwich and a beer for 3.50 euro and then we went to Augustiner Keller! It was one of my favorite days ever and I loved spending the rest of the week with Craig in Munich!

Craigy is gone:(

2009-02-08T22:11:00.004-07:00

Craig left for Chicago a week ago. He's in brewing school at Siebel for the next few months so here's what my dates look like now...
I get to visit Craig in Chicago in about 2 weeks and then in Munich in March!

Potty Training Days 2 & 3

2009-02-08T21:42:00.003-07:00

ok. I have to be honest and tell you that I was not personally around for either of these days except for one conversation with one of the boys. I'll explain in a minute, but first a little background. I'll use the vocabulary that we use with the boys b/c I think it's funny and b/c some of you are moms and may be curious about this potty training method..

Friday we began potty training with the expectation that this would take 3 days. You can read about Friday in the previous post. As of Saturday night neither of the boys had pooped since about 6am on Friday. This is pretty unusual. They usually go about twice a day.

Saturday night, I arrived at the Egans house to babysit while they went on a much needed and much deserved date. Mom and Dad Egan had spent the day doing exactly what we had done the day before. Neither of the twins made it to the potty once. Not even once. This means that every time they peed, it was on the floor. Imagine how frustrating this is.

So when I arrived at their house, both parents were pretty sure that there was no way this was going to work, especially not in three days. The boys were already in bed when I got there and one was asleep. I heard the other one over the monitor moving around a lot so I went upstairs to make sure that he didn't poop in his "sleeping underwear." He hadn't, but I told him that we were going to the bathroom so he could sit on the potty and try anyway. He peed almost immediately and was holding his penis in the toilet so he didn't spray it everywhere. (This begins the FUNNIEST CONVERSATION OF MY LIFE.) I asked if he had to go poo-poo and he told me he did. But he kept holding his penis and looking at it like he was expecting something. I asked if he knew where poop came from and he looked at his penis and then at me. It became pretty clear that he didn't know. So we talked for 20 minutes about how poop comes out of your bottom (pointing included) and that sometimes when you toot, it means that you may have to poop soon. We talked about how you can squeeze your stomach (not with your hands) to help the poop come out (with a demonstration of what it looks like to use your muscles to squeeze your stomach by yours truly). I think the boys are just nervous about how to poop on the toilet.

I work with kids on behavior a lot and I guess that this just reminded me that potty training is like any other behavior modification. And here it is for all of you parents...

The first rule of changing behavior is to make sure that the person understands the correct behavior. In these cases, the problem is a skill deficit and the kid just needs to learn the right thing to do. Our first instinct is often to punish (I'm not necessarily talking about potty training here), but really it means less stress for us in the long run if we can use it as a teachable moment and make sure that in the future, the kid can do the right thing.

Day 3:
Their mom called me this morning and told me that the boy I talked with went on the toilet this morning! It's a small step, but was HUGE for the parents. And there was no poop to clean up!

Potty Training

2009-02-06T17:05:00.003-07:00

I nanny for some pretty cute twins. Here they are in their Halloween Costumes.They'll turn 3 in march so.... Time to Potty Train! They threw away all of their diapers this morning. This was serious. Their mom and I stayed at home with them all day while they walked around in a t-shirt and big boy underwear drinking TONS of water and salty food to make them thirsty. We weren't allowed to ask them "Do you have to go to the potty?" and instead had to say "Pay attention to your body. Tell mommy or Amy when you have to go to the bathroom."

We set a timer for every 10 minutes and checked to see if everyone was dry. If yes, time for candy! and a lot of cheering! We also gave them salty food to make them thirsty so they literally were going about every 10 minutes in the morning and every 20 minutes in the afternoon. Needless to say, there were lots of accidents. I think we went through about 14 pairs of underwear between them. Whenever someone forgot to tell us (or didn't know it was coming) we picked them up and ran to the toilet. Then they had to help us clean up the mess... I mean they have to know that it's gross to pee on the floor somehow.

We started to see some success toward the afternoon. Both boys made it to the toilet at least twice and cheers and candy followed. It's only the end of day one and I think this will go pretty quickly, and believe me, I'm so glad all the diapers are gone. I'll let you know on Monday how successful we were! Here was my present for helping with this project-

2008-12-04T02:07:00.000-07:00

All of these gray hairs better mean that I've got lots of wisdom or something...

I need to do something about this. soon.

boo school

2008-10-06T23:32:00.002-06:00

Good News! I'm out of the boot! No more stomping around in a too-big giant boot and changing shoes every time I get in/out of my car. I can wear regular shoes now! Just no heels and no sports for 2 more weeks. I think I can manage. Besides, I've been spending all of my extra time sitting on my couch...

procrastinating. I have more assignments than are humanly possible to complete. AND if you know me at all, I'm not exactly quick to finish writing papers. In fact, I've been sitting on my couch thinking about a paper for 3 hours now and haven't written one word. It's not due til Thursday so there's no pressure yet. I do have three other assignments due before Thursday and a few behavior plans to write. No problem, right? I think I might quit school.

Here is a list of alternative careers that I've thought of. feel free to add to the list.
1. Bank Teller
2. Social Worker
3. Waitress
4. Boiled Peanut seller in the park (I'd make a ton of cash, but it's only seasonal I guess)

If I decide to sell peanuts, I'll have to find someone to ship them to me- you can't buy green peanuts in Colorado, much less boiled ones. Maybe I'll have to give away some free ones too. No one even knows what a boiled peanut might be like here. I'll also need to buy a bike with an insulated trailer to ride around the park. Let me know if you see one for sale.

Really, if I hadn't paid so much to be in school, I would've quit by now. I have absolutely zero interest in writing a book review of a fictional character's cultural worldview and how that might relate to or be different from my worldview and what implications that would have on a counseling relationship. Don't get me wrong, I think this is important stuff for counselors to consider, but a paper? really? And P.S. I'm not in school to be a counselor. Depending on the school district, counseling will consume about 10% of my time and it's consuming about 75% of my coursework. Does that make sense to anyone else?

ok. Just needed to vent and I'm finished. Time for bed. I'll save the procrastinating for another day.

Go West

2008-09-05T20:47:00.002-06:00

I'm in Snowmass this weekend... which also means that I am the farthest west that I have ever been! It's about 4 hours west of Denver (200ish miles). It was the most beautiful drive- I promise.

I'm nannying this weekend, which basically means I'm hanging out with Finn and Cole and the rest of their family all weekend. It should be fun- we're staying in this NICE house and I have a bathroom all to myself that is bigger than my whole apartment I think. I also have 4 beds (they're bunk) in my room, so maybe I'll sleep in a different one every night. AND the hot tub is just outside my room- literally 20 steps away. But there's one more thing just outside my room...

BEARS. yes bears and they know how to open the doors to the house. You know, the kind of handles that you push down to open- apparently they're bear friendly. So I'm being extra careful about keeping doors locked. I did just remember that I left food in my car- trail mix and a pear core- but it's nighttime and I'm here by myself which means that I am definitely NOT going outside with the bears to get the food out. Hopefully bears can't break car windows.

charity: water

2008-09-05T20:34:00.002-06:00

So I have a birthday coming up and a friend sent me info about charity: water. They have a September birthdays campaign where anyone with a b-day in September can create a page and instead of asking for gifts, you can ask people to donate a little moo-lah to help build wells in Ethiopia. This is a really cool project and they start drilling wells on Sunday! Check it out!

My Birthday Page

Lately

2008-08-28T21:40:00.003-06:00

I haven't updated the blog in a while, mostly because I haven't had much going on. So here are the few things that have happened... all in the last week or so.

1. I broke my foot- 5th metatarsal on my right foot to be more specific. I've never broken a bone and honestly thought it would be more painful. It didn't hurt too much, but when it was bright purple the next morning, I decided to go to the doctor. The story isn't that funny, but some people think it is.

I belong to a pretty exclusive group here in Denver called ATX (Awesome to the Max). We are Denver's Adult Superfraternity. We were having our summer party last Saturday night called SUMMERWEEN, you know, Halloween in the Summer. I was dressed up as Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island and we were in the throes of our typical ATX party- riding a bus around town and stopping at places like Great Divide, Photo Studios, and Rockbar. I only made it to the first 2 stops because as I was walking in a 1-inch heel, on a flat floor with no obstacles, to the pizza table, my foot broke.

That's right, it just broke. I felt knuckles popping and remembered that there are no knuckles in the middle of my foot. I caught a ride home and stuck it out until the morning when I sucked it up and went to work... too late to call in right? and then went to one of those clinics that are open on Sunday. A little back story though... Friday night I was walking down stairs and missed the bottom one. I came down funny on my foot and I think I maybe hurt it some then- wearing heels just put it over the edge.

ok 2. I got to start my Practicum today! It's the part of my School Psychology program that I spend 2 days a week working in an Elementary School, doing whatever the School Psych tells me to. I am loving it! The school is in a part of Denver that I didn't even know existed and being in an Elementary school is like being on a different planet. All of the kids stare at me b/c of the huge boot I have to wear for my foot, but it's ok. I got to meet all of the 1st graders today and I'll start being there for full days on Tuesday!

3. The DNC is in Denver this week, and thank goodness that today is the last day of this craziness. I'm ready for the typically laid-back Denver to be back to normal. It's only Thursday and I think I've worked 40-something hours. I normally work 24 hours in a week. At least our classes were canceled this week so we didn't have to get too close to downtown. And I did get to sneak into a party for a few congressmen last weekend- there was lots of free stuff!

lots of little updates...

2008-07-14T20:47:00.009-06:00

I got to go home to visit a few weeks ago. I had a great time visiting the South and the beach. It was fun to catch up with friends and family!
Lauren and I went out in Macon...
Here's mom and I at the beach

And I caught a fish!
I got to visit Mal and Matthew at the lake with Jenny and Lauren! Here are Jenny and I fishing...

I went with Craig and Kevin to Beaver Creek for the 4th of July and got to meet their aunt and uncle and some of their cousins.

Kevin taught me to fly fish...

We went to see the fireworks...
And I got to "caddy" at the annual Mycoskie golf tournament...

Lately, I've just been babysitting a lot and enjoying my last few weeks of summer before the crazy stuff gets started!

My cute life

2008-06-13T19:34:00.003-06:00

So my plans got changed around a little tonight and I ended up having a few extra hours to myself. So I made dinner- tilapia and spinach salad. As I was cooking, I noticed that there was music outside. There's a ballroom dance group that meets on the pavilion in the park behind my apartment on Fridays and I could hear their music from across the park so I decided to eat outside. I got to sit by myself for a while and listen to the music and remind myself of all of the things in my life that I'm thankful for. Here's my dinner...

Way to go Richie!

2008-06-13T19:26:00.004-06:00

Richie was accepted into UGA yesterday! I'm so excited for him! Not only will he be living in the best college town in America, he'll also be living in my old 'hood. I have to admit that I'm a little jealous that he gets to spend the next few years in one of the places I love most. Richie, I know you'll do great and love every minute of it!
I can't wait to come to your graduation in a few years!

Habitat

2008-06-07T08:56:00.002-06:00

Some of you know, but I'm not working on Tuesday or Thursday for a few weeks this summer. I'm also not in school. It's left a lot of time for me to be bored because everyone else has jobs. I was so bored on Tuesday that I decided I needed to find something to do on Thursday so I signed up for Habitat for Humanity. I had so much fun! There were 3 homes being built right next to each other and the one I got to work on was for a woman and here 7-year-old daughter who has to get around in a wheelchair. They live in a second floor apartment right now and her mom has to carry her up the stairs (and down) every time they go anywhere. Her mom is a tiny woman and won't be able to do that for very long.

We were working on insulating the house on Thursday. Two guys and I got all of the insulation (that fluffy pink fiberglass stuff) installed for the whole house. Now they're ready to put up the drywall! I think I might go back next week. It's pretty cool learning how to do all of this stuff and helping a family get into a home that's livable and affordable for them!

I love summer!

2008-06-01T12:35:00.005-06:00

This summer is amazing! I'm not in school and only working three days a week. I get to play a lot! Krista and I went thrift store shopping this week and I bought this amazing antique desk for $20. It was bright blue, red, and yellow.
But I painted it and now it looks amazing! It's rust red and black and looks great in our dining room!
Four new friends have moved to Denver this weekend too. Two of JD's friends from college moved here this week and played tennis with Krista and I yesterday. Two of Craig's friends from high school moved here this weekend too (Bobby will get here on Tuesday). Now that all of those guys are here, everyone we know in our neighborhood is less than 2 blocks from someone else we know! How fun! To welcome them (and to Carbo-load Kevin for his 100-mile bike ride today), we had sushi night last night and made homemade sushi for everyone!
Look at that huge plate of Sushi! And we weren't even halfway finished! It actually was pretty good too. I'm not a sushi aficionado, but it tasted a lot like what you get in restaurants. Our technique isn't very varied yet, but maybe we'll mix it up a little next time!

Summertime...

2008-05-28T00:50:00.006-06:00

This is my first official week of summer! So far I've played kickball, been on a 6 mile hike in Castlewood Canyon with Krista, been on a few walks thru the park, an planted a garden with mint (thanks Sarah!), parsley, and basil in a whiskey barrel on my back porch!
Here's me hiking:
and here's my garden... it doesn't look like much yet:
I've also read a few books. One of them was The Memory Keeper's Daughter. It was a good book, but the story is kindof sad and doesn't really turn out very well. Anyway, several of the books I've started reading are about women that bad things happen to (they're mostly off of Oprah's Book Club list, because a friend loaned them to me. She thought they'd be good, but hasn't read them yet). Anyway, I'm realizing that I probably shouldn't be reading these books, at least not all at once, for the same reason that I don't watch scary movies. I start to think that the things that happen to these women are reality or common. Most of the books involve a deceptive husband or friend and I begin to be suspicious of other people. I forget that it's fiction and most people aren't really mean and deceptive. All this to say that I'm taking a break from sad story books. If you have any other non-fiction or more upbeat suggestions, feel free to let me know. I have tons of time to read this summer.

This week is also staff training week at Epworth by the Sea. I miss camp so much. I think if I could be doing anything this summer, that would be it. Unfortunately, I can't be there. I am enjoying remembering my summer there both as a camper and LT.

This was my first summer at camp. What a fun team!
Side note: Michael (bottom right) and Ally (top, second from right) are getting married this weekend!

And here is a picture of LT at the end of my second summer:
A few of my favorite memories:
- Capture the Flag
- Boat Rides
- the cast net
- Cookie days
- movie nights
- Bunny and Anna sneaking snacks to us at night
- going weeks without my cell phone
- small group breakfasts
- canoing
- "meetings" at the laundromat
- painting sets
- the way Epworth smells early in the morning
- bells on the hour
- swamp monkeys
- washing barf out of sleeping bags
- 13 girls living in one room
- making a wig out of Jack's hair (and the towel incident that followed- it's funny now)
- pulling my box of clothes thru the mud twice every weekend
- Circuit Riding thru camp with 20 kids in tow

I doubt anyone is still reading this, but to LT '08- love every minute of this summer! God uses you in ways you wouldn't believe and when you least expect it.

Gmail

2008-05-13T17:26:00.002-06:00

I don't know if other e-mail programs do this, but does it weird anyone else out that Gmail reads your mail? I don't know if anyone actually reads it, but no matter what I get an e-mail about, there a like 20 ads to the right of it advertising something that was mentioned in the e-mail.

Like today:

I got an e-mail from my bank and on the right of the page were a million credit card ads.

My mom sent me a link to a website that had an article about global warming. There was no text in the e-mail, just a link. The website wasn't even really about global warming, just the article, but Google in all it's wisdom already knew that and provided me with four "sponsored links" to other websites about global warming.

And thanks google, if someone sends me an address in an e-mail, you've already looked it up and provided a link to a map of the location.

All of this seems weird. They shouldn't be reading my mail.

So weird...

2008-05-01T23:16:00.005-06:00

Ok, I know I've written about this before, but no joke, yesterday it was 85 degrees. I had to use sunscreen. The twins and I played outside for like 3 hours and it was amazing. Here they are eating popsicles in the Radio Flyer on the way to the park.Today I walked like 10 feet to my car and this is what I looked like:
Yes, that's snow in my hair. And yes, today is May 1st. Colorado, just so you know, I'm not very impressed. I'll live. And the nice days in between all of these really cold days make it bearable, but I'm waiting for the day that I can put on short sleeves every morning and not have to take a coat just in case the weather turns crazy.

TIME magazine

2008-04-11T15:45:00.002-06:00

Craig and I are in TIME magazine online... maybe in print later. check it out

UPDATE: we're on page 61 of the April 21st edition of TIME!