Kirsten's breaking news (hot off the press about 15 minutes ago)

Well, it's 2:30pm here and I need to take a quick break from work to tell everyone my new and exciting news.
As you all know, I've been trying a variety of "methods" for meeting people and getting involved in things since moving out here. So, a month or so ago I was searching for different activities near Laurel and the Boys & Girls Club of Laurel web site popped up. I was searching their web site and they have a Poms group and a Cheerleading group(I'm sure you see where this is going). So, I emailed the "commissioner" of the Poms group because their season is in the spring and offered my volunteer assistance in helping with any of the groups if they need it.
SO.....she called me and we were chatting about everything. Then she asked me if I would be a coach for one of the groups! HELLO...uh...YES I WILL! I'm pretty pumped about it if you can't tell. I'm meeting with her and the other coaches tomorrow morning. YAY!! I will either be with the 5-6 yr olds(ok, that's probably a little scary for me) or the 11-17 yr olds.
I'm SUPER excited about it. YAY!
Ok, back to work!

sympathy for Mike

This is a recap of the Mike's most recent 24 hours. Granted this is the nature of his job and this is what he signed on for and this probably will happen more often than not, but I still want to offer a little bit of sympathy.
Hopefully I'll get everything right...
- Mike got up at 3:15pm on Sunday since he's on nights right now he sleeps during the day
- Mike left for work at 9pm on Sunday(he works an 8 hour day every other week)
- Mike's works from 10pm to 6am
- Mike is in court sometime after 6am - court works differently here(than it does in NE) and you always have to go to court the next working day after the specific incident occurred. In this situation, he had a DUI over the weekend so he had court this morning and then last night they had some call that deemed them to go to court
- Mike receives about 5 texts/calls from Kirsten between 10am-12:30pm - am I a scary fiance? Not at all!...I was just very concerned about him because the last time he had court he was home a lot earlier so I thought the worst. I was close to calling dispatch but decided to hold out for a little while longer in hopes of a call or text.
- Mike texts Kirsten indicating that he was still in court.
- Mike gets home at 2:45pm from court and tells Kirsten to wake him up at 4pm(I'm his alarm clock when he works nights) - I had a meeting from 3:30-4:30 so he then told me to wake him up at 3:30 before my meeting.

- Mike is out of the house at 4:30pm headed back to work...since it's Monday, traffic will be heavy and he has to be there to work from 6pm-6am.

Granted he gets 3 or 4 days off per week due to his 12 hour shifts but 45 minutes of sleep seems a little brutal to me. I know he signed up for these duties AND he probably had similar lack of sleep when working in Lincoln AND this probably won't be the last time it occurs...but it's hard not to feel a little sympathy for him(or anyone in a similar situation).
But it's probably a good thing he's not home tonight because I also have a lot of work to do so I'll be working most of the evening as well.(Lots of Work=Job Security...so I'll try not to complain) I won't, however be functioning on 45 minutes of sleep...I plan to get a good 7-8 hours of sleep in tonight.
Happy Monday!

Hi

I wish I had something exciting to report to all my avid readers... :) But nothing too exciting is happening in our world. Mike did have to work on Inauguration Day and he was able to see Obama on the parade route. I was very jealous!! He did get some pictures of Biden walking during the parade but he said the crowd was crazy when Obama was walking so he couldn't snap any pics.
On Wednesday I decided I couldn't take it anymore being in the house all day so Mike and I went for some drinks with some of his co-workers. It's amazing how much I yearn for social outings since I've been working at home full-time. I appreciate that time and those moments a lot more now!
Last night Mike and I were pretty lazy BUT we did go get some cold stone ice cream. YUMMY!
Mike is back to work tonight and the dogs are fast asleep(we went on a long walk today so I think they are a little worn out). I think I might splurge and go get some take out somewhere. Fast food? Chinese? Pizza? Decisions, decisions. I started reading Twilight a few nights ago so I may spend some time reading tonight too.
Wish tomorrow wasn't Sunday already. :( That means back to work on Monday...bummer!

the biggest loser

Please tell me I'm not the biggest loser for spening about 3 hours on the computer(while watching TV) on a Friday night? Ok, I am I know it! Yeah well...'tis life I guess. Lori just called me an old married lady?!! Yep, I think she's right! :)
Today was the coldest day in DC since 1994...an "arctic blast" as the news called it. The high was 19 degrees but I don't think it reached that. The wind made it quite chilly HOWEVER I'm pretty certain you all in Nebraska wish that 19 degrees was the coldest you'd get.

My January meetup with my Book and Cook Club is on Sunday! YAY! We're are going to someone's place and everyone has to bring some type of Italian dish. I'm assigned an Italian appetizer but have yet to determine what I'm going to take. But the coolest news is the place that we are having it is in MY apartment "campus." It's crazy. Granted my apartment "campus" is quite large but it's definitely in walking distance. Less than a 1/4 of a mile away! So what does this mean? Another friend in close proximity...WAHOO!

Mike is trying to determine when he will be working this weekend for Inauguration. He was on the Detail to work from 6pm(Saturday) to 6am(Sunday) and then 5am(Sunday) to who knows when. Not really sure how he can work in one place until 6am but supposed to be somewhere else by 5am but I'm sure they'll figure it out. BUT the funniest thing is now he has disappeared from the Detail completely. HA! He's not even listed as having the day off or not working...very odd! Did he get fired and no one told him?! :) Well I guess he'll figure it out and hopefully he can get where he's supposed to be in time with all the craziness of traffic.

news headlines

I'm watching the news and two headlines caught my eye and I thought I'd share.

1. Today is January 12th and Baltimore is reporting their 14th homicide. How stinkin' sad!! Can't we just all get along? It's just terrible how much violence there is! Did anyone watch Dr. Phil last week when he had the mother of the Omaha mall shooter on and one of the surviving victims?(I'm not a Dr. Phil watcher but since I was off work, I thought I'd tune in) I used to love watching the news but there is rarely anything positive reported out here near D.C. I just thought of another story from December...an older man(I think in his 80's or older) was attacked as he was walking(get this!) from his car into Church. He had dropped his wife off at the door and was parking the car. WHAT is wrong with people!? Thankfully the man survived and the guy who committed the crime on this older man was caught!!

2. The other story that caught my eye was a water main break in downtown D.C.(We've been having a lot of water main breaks out here lately) I hope that gets resolved before next week for the Inauguration. I think a water main break could cause additional heart ache for the 2 million people coming to see the event. :) For all you crazies travelling to D.C. for the Inauguration, I wish you the best of luck. All I can say is I hope you're staying in the city limits of D.C. and can walk or take the Metro to the event or you may not get into the city. I will be glued to my home for those 2-4 days or so I can avoid any traffic.

sentimental

Bear with me as I be a little sappy and sentimental...
On my way home from my movie tonight(Marley & Me), I was thinking about my fantastic fiance and my fabulous dogs. Then that led me to start thinking about last night when Mike and I went to eat out at Red Lobster(we had a coupon AND a gift card...the best way to eat out), and that further led me to a conversation that Mike and I were having about our wedding. I believe it went something like this...
I said some ridiculous girl comment(typical Kirsten) like "What if you are dissappointed when you see me on our wedding day?"
Mike responded by saying "I will tell you that you look beautiful no matter what you look like."
Hold on...how am I to respond to that?
I said, "First of all, you are correct that you will tell me I look beautiful. Second of all, you will also mean it."
He further said, "Babe, you look beautiful everyday!"
Seriously, he's such the best. He digs himself into holes but so quickly climbs out of that hole. Where did he learn this stuff? Don? :)
I'm so blessed to have Mike and am so excited for him to be my husband!
Told you it was going to be sappy and sentimental.

Nights

I officially do not like Mike being on 12-hour nights. On the nights he works, I NEVER see him.(well I see him for like an hour and that's it) When he was on days, I would work as well and then he would get home sometime before 7pm, stay up for a few hours and then go to bed. Now he sleeps until 3:30pm(while I'm at work) and leaves at 5pm when I'm just getting off work and doesn't get home until 6am the next day. :( I know having 3-4 days off is great but it's no fun on the days he works. I have to resort to talking to the dogs again and they still aren't talking back. :)
Nothing really new here. I joined Facebook last night and it's quite consuming. Today, after about an hour of working, I started to receive tons of emails from Facebook...it was making me crazy. For your non-Facebook peeps, you get an email for any activity on on your Facebook page. I told myself that I can't look at it while I'm at work because 5 minutes will end up turning into an hour...so I started dragging all my facebook emails out of my inbox and into their own folder to deal with later. For those of you that work primarily through your email, you'll feel my pain of my inbox starting to overflow. But I'm all caught up now and I think I'm glad I joined. It'll be a good way to keep in touch with people.
See, this is what happens when Mike isn't around, I sit at the computer all night. :)
Now I'm going to do some online wedding dress shopping.
Ok! That's all I know. Miss you all!

!!Happy New Year!!

We spent our New Year's in Baltimore on the deck of Phillips Seafood at the harbor. Unfortunately, it was very windy so they had to cancel the fireworks. It was a pretty chilly evening but we crowded around the heater so we stayed warm.

Vanessa, Me, and Nicole

Happy New Year!