Christmas wrap-up

We spent Christmas at Mike's parents this year! We drove up to Wyoming on Saturday, December 18th and got back to Santa Fe on December 26th. It was great because Mike's sister Robin and her family also came up to WY from San Antonio. It was a full house...there was a lot of game playing, eating, wii playing, lazying around, movie watching, keeping Stuart out of trouble, sleeping in, and spending time with each other. I even managed to get in a couple runs so my half-marathon training wasn't shot to heck.

Mike and I took snowboarding lessons while our nephews Jarod and Jordon took skiing lessons. Needless to say, I think they had better luck skiing than I had snowboarding. Mike and I will have to head up to Ski Santa Fe or Taos to perfect my snowboarding skills.

I spent most of the time in this position.

Wipe out...again!
Mike didn't appear to have too many problems.

And ~ I'm up!

L to R: Jarod, David, Me, Mike, Jordon, & Robin

This is what I look like after getting woke up on Christmas morning at 7am. Coffee please!!

Boulevard became good buds with Jarod and Jordon. Blvd even slept on Jarod's sleeping bag with him at night. Buddy(Mike's parents dog) was less than impressed with Stuart and Boulevard...but I guess if someone tore apart and ruined all my toys, I too would be less than impressed.

Family Picture Time

Back row L to R: Don, David, Cheryl, Mike

Front Row: Robin, Jordon, Jarod, Me

That's a wrap ~ I think next Thanksgiving is potentially slated to be at our house with the entire clan again. Not sure we can pull it off but we shall see...

today was a tough one

Today was totally and completely exhausting! I realize my title is a Business Analyst so by definition I am to analyze. :) But today I analyzed my brain to moosh! Glad the day is over and I hope I am well prepared for another exhausting day tomorrow with more brain-mooshing analysis to be done.
How many times can I use analyze/analysis in one paragraph?!! :)

On to more uplifting topics that don't need any analysis. (LOL-ok, I promise I'm done with that word!) I am home and my hubby is home and we are one big happy family...well actually a small family, but a happy one at that. I got home last Saturday and it's great to be back. It was an ok drive -I'm really not convinced that the drive from NM to NE or the reverse will ever be good so I'll take an "ok" drive.

Mike ordered a new TV on cyber Monday so we(or maybe he) decided we needed to paint the wall that the TV was going to go on, which lead into painting the entire living/dining/kitchen area. There is still a little painting left but I love it! And I'll give Mike 90% of the credit as he did all the trim and most of the rolling. I did partake in rolling the bottom half of two walls but he did it on Monday and Tuesday and I work during those days.(Apparently that's my excuse but it's a pretty good one if you ask me)

Which leads to me to Mike's new schedule - now that he is through with training and allegedly knows how to do his job now, he's back on a semi-weird schedule. The good news for me is that he will normally work daytime hours(no more 3rd shift and we get to sleep during the same hours) but his weekends are now Monday & Tuesday.

I think that's all for now - once the living area is finished, I'll post some before and afters - It's really quite amazing what paint does to a room!

another drive to NE under my belt

When you drive 12 hours by yourself with two pups that don't talk back(thank goodness), you have a lot of time to think and observe. Here are my observations for my first drive from NM to NE.

* This drive is incredibly desolate. I often wondered when I got down to 1/4 tank of gas if I was going to hit a town that had a gas station before I ran out of gas...I follow a lot of back-roads through Colorado and Kansas and am "in and out" of cell service so I'm quite thankful I have a reliable car.
* Rural America makes me smile so much ~ you get a lot of the one pointer-finger(not the other "one finger" obscene waves) waves from the farmers and ranchers. I find myself feeling rude if I don't return the pointer finger gesture.
* Speaking of the drivers ~ I love when I come upon a vehicle and I can see the silhouette of the cowboy hat of the driver. It makes me smile everytime!
* I love the NE Cornhusker pride in Kansas and western Nebraska. I saw lots of Husker flags and numerous shops and cafe's with some sort of Nebraska reference! Go 'skers!
* The Starbucks near my house wasn't open when I left Santa Fe so I thought, "I'll just hit another Starbucks on the drive since Starbucks are everywhere." Well - not so much! I think the first Starbucks I saw advertised wasn't until I hit Colby, Kansas which was more than half way through my drive. Needless to say, I survived the drive with only one Dr. Pepper of caffeine.
* I panicked when I got to a gas station that had the "old-fashioned" gas pumps. No credit/debit card option?? I have to share the pump with the car on the other side of the pump?? I seriously almost went to find a different gas station because I didn't know the proper etiquette of using the pump and paying. But I survived and was able to settle my tab inside the store - who knew something so silly could cause a little stress?!!? :)

So - here I am in NE and so excited to see family and friends. But I am definitely missing the Santa Fe sunshine...it's so gloomy in NE!

a mini tribute to the pups - Love them so much!

Life has been pretty steady lately ~ nothing too earth-shattering to report. I think I'll dedicate this blog to a few stories about the pups.

* I was playing fetch in the back-yard with Boulevard a few weeks ago ~ threw the bouncy toy into the air, it hit the ground, took an odd and very high bounce, Boulevard jumped up to grab the toy in the air, and BAM...face plant into the fence on the way down from his jump. An appropriate response from a mother would be to freak out and I DID JUST THAT! I expected a bloody mess, chipped teeth, busted nose...but Boulevard just ran on back, "released" the toy, and was ready for another throw. I checked out his face, mouth, and teeth and there was no damage. However, I looked up to see a panel in our fence was split in half.(something for Mike to fix when he gets back!) Guess Boulevard won that fight!

* Boulevard really loves ice cubes so when we get ice from the freezer door, he comes over and we toss up a ice cube and he chomps away. Stuart doesn't like to be left out so I usually slide one on the floor for him to naw on. But the funniest thing is that right when the cube comes out of the freezer and Stu starts chewing on it, it usually gets stuck to his long chin hair and he just lets it hang there. HA! It's pretty comical.

* Since we've been in our new house, and a couple times when we were in MD, Stuart finds it necessary to leap into the tub at very odd times. In the middle of the night, I can hear him flop into the tub and then jump out a little while later. Mike says it's because he wants a bath(I can get a little lazy about giving Stu regular baths) and I say it's because he's trying to quench his thirst(even thought there's no water in the tub and they have water available to them at all times). Weird!

* Boulevard likes to chase flies. It's not very often a fly is found in the house, but Boulevard will seek it out and pounce at just the right time. He's actually caught a few and then spits them out...guess the chase is better than the catch.

There's many more puppy dog stories I could share but Boulevard is giving me the "I'm ready for dinner" growl so I'm off to get them fed. What would I do without them?? Especially when Mike is away!!

Happy Halloween

Is it bad that I'm leaving the lights off and I'm not going to answer the door for any trick-or-treaters tonight? I feel sort of bah humbug but seriously...I kind of feel like it's un-safe to knock on strangers doors and I don't want to deal with my curious pups or any escapes out of the front-door that they might be planning. I realize I trick-or-treated when I was younger but I sorted of think these days that parents should take their kids to safe treating zones.(like your local mall or some schools sponsor trick or treating too) That said though, I don't have kids so what do I know? I'm sure there are very safe communities out there and I feel our subdivision is extremely safe but I think for my own safety, I'll keep the door closed tonight. (not to mention, if I buy candy, it'd be gone by the time my first trick-or-treater arrived.) :)

Hope you all have a safe Halloween!

and the "trauma" begins

If you recall from my last post, I vaguely mentioned some "trauma" that was going to be happening in my near future...Well ~ It has arrived. My hubby left this morning at 7am for California for his first section of field training. He'll spend time in CA, then head to Idaho, then to Colorado, then back to California, scheduled to return to Santa Fe on January 14th.
WHAT??!! January 14th?...seriously, I already miss him like CRAZY! :) The trauma and tears started this morning as Stuart and I waved goodbye to Mike as he started his 10 hr drive to CA. I'm sure there will be a few more tears shed b/t now and January 14th.

It sounds like Mike may hopefully have a few days off around Christmas time and I'll be able to see him when I go to his parents for Christmas...but in his line of work, plans can change in the blink of an eye so I'll be hopefully optimistic that I'll get to see him around Christmas time.

So ~ what are my plans while Mike is away?
* Fill up my "social" calendar as best I can ~ I have plans for tomorrow and next Wed-Fri so I'm doing pretty well in that regard. :)
* Possibly do some painting ~ however I'm not sure Mike trusts me to do any major painting so I'm going to give two of the bathrooms a try.
* Gym, Gym, and more gym ~ I haven't got completely back on the work-out wagon since leaving MD so I'm going to get myself on a consistent schedule, starting TOMORROW! I decided I'm going to be in mourning tonight over my husband's absence. :)
* I'll be spending a couple weeks in NE around Thanksgiving.
* I'll be spending a week in WY(Mike's parents) around Christmas time.
* I think I'm going to take up a new hobby ~ leather work. I did a very small amount of leather work when I was younger and I think I want to pick it back up again.

That's all I have planned for now.
If you have any great ideas, pass them along!

as promised - a few Santa Fe adventures

Before we get the NM adventures, I did get to partake in a Chicago adventure 2 weekends ago. Left Albuquerque on Saturday at 9am, arrived in Chicago at 5pm, partook in my wonderful friend Mara's bachelorette party(I think we got home around 3am Sunday morn -- haven't seen that time of day for a LONG time), then left Chicago at 10:30 am Sunday to be back in NM at 1pm. What a whirl-wind...but it was incredible seeing Mara and I'm so thankful I was able to celebrate with her. I was reviewing a few recent pictures and thought this one was adorable. Boulevard likes sleeping small spaces(notice he is under a table) and he likes his doggie bed. This was a pic taken when we were staying in the hotel when we first got to Santa Fe...his dog bed was packed but an oversized bed pillow did the trick. :) (I know, most of you non-dog lovers are probably grossed out right now--sorry!)

Moving day - would you believe that this mess of a garage is cleaned up, garage is finished, & we can park both of our cars and the motorcycle in the garage? Well ~ believe it because it's true! (more pics of the house coming soon...) I'll give Mike all credit for finishing the garage. We also got our back-yard fence sealed which was not a very enjoyable task...but it's done and that's all that matters. The garage and the fence were the two tasks we wanted to get done before Mike leaves for his field training.(did I mention that he's scheduled to be in field training until 1/14/11 -- but I'll save that trauma for a later post)

Moving day - all of our stuff was packed in that front section of the truck. It took a good day to get everything unloaded. While the movers unloaded, Mike & I unpacked boxes and it worked really slick.
We've gone to the Santa Fe Farmer's market a couple times ~ I love going for the food but also love going to smell the roasting of the chile's. Who wants to come visit for the 'Santa Fe Wine & Chile Festival' next year? Any takers?

Mike and I visited a local vineyard for a wine tasting. Mike called it a "hidden gem" because it's off this tiny little driveway but once you get through the drive-way, it is amazingly beautiful! You can't really tell by his face but Mike and I both had a good time at the vineyard. :)

Vineyard ~ I was sporting my husker gear to send NE good vibes to beat TX...wish it would have worked. :(

Last but not least - I guess chile season is coming to a close so we stocked up on a "sack" of roasted chile's. When divided up, this "sack" ended up coming out to 19 quart size zip lock bags. Guess we are stocked up for the winter. YUMMY!!

That's about it for now...the house is getting in some sort of order and soon I'll post some pics.