What Is Wrong With Me?

Ok, for those of you who know me well you know that my nightly snack is a bowl of ice cream (preferably chocolate), a brownie or cookies and milk! I can not go to sleep without it. So I know I am pregnant but I have no clue what is going on. Luke just made chocolate chip malts and I even had a pink straw, I took about 5 sips and gave it to him and went and got some cheese, crackers and juice. What the hell? This is SOOO weird. I just do not get it, I thought that my chocolate addiction would only worsen but it is slowly disappearing and I am beginning to love the thought of fruit, fresh cut grass, and juice. All I gotta say is "what the &$%#"

A Tat and Biking Story

So I got this tattoo about 2 years ago in Alaska. First the dude did the outline (which you can tell is kinda crappy) Then I went back and got "color" but if you notice the color is well.....very sad. I finally found someone here in Cheyenne that does a ton of flowers and loves color so I finally made an appt. Here is the Before...

And this is the after. He totally fixed the color and reworked the lines. If you compare the pink flower on the bottom in this pic to the same flower in the pic above you can clearly see that this new guy rocked it out. He had some great ideas of other ways to make it pop and I also wanted him to be able to put his own creative twist on it rather than just coloring in someone else's pic so I made another appt....

The background he put in really makes the color pop and I LOVE IT! This was fresh so the background which looks black here has lightened up to the grey that it is supposed to be. He wants this to heal and then he is going to go back and throw a few color streaks into the grey background and I am going to see if he can put my families initials in yellow in the stars, that is what I wanted in the first place so stay tuned!!!

OK, so you can see Luke's big head stick out of the helmet but their is a story behind this. Luke organized and volunteered this last Thursday for the Law Enforcement Special Olympics torch run. He picked up the torch just like the real Olympics in Wheatland, Wy and ran it through their town as he was cheered by the athletes that were competing in the games. Once they got it to the outskirts of town, they jumped on bikes and road the bikes from Wheatland to Cheyenne which is 72 miles. He didn't ride the whole way, he had others to help him out but he rode 10 miles which for someone that doesn't ride a bike, that was a lot. In the end, they made it to Cheyenne with no problems and they were able to run it into the opening ceremonies that night. The Wyoming Special Olympics kicked off with a bang that day all because Luke and the others were able to deliver the torch.

4 Months Later....

Luke swears our life away, well I guess swearing that we will have more opportunities! We found out that his package got approved when no one elses is. So we took it as a sign from God and decided to stay in another 4 years. He will not be a cop anymore as of August (which is great as far as his schedule goes...also deployments will be fewer and he will be gone for less time) and will then be in contracting. This job gives him a ton of opportunities to do this on the civilian side. Our "plan" is to finish these next 4 years, I will be further in my career with UOP, Luke will have his experience in security and as a contractor and hopefully be an officer by then and get out and do the contracting job as a civilian for more $$ than the AF pays. That is the plan anyway but the plans never turn out the way we thought so we are just gonna roll with it! We are excited for our adventure, it will be interesting to see where they will send us...if they even decide to move us from Cheyenne.

Aaaand our special brother Justin, once again caught in a Kodak moment. Yes our little Justin on Christmas morning (i know we are a few months late on Christmas) received a new helmet for Christmas since his old one was worn out...oh yeah he is also wearing one piece jammies.

Justin and Jody sporting their fun Xmas gifts, if you can not tell what Jody is wearing check out this next pic....

HUGE GRANNY PANTIES!!! Nice rear Jody

Wedding time! So a long time ago I told this girl my brother knew that I wish she was my sister in law some day. And my brother Jason and my finally sister in law Kate got married a couple weeks ago.

Me and Jas before the big moment. It was so neat, they did not see each other before the wedding, it kept the suspense. I was in the girls room one minute and Kate was talking about how her hands were sweaty then I went into hang with Jason and he was like "dang my hands are sweaty" perfect! they were already having sympathy pains for each other ;)

Me Kate and Donna. Kate did such a great job matching the colors. Her dress was champagne and our dresses were all different black styles with champagne accents...it looked so sharp.

Dad, Donna, Mom, and me. My Mom and Dad were so cute, they were totally matching and my Mom wow! I sure hope I get her beautiful genes, she looked stunning...I know my big (little) sis got them, she was so cute in her tiny little dress....no it wasn't a mini skirt she is just a peanut!

oops! this one is supposed to be further up. Luke is signing the actual papers here...I was so nervous I was almost in tears. For those of you who know me very well I cry for everything, happiness, sadness, excited, nervous, angry...? But we are both so happy with our decision!

Mmmk Back to the wedding. Jason and my sisters youngest Albert, notice his Johnny Poppers, they are john deer cowboy boots. My sister can not peel them off of him to save her life, now he has a cowboy hat to go with them...too cute.

By brother Jared secretly caught the garder but he handed it to Henry (my sisters middle son) quick so no one would see. Many think this is a myth but this garder has HISTORY! Jason caught it at Kate's sisters wedding and her husband caught it at another wedding and back and back (something like that ) I smell another wedding in my families future.

Jason and Scottie rockin it out. It was so much fun, I don't think I have ever danced that much in my life! The majority of the music played was country...perfect for my family and a straight up ho-down!

Luke even danced...THAT WAS A SIGHT

We had so much fun but had to leave that next night, its always so sad to say bye to family. I asked Jason and Kate if we could do it again this next weekend! -7 kegs and all-

It was so nice, everyone kept telling me what a great family we have. I always knew we were very close but never realized that many other families aren't. I feel so fortunate to have such fantastic parents and siblings, I would wish for nothing more than the relationship I get to have with them...never thought it would be this way after all those years of my little bros picking on me :) Just hope I can do as good of a job with my future family as my parents have done with us...I am so excited to have Kate with us now to experience it all, she is the perfect addition!

We don't like the Packers

Yeah right! While the whole family was together in Phoenix for Christmas Karin and Brad arranged for us to get family pictures taken at their house (perfect backdrop if I may say). Their friends came out and did an amazing job!

Our one casual pic that turned out quite nice after chopping down branches and fixing the bench that kept sinking in the ground.

All the kids

The girls with one of their horses butts...how convenient

The manly men....how do they not have a horses @$$ in the background? hummm

Me and my baby

K, so Jody is probably going to kill me for selecting this picture but I had to. Among all the green and gold Jody's red striped socks kept peeking out in all the pics so she decided to show em off and not hide them. I think its pretty darn cute!

And last but not least Brad and Karin. We had such a great time and the whole family was such a joy to be around during the holidays. Thanks guys!

PS...Stay tuned, more Xmas pics to come including another fab pic of our bro Justin.

Skating in Phoenix

Among the many activities we did as a family ice skating was one of them. I must say it is much harder than I remember, it probably did not help that our skates were dull as jello.

Dan used to play hockey, eventually all of us migrated off the ice to the benches to stuff our faces with way over priced hot dogs and rest our aching feet. But little Danny was no where to be found, we finally spotted him skating his little heart out with a huge smile on his face, round and round and round and round he went. I have a feeling it brought him back to the good ol days. And once again our super special brother Justin, yes the kid that we snap ridiculous Kodak moments of (usually in front of the mirror). Look at the person that is balancing so gracefully doing a swan-like sweep across the ice....yep, that would be Justin, ONCE AGAIN!

Thanksgiving...now that it's Xmas!

For Thanksgiving my brother Jason and his fiance Kate stopped by our place in Cheyenne, spent the night, then we all drove to Denver(ish) Colorado to Kate's parents super cute cabin in the mountains. First I have to say that I was so excited that they made the time to stop by our place since they were my first visitors since I moved out. In preparation I sprayed the crap out of our place with allergen reducer since Jason is allergic to cats, I was sooo worried that he was going to be miserable but he held up pretty darn good. We did not do much that night, we went to dinner and the country bar, went to bed a bit early so we could get an early start on our Thanksgiving day meal and travel into the mountains. We ended up eating our turkey and everything about noonish and left shortly after. We arrived to some snowy mountains which was a good thing since we were going snowboarding the next day.... Me and my bro Jason. We had not been snowboarding together for about 5 years so it was a ton of fun to enjoy the fresh snow together. Luke however had to leave at 5 am to head back to Cheyenne cause he got called in to work. He woke up to an additional 5 inches, good for the snowboarders bad for him and my little Honda. But he made it there and back safely.

Jason (well, at least his goggles and helmet) and Kate.

When we got to the cabin Kate called her dad only to find out that she had to do a very risky task....check the laundry. Yes, Big Al forgot his laundry in the washer...Not the dryer but the washer. The best part is he said "its fine, just throw it in the dryer...mildew and all" we had a pretty good time bustin a gut.

Within 5 min of setting foot in the cabin Luke found Kate's dad's (who is also as tall as the jolly green giant) special spot. In front of the TV watching sports with a shiatsu back massager, foot massager and a icy cold can of Coors light.

Here is a random photo of my tea. I went to take a sip of it and saw something staring back at me, do you see it? The ice cube eyes and the lemon smile! It cracked me up and I could not stop laughing :0)

Okay seriously, I can not believe I am putting this on the Internet. Just take a guess at what I am doing here......yep, I am peeing in a cup in Luke's brand new truck. As some of you may have heard it took Luke and I 5 hours to get back to Cheyenne from the mountains, it usually only takes 2 hours max. We were stuck in traffic going up the mountain and guys started getting out of their trucks and peeing on the side of the road in the snowbank. After awhile it started to occur to me that I might be facing a difficult situation some time soon. And when it came down to it I decided to dump out my soda and, uh...do my thing. VERY AWKWARD!

Luke and I went back skiing to Breckenridge after we said by to Jason and Kate, very sad but we were stoked to hit the mountain.

Throw some Cavanaughs in with a holiday celebration and before you know it you have created a 3 dimensional beer-a-mid. The best was after they had fully finished it the guys were all standing in front of it, in their PJ's, taking pictures.

Saving the best for last...my little lukey poo. He found Kate's mom's PINK cowboy hat, some goggles and poles. Who the heck knows what he is doing but he sure does look happy...Should I be worried?

First Day

My first day at UoP went well! Like any job it will just be nice to finally know everything, it's a four week training program so I just need to be patient. Everyone I work with seems very nice and has done a great job welcoming me, they all have totally different personalities so it should be interesting. It is a little weird cause I have no boss right now. The guy that hired me, our director, got transferred to Iowa so they are in the process of hiring a new one....? I hope our new boss is as cool as our old one seemed...that would totally suck if he/she isn't but I am going to be optimistic and hope for the best. I am not sure if I mentioned it yet but my training schedule is pretty crazy, here is my next month in a nutshell. This week Mon and Tues I have full days observing, Wed is a half day and potluck for turkey day, Thurs and Fri we are closed and I must say it is a good feeling knowing that I will be getting paid for the holidays we have off! My bro and his fiance are driving out and we are all going to Colorado from Wed to Sat(ish) and then I have training the whole next week in Lone Tree Colorado which is a couple hours south of Cheyenne. The week after that I am back in Cheyenne applying what I have learned and then the week after that I will be back in Lone Tree for my final week of training. The last day is on Fri the 19th. WHEW! I'm gonna be pooped but I am not going to complain, I am just happy to finally have a job after my long search.

Face Wash

I had an appointment yesterday to get my hair cut. I was going to cancel it and let it grow out until I walked outside into the Cheyenne wind and realized that it would probably be in my best interest to keep it short while living here so I don't end up with a rats nest in my hair every time I decide to go get the mail.
I found the best hair lady ever at the Aveda Ten Salon in Loveland CO. Yes I drive 45 min to get my hair did but it is totally worth it since I am kind of picky. My hair lady is from Orange County CA and is so eccentric it is funny. She was wearing huge furry boots while doing hair. Anyway, I thought she was maybe just out of it a bit last time (the first time) she did my hair cause when she was washing my hair at the sink her hands kept washing further and further up the sides of my face. SAME THING this time, and this time she was successful in washing of half of the makeup on my right eye, I wonder if she realizes it? I don't know how to tell her or even if it is that big of a deal but I just can not give her up, she is too good.
At doing my hair....and washing my face I guess!

FINALLY!!

So finally after 10 years, Luke got a degree. Well, it is only a Associates Degree in Criminal Justice but he is still working towards his Bachelors. He just finished another class and started another one. He has 3 more after this one and if he stays on track....he will graduate with a Bachelors in Business Administration. I am so happy for him that he finally made it past the first mark, he has been waiting so long for this since his job has always gotten in the way of taking classes. The second mark will come real soon with his Bachelors if this crazy work schedule ever stops for him. With my new job at University of Phoenix they will pay for 80% of his tuition so I believe a masters is also in his future! Yeeahhh Luke!!!!

Come on baby, stick me one more time

Luke's seriousness about trading plasma for lute continues. He got called out on a camper (they go out to the field for days) the other day after his 14 hour shift. He is the only one that can drive the camper so he got stuck going out after being awake for 23 hrs. Anyhoo, he got home at 6 this morning and I was so happy he made it back but felt bad cause I knew he was totally beat after getting maybe 4 hours of sleep in two days. So I woke up, went to work, came home and little lukeypoo was still zonked out. I had decided that he must have been super tired and way past his bed time since his uniform was sprawled out on the floor and his coolers had not been unpacked (Luke is always very tighty and never leaves any task undone, I am a very lucky wife) so I had decided not to wake him. About an hour after I got home he woke up and told me the events of his trip, I was showering him with sympathy only to find out that he stopped on his way home from work at 6am to yes....stick his vein and suck liquid money out. The best part is that they told him that he was a day early and to bring his anxious tooshie back tomorrow! LOL, I have been giggling about it all day long =)

Screw this.

This post may be a bit negative if some of you want to veer away from reading this right now....... &%$# chili's. I am so tired of making only 2.13 an hour and guess what I had to do today, clean under the chip machine which is done daily and there was a frickin cockroach...YUCK!!! For those of you who know me I absolutely hate bugs, spiders ok but a damn cockroach? It was so nasty, I moved the baskets that chips go in and it sprinted its happy ass across under the tea machine. I was so close to throwing my apron on the floor and saying "F this, that's it! I quit!" While I do pride myself in having good work ethic, there have been MANY times where I wish my parents did not do such a good job at building my work morals so I could just say F-it or tell someone who stiffs me "Hey Mcfly..do you have any clue that I only make 2.13/hr and work pretty much just for tips?" AHHHH! I was supposed to be done with this job last Wed but could not get anyone to cover my shifts (since they put the schedule up earlier than normal) today and tomorrow so being the good little employee that I am I did not want to leave them hanging. So I showed up to work this am only to find out that they covered my shifts today...nice of them to let me know, but I stayed anyway to help out and play with a damn cockroach. Then I was trying to get done with my sidework aka: cleaning up cockroaches, and I gave the manager my checkout slip, credit card slips, and cash so that I could go home for an hour lunch before I had to go back for my second shift. Ya know what she said...you need to wait till there are more servers ready to check out, I'm too busy. What? I said um, no. If you want me to come back for my second shift you need to take my stuff and clock me out or I will not come back. I just want to know what the hell she was thinking, "sure can I please hang around for 2.13 and hour and maybe play with more cockroaches, pretty please?" Okay, I'm done.

Luke's Part Time Job

So asking Luke to do a good deed and donate blood has not gone over well at all in the past. He says he will get sick. I however see it as an opportunity to give something that I have to someone who's life could depend on it...if in fact I get a little cough or sniffle for some reason because of it...so be it, chances are some day I will need some good clean blood too.

So Luke came home the other day and said "Hey hun, I made an appointment to donate plasma" I thought wow, he is coming around! Then he added "I can make up to $240 bucks a month!" I knew there was a motive and when it comes to money Luke will do just about anything. A couple days passed and he had obviously been brainstorming about it, he started talking about all the things he was going to buy with this new found cash flow. "Hey I think I'm gonna look at some rims, oh and I'm gonna see if I can find vent shades, maybe a bed liner too!" If I had not mentioned it before Luke recently got a new truck, but the fact that it is a brand new 2008 is just not satisfying enough, little stinker wants to add all the details that his old truck had. So far he has gotten his windows tinted, attempted to install auto start (best buy jacked it all up though) and talked Ruben (the truck salesman) out of installing some new mudflaps as a trade for a referral he sent him.

Luke's first appointment went well, came home with a pricked finger and a bandage on his arm and a new cash card from biolife. He was so pumped that they just handed him this credit card with cash on it, it all seemed too easy. So he made appointments for both of us today, me a new patient and him to go get more plasma sucked out of him in return for a higher balance on his new credit card. Come to find out I failed my pre physical because of my dang heart murmur, I have to get it signed off by my doc and then approved by the plasma people. So I went back to the waiting room and started reading my book and waiting for Luke, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. So I text him and he texts back "I had a little situation" I was sure the big guy passed out cause he gets woozy with doctor's offices. He returned to the waiting room 45 min later with bandages on BOTH arms and walking all stiff. Genius decided to move too much and got hematomas (a collection of blood underneath the skin) and bubbled up so they had to tap into the vein on his other arm half way through to finish. Here I felt bad for him that he got an owey but as we left the building a huge grin grew on his face and he pulled out his card with his bandaged stiff arms and says with a huge smile...."I got 70 bucks now! I'm goin to the ATM tonight and ordering my vent shades for my truck!"

I am just hoping that his new job will not cave his veins or give him tracks making him look like he has been shooting up drugs!?!

Lol, he just walked around the corner limping and said am I flushed? I just got dizzy? Will you make me some food? Haha, we will see how long this lasts!

WAAAHOOOO!!!!

I GOT THE JOB!!!!! I am so super happy, finally I do not have to go back to that $%*& hole and make 2.13 an hour!!! Instead I get to go to a real job!!! OK can you tell I am excited, all I can think of is "FREE WILLY" when I think of chili's and exclamation points!!! So I will just make this a short post because I think the only other thing I can type to express my excitement is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy Wind.

People were not kidding when they warned us of the wind in Cheyenne. I feel like we have been stuck in a tornado for the last 24 hours. I woke up at 3:33 am to this horrible sound, like thunder or a plane crashing in our back yard and could not fall back asleep. Come to find out that it is only wind. Who the heck knew that wind could be so violent. Since I had another interview this am I definitely needed some zzzz's so I found my custom fit ear plugs (thanks to RJ's) and curled up on the couch. That was not the end of it, I could still hear the wind and my ear plugs kick @$$ so I had to turn on the TV to help drown it out. This is some serious wind out here people so be prepared if you ever decide to come visit us. Hopefully I do not wake up at 3:33 tomorrow morning with a car or something planted in my living room!

Interview...

So I had my interview with University of Phoenix this morning. It went Great!!! Not only was it what I was hoping it would be, but more. Everyone seems very friendly there including the Director that I interviewed with. They seem very upbeat and exciting and are moving into a brand new "up to date" office in Feb which looks way cool from pictures and the floor plan that he shared with me. I could not imagine working in some of the old drab buildings in this town. I was not formally offered the job yet (gonna be optimistic on this one) because they are waiting for a background check which they should get on Friday, hopefully. He said that I was the top candidate and is very excited that I have ties to the military since it is such a huge population of people here and they currently have no access to recruit students on base. It is a sales position but not like used cars (yeah, I think of that stereotype too when I hear the word sales). I will be talking with potential students who have contacted us for information which is nice. While I am sure there will be some occasions in which people may think that I am bothering them but they are the ones that contact us...we just follow up and get them enrolled. The pay is pretty good too. There is a very livable base pay and then as long as I recruit a minimum of 4 students a month I will receive pay increases accordingly...sounds like the sky is the limit. The team they have working there right now has been beyond successful recently, he said that it did not used to be that way since it was hard to get good solid management in little old Cheyenne Wy but they are very strong now! So hopefully this is the right opportunity and the right path because I am very excited about it!