Happy Monday

Well, I hope everyone had a Happy Easter. Mine was fairly quiet. I did go to an Easter party in the afternoon but the morning was spent making this video for Dick who is on the road right now and I know misses us terribly. I thought he'd enjoy the Kimi video. Here's my first attempt at making homemade lemon bars. I'm about as good of a baker as I am a gardener but they were very tasty - the lemon part was nice and tart and the crust was a shortbread crust...yummy!

Here's Kimi's best friend, Sofia, dressed up in her Easter finest.

And here's her brother, Nicholas. He's constantly in motion so I'm lucky I got this one!

And here's me with their awesome mom, Kristi. Kristi's mom is the one who had the Easter party. She's great too...and always includes us in their holiday plans. We are so lucky to have such terrific friends and neighbors!

And finally, the Kimi video.

Spring has sprung

I'm not a great photographer but I couldn't help but include this little gem. These are crocuses that I planted with my own two hands about two years ago. Since I practically kill every single plant I've ever tried to grow, it always amazes me when these pop up out of the ground! It's also a sure sign that spring has sprung here in Colorado.

And remember this "little" girl?

Look how big she's getting...especially her legs which just seem to be growing longer every day! Her fuzzy puppy coat is also starting to change into a longer, wavy coat. I know that she's going to be an awesome dog so somedays I can't wait for puppyhood to be over, but there's nothing sweeter than puppies so I also know that I will look back on these days and miss them terribly.

Two Posts in One Day

This one is quick and fun. I got this cute little email from girlfriend...one of those answer personal question things but instead of info about me...I had to come up with answers about her! Then send it along to my friends. I've had a fun time going over the answers since some of you have known me forever while others are relatively new to my life. Here's some interesting tidbits for you:

So far, only one person has gotten my correct eye color.
Only one person knew my middle name - and spelled it correctly which was even odder.
No one, as of yet, knows what kind of music I listen to.
And these are things you thought I would bring with me if I were stranded on a desert island:

A book
A picture of George Clooney
Red, Red Wine
My dog
Haircolor - blonde, of course

I'm Back

Sorry it's been so long since I posted but with my sister here, it's been impossible to take time out to blog. It was a fabulous week and we had some great fun. We were not nearly as active as we have been on past visits, but we had more time this week and we had lots of sister bonding time. She and I are very close and it's so hard living so far away from her. My time spent alone with her is precious! Thanks sister for spending the week with me. Love you!!!!

Two sisters, a mountain and a mountain dawg. Here we are in Boulder the day Donna came in. We took Kimi with us and spent the afternoon just hanging out in downtown Boulder.

On Sunday, we went back into Boulder to meet our friends, the Proppers, who were visiting from Florida. Their daughter, Liz (pictured below with her mom) lives in Denver so they were out for a long weekend to see her (and us!). We had lunch at our favorite restuarant, Brasserie 1010 then spent another afternoon hanging out in downtown Boulder. A nice, warm chai was enjoyed by us here at the Dushanbe Tea House (donated to the city of Boulder by our sister city, Dushanbe). As you can see, we had beautiful blue skies and it was perfect the entire week. In fact, it got so warm that Donna wasn't even able to wear her winter clothes!

This is our sister self-portrait taken on the 16th Street Mall in Denver. We spent Monday in downtown Denver. We ate, drank and shopped along Larimer and 16th Street. Doesn't she have awesome hair? She has this great new haircut and since she has tons of body it always looks great!!!!

In order to balance our shopping and eating days, we did tour the Capitol while in Denver. A beautiful building inside and out...here's Donna on the gorgeous staircase. The building is filled with Colorado pink onyx, granite, brass and wood.

Here she is again in the dome of the Capitol. If you get a chance to visit, definitely take the free tour up to the dome...there are spectacular views of the City/County building, as well as all of Denver and the mountains.

In the middle of all this, there was a birthday...yes, mine. Instead of going out for dinner we decided to stay in and invite some friends over. We had wine, pomegranate martinis, yummy chinese food, Tiramisu cake from Whole Foods and played Mexican Train, a fun dominoes game. Thanks to my sweet girlfriends and sister for sharing my special day with me!!!!

One of the highlights of her trip was going up to Ft. Collins to the New Belgium Brewery. A fun, fun tour with incredibly fun, interesting and smart employees. If you go and end up on the guided tour, try to get Erin...she was a sweet, sweet girl from Tennessee and had us cracking up the entire tour. Neither one of us are beer drinkers but we had a great time tasting and even came home with bottles of beer!!! Her fave - Sunshine Wheat. My fave - their new organic Mothership Wit...another awesome wheat beer.

Hey, and if you're going to travel up to Ft. Collins from here, you might us well expand your trip into the great state of Wyoming. We headed up to Cheyenne where we visited their Capitol. Our dad was in politics and we are both interested in politics and government so Capitols are a must!!! Here's Donna in front of the calf statue at the Capitol...this was taken specifically for a friend of our mom's that's in the cattle industry.

Friday came way too quickly and I always start to get sad when she has to leave. We spent a relaxing day down in Boulder again, finishing up some shopping and looking for cool scenery. This is the scenic overlook off of Highway 36 in Louisville. One of the very best views of Boulder and the mountains.


One sister and a dawg. Can you believe how big Kimi is getting? This is also at the scenic overlook. The rest of the day was spent getting manicures and pedicures then we spent the evening watching No Country for Old Men. We both liked the movie but it was dark, dark, dark...

So, here it is Sunday and I am lonely and alone. Dick is on his way home from the racetrack in Pueblo where he's been with his car all weekend. Donna left yesterday...after a tearful goodbye...as it always is. But leave it up to Kimi to make me smile. I have a stuffed berner on my bedside table and this morning, I heard it run into the living room. Well, when I hear her run, she normally has something she shouldn't. Sure enough, she had gone into the bedroom and taken the stuffed berner off my nightstand - without disturbing anything else or knocking anything off. It was too cute!!!! So here she is, playing with it...it is now safely up on my dresser where - for now- she can't reach it!!!

New Haircut

Was I the only person in Colorado surprised by the weather today? I thought it was going to get cold, but I woke up to snow on the ground...surprise!!! Of all mornings! I had to be in downtown Boulder to get my hair cut & colored this morning so it was a rushed morning. Kimi is doing well, adjusting to her crate so it's easy for me to leave for 3-3.5 hours now. What a relief. Anyway, I've been struggling with my hair for the last few months so today was a big day. I didn't really like it as long as it was...we had tried to cut in layers and some long bangs but that didn't work for me either. I liked it long as long as I could wear a hat, but since I don't wear a hat 24 hours a day, that doesn't work. So, after much deliberation, I cut about 3 inches off and I cut full bangs. I'm still not sure about the bangs but I do love the cut. And it's just hair....the bangs can always grow back. I'd been looking at lots of pics of Katie Holmes' new bob and I loved it but wasn't quite ready to go that short...so here's my version. Obviously, if I had on fabulous designer sunglasses, it would make a difference (and maybe some make up would help!). Let me know what you think!

The inspiration:

The reality:

Here's a better view of the angle from front to back.

Crazy Weather and Random Thoughts

This is my favorite time of year in Colorado. It's winter but it's almost spring. Saturday, it was 75 degrees, beautifully sunny....a day you just can't help but be outside. But...how quickly Mother Nature reminds us who is in charge. I woke up Sunday morning at 4:30 a.m. and it sounded like a hurricane outside...I actually went out outside to make sure that my patio furniture wasn't flying around. It was fine but I woke up again at 6:30 a.m. and there was snow on the ground. The weather stayed yucky (that's a technical weather term) for the rest of the day so Kimi and I stayed in. Sad to say but I never got out of my jammies. I read part of the book that should have been Book #2 for February (okay, I'm 3 days behind...but I did read 3 books in January so I'm even for the yar) and I watched almost every single episode of Dexter, a new Showtime series.

Sunday morning snow:

Monday morning sunshine

I'm finding it tough to blog every day....I started this blog as a fun way to share current stuff with friends and family who aren't near us. It's turned into a journal of sorts and I find it hard sometimes to find stuff to write about. One of my major blog goals was that I only wanted my blog to reflect positive things. I don't want it to be annoyed or angry or irritated...I want it to reflect the positive things that are happening in our life. Some days I'm just not "feeling" it. This has been a tough two weeks. D has been gone over a week now and over the weekend...it always is hard when he's gone that long. I get very lonely and very sad. But...this blog isn't about lonely and sad...it's about the good things that go on in our lives....because I do believe that if you focus on the positive, the negative works itself out. So...with that said. I've been struggling for a couple of weeks now with the work thing...do I want to go back to work full time??? Am I bored? What do I want to be when I grow up? Well...you know what?? I don't need to know today what I want to be...what I do know for certain is that it's been a long winter...the lack of skiing has been disappointing but on the positive side...we had an awesome two weeks in Paris, we had a week in Mexico, we're about to spend two weeks in Tuscany and a week in Key West......so who can complain. Dick has been gone alot but on the positive side...I've had Kimi to keep me company and keep me on my toes...she is such a sweet puppy and makes me laugh every single day!!! And I have great friends and neighbors who keep me company and keep me laughing. One of the things I am especially thankful for is my group of friends..they are a crazy, diverse group of women...some neighbors, some running partners, some old friends who keep me sane!

And now spring is right around the corner and you know what (1) so what if we don't ski this year...we live here, we can ski next year (2) so what if I don't know what I want to do when I grown up...I'm not that old...there's always tomorrow.

One of my very best friends from high school (KK) has a daughter that's getting married this weekend...ugh...I can still remember KK's wedding like it was yesterday. She was madly in love and still is...and I only hope that her daughter is as wonderfully, passionately in love as her mom and dad are!!!

Ooh, on to much lighter things!! Sister is coming in this weekend...woohooo.....can't wait. There will be lots of pictures to share...I promise!! I'm still not sure what we're gonna be doing but whatever it is...we'll be together AND we'll be having loads of fun.

On the Kimi note, I swear she grows every day...here's a couple of new pics. Can you believe how big she is??? This is her cute little puppy tummy...she really loves her bed although it's only a napping "bed" since she has a nice king sized bed to curl up into at night.