Love Day

In honor of the commercialized day to celebrate love, I thought I would post a picture of Tony and I on our wedding day.

We got married on a chilly November afternoon at my home church in Roswell. It was a medium sized ceremony and my family's good friend officiated. I felt like a princess. Looking back on it I wouldn't change a thing. The entire planning was low stress because our family pitched in so much. We didn't want anything extravagent. We just had a simple reception that went by like whirl wind. My cousin made the cakes for us, my aunt and grandma made the punch and mints. The church was filled with people we loved. Some of our family couldn't make it, and that was sad. After the ceremony and reception we went to the hospital to visit my great grandma, I'm so glad that we did that, it was hard to not have her there.
It's funny to look back at the pictures. We look so young (of course we were)! My grandma made the comment later that it looked like two kids playing wedding. It's funny to see pictures of the kids too, they were just babies.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Camping Trips - maybe THE best camping trip

Tony and I have definitely had some fun camping trips....in fact I think they have all been fun. Even the night that Jen & Adam, Heather & Gary, and me and Tony camped out at the tree farm and FROZE (especially Gary:)). The night we spent at Tony's parents land and Tony's friend Davis drove up way late and scared the crap out us......too many fun nights to mention here.

But the night that is probably the most memorable was one we shared with Kelly, Athena, Josh, Patrick, Jenni and Rob at Three Rivers in New Mexico. I can't even think about the night without cracking up. It started off with Coors Tall boys and ended with Carlos Rossi wine....who wouldn't have a good time? :) There were also some Bloody Mary's in the middle of all of that.

When we were taking turns dancing around the picnic table Kelly fell down, got back up, and kept dancing. I don't think he ever missed a beat. Then playing frisbee he fell into a cactus but said he was fine.

Ok, disclaimer, this part is gross: but I got sick in the middle of the night and barely made it out of the tent...and onto my shoes. Ewww!! Then I stumbled over to the water jug and saw a bear standing right next to Kelly's tent, so I ever so quietly walked back to the tent. Well, the next morning I was talking about this and everyone said I must have been seeing things, and I figured that was not too far fetched. Then Patrick woke up from sleeping on a picnic table and said "Guys, last night there was a black bear in our camp - I saw it but couldn't do anything about it". Meanwhile he had some purple stain all the way down the front of his shirt. Awesome....

When Kelly got up his foot was HUGE and had cactus needles all over it! He could barely even walk. Well, come to find out his foot was broken - during our Rossi Possi dance session when he fell down it was a lot worse than anyone thought!

You would think with all that happened it wouldn't be such a great memory - but it was - it was a night to remember.  Here are some pictures from that night.

A man named Bob

My first boss when I started working for the government was Bob. He was the first person I got to meet from my new office - he came and ate lunch with me on my second day of induction. He was very kind and gave me, a nervous and overwhelmed girl, a warm feeling that I was going to be ok. He was very specific about his last name and the pronunciation of it. He gave me all his contact info and when he left I felt a little bit better about this huge decision I had just made.
Over the course of working with him for almost 3 years I witnessed how kind he was to everyone. EVERYONE! He never spoke harshly, was always understanding, and most importantly to me - he was a man of God. He truly was a witness - the kind I feel that all Christians are called to be. He wasn't evangelical in the sense that he walked around proselytizing, he did it by his actions and his words.
Last night Bob passed away. Suddenly. This morning when I got to work I found out. And my heart wretched to be with my friends, with my old colleagues. The people who had helped me to grow and develop when I felt so lost. They all know the Bob that I know, his quirky sense of humor and miscellaneous accidents that we always laughed at and said "oh Bob". I can hear it now, I can close my eyes and I'm there. But I'm not there, I'm thousands of miles away. We talked on the phone and it really helped for me to not feel so alone in my grieving.
Bob left behind 2 children, one still young, and a wife. He also left behind many friends and admirers. Most of all though, he left behind a legacy. A legacy of kindness and diligence. He loved what he did and he did it well. He did it with a smile and with a kind word for everybody.
Maybe if we all just had a little more of Bob in us, the world would be a better place. My world is a better place for having known him.
This probably doesn't make any sense except to those who were there, for that I'm sorry if this excludes people. But I was trying to think today of times that were so funny with Bob, and the one I keep going back to was the day we all ate lunch together and Bob was telling his story of his brother's dog and Irene asked him if he wore a mustache because he had been attacked. I hope my friends can find a smile when they read this - and they know that I love them, and I wish I was there to hug each one of them, and go through this together.

Amy

I was in a Ryan Adams mood tonight and was thinking about the first song I ever heard from him. It was probably around 2001/2002 ish. I was making a CD for my sister and trying to find all songs named Amy when this one came up. The video isn't very good, but the song is still good quality.

Super Bowl's Past

When I was in high school we always had a super bowl party at our house. My mom and dad would graciously open up their home to a bunch of kids from our youth group. We'd buy pizza and coke and snacks and semi watch the game in between talking and playing. It is such a great memory to have and I'm so glad my parents were always ok with a bunch of dumb teenagers invading their house.

Another great memory is the super bowl where Janet Jackson exposed (ewwww) herself. Everyone was in the kitchen at Jen's and no one was sitting there with me to see it! Of course I was the only nerd watching Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake...but still! That was a great party - good friends, food and booze. It was one of many souree's over on Capri Rd. We found some random video tape the other day that we had taken over at a BBQ on Capri and it brought back such funny memories. If I could ever figure out how to load it onto the computer I could post some of it so that you could get a chuckle too.

Today we are having some friends over to watch the game and snack. Another year...more memories to be made.

Roasting, Green Chile that is

I found some Hatch Green Chile at the grocery store. That's right, HATCH GREEN CHILE! Only one of the best things ever. EVER. I roasted it over our tiny camping grill, cleaned it, put cheese on it, and then had my way with it. And IT WAS AMAZING. I almost cried when the smell of the roasting chile started permeating the air. It is by far one of the BEST smells in the ENTIRE WORLD.
It is a smell of my past. It brings about so many pleasant memories. It makes my mouth water to even think about the smell. It is a signal of the start of fall in New Mexico. Even if it is still hitting the mid-90's, you just know that Fall is around the corner. The welcome relief from the heat is soon, along with scarecrows on front porches, surrounded by pumpkins, your house smelling warm and welcoming like fresh baked snicker doodles, school supplies, football games, sweaters. All these memories and more flood back to me with one wiff of the roasting chile. I wish everyone could know this amazing smell, and the even better taste of a FRESH roasted green chile. Oh the possibilities...rellanos, green chile cheese burgers, plain on a fresh tortillas, fresh green chile enchiladas, green chile stew!!

visitors from a far away state - postdate

standing in line for the bus to Coors


on the booze tour


Craig said it was the altitude....hmmmm

(Craig - thanks for the not so friendly reminder that I needed to update the hottest blog on the net with your visit - this is for you.)
In June we got our first visitors, after that the computer broke, and I didn't update the blog to include our fun!
Craig and Cherie had to come out on business, but they flew out early to see us!! It was so good to see friends.
We went on the Coors Brewery tour, awesome. We went to eat at a funky resturant downtown and then the next night they got to experience all that is holy, Little Anitas. We also hit up Six Flags...not as much fun as I rememebered. I also don't remember getting motion sickness as easily. I thought I was going to barf all over Craig on one of the swing rides. After 4 hours we all needed a nap.
It was so nice to see familiar faces. And it meant alot to get to see friends. I can't wait for you guys to come out again!

Christmas

Christmas was good to us this year. We stayed in Maryland....it was hard and we missed our family, but we made the most of it. Went to Christmas Eve service, ate a lot, opened presents and played with Kirby. We made out like bandits! We had asked for camping gear this year. We got a Kelty tent, only 4 pds. - perfect for our big trip this summer, dried food, Granite Gear sink and water carrier, a compass, a compression bag, and a GPS system. It's so much fun - we've already been trying to go out and GeoCach.


Hopefully next year we will get to be with family over the Holidays, but despite staying here, we had a wonderful Christmas.

PIANO!!!!

I GOT A PIANO!!! I have wanted one since I got my first apartment. They are just so expensive and hard to move. But a couple of weeks ago I saw that someone was giving one away for free at work!!! So jumped on it and asked some friends if they would help. BIG THANKS to Craig, Geoff, Jason and Renata, Matt and Joanna! We couldn't have moved it without them. It's so nice to have friends who help you out with such a big project.
I really wanted to cry after it was in our house though. It means so much to have a piano. I can't wait to get it tuned and play all the time. I hope to have it forever and teach our kids to play.

My Friend

I'll start at the beginning. Arnold came into our lives shortly after we were married. I was apprehensive about getting a cat, but Tony had one before and we lived in an apt. too small for a dog, so we decided to go to the humane society just to 'take a look around'. We instantly narrowed it down to two cats. The first was meathead. As the name implies, he had a huge noggin. Tony held him and we both liked him. Then the cat next to him came to the front of his cage and meowed. He was smaller than meathead and looked friendly and cuddly. So Tony opened up his cage door, held him to his chest, and the cat rubbed gently against his neck, as if they had already met. But he probably used this seduction on everybody. Tony was hooked, and I knew we were going to take him home. We told the people at the front that we wanted "Jingles" but we had to go to the ATM to take out the $35 bucks and stop to get the neccessities for our new friend.
In the car we tried hard to come up with a new name....Jingles just didn't fit. One of us said Arnold....as in Swarzenager...he wasn't that big of a cat, but for some reason he just looked like an Arnold. So it stuck, our new companion would be called Arnold.
He was shy and tender. We took him straight over to Tony's parents house to show Deb and Dan-o. Then we took him home....that's when it happened....Deer ticks. Crawling out of his ears!!!!!! I was so disgusted. Of course we had no idea what they were, but I just knew we needed to take him back. We'd had him all of an hour and already he was defective! But Tony disagreed and said that we would just have to take him to the vet in the morning. But a whole night of these grose large bugs coming out of his head and into my house? So I hid our toothbrushes and put him in the bathroom. Small enough space. Ok, dumb moment I must put in here, when I called the vet the next morning they told me to put them in a plastic bag. I was so frantic I thought they meant to put Arnold in a plastic bag. This didn't make any sense, wouldn't he suffocate I asked? That's when the kind receptionist told me no, not the cat, the bugs, so we can see what they are. Deer ticks they were. And getting them all out required him to be put under. And they ended up taking out 8 or 9, this was on top of the 4 or so that had already come out at our house. Poor kitty! And after this, $$$ keeps running through my mind. But Dr. Calista is an amazing vet and since we had adopted an adult at the humane society she did everything for less than $50. In his follow up she said his googly eye might have been caused from having the deer ticks. Or he'd been kicked in the head, by maybe a farm animal (it made sense that he would have been a barn car), or maybe even hit by a car at some point. It didn't matter, deer ticks, googly eye, shark tooth that hung over his lip, it all just added to make him even more unique. I was in love. And as you can see from the pics, as our love for him grew, he grew too! He was curious and liked to bite. But we were ok with that, we knew he did it out of love and to check and see if we would still love him even if he was bad. He loved to lay in the sun on our balcony or claw at the rug outside.
Arnold developed stones about 1 week before we moved to MD. But looking back, he'd been having symptoms for a couple of months. We took him to a vet in Roswell (we were staying with my parents) and they fixed him up. I figured he was just anxious about the move. But the problems never ended. For a full year and a half. We were in and out of vet's offices. I was always trying a new vet because maybe they would have the cure....hoping for a cure other than the $1000 operation that was basically a sex change that would allow him to pee out the stones easier. Vet bills, more vet bills, and we were always shoving pills down his throat. He was trying new diets, we were trying to help him lose wait, only feeding him twice a day. He hated this, he'd always been a self feeder, and obviously very good at it.
So a year ago he got sick again. I was in the kitchen and he came and squated next to me, cried and tried to pee. But it was only blood. He was desperate. He had never once gone anywhere outside of his litterbox. But he was smart, he knew what he was doing. So I shoved some more medicine down his little mouth and made an appointment at once again, another vets office. But we had already made the decision. The appointment this time was not to get him more medicine. It was to end the pain and the suffering. Our heart was absolutely broken. How do you put down your friend? Who were we to say that we all had to stop trying? But we just tried to rationalize it. He was suffering. Even when he wasn't clogged up, we were shoving medicine down him, and when he was sick he was staying at the vets overnight to get a catheter put in and shots, and x-rays, and there was no way that he could understand any of this, only that he was in pain. After we would bring him home he would have trouble controlling his urine, so it would just come out. And we could tell that he hated the way he was smelling, so he would hide from us. We would have to pry him out of wherever he was to clean him up. It wasn't fair anymore. We had invested so much and so had he. There wasn't even a guarentee that the surgery would work. And no way did we have $1000. So I took him in and held him. And cried and cried. I was standing there with his head in my hands as they gave him the shot to end his pain and his little life was over. Tony and I's life together had always had him in it, and now we were alone.
A year ago, and still as I sit here I can't help but sob. I miss my friend so much. He was a huge part of our life. I know most people say, he was just a cat. But he made me laugh, made me cry, had so much personality and filled me happiness. I still think about him and all his antics. We needed him as much as he needed us. Did we do the right thing? I don't know. And I can't think about it, because it only hurts and gets me nowhere.
We're thinking about getting another cat soon. But I told myself not to love this one too much, because things may not work out. And I really don't think I can ever love another cat as much as I loved my Arnie.