Fun in CoMo

Interesting Post

2009-11-06T09:09:00.001-06:00

Jersey posted something interesting last night...

http://theamazingjersey.blogspot.com/2009/11/eavesdropping.html

More random pictures

2009-10-20T08:09:00.003-05:00

This summer we had a garage sale with Devon and Alicia. Towards the end, it was pretty slow, so we took a picture of August sitting in a bucket of stuffed animals!

Last weekend (Oct 10) we went to Family Day at Columbia College. Many of the attractions were still a bit too old for him, but he LOVED the bounce house, especially when other kids would get in and he would bounce up and down.

August 10 months

2009-10-20T08:07:00.002-05:00

I missed some months in here because they're on the other camera, which I don't bring to work and would have to use the computer at home, which is eternally slow.

So, these are the ones that I took from my phone. As you can see, he would not sit still for anything! Hopefully 11 month pictures are coming soon!

Five Months

2009-04-07T07:52:00.002-05:00

Auggie turned five months old on March 21! Here's his five month bear picture with him in his Tiger t-shirt! He was getting ready to celebrate the Tigers going to the Elite Eight!

He's still changing so much every day. He can almost roll over on his own and "talks" to himself all the time - even in falcetto! It's so much fun to listen to him. We finally got the chance to finish decorating his room this past weekend - this was a task slated for when I was about 39 weeks pregnant and we never got the chance to get to it! So now, five months later -- it's complete!

Random pictures

2009-02-27T14:33:00.001-06:00

Taking a bath
Super baby!

Sitting up! (and then falling over moments later)

As you can imagine, since Auggie is our only child, we take a LOT of pictures of him. So, I decided to post some of the random cute ones!

Four Months

2009-02-27T14:31:00.002-06:00

Auggie turned four months old last weekend! Here's a picture of him sitting in the chair. I can't believe how much he's changed in the past two months. He still seems like a newborn to me, but he's clearly not!

Lounging and Laughing

2009-02-20T15:16:00.003-06:00

I took this picture about two weeks ago. Auggie loves to sit on his own, but keeps falling over! Here you can see that he's tipping to the side, but it looks like he's just lounging!

The video was taken about a week ago. Two weeks ago Auggie laughed for the first time, but I couldn't get him to do it again. Last week Jeff had a cold/sore throat and was clearing his throat and made Augs laugh! The video quality isn't great, but you can hear him laughing pretty well!

Three Months

2009-02-20T15:13:00.002-06:00

So, I'm kinda behind in posting because tomorrow Auggie will be four months old, however, here's the picture!

He is SO fun now because he smiles all the time, loves to take baths and "talks" to us constantly. He's also started sucking his thumb a tiny bit (it's so cute!) and has been sleeping (virtually) through the night since 12 weeks.

Two Months

2009-01-04T21:25:00.003-06:00

Auggie turned two months old on December 21. I decided to start taking monthly pictures to chart his growth. So, here he is in the rocking chair in his room. He's starting to be able to hold his head up on his own and he tries valiantly to suck on his thumb...but no luck yet! He's taken to "talking" to himself when we lay him down and we'll hear him just sighing and cooing to himself - it's so cute! He's becoming the noisy one in the family! We're excited to see what happens in the next month!

Family Pictures

2009-01-03T13:59:00.005-06:00

When August was two weeks old we took some family photos to put on our Christmas card. I think they turned out really well. We expected to be there for an hour and it ended up taking three! Life with a baby... :)

First Christmas

2009-01-03T13:33:00.003-06:00

We had a great time celebrating Christmas with our families. On Christmas Eve we went to church with my brother, then went and opened presents with Jeff's family. On Christmas day, they came over for some lunch.

On Christmas Eve we also arrived home to find that Jersey had thrown up on our loveseat, so on Friday we decided to go purchase new living room furniture! Merry Christmas to us!!

On Saturday we went to St. Louis to celebrate with my family. We celebrated with the extended family and on Sunday with my immediate family. After that, my dad, Jeff and I went to the casino! On Monday we went and watched the MU bowl game with Katie and Greg, Lou and Sarah.

Auggie did really well on the trip. We didn't have to stop on our way to/from St. Louis because he slept the entire way. He was pretty exhausted from all of the excitement, though. He just turned two months old right before Christmas.

We're so excited to have him as part of our lives. He really made the Christmas season wonderful this year. As always, we are overwhelmed by the generosity of others.

Bathtime Fun

2009-01-03T12:38:00.003-06:00

Auggie loves the bath! He wasn't a fan of the first few when he was a newborn, but now he loves them!

Halloween

2008-11-11T17:43:00.003-06:00

Auggie's first Halloween he dressed up as a reindeer. The outfit was a bit too big, but he still had a good time trick or treating! We ended up going to the Rau's with Devon, Alicia, Cami and Rory and having margarita's, which is the best way to trick or treat!

Auggie

Kadee and Auggie

Cami

Alicia and Rory

Rachel and Auggie

Pictures of Auggie

2008-11-11T17:40:00.002-06:00

If you are interested in more pictures of Auggie, here they are!

Birth Story of August Dean White

2008-11-04T21:03:00.004-06:00

On Tuesday, October 21 around 4:45am I had my first “real” contraction. I had been having ~20 contractions a day (not kidding!) since about the end of July, but this one felt much different. So different that I thought, “What the crap was that?” I didn’t think it was a real contraction at all, but I knew that it was different. I couldn’t sleep, so I watched the clock and had another one about nine minutes later. And another seven minutes after that. I couldn’t stay in bed, so I got up and went into the living room. Jersey wanted to go out, so I let her out and turned on the news. I decided that sitting on the birth ball would be most comfortable so I got it from the nursery and sat in front of the TV for about an hour. I timed contractions and they quickly went from seven to five to every three minutes apart.

Around 6:30am I decided that I didn’t want to deal with them by myself anymore, so I woke Jeff up. I said, “I think I’m in labor, but I’m not sure.” How do you know for sure? I kept thinking, if this isn’t real, I’m going to have to get ready for work soon. I definitely didn’t want to call in that early and then have it be false labor. Jeff got up with me and could easily tell that these were different and more “active” than anything I had experienced in the past. I couldn’t talk to him during contractions. We went back out to the living room and he encouraged me to call our midwife. I did around 6:45am and woke her up. I had to have Jeff talk to her during contractions. She said that she would get some supplies and slowly make her way to our house. She advised that I take a shower because the water would make false labor slow down and real labor speed up. I took her advice but was quickly afraid that I would run out of hot water, so I filled the tub. I also couldn’t stand up during contractions and so I ended up just sitting in a bath (which really wasn’t what she intended). During this time, labor picked up immensely and I had to start vocalizing through contractions and stare at a focal point. I didn’t know that I would take to this pattern so easily – I always envisioned myself as someone who would be really quiet. Not true!

Jeff encouraged me to call into work and call our friend, Alicia, to come over. I was desperately afraid of breaking my labor pattern and messing up the progress I was making, so I put off these options as long as possible. Around 8:45 or 9:00am Jeff called both and told work that I wouldn’t be in and asked Alicia to come over. By the time she got there (around 9:30, I think) I was definitely in active labor and having to deal with some much harder contractions. I remember asking Jeff when our midwife would be there and telling him that I wanted her there ASAP. I don’t know why, but I remember feeling like things would be better with her there.

She arrived shortly after and I remember asking her if she would stay (sometimes they leave and come back if your labor isn’t well established or it’s still early). She said no, she was definitely staying. This made me feel better. I stayed in the tub for almost two more hours, although it only felt like 20 minutes. Time was really hard for me to keep track of. Eventually I decided that I had had enough of the tub and went back to the birth ball. My back hurt immensely and I was afraid that I had back labor (even though I KNEW the baby was LOA before labor started – maybe he turned? I just couldn’t imagine that my back hurt that much and he was anterior). I kept asking our midwife if she thought it was back labor and she claimed that she could feel his position for me. I asked what had to be done to do this and she said that she needed me to lie down on the couch. I acquiesced, but it was pure torture. This was the worst part of my entire labor, including when he was born. I just could NOT lay down on my back – it was terrible. While I was there, though, I asked her to check and see how dilated I was, out of sheer curiosity. Surely I was more than 3-4, I thought! She checked and said I was nine! Nine!! I was very uplifted by this information. The baby was also still LOA, too, which was great. She said that I could move to the birthing tub that was set up in the kitchen. This was amazing! Whoever invented that tub is a genius! I can’t imagine giving birth any other way, or even fathom how people do it! The water was awesome.

From this point on, things are extremely blurry. Some of the contractions were so intense that I couldn’t imagine them getting any worse (but they didn’t get worse). They were soooo hard and I kept wondering (aloud) how I could do this and especially how I could do this without all of my support people (our Dr. had arrived at some point in here, but I couldn’t tell you when). I also remember asking why anyone would do this twice?? Looking back, I thought that was a pretty funny comment, but at the time I was dead serious.

I began having pushing contractions around 1:30pm and this was sooo much better. It finally felt like I was accomplishing something and I was able to stop vocalizing. I pushed for about an hour and a half and he was born at 2:53pm! I know because I think I looked at the clock about every five minutes! His birth in the water was amazing because I got to feel his head in the water before the shoulders were born and he had so much hair! We also didn’t know, at that time, if he was a boy or a girl. His shoulders were born two seconds later and I pulled him up out of the water and into my arms. The cord was wrapped around his chest and his right leg! He had his eyes open and didn’t cry at all – just stared at us peacefully. Jeff was somewhat freaked out by the lack of crying, but I knew that it was pretty typical for babies born in that environment. Almost two minutes after he was born we realized that we didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl, so I held him up and Jeff said, “I think that’s a boy!” I was shocked! I was SO convinced that it was girl the entire time I was pregnant. So much for intuition! :)

In the tub, right after birth

Alicia and Auggie, right after birth

About 20 minutes after he was born we were able to move to the bedroom and get comfy. This was by far the best part about having him at home. Well, no, there are so many great things about having him at home, but this was a nice part. I knew that no one would take him from us, everything was done in our room, I got to stay in my normal clothes, etc., etc. It was all so peaceful and perfect. We called people around 4:30pm to let them know about his birth and had our first visitors around 6:30pm.

Getting weighed

Overall, our experience couldn’t have been better. Everything was exactly as we intended and was so wonderful. We are so grateful to our birth team – they made the experience everything that we wanted. And we are so blessed to have such a wonderful, easygoing baby. It’s been two weeks since his birth and we couldn’t ask for a baby with a better disposition! Enjoy the pictures!

Birth Announcement

2008-10-28T17:54:00.004-05:00

August Dean White was born at home on October 21, 2008. He was born at 2:53pm and weighed 7lbs, 9 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

More information about the birth, photos and videos to come.

Maternity Pics

2008-10-28T17:22:00.005-05:00

So before the baby was born, we decided to try and take a few nine month photos. We missed the "outside" light the first day and were going to try again soon, but he came before we got the chance! In any case, here are a few of the pics we took two days before he was born.

Too big for the bed...

2008-10-09T20:47:00.001-05:00

Apparently Jersey is too big for her bed...

34 Weeks

2008-09-22T18:44:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure if you can tell yet...... :)

Mizzou Stuff

2008-09-11T20:12:00.001-05:00

Apparently our friends and family know us well...either that, or they have excellent taste! Here's a picture of some awesome Mizzou baby stuff that we received at a shower.

MU - Illini Game

2008-09-04T17:11:00.005-05:00

Last weekend Jeff and I went with our friends, Devon and Alicia, to St. Louis to hang out with Katie and Greg and go to the MU - Illini game (which MU won!).

We had a good time eating at Hooters ahead of time, getting to the game ridiculously early (and hanging out around the Dr. Zhivegas stage) and then going to the game.

Here are some pictures of our awesome time:

Eating at Hooters

Jeff and I

Katie, me, Alicia

Greg, Devon, Jeff

Our view from the MU endzone

Stupid Sports Illustrated...

2008-08-11T10:18:00.004-05:00

This is cool, but why do they have to jinx our chances at beating Illinois?

19 days until kickoff...

Camera Update

2008-07-30T09:58:00.004-05:00

I meant to write this in my last post, but I forgot! You'll notice in the last picture that I took a picture of myself with a camera, not the camcorder this time! As you know, our camera died a couple months ago and we were holding off on buying a new one (hello, we have baby stuff to buy!) and one day my mom called up and said, "You remember how about a year ago we lost our camera and I bought a new one? Well, we found the old one!" It was in perfect condition, and since they already have a new one they gave it to us!! How nice was that?

Thanks a lot, mom and dad!!

Third Trimester

2008-07-27T20:18:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was the first day of the third trimester, so I thought I would take a picture and give an update!

The baby still moves around all the time - but now the movements feel huge. I think he/she throws a disco party every night and then sleeps off the hangover during the day :)

I have also been having lots of braxton-hicks contractions. They say these are normal, but they're still a little annoying. The good news is that they don't hurt!

Overall, I can't really complain. I have been really lucky to have a good, healthy pregnancy so far. The first trimester was a little bit rough for a few weeks with nausea and exhaustion, but that's been gone for awhile now and it's been pretty smooth sailing. They say the third trimester is not as much fun as the second, which I can imagine, I'm just hoping that the eating right/exercising that I've been doing helps with that. We're still right on target for dates, which is fantastic. So, in about three months we should have a new little one!

Why Jersey will love the baby...

2008-07-16T18:28:00.002-05:00

I was very excited to buy this barely used jogging stroller from someone on craigslist. It's going to be awesome! When I got it home, I cleaned it and then immediately had to try it out....and since there's no baby yet, Jersey got to try it!

I think she liked it a lot. Can't you tell?? :)

Landscaping

2008-06-20T16:06:00.005-05:00

A year ago we built a retaining wall around the front "garden" area in our yard. A few weeks ago, we decided that the wall had had enough time to "settle" and we could begin planting!! (Just jokes -- this is what we told our neighbors, but we really were just waiting until we had enough money to spend on real landscaping)

So, a few weekends ago my parents came to town and helped us plan our "garden." We had plans to have mulch delivered and to go buy plants. There wasn't a hint of rain in the forecast. Well, that Saturday morning it decided to pour rain on us. There wasn't even a chance of being able to plant on Sunday, since the ground was complete mud.

So, we went and picked out the plants (in the rain - no kidding!) and then held them in our garage until the following Thursday, when it was finally dry enough to plant a little.

Since then, we've been really lucky because it has rained just enough to keep them well-watered. So, here are some pictures of the (small but soon to be large) plants. Hopefully this weekend or the next we'll get the chance to plant some pretty flowers!

The "before" picture:

The "after" pictures:

Picture Finally

2008-06-11T10:01:00.002-05:00

So, our camera still isn't working, but I took a picture with our camcorder. Goofy looking, I know, but it was the only way.

I kept forgetting to ask Jeff to take one when he's home, so I just took it myself (also goofy). But, this is exactly 20 weeks, so I thought it would be cool to commemorate the halfway point!

The baby moves around ALL the time! It's pretty cool. We're not finding out what it is, so we're looking forward to the surprise!

Camera, Work and More...

2008-05-13T15:25:00.002-05:00

So, I haven't updated in forever because of two reasons:

1. Work was soooo busy before graduation last weekend. I mean, seriously, I think I worked every day (including Sat and Sun) for the past five weeks, and before that, it was still ALL the time!

2. I lost my camera! (or, someone nabbed it, but I am thinking I just misplaced it...) so I can't update with pictures!

But, now that graduation has come and gone, things are much quieter at work and I have time to update!

So, the big news: we are having a baby this fall! I would like to include the really bad ultrasound pic we have, but I don't have that on this computer. I'll post it sometime. And, for those wondering (because I always wonder about other people) I have been reassured by many people that no, you can't tell. I can tell...but no one else can. Unfortunately. It's kinda a bummer now that everyone knows that you still can't tell. I'm about four months, so I guess that'll happen sometime :)

If I find my camera (when?) then I promise to post some baby bump pics because I know that it makes me happy when other people do.

Florida

2008-02-12T18:33:00.000-06:00

We are headed to Florida tomorrow on vacation. I am super-excited about warmer weather. It's been so very cold here recently and I am tired of wearing three layers of clothing every day. We'll be staying with Jeff's grandparents who live near Tampa, FL. Hopefully we'll get to do some sight-seeing, but we don't have any major plans (no swimming, unfortunately!).

I'll update with pictures when we return!

Jersey and Santa

2007-12-19T08:51:00.000-06:00

So, at the mall they have a night when you can have your pet's picture taken with Santa. I thought, "When will Jersey ever have the chance to go to the mall again? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" Jeff thought it was an insane idea to take the dog to the mall. Really, I have to agree with him on that. But, again, when will we get to do this again?

So we went to the mall last night. We arrived right as they opened and still, the line was extremely long and it took us about 30 minutes to get to Santa. Let me preface this by saying that as I arrived at the mall I thought to myself, "What am I doing? This is so stupid, taking a dog in a mall." But, I was already there...what's the worst that could happen? So anyway, back to standing in line. I thought there was NO WAY that Jersey would be able to stand in line that long and be good, but she was! I guess all those weeks of training last year paid off (at least a little!). She was extremely interested in all the people and dogs around her, but just sat there and patiently waited her turn. She was especially interested in the squeaky rat that they used to get little kids to smile as they took the picture. When we got to the carpeted area, she decided that she'd had enough and even laid down :) There was a small boy in line right behind us that kept petting her and she was interested in him at first, then decided that there were other, more important things to focus on and he took to just hitting her ear back and forth and she really could have cared less. It was pretty amusing.

Finally it was her turn and she did...OK. She wouldn't look at the camera easily and kept getting distracted, but she was really happy to see Santa! She kept turning around to see him and I had to get her turned back the right way. So, here's the end result:

Merry Christmas!

Fires and Crescent Rolls

2007-12-07T11:39:00.000-06:00

It's been getting cold here at night, so we have been making fires. Ever since Jersey was a puppy she's enjoyed sleeping in front of the fire. She loves them so much that she will stand in front of you while you're starting the fire and wait for you to move out of her way, then will lay down and sleep.

Last night we made a fire and then I was making some crescent rolls for dinner. Jeff and I went in the other room and when we came back, she was still in front of the fire, however, mysteriously seven of the eight (uncooked!!) crescent rolls had disappeared from the top of the stove! I wonder how that happened? Here are some pictures of the (not-so) innocent culprit.

Sometimes it gets hot in front of the fire. Does she get up and move? No. Just pants a lot!

MU/KU Game

2007-11-28T11:21:00.001-06:00

We went to the MU/KU game at Arrowhead a few weeks ago and had a great time. It was cold, but the game was so much fun! Here are some pictures.

After the win

Jersey had to stay at home, but she did her part by beating up on a chickenhawk.

The Tigers are headed to the Cotton Bowl on January 1. GO TIGERS!

Butt Pictures

2007-11-21T10:30:00.001-06:00

I've been meaning to post these for awhile. When we were at NACA there was a butt-sketch artist. It sounds crazy, but the drawings are really cute! They are now hanging in my office :)

Josh and Tracee

Josh, Christa and Rosario

Kellen and Jill

Becca, Jamie, me and Tracee

Vegas

2007-11-15T07:37:00.001-06:00

Last week Jeff, my mom, dad and I went to Las Vegas for Jeff's (soon-to-be) 30th birthday. We stayed at the Rio, visited the Hoover Dam and saw Penn and Teller. Here are some pictures from our trip!

Jeff and my mom, gambling

Me at the top of the Stratosphere

Jeff at the top of the Stratosphere

MGM Hotel

The lions inside the MGM Hotel

My parents

Jeff and I

The fountain outside the Bellagio Hotel, with the Paris Hotel in the background

NACA Conference

2007-10-30T13:31:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I took five students to the National Association for Campus Activities Conference in Little Rock, AR. We traveled with a group from Stephens College, which was awesome. Here's a picture of our group:

At this conference, the students get the chance to preview acts (comedians, bands, hypnotists, magicians, etc.) and then select who they want to bring to the school. This is awesome because, for three days, you sit in an auditorium and watch act after act. They each get 15 minutes to perform, so it goes by pretty quickly. Some of the more notable people we saw were Amy Schumer (from Last Comic Standing), Jon Peter Lewis (from the Fantasia season of American Idol) and Kyle Cease (who played Bogey Lowenstein in 10 Things I Hate About You).

Kyle Cease on stage

Jon Peter Lewis performing

Dinner with Rebecca, the advisor from Stephens

Me and Kellen

Why dogs hate their owners...

2007-10-11T09:35:00.000-05:00

So Jeff decided to dress Jersey in a t-shirt. I don't know why. I didn't think it would be funny, but it totally was. She was really complacent about it, but definitely did not enjoy the experience. It was funny to us, though! Notice the awesome Mizzou BSU shirt. Glad that it's getting some use :)

I do not camp...

2007-09-28T11:24:00.000-05:00

I have to go camping tonight...*sigh*

Dog

2007-09-13T21:07:00.000-05:00

I've never used this blog to vent, but tonight I am going to. Each night I take Jersey out for a run and almost inevitably our neighbors' dog is out -- loose. I like this neighbor, so I have never said anything (which I should, I know) but they let the dog roam the neighborhood. The dog doesn't hurt anything, so that's fine, however, when we are running, this dog runs along with us (usually on the other side of the road) and makes Jersey jump and pull on the leash, which I hate.

See, we have spent countless hours in doggie training class, and at this point I have Jersey trained pretty well on how to run on a leash. Left to her own devices, she does a fairly good job. However, upon the arrival of this neighbor dog, she goes INSANE. It becomes fairly impossible to keep her under control. On top of this, I really value my running time (even though I HATE to run --- how does this make sense?) and don't want to be bothered with trying to make her heal, so I loathe the effect this dog has on Jersey.

There, OK, I have said my piece and I won't worry about it from now on. Maybe another route is in order - one that doesn't go past this dog's house? I don't want to have to change my route, though. I value order and really like the route we take now. Hmm....things to ponder.

Welcome, Tiger Tailgating

2007-09-11T16:55:00.000-05:00

This Saturday officially kicks off Tiger tailgating season. Mizzou's first home game will be at 1:00pm against Western Michigan. I love tailgating for several reasons:

1. We get to hang out with our friends, the Rau's, who are super-busy important people and we don't get to see them much of the year.
2. We get to spend the equivalent of a full work day at Faurot Field, cheering on our favorite team.
3. After the game, even if we lose, we stand around in the parking lot and tailgate for at least two hours after the game, which means we totally avoid all of the traffic. How can you argue with that?

If I am counting correctly, this will be our seventh year straight as season-ticket holders. Wow - doesn't that make you feel old? Well...it makes me feel old, anyway.

GO TIGERS!

Weekend at the Courics

2007-09-05T08:47:00.000-05:00

So this past weekend we visited Katie, Greg, Lily and Norm in St. Louis. We also kicked off the beginning of the Mizzou football season by watching them beat Illinois on Saturday. Here are some pictures from the game:

Katie and me

Jeff and Greg: Too cool for pictures

My dad and Nick

Lily: Didn't make it to the game, but she did wear her Mizzou gear in honor of the Tigers

On Sunday, we attempted to go to the St. Louis County Fair airshow to watch the Blue Angels. Apparently, ALL of St. Louis had the same idea, so we decided to bypass sitting in a long line of cars for watching the show in a parking lot. On the way to the parking lot, we stopped for some Ben and Jerry's.

What's cool about this picture is that Jeff is actually holding Lily up

Here we are at the airshow:

Lily wasn't too happy at first about how loud the planes were, but then she decided to take a nap

Here's a video of the Blue Angels flying over

On Sunday night we played some cards with Katie & Greg and Lou & Sarah. This was great fun because the guys decided to cheat, but we didn't let them. They were penalized and we had to start the game over. Although the guys won in the end, the total score for the weekend ended up being, Girls: 2, Guys: 1. Bring on the rematch!

Orientation

2007-08-25T09:24:00.000-05:00

I love this time of year. Seriously. I think most people in my office dread the new students coming to campus but I really enjoy it. It makes for some really LOONG days, but that's offset by the good times that we have.

Last weekend we took 44 students to St. Louis for a day trip. We saw the zoo, the arch, the City Museum and ate dinner at Charlie Gittos. It was a great time. Here's a picture of us going up in the arch.

And a picture of the baby elephant at the zoo.

On Wednesday, we had comedian Eric O'Shea come to campus. Here's a picture of the Student Activities Commission with Eric (he's in the back with a blue shirt that says, "A#1 Grandpa").

Today we are going to Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor! Six Flags was the first "real" job that I ever had and I loved it! So, I really enjoy going back there for the memories, mostly, but also for the Screamin' Eagle.

Breckenridge

2007-08-07T16:29:00.001-05:00

So, this is late getting posted, but it's the most exciting thing that I've done in the past few weeks (work, work and more work, anyone?). I went to a conference in Breckenridge, CO! It was so nice there - the weather was cool and crisp and a little chilly at night, but that doesn't bother me. The conference was good, not spectacular though, because I would have rather been outside! But, as far as conferences go, I have no complaints.

Each morning (well, two out of three counts, right?) I would go running, however, Breckenridge is at about 9,000 ft and the altitude was so noticeable. The hotel I was staying at was somewhat up a hill (you could go farther up, but if you went down, that was toward the main town). So, I would run down to the main town area, which, at 6:00am was so still and peaceful - it was awesome (especially since I was rockin' to my ipod tunes) and then I would turn around to go back and have to sloooowly run...then walk...back to the hotel. How embarrassing - I don't feel like I am that out of shape, but that altitude totally kicked my butt.

Here are some pictures of the mountains behind the hotel and the rivers that run through town. I am definitely going to try and convince some people at work to let me go back again next year :)

Six Years

2007-07-28T20:38:00.000-05:00

Today Jeff and I have been married for six years. Apparently we don't have any pictures from our wedding on this computer, otherwise I would post one since it was soooo long ago!

On the other hand, our friends Jordan and Chris got married today! So, we will share an anniversary date with them. It was a really pretty ceremony. We are very excited to have these new friends and look forward to spending a lot of time with them, especially tailgating at Mizzou games in just a few weeks!

Congratulations Jordan and Chris!

Craziness at the Mall

2007-07-21T01:24:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but it's been a long time since I was at the mall at 1:00am. The last time I can remember was sometime when I worked in retail in the summer between years in college and had to stay late to do inventory. I remember staying so late that when we left the Panera people were just coming in to bake bagels.

So, when my friend Alicia told me she was thinking about going to the mall to get the new Harry Potter book, being the HP fan that I am I told her I would join her. We arrived at 10:30pm and were there to watch a real-life chess game, see people dressed as Harry, Hermione, Myrtle and more. Very strange, indeed. We both kept saying to each other, "I can't believe we're doing this."

After the countdown at midnight (very "Happy New Year"ish) we were afforded the opportunity to stand in line (albeight the wrong line at first) for not 30 minutes, but a whopping 63! As one high school guy in line next to us so aptly put it, "I feel like I'm losing brain cells by the minute." We still could not believe we stood in line for an hour when we probably could have gone to the super Wal-Mart down the street, walked in and picked up a copy. Ahh...but the experience was worth it (maybe...). When we walked out, some guy was trying to bribe the B&N employee guarding the door with $10 (serious cash!) to let him in to buy a copy. At 1:00am!!

So now, I am the proud owner of the final HP book. Happy reading to me!

Jersey

2007-07-18T10:23:00.000-05:00

This is Jersey when she was a baby - only 8 weeks old

This is Jersey in front of our fireplace -all nice and warm

I thought I would introduce Jersey. She's 1 1/2 years old and is a major handful! She has more energy than any dog I have met. After 8 weeks of puppy kindergarten, 8 weeks of level 1 training and 8 weeks of level 1+ training she is about as trained as she is going to get (which, needless to say, there's still lots of room for improvement).

On Monday I took her swimming at Rocky Fork Lake and she is SO scared of swimming (if only the couch were a big swimming pool....maybe she would be too scared to get on it!) but it's awesome exercise for her and she does a good job. I think mostly she doesn't do well swimming because she has NO body fat (practically). She has a pancreatic deficiency that keeps her from absorbing food well and lost a lot of weight before we figured it out. Now she's back up to a good level, but won't ever regain her normal weight and won't ever be "fat" - if only it were contagious!

First Post

2007-07-17T13:50:00.000-05:00

Well, I am jumping on the bandwagon. I enjoy reading other people's blogs, so I thought I would start my own. Happy first day of blogging to me!