Boots and Scarves A-Plenty

Looky what I scored:

I pretty much fell in love with these Born Concept boots the moment I laid my eyes on them.

The spousal unit and I went shopping at the 16th Street Mall in Denver for our anniversary. I love this time of year because there are boots and scarves a-plenty! I swear, I wish I had a closet that looked like this:

I'm a sucker for boots and scarves. They're kind of my signature fashion statement. I wear a scarf almost every day from fall to spring - unless it's warmer than, say, 70 degrees. At that point, wearing a scarf in 70 degree weather seems a little ridiculous. Unless, of course, the scarf looks like this:

 Scarves are so versatile.

This is one of my favorites:

Green: my favorite color.  And I love it with this New York & Company trenchcoat (which I scored the day after Christmas last year for about 75% off.) What a bargain!

**Side note: The buttons were not sewn well onto the jacket. Four buttons have fallen off...  Luckily for me, button-sewing is a skill I learned way back in the day. Fallen buttons do not sway me. However, I have yet to sew one button back on. So, now my jacket pocket is full of buttons. While fallen buttons do not sway me, my lack of motivation does. There. I said it.

Here's another scarf I love:

RED! (With a green jacket, of course.)

I'm passing on these girly tendencies to my daughter, who flips out at the sight of shoes and little hair things. I have a feeling I'm going to be very poor when she is a teenager. I hope the spousal unit can score another job to support her impending shopping habit.

An Ordinary Autumn Eve

This:

This:

This:

 And this:

...makes for a really nice evening.

The Challenge

The beginnings of a nice quiet evening, and perhaps a new blog entry:

But, then.... bedtime fail.  Snuggled with Eden for over an hour after bath and stories. I finally had to turn it over to daddy to work the snooze magic.

And now I'm too tired and unispired to write anything worth while.

I've been neglecting

Yes, it's true. I've been neglecting my blog. Super busy, relative uninspired to write about things that will be completely public, and, if I'm honest, a tad bit of laziness. Mostly the latter two, though.

So why do I write now?

Well... I realized that I might have a mild case of OCD. Those of you who know me well are probably cracking up right now thinking to yourself (or possibly out loud to your computer screen or iPhone), "YOU JUST REALIZED THIS NOW???" Let me explain myself.

First of all, no... I always knew this. But I didn't realize the extent. I know I'm anal about organization and cleanliness, etc.  Here's the dealio. I just might need therapy.

My spousal unit bought a house. I mean to say, WE bought a house. Another house. That's two houses. One in Oregon. One in Colorado. Two. Who knew? I was in Vegas sitting at a slot machine with my buddy Michelle from Oregon (man, I love that girl) when I got a text from the spousal unit that said, "We bought a house!"

No, I had not seen it. But, delightfully, because he knows me SO WELL, I trust him to make such decisions without me. And he exercised this freedom of choice. (By the way, he did very well. So, I really am not being sarcastic.)

In his excitement over moving out of our tiny little upper condo, he and his brother decided to pack a few things.

I came home to not the usual cramped living/dining/kitchen area scattered with toys, blankets, pillows, crumbs and crumpled up paper. No. I came home to a showroom. Most anything that could be seen with the naked eye was packed. It looked awesome.

And then I went into the master to change (because I made a mad dash from my car to the front door during a monsoon, which... if you know anything about the monsoon season in the mountains... needs absolutely no explanation whatsoever). The bedroom was spotless. And so was the bathroom.

And then it hit me. My. Stuff. Was. Touched.

My. Stuff. Was. Moved.

Some. Of. My. Stuff. Was. Packed.

Anxiety.  And a lot of it.

It was then that I realized I needed help.

So I asked my spousal unit to pour me a drink.

And all is better.

YAY! We're moving! (Well... maybe. We have our inspection today. We'll see.)

It has been a while since I last blogged (or "glogged," as I just typed), so I suppose it's time for an update. In all honesty, it isn't that I haven't been inspired to blog. I've just be so, so, so busy. And when I finally have the time, it's at the very end of the day when we've finally managed to get both kids in bed (and they've finally stayed) and asleep, and I need to decompress a little. As a result, the blog suffers. So sorry to my faithful readers (all ... what... 25 of you?).

I know your next question. I get it all the time. "What has you so busy?" Well, for starters, my job is crazy-go-nuts. I mean... for me, it's in a good way. Because I seriously love what I do. I know for many, that is just incomprehensible. Most people only dream of loving what they do. But, truly, I found my perfect match in my career, and by the grace of God, He spoke to me about a job about 10 months ago, and on a whim I applied, completely forgetting that I did such a thing, and then through a series of events that only God could have orchestrated, He handed me a gift practically on a silver platter. (I still haven't blogged about that whole deal. One of these days I might... It's an awesome story!)  All that to say, I freakin' love where I am, what I do, and the people (waddup, 7's!) I get to interact with almost on a daily basis... Wait... yep. Pretty much on a daily basis. (See, my phone or email is constantly going off... Such is the life of an HR girl for a fire department, which, duh, is a 24-7 operation. So, if you haven't already put two and two together, this pretty much means that there is something going on at all hours of the day and night every day of the week. Lucky me, I'm often right in the middle off it. Which... kinda rocks. Just sayin'.)

I'm super excited about what this next year will bring. We've embarked on an accreditation process which is a very involved, time consuming process and will pretty much scrutinize our organization from the inside out. Since my department (HR) is new as of June 2010, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. That takes up a lot of my time. In addition, I'm starting a few new projects and programs to benefit the members of our organization, which I'm super excited about. (No sneak peak!) This, on top of my regular duties, which is the full time job. So... yeah... All that other stuff is work outside of regular work hours.

From the left: Fire Chief, Battalion Chief, and Deputy Chief

I had to share this... This is so how life at the F.D. works. After volunteer academy graduation, a few of us went out to grab a bite. Our phones and pagers are going off all the time, so, of course, everyone has to respond. Here we are, sitting at the table, all the gents are lookin' sharp in their Class A's, and ... the phones get whipped out. It was like this all through the meal. This would never be acceptable anywhere else. I've become one of them.  Cracks me up.

Aristotle the Distracting SQUIRREL!

And here is my office mascot, Aristotle. My friends Jen & Michelle (Hi!) gave him to me for Christmas. He has a whole wardrobe of outfits from Uncle Sam to a Samurai warrior. He's a very wise, philosophical squirrel. And he's very distracting. SQUIRREL!  The Fire Chief doesn't like his name. He tried naming him Sid, but Sid reminds me of Ice Age (Sid the Sloth), so that didn't work for me. I told him if he could come up with something better, we would consider changing his name. So far, he's got nothin'.

And then... I still have a husband, who apparently still likes me because he wants to spend time with me. Weird. And I have two beautiful babies who need their mommy.  Oh, and I still have friends who would like to see me come up for air every once in a blue moon.

So, yeah. I'm busy.

Scott is still working for Ridgeview. I won't comment on that whole deal as some things are in development and I don't want to a) take away his thunder, 2) reveal too much, or c) head off any progress that is being made. But... I will say this: exciting times.



Jeffrey in Keystone

 Jeffrey is such a little man. Oh, my. He is hysterical! He's still as smiley as ever. He's pretty much completely potty-trained (minus the few accidents that still occur, or his just plain stubbornness). Like the time he refused to pee on the potty, and instead peed all over the kitchen floor. This was... 2 days ago. So, I made him clean it up. Now, moms, seriously, don't get all gaspy like I'm abusing him. It wasn't intended to humiliate or anything like that. He peed on the floor, made a mess, and I asked him to be responsible and mop it up. I helped him. But it made a point. And he got it. 

I cannot believe how developed Jeffrey's language is. Sometimes I forget he's only three. The things that come out of this kid's mouth. The other night I was tucking him in bed and we started singing, "Jesus Loves Me." (Ahhhh, warms my soul.)  He stopped and said, "Mommy, I can't see Jesus." I said, "You can't? Why not?" He replied, "Because, he's not here." I said, "Jesus is always with you." Long pause. I asked him, "Where is Jesus?" Jeffrey got a big smile on his face, put his hand over his heart and said, "I can't see Jesus because Jesus is in my heart!" I said, "That's right!" Long pause....

Jeffrey said, "There's a bone next to Jesus."

I couldn't hold that one in. I busted up. Ya know, it makes perfect sense. If Jesus is in his heart (which he takes literally at this age), he's absolutely right that there is a bone next to Jesus.

It's just too good.

And little Miss Eden. What a doll she is! One of our Battalion Chiefs is a good friend of ours. About a month ago, Scott and I took the kids up to Keystone for the weekend to meet up with a bunch of my coworkers while they were at a conference. We had everyone over to our condo one night for some socializing. The BC was watching Eden run around all over and finally said to me, "Who's the mother? She's too cute to be yours." hahahaha  That cracked me up. But he's absolutely right. I don't deserve Eden. She really is too cute for words. There isn't one single day that I don't look at her and think what a gift she is. All those issues from the start of that pregnancy are still so fresh in my mind.

Eden is a character. She is going to be quite the comedienne. She already has perfect timing. And she can keep a total poker face when she's teasing. She loves to play games with us. When she laughs, it's a full belly laugh. She giggles once in a while. She and Jeffrey are very different in that way (and pretty much all other ways). While he giggles and laughs constantly, she is very reserved. It's hysterical to watch.



What a love!

 It's hard to believe she's 15 months. 15!!!! She finally has teeth. That only took over a year. She runs around the house in her little footy-pajamas (which we call her Barbaloot suit - think Dr. Seuss) and I can't believe how much she's grown. But, she's still tiny and adorable. She was huge until about 9 months. Then she started slowing down. She's still about 25 pounds. She's fits exactly into the clothes for her age (12-18 months now). Her hair is all cropped and curly, almost like we had it cut that way, but it is just naturally adorable. She has the bluest eyes and the longest eyelashes... Lucky girl. And when she looks at you with those big, blue eyes, it just melts your heart. What a blessing.

Life in Colorado is grand! We got a ton of snow just before New Year's, so we had a four day weekend to spend sledding and romping in the snow. Such fun!



Daddy & Eden about to hit the hill



Daddy & Jeffrey gaining momentum



The little hill right outside our front door

It's such a stark contrast from life in Oregon. I'm affirmed every day that this is where we were meant to be. Sunny weather. Mountains everywhere. Snow, snow, snow!

We have friends again. Community. People that engage with us. People that invite us wherever(or vice versa) just because, and it doesn't have to be planned out months in advance. We go to coffee and talk. We go for walks. Go to the gym. Go to brunch. Go out for lunch or dinner or beers.

It feels so good to be home.

Really, really good.