My County....Weld County

Apparently I Don't Blog Enough!

I learned today through my daily blog reading, that I don't blog enough!!!(Thanks Micaela and Kelley) I have been tagged, so instead of writing more drama...I will participate:)

Four Jobs I Have Had:
1. Family Adventure Fun Park (Hostess @$4.25 an hour?)
2. Wal-Mart (cashier and shoe dept. @$5.00 an hour?)
3. Hard Rock Cafe Denver (waitress @$2.13 an hour?)
4. Stay at home mom (FREE)
(I think I must have a thing for jobs that pay next to nothing!!!)

Four Movies I Have Watched Over and Over Again:
1. The Sweetest Thing (best girl movie EVER!)
2. Sweet Home Alabama
3. Little Miss Sunshine
4. Dora The Explorer "Around The World" (not one of my favorites, but I do know how to say hello, in several different languages now!!)

Four Places I Have Lived:
1. Henderson, Colorado
2. Concord, North Carolina
3. Brighton, Colorado
4. Frederick, Colorado

Four Favorite T.V. Shows:
1. The Biggest Loser
2. Brothers and Sisters
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Avalanche Hockey, and Denver Bronco Games

Four Places I have Been:
1. Friendship, Wisconsin
2. Shreveport, Louisiana
3. Omak, Washington
4. Disneyland:)

Four People That Email Me Regularly:
1. Mom
2. Deidra
3. Stephanie Buker
4. Deb Evans

Four Favorite Foods:
1. Greg's Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes
2. My Homemade Enchiladas and Spanish Rice(mmmm...)
3. Greg's Stir-Fry ( my very favorite right now)
4. Farraday's Filet and Sauteed Mushrooms and Caesar Salad

Four Places I Want To Go:
1. Hawaii
2. Yeah Well...That's About It...I know that is horrible, but I'm not much of a traveler!
3. ?
4. ?

Four Things I Am Looking Forward To This Year:
1. Summer
2. My Trip To North Carolina (May 30th-June 3rd) It is officially booked!
3. Wedding in October ( Greg's family loves to get together for a good ol' wedding bash)
4. Christmas...( I can't help it, I love Christmas)

I am not going to tag anyone, but if you feel like participating, I would love to know more about you all! Thanks for thinking of me Kelley and Micaela.

Lost Love

After a tearful evening, I had hoped to wake up to a better morning, after all it is Valentine's Day. A day that, to me, is supposed to be full of love and appreciation, hearts and candy, and flowers too. A day to think about about not only how much you love everyone in your life, but also how much they love you...it hasn't gone quite as I had planned yet, although it is only 11:30a.m.:(
I woke up at 5:00, to see Greg leaving for work. I don't usually wake when he leaves, but after a stressful day and evening yesterday, I really did not get any quality sleep. Greg doesn't usually leave that early, with all of his tools still in the garage, which led me back to my crazy spectulations. I thought since he had clearly seen I was awake, that I would get a kiss good-bye, or even a good-bye, or maybe a "Happy Valentines Day", or "I Love you" would have even worked....I got none of these. He left our bedroom, to head out into the dark of morning, without even acknowledging us, on a day that is supposed to be filled with love.
I cried as I had done last night, and wondered will we both still be here next year this time? Will we reconnect at some point, or has too much damage been done...to much to forgive on my part, and too much to fix on his? I love him, but lately, it feels as though we may be past repair.
There is still a lot of today left, time to go to school, and celebrate with my girls. Time to make all of my important phone calls and express my love to great friends and a wonderful loving family. Time to reflect on all that he and I have shared, and lost. Tears....

**Added later:(He arrived home shortly after I posted this blog...with flowers, and apologies for yesterday. I hold on to the glimpses of hope he offers, because I can not yet imagine my life without him. I am going to try to remember, that even though he doesn't always love me the way I want him to, that he does love me with all that he has.)**

My Baby

My last baby turned 4 on January 29th. I know that being 4 doesn't really qualify you as a baby anymore, but a baby she remains to her mommy.

When she was born, she was not supposed to be the last baby at our house. She was going to be one of the 2 middle children. Complications during delivery, and in the first few days after her birth, made what could have been a hard decision, easy. She would be the last. (details in a later blog)

Tia Cooper is incredibly sweet. She has never had a haircut, and has got long, beautiful, brown hair. While the long hair came from me, it is a completely different texture than mine, one that I can only dream of! Everywhere we go, people are always telling her what beautiful hair she has, to which she smiles this innocent little smile and thanks them. She still loves to tell me how much she loves me, and honestly I melt everytime. Tia has fit the mold of being the baby to a "T", which also happens to be what we call her.

Tia started dance and preschool this past August, and she just loves it. Dance on Tuesday, school on Friday, and every day I wake up to her wondering, if it is either of the days she has something to do. 4 years gone so fast, almost unbelievable:(

My baby is 4

A baby no more

Happy Birthday Big Girl

Christmas in a Flash

Our Christmas here was perfect. They called for a slight chance of snow, and well, it was the first White Christmas in a while. A White Christmas to me, means the snow is falling from the sky...often there is snow on the ground...but there is nothing like waking up on Christmas morning to see snow falling. It snowed all day.

The girls got up about 7, and Greg and I got up then and started moving, and we all finally made it downstairs about 7:30. The "big" girls got a Wii, and other more personalized things...and the "baby"(who will be 4 next month) got a new kitchen. Tia had such a good time, and really could not believe her eyes, that this man named Santa came to her house, and had left her just what she wished for. The older girls were very excited over their Wii, although I'm not so sure how much they still believe in Santa. I think that Kali is fairly confident he really does exist, and well I think Braigen just doesn't want me to know that she knows!!! Mrs. Santa brought Greg Guitar Hero 3, because well, she couldn't figure out how to wrap it for him, without the kids wondering how she knew they were going to get a Wii???

Greg's dad comes into town every year on Christmas. This has always worked well for everyone. Joe, Greg's dad, always brings a prime rib to cook for dinner along with the ham Deidra does. This year our dinner plan had to change slightly, because Joe's 11 o'clock arrival, was delayed to 3 0'clock, and that was not going to be enough time to get the prime rib done...so we cut it into steaks, and voila....mmmm..mmm...goodness! Ham, Steaks, mashed potatoes, cream corn, salad, green bean casserole...everything was scrumptious...as Tia would say!

This year our Christmas family was huge...My 5, plus Deidra's 4, our parents, Ryan's parents, Ryan's Brother and sister-in-law, Greg's Dad, my mom's best friend and her son, and last but not least Deidra's college friend, her husband and their 2 girls. Grand Total 22 I am sure others are just as big, but this was by far, the biggest Christmas ever for us. Great family, and great friends...It really does not get much better than this.

We finally made it back to our house about 9pm, and all I could think was, all the hype, and it's over already. I put so much into it because I love it, but it seems to be gone faster than I can take it all in.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and that the New Year will bring an even better "next year."

On a Much Lighter Note

I had to borrow this image off of Google, because it made me think of what might have happened to gentleman I was driving next to on the interstate today, at 80 mph. Obviously, we have all seen the occasional driver who needs to pick their nose, or the lady who puts her make-up on while sitting at the stop light. This gentleman, who was initially behind me, passed us doing at least 80, while brushing his teeth. I wondered at that moment, where was he going? I mean it was 3:00pm, and he was obviously in a hurry, he didn't even have time to brush them at home. Then came the next question, maybe he was coming from somewhere, not headed somewhere? He brushed and brushed, I'm guessing with a dry toothbrush, because I didn't actually observe him spitting out the window at any point.

I decided after observing while driving, that he had somewhere important to be. When he finished brushing his teeth, he took a really good long look in the rear view mirror, and started picking his nose, apparently not realizing he was not the only one on I-25 today.
Thank you unsafe driver, I needed a good laugh today!
If you have seen something outrageous while driving please share your story. I laughed so hard today!

Relief and Pain

Maria passed away yesterday, Saturday November 10th, at 4:30pm. The doctor thought that her passing would take place the day before, but unfortunately for her, her heart just would not stop beating. I saw Maria both Friday and Saturday at a Hospice Care Facility, and truth be told, she deserved to be able to move on. There is something about watching a person you love, suffer...and that is what was happening to her. She was such a good person, and you had to feel like it was just time, for her time here, to be over. She was not even close to the person I had lunch with, just one week before. That is all it took, to change everything.
Maria's husband, Quentin, said on Saturday morning, that it seemed so unfair that vital organs she needed to survive were consumed by cancer, yet her heart and lungs kept fighting for life...almost like they didn't understand what had changed.
Maria will be missed by so many, who are also grateful that she is no longer responsible for fighting this body ravaging disease.
R.I.P. Maria Kruse, you are already missed.