Off he goes...

So, Jon is on his way to Germany.

Only 81 days until I get to see him again. Is it possible that I’m missing him already?  So what I need from you are things I can do to help this time go by as quickly as possible – any ideas?


Some quick updates…

We had our Bye Bye/Baby Shower on Saturday and although we don’t have a ton of pics I’ll try to get some up soon. Thank you to everyone who made it out to celebrate the newest addition to our family and to see Jon off.

We really appreciate all of your love and support.

I had a baby appointment yesterday and everything looks good. Only thing worth mentioning would be that the baby is measuring big, which probably isn’t much of a surprise for those of you who have seen me lately.

Bad news, we were so busy trying to get Jon all ready for his move that we weren’t able to get the 28 week pictures done. I’ll try to find someone who can continue to document my growing belly but in the mean time you’ll just have to wait.

That’s it for now,

Charmian

How I spend my weekdays

So I realized the other day that this blog doesn't adequately show what  I do from 9 - 5, Monday - Friday.  So that's what I decided to do with this post.

I work as a Human Resources Coordinator, although what I really do is protect and serve my fellow associates every way I know how.  Here I am with my coworker and friend Dee. 

As you can see we are prepared for anything and are ready at a moments notice.

My Legs are Now Even

Well, I climbed Longs Peak on Sunday morning. 1:00 AM Sunday morning generally is considered by me as Saturday night, except when I have set my alarm, gone to sleep and then have been woken by said alarm...it then counts as "morning".

The day started cold and moonlit. The first 4.5 miles were peaceful. Then the moon set, the wind started to blow and I made it to the Keyhole 2 hours ahead of when I had planned where I had to wait out the wind and the dark before starting the ledges.

Good thing I waited......

I was able to watch the sun kiss the surrounding mountain tops from an unbelievable location at 13,000 ft.

Through it all upward I climbed. I made the summit at 7:00 am. I had a moment.

I then limped down 7 miles of trail....the two hour rest period had caught up to me and my right leg was refusing to work. I appreciate my left leg for bailing out my right. I guess Ol' Lefty made up for the Grand Canyon trip. Now that they are even I should be INVINCIBLE!!

Jon

Confession Time

I don't love surprises.

I don't like letting people down. 

I get a little uncomfortable if I start losing control.

Which is why when gift giving holidays come around I get a little uncomfortable.  Here's a little example of what I mean...  When I was 10 years old I snuck around the house until I found my Mom's hiding place for all of the Christmas presents.  I then carefully picked through the pile until I found all of my gifts and then meticulously unwrapped, looked at, and re-wrapped all of my gifts.  Later, when I had time, I sat in front of the mirror and practiced my reactions to all of my different gifts until I felt the reaction perfectly fit the present.  Yes I know this is crazy, but it really helped me to enjoy receiving all of those gifts.  I ruined the surprise but at the same time felt relieved that I wasn't going to disappoint my mom by not having the perfect reaction for all of my Christmas gifts.

Okay now back to today and what made me decide to come clean with this confession. 
So I was showing one of my girlfriends the really cool registry site I found when I saw it... someone bought us our first baby shower gift.  I got so excited and relieved, the same relief I had as a 10 year old sitting on the bathroom counter practicing my reactions. 

So what is it that I am so excited and relieved to know that we're getting...

Teethers!

31 Already

July 19, 2010

This year I was lucky enough to have a birthweek instead of just a birthday. 

My birthweek started July 17th by having dinner with the Hullabaloo's at Cafe Brazil.  Nicole's birthday is just a few days after mine so we got together for a Hullaberger dinner to celebrate, and celebrate we did.  We started our meal with fried plantains with a spicy dipping sauce, fresh bread, and some fabulous drinks.  I was in hog heaven and we were just beginning.  Dinner came and there wasn't a meal on the table that wasn't absolutely delicious.  I was so stuffed but I couldn't stop there we finished with cheesecake and ice cream.  Delicious!!

On the 18th my Mom (Grandma), Mother in Law (Oma), and I had a wonderful birthday lunch at The White Chocolate Grill and then spent the afternoon working on the baby registry and topped off the day with Cold Stone Creamery.

On my actual birthday me, my "Twin" (Twin because we have the exact same birthday not because we look alike.), and another one of our girlfriend's from work had a delicious lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. It was so good but unfortunately we had to hurry through lunch so we could get back to work.

On the 20th my department threw me a delightful little get together complete with my favorite Papa John's Pizza and a GIANT Mrs. Field's cookie.

We finished off my birthday week with an awesome dinner with the Reederman's at Strings Restaurant where our friend Lance Bartow is the executive chef.  Lisa has this amazing ability to make every birthday super special and this one was no exception.  We got to the restaurant and Lisa had a beautiful tiara and flowers sitting on the table for me.  Dinner was incredible - so fresh and delicious.  It was the meal that wouldn't end and every new course was even better than the last.  It wouldn't be a birthday dinner if we didn't finish of the meal with dessert which, if you can believe it, was even better than dinner.

All in all it was a great birthday, and I definitely think I can get behind this birthweek thing.

Thank you all for making this year's celebrations incredible!!

Charmian

Drums Along the Rockies

July 10, 2010

Drum Corps days of summer are here and Jon and I had the opportunity to go to a show for the first time in five years. Drums Along the Rockies is very special because it's the home show for the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corp.

You may be wondering, what’s so special about Drum Corp and why do you care so much?

Well let me tell you…

One of my good friends from high school, Lisa Reederman, was planning on auditioning for the Blue Knights in November of our senior year of high school. Simply put, she didn’t want to go to auditions alone and I don’t blame her, it can be a pretty daunting experience. So she invited the best member of our high school color guard to go with her – nope, it wasn’t me, it was Sarah.  Lucky for me Sarah didn’t want to go so she settled for me and I’m so glad she did.

We went to the camp and although I was in the Color Guard and she was in the Drum Line we spent every moment possible together. Long story short we both made it and our lives were changed forever. We made so many great friends and even more memories that we love to reminisce about to this day.

I made one very special friend – Jon…yup, that’s right – I met my husband at that first BK camp. When we met we didn’t fall head over heels in love, but rather we became good friends.  That’s how it stayed for a few years until one of our mutual friends, Freddy, told us we would be perfect together and the rest is history.

… and that’s why Drum Along the Rockies is so special for us. It reminds us of when we were young. When we met and when we fell in love. It gives us the opportunity to see all those friends we made over the years and gives us one night to catch up, tell stories, and be grateful that we get to go home to our soft beds and clean water. To all of our BK family, thank you for the good times and bad. Thank you for the blood, sweat, tears, and laughter. But most of all thank you for being a part of the first chapter of our great love story.