Inspiring

See the book that I'm reading over on the right side of my blog? Go to the bookstore or library and get it and read it. But don't read it unless you are ready to help make a difference in the lives of women throughout the world. Cause you will want to figure out any way you can to help women who are demoralized in their communities by such horrible means. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know these problems existed as bad as they do. I'm half-way through and having trouble wanting to do anything else but read this book. I want to travel to Congo or Ethiopia or Thailand or Darfur or Nigeria or Cambodia and step out of my selfish world and make a difference. I want to embrace my gypsy blood and go. Not sure EW would like that... ;) So... uh, Katie... I think you should go. Please go. Go because I can't go right now. But I can still make a difference from here.

Read this book.

We aren't proud

We might have ordered this plate full of greasy, fried, fatty food last night and eaten the majority of it. Its not good people. I still have yet to eat today. I'm drinking glass after glass of water trying to cleanse. Why in the world did we do this?! (insert vomit face here).

A Quote

Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world.
Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves.
All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.

- George Bernard Shaw


Its a thinker

Week 13

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! EW and I had mixed emotions as we spent our first married Christmas together in Denver. We talked with both of our families at some point Christmas Eve and Christmas day and knew we were missing out on fun, family traditions but wanting to create our own traditions as well (and avoid crazy airports and crazy travelers).

Essentially, we relaxed a LOT this week. We went to the movies - saw Invictus (3.5 out of 5 stars in my opinion), rented movies on Direct TV (see previous post and my weird rant), hung out with our friends Molly and Jason, went to our favorite restaurants (D'Corazon and Capital Grille) and hit Comedy Works featuring Josh Blue. I was also able to head down to Colorado Springs and go to dinner with (vegas) Aryn. Yes, we relaxed and it was wonderful.

We had the opportunity to help out a single Mother and her 9-year-old son have a Christmas. We took a bag of presents and boxes of food to their home. They live in a very humble circumstance and were most gracious and thankful that they were remembered. It was good for us to be a part of this and made us think of what is important and what else we should be doing to help others.

I'm excited to spend the next week reflecting on this past year and this next year and to set my yearly goals and to set some yearly goals that involve both EW and me and where we want to be a year from now. I think it will be a year of big decisions. I think.

Oh, tradition #1 - open presents Christmas Eve. Eric did not want to wait until the morning. He is funny.

To read and not to see

I know it is Christmas - Merry Christmas! - and I will post about that later. But for now, I really had to pass along these two bits of info.

1. Do NOT see this movie...

500 Days of Summer. We watched it today. It was horrible. The girl was one of those girls who flirted and flirted until the boy falls in love and then she just walks away. Essentially she was never into him and led him on until he was completely heart-broken. It was beyond irritating. EW and I both were so bothered by this. Which is completely tragic. I saw the preview for this movie last summer and thought it looked adorable. I usually like movies with Zooey Deschanel because she is a bit quirky. It has been in my Netflix queue for awhile but happened to be on Direct TV so we rented it. Don't bother watching it. By the middle we had both picked up our laptops and were doing other things.

2. Read this book!

Beneath a Marble Sky. Fantastic read. It started off a little slow but by about 50 pages into it, I could not put it down. In fact, I spent the majority of this afternoon reading it. Finished it. It is about the building of the Taj Mahal and a wonderfully tragic love story. I marked passages in the book. I rarely mark passages in a book. The main character - daughter of the Emperor - was strong. The other characters were well developed. I hated the ones to be hated and adored the ones to be adored. Go read it. Add it to your list for 2010. You won't be sorry.

A Piano

This piano is on the sidewalk in downtown Denver. It is in tune even. I thought it was a cool shot.

Week 12

Do we travel too much?? Yes, I think we do. If we travel over the next two weeks it will be via car and it will be in Colorado only. We need to be home!

Once again, our week took us to other places. This time... Salt Lake City. My girlfriends have an annual Christmas dinner each year and I have never been able to attend. This year, I really wanted to make it work. I purchased a plane ticket over a month ago and Eric ended up having some client visits to do in the area. We both flew in on Thursday - Eric in the morning, me in the evening. We went and saw the gorgeous temple Christmas lights and then had a nice dinner downtown. Eric visited more clients on Friday then went back to Denver and I went to help my friends get ready for the dinner party.

Here is the table all decorated and ready to go. 16 girls, one table. Amy does an amazing job decorating!
It was a great evening with great friends. So glad I was finally able to attend!

Then Saturday, was arts and crafts with this one...
Deana! (sorry about the red eyes, Deana). We tried to make the cute potholders that I received as a wedding present - it was a disaster; we made snowmen; we made heatable corn pads; we watched at least 4 episodes of Glee; we went to the gym; we ate leftovers from the night before; we laughed. A Lot. Essentially a perfect Deana day.

I then headed home Saturday evening. Laurel was leaving for St Louis about the same time so we were able to spend some time together in the airport. Both our flights were delayed so we got even more time. It was great catching up and spending some quality time together.

I was asked to teach the 10 and 11 year old kids at church today. I cut out paper angels and had the kids write down ways they can be nicer, things they are thankful for, goals, etc. And then we hung them in the classroom. One of the boys wrote "Don't Smoke". Yes, indeed 10 year old boy, please don't smoke. That one just made me chuckle. I really hope he doesn't smoke.

And that was week 12. We are over-the-top excited for our 3 day work week and our 4 day Christmas weekend. Merry Christmas everyone!

Girls night out

My new friend Molly invited a bunch of ladies to her home Tuesday night for an ornament exchange and general festive gathering. We had a great time chatting it up. It's nice getting to know new people! I think I left fairly close to midnight. Oops :)

Tsk, Tsk, Tsk

Purchased for EW for Christmas...
Looks like my hiding spot was not a good one... he is in trouble!

Week 11

Week 11 found us in Seattle. We love Seattle! I flew in Thursday so I could visit a client site on Friday and Eric joined me on Friday and we hung out in Seattle until Sunday afternoon. Yes, it was very cold. No it never rained. Yes, we saw the flying fish at the Pike Place Market.

EW and I love good food. We mostly eat at home during the week and really whenever we are in town but when we are away and eat out... we dine! Hence why I had to start exercising faithfully again (and I realize I haven't done every day like I said but every other day is better then no days!)

We had some amazing food in Seattle. King crab legs, crab bisque, salmon, oysters (I don't eat those; just EW), and on and on. I did not eat dinner last night after our gluttony in Seattle.

We did hit the Market and even took home some fish.

This guy is now in our freezer... (the fish)
We completely lucked out with sunny skies the entire time. Sure, it didn't get above 35 degrees but it was sunny! We took a boat tour...


We were both completely fascinated with this cargo ship. It is unbelievably large (too large to fit through the current and soon-to-be renovated Panama Canal). They were loading cargo as we went by. I seriously have like 10 pictures. I've never seen such a large ship.

We also got a clear shot of Mt Rainier which is pretty rare for Seattle. The picture didn't do it justice. I'll just say it is absolutely magnificent!

We were suckers and purchased the boat tour photo they took of us. Cute eh?
Besides the fish we got a block of cheese, a photograph, Seattle playing cards and that red hat cause I was freezing. Random purchases, yes.

This is me happy to be inside and warm after being out in the cold for several hours :)

What a great getaway weekend!

Week 10

We started the week by decorating our loft for Christmas. Eric hung the lights around the windows...

I hung the lights on the tree...
We put up our nativity in front of the fireplace and hung the stockings on our art piece. :)


When we picked up our produce/egg delivery this week they gave everyone a wreath for their home. This is a real hand tied wreath. It is gorgeous. I love our produce delivery more and more. What a great treat.

We are ready for Christmas!

Eric finally had enough of his beard. He shaved it off and looks oh so handsome. I didn't think I was ready for him to shave it but it is nice seeing his whole face again.

Eric's boss and another co-worker were in town this week and we had them over for dinner one evening. We made cedar plank salmon and a carrot/potato/onion sauteed dish. Both were very, very good. Seriously, we have so much produce at our home!

We have now embraced our Cuisinart. We've chopped and sliced as much as we could this week. The thing is unbelievable. Wow.

We went to the movies one evening to see Precious with some new friends. Yes, we are making more and more friends. :)
We loved the movie. It was real, it was heart wrenching, it made us want to do better and be better. We highly recommend it.

And then perhaps the highlight of the week was going to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Oh, how I absolutely love this play! And EW is SUCH a good sport to go to these things with me. It was a local production which meant a nice, small venue. We were in the second row and could see every expression on every performer. The guy who played Joseph looked like a young Tom Cruise. Here is me with him. Tom Cruise movies kept running through EW's head during the production. Ha Ha.

We are now watching a little football... cause if it is Sunday, it is football. And we have homemade chili simmering in the crock pot, we made a loaf of homemade cornbread, it is snowing and it is freezing outside.

It was a good week!

Did we like it?

What do you do when you have potatoes, carrots, onions, beets and cabbage on hand? You make Borscht, of course. ;)

I got online yesterday to try and find a recipe that would contain all these veggies and Borscht is what came up. So we decided to give it a go today.

Here were the rules once it was cooked and ready to eat per Eric.

1. Don't make eye contact with each other
2. We aren't allowed to say anything until we are half way done
3. We have to come up with a creative adjective to describe it

My description: Well, you wouldn't feed it to children or invite house guests over for it
Eric's description: Its very beety. Maybe we can take out the beets next time.

In case you didn't know, beets is what makes it Borscht. Without beets, its just a veggie stew. Funny EW.

I liked it. I'd eat it again. And trust me, I will. We have SO much leftover. Eric? He was iffy. He really didn't like the beets.

Name this veggie

We received our weekly veggie delivery yesterday and received this lovely veggie. But what is it?


Here it is in comparison to a brussel sprout stem. Can anyone help us out here??

December challenge anyone??

Remember when I told myself that I was taking two weeks off exercising post-wedding and then would get back into it? 9 weeks later and I have not step foot on the elliptical, gym or bike trail. This morning I woke up feeling VERY full and motivated to get back on track!

It is December 1st. Eric and I are challenging each other to 31 days of exercise this month. Come do it with us!! Exercise equals a minimum of 30 minutes every day and can be cardio, strength or flexibility.

Ready?

Week 9

Blogs really are no fun without pictures. I just was not good this week about taking pictures. So I'll make this one quick. Eric and I drove to Arizona for Thanksgiving this past week/end. We had a great time with my family and the couple friends we saw. Here is a quick list of what we did.

Saw Deana, Mike, Marissa and baby Jonah who is the cutest thing in the entire world. He is 15 months and Uh-dorable!

Ate Thanksgiving at my brother Mark's home. It did not disappoint. The weather was fabulous; we ate out on the patio, played ping pong and visited and laughed, ate a ton and watched Macie, Tate and Hallie (the 3 little kids) play. Little kids are highly entertaining. This is Roger after he ate. How is he possibly staying in that chair?!


Eric went shooting with Robert and the boys.

We played a ton of cards.

Did a little shopping. Very little.

Jumped on the trampoline with Katie. I just wish I had a picture of Eric jumping on the trampoline. He had never been on one before. It was hysterical!

Went on a day trip to Jerome and Sedona. It was fun to watch a newbie experience Sedona for the first time. It is an amazing area. We would love to go back and spend even more time there exploring the red rocks.

Week 9 was good. Week 9 included two 13 hour drives to/from Denver/Arizona. Wow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I love traveling to be with family, eating and grazing all day, lounging around, playing cards all without the headache of "what do I buy for this person, for that person". Somewhere in my early adulthood I stopped liking the gift-giving of Christmas. So Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday to me.

Eric and I are packing up the car and heading for AZ in a few hours. We are equally excited to spend time driving in the car as we are to be in AZ. The car gives us a chance to connect without distractions of the TV, internet and (mostly) cell phones. After flying to/from Western NY last weekend on separate airplanes, it means even more to spend time together - just the two of us.

We both took a leap of faith getting married after dating long-distance. Everyone told me living in the same city let alone the same house is very different than our dating life had been. But it was well worth the risk. He is good. I squeezed the last bit of bachelor he had in him to make room for me in the loft. I chose new paint, I added some books, baskets, pillows, art work and plenty of pictures on the fridge. I could see him tense up a bit at times but he never said anything. He let me nest into his world.

He lets me freak out about silly things (I'm a bit of an emotional girl; poor thing), he cooks me dinners, breakfasts, cleans the kitchen, cleans the house, and takes out the trash. He stays up late; I go to bed early. He watches sports; I watch reality shows. He draws me out socially; he is far more social than I am. He listens to me, he plans with me and he genuinely wants me to be happy. He is what I'm most thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday! xoxo

week 8

Eric and I (yes, on separate airlines) flew to Rochester this week/end to spend time with his family and more importantly for Eric to get out his camouflage and try to kill some deer. It was opening weekend of the deer hunt in Western NY.

He spent the first day fixing a broken 4-wheeler with his Dad and I spent the first day in bed being sick. I felt the illness coming on Monday night and was in Dallas for a work conference so couldn't slow down. By the time I got to Rochester Thursday evening, I was sick. I literally slept all day Friday. I felt bad being on vacation and being sick but what can ya do? The sleep helped; I woke up Saturday much, much better.

Here is Eric on his 4-wheeler decked out for the hunt. It makes me giggle. He spent hours in a tree in the cold waiting for deer. Why is that fun?



And here is Gunther, the Werth's stately dog. He really looks like he should be smoking a pipe.
I did my snowmen craft with the kids (pictures coming later) and we ate VERY well the whole weekend. My Mother-in-law is SUCH a good cook. We always look forward to being fed when we visit.

And week 8 is officially down in the books.

Week 7

We had a good week. We thoroughly enjoyed just being around each other this week, hanging out and cooking. We did manage to do a few other things though..

First off, we signed up with Grant Family Farms to get their weekly organic vegetable and cage-free egg delivery starting this Tuesday. We got in right at the end of the season (over mid-December) but figured it would give us a good idea if we want to do this again in the spring. You can offer to donate time on the farm and get a discount on the produce. I would love to learn more about farming so we will most likely sign up for that next round.

I was able to sew this week since EW fixed my machine. Ya-hoo! I worked on a couple quilts. They turned out super cute.

I met more of EW's friends at the Av's game last night. This is Brian, Sean and Elaine. Very fun people; we had a great time even though the Av's lost 8-2 to Vancouver.

And it snowed and snowed last night. We were pretty much covered by the time we got home from the Av's game (no umbrellas or hats). When we woke up this morning it was a beautiful scene. It was wet, heavy snow that hangs on the trees and makes everything look so picturesque. Gorgeous.

Sorry for the lack of pictures though. We were out once this morning and I didn't have my camera and I don't want to go out again. :) And now, its time for a Sunday nap and reading my book. I love Sunday.

Funny!!

My new Aunt Dodie sent this to me today and i just thought it was hysterical!!

Caption: How pumpkin pie is made...

Just my luck

I FINALLY got my lazy butt out of bed this morning to be at the DMV when it opens at 8am. I need to get a Colorado Drivers license so I had to put some effort into getting ready since a picture is involved. I drive down there and the parking lot sure looked empty. I drive up to the front door and yep, you guessed it... CLOSED. Veteran's Day. I should have known. It may be another month before I try again. ;)

Week 6!

I know you are so excited to find out what we did week 6, huh? Yep, we are pretty fun people to watch. ;)

Well Eric didn't get back to from Chicago until Wednesday so I of course made sure the house was immaculate and food prepared when he walked in the door. I'll let you decide for yourself if you believe me...

Friday night we met up with our wedding photographer Jennifer and her husband Steve for appetizers. They are around our age and we are enjoying getting to know them better. Eric and I then headed over to the Avalanche game. It was a really good game; went to a shoot out and the Av's won. Go Av's.

Saturday was chore time and errands. I always love how after I'm done with my chores that Eric thinks that it isn't equal and I should do more because he is still working on his. I always start a good 30 minutes before him and just stick with the task at hand. He starts working on his chores and then gets distracted in between then goes back to his chores and finishes at least an hour after me. I just smile and agree that maybe I should do more (but don't). He He.

Okay, okay... this blog is going to be far too long (and non-interesting; and a bit dumb) if I go into that many details.

We cut and ate pomegranates because we never have.

Eric fixed my sewing machine! And note to other females, don't EVER ask a guy if he knows how to repair something; you will get the death look, the stink eye and maybe a few choice words. I didn't know, I didn't know...


And then I wanted to make some cake pops. I baked the cake, crumbled it, mixed it with frosting, molded into balls and stuck in the freezer for a few minutes.

Then I dipped them in melting chocolates
They were supposed to look like this...
But they ended up like this...

I'm still laughing at how silly mine look!! I did half of them and then tasted one and decided I was done. They were so over-the-top sweet and a bit of a pain to make. I should have known when I sent the website to my Mother-in-law and she told me they looked cute but tedious to stop right there. They ended up being tedious and not that cute.

Is this something that happens when we get older that our taste buds can't handle sweets? Cause I can't much anymore. It gives me an instant headache and a bit of a stomachache. I guess I'll just be glad to not crave them anymore.

We had dinner tonight with Eric's Aunt Dodie and cousin Rebecca's family. We had a great meal and a great time; it was nice getting to know them all a bit better.

And that was week 6. I'm home again all this week which is so, so nice. Maybe I'll get back on that elliptical machine...

Week 5 - read at your own risk...

Eric and I took our Halloween costumes one step further and added the World Series rivalry. He was supposed to be the Phillies fan attacking the Yankees fan (sorry Dale) but we didn't stay next to each other the whole evening and people didn't get it. I ended up taking my Yankees shirt off cause in no way did I want people to think I was a Yankees fan! So with that introduction, here are our costumes...



Amri drove in from Iowa to attend the party with us. She IS a Phillies fan!

LOVE this picture!
These are some of the guys I worked with in Henderson. How funny are they?! And a little disturbing...
There were some fantastic costumes at the party including the Octuplet Mom - hysterical! The Eastern US sales team were a baseball team - also fabulous.

After that crazy party Eric had to get up and go to his tradeshow on Sunday and Amri and I were tourists in Chicago. Here are the highlights...

These are condos. The first probably 12 stories is a parking structure that looks cool and scary at the same time.

We went on an architectural boat tour of the city. Here is us with Sears (now Willis) Tower in the background. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Despite the hat, coat and gloves it was not windy and the skies were blue. We walked and walked and talked and talked. It was good to be with Amri! And how funny is that hat I picked up at Walgreens right before the tour. It is laugh out loud funny.

Here is our attempt to be artsy at Millennium Park in front of the reflective giant bean.




And here is me longing for a wedding cake just like this one. If I only saw this months ago... ;) Seriously, this cake is ridiculous.Amri with Lake Michigan in the back. See those blue skies. Yes, perfect day. Thanks Amri for driving 4 hours each way to hang out. It was SO great to see you!!!