A Weekend in Colorado

Greg and I had the perfect Colorado weekend! We went to Pueblo on Friday night. We ate at Red Lobster (yum!) and then took in the movie "Eagle Eye", which quite frankly, I wasn't all that impressed with. But, it was fun to have a date night! Then on Saturday we ventured West to stay with our friends Nell and Warren in Canon City. Warren works with Greg, so we haven't known them for very long, but they are such a neat couple to spend time with. And I cannot tell you how excited I was to pull up to such a cute "gingerbread" Victorian home!


Shortly after we arrived we went for a ride to check out the land that they own on top of a mountain! Have I ever mentioned that I'm not always the best passenger to have in a vehicle? My hubby likes to check things out, even when we're driving on the edge of a mountain that I think reaches 9,000+ feet! So I was a very happy camper when we arrived at Warren and Nell's land. And it was so gorgeous!!!! They own around 35 acres (mol) and it has beautiful aspen trees on it. We had a nice picnic lunch and then did some brief hiking and picture taking on their land.

Even Shady had a blast!

Those gorgeous colors on the mountain are actually aspen leaves! My new official favorite tree!

From there we took a drive on what I would call a "country road" to check out the scenery!


We saw several deer, including this smart duo that took shelter in a small "cave" during a light rain shower.

Remember that rain shower I mentioned? Guess what followed shortly after?

If I had a dollar for every rainbow I've seen since we've been in Colorado I would be a rich woman! They are one thing I never grow tired of seeing! Proof that there is a God!

Unfortunately, there was one small detour that I wish we hadn't decided to take. If someone enters Canon City from the West, there is a road called "Skyline Drive" that one can take into town instead of the interstate. Warren knew how nervous I was getting driving on the side of the mountain and he assured me that it wasn't that big of a deal. Yeah. Right. It's a one way road (if it can even be called that) and we did start off with a nice big chunk of mountain on our left hand side, with the drop off on our right. But, as we kept climbing, eventually, there is a drop off on both sides. Did I mention that my sweet, precious hubby likes to look around when he's driving? And we have a HUGE truck. It's really a beast. To put it mildly, apparently I have a fear of heights. Especially on a road that is not quite wider than the four wheels of our truck, there is a drop off on both sides, and NO GUARD RAILS! Whew! My hands are sweating and my heart is racing as I'm typing this!!! Even Warren commented that it didn't seem that dangerous when he rides his bike on it. Obviously we didn't die, but I am considering this pretty darn close to a near-death experience!

We topped off our great day (minus the near death experience) with dinner at an Irish pub, which was delicious!!!! Afterwards we drove around Canon City and checked out some of the older historic homes! Unfortunately it was too dark for pictures. On Sunday we went to a cute mom and pop cafe and I had another wonderful meal! This time a vegetarian version of an eggs benedict. Yummy! Before we left town, we drove past another old home (we all know I'm obsessed with them!). This one even has a website! I haven't had a chance to visit yet, but the address is www.robisonmansion.com (If anyone knows how I can make these have actual links please feel free to clue me in as to how to do it!)


After that we headed back to Lamar! I wonder what we'll do this weekend.......

It's Low Light Thursday!

I am so excited that today has finally arrived. Why? Because I'm getting low lights in my hair!!! I have never had my hair high lighted or low lighted, so this is a really big step for me. Mainly I've never done this because I never wanted to keep up with the maintenance. I mean, come on. Roots that are a different color from the rest of ones hair is not the most attractive thing in the world. But lately here I've been so disgusted by my mousy brown hair. Maybe that's because this trailer literally has six mirrors in a space that I'm sure is smaller than 300 square feet. Anyway. When I got my hair trimmed a few weeks ago I asked the stylist about high lights, but told her I wanted to go darker, rather than lighter. She patiently explained to me that what I really wanted then was low lights. She recommended a dark mahogany and a red violet. I told her I didn't want to look punk rock-ish, and she assured me that it's just a subtle red.

I didn't schedule an appointment that day. It was something I definitely wanted to think about. I talked to Greg about it and he said to do whatever I wanted. So I finally gave in, called, and scheduled my appointment. I was still a little hesitant about it, but now that I've waited for two weeks and my appointment is today, I am so super excited! And the bonus is that she is just going to low light the lower portion of my hair so that if I decide I don't like it, the roots won't be that obvious. Yay!! I'm really hoping it turns out good and that I don't regret this! OH! I almost forgot! I never told Greg that I made a decision, so he has no idea that I'm doing this! I'm hoping this will be a good surprise!

And for more good news: one of my favorite stores here is having a HUGE sale today!!!! Chunky jewelry here I come! I can't wait! And then, my nia class is tonight. I don't see how this day can get any better! Oh wait! It kind of does! Because Greg and I have plans for the weekend! We're going to Pueblo tomorrow night (can you say, Red Lobster?) and then on Saturday we're cruisin' on over to Canon City to stay the night with an awesome couple that we met! We're going to be in the mountains, and apparently the asps are changing colors, so it's supposed to be B-U-T-FUL!!! Ciao!!!

Oklahoma 911 Call

This makes me laugh everytime!

I'm hot.....like a jalapeno!

This weekend we had another couple over for dinner, and we decided to make some jalapeno poppers! I had never made them before, but we had some at a cook out we went to this summer, so I figured they couldn't be that hard to make. We stopped at the Farmers Market and I picked out twenty fresh jalapenos. I was so excited to make my yummy little appetizers!

After I got home, I washed all of them before I started to cut them open and de-seed them. My friend Christina hadn't arrived yet, so I was cutting them up all by myself. At one point, I happened to remember that I had read somewhere that when one is cutting up peppers, one should wear rubber gloves. I rolled my eyes, thinking, "Wow, that person must have been a complete wimp! These don't burn my fingers at all!".

As I was cutting the jalapenos open, my friend Chrisitina arrived, and she began to stuff the peppers with cheddar cheese while I finished my de-seeding process. Once they were all stuffed with cheese and wrapped with bacon, I handed them over to Greg to put on the grill. After a few minutes, Greg, Corey, and Christina all came back inside. Apparently they had tasted one of them after it had been on the grill for a few minutes. And apparently they were pretty hot. Even Greg had tears in his eyes! They decided to cook them a little while longer, and I proceeded to get everything else ready.

Eventually, everything was prepared, so we all sat down to eat. And all three of them stared at me when I took my first bite of the jalapeno popper. "This isn't that hot." I said after my first bite. Everyone shrugged their shoulders and decided it was fine to dig in. Well, apparently I had a somewhat mild pepper. My next pepper, not so mild. I look around the table, and Greg, Christina, and myself are all red faced and teary eyed. I couldn't even eat the rest of my second jalapeno popper. Then I got the bright idea that maybe the cheese by itself would not be so hot. Wrong! My eyes teared up, yet again. To make matters worse, Christina didn't believe me when I said the cheese was spicy, so she took two big bites of just the cheese from one of her peppers. Let's just say I think next time she'll learn from my mistakes! By this time, everyone basically has sweat rolling down their faces. Except Corey....he's pretty much the man! (I sent the remaining sixteen or so poppers home with him.)

It gets better. Several hours later, I notice that my fingers are really starting to burn. Basically, they felt like they were on fire and I literally expected to look down at them and see them throbbing. I had no idea what to do, so I soaked them in a bowl of cold water and dawn dishwashing soap. That helped for a little bit. After that I decided to look online for some home remedies. The first thing I did was poured rubbing alcohol all over my hands. That helped. For about five minutes. After that, the burning intensified! My next plan was to soak them in vinegar. Again, it didn't help and to top it off, the trailer then smelt like rotten eggs. So then I decided to take a shower. Surely the hot water will help wash off the pepper oil on my hands. WRONG!!! Oh. My. God. Let's just say don't mix hot water with a burn. And to make matters worse my whole face began to burn while I was in the shower. I guess I touched my face on accident.

After the whole shower fiasco, my fingers were still throbbing like you wouldn't believe. The main piece of advice that I had read online was to wash my hands with baking soda and water. Of course, I had no baking soda. But, I was desperate! I drove to the only store still open; Wal-Mart! After I got back home, I proceeded to wash my hands multiple times with it. I even made a paste and left it on my hands for several minutes at a time. It did seem to help a little. After that, I just gave up. I went to bed with throbbing, burning hands. Yesterday, the pain was still there. It wasn't as bad, it came and went. Thankfully, today I haven't had any issues!

Let's just say that the next time I decide to cut any type of hot pepper, I'll wear rubber gloves!

Breast Feeding Reminder Bracelet

There you have it! I finally received my "O" bead in the mail from Alouette! Which meant that yesterday I was able to make my breast feeding reminder bracelet that I mentioned in an earlier post. I think it's super cute and can't wait to sell it to a nursing mother! Check out my shop if you or someone you know would like to order it: www.blingonastring.etsy.com

yoga time!

I was so ready for today to arrive! Why? Because my yoga class started today! I just got back about an hour ago and I already feel so relaxed. If you are reading this and have never practiced yoga, run, don't walk, to the nearest studio and give it a try. I did yoga one night a week the first few years of college, and then randomly ever since. However, today I purchased a six week session, so I'm super pumped! And the bonus is that the studio is this really old ranch house that has recently been revamped with cool paintings and photographs. I love the mixture of a rustic old house with totally modern eclectic art.

Because I knew that this was the kick off week for yoga I started on a weekly work out plan. Now, why I'm getting serious about shedding some unwanted pounds now that summer is over, is beyond me! But oh well! So, here's what I'm doing:
Monday: Cardio and light weights at the gym - 1 hour
Tuesday: Yoga - 1 hour
Nia - 1 hour
Wednesday: Cardio and light weights at the gym - 1 hour
Thursday: Nia - 1 hour
Friday: Cardio and light weights at the gym - 1 hour

It's really nothing compared to my cousin Heidi's triathlon training schedule, but I'm hoping it will work for me. And by posting it for the world to see, I'm hoping I'll stick with it!!! Hopefully with this new plan I can loose ten pounds this month. Is that a realistic goal? I have no idea, but I'm running with it.

On a side note: I mailed off my voter registration today! Yay! Although now I'm slightly panicked. It will take approximately 20 days to get my voter registration card in. Then, once I have that, I have to mail in a request for an absentee voter ballot. I really hope that I get everything in time so that all this research won't be done in vain. In the meantime, it's time to begin researching the candidates!

Snail Mail!

I absolutely love snail mail! Especially when it's a package or letter or card that I'm not expecting. Yesterday I walked to the office to see if my mom had mailed me my mail from home. And I did have mail, just not from my mom. It was a package from my Aunt in California. She had already sent me an anniversary card, as well as a birthday card the month before, so I was a little confused as to what it was. It was all I could do to not run back to our trailer from the office out of sheer anticipation to see what was in the bulky envelope. As soon as I opened it I was so surprised. She had sent me a brand new Danielle Steel hardback. And on it she taped a note saying that she too loves Danielle Steel. I was so shocked that she took time out of her busy schedule to buy me a book just because we both have a joint interest in the author. I also never knew that she liked to read so it's always neat when you find out a relative has a common interest with you. It kind of reminded me of those ancestor.com commercials that say, "find out who you get your love of dancing from".

So thanks, Aunt Jo! Not only for the snail mail, but also for a book I cannot wait to loose myself in!

100 Hearts!

YAY!!!! I now officially have 100 hearts on etsy! Things are looking up! OK, I'll explain: when people are browsing through the shops at www.etsy.com if they come across one that they want to add to their favorite shops, they give that shop a heart. And now that I've been online for seven months I have finally reached 100! Granted, I'm sure half of those hearts are from people whose stores I hearted, but who cares! Hopefully my hearts will keep growing! Hmmm....maybe the one hundredth heart was from someone who checked out my book thongs that I added yesterday!! Yup, I caved in and bought some beads with larger holes so I could make the book thongs I mentioned in a previous blog. Go check 'em out! www.blingonastring.etsy.com

I'm in a Treasury!

Yay! I'm in a treasury on etsy thanks to my great friend Tina (www.lanaephotography.etsy.com). I know a lot of you probably aren't familiar with www.etsy.com but that is the website that I sell my jewelry through. And treasuries are just the coolest things. Supposively there can only be around 330 treasuries at a time, so of course I've never been able to make one of my own. But apparantly there was a glitch in the system yesterday and there were over 700 treasuries created. Treasuries are items that someone picks and then, generally, they get lots of views! Which means it can draw more people to my website!!! Yay! As you can tell I'm pretty stoked! OH, and I'm the Misty necklace on the bottom right!

Weekend in Pueblo!

Greg and I are celebrating our 4 year anniversary tomorrow! To celebrate, we went to Pueblo for the weekend. We have gone to Colorado Springs several different times, and decided to stay in Pueblo for a change. And I am so glad that we did!

First off, we arrived there around noon so we ate lunch at Ruby Tuesday. Then we checked into our hotel. After which I was finally able to convince Greg that we needed to go to the Rosemount Museum. The museum is actually a 24,000 square foot mansion built in the 1890's. The tour was absolutely fantastic! Mainly because I have an obsession with older homes. The home is three stories tall and has ten Tiffany chandeliers which I thought was pretty cool.

After we left the museum we drove around downtown and discovered that Pueblo has a cool riverwalk complete with cute little boutiques and cafe's. I was dying to just walk around and scope things out, but that is just not my hubby's cup of tea. Instead we went to the movie theatre to see if any movies were about to play. The only one that was about to start was Death Race so that's what we watched. (Of course, the theatre didn't hold a candle to the Warren Theatre!) From there we went back to the hotel to change clothes before going to Red Lobster for dinner. The dinner was quite interesting. Greg is slowly beginning to acquire a taste for seafood, so it really surprised me when he said he wanted a couple crab legs. I love crab legs, so I ordered those and Greg went even further out on a limb and ordered a meal that had lobster tail, shrimp scampi, and grilled shrimp. I had never had lobster before, so it was pretty ironic that I didn't like it, and Greg really did.

We capped the night off by going to the hot tub at the hotel. We met another couple in the hotel and one thing led to another and somehow we found out that the guy surfed. Of course one of Greg's life long goals is to learn to surf. And, believe it or not, the guy (Sam) had his surf board with him at the hotel. He decided it was the perfect chance for Greg to have his first lesson. In the hotel pool. I of course was wondering how one could have a surfing lesson in a pool and when I voiced that concern Sam said that learning how to actually sit on the board was the first thing someone would have to learn. He also said it was pretty hard. Well, I thought that this sounded like it would be a Kodak Moment so I rushed off to our hotel room to grab my camera. By the time I got back (it couldn't have taken more than seven minutes), Greg was sitting on the surf board in the pool as if he was totally used to it. He said that he got on first try. I told him to proove it and he did. I completely missed out on being able to take loads of what I assumed would be hillarious pictures of Greg attempting to get on a surf board in a hotel pool. I was really proud of him for doing so well! Hopefully one day he will be able to put that first surfing lesson to actual use!

And that about sums up our early anniversary celebration! Below is a picture of the Rosemount Museum and one from our wedding day! Cheers!

ogspot.com/_ku-9cj5frug/

Beading Blunders

I have to vent. I had anticipated today to be an artsy beading day. And I really started to get a lot accomplished. Started is the key word here. Where do I begin...well, as I mentioned I am thinking of entering a craft fair next month. I even called and got all the details for it today which is a big check mark off of my list. I haven't confirmed that I am going yet and I really feel that I need to have more pieces to sell before I go. Luckily while I was in Oklahoma I got to visit my favorite bead store, Alouette. Apparently I wasn't the normal observant shopper that I usually am as you'll see below.

I laid all my beading supplies out on the table and decided the first thing I would make is a breast feeding reminder bracelet. The basic concept of the bracelet involves numbers from 1 through 12 and a charm that someone can move around to the next time they are supposed to breast feed. I have only made one and it was for my sister. Since it turned out so good I thought why not make one to sell. Who knows, it could be my signature piece. The thing is, the numeric beads I use are pretty expensive and I can only find them at Alouette. So I was pretty excited to be able to finally have all the materials I needed to make this particular bracelet. That is, until I started laying out my number beads, only to discover that yours truly apparently didn't buy a "0" bead for my number 10. Great. Now I'll have to call Alouette and have them mail me one measly bead. Wonderful. No biggie, I'll just move on to my next piece.

I had also bought some really cool African bone beads that looked like zebra at Alouette. They are square and I had to dig around to find two that were about the same size. I bought them with plans of making a pair of earrings. Basically I would have the bone hanging from the bottom with two strands of black seed beads looping up and attaching to the actual earring. In my mind they were pretty cool and would look so cute on a gal all dressed up for a night out on the town. That is, until I realized that only one of the bone beads had two holes drilled through and the other one only had one hole drilled through. OK. Deep breath. This is not a disaster. I decided I would just have it dangling from one strand rather than two. Which I did. Only it's not as dramatic as it would have been with two strands. Fine. I didn't make the matching earring. I'm hoping I will suddenly have a grand idea as to how to drill a hole through about an inch of bone. And by me I mean my husband. If we have to break out a power tool for this little bead, then so be it!

Moving on to my third and final project. My great idea for overcoming the "lack of inventory" problem for the craft show was that I would make book thongs!!! My mom had made some last year for her church bazaar and I literally use mine everyday. If you don't know what a book thong is, it's a book mark that is made out of a piece of cord with beads tied to each end that dangle out of both ends of the book when it's being used. Brilliant! I can sell them pretty cheap on my website, have more inventory for the craft fair, and use up random beads. I bought several packages of the cord in various colors at Wal-Mart. And of course, while I was at Alouette, I bought several more tubes of seed beads in colors that would match the cord. And although the previous two projects failed, this was obviously a no brainer, right? Nope. Since I had never actually opened the cord out of their packages, I didn't realize how big the cord actually was. And I thought seed beads would easily string onto it? Yeah right. And out of all the beads I have (which isn't a ton, but I am getting quite the collection) only two will actually string onto the cord.

Somehow I managed to not chunk my box of beads across the room. So much for that whole "more inventory" plan for this craft fair. But I'm trying to be realistic about the whole situation. Surely I can find something else to use other than braiding cord for the book thongs. I am confident that my husband will know how to drill a hole into a piece of bone. And I'm positive that once I receive my 0 bead from Alouette I'll have my bracelet made way before the craft fair. And I realize that my bad Alouette shopping experience is really all of Norman's fault. I should have known better than to try to go to the bead store on Campus Corner on the day of the first OU football game.

And on another bright side, I have also proven that a theory of mine is actually wrong. I found a $20 bill in my jacket pocket this morning. I always took that as an omen that it's going to be a good day. Guess not!

The Warren Theatre

Greg and I were fortunate enough to be able to go to Oklahoma for a few days during the holiday weekend. And the best highlight of the trip for me was the chance to visit the new Warren Theatre in Moore. To sum it up, Greg and I were actually living in Moore when the city announced they were going to be building what was to be "Oklahoma's Largest Theatre". At the time I was still working for Pinnacle as a new home consultant, and part of my sales pitch when it came to the location of the communities in S. OKC was that they were going to be so close to this new theatre. Then, for the next three years, I watched as this grand structure was being built. Of course during those three years we moved to Harrah, and from there we began our stint "on the road". Last March Greg and I were in Oklahoma for almost a month while we waited for his next job assignment. And of course, all I heard about was the grand opening of the Warren Theatre that was going to take place the first week of April. As luck would have it, we left for Colorado the week before the theatre opened its doors to the public.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Warren Theatre, let me give you some background information. It is the largest theatre in Oklahoma. It costs millions of dollars to build. (I read the actual amount in an article, but I can't remember if it was three million or thirty million.) The floors are made of marble and the counter tops are made of granite. They use REAL BUTTER on the popcorn! Two of the theatres have balconies and if you are lucky enough to snag tickets to the balcony, you have waiters that will come to your chair (which is made out of the backseat of a Ford Mustang and they actually heat) and serve alcoholic beverages from the full service bar, or bring food to you. If you aren't lucky enough to score balcony seats, people twenty-one and up can still go up to the lounge and order adult beverages and food. The other theatres have pretty cozy seats as well. They are made of temperpedic foam and after awhile you just sink into them. Every theatre has a curtain that raises before the trailers. And each theatre has a glow in the dark clock so you don't have to resort to looking at a cell phone if you need to know what time it is. There is an open waiting room in front of the restrooms with a cozy fire place. Basically, to sum it all up, it's just pretty dang cool!

Greg and I spent four days in Oklahoma and went to the Warren Theatre twice. And it was well worth the wait!!! The popcorn with the real butter was as wonderful as I anticipated! The seats were so comfy I didn't mind sitting still for a couple of hours! I honestly cannot wait to go back. If anyone reading has not gone to the Warren Theatre, I would highly recommend you to not waste another minute and GO!

www.warrentheatres.com