4 Years & Counting

Four years ago at this time, I was in Colorado and I was exhausted. I'd danced the day away, been in countless photos and had earned a new title and a new last name (which I was a slacker about changing, but I finally got it done!). Yep, it's our anniversary today and it is so nice to be back in Colorado to celebrate it.

We were actually here to celebrate last year as well...with our little two month old baby Nicholas. But it was a little less amusing (for me at least) than this year because last year, we spent most of our anniversary visiting the clinic we now operate instead of going to lunch at Marigolds. We at least were able to make up for it with some goodies from there tonight.

Our celebration was quite lovely for this first bit (for I was told at dinner that a second celebration is planned - brunch at the Broadmoor!) - dinner at the Craftwood Inn using a coupon we found in a magazine. We had a yummy 5 course dinner and for about what we'd have spent on two entrees without the coupon....sweet!

Mark also surprised me today with flowers and a lovely card that really is fitting for where we are in our marriage. I appreciate his thoughtfulness. I'm pretty lucky to have a thoughtful guy who tries very hard as my husband.

I am hopeful that the coming year will be one we will remember for many happy moments. If all goes well, we're hoping to host an anniversary celebration next year - my biggest hope is that my dress which I was supposed to wear to the first celebration will actually fit (which is likely since my hormones are behaving much better!). I have some other wish list items as well, but a girl has to have a few secrets...

I hope everyone has a great weekend. We have Dr. Chi in town to examine our patients' fingernails and tongues so we'll be busy! :)

Back again...

I didn' t realize I hadn't posted here for so long. I guess we've been keeping me otherwise occupied. :)

I have been having lots of fun with my business and Nicholas and I've been keeping pretty busy with Mark's practice as well. Hopefully at some point I'll feel like I'm not a chicken with its head cut off. ;)

This weekend was a good one. We went to a party for Mark's networking group in Manitou Springs. It was such fun and even more so since I was able to share my Scentsy products with the ladies in attendance. They were all quite pleased and placed several orders which is great since I have three left before my first 60 days is over and I'm hoping to hit one more level before that is up!

There was so much food at the party since we all brought something to share....kalua pork, salsa, potato salad, etc. We brought what I named the "Dolly Madison Zinger Trifle." If you are a trifle snob, I'll be the first to admit, it is *not* a true trifle...it's probably closer to a mess, but I prefer to call it a trifle and since it isn't likely to be published in a culinary masterpiece, I'm sure you'll go with me on it. It was composed of coconut cake (the same as for Nicholas' birthday cake which, erhem, I was going to recreate, but when the cake comes out in pieces, a trifle it becomes!), raspberry jam, shredded coconut, coconut pudding and whipped cream for good measure. It was really pretty and very tasty...especially the next day after it was able to sit around for a while. I think I might just have to mess up another cake so I can make it a day ahead of time because there weren't many leftovers to enjoy that second day! ;)

Yesterday was a very productive day for me as well. The downstairs office area is now useable space...not a dumping ground as it has been acting. It was a necessary change since the computer I am currently typing on will be taking a little trip to the geeks at Best.Buy to fix its speakers. They are just awful and we've just not taken care of it....laziness for part of the time and then, well, I didn't have another computer out and available so that was an issue, but not anymore! I think it will be nice to have a desk again and I'm hoping it will lead to the kitchen table being nice and organized rather than looking like a desk with tons of in process projects. :)

We're having pictures of Nicholas taken again today. We're doing a few makeups for lighting problems and what not with his 12 month pictures. The pictures will be taken at the Broadmoor so we're sure to have some really lovely ones when all is said and done....hopefully Nicholas will be in a better mood today, too!

Little Bitty Baby Steps...

Nicholas scares me. Well, okay, he doesn't, but his latest attempts at mobility do. We're up to about 8 steps at a time. They're teeny, they're tiny and they foreshadow the end of my concern over whether I'll ever lose those last 6 pounds of pregnancy weight. (I will...it's just a slower process when you're not excercising as much as you'd like).

This all started on Monday night (7/14) in earnest. Prior to this, Nicholas had taken a step here, a step there, and then three steps that morning on his way into the kitchen. He just improved exponentially such that by that evening, as he and I were waiting in the hall where we'd gone as a family to listen to a lecture about the wonders of coconut for diet and healing (we love coconut anything around here!), he did it...5 steps. Wow.

Since then, he tries his "feet" several times per day and I get excited each time and cheer him on while in the back of my mind I think "Don't encourage him!" But, of course, I must though the end result means he's growing up and I'm going to be chasing a toddler around.

But he's not just any toddler. He is an Amazon toddler...just ask all the people who keep asking me if he's two years old. Ugh. No! He's only a little over a year...please don't grow him up faster! He's just so dang tall that people can't believe he's just around 13.5 months. I see three year olds who are shorter than this little guy. Wow.

In other news, I had a great grand opening experience the second time around and this weekend my final one will be in Lamar. I didn't get to publicize it as well as I'd like (and I blame teething again), but I'm sure there will be at least a few visitors to my little show if for no other reason than I mentioned Nicholas would be there on the invitation!

One thing I did learn on Saturday is that our room sprays are PHENOMENAL!!! I never would have guessed they would be so effective and long lasting. I sprayed the stuff upstairs in our office building to help people find their way to the party at 10 a.m. I did not respray it...I didn't have time. And, you know what, I didn't need to. I kid you not, when I came upstairs when it was all over, it smelled just as good as when I'd first sprayed it. That was at 4 p.m. the same day. Now here's the super kicker...I came in on Sunday (ugh...I had to or our sales tax return was not going to get done on time) and I actually decided I better leave the outside door cracked because it STILL smelled just as yummy as it had the morning before and I didn't want to aggravate any of our patients' noses on Monday. That is totally awesome, don't you agree?

Our room sprays come in all the scents we offer for $8 each so if you're looking for a quick way to freshen up a room, they may be for you! Check them out at my website (www.scentsy.com/gotscent).

And with that, I suppose I shall sign off as there is a little boy here who wants to play chase - fun!

A New Addition...

We're going to be adding to our family again it seems. But...this time I don't have to endure morning, noon and night sickness. Oh, and the new member will probably never talk...at least not in human forms.

Mark received a call the other day that they have found a suitable dog for his guide and they are probably going to have her (yea! a girl dog!) trained and ready to meet him/us by the end of September or so.

I am thrilled for him as I know this is something he's wanted for quite some time, buuut, I hope it doesn't result in an increase in my responsibilites as I feel a bit tapped at the moment.

His business, Nicholas an my business are all keeping me on my toes. As for mine, I had part II of my grand opening this past weekend. It was a much better showing than my first. I'm hoping that the next one which will happen in my home town next week will be at least this successful and hopefully more so!

And now I am going to get ready and climb into bed. A teething baby doesn't seem to result in much of a great night's sleep!

A Little Bit...

of a post here. It will probably end up being a long one (as always), but I don't know how long Nicholas will allow me to participate here, so we'll shoot for a short snippet and see where we get.

So first things first - Independence Day. It was decent if not terribly exciting celebration for our family. I spent a good chunk of it at the office as I'm still working on catching up the practice accounting. I'm pleased to report that we are actually working on the month of June right now...furiously so that I can use our patient records to do our sales tax returns in the coming week.

We also had a visit from my papa who was coming home from his training for the wind farm where he now works in Albany, NY. It was nice to visit with him for a while.

We tried to get some fireworks in (even let Nicholas stay up late for them!), but other than a few illegal ones we were able to spot, we chose poorly. We thought we'd camp out near the ball park and watch the fireworks after the game. When 10:30 p.m. rolled around (we'd put Nicholas to sleep around 9ish...just for the record), and I could barely keep my eyes open, we decided we better head home. Apparently the ball field officials missed the memo that all of the families sitting in the Costco parking lot were counting on them.

Let's see, I also had my first grand opening for my business. It wasn't nearly what I had hoped for, but I have a second shot this weekend. Hopefully this weekend will go better. I believe some of my lackluster results were due to my not being able to call and remind a ton of people of the party's occurence since I needed to be mommy for Nicholas. The poor dear is cutting his molars....or they're cutting him is more appropriate phraseology.

Yep, he's getting more teeth. He has pushed through his first molar with the help of a lot of teething tablets. I keep raving to everyone I know about these things. The little tooth is pretty cute, but man did it make his life so unpleasant and we have three more lurking and threatening him (and us) with sleepless nights and discomfort. Keep the little guy in your prayers.

Earlier this week, my mother had her surgery for her hernia and cancer. She's currently in the hospital still recovering...with the help of a lot of drugs. I'm sad that I have not been able to go visit her, but our financial situation is not yet healthy due to the medicare billing troubles we've had since we took over. On the bright side, we finally got our first payment so this discomfort will hopefully be over soon (please!).

At any rate, she is doing well from what I've been told by her and by my dad. The doctors reaffirmed their belief that the cancer was in its earlier stages and they got it all. She also got a little help with her weight loss which I'm anxious to see. I've heard it's a pretty dramatic change.

Let's see, back to my business, I did have a very nice breakthrough this past week....two really. I took some closing gift baskets into a real estate office (on their request) and they were a big hit so I'll hopefully get some business from that. Then my banker asked me to bring stuff in so that she and her co-workers could check them out and order (they can't make it to the party on Saturday due to scheduling reasons) so that is looking like another promising avenue. So when do you want to have your party?

I am actually trying to hit a goal here, but am not likely to hit it as well as I'd like. The company rewards consultants who in their first 60 days of business can do things like make sales, get recruits, etc. My major stumbling block seems to be in the recruit area. If you know anybody who's looking for a little more income (and they can be anywhere in the U.S.) and who would enjoy having fun making said income, have them talk to me!

That, I believe, get you up-to-date with most of them important stuff around here. The only other thing I just thought to mention is that we're totally loving that we signed up for a community supported agriculture arrangement. We receive a share of the vegetables harvested from a farm near Pueblo every week. It's been pretty fun trying some new things...who would have guessed I'd like turnips so much?!

I wish you all a pleasant rest of your week. If you are in the Colorado Springs area, please be sure to stop by my grand opening on Saturday at the office's classroom.