Merry

With the officer at work tonight, I find myself just lounging around on Christmas Eve. It's not a bad thing, I visited with my grandparents earlier in the day and got some stuff ready for the family gathering tomorrow. After this holiday season, I am all cooked and gifted out. Nonetheless, the officer has Christmas off and it's always a bag of surprises when our families are involved.

I figured this would be an appropriate post to communicate how thankful I am for everyone and everything. Warning, this will be long. I am thankful for my husband and the joy and love that he has brought into my life since the moment I met him. Almost 5 years with this guy and it still feels like we are a giddy, newly-dating couple. I am thankful for my family who love and support me even when I'm not very deserving of it. I am thankful for my awesome in-laws. Don't hear that one often, do you? I am thankful for all of our extended family. I am thankful for my incredible friends. Life would be so dull and lonely without you guys. I am thankful for our current home and our soon to be home that is under construction. I am thankful for my job, which I truly love. I am thankful for my hubby's job because it is one that he loves and it makes me brim with pride. I am thankful for our beautiful wedding this year. I am thankful for all of the amazing people I have met this year, especially all of the LEOW wives. I am thankful for all of the deep conversations held over wine and coffee. It's crazy how much soul-spilling is done when there is a glass in hand. I am thankful for my best friend's adorable, healthy son. The list goes on... But seriously, whatever complaints came from my mouth this year all amount to nothing.

So on this Christmas Eve, I will be thinking about all of the LEO's out there and wishing for their safety. I will be thinking about all of my family and friends and I will be thanking my lucky stars for all that I have.

Now, enough with this sappy nonsense....

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

The world keeps turning

Things are finally beginning to wind down. I find it bitter-sweet that the wedding is over. A whole year of planning for one day. I'm not saying it wasn't worth it, it was the best day of my life. On the contrary, it was so perfect. Thinking back to it I become an emotional basket case, but what's new there? Since the big day, the officer and I have been going through a roller coaster of emotions. Happy ones, but we have found ourselves shedding a few tears looking through the wedding binder, first dance video, the flowers, everything. Neither of us know why this is but I hope it tapers of because I would like to be able to listen to Michael Buble and Allister again without the waterworks! All I know is, the venue was perfect, the music was perfect, everything was perfect. All of our friends and family have smothered us in love and kindness, we couldn't be more thankful for all of the people we have in our lives. But the most important thing of that day was him, he is what truly made the whole day amazing. I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for us. I am just beyond happy that I will have him to share it all with. Afterall, the point of a wedding is to mark the beginning of a lifetime. Photos will be coming soon...

We went on our honeymoon to Mexico shortly after the wedding and it was a blast! It wasn't as hot as we thought it would be in June but it was so humid compared to what we're used to in Colorado. The officer was kind of nervous leaving the country for the first time and of course I pick the least tourist-y things to do so poor guy probably wasn't too thrilled. We took a taxi to downtown and spent the day wandering around. It was so beautiful and so different from what we know. Sad as this sounds, it was the first time I had ever seen roads made of stones. The Spanish colonial architecture was amazing. We had a few crazy taxi drivers... I will leave it at this: thank goodness for traffic laws and traffic law enforcement! It was so nice getting away for a week and being surrounded by palm trees and the ocean, it was long overdue. No cell phone service, no internet, no work to do... I miss it. But now we're home and it's back to the daily grind! My next project is helping with the baby shower for one of my amazing friends! I can't wait to meet that little boy for the first time, ah!!

That's it for now!

Life in limbo

It's been a while, 7 months to be exact. I found myself driving to work today thinking about how much I miss keeping my public "diary" of sorts. Then I realized just how behind I was on it. My reader count is low (extremely) so luckily I don't feel too guilty for the neglect. Anyways... What happened since last July? A lot. I'm sure everyone saw the news or experienced the flooding here in September. It devastated so many communities. The area where we live wasn't damaged but so many others weren't as lucky. The officer was called into work the day after the rain began and didn't come home for a day or two; it's all a blur now. It was heart breaking to see the destruction it caused. Then came Halloween. The officer was a trucker and I was a rabbit. There we were sitting in our costumes all excited for trick-or-treaters but do you think any came by? Just one. One trick-or-treater. I was so disappointed because Halloween is my favorite holiday but hopefully we will get more once we move out of apartments. I must say though, that kid made off like a bandit, business man in the making. Since he was the only (or one of a few) trick-or-treaters in the building, everyone must've given him all of their candy. We sure did, 2 bags worth! Then came Thanksgiving and Christmas, the usual.

A new job emerged in August and I couldn't be happier. Time truly does fly when you're having fun and I am always wondering where my days go. Most days I am mentally exhausted but I honestly couldn't ask for anything more. When I first began in August, I had no idea how much training and learning I was in store for. Now that I could kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel, I am so happy to have gone through that tunnel. There's nothing better than surprising yourself with what you could do. The people I work with are amazing and not a day goes by where they don't make me laugh so badly it hurts. I truly am lucky. Most important thing I learned in these 7 months? How to faux-curse... Son of a biscuit!!


On another note, wedding planning has been steadily kicking into high gear. With 3 months left until the wedding, I am in a slight panic. Final appointments with caterers, floral, venue walk through's, rehearsals, payments, DJ song lists, seating charts, RSVP's? Thinking about it all makes me want to go insane. The whole planning process has been a challenge for us for various reasons. The officer and I pretty much have opposite schedules so whenever I get to spend time with him, I don't want to spend it doing wedding things. So our only option is to split duties and go it alone. Everyone warned me that family will become even more difficult to deal with once a wedding is underway. What they didn't tell me was that my family would be in a maniacal frenzy! The Officer and I have considered just going to the court house and calling the wedding off on more occasions than I can count on two hands! But we made it... Almost... All I know is I can't wait to seal the deal. We have waited so long and worked so hard for this. It's almost here!

The Officer has been on overload at work, it seems like the crazies just multiply. It still baffles me how busy they all are on any given weeknight. He got a 15 minute break today where I was able to talk to him and that is a good day in my book! I always figured weekends would be the busiest times for them. Boy was I wrong... Go to sleep people!! It's too early in the week and too late at night to go crazy.

To be continued...

How I love rainy days...

This has been the most beautiful weekend ever. Colorado is known for all of its' sunshine but for those like me, these rainy, gloomy days are pure bliss. I don't know why but it seems like the fall/winter bug has bitten me particularly hard and early this year. I have never been much of a summer person but my goodness, this summer just hasn't been doing it for me. I've been dreaming about yellow leaves, cool air, sweaters, snow, hot coco... You name it. I was even tempted to make pumpkin muffins a few days ago to satisfy my "craving" for fall. This is so strange!! The officer doesn't quite feel the same way about the cold as I do. He always calls me Siberian, I say he may have fun being an Alaska State Trooper. But no, we're not moving. All I know is, I woke up this morning to a little taste of what's to come and I'm ready. I am so ready! I just feel so productive on days like this. Laundry is being done, the cheesecake for my coworkers birthday is in the oven. All that's left is the intimidating task of unloading and reloading the dishwasher which I will avoid until further notice (I give myself one hour before they drive me crazy). Now I believe a cup of coffee and Desperate Housewives are in order.

Since it's been a while since I have last posted, I guess there's a little going on worth mentioning, but I think I'll save those details for a later time. The officer worked every day last week due to overtime so he was feeling the insanity as well. Thinking about it now though, this past week hasn't been as bad as I thought it was in the moment. We ordered our save the date magnets and have made so much progress with the wedding. I got to see the officer's mom and sister, my own family and some close family friends and my best friend and her boyfriend came over for dinner yesterday. Good friends are the most valuable thing anyone could have. Despite all of the stress going on, I am happy and thankful for who I have in my life. And it is nice to finally be able to slow down and soak it all in. Time to prepare for whatever this week has to throw at us...

Oh and before I forget, I was perusing a wine store in town and found this little gem:

 

We absolutely did not need another bottle of wine but this one was special. Prior to his current department, the officer used to work for the SWAT team of another department. One fateful day he comes home and tells me about the honey badger Youtube videos that he and his coworkers were watching and to put it shortly, the whole SWAT team (including my fiance) were obsessed with that video and that animal. Apparently, watching the video was a daily ritual for a little while and they printed out a giant poster of a honey badger to hang up in their locker room. The honey badger was the unofficial mascot of the SWAT team. I mean really, how funny is it to imagine a bunch of big tough SWAT team guys obsessing over a honey badger. But even more so, I personally received the response "honey badger don't care" to almost every question I asked the officer for a month. I don't think I will ever be able to get those videos and those memories out of my head. If you're brave, go to Youtube and search honey badger don't care and baby badger. This will all seem clearer then. But the look on the officer's face when I walked into the apartment with this was priceless...

Monday morning blues... and missing my man in blue!

And there went the weekend... I swear, by the time Friday rolls around, I feel like I'm barely hanging on. Then in a blink of an eye I'm sitting at our Monday morning meeting/conference call again! Luckily it hasn't been an extremely busy day! The officer worked most of the weekend so I was left to my own vices... A yoga class, catching up on laundry, seeing a good friend and visiting some family. It kept me busy! But despite working a ten hour shift on Sunday, he was able to muster up some energy to go to Comedy Works. Most amazing date ever. With how little time we get together, the best way to spend it is laughing. And boy did we... Our cheeks hurt!! With all of the overtime he has coming up this week, I feel bad doing anything that stands in between him and his sleep though. What a trooper...


In the spirit of starting off a productive work week, I thought this was fitting. 

I actually had a conversation with a coworker about this not too long ago and he was jokingly (I think) saying any corporation is required to hold conference calls. We all know that's not true but there is something comical about picturing a stock holder saying "I refuse to purchase stock in your company if you do not hold mandatory conference calls!" If I were that stock holder, I would demand that everyone get off the phone and back to work! Just a thought...

But no, really. Let's all try to keep our jobs and make things happen! ;-)

Can my first post be any more awkward?

So this blog has been under construction for a while. I don't know why it has taken me almost a year to get this up and running but it has. I've been so excited about being able to keep a collection of my thoughts somewhere online and possibly meeting people with the same interests and situations as myself. This blog is just this, the reality of someone whose life revolves around work and up until May, studying. What little time I get, I either have errands to do, nails to repaint, an apartment to clean, dinner to cook, family to visit, sleep to be had or most importantly, time to be spent with the Fiance.

This is going to be a smorgasbord of who know what. Maybe it'll begin to take on a specific direction once I get going but for now, it is what it is...

On another note, I hope everyone had an amazing Independence Day!