Bump, Set, Spike...umm what!?

Oh boy! Ya'll this is no joke. Somehow I got talked into participating in my company's volleyball tournament this afternoon. The people that are participating in this 'fun' event are not kidding around either. They have held several practices at lunch time and after hours to try to improve their teams skills so they can win the coveted title of Volleball champions. We are talking INTENSE. I, however, am not so intense. In fact, I quite loathe playing volleyball. I am of rather a short stature (5'2" on a good day) and therefore, have never really excelled in this particular sport. I have put a smile on for the several practices we held while I scream and run the other way from the ball, whoops, but have no fear I am there and willing. This is going to be a disaster. I'm picturing a volleyball flying at my face AKA the money maker, and I leave the sand pit crying hystercially and being driven a way by a paramedic in an ambulance. Dramatic? Nah. Anywhoo wish me luck, it should be fun. Plus, there are pina coladas involved, whooot whooot!!

"Take me out to the the ball game"- A little weekend recap

As many of you know I am a huge baseball fan! Not for the acutal baseball, but for the atmosphere that comes along with going to the field. A hot summer day spent by the pool, followed by a quick shower, a basball hat, your favorite Rockies shirt, the smell of grass, and of course the hot dog and beer! Does it get any more summer than that?? Luckily, I have managed to find a great group of people that enjoys going to the baseball games almost as much as I do :) W and I used to live 4 blocks from the beloved Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, and if we needed something to do on a Sunday afternoon you better believe that was the first place you could find us. This weekend I feel very fortunate to have been able to go to not one baseball game but 2!! The Dodgers were in town and that is always a great series to go watch, and on Memorial Day weekend no less! Am I blowing your mind yet?? Haha. So anyway, I was able to scrounge a couple of club level seats from a co-worker of mine and Mr. Man and I headed to the ball park. Honestly, it could not have been any better. Perfect weather, perfect company, and unfortunately the Rox lost that night, but hey you can't win them all right? Saturday we opted out of the game and went to see Robin Hood and tried a delicious new(er) restaurant and we were certainly not disappointed. The food was delicious and I even enjoyed the movie! Holy cow, I'm exhausted even writing all of this stuff that I managed to cram in this weekend and I'm only till Sunday, just kidding. Sunday was, we shall say...interesting. Mr. Man was dead set on climbing a 14er and I am not one to back down so I said 'sure!' Probably should have thought that through a little bit better, but have no fear we got lost....driving! Hahahaha!! We ended up driving, not hiking, to the top of Mt. Evans. Regardless the views were breathtaking and it was a great experience! We finally got back into Denver after a 5 hours of driving around 11 AM and decided we needed to go to another ball game! It was awesome, the weather was once again beautiful, sat in the sun and then we were able to meet up with W for some drinks and bar fun!! All in all it was a great weekend. Unfortunately the Rox lost the series with the Dodgers, but there is always next time. Monday, was another beautiful day filled with BBQ's family and good old fashion fun! Loved it! Did ya'll do anything exciting for the long weekend???

Some pics of the fateful 14er attempt...oops.

Quarter Century Old!!

Oh my how time flies when you're having fun :) I'm finally getting my ducks in a row and doing a birthday post, albeit a bit late, but better than never right!? The celebration started on Friday as soon as I got off work and I went to go pick up the much anticipated cake! It turned out quite well and I think most people, the bakery included, were somewhat impressed by the 'quarter' theme, haha. I rushed home to grab W so we could hang out with our aunt 'D' and go to the movies. We saw the new movie 'Letters to Juliet'. Very disappointing. I'm not one for predictable lovey dovey movies in the first place and quite honestly would have much rather gone and seen Iron Man 2, but I digress. As soon as the movie was over I left W and D's company and rushed to aiport to pick up Mr. Man. He was orginally not supposed to be in town for my birthday weekend, however, he was able to work his magic and he was able to be here (insert ridiculously huge grin here). We all went out for a family dinner, not the parents but my aunt d, cousin, Mr. Man, W, Uncle R, and cousins girlfriend. We managed to make a scene at a very small italian restaurant where we always go for birthdays and laughed until our stomach's hurt. We went back home enjoyed some of the delicious red velvet cake and by that point I thought I was going to have to be rolled out of the door from so much food!

Saturday the day of my actual b-day, we went to breakfast, hung out and got our nails did, and then it was time to partaaahy! We enjoyed some hot dogs and beers at the baseball game and the party continued into the wee hours of the morning. It was honestly one of the best birthday's in a very long time. I was surrounded by the people that I love and cherish and that in itself makes for a great day regardless of the activities planned. Here's to being half way to 50 and offically part of the quarter century club! Enjoy the pics, and I had to throw a picture in there of the little guy trying to look big and tough as well :)

He thinks he is as big as a dog on most days.

The epic cake! Bow, stripes, and quarters, oh my!

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L flowers from Mr. Man.

Close up of the whale and on of the quarters, it was just as delicious to eat as it was pretty :)

Meet Banks and Hitch

So I may have accidentally went to the local shelter here in Denver and come home with not one cat but TWO cats!!! I went with a family friend who's dad was looking to get a companion for their two year old cat. Unfortunately the shelter only had two kittens and they were brothers who were looking to be placed together. I knew right then and there I was going to be in trouble. I went into a room and began to play with the two little trouble makers and immediately fell in love!! I had to go meet my parents for my birthday lunch on Sunday so I put the kitties on hold and gave myself some time to think about this big decision. As soon as I left the shelter I knew that they would have to come home with me. I talked it over with W and my parents and we all agreed that they would be mine!! So without further ado I am pleased to introduce Hitch and Banks.

This is Banks and he is such a little trouble maker! He jumped up on the vets counter last night and started licking all of the dog treats! He will be quite a handful I'm sure.

Hitch, the love bug. You can kind of see he is polydactyl which means he has extra toes. It looks like he is sticking his thumbs out trying to 'hitch' a ride or it just looks like he has on a set of mittens. They are soo precious!

Some Ups & Downs

I am going to start off by saying this post has the potential to be kind of mushy, so don't say I didn't warn you. This week has been a little rough to say the least. It had all started out fine, you know the usual planning for the week of my birthday (a blessed event) :), some kickball games thrown in and Rockies game to boot. Not a bad schedule to wake up to on a Monday morning. I knew I needed to get my act together on Monday to help prepare for the crazy week that was to ensue and that's precisely what I did. Things were looking pretty good. Then Tuesday hit. I got a phone call from mom and she RARELY calls me, especially when she knows I am at work, this couldn't be good. I answered immediately and I knew something was wrong. Now before I go further I would just like to put a statement out there that my pets are my family, I love them with my whole heart so this may sound kind of silly to people who don't necessarily feel the same way, that's cool. Anyway, my mom said that our 10 year old German Short-Haired pointer had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. How could this be?? We had just seen her running around chasing squirrels and throwing her toys all over the backyard on Sunday?? What happened?? I immediately called W and we rushed to my parents house. Indeed the sweet, loveable, Brandy was in bad shape. Usually she is greeting us at the door the second she hears a car pull into the driveway...she didn't even come downstairs. It was heartbreaking. We rushed her to the vet, of course she couldn't walk so I was carrying my poor pup, who weighs over 100 pounds, like she was a baby. Sure enough the vet told us that she had some severe internal bleeding which is why she appeared to be fine just a few short hours prior. We could take her to the ICU and hope for the best but given the fact that she had a GREAT 10 years chasing squirrels, barking at bad boyfriends, and being a love bug, it was time to let her go. If any of you have ever lost a dog, it is by far one of the worst things I have ever had to witness. I know now that we did the right thing but she was part of our family. She was there for my senior prom, when I went off to college, and for that matter when I moved home after college, alway with a wagging little nub ready to brighten your day no matter what happened. Seh even let me put some of my old polo shirts on her and take her for walks, I'm sure she LOVED that! :)She was awesome and will be sorely missed. So today, if you have animals give them some extra little lovin' and your loved ones for that matter too.

Yes that is Brandy dressed up like Santa Claus, don't be confused. :)

Anyway, enough of the sappy sad stuff!!! Tomorrow I will be half way to 50. OMGEEE!!! I'm old!! Haha, we will be celebrating with my lovely cake, which I will pick up this afternoon, and then some Rockies baseball, (don't forget the beer and hot dogs of course.) I'm looking forward to spending the day at the nail salon gettin' my nails did and just relaxing! Just what I need after a rough week! I hope ya'll have a great weekend and I will be back with some lovely pics I'm

sure! Happy Friday!!!

Some 'happy' pictures!

Just a lovely cake picture, can't wait to see what this year's cake is going to look like!

A little derby pic makes everyone happy!

To block or not to block??

I have always struggled with accepting friend requests on facebook from co-workers. Fortunately for myself and many others at my office, nothing is really blocked from our internet search hungry minds. Unfortunately all of those hesitant friend requests who you ended up requesting can see that you uploaded your pictures from last weekends shenanigans during lunch. Meaning they can see that you were on facebook when you probably shouldn't have been. Not too big of a deal considering obviously that co-worker is on fb as well, but still no one wants to be that person who everyone thinks is a big slacker and blogs and facebooks all day...ceratinly no me. Anyway, an aquaintance of mine from work had asked me when I was uploading my derby pictures to facebook so all the world to see. I had kind of disregarded the e-mail because I had made a specific group on my settings to include all of my co-workers and had set it up so that none of those people could see my wall postings, uploads, wall etc. Here's the thing, this girl was legitimately upset!! She wrote me a nasty e-mail stating that we may as well not be friends on facebook anymore becuase having her blocked from seeing most of my activity was a waste anyway. Ummmm....what the heck do you even say to that?? I had honestly figured that none of them would have even noticed. I would have been happy to make snapfish account and sent interested parties the link but we are at work here people!! HELLO, I actually do work occasionaly here! So my question to ya'll is what am I supposed to do now?? Do I just let it go and have her de-friend me (which by the way I think is the lowest thing possible) or do I just let her see all that I do?? It's not like there are terrible pictures or anything I just don't think it is a co-workers business what I was doing on the weekends. Am I wrong here?? Help!

Derby Day Take One

So I'm sure many of you saw on the coverage of the Kentucky Derby that the weather in Louisville was nothing shy of miserable. When we arrived in Cincinnati the weather was a beautiful 80 degrees and same with the weather in Lexington on Friday. Unfortunately I was awoken by massive thunder on Saturday morning, of course the day of the derby!! Needless to say we got soaked from head to toe, but it was one of the top 5 best weekends of my whole life!! There was seersucker, critter pants, and lily pulitzer galore, my dream!! I will post of few pictures and then continue to do a full recap tomorrow when my brain is a little less foggy. I hope ya'll had a great derby day and celebrated with a mint julep!

The famous Churchill Downs. This was right after the derby, look at all those people!

First drink of the derby, my mint julep. Unfortunately not in a silver cup, sorry firecracker :)

Before the crazy muddy mess!

Shot of the group still looking kind of dry.

Totally SOAKED!

After my slilp n' slide adventure..notice the color variations in my dress?? I think its ruined :(

PS Soooo glad sissy face H could make it down from Chicago, lover you!