I had my first ever massage at a spa yesterday. And it was free... Her name was Candice. She touched my fanny.

Seriously, though, it was absolutely fantastic. You know what was better? Getting on the scale afterward and finding out that since leaving Las Vegas I've lost ten pounds. Way better than the massage.

I want to believe.

http://www.venganza.org/

Have you been touched by His Noodly Appendage?

My bird learned to imitate my laughter... it's kinda neat.

*stunned* I've just been told I am the new gallery director. WTF?

I ate a Hershey bar after lunch and now I feel gross. Yes, gross. There are times in one's life where one cannot belabor the vocabulary one chooses to describe one's nastiness. Hypoglycemia is a hideous condition to have. On the bright side, I've walked up and down stairs all day so at least I won't grow any larger from the consumption of said Hershey bar.

Mike spent all weekend at the Christie working, which sucked rather hard. I got to see him this morning just before I came to work. I miss him. I'll be glad to crawl in to bed with him tonight.

So, being an employee of the lodge I get a discount at one of the spas around here. 25% off all scheduled treatments and $25 walk-in hour-long massages. I was talking to Scott, the owner, and told him I'd never had a massage before... so now I'm getting a free one! Free massage tomorrow after work. *dances* I'm so lucky.

No new news. My sister has a boyfriend now and they're adorable together. I haven't seen her really happy with a man for so long I was a little surprised by the ease that she fell in to it after her divorce... but I'm ecstatic for her and Jimmy is really rather fantastically funny.

My Kick-Ass-Sexy Shoes

I want to post everyday just to tell you all what I had for lunch. Today it was red pepper bisque. Yesterday was stuffed pablano peppers. I'm in love with this town... and I'm full.

Making changes to the blog soon. Jenny is helping, of course. I'm going to be adding links and changing the image and I'll be posting pictures soon, too. Good things to come.

I deleted members that didn't participate. I don't think my husband reads my site at all... and I'm fairly certain David has forgotten that I have one. Mind you, there's no bitterness. Just observation. :)

Didn't make it to Holy Toledo... *sad* I was denied my shopping by this massive farmers market in Minturn. I really want to go to the market, too, but having on those shoes kind of derailed any plans to shop where I'd have to hike from my parking to the final destination.

The dog I want is $1800. It's a Tibetan Terrier and they're SO adorable. They're great with kids and big, lovey, playful cuddle bugs. I so want one but I think it's a little out of my range. Dammit.

I went to a giant rummage sale... that was pretty cool. I had never been to a rummage sale before. It's like fighting with a hundred women that all want what you have. Kinda fun.

Bianca is now the Sugar Bee. Don't ask... just accept the goodness that is Sugar Bee. *beams*

All hooked up on the internet now, too. Thanks to Mike and his patience with the cable people. YAY INTERNET!

I have to work a half of a day today. No big deal. I really love my job, my boss, my co-workers. It's nice to be able to help out and I don't even feel like bitching about it. I love that.

I am wearing my kick-ass-sexy shoes today (best gift EVAR!) and looking at puppies online. I can't decide what has me more excited... which will likely prompt dog owners to tell me not to get a dog. That's only because they don't know how I feel about shoes, though. :) F'real, though, I'm so needing a puppy and Mike said I could have one and I'm practically jumping out of my skin trying to decide what kind of puppy will make the best addition to our family. Something that won't eat my bird, obviously.

I've been invited, along with my older boys and husband, to attend a Broncos game tonight in Denver. I think I'm going to skip it but I know Mike wants to go and the boys would love it. Maybe Ian and I can go to the movies or something instead. Today I'm going to go to lunch with Mike and go shopping at Holy Toledo. I think tomorrow I'll head in to town to check out some pet stores...

No new news. I'm sleepy. I'm addicted to green tea fraps at starbucks.

Random things:

I think one of my sisters has a drinking problem. I told my parents while they were here visiting on the way back from Wyoming. They were in Yellowstone and up at our family cabin (which is ginormous, three cabins combined in to one) with all of the granddaughters. Next year they're taking all of the grandsons.

My kids call my grandmother great-grandma... like they should. They call my mom good-grandma. Just sharing because I think it's cute.

Ian will look at something in awe and say "that's SO BEAUTIFUL" like he's twenty instead of five. I love that.

I love hanging out with my sister Mariah. Her name is really spelled "Maria" but she added an "h" so people would stop calling her Maria.

My sister Megan makes me want to be a better human being. Seriously.

There are few true loves in my life that aren't love by default (read "family" (which doesn't mean I love them less)). I choose to love without judgement or regret only four people. I try to remember that because it makes me remember how remarkable those people are.

I can be captivated by the way something or someone smells.

Music can make me cry.

I sing hymns when I'm afraid and it 'settles' me. I'm afraid of the dark. My sister, Shara, once snuck up on me in a dark warehouse and I punched her. Hard. Really hard. Then I felt bad.

I miss her... and I feel guilty that I wasn't a better sister to her.

My sisters have the ability and capacity to be more than they are but that they are happy is all that is important.

Back from Vegas and SO happy about it! We hit this tremendous lightning storm right after Grand Junction that was just amazing. I've never seen lightning so close!!! I could see it touching the ground in the towns we passed.

Anyway, I had such a good time with everyone. Carolyn looks adorable and I found something at Carters I want to get for her. I'll be out again in October right before she's due and I'm so excited!! Sara's hair is adorable... and so is Sara! :) I wish she were happier, though. I really do. Jenny is beautiful and married and I just can't believe it sometimes but I love the way she beams when you call her Mrs. Schrimshaw. Adorableness. Bianca and David are always an adventure but this time their affection for each other, though grudging, was obvious and I was happy that they got along so well during my visit. I miss the three of them more than I can say. No, I'm not moving back, Bee... no. Bianca bought me these kick ass sexy shoes for my birthday. I need to buy kick ass sexy clothes to wear with them. We all had sushi together, which was great... but I think that the big dinner at Paymon's was really fantastic. It was nice to have everyone there (except Tom) and finally meet Amy and see my sisters. Great fun.

That was my trip in a nutshell... I miss everyone already but I'm so glad to be home.

I'm tired. It's six-ish and it's been a long day. We just got new tires put on the van yesterday and it's STILL vibrating like mad. Dave looked at it again today and I guess there's one other thing to try but he's not going to charge us until he's sure it'll fix it. For those of you that don't know, my entire suspension system has at this point been replaced. It's sick, how much money I've dumped in to the van. BUT it should last forever now. :) YAY.

Mike's here... I wanted to write more but now isn't going to be the time. See everyone soon!

Blogger killed my post. I'm going to summarize.

I don't have to go to Florida.

Heading out west soon to visit... couldn't be happier.

David called me a Coloradoan and it made me laugh.

All done!

I have to go to Florida for two days at the end of the month. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

For the last couple of weeks it has rained every afternoon/evening. You can watch the clouds build into thunderstorms through the day. It's not like the desert where you watch the wind sweep the clouds over the valley. It's different... the clouds pile on top of each other as they come over the mountains. It's really amazing. Piles and piles of white down coming up over the ridges. My new place has windows all through and we leave them open all of the time for the breezes. When the clouds finally get too heavy and turn the dark, ominous gray of the storm you can feel the air change. I'll be sitting under the window reading and hear the wind pick up just before the air kisses my skin with bursts that feel like waves of cool water and I know that this is one of the happiest times of my life. I close my eyes and breathe in the air and my kids stop whatever it is they're doing... watching a movie, fighting, reading... and they just stop and feel the air around them and smile as they smell the wet earth. It's inspiring and I want to share it all with everyone but I'm really just not talented enough to make you all feel it.