Vacation: Finished.

Phew! That was quite an adventure! Two weeks of vacation. It was long, but wonderful. And, we spent entirely too much time driving.

May 7: Left at around 1:00 AM.

May 7: Arrive in St. Louis, MO at about 12:00 PM. We spent the night there. We stayed at the Westin. It was AMAZING. It's an extraordinary hotel. We decided to splurge a little bit in St. Louis because we were only going to be there for one night and it was the first (and possibly last) time either of us had been to the city. We wandered around the city for a while and we did a tour of the arch. A shuttle took us to the top and we got to look out through windows at the top down on the whole city. It was quite an experience. :)

May 8: Leave around 8:00 AM for Denver.

May 8: Arrive in Denver at our hotel (Boston Commons) at about 6:30 PM. We check in and just relax. :)

May 9: We visit a possible house. It was really nice and the owner was very friendly. That night, we went to the casinos in Black Hawk. It was a cool experience, but the slot machines stole all of my money. lol

May 10: Philip had an appointment at the Sysco in Denver for his transfer and then we visited another possible house. It was 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms with a 3 car garage, fenced in backyard, small storage shed, and finished basement. We really fell in love with the house, but it was outside Denver.

May 11: We visited two houses. One was a definite NO (overpriced, small, bad neighborhood, seriously outdated and dirty). The other was great. In a nice neighborhood, decent sized, close to Denver, and the people were very friendly. We spent the evening going over choices (there were other appointments, but they were rented out before we arrived in Denver). And, we thought that since we had 3 pretty good choices, we didn't really need any more to muddy up the waters!

May 12: After we slept on it, we decided on house number 2. It was further out, but we liked it the best and it was the best deal. We set up an appointment for Friday to settle all the details for the lease. Philip was supposed to have an appointment for his physical for the transfer, but there was a mistake and we had to reschedule. Then, we went to the aquarium. It was AWESOME. I loved it. If you're ever in Denver, definitely do not miss out on that! :)

May 13: We spent the day wandering around downtown Denver. It was really nice. We mostly stayed on the 16th Street Mall. It's not actually a "mall." It's a street with lots and lots of shops and restaurants. It is closed to vehicles (except for the bus that will take you from one end of the street to the other, for free). It was really nice. :)

May 14: We went to the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado. It was VERY interesting. I got closer to tigers than I have ever been before. They rescue wild animals from abuse situations. There were lions, tigers, bears, wolves, bobcats, leopards, and even more unusual animals. It was definitely worth a visit. Then, we went shopping at the Northfield Stapleton Mall in North Denver. It was enormous. It's all outdoors and it seems like it goes on forever. We didn't make it through very much of it before it was time for our house appointment. We spent three hours talking to the owners. We actually have a great deal in common with them. We gave them references, etc., and we should be hearing from them soon to see if everything was satisfactory (which it should be!).

May 15: Our one year anniversary. :) We went to a local park and relaxed at our hotel. We got packed up and then we went out to a nice dinner to celebrate. We spent a while researching restaurants in the area (ones with plenty of vegetarian options) and decided on a restaurant called Venice Ristorante & Wine Bar. It was DELICIOUS. Philip started off with pear salad (mmmm...) and I started out with a pureed potato soup (it was amazing!). I had grilled pear ravioli in a gorgonzola sauce. Philip had some sort of chicken with roasted red potatoes. I don't remember much about his because mine was absolutely finger-licking good. He said that his was equally as good. We had creme brulee with strawberries for dessert and it was also great. The meal was absolutely perfect.

May 16: We left at about 9:30 AM (Mountain Time) for home. We drove straight through to Charlotte. We arrived on May 17th at around 11:00 AM. It was a not-so-pleasant drive, mostly because of the length, but we made it through all right. :)

May 17: When we did arrive, we did several loads of laundry. We relaxed and played games with some friends.

May 18: We left for Virginia Beach. haha... yeah, I know. We are definitely gluttons for punishment. We arrived late afternoon. We met up with a friend there, checked into our hotel, and then wandered around for a while. We walked on the beach, but it was dark by then and the water was FREEZING.

May 19: We slept in late and then went down to the beach. The water was still very cold, but we braved it anyway. After a few minutes, our bodies adjusted and we had a great time in the water. I forgot how much fun the ocean is! I read on the beach for a while and got burned on my backside. Some friends joined us at the hotel late that night.

May 20: We went down to the beach again. I got burned on my front side this time. lol The water was still freezing cold, but we braved it again. After a while, we went to get lunch and then bought some floaty toys for the water. I got a boat, Philip got a stingray, and Aileen got a dolphin. We spent a while riding our floaties in on the waves. It was an excellent idea! Then we dug a giant hole on the beach. I am not really sure why. haha

May 21: We went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was definitely overpriced and overrated. The Busch Gardens in Floriday is WAY better. There were not many coasters (and only 2 that were really good). There weren't a lot of smaller rides either. And everything was overpriced (especially admission). I wouldn't recommend it unless you just really like to throw away money. haha We headed back that night. We got home at about 9:30 PM. We unpacked and started some laundry. Then we relaxed and hit the hay.

Today, we did some grocery shopping and made dinner and have just been relaxing. It's been a wonderful vacation. It FLEW by. Philip heads back to work tomorrow night. I'm not sure that they're going to recognize him anymore since he's been gone for so long. ;)

Phew!

The next two months are going to be crazy busy. My schedule:

May 7th: Leave for St. Louis. We are spending the night there.

May 8th: Leave St. Louis for Denver. We will be in Denver through the 15th (our one year anniversary). We will be getting everything situated for our move and having a nice vacation.

May 16th: Leave for home. We will probably spend another night in St. Louis because the drive straight through to Charlotte from Denver is 1600 miles.

May 18th: Leave for the beach (Virginia Beach). We will be there through the 21st.

May 22nd: Leave for home.

May 25th or 26th: Leave for Indiana. I will probably spend about a week there. I'm not sure when I'll be able to make it back home once we move to Denver.

June 3rd or 4th: Leave for Charlotte.

June 5th through June 11th: Cleaning and packing all of our stuff for the move.

June 12th: Our going away party.

June 13th: Leaving for Pennsylvania to spend about 10 days with Philip's family.

June 24th: (hopefully) Getting my Sizzling Sixteen book signed by Janet Evanovich in Charlotte. :)

June 25th: Getting our Penske truck rented and packed up.

June 26th: Leaving for St. Louis to meet my parents.

June 27th: Leaving for Denver.

June 28th: Unpacking. Yuck.

June 29th: Spending a nice week with my parents in Denver. :)

July 5th: FINDING A JOB! haha

So, as you can see, I will be very busy for the next two months. But, it is going to be awesome! Wish me luck. :)

My Gloriously Fantastic Life :)

My life is wonderful. Sometimes I am just in complete awe of it. I have the most wonderful man in the world as my partner in life. I have four beautiful pups. I may be jobless right now, but I know that it will look up. I have amazing friends. I have a slightly crazy but incredible family.

Vacation is in 2 weeks now. That's 8 days in Denver and then coming back to go to the beach for a few days. Two full weeks spent with Philip without him having to go to work. That's hiking, exploring, swimming, and wonderful bliss. :)

We are moving in 64 days. That's a new start in a new state 1,600 miles away. That's new friends and new places and new experiences. And it will all be shared with the love of my life.

My life is absolutely amazing.

Christmas

First of all, I want to say that today is Cody's birthday. He turns 2 years old today. :)

Christmas was good. Our drive to Indiana went well. We ran into some heavy rain for about an hour, but other than that, no problems. We got there about 3:30 AM. It took about 10.5 hours. Not bad. There was snow on the ground when we got to my parent's house. It was covered with ice though, so we couldn't actually play in it. The next day there was an ice storm. Lots of accidents. My parents took us shopping and out to dinner at my favorite restaurant (the day after Christmas).

We went to see 2 movies. Yes Man and Seven Pounds. Both were pretty good. Other than that, we pretty much just lounged around. It was relaxing.

We opened one present when we arrived very early Christmas morning. Then we went to sleep for a few hours and then got up and opened presents. I got the Twilight Saga collector's edition box set, Edgar Sawtelle, and a beautiful, huge purple vase from Joe. I got a bunch of movies, books, candy (as if we need any... I still have the candy from Halloween!), games, and a Roku Netflix player from my parents and my sister. Joe got a toothbrush sanitizer, bongos, a rain stick (musical instrument), movies, candy, and a beard trimmer from my parents and sister. I got him the Absolute Batman Hush book, a tea infuser with loose tea (he's been on a tea kick lately and he thinks that the loose tea with the infuser is better than the bags), and a handheld sudoku game for his traveling (he likes to do Sudoku while on planes and while he's waiting).

While we were at my parents we also played Trivial Pursuit and Mad Gab. Trivial Pursuit or at least the edition we played, is much harder than I remember. They were a lot of really obscure questions! I had never played Mad Gab but it was a lot of fun. My mom is insanely good at it!

We had a good time, but it's good to be home. We sleep in the spare bedroom there and it's just a full size bed so it's smaller than we're used to and also, my parents keep their house a lot hotter than we keep ours so it was hard for us to sleep. My parents heat their house with a wood burning stove, so the air is really dry. I got laryngitis. I still can't really talk. I'm just glad that it's all I got. I haven't been sick in over two years. However, I forgot my vitamins and my parents don't drink much juice (no vitamin C) and I wasn't eating very well because my parents don't have a whole lot of vegetarian food on hand (they normally stock up when they know I'm coming, but it was a surprise, so no food for me!). And all of that combined with the dry air, my defenses were down. My nose and mouth were dried out so there was nothing to stop the cooties from coming in and then I wasn't taking very good care of myself, so my body didn't fight it well. I'm already getting better though, so I don't think it's going to go anywhere other than my throat. It didn't make it to my nose or my chest. Isn't that weird? I'm still going to insist that because I didn't get any worse than what I did, it's because I'm not poisoning my body with meat. :)

Well, it's back to work today. It's quiet though. We have the day off on Thursday for the New Year. Joe said we might only work a half day on Wednesday or have the day off on Friday if it stays slow. Unfortunately, we won't get paid for that, but a day off is a day off! And the way it's looking so far today (only one phone call all morning), we are likely going to have a day off. :)