Whoa!

Has it really been a year (AND more!) since I last blogged??  I’m going to pick this back up, but, having been inspired by some fashionista and fabulous bloggers I’ve been reading lately, I’m going to document things I’m buying, wearing, and loving … starting tomorrow.  Man, I procrastinate.

Plus One

Plus One

Originally uploaded by amnicholslaw

Meet Max. He is the newest addition to our family. I was told this weekend it was time to add a new family member – baby or dog. I chose dog. The next day, I got an e-mail from a co-worker looking to find a good home for this guy. Fate!

He is a sweet, CALM, nine-year old (but still active when we want him to be) dalmation/labrador mix. He came from a great family that was growing on its own – but they chose baby!

We are excited to have him in our lives. AND, he is a Texas boy (straight from Houston – we all have our faults). It was meant to be.

Fishing

View from the Beach

Originally uploaded by amnicholslaw

I went fishing with my husband and daughter this weekend. Rephrase. I rode along with my husband two hours into the mountains so that he and our daughter could fish. TWO HOURS, people. Just to fish. When we had spent as much money on gas as a cool pair of shoes, we finally arrived at the place where my husband deemed it a good fishing spot. We donned our gear (meaning for me, my chair and my book) and hiked down to the river. Five minutes after I had set up my chair, we needed to move. We walked a little further down the river to a seemingly better spot (the view, people, the VIEW was amazing). We stayed there for about twenty minutes … and guess what? We needed to move again. Apparently, my husband cannot stay in one spot when he fishes.

When I was a kid, my dad lived on a lake. I would fish from the backyard and it was quiet, serene. This is what I thought fishing with my family would be like. Instead, we pulled off the highway to find this spot. I imagined that we would stay in one general spot and I would be able to relax and read. Wrong. When Dave decided to move from this spot, I decided to walk back to the car to wait for them there – it was starting to drizzle (which by the way, Dave says is the best time to fish – blech) and I didn’t want to be caught in what could have very easily ended up in a torrential downpour according to the forecasters. I ended up setting up camp along side the river and reading while I waited for the fishers to come back from their adventure.

They came back to the car after awhile and we started driving. Home? Nope. To another fishing hole. Two hours later we were on our way home. I got a lot of reading done.

Lesson learned. I don’t need to go on these trips with my husband and our daughter. It’s great father-daughter bonding time and it’s sexy when Dave wants to share something he loves with her.

PS – May 26th and it was sleeting on the drive home. Icy rain, people – in May.

In one word . . .

SWAMPED.  That’s me in a nutshell now that I’ve got a full-time job.

Throughout the Ages

Tomorrow is my birthday (holla!) and although I already feel like it has come and passed, I wanted to post a few interesting facts about November 19th.  On my birthday, throughout the ages, the following notable events have occurred:

• 461 – St. Hilarious becomes Pope.
• 1863 – Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address
• (In honor of my husband’s love of soccer) 1969 – Pelé scores his 1000th goal.
• (In honor of the enormous amount of student loans I have accrued during my legal education) 1985 – Pennzoil wins a $10.53 billion verdict against Texaco, in the largest civil verdict in U.S. history, stemming from Texaco’s establishing a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty.
• 1990 – Pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the Girl You Know It’s True album.
• 1997 – In Des Moines, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all seven babies were born alive. They would go on to become the first set of septuplets to survive infancy, with all seven alive in 2007.
• 1998 – The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against US President Bill Clinton.

Today is also the birth date of the following notable persons:

• 1831 – James A. Garfield
• 1917 – Indira Gandhi
• 1933 – Larry King
• 1935 – Jack Welch
• 1938 – Ted Turner
• 1942 – Calvin Klein
• 1949 – Ahmad Rashad
• 1956 – Ann Curry
• 1959 – Allison Janney
• 1961 – Meg Ryan
• 1962 – Jodie Foster
• 1966 – Gail Devers
• 1966 – Rocco DiSpirito

And in 1978, I graced this world with my presence.  So, happy birthday to me . . . and to any other November 19ers out there.  You’re in good company!

Hey Y’all!

Can I just say . . . I LOVE Paula Deen!  You’ve got to tune in to the Food Network, if for nothing else, but to hear that wonderful Southern accent.  She’s fabulous!

Worst Drug Name Ever.

AcipHex.  Seriously.  At first I thought it was a spoof.  Touted to help prevent heartburn, I can’t help but wonder what the side effects  are – you know, the usual suspects – gas, diarrhea, anal leakage . . . I’m just saying.

Fortunately for the drug, the most common side effects are headache and allergic reactions.  Maybe they should have brainstormed a little more with the name.  I can’t help but laugh every time I hear the commercial.

Disappointed.

As embarrassing as this is to admit – I was rooting for Britney. I recorded the VMAs tonight just so I could see her “comeback.” I saw the Allure photoshoot a while ago and thought she looked really good. What a difference a stylist and good makeup and hair people can make. Seriously. How bad did her hair look tonight? I expected her to look great (at least) – I mean how could she not for the VMAs? I didn’t really expect anything for the sound or the dancing, but really, I thought she would bring it. This was supposed to be her comeback, y’all.

I didn’t watch it live – rather, I watched it after watching and hashing out my other guilty pleasure with mi esposo . . . that would be Big Brother 8. I felt like I was watching someone who was sedated (by whatever drug or drink of choice) and who could care less. Her performance sucked. She looked bad, the song was bad, and the dancing was barely there.  Britney used to bring it and tonight she just didn’t. I’m disappointed.

My Pain in the Neck

No, not my husband. Really. I have a pain in the neck. I am heading to the chiropractor this afternoon to get some help. I need help. Lots of help.

The first time it happened was about 6 years ago. I just woke up and could not move. I really thought that I had just slept on it wrong. When I had it x-rayed, the doctor told me that it was the worst “something or other” (twisted vertebrae or something, I don’t remember) he’d ever seen without an actual accident or incident to set it off. I was seeing a chiropractor just about every three days trying to “realign.” Eventually I stopped going because I just hurt more after every session and the pain wasn’t going away. Now, every six months or so, I get a really bad bout of the neck pain, seemingly not caused by anything seriously stressful. Sometimes, it comes when I am drying my hair after a shower; other times, if I just turn my head too quickly. I can’t ride roller coasters any more . . . and I. Love. Roller Coasters.

It happened again this past weekend on vacation. Nothing happened in particular – I woke up fine, so it wasn’t that I slept on it wrong. But after breakfast, it just started hurting. I don’t remember any jerky movements, it just hurt. Like hell. Six days later, it still hurts. BAD. So, I’m headed to the chiropractor this afternoon. Wish me luck. Bone crackers scare the hell out of me.

Update: This bone cracker was excellent. I explained my fear of chiropractors and she took me seriously. She explained every thing that she was going to do and made sure I was comfortable. Plus, she was way cool . . . like, I’d want to be her friend. Oh, and she made my neck feel 90% better. Hopefully it will get better over the next couple of days. But she totally rocked!

Playing Catch Up

Warning: This post goes on forever!

The last two weeks have been fabulous! Meredith and I went to San Antonio to spend a week with some of the best people in the world (you know who you are!). We had a fabulous time – shopping, eating Mexican food, scrapbooking (sort of), swimming, and just getting to spend time together. That is truly missed, so I’m glad we got to hang out. You guys are going to have to come and visit soon!

The night we got back from the trip, we went to a Beatles tribute concert (1964: The Tribute) at Red Rocks. It was amazing! Dave and I love the Beatles (who doesn’t?) and Meredith’s teacher last year played the Beatles in her classroom, so she was excited (although tired) to go hear the music. The venue was packed, amazing, and gorgeous. It was everything we were looking forward to. I think we are going to make it an annual outing. Here are a few pictures from that night.

This past Wednesday, I came one step closer to becoming a licensed attorney. In Colorado, the Colorado Supreme Court requires applicants to attend CLE entitled, “Practicing with Professionalism” before they can be sworn in. So, results are still 32 days away, but I’m prepping so that I can be sworn in (knock on wood) on October 22 pending passing results. I met a fantastic girl (Hi Casey!) and hopefully we will end up being friends – we seemed to click!

Anyway – after those grueling six hours of CLE, the family headed over to Ouray for the beginning of our long weekend vacation. Dave and my mom’s husband were going to climb their first 14er (Mt. Sneffels – 14,150 feet). We got to Ouray late (around 10) and the men had to be up around 5:30 am in order to meet the guide at 6:00 to begin their trek. The boys were off and my mom, Meredith and I headed to Durango to shop for the day.

When the guys came back, exhausted and sore, we were thrilled. It was so exciting to hear about their adventure and I’m so glad they did it. You can probably find more details here at some point in the future. All I know is that they took the “moderate” way up with the guide, there was an 18 inch wide section with hundreds of feet of drop on either side, a 20 foot slide down scree (loose rocks) on the way down, three men tied together, helmets, a beautiful view, a little bit of altitude sickness, and one hell of an experience.

T

The next day, we all drove into Telluride from the house in Rico and did the Bear Creek Canyon trail. The last time I did this trail was 5 years ago (almost exactly) and I almost died. Or at least I felt like I did. This time, it was great. I was able to do it without too much trouble and the view at the top was amazing. Meredith also did the five-mile round trip hike and at the top, there were a couple of people that congratulated her on the long trip. (Side note: Nobody really had to take any breaks and on the way back down, we saw two teenagers who were having a little bit of trouble with the hike up. Way to go Meredith – you were awesome!) Here are a couple of pictures from hike and the waterfall at the top.

The Telluride Film Festival was also going on this weekend. Telluride was packed with film industry folks, and Dave and I tried to spot some celebrities. Unfortunately, we didn’t see anybody we recognized, but we really enjoyed sitting in the park and watching the people.

There is so much that happened these past two weeks and this is (really) the short version. There are plenty more good pictures over at our flickr. We are exhausted and glad to be back in our place – and happier to be back in our own beds. We had a fabulous time in Texas and in Rico/Telluride and can’t wait to go back!!