Happy Holidays!

This past week, Ian and I made the 15 hour drive back to Oklahoma to visit our families for Christmas. We had a wonderful time getting to be with our families, even if it was only for 10 days! While we were home, Oklahoma was hit with a blizzard. Yes, I said a blizzard!!! Who would have thought that we would come home from Colorado and actually have a WHITE Christmas!!!

My nieces have grown so much and are still as precious as ever! Kenzie has started learning how to play the violin at school. So... on Christmas Eve, Ian and I got our very own, private violin recital! I will post pictures and videos soon!

Kodi enjoyed playing with Zoe and Gracie at both of our parents homes. I think she is in withdrawal now that we are home and she just has us to entertain her.

The drive home was as uneventful as the drive to Tulsa, which was a blessing after the snow, sleet and ice we had experienced. I am looking forward to New Years Eve in Aspen and a wonderful 2010!!!

It is so nice to look forward to a new year rather than dreading what is to come! How things have changed in my life from this time last year to today! God has a way of bringing people together and putting us where we need to be at the right times.

I hope that everyone has a blessed and happy new year! I will see you in 2010!

Reasons to be thankful

November is traditionally the time to count your blessings and share with the ones you love the things that you are thankful. So here goes...

* I am thankful that I have the most wonderful man in my life... he is understanding, patient, loving, caring, and even a bit goofy... he understands me and knows when to give me a hug and reassurances and when to just let me vent... He even tolerates my crazy, random, OCD tendencies!

* I am thankful for my adorable puppy Kodi, who is growing like a weed!!! She is so much fun and such a happy dog!!! I can't imagine our lives without her!

* I am thankful for my family, my blood family, my extended-adoptive family, and Ian's family. I have never felt so loved before in my life. Ian's family has accepted me and made me feel like one of the clan, something that I haven't felt by a significant other's family in a long time. My blood family can be dramatic at times... but they are my family and I love them. My adoptive family (and you know who you are) love me for who I am and for that I am thankful.

* I am thankful for my grandmother, although no longer with us in life, she is still with us in spirit. I made her fried chicken the other night and it turned out wonderful!!! I didn't even cry as I made my grandma's famous fried chicken.

* My friends. I have the craziest and most diverse group of friends... and I love them all!

I know that I have left a lot of people and things off this list that I am thankful for, however, those things are no less important to me than the things that are listed.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Updates soon...

Hey everybody! I am sooo sorry that I haven't updated lately... my life has been sooo crazy! Kodi is definitely keeping Ian and I on our toes! She is a cutie-pie and is growing like a weed. I need to convince my other half to upload pictures from his camera to his laptop so I can steal them from him and update them on here and on facebook!!!

In other news... I am now a contract therapist for a small town nearby... google Marble, Co... population 85... one room school-house, literally... and I am serving students that are attending private schools that are eligible for speech services in Aspen/Snowmass.

Christmas... hopefully I will have our Christmas pictures printed soon... we need to get our acts in gear and start sending home our gifts so we have less to pack in my car for the drive...

Keep your eyes open for picture updates soon!!!

Much love to all my Oklahoma family!!!

Kodi Bear Stiller

Welcome to the family Lil' Miss Kodi Stiller! This week Ian and I "rescued" a little puppy that we have officially named Kodi. She is adorable and so far pretty laid back and easy going. We have found that she is VERY smart and is very curious about the world.

We got her from a guy in front of the grocery store on Monday, Oct 5, 2009. She looked sooo precious that we couldn't say no! The next day Ian took her to the local pet store to get her some goodies. Apparently one of her siblings had been in the store and was not in as good of condition as our precious angel.

We took her to the park the other day during my lunch hour. She is sooo tiny!!! We were told that she is a chow-shepherd mix... however... we are starting to question that label. Her tail curls like a chow (or like an akita or any dog in the spitz family), she doesn't have the purple on her tongue like a chow, nor the really long hair... her paws are tiny as well... she is fuzzy and cute and has a little white spot on her chest. She looks like a little bear, hence the name...

Last night Kodi let us sleep through the night. This was a first time experience for Ian and me. To say the least, we were beyond estatic that we only had to wake up at 5 am and then again at 9 am to take her out! I guess the meds from the vet are helping her. The vet said she didn't think that her label was accurate either for her breed. The vet also doesn't think that she is 9 weeks old as we were told... she is thinking that we are closer to 8 weeks old than 9. She was tested for parasites and bugs at the vet, only to find out that our lil' girl had a host of parasites living in her intestines as well as some sort of bacteria growing there. She is now on 2 different medicines and a bland diet and she is doing great!!!!

Ian has some other pictures on his camera that haven't been uploaded yet... so be prepared for more adorable pictures of our baby girl to come!!!!

Snowmass Balloon Festival

Last weekend was the annual balloon festival in Snowmass, Co. Ian got up early Friday morning to catch the first day of the balloons... I must say that he took some AMAZING shots, I have included some of my favorites below. We went Saturday morning and saw a lot of balloons as well, some he saw the morning before and some he hadn't seen. That night we went for the night glow. I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!!

August and September Updates... Picture version

Ian installing our new and improved shelves in the bathroom... the finished product to come soon...

Our newest rubber duckie from Jazz Aspen...
The newest generation of babies... The one hen has 14 chicks sprouting from it while the other has at least 4...
Breckenridge, August just after my visit to Denver for the Rockies game...

Crystal Mill, Crystal, Colorado... just outside of Marble, Colorado... beautiful Jeep trail... just don't fall down the hill...

What a week it was!

Last week was quite a week!!! My good friend from Tulsa sent me a text asking me if I was interested in going with her to the Colorado Rockies game and staying the night with her. Being a fan of baseball, I agreed to make the voyage across the state from Aspen to Denver to see Sasha on Wednesday. This was my FIRST SOLO adventure, just me and Sammi... for 288 miles! We made it to Superior safely and onto the game without a hitch.

The score board at the baseball stadium. I didn't take many pictures (shock I know) but I was having fun catching up with one of my favorite childhood friends!!!

The next day I left Superior but not before making a very important pitstop at the local Michael's for more scrapbooking paper... then onto Breckenridge to see Ian!!! We decided to meet at "our place" in Breckenridge for a few days to get away from the real world. We met at the Lodge and had a great two nights there in town.

THEN... on Saturday when we drove home I thought that someone had it in for me... I had not one but THREE cars try to change into my lane and car without so much as looking in their mirrors to see if there happened to be anyone nearby...

I have never been so happy to be home again... in one piece...

Adventures in Breckenridge

On the day before I was to leave Colorado, Ian and I set out on a quest to visit the quaint town of Breckenridge. Armed with my luggage and the COLORADO magazine and address of our hotel we set off on hwy 70 towards Frisco, Silverthorn and Breckenridge. We stopped and ate pizza in Silverthorn before visiting the gigantic outlet mall... then headed back into Breckenridge. Mind you I had read the comments on the hotel itself the day before and THOUGHT (key word is that I THOUGHT) I had even called the hotel to confirm our reservations... I knew that the hotel was "a little outside of town" and that is was even "somewhat difficult to find." But, we are young and invincible...we can find it... besides, my boyfriend will google the directions before we leave right??? WRONG!!!

So picture this... Ian driving and me in the passenger seat (been there most of the day) looking at the Breckenridge map saying, "Honey, it says that the hotel is in quadrant H-1. See... over here... in this corner... just go through town and we will see it..." This led us to end up in Blue River City, the OTHER SIDE of Breck before we knew it. Now rather giggly, I call the hotel (or what I THINK is our hotel). Here is how that conversation went...

Lady: Well where are you at?

Me: Somewhere outside of Breckenridge... (giggle giggle giggle)
Lady: What road are you on?
Me: I dunno... Main street??? (More giggling)

Lady: Are you still on Main Street?

Me: We never turned off of it so I would hope so!!! (Continuation of uncontrollable giggling)

Lady: Ok, come back to "downtown" Breck, when you see South Park off of Main street you are

going to turn left and... (I didn't hear the rest I was too busy laughing about there being a

SOUTHPARK street in Breckenridge... too much time in a car for sure!!!)

So about 15 minutes later, Ian and I are still driving in circles, finding all sorts of other hotels but not ours... so HE calls back... shockingly enough, he got the same directions I got (hahaha! To think he was threatening me with not being the navigator again!!!) So after driving around for a little longer, I looked (yet again) in the Breckenridge magazine for some miraculous guidance... it was then that I realized that I had called the WRONG hotel... no wonder the lady's directions kept taking us to the GREAT DIVIDE LODGE and not the LODGE AT BRECKENRIDGE!!! Once I composed myself and could talk, I called the REAL hotel to get directions. Here I am laughing so hard I can't sit up and am crying while Ian is in the front seat about to kill me... Ian got the directions to the hotel, which lo-an-behold we had driven past the intersection for the hotel a few times...

After an extended drive through Breckenridge and back, we find the hotel and it is amazing!!! Looks like a huge log cabin!!! We go check in and go up to our room... Which was adorable as well... we changed clothes and headed out to adventure in the town of Breckenridge. We had dinner at the Kenosha Steakhouse which was fantabulous! We could have split either of our meals, which he chose a grilled chicken dinner and I had the pulled pork bbq sandwich! After eating we hit the streets. Most of the shops were closing by this time so we went into the ones we could and decided to come back again!!!

The view from our porch/deck/balcony...

The view of the front of the hotel, the lighting stinks but what can a girl do when she only has one chance to take the picture lighting or not...

Colorado in July

My trip to Colorado has been all kinds of exciting and busy!! I arrived on the 1st with enough time to relax briefly before we ran over to the cousin's house for birthday dessert for Sheridan. The dessert and conversation were amazing and I really like Ian's cousins!

While we were relaxing on the patio before leaving for Berkley and Russell's for Sheridan's birthday party. It was warm enough to shed my jacket for a while!

Fourth of July found us in Aspen in the morning watching the parade down main street. The parade was amazing. There were motorcycles galore... a massive herd of children on decorated bicycles, firetrucks covered with kids and family members... then the most impressive part for me was when the veterans passed by. There were vets from WWII, Vietnam, Korea, Normandy Beach, Okinawa, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gulf War, and any war in between... There were HUNDREDS of veterans, in uniform, with signs denoting their particular theater/tour of duty. It was amazing the support that these men (and some women) received from the crowd that day. Having friends in the military, and that have served in the Middle East in the last 6 years of this ongoing war, it brought tears to my eyes and a chill down my skin to see all the vets. After we painted an office for a while, we came home, took a brief nap then headed to Glenwood Springs for fireworks. Above is a picture of me waiting for the fireworks to start while enjoying the Glenwood Springs Symphony.

Some of the fireworks that we were blessed with watching! I love fireworks!!! I also enjoy the amazing freedom that is signified by them on the 4th of July...

Sunday we drove to Crested Butte... we made a brief pitstop in Redstone on our way. We checked out the old coal coke pits and then attempted to drive through Marble to Crested Butte... the Marble idea went out the window when the road became muddy, bumpy, rocky and incredibl narrow. I was enjoying our offroad adventure, however, Ian was not so we turned around and decided to take the OTHER route through the Paona Reserve. That drive is amazing!!!

After walking around in Crested Butte on our way home we stopped to admire the various wildflowers that are on the side of the road. Ian got some amazing shots of the flowers and a few pictures of me in the process.

Here is one of pictures that I took while standing/sitting outside the sunroof while driving home. Ian is completely rubbing off on me... I typically don't take pictures of the sky, clouds, and scenary... but now...

And last night... he brought me flowers... He had been working in Aspen and I decided to stay home to relax... when he came home he told me to close my eyes as he walked in the door... so I closed my eyes and attempted to cover them, but he took my hands down from my eyes and put this beautiful bouquet of flowers in my hands!!!!

Just in case I haven't mentioned it lately, I love my boyfriend!!!!

Soccer Camp

This past week McKenzie participated in the British Challenger Soccer camp out in Sand Springs. Although none of her teammates were at the camp with her, she had a lot of fun. Both of the coaches that were running the camp were amazing with the kids! I picked up on a few ideas to use with my students from them in the two days I went with Kenz!!! Their teaching method totally reinforced to me that my philosophy of learning through play is a good idea! Kenzie was super excited about all the "cool soccer tricks" she learned each day and was ready to go back the next day, despite the heat and her apparent likeness to me with heat stroke readiness...

Here's a picture of Kenzie on Friday after she started to have a heat stroke during camp. She felt terrible, but she didn't want to leave. She really wanted to be out with her group playing!!! I just liked how I was actually able to capture all the feelings she was displaying in the picture!!!

Here is Kenzie with her coach Nick on Friday. I think she has a crush on him. She told me several times that she would like for him to move to Oklahoma to coach her team... as if he doesn't have a job in London or his own soccer team that he plays on there!

Each day the coaches had homework assignments for the kids. Everything from creating a juice drink, to looking up information about UK online, to bringing dress up items to put on the coaches... Nick took off part of his attire for the World Cup competition before camp ended, but here he is with Kenzie looking all sorts of silly.

The entire camp. The photographer from the Sand Springs paper came out and took their picture for the paper... if anyone happened to see if it made it in the Sunday paper let me know!!!!

Kenzie is super excited about starting her fall soccer season and learning more soccer skills. I am thrilled that she is pumped about the sport!

Happy Birthday Baby!!!!

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!!!!

In honor of Ian's big 3-0 birthday, I thought I would list 30 things that I love about him and him being in my life... so here goes...


1. He makes me SMILE, all the time with the silly things he says or the things he does for me.
2. He does LITTLE THINGS for me that mean the world to me!
3. He LISTENS, wholeheartedly.
4. He is CARING and SHOWS his CARE for others
5. He will text with Kenzie, even when he is busy and/or tired!

6. He COMPLIMENTS me, on my cooking, how I look, without cues.

7. He RESPECTS me and my ideas, goals, values

8. He is SUPPORTIVE of my goals and dreams

9. He enjoys being ACTIVE, can't handle being inside too long...

10. He's a HORNET!!!

11. He enjoys taking PICTURES.
12. He is THOUGHTFUL of others
13. He is GOAL DRIVEN
14. He will take pictures WITH ME
15. He is usually SMILING



16. He strives to be MORE, to do MORE, to see MORE
17. He loves to TRAVEL
18. He LOVES... all things, photography, animals, sunsets, clouds, ME, rocks, plants
19. He has FAMILY VALUES
20. I can TRUST him with all of my being



21. He shows AFFECTION... in his words, his deeds, his actions
22. He steals KISSES in public... and let's me steal kisses
23. You can tell that he LOVES me by the way he looks at me.
24. He is incredibly PERSONABLE and EASY-GOING.
25. My family (dramas) don't SCARE him...


26. He wants to get to KNOW my family, especially my nieces.
27. We have a lot in common, while having a lot of things different
28. When he tells me he loves me, he makes it PERSONAL and you just KNOW he means it!
29. He wants to have a FUTURE with me!!!
30. He is just overall... AMAZING!!!

I hope that your special day is all that you hoped it would be. I can't wait to be there and to celebrate with you... I love you so very much and I am so thankful that God put you BACK in my life after all these years! Thank you so much for being everything I had dreamed of and then some! I know that you are the ONE for me... it seems OBVIOUS to me now after this week. I LOVE YOU!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Random Summer Fun

So far this summer at home has been fun! I have watched Ana and swam with her some as well as gotten together with some of my friends!!! I can't believe how much Ana's skills have improved! That girl has some talent when it comes to swimming!!!! She is such a hoot to watch jump into the pool off of the diving board. She likes to make up dances and such as she comes down the board until she jumps!!! Here I am watching her from the swing the other day...


Saturday I was blessed with the chance to see one of my best-good girlfriends and hang out poolside at her parents house. We had a good time as usual and caught up on our guys! It is so great that we are both in love AND with such amazing guys!!!! I love ya Val!!!

And last but not least... my babies... yes my family grew the last time I visited Ian in Colorado... Growing up, my grandma had these plants called Hen and Chicks that I watered religiously and helped her replant as needed. When I moved away to Texas, she sent a few of them to me in a pretty yellow pot. Well, when I moved home after her passing, I (ignorantly) left the plant in Texas on the back patio. So... while at the nursery with Ian one day I commented on how much I loved those plants and how I would like to have my own. Ian suggested I get a plant or two of my own to care for in Colorado. So... I did!!! We now have our own hen and chick family, two hens and about 5 chicks! He is a good daddy and hasn't starved them off water and I have been a negligent mommy and abandoned them with their daddy for 3 weeks...

CHANGES...

Change is good...right??? Well in the spirit of keeping my blog and actually using it... I am making it an open blog again... that is right... anyone can read my blog now... So... remember to bookmark my page or become a follower (thanks Trish!!!) so that when I update you will know!! I am going to try to make a valiant effort to blog at least once a week once I move to Colorado the end of July. My blogs will hopefully have pictures and stories of what Ian and I are up to and how work and life is going for me.

Be sure to continue to check back soon!

A day at the Bells

A beautiful spring day at the Maroon Bells...