My favorite weekend pastime has become blogging! Not just writing them but reading all my friends blogs. It's like curling up on the couch with a really good book. I love making one of my Latte creations, bringing my laptop over to the couch, and logging on. I love reading the views of everyday life of my friends. Thank you, Carey, for getting me into this. And thanks to my friends for writing about your interesting lives.

I am an Echinacea What Flower Are You?

I wish I could take a picture of what is happening outside right now, but sadly I dropped my camera at the Bronco Game & now it won't take pictures. So, you are going to have to take my word for it! We, here in Colorado, are experiencing our first Blizzard of the season! It's been snowing pretty hard since about 3 am. Needless to say, I got my wish to stay home today! And, despite that I have recently trimmed my trees, I again have branches down on the ground!! But, I still have power, so that's good. It is really pretty outside with snow everywhere!! Well, like it or not here comes winter, and I am enjoying it all safe snuggly & warm in my house with my two poochies! Let's just pray that I get to stay home tomorrow also!:)

Hello sports fans!! What a long week I had. I have been sooooooooooooo busy I haven't been able to see straight!! So, I am going to try and recap my week without going on too long here. It started out last Sunday at the Bronco Game:
Here you have the Bronco Groupies out for a Sunday Game & ready to stomp the Raiders! We tailgated all afternoon, got our drink on & devoured hamburgers! We had a blast. The game started at 6:15pm. We got home at around midnight. I was up the next day at 5am!! I was giving my first all day training for other District professionals with my boss. I could NOT be late & I had to be good! I pulled it off, but man was I tired!! Needless to say, was not making it into the office the next day. But this day, Tuesday would prove to be more than a little bizzare. It started out easy enough, a little sleeping in, a little TV watching. In the PM, I decided to venture out & take Millie to the vet to get her shots. When I got there, however, not only did Millie throw up in the car, the shot clinic is closed due to an emergency surgery. So, I decided to clean up the puke & go to target. I had a great time in target, but when I came out it was snowing & raining like no other! At first I was excited because this would be the first time driving the new truck in a storm. I realized though, I needed gas. So, I turned into a gas station only to change my mind, thinking I could make it to Safeway to get my discount. So off I went. I got about a half mile away, driving up a hill, when I ran out of gas!! So. I had two dogs in the back of my new SUV, one very agitated, and now I was stranded next to the median with a ton of fast moving cars around me. I called a friend, but she didn't have her car there!! next thing I knew, a cop stopped & drove me to the gas station. So, I got my dogs home, but Millie had thrown up again. Poor doggy!! I put the dogs in the back yard so I could clean up the puke again. When I was about done, I heard one of my dogs whimpering. When I checked, there layed a dead squirrel at Millies feet, and Rooby was cowaring by the door. I when out to scoop up the squirrel which had obviously just died, but had no bite marks. Then I let the dogs in & wiped their paws. right away I realized that Rooby was limping and bleeding! I couldn't figure out what had happened. I certainly had not heard dogs fighting. Then when I was cleaning Millie's paws I noticed a curious drop of blood. So, it doesn't take a genious to figure out what happened, Millie was protecting her kill. Doesn't she know she doesn't have to kill her food anymore?:) Anyway, I was thinking about the day & wondering what else could possibly happen! Well, my request was granted. That night it kept snowing pretty hard. I was really worried about my backyard tree which was leaning down on my power lines. Rooby was too scared to go outside even. Before I knew it, I heard a crash outside in the front yard. When I looked there was a gigantic tree branch dangling straight down on the ground. It was on the ground, but still hanging there. I was really upset, because I had been researching tree trimming companies to get it trimmed. We weren't even suppose to get this big storm!! I literally was calling the company I picked the next day, that was my plan! It took a week for them to make it out to my house, but we got it all cleared up. The tree looks really bad right now, but they tell me it will regain a nice shape again. Oh well! Work was crazy all week. I encountered a major conflict with one of my staff who actually walked off the job! STRESS! Then I completed the second day of training on Friday, all day. This weekend was Girl's Night. Somehow, I thought I was back in college & downed half yard beers like water!! Needless to say, there is a headache involved right now. But a good close to a very long week. I leave you all with a pic of one of my boyfriends from the Bronco Game. Enjoy!

My house, in the middle of the...........ok enough! Hee hee!! I so funny. Or, maybe I have had too much coffee this morning. That is most likely it.

Well, I wanted to tell the story of my house this time around. It's a much longer story than you would imagine, and different than you would imagine. It's not the typical story about girl wanting to buy a house. Girl finds realitor, girl searches house adds, girl finds house, and girl signs life away to buy house. No, it's a little more complicated than that. I haven't told that many people my story of how I got here for fear that I would be judged. I don't like being judged. I don't like the possibility of a negative spot light on me. So, because of that, I keep my faith mostly to myself. I am hoping that through this blog, I will be able to risk more. It's a start. Anyway, my story. A couple of years ago, everything was all wrong, only I didn't know it. I was living in Denver, I had what I thought was a good job. I had a boyfriend whom I thought loved me. And I had two cats. I was basically living my life for myself, and practically living with my boyfriend by default. I was suppose to be living in my friend's basement, but it flooded, so I stayed at his house. At first, with him I felt a strong pull to bring him to church. We found a great church that friends of ours were going to. It was great at first because I felt us getting closer and him getting to know God. But it didn't last long. Seemed to me that one minute we were connecting through God, then the next we were being pulled apart. A couple of factors came about. First, he had to work in California for awhile through his job. So, he was gone a lot. Then there was talk about him possibly being transferred to LA. All scary for me. Things with us were always up in the air, and I felt him pulling away. Then, I had to move my cats into a basement bedroom at his house. He was not a cat lover, so it was tence from the start. He would not allow the cats to be anywhere else in the house but that room. Consequently, they made messes in there. I cleaned it all up and was finally able to move them to my friends basement where I was suppose to live, but things had drastically changed. Long story short, we broke up a couple of times before breaking up for good. I couldn't understand at all. I thought God was bringing my boyfriend & I closer to each other and to him. What was happening??!!! That was the first major loss. Next came the cats. I adopted the dog that my ex-boyfriend & I had shared. The cats were aweful to be around. They would attach Rooby, and then one day Sissy attacked both Rooby & I. I had to make a very hard decision for me. I had to get rid of Sissy. Those of you who know me really well, know how gut wrenching that was for me. I gave her away, and when I did that Jada went bazzerk. She was doing things in the house that was not ok since I was renting from my friend who owned the house. That was the next big decision. I couldn't believe it, I hated myself so much. I cried for months after I gave her away. I felt like I gave up on them. So, here I was pretty low. I lost my boyfriend & my cats. Through all this I was going to church by myself every Sunday. Church was therapy for me, I think I cried every Sunday. Then the third big loss happened. I lost my job. I couldn't believe it! Granted, my boss had it out for me from day one, and she and other co-workers wanted to see me fail. But I was finally making enough money to not only live on but to have some fun with! How could this all be happening to me in such a short time frame? I didn't know what I was going to do. I had just moved to a cute cottage two months earlier, signed a lease & everything. I was devastated...again. All I did for a long while is cry & pray. I prayed like I never prayed before. I knew this was about trust. Trusting God to take care of me despite the circumstances. Most of you know that I do not trust easily. Not anyone. For the first time, I really felt God leading me towards something, I just wasn't quite sure to where. When I was offered two jobs, one in Denver & one in the Springs, I knew which one God wanted me to take. But if I chose that one, that would mean moving!! He can't be serious! Plus, it was a very hard job filled with more responsibility than I have ever had before. But somehow I knew it was the job in the Springs as a Coordinator back at my old agency I left as a teacher three years ago. I was going to supervise teachers, weird! It wasn't so easy, moving. I have to find the money, a new place to live, & break a lease. The breaking of the lease was not going to prove that easy. My landlord gave me a very hard time. And, I felt horrible. But, now here I was moving back to Colorado Springs, starting a new job, a renewed sense of faith, my dog, and new place to live. Well, you would think that the story would end there, but my friend, God doesn't always work that way. No, before I could get use to living in a new place, with a dog instead of cats, and a new job I never thought worthy of. No, he had to get me to take the leap and buy a house! Me! Seriously, I always thought I would be married before I bought a house. I NEVER wanted to do this alone. I didn't think it was possible to do this alone. But, that's what God is teaching me about trust. That I can do this, but not alone, with him. So, here I am living in my modest but full of potential home, with my two dogs, and even a new car! Yikes. I won't lie, sometimes I think God is nuts, and I have several moments that I just know I can't pull this off. Then God reminds me of where I am now, and who put me here. I guess this would be my testimony. I always wondered if I would ever have a testimony. Well, here it is.