Happy new year!

Mother nature was overly-generous w her cheer. Our tree split in half and now lays in our front yard

merry Christmas!

sorry it has been such a long drought since last time!  it was a much needed break from EVERYTHING!

i had a fabulous Christmas back home.  it's always so good to get back to the farm, open country and things to do outside!  everyone was able to be there which made it even better!  here's a quick run-through.  besides eating too much delicious food, we.......

walked over to my uncle Herb's house 

 to celebrate a little Christmas with him.  

we also had an ugly sweater contest and exchange at my parent's house.  dallas and i made our ugly sweaters out of goodwill finds.  dusty was fortunate enough to draw dallas'.

i would say my dad might have the ugliest sweater as his says "nebraska football" on the back.

 

i'm going to use my sweater for halloween next year and go as "where's walda".

we were all very happy to be members of the happy hands club

and all of the cousins (minus 2) were able to make it for a little brunch get together.  here are all of us with our spouses!

right now we are tapering for our marathon as we leave next week!! 

I like this!

Christmas trees

After seeing the sign at king soopers for "live cut Christmas trees" Dallas thinks it should be rephrased to "real trees"

He is also wondering if someplace in boulder is advertising "organically grown Christmas trees" this year

He would like to let everyone know that his plastic tree is organic, as plastic is made of petroleum, which in turn comes from mother nature. :)

Ezra has needs

Takes two to tango

Last year I blamed our naked Christmas tree on William. This year i know better.

Dallas has a new hobby

Because we can't seem to get enough hobbies at our house, Dallas decided to start a new one tonight: animal trapping, exclusively mouse trapping.

Ever since William got chomped the mice population around the place (not the house mind you) has been partying. D said himself if he can't get them another cat is in store for the house. This time we will make sure it has claws!

At our house....

We find it necessary to label the jars of peanut butter

Pathetic

There is a reason we don't have kids yet as my dogs are ridiculous.

Tonight ez was already downstairs in bed. I got home and threw some food in the microwave. As soon as ez heard it running he came up to see what might be cooking for him.

He may or may not have had a sample. :)

Just call me Andi pavlov

Moving

We are doing a huge remodel at the clinic. Once it's done it will be pretty great! We make our surgeons earn their keep. After surgery today we made them move all the heavy furniture in the office. It's our version of two men and a truck, although our boys are truckless

Sunday fun day!

Today I went snowshoeing with some of my favorite people. It was a blast!

Last of the season

Today I got the rest of the truffles done for the christmas season! Phew! What a relief. These tasty little things are white raspberry with an almond on top.

This year we have: white raspberry, double chocolate with toasted coconut, orange chocolate rolled in toasted pecans, peanut butter rolled in chocolate graham crackers and mocha. We also have cute foils to present them in. Movin up in the truffle world!

Resourceful

Some might call it cheap, but I laugh at myself every time I put the tree "skirt" up. I doubt that anyone else in America uses their old toga party toga from college as their skirt. (I do believe that party was a good 6 or 7 years ago)

Gretta Jean looks real mean

Today we stopped by the farm supply store. I couldn't help but buy gretta the studded collar. With pink nails she looks awesome.

Hopefully she can protect Ezra the same way la Fonda protects Kip (napoleon dynamite)

Particle board covered by laminate, covered by laminate

Boredom

We are so bored we are watching the Tuesday night fights over penguin ( the toy). Poor penguin

Mmmmm

Christmas is the worst worry season for me. Did i remember everyone? (no, I never do). Will I get everything done?

Since the Christmas cards went out earlier this week I have vowed to keep going. So ive started the truffle making. If my truffles looked prettier I'd make them for a living. They are so fun when not under pressure! So far we have: chocolate chip cookie dough, mocha and these little peanut butter ones that d helped make. He says they taste like reeces.

What is this?

This is a productive weekend! Christmas cards all ready to head to the mailbox!

Bed hog

Gretta has the endurance of a 10 yard sprint and then the fun is over. Today after a huge walk and hours of raking leaves shes out for the count. Ezra wishes she got the lesson about sharing space.

Fun sat night

If you live in the Denver area I highly recommend my Framer friend's business,"paint by wine.". Byob and have step by step instruction while you paint away with your friends! At the end you just take your picture home with you. It's a pretty sweet deal

I love our oak tree

It's always the last to dump it's leaves but they are usually a good fall color show so im ok with it.

Happy birthday.....to me!

I have some great coworkers! They got me some awesome earrings and made these beautiful cupcakes over the weekend for me. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes!

(also turning older I have acquired Achilles tendonitis, which is not a welcome gift).

art history

doing my homework tonight, 

there is a strong resemblance between paul revere,

and jack black

Sonic

Everyone enjoys a little ice cream on a Friday afternoon!

Got off of work early

Decided to play a little snow frisbee!

younger- old people

our last week has been very boring with nothing to report, i'm so sorry.  i'ts especially boring w/ no william around.  he was usually good for a laugh.  d & i both miss him a lot!  

we are both fighting things right now-- me, with a croupy cough and nonstop snot and dallas, with an infected gum (ouch!).  last night the excitement level was over the roof here.

-andi picks dallas up from work and they drive home together

-and and dallas eat the soup made from the crock pot together

-andi and dallas sit on couches opposite of each other

-both fall asleep

-at 10:15 we both wake up and decide it's time for bed.

what just happened to us!?  holy smokes. 

with a birthday coming up im' vowing to rejuvenate

Powerless

We havnt had power since 2 am this morning. Supposed to get power by noon tomorrow? Today was a long day! No power at work so we left early and now just hanging out in our 58 degree house in down jackets!

wanna be a gangsta

today instead of doing fun stuff out in the nice weather we did things to help winterize the house.  one being raking all the leaves so they aren't a wet mess wednesday when it snows on them.  usually the dogs are very photogenic but this time they looked at little T-O'd taking the pic.  

i couldn't resist photoshopping

Sunflower showdown

Today ksu travels to stinky lawrence to play football. My uncle dan decided to make a bet. It's official--- He signed on the line!

Africa

tonight we met w/ our African travel agent.

stumped as to what to get us for a gift for any occasion?
(columbus day, Washington's birthday, thanksgiving, Christmas, valentine's day, First day of passover, 4th of july, ezra's birthday, random feel like giving something away day, etc....)

the answer: cash.

it's gonna be a trip of a lifetime.....if we ever get over there!

(planning for next october--this way we can see all the animals, birds like flamingos migrating, able to swim with the penguins and still hit octoberfest in frankfurt w/ some good college friends.)

in memoriam

we havn't seen the little guy for >36 hrs and the dogs and i have been seeing a lot of coyotes on our early morning walks.  sadly, i think he's gone.

miss you little guy!

Finished!

And sold! (a miracle!). After months of not working on it I finally got it done!

Sorry for the lack of blogging. I feel like I have nothing going on but yet am so busy. Stick with me- I promise to be better!

Modern day segregation

(please ignore ezras eyes)

Running

Today I learned that even if I don't have time to eat breakfast and am starving at lunch that is no reason to eat the entire chipolte burrito the rep brings me. This lesson is only appreciated if you try running for one hour after work and have horrible stomach cramps the entire time.

That will never be happening again!

For beezer

Look Beezer! We get summer and winter at the same time here!

trip #2

trip #1---running the walt disney world marathon

are we in shape yet?  

hardly.

trip #2---- (i can't believe i havn't posted sooner!)

a couple of weeks ago we were at a fundraiser auction and for an extremely discounted price, bought.....

a 6 day 6 night safari trip in south africa!  

weeks later i'm still pinching myself....whether that be from the excitement of the trip or the cost of the airline tickets i don't know yet.....

so once we get our airfare saved up we're taking the dogs to the farm and we're going to see some bigger kitties!

fairly big kitty

which would be breakfast for this one

Money savers

Going on two different trips is exciting but a financial drain. We have totally had to refocus our budget to save! Save! Save! That being said our eating out every few days due to pure laziness and convenience has came to a screeching halt. We have to be creative with what is in our pantry. Tonight I was totally craving ice cream or something sweet. Instead of going down the street I pulled out the double boiler and made these scrumptious little bites!
I think in the long run this was a better option after all!

New house rules

What is our entire house up to? Cesar Milan time! (he is the dog whisperer) Glad the dogs are eagerly soaking it up!

hey forrest......

catch me if you can!

(please, everyone, excuse my extreme amateur photoshopping skills!)

it's true.  d and i are signing up (bought the plane tix already) for the 2012 disney world marathon in orlando jan 8!  i can't wait.  we really wanted a goal to make it thru the winter and here we go!

on a side note, i had wanted to race cross this year.  i helped mentor some awesome women and did one piddily race and my shoulder was having none of it.  i'm back to pt, doing some upper body strengthening and getting ac injections again so i'm hanging up the bike and running instead.  the ortho "shooting me up" said i best stay off my cross bike for awhile.  by the time i get back on i'll be ran over.  best of luck this year, crossers!

Smokin on the Beaver

this past weekend we went home for:

a) my mom's youthful birthday (she really is so young!)

b)  the 2011 smokin on the beaver competition

basically it's a bunch of people smoking meat all day and entering it in competition.  there are categories for wine, food, beer, and beans.  while the meat is smoking we watch football, ate homemade ice cream..... it was a good weekend!

and can i just say how much i HATE the new blogging system?  it's so hard to use!

Andy, my good friend's husband showing his pheasant he's entering in the open category.

 apparently you get extra points for presentation.

it was great seeing old friends!

a look at the crowd.  

Monday

We had a really great weekend(more to come later)... But onto monday....

Brian, the surgeon I work for was out of the office this past week and so we decided that it would be absolutely hilarious to switch his "rich chocolate" protein powder out for rich chocolate ovaltine

Now it may just be that he has a cold and his taste buds aren't functioning on full cylinders, but he drank the ovaltine with water and failed to notice it wasn't his protein!

i could barely keep a straight face.

now i'm in big trouble. i either:  a)  tell him i switched it out and get in trouble for doing so, OR b) don't tell him until he runs out and then i'm in trouble for him not getting his protein in.

either way i think i'm hosed.