The Mountain Millers: March 2011

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Spring Break!!

My SPRING BREAK has BEGUN... which for me is a long weekend, but I am SOOOO excited!

I am going SKIING tomorrow, (and skiing on Monday, and skiing on Tuesday!) and then I am spending Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with my wonderful finance'... then I go back to work, but he will still be on break, so I get to see him Wednesday-Sunday!!!

I am BEYOND EXCITED for a FIVE DAY BREAK, which will include:

SKIING
time with my WONDERFUL MAN!
wedding plans
movies
running/biking/swimming
workout videos ChaLean Extreme
reading
time with Lexie
some... exploration of opportunities -- please pray about this and rest assured that God knows the specifics

I am as happy as a clam at high tide right now... 5 full days of fun and rest ahead. I'm currently updating my IPOD so I can ski to music tomorrow, and watching the DVR of Dancing With The Stars from this week.

Do you have anything fun planned for this weekend?

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Word-Filled Wednesday: Deuteronomy 4:39

"Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other."
Deuteronomy 4:39

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Hidden Picture

It's time to play "Hidden Picture" game!
Do you see anything abnormal about this picture of my minivan's dashboard?

How about now?

Does this picture help you see it better?

Yes, that is my beautiful engagement ring about three weeks ago, when I was the genius who said to my wonderful fiance', "I think my ring is getting looser on my finger. I was at workout class and it nearly flew off when I did this..."

I then proceeded to shake my hands back and forth, and, as I had anticipated, my ring flew off my finger toward the driver's seat, TOWARD THE OPEN DRIVER'S WINDOW, and THANKFULLY ricocheted off Chris' fingers at the top of the steering wheel and deflected into the deep crevice of my dashboard.

It took four people, a small tool and about 20 minutes to get the ring successfully recovered. I am currently without my ring, but thankfully, it is safely at the jeweler's getting resized... not lost in a car dashboard.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Some Funny Stories

A few stories for a laugh... true stories, might I add...

My office is in the most recently built elementary school complete with motion-sensor lights to save electricity. As a result, I have been in a room on more than one occasion when the lights go off because it doesn't know you are still in the room. No big deal, wave your arms to let the sensor know you're still there, and continue working.

Today I was at a meeting at another elementary school. The lights went off, so I waved my arms above my head. The lights came back on, and I looked at the wall to see an old-fashioned, non-motion-detector light switch. I also see every person in the meeting staring at me with weird looks on their faces. I say, "Oh, the lights aren't motion-detectors" and my colleagues say "No, that was a power surge. The whole building lost power for a moment. Why were you waving your arms?" It was a great moment.

Another story from the week was that my roommate, Maggie decided to make popcorn using hot oil on Sunday afternoon. Chris and I were watching a movie upstairs and the doorbell in the movie rang. I asked, "Was that us or the movie?" and he responded "The movie." Then the smoke detector started wailing, and I asked "Was that us or the movie? THAT'S US!"

At first I just opened the bedroom window and started fanning the smoke detector, like I've been known to do when I'm cooking something on a griddle or in a pan that has a little more sizzle than I anticipated. It was not until I looked downstairs toward the kitchen that I realized, this is not light smoke of something slightly overcooked, this is billowing smoke of burning oil and we had started coughing like crazy. I opened the window in Maggie's room to get some cross-ventilation and Chris and I headed downstairs and out the front door where we saw a small pan sitting on our cement steps.

Luckily it was a nice day and we were able to air out the house in a matter of 15 or 20 minutes. Maggie didn't realize that the pan was on, so she accidentally left oil in a pan on the stove unattended and (THANKFULLY) when she moseyed downstairs, she noticed the smoke and was on her way to remove the pan from the burner when the lid fell off of the pan, and hot oil + oxygen... all the oil in the pan burst into flames. She quickly removed the burning pan from the stove, took it outside and then squelched it with the lid... fire out! Smoke remained!

The entire event was much safer and funnier than it could have been if that pan had burned unattended for any length of time.

We have a new roommate (Jenny) who wandered up from the basement, where she was taking a Sunday afternoon nap and walked with tired-eyes to the balcony. As we were debriefing as a house as to how we did during our impromptu fire drill, I commented that I was surprised Jenny didn't just walk out her downstairs door out onto the ground floor. Instead she came upstairs so she could walk outside onto the balcony. She started laughing hysterically -- she hadn't even thought about taking the nearest exit (her downstairs door), she just wanted to know where the batteries were to get her smoke detector to stop squawking. In her sound sleep of a Sunday afternoon nap, the only explanation she had for the smoke detector waking her up was that it must be out of batteries...

... Okay, so as I was typing these stories to a friend via email earlier today, the light in my office went off, because I guess it thought I was no longer here... and yes, I waved my arms above my head, and yes, the light came back on. I'm not crazy.

Any funny stories in your life lately?

Friday, March 25, 2011

Wedding Countdown: 3 Months

Time is ticking by...
THREE MONTHS UNTIL CHRIS AND MY WEDDING!

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SAVE THE DATE!!!!

Above is the save the date card we sent out... the invitations will go out soon! We keep checking things off the list... What is the world record of number of things accomplished in a three month time period... because I might challenge the record-holder in the next three months.

You name it, please pray about it for us -- jobs, location, housing, moving, wedding planning, families coming together, financial burdens, preparation for marriage, Godly refinement during our engagement... and more!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Comittment

I have a temporary engagement ring these days...

My real engagement ring is on its way to Tulsa to be resized and engraved and so I have a temporary replacement ring from Claire's. Even this ring had to be resized -- which in the case of the temporary ring meant that Chris squashed it until it was small enough to stay on my finger.

I want my real ring back... although I am grateful that Chris and my commitment to each other and to our upcoming marriage is stronger than any piece of jewelry and our commitment is no way wavers when the jeweled representation of that commitment is gone.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Welcome To My Brain!

Do you remember that scene in Legally Blonde 2 where Elle is working at her desk and she looks on one side of her desk and it has a huge chart of the House of Representatives... then she turns to the other side of her desk and she has a huge chart of the seating chart for her wedding...

WELCOME TO MY BRAIN!

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My brain is completely split these days. I am in the middle of writing Functional Vision Assessment Reports and I jump over to the wedding TO DO LIST to write something else I've remembered I have to do.

One half of my brain is consumed with running around like mad trying to keep track of different districts Spring Breaks, different districts State Testing Days, different assessments and IEPs due on different days for different students...

The other half of my brain is consumed with lists of emailing the wedding party different details, ordering sand and canisters and a banner, talking to my mom about gifts for the bridal party, figuring out a time when Chris and I can both be on the phone with the band leader, choosing a videographer, starting to formulate program ideas, finalizing wording for the invitations, choosing a wedding ring and jeweler for Chris' ring, deciding if we're doing a pictures slide-show at any part of the wedding events and when we start gathering those pictures, choosing which scripture(s) we're going to ask my our reader to read at the ceremony, calling our cruise agency back every few weeks to see if the price of our cruise has dropped... and so much more.

The thing is though, I LOVE IT! I love every minute of this planning process! I'm beginning to wonder if I would make a good wedding planner because I am completely in my element and happy as a clam planning this wedding. I don't think it would have the same magic if it was my job... I am happy as a clam because I am planning a wedding with a joyful heart with the anticipation of marrying the most wonderful man in the world!

The thing is, for the past 5 years, I have said to myself and others, "I will have the most blissful engagement on earth." -- But one never knows how things will progress, and I had little control over the execution of this statement.

BUT I HAVE HAD THE MOST BLISSFUL ENGAGEMENT ON EARTH!!!!

God is so good, and the man he has brought me is SO wonderful and absolutely perfect for me. We are completely different in so many ways, which means we compliment each other in so many ways.

My blessings outnumber the sands of the earth!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

My Week In Review March 20

My blog friend, Amy is hosting My Week In Review this week featuring the highs, the lows and the lessons of the week. My week contained the following:

HIGH

Friday evening/night was the BEST time of my week! I love Friday evenings when I'm not traveling (which means Chris comes up to Eagle) and I am SOOO productive! There is something about knowing that I don't have to work the next day that makes me REALLY productive that Friday night, and this Friday was no exception. I did two long work outs, made a healthy dinner, cleaned my room, started packing my belongs to begin the process of moving (which has to be done between now and June 5th) and completed random online chores I have been meaning to do all week. All the while I am working hard and staying busy, I know that Chris is on his way to see me and I have two full wonderful days ahead with him. I have had two Friday nights at home since 2010... Friday evening was my week's high! :-D

LOW

Chris and I had quite a fiasco trying to get home from Florida on Continental airlines. I don't want to go into the details because it will irritate me... but it involves a delay on one flight that led to missing a second flight -- although the plane had not left when we got to the second gate... but they had already given up our seats... one of the lessons of my week is to not fly Continental again! That should give you an idea of how upsetting the experience was.

LESSON Of The WEEK

This week I learned that I need to eat meals on a schedule, even if I am not particularly hungry at the time of the meal. This may sound weird... but one day this week I worked through lunch because I was involved in my work and didn't feel like stopping and I wasn't particularly hungry. When I finally had a break in work and realized I was hungry -- I WAS FAMISHED and I ate everything in sight (which were not healthy foods). The next day I was diligent to eat a healthy breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner and I felt SO much better all day!

I hope you had a great week and are excited for God's faithfulness and opportunities headed into this next week!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

As of Late: March

As of Late, I'm not sure how it is possibly the 3rd Thursday in March!

Lately, I am not sure where my time is going, but I feel like I've been on the go NONSTOP, which I sort of have
Lately, I am THRILLED that this weekend Chris is coming up to Eagle!
Lately, I have been going down to Greeley or Denver (or Florida or Michigan) every weekend since Valentine's Day!
Lately, I have signed up for a triathlon training at the local rec center, complete with a triathlon on May 7 -- it will be my first!
Lately, it does not get easier to leave Chris every weekend. I keep thinking that after a wonderful long weekend, like last weekend when we were in Florida, it should not be hard to say goodbye... BUT IT IS! EVERY WEEK it tears my heart out to say goodbye. My mom says this is a good sign.
Lately, Chris and I are 100 days from our wedding!!!! :-D
Lately, I am participating in a Bible reading Lent program and I am really enjoying it. It is a chapter from the Bible each day, and its the story of the Gospel - Beginning to Revelation in a nutshell. This week chapters have been from Exodus.
Lately, Chris and I are praying for guidance regarding work and location after we're married... we're trying to decide if I am moving there, if he is moving here, or if we are both moving to a new place... and if so - WHERE? Please pray for guidance as we want to follow the Lord's leading and plan for us. Please pray for open doors to be WIDE OPEN and closed doors to be SEALED CLOSE!

Head over to Crittyjoy for other As of Late posts.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Elizabeth's Wedding

Prepare for an ENTOURAGE of photos... and I only choose the good ones.

Chris and I met my family in Palm Beach, Florida this past weekend to celebrate my cousin, Elizabeth's wedding. Elizabeth and I were REALLY close growing up... and to this day, we share history and similarities with each other that we do not share with anyone else.

It meant the world to witness and participate in your wedding celebration. Enjoy the pictures:

Bridal Luncheon for Liz, her family and her wedding party