Finally Making Some Time

Well, it's been quite a while since I've been on my blog site to publish anything. My goodness! It's amazing how time is fleeting! But, there's no time like the present to just dive back in and keep swimming, hopefully not upstream! I'm just glad things are beginning to settle back into some sort of new normal from this time last year when life was so uncertain with all the COVID-19 hoopla. Mercy! What an ordeal it has been for all of us to charge onward despite it all. These days I'm just thankful for as much sunshine as possible, a fulfilling job and a peaceful home life. It also feels good to have the opportunity again to socialize a little with friends and family after the forced pandemic restraints of the last year. Good grief! This life chapter has definitely reinforced those things in our lives that we treasure, depend on and aspire to pursue. So, here I am...back in the saddle to try and post with a little more regular intention on this blog. Cheers to a NEW life chapter hopefully brimming with brighter days.

Festivity Galore

Happy Holidays! It was a great Christmas for us. We hosted a pre-Christmas brunch for my cousin

Chelsea and her new husband Luke which was really fun. On Christmas Eve we attended the late service at Park Cities Baptist and enjoyed a festive beverage on the way home at Seasons 52. We stayed up really late that night watching Christmas movies, munching on treats and John's annual present wrapping for me at the 11th and a half hour before "Santa" arrives. Christmas Day morning we lounged around after opening presents and making extended family calls and then headed to Denton for the rest of the day to celebrate with my Dad. The day after Christmas we inventoried all the new treasures and continued the luxury of being a sloth for one more day together before John went back to work. As for me, I'm off until after my 44th birthday next week. As is my nature, I plan to do lots of organizing during my vacation of miscellaneous projects I never have time to do such as...blogging. Maybe I should add it to my New Year's Resolutions. I'm also avoiding the scale since the Christmas grazing extravaganza. So, dieting quite possibly needs to be another entry on the 2017 list. Overall, it has been a good holiday so far. While we didn't formally "host" any guests we savored peaceful and happy quality

time with our cat Juliet who revels in R&R...such is the life to strive to enjoy more.

New Year Off and Running

Happy New Year! Wow...2015! Times flies! Plus, I celebrated another birthday on Saturday, January 3...the big 42. It was a nice celebration with brunch at one of my favorite restaurants followed by a relaxing mani/pedi and dinner at a fancy restaurant with John and my Dad. John also gave me some beautiful multi-colored roses, darling polka-dot wine glasses and a beautiful Italian looking wine & cheese tray. He was super sweet and patient with me all day as I tried to process the day. For some weird reason this birthday was the first to cause me to feel blue and over-think my life journey thus far. I was probably just tired from the busy holiday season and way too reflective on years gone by and the anticipation of "what's next". But after a good cry and the next day to chill out and regain my spirit, I was fine. I talked to my mother yesterday and she said after the new year she had a similar reaction to life and trying to make sense of challenging things on her mind. It's good to know it's not just me that is temporarily overwhelmed with the end of one year and beginning of another. Anyway, I'm glad to be back at work and into a routine again. Plus, the sun has been shining for a few days and that helps to keep me going...I'm solar powered you know.

Summer in Texas

The Dallas Arboretum in May.

Summertime has arrived!  I love the sunshine and despite the heat, it's an ideal excuse to drink lots of sweet tea or whatever cools you down. It's been raining off and on a lot in the last few weeks here in Dallas which is a welcomed site since the state has suffered from drought conditions in seasons past.

It's all been an absolute whirlwind since mid March to mid June....12 weeks!! Wow! Sooooo much change in our life has occurred that it almost takes our breath away when we focus on it too much. It's been a blessed opportunity to come home (thanks to Baylor) but overwhelming to process all that's happened. Moving in general is a major ordeal but moving state-to-state kicks up the chaos even more. Plus, we take great pride in the tight organization of routine and structure in our life. So, it's been really challenging turning off 10 years of everything we set up in Colorado and re-establishing it here...in the blink of an eye! There have also been many unexpected expenses and occurrences that have caught us off guard since mid March from things we "scotched-taped" together in Colorado to buy us some time  While we're not surprised that things can only "hold on" for just so long, it's still a lot to manage in the midst of so much change.

As the pace simmers down to a more manageable speed, we are now beginning to reflect back on where we just came from. In the last few days, we are visiting a lot more about our journey in comparison with where we were last summer. Things are soooo different now compared to where we thought our life was headed.

Other than that...what more is there to share? Our Plano landlord is amazing, our renters in Colorado are great, and our cat Juliet seems relatively content. All in all, we're doing fine. We look forward to the summer and hopefully some lazy weekends filled with R&R and time to just grill out, hang out, share good times, and rekindle our favorite comforts of living in Texas.

Texas Bound!

Well, we are soon headed back to Texas! We are overjoyed to have this amazing opportunity to "go home".

As many of you know, I will be working for the Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing in downtown Dallas as the new Director of Marketing and Communications. It is such a fantastic new time in my professional (and personal) life. John is equally excited and is diligently trying to find a new job for himself (your prayers would be welcomed that he lands something great too...sooner than later).

We will be living in Plano in a cute rent house and on the reverse side, we were blessed to have an awesome family rent our house in Colorado. So, with all the stars aligned, we are confident that this move is truly the right thing to do even though the sudden timing caught us off guard.

Our extended family seem to be very happy that we are moving back to the Lone Star State as well as so many of our longtime friends in that part of the country. However, we will certainly miss our dear friends we now have in Colorado (and those in California that USE to live in CO...you know who you are! LOL!)

Overall, we are truly amazed at the turn of events so far in 2014. We did not expect any of this and it is a complete gift from God for sure. We are so grateful for this bright new experience despite being a tad stressed in having to pack up our entire life and transition to a new set-up...but it will be worth it. Life is definitely quite a journey of peaks and valleys. While the end of 2013 was really hard with our foster/adopt dreams coming to an end, we now have hope that there is sunshine ahead.

New Year Off and Running!

Well, all I can say is Thank God a new year is now officially underway! Can I get an "AMEN"? It has been a hectic first few weeks here at the start which is not unusual. Here's an entertaining slice-of-life look into our world over the last few weeks of January. To kick off 2014, my mother visited from Texas for four days for my 41st birthday. We were also happy to welcome Downton Abbey back to our Sunday night TV line-up and Justified on Tuesday night...I know...we're lame but hey, the shows are a nice escape! John has also been a devoted Broncos fan and is thrilled they are now going to the SuperBowl (I better stock up on cheese dip). And despite serious consideration of keeping Christmas up for 12 months to streamline the 2014 holiday season, we finally packed up all the endless decorations (well correction...we stacked them in the basement and then came back a week later to actual PACK them away). Things feel refreshed but the house looks barren! What's funny is that we are still trying to find all our regular decorative do-dads that we stashed away before Christmas to make room for all the oodles of holiday stuff. Anyway, we also proudly managed to write and mail all our thank you notes (whew!) and deal with some holiday returns! Only today did we post our New Year's Resolutions inside the pantry door after brainstorming them on NY's Eve. Additionally on the docket was to get a handle on our new 2014 expenses (prep for tax season a little) and lament over the "damage" of end of year purchases and holiday "fa, la, la" must-haves! LOL! What else? Oh yes...the gym! Well, I proudly went with my girlfriend  Traci on day one...January 1, to a spinning class no less...for the first time! Whoop...whoop! I've been back to the gym a few times since then and started trying to follow a new 5K app on my IPhone for motivation (although two treadmills I tried to use last week broke on the same night...yikes...hopefully this week will be better).  We also finally brought John into the modern age and got him his first Smartphone however as luck would have it, two weeks after purchasing it the stupid thing malfunctioned and broke! After multiple trips over to the Verizon store for help and John threatening to go back to his old-style flip phone, the store manager gave up trying to figure out why the phone kept freaking out for no reason and replaced the entire unit. Crisis averted! Other than that...the new year is off to a bang. Work has been typical...crazy and demanding. So, now the daunting task at hand...what to plan for Valentine's??!! LOL! Well, as a start...lots of chocolate and wine...past that is gravy right?! ;-) Happy 2014!

A Lifetime Journey Since this Summer

Well, since my last post in July, so much has happened. It seems like ages ago! In fact, my crazy blogger account password had apparently expired when I tried to log on today and I had to reset the entire thing to access my blog. Oh good Lord!! So, at last, here I am...and now it's snowing outside after days and days of lovely sunny yet chilly weather. It's late Saturday evening, December 28, 2013 (and John is entertained with a movie downstairs). I'm finally sitting down to try and catch up on my blog. Where to begin and what to say to you? Hmmm. So much in our life seems to be upside down and quite unsettled and it feels like all we have been doing since July is trying to put it all back together like a jigsaw puzzle scrambled into many pieces on a table. As some of you may know, after a very long certification process involving multiple years of preparation and much deliberation, we were blessed with a foster/adopt placement in our home in August. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, everything came to an unexpected end two months later. We were truly heartbroken and remain devastated. Following that experience and after serious discussion, we closed that chapter of our life and the possibility to ever be parents. Since that time, work and life in general has been strangely demanding for us both and things has seemed to be a blur. We are actually only now beginning to reflect on the loss of what we had hoped would have been a forever family with our foster/adopt placement daughter. The Christmas holidays have been quiet for us which for good or bad has given us the chance to talk about what is on our minds and hearts from all that has happened since this summer specifically. We are grasping the reality of a lifestyle ahead that is quite different than anticipated but we are trying to find God's reason in it (which may take a while). We have good days and heart-sinking days when we embrace all that this year has provided and taken away but we "walk on". We look forward to a new year ahead with hopes for happier days and disappointment that is gradually softened. I love Victoria Osteen's FaceBook posting today which really spoke to us both, "Today let me reassure you that God knows right where you are, and He knows how to get you to where you need to be. Even when things don't go the way you planned, His hand is on you."

Reading Fun

This summer I'm happy to volunteer again for the Louisville Library's Steering Committee for its third annual On-The-Same-Page summer reading program. Three neighboring communities will read the same book at the same time. This years selection is, The Night Circus. I'm reading it on my Kindle and love it! We've got all sorts of great programs planned for this fall related to the book. So, be sure to get a copy and read away! The libraries in Louisville and Lafayette have copies of the book if you need to check one out! Enjoy!

Meeting Survival

Well, I lived through my ninth NITA Board meeting this past weekend. For those that don't know, NITA is where I work and we have two Board meetings a year that I more or less orchestrate. We have 22 national Board members from all over the country that fly in for three days of "solving world peace". Since NITA stands for National Institute for Trial Advocacy, the Board is mostly comprised of corporate lawyers and judges so things can get a bit intense at these meetings. At the same time, the Board members are also some of our most generous donors to the NITA Foundation which is my area of the organization. So, I try to make sure the Board is happy and the meeting runs smoothly. I'm always mentally wiped out after the meeting and it takes me a few days to recover. Plus, for the weeks leading up to the meeting and all the preparations, I tend to let things in my personal life slip. By the time the meeting is over, it takes a while to catch up on stuff at home. Anyway, I survived!

Giving Back Is Good for the Soul

Last weekend John and I drove to Gypsum, Colorado (about 15 miles north of Vail) for a service day at Roundup River Ranch. The event was arranged for the second year in a row through my Sustainer Council with Junior League of Denver. We recruited some of the Sustainers and their families and friends to help the camp get ready for its summer season. We did everything from taking inventory/sorting tons of board games and items recently donated by Walmart and Hasbro, to organizing bins of multi-colored beads for a new camp program, to planting seeds in the organic garden, and pulling weeds out by the boat dock! It was a fun day and for such a great cause. Check out the camp's amazing Web site and the all that it does for medically fragile children in Colorado thanks to the vision of actor Paul Newman and his legacy of his international organization called, A Serious Fun Camp. Here's the link, www.roundupriverranch.org

Happy New Year!

Well, I don't know about you, but we sure are happy it's finally a new year! We worked on our resolutions yesterday and took some quiet time to reflect on the challenges and achievements of 2012. The last 12 months have been quite a ride. I read a FaceBook posting this morning of one of my girlfriends as she looked back on her year and it seemed very insightful and theraputic. So, I thought I might attempt to do the same on my clearly under-used Blog (which is now listed on my 2013 resolutions to utilize more right under reducing how much chocolate I eat!...LOL!)

So, to highlight 2012. Well, it started off with a semi-surprise 39th birthday fondue party for me co-hosted by two sweet neighbor girlfriends Sage and Vidya, attended by many other dear friends...such a wonderfully memorable evening. The year also entailed completing all our incredibly involved home-study requirements for our three-year adoption journey and ultimate approval through Denver County Human Services to be certified with them as an official "waiting family"...despite not finding a match yet with the "right" little girl. I also celebrated four years working at the NITA Foundation and becoming 100% vested (which for some reason seemed cool at the time).  Plus, among many other things in my job description, I orchestrated two very intense Board meetings, one in Boulder and another in Chicago, while bidding farewell to my 4th boss at NITA John Baker, and hello to my 5th boss, Karen Lockwood. I continued volunteering with Junior League of Denver, Sustainer Council, and helped plan an amazing "Done In The Day" event for JLD ladies outside of Vail at Roundup River Ranch, a camp for medically fragile children. Then, as John's dad Mark and step-mother Paula sadly decided to end their 20+ year marriage, John and I thought it would be healthy for us to refresh our relationship with a spring session of group marriage counseling. John and I also said farewell to our dear friends/former next-door neighbors, Brad and Sage and their boys Wyatt and Guillain, when they decided to move to Los Angeles in June. In an effort to get more involved in our church, we joined the church cookbook committee, I continued my quarterly book-club (or "wine-club"...not sure which), signed-up to help with the planning committee for the Children's Museum of Denver's 2013 Birthday Bash, and forged on in volunteering for the Louisville Library Foundation and helped with the summer three-community reading event called "On The Same Page." Towards the end of the summer, I flew unexpectedly to Dallas for a week to help my Dad make the difficult arrangements and immediate move of both of my grandparents into a nursing home. This was also the year when we did some home improvement projects: interior painting, changing out a lighting fixture, installed a new glass storm door, window well covers, repairs to our garage door etc, etc! We also stumbled across a great Craigslist sale and bought some home decor items to spruce up the house, like a guest-room headboard and artwork. While John spent his 46th birthday with his best friend Mike in Michigan in August, I recovered all the dining room chairs...I was a true DIY rookie. John also surprised me with an early 40th birthday present, a beautiful new car, a Volvo SUV which I named "Gracie", after 15 years of driving "Stardust", my Toyota Camry. We also decided to join a gym for the first time in almost 10 years and tried to incorporate working out again into our already overly ambitious schedule! As the fall approached, we attended my cousin Barton and his lovely bride Miranda's wedding in Lyons, CO (near Boulder) and subsequently rekindled with some visiting Laning family as well hosting my mother. She and I also walked in the Denver's Race For the Cure which was humbling. Later, John's mother Lady and step-dad Larry drove up from Tulsa and we helped them celebrate their anniversary weekend with a cultural day at the Denver Art Museum, an afternoon at the Pumpkin Patch, and nostalgic visit to Lady's old Denver apartment address from over 40 years ago. In November, we drove 13 hours to Denton, TX to spend Thanksgiving with my Dad and helped decorate his house for the Christmas holidays. As December rolled around, my paternal grandmother became ill and later passed away (on my mother's birthday of all days) a few days before Christmas. After endless phone calls, emails, and texts with my Dad in preparation for the funeral, due to the bad weather between Denver and Dallas, at the last minute we were prevented from attending. For New Year's Eve, we shared ribs, black-eyed peas and cornbread with some new friends, Kim and Jeff, at their house and relaxed in their hot tub after ringing in 2013. It's been a VERY long 2012 and we are exhausted! We honestly hope this new year is a  less dramatic but it's unlikely with my 98-year old grandfather's weakening condition...the adoption situation...and new job endeavors for John. Happy New Year from John and me and Juliet (meow)! May God bless you and your family this year!

Football Season Is Upon Us!

Well, tonight the Broncos are playing another pre-season football game and John is thrilled. He requested Frito Pie for dinner so I acquiesced...I think I may need to take a Tums later! LOL! But after 15 years of marriage this past July 26, it's the little things that bring us happiness and we both try to make sure the other gets their share of whatever that happens to be at the moment. In this case...football night for John. He seems relatively content so that gives me some free-time. The evening is cool and very pleasant on the back patio especially after John mowed the yard earlier today and everything looks so tidy. It's nice to just relax and turn off the world for a while. Life has been really hectic in the last few weeks with work, extended family, charity volunteering, and adoption certification. I'm tired and just can't seem to get my vitality back. But, the summer is coming to an end and I'm sort of glad because it's always a demanding time of year for us. We tend to deal with all the chores inside and outside of the house that we procrastinate the rest of the year and between traveling and yard-work and all the hot days, it really wipes me out. The autumn is definitely my favorite time of the year. Things slow down a little and the season is filled with the beginning of festivities which is much more enjoyable. Plus, I feel more comfortable in the cozy sweaters and fall attire as opposed to the skimpy, pastel clothes of the summer. Anyway, I'm looking forward to going to church tomorrow for a spiritual lift and then perhaps a lazy afternoon at home with John with a crock-pot slowly cooking a roast for dinner. Like I said before, simple pleasures make the difference.

4th of July Festivity

John and I enjoyed a relaxing 4th of July holiday even though it fell on a Wednesday which made the rest of the week totally confusing. However, we tried to make the most of it. We made a big lazy breakfast and later that evening grilled out. John made quite a spread of hamburgers and hotdogs for us to indulge in (and enjoy as leftovers for days). We played a few hands of Texas Hold'em on the patio and watched fireworks on TV since a lot of the firework shows in Colorado were cancelled due to all the recent wildfires. The next day we took off from work and visited the Denver Zoo for fun. The weather was super toasty but we had a good time fiddling around and checking out all the cute and unusual animals. The holiday was short but sweet.

Toasting Farewell with a Chocolate Martini

It's been a busy Memorial Day weekend. However, it's also been great to have some time to catch up on our home life. I think it's amazing how our schedule can spin so fast during the week with daily demands that when you do get a few days off from your regular routine, it's hard to relax. In fact, it sort of annoys me when I can't sleep in on Saturday morning because my brain turns on the moment the sun comes up. I find myself almost struggling not to bounce out of bed and starting working on all the personal projects I've put off all week. This weekend was no exception. We tried to chill out and enjoy a "date night" on Friday night with a hamburger at Red Robin but after we inhaled our dinner in less than 15 minutes, we were so mentally tired from the week that we just headed home. Frustrated with ourselves for not being able to dive into the holiday weekend mode, we tried to salvage the night. We made popcorn and piled up on the bed and watched one of our favorite movies to try and capture the softer side of life...Grumpy Old Men...which seemed to do the trick. However, the next morning, we both jumped right back into "performance mode" and spent most of the day cleaning house, doing laundry, running errands, and John tended to the yard. By five o'clock that night, we were exhausted and determined to enjoy some "playtime" by golly! So, we went to the movies and saw, The Hunger Games. It was fun to spend some time together. On Sunday, John helped our neighbors Brad and Sage with some moving projects while I watched their 4 year old for a little while. Then, as sort of a final farewell to Brad and Sage, we all got together with Jai and Vidya for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and then made a farewell toast with chocolate martini's and other yummy drinks at The Flatz. It was awesome to hang out with our sweet friends. We are so sad to see Brad and Sage and their boys move away. However, we wish them the very best in their new adventure in Studio City, California and can't wait to see Sage accomplish her dream as an actress and be a leading lady one day on the silver screen in a big movie.

Celebrating Friends

It's been a while since I last blogged and so I thought I'd say hello again. It's been a rainy, chilly Saturday...perfect for napping and doing some quiet, relaxing things. This morning I created my first Pinterest page filled with some fun Boards for my friends to explore. I'll try to link it to this blog so you can check it out. I'm also going to teach John how to make one for fun. Anyway, we have a dinner party to go to tonight to celebrate our friends Jai and Vidya's 5 year anniversary owning their lovely home. It will be fun especially since the weather is so icky. Our dear friends Brad and Sage and their boys will be there and will soon be moving to California. I hope Jai and Vidya will have enough red wine to keep the spirits cheery...our last neighbor gathering with the Porters. We are so blessed to have such precious neighbors. They are all so dear to us. We have shared so many wonderful memories together over the last five years living here surrounding by all their warmth. Some of my favorite memories are: celebrating my 39th birthday with an amazing fondue party hosted at Vidya's house with Sage as the co-host (who dragged her new wooden dinner table across the street into Vidya's house for extra room for all the guests and food, the Oscar party at Sage's where we all dressed up and voted on our favorite actors, watching football together at many different houses (and SuperBowl extravaganzas and Jai & Vidya's), lighting sparklers at 4th of July on the Porter's deck and trying not to burn it down, buying makeup at Arbonne parties (thanks Fraya for getting me hooked forever), John dressing up as the Easter Bunny at one of Wyatt Porter's spring parties, handing out candy at Halloween to all the darling trick or treaters (and trying to keep from eating all the leftover sweets), supporting each each other with Wine N' Cheese gatherings when parents were visiting from out of town, sipping chocolate martini's at The Flatz, gathering under a white event tent between our house and the Porters for an Autumn covered-dish social, dressing up in costume for a Murder Mystery Dinner, casual gathering at Tracy and Michael's bringing over whatever we were making for dinner to share with the neighbors for a impromptu Sunday dinner, sipping wine on our front porch at dusk with a candle glowing and time to catch up with friends...and so many other amazing memories...to many to list. All these sweet neighbors around us have become more than friends...they almost feel like extended family.

Blogging Exploration!

Welcome to my new blog! I thought this might be a fun way to communicate. I was off yesterday and today to enjoy a nice long Easter weekend. We don't have any big plans for the holiday other than church. These two days off are especially nice to just take a mental break from work and do some things at home that I've been meaning to do but never seem to have the time to get done...such as, creating this blog! Anyway, we'll see how this new endeavor goes but it's exciting to learn and share.

-Whitney