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.