Garden of the Gods

I was thankful that on Sunday afternoon I had some vacation "alone time" which I promptly spent walking around Garden of the Gods. I took a lot of pictures and yet they don't quite give the proper praise that the creation beacons. It made my heart smile to be able to wake up every day and see those mountains again :) Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Pikes Peak

A view from within Garden of the Gods

I took this picture when I was walking along a trail

This is where I sat and read my book for awhile...just taking in the views.

Colorado Vacation Highlights

Here are a couple highlights from my recent Colorado vacation:

• Enjoying days filled with sunshine, cool breezes and NO Humidty.
• Going on a little spree at Title 9.
• Having Chipotle and margaritas with my friends Becky and Coyette.
• Spending Saturday with another Terah/Suzanne extravaganza.
• Running The Great Pumpkin Run 5k with Suzanne and almost getting caught up in a wild horse stampede.
• Shopping at the Castle Rock Outlets....great deals galore.
• Going to Jack Quinns Irish Pub with Tra'cee and her REI friends.
• Meeting Sexy Pat and his wife for lunch at Red Robin.
• Enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon hiking around Garden of the Gods and reading a book.
• Hanging out with Tra'cee on Sunday night and taking our traditional walk around The Broadmoor while enjoying our fall Starbucks beverages.

My vacation was simply wonderful. It was so great to see everyone and I felt like I got great quality time with friends while also enjoying some quiet moments to myself. It was a great trip!

My friend Suzanne and I enjoyed an extravagant Saturday.

Tra'Cee and I walking and talking at The Broadmoor

Hip Hip Hooray for Vacay

Now....I am excited! I am heading west in about 18 hours and the phone calls from my friends have started to come in and I can't wait to see everyone. I spent four years of my life in Colorado and those years I still hold very close to my heart. It's been 3 long years since I was able to return and I just can't wait to step off that plane in Denver and to see the mountain range shadow in the evening western sky. You can count on lots of pictures and blogs upon my return but I think I am going to leave my laptop at home and just enjoy my vacay with my friends!

And the work keeps on coming....

So I had totally expected to come back to a stack of work on Monday and I was not disappointed, I mean I was out the office for a whole week but I was pleasantly surprised that it was not a very overwhelming load. I was actually done with some office work and errands by 4pm yesterday so I did some much needed shopping at Target, caught up with a friend on the phone, went for a run, measured a flower pot that I plan on using for fall mums and even ran to the grocery store...all before 8 o'clock. Of course I put myself on a time schedule because last night was the season premier for the 3rd season of "Heroes"....so good! That's another great thing about fall....all new seasons and new tv series.
I think I am all caught up from last week and am trying to get everything set for my boss for the rest of this week as I finally have a mini vacay coming up. That's right...a real vacation...no family or friends...just me going back to my old "home"...Colorado. Thanks to my friend Caron, she gave me her unused vouchers from Southwest so I scored a great airfare, direct nevertheless, from Nashville to Denver. I cant even begin to tell you how excited I am to see all my friends. I haven't been back in 3 years so clearly my visit is long overdue. So excited!

Did you think that I disappeared?

I sure felt like I fell off the face of the planet...I just got back midday yesterday from a week spent working in East TN and when I say "working", I mean busting my rear working. It was such a loooong week and I am so glad to be back in Nashville. Everything came together last week and yet, another successful event has been notched on my belt. When I came home yesterday, I took a much needed power nap, did some laundry and watched the Chicago Cubs clinch the NL Central division. But I still felt like there was something else I should be doing...my body was having a hard time relaxing after having spent 6 days going at warp speed. Anyways, I went to my friend Patrick's birthday party in Nashville last night and then enjoyed a good nights sleep in my own bed. It's so great to be back in my own space.
I actually played hookie from church today since one now has to be cautious about conserving gas. I can't believe that the crazy, panicked people in Nashville have created the gas outage. That's right...i said outage. You'll be lucky to find any gas this weekend and if you do, one can expect to wait an hour or more in line to get gas for your vehicle. Quite frankly, it's so ridiculous that the more I think about it, it just pisses me off. After driving to the party last night I only had a quarter of a tank left and since church is about 30 miles away one way, I decided to skip church (I can actually watch the services online anyways), sleep in (which was actually nice to do) and just enjoy a lazy morning at home. Like i said...it's great to be back home....home sweet home.

Another Bluebird on the Mountain

So I got another free ticket (accommodating up to 8 peeps) to the Bluebird on the Mountain event on Saturday night. This time we heard tunes from the likes of J. Fred Knobloch, Thom Schuyler, Kirk "Jelly Roll" Johnson (harmonica) and Don Schlitz, winner of 2 Grammy's as well as four ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year awards. My fave singer/songwriter was Don Schlitz. His name didn't ring any bells with me but I most definitely recognized his hits. His first hit as a songwriter was Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" and his other number one singles including "Forever and Ever Amen" by Randy Travis and "When You Say Nothing at All" by Keith Whitley. I absolutely LOVE the song "When You Say Nothing at All" as performed by Alison Krauss and he played that one. And I love to hear a songwriter play and sing their own song because it always seems to have such an organic feel to it.
Anywho...a great time was had by all and here is a couple pics from the evening with friends.


Now....I had to take a picture of this sign. Needless to say that when Tim, Matt and I saw it the last time we were quite perplexed as to it's meaning. I had to take a picture to show you so that if you can interpret the meaning, please let me know. It's the most bizarre sign I've seen in quite a while.

It's Friday...already?

I don't know about you but I feel like it should only be Tuesday...not that I am complaining that tomorrow is Friday, by any means. I just feel like this week has flown by so fast. This week of work has not been too crazy busy...that comes next week as I am leaving at noon on Sunday to head to the house in East TN to work...and I do mean hard, physical labor kind of work...in preparing for the TCF (The Conservation Fund) fundraiser. Hopefully that week will go by as fast as this week has. I believe this event and all the details that need to be completed by next Friday have been the culprit in my raised levels of stress and sleepless nights. I've made lists and have organized to the best of my ability all that needs to be accomplished but my mind is not shutting down when I go to sleep; therefore, resulting in sleepless nights :( I have even been taking the muscle relaxers that my doctor prescribed to alleviate my stress/backaches and their drowsiness side effect still wont keep me sleeping through the night. Oh well...this big event is a week from Friday and then all should be back to normal...or at least that's what I'm praying for.

I did make it to that sports conditioning class at the Y tonight and I liked it for the most part. We spent about 30 mins. outside doing warm up running & exercises and then did competitive sprints at various distances. Then we moved inside for about 20 mins. to split up into teams of 4 and went through various station-like exercises. This is the part that I didn't like so much only because of the various lunges, squats and jumping motion is very hard on my knees. Then we went back outside to do this team relay race...although it was a bit unorganized. Overall, I liked the class and I definitely plan to go back. Nevertheless, I am sure that with a good run on Wednesday night and the activities from tonight...my rear is going to be soooo sore tomorrow. I've already taken my drugs before bed because I am going to need them.

Stress Relief

Well despite my self-denial of being stressed, I have found a great stress reliever....it's called exercise! And despite a hectic work schedule and all the preparations going into this big event on the 19th, I am making the time to workout. Not only does it help to relieve stress and tension, it just all around makes me feel better. I guess there is something to those happy little endorphins that get released when we workout :)
Monday night I promptly stopped working around 5pm and headed to a spin class at the YMCA. I can't tell you the last time that I did spinning but it's such a solid 45 mins of cardio that I knew it would be just what the doctor ordered. Sadly, my fave Monday night spin instructor was replaced by another instructor that I have named "sprints" because that is basically all we did. But that's the one good thing about spinning...you can make the workout what you want it to be so I pushed where need be and added more resistance to get a better workout.
Tuesday night I actually had to work at PBK and was not motivated enough to get up early and workout in the morning. But tonight, I met up with my friends Tim and Matt and we did about an hour of running/jogging/walking in the Green Hills/Belmont area. We set a pretty good pace and it was so much fun to just have company. And seeing that I haven't been running at all lately I was glad that I could keep up and do what I did. Hopefully we'll be able to make this a weekly routine.
Tomorrow night I am heading back the Y to check out a new sports conditioning class that Jen told me about. It's a new class and is basically all cardio but it sounds rather "fun" so I am going to make that class.
Exercise....it really does a body good!

Precious Grandparents

I was able to attend the church that I grew up in while home this weekend and I got to sit with my grandparents in church. I sang the old hymns while harmonizing with my grandmother's sweet voice and was moved to tears. Not because the song stirred my soul but because I know that life is precious and it is also fleeting. I have been blessed to have had my grandparents in my life for as long as I can remember and I simply treasure every moment that I get to spend with them as the years continue to pass. While in church, I noticed that my grandparents were holding hands and the word "precious" came to mind. It's having been witness to their relationship for as long as I can remember that just encourages me to wait for God's best for my life...and I know that HE has great things in store for me.

Stressed Much?

I don't feel stressed but I guess that I have been because my body is starting to react to the stress that I guess I am in denial about. I feel like a month or so of busy-ness with work and trying to work extra at PBK and the increase in social activities has finally caught up with me and I am feeling a bit stressed. So much that it's worn down my immune system, affecting my sleep patterns and I have been having bad backaches, constant headaches and crazy fatigue. I broke down and went to my doctor on Friday who tells me that I have a sinus infection and that I am stressed. Really?!? She gave me a prescription for antibiotics, muscles relaxers and gave me a shot on the spot to put a little "pep in my step". My immediate reaction was "That shot won't make me sleepy will it, because I have a million things to do this afternoon..." to which my doctor replied with a laugh and simply "chill out". (Ps. I do have the best doctor ever). She told me that I should also get a massage because my back was super tight...can you write a prescription for that??

I don't necessarily feel stressed but I guess that's the funny thing about being living in denial. If I stop to think about it....I guess I do stress from time to time...after all, no one is perfect. Work has been hectic and we have a really big event that I in the midst of planning for and I'm stressed that I haven't been able to workout at night because of other time commitments like working at PBK or spending time with friends. I think I even stress about not being able to blog more often. Argh...I just feel like there is not enough time in the day to get it all done. Maybe I need to step back and regroup...prioritize my time...any suggestions?

Anywho...the shot did give me a little boost on Friday so I drove home to Indiana this weekend (as planned) to see my family but didn't' get to run the 10k i had registered for. My doctor told me that I should probably just rest instead of running so that is what I did...well tried to anyways. I went to my nieces soccer game this morning and it was so nice outside. Sunshine, light breezes and in the low 70's...so beautiful :) This is the same soccer field that I grew up playing on some 20+ years ago. Memories...

I had a very productive rest of the day and manged to get my oil changed on my car, had a hair appointment, shopped with my mom, visited with my grandparents and had dinner with friends. It was a great day :)