I will admit, October has been another trying month for me as well as an eye opener. Beginning of the month my sister came to visit (for only a few hours) along with my cousin Jen, New baby Danica, and her husband E. They were bringing along a little 4-legged friend Charlie for me to meet and take in with hopes I would be his forever home. I also had the opportunity to take pictures of 3 month old Danica!! they turned out pretty good, thanks to E for keeping her attention on my little stuffed animal monkey making her facial expressions easy to capture!
See the full gallery by clicking the link below!
It was also this weekend that I found myself taking on more than I was ready for. After my sister and everyone left, Charlie and I were alone and that entire weekend, I was emotional and stressed out. As much as Charlie was a great little guy, his demands were more than I wanted to take on at this point in my life and I realized after my sister's short visit how much I missed her and my family. It was tough, and after a week I made the decision to give Charlie a better home than I could give him and took him to Evansville to a Dachshund Haven where he did indeed find a forever home! I cannot help but feel terrible for the trouble my sister and E went through to get him here, we had hopes I would be his forever home and as unfortunate as the situation panned out, I know things did turn out for the best for both Charlie and I.Mid October, I went on an adventure with my girls group from work to Brown County and Edinburgh for some shopping. I had no idea Edinburgh had an outlet mall, I actually found some nice pants at the Guess store! Many of the girls went on quite the shopping spree getting tons of stuff, I fortunately only settled on the pair of pants for under $25! oh yeah!! Brown County was "Cute", they had a lot of little shops that carried more arts/crafts type of merchandise that was way overpriced but it was a fun experience. I had hoped to get some great pictures of the changing leaves and scenery, but we did not go into the park so the picture taking was a bit limited on this trip...It was a long day, we left at 8:00am and I did not get home until 10:30pm and I must say the road trip was pretty interesting, almost threw up a time or two after getting turned around on a windy road lol, luckily the ride back home was not as intense!
This Chair is the AWESOME!
Oh yes FALL is here!
Decision making has not been my strong point as of late, so I have decided to leave things alone and stop trying to add or change anything with my life at this point in time...I have had moments especially this last trip to Denver where I miss home and I miss the moments with my Cliffy Cakes. It makes going back to Jasper that much harder! Deep down, a part of me wants to just call it quits and move back, but I know with all things considered that Jasper is "safe" for me at the moment. I am able to support myself financially and when you are "alone" providing for yourself, that is an important aspect to have and I definitely value the simple fact of being able to provide for myself. So, unless I can find a job out there where I can support myself and find a good place to live, looks like here is where I'll stay for now. I still plan on keeping my options open so whatever is meant to happen will happen!
So lets talk about this AMAZING weekend I had in Denver! I flew to Denver to go to our friend Tom and Whitney's wedding Saturday Oct. 22 and of course to spend time with Cliffy Cakes and see my family. John picked me up from the airport and the drive back to his place felt relaxing, It felt great being in Colorado! I knew that the weekend was going to go by fast and that I needed to soak in so much in just a few days. Friday night I spent with John, we walked up 16th street mall so I could find a head band for my dress, and unfortunately all the head bands looked pretty retarded so the task at hand was a FAIL! oh, and before I forget to mention, on our way to get some dinner this random guy walked up to us and started talking to us about how cute and "in love" we look...and then he pitched John with allowing him to sing to me and if I didn't enjoy it then John didn't have to donate to his cause of trying to support him and his daughter. A bit embarrassing, but fun at the same time...and John as nice of a guy as he is gave him a nice tip :o)
We tried a new French restaurant across from his condo...we had never had French food so this was to be an interesting :o) Luckily I was in the mood for something different! The restaurant was pretty fancy schmancy, we got sparkling water as well (Yuck BTW!) and some hard bread with a different type of butter that was a bit different from what I was used to, but good. I had a Crepe with chicken and spinach and John had a lamb shank! The food overall, not my favorite but if I ever felt the need to visit France, I may do alright haha! There is one thing I enjoy here in Jasper that Denver does not have...and that is sweet tea Mmmmm, its all I drink here! No complaining though considering there are more things Denver does have that Jasper does not lol
Saturday Morning could not have gotten any better than having breakfast with my dad at Sam's #3 downtown. I met him at the light rail station, we walked to starbucks, and then while waiting for us to be seated at Sam's, we talked and caught up on some things....it was a really good time and the Food was great! I love French Toast!! Not enough time of course to spend together, but I am glad I got to see him.
While getting ready for Tom and Whitney's wedding, I had the privilege of seeing first hand the protesters causing all sorts of ruckess in the City! I am still unclear as to what all the protest was about, but honestly I could care less :o)
So today was the big wedding day for Tom and Whitney! I had my camera ready, even though it was not going to be a professional session I knew I would still take a ton of fun pictures and the memories were going to be outstanding so a camera was necessary! I think I took about 500 pictures total of that night, after going through them I got a good 300 pictures that were pretty great! The ceremony was at The Church of the Holy Ghost downtown, beautiful church by the way.
A few of us went to the "Bulldog", some bar down the street and I "think" that was what it was called, but at any rate we had a drink there and some appetizers to hold us over until the reception dinner. I tried the fried macaroni and cheese that came highly recommended and sure enough...it was pretty pretty good!
Yup, thats us! look how cute we are all color coordinated! woot woot!
It was finally time to show up for the reception dinner at the Tivoli! they had an open bar with a few different wines, some beer etc. I of course went straight for the white wine :o) so me right? I cannot honestly say how much I had that night, but I had a really good time! They actually ran out of seating so we chose a table in the back room, and even though we were away from the action for the time being, we created our own! Somehow among the midst of all the craziness after dinner, I somehow missed the cutting of the cake! WHAT!!?? I think I was in the potty actually, not realizing there was an important moment that I needed to capture! woopsies! I did get a picture of the cake earlier though!
So, twas the night of dancing, socializing, drinking, dancing, socializing, drinking, etc and I was having a blast with everyone and enjoying Cliffy and I's dance jigs together while flinging around and taking as many pictures possible!
I took so many pictures, however I am not about to download them all on this thing so if you want to see the entire album, it is on my facebook! lucky you if you are my friend ;o) haha
If I said the party ended there, that would not only be lame but also untrue! Curtis Hotel was our next stop and I did not see the events of this one coming! Lets just say, we are all a very close, tight knit group! haha....words cannot explain so I guess pictures will just have to do and keep in mind that the entire time Mr. CliffNERD stayed in one spot, one position the entire time!
In the Elevator - One of my Fav. Pics!
"A little touch of douche bag" as John called it HaHa!
Of course there are more pictures, in which I am not posting and again Facebook will be your friend if you would like to see more!! In the process of all this fun in the hotel room we got to find out how Cliffy Lost his leg in a tornado, how Ally managed to bruise her tail-bone and hit her head as well as drop her cigarettes on the floor, and witness first hand what it means to be violated with your clothes on LOL! too fun!
Is there more to this day??? yes, we all ended up going downstairs to "The Corner Office" for more drinks, however I did not make it long. My body hit the tired wall and I was ready to pass out. After about a half hour, John and I decided to leave and head back to his place. We said good bye to everyone, congratulated the happy newlywed couple again and called it an end to the night.
Sunday was another fulfilled day meeting the group from the night before at the Corner Office again for "Brunch", I of course needed a starbucks which was right around the corner and it was definitely satisfying! we just hung out for a while talking about the great night everyone had and then going through some of the pictures I took! I had yet to visit IKEA, recently built in Colorado right after I left of course so I needed to experience it. Luckily John was more than willing to take me there after brunch. It was a bit overwhelming, but found some pretty neat things there and some good ideas for John's condo when he gets ready to remodel it! Yippee!
Did someone say Pinkberry??? Mmmm, back from IKEA that was our next destination!! Another luxury we do not have in Jasper! I absolutely love Pinkberry so this was an absolute treat before going to meet my mom at Olive Garden for Dinner. Yet another place I don't get around to often in Jasper so this was another treat for me! Salad, breadsticks, pasta, wine....Yup I was definitely satisfied :o) It was good to see my mom, we got to catch up some and she had just gotten surgery on her knee so both her and my Cliffy Cakes had a limp as we left the restaurant, it was pretty comical on my end! John had to find a lamp for his office so I was able to ride with my mom to her place to meet up with some of Mike's family to visit for a few. Again, not enough time in the day because before I knew it, it was time to leave and I was leaving back to Jasper the following morning :o(
I have to say, It was tempting to want to miss my plane and stay in Colorado....the entire trip was great and I would not have changed a thing. Catching up on snuggle time with my Cliffy Cakes and being able to spend some time with my mom and dad was much needed. It was a sad day when I had to leave, I already missed everyone. The only good thing about coming back was the fact I got a warm chocolate chip cookie on Frontier airlines haha. It was hard getting back adjusted to the daily routine being here in this small town...alone :o( but as they say, "Suck it up and put a smile on your face"...okie dokie!
I cannot end this blog for October without mentioning Halloween!! No parties this year as I missed the one I was invited to when I went to Colorado, but we were having a Halloween costume contest at work. I dressed up with 3 others as a group and we were the combination of a SMORE! yeah thats right, a marshmallow (me), the two graham crackers, and the Hershey's Chocolate! I even made a fire pit so I could dance around it as I needed to be toasted of course! We had a saying which worked well for work to win them over too "Cooking Up S'more Business"! Oh and yes, we won the contest but only because only two groups dressed up so we both won by default! We would have one regardless I think!
And that concludes my month of October!! November is looking to be busy with traveling as I am planning a trip to Texas for work so I can train a few individuals and I am going out to Charleston over Thanksgiving to see my Bestie Ashley! Looking forward to it! I have a feeling lots of changes are brewing as well so we shall see where it takes me!! Keep you all posted!
