A Year in Review

2007 was a big one, frankly. I learned a lot, did a lot, spent a lot, but mostly enjoyed a lot.

I began to learn that Valentines Day, while highly commercialized, isn't at all evil.
Learned the value of patience and that when one has it, surprises come easily and more unexpectedly.
Ate some really amazing food and didn't go to chain restaurants but maybe a handful of times.
Lived with two of the most amazing women I've ever met.
Made a very tall, very funny, very smart friend.
Discovered that processing death is not only important, but necessary and that doing it with a good friend and a good cup of coffee usually works best.
Was reminded of why I love my family so much.
Made sure to laugh a whole bunch and had plenty of lines to show for it in many many pictures.
Remembered that just because I don't see some of my friends very often doesn't mean they aren't a very real presence.
Found out that sometimes, church doesn't make any sense.
Learned that change is inevitable and necessary and really really hard.
Finally saw that things almost never go as planned and that I just have to be happy with the way things DO happen.
Gained a much greater appreciation for time spent with my extended family.
Took a substantial amount of time away from school and found that I miss the learning a lot.
Watched a lot of documentaries with three very smart boys and learned a lot about the world and subsequently myself.
Friendships change, evolve, dissolve, and are created.
Discovered that venting to someone who's in the same boat as me really makes it all seem better.
Watched Todd travel internationally for the first time.
Saw Todd in elements where he's most comfortable, most uncomfortable, and most ambivalent that learned that I have know what those are.
Marriage is hard, but planning the wedding harder.
Weddings are fun, but being married is much more fun.
Tried cheap beer for probably the first time and, shockingly, didn't hate it.
Worked really really hard on my fitness, succeeded, fell of the bandwagon, and jumped right back on, full-force. And it HURT.
Began to recognize things about myself that I really don't like and started working on them.
Sometimes, it's best to keep certain things to myself.
Went to quite a few pro sporting events and loved every single second of it.
Talked at length with various kindergartners and discovered that they can make any crappy day turn right around.
Coloring in the lines is sometimes the only real problem. Everything else is insignificant, at best.
Fighting helps. Mediation makes it work.
Love isn't really all you need, but it sure makes life's challenges easier to bear.

Don't want a doll, no dinky Tinker Toy

Due to somewhat popular demand, here are some photos of my Christmas Hippopotamus!!



he spent the majority of the day chillin' like a villian. any time he wasn't doing that, he was perched upon my shoulder being cute.

his name officially is Meeska....I think I've probably added "bo-beeska" a number of times. it's what we do.

I still maintain that HAJI is a word.

Christmas came and went without too much drama.
I think it was a good luck year for us.

To start, we had a white Christmas! First time in 103 years (according to Channel 7) that we've had snow falling on Christmas Day in Colorado. I tell you what, there is really nothing quite like waking up to that on Christmas morning. It was fabulous!



And the rest of our day went off without a hitch! We opened stockings and presents while drinking coffee and eating our incredibly delicious cinnamon rolls made from scratch (we've decided that that's our Christmas morning tradition from now on...we've done that 3 times now and it's always been a good time). The rolls were perfection, even if they didn't rise the way they were supposed to (stupid elevation and it's humidity!).





Todd got me a silver card holder, some awesome pens and Hello Kitty notepads, two pairs of footie pajamas that I've basically been living in, a cookbook that I've been itching to get (all about high-elevation baking, so that's awesome), and another fun book that I'd been eyeing. And as always, he jam packed my stocking full of Hershey's Kisses that I'll never be able to eat all of. hahahahaha!

But the best of all, was that he got me......







A HIPPOPOTAMUS FOR CHRISTMAS! True story. It's all in homage to a song from the 40s that I absolutely adore (and the fact that I won't quit bugging him about getting me kittens). He found a tiny stuffed hippo a a spice store (of all places) that we sort of happened upon on Saturday. So that was pretty awesome! We're going to keep him in the box of Christmas decor and break him out ever year....he was sitting on the tree most of the day, looking rather adorable.

I made my family's traditional Christmas dinner, with quite a bit of help from Todd. We had a 10lb. roasted turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes (that Todd secretly marinated in olive oil, garlic, and black pepper...made for some delicious eats), homemade gravy, biscuits, and some wonderful champagne in our new toasting flutes (because I'm a dork and forgot to bring them to the wedding. errr derrr). Everything went off without a single hitch and we didn't die from the turkey, which was a concern of mine since we don't yet have a meat thermometer (I'll be purchasing one this weekend, to be sure).




Any part of the day that wasn't taken up by eating or cooking was spent playing Scrabble and watching movies. Around 730pm, we headed over to my parents for dessert (mmm....plum pudding!!! My favorite! I'm going to have to learn how to make it one of these days) and played some games with the fam and my parents friend, Karen from the dance studio.


(todd actually drew that from the tile bag)





(and then he wouldn't trade me for an "R"...you can see pretty clearly why i needed it)


So that was our Christmas...hope you enjoyed this latest installment!

Oh and HAJI is a person on a pilgrimage to Mecca, in case you ever need to use the word.

This is me...not having any sympathy...

Britney's lil sis is preggo.

and my favorite line from that whole article?

"It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected," Jamie Lynn told OK!, according to the Associated Press. "I was in complete and total shock and so was he."

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!

correct me if i'm wrong, but when you're having sex, isn't pregnancy a normal outcome? what did she think was going to happen? she'd find the damn pot of gold? f'real.

okay, yeah, the britster not really an shining example of motherhood, but at least she was an ADULT before she started having babies (and she was married, if you want to play the morality card).

chandra just said something really funny:
"Louisiana? Turns out, my suspicions were correct all along."
whatever that means. it was funny though.

it's like my parents always told me: if you're going to make adult decisions, you had damn sure better be prepared for adult consequences.

this is me.
no sympathy.

"Everyone rises to their level of incompetence."

unfortunately, the blog title and the following blog prove each other.....



well, the the moron repair guy is finally at our house. after nearly 6 days of internal temps at or below 60F, our furnace is allegedly fixed. the guy says that the pump is smaller and better and all i hear is "blah blah blah i'm a lazy dolt". i have no faith in anything he says, but am hopeful that we'll have heat for our first christmas together. we've really been looking forward to christmas this year and it'll be that much more pleasant if my toes don't feel like they're going to fall off.

i'm pretty upset about this whole situation and as such, probably won't be renewing our lease come August. we're kind of stuck until then (granted, we do have good reason to up and move out, but todd isn't really having that right now. he's got enough stress going on without me draggin him from house to house to house, even though i really want to). i hate moving, but this house has been too much for me to deal with and i've only lived there for 2 months.

our landlord was supposed to meet todd at our house this afternoon to make sure that the fix-it guy was there, doing his job. she hasn't showed up yet. at some point, she is going to have to realize that todd and i will not be paying for the four days we were out of heat...for those of you that don't live in colorado, the high over the weekend was hovering around the 20F mark. that's flipping frigid and warrants having a house warmer than 57F. apparently in the city/county of denver, if a furnace isn't fixed within the first 24hours of it being broken the landlords are required to put you up in a hotel. that never happened and last night todd had to turn off the heat, gas, etc. etc. to stop the excessive leaking from the furnace so there was no taking a shower for either of us this morning. gross and a half.

i'm already looking forward to august and moving into an apartment with brand new everything. i can't really handle much more of this crap.

"Ducks eat for free at Subway!"

We are now on our fourth day of dealing with a broken furnace. Awesome.

The fix-it guy was supposed to be at the house today by noon. Here were are at nearly 4pm and we haven't heard anything. Okay, that's a lie. Todd called him at noon to find out his ETA and he said he was "running a little late". Four hours is pushing it a bit, don't ya think? Todd has left him a couple more messages and has also informed our landlord that we haven't heard from him in hours. This is fricking ridiculous. We do not need to be putting up with this crap. Especially given that it's winter time and we kind of need heat (did I mention that it was 54F in the house yesterday morning?!?). I've had it with this idiot. Seriously. And apparently it's somewhat more than illegal for our furnace to be out for longer than 24hours. Well, folks, it's been since Friday. Let me know if I'm wrong, but that's a whole lot more than 24hours.

Todd has now taken 2 days off from work (he can work from home, but that's beside the point). I think it's a bit stupid that he's taken two days away from the office and there have been no results in the furnace issue. This is total madness.

I'm in the same boat as Karla at this point. Just socking away as much money as possible so that I can buy a house and get out of my less-than-favorable living conditions. It sucks.

Really the house would be great except that the people that worked on it prior to our moving in did some pretty shoddy work. It can be described as "lazy", at best. It's quite sad. And I'm inadvertently falling prey to stereotypes (that I won't go into here, because it's probably beyond offensive). It's making me want to move at the end of our lease, but I don't know if that's the wisest thing. I've found an apartment relatively close to where we're living that's probably a comparable size and a little less in rent, but I really hate moving. I just want all this madness to be fixed and overwith in our current house. I've put a lot of work into it already and I don't want to give that all up in 8 months. Sigh.

I really just want to buy a house.

NOW.

p.s. Amy got a puppy for Christmas. Enough said.

Let's just hibernate this winter.......

So here's the "cheerios" blog for the day.

This weekend was both awesome and sucky, kind of at the same time.

Our furnace all but blew up on Friday. It's been going out for a while now...it's been making this annoying whirring noise that culminated in what can only be described as the sound you'd hear if a plow came down your street with its blade on the concrete. Awesomeness. So we spend the weekend freezing our butts off. I was furious on Saturday morning about the whole situation, but that came in handy for my Anti-Gym session at the butt-crank of dawn on Saturday (okay it was like 830am, but I didn't get much sleep the night before from all the furnace noise). My trainers were giving me crap about being sleepy and blah blah blah, to which I retorted "Yeah, my furnace went out this morning and I didn't get any sleep. I'm good and PISSED OFF right now...whatcha got?!" They tried to kill me during that session, so that was fun. I need a bit of fury to make those workouts do what they're supposed to do. That's beside the point right now.

By the time I got home from the gym, Todd had gotten so cold being INSIDE that he'd taken to shoveling the walk OUTSIDE just to heat up. That was bass-ackwards at best. So I showered and did the dishes and stormed out of the house as we made our way to Belmar for Starbucks, shopping, sushi, and movies. We spent a buttload of money that day just so that we didn't have to be INSIDE the house. What a crock. Oh and I cracked my head really hard in the shower and am still suffering through a screaming headache from that. I was not in good form this weekend. Just ask Todd. Or don't. My attitude was probably much worse than I remember it to be.

So while dealing with the house was a suck-fest, everything else that day was super fab. We got some Starbucks at Jill's Bux (she wasn't there. Sad.) then did some decent shopping (I got some new jeans that DON'T make me freezing cold. I hate wearing denim, if you didn't already know that) and then we had sushi. For whatever unknown reason, I have been craving sushi since late-September. We had sushi with Laura for her bday and haven't had any since then. There's a joint at belmar called Wasabi that has gotten fantastic reviews, so I figured, why not? We ordered a TON of sushi...plus salad, soup, and an appetizer. So delicious! We had shrimp tempura as an appetizer and then dragon rolls (teriyaki chicken, avacado, jalapeno), spider rolls (crab, avacado, cream cheese), California rolls (I think), some more shrimp tempura (for me) and tako (octopus rolls, for Todd). It was all kinds of amazing. I already want to go back.

After that, we saw Fred Claus. Todd even enjoyed it so you KNOW it's got to be a good, cynical Christmas flick. Hilarious, really. It's now on my list of movies to watch every Christmas. I [heart] Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti just makes me laugh real hard. I would recommend it to anyone. It's pretty family friendly, kid friendly, whatever. Nothing terribly inappropriate. Just good old fashoined fun.

Later, we danced the night away at the Christmas formal at our studio. Good times! Mostly we went because it was going to be warmer there than in our house. We were right. And it was miserable having to come home. Blech.

Then came Sunday. Big Christmas production at church. My dad was in it (per the "uzsh"). I usually sing in the production, but had to pass this year. But no worries...I get to sing for Christmas Eve which is really my msot favorite thing in the world to do.

We went to see The Golden Compass yesterday. I'm terrified to even begin expressing my annoyance with the right-wing Christian nutjobs and all their insanity regarding this movie. Frankly, from a purely entertainment standpoint, this one was top-freaking-notch. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed it. We all should know by now that I love British kid actors so that helped a lot. I have yet to see a British kid do poor acting. Seriously. Freddie Highmore, anyone? He's a genius. Those little girls in The Holiday? C'mon. And how about any kid in Love, Actually? F'real. It's like they can't act poorly (too bad they couldn't find a British kid to play young Darth Vader - I forget his pre-Vader name - in Episodes 1 & 2...probably could have saved those stories. I digress). And hey, if that movie is good enough for Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, it's good enough for me. There was exactly ONE scene that made it non-kid-friendly, but really, when anything loses a JAW it's not really a kiddie movie anymore. Other than that, it's a good good movie. The ending was a bit abrupt for me, but that's just cuz it's a triology. I think I want to read the books now.

So go see the movie and put aside whatever Focus On The Family has to say about it. It's a good one. And Todd and I had a REALLY hard time figuring out where all these "atheistic over/undertones" were. I think they were really digging for that one.

And like Rob said, why all the fuss over a stupid compass?!?!

"Let's go have some drinks and then put knives on our feet!".......

i'm definitely eating trip chocolate cookies from Mrs. Fields right now. i feel bad, but only slightly. they're too delicious for words. soft. moist. wonderful. okay, so they're too delicious for all but three words.

this is my last week at the Anti-Gym. i'm rather sad. i'm sure i'll go through withdrawal symptoms. for the last month, i have been pushed to extremes, pushed to do things i never thought i could do, made my body do things it's never done before. and while the scale has gone steadily UPWARD (*growl*), i have also seen that certain parts of my body are looking super-fantastic. my arms (biceps especially) are looking toned and muscley, my back is well...awesome, and my bum? well that's the best part of it all! i'm still a little "squishy" in places, but according to karla, that's exactly how i should be and i should be more mad at clothiers about muffin-topping than myself. hahaha! i'm inclined to agree with her.

that's not really the point though.

i think what i'm going to miss the most is having people working with me that ACTUALLY believe in my abilities. my trainer last night gave my a 15lb weight for this one exercise and i said "Umm, I'm not sure I can lift this" to which he responded "Are you kidding me? I've worked with you long enough to know that you can do whatever I tell you to do." and would you look at that, i actually COULD!

so yeah, that was exciting.

mostly, i really just hope that i can keeping kicking my own ass at my own gym.

"It's going to be a good hour of television when Oprah realizes Dr. Phil is full of s*%$."......

I have about had it with WalMart.
The one that I frequent happens to be in/around the Evergreen area. It's closest to my office and sometimes, I get really bored at lunch and wind up there. Today was no different.

I tend to eat around noon, but do so at my desk, because I like to take my "lunch break" later in the afternoon. I think I've always been like that.

I digress.

I am sick to death of the employees there. Mostly because of their lack of sense of urgency. I often like to ponder what they think when they see me (or anyone like me). Someone dressed in business-casual/professional attire, speeding through the store. What do they think I'm doing? It boggles my mind that it probably doesn't occur to them that I'm on my lunch hour. Do I somehow NOT look like I'm coming from some sort of a business setting? I have no idea.

The checkers there ALWAYS manage to take their sweet-ass time. There's one woman who works in the "express" check-out (express in quotes, because it's NEVER an express process) that feels the need to chat with every single person about every single item in their purchase. Seriously. She's like this SNL character. I am so not kidding.

And this is on top of my already-heightened sense of irritation toward WalMart because of a documentary that Todd and I recently watched.

And now I'm jumping off my soap box.

I got a fevah! And the only prescription is....!

frick i want a kitten.
i have three picked out.
at the denver dumb friends league. (click on the Buddy Center - young cats)
their names are Frisky, Roscoe, and Brownie.
all terrible names for kittens.
i've already re-named them.

Optimus Prime (Opie for short...so kitty has to look a little dumb)
Jazz
Bonecrusher

yes, all my kittens are currently named after transformers.

we have one extra stocking.
it just makes sense.

sigh.
we're probably not ready for a kitten.

why, oh why, must i work full-time?

"You have the kind of nose people pay for...."

we finally had our housewarming party over the weekend. boy what a weekend we chose. it was snowing like mad and it was colder than i ever want to be. good times. we had a decent turn out. laura even hauled all the way up from Lone Tree so that was cool. there's a reason she's one of my bestest friends (don't worry, amy...no one is replacing you haha!). i think i was able to lure her with promises of chocolate chip cookies (many of which she took home since i owe her batches for the last 3 years worth of birthdays...she's so easy to please!)...

it was actually really nice to get our house as clean as we got it this weekend. todd described it as "warm and inviting" once everything was in it's place. true that! the office is still a total disaster area. we desperately need a shredded and a full day in there, just getting things tidied up. and we need to hang todd's "TV" and some other misc art. it's a process, i tell you. a big huge process.

christmas is coming faster than i'd imagined. i have some good cooking to do and i'm looking forward to that. our first christmas as a married couple (awwwww!). hopefully everything goes as well as it's going in my head.

i've been watching christmas movies like they're going out of style. Miracle on 34th Street (both the Maureen O'Hara and Elizabeth Perkins versions), A Christmas Carol (with Patrick Stewart, though i still maintain that George C. Scott is the best one), Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, White Christmas (not *technically* a christmas movie, but christmasy stuff happens)...i have all of the Santa Clause movies on tap, as well as Nat'l Lampoons Christmas Vacation, and some other misc. crap. gotta cram as much in as i can before Todd's head explodes from all the christmasing a forcing him into.

i'm making him nuts by listening to nothing but christmas music 24/7. i even make him fall asleep to it. i'm really only asking for a month of it, but it is a full month...i guess that could get tiring. not for me though. i have an entire book of CDs dedicated to nothing but christmas albums. i try to buy a new one each year. haven't gotten around to that this year. there are a couple swing christmas CDs that i'm dying to own. maybe in a couple days.

that's the story, morning glories.

Just in case you didn't know....

Introducing...
Our Wedding Party!!


(from left to right)
Laura Roberts....one of my closest friends and possibly one of the smartest, most determined women i've ever met in my life.
Jake Mechling....we're big fans of Jake...he's been a great friend and is an incredibly talented actor...we miss seeing his work.
Amy Courts Koopman...my BFF. met her in college, though (due to happenstance) we should have met much sooner. she is pretty much the most amazing musician i've ever know.
Gabe Thexton...one of Todd's closest friends and former roommate. He has a way with words (if you were at the wedding, you heard some of them).
Jill Bradford...my former roommate. funniest person alive. also a bit of a wordsmith. can verbally spar with anyone as long as they can both take and give it. love that girl. also good for book recommendations. probably the most well read person on earth.
Todd....the groom. love of my life.
Me!(Micah)...the bride. love of his life.
Daniel Read...my handsome brother. he had the flu the day of the wedding so he deserves big props for being able to stand up the whole time! he's the smartest person i know, after my dad. he always has my back and often keeps me in check.
L. Corwin Christie...actress extraordinaire. we used to work together until, one day, she decided to start her own production company. so she quit working for the man and started working for herself. lucky. corwin would support just about any decision i make.
Tony Nettekoven...another one of Todd's closest friends and former roommates (the three lived together for a while). tony is one of the most brilliant minds i've ever known. really knows how to think life through. i/we appreciate his deep (and sometimes not-so-deep) thoughts on life. he lives in chicago now and we miss him.
Jessica Read...my lil (but much taller) sister. she lives in seattle now, getting her master's degree. jessie is one of the most passionate people i know and also one of the most caring. she never thinks of herself first (as was evidenced when she surprised me by flying to denver for my bridal shower). she's always right by my side.
Cuyler Mortimore...one of our friends from our old church. his witty and dry sense of humor always keeps us on our toes and his thoughts on life often show a side of life that todd doesn't always think of...and he very much appreciates this about cuyler. i very much enjoy his sarcasm!


So there you have it, folks. The people in our lives that we couldn't have done this without...

What's something you can stick up your nose to make the sneeze feeling go away??

Due to popular demand, I have begun blogging on an "external" site. Usually, my blogs are confined to myspace, but more of my friends/family will be able to keep up with me this way. And Karla has written off myspace entirely so she's managed to convince me to do something more along this line.

For those of you that don't know, my blog titles will almost never have anything to do with the content of the post. They are merely funny or disturbing things I hear in my regular day-to-day goings on. So there's that.

This is just an introductory post.
More to come.

It is my favorite time of the year, after all. And I did just get hitched.
There's plenty to say.