SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!

Jackson walked outside this morning to let MacKenzie do her morning business and was only half awake when he realized his feet were really cold! He looked around and saw that we'd had our FIRST SNOW of the season. 11/14/08. I am calling it a little early. I am not eager to drive in the snow (this was only 2 inches so not that bad). MacKenzie loves playing in the first few snows, but soon she'll get sick of it and refuse to pee on it. That's always fun!

We head to Indiana this afternoon. We'll be dropping MacKenzie off at Camp Bow Wow, of course. I'll put the link up again so you can check on her. http://www.campbowwow.com/us/co/parker/CamperCams/tabid/1143/Default.aspx

Have a GREAT weekend! :)

Quarter life crisis

Lately I have been feeling particularly confused about what I want to do with my life. I go to work and do accounting...it nearly puts me to sleep. I keep thinking that I do not do anything the helps anyone. I'm just looking to do something that I can be proud of. I keep looking at nursing for some reason. That would take a lot for me since I hate science classes and I am super squeamish. I cannot help but think that nursing would be more conducive to having children. No? The whole 3 shifts a week (I know they're really long shifts) seems like it would leave a nice amount of time to spend with our future children. I was reading the blog of an ER nurse today and I was so inspired. Anyway, I am having a quarter life crisis. I am knocking on 25's door (in 7 months) and I still have not done anything significant. Perhaps I should go to Kenya for a mission trip. I have always wanted to go to Africa. Ugh. I am just so lost. I'd appreciate your prayers for guidance. 

I love technology!

I love technology. I love facebook and blogger for allowing me to keep up with all that is going on in the live's of people I love. I noticed the other day on facebook that one of my many former college roommates was taking "vacation" time to study for an exam. An exam?! She's back in school? I didn't know that. So I quickly write on Ms. Jenna Hess' wall to see what gives. Turns out the showoff is working full-time and taking a class at Northwestern! Psh! I was really excited for her. I am still getting over the shock that she is an accountant, too. Who would have ever guessed that we'd both be number crunchers?! (You'd find it a lot more odd if you ever met Jenna, she's a TRIP!) Anyway, I love knowing what is going on with her. I cannot imagine being from a time without the internet. Do you know that people used to have to go to the library to do research? Can you even imagine?! (I do still have one prof who swears the internet will die and makes us go to the library- ugh!)

I love knowing the my friend Megan (the Marine wife from my previous post) is getting to go to Virginia tomorrow to spend a few weeks with her parents before Kyle comes home from deployment. Call me nosy, but I like to know what is going on.

I like seeing pictures of my friends from high school who now have babies (I cannot imagine!) and all of that fun stuff. I also like to see photos from my single friends who still think they're in college. ;) I just love it. Hearing from Jenna the other day made my week! Isn't it funny how that works?

In other exciting news, my Uncle Duane has come through and gotten Jackson and I front row seats to the IU game on Saturday. Look out, Assembly Hall, here we come in our Crean & Crimson t-shirts! :) I am pretty excited! We LOVE IU basketball. The ticket sales this year have dropped a ton and I blame that on fair-weather fans. If you can't love 'em when they're losing get off the boat people! And of course the tickets become more readily available and cheaper when I leave the state. GRR. End of rant. :)

Jackson is so excited to head home. It is really quite cute. I haven't let myself get excited as my parents are really too busy with their move to hang out with us much.

The verdict from the plasma comments: no go. It was my idea to make a little extra cash around the holidays, but Jackson hates needles and their hours don't work with his work schedule. I am certainly not hanging out with the alkis and homeless people alone. (No offense to alkis or homeless people, I have a real heart for you, but one cannot be too careful.) I guess I'll think of another way to make some cash! Ideas? :)

Veterans Day

Above is a photo of my dear friend Megan's husband Kyle and his Platoon's officers and staff. Kyle is the 3rd from the left. He's such a handsome Marine. :) I got the chance to hang with Megan and Kyle for nearing a week in May and it was so much fun. Kyle let me try on his vest (it was soo heavy!) and helmet. I looked pretty tough. ;) I have such a deep respect for the sacrifices that our military men and women (and their spouses and families) make. I know firsthand that uprooting yourself from home is not the most fun thing to do, yet they are forced to move quite often. A lot of my friends from high school have served and I am so proud of them. My grandpa, dad and Jackson's father all spent their time serving this great country, too. I appreciate their efforts so much. Thank you to all of our veterans. God Bless America. :)

Plasma

Jackson and I have been arguing about whether or not donating plasma is a good idea. I won't tell you which one of us wants to donate so that you don't pick sides based solely on the person. :) I would like to know if anyone has heard anything negative or positive about donating plasma. It generates an extra $60 a week in income per person, but has one of us a little worried. The donation center seems to be in a shaky part of town, but we feel certain that it is clean inside. Thank you in advance for your thoughts!

Errands galore!!

Today we ran errands for most of the day. Since it is Saturday it was also laundry day. Yippee. Jackson made me laugh all day today. We went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to grab a few Christmas presents (we are trying to stock up on presents now so that we can store them at Susie's place when we go home next weekend--she just LOVES it when we store things at her place ;)) and I saw a new throw blanket that I wanted. (I have a real issue with shopping for myself during the Christmas season-oops.) The color that I wanted, gray, was on the top shelve- which is really high at BB&B- so Jackson took another blanket and tossed it up to the top shelve about 4 times to knock a gray blanket loose for me. Some old ladies watched him, horried. I died laughing. He's creative! :) We also picked up this giant bone for Addie (pictured above). MacKenzie pulled it out of the bag thinking it was for her. As you can see, it is bigger than she is! She's not happy that it is not for her. :/ As we were leaving BB&B with 3 very small stocking stuffer type presents I excited exclaimed, "yay! I have some of my Christmas shopping finished already!!" to which Jackson looked at me and said, "Oh yeah, Deb, Kathi, Susie here you go-Merry Christmas we got you each a $10 gift." I don't know why this cracked me up so much, but it took a solid 10 minutes for me to catch my breath. I seem to have taken after my mother and married a smartass! He claims that this is better than being a dumbass. I agree. :)

We joined the gym today. I'm hitting the Pilates class on Monday. It should be really fun. They also have a lawncare class that Jackson is just dying to attend. He wanted to teach it, but it is taught by a master gardener. Sadly he has missed this year's sessions and will have to learn about lawns in the spring. Tear. ;)

We also redecorated our living room this weekend. I have had the same decor for over 3 years and I just wanted a little change. We are keeping all of our other things (don't freak out, Mom!) so that when I am no longer sick of them they can make a comeback. Pottery Barn was having a great pillow sale so the new pillows inspired the whole room. We got a new lamp shade, a new "P" candle, another newspaper bin for extra pillows, a new clock and switched out the rug.

An overview. MacKenzie wanted to be in the photo.

A close up of the inspiration pillow and a shot of the couch (notice the new throw blanket to the left!) We actually stuffed the pillows ourselves because Pottery Barn charges $18 for inserts. CRAZY! We got stuffing for $5 per pillow at Hobby Lobby. :)

Our new lamp shade, "P" Candle, and pillow bin made of recycled newspaper (it matches Mac's new toy bin!)

The barrel chairs outfitted with their new pillows, the new clock and Mac's toy bin.

I'm very pleased with the new look. It was high time for a little change!

Date night

Jackson and I are going to be home next weekend and super busy so we decided to celebrate our anniversary a wee bit early tonight. I picked Jackson up from work and presented him with his presents. He got some new Nike Plus Shox (for gym use only) and a new North Face jacket (I bought myself a new one too...oops!). We went to Littleton for dinner at Buca di Beppo. It has become our anniversary tradition. Their food is so wonderful. And they messed up our order so we have food for tomorrow, too! Excellent! :) We did a little shopping at Pottery Barn (they're having a great pillow sale!) and William Sonoma. I did get one Christmas gift knocked out. Thank you very much. :) Then we headed to the light rail to ride downtown to the Pepsi Center to watch the ol' Denver Nuggets (thanks for the free passes, Meg!! Aren't we just green as can be?). The Pepsi Center is beautiful (we prefer Assembly Hall) and it was a really packed house. We don't really love the NBA so we only stayed until half-time. It was free lift ticket night (our real reason for going) so Jackson will now be sitting pretty on some mountain soon. :) For the record Denver did magically pull out a win, but the game was a real snoozer. The light rail is really nice and clean. I would never ride it alone or anything, but with Jackson it was a fine time. MacKenzie finished her birthday cake tonight and played a few rounds of ball- her favorite. We are going to sleep in tomorrow, yay! Then we're headed to join the Parker Receration center since the weather has gotten cold and walks outside are no longer as exciting. I'd like to issue a big "BOO" to winter.
Good night!