Waiting...

Tonight MacKenzie made herself at home on our "daybed" while I studied and Jackson cooked. (He's pretty much the most wonderful husband ever!) She's still waiting for that darned bed to arrive so she can be a little more comfortable. :)

I had a job interview this morning. I feel like it went well. I have another different interview on Thursday morning. Wish me luck!

In other astonishing news, JACKSON EDWARD PETEFISH GOT A FLU SHOT!! He voluntarily got a shot. I'm so proud of my baby. He HATES needles.

Cute

Since I posted such a sad blog yesterday, I thought I'd put up a few quick photos of MacKenzie. That cheers everyone up, right?! :)

She was patiently waiting for me to stop reading cases yesterday and play ball. She was right there in my face waiting. :)

I fought so hard to get that chair and now I rarely get to sit in it because MacKenzie claims it. Hmp.

MacKenzie has a COLTS jersey already, but Jackson decided to make her wear a hat, too. She was not pleased.

That's about all that has been going on around here: nothing! We hope you're all doing well and have a nice Tuesday.

Parents

My Mom called with me some news the other day. One of my friends from high school is 38 weeks pregnant and her father-in-law just died of a heart attack. My heart broke for her family. Here she and her husband are on the brink of one of the happiest days of their lives- the birth of their first child- and her husband's father passes away. I simply cannot imagine how sad they must be feeling right now. I am sure they wanted their baby boy to grow up knowing his grandpa. The entire family has been on my heart and in my prayers.

This sad event got me thinking about Jackson and how much I know that he'll miss his dad on our delivery date. (Let me verify that the delivery date should be in about 6 years or so. Do not get excited.) There have been a lot of happy days in his life since his father passed that have been bittersweet. I know how much he wished his dad could have been at our wedding. I will always believe in my heart that God lets our loved ones look down on us so I know he was there in spirit. I made myself cry thinking about all of this. Sometimes a loss is overwhelming no matter when it happened. I always tell people that Jackson misses his dad so much that I miss him, too.

I always remind myself to not take for granted the fact that my parents are always a phone call away. (I try to remind Jackson of that about Susie, too. He always assures me that she'll live until she's 100. Shortly after that, I'll hear him on the phone with her. Uh huh.) I often think about how awful it would be if one day they didn't pick up anymore. I think we all forget that tomorrow isn't promised for any of us. We should all be so thankful for the time that we get with our loved ones.

But even in sad situations, God is good.

BIG helper

"Mom, I'll help you unload the dishwasher if you'll throw the ball!"

Day trip to Vail

The mountains got a little dusting of snow last week.
MacKenzie got to play a little ball game.
Jackson posing with the little dog. Aww. :)
MacKenzie found a place to swim! Woo hoo! ;)
Oops it got a little deep...

The runs without any snow on them. They're not so scary that way. :)

A quick video of MacKenzie's swimming...

I had to snap a photo of this lady's attire- keep in mind it was 74 degrees! She has on boots with fur and a winter jacket!!

MacKenzie is really tired tonight. I got up to switch laundry and she took my spot- blanket and all!

Happy Fall!!!

Excuse the shadows on my Write Plate. :)

Happy birthday, Shannon!!!

Today is my best friend Shannon's GOLDEN birthday! She is 26 on the 26th! :) :) :)

The Petefish and Duckwall families sent you this basket, Shannon. Unfortunately they had some licensing issues with the NFL and orders are delayed. So enjoy it on screen. :( We are hopeful that it will get to you during football season at the very least!

We all love you! Have a most wonderful day!!

3 months!

Exactly 3 months from today Jackson and I will be spending Christmas in LONDON!!!!!!!! :)

Quiet days

It has been a quiet couple of days here in the Denver metro area. Jackson and I both had long work days yesterday so we pretty much came home and crashed last night. I think I was honestly in bed at 10:00. LOVE it! :)

In good news: I got a call back from the job I had the phone interview with on Wednesday. They scheduled an interview for next week. It feels good to have a head start on the job hunt so that hopefully when October 15th rolls around I won't be feeling stressed. I'm pretty ready for this current contract to end simply because it was temporary and I'm just ready to get to a job and settle in. I am proud of myself for not telling these people where to put it sometimes, though. They've seemingly forgotten that they never trained me on "their way" of doing things and just expect me to read their minds. I don't have that skill. I will miss my buddy at work, Shalimar, though. :) I could never be a temp again as it is far too much work to learn an offices ins and outs just to leave after a few weeks or months. This job has been great experience so I am thankful for that aspect of it all.

I have today (Friday) off from work so I'm doing homework most of the day. I have a meeting with my professor at 3:00 to review my research paper. Woo hoo. ;) And then class at 5:30. This whole Friday night class thing kind of stinks. I guess I didn't realize how much more invasive school would be when I added another day of classes. Ick.

I did get to start the new Dan Brown book a little bit this week on the train. Thus far he has not disappointed me. Tomorrow we will spend the day in Vail so I hope to get to do a little coffee shop sitting and reading: one of my favorite fall activities! :)

Wacky Wednesday...

Today was a wild ride. I woke up to a text message from my mom stating that my pregnant sister was going in for an emergency ultrasound because she'd been bleeding. I was a nervous wreck. This baby has had us all on a roller-coaster of emotions. I found out later in the day that the ultrasound went well and the baby was fine. It had a strong heartbeat and the bleeding was "normal" for this part of the pregnancy. My sister was elated and my Aunt Phyllis said it best when she wrote on Facebook, "God is still on His throne- any question?!"

I missed the morning train and had to wait in the cold (we're having a cold front pass through Denver this week, but this weekend is going to be nice again) and snow/rain mix. I was a little miserable at first and was daydreaming about crawling back into my warm and cozy bed with Jackson and MacKenzie when it dawned on me how lucky I was that my daydreaming would be a reality that evening. I felt a reminder that some people do not have warm beds to crawl into on cold nights and that some people do not have loved ones to snuggle. I have to say that I stopped whining to myself pretty quickly after that thought.

I had a quick phone interview this morning with the town of Parker for their sales tax department. I think it went ok and I should know more at the end of the week. It pays better than the other job that I'm interviewing with, but I think the job with the CPA might be a better fit. I will know more after Tuesday morning's interview. Whew. I hate interviews. Jackson loves them as he calls it, "selling his favorite product: Jackson!" I do not have that confidence in the product I'm selling I guess.

I am down to only working three days a week now at my contract job. That's fine with me for now as school is really busy this quarter. I feel like I am always moving. That wouldn't change if school weren't busy but still. ;) Also, to those of you who claim to not be able to "keep up" with all things Jenna (HA- soo exciting, I know!) I am going to be applying to law schools. I'll apply to a few schools and then we'll decide where to go based on jobs available in the area. I won't apply until after I've passed the CPA exam as that's my first priority. Sigh. There's still so much work to be done.

Jackson did well in court against our former Westfield renters. We do not have a verdict yet, but we will let you know as soon as we do. In karma news- they broke their lease with us to buy a house that they later lost financing on and have had to move multiple times since leaving us high and dry. They're out their earnest money and also already made flooring purchases for the new home. That really makes me sad. ;)

Jackson's quick trip to Indiana went pretty well. His flight to Indy was delayed by an hour, but other than that all went according to plan. He even got to eat at Bob Evan's. (SO jealous!) He was busy at work today and has decided that if he only worked 2.5 days a week that he'd be so busy when he was there that he wouldn't even mind going to work. Hmmm. :)

We're going to head up to Vail on Saturday so that we can see the Aspen trees changing colors (Colorado's version of fall is too cute. It is no Brown County, Indiana but the mountains do add a little something) and do some hiking. We'll be taking MacKenzie, too. We're going to stop in at Lake Dylan first to let her do a little swimming, too. It should be a nice time.

We hope you all are doing well.

Living without regret

I recently read a book that a girl's family wrote after she was killed in the 1999 Columbine school shootings. I bought the books years ago and just never got around to reading it. I was in high school when the Columbine massacre took place so it really resonated with me. I bought the book as soon as it came out and then realized that it made those shootings too real. It was like reading about a classmate. So I put the book away for years. Now that I live in Denver and pretty close to Columbine High School (I did make Jackson take me there once just so I could see it...) I decided it was time to read her story. It was a great book. I read it mostly on the train on the way to work. I laughed. I cried. A lot. And I was inspired.

The book was centered around a girl named Rachel who was a devout Christian. Her religion was the reason that she was selected to be killed that day. The killers had mentioned her name as a target multiple times in the videos they made explaining their plans for that day. (The videos, of course, were found a few days too late.) Anyway, Rachel was an incredible young woman. What stood out the most to me was her will to live without regret. She always told the people who were important to her how much she loved them. She actually did stop and smell the roses if she walked by some. She wrote notes to her classmates when she knew that they were struggling to support them. Was she perfect? No. No one has been perfect except for Jesus Christ. She tried, though. She made her best effort each day to be the person that God wanted her to be and because of that she made an impact. She was only 17 when she died, but the changes she made for God's kingdom were large.

I challenge each of you to live without regret. I know this is a hard time in history to be living and working. We're constantly worried about our jobs, our security and our freedoms. I challenge you to do your best everyday at work so that if you're let go you have no regrets. I challenge you to think about your loved ones and if they know how much they mean to you. If you don't think that they know (and even if they do) tell them! I challenge you (and me- for sure) to PRAY for our nation instead of just being sour and playing the blame game. God is still with us. He was with Rachel the day that she died. He's always been here and always will be so let's make the most of it.

Christmas trip 2009

While Jackson worried about his day in court (see previous post) and didn't sleep well, I kept myself up some being excited for our Christmas trip 2009! We're headed to... EUROPE!!!!!!! :)

If you know me (and most of you do) then you know that going to London and Paris have been long standing dreams of mine and this December that dream will be fulfilled! Woo hoo! We'll be leaving Denver in the afternoon on December 23rd to head to London where we'll spend Christmas Eve's afternoon, Christmas day and the day after Christmas. (HELLO after Christmas shopping in LONDON!) December 27th we'll take a train into Scotland to stay in Edinburgh. I'm going to have afternoon tea at a castle (I can hardly sit still thinking about it) while Jackson plays at St. Andrew's. St. Andrew's is known as the golf course God made and its Old Course is known as the oldest golf course on earth. (So basically it is every golfer's dream to play there and Jackson would be fulfilling one of his dreams! YAY!)

Edinburgh seems to have a lot of cool things to explore so we'll be there for 2 days- I think. Then we'll take a night train back to London and hop on the chunnel, a HIGH-speed train, that will take us under the ocean to Paris. We'll got the LOUVRE (again with the trouble sitting still thinking about it.) We'll see fireworks over the Eiffel Tower on New Year's Eve. New Year's day we'll explore the city. January 2nd we'll catch a flight back to the U.S. tired as all get out, I'm certain. :)

We have only a few hang ups:
1. It seems Europeans really have a thing for cinnamon. Nearly everything they eat seems to be tainted. Solution? I'll be packing granola bars. :)
2. French people are supposed to be really rude to Americans. Solutions? Do not speak, but pretend to be German as people always think I am anyway. :)
3. They are big on meat and I'm not. Solution: Don't eat and sight see as much as possible.
4. I once made a pact with God that I could die after seeing the Empire State Building (been there...TWICE) and the Eiffel Tower. Solution? Look down the entire time that I'm in Paris. HA! :) No, Jackson feels sure that if I just ask God to reconsider that I'll be ok. I kid you not that the idea of seeing the Eiffel Tower and then being struck by a random bolt of lightning would not surprise me.

Anyway, we're pretty darned excited for the trip. I'm certain that was not evident throughout this blog post. :)

Day in court

Tonight Jackson will be flying back to Indiana so that he can appear in court tomorrow. We are involved in a small claims lawsuit with our former Westfield tenants. They sued us for their security deposit that they claim we're keeping unlawfully. We have photos of this messes and bills from people we had to pay to clean it up and restore the home to the condition in which they found it. We're hoping for a positive result.

Court is scheduled to begin at 9:00 EST so if you look at a clock and see that it is around that time, please send up a prayer for us.

Jackson will fly back to Denver Tuesday afternoon so that he only misses one day of work. Quick trip!

Video links

This link should lead you to a video of MacKenzie at Barker Days. The blog is not allowing video uploading at this time...I'm not sure why that is, but so be it. I posted to Youtube.

This link should lead you to a video we shot at Yale. It was such a cool place.

Let me know if these links do not work for you!

Big boys play, too

Not to be outdone by MacKenzie's exciting day, Jackson picked up the NFL Madden game for the Wii. He loves that Wii. :) (I'd like to point of how unfair it is that I am so busy this quarter with school that Jackson has tons of alone time to fill with playing Wii.)

I picked up the new Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol. That's my fun. What a nerd.

Barker Days

We firmly believe that this is MacKenzie's favorite day of the year: BARKER DAY! I took a photo to try to show the madness- it does it NO justice. The place was PACKED!!!
MacKenzie, of course, found a ball right away.
She's not afraid of big dogs at all.

Can you see the pure joy on this dog's face as she runs back after retrieving the ball?! :)
Ok, back to the pool...
MacKenzie climbed up into this play thing somewhere...
An action shot.
But I don't want to leave!

MacKenzie has the most shrill bark ever and people kept thinking she was being hurt by a bigger dog, but she wasn't. That's just what she sounds like. :/ I guess we'll keep her. ;)

Aunt Jan's party

Doesn't Madison look like she's smiling at you?! :)
There were a lot of dogs at the party...(where's Macy?!)
Guy threw a surprise party for Aunt Jan's 60th birthday that was actually a few weeks ago so she was REALLY surprised. She got a bucket of lollipops that read, "60 sucks!!" HA! :)
Guy is known for making annoying signs...
These signs were along the driveway...
He had an overturned wheelchair with a dummy in it staged along the driveway, too!

We got to iChat with a lot of the people at the party so it was like we were there. We just didn't get to eat any of the good food. :( It was nice to "see" everyone and we're so glad that the party was a success!

I hate blood

Jackson stubbed his toe today at Target and it began GUSHING blood. I hate blood. It really made my stomach hurt which lead me to snap a photo so you all could share in my misery. HA! The good news is that his toe is feeling better. :)

GO COLTS!!!

MacKenzie received PRESENTS IN THE MAIL today! Our favorite! :):) I had asked my parents to look for a doggie jersey around Indianapolis since all that we have here in Denver is Broncos gear. They were big dorks and told me they couldn't find anything and then today a present came in the mail. What scammers. Jackson was SO excited to see MacKenzie all dressed up when he got home! He called her a SUPERSTAR! :) They're too funny. MacKenzie also got a Colts t-shirt to wear. What a spoiled little puppy.

Thanks so much Grandma and Grandpa Duck!

Does she not look adorable? I'll have to get here a little football toy to toss around. :)

New place photos

We really like this neighborhood except there is a little white dog who is always barking from her balcony...oh wait, that's MacKenzie.
Still barking.
She was feeling a little needy today and wouldn't stop getting into the pictures! As you can see, I sent a lot of my books home and now my shelve is lonely and empty. Oops.
MacKenzie sneaking a toy from her bin...
The new ottoman. Jackson's pride and joy! :) Tell me what you think- do we need a rug? I'm leaning towards no, but I am unsure.
You'll notice someone wanting to play ball in this photo. Always.
Jackson's tv is mounted. Woo hoo!
She seriously wouldn't get out of pictures! Too funny. Our behind the couch table has never quite made it to its designated position!
The kitchen is by far my favorite part of the condo.


You can see my Write Plate (thanks, D!) and my Hoosiers plate! Love 'em!
Soooo we have ordered the daybed, but it will not be in for a few weeks so Jackson made a mock daybed for illustration purposes. Then he decided that it was really comfy and he was not taking it down. He's too much.
My new office chair! YAY! I love it! It is soo comfortable and pretty!
My little bookcase and MacKenzie's bed where she sleeps when I do homework. That's the life.
She was so needy today! She never left my side!

Anyway, there are some photos of the new place. I didn't take any of our bedroom because it is still pretty boring and in need of some paintings or something and I need to recover the bench at the bottom of our bed. And the bathrooms are just bathrooms so I didn't think they'd be blog worthy. :)