Snuggie!

Tonight Jackson and I walked into Walgreens and what do we see?! SNUGGIES FOR DOGS!! My parents had been wanting one for little Macy so I got it and made MacKenzie test it out. Have no fear, Macy, it will be in the mail tomorrow!Mac wasn't so sure about it...

Take it off!

Giving up and snuggling into her favorite chair. After a few minutes she really took to the snuggie. We're still sending it to Macy per Jackson's orders!

One last snow update: this car was driven to Jackson's office by a guy who lives in the mountains. This is the amount of snow that was left on his car after he drove 50 miles to work. It was a lot of snow. Thankfully the roads are just wet now and the sidewalks are clear. It was so nice tonight that we had the windows open and took MacKenzie for a walk. The weather here takes you for quite a ride!

Jackson will NEVER grow up! :)

I don't know who was having more fun: Jackson or MacKenzie!

SnOw Fun

Oh what FUN! :)

Living in a winter wonderland

MacKenzie playing ball in the snow...And then warming herself by the fire- too cute!This is what used to be my planters on the balcony.
This is what a mustang that has not been moved during the entire storm now looks like. I hope they weren't planning on going anywhere!

Crazy coyotes

Taylor Mitchell, a singer-songwriter from Toronto, was attacked by coyotes in Cape Breton and has died in hospital. She was hiking alone on the Skyline trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park on Tuesday when she was attacked by two coyotes. Other hikers walking behind her heard her cries for help and called 911. She was airlifted to hospital in Halifax, listed in critical condition, but she succumbed to her injuries early this morning. RCMP spokesperson Brigdit Leger said an officer was in the area on an unrelated matter when the 911 call was made.
An officer shot and injured one of the animals, which was still behaving aggressively, Ms. Leger said. “At first it was believed to be dead, because it kind of hobbled off to the side,” she said. “However, when the (officer) went back to retrieve the carcass, the carcass was gone.”
Park officials are actively searching for both animals and Ms. Leger said the RCMP will offer whatever assistance is required. Germaine LeMoine, public affairs officer with Parks Canada, said of the attack: “This wouldn't even be considered a yearly event. It's extremely rare in the history of the park.” She said the Skyline trail will remain off-limits until further notice.
“Currently, we have our resource conservation and public safety specialist in the Skyline trail area searching for the second coyote. They will kill that coyote and dispose of it. It will be sent for pathological testing. Public safety, first and foremost, is top of mind within Parks Canada.”

This reminds me, again, how lucky MacKenzie is to be here today! This poor girl's family- what an awful way to lose a loved one.

Alexander Nicholas

I got this photo of my sister's pregnant tummy this evening. I was shocked at how much she was showing already. *Evil laugh* She's always been so thin that I wanted this pregnancy making her nice and fat. :) (And don't pull this being pregnant is not being fat thing on me, people.) My little Alexander is so cute already. And before you ask, no, I do not know at what point she'll decide to remove her belly ring.

Snow BALL

MacKenzie LOVES to play ball. Look at that intense stare.
Jackson running after the ball that got buried in the snow.
A little blurry but this is supposed to show how much snow there is based on MacKenzie's height.
She had to dig out a buried ball. It has gotten SO cold here. It feels nothing like fall. :(

I finally ventured out of the house to make a quick deposit at the bank. We were gone for about 15 minutes and I was a nervous wreck. I hate driving or riding in the snow. It is simply no fun!

MacKenzie playing in all of our SNOW

Just in case you didn't hear: it snowed A LOT in Denver today!

Looking out our balcony this morning there was definite accumulation.

Around noon MacKenzie decided that she wanted to go play in the fluffy white stuff.

And she played, and she played and she played!She finally looked cold...

Not quite ready to go in yet...

Ok, now she's ready to lead the way into the warmth of our home!

MacKenzie looooves the snow in small doses. Come tomorrow she probably won't want to play!

Other good news? THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER CANCELLED CLASSES FOR TONIGHT! WOO HOO!!!!!! :)

Puppy photos

I think I forgot to post MacKenzie's professional photos. My mom has these shots taken while she was puppysitting in early September. Too cute!

http://www.capturedbydebrapoe.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=7296444

Home again, Home again

Tonight I really enjoyed MacKenzie snuggling close to me as we watched 3 episodes of The Hills. If you look closely, you'll see that she's wearing a Halloween scarf from Grammy leftover from last season. :)

I had lunch today with my new boss and recruiter. We went to a fancy Italian joint that was pretty pricey. The food was OK, but I'd never eat there on my own dime. The lunch went well, though. My new boss, Melinda, informed that I'll be getting my own office with a door! Woo hoo! (The office with a door is kind of an inside joke between Jackson and myself so if you don't get it just move on...:)) I have started gathering photo frames from around the house to decorate my very own office with on Monday. I'm actually kind of excited to start work now. It is the little things in life, folks.

Jackson's work life has picked up a lot. He's still really liking his job, though, so that's awesome. Poor kid has been selling cars and houses while he's at work. He's been a champ at trying to get all of this stuff handled and taken care of while I've been traveling. Our credit union held our car's title for a few days and now getting our check from the dealership has been a real pain. The Westfield home goes through inspection tomorrow. PLEASE KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS! We are hoping the buyer does not ask for thousands of dollars worth of repairs or concessions. We're really pretty nervous for this inspection since the house was built back in 1998 and has had kind of a tough life! We feel like if this goes well then it is smooth-sailing from here. Fingers crossed. Prayers raised.

Well, the snow is falling here in Denver- again. Already. GRR. We were going to go to the outlets tonight to get some new shoes and return some pants, but the weather had other plans. We decided not to risk it and stayed home. We did get to the gym tonight so that was a positive thing.

That's about all that's happening around here. Again, we'd really appreciate your prayers for Westfield's home inspection tomorrow. Thanks, all!

Texts b/w sisters

Today I honestly had this EXACT text conversation with my sister:

Me: Sorry that you're not feeling well today. :/ (My Mom mentioned on the phone that Kylie had been puking all day.)
Kylie: It is ok. Alex has days that he's just cranky and feels like making me sick
Me:Payback for years of tormenting your little sister with fat jokes.
Kylie: I never made fat jokes.
Me: I'm just messing with you. I sent Alex a Halloween package today!
Kylie: I don't make fun of anyone's weight!
Me: My ass. You called me "noodle" and "chunk" growing up
Kylie: He will be excited...maybe he'll let me keep down my poptarts. Thanks!
Kylie: Noodle. Ok. I did not mean u just took it that way...chunk was never used!
Me: Try soup.
Kylie: I did NOT call you soup.
Me: No, idiot. To settle your upset stomach.
Kylie: Oooh. Yeah. The only thing that helps is bananas. He loves them.

Oh, God love that girl. She has managed to forget years of her life where she spent the majority of her time tormenting me. Our conversations just crack me up. She's so off the wall!

San Clemente days

This morning Meg and I chilled around the house watching TLC. Ah, I love that channel sometimes. We finally ventured out into the California sun for some frozen yogurt. They have this cool store, Velvet Yogurt, where you get your own yogurt and topping then weigh them to get a price. It was a wee bit pricey- thanks again for treating me, Megan- but it was incredibly yummy. I'd like to open one of these stores in Denver. I think it would be a hit. We ran some little errands on base. It is so funny to be on base as a non-military person. I enjoyed a little Christmas shopping (Danielle, I'm finished with you now!) tax-free. Yeah! Thanks, Meg. We went to the beach and watched the surfers again. I love that.

I love, love, love to watch Mocha watch television. Mocha is Megan's yorkie. She's so stinkin' cute. Each time an animal comes on television she runs up to the entertainment center and watches with a little growl. She's so funny. Tonight we're going to watch the movie that we tried to watch last night, but I fell asleep. I realized last night that I'd been in 3 time zones in 3 days. I was just exhausted. We're going to have dinner at home tonight and just chill. Ah, relaxation. :)

Jackson says it is snowing in Denver. BOO! It is supposed to really get nasty there this week. Gross. I'm so not ready for winter weather already. He and MacKenzie are hanging out and watching football. Life is good.

Orange County

I flew to Orange County, California this morning. It was an early flight on a Saturday. Bad idea. I had obviously forgotten that Saturdays are amateur days at the airport. UGH. I have 16 small children and we’re going to see Grandma. AAAHH!! I was able to pretty much sail through security and back to my gate in a near record 20 minutes. Then Southwest threw a real killer at me and passed out cinnamon cookies. SICK! The entire plane reeked. Anyway, I landed safely and that's all that matters! :)

Meg and I caught up on life. We went to lunch and basked in the warm California sun. We went to a fun used bookstore and got some fun beach reads for tomorrow. We went to the Marine base and got groceries. It was interesting to be a civilian on a base. It was like a different world. They have a really nice beach on base. I love watching the surfers. It is so neat.

Meg cooked dinner tonight: quesadillas. They were pretty darned good, too. We're going to watch a movie this evening and then hit the hay. It has been a good day. :)

SOLD!

We accepted an offer today on the Westfield house. The inspection is Tuesday so we will not get excited until everything has checked out. But Praise the Lord that we have a buyer, anyway!

Pillow puppy

Oh, how I missed this little puppy that thinks she's human. :)

Photos from home(s)

I snapped a quick photo of my original puppy love, Madison. She's such a good pup!

Last night I got to have dinner with Heidi, Andrew and Laura. Heidi is 6 months (I think-?) pregnant. She hadn't allowed belly shots. I got one. Na na na boo boo. (She reads this blog and will NOT be pleased that I posted this. Good thing I live in Denver!) I got to see baby Jaxton's room. It is so crazy that I'm going to be an Aunt twice in just a couple of months. ;) :)

Meanwhile, back in Colorado Jackson and MacKenzie had a ballgame in the snow. Ick.

While they were playing ball in the snow, I was driving Susie's red convertible. I know, my life is rough. Please do feel sorry for me. ;) I do have to go back to Denver for 1.5 days this evening before flying out to Los Angeles/ Orange County to see my friend Meg. Again, rough life.

I have had a great trip home. It is always so good to catch up with family and friends in the flesh. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful place to call home.

SNOW in DENVER

Jackson woke up to snow.

It is a gorgeous fall day here in Indiana.

Poor Jackson. :)

Upland days...

I am in Upland visiting my parents. I wanted a few days to take it easy. Boy have I taken it easy. I have cleaned my parent's house, but that is about it. I slept in this morning in the room without windows. I love the cave! I ran a few errands with my Mom in Marion today. It is crazy how much towns change in just a few years. It seems like ages since I lived in Marion going to IWU. It was only 4 years ago. Wild. Other than that, there is not much going on here.

Jackson takes his insurance licensing test tomorrow. He is required to have these licenses for his new job. I know he'll do well. He's actually been studying. Crazy.

We have had a flurry of activity at the Westfield house. We're hoping that someone makes an offer soon. PLEASE!

A quick update: my sister is doing much better. She returned to work today. She's not out of the woods yet, so I know that she would still appreciate your prayers.

What is love?

Love is: cleaning toilets.

I hate cleaning toilets and it is a labor of love. You're welcome, Jackson. :)

Out of the bubble

I remember when I was a student at Indiana Wesleyan University calling the school a "bubble." Everything was warm and nice. People cared about each other. It was a lovely place. I always worried, though, that students weren't being prepared for the "real world."

It has been a few years since my time at IWU and I feel the same way about "bubbles." Only now I know that IWU wasn't the only place where one could live in a bubble. Our lives are so busy these days that we often live in a bubble that is filled with thoughts and concerns mainly for ourselves. Sure, we worry about our spouses, children (if we have them), pets and close family. For the most part, however, we are pretty self-centered. Society lends itself to being self-centered and we all fall into the trap.

I have worked downtown for a couple of months now. Today is the last day that I will walk to work and pass people selling a newspaper that is geared at helping the homeless. Today will be the last day that I go to McDonald's for breakfast and buy homeless people meals because they've tugged at my heart strings. Today will be the last day that I'll have a glaring reminder to get out of my self-centered world and see other people's needs. I hope that someone new will get a job downtown and take the homeless people to breakfast in my place. I also hope that my heart remember so stay soft and remember other people's needs.

Good sister

My Mom sent me an email this morning letting me know that she was on her way to the doctor's office with my sister. She also wanted to tell what a very sweet thing my sister-in-law did for my sister. "Kathy & Grace came by last night with a care package of magazines, candy & a card all inside a pumpkin. Kylie said she thinks that is about the nicest thing anyone has ever done for her. It was very thoughtful. Grace is so grown up and extremely funny."

I would like to give a big shout-out to Kathy and Grace. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness. I thought to myself after reading my Mom's email what a great job Charlie and Susie did raising both Kathy and Jackson. Jackson is the absolute love of my life and very best friend and Kathy is one of my very favorite people. Good job, Charlie & Susie Petefish. Good job.

(I'd also like to think that all of my parents didn't do a bad job, either! Love you all.)

I'll update the news from Kylie and Alex's doctor appointment as soon as I get information.

Pillow puppy

MacKenzie really enjoys the numerous throw pillows that we keep on our furniture. She snuggles up and makes herself right at home.
Tomorrow is the last day of tax season. WOO HOO! :)

Love you forever

I feel like every woman in my life is pregnant right now. This leads me to spend a lot of time in the children's sections of Barnes & Noble (there is not a better bookstore, in my opinion) picking out all of my favorite kid/baby books. It is amazing how these little stories bring back so many memories for me. Sigh. It also makes me very self-conscious hoping that people do think it is me expecting. Oh the trials and tribulations of being fat!

I was having a bit of an emotional day with my sister being in the hospital for abnormal bleeding while pregnant. She was sent home to rest and hope for the best. We did find out that she's having a baby BOY, Alexander Nicholas. We weren't supposed to know the gender until Thanksgiving, but thanks to today's scare we know. A very small positive from a nasty day for my sister. (I, personally, love knowing. I was about to explode wondering if I was getting a niece or nephew. I HATE surprises almost as much as I hate cinnamon.) In good news, my mom was able to get down to spend sometime with my sister so that her husband can continue to go to work. My mom is blessed with a very flexible sales job (and let's face it: she's darn good at her job and they'd be lost without her so they better let her have a day or two off!) so she headed down to Evansville as soon as she could. I would sure appreciate your prayers for my sister and baby Alexander.

As I said, I was having an emotional day (it doesn't help that I'm just days away from that time of the month!) and then I went to the bookstore. I was shopping for a certain children's book and found it. I was just exiting the section when the book, "Love You Forever" caught my eye. I LOVE this book. I read it right there in the store. All 7 pages or so. :) Anyway, if you haven't read the book- read it. It is such a sweet little story about the cycle of life. I was in tears in the middle of Barnes & Noble. I think I just needed to let all of today's madness flow out of me. I bought the book that I cried on and headed home to do homework.

That's life. There are ups, there are downs, there are positives and there are negatives, but we're still here and that's what matters. God is still good.

God is good

I love blogs. I like having mine so that I can write down my thoughts for others to see because let's face it, I tend to be a bit opinionated. :) Another reason that I love blogs is because they give you a glimpse into another person's life that you may otherwise not see. I think it is really important that we remember to think about others more than we think of ourselves.

For instance, today I read a blog of some acquaintances from my hometown. They recently had a baby that is going to need some surgeries quite quickly in his young life. I know a lot of people would find this overwhelming, but this couple does not. They see God's hand in this. They see how this struggle has brought them closer to the Lord. They feel it has shown them just how deep God's love is for His children. That's a pretty awesome example to be able to read. And I'd like to be able to comment and tell them how proud I am of them and that they're in my prayers, but sometime you're reading people's blogs who do not really know you anymore and that would perhaps creep them out! It makes me so thankful for people linking to other people's blogs! :)

I also got the news today that one of my good friends from college is pregnant! YAY! I won't release her name in case she's not ready for that, yet. I feel like EVERYONE is either pregnant or just had a baby right now. I'm not pregnant. I will not be for a long time. That being said, I am pretty excited to spoil their children. I think buying baby gifts is pretty fun! :) I thank God that my friends who desire to be parents have been blessed with that gift. I also pray that they see it as a special responsibility given to them by God because it definitely is.

Anyway, I had a few things on my mind today that reminded me how good God is and I wanted to share. I hope you're all having a good week. Bring on October 15th- I'm ready to be finished with tax returns for a few weeks! :)

Early bird

I have done a lot of my Christmas (and birthday for Susie P.) shopping done early this year. We're going to be out of the country during the holiday so we're getting ready early. I'm going to take all of the presents home with me NEXT WEEKEND! Woo hoo! I cannot believe that I get to spend so much time in Indiana. YAY! :)

SOLD

We are no longer the owners of this fine unit. Woo hoo! We put my car on Craigslist.org this morning and had it sold by 2 this afternoon to a Ford dealership about 45 miles from our place. It was a really random place to call interested in our car, but we felt great about not having to deal with an individual buyer. God is so faithful. We are trying to cut expenses for the next few months so that we can cover the Westfield house payments and pay for our Europe trip without going into debt. Selling my car in less than one day was such a relief! It removed about a $550 a month expense from our books. Cha-ching! Now if this darned Westfield place would sell. Sigh.

We're going to try really hard to not replace my car until the Westfield house sells. Then watch out world- this girl is going back to the convertible life! :)

Anyway, we are quite please. We even made a couple hundred bucks on the sale. You can't beat that! :)

We hope you're all having a great weekend.

New bed!

Woo hoo! Our new daybed for the den/office/guest room came in yesterday so Jackson picked it up tonight and assembled it. I think it looks great! I'll take a better photo of the room once we rearrange it and decide how it looks the best. This room is not very big and needs to serve multiple purposes. We were unaware of how big the bed would look in this small space. Oops! Oh well. It will work. We're now taking reservations to sleep on our sweet single bed. ;) You know you want to come out. The mountains look gorgeous every morning right now because they're snow-covered and we're not (yet!).

It is 12:30 and I've been working on a paper since 5. I think it is high time to call it a night. We hope that you're all doing well!

Happy Birthday, Duckie!

The Petefish family is wishing one Mr. Guy Duckwall a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :) We hope it is a great day!!

Victory

We won!! The verdict from our small claims suit against our tenants came in the mail today. We were nervous as all get out opening that envelope. It was great news and all is well in the world again. The Petefish family is now 2-0 in court. Cha-ching.

This made me want to be a lawyer ever more. I loved the thrill of the win!

God is good! :)

The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown has done it again! This book was really thought-provoking. I want to know if any of you have read the book and what you thought. Leave a comment! :)

Lazy days

I know that some of you think that we never have lazy weekends. We did! On Saturday we cleaned the house in the morning and ran errands for a little bit in the afternoon before lounging the rest of the day. I read a book and Jackson played on the computer. Today we lounged most of the day watching football. The Cowboys broke my heart by losing to the Broncos. We hate the Broncos. We have a pretty chill week coming up, too. I have Monday off to get some homework done so that has allowed for the relaxing weekend.

That's all that is happening here in Denver. What's new with you?

COLTS...or not

This morning Jackson got out of bed with a spring in his step as our television listed that we'd be seeing the Indianapolis v. Seattle game today. He started his day by making chili and queso. It was going to be a great football Sunday. Then, while I was at the grocery store picking up last minute supplies, tragedy struck: Jackson learned that instead of the Colts v. Seattle we'd be seeing Giants v. Chiefs. Oh the horror. He wanted to go back to bed and whine all day. He compared this feeling of sadness to a, "child who comes downstairs on Christmas to no presents." I quickly reminded Jackson that he had NO idea what that would be like. I encouraged him to buck up, put on his jersey and move on with his day. He did. MacKenzie wore her jersey, too. They played a game of ball after the game and then came home and let me get this adorable photo of my two COLTS fans. I love it! :)

Mac v. Hippo

Job

I came home to flowers and a card from my wonderful husband. He's such a sweet boy! :) I took the job with the small CPA firm. I start November 2nd. My classes are canceled the week after October 15th to give us all a break after tax season. Woo hoo! I am going to head to Indiana on October 17th-October 22nd. YAY! :) I am pretty excited for a little R&R! :)