Christmas

I just got back from Socorro and whew... what a busy, but great Christmas weekend we had!

I had to work Christmas Eve, but afterwards we had a real nice steak dinner, drove around and looked at the lights in town and then opened up our presents to each other. I got Mario Cart for the Wii (sooo much fun) a Chair massager thingy... it is amazing and a real cool laptop pillow. I got my husband a PS3 for Christmas... which may not have been the smartest present to get him.... since that means he may spend more with the PS3 than me... but oh well... the things you do for love! :)

We left for Socorro Christmas day and had an amazing Italian Christmas. My Aunt and Uncle came down with their baby girl Isabella and we had Lasagna and some Italian desserts that my grandma use to make when my mom and when I were both little.

Here is a picture of my Aunt and Isabella, who is almost 7 months old already!


Christmas was also my dad's birthday so we got to celebrate and spoil him as well!

Saturday was the High School Alumni soccer game... there weren't enough girls to play... BUT there were a handful that showed up to watch the boys play and it was nice to catch up with everyone.

Sunday (Today) was an especially busy, but fun day. Ryan and I went to breakfast with my high school friend Amanda. She is cute, pretty and smart... I just love her! She goes to school at UCLA, is getting her PHD AND she works in a lab there where they do tests to try and find a cure for cancer. Awesome, Right?!

Here is a picture of Amanda and I:


After breakfast we headed over to another one of my high school friend's family's house, to visit. My friend Helga and her husband were in town and they just had a baby 2 months ago. I was sooo excited to meet him and boy was he precious. I got to hold him for a long long time and I loved every second of it. I was soo glad I got to see them while they were in town and got to meet little Noah. :) Below is little Noah!



After that we headed to Ryan's grandparents for our final farewell Christmas lunch with our families. It was soo nice to see all of our friends and families and to spend quality time together... after all... that is what Christmas is about! I hope you all had a great holiday and have an even better beginning of the new year!

Cowboys

My husband and his family are all die hard Dallas Cowboy fans and always have been. They even lived in Dallas for a few years when my husband was growing up and now my father in law has moved back there. When we went to go visit, we just KNEW that we couldn't go without seeing a Cowboy game, especially in their new stadium!

The game was a Sunday game and the team they were playing was the Chargers. We showed up to the stadium about an hour before game time... but parking was insane. We parked at some ghetto lot that was about a half mile or so from the stadium. Parking was 20 bucks (the cheapest on the street) and they also shuttled you up closer to the stadium. Even from a half a mile away the stadium was insanely amazing and humongous!




Walking into the stadium we all kind of got chills. It was amazing beyond words. The massiveness of the stadium, the already gathered crowd, the field that looked soo small compared to the stadium and just the very vibe that we were walking into was all enough to give us chills. I think at one point I just stopped and was like, let me just take this all in for a minute. I wanted to take pictures of everything!



We wanted to get right to our seats so we could get situated and find them before the game started. Our seats were amazing! We were less then 10 rows from the field, near the end zone and the sideline. The big screen that they have.. which I swear is is half the football field is insane. I did not know where to look. Between the stadium, the crowd, the screen oh yeah and the field... I think we ended up looking at the screen most of the time because it was soo big, plus zoomed in to every play and every move of the action.



The atmosphere of the stadium was insane. Never have I been surrounded by soo many people that love the same team soo much. Every time something good would happen I was getting high fived by people all around me that I've never met before. It was just insane.

The game didn't end soo well for the Dallas Cowboys... but you couldn't tell while you were in the stadium. It was just soo amazing there that the buzz and excitement just seemed to stay in the air, regardless of the outcome of the game. We are already trying to figure out when we will go back to a game... I am just waiting for them to release the 2010 schedule. :)

Dallas

We left late last Thursday evening to Dallas. My father in law and my sister in laws picked us up from the airport, the girls had little homemade signs with our names on it... Soo cute! We stayed up even later Thursday, just out of excitement and we were all totally pooped on Friday! We did get up in time to have lunch with the girls at school though! They have the most adorable little Texas school and we got to meet all of their friends at lunch! After lunch my future sister in law, Katheryn and I were bored so we went to the Outlet mall... which conveniently was only like 5 minutes from my father in law's house! We both were bad and bought Coach purses at the outlet! :)


Saturday was a shopping day as well! Katheryn and I took Katie to the mall and we bought the girls a TON of new clothes! I loved shopping with them, we had such a good time and some fun girl bonding! Saturday night we took the girls for ice cream and we all watched movies and wrapped Christmas presents!

Sunday was the Cowboys football game... I will write another blog about that! After the game we celebrated Christmas. My father in law and his wife made an amazing Christmas dinner and then we all opened presents! I think everyone got GREAT presents and we were all very happy! Most of all we were just thankful that we were all able to be together.

We left late Monday, but not before spending some last minute time with the girls. We also ate lunch with them Monday at school and their brother Patrick embarrassed the heck out of them! He dressed up in leather pants,spiked his hair and pretended like he was in a band. The girls were mortified and I had to coax them out of a bathroom stall to eat lunch with us! They forgot about it by the time they came home from school though! When they got home we played an impromptu street football game and we all had a blast!


They took us to the airport and ate dinner with us there before we left. Then the tears came. We hadn't seen the girls in almost six months and they hadn't seen their other brother in longer than that. They were soo sad when we left. We were all crying in the security line!

I love those little girls soo much and cannot wait until we get to see them again! We are already talking about the next time we will be able to fly out and see them! We had such a great visit!

Vacation

We got home late last night from our vacation to Dallas Texas! We went to visit my adorable sister in laws and to see a Dallas Cowboys game. We had an absolutely amazing time and I have a ton of pictures and stories I would like to share. For now... stay tuned there are blogs to come! :)

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today I got married to the love of my life. We met 8 years ago in high school and went on our first date 7 years ago today. I am the luckiest girl in the world. :)

Godparents

Last week Ryan and I got asked to be Godparents for my beautiful baby cousin, Isabella Grace. It was VERY unexpected and we were soo very touched that they even thought of us.

This isn't the first time that I am a god momma, I am Ava Grace's Godmother. My other Aunt and Uncle asked me to be her Godmother when I was in college. It was a great experience, but unfortunately I do not get to see little Ava very often. She was however the little flower girl in my wedding. :) But I do wish I could spend more time with her.

Little Isabella is very special to me. She was born almost exactly 9 months from when my beloved grandma passed away. She, in away was healing for a lot of our family. For whatever reason she is like a little piece of my grandma. Not to mention she is totally adorable and has a great personality already.

I still can't believe they asked US to be her godparents... it is such an honor.

Traditionally, Godparents were given to children in case something happened to their parents. However, nowadays it is a little different. A godparent is supposed to lead by example, being a good Catholic and being there for the child both physically and spiritually. In my opinion a godparent is chosen as a person strong in faith to guide the child through life. I am soo thankful for that... mostly because I feel like my grandma is the one who taught me faith and now I get to pass that on to my grandma's little blessing to us, Isabella.

We can't wait to officially become her Godparents!

Our House

Last Thanksgiving we were trying to gravel our front yard. Our whole goal was to get it finished by Thanksgiving... but we were a little short on our goal. We finished shoveling gravel a couple days before our wedding!
Here were a couple of blogs I wrote last year and earlier this year on our front yard:
http://jaclynwaggoner.blogspot.com/2008/11/yard-work.html
http://jaclynwaggoner.blogspot.com/2009/05/front-yard-finished.html


This year we had our house painted by Thanksgiving!

The whole painting process was actually kind of chaotic. I picked out this beautiful color of paint it was a beige/greenish tint (it sounds ugly but it was very light and pretty). The painter started painting and I went out to peek at it and the paint was the wrong color!!! It was a yellowish color and totally ugly. I was at the paint store 6 times that day.... the lady who owns the paint store totally messed up our paint and tried to add other colors to make it close to the color that I wanted. She ended up making it close... but not. It is a little yellower than I had hoped, but that day I was soo frustrated I just said screw it and let the painter go to town. A couple weeks later (it took awhile because it was soo cold here and the painter was afraid of Bailey) we have a fully painted house.

So I thought I would share some before and after pictures. I found a picture of our house before we even bought it and I also took a picture of it today. :)

BEFORE:




AFTER:

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I am soo blessed and I have soo many things to be thankful for....

First and foremost I am thankful for my fabulous husband and the great first year of marriage we have had.

I am thankful I have such a loving and caring family and set of friends.

I am thankful I have a job that I actually love!

I am thankful for my beautiful house and my totally adorable animals.

I am thankful for my in laws, especially my sister in laws and brother in law, who make me feel like I am no longer an only child!

And I am thankful I am happy and healthy.

Please take a moment this Thanksgiving to realize all you have and all you should be thankful for. I love you all and hope you have a great holiday!

ANTM FINALE!!

So tonight was the season finale of ANTM! I was very excited to see who would win... BUT I actually didn't care, because I loved both of the girls! Nicole is very very pretty and takes AMAZING pictures. Laura has an adorable personality, a killer walk and also takes amazing photos. BUT only one girl can win.


I knew Nicole had the edge coming in... because she has consistently taken great pictures. However, during the runway I thought Laura rocked it and Nicole did horrible! But the judges looked at the girls overall... and they thought Nicole would be a more versatile model and Laura would do well, but they said they could see her doing well in America, not everywhere.

So who is ANTM?




I must say I was VERY happy for Nicole, but I felt HORRIBLE for Laura. However, I see a bright future ahead of her. She made it to the top 2 on ANTM and I am betting she will not walk away without a contract of some sort!

An a side note, I found it interesting that there were only 3 judges at panel. They could have brought in all sorts of people, Mr.J, that 17 magazine chick, the photog for their shoot... but no... just 3. Maybe it was easier to vote with just 3.

ALSO, Does anyone remember ANTM winner Eva from Cycle 3? She was 5'6. Soo... Nicole is not the shortest ANTM winner. So much for the special short model season...

My favorite line of the show was definately Nicole's, "I am a Dork and I am America's Next Top Model!" :)

Benefit Race

Like I mentioned in my previous blog, the Grants/Milan Racetrack, the Uranium Capital Speedway, (http://www.uraniumcapitalspeedway.com/) is going to have benefit race for The Chavez family. The race will be THIS Saturday, November 21 at 2:00 p.m.


If interested, here is how to get there:

Exit I-40 at exit 79.
Turn North at the Petro truck stop.
Proceed North for 0.2 miles.
Turn left onto old highway 66 (main street through Milan).
Proceed West for 0.2 miles.
Turn Right (North again)on highway 605. The sign will show arrows for Farmington, Chaco Canyon and Cuba.
Proceed North on 605 for 1.7 miles.
Turn right off of 605 at the old Golden Horseshoe club, at the yellow posts. Follow this road to the Race Track.

A Friend in Need

One of my best friend's husband was recently brutally assaulted. My friend Dawn's husband, Santiago was in Las Cruces with some of their good friends for a race. After the race a fight broke out and he jumped in, attempting to help another victim. He ended up getting very hurt, he was knocked to the ground and continually punched and kicked in the head and face. The police were called and they arrested the guy that assaulted him... but there was already a ton of damage done. Santiago needs surgery, a surgery that I imagine is pretty pricey because there are only 2 surgeons that do this surgery in the state of NM. Santiago has a broken nose, a broken septum, a bad concussion, cuts and bruises, and a broken orbital bone that one of his tendons is stuck in.


His family and friends have started a blog with updates on his condition : http://shaggschavez.blogspot.com/

I must say this all just kind of breaks my heart. This family is always soo giving and caring, just really great people. They would do just about anything for their friends and I am lucky enough to have experienced that first hand. I am positive that is why Santiago got assaulted in the first place, because he was trying to help somebody else out. He did not deserve this and his family does not deserve to be going through this.. but they are.

Santiago is a stay at home daddy, with 2 adorable sons, Diego 3 and Niko 5 months. Because of his injuries, he has been unable to take care of his kids and his wife has to stay home. Dawn has been taking a lot of time off of work, unpaid time, to take care of her family.

Fortunately, their good karma has been coming back to them since the assault. A lot of people have been stepping up to help out. Some of their friends have started a donation fund account to help them with their medical expenses. The account is under the name, Santiago Chavez Donation Fund, account number #6376961857 and you can make a donation at any Wells Fargo.

Other people from the racing community are also stepping up. The race track here, in Grants (of all places)has decided they want to put on a race where all the proceeds will go to their family. They are meeting about this event tonight and we should know more information then... so I will update on this later.

ANTM

Wow... I cannot believe there are now 2 girls left and only one more ANTM episode of the season!

Tonight's episode started off with a hula and hip hop dancing challenge... that was kind of entertaining! Erin apparently is a former cheerleader and assumed she would do amazing... but had an awkward solo. Jennifer did pretty good and Laura knows how to shake it... Nicole was soo horrible it was funny! She was soo uncoordinated and robotic... it was like a train wreck, but you just had to stare! Laura ended up winning the challenge AND a trip back to Maui with another girl and she picked Jennifer! I was very glad she won!

The photo shoot was on the beach with waves crashing nearby. Nicole of course rocked it and did amazing. All the other girls seemed to do so so. After the shoot I was thinking that Erin and Nicole would be the top two because Laura and Jennifer's photo shoot just didn't seem to go very well. BUT, at the panel... they picked really bizarre pictures of the girls. Ones that I did not think were well represented of their shoots... but almost made them all close and even. Nicole rocked her shoot, but they picked only a decent picture of her. Laura did not have a good shoot, but they Loved her picture. Weird.

In the end, as I suspected Nicole was called first as one of the top two contenders for America's Next Top Model. I was hoping it would be Laura that was called as the other name. I have liked her since the very beginning... I think she is just adorable and I got a little teary eyed when her name was called! :D

Soo glad Nicole and Laura are the top 2!!!! Yay! I love them both! I do think Nicole is a stronger model than Laura, but Laura has a very adorable personality. It is any girls game now. How they each do from here on out will determine who wins. I am however, concerned for Laura because I know they have another Cover Girl shoot and you know how her last commercial went... May the best girl win! (But I know that whoever doesn't will probably get a good contract anyway. ha!)

Cute pictures

Today we decided to take a little drive up the mountain behind our house. I wanted to go hiking with Bailey, so after church we loaded her up in the Jeep and headed up the mountain. It has been 2 weeks since we had a snow storm and it has been REALLY warm so I didn't think we would find any snow up in the mountain.. but we did! We drove a ways and then hiked awhile until we found a good chunk of snow. Bailey was very excited about this. I forgot my camera, but had my phone and wanted to take some pictures. (Bailey however did not want to have anything to do with the pictures because she wanted to play! lol) Surprisingly, they came out kind of cute... even on my camera phone. Enjoy!

Last Week's ANTM

Last week's ANTM was interesting... in my opinion! (But not as interesting as the previews for this week's show!!!)

There wasn't a lot of down time on the show this week, it started off immediately into a photo challenge... a challenge of jumping off a cliff into the ocean and taking a picture mid air. Everyone jumped facing the camera... looking ackward, except Nicole. She decided to jump and do kind of a profile jump to the camera and her risk paid off, she won the challenge and extra frames in the upcoming photoshoot. Everyone got extra frames except for Erin.

The photoshoot was an underwater photoshoot. The girls were in the ocean and were supposed to go down deep to get a great picture. Quite a few girls had a hard time with this. Laura panicked because (they don't have oceans where she is from lol) she has a fear of drowning or something. BUT, she was able to pull it together for a decent picture. Sundai who also freaked out because of all sorts of different reasons stayed very close to the top and hurt her chances for a good picture. Erin didn't really freak out, but she stayed too close to the top of the ocean, hurting her chances for a great picture. Nicole, as usual excelled and Jennifer did decent.

Elimination was Nicole, Jennifer and Laura rounding out the top three. Sundai and Erin were in the bottom two. And cute little Sundai finally went home. She had a really adorable personality... but just didn't model that great. I think Erin has a lot of potential, but she freaks herself out. She is also bratty and will probably be going home this week.

The catch this week is that not one, but TWO girls are going home! And I have no idea which two it will be! I am thinking it will for sure be Erin. She has been in the bottom 2 for the past 2 or 3 weeks and her head just isn't in it, like she was in the beginning. I think Laura maybe the other option... but I just adore her and don't want to see her leave. Who knows... maybe Jennifer will have a weak shoot and Laura will stay... or maybe Erin will finally shine and Laura and Jennifer will go. I do believe Nicole will for sure be top two. We will just have to stay tuned to find out!

The New York Yankees are World Champions! (I know, I am a couple days late! lol)

It is no secret that I am a huge New York Yankee fan. I am and have been a huge fan my ENTIRE life. My mom and her whole family are from NY and have always been Yankee fans. It is just something that I was born into. I have countless memories watching baseball games with my grandparents, cheering on our favorite baseball team. My godfather (and uncle) is also a huge Yankee fan and it has always been something that we can all just talk about. Whether it be, who is playing good, who is playing bad or who might they trade... we rarely talk about Steinbrenner and the money involved with the Yankees. It is more of the team that we care about, a team that is like a family dynamic, a dynamic that we have felt bonded to for decades. My Uncle has a framed picture in his office… He was on the front page of his local NY paper for catching a fly ball at Yankee Stadium when he was a kid and getting it autographed... Being a Fan is just in my blood.

Now I know there are A LOT of Yankee haters out there. I mean A LOT. And actually, I understand it. They have the highest payroll in the major leagues… by A LOT. Everyone says that they buy champions. Well, to some extent… they buy the players. But, you can’t BUY a champion. From 2000 on the Yankee’s payroll spiked, yet… they weren’t winning. To me that is proof that you can’t buy a championship. This year their payroll is actually down from last year and this is the first time they have won the World Series in 9 years. Yes, they have a lot of money, yes they have the highest payroll… but no you cannot buy championships. I know… I am biased because I LOVE the Yankees. I do understand though, all the other teams who don't have money feel like there is no hope. The 9 years without a world champion from the team with the highest payroll in the Major League should be hope enough... in my opinion, that money doesn't mean a thing.

I was going to comment on the crap that people talk to me, but I just don't care that much. :) The most important thing is... to all the people that enjoyed telling me that the Yankees weren't going to win the World Series... They did. (And it was Amazing! :) )

ANTM (last wednesday)

Last Wednesday my CW channel that shows ANTM wasn't working. It just said the channel was unavailable... during the entire ANTM episode! Grrr.... Fortunately... I searched for it on my Direct TV guide and found it replaying Friday night. :) My parents were visiting this weekend so I just got the opportunity to watch it... and boy am I glad I didn't miss it!

This week Tyra sent the girls overseas... well kind of.. to Hawaii!! They are on Maui and have this insanely beautiful Hawaiian mansion. Their first day there they had surfing lessons and then a photo shoot challenge, while surfing! I was pretty surprised of their surfing abilities... I mean I guess I thought a lot of them would be very uncoordinated, but they were all able to stand up on the surf board and look pretty good while doing it! Erin ended up winning the surfing challenge and she definitely deserved it. She didn't even look like she was surfing, she just looked very posed on the surf board and modeled the whole time!

Then they had a photo shoot at a sugarcane factory and Tyra was their photographer. This was actually a controversial photo shoot... they had to be two mixed ethnicity's... portraying all the different ethnicity's that came to work at the sugarcane factory and then had babies. Yeah... it is a pretty lame idea, but the pictures came out really neat.

Most of the girls had to have darker skin tones so it was very interesting to see the girls transform into, almost a completely different person. If you missed the show... I would recommend taking a peak at their pictures :


http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/album.php?aid=120785&id=8816160747&ref=mf


Quite a few of the girls really struggled, Jennifer, Laura, Erin and Britney all had a hard time. However, after some coaxing from Tyra some of them snapped out of it.

Nicole ended up having the best photograph... by far. Jennifer, Laura and Sundai all were called next, leaving Erin and Britney in the bottom two.

Britney was very stiff this shoot, because she wanted to be very poised. Erin was also stiff and kind of freaked out because she was intimidated by Tyra... BUT Erin has consistently had better pictures, so Britney went home... with a warning to Erin to not beat herself up so much.

I am glad that Britney went home... I was not a fan.

Next week is a bikini photo shoot on a cliff off of the ocean. They made it seem like a deadly cliff in the previews.. but I don't think anyone will die.

Soccer

Saturday was our very last game for the AYSO soccer season. I had a really good time coaching this year. At first I was nervous... I work Saturdays and couldn't make all of their games AND it was a U-14 soccer team (13 and 14 year olds..scary). But MOST of the kids were really good kids and that made the season really fun. Unfortunately, we were the last team in our division and got dealt a handful of players that didn't have a lot of experience. Fortunately, it was a fun coaching experience and quite the challenge.

I must say I am very proud of our players, they have come a very long way from the beginning of the season and it is soo nice to have seen all of their progress. We started off the season loosing every single game... by A LOT! The past 3 weeks my kiddos have really started playing like a team and the games started getting closer and closer. We ended the season tying the best team in the league (4-4) and then beating the second best team in the league (5-2)!!! If that isn't progress... I don't know what is! lol

Congrats to my soccer team on working hard all season to end it successfully! (pictures to follow)

Did Anyone Get to see ANTM last night?

The Channel that ANTM is on was unavailable during ANTM last. Did Anyone get to see it? Does anyone know if it airs again on another channel at a later time? Please let me know! :)

ANTM this week

Sooooo... ANTM was tonight and I really liked it.



I loved the interviews and the commercials. Jennifer did an amazing job at both, she really has a cute personality. I think she is going to be top 3 AND I think Nicole, who has consistently done a really good job is going to be top 3 as well. I did not initially like Nicole. She was weird and awkward and to herself. However, this episode showed her definitely coming out of her shell and she is really cute. She is definitely one I will be rooting for.

I KNEW Laura was going to struggle because of her accent... BUT I had no idea she was dyslexic and would struggle with that as well. How she had a better commercial that Erin... lol I have no idea! lol

I also knew that Rae or Sundai would go home. I don't think Sundai did very well... tonight or ever really, but she has a very cute personality... so she stayed. Rae, who has been one of my favorites went home, mostly because she just wasn't showing her personality. She rarely talked about her daughter and she said as she was packing that she forced herself not to think of her daughter while she was there so she wouldn't get upset about not being with her. Honestly I think that may have been a mistake. She didn't show her personality and maybe by pushing thoughts of her daughter away she also pushed some of her personality away. I really thought she could have gone soo much further... but she just didn't shine through.

Brittany should go home next... in fact I was shocked that they called her name so close to the top. This is the second or third week she has been called robotic. Robots are not models, buh bye. Either her or Sundai will be sent packing next week. Until then...

My Old Friend

I would like to take this blogging opportunity to give kudos to one of my old friends from my hometown, Renee Gallegos. Renee and I were best friends in first grade (until she pushed me out of a tree in my backyard... j/k Renee! ;)) and became good friends again in middle school. I have soo many memories with Renee. From running around our houses as little brats to gossiping, dating, PE class and basketball. I never was any good at basketball, but I wanted to play so I could hang out with Renee... who happened to be one of the biggest basketball stars to come out of Socorro!

Renee has always been quite the athlete and has continued that post high school. She is a certified personal fitness trainer AND she is a fitness competitor.

Anyway, she just launched a website and I thought I would try and give it a couple more hits! Here is to good friends and a successful future!

Check it out at:


http://www.reneegallegosfitness.com/Home_Page.php

ANTM

Man, I just hadn't felt feel like blogging lately. Sorry for the lack... I will try to step it up!
ANTM has been really good lately. I really liked last night's episode. Fierce little ninjas... or whatever Tyra called it! lol. I was pretty shocked that Tyra did not bring up that fact that Rae and Sundai were late to their go-sees. She didn't say a word... that is odd. But neither Rae nor Sundai did very good in their photo shoot and I don't think they will be around much longer. I really like Rae, but she just doesn't seem to be pushing through in her photos like she should. Sandai is cute... but I just don't think she can make it to the top 3.

I can't believe the season is already winding down. I love Laura to death. She is soo freaking cute. Love her accent and she always does a really good job at modeling. I think she and Nicole will definitely be top three.. or for sure top 5. But Laura's issue will probably be her accent. They won't want the cover girl to have a twangy accent and they will hound her for that. Jennifer will also be around awhile as well.

I think Erin is good, but in the previews for next week's episode she totally freaks out at the cover girl commercial... so she may be going home soon. I and I think Brittany is just plain weird. lol.

So this is plain and boring... but it is all I have. :)

Sneak Peek of my October Article

Today I finished my October Outdoors Article. I was really proud of this one, mostly because it was more... more ME. I felt like I put a lot of my personality into the article and I hope it is really relate able. The last one I wrote was more about my coworkers and what they had going on, but THIS one was about my caving experience. :) So without further adieu, here is what I submitted to the newspaper today :


Last week at the Northwest New Mexico Visitor’s Center we got a phone call asking for a sweep on a caving tour that the National Park Service was giving. My first thoughts were something like, “Oh, wow that would be such a great opportunity!” And then a more girly thought ran through my head and that one was more like, “Eeek, A Cave! Scary!”

I definitely had to think about it before I made a decision, but I decided that life is just too short and I knew it would be a good experience, so I went for it. As the days got closer I grew more and more excited for my caving adventure.


The hike was to the Braided Cave, a cave that had been closed from May until September because of the Townsend’s long eared bat population that lives in the cave during the summer months. The cave is open to the public from October through April.


I packed my bag the night before the hike. Helmet, check. Headlamp, check. Gloves and enough lunch to feed the entire group, check. I packed quite a bit of food, you never know what can happen in those caves, I thought, enough food so that it could be rationed for at least a week.


It was a crisp October morning and we headed to the National Park Service’s Information Center to meet up with our hike leader and the other hikers. We had a small group of hikers, only about 5 or 6 and we carpooled on a rugged dirt road out to the cave. We hiked out, following an old dirt road until we saw the first cairns and from there it was a short 1/2 mile hike out to the cave entrance. A gaping, lava filled opening awaited us and our journey began.

Our park ranger Lee Ferrill took us through a couple of collapses and then finally into the deeper, darker parts of the cave. What a magnificent sight. The array of colors, from black to orange, then to white and brown the minerals paint a beautiful picture on the inside of the lava tube. It is a different, yet marvelous underground world.


Perhaps one of the most exciting things we saw was the rare blind cricket, an amazing species that has adapted to living in a life of darkness. That adaptation that life itself makes in the lava tubes is quite amazing. Life, of all sorts has adapted to its harsh climate and unique atmosphere, and yet miraculously still exists. With calcium deposits and cave coral covering the roof ahead, water run offs coming down the walls, a small moss garden and baby ferns growing inside of a tube collapses, life has definitely
adapted there.

The most beautiful sight of the day was a small sky light in the right cave. As we walked into the cave Ranger Lee pointed out a light up ahead. It looked like a placed light, like the ones you would see at Carlsbad Caverns that they place at the bottom to showcase something. As we got closer to the light, we saw where the brightly lit area was coming from, a small sky light in the roof of the cave, making a lot of bright light. Maybe it was just the perfect time of the day for us to walk through, or maybe the sky light always makes such a pretty scene, but we all really enjoyed the view. It was a great way to end our underground journey.

Even if I ended up with a bad case of hard hat hair, it was definitely a wonderful opportunity and one that I am very glad that I did not pass up. Ranger Lee was superb and had quite the sense of humor! There is a possibility for more ranger guided programs later on this fall; for more information contact the NPS Information Center at 505-783-4774 or the BLM Ranger Station at 505-280-2918


Ranger Lee Ferrill guides hikers through a colorful and exotic realm of Braided Cave in El Malpais National Monument.

Hooray!!

That is all I can say about ANTM tonight, Hooray! Bianca is FINALLY gone! She should have gone home 3 or 4 weeks ago! The only reason Tyra finally smartened up is because there is a new drama in the house and Bianca wasn't stepping up her drama game. Erin is now the new drama... she was being a real bitch tonight, pushing and shoving girls all around in the challenge. She REALLY wants to win and doesn't care who she throws under the bus to get there.... and that is good TV... Bye Bye Bianca. :)

I really liked tonight's episode, it was classic ANTM, as Tyra was the photographer. I was not a fan of the challenge they had... it was stupid. Who could run fast enough and push other girls to be the top 3 to make it to the end... stupid. They have done this in the past, but I think in the previous years it was done better. It just seemed kind of trashy, girls running through walmart pushing and shoving each other. lol.

Like I mentioned Tyra was the photog tonight. I kind of like it when she is the photographer because she gets to REALLY see how the girls are on set and how they are to work with. I am thinking the top 5 or 6 girls she called tonight will be THE top 5 or 6. I HOPE that dancer Ashley will step up her game... but I am thinking she just doesn't know how to model. She MAY be going home next or Kara with the man face.

Cute Picture

Monday was the BLM's annual employee appreciation picnic. I was excited to go and hang out with all of my BLM buddies from all the other offices that I've worked in. I got to see my friend Dawn and her new baby, Niko. I hadn't seen him in at least a month and he is just the cutest thing ever! Today Dawn sent a picture that they had taken of us from the picnic and it is just too cute not to share. :) I NEVER take pictures with my glasses on either... but this one isn't bad. lol

X

Richard X Garcia passed away last night after a very brief battle with cancer. He was a great man and a fabulous coworker. We were all lucky to have known him and are better people because of him. We will all strive to live our lives as happy and exuberantly as he did.


Today we got together for an impromptu memorial with all three of the federal agencies here. We all knew Richard, but we didn't all know each other. It was a nice gathering because Richard brought us all together and we all shared stories with each other of our favorite memories or moments with X. It was funny because a lot of the memories were very similar, with Richard walking into a room yelling either some one's name (Its' JACK-IE WAGG-O-NER!!)or yelling about it being another day in paradise.

I would like to share some of my favorite X moments with you guys:

We have a fabulous visitor's center (multi agency center). Everyone ALWAYS asks us how long the building has been there and when we say 10 years they freak out because it looks brand new. One of Richard's responses went like this: Well, things in the Southwest age a lot slower than the rest of the country. (The gullible people would usually respond, Oh really?) And then he would say, Yeah I am actually 120 years old! :) The first time he said that I about died laughing.

A couple weeks ago they were having a manager's meeting at the visitors center. He rushed out and got a bunch of forest service water bottles and propaganda to hand out to all the managers. Afterwards I told him he had something brown on his nose. Well, he didn't get it at first and was rubbing his nose like crazy trying to get the brown stuff off... Lol. Then he finally realized that I was just giving him hell for being a brown noser. But don't worry he got me back good, later that day he sent me into a room where a heated conversation was going on. I got trapped inside and couldn't escape and he was looking in the doorway cracking up laughin.... Karma.


Everyone will definitely miss his rambunctious attitude, his spunk and the light heartedness that he brought into any room. We know his spirit will still be in our building and the good times he gave us will help lift our moods.

RIP Richard, our office will never be the same without you.

ANTM

I wasn't really into ANTM this week. I don't know what it was... maybe I just had a lot of things on my mind. Anyway I thought the show was just kind of boring. I was, however, pretty happy that Lulu went home. She was very annoying and thought way to highly of herself. Her walk sucked, her face sucked, her attitude sucked and so did her pictures! lol.... Good ridden.

I really like the dancer girl (Ashley I think, but I'm too lazy to look it up). I think she just has a ton of potential, especially with her dancing background. I just hope she steps it up. This past episode it looked like she had a really good photo shoot, but the picture that they picked didn't really portray that.

Like I expected stupid Bianca did a tad better and they are praising her right and left. So she will stay for another couple of weeks for the drama and she will get the boot.

I really hope Rae steps up her game next week, because I think she COULD make it really far if she steps up.

I still am really bugged about the girls all wearing flats at elimination. I think that is soo stupid. grrr.... We know they are short, Tyra tells us every second. Let them be normal and wear heels like every other model!

The end... :)

RIP Guiding Light

I always thought soap operas were the stupidest things... but then I realized, I was addicted. I was ONLY addicted to one soap opera, Guiding Light.



Guiding Light was the longest running soap opera. My great grandmother used to listen to it on the radio, my grandmother watched it in black and white, my mom watched it in color and I watched it on my 48 inch HD flat screen. Ha!

Because everyone from my great grandma watched this show, I knew EVERYTHING about each character on the show. All the knowledge was passed down. They were like our second family. During the school year when my mom and I wouldn't be able to watch the show (before DVR), we would call my grandma up and ask her what was happening to our favorite characters. It was amazing how fast you could catch up, after missing 6 months, just by knowing all the characters and piecing everything together.

Over the past year, I started recording each episode on my DVR. When I heard they were cancelling it... I was devastated. (I've saved the last 10 episodes for my mom to watch, when she comes and visits next) I know, it sounds soo silly. But to me it was like an end of an era. It was something that all the women in my family had in common and now that stops with me.

RIP Guiding Light. Your stupid stories and great characters will live with my family forever.

Tough Day

Wow, today was a sucky day. I found out some horrible news about one of my coworkers... he is dying of cancer.

A couple weeks ago, Richard X (The X-man) Garcia felt under the weather. He went to the Dr. and they told him he had a kidney infection. He came to work anyway and I was working. I freaked out because I've had a kidney infection before (they stink) so I told him to get some cranberry juice and I nagged him all day to drink it. The next day he felt better.

Later that next week he felt worse. He goes back to the Dr. and they told him it wasn't a kidney infection, but a stomach infection. This nasty stomach infection that they told him he could have prevented if he ate more broccoli. We all freaked out and bought broccoli on our next trip to the grocery store... but Richard never got or looked any better. Last Wednesday he came in and he looked horrid. He was a gray color and his eyes were yellow. He was only at work for about an hour when his sisters came in and asked if they could take him back to the Dr. The next day he called and said he would be out for awhile because the medicine they gave him was kicking his butt. They wanted him to go to a specialist in ABQ and he had an appointment for Tuesday. They were going to take tissue samples... and everyone knew that was bad. For some reason, I was just in denial. How bad could it be... I remember thinking. He will be back to work before we know it.

Today, right as we were opening up the visitor's center, one of the X-man's sisters called. She asked to talk to my colleague and I knew right away that something was wrong. Richard was in the hospital in ABQ. He has cancer. It started off in his Colon and has already spread to his liver and other parts of his body. There is nothing the doctors can do, please let his bosses know, he will not be coming back to work. My colleague, a clan brother to Richard, the X-man, broke down in tears.

He immediately hung up and called Lovelace hospital where he heard Richard was. He talked to Richard, until he broke down and then he handed me the phone.

He started off strong, "Richard" I said with an uplifting voice. "JA QUE!" He said with his normal enthusiastic way. But after a couple of short answers I could tell he was fading. I told him to go rest and that we all loved him and he said thank you and we hung up.

I am soo sad. How can someone be ok, lively and happy one day and then a week or two later, be on his death bed with cancer.

Our Visitor's Center has 5 staff members and we actually all get along really well and are all pretty close. Richard was the rambunctious one, the one who yelled your name when you walked into work in the morning and would always be the life of the party... or office. There was never a dull moment with Richard and I just Loved working with him. Oh and in case you were wondering where the X or X-man came from... he didn't have a middle name and there were already too many Richard Garcia's in the Government's email system. So they gave him a middle initial, an X. He has gone by X or the X-man ever since.

If you get a minute say a littler prayer or keep him in your thoughts. :(

ANTM

Man.... I JUST finished watching ANTM and I am COMPLETELY disappointed! Usually Tyra and I are on the same page with who should go home... but NOT tonight.

Last week mean, nasty Bianca was in the bottom two because she has a bad attitude... she didn't like her makeover and she was unhappy with how they did her makeup for her photo shoot. They told her that she better be happy next time because she is a model and needs to learn how to deal with what she is given.

Fast forward to this week, Bianca is in the bottom two again for what you ask?? For giving attitude and not liking her hair and makeup in her photo shoot. AND TYRA KEEPS HER! UGH.... To top it off, one of my FAVORITES, Courney was also in the bottom two and she went home. I think Bianca's pictures looked like a hot tranny mess compared to Courtney's. Boo... :(

I think Tyra just wanted to keep Bianca around for her drama. All the girls hate her and you KNOW there will be a ton of drama. Also, I don't know if anyone caught this, but for the preview for next week, they are walking in a fashion show.. and it looked like a lot of walking. That could be another reason why they sent Courtney packing, since she has a broken foot. You know that Bianca will probably prove herself and take a good picture next week and will probably stick around for another couple weeks. But she will not be in the top 3 because she looks like a man. :)

Anyway... this isn't really a good review because I wrote it mad! lol

On a side note from my rant... does anyone else notice that the girls are always wearing flats! I don't think they would ALL choose to wear flats, I think Tyra makes them so they look shorter.

Speaking of ANTM

If my predictions are correct, here is America's Next Top Model!!
Isabella Grace Conticelli! lol



PS. She must be related to me, she is already accessorizing! ;)

ANTM Is BACK!!!

Well, it is that time of year again... America's Next Top Model!!!! :) (please keep the groans to a minimum. lol)


Tonight was the season premiere of Cycle 13 of America's Next Top Model! Whooo Hoo! As usual Tyra was kind of a nut job, but she did tone it down a little compared to last year's premiere, but as usual she brought along a couple coo coos with her! My absolute favorite was Amber the crazy girl turned Jesus freak, she was absolutely hilarious... unfortunately she left. I was still kind of in shock, she was selected as one of the top girls, but didn't show up the next day. What the heck! She would have been SOO entertaining to watch... oh well. The other Crazy one is Nicole, she is a crazy red head and is just plain weird. She takes a good picture, so I am betting she will be here for awhile, but man she is definitely different.
And as Ryan, my other critic says, Bianca is a Bitch and he is totally right.

So who are my favorites? Well, I absolutely love Rae. She is a beautiful, strong woman and a mother, hands down my favorite of the season. Next comes Laura and Courtney... they both have a long road ahead of them when it comes to modelling, but I like their personalities and I think they have a ton of potential. Laura is a country gal who lives on a farm. She is hilarious and takes a really good picture. Courtney has a freaking broken foot! She even put on high heels and limped with crutches to practice her runway... totally crazy. But she is a very cute girl and hopefully she will get her cast off soon. I also like Ashley, I liked her makeover and she took a really good picture, she is definitely going to be around awhile.

So who is going home next? I think... Kara, Brittany or Sundai

Something different that Tyra did this time around was, she did the girls makeovers during this premiere. One disappointment... she didn't chop any one's hair off. She usually chops at least one girl's hair off and it is fairly entertaining because the girl cries her head off, but not this season. Nobody really got anything too drastic, except for some different colors and some longer locks.

So that is it... The madness is BACK! And I am VERY excited for it!

I've got the fever....

Well.. it happens to the best of us and now it has gotten me. I have baby fever. Well, at least today I do.

I have spent my day, cleaning my entire house, doing laundry and cooking a big feast. It is 1:00... and I am almost done. I have also managed to watch several TV shows... including TLC's A Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby. I am pretty sure THAT is what got me.

I am excited for the day that Ryan and I have a baby. However, I know that we don't want that day to come anytime soon. BUT, I just can't help to think about how amazing that day will be. What an amazing thing to create a life. What an amazing thing to have a creation of our love and to raise a child together. I just can't wait for that time in our lives. I am also excited for our families. My mother is obsessed with her new baby niece. She keeps saying she can't wait for a grandchild... and I know my dad feels the same way. They will be amazing grand parents. I can't wait for my sister in laws to become Aunties. They are already excited about the fact that it is a possibility and I know they will be the best aunties ever.

I guess I am just excited about the future. I have no idea when we will be or when we will feel ready for children.... but until then I just can't help but think how amazing it will be.

Contributing Columnist

When I started back working with the BLM, they asked me if I liked to write newspaper articles... duh, this blogger loves to write. Well, it turns out that the federal agencies alternate writing newspaper articles in a monthly column, called Outdoors for the local newspaper here in Grants. I wrote the article for August about the free guided ranger hikes that the BLM offers to visitors here. :) I was soo excited because I just googled the newspaper's website and I found my article. Yay! If you are bored check it out!

http://cibolabeacon.com/articles/2009/08/24/features/doc4a930a77efb8e956538605.txt

Bridal Shots

Soo... my very good friend Abby Reed is a photographer (http://www.abbyreedphotography.blogspot.com/) and asked if she could take some bridal shots of me. I highly recommend all brides do bridal shots AFTER their wedding because you don't care as much about your wedding gown and getting it dirty and you aren't as stressed out, like you are the day of your wedding. I had soo much fun taking pictures with Abby and here are a few... she has some on her website too. :) Enjoy!

The Cutest thing EVER

Bella Grace



Gotta love those gummy smiles!

Soccer

Soccer Season is fast approaching and I didn't think I would coach this year. It isn't that I didn't want to, because I REALLY did. It is just that I knew I wouldn't be able to dedicate as much time to coaching because I work on Saturdays and most of the games are on Saturdays.

In fact as of Friday I was almost certain I wasn't going to coach. I was really disappointed about it, but was just trying to ignore the fact that the season was approaching. Until I got a phone call from one of the other coaches that I coached with last year asking me about this season.

He is coaching alone and really needs my help. SOO... I am going to coach... as much as I can, probably only practices and Friday night games... but I am really excited about it and can't wait to meet our teams! I REALLY love working with the kiddos and I am glad I get to do it for another season (season 3 for me!).

I will update more once the season starts and I am sure I will talk all about the kiddos on my team!

New Vehicle

We got a new vehicle this week! It was actually kinda random. Ryan had decided within the past couple weeks that we NEEDED a Jeep. So he has been on the hunt for one. The only catch was we couldn't afford one and didn't really NEED another vehicle... so he had to get rid of his truck. He found a guy on craigslist that wanted to trade vehicles! We met the guy, switched vehicles and now we own a 2001 Jeep Wrangler! Kinda crazy!!

It is a standard so I am still having a hard time driving it... but I did drive it to work yesterday afternoon (with Ryan following me in case I stalled out lol) But I made it without stalling once! :) It will take some practice... but it is a pretty cool little vehicle! :) We took it up the mountain yesterday evening and ate dinner up there and we will probably take it up the mountain again today. Enjoy the pictures!

Blogs!

Ok, I finally have ALL kinds of things to blog about! I shall be writing blogs the next 2 days! Whoo Hoo! Stay tuned!

Possible topics:

New Vehicle!

Soccer Season!

Newspapers!

Pictures!

umm.... that is about all I can think of right now... but 4 blogs are coming soon! Exciting Stuff!

Babyness!!!

Yesterday was filled with Babies!! In fact I am on baby overload.... well maybe.

Yesterday was my was my friend Helga's baby shower. She is the first of my really good high school friends to be pregnant and I have known her since we were 3 and in preschool together!! She is absolutely adorable pregnant, but then again, anyone that knows her could have probably guessed that because she is adorable all the time. I actually had a good time at the shower and saw a lot of old high school friends. Helga is due in October and is having a little boy, that she is naming Noah. :)

About an hour into the shower I looked around and realized that I was the ONLY one there (above 11) that was not pregnant or hadn't already had a kid! I think I got asked at least 10 times by 10 different people when I was going to have a baby...

THEN... I went and saw baby Bella Grace!! I haven't seen her since she was a week or so old. She has changed SOOO much! She is now making noises, smiling and laughing. Sooo cute! I got to change her, feed her a bottle and burp her.

My aunt put an outfit on Bella Grace that I had given to her before she was born... the best outfit EVER! ;) Here are some pictures! She looks soo chubby in them and you can't tell, but she was actually smiling and I just kept missing it with my camera phone! Enjoy!

Nothing New

Well there really isn't anything new or exciting going on with me! lol

Work is going really well. I have been working on a couple of FUN projects... FUN... believe that! lol. I am now the media person out here in Grants... so any contacts with the Media go through me first... sounds like PR, right? I LOVE working at the visitors center more than anything! I Love all the visitors and just love my job there more and more every day. This week I have been working on making a Prairie dog exhibit... which has been REALLY fun! I may put pictures up when it is all finished because I am really proud of it so far! I actually got my schedule changed so I get to work at the visitors center 3 days a week now. :)

Ummm....

I just terminated my contract with NMSU yesterday. I wasn't working on it and I hadn't gotten any feedback on the work that I had already done. :( I was pretty bummed about it, because it had the potential to be a really neat project... but it just wasn't working out. Fortunately, the lady wants to pay me for the little work I did do, so that is pretty awesome! :)

Uhhh...

I am going to one of my high school friend's baby showers this weekend. My friend Helga is pregnant with a baby boy and I am soo excited to see her and her baby bump... even though I am not the biggest fan of baby showers. :)

Oh yes and TODAY is my Momma's birthday! Happy Birthday Mommy! Since we are both working today and I am working on Saturday... we are going to meet in ABQ on Sunday and go to lunch, before Helga's baby shower.

So that is all that is new and exciting with me! Have a Great Weekend!

Camping!

We just got back from camping!!! There is NOTHING more relaxing!

We left Saturday afternoon and headed to the Zuni Mountains, near Grants. We met up with our friends Jeremy and Marcie, who know the area really well, but they only stayed one night and we stayed two.

Jeremy knows the mountains like the back of his hand and he showed us all kinds of neat things. He brought us to a natural spring and a waterfall! He showed us where there were Gooseberry bushes, wild strawberry, wild raspberries and oregano! Pretty neat stuff.

I was a little nervous because there are a lot of bears in the Zuni Mts... but thankfully we didn't see any. :) We saw several deer and lots of cows!

One funny story, not even 5 minutes at our campsite, Bailey found a VERY fresh cow pie and decided she would roll in it.... I caught her in the act, but it was too late... she was already brown and green. lol It was pretty funny. Needless to say, not 10 minutes into camping Bailey had a bath!

We had a really good time and a much needed break. Now back to reality. boo....

Baby Maddy is OK

She was born via emergency C-Section and weighed in at a surprising, 5 pounds and 9 ounces (for being 8 weeks early, not bad!). Her lungs are not developed so she will be in the NICU for at least 4 weeks and they said her infection is controllable. Yay!! Soo glad there was good news!

Baby Maddy

Please say a little prayer for baby Madelynn Rose Martin. She is not due to be born for 8 more weeks. Her mom went to the hospital today because she was having some pain and she thought her water may have broken. It turns out her water broke a couple days ago and she didn't realize it and she thought she was having braxton hicks contractions,when they were probably the real thing. Maddy was only 4 pounds at her last Dr's apt and now has a serious infection, from not being born soon enough after her mom's water broke. Maddy is my best friend, Melanie's niece. Their family has been through soo much heartache in the past and I just want baby Maddy to be ok. So please say a little prayer for her... I will update when I get some news.

Parentals

My parents came to visit this weekend. I haven't seen them in a couple weeks and with my new schedule it will make it hard to go down to Socorro on the weekends and visit. So while my mom is still on vacation for summer break (a teachers vacation), my parents came to visit me. :) They met me at work on Saturday and got to look around the visitor center where I work. Afterwards we headed out to eat to my favorite restaurant in Grants and then headed back to our house and watched a movie (Baby Momma).

Yesterday we ALL went to church... which was an amazing feat in itself because my Dad NEVER goes to church. After a relaxing afternoon and a delicious dinner, (Steak, homemade sweet potato fries, a salad and my mom's famous cheese cake) my mom wanted to see a pretty sunset so we took them and Bailey to the top of Mt. Taylor to watch the sunset. Mt Taylor is 11,000 feet and it was 64 degrees up there, quite a change from the 90 degree weather we have had in Grants! It was soo beautiful. We saw a beautiful young buck on the way up to the top and some sort of wild cat on the way back down. (I thought it was a bob cat, but my dad said its tail was too long... so now I am convinced it was a baby Mt Lion.)

Here are some pictures!

Week

Well it has been a whole week since I've blogged. I don't think that has ever happened before... or at least it is very rare.I just don't have anything interesting to blog about. I am in a blogging rut.

One thing is that there really isn't anything exciting going on.

My job has been going ok. I work with some really interesting people...to say the least. It is like a real life comic strip with one looney toon after another. Lol, but at least it keeps me on my toes. I am enjoying getting back to work with the public and our visitors at the visitor center I work at. I LOVE talking with people, hearing their stories and giving them information. As far as my schedule goes, I decided to go with the Sunday and Monday off schedule. This was my first week having to work Saturday... it wasn't horrible. :)

Today I went to lunch with 2 of my very best girls. I had a really great time. It wasn't anything exciting, just lunch, But it made me realize how important it is to have girlfriends. I think they are there to help you maintain your sanity some days and to keep you grounded. I love my girls! :)

My new neighbors are nice. They have a really cute and mean dog. It is the same dog, a really cute white lab mix, but she growls and barks very ferociously when Bailey and I are playing outside. Today I learned that the new neighbor lady and Bailey have a nice bond. I was playing ball with Bailey and their mean/cute dog was barking all crazy. The neighbor lady came to the fence to say hello and try to calm down her mean dog. Just as she did, Bailey ran as fast as she could to the fence and jumped up to get petted. The lady started talking to Bailey all cute and you could tell it wasn't the first time she had gotten attention from her... I guess that is pretty cool.

Umm... Ryan is gone for the week. He has some training in Wyoming. I dropped him off at the airport this morning and I miss him already :(.

And... that is all I got. See, NOTHING exciting. :)

Birthday

Well, I am Officially 24!

Yesterday was my 24th birthday, but like most of my birthdays, we celebrated for the entire weekend! (Thanks to the Independence Holiday!) We headed to Socorro on Friday and that was probably my favorite day of the entire weekend. Ryan's dad and sisters were in town!! It has only been a couple weeks since we've seen the girls, but it felt like forever. I don't know when we will be able to see them again, but we both really enjoyed spending time with them! We had BBQ with my parents and Ryan's family and had a delish cake, for me! :)

Saturday we got up and headed to Ryan's grandparents house again and had breakfast with everyone before Ryan's dad and sisters hit the road, heading back to Dallas.
The fourth of July in Socorro consists of the entire town getting together, gathering at New Mexico tech for a big ole party. Complete with music, food and a TON of fireworks. We went for awhile in the afternoon, but it was SOO hot that Ryan and I about died. Socorro is at least 10 degrees warmer than Grants... if not more. Whew I was dying. We went back in the evening and got to see the amazing fireworks. I ran into a bunch of people I knew, but the best was seeing Traci! (Hi Traci!) After the fireworks Ryan and I headed to the local bar to have a couple birthday drinks and then we met back up with Traci before heading home. It was a really great evening.

Sunday was an average day. We got up late, went to church, had lunch, relaxed and then drove back to Grants. When we got home we took Bailey on a walk around the block and then played with Eric Cartman. Just a nice chill day.

I wanted to thank all my friends and family for making my day... and weekend very special! :) I am a lucky girl.

Allergy testing.. Warning: Graphic Photos!

Yesterday I went to Albuquerque for my first allergy test. They also are an asthma place too, and not only am I allergic to the world, but my asthma was pretty bad yesterday, as well. The air in the little parts of my lungs was only at 33%, so they gave me some puffs of an inhaler and that bumped me up to 82%.... concluding that I need to take a regular inhaler.

Then came the fun part... the allergy testing. They made a grid on my back and tested me for 82 different things ranging from the things that grow in NM to animals and food. That part actually wasn't horrible, except that it REALLY itched and you couldn't move or scratch it at all. After that part was over came the yucky part. Anything that had a mixed reaction, where it wasn't really a hive, but they wanted to make sure you were allergic to it, they injected it deeper into the skin to see how you reacted. They did this process on my arms and I had about 25. One arm was MUCH worse than the other! Here are some pictures of both my back and my arm! (after they test you have to wait like 10-15 minutes to see the reaction... I was bored!)




It turns out I am allergy to EVERY tree they tested me for, except Oak. I am not allergic to any animals, except Cats. I am Really allergic to dust. I am allergic to all of the grass, weeds, and fungus/algae that they tested me for. And I am not allergic to any food accept I had a slight reaction to wheat! That being said I am sitting here eating a bowl of wheat free cereal (yucky) to try and see if helps me at all. Because I was soo allergic to soo many different things, my main route will probably be allergy shots. The only issue is our insurance is not that great when it comes to the shots, so we will see. Anyway, I thought I would share my allergy visit! :)

Weekend

Whew, what a Whirlwind!

This weekend we went to Colorado Springs for our friends, Travis and Ashlee's wedding. We both took Friday off of work and left that morning. We stopped in Albuquerque on the way to pick up my new glasses. 8) I have been sporting glasses instead of contacts for about year now, because of my extremely dry eyes (booo...). The last time I went to Albuquerque and met up with my parents, we stopped to look at the glasses at Sam's Club. They had these stylish frames that had magnet sunglasses that go with them and my parents decided to buy them for me for my birthday! :) After we picked them up... so I could wear them for the weekend, of course, he headed North.

Anyway, after making only a couple stops to eat and pee and all that fun stuff we got to Colorado Springs, which is only a little over 6 hours from us. After we checked into our hotel we called up the bride and groom and went out for some drinks with them, to celebrate the night before their wedding. I think they really needed that as a stress reliever, but doesn't every couple the night before their wedding?!

Saturday, before the wedding we headed to Castle Rock, a town about 30 minutes from Colorado Springs. Our main purpose of going there was an outlet mall! I have NEVER been to an outlet mall and I already can't wait to go back! I have been wanting a new handbag and it turns out this mall had a Coach outlet store...sigh... *heaven*. I felt pretty bad for Ryan, but they were having an AMAZING sale....2 handbags later and then a quick trip to the Banana Republic we headed back to Colorado Springs to get ready for the wedding.

Their wedding was the first one we have been to since our very own wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony in the mountains and we all missed getting poured on by about 5 minutes! The reception was a BLAST!! Free alcohol and good dance music... Ryan and I danced the night away. The photographer came up to us when we were leaving and told us we tore up the dance floor and that he took a ton of pictures of us, so that outta be interesting!

And finally we drove all day Sunday and got back at 6. Whew!! I actually have tomorrow off as well, but only because I am going to Albuquerque for a 2 hour allergy test. I am excited to see what I am allergic to, but I am a little nervous at the same time. I will probably blog about that when I get back manana. Anyway, that was MY weekend... a New purse, new clothes, a wedding and a fun trip with my husband... couldn't get any better!