Happy Bday to my nephew Rowen

The 8th of Sept, my nephew Rowen turned 1. Although he was not feeling the best, we had fun. We went with grandpa to North Platte for his treatment, then we went to the park and ran ran ran! We saw some elk, deer, geese and a peacock.
My sis in law ( Rowens momma) made some Mexican food for dinner, and Rowen ate all the black olives off first then dipped them in the sour cream before eating the rest of the dinner.
Then we sang Happy Bday to him, and let him blow out his candle on the cupcake. Then he began to smash.... it was not as big of a mess as I had thought it was going to be, he didnt like his hands all messy. So he got a quick bath.
It was a fun day with him.
Oh Rowen how you are loved.
** I still cant load post pic sorry, anybody else having this issue?

GO Huskers!

On Sept 11, 2010
I as well as my parents, sister, aunt, uncle and cousin went had our moment of silence remembering 9 years ago, at the HUSKER Stadium in Lincoln, NE. We were there for the football game watching NE pound South Dakota State.

This was my mom and my sister's first game~! My dad had been back in the 70's, and I a few times in college. But we were able to spend time together as a family and that is what was important. It was a perfect sunny day with a slight breeze.

***Not sure why I cant do pic anymore, I will have to ask my blogger friend why... cuz I know these posts are not as fun w/o pic!

Fair...the tough lesson

My 11 year old niece has been doing 4-H for quite a while, but not until last year did she begin to show animals. She at first did sheep and pig. Last year she received a purple ribbon on her pig Steve. Well, when it came down to saying "goodbye". She began to have a breakdown, so my lovely brother told her that the pig was going to live on a pig farm in Colorado with me. HUMMM.......luckily for me she has been so busy with other things she has never asked! Thank God, however.... that was Thanksgiving dinner... she still does not know.

So this year so showed her sheep, pig and added a steer. She did great with the sheep and the steer, and the pig too ( even tho that is not her favorite, she has a pig named mabyleine as she looks like she has eyeliner on hehe), she got ribbons of all colors with these animals. And is actually taking her sheep (champ) to state fair. But since this was her first year with the steer, my brother encouraged her to spend more time with the steer whom she names Bubbs, and get to know him. She was supposed to massage him, talk to him, brush him etc... as well as all the normal things you do to get your steer ready for show.

The day finally arrived where she was able to show off her hard work with all the animals, but she was especially excited about Bubbs. He eventually got her a purple ribbon! ( that is the best you can get), she was overly excited!
However, the truck game later that day to load all the cattle including hers to be taken to the "PLACE" I wont even say the word, as it breaks my heart to type it. And poor Jasmine lost it. She was laying on Bubbs, rubbing his face and crying as hard as I have ever seen her cry. She was honestly told this time around where he was going. I was trying to hold back the tears too, and tried to tell her that he is going to help some kids who need to eat, so they wont starve... and let me tell you that was the wrong thing to say! The crying got more intense as she told me, "I dont care!!" over and over again. Eventually she was pulled off Bubbs and we walked away. NOT looking back.

Lessons like this are tough to learn, and it was breaking my heart all over again for her. I think she is fine now, but we will see if she wants to show a steer next year or not!

**** I am having a hard time getting pictures to attach to the entrys, so I will work on a pic of Jasmine and Bubbs

Ice Cream Truck.....

My friend has a couple Ice Cream trucks, and last week, I was fortunate to be able to work in it on a Sunday afternoon. I honestly have never bought from an Ice Cream truck, so was not really sure what to expect..... oh goodness! They are busy! I was kinda like a kid in a candy store in being all excited and pointing to this and that, and not being able to make up their minds. When they finally did make up their minds... they would hand me a penny. Well, unfortunately you cant get anything on the truck for a penny. So, I gave in and bought them all am otter pop ( they were a dime a piece.) So, I realized that I could never make it in the ice cream truck world, I feel to sorry for the kiddos that don't have any money to buy it, and I would spend all my earnings buying for those kids.

It was a fun afternoon, and I was a sticky mess from the snow cones, but over all I would love to do it again sometime!

bittersweet again.....

So remember the kiddo named Ry I was telling you about a couple months ago? Tonight I had dinner with his mom and this is what she shared with me....


Someone gave me a scenario the other day that helps describe how we feel. What if your father beat you half to death one day and then the very next day, wanted to be father of the year? How would you, as a child, feel about a man that tortured you one minute and told you he loved you the next? That is how we feel about God these days. The Bible says to honor thy father and thy mother, it does not say honor them only if they don't beat you, they don't molest you, they don't treat you any better then they would an animal. I am sure if you were beat physically and verbally by your mother every day of your life, if you were molested by your father every single day of your childhood, you would not be so ready to forgive and let by-gones be by-gones. That is how we feel about God these days. No, we don't go out and curse him, we don't physically shake our fist towards the sky. We just don't chose to praise him daily and we don't go worship him at his home. And we think God is okay with that, after all, he knew how we would feel when we lost Ry, he knew how long it would take for us to come around, to forgive him.

I share that with you as it is pulling at my heart for this family.....

Benefits for living in a small town

So,
Living in a small town for sure has its benefits.

McCook: When I needed my new stickers ( from the DMV) for the jeep, I just call them up, give them my visa number and they mail me the new ones. Then we chat for a few minutes about the weather out here in CO and how life is going.

Colorado Springs: You plan to spend at least 2 hours at the DMV, you walk in to a room packed full and not enough chairs and the one chair that is empty is by a guy who reaks of smoke. You pick a ticket with a number and wait, wait, wait and wait some more for them to call your number.


McCook: ** before online banking was big** I would call up my bank, shoot the breeze about what is happening around town, then ask them to transfer $ from my savings account to my checking account.

Colorado Springs: I have avoided the banks here, and keep everything back home for that reason above....

McCook: Pulling up to the drive thru to get a coffee for my sis in law and a smoothie for me. The person behind the window: ( usually a HS friend) "Hi Heather, are you back for a visit?" Me, "yep." Window girl..." good to see ya again, do you need anything else today or the same?" Me, "the same would be great"

Colorado Springs: There is no window girl, you sit for 15 minutes in line for a speaker to ask what you want.

McCook: You plan an extra half hour in Wal-Mart b/c you know you will see someone and you'll find yourself chatting in the frozen food section.

Colorado Springs: You get in and you get out! You avoid the ghetto Wal-Mart at all cost!

hummmmm, do you see a pattern here about small town friendliness? :)

wow its been a while

When I logged on here tonight, I looked at the date of my last entry and it has been well over a month..... sorry. But so much has happened in the past month, I am not even sure where to begin.
How about with.......... my dad has cancer and it is not good the dr's are saying its terminal..... so hows that for an open entry?
To those of you who I have already talked to... thanks for your continued support. It will be a long road, but its just another thing that has been thrown at my family. It seems were used to things like that happening, we just cant catch a break. I will try to post here on how things are going, but in the mean time if you can remember us in your prayers that would be great. thanks

She will be missed.......................

So today upon opening my Yahoo email, I saw that Blanche from the Golden Girls has passed away at the age of 76. I have to admit that I can sit and watch re-runs all day of that show! No matter what type of mood I was in, I would find myself laughing at some point, and more than likely it was something that she had said.

It reports she passed from a stroke. She is a breast cancer survivor as well as a having a heart bypass.

She will be missed........

Update

We did win the volleyball game :) in 2 sets!
Then Tue night I switched over to softball.... a little rusty we all were... we lost. BUT I think we got the kinks out and we should be good for the rest of the season.

I have to say I was a bit unimpressed with Alis choice of men that ABC has chosen for her. Oh well we will see what happens, it looks like a lot of drama from the previews, but when is there not added drama on the show? I did watch a 20- 20 eposide a while back and the producer of the show was on there and said the purposefully cast villians...GOODNESS! I am guessing that Justin is the villian this season. My favorite grabs this far are: Roberto and Chris L. We will see!

Today is gonna be a great day!

I am super excited for today.......
I am meeting a good friend for lunch that I have not seen in a while.
Then watching the season kick off of












The debut of Ali Fedotowsky's season of "The Bachelorette" !


and then our championship volleyball game at 9!!!

Amazing Ryan

Below is a conversation I had with my amazing 10 year old buddy Ryan. He was diagnoised with a rare form of Cancer in 2007 and has fought hard this whole time, getting into remission 2x, but this last time..... it was throughout his body. His brain, his lungs, his spine and random other places. He was a brave soul, and I went up Tue night say goodbye to him, and this was our conversation! Trust me when I say that this was a conversation that is not typical for a 10 year old boy, but for Ry his faith was evident the whole time I knew him.

"I feel like," Ry said, "if this is a war, than we've already lost the war. But that's okay, cuz we've already won it two times. I'm not afraid anymore."

"Ok, Ry, but what's that mean?" I asked.

"Cancer. We've lost the war against cancer."

"Right. But what does that mean for you, Buddy?"

"Heaven."

"That's right, Buddy. And it's just like stepping through the door to go outside. You'll just step through the door when it is your time, and you'll be in Jesus' arms."

[My voice broke before I could complete that thought.]

and then we began to play the Wii, it took all his energy to drive the race car..... but he won :)

This morning, Ry made that step through the door..... He is now in Heaven. We are all sad here, but Heaven is rejoicing!
Rest in peace Buddy!

Baby showers, graduation parties and more

So in the past 9 days I have had 3 baby showers, a bridal shower and a graduation party. Phew it has been busy, if this is a preview of how my summer is going to go, aut oh, I am in trouble. I love going to these events tho and are so happy for my wonderful friends who are experiencing these life changing events in their lives.
I only had my camera for a few events, so hopefully the others that were there will be sending me copies of their photos - so for now:









Here is Julie and I. She is expecting little Callie Mae on June 1 ( scheduled c- section) She is so excited to have a glass of wine, that she has packed the bottles in her hospital bag :)




Here is Ali and I, she is expecting Elijah Michael sometime around the 17th of June. Her family and her husband are sports fanatics, so his shower was "TEAM ELIJAH" CONGRATS! I cant wait to snuggle them :)

sunny, windy, rainy, hailing a tornado and now snow! its April23!

So what is up with the weather out here, goodness. Yesterday was a great, it was sunny in the 70's and I was in capris and a t-shirt. Then out of no where the sky turned dark, the wind began to blow and we were in a tornado watch.... it was kinda funny to watch my co workers freak out and run for the stairwell while I stood at the window and was anxiously watching.... hehehe, oh the things you learn from growing up in Nebraska.
So after the tornado warnings were over the sky remained black and then it began to rain really hard and then hail! I was actually in the Wal-Mart gathering some things I needed for a class and it sounded like we were getting attacked! The hail on the metal roof was insainly loud!!!!!!! Then it just continued to rain the rest of the night. Today when I woke up- SNOW~! Its been snowing most of the morning and it is still snowing around lunch time. I would say we have about 4-5 inches. And here is the kicker!!!!!! ITS APRIL 23! but that is Colorado weather for you, and NE weather as well......
oh well!!!!!!!! good day to stay under the covers :)

Ever wonder why???

I have been doing a lot of driving for work lately and some interesting questions have come to mind.... I catch myself asking hummmm wonder why.

Like I wonder why the sky was created blue. What if it were created green and the grass blue. We would be ok with it, because that was how it was created many years ago.

or

I wonder why the I see a person in hospital attire ( a gown) pulling her oxygen tank and smoking a cigarette.

or

Why sometimes it seems that bad things always happen to good people.

or

Why do we yawn? is it really because we are tired or need more oxygen?

or

Why does it take us 9mo to have a baby and some animals weeks or even days?

do you ever just sit there and wonder on things?

get rid of the winter background!

I have had numerous people tell me to get rid of the winter background! So I figured I had missed St Patty day backgrounds, Easter backgrounds.... I had better not miss the pretty pastels of SPRING. So, today I changed it. I look outside and see the neighbor kids in shorts and flip flops, and I too am in flip flops... it should be a beautiful day here in Co Springs, I need to get outside today and do something as I am not on cal today!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rabmle #3

So I saw on a church sign the other day
" It's gonna be ok, Moses was once a basket case too, so don't worry"
hummm.......................................................

ASPEN- oh how I miss you already!

ASPEN 2010 was a great week! I will have to say this was the best group of kids. They all came with such different and unique situations and stories.
I will post pic, rather than writing...
the pic tell the story best.
*The group jumping shot is me and some of the staff on the top of the mountain.

* The little boy skiing in his room... he has never skied and that was after his first day.. can you tell he was excited?

* This is my 17 year old boy having a great time dancing....

* Me and two other Nurses pose for Disco Night! Then me with a group of the kids all ready for DISCO.

Its that time.....

Let the snowflakes fall
Let the latte machines hum
Let the hibernation of the parkas end
Let the hot tubs start bubbling
Let the grills start grilling
Let the shops start bustling
Let the moguls take shape
Let the village awaken

Its Cancer Camp time
I leave in 3 days for a week of fun with my amazing bald heads.
I will try to post when I am there, put will get pictures when I get back for sure!!!

Hot Dog Theory

So on the last season of the Bachelorette Jillian Harris ( A hot dog theory major) informed America of her HOT DOG THEORY. I personally have used this a time or too and have found it to be pretty right on. Here is what she says:

“Ketchup guys are the easiest to explain,” she tells ET. “I call them mama’s boys. They may not be the right guy for me, but they are good honest guys. They will never cheat. They are usually being dumped, not the one doing the dumping. They usually have a close relationship with their mom. They are good solid guys, who will always take care of a woman.

Raw onion guys never get married according to my theory. Raw onion guys are just raw. They don’t care if their breath stinks. They wear their baseball caps to the side and they just never get married. Fried onion guys get married several times. I don’t know why that is.

Sauerkraut guys: I have dated a few sauerkraut guys in the past, so they are fun and spontaneous, but just like sauerkraut, they give you heartburn and they break your heart. The sauerkraut guys are the ones we are attracted to but are sorry in the end, just like when we put sauerkraut on our dogs.

Mustard seems to be the guy that I am looking for. Mustard is a good combination between the ketchup and sauerkraut, so the mustard guy knows how to put you in your place when you need it, but he knows how to love you and take care of you. The only problem with the mustard guy for girls who aren’t ready to settle down yet is he is too easy of an answer.

Relish I found that relish guys are supper artsy. They are like a ketchup guy, but they are writers or love comic books, are super close with their moms, and have a hard time moving out of the house and growing up.

Thanks Jillian for that bit of humor.... but my question is what happens when they like chili and cheese?????

Olympics

So living in a town where one of the three Olympic Training Centers ( OTC pictured) is in the US, during the Olympics is kinda fun!

Fun facts:

-The OTC is about 3 minutes from my house! So I am fortunate to drive by it every so often and see the torch burning.
-When I worked at the Children's hospital I was honored to be able to meet a few of the athletes and even have dinner with them sometimes......as the OTC was right next door.
-I have a couple t-shirts from the OTC store and even sent my sister in law, niece and nephew some to wear for the festivities.
-A good friend had an "open ceremony" party where we had all different kinds of food from around the world.
-I am sad as this might be Apollo's last Olympics, but have learned that his father and him are the only ones in his family. He mom split when Apollo was months old. The bond between the father and the son is amazing.
-I give Joannhie ( the Canada figure skater) who's mom died of a massive heart attack 2 days before she was to skate for gold. She got bronze, and performed a very heartfelt performance.
-I am not gonna miss all the talk about Lindsay Vonn...... her co skier is just as good, if not better, give Julia Mancuso a fair shot!
-I have been able to sit and watch most of the Olympics on TV at night, and getting to text my sis in law back in Ne at the same time, has been fun! ( thank you call Gods for being nice to me)
- Tomorrow is the closing ceremony and I am sad that it is over already!
-We are possibly going to beat the record for most medals at an olympic game ever... right now we have 34 and are the favorites to medal in at least three more events!!!!


Enjoy a few pictures : of the snacks and of the
The burning torch

The Bachelor= Monday night dates

So here is Jake, the bachelor! I admit I have just a little crush on him :) He is super cute, has his thoughts together and his life is on track, why wouldn't you fall for a guy like him?

I have watched the bachelor or the bachelorette since it previewed like 8 years ago! I am hooked! Every Monday night I prop myself in front of the TV at 7 PM to watch Jake on his quest for love! There is always DRAMA of course there will be!!!! But it makes for a great show! My friends who are also hooked and I text each other throughout the show, the texts look something like ..... " oh my goodness, did you see what she is wearing?" "wow, Jake looks hot in that" "AWWW how romantic" etc...... it is so fun, and I look fowards to the following Monday night as soon as this one is over.

So let me catch the non bachelor peeps up on what is happening. Jake started out with 25 women from all over all on a quest for his heart. He is now down to 2. and 2 different women they are.

Meet Tenley ( my and most of America's favorite). She is so very sweet and has really begun to open up to Jake, in telling him that she is ready for marriage, and wants that life long partner to go through the good and the bad times with.




Then you have Vienna ( boooo) who is the girl who is full of plastic as well as lies. For some reason Jake has really gotten into her- despite the other girls telling him who she really is behind the camera.




So in two weeks we will see who Jake picks.... I hope for Tenley ( actually secretly I wish he'd fly to Colorado Springs and pick me :) who do you think he should chose?

VALENTINES DAY :) NOT

So somebody please tell me this..... Why does there have to be a day set aside for you to tell someone that you love them? There should not be a day like this at all! It is just pure laziness on your part if you don't tell them you love them all the time. God continually shows us his love.... and we should be the same way. Loving someone the same on June 3 or November 12 should be the same love you have them on Feb 14th.......

SO anyways...... Hope you all have a great Valentines day.....

snow = sledding and tubbing

We have gotten some snow here and I know my family and friends back in NE are tired of ALL the snow they are getting.

I was looking at some old snow pictures and found these from the farm :) oh the memories!


This is my brother pushing my niece.

My niece and I holding on......me trying to say STOP, as she was falling off!





Here is my cousin and I holding on, as were getting pulled by the 4 wheeler! I am so blessed to have these memories!

engagements, new jobs, babies...... wow! what a week for my friends

I have to take a moment and look at how blessed my dear friends have been this past weekend....
-Amber got engaged
-Tanner got a new job with great benefits for his family
-My dear friend Ali found out the sex of her baby ( which she won't share quite yet......as much as I have tried- darn it!)
-Stef got a job that will allow her to stay in CO!
-One of my awesome cancer buddies got word that she is in remission!

and even for me, I got to hear about how the gift of organ donation has inspired this young man
( who received a liver )and his family to live their life for Christ and become missionaries through music ( for now still here in CO yeah!!!).

I am so blessed to have these friends and their families in my life.

Who says a 4 mo old cant open a present?

So, my nephew Rowen just turned 4 months when we were finally all able to get together and celebrate Christmas. It was fun with him, and watching the excitement in his eyes was priceless!

My niece Jasmine had a fun time opening her presents and playing with all her new things as well.


Enjoy the photos of Rowen opening his gifts :) and enjoying what he opened!

Day 4 and 5

So after all the decorating was done, we went and enjoyed a nice dinner with my boss and some others that were from Iowa. I have to say it was a seafood rest and I was not exactly sure, and ordered a steak. But I did taste Octopous, Swordfish and then crab cake........the first two were not bad, however the crab cake sent me over the edge! It was totally yucky!

Since it was New Years Eve Lec and I decided to walk Colorado Blvd ( this is the parade route ) and to our amazement people were literally camping out! I mean air mattresses, grills, fire pits etc... It was insaine. A few of the campers had their baby's there too! People had silly string and marshmellows and were throwing/shooting it at cars as they went by. Ok OK, Yes Lec and I threw a marshmellow!! hehehe


We met this couple who are now from AZ but grew up camping out. So they brought their daughters up this year and were camping. When I say there were people everywhere I literally mean it! I took a pic of one lady who had a shopping cart wrapped in foil and she was cooking hot dogs from it and selling them~!

We walked up and down the streets just chuckeling and laughing. We found out the cover charge to get into a bar was about 50$ how in the world can you afford to party there? We did find a bar that did not have a cover but for 2 drinks it was 18$ I could not believe it~~! We found ourselves back to the hotel somewhat early, as we were beat. We found Nikko one of the bullgdogs that was riding on the Snow boarding float, and shared a "drink with w/ him" before going to bed!

We had to get up early for the parade! This is where my camera died, so stay tuned for actual pic of the parade, Lec is getting them to me. Just know that seeing all the floats that everyone had worked sooo hard on was just bitter sweet! After the parade we went back to the hotel and got changed for the football game. Lec has the pic of that too.
I was actually not very impressed with the stadium at all, it was kinda dumpy and not very nice. They only had one TV screen. I guess I was just trying to compare it to the NE stadium. NE stadium looked bigger to me tho, but I guess the Rose Bowl is. The Game was an experience as well, I jsut wish it would have been NE playing and it would have been more exciting. We were rooting for Oregon as NE former quarterback Scott Frost is one of the coaches for them. They ended up loosing, but non the less it was a fun time. We left at the start of the 4th quarter as we had enough of the game and were hungry and tired. We knew we had a big day the next day.... DISNEY so staytuned for that in the next update!
Enjoy the pic!

DAY 2 and 3

DAY 2 AND 3 were just as fun -jam packed filled as the first day.



The end of day 1 we had a Gala. Where we got to meet a lot of the families, have some great food, and learn how the whole idea of New Life Rises came to be. All 4 One a boys singing group who was popular when I was in college was there to perform as well. They are very connected to Organ Donation and even wrote a song about donation. It is beautiful. All of the proceeds of the song will go back to Donate Life. I did get my pic with one of the lead singers, but it is on my boss's camera, so am waiting for her to get it to me.


The following morning we awoke early to begin the decorating. I quickly learned to appreciate the beauty of roses.

I would never have imagined that every single rose on the float has its own individual water tube!

And that the person that is driving the float is underneath it all and cannot see, he relies on the riders to tell him when to slow down, stop, turn etc...... While decorating we were able to again connect with some of the families. I had the honor of meeting a younger couple who had tried for quite some time to have a child and they did... a beautiful boy named Isaiah, he at 6mo aspirated on his formula and they chose to donate his organs. He was being honored with a floral pictograph. We had 76 pictographs that featured the ones who donated their organs/tissue or eyes. All of these pictures were created from seeds. Yes I said seeds! Being in the area of donation I am in, getting to meet and talk to these families was a real honor and it became emotional.


We were fortunate to be present when the judges came by to "judge" the float. That was an experience in itself! All the riders were in place, waving to the crowds, the music playing in the background etc... it was once again filled with emotions. We won 2 different awards 1) the best theme ( the Theme of the parade was A Cut Above the Rest, and our New Life Rises fit into it perfectly). and 2) the viewers choice award, where on tv as the floats went by you could vote for your favorite one and we won that too. SO exciting!

Enjoy the pictures~!

Day 1

Day one in Cali was rainy and cold. But it was our only free day, so we jumped on a site seeing bus and headed to Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Santa Monica Peir and the beach. On the tour we were able to see things such as: the house where Marilyn Monroe died, the hotel that Pretty Woman was filmed in, the shops that Julia Roberts shopped in, some wonderful houses in Beverly Hills, etc... so enjoy some of the pictures.



I will post Day 2 soon :)

I am back....... and miss the 70 degree weather!

I am back from the Rose Bowl and all the festivities. I miss the weather there!!! When we left CA yesterday the high for that day was suposed to be 78, and today here in CO it is 21. BURRRRR! I will get some pictures up and share with you the most amazing trip soon. Stay tuned!