symbolism

There are some images we see that resonate with us.

Resonate with our soul

because we feel that they represent us

or

speak to who we are.

For me the image that makes me feel at home

are

angel wings.

Whenever I see the image

on a postcard

or a shirt

it just causes

me to take a deep

breath

and sigh.

I don't know why this is, but it is something God has given me.

A special link between Him and I.

I am not saying I am an angel

however

I do think

I am on the front lines for

fighting

for children

who have been

abused.

for a reason

I think that God

hand picked me

to be doing

exactly what

it is

I am doing.

People always tell me

"I don't know how you can do your job,"

I

think

how can I not?

This weekend I went to go see Blind Side.

It made me cry so many times.

Because it is my heart to love those who

have been abandoned.

I have literally walked the foot steps of the character

portrayed by sandra bullock

of tucking teenagers into bed and reading them bedtime stories.

It makes my soul

scream

to think there are

children

who will not be given a

toy this christmas

or have no family to go home to

because being on the streets

is safer for them

then to be under the

roof

of where their biological family

resides.

This christmas

be Jesus

to someone.

A child.

anyone who needs to be loved.

Wrap your wings around them

because you can

and have been blessed.

Open your eyes.

Get out of your comfort zone.

Find someone who needs you.

There are lots of people

sometimes they are hiding because

they are ashamed

or feel embarrassed

But find them

and

love them.

Also in this christmas season: take a moment to be quiet and really spend time being present.

Last night...

Last night James and I had a date.
We hadn't spent any good quality time together in forever.

So we went out to eat at jose muldoons for dinner.
Then I was planning our date, last night so I told him where to drive.
As we were on our way to the broadmoore...it started snowing like crazy.

So I told james what we were going to do as we were on our way there and he said let's just see how it is.

So we went and it was enchanting.
truly it was.

We walked around the back where the snow was falling down at a delicate gentle speed.
Just soft.

We walked around in the snow, held hands, and admired all the lights.
I hummed christmas carols
and we attempted to take pictures.

Last night was enchanting.

I figured out james is not very good at taking candid shots with his phone. we are going to have to work on that :)

We just enjoyed each other's company and it felt magical.
We stood on a bench and looked at all of the beautiful decorated trees and james chased geese.
They were chip ring very loudly and not happy that james was upsetting their home.

Then on Monday he had these delivered to me at work :)

Palin

Sarah Palin's first stop on her book tour

is my home town.

This explains so much ;)

This weekend

This is the boy in my life.

I like him. :)

this weekend we went to the golden bee to celebrate with

ben and melissa

in finding out the sex of their baby.

It is now a she!

We also celebrated Ben being done with one job

and starting another.

It was a great time

singing with the piano man

drinking beer

and just laughing.

Then afterwards

everyone came back to the house

and we played

QUELF!!

The most odd game ever,

at one point

james had to pretend that a pencil was mistletoe and

see if he could get me to kiss him

I turned about 8 shades of red

and then closed my eyes

and puckered

he put his cheek

to my lips.

it was cute.

Saturday

was spent riding on the back of james'

motorcycle

up to the hungry bear

and around in

Garden of the Gods.

It was the perfect day to be riding around on the back of a motorcycle

especially james' motorcycle!

LASIK

I got Lasik done last saturday.
It was incredibly quick procedure.
Laid down and after a few brief minutes probably like 5 or 6 I was done.

Since then the healing process has been hit or miss.
At work I have to work at a computer and do most of my work when
not with families at my desk and thus
my eyes have been hurting and burning.

I had monday off, took wednesday off cause my eyes were killing
and yesterday ended up having to take the afternoon off because
I was in so much pain.

So I went back to the doctor just to see if I was being a big baby
or there was really something wrong.
As soon as I walked in the doors
they looked at me and said wow your eyes are really red.
In my head I am thinking, "gee you think I don't know that, now fix it."

So they told me it was extreme dryness, they took pictures of my eyes
and I started crying while I was seeing the doctor because my eyes just burned
so bad!!

I wanted the numbing drops to put in my eyes just so I could work
and to get through the healing process. Unfortunately the drops apparently
make my cornea too soft. Honestly I did not care and just wanted
the pain to go away.

So it turns out I was not being a big baby and the pain was real.
The lady told me I was definitely having an adverse reaction and this
was not the norm for most patients. oh yipee, guess I get to be in the painful,
very painful minority :(

So they gave me a coupon for these special eye drops and basically vaseline for
my eyes. I can say that I have never thought that putting vaseline in my eyes
would be a fun thing to do, however it FINALLY brought relief to my
very red/sore eyes.

I got to a point last night after putting frozen vegetables on my eyes that I need to start
praying about this and letting it go. It hit me like a ton of bricks why had I not
been praying about this, so I started praying about it.

So today I awoke and my eyes were feeling sooo much better. I feel as though they

are finally starting to heal. Praise the Lord! Thank the Lord!!!

The crazy part in all of this is that I can see! I can see when I wake up in the middle of the night and look at the alarm clock. I can see details I have never been able to see before.
I can see fine print on stuff far away. I can appreciate all the small details
that I never have been able to before.
My vision is 20/15 and that is amazing. All in all I will say that this process
even though painful will definitely be worth it in the long run. I just
can't wait to get to the other side of the healing process.

Yeah for seeing!

Taking Time Outs

Yesterday I looked cute,

my outfit was cute

my hair was doing

it thang ;)

and so when I got done with work

I didn't want to work out

and ruin my hair

I know, I know that is

so

girlie!

and I am not usually one of those girls.

However, as I was contemplating to work out

or to

not work out?

rachel called me

and told me

she aced

her test

yes!!

so I said let's celebrate

and I will take you out for

ice cream.

So last night instead of working out

and ruining my hair, duh!

We walked around downtown on a perfect

fall night

and ate ice cream.

Its important to make pit stops in life

and appreciate

the people

who are important to you.

It is important for you to tell them you

love

them

and show

them how precious they are to you.

(and skip working out once in awhile to eat homemade ice cream with hot fudge on it:)

glorious weekends

weekends always seem too short.

they always will even if we had another day off,

then we would want another.

I mean who wants to get up early and go to work

when

you could stay in your warm bed??

This weekend in colorado

was gorgeous!

So the pup and I went on a hike

this was the sunset on sunday eve.
she got tired and just laid down as soon as I stopped to take a picture :)

saturday night.

i went to go see trace bundy with melissa, ben, and erin

trace was amazing.

(he played pachelbel's canon for us:)

there is nothing like

sitting in a small venue

watching a great musician

share their love

and incredible talents

with others.

friday night

had girls over to my and rachel's house

we watching season opener of greys

which was weak.

but the company was not!

all in all

it was a great weekend!

Castles

So this weekend.

I went to see this castle.

with friends.

It was awesome and scary.

kisses.

boys jumping.

sarah clearly won!

boys on bridge that leads to nowhere and the only thing stopping you in a rope, from dropping 15o ft. fun :)

boys in the globe.

steve facing his fear :)

mel made it up into the globe!

rachel all the way on top

staircase that went all the way up, coming down these things were uber scary. no handrails and nothing kept you from falling all the way down.

sorry about some of the pics. blogger was being stupid :)

Earth

This video truly is amazing. It's video clips from the BBC's Planet Earth series, set to the sounds of Sigur Ros's "Hoppipolla." Wow. If you haven't seen it, please watch.

Love

The pic below of of my sweetie niece tootie a.k.a aubrey.

Went home to visit friend and fam in MI a few weeks ago.

If you want to see the rest click

Water

Today as I was getting ready for work

I looked down in my water and saw a bug

in my water.

I thought....

gross.

Then I had a realization.

my water was clean.

it was not brown.

just a little bug.

there are millions who drink brown water with bugs in it everyday.

I thought I am spoiled.

I don't even think about these things.

I did some research and found out

1.8 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean
water and poor sanitation.

That is beyond terrible. I don't a word for it.

But know we can do something here.

Miracles

My new baby niece Stella Janae Polavin was born today at 4:46am weighing 3lbs 8oz.

Her mommy has been on bed rest for the last 6 weeks in the hospital.

bless her heart.

We have all been praying for this little one

she is a miracle and has already had put up quite a

fight

to stay here.

She is determined like her momma and daddy.

Pray for continued development of her lungs and body.

Camping

So this weekend I went up to 11 mile reservoir with my small group and it was crazy!

We had 16 people and 7 dogs, that is intense, but it was so much fun.

Click HERE to see pics from the weekend.

We had a crazy storm on Saturday night

which some of thought we were going to get struck my lightning because

we were in the middle

of a field with

no

trees :)

It was still really fun, always good to get away.

I will post some of the pics I took later.

My totally Tubuler Party

So I have sweet friends.

For my birthday,

we had an

80s kickball party.

So everyone dressed up in 80s attire
don't we look totally awesome?

Cheney's win the award for best outfits.

Kev-o was pretty sweet with his white shorts and tucked in muscle shirt

as were steve with the belly displaying cut off jersey

carey with the sideways pony

and ben with his sweet cut offs ;)

Awesome action shot of sarah

Rachel in her glory.

Steve pitching

Sonntag, getting ahold of that ball with her awesome keds she had on

carey, thanks for the yummy cake.

Steve, won for being the best sport.

As this pic proves!

Serious pose.

Fun.

Rock band, jen and I definitely won the award for best voice

that is for sure!!!

We were in harmony the whole time ;)

Notice my purple eye shadow and how it matches with my lovely sweatshirt :)

cute carey and katie.

this pic just makes me laugh. Love them.

tubular chicks, holly and rachel

plus jen.

All in all.

I have great friends.

Who love to dress up

and make the best

of themed parties.

Love them all

and I

felt special.

Now this weekend, we are all going camping.

More fun to come :)