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I returned two days ago from a weekend away at Highlands Camp. Highlands is a Presbyterian camp and retreat center in the mountains of Northern Colorado — it’s GORGEOUS. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and we had snow all weekend. In late APRIL. Suck!

Even suckier, my internet connection is about as fast as molasses. Something’s very wrong, but our internet provider doesn’t know what it is. Even more sucky is that he (Matt) is our only option for internet up here. That’s why I only have one picture to share. I apologize! Ooh, it just sped up and I was able to upload the rest of them!

Here I am sharing my ’special thing’, Jake and Kate. (I snuck a second thing in there, I guess. Nobody seemed to mind.)

And here I am navigating a spoon with a string tied around it up my shirt sleeve.

And then there were games that everybody enjoyed, as they were run-around, loud, noisy, and chaotic:

But my favorite thing we did came during worship on Saturday night. Don, our pastor, had everybody stand up, one at a time. Then, we took labels and wrote one gift that person had for the church. I wrote stuff like, “Dancer”, “Skier” (I’m not sure if this is a gift you can easily share with the church, but we DO live in Nederland), “Smiles a lot”, etc. The ones I got? “Crafty”, I assume because I led crafts and not because I’m sneaky, one that said “Attractive” and was affixed to my butt by my lovely husband, and “Shy … but cool.”

“Wow,” Ben commented later, “a superlative with a ‘but’ in it. That’s pretty special!” Shut up, I told him. And watch out, because I’m crafty.

I guess two days of little sleep were too many for me, because I started coughing on Sunday and now I have a mild case of the flu.

Anyway, here’s another list of questions that I stole from my friend Sarah. Enjoy it or not at your leisure.

1. Who was your FIRST prom date?
James Oey was my first prom date. I asked him!

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?
We’re still speaking, but no, I haven’t talked to him in quite a while.

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?
Probably a sip of beer from my mom’s glass.

4. What was your FIRST job?
My first kid “job” was babysitting (ditto Sarah), then I worked for an interior decorator one summer organizing her fabric samples and typing up her contact information on her WORD PROCESSOR (which sucked), then research at JPL, then research at Los Alamos National Laboratory, then a counselor at Lutheridge, then research at Tech.

5. What was your FIRST car?
Oh, gosh, a Mercury Sable. My parents bought it and I spent my senior year of high school driving to Princeton for physics classes.

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?
I haven’t gotten any texts this month.

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?
Ben.

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
Ms. Aarons.

9. Where did you go on your FIRST airplane ride?
Detroit, for my cousin’s wedding. I was three. Incidentally, my other cousin was very sick at her brother’s wedding, which she told us AFTER she kissed us hello. I caught whatever she had, and for the next two weeks was about as sick as any three year old gets. Apparantly, I fell asleep *standing up*, and I had a very bad headache and was constantly telling people to close the blinds. (Hey, I can now relate to that!)

10. Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk?
Kristen Joy Reiersen — we have the same initials, “KJ”. She’s now Kristen Reiersen Keller, and while we don’t talk, we do visit each other’s blogs.

11. Where was your FIRST sleep over?
I don’t the answer to this, but I’m willing to bet that it was at Annie’s house.

12. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?
Ben!

13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?
My friend Nicole’s upcoming nupitals on May 16.

14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
Illuminate my clock, discover that it was only 6:15am, then turn over and try to go back to sleep. Thing is, I’ve got this stupid virus and am coughing, sneezing, and blowing my nose a lot, so it didn’t work. =(

15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
Indigo Girls.

16. FIRST tattoo?
Not yet.

17. First piercing?
My ears. I almost passed out. It’s my last piercing, too.

18. First foreign country you’ve been to?
Germany.

19. FIRST movie you remember seeing?
A Disney movie about a bear. My dad took me and my little sister to see it when I was about five; my sister got so scared that my dad came and got her halfway through and took her to HIS movie, “Adventures in Babysitting.”

20. When was your FIRST detention?
I never got detention.

21. What was the first state you lived in?
Tennessee.

22. Who was your FIRST roommate?
Shoot, I can’t remember her name! She was my roommate at CTY the first summer I went. She was blonde and kinda crazy, and I loved her.

23. If you had one wish. What would it be?
Oh, I wish that my strokes would go away. Wishful thinking, though …

24. What is something you would learn if you had the chance?
I would like to get some formal instruction on how to sew.

25. Who do you think will post this next?
I have no clue.

Oh, and I have a shoe update. I called David’s Bridal and ordered a new pair a couple days ago, and they arrived just as promised. I took them out of the box and tried the right shoe on; it’s a little ugly, but it fits, it’s the right color, etc. Fortunately, I decided to try on the left shoe as well.

The left shoe didn’t fit. It was almost as if it were another size entirely, so I took it off to check. It’s a size NINE. I have no idea how they did this; I got one size 6 1/2 shoe and another size 9. I called them back.

“Um, yes, I ordered a replacement pair of shoes the other day and one of them doesn’t fit.”

“Please hold.” Ten minutes later, she finally got back on the line.

“One of the shoes is the right size — 6 1/2 — but the other is a size 9.”

“Let me check on that. Please hold.” Ten minutes later, she finally picked up again.

“OK, I’ve got the other shoe here. We’ll dye it and send it out to you this week.”

“Uh, thanks, I guess.” What is WITH this company?

It’s been one of those days with Zamba.

Ben woke up this morning at 9:45am, got up to go to the bathroom, and stopped en route to throw something at me. I was mad, but I ignored it — I was pretty out of it. When Ben came back from the bathroom, he retrieved the object he’d tossed in my direction and sat down next to me. “Did you need this?” he asked. He lifted up my bridesmaid shoe for Nicole’s wedding, which is in under a month. Zamba had chewed it to a pulp.

Lest you think I just leave shoes lying around for her to eat when she’s hungry, here’s where they were: hidden in my closet, in their box, under my shelves, and under a hat and gloves.

I called David’s Bridal, and $69 later, I’ve got a new pair on the way. A pair that will HOPEFULLY arrive before Nicole’s wedding.

Would anyone like to buy a puppy?

I ran errands today and took the dogs because Ben had a customer call. Zamba was … well, she wasn’t bad, per se, but gosh, was she annoying. Case in point: I bought a plate of Chicken Teriyaki at the mall and brought it to the car to keeps the pups company while I ate it. Zamba wanted some, and let me know it by standing directly over me and drooling into my plate. After ten minutes of that, I called it quits, threw away the leftovers, and drove off.

Then I drive up to Chick Fil A and order a large glass of sweet tea. When I pull up to the window, I am *immediately* accosted by the ladies inside. “Oh, my goodness, what kind of dog is that?”

A Newfoundland, I responded, but I wanted to say, “The kind that eats expensive pairs of shoes for breakfast.”

“Oh my gosh, she’s ADORABLE! Can I give her a treat?” She immediately procures some biscuits. Zamba was all about this, and proceeded to climb onto my lap so that she was hanging out the driver’s side window. I was completely squished. My head was turned to the side and my body was pushed up against the back of the seat. It was uncomfortable. The Chick Fil A lady, laughing hysterically at me, barely escaped a kiss.

Now, it was 82 degrees down in Boulder this afternoon, so I asked if I could have a glass of water for Zamba, who was practically melting. “Oh, of *course*!” the lady said. Thirty seconds later, she hands me a glass of water, and I negotiate some room to actually bring it in the car. “Look, Zamba! I got you some water!” She looked straight ahead. I put my finger in the water and splashed a little bit of it around. “It’s for YOU!” I exclaimed enticingly. Then, tired of being in the front seat, she STEPPED on the water and jumped into the back seat. The cup exploded. I was soaked. Zamba was just bored, tired, and thirsty … but she never took a sip of the nice, cold water.

So, anyway: puppy for sale. Very fluffy, very big, VERY hungry, very friendly, very annoying. FSBO.

(Just kidding. We’re keeping her. I don’t want to get into trouble like *somebody*’s office mate, who announced the birth of their child on eBay and found his house crawling with feds a couple of days later. We love her … the upkeep is just getting a little bit pricey.)

Here’s one that requires one word answers. Here goes …

1. Where is your cell phone? Computer
2. Your significant other? Ben
3. Your hair? Long
4. Your mother? Sweet
5. Your father? Smart
6. Your favorite thing? LilTongue (it’s a Chaco thing)
7. Your dream last night? Floating
8. Your favorite drink? SweetTea
9. Your dream/goal? Baby
10. What room you are in? Loft
11. Your hobby? Quilting
12. Your fear? Spiders (see post “Arachnaphobia”)
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Mommy
14. Where were you last night? Home
16. Muffins? Yes
17. Wish list item? Baby
18. Where you grew up? Montgomery (which is in NJ)
19. Last thing you did? Eight Below
20. What are you wearing? Towel!
21. Your TV? Off
22. Your pets? Chaco’NZamboni
23. Friends? Yup
24. Your life? Upswing
25. Your mood? Good
26. Missing some one? Nope
27. Car? Saabaru
28. Something you’re not wearing? Shirt, pants, socks
29. Your favorite store? REI
30. Your favorite color? Orange
33. When is the last time you laughed? (this) Afternoon
34. Last time you cried? “Eight Below” (I don’t usually cry during movies, but the combination of a good dog movie and my decreased dosage of Wellbutrin left me bawling)
35. Who will resend this? Nobody =(
36. One place that I go to over and over? JoAnne’s
37. One person who emails me regularly? Ben
38. My favorite place to eat? Convict Lake Resort
39. Why you participated in this survey? Arby
40. What are you doing tonight? Eight Below

I’m sorry to subject you to yet another quiz about me, but it’s kinda fun and it keeps my blog up-to-date. So here it is:

A – Age: 27

B – Bed size: King. We upgraded because Ben’s RSI (repetitive stress injury, a result of typing too much) makes him very touchy about being touched.

C – Chore you hate: Doing the dishes.

D – Dog’s names: Chaco and Zamboni

E – Essential start your day item: My laptop. I like to read my blogs while I’m still in bed. Zamba, although I love you, my idea of a good morning doesn’t involve being stepped on by a hundred pound behemoth, ‘k?

F – Favorite color: Orange.

G – Gold or Silver: Silver.

H – Height: Five feet two and a half inches. Don’t leave off the last half inch; it’s critical.

I – Intense moment: My oral exams, October 2004.

J – Job title: Zamba Rounder-Upper/Vomit Cleaner-Upper/Poo Cleaner-Upper/Pee Cleaner-Upper, Ben’s Do-Girl, and Teacher

K – Kid(s): Not yet!

L – Living arrangements: I live in my house in Nederland with Ben, Chaco, and Zamboni.

M – Mom’s name: Laurie

N – Nicknames: Kathy, KJ

O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: This is going to be kinda long.

(1) Three days after my first stroke.
(2) Three days after my second stroke.
(3) Overnight after my PFO closure.
(4) Four days during my GI bleed.

I’d like to hope that my NEXT hospital stay will involve a baby, but I’m not counting my chickens before they hatch …

P – Pet Peeve: When people say, “Rate of speed.” It drives me NUTS!
.
Q – Quote from a movie: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — Ferris Bueller

R – Right or left handed: Right.

S – Siblings: Two younger sisters.

T – Time you wake up: It varies. From 7:30 am to 9:30 am; later if I’m exhausted.

U- Underwear: Yes, I always wear underwear.

V – Vegetable you dislike: You’re kidding, right? There’s not enough room! Brussel sprouts, asparagus, canned green beans, …

W – Ways you run late: I’m usually pretty punctual, but there was a period of about six months after my second stroke when I constantly FORGOT my therapy appointments.

X – X-rays you’ve had: Again, this answer could run long.

(1) Dental x-rays.
(2) Small bowel follow-through. (You have to drink stuff for this one. Gross stuff. Yuck!)
(3) An x-ray to check for a hole in my intestines where my belly button once connected me to the umbilical cord. I can’t remember what it’s called.

Y – Yummy food you make: Meatloaf a la Sam.

Z – Zoo favorite: Gorillas.

Thanks to my friend, Erica Brandon, for posting her answers on Facebook!

Another announcement, albeit not quite as profound as my recent Zamba announcement: I watched the series finale of JAG on TV tonight. If Ben weren’t available, I would seriously consider David James Elliot as a replacement. Gosh, he’s hot. Conservative and militaristic, but hot.

We survived!  Colorado got the most snow in a single storm since we’ve been here.  37 inches, if you believe the 9 News report; four feet, if you trust my handy-dandy estimating
skills.  We broke the record for the most precipitation in a day: 1.16in down in Denver. The storm total here in Nederland? Closer to four INCHES!!! Here are the pictures to prove it!

Chaco, almost drowing in snow:

Zamba’s “butt balls”, which cling to her EVERYWHERE:

To give you a sense of how deep the snow was, here’s my car:

Here’s the snow on our porch:

And here’s the snow on our porch at the END of the storm. (Where’s the hot tub?!?!)

We evacuated yesterday. We have a generator — it’s a fish room neccessity — that powers several things, like the aquarium stuff, the stove, the TV, the hot water heater, and the heat. By 2pm, the only things working were the fish room and the stove. But all was not lost! We’ve got a wood stove! All we needed to do was make a nice big fire to heat the house. Sounds easy, right?

Think again. The snow somehow dislodged the chimney from its usual resting spot and sent smoke spewing out all over the house. I thought I was going to get carbon monoxide poisoning by the time we figured it out. We quickly dumped our burning embers onto the deck and left.

Ben picked out a hotel in Denver for us, and all four of us piled in to Ben’s car and made the trek. Today, we woke up and ate at Taste of Philly (YUM!!!) and then browsed the Cherry Creek Mall, where Ben bought some business shirts. A quick call to the Harrison’s confirmed that our power had been restored, so we drove back up the hill. We were greeted by these sights:

The mountains, as seen en route from Denver:

Eldora Mountain overlooking Barker Reservoir:

And Ridge Road:

It’s supposed to be very warm this week, which is good: all this snow can start melting so we can dig out my car and find our hot tub!

1. What color is your toothbrush? White and aqua.

2. Name one person who made you smile today: Amy, a lady at church.

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Sleeping =)

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Eating, drinking my second CFDC, and watching Law and Order Criminal Intent

5. What is your favorite candy bar? I’m not a big fan of candy bars, but I do like any dark chocolate bar, especially those dark chocolate Mr. Goodbars.

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? Zamba, get your head out of Chaco’s food bucket!

8. What is your favorite ice cream? Chocolate (Need you even ask?)

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? CFDC

10. Do you like your wallet? I love it.  Thanks, Mom!

11. What was the last thing you ate?  Chinese noodles.

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? No.

13. The last sporting event you watched? Basketball.  Sigh.   I HATE basketball.

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? Kettle corn.

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? Ben.

16. Ever go camping? Yes indeedy!

17. Do you take vitamins daily?  Yes, I do.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday?  Every Sunday I’m here in Nederland!

19. Do you have a tan?  No siree!  Like Kelly said, if pasty white were the new tan, I’d be in style!

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? Yes, I do, except there isn’t any Chinese food in our town so I’m happy to put up with pizza.

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? Nope.

22. What did your last text message say? Something about my flight from DC to Columbia being canceled due to to weather.

23. What are you doing tomorrow?  Good question!  Hopefully welcome our new printer home.  Also watching 3 – 5′ of snow fall.

25. Look to your left, what do you see? Ben’s busted iPhone.

26. What color is your watch?  It’s silver.  I got this watch five years ago and I must say that I LOVE it.

27. What do you think of when you hear Australia?  Nicole Kidman and loads of poisonous things.

29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?  I don’t eat fast food, with one exception: In N Out.  Chaco ALWAYS votes for the “Eat Here” option because he likes the fallen french fry option; I don’t particularly care either way.

30. What is your favorite number? 10

31. Who’s the last person you talked to on the phone?  The dude who’s going to deliver the printer tomorrow.

32. Any plans today?  Nope.

33. How many states have you lived in? Tennessee, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, Texas (not sure if that counts but what the heck), South Carolina, and North Carolina … so, seven.

34. Biggest annoyance right now?  Zamba’s started an annoying habit of running away when we let her out to poo.  She goes down the hill behind our neighbors’ house.  Tonight, when she didn’t back after ten minutes, I went after her; she came bounding up to me when I got close, as if to say, “Hi, Mommy!”  Grr.

35. Last song listened to?  “Time to Say Goodbye” by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards?  No, but why would you want to?

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house?  Yes.  But it was Ben’s idea, not mine … I’m not all that comfortable with somebody cleaning up for me.  Although, four and a half years into it, I must admit that it’s growing on me.

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?  My Chacos!

39. Are you jealous of anyone?  No.  Well, I take that back: every once in a while, my friends will complain about something trivial in their lives, and it makes me sad that I can’t enjoy those same trivial annoyances that they can.  Yes, I understand that it sucks that the supermarket you frequent has moved across town; I think it sucks more that I’m headed to the other side of DENVER to go to the doctor.

40. Is anyone jealous of you?  I doubt it.

41. Do you love anyone?  Indeed.

42. Do any of your friends have children?   A few of them do!

43. What do you usually do during the day?  Sit around and eat bonbons.

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now?  Nope

45. Do you use the word ‘hello” daily?  I do.

46. What color is your car?  Red.

47. Do you like cats?  Not as much as dogs!  But I do like them.  Frosty and Prancer were the BOMB.  =)

48. Are you thinking about someone right now?  Ben =)

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags?  Yes, in my “other” life I’ve been several times.  To the one near my grandparents’ house by the Jersey shore, to be more precise.

50. How did you get your worst scar?  Barbed wire when I was two.  You’ll have to ask my mom for specifics; I don’t recall.

And my announcement:

Zamba is officially potty trained!  We haven’t had an accident in two months!

I had a nightmare last night.

Ben and I were in Costa Rica at the “temporary hotel” we’re going to stay at the first night we arrive, May 2.  The room had a bed and, on the left a bathroom, which I walked in to.  It was fairly large, I believe … toilet and sink on the right and a nice, big shower on the left.  The room was lit by candles.  I pulled the shower curtain back and stepped in to wash the “airplane funk” off.  I washed my hair … and then it happened.

A giant tarantula walked across the tub.

It was big.  It was hairy.  It was black except for yellow stripes across its many knees.  All of its eyes were trained on me.  I remember it vividly.

It took me an hour to get back to sleep.  I didn’t want to close my eyes to find that hairy beast of a spider again.  I didn’t want to be afraid of Costa Rica, the country of our honeymoon.  So I sat there thinking of the scene from “Arachnophobia” where the dude finds the nest of poisonous spiders in the basement and he’s stuck down there with them and they make that terrible squeaking noise and he eventually kills them by blowing them up with a flame gun of some sort.  What kind of flame gun, exacty?  Can I get one?

It’s the second nightmare I’ve had since my strokes.  The first one occured the night before I went ‘home’ to Boston to visit doctors.  In that dream, I was diagnosed with brain cancer instead a stroke.  “Geez louise,” the neurologist said under his breath, “they didn’t catch this when you went to the hospital?  It’s obvious on the MRI!”  It’s interesting that I haven’t had MORE nightmares; my doctors say that anxiety is common after a stroke.  I wonder whether my most recent nightmare is a fluke or a sign that I’m getting better.  I kind of hope it’s a fluke; I don’t want to see that hairy arachnid again, thank you very much!

Don’t you worry: I’m still eager to go to Costa Rica.