4 Months Later...

I'm finally completely moved into my apartment, and I couldn't be happier!!! No more clothes, pictures, and random things piled at the foot of my bed. They finally all have a home either on the wall or in/on my great-grandma's old dresser. And it only took me 4 months. Take a look:

my great-grandma's old dresser


one half of my bedroom, a lot cleaner than two days ago


my dresser-top decorations


the awesome jewelry stand David got me for Christmas


and again, because I love it so much


my homemade earring holder. it's not perfect, by any means, but I'm a big fan of it.


Home sweet home, at last. (Truthfully, this apt. will never be home, but at least I feel settled in. FINALLY!)

Crazy Colorado Weather

On a different note, I do LOVE snow!! Driving in it...now that's a different story.

Gotta love that Colorado weather. 68 degrees one day, 9 degrees the next.

Procrastination Always Wins...

My 100 Truths...
1. Real name – Laura
2. Like it – Sure; I’ve never disliked it.
3. Single or taken - Single
4. Zodiac sign - Aquarius
5. Male or female - Female
6. Elementary – Butler (Go Bobcats!), then Rochester
7. Middle - Rochester
8. High – Rochester
9. College – Southern Illinois University Carbondale
10. Hair color - Dirty blonde
11. Eye color – Blue
12. Hair length – Long
13. Current worry – Hakuna Matata; it means no worrieees, for the rest of your daaaays!
14. Background – I was raised by an amazing mother and father in Springfield, IL. I have an older brother who is one of my best friends, and the most energetic golden retriever ever, Bailey. I was taught to show respect, love, and kindness to all around me, and have had the best life I can possibly imagine thus far.
15. Are you a health freak – Yes, but I have my indulgences. Everything in moderation.
16. Height - 5' 6''
17. Do you have a crush on someone – Yes…always.
18. Do you like yourself – Yes; however, I know there is always room for improvement!
19. Piercings – 4; two in each ear
20. Tattoos – No, and doubtful. Although I’ve always played with the idea.
21. Righty or lefty - Righty

FIRSTS-
22. First surgery – Age 5, maybe 6; on my eye lid.
23. First piercings – Ears
24. First best friend – Kimberly Dawn! Always my bestie.
25. First award – Probably a sticker in church, or a ribbon in gymnastics. I might have gotten a trophy or ribbon or something in t-ball or soccer, but I doubt I earned that.
26. First sport – Gymnastics
27. First pet – Maggie Mae, my golden retriever (not counting my brother’s reptiles)
28. First vacation – Probably Colorado, skiing or backpacking. Not sure which came first.
29. First teacher - That I remember – Mrs. Killebrew, my kindergarten teacher at Butler.
30. First crush - James Fairley, I think that was his last name.

THIS OR THAT-
31. Orange or apple juice – Orange juice, as long as it’s pulp free.
32. Rock or rap – Rock, preferably classic rock.
33. Country or screamo – Country; that will always take me back.
34. Nsync or Backsteet Boys – Nsync, all the way! I have quite the boy band history.
35. Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera – Britney; great dance music, even if she can’t sing.
36. Night or day – Day
39. Playstation or Xbox – I’m more of a Nintendo or Sega girl.
40. Kiss or hug – Yes please.
41. Iguana or turtle – Turtles!
43. Fall or spring – I love them both, but I think I have to go with Fall on this one.
44. Limewire or iTunes - Limewire
46. Soccer or baseball – Baseball, but soccer players are always so cute! It’s like a rule or something.
50. Drinking – Right now? Nothing. Water usually.
51. What’s next - Dinner and a movie with the girls!
53. Singing – I love to, especially in my car.
54. Typing – I’m pretty proficient.

FUTURE-
55. Kids? Not yet.
56. When – In the future
57. Want to get married – Yes
58. When – I’ll know when the time is right.
59. Where do you want to live – I could be happy anywhere, but I sure love Colorado.
60. How many kids do you want – Two, but I’ll take what God gives me.
61. Any name on the mind – For kids? I’m not even in a relationship, why would I be thinking of kids’ names?
62. What did you want to be when you were little – My mom tells me I wanted to be a gas station attendant. Once my aspirations grew, I wanted to be a vet.
63. What do you think you'll really be doing – Well I’m working on becoming an RD.
64. Mellow future or wild – I like to mix it up. It keeps things interesting.
66. Something you would never try – Never say never.
67. When do you wanna die – When I feel I have nothing left to give.

WHICH IS BETTER WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX-
68. Lips or eyes – Smile, but eyes are nice too.
69. Hugging or kissing – Can I have both?
70. Shorter or taller – Taller
71. Tan skinned or light – Naturally tanned is nice, but I don’t care.
72. Romantic or spontaneous – A nice combination
73. Dark or light hair – Doesn’t matter to me
75. Hook-up or relationship – Relationship; much more fulfilling.
76. Similar to you or different – A little bit of both.

HAVE YOU EVER-
78. Kissed a stranger – Once
79. Drank bubbles – Not that I remember, but I wouldn’t put it past me.
80. Broken a bone – Yes; lower back and foot
81. Climbed up a tree – All the time
82. Broke someone’s heart – I think so, and for that I’m sorry.
83. Turned someone down – Yes, but I don’t like it.
84. Had your heart broken – Yes; it was awful.
85. Liked a friend as more than a friend – Yes; that seems to be how it always starts.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN-
86. Yourself – Of course.
87. Miracles - Definitely
88. Love at first sight – No, but the sight is usually what starts the conversation that could lead to love.
89. Santa Claus – I’ll always hear sleigh bells. :o)
90. Kiss on first date – No, but then again I’ve only ever been on about 3 first dates.
91. Angels – Absolutely

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY-
92. Is there one or more people you want to be with right now - Yes
93. Who is it – Anyone; my apartment is lonely.
94. Like someone – Yes.

LASTS-
95. Text message – Trevor when I started this thing; Kim by the time I got back to finish it.
96. Received call - Dad
97. Call made – A doctor’s office. How sad is that?
98. Facebook message – received? Rob Love
99. Missed call – Sarah, from the office of ASP
100. Last hung out with – Kristy, Sherri, Courtney, and Nikki (other interns and coworkers). Dinner and a movie night. It was great.

The Best Time of the Day

So today, at precisely 2:13pm, I got a text that said this: "It's hug time!" And it put the biggest smile on my face.

For the past three summers I have spent my time working for a non-profit organization called the Appalachia Service Project (ASP). It's a Christian based organization that does emergency home repair for people in poverty across the central Appalachian region, and it's the best thing that has ever happened to me. More on that later though; now, back to my story. Although, I guess before I can continue too far, I need to explain how ASP works. Sometimes I get a little ahead of myself when I get excited.

Basically, for 8 consecutive weeks in the summer, 25 ASP centers (spread across 4 states) host about 60-90 volunteers (mostly high school youth, plus their adult leaders, and sometimes college groups) each week. Those volunteers come and do the physical labor involved in the home repair, and the ASP staffers are responsible for organizing, managing and supervising the construction that goes on at these homes. The staffers are also responsible for leading evening gatherings that bring the focus and meaning of the week together for the volunteers, as well as ensure the volunteers have a great week overall, whatever that may entail. Ok, now back to my story...

So in an effort to make the work day fun for volunteers, it is a tradition to often have theme days such as Tie-dye Tuesday or Pig Tail Tuesday:


Wacky Wednesday, Thugged Out Thursday, or Formal Friday:


Or really anything anyone on staff comes up with, such as Harry Potter Day:


It's lots of fun. Another thing staffs commonly do is 'hug time'. We pick a random time during the day, ask people to set their watch alarms (if they have them), and then drop everything they're doing at their work site at that time to give everyone around them a hug. It's quite possibly the best time of the day, but then again I absolutely LOVE hugs! (Either way, I suggest you try it to find out for yourself.)

For the past three summers, my staffs have done hug time almost every week we had volunteers. This past summer, our designated time was 2:13pm (random, right?). One particular guy on my staff, Trevor, was on the ball with hug time. He always had his watch set and he always made sure we hugged. Even after volunteers were gone, and we had 4 days left of wrapping up projects, cleaning up our center, and finishing paperwork, we celebrated hug time. I think my favorite day of 'hug time' was when Trevor and I were at the dump unloading a truck bed of construction debris, and we stopped unloading dump to hug eachother on top of the pile of stuff in our truck bed. I'm sure the workers at the dump were giving us strange looks that day.

Anyway, you can only imagine how happy I was today to have a piece of ASP with me out in Colorado when I received that text. Here's a taste of what I was reminded of:



Don't you just want to go hug someone now?!

It's Strange How Things Work Out

This past weekend I went up to the mountains to go snowboarding, as I often do these days, and I couldn't wait to get on the hill. I had spent all day Saturday in a bookstore doing research, so I was itching to get outside and enjoy some fresh air and riding. But then, everything seemed to go wrong. When we got to the parking lot it was packed! They were almost completely full, and it was only 9:30. I knew right away it was going to be a busy day, full of crowded runs and waiting in line. To add to this, there hadn't been any new snow in about a week and the expected high was 35 degrees. Don't get me wrong, I love snowboarding on beautiful days (such as this past one), but it wasn't helping the snow situation in any way. Despite these markers for a not-so-great day on the slopes, I wasn't any less excited about being there, so I geared up and headed to the shuttles with my friends. We knew the chances of finding any fresh or good snow were slim to none, so we found other ways to enjoy the day. And enjoy it we did! Although we spent the majority of our day waiting in lift lines, and the other part of our day riding on old, packed down, or thin snow, it was a phenomenal day! Who would have thought a day set up for disappointment would turn out to be so great?! Maybe it was the company, maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was just the joy of being on a mountain with a board strapped to my feet, but whatever it was, it made me HAPPY. We hit a little bit of everything too: groomers, trees, back bowls, jumps, bunny hills (whoops! took a wrong turn)...It was wonderful! I even finally did a 180 off some little poppers. I tried a 180 off the actual jumps too, but that didn't turn out so well (ouch!). Maybe next time. Towards closing time we noticed our exhaustion, and made our way down one last run. Then we headed to the shuttles and back to the parking lot.

After piling in the truck, we headed down the mountain towards Silverthorne, and as I sat there reminiscing about the days events, I heard these words from my brother, "man, that was a great day." I found it strange that both of us had enjoyed it so much considering the circumstances. But as we (along with Mike and Donnie) began talking about it, we came to this conclusion: that against all odds, it was one of the best days of the season. And it wasn't over yet. We knew there would be lots of traffic heading back to Denver, so in our best attempt to avoid it we decided to get dinner and relax at the condo a bit before making the trip down. Much to my liking we decided to eat at a little place in Old Dillon called Arapahoe Cafe and Pub.


This place is a Summit County hotspot, especially the pub downstairs! Not to mention, it's one of my favorite places to eat. So we let ourselves in the backdoor, an entrance specifically for the pub, and found a place to sit. When we arrived, there were only about 2 tables with customers, but within 20 minutes the place was packed and already had people waiting to be seated. Mind you, it's only about 5 o'clock. Soon our waiter came to take our order, and who do I see but the same waiter who has served me for about the past 5 years at this joint. It makes me wonder if he's the owner. But the more I think about it, he's probably just a great server making bank at a constantly busy restaurant. Anyway, as our food arrived, another thing made me smile. Remember I was the only girl in a group of three guys, so when the waiter (a different person than the guy who's been there forever) arrived with two hamburgers, some chicken strips, and a salad, she naturally assumed the salad was for me. However, she still did the typical waiter thing. You know, stating the item in hand and waiting for a "that's me." But she didn't wait for a "that's me," and I actually wasn't the one who had ordered the salad. So when she started to set the plate down in front of me, I told her that the salad was actually "for him" as I pointed to my brother across the table. Her response is what made me smile, and this is what she said: "Oh, niiice" (with a nod and a smile). I'm not sure if the "oh, niiice" was because a guy had ordered a salad, or because a girl had ordered a hearty meal. Either way, that too made me happy.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. We ate our meal, watched some football in the condo, and decided to brave the roads, assuming most of the traffic would be dispersed. We made it down to Denver with only a short stint in heavy traffic, and I immediately jumped in my own car and headed home to the Springs. With a couple long weeks of research ahead of me, I already can't wait to be back in the mountains and enjoying the slopes. In the meantime, I'll be dreaming of this.

Living History

As everyone knows, today was a historical day as President Barack Obama was sworn into office as the first African American president of the United States. Of course, I was working and missed all the television coverage, but here is an image of one of the day's memorable moments.


It was pretty neat to see how many people turned out to the inauguration. Did you see how many people were there?! Crazy! It would have been a pretty surreal inauguration to attend though. Today as I walked the halls of the hospital where I work I couldn't help but notice almost everyone was watching the event on TV. I really hope that President Obama can bring the people of our country together and get us back on the right track as he hopes to do. Lord knows we need it! I have a feeling he will succeed though; he seems to have quite a mass of supporters behind him, myself included.

A Break From Winter

54 and sunny?! That's what I'm talkin' about!!

Don't get me wrong, I love the winter months (especially now that I live in Colorado and have easy access to the mountains), but today was quite a treat. I even decided to take a break from the mundane-ness that is running on a treadmill to go for a jog outside. And a funny thing happened. As I ran past a school near the hospital where I work, I was almost tricked into thinking it was early March. The children were outside, most of them in shorts and t-shirts, playing on the jungle gym and running around the blacktop squealing with happiness and excitement. The sight and sounds of them seemed to instantly transport me a few months ahead. You know what I mean? It's like when you see a familiar sight or smell something you recognize, your mind takes you to that time or place with which you associate it. It's crazy how our brains work.

As much as I enjoyed the weather today and my jog outside, I almost feel guilty for enjoying it. This is only because back in Illinois, where most of my friends and family live, it was (and still is) super cold. Last night I hear it was in the negative degrees and today no more than 10. I guess I shouldn't feel guilty though; this weather is definitely not here to stay, and my jog reminded me of that. Even with the sun beating down on my neck, my fingers stung from the cool air, and I occasionally slipped as I ran over patches of leftover snow and ice. And quite honestly, I don't want winter to be over. I am one of those people who thoroughly enjoys all seasons, and I'm disappointed when one is cut short. Not too mention I'm not ready for snowboarding season to be over.

On another note, one of my many subjective thoughts was confirmed the other day by an article in a men's health magazine. Now I know what you're probably thinking; why are you reading a men's health magazine? Well here's the answer: I wasn't. But nonetheless, I was told by two different people of some pretty interesting recent findings -- Colorado Springs is the 2nd thinnest city in the nation. That's where I live folks! As exciting as this news was to me, I wasn't really surprised. Since the day I got here I have noticed that the majority of people I see out and about are definitely thinner than in other parts of the country. So what was at first just an observation became confirmed by this article, and today was reinforced during my jog. See, there is a lovely little park and trail just west of my apartment building that I often enjoy in the afternoons. And today, just like every other day, it was bustling with activity. Runners, cyclists, walkers, couples strolling with their dogs, mothers running with their babies in strollers, kids, young adults, older adults, even flat out old people can be found on this trail every day, no matter the weather. The people in this city are some of the fittest people I have ever seen. And with the mountains in their backyard it's no wonder they stay in shape. I'd want to be able to play in this place into my 80's as well. What's really astounding though, is that even named the 2nd thinnest city in the nation, there is still an overwhelming number of overweight and obese people. It really speaks to the significance of the obesity epidemic this country is facing. Anyway, I could go on about that for a while, and I probably will some other time. But it's getting late, and I'm getting tired, so it's off to bed for me. I have a long day of researching ahead of me tomorrow...

I kinda like this...

So I've decided to start a blog. I've had a few friends do this in the past, and it seems like it could be fun. I'm not the best writer, and I don't know that anything I write will interest anyone. Who knows, maybe no one will ever even read it, but I guess that's not the point. I've always heard that writing is a good way to get things off your mind and offer a little stress relief (Lord knows we all need some of that). And besides, who doesn't love talking to an imaginary friend?! So here goes... Hopefully I can entertain some of you along the way.