HoneyBee, Dawson, and Mini~Me

December

2012-01-08T20:24:00.001-07:00

You know what I love about Kaori? Her food intake… to lift her spirits after her pet rat went to heaven, I offered to take her out… her pick? Buffalo Wild Wings for, well, buffalo wings, and TRIVIA! N o joke, she’s like a 25-year-old stuck in a 9-year-old body.

To go just a bit further – look: she LOVES Sushi! Buffalo wings and sushi… she’s just cool…

Thanks to Turkey Day, we got to give James a birthday present! Happy Birthday Sport! You’re getting so big (and out of the “terrible twos mom!).

We also are SOOO lucky to have Champ staying with us for the month! This is what the two of them look like all the time:

a PURPLE poinsettia!? wow… what did a girl do right?! (actually, I acted ridiculous and out of line during a fight… who wins here?! ha-ha)

Jameson has an injured tail :-/… we superglued it shut after he attempted to paint our home with it… I hope it doesn’t result in infection!!!

You know, as this month goes on, I wonder how a body and a mind can withstand such a roller coaster… physically and emotionally….

Kaori and her grades, take me on a coaster. She just can’t seem to keep track of her assignments, so she landed an F in one class, and a D in another. I cut her a deal: Get your grade(S)up to a C or higher by Dec 16th, and she won’t be grounded, can continue in Krav, and can have Christmas (Santa only dotes upon the good kids…). Well, she did, she worked hard, and stayed focused and brought them all up in one week! Then… today, I see that she didn’t focus on one assignment, and didn’t turn another in… 2 F’s!!! Now, her grade that was already feeble, crumbled to another F

Champ’s Been staying with us for December, waiting for his momma and dad to come home… he’s Dawson’s follower!

I think it’s getting a bit better!

But… just in case, we are trying every precaution: I had a REAL Philly cheesesteak while in Philly… still not up my ally, but off of the bucket list This is my company Christmas party! Kaori got her Orange Belt, and this is the result Dawson applied for many jobs! This is HIS result Jameson knocked over his 18th birthday!With a very sore tail that Doc. James had to take care of Let me start by saying that Jameson NEVER gets into the trash… so, after taping his mouth shut… do you think he was just acting up?

Kaori and I volunteered for Toys for Tots… glad we were there, they needed a TON of help!Rhiannon got to come over for a night, and ended up getting a free Krav Maga lesson out of it!!!

This is the result of Dawson trying to “double butt kick me”… haa, caught his foot in my robe-tie… didn’t end well for him!!!Kaori’s Christmas eve Pajamas!Here come Santa Claus!She LOVES to read… she got this BIG book and finished it in 2 weeks!Yay Christmas Cereal!Jamo and Champ made out too!Dawson got a ton of guns, and Kaori got her video camera!Grandma re-made Kaori’s Baby blanket,…. means so much to her!I LOVE having them here!!!For New Years, Dawson took me up to Telluride to hang with our best friend, Kevin… it was more fun than I could’ve ever imagined!Don’t forget the TONS OF SPEGHETTI New Year’s Dinner!

November

2011-11-30T09:43:00.001-07:00

I found myself missing an old friend while eating a traditional tomato-sandwich treat early this month… funny, I think that some people are meant to be pieces of our lives, and others are meant to be forevers. This one that I was reflecting upon, is a forever…we’re just currently in a break that one day, we will laugh at. Jameson keeps us laughing on a daily… he hates baths. When you ask him to take one, he whimpers in a corner, then finally gives in and looks like this:

Kaori has been playijng quite the “catch-up” game since she hasn’t been completing her homework. Although I’m frustrated with her lack of self-discipline in this aspect, I am proud of her attitude in playing catch up – she’s been driven, and self motivated, and there may be hope for her yet!

We finally got a dump of snow, and the kids had a blast (never mind that there are deep divets in our ‘new yard’ from the mutt running around)….

Also, I had some best friends come into town! Thanks to Jesse’s Bday… !I had a conference in Dallas… I saw the conference room, and my room… which I found funny enough to post…Don’t know if they could’ve made a hotel room less comfortable. This was my first time eating Cavier. It tastes like you’d expect… fish eggs.

Now here’s a fun bit… A local industry event calls for you to get all dressed up – it’s a black-tie award show… I haven’t dressed myself up like this since high school! I admit, it was fun spending the day pampering myself.

We went to visit Mikey this month. he seems to be doing really well (considering). We stayed for two days and played Sorry mostly It was great. The only real thing I noticed is that he doesn’t talk to most of us anymore. It is so important for him to still be in touch with the entire family – all sides… so that he doesn’t feel as though he’s not part of another group… he can’t only feel like he’s part of the group he is in prison…you must write him…all the time.

Kaori successfully eats with chopsticks!

Kaori is welcomed into Juniors… it’s her 4th year as a Girl Scout

Jameson is 17 months old! Soon, off off puppy food, and by 2.. hopefully a daddy!

11/20: This past week we have been SO sick… Dawson brought something to share with us – seems it hit me hardest. The worst part? Not getting to hug and kiss Jack, Eli, and the new Caiden. It’s been really hard to work and stay motivated. I feel so ready for a change….

11/30: TWO weeks of sickness, and it ended up hitting Kaori just as hard! she took two days off of school!

Thanksgiving was a good holiday. It’s my all time favorite holiday because people stop to really focus on what it is that they are thankful for and are happy for… that said, I feel like time just flew by, and we never really got to connect as a family… in fact, we didn’t even do a family picture! bummer… Mikey will be disappointed. BUT, I did get to meet ALL of my nephews! Such a great family we’ve grown into!

We got our Christmas tree this past weekend, picked out the retarded one that would likely not get picked up ha, we have so much fun together!!!

Unfortunately, Kaori has had to experience two instances of death this year. Dumbo died last night It was quite sad for her. Rest in Peace Dumbo – thank you so much for all of the joy you brought my baby.

I wish you all a wonderful December!

Happy October!!!

2011-10-31T22:45:00.000-06:00

What an interesting week… Dawson and Kaori have gone to California to spend time with Dawson’s family (mostly for dad’s 50th birthday!) So, here I am alone… I miss those two… but I’ve also enjoyed being on my own itinerary. I haven’t really lived on my own time, ever… I was in high school, following teacher rules, parent rules, church rules (for the most part)… and doing those schedules… then I had Kaori come along RIGHT after graduation. Since then, my life has been around her. Now, given… I have been away from her this long before, when Dawson and I went to Ireland. But, we had an itinerary! International travel isn’t exactly a vacation. So, this week, it was just me, working, and doing as I pleased. Turns out, I’m kind of a boring person in love with two people that are missing. I love singing, so I karaoke’d, other than that – Jameson and I hung out, I worked, and made smaller dinners and smaller messes. Those two are really what I’m all about, it’s just so great to have them around and with me… they are my purpose! Frankly, I loved that this is what I “discovered”… do you ever wonder if you’re just “going through the motions”? I mean, my life is so active, I hardly have time to reflect upon it to know that I’m doing what I want to be doing… wake up, feed her, off to the bus, work out, work, pick her back up, give her snack, get her to martial arts/soccer, get her home, feed her dinner, watch sitcom with Dawson, go to bed, rinse, recycle, repeat. Within that time, how do you know if you’re happy?! you know? So, part of me was a bit fearful to have so much time on my plate… what if there’s more “Wetherbee” in me than I was aware of, and it’s just been stifled by my busy schedule?! I could go off the deep end, rely upon the acceptance of others, and use inebriants to make me comfortable… hard to admit, but I do fear it, all of the time… and yet, none of that comes out! My days were open (which was AWESOME) but they still came and went too fast to get anything done. What did I learn? I set unrealistic goals for my days (I book 48 hours of work for one day), I learned that – no matter what, work will ALWAYS be there. So, I made time to be with Jameson, and to post up pictures! I also made time to reflect upon myself, and my life… I’m just where I want to be. One thing I did realize that you may have already heard through my post: I did make more time to be social… I try to balance social, physical, mental, spiritual dimensions, but realistically – I balance physical and mental with each other. My best friend, Brandi and her son are the cutest thing in the world! I got to enjoy lunch with them, and a lunch with another friend, dinner with another…. I need to make sure to get out there more!

Also…. SNOWWWWWW FINALLY!!!!!

Baby Asher is here! Dawson hasn’t fed a baby a bottle since he was 12 he said… he was pretty funny holding that little <cute> baby!!!

Kaori was a Ninja for her 9th Halloween… much better than the “snow princess” she originally picked out…. skirt was a bit short This is Kaori getting a bit close to the “wildlife”!

Tough day–long time update

2011-10-18T19:55:00.001-06:00

An interesting place I found myself in today. I played mom this morning, driving for Kaori’s “Immersion” activity (a week where the kids get to be “immersed” into one subject – hers being Global Arts). I find a coffee shop to work at while she and her classmates explore a museum, and I have a fairly focused and productive period… when I get an altering email. My largest client sends a two-sentence email, quitting me. No explanation, no chance to respond, or rectify any concerns. To put this in perspective, consider your husband/wife whom you’ve been happily married to, randomly disappears, leaving a letter “Please sign these divorce documents”. You may find this a bit over reactive, but this is in line with how it hit me. I’ve done business with this man for 6+ years, and he has his assistant write me. I felt cheated, robbed, neglected… I had a minor panic attack… so now, why all this emotional reaction? Well, because it has a direct impact on me and my family… right around holiday time. Why else? Because I can’t seem to get out of this hole. I’ve got some other good things in the pipeline, but if my foundation keeps dropping out from under me, I’ll never get ahead. I’m also asking myself, what is it that I want to do with my life… and how do I figure that out?

Today aside, my family is doing great! Dawson made a massive achievement this past week – he got through his check ride to officially become a certified helicopter flight instructor. It was grueling… 100’s of hours of studies lead him to 18 hours of board questioning to pass. 13 hours of oral questioning and 5 hours of pre-flight, flying, and post flight… questions raining the entire time. I am so happy for him and proud of him for accomplishing this!

Kaori is doing great overall. Her health is great, she’s doing really well in Krav Maga and in Soccer. She’s starting Destination Imagination soon (we all remember it as Odyssey of the Mind), and she is full of good intention, desire to learn, and grow. That said, she does struggle in school right now. It’s not content, but instead, time management. She forgets to complete assignments, and when she does, forgets to turn them in. This is not a new issue, it is only more prominent now that she’s in middle school, and the work load is more demanding and taken more seriously. That said, we are implementing new habits and trying to play catch up. I hope that I can help her develop habits that will allow her to be self-sustaining and successful!

Jameson is 16 months old now, and 130+ pounds (still). He’s full of spirit, and emotions. He lays around all day and just cries… we’ve decided he’s either wishing for a little brother, or it’s his attempt at singing (he loves it when I sing to him). Kaori’s rats drive him crazy! He’s always trying to check them out… probably wants to eat them!

Our backyard project has come to an end as the weather is moving to cold. We spent a lot of sweat, stress, blood, money, and time in it – but ideally, we’ll have our second rental off of the ground within a 6 month timeframe (moved out by April or May 2012).

I hope to continue to update you all – sorry for the long time off!

To new dreams… .

The joys of converting.... or attempting to

2011-04-29T21:19:00.000-06:00

I feel like a buddhist that has recently converted to being Christian. I understand the principles of religion, that I need to live it, abide by the rules, how to become who I am through action, etc... but my job is to gather followers... convert others to the Christian belief, and all I have to do so is the bible that I've read multiple times, but still have to refer back to because I don't have it memorized yet.. and if a potential convert asks me a question that isn't written in the book, I don't have the experience to relate to the situation... I want, so badly for these people to convert to the life I have been introduced to, and believe in, but how do I do so with such surface understanding????

The art of sales

2011-03-27T22:08:00.003-06:00

Sales is really an art. You can use too much paint or too little. You can you too much effort, or too little. You can have a lot of fans, or not enough, you can make an impsct, or not until you're dead. If you approach a qualified prospect with "hi, I have a solution for your problem" ... that is the equivelent to saying "hi, I don't want anything but your money"... you have to tie in your solution to your friendship. I mean, if you knew a friend with marital issues, or job stresses. you would just offer to take them to a drink. Not say "I know a great divorce lawyer".

October 2010

2010-11-07T15:02:00.001-07:00

2010-10-31T20:44:00.002-06:00

Checking in

2010-08-05T12:45:00.002-06:00

Hi! Well, as you can see - I have a new puppy! Isn't he just COMESTIBLE! Leave it to me to teach vocab while writing to my peeps :D. His name is John Jameson and he is just wonderful... right now... I'm sure I'll want him to disappear soon - haha, anyway, he is my graduation present! I guess Moose was looking for 9 months! What an appropriate period of time! He showed up at my office in that handsome man's arms and he's been fun since. You should've seen Kaori! She just met him last night and she is IN LOVE! It is so fun to see her so darn happy. I'm glad she gets to grow up with a dog - and kind of jealous :D. Lance is not as excited - in fact, I think he's miserable. He is jealous and I think he cannot understand why in the heck I would do this to him :D. Poor ol' man. I told Miss Bonnie that the timing is perfect because he will be STOKED to leave when they are ready for him :D. He's a papered German Mastiff aka Great Dane :D and I have full breeding rights :D.

On another note, the stress about Chris getting a job has subsided because they extended unemployment and now we have a few more months to find Chris a job. This is very comforting as that's about all he needs to finish his pilot school! He is so cool! The flood turned out to be almost $10,000 worth of damage. Statefarm has been wonderful, and things will eventually calm down, I am sure.

Kaori has been accepted to Challenge School!!! This is a very big deal for her - it is the top school in the Cherry Creek School District specifically geared to Gifted and Talented students! I never thought this day would come. Wow. She is excited too and she feels lucky to have this opportunity. She is such a good kid - I am so darn lucky.

Keep in touch!

Jameson!!

2010-08-02T16:05:00.001-06:00

Check out Jameson!!

2010-08-02T16:01:00.001-06:00

KW
TUBDS
720 309 1272

Sent from my Blackberry

Find Lance... :) What a big help!!!

2010-07-22T09:15:00.002-06:00

It worked...

Sent from my Blackberry

Out of date Update Part Deux

2010-07-22T09:02:00.003-06:00

I am terrible at keeping up -but you need photos for these to be interesting and I don't have photos for many reasons: 1) the only way to upload them from my camera is to my home computer 2) I am rarely on my home computer becuase I'm ALWAYS on my work computer 3)I am SO far behind on photos that I get overwhelmed thinking about uploading them, and I give up. These are the reasons that poor Miss Bonnie hasn't received enough pictures of her son (Sorry!) Of course, I just thought of somehting... I think I can text pics to my blog.... I'm going to try...

Lance is doing AWESOME by the way. he is so happy, so energetic, NO one believes that He's 12! (by the way, he cried when no one called to wish him a happy birthday) Ok, things are crazy here,
but great – No school ROCKS! I’m sure I’ll start my master’s soon enough :) Well, I just bought a house and we moved in last week! I love it, but things are in shambles right now. Our old house is still ours and it’s our first (of many) rental properties. However, all I’ve been doing is cleaning it up and preparing it for its tenants, so I’m still living out of boxes. To make matters more busy, that house flooded 2 days before the move! Everything was in boxes, and ended up ruined! It was a mess! Now we’re working through the claim, etc. and it takes up a lot of time. Chris doesn’t have a job and needs one within 4 weeks and that’s pretty stressful – does anyone have any need for employees? He’s a Nuclear Tech with a private helicopter pilot license, working on his commercial… haha, hard to find that kind of work in Colo :D

Kaori is enjoying her summer, I only get to see her Wednesday nights, but she has a blast the rest of the week. She swims a lot. She decided to transfer to the school in our new neighborhood and she is very excited! Our back door neighbor consists of a girl her age, and they are both excited about that :)

So that's about it for now - I miss you all!

Sir Snot missing Miss Bonnie

2010-05-04T10:18:00.001-06:00

Valentine's -ish...

2010-02-15T08:09:00.001-07:00

Cory's birthday rolled around again - he's only got one more year of his 20's! Well, since I love the kid and he's an incredible father who amazes me continuously, I thought Kaori and I would take him to dinner. We went to his pho restaurant and it still didn't beat our normal place :) He was also quite enjoyable and funny. We talked about how he doesn't want to have more children and how hard it will be to find a girl that meets that profile: no kids and doesn't desire any but will tolerate and LOVE Kaori ;) yeah....

The following night Lara took me to the Nuggets game! Not only that, but she also took me to the Spurs game! That was so cool of her to pick me to come! We started off at a close restaurant and had apps and some liquid encouragement and then walked over to the Pepsi world and no sooner had we seated did we sneak down to courtside seats! We met these folk that clued us into what seats were empty and we got to stay there! It was a wonderful night and I am so grateful for Larissa!

That weekend we joined Rachel in Bennet for a Valentine's Day celebration. Adam, Krystle, Lara, Andre, Charlotte, and Rachel's family were all there - and Kaori and Kyla. We played games with the girls, they exchanged some cute gifts, and soon they were winding down with a movie,and we all just hung out and played games. Dennis (Rachel's mother-in-law's husband) was REALLY drunk when we got there, and he KEPT drinking... it's not very often that I see a human that drunk... I won't go into details but I'm glad that Dawson was there, and I can't believe that a 50-year-old married adult would ever consider that behavior like that - (especialy in front of his grandson!) is ever ok.... He got all mad at one point and went to "sit in his car" and ended up trying to leave - mind you, he was boxed in by other cars... he hit Charlottes! Sheesh - I shoulda stayed home... ;)

Valentines day just consisted of Kaori, Dawson, and me hanging at the house and baking and eating chili - it was nice, relaxed, and FULL of love.

Out of date Update

2010-02-11T09:40:00.006-07:00

Kaori's in another season of gymnastics and I think this just might be her niche/passion - she's really good and seems to really enjoy it!!! It is exciting to see her become her own person and decide what she's into, what she loves, hates, is offended by, supports... I really wish that more of you could spend more time with her! I was just talking to David and him and Jess leave in a few weeks for Idaho. They'll be absent of Colo for 4+ years. I told him that when he gets back, Kaori will be a pre-teen. The kid will be gone :(. I know that I'm bias because I spend all my days getting to see her, but I just feel like the world is missing out on her :).

Another interest of hers is pottery! She really enjoys creating something from a block, and getting to keep it as a piece of artwork! Art is really a magnet for her.

February was a busy month. The first weekend, Dawson and I went up to Grand Lake to spend some time with a friend of ours. We were invited to partake in judging the snow sculptures. Each business along the main road build sculptures and then this day they have a Winter Carnival and a ball at night. It was so much fun! We met so many "peops" (as Kaori would write), we were bribed with food and shots... let's just say, we were real friendly by 4 in the afternoon! It was a great experience and we made great friends.

Super Bowl Sunday I got to spend with Richard and Kellie. They seem to be so right for each other - they just get along real nicely, and seem to complete each other. I really like hanging out with them, and this day was no different. My only complaint - and I can write this because Dawson never reads these - I was kinda sad that day because I learned that he's still planning on being a fighter pilot for the Navy. I'm just going to have to do without him for so long, and I don't know how I'm going to deal with that. However, I can't express too much concern to him because I cannot deal with the thought of him sitting out because of me. Right now he's in helicopter pilot school, he graduates Jan 2011, at which point he'll start studying for the fighter pilot test, go ace it, and be off to play soldier boy around October (I think). At least I have a big family to support me. I wish I doubted him and figured that he'll never make it... but the kid is a nuclear chemist major, the top of his pilot class, and... he's Dawson. He'll make it.

Tons more in February to talk about - I'll get there eventually....

January Update

2010-01-30T10:11:00.001-07:00

Mid January I had a crumby Saturday. Sometimes, I just get so angry that I'm a girl. I told Dawson that I think that God must've thought this some great practical joke. I just get so frustrated and angry that I don't know how to dress, or that I go through shoes like toilet paper because the heels break, or whatever! So this one Saturday I went out with Dwason and Kaori to restock my shoes (I HATE Spending money on this stuff!!! but ALL of my shoes are busted!) Anyway, I ended up getting angry - first at price: Why do girls spend SO MUCH MONEY on shoes!? You Empower them!!!! Then I was angry that I couldn't find anything htat I liked. Plus, I Loathe shopping. Kaori told me that she was sorry I was cranky :( I just get so proud of her. I admire and aspire towards her ability to understand and comfort. She inspires me. She got to go to a party with her soccer gang to do Karaoke and I was happy that she didn't have to hang around my self. Time has moved, and after a lot of attempts, I found new shoes - that are already showing wear and tear. Maybe I should just buy payless anyway!

So, on the up and up - I was picked up by a basketball team!!! This was so exciting to me. I have been on a free lance list for years with no luck, and FINALLY! But boy did I stink! The girls were rightfully skeptical, but kind for the most part. Since I started (beginning of January) I have been practicing heavily and have come a long ways. I have decided that all soccer parents should be required to play their own sport, as it opens up an understanding for Kaori out there on the feild - it's different when you're in it.

Kaori had a hard time in January understanding the importance of honesty and responsibility. She would ignore my requests to do homework and chores, and of course, she then said "yes" to the boy after a promise that she wouldn't. Let me just say, being a parent is HARD! Teaching these morals, these lessons - does not come easy. After multiple talks over multiple weeks, and multiple punishments (grounding, extra chores, loss of privelages) I feel like we've made progress, and she agrees. The problems are small now, but can fray. She does not proactively do her homework and her chores and she argues with me when I request them of her. Also, she orders me and Dawson around (i.e. dinner, rides, etc.) But like I've said, we've seemed to have cleared that hurdle and she again, has moved to another age.

Speaking of Kaori, she (again) took the COGAT test to attempt to get into the Challange School (the smart Cherry Creek School). Again, she passed with flying colors and was accepted into the Highly Qualified waiting pool... in other words, she's smart, but they're full. It's ok though, her teacher is amazing and I feel like he meets her needs by far.

To finish off the January update, Kaori has received several more badges in Girl Scouts: Colors and Shapes, Cookie sales, Cooking, and more. However, I am disappointed in the girl scouts program this year. The leader (bless her heart) has been very busy with new foster children, and moving her faimly to a new home, so meeting have been cancelled a lot. Cory and I justify it by saying it gives her a break - afterall, she does guitar, soccer, Muay Thai kickboxing, gymnastics, pottery, painting.... so hey, a break can only be good for her ;)

We're healthy and happy here (of course, Kaori did just get over a nasty cold - hurtin' in the lungs) and I'd love to see any and all updates!

With love,

CKK
Dawson & Co.

Kaori's Love life

2010-01-19T09:20:00.002-07:00

Early January - she's been a third grader for 4 months and it's been discovered that.... She got a boyfriend!!!! She's had a crush on a boy in school and so we have talked about the situation, age, what is and isn't appropriate (i.e. saying "yes" to being asked out is INappropriate!). Then, we're having talk and she fesses up - another boy asked her out and she said yes! we then addressed that and talked about that.... she's agreed to break it off with him, heartache and all. Being a parent is hard!!!

LancerSnot (this is for you Miss Bonnie)

2010-01-10T18:10:00.000-07:00

Off to Uruguay!

2009-12-10T07:28:00.001-07:00

That's it.... just wanted to send a shout out! We leave in like... 9 hours!

HD Fashion Show

2009-11-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

11/24/09 - Dawson and I were asked to contribute to a fashion show for Harley - we knew that it wasn't really something that we were into, so we said yes :) We figured that both of us would like to experience everything we can, and neither one of us have ever been on a catwalk for rich people, so why not? We were offered the gig on our way to visit Mikey and the date was early November (I know, I'm way behind in my blogging). The date came, and we made the trip to Pueblo to shake our stuff. They dressed us all up in Harley gear, and there were about 6 other models. The event was a private event for the "big spenders" of Harley. Dawson and I really hammed it up, he even laid down on the model bike and mocked a nap! It was a lot of fun, but sadly, I was so busy, I didn't get any pictures!!! Can you believe it?! Anyway, another experience checked off the to-do list :)

My Soccer Champ

2009-11-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

Yet another soccer season out the door – of course, this was in November of 2009…. so I’m catching up on my blogging, right? Here are some pics for you – she’s pretty darn cute. She is so loaded with personality – and so colorful.

Ah yes, having snack at halftime

She did close out the season with a goal! So…. Dairy Queen!!!

Bertha Cries - Michael smiles

2009-11-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

October 2009:

We made the trip to Las Animas to visit the Big Brother. The drive actually wasn’t too bad – not as bad as we had imagined anyway. We had our pounds of quarters, snacks, drinks… we stopped in Pueblo for a Harley shirt at the HD outpost and were hired to model for an upcoming talent show – that was funny, we agreed to do it. We drove through town after town and maybe 40 minutes or so before we hit our destination we smelled fuel – figured maybe the town that we were in had some factories goin or something… we tossed around the unmentionable idea that it was Bertha, then we sent it back to the unmentionable box… Chris had to use the little ladies room, so as he is pulling into a gas station IN Las Animas, she quits – that’s right, Bertha dies… a group of guys happened to be standing outside of the gas station and Chris ordered me into the driver’s seat to steer the beast out off of the town’s highway – bummer! It was late! We had a white trash – rigged camper made up in the bed of the truck – Chris was pretty excited to get under there at the camp site we were heading to and watch flicks on his computer until sleep came over us.. but no, instead, we spent the night elbow deep in fuel.
The story has it that a fuel line busted –just broke in half. The kicker is that he replaced this SAME fuel line for a completely different reason only 8 months before this! What a bummer! He was so lucky to have made it to the town Las Animas, to the gas station, to have the help to move her out of traffic… of course, the station very blatantly states GASOLINE ONLY! Haha – just vinegar in a wound I guess! We were so thankful to have made it to the town instead of being in the middle of the plains we had been passing, in the dark, alone, with a 12,000 pound broken vehicle in the cold!
Chris came up with a temporary fix of plugging the fuel line and we realized that we could not make the rest of the trek to the campsite (about 5 more minutes of driving) so we had to spend some unnecessary bens to stay at a best western.. of course, it’s

an unfamiliar town, Dawson headed the wrong way and we ended up stranded at the bottom of the wrong hill, needing to turnaround! Shucks! We tried plugging and driving, plugging and driving… but to no avail – she wouldn’t hike up that hill.. she didn’t “think I can!” We were blessed again by a kind hunter driving a diesel who agreed to tow us to the hotel. Eventually, we made it.
We got to the room, I was SO ready to sleep, and Chris had brought up this cooler and in it? My BIRTHDAY cake! Ha-ha – he didn’t make me a cake for my bday and I had teased him bc he makes everyone else one! (I’m not even a fan of cake!) but this cake was DELICIOUS, and yes, it involved purple – the filling was purple!
Saturday Dawson walked across the street to the car quest (no joke, we really were blessed in this whole experience) and although they did not stock the needed pipe line, they did have tools that allowed Chris to pinch one end closed – allowing us to limp the truck around. He dropped me off with Mikey and he went off to do homework.
Mikey was good – he was nice, positive, friendly, playful… I guess I kind of expected to see some anger, hatred, frustration – somehow, he’s keeping his head up. He was relieved to hear of Jordyn’s whereabouts (in Nevada) and was depressed that she wasn’t with her mom or him for her 4th bday. He gets frustrated that he’s so helpless with her – he didn’t even know where she was, and he can’t do a thing about it. I can’t imagine that experience, and I pray that he is able to handle it better than I’m sure I would. We played games all day long, laughing, joking, talking – it was really nice. He said that it was really cool to receive a letter from Tawnya, and that so far he hasn’t had any all-day visitors, so he really enjoyed that. Chris joined us later in the day and no sooner had we arrived was it time to leave.
Bertha made it to Pueblo where there was a dealership… at the top of a huge hill… but she made it, they had the part, and Chris (as always) fixed the situation. On the way home, we crashed Colorado Springs for some dinner with Aunt Shawna and Breanna – it was really fun! She is so interesting! And Breanna and Kaori really like each other – we plan to crash her pad each time we visit Mikey. It’ll be like a mini quarterly partial family reunion…
Until next time,
KW

Dawson makes it to the big leagues!

2009-11-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

Dawson finally did it! He graduated – it was quite the excitement for me! I could tell he was proud too. We used to get into such debates over degrees and what worth they really carry with them! and here he is, getting his degree a whole year before me, and I’ve been going to school since I met him! Yes, I am jealous, but I am proud.

To celebrate, I took the gang out for steak. We had a really good time, enjoyed company, some wine – and off to bigger things!!!

The restaurant had menus printed that said “Congratulations” on them! If you look close, you can see.

Our server was really cool, and had a good time with us. In other words, he was patient.

Dawson ordered a steak for two!!! and yes, he put it all away!

SnowStorm 09

2009-11-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some fun shots of Kaori and Lance playing in the snow!

Hallow’s Eve 09

2009-10-31T20:18:00.000-06:00

We had some fun this year on Halloween – this was the first year that I wasn’t in school – so it opened up a lot of time to play. We made little grave yards out of pudding and oreos (yum!). Dawson and I also got some decoratives for the house – we made the most out of the dirt front yard – by attempting to make a grave yard out of it. Given, money wasn’t free flowing, so we couldn’t go as far as we would have liked, but he had a good time with Kaori decorating! Here she’s shaking the hand she put in the dirt mound.

She helped Dawson put the grim reaper in the tree…I was impressed at how high she was willing to go!

For Halloween, she put together her whole outfit – ensembled from multiple stores and jewelery boxes – she just kept her eyes peeled until she found every last accessory. I was rather impressed! I was Marilyn-in-The-Morning – that too was Kaori’s idea! This way, I was warm trick-or treating!

We went witha group of kids compiled from a few friends of ours – this is Tori – she’s on Kaori’s soccer team.

Pigs race

2009-10-15T23:31:00.000-06:00

Kaori’s school did a fund raiser and Kaori was rewarded for her sales with a mechanical pig – they put them on the table and whoever jumped off the edge first – wins! Morbid huh?

Bee stings Bee

2009-10-01T20:30:00.000-06:00

I got stung for my first time ever :( I was SOOOOOOOOOO mad too! Nice, sunny day – and OW! I was minding my own business, on a patio with some colleagues – and… OW! It hurt!!! for days!!!

Rachel’s Bday

2009-10-01T20:24:00.000-06:00

Girl Scouts 2009

2009-09-30T23:39:00.000-06:00

Kaori has been making strides in her girl scout badge acquisition! Making friends, and hopefully learning how to be GS material!!!

Mission Statement

2009-09-28T09:24:00.000-06:00

I am at my best when I am happy; I am busy; when others depend upon me; and when there is meaning.
I will try to prevent times when I am unorganized; unfocused; confused; there is no answer to the 'why'.
I will enjoy my work by finding employment where I can complete a sale and complete tasks.
I will find enjoyment in my personal life through time with Kaori; time with Dawson; scrapbooking; completing tasks and goals.
I will find opportunities to use my natural talents and gifts such as Organization; Talking to people; Giving advice; listening; Making others feel comfortable; Being aware of my surroundings; Internal locus of control; efficiency.
I can do anything I set my mind to. I will Donate my time to helping others take control of themselves and their lives.
My life's journey is To experience.
I will be a person who lived each day to the fullest - jumped in and took the 'bull by the horns' and rode - hard. I want to be remembered as fearless and bright..
My most important future contribution to others will be Encourage people to focus on the internal locus of control.
I will stop procrastinating and start working on:

being more patient
being more positive
Expanding my education

I will strive to incorporate the following attributes into my life:

Drive for elation
Speaking carefully - being very conscious - Educated in tongue
Innovative ideas - Active thinker

I will constantly renew myself by focusing on the four dimensions of my life:

Work out
Yoga
Studies
Learn from others experiences and opinions - Surround myself

Erma Bombeck earns my interest....

2009-09-28T08:40:00.000-06:00

"If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in
storage.
I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about
grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television - and more while watching life.
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.
I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't
show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, 'Later.
Now go get washed up for dinner.'
There would have been more 'I love you's'.. More 'I'm sorrys' ... But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute... look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back."

The Golden State

2009-09-21T21:16:00.000-06:00

I currently sit in the computer room of Chris' dad's home in Ceres, CA. Chris' 10 year reunion was on Saturday night so we have been planning on coming out here for quite some time. This trip has been quite interesting. I've been in an odd spot in my life and I am in the midst of some rather effective decisions - all when this trip came about. Well, Chris planned a major date - I've been on a date since I left good ol' Colorado. One large "tour de California" date. We landed late on the 17th and drove the hour and a half from San Jose to Ceres for some welcoming home videos with Michelle (chris' sister) and Dad. Soon enough, we were in bed for some much needed rest. Friday morning we rose at our own pace and Dad and Michelle had made some delicious breakfast casserole and we ate and watched John Adams (which has become quite addictive for Chris and me). This was an eventful day as we put on suits, purchased snacks and intertubes and drove for about an hour to our destination - a river. We started at what is called Knight's Ferry. What an adventure! We rafted down rapids, across "lakes", into trees, over rocks - what a mess we would've been had we not by-chance purchased paddles! It was a four hour trip to get to Orange Blossom (where we had left the other car) and it was dark and cold! Needless to say, it was a great time. The water is fall off from the Sierra Nevada mountains so it is Freezing cold. We also got a late start (3:30). Dad and I paddled like there was no tomorrow - Chris (the crazy brute) eventually had his lower half in the water paddling us with his feet from behind! He was cold for quite some time. We finally got home, rinsed off, and ordered Chinese food for some relaxing time with white boxes of sweet and sour. Boy did I sleep well that night.

Saturday morning we got up at 9 and Dad, Chris, and I drove to Bart - the train system here in NorCal. We took Bart to San Francisco and immediately jumped on a cable car. What an experience! there were a lot of lines, and the cars were loaded. What an interesting and amazing thought that this was the mass transit system. We made it to the boardwalk and walked pier 39 - where I saw HUNDREDS of sea lions! And boy to they smell terrible. They are a nuiscance that have taken over the piers and PETA now protects them - which I feel ridiculous. Dad and I were treated to a delicious lunch overlooking the ocean at Fisherman's Grotto - what delicious Clam Chowder! We also had Calamari Viniagrette - which was really strange. Not breaded, but in oils. I didn't care for it because of the oil, but Chris demolished it! We did some shopping and some sight seeing and headed back to wait in the cable car line for an hour and a half - to make it back up pass lumbard?? street and to our train - it was COLD! After a long trek, we made it back home by 8:30 and I hurried to shower and ready myself for the reunion.

The reunion was interesting - the venue would not even come close to accomodating my graduating class - and my class was SMALL! Some of these people are still living for high school, but the cool people happened to be Chris' friends. It was fun to see him run into people who didn't recognize this strong, self-confident Dawson. They all mentioned how toned and buff he is now :) He had a good time and was glad he decided to do it. After some heated up Chinese, we hit the pillows.

Sunday was our day of no-plans. We hung around, ate French Toast, speghetti, and watched John Adams. The end.

Brings me to today. Today we got up at 3 in the morning to make a 2.5 hour trip to Yosemite Valley! It was just beautiful. We drove to a place called Glacier Point and watched the sun come up over half dome. Just incredible. This whole valley was formed by a HUGE glacier carving through mountains. I can tell that the place holds a lot of memory for Chris and he was rather excited to take me there and show me this place in his life. It was really nice. After this we went and found a breakfast buffet and then ended up in Columbia, CA. This town is really cute and really dead! haha, but on the weekends, it is generally pretty hoppin - at least that is what I am told. This town was a major contributing site of gold during the gold rush. Millions of dollars worth of gold came out of this town. Again, a piece of Chris' life that I now get to share. We made the long trip back and as a grand finale to the tour, he took me to La Monita's for some cabbage salsa - which turned out to be better in memory, but still good. I am blessed to have him care so much to share these things with me - now, to figure out my other puzzles....

The Aloha State – the expanded version

2009-09-15T14:46:00.000-06:00

Where do I start? How about flying over the Atlantic. Did anyone catch that? It’s the Pacific you sillys! That was cool… I took pictures of the island – specifically of Pearl Harbor. I won’t post them out of respect for the U.S. Military (you know, keeping the homeland secrets). But really, if anyone wanted to see Pearl Harbor – they could just use Google. That said, I will say that Pearl Harbor is very advantageous – but you wouldn’t realize it until you get the bird’s eye view. :)

So, on a 40 minute cab ride (from the smallest airport ever) to our abode – I see the coolest trees ever! With some bums…. not quite what you imagine when you think “Hawaii” – but where better to be a bum??? I mean, you can surf all day! And sleep on the beach!

Everything seemed a bit odd in Oahu – made up if you will. It is definitely the party island in Hawaii – I mean, check out this raver: Yup, Penguins in HI – just cruel! The view from our hotel room:

Not bad considering how industrialized Oahu really is – it’s not the paradise island, it’s the shop and party island! We were all kind of surprised. Robin got this place as a trial to a time share – and she knew even before she got to the room that she wasn’t interested. She has been to Kauai and she LOVED it there, and she really digs Maui.

Food was unfortunately expensive! Here, Robin and I enjoy our $4.00 cups of coffee! By the end of the trip, we all agreed that we should’ve rented a car as cab rides all over the island did not prove to be cheap. However, we did luck out by meeting a cab driver that kind of ended up as our personal chauffer at the end of the trip.

This was some strange pho-like soup that Dawson got to eat for Breakfast. For the most part, the food was pretty normal- but the Kaluah pork…. YUM! Also, every menu offers Spam :)

The first item on the agenda was Chris’ item: Hanauma Bay. I texted my AB (awesomest buddy) Bread from Hanauma Bay and upon my return, he confessed that he had desired to toss his phone out of the window out of anger and jealousy! Haha, he is so funny.

Hanauma Bay is a volcano that had a side blown out of it however-long-ago. Now, as you can see, it is filled with coral reef – and fish… indigenous to HERE! Seriously, fish that you will find NO WHERE else! Chris took me snorkeling and it was by far one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. Robin sat out – but man, she made that beach look HOT!

The next day, we got up all too early and went to Pearl Harbor (where Dawson was stationed) to see flowers… okay, you got me - we were there for the hot dogs. Anyway, I cant’ really explain how I felt – I didn’t like it. I was just so sad – I felt it my obligation to go – pay my respects I guess; but I didn’t really want to. It’s just such a sad place. There was NO way i was going out to the Arizona – Nuh Uh! Robin and Chris did though, and that was perfectly fine with me. I just waited for them and walked through the small museum that they had – and tried not to read too much. I tried to read the factual stuff and not the personal affects (journal entries, letters, etc.) – Just so sad and too sad for me.

I really love those two, they are such great, confident, smart people and I truly enjoy both of their company. Just, moments when you realize, you’re getting old! But I am blessed to have them in this life o’ mine.

This is the bowfin – a sub. Chris was so excited to take us onto a sub and show us around. It was really cute to see him back in his element. he was just flooded with memories. He also seemed to be flooded with the desire to get back into it.

As you all may or may not know, he’s been considering it for quite some time now, and quite seriously – He’s meant for this stuff – especially in terms of fighting! He’s just cut out for it – a true blue cold, heartless, killing, mechanism! Oh,… maybe I should keep that to myself…

This is me climbing through a door

Showin off his guns….

This is the Missouri – where Japan finally surrendered to us on paper. They had surrendered before hand but this was the meeting and the signing. Talk about your guns! Quite impressive – i know that I would’ve surrendered a long time ago :)

But look at those guns!

We soon were off to Maui on a plane – a short flight over a couple islands. The whole purpose was to meet up with our close friends – The Allens. Jen and Kevin came into our lives in the Fall of 2008 over some soccer – their daughter plays with Kaori. It was just coincidence that we were over in HI the same time that they were out there renewing their vows on their 10 year anniversary. We could not believe the odds that we were both out there during the same weekend without having planned it at all! I(t was really beautiful. They got married on the beach at sunset and wow! I mean, they just looked beautiful together. And so happy – and I was really happy that we were lucky enough to make it down there and be there for them. We went to dinner with them and then off to hotel rooms and beach walks. We actually stayed out swimming in the ocean until about 4 am! Dawson and I walked over 2 miles back to our hotel room! He went to bed and I went back out onto the beach and sat in serenity. There were crabs all over the beach! you wouldn’t know it unless you were there in silence. They crawl quietly all over the beach and run from feet before you could see them (if you were walking).

We ended our Maui trip on the beach simply relaxing. We had breakfast on the beach,napped on the beach, walked along the beach – and I ran into a business contact on the beach! What a small world! We had some mai tais and soon enough were heading off to the Airport. We flew back to Honolulu in time to layover to our late overnight flights to return to our home of Colorado.

the Aloha State

2009-09-06T11:04:00.000-06:00

As though I didn't spend enough @ DisneyWorld, or in New York, here I am in Hawaii. I'm with my two best friends, Dawson and Robin and we are relaxin in the sun, drinkin wine on lanais, and laughing. Its quite a release from the joke-of-a-job I've got waiting for me back in the most amazing state I know. Yesterday chris took us to Hanauma Bay- this was amazing. We went snorkeling and I saw colors I only thought existed in the 80's. It was magnificent. Snorkeling is a cool experience and one never to skip if you get the opportunity- especially in Hanauma Bay. We came back w memories and fried skin. Apparently the sun doesn't mind SPF.Everything is expensive here. Robin had a quiche the size of a cup-holder and some apple juice and spent $30! You get robbed here-but people pay. I actually don't like it much. It feels so fake. Its all touristy, and commercial. An interstate on a tropical island is ... I dunno...wrong and gross. Well, I'm off to remember and pay my respects to Pearl Harbor. Until soon.

The attempt at Mt. Evans

2009-08-11T20:39:00.000-06:00

Kaori wanted to join me on a 14er and it's about time that I do one this year, so we headed up to Idaho Springs to tackle Mt. Evans. I was planning on doing an easy 2 mile round trip trail, but it was closed for restoration. So, since Chris and I are stubborn so we hiked up the road to try to find another trail to the top instead of just accepting our fate and hiking a 5.5 roundtrip trail. So, we ended up hiking a road basically, which one could argue is historical since it is the highest paved road in North America and it was build in 1939... well... we didn't feel historical. In fact, it was boring and unnatural. So, we broke some non-written rules, went off-trail for a minute to eat lunch and headed back down the road to Bertha to get home for Fight night!

Summit Lake

He Really Did sleep there! For almost 20 minutes!

Aggggh!!!

Can you see it???

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Cutting through BarBQue

2009-08-11T18:21:00.000-06:00

The parents came back through Colorado on their way west and we que'd it up. It was SOO great to see everyone and most importantly, I got to see my big nephew James!

Moose's Progress

2009-08-11T07:59:00.000-06:00

After some serious sweating in the hot sun, Moose and I made some serious progress in his front yard. He got up early to go and collect a ton of dirt (literally) to fill his yard. When he got back, the back ho showed up and we got to work. Funny thing is that after emptying the truck and then carving the hills out of his yard, he had about a ton of extra dirt :)

So far the soon-to-be-finished project looks good. He's recently bought all of the material for his sprinkler system and he will put that in soon enough! To be continued...

The long awaited Reunion!

2009-08-10T14:53:00.000-06:00

Hiking!

2009-08-03T14:55:00.000-06:00

I took Kaori on her first hike this weekend! We went up to Boulder Saturday morning to get some ground covered. She had so much fun! Here's the evidence...

Kid's Spree & Moose's Bday

2009-08-03T14:15:00.000-06:00

So much going on around here - I have no idea how I ever fit school in! Lance got worms so I already had the opportunity to work with his veterinarian who was very helpful, understanding, and thorough in taking care of him! His glucose has not been consistent by any means so I am perpetually contacting los padres to ensure I'm doing it all right... he's really happy though - like a puppy. He's jumping up on me, being a c-dog, and also being defiant. Here's a quick video of his post-bath routine - I remember he used to run along our couches when he was a puppy - perhaps he uses the floor now since he knows it's there and he can't see the couches ... :)

Work is pretty strange - My CEO has been canned, my boss was demoted, we've a new VP of Sales... it's all so surreal. However, I landed my biggest deal yet this month and it feels fantabulous! It's already time for our annual Kid's Spree festival so Moose, Mini-Me, and I took off and enjoyed a day in the sun for Freckles - and she had a great time! Blow up contraptions, crafts, coloring on cars, painting, mazes, dress-up... karaoke - never fails to be entertained here... oh, and fattenign food - yum!

Last week was Dawson's 28th. It turned out to be an interesting week. The kid is working in Kansas M-Th right now and of course, his bday was on Wednesday. So, I left work early and made the 4.5 hour trip East to surprise him. With the help of his colleague, I made it to Oberlin, KS undetected :). He was really surprised and very happy (woo hoo!) We went to the One and only thing to do in this town - the American Legion and hun

g out with the crowd. It was great, nice people, good convo, and great company! I worked out of the haunted B&B while Crhis and Todd hung pipe on Thursday and we made the trek home. We did find a frog for his birthday though...

So, I had planned a night for Chris to hang out with friends since he's always in his basement doing homework, or in Kansas working, I figured it to be a good opportunity to get out for him. There were three objective-showups - that is, 3 people that I know chris likes to hang out with and would enjoy seeing: Kevin, David E., and Jeffrey. I had it occur on Friday since Dave is off. We hung out at Kevin and Jen's since well, they've got 5 kids... going out just doesn't happen that easily :). Jeff was in and he invited a handful of people. Friday rolls around, I tell Chris about it and ... well, he wasn't stoked. I had no idea just how much he HATES doing stuff for his birthday... whoops! Little late, youknow? So, we headed over to the Allen's for a small hang out.. well, we got small. We kicked it with Kevin and Jen until after 10 when David E. showed up after hanging out at Cal's... and he said he couldn't stay long cuz he had to go to the gym. Then Jeff showed up after 10:30... wow... way to make an effort! I was REALLY pissed. That said, Chris wasn't. It was perfect for him - he got to hang out and drink with Kevin and no big show happened and he had a good time. I'm still pissed. For the rest of the weekend, we three geeked out playing Hero Quest - it was really great!

I fixed up Chris' bike and also surprised him with a new laptop! He is so happy to have his own to work on now!

Short update and hello

2009-07-13T10:31:00.000-06:00

Welcome to July. I am done with school until March '10! That's exciting. Kaori did VBS (bible school) the last week of June and really loved it. She is so incredible, and just loves all the attention she gets from everyone. We have a new addition to our household, LancerSnot! Chris and I are happy to take him under our wing for the year. He is patiently awaiting mom & Dad's return. As some of you may or may not know, he is diabetic so he's not exactly low maintenance :) He recently shot up too high (in terms of his glucose) so we're upping his fix (insulin) and hoping he'll come back down.

Kaori and I hang out every weekend, but she's with Cory and his family through wednesday, with a friend on Thursday, and on the farm w/ Aunt Rachel on Fridays. It's a lonely week, but it's also kinda nice to have the freedom to ride around and hange out with people. While I'm in school, I just get excited when I have 2 hours to watch a movie - so I'm rekindling a lot of relationships. Chris has been relocated to a job in Kansas - today was his first day. He takes off Monday mornings @ 2 am and will be back Thursday night. Now I don't have Dawson, or Freckles - at least I have Snot! I will have a hard time without those two, but I have a lot of projects that should keep me distracted until Moose is back. He's still in school, but somehow, we seem to hav emore time lately. Saturday we went to the 100th UFC fight at Jen and Kevins's. I love going over there. It's just chill, no rules, no drama - just friends, good people, kid friendly, and a lot of fun. I hope you all are good and living up life! Keep in touch and I will try to do the same!

Middle Wetherbee and MiniMe update

2009-06-17T11:54:00.001-06:00

Sometimes, I get so sad knowing that our whole family is dispersed and seperated...

Quick update on my life and my week:

Kaori's playing on a summer soccer league and she is really improving her game! She's also got such a big heart. Her art teacher was retiring and it was vital to her to make it to her retiremet party :) Lara turned 25 this month (25% done!) so Kaori went to her friend's bday party while I joined Lara at her Bday party - funny, we still party the same as 10 years ago (haha). Now, witha bike and all, I gotta make it to the biker parties, so I did that last weekend - it was beautiful and no surprise street posts!
Also, a tornado showed up in Colo on the 7th! Pretty strange - it was behind Chris' house (to the east) and went right through the yard of one of our good friends! they are all ok, and this was such a surprise! It kicked us out of the front yard, where we were building the reatining wall for chris' dirt-lawn :)

Works' pretty crazy right now - I'm having a tough time selling with some uncontrollable issues, but we have a great team and I just keep truckin!

Kaori's done with 1st grade. I had a pretty rough time with it. I'm just not ready. I feel like I'm missing out - I don't know how to explain it, but I cried a lot. I realize that it's out of my control and all, but it's just so hard to see my little baby going into 2nd grade... I hate it with a passion actually.

This last weekend Chris took me and Kaori toa 40's ball! it was incredible - and now that we know what to expect, I can't wait to go next year! I'm going to get all jazzed up! We then stayed up till 4 am with friends playing Golden Tee!

We got up 3 hrs later to go the Ren Festival - when we discovered chris' wallet was missing - we went to Boulder (where the Ball was) and tracked it down believe-it-or-not! The festival was a great time - and we were beat!

Life is good here and we miss everyone! We're both fininshing up school - Chris will be done altogether in Dec and I am done now until March (yay!)

Until the next time Folks.

With love,

Wetherbee

2009-05-26T07:39:00.000-06:00

hey everyone, just thought I'd throw out a quick update:

All is really well our way. Work is heating up with some good stuff in my pipeline, Chris keeps moving up his ladder impressing people all around his copmany, and Kaori is almost done with FIRST grade!!! Chris and I are in school right now, full time so things are pretty boring our way - and busy. Kaori's done with soccer for a couple of weeks, so that helps a bit, but really, we're always in front of a darn computer :) Chris is considering joining the military when he finishes his degree in November and I'm plannin on.... nothing, just living up life :)

This Memorial weekend was fun - we took Kaori to Night at the Museum in the IMAX and she was scared of the size of the screen :) it was cute - she is so much fun to hang out with. Saturday we went and met up with some friends of ours who have an incredible finished basement now :) but really, Chris and I just wanted to hang out with them again. With school (and our friend Jen is going to school full time and she has FIVE kids!) all of us just don't have a whole lotta time goin around - I'm glad that we ditched the studies and went to hang out - we had a really nice time with great people. I love hanging out over there because I just get to sit back and relax - they are just great friends to have.

Sunday chris and I were Kaori-less so we took advantage and sat on the hogs. We rode down to Franktown and had breakfast at Grill on The Hill - delicious! Went to the parents to show off our horses and no one was present... Sunday night my sister, Lara and her magnificent other joined us for.... DOUBLE FISTED DOUBLE FEATURE!!! We go to the movie tavern and watch movies back to back with Tankers back to back and "walk" home - it's really fun. We saw Angels and Demons and Terminator - both fun movies and it was REALLY cool that Lara came :)

Yesterday was really nice, we got Kaori and drove back down to Franktown for some bbq action, games, fire, and relaxation. We love it down there. We were last minute invited to some more BBQ action at my buddy Hiphops' place so we all went and hung out there for some mORE food, and some AWESOME nuggets action....It was fun and relaxing, now... back to work!

The Disney World side of things...

2009-04-17T08:01:00.001-06:00

Off to keep the economy alive by ourselves!

2009-04-17T06:59:00.001-06:00

Out to Clearwater, FL... it is absolutely beautiful there!

What great people I get to hang out with...

Tell me she's not stunning....

Does anyone even read these???

2009-04-13T07:38:00.000-06:00

So... we bought some fun toys....

Then I tested out who would win in a fight...

Shoot... you should see the street light!!!

See??? :)
I was with most of you yesterday for Easter and realized that I almost died... and no one knew... (revealed to me via David and Michelle) I figured that's not that big of a deal, if I did die, you all would find out eventually... right? So, now you all know that I just spent my earnings on my death machine... I have no clue what I'm doing, so if I die before May, hit up Kaori for some money.... that's when my life insurance lapses.... after May... well, good luck!

2009-03-11T16:23:00.000-06:00

Things are really good my way. Busy of course, and it’s hard to keep swimming sometimes, but you guys know how I do. I just got a promotion today! That was really exciting, especially because TransUnion froze raises company wide for 2009. Same position, just other benefits like salary pay, a cooler title, a bigger check, and possibly an office?? That would be fun. I have been trying to catch up at work while still fitting in dates with Moose, tea parties (and homework) with Kaori, and homework for my education as well. It’s going well, thank goodness for time planners! Moose and I are doing stupendously! Pregnancies can put a lot of strain on a relationship. This strain was unseen, or under the surface ifyou will, but Chris was so supportive and wonderful throughout Alyssa’s making, but I overlooked paying attention to him. Now though, we’re as strong and happy as ever, which is nice to be back to that!

Kaori is great, she turned 7 last month, and one of her gifts is DisneyWorld. We leave in two weeks for that, it should be a great time. She is doing so well in school, and she starts soccer again this week. She is so full of life, love, attitude, wisdom, and spirit. She has grown up so much over the last couple of weeks, I can't explain it!

We've been going up to the mountains almost every weekend this winter. Kaori is loving the skiing thing, and Dawson and I get stupider and stupider every time we go. We all have so much fun together! We have met a GREAT friend in the moutnains and she lets us stay at her house in Grand Lake. Kaori rides (and drives) their snowmobiles... it's a really good time.

School is in the swing, I have this summer and next to hammer out and I'm DONE till I get an itch to try to go to Harvard when I'm 39 (ahem!)

I hope you all are doing well!!!!

Love,

HoneyBee

The last two weeks have been Biiiizzzy!

2009-01-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

I left off about two weeks ago... the week of Christmas. These past two weeks have been a great and relaxing time. Christmas Eve I worked until around 11. Cory's (wonderful) parents brought my mini-me to me as I enjoyed a glass of wine with a couple of friends on the glorious day. Kaori got to open a present right when she got to me, it was her christmas eve dress (she loved it)... I'd give you pictures... but my computer crashed... and yes, I am panicking, I am very anxious about this. Let's not talk about it. So, Chris and I had every intent of going to Franktown for the Christmas Eve party early since we'd have to leave to get to his family. It didn't work out... never does though. The party was a lot of fun. My whole family was present, and that is a very rare occurence We played games, laughed, opened some presents, and Chris and I split to head North to his family’s party. That too was splendid. Christmas morning… yet again…. 6th year in a row, I’ve had to wake up Kaori!!! I tell her she stinks at being a kid. Santa was good to all of us, and we had a great time together. Kaori made out (as always) with an Mp3 player, a new bike, TONS of clothes, books, movies… lucky gal. I got Chris a ton of Family Guy seasons, an Mp3 player, and I unveiled his ping pong table. I told him I got the topper at CalSpas as it turns out, they sell stands. He had no idea that he would be coming home to a pool table on Monday!!! It’s his Fully Wicked awesome ping pong stand :). I made out with tons of tv-on-dvd, and a Dyson Ball, and the MOST AMAZING bed set one has ever known. No sooner had we opened the last present did we have to go to get Kaori off to Cory and his family… it’s only fair, right?? :) Chris and I hung out with our new toys all day. Eventually, we headed over to my parent’s place for some grub and some laughs and then took off to see Valkrie…. Which was sold out, so we saw The Spirit… which stunk. Eva Mendes was the only good thing about that movie. I worked for a little bit the following day. Chris gave me a ride in to work, we had breakfast together, Kaori met up with Chris until my ending came, and we headed North to get those wretched nails out of my finger!!! That sucked. So painful. So annoying. But so necessary. Kaori and Chris were there with me. I know it may seem silly, but I really didn’t want to be alone. They played computer games and Kaori was kicking Chris’ butt :) but it was so great to have them there. I had being numbed. After it was all over, we met up with a great friend of mine, Robin, for lunch. I love this free time of year :). The weekend looked pretty open, and as much as we would’ve loved to, this finger couldn’t go boarding :) Instead, we played games, watched movies, and I (of course) cleaned :)

The Ping Pong table and stand was successfully installed on Monday… the first day I’ve ever known chris to be violently sick. Go figure! He was so terribly sick.. and so unable to get away from work. I still made sure to beat him home but man, was he sick! He said the table was awesome, I made him a bed on the couch and he passed out. Bummer… what a discounted night!!! Of course, I wasn’t upset, this is all par for my course. The following day Chris had to call in, and my alarm went off, I snoozed (as always) and it died in the time! So, I woke up around 11… my brother’s wedding was in three hours! That’s my little brother too… he’s twenty :)

The wedding went off without a hitch…oh wait, David and Jess got hitched, but besides that… it was great. We cleaned up and got home in time for chris to get to bed for his bright and early day. New Years was a blast! Robin joined us over to Kevin and Jen’s place (they are SOOO hospitable and absolutely AWESOME!). We all just had great conversation, and a great time overall. That’s a great (and safe) way to bring in the new year. New Year’s Day was laid back, we played ping pong, had some friends over, played games, it was a great time. And here we are to the new year. Everyone is sick! I didn’t go to work Friday since Cory had the flu and I didn’t want Kaori to be with him. We watched The Last Unicorn and kicked back for the day. Actually, Chris had to get an oil change, so we dropped off his truck, and walked over to The Smiling Moose, had stupendous sandwiches and played a trivia game… Kaori’s pretty darn smart!!! We impulsively went to buy a wii, but no one had any, so we gave up on that idea… then got home to pack for the weekend skiing! I put Kaori in a class on Saturday, and she had so much fun. Chris and I had a blast doing run after run and toward the end of the day, we stopped in for some wings and a drink. Kaori wanted to go up with us so we went up the bunny hill. It was too soon for her. She’d been on the REALLY tiny hill all day, and she wasn’t ready for my pushy self forcing her down the hill, plus BOY was she tired! We got down for her to excitedly show us her skills on the tiny hill, and headed out for some Pizza in Grand Lake. That place is gorgeous. I love it. The pizza was fantastic too… Chris is so good at making yummy stuff! They had GREAT garlic bread too… and Moose Juice! We stayed in a lodge up the way and played PS games and watched movies. Kaori, Chris, and I took up skiing after a deliciously filling breakfast yesterday. Kaori went up and down that bunny hill like she’d never get to ski again. She loves it. I’ll be getting her some gear this week. I learned something interesting about Kaori this weekend. I guess I’ve always known it, but I finally put my finger on it. We were getting frustrated with each other on the big hill (we only did that one once). She was frustrated that I was trying to give her pointers, and I was frustrated that she wasn’t listening to my pointers. I am just this way. I like to teach myself, even if I’m hiking Everest, I want to do it alone. It’s hard for me to take word from others, just because I want to do it for me… someone else has learned by themselves at one point, so I know I’m capable. She is the same way, so we were bickering because we are so much alike… I’m so darn proud of her. She wanted no word from me, or Chris, she just wanted to ski, and crash all on her own, and do it herself. What an impressive little being she is. At least I still have some of these pictures!!! So, that’s the catchup… word to you all!

Here's a quick clip to see her go!

mixed feelings

2008-12-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

this weekend was much needed. kaori went overr to her gparent's home for the christmastime slumber party. That was great bc she was so excited! I love to see her smile. We were going to go to the nugs game, but it fell through, so chris and I had pho with some friends, and went to. See yesman and the day the earth...we experienced six tavern tankers (this is where Jen and Kevin are surprised :)). So, we had a blast :). The next day I got up to go get chris' shopping done...ifailed over and over... I just haven't been able to settle on a present for him.kaori opted to stay at the gparent's home until today, which stunk since I missed her terribly, but she was having so much fun. Chris and I had hibachi and went home to kick it with adam and krystle. I guess I say this weekend was needed bc, as much as I missed buddha, chris and I don't get that much time to ourselves very often. It was really good for me to just focus on him. I am so lucky to have such an amazing, attractive man at my side. Sometimed, you can get too caught up in life, and I feel this weekend really slowed us down. Plus, I finally committed to a gift for him!!! :). Merry christmastime!

Busy Weekend...

2008-12-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

Kaori grew up this past weekend. I hate it when this happens, yet at the same time, it is so amazing. Kaori seems to have milestones of maturity. It's not a gradual thing...it's like a "grow up" checkpoint is reached, and she morphs within minutes. The minute I realized it was happening was when she came around a corner in the house, made a funny comment while pulling up her too-big-around-the-waste-pants. Chris said "she doesn't seem like the six-n-a-half year old anymore.... i knew it was happening... again.

This weekend was fun, but too busy, and too fast. Friday Kaori had a rehearsal for her Christmas pageant so Chris decided that we should go out. He is so awesome. He said he wanted to go out since he figured I'd want to go dancing... he's so selfless and generous. Jeff, Chris, and I met up for pho (yum yum!) and afterwards, Chris and I went to meet up with Robin at the Summit. We... or at least I had a blast! I think Chris did... but I wouldn't remember... haha, just kidding... kind of. I ordered a glass of wine, but they were out of normal wine glasses so they gave me a glass of wine in a big glass. I am a lightweight, Merry Christmas! Our friend, J.R., his friend Eddie, Chris and I went over to JD's, had some fun, and then Chris and I went home.

Saturday morning we rose to go help Meals On Wheels wrap presents for those that are less fortunate. That's always an uplifting event. It's cool to see so many people willing to sacrifice their time for strangers. Plus, I get to hang out with Bonnie, and this time, my sister Kellie was there too! I had to leave there around noon to get off to lunch with the Hardisons.

After lunch, Kaori and I shopped (successfully) and then met up with Cory to swap Kao. I headed back to ready myself for a night of... clubbing?? It's Jen's bday night and I promised I'd treat her out :)
Robin joined us and here are we 3 before going out.

We ended up at the melting pot all night, and mother nature tried to snow us in! Yeah right! You can't cage these wild horses. This night was so much fun though, even though the dancing never happened. All of us just laughed and joked for hours over to-be-cooked food. I drove us all home in those terrible conditions, (see the picture? 1 degree!) but the Allen's Escalade can hang! It's really good in the snow - and fun to drive - especially with funny inebriated friends in the back :) The roads were awful - we had to have passes 15 abandoned cars stuck on the side of the road on our trip home.

It may be 1 degree outside, but we ladies are dedicated to the cause!!!

Sunday we rose early to make it to Kao's Christmas pageant. How cute! Save for the fact that I got to sit in church twice over the course of 3 hours, I had a lot of fun. She was so proud and so darn cute up there! The second session, she was sooo tired and so over it! When we checked out, Chris and I wrapped until the time came to go to family dinner. Yum, breakfast for dinner! Of course, Chris missed his time window for a good night's sleep, and that always frumps me out. He's gotta work ten hour days, and he does it on less than 6 hours sleep constantly.... I feel terrible for him. To top off the whole weekend....Kaori tells me that she's no longer afraid of the dark.

From Kaori's family!!!

2008-12-12T08:49:00.001-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Kaori summin up the story of the finger

2008-12-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Christmas Lighting

2008-12-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

I found it!!! It was "autosaved" yay!!!

We had a grand ol' night tonight. Lit the tree up... good lookin' tree too! Got it from McCoy's... not cheap, but gorgeous! Today didn't quite go as planned. There was a breakfast with Santa that we missed (too late o' start) then we were going to do the creche exhibit with the family, but Bonnie is still in Utah with the wonderful, strong new mommy, Tawnya, and dad (I assume you are reading this) was nowhere to be found :) So Kaori and I hung out here, she soon took a nap (slumer party last night). She slept hard. I finished a final, got her up, and off to her indoor soccer game (the got their butts whooped but Kaori really hustled :)) Afterwards, I couldn't reach Dad or David for the ward christmas party so Kaori and I voted to return to the home to decorate for Christmas... finally! We got our tree up right after Turkey day, but haven't been able to decorate since.

Kaori is an amazing little girl. Her funny today was when she was telling me about a girl at school. I said, "yeah, I know her, right?" and she said "she's got black hair" I said (inappropriate I know) "the fat one?" she said, "MOM... she's heavyset... yes."...

That was fantastic. She asked what was so funny and I explained that she is keeping me in line. She is so moral, happy, upstanding, and independent. I learn from her every day. She is so amazing. She made her own ornament tonight too... she is so great. The other day we went shopping and she wouldn't come into Spencers because it is "a bad store"... I totally agreed with her and hung out in the mall with her while Chris grabbed something we needed for his nephew.

Those are my poorly written stories... I'm in a bit of a hurry to go watch a bad movie. Kaori would not be proud of me... but it's gonna be funny! (Reno 911)

Giving you the Finger

2008-12-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

So... this is the worst thing I've ever been through. Given, I don't remember the pain from breaking my collar bone, but this is the worst thing I can ever remember being through. I broke my finger catching a football on the beach in Florida. I then proceeded to play, then went swimming, then played pool. The next day, I flew home and slept. The day after I went to work. The boss sent me to the doctor who told me I was missing a piece of bone.... sweet! I did that playing football?! that is awesome... I really thought it was cool. My finger looked like it had been slammed in the door. Well, she put me in a splint and sent me off with a reference to the Hand Guys...

So, I get there and Doc tells me that I can leave it the way it is and it will heal permanently deformed and I'll never be able to use it like I use to... so what does he do?? Yeah....
Needlesstosay, it HURTS! He gave me 15 pills of something that did nothing. Seriously, BLESS my PCP who gave me something stronger than PCP to let me forget about the reverberating pain through my arm. Beware of those footballs!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-12-02T08:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend I asked Chris to meet me after work on Friday. Thanksgiving weekend... I wanted to do nothing. Well, in our lives, doing nothing is a LOT of work. So much so, that we can never get it done. Each time we try to do a whole lotta nothing, something X 10 comes up. So, how can I be sure we do nothing?? By making it priority. Sure, the hotel was only20 minutes from his house... but we got her done! He showed up Friday night, and I brought a ton of movies, games, and stuff.

That's all folks. We ordered in Chinese, watched the sexy Robert Downey kick some terrorist a$$, slept... woke, ate, watched movies, ate, slept, woke, ate, watched movies... it was so needed, so worth it, and so fantastik.

Black Friday

2008-11-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day. Kaori, Moose, and I had a stupendous Thanksgiving yesterday. We rose on our own time (kind of... I didn't sleep well) and I got to studying while Moose made us some darn good Bfast! No sooner had we finished breakfast and we were out the door to our first dinner.

We went to Jen and Kevin's dinner. It was fantabulous! Kaori had a blast with all of the kids, and Chris and I chowed on the great grub! I feel so lucky to be a friend with such a family. Jen and Kevin have 5 children, and they just seem so darn happy. We have so much fun hanging out with them. They are so down to earth, and they live to live... these things seem so hard to find.

After dinner we went off to Robin's dinner. Again, I am so lucky to have such a friend. I was so impressed at her home! I've known Robin for 3 years, we've been close for almost 2 years... and I've never seen her home :). After a couple glasses of wine (for me), we bid farewell, only to head off to the third and final dinner - the Dawsons.

Needless to say, it was interesting. There were a couple of people during this day that (in my opinion) didn't appreciate this holiday the way it should be. This is my favorite holiday. This is the one holiday that I have always related to and believed in. This holiday is hard core facts, and very necessary. Too many people live their lives without appreciation for what they have. As Adam's gf says, "To be upset of what you don't have is a waste of what you do have... " People need to realize what they have, so many people are not as lucky.

I, however, am SOOO blessed. I have an amazing family. I have amazing friends. I have the COOOOOLEST person EVER as a daughter (she ROCKS). And of course, I have Moose. I have a GREAT job. I have a degree, and another one on the way, and a generous government that has paid for a lot of it. I have sanity. I have motivation. I have drive. I have happiness. I have comfort. I am VERY rich. I don't have very many US Dollars. But I am rich in so many things. I feel so blessed, and this holiday is a day to only focus on such things.

I actually don't really know what I've written, so this ending may be abrupt... but I have things to do!