September 11th

I cannot believe it's been 10 years.

A decade.

I don't think anyone who was old enough to know what was

going on will ever forget exactly where they were and what they

were doing when the twin towers fell.

I grew up hearing my parents talk about how they remember

exactly what they were doing the day that JFK was assassinated.

But didn't really know what it meant to have something happen

 that was so significant to you that you will forever

remember the details of that day.

It was the start of my Junior year of highschool. 

I was 16 years old.

I had to be at school an hour early every day for drill team practice, 

and then my first 'class' of the day was also drill team.

Toward the end of first period we were in the locker room  and a few girls

were talking about how something had been bombed.

At the time we didn't even know that the 'bombing' had happened in the US.

I assumed it was somewhere overseas.

I didn't think much of it.

But once I got to my spanish class at the start of second hour it 

became obvious that whatever happened was serious

 and that it had happened here. 

In America.

All the teachers were wheeling TVs into the classrooms and we

all sat absolutely silent watching the live coverage in disbelief.

In between 2nd and 3rd hour I called Roy to see if he was watching

what was going on. 

Neither of us could believe this was happening.

I couldn't believe that at the very moment we were speaking that

this horrible trauma was occurring in our very own country.

My 3rd hour class was math. Our teacher had an adult son who lived

in New York. She was watching the TV with tears streaming down her face.

I felt so scared for her and her son.

For everyone. 

For the entire country.

I'll never forget what happened.

Thinking of all those who lost their lives on this day.

Thinking of all those who lost loved ones on this day.

Well, seeing as how it's been a whole MONTH since I went to Colorado,

I figure I ought to get my butt in gear and get the rest of the pictures posted!

Cause, you know, all my loyal followers are chomping at the bit to see them!

He.He...that was a little sarcasm for ya.

I have no followers.

It's cool though...I'm still puttin' it out there for the masses.

Hi Rachael :)

Day 2:

We took off from Hays by 7:00am. I of course had to get a coffee and some beef jerky before we got too far....ahhhh, coffee, twizzlers and jerky....travel necessities if you ask me.

We turned North at Empire City, Colorado and headed North on US 40. The drive was beautiful and at 10,000 feet elevation I was definitely starting to feel like I was on vacation!

 I love driving through Colorado...I mean, where else can you just be driving along and then you're like 'Oh, looky there! A huge waterfall!'. We had to stop several times to get out and snap some pictures.

We arrived in Steamboat around 3:30pm. Here was our view as we came off the mountain and started

entering the valley that is, Steamboat. I was definitely excited to finally be here!

Two weary travelers

We got checked into our condo without any problems. We were super-happy with our three bedroom condo.....minus the fact that I got shafted with the 'twinsy' room.

By twinsy room, I mean the dinky little room with two twin beds. 

Meant for small children.

I mean c'mon!! 

Doesn't a wedding ring count for anything in this family??

I realize that my husband wasn't actually here...but Kelly and Clay have barely been

dating 4 months! What kind of crap is that!!??

Is this a college dorm or a family vacation??

Ok...venting stops here..

family and dining room

kitchen

the twinsy room...gah....

We had little bit of time to kill, so we drove down through downtown Steamboat to check out the town. SO. CUTE. 

The mainstreet is lined with trees and cute boutiques, cafe's and restaurants.

The Yampa River runs alongside downtown and one of the main attractions

in steamboat is to 'float' down the Yampa. 

We knew we planned to do this so we stopped to check it out and watch some 'floaters' go by.

It was almost 6 at this point, so we headed back to the condo to meet up with the rest of the fam.

Our cousins Jane and Bill took over dinner duty for this night, so we had some amazing burritos with green chili sauce. Brilliant idea to whoever decided that we should all share dinner responsibilities! 

What a great way to save money and to bring everybody back together at the end of the day!

After dinner we threw on our swimsuits and hit-up the hot tub!

Perfect way to end a long day of traveling...

Alex, Jesse, Mom, Clay, Kelly and Uncle Jeff

Five more fun-filled days ahead in Steamboat!

A funny thing happened at the Doctors office yesterday....

Oh to be a nurse....

It's great, really. And I feel really blessed 99% of the time.

Minus the times that I get puked, pooped, or peed on....

or the nights that my patients scream all night long....

but I guess thats the 1% difference  :)

And then there's those lovely spiders.

I hate spiders. Especially blue ones....

That live on my legs.

Oh yeah, add that to the Nursing list of 'cons'.

So, I finally took the time to schedule an appointment to see a Vein Dr. (a phlebologist?? A Veinologist??) anyways...

I figured I needed to get some compression hose. Sexy, right?? Ohhh yeeeaaah...

So my appointment was yesterday morning after I got off work with the very charming (and might I add handsome) Dr. B. They took the standard health and family history. They asked lots of questions about if my mom had vein/vascular issues and I begrudgingly informed them that No, my mom has NO visible veins...I'm just a freak of nature who has apparently decided to start her own family history. I guess bad veins have to start somewhere in the family tree, right? Why not with me!!?

They took some baseline photographs and then the super nice sonographer started the ultrasound. Dr. B came in somewhere this time and was chatting with us both and kind of giving me the low-down on all things vein-related. About 15 minutes into the sonogram the tech found an area in my upper right thigh that was pretty dilated and was having some reflux in blood flow. To determine this reflux, they squeeze your legs from below while watching with the ultrasound. She also had me bear down and tighten my stomach muscles to see if the bloodflow was altered.

Well, my friends...thats when things got embarrassing...and NO, I didn't fart. 

I passed out.

I dont know whats wrong with me! Was it all the valsalva-ing? Was I hypoglycemic? The squeezing of thighs too much for me? I've passed out before...but not since I was a kid! 

I started getting that light-headed-room-spinning feeling and the last thing I remember thinking to myself is; 

'No, Beth...No, you're so not going to pass out right now....'  

BOOM. 

MAN DOWN.

Next thing I know I'm laying on my back and I realize oh gosh, I fell asleep in the Dr.'s office....

How embarrassing!! I start muttering some mumbo-jumbo to the Dr about how embarrassed I am, I can't believe I fell asleep- I just got off work....

aaaand WHY ARE YOU HOLDING MY LEGS UP IN THE AIR handsome Dr. B?? 

And ultrasound tech, why do you have a wet rag on my head??

OH MY GOD...say it aint so....I freaking passed out. 

What. a. WIERDO.

They made me lay there for about 10 minutes. And the sweet ultrasound tech ran and got me granola bar out of her lunch box! I could've just crawled under a rock. I must have looked like some sort of ghastly, pale-semblance of a human. I'm sure that my  mouth was hanging open and I was in full-on ugly sleep.

Ugh.

So Apparently, if anybody wants to take me out...just squeeze my right leg. 

So much for an Achilles HEEL.

I better get to writing my thank you card....

signed, The Freak That Passed Out  In Exam Room 1

Someone's turning five!

Today Roy's little niece Elissa turned 5!

I can't believe it. 

It makes me sad that all of  Roy's nieces and nephews will be so much 

older than our kids, if we have any...

I guess we'll just have a good supply of babysitters!

Roy has 9 nieces and nephews, and they're all pretty much adorable.

But I might be biased.

No, actually, they really are just adorable.

They call me Aunt Baff...and I love it :)

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the birthday girl, because that would have

required her to stand still!! And they were just having too much fun to slow down!

Here's a few pictures of the cutie pies...most of these are kinda old unfortunately,

which just tells me that we need to see these kiddos more often!!

Jordan and Dakota

now ages 12 and 9

Elissa

Just turned 5!

Kayden

now 3years old

Roy and Naliyah

now 7 years old (she was also our flower girl!)

'Kella' 

18 months

Danielle

4 years old

Well thats all but 2 of them. The others I have actual photographs of, 

but not on my computer. I'll have to scan them in sometime. 

Things kids say:

Elissa (to the ice cream man): excuse me, do you take debit cards?

**initially i though this was hilarious, but after some thought I

realized that ice cream men may very well have credit card machines these days

Danielle (to me): Are you a baby or a mommy?

Me: I'm not a baby or a mommy

Danielle: Are you a kid?

Me: No, I'm a not a kid...I'm a grown up.

Danielle: Did you marry your daddy?

Me:  No, I married your uncle Roy. Thats why I'm your Aunt Beth

Danielle (after a long pause): Hmmmm...

Will you push me in the baby swing?

Apparently, in the mind of a 4 year old, you're either a baby or a mommy...

anything else is just a little too hard to grasp! Ha!

lazy Saturday....and Trip Update

Blah.

I'm having such a lazy Saturday.

Which sounds like a nice thing right? Wrong.

Lazy Saturdays are only great when you dont have a huge list of 'to-do's'

hanging over your head!

I'm sitting here being a bump on a log while I know theres plenty

of things I could and should be doing.

Ugh.

Hey, why not get started on my trip posting!?

Colorado vacation Day 1:

Well Day 1 of the trip didn't account for much except driving through boring scenic kansas. I quickly deemed myself Master of the Map and all around travel goddess...
That, coupled with my tendency for motion sickness, guaranteed me a permanent shotgun position.
Plus Kelly and her beau Clay had plenty of canoodling to do in the backseat....gag.

Somewhere between Fort Riley and Hays we saw a sign for Rock City. My mom seemed to recall some amazing memories from Rock City as a child...so much so that she thought we should detour and check it out. 

Eh, why not right? I mean let's be honest, I wasn't exactly in a hurry to get to Hays! So to Rock City wen went. Well folks, don't waste your time-even if you have time to waste...don't waste your gas! Rock city was nothing more than a grouping of petrified poo-piles!! I dont actually think it was poo, but I liked to call it poo nonetheless.... and then they had to nerve to have a little shack where someone was collecting $3.00 to view the petrified poo piles! False! We snapped some illegal pics and then burnt rubber...nice going Madre! Last time I hand over the travel-reigns to you!!

Onward to Hays! We got there around 6pm and were STARVED! So we had dinner at a nearby mexican restaraunt. It was blah....I mean, why did we really think a mexican joint in the middle of no-where Kansas would be good??  I only ate about half of an enchilada...and thats sayin' something for this human garbage disposal! 

Theres a new kid....errr......I mean CAT in town!!

Sorry for the delayed posting...I feel like I hit the ground running since I got back in town!!
Stay tuned for an upcoming trip post...with lots of pictures...and corny commentary from yours truly:)

Yesterday was family day at the lake! My parents have had a lake house trailer since 1997. It's only about 5 minutes away from where they live now...although growing up, we drove nearly an hour to get there!  We got down there at about 11:30...weather wasn't too bad 80's...but there wasn't much of a breeze so it got pretty hot!  We did some fishing (without much luck) and Roy caught the biggest piece of lake-weed-algae I've ever seen!! Ha! Boy, he really thought he had a big one on the line!! I should've taken his picture with his big "catch"!  After grilling out we were all ready to cool off....and after much persuasion and many double-dog dares...we even got Roy to get in.  Don't believe the stereotypes!!....Roy CAN swim...he's just not a fan of big bodies of water (apparantly a 7 acre lake counts as a big body of water to him!). Ha!

view of the lake

Not the greatest pictures...but you get the point

No those aren't lochness monters! It's.....The Maney's

I probably should have censored my awkwardly buoy-like behind...

did I mention I fell off the diet-wagon back in Colorado?

Roy seemed to think he had perfected the floating backstroke...

he was showing me his Olympic caliber skills in this one

In other news....

I finally convinced Roy a couple weeks ago to let me bring my cat home from my parents house!

 Bella (whos unfortunately a male cat-long story-Roys insisting we call him something else),

 has been staying at my parents since I moved out in 2007. 

We were renting at the time, and I wasn't wanting to mess with paying extra for a cat, 

plus Bella had lots of cat friends at my parents. ...

But as of late (since moving to TimBukTu) my parents have had 4 of their cats go missing! Yikes! 

Including Bella's girlfriend Nala :( -don't worry, we're seeking therapy...

I decided it was probably time to bring the Beasto (Bella's more masculine nickname) home, 

before something happened to him!

Kelly, the animal expert, went to Petsmart with me on Saturday so we could get all the essentials.

I'm most worried about him shedding. I have a hard enough time keeping my floors clean-the last thing I need is little grey and white hairs everywhere! My solution to this problem??

Meet....

The FURMINATOR

Kelly swears these things are amazing...we shall see...for $42.99 it better turn his fur into a chain of gold!

Here's a picture of Bella's little corner in our office...

So far things are going great! 

He seems perfectly happy in his new home...he's probably thrilled to get away from the zoo that-is my parents house!

I'll definitely keep you posted on the new addition to the Maney family

Daily happenings....

Soooo....not much new here....just getting ready for the trip Sunday!

Last Saturday my mom and I (as I mentioned in my last post) went to the city market and had a great time! It was only like 90 degrees that day-woohoo! Cold front! So we didn't sweat to death and I pretty much left with everything I had hoped to find....and let's be honest....a few extra things!!  We had lunch at one of my favorite places to eat at the city market, Habashi House. SUPER yummy middle eastern food...gyros, shwermas, falafel, delicious rice....ok, I need to stop cause I'm getting hungry thinking about it and I really dont feel like driving downtown again to satisfy a ridiculous craving brought on by blogging!!  After lunch we went and visited Grammy and then mom headed for the Oklahoma border (again...sarcasm and resentment...)  Here's a couple photos of lunch and my treasures from the city market....

I took these pictures to send to Roy so that he'd be insanely jealous...

Mom my and I each got one of these HUGE hanging flower baskets for $10!!

Hopefully the heat doesn't kill it!!

These 5 were only $2.00! Love that!

(not sure why I awkwardly decided to be holding one in this picture...)

I wasn't quite ready to call it a day, so I texted Kelly to see what she was doing (I've been trying to make an effort to hang out with her more). She said she had plans to go riding (SHOCKING!) so I asked her if I could join her!  I think she was pretty surprised that I had asked to join. She was more than happy to have me come along, even though it meant more work for her, having to get two horses ready. We had a really good ride. She keeps her horses at her boyfriends property. I rode one of his family's horses named Cooper. Kelly knew I'd want to ride what you'd call a 'dead broke' horse. Ol' Cooper was pretty good to me.  He definitely could tell that I'm far from an experienced rider, and he tried to be a little 'persuasive' and stubborn with me a few times...but overall it was great!
Kelly and I learned to ride at the same time when we were just little kids. I enjoyed it initially, but never really fell in love with the whole 'horse thing', she was head over heels for horses from day one and has never looked back. It's definitely her passion, which I think is really cool.

Me & Cooper

I'm sure Cooper had realized by now that I was an idiot

and he could easily throw me off and go eat hay.

Thanks Coops, for not following through with that plan...

This ones kinda dark, but Kelly was puttin' the smack-down on 

her horse and making him do some crazy barrel runs...

Me and Cooper just stood and watched.

I think Cooper started liking me more at this point...

He's actually smiling here...you just can't tell....

Anyways...so I'm off today and I have a bunch of packing I need to do. I work tomorrow night and then the plan is to leave on Sunday afternoon around 1:00! I'm super excited, but Roy has decided that he's definitely not gonna be making the trip. I'll miss him, but I'm not really surprised that he's not coming. I knew it was going to be hard for him to leave when we first started planning this trip last fall.  I'll just have to have enough fun for the both of us!