Tea latte

My office got a new coffee machine a few months ago after one of our old ones died.  This is a Flavia machine and it uses packets.  You know how Keurig machines have those cups that you pop in and they make a cup of coffee?  Well this machine does the same thing but instead of popping in a cup, you pop in a pouch.

I don't even like coffee.  The only reason I even use the coffee machine is for hot water for oatmeal and tea.

The interesting thing about this machine, though, is that it has a creamy packet.  That's all the packet is, it's a creamer made of milk powder and stuff.  Because people like things like tea lattes and they are made with tea and creamer.  

So after a few searches on the internet I figured I would try this tea latte thing out.  Here's how I make it:

1.  Put the creamer packet into the machine and choose "tea latte."  It will fill up half the mug and the water will jet the water into the creamy mixture hard enough to make the foam on top.

2.  Remove the mug and put a different cup on the filling station with an individual bag of green tea in the mug.  Fill the mug with hot water to make a half glass of green tea.  (The reason I have to do this step is because my office doesn't have a green tea packet so I have to make my own the old fashioned way).

3.  Once the green tea bag has steeped for a few minutes, add honey because it's healthier than sugar and also because the creamer just makes the tea creamy and not sweet, and I like sweet things.  Easpecially sweet tea.

4.  Pour the green tea into the mug with the creamy, foamy mixture and mix.  It won't pop the foam for reasons unknown to me.

5.  And enjoy!

See?  Foamy top.

And creamy tea.  It's pretty yummy.  I'm glad I tried it.  It took me about a week to work up the courage and I tried it at lunch so if it went horribly wrong no one would be around to give me weird looks, but it all turned out well! 

<3 Running

We love running.

Can you tell?

We actually don't, but apparently anyone driving by thinks we do.

Maybe we do love running subconsciously (doubtful).  I do love what running does for making me feel better in my jeans.

Mine is the biggest heart of all though ;)

Recently

So I've just been taking some random pictures on my phone.  Mainly I take pictures of things so I can send them in text messages to people to show them what I'm seeing or doing.  What I'm trying to say is I have a lot of pictures in my phone.  So I thought I'd share some of the pictures that I have so you can see what I've been up to!  Because I know you care about my life.  Mainly because I'm telling myself that someone does and will find these pictures interesting too ;)  

Hey at least I included pictures.  I could have just written about my life.  And put you all to sleep.  Let's see, my life goes something like:

Wake up late

Get out the door to go to work

Get to work

Look at the computer

Check the weather

Start some work

Make some tea

Do more work

Eat breakfast

Do more work

Oh wait sorry, this isn't a post about my day at work.

On to pictures!

Well maybe I'll start with a few pictures from work.  Since I don't stare at a computer all day.  Just in case you were worried.

This is an air conditioning unit.  This one is in a computer room.  Part of my job is sizing these units.  Exciting I know (hint: sarcasm).  But I do enjoy my job, I find it interesting.

 

This picture is a little hard to see, but that is the school across the street from my office that is being renovated over the summer.  The school isn't important.  What is important is the temporary power pole in the middle of the picture.  the string looking thing on the top right are the wires connecting it to the main power poles lining the street.  The only reason this is at all interesting and the only reason I'm talking about it is because a car got in an accident and ran into this flimsy little temporary pole knocking out power to my building so I had a snow day in the middle of the summer last two weeks ago!  It was a very nice and needed break.

 This is our first blooming sunflower of the summer.  It's pretty.

A friend posted this on facebook.  I thought it was incredibly amusing :D

This is a fabric swatch that my mom is holding.  We're taking a picture of it's name so we can remember it when we go back.  We're re-doing their bathroom and bedroom this year.  The bathroom wall color is this color so this fabric would be incorporated as a border on the curtains in the bedroom.  Because you can't have green curtains next to green walls.  Just a friendly tip from your resident interior designer.  You're welcome.

And these?  These gorgeous babies?  These absolutely gorgeous, drop dead amazingly spectacular earrings?  Yeah they're mine.  And I've totally already worn them to a friends birthday party this weekend.  They're absolutely perfect for me and I'm in love :)

Right now I'm watching the Olympics.  How you say?  They did end on Sunday and I almost cried.  I did tear up, no kidding.  I really, really, REALLY enjoyed watching the Olympic this year.  I watched them as soon as I got home from work, I stayed up late to watch prime time at night, the tv was on constantly every day of the weekend.  And  NBC is reshowing the swimming and track and gymnastics events all this week.  It's easing my withdrawal.  A little.  I still miss them.

Canada

So Mom and Dad have officially invaded Canada!  Haha watch out world they've been let loose and who knows what sorts of trouble they'll get into :)

But them being in Canada by themselves means that we're all by ourselves at home . . . hahahahhahah (insert evil, maniacal laughter here)!

Ok well we're not going to party . . . or at least we haven't yet ;)

Here's a look at what we are actually doing.

 There has been a lot of this:

Sarah on facebook, itunes, skype, internet, etc, etc etc

 

And a lot of this:

Rebecca in her cave.  Lots of talking to her door.

And not of lot of this:

We're leaving them all rinsed and neatly stacked on the side of the sink for Dad to take care of when he gets home.  Along with the huge spider on the porch and the weird dead beetle in the basement . . .

Or this:

Hopefully there will be a lot less of this:

Devil wall paper border.

By doing more of this:

Lots of steaming.

We've been making lots of dinners:

My Easter egg hunt present is awesome and of course I'm amazing by using it :)

Quiche.

Watching a lot of Olympics:

Friends with benefits (what my shirt says).  Go USA!

Getting a pretty decent amount of rain (and rainbows):

On the way to Becca's soccer practice (her picture taking skills since she won't let me touch my phone in the car).

And having random power outages at work that let me stay home and enjoy this:

Lovely deck (huge spider has mysteriously disappeared, dad lucked out, and now I have leverage over Becca where I can tell her I put it in a jar and will let it loose in her room if she misbehaves ;) I'm gonna be such a good mom!)

But while we've been enjoying our life here, in Canada Mom and dad are staying at places like this:

Pretty

Walking around towns like this:

We're (they're) not in Kansas anymore

Sailing in harbors like this:

Sigh

Eating at places like this:

No, they did not eat the escargot, but they thought about it.

Contemplating cars like these:

Dad wants and RV.  Mom will NEVER own an RV.  So It's a moot point.

Taking 3.5hr hikes in places like these:

Jealousy

Oh and meeting Royalty.  

So they stayed at the same resort that Wills and Kate stayed at when they visited Prince Edward Island.  Props to Dad for making that reservation!

I'll let you decide who got the better end of the deal . . . 

Rain!

So, after a week of DC getting drenched (seriously there's a place in DC that's flooded three different times) we finally got rain!
I'll refrain from commenting on my FRUSTRATION with the weather patterns. They're not moving the way radars are supposed to move! Weather is supposed to come from the west and move to the east and be done. What's happened this past week is a storm will bubble up and stay there. It's like ninja storms. At first there's no rain and then all of a sudden there's rain and the bubble of rain just stays there! It doesn't move! So the poor people who are crossing their fingers that the massive rain storm will move a few more miles so her soccer game will be canceled have their hopes dashed. But the storm bubbled up over us yesterday so I'm not complaining too too badly. Even though there was no soccer game to cancel.
Btw the first inch of this was accumulated within the half hour after dad and I got home. Kinda intense!

Colorado

 This is a post about Colorado.

Beautiful, majestic, wonderful Colorado.  Where I spent eight years of my life.  Those years were some of my favorite years growing up and I have made it a goal to somehow get back there to live or vacation often when I get older.
A few events had to happen before I had the privilege of living there.  So I'll start at the beginning:

I was born.

Haha just kidding, it starts even before that :) 

Back when mom and dad were about our age ( my dad is such a cheeser btw, check him out standing behind Uncle Steve who is kneeling on the right).

They decided after high school to become cadets at the Air Force Academy located in Colorado Springs, CO.  They met in the Catholic choir while there.

One thing led to another and I was born!  Oh wait, sorry, that's the best part but I keep skipping some other life events along the way ;)

 They got married in the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel.  It's a pretty iconic building and when one sees a picture of it they immediately associate it with the Air Force Academy and Colorado.

Here is the Cadet Chapel three weeks ago surrounded by smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire that burned in Colorado Springs.  Massive drought conditions and erratic weather and winds spurred this fire to burn down many people's homes and it came very close to the Air Force Academy and many more homes.  Watching the fire and the stories unfold from half a country away was hard.  This fire affected Colorado Springs and even though I do not live there anymore I still feel like I belong there.  It was my home and still is my home and this fire threatened my home.  So I wanted to write a post about what Colorado means to me.

After graduation mom and dad moved away from Colorado and began their lives serving in the Air Force.  They moved to New Hampshire and I was born.  Then they moved to Kansas where dad went overseas for a while and lived in a tent (pictured above) while fighting in Desert Storm.  Sarah was born while we were in Kansas.  Then we all moved back to Colorado.

 

And built a house.  

Poured the foundation.

Watched it being framed.

Had the walls put up.

And enjoyed the finished product!  This was where daddy did his first forays into landscaping and rock walls.  This is where Becca was born.  On the left side of the driveway is where I fell rollerblading and broke my wrist.  I rescued baby bunnies from the window wells in the backyard.  We would release the bunnies in a big field next to our housing development.  We put our Christmas tree in the bay window out front.  My room was in the front on the left and Sarah's room was in the back on the left (becca slept in Mom and Dad's room since she was a baby).

When we first got to Colorado it was just me and Sarah.

We liked doing things like going to Cheyene Mountain Zoo.

Here we are at Farish which was a military nature park thing where you could fish and camp and hike.  I think the one and only time I've been fishing was here (I didn't catch anything).

 

One of our most favorite places to go was Garden of the Gods.

 

We made sure to take all the relatives that came there as well. 

We also took relatives that came to visit to Seven Falls. (people wanted to come visit us because 1. I'm amazing and 2. Colorado is awesome!)

Towards the end of our first three years in Colorado, Rebecca was born, making it a lot harder for our family to be seated at restaurants . . .

Here we are at Flying W Ranch.  It's a ranch that served a cowboy style dinner and you would go and eat on long picnic tables and listen to their band play as the sun set.  This ranch burned to the ground in the fire.

Here is our church.  St. Patrick's.  We went here both times we lived in Colorado.  Daddy sang in the choir the first three years and when we came back he sang, mom played the piano, and as soon as I was old enough I joined as well (by then Sarah and Becca were old enough to not massacre each other in the pew if we left them alone all mass).  I received my First Communion here and so did Rebecca.  Since mom and Dad and I were singing all mass we sent Sarah with the camera to capture Rebecca being holy.  We have no other proof besides those pictures . . . jk :)

After those first three years we moved to Texas.  Mom went to the University of Texas to get her PhD. and Dad got out of the Air Force and got a degree in Urban Planning at UT at the same time. 

When we came back to Colorado three years later we did a lot of the same things we had done the first time.

We built a house.  (Becca and Sarah's rooms were in the front and mine was the window on the second floor in the back.

I had a great view of the mountains from my bedroom.

Daddy took his landscaping skills to new limits and built a lot of stone walls and planted a lot of plants :)

It snowed.  Duh it was Colorado!  We sledded down the road one time when it snowed a foot.

We also hiked a lot.  It's one of my favorite things to do.  When we were first back dad was looking for a job and interviewing so we went on a lot of cough-forcedmarches-cough hikes.

We went to Garden of the Gods again as well.  Here Becca and I are.  I think this was when Sarah was off at Girl Scout horse camp so she's not with us.  This was 2000 so it wasn't the year of the Hayman Fire, but a few years later that fire prompted Sarah to have to evacuate horse camp.  Fires are a reality in Colorado since it is so dry.

This is our favorite park.  Sarah learned to ride a bike here and I climbed trees.  There were swing sets and trails and we had many a picnic.

Colorado is such a magical place and I'm very happy that I was able to call it home for the years that I did.