Family Birthday Dinner!

I was in California this past week to attend Stagecoach (more on that in another blog), celebrate my birthday (#35 is today!!) and spend time with family and friends. Originally it was just suppose to be a quick weekend trip, but then became a week long visit once I lost my job (at least there was one upside to that!). Last Friday night we had a family dinner at Mom and Dad's. Bethany, Ryan, Shaye, my Grandpa and Matt's Mom, sister and nephew attended. Mom made a great Chicken Florentine casserole and the most amazing garlic bread ever!!! And of course, her famous Lemon Cake which is the best!

It was so much fun spending time with everyone! We had a great visit! Joseph even brought me some flowers he picked out (sunflower and 2 pink roses) which was so thoughtful! Shaye was so much fun, and after spending the whole day with her and Bethany, she put on her adorable party dress and was a super happy baby! Thanks so everyone for coming and helping to make my birthday special!

Last Day at Work

Yesterday was my last day at Farm Credit. I was sad to be leaving such a great group of people. But late in the morning I got a surprise from my husband... these beautiful flowers!!! So thoughtful of him, especially since he was out of town. When they arrived, they were still pretty closed up, but I knew this weekend the irises and tulips would open up and be beautiful! I got lots of comments on them throughout the day and they put a smile on my face...

After work, I went out with a few girls from work for some drinks and food. We checked out a place we hadn't been to before, The Hatch Cover, near my house. It was basically just a big bar, with some pool tables and lots of TVs. The food was good and it was great getting to hang out. I haven't had too many "Girls Nights" since moving from California, so I really enjoyed it! I hope to keep in touch with several people from Farm Credit.

Here are the flowers this morning.... I knew they'd be beautiful!

Nate is Getting Comfortable

Nate is finally using the Kitty Condo I bought for him when we moved to Colorado. He didn't really care for it much in the adobe house... just used it for an extra scratching post. But now that we have it in front of our big window in the family room, he sits in it, sleeps in it and just loves watching everything go by outside... including dogs, deer and a fox! He seems to be adjusting well to the new house and seems to keep to either our bedroom or sitting in the window.

Our New Microwave

I know this isn't exciting, but I'm super excited... we got a new microwave!!! We discovered that Matt's old microwave from CT was too small for our new plates. Plus it's old, and kinda ugly, so I wanted to get a new one. After doing some research online and checking out Costco, we decided to get a Panasonic microwave from Costco.

It's so pretty!!!

I've Got Some Catching Up to Do!

So I found this website (and I know there are several out there) where you can mark the states/countries you've been to and it maps it for you and tells you the percentage you've seen. Since Matt is so well traveled, I thought it would be fun to compare us:

Matt - US States Visited

Kara - US States Visited

Matt - Countries Visited Worldwide

Kara - Countries Visited Worldwide

The Zoo!!!

Matt and I went to the zoo on Sunday. Matt's boss and his wife were kind enough to give us a annual membership to the zoo. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is about a 5 minute drive away from us. And it has quickly become one of my favorite places! It's actually the country's largest mountain zoo. It's quite impressive and has some of the most spectacular views of Colorado Springs and beyond.

View of Downtown Colorado Springs

My favorite part of the zoo are the giraffes... The giraffes are in an open area and the people walk on deck-like walkways that make you at the giraffes' head height. And for just $1 you get 3 crackers that you can feed them! They get so close you can pet their heads and maybe even get a tongue licking! It's pretty cool!

This visit was to see the 2 babies that were born about 3 weeks ago. They were separated hanging out in a separate pen with their mothers. Too cute for words, so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves...

Some of our other usual favorites are the muircats, the moose (which I have yet to see standing up in 4 trips to the zoo!!!) and orangutans. The zoo is such a fantastic place and I can't wait to show all our visitors this summer!!

The sitting Moose

Mama & Baby

Back in the Job Market

I have been working at Farm Credit of Southern Colorado for the last 3 months in a temp to hire position. Working temp to hire has never been something I've liked, but in the past it's never been an issue... I've always gotten hired on permanently. Unfortunately, today I found out that I won't be getting hired permanently. I was disappointed to hear the news, but not that surprised. Although it's been great meeting new people and having something to do with my days, this job was never very busy. I spent most of my days trying to look busy instead of actually being busy. When they were interviewing for this position, the group I was joining was so busy that they could barely breathe... then as soon as I got hired, it suddenly slowed down immensely. Just bad timing and bad luck... So I'm joining the job market again and hope that I'm able to find another job that keeps me busy, has great people to work with and is easy to find! Wish me luck!!!

Viva Las Vegas!

Matt turned the Big 4-0 on March 2nd!!! For his birthday, I got us tickets to attend Viva Las Vegas... a rockabilly weekend in Las Vegas. He mentioned awhile back that he had always wanted to go to this event, so that and the fact that he has never been to Vegas (amazing considering he's traveled the world and grew up a 4 hour drive from Vegas!) made this the PERFECT gift! He was so excited when I gave him the tickets because he had forgotten all about it! I had already contacted his work and made sure they didn't schedule any patients for him on the Friday of that weekend, so we were set to go!

I made arrangements for our flights and our stay at The Mirage. The event was being held at The Orleans, but it's off the strip and kinda run down, so I wanted us to stay someplace nice and centrally located on The Strip. We arrived Thursday night, kinda late, so we just headed straight to the hotel, checked in, and went to bed. Friday we checked out The Mirage and then headed over to The Orleans to get checked in, beat the crowds and get our wristbands. There really wasn't much going on yet, so we decided to take the afternoon to check out some of the hotels on The Strip. We went to the Aria (a new hotel), the Bellagio (my favorite!!!), Ceasar's Palace and then back to The Mirage and hit up their buffet for a late lunch.

A Wall of Water at the Aria

Inside at the Bellagio

Friday night was our first chance to be at Viva Las Vegas. We saw some bands and watched while a few people danced. Rockabilly comes from "Rock" and "Hillbilly" so it's a combo of rock and old country. It's mostly early 50s rock n' roll (early Elvis, Chuck Berry, etc). I could hardly keep still listening to it... Later in the evening we saw Marti Brom who Matt really likes. She's got this great raspy voice and I had so much fun watching all the dancing. Makes me want to take some lessons so we are ready for the next time we decide to go!

Saturday was the main event of the weekend. It started with a Car Show with some of the most unbelievable cars... some were literally works of art.

The evening we headed back to the car show and saw Chuck Berry perform... 85 years old and the man can still rock! He sang "Johnny Be Good" and a few others I knew. We left after nearly an hour and he was still going... so impressive! We headed back inside to catch Deke Dickerson... a guy that Matt has seen several times and is a favorite. He puts on a "Guitar Geek" show where he brings musicians to play a few songs each. It was a great way to see a lot in one place. I was so impressed with the musicianship. I even developed a little crush on one of the guys that played! We both really enjoyed the show.

Deke Dickerson

l to r: Joel Paterson (my new crush), "Crazy" Joe, Sugarballs (drummer) & Deke

Then... onto the Burleque Show! It was interesting to see this... it wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. I always thought Burlesque was more of a teasing strip tease, but instead most of these girls did a lot of dancing. There still was stripping involved, down to very little, but there was also a story and theme throughout. It was entertaining. Next we headed upstairs to catch the end of Wanda Jackson. She was popular in the 50s and even used to date Elvis! She's in her 80s now, and still sounded great.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was checking out all the fashion! Rockabilly fashion is a real contrast of 50s Pin Up Girl (Bettie Page) with the pencil and full skirts, the wavy styled hair, black eye liner/red lips, but then they are covered with tattoos on most of their bodies! For me, it was such an interesting and cool look. The guys had slicked back hair, rolled up jeans and had a very 50s style, again with tattoos everywhere!

Sunday we slept in after getting back to the room at about 2am (such a late night for us!!) We headed our for a Sunday brunch buffet and checked out the Wynn and Venetian hotels. Finally it was time to head home. It was such a great weekend. I had a lot more fun than I thought I would. Matt didn't really love Vegas as much as I do, but he had a fantastic time at the event, which is all that really mattered to me.

You can see all our pictures at our "View Our Photos" link above on the right!