Christmas Cheer

A few pictures, and a video, for your holiday pleasure.

Little Miss, Carly and Owen at her Caroling party (planned completely by her).








The video is us serenading the firefighters across the street















This is my favorite Christmas picture so far, I wish Justin was in it but he's the one who took the picture!

Winner!!!

And...that gorgeously lit house below won the Town of Gypsum's Clark Grizzwald Award!

YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!

We also won runner-up for best light display in our subdivision.

Wahoo!

Chez Kirkland, at Christmastime

These pictures aren't very good, I'm sure some of my photographer friends could do much better...but I'm still damn proud of our Christmas lights this year. Everything is LED except for the fire truck in the front yard. Thanks to my sweet husband Justin for indulging in my obsession, and supporting me both financially and personally. Thanks to Little Miss for creative direction and her patience while I spent many hours putting up the lights. And thanks to God for providing the snow, after I had already gotten most of the lights up and for keeping me from falling off the roof for another year.











And this is the foot and a half of snow we woke up to this morning.

P90X Finish!

I am officially done with my first round of P90X! It took me about three weeks longer than the actual program to finish. I got off one week during the program, and then as I was starting week 12, I had a very stressful event at work and then I went to Kansas City for a week and ate out at restaurants. At the point before the work event, I was down to 141 pounds, a 28.5 inch waist, 37.5 hips and 23.5 inch thighs. A week in KC put me back up a little bit. I consider this a temporary setback, as I plan to start Revabs and supplement it with some of the weight routines from P90X.

I know that if I had followed the nutrition plan more exactly, I would have gotten better results. However, I am very proud of myself for finishing the program and for the results I do have, and this is just the start. :)

My reward is better health, better fitness, and a size 8 (!) Calvin Klein dress I plan to wear to a Christmas party this season.

Final stats:
Weight Day 1: 149. Day 90: 143
Chest Day 1: 37 inches, Day 90: 35 inches
Waist Day 1: 33 inches, Day 90: 29 inches
Hips Day 1: 42 inches, Day 90: 38 inches
Thighs Day 1: 25 inches, Day 90 24 inches

Thanks to Justin and Little Miss, without whose support I couldn't have done it!













The above two swimsuit pictures are starting pictures, below are the finish pictures!

Thanksgiving

I am living a truly blessed life, and I say this with a humble and grateful heart. Here are some of the things I am grateful for, in no particular order and certainly not one more than the other.

1. I am grateful for a husband who loves me and has stuck by me in hard times and in good. We are learning how a marriage lasts forever and ever, we are doing it together. I am blessed to have him in my life, and grateful to him.

2. I am grateful for Jalyne, who delights me every day with her unique view on the world. She reminds me to slow down and enjoy life, to find wonder in the little things, and to embrace every day as a new opportunity. She loves me unconditionally (even though I don't always deserve it) and she remains my "bird of light."

3. I am grateful for an extended family that includes my parents, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, Justin's parents, his grandparents, and his various family members. They remind us of our roots, keep us grounded, love our daughter like crazy, and help us with guidance and child care all the time. What would we do without them?

4. I am grateful for my friends. Susie, Cathi, Ryan, David, and a host of other people nurture my soul, celebrate with me the highs and help me through the lows. My life would be much darker and harder without these angels on earth.

5. I am grateful for a job I love. So many people are stuck in jobs they hate. I am blessed to have a job that allows me to give back to my community and love life while doing it. I never work a day in my life because I love what I do so much it's not "work." It's an act of love.

We have a wonderful house, food on the table, and more blessings than any one family really has a right to. I hope to make my life a song of gratitude, every minute of every day.

If you are reading this, then I am grateful to YOU, because you are someone special to me, and I'm grateful you are in my life!

Who are we, then?

dear dar(lin') your mom (my friend) left a message on my machine she was franticsaying you were talking crazy that you wanted to do away with yourself

if we were our bodies
if we were our futures
if we were our defenses i'd be joining you
if we were our culture
if we were our leaders
if we were our denials i'd be joining you

if we were our nametags
if we were our rejections
if we were our outcomes i'd be joining you
if we were our indignities
if we were our successes
if we were our emotions i'd be joining you

you and I we're like 4 year olds
we want to know why and how come about everything
we want to reveal ourselves at will and speak our minds
and never talk small and be intuitiveand question mightily
and find god my tortured beacon
we need to find like-minded companions

if we were their condemnations
if we were their projections
if we were our paranoias i'd be joining you
if we were our incomes
if we were our obsession
if we were our afflictions i'd be joining you
we need reflection
we need a really good memory
--excerpted from Joining You by Alanis Morissette

If we are not all these things, who are we? What are we?

Retreat

These pictures are from a retreat our Leadership Team at work attended this week at Sylvan Lake. The top picture is a hillside I drove by on the way to the lake. It had snowed the night before and it's hard to describe how pristine everything looked while I was driving up in the early morning. This picture does not do it justice.

The cabin is where we held our retreat, and the lake is the view we had out the cabin windows while we had our retreat.

I am so blessed to live surrounded by God's beauty, and to be able to see the golden eagle I saw driving up to the cabin, and to listen to the owl's call that night as I sat outside by the fire watching the lake settle into the evening and the snow falling.