Wisdom teeth

I went to the dentist yesterday and they made an appointment for me to get my wisdom teeth out today since I don't know when I'll be back from Denver again... I am NOT excited. I guess everyone has to do it though. So I'll post pictures of my puffy cheeks as soon as I get them.

Mallory is Married!

This past Saturday, two of my beautiful friends got married to each other. Mallory and I have been friends since she came to Rosa Taylor Elementary when we were in 5th grade. We cheered together, took trips together, and grew up together. We lived together when we were Sophomores in college and that's when she met Matthew! They are absolutely perfect for each other and now they're married!

Winter is Here!

Jennifer, one of my mom's friends from high school in Florida now lives near Denver with her son Andrew. Jennifer has been amazing to me in her hospitality and advice for Colorado and Andrew even "volunteered" for one of my practice runs of giving a psychological evaluation (just and IQ test and an achievement test... not as bad as it sounds). Last week I went to see Andrew's 4th and 5th grade men's choir performance. It was a great start to the holiday season and pretty entertaining too. Here's a picture of him during one of his solos. That's Andrew on the right with his hand on his head.
This weekend, I went skiing with Krista and two new friends, Lauren and Brett. I took a few lessons last winter, but haven't skied since so this was my first time skiing without my instructor telling me what to do. Scary! I did ok... only a few major falls, and a few major bruises... nothing terrible. I did ski mostly blue runs which was totally out of my comfort zone. Who am I kidding? I don't have a comfort zone when it comes to skiing. I still think it's way more work than fun, but I'm hoping it gets better with practice. I mean, I own skis and boots now so I better like it. Lauren's family was amazing and let us stay at their house in Breckenridge (and use their hot tub!) Here we are taking a break and then at the end of the day.

Southern Brew News

Southern Brew News is a newsletter that's all about beer in the Southeast. They wrote the October newsletter on the Great American Beer Fest (GABF) that's held in Denver every year and Craig got featured. I know it's almost December, but this is cool, so I thought I'd share. Here's his segment...


Craig Mycoskie of Wynkoop

"The Denver brewpub that is a favorite of beer geeks has to be Wynkoop Brewery at 1634 18th Street in lower downtown. Wynkoop offers a substantial selection of almost a dozen house beers alongside a satisfying food menu. We were pleased to find out that Craig Mycoskie, an old homebrewing friend of ours from Athens, GA, is now an assistant brewer at the Wynkoop (see photo above)."

Here's a link to the whole newsletter if you feel the need to read up on GABF

www.classiccitybrew.com

England

I just got back from England last night. Here are a few pictures...

Lauren & I at Big Ben

At Lewes Castle

We took a walk through the Coutryside

The Brighton Pier
At the Evening Star Pub

Overall, England was a fun place to visit. The people (most of them) were really nice. As soon as I told anyone I was American, they immediately tried to imitate an American accent- hilarious! I guess their imitation sounds as bad to me as my imitation of an English accent would sound to them. I wasn't really thrilled with London- everyone moves to fast. Really, the people are moving down the sidewalk so fast that they're leaning forward almost like they're running. Most of the guys I met were shady- maybe it's because we were in clubs, but most were appalled that I wouldn't kiss them. One guy told me he'd never move to America because everyone here is a virgin. I read in the paper there that England is having another sexual revolution. On the same page of the paper was an article saying that AIDS is on the rise in England even though it's declining in the rest of the world. Ironic? maybe not.
The smaller towns in England are beautiful and all of them are so unique. I went to Lewes (pronounced Lewis) for the day. I saw the castle there and a lot of the cute shops. It was raining so I went to a pub and tried some of the local beers. They have a brewery in Lewes but you have to book visits 2 years in advance. The brewery is called Harvey's and they make some really good beers.

Two Things

One: Happy Birthday Craig! It's his 2nd anniversary of his 21st birthday...

The First Anniversary of Craig's 21st

Two: Denver is crazy.
Yesterday it was 80 degrees for most of the day.

Today, this is what I woke up to:

My Back Porch

The Park

Now I get to go try to drive in the snow for the 1st time. Wish me luck!

Lauren!

My roommate of the last 2 years of college is spending this semester in Brighton, England. I'm jealous. She's writing for the Red & Black, UGA's student newspaper while she's there. Here's her first article.

I get to go visit her in a month! It'll be my first trip to the UK ever and I'm going during Thanksgiving- to a place where there is no Thanksgiving. Should be fun though, and a nice break from the crazy schedule here.

It's fall!

Yesterday was the first day of fall. I like fall alright, it's what it brings with it that I'm not too excited about. Cold weather. I hate cold weather so it's hard to not come straight home from work every day and get into my PJ's and never leave my couch. This year will be different. There's so much cool stuff to do outside in Denver that I don't want to be on the couch the whole time. In an attempt to get excited about fall, I rode my bike everywhere I went on Sunday. I rode to Anita's house and then to the grocery store (packed the groceries in my backpack- I know, Michael, I need a basket to trick out my bike- I'm working on it). Later on Sunday, I rode my bike to Criag's house and then we rode to Bible Study. I don't think I've rode (?) a bike in at least 10 years with the exception of Jekyll, but I think I'm learning all the rules of riding a bike in the road. Not having to drive everywhere is making me like living in the city a little more. Here's me on my bike!

Oktoberfest

This past weekend I went to Oktoberfest in Vail. That's right Oktoberfest is in September. It was my first trip to Vail and the leaves were changing so everything was beautiful! We ended up in a nice condo at the base of the mountain with about 10 other people so it was cheap too! We danced to the Oompa and other types of bands all night on saturday and walked around the Farmer's Market on Sunday. I even bought my first pair of skis! I'm not actually a proficient skier yet, but it's coming. The only stinky thing about the weekend was that I still can't drink, but the good news? Today is my last official day of being a "non-drinker." Every social event of the past nine months has seemed very long, but overall, it went by pretty quickly. And no, I'm not planning on jumping back into drinking. It'll be slow, but I'm planning on enjoying every glass of wine, double chocolate stout and yeti that comes my way.

sorry for the delay in blogging... i didn't forget. if you know me AT ALL you can probably guess what happened. yes, my computer crashed again- the won't turn on, smoke literally coming out of it kind of crash. So with the new computer, I'm still working on setting up the wireless- yet another of my chronic problems with computers- surprise, surprise, it still isn't working.

Labor Day weekend was fun! Mom came out to Denver- her flight got in while I was in class on Saturday so when I went to pick her up in Parker, she, Jennifer, and Andrew threw me a surprise birthday party. Here's my cake. MMMMM.

Sunday afternoon, mom, Craig, and I drove up Mt. Evans near Idaho Springs. It's one of the fourteeners (14,000 ft. elevation). We drove almost to the top on the highest paved road in North America and then hiked about 200 yards to the top where it was snowing! 70 something on the ground wind chill of 20 at the top. and I was in shorts. We had tons of fun though- it's beautiful!

And here are the goats that were soliciting food in the road and a few other pretty pictures...

Mom and I hung out all day on Monday too and then we got up really early to take her to the airport and it was time for me to go back to work. Speaking of work, I was named the assistant librarian for the school today- it's not an officail title, so no raise or anything, but I have to figure out a way to organize everything in the library- it's by title now and that is dumb. Nothing else really exciting going on- I have to work til 4 and then be in class from 4- 8:30 on my birthday- also dumb. AND it's statistics- gross, but it only meets 3 times after tomorrow. Time to take clothes out of the laundry so here's a picture of the laundry/ trash chute room to leave you with...

Promises

Last night I fell asleep with a lot of God's promises running thru my head- including "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace." Numbers 6:24-26 This was one of those that I forgot I knew and it's amazing how things like that come when I need them. I woke up reminded that today is a new day. And it was.
P.S. I'm officially CPR and first aid certified. I can't believe I didn't do that before now.

heavy

ok sorry to get serious, but here goes. This is a weird time in my life. I've never been in a place where I love my job so much and I love my classes so much (that's pretty much all I do now), but I'm sad a lot. I don't know why really, I could name a few small things, but really not enough to justify all this crying. and I am not a crier.
Let's take today for example. It was a great day. I spent until noon getting CPR certified, ate lunch, and then took 3 of my students on a field trip to Costco where we bought breakfast food and candy. They go every week to learn how to shop and stay on a budget- they also earn money throughout the year (about $5/week) to spend on something at the store. After work, I picked up a check from the financial aid office and bought my textbooks (not something I usually do, but I figured I'd need them for grad school). On the way home the tears came and kept coming for a long time. No one around to hang out with, so what did I do? I went shopping. I actually needed a few things so I google mapped TJMaxx (my favorite store in the world) and went to the one in Littleton, because there's a Marshall's nearby that I never found. On the way home I promise I followed my directions, but google maps must have been mixed up b/c it said to get on HWY 6 West. By the time I got past Red Rocks and almost to Boulder I realized I was going the wrong way. It was raining and hard to see so I called Kevin and he got me going in the right direction. I had driven 20 miles in the wrong direction. I didn't really mind b/c I didn't have anywhere to be, but of course, the tiniest thing made the tears come- for 40 miles back home. It's starting to get a little annoying. I mean really, I don't have much to be sad about. Maybe it just takes time. we'll see how it goes. I have lots to be excited about.
Tomorrow I'm getting first aid certified. That can't be bad. And I have a date...

WHAT?!?

So I was walking thru the mail room the other day when I heard this older lady tell 2 boys (grandsons?) to go hang out in the weight room. What? A weight room? I must have misunderstood. Well yesterday I got curious and looked on the fire escape map by the front door of the building. There definitely is a weight room right behind the elevators... I had just never been back there. So I went to check it out. It's not too bad. A few cardio machines, a weight bench, some exercise balls and a tv. And this tiny sign caught my eye, Steam Room-> Sweet. a steam room. I think it's out of order right now, but it will work soon. and I am excited!

I'm in my 3rd day of training at work and it's not too bad. I finished orientation and started "Therapeutic Crisis Intervention" today- it's 3 days long, but tomorrow we go over restraints, so I'm at least not sitting at a conference table for 8 hours. Next week I get to do 4 other training programs and then I'm in the classroom full time. I'm excited. The staff in my room are great and there are 6 of us for 8 students. So it'll be a while before I really get to hang out with the students, but the training is making me feel a little more confident.

Rain

The loudest thunder ever comes out of nowhere here. And it is NOT supposed to rain today. Not that I care too much, I'm about to take a nap. I need to run a few errands. Problem is, I don't know where anything is and it's Sunday, so the places I need to go are probably closed anyway. I'll go tomorrow. I owe a few people gifts and they'll be a few days later now.

I start my new job tomorrow. At 8. I was gonna ride the bus, but I'd have to leave at 7 and leave my job an hour early on the days I have class to get there on time. The bus just may not work out for me. I really need to find the dollar lot at school- but I think I have to cross the interstate on foot to get to campus from there. Kidding about the interstate, but it is REALLY far away, so far that I haven't even seen it yet. My school is in the middle of the city and parking is OUTRAGEOUS! UGA folks, I don't even want to hear it. You can't imagine how bad it is here. They pretty much just tell you to figure out how to ride the bus which would be great if I didn't get off work at 4 and have classes that start at 4. Maybe I'll ride the bus to my Saturday classes.

Craig and I went to church this morning. It's less than a year old and meets in an art gallery. The gallery is getting too small so they're gonna start meeting at the History Museum in 3 weeks. I liked it. I think Craig did too. we met a few people and I got hooked up with a women's Bible study if I decide to go. During the meet the people around you part, 2 of the 3 women around me were named Amy too. weird.

The Wig Party

Friday was FUN! Some of Kevin's friends planned a wig party. Everyone put on their wigs and went downtown. I had a Barbie Princess wig and definitely realized that blond is not a good look for me. What was I ever thinking? Here are some pictures...
I finally got my room put together today too! So here are some pictures of my new clean room and my car (b/c I finally took them).
And here's the car...
I also went to new student orientation today. totally useless. I did get a cookie though.

Back to School!

Tomorrow is my first day at a new school... again and hopefully for the last time in my life. I have statistics tomorrow evening for 3 hours! The nice name for this class is Research and Measurement, but come on, we all know what it is. And the best part about this class is that classes don't actually start at my school for 11 more days, but statistics meets 3 times before actual classes start! And anyone who knows me, knows that this class and I probably will not get along. The benefit to it starting a week and a half early is that it is totally over by the end of September!

Also, Craig started his new job at the brewpub yesterday. He mostly cleans the brewing equipment, but he also learned how to make root beer and the special chili beer that they have. So far though, there have been a few benefits. Yesterday his boss gave him tickets to the Rockies game, so we went again last night. This time with a bunch of friends. And today, they gave him a free almost full keg, just b/c someone took it off the tap line too soon and they were gonna have to throw it away. AND it fits perfectly in the kegerator.

I got officially hired today by two, that's right two people. I'm going to start my real job as a teacher's assistant at a school for kids with behavioral disorders on the 20th. I'll be working in the higher functioning older adolescents classroom. Really I think most of them are between 13-19 years old. I observed in there last week and some of them definitely look older than me. Should be fun! I started working for Kevin today too. He hired me as his secretary- mostly to do his expense reports and stuff b/c he travels a lot. It's not a lot of work, but I'm at his house a lot, and have time to do it, so it makes sense.

Fun Things In Denver!

It's officially been one week since I moved to Colorado. I've never lived in a big city before, but one thing I'm learning is that there is ALWAYS something to do. Friday night, I had my first Red Rocks experience. Kevin planned this for us a long time ago, so around 4 Kevin, Craig, Arlena, and I drove up to Red Rocks to see Ryan Adams, but a few other bands were playing first. We totally missed the first one b/c we were in the parking lot playing cornhole- Arlena and I won BOTH games against the boys. We must be good.
We got the hear the old 97's, Lucinda Williams, and Ryan Adams- all of them were so good and Red Rocks is amazing! Here are some pictures for those of you who haven't been.
Anyway, those are just a few and they hardly do it justice. Today Craig and I met up with one of my mom's high school friends for lunch and she gave us tickets to the Rockies game. They were her company's tickets and she wasn't sure how good they were, but we didn't have anything else to do so we went. Turned out that the tickets were for row 11 right behind home plate! And the Rockies won!
I also got to pick up my new car today! I just bought a 2002 volvo s60. It's nice AND it's All wheel drive so I won't get stuck in the snow! I'll post a picture later.

Ice Cream Man

My new apartment is right on the park which is amazing because it's the perfect place to run! So I just went on my first run as a resident of colorado and my lungs aren't too happy with me. The air is really thin! But I'll get used to it. I also sweat more here than I ever did in Georgia and it's WAY less humid and hot... weird. Anyway, I just got home and guess what I'm doing? I'm sitting in my room listening to the Ice cream truck go by DYING to run outside and chase him down. Beside the fact that I can barely move because I'm so tired, Ice cream is not what I need right now. Maybe lunch and a shower first.

PLUS I'm going to see Ryan Adams tonight at Red Rocks with a bunch of people. It's supposed to rain, but hopefully it won't and if it does, it'll have to be fun anyway!

ROAD TRIP!

This past week I took the road trip of my life. I moved to Denver! Craig and I (plus some helpers) packed all of our stuff in Athens into a 16" Penske truck and left last wednesday. We drove to Baton Rouge to stay with Craig's brother Chris and sister-in-law Cassie. We ate some good cajun food and then went to watch Chris do the 9:00 sportscast! Thursday morning we all left Baton Rouge- Craig and I in the Penske and Chris and Cassie in thier car to drive to Texas for their mom's wedding! We got to San Antonio around 8 and loaded even more furniture into the truck b/c craig's mom is moving to chicago so she gave most of her stuff away.
Friday we met up with Craig's brothers and stayed at their uncle's house in Austin. Paul and Jen have a 2 year old who is so cool! Here's Logan and Craig growling at each other...
That afternoon, we went to the biggest liquor store I've ever seen and bought the beer for the reception- all microbrewed. The rehearsal was pretty funny to watch. Cyndy has 3 sons- Chris, Kevin, and Craig- they were her "bridesmaids." Steve has 3 kids also. Anyway, his kids act totally normal, but Craig and brothers were causing as much mayhem as possible. The best part about the wedding was that it was in the high school that Cyndy and Steve both went to!
Here's the angry face at the rehearsal. We ate dinner at an amazing Italian restaurant and then went out in Austin for the night. Here's Craig and I at the actual wedding...
Sunday, we drove to Arlington to put, that's right, even more stuff in the truck. I honestly don't know how it even fit. we made it to Amarillo. I don't know how you can drive for 2 days and still be in texas, but we were. Finally on Monday, we made it to Denver! Here's me driving thru New Mexico. My life is still in boxes, but I did get a job today! I'm gonna be a Teacher's Assistant at a school for kids with behavioral disorders. I start on the 20th! AND I got a Colorado Driver's License today!

Why I don't keep a journal

This is exactly why I don't keep a journal.... because I'd rather sleep than do just about anything, except be with friends. So when I could be journaling (or writing this), I'm asleep. Today was a good example- my family went to the beach for the 4th so I'm alone at my house. The only people I talked to ALL DAY were the bank teller and the girl at circuit city (the place that I hate most in the world... another story) until Wade came by to visit for a few minutes tonight. So for 12 hours today, I ran 2 erands and cleaned the house b/c I was bored. PLENTY of time to write, but I don't really like to do it.

Anyway, lots of fun things have been going on lately. We took the 6th graders on a mission trip to Matamoros last week. I love that place- it's where I was on staff last summer so I got to hang out with all of my translator friends for a week again. Derek Garcia (an MBY friend) brought his youth group too, so it was fun to see him and Max. Most of the 125 kids on the trip were high schoolers, but we took 12 year olds and they were amazing! It was so fun to see them start to understand the world apart from the Macon bubble.


Craig was really nice and planned a surprise visit to come see me. He got here on Tuesday and left on Monday. It was so good to see him in the middle of the 2 month summer. While he was here, we were planning for VBS- the theme this year is gameday, but we don't have very many kids signed up yet. It'll be good though. I'm supposed to teach missions, how you do that with kindergarteners thru 4th graders is beyond me, but hopefully it'll come together before monday. This weekend, Craig and I went to Athens or the last time before we go to move our stuff out. It's a little sad, but I have an apartment and a roommate in Denver. I even applied for a real job today (yikes!) so things don't seem as scary as they did last month.

the zoo, doctors and slap bets

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. Mostly because any day that I get to go to the zoo ranks pretty high. We scheduled a trip for Kindergarten and 1st graders to go to the zoo and play in the water rings at centennial olympic park. Only 4 kids showed up. Mostly b/c a lot of moms don't want to let their babies go to ATL with a bunch of (very responsible) college students and a few other adults. So it was 2 adults for every kid. We did have tons of fun. I will say that from recent experience, the Denver zoo is far superior to the one in atlanta, but the atlanta zoo does have a petting zoo. We ate lunch at turner field and then went to the park. There were tons of kids playing in the water rings and great times for everyone.

Today was a little more interesting. Our whole staff is pretty much sick. We all have sinus infection kindof stuff. This wouldn't be that big of a deal except that we're leaving to take the 6th graders on a mission trip to Mexico on Saturday, so getting better is a big priority. None of us has any money, so we called a few people in the church and get invited to this doctor's office in Roberta. If you don't know where that is, neither do I, but it's about 30 minutes away. So we show up to this tiny office in a 15 passenger van (but there are only 6 of us) and tell the woman at the desk to not even worry about the insurance info b/c we aren't paying. after the doctor looks at all of us one by one, he decides that we are just passing around a virus and gives us our medicine on the spot. I don't know what it was but we were all loopy for a few hours after that, but not quite as snotty.

On the way home, someone decided that Will needed to wax his legs. Chris of course bet him that he wouldn't do it and the slap bet was born. And once things get started with the interns, they don't stop. We ended up making a night of it. We made peach ice cream and then all participated in waxing Will's legs. It is gross. Nothing will ever convince me that waxing my legs is worth it.
1. It's sticky
2. It hurts
3. You have to let your hair grow out to 1/4 of an inch before you can wax again. I mean why would you ever do that if you had to have hairy legs for an entire week every month. I'll just stick to shaving thanks.

I love playing!

So this summer, Walter and I are in charge of Kindergarten and 1st grade sunday school. This means that we can pretty much do whatever we want b/c most of the sunday school teaching books stink. The topic this week is that "God wants you to do your best." The story that the book put with it was about the Israelites building the Tabernacle. This is perfect b/c last week we were talking about how fun it would be to build a tent in sunday school! So we're gonna do it! If anyone's got any suggestions for building a tent/fort, holler! And speaking of the kids we hang out with... I'll just say that some of them are funny. I mean, I've never seen so many kids with bags, cell phones, and shoes nicer than mine!

just do it

I've been talking about cutting my hair for weeks. So thursday morning I woke up and decided I would do it. It took about five minutes and it was free... I don't think I'm ever paying for another haircut again. Kidding. I did a good job, but I don't think I could ever do it any different than this.

Lauren's birthday was last week so a few people came up to athens tonight to celebrate. We had dinner at Speakeasy and then went downtown for a while. We had a great time! Going out in Athens is weird for me though because I don't really live here anymore so every time might be the last time. If you know me at all, you know that I can't drink until september, so I've been DD for the past 6 months. I love it and here's why.

1. It's a nice thing I can do for my friends

2. Being in bars and not drinking gives a very different perspective on what's going on

3. It's an excuse not to accept drinks from random guys who want to buy them for me

4. It really makes me want to have more outdoor interests and hobbies so I don't have to do that all the time

Here's why I can't wait for September:

1. It's hard to participate in enjoying Craig's brewing

2. I really miss wine

cleaning up

I've been on this cleaning up kick for about a week now. I think it's b/c I'm about to move- probably into a small apartment, so I'm trying to get rid of A LOT of my stuff. Last week I gave away 5 trash bags of clothes. Today, I got to the hall closet- it hasn't been used in 4 years b/c we've been putting all of the stuff we don't know what to do with in that closet. Anyway, I found a huge box of my high school stuff. Some of it was hard to look at (pictures of me with blonde hair [ew], letters from family and from friends that aren't really around anymore), but most of it was fun to find. I found all of my elementary school yearbooks, my pointe shoes, and all of my middle and high school journals (there are like 10 of them).

richie's graduation

Richie graduated this weekend! so our whole family was in town and the house was PACKED. I'm really glad I got to see my family though. Central's graduation was kindof a shock to them though- I mean central has a little different culture to it than my family has ever seen. The only kids they know that go there are my brother and a few of his friends... not really a fair representation of the school. He's part of the school and all, but a small part of a huge collection of all types of people. Anyway, it's hard to explain, but in short- CHS was the best high school experience I could have asked for, graduation just freaked out my family a little.

We also finished painting our mural for the REEF. This picture is pretty much what it looks like finished. We had a lot of fun making it... s'mores, paint spills, and a performance by the backstreet boys. The people I work with are amazing. Everyone is crazy, but we like it that way.












Julie and Oscar's wedding was last night. It was beautiful and so great to see them finally married. It was so weird to have everyone together in the same place again and hanging out!