I froze my BILLS off for that?!?!

So last Sunday, Steve and I decided to go to the Bronco-Bills game at Invesco field. Now this was my second game at Invesco- the first was the memorable Monday night football game I worked at (see the my first post).

We decided to park at my friend Greg's house- he lives on 20th which is only 2 blocks from Invesco and when he called and asked if we were parking there, we thought- Hey its free so hell yeah!!

We put on LAYERS of clothes- even got Herb the long johns (not the donut- although those are tasty) and we are out the door.

We get to Greg's, he gives us instructions on how to work the garage and he asks us how the hell are we going to the game in this weather. We say we will be fine-and off we go. Now its cold- the cold were the sun is out, but it does not matter. You see your breath and your face gets cold in a matter of seconds. We are walking to the game, people are tailgating- they HAVE to be drunk to be out in this cold for THAT long. We get inside Invesco, the people patting you down have mittens or thick gloves on so I think, "What is the point of all of this?"

We get in and look at our tickets- 525. We have to go...UP. SO we walk the ramp....look at the people in line for the escalator- and just keep going. We are at the point that we are cold, but hot from walking at an incline, which is just uncomfortable for anyone.

We finally get to the top- and we want brats. We order 2 brats, one beer and a bottle of water. Why beer and water?? Well I was thirsty from the climb- and what is a football game without beer?! We find our seats and they are really good seats. The are three seats by themselves facing the sun- which thank god- and you can see the entire field. SO we sit. I am taking pictures, taking on and off my gloves, and then I finally get to my brat- which its cold by the time I take the first bite. The Broncos come on the field and kick off is ready to go. Steve calls his parents who are at the game as well to make sure they are in their seats. Ed Greene from channel 4 comes on, "Congratulations fans! You are at the coldest game in Invesco Field history and the sixth coldest game in Bronco history- the kickoff degrees is 17!!" We all cheer, but we are not sure we want to cheer or kick this guys ass because he is in a warm studio.




Anyway, the 1st quarter goes well, the Broncos run the ball in for a touchdown the first play of the game, and the also get a field goal. The score is 10-0 so we are feeling pretty good AND at least we are feeling anything at all. It is getting colder....I cannot drink anymore of my water and Steve's beer that kept freezing over is now gone. It is getting colder. Steve goes to the bathroom at one point and comes back to report that the men's bathroom is closed because the pipes have froze and the women's bathroom is now open for everyone. I get a hot coco which surprisingly stayed hot. The 2nd half flies by and now it is half time. The score is 13-10, Broncos barely holding on.



We meet Pat and Mary at halftime, I can barely move- I have not moved since sitting down the start of the game. Mary is wearing this 1990's coat that looks like a sleeping bag and I want to rip it off of her and wear it myself. She says, "Yes I know it is ugly but it is damn warm!" But if you think about it- do you really want to look GOOD or keep WARM? I vote WARM!! It is the best coat I have seen in a long time. Pat's beer that he is drinking it frozen and we are all just shivering. We tell them that we have a seat open next to us so they decide to move their stuff over to us. Most of the people around us have left at this point.

The second half starts which also means the sun went down. Steve and I cannot feel our feet and my nose is like an otter pop. It is so cold that we both are laughing, but at the same time not having any fun any more. In the 3rd, the Bills score two field goals and the Broncos score a touchdown- and the score is way too close. We want to leave but this damn game is closer than what we want. 4th quarter starts and it is now 13 degrees outside. We see an add on the jumbotran that says, hot dogs right now? (excuse my french.....but COME ON!!) Steve and I look at each other, we both know what we are saying. Steve tells his mom that we cannot take the cold anymore and we leave. We get in the stairwell of the exit and have never been so warm in our lives. we keep walking but cannot feel our legs, feet, I cannot feel my nose- and have you seen that thing?! Its huge! It was a jog to our car....we have never walked that fast in our lives. It it is getting colder. We finall and ice cold soda....someone yells, "yeah right!! Like we want a damn ice cold anything right now!!" The fans are getting upset. This must end. Mary has those hand warmers and I am warming one up for Steve's foot that lost feeling awhile back. I tell him to put it in his shoe. He does and then I get another one going for my hands. It is getting brutal. The Broncos seem to be having their heads more and more up their asses that we are all in pain for nothing. Cutler gets the ball....goes back.....and throws a pick. Are you fucking kidding mey get to Greg's garage. We walk into his building and for the first time in 3 hours we feel warmth. We do not want to leave Greg's building...in fact we just stay there for about 5 minutes. We get in my car, turn on 850 AM just to find out Bronco's did lose 30-23.

Now we have this Sunday against San Diego. Whoever wins goes to the playoffs. Whoever looses, goes home. I cannot believe that I froze my Bills off to see that performance. It was ugly. I could not even believe it. I want Bronco's to win on Sunday- but at the same time- do the deserve it?!?!

Well all in all- I guess Buffalo does know what it is like to play in 13 degree's.

Shoeuicide Bomber

I am sure all of you by now have seen the video where president Bush gets attacked in Baghdad. WHAT?!?! Bush got attacked?!?! Well....in a way....

There we were, watching the KC-San Diego football game- which was all the options we had on TV. (It was either that shit fest OR Tampa Bay at Atlanta....Football seems to get be getting worse. Or maybe I am getting worse at my pick 'em pool and holding on to my top 10 status just gets scarier each week.)

The news breaks in- which was during a commercial break not even the game- to let us know the "breaking news" in Baghdad or I guess just how the farewell speech went with Bush.

Apparently not good. OR really good. Depends on how you look at it.

The lady newscaster lets us know that there was a Baghdad journalist that threw his own shoes at president Bush, but Bush was not harmed. They go to the video.

WHAT?

I have never laughed that hard at something I shouldn't since grade school!! You have to be shitty me!!

So this guy gets off his left shoe- CHUCKS it at Bush, Bush ducks (can the Denver Broncos recruit Bush with those awesome moves?) then the guy has time to take off his RIGHT shoe and throw it at him for one more try. Holy shit. What has this world come to?? First off the fact that the guy had TIME to take off his shoes (and look how I said that plural) and throw it at him is damn good- and second off- Hey! Secret Service! Can you say JOB OPENING? Not in this job market!! You want to keep on to the job even if it means you have to protect Bush....I mean yes, we have been counting down the days since 2004, but come on, we are on the HOME STRETCH people!! Hang in there for Christ sake!!

So after we saw it the first time, I say "Who throws a shoe? Honestly?! You fight like a woman!"
Ahhh....Austin Powers movie is the best when you can quote it at any given moment!!

Enjoy these, won't you?

Creature living in our grill....

Steve and I decided to grill out the other night- It has been such an awesome November .... NO SNOW ... which means, lets have steak on the grill!! OK!!

So I am not doing anything to help- Steve is pretty much the cook in the family so I am in the kitchen keeping him company and reading some magazine. Steve goes outside to light the grill. Man I would LOVE to work for Rolling Stones...."Dre, come out here."

I go outside on our little pourch.

"What do you think happened here?" Steve says. I look at the grill which he is pointed at and from afar and in the dark- it looks like someone piled a bunch of little fire logs IN our grill. "What is that?" I ask.....

Steve goes over to it and turns on our grill light that we got for our wedding. (I love wedding presents) so this .... thing .... lits up in the light. It is a pile of leaves. What in the hell?

We are both staring at it. "Who would put a pile of leave in our grill?" These leaves are the shape of the grill. There is SO many of them. Steve gets one leaf off of the top of the grill. The pile of leaves move. "Holy shit it moved." I say. "What?" like Steve does not believe what I just said ... or maybe with his shitty hearing I need to say it louder. "It just MOVED." Sure enough- that was like a roll cue for the thing to move so it moves. We both RUN back in the house- I am pretty sure I scream. We shut the door.

We are both starting at the pile and we are now inside both creeped out. I tell Steve he needs to do something about it and he says, "F that! I am not going out there!!" He goes back out there to shut the grill and turn off the gas. He comes back in, "They can have the winter! We will just get a new grill!!" We get out the Forman that we got for a wedding present (I love wedding presents) and cook up our steaks.

Seriously? So we have to let the thing just live in there?!

So DAYS later I make him open the grill again. Maybe if it gets cold enough it will leave. I hope.

So after a few days of having the grill cover OPEN (which- what will that do or prove to our creature anyway?) we are good to go knowing that .... maybe ... this thing will pack up and move. SO it starts snowing tonight .... Steve and I start talking- We know feel bad for this creature in the grill- its little head is getting snowed on and now it is cold!! So I look out and the nest is COVERED in snow, I tell Steve we need to put the grill top down so he can have his home again. (sidenote: we need a new grill)

I go outside with Steve behind me saying "MAN UP!!" Excuse me? Last time I check you had the balls in this relationship. SO I tell him I cannot do it- I cannot get that close to the grill without losing my shit. SO I come in the warm house, Steve puts on my shoes and goes out there. He is approaching the grill (at this point I wished I would of had my video camera rolling) and puts down the grill top- when all of a sudden creature comes FLYING out at him!! Steve's face was nothing I had never seen before- the look of fear, the look of I may or may not shit myself and I am leaning towards MAY at this point of my life. The look of HOLY SHIT is on his face. I have never seen Steve move or react to ANYTHING that fast in the 4 years I have known him. He is seriously scared. I am freaking out just as much- but I am on the safety zone. The creature cannot touch base .... I am safe!! I fear for Steve- I look really hard to see this THING that has been taking up space and I see that it was a squirrel. You know that one part in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where the crazy ass squirrel jumps out of the tree?! THAT was this moment right before my eyes. The squirrel jumped out at Steve and then took off on the fence. The thing was pissed off and now we know that this squirrel is in our grill storing his damn winter food. Now what? We did not clean it up- We were both too freaked to go touch it again. Steve keeps saying, "he can have the winter!" I really want to clean it out. But then I see Alvin, Simon and Theodore just sitting there coming up with a bad ass Christmas album .... How can I kick them out? Maybe my grill is their recording studio.

All in all....the creature still has its nest. For now.

Madonna Concert ...

For Jessica's birthday ... her beloved husband gave her two tickets to see Madonna live in concert at the Pepsi Center here in Denver. This would be only the second night (the night before being her first) that Madonna has EVER been to Denver. Why has the material girl never been in Denver?! Could it be the altitude making it really hard for singers to wail? Could it be that she thinks of Colorado like most people do .... skiers and cowboys and that no one here in this great city would want to see her roll around the stage? For whatever reason her 20+ singing career has kept her from Denver .... we were not about to miss this like a virgin step foot on to stage for the first time. Well second.

I go to work getting pumped about the show that night telling everyone about it. Bill Doleman (one of our anchors at the network) tells me that last night she did not go on stage till 9:30 when it was supposed to start at 8:00. So I think that that is kind of BS- but at the same time we are talking about the material girl that is living in a material world. She can really do what she wants- and if it is a good show- screw it, right?! I tell Bill and Marius (the other anchor) that I have inside information (from brother in law, Kelly) that I know when her plane is leaving. I tell them our grand plan of leaving the concert as fast as we can to see her leave- or in the best case scenario to see her get on the plane and make her sign my chest. I tell them that we think that her plane leaves at midnight. Then we all start laughing at the sight of Madonna's plane leaving at midnight .... with or without her. "This is the final call for flight number .... MADONNA ...." There is Madonna in her small little outfit looking up at the screens-then down at her ticket. "SHIT- my plane is leaving!!" Then she starts to run in her high heel shoes-with her bags ... you know like NORMAL PEOPLE DO!! Then she has to go through security ..... then SHE is the one that gets the random search. "Excuse me miss, can you step over here for me....." then SHE gets the stupid air blows on her. "But I am going to miss my flight!!!" AHHHH.....famous people are funny.

So work is now over with- I spend a few minutes with Steve and then I meet Jess for dinner. Now at the moment I am walking out the door I think I should do something funny. Do I wear a small skirt with leg warmers? Do I wear a tore up wedding dress in the Like a Virgin video? Do I plant a mole above my mouth? No- I have no time for jokes .... I am running a few minutes behind. SO I meet Jess and she is in her teacher clothes so she needs to go change into a Madonna outfit and for Jess and I that means hoodie and jeans. So I am sitting there .... Drinking my drink. Thinking it is taking awhile. No big deal. Maybe Jess is taking a shit.....Man I am hungry. Jess comes back, sits down. DAMN IT! She has a mole!!! That is damn funny!!! So we start laughing so hard- I tell her I was MOMENTS away from doing that myself and I tell her NICE WORK!! We are just chatting. Damn. I cannot stop staring at that mole. It is kind of talking to me. Its like when she talks- the mole is talking. Thank GOD she does not have a real mole. That would put a big wedge in our relationship. "I seriously cannot stop staring at your mole..." she laughs. I pay the bill thanking her for taking me to the concert and we move on. Jess checks to make sure we have the tickets for the tenth time and we leave the restaurant.


We get in my car..... Enjoy this video ....




So we are now on our way to the concert. BUT wait.....we need something. we need shooters. We stop at a liquor store that has a sign outside of it that said, NO HOODIES ALLOWED. Huh. we are clearly wearing hoodies. Maybe they mean something else.
We get our shooters ... NOW we are in action.

We are pulling into the parking lot of the Pepsi Center and we are seeing A LOT of old people getting out of the car. And I mean like 70 year old people....THAT is old.

Now .... enjoy THIS video.




After THAT debacle.... we head in. We find our seats, and we sit. We are people watching - it is 8:13 and NO ONE is there. I would say it is 3/4 empty. The fact that she did not come on until 9:30 the night before is definitely impacting people.

Then at 9:14, the lights go down. Everyone screams .... Madonna is about to go on. The opening is awesome. I cannot really describe it and I captured it on my phone ... which SUCKS compared to my flip so imagine, if you will, something awesome.

The show goes on for 2 hours ... Jess and I get up, dance, sing ... and then sit for some of the stuff we don't know but still jam and just look at her in awe. She comes out in soccer socks and jump ropes at one point. When I am 50 I pray to GOD I am doing that. Not really wearing my soccer socks to play soccer because I should just quit that NOW ... but I DO hope I am in those tiny ass shorts, jump roping across a stage singing my heart out.
At one point she is talking to the crowd. She gets mad at us when we stop clapping. She REALLY gets mad a one row that is sitting. She even says, "What the fuck do you think this is, a Barbra Streisand concert?! No offense." She ask the crowd what to sing, she sings Like a Virgin. We sing with her. Then she stops after the first verse and tells the crowd that is all she remembers and she never can remember the second verse. Second verse .... Same as the first!! Oh wait. Pretty sure that is Henry the 8th song. Anyway, she keeps going ... she sings Like a Prayer- which is one of my favs, and I really do not want that song to stop. Ever. She sings her last song- goes back in the vanishing door .... and ... scene. There is was. I told Jess before the show that Steve and I always know when a band is NOT doing an encore. And THAT is when the house lights come on. People think the show will still go on. Not when those damn lights go on. Sure enough the lights go on - even though Holiday came on, and Jess and I looked at each other. We got to bust a move out of here! So we leave our row. This is the part I hate about concerts. There- in the sea of "cows" and no one is moving and everyone is all jacked up on the concert they just saw. Not Jess and I, we sprinted out of there ... take the stairs down .... we are flying down them. We are now pretty much running to the car - which is in Lot A thanks to Sam and his free parking. We get to the car and we are the only car that is backing out. NICE! We speed out of the parking lot, which is RIGHT next to I-25 and we are now on our highway! I give my phone to Jess who can get Kelly's text message of directions. Now we are going to see Madonna's plane leave. Hopefully we can see the material girl herself.

Now watch this video won't you?





Now the rest of the night will probably be best summed up in videos. We like to call them VLOGS in the biz. BUT unfortunately they are "too big" for blogger- so I will just explain what happened.

We get to the airport in probably about 15 minutes. We were FLYING down I-25- I have never driven that fast (THAT is a lie) and we thought for sure we beat the Virgin to the airport. We talk to mom on the phone who says that we have to go through some security and that we should just tell the guy that we are seeing one of Kelly's friends. Well we get there and there is NO security or gates of any sort so we keep driving. Jess is reading the text from Kelly, "Go to the end of the street- that is where her plane is." So we do what he tells us do and there is only two planes. A small jet like plane and a bigger plan that is a little further away. We pull in and think- this is it....this is where we see Madonna!!

The engine on this little plane is going and it is loud. We think that it is NO DOUBT it is her plane! We are just sitting in the car just staring at this plane. We are slightly disappointed that there is no glitter, no big "M", no pink ANYWHERE- just a plain white plane. ("Looks like a big Tylenol." - Airplane BEST movie ever) We just sit there. I decide that I need to get out of the car and get a closer look. BUT Jess reminds me that mom almost got bitch slap taking pictures of John Kerry so I get back in the car real quick. We see a nice Escalade leaving the area. THAT has to be Madonna's car that she SPED in because we were just as speedy and now Madonna is in the plane enjoying some peanuts. The plane starts to move. "We are following that plane!!" I start to follow the plane with my car!! I am getting turned around- I am pretty much going in a circle until I decide to follow another Escalade. Jess tells me that we would probably just follow it back to a rental car place.
Oh wait- there is the plane on the right hand side of us. See?!?! we ARE following the plane!! As the plane is taxing- we are just following it. We are talking about how Madonna would love us if she only just met us!!
The plane takes off and we are just sitting in the middle of the road SO disappointed. That was it. That is all we got. We got no autograph, no picture, NOTHING.

The show was awesome and I would see her again in a heart beat. All in all, dancing around in our house when we were little pretending to be the material girl- 22 years later- we see her live. Then we see her leave in her plane. Or so we think.

History hangover

Last night was history in the making. We elected the first African American president of the United States- and how excited were we?!? So excited that we needed to have an election day party.

I woke up feeling different. Feeling happy and excited about the day. One day I will tell my kids about this. One day I will look back and tell everyone what I was doing when Obama and McCain were going head to head in the biggest presidential race in history.

I get up and run- running to songs that will pump any American up- "We will rock you", "Baby got back", "Sign" by Ace of Base- you know...the usual. After my run I jump in the shower, get my VOTE NOW shirt on and wake Steve up.

We eat Alphabits because that is the best American meal and damn it that they have not been around for the past 10 years of my life. (side note: they got ride of NEW! on the box. Damn straight.)

We walk Mr. Bo- the air is clean and ready for a new president!

I have to go to the police station to get my fingerprints. yeah....I got into some bad stuff and have to clear my name but that is a whole different story. OK- No, I had to go get fingerprints to get a substitute teaching license and what better day to do it!

We drive up to the police station and there are people in red, white and blue with signs that say, "DROP OFF BALLOTS- THIS WAY"

Everyone is honking and waving. How exciting. I have never known this many people to get this excited or to vote for that matter!

We park and go in to the police station where there were these two older gentleman asking what my business is. I tell them and they help me fill out my fingerprint card. They tell me to put a "C" or a "W" for my race and a "F" for my gender. Really? How cute were these two old men?! I wanted to squish them up and take them home! I pay at the counter and away we go. This guy is getting my entire hand black and of course Steve is cracking jokes like, "this is not her first time doing this...." or "Now you know how I feel....." the usual jokes coming from Steve. The old guys are telling us stories about how people leave shoes, socks, watches, rings....you name it- they leave it at this police station while getting fingerprinted. I look down. Speaking of rings- mine is now black! I did not care because at this point- this guy could have covered my face with black ink and I would have laughed and still wanted to take him home. Once I was done- he coved my hands in a lemon scented goo- "Now rub yer hands together like yer washing them- but don't let your ring go in the trash." Thanks buddy. Thanks.

We leave the police station with my fingerprint card in hand and go back home where I had to drop off Steve so he can get the house clean and ready for our election day party and so I could go to work.

I get to work- get some of the "full screens" (its what we say in the bizz) I have to build for all these shows coming up. I go to a meeting- we are voting for who will win the Thursday nights game. TCU or Utah? I pick Utah but I just really do not care. I want to get home to start watching TV. We finally start taping (or shooting- if you will) some of our shows. I get calls and text's from Steve saying that Pink is at the house with him and that he is getting an early start on his celebration for Obama. He sends me a picture of Pink. It is a Pink holding up a vodka bottle that they have decorated. It says OBAMA '08 all over it. Wow- it is around 2:00 and he is going to town already!!

I finally get off work- I am running to the store to get snacks and Steve at this point is drunk. I need snacks to make him sober up!! ;)

I get home and he is probably the worst I have seen him. His friend Pink and him are downstairs in the basement playing fooseball table complaining that the need more beer. They leave to go get more beer after Steve tells me about 5 times that they drank a whole bottle of vodka. Why do they need more beer? Oh screw it- this is going to be a good night with history in the making!!

They go get beer, I am alone putting chips into bowls- listening to the TV. Mom calls. She stops by for a minute and we talk about Obama. We both think that if he can just hit 220 electoral votes, he will win. California is a lock with 50 electoral votes, so we just need him to get that. So far he is leading Florida AND Ohio which is huge! This is so exciting. Oh wait....VOTER ALERT!!! McCain won Kentucky. NO surprise there.

Mom leaves and Pink and Steve come back but Pink actual leaves to go home- so it is just Steve and I. Steve is mad that my mom left so he tries calling her but she did not pick up- so he closes his phone and pouts about it. Drops his phone in the salsa. He graps his phone out of the salsa and says, "crap- my phone has salsa on it..." and goes to the faucet to WASH IT OFF!! I grab him before he ruins his phone and I wipe it off for him. Could be a long night.

Moose finally comes over- THANK GOD and we make our shirts that we got FREE from Gap. It says Vote for _____. So of course we put in - Vote for HERB. and Vote for SOME DRE. Because why not put that on a shirt!?!? Steve strips for the both of us and says, "Put my shirt on for me!" What is he, 5??!!? Moose and I just laugh!

People start showing up- it was awesome. We are sitting there watching TV- but it is on CNN, not ESPN, not FOX SPORTS, not NBC on Sunday nights for football- we were actually watching a news channel. This is amazing! I am looking around the room and I am in awe of all of us so in to this election. We are not watching one of our teams looking to go 8-0 or make the hail mary pass to the end zone- this is history. This is the stuff that you read when you are 16 or 17 in your history class that you do not care about.....and we are watching it on our 47" (thats what she said) TV.

The electoral votes for Obama keeps going up, we are all getting so excited. I tell Moose my grand idea of hitting 220 (ps- I LOVE calling it MY grand idea when it is simple math) and she is nervous- she cannot even think about it! Steve is now in bed- drinking that early made him sleepy. (I have kept waking him up telling him he has to get up, if he misses it- he will be so sad) "Wake me up in 10 minutes." SO I go back downstairs.

VOTER ALERT! Obama wins Florida AND Ohio- our polls are now closed- Kevin says- "Man whichever party is YELLOW- they are winning." LOVE HIM. They have now put down a countdown clock for the polls closing on the west coast. This is it. This means California. Obama hits 220. California immediately turns BLUE- VOTER ALERT! OBAMA WINS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES- I say, "Holy shit- they just called it!" Everyone was shocked and did not want to believe it.....They did! Sure enough- There is a check mark by Obama!! We start jumping up and down!! We start high fiving and hugging like our team just won the super bowl- This is awesome!! I have to go wake up Steve! Moose wants to come with so we swing open the door- "Steve OBAMA WON!!" Moose and I dance while Steve is slowly opening his eyes (super sleepy AND drunk)- "They called it?" So I explained the whole 220 thing and he said, "Well McCain has to ok that." (why is it on Steve's drunkest of days he can rattle out something actually smart and relative to the situation)

Anyway, Moose and I continued our dance and then went back downstairs. Everyone got on their phones to call someone. Mostly, their parents. Being in our 20's it is amazing to see the world for what it is and to see how far we have come. Sharing it with our parents and their parents is the next best thing when we think "history." Times like this I wish my dad, grandpa and grammy were still alive to see something this amazing. Well maybe not grandpa- he was not a huge fan of "the black folk!" ;) But to come this far in this country is so powerful and so moving.

McCain gives his speech. (He still cannot wave to the crowd. I'm sorry- too soon?) No for real- it was a great "exit interview" and I wrote it down for when I quit the MTN. He is an amazing solider and a brave soul- I am just glad he does not have that pin head crazy ass bitch with him to ruin this country. Sarah Palin waves- you can see it in her eyes. I wonder what she is thinking. "Can I go back to Alaska? Will they still love me? I still need to get that Mama Moose that has been dodging my bullets for awhile now- I guess that is what Tom and I will do tomorrow morning. Remind me to fuel the helicopter tomorrow morning- I need to vent."

We are all just waiting around for Obama's speech. The poor guy just lost his grandmother a day ago- She was the cutest thing ever.

The guy that loves the touch screen comes back on telling us about the demographics of the voters. "Lets go to age shall we..." PRESS- then the screen transforms into a pie chart. "Ya see here? The ages from 18-32- 58% voted for Obama while the rest- 41% voted for McCain- Now lets go back out here...." PRESS- I swear this guy has NO idea what the hell he is talking about he just wants to press the damn touch screen. (Side note: when we had to go through "telestrator training" at work- I was this guy. I was circling players, putting in arrows in the shape of a smiley face, I wrote HI MOM on top of the video- I was all over the place. And here I sit- making fun of this old dude. EVERYONE should play with a telestrator or a voting touchscreen once in their life)

FINALLY Obama comes out. His family is so cute. He looks so tired. But happy. To be honest- I think HE is even shocked he won.
His speech was amazing. He had me at HELLO CHICAGO. I had tears in my eyes....words cannot express his speech. I do not care who you voted for- his speech made you love America. Every America has been pissed off the past 8 years. We have been taken granted for. We are the power house and every other country is laughing at us because of one single man. This is the time were we get back up and we stand up for what we believe in. We all have to remember how it is to be an American and this is a huge start for a change.

I look behind me at Moose to smile at her. We smile at each other (never mind that Steve is sucking on a cigar- THAT is a whole different story!!) and I just keep thinking how weird it is to have a different president. Bush was elected before I could drink alcohol. Now I am married to an alcoholic- No I am just kidding- But think about how long we have had ONE MAN in that White House. Finally EIGHT years later it just feels different. It feels amazing.

I drove into work today and it felt better. I have no idea why- it just did.



Obama wins OHIO


Ashleigh and Kevin


HE WINS!


Musou and I


Ernie, Ash and Kevin


Meghan, James and GARY!

I AM LEAFING!!

Fall is probably my favorite season....the fresh cool air, the crisp autumn leaves, pumpkin spice latte back at starbucks....NOTHING is better then that. Every year, Steve and I take a drive to see the colors of Colorado. We have done the Guanella pass before (Georgetown and Idaho Springsish) and we have done Winter park- but we have yet to do Cripple Creek.

So after a heavy night of drinking, we get up early (11:00am) and hit the road. We grab some coffee (PSL of course) and now we are good to go. We head south to Colorado Springs- knowing that there is a Dunkin Donuts down there. (why in the hell did they get rid of them in Denver?) So we grab the address and pump it in Ellen (the GPS) and she tells us where to go. SIDE NOTE: Ellen can be such a bitch. If you take a wrong turn she yells at you, "Recalculating route." all snotty like. What a bitch.

On the way down there I get a call from mom who is in Italy. MEAT-A-BALL-A!! (I swear I never knew that Italian was a real language. I thought they just had really bad accents.)
She asks if I am by a TV. I tell her that we are LEAFING! (you have to yell it) and that no, I am not by a TV. Apparently the stock market crashed after the "Bailout plan" failed. Huh. Ok. I know nothing about stocks but I know that going under 800 points is REALLY bad. REALLY REALLY bad. Ahhh.....Republicans. they are like men. Can't live with them, can't live with them.

Anyway, back to the drive- we get off the highway when I realized that I punched in the wrong address for DD. Quick fix, Herb flips a bitch and we are on the DD route again. We turn the corner and there she sits. A french vanilla coffee. It is lit different. It is like God is the light guy and has special Arri's on the place. (Arri's-studio lights in a studio) We park, go in and get two iced french vanilla coffees and one bear claw. YUM!

Time to hit the road again. We are driving and I am starting to think weather man Mike Nelson is a piece of shit for telling us to take this drive since there are no colors.....when we turned the corner.
There were so many colors, yellow, orange....it was so amazing. We had to stop. We stopped like 4 or 5 times to get out and take pictures. In all my life of living here in Colorado- I never knew this area existed. We traveled with a group of people. We would all drive a few miles, get out and take pictures. We met this cute little family of 4 that every time they stopped, they would get out their 2 little kids and have Steve or I take a picture. I am sure the kids thought, what in the hell are we doing and why in the hell do they keep getting me out of my car seat when I am so fucking hungry- but it was still cute that they were doing that.

We were getting hungry as well, so we decided to keep heading towards Cripple Creek to find a cute little mountain cafe to eat in. We keep driving, Cripple Creek is known for their mining and gold- so of course they have casinos as well. Well we drive in- and of course I forgot my purse at home so I do not have my ID with me- and there is all the locals (old- God they are old) going from one casino to the other. We looked up and down the streets. NO FOOD. ANYWHERE. well, except if you count the $3.99 steak dinner at Casino Royal. But again, no ID.

So there is another cute little town 5 miles outside of Cripple Creek called Victor.
You know that part in Texas Chainsaw Massacre when it is a bunch of friends driving somewhere and they get a flat tire and they think-"Oh lets change this flat tire while it is super hot, there is a creepy gas station a couple of miles away and we should also abandon the car, go to some house that looks like killers live there, go into the house of course because no one answered when we knocked so it is totally ok to just go in the creepy house, take off our shirts and make sure the girls have really big boobs so when the run away from creepy faced dude it will be hot for everyone."?? yeah....that is what it is like when you drive into Victor. There is no one in sight, except for that creepy chick that came stumbling out of a bar (we think) and she had probably 8 teeth total and she started dancing. I told Steve to flip a bitch and lets hope we do not get a flat tire because I do not have big boobs.
So we do....we leave Victor just as fast as we got into that town. That town has a library, a bar, a fire station and probably 2 houses. It was nothing nice. It probably has creepy face in it somewhere.

So we drive BACK to Cripple Creek....we are starving- we just go through it- we have to go to Colorado Springs to eat. And we do.....we end up eating at a wine place right off the highway- (weird that there is a wine tasting place right off the highway. Come on in! Drink wine and then drive home! It's what people do!) We were the only people in there, I ORDERED french onion soup and a chicken pot pie.....I GOT chicken pot pie. So the service was subpar-but that is ok.....

The day was filled with coffee, colors and creepy towns. What more could one ask for?

Monthiversary

Steve and I celebrated our ONE month anniversary last night....And it feels like we just got married and it also feels like Steamboat was SO long ago.

I get home from work and we are getting ready to go to our favorite Italian restaurant- Pagliacci's. I walk into the kitchen and there was a present with a card. I think CRAP- we did not talk about presents and there is one sitting there! So I open it and it is a Jay Cuttler jersey and a fan that I can put in the room since he takes up all the "cool" fans (I do not mean cool like Joey Lawerence cool or a Joey Lawerence fan like myself-I mean cool like ice) my side gets hot. So I hug him and I think- crap. I got nothing.

We go to dinner- have a delicious dinner- come home- watch a horrible movie, The Ruins (don't ever watch this movie. You will never want to own a plant ever again) and then we mosey on to bed to watch Family Guy. I am digging in my nightstand- I find a card that I have in there that I was going to give him YEARS ago- and grab it. He says, "What are you doing?" I say, "Nothing!" and bolt out of the room.

I start with the date in the top right hand corner. 09-08-08. SHIT!! A. it is clearly the 9th today and B. we got married on the 9th you shithead!! SO I change the 8 into a 9 but you can clearly see that it is a mistake. Damn. So I go on to saying how much I love Herb......and put the card in the envelope.
I go back into the room and say, "Oh...look what I just found!!" He knows exactly what happened, but as a good husband he humors me. "Oh what's that?!" "I am not sure, I found it in the computer room, under the bed!! How exciting!!" SO he opens it....and laughs that I got the date wrong. But I guess my whole thing is....when did HE get so good and I failed?!? I know that Sept. 11th is our 4 year anniversary (both of us could never remember when we exactly hooked up, and well....that is a good date to remember it. What? Too soon?) and I know his birthday is Jan. 21. I know his whole family's birthdays (which he sucks at) and now all of a sudden he comes with gifts?!?

Anyway, I guess he wins with a gift this time. But are we going to get each other 12 gifts till the big one year anniversary? Huh......I better find out.

Honeymoon bliss!

So I never thought I would be on my honeymoon and there I was....On my honeymoon. We started off in DIA- our plane took off on Tuesday, Aug. 12th- 3 days after our nuptials- at 8:23 pm. Steve, who is not a fan of flying and I have to remind him that flying is safer than driving every time we take a trip, ran to the gate to see if we could be upgraded. The flight takes around 8 hours from Denver to London so he would rather be comfortable. Indeed, the bumped us from economy plus to business class (which is first class without the leather). So we get to board first in a special line! We get on the plane, sit down in our recliner and I am freaking out. I am taking pictures, video- you name it- I am doing it. Clearly you can tell this is our first time. They bring champagne around for us while the other people our boarding and passing us, going to the back of the plane with no foot room and the god awful 5 seats in a row deal. We take off and Steve and I are in paradise. These seats have a back massager, a foot rest, a tv that pops out and it reclines practically into a bed. This is going to be a good trip.

LONDON:
We get into London 12 pm London time and we really only slept 2 hours on the plane because we were playing with all the gadgets, so we are exhausted. We change our $100 for pounds, and we only get 50 pounds back and we realize London will be expensive. We have to take a nap the first day there, and once we are up- we eat delicious curry, have our first beer at a cute little pub and take it all in. London was filled with sightseeing, the normal Big Ben, London Eye, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace- the usual stuff you see in London. We have the English breakfast which consists of fried egg, bacon, sausage, french fries and baked beans. WTF?!? We walked. Damn did we walk. We drank beer. We talked with an English accent. (Steve- not good at it). We did everything London. We even watched the Olympics- which I was wondering why they kept showing Great Britain....then I was like....Oh yeah.....

PARIS, FRANCE:
On our way to Paris, we took the EuroStar which you take in the English Channel. You have no idea you are doing this, you just are doing this. It is black- and then you assume you are under water. Before we left London, Steve just had to have the English breakfast one last time. Again- you know what it consisted off (see above) so we had it. Steve was hung over- naturally- so on top of that and an English breakfast he looked like shit. I asked him if he was ok. He was sweating something awful and finally got up to go get some water. Well the train took off and it is not a smooth ride. You are on a train, so it can get bumpy. It is like you are going back and forth. The train ride lasts 2.5 hours so I needed Steve to man up!! He comes back, sits down and the water is half gone. He is breathing hard and I am started to get worried. But then remembered- hang overs are stupid and I have no sympathy for them. Unless its me and then Herbie...get me some advil!! So he says to me, "I really think I could go throw up..." and before I could say something he was off! Herb threw up in the EuroStar. He blames the breakfast, but you know what I blame.
We get to Paris and wait forever for a taxi, I have some Euros that we got from the Keysers and from my friend Jeff so we are ok as far as money. We get in the taxi and show him on paper where we need to go. (Bonjour! got old after awhile) We stayed right next to the Louvre which was awesome because we were doing that the next day, but we were really far from the Eiffel Tower. But that did not stop us. We walked all the way to the tower, which was only 6 miles-ish and there it was. I have seen this beast before, but Steve saw it and was blown away. It is one of those feelings you get, you have heard about this thing before and once you see it- it just takes you aback. We sat there staring at it for a long time, then grabbed dinner hoping the hour line to get to the top would wind down- it did not. We had a nice dinner with wine and bread. We grabbed some wine to go stare at the Tower and drink some wine. The sun went down and there it was, a blue Eiffel Tower- it was beautiful. There we were. In Paris. On our honeymoon. Getting drunk off of wine. We made the truck back to our hotel (saw a rat- gross) saw the Louvre at night, and called it a night. Louvre early morning is the best to beat the crowds. We were at the Louvre for about 2 hours, it was great. The Mona Lisa feels like it is a 5'7 picture that someone took, it is really weird when you are staring at her. She is the only painting on that wall, behind glass, so small. We saw the usual other artwork at the Louvre- but we had to get Notre Dame in as well as the Arch De Triumph so we had to go. Everything was great, it is always weird when you are in a different country seeing all the stuff that you have seen pictures of- right there in front of you. When you are drunk, it is REALLY weird! (Side note- Steve does not know how to walk in Europe. He tripped probably 82 times. and there were even times he was so mad at the side walk I thought he was going to go off on someone. Honestly...MIND THE GAP!)

NICE, FRANCE:
Pronounced: Niece (I swear to God the next time I hear someone say "Was your honeymoon.....NICE!!" I will shoot them in the temple.)
Off to paradise. I was really looking forward to going to Nice because we finally got to do nothing for 4 days straight. There was a 3 hour delay getting our train to depart (sad story: a lady had a heart attack and died outside the train) so once we got going....it was a refresher! It takes 5 1/2 hours to go from Paris to Nice so we tried to sleep- but ipods are the best so I just listened to music. We got there and the train station in Nice is a cluster. There is massive amounts of people everywhere and no organization. There is sort of a line for taxis but it is a free for all. One man for themselves. So you are screwed if you do not know the language....wait a minute. That was us!! So we are waiting there FOREVER and finally Steve asks someone that works there and they tell us to hop on the tram. Well. What the hell is a tram. It could be a lot of things here in France....basically it was a light rail system. So we hopped on it-2 Euros later we were right at our hotel which was right next to the beach! We off load our luggage, shower, walk around a bit and go to dinner. Nice is amazing, their food, wine, culture, pebble beaches, their boobs- man its weird being on a topless beach- EVERYTHING is amazing (EXCEPT for the boobs). For the next 4 days we did what all Americans do- rinse and repeat. In Nice you drink Rose wine (which we did), you do not eat dinner before 8-9 pm (which we minded), your dinner lasted about 4 hours (which we did not do- Steve has prison rules when he eats- no way can that guy relax), you smoke (which we did not do- but man do the Parisians smoke!!), you go topless on the beaches and sit there until you are roasted (which Steve went topless- but did not roast)....
All in all Nice was perfect.
The Honeymoon was perfect.

Now we are back to the grind.....back to the jobs, back to the house, back to Mr. Bo!! Annow...Herb and I are just....Married. WEEE!!


Us in front of Big Ben


Eiffel Tower


Notre Dame

Louvre

Eiffel Tower at night

Drunk in Paris!

Nice

Nice

Wedding week....now over.

Well 8 months of planning is now over!! Steve and I tied the knot August 9th....and it was awesome. Here is the wedding week- from the brides view!!

Tuesday Aug. 5th- We packed and packed my car up to where we could not see around any of the stuff that needed to go to the mountain town and we were on our way!! That drive was one I would never forget. Steve decided he would drive which meant that I would tack on at least 30 minutes to the trip since the "Arrive alive" Herbert slogan meant driving like an 80 year-old man. The weather was beautiful- I just kept thinking all the people that have not been to Steamboat- their thoughts on the drive. We are so excited for this week that I am dancing in my seat to every song that comes on the ipod. Steve is just looking at me- probably thinking- "That is what I am marrying?" We get to Kremmling (stop for coffee at Big Shooter like we always do) we know that we are on the home stretch! We get over the Rabbit Ears pass where you can see Steamboat and the town and its just beautiful. I call the guy that will let us in the condo- and now we wait for the rest of the crew!
Ashley, mom, the Turners and Keysers get there and we start the week of with a dinner for mom's birthday- Huge steaks and mashed potatoes. Done and done.

Wed. Aug 6th- I had an appt. for my hair for the wedding day- then I get to see my cousin, Erik!! We met at the courthouse to get the paperwork for the marriage license and boy oh boy that was a sight to see! First of all- I just had my hair and makeup done so I look like a prostitute. Then I am coming in with a man that I am going to marry that thinks everything is a joke, and my cousin and I are joking about marrying each other. The lady thought that we all just did drugs, or that we at the very least need a refresher. The weather turned on us on Wednesday evening, but that did not stop us going to the hot springs where a bunch of us relaxed. Now this place of bliss is about 20 minutes outside of Steamboat and after dark you have to be 18 years of age because clothing is optional. Now it does freak you out the first time you look over and you see a blury white image of some body and no dark part of where there clothing should be....and I am not sure but old people think it is ok to go nude. What part of them thinks that their old body is attractive or even ok to show? To anyone? Even a mirror! So Erik's wife- Katy- is a good ol' southern bell (so she thinks) and thinks the whole clothing optional thing is bizzare. (As we all do- but we can get over it and enjoy the stars, the hot springs and the company of one another) Well Katy keeps seeing nude people. She starts freaking out. "There is one coming towards us now!" she tells me. And keep in mind that Katy does not have an inside voice. In fact half the time I think she is yelling. I want to tell her, dude. I am right here. (And I thought I was loud....I think Katy and I would be best friends if she moved to Colorado- both loud and awesome). I look over and I see my sister Ashley coming towards us. Pretty sure Ashley is not nude, nor does not look like a creepy old dude so now I think Katy must just be drunk at this point! She goes on to asking everyone she sees, "Are ya' all nude?!" which was the highlight of that evening and was the quote of the week.

Thursday Aug. 7th- was great, it was filled with Rio margaritas and river rafting which is never good for someone who cannot stay on a raft which was apparently Mama P. She tried so hard to stay on her tube, but every time I saw her she was under water and had the look of fear on her face. Now these rapids were not white water rapids, the were fast- but my poor mom could not stay a float to save her life, even losing her sunglasses at the bottom of Yampa. While we were all relaxing in what was like a lazy river- my mom was under water and losing her tube like it was 10 foot waves in an ocean....it was very odd. But Doug and Matt with their boxed whine was there to save the day- they were on a kayak to serve everyone drinks- so they ended up saving my mom! In the end, I have never laughed that hard in my life, looking down that river at about 40 tubes going down the river- all for Steve and I. It was so much fun....and I got sunburned...of course. Thinking that my wedding dress would cover my legs (so the sun would not hit it?!)- I did not put sunscreen on my legs so therefore I am an idiot. Thursday night we all ended up at the "Frat house" which was my friends from work's condo- which also happened to be right next to the Herbert's condo (they called us a lot asking if we could be more quite)....so that night we all continued to get drunk and also had a dance party USA. This is also when Meghan, Erin, Sarah and I had a brilliant idea. Meghan says, "Dre....you need to go streaking before you get married!" So I said..."Hell yeah I do!!" SO we all go out front of the condo and the street lights were so damn bright, but we did not care- although there was still so many people out that we were trying to figure out a plan when Erin had her pants down around her ankles yelling at a lady walking her dog. "Yeah thats right! We are going streaking!!" Funny thing was is that us 3 behind her were completely dressed. So then Erin pulled up her pants and we decided to walk up the road a little bit. So we pass this lady that was walking her dog- and we act like that did not just happen with Erin- petting her dog and saying how cute it was. She seemed a little scared of us. So we run up the street where we were going to get nude. I just keep hearing Katy..."Are ya all nude?!" You know it! SO we are all stripping off our clothes and Sarah says, "I am bare- just like I was when I was a baby!" so we are all nude running down the street laughing our asses off. Erin is in the front, followed by Sarah, Me and then Meghan. All of a sudden we see a figure. Erin says, "OH SHIT! It's Steve!!" So we all start running the other way. Oh shit...now here comes a car! So we all hide behind an electric green thing and all hide. Now we are all putting our clothes back on. Oh- another car. Back down. We did this for about 5 cars. We were laughing so hard. BUT the best part was is that we ran into the groom while streaking!!

Friday Aug. 8th- Time to rehearse the wedding! Now I never do understand this- I mean if you have been in a wedding before- you walk down the asile, stand pretty with your flowers, walk down with your guy- then drink. But for our wedding we wanted our wedding party to see the top of the mountain before anyone else. Plus with our crazy wedding party, Erin drunk most of the week, Neil and Pink are 8 feet tall, we have a bridesman and an usherette, a two year old that is a ring bearer, two almost 3 years olds dropping petals on the ground thinking that they should really not be on the ground and really in the basket, and Erik-who is a Reverand according to Google, we needed some practice. What's this? A sign that says Gondola closed?! Man I got sick of seeing that sign. So our girl Lindsey says we are not getting to the top. Apparently their doppler system is better then channel 9's and there is a big pocket of weather that is going to turn on us any minute!! SO we practice on the bottom. I tell the guys how I want them walking in, I tell the girls who is walking when, we have the flower boys try there flower baskets out for size and Jacob SPRINTS down the fake asile, Marcus the ring bearer cries his eyes out and will not take the bear and SPRINTS down the asile after my sister and cries even more. Well. This is going to be interesting. Well then mom and I go-I skip...of course- and then we do a quick run through. Erik starts doing his thing and I think in my head- this is going to be awesome! I have no idea what he will say tomorrow but even his welcome is amazing! Aunt Joy tell us that the sand ceremony should not go too fast because then there will be music playing and no sand pouring so Steve and I remember to not go fast with the sand. Done. After all this hoopla...My mom is going to go in a shuttle up to the top with the decorating crew to tell them what they have to do- I am in on that bus. But wait....the gondola is now open!! So we all get on- except for the Dymonds who were waiting for everyone at the house- So we all go up, the sun is out and it starts to be an amazing night. Everyone gets to see the top, it is great!

We all go to the rehearsal dinner at Steamboat Smokehouse- everyone is there having a great time! We give our little speeches and tell everyone thank you for coming then give out our gifts for the wedding party. It was a great time. After a few drinks and a different bar, I tell Steve that I will see him tomorrow on top of the mountain and that he cannot call me. After I wiped his tears away and told him to man up- we parted for the first time all week.

Saturday Aug. 9th- WEDDING! So I wake up today and I am laughing. Laughing mostly because how excited I am, and laughing because, I am getting married! I get a call from Jessica- Steve has already called her asking her a question. I leave my room to find my mom. We hug...it is sunny out too!! I get ready for the day, last time I do that as a single chick, weird. Or better yet, as a Price. Tear. Anyway, I am waiting for my bridesmaids to get to the condo so we can get our hair done- once they show up, we pile in the car. We get to the place (before its opened) and I am just looking at the sky. Blue skies, sunny....it is awesome. So we get in the place, Sarah Herbert and I go first with our hair. As we are all getting our hair done and makeup done it is weird thinking that this is it. This is the day. After thinking about this day your whole life, I am doing it. I am getting my hair done for my wedding. What the hell. So we are all done and looking beautiful and get back to the condo to pick up our dresses. When we pull up, there is a huge dark cloud that is over us. I do not like the looks of it and I kind of start to panic. Everyone keeps telling me it will pass, no big deal. While we are in the condo Jessica comes up to me and says, "Steve just called, Tim and Caleb are not at the gondola. Do you know where they might be?" Well Caleb said that they would be there, so I called him up. They are on there way. As I am on the phone with Caleb, Jess tells me that the gondola is closing and that they need to hurry. I tell that to Caleb, but I am numb with this news. What? The gondola is closed? How am I going to get up there? I have to get up there at 4? Better yet, the decorating crew is now stuck at the bottom. And Meghan? Where is Meghan? Every bad thought of the weather turning on us entered my mind. This cannot be happening. We get to the hotel where we were getting ready where Paula, our photographer, was waiting for us. We get ready, mom is on the phone trying to get the decorating crew up to the top of the mountain and to figure out what we are supposed to do. I am in this bra and skirt thing and I am watching my bridesmaids get ready. Again, I have waited my whole life for this. I look out the window and by this point it is pouring out. I mean the gutters are overflowing with water. I think to myself, "maybe this is the wrong weekend, maybe we should of done this sooner, maybe we should of waited till next summer...." everything that you think of- the "what ifs..." cross my mind. I keep praying to Dad...."Please let the sun come out!" It is my turn to get my dress on, I get it on and I am looking at myself in the mirror. The dress looks different this time. It is the day of my wedding. It looks whiter, it has more sparkles, it looks beautiful. We are ready to go- not sure where we are going, but we are ready! Matt and Doug are picking us up and they have ponchos and umbrellas for all of us. Mom is finding out where we go. I put the poncho around my dress, and we are off! We get into the car and I take up the whole front seat. It is pouring outside still and I am still hanging in there. I have yet to think what we are thinking as far as the outside wedding. We all get to the garage, where at this point, I would be walking to the gondola- but not this time. We are all loading on to the shuttle and the only thing I can think of is seeing Steve. I just want to get to Steve. We go up the windy roads....everyone I love is on this bus!! I look behind me, there is all my nephews, the decorating crew, Meghan, Erik- everyone. It turned out ok. I look at Erik. He winks. It will be ok. We get to the top. I look at Jess. We start getting tears in our eyes. She smiles, "This is it!!" I get so excited....of course, Steve is not outside yet. I sit in the bus till he is out. Everyone leaves the bus, I still sit there. I am getting nervous. I see Steve. Now I want off this thing. I get off the bus and fall into his arms!! Finally! I get to be with my Herb!! He says, "You look beautiful" and I just about die....he tells me that the grass is too wet to get married on. Patio is the next best thing. The rain has stopped but it is cold out and wet. We take pictures, which turned out amazing. The decorating crew is hard at work trying to get everything together, I am calm. I am hanging out in a room with my friends, the groomsman and my best friend, Steve. What more could I want. We get ready to go. We all follow each other like we did back in grade school when you are on a field trip. Erik is in the lead....he feels way to far away from me, but every time I see him, he winks at me which makes me feel like I am doing ok and everything is ok. One last wink and there they go. Sarah starts walking down the aisle. Oh shit...this is happening! Erin goes next. Ashley is now gone- the twins are doing fine without her! Jess leaves. Now its the twins turn. Well thank god Sam stayed back with us, he leads the twins down the aisle, tells them what to do. They drop their petals. No one is sprinting OR crying! Then Marcus. Steve has Nanne- which is his blanket so he is ok. Lindsey looks at mom and I. "You ready?" Here we go. Mom and I go down the aisle. "Just look at Steve," Mom says. I cannot stop smiling. Erik did amazing. I cannot believe I am getting married and there is my cousin, my best bud, saying everything that I wanted and needed to be said. He was great. The sand ceremony was funny....we were a mess and laughing the whole time, I even said- "Thats what she said," at some point. Our vows were great. I started off with, "I...Name..." Which got everyone laughing. In the end- that is how Steve and I are. People that are in love and love to laugh!

Dance party USA broke out and lasted for hours. I said Hi and Bye to 157 people....it was amazing. Steve and I break out our first dance- which started off slow and then of course broke out into a funny dance to sexyback!! In the end, I wish I could do it all over. I loved every minute of it. On the gondola ride down, there was silence. We were looking out over the city- all you could see is the city's lights. The whole thought of, "What just happened..." came across my thought process but I turned and looked over at Steve whose face was lit up by the glow stick that we had. He was so beautiful. I love this guy. He is my husband now. It was a fairy tale dream come true!

...and then there was six....

Well, I have a new nephew!! Today, Miles Dennis Turner was born....8 pounds 5 oz. and 21 inches long SO needless to say we are all so happy!
It is a typical day when I add to my nephew gang. I get up (I have taken a shower the night before because my sisters do not know how to have a NOON baby- except for Michael who was born around 7pm on a Thursday night during Friends) and I brush my teeth, throw on some clothes and I am out the door. Steve is sleeping (better than last time when he was practically still drunk at 5 am when the twins were born) I kiss him goodbye- he says his line, "Call me when you know what it is..." it is always an after thought.
So I drive to the hospital- this time I cry, missing my dad thinking all of the stuff he has missed in the 6 years he has been gone. (I know....that was really sad. I am sorry- happy time now!!) I get there just in time to see Jess and Sam- Sam is getting on his daddy gear- the god awful blue outfit that no man should wear but they always do when a new life comes in to the world. Jess looks good I think she is saving face for Marcus who is in the best mood ever. The 2 year old has no idea this is the last time it is just him. I ask him, "Marcus, is mommy having Payton or Miles?" He says Miles so he is thinking its a boy.
We go to the family waiting room where I have been 4 times now.....they all look different. Ash shows up and we all just wait. Jess goes back there at 8:30 am and when 9:30 hits mom is pacing back and forth. She even makes us change waiting areas. Now we are in the area that we were with Ash and the twins. Mom just wants a thumbs up- I feel good about this but I really have NO idea if its a boy or a girl. Marcus is still stuck with Miles. The nurse gives mom a thumbs up from afar and mom is now ok- now we just want to know what it is!!
Steve shows up and this is the first time he gets to be there when we are waiting around. The nurse comes out and tells us that two of us can go in there. Mom is holding Marcus and if there was an old lady walking by mom would have knocked her down on her ass. We are peaking in and we hear Sam say, "Its Miles Dennis!" It is a boy!!
He is amazing. Looks just like Marcus did but BIG!! we cannot believe it. He is so cute. I cannot believe I have another nephew. I text my friends and Sarah says, "You and Steve are having twin girls" Friends are funny.

Cereal Killer....

I had a dream about 2 or 3 months ago that I was eating the cereal Alpha-bits. Now if you grew up in the late 80's-90's you know what cereal I am talking about. I have not had these suckers in about 10 years- Probably even more then that. So of course I wake up CRAVING Alpha-bits. So Steve and I go to the store. I run in the cereal aisle searching under POST and nothing. Steve thinks I am on crack because he has never heard of them before. WHAT? How could you have never heard of these things before?!? And I am marrying this guy?!? SO I am searching high and low- there is NOTHING.
I decide to text Ashley- she is a mom of 4 boys and she has to know what cereal is out right now and if Alpha-bits is no longer. She texts me back with "Gosh I have not seen them in awhile...." well this is just great. What the hell am I going to do with this god awful craving. SO we leave the store. In the next couple of weeks I search everywhere. Walmart has to have them- but they do not. Target has cereal but not Alpha-bits. Doesn't POST want kids to learn their ABC's anymore?!? CHRIST!! what is wrong with people?!!? I ask people at work- some have heard of it but not since 1992- some have no idea what I am talking about. I decide my friend Google knows everything. Oh look- I can get it from Amazon.com. Why. Why would anyone get a 5-pack of Alpha-bits from Amazon.com. SO I get out my credit card and start pumping in the numbers. WAIT. What the hell am I doing?! I stop myself. I am not sane. Maybe I go this crazy for fruity pepples but get over yourself! SO I start searching again thinking that safeway.com has them- something better then Amazon.com. I see blogs that no one has seen them in forever. Sistersue says, "Oh yeah- those were like my fav! what happened to they?!" Seriously. Bring them back. The world is getting "stupider" with out these things!! its THEM sistersue!!
Every time we go to the store it is like an easter egg hunt. Steve lets me go into the cereal aisle and I skip to my section- POST and get disappointed every time. Until last night. I need to by Rasin Bran because I am backed up. (You asked?!- ok you didn't. Now you know.) And since I get disappointed I have kind of stopped by obsession with Alpha-bits so I was about to leave this dreaded aisle. But I was walking because we are slacking in the cereal department at home so I felt like getting one more box- when what do I see. ALPHA-BITS!! HOLY SHIT! I RUN towards them. I scream! OH MY GOD!! I hug them! This has got to be the best day of my life! (ok, I am getting married in 3 weeks, that might top this day) Steve starts laughing....
What is funny about this- the box says NEW! on it. What assholes. They are not new, they are old news and why in the hell did they get rid of them in the first place?! So today I got up at 7:15 am before work, ate a bowl and packed a bowl for lunch. YUMMY. Probably going to have them for dessert tonight as well.

Mother of Pearl!!!

So my mom falls. A LOT. And its not like she is does not know how to walk- although maybe the balance in her ears are off- she is just clumsy. If she were an Indian her name would be "Falls A Lot"

Anyway- If we count up her falls and have a chart we maybe could think of a medical condition for her- but they really are spread out and they really are funny falls. Like a couple of years ago when she went to go visit her friend Erna, she was walking up the walkway (which is stair friendly- BUT spread out) she completely bit ass! She says it was because of the water/mud combination on the stairs. I think it was because she was not paying any attention! Like the time where she fell UP the stairs in her house- ok so she was wasted from the Denver Broncos playoff game and I brought over jello shots where they were supposed to be taken when the Broncos SCORED not when they got a first down- but still that is a FALL.

She has gotten really injured on these falls. Like one time she was leaving her school after a day of teaching and she was wearing awkwardly tall shoes (I know these shoes because I gave them to her after realizing I do not wear tall shoes) and she was walking down the stairs of Smoky Hill High School. Well she totally lost her balance (naturally) and fell on the side of her foot BREAKING her foot! I get a call from her telling me that she was on her way to the ER because she fell and broke her foot! I knew at some point of my adult life I would get that call. So we all meet her at the hospital where it takes HOURS for anyone to see her injury and yep- sure enough she broke her foot and has to wear a boot for 2 months. Best part is? It is December and she now has to do Christmas shopping on a broken foot!! Although she DOES get a handicap sticker which means front row parking during the busiest shopping days of the year.

Her most recent falls I laughed out loud when I heard about them. She was at 24 hour fitness with Ashley and they are both on the treadmill. She is walking fast at this point but a song came on that she just loves. Candyman by Christina Aguilera. WATCH OUT if that song comes on and my mom is listening to it. Get out of the way if she is driving, LEAVE the dance floor and make sure you are not walking behind her treadmill. So she ups her speed- she is starting to run- at this point she has no idea what happened. She closes her eyes and she is really into the song. She says maybe she fell asleep. Ashley thinks that she is pulling a fast one on her and totally joking around. But my mom stops moving her legs. Her lower half of the body just stops moving- which seems odd considering she LOVES this song. Few seconds later- BAM! she is on the ground! FALLS OFF the treadmill!! WHO DOES THAT?! She is laughing, Ashley makes sure she is ok, but come on- that is funny stuff. And I am sure we can all imagine my mom- "Oh dear!"

A trip to the zoo sounds fun on a hot afternoon doesn't it?! So my mom, Jess, the nephews and Aunt Jeannie all go to the zoo. (Meanwhile everyone else in this country WORKS!) So they approach this half wall thing that tells animal lovers how far an animal can jump. This wall thing has been there for years and its always a challenge to see how far you can jump. SO they all start jumping- Michael gets as far as a penguin which apparently they can jump far. Jeannie is now challenging my mom to see if she can get close to that. Well my mom thinks, I have short legs and I have no chance- but screw it! Lets do it! SO they all stand around to see how far she can jump. Someone holds her purse. She pretends to stretch. And JUMP! she sticks the landing! Oh wait....there she goes....and FALLS on her ass!! MAN DOWN!! she is now on her back staring in the sky laughing...again, we can all imagine mom, "Oh dear!"

So I am worried that I am going to miss a really good fall and a really good laugh, but at the same time I really want to have her wear her scooter helmet everywhere she goes for safety purposes. Can you just imagine her on a scooter. It is pretty bad ass.

HIGH ALTITUDE WARNING!!

My mom, Steve and I went to Steamboat last week to do check out some things before the big week. The best part was tasting our food for our weeding. YUM!

It was absolutely beautiful and Steve and I fell in love with Steamboat even more then what we we already do!! There are bars that do not exist in the winter time- mostly because of the 4-5 feet of snow that they get- and mostly because we never adventure near the Yampa River during the winter. (Well unless you are going to eat at Double Z's- then you will get a taste of the Yampa River- but again, you will not know it even exists- plus you only get a taste of the best BBQ that you will have- heart attack on a plate- what other place will make you a hamburger WITH a smoked sausage on it?) Anywho- there is so many bars that you might find in a state like Hawaii, Jamaica or even Mexico- where you are walking along the streets in a bathing suit after a long day of swimming and shopping and then BAM! there is a cute bar that is outside, a guy that is serving up beers and pina coladas- wears a god awful colorful, loud shirt and you would think that would have an accent (probably Jamican) and want you to join him as you belly up for a drink. There is an area where you can sip your drink- in this case we got a Sol- a really light Mexican beer- you grab a lawn chair, enjoy the sun, and the Yampa River that goes by. Its nothing like the ocean or the beach- but this is Steamboat Springs and this is a mountain town. You do not see water- usually- and you do not see these bars. But Sunpies was the best bar we have been to. In a long time. Probably in the top 5 bars we have EVER been to. And this is next to The Bell in Hand in Boston which is also one of the OLDEST bars.

So all we want to do is stay at this place. FOREVER. But we have a lot to do in the 30 hours in we are there and we have to move on. The town is so cute, every one of the Steamboaters is so cute. People walking their dogs along the paths right next to the river, LOTS of people on their bikes- and I do not mean motorcycles, I mean BICYCLES. People are not lazy here like they are in Denver. We LOVE our TV back in the city. Its all about cable and how we get the best public transportation over there. Here- you can get to the "city" in 15 minutes from your mountain condo if you are on a bike. I know it takes you 5 minutes in a car. We must go check into the condo we are staying in- there are like 80 of them so we must go on the hunt for it.

We walk to the gondola square from our condo in probably 10 minutes or less. We are walking along the side of Yampa (How long is this river?!?!) it is amazing- so pretty. We get to the gondola square where there is a bunch of contsruction- which kind of sucks, but nothing you can do. We go to the Grand hotel to check that out and to make sure we still have reservation for that Sat. night. Then we head over to Slopeslide for eats and more drinks.

I am starting to feel a little light headed and I am just thinking it is because I am hungry. I also have a headache coming on, but hey- I ALWAYS have a headache so no big deal. We eat, drink- just sit on the patio and just love the scenery. We are excited about tasing the food tomorrow and go on the gondola. We go back to the condo and get ready for a swim in the pool and hot tub. I have a huge headache and playing in the pool is a little hard- I am sucking wind but I do not swim at all either. ever. Which is weird because that is all I did as a kid.

Needless to say- I was feeling a little altitude sickness. It was really weird- but I did not drink very much water either. The next day I drank a bunch of water and was feeling a little better- but drinking water is key in Steamboat Springs.

Railbenders for Steve

The Railbenders are one of Steve favorite bands- they are a local band- and what I like to call "hoo-da-lee-who" (country) music. Now trying to find a gift for your husband-to-be is probably be one of the hardest things to do. I mean Steve has everything- He bought the big TV he wanted, the X-box, the fooseball table, the bar, the mini fridge that holds his beers, the PSP- I mean shit- the guy acts like he is 12 again. SO what better way to give him a gift then to have one of his favorite bands play for him.....
SO back in January, I email the Railbenders. I ask them what they think about coming up to Steamboat Springs, August 8th-the night before our wedding, to play for Steve. They actually emailed back and said they were in! They loved Steamboat Springs and better yet, they loved the Tugboat bar and grill where I was going to have them play! So now that they are in and they have August 8th locked down in their calendar, I have to act fast to get the Tugboat on the idea.
I called the Tugboat and they give me some other number of a guy that book their bands. The guy, Jeules, actually called me back, told me he knew the Railbenders and have heard their music and they are in. This is easier than I thought it was going to be. A few weeks go by and I want to make sure that this guy has contacted the Railbenders manager, Ken. Ken says that no one has and that they would like to get the ball rolling on this. So now I start freaking out a little bit. I have called this Jeules guy and he has not called me back. SO I google his name. (thank god for google....I mean the internet knows EVERYTHING, Right?!) I read an article about how bad this guy is as far as booking bands and that he has been fired from most jobs!! WHAT?! Shit balls!
So I called Tugboat back and ask them for a new number, they give me Chad. Ok Chad- you better come through! I call him like 3 times and nothing. So what do I do? I goole his name! Chad + Steamboat gives me his last name so I google that. The google gods tell me that he is located in California- so I get his email address. (Again, why can we not find Bin Laden? surely Google knows where he is...) I email him- people are better with email. I know I am. He emails me back saying that he is waiting for the Tugboat's budget in order to book anything and he has no idea when that will be. Well it is March now and I have no idea what to do. I call Ken up. He tells me that I still have a soft hold on August 8th but that we need to figure out something soon. SO I go to Steamboat Springs. If I go INTO the Tugboat- someone HAS to talk to me about this.
I get Audio Steve from work on board with this as well. Audio Steve is the "audio steve" from Sugar Ray. yes THE Sugar Ray. He knows Mark Mcgrath....oh and if you live in Sterling Heights (which most of you do b/c we just addressed the wedding invitations) check them out at the Freedom Hill Amphitheater on July 20th.....Sugar Ray that is....ANYWAY- Audio Steve is telling me all the stuff that Ken is telling me I need (Like a PA....what the hell is a PA? I have a SHIT TON of Producer Assistants that I can give you!) SO Audio Steve is now excited telling me that HE will be the audio guy for the show. Awesome!
SO we go to Steamboat- My mom, sisters and I pile in the car (leave Steve behind) and go on ahead. We made other appointments up there- cake, photographer, you know....wedding stuff. We get there and go right to the Tugboat. There is a huge sign on there. "CLOSED FOR MUD SEASON." HOLY SHIT!! Now what am I supposed to do?! I look in the windows- I see someone in there, but it won't matter. Nothing will work now. Its over. I look over and my mom is banging on the windows, "Andrea, someone is in there!" Oh crap- mom is so going to get me in trouble. So I decide to call the Tugboat since they are programmed into my phone at this point. This guy answers, I tell him the situation and that I have a letter for the owner and all I need is someone to give it to him. WOW- he was a complete ass! He finally comes over to the window after hanging up on me- and says, "You know, I DO have work to do!" grabs the letter out of my hands and slams the window! WHAT?! So that was it.....no big present for Steve. I was so sad- I had no idea what to do.
I emailed Ken when we got back to tell him the news. He emailed back and told me how sorry he was that the Tugboat was as bad as it was. But he has an idea.....Why not have all of us go to Elways June 11th where they are already playing and give Steve the present that way. They will dedicate songs and it will be a huge surprise! Great idea- evite went out!
Wednesday was fast approaching and I told Steve that we got tickets to a Rockies game (which we did but thats a whole different story) so not to make plans. That day, I went to work- everyone was in and were trying to get off work in time for the big event. They get there at 5- we arrive at 5:30. I get home, (told Steve to dress kind of nice since we will go to a nice dinner beforehand) grab Steve and get in my car. We are driving there- I get a text from mom. "The band is already playing!" My heart races and in my head I keep thinking of all the emails that I sent back and forth-I KNOW they were supposed to go on at 7!! SHIT! she texts back- "Nevermind- just a sound check!" WHY would she do that to me?!? "Who was that?" Steve asks.....quick think of something....fast. "Oh my mom just text asking if we wanted to get dinner, but then texted back saying nevermind- you have the game." Good one.
I got Steve a card telling him that I got "some people" to join us in Steamboat the day before our wedding and that tonight is a "skinny down" version of it. We are getting close to Elway's. Cars. Everywhere. Crap. Traffic. Why now?! So I am panicking and Steve has no idea why. We are getting closer, I tell him to open his card. He is trying to figure out my riddle- keeps reading it out loud over and over. "Dre, I don't get this, what people? what are you talking about? whats going on?" Now he is starting to get mad as I pull up to Elways. As soon as we turn the corner, there is the tent outside and people everywhere. He says, "What is going on? Dre- talk to me! Is that your mom?!" He gets out of the car and sees a sign. "Railbenders! Tonight!" He is starting to figure this out....
We walk up and there is a table full of our friends, his parents- my mom....he looks at me and says, "What?!" They all point at a different table further away. There is his friends, Tony, Pink, Josh, Caleb....he is shocked! It worked! We walk over there. He looks at me and says, "Are we going to just leave for the Rockies game?!" I tell him the whole story and he is so excited.
I needed to talk to Jim Dalton- lead singer- to make sure that we Ken told him about the songs I wanted him to play and the shout out to Steve. So they walk in and channel 4 interviews them.....I forgot how hot Jim is. Delicious! Anyway- I make Meghan go up there with me- who doesn't love a Meghan Hott? We go up there and Meghan starts talking- and then I jump in blabing about who knows what. Man that hat makes him even hotter. He even has a toothpick in his mouth like a pure bad ass. He is truly dreamy...."Oh yeah, Andrea Price Right?" Holy shit. He knows my name. What am I? 12? Why am I struck by his manly appearance and that country twang voice of his. (Steve- your still the man for me) "Yeah that's me! Cool I just wanted to make sure you talked to Ken. Thanks so much for doing this Steve really loves you guys. And I KNOW you know him. He is the guy that always buys you whiskey at every show he goes to." "Oh yeah....that guy. The whiskey guy! We know him! We love Steve! Yeah, we are all set and you guys are on our set list so no worries." Man I love the Railbenders. They are now MY favorite band. NKOTB- take a seat!
So I go back to the table where my mom is- she is a couple drinks in and feeling it. Man she is so damn cute. "Go get Steve- Tell him that they are here!" Good idea. I go get Steve. I go back up to Jim with Steve. "Steve....." Jim says. Now Steve probably thinks that he remembers him from way back when....They start talking and Steve tells me to go get Josh so I do. Josh and Steve are now talking to Jim. Man Jim is hot.
The show starts and they start with I-70 westbound. Good choice. Probably 10 minutes into the show Steve decides that it is already time for the whiskey so we have my mom go get some. While we are deciding this- Jim starts saying something.... "We want to say congratulations to Steve and Andrea on their engagement- they are getting married August 9th. They are really good people." Steve and I high-five each other (its what we do) and he goes into another song.
Throughout the night Jim keeps shouting out, "This one is for Steve" and they played Whiskey Rain, Drinking Buddies, Piss up a rope....all the songs that Steve loves. It was SUCH an awesome night. Steve got drunk, Mom got drunk, I got drunk, Jim and crew got drunk. They played for 4 hours straight.
All in all....it was MUCH better than the rockies game.