Funny things I can definitely relate to!

I received a forward today of "funnies" and had a good laugh while reading through them. I've picked my favorites to share with you today. Enjoy!

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from; this shouldn't be a problem...

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

If Carmen SanDiego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably be completely invisible.

I hate leaving my house looking good and feeling confident and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this"?

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone is laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out their profile is public, I feel like a kid on Christmas who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

A random thought....

TV watching

Sometimes I really hate the TV. I hate that I depend on it for entertainment purposes. Like right now. I am bored out of my mind but I really don't want to turn it on and have ANOTHER night of doing nothing except watching TV. Ugh, that's so lame.

I've been thinking lately that I must not be that fun of a person. Because if I WAS a fun person, I would have thought of better, "more fun", things to do than sit in front of the TV watching 'Kourtney and Khloe take on Miami' or whatever that stupid show is called. But if I'm not watching some stupid reality show on TV, then I'm doing this....staring at a computer screen and browsing the internet! And truthfully this gets old too!!

My evenings lately have consisted of coming home from work, cooking dinner with Derek, and then either, A) watching TV or B) sitting on the couch with this laptop browsing the internet and having the TV on in the background. Well....I lie. I guess that's not all true. We'll usually come home, go on a bike ride or a walk, then cook, then do either A or B mentioned above.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm getting bored with watching the same 'ol boring things on TV and I'm also getting bored of browsing all my usual websites....ugh......

I need something different to do!! I want to play chess or scrabble! I want to listen to music and have a fun conversation with someone about totally random topics - such as, how did all the various types of plants out there come into existence, or, why is it that all the middle children in a family are usually the first ones to have kids? I want to go to a comedy show and laugh my ass off! I also think it would be fun to grab a bottle of wine, drive to the top of Lookout Mtn and watch the sunset :)

But yet, I don't do any of these things!!! Why?? Because I'm lazy!!! Like right now....do I really feel like playing chess or watching the sunset? No, not really. I'm pretty content here just wishing I felt like doing those things..... Wow. That's messed up.

I wish I could be content though with just browsing the internet during the 2 hours I have to spare before I go to bed, or just watching TV. Why do I wish I was content with doing those things? Because it's easy. It would be convenient. And it's cheap. But I'm kind of over it (for right now anyway). Derek however, LOVES to spend his free time browsing the internet. Before he met me, I'm pretty sure that's all he did each night after work. But that's okay because that is one of his passions. I'm also pretty sure that browsing the internet is NOT one of my passions, therefore I find it odd that I do it so much during the evenings! But what ARE my passions you may ask? I really don't know! I obviously need to find some so I can have some fulfillment from 8pm to 10pm each night.

And I'm going to leave it at that. These are the thoughts I will ponder while....what else, I sit back, watch TV and check my facebook :)

Bogota, Colombia

Derek and I flew down to Bogota, Colombia over the Labor Day weekend to attend a wedding for one of Derek's childhood friends. Wow, quite the experience... Here's a quick(?) breakdown in activities:

We woke up Thursday morning (09/03/09) at 4:30am MST to catch our 7am flight to Orlando. After a 3 hour layover in Orlando, we flew down the 4 hours to Bogota and got in at 9:30pm CST. After going through Customs, which was a breeze for me (and not so much for Derek!), we found Derek's friend outside the airport and all hopped in a van to head to the hotel. We did a quick check-in, exchanged some money for Colombian peso's and headed out to meet everyone else at a local bar. Immediately upon walking to the bar, a homeless man ran up to Derek and started pleading with him (in Spanish of course) for spare change. Derek was wearing a flashy two-toned blue zip up coat, so perhaps this guy liked the color of the coat, who knows. Regardless, it was pretty funny because no one else got bothered except for Derek! The night ended at a bar with a couple "Club Colombians" (similar tasting to a PBR) and some shots of god knows what. I was EXHAUSTED since we got up so horribly early and we finally climbed into bed at 2am.

We woke up Friday morning (09/04/09) at 8am to get some breakfast down in the lobby before all hopping into a bus to go on a tour. Needless to say, I was NOT feeling the best that morning after getting such little sleep and drinking the night before. But I was a trooper, ate a couple pieces of fruit, stuffed some croissant thing in my purse and hopped on the bus - in the front row of course :) I hate the seats in the back of buses - too bumpy for my sensitive stomache!

The bus took us on a 60 min drive up to a Salt Mine which hosts the 10 stations of the cross and a cathedral complete with pews in it! It was very bizarre and unlike anything I had ever seen before. It kind of reminded me of being in a cave except, A) not nearly as cold, and B) all the construction down there. We stayed there for a couple hours - ate lunch in the plaza and watched some local rock climbers... Apparently this is the largest rock climbing wall in South America :) With all our rock climbing skills, I think Derek and I could've mastered it!! Hah!

After the Salt Mine, we were supposed to go see some Lagoon but apparently the road to get there was closed so we opted for a Milk Factory instead :) They had really good desserts there and we sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather.

That night was the rehearsal dinner held at the bride's Aunt's house. More traditional Colombian food and then.....a mariachi band showed up!!! They sang song after song to the bride and groom, and there were tears shed by many...unfortunately the songs were all in Spanish so I couldn't get too emotionally involved in the lyrics to shed a tear ;) After dinner and that band, more drinks at a local bar and another late night ;( I think we hit the hay at 1am that night.

Onto Saturday now :) You're not getting bored with my story yet, are you???? Okay, good! We woke up at 8:30am to meet everyone downstairs in the lobby again for breakfast. This time I was able to eat a little more since I wasn't as tired or hung-over ;) Then we walked around Bogota and did some souvenier shopping. Wow, talk about a dirty city. The streets are littered with crap and the sidewalks were full of holes and unsturdy concrete. I made the mistake of wearing flip flops that day and had to constantly watch my steps. I think everyone tripped at least once walking that day:)
That night was the big event - the whole reason for our trip....Kevin & Natalia's wedding!! Yay!!!! The event was a black-tie affair and the whole wedding party (including Derek as best man) looked marvelous!

The wedding was held at a beautiful Catholic Church in Bogota. The ceremony was spoken in Spanish so was a quite hard to understand! Although having been to Catholic services my whole life, I did recognize a few of the sayings and of course, the 'Our Father' prayer :)
After the 60 minute wedding ceremony we all bussed it over to the reception hall....that is where the real fun began! Derek gave a wonderful best man speech and the bride's sister, Lina, translated it in Spanish for everyone in attendance. They had a live band playing great Colombian salsa-type music and Derek and I tried to dance to as many as we could. When else can we say we went to a Colombian wedding and danced to Colombian music?! I'm sure we looked like idiots out there but we seriously had a really good time! The band would take a break and then they would play "American" music - techno, pop, etc. It was quite humorous!

Just when we thought the party was winding down (and probably at about 12:30am), these random Colombian dancers showed up!!!!

They came bearing gifts! They gave everyone these eye masks to wear!

These dancers really got the party going! Everyone was on the dance floor...they were playing this weird type of drum music, it was such a cool experience to witness!! Then some additional random dancers showed up...there was a guy dressed as an elephant (?!) and women wearing beautiful colorful gowns....

The reception went on until 1:40am!!! Even the bride and groom stayed for the whole thing! I don't know how they did that....cuz I was EXHAUSTED... so that means they had to be 5x more EXHAUSTED than I was! Impressive Kevin and Natalia, really impressive!!

When Derek and I finally got back to our hotel room, around 2am, we took a light nap before having to get up at 5:30am to catch our flight back to Orlando ;( Man, that next morning was NOT fun but somehow we made it to the airport, got through having our carry-on luggage checked 4x, and next thing we knew we were sitting on the plane :) There we took a nice 4 hour nap :)

A fun weekend all in all! Very action packed and tiring but well worth the adventure :) AND, to top it off, I caught the bouquet....guess that means I'm next to get married!!!

Swimming my way to better health!

A couple months ago I decided to attend a water aerobics class with my pregnant friend, Stacy. Yeah, yeah yeah....I know what you're thinking - women in their 80's, morbidly obese, cheesy easy workouts. Well let me be the first to tell you - it ain't so!!!

Most attendees range in age between 30 - 55 and the workouts are definitely NOT cheesy nor easy! There are many different water aerobic classes you can attend and they range between high-intensity workouts in deep water involving wearing a buoyancy belt, to mind-body-spirit connection classes, similar to pilates or yoga, conducted in "therapy pools" of 90 degrees. I've done both types of classes and they are both great!

Who knew there were so many different types of workouts you could do in the water?! My favorite is when they break out the "noodles". A noodle is the piece of equipment you see in the above picture. You can do countless things with this thing! Put it under your arms and do crunches in the deep end, or put it under your foot and do leg lifts or wrap it around your arm and do curls. I also like the use of arm weights in the water....see below...


This is actually a really good workout!!! My arms always feel tired after the many things you can do with these weights. They come in different colors too which represent different pounds. Grab too heavy of a weight though and you'll go floating to the top of the water...I learned this from personal experience.. :(

I bought a 10-pack to attend these different water aerobics classes and so far have used seven. I will definitely be renewing when the time's up. I encourage people to try out this form of working out! It's definitely growing in popularity and is a lot fun....just ask Stacy who always teases me for smiling so much during the class ;)

In Wedding News...

Well, the wedding plans are coming along...slowly but surely :) Derek and I have set a date for June 12, 2010 at Red Rocks Country Club! What a relief it was to get that part out of the way. I was getting worried there for awhile that we would never find a suitable location that met all of our criteria. Luckily, a friend of ours introduced us to this venue and we knew right away that it was THE ONE!

That could be Derek and I next summer on that same rock....ooohhhh, how exciting ;)

Since it took us so long to find a venue, I've come up with a timeline of our long list of "things to do". Next on the list.....to find a photographer!!! Wish us luck!!! I'll keep ya posted....

"You are insane"

I have never had anyone call me "insane" before....until today!!! They said those exact words to me, "you are insane". Do you know what the definition of 'insane' is? Per the definition on dictionary.com it is:

1. Not sane, not of sound mind, mentally deranged
2. Utterly senseless

And the synonyms are:
Demented, lunatic, crazed, crazy, maniacal, foolish, irrational

Wow. And this person was serious!!! No joking around here....really calling me INSANE! I'm still in shock by it. That's probably the meanest thing anyone has ever said to me :( Wah Wuh...

Now you're probably wondering, 'what did Amy do to deserve being called insane'? Truthfully nothing that awful...just stated my opinion! My freedom of speech...which is simply Liberty to express opinions and ideas without hindrance, and especially without fear of punishment.

Punishment in this case was telling me that I am insane. How rude! Just stating my opinions and I'm sorry if my opinions offend people...doesn't mean you have to call me insane!!! Now I feel like my Freedom of Speech has been taken away :( Because now I have fear of punishment for stating my opinions with this person.

It's alright, I'll get over it. I always do :)

The Lost Art of bagging groceries...

When I worked at EconoFoods in Sioux City Iowa, they always showed us a video on how to bag groceries. There is an art to it, and I am wondering if that art has been lost. I was so good at bagging groceries that I actually had regular customers who would ask what my work schedule was for the upcoming week, and then come in to shop during those times. They would stand in my checkout line no matter how long it was and wait for me. I was that good!!

I really do believe that bagging groceries should be common sense, but apparently it is not. Therefore, I have listed my technique/preference that I would LOVE to pass onto the baggers of today:

1) Build up the side walls of the plastic or paper bag with boxes.
2) Then put canned goods between the boxes
3) Then place your filler items on top of the canned goods (flour, sugar, etc.)
4) Any crushable items should always go on the very top or preferably in their own separate bag.

That's the basic technique to bagging in a nutshell!! Sounds simple right?
I must admit that it is a pet peeve of mine when people do not bag logically. I even make it really easy for them and put all the cold items together, all the fruits/veggies together, all the meat together, etc. But they still choose to grab things out of my order and put them in the bag together! Things that don't even make sense....like contact solution with bananas?! Why??? I'm always tempted to ask them, but then I chicken out because I'm too nice :(

Am I the only one that gets bothered by this??? Is it just the stores that I shop at or is this behavior happening everywhere?? These are the million dollar questions of the evening....

West side livin'....

Golden, Colorado.....my new home sweet home :) Derek and I moved over Memorial Day weekend with the help of our friend Rusty - thanks Rusty!! I can not believe we filled up an entire 26 foot Penske moving truck ~ good grief. The move was not fun, but it is fun to be living on a new side of Denver! The commute to work is now 11 min flat and I couldn't be happier about that.

However, living in an apartment/condo is taking some getting used to. It's been 8 years since I've lived in one and I forget all the good things an apartment can bring, such as...

1) A hot tub!!! Which Derek and I used after our 2nd night here...the move caused lots of sore muscles!
2) A pool!! It's open....we just need to go try it out!
3) A fitness room! I swear I will use this...just need to get that first push to go!

However, there have already been several bad things that this apartment is bringing, such as...

1) Cold showers....ugh...there's been WAY too many and I've only been here a week :(
2) A smoky stench... what the heck?! I think its in our carpets...ugh...
3) No grills allowed... this is one rule that may have to be broken... I mean, look how small and versatile this balcony grill is!! I think all apartments should be allowed to have this nifty thang :)
4) People above us, beside us, and all around us... I'm feeling claustrophobic!

Ok, I kid about that last part, I'm not really feeling claustrophobic. But I am excited to find a new home to settle into :) One where we can grill to our heart's content and take hot showers! Its the little things don't ya know....

A Mountain Wedding Weekend!!

What a fun weekend Derek and I had up in Beaver Creek, CO on May 16, 2009 for Courtney and Daren's wedding!! It started off on Tuesday 5/12/09 with Derek's friend, Sean flying in from London to stay with us. This was my 2nd time meeting Sean and he was just as much fun as the first time when we met in London! We of course had to visit our favorite local bar, PS Lounge for some drinks :)

On Thursday, another friend of Derek's, Brady, flew in from Florida. This was my first time meeting him, although I felt like I already knew the guy from all the stories I had heard from Courtney and Derek. And he definitely lived up to the stories! The four of us then road-tripped up to Beaver Creek Thursday night for the Schouten family pre-wedding weekend BBQ! There I met a few new faces of Derek's aunts, uncles and a cousin. It was fun mingling and meeting Derek's family and family friends. Of course, the famous shot-ski came out and I think everyone who was in the wedding party partook - most more than once! Ha! A fun Thursday night all in all :)

Friday was a spa day for the ladies in the wedding party (plus me!), and a golf day for the gents. The spa was soooo nice and relaxing and I got a lovely manicure to boot! That night was the rehearsal dinner followed by an open bar at a local establishment. More great food and good times had by all!

Saturday was the big wedding day :) Courtney looked amazing in her dress and Daren looked just as dapper. The ceremony itself went off without a hitch, followed by an elegant cocktail hour and reception. I don't think I left the dance floor for more than 5 min at a time and we stayed up waaayyy too late, but oh well....weddings are a great excuse to cut loose and have some fun!

Kentucky Derby!! (minus Kentucky...)

Last weekend, and after the great Friday night engagement(!), Derek and I attended a KY Derby party hosted by our friends, The Hornings. Everyone in attendance was in appropriate attire and we all had a ton of fun! The hosts had the KY Derby theme going throughout their house complete with a betting station where you could pick the winning or losing horse, as well as as a 'mint julep' station where I discovered that Amy and mint julep's do not go well together...

They also ordered a ham from Kentucky (I guess KY ham is better than CO ham?!), and served these great tasting KY chocolate balls, which apparently are made with rum :)

Derek broke out his best linen suit, complete with a pink shirt and purple/pink tie. I dug through my closet and found an old dress that I hadn't worn in probably 7-8 years (which is proof to Derek why sometimes it is good to keep old clothes around even though you never wear them)!

They look like the rat pack, no?

Everyone had the same idea with the white hats :) I super-glued a flower onto mine :) Our lovely hostess and host, Lindsay & Jesse

My future sister-in-law, Courtney and my future husband!!

The big event!!!

It FINALLY happened....

I'M ENGAGED!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a whirlwind weekend.... It's Monday night and I STILL can't believe that I am a bride-to-be!!!

Derek totally caught me off guard last Friday night, May 1st, while we were signing a lease on our new rental...

We just finished walking around checking out our new digs, when he started talking all romantic and sweet to me!! It was sooo cuute!!! Saying how excited he was for this next phase of our lives together, and that he can't wait to spend the rest of his life with me.... then he said "in fact, I want to start it right now"! That's kind of when I realized what was happening....because he pulled out a ring box, got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him and be his wife :) :) :) How could I say no???? OF COURSE THE ANSWER WAS YES!!!!!

I was so surprised, caught off guard and shocked!!! He definitely wins the award for surprising me!! I absolutely LOVE the fact that I was surprised and had no clue what was going on :) It was the perfect Proposal in my opinion :)

I couldn't be happier to marry the man of my dreams!! And I am honored to be his soon-to-be wife!! This next phase and chapter of our lives together is going to be very exciting!!! Wedding planning here we come :) I Love you Derek!!!!

Didn't even have time to take my coat off - ha!

Isn't it so pretty?!? Derek picked this out all by himself - so impressed!!

The newly engaged couple :)