Painting

So I love to paint. I usually do it for my own pleasure and stress relief, but lately I've been doing a lot of paintings for gifts. I really wish I could do this for every gift from now on, its so much more fun then going and buying something. :)

Reason #1 of why I paint:
Painting is like therapy, when I am stressed out I love to smear the colors together until they fall into place.

Reason #2:
I have a creative side, this is one way for me to express that side. I love to experiment, learn and discover new things. There is sooo much I still have to learn. I am such an amateur!

Reason #3:
I love being able to put what is in my mind and heart onto a canvas. It may not always turn out the way I originally intended, but I have fun doing it. My favorite paintings have been the ones that started off one way and morphed into something great.

Reason #4:
So much more fun to paint a gift for a person, using them as inspiration.

I really could go on, but I'd rather just put some of my paintings below. Enjoy!

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Day 1 of WW

Today is my first meeting ever with WW. I am excited an nervous about starting this new adventure, I like to think of it as an adventure, it means I will need to plan, prepare and challenge myself to accomplish my goal. I am embarking on this journey with my good friend, it will be great for me to have the extra help and encouragement. So, I will try (because I'm usually not very good at keeping a blog) to keep up with my posts and therefore keep better track of my progress.
Wish me luck

 

Until next time, Love

Been a while

Its been a long time since I've posted a blog. So here it goes...

Today is Tuesday, its close to the end of September, and summer is basically over. When I went out to my car this morning it was covered in fallen leaves from the tree it sits under. This confused me, because it is hot and humid today, it does not feel like fall. I'm not ready for fall, I want more summer, more time at the lake, more trips, more time with friends in the summer sun. But since the weather is deciding to change, I guess I should just accept it and appreciate the in-between weather that is extremely pleasant.
You know the weather I'm talking about, the mid 70's with a light breeze and the sun shining bright in the sky to warm your face. The leaves turning and their colors showing more vibrant in the warm sun. I do love that kind of weather.

I know this is incredibly boring... My first blog back and I'm writing about the weather. Don't worry, my posts will get more exciting, I intend to catch you all up on what I've been doing since my last post.

Until next time, Love
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Mom and I @ airport getting ready to board

We are in STL, Dad is on the phone somewhere, so Mom and I decided to take a quic pic! This is the start of our 'little' adventure to Italy! We are very excited. :)
Mom's having a minor freak out at the moment, she seem's to have forgotten her bag of meds. Like the ever so important Advil PM. Which I don't take so I'm nice and calm. :)
So talley of what we've already realized we forgot:
-advil pm & other meds
-water bottle/nalgene
-socks

Nothing too major!
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I can't Believe its here!

Its tomorrow! Yay!
I am so excited! My flight leaves tomorrow morning, from KC I fly to STL to meet up with my parents. We fly from there (with a layover in Chicago) to ROME!
We will be in Rome thurs morning. Hopefully bright-eyed and bushy-tailed from a night of sleep on the plane. Thank you Dr. John for the ambien.
I'm almost done with my check list, a few more things and I'll feel good about leaving evrything else for almost 2 weeks. :)
I've decided to leave my phone. I will have access to my v-mail and email and will be checking both. I will be updating my blog as much as possible and posting some pics. :)
Alright, so my mission for the trip is this: to find the best gelato in each city we visit. That means I will be eatting a lot of ice cream! Yum! :)
Well, fairwell for now. You can expect my next blog when we arrive in Itlay!!

Just a week and a half away!

Ok... so its coming down to it. So much to do, so little time! Ahhh!
I bought these 'great' ECCO shoes for the trip, finally got them in, tried 'em on and they squeeze my feet in ALL the wrong places. I still cant find any cute comfortable flats for the evening. :( And I want to find the perfect skirt for travel, but thats turning out to be an impossible task.
So pretty much, I'm leaving in 1 1/2 weeks for 10 days and I have no shoes and 1 pair of pants and 1 pair of jeans! Im not going to freak out yet.
Help me if you can!

Italy 2010

Quick update on the Italy trip:

Anyone who doesnt know, I am traveling to Italy with my parents this spring. We will be there for 10 days and will be traveling to Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, and Milan.

Tickets are bought! Lodging is booked and now its time to plan for the days we will be in each city!

Rome:
Most of our day are planned out, havent done any research for the evenings yet. We are going to the Colosseum and Forum, the Treve Fountain and Spanish Steps, the Vatican, the Pantheon, and possibly getting a tour guide for one of the days. If you've been there, any suggestions for restaurants? Suggestions for what to do in the evenings?

Florence:
We will be in Florence for 1 1/2 days, we know we want to go see the David, and go to the Ponte Vecchio. Any other places we have to go to or things we must see?

Short stop in Pisa for the Leaning Tower and lunch.

Cinque Terre:
We are staying in Vernazza, in this adorable little bed and breakfast. So fun! We will be here for about 1 1/2 days. Our full day will be spent doing the hiking trail through each of the little towns. We will train down to Riomaggiore then hike back to Vernazza, its roughly a 5 mile hike. But its going to take all day as we will be stopping in each town, maybe grabbing the best gilato in each or finding the perfect lookout spot or the most charming cafe. What do you think we should look for?

Milan:
2 days here, but our 1st day we are going to the Ferrari Museum in Modena, then on our way back to Milan stop in Parma for some dinner and desert. This was my dad's 1 request for the trip, which I am extremely ok with, as I am bit of a car girl. :)
The next day in Milan is still up in the air, we have limited time so Im not sure what we want to stuff into that day. There are so many things to do and soo little time! Suggestions would be nice.
The little hotel we are staying at in Milan is close to the airport, but as we have an early flight out, this is the best.

Thus concludes our trip. We fly back to the USofA and I arrive late in the evening back in KC.

If you have suggestions for our trip: cafe's you fell in love with, little shops we have to visit, the must see things in whatever museum, or maybe just your favorite spot in the city; I would love to here about them!

Is hind sight really 20/20?

People say that hind sight is always 20/20. Well, I dont know if I agree. If hind sight is 20/20 then why dont we learn from our hind sight? If we see more clearly looking back at what we've done and how we did it or where we've gone and how we got there, Why dont we learn from the paths we traveled. I've found that, even with the help of hind sight, I make a lot of the same mistakes twice. Its very frustrating, I've walked down the same path many times, I know where that bump is in the road, yet I keep tripping over it! Are we really that stubborn! And you know our parents, who have also traveled that path, warned us about the bumps in the first place. But did we listen to them? Nope... we wanted to make our own mistakes and learn those lessons for ourselves.
So this is why I think hind sight is actually completely blurred, by our own hand, it may be 20/20 at first, but we put up blinders so we can change what we think happened to fit better with what we want to happen. Does that make sense? We think well, if I do it this way this time than the outcome will be completely different then last time. Or, last time this happened and this person did this, so if I try it again then without that then it will turn out the way I want. Thats really the key isnt it? Its about what I Want... not what is best for me and those around me.
So here's the challenge, and this is more for me then anyone who may read this. If every decision today is made for myself, then I wonder what the outcome would be if I took myself out of it. Through pray, seek the Lord before I make a decision, no matter how small. I wounder if taking myself out of it, how will hind sight look, will it be 20/20?

Newly Claimed Birthday Weekend

Its already the middle of February... this year is really flying by. It feels like just in Denver hanging out with my best friend and that yesterday was my birthday. In reality Denver was a month ago and my birthday was the 1st of this month.
You've heard about Denver. Sooo much fun. But I've haven't told you about the things that happened around my birthday. This year I was determined not to make a big deal about my birthday... I didn't really tell anyone and those who already knew, I told them it wasn't a big deal, lets just hangout. This is what I wanted for this year. A simple low stress time around my birthday. But of course this was not what I was going to get.
The weekend before my birthday was a lot of fun, despite a few sticky situations. I got to hang out with friends and family. Went to my work team's holiday party, we finally had everyone in town at the same time so we were finally able to get together. It was a very fun night, we had good food, good company and a crappy gift exchange. So much fun. My really creepy crappy gift is sitting on my desk for all to admire!
Saturday was a good day, I hosted a Mary Kay party had a few friends over and we got makeovers. Form there I met some friends at a sports bar to watch the KU/KState game... KU won. :( Then it was off to my friends birthday party at a bar in the Power & Light District downtown. I had a great time celebrating with her.
Sunday was more or less relaxing... But Monday is when my stress level went crazy.
So my company's new pres and CEO sent out an email Monday morning - Happy Birthday Carly! - not really, it was an email telling us they were going start doing layoffs for this quarter. Oh happy day... I would be lying if I didn't say I was worried about my job, or that I had a backup plan in case I was let go. So Tuesday I come in and low and behold HR is here, doing layoffs in my division. I survived... my birthday, unfortunately wasn't as lucky.
I decided to claim the last half of the week as my birthday celebration. Thursday I had a great dinner with my cousins and Kendra's family. This is when my week turned around. Friday I was supposed to drive to STL for a family b-day weekend, but the weather had other plans - snow, grrrrh. So I left Sat morning. Ended up being a great weekend. My mom and I got a lot of planning done for our upcoming Italy trip.
To finish off my newly claimed Birthday weekend, I watched the Superbowl with Ryan, Kendra and Bailey. Good Food, Great Friends and a pretty darn Good Game!

Favorite Weekly Event!

I'm headin to my cousin's house for dinner. This is prob my favorite thing I do on a regular basis in KC. I get to have dinner and hang out with Ryan, my cousin, Kendra, his wife and one of my favorite people, and Baily Bug, my niece!

We're having tacos tonight!

Best Weekend Ever!

Trip to Denver in one word: AWESOME! :)

Basically Lesley and I shopped, ate gluten free meals, went to some amazing resturants, hung out with her family and oh yeah... went Snow Shoeing up in Rocky Mountain Nation park!
Lesley introduced me to some delicious gluten free treats. 1 being her homemade chocolate chip scones, which are porbably the best scones I've ever had. Also this Chai drink by Bolthouse farms, Im offically hooked. So much so that I went to the store last night to get a big honkin jug of it.

A few months ago I hooked Lesley on this amazing game called ImaginIff... While we were out shopping one day Lesley found her own on sale for just $6! So naturally we had to play. Shane, Lesley's boyfriend, was a compliant participant and I think we won him over to the darkside. And I'm not a psychic or anything but I have a hunch that Shane will be playing it again. :)

The much awaited part of the trip was our adventure up to Rocky Mountain Nation Park to go snow shoeing. Let me just tell you, snow shoeing is now probably one of my favorite snow activities right up there with a snowangel and a good snowball fight! :) In all seriousness, this was the best, a must when visiting the montains in the winter.

We started our hike at Bear Lake at about 10,000 ft. From there we hiked, for what seemed like forever, up (seriously UP) a steep climb to the next lake. The next lake was Nimph Lake.


At Nimph Lake we caught our first glimsp of Hallett Peak. I decided to keep my camera out and I proceeded to take the most pictures in 3 hours than I have ever taken before! Dont laugh... I think I took about 300 pictures. If you know my mother, you know I couldnt help it... its in my blood. And Shane, no laughing for you either! All those pics I took while walking turned out Amazing!


From Nimph Lake we hiked up to Dream Lake. Which was sooo beautiful. We were gradually getting closer and closer to Hallett, it was at this point that you could see the Dragon's Tooth. We crossed this lake (the lakes are shallow and almost completely frozen through) and proceeded up the path to Emerald Lake our destination.


We reached Emerald stood and looked in wonder and amazment at God's glory, tooks some pics (of course) and headed back down the mountain, off trail for a bit, which was tons of fun! No worries I fell on my butt a few times. :)



As we headed back down by a different trail I continued to look around a see God's glory, I wonder how people can see these things and not believe in God, or even believe that there is a God. It baffles me... His work is all around us, I didnt need a trip to the mountains to realize that, but it definitely reminded me. He is so amazing and we are so small, yet He loves us with a love that knows no bounds. The mountains glory and splender cannot even match His. It makes my heart quicken just thinking about it. And yet He tells us "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move." Matthew 17:20. Your faith can move mountains! And maybe the Mountain isnt an actual land mass, but a firuative one. Maybe it is an obsticle or a decision or a person. That mountain in your life no matter how big or small if commanded by a Holy God. He can move that mountain. The key of that verse is that it is the faith that you have in God that moves the mountain not you and not your will, but faith, simple and beautiful faith.


Thank you Lesley for a great weekend. Thank your mom and Jon for letting me crash in yalls house again for me. Brian, you are an awesome guide and friend! So glad we were able to hangout with you. Thanks for putting up with my weak lungs and making sure I wouldnt faint in the altitude.

Im so sad the weekend had to end, but I cant wait til I get to go back. :)

I haven't been this tired in a long time... Just a quick update: We went snow shoeing today up at Rocky Mountain National Park! It was so amazing. More to come!

Fly Me to the Moon... or Denver

First Blog so don't judge me to harshly. I've never been much of a writer, this is going to be a new experience... a journey :)


I decided to start this blog to document my travels to Italy in April at the request of some close friends. But why stop there? I will be doing a lot of traveling this year, my first adventure of the year will be to Denver.



So here it goes... I'm heading to visit my best friend Lesley this weekend. She came to see me in August so now its my turn to go see her. We try to get together every few months, so this trip is Long over due. We've been doing some crazy planning for our short 3 days together. When I say crazy, I mean seriously we started responding in different colors to an email thread that has gone back and forth about 6 times... I'm in the middle of responding in Blue to the most recent thread. Our main activity for the weekend is to go snow shoeing in Estes Park on Saturday. Neither of us have ever been snow shoeing, so it should be pretty funny. Don't you worry, I will be documenting this attempt! For the rest of the trip we have packed pretty much every hour with an activity or a plan. Needless to say, Monday I will be sleeping. Please don't wake me.



I was able to pack everything I needed into one bag. One bag that I will be checking. And because I'm flying Southwest, I don't have to pay to check that bag. The amazing packers that only need to bring 1 carryon never have to worry about paying extra for their bag (I'm actually really jealous of their skills). The concept of having to pay for something you are ultimately required to bring, is incredibly backwards. You have to bring a bag (whether you check it or carry it on), if you don't they assume (which makes an a** out of u and me) you're a terrorist, but you have to pay because you brought a bag. Which is why I try to always fly Southwest, Bags Fly Free! Love it! I mean do those other airlines want to deter people from bringing a bag or are they just greedy and want to nickle and dime you until you realize there are other airlines and you don't have to fly with them. Its like they're trying to loose business.



So anyways... I fly today.