6 months later.....

Greg finally graduated!  After his 6 month intensive training course he is now back and working in Milwaukee.

 

I went down to the graduation with his wonderful family to see the ceremony, and since we were down there, we decided to celebrate in the warmer climate. 

 

Greg was happy to graduate and leave his dorm room and the chow hall to come back to the real world.  As all transitions seem to be, it was bittersweet leaving all his new friends and family, but of course we must move on and he is excited to have new friends across the nation.  More adventures and friends to visit!

And off we go to celebrate....
When I moved back to Milwaukee from Spain I realized that I had a huge life dilemma.  I came home to Milwaukee because of all the ties I have to my home, mainly my family.  On the other hand, after living in warmer parts of the world, I have grown to absolutely disdain the winters and snow and dark and cold of Wisconsin.  In order to overcome this dilemma and happily live close to my family, I have made a very serious pact with myself: Each winter i get 1 trip to somewhere warm. 

Last year it was Mexico and this year I decided to combine the warm weather trip with Greg's graduation and we all hopped on a cruise ship to the Bahamas. 

We drove 4 more hours south into Florida and left out of Port Canaveral.  The ship left on Thursday afternoon headed to Nassau, capital of the Bahamas, and returned to Port again on Sunday morning.  This left us just enough time to drive the 20 plus hours home to Milwaukee and get situated before returning to work on Tuesday.

Now, I'm ahead of myself.... First, we made a quick stop off at a joint called Souther Soul for some Georgia Barbeque and fried oreos!  I guess the WI state fair is not the only place where you can find such delicacies.

Once we had our bbq & fried oreos we were ready to head to tropical weather and put on our bathing suits.



Greg and I with Mr. & Mrs. Martin and Dustin (a good friend of the Martin family, basically he is a Martin)



Nothing says cruise like towel animals!  Greg's Mom and sister even went to a class to learn how to make them....

This is the whole group: Greg, his family, myself and some of Greg's friends also joined the celebration.







 



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Greg's sister Michelle

At the end the pictures are a little out of order.  It's simply that i've spent about 10 minutes trying to rearrange them and I've lost my patience with blogger.   :)

Roman came to Visit

Roman was here not to long ago and took over the Collins household with his smile, charm, laugh and non-stop in your face ENERGY!  He is a sunshine kid and of all the little ones we have romping around lately, he is definitely the loudest.  He never stops.  I'm sad he is gone, but thank God for facetime.   

Last time Roman was in town, I taught him the joys of Redi Whip in a Can.  This time I took the liberty of teaching him how to 'steam roll' things with his body.  He started by steamrolling Anne. (Picture below)  He also expanded to steamroll all his toys... with his face.

SinceRoman happened to be in town for the big annual climbing competeion, he came to cheer on all the climbers.  

Roman also organized a Birthday party with cupcakes (yay!) and presents (woo hoo!)for my oldest brother, Adam.  Adam doesn't really like his birthday and probably will kill me for mentioning that he turned 35.  But we all know that birthdays are good for you....whoever has the most lives the longest.  

Happy Birthday Adam!

Henry likes Birthday parties too! He helped to blow out the candles, unwrap the presents, and of course eat the cake.

Roman played with the cars, his cousins, Uncle Jimmy and Uncle Mark, and of course Grandpa.  Since all the rest of us are grown ups now, Grandpa had so much fun having Roman around to play with him!

The facebook post that finally got me.

Today was a horrible rotten no-good day.  It was one of those days that I felt everything was unfair and no matter how hard I tried to be the BEST support to the office, they kept sending me in circles.   While one co-worker pulled me in one direction, three others pulled me in the opposite direction.  Then everyone would change thier minds and tell me to do something else.  I was doing the best I could, and juggling 5 tasks at a time, but I just couldn't win.  I found myself snapping at my bosses and blurting out comments that were COMPLETELY unlike me, especially in the office.  I even texted one of my bosses after work to apologize.  I was so caught up in the movement and the hurry and the bustle and the visitors and the general stress, I just couldn't relax.  But there was one facebook post that reminded me to look beyond myself.  I don't think it is THAT much better the rest of the statuses, but it hit me at the right time:

$34,000 a year puts you in the top 1% of wealthiest people in the world. $16,000 makes you middle class. The poorest Americans, are better off than 2/3rds of the world's population.

I am so lucky for everything that I have and have been given.  There's nothing that I need or have ever needed.  I have no reason to be unhappy or think things are unfair.  While sometimes it is necessary to be in the here and now, sometimes you need to step outside of it and think beyond yourself and your life.  The key is to know when to be here and when to step outside.?  

YAY! A New Year!

Happy New Years!

I decided to ring in the new year a little differently this year...more like an old person would.  I spent the evening eating half a pint of butter pecan custard from Kopps and reading.  The butter pecan custard was the only readily available indulgence on a whim that would really make me feel like I was "living it up!"  I didn't even last until midnight and when I happened to wake up before 7 am, I figured I would greet the new year by watching a beautiful sunrise over lake Michigan.  I got dressed and headed out to get an early start on the new year.

....And 2012 welcomed me with coldness, snow, clouds, and awful, crappy weather.  Plan B: Caramel Creme Brulee from Starbucks.  At least I tried!

 Starbucks in hand, I headed down to Bradford Beach and my disappointment quickly wore off. I stood in the cold and wind and watched the waves.  There's something about the sound of the waves and lake that is always beautiful and calming no matter what.....

These are the first of the Polar Bears gathering to take the sub-freezing New Years day Plunge into Lake Michigan.  It was about 8 am when I took this picture.  The plunge is normally closer to 11/Noon.  They had a bonfire going and beers in hand.......

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A surfer was already out there and surfing when I arrived.

That being said, I am excited for a New Year.....new adventures, more things to learn and see and do.  What will this year bring????  Hopefully more happiness love and growth.  I have tons of wishes and goals, hopefully you will read about them in my blog during the year as they unfold.

I wish a Happy New Year to everyone.  Good Luck throughout 2012... may you find fullfillment in all that you do.  I am blessed with a great family and so many wonderful friends.

A quick peek at Christmas.

Christmas was great and I'm sure that everyone can agree it came and left in a whirl, a much too fast whirl.  Greg was in town for a couple of days and it was a Christmas marathon to catch up for lost time.  Our agenda included a holiday lights limo tour of Milwaukee and Candy Cane Lane then family, family, family. Unfortunately, Wisconsin did not see any snow. 

For Christmas Greg got me googletv.  LIFECHANGING. I've had this 42" tv sitting in my apartment doing absolutely nothing for the past month plus.....NOW I have Netflix, the internet, you tube, and tons of other features on it.... like a fake fireplace. 

....Endless hours of mindless televison or midful television also.  To relieve some of the guilt - I have been watching lots of series about US History.......... other than that Youtube plays a lot of background music that keeps me from getting too lonely.  Right now I am listening/watching Ani DiFranco whilst writing.

Not to be unfair to all the other wonderful gifts I got...... Toilet paper, papertowels and Windex from my parents!  My dad is always such a jokester.   Aside from that I got a nice big clock, lots of nice work clothes, giftcards, a mug for camping, DVDs etc.

And now that its 2pm, I should probably get off the couch........

The most wonderful time of the Year

Listening to Christmas music and Waiting for Greg's Plane to get in.... I am sooo ready.  I've had my work holiday party, two ugly Christmas Sweater parties, drunk lots of egg nog, fattened up from office treats, and all my presents are under the tree.  Today felt like an eternity at work and I'm sure tomorrow is going to be just as bad, or worse.  Bring it on Baby Jesus!

Gobble Gobble!

Thanksgiving.  What an awesome Holiday.  Since my return from Spain I feel like my life has gotten progressively faster every day.  Now, in the full swing of things it sometimes feels like I live an organized chaos with the never ending goal of running from one task to the next without missing a beat, neglecting anyone, or falling short on the many necessary initiatives to make my life better.  I can't decide if I thrive on the hussle or it simply exhuasts my life and time.... either way on Thanksgiving this is all put aside. 

Thanksgiving day I spent over an hour setting the table so that everything was just so and took the time to finally put something in the oven and hang out with my mom.  It felt so good to go home for a few days and put aside every obligation (except my laundry).  I skipped my work out at the gym, put on that dress I've been waiting to wear, drank an extra glass of wine, played video games with my brothers and caught up with Mark until 3am.

We had 2 turkeys. My dad makes his on the grill and my mom's is done in the oven. My favorite new recipe was sweet potatoes. I love sweet potatoes, but have never ventured to do anything with them. It was really simple: We baked them in the oven. Ran them under cold water, peeled, and cut them. Poured apple cider over them and put them in the fridge to be reheated the next day.

 

Lately Mark has been experimenting with different facial hair styles.  This new and controversial style was inspired by Mike Collins in the 70's.  Creepy or not? hmmmmm

It was great to have Grandpa and Sweetie with us on Thanksgiving.  As winter migrators they are normally in Florida by November, but with thier trip delayed they came to add to the numbers.

Our little princess: 2 going on... 21?  (j/k of course, its grape juice)  Besides, if you ask her, she is still a baby.  My favorite quote from the day was when I asked her if the 'chipmunk in her belly' ate nuts and she replied that it ate dough-nuts.  Her and Pete love word play.

I love that we always have more pies than we can handle and I know that I will be having pie and coffee for breakfast for the next week straight.....It counts as a serving of fruit. or two if you have two pieces.

According to my blog, I officially have the cutest godson in the world:
















They finally got the whole hug-tackle thing down.  They have gotten used to the inevitable tumble and now dont  scream or cry or anything, although it does take a little bit for them to figure out how to get up from it.

  

Holidays are great.  I leave you with some trivia:    In 1827, Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale began lobbying several Presidents for the proclamation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. It didn't see success until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln finally made it a national holiday with his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation.    (Prior to this other presidents made one-time Thanksgiving holidays)