Snow!!!

Winter has been very slow coming, but it is finally here and we have beautiful Colorado snow. Driving to work on Saturday was breathtaking.. Driving west toward the mountains, the sky blue, the roads clear, but everything else covered with a blanket of snow that sparkled in the sun.. Oh how I love Denver.

The Moore's were so kind to have both Victoria and I over for Thanksgiving. I love being around family, especially little kids. Victoria is a convert, and had never had a "Mormon holiday." Not that they are really anything different, but this one definitely included kids, chaos, and jello!

I have so many things to be grateful for this year. For awhile now I have been keeping a gratitude journal. When I am having a tough time, seeing my blessings spilled over the paper reminds me how much my Heavenly Father loves me. Here is a (very) short list of things I am grateful for.

My loving parents,
Erica, Aubrie, Carly, and Kelly
Tyson and Chase
Greg and Tom
Hailey and Harper (and also Aub's baby bump..)
My sweet grandparents
ALL of my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.. there are a lot of people included in that!
blogs that keep my updated on everyone
Salon Foushee
my amazing coworkers
my clients
my kick-a roommate Victoria
Amazing friends... Peri, Natalie, Karen, Sam, Teresa, Brittany, Jacque, Maxene, Kyle, Adam, Julianne, etc, etc, etc..
my oh so crazy personal trainer Matt
knowing Neva
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
The Bible
The Book of Mormon
Church and my very welcoming ward
chocolate
health
music
ipods
cell phones
esp text messaging
chapstick
my apartment
Justin Timberlake (don't roll your eyes at me)
make-up
my car
snow, rain, sun..
books
magazines


There are a million more things I could list but my brain is shut off and the list is ending there. Thanks to everyone who has been such a support to me these last few months. It's been a rough ride but I am healing a little more each day, and am thankful to have so many wonderful people in my life!!

First and foremost, I have to confess that Victoria and I saw Twilight at midnight last night. I had been hesitant to dive into the popular Vampire series, but the girls at the salon talked me into it. I'll admit that the whimsical and always romantic Edward sucked me right in, and I easily identified with the ever clumsy Bella. So we bought our tickets, counted down the days, hours, minutes.. and finally 12:01 arrived and the big screen came to life. Overall, I'll say it was okay. The make-up was terrible, the story really was pretty shallow, and they tried way too hard to modern it up. I mean really, Eric was asian and Tyler was black? Not at all what I had pictured them. But I still swooned over Edward..

In other news, Michelle came to visit last weekend. Michelle and I were friends high school, and recently got back in touch. I've been her my last few excursions to Utah, so she decided to come check out Denver. We had a lot of fun! We went to The Melting Pot for fondue dessert, that was something cool that I hadn't done before. I also took her downtown to the 16th Street Mall. Here is a picture of Me, Victoria, and Michelle at dinner.





On a more serious note, while Michelle was here we went to the Columbine High School memorial. This is something that I have been wanting to do since I moved here, but I had never actually taken the time to stop by it. Columbine is only a few minutes away from the salon and I still remember the first time I drove past the school, it was like I instantly recognized it without seeing the name. Many of our clients have been affected by the shooting, and the community is still definitely recovering from it. I was only in 6th grade when the shootings happened, but I still remember the death count rising as the day went on.

The memorial is really cool. It's up on a hill, and there is a brick wall displaying quotes from students, parents, the president, and other people from the community. There is also a display for each student, and the one teacher that was killed. What was interesting to me, was that every person had some mention to God. There were quotes from journal entries, poems written, favorite scriptures.. Being up there was a very emotional experience, especially having lost a dear friend this year. Here are a few pictures I took on my phone while we were there.

Halloween

Those pictures weren't taken from a haunted house, they were taken at my parents house. Eric LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Halloween. It is fun to see him get really into it, and everyone else really appreciates all of the hard work he does putting up decorations. Those are just a sample of what I saw when I was home, and they were just getting started. On top of the killer decorations, my parents always have a little production in their driveway. Hot chocolate, hot dogs, candy, lawn chairs, etc... It's the place to be on the 31st. Many of my friends still stop by to check out the party, and the passersby appreciate the unique decorations and fun treats.

I didn't think I could justify going home for Halloween over Christmas, so I stayed here in Denver. Friday night Natalie and I went to a YSA dance. It was... interesting. People got really into costumes which was really cool. My favorite was my friend Stephen who went as a nerd. He was unrecognizable. He spent the night flirting with friends from across the dance floor, making them very uncomfortable. Here's a picture of his costume.



Saturday I went to a costume party at Kim and Seths. It was mostly girls from the salon, and then some of their friends too. It was a lot of fun, i loved Kim's figure skater costume, and her chihuahua, Chip, was Bob Marley. I was a Devil both nights, but we all know that I'm an angel at all other times.