Buy Raffle Tickets for $5 - Get Club Level Stars Seats for free!!!

Buy some raffle tickets and win Club Level Seats! All proceeds go towards helping an Ethiopian adoption!!

Dallas Area Dallas Stars fans!! (And coffee fans!)

Dallas Area Dallas Stars fans - my brother is selling $5 raffle tickets (or 4 for $15) for a chance to win 2-$100 Dallas Stars tickets vs. Atlanta on January 15th! They will draw the
winner on December 11th, and add more tickets the more entries we get! They are also offering discounted tickets to other games - anyone interested?? Let me know and I'll get you their info!

He and my sister-in-law (see their story here) are working on adopting children from Ethiopia, and every little bit helps! They are also selling African coffees, with $5 from each bag going to their adoption!! If you love coffee, check these out! --> Buy coffee to help adoptions!

Spotlight on…

My 25th Birthday - My birthday week has finally come to an “official” close. I received the last few cards and presents, and all in all – I’m excited to be 25!! It was a wonderful week, and I feel very loved! The hat and coffee mug my co-workers chipped in for arrived on Tuesday, and the HAT FITS! I was concerned since it was a “One Size Fits All” hat. I have an unusually small head (hey – I’m a girl! Most of us do!) and the one size usually starts around 1 or 2 sizes too big for my head. But I tried it on at work, and it fits like it was meant for me! The other problem with me and hats is that sometimes it comes with an extra tall forehead area, and it looks like a trucker hat on me. This one…well, see for yourself! No trucker head!



My New Books - My brother Brian sent me a very thoughtful gift. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a certain fondness (ok, obsession) for all things Ancient Rome. Brian and I share a mutual love for reading, so over Christmas, I was telling him about the books I had just bought. He must have remembered that, because he sent me an biography on Augustus Caesar for my birthday by an author who had written another book I already had. But…I already had it – bummer! (Told you I was obsessed!) He also apparently figured that I would, because he mentioned that he would include the gift receipt so I could exchange it. I went to Borders last night and exchanged it for:

And here is my official Spring/Summer reading list (aka: books I’ve purchased and haven’t gotten around to reading/finishing):
Clockwise from far left:
1. "Caesar’s Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Leigon and the Armies of Rome" by Stephen Dando-Collins
2. "Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic" by Tom Holland
3. "Augustus" by Anthony Everitt
4. "Roman Warfare" by Adrian Goldsworthy
5. "The Private Lives of the Roman Emperors" by Anthony Blond



I'm looking forward to the next few months!! WOO HOO!

My birthday isn’t over yet!

Apparently, it’s going to become a 25th Birthday week! Justin had a few plans for Monday as a surprise that he didn’t get the chance to “execute”, and he’s really disappointed he didn’t get to fully surprise me! So he decided to make it my birthday week!

I do know that he is going to take me to Ruby Tuesday for dinner Thursday night. Since I ate with my parents on Monday, he didn’t get to take me out on my actual birthday. He was dog-sitting Bailey while I was at dinner (and doing the birthday “surprises”) and didn’t realize he left some chocolate out on the counter, a little too close to the edge. When he came around the corner, he saw Bailey standing over the little box, licking his chops. He had eaten all 3 pieces. Justin was horrified that Bailey would be keeling over in pain, or going bezerk at any minute, so when I got home, he told me he wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving Bailey alone until he knew he was ok (bless his heart)!

Also, my wonderful team at work got me a really nice Dallas Stars hat and a travel Dallas Stars coffee mug! According to one of my co-workers, it’s virtually impossible to find any Dallas Stars memorabilia in the Colorado Springs area. (I could have told them that!) But, they haven’t gotten them in the mail yet, and it’s expected to arrive next Monday. So whoever’s house they mailed it to will bring it in on Tuesday! I’m pretty pumped…they look really cool! Matt, one of the Training Managers, printed out pictures of my gift, and presented it to me in a card:

On a non-birthday related note, I kind of started a blog for Bailey! It would be just a little bit here and there about fun things he does. I follow a few blogs like that, and it’s just so cute! They’re free to open, so there’s no harm done. Unless, of course, you don’t want to have to read a completely separate blog! Then this blog can be about “me” (since most of the blogs are anyway) and that one can have pictures of him! But it’s just a thought…I’m not sure if ultimately I’d want to have that extra “work”. It gave me a chance to create a new header and find a new site design for this blog, and that is exciting for me to think about!!

You can find it if you View My Profile, and there’s a section for blogs I “manage” – this one and Bailey’s! Or copy and paste this address: http://baileysmisconceptions.blogspot.com/. I chose that for a few reasons – 1. Bailey Monster was taken (hehe) and he does tend to have many misconceptions about the “people world” all the time (for example, when I put my coat on and am getting ready to go shopping or something, he thinks that he’s going to the park, and runs around the apartment like a banshee).