Under pressure ... pushing down on me

I don't have time. I'm taking the few moments now to jot this blog down because if I don't, it'll continue to get pent up in me and I will go on letting the slightest provocation make me burst into yelling or tears or both.

Since I can't really give specific dates (I'm not really supposed to), I have to generalize my timeline. Plus, no one will give me specific dates anyway, so it's not like I have to vague out on the details I don't have.

I get my husband back in a couple weeks, but then we have to wait out the holiday weekend so that we can travel to an air force base to get an EXTRA passport for Violet and me. But the lady who is in charge of that wouldn't allow me to make an appointment a month ago and has yet to get back to us so that we can arrange a time in the TWO DAYS of flexibility we have to make this happen.

And now, it looks like the supposed 2 days will be taken away from us because the moving company that takes our stuff to storage while we're in Japan can't do it on any other day than less than a week after Scott gets back into the country. That takes away the week I was depending on to go through our stuff to figure out what goes and what stays.

I can't do it now because I have a little girl who still needs watching over and to make sure she's happy and I didn't make friends in Pagosa to ask for help. I don't have my evenings because I still have left over projects for the wedding party. We don't have March to play with because of the insanity I decided to lump on myself of having a final party with my friends and family to finally celebrate the marriage and consequent family Scott and I have started.

The only reason why I can even write whatever fragmented thoughts I have right now is that Violet is fine with dancing in the living room, wondering why her Mommy is crying in the corner of the room in front of the computer.

As he waddled away, Waddle, Waddle

This is the first time I have something short to blog about. Everything else on my mind is long-winded and complicated with too much emotion: single-parenting, moving to a different country, isolation, family relations - a virtual "choose your adventure" into my psyche.

But since last night, this has been my distraction. I finally was able to catch up on the last several "Glee" episodes as I worked on a family calendar and as I watched Jan 24's episode I was pleasantly surprised by a show that has lost its luster for me. I heard the version of "Baby Got Back" that I love by Jonathan Coultron. And I went to ew.com to see what kind of review they gave it and this is where I discovered I was wrong. Sort of.

Evidently, the hub-bub of the song is that it WASN'T credited to him. More on that here.

I am, of course, on Team JoCo, mostly because what Fox/creative team of Glee did was very uncool, to say the very least. But what I find funniest about this ordeal is that Team JoCo is looking for a duck quack to prove being ripped off. Forget the fact that the line "Johnny C's in trouble" was also incorporated. And in all of this, all I can think of is Jamie on Mythbusters saying, "Quack, damn you."

The world's a nicer place in my beautiful balloon

This morning we went over to my sister's place for a morning tea party. We were slightly interrupted by a hot air balloon landing. Such excitement!

Baby, check this out, I've got something to say

Dance party in my living room =)

Picture book, Of people with each other, To prove they love each other...

12 days. After five months apart, we had only 12 days to be with each other as a family. I purposely left most of the days unplanned so that Scott and I didn't have to feel like we were racing from one thing to the next, but of course, it still felt like some tight programming and not enough relaxing was done. But this is what we did get to do:

Scott's arrival
Scott came in at about 10:30pm, Friday the 6th, and we just wanted to go home and sleep. Violet was already done for the night, so we knew that he wouldn't be able to see her much beyond just peering at her through the baby monitor. The next morning, Violet took maybe a minute to register that her Daddy was no longer in the computer box or the iPhone box or the disembodied voice in the phone and then the two of them just melted into a heart-breaking hug.

Daddy hugs

Several days in the Denver area

There were several things that Scott and I needed to take care of in preparation for the Wedding Celebration/We're Leaving for Japan party for next March. One was a cake tasting, where my parents and Violet joined to try out some yummy desserts and we also did a separate night of taste testing for the venue that we'll be using. 

In the middle of these taste tests was time for Scott and me to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. I had made arrangements to use the Denver Bike Bar (if you feel so inclined, read the FAQ page. It's funny) as a bar hopping helper. Since it was just the two of us in our "party", we were added onto another group, which was supposed to be a lot larger than it turned out to be. We found out that some of the people who were supposed to show were preoccupied with the fact that another in the party ended up in the ICU the previous evening. Scott and I never found out how she ended up in the hospital.So, even with just the 7 of us peddling, we still had a good time listening to the Reel Big Fish Pandora station on the 'bar's' speakers. We only got to ride to the Breckenridge Brewery and River North Brewery, but it was still a good time. Plus, I knew that with the "Explore Denver" package I got along with our hotel stay in Denver, we would be visiting more bars. Mitch and Marsha ended up joining us that evening and it was nice to catch up with them.

The Bike Bar

Breckenridge Brewery

Pagosa time
We did make it 'home' for 5 days so that Scott and I could not only relax in our house, but so that we could have Heather's good friend take our family portraits. It turned out soo great!! I know I've already posted some of the pictures on Facebook, but there were others and I'm already trying to figure out a great display of the pictures in our living room without being too showy. I took him to some spots around town, some good places to eat and mainly just sat on the couch and took a much needed breather together. We also got to celebrate Heather's birthday right before we had to skip town again for a couple days before Scott's departure out of Denver International Airport.

Back to Denver to finish things out
Scott and I did get to catch a Rockies game (vs Pittsburgh Pirates) and had fun walking around, grabbing some beers, watching most of the game before going on to a bar nearby to get out of the rain and we ended up waiting out a rain delay to watch a game that remained pretty tight on through the 9th inning. We also got to catch "Spiderman" (and "The Avengers" the week before.)

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So, that was 12 days. There were other errands we got to finish, like get Violet and Scott their passports, but it was really just a small, tiny taste of being a family again. The next time this will happen won't be until November for Thanksgiving, which I can already tell will take more planning and running around, this time in different states.

Here are more pics, for those who want more.

...and one more video... it couldn't load in the last post

You gotta jump, jive, and then you wail

I know this is going to be a weak post with written information. But, I will compensate (or at least try to to) with pictures and video. Here's hoping I get more time.... someday....