And I'll proudly stand up next to you and defend her still today....

You probably already know this, but I'm a bit of a Patriot. I love traveling abroad, but the moment I catch the site of stars and stripes, or red, white and blue upon return, I get a little teary eyed. I get goosebumps everytime I hear The Star Spangled Banner, even when its sung by 6 and 7 year olds at the Rockies' games who hit about 70% of the notes. I sometimes regret the fact that I didn't go into some sort of ROTC program in college. Basically, I love being an American and love and fully respect the people that helped defend the freedoms that we have.


Today (well, tomorrow depending on what time you read this I guess) is Veterans Day, so I wanted to share some of my favorite Veterans, thank you to all Veterans! Happy Veterans Day!!!!!!

My favorite Sergeant Major, My Uncle Rich (and my Auntie Barbara - being a Seargeant Major's wife deserves a shout out on Veterans Day too!)

My Grandpa Lindy Lee Lein - He served in the Army immediately after WWII ended.

My favorite Purple Heart Recipient (recieved during WWII) my other Grandpa - James Flint (and me!) :



One last person that I want to mention - the only person that I have personally known that has passed away while serving our country, Chris Anderson:





(More details about Chris can be found here.)

And be ye kind to one another….

And be ye kind to one another…. (Ephesians 4:32)

Kind. I’ve been thinking about this word a lot lately. I heard a father berate his 5 year old kid at Target the other day and thought “Man, kindness is lost in society.” We have a presidential election next year – that is bound to be nothing but kind. Kindness is so infrequent sometimes that I’m not sure I can always define it anymore.

From thefreedictionary.com:
kind adj. kind•er, kind•est
1. Of a friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature.
2. Showing sympathy or understanding; charitable: a kind word.
3. Humane; considerate: kind to animals.
4. Forbearing; tolerant: Our neighbor was very kind about the window we broke.
5. Generous; liberal: kind words of praise.
6. Agreeable; beneficial: a dry climate kind to asthmatics.

Kind is one of those things that you hope your mom or grandmother thinks you are, but that is forgotten in our daily interactions with other people. I’m not sure kindness is respected in this world. I kinda think it’s almost seen as a weakness. At my end of the year evaluation at work, “kind” isn’t ever listed as a strength or development area for the next year. I don’t often walk away from tough interactions with people saying “I wish I had been more kind”, instead I wish I could have stuck up for myself better, or was more articulate to make this other person understand my point. As I’m driving down the interstate, I seldom think “how can I be more kind to the drivers around me?”, rather I think “You jerk!” (or slightly more profane even, to be perfectly honest!) while secretly wishing I had the guts to cut the people off in front of me to make it to Denver faster.

As I go through the day, I am pretty quick to find areas where other people can be more kind to me. I’m great at noticing where people can be more kind to clerks at the store, or other drivers, to waitresses and airplane row fellow occupants, to parents, to kids in a store, to the call attendant that is supposed to fix your internet for you.

I’m not so great at noticing where people have been kind to me and I’m really not great at noticing where I should have been more kind to others (or where i could have been more kind, even if I didn’t feel they deserved it).
In a nutshell…when I really think about it….I wish I were more kind. I want more than just my grandmother and my mom to think of me as a kind person. I wish that I always gave the benefit of the doubt to other people, I want to be grateful when people help me out not because they need to, but because it was just part of their nature.

So, its time, I WILL be more kind to those around me. I will be of a friendly, generous or warm-hearted nature. I will show sympathy and understanding and be charitable. I will be humane, and considerate. I will be forbearing and tolerant. I will be generous, liberal (not THAT liberal though), agreeable and beneficial. I think this starts by appreciating when I’m shown kindness instead of focusing on being shown not-kindness. I will start noticing that around me, and figure out how to incorporate those examples into my own life.

It’s in the Bible, it’s a command. Be ye kind to one another.

ps. Really, that picture up top had nothing to do with this, but no post is complete withouth a photo. So, its a picture of my kind Momma and I!

NoDak 2010!

Did you ever think I would really post again?

I was in North Dakota last week for the Wing Centennial Celebration. It was so much fun. Some quick history on why the heck i was in Wing, North Dakota: This was the town that my mom and most of her extended relatives grew up in. At its prime (I think when my Grandpa was Mayor!) it had just over 300 residents. Now, there are less than 100.

I really wished I could have captured a little bit of the sounds, smells and joyful atmosphere of this celebration, but pictures will have to do. There is something pretty dang special about small town America that really is lost in our big cities (I don't consider Ft. Collins a big city, but it really just depends on what you are comparing to!).

So, my Wing Adventure in pictures:

This is my grandma, Marlys, and her best friend, Arlys, getting ready for their entry in the class parade. They were the only 2 there from their graduating class. Are they not the cutest things ever? I felt like I was helping little kindergaterners get ready for a class performance as I put their signs on them and lathered them with sunscreen.



























My sister, Auntie Barbara and I walked a 5k on Saturday morning - sporting Aprons that we created to commemorate my Grandpa's butcher shop (Lindy's Lockers) for a float in the parade.


That's right my grandpa was not only Mayor, but also the Butcher! This is the float for Lindy's Lockers - that's my grandpa in blue (who is amazingly un photogenic, he looks like he kind of looks like we took him out of the group home for this...). The other people are a few of the workers over the years, including my Mom and Uncle Dale.





The Patriot in me got goosebumps during this! A singer sang "God Bless the USA" while everyone waiting for the parade stood and watched the Flag Presentation at the Wing High School. I love it! (The singer for the National Anthem didn't show up, so we all got to sing it together, that was pretty sweet too!)

Have you heard of a Pitchfork Fondue? Delish!














Here is my sister looking like a country bumpkin with bunny ears (provided by my mom's cousin Connie), my Uncle Rich and I let Steph be in our picture.







Steph and our cousin's kids really enjoyed the stage entertainment:


Lastly, i figued I'd show my war wound from the week. My grandparent's car attacked my arm, this is my sister's artistic shot of it for me:


Basically, I had a blast, and wasn't ready to go back to Intel!

Destinos!!!

I have had this almost 2 decade long (since 6th grade!!!) effort underway to learn Spanish. It comes in waves - the last several years have been a bit more focused though - if they would only quit canceling the Front Range classes that i want to take!

However - today I found one of my favorite learning tools - Destinos - for free online!! Woohooo!!! This is a cheesy Spanish soap-opera type video.

Feel free to learn Spanish too: http://teachinglearningspanish.blogspot.com/2008/06/destinos-introduction-to-spanish.html

Do your ears hang low?

Have you guys seen the new Dove Commercial - the "do your ears hang low" one? It's great! All about goofy body idiosyncrasies - I love it! I tried to find a video to link to but couldn't find it online at all.

This commercial makes me stop in my tracks and watch it whenever I hear that music.

"Does your hair make you giggle?" That's my favorite part.

I think I'm going to stock up on Dove body wash and lotion.

That's it

Duathlon!

I randomly decided yesterday to participate in the duathlon that I was supposed to be volunteering (is it considered volunteering when you are kind of forced to help?) for today.

I was a beautiful day for racing! I just did the mini-"duwop" - 1/2 mile run, 6.5 mile bike, 2 mile run. Very short, but that's what i needed since I didn't do one lick of triathlon/duathlon training this year. But, the exciting part for me was that I did much better than I thought I was going to - and almost even placed in my age group! (Okay, there were only 6 of us in my age group, but I came in 4th - so that's almost placing :-). ) The great thing about this race is that it was all women - and all abilities, so you really were just out there to exercise and compete against yourself. I had never participated in all women's tri's or du's before (though volunteered at several), I'm officially a fan now. Perhaps I'll sign up to actually do one of the all women's triathlons next year.

I'm exhausted though - and sun burned again - dang it.

Oh - and all you Broncos nay sayers out there - we're still undefeated!!! WOOHOO!!! Take that Shannon Sharpe - we induct you one week and you pick the Raiders against us the next week?

Love my Broncs!

I'M ROCKIES PLAYOFF BOUND!!!

I couldn't make my first post that I actually send to people a bit of a downer post!

I GOT ROCKIES PLAYOFF TICKETS TODAY!!! No one in my family was lucky enough to get chosen for the first attempt at playoff ticket sales - but then both my mom and dad got chosen for the next attempt at it. Being the computer-illiterate mother that my mom is, I just used her code and bought them myself! I'm very excited!

Above is a pic of the last time we were in the playoffs (the world series to be exact), we would like to be able to recreate this - but with a win during the World Series. Now they just have to make it to the first round for this to even matter!