"I am what I am an’ I’m not ashamed"-Hagrid Tonight's date mixed lots of my favorite things: 1)Luke 2)Friends 3)Beer 4)Dancing 5)Calzones and 6)90's music. What more could a girl ask for? Oh wait! It was all Harry Potter themed too! We bought tickets to the Harry Potter Beer Fest at the Church Dance Club not knowing what to expect. We tasted some great beers (my favorite was a sweet potato beer) and danced the night away to my favorite college tunes. The best part? It was over by 9:00 so this old lady could go to bed! #Amazing Night
PS--The hubby was there too, but I loved this picture a lot :)
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"God gave us the gift of life--it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well." -Voltaire A perfect birthday--dinner out for beer and burgers with my boys. They started my day off with cards and new movies and then let me pick where I wanted to go to dinner. We talked, we laughed, and I realized that 40 is amazing. I have grown into a life I love and I cannot wait to see what the next decade brings.
"At 20 years of age, the will reigns; at 30, the wit; at 40, the judgement." -Ben Franklin 40. This is a birthday that has been a long time in the making. When I moved from TMS to STEM Lab, I found myself once agin on the younger side of the staff. Thus, the "Someday I will be forty" jokes started. Well, it is finally upon us! I am turning 40 on Tuesday and today we celebrated. We threw a HUGE party (60+ friends and family) came out to celebrate me. We enjoyed apps, great beer, lots of visiting, and plenty of laughter. I felt truly beloved and cherished as I saw so many different parts of my tribe coming together in one place at one time. My friends spoiled me with gifts, love, and laughter. I am a blessed lady--I can't wait to see what this new decade brings!
"Dinner is better when we eat together." -Unknown
I forgot to take a picture today, but we all went as a family to Perry's for lunch. Nothing fancy, but we shared time and a meal to stop the world and take a breath! We tried a new pizza this week--Jaxon was not a fan! We shared our roses and thorns this week. We laughed and smiled. The perfect way to kick off a week! "You get what you give." -unknown Leaving a 100% tip was a way to practice gratitude when I made my list. We have SO many humans in our sphere that give us great service despite low pay and long hours. Today my opportunity came to live this out.
Tonight I went to meet Kirsten at 20 Brew Tap House. This local favorite lives out its values of great beer in community every day in every decision that they make. So, when the owner walked up to us tonight and remembered that we were teachers, I was touched. But then, came the sad. Apparently, several teachers lately have come in and been very negative about their profession and the respect they were not receiving. The irony? The tap house recognizes teachers with a 25% discount everyday, no questions asked. Dave let us know that because of this, they had decided to stop with the discount. However, they were going to "grandfather" us in because we had always appreciated them back! I decided that they needed my gratitude and appreciation tonight and so I left a 100% tip on our tab. Lesson--you get what you give. We need to live out our values and it comes back to us! Remember this each day in each interaction you have! "He was a wise man who invented beer." -Plato Goal: Drink 40 beers from Colorado before I turn 40. This seemed like a super ambitious feat when I started in November. Why? Because I generally drink the same 3 or 4 beers: Blue Moon, Dry Dock Apricot, a good Hefeweizen here and there or any blueberry beer that I can get my hands on. So, I set out to try 40 different Colorado brews to break out of my rut and find some new favorites. What follows are my random thoughts on my journey!
1. Tommy Knocker Harvest Pumpkin Dinner out at The Northside tavern with the Fearnows. Smooth and rich, best pumpkin beer of what has been a weak pumpkin beer season. The music was so loud we could hardly hear. 2. Avery White Rascal Another dinner at the Northside tavern, this time with the Brabant’s. An old go to, I love the spice kick of this smooth wheat. 3. Fat tire Belgian white Same dinner at Northside, a surprise like. Usually not a fan of fat tire but this one was a great drink. A big improvement over regular Fat Tire (which is my first craft beer :)) 4. Blue moon apricot Happy hour with Like and Alissa at the Rock Rest before a meeting at Mines. More sour than I’d like but passable as sours go. 5. Breckinridge Christmas Three beers out with Aimee, without realizing it was so strong. Woke up with a killer headache, but enjoyed again at the next happy hour so must have been yummy. 6. Butcher Knife the Stinger 7. Stem Ciders Pear We invited the Krumpy's to a fundraiser for the Twenty Brew Tap House after a thief broke in. Good beer, good company and a good cause). Even made it on the news: https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/front-range/westminster/westminster-beer-community-steps-in-to-save-local-brewery-after-it-was-hit-by-thieves 8. Old Chicago O'Dell big cookie ala mode Happy hour with the girls, it was deep brown and rich. Sweet deliciousness of my favorite things mixed together. 9. Bierstadt Laberhaus Munich Helles 10. Jagged Mountain This Beer Really Ties The Room Together 11. Bruz Beers Dame Blanche Christmas with Kirsten and Lynn. The Helles was a teeth cutting beer-easy and smooth. The room beer was rich, hairy winter goodness, and the dame Blanche was my dream wheat-warm spice flavor that was smooth all the way down. Laughs, joy and feeling young—sweet memories on a cold night 12. Dry Dock Apricot Sweet and smooth, not that new. Had fun catching up with Aimee and Christy in the new year. 13. Elevation Wave Wheel We celebrated my Birthday with this one-a bit bitter but good times with girlfriends. Spoiled with signs, books gift cards and a hand made mug. 14. Collette Great Divide Smooth and rich, a great beer. Luke said I don’t like farm ales-so wrong. Dinner out with Brabant’s at Big Daddy's Burger Bar. 15. Breckinridge Avalanche Happy hour at Mindspark after Alice Keeler. Being wined and dined-teachers turn to rock stars. A new label on the bottle of an old favorite 16. 14er Rhubarb Pie Cream Ale Sour beer over family dinner before Luke heads to Chicago for work. Boys asked about and mocked my life list. Not the best beer on my journey for sure. 17. Station 26 Tangerine Cream-childhood orange creamsicle in a beer. Perhaps my perfect beer! Delicious! (Now it is a staple in my refrigerator!) 18. Epic Lil Brainless Raspberries -Jordet Family Birthday dinner at parry’s-perfect mix of tart and sweet! And $4!!!! 19. Weld Works Blueberry Pie-yummy 20. Declaration canned Veiled Vixen Girls night out with Erin and Kirsten at Twenty Brew. So fun to just hang out and not have any expectations or kids or husbands to entertain. Uber pizza and the sweetest blue berry beer ever. My heart is so happy! (The Veiled Vixen was meh!--nothing more to say about that!) 21. Chocolate Orange Stout Breckenridge Brewery -smooth and sweet, full bodied 22. Coors Light- easy peasy-great after a heavy beer Happy hour with Aimee and Christy--They laughed at me when I ordered a Coors light and asked if I was going to live. 23. Funkwerks Tropic King Smooth and Sweet. Celebrating Chuck's new job with Erin and Aimee. TGIF after a VERY long conference week. 24. Breckenridge vanilla porter 25. 38 state cinnamon girl 26. Renegade depravity (peanut butter cup imperial stout) Dinner out for 5280 Week at the Hideaway followed by drinks at 20 brew with Chuck and Erin. Last parents night out. Cinnamon sweet and easy, porter smooth and rich. Stout over the top and yummy peanut flavors 27. Colorado native, Coors best craft beer, this is always a yummy one. Had fun celebrating CJ’s 3rd birthday and laughing as he flew his "Donnie" Plane around 28. Denver Beer Company PretzelAssassin-salty and Carmely, a unique fun flavor 29. Proust dunkelwerk-Good German Beer 30. Blue moon cinnamon horchata-An old favorite back again. Love this mix of beer and cinnamon 31. TommyKnocker Butthead Ale--Dark, rich and a bit of kick. Definitely would drink this one again! St Patrick’s Day at the Brabant's! Spring has sprung and we enjoyed drinking on the porch in the sun. Blake won poker with a Royal Strait! 32. Blarney Stone Kokipelli-Rich and smooth 33. Breckinridge snow glare-A little bit hoppy but a solid beer Old Chicago with aimee and Christy for one of the funnest happy hours we have had in recent memory. It is great to let go of life and smile :) 34. Breckenridge Irish nitro stout--Smooth but bland 35. Avery barrel aged coconut porter-- High octane, great coconut flavor A pleasant Sunday afternoon at the pub to watch Dylan’s school of rock performance. Great grunge and fun people! 36. Anita strawberry harvest lager- Bland bland bland 37. Seed stock vanilla espresso stout- Rich and dark, little bit too much coffee flavor Happy hour with Aimee after the first day of state standardized testing. I have drank more dark beers this week than in my life. 38. Lone tree red-a but biter nothing special Happy hour with Julie at Perry's. Lots of fun to go out with someone new. 39, Prost Helles- Yummy. Just right helles First day of spring break! Here is to a week of rest and relaxation! 40, Epic brewing Perry’s Landon’s wanna wall wheat with blood orange- Smooth and easy Dinner out with Sandi. after making all the appetizers for Matt and Sarah's wedding! Whew, I made it. My favorites were the Blueberry Pie and Tangerine Cream! Now to go back to my favorite wheat beers--Blue Moon and White Rascal--HERE I COME!!! “Losing yourself does not happen all at once. Losing yourself happens one no at a time.” -Shondra Rhimes, Year of Yes:How to Dance it out, Stand in the Sun and Be your own Person Last year, I read Shonda Rhime's brilliant book Year of Yes:How to Dance it out, Stand in the Sun and Be your own Person. She realized that she was losing out on a lot of living (and herself) by saying no all the time. So she pushed herself to say yes for a year. Although, not ready to take that challenge on fully, I did consciously decide that as I work on my life list, I would say yest to new experiences as much as possible. Well, today a chance to say yes and have a new experience walked in my door.
At the beginning of class, a student walked in and offered me a cookie. I decided to say sure. It's Friday and chocolate sounded like a need rather than a want. When the aluminum foil peeled off the plate, he asked again if I wanted a cookie. Looking at the plate, I suddenly realized that the joke was on me--the cookies had a little bonus in addition to the much desired chocolate--crickets had been added. Now, a couple of weeks ago, I would have been quick to say "No thank you" and laugh politely. Great joke. But today, instead of going to my instant no, I said, "why not?" I grabbed a cookie, took a bite, and thoroughly grossed out the teen girl in front of me. How was it? The taste was pretty meh. It was really like having a nut in a cookie. No big deal. In terms of experiencing life, it was amazing! It was the first time in a long while that I felt like I was living in the moment rather than living in the life of "should do". It was freeing (and fun to watch my teammate freak out when I said I'd eaten the cookie. It wasn't an experience I had planned on having on my list, but I am so grateful, I took the chance and said yes. I found a small piece of myself (being adventurous) with this one little word and that is the life I want to experience. |
AuthorAlmost 40 and tired of the treadmill, I am going to LIVE each day as a new adventure while finishing todo items on my life list. Mom, wife, teacher, geek! Archives
May 2020
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