It was about 90 degrees this morning, route done in about 2 1/2 hours:

My blog used to be pretty revealing about everything going on in my life, good and bad. For some reason or another, I have really censored what I write here. With the new blog face coming soon (Matt has been working on a design that I am sooo stoked about), I would like to get back to writing for the sake of me, not for the sake of anyone else. Because essentially, this is what this webpage is about. My journal of my life. I think like most bloggers I have run into a few roadblocks when it comes to deciding whether or not to include certain details in their lives.

Of course things like work will stay ixnay on the drama-ay, but I am going to try and write more thoughtfully about things going on in my life. It's therapeutic for me and with people's comments it really helps.

So, first things, Matt and I had a big 'discussion' over our lives together last week. With our anniversary it really brought up a few subjects that we had been keeping away from to keep the peace. We were able to mend things and decided to work things out, but are going to counseling together and we're going to try and find a church to attend as well. This is big for me.. to find a church. I am agnostic, but not Christian, so I would have to talk to the pastor of the church to get my questions answered before I could go to the church with an open mind. The church itself would have to be open minded as well. As soon as one talks about gays and Muslims headed to Hell, I'm out of there and probably won't be going anywhere near that place ever again. Lots of things to think about.

Isabella is sound now and I'm gearing up to go to a 2 day ride in August. Unfortunately after work, I can't ride around the property. The mosquitoes are so horrible that I get at least 10 bites per ride so either I have to restrict my riding to the weekend (which would be okay because she has a pretty solid physical fitness base on her already, and has a huge pasture to roam around) or trailer out during the week a few blocks to a nearby trail where hopefully there aren't as many biting insects. If I ride during the weekends, I need to ride a lot.. 15-20 miles at least. Hard to do when it's 90+ degrees out.. the heat here sucks!

Tomorrow Matt and I are headed to my boss's house for a 4th of July BBQ.. we've been doing a lot of things socially with her and her hubby and they're really fun to hang out with. It's been tough to make friends out here.. and that's a whole other issue. We haven't actively tried to meet people so I can't complain too much.. and I have my riding friends - a neighbor who I am riding with tomorrow morning, and an older endurance couple who are so nice and have taken me under their mentoring wings.

A few weeks ago when Matt and I drove up to Wyoming we bought a bunch of fireworks, so tomorrow should be a lot of fun! We have this one of a chicken that poops out ash.. haha. Awesome.

Lil Devil ears
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

Walden ponds

We had to give her back.. :( I am pretty bummed because she was turning out to be a GREAT dog. However, delayed sensitivity.. my arms would break out in hives whenever I petted her for any length of time. Some dogs just illicit this response from me and China's hair is so fine and soft that I don't get this reaction from her. Roxy's hair was much more coarse and oily.. Ah well. Sad.

Note to self, on Unwrapped last night on the Food Network this place is the self proclaimed best fried chicken ever (in Lakewood, Colorado). Also serves corn fritters, biscuits, and lemon meringue pie. Yum.

This is Matt and my 4th year anniversary present to each other..

Introducing Roxy! We adopted her from the Longmont Humane Society yesterday. :)



She is a 2 1/2 year old great dane/pointer mix who is taller than China but 20 pounds lighter. She has a snake face and is a very good girl who loves her crate, can sit, lie down, and has the lip capacity to carry around 3 gallons of slobber. She doesn't bark and needs to learn how to recall when off leash. It's amazing how fast this little girl can run!

She had a very sad story.. her old family's house burnt down and they had to give little Roxy up because they couldn't keep her anymore where they were going. Very traumatic, but fortunately she was only at the humane society for a week before we decided we wanted her.

When we went to look, we passed her over the first time because she wasn't on the window side of her dog run. The runs are in a windowed room, so the dogs really can't hear when people approach their runs. We decided to do a second pass at all the dogs and she came over to where we were standing and just stared at us for the longest time. She stared at me for a while then at Matt, wagging her tail. As we left to go to the front desk to ask if we could meet her, just put her paw on the cage. We met her, she got along great with China, and then we went home to think about it Saturday night and all day Sunday. It was a tough decision with a lot of questions.. ultimately, we decided we would be giving a less fortunate creature the ultimate good life and all our 'con' reasons were just selfish, and brought her home Monday night.

First night went very smooth.. she just snoozed in her crate all night long and didn't get up or make a peep until I let her out this morning. Then, she's just a little bunch of energy that observes and stares at you waiting to go outside. China loves her and has already tried to hump her several times (very good sign).

Welcome little Roxy!