Happenings

Ahh, it's a new day, and so far so good!

Today I will be meeting Erin, Chris's sister, and her kids for lunch at Cherry Cricket for her birthday. In case you haven't noticed, she pretty much has the cutest family - and one more addition is on her way this fall! Happy Birthday Erin - we love you!

Also, on today's agenda: Madre y Padre Blais are coming over for dinner to check out our new digs in the basement. It has been forever since we have seen them and I have MISSED them - even though they are only 30 minutes down the road. I will be serving an awesome (if I do say so myself) pizza, in which I took the original recipe from my friend Steph, and changed things up a bit. The recipe is below....easy, quick and delicious!

Summer Pizza:

- 1 large pre-made Pizza Crust, such as Bobolli

- 1 large bag Spinach

- 1 Can Artichoke Hearts - drained

- 1 package crumbled Feta Cheese

- 1/4 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese

- 1/2 cup Dried Apricots or Apricot Preserves

- Seasoned and Grilled Chicken Breast cut into pieces (optional)

- Extra Virgin Olive Oil

- Crushed Red Pepper

- 1 Tbsp. Brown Sugar

- Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Place Spinach in saute pan with 1 tsp. olive oil and salt & pepper and turn on heat to low. Saute until Spinach has wilted. Cover pizza crust in a very thin layer of Olive Oil. Sprinkle with Crushed Red Pepper to taste, Brown Sugar, Salt & Pepper. Spread the wilted Spinach so that the crust is covered. Top Spinach with Feta, Artichoke Hearts, Apricots and Chicken. Sprinkle Mozzarella on top to hold ingredients in place while baking. Bake at 375 until cheese has melted and crust is Golden Brown. Yum!

Lastly, here is a sneak peek of the basement.

While I think it is much more satisfying to see 'before' pictures, I just can't wait to show off our carpet and my husband's (and father in law's!!) hard work. I am so impressed with how it turned out. For almost 10 months they dry-walled, painted, tiled, applied baseboards, added electrical sockets, added a closet, a storage unit, a bathroom and a laundry room and it has finally paid off. They sucessfully added almost 1,000 square feet of additional living space on to our little bungalow! THANK YOU Dave and Chris!

Now figuring out what to do with the beautiful space is our only dilemma...

NOTE: I wanted the blue accent wall to give an airy/ocean-y/crisp feeling. Unfortunately, I think it just looks more like a nursery. I am not too fond of it. hmm. TBD on what color will I will try next - thoughts?

Photo Friday

First - A very big thank you for those who commented below. I truly enjoyed, appreciated (and needed) the words/encouragement/thoughts and am feeling much more content. It's exciting to see what our future holds.

Second - Iowa pictures. You probably forgot that I even went to Iowa, but for me, it's something that's been lingering on my internal 'to-do list' for too long now ;) I will finally be able to move on with my life, hehe.

Have a great weekend. For us, it will include getting our basement prepped for carpet installation on MONDAY!!, a friends going away party, a concert in Fort Collins and Jazz in the Park on Sunday.

On our way...

Chris's littlest (or not so little) brother and oldest sister.

Country Roads

At his mom's old farm plot - where they grew up.

My brother in law and newphew


my niece


Chris and his grandmaAnother family farm

2 seconds before the f-bomb...see previous posts for more details ;) Afterall it was a 12-gauge shotgun people.

Thoughts

While I do love me some postings about shoes and the like, the reality is that my thoughts have been annoyingly preoccupied with the not so small, but rather very consuming, topic of...

Kids. Gah - even typing the word makes me a little nervous.

I have always wanted kids. Have desired to be a mom since I was old enough to a hold a doll (I even spent my 7-year-old allowance on real baby dipers for them). I have honestly admitted, "I want to be a mom", to the question of: "What do you want to do (fill in the blank) ...when you get older? ....with your degree? ...with your life?" I watch a baby story daily, light up when I spend time with kids and know what a 'Bumbo' is without having a clue about pregnancy.

I am now madly in love with and happily married to a man who also wants kids. We have one little house, two little incomes, and countless reasons why a baby would fit happily into our lives.

Can someone please tell me why then, I am all of a sudden scared to death of the aforementioned subject? Why it has consumed me and every other conversation I have with my poor husband?

Although we have never wanted a "plan" per say, there still has to be some sort of "no plan" that we commit to in order to ...let's just see what happens. In our minds, the "no plan" is planned to happen in the next year or so. Hmm, follow me?

There are several things that excite me to no end and also some that seem to scare me right out of the "no plan" timeline.

Some of these things include: Will we make "friends with kids" friends?, can we ever go out again?, will our "friends with no kids" friends still like us?, will I hate having to share the time I get with my husband? will this really be fun - forever? Can I still have wine every night? Oh, and can someone please answer Chris's burning question: WILL HE BE ABLE TO RIDE HIS MOUNTAIN BIKE AFTER WORK?

I guess what I am having trouble recognizing the most is if these feelings are telling me that we. are. not. ready. or rather that we'll never be "ready" and to embrace this new (potential) chapter in our lives.


We hear that we should wait. We hear that we shouldn't. We hear we should have more money - kids are expensive. We hear things work themselves out. We hear that we need to take time for ourselves, for our marriage. We hear that too much growth and you become fiercely independent. We hear that kids change things. For the best and for the not-so-much-the-best. We hear that we are so young. We hear that we would make great parents. We scare some, excite others.

We have heard and truly listen to all ends of the spectrum and ultimately we know that no one can make the decision except for ourselves. This is proving to be the hard part. Daily, we change our minds about where we should go from here. We are also fully aware that when we do decide, we may not be blessed to have it all work out as we had hoped - which is so scary in itself.


I would really love and appreciate your thoughts on the subject, as I am driving myself nuts with my own. I wish I could just appreciate the moment we are at without looking towards the future. Then again, the future is just too exciting and scary not to peek...

If the Shoe Fits...

(which mine does - quite well thank you) Wear It!

My feet will be fancy free in these pretties from W.H.B.M. at Meghan's wedding next weekend:

Aren't they cute?

In other news - I have t-minus 2 hours until my 4th of July weekend extravaganza begins...what are we doing that is so extravagant, you may ask?

Well, for starters, we, er, I, will be belting lots of "You're a Grand Ol' Flag", "Yankee Doodle" and "God Bless America" in the car on our way to our country's heartland tomorrow morning. We figured we couldn't get more '4th of July-ish' then driving out along the open road to a family reunion in Nebraska. Next stop, farm country. We will visit Chris's 97-year-old Grandma, Murle in Corning, Iowa. . It's probably going to be the craziest 4th weekend yet - hehe.

Seriously though, we are looking forward to the weekend - hope you all have a good one too!

PS: My two favorite "fireworks" will also be in tow - Chris may or may not have to keep me from hanging out the car window throwing Poppers on the ground and waving my Sparklers ;)

Weekend Pictures

This past weekend was very full - 1 Rockie's game for work, 1 amazing mom's birthday, 1 rugby game to support my friend Lindsay's hard work coordinating the Churchill Cup, 2 Father's Day celebrations and some time out in the sun with my two favorite buddies. Here are a few pictures:

Maddie's Garden Party

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of my first 'kid fiesta' gig. Here are a few pictures of Maddie's Garden Party a few weeks ago.

Happy Birthday to Maddie

Cupcakes, lemonade & birdcages - oh my

Flower pom pom's - courtesy of miss Martha Stewart

For paper flower instructions, click here. These were the best idea!! We hung them in Maddie's room when we were finished for an easy decoration - cheap and easy!

I "dressed" the table with several items that I already had around my house, i.e. pink candle holders, flower ceramic votive holder, etc.

Place Setting with take-home straw and flower gem candy dish (actually a votive holder from Pier 1)

Centerpiece with real grass sod (my original idea was to lay a whole strip down the middle of the table, but it turned out to be much too large. Note to self: measure before hand!)

'Pot Painting' Table with individual Terra-Cotta pots, paints, stickers, etc.

Strawberry Lemonade (TIP: Use Frozen Strawberries. They last longer and float better)

Goodie-bags filled with seed packets, individually packaged dirt, bubbles, and some good ol' fashioned sugar - aka starburst

Pictures of the Birthday Girl and her friends as you walked in

I hope to do another party soon - I have lots of ideas :)

Welcome Home Patrick

...My excitment from the topics of my previous post almost made me forget that my brother in-law, Pat, is coming HOME today from a year in Afghanistan. While he has been overseas several times, this round was an especially hard one for Michelle and Cutter.

Welcome Home Pat - we have missed you.

Isn't this a great picture by the way? So glad that they will finally be back together.

1:04:23.65

That's how long it took me to run (the whole way!) 6.214 miles in yesterday's Bolder Boulder race. Although I grunted my way through, I am so proud to have finished and pleased with my time. I think I could have gone a bit faster if I knew I was so close to the hour mark, but oh well (A huge THANK YOU to Leigh for keeping me going in the first place). There's always next year to improve my time - I think I just may continue with this whole running business! After all, I am now the proud owner of a running skirt, Nike running shorts with the funny underwear inside, moisture wicking Adidas running shirt and cosy running socks - I even read (and enjoyed) an issue of 'Running' magazine last night in lieu of US Weekly.

As you can see below, Chris beat me to the finish by a long shot and he hadn't even been training. Boys...grr.

HC634 20485 Tiffany Kampsnider Denver, CO F24 1:04:23.65 10:21
HC638 5686 Christopher Kampsnider Denver, CO M25 51:07.21 08:13

Because our camera is out of commission, I am sad to say I do not have any pictures to post of my victory. I will have to get a hold of some from Chris's brother and sister...

In the meantime, let me show you how I occupied about an hour of my Saturday afternoon. In front of the Kampsnider's new Apple, playing with the photo special effects . I could not stop laughing...these crack me up!

(before)

(and...after the 2,000 point weekend - hehe)

Yea, pretty sure I need to get a life :)

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Easter Weekend Recap

Because all blog posts are better with pictures and because I am in a post-vacation, back at work and it's only Monday, I wish I was outside enjoying the weather, So. Much. To. Unpack., must clean the house, dreading my afternoon run and don't feel much like writing kind-of mood, I thought I would post a few of our weekend in Nashville. Although we missed our two other guys, Byron (in Hawaii) and Pat (in Afghanistan), we had a great time.

Chris and I at Cutter's soccer game

Michelle and I at soccer game

Car ride - The tanning bed, bleached blond look is just starting to settle after about a week (previous post). I dare you to ask me if I just got off of a cruise.

Love this picture of my mom and dad - cute, huh?

Enjoying the day at Knockem'Hill BBQ - yum!

Our golf outing

Uncle Chris (or as Cutter prefers, just "Uncle") and Cutter

My mom and I's first real golf outing. We spent the afternoon yelling, "We're Golfers!" anytime we made contact with the ball. Unnecessary and completely obnoxious to everyone around us? Probably. But, oh-so-fun? Most definitely.

Not only does my sister look like a pro golfer, she plays like one too. Typical. Good at just about everything.

Easter morning, opening Bachugans. Bachu-what's? I'm still not exactly sure, but I know they're popular amongst the 7-year-olds these days.

The Easter table. Notice the awesome, real, church pew here. My sister could, and should, for that matter have her house in a magazine. This is just ONE example of her awesomeness when it comes to decor.

Sweet, crazy, wild, Bode. Despite his 90 pounds of muscle, this dog still thinks he's a lap dog. Love him.

Dad and me. No, his glasses aren't Blue-Blockers, but very, very close. Oh Dad...sigh.

May I just use this picture to insert the total cheese-ballish, "He's going to make such a great Dad one day" comment?! But, really....He is.

I secretly wanted to steal my sister's Frye boots - if only I was an itty bitty size 6!

Hope you had a great Easter!