Thankful.

Today was a long day.

A very, very long day. 

So, to counteract the negativity surrounding my day, I'm going to list 12 things I am thankful for (one for every hour that I worked). 

1. I'm thankful that I am finally starting to enjoy my morning cup of joe.

2. I'm thankful for my an incredible husband who showers me with love and grace.

3. I'm thankful that I have a roof over my head. 

4. I'm thankful for my job and the opportunity to go to the bottom of the world.

5. I'm thankful that someone invented wine.

6. I'm thankful for my family and all of their support, even from miles away.

7. I'm thankful that snowboard season is almost here. I'm ready to shred.

8. I'm thankful for deliciously fattening queso dip.

9. I'm thankful that I'm finally getting used to my new last name.

10. I'm thankful for the simple fact that I don't have to save myself.

11. I'm thankful that one of two high altitude baking attempts actually worked this week.

12. I'm thankful for my new green yoga mat.

Mt. Sherman

It looks like our first 14er season has come to a close. We ended it this weekend by climbing Mt. Sherman with our friends Nicole and Eric. We originally intended to climb Mt. Democrat, but had to shuffle plans around when we discovered the road to the mountain was closed for the day. Luckily, Mt. Sherman wasn't too far away, so we still managed to summit well before noon (and avoided any potential bad weather). It was a fabulous fall day in the mountains, and the aspens were an incredible vibrant yellow! (Thanks Nicole, for insisting that we stop to snap some cute couples shots by the trees!) :) 

Mt. Sherman is littered with old mining buildings and railroad tracks. Very cool.

Summit #5

No photoshop here! The colors were really that awesome.

Peace, Love & Aspens.

The Ice.

Well, I recently made it known via facebook that I am going to Antarctica.

It's true, folks. On January 6 (or thereabouts), I will be arriving on the Ice and will begin my 6-week deployment! I will be living at McMurdo Station, the U.S. Antarctic Program's largest station. The U.S. has 3 stations -- McMurdo, South Pole, and Palmer. McMurdo is located on the southern tip of Ross Island, and hosts approximately 1,200 people during the austral summer (a.k.a our winter).

McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica

For those of you not aware, I work in Human Resoures for Raytheon Polar Services, which is the primary government contractor for the NSF's U.S. Antarctic Program. Our main function is to provide support personnel to manage the stations and keep the program running while the scientists do their work. I'll be working in HR on the station as well -- taking care of paperwork on the Ice and helping transition into the new government contractor that will be taking over the USAP contract on April 1. 

It's going to be a crazy awesome experience, and I am SO excited to be able to go. I'm currently working on getting "PQ'd", meaning that I have to get stuck with a bunch of needles and have doctors look at me to make sure I am physically qualified to go. I don't foresee this to be a problem, but I won't be able to officially go until I've passed all the medical requirements. I'm not looking forward to the needles though. There's a reason I work in HR and not in a hospital, people.

I'll be coming off the Ice on February 20 (Pending good weather! Cross your fingers!) and will make my way to Auckland, New Zealand to hang out for a week and see some good friends who live there (that's you, Brooke Scott!). Mike will be flying out to meet me in Auckland a few days after I get done with Antarctica, too, and we will have the most awesome-est vacation EVER. That's the plan, anyway. Things can sometimes get a little hairy with catching flights off the Ice, and I'm praying that all of this works out, logistically-speaking. But there will never be another time where we have the opportunity to do this, so we have to at least try to make it work! :) 

If you're the praying type, Mike and I would both greatly appreciate some prayers surrounding all this. Right now, it's incredibly exciting, but there's a lot to plan and a lot to work out (and a lot to trust God with). There are a lot of firsts that we're dealing with (both exciting and scary): we've both never been off the continent, and I'm going to the furthest one away; we've been away from each other for 6 weeks before, but never THAT far away; we both have to navigate serious worldwide travel logistics; I'll have a lot on my plate once I get back to the States; Mike will have to learn to cook more than just macaroni.......etc. etc. 

I will be keeping you posted on updates, and I'd love to answer any questions anyone has about the USAP, Antarctica, traveling down there, etc! It's a fascinating operation that I had no idea even existed until I started working for Raytheon. I will also be posting photos once I'm down there, especially when (if) I get to see these guys: 

Peace, love, & Ice.

A Glimpse.

An average conversation that happened a few nights ago in our apartment:

(We had just turned out the lights and climbed into bed.)

Me: "It's too hot in here. Can you go turn down the AC?"
Mike: "Why can't you go do it?"
Me: "Because I got a shot today."
Mike: "What??"
Me: "I can't do it because I got a shot today and now my arm hurts."

....at least I thought it was a good excuse? He ended up turning the thermostat down, so I guess it worked :) Oh, the joys of being the female in this marriage...

Like Sardines.

Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! Mine was a whole four days, and I certainly had a great time. Mike and I had four friends from high school/college come hang out with us in the Mile High City, and we had a blast showing them around and enjoying the cool weather that happened to roll through. Even though Mike and I are thoroughly enjoying our new home and new friendships, it was great to be able to relax with old friends (even if we were all crammed into our teeny apartment like sardines). Here's a recap of the weekend:

Squeezing 2 air mattresses into our living room. Isaac attempted to race Jon and Kathryn's self-inflating mattress using his manual air pump. Valiant effort, but the Pollmann's won.

Hiking out at Golden Gate Canyon State Park

After touring the Coors Brewery, which is one of my favorite things to do in Denver. 3 free beers? Yes, please. 

We also did a lot of scoping out deals at Sniagrab as well (a huge annual ski/snowboard sale), because the four of them are coming back in December to go skiing! Mike and I, of course, couldn't resist the bargains and walked out with a new board for Mike and a killer jacket for me. Can't wait for the season!!

There's a Sniagrab only 1 mile from our house, so it's going to take a lot of self-control to not just drop in on my way home from work for the next week. :) My mantra until the bargain madness is over? "We want to buy a house. We want to buy a house." 

Peace, love & CrowdedApartments :)

Mr. Coffee

Mike and I finally bought a coffee maker.

I know, most people couldn't care less if we bought a coffee maker. But the reason I'm writing about this is mostly because I want the world (or the small circle of people that read my blog) to know that I have officially given up my beloved source of caffeine: Diet Dr. Pepper.

It's going to be difficult, and I'm not very happy about it. But I'm giving it up for the following reasons:

1. The carbonation is bad for my teeth. I already have spotty enamel and always seem to be getting cavities, despite using special toothpaste and fluoride rinse every day. I'd like to keep my teeth, so I'd rather just stain them with coffee than erode them :)

2. The carbonation in diet sodas can lead to osteoporosis. And obviously I don't want that. My mom taught me from a young age to always drink my milk, and I don't want to undo all that good bone building I did as a kid! (In other news, I got these really delicious calcium chews today at Target that taste like Starbursts. No joke, I wanted to eat like 20).

3. There is too much sodium in soda.

4. I think I'll just feel better not drinking it. I can't help but feel like I'm ingesting chemicals when I drink soda, and I'd just rather not feel that way!

So, there you have it. Goodbye Diet Dr. Pepper, hello Mr. Coffee maker. And now I have to stick to it since I've made it public knowledge. Please hold me accountable.

Peace, love, & Mr.Coffee.

What are you on?

So I finally joined 24-Hour Fitness. I've been putting it off mostly because I don't feel like throwing $30 a month away when we could be putting it towards our future home. But, I get a discount with Raytheon so I decided to go ahead and join.

And today, when I walked in, I was annoyed. Immediately.

I know not all people who work out are macho meat-head weight lifters. But SERIOUSLY. They overtake the gym with their huge muscles and it annoys me. I mean, it's really impressive that you're lifting a weight twice the size of my head, but I am perfectly content with curling 15 pounds and I don't need you STARING AT ME, thankyouverymuch.

So then, after two arm exercises, I decided I couldn't take it anymore and went upstairs to get some cardio in. I jumped on the treadmill, but the sweat-drenched man next to me was flicking perspiration on me, so I only lasted a mile. Then I decided to bike. Biking is fun. And people on bikes don't flick sweat nearly as bad. So I started pedaling, and all of a sudden something caught my eye. You see, the gym that I go to is somehow linked to Lance Armstrong (I'm not sure how, I've only been there once, obviously). So Lance's face is pretty much plastered all over the place, which is fine I guess. I'd rather it be Derek Jeter........

*sigh*

Anyway, so next to a giant photo of Lance is a quote from the biker:

"This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it; study it; tweak it; listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I am on. What am I on? I am on my bike busting my ass six hours a day; what are YOU on?"  

And all of a sudden, I had a total change of heart. Because I realized that the reason I'm at this smelly gym is so that I can push myself doing the things I love. Because, Mr. Armstrong, I'm on top of mountains. I'm on a snowboard. I'm on a running path high above sea level.  I'm on a trail leading up to a tucked-away turquoise waterfall. And I guess I can bust my ass at the gym so that I can be even better at climbing 14ers and shredding down the slopes. 

So fine. All you smelly, pump-you-up dudes can stick around. I'm just going to do my own thing. And I'll probably ignore you. But at least I know that I've climbed to the top of Colorado...and that's all that matters to me. :)

Peace, love & AnnoyingMachoMen.