Has it really been 2 months?

It's a little dusty around here, but no worries. I am back in action with another glimpse into life at 400 Andrew Drive. I blame my absence on the long hours of daylight, the nice weather and the house and yard.

The house and yard are still keeping us busy. We still are at the hardware store almost every weekend--two weekends ago I think we were there three times. BUT, we've planted a flower garden in the front, planted a tree in the back, painted our bathroom, bought a bedroom set (grown-up furniture), hung photos on the wall, and are in the process of shoveling rocks out of the backyard. Next month, we are getting a concrete patio poured, which will make the yard useable. There will definitely be pictures of that posted! We still have a long way to go, but we're making progress.

Our neighbors are great. They've loaned tools, helped fix things, offered advice...genuinely nice people. We've started hanging out with them too...gathering in driveways or on patios with beers in hand. Had a girls night with them on Friday, and Mike went out with the boys on Saturday. Good times.

Speaking of beers, we've checked out the two local watering holes. I must say they are interesting places with interesting faces but both are right about my speed. Jerry D's, the smaller, more seasoned bar, has a shuffleboard table. I LOOOOVE shuffleboard, and I forsee more time being spent at these quality establishments.

Back to the house, we have our first major repair. Since the massive snowstorm/rainshowers we got in April, we've noticed that the ceiling/drywall in the garage gets wet and drips--there's a leak. Neighbor Steve, who is a roofer, checked out the roof three times and found no problems. It took a carpenter, a screwdriver and a pitcher of water to realize that it's the window. The 8' by 4' window. Needs to be replaced. Not the ideal situation, but we really can't complain. Knock on wood, it's the only major repair we've had to deal with.

So there's the quick rundown of what's been going on. Mike celebrated his 34th birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I'll celebrate number 29 in a couple of weeks. We are trying to find a weekend to head back to Illinois to see family, probably in mid August. And it sounds like we will have a few friends passing through town over the next few months.

Until next time...

Sunday night ramblings

What a beautiful day today. After receiving probably four to six inches of rain on Friday and Saturday (the snow missed us), it was sunny and almost 70 today. I love Colorado! We worked in the yard today, kinda. Uncle Gordon came over and he and Mike got the sprinkler system up and running--only two trips to the hardware store, some borrowed tools from the neighbors, and voila, we have sprinklers! We fertilized and seeded the front yard as well, so hopefully it gets to looking a little better.

While Mike and Uncle G were at the store the second time around, I got a little bored and decided to see how difficult it was going to be to take apart the brick patio that is in the back yard. Thanks to the softer, muddy ground and my trusty shovel, it really wasn't too bad. In fact, it was almost EASY. Yeah, I finally stopped after going three rows deep.--it was so easy, it was hard to stop. There's still a lot of it left, but I put a dent in it. And since I was just stacking them up, it looks like we're builing a fort in the back yard. Awesome.

We also switched our first room--it only took living in the house for a month and a half. Our office was in the front room downstairs because, well, we didn't have any other furniture to put down there. But while we were shopping yesterday, I mentioned to Mike that I would like to move it upstairs into one of the spare bedrooms (the treadmill room). He said he was thinking the same thing, which was all I needed. I moved everything I could last night, and Mike helped me move the desk this morning. It definitely feels more like an office...the front room is very empty now. We've furnished the entire thing in our heads; we just need the capital to back the plan. Ha ha! That is low on the priority list--we need a patio pronto. I've never mopped so much mud off a kitchen floor as I did this morning, and I have to do it again. Silly dogs.

In other news, I am thisclose to getting a regular freelance job. I sent in a sample assignment on Thursday and am just waiting to hear back (I was one of ten finalists out of 300!). I really hope I get it, as that is the direction I'd like to go professionally once we start our family. Also, the extra income would be nice. It will take some adjusting of schedules, but in the end it will be worth it. My fingers are crossed.

We are going to Illinois this weekend, which I am pretty darn excited about. We fly into Indy on Thrursday night and leave early Monday morning. We'll be stopping in Champaign Friday en route to B/N to see my former coworkers. And then it's off to Bloomington. We're staying with Kris and Colleen, which will be fun. I haven't seen them since the wedding and even then I don't think I was able to spend a lot of time with them. We'll also get to meet Erik and Bridget's newest addition, Ashlyn. I am hoping to cruise back to Champaign for a little while on Saturday to see some friends. I guess I should probably contact them to see if they'll be around.

I fear I've started rambling so I will sign off for the evening. Oh-- if you could say a prayer for my former boss Charlotte, I'd appreciate it. Her father passed away unexpectedly on Friday, just a week after she moved him into her house to take care of him. Thanks.

Busy, busy...or at least it seems like it.

Well we've had some eventful days lately. At least it sure seems like we've been through a lot. We had a blizzard on Thursday. Like it took Mike two hours to get home from Boulder and it took me three, plus an hour of waiting for the bus, to get home from work. We both left between 10 and 10:30 and let's just say that Mike had Friday off and I opted to work from home. Though when we went to dinner the roads were all clear. I'd say we got about a foot of snow total. It's hard to say as the wind was blowing so hard that the drifts were up to the middle of our fence. But it's all melted as it was almost 70 degrees yesterday. It snowed again this morning...it's springtime in Colorado :-) I don't mind.


On Saturday we met our friends Mikey and Theresa (who are getting married on Saturday!) to watch the Missouri basketball game. We drank some beers and had a good time. My friend Joni came over Saturday night, which was pretty cool, as she's the first person besides family that has come over just to hang out. Mom came over yesterday to see how things have been coming along with the house. She hasn't been here since the day we moved in--needless to say, she was impressed. We also wowed her with our homemade baked potato soup.



We hung drapes on our back door (south facing=super warm in the summer time), which to me makes the house feel more homey, and cleaned and did laundry. I guess it really was no different than any other weekend, but I felt pretty wifely yesterday. :-) Maybe it was the homemade banana bread in addition to everything else. Or maybe it's finally sunk in that this is really our home.


I was even ready to go to work this morning. On a Monday. I was impressed with myself. But enough of my rambling. I finally took some "after" pictures of the house. Prepare to be amazed :-) (Not really, but it is quite the improvement--at least I think so.) You'll have to refer to the blog from Feb 19 for the before photos, cuz they're on my work computer. Oops. Enjoy!!




This is the front room (I am standing by the front door)



This is the master bedroom. That wall used to be orange.











Here is our kitchen! I am pretty proud of it. And this is the magenta/salmon room

Operation Back Yard--Weekend One

This weekend, we started working on cleaning up the back yard, or what we lovingly refer to as the dirt pit. I wish I had some before pictures...Mike spent about 5 hours yesterday raking and bagging dead grass. (I was busy shopping with my mom and getting my hair done. I felt pretty bad about that...) Today, we were out there for about 4 hours. We pulled the dead bushes from the rocks, broke up the gazillion tumbleweeds (yes, we have tumbleweeds and some were as tall as the fence), pulled weeds, and raked and bagged it all. We filled the holes from the bushes the previous owners took with them, pulled a bunch of random metal stakes out of the ground, and discovered that we are missing 2x4s from the fence. We called it a day around 3:00. I made chicken alfredo for dinner (with homemade alfredo sauce!) and then we went and had ice cream. Not a bad way to end a productive day of hard work.

The yard, though we have a long, long way to go, looks much better. It's very gratifying to see the results of our hard work, even if it's a little bit at a time. The whole project is still overwhelming. Though we did make a couple of decisions today-- we are going to pour a cement patio instead of build a deck and all the rocks along the back fence must go. We also have about 100 square feet of brick patio that we've decided to tear up-- the concept is good but it's kind of in the corner of the yard, though it doesn't go all the way to the fence, and it's kind of a quarter circle with wavy edges. It won't work in our master plan (or what plan we have, which isn't a whole lot). Let's just say, I know what we'll be doing this summer.

The dogs helped Mike all day yesterday, so they really had no desire to be out in the hot sun today-- though Molly found some time to roll around in the grass and Nani came out and sniffed our piles of trash every once in awhile.

The weather this weekend was beautiful, by the way. Mid-high seventies. But it's supposed to snow tomorrow (northern Colorado and southern Wyoming are under blizzard warnings). Which I am kind of excited about as we need the moisture very, very badly.

In other house news, I got some pictures hung on the walls last week--woo hoo! I was all excited to print wedding photos for some frames that we have and get those hung up, but the stupid photo printer ran out of ink. We got another cartridge but I haven't been inspired to get back into that project. Mike's parents will be here in two and a half weeks, so hopefully it will be done by then. I just have to keep telling myself...a little at a time.

All moved in...for the most part

Well, it's been a little over a week and one could say we are pretty settled in to our home. Most everything is put away with the exception of hanging pictures on the wall and setting out knick-knacks to collect dust. I like it here, which is a good thing! Moving was hard work though. It didn't help that the night before moving day, we were at the house cleaning and working until about 10. Then the next day, Mike and I loaded the entire truck ourselves, from our second-floor apartment. That night, we unpacked and made our bed--that's it-- but we slept in our house for the very first time. The next morning after a final trip to the apartment, Payal, Ben, Jen, and John came and helped us unload, and what a difference it made. The truck that took Mike and I four to five hours to load was empty in an hour. The boys went back to the apartment and got the treadmill (I was too much of a weenie to be any help with that beast) and were able to get it up the stairs. The girls helped me unpack the kitchen. Regardless, we were both exhausted on Saturday night. I think we were in bed by nine.

The backyard needs a lot of love, and I keep reminding myself that we have lots of time to do things--like redo the backyard. The dogs like it and are getting used to being out there on their own. Molly likes to roll around in the dirt. Nani likes to sit at the back door and look in.

My dad and uncle have spent the last two Sundays here helping with stuff. The first was spent hanging ceiling fans (3). Mike got acquainted with the neighbors while searching for a ladder that was tall enough (though they ended up having to rent one from Home Depot), and I got to take advantage of my spacious kitchen and cook dinner for everyone. Yesterday, they spent the day hanging the garage door opener, and Mike and Mark installed the microwave...ah modern-day conveniences.

I was worried about keeping the house clean, so I am trying to stay on top of it, specifically the floors and probably dusting (there seems to be a lot of it up here--did I mention it's kind of rural??). There's a lot more space to cover than our apartment, and I know it will be awful to try and clean it all at once, so bits and pieces at a time. Thanks to mom, we started with a spic and span house, so all the mess to clean up is ours. I sweep the kitchen every night after dinner (the dogs track in a lot of dirt and dead grass) and I've been vaccuuming about every three days. And for once, I've been doing the laundry (usually Mike's forte).

My commute to and from work is about twice as long, which sometimes makes for a long day. Especially since work is super busy and I am there until 5. But I still like taking the bus because then I'm not the one dealing with the traffic. However, last week when I had to come home and wait for the cable guy, I learned that they do not run express busses in the middle of the day which translates to almost an hour-long ride. Which kind of sucks. AND the busses don't run as often. Just a different schedule to get used to, I suppose.

We are going back to clean our apartment this weekend and clean out the garage. Then, after a walk through, we are officially finished with apartment life. YEAH! I was hoping to have photos to show (the new paint looks AWESOME--like an entirely new house!) but we haven't gotten around to taking the 'after' shots yet. (I came down with a nasty, nasty cold last week and we have out of town guests until Wednesday) But I promise to post some soon...maybe after I get all the pictures hung up.

It's been awhile

So, I haven't posted anything for almost a year. Not good. And it's not that I haven't had anything to talk about--I just haven't sat down to share it.

First things first, Mike and I close on our very first home tomorrow. Needless to say, I am pretty excited. No more apartment. No more carrying groceries up a flight of stairs. No more parking in the garage that's half a block away. No more 1-gallon canisters of propane for the grill. And quite possibly my favorite-- no more leashing up the dogs and getting dressed for the weather for a doggy bathroom break. Nope, from now on it's as easy as opening the door. Plus, they now have a nice, fenced yard to play in and dogs on both sides of us that they can talk to. (Yes, both neighbors' dogs are quite vocal. It should be interesting.)


I am excited to make our house a home. And it starts this weekend with a massive amount of painting. For being bank-owned, the house is in pretty good shape. But it needs some paint. A lot of paint. One of the bedrooms is magenta and salmon. It's awful. So, for the next three and a half days--and probably some more after that-- we will be cleaning, taping, priming, and painting.


Moving day is next Friday (yeah, taking some days off work to get this stuff done). We hope to be somewhat settled by March 1, and Mark and Ashton (Mike's youngest brother and his girlfriend) are coming to visit on the 7th. Which will be a nice break. See, when guests come, we like to take them to the mountains, so we will be spending the day tubing at Copper Mountian and hanging out in Breckenridge.

In other news, Mike and I celebrated our four-month wedding anniversary yesterday. Okay, not really celebrated but we acknowledged it. It's crazy. In some ways, I can't believe it's already been four months, but on the other hand, with everything that's been happening, I can't believe the wedding was only four months ago. And since I haven't posted since before the wedding, it was perfect! The weather was fabulous- 70s in mid-October, the venue was beautiful, the food was great, and everyone had a good time.

I got the uncontrollable giggles during the ceremony, followed by tears that I tried really hard to hold back. I didn't realize how funny it was until I watched the video. The girls and I had a choreographed dance we performed at the reception-- also funnier when I watched it. To sum it up though, I wouldn't have changed a thing.

I guess that's it for now. I will post pictures of the house post-move-in and paint redeux. And it will be sooner that nine months from now.

(BTW, thanks Val for inspiring me to get back to this. I'm going to try my best to stay with it!)

random tuesday afternoon ponderings

See. I knew I wouldn't be very good at keeping up with my blog world. Not that anyone is reading this...

It's been an interesting couple of days. We found out on Friday that Mike's sister suffered a minor heart attack. She's in her late 30s. She has two children ages 10 and under. That scares me. A lot. I mean, yeah, I live a relatively healthy life. Well, I don't eat the best of foods, but I am an active person at a healthy weight. Still, it's scary to realize that these things can happen to anyone at any age. She had surgery yesterday and is doing fine, which is fantastic. I hope that she realizes what she needs to do to stay healthy for a long time coming. I am definitely thinking about it more than I used to.

In other news, we ordered our wedding cake on Saturday. Yay! Who knew one could spend upwards of $400 on cake?! I mean, seriously. It is going to taste delicious though. Chocolate and strawberries, white chocolate and raspberries... yum yum! And as an added bonus, it will be accompanied by a big Chief Illiniwek chocolate chip cookie. Orange and blue may clash with the pink and brown on the cake...I wonder if we can do the Chief in those colors. Mike would die!

On the topic of chocolate, I was quite thrilled to see that m&ms lowered the price of their personalized m&m treats. By two dollars! Yes, we will be serving m&ms with our names on them as favors at the reception. Cute, don't you think? They will be brown and pink. :-) Actually, while the pricing may seem atrocious, for wedding favors it is quite reasonable. Reasonable being a relative term since this entire wedding is costing way more than it should. But that is an entirely different topic on which I choose not to discuss right now. Or maybe ever.

I also finalized my bridesmaid dresses this weekend, fueled by brunch and champagne. Ooh, and a trip to Vegas with the girls in June. Yeah buddy. It was a productive weekend.

I am trying to create a wedding website for this shindig. Too bad I overestimated my Dreamweaver skills. I don't want it to look like crap, but I am far from being a web designer- it will probably look like crap. Brown and pink crap. I think I will be headed to the library. Instructional books are my friend.

New topic: I am editing the catalog for the university. We're moving onto the second round, which means I am checking to make sure that the desifgner made all requested edits and that I didn't miss any of the client's initial edits. I thought I was being technologically advanced by editing on the pdf- no printing, paperless, save the trees, yeah! But alas, I am told the designer prefers hard copies. Generally, this is my preference but on a second round of edits, I don't think it is necessary. But my preference doesn't count so I must redo. On paper. Damn.