our house

I wanted to wait until our house was all done up and pretty before posting pictures. Very quickly, I realized that would probably never happen. So here they are: pictures of our new, half-way put together house!

All the trees are ugly and bare in the winter, but the leaves will make it pretty in the summer.

This is our front door. We hung a little coat rack :)
The ugly rug came with the house...

Living room with bare walls.

This is our kitchen. Its nice but plain. We need some color in here.

This is the largest dining room ever. Our table looks tiny. Since we hardly ever even use our dining table, Daniel decided that he wants to put a pool table here to fill up the space. I'm not arguing.

The Bathroom is the only room that hasn't been redone. We've been on the lookout for a new sink vanity.

The nasty blue curtains in the bedrooms also came with the house. I left them up until I can decide how to decorate the bedroom.

The second bedroom will one day be an office area. Right now, its a spot for all the junk that we don't know what to do with.


This is our cute little deck! Its one of my favorite parts of the house. I can't wait for summer.

So, there it is! There's still so much to do, but we're proud of our little house. It already feels like home. Every single wall is painted the same color. I'm hoping this summer we can put up some fresh paint and make it a little more exciting.
And as for the basement, we're all ready to rent it out. If anyone you know is interested, let me know!!

annoying/embarrassing

Whoever previously owned my car installed a ridiculously sensitive alarm on it. If you open the door using the key (rather than the clicker) the alarm goes off. If you open up the trunk when the car is locked, the alarm goes off. A couple weeks ago, I was shoveling the driveway and I tapped the bumper with the shovel. The alarm went off. when I ran inside to get the key, I slipped in the garage and very nearly did a back flop.

And for some reason, ever since we moved, the alarm seems to be getting even MORE sensitive. Three times now, I've woken up in the morning to the ear-splitting sound of the car alarm....its such a startling way to wake up. As far as I know, nothing sets it off. I look out the window and its just sitting there, screaming. So I learned to park it IN the garage.

Last night it was all wet with rain, so I left it out. This morning it was set off by the rumble of the garbage truck.... niiice.

All the old ladies in the neighborhood must be having a heart attack every time it goes off. If not, then it wakes them up early in the morning and makes them angry. How embarrassing.

I really would love to kill the alarm. After all, its never actually saved the car from any danger.

getting settled

I feel like I didn't even get a Christmas break from school. We've been SO busy. We moved out of our apartment, spent New Years weekend at the cabin, and we've been moving into our house ever since! There were a few little hiccups along the way (basement flooding) but we are loving it here. Between the 100 trips to Home Depot and unpacking boxes, we still don't have any pictures. Sorry.

The to-do list: RUGS! (in like, every room)
Hang pictures
Make curtains for the bedrooms
New bed linens
Set up extra room/office/sewing room
Paint some pretty colors on the walls (probably next summer)
Buy new bathroom vanity
More furniture

Anyway, like you care about all that...

I promise we'll get pictures soon. And one day we'll have you all over for a little gathering

Happy spring semester! oh, and wish me luck this weekend. I'm submitting my nursing application!!

A Very Cold Weekend

Daniel has skipped work this entire week so he could hang out and go skiing with his friends for Tennessee. On Thursday they decided to rent snowmobiles and I tagged along. It was fun for the first few hours, but its hard to stay warm on the back of a snowmobile when its less than 10 degrees outside. As the sun started to set, I became quite cold and miserable... but it was an adventure all the same. That was cold day # 1.

Cold day #2 occurred in Wendover. Why the heck was I in Wendover? Well, let me tell you... I was doing my open water scuba certification... in the middle of winter.

Whose bright idea was that??

Okay, okay, it was my fault for putting it off until the last minute. I could have done it back in October.

It's a good thing I had Daniel's warm Russia coat (that just so happened to be left in the truck) and a beanie because it was 25 degrees outside. I quickly changed into the full body wetsuit and assembled all my gear. I pulled off my boots and switched to flip flops at the last minute and with 100 pounds of stuff on my back, I trekked the 100 yard boardwalk up to the edge of the water.

The so-called hot spring felt good on my frozen toes, but at a whopping 74 degrees, it didn't last long. I shivered and shook for at least an hour until we had done our two dives of the day.

I thought the walk TO the water was bad, but the walk back was even worse. My flip flops were turning into ice cubes as I walked. When I got back to the car, I tore off my gear and my (worthless) wetsuit and jumped in the car with the heat blasting.

Back at the hotel, I took a hot bath. Its weird how tiring it is to shiver. Every muscle was tense and sore.

Cold day #3 began at 7:00 a.m. as I looked out the window of the hotel and saw 4 fresh inches of snow on my car.

Of course the one time it snows in Wendover, I had to be there.

So I got up, lugged all my gear back out the the car and drove to the lake. Because of the snow, the air was slightly warmer than before. Probably low 30's. But the water turned out to be much colder at 68 degrees. My oxygen tank was covered in ice, just from sitting in the back of the truck on the way over(see picture below)!! This time I was smart enough to wear my boots and my beanie to walk out the water. Once again, I shivered and shook through the two dives and swam to the edge to get out.

You know when you are totally dreading something because you know how awful it's going to be?

That's how I felt. I was all ready to get out, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I knew I couldn't put my boots back on because they would get full of water. I was hoping that the snow was packed down enough so that I wouldn't get lots to snow on my feet. I was planning the escape that would be the least painful.

I climbed out with the tank on my back and slid my flip flops on. The snow stuck to my wet feet all the way back. That was the longest 100 yards I have ever walked. Once I was in my car again with the heat blasting, I was just happy thinking that I was done and I would never have to do that ever again.

So now that you are bored with my long sob story, here are a few pictures to illustrate it:

My dive buddy and I, getting ready to go.

Ice-covered tank. I could hardly strap it to the vest!

The long walk out. The lake is past the line of bushes.

We Found It at Last!

After weeks of searching, 4 different offers, and one major rejection....

We have officially found our first home!!!

We were so excited about a house on Atkin Avenue. It was everything we wanted and in a great area. We offered and were rejected. It was a little disappointing but decided the house wasn't worth any more than what we offered. We left it behind and, luckily, found an even better house.

Basement apartment, fully updated throughout, big windows, big backyard, covered deck, attached garage, quiet neighborhood... the list goes on. It doesn't need any work.

So we called the listing agent who said he was expecting offers that day. We ran home and sent ours in.

FOUR HOURS LATER we heard back.

Offer accepted!!

Our lender said we could close on the house by the end of the month if everything goes well.

We are SO excited and hope that all of you wonderful friends join us for a celebration once we are settled in!

O Christmas Tree

We now have a Christmas tradition of cutting down our tree. Two years and counting! This year's tree is perfectly symmetrical, it was love at first sight.

This year there was enough snow that we had to snowshoe to find a tree. It was much more fun that way.

Holy cow the pine needles are like little knives with burning poison on each of them. When you get poked, your skin turns rashy and irritated. I had to wear thick leather gloves to decorate it.

We got it home and set it up a few days later. Then a few days after that we decorated it and I realized that we never put water in the tree stand... smart. But don't worry, Daniel drilled some holes in the side so it can still get the water. Hopefully it doesn't die early.

Another tradition we have is making ornaments for the tree. Since I love sewing recently, this year fabric is our material of choice. (last year it was sheet metal, see the snowman?)

I have made tons of these little bird things... I don't know what I'll do with them, maybe give them as gifts or something.

We love Christmas and we love our little traditions.
Maybe someday our tree wont be quite as bare.

Merry Christmas everyone!
May finals be over quickly so we can all have our lives back...

drumroll please....

This is it! I wore it to church today :)

It turned out a little more poofy than I had anticipated, especially in the back
(but I guess that's normal for me...)

It has an elastic waistband in back and pockets!! I just love a full skirt with pockets.

I'm pretty proud of myself. I think I'll make one in every color...
what do you think? Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple! I would have a rainbow in my closet. Or.. maybe not. I think I'll try something else next.
I do have one idea in mind...