List

I've always been a list person. Buying and renovating a house has only intensified that practice. So I thought it would be nice to get my list down of what we've done and haven't done, and as I've had people ask me for updates on how things are going - I thought I'd make it public. (I like to 'kill two birds with one stone'. Though I don't really like thinking of killing birds. Maybe 'feeding two birds with one seed' would be better?)

Close on the house
Get Key's
Change Locks
Change All Doorknobs
Pick out tile
Pick out paint
Pick out carpet
Schedule carpet guys to come carpet
Fix Upstairs Toilet
Tear out old (gross-nasty-stinky-dusty-neverbeenvacuumed) carpet
Tear out old carpet pad
Tear our old tile
Smooth (grind-chip-hit-kick-hammer-scream at) old tile grout
Tear out (stupid-sticky-horrible-refusestocomeoff) linoleum in three bathrooms.
Unscrew all little plug/switch cover plates
Patch up all holes/dents
Sweep/vacuum/clean up dust and debris
Take Down Blinds
Vacuum edges/tack-strips
Tape, tape, tape, tape
Paint, paint, paint, and paint.
Pack, pack, and pack some more
Watch carpet guys put in new carpet
Move to our new home!
Do a jig (all over the new carpet and tile).

We are getting close! My parents came over last night to help out (I had called my mom to ask the best way to patch up dents and she responded with "I can just come down and do it for you" - I should have realized that was the best way). It was wonderful to have their help and company. I love my parents. :)

There is still a lot of work ahead (especially with the taping and painting) but we've gotten through the grossest part at least!

Don't worry - a full update with before and after pictures (just for you Kelli) will be coming once the move is done. :)

Thanks for all the support everyone!

Loves and Hugs.

Neglect

Okay. So I've been neglecting this blog - partly on purpose party not. I was waiting to blog for when we had officially closed on our house... but apparently that's being put off by another week, and I'm done waiting.

So let's do a little update on events, shall we?

- Let's start with the big one - our townhouse. This honestly has been such a frustrating experience. It started out fine - we were really excited. We made sure to give back forms and such super quickly. I felt very 'adult'  being on top of everything they asked of us. Unfortunately it ended up not mattering how well we were on top of things as our Mortgage guy wasn't quite on top of things himself. It's a long and frustrating story - one I would be happy to tell in person if you really are interested but choose not to bore the other 99.99% of people who read this blog that would rather not hear it. Needless to say, we should be good to go at this point and should close sometime next week. *crosses fingers*

- Once we finally close we will be able to start on all the renovations that need doing to make this house our home. We need to tile the bathrooms, paint, and put in new carpet (seriously - what could have made those stains... do I want to know? No... I don't.) - it's going to be hard work, but well worth it. I honestly can't wait to start.

- This weekend Braedon, myself and Braedon's dad are going to Seattle for a little get a way. We'll be there until next Tuesday and I'm so excited. First off - I get to go on a plain (this doesn't happen often for me). Secondly - for some reason I have always wanted to go to Seattle. I've always felt drawn to the state of Washington in general that I can't believe I actually get to go! And thirdly I'm excited to get away from all the stress and challenges that the month of May has sent our way - starting June out with a trip to Seattle seems a perfect way to start off fresh and leap into new challenges and adventures that will be coming our way. Happy   (weekend before my) Birthday to me! :)

- Speaking of June. What the June!?

- Matt & Kim concert on the 20th! Last time I went to this concert with some friends was such a blast that I can't wait to go back and dance my little heart out. This concert only adds to the goodness that is going to be June.

- Braedon and I are going to the Midnight showing of X-Men: First Class tonight with a couple of friends (hi Cam and Blake! (I'm sure neither of them actually read this blog, but it doesn't hurt to give a shout out)). I haven't been to a midnight showing of a Movie since Inception and I'm kinda excited... plus a little nervous for having to go to work the next day, but I can't wait to see the movie. Katie+Braedon = X-Men Geeks. *Enter squeal of excitedness here*

- I just realized I never blogged about our 1 year anniversary - this sort of makes me feel like a blogging failure (but not really). We had a wonderful relaxing anniversary. I can't believe it's only been a year, yet an entire year since Braedon and I finally got married. I have only fallen more and more in love with this wonderful man I get to call Best Friend and Husband - especially this past month I have felt his strength and his love for me. I couldn't have asked for a better husband. I love him so much and can't wait for another year. :)

- Speaking of firsts - Braedon and I have made out first family scrapbook. It's not really scrapbooky in the fact that we made it through blurb.com. But it's big, colorful, jam packed with pictures, and wonderful. We've showed it off to all our family already. We love it! We plan on doing one each year - so much easier (for this not so crafty person) then real scrap-booking.

- I've decided this summer is gonna be MY summer (sorry for stealing it from all of you... I can be selfish at times). Why? Because I can, and because I want to. :)

I think thats all I have for now. I hope all of you are doing well in the blogsphere (if there ARE any out there in the blogsphere - sometimes I feel as if I'm speaking to myself... and then thinking maybe writing blogs isn't the most 'sane' activity there could be...).



Loves and hugs! :)

Thoughts and Meanderings

The past few days I have had a hankerin' to blog. I keep thinking "I should blog today during my lunch!". I then proceed to open the blog and look at the page for t minus 3 seconds and close it down thinking instead "I have nothing cool to blog about" or "I don't have any pictures - people don't like blogs with out pictures".


But I've decided that I don't really care what the popular demand for blogs these days are and so with out further ado I present to you my boring and pictureless blog dedicated to the random thoughts and goings-on of yours truley.

- I find bathroom chit-chat in the work place utterly awkward and pointless. You don't talk to me in the halls so why do you feel the need to talk to me while you or I am sitting on the pot?

- I have this inner monologue that goes through my head almost constantly. Sometimes in moments of weekness or exhaustion (or carelessness) some of this monologe will bubble out in a little smile, laughter, random singing, or odd words/phrases. These moments can get me in trouble, but most often just get me weird looks - which of course starts another inner monologue. It's a viscous cycle.

- I want to pick up some more tutoring hours. If anyone knows of anyone needing help with Math just know that I'm available for $20 an hour (for close loctations) or $25 (for further away locations or just people I don't like as much).

- I enjoy being happy. In fact I love it. I love it so much that I decide to be happy more often then not. I'm quite happy with that decision.

- I had a math teacher that anytime the number '76' was writtin on the board he would declare that it was his favorite number and start singing "76 Trombones" from Musicman. This makes me feel that when I become a Math Professor I need some type of song or catch phrase that will always remind my students of me, but then I remember that above teacher wasn't the greatest teacher... so maybe I shouldn't take unspoken advice from him...

- I now have said song stuck in my head.

- Braedon and I our buying a townhouse (Yay! Cheers! Cartwheels! Celebrations!). We are hoping to close by the end of this month - do some repairs (new carpet and paint) and move in mid to end June. I am thrilled for many reason but especially for the following: dishwasher, garage, yard, ownership, and most importantly bathtub. Mmmmmm.

- Speaking of the fabulous husband - our anniversary is coming up on the 13th. It's crazy to think that it has only been a year and on the same note that it actually has been a whole year. I love him more and more each day and look forward to new adventures and changes as they come. :)

That seems like a good note to end on.

Loves and hugs. :)

Happy Segment

I almost let another month go by with out a single blog.

I apologize to the blogsphere - which I'm sure only has a population of maybe 2.

I don't particularly have anything special to blog about, so I thought I'd do another segment of 'Things that make me happy'.

- Being an AUNT (again). My lovely sister Robin had her beautiful baby on March 25th:

I love both these beautiful girls. :)

- Dates with the Husband. Not only have we finger painted, been to movies, but we just this weekend went out to breakfast and then took a trip to the zoo. I haven't been to the zoo since Jr. High. So much fun, and so wonderful to enjoy an afternoon out in the beautiful weather. Mmmmmm.

- Moab in 3 days! Need I say more? No. No I need not. 

Source

- Fun weekends with friends - food, rockband, cames, good conversation. Doesn't matter what we do, our friends are wonderful and spending time with them is always good time.

Tay Rockin on the drums!

Clint Singing it out!

Kara and Chant!

All in all... I am very happy with life. :)

Things That Make Me Happy - March!

Whoa - where did February go? I completely skipped over it apparently.

Sorry about that (like anyone even noticed or cares).

Life is good - here is a list of things that are making me happy right now.

- I'm an AUNT! My wonderful Brother and Sister-In-Law had a beautiful baby girl on March 10th. Welcome Aria Dawn McLelland, you are already so loved. :)

She is so beautiful! :)

- I got a new phone since mine was very much so on it's path to the grave.  What I love most about said new phone? The cool camera app that I got for it. Observe:

- SPRING. I don't care that it just snowed a couple of day's ago. It's Spring. Officially. I can already feel the change in the air, the warming weather, the trails calling my hiking feet. Oh man. I have a feeling this Spring/Summer is gonna be a good one.

Lake Blanch 2010

- Speaking of hiking and enjoying the outdoors. I got new shoes. Observe my new Bikila Vibram's. Oh how I can't wait to try them out on a good trail. Love.

Frog Feet?

- Again speaking of outdoors. Moab in less then 30 days!! I look forward to this trip every year now. It is the anniversary of how our group of friends began and it's always so much fun. I love jeeping, camping, laughing by the fire, more jeeping, hiking, etc. Plus. I absolutely love Moab. Team Awesome Friends + Moab = Amazing Trip. I get the wiggles just thinking about it.

Moab 2009

Moab 2010

- Mario 64. Recently Braedon and I went to a used Nintendo Game store and found a copy of Mario 64. We quickly purchased the game and are now working on beating all the levels. I love playing some old fashion Nintendo with Braedon - we make a pretty awesome team. :)

Awesome-ness

- The discovery of a park less then a minutes walk from our house. Braedon and I decided last week on one of the days that the weather was nice to go for a jog around our neighborhood. We haven't really done any exploring of our neighborhood so it was fun to look around - and we discovered a school that has a ginormous field and playground less then a minutes walk from us. So the next day we went back and long-boarded and played some Frisbee. Have I mentioned how much I'm loving the warmer weather?

Braedon on my long-board.

- DUCKIE's! Another discovery due to the warmer weather. Behind the fence in our backyard is a little canal that is always filled with ducks! My favorite is a white one that stands up super tall and proud. We like to go out and feed them from time to time. :) (Sadly I don't have any pictures of the duckies with me).

- My Fedora Collection is growing. My Mother-in-Law gave me another fedora (it's a brown wicker-ish material that is so wonderfully and perfectly old man-ish. I love it.) bringing my total up to 7. :)

Tower of Fedroa's.

- And of course, this guy:

Do you love the 'Painters Hair' Braedon is sporting?

He brings such joy to my life - I love his silliness, I love his protection, I love that he'll finger paint with me, I love everything about him - including this cute face:

So cute. :)

Life is good and I'm just enjoying the ride. :)

Loves and Hugs internet.

Pluggin'

So. For those that don't know. I MC (emcee?) for a local Improv group called 'And... Go!'. I think they happen to be hilarious - and I know you will too.

So.

Ya know. You should come to our show this Saturday at 7:30 at the Church on 365 E, Murray. It's free and our last show before we move to the Murray Theater!

If you can't make it to the show on Saturday - starting Feb 2nd, you can find us at the Murray Theater at 7:30 every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month - tickets will be 8 dollars, unless you can make it to the show on the 29th - where there will be coupons given away for a discount ticket to one of our Murray Theater shows. :)

Come. You'll laugh. I promise.

Oh also - I wrote a blog on our teams website.

Clicky clicky.

Happy Friday Internet! :)

High Tech Fish Deserve High Tech Names

I am please to announce to the blogging world that Braedon and I are finally proud fish owners. :)

We've been talking about getting a fish for quite awhile now, and on Monday night Braedon turned to me and said "Let's go get a fish!".

So we went to the pet store, looked around at all the fishy's and until we found the ones we wanted. We then bought all necessary fish items and soon discovered that the tank should be set up with water and the filter running for at least 24 hours before any fish are put in it. So sadly no new fishies yet, but we went home, set up the tank and waited anxiously (at least... I did) to go get our fish the following day.

So then comes Tuesday and we head back over to our friendly neighborhood Pet's Mart and walk up to the tank holding the fish we had seen the day before. A lovely Pet's Mart associate helped us out in getting our new fish and telling us a little bit about proper tank care and the such.

We shortly check out and are officially proud fish owners! Observe:

Fishies!!

Me getting mad a Braedon for pretending to eat the fishies.

The type of fish we got are called GloFish. Which we discovered is a genetically modified version of a flourescent zebrafish. Here is a close up of the three we got:

Pretty, eh!?

So since these fishy's are a little high tech we decided that they deserve high tech names... and what's more high tech then Star Trek*!!!

The Red one is Aurora, the Orange(that looks kinda yellow) one is Sulu, and the Green one is Spock Jr. :)

Why Spock Jr. you ask? Well because we already have a Spock in the family:

Shout Out to Cam for one of the coolest Birthday gifts ever!

We are excited to become better acquainted with Aurora, Sulu, and Spock Jr. and we feel they make a nice edition to the family.

Hopefully they feel at home in the new place we've brought them to. :)

Favorites.

I've decided to do a list of some of my favorites. I'm sure this is very subject to change (seeing as I know as soon as I post this something else will come to mind that I feel needs to be added), but I thought it would be fun to look back on and see what my favorites were in January 2011.

Here we go.

1. Raindrops on roses
2. Whiskers on kittens
3. Blue Satan Sashes...

Oh wait.

I think those are Julie Andrew's Favorite things.

 Let's try this again.

Favorite Genre of Music

1. Jazz - Jamie Cullum, Michael Buble, Miles Davis, etc

This is about as far as I got...After coming to the conclusion that most music is just too hard for me to put into specific genre's... So I kinda gave up on this and went to:

Favorite Music Artists (besides those written under the 'Jazz' section above)

1. Paramore

2. Anberlin
3. Ingrid Michaelson

4. Flogging Molly
5. Muse

6. Postal Service

7. Others 

Favorite Candy

1. Frooties (By Tootsie)
2. Sour Watermelon Straws

3. Trolli Sour Brite Crawler Gummy Eggs

4. Nerds (Preferable the Christmas kind)

5. Hear Shaped Gobstopers

6. Laffy Taffy

Favorite Sounds
1. Thunder
2. Ocean Waves
3. Braedon's giggle
4. When a car drives through a puddle
5. Getting a strike while bowling
6. Rain falling on Window's/Roof's

Favorite Smells
1. Cinnamon Toasted Almonds (Smells like Christmas)
2. Rain (Right before, during, after - take your pick)
3. Braedon
4. Out of the Dryer Clean Laundry
5. The Ocean
6. Fall Leaves

Favorite Author's
1. Brandon Sanderson
2. Jane Austin
3. Robert Jordan (Even though I go back and forth on him all the time)
4. Orson Scott Card
5. Robin Hobb
6. Others

Favorite Video Game's
1. Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo)
2. Super Mario Brothers (Super Nintendo)
3. Super Mario Brother 3 (Super Nintendo)
4. Super Mario Bros (Wii)
5. The Zelda's (Any)
6. Mario Party (Any)

Fedora's

So if you haven't been able to tell from the past few posts, I've discovered a love for fedora's. So much so that I've decided to collect them. So far I have 4, not much - but a collection's gotta start somewhere, right? I hope to one day have so many fedora's that when I'm old and bald I'll have enough to wear each day of the year (and rather then be called the 'Cat Lady' I'll be called the 'Fedora Lady', so much cooler).

Well, I figured if I am going to be collecting these hats I should probably know a little more about them then the fact that they are comfortable and I like how they look. So I turned to my trusty internet and discovered some fun stuff, including this:

The word fedora comes from the title of an 1882 play by Victorien Sardou called Fedora. The play was first performed in the U.S. in 1889. Bernhardt played Princess Fédora, the heroine of the play, and she wore a hat similar to what is now considered a fedora. The fedora became a female fashion which lasted into the early part of the twentieth century. When the fedora became a male fashion item, it was popular in cities for its stylishness, ability to protect the wearer's head from the wind and weather, and the fact that it could be rolled up when not in use.

(Source) 

Yes that's right. It was a women's fashion long before it was a men's fashion. I'm gonna bring it back! Also, my mom has always called me an old soul, so I guess wearing hats that were popular in the 20's suits me (though who knows if she meant that old). :)

Today's hat looks like this:

I wonder what my co-workers think of me while I take all these pictures of myself.

Anyone else collect anything? Or want to collect anything? If you want to, I say do it*! 


Love and hugs internet. :)


*Unless it's something uber creepy like toenails or earwax, then I would suggest not doing it.

Upside Down Frown

I've decided that this Monday I'm going to turn my usual Monday frown upside down.

- Sad that my alarm clock went off.  Happy that I get to wake up and live another day.
- Sad that it's a Monday.  Happy that I get to start another week fresh that will eventually lead to another weekend!
- Sad that I pushed snooze too many times and ended up not having time to shower.  Happy that due to unwashed hair I get to sport one of my wonderful fedora's.

Braedon got me this one for Christmas. :)

- Sad that I leave for work before the Sun is event half way up.  Happy for the chance to see a beautiful sunrise with the soft rainy clouds on my drive to work.
- Sad that I have to work on a day that many others do not.  Happy for the opportunity to earn money on a day that others can't.
- Sad that she can't think of anything else she's sad about...  Happy for being Happy. :)


Happy Monday internet. :)