All things thankful for: June

... hiking. & lots of it.

... taking the dogs swimming in the reservoir. unfortunately there were also naked children swimming there as well.

... getting our thank you notes done.

... getting our wedding pictures back.

... BBQs with friends.

... signing a lease on our new apartment.

... Coronas with lime. My official drink of summer.

... discovering Friday's Folly. It's a Colorado wine made with organic grapes that are sustainably grown. It's also cheap and delicious.

... friends and family that made our wedding so special. excited for our trip back to MD in July.

... our new t.v.. Ok, so I put up a small fight about this one but it's been nice.

... settling into married life. :)

Houseguests

This past weekend we were dog sitting for some friends, which meant we had 4 dogs in our apartment. Yes, you heard right, 4. These guys spent 2 nights with us.

Taz & Bear ... both still puppies.

At times it resembled a small zoo ...

... but all in all it worked out pretty well. Partially because of the insane amount of hiking we did on Saturday. It's pretty hard for pups to get in trouble when they're too tired to get up. Charlie did mention something about how 2 dogs is definitely our limit. I'd definitely have to agree with him especially after walking all 4 of them together. I had people making comments like "wow, you look like the dog whisperer" and "yikes, you definitely have your hands full" and "that's a lot of dogs". I had to tell them that they weren't all mine. I didn't want them thinking I was some crazy dog lady. It's only a small step up from being a crazy cat lady.

I just finished reading For the Love of a Dog, which is an awesome book if you like dogs and nerdy non-fiction reading with a little bit of biology mixed in. I happen to love all of those so it was the perfect book for me. Anyway, the book talks a lot about understanding emotions in your dogs and how dogs are a lot like people in that their facial expressions are usually a good indicator of what's going on inside their head. This picture I thought was a pretty good example of that. Three of the dogs look happy and relaxed and one of them looks a little tense. Henry was not so happy that I made him sit so close to Bear. He got pretty jealous during the weekend and my sweet puppy showed his inner rage when Bear tried to get too close. Yes, I'm being anthropomorphic with the jealousy part but there was no question of the rage.

dear world, we're moving.

So I mentioned that I was debating sending out moving announcements once we move. I think I'm going to go ahead and order postcards through zazzle. We're not going to send out too many and zazzle is one of the few places that I can do smaller orders AND I've heard good things about them. I designed what I wanted through scrapblog. Yes, I know all you photoshoppers can do much cooler things but I don't own the software (yet). Here are the two mockups that I'm debating between. Let me know what you think!

... OR ...

Desperate times ...

... call for desperate measures. We all know it's tough out there. There are far more job seekers than jobs, people are settling for things they never dreamed they would have to, and when interviewing it's hard to find something that makes you stand out from other candidates. I was at a job interview yesterday. One of many, many candidates. In fact they had us coming in back to back at 30 minute intervals. Not so much fun. I got there pretty early so I ended up hearing the entire interview of the girl who was in front of me. I swear I wasn't being rude; it was just impossible not to hear. It was really pretty uneventful until the end when she decided to make her move and this is how it went down:

Girl #1: "I just want you to know that if it comes down to me and another candidate I have skills that other people don't have. I can dance. So if you need a tie breaker or something, I'll dance for you."

Interviewers: "Uhhhh ..... ok, we'll keep that in mind."

Girl #1: "No really, I'm pretty good. If you want I can give you a little preview right now."

Interviewers: "Oh, that's really not necessary. Thank you for your time."

If it came down to the two of us, there's no way I could compete. I have zero dancing skills.

It's the little things ...

Henry.

... Coronas with lime.

... watching thunderstorms on our porch.

... a Sunday afternoon nap.

... getting packages in the mail.

... tired dogs.

... Dunkin sleeping in between Charlie & I the whole night.

... happy happy hours.

... watching a movie on a Friday night.

... drinking coffee & reading a good book on a Saturday morning.

... warm weather, blue skies.

... flip flops & cutoffs.

... FINALLY getting a much needed haircut.

... not having to worry about tan lines anymore.

... driving around with the windows down, the radio up, & with the dogs sticking their heads out of the windows.

... sleeping with the windows open.

Weekend Recap

We had such a great weekend. I'm always sad to see them end. Friday, we walked down to one of the restaurants by us and enjoyed happy hour drinks and food. We actually stayed outside until the sun went down since it was finally warm enough to sit outside. When we got back home we hit some golfballs/tennis balls for the dogs. Sounds a little redneck now but seems like a great idea after a few drinks.

Saturday we were up early, running errands and trying to get outside before it rained. Saturday night we had people over for drinks and some food. Charlie was finally happy to have enough people over to put together a guitar hero band. I was just happy I wasn't one of the members.

Sunday I met up with some friends and took the dogs to the reservoir to go swimming. Charlie went hiking with another friend. He forgot to call me and tell me where they were going hiking and after he had been gone for 7 1/2 hours and we had already had a thunderstorm roll in and out again I was convinced he was dead on a mountain. It didn't help that I called his phone 6 times and had it go straight to voicemail. When he finally got home his first words out were "I'm so sorry I couldn't call. My phone was dead". He did get a few good pictures from their hike.

apparently it stormed in the mountains, too.

Moving announcements?!

I realize this might permanently place me in the category of "lame" but I was thinking about sending out moving announcements when we move in a month. And before you judge me, here are my reasons why:

1. We just had a wedding meaning after shower invitations, wedding invitations, and response cards everyone know has this address.

2. There is a lot of distant family that I keep in contact with through Christmas cards, birthday cards, etc. but that's about it. I don't have email addresses for most people or I'd just send out a mass email with our new address on it.

3. I don't really trust our current apartment to forward anything/call me if we get a package. They once lost a package for 4 months. 4 months!!! And yet they still claimed it was my fault.

Charlie has told me that it would be "super lame" to send them out & part of me agrees. If there was a better way to let everyone know of our new digs than I would. Read: if you have suggestions let me know. Also, I'm tired of buying stamps in bulk. I'm on a first name basis with the guys at the post office between mailing packages and buying "Forever" stamps.

I did find these "moving announcements" which I like because it looks like our new place. Sort of. I don't think I could ever bring myself to buy them if I did decide to send them out which means I'd be making them.

Totally unrelated, I found this website which allows you to take any picture and make it into an "Obama poster". Henry has my vote.

What's your style?

I just took this quiz to find out my "decor style". It was actually pretty fun & I got these results:

POT-LUCK PRO

Your home certainly stands out from your neighbors'! There's nothing remotely ordinary or average about it, and that's just the way you like things. You have a maverick approach to interior design and decoration, gleaning ideas, inspiration and objects from the unlikeliest of places. Over the years, though, this has synthesized into something unmistakably 'you'. No one dares tell you how to furnish your home: you've got your own set of personal guidelines, you're sticking to them and that's all that matters.

It's accurate in the way that I'm not a fan of matching pieces & I like bright colors. The best part was the the results give you ideas based on your "style". Sorry I just can't type "decor style" and be serious about it.

I'm thinking that blue accent wall is a good idea.

Randomness...

... We got our wedding pictures back today. Although we won't get the DVD with printable files for about another week. I think I looked at our pictures for about half the day today. I'm already thinking of cool places to put them in our new apartment.

... I applied for 7 teaching positions today. Just today. I'm getting desperate. Half of the positions that I applied to were "eligible for a 3% pay increase" because they were in hard to fill areas. Read: really bad areas. Part of the job descriptions included "need experience in classroom management issues". Read: the kids here can be pretty bad. But, in this economy Biology teacher positions are just not there.

... I am waving back and forth between being excited about moving and then actually thinking about the move. I really, really hate moving and packing (although, who doesn't) and we've accumulated so much stuff this past year.

... I really want to paint an accent wall blue in our new apartment. It's a weird wall that spans half of the living room and half of the dining room and for some reason I'm thinking blue would work.

... I was looking through some papers today and found that Charlie purchased $50 fishing license from the state of Colorado in April. He doesn't even own a fishing pole.

... I just ordered this dress from JCrew yesterday. It's for a wedding in July & I'm really hoping it fits. I ordered a petite which means it might be too small.

... I got fingerprinted today for my subbing application. After sitting on the computer trying to write original cover letters I was just happy to get out of the house.

... I'm giving my dad this framed picture for Father's Day. I'm wondering how many holidays I can use our wedding pictures for. I figure at least through Christmas.

All things thankful for: May

love you, dude.

Ohh this is so late but I really don't care.

... finishing my first semester of grad school. Final projects, papers, presentations, and exams. All worth it in the end.

... lot's of hiking.

... surviving the Bolder Boulder. I can't expect much else when I never run and then decide to do a 10K the morning of.

... Memorial weekend cookouts.

... thunderstorms.

... my bachelorette party. [I had a great time! Thanks girls!]

... that all the last-minute wedding plans worked out.

... our rehearsal dinner.

... um, our wedding!

It's the little things ...

... sitting out our our porch with my dogs watching a thunderstorm.

... drinking Coronas.

... date nights. drinks at the bar & lots of food.

... our wedding pictures. :)

... hikes on a random Wednesday.

... signing the lease on our new apartment!

... neighborhoods with sidewalks.

... horses.

... books. especially the ones I can read in a few hours.

... being married. it still feels weird to say that!

... a supportive family.

... booking tickets for a trip home in a few months. 1 wedding + 4 days to hang with my family.

... JCrew sales.

... being a wedding guest, which means I get to eat the food, not worry about the details, and enjoy lots of drinks.

... thinking about painting that new apartment. [I'm thinking a blue accent wall.]

... hail storms when my car is in the garage and I'm watching a movie on the couch.

... green grass & wildflowers.

... playing baseball in the rain with my boys.

... coldstone.

A little slice of heaven.

I think I've mentioned before that I love hiking. But, really, I do. There is nothing I like better than wandering a trail with my dogs. I love hiking with other people but every once in a while I like to wander the trails by myself. It's my quiet time. Today I took the pups to the Doudy Draw trail. We've been there before but it's one of my favorite because of the view of the Flatirons when you get to the top. The dogs also had their first experience with horses. There were two woman riding and they told me their horses were "bomb proof" and not to worry about the dogs. They were right. Dunkin actually ran straight into the back legs of one of them and didn't get kicked in the face. Always a relief. Here's some pictures from the day.

Flatirons at the bottom of the trail.

Love this dog.

After the first storm and before the second storm of the day.

He pulls of the polka dots pretty well, don't you think?

The view from up top.

Grr...

I am currently hating blogger.

That is all.

To move or not to move...

Our lease in our current apartment is up at the beginning of August and we've been debating about whether or not to move or stay. We've decided not to buy anything before I finish grad school because A. we have no idea where I'll end up working and B. as much as I want walls to paint and a yard for the pups committing to a home makes me pretty nervous right now. We're currently renting a 2 bed/2 bath apartment but are looking at leaving it.

Pros for Leaving:

1. We need another room. With Charlie working from home and me in school we really need a space where we can get that stuff done. It's difficult with our current situation.

2. We currently have a second bed sitting in the garage that I'd really like to set up. When people come to stay it'd be nice to have a bed for them. Also, the second bedroom would double as a place for me to study.

3. Our current rent will go up in August. This means that we'll be paying more for a 2 bedroom then we would for a 2 bed with a den somewhere else.

4. Our current apartment management is ridiculously rude and I would love to say "peace out" (or something maybe not quite as nice).

5. The new place that we want to move to is pretty sweet. We still would have a garage, shops, bars, and restaurants 2 blocks away, and hiking trails to walk the pups on. Also, it's 3 floors which means that it feels more like a house and would offer us each a "quiet area" to work and study.

6. The new place is something I can see us staying in comfortably for the next 2-3 years until I finish school.

7. It'd be a shorter commute to Denver which is good for both of us.

Cons for leaving:

1. It's expensive to move. I'm currently waiting on an estimate from 2 men and a truck.

2. We love where we live right now. The area is awesome and we already have all of the stuff I mentioned within walking distance.

3. We'd be farther away from the mountains. This means longer drives to hiking and Boulder.

4. I might have to start shopping at King Soopers. [Sorry, KS fans.] Although, we'd be pretty close to a Sprouts.

5. Charlie would have to get a gym membership.

Definitely more pros than cons although the cost is a huge con. We'll see ... thoughts are welcome. :)

Snow in June?

Yeah, you heard me right. And I'm not talking about a few inches of snow. I'm talking about feet of snow. Charlie and I and a few friends decided to check out a hike yesterday to get ready for our Pikes Peak hike this summer. It looked pretty cool, about 2,000 feet of elevation gain and it ended at a glacier made lake. The hike description said June - August but it said nothing about how much snow there would still be in June! There was tons of snow after the first mile of hiking which made it impossible to find the trail and occasionally you'd sink into the melting snow. We didn't make it to the top because there was no way we could find the trail, but it was pretty cool (literally) to be hiking through snow in June.

This is about where we started out. Not a bad view!

Dunkin and I stopped for a break when we lost the trail.

Old Man's Beard was everywhere!

South Boulder Creek. The only thing that saved us from getting completely lost.

We kept falling through the snow pack, which is really cold when you're wearing shorts!

Wedding Randomness

We don't get our pro pictures for a couple weeks so until then I've been harassing everyone I know for their pictures. So, if you're reading this and you took pictures of our wedding, please send them to me! :) Anyway, our photographer was there for 4 hours of the night, which meant there were things he wasn't there to take pictures of. Here's a random smattering of those things:

We were leaving to go to our rehearsal & then dinner. It was raining which meant people had to slop through the mud during the rehearsal. Sorry guys!

... every night be tucked in close to yoooouuuuu ...

What's a wedding without a choreographed dance from your college days? I miss these girls!

What's that? You didn't think guys made up their own dances? Oh they do. And if you were able to witness this you'd be watching a very dirty version of "Call on Me".

'cause I've got friends in low places ...

... where the whisky drowns and the beer chases my blues away, i'll be okay ...

... I'm not big on social graces, think I'll slip on down to the oooooo-asis

Yes, that's right there was a lot of country at our wedding. Love it.

Wedding Recap: Gettin' Ready

I am so not a girly girl. I wear makeup about 1/4 of the time, just about never blow dry my hair, and am much more comfortable hiking or drinking a beer than shopping. So when it came time to get ready for our wedding I pretty much took a shower, put on some eyeshadow and mascara, and threw my hair in a ponytail [I did use some mousse, which made it 'fancy']. This meant that by the time I got to the mansion to 'get ready' I had 2 hours and nothing left to do but put my dress on.

I tried to walk around but with everyone getting ready [read: the caterer being an hour late and everyone panicking about that], and somehow people deciding that if I ran into Charlie our marriage would be doomed, it made things a little difficult. I actually did run into Charlie and the second he saw me he whipped right around and bolted in the other direction. I had to chase after him and ask him how it would be bad luck to see me when we woke up in the same room that morning.

So I finally wandered back to our room where everyone else was getting ready and hung out with my bridesmaids.

My sister was running up the stairs that morning & fell. she was icing her knee and eating Advil the whole time.

Everyone was yelling at me to eat. Yum, organic chocolate power bar. [I swear it was good.]

Yeah, they're cool like that.

finally ready.

Want to see how boys get ready? This is what they do:

They sneak beers from the bar and drink them after putting on suits which takes all of 5 minutes. They've got it way easier than we do.

Back to reality.

... sadly. We got back from Maryland yesterday and I've been busy settling back into normal life, picking up the pups, cleaning the apartment, writing a million thank you notes, trying to convince Charlie that we do not need a LED television.

We had a GREAT trip home. It was so nice to see family and friends. Weddings are cool like that. Really, when else do you get all (or most) of the people you love in one place? The week went by ridiculously fast. I knew it would and everyone told me how fast the wedding would go & they were most definitely right. Luckily, everyone seemed to take a million pictures and as soon as I round them all up I can relive it all.

I think the dogs are happy to have us home. They were looking pretty miserable when we picked them up yesterday. They were so thirsty, covered in filth, and exhausted. We gave them baths, fed them, and let them sleep, but I was not happy that we picked them up in that condition. I realize we had to board them and kennels are not exactly 5 star accommodations, but I don't think that having water and a clean place to sleep is too much to ask. Anyway ...

I leave you with one of my favorite pictures of the night. This was about 2 minutes after we were married and of course I'm the one with a beer while Charlie's drinking wine. Love it.

The story of Love: Part 6

Previously [Part 5], we got engaged and moved to Colorado. And usually what follows an engagement is a wedding. Big, small, religious, non-religious, traditional, modern .... and the list goes on and on.

Ours was a mix of all of the above, perfect for us, and A LOT of fun! [But really, have you ever heard anyone say they didn't have fun at their own wedding?] We got lucky with the weather. It was sunny, warm and bug-filled.

We were married in a short, sweet, outdoor ceremony ...

... had fun with our friends ...

... and fell even more in love.

All pictures are credited to Joseph Allen ......... amazing.