music music music!

Hey y'all! It's midweek and I have to tell you, I have been pretty darn lazy with my week thus far. We went camping over the weekend, which was fun and beautiful. Sunday I accidentally got waaaasted. How does that accidentally happen? Well. It all started with an innocent enough glass of wine with my husband. Then our friends came to stay the night while they are house-hunting in Denver. We were so happy to see them, and offered them a beverage. Before I knew it, I had polished off a bottle of wine {almost all by myself - oops}. Next thing I know, my hands had mixed margarita ingredients, shaked the goods on ice, and poured a tall round of margs. Without my brain knowing, my sneaky hands accomplished all of that. Damn. Then my brilliant husband {we make quite a pair ;)} poured a round of tequila shots. RED FLAG RED FLAG! Then, I decide to finish the night by polishing off a beer. Naturally.

Ugh. So...I spent Monday in a worthless state known as a hangover. Literally all day long. Like - puking until 6pm. Go big or go home, right? Welp. I went big.

Monday night, however, I went over to Mandrew's for a little din-din action {well, Sprite and watermelon...}, and I learned an A.MAZING technology trick - how to convert videos into mp3s!!! So, I spent the afternoon getting lots and lots of freeee music! Hooray! What sort of songs did I download? Ones like these. Haha. Prepare to be amused. 

Lion King + Lil' John = Stuntin' Like Mufasa

Omg I'm such a nerd. I literally downloaded 20 Disney songs, some remixes, some sung by famous peeps, and some the movie version. LOVE me some Disney, as you probably know by know (if not, check out this post). I also spent the majority of the day listening to the Glee soundtracks! So awesome! My favorite favorite favorite is the It's My Life + Confessions mash up :)

So then I worked last night, slept for a few hours today, and am about to meet my friend at the gym. My work called to see if I wanted to work a bonus shift - which I do - but I've had 3 1/2 hours of sleep today. Probably not a great idea. Plus, I've been missing quality time with my husband like nobody's business. Between work and all this camping and visitors staying with us - we haven't truly had a night to ourselves in soooooo long. So I'm thinking a night in with the loves of my life is in order :)

Happy Weds, my friends! I hope it's a blessed one :)

Cheers

omg!

Okay - so I just watched my first delivery ever!!!

Crazy!

Gross yet beautiful.

It was awesome :)

That is all.

Cheers!

loving moments

So I realized that I never shared my Penny's birthday pics! I only have a few, but they are cute :)

Penny's birthday spread! Sweet Potato french fries, frosted peanut butter cookies, wet food (first time!), oatmeal shampoo and conditioner, and new toothbrushes (that dog loves brushing her teeth - every night!).

Aren't the sprinkled ones so cute?

Birthday girl says YUM! haha

So that's it. But I also have to share just how adorable my husband is. He has a habit of leaving me notes on the dry erase board when he leaves for work before I do. It's a habit that I am in love with. Each morning, whether it is a single smiley face or 15 hearts or an I heart you, I smile so deeply within when I see it. But this one made me so giddy, I just had to share :)

Cheers to that :)

giveaway & getaway

Hey friends :) So, first of all, the lovely Courtney over at With Gratitude is celebrating her blog's 1st birthday! Congrats to her! To celebrate, she is giving away a gift card to one of 3 awesome shopping havens! Check it out and wish her a happy blog-anniversary!

In other news, we went camping again over the weekend. This time with my in-laws up by Red Feather! Such a beautiful day! I was running on 2 hours of sleep (worked Weds Thurs Fri nights, ugh), but I managed to remain cordial and awake for longer than I anticipated! haha. The dogs went CRAZY - as usual. They are outdoor freaks! Literally ran laps around the campsite for hours! And our little white furred Gryffy ended up a lovely shade of charcoal gray by bedtime :) Have to share a few pics, of course:

Mmm...Cold. Hard. Refreshing. Ain't that the truth!

What an innocent pup!

Except for when playing with the grill! haha, nice warrior markings, eh?

And getting SLIMED by warm marshmallow goo...yes it is in his eye!

Oh how he loves the food he gets to eat while camping!

Can you spot the deer I mean Penny dog? She played mountain goat all day.

Cheers!

Happy Monday, y'all :)

the attempt to donate to salvation army

Okay, so if you have been following lately, you'll know that Tyler and I are in a state of re-doing our living room. We have our new furniture, so we needed our old furniture to go bye-bye. This included an office chair, a coffee table, a TV stand, a TV, a bookshelf, and a couch. None of it is in bad shape at all, but it also isn't worth a whole lot. We didn't want to have a garage sale or anything like that, and no one really expressed much interest in taking the pre-loved furniture off of our hands (well, my brother-in-law is taking a bookshelf). 

So, we decided to make a donation to the Salvation Army! It's easy to schedule a pick-up, your donation is tax-deductible, and then we don't have to worry about finding a way to haul a couch somewhere. Today was donation day. I worked last night, so Tyler put out all of our donation items this morning around 7:40am. Then he left. Then I pulled up to our home around 7:50am. I saw our couch outside of our garage and nothing else. The first thing I thought was, "Great. Tyler left the TV and TV stand in the garage for me to move out. How the hell am I supposed to move those on my own?" I opened the garage and realized none of the other furniture was in sight. 

Apparently our neighbors acted pretty darn fast! In a 10-minute window they succeeded in swiping all of our Salvation Army donation except for the couch - I am presuming because they couldn't move it. Oh well. At least the SA will have a couch. I went to sleep for the morning pretty amused with the rapid snatching my neighborhood is capable of. I woke up around 1:30pm to the dogs barking up a storm in the back yard - oh the Salvation Army must be here! I open the garage expecting to see no couch. But I did see a couch.

Upon inspection of the couch, I realize 2 of the couch legs have been busted off, one cushion is missing, and one pillow is missing. Really? You attempted to take the couch, but it didn't work out, you broke the legs off in the process, and then took one cushion and pillow instead? Making it go from comfortable and well-used to complete trash? Thanks. Then there is a note from Salvation Army saying they came by but the couch was in too poor of condition to take. Frowny face. No shit. So someone had tried to swipe it, ruined it in the process, then the SA came by to get what I said was a fine couch, and they find trash. Awesome. 

Not only am I bummed we ended up not donating anything, but now we are stuck with a trashed couch. Awesome. So, I called Waste Management and apparently for $25 + fuel fees they'll pick it up next Thurs with the rest of the regular trash pick-up. So now we just have to keep it for the next week then it will go to the landfill. Which I hate because it was perfectly usable :(

Thanks for reading my grumbles. 

Have you ever had good intentions then they get ruined?

Frustrating.

sad week for my jewelry

Guys - my jewelry is in a state of dispair. Seriously, all my beloved silver and gems are going to gang up and riot against me for not taking proper care of them!


First of all, if you remember all the way back to December (I don't even remember December so I'll link it for ya ;) ), you'll know that I got a GORGEOUS ring for Christmas. My friend Katherine makes such lovely jewelry, and Tyler was so sweet and got me a ring of hers. I have adored this ring so much and wear it almost every day. Alas, in the last week, I have not been able to find it :(   Seriously, I am SO sad! I hate feeling irresponsible and losing things always gets me so upset - especially when it's not just a ring from Kohl's or something, it's a ring that was specifically handmade for me. Given to me as a gift from my love. Ugh, I am so down in the dumps about it. And I cannot find it anywhere.


Secondly, I bought a cocktail ring on Memorial Day in Estes Park at the Arts & Crafts show. I haven't purchased any large cocktail-esque rings before, and so I decided to get myself a cutsie summer ring! It is a large flower with each petal being a different color: blue, green, white, pink, and orange. Each of the bright colors are infused with glitter. It's so bright! It's so summery! It's so me! But of course, last night I accidentally whacked it on the wall (it does stick out quite a lot, to be fair), and one of the lovely glittery flower petals snapped right off and dropped to the floor. Where Gryffin then tried to eat it. I did save the petal from the mongrel, but what am I going to do - super glue it? *sigh* I guess I'll have to try!

Lastly, all my sterling silver (and I have quite a collection because my Grandma sells Native American jewelry) is looking awful. I have neglected it so much! I need to have some quality silver-and-me time and polish everything up nice and pretty.

And thennnn, Tyler informed me this afternoon that he broke part of his watch today. His multi-hundred dollar Seiko watch. Poor guy,  he has taken SUCH good care of that watch for the last 3 or 4 years, and he was pretty bummed. I know this last jewelry example wasn't my jewelry per se, but just another sad jewelry event in my household.

Okay, that is all. Cross your fingers and toes for me that my little special ring will turn up! Thanks!

Cheers (I guess) ;)

pretty princess penny

My darling little puppy girl is 1 Year Old today!!! Or so we think, considering she is a rescue pup...this is the birthday we made up for her :) But anyway, June 14th is the day we have chosen to celebrate the birth and life of our little princess Penny! I thought I'd kick it off with a bloggy post of some of my favorite pics of her :) Without further ado:

Playing with her first toy on her first day home :)

Fighting the mirror, grrrrr!

What a pretty sit!

Her Halloween shirt! Haha

Too cute! Her dress from the Target dollar bins that fit for approximately a week! 

Cutie pie

Kangaroo Dog!

Those ears get me every time :)

Haha my little fancy pants!

Okay that's enough, you get the picture...I love little Penny Bop!

I'm going to get dressed then it's off to Petsmart to let her pick out a treat! I am totally going to be a goober mommy today and get a puppy cupcake or something and put a candle in it for her :) Hopefully it results in some cutie pictures that I can post for ya tomorrow!!!

Cheers to my little puppy girl who is a ball of spunk and attitude with a soft lovey center :)

lazy, yet awesome!

This weekend was the first weekend since Tyler has been done with his first year of med school that we actually got to spend it together just being kind of lazy! And it was GREAT! Don't get me wrong, camping last weekend was a blast, but sometimes it's so nice just to lounge, you know? So, on Thursday night we did the big TV shopping trip! And we found ourselves a Panasonic 50" Plasma with 720p capabilities at Best Buy. It was perfectly in our price range, but then the 4-year additional warranty added another $140...and the energy saving power strip added another $80...and then there's tax...damn...another $65. So we ended up over budget on the TV but we were way under budget on our couch, so it actually evened out perfectly to what our living room budget is! Hooray!

Here's a pic:

The entertainment center looks a little better with the upgraded TV, right! (here's a pic of our dinky TV from before just for an FYI comparison!)

We have enjoyed our new TV PLENTY this weekend! Especially with the start of the World Cup! What fun :) I like soccer, and I have played it for most of my life, but Tyler REALLY likes soccer! It's so fun to watch something with him that he actually gets excited about. He doesn't really get excited about much on TV, so it's definitely a treat to see him worked up about watching something for once!

On Saturday night we rented The Hangover via DVDPlay (similar to RedBox) and enjoyed the hilarity of the ridiculous situations they found themselves in during that fateful night in Vegas! We saw it in the theaters but I had forgotten all the one-liners that I loved so much the first time around! 

Sunday night we rented Shutter Island. OMG Scorsese! Such a mind trip at the end! Well done, and I'm obsessed with DiCaprio, but I still can't decide it he was crazy or not?!?! What do you think? Was he a man who cracked because of what his wife and then subsequently he did? Or was he truly Teddy and everyone was in on this plot to keep him on the island? Or was he crazy but had a breakthrough and then pretended to still be crazy so he could go to the lighthouse and be through with life as he knew it because he couldn't pretend through the pain anymore? Either way, it was a good flick!

Thus far, this post makes it sound as though we've been on the couch ALL weekend! Most, but not all, my friends :) Friday night we went to the Garden Grapes & Hops event at the Botanic Gardens with my family. It was sooooooo much fun! Picture this: $25. Buys you all the wine, beer, and food samples you want for 4 hours. From top wineries, breweries, and restaurants. Accompanied by live music delivered by the band HomeSlice. It was AWESOME! It is now my new summer tradition! I hope to go and drag along as many friends/family as I can every year! It was great weather during the first hour, and then rained a bit for the next few. But with some beer in one hand and an umbrella in the other + tons of tents to ward off the rain, it was fine! Plus it kept some of the people who can't handle rain away = more food for me! lol. Then the rain stopped and we went in front of the stage and sang and dance to our hearts' content! Such a fun night. Here are some pics to prove it:

The pretty lights in the tents!

Saturday was my sister-in-law's 21st birthday, so we went to her house in Greeley and played some games and ate some good eats. I also hit the gym twice this weekend. So, you see, my rear wasn't glued to the couch ALL weekend ;)

Anyhoo - that was my weekend! Hope yours was fab!

Cheers to a new week!

camping: the pups are in love!

Okay, so I realize it is a tad ridiculous to write three posts in one day...haha. But the thing is that all three topics: work craziness, living room decor, and last weekend's camping trip are all so different! I didn't want to clutter one post (like I sometimes do). Last weekend we went up the Poudre Canyon, which follows the Cache La Poudre River, for a bit of camping! Tyler and I have been SO excited to do this ever since we got the pups, and this was the second weekend the campsites were open, so we decided to go for it! We went to the Kelly Flats campsite and camped along the river for a night. It was great!

There were a total of 6 people and 7 dogs - we were outnumbered by the crazy canines! We all had so much fun, though! I got to use my new sleeping bag:

Got it at a GREAT deal from Dick's Sporting Goods! $75 20 degree sleeping bag on sale for $40. Score!  Penny thought it was nice too, and decided it would be a great idea to sleep IN the sleeping bag with me, haha. Gryffin was content curling up on my feet all night, but Penny started out sleeping on my pillow with me, then migrated into the sleeping bag. She is so skinny when she stretches out, so she just layed all down my side. When I woke up I just saw her hind paws and tail sticking out the top of the bag. Silly pup :)

It was so gorgeous out there :) I love love love camping and I LOVE living near the Rocky Mountains! 

They LOVED the river! There was a shallow, slower section behind our campsite and they played in it as often as I would let them! 

Brrr, mommy!

Gryffin helped daddy make a campfire :)

Gryffin got slimed by marshmallow goo - got a bath as soon as we got home!

Mommy I LOOOOOOVE camping!

They played so much and basically ran for 24 hours, and had some serious puppy hangovers after! They slept for like 18 hours when we got home! We went hiking up Young's Gulch, and Penny played the part of a mountain goat - soaring from rock to rock and climbing them like it aint no thang :) Gryffy was obsessed with the water, and happily bounded like such a goober in whatever pool of water he could find! Overall it was a great success! Penny did really well off-leash, and let's just say that Gryffin has some work to do in the listening department before he can join the big kids off-leash :)

Cheers to fun in the sun, water, mountains, and dirt!

progress in the living room

If you read my post last week about FINALLY getting my homebuyer's credit, you'll know that I was so excited to get to work on my living room! On Friday night we went to American Furniture Warehouse and picked out our lovely new couch and entertainment center! It was delivered and set up yesterday, so now I can have an in progress picture to show you! We still have some of our old furniture in the way until the Salvation Army comes to pick it up next Friday. 

 BEFORE.

Old couch. Not too bad, and so comfortable! But most likely 30 + years old and has had better days. Creeks when you sit on it and has some stuff broken along the bottom. It's time to go, little couch. (Notice the sleepy brown furball curled up behind the red blanket :) Baby Penny!)

Our coffee table was a wedding gift, all the other furniture is hand-me-down stuff that has worked well, but we just wanted an updated look, you know? 

AFTER.

New couch! Still on the fence about the pillows...what do you think?

New entertainment center! Love it! What do you think about the plant vine across the top? I'm undecided on whether I like it. I have a couple plants I need to repot in matching pots then I am going to stick them on top of the speakers on the floor. And I know our little TV looks pathetic right now! haha. We are waiting for some sort of sale on TVs (Father's Day weekend I am thinking) to get a new one, just in time for the World Cup! Awesome! So exciting! And I'm hoping to find a rug that I like sometime soon. Something neutral, I'm thinking. I'm really picky with rugs though, so it could be a while. And also something for the walls, but that's not urgent. So there you have it, a work in progress! I love the new additions so far! I'll keep you posted :)

Cheers!!!

crazy night!

Yesterday late afternoon, I got a call from work that canceled my shift until 11pm - yay! Tyler and I were getting ready to walk out the door to hit the gym then buy a new TV (to add to our new living room swag - I'll post pics later) when I got a call from a coworker's cell phone saying they needed me to come into work. This coworker is a funny girl and since I got the call from her cell, I thought she was kidding so I just laughed. Then she said, "No, I'm serious! We had an emergency and we need you to come in." As she was saying this I heard alarms in the background at work. I didn't even ask her what the emergency was about, but I told her I'd be there in thirty minutes.

As I got dressed for work, my heart was pumping so fast! I was wondering, what kind of emergency would they need me for? They deal with hemorrhages all the time...was it a death? I was sooooo scared and on my way to work when my mom called to ask me if I was okay. Since we were in the middle of redoing our living room we didn't have our TV on all day and I apparently missed the big news that part of Xcel Energy exploded near my work. This caused all energy to go out in multiple hospitals nearby. But no big deal because hospitals have generators for the back up electricity, right? Well...then our hospital's generator went out. Just imagine what implications that has. 

So, the street lights weren't working and a bunch of streets were closed, but I managed to get to work. Of course I didn't think to bring my flashlight from my car into the hospital. Walking into a pitch black hospital is something creepy, let me tell you!!! There were people down the hallways waving flashlights, I felt like they were the people from Titanic, "Is anyone out there!?!??" Okay, so maybe I'm kind of dramatic, but I was kind of freaking out! I went to the stairwell where they were leading people to, but I couldn't use it because firemen were transporting ICU patients up and down since the elevators obviously weren't working. I had to find another stairwell. I walked to another wing of the hospital where I knew a stairwell was - completely deserted. So creepy! I stumbled up the stairwell trying to use my phone as a flashlight; it didn't work very well! And it was at that point that I realized I watch entirely too much Law & Order SVU because all I could think in that stairwell by myself was, "please don't let there be a creepy man in here! Please please please." 

I got to my floor and everything was okay. Our staff really banded together and worked calmly as a team. The patients were incredibly understanding and patient with our situation. Around 11pm our power came back - phew! It was getting REALLY hot without any AC! And I sure got my workout in going up and down those stairs over and over again! I really appreciate functioning elevators, now :) However, after midnight, the fire alarm started going off. OMG. Turns out there was no fire, but there was smoke coming from the generator. And everything was okay. Thankfully that was the end of the mayhem for the night!

Thank goodness respirators and other life-sustaining devices have batteries as well to continue functioning should generators go out! But what about patients in the middle of surgery? By some miracle, there was NO ONE in the middle of a surgery when the power went out a little after 6:30 pm. I can't even wrap my head around how lucky this is. They were just about to do a c-section when the power went out. We all really managed to get through a crazy night with the least amount of serious repercussions possible (maybe a little ice cream melted while the freezers weren't working ;) )! I am so thankful! 

I am so proud to see how our hospital reacts in such a timely, cooperative, and calm manner. What a great example of a team!

Cheers to that! :)

fill in the blank friday - travel time!

Lauren at The Little Things We Do came up with a GREAT theme this week! All about traveling! I would say that is my favorite "activity" if it qualifies as being such :) Play along this week or next week, if you like! Loads of fun!

1.  My dream vacation would be       a long trip to Europe including extensive travel and relaxation in Greece, Spain, Italy, and Ireland. Those are my next four European countries I'd looooove to hit! Not for a long time, but some day!   .

2.  The best trip I've ever taken was      maybe my honeymoon! What's better than spending a week with the love of your life post wedding-stress?!?! We went to Napa Valley and San Francisco! Wine, food, wine, wine, food...that was kind of our schedule in Napa! Plus, we took a biking tour of the wineries which was so much fun! Good thing we had helmets, I was certainly a little tipsy by the end of the day! They must not administer BUIs there... And San Francisco is my favorite big city yet! It's amazing! Such a conglomeration of different cultures, it was such a blast! I felt at home with my hippy self there :) 

 

Oh and also living in Costa Rica on the beach for 6 weeks saving the sea turtles wasn't so bad ;) .

3.  The most important items to take on a road trip are       camera, optimistic and flexible travel mates (to counteract my panicky states when plans don't work out as planned), sunglasses    .

4.  The next trip I'm looking forward to is       leaving tomorrow for my first camping trip of the season! YAY! The campsites just opened last week so hopefully we can find a good one! The pups haven't been camping yet and we are going up the Poudre Canyon, it should be wonderful! I'll tell you all about it on Monday!  .

5.  If I had to pick one CD to listen to for a long road trip it would be     definitely Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever and RHCP's Stadium Arcadium :)   .

6.  The biggest disaster I've ever encountered while traveling  was      I feel like there have been disasters but I've forced them out of my memory! lol. One was when driving to Illinois with my family there was a massive hail/rain storm that started up so suddenly! We were boxed in the highway surrounded by semi trucks and cars were sliding all over the place! I was seriously FREAKING out!!!   .

7.  My favorite traveling memory is     This is kind of general.  I love Colorado's climate, but whenever I step off of an airplane and into a new climate, the humidity (usually wherever I go is more humid than here!) hits me in the face and kind of has a strangely intoxicating effect on me. Like I need a margarita and a hammock asap. Love that feeling :) Drunk with warmth!  Take me back, Costa Rica!!! La Pura Vida    .

 

Where is the best vacation you ever took??? 

Cheers to your weekend!!!!!

confusing the IRS

Okay, peeps, I am BEYOND thrilled to share with you that I FINALLY got my first time homebuyer's credit in the mail today! There is kind of a history to this situation...let me share the timeline with you...

*April 2009 - Got married

*August 2009 - Bought townhome

*September 2009 - amend 2008 taxes for first time homebuyer's credit  because SURELY it will be much faster to amend 2008's taxes than to wait for 2009 taxes to go through in April 2010. Have to amend each of our separate 2008 tax returns because as of taxes 2008 we were not yet married.

*October 2009 - receive tax amendments back because of an error - fix and refile

*December 2009 - receive Tyler's half of the homebuyer's credit

*January 2010 - receive letter saying my claim for my half of the credit is being audited. UGH! Have to submit 5 documents (car title, house deed, driver's license...I don't even remember what else) to prove I am me (name changes are confusing for the IRS, I guess) and that I do in fact own the home I'm claiming to own.

*March 2010 - receive letter saying the audit is being processed.

*May 2010 - receive letter saying they believe me and credit is on the way

*June 2010 - receive credit in the mail!

The only thing good about the whole delay debacle is that they add interest to what they owe you so I got $180 interest from the IRS. Nice! 

However, the battle isn't over...I went to deposit the check and realized it was made out to my MAIDEN NAME! Ugh!!! So...I deposited it anyway and am crossing my fingers that everything goes well! 

Because...I have been waiting 9 months for this and we are using some of the $$$ to re-do our living room! I am dying to get our new couch and tv and rug and bookshelves!!! Please please please go through, money! 

Okay, so now you all have heard me whine :) 

On that note, I am happy it's Friday and I don't work til Monday night so I plan on enjoying the weekend with good friends, food, travel, camping, and whatever else comes my way!

Much love & Cheers!