Home-Iversary

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One year ago, Alex and I moved into our first home. We spent over a month packing up our old life into neatly packed boxes and, with a little help from our friends, moved into our home starting last January 21st.

Opening the door for the first time!

Our helpers!

Within a week, we had unpacked our belongings and started planning out another phase to our life together. We knew that there were things we wanted to change about our house to make it a little more us and a little less the couple that we purchased it from.

Home Sweet Home

 

We quickly replaced the carpet in the basement.

Followed (of course) by painting the basement.

Work in progress :)

We got rid of all of the nasty curtains.

And purchased new blinds.

We took down the tacky light fixtures.

And hung new ones.

We stripped some wallpaper.

And built a garden.

Then, we realized we needed a fire pit.

Somewhere along the way, we decided to get married.

We even went on a honeymoon.

We re-grouted our shower floor.

And painted the kitchen.

We even got a new roof (which was quite the hefty purchase).

We started replacing appliances.

Toilets.

Dishwashers.

Washers and Dryers. (pictures to come!)

We fixed electrical and plumbing problems.

We greeted a new member to our family (Hi, Bailey boy!)

And said a sad farewell to friends.

We got new furniture, a new fireplace, lots of rugs, and (even) a couple TVs.

No new house can come without new tools. So, those were purchased as well.

We walked around our house this weekend celebrating each small change that we’ve made. As we listed them out, it sure seemed like we’ve done a ton. And although we’re looking forward to continually shaping our house into the home we want it to be, we try to fully appreciate the way it is today.

WHAT A YEAR!

Photo Life

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Hello, hello!

It’s sure nice to see you. It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? The computer that I normally blog from crashed a few weeks ago. For a few days I tried to blog on my lunch breaks at work. However, I quickly found out that my new job offers exercise classes during lunch. While on a hunt to get back on a healthy living track, I started giving up my lunch break for some exercise. Hence.. the no blog thing.

Anywho… Here’s a photo recap of our life recently.

We got a boat load of wood delivered.

And we organized it….

We spent some time car shopping… annnnd bought a new commuter car.

It’s nice. We kinda like it. Just a tad.

We took a little trip.

 The doggies have been little crazy nut balls like normal.

Welp, I think that’s all the major things.

Smaller less important things include: I lost a bunch of photos through the big computer crash. I’m pretty bummed about it. Alex and I have been working out like mad dogs and eating super healthy (besides, you know… all those holidays). I always think that results will come immediately, so I’m trying not to get discouraged when I see the same number on the scale day after day. In addition, we watched both of our teams lose in the playoffs. It was dreadful.

Okay — that’s really everything!

Smooth/Moves

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Happy Friday Folks!

It was a beautiful drive on my way to work this morning. I braved driving off the road to take this little snapshot for you.

No, I’m just kidding. I was stopped at a stop light. Safety first, kiddos. Didn’t they teach you anything in grade school?

  • Don’t pick your nose
  • Share with others
  • Treat others as you would want to be treated
  • And most importantly, don’t take pictures on your iPhone while you’re driving

Duh.

Last night after our Insanity workout, Alex and I met my mom, Margaret, and Kathy for dinner and drinks. We had a great time chatting away! We talked out Alex’s latest deployment, good books we’ve read lately, cooking, guns, and Mormonism. Quite the combination, huh??

Once we got home, we dropped on the bed (with the pups) and watched a few episodes of Raising Hope. After a long day, a tiring workout, good conversations, and a beer – it was the perfect way to end the night.

This morning started just as every work day does — WITH A SMOOTHIE, of course!!! I’m a smoothie kind ‘a gal. When Alex and I started dating (pre-smoothie obsession days) we bought a cheapo blender to make fruity alcoholic drinks in the dead heat of summer. As I started to perfect the art of smoothie making, the ol’ dumpy blender really wasn’t cutting it any longer. For Christmas Alex got me a super dooper high-tech fancy pants BlendTec blender. Now it takes me a whole whopping 40 seconds to whip up the most delicious breakfast ever.

Here are some of my smoothie tricks –

  • NO ICE!!!
  • Use all frozen fruit
  • Milk makes your smoothie taste more like a milkshake, whereas juice makes it taste more like a traditional fruit smoothie
  • Greek yogurt makes your smoothie way (for lack of a better word) smoother than regular yogurt
  • You should add your ingredients in this order for the perfect blend:
  1. – liquids
  2. – semi-solids (yogurt)
  3. – solids (spinach, non frozen fruit)
  4. LAST IN – anything completely frozen

My favorite smoothie right now is a combination of: milk, vanilla Greek yogurt, (FROZEN) grapes, 1-2 bananas, cherries, blackberries, a splash of honey, and wheat germ.

The wheat germ gets completely ground up and you would have no idea it’s in there. Whenever I have the chance to add some extra fiber into my food – I’m down!

Step 1

Step 2

All Done!

I think Alex regrets buying me the BlendTec. He’s stuck eating liquid breakfasts for months. Poor Baby.

Weekend Plans

Tonight we’ll be busting out Insanity before grabbing a drink (it is Friday after all)! We’ll probably be spending a good portion of the weekend car shopping. Wahoo! If the car shopping doesn’t work out in our favor – we may bust out our painting supplies!

What are your weekend plans??

And to leave you….