Catch Up: July 2013

July was a pretty low key month.  We went to a couple of Rockies games through the courtesy of my work and friends.  One of the games was the one before the 4th of July so we got a good dose of fireworks.

Our first trip to the pool!

3rd of July fireworks!

my friends new baby: Lincoln

my first time making brussel sprouts: SO good!

One activity that has made a big impact on Chris and I this summer is church.  We've been going to the Sunday night service at 505!  It's a much more intimate service, not so "serious" and really laid back.  One of the reasons I love it is because it's in the chapel, which is where we got married.  It's just beautiful.
Over the summer our relationship with God has truly grown.  We've started praying together, and reading daily verses in the bible.  It has truly been a blessing.  There are some aspects of the morning service that I miss, but this service works for us if we have something going on in the mornings or decide to sleep in.
This makes me think about my relationship with God.  How He knows our ebbs and flows before we do. He knows when we'll be strong and weak.  And He's always there for us.  He knows the path that we are on, and He will protect us.  It's a very overwhelming feeling.  But the true blessing is the feeling of being comforted.  Knowing that when you put your trust in Him, everything really will be ok.  Better than ok.   

Just a cute picture

 Another of our date nights was a date in Denver, that included tickets to the Botanical Gardens.  We had a great time walking around and looking at all of the pretty flowers.

Time

Chris and I were talking recently about time.  More specifically about the anticipation of time.  And it got me thinking.  So much, that it kept me up last night while I was trying to fall back asleep from this horrible cold I have going on right now, and is preventing me from getting a good nights sleep.
I know I've talked about time before, but I think it is sorta amazing.  Time isn't really a physical thing, you can't see it.  Like air.  You know it's there, and you experience during every little moment of every day.  You can't live without it.
So I asked myself: What is time?  Simply, I think time is an experience.  Like a finger print.  Completely unique.  Each second is different, because it can never be repeated.  Gone.  Just.Like.That.
Then there is the anticipation of time.  The moment when you don't really think about the here, and the now.  But what's to come.  I feel like a lot of time is spent in this category.
I try to put in a conscience effort to remember now.  To be happy for this moment, because I know it'll never happen again.  But I also can't help to think about what's to come.  I am a planner and all!
Right now I'm happy to be home and comfortable.  Chris did get a job (details to come) and I'm home alone for the first time in a long time.  I'll admit, I'm selfish and these new hours without my husband will be difficult, but if anything I'll treasure my time with him even more now.  So since he isn't here to cuddle with, I get to spend some time with myself, spend some time typing out random thoughts on my blog.
I remember a saying I think I read on Facebook a long time ago about time.  It went something like: the days go by slow, but the weeks and the years go by so quickly.  I think maybe that's because we're always in anticipation of something.  The weekend, the vacation, the birthday, the holiday.  And before we know it, those events come, and then they go.  Part of the past, just like the rest of life.  I have a running countdown of things to come, and I know they'll come, so until then I should really enjoy now.  Focus on what I have right now.  Not too sure why that is a difficult concept.
Memories are created everyday.  Not just days that are "planned" to be special.
As random as this may seem, I suppose my point is to enjoy your time.  All of it.  The planned the unplanned.  I think it is safe to say that most of life is unplanned.  And that life changes from what is planned.  So we gotta take all of it, and try and enjoy all of it.  We may not want some of it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.  A lot of things go unplanned, and it's up to us to make the most out of that and to create memories of the unplanned. 

Catch Up: June 2013

June, you guessed it.  Another busy month. 

The first of the month started off with a garage sale!  I’ve been planning a garage sale in my head for years, and moving into the new house was just a reason to actually do it.  Chris wasn’t really on board, so we had a wager for the garage sale.  If I didn’t make at least $200 never again would we have a garage sale.  If I make more than $200 dinner at a restaurant of my choice…which now that I think about it, hasn’t happened yet!  Because of course, I won!  We made almost $400!  I didn’t know it until the week of the sale, but Friday’s are the day to  do a garage sale.  But ours was only “open” on Saturday.  I definitely think we could have made more; Chris kept telling people “whatever you can fit in your car $5”.  So they knew we would be cheap on offers.  For me it wasn’t that much work, but I did spread out the planning and prepping, so I think that helped.  Afterwards we took what was left to Goodwill, and it felt great to get rid of so much stuff.  We now have a fairly empty basement.  Hopefully one day, we’ll get to that (furnishing it, and filling it that is)!

Garage Sale success!

Just a pretty collage I made my Dad for Father's Day.

 Mid month we traveled to Albuquerque.  We had two big family get togethers.  One was my cousin Kyle’s wedding, two was my cousin Nikki’s baby shower!

The view of the mountains from my parents house in ABQ.

Chris & I having fun at the wedding.

Chris wearing my headband.  So pretty!

 Kyle married his HS sweetheart at the UNM Alumni Chapel, and the wedding was beautiful.  My mom did a reading as Kyle’s godmother during the ceremony, and Chris (the bride) wore my headband from my wedding!  She looked beautiful!  I was so happy that my headband got to be worn again.

The Happy Couple: Chris & Kyle! <3 br="">

Nikki's baby shower!

My cousin Nikki is currently due any day now (seriously her due date is 10/1)!, but with all of us in Albuquerque, it was the perfect opportunity to celebrate her pregnancy with a baby shower!  Nikki’s mother in law threw the party the day after the wedding and it was perfect “girl” time.  My cousin Kari did the fabulous cake, and the rest of the shower was filled with all things that Nikki loves!  Nikki is expecting a boy, and she was so gracious for the outpouring of love and gifts.  It truly was a fantastic celebration!  Plus, who doesn’t love to spoil a new baby!

Catch Up: May 2013

May was another fun month.  We started out the month with a visit from my parents.  This was the first trip my dad had taken to come visit since I’ve met Chris (excluding the wedding, but my dad was only in town for the actual day of the wedding, so that doesn’t count).  So it was great to have both of my parents here and in our element.  I can’t remember how long they were here, but it was pretty rainy during their visit.  The purpose of the trip was a Rockies vs Yankees baseball game.   Which unfortunately was a dud, because there was a 3 hour rain delay and my dad got a sore throat. 

We did have a great dinner at Linger, which I’m so happy my parents enjoyed!  They left the Saturday before Mother’s Day, and that morning we went to Sassafras, which was a great breakfast place before heading to the airport

At the rainy Rockies game

 On Mother’s Day I picked up my friend Andrea for the Mother’s Day 5k at City Park.  This was the 4^th time of done this race, and I truly enjoy it because I know exactly what to expect. This was Andrea’s first competitive race and we both had a great time.  If I recall we had good weather, and the atmosphere of this race is always nice. 

Mother's Day 5k

 We had a fun night out in the middle of the month with one of Chris’ old co-workers Matt and his wife Karen.  We’ve gone out on a handful of double dates, and they are a super fun couple.  We went to eat at the EDGE and then to see Ron White.  Chris actually introduced me to Ron White who’s a comedian when we first started dating.  We had a great seats, and it was super funny show!

Chris & I waiting for Ron White

Denali playing with catnip that my MIL found in our backyard!  The cats love it!!!

 Over Memorial Day weekend Chris’ parents were in town.  Mary my MIL has a super green thumb, so her and Chris went crazy in our backyard.  We got a ton of plants, herbs, and a whole new garden going in our 3 gardening pods on the side of the house.  I myself don’t have a green thumb whatsoever, but I did plant some pretty things in one of our planters in the front of the house.  We had some nice meals, and we took them to the improve comedy show at Impulse Theater which is always fun.

Chris & Mary shopping the plants

This is my contribution

Getting ready to do some major gardening!

Catch up: April 2013

 

I’m going to try and do some monthly updates to try and fill in my blogging gap, so these posts might be kinda random, who knows.  We’ll find out together.  If anything, I’ll know what I’m talking about!  Ha!

The two big activities I have for April are the Rave Run and our trip to Colorado Springs. 

The Rave Run was a 5k in City Park, that Chris and I did together!  I know I said that would never happen, but this was a super fun event for us!  My friend Andrea did it this race too, and it was her first 5k!  The big difference for me and this race was that it was a night time race.  It didn’t start until 9pm…I’m usually in bed at that time!  I was a little nervous, just because all my previous races had been in the morning, and I really don’t like to work out on a full stomach.  On this day I think we had a huge breakfast, and a good sized afternoon lunch.  I’ve done many races at City Park before so I knew exactly what to expect when it came to race day (or night)!  We arrived and it was wicked crowed!  In the past I’ve done the Mother’s Day 5k at City Park, and one nice thing about this race is that it isn’t crowded.  Not so, with the Rave 

Run.  So many people!  We got some neon stuff to wear, and spent a good amount of time just standing around before the race actually began.  We met up with Andrea, and her friend she was running with and her husband who was there as her cheerleader.  As with all races I got super nervous prior to the start, but the energy of the crowd was fantastic.  There was loud techno music playing, and some lights…which made it the Rave Run.  Once 9pm came and went and went…the start was a little hectic.  I think the crowd was much bigger than anticipated.  So the race organizers just did random waves to start us off.  There were a few parts along the race of “light shows” and techno music, but nothing like what we saw in the advertisements for this race.  There was one part where you overlapped previous runners, and volunteers yelling “if you are coming through here for the first time go LEFT, if you are coming here for the second time go RIGHT” it was a bit crazy, and obviously not well organized. 

Running with Chris however, was a lot of fun.  It was exactly how I pictured it, and I’m so happy he did this race with me.  He was there by my side through the whole race and was a great motivator.  Like most things that you start, I was really looking forward to the end.  The feeling of running through the finish line and celebrating that moment with Chris.  Unfortunately that moment didn’t happen.  This is where you could really tell that the attendance for this race was outta control.  The Finish line was a like a funnel.  Getting way too many people squished into a small space.  Getting through the finish line was like walking in a huge crowd: nobody going anywhere fast.  It was a mess.  After the face we learned that a lot people complained about how unorganized the race was, and we got free admission to the race next year (if they have one) and 50% off another night time race. 

Once we completed the race we went to the Denver Diner for some dinner, and enjoy our late night out!

 Later in April we decided a little getaway was in order, so we traveled down to Colorado Springs.  We did the Cog railroad which was a lot of fun, and stayed at the Cheyenne Mountain resort.  The Cog Railroad is the highest cog railroad in the country?  It travels up to Pike’s Peak where there was a ton of snow on the ground!  We had a great evening, and a lovely dinner and breakfast the next day before traveling back to Denver.  

Here are pictures along our train ride.

FPU

One of the biggest changes for me when Chris and I got married was the combination of our finances.  I had never done something like this before and knew it would be a challenge.  We officially combined everything the month after we got married, and for the first 6 months Chris was in control.  I’ll admit, I had no idea what was going on.  He tracked what we were spending and he made sure the bills got paid. 

Shortly after the new year I looked into Dave Ramsey.  I had some friends tell me about Dave’s class in the past and always thought it would be a good resource.  I figured now was a great time for Chris and I to get on the same page.  So I signed up Chris and I for the 9 week (we met once a week for 9 weeks) Financial Peace University class at a church nearby. 

I was eager to participate and learn, Chris however was just along for the ride.  I did a complete 180 in the class, from not knowing anything about how we were spending our money to wanting to know and calculate where every single cent went.  I was 100% on board with what Dave was teaching and wanted to implement his ways right away.  I got crazy obsessed looking at our credit card statement and bank statement daily.  Chris, not so much.  I think it is safe to say we had our first couple of big fights over this and our finances in general.  We were not on the same page.  There were many times I regretted signing us up for the class, and wished we could just go back to the way things were. 

But thankfully somewhere along the way (probably right about half way through the 9 weeks class) Chris got on board.  He realized that this plan would work best for our long term dreams and goals.  We talked about our big dreams and how we would spend and save our money in our married life.  We had some truly amazing conversations that brought us so much closer, and gave me moments of falling even more in love with my husband.  We put together a plan that at the end of 3 years would leave us debt free (except the house), have 6 months of living expenses in a savings emergency fund, and a fund to  buy a new SUV with cash.

Things were looking up.  We had a plan and we were putting it in motion.  We both felt great about where we were going.  We “graduated” at the end of May and even though the course started off incredibly bumpy ended with smooth sails ahead! 

Then life happened.  It’s a long and personal story, but by the beginning of July Chris was without a job, and is currently still looking for full time work.  So everything is currently on hold.  Thankfully we kept more than the “allotted” $1000 in savings that Dave recommends while you are in the debt snowball phase, and have yet to touch what is in savings with just my income, his unemployment, and the help of both of our parents.  I know we’ll be ok, and I’m so thankful that we took the FPU course to set up our monthly budget, and truly learn where we can cut back.

These past few months we’ve relied on one of our wedding gifts as our perfect date night.  The gym girls group, individually got us a monthly date that we’ve been opening up on the 5^th of every month.  We’ve had some great dinners, we went to a Rockies game, a comedy show, the Botanic Gardens, etc… So with those, we’ve still felt like we have a life!

I would highly recommended the course regardless of where you are financially.  We learned some great tools and I look forward to referencing the material in the future.  If anything check out Dave’s website as that alone as some great pieces of information and is super user friendly.

i'm back!

Hello blog world!  I'm back.  I've missed you and I've missed my blog.  I've thought about coming back for awhile now, if anything for myself.  I've always loved going back to read what it is that I wrote, and to remember different points in my life.
I'm in a much better place mentally than before, and I know that there will be times when I'm down and out, but it's important to document those times as well.
I have lots to catch up on, and a few weeks ago I made the above list, by month of what I need to write about to fully document my spring and summer.  I've had the list sitting on my desk at work for so long, it got some coffee stains too!  So I figure I should go ahead, put it into action, and write a post!
So here I am.
Hopefully over the next few days, maybe weeks, I'll get all caught up.