House hunting is way too easy...

Matt and I just started looking for a house! Our lease on our apartment isn't up until July, but we figured it might take a while to find a place we like. We were aiming to close on a house in May or June.

So, in the middle of January we met with a realtor. We made a plan to start looking in February, after I finished my ridiculous costuming. Last Thursday, we went out to look at houses for the first time. The idea was just to get ideas of what sort of thing we're looking for. We saw eight properties, some were pretty good and some were... not. But we began to get a feel for what's out there in the market, and it was a lot of fun!

Monday, we went out again to see a few more houses. And surprisingly, we found one we really liked. We were very hesitant about it, though. We weren't quite ready to put in an offer since we'd only been looking for a few days. And the house had some things we weren't sure of. For example, the living room was long, narrow, and akward.

We weren't sure how we would arrange our furniture in the akward room. But we like the large kitchen, an additional loft "bonus room," and the low PRICE. We asked my folks to meet us on Thursday to take a look at the place and get their opinion.

But Timmie (our realtor) wanted to show us a couple more houses before we went back to the one we liked. So on Thursday afternoon, we went to a neighborhood REALLY close to my
parents' to see a few places. And there, we fell in love.

We ended up asking my parents to meet us at this new house instead. They agreed that this house was basically awesome. It had a good sized kitchen...

... that opened up to a large open living room.

The master suite was nice and large:

And the yards were well-landscaped:

The house has a finished basement, four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, and a 2-car garage.

This house cost a little more than the other, but it was easy to see why. The other house is a nice starter home that we would be happy in for maybe five years. This house is one we could stay in for years and years.

So on Thursday night, exactly one week after we first started looking, we decided to put an offer on a house.

We put it all together today, and we'll hear back tomorrow if they accepted it.

I can't believe how easy it was to find a house we love. We knew there was a possibility that we'd find one sooner than expected, but we didn't think it would ever be this fast! Unfortunately, now we're at the hard part. A lot could still happen that could make this whole thing fall through. So we're trying not to get too excited, but we're hopeful!

And now we wait...

Let's Go Avalanche!

Last night, my dad and I went to the Colorado Avalanche game against the Ottawa Senators. We won!!! Yay!!! And it was lots of fun.

It's kinda awesome to have the spare time to do things like this again. Theatre steals all my free time.

But anyway, the game was awesome. We went to Old Chicago for dinner, and then made our way over to the stadium.

The almighty Pepsi Center in Denver.

The place was pretty empty. We got there really early, so it was dead at first. But it didn't even fill up much once the game started. The Avs haven't been doing too well recently, so the fans have become lame.

The view from our seats. We were pretty high up, but we could see everything!!!

They had a Littleton pee-wee team playing at the intermissions. They were cute.

And then there were the big guys. They were a little better than the pee-wees... But just a little.

And these were the "nice" gentlemen who showed up during the second period. They sat in front of me and leaned forward the whole time. So this was my view. Oh, well. That's kinda just what you deal with at live sporting events. They fit in really nicely with the extremely obnoxious guy behind us who really like the sound of his own voice.

We won in overtime. So that's good. I doubt it will really matter much in the playoff race, but I can still hope! It could happen!

Oh, and I took all these pictures on my new phone! Yay!

It's purple! Which is awesome!

I obviously didn't take these pictures on my phone. That would be weird.

Matt got the same phone in black. So we have his and her phones! But not because we're lame and want to have matching phones. We just both like the same one.

And really, the main reason I chose mine is because it's PURPLE!

No more sewing!!!

Wow! It's been a ridiculously long time since I've posted anything on my blog. And that's because all of my free time has been spent doing one thing: sewing! It's actually been quite a crazy experience! And the happiest part is that it's over! The show I was costuming for opened on Friday, and while everything wasn't quite as perfect as I would have liked, it all worked out ok. I'll try and get some production photos from the company, and I'll post them when I get them. But now, I don't even want to think about costumes any more! This last week was nothing but sewing and costuming, and I'm ready to have a life again.

Because all of my free time was spent sewing, I was unable to post anything interesting over the last few weeks. Now it's catch-up time. So pretend like it's a few weeks ago, and the Super Bowl is still a relevant topic. Because I have pictures from our Super Bowl party!

We invited a few of our friends and ALL my family over for the Super Bowl. Our friends brought an awesome popcorn maker, that ended up being way more entertaining than the actual game... Well, at least for the kids.

The kid was a little scared.

But pleased with the result.

There's a baby!

Everyone is watching the game, even the baby!

The 3D moment has arrived! Jess is AMAZED!

It was pretty exciting.

It was a fun party. And it was my last moment of hapiness before the following weeks of complete misery. But that's another story...

I used to like staying home from school...

So, as you know I started a new job a while back. My first day was January 5, so I've been there for four weeks now. I haven't really blogged about it for a few reasons:

1. I'm a procrastinator.
2. I wanted to take pictures of my school to include in my post, but I didn't get around to it for a really long time. See #1.
3. I've been really busy with costuming stuff, so I haven't been thinking about school as much once I get home.
4. I'm still new and learning, so I don't have a lot to say about it yet.

But this week, I was finally initiated into the world of education.

I got sick.

It's all those kids with their crazy germs! I even had to stay home. Two days in a row! And I don't like missing work. Especially when I've only been working there for a few weeks. I'm still trying to prove myself and show my awesome work ethic. But I tried to go in on Wednesday, and I was sent home. I was pretty croaky-sounding, and eventually I lost my voice completely. When it started coming back, this weird croaking noise would come out of me randomly as I was trying to talk. I couldn't really control it. It was funny.

But I did get to watch a lot of Legend of the Seeker when I was home alone for two days. I pretty much love that show. It's cool.

So now I know what it's like to work in education. And I like it. Not the getting sick part, but the job in general. In my position, I work with all the kids in the school, though I see the Sp. Ed. kids more. I go from class to class playing and observing all day. It's pretty awesome. We have some of the coolest little kids in the world. And that's fun.

And I finally took some pictures!

The pictures aren't really all that cool because I don't work in a traditional classroom. The Special Ed. team is based in a resource room. So we have lots of cool toys and resources (ha!), but it just looks like a room with a bunch of stuff in my pictures. Oh, well.

It's kind of a mess. But it doesn't always look like this.

And this is my school:

Ha! Just kidding. This is a private Christian school up the street. But I think it's really cool that I get to drive by a castle every day as I go to work.

It's pretty.

So, that's school. It's cool, until it gets me sick. I'm going to try really hard to stay healthy from now on. But I'm not sure that it will matter with all the kids snotting on me all the time. Oh, well. I guess it's worth it.

I'm going K-ra-zy!

I've been sewing a lot recently, and I have A LOT more to do in the next couple of weeks. My mom and I are co-costuming for a production of "Crazy for You." We were asked somewhat last minute, so we haven't had as much time to prepare as we would have liked. Plus the show is big; we have 34 actors! It's really the first big show either of us has designed, which is a little scary. I'm fairly certain that we're not going to get everything done.

Things have been a little tough at times throughout the process (so far). We don't have as many people on our crew as we thought we would, and the director doesn't really seem to care much about the costumes in general. I'm sure I add to my mother's stress because I get very frustrated very easily. But I'm really hoping it will all be worth it when our fabulous costumes hit the stage on February 13!

Anyway, sewing and planning has completely consumed my time these last few weeks and it will only get worse. This is what I've been doing:

Getting started. Lots of fabric.

Here's the fabric once it was formed into things. Knicker-pants and crazy sequin shrugs, though you can't really tell from the way I piled them together for this picture.

The costumes we took to fittings on Saturday. We had to load all these and the rack into the car, drive 45 minutes, and then unload them at the studio. Then we repeated in reverse so we could take them home and work on them. Fun!

A bodice for one of the EIGHT Follies' girls' dresses we're making.

Two of the half finished Follies' dresses. They still need sleeves and finishings. Plus lots of pink fufu stuff to make it crazy pretty. (And they really need pressed!)

We still have lots of work, so I'll keep posting along the way!

Call me lazy

I'm a major procrastinator. And I occasionally get in certain moods where I just don't want to do anything.

I REALLY should be doing this right now:

Sewing costumes! My mom and I are designing for a local production of Crazy for You. We have A LOT of work to do.

Or this:

Laundry (obviously). It's clean, though. I just need to fold it.

Possibly this:

A crosstitch for my niece who was born two months ago. It's going to have her name, birthday, weight, etc. I know I need to get it done, but it's not like she will be mad if it takes a while. As long as it's on her wall by the time she's three or so, we can just tell her it's been there since she was born. She'll never know.

And I should have done this a LONG time ago:

My bathroom needs to be cleaned. It's not disgusting dirty (FYI: I recently cleaned the toilet), it's just really cluttered.

But instead, I'm doing this:

Playing online!

And this:

And watching TV! (I have no idea what that weird bubble thing is. It wasn't in the TV show. Maybe we have a ghost.)

Oh, well. Tomorrow's a new day!

My favorite things!

There are certain things in my life that just make me happy. Things I pretty much can't live without. These are some of those items.

1. My lappy. I would be lost without this. I'm typing on her as we speak. I married a computer nerd, who spends HOURS on his computer every day. So I've found my own ways to waste time online. Blogging is one of those time-wasters.

2. My awesome KitchenAid mixer. See previous post for all her awesomeness.

3. My car. This is not him, but he looks kinda like this. His name is Samson, but I call him Sammy. He's pretty and comfy.

4. Henry. He's my stuffed frog. Matt bought him for me for my birthday right after we started dating. He's the perfect size to cuddle with.
5. My purple Chucks. I like Chucks and purple is my favorite color. So my purple Chucks are awesome.
6. My Singer sewing machine. Another gift from Matt. This one was from our first Christmas. I sewed my bridesmaid's dresses on this machine. Plus many other things.
7. Books! I love books. I love my books. I want more books.

I have a tendacy to get really, really into certain things way more than most normal people. Then I'll eventually move on and get completely obsessed about another thing. Therefore, my favorite things change from time to time. For example, I always love Gilmore Girls, but sometimes I get ridiculously obsessed with the show and I watch 5 and 1/2 seasons consecutively. Then, my interest will fade a little, and instead of finishing the rest of the seasons, I'll start re-reading Harry Potter over and over, and obsessing with that.

However, this list contains all the constants. The items that I will always love and need. My favorite favorites!