Thanksgiving 2014

I hosted my very first holiday! We have barely been in our house for a month and I decided to host Thanksgiving this year. Michaels Parents were just getting back from  vacation in Arizona and we always have to juggle between my family and his so it just made sense for us to host it.

Me and my mom went shopping for all the food the week before and I surprisingly wasn't stressed. Dinner turned out to be really easy (with a lot of help from my mom), it was more or less getting our house put together. We still definitely have a lot to do on the house but it was perfect to have everyone over and show it off.

I hope hosting thanksgiving becomes a yearly tradition at my house!

Happy Hosts

I pulled the guts out, bried it, cooked it and basted it! Very proud of my first turkey!

 

 Jim cutting the turkey before dinner

 Three tables to fit my 14 guests!

 

 

 

It was a perfect turkey day, we were missing a few sisters but hopefully next year we will have everyone here!

Buying a house

Hey guys... WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!


That's the short story, here is the long one...

We looked at a house in Buckley right as we were starting the pre-approval process and I fell in love with the first one I found. It was not perfect by any means but it looked like a great first home with all the needs I wanted, dining room, three bedrooms plus bonus room, big yard, and in a good neighborhood. Michael Said I was getting too excited to fast and he didn't want to jump on the first house we saw because there were some things wrong with it. It will need a new roof in the next few years, he thought the furnace needed to be replaced, and it is Propane which is pretty spendy. But I loved it and couldn't stop thinking about it.

A couple weeks went by and we had seen nothing we liked go up for sale, everything seemed to be too small, too close to the neighbors, or to expensive for what the house was. It was super discouraging. We keep looking at houses that were higher and higher in price because the price point we set ourselves was just to low for our standards in Bonney Lake. Getting to high in price was starting to scare me and the houses in our price range were nothing great.

I keep thinking about that first house and knew it hadn't sold yet. The price dropped $10,000 and that showed us it was a motivated seller. We decided to put an offer in that day and were sadly disappointed when we found out there was already a buyer who put in an offer. Our real estate agent said he could prepare a back up offer in case the buyer backed out and I said okay but knew we lost the house. A few hours later our real estate agent called and said the buyer had cold feet and backed out before signing the papers! What! this was so exciting, I told him to go ahead with the offer we talked about previously. I called Michael beyond excited to tell him the good news! Michael was stuck in Alabama so it took quite awhile for us both to get the offer signed and sent but I finally did at 8:30pm, The real estate agent said the other back up offer never came in however the original buyer hadn't official backed out yet, the seller hadn't received the rescission letter. I was immediately discouraged and knew this whole thing was to good to be true. I went to bed no longer excited and didn't expect much the next day. At about 11am our real estate agent text me and let me know he hadn't heard anything yet. But then an hour later he called me and said they accepted our offer and didn't counter!!! I was so excited. We got the house $15,000 under original asking and didn't have to pay closing costs!

The inspection went great, there was just alot of little things that Michael said he wanted to fix, not the seller. We countered $7,000 less then the original offer knowing the seller would counter. They didn't counter, they really were a motivated seller!

After the inspection we signed our loan docs and waited (me not so patiently) for the appraisal and underwriting to be done so we could close.

Closing date was set for October 29th, it was perfect. That left us two days to get out of our townhouse, its not a very far move at all and I have been packing all month ensuring we are ready to go. It really didn't cross my mind that we could close after the estimated date. I gave notice to our townhouse and we have to be out by the end of October. It is going to be a stressful few days but so exciting at the same time! I can't believe we did it, we (I) have been working so hard these past few months with both jobs and this goal in mind and it was finally here!

We have been in the house for a little over two weeks now and I LOVE my new home! Michael has been great about letting me decorate, Im sure my taste is a little modern for him but he doesn't seem to mind!

I can't wait to share more about the transformation/decorations in my house!  

Summer Fun

Its been pretty rare for me this summer to make time for having fun. Two jobs was finally getting to me and I needed to take sometime off. We went to Michael's cousins wedding last weekend in Spokane and it was the little get away I needed.

I don't think I'm the best road trip passenger, I ended up watching Ugly Betty on Netflix on the Ipad the last half of the drive. 

We stayed at the Doubletree all on the same floor as Michael's family which was really fun.

The next morning was really great because one of my best friends lives in Spokane so I was able to sneek away for a few hours and have Breakfast with Cass. She drive me around the cutest area in Spokane trying to convince me to move there. I think we are going to the stick to the west side but it was still really fun to think about living life in the same city again!

I spent the rest of the afternoon with this little stud...

 ^^could he get any cuter?!^^

We went to the wedding later that night and had a great time. It was such a nice day and a beautiful wedding. 

There was a pool at the wedding venue and Jalen decided it would be a good idea to jump in...Me and Jessica followed. I still don't know if that was a good or bad idea, but oh well, it was fun!

July Update

I just realized its been awhile since I'v done some blogging! July has gone by in the blink of an eye, and summer is in full swing.

At the end on June my dad got married. 

That same night we went to Sicily's dance recital. She did so good, it makes me so excited to have girls of my own someday and go to their dance recitals! 

We went to the Emerald Downs fire works show on July 3rd with Michael s sisters and their families.

When I'm gone to much my babies act deprived and this is how they snuggle....I woke up to cat butt in my face and his body under the covers, so funny!

Michael turned the big 25 on the 12th. He got home super late that night from Palm Springs but we still managed to have a little ice cream cake and a few drinks with friends at the Log Cabin. 

We went to Sarah's house for a little Family BBQ and had more cake for a belated birthday for Michael.

More Fun at Sarah's house, we were trying to take pictures in front of the mountain but as soon as you take a picture, the lighting makes it disappear.

Then Michael wanted to see if I could fit in the little kid fisher price car...I did. It took a little bit of time but I got in there. 

  

Feeling Nostolgic

Oh High School...so many memories, fortunately most of them are great memories for me! Auburn HIgh School is getting this incredible remodel and that means the place where I grew up for 4 years is about to be torn down. Alumni have been posting pictures on Facebook of the empty hallways and classrooms right before demolition but it was one picture that particularly stuck out to me....

Yes high school is a place you go and take classes like biology, English and Math...but it is so much more then that. High School is about growing as a person, meeting new friends, finding or continuing hobbies and activities you are interested in. For me, this is the place where most of these things happened for me in...The Pit. For most people who haven't been in this space, it just looks like a small empty gym, But to me I see so much more. I see, dance practices, cheer practices, eating vending machine food and blue powerade during yoga, getting ready in front of the big mirrors before football games, blasting the stereo and dancing in front of the mirrors, getting all lined up alphabetically for graduation, and most of all creating friendships that have remained and grown to this day.

Twenty Four

I had the best birthday yesterday, I felt so loved! When I was in college I could skip class or request the day off work (my smoothie job) so I had the whole day free to celebrate, but that isn't the case when your a big girl. I consider myself a big girl since I'm done with school and have a grown up job.

Michael so kindly kept reminding me that I was halfway to 48...I didn't like that so much but its okay I still feel young.

The day started off with my favorite Americano and Chocolate croissant free from Starbucks, gotta love being a gold member.

Balloons from my friend Brandi, more balloons Starbucks and card from my fav little people and Michael's sister Sarah. All morning my phone was going off with texts from friends and family giving me warm wishes.

SO many Instagram shout-outs!

I went and got a pedicure after work and then met my friend Mackenzie for Icey drinks at Hop Jacks. 

After drinks Michael gave me a pretty new necklace then it was off to dinner at the Rainier, my favorite!

Than back to my Mom's for homemade raspberry lemon cheesecake, my other favorite! 

It was a good birthday! 

Halfway Through 2014

I set all these great goals for myself at the beginning of the year...lets see if I'm actually keeping up with them.

1. "NO MORE SODA POP" This goal is going fabulously, I have not had a coke, or Dr. pepper or any pop at all since Last year! I do have a weakness for carbonation so I have been occasionally drinking these fabulous dry sodas. Its basically just flavored carbonated water with a little sugar.

2. "START A BLOG" well obviously this whole blog thing is going pretty good. I have done about 30 posts this year. I recently haven't been posting very much but that is more or less the fact that I have two jobs, no life, therefore very little to post about. I'm pretty proud of myself for starting this and I get even more excited when people know whats going on in my life because they read it on my blog! 

3. "EXERCISE MORE" This goal is not going so great...actually its not going at all. I have yet to join a gym or get on any kind of at home work out schedule. I have done an occasional Jillian Michaels DVD but not enough to count for anything. Red Robin helps keep me more active then I was before but I still really need to be working out consistently. 

4. "EAT OUT LESS" I think I have gotten better at this, I still think I eat out to much but I'm getting better. The Spring/summer time really help because me and Michael are big fans of using our BBQ every night. Chicken and turkey burgers taste SO much better off the BBQ!

5. "BUY A HOUSE" obviously this hasn't happened yet but I am making good progress. I started serving again at Red Robin and this second job of mine has really made my savings account happy. I'm very proud of how much I'm saving as well as paying my credit card and furniture bill down.  

I think I'm doing a pretty good job so far!