new kicks.

We made two major investments: bowling shoes for each of us. Granted, Kalin’s were about the sweetest thrift find:

and mine were extremely reasonable at the sporting goods store. Think about it, everytime you go bowling you can spend upwards of $4-5 on shoe rentals. My brand new pair were about $30. So, if you go 6 times (which I’d imagine most people will go that much, if not more in their lifetime), you’ve paid for your shoes. Such a deal!

We’ve been going with our Thursday night Bible study group on Tuesday nights when we can bowl for $1/game. We’ve seen some high scores and I feel like this is just the beginning of a great tradition. Next: we will need our own bowling balls!

this is amazing.

Thanks to the joy that is google reader, someone out there posted this video and I only wish I was there to actually witness it.

i can haz vacationz?

Sorry, I can't believe I wrote the title like that. But it's fitting.

Maybe it's because we had to use all of our vacation to balance Regis' budget for their last fiscal year that left us really wanting to take a real vacation. I'm not complaining – we still have our jobs! It's just that the weather is getting nicer and we probably set a bad standard for ourselves last year where we meandered about California for three weeks right after we finished our jobs in Seattle. But, we, or I mean "I" get ancy and ready to just go somewhere. We were tempted by the amazing offer from IcelandAir for their stimulus package – go to Iceland for a few days for cheaper than a flight to Hawaii. I hope this offer still stands in a few months.

So, where to go, quickly, affordably and have fun? You combine your trip with a wedding and head to the state that never lets you down: California. The unplanned plan at the moment is to make it to a wedding in San Diego later this summer. And to get there we will drive. And by driving means will have to stop in Vegas and by stopping in Vegas means we should stay a little bit and go to "O" the Cirque Du Soleil at the Bellagio. Ever since we went to Corteo in Redmond, WA last Spring I couldn't wait to see more. And just the preview for "O" looks incredible.

The benefit of driving to San Diego is that we can load the car up with goodies from Trader Joes and IKEA and bring them back to Colorado. Also, there are fabulous people that live between here and San Diego that we'd love to see too. I think we can make the most of a quick trip to spend all the little bit of vacation that we can start accumulating. It should be perfect and do-able.

But seriously, I still want to go to Iceland. Or Japan, or a cruise through the Mediterranean. But these trips will take much more planning and saving, so they can wait.

snow day.

Our first Colorado snow day!  Well, kinda for me.  They never cancelled school ever, but today, the whole front range was closed and finally Regis decided they were the last ones still open, so at 10:30a, we went home!

So, lots of good times with the puppy and lots of snow falling from all directions.  We have a blizzard warning till tomorrow, so we are safe and warm and totally enjoying this day!  I'm hoping tomorrow will be like this as well.  We checked and thankfully, we have the makin's for pizza tonight, so we won't go hungry or have to venture out again.

Mochi's first snow experience hasn't been too bad.  He's so tiny that he gets cold quite easily.  Here's a sweet one of Mochi staying warm in Kalin's coat while the snow falls and falls and falls.....

our Mochi.

This little fur ball came into our live this past monday.  Quite quickly we realized what a responsibility he is.  Also, he is not potty trained within a few days?!?!?  One day, all our attempts at training should finally work out?  But, he's doing good.  We decided to crate train him and that is definitely cutting back on the accidents.  I took him to the most amazing vet on Wednesday and he is in good shape, plus everyone there was madly in love with him and the vet said that he made her day.  What a ladies man!

We had just been calling him "puppy" or "dude" while we were figuring out the perfect name.  Just yesterday, we were going through some names with Kalin's parents who are in town.  We were thinking about something Japanese like Sashiko.  But then we thought of Mochi, the delicious rice dough frozen treats.  It was perfect.  So, he is now Mochi.

There is a lot of work ahead of us, but he's so great, he's worth it.

Mochi with the little duck that Taylor (Hettie) sent him.  

making our house a home.

We moved all our stuff in a week ago with a ton of help from our friends, Phil and Jenny and Mark and Melissa.  It went really quickly, which was great.  It was overwhelming to see all our boxes and just to think about where to begin.  But, we started, one box at a time.  Put together old and new furniture.  We got our kitchen squared away first, which is really nice.  It was also a good feeling that everything fit.  Quickly, all space was filled with cut down boxes and bags and bags of packing material.  I'm happy to say that nothing was broken (yet...).  Thankfully, my parents hauled away about 7 garbage bags full of packing material - we would feel like bad neighbors filling up the dumpsters in the alley our first week here!  Each day we tried to devote ourselves to a project.  We replaced the ugly mirror in the bathroom, put up a fancy shower head, unpacked china and stored it nicely.  We set up the Wii (we do have our priorities...).  

On Friday, I got a call from the Fancy Tiger and they got in their Japanese Cafe Curtain fabric - so I had to jet over there to get my share before it was gone.  These curtains will be super easy, cut, hem and put on a bar - they even come pre-cut for the hanging holes.  And even better - they have a little French motif that is so great:

We are still slowly working on our 2nd bedroom, but the closets are AMAZING!  so much storage space, definitely worth their remodel:
It wouldn't be fair to make you all think that we are done unpacking, so here is our room o' mess, the 2nd bedroom.  We put up our bookshelves, but are having trouble not having them slide on the wood floors since they are the leaning kind.  We've secured them with heavy boxes at the bottom, but need something more permanent.  So, here's the work-in-progress.
Now for the livable space.  I am very grateful for motivation to finish projects.  This Sunday, after church Phil and Jenny mentioned that we could all have some pizza at our house and then play some Wii.  We had about and hour or so until they came over and we WENT TO WORK!  The boxes, donations and trash were cleared out.  The bed was made, the floor was swept and in general our living room and dining area were presentable, so I felt like it's a good time to take a picture in this state:

It's pretty nice to be here, living and starting our life in this new place.  I appreciate my short drive (and maybe walk and bike) to work.  We have met all our neighbors (including the 1-week old Calvin!).  This is truly a wonderful place to start making a home.

And, everyday we are getting closer to having a puppy.  Promise, right Kalin?

the most amazing trip to target. ever.

I feel a bit silly blogging about a trip to Target, but I feel like this particular trip needs to be documented.  This past Saturday, we went to dinner with a few friends and friends of friends.  After dinner, the boys were going to see The Watchmen while a few of the girls weren't so sure we were interested.  There were three of us: me, Melissa and Christina, of which we all go to a Thursday Night Bible study together.  We kinda felt like out night was going to be lame while we waited for the movie to get over.  BUT, how could we resist the lure of the Target across the street.

Christina is engaged and thought we could go look at Target for her invites - she's not too picky and was planning on printing them herself, so she basically just needed paper.  So this became our mission: wedding invites.

Upon arriving into the parking lot, we noticed this Target has some swanky looking carts; not your standard wire basket on wheels - these were sleek!  Then we headed for the bathroom where they had the most excellent automatic hand dryer - you could see the skin on your hand flap!  Seriously, I had this feeling it was going to be a successful trip.

We headed for the invite isle, but it looked like things had cleared out, but we then found some invites on CLEARANCE!  Christina found some she liked and even dared to get multiple kinds - 50 for $8.  Then, she found some she liked a bit more for regular price, the only ones left.  We just joked that maybe they would give her the clearance price for them.  She headed for Customer Service, turns out she knows the guy there and he'd give her the full price ones for clearance!

OK, it gets better...

Then Melissa, whose about 15-16 weeks pregnant was talking about the need for Maternity clothes.  We talked her into just browsing the clearance in the Maternity section, because she did need a coat that actually fit.  Low and behold, a super-cute, black trench coat for $11 was a perfect fit!  Seriously, $11?  We picked up a few more items then went to the food section.  Wow, Target has amazing prices on food, so this is where I scored some deals - eggos and maple syrup and some canisters for our flour and such.  We went back to pick up the guys, found front row parking, they showed up a few minutes later, and we were ecstatic about our evening.  So maybe the guys didn't get it, but this trip to Target was absolutely amazing.  It was so great to spend some time with Christina and Melissa outside of group and makes me so happy to be back in Colorado and meeting such wonderful people.