Hello everyone!
It's been a long while since I've updated...and for good reason too!
So, let me see where to start....
A week before the house warming party, I had people RSVPing, and I was already feeling the pressure, as I needed to get the house in order, figure out what to make and start making it, on top of making sure that I took care of the everyday things too.
One of the things that I wanted to make sure that we had in time for the house warming party, was a few things to help make the home, ours. For example, we have so many lids to our pots and pans, that it's a pain how we've got it set up currently, so I ordered a lid rack, a 5 tiered pan holder, and a decorative hanging wine rack that I wanted to use in the guest bathroom for towels. I also ordered a couple of cds too....seems like things would be fine right? Wrong.
Silly me, had gone onto my account online, deleted the old house address from my shipping address, but because I have the Amazon Prime account, I didn't realize and it didn't occur to me that I would have to go in and change my "1 Click Shipping Address". See where this is going?
So, here I am, thinking, "Yes! These things will arrive in plenty of time for us to get them in, and organized...." I get the email that things have shipped. I didn't think about it. Suddenly, I get an email stating that another item is being shipped to this address....Guess which address? Yep...the old one. Crapola! I frantically got online with UPS to talk to them about changing the shipping address, but they told me to contact the sellers and that the sellers could do it. Each one of them, told me that they couldn't do it, or it would cost me an additional $X. They said that if things are returned to them, they would refund me and I could order it again. This is after I had emailed each seller personally, explaining the error...Thanks Amazon!
So, long story short, I reordered everything, and triple checked my address,(Fixing the mess up from before), and I got most of the things, the important things, before the party. I have been refunded for everything that was sent back. At least the new owners of that house in the Springs were kind enough to return to sender and not keep the items for themselves. My bad!
One of the items, as I mentioned above, was a hanging wine rack. I loved this idea when I found it online, and begged Mike to let me get it....okay, so maybe beg is too strong of a word. I just asked him, and he said yes. *shrug*, So I like to make things a little more exciting....
It came in a big box, already assembled, and I stuck it on the wall, and placed the new towels, hand towels and washcloths that we bought to match the theme of the bathroom. Mike was concerned about hitting it, each time someone was to use the bathroom, but it seems to be working out just fine. Another thing that I loved for the guest bathroom, we had bought when we first moved into the house, when we bought the towels, shower curtain, and bath mat. It is a soap holder, that I personally think is freaking cute!
The towel rack...nice, right?
How sticking cute is this soap holder?
The party went really well, aside from the fact that we were missing a few people who said they were coming, but overall, it was super fun! We busted out the Guitar Hero on the Wii, followed up with EveryBody Dance on the PS3, which was ended by Disc Golf and Bocce on the same system. During those games, one of my friends, Beth, was super entertaining to watch as she busted out lyrics that she didn't fully know, and was narrating her dances in the most hilarious ways! I ended up recording her antics on my phone, and played them back for people. I think that I have seen them each time I am having a bad day, and it turns it around so fast, it was as if I was never upset. I would upload them, but I have difficulties trying to mail videos from my phone...
The same week before the party, I woke up to a dull day outside. When I mean dull, I mean that it wasn't sunny...which usually means two things...rain or snow. Guess what...we had snow. It didn't stick around for long. It might have lasted for a couple days, but overall, it was gone just as quickly as it had started. By the time the party happened, there wasn't any traces of snow left. We even had a doe and her baby making their way around the house, in search of some grass still sticking up from the snow. Of course, each time that I send pictures of the deer to my mom, she tells me that they would come out when she's not here...Needless to say, none of the deer ventured close to the house when she was visiting. Maybe if she comes out for Thanksgiving, they will be more inclined to coming up to the house.
Good morning, sunshine...I mean, snowshine...?
Where's the green stuff? Where's my watermelon?!
The day after the house warming party, Mike and I took our parents, in two separate cars, to the Dinosaur National Park in Dinosaur, Colorado. We had brunch first, then we took off. It was a lot of fun to be able to talk to the folks, as we drove up. Mike joked that I was in the "fun" car, because we were having conversations whereas his car was pretty silent for most of the trip.
Once we arrived, we drove up to the visitor center first, then we headed up to the dig site. After spending some time there, we did the mile loop back down to the visitor center. Mike and I wanted to do the scenic drive around the other section of the park, but the timing was tough, as the sun was setting. We were able to get to one of the look outs before turning back.
The drive back, however, turned out to be much more exciting than the drive up. I was the lead car, and it's open country, so there are a lot of wildlife, and not many lights to brighten up the roads. As we were heading down the road, a deer ran out in front of my car. Now, at the time, I didn't think that time slowed down, but after talking about the event, everyone had told me that the deer didn't just "walk out" in front of my car, but was sprinting across the street. Everyone told me that I handled the situation very well, as I didn't panic, and I reacted quickly. I had slammed on my brakes, aiming for the hindquarters of the deer (because if you do, more than likely, the deer will have moved out of the way). I missed hitting the deer by inches. I started to drive much more cautiously, and was gripping the steering wheel so hard, that I had lost blood flow in one of my arms. I kept asking my parents if they were okay. We even joked about it, until we reached town. When we got to the restaurant that we were going to have dinner at, I realized that I was shaking pretty violently. Turns out that I was in shock over the whole ordeal...go figure, right? I ended up having a big drink, and then I couldn't stomach the food, as my nerves were still unsettled. I even broke down a few times in the restaurant over it. My mom had comforted me, telling me that everyone was fine, including Bambi, and that I handled things well. I understood all of that, but I was in shock. I also couldn't help but think of all of things that could have gone wrong. I was thankful that I was wearing my glasses, as I think that I wouldn't have been able to see the deer, had I not been wearing them. I also was very grateful that I was the lead car, as I'm not confident that the second car, which was lower to the ground, would have been able to stop in time, and the deer would have caused some major damage, not only to the car, but to Mike and his parents. I know that you're not supposed to think or dwell on the things that could have been, but I kept thinking those things.
My mom had offered to drive me home, and after thinking about it, I agreed to it. I gave her my keys, and we headed out. I told her which lane to get into, and I didn't think to tell her that the street that she was going to turn onto was a one way street. So, I tell her that after she turns, she will want the right lane. My mom takes a wide right. Of course, as she is making the turn, I inform her that there was a cop at that red light when she turned...then I look up to see that she's driving in the shoulder/parking lane of the street. I tell her that and she corrects her position on the road. Guess what? The cop put his lights on, and pulled her over. She explains the situation to the cop, who was really nice, and was laughing at her. He took my registration and her ID to his car to run it. My first question to my mom was," You didn't do this just to make me forget about the deer incident, did you?" She laughed and told me that was exactly her plan. She was afraid that she would get a ticket, but since her record is clean, and my record is clean, we would be fine. She did get a written warning, however, and I did offer to keep the evidence, but it was a good laugh to have regardless.
To make the night even better, when I opened the garage door, (the one that you have to open manually) for my mom to park, the door jams. All my mom can see of me, as I am frustratingly pounding my foot on the ground, and she thinks I'm dancing. Um...no...not dancing. Mike fixed the door with the help of my step dad, and once everyone was gone, Mike hugs me, and I break down...for two hours.
I realize that it's a silly thing to get so worked up over, but again, I was thinking about things that could have been...not the things that had happened.
The next day, my parents headed home, and we took Mike's parents to Steamboat Springs. We had lunch and started to do some shopping. We walked into a jewelry store, and I found a ring to fit my index and middle finger that I loved. It was made of silver, which I'm allergic to, but rings are usually pretty safe, so I asked Mike if we could buy it. He said yes, and on my finger it went.
Elephants marching, for "Michelephant".
Mike joked about how "Michelephant" got her elephant ring. Har har...For those of you who don't know me well, I like elephants. I had once looked into going and volunteering at an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee. Obviously, I didn't go, and that's okay.
We went into several others stores, and when we started to pass by a candy store, I stopped as something caught my eye. Holy cow, I thought, there is Hobbes! Hobbes is the tiger companion of Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes. We walked into the store, and I picked him up, along with a stuffed googley eyed monster that talks for Willow, and some Sixlets, as Mike has never had any before, and I've talked about them to him on numerous occasions. When he finally ate some, his comment was," Now I can die, fulfilled..." Um, okay? Whatever floats your boat. =) I had originally thought of my brother when I picked up Hobbes, but I became so attached to him, that I decided to keep him. He's pretty soft and cuddly too. He is currently sitting on the night stand next to the bed. Tigers frighten away monsters, right?
Hobbes.
After we finished our shopping, we headed to a location in Steamboat Springs, where a waterfall was. It was a short hike, 1/4 mile, and we got there to see it. I'm curious to see what it will look like when it isn't winter. I grabbed some good pictures of it, however, I haven't gotten around to downloading them to work on. Be patient, I've been busy!
The next day, everyone had gone home, and things were back to normal, for the most part. I spent some time cleaning, and coming up with shopping lists for food, as we only had party food leftover. There's only so much dip and sweets that you can have before you need normal food!
As I have mentioned before, I had printed several pictures out, and took them to the local frame shop. I'm still waiting on them to finish up my stuff. The hiccup is due to the fact that they ordered the bags to place my matted prints in, from New Jersey...and they're under water. Perfect! So, they called me today, and told me that they should have them tomorrow. I'm starting to sweat a little, as I need these things before 7am on Friday! I think we'll be okay, but it's going to be tight!
Friday is the first day of the craft show. I'm hoping that things go well. Fingers crossed!
So, last Monday, Mike and I headed up to Steamboat, to have lunch at our normal place, and grab some buckets for my shows, as well as some receipt books. We also did our grocery shopping there at the new Natural Grocers. We were looking for lamb and fish there. Of course, finding those things is a challenge in itself. I had to dig for the meats, and I found some bison, which I picked up, and then I finally found the lamb. It took me forever to find, because they packaged them in rolled packaging, instead of normal ones. Now I know...
So, today, I got up, called the frame shop, and was told they would contact me later to let me know if they got the bags in or not, turns out they didn't. As I got off the phone with them, I tossed the ingredients for dinner tonight into our new crock pot and turned it on. I texted Mike, to see if he wanted to have lunch together today, and then I called my mom, to answer her text. I grabbed some water, and figured that since Mike wanted to do a later lunch, that I would grab a snack to hold me over. While I'm on the phone with my mom, I get up to grab that snack, and I sniff. Something's wrong. The air smells sulfur-ish. I look around, and my eyes land on the new crock pot...it's smoking, like it's on fire. Frick! I put the phone down, and I immediately turn it off, unplugged it, and pulled the crock out....My mom is on the phone, wondering what is going on. I'm just lucky that I was still at home when that happened. I told Mike the incident, and he could do nothing but laugh.
After lunch, I headed to Wal-Mart, and grabbed a few things that I needed for Friday and things that we just needed. One of those things was a clock. A clock, you ask? Well, when Mike and I are in the living room, there is no clock there to tell us what time it is, aside from the Playstation, which unless you stop playing whatever (game/movie) you can't see what time it is. So, I found a nice clock and placed it on one of the pre-existing nails.
The new clock!
Another thing that I picked up, was some pseudo flowers and grass for the nice vase that we have. I picked some nice things out, that I liked anyways, and of course, they had metal in the stems, so it took me some time to bend and manipulate them so that they would break down to the size that I needed/wanted.
I think they turned out well.
I also grabbed a bundt pan, as a recipe that I am going to try, requires it, and I don't have one! Well, I do now, and the other thing that I picked up was some pajama bottoms. I have some that are so old, that I've had since I was 14 or 15, and I've been wearing them. Mike would come up behind me, poke my behind, and say, "There's a hole there." Um...thanks...I think? At first, I thought he was being facetious, as my first train of thought is," Yeah, you're poking me in the butt, of course there's a hole there", but then I realized that he meant the tore hole kind...oops. Silly me. So, I found some nice fleece bottoms at Wal-Mart, and now I can toss out the "You've got a hole there" bottoms.
After leaving Wal-Mart, I went to get my flu shot, and the Pharmacist at Walgreens stuck me hard! I wasn't impressed with the technician, as the Pharmacist girl had to micromanage the tech, but everything was nice. I told the Pharmacist girl that I admired her ability to work in a retail pharmacy. I had to explain to her that I worked in a hospital pharmacy, and that I couldn't do Walgreens. She laughed and said that some days she wished that there were four of her, and that some days her patience runs thins, but I laughed and said that I knew that feeling too! I hoped that I made her day a little better, but who knows? Oh, and get your flu shots! It's going to be a particularly bad year for influenza!!
So now...I think I've caught you up. Thanksgiving is still up in the air, as far as what we are doing. I've sent the invite to family to come out here, but who knows what will happen. I've got several craft shows coming up, and we already know that we are going to Portland for Christmas.
Um...so yeah...
Until next time!
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