Thursday, December 29, 2011

is it really over?

The realization that my winter break is coming to an end is starting to hit me and I am having a hard time coming to terms with it. I know, I know. I am really lucky because I get two weeks off of work to relax and enjoy the holidays when some people have to go back to the real world the day after Christmas, those poor souls. But it still sucks knowing that in a few days, I can't sleep in until 9:30 (10:30 some days) and watch 1,000 episodes of Lost in a row, and not worry about what I have to wear or putting make-up on or any of those daily things that take effort. Having two weeks off is the best thing ever, but it also makes it that much harder to go back to work because you get so used to not having to work for such a long time! Now that the dreaded time has finally come to mentally prepare myself and get back into school-mode I am doing a great job of putting it off as long as I possibly can. Which is exactly why I am writing in my blog! Nothing like procrastination for a little blog inspiration. Anyway, wish me luck on getting prepared for school, I am not ready for the break to be over!

In other news, Brett and I have gotten to do a little wedding planning together this week which has been fun! Everyone says one of the best parts of the wedding is planning for it, which I have found to be totally true. But, it would be even more fun if I had an endless budget and didn't have to worry about the prices of all of these fun wedding plans. Can I please win the lottery? Thanks. We are currently looking for a venue in Colorado and I think we have settled on a date! I will wait to reveal the date until we have actually booked a venue, then I know it will be 100% official :) What I DO know is that it's definitely going to be in July 2013, yay! So you can also wish me luck in looking for and finding a perfect venue and winning the lottery ;)

The bottom line is, whenever and wherever we have the wedding I know it will be absolutely perfect because Brett and I will happily be husband and wife. And that's all that really matters! Let this blog be a reminder to me to remember that when the planning gets less fun and more stressful, haha. What were the best/ worst parts of wedding planning for you all?? Fill me in!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and let's all look forward to a great 2012!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

it's been awhile

Hello there blog! It's been awhile. I stole this from Elaine's blog because I wasn't so sure what to write about and I got the perfect inspiration for a post from her! Thanks for the idea Elaine!

right now I am…

watching: Teen Mom 2. And before that I watched Kim and Kourtney take New York, and before that, Elf. As you can see I have had a really productive day.

eating: Nothing yet. But I've been dreaming about a Chipotle burrito bowl all day and it's almost dinner time...

drinking: A white chocolate mocha from Starbucks, mmm!

wearing: Sweats and a t-shirt

avoiding: Cleaning our bedroom and putting my laundry away. The couch just looked like a better place to hang out.

feeling: Excited! I just found out my girlfriend Ash picked out her wedding dress today! I wish more than anything I could have been there to see the moment in action.

missing: Being home for the holidays. I ALWAYS miss being home in Colorado, but the holidays are especially hard to be away for. The good news is I'll be home in a month, so get ready Denver!

thankful: for my wonderful and perfect fiance´, family, and friends. there is nothing more important to me!

weather: 34 degrees and windy, gross.

needing: To finish my Christmas shopping.

thinking: About what the hell happened in the season 5 finale of Lost. This show is insane and I love it. I can't wait for Netflix to send us season 6 so we can continue with the shenanigans!

loving: The holiday season! And I'm also loving the fact that I have one week left of school until my long 2 week Christmas break, yay!


Thursday, November 17, 2011

November 13, 2011

November 13, 2011 = the best day EVER. Last weekend Brett and I took an awesome trip to Mystic, CT. It's a cute and quaint little New England town that I encourage everyone to visit if they are up in the Northeastern part of the country. It was the perfect weekend get-a-way with the perfect ending :) But I'll get to that after I explain the rest of the trip!

On Saturday morning we walked around town and did a little shopping, then afterwards we went to the Mystic Seaport. This is a very cool and interesting outdoor living museum filled with boats, houses, and artifacts from the 17th and 18th centuries. It is like Jamestown or Colonial Williamsburg where you can walk around and see how people lived back then. I loved it and would highly recommend going!

The next day we went to an old cider mill where we enjoyed a demonstration of how they make the cider and also devoured some delicious cider donuts and hot cider. After that begins the final/ best part of the trip! We made our way out of Mystic to Stonington Vineyards for an afternoon of wine tasting and a tour of the vineyard.

When we got there we bought a bottle of white wine to enjoy with some cheese and sandwiches we had brought with us. Luckily it was a beautiful, sunny day so we were able to hang out outside for most of the time we spent there. After enjoying a glass of wine, we took the tour and then went back outside to finish our bottle and walk around to explore the vineyard. When I suggested we go for a walk, Brett told me he wanted to wait until we could walk around alone (there was a big group taking pictures in front of all the grapes), at which point I became the slightest bit suspicious. Might I add, I was hoping that Brett would pop the question sometime in the next couple of months, so I was on my guard at this point haha! After the crowd had left we went into the vineyard to take a picture; there was a wine barrel that made for a perfect tripod for a self-timed photo that he set his camera on. The weird thing about the picture was that Brett wanted to take one with his camera. I'm ALWAYS the one taking pictures, so I was getting a little more suspicious, but nonetheless excited that he actually wanted a picture of us on his camera. I later found out the self-timer wasn't working so he settled on putting the camera on video mode (he got the whole proposal on video, so cool!). He came over to me to "take the picture", bent down away from me to "fix his shoe", and twisted around to face me on his one knee. As soon as I saw him on his knee facing me, the tears and "are you serious'?!?" started to flow. He told me sweet things that are now all a blur and then asked me if I would marry him! I asked him if he was serious just one last time and then of course blurted out YES! It was perfect and I have never had a happier moment in my life.

This whole past week has been filled with excitement and well wishes from everyone and it has been such a special time for the both of us. I still keep running the moment over in my head letting the thought that we will be married sink in. I could not ask for a more perfect person to spend the rest of my life with and I feel so lucky! Thanks for all of the congrats and love :) I can't wait to post more about the wedding planning process!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

ENGAGED!

Brett popped the big question today! I'll give you all the details later but I'm just so excited I had to post something TONIGHT! But I will say this: I could not be any happier than I feel right now :D

Sunday, October 30, 2011

guilty pleasure

We all have our guilty pleasures. Whether it be chocolate, watching a trashy or overly dramatic T.V. show, or making cookie dough with no intention of actually making cookies but just to eat the dough (I'm so guilty on this one!). I have to admit one of my favorite guilty pleasures are the Twilight books. I read them all almost as fast as I read all of the Harry Potter books and I'm obsessed.

I was watching T.V. last night and I was so excited when I saw that the Twilight movie was on! It was the first movie, the worst of the bunch in my opinion, but of course I watched it nonetheless. While watching I got even MORE excited because I remembered the first installment of the last movie is coming out in less than a month, ahhhh! All of this Twilight excitement and obsession prompted me to use the rest of my amazon gift card to buy the whole entire Twilight series on my Kindle, which after the gift card only cost me $22.00, what a steal!

I can't wait to re-read all of the books and see the new movie that is coming out November 18th. Looks like I'll be taking, or forcing, Brett out for a movie-date that night!!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

i love sundays

Sundays are awesome. They are especially awesome when you have also had great Friday and Saturday nights. Case in point = my weekend. Friday was a chill night for Brett and I, we made a much needed Target-run, then just relaxed with each other and planned out what we were going to get done the next day. It was a perfect way to unwind after a long, busy week at school.

Saturday was crazy busy because we were preparing for our pre-Halloween party! We knew people would probably have big plans for Halloween so we decided to have our costume party a week early, and I'm happy to say it was a success! I love having people over and I feel like we don't do it enough, so needless to say I was extremely excited to have friends come over and celebrate Halloween a week early. The party was so much fun! Full of great costumes, games, and friends - a wonderful Saturday night :)

Now here is why I love Sundays so much: after an eventful (or even an uneventful) weekend, Sunday is the perfect day to hang out, relax, watch football or a movie, and reminisce about what a fantastic weekend I have had. I especially love Sundays during the fall and winter because I can cuddle up in a blanket while doing all of this relaxing. I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely Sunday as much as I am, and I know everyone in Denver is because the Broncos actually won a game today! Woohoo!

Monday, October 17, 2011

just because

I love Beyonce! She is so talented and I wish I could dance as fierce and as hard as she does. I think this song of hers is so cute and the video is fun too! It puts me in a good mood hearing it so I thought I would share. Enjoy :)

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Sunday, October 2, 2011

update

It's been 4 weeks since school has started and it's been going well so far! We have a super cute class this year so I'm looking forward to teaching them. Even though I feel lucky to have a job at such a nice school, and I'm lucky to have such a good class of kiddos, I still can't wait to have my OWN classroom in a high school. Someday my school dreams will come true! Until then I'll enjoy my time with the little third graders.

Nothing too exciting is going on here, Brett and I are just enjoying hanging out together and loving the fall! I've never been so excited for the fall as I am this year, and it's turning out to be everything I've dreamed of so far. The weather has been absolutely beautiful (good weather always puts me in a good mood :)) and we have been trying to do some fall-like activities to take advantage of it. This weekend we went to a local high school football game and had a lot of fun. It made me think of the good ol' days at TJ! We also had a movie date last night and are going to play tennis today, so it has definitely been a good weekend for us.

This coming Friday we are leaving to go to Charlotte for the long Columbus Day weekend and I can't wait! We are going to the Davidson football game on Saturday and I'm sure we'll be having a lot of fun with Brett's friends the rest of the weekend :) Hopefully I'll get to see Beth too, she is living in Charlotte now and we haven't seen each other since we were in Holland together; such a long time! I hope everyone is having a great October so far, yay for the fall!

p.s. I am SO pumped for Halloween! What is everyone going to be this year?!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

1 year

As of yesterday, I have officially been living in Connecticut for one year. Crazy! It feels like just a few months ago that Jess and I took the FOREVER long, three day road trip to get here from Colorado. Time has flown by so fast and I'm looking forward to another good year!


Jess and I building furniture for my apt. last year. It looks so empty!



Saturday, September 10, 2011

homesick

Homesickness strikes again! I feel like it's always with me in the back of my mind, but sometimes it creeps up and really gets to me when I least expect it. I know that I chose to move away from my family and friends, and I know that living somewhere besides CO has given me the opportunity to do things, meet people, and have experiences that I wouldn't have had otherwise. And of course, the best part of moving away has been living with Brett and finally getting to spend some great, quality time together after being apart for so long!

But sometimes I just can't help it and the homesickness consumes me. I hate being away from my family. I want to go to Ft. Collins and visit my brother at school and see where he lives, I want to hang out with my parents and Chance, I want to stop by my grandparents house to say hi and catch up on things, etc. I hate being away from my friends. I hate not being able to go grab coffee with them, go to a rockies game, hear that funny joke they will be laughing about for weeks, and just not being there to know what's going on in everyone's daily lives.

When I'm feeling like this I remind myself that even though I'm not there with everyone, I still am just as close with them as I am when I'm there, and they are missing me just as much as I am missing them. I remind myself how lucky I am to have such special people in my life and how I could not have asked for a better group of friends or a better family to be apart of. I try to remember that this time spent apart from everyone I love so much really won't seem that long in the big scheme of things after we are all reunited (whenever that may be). So until this homesick feeling goes away I'm going to think positively and be thankful for those people I love and miss so much :)

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

good advice

I just got this in an email the other day and wanted to share. These are some great tips to live by and ones that are easily forgotten. So... remember what's important in life people! We only get one to live, so let's do it right!

Monday, August 29, 2011

random monday thoughts

Since Hurricane Irene decided to knock out the power in our apartment complex I decided to come to work with Brett today and make good use of the power/ internet/ air conditioning his building has to offer! And since I have the whole day to play around on my computer I thought it would be a perfect time to write in my good ol' blog. Here are some random things I have been thinking about lately:

  • School starts tomorrow (kind of, we have meetings this week and kids next week) and I think I'm finally ready to have a daily routine to my life again.
  • I want to get back into REALLY good shape. I'm in OK shape, but not great shape, and I miss it desperately. I miss the days of playing sports year round and never being in bad shape. I'm going to try my hardest to re-create those days with true dedication to the gym/ working out and most importantly - good eating habits. Here is to being healthy and happy!
  • Brett and I are going to Boston this weekend to hang out with Ashley and Zach and I am so pumped.
  • I joined Pinterest and am an addict. If you don't know what it is then you need to google it immediately and join. It is a great time waster, but also has given me inspiration for so many things. From crafting to clothes and great food recipes, this website has it all and I can't wait to try some of the things it has to offer.
  • I wish that my family and friends, and Brett's family and friends (and us of course) were all in the same place. I know this is highly unlikely, but a girl can dream, right? Don't get me wrong, I love to travel and with everyone scattered around the country it gives us a wonderful opportunity do to a lot of it. But when I start to think about settling down and having a family of our own someday, it hurts my heart to think we won't all be together to hang out all the time as one gigantic family/ friend group. I know that's just what happens when college is over and reality sets in, but that doesn't make it any easier!
I think that's all for now. I'll make sure to post more as the thoughts keep flowing!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

1 more week of freedom...

In honor of my last week of freedom from the school year I'm posting a few pictures/ highlights from my travels this summer! Enjoy.

I got plenty of pool time in Denver!

Erin and Nick's wedding

my loves!

Me with the beautiful bride!

Happy 4th of July!

Chance :)

In Cali with my cousin Cate

Well hello there!

Our crazy bike ride on the beach in Cali

Back in Denver for Marc's 21st

Staff night shenanigans

Out on the town in downtown Denver

Erick and Kim's wedding in West Palm Beach, FL

Uh oh Brett...

Having fun with Danielle at the wedding!

Dominating golf

The bouquet and garter from the wedding, so pretty!

Last day in Jupiter hanging out at Juno Beach









Monday, August 22, 2011

muggy

I know that New England is absolutely gorgeous during the fall. And before we had about 800 blizzards last winter, I was totally enjoying that season as well. But as much as I LOVE summer, I will always despise the muggy, humid weather that I have had the pleasure of getting to know so well this summer on the east coast. I just don't think I'll ever get used to walking outside and immediately feeling so sticky and sweaty that I wish I never stepped foot out of my apartment in the first place. Poor Brett has to hear me complain about it when it's a particularly hot, muggy day (love you :)), but that dry Colorado heat has totally spoiled me and now my body refuses to get used to the mugginess that is the east coast. That wonderful fall weather has never sounded so good!

Friday, August 19, 2011

awesome

To follow up my dream trip to Europe blog, I thought this video would be appropriate. It's so cool and makes me want to travel even more!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

euro-trip

I want to go back to Europe. Randomly I will get little pangs of desire to go back and travel all of the places I didn't get to see while I was living there for 5 months, and even places I did get to see. Right now I'm missing it a lot. There are just so many beautiful things to see, and so much to learn and discover. When I was there it felt like everyday there was a new experience to be had, or something new to learn about and I'm dying to go back! Living in the Netherlands for 5 months and traveling around to other awesome European destinations was such an amazing experience, but I still feel like there is so much I need to see and do there. Maybe in a couple of summers I will have enough money saved up to go back for a month or longer and explore? I'm going to start filling up my piggy bank right away :)

Monday, August 15, 2011

congrats!!

I wanted to say a quick congratulations to my GREAT friends Ashley and Zach who just got engaged yesterday!!!! AHHHHHHHHH I'm beyond excited!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not be happier for these two. Congrats and love you both :)

Monday, August 8, 2011

lazy sunday (and monday)

Sometimes it's nice to have a lazy day (or two) right? Sleep in without an alarm waking you up, hang out all day in your pajamas, waste time watching re-runs of stupid "reality" shows like Keeping up with the Kardashians. Not that this is what I have been doing the past couple of days... Since being back from Denver, my daily schedule has been almost completely empty due to the fact that I am not with my friends, family, or at the pool every waking moment.

It is kind of nice to have time to do whatever I want, even if what I want to do is nothing but read my book and lounge around. But eventually sleeping in past ten and not having to do anything all day gets old, and makes me feel restless. As much as I would love this summer of traveling and hanging out to never end, I am looking forward to school starting so that I can have a real purpose and structure to my day. Now I know when school starts, I will be longing for the days of sleeping in and doing whatever I want, but the grass is always greener on the other side, right? The good news is Brett and I are leaving for Florida tomorrow so my days of nothingness will be planned again! At least for another week or so :)

Saturday, August 6, 2011

obsessed


I am officially obsessed with my blog. To be more specific, I'm obsessed with designing my blog. I spent probably two hours alone today going through backgrounds, fonts, colors, etc... trying to find the perfect fit. I told Jess, I might like designing my blog more than actually writing in it! I love picking everything out and trying to make it look good together. While re-doing the look of my blog 10,000 times today, I was reminiscing about all of the days I spent in yearbook in high school creating layouts, and it feels good to be doing something creative again! For now though, I will focus more on actually writing in my blog and not so much on which color of pink I want to be in the background of my title....

Friday, August 5, 2011

date night

Such a cute movie! I love these two and I hope they get together in real life immediately.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

summer of fun

This is the first summer since I was 15 that I haven't had a job, so I decided to take advantage of the time and travel! I had some trips I wanted to take that were long over-due and it was nice to finally have the time to take them.

I've been to Denver twice this summer and it was SOOOOOOO good to be home! Living away from Denver makes me realize even more than I did before how lucky I am to be a CO native. From the weather, landscape, family, friends, etc.... it's my favorite place to be. I felt pretty spoiled to be able to visit twice in one month and who knows, I might be back there for good next year! I also got to take a nice trip to CA to visit my Aunt Amy and her cute little fam :) I LOVE California and we had such a good trip included with lots of family fun, SeaWorld, the beach, pool time and good food. A perfect and relaxing vacation!

Brett and I are heading to Florida next week for a wedding and some family time, and over Labor Day weekend we are in Boston to visit Ash and Zach who will be there as well! It's been a wonderful summer getting to travel and see my family and friends and I wish it would never end. As the school year gets closer and closer I'm going to try and enjoy these last few weeks of my summer as much as possible :)

welcome!

I have finally given in and decided that I should start a blog! I'm excited to share what's going on with me in this fun and creative way. There will be much more to come so stay tuned :)