Life...

...is great!

Summer vacation begins in less than two weeks. As soon as next Friday arrives, Dave and I will be free. FREE!!! Free to spend time together and start the summer fun!

We've been looking forward to this summer break, and I think we've both earned it. I've been schoolin' full time and workin' part time, and Dave's been busy as ever teaching. It was be awesome to have a break from things. We plan to take several trips, go on hikes and outdoor adventures, and work on projects that are important to us. For example, I really want to finish writing a novel by the end of the summer. It's going to be tough, but it's something I really, truly want to accomplish. I know that Dave really wants to hike to the top of several peaks in the area, and he's getting ready to take that on.

So there you have it.

Hi!

Hi guys! Just popping by my good old blog to say hello! One day I was just like, "oh yeah, I have a blog!" So I checked, and yeah, it's still here. Even after like a bazillion years.

I'll be back soon with more.

Winter Projects

Fall and winter are my favorite seasons for getting creative and crafty! Besides the fun of making Christmas and Thanksgiving crafts, Dave and I also came up with some great ideas for decorating the apartment with cute and inexpensive homemade items.Take, for instance, this star and the pictures surrounding it:

No, this picture was not taken during an earthquake, and our apartment is not slanted :)

Anyway, we were checking out the local craft supply outlet (aka I was pretty much going nuts and buying a bunch of awesome supplies at said outlet) when I found a really huge, cool-looking barn star. It had been made to look rusted and worn, which was neat, but I wanted to paint it to match the kitchen...so that's what I did! As for the surrounding pictures, I cut them out of a calendar of antique crate labels and framed them with dollar store frames. Looks pretty kickin', huh?

Our next project was, oddly enough, inspired by two things: a blank wall space and the pattern on my purse.

After moving our bookshelf, we ended up with a pretty boring blank space on our wall. Instead of buying a painting to go on this wall, I decided that I wanted to decorate it with something Dave and I made. I actually had started to think about the pattern on my purse, and with that inspiration I came up with this:

(this picture was taken in the middle of the project)

Dave and I bought some picture frames on sale, and then went home and drew the design on with pencil. After that, we got painting and had a blast! We each took a canvas and painted over the pencil outline with either red, black or gray paint (to match our living room color scheme). It turned out great, but we are still working on some finishing touches (since we noticed some things were imperfect after putting the paintings on the wall). It was so fun to do that together! I'll post the finished product soon.

And...my latest obsession? These stamped-metal necklaces:

(from etsy.com)

I LOVE these pendants! Not only do I want to buy one, but I have this crazy notion that I could start MAKING my own! It looks like supplies for the project would be a little expensive at first, but I'm really excited at the thought of starting! Once I get going, I'll even make one for you if you want! ;)

That's it for today!

Holidays

The last couple of weeks have been amazing. AMAZING!

How are we supposed to, like, stop spending all of our time together and do things like work and go to school again?

Then I have to remind myself that the reason we do those not-so-fun things is so we can have those amazing, awesome times. Ugh. It's hard, but we've got to stick with it.

I just need to think of summer. See, that's the BEST part about Dave's job--he gets a 3 month break from work! I don't know if school will be possible in the summer for me, so WHAM! There's more time we'll have together. We just have to endure a few hellish months to get to the awesomeness.

Anyway, here's a recap of what went down the last little while:

Christmas celebrations with our families
Snow...deadly, deadly snow
Dr. Who with my sisters
30 Rock, Haibane, Nutcracker and Fruits Basket marathons!
Played with dreidels
Saw Avatar and New Moon. At least Avatar was good...
Celebrated our 4th anniversary!
Worked on my writing
Video games!
New Year's eve parties
I caught a cold :(
Went out to eat waaaaay too much
Two new rats!
I passed my classes ;)
Visits with family
Relaxing drives
Shopping!
Fun in SLC

Yeah, so as you can see I'm going with a list instead of elaborating on all the wonderful events of life lately.

I hope everyone is doing fine, and may this new year be a great one! I know I've said "no resolutions!" this year, but in truth I have a few goals that I am bent on accomplishing. Good luck to those of you who have goals set for the new year...it's going to be sweet!

(Coming soon: creative projects update)

Stick Figure Guy

This guy is a celebrity. I mean, he's everywhere you look, either showing you an example of what you should do or warning you of what NOT to do.

I've never met him, but I sure respect some of the crap he goes through just to keep us safe. Here are two examples of this guy's selfless actions:



Thank you Stick Figure Guy. You make the world a safer place for the rest of us.

At Last

Finals are done. No more school until January! I'm pleased.

This semester has been difficult, but rewarding. I took a poetry class that was very valuable, and I feel like I have come a long way because of it. I took a Topics in Literature class that just blew me away, and I know that I will never forget the readings and experiences from that class. My early American lit class isn't one that I particularly cared for, but I won't complain. And Humanities was interesting...at least I got a much-needed break from English courses two times a week.

Dave is great! He is getting into the teaching groove and developing his style. He used to come home stressed out, which made both of us a little touchy. Plus, our differing schedules made for less time we got to spend together. But now he's enjoying his job a lot more and we are able to adjust our lives so we get to spend more precious time with each other.

We moved our home base this October so that Dave could be closer to work and to upgrade to a nicer place. We loved our little place, but it was time to move on. We now live in a beautiful apartment that is more than we could have ever asked for, with all the features that we always wanted to have but could never afford before. But don't get the wrong idea--we got a steal on this place. We love it here! Of course, weird neighbors always make the dream of owning a home more and more desirable.

One of our two pet rats, Smudge, passed away last month. We were really upset about this, and didn't think we'd get any more rats to keep our remaining rat, Cecil, company. But we caved, and have since added two baby rats to our family :) These guys (Vivi and Dash) are great pets and we have a lot of fun with them!

We bought a new car before we made our move. It's a Hyundai Accent, and Dave has loved driving it to work. He totally offered it to me to be nice, but I figured that he deserved the new car since he has a career now :) That leaves me with the old Cavalier, but she's still running strong (although those new tires did cost a bundle...sigh).

We are coming up on our 4th wedding anniversary this December. Exciting!

So things are great! Sorry for the lapse in posts--I just didn't have the time or the energy. I'm going to try to do a bit better.

Look out for another update that delves into our recent creative projects!

Staying Fit

I feel as though I've put this question out there before, but here goes: how do you stay fit during the winter months?

If I go running outside rignt now, I'll die on the ice. We can't exactly put a treadmill in our apartment. I'd love to be able to run more than anything, but at this point it looks like our only option is an exercise bike (since they are somewhat quiet).

Thoughts?

(p.s. Update is coming up soon!)