I'm hoping this will be short and sweet as my past few posts have been a little lengthy!! But there is some really good news and updates to share.....
So as you know, Andy and I are in a bit of transition so I'm currently in Iowa for a few weeks before we go to Denver for good and he is finishing up his gig in Chicago. This past weekend however we met in Denver to find a place to live for at least the next year, which will also be the first place we live in as a married couple. Sentimental, I know, but I just can't help myself. Anyhow, I was terrified of finding a place. A few of our friends recently relocated to different places within the city and said it was a bit of a challenge. Meaning, there wasn't a lot available and if something decent popped up, it usually rents within 24 hours. In fact, it was so difficult that a few of our friends ended up buying a place because they were frustrated with the rental market. Plus while I lived in Denver, I was lucky enough to live in a super cool spot and never had to move, nor did I want to. And we lucked out in Chicago and fell into something great, so I was beginning to think our luck was almost out when it came to finding good rentals. I looked all night on Thursday, all day on Friday and nearly had a breakdown after seeing some of the grossest places Denver had to offer. AK arrived late Friday night and was sick and tired of me saying: "we're going to be homeless because I will not sleep in one place I looked at!" Lucky him, huh?? ;). So out of desperation early Saturday morning AK did one last expanded search on Craigslist (meaning he upped our range in what we would pay in rent) and we came across this great looking house in a pretty cool neighborhood. Not a neighborhood either of us had lived in before (a little nerve racking for me) but still a cute little street and fairly close to all things important...work, friends, grocery stores, etc. Luckily we drove by and let ourselves in as the current tenant was moving out and fell in L-O-V-E with the place. The owners of the house met us at a nearby Starbucks shortly after that and we fell in love with them too.....very nice young couple, wife is a nurse (at Children's, where I worked in the past and will start back in a few weeks) and he seemed like a kind man who wanted responsible people to live in their home and love it as much as they did. Sounded good to me....I've never hated a place with a remodeled kitchen, a nice bathroom, a big living room and a big yard+patio!!!! :)) So we totally scored on a great place and they even dropped the rent by a $100/month because AK said he was handy (Handy Andy, duh!!) and would maintain basic things, the biggest being the yard in the summer!!!! Booya!!!!
Our next thrill of the weekend was getting to see some of our friends who we have missed oh so much over the past year. When I started at Children's long ago, I was lucky enough to start with some pretty cool people and three of them have become some of my best friends to date. Such good friends actually, that this weekend I was honored enough to be able to ask them to be bridesmaids in our wedding in June!!!! Such a fun moment even though I had just spilled a half bottle of champagne all over myself and all over Bridget's new floor (she and Chris just bought a house).....those champagne bottles are tricky little things things, just sayin!! Sorry B & C, but thanks for hosting a fabulous wine/champagne+cheese party!!! After the little cocktail party we all went to Sushi Den to celebrate lots of things (Bridget/Chris's engagment, Meg/Micah returning home safely from NZ, Jen almost turning 30, Bridget/Chris just buying a house, and our engagment!!). Leaving on Sunday made me really realize how special these cool cats are and how lucky AK and I are to have them in our life. Such fun things going on and I'm so glad we are all around to share in the celebrations. First up, Jen's 30th birthday bash on October 19....great way to get back in the Denver groove!!!!!! Can't wait!!! :))
Another little perk of the trip was being able to house/car swap with Matt+Kaiti Bush. These great people let us stay in their cute little home while they went to Napa to celebrate their 1st wedding anniversary!!! We car swapped at the airport as we came and left at similar times so it really worked out well. In exchange for a free house we dog sat their yellow lab, Izzo and that was so much fun. AK and I have grown up with labs all our life, so we knew what we were in for and it made us that much more eager to buy a dog of our own. Izzo is still a puppy but has a great personality, loved to be petted and played with and was amazingly happy drinking insane amounts of water and chewing on numerous bones!!! We loved him!!! Thanks Matt and Kaiti and happy anniversary!! We had so much fun celebrating with you 1 year ago today and we wish you so much happiness!!!
And that's all folks.....we were so busy trying to find a place to live and catching up with friends, that I did not take one picture, NOT ONE!!! So this is just a worded post and I will try and not let it happen again!!! :))
As always, cheers!!!
Monday, October 8, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Facelift!!!
For my regular blog followers you will notice we did a little facelift to our blog. We changed the theme, the colors, the pictures and made it a bit more polished and professional. I know a great gal that is in the photography bizz (you can find her here) and she was a doll in helping me come up with a cool new look. And this came just in time for so many facelifts going on in our life right now. Obviously you all know we are engaged on the path to marriage (so fun!), but I'm not sure if many of you know we are also in route to moving back to Denver, CO!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sure this comes as quite a surprise to some, but to those of you who have walked every step with us, I'm sure it's quite obvious. This past year in Chicago has been a tough one for sure. If you ask me, I knew on minute 1 of driving into the city we would be going in reverse in 1 year, but if you ask AK he liked it for a while, and then it got old. I think the combination of two terrible jobs for me and all the big city inconveniences (hour long commutes to go 12 miles, over priced everything, drinking and eating being the favorite past time, rude people, constant hustle bustle, etc) put us over the edge. I think we are fairly outdoorsy/Colorado people at heart and one year ago we made a promise to trade cars for trains and mountains for lakes, but we also made a promise that if we were not happy we would go straight back to where we came from. Turns out neither of us worked in convenient locations to ride the train and we don't own a boat, so the lake was only so much fun after a while!!! ;) But in all seriousness, we lived a good year where there were many ups and downs (personally and professionally) and we did it together and came out on top. We now know where we want to live, we learned we can survive hard things and prefer to survive them together, and we learned a valuable lesson in that some things work out and some things don't, but how would you ever know if you NEVER tried!! Some may say we failed or we didn't try that hard, but I give us credit....one year ago we had only been dating but a year and we packed up our lives, moved in together in a brand new city, and tried to conquer what is Chicago. After a full year of living together we still like each other, we managed to get engaged despite all the stress of Chicago and we managed to see and do a lot of the positive things Chicago has to offer. So with a transfer to the Denver office made possible by Andy's company and with the luxury of me having a flexible career....we are headed back West and could not be more thrilled. We have some great friends in Denver who we missed very much this past year and it is time to reunite.....
So I start my new gig on October 23 and since our lease was up Oct 1, I am spending some much needed time at home with my fam and am trying to crank out some serious wedding plans!!! AK is finishing up his gig in Chicago and also bunking up with his parents and hoping to be out in Denver no later than the end of November!!!! This weekend we are meeting in Denver to find our first Denver place together and to get reacquainted with the city!! And if you have caught on....we are not at all embarrassed about each being 28 and 29 years old, engaged and living with our parents.....isn't that how most you have done it!?!? HA!! Thanks goodness for them though....who else would take us in during transition for free!?!? #Lovethemsomuch!!!
So without saying much more, our Facelift has been a bit intense and we have chosen a lot of change, but we definitely don't take the easy road and I'm beginning to believe we thrive on change!! :) Good thing, because the next 12 months will offer a lot of that!! :)
Cheers to us, cheers to Denver being great, cheers to Chicago being a great place to visit, cheers to the great fall weather, and cheers to a much needed Facelift!!!!!!!!!
**Enjoy some pics below of our last days in Chicago and the first few days in Iowa**
I'm sure this comes as quite a surprise to some, but to those of you who have walked every step with us, I'm sure it's quite obvious. This past year in Chicago has been a tough one for sure. If you ask me, I knew on minute 1 of driving into the city we would be going in reverse in 1 year, but if you ask AK he liked it for a while, and then it got old. I think the combination of two terrible jobs for me and all the big city inconveniences (hour long commutes to go 12 miles, over priced everything, drinking and eating being the favorite past time, rude people, constant hustle bustle, etc) put us over the edge. I think we are fairly outdoorsy/Colorado people at heart and one year ago we made a promise to trade cars for trains and mountains for lakes, but we also made a promise that if we were not happy we would go straight back to where we came from. Turns out neither of us worked in convenient locations to ride the train and we don't own a boat, so the lake was only so much fun after a while!!! ;) But in all seriousness, we lived a good year where there were many ups and downs (personally and professionally) and we did it together and came out on top. We now know where we want to live, we learned we can survive hard things and prefer to survive them together, and we learned a valuable lesson in that some things work out and some things don't, but how would you ever know if you NEVER tried!! Some may say we failed or we didn't try that hard, but I give us credit....one year ago we had only been dating but a year and we packed up our lives, moved in together in a brand new city, and tried to conquer what is Chicago. After a full year of living together we still like each other, we managed to get engaged despite all the stress of Chicago and we managed to see and do a lot of the positive things Chicago has to offer. So with a transfer to the Denver office made possible by Andy's company and with the luxury of me having a flexible career....we are headed back West and could not be more thrilled. We have some great friends in Denver who we missed very much this past year and it is time to reunite.....
So I start my new gig on October 23 and since our lease was up Oct 1, I am spending some much needed time at home with my fam and am trying to crank out some serious wedding plans!!! AK is finishing up his gig in Chicago and also bunking up with his parents and hoping to be out in Denver no later than the end of November!!!! This weekend we are meeting in Denver to find our first Denver place together and to get reacquainted with the city!! And if you have caught on....we are not at all embarrassed about each being 28 and 29 years old, engaged and living with our parents.....isn't that how most you have done it!?!? HA!! Thanks goodness for them though....who else would take us in during transition for free!?!? #Lovethemsomuch!!!
So without saying much more, our Facelift has been a bit intense and we have chosen a lot of change, but we definitely don't take the easy road and I'm beginning to believe we thrive on change!! :) Good thing, because the next 12 months will offer a lot of that!! :)
Cheers to us, cheers to Denver being great, cheers to Chicago being a great place to visit, cheers to the great fall weather, and cheers to a much needed Facelift!!!!!!!!!
**Enjoy some pics below of our last days in Chicago and the first few days in Iowa**
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| one of our last El rides....waiting at the "chicago stop" |
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| last cupcake at work!! |
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| last morning on school street....and saying good bye to our first home together! |
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| our lovely landlords....alan and susan. delightful people! |
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| good bye skyline! |
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| my niece emma rocking the fun run!!!! go em!!!! |
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| colors!! |
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| a little fall walk! |
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| Go Cader....#33. his name is announced all the time.....he's such a stud!! |
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