more house pictures!

basement
upstairs bedroom with walk in closet

second upstairs bedroom

upstairs bathroom

master bath and walk in closet

master bath/shower

master bedroom looking toward bathroom entrance

master bedroom

kitchen

look from kitchen into dining and living rooms

family room view from top of stairs in kitchen

bay window/eat in area in kitchen

dining room look from entry way

living room looking from entry way

winter olympics 2010

The 2010 Olympics have come to a close. I didn't get to enjoy as much of it as I wanted, especially the free skate of the womens figure skating, and I am sad it is done and over :[

I was also disappointed in how little time during the day the Olympics were televised. Why can't we all just put aside our stupid TV shows for 2 weeks and celebrate the coming together of the worlds athletes with 24/7 televised Olympics. I am not saying it has to be all the time on the big time channels, but at least have it going on 1 cable channel or something all day long. Boo.

I wonder how other countries handle the televising of the Olympics.

Alas. Here are some pictures with some of my highlights from these winter Olympics.

The US took home a record breaking number of medals: 37 total, 9 gold, 15 silver, 13 bronze.

Tony and I enjoyed getting into curling. A favorite curling athlete of mine was the young member of Great Britian's team- Eve Muirhead. She is just 19 in a sport dominated by women in their late 20s and even early 30s.

Apolo Ohno is possibly my favorite athlete ever. Plus he is rather hunky :] even tony said he was a good looking guy :] I am sad he didn't take home any golds :[

Shaun White. he just kicks snowboarding butt. there is nothing else to say about that.
Tony in particular was excited about Shaun's performance and the fact that he blew away all the competition in just his first run.

Rachael Flatt our own figure skater from COLORADO SPRINGS, CO!!!! She performed her personal best at the olympics, and I hope to see her medal in 2014!!!!!!!!!

the US Nordic Combined team. For the first time in 62 years the US has proved it is a powerhouse in many sports, now including the nordic combined, where an athlete came out of retirement to win us GOLD!

Yu-Na Kim from S. Korea. Seriously amazing figure skating. BLEW the competition away, she was so good that it was VERY hard to be mad at her for winning and bumping the US out of medal position. It was a joy to watch her skate. This is from the end of her short program- which was skated to a James Bond theme medley. oh yea.

ready, ready, ready to run

great running shoes. CHECK
quite colorful moisure wicking tops. CHECK
healed achilles tendon strain. CHECK
cute soft shell warm up jacket. CHECK
spandex running pants and shorts. CHECK
comfy socks. CHECK
cute shorts and pants for over the spandex. CHECK

the bank account hurts a little, but I hope to make it all worth it :]

my 30 day intro to becoming a runner starts sometime this week, on my first day off.

ready, set, go!

we are under contract!

After many weeks of being in negotiations and crazyness, we are finally under contract for the house!!!!!!!!!!!!

We settled with 2215 Parliament, see the previous blog with pictures :]

We love it! It needs some TLC, and appliances, but we hope to use our stocks to help us get us into a house that will be a great home, and produce great equity when we are ready to move.

Our closing date it March 31st.

We have already signed the contract paperwork and many of the loan documents, and the inspection is next week. Hopefully the house isn't falling down the side of the city or something :]

It has been quite stressful as all of these things have happened suddenly and all with deadlines, but writing this blog has got me excited about it again!

SO, save the first couple weeks of april because we need painters and movers! Food and drinks for any and all who want to help :] We plan to take the whole month of April to paint, clean or replace the carpet, and do other fix up things around the new home, and to move.

Yay!

our army boys

are you excited to go to work?

This week I have been having difficulty getting exciting to go to work, being excited while at work, and over all, doubting being a nurse.

I can't decide if this is just in context of all the other stressors in my life and my want to be home taking care of things, or if it's because I have to go to work the days Tony is off and I want to stay home with him.

Or if it is what I dread, that I hate being a nurse.

I long for the times when the most stressful part of my job was making a dinner start on time- though I would not want that to be my career.

I dream about a desk job with no ties to saving lives or destroying them with my direct actions.

I think about never working again (then I freak out about the financial reprecussions)

Or working part time somewhere "easy"

And I fear that I don't want to be a nurse and that is why I dread going to work.

But perhaps it is just a phase and it too shall pass.

Perhaps.

Until then I pray and fake it until I make it here.

And try to remember why I became a nurse, and find comfort in my paycheck at least.

I wonder daily whether other people all feel this way about their job. Or if it's wrong to feel like calling in sick every day.

You hear about the drone of work and making yourself go- should it really be this way?

Are you excited to go to work everyday?

Because I find many times I am not.

a goal. a dream.

i want to be a runner

where to start?

good shoes

good clothes

a dog that knows how to run along side me

and mostly. MOTIVATION.

i want to run. feel the wind in my hair, take gasping breaths and push on. run to push away everything else in my mind.

i dream about running and how wonderful it is.

i'm trying to make it a reality.

and am accepting donations to help make that happen.

i should set a date i suppose to start this new goal, but yet, with so much going on, there seems no time.

i will reflect on this and hope to move forward soon.

hm...

i just spent some time hitting "next blog" after viewing my blog. it was quite interesting.

here is a sampling:
apiring writers
families sharing pictures
new families
ranting teens
ranting adults
reflective artists

and overall, a lot of uniqueness

an interesting adventure to say the least

house shopping

is rather difficult!!!!!!!!!!! (and seems all consuming)

i somehow just want to know that this exact house is the perfect one and this exact time for this amount of money.

yet i doubt. will a better one come on the market in a few weeks? will we regret putting an offer in on this house? will we spend too much?

ACK!

but it's ok

i do really enjoy this house though :]

so does tony.

but is it the exact right one?

should i wait for a sign? or rest on logic? or just wait it out?

who knows.

i will pray about it though.

2215 Parliament DR

(behind the chapel hills mall)

front of house

eat in kitchen bay window

kitchen- needs fridge, but has new stove and dishwasher

family room with great fireplace and built ins

back yard

park DIRECTLY across the street :]

house shopping

is stressful.

i am ready for that just perfect house in that just perfect area to fall in our laps already

....too bad that won't happen haha :]

i feel like every day i am off is consumed with it, which i enjoy, and dislike all in one.

cest la vie.

especially grow up life.

but i will be so excited when we put in an offer and get things rolling to own our own home!

the end is near.... possibly

we are narrowing down houses quite a bit!

we have ultimately decided to stay on the north side of town near where we know and where our family and friends are.

we are down to less than 5-10 houses in the running with 1 that we are willing to put an offer on if we don't find something we love in the next week or so.

it has been VERY stressful but will pay off in the end.

hooray for being near the end- we hope!

training wheels

not sure yet if i'm ready for this nurse thing.....
can we go back to the job where i already know everything?

overload!

house shopping
working nights
tony switching branches
house shopping
loan applications
house shopping
money management
friends in town
family in town
birthday madness
ever changing schedules
FRG leader stuff
Chef's Gala stuff
getting off orientation at work

plus all the regular life stuff

but i guess this is regular life stuff....

still.
overload.

house shopping

today we officially began house shopping, in which we viewed homes and got "officially" preapproved with USAA.

one of these was awesome.

the other dissapointing.

Kelly and I looked at 8 houses this afternoon in the north area and I liked many of them, some of them a lot.

But the bank isn't approving us for as much money as we thought, so we sort of have to start from scratch.

But I'm hoping after putting some time into searching in our new price range online that some of the houses I saw online as great prospects, will turn out to be actual great prospects when we get to see them.

This is such a crazy process all with the deadline to get the tax credit, plus all the stuff going on with it being tax season and both of us with our jobs.

In the end, we think it will be worth the investment, though we may have to liquidate some of our assessts a little sooner than expected to help us with this investment.

We are so excited to house shop and possibly move and expand!


Kelly has been great- she is Kathy's sister, plus she just started with Remax after spending time in New Home Sales (new developments, model homes etc). It's nice to have someone we know in the business for sure!

here's some info on her:
Kelly Price
Remax Advantage Reality Inc
5590 N Academy BlvdColorado Springs Co 80918
Direct 719-650-1778
Fax 719-355-1099
mailto:kellyprice@remax.net
search the entire MLS online@;http://www.KellyjPrice.com

here's to fruitful hunting!

pajamas

I have new pajama pants. they make me very happy.

tony and I are becoming quite the pajama pant lovers.

but nothing beats taking off your day clothes and slipping into a comfy pair of PJ pants and a sweatshirt.

pajamas are the best invention ever.

video games

are ridiculous. you play the same scene about 100 times, finally beat it, just to re-play another, almost exactly the same, but harder, scene about 200 times. repeat for many hours. i just don't see the appeal.

on the other hand, i am kind of enjoying lego star wars. such things stated above do not happen in that game.


boys are silly.

2010

BRING IT ON!

blue moon

We end the year on a BLUE MOON

when 2 full moons occur in the same month

this is especially significant for our family since my sister is what you might call our "moon lady" born near the August/Harvest moon, so this event has special significance for her, and is considered lucky.

yay!

therefore, enjoy. even though most people will be too drunk, distracted by fireworks, or otherwise oblivious to its presence.

days of our lives

I so enjoy watching Days with Erin. It relieves my want to blog about all the insanity that happens. 

And oh is it crazy right now. 

Good times.  

sick clothes

why is it that only when you are sick to you think about having "sick clothes?" 

clothes that you can wear when sick that are comfy and warm but also cute enough to be seen in public with. hm. people on TV have the sick clothes thing down to an art. but for now I will suffice with a baggy hoodie and borrowing Tony's black flannel pants and trying to pass them off as appropriate clothes.

The Chorale + Cripple Creek

As part of our Deck the Hall concert series, we travel to Cripple Creek to perform a benefit concert at a Baptist church.

This being my first year with the Chorale, it was my first experience with it.

And it was one of the most rewarding things I have done. The audience was about the same size of the choir, but nothing brings down the house more than a small community church giving you a standing ovation. It was more of a thrill than our performance at the Pikes Peak Center.

The drive up was a blessing too, here are some pictures of that drive taken on the fly with my phone of the beauty that is Colorado

that's quite enough, thanks

1. massive snow and below 10 degree weather for all 3 days I work
2. slow leaking tire causing car to wobble on highway
3. fill up tire, and leave wallet on hood
4. luckily find wallet, but tire still low
5. tony has to come home and take me to get wallet
6. not enough sleep
7. day 3/3 of 3 12 hour shifts
8. piss doctor off and feel like idiot
9. vent
10. tire continues to be flat
11. must borrow fathers car
12. exhausted for chorale rehersal
13. woman cuts her finger and bleeds on stage at chorale rehearsal
14. man faints on stage
15. don't get to sleep in
16. tire still flat, trying to get it pumped up to go get it fixed
17. PIPE BURSTS IN GARAGE owing to freeze/thaw cycle
18. get soaked and freeze trying to shut off the water
19. track mud everywhere on my carpet i just cleaned last weekend
20. finally turn off water
21. call landlord, try to prevent too much water from leaking into wall
22. plumber comes, we waste half the day waiting for the repair to be finished
23. need new insulation and drywall at least over previously burst pipe, if not the whole wall
24. have to put space heater in with pipe to prevent further freezing
25. awaken in middle of night to crazy high pitched sounds that makes us think the house is burning down related to the space heaters. but it's the furnace being crazy
26. picture we take for Christmas card turns out to be total crap for unforseen reason and we don't know how to fix it
27. all pictures from Christmas card session are crap.
28. now it's cloudy and we can't get another pic with pikes peak.
29. no Christmas shopping has been done
30. and now cards will not go out on time either.


so I've had quite enough, but thanks.

is it...

lame that I actually really enjoy cleaning?

Evans

I am sure that an update is due for my big life change: my new job.

So the basics:
I am an RN-BSN
I work for Evans Army Community Hospital (EACH) on Ft. Carson, CO
It is a small hospital geared to serve soldiers and their dependents
I work on The Family Care Ward-5E. We serve all ages here in a medical-surgical inpatient setting.
Examples: you are 10 and your mom/dad is in the army/ you just had your tonsils out and need to stay in the hospital for a night. you come here.

you are 20 and in the army. you have mild-moderate blast injuries and have just returned from Iraq. you come here.

you are 65 and retired from the army. you have pneumonia and need to be hospitalized. you come here.


I work full time, which is 80 hours every 2 weeks. That means (6) 12 hours shifts and (1) 8 hour shift every 2 weeks. I like it so far.

I am in orientation for the first 6 weeks. Exciting hunh? My preceptor is Lt Martinez. She has been great!

The average patient ratio so far has been 3 patients/ 1 nurse. It's fantastic!

I am still completing all my crazy training requirements and inprocessing type things, but I have been on the floor 5 shifts now and I like it so far.

It's the same as most floors/places one works, in that there are difficulties and people who just want to talk about those difficulties and gripe gripe gripe. I am going to try hard to NEVER EVER be that person. It sucks! Overall I like it though, it's different, and I'm learning.

I have more than doubled our combined income which is great!

I am also still working on call at the Marriott. They conform to my schedule here, and I work for them when I can.

So far, my schedule is just the same as my preceptors, but after that we have a self scheduling module. I am still low man on the totum pole, but hopefully that means I won't get totally screwed over schedule wise :]

I have only been on days so far and will do nights eventually. I am not sure if I will like nights yet.

It's great to have a steady job with predicitable hours and pay.

Comment with any questions :]

say thank you even for the small things

Every day I try to remember to thank God for the small things and this helps me thank Him for the big things too.

things like:
the light turning green just as you need it to
finding that perfect buy, cheap, at goodwill when you are strapped for cash
a delicious cup of tea
a sweet person in the midst of chaos
the smile of a child
the joy of enjoying your food
a minute to sit and breathe

I have found that I am much better at saying thank you for these small things than the big things sometimes.

So praise God. For everything- even the small things.

vacation

i love vacation

i hate packing for vacation and planning for vacation

and i hate unpacking from vacation

but i love vacation.

and i love my husband very much :]

a fun filled relaxing week in Orlando enjoying time with my favorite person was a much needed break for both of us and refreshing for our hearts, souls, and minds

back to real life now....

Life is a changin'

My life is in a very nice little crazy transitional state.

I am entering my career. Which is a huge step all by itself, but it has all made me take a look at my life and see the things I enjoy and what I want to do now that I have a steady paycheck and am in the career I set out to be in.

Let me just say that it's crazy.... more to come.

sorry

that I suck at blogging!

it's back

Grey's Anatomy, Thursday nights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!

a beautiful baby boy joined the world in the last minutes of October 10, 2009.


CONGRATULATIONS SHAZIA AND WILLIE! (and Austina too!)

Cameron Marcus and Mommy

Could there be a more perfect glasses case?

Mollen

My first job as an RN has been an interesting ride.
First, I get hired on the phone, submit paperwork via internet and fax, and train online.
Then I rush to sign up for as many shifts as possible to help pay the bills before I knew if I got the job at Evan's or not.
Then they cancel about half my shifts.
Then the first shift comes. The supplies are late, and no one seems to know where they are, and it's 3 newbies running the clinic. So we rush when the supplies finally arrive, and run late.
After that it was smooth :]
But then they cancelled 5 more shifts. Crazy.
Flu season sure is interesting!
But on Monday I got my to work my favorite shift with my buddy Erin! Hooray!
So, I don't know if I will work for them again next year, but it sure has been interesting. I have gotten to buy a lot of cute new scrubs to wear! PS GO TO WALMART! CHEAP AND GOOD!
The actual work is VERY easy, the paperwork is a little confusing at first, and there is A LOT of it, but geez, if I could do this for my entire career and get paid $22/hr I would LOVE IT!

Too bad I can't.

So here is a picture of me "hard at work" that my dad requested I take (photography by Erin)