Long Lost Blog

Hello long lost blog friends. Not to make any excuses, but the other sales rep was let go the Monday after Thanksgiving (there were only two of us to begin with) and I have been doing two jobs ever since. And I have NEVER worked this hard or long since graduating from college.

But life is awesome! The weekend after Thanksgiving, my sister Kayley was in the Miss Kansas pageant in Wichita, KS. Kayley is not a pageant girl and kinda decided last minute to do it. Well... she got 1st Runner up, which is THE most bitter sweet place to get. I thought she had it.. wowza... the competition was stiff and there were some BEAUTIFUL girls. Its was so fun to be there. I never knew I could get so nervous watching someone walk across a stage in a swimsuit.

White swimsuit in the middle is her....

After the pageant, life has been filled with just a whole bunch of stuff. Company holiday parties, etc. Here are a few pics of the house.

The bookcases behind the table in both of the pictures below are the current project we are working on. Oh- and I still need pictures for a few of the frames on the wall.

New Chairs in the kitchen. So much better!

Merry Christmas to all! I leave for Costa Rica in a few days, so might not be back until January!! I'm going to miss you.

Emily

Twenty Three

Location, location, location. I am Thankful that we live in DENVER- and yet we are only 9 hours from KC. It makes getting back and forth pretty easy for us- considering flights are usually cheap and we can drive back for the Holidays so we have a car and can bring Tyson.

T Minus 3 hours til we are headed that way! Yipee!

Behind by 7... holy heavens

Sixteen: So Thankful for the CPR. Not the actual life-saving CPR... but my current favorite meal from a little Chinese restaurant a block down from my office. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Seventeen: SHOUT out to Kayley for her BDAY!!! I already wrote a really nice post about her. I am thankful for my LuLuLemon workout gear. It is SINFUL how expensive the stuff is. But it is so worth it.

Eighteen: I am thankful for Fall. So pretty. Leaves, fires, ski-season approaching, warm blankets, hoodies, boots, jackets, and it smells better outside.

Nineteen: Our bed. OMG. Most comfortable bed in America. I can't get up ever because of it.

Twenty: My Iphone!!!!!! I have never had a "cool" phone. Adam and I both got the new IPhone 4s'. We love them. I also love Siri. She is a cool B.

Twenty One: I am thankful for my extended family. Both of my parents come from great families. I get to see one side for Thanksgiving and I can't wait.

Twenty Two: Thankful for my new snowboard + gear. I am getting really excited to put it to use here in a few weeks. Ski season is upon us!! Come visit!

Eek! Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen and Fifteen!

Twelve: I am thankful for my faith in the Lord. How blessed we are everyday. How awesome is it to have faith when things go wrong or when they go right. Living in Colorado and seeing the mountains, I am continually reminded of what an awesome God He is.

Thirteen: Thankful for our car. Yes, the 4 Runner has been the perfect CO car. Does well in the mountains, magically fits Tyson's kennel perfectly in the back, four wheel drive, etc. Done us good thus far.

Fourteen: I am thankful for vacation. I am vacation obsessed. And I guess this goes back to our jobs (and financially being able to afford them), but Adam and I have always been on the same page for what to spend our money on and vacations top the list. Some of my fondest memories have been on trips with Adam and our friends.

Fifteen: I am thankful for Colorado Summers. The BEST time of the year.

Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh

Nine: I am thankful for our crossfit (you knew this one was coming). Its amazing. If you want to get in shape- join a crossfit gym. I am in shape and it feels good.

Ten: I am thankful for coffee. I couldn't be near as productive, awake, warm or happy without you in my life. Seriously. Every morning I look forward to waking up because I get my coffee. And its amazing the way it can change my mood almost instantly. Being in sales, I couldn't imagine all the deals I wouldn't have closed without you by my side.

Eleven: Only appropriate on Veterans Day- but I am thankful for our past and present troops. The courage it takes to leave their families and friends (with no guarantee of returning) and to fight for our country in the name is freedom is simply amazing and inspiring. We are truly blessed to live in this country. God bless the USA.

November Seven and Eight

I am thankful for Kayley. We are 2.5 years apart and at times can get REALLY annoyed with each other, but she is the hardest working, smartest, kindest 23 year old anyone will ever meet. I am going to brag on her for a moment... did you know she was up for valedictorian at KSU for her major? Yep, BUT it was a 3 or 4 way tie and so they went back to high school grades to make the final decision (which she ended up not getting it because of ONE B in high school). It seems like whatever she does, she excels at over and beyond. She is growing up right before me eyes... tear :)

I am thankful for Natalie. Natalie is a senior in high school currently and the most hilarious person I have ever met. Natalie and I have always been close even though we are 9 years apart. We have the same personality and have always clicked together. Growing up, it was always Natalie/Emily vs. Kayley. Although, she MAY be going to MU (barf), I am really proud of her for trying to be different and do her own thing. She is an extremely talented writer and therefore, MU has was KSU doesn't... a bomb journalism school.

I love and miss both of these ladies a lot. Living far is hard when you have siblings that you don't get to see very often.

November Sixth

I am thankful for my friends. Really enough said. Through every phase of my life I have been blessed enough to have some great friends. High school, college, Dallas and now Denver. Having childhood friends and now meeting new people in Denver- it's really amazing to be able to know so many people closely. I do need to do a better job of keeping up with everyone.... thats a big problem I have and its mostly related to the fact that I hate talking on the phone :) So EVERYONE should get on g-chat please.

November Fifth

I am thankful for food! We honestly live in the land of plenty. At any time in the day- we can eat. We might have to rush to the store or restaurant but I don't think anyone reading this blog has literally NOT known if they were going to eat that day.

If you live in other parts of the world this is definitely not the case. If you haven't heard about the draught/famine in the Horn of Africa- you live under a rock, which is fine. But since we live in the land of plenty, we all should do something to help out since we can. There are great organizations to donate to. Give. Tis the season.

http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/pages/horn-of-africa-famine-2011?open&campaign=113655232&cmp=KNC-113655232

http://www.unicefusa.org/?gclid=CLjvge_goKwCFYLsKgodCDu01w

November Fourth

These will get more spicey after I get through the obvious ones...

#4: I am thankful for my parents! I didn't feel spoiled when I was growing up, but now being an adult (kinda) and meeting other people I realize I was pretty spoiled. I got a car when I turned 16, my parents paid for college, etc. Not that this stuff is really that important in the scheme of life but I definitely didn't appreciate as much at those points in time, mostly because I was naive.

My parents have had some rough times and honestly when most would have split up, they have stayed to together and worked it out. More people should be like them. Marriage is special and you make a commitment on your wedding day to stay together through thick and thin. Not only that, they are currently working their tails off for their new business. Its very inspirational to watch and scary at the same time. Love them both so much :)

Love you Mom & Dad :) Thanks for everything.

November Third

#3: I am thankful for our jobs. Jobs are scarce these days and not only are we blessed to have jobs, but jobs that we actually like. Not to mention, we have had 1 car for about 2 years now and when I started looking for a new position, we fully expected to need to buy a second car. Well, Adam and I work 2 blocks away from each other and commute every day together so this whole "we only have 1 car thing" has actually worked out great and has saved us a lot of $$. Thanks to SendGrid and Lijit Networks for paying our bills :)

Thankful Month!

Since it is November and I have this weird "missing chromosome" as Adam likes to call it- where I get all awkward around sentimental things and can't stand to listen to cheesy things, quotes, songs, stories, etc. I am going to jump way outside of my comfort zone this month and try (keyword=try) to post daily about what I am thankful for.

Starting a day late.... but here goes nothing.

#1: I am thankful for my husband. I am thankful I found someone to spend my life with, who is truly my best friend, who puts up with me when I am feeling grumpy and who laughs at me when I am feeling goofy, who makes me coffee every morning and packs my lunch for the day. I wouldn't trade married life for the single life if I ever had the option. Thanks for allowing me to snuggle every night and make you claustrophobic. Thanks for working hard at everything you do and providing for our family.

And not to mention, your good looks...

#2: I am thankful for Tyson. Even though he can be overly hyper and stubborn, he is the most snuggly, loving, happy pup ever. He makes Adam and I laugh constantly and we couldn't imagine how boring it would be without him around.

Where did this year go?!

3-2-1-EFF

Last weekend was Adam's second CrossFit competition and my very first one. I am not going to bore you with all the details so picture this: lots of spandex, lots of bare skin, lots of abs all mixed with some loud music and protein shakes.

Adam did amazing. He placed 9th out of 31 men competitors and set a new PR on the deadlift (415#!!!!!). I competed with a team and we placed 3rd! (ok, there were only three teams....) but we all tried our hardest and so it really didn't matter what we placed. The workout I had to do for my portion of the team event was a biotch.... and I may have had some suicidal thoughts while trying to get through it, but I did get through (barely) and actually did really well (for me).

Here are some pics from the event.... I just signed up for another compeition in November where I am actually competing as an individual. Fun stuff.

Rowing

Thinking bad, bad thoughts at this point....




Our comp team :)

I suck at blogging

I suck at blogging these days... so sorry, but my life has little to no free time right now. I am so excited, though, because we are FINALLY getting the house put together. Lots of recent changes have taken place that I am excited to share :)

This week's project is our upstairs bedroom. I just got back from buying a new mattress for the bed that will be delivered tomorrow. Now the story of the bed headboard and footboard is one for the books.... so here it goes:

Some of you might remember my bed I had my senior year of college. It is a beautiful antique that I got from my grandma's house after she passed away.... so it has sentimental value. When she owned it, it was yellow and lived in her "yellow room" (she also had the "blue room" "brown room", etc- much like the White house). I painted the yellow an Antique white and took it to college. I always knew I wanted this bed in my future house and have mentally decorated my future daughters room around it.

As you know, we bought a house (finally) and so it was time for me to figure out how to get the bed to Denver. Problem #1: it was at our family's farm in KS. So my parents kindly made a weekend trip out to pick it up. Done. Problem #2: how the hay am I going to get it out to Denver. Well- a few weeks ago we drove back in Phil Mann's TRUCK! Yes! A truck. I thought we could easily load up the bed and bring it back with us. Problem #3. The headboard wouldn't fit in the bed of the truck. So we ended up bringing only half of the bed back with us. Problem #4: FedEx quoted us $500 to ship the headboard out. Not going to do that (this bed is worth purely sentimental value).

Then a few weeks ago, Greg called because I was coming home for another wedding so he volunteered to rent a car and drive the bed back with me after the wedding. So he rented a SUV from Hertz (since it had fit in my Dad's highlander). This past Sunday morning, it took us (no joke) THIRTY MINUTES to get it in the car and FOUR people helping. It would barely fit and it was pretty much like a physics experiment racking our brains trying to figure out which way to tilt it to get it all in + the doors closed. In the process we completely scrapped up the inside of the rental car but we didn't care- we got it in.

The entire way to Denver Greg and I were joking about how we might not be able to get it out, but it had to be easier to pull it out, than to push it in. WRONG. We get to Denver- Adam, myself and Greg spend entirely WAY to long getting it out. It was so bad, I was considering (1) Just returning the car + the bed (how funny would that be) or (2) sawing off a leg and glueing it back on when the bed got out.

Anyways, its out- hallelujah! It just needs to be put together. The new mattress gets delivered tomorrow and its going to be a very cute room- pics to come!

PS- GooGone works wonders on a scrapped up car :)

A year in review

October marks my one year of CrossFitting and wow- a lot has happened in the year. The short version would be something like this:

October 2010- started CrossFit

December 2010- decided I wanted to become an instructor

February 2011- started my 30 hour internship

June 2011- completed the internship/picked up a few classes at the gym

July 2011- Got Level One CrossFit certified

August 2011- Started teaching more classes and joined our competition team

There is a lot to say about CrossFit in general and the way it makes me feel. If you hang out with me for more than 20 mins, you will probably quickly realize how obsessed I am with it. I have gone from being a pretty normal, averagely thin (SOFT!) girl to someone who can (at this point in time) do 29 pull ups on a row, dead lift over 200 lbs, run a 5k in 23mins, lift more than I have ever thought I could lift over my head. I know what things like a snatch, clean, jerk, etc all mean (all weightlifting terms). And pretty much kick a lot of guy's ass as certain workouts. I am not bragging- its just the way it is.

I have COMPLETELY changed the way I eat. I have gone from being almost purely vegetarian and replacing meat with crap. Honestly, I used to not eat meat, so instead would make myself mac and cheese for dinner. Bad substitution people. Now, my diet consists of ALMOST zero processed food. Meat, veggies, nuts and seeds, little fruit, little starch, ALMOST no sugar (minimal dairy, zero grains) . I am still very particular about the meat I eat- but overall I am learning what "healthy" means and becoming more in touch with the way different foods make me feel. Am I perfect at eating like this? ABSOLUTELY not. I am not "paleo" on vacation and I definitely cheat during the week. Balance people balance. I'm not a physco about it.

The BEST thing about CrossFit, actually two things is this:

1) Even though I have been going strong for a year, I don't even feel remotely where I want to be at. Meaning, I can always lift more and try to improve my weaknesses. Every one has their strengths and weaknesses and therefor you never really "master" CrossFit. It really is something you can do forever and not get bored. When a workout gets easy (not sure if thats possible with CrossFit) but all you have to do is increase your weights or put on a weight vest and the same workout is a whole new challenge.

2) The PEOPLE. Honestly, we have the coolest gym around. Since CrossFit is classes only you really get the know the people you are training with. Some of our best friends in Denver are from the gym and its great to have people with the same interest as you to hang out with. I would say 90% of our members are originally from elsewhere- so it is cool to make so many unique/great friends from all different walks of life.

Not that this is the point of the post, but I FEEL so much better when I look in a mirror. Adam even said a few months ago that he hadn't heard me say the term "I feel fat" in a REALLY long time. Thank you CrossFit. I MAYBE will post some before and afters. The owner of our gym, Georgia Maxey (coolest girl in Denver), has some incriminating pictures of me from the beginning of Feb. before we started a challenge (sans clothes). I need to see what those look like and then MAYBE post some... haha.

House Project Central

Adam and I have been non-stop house-obsessed. It has been fun and challenging, but overall, we are just really ready to get our house put together and so we can relax. The past two full weekends, we have worked morning-night on our kitchen.

Here are a few before shots.

Before we moved in........ The wall color here is actually called "Peanut Butter"

JUST moved in.... dark, dark, dark. Brown, brown, brown.

Just moved in... looking from the living room into the kitchen.

First we painted the wall a celery green. In pictures the color looks a little more lime than it actually is in person. Sorry for the mess!

Then we took off the top cabinets:

And repaired/painted the patches

And painted our cabinets an Antique White

Oh hey Adam.

Then we decided to tile a backsplash. Don't let this pic fool you- I did A LOT of the work. Actually most of it.

We decided that open shelving was what we wanted for above the stove. So we just went to Home Depot and had them cut the wood to size. We had left over paint from our cabinets to paint them with. And we bought some brackets we both agreed on. Once we upgrade our appliances to stainless steal (eventually) I think the brushed nickel brackets will tie in well. I am going for the "cottage feel" with a modern twist. I believe I have heard vintage is the new modern?! I may have just made that up.

Tyson checking out the shelving situation.

And here is the final product (and by final.... I mean about 65% finished)

BETTER?! (note: no idea why it looks like it is dirty above the tile... shadows maybe?! It doesn't look like that in person I promise). Actually it's probably some left over grout I need to clean up.

And lets not forget our "coffee nook"

We still are not finished. Do you see the short wall with the wine and corks (below)? We are creating a little wine storage/accessory area. We are adding a few more shelves specifically for wine glasses and building a wine rack in the odd space under the counter for a "built in" look. This little space is so awkward.

Then we need to accessorize this place. And buy a buffet or hutch for the space across from our coffee nook. Progress people!!

And in other news. Meet my new obsession:

I think I will call her Layla. She is going to live in our living room and I am going to design around her. As you can see, we have yet to fix the trim on the wall behind Layla. But that is where the door used to be- that we filled in.

If you need a contractor, we are open for business. Griffindoor Construction. Our slogan is "It might not be perfect, but it looks good enough to us." Or Adam's suggestion: "HGTV" Homes by the Griffins, Tyson and Vino.

Weird Day

I had a weird day today. In a nutshell, I had someone call into my office today- when I answered, he proceeded to ask if he could speak to a man instead- when I put him on hold to find someone to handle him, he hung up.

Immediately, he sent two emails. One to our support team saying "Emily in sales seems to be ditzy, can someone else call me" and one to sales saying "I am having trouble getting someone competent on the phone"

HMMMM.

So I decided to call him back (there is only me and one other rep in sales). Maybe we just got off on the wrong foot. Called him back, every time he would ask a question and I would try to answer him he would say things like "you have really poor English" or "you are really confusing-you must not be very smart at this" Like REALLY, REALLY rude things. Finally, I told him that we were not a good fit for him anyways and that I couldn't help him since he was being rude. He then blew up saying even worse things such as "you are a terrible employee, you are not competent, etc...." at this point a tuned him out.... and he then hung up when I wouldn't talk to him anymore and I wouldn't transfer him to anyone else.

Fun stuff! Happy Friday everyone!

White or Gray?

I am going to try and tackle a mondo project this weekend. I am going to put white subway tile in our kitchen, as the backsplash of course.... all. by. myself. Why?! Because I have read tutorials and it just doesn't look that hard! But I can't decide. White grout or gray grout?

WHITE

or....

GRAY

Is this dumb to do by myself? In other news.... last weekend we painted our kitchen cabinets white, we took off the top cabinets and while I am subway tiling the crap out of the kitchen.... Adam is building the open shelves for the kitchen this weekend. Exciting stuff! Here's to hoping we don't screw our kitchen up and have to pay to remodel and redo it.....

C to the H to the IPOTLE

Today it's official- our company gets free Chipotle forever, whenever just for saying we work at SendGrid. Chipotle is on level 1 of my building and we are on the second floor.... I have never seen the guys in my office as excited as they were this morning when we found this out.

Now you may be wondering why I am taking the time to blog about this. Basically its because I know that most everyone likes Chipotle. And now that I get it for free, I can try everything on the menu and make new concoctions almost daily. What better place to share my Chipotle adventure than on my blog?!

My new favorite Chipotle meal: Steak Salad. Lettuce, onions/peppers, steak, mild, a little cheese, guac ON THE SIDE, and their vinaigrette. If you haven't tried their salads- do it! Their dressing is so delicious.

Happy eating.

Here goes nothing

Are you ready for the longest blog post ever? Wow- we have a lot to catch up on. I mean we have moved, have had several people come visit and have been diligently trying to get our house put together. Do you ever feel like crying because of how exhausted you are? Well that is me, almost every night.... hence, having no time to blog!

We moved in on July 18th-

Here are some "just moved in" pics of the house. All of our rooms are pretty tiny, so it is hard to photograph them! I am not proud, these are messy pics, don't do our house justice.... and are in no order what so ever. Don't judge me yet.

2nd Bathroom:

Kitchen looking into living area through the doorway (which will be widened!):

Upstairs Bath- this is the bathroom with the clawfoot tub:

Upstairs guestroom::

Backyard:

Adam and I's bedroom. Hard to call it the "master" due to its size

Tyson being cute

Mud Room

Living room

Basement

Notice the door that leads from the living room, to the bedroom..... this is our first project. (well second). We painted the living room a soft gray color. I say gray but actually it sadly reads as a pale blue. Slightly disappointing, but I don't hate it- just getting used to it not exactly looking like I was expecting! And I am not going to change it anytime soon- why too much trim to work around a second time.

Before Color (mind you- this was JUST after we moved in....):

After Paint Color (much better!):

The door that leads from living room to our bedroom

Filling in the doorway

I just realized I haven't taken an after pic after we filled in this door. Its filled in, though. So try to picture it.

Notice the brown- overly large couches in the above pics? These are all gone. Let's recap how that happened:

So after we bought a new couch (needs to be photographed)- got rid of the brown couches- yep we were those neighbors for a few hours.... we decided we wanted to do some readjustments on our kitchen. Notice the "hood":

Believe it or not, this is a fake hood. It serves no purpose and besides that, since our galley kitchen is so narrow- it make the area feel even more narrow. So we took it down. It gets worse before it gets better- as you will see....

We are still deciding if we want to take ALL of the top cabinets off.... do YOU have an opinion from these few pics? Imagine three long floating shelves with some white subway tile- yes?! We would just take off these now two lonely cheapy cabinets and add long, white floating shelves.....

Let me think what happened next. Somewhere right around this time my sis has come and gone (she helped paint the living room) and now Mikey and Allison are in town and I chop all my hair off....

Mikey and Allison left- we went to IKEA three times (some goods to photograph and put on here soon). Then Adam's mom came into town. We had a blast! Then Erica and Andrew came into town. We painted the kitchen and our bedroom that same weekend. And Adam and I are getting more sleep deprived by the day.

New bedroom color + new bedding. Nowhere close to being finished with any room yet. But a few improvements are happening.

I LOVE our GREEN kitchen. Love love love it. Picture it with ALL white cabinets, white shelves, white subway tile etc. White, white, white. I love white. And gray. And green. And teal these days.

The following Thursday night, Ali & Andrew Moore and Lora & Casey Winchell came to stay with us! We had a freaking blast of a weekend. Camping, hiking, drinking some wine, etc. Perfect. Hopefully Ali will blog about this soon. It was FUN people.

Back to the house. There are two areas to put our dining table. The above "just move in pics" show the table in the kitchen. We have finally decided to push the table out into the living room/new dining room and instead have just a coffee/breakfast area in the kitchen. I am still deciding what dining room chairs I want, so in the meantime, I redid a few of our old chairs for our new coffee area. Here is the before and after of the chairs:

Ha! Love how this picture still has the table price tag on it.... ANYWAYS.

We are almost up to date now. Maybe I can keep this up.... lots and lots of work to do. I am in the process of picking out our window treatments right now. Will photograph our current living room once it is cleaned + the few other odds and ends that didn't make it onto the ole blog :)

Toodles!

PS- One quick admendment to this post. Our very first project was putting in a doggie door for Ty which has been one of the best investments of my life. He LOVES it.