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I know I am pretty lame because I always say I am going to post pics of our recent house progress, but never actually do. Why?! Here's why:

1) We typically are only home at night - which means the pictures always look dark and dreary

2) Since we are only home at night- this means post-dinner = not clean house

I am going to suck it up and for this post and give you a glimpse of some recent "stuff" thats been going on. Disregard the clutter and unfinished touches. I am not YoungHouseLove people... get over it.

First- a yard update. If you are behind on my awesome blog, basically we hired landscapers to come and re-do our entire yard- we are pretty stoked about it. Today here is what our front, side and backyard look like... cute right?! Good news is our patio is going in this week, assuming it doesn't snow.

Starting from old to new projects and updates- here we go!

Remember when I blogged about bringing my antique bed from KC to Denver? Here is our current upstairs guest room (AKA the smallest room you have ever been in, in real life). I have plans for the empty frame on the wall.... just hasn't happened yet (obvs.). And the blue curtains came with the house .... which will be changed out eventually.

Remember that odd nook we had in our kitchen (probably not because I never blog)? Well, we found a wine fridge that fits the space ALMOST perfectly. Now, we just need to stock the fridge. Thanks Greg for the Christmas gift!!!

I put some white frames up in our living room. This is a current/on-going thing as I am adding to it little by little. Notice the brown square. Can we just get it out there that I am not detailed oriented? I will say it again. I AM NOT DETAIL ORIENTED. There. I said it.

We added bookcases to our living room (still not completely decorated- bookcases are HARD to decorate!!!)

Onto Adam and I's room. We hung silk curtains:

Then we got new sheets that I am obsessed with (I almost LIKE the bed unmade now):

And we still don't have one thing hanging on the wall in this room..... wife of the year!

And onto my recent weekend project. I have been looking at art to hang in our living room and I just couldn't find anything I liked. So I made something (with some inspiration from Pinterest, of course). Best part of this project, it was FREE! I am still "warming up" to it.... but I am liking it more and more.

Using slats from when we filled in the door... I just lined them up and Adam helped me nail them into place.

I put a little stain on them and one coat of sealer.

Channeled my inner third grader and wrote a 4 letter word.

And there it is. IN. YOUR. FACE.

Like it?! I THINK I do....

So there you have it. Questions? Comments?

After our yard, we have plans to:

- repaint our kitchen. What were we thinking with the BRIGHT green?

-Finish the master bedroom if its the last thing I do

-Start plans to re-do our basement and laundry room

Toodles!

A Real "Day in the life" story

If you know Adam and me well, you know that we don't really take time to think things through. I would say 90% of the big decisions we make are on a whim. Moving to Denver, buying a house, etc. All of these decisions went something like this.

"Hey, lets move out of Dallas"

Okay.... where to?!

"Scottsdale? Costa Rica? Colorado?"

Scottsdale is really hot, Costa Rica is really far... and if you talked me into it, I would do it, but what would we do for jobs?! Denver it is.

****

"Hey- lets rent for another year- it will be good to save some more money."

Ok- but I just looked on the MLS and this cute house came on the market. Lets look at it.

1 Day later.... we put an offer down.

*****

So today's convo in the car went like this:

Emily "I really don't like the tiny rock-gravel in our drive"

Adam "Ok- well you need to phrase it more positively... if we do work I want it to be a happy thing"

Emily: "......????? that doesn't really make sense"

Adam: "Gosh, we could do some many cool things with our yard. I am going to look at landscaping companies on the computer for fun."

1 hour later- a guy is at our house giving us quotes and drawing up some ideas

2 hours later- we handed a BIG FAT CHECK to the company and they start work TOMORROW!!!

We are getting a whole new everything in our yard. Not that it was bad before- we just really want a fire pit (gas), new better patio, driveway, landscaping, sprinkler system, better car port and some other odds and ends.

Did we think it through? Nope

Did we get quotes from several companies? Nope

And after a brief panic attack as I was writing the check, I have finally warmed up to the idea and I can't wait. Party at our house this summer! You are all invited.

Gosh my life is boring

With all of these babies coming into the world over the next few months (via my friends), I think my blog has turned to BLAH.... I have nothing in particular to write about! Here is my life in a nutshell:

Work, work out and teaching CrossFit classes. On the weekends we go up to the mountains and snowboard and hang out with our friends... and thats about it.

I do want to make a quick shout out to my hubs because he did get a big promotion in January! He is now managing a sales team instead of working in sales. Yes, he did get promoted to manager before me- which I have let me boss know about (I really did as a hint hint). I am supposed to also be moving into more of a lead/manager type role this year- but we need to hire more people for our team first.... so I have people to "lead".

Told you I have NOTHING to write about!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRR. When did my life become so plain?

Steamboat Rule!

This weekend we spent a much needed weekend in the mountains with a few of our besties. Friday night, we headed to Steamboat Springs with Phil and Nikki for a weekend full of skiing and hanging out.

I love, love hanging out with these cute engaged people. Phil and Adam go way back. If you didn't know, Phillip is Jordan Mann's older brother, so Adam and Phillip have known each other since high school. Phillip and Nikki have been together for about 3 years- so we have gotten to know each other quite well.

This weekend, we instituted the "Steamboat Rule". This means, if there is an annoying topic being discussed, someone is bickering or someone is being annoying and/or mean. You can institute the Steamboat Rule. When the Steamboat Rule is called- you have two minutes to finish your conversation, fight or discussion and then you have to drop it. No questions asked.

examples: me/Adam bickering or Nikki/Phil. A Nikki/Emily wedding conversation or gossip fest, etc. You get the point.

Then that got us talking about in 15 years when we all have kids how cool would it be if we were all together and one of our kids called out "Steamboat Rule" on someone.... but seriously, this is a good rule to institute in a relationship.

On a side note I actually can kinda snowboard now. I have officially graduated from falling constantly and having the wrong technique to looking like an actual snow boarder. I think my new ski gear helped.

Pura Vida!

Hello 2012! As you may have noticed, I am giving my blog a much needed face-lift and trying to think of a new title. So bear with me here.... and I am taking title suggestions by the way.

There is no better way to kick-off a new year on this blog than a re-cap of our incredible trip to Costa Rica.

***

It all started with a few glasses of wine... as most good stories start. Our good friend, RJ, and us had been talking all year about how we wanted to go to Costa Rica. So one night (while drinking wine), we randomly checked flights and, holy cow, they were $350 round trip. A quick call to RJ and we were booked.

The boys talked me into not planning our trip out. Meaning, we had our flights and the first 3 nights booked, but they wanted to play it by ear for the last week of the trip and "go wherever the wind blew us"..... so here's what ended up happening:

Dec. 31, 2001- we flew in San Jose and stayed downtown. There surprisingly was not much going on for NYE, so we ended up at a Casino 2 blocks from our hotel. I got yelled at when I pulled out my camera (I forgot you couldn't take pictures at a casino)- so there are no picks from this night.

Day 1 of the trip. We woke up, had breakfast and headed back to the airport to take a puddle jumper to the Pacific coast. Words cannot describe how freaked out I was to take this tiny plane. I mean, you hear about crashes all the time. If I wasn't so freaked out, I maybe could have enjoyed the views. It was a stressful 25 minute flight.

We landed in Tambor and grabbed a 30min taxi to Malpais/Santa Teresa. Think of this place as a typical Costa Rican surf town. Dirt roads, lots of surfers from around the world, lots of twenty-somethings everywhere, but TINY. Its like this little corner of the earth that happens to be extremely popular if you know anything about surfing. We stayed here 3 nights in a hostel. Night 1 was in a shared room (tiny room with 6 bunk beds). Night 2 and 3 were spent in a private room with our own bathroom, thankfully. The water was FREEZING in the showers and we may have each gotten about 100 bug bites from the open-air rooms, but it was an experience for sure. I tried to act really "cool" like I didn't give a crap about the bites, the water temp, the bugs, etc.

Santa Teresa Beach

Tranquilo Backpackers Hostel

We did a lot of this. Beach, drink, beach, drink, rest and repeat.

You will see my tan slowly build through the pics. I am PA-ALE.

Notice the bug bites? I wasn't exaggerating. I had over 60 just on my calves.

Oh hey, RJ

Did I mention there are dogs EVERYWHERE in CR?

From Malpais, we headed to Montezuma. If I could do our trip over, I would have stayed here longer, as it was my favorite place of the trip! Unlike Malpais, which is a surfer town, I would classify this one as a "hippie town". Think American hippies in the street selling trinkets. And this was the only town we went to where Adam thought is looked the same as it had in 2007 when he was there. Unfortunately, since CR is becoming a popular destination, things are changing rapidly. And we booked an actual HOTEL for this part of the trip. Who knew I would appreciate the common luxury of luke-warm showers (you never know what you are going to get with a shower in Costa Rica).

Tortuga Island

Yes, those are real monkeys

I might have worn the most modest swimsuit in the country.

From Montezuma we took a water taxi to Jaco and a shuttle to Manuel Antonio. Manuel Antonio was the most touristy town we went to, so therefore, my least favorite. The beaches were probably some of the prettiest, but they were so crowded!! We only stayed here for a day and a half and then headed south to Dominical. I do have to mention that we did end up watching the Cat's game at a bar here. We are slowly trying to convert our Denver friends to KSU fans- RJ was a good sport.

Planking pics anyone?

Best picture of the trip?! I think so.....

Dominical is another surf town. And WAY off the beaten road. Tiny, tiny, tiny little place. This was our last stop of the trip and after staying night 1 in a really crappy hotel, we decided to end at a nice place for the last few nights of the trip. So we looked up the #1 place on Trip Advisor and booked a two bedroom villa in the hills. It. did. not. disappoint. I think I was made to live in luxury. And can we talk about the views!!!!!!

Straight pimpin

I did not wear makeup once the entire 1o days I was there- it was fabulous.

Our last night of the trip, ended with a bonfire on the beach

And then in typical Costa Rican fashion... we got a "cab" ride to our hotel, except the cab was a truck, so the boys sat in the bed of the truck. I don't think Costa Rica has rules.

I can honestly say I left my heart in Costa Rica. I want to go back ASAP.

Until next time.....