10 on 10 :: February 2012

I decided to participate in 10 on 10 today. 

Take ten pictures on the tenth day of the month to find the life and beauty among the ordinary things of your day...

Sounds fun to me, wish I would have thought to do one in January :)

I started off the day with my trusty old flatiron. I've had this thing since college (can you tell?) and I love it. I even got a new CHI for Christmas last year, but for some reason, I can't seem to part with this guy.

Fridays are "jeans day" at work. Yippee! I would wear jeans to work every day if it were allowed.

My usual breakfast...whole wheat english muffin and unsweetened iced tea. Doesn't look too appetizing here, haha

The preschoolers don't have school on Fridays, which means Fridays are our plan day. Today I worked on my assessments all. day. long. 

The new plastic bowls I bought at Target to keep in the lounge for lunches. There are never any dishes or utensils in there. I've been known to eat soup out of a solo cup.

Look who I found snuggling on the new bed when I got home from work.

We met our friends Megan and Dusty for pizza at Angelo's. Yum!

Then to Mugsy's for Margaronas!

Ready for bed in my heart jammas.

And it wouldn't be a Friday night without some YouTube videos.
Well, that's Paul's motto anyway.


Happy February Tenth!

Insta Weekend

Last weekend Paul and I went up to Boulder to celebrate the end of recruiting season, my birthday, and Super Bowl.
Here's a little recap of our weekend, Instagram Style!

On Saturday, Paul and I drove up to Boulder. A big storm had come through the day before and they got over 2 feet of snow. I just love those Flatirons all covered in snow.

On Saturday night we met our friends for drinks at one of my favorite spots in Boulder, Half Fast. Love these girls!

Sunday morning before Paul and I headed over to the Steele's for their annual Super Bowl Party, we made a stop at the liquor store to stock up before the big game. So many choices...

Have you ever done one of these grids for a football game? It's so fun! Everyone puts money in and then you divide all the squares up evenly. At the end of each quarter, if the score matches up with one of your squares, you win a portion of the money. I won the first and second quarters woohoo!

Shots after the third quarter...

A little Kings Cup after the game.

At midnight, Rachel and Lyndsay surprised me with a bottle of vodka and a giant cookie cake for my birthday.  They know me too well ;)

On Monday, we met my parents for a birthday lunch at Ruebens (yum!) before heading back down to Pueblo. And when we got back to our house, our new bed had arrived. Yippee!

Such a fun weekend with family and friends! Another birthday in the books. I was sad to see it come to an end, but when I got to school on Tuesday morning, this pretty pink bag from my co-teacher and these sweet cards from my kiddos were waiting for me  :)

    

Love!!!

King-Size

So Paul and I have been living in our condo for 7 months now. When we signed the lease back in June, we told the landlord that we wanted to lease it until January and then go month to month because we didn't know how long we would be living in Pueblo. We figured that by January we would either be moving to a new town, or staying in Pueblo for a while and therefore buying a house here. Either way-we would know for sure.

Famous last words. January came a lot quicker than I ever expected and our situation is no more clear than it was last June. Thus the "on the fence" life we've come to live. (I don't know why I always think a definitive answer is going to come to us in January haha.) The problem with being "on the fence" is that I am positively pining away for a real life, big girl house. I've never had one. But the housing market in Pueblo is NO BUENO (as the locals would say) and I just know that the second we buy a house, Paul is going to get a job that sweeps us away to a new town and leaves us with a house we can't sell. Yikes. Just the thought of that terrifies me. Which is why I'm chaining myself to this condo until further notice. Thank goodness our landlord is so accommodating. And really, this place isn't half bad. It suits our needs just fine.

Well, not only have I been pining away for a house, but for new furniture too. Most of our decor is a hodge-podge of items we've had since college. But I made a rule for myself a long time ago, that I would not buy new furniture until we buy a house. I don't want to buy furniture to fit a condo that we live in for a year and then have to/want to buy new stuff when we move again. Plus, moving is so hard on your personal effects.

*Ok, pause a moment. This is what it's like to live in my head. I am a complete and total over-analyzer. All the "what ifs.." and "maybes..." I mean, it's exhausting. *

Anyway, the point of this whole story is that on Saturday, with Paul's help, I ignored all those little voices and we bought a new king-size mattress! I could not be more excited because let me tell you, we needed one!

Here I am trying it out in the store.

Like a cloud!

After laying on approximately 50 mattresses, we decided to go with a knock-off Tempurpedic. I was very confident in this decision until I had this exchange with my brother...

 Haha this cracked me up! 

Cue the over-analyzing. Thankfully, we have 30 days to bring it back if we decide we don't like it (always appreciative of the escape clause) but I don't think it will come to that. Truly, I think we made a great choice. It should arrive in a week or so, and I'll be waiting on pins and needles until then!

Cheers

It's been a long time ol' blog and I've really missed you. I'm sorry I've neglected you in favor of earlier bedtimes, wiping little noses, singing silly songs, COR, and just plain vegetating on the couch with a beer (whew, this teaching thing is exhausting, but oh so rewarding). 

I promise to pay you more attention in this new year, and I promise to lay off the beer.

Oh, who am I kidding?

Cheers!  :)

Number 1 in the Nation

As of this morning, the CSU-Pueblo Thunderwolves are ranked as the number 1 Division II football team in the country!  They finished their regular season this past Saturday with another victory which gave them an overall record of 11-0...UNDEFEATED!!...and won them the title of 2011 RMAC Champions!!

It's hard to express exactly how I feel.  This season has been such a whirlwind.  It's been so fun to sit in the stands each Saturday and cheer for the players and coaches who have all worked so hard to make this dream of theirs come true.  And yet, on some level, I think I knew from the start of the season that we would be here at the end.  

I'm so proud of Paul and all that he has accomplished with his team.  I'm incredibly happy for him; that he gets to experience something so special.  I may be biased, but I can't think of anyone who deserves it more.  And I feel blessed to be the one who has had the privilege of standing beside him throughout it.  I'm thankful for our family who have traveled for games, cheered us on, supported us, followed our progress throughout the season, and taken such an interest in 'Pack' football.  But most of all, I can't stop thinking about how God had a plan for us when he sent us to Pueblo, and although it was hard for me to see what it was at the time, I know now.  He is truly amazing.

Coach Wristen, the head coach of the team, said something to me after the game that really stuck with me.  He told me to enjoy this moment because it's such a rare and special thing to have an undefeated season, and as a coach/coach's wife, you may never get one again.

So that's what I'm doing~soaking it all in and enjoying the moment.  Playoffs will start soon and I can't wait to see what else the Thunderwolves can accomplish!

I'll leave you with a few pics from Saturday's RMAC Championship game...

final score

the RMAC championship plaque

coach wristen giving a celebratory speech

paul with one of his defensive linemen

the dads with their sideline passes

2011 Schedule

I've had a lot of people ask me for CSU-P's game schedule for the rest of the year, so I thought I would post it here.

Thursday 9/1 @ West Texas A&M ~ WIN

Saturday 9/10 Northwestern Oklahoma State @home ~ WIN

Saturday 9/17 @Adams State ~ WIN

Saturday 9/24 Fort Lewis @ home ~ WIN

Saturday 10/1 @ Chadron State ~ 1:30 PM

Thursday 10/6 Colorado School of Mines @ home ~ 6:00 PM

Saturday 10/15 @ Nebraska-Kearney ~ 12:00 PM

Saturday 10/22 Colorado Mesa @ home ~ 6:00 PM

Saturday 10/29 @ New Mexico Highlands ~ 6:00 PM

Saturday 11/5 Western State @ home ~ 2:00 PM

Saturday 11/12 Western New Mexico @ home ~ 2:00 PM

GO PACK!!!

Bullet Points

I've been a bad blogger lately.  BAD!  So I thought I would catch you all up on what's been going on in our life...with bullet points.  Yay!

• Pueblo is finally starting to feel like home.  We've been here for almost 4 months and I'm just now able to find my way around town without getting lost (ok, I still get lost sometimes, but I'm getting a lot better!).  We're completely unpacked and settled in our townhome, we've found two churches that we like, and we're starting to make a few friends.  Making new friends is hard.  Bleh.

• I really miss our friends in Boulder (see above), especially now that the season has started.  It was so nice having a group of gals whose husbands worked the same crazy schedule as Paul and who I could count on for a fun night of dinner, drinks, and girl-talk when all of our husbands were working late or out of town on a Friday night.

• I am currently sitting alone on my couch with a case of Bud Light on a Friday night while my husband is recruiting at a high school football game.  Boo.  At least I have some time to blog now!

• Paul's football team is 3-0 so far this season woohoo!  I've been having so much fun cheering them on the past few weeks.  They really are a talented team.  Tomorrow is our homecoming game against Fort Lewis.  The three games after that will probably be the toughest of the season.  I'm crossing my fingers for some big wins.  Go Pack!

• I got a new job!!!  I'm so excited about this, in case you couldn't tell from the triple exclamation marks.  I'm teaching preschool at a low-income elementary school in town.  It's the first job I've had in a long time where I feel like I'm actually doing something.  I just finished up my second week and I LOVE IT.  The kids keep me on my toes, but they are so much fun and they are just the cutest!

• I went to Austin, TX over Labor Day for my sister's bachelorette party (that trip deserves it's own post).  We had so much fun and were SO sad to leave.  I hadn't seen my sister in six months before that trip and I decided that is simply too long to go without seeing her.  I miss her so much already!  Good thing I'll be seeing her in a little over a month for her WEDDING!!!  I'm so excited I can hardly see straight.  Until then, I'll be dedicating all of my spare time to trying to figure out how to make boutonnieres. 

• I lost my iphone in Austin.  little purse+slippery phone+lots of drinks=recipe for disaster.  And I hadn't backed it up to my computer in well over a year.  So, not only did I lose my phone, but I lost all of my contacts, music, pictures, calendar...you know, my whole life.  Isn't it funny how much we rely on a little piece of technology?  I feel like I still haven't recovered.

Well, that's about all that's going on around here.  What's new with you?