0 Christmas Tree

After Haden's wonderful company party last evening, we weren't sure if we were going to wake up in time to head up to the hills to get this tree--but we peeled our eyes back and made the two hour journey with my parents. After paying only ten bucks for this beautiful tree, let me tell you, I'll never go to one of those corner lots to pay 100. It was a beautiful sunny day with lots of snow on the ground. Enjoy the pics below...

Top Ten List

Another list of this week's most memorable moments

1. Haden was admitted to Regis University, he starts January 11th.

2. I survived a whole week on the night shift. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. The worst part about it--leaving for work right after Haden gets home.

3. The temp in Denver has settled down into the teen's and it doesn't look to be coming up any time soon. Parking outside is no fun.

4. We have plans to head up the the mountains on Saturday to go cut down a Christmas tree. This is seriously one of my most favorite activities of the year. We always make chili and ginger snap cookies and make a whole day of it. I enjoy it the most when it's lightly snowing and we have to track through a few feet of white stuff.

5. Believe it or not, we actually found an apartment. The one we were supposed to move into yesterday fell through (the handicap one) so we found a much larger unit--two bedroom, two bath, for a lot less per month. Visitors, yes please!

6. I made this delicious cheesecake. Courtesy of my parent's Bon Appetit subscription--even Haden couldn't resist this treat.

7. Our new apartment has a wood fireplace! It only reminds Haden of Curlew and all the wood he and Will had to chop, I on the other hand, find it very romantic and homey. I can't wait to use it.

8. I (Haden) now have a high-speed, low-drag mouth guard to keep me from grinding my pearly's down to dust. Lauren was complaining about the noise I make at night. I told her to blame my Mom.

9. Chipotle.

10. Similar to number 2, I have to get up and start my car every morning to warm it up. Well, lets just say I forgot to yank on that good 'ol e-brake. I bust out of the house to work and see an empty spot where the banana wagon had been. Eff... Someone stole my car! Here in suburbia!

Wrong.

Haden found his car down the street, idling like a kitten. Lucky for me it was early and no one noticed. I jumped in the car and took off like a bandit, praying no one would notice the tire marks on their lawn.

Hand Crafted

Some of you may remember that I recently talked about decorating our apartment. Well, these past few weeks I've been pretty busy.

First, I have to put credit where credit is due. Our wonderful friend Jlyn has got to be one of the most creative people I have ever met. Check out her blog to see some of it. She transforms junky, old cheap stuff into some of the cutest things ever. It's awesome and it inspired me.

Full of inspiration and a mostly empty wallet I took a trip to our local Goodwill. I found this old, gross wooden toy chest that I knew could be transformed into something cute. I handed over a few bills for it and had a strong young guy carry it out for me. I wanted to put up a picture of how ugly this box was, but I accidentally deleted the photos off my camera. Just envision a toy box with a pirate stenciled on the front and dancing, brightly colored Easter bunnies on the top. Interesting to say the least.

After a quick trip to the hardware store it was time to sand--lots and lots and lots of sanding. Two days later I was still sanding. But finally that ugly pirate and bunnies were gone.

Then I primed the top and took another trip to the hardware store for some paint and wood stain.

The box needed some more color, so naturally, I chose red.

Considering the box was dirt cheap, I couldn't get too upset that the inside smelled like a giant moth ball. This was my solution...

In the meantime, I took several trips to fabric stores to find something to craft some pillows from. After some discussion Haden and I came to an agreement and I enlisted the help of my very talented, seamstress mother.

I cut and measured

Pinned

and sewed.

Lots of time, paint, needle pricks and creative juice later--here is the final product

It's "modified"

Last evening Haden and I made what we hoped we be a quick trip to our new apartment complex come Saturday. We just wanted to go take a peek at the actual apartment we would be moving into (not just the model) and pick out some paint colors to spice up the walls. Well....we walk into the apartment and immediately Haden and I both notice something--this one did not look a thing like the model we were shown. I asked the woman with us if it was the same, to which she replied, "Yes, but it's modified." We had no idea what she meant by modified until we started looking around and noticed that the cabinets in the kitchen were six inches lower than normal, the counter tops were two inches lower, there were numerous hand rails in the shower and underneath the kitchen and bathroom sinks there were no cabinets. It finally clicked--modified for wheelchair access.

When we signed on to this place we had no idea of the modifications and quickly decided to move into the unit because the price was so great. Now that we know it's modified, we are not willing to move into the unit. Last night we found out that the same unit (not modified) is going for three-four hundred dollars more a month, way out of our budget. Anyways, long story short there is a different, but smaller unit opening up in a few weeks. They are asking more than we are willing to pay for it, but negotiations with corporate are in the works. If they offer us a decent price, we are going to take it--otherwise, it's back to square one for Haden and I. And trust me, we really don't want to go back to square one.

Thanksgiving

I meant to put these up right after we ate on Thanksgiving, but my stomach was just too full. Better late than never, right?

Haden was so proud of this turkey. First one he's ever made and it turned out wonderfully.

I never have been a fan of cranberries, but they look so pretty.

Gravy Master

Squash baked with oil and brown sugar, so delicious.