Chicago: Part One

Finally catching up on my trip to Chicago last month!!! This is part one of my Chicago trip :) The first night when my bff Sarah picked me up from the airport, the first thing we did is head to my favorite hot dog place - Portillo's. Since I moved away to Colorado it has become tradition to go straight there every time she picks me up from the airport. It's always a great way to start things off :)

By the way, Sarah is not smoking in that bottom photo - it's a french fry. haha.

We didn't do much of note the next day other than sleep in and get ready for the main event - Stacey's wedding!!!!!! We got ourselves all dolled up and off we went!!

Leave it to us to even have fun taking pictures in the car. :)

The ceremony was GREAT. The church was beautiful inside, the color scheme for the bridesmaids was really pretty, the pastor was VERY funny... we seriously laughed through most of the ceremony. Definitely the LEAST boring wedding I have EVER been to! The flower girls came out and wanted to place each individual flower petal carefully on the floor, which made everyone laugh. The whole thing was beautiful, and when Stacey and Eddie turned to the crowd after they had been married and I saw their faces, I absolutely lost it. I cried like a baby. Stacey is a VERY dear friend to me (for 12 years now!) and probably the person CLOSEST to me who I have watched get married... it was very touching.

(That bottom right picture of them smiling and heading back down the aisle... yeah, that's when I started bawling like a baby.)

We were all ushered outside after the ceremony to hang out by their limo and throw rose petals at them when they came out. This setup wasn't too good, no room to line up so unless you were one of the 5 people actually in the front, you couldn't see them or throw petals at them. Haha. But it was still FUN! Their limo was cool... and after they got in, we ran around to the other side and snapped pics of them on the inside. This was the first time Stacey saw me that day - her face lit up and she was shocked (she hadn't seen me since I lost so much weight. At that time I was down about 75 lbs.)

Look at that face. Have you ever seen a prettier bride? I haven't. No way.

There was a lot of commotion and some guys told us all basically to back off and let the couple be on their way. The limo drove off out of sight. We headed to the car to get ready to drive off to the reception. As we were getting close to our car I heard my name being shouted from a distance... I turned around and there were Stacey and Eddie behind the church, out of the limo. She was waving me over. I ran like I've never run before - and in my heels!! I was SO excited to see her, and to be the first to talk to her up close and personal right after getting married!!!! Sarah snapped a pic of us together AND a GREAT photo of the two of them!!

We thought that photo of the two of them came out SO well... and Sarah had the BEST idea. On our way to the reception, we stopped at a grocery store with one of those instant photo kiosks... we printed two copies of the photo in 5x7 and bought two frames to put them in. Then we handed it right to them at the reception! Their first wedding photo!! They were so surprised, and I heard recently they have one of them on their fireplace mantle now. Awesome :)

The reception was absolutely beautiful.....

The reception hall was right on a river, with the head table having a beautiful view of the water. Everything was lovely... the table settings, the candles, the food, the cake... all was so elegant and pretty. I enjoyed seeing the place cards, menus, and other paper items I had designed for her in person!! Sarah and I had a really good time despite not knowing anyone... I even danced a little! Yes, me! But the BEST part of the night was the photo booth they rented. We went twice - once just Sarah and me and once where Stacey joined us. We also got a copy of a cute one that Stacey and Eddie did together...

Good times. We loved their wedding!! Part two coming soon :)

A Few Tidbits

Just some random things to share today! I am almost 5 months post-op from my weight loss surgery and down about 90 pounds. This weekend for the first time I bought XL size tops in a REGULAR department of a store. This is a first for me and felt great. Here's a pic of one of my favorite tops I got. Jeans are size 18, been wearing those for a few weeks already.

I'm feeling so good, and just plugging along! I work out about 5 days a week now give or take a day. Today will be my first personal training session so I'm looking forward to that!

Recently we have been spending time with our new(ish) friends Ian and Lauren. We met them last year through a mutual friend and I've hung out with Lauren a few times along the way, but we finally got together all four of us for dinner last week... then again this past weekend! We also have plans with them this weekend. We are all really enjoying each other's company and I'm thrilled! Looking forward to hanging out with them more.

I met Lauren for coffee yesterday and we got this cute picture :)

I also did one new scrapbook page recently, with some photos of Ian I really like :) I haven't even gotten around to blogging these photos yet, from a recent day trip to Breckenridge... but I keep scrambling to catch up... so hopefully soon :)
At least i can share the page though! This is a quick page, so I didn't really do anything except put my pictures, journaling, and added the stitched border around the edge. I like it though. :)

That's it for now. More updates soon!

Another Day Another Dollar

I feel like it's been a long time since I really used my blog for more personal blogging. I share photos, things I do, etc, but rarely talk about things on a deeper level - and that used to be ALL I used it for! I really want to get back to sharing more, as well as blogging more frequently... not just the "highlights."
Anyway I guess now is as good of a time as any, right? I wanted to share something that came up today that was really awesome.

Ian got this awesome camera strap for his camera and he was showing it to me. It's so nice because it keeps the camera at your hip and also stores a few things in it. I got a little sad because I don't have an SLR camera of my own yet... I want one just like his. Between the camera body and the 18-270 lens, I need around $1,400 to get it. I have to save up before I can do that... and I think I will ask for money toward that at Christmas and birthday time (May) so that I can get a camera before next summer. In the meantime I just need to share his and keep learning... but since we love to go out taking photos TOGETHER, it is kind of hard to share, which of course is why I want my own. Anyway, we started somehow talking about finances and savings because of this.

We just managed a big milestone - we sent off a check to pay off a $3,200 furniture bill from when we bought new furniture early last year. We got one of those 2 years no interest deals, so we had to pay it off before Jan 2011 to avoid the interest. Well it wasn't until the past 6 months we really started focusing on paying that off. At that point we had $400 set aside, and we managed to get to 3,200 in 6 months. So that's 2,800 in 6 months or nearly $500/month. I am impressed with us!!! It felt SO GOOD to pay that off - especially considering what we saw on the current statement. "Deferred interest to date: $1,750"... so great to be saving that and actually managing to pay it off before the interest set in.

Next we have to pay off the Time Capsule we bought (a hard drive/wireless storage/backup device made by apple which backs up all the data from our computers and external hard drives)... which at the rate of how we've been able to put money aside should only take 1-2 months.

Anyway today we were talking about all of this stuff and about how there are so many TOYS we want. Ian and I are both really into gadgets, electronics, etc. Anything with an on/off switch is probably something we want to buy. Cameras and computers or computer-related stuff are top wants. But there are also a lot of other big items on our wishlist in the next few years. A camera is a TOP thing for me because I finally feel ready to tackle an SLR, and I want a Nikon D5000 like his (or if something else comes out by the time I save up for one, I might get that.)

The other really pricey thing we have been wanting is a Toyota Land Cruiser. Not a new one by any means (in fact, 1995-1996 are the years we are targeting.) The reason we want one is to join up with the club around here that goes on all the 4x4 trips. We have several good friends in the club and we went on one of the trips last year and had a fantastic time. We'd love to go on more, but now that his friend is dating my friend, they always go together and there isn't necessarily room for us to tag along. Plus we really enjoy the group and we see ourselves getting involved with it long term, getting to know everyone, having our own truck and being a part of things.

However this is pricey to get into.... we will probably need to spend $3-5K to buy the truck, and put up to 5K more into it for it to be trail ready. Then of course there is ongoing maintenance... almost every run, something is going to need to be taken care of before or after. It can be a pricey hobby.

We had been thinking that after we paid off our Time Capsule we would start saving toward a LandCruiser and MAYBE by next fall we would have enough to buy one.

So today we were talking about all of this and then I brought up an episode of Desperate Housewives I saw this past weekend. Yes believe it or not you can learn something from TV!!!

One character on the show is secretly working for a website where she cleans in her lingerie on her webcam. She is doing this to make extra money so her family can move out of their crappy apartment and back into their nice big house. She has a run in with another girl who works for this same website and they get to talking. The other girl talks about saving up to move back home. Except she has a lot of nice things... big screen TV, tons of new clothes, etc. Calls them splurges. Susan, the regular character, asks her how long she's been working for the website... SIX YEARS! So she goes home and tells her hubby... instead of going out to a nice dinner for our anniversary and having a splurge let's just order chinese and stay in. She says, let's stay focused on what we want to accomplish... and once we are able to move back home, we can go out to as many dinners as we want.

So I brought this up to Ian as something I had been pondering... how I'm afraid sometimes we are getting into that trap. We sold our house and moved into this townhouse to save money, pay down our bills, and be able to truly afford our next home. We've been saving some money yes, and we paid off this one big bill. But here we are thinking about 'saving up' for the other toys we want. Me with my camera, both of us wanting the land cruiser... not to mention that Ian's 14 year old truck could die at any point and we may need to buy a vehicle at that point. And we want to save up for more world travel as well.

We've both been forgetting why we moved here. To pay down our bills and save up for our house and our future.

Luckily we are TOTALLY on the same page and had a great conversation! We need to stay focused on paying down our bills. This way in about 3 years we will have all of our debt paid off, and have some more savings, and be able to truly afford our next house. Once we are in that house we can start saving toward all the other toys we want. And by then we will probably have a kid who wants toys of their own and of course, that will be a bigger priority in our life as well. We may even hold off on having kids until we move into a house again, but that's not quite decided yet.

It's not like I'm saying we won't be buying any gadgets at all because well, that is just part of who we are. But I think some of the big ticket items are going to be put on the backburner. I'll be focusing on paying down my bills, but I will still ask for money at Christmas and birthday to see if I can afford my camera. I am going to hopefully be able to sell more things on ebay and I can put some toward bills and some toward savings. The only way we will get a Land Cruiser before we move into a house is if Ian's truck dies, because it would be more affordable to get that instead of getting a newer (3-4 yr old) 4 Runner which is what he would like to get next. Instead we'd get the cheaper vehicle first and wait as long as we could to buy the more expensive vehicle. He could drive that as his primary vehicle for a few years.

Anyway, I feel really good after our talk and I feel like we both have the same focus now. Pay down bills and save. That doesn't mean we are going to never buy anything or be super frugal, but, definitely more savings-conscious than we have been. We don't want to be stuck here forever... it's a perfectly nice townhouse but it's not where we want to stay. And I was afraid if we kept saving up for these things we wanted, we'd never get out of here. Instead we need to put the money toward a house, and paying down our bills FIRST. Then once we are in our home, debt free (well other than the house itself of course), then we can truly be saving toward all of these other things we want. A nice international vacation can easily be $10,000.... we have no business aiming for that now while we are living in this house... those things should come later.

So now we are refocused and refreshed. We have a plan for paying off all of our debt within 3 years... and of course if my back gets better and I can work too, then we can really speed that up. Here's hoping!!!

I really rambled here but this is what was on my mind... hope someone out there finds it interesting :)

Oooooooooo-hio!!

Recently I headed to Chicago for a friend's wedding. I decided to make even more of a vacation out of it by staying much longer in Chicago, and also going to Ohio first while I was headed out that way. My good friend Chrissy moved back to Ohio about a year ago and I hadn't seen her since. We decided to spend two whole days digital scrapbooking (so happy that she shares my hobby!) and a third day just hanging out and having fun.

We spent the first two days at the tanning salon where she works. Two twelve hour days to devote to scrapbooking!! We sat up front with our macbooks... it worked out really well :)

It was a great plan. Unfortunately we weren't "feeling it" a lot of the time, which is the trouble with creative hobbies... sometimes you have your creativity and sometimes you don't. I started a bunch of layouts but I have like 6 that are only half finished. These are the only ones I actually did manage to finish. First, my Alaska title page (yeah, I thought I'd get like 1/2 my whole Alaska book done on this trip. Ha.)

I'm not sure yet if I like it. It hasn't really grown on me. So I might end up doing a different title page, not sure. The other page I got done is a layout of when Sarah's band played their first live show back in February.

At least I do have a bunch of other layouts that are in the works and one of these days I hope to finish them :)

One of the nights after leaving the tanning salon we went to this cool little restaurant called Gasoline Alley. It was inside what used to be a gas station! It was decorated with lots of fun vintage signs and had bikes hanging from the ceiling - really cool. The food was delicious too. I had a burger which I could only eat 1/4 of... but I also asked for tuna salad to go which we enjoyed several times the next couple of days... it was the best tuna salad I ever had.

After two days of scrapbooking, it was time for a free day. I packed in the morning so we wouldn't have to come back. We made a quick stop at Target where I bought Chrissy some earrings and she bought me some bracelets... just cuz :) We also fueled up on some tasty Starbucks goodness!

We hit a few more stores because she was looking for jewelry and shoes to wear to a wedding. Then it was time to head to Cleveland, where I'd be flying out from. We wanted to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!! It turned out to be really cool.

You aren't really allowed to take pictures inside but we did sneak a few :) I was amused that I was COMPLETELY decked out in purple that day and they gave me a purple ticket (Chrissy's was red) so we snapped a pic of that in the bathroom. The really dark one of Chrissy is from when we were listening to music at this little listening station - that was fun. All the exhibits were pretty interesting and we had a good time!! At the end, Waddles had to try on a really cool leather jacket he saw in the store. He forgot his allowance money though, so he didn't buy it. :)

On our way out we turned in the voucher to see our souvenir photos. They snapped our pic against a green screen when we came in. They end up making this souvenir pack with various backgrounds which was actually pretty cool. We liked how the picture came out so well that we both bought one - if you ask me that's more worth the money than anything in the store was!

It was such a fun day! When we left the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it was time to head to the airport so I could make my way to Chicago next. My very last pic, which I pretty much just want to share cuz I like how it came out, is a pic I took of myself on my phone while I was sitting at my gate at the airport, anticipating my flight to Chicago :)

That's it for my trip to Ohio! Wish we'd gotten more scrapbooking done, but at least we tried :) And we had fun together which is what matters most!

Bierstadt Lake Hike

August 21st, 2010. We went up to Rocky Mountain National Park to go hiking. We chose to hike to Bierstadt Lake, a place we hadn't been to before. We parked in the same area we would normally park in for going to Bear Lake. The trail for this hike is right off the parking lot. The route we took was 1.6 miles to the lake, gaining about 900 ft in elevation along the way. Then it was a bit further to the actual lake and around part of it, and we came the 1.6 miles back - all in all I think we did about 3.5 miles and it was a nice hike for us.

Here are some pictures from the hike on the way up!

Ian found us some good walking sticks at the start of the trail. We took lots of pics along the way and enjoyed the mountain views.

When we made it up to the lake, it was just a stunning view. It was such a perfect day with the sun shining and sparkling on the water, a perfect temperature, and a nice breeze. We decided to stay for about an hour and a half. We sat on a little beach area by the lake to eat lunch. Some ducks came to visit us too. What a peaceful spot.

Just a few days before, Ian had given me my first full size Spyderco knife... a purple Delica. I took the opportunity to take some nice scenic photos featuring my new knife!

Ian took some photos of one of his new knives too. After some peaceful and enjoyable time by the lake it was time to head back down. The hike was just as enjoyable on the way down.. all in all we had a lovely day!!

If you want to check out all of the photos from our hike you can view my album on Flickr here! I also have an additional album with all the photos of my Delica, which you can view here!

Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment! :)

Birch Ruins in Estes Park

Still have LOTS to catch up on here on the blog! Well back on August 7th we took a little drive up to Estes Park and did some geocaching. We had been wanting to visit the Birch Ruins for quite a while. We had tried to go a couple weeks earlier but it was closed off due to an accident. Finally got a chance to take this little walk up there and see it! There was also a geocache super close to the ruins so of course we had to check that out too!

We wandered around the area for a little while... it was really interesting! The views are amazing... anyone can see why Mr. Birch chose to build his cabin here! Unfortunately there were wooden floor joists under the fireplace, so the whole home caught fire and burned down.. I believe around 1907. Quite a bit of the stone remains though.

This was a fun part of our little day trip. We really enjoyed it. Next time you're in Estes Park, definitely go visit this area! Just the views alone are worth it!