our little urban Life

Hypothyroidism

2012-03-14T06:00:00.000-06:00

I have been debating on whether or not to write this post for quite some time. Obviously, I have chosen to go ahead and write it for several reasons.

I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism. Before I go further, I will say that this disease is not life threatening, if it is well controlled. Hypothyroidism is a disease in which the thyroid gland does not make enough thyroid hormone. The thyroid gland is a part of the endocrine system and is located in the lower part of your neck. It is responsible for a lot of things in your body-making and storing hormones that help regulate the heart rate, blood pressure, body temp, and the rate at which food is converted into energy. Thyroid hormones are essential for the function of every cell in the body. The gland also helps regulate metabolism. See, I told you it does a lot. The thyroid gland doesn't get a lot of publicity (i can't think of a better word...) because it usually functions completely normally without any thanks to us.

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So, hypo means under, not enough, etc. Hypothyroidism is a disease process in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone. So all the functions that the thyroid gland normally does will now be affected. All of the typical symptoms that come with hypothyroidism are because of the lack of thyroid hormone. Some early symptoms: being more sensitive to cold, constipation, depression, fatigue, heavier menstrual periods, joint or muscle pain, paleness or dry skin, thin, brittle hair/fingernails, weakness, unintentional weight gain. Having a lot of these symptoms lead me to figuring out that I had hypothyroidism but I will share a little bit about that later. To be honest, I feel like I have had nearly all of these symptoms-especially weight gain and fatigue. For the past several months, I just kept saying that these things had to do with my new job and how stressed I was at work.

The treatment is daily medication therapy and the goal is to replace the thyroid hormone that is lacking. Right now, my doctor is trying to find the right dosage for me (the dosages can vary a lot depending on what your blood work looks like). I have been to the doctor several times within the last three months. Once the dosage is right, I will just have visits every few months to check my blood work (the thyroid stimulating hormone or TSH is the specific lab that will be checked, along with T3 and T4).

The hormone replacement therapy will be lifelong. Thyroid hormone levels will return to normal but the replacement will have to be continual. The only true life threatening thing with hypothyroidism is Myxedema coma. It's a medical emergency that occurs when the body's level of thyroid hormones becomes extremely low. It is treated with intravenous thyroid hormone replacement and steroid medications. Supportive therapy (oxygen, breathing assistance, fluid replacement) and intensive-care nursing may also be needed.

I guess one of the reasons that I was debating writing this is because hypothyroidism is not life threatening. So many people go through so much more in their lives. I don't have cancer and I am not dying. I was diagnosed with a disease that has been researched so much and has a fairly simple treatment plan. I don't want anyone to think that I am whining about this or asking "why me??". I also wanted to share this because it is a way to educate. I love that as a nurse, education is a huge part of my daily job. I love educating the kids at school with simple things (why we wash our hands after the bathroom, what it means when we have a headache, etc) and I love educating the parents of the kids at school. I want to do a better job of educating through my blog and I thought that I could start with this. God is good and He has gently reminded me of how temporary our bodies are. My mom was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism several years ago and hers has been very well controlled. I am so thankful that her case has been well controlled.

So, how did I get diagnosed? I had my yearly visit with the "female doctor" back in early January. My doctor asked me if I was going to visit my PCP any time soon and I said I was planning on going in for my yearly physical in the summer when I would have more time. My doctor said since I was going in the summer that she would just let my PCP do all of my yearly blood work and labs. I said that I have been having a lot of symptoms lately and I wanted to get my thyroid hormone levels checked. I always ask for these levels to be checked at my yearly visits since my Mom was diagnosed. I normally would be fine waiting to have my labs drawn in the summer at my primary visit but because of all my symptoms I really just wanted to have the peace of mind. My doctor and I went back and forth a few times-she kept trying to convince me that I would be fine waiting until the summer. I finally just said that it would really make me feel a lot better to just have those specific labs drawn. So, she ordered the labs and the next day I got a call telling me that my levels were way off.

I don't share that story to bash my doctor or physicians in general. I love my "female doctor". She is a great educator and answered all of my questions thoroughly. I share that story to just say that you are your best advocate. As a nurse, I was taught that one of my roles is to be a patient advocate. I love this role as a nurse because it really requires you to care for your patients (or in my case, the students) in a way that goes above and beyond just getting the job done. I believe in patient advocacy as a nurse and I also believe in being your own advocate. When something doesn't feel right, speak up. When something doesn't make sense, speak up.

being a Pastor's wife

2012-03-13T12:57:00.003-06:00

I recently participated in Kelly's Korner link up to meet other pastor's wives. I love that Kelly had this idea. It is great to know people through the blog world in similar situations.

So, if you are clicking over from Kelly's Korner....

First of all, thanks for coming! I don't see myself as a typical pastor's wife at all but I am not really sure what a typical pastor's wife is.

My husband is the lead pastor of the Summit Church. Bryan planted the Summit with his best friend, Andy in January of 2011. And we haven't looked back since then. Bryan and I absolutely love being part of a church plant and love that Denver will be our forever home.

I have no formal training in ministry. I am a Registered Nurse and I work as a School Nurse for the Denver Public School system.

When my schedule allows, I participate in any counseling that Bryan is doing. I love being involved with our church, not as the pastor's wife but as a faithful member. I disciple 2 amazing girls. I play with the babies every now and then in nursery. I love organizing our hot chocolate and drink set up team (we have to have our hot chocolate!). I love meeting all of the new people that come in our doors. I love going to the dog park and building friendships with those same new people (that's what we do in Denver since the majority of us don't have kids-we have dogs!). I don't do any of these things because I feel like I should be because I am the pastor's wife. I love doing these things because I want to be involved as a faithful church member.

And I also just wanted to say that I absolutely love our church. I love being in Denver doing life with all of our church members. I love doing ministry alongside them. I love getting to know them more and more and having close friendships with them.

Oh, and I don't play piano and I don't sing in front of people : ) No one has ever asked me to be a part of the worship team and I know exactly why.

I also wrote a post on being a pastor's wife on Southeastern Seminary's (where my husband went to grad school) Women's Life blog. You can check it out here.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

an update on my 2011 Book List

2012-03-13T06:30:00.002-06:00

I realized that I keep sharing about books that I am reading and I haven't really given a true update on my Book List. So, how's about an update?

I ALMOST finished my 2011 book list. I finished all of the books that I wanted to read independently but there were a few books on the list that Bryan and I had planned on reading together throughout the year-a marriage book, a money book, and a theology book. We had the best of intentions and the worst follow through. Are there any other married folks out there who can resonate with this?

This year we have more structured goals with our shared reading list. Right now we are reading through The Meaning of Marriage by Tim and Kathy Keller. It has been great so far. We read through a few chapters together independently and then come together to talk through what we read and how we can apply what we learned to our lives.

It is so hard to be intentional in this aspect but we are praying that God would change us in this area. 2011 was not a horrible year for us by any means but we definitely can look back and recognize very specific areas where intentionally reading through something together and having meaningful conversations would have really helped us.

To sum up my 2011 book list, I read every single book that I had on my list minus the books that Bryan and I had planned on reading through together. It is almost embarrassing to admit that but it is what it is.

~~The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down~~ (Anne Fadiman)
~~A Praying Life~~ (Paul E. Miller)
~~Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant that Ever Live~~d (Ralph Helfer)
~~The Art of Racing in the Rain~~ (Garth Stein)
~~Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know~~ (Alexandra Horowitz)
~~A Separate Peace~~ (John Knowles)
~~I Know this Much is True: A Novel~~ (Wally Lamb)
~~Satisfy My Thirsty Soul: For I am Desperate for Your Presence~~ (Linda Dillow)
~~Expect the Best~~ (ADA and Elizabeth M. Ward)
~~You Can Still Wear Cute Shoes~~ (Lisa McKay)
~~Three Cups of Tea~~ (Greg Mortenson)
~~The Help~~ (Kathryn Sockett)
~~Summer at Tiffany~~ (Marjorie Hart)
~~Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss & Love~~ (Matt Logelin)
~~One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where you Are~~ (Ann Voskamp)
~~I Will Carry You~~ (Angie Smith)
~~Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God~~ (David Platt)
~~Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison~~ (Piper Kerman)
~~Total Church~~ (Tim Chester and Steve Timmis)
~~When Sinners Say I Do~~ (Dave Harvey)
Sacred Marriage (Gary Thomas)
Doctrine (Mark Driscoll)
Money: God or Gift (Jamie Munson)
~~A Dog's Purpose~~ (W. Bruce Cameron)
~~The Color Purple~~ (Alice Walker)
~~Water for Elephants~~

Here's to 2012 and reading what we say we are going to read! You can click over to my Book List to see my 2012 Book List!

tissues and two books down

2012-03-12T11:34:00.004-06:00

I have been sick since Thursday night and I am still not feeling too great today. I took a sick day on Friday and am taking another one today. I figured I was bound to get sick soon with my job. Before when I worked in the hospital, I had a great immune system and hardly ever got sick. Kid germs are a whole new ball game-boogers, uncovered coughs, etc. This is my second time getting sick with this new job. Hopefully, I am nearing the end of this sickness.

I have gone through about 2 boxes of tissues already and am working on my third currently. I have also finished reading 2 books on my book list and am about to start my third.

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The book description can be found here if you want to check it out. This is the author's first novel and I liked it. It is historical fiction about van Gogh and an Arlesian prostitute who he comes to fall in love with. It has the whole ear incident and his death but I just had to keep telling myself that the book was fiction! It was also interesting to see the way that physicians in the late 1800's dealt with mental illness. It almost seemed like everything was considered a "crisis" and there were no true mental illnesses. I guess one doctor wanted to blame van Gogh's illness on Epilepsy. Anyway, this book was a good read. Definitely not one of my favorite books but it was still a pretty good read.

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This book is Jaycee Dugard's memoir of her life as a prisoner of Phillip and Nancy Garrido. Jaycee was abducted while she was on her way to catch the bus to school by the Garridos when she was only 11 years old. She was held captive for over 18 years and ended up having 2 daughters by Phillip Garrido. She lived her life and raised her two daughters literally in the Garrido's backyard. Do you guys remember this story from the news in 2009? Jaycee shares her story with so much honesty. She even writes that she didn't want to share some parts of her story but that she ultimately decided to share it all. Phillip Garrido had visits from his parole officers (I think over 60 separate visits were made throughout the 18 years) and some parole officers even spoke to Jaycee. This is just a crazy story and it is so sick to think that people like the Garridos exist. Jaycee endured her life as a prisoner. She has a Since her rescue, she has formed her own foundation (JAYC) that aims to give support to families dealing with abduction and other tragedies. I applaud Jaycee for writing her memoir. I would definitely recommend reading this book. It definitely opened up my eyes to what goes on in this world.

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Here is the book summary:
"Award-winning writer Kim Edwards's The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a brilliantly crafted family drama that explores every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you?

On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this beautifully told story that unfolds over a quarter of a century in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by David Henry's fateful decision that long-ago winter night.

A rich and deeply moving page-turner, The Memory Keeper's Daughter captures the way life takes unexpected turns and how the mysterious ties that hold a family together help us survive the heartache that occurs when long-buried secrets burst into the open. It is an astonishing tale of redemptive love."-via

This book has incredibly mixed reviews but I am still looking forward to reading it. I love books that feature nurses and Down's Syndrome is something that I am interested in medically so I have a feeling I will like it.

In an attempt to feel better on Friday afternoon, I took a bath. Enter the great bathtub incident of 2012 as Bryan has been calling it. My iphone fell into the bath. I took it out immediately and it sat in some rice for about 36 hours. Long story short, we submitted an insurance claim and I was just going to get another iphone 4 in white, just like the one that fell in the tub. Turns out they were out of the white iphone 4 (they had plenty of black) so they upgraded me to the white iphone 4S. I definitely lucked out on that one! Thanks to my awesome mother in law for getting all of that sorted out for me!

Pinteresting Wednesday

2012-03-07T11:23:00.007-07:00

So excited for Pinteresting Wednesday! Seriously, what did we do before Pinterest?

*I don't know what in the world is up with the spacing on this post. Grrr...

Love this skirt! And it is actually pretty affordable.

I really like this table.

Source: younghouselove.com via Megan on Pinterest

Cake Batter sprinkle cookies? Yes, yes please.

Source: cookincowgirl.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

How cute is this pillow??

Source: serenaandlily.com via Megan on Pinterest

Oh dear. I don't know why this is SO funny to me.

Source: ffffound.com via Megan on Pinterest

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Here's to being halfway through the week!

Linking up with The Vintage Apple!

Eric is here!

2012-03-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to have Eric, Bryan's younger brother, out here! Eric is checking out Denver to see if he wants to live here. He is living in our basement for now. Penny loves Eric and she especially loves having another person that will throw a tennis ball for her : )

basement reveal

2012-03-05T06:10:00.001-07:00

I'm so excited to finally be sharing pictures of our basement! We worked on it a lot over Christmas break and I was finally able to finish it up a few weeks ago.

Before. It was a great space but we really wanted to maximize all of it and be able to fit as many people as possible down here.

After...

This is the gallery wall. We tried to get meaningful pieces. We have concert posters from Arcade Fire, Avett Brothers, and the Local Natives. These were all the concerts we saw in 2011.

We absolutely love the changes! The sectional is the Karlstadt from Ikea. Let me tell you...that thing was not fun to put together! The entertainment center is also from Ikea. We changed the majority of the walls to a navy blue. I was a little nervous about using navy blue since the basement is so dark already. But we really love the end result. And our goal has been met. We have had a few movie nights here already and I think we can usually get about 12-15 people on the sectional!

*And Penny was not posed for these pictures. I told you she was my little shadow and just goes wherever I go.

Linking up with New Nostalgia!

A Big Little Life

2012-03-02T11:05:00.004-07:00

I am in love with the book that I am reading right now-"A Big Little Life" by Dean Koontz. I have mentioned the book before several months ago, so needless to say I was so excited to finally be able to read it!

If you have are a dog lover or even a dog liker, I would recommend reading this book. "A Big Little Life" is Koontz' memoir of his dog, Trixie. I love the stories that he has shared about Trixie and her big personality. I have never read any of Dean Koontz' books but I really like his writing style in this book. He has a way with words. Even the title is just so meaningful to me. I have attempted to share before how Penny may just be another dog, another chocolate lab, another animal on this big planet but to us, she means the world to us. I love that "chocolate female #3" is now Penny Barley in every way. I love having a constant companion and a little shadow. I love her excitement over peanut butter and a new tennis ball.

This is one of my favorite quotes from the book. Dean Koontz and his wife have just made the decision to get a dog but now they are questioning what type of dog to get.

"At the end of dinner, we were agreed. We weren’t ready for a dog, but we were going to make ourselves ready. In September, I called Judi and told her the next time they had a release dog to place, we would give it a home. She said, “What kind of dog do you want-a mooshy one or a not-mooshy one?” Because mooshy sounded slightly disgusting, I assumed I wanted a not-mooshy. Apparently, I was not as informed about dog terminology as I thought I was, so I decided to ask for a definition. “A Labrador retriever wouldn’t be a mooshy dog,” Judi explained. “The breed has a huge amount of energy and always likes to be doing something. A golden retriever, however, is playful and energetic when it wants to be, but is also happy just lying around, observing or cuddling or snoozing. A golden retriever is a mooshy dog.”

I had always admired goldens for their beautiful coats, their comic-gentle-noble faces, and their sweet temperaments. I was fifty-three years old, and although I exercised regularly and still had a thirty-inch waist, the indefatigable American Association of Retired Persons already harassed me monthly with their mailers, insisting that I should recognize I was in denial, should face the fact of my mortality, and should join them to receive all the senior-citizen discounts, denture-adhesive analyses, and funeral planning that they stood ready to provide. I decided that a mooshy dog was exactly-and perhaps only-what I could handle."
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We have had Penny, our mooshy labrador retriever, for 2.5 years now and I can say with certainty that yes, they always like to be doing something. Always.

Linking up with Book Club Friday today!

The Lion King

2012-03-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Bryan and Andy surprised Angela and I a while back (read: 3 or so months ago!) with dinner downtown and tickets to see The Lion King. I had seen The Lion King on Broadway back in high school on a class trip to NYC and it has always been one of my favorite Broadway shows. It was a fun night out for us!

There weren't any flattering pictures of me to share from the night but here is a cute picture of the cutie Metzgers. Love them.

Pinteresting Wednesday

2012-02-29T10:41:00.005-07:00

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm alive I promise but life doesn't slow down, does it? I am linking up with Pinteresting Wednesday via The Vintage Apple just so the blog world still knows I am alive.

This looks so so yummy.

Source: lickthebowlgood.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

How cute would this be for a housewarming gift? Sponges and soap! These are things you never think about when packing up and moving to a new place.

Source: julieblanner.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

Paninis! I would lurve a panini press.

Source: lacucinadilauren.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

I heart farmhouse sinks.

Source: traditionalhome.com via Megan on Pinterest

Run Wild.

Source: etsy.com via Megan on Pinterest

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes

2012-02-17T12:32:00.002-07:00

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I'm currently reading The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes. I heard about it through the Book Club! I have already read about 150 pages in just one day! It has been one of those books that I hate to put down. The first part of the book is set in Raleigh and Chapel Hill so it has been fun to read little snippets and be immediately taken back to the Triangle-things like 540, Garner, Carolina, etc. I will definitely be reading one of Diane Chamberlain's books again! You can go here to read the synopsis and see all the great reviews this book got!

I finished A Little Princess earlier this week. I would love to be able to read that sweet little book to a daughter one day.

lazy Saturday

2012-02-04T15:43:00.007-07:00

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I finished reading Mistaken Identity earlier this week. I heard about the book through Book Club Friday, the book link up party that I participate in occasionally.

book description (from here):
"Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family.

This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt?

Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found.

And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings.

Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable."

I vaguely remember hearing about this story in the news in 2006. Both families are Christians and their faith is evident throughout the book. They share scripture and how God's grace is what sustained them throughout the ordeal. The book wasn't an incredibly well written book but I didn't expect it to be because they families were never authors before. I also kept getting confused because of all of the names and people in the book.

Overall, it was a really great story and I appreciate both families being open with the world about what happened to them.

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I also started reading The Little Princess. I almost hesitate to admit that because it seems like such a kiddy book. Has anyone ever seen the movie? It is also a kiddy movie. I'm not going to lie-it is one of my favorite movies! I told Bryan that I wanted him to watch it with me and he said that if we ever have a little girl then he will watch it. : ) It should be a quick read so I should be done with it this weekend.

We have had such a nice lazy weekend. We actually had a snow day yesterday because we got 13 inches of snow! Some inches of Colorado got over 43 inches (just from this weekend!). The superintended of DPS emailed all staff and said he decided to cancel because of all of the teenage drivers and all of the bus programs. One of my schools has several Autism classes where the children are bussed back and forth. I was so surprised that we even got a snow day. Our weekends usually fly by because they always feel like they are just a day and a half with the afternoon and evening completely always taken up with church. So, Friday felt like Saturday and today felt like another Saturday. It was a good feeling!

Here is a picture of Bryan trying to measure the snow last night. You can't even see our little ruler.

I am not even going to begin to tell you how many times Penny has lost her beloved tennis ball outside in the snow. She won't come in until she finds it and she won't stay outside by herself. So, that has been fun.

If you are in Denver, enjoy the snow! If you are my family members or friends on the East Coast, enjoy the 70 degree weather : ) I will pretend my hardest that it is 70 degrees while I am standing outside with Penny trying to find the tennis ball for the 20th time in the 20 degree weather.

We have had an incredibly lazy day today and I don't even want to tell you how many movies Bryan and I have already watched today! I did get a major project done yesterday though. I finally sat down and worked on our filing cabinet. Our files were somewhat in order but I just needed to sit down and make things a little more efficient for us. Our filing cabinet is in a closet in Bryan's office. I added a shelf in the closet to maximize the space so the whole closet is a lot more organized now. I definitely kept putting this project off but I am so glad that it is done now!

closet quick fix

2012-02-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Our closet needed a bit of a fix. It is a walk in closet and we have plenty of space for the 2 of us but I think over the past year the space just got the best of us. We would just throw things anywhere and so things ended up getting a bit messy.

Now honestly, as I was importing pictures for this post it was hard for me to tell the difference between the befores and afters. Our closet was honestly not that bad. I just needed to declutter and reorganize a bit. I can tell a difference in real life and in our day to day but the pictures may not do it justice.

Here are some of the before shots:

After:

I got a new closet organizer thing just for my scrubs. Since I wear scrubs 5 days a week, I really needed those to be much more organized than they were. I also got rid of about 5 bags of clothes and maybe 5 or 6 pairs of shoes. It felt SO SO good to declutter and give away.

We use the top shelf of our closet for non seasonal clothing. Our shorts, bathing suits, and shirts are up there now. Now....get ready for some marriage advice....

Did anyone notice the shelf below the top shelf? The one that has clothes thrown in it-literally. This is Bryan's shelf. Most of his clothes are on hangers and those stay nice and neat. But the shelf is a different story. I have tried over and over again to keep this shelf organized over the past year. When we lived in Wake Forest and Raleigh, we had teeny closets and maximized our drawer space in our dressers (that bedroom furniture is now in our basement in this house so Bryan doesn't have anymore drawer space). I would organize Bryan's drawers and then I would reorganize the next week as I was putting up clean clothes. Then I would let it go for a few weeks and then when I would have the time again, I would completely reorganize his drawers. I spent so much time getting frustrated over the silly drawers and how unorganized he kept them. I did the same thing in this house-an ongoing cycle of getting frustrated, reorganzing, and then getting upset because Bryan wouldn't keep his shelf as organized as I would have liked. In reality, Bryan functions just fine with messy drawers and messy shelves.

At some point last year, I just stopped. I stopped reorganzing, decluttering, spending time having my feelings hurt over anything to do with his shelf. And it has been such a relief. I still fold his clothes nice and neat and then I just stick them on top of the existing pile of clothes on his shelf. Bryan functions just fine like this and I needed to be ok with this. I absolutely wanted Bryan to have organized shelves and drawers and closet space but I had to realize that it was absolutely ok for him not to have his space organized like mine. Our closet is not an area of the house that people see everyday (until I put it on the world wide web....) so it just wasn't worth me getting so upset over. I had to tell myself that it is not that big of a deal and everything in my house does not have to be exactly the way I like and exactly the way that I think is right. Now, if I could just hear that everyday I might start getting it.

Christmas cards

2012-01-31T06:00:00.001-07:00

I've been meaning to share these pictures from what I did with all of our Christmas cards we have received over the years. I know that the Valentines candies are up in Target but I still just wanted to share. I saw the idea on Pinterest originally so I take no credit whatsoever in coming up with this idea.

I absolutely love receiving Christmas cards. I get some from families that I used to babysit for and it is so fun seeing the babies that I used to watch turn into school aged children! We also love getting cards from friends we had in college and in seminary-all of a sudden our friends have babies and we love seeing those pictures! Since we got married in 2007, I have been sorting our cards by the year. At the end of every Christmas season, I would tie a ribbon around the stack of cards and write the year on the ribbon. I guess this was organized enough but I wanted to be able to display the cards and look at them easily.
The tutorial that I found was so simple to be able to display your Christmas cards in an organized way. All you have to do is punch 2 holes in each card and put a loose leaf ring through the holes. I guess you could get the larger size rings and keep all your cards together or organize them however you want. I liked the idea of keeping them together by year.

This little project took me about half an hour for 5 years worth of cards!

For the sake of my 12 by 2012, here is a picture of all of our Christmas cards ready to be mailed out. There was a mess with our cards this year...I don't think I will be getting a groupon for Shutterfly again. Groupon's fault; not Shutterfly's. Either way, our cards still got mailed out on time. In the picture is my receipt from the post office for all of our Christmas packages. Everyone got their packages on Christmas Eve. Kind of nostalgic, if you ask me.

I apologize for the Christmas related post on the last day of January. Maybe a goal of mine should be to blog closer to the actual event ; ) We'll see.

Bryan's Birthday

2012-01-30T06:30:00.002-07:00

Bryan's birthday was January 5th. Last year on Bryan's birthday we had just spent the previous 3 days traveling across the country for our big move so we took it pretty easy on his actual birthday. I wanted to make his birthday a little more special than it was last year.

His birthday fell on a Thursday so we were both at work (welcome to adulthood, right?). That night I made one of Bryan's favorite meals-grilled teriyaki pork loin and orzo with pesto. He blew out the candle on his Happy Cake and he opened presents (I had ALL of Bryan's presents done by January 31st!! I couldn't take a picture or blog about it beforehand or else my secret hiding spot would be given out!). One of his presents was a season of Band of Brothers so we watched an episode of that.

We went out to dinner on Friday night to celebrate his birthday with friends. We went to dinner downtown at The Lobby and had a great time. Everyone came back to our house to watch a movie and have birthday cake. I made a strawberry layer cake that Bryan requested. I had sworn off making all layer cakes and I swore them off again after I made this one but who am I kidding, I will probably make another one.

One Day

2012-01-20T09:29:00.004-07:00

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book summary:

It’s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day—July 15th—of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.-source

I finished "My Life in France" today and quickly grabbed this book off of my bookshelf to start reading today during my lunch break. I had never heard of this book before seeing the previews for the movie several months ago. I have a strict rule that I will not see a movie before I read the book. Books are usually better than the movies but I still enjoy watching the movies. I like seeing certain things that I imagined while reading the book come to life in movie form.

Have I ever shared my Water for Elephants story? Back in the spring, I was reading the book and absolutely loving it. I had no clue whatsoever that a movie was being made when Bryan and I went to see True Grit at the movies. We love the previews and always like to be there for all of them. One of the previews at True Grit was for the Water for Elephants movie!! Y'all...I literally started crying. Partly because of excitement and partly because of certain things that I was seeing on the movie screens were just better versions of what I had imagined things to be like in my head. Bryan thought I was crazy, I thought I was crazy, but it was just too great! I mean, I know that I cry at the drop of a hat but still (hello...Chevrolet commercials!).

Now that you guys think I am crazy too...can you understand why I make myself live by this strict rule? I told Bryan that I would love for us to have this rule with our kids too. No movie version until they read the book version.

What about you? Do you guys prefer to read the book before you see the movie or does seeing the movie first help when you read the book?

Pinteresting Wednesday

2012-01-18T09:39:00.009-07:00

*I don't know why my blog layout is like this. My normal sidebar stuff is at the very bottom. Working on getting this resolved.*

Oh, Pinterest. How I love you.

These are some of my favorite pinnies from this week.

I love the color of this wall. Maybe I could repaint our half bathroom. Bryan might die if I suggest that.

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And this would be a glimpse into our life every single night.

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I saw this and was immediately reminded of how thankful I am that I am not in nursing school. Those last few minutes of nursing exams were not pretty.

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This would be such a fun spring wreath minus the baby pumpkins.

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I heart this necklace.

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This is a recipe for making your own dog treats. I think I am going to try it this weekend. I even found a bone cookie cutter mold at Sur La Table for 76 cents!!

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I am loving this headboard. Actually I am just loving this whole room in general. Fireplace in my bedroom, yes please.

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My Life in France

2012-01-17T14:54:00.001-07:00

One of the first books that I chose to read for 2012 is "My Life in France" by Julia Childs. This book has been a joy to read. I can practically hear her sweet high pitched voice telling me the stories herself. Her stories are written with such honesty and candor.

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Book Description:

"Julia Child single handedly awakened America to the pleasures of good cooking with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, but as she reveals in this bestselling memoir, she didn't know the first thing about cooking when she landed in France.

Indeed, when she first arrived in 1948 with her husband, Paul, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever. Julia's unforgettable story unfolds with the spirit so key to her success as as a cook and teacher and writer, brilliantly capturing one of the most endearing American personalities of the last fifty years."
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I am going to share one of my favorite stories I have come across in the book:

In spite of my good notices, I remained a long way from being a maitre de cuisine. This was made plain the day I invited my friend Winnie for lunch, and managed to serve her the most vile eggs Florentine one could imagine outside of England. I suppose I had gotten a little too self-confident for my own good: rather than measure out the flour, I had guessed at the proportions, and the result was a goopy sauce Mornay. Unable to find spinach at the market, I'd bought chicory instead; it, too, was horrid. We ate the lunch with painful politeness and avoided discussing its taste. I made sure not to apologize for it. This was a rule of mine.
I don't believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make. When one's hostess starts in with self-deprecations such as "Oh, I don't know how to cook..., " or "Poor little me...," or "This may taste awful," it is so dreadful to have to reassure her that everything is delicious and fine, whether it is or not. Besides, such admissions only draw attention to one's shortcomings (or self-perceived shortcomings), and make the other person think "Yes, you're right, this really is an awful meal!" Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed-eh bien, tant pis!
Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, as my ersatz eggs Florentine surely were, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile-and learn from her mistakes. (Julie and Julia, p.77)

As someone who has apologized over multiple meals, I appreciated this little rule of hers that she shares in the book. I don't know if I will make it my own but it is definitely something to consider. I would definitely recommend reading this heartfelt book. I am on the part now where she shares about their Valentine cards-it is such a cute story.

I was able to finish the majority of my book list (more on that to come) for 2011 and my I have compiled my 2012 book list. I can't wait to share it with you! I am excited about all of the books that I will have a chance to read this year. There are just too many good books out there.

My Dog Collars Giveaway Winner

2012-01-15T14:15:00.003-07:00

Congratulations to Ashley Moore! She is the winner of the My Dog Collars giveaway! Thank you to everybody who entered!

Ashley is the puppy Mom to Tucker, a chocolate lab. He was one of Penny's very best friends when we lived back in Raleigh. Those 2 chocolate labbies played so so hard with each other!

Ashley, I can't wait to see which collar you choose for Tuck! I will be contacting you with more details.

spider bite

2012-01-10T21:46:00.006-07:00

Having 2 weeks off of work for Christmas break was pretty amazing but it has been so difficult for me to get back in the swing of things! We have had a few things going on this year other than the typical new year stuff. We moved into an awesome new warehouse for church and Bryan and Andy have been super busy with that. It is a warehouse at 33rd and Larimer and it is our 7 days a week so now setting up and breaking down! I will be dedicating a whole post to the new building soon. Just know that it is awesome : )

At about 6:00 last night, I noticed that Penny's left eye was almost completely swollen shut. She was acting pretty lethargic and she also had a lot of redness to her face. By the time we woke up this morning, both eyes were so swollen and the swelling just continued down her face into her nose. She looked like a shar pei. I took her to the vet first thing this morning and the vet thinks it is an allergic reaction to something. Stew and I had taken her for a long walk in City Park yesterday so the vet thinks she was bitten by a spider at the park as she was sniffing around. The vet noticed that her left ear was really edematous as well so she thinks she was bit on the ear. Poor thing, she was bumping into things and was really skiddish when vet employees came up to her to greet her because she couldn't see them and she could barely smell either. She ended up getting 2 shots-an antihistamine and a steroid. We took her back at 6:00 tonight to get another injection of the steroid because she's a big girl and her body needed the extra dosage : )

Also, have you entered my giveaway?? You have one more day to enter so go here to enter away for this awesome giveaway that MyDogCollars.com is hosting!

Chevy commercials

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the new Chevrolet commercials? They have made so many good ones but these 2 are my favorites.

My Dad has always been a Chevrolet man. I remember riding around in the front seat of his big orange Chevy truck when I was just a few years old. I remember the day he traded it in for a newer Chevy. My Dad didn't tell us what he was going to trade it in for so my little brother and I sat right in front of the living room window just waiting for him to pull up in his new car.

Maybe I am just a little emotional since we just lost Bryan's Tahoe, the only car he has ever had. Either way, the tears were flowing when I saw these commercials. Please tell me I am not crazy for thinking these commercials are just so sweet.

Have you entered my My Dog Collars giveaway? Go here to enter!

MyDogCollars.com Giveaway

2012-01-03T12:01:00.008-07:00

Happy Wednesday friends! We are out of the "official" season of giving and into a new year (can you believe it??). My Dog Collars wants to perpetuate the season of giving by offering one of my readers a $25 gift card to use on their website. All of you dog lovers (and cat lovers) rejoice because this is such a great giveaway!

When we first got little Penny, I found My Dog Collars and was immediately hooked. They have such a great selection and the sizing charts are super easy to use so I was able to find the perfect little collar for Penny.

How cute is that? I got Penny the yellow and white Up Country collar and leash.

Unfortunately, Penny kept growing and growing (currently weighing in at 97.5 pounds at the vet last week) and we had to get a new collar for the big girl. I went straight to My Dog Collars to pick out her new look. Bryan loved the teal and the elephants and thought it would look perfect on her so we chose the Elephant Walk dog collar.

Now onto the details of the giveaway:

There are several ways to enter. Please leave me a separate comment for EACH entry.Rules:

*You must "like" MyDogCollars.com on Facebook and tell them that Megan from Our Little Urban Life sent you. (1 entry)

*You must be an Our Little Urban Life Follower. Leave me a comment telling me that you are a follower (1 entry).

Extra Entries:
You must leave a separate comment for each entry!

*Visit My Dog Collars and tell me what you love the most. (1 entry)
*Tweet about this giveaway saying "I just entered to win a @MyDogCollars giveaway! Visit http://ourlittleurbanlife.blogspot.com to enter!" Please leave me a link to your tweet (leave me your twitter name) (1 entry).

*Follow My Dog Collars on Twitter @MyDogCollars (1 entry).
*Blog about the giveaway on your own blog! You MUST link back to my blog as well as post a direct link to MyDogCollars.com. Please leave me a link to your blog. (2 entries)

You have over 7 chances to win! So, what are you waiting for??Head on over to http://www.mydogcollars.com/ and start dreaming of how fashionable your pup can look in a brand new collar. Good luck! And please remember to leave a separate comment so each one of your entries counts.Giveaway begins today (1.4.2012) and ends next Wednesday, 1.11.2012 at 11:59 PM MST. Winner will be notified via email, as well as posted on my blog. Winner has 48 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be drawn. Winner will be selected via Random.org

All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.

if I could do it all again.....

2012-01-03T10:01:00.009-07:00

Can I just say where was Pinterest when I got married?? Pinterest would have been my best friend if it existed when I was planning our wedding.

So, if I could do it all again....

....I would be walking down the aisle towards the same guy. He is my best friend and I am so thankful that God has brought us together. I might be changing a few other things around-like flowers, dresses, hair, decor, etc. If I could do it all again, I might change....

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{the wedding dress}

how gorgeous is that lace??

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{the bridesmaid dresses}

I love this pink/coral and so I think I would go for something like this now, rather than black.

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{the hair}
I would want something like this-a bit of a freer look.

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{flowers}
I heart this boquet. It is so romantic looking.

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{wedding aisle flowers}
I love the simplicity of this.

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{centerpieces}

I also love the simplicity of this.

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{favors}
How cute is this cookie bar favor idea?

Come back tomorrow because I will be hosting a super fun giveaway courtesy of My Dog Collars for all of you dog lovers!!

looking back on 2011

2012-01-02T12:13:00.008-07:00

{January} We made the long trek across the US to move to Colorado.

{February} We continue to get to know our awesome city while trying to believe that we actually live here now.

{March} We have about 15 college seniors come out and visit Denver for their Spring Break in preparation for them moving here to help with our church after they graduate. We host them, feed them, spend time with them and get to know their awesome hearts. Bryan's parents also come out out and visit us.

{April} April marks my last day of clinical. I am one step closer to graduating (again). We also go to the Arcade Fire concert and had a blast. We also went to Opening Day at Coors Field and became Rockies fans.

{May} Bryan's younger brother graduates from the University of Maryland. We fly out to Richmond to spend time with Bryan's family and go to graduation.

{June} My family comes out to visit. We host our first Serve Denver, a week of serving the city. Several of our supporting churches come out to be a part of this. We head to Phoenix with Andy and Angela for the Southern Baptist Convention. Bryan and I celebrate 4 years of marriage.

{July} We head to Vail for a few days for our 4th anniversary. Bryan's family comes to Colorado for their summer vacation and we all head to Estes Park for several days. I go visit my family in South Carolina for a week. I graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill! We also went to see the Avett Brothers at Red Rocks.

{August} I start my job search again for a nursing job. I get a job with Denver Public Schools as a School Nurse.

{September} I start my job for DPS with a 5 school assignment. Bryan and I planted a tree in our front yard. We have to watch Jazz for about 10 days because of a last minute trip that our friend Chris had to take. We were starting to think we were ready for another dog but this week changed our minds a little bit.

{October} This is the first time in our married life where both of us are working a 5 days a week full time job. We spend time adjusting to our new schedule. Penny turns 2! We also have trick or treaters for the first time in our married life. A tree falls on Bryan's car and is deemed totaled. We buy a Subaru Forester and continue to feel like true Coloradans.

{November} Happy Thanksgiving! We fly to Richmond for Thanksgiving. My family is able to drive up to Richmond for Thanksgiving so Bryan and I are able to spend time with both of our families.

{December} December marked our first Christmas in our new home. We decided to stay in Denver for Christmas so it was our first Christmas away from family.

favorite ornaments

2011-12-28T15:21:00.005-07:00

I know Christmas is already over but I just wanted to share some of my favorite ornaments on my Christmas tree.

Bryan and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon and this was our ornament that we got from downtown Disney. It is Mickey and Minnie sitting in a diamond ring. The diamond has our wedding date written on it: 6-30-2007. I love this ornament and it is always one of my favorite ornaments to hang on our tree.
This is a cheap-o Target ornament but it has a picture of sweet little Penny as a puppy in it. Labs are tiny for about a week (ha!) and then they get huge! For Christmas 2009 we had only had Penny for a few weeks so it was a huge adjustment period for all of us! And after Christmas that year Penny just kept getting bigger and bigger so I like this picture to remember just how small she was.
Bryan's parents got us this ornament last year. It has a picture of our house in it and the year 2010. We had just closed on our house in early December last year so I know this ornament will always help us remember what a special time that was for us as a family.
This is a sand dollar from Charleston with Rainbow Row hand painted on it. We went to Charleston the weekend before our wedding (June 23, 2007) to go to Bryan's high school friend's wedding. Because our dating and engagement period was so short (14 months), I like specific memories from this time. And heading down to Charleston for a wedding 7 days before our wedding definitely falls into this category.
This is my scrubs ornament that has my graduation year on it. I still am so thankful I made it through nursing school!
Yeah UNC! My Mom got me this ornament when I graduate from UNC.
I like having ornaments on our trees that mean something. I also love the cutesy ornaments too from Target and other stores so we have a mix of both on our tree. What about you? Do you like sentimental ornaments or store bought ornaments?

decorating for Christmas

2011-12-24T15:31:00.005-07:00

I was so so excited to be able to decorate our home for Christmas! Here are a few pictures of some of the decorating that I did. Enjoy!

It also makes me so happy to be able to cross one thing off of my 12 by 2012 list!

I also wrote a guest blog about decorating for Christmas on a budget over at Kristel's blog. Go check it out and let me know what you think!

{ornaments in an apothecary jar}

{bows and candy canes in apothecary jars}

{crushed candy canes and votive candles}

{Christmas pillow}

{Christmas tree}

{Christmas cards, reindeer plate, more ornaments}

{Christmas countdown}

{cranberries and candles}

Red Velvet Cake Cookies

2011-12-10T11:20:00.002-07:00

I guest posted on Kate's blog, The Small Things, earlier this week. I shared the link in my last post but I thought I would go ahead and share the recipe here as well. Kate is the one with all the awesome hair tutorials. I am sure you have seen this cute girl all over Pinterest!

I swear by Nestle Tollhouse's Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe for my signature cookie. But who wants a whole post dedicated to a recipe you can find on the back of a chocolate chip bag? I want to share a recipe for Red Velvet Cake Cookies. I have seen versions of these cake-like cookies circulating around foodie sites and Pinterest; so please don't think that this is a recipe that has been in my family for years and years. It will now become a recipe that will be in my family for years and years now that I have a fool-proof recipe.

Here is what you will need: 1 stick of butter, 1 brick of cream cheese (8 oz), 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of Vanilla, 1 box of Red Velvet Cake mix, and some powdered sugar for rolling and sprinkling.

I don't plan nearly enough to set my butter out in enough time to soften on its own. Nuking butter in the microwave to soften it is a major no-no when it comes to baking so I have found that sticking it in the Kitchen Aid is a great solution. I let the Kitchen Aid do the work for a few minutes while I am gathering the rest of my ingredients and getting my other supplies ready. This recipe calls for softened cream cheese so go ahead and throw the brick of cream cheese in there with the butter.

Whether you use a mixer or not to soften your butter and cream cheese, you want a thick mousse-like consistency.
Once your butter and cream cheese is nice and soft, add the egg. Give it time to really mix itself in.

Then, add the vanilla.
Once the vanilla has mixed in well, add the box of cake mix. Pop open the box and cut the bag and throw the whole bag of cake mix in. (If you live at a high altitude like me, go ahead and add some extra flour based on the box's instructions)
Let the cake mix get mixed in really well and the red coloring will come out on its own. The red coloring will come out on its own so don't worry about adding anything extra.
Now, cover up your mixture and stick it in the fridge for about 3 hours. This gives the mixture enough time to firm up.
Take the mixture out of the fridge once you have given it a few hours. Hand roll into small balls. Think ping-pong sized balls here. They don't have to be perfectly round without any creases.

Roll each ball of dough in powdered sugar. You want the whole ball covered in dough. I found it easiest to have a little pile of powdered sugar and roll each ball around on that surface.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet. I got about 8 cookies per 9x13 pan. The cookies will crack and look a little gooey between the cracks. They are supposed to do this so don't worry about the cookies not being fully cooked when you see that. (For high altitude, bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes)
Cool completely on a wire rack. Once they are cooled, sprinkle with more powdered sugar.
I hope you enjoy! These cookies have great presentation and are so Christmasy looking.

Kate, thanks again for letting me post about these amazing cookies!

Also linking up with Plum Patchwork!

The Small Things Cookie Week!

2011-12-07T17:46:00.002-07:00

I am guest blogging over at The Small Things today! Come on over to Kate's blog and check out my post here. Kate is hosting a Cookie Week on her blog and there are tons of great cookie recipes on there so far! If you are on Pinterest, you have probably seen Kate all over Pinterest-she is the one with the amazing hair tutorials! I was so excited that Kate asked me to be a part of the Cookie Week!

If you hopped over to my blog from Kate's blog, welcome to you and thanks for stopping by! So glad you are here!

book club

2011-12-05T06:00:00.003-07:00

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I'm making my way slowly but surely through my Book List. Right now I am reading Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss & Love by Matthew Logelin. I came across this book at Tattered Cover and I knew that I had to read it. Matt and his wife, Liz, were a normal young couple. They lived and worked in LA and were married for a few years before deciding to have a baby. Liz had a difficult pregnancy but Madeline came into the world healthy and just 27 hours after she was born, Liz died of a pulmonary embolism. This book is simply Matt's story. It is not a book on how to handle grief; it is a book that follows Matt on his journey. I am only about halfway through the book but it has been so great so far. I really appreciate Matt's honesty in all of the emotions he is going through. He also doesn't sugar coat any part of his marriage to Liz. He shares some of their arguments and disagreements. For some reason, I really appreciated this because I would imagine that it would be a lot easier to only write about the good times with Liz and how wonderful their marriage was. He decided to be real and share the rough spots of their marriage. I would definitely recommend reading this book. Yes, it is sad and yes, I have cried so much already but I am so glad I chose to read this book.

my favorite trick or treater

2011-11-23T06:00:00.001-07:00

Our first Halloween in our new home was so fun! We had a lot less trick or treaters than I thought we were going to have but it was still a success in my eyes! Our trick or treaters were pretty darn cute but this guy was my favorite trick or treater of all time. He was dressed up as sushi.

*I know this post is a little late but I figured I should get it in before Thankgiving : ) Yep, that's the way I blog.

subie subie

2011-11-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you follow Bryan and I on Twitter so you may have already heard that a tree fell on Bryan's car and it was totaled. Bryan was parked on the street in front of our house and a neighbor's tree fell right on the back. Yep, we were bummed.

Bryan's Dad surprised him with his car in 10th grade and it has been with him ever since. It was a bright red Tahoe that he named Clifford. I remember Bryan picking me up for our first date in his car. We left our wedding reception in that car. I remember being in my car and following Bryan in his from Columbia to Wake Forest when we moved to NC after our honeymoon. Clifford has been a good car to us.

We knew that we needed to replace one of our cars soon so it was definitely on our radars but we were not at all thinking we would be getting a new car anytime soon. So, we were kind of forced into this situation.

We did some research on a few cars that we liked and a few dealerships around here and started our process. The process ended up being very short. We went with the Flatirons Subaru dealership up in Boulder and settled on the Forester. It has been such a great car so far.

twelve by 2012

2011-11-21T14:12:00.002-07:00

I came across the twelve by 2012 link up on a few blogs. Oh Hello, Friend came up with the idea and is hosting the party-she has the cutest blog! I went back and forth as to whether or not I should link up. I knew it would be good for me to get my butt into gear and get some things checked off my to do list but I also was nervous about putting a to do list out there for the world to see and then not getting it done. So, here's to getting everything done!

1. Decorate for Christmas. We totally skipped out on decorating for Christmas last year because we had already moved out of our apartment by December 5 but weren't moving to Denver until January 2. Yep, no point in decorating if you are homeless! (We had to fly to Atlanta for an interview thing with one of the networks we are in, I was in Denver for 2 weeks, and then we spent a while with both of our families for Christmas.) CHECK!

2. Organize filing cabinet. I am the least excited about this one. Our filing cabinet is out of control and I definitely needs to spend some time getting this organized again. I also want to make it easy to use on an everyday basis so it doesn't get back to being unorganized again. CHECK!

3. Have Bryan's birthday preparation done. Bryan's birthday is January 5th and it always creeps up on me because of Christmas. I love birthdays and I want his to be just as special-even if it right after Christmas. CHECK!

4. Prepare Christmas cards and send them out before Christmas. I LOVE sending out our Christmas cards each year but I always seem to do this at the last minute. CHECK!

5. Finish book list. I blogged about this the other day so you already know that I am a little nervous about this one.

6. Create new book list. I could put any book on my book list for 2012 but I want to be really thoughtful about the books that I read and not just read anything.

7. Organize Christmas cards from previous years. I found a great idea on Pinterest and I am excited to put it into action. CHECK!

8. Get Christmas presents on budget and sent out on time. This will be our first year where we will have to ship all of our Christmas presents cross country. I am so very horrible at getting to the post office so I am a little nervous about this one. CHECK!

9. Organize closet. This is another area that I need to get organized for daily use. We have a walk in closet in our master bedroom so it has the potential to be super organized and efficient. And let's just say it is not there yet. CHECK!

10. Work on my gallery wall. I have different pieces of art and different pictures that I want to frame to put in some sort of gallery wall. I know that I won't get the actual wall done because of other reasons but I want to start getting things framed and ready to go on the wall.

11. Create some better systems for being on time, meals, lunches to bring to work, etc. Systems are good-even for our little family of 2 (plus the giant chocolate lab) and we need some in our life!

12. Take some pictures for a home tour for the blog. I always mention little parts of our home and I am always promising that I will do a home tour so getting this done goes on the list!

Here's to productivity before the end of the year! I will be updating this post and blogging about my productivity as I progress.

Book Club Friday

2011-11-11T06:00:00.002-07:00

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Have you seen my Book List? I am kind of freaking out a little bit because I have 9 more books to read before the end of the year! I am wondering how I am going to get it done but I am trying to stay hopeful. I think I can! I think I can!

Right now I am reading "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb. This.book.is.so.good. This book is oozing with symbolism, which I love! It has been such a heartfelt story already. You can read the whole synopsis here. I have tried to write a summary of the book several times but I feel like I can't get it just right. I will try to share a little bit: The book is narrated by Dominick Birdsey, a divorced house-painter. He goes back and forth from present time where he is trying to get his twin brother with paranoid schizophrenia out of a state mental institution while grieving through the death of his infant daughter and then back to the past where he shares stories of his childhood where his stepfather was physically and emotionally abusive and his mother refuses to share anything about his biological father.

The book really gives a lot of dialog from the twin brother with paranoid schizophrenia and I really appreciated that because it felt very real. In nursing school my Mental Health rotation was in a federal prison and it was so insightful (Obviously, it was scary too but I actually enjoyed it). I have no idea what it is like to have paranoid thoughts but those with paranoid schizophrenia may believe wholeheartedly that the government is trying to take their thoughts or that they have been sent to complete a mission. What they believe is real to them. My world is that I live in Denver with a husband and a dog and I am a nurse, but what if everyone around me tried to tell me that that wasn't real and my husband didn't exist and my dog didn't exist and I wasn't a nurse? This may seem like it's coming out of nowhere but I really learned to resonate with those suffering from mental disorders during my clinical and this book has really brought back everything I learned from my clinical.

This book has about 897 pages so it is definitely a long one. I am on page 399 now and I don't feel like I have read nearly 400 pages. It is one of those books that makes you want to keep reading and keep reading. I would definitely recommend it.

Linking up with Blonde Undercover Blonde and A Day in the Life for this fun link up party!

new scrubs

2011-11-10T06:00:00.003-07:00

When I started my new job back in September, I needed some new scrubs. When I worked at WakeMed, I worked full time but I only worked 3 days a week so I didn't necessarily need a ton of scrubs. Since I work 5 days a week now I knew that I would need more scrubs in my closet than I already had.

I checked out a few scrub shops around Denver and didn't have much luck. Most scrub stores that I have ever been in are pretty small and carry very select brands. There is not a whole lot of selection in local scrub stores. We even have a scrub outlet down in Castle Rock but I wasn't too impressed with that store either.

So, what's a girl to do when the local stores aren't meeting your needs? Go online! MyNursingUniforms.com was one of the first sites that popped up in my good ol' google search. MNU carries all my favorite brands (Urbane, Cherokee, Landau) and they offer free shipping once you hit over a certain amount (scrubs aren't cheap so you nearly hit the amount with 2 tops).

My favorite brand for bottoms is Urbane Scrubs and MNU has all Urbane products marked down at least 25%! When I first saw the Urbane discount and realized that it wasn't a promotion but was an ongoing discount, I was sold!

I also really appreciated the ease in getting around the MNU site. It is a bit of a dated website but it is still easy to navigate through. When you are talking about a very thin piece of fabric, a drawstring or an elastic waist makes a huge difference so I like that MNU lays all the details out for you very simply-the length, the type of waistband, etc.

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If you are in need of some scrubs and haven't had much luck with scrub stores, check out MNU!

Are there any nurses out there that love Urbane as much as I do??

Penny's birthday party

2011-11-09T11:40:00.007-07:00

Penny's 2nd birthday was on October 24th and we decided to throw a little last minute party for her. Yep, we are those people that threw a party for our dog. Can we just say it was an excuse to have our friends over....cause it was. We got some party hats and a box of funfetti cake and called it a party! Penny's BFF Jazz came over and a few other friends.

We got Penny some frozen yogurt that Whole Foods sells from a company up in Boulder (see, all of us in Colorado love our dogs!) and she was a little too focused on the fro yo to take a picture : )
Penny got lots of birthday treats-Peanut Butter Barker frozen yogurt, cards, and toys. Bryan and I got her the duck, the Chuck it, and the orange rubber stick. She is constantly sneaking in sticks from outside and just tearing them up-I am forever finding broken up pieces of stick all over the house so I am hoping the fake stick will help this problem : )
This little guy was my favorite party guest of all time. Who cares about Penny's birthday...there is a baby in my house!

Finally...she gets her peanut butter yogurt.

our new tree

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000-06:00

We have a tree in our front yard (technically, it is on the patch of grass between the sidewalk and street) that never grew a single leaf this past Spring. Our house is a duplex and both homes were built about 5 years ago so all of the trees were planted at the same time. Our neighbor's tree was so full and healthy but ours just didn't grow at all! We are not really sure what happened to our poor little tree because I don't remember the tree being dead when we first came to look at homes last October. Who knows what happened??

This is our neighbor's tree:

This was our poor little dead tree:

Anyways, we heard about a program called Denver Digs through our neighborhood newsletter. Denver Digs is an awesome program that wants to increase Denver's urban forest. The program offers reduced priced trees or free trees if you are in a "target" neighborhood for the year. Curtis Park was considered a target neighborhood so we got our tree for free. We picked a Kentucky Coffee Tree and submitted our application and then a few weeks later we found out we were accepted! They had a free class at Wash Park to tell you all about how to take care of your new tree. Tree pick up day was the first Saturday in October at City Park. There was such a great turnout!

Bryan and I took some really good notes in our tree class because we had no idea how to go about the whole process. We followed the instructions exactly! It felt so weird to dig into perfectly good grass but we had to do it.

This is our old dead tree. It wasn't that hard to take out because the roots hadn't gone very deep at all. I think this was Bryan's favorite part : )

And just like that, our new little tree was planted! Actually not, it took several hours : ) Our new tree is a pretty little guy. Now that we have already had our first snow hit us, the few leaves are long gone. I joke that it looks like we just poked some branches in the ground.

I can't wait to see our new little tree get bigger and fuller. I am hoping and praying that we did everything right and it actually does grow!

chicken pot pie

2011-11-03T06:00:00.003-06:00

I promised I would share my chicken pot pie recipe. I know there are TONS of chicken pot pie recipes out there so I am not claiming to share anything here that you can't find anywhere else. I have tried a few other recipes before I got this one from my mother in law. I find this one to be incredibly easy and tasty. Ok, prepare for picture overload. I am going Pioneer Woman style with the amount of pictures : )

1. Ingredients:
2 9-inch Pillsbury pie crusts
2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 (10 3/4 oz) cans of Cream of Celery
1 (15 oz) can sliced carrots, drained
1 (15 oz) can peas, drained

I think most chicken pot pie recipes call for Cream of Chicken so I think the Cream of Celery in this recipe is what makes this chicken pot pie so yummy!

I always bake about 1 pound of chicken breast for my chopped chicken. This is actually 1 big chicken breast (still over 1 pound). I drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake it at 350 until it is cooked through. You can also use a rotisserie chicken, if this is easier for you.
Once it is cooked through, roughly chop it up. You are not going for nice and evenly cut pieces, so feel free to be messy here.

While my chicken is baking, I prep my other ingredients. I tend to buy cans of chicken broth rather than the boxed chicken broth-no reason, just habit I guess. I make a lot of chicken pot pies during the fall and winter so I will buy a can and then pour 1/4 cup portions into ziploc bags and freeze it. It freezes really well. The next time I make chicken pot pie, I will just pull out one of these baggies and let it thaw.

In a large bowl, combine broth, chicken, and cream of celery soup. Mix well. Add canned carrots and mix well. Fold in peas carefully. If you have ever made anything with blueberries, use the same technique here-gently fold the peas in-don't mix them in. They can break really easily.

You definitely want to buy the Pillsbury pie crusts. They are in the refrigerated section and they come in a red box. Don't buy frozen or the off-brand. The refrigerated Pillsbury pie crusts are the way to go here. 2 crusts come in each box so you will need to buy 2 boxes (to have 4 shells total). The instructions on the box tell you to let the shells thaw for 10-15 minutes. If you try to unroll them when they are frozen, they will break apart. Telling you that from experience here : )
Once the shells have thawed, place bottom shells in pie pans. I use glass pie pans. Roll the shells out carefully and let the excess just hang over for now.
Pour mixture into the pie shells. Spread evenly.
Unroll the remaining pie shells and place on top. Crimp the edges of the two pie shells together. I think the correct term is to "flute" the edges. This is an awkward picture of me fluting the edges.

Now for the fun part. The box recommends that you pierce some holes in the top pie shell. Bryan said that his Mom used to always make her holes look like a "B" and "E" (B for Bryan and E for Eric, Bryan's younger brother). Since we don't have kiddos yet and aren't that obsessed with Penny to put "P's" in our pie shell, Bryan and I make a secret design in our pie shells. Bryan gets to put his own design in one pie and I get to put my own design in the 2nd pie. I know it's silly, but it has just become a little tradition of ours. For some reason, we keep our designs a secret from each other even though we bake them at the same time. We like to guess what the other "poked" into their pie.

This was mine. Since it was Penny's 2nd birthday, I made a birthday cake with a "2" on it.
This was Bryan's. He made a little Penny head in his. I am laughing now because I just typed that we aren't that obsessed with our dog but these pictures surely don't show that! My excuse is that it was Penny's birthday!! I promise our secret designs don't always center around Penny.
Bake at about 450 for about 30 minutes, or until the pie shell is golden brown. *I didn't get any pictures of this but I have a pie protector thing that fits right on the edges of pies. I guess the edges burn pretty easily and who wants a burnt edge on their perfectly baked pot pie?? You can buy these at Bed, Bath and Beyond or Target. You are supposed to let everything bake as normal and then once your edges have completely baked (this happens way before the rest of the pie shells bake) then put your pie protector thing on. This would make a lot more sense if I actually took a picture of that part. The great thing about this recipe is that you don't have to have these edge protectors, you can just cut strips of foil and place over the edges. The foil strips do the exact same thing, I promise!

Let the pies stand for about 15 minutes before serving.
Aaaand I forgot to get a picture before I started eating : ) We had people over the night that I made this pot pie and everybody kept asking if I usually serve strawberries with my pot pies. I usually serve a fruit on the side with my pot pies because serving another vegetable seems strange to me. Colors on your plate are good, right?
I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you try it! I promise that you will be happy if you do!

Linking up with Southern Lovely and New Nostalgia!

pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

2011-11-02T06:00:00.007-06:00

The snow is coming down hard in Denver today and so yet again, my mind is telling me that it is Winter. I had one of these muffins on my snowy drive into work today and my brain became semi-convinced that it is still Fall!

These pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are so so yummy! They are perfect for fall and they are actually pretty easy to make. Most baking recipes don't offer the changes that you need to make at high altitude so it is always hit or miss when I try a new one. There are general rules to follow but it can still be pretty hard to make it work. I have found these guidelines that Epicurious offers to be incredibly helpful. I will put the high altitude changes that I made in parentheses.

1. Gather your ingredients.

*Remember, the changes for high altitude are in parentheses.*
4 eggs
2 cups sugar (- 1 Tablespoon)
1 (16 oz) can pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
3 cups flour (+ 4 Tablespoons)
2 teaspoons baking soda (- 1/4 teaspoon)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

2. In large mixing bowl beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla and oil until smooth.
I apologize that this picture is kind of gross looking but at this point, you will be thinking that you added WAY too much vegetable oil. Keep going, I promise that it is 1 1/4 cup! Your other ingredients will be swimming in the vegetable oil but I promise it is ok.
3. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt) together.

4. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture. Mix well.

5. Fold in chocolate chips. And yes, you can put chocolate chips in your Kitchen Aid if you have one. One of my friends thought that the chocolate chips would be too much for the Kitchen Aid so just in case you had that question, throw them in there and let the Kitchen Aid do its job!

6. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full.
7. Bake at 400 F for 16-20 minutes. For high altitude, bake at 425 for 12-14 minutes.

Let them cool in the pan for a few minutes and then take them out of the pan to cool some more.

Linking up with:

our first snow of the season

2011-11-01T06:00:00.002-06:00

We have already had our first snow this season! It was dreary and rainy on Tuesday afternoon and evening and then it quickly turned into snow by Tuesday night. We woke up to the snow still coming down on Wednesday morning. I usually leave the house by 7:00 on Wednesday mornings because my Wednesday school is out by the airport but on this snowy Wednesday, I left my house by 6:15 because I had no idea what the road were going to be like. We were truly not ready for the snow. We still have our summer lights and patio furniture with pillows out in the backyard. Scarves and boots were still up on a high shelf. The snow was really messing with my mind because we hadn't even had Halloween yet!

I snapped these pictures at 6:00 am when the snow was still coming down. It was so funny because when I got in my car a few minutes later, the radio morning show people were making fun of all the people that would be posting pictures of their patio furniture in the snow. Yep, that'd be me.

Penny loves the snow and can get extra excited and hyper in the snow. Lately, she has been obsessed with retrieving her tennis balls. She will toss them to you with her mouth over.and.over.again until you throw it for her. Anyway, here I am at 6:00 am with camera in hand and ready to catch Penny's reactions in the snow. What do I get? Nothing. She comes outside with me with her tennis ball in her mouth, does her business (with the tennis ball still in her mouth) and then comes back up the stairs and tosses her ball at me. She wasn't exactly thrilled at the snow because she couldn't take her focus of of her tennis ball to even notice. Not exacty the reaction I was hoping for, Pen. This is just the picture I had in mind : ) We did say we wanted a retriever, right?
Here is a picture from the exit on the way to work. I was stuck at a light, don't worry.
We already have another snow storm predicted for this Wednesday! I guess we officially live in Colorado now.

happy halloween!

2011-10-31T06:00:00.002-06:00

source

Have I mentioned how excited I am about having trick or treaters come to our home?
If you need me, I will be on my front porch with a big bowl of candy : )

bagels with a college friend

2011-10-28T06:00:00.000-06:00

One of my good friends from USC was in town a few weekends ago for work. She had a busy weekend full of meetings but we were able to spend a few hours together on Sunday morning. It was such a good time of catching up and hearing how all of our mutual friends are doing. We haven't seen each other in several years but we didn't skip a beat in catching up.

Mandy, it was SO good to see you and I am so happy that we were able to spend a few hours together.

we're moving to a warehouse

2011-10-27T06:00:00.000-06:00

I thought I would share our latest video from the church. We have outgrown our space at the Block Building and have been so blessed to find a warehouse space 3 blocks down the road! It took a lot of searching and patience but this place will be perfect for us to grow into.

Please check out the video below and feel free to check out the website as well:

Warehouse Project from The Summit Church Denver on Vimeo.

candy corn wreath tutorial

2011-10-26T10:35:00.000-06:00

(i'm not sure why blogger is messing up my spacing....)

Yesterday, I blogged about decorating for Halloween and I promised that I would give a tutorial for my candy corn wreath.

1. Gather your supplies.

grapevine wreath
3 8x11 sheets of felt (orange, white, yellow)
black spray paint
glue, hot glue gun

The wreath was on sale at Michael's for $2.50 (I think they are still less than $5 regular price). Felt is also super super cheap (like around 30 cents!) so this whole craft was less than $5!

*This picture shows black, white, and orange felt. For some reason, I was thinking that candy corn had black in it (????). It was a complete brain fart. Anyway, I had some yellow felt on hand.

2. Spray paint your wreath black. I used some cheap black spray paint. This part took a few days because of all the nooks in the wreath.

3. Sketch out how big you want your candy corns to be based on the size wreath you got. I just used some lined notebook paper for this. Nothing fancy here.

4. Cut up each third of the candy corn sketch and use that as a template to cut the felt. I have 3 candy corns on my wreath but I only made 1 template.

5. Glue each piece in the right order on a large piece of white felt. Once all 3 pieces are glued on, cut around the white backing. The white basically serves as a base for you to glue the 3 pieces on and then makes it easier for you to glue each candy corn on the wreath itself.

6. Glue each candy corn on the wreath wherever you think they look best. Be generous with the glue.

Linking up with

Laugh, Love, & Craft

New Nostalgia

Southern Lovely

Lil' Luna

Someday Crafts

Halloween decorations

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Pinterest, I have been excited for a few months now about decorating for Halloween. For the past few years, Bryan and I have always gotten a pumpkin and a mum and had candy for kids just in case but we've never really gone all out with decorating. This is our first year with a home and so I have been so excited to decorate!

Did you notice the chunks missing from Penny's pumpkin?? Apparently, squirrels think the pumpkins were for them so they felt free to fill their tummies with our pumpkins. All we could do is laugh when we saw what had happened. For some reason, Bryan's pumpkin wasn't touched! The squirrels only ate pieces from mine and Penny's pumpkins!
I got some mini pumpkins and wrapped some thin black and white ribbons around them. This is on our kitchen counter at the bar.
I filled some vases with candy corns and put them on our dining room table.
I found these little orange and black spiders at Michael's for a little less than a $1 each! I grabbed a few and hung them on these branches.

And last but not least...my front door wreath! I will be giving a tutorial for this tomorrow so I won't share all the details today.

And I am SO SO excited to have little trick or treaters come! There are lots of kids that live around our house so hopefully we will have lots come by!
What about you? Do you enjoy decorating for Halloween?

Happy Birthday, Penny!

2011-10-24T06:30:00.000-06:00

{penny at 3 months}

Happy Birthday, sweet Penny!
We can hardly believe you are 2!!

We are so grateful to have such a sweet dog in our lives.

Barley fall festival

2011-10-23T15:05:00.002-06:00

From year one of our marriage, Bryan and I have always done a "Barley fall festival" at the very beginning of October. We have tried to create traditions early on in our marriage and this one is one that has stuck. We always get a pumpkin and mum from a pumpkin patch, boil peanuts, make chicken pot pies, and watch a semi-scary movie. This year, we changed a few things now that we are living in Denver. The day that we had planned to do all of this we couldn't find a pumpkin patch anywhere! We ended up finding a cute little flower shop that had some pumpkins for sale so we snagged a few. We also decided not to do boiled peanuts anymore since they aren't the healthiest snack. They are also incredibly messy to make. In our apartments, this was always ok but now that we have our own house we wanted to avoid the mess. I will have to share the chicken pot pie recipe that I have. It is Bryan's Mom's and grandmother's recipe and it is SO SO good! My little brother is hooked on it! The chicken pot pies always mark the beginning of fall for us so it has just become a part of the tradition.

Do you have any traditions that aren't necessarily based on a holiday??

house hunting

2011-10-19T06:30:00.001-06:00

I hope that title didn't scare you! Bryan and I LOVE our house and couldn't imagine a better location and home that fits us. The beginning of October marked our one year house hunting anniversary. Last year we flew out with Bryan's parents for a whirlwind of a weekend where we looked at about 30 or so houses. We worked with an awesome realtor, Jeff Wimpy, who was so patient with us! We ended up going with one of the very last houses that we looked at. I still want to do a house tour on the blog but we have made so many changes in the house that my original pictures need updating. So, I thought in the meantime I would show you some of our other favorite houses.

We are not house hunting experts by any means but since we went through the process fairly recently, I will offer just a few little tips for those that are on the hunt:
1. Know what you are looking for and what your non-negotiables are. For me, I really wanted an open kitchen/floor plan and so we pretty much immediately left the houses we went into where the kitchen was stuck in the back of the house somewhere. In my dream house I would also love a swimming pool but that is not exactly a non-negotiable for me. So, know your non-negotiables.
2. Take notes as you go in all of the homes. Even if you immediately take a home off your list the instant that you set foot in the home, I found it helpful to make some sort of note so I could remember why we had marked it off the list. Steve gave me a legal pad so I literally had one house per sheet and they were in order that we visited them. For some houses, I had "no front porch" written and then I was immediately able to recall that house and see that it didn't have a front porch and then remember other specifics of the house. You will be amazed at how overwhelmed your brain can become with little details so take notes and then take some more notes.
3. Get someone to take pictures for you! Kathy was so awesome at taking pictures for us. I wanted to be able to take everything in myself and not focus on getting pictures so Kathy took care of all of the picture taking for me. There were some homes where there was a tiny little detail that I noticed and I would ask Kathy to take a picture of that detail for me but overall, I just trusted Kathy to take the pictures for me. It was so nice to be able to look back at the pictures to help jog my memory of the details of that home.
4. Talk things out! It was really helpful for me to just talk about details as we were seeing them or talk about concerns as I thought of them. I felt like I was being so verbose but overall, it was helpful for me to just speak outloud about what was going on in my head.
5. Drive by the houses at night. This was helpful for me to see the house in a new way, see what the street lighting was like, etc. We were looking in downtown Denver so having a big streetlight glaring in your master bedroom may not be an issue for you but we just wanted to be aware of these things. Also, the house could appear to be a safe street during the day but then the creepers may come out at night. Again, this is a downtown living issue : )

Like I said, I am not claiming to be a house hunting expert by any means but these few things were helpful to me in the process. Also, have fun with the process. It can be stressful but it doesn't have to be. I wanted to be able to look back on our house hunt with fond memories and not with regret over my impatience or stress.

meet Penny Barley

2011-10-11T23:14:00.011-06:00

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is hosting a "Show Us Your Pets" link party this week. I love my Penny, so I am jumping on the chance to blog about her!

Bryan and I decided to get a dog about two and a half years into our marriage. I have a slight obsession with dogs and I would have loved to have gotten a dog on Day 2 of our marriage but I am so glad we ended up waiting. We always do our research with big decisions like this and so needless to say, we spent a lot of time researching several breeds. We knew we wanted a playful and fun dog as well as one who was going to be good around a lot of new people and new situations. It was also important for us to have a dog that is good with children. We also knew we wanted a BIG dog-no froo froo dogs for us! We settled on the Labrador Retriever breed and we are so happy with our decision! I just love the retriever breed-they are so playful and spunky. I love their energy and their sweet eyes. Retrievers are just beautiful dogs to me.

But what makes Penny so special to us??

I have a book on my bookshelf that I am dying to read called "A Big Little Life" (Dean Koontz). It is a memoir about Trixie, Koontz' golden retriever. I realize that for all of you reading this that don't have a dog of your own or maybe grew up with a dog but still don't have one of your own, my love for Penny might seem a little silly. I almost struggled with writing this post because I felt like people would think I was crazy for loving my dog so much. I realize that Penny has a pretty "little" life in the big scheme of things but her little life is so big to me-I love her big little life.

Penny has been a constant companion and she learned to love her new life as a Barley very quickly. She did so awesome in our tiny 800 sq foot apartment back in Raleigh and was always such a trooper whenever we would travel with her to Richmond or Greenville. She was a champ when we moved to Denver and spent 3 days in our car and she has quickly become an awesome little urban dog. She is our quiet little shadow, loves to retrieve anything, and loves her peanut butter. She also has a slight obsession with other dogs, just like me : )

We got Penny from a breeder located in Moyock, North Carolina called Bentwood Labradors. We got picture updates of Penny's litter before they were ready to go home with their families. Bryan and I knew we were going to get a girl and based on the order that we were given by Bentwood, we had 3 little sweeties to choose from. Penny seemed to be the most even tempered of the 3.

This is a picture of Penny and I at Bentwood before we had made our final decision. This is before she became Penny Barley : ) She was "female #3" at this point.

Those first few nights with Penny were rough to say the least. Anyone who has a brand new pup can relate, I am sure. We really wanted to crate her so we tried our hardest to be disciplined about it. She would whine and whimper when we were not right by her crate at night. Bryan was so awesome and slept right in front of her crate for several nights until she got used to the whole thing. Look at that big buddha belly!

For some reason, Penny didn't really like to eat when we first brought her home. She would just sit and look at her food and eat a few little kibbles every now and then. But she LOVED her water! She would just drink and drink! Now, she loves her meal times : )
We spent the first part of that Christmas in Richmond. We ended up having a white Christmas. We had only had Penny for a few weeks at this point and so were a little nervous how she would react in the snow. We knew we would be moving to Denver that next year and so we really really wanted her to love the snow. Penny ended up loving the snow! Phew!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Penny. The golden retriever is Bryan's parent's dog, Katie. Penny loved playing with Katie. They especially loved playing in the snow together.
Looking back, it seems like those first few months just flew by. Before we knew it, she had hit 90 pounds and was taking up our whole bed.

She took to the water just as easily as she took to the snow. I guess that water dog retriever just came right out and she was swimming like a champ. We ended up having to buy a dog life jacket for her. She just plays and plays in the water and will keep retrieving anything you throw out for her. She doesn't really recognize when she is getting worn out and too tired so I just wanted to have some extra support in the water for her. I know...it seems silly but you are talking about 2 people that love their little chocolate kiss, and one of those 2 people is a nurse that always thinks worst case scenario : )

Penny had her first beach trip that summer, too. She wasn't too crazy about the beach. I think the waves threw her retrieving skills off.

We have been in Colorado for a little over 10 months now and she is just loving her new life. She has gotten better and better at hiking and she is also learning to not react to every little sound she hears outside.

Hiking in Evergreen at Maxwell Falls:

Hiking at Red Rocks:

If you made it to the end of this post, thanks for reading all about Penny's "big little life".

snooze

2011-10-06T06:30:00.000-06:00

This post isn't about Snooze, the awesome A.M. eatery that I have managed to blog about a few times already. It is about the dreaded button on my alarm clock.

For as long as I can remember, I have had a problem with waking up. I will set my alarm for about a half earlier than the time that I should wake up but then I end up hitting the snooze over.and.over.and.over.again. I would rather hit the snooze button every 10 minutes for an hour than just wake up on time. I know that 6 10 minute increments of sleep isn't very restful but after about 10 years of doing this, it has just become an awful habit.

I know what you are thinking-just set the alarm for an hour earlier than you have to wake up rather than a half hour and then you should be set. Nope, I still manage to hit the snooze over and over again. And if you know me in real life, you know that I also have a problem with running late. Early on in our marriage, Bryan thought he had me figured out and told me that he noticed that I seem to like the thrill of rushing and running late. Not true. It bugs the heck out of me that every morning I am rushing around every single morning. An awful habit of hitting the snooze button over and over again as many times as possible plus running late (and being used to always running late) is NOT a good combination.

I need help, people! I would love to know some specific suggestions for getting up and getting going. I am willing to try anything and now that I am blogging about it I can be held accountable for actually trying something new. I really want to work on this and I am welcoming any suggestions and tips!

Giveaway Winner

2011-09-30T21:32:00.004-06:00

Congratulations to....

Commenter #50 Tara Dew!

Tara is actually a real life friend of mine from back in Raleigh! She is the mother of 2 sets of twins! I know she will be able to get some fun products from Erin Condren!

Tara, I have your personal email address so I will email you with the details of the gift card!

Thank you to everyone else who entered and took part in my first ever giveaway! I loved hearing from new readers and I hope to make some blog friends through this giveaway, too!

A few hours left!!

2011-09-28T20:05:00.002-06:00

You have a few more hours to enter my Erin Condren giveaway!!

Click here to enter!

Dear.Sophie.Lee

2011-09-27T07:30:00.001-06:00

I never would have thought a Google commercial could make me cry.

Have you entered my giveaway? It ends tomorrow!

Click here for more details!

looks for fall

2011-09-26T07:05:00.003-06:00

We had some friends over the other night and 2 of the girls were wearing super cute striped tops-one was a striped sweater and one was a striped cardigan. They both told me that stripes were "in" for the fall. I laughed because I was rocking my scrubs, which as you know are incredibly fashionable. Ha-I am kidding! I know that scrubs are not very flattering or cute (But man, are they comfortable-I love that I get to wear scrubs to work). I just never pay attention to what is in and isn't for the fall.

I caught the last bit of an episode of the Nate Berkus Show and he featured the creator of Cheap Chicas. She showed 30 looks for fall that you can get for less than $150. When the models came out, they of course added some extra buys in

The stores that the "looks" were from were JC Penny, H&M, Forever 21, and Target. There were actually a few things from JCP that I thought were super cute. I was in JCP recently because they sent me a $10 coupon in the mail. I always take advantage of these great coupons because you don't have to spend a crazy amount to use the coupon-it is essentially a $10 gift card. Anyways, I usually just buy some workout clothes or socks and don't pay attention to anything else in the store. Based on the looks from the store, I think I will look harder at JCP next time. I have a few (like 3 total) things from H&M and Forever 21 but the show featured some super cute stuff from both stores so I will definitely be checking out both stores soon. Aaaand an H&M is being built down on 16th Street Mall (about 10 blocks away from us!!).

These were some of my favorite looks from the show:

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I'm also loving these fun sweaters and color schemes:
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These sweaters are from J. Crew which is a store that is typically way too expensive for me BUT we have the Castle Rock Outlets, a great outlet mall south of Denver that has all of my favorite stores-J. Crew Outlet, Gap Outlet, Loft Outlet and Banana Republic Outlet. Anytime that I go to an outlet, I always end up asking myself WHY I shop in the regular stores because the outlets carry the exact same things with much better prices.

If you haven't been to an outlet mall before, you need to go! When I lived in South Carolina, we had the Gaffney outlets which were only like 45 minutes from my house and so I am so thankful to have another outlet mall close by. I only wish the Castle Rock outlets had a Pottery Barn Outlet! If you have an outlet mall close by, you need to go!

Does anyone not like shopping at an outlet mall and prefer to stick to the mall?

Linking up with Kelly's Korner for today's post!

Also, have you entered my giveaway? Click here for more details!

enjoying these last few days

2011-09-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

It is definitely almost fall here in Denver. The mornings have been in the low 40's but then it is hot again by the afternoon....BUT the leaves are changing and the days are getting shorter. Fall is almost here and I am so excited. This will be our first fall here!

Even though we are so excited about the fall, we have been holding on to these last few days of summer! I took Penny swimming for her last swim of the season before I started working again. This girl loves the water-more than playing with other dogs and I think maybe even more than food.

Justin and Vanessa's wedding

2011-09-21T07:01:00.000-06:00

Remember when I told you about Vanessa's shower that I threw for her with her MOH, Tori? I am pretty sure that I said that I was going to share about their wedding the next day? I guess I am only a week late : )

Justin and Vanessa found an amazing country club out in Aurora. They had such a beautiful outdoor wedding! Bryan performed the wedding.

He did an awesome job at the rehearsal and at the wedding, if I do say so myself.

Justin's parents threw a great rehearsal dinner at a park in Aurora. Apparently, my computer has eaten those pictures because they are no where to be found. Justin and Vanessa said something to each person in their bridal party and it was so sentimental. I was in tears. Which isn't necessarily saying a lot, because I cry all the time but it was still incredibly thoughtful of them to say something about each person. They have some great family and friends.

I had fun as the 5th wheel during the wedding with the Metzgers and Turneys. I loved sitting smack dab in the middle of both couples : )

This pictures if right after their very long first kiss. It was so sweet!

{centerpieces}

One of my favorite parts of the night....LITTLE MAN catered! I love that they chose a local place to bring the dessert!

{turneys, barleys, metzgers}

Here is a dark and awkwardly aimed picture at the beautiful couple:

We love you, Justin and Vanessa! SO SO excited that you are here in Colorado....finally!

And one last thing....
Have you entered my giveaway? I have to say it is a pretty awesome giveaway to a pretty awesome company! Check it out here.

Erin Condren Planner giveaway

2011-09-20T06:30:00.002-06:00

I am SO SO excited to be doing my first giveaway on my blog today!

Several weeks ago, I saw someone blog about their Erin Condren planner and after I checked out the website, I was sold on the planner! I found some great discount codes and finally settled on my own design and color scheme. Then, I waited patiently for it to arrive. Well, maybe not patiently. I may or may not have checked my order status every other day. Ok, every day.

So, what is so great about this planner??

I absolutely love that you can customize it! There are so many colors schemes and designs to choose from. You can also have a picture on the cover if you want.

I went with the "Fleur Feliz" design in the "Retro" color scheme. It took me SO long to decide because I liked so many of them. I am really happy with my decision.

One of the very first things that I loved about the Life Planner was the awesome binding! I feel like places like Target have such cute planners but then they have the worst binding. I am pretty rough on my planners and I have ruined so many in the past because of the horrible binding. The binding on this planner is so great!

I also LOVE that there are month pages, as well as daily pages. I like being able to look at the whole month and then flip to the specific day to cram even more information in!

TABS! Need I say more??

There is a great little holder in the back. I was surprised when I found these little cards in the back with my name on them as well as a coupon! I think this little part will come in handy to just throw little things in.

There are also tons of black pages. There are some at the beginning of each month and then tons of blank ones at the very end of the planner.

There is also a "Keep It Together" folder at the back of the planner for you to just throw random papers in.

So, why am I telling you all about MY awesome planner?
Because I would like for YOU to have one!

I contacted the awesome people at Erin Condren and they are giving away a FIFTY dollar gift card through my blog!

So...........

Do you want to enter this awesome giveaway?
Of course you do!

Here are the details:

There are several ways to enter. Please leave me a separate comment for EACH entry.

Rules:
*You must be an Our Little Urban Life Follower. Leave me a comment telling me that you are a follower (1 entry).

*You must "Like" ErinCondren.com on Facebook and tell them that "Megan@Our Little Urban Life" sent you (1 entry).

Extra Entries:

You must leave a separate comment for each entry!

*Visit Erin Condren and tell me which design and color scheme you love the most! (1 entry)

*Tweet about this giveaway saying "I just entered to win an @ErinCondren giveaway! Visit http://ourlittleurbanlife.blogspot.com to enter!" Please leave me a link to your tweet (1 entry).

*Follow Erin Condren on Twitter @ErinCondren (1 entry).

*Blog about the giveaway on your own blog! You MUST link back to my blog as well as post a direct link to ErinCondren.com. Please leave me a link to your blog. (2 entries)

You have over 7 chances to win!
So, what are you waiting for??
Head on over to Erin Condren and start falling in love with all of the awesome products!

Good luck! And please remember to leave a separate comment so each one of your entries counts.

Giveaway begins today (9.20.11) and ends next Wednesday, 9.28.11 at 11:59 PM MST. Winner will be notified via email, as well as posted on my blog. Winner has 48 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be drawn. Winner will be selected via Random.org

I received no monetary compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.

we love you Pinkberry!

2011-09-14T07:30:00.000-06:00

Oh, how we love you Pinkberry! Erin hung out with me and Penny for the afternoon the other week and I had to indulge her in some Pinkberry. She picked chocolate flavored yogurt and her toppings were brownie bits, chocolate chips, M &M's and some other little chocolate morsel. I am always pretty simple with my choice-plain yogurt with strawberries and granola. Yum!

Loving Erin's inability to look at the camera long enough because of all of the chocolate!

Happy Labor Day!

2011-09-13T07:14:00.001-06:00

A few of us headed down to the annual Taste of Colorado festival. It was a beautiful day so we rode our bikes down. I kept laughing to myself as we were riding down because I felt like I was a middle schooler riding around with my friends on our bikes.

{metzgers}

{bryan/brian twins}

{Melissa is being silly with her eyes. Unfortunately, I am not and I apparently have lines for eyes}

{barleys}

{turneys}

{i love how proud Melissa is of the Marlboro's that she found in her B Cycle basket}

{did anyone notice that Melissa is STILL proud of the cigarettes about 20 blocks later....}

We had the Turneys over for dinner that night. We grilled out and had a yummy dinner. I even had to pull out our big plates. The cutie little black one (the one that is about half Penny's size) is Oreo. Meet Oreo: He is super snuggly and has been a great friend to Penny. His last name is Turney. He also loves food from people plates just as much as Penn does.

{shish kabobs, grilled corn, Caesar salad, quinoa salad}

Vanessa's Shower

2011-09-12T06:35:00.001-06:00

We recently had this awesome couple, Justin and Vanessa, join our church. They both went to Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC (my hometown) but we never crossed paths back in G-Vegas. They asked Bryan to perform their wedding and do their marriage counseling. Bryan and I have loved getting to know them both.

I got to host a wedding weekend bridal shower with Vanessa's maid of honor, Tori. Tori lives in Arizona so we planned everything via email. Vanessa and Justin had lots of family in town for the wedding so there were lots of aunts, grandmas, cousins, etc at my house for the shower. It was great!

{me, Vanessa, Tori}

I knew Vanessa was using green as one of her wedding colors so I searched for a wide range of green flowers and ended up finding a lot of great ones at King Soopers. Some of the flowers that I randomly picked ended up being some of the exact flowers that she used at the wedding! Ruth helped me out with ALL of the flower arrangements! She made them look so beautiful! I got so many compliments on the flowers and it was all thanks to Ruth! Than you thank you Ruth!

{"wallflower" idea from Pinterest}

Tori printed some pictures of Justin and Vanessa and we just put them in some of my frames. I have used this idea at all of the showers that I threw this summer. I think it is a great way to make your home a little more personal for a shower. It is also really inexpensive and it is so nice to be able to give the guest of honor the printed pictures.

I found some great napkins at Ikea and ribbon at Joann's to match the flowers that I chose.

Tori planned the menu and everything was SO good! It was a brunch shower so we had carrot cake muffins, a yogurt parfait bar, pink lady apple slices with a peanut butter yogurt dip, and an egg casserole.

Vanessa got some great gifts! Lots of kitchen goodies and even some lingerie!

{Angela, Vanessa, me, Melissa}

Vanessa and Justin had a beautiful wedding that I will be sharing about this week.

working woman

2011-09-11T12:34:00.002-06:00

I start work this week. I'm a little nervous, but I am managing.

This week, I have 4 days of Nursing Orientation and on Friday I will go to all of my assigned schools and meet the principals and other staff, etc. Last week, I attended a general system wide orientation for DPS and I also got to attend the monthly nurses meeting. The RN meeting started at 7am so it was verrry quick introduction back into work mode!

I have been assigned to 4 different schools and one of those schools will need me twice a week. As I was talking to Bryan about going back to work, I realized that I have never had a 5 days a week full time job. I had lots of part time jobs in high school and college but my only full time job was last year when I worked as an RN at WakeMed. That job was full time but it was only 3 days a week (3 12s). So, needless to say I am a little nervous about jumping back into working after having the summer off as well as it being my first ever 5 days a week job!

For a while I thought that I was nervous about being a School Nurse and I had to process that for a while. Now I realize that I am nervous about going back into Nursing period. Any job that I get as an RN is going to be an incredible amount of responsibility. And if I got any other job I would be just as nervous. Nursing is a huge responsibility and I don't want to take it lightly. I am so excited to have that responsibility and it is one that I think I should be making a big deal of.

I am going to be assigned a Nursing Mentor at DPS. After this week long orientation, I will have an ongoing orientation that will be on Monday nights after work for the rest of the semester. I am thankful that DPS has these systems in place to help acclimate the nurses. I will be sitting on the front row with my notebook and pen ready. Who knows...I may even pull out my voice recorder that I was incredibly dependent on during nursing school. : )

Although I am nervous, I know that God has called me to do this. God has continued to open the door for me to be a School Nurse for DPS. Other doors for other nursing jobs were never even opened and I am SO very thankful that God made it clear that this is what I am to be doing.