American Idol Virgin

This year is the first time I've actually watched and followed American Idol! In reality, I haven't been home during the weeknight evening in a LONG time, but I still kind of blame J.Lo! I have always loved her. She's not the best actress, but I can get down to some of her music and I think I just plain fell in love with her from Selena! I really love the chemistry between the judges this season. Before, I just thought Paula was a looney tune and Simon was so pompous. There's a difference between honesty and arrogance!!!

Does anyone out there watch AI? I honestly have never been a fan of primetime reality shows. I despise the Bachelor and Survivor and have always thought that they're ridiculous. I even have said in the past "How many American Idols can we HAVE!?" While I do honestly wonder how long it will go on, I can say that this year I'm enjoying it also. I also think it's great that they've added online voting. That will be useful, for sure. I don't think I would be one to call in a bunch of times. However, I am notorious for winning radio contests...

I don't have a favorite girl yet... Brandon enjoys the hot brunettes!

Pia Toscano

Julie Zorilla

I think one may be underage, I called him a perv.

My favorite guy is Stefano Langone..

 Representin' Washington and he's super cute! Whoop! I just really like him all around, though. I also really like James Durbin... I'm a sucker for a great story and he has one!

So, is anyone with me? Watching this season? I have to admit, three nights a week is a LOT. I DVR it so I can fast forward through everything but still, quite the commitment.

Our Lives

There are so many ways to measure or analyze your life. Today while cleaning our kitchen from the yummy french toast I made this morning, I was admiring our fridge. Well, not at first. At first I was cleaning splatters of vanilla off of it because I dropped the bottle on the counter and it splashed everywhere, literally. Oh, it is SO not my week. First m&ms then vanilla? Really?! Anyway, after I wiped it off & discarded expired coupons and straightened pictures I realized we are so lucky to have these people in our lives. Our fridge is full of friends and family. Some we haven't spoken to or seen in years and some we speak to or see regularly. There are hundreds and even several thousand miles between some of them. :( The important part is that while this messy collage of random tid bits may drive some crazy, it makes me smile. Better yet, all of those BABIES make me smile! Can I have mine yet?! Please?!

My favorite items on the fridge are my magnet that says 'excuse the mess, we live here' (Huzzuh!), my cousin's daughter, who actually resembles me when I was her age, a lot! Just look at the red hair! And a fortune from a cookie that says 'you will obtain your goal if you maintain your course'. That seems like a no brainer... ha! Easier said than done though, right?

Anyway, just wanted to share my thankfulness today. I'm coming accross kind of mushy, and I'm not really that kind of person! Ha! It's been kind of a rough week around here so I suppose I'm just gaining some perspective.

I'm enjoying a snow day at home with my pets and trying to get some stuff done around here! Have a great Friday and weekend everyone! :)

Cookie Update

Ok, I know you all are dying to know how my cookies turned out! You're not? Oh yes you are! ;o)

Turns out, a friend of mine wanted to buy cookies from me for her Bunco Party & a Progressive Dinner Party. Sweet! But I had to make sure they were nearly perfect! I took my time with them, employed my miniscule amount of patience and... viola! I made Valentine themed cookies because she needed them for the week before VDay and I made goodie bags w/nametags too!

I can post pictures from my phone but I can't put descriptions between them so you can just make up your own caption! ;o) I was happy how they turned out & I'm excited to make St. Pattys Day ones! :)

I don't see a cookie franchise in my future, but hey! If someone is willing to pay for the supplies and I can make some extra cash for my coffee habit... good deal! ;o)

Mobile Posting?!

I am SO curious to see how this turns out! My phone finally came on Friday, whew!  Since then, my mom, Brandon, cousins and BFF Shandy as well as some other friends that have Droids have been addicted to Words With Friends! Yep, not just an iphone app now! Whoooptie!!! ;) In addition to making two large pans of lasagne, reprogramming my phone, getting addicted to that darned game and helping my mom's BFF (also a Realtor) with some marketing materials we also managed to submit a THIRD offer before 5 on Friday when we had to be at work. Phew!

I'm actually excited about this house! It has the most 'land' thus far and is in a great school district and neighborhood! It has been a complicated process as it is banked owned and buyers must be qualified through their bank first before submitting an offer although we were ALREADY prequal'ed with our lender. Ugh! But, that means that anyone else has to do the same thing which could delay the process of their offer being submitted which may mean our offer will be seen first and accepted! Haha! Sounds kind of childish... but hey! Do what you have to! ;)

Our weekend then was full of work as MIL/FIL were out of town for their anniversary (29 yrs!) and just like reliable restaurant employees do (snicker...) we had some bad apples this weekend! Argh! Brandon slept a total of 7hrs since Friday AM. :(

On a positive note? Our weather has been *gorg*! Cold? Yes! But to me that means fresh snow on all of our mountains to be seen with the beautiful blue skies! Yes! :)

I am sadly still without a computer. I know, just a tragedy.  What's worse is that tomorrow is President's Day and I won't be at my SIL's watching Nickolai so I can't bum her computer! Lame! I need to buy my BFF Kristine's bday present... I want to get her something fun & funky from Etsy. She's the epitome of fun & funky.

Alright folks, I will leave you with this... I hope the pics work... I am the biggest klutz and almost peed my pants laughing. No worries, 90% of them made it out alive! :)

Woah! Where have YOU been?

Hello? HELLO? You still out there?

I'm scared to even look at the date of my last post. It's been a busy few weeks.

Sadly, my beloved laptop came down with a virus. I thought about smearing my most recent antibiotic cream all over it, but then thought better of it.  Instead, a friend of ours took it to fix in his spare time. Well, that ended up being longer than I expected but that's okay because well... it was free. ;o)  So, then on Friday I joyously got my computer back to only realize that it still doesn't work. Virus free? Yes. Working? No.  So, after a few phone calls and trouble shooting with my brother, AKA computer man, he let me know that I need to reinstall my OS. Great. Of course, that means that I need to transfer all of my now uninfected files to my little hard drive jobber and most importantly... FIND MY WINDOWS 7 DISK!!! Shoot. Where did I put that thing anyway?

I had tons of good posts for February too. After all, it's one of my favorite months.  I think it kind of goes with that whole "root for the underdog" mentality that I have.  Everyone hates January-March! It's not their fault that most of the weather sucks! These months need love too!!! Ha!  I decided that once I get back into working order, I'm still going to post about my February stuff... Valentine's Crafts & Cookies, our Non-Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Dash with my MIL & BFFs, a night out in Seattle with my BFFs, the craziness that is buying another house and last but not least... my birthday!!!! YEAH! I totally got spoiled this year all around! :o)

Oh wait, I forgot to mention.  Not only have I been computer-less but I also have been phone-less!!! Oh! The horror!  While I could have walked into Verizon and used my lovely upgrade to get a fancy Droid 2 or iphone 4 (orwhateverthehellthatdamnedapplethingis) I am getting old (25 now!) and am set in my ways.  The conversation went a little like this:

Verizon Guy:  "Hi there, what can I do for you?"
Chelsi: "Well, my screen is not working... I know the phone is on because it is overheating and the notification light still blinks... you know, telling me that I have texts/emails/missed calls THAT I CANNOT SEE!!!!"
Verizon Guy: "Oh, alright. Let me see what's going on here... Yep, looks like it is charging and powering on but no action on the screen."
Chelsi: trying very hard not to be sarcastic "Yep, I noticed that."
Verizon Guy "Well, let me look up your account so we can see what is going on.....  Ok, looks like you have an upgrade! There are some great new phones out right now that you can get for $xxxx"
Chelsi:  "Yeah, I'm sorry but I really would prefer to just have a new one of MY phones, I'm not ready to upgrade yet"
Verizon Guy:  "Ok, well do you even want to go look at the new options?"
Chelsi: "Nope, I'm good!"
Verizon Guy: "Ok, we will set you right up then! FedEx should have this to you by Monday afternoon!"

See? Case in point... I'm getting old. I just want my phone that I know and love. I'm resisting change... ugh. And for the record, it was not delivered by Monday afternoon. But since this all happened on Sunday afternoon I'm giving them some slack... HA!

So, while I have been missing, I have been thinking about people! Nickolai is done with his cheerios now and is not.so.patiently waiting for his mango chunks!!! :o) Talk to you peeps soon! As soon as I find that Windows 7 disk... dangit!

Thoughts for Thursday

It's 11:55pm my time right NOW so I figure literally no one will read this Wednesday! ;o)

Today (Thurs), I am watching the lovely toddler Miss E, like usual.  I have been lucky enough to take her to toddler gym at our local city center on Thursdays! I love it!!! She has so much fun and crashes for her nap afterward! HA!  I usually love Thursdays because I just have her.  Nickolai's mommy stays home with him on Thursdays so Elaina and I get to hang out and do whatever!!! Well, today I get to take one of her little best buddies too! So, I will have two 'almost two' year olds on my hands today. It's going to be GREAT! :o)

We've had a lot on our minds lately... We may very well be moving in the next couple of months.  We bought our house a few years ago and while we love it and can see ourselves spending a good five more years here, the location is not ideal.  At the time that we bought it, it is what we could afford... where we could afford it! And, honestly, it's in a great neighborhood it is just about 30 minutes from everything we do! Work, friends, church, etc.  I work 6 days a week and Brandon works anywhere from 5-7 days a week. Couple that with trying to make it to church on Sundays and that makes us commuters literally every day!  We try to carpool and are successful at that at least three times a week but  it just doesn't always work out.

Before I was done with school I got a bug up my butt and started looking to see what we may be able to afford in town now that the market is in a worse state for sellers.  However, I wasn't willing to take on that task in the middle of finals and the holidays... DUH!  So, a couple of weeks ago we started discussing it again.

Lucky for us, my mom is our Realtor.  I have the luxury of calling her at any time and she pretty much will come and show us stuff at any time! I also have spent many afternoons scouring the roads of the neighborhoods we would want to live with the kids I watch in tow. I mean, I entertain them by singing silly kids songs so what's the difference!? ;o)

Well, we found something.  Enter rapid heartbeat.  See, we aren't willing to sell our current home.  We just plain aren't going to.  First off, because we'd love to own a handful of homes by the time we're 40ish and also because we wouldn't make enough profit to use as a down payment.  We also aren't willing to rent a home in town because we have three animals and with all of the deposits and what not, it just doens't seem worth it when we qualify to buy another home.

Enter fears... First comes the task of renting our own home. Gosh, I hate that.  I hate that someone else will be living in my home! Isn't that weird? That's the point, Chelsi DUHHHH!!!! I just know what risk comes with being a landlord and while it's an amazing opportunity for us, I'm scared.  Let alone the actual task.  Any offer we make will be contigent upon us renting our home.

Second, we're not millionaires. Duh! So, it is definitely a risk for us to take on a second mortgage! And not to mention, we can't afford our dream home right now so we will definitely be moving again in the near future (3-5 years.) I always forget... that's part of the plan. But moving sucks!!!

Third, I'm kind of a house snob. There. I said it. It's out. I feel better.  I'm not a snob in that I have to have the nicest of everything RIGHT NOW. But, it would be nice... right? HA! Our home right now is a starter home but it boasts some features that I never thought I'd be able to have in our first (or second?) home! So, this other home that we Brandon loves? Well, it's about ten steps backward from our current house.  So... let me get this straight.  We want to move out of our nicer, more open feeling, more modern house and let some strangers trash live in it so that we can live in something not as nice?

Enter perspective... I need to change my attitude! I know this. I need to be thankful for all we have... and I am. However, both of us... BOTH of us have worked very hard for what we have. So, I definitely feel like I have a right to be picky! You know? And this is my blog anyway... so I can say whatever the heck I want. Just don't judge me too much okay?  I'm feeling a lot of pressure from outsiders in my life that are glaring at me saying "stop complaining about the powder pink laminate in the spare bathroom and be thankful!!!!" But the powder pink countertop is terrible! It really is!!!! HAHA!!!

There are things I love about this house... but I'm going to leave that for another day. I'd hate to brighten up this post with good things!!! Haha, I kid.  But really, I'm just trying to let off steam here because I'm nervous and aprehensive... It's a big deal!!!! 

I should note, we haven't even submitted a formal offer.  So, we're really NOWHERE near getting this home. Lord knows how real estate works!!!! But just the idea that we're pre-approved and looking is a little nerve wracking in itself.

Because of my nerves and anxiousness... I made a really diet friendly treat tonight:

Ok, I lied. They're not diet friendly. Geeze... They're from bake350, btw! They're pretty good but I burned them (per usual!!!) I gave Brandon the inside piece that wasn't burned at all.  I prefer burnt things at this point in my life. LOL!

Alright... well thanks for letting me vent! I hope that Thursday treats everyone well!!!

{lululemon quotes} Quote #2

Creativity is maximized when you're living in the moment.

I can totally relate to this quote... As much as I love to plan and be organized, it just isn't my strongest quality sometimes.  Plus, I tend to be way more creative when I get an idea in my head and run with it.  I think it can be tough to plan creativity.  "I am going to make a beautiful flower arrangement on Saturday!" Oh, well that sounds kind of silly, right? I mean, sure you can plan to make it to the Farmers Market to buy the flowers you will need but you most likely won't know the exact placement of each stem before you're in the moment, right? 

My favorite creations have all been adapted from their original version during the process of making them.  One great example are some cookies that I've been trying to make recently.  I've been a terrible baker in the past but have always envied a good sugar cookie!  So, I decided to take the task on and I ended up with these!  Looks pretty decent for a first timer, right?

I plan to make Valentine's Day ones and hope they turn out great!!!  When I started these cookies I just knew I wanted them to taste great. But, I ended up making them look pretty cute, I thought!

Anyway, my point in how this relates to me is that I often reach much more potential than I thought I could if I just let myself be creative.  Instead of holding strong to a template of what you think you're trying to do... let your mind wander!!!

Ok, that's enough words of wisdom for today! Oh, I love myself and my sarcasm!