Weekend Things

Whew, I didn’t think I’d actually get a “Weekend Things” post up today.  I’m jumping right into it!

My apologies to any of my close friends who are reading this and have to see our engagement photo sneak peak collage AGAIN.  I may have gotten a little carried away sharing it on every social media outlet I could but I was just kind of excited.  Joey and I have felt like we had this huge looming cloud over our heads while we tried to find a wedding venue then get an engagement photo session set up before it got all winter-like here in Colorado.  We ended up booking a venue on Wednesday then scheduling photos for Friday, which didn’t get us much prep time.  But it was Friday or later this week and I did not want to wait.  I’m so happy we did them Friday as it is cold, wet and gray today and there are barely any leaves left on the trees.

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Almost 3 hours of smiling, laughing, nuzzling and public kissing later, we had some great shots (or at least from what I’ve seen) and Boulder was looking especially beautiful in all of its fall glory.  We stopped in at West Flanders Brewery and the staff was SO accommodating and let us get all up in their brewing area to take a few pictures (plus we got to try some delicious beer).  I’m so glad we got to do something special and right up our alley during the shoot.  For the record, my ring is wrapped around a beer hop, not Colorado’s other popular green.  Also, I adore our photographer, Jo at Elevate Photography, and couldn’t be happier with our choice!  And with that taken care of, a HUGE weight has been lifted.  Now we can just look forward to our engagement party in a few weeks 🙂

Remember when our living room wall looked like this?

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Well while I was out getting an extra looooooong massage on Saturday, Joey was going to town on the rest of it.  We had the electrical moved out of the way earlier in the week so we were free and clear to demolish the rest.  Thank god Joey likes this kind of work because it is so NOT my thing.  Someone tell me I don’t have to feel guilty about that…  Or about posting this picture.

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As can be expected with old houses (ours was built in 1906!), there’s lots of “fun” stuff to fix now that the wall’s down.  As in there’s a gap in the floor where I can literally see into our basement…  Such fun!  Meanwhile I cleaned out our second bedroom where we’ve been housing about 15 boxes of random stuff so we can move our kitchen stuff in there when we take out the tile and put in hardwoods.  Also, I think I’m about 90% done wiping the dust off of everything in the kitchen.  Please let me never have to do that again.

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When I was done, I retired to our room with this gift from my mom — a bridal magazine (she also froze some homemade red beans for us, she’s the best!) — then had to go out into the living room and physically remove the broom from Joey’s hands and make him take a shower otherwise I didn’t think he’d ever stop sweeping!  I woke up at 7:30 on Sunday and could hear him out there sweeping again!  I guess there are worse things he could get addicted to.

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Sunday involved this — a “Make Your Own” Bloody Mary Bar — at Highland Tap and Burger with Joey’s side of the family.  Turns out it was really just “Pour Your Own Tomato Juice and Spear Your Own Olive” Bar, but it was delicious nonetheless.  I truly love a good Bloody Mary and have such a hard time resisting any time I’m somewhere that serves one.  We also grabbed lunch (I was the only one at the table to not order a burger, oops!) then headed out to the Buell Theater.

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For The Book of Mormon!  I loathe South Park (same creators) and still found the musical funny.  We walked out afterwards and I could not believe how nice it still was outside!  I’d be fine with some more 60 degree sunny days, Mother Nature.

Happy Monday!

Recommitment & Weekend Things

Hi!  How was your weekend?  Honestly, mine was pretty fabulous.  Especially since my work week was only 3 days long, sandwiched between our vacation and the weekend, so it really flew by.

On Friday, we hit up the Denver Rock n Roll race expo.  I always love going to that expo because there are a bunch of normal looking people there who turn out to be marathoners!  And of course, when I’m there I’m always like “what the hell, I’ll just sign up for next year’s marathon!”  Thank god I don’t actually let that thought go any further than that.  I think my favorite expo tent was this one where they were cooking mini protein pancakes.

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Afterwards we spent some much needed time at home.  The other day I jokingly said, “I’m so glad we bought this house in Denver considering we’re never home!!!”  It feels like we’ve barely had any time to just be home and get anything done here, so like I said, a much needed night at home.  Building Ikea furniture!… I also ate a dinner of several different restaurant leftovers because we’ve forgotten what the grocery store is and how to cook anything other than toast.

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Be honest, is this wardrobe way too big for our room?  Actually, don’t answer that because we already spent an entire night building it (and new nightstands) and it’s too late now.  Anyways, we had lunch near the 16th Street Mall on Saturday afternoon — it was thee most beautiful fall day in Denver! — and Joey is a bad influence and made me want a mid-day beer.  Also, there was a Zombie Crawl that day and downtown was rampant with zombies of all ages, costumes and degrees of bloodiness.  I think I liked the one one gnawing on a fake brain best.

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Today, right now, I am cuddling up in my bed trying to regain body heat in my feet after running the mini marathon this morning.  And yeah, that was four hours ago so you can say it’s chilly in Colorado today.  Despite the cold, I loved the mini marathon (3.7 miles).  Apparently I missed the mile markers because I somehow came across the 3 mile mark and was totally shocked to almost be done.  They didn’t give us mini runners a timing chip (majorly lame!) and I totally forgot to stop my watch at the finish line so I have no idea how fast I did it but I felt like I did it pretty fast and I made sure to sprint to the finish.  Afterwards, I walked down the mall, grabbed a hot coffee and walked to the half marathon finish line to watch Joey cross.  About 15 minutes later we both watched the full marathoner cross the finish line.  I cannot even fathom 5:30 miles for 26.2 miles!  That is insane.

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On to the topic of recommitment.  Maybe it’s being back from vacation or the changing of the seasons or the headache I’ve had for literally two and a half weeks but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about recommitting to some healthier habits.  I’ve felt all over the place for the last few months.  There’s been a lot going on and I’ve felt busy both physically and mentally, so the routine of things that make me feel sane have totally fallen by the wayside.  I haven’t been reading, writing, sleeping, exercising or eating like I normally do and it’s really making me feel out of whack.  I’m making this an open declaration to recommit to all those things.  I think 8 hours of sleep, an awesome race and a day spent relaxing with a hot cup of tea is a good place to start 🙂

Happy Sunday to you all!