Image Map
Showing posts with label busy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label busy. Show all posts

Break!

Hi there!

It's been three weeks since I've had a chance to come up for air and I'm so glad I'm finally able to update you with our new house and how school's been going.

So, last time I checked in, I was just about to start my first class of the Accel Nursing BSN program. Well, that class has come and gone! We covered 36 chapters in 14 days, including 500+ PowerPoint slides, 4 quizzes, and 4 exams. In the hours leading up to our final on Friday, I was nervous and knew what grade I needed to get to get an A- in the class (my goal). Turns out, I totally blew my expectations out of the water and ROCKED the exam!

Here's what my first week of school looked like:

And my second week:

And just last week:

So, yes, basically I sit in front of my computer chugging away at my homework, writing papers, discussing topics with classmates, and going over PowerPoints.

But the house, oh, the house!

So we moved in on a Sunday less than 12 hours before school started and literally unpacked all evening, every evening for what seemed like weeks and weeks. In full disclosure, we still haven't unpacked in our guest room/office/craft room.

The Wednesday after moving, we finally closed on the house so it's officially, 100% ALL OURS!

But the night before we closed, the rods in our closets came tumbling down which left Trevor to break out the power tools at 9:30pm.

After painting our bedroom, I switched to a much quicker project of painting an unfinished piece of wood in our guest bathroom. It only took two coats with four hours of dry time between, but it really pulls the whole room together!

And we've made sure to make time for each other and take a few walks around our new neighborhood to scope it out. We found this gorgeous tree less than a block away!


So, what have I missed around here?! Update me! Link me to your favorite posts! Tell me everything!

And of course, don't forget to follow me on Twitter & IG @YouAndMeAreWe to stay up to date on my adventures as a new homeowner and a nursing student!

Moving

I know it's been a week since my last update and I'm sorry for that. First I had three days of nursing school orientation that left me feeling incredibly exhausted and overwhelmed. Add to that two 12-hour days of work training for a new charting system that's going live soon, plus one very persistent sore throat/head cold... and that brings us to Wednesday. Since then, our house deal has been teetering on the brink of not-going-to-happen due to having hired apparently the slowest appraisers EVER.

As of last night, we're moving into our first home on Sunday. We'll be renting from the seller for a few days until the paperwork moves through the system and we can close later in the week. But basically that means I've been on the phone all morning (literally - the phone woke me up and I've already had to recharge it this morning!) arranging utility transfers, internet set up, and UHaul truck rentals.

Oh, and don't forget that nursing school officially starts on Monday and I have what seems like six trillion pages to read before then. When I say the program is accelerated, I mean that for every one DAY of class for us, it's equal to one WEEK of class in a traditional program. Our first quiz and exam are both on Thursday... after we read 500 pages and complete a project.

I've been going back and forth about what to do with You and Me are We while I'm in school. I have added pressure to write on a frequent basis because some very kind souls decided they wanted to sponsor YAMAW. After much thought, I've decided to continue my blogging adventure but slow things down quite a bit. If I have a busy week with school, you may not see much of me but if I can find time, I'll be on Twitter and Instagram daily!

I'm not setting a posting goal for myself but please know that I'll be posting as much as I can! I have a few house update and house DIY posts that I'm itching to get going on.

I want this blog to be a reflection of my life - my real life. And for the next 12 months, my real life is going to be focused on becoming a nurse with some fun weekend house projects thrown in there. I've always promised that I would keep it real here and I don't sugar coat things, so there you have it.

Please, please, please follow along with me on Instagram (@YouAndMeAreWe) and Twitter (@YouAndMeAreWe) because chances are, I'll be hangin' around there before I pop onto Blogger to bust out a post or two!

Catch ya on the flip side (or, at least before Christmas break!)

Dear Friday

Dear Friday, today is the day that my new "life" begins. For the next 54 weeks I will EatSleepStudyRepeat nursing school. Today I am meeting 29 other brave souls who will be completing this program too. I'm nervous {why?! I'm a social person!} and scared that I'm going to fail.


Dear 2N family, thank you for the wonderful going away party on Tuesday. Your words were kind and exactly what I needed to hear to give me closure. I wasn't ready to leave behind such wonderful nurses but after a few things you said, I know I'm going down the right path. God willing, I will be back working with you all again in just over a year - this time as an RN!

Dear Trevor, this week has been full of work for you and not so full of time spent together. You do your thing, I'll do mine, and at the end of this crazy busy weekend we will make time to reconnect. It's pretty darn frustrating when you don't even have time to talk to your bed mate!

Dear friends, a few of you have exciting news which makes me want to just wrap you up in a huge hug and shout from the rooftops. And not tell anyone, of course.

Dear duplex, I'm totally not sad that we only have a week left living in you. Not sad one single bit!

Dear paperwork, we've been waiting for you to show up so we could get the final closing date on the house. Looks like you're not available today even though we were told you would be. You better hurry up and get to where you need to be because if you don't get your act together, this house deal could fall through. And that would mean we will be homeless come September 30th. Get it together!

Dear weather, please try to stay warmish for a while still. Trevor and I need the temperatures to be high enough that we can do a bunch of landscaping work at the new house. And with all of these delays, the ground better not be frozen by the time we get the keys to the house!

Dear YOU!, have a fantabulous weekend! I'll be hanging with my new pals at nursing school orientation. If you want a sneak peek as to what I'll be up to {new friends, good food, late nights, new technologies!} follow me on Twitter and IG @YouAndMeAreWe - catch ya on the flip side!

Summer Bucket List Recap

I figured since I'm gearing up for some pretty fun Fall posts starting tomorrow, that I should recap my summer bucket list once and for all and let you know just how much we failed!


Here's how the list looked last time I updated you:

-- Visit Kelley Country Creamery in FDL (look how many ice cream flavors they offer here!!!)
-- Madison Farmer's Market (link)
-- Drive in movie
-- Paint guest room dresser
-- Redo guest room bookcase
-- Door County wine tour (link)
-- Take a motorcycle ride to Lake Michigan
-- Visit Trempealeau, WI (link)
-- Enjoy a concert in the park (offered once a week in our city)
-- Put down the technology and spend time together: talking walks, bike rides, cuddling on the couch, eating dinner, etc.

And here's how it looks now!

-- Visit Kelley Country Creamery in FDL (look how many ice cream flavors they offer here!!!)
-- Madison Farmer's Market (link)
-- Drive in movie
-- Paint guest room dresser
-- Redo guest room bookcase
-- Door County wine tour (link)
-- Take a motorcycle ride to Lake Michigan
-- Visit Trempealeau, WI (link)
-- Enjoy a concert in the park (offered once a week in our city)
-- Put down the technology and spend time together: talking walks, bike rides, cuddling on the couch, eating dinner, etc.

Here are the highlights and low points:

+ I was able to check off painting the guest room furniture and share my experience with you (painting laminate furniture isn't as bad as I thought it would be, surprise!).

+ Trevor and I went to the same drive in theater that we visited last year: the one in Indiana.

/ We didn't make it to the Madison Farmer's Market, but I did make it to the Lincoln Park Farmer's Market when I was in Chicago and we spent a few Saturday mornings at our local version as well.

/ Door County wine tasting would have been fun and is still something we'd like to do, but we visited a winery while visiting my family on the Mississippi River and really enjoyed ourselves!

/ We didn't take a motorcycle ride to Lake Michigan, but we did ride it around town a few times!

- ...and we completely failed at the concert in the park bit. Oh well, there's always next year!

How did your summer bucket list go? Are you still working on it?

Hello, hello!

Oh, life.

I have so much to tell you all yet so little that can be shared!

First things first, right?

School: holy moly, I have less than a month until I'm done with work which means it's less than a month until I'm officially on campus with 29 other lucky souls who are abandoning their lives for a year as well. We were assigned three classes to complete before September 20 - and I've only finished one so far... the other two aren't keeping my attention and it's hard to make yourself study when it's beautiful outside! So far, I've bought most of my books - there are only eight left to buy - and I've spent just under a thousand dollars which is pretty darn good, if I say so!


The house situation: Here's where I'm torn.. nothing's for sure yet, but it's such a big thing and I'd like to share some of it with you! Trevor and I put an offer on a home about three weeks ago and after some back and forth, our offer was accepted. As expected, we were thrilled and over the moon about buying our first home. Then, because of a weather delay, we had the home inspection about a week ago which revealed A LOT more "wrong" with the house than previously thought. And of course, it was hard enough to get the seller to agree on a price after our initial offer, so we've been worried sick about what's going to come of this. After a lot of discussion, Trevor and I decided we'd still like to buy the house if four specific things were fixed by the seller. We submitted that amendment yesterday afternoon and now we're playing the waiting game - again. Here's to hoping that the seller agrees to fix the things we asked and that we can still meet our closing date of September 12th. If all goes well, we'll be homeowners in three weeks!

Free time: There hasn't been much of this lately. I've been working extra hours and doing homework or packing up our house when I'm able. Some may say I'm packing too soon, but Trevor and I had to give our 60 day notice to vacate our current rental so whether we move to the house or into an apartment is yet to be decided... but we know we have to move!

Fun stuff: Whitney and I are spending this weekend in Chicago! I'm pretty darn excited to be in my favorite place in the world with a good friend - and for the photoshoots Whit's bound to have. She's got talent, let me tell you! The fact that we're staying at The James doesn't hurt much either. Plus, I may come back 10 pounds heavier, but at least I'll be stuffed with delicious food!

I'm sorry it's been so quiet around here lately! I'm working on a handful more posts for you - now that the news about the house has been shared, more of my posts can go from 'draft' to published!

check this out!

Project: Do You #17


Today's Project: Do You post is going to be the last one. I don't know if I should be sad it's over or if I should be excited that everything's checked off!

Let's do a quick run down on how things went:

#1 - Read one book per month. Pretty darn self explanatory, right?

#2 - Work out on a regular basis. I was doing much better at this before my wisdom teeth surgery at the end of June, but since then I've stayed active at home rather than going to the YMCA 3-4 days a week.

#3 - Run a 5K. I ran/walked The Color Run on Sunday with 5 other teammates. We did incredibly well - seriously, I'm so impressed! - and I'm ready to sign up for another one already! It was so.much.fun!!

#4 - Add another 2K to the vacation fund. This one went out the window when a house came into the picture. It would be silly to put money in a fund that we won't use until late 2014 at the earliest, especially because more money that we can put towards a house, the less money we'll be in debt to our mortgage lender!

#5 - Plan a date night ahead of time for each month. This doesn't take a lot of explanation.

#6 - Enjoy a weekend away with Trevor. And it was a relaxing one at that!

#7 - Shape eyebrows. I finally was happy with the shape a few months back... and I've been pretty happy since then, too!

#8 - Finish our wedding scrapbook. I know it didn't say this on the list, but this was a summer goal. Now that summer's over for me, this is done and over with as well. It's not close to being done, but there's just simply much bigger and better fish to fry. I still have everything I need and I may have a scrapbooking weekend with my mom sometime in the future, but it's just not high priority right now.

#9 - Travel more. I had checked this off a while ago and I've since planned another trip to Chicago with Whitney in a couple weeks. I'm excited!

#10 - Learn to say no more often. I put this on the list because I felt that I was kind of getting walked all over at work. I'm still sticking to my guns and saying no when I don't want to pick up extra shifts at the drop of a hat.

#11 - Make more time for crafting. I finished a table, a bookcase, and a dresser within the past week and they look fantastic. I'm also in the middle of finding stuff for a gallery wall {leave links to your favorite free printables in the comments below!!} Crafting is a nice relaxer for me and I'm loving it in my life right now!

#12 - Get out of my comfort zone more often. Rule number one: Nothing about starting an accelerated nursing program with 29 strangers or buying a house is within your comfort zone.

#13 - Share our wedding on the blog. So glad I did this!!

#14 - Attend a concert. Checkity, check. And, Trevor and I are thinking about going to Chicago for another concert the first weekend of October!

#15 - See a Broadway show. BOM was amazing!

#16 - Get hearing tested again/look into surgery. It's good to know where my hearing stands and what my surgical options are. I'm not planning on going under the knife quite yet, but I'm glad I had the appointment.

#17 - Bake someone a birthday cake. I totally didn't skimp on this one! The chocolate cake I baked for Trevor was pretty yummy!

#18 - Go to the beach. What's summer without a little time with your toes in the sand?!

#19 - Forgive. I honestly feel like I've become a better person and that this comes a lot more naturally to me now.

So that's that! The list is done! Are you sad to see it go?

How are your goals coming along?

You can recap my journey by reading all of my Project: Do You posts here.

check this out!

Hey there, stranger!

It has been far too long since I've sat down and blogged, much less typed up something worthy of hitting 'post' for you all to see. My mind has been elsewhere lately. I've hardly slept and my thoughts keep returning to the same things.

What on Earth could possibly be occupying my mind so frequently? Creeping in between every other thought that passes between my ears.

And it's time to come clean with you!

Trevor and I have been working on buying a house: applying for loans, crunching numbers, looking at listings, going to open houses, crunching numbers, meeting with our Realtor, spending countless hours looking at house after house, and crunching numbers. Oh, wait, did I mention we've been busy crunching numbers?!

We came thisclose to putting an offer on a perfect two story colonial home this past week. Everything was going along swimmingly until we invited our parents to see it and they noticed evidence of a wet basement. And some structural "enhancements" - if you could even call them that. Bottom line: we're still trying to get to the bottom of what's happening in that basement, but odds are that we're letting that house go. It's just not worth spending $20k to redo an entire basement!

And now I find myself dreaming of that home - the main floor and the upstairs moved somewhere else on a solid foundation, of course - and thinking of how I would paint, decorate, and arrange things. I am constantly dreaming of us owning our own home, making minor improvements, making the space our own. My heart is heavy.

Clearly, we are sick of renting. We hate that we are spending thousands of dollars on rent every year - and our landlord only comes around once a year if he's in the neighborhood. He doesn't care to take care of our needs but he makes sure to raise heck if he's looking for money, that's for sure! For the amount of money we are spending, we could be paying a mortgage and stashing away some pennies for home improvements. We're ready to move on to bigger and better things, that's for sure.

So where does this leave us? Still looking for a home to call our own, spending Sunday afternoons looking at open houses, and dreaming of the future. And still in our rental. Ugh.

I apologize for the lack of posts and for today's somber attitude. Honestly, there hasn't been much going on in our lives except spending the day working and the evenings looking at homes and gathering paperwork for our mortgage lender... and nobody wants to hear about that.

Don't worry - I won't leave you high and dry! Here's what's coming down the pipeline: a DIY furniture tutorial coming soon, the perfect summer scrub "recipe" to keep you legs silky smooth, a new blog design (!), and plenty of life updates. In the next month, I'll be running The Color Run, preparing for nursing school, and heading to Chicago with Whit.

Stay tuned!

check this out!

Summer Bucket List 2013

Last summer, Trevor and I had a bucket list of everything we wanted to do during the summer. {here's last year's list and here's the recap} It was fun to work on it together and find opportunities to complete our bucket list activities  This summer is no different - we have lots of ideas of things to do and want to have them written down so we can easily access the list when we look at each other and say "So, what do you want to do today?"


-- Visit Kelley Country Creamery in FDL (look how many ice cream flavors they offer here!!!)

-- Madison Farmer's Market (link)

-- Drive in movie

-- Paint guest room dresser

-- Redo guest room bookcase

-- Door County wine tour (link)

-- Take a motorcycle ride to Lake Michigan

-- Visit Trempealeau, WI (link)

-- Enjoy a concert in the park (offered once a week in our city)

-- Put down the technology and spend time together: talking walks, bike rides, cuddling on the couch, eating dinner, etc.


Do you have a summer bucket list? What's on it?

A Month's Worth of Free or Cheap Dates for You & Your Spouse

Trevor and I try to keep things fresh. You know, we try not to get in the habit of throwing on sweats as soon as we get home and plopping down in front of the TV barely noticing each other for the remainder of the evening.

Of course, there are nights that that happens. Usually after a particularly rough day at work for me or a long day of hard intellectual hurdles for Trevor.  But nights like that are few and far between because we make a point of mixing things up!

I know we can't be the only couple who has struggled to find ideas for new and exciting date night activities so we've compiled a list for you {30 ideas to exact - one for every day of the month}... and even better, most of them are low-cost or NO-cost!


1.) Create playlists for each other {don't let your spouse see what you're putting on it!} and take turns playing your chosen songs for both of you to listen to. Share a bottle of wine, and you're good! Don't forget to turn the lights down and enjoy a slow dance.

2) Similar to the idea above, make a playlist that is the soundtrack of your life together. Include songs from your past {when you first met & your first dance song} and any songs that represent your future {for us it would be songs that represent our future family and growing old together}. Share your hopes and dreams for the coming years!

3) Break out a deck of cards and play Go-Fish, poker, or any other game. Spice things up with a gamble of kisses or even items of clothing. Strip poker, anyone?

4) Go on a scavenger hunt. Google and Pinterest are full of lists for you to print off. Otherwise, make your own and enjoy!

5) Choose a recipe you've never made before out of a cookbook you own or from the internet. Try something you wouldn't otherwise pick! Go grocery shopping for the ingredients together, then come home, roll up your sleeves and get to work!

6) Go to a thrift store or a dollar store with $5 each. You have 10 minutes to pick out the best gift or outfit for the other person within your budget. Get creative!

7) Cloud watch.

8) Test drive cars. Even better? Test drive your dream car!

9) Pack a picnic basket and head outside to stargaze after dark. Bring a flashlight, a star chart and try to find as many constellations as you can!

10) Create a small buffet of desserts. Take turns blindfolding and feeding each other. No peeking!

11) Attend local open houses and start a "dream home" list based on what you see.

12) Even if you aren't looking for a new pet, visit an animal shelter. Your heart will melt when you see your spouse fawn over cute puppies.

13) Volunteer together. 

14) Get outside and go on a hike together! Bring a few snacks and stop halfway for an impromptu picnic.

15) Have a snowball fight! The winner gets to pick his/her reward: 100 kisses or a foot rub.

16) Check out two copies of the same book from the library. Read each chapter together and discuss - it's a book club for two!

17) Did you know the Dollar Tree has puzzles? You'll love a low-key night at home with your favorite TV show and a new puzzle. It'll only set you back a buck!

18) Work out together. Maybe you'll go on a run, maybe you'll do an at-home video, or maybe you'll lift some weights at the gym. Any way you choose, get those post-workout endorphins flowing!

19) Be tourists in your town or state. Don't forget your camera!

20) Get all dolled up {heels, tie, your good underwear!} and go out for ice cream.

21) Teach each other something. Maybe you're good at soccer and he's good at video games. You each get an hour to teach the other all of your tips and tricks.

22) Climb the tallest tree you can find! Teamwork, baby, teamwork!

23) Have a dance party! Remember the dorm life when your whole floor would break into song and dance instead of studying? Oh, that was only me? Get your dance on and - BONUS for a dance party with your spouse: a little dirty dancing never hurt!

24) Make wishes together and throw pennies in fountains. 

25) Go to your local bookstore and pick out books for each other. First round, pick a book the other would love. Meet up and share your finds. Second round, pick a book about something you think the other would like to learn about. Meet up and share your finds. Third round, pick a book about something you like to do together. Meet up and share!

26) Just take an evening walk together and tell each other about your day. 

27) Ask each other these questions. When it's your turn to talk, talk. When it's your turn to listen, listen.

28) Search for local festivals. Usually you can find free music, cheap food, and lots of fun!

29) Check out your nearest zoo or aquarium. 

And, if all else fails

30) Stay in, light candles, get naked, and cuddle up in bed. 

Now - get out there and get your date on!

What's your idea of a night with your spouse?

Kool Aid Easter Eggs and How Time Flies...

...when you're busy!

Sorry that it's been a few days since I've checked in. Life was really nice and easy going when I woke up Monday morning. By noon it was anyone's guess if I was going to get out of this week alive.

Here I am, Thursday evening, after working in just about every department of the hospital in the past four days, taking two exams for school, and finishing up a huge project for biochemistry.

And you know what we're doing tonight?! Grilling out. Ah-maz-ing. It's finally in the low 40s here and we decided to break out the grill, pour ourselves some peach daiquiries, and  just enjoy each other's company.

I stopped at the grocery store after work today and picked up the goods for our Easter egg dyeing that's happening tomorrow night. I'm always looking for alternatives to the expensive dye kits in the store... plus, there's only two of us so we only really need to dye 6 eggs. What did I find that will solve all of our Easter Egg problems? Kool Aid! We grabbed three colors - blue, green, and red/pink. I've seen rave reviews online, so I'm incredibly excited (or should I say egg-sited! Ok, bad joke...) to see how these turn out for us. Stay tuned, I'll let you know!


(image originally found here - I take no credit for it)
In the meantime, follow me on Instagram (trisaratoppz) for a peek into our evening and to see how our eggs fare.

If you just can't wait, check out a few of these links to get you started with your own Kool Aid egg dyeing:
multiple colors on each egg
how to get those colors just right (and for solid colored eggs)


*UPDATE* We've dyed our eggs and I've posted our amazing results - check out this post for the full recap, including directions on how you can dye your own!

check this out!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...