Then & Now

My old roommate, Julie, was in town visiting her family for Christmas and wanted to see my new place so we decided to do a little roommate reunion with Shanna and her husband. We had so much fun enjoying dinner together, reminiscing old times and laugh-offs with Paul and company and trying to decide if Paul naming his daughter Chloe was for real since that is what we had named our imaginary apartment child and he totally made fun of us for it!

We had to re-enact this old picture from 5 years ago:


And after we did, it was said, "I think I pulled something!" ha ha! What 5 years can do to you. :)


Here are a couple cute pictures with their husbands and kids (Matthew and Bridget, Julie and Whitney, me, Shanna and Spencer).

Christmas!

Merry belated Christmas! Christmas was wonderful... as usual. I went home to Idaho for a few days.

I borrowed my brother-in-law's carpool van to take home to Boise so I could bring back my old daybed for my guest room. And when I picked it up he told me there might be a mouse in it! So me, the mouse-mobile, the mouse and the mouse trap drove to Boise together and then back to Utah with my old daybed and all the bedding I could ever want. This is when I'm grateful and more than cooperative than usual in accepting my mom's off-loading. But thankfully I didn't have any run-ins with the mouse... and unfortunately, neither did the mouse trap.

Christmas Eve was the usual big event of a million appetizers, a ham dinner, a fun white-elephant gift exchange (one where mom got a beloved President Barack Obama commemorative plate - she actually doesn't care for Obama so it was really funny that she got it), a tradition of opening a real gift from mom, and then the family photo that I always insist on taking.

If we didn't get enough eating done on Christmas Eve then we polished it off on Christmas Day at my sister Jill's house: appetizers to munch on all day, soup for dinner, more yummy appetizers, movies, tours of the kids' Christmas loot, and more movies.

I went skiing at my old haunt of a ski hill, Bogus Basin, with my sister Robyn, her husband Doug and my nephew Trevor. It was a classic day of skiing - driving around Boise on a very cloudy day, ascending up the foothills to the resort and climbing out of the muck of clouds into a beautiful sunny day of skiing. It was pretty cold and I was glad Trevor tuned my skis because I needed my edges sharp for the ice I encountered on the slopes! Super fun times as usual!

And now we're on to a new year! And here it comes! 2010!!

My Quilting Work Station!

This weekend I spent my gift card to IKEA from my realtor... on a couple bookcases, a glass table top and some baskets and pails for storage and made myself a quilting work station! I loooove it. Maybe it will motivate me to actually get quilting again. :)

And since pictures are worth a thousand words here are two for you:

The framed metal looking thing is my magnet board that I'll eventually paint and hang above my pails.
And this one is how we got the glass table-top home... inside my car and yes... my good-sport of a friend, Jen, had to sit in the backseat because the table top was extended over the front passenger seat. I can fold down my backseat, but for whatever dorky reason, Honda decided you don't need all that width so the hole from my backseat into the trunk was an inch shy of being wide enough for the table top. Dang! It was a true adventure.

Trouble with Ski Patrol

So a couple friends and I went skiing yesterday ... at Brighton. Their base not very deep at the time, but they had received a bunch of new snow and so it was deceivingly good! Deceptive because it made you wanna go find some freshies but then you'd hit the rocks and that's where it deceived you. But we had a good time until.....

We came across the unreasonable, poor ski patrol... why he ever chose to patrol at Brighton with all the attitudy snow-boarders is beyond me, but it showed in his reaction to us and his absolute refusal to even reason with us. On the run earlier to running into this ski patroler, we found a fabulous, quiet and untouched little hidden gully - not a single rock was found in the beautiful powder back there! So we decided to do it again and that is when we ran into the ski patroler. Come to find out, the run was closed and we had no clue. There was not a single sign, rope or barrier at the entrance we went through. We tried to tell him that but he would not give us the time of day. There were 2 other parties of skiers back there (okay - one of the parties was snowboarders and we think they are the one that gave him lip and set him off) and so you would think logic would tell him that there must be a spot or two that wasn't marked well, but logic was not reaching this ski patroler's thoughts... only red fury... because he was going to cut our passes and we had to get out of his sight or else he was going to call the sheriff!

Seeing a lost cause, we complied and let him cut a corner off our passes and then we got out of dodge. Thinking they could do no worse to us... I suggested we race all the way to the bottom - which we did... and I won! :) But then Jason and Nate wanted to let ski patrol at the base know where we went in so they could mark it better and so that no one else would get in trouble. That's when we found out that we had only been warned! Good grief! So we went skiing some more and we even hung out by our entrance to wait for ski patrol to say this is where it needs to be marked better... but no other ski patrol came by and 9 other skiers/snowboarders went back there in the few minutes that we waited by it. Good gravy.

So that was a first for all three of us... and it must have shown at the bottom with the ski patrol there because we were telling them our passes were cut and they must have thought we were nuts since a corner cut-off only means a warning! Ha ha! I'm sure we gave them a good laugh.

So meet me, Jason and Nate. We are the Brighton Bad Boys! :)

Random New Favorite Things

• Driving down the neighborhood street to my place where all the houses have Christmas lights up! Didn't see that in the single-hood-ville that was my previous neighborhood.

• My baking center. The photo says everything, right? Everything you need to bake with at your finger tips. No more going all over the kitchen to gather ingredients or put them away. The baking center consists of the cupboard and the two drawers below it. Grab what you need from, measure it, put it right back! (Got the idea from Pleasant Home. Thanks Jodi!) Okay. Okay. Yes. It is also hot chocolate central. And yes there are 12 different kinds of hot chocolate in there. :)

• My new slippers. I never thought I'd get slippers, but my place is kind of cold... and so I bought some and I looooove them. Teri - they are just like yours. :)

• Already getting mail from friends at my new place - addressed to my new place. That's one of the perks of moving just before Christmas card season.

• Having a laundry basket for whites and one for colors... and more importantly room to have two baskets in my closet!

• My washing machine. Still. It's probably done 20 loads of washing. And it's going to get me $150 in rebates from my utility companies for being energy star rated. It's the purchase that keeps giving. And! I haven't even washed my sleeping bag, down coats, or quilts in it yet. Wait until I wash those - then you'll see excitement.

• My special dishes cupboard. Some of those have been packed away for years! It was like an early Christmas unpacking them. The blue Wedgwood mugs were purchased on my beloved study-abroad in England. Rice dishes from wonderful memories in San Francisco's Chinatown with my sister(s). A darling hot chocolate pot from friends that know me well. And mugs from all different people and times throughout my life. And a few childhood pieces. Sigh. :)
  

Tour of my Condo

Okay! Here they are!! Photos of my condo that I bought. I've really enjoyed living here so far. It's definitely a little quiet at night, but thankfully I can hear the people above me - they aren't too loud - so that makes me feel like I'm not alone in the big place! I've really loved getting settle and opening all my boxes of storage. It's been like an early Christmas! And I loooooove having a kitchen to myself and a fridge. That has been the funnest part - to organize my kitchen. I still have a lot to do, but I think that is the fun part!

(The descriptions for the associated photo are on top of the photo.)

My buildingThe outside of my condo. I think the tall grass is cool.
And this is my patio. I have a little storage closet off of my patio. There is a picture below of the closet.Looking into my living room.A straight-on photo of my beautiful bookshelves and entertainment center.
See the antique skis?Other view of my living room - with my entry way. There is the cutout into my kitchen.My beautiful couch and pillows from Pier 1! And my star quilt.My wonderful kitchen with tile floors, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances.
My laundry room! This was the cherry-on-top that convinced me to buy this place.
The guest "Rubber Ducky" bathroom.
The guest bedroom - kind of lacking in a bed right now, but it will get my old day bed soon.My hobby room - a little cluttery right now. It is housing all the random stuff that I haven't found a home for yet. My "Parisian Escape" master bathroom.
Don't you just love the toile shower curtain and Eiffel Tower photo?
I also have a jetted tub.Master bedroom.Master bedroom from another angle.My awesome walk-in closet!! This is only half of it. My storage closet: full of my bikes, skis, snowshoes, and other random stuff!

That's it!! Welcome to my home! :)

Time for the Winter Blog Mast and.....

Photos of my place tomorrow! Be excited! :)