Girl's Weekend

Okay, I mentioned that I was going to Boise, Idaho, for spring break, and I promised some pics. Here they are...
Last weekend, I flew to Boise in the tiniest airplane in America and it took maybe 45 minutes...maybe. Short flight and worth it, because I was going to see Cats and my friend Ashlee (aka Schlee).

Me and Schlee, Schlee and me :)

First, we checked into our hotel and got dressed up. The plan was to go to dinner, then to the play. Here, Ashlee and I are dressed and ready to go. Don't we look hot?

Ashlee brought along her friends Christina and Ellen. They look pretty hot, too.

Uh, oh. What is Schlee doing?

I guess she wasn't finished showing off her dress.

Downstairs in the lobby of the hotel, we decided to take a few more pics to document the occasion. I told the girls to "show me sexy" and instead they ended up looking possessed.
When I showed them the pic, they started laughing hysterically.

This time just smile, okay? That's much better.

Here we all are, ready for a night out on the town.

After driving around forever, and several failed attempts at finding a restaurant, we settled on a cheesy diner/pancake house. We were a little over-dressed, but it was more fun that way.

Here are Christina and Ellen.

Ashlee and I.

After some tasty brinner (that's breakfast at dinner time), we headed to the play 'Cats'.

The play SUCKED!!! It sucked so badly, we decided to leave at intermission. We went back to the hotel room to get ready to go dancing. Ashlee decided the theme for the night would be '80s, so we all put on our '80s gear. Here is a pic of me crimping Ashlee's hair. Remember crimping? So hot.

Thanks for taking our picture, Christina. We look 'rad'. Remember 'rad'? 'Awesome'.Here we are in our '80s suits. Don't we look... uh, what's another '80s term? Um, 'gnarly'? 'Phat'?

The club we went to had a live band doing cover songs from '80s rock bands. It was perfect. The band was called Pilot Error. Here is a pic they took and posted on their website: piloterror.net. Do you see us? There's me, Christina, Ashlee and Ellen 'partying like it's 1999'.

At the end of the night we got a pic with the band, but this random 'poser' chic jumped in the shot. 'Gag me with a spoon'. She's the 'hoser' in the long-sleeved black shirt next to the lead-singer who is below me.

Okay, enough with the '80s terminology. Saturday morning, Ashlee and Ellen decided they wanted to get tattoos. So, we drove to a small shop where the tattoo artist just happened to have a recently-opened spot in his schedule. Ashlee, you're first. She was a tattoo virgin, this was her very first. It was a special moment.

After watching Ashlee, Ellen wasn't sure if she wanted to go through with it...

But, she did. She was very brave.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic of Ashlee's cute little rump with the finished product, but here is a pic of Ellen's new tat. Nice work, and under 30 minutes.

After tats, we went to lunch at Olive Garden. Then it was time to say good-bye. The girls dropped me off at the airport where I boarded the same teeny, tiny airplane for the short trip home. Sooo worth the airfare, compared to 4+ hours alone in the car driving through boring, ol' Idaho.

*disclaimer: I suck at writing captions for pics, and I realize that I am not very clever. Hope it wasn't too dreadful. Thanks for reading :)

Girl's Weekend!!!

I am so excited. Tomorrow afternoon I will be flying to Boise, Idaho (the spring break capitol of the world, I know) for a girlie weekend. My awesomest friend Ashlee, whom I have known forever, and some of her awesome friends are meeting in Boise for the weekend. We have big plans. First, we are going to check in to our hotel and change into our 'little black dresses' (actually mine is blue, but whatever) and then we are going to dinner. After dinner we are going to see the play Cats. After Cats, we will head back to our hotel and change into our awesome '80s outfits and head to a dance club. Saturday morning, after we sleep in, we are going shopping! I am so excited. I never get to see my Ashlee and I miss her.

This is Ashlee, aka Schlee. Isn't she cute?

This is my '80s outfit... ... and this is Ashlee's. Hmm, which one is better? Maybe I can convince Schlee to let me borrow her outfit.

I am really looking forward to this weekend and I promise to post more pics... :)

Spring Clean Up

Three weeks ago, we got a post card in the mail announcing the city spring clean up day. We were told to put all our garbage and green stuff in a big pile on the street by 7am on March 29th. We were so excited that we weren't going to have to pay $200 for a dumpster. We immediately started hacking away at ugly bushes, and pokey plants.

See the two big, ugly bushes in front of the house? Yeah, they've gotta go. So, we chopped and hacked and pulled... but we still have the stumps.

This is a picture of our side yard. We still have a lot of work to do. We want to plant a huge garden but we aren't sure where to begin. It's very intimidating.

Here is one of the leftover stumps from one of the big, ugly bushes.

And here is another. Some day we'll figure out how to pull them up.

Here is a pic of the huge pile of green crap that will be taken away.

Here is another picture, just in case you couldn't tell how big the pile was.

Happy Valentine's Day

Ben is so cute. He had flowers delivered to Jenn at work. The flowers were to celebrate Valentine's day and the 7/11 weeks they have been married. (When Ben was counting the weeks to order the appropriate number of roses, he left out the month of January. So, instead of 11 roses to represent the 11 weeks they've been married, he ordered 7. It's the thought that counts. The 7th flower is hiding in the back. )
This is the mantle above the fire place in the new house. Looks pretty good, huh?

House Hunters

Ever watch House Hunters on HGTV? Well, Ben and Jenn decided to buy a home so we'll play a short version of House Hunters so you can try to figure out which house they chose. Ready?

The first house they looked at was a very large home near the top of their budget.

This house has a converted garage to make room for a basement-level family room as well as 5 bedrooms.
This ginormous house has 3 bathrooms: one in the master bedroom...
One bathroom on the main floor...
And another bathroom in the basement.
One of the best features of this house is the amazing front room window and old-school fire place.
Obviously the kitchen (as well as the rest of the house) needs a lot of work.

The second house they looked at is just around the corner from the first, but as a short sale, it is significantly cheaper.

This house sports a split front entry with awesome blue carpet.
Wood paneling covers the walls in the living room, family room, and 2 of the 4 bedrooms.
This kitchen needs some work and a new refrigerator.

This house has 2 bathrooms: a very sad bathroom upstairs...

And a rather nice bathroom downstairs.

The third house they looked at is a little closer to their ideal neighborhood and priced in the middle of the other two houses. However, it is much smaller.

This house has only 1 bathroom and it is in sad shape.

It has 2 front rooms and 3 tiny bedrooms.

This kitchen is also in need of remodeling.

Finally, this house also has a fire place in the first of the two front rooms.

So, now that you have seen the three homes and their details, which house do you think Ben and Jenn picked?

• The huge, 5-bedroom home at the top of their price range?

• The modest, split-entry home at the bottom of their price range?

• Or, the small house with two front rooms in the middle of their price range?

And the house they chose...

There was only one smart choice for them... They picked the smallest of the three houses on a private lane in an awesome neighborhood.

They got the house for a little less than the asking price and plan to use the money for updating and fixing-up the house. Ben and Jenn have a lot of plans for projects on the house and are very excited to have such a huge yard. They are looking forward to planting their very own garden.