There's Somethin Women Like about a Pickup Man...

We did it! We got another car! Hallelujah! No more waking up at 6 am even if I don't work until 1 to drive my sweetheart to work. Though I loved that time we spent together...I can't say I'm too sorry to lose it =]. Friday night I came home from work with a killer headache and headed straight to sleep for about an hour and a half, and at 6:30 Jared woke me up and said "let's go look for trucks!" So we braved the freezing wind to walk around some dealerships. The salesmen were not impressed when we told them our price ranges, and one dealership even turned us away, stating that they didn't carry any inventory for less than $18,000 (ya right.) But we pulled up to the Nissan dealership, and I saw THE truck and said "oh sweet look at that Frontier, that's exactly what we want!". Three seconds later we walked in, told a salesperson our price and what we were looking for, and he said "I have the perfect truck for you" and walked right out to the truck I had just mentioned!
Long story short, we got it, and now I know why it always took mom and dad FOREVER to get a car every time they got one. We didn't get home until 11:15, but we drove home with our new baby.
So the stats:
2000 Nissan Frontier
95,000 miles
Crew cab
4x4
3.3L engine
Brush guard, roof rack, bed extender, camper topper, and tow package all included.
ahhh.

Then yesterday we took it out shooting with Chelsey and Ross, and used it a little off road. After shooting we went to Five guys for lunch and walked around Cabellas (only after holding the puppies outside of it, as per mine and Chelsey's requests...).
When we got home from our double date, Jared and I were perusing Craigslist and I pointed out an ad for "free sod" that had been posted about 10 minutes prior. We hurried and called the lady, and were the first ones! She had a ton of free sod, so we drove the 30 minutes to Eagle, and loaded up the truck. First day of ownership and that truck was put to great use! Side story: After about 30 minutes of rolling and loading sod in our truck, this couple shows up in a van with a handicap sticker on it. The lady gets out, looks at Jared and says "Uh...we are here for the sod". Jared smiles and says "Well go get some!" These people were so peeved we were there before them, and they only had a minivan. There was more than enough for both of us, the lady giving the sod away had a HUGE yard, but these people acted like they were entitled to this totally generous lady's sod. As we were packing up, the woman who was mad looks at me and says "You're losing some" and points to a piece of sod I had dropped, then she rolls her eyes. I gave her the sweetest smile I could and said "Thank you! I rolled a bunch of other pieces that won't fit, you are free to take those!" Grrr. Why can't people just be grateful!? I am totally sending that sweet lady a thank-you note, she saved us probably $250!
Anyway, we got home and unloaded the first load, and laid it out (in the 25 degree FREEZE at 9:30 at night), and it was about half the yard, she said if we needed more to come back, so we headed back this morning and got enough to finish, luckily the other people weren't coming later, so we could pick and chose the pieces we wanted. Then with that, I am so excited to present our first "in progress" picture of our backyard, with our semi-patchwork-quilt-looking sod It will all fill in a few weeks!) that we got absolutely FREE!! It doesn't look like a lot, but that is two huge truck loads and about 7 hours just installing it in our yard. That was the easy part of the backyard though...more projects next week!

ahhh weekend.

After an absolutely almost unbearably busy two weeks this weekend was long awaited. We didn't have any plans laid out, but I was just excited to sleep!
Thursday my sweet little Lily got spayed. I was nervous to leave her at the vet (especially because she does this thing when she's scared where she climbs up onto my shoulder and hides behind my neck...) but she did great, and she came home and just looked royally pathetic in her cone, and kept throwing me "how could you do this to me?" glances.

Friday at work we had a delicious "dip" potluck for my boss Julia's birthday, and for St. Patrick's day. Friday was the longest shift I've ever had at Great Beginnings, working from 7:15 a.m.-6:00 p.m. with an hour break. PHEW! Then Friday night I went and babysat one of my babies from work, and his older sister. SO needless to say by Friday night at about 11 p.m. I was absolutely spent.
Yesterday morning (after waking up at 6:45 a.m. dang Trimble curse...most of my mom's side of the family is unable to ever sleep in...) I was thrilled to find an Ulta package waiting for me and spent the morning playing make-up dress up with my new things from Ulta and Sephora, while watching Tim Riggins Friday Night Lights.
Then in the afternoon it got GORGEOUS outside, and we went in the backyard and laid out our landscaping plans for the next few months. We have lots of big project ahead of us, but I am excited to see how it turns out. For the record...these are the "before" pictures....

so yes, quite the empty canvas. 
We cleaned out the garage, and had the windows open, I am loving this early Spring! Then Jared said he had a date planned for us so we got ready and took off. We went to a sushi restaurant we've never been to called Kyoto, and I had some of the best sushi. It was simple, non-fishy, and absolutely delicious!
Then we got back in the car and I had no idea where Jared was driving, when we pulled up to Dave and Buster's for a night of games!

We had so much fun, and I got the Jackpot on one of the games, winning like 400 tickets! We raced cars and played wheel of fortune and had so much fun together. Then with our winnings I got Lily a monkey stuffed animal, and I got a "Dave and Buster's" tumbler, and Jared got some candy.
I'm so glad we live in a city with so many fun things to do and discover, I love this place, and I love our house!

Work.

The past two weeks have been crazy busy! Last week at work one of our teachers left unexpectedly, and we have had to scramble to cover her classroom. The poor 3-year-olds have had multiple different teachers a day while we each rotate in to cover, and I have spent about 4 full days in there plus other smaller shifts here and there and really have developed a love for the kids. The day after their teacher left, my sweet bosses actually offered me the opportunity to be the full time teacher in that classroom. This would have been a big change! On one hand I would love to do more "preschool" and curriculum development, and teach, but on the other hand...10 3-year-olds every day is exhausting! and I sure love my babies...
So after a lot of thought, discussion with Jared, and prayer, I decided to stay where I am. I am so blessed to have a job that I really love, and that is so rewarding, regardless of the age group I work with (No joke, I heard "I love you Ms. Shannon" about 10 times a day in the 3-year-old class, melt my heart!) and I was go grateful for the offer and opportunity, but I can't leave those babies. I think the 3-year-olds need some new blood, and someone with new ideas to come in and do a great job. So their new teacher starts next week and I'm excited for things to calm down, and to meet someone new!
Since this has happened though, I've had a renewed appreciation for my job. I work with so many wonderful women, and learn so much from them. I laugh so many times a day, yes because I have hi-larious coworkers, but mostly because the awesome kiddos I spend my days with. Now that I've been there 6 months, I know just about all the kids in the center, and I've seen them all grow! Mostly my babies, though. The main group of them who couldn't even sit up when I started, are walking and starting to talk, and it is really amazing to see. We are signing with them, and teaching them, and it is just the coolest thing. I have an awesome partner in the head teacher Moriah, and we have so much fun together taking care of those little ones.
So even though I never expected to be working in child care after college, I am so thankful for a job I don't hate, and more grateful that it's a job I absolutely adore. I think very few people can say they absolutely love their jobs, but I really love mine!
It's a place where happiness and love should thrive! Such a great expectation for my workplace =]

Terrifying.

Last night, at 1:57 a.m. Jared and I were dead asleep. At 1:58 a.m. we were not. We were rudely awakened by all of our fire/carbon monoxide alarms blaring. Not only were they blaring, but we have high-tech alarms that also yell "FIRE" and "CARBON MONOXIDE" intermittently between the alarms.
Anyway, we sprung awake, and all I could think was "our house is on fire!!! What should I grab!!" which is a terrifying thought let me tell you. But Jared jumped up and turned the light on and there was no smoke. He quickly ran around the house, and there was no smoke. Phew. But then the alarms all started yelling "CARBON MONOXIDE!" and I freaked. We (and by we, I mean Jared...because I was kind of just a little freaking out at this point) ran around and opened all the windows and doors, and Jared worked on turning the alarms off. Seriously I bet they woke up our neighbors on both sides they are so loud.
I immediately jumped on the internet to figure out what to do. I didn't want to call 911 because there wasn't a fire, but I guess I never learned what to do if the carbon monoxide alarm goes off. I came to the conclusion that we needed to check the pilot lights in our hot water heater and furnace and check for a "dull yellow flame" which meant there was carbon monoxide, then I decided I needed to call the fire department so they could come check the levels.
So I semi-calmly called up the station, and told the nice man that answered the situation and he said it was the right thing to call and they'd send out someone to check for carbon monoxide levels.
Jared and I waited outside in the (FREEZING) garage, with the door open, waiting, and in a few minutes a fire truck pulled in front of our house. It was now about 2:25 a.m. and thank goodness they didn't have their sirens on.
Three firemen got out and started walking through the house and one had a little device to check the levels. We told them everything that happened, and they checked all over the house and got a "0" on the carbon monoxide levels, which was relieving, but also made us feel a little silly. Luckily they were all very kind and just wanted to make sure we were ok, and kept reassuring us that calling was the right choice, better to check it out then go back to bed and not wake up. They said what probably happened was one of two things. Either a bug walked across the sensor of one of the alarms, which set it off, and then it set them all off, or one of the batteries was dying and set it off, though I don't think so because they never chirped, they just immediately went into "GET OUT OF THE HOUSE YOU ARE GOING TO DIE" mode.
So the three nice men left, and we thanked them profusely, and we proceeded to go back to bed. It was now 2:52 a.m. and you can bet it took us a while to calm our nerves and go back to sleep.
Moral of this terrifying experience: Vacuum out your alarms (especially if they are sensitive, high-tech ones) once a month so you don't practically pee your pants in the middle of the night thinking you are going to die.
The end.

Befores and afters

Oh what a week. We are both burnt out, and sure ready for summer. Today and yesterday were both 60 degrees and sunny, it's been wonderful! I hope we are d-u-n with snow this year.

Last night Jared graciously took me shopping at the mall, and we went to the Cheesecake factory, one of my favorite places. Well long story short, my waitress couldn't get my order right and after sending it back twice I ended up filling up on fries, lame. But I got my not-right meal, and a slice of delectable white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake for free! Yum!

This morning we got to go to the dentist. I hate the dentist, but I haven't been in 3 years! Jared's new job has given us awesome dental, so we went, and it was terrible, but I am so grateful, and no cavities! 

Then after (more) shopping, I ended up at target to try to solve one of my organization headaches; my bathroom shelves. (See this post for more invigorating details...) I had $70 worth of black plastic baskets in my cart and thought "No way am I spending this much just to put stuff in!" So I took it all out (and unceremoniously threw everything back on the shelves...) and headed to the dollar tree, and spent $13 on 15 baskets, then spent the afternoon organizing

Before...

After!

So happy. I love the colors, and I feel so much less stressed when I walk through the bathroom now.

Oh and two weekends ago I did these things: 

A wall gallery on the wall opposite the kitchen

 Got a poster-size print from our wedding. Finally picked one I loved enough to make 20x30!

 Made some yarn-wrapped letters for our nightstands. Stay tuned for a big bedroom redo in the near future!

Oh and earlier this week I did (well...a hairdresser did...) this to my hair! I love it!

Happy March!