Oh, Mishka

day one of painting the new house

2012-01-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

Jordan and I had such a busy day today! We're finally getting a chance to patch up the eight million (more or less) holes and weird patchwork that the previous owners left in the walls. We had to wait to paint until we got that work done, so I finally got to paint my first wall today.

If you follow me on Pinterest, you've probably seen my unending love for bright white interiors. Well, that's what I imagine for our house. We already have a beautiful white fireplace, so today we painted the whole wall around it, which stretches through our dining and living rooms, the most crisp white paint color I could find.

Of course, as soon as we finished painting, I decided that the white of the wall didn't look good with the slightly different white of the fireplace, so we'll be painting over it tomorrow. That wall will instead be a dark blue, which should contrast amazingly with the white bricks and mantle. The rest of the house will still be white, with probably a few more colorful accent walls, like in the laundry room and main bath.

Oh, and clearly the kitties were helpful today. They slept on my freshly washed bedding, rolling on the piles of clean laundry. That's what I get for not putting away laundry the second it's dry. At least they're getting along enough to sleep on the bed together, I guess.

P.S. See that beautiful quilt? Jordan's mom made it for me for Christmas! It's light enough that it could be a throw for the couch, but I love it so much that I put in on the bed. Thank you, Sheila!!!

this is the dream

2012-01-26T20:10:00.003-07:00

1. If you were ever wondering what people are referring to when they say, "That's the dream," I can tell you what they mean. The Dream is two kitties asleep on you at the same time. That is the dream.

2. New kitty has a name! We named him Theodore Roosevelt, or Teddy, for short.

3. Cubby Roo and Teddy are starting to become friends. And by this, I mean Cubby lets him get close to her without hissing or growling every single time. Sometimes they both sleep on me at once, as you can see. They also both sleep on the bed at night, which sounds crowded, but is mostly just amazing.

the pie hole

2012-01-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

Jordan and I make a lot of trips to Pocatello on weekends, mostly to go to Home Depot (or adopt a cat). One recent weekend trip, we decided we wanted to eat at a restaurant that is known for its hot wings. So we drove there and found out...it's inside a bowling alley. Bowling alleys don't quite strike me as a place I want to eat anything, ever, so we decided to head across the street for some pizza instead.

The pizza place is called The Pie Hole and has the biggest, greasiest slices ever. Of course, we loved it. The backs of the booths are made of colorful skateboard decks; the doors and walls are covered in graffiti. While The Pie Hole definitely wasn't our usual kind of restaurant, we ended up loving it!

we got another kitty!

2012-01-22T21:25:00.001-07:00

Great news! We got another kitty!

Jordan and I decided last summer that we wanted to have two cats eventually, but decided after we got Cubby that we'd wait until after the move to Idaho to adopt another. I saw this handsome little man on the animal shelter's website this week and knew we needed him. So we went to check him out yesterday and, luckily, his personality was perfect for our little family. He doesn't have a name yet, but hopefully in the next day we'll find one that fits.

Isn't our new boy so handsome?! We think he's a snowshoe/ragdoll mix, but no one is sure. Hopefully the vet will be able to tell us when I take him in for a check-up tomorrow. Once I can get our new kitty to sit still long enough, I'll take some better pictures. But for now he's spending his time alternating between exploring the house and trying to befriend Cubby (she isn't interested, though).

my first time at ikea

2012-01-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

While my mom and I were in Salt Lake City, we made a Sunday afternoon trip to Ikea. Can you believe it was the first time I've ever been to an Ikea?! Needless to say, I loved it and didn't ever want to leave. Jordan and I have been in desperate need of some new furniture. In fact, this is kind of embarrassing, but we basically live like poor college students. Our furniture is almost entirely hand-me-downs from our families. Worst of all, we haven't had a kitchen table ever! Obviously this needed to be remedied.

We didn't have a coffee table either, and only one side table for our poor couch. So while I was there I picked up a shiny new white coffee table and matching side tables. The crisp, clean look these pieces bring to our living room is astounding. Of course, I also picked up some assorted decorative glassware and a few succulents that I plan to find vintage tin containers for.

I wanted to get a dining room table while I was there, but put off buying one until Jordan is able to go with me. I'm pretty sure that won't be the only thing we buy, because now that I've discovered the joy of furnishing our home like adults, all the while at a very reasonable price for our first new furniture together, I think I'm addicted.

wedding dress shopping!

2012-01-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

My mom and I went wedding dress shopping this weekend! She drove up to visit on Thursday and stayed the night in our new house. Then she and I drove to Salt Lake City on Friday and spent the weekend dress shopping and having a wonderful girl weekend. We bought shoes, got our hair cut, and ate at amazing local restaurants.

Best of all, I found my wedding dress! I wish so much that I could share a picture of it, but it will have to wait until after the wedding so Jordan won't see it. It's really starting to sink in that I'm getting married in July! I read somewhere that you'll know when you try on the perfect wedding dress because it will be the one you don't want to take off. That was 100% the case with my dress.

I think my favorite part was once I put a veil on with the dress. The salesgirl told me that "until you put on a veil, you're just a pretty girl in a white dress. Once you put on the veil, you're really a bride." It was absolutely true. I'm incredibly glad I got to share such a special moment with my mom. And I absolutely can't wait to get married to my best friend this summer!

red rock brewery

2012-01-13T23:42:00.000-07:00

You know those nights that are so wonderful, but the pictures never turn out just right? That was my Friday night. My mama came to visit us in Idaho on Thursday, then the two of us drove to Salt Lake City to go wedding dress shopping for the weekend. After a very full day of trying on dresses, but not quite finding The One, we went to dinner and then out for drinks.

The Red Rock, a super cute and lively brewery, is where we ended up. Our waiter was a hilarious, helpful guy named Chris, who has been working there for five years! Needless to say, he is a master at pouring the perfect draft beer. All of my pictures ended up blurry, but I was having so much fun with my mom that I didn't bother to take the time to take better pictures. Some memories are better that way.

our first picture after getting engaged

2012-01-12T21:33:00.003-07:00

When we went to see my mom in Las Vegas for Christmas, we surprised her in the most fantastic way with the news that we were engaged. I'll share the story soon, but this is a picture that Mom's husband took of us after they found out our news. We didn't even take pictures until we told my mom, in case we somehow ruined the surprise! So this is the first picture of us as an engaged couple!

5th street bagelry

2012-01-10T11:20:00.002-07:00

I am very much a creature of habit, and I'm positive I found my new morning ritual. Since I've got a 2 hour break between classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I wandered around near campus to find somewhere to get some food and study. Upon finding 5th Street Bagelry, I got probably over-excited. Bagels are just my absolute favorite thing, and this place is perfectly cozy- just what I need to study. So I'm tucked away in a little corner booth with my bagel and hot chocolate. In what I think is a weird personality quirk of mine, I almost want it to be Thursday right away just so I can enjoy coming back here again.

P.S. I had better luck finding my first class this morning...sort of. I knew where the building was, but of course the classroom was tucked away under a staircase. I'm pretty sure my teachers have conspired to play a weird game of hide-and-seek with me this semester.

my crazy first day at isu

2012-01-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

I took this picture while I was getting ready for class this morning, sorry it's all blurry. What can ya do?

I survived my first day at a new school! I mean, I only had one class today, but still, I made it. Barely. I live an hour outside of Pocatello, where ISU is, so I get a nice drive through the mountains every morning. I got to campus an hour early, planning to get a parking permit before class. Apparently every other person had the same idea. Also, I have a terrible sense of direction, so I may have gotten super lost trying to find the parking building.

Anyway, I found it and got in line. Then I got to the front of the line, only to find out that I had to fill out a huge form. This was 20 minutes before my class at the other end of campus started. So I bought a day pass instead, rushed to my car, and tried to get across campus as fast as possible without running over the million people on the crosswalks.

Then, of course, I couldn't find my class. There's a whole Life Science complex with a ton of lecture hall buildings all put together. So I rushed through all of them, trying to find the right building. Five minutes before class started, I still had no clue where to go. Then I saw a ton of people flooding into the greenhouse, so I followed them and hoped it was the right building. It was! Side note: WHO PUTS A LECTURE HALL IN A GREENHOUSE?!

Thankfully, class was great and I think I'll love it. Then I ran a couple errands in town, went to the animal shelter and found a cat I'm convinced that we need, got a Jamba Juice and headed home. Oh, and I finally got my parking permit. Tonight I'm going to spend a lot of time memorizing my campus map so I can actually get to class tomorrow.

Did anyone else start class today? How did it go?!

a typical sunday

2012-01-08T16:23:00.004-07:00

This is what my Sunday looks like. We went to church this morning, then came home and Jordan made us a breakfast scramble. Of course, as soon as we got home I changed right back into sweatpants! We cleaned some, then settled in to watch football. Well, Jordan watched football and I caught up on Grey's Anatomy. By the way, oh my gosh was that a good episode! But now my bff Tebow is playing, so I put on the Tebow jersey that my brother bought me for Christmas. Cozy, lazy Sundays at home make me so happy. :)

father of the bride

2012-01-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

My last night in Bozeman was spent with my daddy. We were talking about my wedding a couple days ago and he mentioned the movie The Father of the Bride. I said I'd never seen it (I know, I know), so we rented it last night. We also got dinner at my favorite place in Bozeman, The Naked Noodle. I'm proud to say I only cried a little bit during the movie!

thank you, rocky creek farm!

2012-01-04T14:48:00.001-07:00

I've been completely offline for the past few days, but for a good reason! After a couple stressful weeks of trying to find a wedding & reception venue quickly, I finally found the perfect place. My hometown is gorgeous and scenic and the location of a ton of destination weddings. This is wonderful, except that most places have already been booked full for the past 6 months. Plus, I want our wedding day to be spent somewhere unique and meaningful, not just a venue that a bunch of strangers also get married at every other weekend. So I was getting a little nervous about finding the perfect place (and by a little nervous I mean I stayed up until 2 for quite a few nights because I couldn't stop searching online).

Then I remembered Rocky Creek Farm! It's a Christmas tree farm where my family used to go get our tree every year. They also have an apple orchard for picking in the fall, strawberry and raspberry plots for early summer, corn fields and other veggies for late fall. The Farm is also set right at the base of the mountains that surround Bozeman. I called them, found out the owner would only be in town for a couple days before a months-long vacation, and decided to drive up right away.

My friend Meg and my dad came with me to look at the farm on Monday (Jordan has to work all week and couldn't come with me). It's perfect and I reserved our date! And now that we have an official wedding date (!!!) I've been able to start talking to other vendors to actually get stuff planned. I couldn't be happier about our venue and am so excited to get married this July!!!

a very cozy new year's eve

2011-12-31T18:06:00.001-07:00

Happy New Year's Eve! I hope you're all spending this evening celebrating in a wonderful way.

We're at home cuddling with Cubby Roo and having a quiet, lovely day. Jordan and I continued the tradition we started last year for our first New Year's just the two of us. We go to the grocery store, pick out whatever snacks look good to us, and buy supplies for Bloody Mary's and whatever else we want to drink. Then we head to RedBox and rent a couple comedies. After that we go home, watch a movie, eat and drink, play Scrabble, and ring in the new year together!

See you in 2012! :)

antioxidant smoothie

2011-12-29T15:08:00.001-07:00

After Christmas, I realized I needed to get back to eating the healthy foods that I love. (Having an upcoming wedding now helped contribute to that decision too!) So Jordan and I went grocery shopping last night and stocked up on tons of fresh produce.

This morning I made myself a smoothie full of antioxidants to combat some of the massive overeating I did at my mom's house. So worth it though. I blended a cup of pomegranate juice with a medley of frozen fruits, including strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, and it started off my morning perfectly.

By the way, how gorgeous is this set of glasses and coasters? They were my grandma's. My dad was going through things at my grandparents' house when Grandpa sold it last fall and sent me pictures of things he thought I might want. I thought about saving these glasses for special occasions, but I decided that I'd rather use them often and remember my grandma every time I use them.

camera flash

2011-12-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hilarious candid shots that occur when you use a really bright flash in a really dark bar. Jordan and my brother decided I deserved one too, since I basically blinded both of them. Then Jordan tricked me and kept taking pictures, pretty much leaving me with no eyesight for like five minutes! Trickster.

Christmas day

2011-12-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

Christmas morning was perfect. We spent the holidays at my mom's house in Las Vegas, and my grandparents drove down to visit, too! Jordan and I got marshmallow shooters from Santa, so Casey the dog was our best friend for the rest of the day. Santa put a Justin Bieber singing toothbrush in my stocking, ensuring that I'll never get a cavity in my life. And my brother Brian did his usual Mr. Wilson trick (AKA: holding things in front of his face when I try to take a picture of him).

The rest of the day was spent eating more food than I thought my stomach could contain, playing card games, getting ridiculous with Photobooth on my computer (pictures to come!), and watching a lot of sports games. I miss my family already.

engaged!

2011-12-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

WE'RE ENGAGED!

This is definitely the best Christmas present ever.

lots and lots of tea

2011-12-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is my night tonight. I got a cold when we moved, probably due to a combination of stress and a huge change in altitude. Soda Springs is 500 feet higher than Denver! So I'm spending the evening sipping on tea and Theraflu, hoping this silly cold disappears before we drive to Las Vegas to spend Christmas with my family there.

If you have any tips for getting rid of a cold quickly, I'd love to hear them!

our last night in wyoming

2011-12-21T13:17:00.003-07:00

Oh, sweet little Madalyn. My very favorite thing about living in Gillette was getting to meet my good friend Erica and spending tons of time with her and her adorable daughter, Madalyn. Maddy had her ballet recital and I got to go! It was seriously the cutest thing I've ever seen.

And our last night in town, we spent hours over at Erica, Dave, and Madalyn's house to say goodbye. I warned Jordan beforehand that I would cry (seeing as how I'd already spent the whole day in tears after saying goodbye to classmates and my favorite professor). What I did not anticipate was how devastated Madalyn would be to see us leave. She burst into tears and refused to hug us for the longest time because she knew that meant we would leave. Then she clung to me and Jordan and kept making us promise, through tears, that we would call her. It broke my heart. And I definitely cried too.

So all I can say is thank goodness for Facetime and Skype, because my life is just not complete without chatting with Erica, who is exactly like me and the perfect friend, and seeing sweet Maddy's adorable face.

five guys burgers

2011-12-19T23:11:00.001-07:00

After reading about a million blog posts about how great Five Guys burgers are, we finally got to try them! Seriously, living in Idaho has been nothing but amazing. I was a little hesitant to eat somewhere that has been talked up so much, but we were not let down. Looks like we found our new favorite burger place in our new home.

Sorry I haven't posted in a week! I had finals week last week, the movers were in our apartment Thursday and Friday, we drove to Idaho Saturday, and the movers got here to unload our stuff today. At least we have a bed to sleep on again. Sleeping bags on the floor lose their charm after about five minutes.

Also, look how amazing Jordan's facial hair is. Especially his mustache. He's exceedingly proud of it.

"stuff" girls say

2011-12-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

You guys have probably already seen this, since pretty much all of my friends have posted this on Facebook in the past day. But oh, my gosh this is so me. The "could you do me a huge favor?" and the digging in the purse is like a daily occurrence in Michelle life. Girls, we are funny!

this is our house!

2011-12-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

We closed on our house today! It's officially ours!

I've been waiting to share pictures until we closed, because I didn't want to do anything to jinx it. Now that Jordan picked up the keys this afternoon, I'm finally free to show you our cute cute cute house. All of these pictures are a little blurry because they're not mine, they're from our realtor's website.

I'm obsessed with looking at this picture of the front of our house. The flower bed, the driveway made of pavers, and, best of all, the double front doors.

Our living room has a gorgeous fireplace! (The furniture is all the previous owner's.) There is also a wood burning stove downstairs. Are we lucky or what?

White cabinets! We were torn between this house and one other that we loved, but the kitchen is what sold this one for me. Obviously the lights will need some work (read: total replacement), but I'm in love with the cabinets. If you follow me on Pinterest, you've probably noticed that I'm attracted to clean, white spaces. These cabinets will give our kitchen the perfect start toward being the space I imagine.

Again with the double doors! I can't get over how beautiful these doors are.

The owners were doing a last-minute tidying of the house when we got there, so our realtor walked us around the outside first. To be honest, once we saw the beautiful exterior and the amazing landscaped (and huge!) yard, we were pretty sold. In fact, this is only the yard to the left side of the house.

The rest of the house is amazing, too. We've got a lot of fixing-up projects planned already, starting with painting over the yellow walls and fixing the floors. Fun fact: our house has at least 5 different colors of carpeting in it. Who ever thought that having a different color carpet in a closet than the rest of the room was a good idea?? So those are our first two big projects. I'll share all of our progress as we re-do some spaces and decorate our little hearts out!

a thankful list

2011-12-05T18:30:00.001-07:00

Eeeks, I just realized how long it's been since I did a thankful list on my blog. I didn't even do one on Thanksgiving Day! So here's one to make up for lots of lost time.

Today I am thankful for...
// evening cuddles with Cubby Roo, which are so sweet that I end up taking a picture on Photobooth every night // green tea // finishing one class a full week before finals start (only 4 left) // salads // yoga // friends who throw amazing parties // The Big Bang Theory // Jordan, who is selfless and sweet // a good night's sleep // phone calls with my mama // being #1 in our fantasy football league for the 4th week // advice from my dad // my very large collection of fleece jackets // pajama pants // Parks & Rec // flannel sheets // Harry Potter marathons on ABC Family // plans to see family in Las Vegas for Christmas //

my go-to healthy breakfast

2011-12-04T05:30:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite go-to breakfast now. It's fast, because I prepare it the night before, which works perfectly with my schedule. So every morning I eat overnight oats, 2 hardboiled egg whites, and a mug of green tea. Here's the recipe I use for my overnight oats:

1/2 cup 1 minute Quaker oats
1/2 cup soy milk (any kind of milk works)
1 container greek yogurt

Mix the ingredients together in a glass or plastic storage container, then refrigerate overnight. By morning, the oatmeal is nice and soft! I also add either fresh berries to the top in the morning, or add some dried cranberries the night before. I also like to add cinnamon. Some people think this is too yogurt-y, so feel free to add more oats. If you want it sweeter, add some honey.