Today is the day!

So we leave for Iowa today right after work. It's going to be a long day! The car trip is 10 hours long. I'm not entirely looking forward to that part. Ugh. But I am super excited for Grandma Norton's carmel rolls in the morning. Oh they are so so so good. Mmmmmm! (I have got to find a way to do "smell-O-blog"!) My house is clean! I love coming home to a clean house from a trip. I spent the entire weekend cleaning. I wrote out all my notes for our friend who is going to be house sitting for us while we are away and staying with our babies. : ) I even made her a batch of brownies while I was finishing up the last of the laundry last night. I can't thank her enough for staying with them. It makes it so much easier on everyone. I now fully understand what it is like to have to make plans for the pups while we are away when we don't take them with us. It's not as easy as one might think. Stoli is so low maintenance, but not the pups. I am just so thankful that it worked out this time. I will miss them so much. I wish we could take them, but it just won't work out. I know they will be taken good care of....but I am still sad to leave them. I hope they know we will come back!?? (We will come home soon my little luvs! I promise!) : ) I looked up the 10-day weather report for where we are going. Looks like is should be almost in the 50's while we are there. Doesn't look like there will be any snow! Yay! I hate to drive in bad weather. Should be good for the trip home as well. Looks like I will still be able to get some more use out of my flip flops. I made sure to pack 2 pairs. Haha...yes I am crazy! I just really don't like socks and shoes. I live in my flip flops. I *heart* flops. : ) My friend Beans understands this and is the same way. I think I got it from her when I lived with her. It drives my mom CRAZY when ever she sees me wearing them in the cold-er weather. So anywho...enough about my flip flops. We are really excited to get back to Iowa. It should be a lot of fun. Derek plans on hunting most of the time. He says he is going to feed us all winter long with his killings. (that sounds so bad huh?) I said you won't be feeding me! Ewww! We will have Thanksgiving on Thursday with Derek's mom's side of the family and then on Friday we will do Thanksgiving all over again with his dad's side. LOTS of food! Oh my goodness. My tummy is grumbling just thinking of all the good food. And then on Saturday I am going to do some holiday baking with Derek's mom and sisters. That will be a good time for sure. I love Thanksgiving. It's all about family and food. It's so hard fitting in time for everyone when we visit. Our time is always so busy and too short. We are so thankful for the time we do get to spend with them. The miles between Colorado and Iowa makes it really hard sometimes. Never take the time for granted. Cherish every moment. : ) 6 hours and counting and we are Iowa bound. Ready or not....here we come! : ) heehee

Pizza and Mussels....huh?

So the other night after work I went with a few friends out for dinner. One of our friends just moved into these new apartments that are in downtown Loveland (super cute and new york city like). We were going to go to this fabulous Mexican restaurant that is literally down the block from her apartment building....but by the time we sat and talked, had a glass of wine and walked down to the resturant the wait was like an hour or so. We said no way and walked back to the apartment. Our friend suggested this new little pizza place that is just below her building. It's called Sisters Pizza and Mussels. Yeah, my thoughts too....pizza and mussels.....huh? We agreed to give it a try and boy was I glad. Now mind you the first time I had mussels was on our honeymoon in Steamboat at this great steak house that we ate at. It was Derek's first time trying mussels as well. Surprisingly I liked them after hesitantly trying them. Again, I was hesitant to try them this time as well. But let me tell you; they are awesome! I got them in a white wine sauce. Mmmm they were good. And I even got one slice of cheese pizza on the side too. It was good as well. Light sauce, lots of cheese and thin crust, Jersey style. (I guess that is what you would call it. Where you might fold it in half to eat. I saw it on tv once.) The combination was weird but sooooo good. I was really shocked. Who would have thought!? This little pizza place is very small. All the tables but one seat 2 people. Luckily the one table was open for the four of us. Derek was a little jealous that I didn't even bring him any leftovers. Hopefully I can take him there soon. He will just love it I'm sure. So my friends....if you get the urge for some good mussels (and heck a slice of pizza while you are at it) give this place a try. It's good. True story. : ]

Count down to Iowa!

My darling husband drives me crazy sometimes. He freaks out and stresses pretty easily. Last week he was thinking that he wasn't going to work the entire week (his work is really slow these days) so he was all upset carrying on that we weren't going to Iowa for Thanksgiving. Well he ended up working the whole week (yay!) and now Iowa is back on! We are in the count down! We are getting super excited to go. I think Derek is more excited to go hunting more than anything. He has informed me that he will pretty much be hunting any chance that he gets while we are there. Sounds like I am going to be a hunting widower. LOL Oh well. I am sure his family will keep me plenty busy. We don't get to see his family but once or twice a year...so it's nice to have this time to catch up. The holidays really make us wish all of our families were closer together. It's so hard sometimes when they are 600 miles apart. But that is not going to ever change so it's something we will always have to deal with. At least it gives us an excuse to get out of town. : ) It's a 10 hour road trip. Ugh! Not so crazy about that. I do enjoy road trips sometimes. It's fun to eat snacks and talk. But after a while the car gets uncomfortable and boring if there is nothing to see. I do tend to get a little car sick too. Thankfully the trip is not windey roads! I hate that more than anything. I always get super sick. ick! So aside from the long ride there we are excited to see family we haven't seen in a while, have some fun and eat lots of good food! Just now grandma Norton's cinnamon rolls popped into my head!! Mmmm We can't wait. : )

First day of snow

Brrrr! It's chilly outside today. We got our first snow of the season. It's not much....but the lawn is pretty frosty. And boy is it windy out too! I think that is the worst when the wind is blowing. I hate the wind! It's supposed to be 39 degrees today. I was told that it is blizzard like conditions in Denver. Thank goodness that is not the case here! Our poor puppy dogs are left at home outside today. At least they have the shop in back of the garage to go in and take cover. I keep bugging Derek to put in a doggie door. Right now we just prop the door open with a rock. A doggie door would keep that area much warmer. I feel too bad to keep them in the house in the kennel all day (they sleep in the kennel at night) and they are not trustable to be left out to wander in the house all day alone. So outside they go. I don't entirely LOVE the snow always (I do have my moments though) but I am secretly hoping for some more. I am making our Christmas cards this year and we want to take a family picture. We are hoping to take a snowy one. Being that it is only mid November.....there is still PLENTY of time for snowy days. I am just a bit eager to get our picture taken. I start working on the cards next Friday with some friends from work! Should be fun. I can't wait!

So here we go....

I sit here in a bit of a hesitance wondering just what the heck am I doing. What has possessed me to start a blog??? Well, I still can't give a clear answer. What the heck...let's give it a try. Seems like it could be fun. Right?



People often ask me.... "So has it changed being married now"...."does it feel different"? Honestly, not all that much. Which I think is a good thing. I do feel more grown up. But doesn't everyone? Derek and I have been together for 2 years now and have lived together pretty much the whole time. Rewind back 2 years and a lot has happened. My oh my how the time does fly! Fast forward to today....and here we are; our own family now. Hubby and wife, 2 crazy loveable dogs and 1 fat cat. We just bought a house 6 months ago. I can not tell you how much fun and stressful that experience was. It feels so good to just sit in our back yard and think...this is ours! We live in the cutest little ranch that was built in 1959. It's in exceptional condition but we have some pretty big wishes for updating. That will all come in time I suppose. This past summer was so much fun having parties in the back yard and getting to know our neighbors. We have become good friends with them and it means so much to have that type of relationship with your neighbors. Along with making our new house a home....we just got married 6 weeks ago to the day. It was so much fun planning our wedding. I really tried to just relax and enjoy the time. I tried hard to not fret about the little things and tried not to stress about much. Our wedding day was so beautiful and perfect. I was in such bliss. I think we both had the biggest smiles on our faces the whole day. It was the happiest I have ever been and we had so much fun! I just want to do that day all over again! It's fun to look back at our pictures. I can honestly say that I was just a teeny weeny bit sad when it was all said and done and there was nothing left to plan for. But then I realized that we actually have the rest of our lives to plan for. Which is even more exciting. We have so many hopes and dreams and it's fun to see what is waiting for us around the next corner. I can't wait to start our own family traditions as well as carry on the ones we know. I truly do feel blessed in my life. I have a sign for the wall that says "Family, Friends and Traditions that I keep meaning to hang up. What an awesome motto! We have so many good things and such great people that surround us. I think that one of the biggest changes that has happened is that now we have a much larger family. I am lucky that pretty much all of mine is here in Colorado....but all of Derek's is in Iowa. Which the exception of Denise and Paige. I still haven't gotten used to the fact that I now have in-laws, instant nephews and built-in sisters. This is very new for me. All of Derek's sisters have been married and have children of their own. Derek's little brother Ben is the only one left at home. Being so stretched apart makes it a little hard to keep up with what is going on in each of our lives. Even keeping up with friends that live near by. The time just flies and so much changes. Life gets in the way and makes is harder to connect. So maybe this is my answer. Maybe this is why I am starting this blog. Maybe this is my way of letting you know what is going on in the Norton house these days. This could be fun. (Or a bit boring or even suprising. Who knows?!!) : ] So...here we go!