House Warming Party

I had a house warming party last night with many of my close dear friends. It was so fun to host such a social event in my new home.... Ahh, I like the sound of that.. my home... I made a seven layer dip, had the famous mango salsa from Costco and I made my first cheese ball. It turned out pretty dang good if I do say so myself.

I figured the cheese ball needed a close up...


This is my colleague Rebekah. She is one of my favorite people. We both teach fourth grade and have so much fun together. She got me a rice cooker and not just any rice cooker, but a red one. She saw the color scheme in my front room and decided to add to it. She did a great job decorating the wrapping. Each side of the gift had a very special note on it.





Six of the eight folks from our Havasupai trip earlier this year were there, so
we had to get a reunion picture! It was so great to see them all!



A few other pictures of great friends...

This is Cherise and the twins Kali and Kaitlin. They are a part of my dinner group.



I work with Halle and Gina and I was so glad they could both come!



This one is Clay. I hadn't seen him since the STP road trip we took in July, so it was extra fun to catch up.



This is Cody (good friend from high school) and Keri (friend I met through the frisbee club team).



This picture shoes Dave and Sam, who go all the way back to Campus Plaza days, Keri, Jake (Macey's Boy) and Mark



To top the night off, my cousin Heather stayed the night. She had driven down from Salt Lake for the party and decided to stay. We stayed up talking until 4:00 AM! I can't remember the last time I stayed up that late. It was so great catching up with her.



All in all, a very successful night! I love people and my associations with them are very important to me. It brought my heart a lot of joy to see so many people I care about.

I'm a "real" adult now...

So I figure that having a mortgage now qualifies me as a real adult. I finally bit the bullet and bought my own place. I would have done so years ago, but I wanted to wait until I was done with my graduate degree. Since I graduated in August and have no more tuition to pay, it was time!

It has been so much fun. I took a day off work and Kristy came over and we went shopping for all of the stuff you need that you didn't realize you needed, like a garbage can, toaster, broom, microwave and the list goes on. Here are a few pictures from the moving in process and of the house.


Kristy had to take a picture of our Target excursion... It looks like I'm a contestant on Supermarket Sweep!



After we made it home with all the goods, Kristy helped me to assemble...



Here we are after hanging up pictures and finishing all of our assembling projects



A different view of the living room that shows my favorite feature of the room... the red wall!



The kitchen



Joe and Dave are going to come put shelves in my garage and hang some hooks so I have a place to hang my bikes. It is so fun to have a real home... a home of my own. I have the place to myself for this month before I have a roommate move in and I am enjoying it thoroughly!