Saturday, July 16, 2016

My Dream Home

When it comes to things like home design and baby names, I am surprised how much I've discovered that I am a product of my environment. Hondo and I have been house hunting for like a year, seriously for the last 4 months. And our tastes each reflect where we grew up! Hondo comes from Las Vegas, and he loves desert style home, Spanish or Mexican looking Adobe ones. And I love cabins! Mountain girl through and through.

I've come to believe that there is no such thing as a perfect house, at least nowhere near my price range. The house we are buying has a lot of elements that we love, like a big kitchen with double ovens, a large deck in a big backyard, wood floors, big windows...I am excited to make the house into what we want though. Most updates will be cosmetic, with maybe one larger renovation down the road. 

But my dream house is probably a giant cabin in the mountains, big enough for my whole family to stay. Mountain views and forest quiet are my happy place. Having a cabin somewhere is a legit goal of mine. We found several during our home search and I honestly was happy to forego purchasing an actual home and just spend all our money on a vacation home. 

We'll save that for later though.

Friday, July 15, 2016

All the Places I've Lived (and my fav so far)

This post comes at an interesting time for me, as we are in the process of buying our first house. A house for the Guzman/Mahan family. So I'm about to move! My favorite thing. (Heavy sarcasm implied)

I grew up in a small house in Broomfield, which I never thought of as that small but as an adult have realized how tiny that house was. I lived there my entire life until I left for college, which is rare for most people and especially renters. I loved the house for the home and family it was, and I visit it often in my dreams. 

Freshman year at BYU, I moved in to the dorms with 5 other girls. I went to school full-time and worked full-time, a necessity for me all through college. The dorms were fun but I'd never go back.

My first summer back in Broomfield after college was the summer my parents moved to Montrose. That summer Jen, Stef, Holly, and I lived in that tiny house while all working for the city of Broomfield. We had a blast and I credit this time for allowing me to get to know several of my siblings significant others really well, which I appreciated even more as they married. 

Sophomore year was spent in a crappy apartment south of campus with 3 of the same roommates, which was good and bad. Some epic roommate fights happened in that apartment. Drama for real.

Summer was again in the Broomfield house, this time just Jen and I. Good times were had by all.

Junior year Holly and I decided to live together again in a tiny crappy house (we nicknamed "The Peach House") with some unknown roommates who were nice but odd. We actively avoided going home and I would often just sit outside in my car. That's how bad it was.

Summer lead me back to Broomfield with nowhere to live, and I spent the first few weeks crashing on couches and living out of my car until my amazing boss Dawn and her husband Paul offered me their spare room. I actually loved living with them, they were amazing and nice to me and let me use their DVR and pool all summer. I got real good at parallel parking in that place. The summer was hard because Jen and I were both suffering from broken hearts, but we rallied for each other and got through it.

Senior year I moved in with the newly married Glems. Holly got me a job down the street from the apartment at Pinnacle Security, which carried over for several years. The newlyweds were fun to live with, plus Jeff came halfway through and we became close in a brother/sister who fight all the time kind of way. 

My last summer in Broomfield was next, living in Jen's vacant town home with my new puppy Viva. It was a good summer, full of dumb decisions of thankfully no lasting effect. 

My return to Orem put me back on another couch, jobless. Luckily I got rehired at my old job and found an apartment in the same complex as Holly. This was the year Eric had cancer, so I was grateful I ended up close by to help Holly in any way I could. January of 2010 was when I met Hondo and we started dating later that year. 

I lived with Holly and Eric one more time before getting married in Feb 2011, and Hondo and I moved into the condo we are still in 2 weeks later. 5.5 years in one place after all that bouncing around has been nice, but we are very ready and excited for our new house!

My fav living place is for sure Broomfield. But my favorite home is this new one I'm building with my own family. I'm so excited for my girls to have a house and a yard. I will miss this condo for the memories made, but I am ready to move.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Favorite Time Wasters

Day 2 of our Lucky 3 challenge is something that I am a pro at. Wasting time. For me wasting time typically = procrastinating. Case in point: this is day 2 of our blog challenge and it was supposed to be written on June 18th and here I am writing on July 1. Girls Camp is my excuse!

I waste time in typically ways, Facebook, Instagram, my new favorite Snapchat. I don't consider reading to be a waste of time and I do that a lot, but sometimes it is in the name of procrastination.

Sometimes I fall into a Dr. Pimple Popper YouTube hole, which I know is so gross but I can't look away. I don't watch many youtube videos though so I can hardly claim that.

I waste time in the morning mostly, laying in bed as long as possible or going back to bed. I'm just not a morning person and my bed is really comfy.

I think having kids helps/hinders with getting anything done. Helps because if I am not doing laundry or cleaning or packing for a trip because I'm playing or chatting with my girls, I don't count it as time wasted. But also I can procrastinate because they need me all day long. Pros and cons I guess.