Selection Narrowed

I've spent the last couple of days/weeks doing research on vehicles and trying to narrow down my selection. I've finally gotten it down to 3 Crossover/SUVs.

Here is the selection:

CR-V Honda

 Outlander - Mitsubishi

 RAV4-Toyota

If you can't tell, I'm getting a blue car. And yes this was one of the qualifiers. Not only did it have to be blue but it has to be a blue I like.  I can only confirm the color is right by seeing the color in person. I know its a petty qualifier but I figure if I'm going to spend this much money on a vehicle I'm going to get exactly what I want.

Here are the other qualifiers:
1) most importantly it had to be within my price range
2) had to have either AWD or 4X4
3) fuel economy...had to be close to 30mpg
4) had to have enough room to hold ski luggage and regular luggage

Now that I've found vehicles that meet my qualifiers I can go test drive. 

Now this is the fun part:) I'll report back after each drive.

Bedroom Design

I'm completely blank what I should do with my bedroom. Its a completely blank canvas. I painted the walls a few months back but I'm not loving it. Its not a room that I'm excited to go in. Its just blank.

There are a few problems with it that I've figured out the last couple of weeks.

First issue: I don't have any furniture in it..well very minimal furniture anyway. It has a bed on a frame, two make shift nightstands with two small lamps, one beaten up, over painted chipped dresser and one floor lamp. All of this was perfect for my old room with was about 12X10 but in my new house my bedroom is 13X17 or something. The room is just so bare.

Second Issue: I think the walls are to dark. I was wanting something warm and light but ended up with kinda cold and dark. Plus my comforter is a chocolate brown and the little bit of furniture I have in the room is dark as well. So you walk in and it's just dark...I need some thing to lighten it up.

Since this has been bothering me for a while I've decide to find some inspiration. First I tried to find some pictures on line for some inspiration rooms but had no success. I couldn't find anything I really loved. I did find some good idea's but nothing that jumped out at me and screamed "Jenni this is it! Your Dream Room".

So now I've moved on to find inspiration through a comforter and design my room around the comforter. During my search I found a couple of comforter that I really like. Here is what I found in no particular order.

I love how light and fresh they all seem. These are all warm and happy colors which is what I was really wanting. Of course I'm going to repaint my bedroom walls as much as I don't want to. So now the big decision is which comforter will I get and design my room around.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!!!!

My Next Amazing Journey

So I've been working on my life list...not really a bucket list but a list of things I want to purchase in the near future.

I can mark off the journey of purchasing a new home. Let me tell you that was no small task and all my family and friends were probably tired of hearing me talk about "the day I can move". Well it finally happened this past year. So after 5 some years of dreaming it finally came true. It took ALOT of planning and savings but it happened....so check that off my list.

Next I finally got my long awaited dream of going to Colorado. Very exciting and loved loved loved it. We are going back again hopefully next year...but we will see what deals we can find on line...well anyway check that off my list.

So whats next....ahhh yes...the new car. The journey of a finding a new car. I am 30 something and have never owned a new car. Well scratch never owning, I've never actually gone to a car lot (used or new) and picked out my own car. All the cars I've received in life have been given to me...well not given, I've bought them, payed for them, but I never had the option of picking one out. Long story, maybe someday I will post something about it.

Anyway, my unreachable goal is to save enough money to out right purchase a new car. Yes, its a dream and maybe some day in the far far future I might actually be able to do that. The more realistic goal is to save as much money as I can to drop the monthly payment down  as far as I possible can.

So here's the plan...save, save, save and by next year purchase a new car...maybe. I might have to rethink this one a little bit. Anyway as you can tell I'm still working on my plan. There are a few kinks I have to work out before I put it in to action.

I've already started my research and have my options narrowed down some. My next step will be to test drive my selections and then I will wait. Just like I waited 5 some years for my house I will wait for the right vehicle. Who knows maybe I will fall in love with a 2013 model.

OK, I'm done. I'll keep you posted on the journey of purchasing a new vehicle.

Day of Rest

We stayed on the ski slope for 4 days and decided we would only ski 3 of the 4 days. We would take one day off to rest. We figured 4 days in a row of skiing would be a little much and I’m so so so glad we decided to do that.
We skied two days in a row and then took the third day off. My muscles in my legs were so achy. Even though I’ve been downing a lot of Avil, stretching and soaking in hot water my muscles were still hating me.

So on our day of rest we decided to go hiking in the rocky mountains. Talk about my legs hating me before we started the really hated me when we got done.

One of the guys that were in our ski instruction group recommended to Mitch that we go up to this one place just outside of town. You had to park and walk about a mile up hill. So Mitch and I drove up to the location and had to find the path up the mountain.

We were not dressed to walk up a mountain that was covered in snow. We stopped several times to take some picture and there was this spot off the path that would have been a great shot of the mountain however when I stepped off the path the snow came up to my knee.

I just started to laugh because I was stuck and couldn’t pull myself back on the path. I had to reach for Mitch to help me up. My shoe was packed with snow and my jeans were covered up to my knee.

As we walked up three skier passed use and 4 people in snowshoes passed. We decided the next time we come out we are going to rent some snowshoes to make it easier to walk up.

Anyway here are some of the pictures that were taken

Altitude sickness

We were a little nervous about the possibility of us getting altitude sickness. It is suggested that anyone coming from a lower altitude should take a day to acclimate themselves to the difference in altitudes. It’s also very important to hydrate.

Of course we didn’t plan for this and went from Indiana, flew into Denver and drove up to Winter Park. The first night I had no issues and was relieved because I thought I would.

But then Midday came the next day and it hit like a hammer. We were getting done with the first half of the ski lessons and the horrible headache started. I just blew it off and then we broke for lunch and I was so nauseated.

We stopped at this mountainside food place and all it seemed like they had was greasy stuff. The smell off the grease was making my stomach doing flips. Mitch found a chicken sandwich on the menu so I got that and then I thought I would try some soup.

After telling the instructor I was not feeling well he told me I was experiencing altitude sickness. The best thing for me was rest, water and some type of vitamin water. Mitch went to the bartender to see if she might have some Advil. Thank goodness she had some.

After drinking a lot of water, some type of sport drink and eating a half a sandwich my nausea had gone away but the headache was horrible. I decided to push through the lessons.

After the lessons, we headed back to the room so I could lie down. At this point the headache felt like a migraine. So Mitch went around the bedroom turned off all the lights and pulled all the shades. He shut the door behind him and I fell a sleep.

Once I woke up I was feeling better but still had a headache, which didn’t get better until the next morning. With lots of water, vitamin water and food the altitude sickness finally went away by that night.

That night for dinner I decided I was good and popped open a bottle of wine….BIG BIG MISTAKE. After a glass and a half of wine the headache came back with revenge. So back to my routine of Advil, Water, Vitamin Water.

By the third day my body had adjusted and I was good to go…but it was still important to keep drinking water.

Lessons learned

First I must drink my body weight in water when I’m in higher altitudes
Second I can’t drink wine when I’m in higher altitudes
Third must bring a big bottle of Avil:)

A Good Ski Instructor is Worth His Weight in Gold

A good ski instructor is well worth the money. I’ve only been skiing for a few years now and here recently I’ve been having problems with the back of my ski’s catching when I’m trying to turn which always ends in me either struggling to stay upright or just giving in and doing a face plant.

We had our Colorado ski trip planned since Oct and as the time was approaching for us to leave I was getting so nervous because if I couldn’t do the green slopes in Michigan how in the heck was I going to do the Green slopes in Colorado.

I finally told Mitch I was more nervous than excited and told him why. He did some research and found an all day ski instruction for a really good price. So I jumped online and scheduled myself for the first day we were going skiing. Mitch also decided to do ski lesson with me.

What a difference Matt (ski instructor) made! He took us through a couple of different exercises and provided us each individual instruction. After 5 hours of instruction I was hitting the slopes with so much more confidence.

At one point I accidentally found myself facing a blue hill…OK, I was the dork that didn’t read the directional signs and turn right when I should have turned left. There was no way to turn around because I was already to far down the mountain.

I started to freak out (old habits die hard) looking for a way over to the green slope but no luck I had only one way down and that was the blue slope.

So I took a deep breath, thought to myself “I can do this, just one turn at a time” and headed down the mountain. Yes, it was a battle internally for me because of my fear of heights but I found it easy to ski down. I just practice all the things the instructor told me the day before and before I knew it I was at the bottom. I was tired and my muscles were screaming at me but I made it down just a smooth as anyone else.

Colorado Ski Trip

Mitch and I just recently when on our first ski trip out west to Colorado. We stayed at Winter Park and I had the best time ever.

Here are some picture taken during our trip.

Yes, we are definitely planning on coming back!

SUPER BOWL

The Super Bowl is in town...yep it's here. I should be excited about it but honest I could care less. Football has never been my thing. I tryed really hard a few years ago to get into the game but I could never get into it.

Anyway, its been the buzz around here...of course. Indy has been planning this for like 4 years and I can't wait for it to be over with.

Now that I work pretty close to downtown I decided I would hate myself if I didn't at least make an attempt to go downtown and see all the Super Bowl stuff. So a couple of the ladies from work decided to go down this past Tuesday.

And here is what was saw......

 Yes, people that is a building. It's like 30 some stories high with the picture of the trophy on one side of it . This was amazing to look at. 

 Here I am in front of the circle where they have huge super bowl roman numerals At night they project pictures or movies on the numbers. Its cool to look at during the night. 

 Just a closer picture of the roman numerals

Here is a huge banner of the teams playing in the super bowl. GO Giants!!! Yes, I know I'm not a football fan however I know how many people in Indy feel about the Patriots and I just CAN'T vote for the Patriots.

 This was a random picture of how busy Super Bowl Village was on a Tuesday!!! It was crazy!

 I had to get a pic of these people...they looked all decked out for the party....ummm..even though there wasn't a party.

 I thought it was odd when the lady bent over a little, looked at me and said take a picture of my butt. At first I thought she was crazy until I walked around her...don't worry people that is a fake butt cheek sticking out. The butt has written on it "Kiss this if you don't like the colts". That is a true Colts fan...LOL

 More huge banners

 This was pretty cool looking so I snapped a shot.

 This is a picture just before the sun when all the way down. I was at one end of the street and if you look really hard you can see other end of the street. And the whole way down it was packed with people.  Can you imagine what its going to be like this during the weekend? Remember this was taken on Tuesday before all the crazy drunk partying football fans came into town. This is why I'm staying at home:)

I tryed to get a shot of the Colts cheerleaders during one of their performances. It was fun to watch however the picture didn't turn out to well.

In the end it was fun to at least walk down there and see what everyone was talking about. Am I all excited about it...no, not really...didn't change my mind about the Super Bowl. Everyone kept telling me if I did the NFL Experience I would get excited...but again..I'm not a football fan and going into a building full of football stuff is not exciting to me. So spending $25 on a ticket would be a waist of money in my mind.

I'm glad I at least got to experience the Super Bowl excitement once in my life. I'm glad I got some pictures of it all. This will be something I look back on and am happy I went....still my excitement level is very neutral.

The thing I look most forward to during the Super Bowl is the commercials. So yes I will be watching the super bowl but paying more attention to the commercials than the game.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday people!!!

Ski Trip

A group of us went on our annual ski trip to Michigan. The people on this trip is a mix of family's and party goers. Mitch and I are grouped in with the party goers....AKA no kids:)

This year on the way up it was pretty quite over all. The real excitement happened on the way back and so the story begins:

We pile ourselves and our belongings on the the bus and of course there is always the one person who is late getting to the bus. We all settle into our seats and get ready for the long ride back.

It all begins when the guy in back starts wants to watch the game. The tradition is we watch several movies on the way back but this guy wanted to watch the Sunday football game. So we all agreed that we would watch a movie and once the movies was over we would turn on the game. Which would probably be about half time.

So the movie begins and mister loud mouth starts his own commentary about the movie. It was so distracting you couldn't follow the movie very well. It was VERY irritating. I'm glad I already saw the movie but it sucked for those who didn't

Then the game is switch on. By this time the guy had downed more beers than necessary and was obviously drunk. He made himself right at home and was hooting and hollering at the TV as if he was in his own living room. I had no interest in the game so I opened up the kindle (thanks DeAnna for letting me borrow it) and started to read.

Next thing I knew the bus was slowing down and pulling over to the side of the interstate. The bus comes to a full stop and the bus driver gets off the bus. We all sat there trying to figure out what was going on...then the bad news came...BROKEN BUS.

Yep, some coolant line broke and the bus shut its self down. The bus drive called in for a back up bus and they were able to locate one but we had to sit on the bus, with no electricity and no heat....nothing.Which was alright until loud mouth man's friend figured out quickly he couldn't handle his alcohol and vomited in the bathroom on the bus.

This wouldn't have been such a big deal except I don't think he hit the toilet. When he opened the door the smell flooded the back of the bus and made people ill. Several people decided at that point the would rather stand on the side of the interstate, in the cold instead of smelling that.

Loud Mouth Guy and his friend briskly exited the bus. Finally the second bus came, all the guys except two, helped to move all the luggage from one bus to the other. Then we were on the way in the new bus.

The good news was this bus didn't have ability to watch TV. At least that is what the facilitator of the trip said, my guess is he might have been fibbing just a little bit but I didn't care because Loud Mouth Guy ended up passing out on the bus and we didn't hear a peep from him until we reached our final stop.

As far as the actual trip was concerned it was so pretty that Saturday. Clear ski's, little cold but perfect skiing weather.

Isn't it gorgeous!!!!

 Here I am showing off my brand new ski jacket....much better fit than the last one.

Here is one of the slopes I was on. As I was skiing down the slope the view was just breath taking so I had to stop and get a shot. 

Here is Mitch registering for the NASTAR race. Anyone can register and he was wanting to do it last year and this year he knew he would kick himself if he didn't try. Of Course he fell in love with it. 

Here is Mitch on his first run of NASTAR. He looks pretty good!

Ski season is just beginning...we have some exiting trips planned. Can't wait for them all!!!