There's Hope!! : )

So ever since we have lived here in Washington I have had this huge black cloud over my head (figuratively and literally) about us being able to buy a home one day. In our city, the cost of a home is outrageous! I'm assuming it has something to do with the incredible location and schools. We like it here so I have been doing all that I can to learn to be okay that our future children will most likely grow in either 

A. a rental (apartment or townhome)

B. a condo

C. a small townhome

NOPE! 

Matt and I have discovered a city, a large city (which I'm stupid to not listen to him about before because it's awesome and he's been trying to tell me about it but I didn't listen) just 25 minutes outside of where we live now. We want to stay as close as possible when we decide to buy a home because of my business. I hate commuting. There is no way in hell I'm leaving my dance kids. Noooo way. Matt doesn't mind commuting up to an hour each way. I think that's crazy but he's used to it from growing up in San Francisco and living in L.A. 

Anyways, we were Redfining away last night (in this house that is a word) and discovered that for $250,000 - $275,000 we could get an amazing home! I'm talking 2,000 sq ft + with 4 bedrooms and bonus rooms and yards, the whole works! There are tons of them so I'm not getting excited over nothing. Here for that price you can get a 2 bedroom condo so we would probably have to wait a lot longer to buy. 

We are no where near ready to buy now, but this has made me such a happier person knowing that there is hope for our children to grow up in a house...and most likely with a yard! *sigh* ... *HUGE sigh*. Matt even said it made him feel so much better. We are doing our best to do well with our money and to make good decisions so that we have more savings and better credit so we can buy one day. Maybe sooner than later now!

Here are some of the homes that are available for the $250,000 price range. These homes if bought here would be more like $450,000! (No joke.)

(I stole these pictures off of Redfin. Oh well...)

This city, okay fine...I'll just say it.

Kent, WA is also closer to where Matt's brother lives and will be close to where his sister lives too after they get married! It's still just 25 minutes from him parents and my work too. 

I'm pretty pumped about this. We're going to go explore on Sunday...before I get WAY too excited. 

(These are all just dreams, please do not hold me to anything I say on this blog when I am writing about things like this. Things change and who knows we could end up living in Hawaii one day, ha. I'm just excited about this today and felt like sharing before I burst.) 

: ) 

More happy news....another preschool contacted me today about teaching there for them representing Emerald City Dance, we'll see....

Have a good day everyone! Happy Wednesday!

Time to go fold recital programs...fun!!! (for real, I like doing it)

Run, Run, Run!

Woo!

I feel awesome right now!

I just ran/walked 3.8 miles with an amazing playlist on my iPod helping me along the way. 

Doing the 5K on Sunday really showed me that I can do this. On Sunday after we left I had the feeling that I knew I could have ran more of it. It felt good running what we did then, but I knew I could do more. Yesterday at the gym I walked (fast) for 2 miles. 

(Matt made me stop because I hurt my knee and keep pushing through it anyways).

Last night when we got home, I told Matt, "tomorrow I'm going to run my own 5K through Klahanie!" 

Matt told me that it was the worst idea ever and he doesn't think I should do that...(again my stupid knee). 

Did I listen...ha, of course not! 

I ran, baby! I ran far! (and now I need ice...whatever.)

(Found on Pinterest.)

I ran the first 1.2 miles and then ran-walked the rest. 3.8 miles! Whenever I would start running again I would feel so proud and then I'd have to stop (stupid knee) and then be so pissed. I even said "damnit" out loud once when I stopped forgetting that just because I couldn't hear myself didn't mean that people around me couldn't, oops. I created my "Run Hard & Don't Stop!" playlist before I left and I'm glad I put a good variety of songs on there. The songs I thought I would want to hear were the exact ones I wanted to skip over...instead all I wanted was gangsta music and Aerosmith. I found myself listening to songs that I used to dance to growing up, here was today's list...just the ones I listened to.

1. Dude Looks Like a Lady - Aerosmith

(National Champion to this song)

2. Don't Phunk With My Heart - The Black Eyed Peas

(Once at a dance convention I was picked to dance on stage to this song)

3. Beautiful Day - U2

(No reason, but for those few minutes the sun was actually visable. It felt appropriate and I needed to walk.)

4. Pretty Boy Swag - Soulja Boy

(Yes, my favorite store is Anthropologie but there is also a huge part of me that I have chosen to put away while in public that is a bit ghetto. I am a Hip Hop teacher people, are you that surprised? Growing up I always listened to hip hop. My dad grew up in the ghetto. I didn't, but I've been around hip hop from the day I was born. I still love it...a lot! Sometimes my "old Chelsea" comes out...which is when I get lots of eye rolls from Matt. I would be equally comfortable in a vintage dress and hat as I would be in some Nike high tops, baggy sweats and a high pony. There, secrets out. Anyways, once I heard this song I got super pumped and got another burst to run. Awesome and a little weird lol. If you haven't heard it...just YouTube it, it's kind of awesome and extremely fun to dance to. One day this summer I put on Matt's sweats and a bright pink sports bra and came out our room jamming to thing song. Matt actually joined in because we're cool like that) HA. Anyways....more on the list!

5. Dream On - Aerosmith

(I danced to this song performing at the Superbowl pre-game show in 2004. I was still running from "Pretty Boy Swag" and got pumped even more when this came on.)

6. If I Die Young - The Band Perry

(hit a huge hill...thought I might die. And, I love belting this song out. I was singing out loud while walking. No one was around...I think.)

7. Determinate - Lemonade Mouth (Disney Channel Original Movie)

(Fun song that my dance camp kids did this summer. I just really like it.)

8. More - Usher

(The words were motivating and I felt a little like "old Chelsea" again.)

9. Lose Control - Missy Elliot

(I warm my hip hop kids up to this song. It has a good beat and made me want to run.)

10. Fuego - Pitbull

(Ended my run with this one. We used to work out to when I worked at Disney. While training for Block Party Bash [an intense high energy parade] we had 6am rehearsals for 6-weeks and we would bust this out every morning. I will always love this song for that. Those 6 weeks were the craziest weeks of my life. I met Matt in week 5. Love.)

So there's that. 3.8 today. Tomorrow is a rest day for me (well, for running). I teach 4 classes on Wednesdays. Tonight I have 2 hip hop classes. How fitting. 

Matt won't blog, but I'm so proud of him so I'll write it!

He did the 5K on Sunday, walked 2 miles with me yesterday at the gym and is going to the gym again tonight while I'm at dance. Last night after the gym he said, "do you want to go get dessert?" Right away I said, "your kidding me right?!" He said, "I just want frozen fruit and yogurt!" WHAT?! Is this my husband? We usually get ice cream after the gym, ha! Fail. But this was awesome! We went to the grocery store and spent $30 on fruit and healthy snack stuff. I'm so so proud of him! He's got this! Already today he said he's feeling better and not so tired. This is just awesome! 

Alright, I need to go ice my knee. Oops.

TTFN,

Our Favorite Wedding Photos (Part 2)

Here are the rest of our 'Getting Ready' photos. The next batch I'll post will be 'Going to the Barn' photos. It takes a long time to load these so I'm just doing a little at a time. Maybe by the end of the week they'll all be up. 

Here is a photo with my ballet shoes, garter (Etsy), and accessories.

As a wedding gift I made Matt an Adventure Book like in the movie, "Up". I pre-scrapbooked pages for trips we plan to take. This page is the first that was a letter I wrote to him for our wedding day. I didn't know our photographer did this :) 

My Maid of Honor, Kaylin and Sister-In-Law, Melanie (also our videographer).

The pictures are taken in our bedroom :) 

I love this one!! Like a lot!

My mom zipping me up -- She cried...a lot. :)

The whole back of my dress was buttons that we actually had to loop. 

(I packed a crochet hook so Matt could get it off of me that night lol)

My little sister, Cylie, comforting my Mom : )

My sister-in-law, Megan, was also a bridesmaid but had to miss a lot of this getting ready time to take care of her 6 month old twins : ). I love this picture though!!

Here is Haley, one of my closest friends, copying her reading from her phone (printer ran out of ink, oops) I love this picture of Charlie : )

My Dad came over to see me get into the vintage car.

All ready to go get MARRIED! 

I get so happy looking at all of these...It was seriously the best day of my life. Matt feels the same way. There is not one thing about it that I would have changed. Perfect. 

Our First 5K

We did it!

This morning we ran/walked a 5K with Matt's Mom at Magnuson Park in Seattle. 

We had a blast even though it was pouring, freezing and really windy.

Avoiding puddles didn't last long, the puddles ended up in my shoes. 

It was awesome. 

We felt so accomplished and it felt good to get out and do something. 

I ran ahead at the very end and then regretted it because I wanted to cross the finish line with Matt, oops.

Crossing the line felt awesome. 

We can't wait to do the Jingle Bell Run in Seattle on December 11th. 

(Well Matt's not quite as excited as I am, I would say he's more 'looking forward to it') ; )

I want to dress like an elf! haha

Here we are at our first 5K! 

Our Favorite Wedding Photos (Part 1)

It is impossible to choose our favorites out of 1,350 photos. Here are some that we like that our photographer, Oona Copperhill, took of me and the bridesmaids getting ready. Part 2 of getting ready will come next time I blog. I want to blog all of our favorites.

{I got ready at our apartment}

{Matt's sister, Melanie, hanging my dress}

{bridesmaids, junior bridesmaids, flower girl and my dress}

{So special... My grandpa passed away and my grandma Kennedy gave me her handkerchief from their wedding. Those are my mom's pearls that I also wore to prom. The earrings belong to Matt's mom, they used to be her Nana's. The ring is my engagement ring from Matt, it used to be his Great Grandma's. I love this.}

{I also have his great grandma's wedding band. I am so in love with them!}

{It was so much fun getting ready. I was so calm and happy.}

{I bought this hanger on Etsy the week after we got engaged, 2 1/2 years ago}

To be continued...

{Tomorrow morning we're running our first 5K together with Matt's mom!}

Night!

Wedding Photo Sneak Peak!

They're finally here!! After three months :) We love them all so so much. I'm not posting a lot yet because some of our immediate family have not seen them all yet (sorry). But, here is one of my favorites!!

{Same photo, 3 different edits--I can't choose which I like best}

Our photographer did a phenomenal job capturing every moment of our big day. 

To be continued... ;)

xoxo,

Cutting Down Our Tree!!

We did it! It was hard. Really hard. 

But, we've decided that we'll definitely be doing it again.

We cut down our own Christmas Tree!

We were in lots of pain and got into a few tifs, but we had so much fun! 

I ended up being the one to saw down the tree. Matt did it for a bit a couple of times too, I'm not really sure why I ended up being the one to do it. Matt held up the branches (the bottom ones were super heavy and I couldn't hold them up that well) and I layed on my tummy and ended up just sitting on my butt in the mud sawing away, ha it was pretty funny to watch I'm sure. One time Matt was laying on the ground  sawing and I was clapping saying, "Go honey, Go honey!" Ha, we didn't know there were people by us and they started giggling thinking it was cute (I think...). 

I sawed that tree for a whole HOUR. During the last 5 minutes I knew we were close to being done and told Matt so he just grabbed the tree and yanked it.....crack! He thought I was going to be so happy that he broke the rest off, but...I was sad and he got a "MAaaaattttt!!!" I was bummed that I didn't get the feel the accomplishment of sawing through then end of that damn tree that I sawed for the last hour lol. What does Matt say, "Oops..."we were laughing when I looked up saying "Nooooooo!" and just layed on the ground in the mud in exhaustion, ha. He thought I was going to be so happy that we were done. 

There was a high school kid driving around to help people and he came to us 3 times asking "are you sure you don't want me to help you?"...I would look up from under the tree and say "NO, I got this! I'm so close!.....after the second time Matt informed me I wasn't even halfway on the other side....HA. It was so hard, but SO worth it once we were done and got it home. 

They had complimentary hot chocolate that we drank around a camp fire and a cute little gift shop filled with Christmas goodies. We loved it. There were so many families there and Matt said we will definitely make this a tradition. And of course, we ran into 2 dance families. Of course. 

Seeing the tree on top of our little car was pretty entertaining.

We had an even harder time once we got the tree home. We had to saw off the top a lot. So, what did we use?...a bread knife. We also had to saw four branches off the bottom and then we couldn't get the stupid screws in the cheap-o tree stand I bought from Target. Matt got super frustrated, quit and took a 20 minute nap. I finished it before he woke up. It wasn't really that hard but after all the work we did to cut it down everything seemed stressful and he was just done. Once he woke up it was better :) and we decorated!!! Yay!!

We were so excited to be done cutting it down that we forgot to take a picture of it on the ground. Oops.

{The reason my blogs are so detailed and why I blog at all really is because I have not had the chance to talk to my parents as much now that they're working so much and working lots of 3rd shifts. So if you are around us a lot and it feels silly that I could just tell you all these things in person..... I just really like that my parents can read this and know whats going on with us too :) }