around these parts

i have been a bit of a single lady this past month+ as brandon has been gone on multiple trips for field work for his PhD. it stinks to be without him, so i hope we have a nice, quiet, stay-home kind of winter. 

he was in jackson for the first three weeks of september, back for a bit, off to the middle-of-nowhere-wyoming for a few days, back for a bit, down to denver, and then off to minneapolis. in minnesota he is getting to "play" at this big fluvial lab on a controlled river where they can add sediment to see the river reactions. it sounds like a giant wet sandbox to me, but he seems to be learning a lot. he comes home saturday. for a week. then he is off again. sigh.

while brandon has been traveling around we have had a fair amount of activity around these parts:

-our close friends in laramie had baby #2. 

Anjali Bliss

we are so excited for heath, emily, and bloom to have ani in the family now too! she is adorable and adaptable and snuggly. i ensured her hipster status by making her a onesie with a bird on it. that's right, you gotta put a bird on it. even on a wee babe.

-i was offered a fourth job, but turned it down. i am having a hard time managing my three jobs, so i let this one pass. i should note that i did not apply for this job, but the nursing home in town specifically created a job with me in mind and tried to hire me. so flattering, but not quite right for me now.

-we bought a house! well, we are buying a house on thursday. we started looking towards the end of the summer and saw about seven duds until we landed on this bungalow and my heart skipped a beat. let me tell you, our price range was not providing that many appealing {or safe} homes in this area so we were quite thrilled to find this gem!

brandon was out of town when i found the place so he had to put in an offer on the house site-unseen. when i called and told him i found the place and wanted to put in the offer he said, "ok, i trust you." it was a good marriage moment. and when he finally saw the house he was just as stoked about it as i was! 

it has a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, with beautiful hardwood floors. in the basement there is potential for two more bedrooms, a den/office, and a bathroom, plus the laundry area. we are really excited about the place and feel like we got a good deal. the house just got a new roof this weekend, so it looks a bit different than in the photo above. the covered porch, blue spruce in the front yard, back deck, and apple tree are my favorite parts about the outside. once we close i will post more interior pictures and i am sure the blog will be taken over by home improvement projects.

-i tried to go ikea denver a couple weeks back {which includes about a 3 hour drive}, but got there in time to be turned away by an announcement over the loudspeaker that they weren't admitting customers as the water main to the store had burst. so we waited about 3.5 hours for it to be fixed before giving up. brandon and i are gonna try again this saturday. hopefully we can score on some sweet swed swag!

-my dad and aunt diane came to visit for a long weekend. it was awesome to have them out here and to show my dad the new place. he and brandon actually put in a new back fence together, so they got to bond a bit. in addition, we saw my dad's cousin and 92 year old aunt, who inspires me to keep up my mischief. she is a whoot!

i look forward to a bit less chaos but am so happy about all that has been happening in the past few months.