Namaste

For all those people out there who thought I was crazy to be happy that I got a job at the Dept of Revenue......
How many people can say that at their job they can do yoga during lunch?
I know many jobs have their perks or seem more enjoyable, but I have found that there are a lot of upsides to working where I work and I'm very grateful.
One of my co-workers very generously donates her time to teach some classes during her/our lunch time. Not only that, but as an employee, I only have to pay $50 for the entire year to have access to our weights room and work out room. The facilities are actually pretty decent too. How many people can go work out on the treadmill or lift weights during lunch???
So this is how my week goes...
Monday: Weights Class taught by Jazmine (who is an actual instructor) Tuesday: Used to be walking but Jazmine invited me to the pilates class she teaches, so I will be going to that now instead.
Wednesday: Weights on my own usually or walk
Thursday: Yoga Class with Jazmine
Friday: I don't take a lunch on Fridays because another perk of my job is working 9 hr days during the week and then every Friday I am off by 11:30am!

But back to Yoga - I can't even tell you how amazing it feels to have a yoga class during the middle of the work day. The mind and body aspect of it is exactly what I need towards the end of a work week. It is a great work out - stretching and balancing and centering. I feel refreshed after and excited that I only have another day of work til the weekend!
At the end of every class, she also takes a couple minutes to meditate and center ourselves - which is also an amazing thing to have in the middle of a crazy work day. As I was listening to music and meditating in the dark at the end of class today - I honestly forgot where I was and was able to focus on the bigger picture of things. Amazing.

I highly suggest some downward dogs and tree poses to you all.


Namaste.

I'm a Yelper - Are you?

Its been a while, but I sort of forgot about the other blog I created! I decided to start another blog that isn't so much about my personal life, but more about what is happening in the here and now. ie: movies, restaurants, music, fashion...

I enjoy talking about and sharing my opinion on things that are "in the now" and thought I would make a blog of it.

http://trendy-mode.blogspot.com/

On a different note - when it comes to different reviews and things....have you guys ever heard of the website called Yelp? www.yelp.com is a unique, fun and helpful website that I've been newly aquainted with. Basically, there are chapters of Yelp all over the country, in most major cities. Yelp is a website designed, not necessarily as social networking, but more as an informative and fun connection among strangers turned friends living in the same city, helping people in their quest to discover all that their surroundings have to offer.
The basis of Yelp is reviews - reviews on everything from restaurants to dentists to shoe repair shops. Most of the reviews are on restaurants, which I find to be extremely helpful, especially if you are like me and want to find new and different dining establishments to spice things up instead of always going back to the same places. Most of the reviews are not only informative and useful, but they can also be pretty witty - very entertaining. With the reviews, there are all sorts of things to do on the website. There are message boards galore - which are constantly being added to and updated. You can become "friends" with fellow Yelpers (as we are called) as well as send compliments or messages to them.

I was exposed to this website through my good bud, Andy. He has been involved with Yelp for quite a while. He is part of the "Elite" Yelpers because of how much he participates on the website and so on. One of the best parts of being an Elite are the special events you get invited to. For example: a few weeks back, Andy invited Rian and I to an event at the Summit Brewery. This event was exclusively for Elite Yelpers and their friends. Basically, we went to the Summit Brewery in St. Paul and drank FREE Summit Beer in their "pub" area for 2 hours. They had a shortened version of the tour, but since it was during the week, all of the machines were running and it was very loud so we couldn't hear much. During our time in the pub, Pizza Luce came with all sorts of yummy pizzas - again, for FREE! We drank, ate, conversed and had a great time. This was basically my first exposure to Yelp and I was totally impressed. It was such an eclectic group of people from all walks of life, coming together and just hanging out. I met a few Yelpers and knew this was my kind of people. Some came with friends, some came alone, but everyone was welcoming and friendly and a big happy Yelp family!
Andy also posted a Yelp Pub Crawl in Nordeast Mpls the other weekend. And just with people that were involved with the website on a regular basis - there were probably 12 or 15 people that showed up to join! Again, some came alone and some came with friends. But it didn't matter because everyone was there to just have a good time with friends and enjoy NE Mpls' finest - PBR and other delicious beverages. It was great to be out with a group of "strangers turned friends" and step out of the comfort zone. And let me tell you - it was one of those nights where I laughed until I could not laugh any longer.

People honestly do make friends being a part of this experience. They are open to new things and different people. It is so refreshing in this day and age.
I also had a thought after talking to a fellow Yelper about his experience moving to MN. Everyone talks about MN Nice and the friendliness of the MN folks. But honestly - in my opinion which you can take or leave - Yes, Minnesotans are/can be nice, but for the most part, it doesn't go much further than that. We are there with a smile or wave, but when it comes down to really getting to know other people and getting out of our shells and our own groups to extend to another, MN is very lacking. I just think of different places like school and work and how clicky people are and how hard it can be to break through that. Yes, I know that lots of places and people are clicky, but I think MN is extremely good at that. It's one thing to say Hello and smile - and another thing to spark up a conversation and not be afraid to expand your horizons and give people/strangers a chance. You never know who you can meet and how that person might effect your life. Think about it.

In any case, I encourage you to take a look at Yelp. If anything, it is a great place to find new restaurants and explore your city more. You have no idea what is out there until you actually take a look and give it a chance.

Unfortunate House Update...

So right now, I don't exactly have the greatest update.

In my last post about the house, I said that we would closing on our house on May 28th - which is two weeks from Thursday. And now......wait for it...........there is a delay. :-(

The house we are buying is an estate. And for estates, whoever is the executor of the estate has to go through probate with the courts and fill out the correct paperwork saying that they are authorized to be the head of the estate and make the decisions...and so on and so forth.
And last Thursday, we get a call from our AWESOME realtor (if anyone is looking for a good realtor who will work hard for them and has a ton of knowledge on the subject - let me know and I"ll get you in contact with them!) - saying that this paperwork was never filled out by the seller. Not cool.
Because of this, there is probably a 90% chance that our closing at the end of May will be delayed. Till June - maybe even July. Again - not cool.
It is SO frustrating because this was completely their fault. We had/have no control over this situation and now we are being punished and have to deal with the consequences.
If this road to Maywood hadn't been rocky enough - I knew SOMETHING had to go down.
It is called the Noelle factor.
We actually tried to get a deal from them considering they are the ones that wanted to push up the closing date and we accomidated. And now we are completely put out b/c of this. Rian's friend taht he lives with has already found a roommate to take over - so Rian most likely will end up having to sleep on the couch in the basement at his current house come June until whenever we are able to move in. Once again - not cool.
We could have been really screwed if one of us had a lease that was up and had no place else to go. After our Realtor talked to the sellers, they said they hope we still buy but will not give us any kind of deal because they are "already giving us a huge deal in the price." Either way, I still think they should do SOMETHING for us. But we don't hold the cards, considering we want this house; we know this is our house.
So all we can do now is wait.....

Our House.....

Is a very very very fine house - or so the song says.

But I know for a FACT that one house really IS a very fine house.

And yes that is my sly way of saying that Rian and I bought a house!

After many, many months of searching and figuring things out, we found the house, put an offer on it, did some negotiating and made a deal that was a little lower than what we were already willing to pay! So YAY! :-)
Here she is...isn't she cute as a bug?!?!

It has been a crazy couple weeks here, as anyone would understand that has gone through this process.

We went through the purchase agreement signing and finally making a deal - the loan/mortgage process and the inspection. All is coming along as we inch closer and closer to our closing date - Thursday, May 28th.

We originally set our close date for the end of June but the sellers moved it up to the end of May - which at first freaked us out because it was so soon - but now I'm glad because there is no way I could have made it through another month of just waiting. Rian and I have been trying to down play things just because everything seems too good to be true. We know things come up and its hard to believe this is all happening, so I think we are saving up our true excitement and will finally believe that this is real when we sign the papers and have the actual keys in our hands. hehe Until then - it is still a dream....

A dream that became a little more real to me this past weekend.

Rian and I wanted to show Bryan the house since he hadn't seen it in person yet - so we drove over and as we are pulling up, I notice something different on the sign. As we get closer I realize that there is a SOLD sign hanging on the for sale sign. I don't know what happened, but something in me clicked even more that this was really real and happening. I think seeing it in real life - something physically saying that the house is SOLD and the buyers are US!

Just made it a little more real but a very good real.
Now comes the fun part - waiting. Waiting until three weeks from tomorrow when we sign all the papers and actually close on the house. It's gonna be a long couple weeks, but the anticipation will be exciting.

At this point, I think Rian and I decided that we want to spend that first weekend (29,30,31) painting and getting the house ready for our move. Which is ANOTHER fun but stressful part of things - deciding on coloring for each of the rooms to paint. I need all the help I can get in that department, so if anyone has any ideas - PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Or any good websites or things I can look to.
So hopefully we can get those big things done throughout the weekend/week and maybe even start moving some smaller things beforehand, but we are hoping to have the big move on Saturday, June 6th - which I just realized is one month from today. lol We hope to have some help with that - even though we really don't have a ton of stuff to move. Considering that I JUST moved a month ago and have most of my things still in boxes while living at my parents house - and Rian lives in a fully furnished house where he doesn't really have many big things to take. I think we shoudl be okay with the move. And I know even if we say we don't have that much to move, but it will turn out that we really do have a lot to move - I don't think it will be too bad. The more helpers we have, the easier it will be - so come on down anyone who loves to help their friends move! haha

IF you are wondering - where are all of the pictures - I will put a link here to a lot of pictures I took last week at the inspection. Hopefully it will give you a sense of the house and how cute it is! hehe And again - if you have any design or color suggestions - please speak up!

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/detail.sfly?imageIndex=0&sid=0BZtHLZyxcMWHv&fid=67b660f9b768db54

I would love any and all new house/moving/decorating suggestions - so keep them coming!