Puppy Love

So much going on. Updates to come soon.

But look what i woke up to christmas morning in my bed:



Lukas and I decided on the name Lakota (it means friend in Eskimo).

Shes been so much fun and we are super busy trying to get her house trained before Luke's vacation is up!

Lyss :)

Got the keys :)

Welp Lukas and I DID close today! How exciting :) So we officially have the keys to our house! My family and Lukes family are all meeting at the house after i get off work! So according to luke, we are starting to clean and paint tonight...haha (hope he remembers my bed time is 9 pm).



WE ARE SO BLESSED!



lyss

Monday is now the day...

Well i guess we are not closing today (friday). Im irritated i wanted to get everything moved in and ready to go....now we will sit and wait all weekend..for monday. We'll we probably wont really sit and wait... we did have a lot of plans this weekend: 2 work parties, hockey game to coach, and lukes brothers birthday...BUT i wanted to be in this weekend.....Grr.


lyss

Good news... short lived

So Lukas and I got the word yesterday that friday was a go :) We would be closing on our very own house this friday.... yay! We were so excited..although ill be unable to attend due to work..ill be there in spirit. We were so excited about getting moved in this weekend.....then


This morning Lukas tells me that his ebay account was hacked and they stole money..lots of money. Most of our closing cost money. IM PISSED! WTF?.... well supposedly everything will be cleared up and we "should" be able to close on friday. Im irritated....why is good news always followed by bad news?

Well..fingers crossed (again) that we can still close on friday. And whoever stole the money i hope you realize how much your raining on my parade.

lyss :)

Our cute Turkey

Better late than never. This is our cute trukey my kiddies made at school. Each kid designed their own feather and when you put them all together the turkey is so colorful and cute! I loved the way it turned out!!

New couch!!

Lukas and I have been tossing around the idea of a new couch. We had a few hand-me down couches that we had our pick from.. but we decided to go with something new! We shopped around for a few weeks. I think i sat on more couches these past 2 weeks then ever before in my life! But we both agreed on this one:

We also decided to go with some new end tables and a coffee table. We found these ones at the same place we bought our couch. We actually got them for a really good deal because they had marked them worng. We got them about 100$ cheaper! Sweet.


We are getting excited. Fingers crossed we are still moving in on the 10th!!

lyss :)

First Real Purchase

Luke and i made our first real purchase for our house. (besides the "Merry Christmas" decoration for our door). We bought 16 boxes of flooring. Luke and I are going to rip out the carpet in the dinning room and office and lay flooring. We are also putting the same flooring in our kitchen.

Before we move in anything, we are scrubbing down the house, laying the flooring, and painting.

For the kitchen, we are not doing much besides the floor.

The dining room is going to get a neutral color on the wall. (tan-ish color more than likely)

The living room we are leaning towards a green/brown/ with pops of blue. This is still in the planning stage. (it depends on if we decide to get a new couch or not) Here are some pics that i like:



Our bedoom is blue and brown. Luke had bought a really nice bedding set when he moved to Harrisburg so we are going to stick with that for a while. I think we are going to do 3 walls blue and 1 wall brown.

The guest room is going to be random for now.

The office is Luke's baby. He can do with it what he wants. The only rule is that i have to have some space in there for me to do my work too.

The upstairs bathroom is somewhat up in the air for now.

lyss :)

October Activities / party

graveyard cake

popcorn hands

yummy food!

Cctober poems!

did you know ALL pumpkins float!

Red ribbon week!

i love fall and i am so sad its over!

lyss :)

House Details

The down low on the house situation.

So after deciding that the little green house was not for us, i was set on slowing down on the house hunting. But my mom found this cute white house 2 blocks from our house. We decided that we would go walk through it... however my step dad was in NY for work and i wanted him to be there...but we decided to walk through on a Monday without him. We loved it. It was bigger than the green house and less expensive. There were very few things we did not like. (yes it needs some cosmetic work). The next morning our Realtor texted Luke and informed him that there was another offer on the table. Actually that the buyer and sellers have been going back and forth for a week and if we wanted any chance at this house we had to act.. and act fast. That day.. yes.. less than 24 hrs after seeing the house and only sending pictures to my step dad, we put an offer on the house. We decided that we would put in our best and final offer. Later that afternoon, the sellers accepted our offer.

My initial reaction was "im gonna vom" It was overwhelming. But after it all sunk in excitement started to set in. A fews days later my step dad got to walk through the house and we got his approval.

This week is a big week. Meeting with the bank tomorrow and home inspection on thursday. I hope all comes back well. I am not a person who likes to jump through hoops and work through red tape... and i know its only the beginning... and its not going to be smooth sailing..but i can only wish.

lyss :)

GUESS WHAT?!?

This little baby will be our house as of December 10th!!!
Lets hope and pray that the home inspection turns out good.

Updates to come soon!

House Update

After some pondering and negotiating Luke and I were unable to come to an agreement with the seller. I was very strict with our budget and our highest bid and although it was just a little bit over, we walked away. So for now its back to just looking. I know someday we will find the perfect house for us. We are in no rush :)


lyss :)

Offer number 1

So i am not to sure how this all happened so fast, But our house that we liked from this post could be ours by November 30. Sunday it was having an open house so we took our parents down to see it. My step dad was all for it. I think its actually his fault that this is happening. haha. The house needs a lot of cosmetic work (wall paper galore, old carpet, and yellow counters) But the house seems like it has a good structure. Obviously we will not buy if the home inspection person comes back with some bad news.

Its legit we put an offer on it today. Its the real deal. I am excited/ nervous/ anxious all in one. We low balled them and they will probably counter. We have a set number that we will not go over and im sticking to it.

I hope we are making the right choice.

lyss :)

Fun Fall Activities

I love fall :) At my before and after school program we have been keeping busy by completing fun fall activities. Here are a few:

We painted little pumpkins. How cute are they. The one with the face in the front is mine :) The kiddies had so much fun painting pumpkins. It was cheap too. I bought the pumpkins 8 for a dollar :)

We made these cute skeletons out of q-tips. They were a little hard to glue to the paper, but it worked out and they are so cute!

As a group we went on a nature walk. The kiddies had bags and they were to collect anything they wanted. We then came back to the class and hot glued our findings on to the poster board.

The kiddies made watercolor leaves. We then made a big tree and some pumpkins to add to the picture. This is right outside our room.

Voting is just around the corner. To support voting we made posters to remind parents/staff to vote :)

Right now we are working on making Halloween decorations for the Hospital. We are going to donate the decorations to the Children's floor.

I am excited for this weekend. Luke and I are going to a PSU game :)

Lyss:)

EPIC FAIL

I failed... completely. I have not booked the reception hall or called the caterer. In fact i have not done a damn thing. Thank God we have a long engagement because if we were to be getting married this summer..im pretty sure id be in the dog house. I need motivation. Whats wrong with me? Why am i not motivated? I have always wanted to plan my own wedding... i am such an organizer and far in advance planner...i. just. can. get. motivated.


Why? I think i know. Possibly. I live at home. Luke lives at home. Its financially the right thing to do. So in all honestly i feel like we are in HS again. I go to work all day till 6, he is at work all day till 5. We see each other for a few hours because of my desperate need of sleep. Then he goes home i go to bed. Repeat. I dont feel engaged. Besides the fact that i just started working and its not like we are swimming in the dough. Its hard to start to plan a wedding with no idea of what the budget could/should be.

i stuck. help


Lyss

He's my FAVORITE!

This morning when i came out of work this cute little note was on my car. It was in a plastic bag because of the rain! How cute! My Fiance is the cutest and he knows just how to make me smile :)


Lyss :)

Back to college.. for the night

This weekend was so much fun! Friday night i went out with some friends. But on Saturday Jay and i headed up to slippery rock! The drive seemed so long. After not doing it for so long.. it seemed to longer than before. A few times i actually thought i was on my way back to school...however i was not.

We stayed with my friend kelsey. First we chilled and caught up on each other lives, then (without question) We went to the outlets. I was bummed. I found a pair of jeans that i loved but i didnt want to spend the 50$ on them. We then met up with another friend and had dinner at Elephant & Castle. DELICIOUS! I had a yummy buff chicken wrap :) We then went home and got ready for the night. We went to a party and hit up the bar :) It was so much fun and i cant wait to do it again... i really miss college.

love us :)

being silly waiting for happy

lyss :)

Pictures from work :)

While waiting for the kiddos to arrive this morning i took a few pictures of what we have been up to so far this year.

As a group we sat down and decided on rules that we felt were most important to our class. I believe that it is important to have the students participate in making up the rules.

This is our behavior chart. The mascot for our school is a rocket. So i played with that theme to make up our sticker/star start. Students can earn stars by following the rules, doing their jobs, and participating in the activities with a good attitude!

This is our job chart. The kiddos have a different job everyday.

"Toadly me". These are super cute and a great way to get to know a new group of kids.

Some name art the kids designed.

This month we will be completing a lot of fun fall crafts and activities!

Lyss :)

End of summer baseball game

The summer is coming to an end. This is obvious because baseball is wrapping up and football is taking center stage. I had the chance to catch one last baseball game before the summer ended and fall kicked in :)

Last week I went to my hometown baseball teams game. It was great eating a delicious burger, chips, peanuts, and some beer :) We had great seats. 3 rows from the field! While relaxing and watching the game i spotted my old baton teacher from YEARS ago! We have always kept in touch through majorette competitions. However with graduating from high school 4 years ago we fell out of touch. We chatted for a good inning or maybe two, talking about majorette/baton gossip! It was so nice catching up! The curve ended up losing the game in overtime. However i do believe they won the series.. (or something?) haha.

Here are a few pics from the game:

mama and pappy lou!

our view

Lukey and I

jay and i enjoying the game!

Lyss :)

Lost for words rambles

Ive been at a lost for words. Hard to believe, i know. Not to much exciting has happened lately. I have been a working bee. I still do my before and after school program and TSS in the afternoon for my little buddy! (whos so cute and id scoop him up if i could).

Luke is looking at getting a new car. His old one is an FJ Cruiser... sweet but not practical. Its expensive and a gas hog. He has a WV Passat on hold at the dealer right now. So hopefully his payments will go down and we can start to save money for the wedding and future casa!

The wedding planning has crawled under the bed and died. I dont know what my issue is. Well okay i kinda do.. i cant make decisions. I am fully aware of my lack of decision making skills. I hate making choices because i am always afraid of making the wrong one or something better coming along. Therefore in the past 3 months all i have done was scratch people from the list and get info on the reception hall we are leaning towards. My goal: to book the reception hall within the next 2 weeks... (id say one, but i have to be realistic) and call the caterer. Those were my goals like a month ago.. but im gonna do it :)

Tonight our home town baseball team (curve) has a game. They made it to the playoffs and its my duty to go to the game enjoy a nice big fat burger and fries chill with fam and luke and watch the game!

I am sick and tired of not being able to taste and smell. And even more i am sick of snot running down my face with no warning (TMI). I think i should go to the doctor o wait i cant thats right i got kicked off the insurance thanks to my dad and stepmother.....thats a whole new rant and rave i could go into and ill save that for another day.

Enough is enough i cant ramble anymore.


Lyss :)

House Dreaming

Luke and I have always dreamed about our house. Our dream house would be large, open floor plan, stainless steel appliances, hard word floors, large up dated bathrooms, at least 4 rooms, an office, large backyard, outdoor living, etc. I could probably go on and on. It would probably look a little something like this:





However, unless Luke and I win the Lottery.. these houses are a little (a lot) out of budget. But Luke and I maybe a little more Luke have been on a house kick. We really want a place to call our own. How we would love to run to the bank get out a loan that would make me vom...it probably is not the smart thing to do. It's a battle i fight with myself. I know financially it would be smart to live at home a while longer..We are in the process of planning a wedding. But i am so eager to move on, live in our own place, and have a place to ourselves. For kicks and maybe a little seriousness luke and i went and view a cute little house a few blocks from my parents house. Its older and the inside is dated.. a lot of wall paper...and more wall paper... and some old counter tops.. but it would be a cute first home and we would have fun fixing it up. However then my brain kicks in and has to remind myself and luke (luke a lot) that it would be smart to hold off on the house hunting :( But here is a picture of the house we drive by everyday and say: "there's our house".


Well maybe the house will stay on the market until we are ready to buy :) haha!

Lyss :)

First day of work!

This weekend was great! but super fast (update and pics soon to come). Tomorrow is my first day of work at the before and after school school program! I cant believe i have to get up at 530am!!! Is that time even exist? Is it still dark out? How am i suppose to wake up in the morning when the sun has not risen yet? This should be ILLEGAL!!

I am so excited to meet my kiddies and hear all about their first day of school in the afternoon :) Time to start making some moneyyy!!

Lyss :)

What your face structure says about you

Like I have previously mentioned.. The Tyra show is by far my favorite talk show! I recently watched a show about astrology. Apparently you can tell a lot about a person just simply by the structure of their face. Here are some examples i found interesting.

A chin dimple: Good in bed

Dimples: Playful

High Wide forehead: Intellect, can hold intelligent conversations, understand you, quick

Wrinkles around the eyes: Good sense of humor

Flat Cheeks- Polite

Small mouth- sincere

Large mouth- social

Short nose: Hard worker

Long Nose: Leaders other to work

There are soo many more. If your interested if your face structure speaks about who you are... visit this website and check it out!

Lyss :)

The color of your shirt says....

Have you ever wondered what colors your wearing say about you?

According to Color Consultant Leatrice Eiseman, Director of the Pantone Color Institute and author of Colors For Your Every Mood, women are attracted to men wearing the color blue. Why you may ask? Because men who wear blue tend to be stable, faithful, and always there. It is also said that men who wear blue are great candidates for long-term relationships.

What about women? Women who wear the color pink/peach tend to be most approachable. Pink/peach are compatible with most skin tones and gives the skin a healthy glow. The color that can weed out men who do not want a strong women is red, burgundy, or plum.

The colors that both sexes are not attracted is squished caterpillar yellow-green. (Is that even a color?)

Is it ironic that luke's favorite color is blue? haha

Lyss :)

Job Update

This past week I have had several trainings for both of my jobs. I am really hoping that both jobs will be able to mesh together. Right now there are still a few kinks we are trying to work out to allow both jobs to work.

I actually met someone at EFA (TSS job) who use to work at the before and after school program. He was kinda making me nervous because he had the school that i now have. He was saying how they are crazy and bad. haha o boy. But i will go into it with an open mind. Its a new year and a fresh start. Not that he was or was not good with the students (i dont know).. but i do know that he doesn't have a degree in El Ed. Therefore he may not have been trained to handle the crazy kiddies! But i am already trying to think of fun activities that will wear them down! haha The first week or two will be getting to know the kiddies and the center.

The TSS job is a little crazy. LOTS and LOTS of paper work. I hate paperwork, but i know its important and necessary. I do not have a client yet for this job. Therefore i may not start right away on monday.. which i am okay with because starting 2 new jobs at the same time can be a little overwhelming.

Today is a special shout out to my cousin Sarah. She is finally the BIG 21!!! I am so excited and i wish i could be taking her to Pitt tonight to show her a true 21 celebration.. however certain circumstances will not allow that. Therefore a little celebration at her house tonight and going to the bars in our hometown this weekend will have to work!

Lyss :)

I'm no longer jobless!

Yesterday at about 9am (why they thought i was awake..? i have no idea) but the agency that we interviewed with called and left a message to call them back. I didn't know what to do yet because i wanted to wait and here from the before and after school program. Within two hours the before and after school program called too! I talked to them and accepted their position first because it was closer to a teaching position. However the downfall were the hours. They are 630-900 and then again 300-600. So i couldnt just afford to take this position. So i came up with the brilliant idea to try and accept the T.S.S Position too. When i called them back i told them i had accepted a part time job and if i could work with them between 930-230. They had to check with the case manager in the county i would be working and they called me back and said yes. So here i go from being completely unemployed to have 2 jobs in the matter of hours. It's going to be crazy busy and hectic especially the first week with all the training, but im hoping i can make it work. I think both positions will help me become familiar with the district and get my name out there for a teaching position next year :)

I hope all goes well and i am not to overwhelmed! haha





lyss :)

Life passes you by in the blink of an eye

They say time goes by faster when your older... and boy is that true. Here I am 22 year old college graduate ready to move on with the next steps of my life.... but i swear these past 4 years of my life have gone by in the blink of an eye. I really did not complete 4 years of college and a summer of teaching in NC.... already... did I? I remember high school graduation like it was yesterday. In all honestly i feel as if i should maybe be starting my Jr year in college.. but I'm not. I am done with college, and right at my door step knocking is real life.

I have mixed emotions about starting this journey called "real life" or "adult life". A part of me wants to pack up all my belongs and head back to SR. Yet another part of me is ready and excited for this new step in my life. I'm ready to start planning my wedding and look at apartments and houses with luke. Yet, I cannot get that feeling of wanting to go back in time.. just a little. I want to live the fun relaxing life of the college life again. Sometimes i joke about going back to school since i dont have a job.... but i think im serious. I would love to go back, not for 4 years but i think i could handle 2..why not? They were the best years of my life.

This is week 2 of being "unemployed" and i am taking full advantage of sitting on my couch watching as many crime scene tv shows as possible. Within a week ill know if i receive a job offer from any of the 2 places i interviewed with this week. Better enjoy my lazy time while i can :)

Birthday party and baby shower!

This past weekend was my paps 82nd birthday and my friend Alex's baby shower. For my paps birthday we went to an Italian Restaurant (he's very Italian). We ate outside and it was beautiful! There was a guy playing the key board singing while we ate. Louie was so happy. (side note: Hes not really my pap, but my fam kind of took him in and he is now like my pap. His family doesn't care about him but hes the most caring person ever). He enjoyed some wine, dancing, and eating :) We then went back to my house for some cake and icecream! He loved it!

yummy dinner!

best buf chix dip EVER!

dancing :)

Louie.. my 2nd man!

Also this weekend was my friends baby shower! She is due in less than a month and she is the cutest prego girl ever :) I cant wait for little Sydney to be born! Ill be making some trips up to SRU to visit Alex and Syd! Her baby shower was at this cute place in Pittsburgh. It looked like an old house, it was very antique.

opening her gifts!

we had so many fun nights together!

Welp its official i've been unemployed for 1 week and i am going crazy..haha. But on the good side i have an interview tomorrow for a before and after school program lead teacher and Friday morning for a TSS. So we'll see how it goes!

Lyss :)

FIGHT HUNGER- FREE RICE!

Hey! I want to share a website that my student teaching adviser shared with me. It is a website that DONATES FREE RICE to hungry people! All you have to do is learn. You simply answer questions based on a subject (math, vocabulary, science, etc) Each question you get right they dontate 10 grains of rice through the world food programme! If your a teacher it is a great education tool, if your a parent its an educational website for your chlidren that helps others out. So do me a favor visit the site and get addicted :)!!!!!




Lyss :)