New look.

I've been playing with the blog for the past week, trying to find a background & pictures that would work.  And I think I found a 'theme', if you will, that I like.  The picture of us isn't the most perfect (I'm not overly fond of my smile), but I just absolutely adore Zak in this picture.  It's a nice somewhat candid photo of us and I just really like it.  As for the background, I never thought I'd like this particular one from Shabby Blogs, but go figure, right?  I just wanted something that was 'spring-y', but not over the top.  I don't know, just thought I'd share.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll write about our lives.  It hasn't been wildly exciting, we've just been working mostly.  And we're excited to go to the beach in a few weeks, yay!!  But for now, I have to go to work so I'll write later.

Crafty

I have been rather crafty lately.  Aside from my current project of turning our huge number of wedding cards into scrapbooking material, I took on this little project for our kitchen.  Last month, Zak bought me a basil plant as a surprise gift (say it with me: awhhh).  At the time, the weather was lovely and we decided to put it in one of the planter boxes in the 'backyard'.  Then that huge storm from Alaska hit and we brought it inside.  Then it started to die, despite us watering it. 

Well the other day we were at the Co-Op, lusting after organic apples for $4.99/lb and overpriced pastries, we noticed a basil plant that was calling to us emotionally and financially.  We decided to give basil another try, but this time keep it inside, so we could control it easier and we'd always have basil.  Last week I was at Michael's getting deeply involved with scrapbook paper and whatnot (I am not a very good scrapbook person, and I try to not get interested in it because there is TOO MUCH stuff & I have bills to pay, but I splurged on an item or two) and bought a pot to put our plant it.  But the craft part of my brain wasn't sated with just A pot, and I soon found myself buying (in my defense, everything was on clearance/way on sale, so I am a smart shopper) paint and ribbon.

Sunday I painted the pot and the lid that goes on the bottom.  I originally painted the body of the pot white, but once I did the lip of it pink, the color started to get more and more intermixed with the white as I tried to make a line around the body in pink.  I called upon my (limited) artistic skills and just straight up mixed the colors so it has a sort of feathery look to the paint.  I don't know if you can see it in the pictures, but I actually really like it!  I had gotten this cute teal ribbon and my original plan was to put it around a white lip of the pot, but ah, I made it work. 

I think it turned out really cute & hopefully our plant will live long in its new, cute home!

all cute & ready to be a home

all ready!

happy basil in its new (& slightly dirty because I'm clumsy) home

Updates!

Sorry for the lack of updates, it has been fairly busy in the Reilly household as of late.

First off, Zak got a job & worked yesterday!  He is currently employed at Harry Ritchie's jewelry store in the mall.  It's actually really close to Macy's, so we can wave to each other now & then AND when we work similar schedules, take lunch together!  We're glad he got this job, because he had to go through two interviews & an urine testing at the hospital & wait a few weeks to hear about it. 

Oh and yes, I've been working at Macy's since like, the day after my interview.  I was hired on the spot as an on-call worker and the following day had a Welcome to Macy's training kind of day.  One of the managers told me he'd like to put me into a full-time core (permanent) position in the women's (betters sportswear) section.  The day after that I did training on the register computer thing for three long hours.  That Saturday I came into work to close (1:15-9:15).  It also happened to be a One Day Sale AND University of Idaho's Mother's Weekend.  It was insanely busy and overwhelming.  I got a lot of sympathy for it and a few people were surprised to see me back on Tuesday. 

I work Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with the option to pick up extra shifts.  And it's better pay too, way over Idaho's minimum wage, so that's great.  My co-workers are nice girls that are easy and fun to work with (with the exclusion of one crazy one, but we're hoping things will get better...and yes, there has already been unnecessary drama, ugh) and my manager is great.  So far it's been pretty smooth sailing and I am getting competent with most everything.  I have to push myself to be on my friendliest behavior and talk to customers, but the majority of them are nice and understand if I don't know everything just yet.  There is, however, a lot of down time, meaning I get to fold a lot of clothes.  It's not too bad, I don't mind, actually.

So that is our work situation, we are pretty pleased to both be working and having two incomes.  Maybe we will go out to dinner now and then since we'll have money, yay! 

In other news...Zak wants me to mention that he bought a bike yesterday.  He is very excited about it and even rode it home because we didn't really want grease over our seats.  And it didn't fit too well.  It is a red bike.  He'll probably ride it to school and around town.  Maybe in a few weeks or so, if the price is reasonable, I'll get a bike as well so we can go on bike rides!

We also acquired a 5 gallon fish tank complete with heater, light, filter AND lots of guppies!  It was $10!  We have been very fortunate with craigslist around here.  We put our betta, Richard, in with the fish and he actually is doing really well with all the fish.  There are tiny babies and adult guppies and some in between.  We were worried he'd attack the fish, but he only chases the babies in a playful way now and then.  We like it.

We are still enjoying Moscow, despite the awful storm that has caused rain, hail, snow, winds and cold temperatures for the last three weeks.  But today and some of yesterday it was really nice!  That's all for now, since I can't think of much more to write, and I'm getting hungry for dinner.

Spice Crazy.

Zak and I have gone spice crazy.  It's probably due to the glorious store of Winco and their bulk selling of spices (and other goods), but we decided to create some uniformity amongst our vast multitude of spices.  We wanted to put the spices into jars similar to mason jars, and it just so happened that the lady at Michael's directed us to the perfect canister jars that were on clearance for under a dollar!  Yay!!  So this past weekend we bought, washed, dried, organized and labeled our spices.  Needless to say, we are pretty psyched at how well everything worked out.  Well, we are kind of nerdy, so...I'll just post some pictures to see how cute everything turned out!

the whole gang

original 10

afterthought 3

 Zak mounted it over the stove

 full shot

The MOVE

Monday the 12th was our final day in Rexburg.  We woke up early and finished packing up everything and got the U-Haul truck at 9.  For the next two hours we loaded up the truck and tidied up the apartment.  The weather was lovely, for once and we were on our way by noon.  We decided to tow our car instead of have me drive it.  We also decided to drive through Montana than go through Boise.  Surprisingly, the route through MT was only 9-10 hours vs. the 12-13 drive through Boise.  Supposedly it's just a two-lane highway from Boise up to Moscow.  Go figure, right?

Montana is beautiful to drive through

Well, the first few hours passed by quickly.  Zak and I sat in the cab, surfing the radio for interesting songs and eating snacks along the way.  After about 3 hours I took over the wheel and drove until Missoula.  The sky was clear and blue and actually, Montana isn't too bad to drive through.  I was surprised how nice and scenic it was.  Getting off of the highway in Missoula proved to be a huge pain in the butt.  We needed to get gas and dinner and I was flustered driving a truck with our car attached in a foreign town.  It was nerve-wracking but we made it work.  After ten minutes, and with Zak driving again, we continued on our way, pausing briefly in Coeur d'Alene to switch drivers again.  The route from Missoula to Coeur d'Alene was really beautiful, but a bit nervous-making.  We were mostly in a mountainous region, with a few scary turns.  Luckily, the weather still was nice.

Until I got in the driver's seat in Coeur d'Alene.  By then it was about 8 at night and ten minutes in, it started to rain.  It wasn't too bad until the rain started to fall harder and harder and then I had to turn up the windshield wipers to maximum.  By then it had turned very dark and we were on a two-lane highway 90% of the time.  I was freaking out, it was terrifying.  Zak asked several times if I'd rather he drive, but I knew I could make it.  Plus, I would be even more nervous if I was the passenger.  After two longs, clenched knuckle driving, we made it to Moscow!  It was 10 pm Pacific Coast time (that's right, not Mountain Time anymore, woo!) and we were pretty beat.  But we had to figure out how to get the car off the dolly and park everything, oh and we couldn't back up the truck.

Yay, we made it!

Luckily, I married a genius, who figured everything out in record amount of time.  Zak smartly unhooked the car and the dolly and within an hour had everything in its place.  That night we dragged our mattress up the stairs and fell asleep hard.  I awoke the next morning to find out that Zak had gotten up early and unpacked about 80% of the truck.  He was really excited and decided to be productive.  The most challenging part of the day was our box spring.

What I woke up to

Whoever designed our place really couldn't have made it about eighteen inches wider because, ultimately, Zak had to unscrew the banister and some railings in order to get the box spring upstairs.  And the poor guy had to do it most of it by hand because the power screwdriver only pulled out the three inch screws halfway.  It took him a few hours, but it was worth not having to sleep in the living room the next two years.

Poor guy

The next week and a half we spent tidying up the place and putting stuff away.  We really love it here, there is a lot more room than our place in Rexburg and we are getting a deal: we are only paying $30 more for the townhouse!  Thank you, government!  Here are some pictures of the place; I have also posted them on Facebook, if you want to check them out.