Rockin' Weekend

This past weekend was a busy and event-filled one. As I have said previously, we are finally starting on our backyard landscaping project. Part of the reason we bought this house was because the backyard is a completely blank slate that we could do whatever we wanted with. All we currently have back there is two crepe myrtles, a cork screw willow, a shed, and a stupid looking covered deck that we plan on taking out.


Our lot is rather large, which is yet another reason we bought this house. It is great for two high energy border collies, high energy kids, and perhaps a swimming pool one day. Yes, it really is that big. Actually, its bigger. I wasn't in the corner of the lot. Can you see the potential here?

We spent most of the day Saturday looking for the type of stone we want to use for our patio pavers and fish pond surround. (We're going to do that again this Saturday too, as Hubs has to look at every rock yard in the metroplex before he will be happy.) The day was rounded out with dinner at a new Tex Mex restaurant and a trip to Lo.wes to buy planters. While we were there, we ended up on the side of the store that sells playgrounds. Now as I have said, Hubs is NOT an impulse buyer. At all. But the second he saw this toddler swing, he wanted it.


Is that not one of the cutest things ever? I mean, look at the smile on this kid's face!



We seriously couldn't wait to put the swing in the tree and put Baby Bean in it. To make the weekend even better our "hick" pool, as Hubs calls it, arrived on Saturday. I wasted no time filling it up on Sunday morning, and within 45 minutes, we were all in it.


That totally is not the best picture of me or the baby, but this picture was taken after a long day outside where sweat poured down my face like rain. Yes, it is one of those inflatable ring pools, but we just don't give a rat's batoot. Its a pool that we can climb into and cool off on a hot, Texas summer day. I am still so excited about having it, it borders on pathetic. lol

It was a fantastic weekend. Our favorite part was obviously the pool, very closely followed with Baby Bean in her swing. Mom and dad, this one's for you!

What Weekend?

Like all weekends, this past one flew by way too quickly. It feels like I really have to work to make it to each weekend, and then it is gone in the blink of an eye.

Now here it is, Sunday night, and I am standing on the precipice of another workweek, wondering where the weekend went.

A couple of months ago I signed up to entertain some folks from church and then completely forgot about it. I had plans to go shopping with my best friend on Saturday morning to buy material for Halloween costumes she is making for Baby Bean and I. A half hour before I was supposed to head out the door, the folks from church called to confirm the time for that night. I looked around the house after we hung up and realized it was a complete mess. I then spent the next 6 hours cleaning like a mad woman and cooking dinner. The shopping was postponed.

On Saturday morning, Baby Bean opened a package from my MIL that had come a couple of days before. My MIL requested that I please take pictures of Baby Bean opening the gift and send them to her, which I will, but I also wanted to share the adorable photos with all of you.










Thanks for the pressies CC! Baby Bean loves them. I really love the little brown one. The outfits are adorable!

That was as much fun as I was afforded for pretty much the rest of the morning and up until our guests arrived that evening. I barely saw my baby girl that day other than to feed her and tote her to UPS to send Lilly the vase she won in Leah's raffle (it will be there Weds Lilly!) and my old satellite radio to my little brother (it will be there Thurs Birdman!), and then to the grocery store to buy some last minute ingredients for dinner. Baby Bean loved having company over and was a perfect angel the whole time. It was well worth all the effort to have them here, if for no other reason than it gave me an excuse to finally deep clean my house.

Today was a little more laid back, as everything had been cleaned up yesterday. I took a luxurious nap when the baby did this morning, and then spent the rest of the day being domestic in the kitchen. Very nice.

As I have mentioned previously, I love taking my daughter upstairs to my bedroom and talking to her while I fold laundry. Today she was very helpful in unfolding everything shortly after I folded it. It made me laugh. Here I will end this post with a little picture of her hanging out on the floor of my room while I went to get the latest batch of clothes from the dryer.

Please Don't Paint the Puppies

The past couple weekends, Hubs has finally gotten the bee in his bonnet to do some of those house projects we've been wanting to do since we moved in, like finishing our floors and putting up base boards. Of course, with all home improvement projects, it snowballed from something as simple as finishing the floors eventually leading to us needing to redo our kitchen before putting on baseboards.

When we bought the house, somehow the cheap crappiness of our kitchen went unnoticed until we moved in. Hubs had returned to our previous home to paint it to sell while I stayed here, by myself, two days after moving in to unpack. This was when I realized our kitchen cabinets were made out of balsa wood and were complete and total crap. I sat down at one point and cried, convinced the previous homeowners were in their brand new house laughing at us for buying this place. Hubs wanted the best deal, and he sure got it. With a lot of work, and a little TLC on our part, this place is going to be fantastic when we're done with it.

Hubs is an awesome handy man. He is such a perfectionist, and I am so glad for it because I certainly am not. Everything he does is precisely calculated and perfect. Even when he hangs pictures he's a perfectionist. I want a picture on the wall, I slap a nail in it and throw the picture on. He measures the wall's width and height, the width and height of the picture, calculates where the center of the wall is, where he wants the top of the frame to hit, etc. It cracks me up.

At any rate, we also decided we wanted to put up a couple half walls, which also needed to be done before anything else could be finished. He put them in and my job was to paint them. One of the walls went up without a hitch and he was pleased with his work for the most part. The other took some tweaking over the span of a week before he was mostly okay with it. I had primed, applied texture, primed again, and painted the first wall before he finished the second wall. He finished the second wall over the weekend, so Sunday night before I went to bed, I hurried and got it painted. I filled up the paint tray, grabbed a roller and a brush, and sat down to paint it. Mags came over to say hello between bites of kibble. I reached over and gave her an affectionate pat on the head. When I pulled my hand away, I saw this:


No, she does not usually have a white stripe down her head. For a split second I was horrified, wondering how I would ever get the paint out of her fur. Then I remembered it was water-based, and then proceeded to laugh my butt off. The good new is, it all came out with a few rubs of a wet paper towel. I have always called her my Project Puppy because she is always right by my side when I'm working on projects around the house. I guess that night she really dug in and proved she could help out. What a good pup!

It's the Little Things

Help Leah and Taher Adopt!
The fabulous Leah from Life According to Leah asked me to please post up a picture of the vase I made for her to raffle off on her blog in an attempt to help them raise money for their adoption. Leah and her husband recently underwent two rounds of IVF that went very wrong, and are now taking the route to adoption to expand their family. Every Friday she holds a raffle on her blog and asks that you donate only $5 to buy a ticket to be entered into the drawing. She has had some really great prizes up the last few weeks, and I hope her fans find my artistic work worth a few dollars toward her cause. If you are interested in this beautiful piece of work, hop on over to her blog and chip in!



Please know that the picture does not do the colors justice. I had to use a flash to get the picture, and as you can see, it kind of washed it out a bit.

A Present Changes Paws
For our first wedding anniversary I took Hubs up into the mountains to a Swiss getaway for the weekend. The trip ended up being interesting, to say the least. I look back on it and laugh, he looks back on it and thinks it was a waste. Nothing is ever a waste if you choose to laugh about the little disappointments that life sometimes brings.

During our stay at the chateau, we visited their gift shop. This was back in the days when money was abundant and ready to be spent. Ahhh those early newlywed days.... *sigh* Upon walking into the gift shop, I immediately laid eyes on a handmade leather dog collar with gold cows on it and had to have it for Mags. The smallest one they had looked like it might be too big, but I bought it anyway. (It was only a measly $50!) When we got it home and put it on Mags, it was definitely too big and it looked rather uncomfortable. I was bummed, but I still loved the collar, so I hung it on a coat hook next to the back door, hoping to use it some day.

That some day has come! The collar caught my eye the other day as it sat nearly hidden on a bookshelf. I laughed and showed it to Hubs, then set it on the table. A few days later it occurred to me that Sades is much bigger than Mags and she just might be able to sport the collar. Here is how it all went down:

See the beautiful collar? Sades does too. *sniffie sniff*

Make a closer inspection Sades. What do you think?

Sades likie. I told her to wear it to bed and to let me know tomorrow if she wants to keep it.

Growin' a Garden
It has been raining and overcast here for the last 7 days. We saw a bit of sun on Wednesday only to have the rain return again by this morning. It has been raining 24/7 since last Thursday night. I appreciate the rain very much and the cut on the AC drain even more, but a little sun would be nice now.

The day before yesterday a nice little mushroom garden started to sprout in our lawn. The mushrooms have grown exponentially every day. Tonight when I got home from work, this is what I saw:

'Shrooms anyone?

(Please ignore the gigantor weeds.) By the time the sun went down tonight, those suckers were twice that size!

Sweatin' Up a Storm

Today was rather a crazy day in our little household. There was no sleeping in for me this morning. Both of my pups had to be to the vet by 8:00. Sades was getting her annual physical (I kept telling her she was going to be felt up), and Mags was scheduled for her first teeth cleaning. At 8:15 we pulled into the parking lot, my poor pups were completely excited thinking we were "going for rides" only to find later on that they weren't going to enjoy the destination as much as they thought. Mags was whisked off before I even got a chance to kiss her head and tell her good luck. I did get to kiss Sades goodbye and tell her to be a good girl.

My plan all week had been to spend all day Saturday cleaning the house, as I decided not to bother last weekend and now had double duty to do. But before heading home, I took a few items back to the home improvement store, and then went and got Hubs and I a very healthy donut and kolache breakfast. I got back home just in time to get Baby Bean up for the day and fed.

Next up, cleaning the chariot (aka car). I have to admit, once I got into the car to start cleaning it out, I was rather embarrassed, and asked Hubs jokingly how my car had gotten so dirty and messy as I tossed french fries and Che.etos out the door onto the lawn. I was really cleaning it out because Baby Bean is about 1lb away from being too big for her infant carrier, and truth be told, she is SO over that thing, so it was time to install the Big Girl Seat. Let me tell you, unlatching the latch system from my car was no picnic. My hands still hurt from jamming them down into the seat to get the latches undone.

While it was not hot this morning, it was humid. Very humid. Before I was even done vacuuming half of the bench seat in the back, I had sweat and condensation dripping down my face. I still had about an hour's worth of cleaning to do. I finally managed to get it all done, however, and the car looks and smells great! (It no longer smells like a vet's office). *Let me just add here, I really am NOT a pig. My car just gets very neglected. It has been too stinking hot here to not neglect it.* Baby Bean's new car seat has been installed, slept in, and spit up in already.

Once the car was clean I fought with my computer to put together a little project that will appear on my blog on September 10th. Then it was time to feed the baby again. Then Hubs said we could go to the home improvement store. Why?

BECAUSE WE ARE FINALLY GOING TO FINISH OUR FLOORS!!!!! (I wish I could make this text flash.)

On top of finishing the floors, we're adding two pony walls that will increase our usable wall space, and eventually increase the limited storage capacity in this house.

Before I knew it, it was 4:00. The only thing I had managed to clean was the kitchen. I hadn't heard from the vet saying that the dogs were ready, so I made the call. Five minutes after walking in the door, I was on my way back out.

Mags was sooooo happy to see me. They brought her out alone and first. She sat there and whimpered for a good 5 minutes and just wanted me to hold her. The poor little girl looked as though she had been under anesthesia, and was sporting a bandage on her leg. I felt so bad. But I am happy to report her teeth look fantastic! Next they brought out Sades who was a ball of exuberant energy. I bought them a rope bone that they could play tug with together for being so good at the vet, as well as a bear for Mags. When I took her bandage off tonight, it exposed a paw that had been shaved all the way around just above the knee. Poor little girl!

Again, I got home just in time to feed the baby. Then I helped Hubs for a bit, then we went back to the store, then I vacuumed one floor in our house and did a load of laundry, and before I knew it, it was time to give the baby a bath, feed her, and put her into bed.

It is 11:27 PM right now, and I am still wondering where today went and how I was so busy, yet didn't manage to get very much cleaning in. Its a good thing it is a long weekend. Maybe by the time I get back to work on Tuesday I will have a clean house. Or not.

Fabulous 100!

This is my 100th post, so I thought I would do something a little special. Since we recently found out that I am pregnant and due to the slumping economy, all of our house projects have been put on hold for a while. Luckily we got all of the biggest and most important things done.

We did discover this month that a 2300 square foot home also comes with large utility bills. Our electric bill for last month by itself was almost $400. Yeah, we about died. This weekend we went to the home improvement store and bought all new compact fluorescent, energy saving bulbs as well as heat blocking window tinting for the windows on the front of the house. The only projects we'll be forking money over to work on in the next few months will be to help lower our energy bills, such as putting in spray-in insulation in our attic.

I have put together a fun little slide show highlighting the before, during, and after pictures of our house. I hope you all enjoy seeing this as much as I enjoyed making it. :)

Sweet!

We finally received a real offer on our town home, and are now officially in escrow! That's right folks, we've had two house payments for a couple of months. We received two offers a couple of weeks ago, but both of them were ludicrous. The first offer was from a man looking to screw someone over, and he pretty much offered $20k BELOW our listing price. He wanted us to pay closing, give him down payment assistance, replace all of the carpeting and fixtures in the house, remove the hot tub, and made up some stupid thing about the counter in our kitchen being loose. We pretty much told him he could stick his offer where the sun don't shine. A day later we received another, almost completely similar offer from a young couple. The only exception was the complaint about a loose counter. We told them that we did not accept their offer either.

Hubs was starting to feel a little frustrated and like maybe he should just accept any offer just to not have to pay two mortgages. I told him just to hang on, and that the right offer would come along soon. A couple of days later we received another offer, and after a few days of going back and forth to slightly modify the offer in a way that will make the lender happy, the offer has been accepted! I just hope that we make it through escrow and to closing day. It would be so nice to not have Hubs stressing about the lack of money and to not have to worry about selling the place anymore.

Below are a few pictures I took of the town home in the last couple of days we were there. I realize the place is messy, as we were in the process of packing, but keep that in mind as you peruse our old digs.

I loved this kitchen and its wonderful maple cabinets. I would take this kitchen over the cheap POS that is my new kitchen any day of the week. *sigh*

This was our dining room. It is packed with all the stuff from my previous job and the last of my things from my parent's house.

This was Hubs' old office. I would like to say it is a mess because we were moving, but it pretty much always looked like that... from the day we moved in a year and a half before. *giggle*

This was my "purple" room, also known as Maggie's room, and my little brother's room. It made me sad to take the bed apart and leave this cosy room behind. It was my favorite in the house.

This was our room. I hated the blue paint, but Hubs wouldn't let me paint over it after we moved in because he said I picked that color. I might have bought the paint, but it was NOT the color I chose.

And of course this is the backyard that we spent weeks relandscaping last summer. I did have a hard time leaving all of that hard work behind, especially all of the plants that I had grown and nourished until they were covered by snow in the winter.

This was my little veggie and herb garden. It was just a very soothing backyard when we were done with it.

Mags sat proudly in front of her favorite backyard box after the planting was finished.

Last, but not least, was our 300-gallon fish pond where all 22 of our fish froze to death over the cruel, biting winter months. You can see three goldfish in the middle of the picture toward the top. I loved those fish.

But now this house will belong to someone else who will make it their own. I am sure they will love it there as much as we did, and I love imagining the wife spending time planting her own things in the garden boxes. They are also moving in next to some of the best neighbors we ever had. I hope they love the house as much as we did, if not more.

A Litte of Everything

This post was actually supposed to be my last post, but then the whole dizziness story took over, so I'll give this one another try. I thought it would be fun to post about a few different things, rather than just one subject, so each paragraph will contain its very own subject matter.

I will start out by saying that the dizziness has persisted into its third day. I had really, really hoped that it would just go away, but much to my dismay, it hangs on and persists. Granted I have yet to fall over again, and it seems to kind of come and go. One minute I will be fine, and the next I will feel dizzy and slightly nauseated. However, I refused to spend my weekend sleeping and sitting or laying down, so I went about all of my normal activities anyway. I figure if it is still hanging on tomorrow, then I will call a doctor. I would have thought that it was caused by the new contact prescription and my eyes trying to adjust, but I actually have yet to wear the new prescription. I only opened my current pair of lenses about a week ago and refuse to waste them, so I will wear them until I normally would have thrown them away before moving onto the 'script. UPDATE: I went to the dr today and she said the dizziness was brought on by a nasty migraine and could last a couple more days yet. Fantastic!

In response to a couple of comments on a previous post about my "blooming size" I should have stuck a sentence in there that said I am currently pushing from a size 4 to a size 6. While this doesn't seem big to most people, I was a size 0 when I got married over 2.5 years ago, and the excess fattie tissue is driving me insane. On top of that, I have been asked the horrifying question, "Are you pregnant?" in response my weight gain. I don't want to be accused of being something I am not; therefore, the weight MUST be shed, and to my relief, seems to slowly be making its way back off my frame. I just wish it would go faster!

I have noticed that since we have been in Texas, Maggie has been a better mood meter of my current feelings than I give her credit for. I noticed that during the week when I decided to give up on my dream of motherhood, Mags was as depressed as I was. It didn't matter how much I tried to fake to her that I was fine by trying to razz her or play with her, she saw right through my fake exterior and continued to be depressed. It wasn't until I came home from work one day, completely determined to be in a good mood and let the whole baby thing go, that her mood perked up. All of a sudden my Happy Baby was back. She wanted to play, be feisty, go on walks, and was in an overall playful mood. The difference for both of us was night and day. I am almost ashamed that I tried to trick her into not being depressed when she knew exactly how I felt. I sure love my little girl. I've said it before, and I can never say it enough, but there is nothing in this world like a good dog, and Mags is one of the best.

I realized this weekend that AF is due to rear her ugly head tomorrow, just in time for our "team building" activity at the lake for work. Not only that, but she will be here and in full swing for my doctor appointment on Thursday. I guess I'm not too bummed that my coworkers won't get to see me in a swimming suit tomorrow. I am able to hide my insecurities (i.e., fat) well when fully dressed, and I would really like to keep that thin perception they all have of me intact.

I have found a new favorite food craving the past few weeks that I just can't get enough of: edamame. The first time I ever tried edamame was at a Pei Wei with my dad and two coworkers from a previous job the week before we moved. All four of us were hooked on the tasty treat and couldn't eat enough. I hadn't had it again between now and about a week ago. It tasted every bit as good as I remembered. I've had it as a snack about 4 times since then. My favorite way to eat is to just cover it in some kosher salt and heat it up in the microwave. Tasty!

My latest house accomplishment was to install a brand spanking new, quiet in-sink-erator (disposal). I think something crawled into the one that came with the house and died because every time I would get near the sink it would smell like rotting animal carcass no matter what I did to get rid of the smell. About a month ago I shelled out $130 for a new, quiet, low vibration, super disposal and finally got around to putting it in today. Yes girls, I did it 98% all by myself. I had Hubs stand over me to help me out when I didn't completely understand the directions, and with the exception of one install step (Hubs had to hold it up to the sink while I secured it), I did the whole installation by myself. Yep, I am quite pleased with myself. :D

Well, on with another week. Here's to hoping its a good one for all of us.

Another One Bites the Dust

This past week I finished yet another project around the house. We had company coming for the weekend, so I started painting our half bathroom last weekend. Although the before pictures below look nice, let me assure you, the color in the bathroom was NOT nice. It was a color that was close to a "pee" yellow. Not only that, but the ceiling was the same color as the walls, and the paint job was horribly done. There were spots all over the walls where the previous bathroom color peeked through the pee pee paint. The light switches and outlets in the pictures below are an upgrade we did upon moving in.

Before

After

Before

After

When I first stared painting the bathroom I wondered what I had done by choosing such a dark color. I was afraid I had turned the bathroom into a cave, but once I pulled the blue tape off the moldings, I really started to like the way the white items in the bathroom starkly contrasted the gray-blue paint. I have to admit, I love this new bathroom color.

We were supposed to be yet another step closer to finishing our house when all of our blinds showed up on Wednesday. Based on the way the whole day went on Wednesday, I should have cried that my blinds showed up that day because it was just not my day. As we began to unpack our 12 blinds we found that only two had survived the shipping undamaged. I was seriously upset, not only because they showed up damaged, but also because we ordered them a MONTH ago and they were shipped to the wrong place before they got to us. Then on top of that we had company coming this weekend and now had no window coverings. I believe I cried when I opened one of our three 9-foot blinds (which retails at $500) and found the head rail so torqued we couldn't hang it.

My project for this weekend is going to be to plant flowers in our front flower bed. I would normally spend the weekend cleaning the house from top to bottom while doing laundry, but I already cleaned everything during the week in anticipation of our company last night. For the first time since we moved in, I have nothing to do! I honestly don't know what to do with myself while I wait for heat of the day to subside so I can go plant flowers and take a walk with Mags.

I did fill up part of my morning going shopping for the puppy. We bought her a pink pooch collar, some puppy toys, and a gold engraved dog tag, which leads me to the dog's chosen name. First, I would like to thank all of you who voted on the puppy name poll. I did take the poll into consideration over the past week and a half and still waffled despite my firm resolution to go with the name chosen by the poll. One night I was talking to my dad and was telling him that I really wanted to name the dog Sadie. I told him that while most people would associate my finding her name on the day Roo died as a bad association, I actually thought of it as a positive association. To me it is like a little piece of Roo will live on because this pup's name came about by an inspiring moment on an otherwise cruel day. My dad told me that he felt I should call the pup Sadie. The next day I spoke with my new best friend about it, and she went one step further; she told me I should name the pup Sadie Roo. So in honor of my lost little Roo, the new pup's name is going to be Sadie Roo.

I think I will take the next hour or so of my completely free time to check out all of your blogs. I hope you all have a fun, safe Memorial Day weekend.

Baby Blues

I guess I should have known better than to get my hopes up even a little bit when I noticed I was spotting 7 days after I know I ovulated, but I couldn't help but hope just a little bit. Everything I read said that spotting at 7 dpo (days past ovuldation) was most likely an indication of implantation. I had had feelings lately that also helped get my hopes up, such as when I was trying to find places for all of our things in a house that has an almost complete lack of storage. Not knowing where else to put things, I began to load up the closet in the room that I hope will one day become a nursery. The entire time I was loading it up I had a nagging feeling that I shouldn't put anything in there because I would just have to move it back out in a few months. I chose to ignore the feeling and just kept right on packing our things in, and the feeling persisted. I still ignored it, and the closet is still packed full of items that I have no idea where else to put them. Usually feelings like that for me are not wrong. The last time I had a feeling that strongly about something it was after I got the first call for my new job. I just KNEW after I hung up the phone that first time that this job was mine. I even told Adam one night after my first over-the-phone interview that I knew this was it, the job we had been waiting for, even though I still had three more rounds in the interview process to go. It just felt right.

Last Monday when I saw the first signs of spotting, my heart leaped. It didn't even occur to me to think that it could be my old friend Low Progesterone coming back to visit. The only time I spotted the 7 days leading up to my unwanted visitor was while we were actually undergoing hormone injections. I had never experienced that at any other time. I also had not had that issue since my surgery 6 months ago. But by the time Friday rolled around and the spotting had not only not let up but gotten worse, I called my sister to see if she had ever had the problem with any of her babies. It was then that she suggested perhaps it was a low progesterone issue. My heart sank as I realized she was more than likely right on. The most frustrating part about all of it is that I had almost every single symptom of pregnancy, right down to the slight nausea, sensitivity to smells, and tender, enlarged "girls."

Needless to say, my unwanted visitor has now showed up further cementing the theory about the issue at hand. This saddens me on so many levels. Not only does it mean I am not pregnant and am back to not trusting my own body signs, but I now have to find a new doctor to discuss my options. It became clear as a bell that having a baby on our own is just not a reality. After everything I went through for the last two years and the surgery last October, I am right back where I started. I had not only hoped to not need to find an infertility doctor down here, but I had hoped that I would at least be able to take the rest of this year off of treatments to just try on our own. However, with this past week's symptoms, it is obvious to me that if I want pregnancy to happen at all this year, I will have to find a new doctor and at the very least get onto some kind of progesterone supplement.

I know this blog sounds like such a downer after my last positive and upbeat post, but rest assured I am not depressed. I just reserve the right to be a little disappointed today in light of last week. Like every other month where it became apparent my treatment days weren't done, I reserve the right to be a little blue and wonder if motherhood is ever going to be in the cards for me.

On a much lighter note, I finally finished completely unpacking the kitchen and breakfast area yesterday and those spaces are finally usable! We even broke in the new kitchen by making nachos last night, and Hubs made breakfast burritos this morning. We also got almost all the rest of our outlets changed out yesterday and only have half a dozen or so to go before that project is complete. It is amazing the difference something as small as changing out outlets makes. It just modernizes the house to me and makes me feel so much more comfortable here. We still have to change out a couple more ceiling fans and light switches, but those will be easy tasks once Hubs isn't busy with work.

Even better than that, my little brother is flying out next weekend to check out the new digs, hang out, and just plain party. I can't wait to have my baby brother here to show him around, taking him out for some of the most awesome food he's ever eaten, and let him experience the real Texas outside of the two military bases he has been installed on here. It will be a weekend full of creating new weekend traditions for his many future visits.

Outside of Babyland, life is getting to be as perfect as it can get.

Two Weeks in and Couting

The first two weeks in the new house are behind us, and I have to say I am so glad. I'm glad because the only boxes left to unpack are garage goods and pictures. I'm glad because most of the projects we could afford for the house are almost complete. But I am mostly glad because I realized this week that I really do love this house, despite its very strange quarks. The best news of all is that only a couple of things have come up missing, and its not the mover's fault. I also have not yet found anything else that was broken or damaged and can now finally submit my claim to get my antiques repaired.

It is so refreshing to have finally found a place for everything and to finally see that this house is ours. It has been fun to see all of our projects transform our house into something outstanding. We're still a long way away from being done, but the little things we have done so far have just made it a wonderful experience for me. I found that even the smallest things, such as changing a door knob, just made me giddy with excitement and happiness. The only down side is that the money has temporarily run out. The upside to that is that even though I can't afford to do 100% of everything I want to do, I was able to get in the things that were most important to me. My last big expense for the next few months will be to buy new blinds.

This next week will be full of hanging pictures, finishing the floors, cleaning up, finding homes for the remaining items, and replacing the last of the electrical outlets. I just can't wait to have everything all done so that we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of our labors, or spend our free time taking Mags for walkies.

Work has been going really well too. I gained another new friend when my newest coworker started two weeks ago. Together we learned the ropes of the company, met all of the important people, and went through training. The addition of this new friend also helped me feel like I fit in. I no longer felt like I was the new person on my team who was on the outside of their friendship looking in. We share many things in common, such as the fact that we were both relocated and are trying hard to sell our old houses in a less than stellar market.

The stress from the move is finally starting to ebb, and I am really starting to feel like this place is home. I just love it here. The humidity even makes my hair curl, which is awesome because it cuts way back on my styling time in the morning. :D I also just can't get enough of the awesome food around us. We actually just went to the grocery store for the first time today. That's right, I have not cooked one thing in my new kitchen yet. We have eaten out for every meal for the last six weeks! I'll give the home cooking a try for a bit, and if it doesn't take, we'll go back to eating out for every meal.

Mags is also starting to get her feet under her. She still stresses a little bit and has taken to hiding under beds a lot, but she is also starting to realize our gigantic back yard is her personal play ground and grazing ground (yep, she grazes just like a cow). Every time we move past the front door at all, she gets all excited because she thinks we are going to take her outside to play ball in the massive green field next to our house. We take her with us in the car whenever we can, and sometimes take her places we probably shouldn't, like the home improvement store.

Our lives are finally starting to settle down, and our house is finally starting to feel like a home. We are certainly in the home stretch, and then I will put together my little slide show of the before and after photos. But now its time for a little Me Time. I think tonight I will read some blogs and then I am going to play the Sims until bed time!

Moving In!

As some of you may have noticed, I have been a bit absent this past week. My lack of presence is due to the fact that we have moved into our new house. And so begins the long update.

Last Saturday and Sunday we had a painting crew here painting over all of the old ugly yellow colors on the walls and turning the entire house into a monochromatic "Classic Taupe." Yes, we opted for one color throughout, except for in the master bedroom and bathrooms. I will eventually paint the guest room a different color, but that is a project for another day. While the painters were painting the upstairs, Hubs got busy putting down laminate flooring that looks spectacular. With him busy putting down flooring, I went to work replacing door knobs and electrical outlets. We left to head back to the apartment around 11:30 that night only to return bright and early the next morning to let the movers in; however, I had changed all of the locks the night before and had an extra key made up that worked after it was made, but did not work in the lock the morning we were supposed to move in. Yes, we were locked out of our new house. Luckily a window had been left unlocked, and we were able to break in.

As the first of three trucks was being unloaded, I met with my first blow. I had four pieces of furniture that I absolutely cared about them getting here undamaged because they were either antiques or heirlooms from my grandma or both. The first was my grandmother's writing desk from the 1940s; the second was a little coffee table that my grandparent's bought when they first got married in the 1930s; the third and fourth were coffee tables that my grandma passed onto me before she died. The first piece of the four off the truck was the coffee table my grandparent's bought when they got married, and it was carried off the truck with only three legs. I couldn't believe that it showed up broken after the guy who loaded it onto the truck promised me he would take extra good care of it as it was an antique. You can imagine how my heart sank when I saw it arrive broken. The next piece off the truck was one of the side tables my grandma left me. The movers had removed the legs before loading it onto the truck, and somehow one of the legs showed up broken. I couldn't believe that two pieces showed up broken! The third table showed up missing all of its hardware, making it unusable in that we could not put it together. THANKFULLY the writing desk showed up unharmed.

After seeing my most precious and valuable belongings carried off the truck in pieces, I decided to go to work as a reprieve from seeing my things damaged. That night I got home, and the very first box I opened contained my grandpa's gig bag from the 1940s. For those of you who don't know what that is, my grandpa used to play trumpet during the Big Band Era, and he used this leather satchel to store his mutes and music in. The mover who packed the bag into the box put it in the bottom and then smashed it down to fit more goods into the box. This pressure ripped out the side seams of the precious, antique bag. As you can imagine, my depression started to head into a tailspin.

Tuesday evening I focused my efforts on unpacking the master bedroom and bathroom. Wednesday Hubs flew back to our old house to get it fixed up in an effort to help it sell faster, leaving me here in a new house all by myself to unpack all on my own. I had decided to start my unpacking efforts in the kitchen that night. I'm not sure if my unhappiness in the house was a result of the fact that I was traumatized by the move, the fact that the house is a tad beat down and needs some work (which we are doing), or that I had been left all alone. It was probably all of the above. But as I unpacked the kitchen I began to think that this house is the biggest POS (piece of sh*t), and that the previous home owners laughed after they sold us the place. The kitchen felt so inadequate, disgusting, and dark, and all I wanted to do was sit down and cry. The whole time I was unloading boxes, I thought about my sister who had been in a similar situation a few years ago, and how she had done exactly what I was doing, making the best of it and making it better. I thought of her for about an hour, trying to draw from her strength, when all of a sudden, she called. I finally allowed myself to break down and cry while I was talking to her and told her how I felt. She reminded me about the time she went through a similar situation, and I told her I had been thinking about her and how she handled it when it was her. After talking to her, I felt so much better about things.

Now a few days have passed, and with every day that goes by, I start to appreciate my house more and remember the vision I have in my head of how it will look and feel when we're done, which is going to be seriously awesome. With each passing day, I feel myself bouncing back from being depressed to being excited to see the changes in the house as we unpack, update, and make it ours. Tonight has been the best night so far in that I have been ecstatic with the unpacking progress I've made. I am excited to see how much I will accomplish this weekend, and am really enjoying turning this house into our home. I have been taking a few before and after pictures to show all of you once we're done. I keep telling myself that if the old home owners came back after we're done that they would want the house back, and I really believe that. I think they would wonder why they didn't do it when they lived here. Its all so simple, and it will make the biggest difference.

If I don't post a blog again for a while, its because I am crazy busy unpacking and turning this house into something awesome. For now, its time for my poor, exhausted body to head off to a warm shower and then a soft, comfy bed. Ta ta for now.

YAY! BOO!

The fabulous news about today is that we closed on our house this morning! We are now officially the owners of our first home that does not share walls with any other house. I was asked many times today if I was nervous or sick about signing on the house, which seemed like an odd question to me until I reflected on why people would be asking me that question. I guess for some people such a large purchase would be cause for such feelings of trepidation and fear. Me? I was totally excited and couldn't get the keys to the house fast enough!

We stopped by the house this morning to do our final inspection and walk-through before heading off to our closing, and I have to say I really feel bad for the woman who owned the house before us. That house was spic and span! I told Hubs I am sure she was there all night cleaning up, and I was right. She told me at our closing that she had been there until 3:00 a.m. We stopped by the house again after the signing and started to take a look at what projects we wanted to tackle right off besides the painting and new flooring. It was then that the amount of work we needed to put in really came to light. Its a bit more than we thought. I admit, some of it is because I am just that picky; I am going to go through and replace every single light switch, plug, and plate cover that is not white. That one is going to hurt. Some of it isn't that I am so much picky, as neither of us feels that we can live with certain things the way they are, such as the horrible baseboards that we didn't notice we so horrible until tonight. We also noticed for the first time that all of the cabinetry in the house leaves a lot to be desired. I know what you're all thinking: How did we not notice all of this before? Well, I'm not sure, other than to say that we must not have really been paying close enough attention. Oh well, its our house now, so all we can do is either live with it, or cough up the cash to change it. I'm sure it will be the latter.

The bad news we received today came in waves. The first wave was when the guy who was supposed to come in this weekend and paint called and cancelled because a storm blew through last night that took off part of the roof on his house. We feel bad for him, but it sure did leave us in a lurch, since ALL of our move-in plans were timed based on getting our house painted. We can't put in our hardwood floors until the walls are painted. We don't want to move in furniture until the hardwood floors are in. This news really took away from Hubs' ability to be excited and happy after closing. It didn't put as much of a damper on mine because I knew he would get it figured out within the hour, and he did. Instead of our house being painted on Saturday and Sunday, its now going to be painted tomorrow and Saturday. Sweet!

The second wave of bad news hit while I was ordering my lunch. I had planned to fly home this weekend to surprise my family who are all in town this weekend at my parent's house. (This was the surprise I alluded to in a blog I wrote earlier this week.) All of us kids are in different time zones now, so being able to get us all together is a big deal. No one knew I was going home except for my little brother, who was going to pick me up from the airport. But somehow I've known for the last two days that I wasn't going to get to go home. I don't know how I knew, but I did. I got a call from the airline this afternoon telling me that my flight had been cancelled. My only other flight options at that point were not good, so I had to opt for a refund. I called my family and told them about what had happened, and they are all just as bummed as I am. Yeah, I cried. I guess I will just take the money from my plane ticket and put it into the house now. My weekend will now be occupied replacing plugs, light switches, door knobs, and whatever else I want to change that I can afford right now.

To my family: I really did try to come home this weekend. Believe me, I am totally bummed about it; however, I am sure you will all still have a fabulous time regardless.

To Dudela: Enjoy your party. I'm sorry I can't be there. I guess I will just have to send you a nice presie instead. Congratulations on your big day. I love you toady!

Homesick Update

First of all, I just want to say thank you to everyone who left comments on my last post. They all meant a lot to me over the past few days. I am so glad that I have such wonderful, thoughtful friends who, even though you don't know me outside of blogland, care about me that much. I have to say, the feelings are definitely mutual. I have really come to love and appreciate all of my blog friends. I completely enjoy being able to share and enjoy your lives as much as being able to share mine.

Today I had the most wonderful surprise that just totally made my day: I got a call from my lovely friend Liz from Pretty Practicals! She sent me the most heart-felt, heart-warming email this past weekend and offered to allow me to call her all the way across the pond in Merry Old England. I emailed her back an update on how I was feeling lately (since I haven't had a chance to post the last few days), and sent her my digits back. About 20 minutes later, I got a phone call from Liz and her beautiful British accent. What a way to make a girl's day! I wish you wonderful luck at your show this week Liz. I hope you sell your socks off.

Now for a much needed update. The day after I posted my last blog I went into work and made my first new friend! She is such a sweet, charismatic girl who not only turns out to be my age, but we both grew up in the same area, went to the same university, and started working at our new jobs a week apart. Somehow we have never met, even though it sounds as though our paths should have crossed hundreds of times over the years. What a small world! I have to try really hard not to go talk to her all day so that she can get things done. We have our first buddy lunch tomorrow.

The same day I made my new friend, I also started to make connections with the other people on my team at work. I don't know if my supervisor said something to one of them, or if they decided they wanted to make an effort on their own, but they invited me to spend the day with them in the lab while they constructed their latest project in anticipation of its being inspected by ECL (the equivalent of UL). I got to know each of them better that day, and felt like I was really starting to fit in.

Then this past weekend I got to go shopping for some much needed new clothes. What girl doesn't perk up when she gets to go shopping?! I finally found myself some tops that I like and a couple pair of sandals. After we were done shopping, we took Mags to the park and went for a walk and threw the ball for the pooch. We also went floor shopping for our new house and picked out our new hardwood floors. We're both really stoked about that. We've been keeping pretty busy the last few days, and when we weren't busy we were just spending some much needed time together. We had a lot of snuggling time to catch up on.

This week is going to be really exciting for us, since we close on our house on Thursday, we get to pick up our hardwood floors (which Hubs gets to install :D), we'll have our house painted from top to bottom, and we finally get to move out of this apartment! There is one other bit of exciting news, but I have to wait a bit to share that.

Again, thank you to all of my friends for all of your sweet comments. They helped me get through the rough patch last week. As you can see, I am back to feeling totally excited about life again. :D

When Can We Move In?!

Today we finished working out the financing on our new place and are almost all set for closing in a couple of weeks. Our house inspection was on Friday, and it only found minor problems and fixes, most of which we had already intended to change once we got into the house anyway, such as leaky faucets or drain stops. There was one concern brought up by the inspection about some cracking on a corner wall, so we had a structural engineer check out the place on Monday. His report came back not only good, but awesome. He said the house was so structurally sound even he was astounded. He said he only saw about one house a year that was in as good a shape as the one we're buying. We did, however, adjust our offer a little bit to cover some of the costs the inspector brought up that need to be addressed sooner than later, such as calking around the windows and other minor things.

We're hoping right now that we can get our down payment loan check quick enough that we can move up our closing date so we can get the deuce out of this apartment. While the apartment looks really nice and upscale, the walls, floors, and ceilings are paper thin. The neighbor on the other side of our headboard likes to turn on his stereo every night around midnight and hold loud conversations until the wee hours of the morning (yes, you can hear EVERY word). The neighbors upstairs have decided they like to bang their cabinet doors and drawers, not to mention you can hear every single footstep they make like they are in the same room as you. I have probably said that I am really glad we're not stuck in a 12-month lease in this place about 100 times since we moved in just over a week ago. The inability to sleep due to noise gets old really fast. I'm getting kind of tired of having to find my ear plugs in the dark every morning around 5:30 a.m. because the next door neighbor's alarm clock is going off and he's either sleeping through it, or just not in the room. It goes off for a couple of hours. I wish I was joking.

On a lighter note, I am really liking the area and really loving my job. Due to slow response in the HR department, I have been able to forego training the last week and a half and have been able to dig into my job prematurely. I've spent the last couple days working on product installation manuals and am absolutely loving it. Every day I'm in this job I feel even more blessed that they picked me to fill their needs. The thing that cracks me up the most is that the company doesn't have a supply closet, so if you need anything, you just have to order it from Staples and create your own private stash. Need a pen? Order a dozen all for yourself. Need some Post-its? Order a 10 pack and keep them all in your own supply closet (i.e., desk). I also discovered the Butter Nut brand hot chocolate yesterday in an attempt to warm myself up in an office that is kept on the cold side. Silly me listened to my husband when he told me how warm it would be here, so I allowed the movers to pack ALL of my long-sleeved shirts, sweaters, and jackets. I have wished so many times I had thought to bring at least a few.

We spent Easter Sunday at one of my aunt's houses. She is the only relative I have in the state, and luckily lives only 20 minutes away. When my mom told her we were moving to the area a few weeks ago, she called me up and invited us to dinner. I, of course, happily accepted. We joined their family for an evening of yummy food, good conversation, and a movie. It really helps keep me from being too homesick having some family close by.

It finally feels to me like we have moved. I'm not sure at what point it hit home, but the moment came and went unnoticed. I searched for our townhome listing on the internet yesterday, and my eyes welled up a bit when it showed up, and I remembered the home we left behind. I also found myself missing home a bit. I think another thing keeping me from feeling blue is all of the excitement and stress involved with our new house. Thinking about that hasn't left much time for anything else... at all. I just can't wait to get into that house and start making it our own.

I am really glad we have made this move, and I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to make this new life.

Our Offer Was Accepted!

We put in our offer on the house today, and the current owners have accepted it!!! We even wrote into our offer that we wanted them to leave their new $3,000 washer and dryer set and $2,000 fridge, and they agreed! We're pretty stoked. The best part is that we are buying this house for the same price we are selling our town home for. It has almost twice as much square footage as our town home did and a massive back yard.


Per a special request, below are a few more pictures of the house.