We have been getting our first significant winter snow fall the past few days. It's been pretty awesome not having to dig my car out in the morning.
Starting to feel like Christmas :) If I get home from work with some energy, I'll post some house/snow pictures tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Thanksgiving
Jared and I spent our Thanksgiving weekend down south with his family this year. I was lucky enough to get the Wednesday before the holiday off so we were able to make to to Jared's mom's house in Corydon that day. Then on Thursday we drove a little more to Owensboro KY and ate our traditional meal at Rachel and Andy's house. I dodged the bullet this year with not cooking the big holiday meal. Big thanks to Jared's mom and sister, it was delicious!
Friday was spent back in Corydon and then on Saturday we drove down to Nashville TN to see Opryland and the Charlie Brown Christmas ice sculpture display. I wasn't expecting the ice to be colored, that was really neat surprise. We took a bunch of goofy pictures.
We drove back late on Saturday night so we could decorate our house for Christmas all day Sunday, but unfortunately I woke up Sunday morning to a fever and sore throat. So I ended up missing work on Monday and Tuesday, and I'm still battling a cough and stuffy nose.
Jared and I were finally able to put up the tree and decorations on Wed and Thurs. . . .and yes, putting up the stockings on the fire place was just as exciting as I imagined it.
Friday was spent back in Corydon and then on Saturday we drove down to Nashville TN to see Opryland and the Charlie Brown Christmas ice sculpture display. I wasn't expecting the ice to be colored, that was really neat surprise. We took a bunch of goofy pictures.
We drove back late on Saturday night so we could decorate our house for Christmas all day Sunday, but unfortunately I woke up Sunday morning to a fever and sore throat. So I ended up missing work on Monday and Tuesday, and I'm still battling a cough and stuffy nose.
Jared and I were finally able to put up the tree and decorations on Wed and Thurs. . . .and yes, putting up the stockings on the fire place was just as exciting as I imagined it.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
I am McLovin!
Funny story I just wanted to share. . . (just a warning that if you haven't seen the movie Super Bad you probably won't understand why this is funny)
It's Saturday night and Daniela and I are in the check out line at Jewel buying beer for the boys. While she is getting her i.d. checked I'm watching the person in the next register buy a 24 case of Bud Lite and I'm thinking to myself "That kid is so not 21." After Daniela finishes paying I tell her "Look at that guy in the next lane, I bet you he's not 21" and about 4 seconds after that we see the check out lady take his i.d. and say "Sorry, but I just have to check something, we don't get a lot of people from Hawaii around here." At that point he had this deer in headlights look on his face and Daniela and I start cracking up. I couldn't help myself as we walked past his lane I said quite loudly to Daniela "I wonder if the i.d. says McLovin on it?" We laughed the entire drive home.
It's Saturday night and Daniela and I are in the check out line at Jewel buying beer for the boys. While she is getting her i.d. checked I'm watching the person in the next register buy a 24 case of Bud Lite and I'm thinking to myself "That kid is so not 21." After Daniela finishes paying I tell her "Look at that guy in the next lane, I bet you he's not 21" and about 4 seconds after that we see the check out lady take his i.d. and say "Sorry, but I just have to check something, we don't get a lot of people from Hawaii around here." At that point he had this deer in headlights look on his face and Daniela and I start cracking up. I couldn't help myself as we walked past his lane I said quite loudly to Daniela "I wonder if the i.d. says McLovin on it?" We laughed the entire drive home.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Piano Pictures
The piano arrived this morning! Since we had to replace the fish tank we had the perfect spot in the living room for the piano next to the stairs. The first thing I want to do is reupholster the bench. . .yucky green. I also just realized after doing a google search that piano lamps are very expensive, and most of them are a bronze/gold color which I don't really want. Guess I'll have to do some more searching.
I just wanted to share this picture because Boo is so cute. :-) She has found a new favorite sleeping spot since we've been having fires in the fireplace.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The Piano
Jared and I made another house purchase today! We went out and bought a small satin black used spinet piano. I've been looking at pianos online for a while, but it's only been in this last month that Jared and I have gone out to look at them in person and play them. What a huge difference that makes. I found many pianos that looked so incredibly beautiful, but when you sat down to play them the keys were not responsive, sticky, or the sound was super "tinny" (I'm not even sure that's a word, but it's the best I can come up with to describe the sound)
To top that off I never knew how expensive pianos are! A new piano was about $4250 and almost all the used ones I found (that I liked) ran around $2500. . . .yeesh. Well the one we bought was considerably less expensive, came with a free tuning, free delivery (that I haggled :), and a one year warranty. I think we got a pretty good deal.
We are not professionals by any means, so I think this piano suits us. We wanted something we could play around with and eventually force our future child to take lessons at. :D So if little Jared or Kristen Jr. shows some talent down the road, then we will pay the 4k for a nice new piano. . .till then, I'm happy with what we got.
The piano is getting delivered tomorrow so I'll post some pictures soon.
To top that off I never knew how expensive pianos are! A new piano was about $4250 and almost all the used ones I found (that I liked) ran around $2500. . . .yeesh. Well the one we bought was considerably less expensive, came with a free tuning, free delivery (that I haggled :), and a one year warranty. I think we got a pretty good deal.
We are not professionals by any means, so I think this piano suits us. We wanted something we could play around with and eventually force our future child to take lessons at. :D So if little Jared or Kristen Jr. shows some talent down the road, then we will pay the 4k for a nice new piano. . .till then, I'm happy with what we got.
The piano is getting delivered tomorrow so I'll post some pictures soon.
Monday, November 2, 2009
The Moat
It rained solid for about a week straight last week (and I believe the night before I took this pictures we got 2 inches alone) and the moat was a raging rapid.
It's actually not that deep if you compare it to the older picture. I believe in the 2nd picture there is maybe a little less then an inch of water trickling down. What I thought was cool was how fast the water was moving.
And on a side note, no Jared and I are not worried about our future children being swept away. As soon as it stopped raining the moat went back to normal, and we're not going to let our kids play outside when it's pouring rain.
It's actually not that deep if you compare it to the older picture. I believe in the 2nd picture there is maybe a little less then an inch of water trickling down. What I thought was cool was how fast the water was moving.
And on a side note, no Jared and I are not worried about our future children being swept away. As soon as it stopped raining the moat went back to normal, and we're not going to let our kids play outside when it's pouring rain.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Furniture!
The Butlers finally have some grown up furniture! Last weekend Jared and I went to Darvin to check out couches to finally replace the green "stab you in the back with a spring" couch. Yes college friends (specifically Aaron, Tim, Ross, and Devin) we still have that couch. It was originally Devin's, then he moved back to Vermont and Aaron Tim and Ross inherited it, and finally Jared and I when we all left IU. I should also mention that the couch was second hand when Devin bought it. . .it has seen many butts.
Of course Jared and I didn't agree on anything, but we finally found a couch and love seat that we were both pretty happy with. So while we were at Darvin, we decided to look at tables. . .just for fun. Dangerous words! We've been looking at tables for about a year now and we have never found one that we both liked. Of course they have a new table in that we haven't seen before, and of course we both love it. But we were only going to get the couch and love seat. So we decided not to buy anything that night, sleep on it all, and remeasure the living room to make sure the couch would fit the room. Jared went back to the store Monday night without me and bought the couch and love seat.
So Thursday night we moved the old couch and the over sized chair down into the basement. We decided to keep it because sometime in the future we will finish the basement and we will need furniture down there. Better the old couch then nothing at all right? Well, Friday morning when I woke up and walked downstairs, I was surprised to find the kitchen table and chairs were missing. In it's place was a note on the floor from Jared, which he must have left before going to work that morning. He bought the couch, love seat, table and the matching hutch/server (he is so sneaky). True it was a bit much, but that's why we've been working so hard right? Jared didn't want to take the risk of the table and hutch not being there when we went back in a few months to buy it.
Our family room/kitchen no longer looks like our old family room/kitchen. All this new pretty stuff; it's just so amazing, I love it so much. Merry early Christmas to the Butler House! It all feels too good to be true.
And for the icing on the cake I got to unwrap all my Grandma's china and put it in the hutch. Service for 12 is a ton of dishes to wash (Dinner plates, luncheon plates, dessert plates, soup bowls, ice cream bowls, coffee cups, saucers, the list goes on)! Unwrapping it from the news paper really did feel like Christmas in October.
The table is counter top height and has six chairs, we had to send 2 of them back because they were damaged. The table has leaves that fold under on each side so when they are all up the table is an oval shape, and will seat eight comfortably I think.
Here is the new love seat, the couch looks exactly the same just with three cushions.
This is my favorite one. Since we don't have a formal dining room I think this "wine server" works great as a hutch for Grandma's china. I was shocked it all fit in it.
Of course Jared and I didn't agree on anything, but we finally found a couch and love seat that we were both pretty happy with. So while we were at Darvin, we decided to look at tables. . .just for fun. Dangerous words! We've been looking at tables for about a year now and we have never found one that we both liked. Of course they have a new table in that we haven't seen before, and of course we both love it. But we were only going to get the couch and love seat. So we decided not to buy anything that night, sleep on it all, and remeasure the living room to make sure the couch would fit the room. Jared went back to the store Monday night without me and bought the couch and love seat.
So Thursday night we moved the old couch and the over sized chair down into the basement. We decided to keep it because sometime in the future we will finish the basement and we will need furniture down there. Better the old couch then nothing at all right? Well, Friday morning when I woke up and walked downstairs, I was surprised to find the kitchen table and chairs were missing. In it's place was a note on the floor from Jared, which he must have left before going to work that morning. He bought the couch, love seat, table and the matching hutch/server (he is so sneaky). True it was a bit much, but that's why we've been working so hard right? Jared didn't want to take the risk of the table and hutch not being there when we went back in a few months to buy it.
Our family room/kitchen no longer looks like our old family room/kitchen. All this new pretty stuff; it's just so amazing, I love it so much. Merry early Christmas to the Butler House! It all feels too good to be true.
And for the icing on the cake I got to unwrap all my Grandma's china and put it in the hutch. Service for 12 is a ton of dishes to wash (Dinner plates, luncheon plates, dessert plates, soup bowls, ice cream bowls, coffee cups, saucers, the list goes on)! Unwrapping it from the news paper really did feel like Christmas in October.
The table is counter top height and has six chairs, we had to send 2 of them back because they were damaged. The table has leaves that fold under on each side so when they are all up the table is an oval shape, and will seat eight comfortably I think.
Here is the new love seat, the couch looks exactly the same just with three cushions.
This is my favorite one. Since we don't have a formal dining room I think this "wine server" works great as a hutch for Grandma's china. I was shocked it all fit in it.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Pumpkin Carving!
Last weekend was our annual pumpkin carving party/night with Daniela, Greg, Christine and Kevin.
This year we splurged and bought a 4 dollar pumpkin carving kit with little saws and tools so we could do something a little more challenging. I copied the face for our pumpkin off a Halloween party facebook invite that I thought was cool. Normally I would just free hand the drawing on the pumpkin with a sharpie, but the kit we bought had this neat transfer wheel thingy that punctures the paper and makes a little pattern on the pumpkin to guide you when you carve it.
There was one big oops in the carving process where we carved an eyebrow into the eye space, but we were able to fix it by making the other eye larger and the one we messed up on larger yet. I think it still came out pretty spooky. And of course I love him for his big toothy evil smile!
On a side note my mother has started bringing over all my old stuff from the house that I didn't even know she kept. I came home from work the other day to find this in my living room. :-)
Two of the boxes have a bunch of music boxes that were gifts from my parents for Christmas in my early years and the other contains about 40 porcelain figurines of animals that I used to collect/play with when I was a tween. What to do with these things? I am NOT a pack rat and I hate keeping old junk, but on the other hand some of them do hold special memories. Do I really want them to sit in a box in my basement forever just for a memory? I haven't really decided yet but I'm leaning towards keeping only one of the music boxes from my first Christmas (it's a Noah's Ark). I thought maybe when Jared and I have a baby it would be a cute keep sake for the baby's room. The little figurines? I think I may just pitch or try and sell on craigs list. Anybody like little porcelain animals?
Are you wondering what is in the two big clear bins? Those I'm really excited about, my Grandma's beautiful china. Now. . . .if only I had something to put it in. . . .
This year we splurged and bought a 4 dollar pumpkin carving kit with little saws and tools so we could do something a little more challenging. I copied the face for our pumpkin off a Halloween party facebook invite that I thought was cool. Normally I would just free hand the drawing on the pumpkin with a sharpie, but the kit we bought had this neat transfer wheel thingy that punctures the paper and makes a little pattern on the pumpkin to guide you when you carve it.
There was one big oops in the carving process where we carved an eyebrow into the eye space, but we were able to fix it by making the other eye larger and the one we messed up on larger yet. I think it still came out pretty spooky. And of course I love him for his big toothy evil smile!
On a side note my mother has started bringing over all my old stuff from the house that I didn't even know she kept. I came home from work the other day to find this in my living room. :-)
Two of the boxes have a bunch of music boxes that were gifts from my parents for Christmas in my early years and the other contains about 40 porcelain figurines of animals that I used to collect/play with when I was a tween. What to do with these things? I am NOT a pack rat and I hate keeping old junk, but on the other hand some of them do hold special memories. Do I really want them to sit in a box in my basement forever just for a memory? I haven't really decided yet but I'm leaning towards keeping only one of the music boxes from my first Christmas (it's a Noah's Ark). I thought maybe when Jared and I have a baby it would be a cute keep sake for the baby's room. The little figurines? I think I may just pitch or try and sell on craigs list. Anybody like little porcelain animals? Are you wondering what is in the two big clear bins? Those I'm really excited about, my Grandma's beautiful china. Now. . . .if only I had something to put it in. . . .
Friday, October 23, 2009
Garage Sale Find!
I had an excellent find at a garage sale two weeks ago, I've just been so busy I haven't been able to blog about it.
It was the weekend that Elise came to stay with us so I dragged her and Jared out to some garage sales with me since my Mom had other obligations on Sat morning. Neither one of them wanted to go. . .but
Look what we found!
Jared and I really don't have any storage in the house, so I figured this would work great as storage or a work bench for Jared. The best part is how much we paid, only $15 bucks for the cabinet and counter top (they were asking 20 for both, but every seasoned garage saler knows you NEVER pay the sticker price, especially when it's the last day of the sale. heh). The people at the sale were super nice and even threw in a finishing kit for the sides of the counter top for free, AND offered to deliver it to our house free of charge. We had brought my parents Saturn Vue with us so we didn't have to take them up on it, but what nice people! To top it off Elise also found a pair of $50 dollar shoes (that looked like they may have only been worn once) and paid only $1.50. So now Jared and Elise can't make fun of garage sales, because clearly they are awesome. It's so fun finding deals.
It was the weekend that Elise came to stay with us so I dragged her and Jared out to some garage sales with me since my Mom had other obligations on Sat morning. Neither one of them wanted to go. . .but
Look what we found!
Jared and I really don't have any storage in the house, so I figured this would work great as storage or a work bench for Jared. The best part is how much we paid, only $15 bucks for the cabinet and counter top (they were asking 20 for both, but every seasoned garage saler knows you NEVER pay the sticker price, especially when it's the last day of the sale. heh). The people at the sale were super nice and even threw in a finishing kit for the sides of the counter top for free, AND offered to deliver it to our house free of charge. We had brought my parents Saturn Vue with us so we didn't have to take them up on it, but what nice people! To top it off Elise also found a pair of $50 dollar shoes (that looked like they may have only been worn once) and paid only $1.50. So now Jared and Elise can't make fun of garage sales, because clearly they are awesome. It's so fun finding deals.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Smurfs or Fairies?
Jared and I are having a debate right now about what's going on in our front yard. I say it's a fairy ring, Jared says the Smurfs have moved in. We already have a moat and a enchanted garden next door. . .obviously fairies are the next logical step. :-)
I know it's hard to see because of the leaves on the ground, but the mushrooms are clearly in a ring pattern (with the big bunch at the bottom of the ring). Jared says Smurf city with Smurf suburbs. He also added we have Gargamel living in the shack of a house across the street from us. What do you think?
Here are a few other pictures I took today. . .
The last of the fall colors in our back yard
Ready for Trick or Treaters!
I know it's hard to see because of the leaves on the ground, but the mushrooms are clearly in a ring pattern (with the big bunch at the bottom of the ring). Jared says Smurf city with Smurf suburbs. He also added we have Gargamel living in the shack of a house across the street from us. What do you think?
Here are a few other pictures I took today. . .
The last of the fall colors in our back yard
Ready for Trick or Treaters!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Upcoming Holiday Excitement
I was watching old videos that Jared and I took on our camera last Christmas and it made me super excited about two things.
One: we are inheriting my parents old Christmas tree so we won't have the small/falling apart Charlie Brown tree any more in our beautiful living room.
Two: I've always been obsessed with fire places in general, but it's especially bad around the holidays. I don't know if you are familiar with the Comcast "Yule Log" onDemand feature, but it was constantly on in our apartments around holiday time since I loved the music/crackling fire seasonal sounds. No more Yule Log for us this year (not to mention we got rid of comcast and went with U-verse so it's not even an option) REAL fire in our own fire place!
One: we are inheriting my parents old Christmas tree so we won't have the small/falling apart Charlie Brown tree any more in our beautiful living room.
Two: I've always been obsessed with fire places in general, but it's especially bad around the holidays. I don't know if you are familiar with the Comcast "Yule Log" onDemand feature, but it was constantly on in our apartments around holiday time since I loved the music/crackling fire seasonal sounds. No more Yule Log for us this year (not to mention we got rid of comcast and went with U-verse so it's not even an option) REAL fire in our own fire place!
Monday, October 19, 2009
A Wedding and More!
I think this past weekend was probably one of the busiest weekends Jared and I have had in a long time (minus weekend trips to visit family). Saturday I stood up in my good friends Danielle and Matt's wedding and Sunday we had a day visit down to Starved Rock with Daniela and Greg.
Friday night started off with the rehearsal and a tasty dinner at Gordan Biersch Brewery with the wedding party and all our significant others. I still to this day don't really understand the rehearsal for a wedding. What's to it? You walk down the aisle and then the priest/pastor tells you what to do for the rest. I suppose it's an excuse to have a nice pre-wedding dinner. I think my favorite part of the rehearsal was when the wedding coordinator for the church told us if the priest smelled even the slightest bit of alcohol on us pre-wedding he held the right to call it off. . . yeesh. I didn't think we looked that much like a crazy bunch, but it made me laugh.
Saturday started bright and early at 8:30 at a salon to get the whole bridal party's hair done. They shut down the entire salon and had a breakfast snacks and drinks for us which was really neat.
After we loaded up on hair spray it was off to Danielle's parents house to finish getting ready and take our pre-ceremony pictures. While I was busy with bridal party activities Jared spent the morning cleaning because we were coming back to our house after the ceremony to take pictures in our back yard.
The rest of the day was a whirlwind of vows, pictures, a pit stop at Jewel for a snack before the reception (I was so mad I left my camera on the bus for that one), and a great party with some pretty amazing people. My personal highlight for the day was the fact I was able to wear my contacts pretty much the entire day pain free! I didn't think I would be able to wear them but my eyes felt great. I guess the last pair bothered me so much because the fit wasn't quite right. I still don't think I can wear them every day, but it's so nice knowing that I can for special occasions.
Jared and Greg weren't able to sit with Daniela and I because we were in the bridal party but they had a blast at the "Ficus" table with their new Ficus friends. All of the wonderful people we were able to hang out with is definitely what pushed the wedding over the edge with awesomeness. We're hoping to see all of them again soon.
Some how on Sunday, after we partied all night, Daniela and Greg were able to convince us to take a trip down to Starve Rock where we hiked all day and enjoyed the peaking fall colors.
Friday night started off with the rehearsal and a tasty dinner at Gordan Biersch Brewery with the wedding party and all our significant others. I still to this day don't really understand the rehearsal for a wedding. What's to it? You walk down the aisle and then the priest/pastor tells you what to do for the rest. I suppose it's an excuse to have a nice pre-wedding dinner. I think my favorite part of the rehearsal was when the wedding coordinator for the church told us if the priest smelled even the slightest bit of alcohol on us pre-wedding he held the right to call it off. . . yeesh. I didn't think we looked that much like a crazy bunch, but it made me laugh.
Saturday started bright and early at 8:30 at a salon to get the whole bridal party's hair done. They shut down the entire salon and had a breakfast snacks and drinks for us which was really neat.
After we loaded up on hair spray it was off to Danielle's parents house to finish getting ready and take our pre-ceremony pictures. While I was busy with bridal party activities Jared spent the morning cleaning because we were coming back to our house after the ceremony to take pictures in our back yard.
The rest of the day was a whirlwind of vows, pictures, a pit stop at Jewel for a snack before the reception (I was so mad I left my camera on the bus for that one), and a great party with some pretty amazing people. My personal highlight for the day was the fact I was able to wear my contacts pretty much the entire day pain free! I didn't think I would be able to wear them but my eyes felt great. I guess the last pair bothered me so much because the fit wasn't quite right. I still don't think I can wear them every day, but it's so nice knowing that I can for special occasions.
Jared and Greg weren't able to sit with Daniela and I because we were in the bridal party but they had a blast at the "Ficus" table with their new Ficus friends. All of the wonderful people we were able to hang out with is definitely what pushed the wedding over the edge with awesomeness. We're hoping to see all of them again soon.
Some how on Sunday, after we partied all night, Daniela and Greg were able to convince us to take a trip down to Starve Rock where we hiked all day and enjoyed the peaking fall colors.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
New Vacuum
I know this seems like a trivial thing to blog about, but Jared and I are just so amazed with our new vacuum that I figured I'd write a quite note about it.
For the past 7 years we have used Jared's old Eureka vacuum that he bought in college. I'm pretty sure it worked well when he first got it, but the past few years we have been loosing our battle against cat hair in the carpets. I've never owned a pet that shed before and I just assumed that you can never get all the hair. . .oh I was so wrong. What really pushed me over the edge to get a new vacuum was when Daniela was helping me unpack/clean the house when we first moved in. She was using our vacuum and I believe her exact words went something like "No wonder you hate your cat so much with the shedding, this vacuum doesn't get s***!"
Even though I knew she was right I put off getting a new vacuum because there was so many other things that we needed for the house. After all, we did have a vacuum, so we didn't really have to get a new one even if it didn't work so well.
Today Jared and I splurged and bought a new Bissel Pet Vacuum. It was on sale at Kohl's and Jared got a 20% off coupon from Dan and Steph so we figured it was a good deal and it was time to buy.
All I'll say is this. . . .just in the family room alone we had to empty the canister for the vacuum twice. It was SO gross. And now are carpets look brand new. Totally worth the 117 dollars. Every penny!
Anybody want to buy a slightly used Eureka vacuum for cheap? ;D
For the past 7 years we have used Jared's old Eureka vacuum that he bought in college. I'm pretty sure it worked well when he first got it, but the past few years we have been loosing our battle against cat hair in the carpets. I've never owned a pet that shed before and I just assumed that you can never get all the hair. . .oh I was so wrong. What really pushed me over the edge to get a new vacuum was when Daniela was helping me unpack/clean the house when we first moved in. She was using our vacuum and I believe her exact words went something like "No wonder you hate your cat so much with the shedding, this vacuum doesn't get s***!"
Even though I knew she was right I put off getting a new vacuum because there was so many other things that we needed for the house. After all, we did have a vacuum, so we didn't really have to get a new one even if it didn't work so well.
Today Jared and I splurged and bought a new Bissel Pet Vacuum. It was on sale at Kohl's and Jared got a 20% off coupon from Dan and Steph so we figured it was a good deal and it was time to buy.
All I'll say is this. . . .just in the family room alone we had to empty the canister for the vacuum twice. It was SO gross. And now are carpets look brand new. Totally worth the 117 dollars. Every penny!
Anybody want to buy a slightly used Eureka vacuum for cheap? ;D
Friday, September 25, 2009
10 Year Reunion and a Grill
Last weekend was quite a busy weekend for the Butler household. Friday afternoon we made the long drive down to Jared's hometown of Henderson Kentucky for his 10 year high school reunion. Jared was a little disappointed at the reunion since not many people showed up, but the weekend was still a ton of fun seeing family, Lucas and Mary, and Amanda and Stephen.
Henderson County High School Class of 1999!
Saturday was spent with the Couch family seeing our ever growing 3 nephews. I can't believe that Sam is going to be 5 years old in October. It's really true that once you have a child (even though it's a nephew) you really see the years going by faster as you get older. My childhood and teen years felt like forever to me, but my 20's are flying by!
Another fun recent event was our Beatles Rock Band/Inaugural Grill party. We didn't think we were going to be able to get a grill this year, but my parents surprised us with one as a house warming gift! So we decided to break in the grill by throwing a small get together with our close friends and of course Pat brought the video game entertainment. I'm not a huge Rock Band player (my attention span starts fading after about 4-5 songs) but Beatles Rock Band kept my attention the entire night. All the songs are so fun to sing, and it's really cool how 3 people get to sing together to try and make harmonies. We didn't harmonize that well, but it was a blast anyway.
Greg loves to grill. . .a lot :)
This was going to be our mock "Faith Plus One" cover shoot photo (it's a south park gag) but I think I made Jared and Matt laugh right when I took the picture. It still came out cute.
Henderson County High School Class of 1999!
Saturday was spent with the Couch family seeing our ever growing 3 nephews. I can't believe that Sam is going to be 5 years old in October. It's really true that once you have a child (even though it's a nephew) you really see the years going by faster as you get older. My childhood and teen years felt like forever to me, but my 20's are flying by!
Another fun recent event was our Beatles Rock Band/Inaugural Grill party. We didn't think we were going to be able to get a grill this year, but my parents surprised us with one as a house warming gift! So we decided to break in the grill by throwing a small get together with our close friends and of course Pat brought the video game entertainment. I'm not a huge Rock Band player (my attention span starts fading after about 4-5 songs) but Beatles Rock Band kept my attention the entire night. All the songs are so fun to sing, and it's really cool how 3 people get to sing together to try and make harmonies. We didn't harmonize that well, but it was a blast anyway.
Greg loves to grill. . .a lot :)
This was going to be our mock "Faith Plus One" cover shoot photo (it's a south park gag) but I think I made Jared and Matt laugh right when I took the picture. It still came out cute.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Car Issues
This past week has been quite a stressful week for Jared and I. It all started the Friday before Labor Day when my car started running loudly. We took the car to our local mechanic around 3pm on Friday. The mechanic took a quick look at it and said he wouldn't be able to really diagnose the problem until after the holiday weekend. Boo! So Tuesday rolls around and we get the dreaded phone call that it's an engine problem our mechanic doesn't work on, and we should take it to the dealer. To make the story short the timing chain and the fuel pump needed to be replaced resulting in a $2,100 dollar bill from the dealer. Ouch. . . .it's just been a hard decision on whether or not to replace my car with a newer one. It's not something that we really want to do since we just bought a house and don't really have a down payment for one. So we took the chance, crossed our fingers and fixed the car. Hopefully we won't have any more major issues for at least a year (2100 dollars is probably around 6-7 months of car payments, so we better at least get that much out of it). As for me I'm done with this car and I'm going into super saver mode to save up enough to get a new-ish car. I think it's pretty safe to say the next major thing that goes wrong with it, it's going to be replaced. It's been such a head ache for me specifically having to drive Jared to work and pick him up. I'm in the car for like 3-3.5 hours a day, which makes me really grouchy/road ragey with Chicago traffic in rush hour AND all the construction that's going on right now. I'm not sure what I want to replace the car with yet, but I think Jared and I have agreed it's going to be a hatch back or a station wagon. I really want an SUV, but I don't think that's practical with the gas mileage since this will be our primary car (especially when we have a family). So keep your fingers crossed for us blog readers! Maybe we'll get lucky and the car will last 2 more years w/out problems. . .you never know :D
On an up note we had a wonderful Labor day with a visit from Jared's mom, step dad and little brother. It was great to have a nice low key visit with no major plans. The weekend was spent eating lots of yummy food and enjoying each others company. Pretty perfect if you ask me :) two of my favorite things.
On an up note we had a wonderful Labor day with a visit from Jared's mom, step dad and little brother. It was great to have a nice low key visit with no major plans. The weekend was spent eating lots of yummy food and enjoying each others company. Pretty perfect if you ask me :) two of my favorite things.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
The Deck Project
When I originally thought of sanding and staining the deck I imagined it being a small project taking only a full day of work, maybe two. Turns out our deck is rather large and it's been quite an undertaking.
Jared started sanding the deck last Sunday and Monday. Then it rained the rest of the week so we couldn't work on it. We resumed our work on Saturday and spent the entire day with the two of us sanding the deck. I thought for sure with both of us working we would get the deck stained on Saturday, but it took the entire day just to finish the sanding.
Today is Sunday and we were going to spend the entire day staining the deck. Again I thought with a full 8-10 hours of two people working on it, it would get done. We only bought a gallon of stain, thinking that would be plenty for our deck. My parents stain our cabin with only about 2.5 gallons so surely that would be enough. So when 5pm rolled around not only were we physically running low, we were also running low on stain. We used the entire gallon and got some of the railing and all of the floor done. I think we'll need at least 1, if not 2 more gallons to stain the underside and the rest of the railings and stairs.
Jared was also excited because he got to cut a portion of the deck off. One of the floorboards was sticking up a little because of a support that was too high. He borrowed Dave's reciprocating saw, cut a little of the post (about a 1/2 inch), and voila the board is now flush.
The weather is supposed to be nice the rest of the week so hopefully we'll finish before Friday when Jared's family arrives.
This was before when we started sanding:
And here is what we finished today:
It looks finished but the stairs, underside, and outside of the railings (only accessible from a ladder) still need to be stained. . .oye! :)
Jared started sanding the deck last Sunday and Monday. Then it rained the rest of the week so we couldn't work on it. We resumed our work on Saturday and spent the entire day with the two of us sanding the deck. I thought for sure with both of us working we would get the deck stained on Saturday, but it took the entire day just to finish the sanding.
Today is Sunday and we were going to spend the entire day staining the deck. Again I thought with a full 8-10 hours of two people working on it, it would get done. We only bought a gallon of stain, thinking that would be plenty for our deck. My parents stain our cabin with only about 2.5 gallons so surely that would be enough. So when 5pm rolled around not only were we physically running low, we were also running low on stain. We used the entire gallon and got some of the railing and all of the floor done. I think we'll need at least 1, if not 2 more gallons to stain the underside and the rest of the railings and stairs.
Jared was also excited because he got to cut a portion of the deck off. One of the floorboards was sticking up a little because of a support that was too high. He borrowed Dave's reciprocating saw, cut a little of the post (about a 1/2 inch), and voila the board is now flush.
The weather is supposed to be nice the rest of the week so hopefully we'll finish before Friday when Jared's family arrives.
This was before when we started sanding:
And here is what we finished today:
It looks finished but the stairs, underside, and outside of the railings (only accessible from a ladder) still need to be stained. . .oye! :)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Settling In
Lots of little things have been going on lately so I thought I'd update the blog.
Last weekend we purchased our first lawn mower! We were hoping to wait until September to purchase it (after all the big bills from the move have been paid) but the weather did not cooperate and it rained so much that the lawn needed to be mowed. Yes we could have borrowed my parents lawn mower but September was only a week away so I caved. I'm pretty happy so far with it. We opted for a Honda self propelled mower. It was a little pricey but it has a lot of nice features, of which my favorite is the blade brake over ride. This feature allows the blade to stop when you take your hand off the handle (that's a federal law) but instead of killing the engine to do this which happens on most mowers, the engine stays on! It's really nice if you need to stop and move something in the yard while you are mowing. We have a lot of trees, terracing, and these little plastic covers on the gutter drains in the yard which I'm sure would get sucked up easily in the mower. It will sure come in handy.
We also got our first mortgage bill in the mail! dum dum dummmmmmmm! It's exactly the amount we expected. . .so no surprises. We also paid 100 dollars over the balance. In the long run this will cut 4 years off the mortgage and save us 40 something thousand dollars in interest. I feel so responsible :) Now I'm just on pins and needles waiting for our first utility bills. Hopefully they won't be too bad since the weather has been cool. We will also be receiving water and gas bills as well, which we never got in the apartment. I used to spend at least 40 bucks a month in laundry money at the apartment, I'm sure that will cover at least the water bill. . .so really the only new bill will be the gas. Oh the joys of home ownership! It's so worth it though.
Jared and I also started our first house project last Sunday, sanding and staining our deck! Unfortunately with the lawn mower shopping we weren't able to start until late in the day so we only got the stairs and a few boards sanded. It's rained this whole week so I'm crossing my fingers it's dry tomorrow so we can finish. We borrowed my dad's belt sander and our neighbors lent us their circular sander so that's really sped up the process. Thank you Daddy and Dave!
My next small project is going to be painting the downstairs half bath. We don't have the spare cash to decorate the larger rooms so I'm starting with something small. The room just looks so bla with the cream colored sink and toilet and cream colored walls. . .yuck. So depending on weather and how the deck goes I may start working on that this weekend too!
Last weekend we purchased our first lawn mower! We were hoping to wait until September to purchase it (after all the big bills from the move have been paid) but the weather did not cooperate and it rained so much that the lawn needed to be mowed. Yes we could have borrowed my parents lawn mower but September was only a week away so I caved. I'm pretty happy so far with it. We opted for a Honda self propelled mower. It was a little pricey but it has a lot of nice features, of which my favorite is the blade brake over ride. This feature allows the blade to stop when you take your hand off the handle (that's a federal law) but instead of killing the engine to do this which happens on most mowers, the engine stays on! It's really nice if you need to stop and move something in the yard while you are mowing. We have a lot of trees, terracing, and these little plastic covers on the gutter drains in the yard which I'm sure would get sucked up easily in the mower. It will sure come in handy.
We also got our first mortgage bill in the mail! dum dum dummmmmmmm! It's exactly the amount we expected. . .so no surprises. We also paid 100 dollars over the balance. In the long run this will cut 4 years off the mortgage and save us 40 something thousand dollars in interest. I feel so responsible :) Now I'm just on pins and needles waiting for our first utility bills. Hopefully they won't be too bad since the weather has been cool. We will also be receiving water and gas bills as well, which we never got in the apartment. I used to spend at least 40 bucks a month in laundry money at the apartment, I'm sure that will cover at least the water bill. . .so really the only new bill will be the gas. Oh the joys of home ownership! It's so worth it though.
Jared and I also started our first house project last Sunday, sanding and staining our deck! Unfortunately with the lawn mower shopping we weren't able to start until late in the day so we only got the stairs and a few boards sanded. It's rained this whole week so I'm crossing my fingers it's dry tomorrow so we can finish. We borrowed my dad's belt sander and our neighbors lent us their circular sander so that's really sped up the process. Thank you Daddy and Dave!
My next small project is going to be painting the downstairs half bath. We don't have the spare cash to decorate the larger rooms so I'm starting with something small. The room just looks so bla with the cream colored sink and toilet and cream colored walls. . .yuck. So depending on weather and how the deck goes I may start working on that this weekend too!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Eye update
I was going to put this in my last post but for some reason it wouldn't let me type below the pictures I posted.
I went to the eye doctor yesterday for my 30 day follow up and he said I still have the blepharitis in both eyes. Ugh. I actually am getting used to my glasses, but I really hate not being able to wear make up. I told the doctor that I have Jared's 10 year reunion to go to September 19th and I'm also standing up to a wedding October 17th and I'd really like to be able to wear make up and contacts to both those events. So now I'm still on the Azithromycin ointment and I'm also on an oral antibiotic. I don't know how much you know about doxycylin but it's a pretty yucky antibiotic. Here is a list of just a few rules/restrictions that go with it:
-No prolonged sun exposure (it's summer! ick)
-No dairy (you all know how much I love cheese and ice cream. . . . )
-Has to be taken on an empty stomach, no eating an hour after or 2 hours before taking
-No getting pregnant (we are not trying to have a baby, but apparently it mutates babies which is scary for accidental pregnancy)
-Drink with at least 8-10 oz water, this one isn't a problem I drink tons of water already
-No laying down for 30 min after taking
-Lots of bad GI side effects
So I have to be on this for the next 30 days at least. The good news is, is that it doesn't seem to be getting worse. The other ointments/treatments he had me doing after about 2 weeks it would start to get worse again. With the Azith ointment I seem to be just slowly getting better. You really can't see any redness anymore it just feels a little funny still to me. Also the doctor apparently could still see these "soap bubbles" in my eyes still which indicates the infection is still present.
The "empty stomach" rule and the no dairy rule are going to be the hardest. I'm trying to look at it positively. . .I've been meaning to cut back my cheese and ice cream eating to help with my cholesterol, this is the prefect time to start. :)
More good news is the doctor said although my tears were "mildly turbid" my eyes seemed to be tearing ok and he sees no reason why I won't be able to be in contacts once we kick the infection! So far so good. I also think I'm going to try disposable soft contact lenses instead of my gas perm ones. The doctor said the blepharitis is going to be a chronic reoccurring problem I figured I didn't want to worry about disinfecting hard lenses and if it was ok I'd like to switch. He asked me why I was wearing hard lenses and I told him my eye doctor told me they'd stabilize my vision (my vision is really bad). At this point he went off about how he "strongly disagrees" with that statement and it's a fallacy that hard contacts promote good vision. He said my vision would change whether I wore hard or soft lenses. Hmmmmm makes me wonder who is right. Since I went into hard contacts I felt my vision didn't change so much, but maybe that was just a coincidence? Maybe I will get a third opinion. What do you guys think?
I went to the eye doctor yesterday for my 30 day follow up and he said I still have the blepharitis in both eyes. Ugh. I actually am getting used to my glasses, but I really hate not being able to wear make up. I told the doctor that I have Jared's 10 year reunion to go to September 19th and I'm also standing up to a wedding October 17th and I'd really like to be able to wear make up and contacts to both those events. So now I'm still on the Azithromycin ointment and I'm also on an oral antibiotic. I don't know how much you know about doxycylin but it's a pretty yucky antibiotic. Here is a list of just a few rules/restrictions that go with it:
-No prolonged sun exposure (it's summer! ick)
-No dairy (you all know how much I love cheese and ice cream. . . . )
-Has to be taken on an empty stomach, no eating an hour after or 2 hours before taking
-No getting pregnant (we are not trying to have a baby, but apparently it mutates babies which is scary for accidental pregnancy)
-Drink with at least 8-10 oz water, this one isn't a problem I drink tons of water already
-No laying down for 30 min after taking
-Lots of bad GI side effects
So I have to be on this for the next 30 days at least. The good news is, is that it doesn't seem to be getting worse. The other ointments/treatments he had me doing after about 2 weeks it would start to get worse again. With the Azith ointment I seem to be just slowly getting better. You really can't see any redness anymore it just feels a little funny still to me. Also the doctor apparently could still see these "soap bubbles" in my eyes still which indicates the infection is still present.
The "empty stomach" rule and the no dairy rule are going to be the hardest. I'm trying to look at it positively. . .I've been meaning to cut back my cheese and ice cream eating to help with my cholesterol, this is the prefect time to start. :)
More good news is the doctor said although my tears were "mildly turbid" my eyes seemed to be tearing ok and he sees no reason why I won't be able to be in contacts once we kick the infection! So far so good. I also think I'm going to try disposable soft contact lenses instead of my gas perm ones. The doctor said the blepharitis is going to be a chronic reoccurring problem I figured I didn't want to worry about disinfecting hard lenses and if it was ok I'd like to switch. He asked me why I was wearing hard lenses and I told him my eye doctor told me they'd stabilize my vision (my vision is really bad). At this point he went off about how he "strongly disagrees" with that statement and it's a fallacy that hard contacts promote good vision. He said my vision would change whether I wore hard or soft lenses. Hmmmmm makes me wonder who is right. Since I went into hard contacts I felt my vision didn't change so much, but maybe that was just a coincidence? Maybe I will get a third opinion. What do you guys think?
Feels Like Home
This Saturday will be the 2 week mark of living in the house. It has really been a dream come true I love it so much. Even the hard work is fun because we are working on something that is ours and it's something we've worked, saved, and sacrificed for for the past 5 years.
Everything is pretty much unpacked. The only big thing we have left to do is organize the kitchen and pantry again. After we put everything away some stuff just didn't seem to be in the right cabinets. The pantry is nice because it's so big, but the problem is the shelves are so deep if you push stuff to the back and it's impossible to see or reach. I think we are going to try and purchase some small shelves for the shelves. . .heh.
Here are some before pictures
And here are some after photos.
Everything is pretty much unpacked. The only big thing we have left to do is organize the kitchen and pantry again. After we put everything away some stuff just didn't seem to be in the right cabinets. The pantry is nice because it's so big, but the problem is the shelves are so deep if you push stuff to the back and it's impossible to see or reach. I think we are going to try and purchase some small shelves for the shelves. . .heh.
Here are some before pictures
And here are some after photos.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The first few days
The move into the house went very smoothly. This was because we did such a great job packing and had Daniela, Greg, Brian, Sarah, Pat, and Tim to help us move. What great friends! Only one piece of furniture was broken slightly and after several discussions about where to put the over the toilet cabinet and not being able to come to an agreement about it, Jared and I have decided to just throw it away ("I had to use lose lose on that one". . .for all you office fans out there :)
A really frustrating part about the move was that the master bedroom and the family room carpets needed to be stretched before we could move furniture into them, so we could only unpack so far on Sunday. The carpet stretchers were supposed to come at 10am on Monday, and then we had scheduled at&t to come between 12 and 2 to install the cable, internet, and phone. Timing was important because we had to get the t.v. and things into the rooms in time for the cable guy to hook stuff up. Of course the only 2 rooms we couldn't move things into were the rooms that the cable t.v. was going into. 10am rolls around and no carpet guys. Jared calls the store and the owner said the contractors never showed up this morning (nice of them to call and tell us right??). Great, so after calming Jared down we just threw the big t.v. into the family room and the small one in the master bedroom. The cable guy shows up and says he needs to check things out outside before he can work inside. He comes back after 10 min and says the signal isn't strong enough to the house and he has to call the "outside work guys" to fix it before he can work inside. So basically that day we were 0 for 2. It was very frustrating waiting around all day and nothing getting accomplished. It all worked out in the end though, the carpet guys ended up coming around 5 on Monday and the cable guy was able to get back on Tuesday.
The kitchen sink was an easy fix for Jared. Here you can see him hard at work.
Nothing else has gone wrong so far except for some confusion with the dishwasher. On Sat when Daniela, Sarah, and I started unpacking the kitchen we loaded up the dishwasher to wash all the glasses. I turned the dial and nothing happened. For about an hour I was swearing in my head about another thing breaking and having to buy a new appliance already. The boys got back from moving the last few pieces of furniture and started helping us work on the dishwasher. After about 10 min of checking breakers and looking underneath it Greg stood next to the counter, looked at a light switch above the dishwasher and said "This surely isn't it is it?" and he flips the switch and the dishwasher roars to life. . . .yeesh. Apparently it's hooked up to a switch. So weird. After we discovered that I want to say the house inspector may have told us it, but honestly I can't remember.
We decided to hang the stained glass Daniela bought me for my birthday in the window over the kitchen sink.
This is the new bathroom set we bought for the guest bathroom (excuse the tags, I forgot to cut them off :)
Who knew stainless garbage cans were so expensive?! We had to buy a new one because there was no room under the sink for our old one. 95 dollars, ugh.
This is one of my favorite purchases. We put the kitty litter box in the basement and installed a cat door in the basement door! No more litter tracked all over the house! YAY! Unfortunately the cat is too much of a wimp to push the flap with her head so it will have to stay a hole for a while till we can teach her to go through it with the door.
I think that's about it for now. I will post some finished room pictures at the end of the week when everything is unpacked.
A really frustrating part about the move was that the master bedroom and the family room carpets needed to be stretched before we could move furniture into them, so we could only unpack so far on Sunday. The carpet stretchers were supposed to come at 10am on Monday, and then we had scheduled at&t to come between 12 and 2 to install the cable, internet, and phone. Timing was important because we had to get the t.v. and things into the rooms in time for the cable guy to hook stuff up. Of course the only 2 rooms we couldn't move things into were the rooms that the cable t.v. was going into. 10am rolls around and no carpet guys. Jared calls the store and the owner said the contractors never showed up this morning (nice of them to call and tell us right??). Great, so after calming Jared down we just threw the big t.v. into the family room and the small one in the master bedroom. The cable guy shows up and says he needs to check things out outside before he can work inside. He comes back after 10 min and says the signal isn't strong enough to the house and he has to call the "outside work guys" to fix it before he can work inside. So basically that day we were 0 for 2. It was very frustrating waiting around all day and nothing getting accomplished. It all worked out in the end though, the carpet guys ended up coming around 5 on Monday and the cable guy was able to get back on Tuesday.
The kitchen sink was an easy fix for Jared. Here you can see him hard at work.
Nothing else has gone wrong so far except for some confusion with the dishwasher. On Sat when Daniela, Sarah, and I started unpacking the kitchen we loaded up the dishwasher to wash all the glasses. I turned the dial and nothing happened. For about an hour I was swearing in my head about another thing breaking and having to buy a new appliance already. The boys got back from moving the last few pieces of furniture and started helping us work on the dishwasher. After about 10 min of checking breakers and looking underneath it Greg stood next to the counter, looked at a light switch above the dishwasher and said "This surely isn't it is it?" and he flips the switch and the dishwasher roars to life. . . .yeesh. Apparently it's hooked up to a switch. So weird. After we discovered that I want to say the house inspector may have told us it, but honestly I can't remember.
We decided to hang the stained glass Daniela bought me for my birthday in the window over the kitchen sink.
This is the new bathroom set we bought for the guest bathroom (excuse the tags, I forgot to cut them off :)
Who knew stainless garbage cans were so expensive?! We had to buy a new one because there was no room under the sink for our old one. 95 dollars, ugh.
This is one of my favorite purchases. We put the kitty litter box in the basement and installed a cat door in the basement door! No more litter tracked all over the house! YAY! Unfortunately the cat is too much of a wimp to push the flap with her head so it will have to stay a hole for a while till we can teach her to go through it with the door.
I think that's about it for now. I will post some finished room pictures at the end of the week when everything is unpacked.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Officially Ours!
Jared at the closing when they gave us the keys to the house. He looks slightly scary I think :)We closed on the house today so we are officially home owners. I have heard horror stories about closings not going well, being postponed or taking hours to complete. Our closing only took an hour. Our lawyer was really nice and explained things very simply, and our financing only took about 20 min to clear. Other then signing my name about 20 times it was really quite pleasant.
It still doesn't seem official yet, I think everything will set in tomorrow when we sleep there. I'm very excited for the new place. As I'm typing this (at 9:30 at night) our noisy neighbors below us are yelling in Hindi on their porch and blowing cigarette smoke up into our apartment. . .ugh, I will be so happy to be rid of them.
After the closing Jared and I went to the house and were greeted with a bottle of wine from the seller and a nice spread of sandwich makings, chips, soda, and cookies all in our fridge from our real estate agent. After eating a picnic dinner in the middle of our family room we rented a rug shampooer and I cleaned all the carpets while Jared cleaned the kitchen and all the bathrooms. While Jared was cleaning he encountered our first problem with the house (that sure didn't take long). Apparently the left side of the kitchen sink is leaking a little from where the drain connects with the plumbing. An easy fix, but still. . . .we've only owned the house for 4 hours. . .don't we get a little honeymoon period where nothing goes wrong? I'm glad it's a cheap and quick fix though, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.
We'll be moving at 10am tomorrow! Feel free to stop by and help us out.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
It's growing!
Pretty much everything is packed except for a select few dishes, clothes in the dressers, and bathroom stuff!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Packing!
We started packing today! One of the benefits of having a husband that works in shipping is we were able to get lots of really nice boxes. (Notice if you enlarge the photo 3 of those big boxes are labeled DVD's. . . yeah, we own way too many movies)
I was putting this off for so long, and I still think we are doing this a little early. We don't have that much stuff! Jared and I have been packing for maybe 5 hours and we have at least 1/2 of the apartment ready to go. Now I have to live for the next 6 days with all our stuff in boxes where the kitchen table used to be. I can't wait till this whole ordeal is over.
Below is a picture of our make shift packing station for fragile things. Jared is quite resourceful. Well I should probably get back to packing. More to come soon!
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Almost Puppy
When I got home from Jenny's baby shower on Sunday I pulled into a parking space and saw this out my front windshield.
Now if you know me at all I grew up with mini schnauzers and this little guy looks exactly like a mini schnauzer puppy. So I looked around and didn't see any owners. He was shaking like a leaf and was really dirty. I tried to call him over but he wouldn't move, so I crouched down and slowly approached him. He growled a little when I first came up to him, but I let him smell my hand and he seemed ok. After waiting about 10 minutes nobody came around to claim him I decided to take him up to the apartment. Greg and Jared came home from fishing and I showed them what I found. At this point the puppy was totally relaxed, playing and being super cute. Yes I wanted to keep him, but he was wearing a collar (no tags though). The collar was super small and too tight for his neck, so that combined with his dirty state made me think he may have been missing for a while. Sooooo, I called the police department and they said somebody had reported a missing puppy fitting the description. Turns out he was from the apartment complex across the way. I felt good knowing I was returning him to his family, but a part of me was hoping nobody was looking for him.
Normally it sounds like a happy ending for the puppy but when I returned him to the lady she told me he has only been missing for 2 hours. This made me a little upset because if he was only missing for 2 hours I doubt he should have looked the way he did (really dirty, icky collar). She asked me where his collar was and I told her I thought it was too small for him and I took it off. She stated, "oh it will pop off if it's too small" ummm, no!. . . . .she also told me that the "other" dogs got out too. I asked how many and she said they have 3 other dogs besides the puppy. In an apartment! Yeesh. I also asked how they got out, and she said she didn't know, and they "must have pushed the door open or something." I hate people that don't take care of their animals so although I did a good deed, I felt crummy thinking maybe he would have been better off with a new family.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Insurance
I know this is the way it is with owning a house, but it always seems like there is something else to do. Right now we're in the process of picking home owners insurance. We were originally going to just go with State Farm (they do our renters and car insurance now), but we got a quote from a local insurance company that was a little cheaper. I'm still leaning towards State Farm, they are a large company and we've been really happy with them over the years. If we wanted a cheaper deal with the local company we would have to switch our car insurance to them to get the multiple line discount. . . .eh, we'll see. I doesn't hurt to shop around.
I think Jared and I are going to start packing this weekend. He wanted to start 2 weeks ago, but the idea of living around boxes and in chaos for a whole month was horrible sounding to me. I think it's finally time. I suppose we could just hide all the boxes in the 2nd bedroom. I don't feel the pressure to get everything done because we have the apartment till November. All we need to do is get the big stuff over there and the smaller things we can move over slowly. I hate moving. Hopefully this will be the last time, or at least for a very long time.
If anybody reads my facebook, you know my eye issues still aren't cleared up. So here is the story in a nut shell. I have blepharitis, it's an eyelid infection associated with the oil glands around your eye. It's a stubborn infection and it's normal to take a month or 2 to get cleared up. The doctor said my case is a really bad/stubborn one. Right now he has me on azithromycin ointment for the next 30 days. If that doesn't work he said he'll put me on an oral antibiotic. The idea of this lasting 2 months is so depressing. I'm really worried it won't clear up. The doctor already told me it's usually a chronic condition and I will probably get this again in a year or 2. That I suppose I can handle, but the last time I was there he said I may not be able to wear my contacts the way I have been wearing them. I guess my right eye isn't tearing enough and it could cause irritation. I suppose I should be thankful that at least he said I'll be able to wear them again. What's really bothering me is the waiting to get better. At least these next 3 weeks are going to be really busy, that will hopefully make the time fly by.
I think Jared and I are going to start packing this weekend. He wanted to start 2 weeks ago, but the idea of living around boxes and in chaos for a whole month was horrible sounding to me. I think it's finally time. I suppose we could just hide all the boxes in the 2nd bedroom. I don't feel the pressure to get everything done because we have the apartment till November. All we need to do is get the big stuff over there and the smaller things we can move over slowly. I hate moving. Hopefully this will be the last time, or at least for a very long time.
If anybody reads my facebook, you know my eye issues still aren't cleared up. So here is the story in a nut shell. I have blepharitis, it's an eyelid infection associated with the oil glands around your eye. It's a stubborn infection and it's normal to take a month or 2 to get cleared up. The doctor said my case is a really bad/stubborn one. Right now he has me on azithromycin ointment for the next 30 days. If that doesn't work he said he'll put me on an oral antibiotic. The idea of this lasting 2 months is so depressing. I'm really worried it won't clear up. The doctor already told me it's usually a chronic condition and I will probably get this again in a year or 2. That I suppose I can handle, but the last time I was there he said I may not be able to wear my contacts the way I have been wearing them. I guess my right eye isn't tearing enough and it could cause irritation. I suppose I should be thankful that at least he said I'll be able to wear them again. What's really bothering me is the waiting to get better. At least these next 3 weeks are going to be really busy, that will hopefully make the time fly by.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Wishful Thinking
Jared and I are sitting on the couch talking about all the things we want to get for the house. (Regardless of how much they cost.) Here is what we came up with.
Jared's List:
Pool Table
Plasma T.V.
Garden
Finished Basement
New Fish Tank
Kristen's List:
Master Bedroom Set
Couches
Kitchen Table with 6 chairs
Hardwood Floors on the entire main floor
Piano
Closet Organizers
Nice Bookshelves
Here are the things we need to buy:
Lawn Mower
Hose
New Locks
I'm sure there will be a million and one other things we will have to get. I think you kind of discover those things once you have a house. It will be a fun adventure.
Jared's List:
Pool Table
Plasma T.V.
Garden
Finished Basement
New Fish Tank
Kristen's List:
Master Bedroom Set
Couches
Kitchen Table with 6 chairs
Hardwood Floors on the entire main floor
Piano
Closet Organizers
Nice Bookshelves
Here are the things we need to buy:
Lawn Mower
Hose
New Locks
I'm sure there will be a million and one other things we will have to get. I think you kind of discover those things once you have a house. It will be a fun adventure.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The Numbers Are In
We got the appraisal numbers today! To be quite honest we were a little disappointed. We were hoping the house would appraise for at least 10k over what we paid and it ended up appraising for only 2k over. It is still good news though don't get me wrong :) We are definitely happy. I think the big down side is that the walk out basement isn't finished. Once we do that it will add a lot of value to the property.
We are not quite sure what is next in the process. . . .I'll post more news if we hear anything. All we may have to do is get a giant check from the bank and drive to town on the 31st!!! Only 3 more weeks to go.
We are not quite sure what is next in the process. . . .I'll post more news if we hear anything. All we may have to do is get a giant check from the bank and drive to town on the 31st!!! Only 3 more weeks to go.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Almost There!
All the paper work was sent in today for our mortgage application and we found out the appraisal is happening this week. So if things go well we should know by Friday what the house appraises for. Cross you fingers! I've heard some horror stories from other friends that are buying/building this year about really low appraisals. The worst one being my friend John who is building a brand new house that appraised for less then it cost him to build it! So ridiculous. The close date is set for July 31st at 3pm.
Now the next decision to make is when to move. The problem with this decision is we are helping my mom out by driving up to our cabin with her the weekend after we close on the house. The reason she wants us to do this is so we can drive the car back by ourselves and she can ride home with dad when he comes back. Driving 11 hours by yourself sucks. The following weekend is Danielle's bridal shower, the weekend after that I work, so that takes us already to the 4th weekend in August. We don't really want to wait 4 weeks to move. . . .how can you resist such a beautiful house! So it's looking like we may try and move the day after we close, and leave for Minnesota the next day. . . oye.
Eye update: I'm on another 10 days of antibiotic eye drops for my stupid eyes. It's been almost 4 weeks now I've been dealing with this. I'm really at the end of my rope. I keep thinking with the luck I've been having when I get my 300 dollar brand new pair of contacts my vision will have changed and I won't be able to see out of them (if the infection ever goes away that is). It's hard not to be a little pessimistic at this point. I want new eyes for my birthday.
Now the next decision to make is when to move. The problem with this decision is we are helping my mom out by driving up to our cabin with her the weekend after we close on the house. The reason she wants us to do this is so we can drive the car back by ourselves and she can ride home with dad when he comes back. Driving 11 hours by yourself sucks. The following weekend is Danielle's bridal shower, the weekend after that I work, so that takes us already to the 4th weekend in August. We don't really want to wait 4 weeks to move. . . .how can you resist such a beautiful house! So it's looking like we may try and move the day after we close, and leave for Minnesota the next day. . . oye.
Eye update: I'm on another 10 days of antibiotic eye drops for my stupid eyes. It's been almost 4 weeks now I've been dealing with this. I'm really at the end of my rope. I keep thinking with the luck I've been having when I get my 300 dollar brand new pair of contacts my vision will have changed and I won't be able to see out of them (if the infection ever goes away that is). It's hard not to be a little pessimistic at this point. I want new eyes for my birthday.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Money money money!
Jared and I have decided to go straight to the lender for our loan. All of the estimates we've got so far have been pretty similar, and I really don't want to pay a broker.
Mortgages are very annoying and confusing. There are a billion and one little details on those stupid legal size sheets and I don't understand half of it. My one piece of knowledge I've taken from this is: in addition to mortgage costs you have to pay for a year of home owners insurance up front. . .yeesh. More money.
We also learned we MAY have to do some kind of counseling before we close on the house. This is so ridiculous. Jared and I have excellent credit scores, 20 percent down payment, no debt, and steady good paying jobs. . . .counseling. . .pfffft. It's not our fault people made dumb choices and made the real estate market tank. Oh well, we might not have to do it. We shall see.
So tomorrow we lock in our mortgage rate and that will be the last big decision for the house. Jared keeps singing "It's the final countdown." I'm pretty sure the only major thing left in the process is the appraisal. We feel pretty confident the house will appraise for what we bid, if not more. . .but I suppose you never know. I can't wait for this all to be over.
On a personal note, I went to the eye specialist on Friday. I have some kind of bad eye infection in both eyes. The doctor said it should clear up fine, it might take 2 weeks though. I've been in hell not being able to wear my sunglasses. I go back Thursday for a follow up. Wish me luck.
Mortgages are very annoying and confusing. There are a billion and one little details on those stupid legal size sheets and I don't understand half of it. My one piece of knowledge I've taken from this is: in addition to mortgage costs you have to pay for a year of home owners insurance up front. . .yeesh. More money.
We also learned we MAY have to do some kind of counseling before we close on the house. This is so ridiculous. Jared and I have excellent credit scores, 20 percent down payment, no debt, and steady good paying jobs. . . .counseling. . .pfffft. It's not our fault people made dumb choices and made the real estate market tank. Oh well, we might not have to do it. We shall see.
So tomorrow we lock in our mortgage rate and that will be the last big decision for the house. Jared keeps singing "It's the final countdown." I'm pretty sure the only major thing left in the process is the appraisal. We feel pretty confident the house will appraise for what we bid, if not more. . .but I suppose you never know. I can't wait for this all to be over.
On a personal note, I went to the eye specialist on Friday. I have some kind of bad eye infection in both eyes. The doctor said it should clear up fine, it might take 2 weeks though. I've been in hell not being able to wear my sunglasses. I go back Thursday for a follow up. Wish me luck.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
House Gets a Clean Bill of Health!
I finally got word from our real estate lawyer that all the paper work went through on the radon, and the house now tests at .9 instead of 33 for the radon. Yay! Tonight we are meeting with the broker to talk dollars and cents, so hopefully that will go well.
On a down note I'm home again from work because of eye issues. I'm hoping it's just a reaction to the ointment the doctor gave me Monday. I've been waiting 2 hours for the nurse to call me back. At any rate my eye hurts and is irritated again, so I'm home from work since I can't see that great. Ugh! I'm falling apart!
On a down note I'm home again from work because of eye issues. I'm hoping it's just a reaction to the ointment the doctor gave me Monday. I've been waiting 2 hours for the nurse to call me back. At any rate my eye hurts and is irritated again, so I'm home from work since I can't see that great. Ugh! I'm falling apart!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Financing
The major house project we are tackling this week is financing for the house. We already have been pre-approved for a couple of loans, but since we are ideal first time home buyers we figure we can shop around a bit for some new loans. I doubt we'll have trouble being approved.
As far as I know there are two ways to go about it. . .a broker, or going directly to the lender/bank and applying. Right now we're mainly talking to a broker that our real estate agent recommended, but he has not given us solid numbers yet. I know brokers charge a fee for their services, I just have no idea how much that is. It seems the numbers he's given us are the cheapest compared to the other brokers we've looked at. But nowhere did we see him list HIS fee. It was always just closing costs listed. If it's minimal I won't mind paying to save ourselves the head ache, but if it gets expensive I'd rather do the leg work ourselves and save the extra money to buy new couches. :)
On a side note the weekend was super busy. Saturday I worked in the morning, and Jared and I went to the Kane County Cougars game and had a picnic dinner (all paid for by a periodontist my office refers patients to. Can't beat a free night of fun!) Sunday we went with Daniela and Greg to an antique fair in Sandwich and had another picnic lunch. It's neat looking at all the old trinkets and furniture. I managed to survive the weekend with only a mild sunburn too! All in all, a very successful and fun weekend.
As far as I know there are two ways to go about it. . .a broker, or going directly to the lender/bank and applying. Right now we're mainly talking to a broker that our real estate agent recommended, but he has not given us solid numbers yet. I know brokers charge a fee for their services, I just have no idea how much that is. It seems the numbers he's given us are the cheapest compared to the other brokers we've looked at. But nowhere did we see him list HIS fee. It was always just closing costs listed. If it's minimal I won't mind paying to save ourselves the head ache, but if it gets expensive I'd rather do the leg work ourselves and save the extra money to buy new couches. :)
On a side note the weekend was super busy. Saturday I worked in the morning, and Jared and I went to the Kane County Cougars game and had a picnic dinner (all paid for by a periodontist my office refers patients to. Can't beat a free night of fun!) Sunday we went with Daniela and Greg to an antique fair in Sandwich and had another picnic lunch. It's neat looking at all the old trinkets and furniture. I managed to survive the weekend with only a mild sunburn too! All in all, a very successful and fun weekend.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Laundry Rant
As most of you know, laundry at the apartment is probably one of the things I most dread doing. Not for the fact that I hate doing laundry, but the fact that we live in a unit of mostly 2 and 3 bedroom apartments and each of the 7 other apartments hold families with 87 billion kids each. Which means that there is ALWAYS somebody doing laundry. There are 2 machines and they are never free when I want them. My favorite day to do laundry is Sunday and Friday. . . .yeah, 8am to 9pm the machines are being used by the family across the hall. . . .gr.
Recently I have found that if I start laundry as soon as I get home from work on Thursdays (around 2:30) the machines have been free. For the past few months my claimed laundry day has remained undisturbed, and I have been semi-happy. (unhappy for the fact that I get up at 5:30 in the morning and work all day. . .laundry is not exactly what I want to do first thing when I get home) Until recently. . . . a new family has moved in and started doing laundry on Thursday afternoons. I got home late a week or so ago (around 3) and found the new family starting laundry! *&%#$@^!&#$%$^#&@%^!!!! Is all I had to say about that.
So today I rushed home from work to hopefully beat the new family and what do I find? Both of the washers open, both of the dryers open, but a mystery basket with a load of dirty laundry and detergent on the floor. What is the correct way to proceed? (Immediately I thought the new family knew I wanted to do laundry and put a "dummy" basket of laundry on the washers to keep me from beating them to it. . .hahahaha, I know I'm ridiculous. . .but it did really cross my mind, I just didn't take it seriously) Well, I waited 15 min and after nobody came I started just one load. I left the other washer open just in case somebody were to walk in (despite my anger, I do not want to be a bad neighbor). After the 25 min wash I went down again to start my next load, and who do I find but the nice lady that lives next door starting a load. So then I told her how I waited 15 min and nobody showed up and that was why I started a load. Next she asks if the mystery basket is mine. . . I told her no. . .and asked if it was hers. She told me no and said she thinks that that basket has been sitting in the laundry room for at least a week. What the heck????? You'd think somebody would miss their basket and clothes. I HATE community laundry.
It's almost reason enough to buy a house for me. I can't wait until August.
Recently I have found that if I start laundry as soon as I get home from work on Thursdays (around 2:30) the machines have been free. For the past few months my claimed laundry day has remained undisturbed, and I have been semi-happy. (unhappy for the fact that I get up at 5:30 in the morning and work all day. . .laundry is not exactly what I want to do first thing when I get home) Until recently. . . . a new family has moved in and started doing laundry on Thursday afternoons. I got home late a week or so ago (around 3) and found the new family starting laundry! *&%#$@^!&#$%$^#&@%^!!!! Is all I had to say about that.
So today I rushed home from work to hopefully beat the new family and what do I find? Both of the washers open, both of the dryers open, but a mystery basket with a load of dirty laundry and detergent on the floor. What is the correct way to proceed? (Immediately I thought the new family knew I wanted to do laundry and put a "dummy" basket of laundry on the washers to keep me from beating them to it. . .hahahaha, I know I'm ridiculous. . .but it did really cross my mind, I just didn't take it seriously) Well, I waited 15 min and after nobody came I started just one load. I left the other washer open just in case somebody were to walk in (despite my anger, I do not want to be a bad neighbor). After the 25 min wash I went down again to start my next load, and who do I find but the nice lady that lives next door starting a load. So then I told her how I waited 15 min and nobody showed up and that was why I started a load. Next she asks if the mystery basket is mine. . . I told her no. . .and asked if it was hers. She told me no and said she thinks that that basket has been sitting in the laundry room for at least a week. What the heck????? You'd think somebody would miss their basket and clothes. I HATE community laundry.
It's almost reason enough to buy a house for me. I can't wait until August.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Daniela's Graduation Party
This was last weekend. We played bags until it got too dark, then the party was moved inside for some Rock Band and Sequence. Here is a sneak peak of the action. . . I don't think the guys will ever be professional "bag" players.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Fabulous Day!
We had two very big pieces of good news today!!! The first being that (unofficially, it's not in writing yet) the customer is going to resign their contract with Jared's company, which means he will have job security again for another two years!! Second is I called our real estate lawyer and he said that (also unofficially, it's not in writing yet) he talked to the owners of the house and they are willing to take care of the radon problem before we close! I actually jumped around the back room at work I was so excited about the news.
To top off all the good news we got today, I also had a wonderful day at work full of extremely easy patients, AND the last season of Gilmore Girls is finally airing on ABC Family channel so I finally get to see how the show ends. Jared is at the Sox game tonight with all his fellow managers from work, so that also means I get to watch the first episode tonight on the dvr. AND I'm having left over spaghetti for dinner (one of my favorite meals). . . .oh man, such a good day!
To top off all the good news we got today, I also had a wonderful day at work full of extremely easy patients, AND the last season of Gilmore Girls is finally airing on ABC Family channel so I finally get to see how the show ends. Jared is at the Sox game tonight with all his fellow managers from work, so that also means I get to watch the first episode tonight on the dvr. AND I'm having left over spaghetti for dinner (one of my favorite meals). . . .oh man, such a good day!
Friday, June 5, 2009
More Radon Stuff
We still do not have a final answer on what is going to happen with the radon problem with the house. With Jared out of the country all last week, it was hard to make decisions since he didn't have cell phone service down there. We are still telling the sellers we want the problem fixed before we close on the house. Our lawyer is on a conference till Friday afternoon so we probably won't hear anything about it till Monday. I don't see why they would not fix it since the money they offered at closing was more then the estimate we got to fix the problem. It's in their best interest to fix it themselves. But who knows with these things.
This weekend will be a busy one with work, Daniela's dental school graduation party and another visit from Lucas! I'm sure I'll take lots of pictures to post on Facebook.
This weekend will be a busy one with work, Daniela's dental school graduation party and another visit from Lucas! I'm sure I'll take lots of pictures to post on Facebook.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Radon update and furniture
Well we are still negotiating about the radon. As of now the sellers offered us a thousand dollars at closing to take care of the problem after we own the house. I don't feel comfortable about this because what if the problem costs even more to fix or can't be fixed at all? We got a quote of 850 for the mitigation system and 125 for the retest. You all know me, I'm a cautious person, I told our real estate agent to tell them we want it fixed with a normal reading before we close. So we shall see how that goes. Lung cancer is not something to over look.
We also went furniture shopping this weekend. Nothing serious, but we just wanted to get an idea of what we like and how much stuff costs. Man. . . .nice furniture is expensive. We're hoping to have enough money left over (after closing costs and the down payment) to at least buy one or two pieces of new furniture. I was leaning towards a couch and a love seat for the family room.
Ok, I have a side note about this story. We looked at couches and love seats. . . they are almost the same ridiculous price! Riddle me this, (if space wasn't a problem), why would you pay 900 dollars for a couch and 875 for a love seat? Why wouldn't you just get two couches? It's so stupid. I think the price should significantly drop, it's one less seat! That's a lot! I also learned that there are crazy sales over national holidays. Everything in the store was 1/2 price!!! So we are definitely waiting till Labor Day to buy the furniture.
I really won't care if the house is empty for a few years. We'll be living there for a long time and will fill it eventually. Just don't make fun of our "dorm room" decor. :-D At least we will have Daniela and Greg's old couches for the living room, they look pretty, they just aren't very comfy in my opinion.
We also went furniture shopping this weekend. Nothing serious, but we just wanted to get an idea of what we like and how much stuff costs. Man. . . .nice furniture is expensive. We're hoping to have enough money left over (after closing costs and the down payment) to at least buy one or two pieces of new furniture. I was leaning towards a couch and a love seat for the family room.
Ok, I have a side note about this story. We looked at couches and love seats. . . they are almost the same ridiculous price! Riddle me this, (if space wasn't a problem), why would you pay 900 dollars for a couch and 875 for a love seat? Why wouldn't you just get two couches? It's so stupid. I think the price should significantly drop, it's one less seat! That's a lot! I also learned that there are crazy sales over national holidays. Everything in the store was 1/2 price!!! So we are definitely waiting till Labor Day to buy the furniture.
I really won't care if the house is empty for a few years. We'll be living there for a long time and will fill it eventually. Just don't make fun of our "dorm room" decor. :-D At least we will have Daniela and Greg's old couches for the living room, they look pretty, they just aren't very comfy in my opinion.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Inspections galore
Jared and I decided to create a blog about our house buying process. We figured it would be a good idea since half of our friends and family don't live in Illinois.
As most of you know the bid on Logan St house was accepted last weekend. So that meant this week we had to do all the inspections. The general and termite inspections went well, but the radon did not. A normal level of radon in a house should be 0-4 pCi/l, and the Logan house tested at 33.1!!! So structurally the house is great. . .it just gives you lung cancer. At first we were worried because we heard putting in a mitigation system can be a little pricey (around 1200 dollars), but we talked to our real estate agent and she said that the owners will probably pay to put it in, or we will pay for it but they will take the cost out of the price of the house. We should find out soon what is going to happen. I bet the guy that owned the house will be freaked out when he finds out he's been breathing that for the past 10 years. Maybe time to see a doctor to check his lungs.
Other plans for the weekend include grilling out and playing cards. Should be a fun one.
As most of you know the bid on Logan St house was accepted last weekend. So that meant this week we had to do all the inspections. The general and termite inspections went well, but the radon did not. A normal level of radon in a house should be 0-4 pCi/l, and the Logan house tested at 33.1!!! So structurally the house is great. . .it just gives you lung cancer. At first we were worried because we heard putting in a mitigation system can be a little pricey (around 1200 dollars), but we talked to our real estate agent and she said that the owners will probably pay to put it in, or we will pay for it but they will take the cost out of the price of the house. We should find out soon what is going to happen. I bet the guy that owned the house will be freaked out when he finds out he's been breathing that for the past 10 years. Maybe time to see a doctor to check his lungs.
Other plans for the weekend include grilling out and playing cards. Should be a fun one.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)