It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

FINALLY!!!!!!!! I am in the new house. After a long, frustrating, and very stressful few months, I can finally breathe again! I am gradually getting boxes unpacked and things put away in their new place. Getting the Christmas tree up was top priority

And I'm loving the new fireplace! Matthew better get busy chopping wood, because I plan to have a fire as often as I can!! It's so relaxing to sit on the couch with the fire burning and the Christmas tree lit up! I even "splurged" on $2 stockings at WalMart!

Now if I can just make it through these last 3 days of work, I can enjoy my much needed holiday break!

And the fun never stops.

So we've hit a small bump in the road of house selling.

Ok, so maybe not quite such a small bump in the road. It's actually a large bump. So tonight, I have no toilet and tomorrow morning I have no shower. Fun times.

So yeah, the white hole there? That's where the toilet should be. Anyway. Hopefully tomorrow the sub floor can be put back and they can restore some resemblance of tile. And then maybe once that's set, I can get my toilet back. And THEN after all that, maybe I can sell the stupid house and get MY NEW HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!

The “to do” list keeps growing and growing…

Busy days! How will I ever get it all done? One step at a time I guess. Right now the focus is on getting my stuff packed up and ready to move so that as soon as we have access to the new house we can get all my stuff out of this house! I love my little house, and I will miss it. We've had an awesome 10 years together. It's so cozy, and it's home. It will be weird to make a new place home. I will miss the train coming by every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Cocoa won't miss that at all! I'll miss being only 30 seconds away from work. I'll miss being able to walk with Cocoa up to the armory pond so he can swim. But for everything that I'll miss, I'm sure my new house will have new things for me to love!

 

I'm getting excited about Christmas, but haven't even started shopping yet. Usually I'm almost done by the end of October. I haven't had time to think about it much this year! Guess I'll have to get on that soon. Christmas will be here before we know it. One of the first things I want to do when I get to the new house is get my tree up and hang our stockings. I've never had a fireplace before. Now Santa won't have to use the door!

 

I've also been busy with wedding plans. Or honeymoon plans actually. We're working on getting our trip booked. That's what I'm looking forward to most. After selling, buying, moving, and the whole wedding deal, we NEED a vacation. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!

and the circle is complete....

So.......not only did I fine a buyer for my house, but I found a house to buy!!! woo hoo! and it's the house that we've really wanted all along. So that means that I'll be busy over the next month packing boxes and getting ready to move. What a pain. BUT...I will be in my new house by Christmas.

Where did I get all this stuff that has piled up in my house?? As I'm packing I have several different boxes. Some go to the new house, some go to CCAPS, and some to the dumpster. Time to clean out some of this junk that I don't use.

What a lot of changes in my life at once. But I'm looking forward to every one of them!! How nice it will be to have all my stuff and all the dogs in one place. And to have Matthew in the same house with me all the time! Well until I kick him out to the shop for awhile anyway. :-)

That’s what faith can do

So today several very exciting things happened in my life. Well, maybe just a couple of exciting
things. But BIG things. First of all…..I got my ring back! It's the perfect size. J I feel much better now that I have it back. Yay. I'm getting married.

 

AND then the girl who looked at my house yesterday made an offer!!!! After the whole counter offer acceptance thing, we reach an agreeable price. Pending appraisal, inspection, and her loan approval we close Nov 27^th . WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Now to find a place for me to live…..

Basketball season is here again

So I am home by myself for the evening. The plan is to spend some much needed quality time with the TiVo. The poor thing is almost full and if I don't clean it off, it won't get Grey's on Thursday.

We've been working on getting the Honeymoon planned. I think we've decided on the Sandals resort in St Lucia. I'm so looking forward to our week in "paradise!" Matthew & I have never been on vacation together before AND we will finally be MARRIED!!!!

We've found a house that we really like (since the other one sold) but we are still waiting for a buyer for mine. It was shown today so I'm hoping to hear good news in the next couple of days. I would SO love to know where I'm going to live and what my house looks like before we register for our wedding. We've got two houses full of all the traditional wedding gifts and don't need dishes and stuff. March will be here before we know it!!!

Gotta take the bad with the good…..

Ok, so the house that we made an offer on is no longer a possibility.  Some one else made an offer and had the money right now whereas we still need to sell my house before we can move forward with anything.  I guess that just means that this wasn’t the one for us.  So….next week we are back to the drawing board as far as houses go….

BUT!  On a much happier note, I am now ENGAGED!!!!!!  Never thought I’d see the day but here it is!  Let the wedding whirlwind begin!

I love where I’ve been, but I don’t look back….

Ahh…sitting here in my pajamas after a nice bubble bath, playing on the computer and watching TV. Just the first of many nights to come. Basketball season has started again, so I will be spending lots of time by myself at night. It's nice to relax most nights, and especially tonight, but after a couple of weeks, it gets really lonesome and I miss my honey. BUT he is making money, so I cannot complain. But I probably will anyway.

 

Still at a standstill on the house. Today we renewed our offer on the new house for another 30 days. Probably my house will sell and I will have a limited time to move out…in a week where Matthew has a ball game every single night. Things always seem to happen in a whirlwind and all at once. That's okay. At least they will be happening.

 

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Maybe even a date with my sweetie tomorrow night? J

All I want is what you got….

Still no news on the house. No offers yet. Our deadline is getting closer…….

 

Had an awesome weekend with family. We had a get together to celebrate the 6 September birthdays and to draw names for Christmas. Lots of yummy food that I ate too much of. The older I get, the more I love our family get togethers. It's soooo important to spend time with those that you love because you never know when that time will be gone forever.

 

The weather here is beautiful. We're finally feeling some fall temperatures along with our sunshine. I should have my butt and my IPod at the track walking this afternoon. But tonight is Bible study and CCAPS meeting, so guess I better not get hot and sweaty. The people I sit by tonight might not appreciate that. J Guess I'll have to save the track for tomorrow afternoon.

Never thought I’d be in love like this….

I am so content with where I am in life right now. As I listen to others talk about their problems with their relationships and hard choices they're having to make, I look back on times where I wasn't happy and had hard choices to make. And I'm so glad that I made the choices I did. I have a wonderful man who loves me and makes me happy. I love the fact that he is in my life, not because I "need" someone in my life, but because I want HIM in my life. Don't get me wrong, our relationship isn't perfect and hasn't always been the way it is now, but we've grown together and worked through our problems. And continue to work through problems. Together. We both do our share and pull our weight. Love is not just a feeling, it's a commitment. And I'm very grateful for the love that God has put into my life!

There will be a day….

Okay, so no pictures of the cake. It didn't really turn out quite like I had in mind in the beginning. After going to WalMart and buying the fondant and icing color and reading the instructions, I quickly scratched the fondant idea and just used the ready made icing in a can. J Thank you Pilsbury! I kept the fondant and still intend on using it….but that's a project for a day when there is no deadline and I have nothing else to do. Besides, the cake tasted good even if it was UGLY!!!!

 

Still no offers on the house, but we are showing it again tomorrow. Maybe this is the perfect house for whoever is looking tomorrow. I'm so ready just to know something for sure, and to go ahead and get things settled so I can move!! Especially since Matthew starts refereeing the end of October. I won't see him again til March.

 

I'm so lucky to have so much to look forward to. And lucky to only have such minor problems as ugly cakes and keeping the floor mopped to show my house. After a deep conversation with a friend this afternoon about things I had no idea she was going through, I realized that my problems are nothing more than minor annoyances. There are so many people that we come in contact with everyday who are dealing with things that are so overwhelming they almost can't function in a normal capacity. And we never even know how bad they're hurting on the inside. I'm so blessed to only have minor problems! I'll keep my ugly cake and dirty floor any day.

I love your love the most

So our house is now officially FOR SALE! Yay! The sign went in the yard Monday, and we showed it for the first time Friday afternoon. Hopefully we'll get an offer soon. Or at least show it several more times in the next week. Glad that the sun is shining now…maybe it will dry up the yard a little. It's hard to keep the kitchen floor clean for showings with a muddy backyard and an inside dog the size of a small pony. I'm very impatient and wish we could get an offer on the house tomorrow! We have 30 days to sell ours according to the offer on the "new" house. Come on, somebody! It's a great house for an SAU student…right here close to the school…rent out the extra bedroom and get some help paying bills!

Once I get laundry finished today, I'll be attempting to make a sugar free birthday cake. I can't decide whether I should put it in a rectangular pan or try two round pans. Sugar free usually doesn't rise a lot, so it may be a funny looking round cake. We'll see! Maybe I'll post a pic if it isn't too ugly. J

Progress

We are moving right along getting the house ready to sell! The painters are here today working on the outside and will be doing some work inside tomorrow. We put the last pickets on the gate last night. Just need a latch. I went this morning and bought a new heating element for the oven. Hopefully Matthew can get that put in this weekend. We're getting down to only one or two things left on the "to do" list! I need to get busy cleaning out and making things look nice so we can start showing the house! We've found one that we really like. Now it's just a matter of seeing about a loan and hopefully getting an offer on my house. Can't wait to see what is in store!

love where I am, love what I do.....

Getting ready for another busy week! Maybe this one will a little less eventful than the last few. I'm not complaining....it's all been good, but I'm ready for a little "normalcy." I SO enjoyed my experience filming the movie, and I will definitely do it again if given the opportunity. It was neat to see the way things are done to make the movies that we all enjoy watching. It was also cool to get the chance to see the "stars" in their working environment and to see them as real people rather than just the characters they play. I would never be able to keep movie star hours though. I'm all for sleeping during the dark time. :-)

Licensure has finally come and gone. And on the day I was gone. Whew. Couldn't have worked that out any better. LoL. Nothing major. I'm anal about my paperwork, so I know it's pretty close to perfect, but even I forget and overlook things, so it always makes me nervous when they're going through my stuff with a fine tooth comb. It's always a big relief when they come and GO!

More house hunting on the agenda for this week. So far nothing that I've walked in and instantly felt that "this is the one." Maybe I won't find that.....but I'm still looking. Have done lots of work at my house this weekend to get it ready to go on the market. All air vents have been scrubbed and have fresh paint. Matthew and his Dad hung the gate yesterday. Still need a few more pickets, but that's it on the fence. Cleaned out my huge closet and packed away things that are too little. There were a lot of those. :-( (I really need to get back on my excercise schedule). Donated two big boxes to CCAPS. Now I'm working on cleaning out the bathroom closet. Who knew I had so much Bath & Body Works lotion!! The painter should be here near the end of the week. We're getting close!!!

Am loving this weather! Wish it were cool enought ro raise the windows and turn off the air for the afternoon. Not quite there yet!

the eve of my movie making debut

So I'm sitting here trying to stay up as late as I can so that I can sleep late in the morning and maybe it will be easier to stay up ALL NIGHT tomorrow night! LoL. I'm old and used to going to bed at 9:30. How in the world am I gonna stay up all night? Maybe there will be enough excitement and other stuff going on that I won't be sleepy! Wonder if they'll reschedule if it rains? We'll be prepared...taking ponchos....but still, how miserable to sit for 12 hours in the rain. :-)

Looked at a few houses today. Absolute no on one of them. One was a great house with almost no backyard. Not really compatible with 4 dogs. And absolutely NO room for a pool. :-( The last one we looked at was AWESOME. Matthew was in love with the shop before we ever even looked in side the house. He would prob live in the shop (which was bigger that my house is now...or at least it seemed that way) Plenty of room for a pool. But too much yard (3 acres) according to Matthew. Loved the house, loved the location. I like that you could stand out in the front yard and not see the other houses nearby or cars passing on the road. There's also a pond. It didn't really excite me that much. Although it was very peaceful to look at. Hmmm.....guess we can put that one on our list of possibililties.

Hoping all the children have a great first day back at school tomorrow. Can't believe Alec is in the 5th grade. Went to meet his teachers today and was really pleased. They both seemed very nice and I believe he's going to have another great year this year.

Well....it's after 11. But I'm getting tired. Haha! At least I stayed up almost 2 hours past my normal bedtime!

Well, guess that wasn't the path I was meant to walk.....so I'll keep walking the one I'm on. Maybe down the road a little further, I'll find a path even better than this one! My prayer was that if this was the right decision, that things would go smoothly. Things didn't go at all, so I guess that is my answer. :-) Something better will come along that is better suited for us.

you spin my head right round

So August is turning out to be even busier than I thought. Not only with work but lots going on at home too! Have spent all this time making sure that things are in place to run smoothly when the time is right. I believe we may have started the ball rolling. I'm praying tonight that if this is the right decision, things will go as planned and if not, I can remember that He knows best and will work it out they way that He sees fit for me. Guess I will continue to pray and see what tomorrow brings!

Another lazy Sunday afternoon

Am enjoying a lazy day today. Matthew is out mowing since today in the first day of sunshine in a very long while. I'm spending time here with laundry, vacumming, cleaning, and a full TiVo. Got a lot to do to get ready for another work week. I only worked 3 days last week because of a conference in Little Rock (which was a waste of time! at least I got 12 training hours out of it) Very glad to be back at home in my own bed with my own routine!

August will be a busy month for me! This will be a big week at the preschool. All 32 of our kindergarteners will be graduating on Friday. It's amazing how much progress they've made...especially the ones that we've had since their 3rd birthday! The next week, we'll only work 3 days, then Mrs. Sara is taking us to Hot Springs for a retreat! But the next week is the one I'm looking forward to the most. I'll be going to Shreveport to be in a scene being filmed for a movie to be released in August 2010. I'm not sure what to expect, but I think it will be cool to see how things are done in the movie business. Who knows....I might have missed my calling. :-)

my favorite summer accessory

These flip flops are my favorite summer accessory for two reasons:

1. They are TECH flip flops! Enough said.

2. They were a gift from Matthew last Christmas. He knows what I like!

You are who you are, no matter where I am.....

Today has been an easy day. Work was not too stressful and now we've got a four day weekend to relax and recoup for next week. I'm so lucky to work with people that I consider not just co-workers, but also friends. It certainly makes being at work much more pleasant! As much as I like to be with my co-workers, I'm so glad to have a little break!

Had dinner with my family...thansk Mom! Flying Burger is my favorite! After eating, I went over to Amigo to pick up something from Matthew's sister, and man, was my timing perfect! Matthew's mom and sisters were all there and had birthday cake for Lisa's birthday! Birthday cake is my other favorite. Laura made it herself. It was delicious, and the picture I saw before it was cut, was pretty too!

After all the favorites, I thought I might need to go to the gym. I made sure that I charged my IPod today so it would be ready. Instead I went to the track and walked 1.5 miles. It was so nice to be outside in the fresh air instead of on the elliptical staring at those 4 TVs. I so enjoyed being outside. The sun was going down so it wasn't terribly hot and the cows weren't as stinky as they sometimes are. I wasn't planning on going more than a mile, but Keri Hilson was playing as I reached the 4th lap and I didn't want to stop without hearing the whole song. Being at the track made me think of when Jill and I used to go walk every night. Actually, she would make me run a lap or two. Then she'd get mad at me cause I would try to talk to her while we were running, and she couldn't breathe.

Now I've had my shower, am in my PJs and watching So You Think You Can Dance. Tonight is auditions. They crack me up. Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning. Pedicure is on the agenda too. AND Matthew comes home tomorrow!!! Yay!

I can't believe this school year is almost over! At least for those who actually get summer break! My little bitty break still seems like it's too far away to even get excited over. Looking forward to going to Gatlinburg with my family this year. Hopefully, my summer trip this year will turn out better than it did last year!

Today was a pretty laid back day. Met Mandy & Syd for dinner at Pizza Inn to enjoy a "girl's night" since Matthew and Kenny are out of town. It was nice to catch up since we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like. After dinner, it was off for dog duty and then home for laundry and American Idol. Now I'm just relaxing for awhile....prob headed to bed to read some more of Breaking Dawn. So far I've only read the first chapter...it's good, but I just can't find the time to read! Maybe I can finish it this week while Matthew is gone.