Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Shooting Star

Yesterday, I had to work late. But, I didn’t have any plans and Matt was in Chicago, so it really wasn’t that big of a deal… anyway…before I left, I wanted to post something on facebook…anything… just to get my ‘social fix,’ since I was going home to be alone for the night. For some reason, the lyrics to Marcy Playground’s “I smell Sex and Candy” were the only words I could even think of… “Hanging out, downtown by myself… I had so much time to sit and think about myself…then there she was…like double cherry pie…yeah there she was…” I almost posted them but thought it may be a little weird to anyone not knowing the song or trying to read deeper than the lyrics and into my soul via my facebook status… so… I tried to think of something that happened to me during the day…the best I could come up with was benefit information (getting your wisdom teeth pulled falls under ‘medical’ not dental’)… It was applicable…but boring. And I recognized this, but posted it anyway. Kind of a desperate attempt at social interaction, I’d say… but maybe someone got use of it. :)

Anyway… after all of that time (It was probably a solid minute and a half!!), I left the office. On my way home, I saw a shooting star! Can you believe it?! I was so excited! Right by myself…that’s the kind of thing you want to share with someone! So, I posted it on facebook (please don’t tell the cops it was while I was driving… I kept it short and simple and left my eyes on the road! I don’t do that very often, but I felt the need to post immediately, in case I could share that moment with anyone else who was driving or in other form outside to see the celestial surprise!) And…Woot! Someone did see it! :) That was awesome! Totally worth the potential ticket!

I guess my point is: A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.

I tried so hard to force a facebook status…and it sucked… but if I would have just been patient, a much more interesting one would have come to me ‘naturally’…

Yes, I realize this is a trivial analogy…but it made me think about other aspects of my life. How sometimes I try to ‘force’ things to happen or do certain things when I’m not 100% on board with the idea. I typically feel that same ‘reserved’ feeling. Kind of like an opposing magnetic force.

The right things will happen as they’re supposed to happen, when they’re supposed to happen… you may be able to ‘force’ your way around, but it doesn’t give you the same warm and fuzzy as going with your gut…

I’ve also noticed that whenever I ‘force’ something, it typically ends in regret… typically not painful regret…but just ‘why did I do that?’ or ‘why didn’t I do that?’ scenarios… you know?

I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.
- Margaret Thatcher

Friday, November 5, 2010

Our house is coming along!

One month and 5 days later…

Whew. October should have been called WoWctober this year! I cannot believe it has already come and gone. Which means it is now NOVEMBER! Next month is December! WHAT?!? Really?? But I love Christmas, and Matt and I will be living in our new home by then, so I am very excited and will get over the fact that life is moving way too fast at the moment…

Can I please tell you about it? :)

SOO, as you know, Matt and I closed on our first house together on October 1, 2010 at 10AM. It was very exciting…in an “I know that once this is over we will share the love and debt of a new house…our beautiful home” sort of way. There were a few complications...well, not really complications, but more, time consuming hiccups, as they sorted out the paperwork. But all in all, it was a successful signing! And we couldn’t have been happier…then we went back to work, so we could pay the mortgage to come…

After slaving away the day in the office, we met his parents at our new (sans cabinets, toilets, lights, doors, shutters, tub, etc.) home for a glass… err… plastic cup… of champagne and tour de home! Oh, it was lovely!! Thank you so much for sharing in our celebration! :)

Since then, we have been super busy…designing our kitchen, picking out cabinets, granites, faucets, lights, sinks, toilets…you name it! It has been quite the process. *Reminder of how awesome Matt is right about now*You might think that having the ability/freedom to choose your own fixtures and such would be nice….but…well… it’s hard work…don’t get me wrong… it is better than having shuckle we don’t like…but, we both have full time jobs…and, in the end, if we don’t like it, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves… this project comes with a lot of pressure and responsibility… and could benefit from a lot more time than we’re able to provide…

But… I think we’ve got it under control…

As of yesterday, the cabinets were in and stained with granite countertops, the entertainment center is almost complete and the master tub is put away. And it all looked nice! Woohoo!! There’s still a lot of work to do, but it’s finally starting to look livable – and we like it!! On top of that, we’ve been busting our bottoms (and Skip’s) in the yard on the weekends. :) Who knew such a small piece of land could take so much work! It was actually kind of funny… A couple of Sundays ago, Skip (Matt’s best man/best friend) let us borrow some of his fancy yard tools and his time. We had been raking, blowing, pulling vines, trimming hedges, etc. all day and made several nice piles of… yard junk…. Skip had his handy dandy wood chipper. So, nearing sunset we started chipping away…we made it through several piles when the bag broke and dust flew everywhere! Mouths wide open! As we all started hacking away…Skip omnisciently stated, “that’s the taste of home ownership…” …touché, Skip, touché…

We also picked out all of our appliances…actually, we did that first. Thankfully, since Matt is a gourmet chef, he had a good idea of what he wanted. Though we didn’t go with what he REALLY wanted (which was outrageously expensive), we picked out some pretty nice stuff… and found a great deal! We bought everything together at Sears during a special. I can’t remember the exact figures, but it was something like for every $1000, you receive $150 in gift cards – immediately! That worked well for us. We bought all of the kitchen and the washer/dryer on the spot... Granted…we did spend pretty much ALL DAY one Saturday with the very nice Sears specialist, Neena. Thankfully she was quite patient as we sorted through model numbers and such...She knows us on a first name basis now… Two weeks after the first 4hr Sears trip,we decided to change our minds…not completely, but we just wanted a different handle on all of the same appliances. Unfortunately, she had to undo and redo everything individually because of the special that was going on at the time of original purchase…poor Neena… But she was very friendly and we made it through! Appliances should be delivered on Monday! Yay!

I can’t believe this house is actually going to be ours..and in a few weeks we will be all moved in…