What the frap???

So.

I walk out to my car this morning to go to the party store and Safeway to pick up a few things for the big birthday-palooza that we were having with Joe's family to celebrate all the fall birthdays (5 in total). I got in my car, started backing up, and noticed something funny looking about the windshield wipers. They looked a lot smaller. Infact, they looked a lot like two metal rods, no acutal wiper part seemed to be attached. So I put in it park, hopped out, took off my sunglasses thinking maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me...and nope. They weren't. Someone stole my windshield wipers.

Yeah.

What kind of loser does that? This is the third thing that has happened to my cute little car. Let's recap: they've scraped the registration off, they broke in and took clothes from the trunk, DVDs (which I had to pay Blockbuster back for) and my favorite pair of sunglasses, and now they stole my stinking windshield wipers. And it's supposed to rain this week.

I CANNOT wait to be gone from here...

Pending?

I guess that is the best way to describe where we're at with the whole house thingamajig. Here's the scoop...
Remember how I said that the lady who owned the house is in her 80's and now living in a nursing home, and no one is really sure what her whole understanding or frame of reference for this whole process really is? Yes? OK, keep that in mind.
So on the night we wrote up our offer, our realtor Craig took it straight to the seller's realtor, Jon, and he took it to the owner's son and daughter-in-law to discuss and go over. The three of them felt that it was a very solid offer, they could work with us, and they were pleased. And the people rejoice.
The next morning they went and talked to the mom/owner, and as Craig put it, she "went off the deep end", and completely wigged out and started saying that she knew good and well that her house was worth x amount of dollars (about $60,000.00 over what the asking price was that she agreed and signed to), and that everyone was trying to put her through the wringer. Boo!! Hiss!! And there is where it's at. Everyone pretty much thinks that she needs to have her mental competency evaluated, and if she doesn't really understand what is going on, then the family needs to step in and either get power of attorney over her, or something. It stinks because all the sane people think it's great and didn't shoot our offer down, but as of now the only person who legally can do anything is out to lunch (so to speak), and basing her figures on about a year and a half ago. Funny, I thought that the son would be the problem person, since the sale of the home is really going to be his inheritance, I thought for sure that he would be a real stickler for the price and not like our terms, and here it is that she's the one with the issue! I guess technically the offer fell through because they didn't get back to us with a firm answer by the time we had asked them to in the contract. We just had Craig let them know that we are very much still interested in the house, they know what our offer is, and once they hash out all their details they know how to reach us. I guess that's all we can do.
I would really appreciate prayer for contentment and patience. I think because there wasn't a firm answer either way it bugs me, since I didn't hear a "no" I'm still holding out hope. And I guess that anything could happen. It was nice to see a date that we would be out of the apartment by and on to bigger and better things; coming back here to something so tiny each time seems harder and harder. As it happens, our realtor Craig is leaving town and won't be back until the 18th (I think), so not much could really be done on our part until then anyway. Maybe this is just the Lord's way of slowing things down a little, or protecting us from some unseen problem. I just have to TRUST in the Lord's timing and wisdom for our home. Easier said than done!! In the meantime, until we hear from the seller we'll just keep our eyes open for other homes popping up and see what comes next...

Pins & Needles

Today Joe and I did something we've never done before...we made an offer on a house. So now we sit and wait to see if they'll accept our offer.

GULP!!!

I'm sure that they'll come back with a counter offer, and things will go on from there. But it is a weird feeling. To have to love the house enough to be willing to sign up for 30 years of debt and a sizable mortgage each month, and then still be able to walk away and not look back from it if they don't meet our terms or won't come down in the asking price. I've been told numerous times not to get attached to any one particular house...and I've tried not to. But it's hard for me. When I walked in it for the first time, it instantly felt like "home", and I was already trying to mentally place the sofa and loveseat in the living room. It's the right age house for us - the previous owner is now in a retirement home, but she took really good care of it, so it isn't a dump, just a little dated. Which is very much what we wanted to find - something livable now, but with potential to update and put our own twist on, at our own pace, as opposed to a complete fixer-upper where you have to do mucho work just to make it comfortable. It's ready for a young family to give it some life! Is it weird that I really wanted the house to need us? Probably not, since I also believed when I was a kid that my dolls and stuffed animals had feelings. Now you probably think I'm nuts...oh well.

It would be an extreme blessing for us if in fact this house works out; the only reason that we're able to even consider it is because of the dropping prices and very generous grandparents who are eager to help with a down payment. But this is the type of house, that if we had 2 or 3 kids, we could comfortably grow into it and live there for an extremely long time. Nice size back yard, quiet street, great school district, the whole kit 'n caboodle. The great thing is, Joe and I have been on the same page throughout the whole process, and that I attribute to prayer. This is the biggest financial decision we've ever (and might possibly ever?) made.

All that to say, am I excited? YES Will I be disappointed if it doesn't happen? Yeah. But I'll be OK with it. I know that the Lord will provide us with exactly what we need, when we need it. It's just exciting that this process is underway. I think I'm in for a sleepless night tonight though...I can't wait to hear back (hopefully) tomorrow from our agent!!!

New Favorite?

I've mentioned before that I'm not on the forefront of new things... it takes a little bit of watching and waiting to see if they pan out before I take the plunge. TV shows fall into that category, especially since we got cable when all the series were ending last season, I really felt out of the loop. Mostly what I watch is on cable - lots of TCL and Food Network, and I get my dose of reality (or lack thereof) TV by watching Lauren and the girls on The Hills. If my TV received only those two channels, I could make it. I'm not a fan of too many of the shows on ABC, NBC, you know the main channels...I think they had their heyday when I was in high school and you had the good version of ER with George Clooney, Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You, and a super stellar cast on SNL. Anymore, a lot of the shows are just plain trashy to me, or interest me.

All that to say, I was channel surfing last night and landed on NBC at 8:30PM on 30 Rock. I'd obviously heard about it for awhile, but knew nothing about it, except that it won the Emmy for best comedy, so I decided to watch until the first commercial. Well, I watched the whole darn thing and laughed a lot during it. I think I'll tune in next week. What really surprised me though was Tina Fey, aka Liz Lemon - she is so watchable!! And cute. And smart. And witty. I think she may be my new favorite sitcom lady. I haven't had one of those since Jennifer Aniston. Huh.

And since I'm on the topic of TV, I must say that on The Hills, Elodie was absolutely amazing and got hers in the end over Heidi. I wish I had that kind of guts!!

The Birthday Boy

Is my hubs!



Today we celebrate 27 well lived years, and pray for many, many more to come.


What did we do to celebrate this momentous, joyous occasion you ask? Why, we worked opposite schedules (fun, no?), and I gave him 27 spanks, with an extra one for good luck. OK, maybe that was TMI. In a perfect world, we'd be hitting up a restaurant in SF, or maybe our favorite restaurant Kincaid's. Unfortunately, it was a no-go tonight. The turn around time between me getting home and him leaving for work was just too tight. I did manage to swing by Whole Foods after work and pick up his favorite schtuff to make a kick-butt birthday dinner, just for him. I really try to limit my shopping there...it is not far at all from where I work the majority of the week, so it is a BIG TEMPTATION, because it's beautiful. The produce section looks like an artists palette the colors are so bright, and they have just about every food product you could think of. But it is uber expensive for everyday groceries...so only for special times do I let myself enter the front doors.

So here's the spread...rack of lamb cut into chops, tomatoes stuffed with couscous topped with breadcrumbs and cheese, throw in the Martinelli's and you've got yourself one scrumdiddlyumptious meal/party a deux. It looks great, but it tasted amazing, if I do say so myself.





Here's to you Joe, my darling husband. I love sharing life with you and watching you become more and more of the man you were meant to be with each passing year. Happy Birthday!

September Breakdown

Do you keep a calendar? I do. I love to write down appointments, dates to remember, birthdays, etc. While I was flipping throught my little Hallmark freebie one that I keep in my purse, I was pretty shocked at how many big things happened this month. But that accounts for why it felt like it was a blur. The fall is my favorite season of the year (unlike others I know *Marisa*), but it's also the kickoff in our household to the birthday/anniversary/holiday extravaganza that doesn't really let up until February. Here's what my schedule looked like for the month of September.


On the...


2nd: Spent our last day in Italy and flew home. Boo.


Us in front of the Trevi Fountain, Rome.


The view of the Duomo and red rooftops of Florence from our bedroom window.



Joe in front of the Colosseum.



The Grand Canal in Venice, riding on the water taxi to our hotel there.

9th: Happy Birthday to me!! I turned 26. It's not that different than 25. I was hoping I'd wake up with more wisdom, patience, maturity...something? But nope. It's not quite the same as when you were a kid and woke up on your birthday morning feeling empowered and slightly magical because you were now EIGHT as opposed to only SEVEN, and your world was bigger with new priviledges, responsibilites and a later bedtime. I still wake up excited that it's my day, but the age really doesn't seem to matter anymore. Anyhoo, I got some new kicks that I love - Uggs (or ugglies as Joe calls them)!! Lots of cards and phone calls and feeling loved on. Cheers to another year!

11th: Full time hours start at my work. Went to the 9/11 memorial at our church. They also honor all the local first responders (fire dept, police, emt) and Joe got to wear his uniform and looked like a stud. I felt very proud of him!!

12th: Met with Jim & Carolyn Millen and decided to do a weekly Bible study with them. So excited about this!! (But to do full justice to this topic it deserves its own blog)

15th: Went to my hair appointment for a trim and decide to dye my hair darker. Originally I was thinking a chocolate brown (I was just really sick of the blond grow-out that really bothered me when I looked at myself in the Italy pictures), but my hairdresser said she knew the perfect shade for me called "mahogany" that has some darker reddish tones in it. I've only ever really highlighted my hair, so this was rather extreme for me. I came home and knocked Joe's socks off. It's just a tish darker and more auburn-y than my own color. I think it's great! I wish I had a picture of that to show you...I'll have to get on that. Walked thru some open houses with Joe later than night just to get a feel of what's available.

17th: Happy Birthday Mom!! Celebrate with the family and go out to yummy Greek food.

21st: Knowing that Joe's schedule shift is fast upon us, we head to our mortgage broker to see how things look as far as getting a loan to buy a house since our goal is to be in one by the end of this year. So we looked over our budget, income, spending and bills for about 3 hours (before we met with the broker, so we'd have some #s to give him). Not the most fun thing I could think of to do. We had to do like 5 different scenarios of a budget to make sure that we'll be able to swing the house payments when we have kids and I stop working. But it was worth it. This time I didn't feel like puking when we talked about those humongous sums of money like I did when we touched bases with him earlier in March. All the numbers meshed up and we walked out of there pre-approved for a loan. Hurrah!

22nd: Can't stand not having anything fallish out even though technically fall is still one day away, so the wreath goes up. Get started on the onsies for Sandy's shower on the 29th...here they are finished below. Sandy doesn't want to know if it's a boy or girl, so I made one for each. I'm really partial to the little girl's one. Sandy and her husband are living in New Orleans right now, so that's why I incorporated that into the onsie. Drive all around our town that afternoon with Joe and my folks going to open houses, my dad teaching Joe what to look for when you look at a house (he used to be a realtor), call a lot of Realtors to get house info. Have dinner with Jim & Carolyn at Texas Roadhouse, which is where I ate the best chicken fried steak I think I've ever had.

23rd: Joe changes to vampire hours. The shift starts at 9pm til 7am, with Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays off. Boo. Start watching Ken Burn's new documentary The War about WWII - very, very good.

25th: Happy Birthday Darlene (Joe's mom)!! We'll celebrate with his side all the September & October birthdays in a couple weeks.

26th: Was asked to submit a recipe for a new cookbook that our church is putting together, and it's due today. Since the last one was published in the 70's, this is exciting. But then I had total indecision about what to choose. I felt like I was going to be judged by what I selected to have put in the book, like if people thought it would sound gross, or weird, or be too easy (silly, I know). In the end I chose to send my Frittata recipe because: I make them fairly often so I stand by it as a GOOD recipe, it's easy to change to your own taste once you know the method, and I was fairly certain it would be the only one like it in the book. It'll stand apart from all the Chicken Divan, ya know? Mmmmm, doesn't it look yummy?

29th: Can't go to Sandy's shower b/c we're meeting with a realtor and with her parents living a good 2 hours away from me (where it was to be held), I didn't have enough turn around time. Very bummed about that one. Drop her present off at my friend Debbie's house so she can take it to the shower for me. But the meeting with the realtor went well. After three hours of talk, we're now serious home buyers; after Joe is off probation with work on Oct. 15, everything is good to go!! It is crazy cool to think that we might just get to celebrate Christmas in our own, new home this year. It makes coming back to this little apartment tough, so I just keep telling myself we'll be outta here soon, I can hang in there just a little more.

So, come on October!! Can't wait to see what you're gonna bring me!

La Dolce Vita

I'm home! After a whirlwind 10 days, 3 blisters, 618 pictures, many euros, 3 train rides and 3 cities later, I'm back home in good old CA. In all honesty, I'm a little dazed. It's a little cruel actually how life demands that you hop right back into the routine at full speed ahead. It seems like you need an extra 3 days to process where you were and what you saw. I don't know where to start. I feel like there's so much to share and tell and describe, how do you encapsulate our adventure in one little blog? It would be big, boring, and probably scare all you off reading my posts for sure. So what I think I'll do is share things by topic, and sorta spread it out. So have some patience with me. I will say now, however, that it was definitely the trip of a lifetime, and something that I'll be forever grateful that we decided to do now, rather than relegate into the category of "someday". In Italy, they say they live the "dolce vita", or "sweet life", and I have to completely agree. The pace is slow. The people are wonderful. The food is amazing. Truly, whether you're at a little mom & pop trattoria, or a tiny pizzeria, or a big hostelaria, you can't get a bad meal. The blend of ancient and modern together in Rome, Florence, and Venice is beautiful and surreal. You feel richer just for seeing the things that those cities have to offer you, be it works from the masters like Michelangelo and da Vinci, old ruins from the Forum built by slaves, or the lazy rivers that glide through the cities. Rome absolutely stole our hearts, and will forever be a special place to us. On our last night there before we flew home the next morning, we went to our favorite restaurant in the city, and then walked across the street to the Colosseum, where we laid out on the grass in front of it, and got some amazing pictures. It was the perfect way to say goodbye. Even though I could have stayed on vacation for a whole lot longer, 10 days was a good amount of time - we left in love with Italy wanting more, rather than feeling like we were sick and tired of living our of our suitcases and just ready to be home. The funny thing about travel though, it once you get a taste of it, you want more, more, more!! On the plane ride home the wheels were already turning as to where we could explore next. It would be really nice if we could swing another big trip before any wee-ones come along. But I don't know...if we get into a house, that's where all the $$$ will be going... so who knows. It is nice to be home though. Nothing feels as good as your own sheets, pillow, and bed, plus this is the land of complementary ice with your drinks. And fall is almost here, which means my birthday is just around the corner, as well as my favorite season of the year. So stay tuned, much more to follow...Ciao!