Monday, July 28, 2008

We are finally home....

Oh my gosh, it has been a busy couple of days! We are officially moved in.

So here I sit, at our house, on our computer, in the office. Comcast was here this past Saturday to install the ever needed TV including the DVR box which allows the pause/rewind. Not sure I could go w/o that feature ever again. Derek and I can hardly stand to watch a show in regular mode, we pretty much record everything and watch it later so we can fast forward commercials! Internet was a MUST so last night I installed that. Had to call tech support at 9:30pm to get my computer to function properly, but hey... here I am!

I am so excited to be able to take pics and immediately download them to the computer and then put them up on here within minutes. How exciting is this. I am sitting on a step stool! Doesnt that sound comfy?

We unloaded our big storage container on Saturday with the help of our friends George & Rachel and their daughter Samantha and the dog Cash. Rachel and I unpacked the kitchen boxes and she really helped me to get that organized. I know I would have been overwhelmed trying to do it by myself. It is tough figuring out what goes where, you move things 5 different times... We watched a movie saturday night, went to bed at midnight, fell asleep after 1am, and it's NOT cuz we were having "private" time! I just could not shut down my brain. My body was exhausted but my brain was laying there thinking non-stop. I finally crashed... Derek pretty much was snoozin when he hit the pillow. OMGosh.. how embarrassing, I was just thinking about my and Dereks snoring.. the spare bedroom is just across the hallway, they did not say they heard us snoring, but I KNOW we both can cut logs all night! lol

George & Derek installed the shower door Sunday, although I hear George was reluctant to "get in" the shower with Derek, apparently he has a lifetime motto to never let that happen! lol lol lol

After they left, we went to Freddies and bought all the staples we might need in the kitchen and left there $450 broker than we already were.. :) Came home, exhausted and worn out.. Went to my parents to get this computer and some other things and came home to plop! Watched some TV, set up recordings for our shows and crashed.. oh then woke up somewhere around midnight to introduce ourselves to ALL the rooms in the house.. including the garage!

One thing we realized is that we got rid of all our big furniture things! Except the couches pretty much.. we did not save any nicknack shelves, no extra chairs, no extra tables, no dressers... we really cleaned house when we moved out apparently. I remember now the reasoning for it is so that when we got into this new house, we would buy the things we wanted and that fit what we needed and not just settle for what we had. Makes sense, right? Good plan, but now I am here sitting on a step stool.. lol because I did not save even ONE of the old dining chairs we had. We ordered a nice roller chair, but well its on b/o for another week plus! The kitchen table is here, but no stools.. those are on b/o. We want to make a new fresh start and not eat in the living room, but for now, we have no other options as there is nowhere else to sit! ;) So we'll be keeping our eyes open for just the right dressers, extra chairs for the bedrooms, curio type shelves etc...

I know this is a super long post.. I have updates on the coming weekend, but I'll do another post, I dont want it getting lost in the house postings.. So here are some pics!

The pics will all be below.. worked better that way...

The Livingroom, a couple different angles. And it looks so plain in the pics with nothing on the walls. We have lots of things to hang, just have not had time. And there is Russell, hangin out. He is really out-of-sorts! :( Poor guy is confused and upset. He was VERY grumpy this past weekend, especially with Samantha and she was not doing anything wrong, he was just upset about everything. There is our dining table with no stools! I'll update once we get those. Not as much room as I'd like, but cozy I guess you could say!

Our kitchen/dining/hall/living room.

Just the kitchen, a little messy.. we are still trying to get things fully organized

Our office, oh and the stool I am sitting on! My butt is really getting sore..... I've been on this thing for about an hour now and I still need to do bills etc, so I think when this is done, I'll take a break and give my butt something soft to sit on like the couch! lol The border is baseball, there is a baseball pillow in the corner Derek just had to have.. Eventually this room will have hardwood floor, we bought the floor, just need to put it in. I have a filing cabinet to put in here, and Derek and I will continue to add features to this room to make it very cool.

The bedroom, very basic setup for now.. bed is not even fully put together as you can see from the posts on the left side.

And finally the long awaited yard pics.. The camera is crooked, not my yard! well not this much anyways. :) I need to mow pretty badly, waiting for it to cool down, maybe tonight.







Wednesday, July 23, 2008

WE GOT FINAL!!!!!

Dancin the happy dance, singing We Got Fiiiiinnnalll.. Weeee goooot fiiiiinallllll.... YIPPY Hooray.. :) I'm sittin in my chair at work, wigglin around..

Now that we have final, we ARE MOVING IN this weekend!!!! Cable is coming on Saturday, so I will have GOOD internet at home and I WILL keep this updated more often and will be able to post pictures all the time.

LIFE is GREAT today!!!!!!!

I know my sister is smiling on me today

Piper

Monday, July 21, 2008

Almost there.......

I can taste it.. I am still trying to keep my emotions under control. I should be packing up my bedrooms at my parents, but that is too overwhelming to think about! :) Finishing touches should be done today and I'm still hoping for final inspection tomorrow...... I'm nervous! Whats up with that. I'm really excited though.

Derek and I worked on clearing our fence line this weekend. Wow, we own a lot further into the brushy area than we both expected. We got a clear straight line though, unfortunately 3 or 4 trees are gonna have to come down. Dammit! That means more money out of our wallets.. grrrrr They are too close to the neighbors garage to do it ourselves, we called a guy that works at Dels actually, he does it on the side. I'm hoping he can come out sooner than later, we dont have time to wait, we have to get the trees out so we can build a fence. The side over where we cleared looks really nice though. I'm excited to get a fence up and then clean up the crappy brush and leave the rest natural, it will look really good. We can totally see through to the neighbors parking area, that part I dont care for, but once the fence is up and maybe more ferns will come in, then it will be fine.

Derek tore down 1/2 the shack that was left to come down. I think once we get all our burning done, it will look soooo much better. I'll have to take a pic of the mess before and after..

Andrea's wedding shower was yesterday, that was very nice. She has some fantastic friends that are very caring and thoughtful and gave her some special handmade gifts. I had to fight back tears a few times, thought a lot about Carrie yesterday. I still think about her every day but this wedding has me thinking a lot more about her lately. It's tough to get through this w/o her. I feel sad for Eric, although he doesnt verbalize it, I know how hard this is for him to go through w/o her as well. I only hope I can give him enough sisterly love to help him through. At the shower, we had to write down some thoughts on pretty paper that will be put into a book for Eric & Andrea, a very thoughtful idea. I did 3 of them. I got teased about being a perfectionist or whatever, but I dont care... I wrote one from me, then a general one that just said "Live Laugh Love" because that reminds me of Carrie and I hope it does the same for them. And then I wrote down a few thought to them of how Carrie is so proud of them and happy they found true love and to remember that the light of Carries life will forever shine down on their marriage. I hope they like it.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Carpet means... almost the end!

So the word carpet does not mean the end as I was earlier misled.. lol We have carpet, but we don't have water in our sinks, a toilet in the main bathroom, or lights in the living or dining area. Oh they are getting finished, between today and Monday. Come Monday, I will have a completed house.. well that is the plan. Come Tuesday, I plan to have final inspection, come Wed I plan to start moving things into my new home!! I know, I know.. dont get my hopes up.

So the kitchen island is in, looks great. We just LOVE our countertops. The WALL is FIXED!!! And it was done before carpet, so all that persistantcy (sp?) paid off and we got what we wanted. Schmuck Barry, I just saw a man with his tail tucked between his legs, but he did make sure it was fixed before carpet, probably didnt hurt that I told him if Carpet showed up on Wed and the wall was not fixed, I was lockin the doors and keeping them out! lol :) Oh shit, bitch factor came in for just a minute there when we were talkin with Barry earlier this week. But I'm not complainin, cuz I have a better house because of it.

So Wed, Derek and I were hanging around waiting for the carpet guys to show up. Clark, the guy that has the carpet crew, oh and Shana knows who he is (wink, wink) well anyways, he called and said they were still coming out but he wasnt sure how far they would get on it. 9:30pm!! that is what time these guys pull in the driveway and can you believe come Thursday morning when Derek went to the house, the carpet was ALL done and they did a great job! wow, now that is hard work.

So Derek calls me Thursday morning and is kinda quiet on the phone.. I'm like "WELL, HOW DOES IT LOOK! :)" he's like, "well you'll be able to see all of Russells hair on the ground, uhh it's pretty dark, (sceptical voice tones), I guess it will grow on me hopefully, the carpet does not look good with our bedroom color..." I was freakin out ALL F ' in DAY! I was stressed, worried.. did we go way too dark. I knew we picked dark brown, crap its too late to fix it.. shit what are we going to do... So I drive home with all this anticipation. I had been waiting all day to see this terrible carpet. I open the door.... BAM! I love it! :) Yes it is dark, very dark. But I like it. It warms up the house, color ties in well with our walls and the kitchen colors, there is enough natural light coming through our huge windows that it doesnt feel dark inside, the bedroom looks just fine. I am glad he made it seem terrible cuz then my hopes were WAY low. Derek was very relieved to hear that I liked it. He'll like it lots more now that he knows I really like it. If you dont like it and think it's too dark, well too bad.. lol

What else... hmmmmm Oh our yard is coming in great. Here is a pic after about 2 weeks from planting. I have a very nice looking yard now, it is patchy, and the best grass is under the tree where all the shade is. But the rest will come in. I actually mowed yesterday! It is the nicest part of our backyard, the rest needs soooo much work. I made a list on Wed of all the projects we need to do, 2 pages! Lots and Lots. It will be much easier doing them while living there.

Oakley update: His knee is still swollen but I did take him to the vet last week and had some fluid sent to the lab and it came back very clean. So nothing really left to do but excersize him and really deeply massage his knee. Not that I have had time, I need to go out today and work with it cuz I have not seen him since Tuesday and today is Friday! Bad mommie...

Softball: We had a tournament last weekend (July 12th). Played down in Puyallup. The guys won their first game, lost the second, won the 3rd, won the 4th, won the 5th and won the 6th!! Went home with first place.. that was exciting and fun. The day was warm, so I was under the umbrella all day pretty much. George & Rachel & Samantha spent the day with us, watching the games. It was great having them there, I know Derek really enjoys that. After the games, we left the park at about 8pm, grabbed some pizza and went to G & R's home in Covington and ate dinner and watched the movie "I am Legend" HOLLY CRAP.. I did not realize the movie was considered a thriller..shit I was expecting a good drama/action type movie.. I was clentching my jaw, heart was racing a few times.. GREAT movie though. Had me a little freaked out.. :)

Here's a pic of our entryway into our home. We bought the red rock, will end up putting more of that down in other places too, we really like the rock. And the kitchen too.. Pics are way behind, I have carpet and my kitchen is all done, and the yard is growing, so I will take new pics this weekend and update.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Bitchy-B-Gone!

lol... so I scared some of you into thinking I was a raging biaaatch! That faze is so over.. Its safe to call me, talk to me, etc... I have had no bitchy moments in over a month, the stress level is WAY down, I have no thoughts of stabbing anyone with an ice-pick! The house stress really got to me and the financial side of things was weighing me down, Rest Assured, things are now safe once again and I'm back to my lovely, intelligent, wonderful, peacefull self! ;)

Monday, July 7, 2008

4th of July

The 4th of July to me doesnt always bring about thoughts of fun. The 4th to me represents responsibility and fear, because I have animals and they have to come first every year in my planning process. My horses are kept on a pasture which is bordering the town of Monroe. Boy am I SOO glad I chose to move them into the country a little further to my parents place. Monroe was crazy with fireworks. Nice to watch, but the horses certainly do not appreciate it so much. I had to put them into the small corral with the goats because there still were fireworks around my parents and the last thing I need is a horse running through a fence, costing me hundreds in vet bills. The dog... well he is so good about fireworks. We should have taken him with us to watch fireworks, next year we definately will. He stayed home with mom and dad. The goats, well after the 2 babies figured out that these new horse monsters in their corral were not going to eat them, they were all just fine and the 2 big ones especially looked to the horses for moral support and comfort. It is nice to watch and see how they use the horses for protection.

So we had a very nice fourth! We didnt really know until about 6pm what we were going to do, but it all worked out. Our friends George & Rachel and their daughter Samantha drove up from Kent, stopped by the house to take a peak at the progress and then we went into Monroe, grabbed a bite to eat and took it with us to the Monroe Fairgrounds Parking Lot. It was VERY nice actually! We relaxed, chatted and sat in our chairs in the grass, ate some dinner, watched the entire town of Monroe light up all around us including in the parking lots fireworks and then waited for the races to finish for the fireworks show put on by the speedway. Which was OK, not as great as going to Seattle to see the show, but for free and not having to spend all day waiting or in traffic, it was perfect. Just our style I guess. Had a great time with our friends and Samantha.

Sitting there made both of us realize that we really want to do more camping next year. It also makes me want to adopt a child much sooner than later, it's fun spending time with them as a family and I'm startin to think about my own family and how nice a child would be to add to our life. We'll have to see how this house thing works out for a while and the economy, things have been slow for Derek, one week he is billing out his goal amount, next week it is half. We both are hoping things pick up in the auto business so he can stay busy.

The house progress... we did a truckload full of just cardboard recycling to the dump on Sunday. It was kinda funny acutally because when we got to the dump, the huge dump container was FULL, there was not enough room to cram all our cardboard in so as Derek is trying to do it, he looks at me and say "do you think if I climb in, I will be able to get back out?" I just smiled and in he went! He had about 2' height by about 3' lenth rectangle to get into this container.. Once he was in, he crawled around on his hands/knees, compressing the cardboard and then it was a piece of cake to get it all in and there was lots of room left for much more cardboard. The other people there just smiled and were thankful there was room for their recycling as well. I dont think the dump attendants noticed. I wish I had had my camera with me, certainly would have been a great shot!

Oh and I have to say my cry for help was answered by my AWESOME cousin MARC!! Thanks so much to him for taking time out of his day to spend a lot of it with us on Sunday to get our dishwasher installed! Yippy... the three of us went to McDaniels to get a power cord, went home and as we got that hooked up, realized that we needed the kind that was flat as the dishwasher would not scoot in all the way with the cord we purchased. So I went back to McDaniels on my own to get a new cord while the guys worked on the microwave. I get back to the house and the guys tell me I now need to go back for a 3rd time to get drywall anchors to hang the microwave! lol So I go back and get those, and when i get back, the dishwasher is done, hooked up, ready to go. Marc had to leave so Derek and I finished the microwave. Put it in the wall, what a bitch that was. Get it in, turn on the fan and it is blowing air at me and not sucking it up like it is supposed to! So we take it back out after we see that the instructions say that if the unit has a roof vent, we need to reverse the motor. dammit... So we take it back out, fix it and put it back. My kitchen appliances are now all done, and they look great. A few minor projects we need to work on this week and we are gettin closer to completion.