Weekend Update

Well.. not much to report. Probably one of the least busy weekends we've had in a while which was nice.

Friday: Hung out and made a cheesecake for my grandma's party on Saturday. Took Alex to Matt's and later picked him up.. the rain was crazy but thank alex for getting me new windshield wipers which saved the day! Very relaxing evening.

Saturday: Awoke around 10 and showered. I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing and we left for my parents house. We first stopped by my mom's parents to say hello and spend some time. Da's party was very fun.. I love hanging out with family, it's so entertaining! They had a seafood feast of crab legs, clams, scallops and shrimp.. i had a hamburger. All in all it was great and the cheesecake tasted good. Later that night Matt came over and we played Risk (which alex dominated us in) and then played some card games.. I was beginning to pass out so I went to sleep.

Sunday: Got up at 12.... that is not a mis-type, I was so tired.. aka my body was recovering and sleeping was so easy because we didn't have anything to do until 6 pm that night. Eventually I pulled myself out of bed and we headed to Saigon to fill Alex's need for Pho. Came home and basically just vegged.. leading to me falling asleep.. again. And around 4:30 I showered and we headed to the Barnstormers game to meet up with some friends. They aren't the most exciting games but it's nice to get out and do something instead of just getting together at houses. When we got home we watched some boob tube and fell asleep. I really thought i'd have trouble considering all the hours I put in earlier in the day but it didn't seem to affect me. In fact, I'm pretty tired now.. must be the too much sleep thing. Having a balance is so important! If you don't get enough, you're tired.. but if you get too much, you're tired! It's nuts!

So that was my lovely relaxing weekend.. I hated to see it end! This week we only have a couple things going on.. we're having Alex's family for dinner on Thursday and Julia will probably be there as well since we're hanging out on friday (i'm taking the day off) and then it's Labor Day weekend and i'll have off on Monday as well! Yesssss!

Dear Lottery God..

All i ask is that you let me win something.. i'm playing the cash five and the powerball tonight, so take your pick. I'd even settle for $1 (though i'd appreciate more).. this money would really help out right now and make it easier to afford some things that we're after. Don't you want to help make our dream come true? I see you making other peoples dreams come true when they aren't even dreaming.. so pick me, i've been dreaming really hard and though i may not deserve to never work again while living off of my winnings.. i'd sure like to take a stab at it.

Thank you for your consideration :)

Much love and many thanks,

Michelle

[ Don't you just wish it really worked like that!!! ;) ]

Wishing and Hoping..

This coming weekend we're going to start painting and prepping the house for sale. Even if it turns out that we're not going to sell, it's important for us anyway to keep our house up to date.. less work in the future when we do need to sell.

Our current plans include:
- Painting our bedroom ceiling
- Re-cutting the 1st/2nd Floor (which means cutting into the trim, the tool I used last time didn't make the paint as dark as the roller made the walls)
- Complete the paint in the stairwell that I couldn't reach
- Paint the entire 3rd floor white including the hallway
- Paint the 3rd floor hallway/stairwell floor (it's currently red with paint spots all over it)
- Measure and buy quarter rounds for entire 2nd and 3rd floors and install
- Clean the house from top to bottom and pack/store un-needed items
- Fix the ice maker in the freezer (it was leaking before)
- Maybe paint the gutters
- Power wash the porch
- Switch Washer/Dryer with Martin Dr.? (if we move there we want to take our washer dryer for its EE and swap it out with the one we'd be getting anyway.... if possible of course)

We hope to get the painting and quarter rounds done this weekend.. then throughout next week we can clean/pack/store.

If we were selling.. which we don't know yet. I'd like to get it on the market for Labor Day weekend but as of this moment, I don't see that happening. The key for us is we should aim to close by Nov 31st when the Home Buyer stimulus runs out. That leaves 2 months to sell and 1 month to close if we put it on the market in early September. Fingers crossed that we'll know something soon.. can't rush the people though.

Still in the Dark..

Last night the food was good, the company was great.. the answers were non-existent. However, Alex said he will take care of it and it's a process and I'm going to trust him.

The question I have is, should we put our house on the market? In order to answer that question we need to know how much the GP house will be so that we know whether or not we can afford it. If we can't, then obviously we won't be selling our house, but in this market.. it could take 3 months to sell.. and in reality, we wouldn't have that much time before he would need the money to move.

When we will know all of this, I'm not sure.. I will be leaving it up to Alex. We're going to get our house ready to sell just in case and hope for the best. I don't really enjoy the dark.. hopefully soon there will be some light!!

Happy Friday!

Tonight is the night..

..that we'll find out if this house situation can in fact be a reality.. no one has even talked price yet so it could end up being totally unaffordable. There are also some other cliff hangers in the mix that hopefully we'll get some answers about.. who knows, it might be totally unproductive and we'll end up not knowing anymore than we currently know now. Alex has definitely gotten his hopes up though.. and so have I to a certain extent. I'm going to cross my fingers, hope for the best but expect the worst. That's all I can do!

On another unrelated note, this weekend should be fun! We're heading to see Glen and his girlfriend Jeanette.. maybe hit a wine tasting, have some fun.. I always like going new places so it should be a good time. And our new TomTom came in today (2 days after ordering it, wow!) so now we can use that to navigate! My parents one was stolen from Alex's car last week. I'm really looking forward to this road trip.. :)

A lot of things are on hold until we find out the house circumstances. We're completely ready to start preparing our home for sale.. and it makes me think, even if we end up not selling.. we should probably do all the things we have on our list anyway.. just to make it presentable. I have to admit that i'm pretty lazy when it comes to cleaning the bathroom and keeping my clothes off of the dressers. Laundry easily gets backed up and it's mostly because I feel like I don't have time to do these things and relax after working all day.. Excuses, excuses! I really need to get off my lazy butt and do something! If only it weren't so hot! ;)

That was a bouncy post.. Wish us luck on this evenings conversations :)

A New Adventure..

Recently an opportunity has risen that I'm very excited about. I'm crossing my fingers that everything works out! Here's the gist..

Basically, Boo's grandfather is in transition and on a waiting list for a nursing home. He had the idea that we could buy his house and live with him until he actually got into the home, so that he'd be able to live in his own home as long as possible. We are so interested in buying his house! It would be so perfect for so many reasons!

To name a few, much larger, much more land, not attached to another house, not in the city, safe neighborhood, relatively new.. it has a garage in the basement that boo could brew out of.. it has a garage for our cars! I really love it, it's a great house! I can totally see myself having babies there.. perfection!

The one and only semi-negative thing is.. we'd have to scale back our spending. It's affordable if we make it affordable and darn-it do we want to make it affordable.. I'd give up going out to eat for a couple years in order to have a home that I truly love. Or maybe if I get some sort of raise or a new job that pays more.. we'll be able to continue our kick arse lives!

In the mean time, we're starting to ready our current house for sale.. there's plenty to do but hope to have it on the market by Mid-September. We're selling it ourselves with the help of a RE lawyer and I'll be offering the buyers agent commission to get them motivated in showing their clients. Hopefully it sells relatively quickly. The one iffy part is price.. there's a house down the street that is much smaller selling for too much, so i'm going to match their price hoping that people see a larger house down the street for the same price and think they're getting a deal. We'll see how that works out. We have some breathing room if needed..

Though nothing has been finalized yet, this is just half-dreaming right now in hopes it will become reality. Very exciting adventure we're about to travel!

I love dinner..

My favorite meal of the day has got to be dinner.. it's always the biggest (though it's not supposed to be) but also the most savory. We spend so much more time on dinner than the other meals of the day.

On Tuesday evening we headed up to York to visit our friends Jim and Mark and spend some time with their mom, Mrs. T.. she makes the BEST food. The last time we were up she made delicious enchiladas.. Jim made homemade guacamole (awesome) and it was just a perfect meal. On tuesday she made us pork tenderloin on the grill with a potato/onion mixture (also grilled) as well as the best zucchini bread i've ever eaten and a greek veggie bruschetta (basically). Some fantastic spaghetti squash and corn on the cob. It was so great! Alex and I never make that much food since we're only cooking for us, but it makes me happy that some day we can make big elaborate meals for our family and guests! Everything was so well timed and yummy.. timing is really important to me when it comes to food. Alex could eat each side dish as a separate portion but I love sitting down to everything being hot and ready at the same time.

Needless to say i love home cooked meals made by others. The company (as always) was fantastic and we just had a wonderful time. Oddly, it kind of felt like a family dinner.. it was that comfortable. Can't wait to do it again, but maybe have the T's up to our place for us to make an elaborate meal! MMMM.. i can just taste it!

Adventures in Dog Sitting..

Alex and I started dog sitting on Saturday for my friend Ken. We'll be sitting for 10 days.. today is day 3. Day one went well but Ken wasn't kidding when he said she gets excited when you come home from being away from the house. Her yelps are piercing! We didn't have any trouble except a couple logs in the hallway which were easily flushed. Yesterday also went well, we took her to my parents house and she really enjoyed running around outside, since their yard is about 20 times the size of ours.. maybe more.

Today, i felt bad leaving her when i left for work. I can't imagine having a baby and taking them to daycare and leaving them there. It's too sad. Plus, I think Gracie isn't used to the fact that she doesn't have a doggie door to use because she poo'd on the floor today and must've rubbed her whole but in it somehow. She got it on our down comforter and our sheets. I spent a good 5 minutes getting the dried stuff off the floor. Phooey! This is why I do not have a dog. Now granted, she'd probably get used to this.. but i'm so afraid she's going to pee on our furniture or my oriental rug. I put her in the tub after eating my lunch and cleaned up her butt just in case she wanted to sit anywhere that's carpeted.... lucky, that's less then 1% of our house.

She is such a cute dog though, and a little lover girl.. it reminds me that i like other people's dogs but would never want my own.. also, this may be our only time ever dog sitting.. we'll have to wait and see.

So after work i'm going to stop and get some doggie shampoo so that we can properly wash her tonight and then some puppy diapers so that she won't poo on stuff.

Other then that.. she's been a great little girl. For anyone wondering, she's a bichon/poodle mix.. her hair is tan and she is just adorable!

Leek & Potato Soup

This turned out more like a chowder for myself.. but it tasted fantastic! Granted this is the 3rd time ever having it.. it stomps the other two times! This was almost completely home grown.. everything but the garlic was grown organically and locally (on my FIL's farm).

3 Cloves Garlic - minced
1 Medium Onion - sliced/chopped.. whatever you prefer
4 Leeks - sliced/chopped
3 Medium Potatoes - cubed
3 Small Carrots (not baby) - Sliced
EVOO At least 3 tbsp.. maybe more
Taragon 1/4 tsp
Dried Parsley 1/2 tsp
Chicken Broth 4 cups
Heavy Cream 1 cup
Kosher Salt - to taste
Fresh Ground Black Pepper - to taste

Note: I kinda just threw in stuff as I went so the measurements aren't exact. I followed a recipe the first time I made it but this one turned out better with no recipe.

First: Heat your oil and add your garlic and onions first. When they've cooked a bit.. add the leeks (Note: after i sliced these, i put them in a large bowl of water to wash them, this lets the dirt sink to the bottom.. i highly recommend this as leeks can be dirty inside their leaves/stalks). I let the leeks cook down and added some more oil to lube them up. Probably 3 minutes went by with them cooking on medium heat. I salted and peppered at this point.

Next: Add your carrots and your potatoes. Cover them with broth until it basically covers your ingredients. Mix it all around to combine and make more room. Add the taragon and parsley. Put a lid on it! I brought this to a boil for 10 minutes than reduced the heat to a simmer for probably over an hour.. i wasn't timing it.

After it's been simmering for an hour or so and the potatoes and carrots are soft, smush some of the potatoes to make it more chowder like (if you prefer; you can always leave the veggies intact). Salt and pepper it again. Add your Heavy Cream while your soup is simmering and continuously stir so you don't scorch it.. turn the heat as low as possible. Once the cream is warm and combined with the soup you are ready to serve.

It's delicious! I had two bowls!! And one today for lunch, yummm!

Grocery Shopping Style..

What's your grocery shopping style? I think you can tell a lot about a person by how they grocery shop.. really you can tell if they're healthy or not.. but the speed says something also.. i'll share my style :)

I always start in the produce section.. i probably do my fastest shopping in this area because it's the coldest in the store. I spend the most time there even though it's the highest speed. We get a lot of vegetables and fruit.. especially since it's summer and it's in season. In another post I'll share my awesome leek & potato soup recipe with you that i made last night, it kicked BUTT!

Anyway, back to shopping.. after this.. i move to the aisles. I usually try to stay out of them unless I need something.. so i'll go down the baking aisle for spices and then the vegetable aisle to get cans of refried beans and salad dressing if needed. Then I move on to the Dairy aisle where I pick up Milk, Sour Cream, Cheese and Eggs.. seems easy enough. After moving from the produce aisle though, my speed slows dramatically.. i mosey along down the aisles or over to the dairy aisle.. sometimes this makes me buy more.. so i should really try to keep a good pace. We don't buy a lot, but we hit the grocery store about every 10 days. We also try to keep the mindset that food is the most important thing in our lives, so if we spend the most money on that.. it's no big deal because we need it to live! (healthy food anyway)

I end my trip with a sugar free red bull from the front of the store and check out.. my avg time spent in there is probably 30 minutes. And i'm going today.. hence the post!

Enter Blog Title Here

I couldn't think of a title.. isn't that sad?

Today is my first day back to work after a nice 3 day weekend. It was my first trip to a DE beach, and Bethany was a great choice. We met on friday at a mexican restaurant in the little town of Bethany Beach.. parking was a disaster but the food was very good. Mexican restaurants remind me that if I could, I would have a margarita with every meal.

After our late lunch, we settled into the house, hit the beach for a little and eventually had a pizza dinner. Vacations are so relaxing. I have some weekends where I do the same thing that I did while at the beach but it's not the same. It's really nice being surrounded by fun people.

On Sunday we went to the beach for a little while, then into town to look around. At this point it started raining but it didn't ruin the day. Later, we played some games and read some books.. everyone seemed to be addicted to FarmTown on facebook (the cousins anyway). Another relaxing day that ended with a spaghetti dinner and Ellie's special sundae's.

Monday we took Carl's idea of Parasailing and turned it into a reality. It was awesome to say the least! We even got dunked in the water! It was definitely worth the price, but I wouldn't pay to do it again I don't think. Once is enough for me. It was super fun though. When we got back we ate some lunch and headed to the beach again. The waves were calmer than the day before, so we spent a lot more time in the water. I really just enjoy sitting near the waves and watching them crash over and over. Again, very relaxing.

After our amazing Taco dinner (seriously, amazing) we got our things packed up and headed back home. We made it in about 3 hours instead of 4 which was nice. Monday nights have little to no traffic compared to what we hassled with on the way down.

That's my last beach trip for the summer.. I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to next year when we go to OBX with our friends, OCNJ with my family and then BBDE with his again. Good thing we'll have more vacation to spare.. because 3 days at the beach is not enough!

I'll be adding pictures to this post later today. :)