Open letter #2

Dear Nathan, I hope you really did enjoy your birthday yesterday. I am still a little skeptical.


Dear Co-worker, If you have something to say just say it! Don't be like, "Well I was going to tell you something but I think you would mad." Ah, hello, that's like saying, "I have a secret but I can't tell you." Actually, you know what, don't tell me. If it is some kind of criticism I would rather be blissfully ignorant since it wouldn't really serve any person then to just make me subconscious.


Dear Yard, You obviously took my last letter to heart. Thank you so very much for the small sections of grass!! But if you could stop growing so many weeds in the other sections that would be great, thanks.


Dear Roxie, You are so darn cute, but please, please, stop being such a huge PITA. Your evenings of barking and constant needs for attention are getting tiresome.


Dear Job, Thank you for allowing me not to arrive until 6:15 am on Monday. It was really weird to arrive without it being dark, but that was fabulous. In addition, thank you for giving me a relatively normal day.


Dear Wii, You shall not defeat me. I shall master Mario Kart, boxing, and tennis.

Dear Blogspot, Thank you for doing scheduled posting! I heart it and am using it for this post!

The pimptastic closet

The absolute last thing I expected to be doing over the weekend was upgrading my closet. But.....on Saturday night, at about 11:30 p.m., Nathan and I were super productive (well, with laundry at least) and finished our laundry a day early. Just I was getting ready to hang my last shirt....BAM! The entire rack comes off the wall. Nathan bursts into scary, psychotic laughter. I convinced him not to have a breakdown and that we would go get one of those Rubbermaid closet kits on Sunday morning. Thanks to the awesome Maria, I knew exactly what to get and where to go! So we dropped $150 and got a very nice closet kit for a 6-10ft closet (ours is 7).

Here's the collapsed aka before closet pic with Nathan lying on the floor to avoid an ass crack pic that was very likely:

And the lovely after:

Full of all our shiznit:

I am happy with the ease and the results, and dropping the extra $50 to buy the bigger kit. Plus, this was a great chance to get rid of some old clothes and discover this great red Gap top I forgot I had! I think I may still do some shifting of work vs. casual clothes, but other than that I think it turned out fabulous.

Nathan was obviously exhausted after working on it for about 3 hours......

The funny part is, neither one of us would admit that we probably could have just re-attached the old shelf. I think we both secretly wanted a better, more organized closet.

Is it Friday yet?

Seriously, has this been the longest week ever for anyone else? Work has been ok, but crazy busy. And my two nights of staying up until *gasp* 10 or later has left me feeling tired but also restless.

Luckily, I took my restlessness to the streets and Roxie and I went for a long walk. She loves doing that and with all the rain, it hasn't been happening very often. Plus, I feel myself getting unhealthy so I need to get back to walking her regularly.

And on the unhealthy note, Nathan has agreed to join me in starting watching what we eat. I don't really like the word "diet" but we are definitely going to be cutting back on lots of the foods that are terrible for us. I have been trying to be healthier forever and it has always been a challenge because Nathan doesn't do it with me, and now finally he wants to make the effort! :) And he has agreed to do evening walks with Roxie and I which is super exciting because Roxie and I love walking buddies.

So over the next few weeks feel free to ask how "the quest to be healthy" is going. It will definitely be motivation to keep it going if people are asking.

All the serious life stuff.....

I have heard a lot of people say you do a lot of growing up your first year of marriage, for me, this really wasn't true. I felt like the first year of marriage, although sometimes being tough wasn't really a huge adjustment. I think the big change came over two years after the wedding when we bought our house. Lately I have been thinking about this change a great deal. It has only been about 9 months since this major life changing event and I think if you put my life pre-house next to my life now, you would see two very different people.

For one, my priorities are totally different. This time last year I was thinking about how amazing it would be to get new furniture and a TV. And while I would still love to get rid of all our heavily used furniture and our TV that takes five minutes to turn on, it is in no way, shape or form on top of the priority list of what we should spend our money. I think the only way we could justify it now is a smaller purchase like buying that used couch that is still in good condition since ours is on our last leg....I would post a pic but it is pretty frightening I feel like we should put more towards our huge debt (house, car, student loans) or get a good chunk into savings then spend money on material stuff.

Another thing is the actual house itself. It is a great house, but when we bought it we kind of considered it just a jumping off point. I told DH living here 5 years would be my max, and I would probably start looking at new houses around year 3. That just seems ridiculous now. First of all, we probably won't have kids by then, so why in the world do we need to move to a bigger house? This house is plenty big for the two of us, the dog, and even a child. We have plenty of room to entertain and we live in a neighborhood we enjoy. Plus, while a bigger house would be awesome, it is just more to clean, up keep, etc. and I seem to spend a ton of time doing this to our current home so I can't imagine the effort I would have to put into a bigger home. If you put into the equation that if we stick to our snowballing debt plan we could own the home in about 10 years, that makes it very tempting to stay as long as possible and then make the most money when we do sell it.

While I have always been very aware of money, I feel like now I am extremely financially aware and I didn't think so long term with money pre-house. When you shell out a ton of cash in 10 months for things like a water heater and a sewer line, you definitely start to think about the importance of a paycheck. What is so crazy is that right out of college when I worked for Red Lobster as a manager I made the same I make now and I felt like that was soooo much money. Nathan and I actually looked at buying a luxury car right before the wedding because I could afford it. I mean my fabulous apartment wasn't that expensive, so we could afford it, right? THANK GOD that didn't happen, since I decided a few months later that I was terribly unhappy working for RL and I would spend three long months without any kind of job to speak of and then right after I found something Nathan lost his job. I pray that never happens again, being jobless sucks.

Speaking of jobs, another recent revelation is that even the most fabulous jobs are going to have a downside, but sometimes you just need to tough it out and put in your time. I love my job now, but definitely didn't 6 months ago. And had I not hung out and tried to make it would have been that much harder to find something steady or a "real job" because I didn't have any long term experience with any one company, I just job hopped after college. I am not saying that everyone should stay at one job forever, but you have to realize and accept there is always going to be at least one idiot, two slackers, and one person that REALLY needs to get a clue at any place you are employed.

So what is the moral of the story? Think really hard before you buy a house because all those blissful "live in the now" emotions will be gone. You will have to start thinking long term and it kind of sucks.

Favorite things (part 2 of 83)

Well, today's addition of favortie things features someone that probably should have been featured in the first post; however this "thing" isn't too blog supportive so I suppose it isn't too bad to put him in part 2.

Blogging world, meet my husband, Nathan. :)

He is a 25 year old amazing person that has taught me a lifetime's worth of life and love within a few years. Not only does he love me unconditionally, but he is truly sentimental and kind to everyone he meets. One of his best qualities is that he deeply cares for each and everyone of his family and friends even when they haven't always given him the same respect.

He takes my competitive nature with stride, and isn't too embarassed to admit that I sometimes wear the pants in the family. He does little things to help me out/cheer me up all the time.

He is a master of pancakes, cornbread, and flourless peanut butter cookies and occasionally the grill when I let him near it.

Anyone who tries to steal him after this post will have to deal with my scary side. ;)