Sunday, December 14, 2008

NO time

Due to moving and working I have no time to post new pics and stuff. I also hurt my foot and have to make time to go to doctor this week. I will try to post soon.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

UGHH PAINTING!

I spent 6 hours yesterday painting and I have only finished one wall. Now granted it was a big wall with the fireplace so it required a lot of cutting in, etc. I am heading back of there in a bit to tackle the master bedroom, which will probably take me twice as long because of the vaulted ceilings. I am vertically challenged and the ladder is not that tall so I might have to make a trip to Lowes to get a new one. Oh to spend more money! Also, I think the community posted a memo that we were moving in (it is a large golf course community) because I swear about 20 cars drove by and numerous people walked down by the house while I was there. Our street is a dead end so there is no reason for them to being driving down it. I think we are the new freak shows on the block since we are the only ones living on this new street! I will post pictures soon when I have reached a stage that I fill comfortable with showing off my painting skills.


In the meantime I thought maybe I post some pics of my babies, I mean animals. They are like babies to us because we do not have kids yet.
Eli, is the first child. We adopted him in Harrisonburg my senior year of college. He was a stray that was in the townhouse neighborhood we lived in. One snowy day he was wondering around the house and I let him come in and since then he has yet to leave. He was an outdoors cat until we moved back to VA Beach. Since then he gained a lot of weight (a mixture of digestion issues that require him to only eat organic food and lack of exercise). But now that we have the new kitten he has become quite more active and has actually lost 5 lbs, which is a huge victory for him. He is a sweet, talkative cat who is likes his space unless he wants to cuddle which means having a 25lb cat in your lap.


Isabelle is our German Shepard mix dog. Jason's mom found her roaming around Colinsville, VA jumping in front of cars. She was pretty shabby until his parents fixed her up and then we adopted her. She is protective until she knows you but once she knows you she will never forget who you are. She is very active and loves stuffed animals (well loves to destroy!). She is well trained and knows lots of tricks.


The finally edition to our family was a surprise to me. For my 26th birthday Jason got me another kitten. He said he got it to curb the talks about having a baby (which he can no longer curb because we now own a house which is what he wanted to wait for). We thought the kitten was a girl so we named her Zelda because we love old school video games in this household. It was Jason's choice of name but I thought it was cute. Well Zelda was a girl until she turned out 8 weeks and we noticed she no longer was a she. Zelda then turned into Link. Well Link is a crazy one. He gets into everything. And he loves to eat. You can find him usually trying to get into trash, sink, etc. just to find something to eat. This obsession has now led us to start calling him Squishy because he has some pudge.


He is what they call a Bigfoot cat because he has lots of toes and claws.

All the animals get along great. The cats bath each other and the dog plays with both of them. One happy family!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Our first house!

Today is the day we close on our first house!

It originally was set to close last Wednesday but the builder forgot to get a certain permit and we had to push the closing date to today. I guess that is what happens sometimes when you buy a new construction home. We were really upset because he had almost two months to get this permit and waited till last minute. With the holiday the offices were closed and he could not get it signed. UGH! So we played phone tag with our realtor and our broker. It was not a fun day. Alas, we pushed the closing date to today and actually got a really low interest rate for doing it. The government decided to buy up some mortgage securities on Wednesday (our original closing date) and that let us get a lower interest rate. So in the end we ending up better off closing today.

We went to Lowes on Saturday and bought paint for the house. We bought a pretty green for the living room fireplace wall and the rest of the living room walls will be a color called Gray ghost which is a light brownish-gray. We also bought paint for the master bedroom which will be an aqua color (our master bedroom decor is beachy so that color fits). Our friend Joel is also moving in with us (we like the company and it gives Jason a friend to play with) and he chose a Carolina blue for his room. I told him he could pick any color because I'm really laid back about paint colors. Jason was not happy that he picked Carolina blue being we are DUKE fans. Oh well!

I will eventually buy paint for kitchen, half bath downstairs, dining room and entry way halls this month. I just need to figure out what colors I want. Jason keeps disagreeing with me on colors but I think I will just paint it whatever I want and he will deal with it. :)

While at Lowes Jason and Joel looked at all the Christmas decorations. Jason said for every dollar I spend on paint and decor he gets to spend equal on Christmas lights for the house. This could get scary. I might have to get the whip out and control him because I can see our house resembling the Griswolds from "Christmas Vacation." Since we are the only house occupied on our street (there are 10 other new houses on the street that no one has bought yet) Jason thinks we need enough lights to blind the entire block. I hope it does not end up looking like this house!
Hopefully I can keep him tasteful.

So, after 8 years, 2 dorm rooms, 7 apartments and 1 townhouse we are finally getting a home. It has been a long road of moving pretty much every year for the past 8. We have lived in cramped dorm rooms with no ac, small college apartments with many stinky guys, 1 large townhouse with 1980s decor, a small 1 bedroom apartment in a not so safe neighborhood, 1 beach apartment where we were robbed of most of our possessions, another beach apartment that required daily workouts to get to and a really nice 3 bedroom apartment that we called a temporary home in North Carolina till we close on the house today. I'd say we are grateful for all that we have been given in life and look forward to many memories in our first house!

The house (the porch has a fan on it, so Southern!)

Part of kitchen, minus stainless steel appliances

Part of living room

Our hay filled yard (just until we can get some grass to grow)

The formal dining room


The view of the lake from backyard (there are

also tennis courts, pool, playground and volleyball area down by lake)



Kitchen again ( I really like glass cabinet)



Tuesday, November 18, 2008

One year Anniversary

On October 13 Jason and I celebrated our one year anniversary. We were kinda low key with celebrating (saving money of course). Jason took me out to breakfast, we then went to Home Depot to look at paint (So exciting and romantic, haha). We went out to dinner and exchanged gifts. Since we are not traditional people and by no means was our wedding traditional we did not do the generic one year gifts of paper. Jason got me a card and wrote a sweet note and even included a line that said "this is your paper gift". He also got me a new Coach purse. Yah! I gave him a brew your own beer kit and a personalized Redskins jersey with Joe Montana's number on it and his last name. It was a very laid back day.

Our wedding day was a special day filled with all our family and friends. By far, one of the best days of my life. I tried to relax and enjoy it but it was a crazy time and flew by so fast. We had a lovely ceremony on a deck overlooking the bay and reception at Lesner Inn. There was amazing food, great music and karaoke. Afterwards we had an after party at our beach house in Sandbridge.
Here are some pictures:



My dad chose the song "I loved her first" by Heartland, tears and sobs for me as you can tell from pic



Jason and I started off dancing to "Breathless" by Better than Ezra and secretly planned with dj to break into the song with "Beat It" by Micheal Jackson. Jason had a sparkle glove and hat hidden and we had a little dance planned out. The bridal party even joined in.

The official Lesner Inn shot, every bride that gets married here does this pic.


My daddy and I

My beautiful flowers and great-grandmother's rosary


The bridal party (we were all starting to get hungry and thirsty at this point)

Look at that smirk!


Kiss Me!

Exchanging rings


My beautiful sisters

Cutting our yummy cake (before I proceed to shove it in Jason's face)

My mom and I

Sunset Bride

Monday, November 17, 2008

Welcome!

Okay, so be kind. This is my first blog of hopefully many. Since Jason and I have moved to North Carolina I figured this would be a good way to update family and friends about our time in the south.


We moved here in June and since then have been living in a nice part of Durham. We have a short term lease on a 3 bedroom apt until the end of December. Currently we are under contract for a house. Yah, our first home together. Keep your fingers crossed because the deal is not sealed yet. I am working at Duke University (Go Blue Devils) as an RN. I work on a surgical floor that deals with plastics, ent, urology and women's health. I really like the people there and the patient population is good. I am constantly busy during my long shifts but I only work 3 days a week so I guess I can't complain too much. Jason is Director of Revenue Development for a Resort company that deals with resorts in Aruba, Barbados, etc. The people are extremely nice and the company is a lot better than the one he used to work for (not mentioning name of company but if you are from VA Beach you most likely know it).


While here in Durham, we spend a lot of time trying to learn our way around. We have a Super Target across the street (it is huge and has a large grocery section). It is the second busiest Target in the nation. I LOVE IT!. Jason thinks I need to attend a Target addicts program because I am seriously there like 3 to 4 times a week. There are a lot of colleges around here which make for some good bars and restaurants. We have been down to Franklin Street a few times (this is on UNC's campus) It has a lot of nice bars (where you typically can hang out with the UNC basketball players) and the campus is really nice. Other than that we are somewhat losers in the sense we hang out at home a lot. This is really only because we are saving money to buy that house. Eventually we will get to see all of what the Triangle are has to offer.







Jason, Joel (our roomate and great friend from college) and I out in Durham


This is the "Blue Cup" beer at one of our fav bars called "He's Not Here", I only drink one of these when we go out!


And, yes we have gone to a Carolina Panthers game (they won, of course being that they are better than the Redskins!)


Jason and I at the game