What a wonderful first day back at work after a long weekend. Not.

Starts off with a mentally challenged man making rude gestures at me while telling me he's not stupid and that he could do any of our jobs better than we can ... No idea what prompted this - I hadn't even had a chance to say good morning to him before he started off ..

Then multiple calls of complainers ...

Then I realize that I put a $5 bill in the $1 bill section, but got distracted before I could move it to the right place. Guess how much the cash box was off? $5. first time I've been off in months. Ugh.

Then of course ... the sinus headache....

Topped off by the lady who had called last month about losing her bus pass and wanting us to replace it for her for free. When she was told that our policy is that we are not responsible for lost passes, she ranted about how illogical and stupid that ws to me on the phone for ten minutes, and then when I transfered her to the bus driver supervisor, she ranted to him for ten+ minutes - finally ending that she was going to contact the mayor about our stupid policy.

So ... she shows up today just after I finished counting the cash and realizing that I was short $5. My head was pounding. There was 8 minutes left to go.

She asks me if I remembered her calling about her lost pass. I told her that I talk to a lot of people in a month, so sorry, I didn't . Then she says she'd found her pass, so had "let it go." Then proceeds to rant and rave for ten+ minutes about how stupid and illogical our policy is. Acting like she expected me to agree with her.

One particular gem ... someone losing their pass isn't the fault of the bus company, nor is it the fault of the person who bought the pass - it's an act of God. So of course the bus company should refund or replace the pass. I wanted to say - Are you out of your mind? Seriously? On what planet is you losing your pass an act of God?

Finally at 4:33 she says that she has to get out of there. My boss wasn't much help .. just came by as she was leaving to tell me it was time to log out and go. Gee, really? How about telling this lady her ranting time was way past up.

I plan on asking her if I can tell this lady if she dares show her face again, that she needs to buy her pass elsewhere. I do NOT want to deal with her again.

(I'd reiterated multiple times that this is our policy. Did no good. She just wanted to rant.)

Then after work I call back our insurance agent about the plumber claim. She told me that they won't cover it (the broken faucet) because the inspection report said that it needed to be replaced because it was about to fall off. Huh?? We were told it was leaking and might need to be replaced, but nothing about it about to fall off ... oh well.) While on the phone with her I stuck my foot in my mouth and told her that we hadn't liked our realtor C very much - one reason being that we had felt like we'd kind of been pushed along in the house deal - for instance, being told to not ask for any thing to be fixed that wasn't major in the inspection report otherwise the deal might fall through. Not to mention that we'd both felt like we did nearly all the legwork of finding places, and he did nothing until we actually had a house to make an offer on .. Too late, I remembered that she had been suggested by our realtor C.

Oops. I plan on sending her an email tomorrow apologizing - not for what I said, because it truly was how DH and I feel - but that she wasn't really the right person to say it to. We hadn't planned on saying it to anyone really - just not recommending C as a realtor if anyone ever asked us.

Then I get home and in the mail is a bill for some labwork I had done back in February I think. I'd gotten a bill for it previously, and called to explain about the name change on my insurance. Apparently I need to call again - because they are still trying to charge me for the full $270.

Ugh. I hate talking on the phone!

I have a doctor's appointment on Monday. Presumably to discuss the labwork with the high platelet/lymphocyte count. But I also plan on bringing up my sinus headaches/allergies and pushing the doctor to help me get something figured out other than what I'm already doing (which only seems to work some of the time.) These sinus headaches are making my life miserable.

DH has been using miad for the past 6 nonths or so since his 6th used laptop from eBay in 2 years died... So today he comes into the office and tells me iPad is dead - won't charge, or turn on. I test this out too. reaching the same conclusion.

I call the Apple store in O town and find out the next appointment isn't till Friday at least. The person did tell me about some local places - but didn't know their schedules.

Just on Sunday I worked through a joint budget. I'd put $200 in computer replacement category. Knowing how both DH and I like to be on the computer, I didn't relish the thought of however long it would take for an appointment to even find out if this is fixable or not.

So ... I told DH - let's get you a Chromebook. We'd looked into them before, but had put off getting one. We bought him a 15" Chromebook at Walmart for $179 plus a $40 2 year warranty. Normally I wouldn't go for that ... but DH is tough on computers.

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I added an offer to my Aexpress card to spend $75 at chewy.com and get back $25. Then I went to chewy and ordered 160 lbs of cat litter and 48 lbs of cat food. The total came to $102.

I then added "autoship" for 16 weeks from now to get $15 off. Which brought me to $87. Once I have the $25 credit, my order will cost a measly $62. This will also add rewards dollars to my account - I ave 14 sitting in Limbo until I reach 25 and can cash out.

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DH took me to see Finding Dory on Thursday. Loved the movie, but loved even more that DH took me to a movie he didn't really want to see in the theater.

We were hit with sticker shock though ... unwittingly we chose seats when asked what we wanted. I thought I heard the guy say that'd be $25.50 but was sure I was hearing things. I wasn't. Apparently we chose premium seats. Shows how long its been since we've been to a movie ... yikes!

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I spent some time today cleaning the hardwood flooring and living room carpet. Most of what needed cleaning was dried cat upchuck. I'd been dreading it and putting it off ... but when it came to it, the swiffer type mop and floor cleaning spray left by the former homeowner, made it pretty easy (relatively). Hopefully DH will notice when he gets home tomorrow ... I need to get some more of that spray stuff!

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I'm in charge of the food drive at work this year. I set up three fundraisers, as well as putting out the barrels. A guessing jar, a team challenge to "feed the pig" and selling casual day tickets. To say its not going well would be an understatement.

Oh well. I tried.

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Did I mention that the dog is gone? For almost a week now. His owner paid us the $300 he'd said he would, and said he'd reimburse us for the $150 in meds. Waiting.

That first day I walked in and was only greeted by cats ... heaven.

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Ok, I'm going to get a walk in before heading to bed. Hopefully I won't run into any fireworks.

So... last weekend I reformatted my computer. A few weeks prior to that I had transferred ALL the photos off of DHs SD Memory card. 4 years worth of photos.

Can you see where this is going?

I meticulously went through everything on my computer and uploaded into Amazon Drive and Dropbox. I signed up for the Firefox thing that remembers your favoritesy67/logins/etc. I thought that ALL my photo files had been uploaded.

Then I hit "restore" and went through the process of resetting up everything.

All week a niggling thought has been in the back of my head that I should have double checked that ALL photo files got uploaded *before* doing the restore. But with helping DH get moved in, etc., I didn't have a chance to look to see if they actually had.

This morning I had a chance. I feel absolutely sick. I can't believe I was so careless to not be sure of it beforehand.

I think there is a very slim possibility that someone with computer geek as their middle name may be able to recover them ...$$$$

I'm not sure if I should tell him when he wakes up later today (he works nights), or wait til I have a possible solution in hand.

We've had a lot of really good discussions this weekend, and things have been going pretty well. The dog's owner will hopefully be coming to get him SOON today.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. An I'm sorry is a little weak for something like this. Doesn't get the pictures back.

Koky finished his medications two days ago. His itching seemed to be pretty much completely gone. By last night though, he seemed to be back to itching almost as miserably as before. Sigh.

So I called the vet this morning and got a refil of Aquapel - an itch inhibitor. $51. From what the vet tech said, it sounds like the only way he's going to not itch, is to take this - for the rest of his life.

I feel for his owner's - $100/month for meds to make their dog not itch. But it's a part of pet parenthood. You do what you have to do.

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I completely wiped my computer today and then reinstalled most things. After 5+ years, there was a lot of miscellaneous stuff on it. I'm hoping that this will help make it keep going for a few more years.

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Got the plumber bill finally (from the broken faucet/pipe) = $239 for two hours + parts. Not as bad as we were fearing.

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I had bloodwork done last week - as part of our employee benefits. Part of it was a CBC panel. There were only 4 items out of range - two of which did not surprise me as they have been out of range before (Cholesterol.) The two other items though did surprise me - my platelet count was 508 (high range 400) and my lymphocyte count was also about 60 over high range. (can't remember what it was)

The least that it means is that I'm fighting some kind of infection - either bacterial or viral. Dr. Google also suggests other possible things ...

I'm going to try to get in touch with my doctor on Monday to see if she can look at the results and figure out if there is anything needing to be looked into.

Maybe this explains my complete lack of energy and moodiness ... Probably not the moodiness...

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I bought groceries for 3 cook smart meals on Friday. Yikes! It took me nearly 90 minutes to find everything. Just ingredients for three meals!

It also cost quite a bit more than I'm used to spending...

I need to figure out how to do healthy, home cooked meals, while also not killing the food budget. (Plus there's some produce from last week that didn't get used up - like half a head of lettuce, etc. Feels kind of wasteful.)

Maybe I'll just pick two meals and make 6-8 servings worth - so it'll use up the full veggie/fruit other ingredients, and also be less work.

I'll get it figured out.

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This afternoon I used some of the farro I cooked to make fried farro & veggies. It actually was pretty good.

It's one way to use up the leftover veggies.

Yesterday I spent about 90 minutes or so doing prep work for the 4 meals for the week from Cook Smarts. I'm really hoping that the more often I do this, the faster I'll get - plus it would help if I could get my printer to work ... I had to write directions down, then go back and forth from the office to the kitchen to remind myself of what my shorthand was talking about ...

So tonight I made the first meal - Zucchini cakes and salad with a greek yogurt/mayo based sauce and balsamic based salad dressing.

It took me about 20 minutes to put together (having already made the cakes except for frying on Sunday.)

One thing I'm going to have to figure out is my stove - the burners are smaller than I'm used to, and there is only "low" and "high" options.

Overall, I liked the meal. I have leftovers for tomorrows dinner. One biggie .. I actually used the tomatoes called for in the salad AND ATE some!

Let's just say that when I was young, there was an incident at a Chi Chi's in Des Moines, IA with me and a tomato my dad insisted I eat. Yeah, that didn't end well.

So .. here's a picture of the meal -

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The cat situation is somewhat better. Today though ... I came the closest to wanting to kick an animal that I ever have - not that I *ever* would do that! I got home and was waiting for Koky the dog to calm down enough so I could put his leash on and take him out. He apparently felt I was ignoring him too long, and decided that barking at and charging at the smallest and sweetest cat of the bunch (who incidentally still has her claws) was a good idea - especially cornering her. I was livid.

He wasn't doing it to hurt her, but still! He just doesn't get that you don't do that.. She doesn't seem to be overly affected by it thankfully (nor scared of him - I think she gets that he wasn't attacking her - but she still didn't like it!)

Kari ... she seemed to be starting to relax a little bit. Then tonight I sat down at my computer after washing the dinner dishes ... She got on my lap and looked up to see Sunshine (the smallest one) coming into the room. She went nuts (Kari) hissing and yowling. Then Koky came over ... and the paws went flying.

DH isn't 100% sure if Sunshine is spayed or not. She is one of the strays he picked up - he was told the only way to know for sure would be to shave her. He says he's never noticed her being in "heat." But ... I kind of wonder based on how Kari reacts to her and that all the other cats don't seem to like her much.

We're going to have to get a multiple cat license soon (once Koky's gone) and one of the requirements is proving that everyone is spayed/neutered - so we'll be finding out for sure on that.

Ugh!!!! (Sunshine is now curled up in my lap. Koky at my feet. Kari .. who knows where she is.)

The calming gel is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I really hope it works. If it doesn't, I'll try the feliway spray - but I've got a large area to cover, so am not sure how economical that'll be.

Last night I got the link to our wedding photos from our photographer. I'd really tried to be patient and not send too many emails asking for updates.

Some are ones that are similar to ones my family took, but there are a good number of the ceremony and reception that I hadn't had any photos of.

Here's the link if you'd like to see: http://ronhagen.smugmug.com/Scott-Laura/n-6nkHfw

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We've been having some animal issues here. Right now I'm still the only one actually *living* here. With all the cats and the dog we're dogsitting.

DH's cats are adjusting pretty well to the new house / new environment. They also have adjusted well to being fed out of individual bowls (rather than food scattered on the floor with a mad scramble ...)

Kari though ... she adjusted well when it was just her and I. She was okay when the first few cats were added. Still okay, though getting stressed when more were added. Then, the dog was added. And finally, the last cat.

The first few days with the dog went okay. She wasn't eating much because she kept looking out for the dog every time there was a noise. But eventually I figured out that if I fed her away from the group up high, that that would work somewhat better.

That was good - because I had enough to deal with due to the dogs skin allergy. (which while not totally healed, is a whole lot better now - thanks to being consistent with his meds!)

The last 3 or 4 days though, things have gone from just okay, to not okay. She is very stressed. Not just hissing once in awhile at the other cats, but hissing a LOT, growling, and doing this horrible scream that sounds like she's being murdered or something. (while no cat is even touching her - nor is the dog - just a cat getting too close to her space or something) Also, is basically keeping herself sequestered in a corner of my office.

DH thinks it will get better once the dog is gone. (Two more long weeks.) I really hope he is right.

I am afraid though, that Kari won't be happy in a multi-animal family. She was very skittish and aloof with other people even when it was just her and I. Now she's even more jumpy.

I'm afraid that I may have to consider doing something that makes my stomach turn inside out. Something I have always said I would *never* do. But .. if it is either find a new home for her or have her continue being stressed out and not enjoying life ... and stressing me out, which in turn stresses DH out (since I'm a *wee* bit over emotional due to the stress ...) It's also not helping the other cats much to be constantly hissed at/ swatted at by Kari.

Ugh.

I won't make any decision until I've tried just about anything and everything I can think of.

Tonight I bought some calming chews from Petco. Kari wouldn't eat them. Koky (the dog) liked them though. (He also prefers cat food - and his owner just feeds him cat food.)

I also ordered some kind of calming gel paste from Amazon today.

The dog - he is a sweet, good dog for the most part. But ... he has this tendency to charge the cats once in a while when he gets overexcited. He also has the most annoying bark in the world. If you ignore him, it just gets worse.

I'm SO ready for this dog to go. 2 more weeks.

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DH asked me tonight to schedule movers for the 21st. Finally. (He's been working on getting his place packed - lots of electronics/speakers which take a lot of time to pack properly, etc.)

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Sunday I have someone scheduled to come put the coaxial cable through the walls (for cable/Internet). I can also have them make connections in other places in the house, or do outlets. All for the same price. ($40) I'm going to ask them to do the bedrooms, the office, the workshop and the laundry room. May as well, right?

I was just so happy to be able to have someone come out on a Sunday!

When that's done, then I'll be working on my Cook Smart's meal plan. I bit the bullet and paid for a year - at 20% off. $56.

I went shopping for ingredients tonight. I still need to find farro and soyrizo.

Meal 1: Zucchini Cake Sandwiches
Meal 2: Farro Bowls (may sub Quinoa if I can't find farro)
Meal 3: Mexican Hash
Meal 4: Soyrizo and Corn Saute

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Ok, gotta clean the cat boxes, take Koky out, and then feed the gang so I can get to bed. Night all!

So Time warner Cable still had my name spelled incorrectly - after 4 different times supposedly correcting the spelling. Seriously. This time I had the person read back the spelling to me.

Part of the reason I was calling them was to find out if they would send someone out to string the 50 ft cable through our house and get it off my floor!

They're sending someone on Sunday! morning to do that, and anything else I can think of at the same time. Maybe have them string cords to all the rooms in the house?? She said something about outlets too? It'll cost $40, but I think it's worth it to have someone who knows what they are doing to do it. Who knows when we'd have the time to figure out how to do it ourselves .. the cord is unsightly.

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I had a horrible sinus headache yesterday after work. Pretty debilitating, actually. I ended up sleeping most of the evening, then getting up to take Koky out and feed the gang. Then back to bed.

DH came over after work (around 4 a.m.) and I woke up when he came in. My headache was thankfully gone by then.

The only thing I can think of is that the last two times this happened, it was after DH mowed the yard. He came in the middle of it to take a break and laid down on the bed in his clothes. So .. I'm thinking that whatever I'm allergic to in grass cuttings stuck to his clothes and transferred to the bedding.

Hence the sinus headache - no matter how much Allegra D, Nasacort, etc.

I told DH that next time he cuts the grass and wants to take a break in the middle, he'll have to disrobe before laying on the bed.

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We have a couple of very persistent kitites for getting on the kitchen counters. I've covered them nearly completely in aluminum foil and double sided tape. All it really has accomplished is to make it noisily apparent when a cat is on the counter ...

I don't want to use the electronic mats or loud noises (two of the cats are quite skittish already) - I saw the idea of an upside down chair mat. They're pretty expensive though - also saw something called an x-Mat which is a similar idea (and cheaper.)

Any other ideas on how to keep cats off counters? Once we can successfully to do that, then I plan on working on the dining room table ...

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I put up 3 sun window seats for the cats in the living room. Only one cat so far has braved them ... Our own little Pepe le Peau!

Here are some pictures:




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I got my first letter from our mortgage company with our account number, etc. So now I can set up our online account. I'll probably do that when I finish here.

Still don't have a bill from the plumber.

DH got in touch with a fencing guy today. He'll be coming by tomorrow to do an estimate. The fire was fueled by finding a big pile of dog excrement which could only be from the next door neighbors German Shepherd in our yard. Yuck!

It's been a bit.

Sunday will make two weeks since I did the major move in to our home. All but one cat and one DH are also moved in. DH and last cat eta move in tomorrow.DH has been waiting for some eggs to hatch first. So .. two possibly three chicks will also be arriving tomorrow (oh, some turtles will be coming too)

We've (or I should say, (I've) been dog sitting for the past week. That's been fun - getting two sets of cats acclimated to each other and to their new home. while also taking care of a dog. Sweet dog. Sweet dog who unfortunately has some kind of a skin infection which causes him to itch constantly. Which the owner failed to mention to us.


I got the name of his vet only by calling him the night after he dropped the poor dog off and seeing how miserable he was. of course this was on a Saturday of a holiday weekend.

Sunday I spent $40 at Petco on itch relief spray and oatmeal shampoo, as well as a couple chew bones. DH and I gave Koky a bath - which helped some. The itch spray also seemed to help some.

Tuesday after work I called the vet anf found out this was an ongoing issue - mostly due to inconsistency on the owner's part of giving meds.

Wednesday after work I picked up the new order of meds - to the tune of $97. Ouch. But they seem to be doing the trick! He's still itching, but not nearly as much.

We've got him for three more weeks. It will be much easier once DH is here full time so I don't have to rush home from work to take the dog out. I enjoy taking him on walks - it's just stressful when I know he must be desperate to go out and traffic is inching along.

The first week traffic was a dream - 15 minutes give or take. This past week though, construction season started ... 25 - 30+ minutes! Ugh!

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We're in serious talks about privacy fence again. This week we've seen adult neighbors crossing through our back yard multiple times ... but more annoying .. their German Shepherd has been allowed free reign to come into our yard! I *really* don't like this - especially since I am going out in my yard with Koky multiple times a day. Koky would not intimidate a GS.

DH is chomping at the teeth to give neighbors a piece of his mind, but realizes it might not be a good idea.

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I saw some cube shelving at Big Lots which I thought might work for the bedroom and the office - a buy one get 50% off the second sale. DH and I went to look at them in store on Thursday and well ... I was disappointed with their in real life look.

Budget ... ??? What's that?

I broke the tub faucet last week ... didn't think a pipe was broken. Til the next morning when I heard a dripping sound in the basement. I thought it was new leakage due to some fierce rains. Nope - DH discovered it was a broken pipe. Oops.

We haven't gotten the bill yet from the plumber.

Our home warranty person is going to submit it for us (not insurance, but the warranty plan) to see if they'll cover the broken pipe ( faucet isn't covered)

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The Internet/cable got installed on Saturday. What a fiasco. The guy was here at least two hours. Then there are only two cable hookups in the house - the living room and the basement. I'd bought a wi fi extender which i put in the office. After nearly four frustrating hours I finally got it working on my computer - sort of. The connection kept dropping!

So on Sunday I bought a 50 ft coaxial cable and ran it from the living room to my computer in the office. Internet was back! But now we have a cable cord running through the house ... A some point we're going to have someone come out and run it through the floor or ceiling.

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Lots more .. but at any rate, I'm glad it's the weekend and I can take some time to breathe a little. (and catch up on the net!)

So ... last night DH and I were at our house checking out various things, measuring, etc.

I was in the kitchen finding the neat little built in's in the cupboards (pull out pot and pan rack!!, pull out dish towel rack!!) DH comes in from the yard and tells me that this blonde kid had just cut through our yard to his house from the neighbor's yard.

Our neighbors have a huge trampoline in their backyard. Last night they probably had at least 7 or 8 kids from middle school to early high school age using it.

Not even five minutes after DH tells me this, we are standing in the doorway from the kitchen area to the backyard, when blonde kid cuts through our yard again. He even had the wherewithal to apologize sheepishly.

Later, DH and I were standing on our driveway (getting pictures of Mama Robin and babies) and not once, but at least three times, various kids walked on our driveway to the front of the neighbors house. One even had the audacity to spit on our driveway.

From a liability issue alone, I think this is a huge problem. I'd really rather not have to use my homeowner's insurance this early on.

More so though is it is plain rude of them to be traipsing along our property. Especially when it's obvious we are home!

It's also an issue of privacy - we shouldn't have to wonder if someone is lurking in our backyard.

But ... the question is, how best to deal with it?

We plan on getting our privacy fence put up sooner than later (especially with realizing how free the neighbor kids seem to be with using our backyard as a pathway.) But until that can happen? And also the issue with the driveway - that won't go away with a fence.

We realize these people will probably be our neighbors for a long long time. We don' want to make enemies, but we also don't want to have our space invaded without our permission.

What would you all suggest?

Okay, so I went over to our house today after work. Not having a major sinus headache sure helped a lot!

I needed to take a picture of the water meter for our Realtor, and I also just wanted to spend some time absorbing the house and take some pictures!

One thing I figured out, was that the one closet which I had thought I'd use as a pantry (but would need some renovation to do so) wasn't my only option! The closet that is near the entry of the kitchen would work way better! I'll need to get some pull out shelving, etc., but it's going to make a fantastic pantry! The broom closet/small pantry will still be good for some of the larger items/cleaning supplies.

I also made my decision about which room would be my office and which one will be the bedroom. (The one with the hanging lamp is to be the bedroom. The other room is slightly larger, and will become my office/workout room/guest room.)

The room with the fireplace will be our living room, as well as the cat's playroom. We'll be putting their cat trees, along with lots of cat safe shelving on the walls and under the windows. I'll probably also put my electric keyboard in there.

The basement (which has its own kitchen and bathroom) will be mostly DHs "mancave." The workshop (where you can see the iBeams and sump pump) will be where fish and other animals abide, as well as where DH can work on his electronics. There is tons of storage space in the basement. Which DH will most likely fill with his home/car stereo collections easily.

(Upstairs is mostly "mine" to do with as I please.)

The previous homeowners who built the place definitely made some creative designs and "finishes" in the closets, etc. (As in, the closets aren't really truly finished. Still, they work.)

Some of the pictures may look a little weird due to my experimenting with the panoramic feature.

DH says he feels like the place is dated and needs some modernization. I'm not totally sure what he means - maybe the partition thing in the entryway? Could that somehow be updated to look more "modern"?

Officially, the house has two bedrooms and one bathroom. 1362 sq ft. Realistically it has three bedrooms, a family room, a living room, two kitchens, two bathrooms, a huge laundry room/area, and a workshop.

So ... here's a link to lots of pictures!
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/nWK8NAX8sLwXKyVhCgyBjzAvN4YQITQyPBmzDUgT2El?v=grid&ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

The deed is accomplished. The papers are signed. DH and I are now $112k in debt. Gulp.

In a way it was kind of anti-climatic. I was super tired from work and had a sinus headache brewing. Then I missed the entrance to the building and had to drive around the entire mall to get back to it. I made it to the office with a minute to spare - but offended DH because I didn't call him when I got there so we could go up together. Sigh.

We got our keys and went over to our house to drink some sparkling juice and see the repair work. Both of us were kind of upset with the other, so no teasingly carry over threshhold stuff. {we got over it}

Our realtor came by with an oversized key and took our picture. How to let him know we kind of think he was a real let down of a realtor?

Is it normal to feel more scared than joyful after signing the papers? That's how I felt sitting in our garage and thinking about what it meant - that it wasn't just a dream anymore. That we now are 100% responsible for a house and a garage and a yard ...

Maybe it's just my sinus headache...

We will be closing on our house on Monday - after having gotten a second estimate and working things out with the sellers. Whew!

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Question - DH made the suggestion that I could use the closet in my office/workout room/guest room to put a Murphy bed in it. That way I wouldn't have to use space for a bed full time when we only will have guests once in a while.

I'm wondering if a dIY Murphy bed is possible? Then I could put the mirror on the backside of it? (I want a mirror to look at when I am working out.)

Anyone know?

I got a letter in the mail this week which made me very sad. As of June 8, the rewards card for Swagbucks will stop.

I'll probably go for the Citi cashback 2% card as a replacement - which in reality is a better deal. Although I'll look for good cash back cards first - as I have the feeling we'll have plenty of expenses the first few months in our home.

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So ... this will be the first really long roadtrip DH and I will have taken together in the same vehicle. When I moved from NM, DH drove the truck and I drove my car.

The longest roadtrip we've been on was about 3 hours. This one is going to be around 6 or 7 hours one way.

Normally on a roadtrip I'd read or snooze or ... whatever (when not driving). That seems kind of rude when it's just two people though.

I found a few joke books on Amazon (free) and a book of good questions for couples to discuss together.

Beyond that .. the A to z game? Slug bug sighting? ????

Any suggestions of good books to read out loud? DH gets bored really easily

The last few days I've been working on getting utilities set to switch over to the house. Today I called the water department and found out that the title insurance place had already put in an order for that to happen?

We are getting the basic Kinetic Internet/cable package. I'd prefer to go without the cable part, but DH really wants it, and since he's willing to go with the basic ... It'll only be maybe ten to fifteen dollars more a month than what I'm paying for just Internet right now.

I also got movers lined up for the 15th (which means I need to get my stuff packed PDQ!)

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DH and I are in discussion mode about possibly replacing the locks on the doors with keyless entry locks. I think since we need to rekey the doors anyway, why not spend just a little bit more and have their convenience? (i.e. you can set a temporary code for someone you need to let in, but might not want to have continual access, like a guest or a housekeeper.)

DH wants us to have a deadbolt on the front door for added security. I need to look into a solution for that ..

Anyone use keyless door locks? What are your experiences?

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We'll be heading to Branson on Sunday! We're planning on doing Silver Dollar City, one of the acrobat shows and then either the Haygood's or the Frankie Vallie show. We also may rent a boat - although the one we were thinking about is much bigger than DH had in mind (the one at the marinia by our hotel.) We may also take in a movie - possibly Captain America.

On our way home, we may be making a stop for DH's first chicken (as an adult at least - his family had lots of chickens as he grew up.) It's a bantam hen - he plans to keep it in the basement in an open cage til we get the chicken coop and privacy fence figured out. As long as I can't smell it ...

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Did you know that most auto insurance companies won't insure pizza delivery drivers? If they get into an accident while on the clock, the insurance will just not pay out anything, and then will drop the previously insured!

I found this out while working with S to find a home insurance quote. DH wasn't too happy with me insisting that he check to see if his employer carried the right kind of insurance to at least cover liability. But he did it anyway - even check with his insurance company ... (I waited with bated breath, hoping not to hear that he'd been dropped as soon as they heard "pizza delivery driver.")

The good news was ... his particular company does not have an exclusion. The bad news is ... most other companies do. He had them do a home insurance quote, and it came in higher than Geico's. So ... no can do with having all of our stuff on one policy. His insurance guy wants to see the home insurance quote I got - he couldn't figure out how we got it so low. ($713/yr.)

I'm just relieved to know that he's covered (only has liability.) I am thinking about looking into an umbrella policy, or see how it'd work to put stuff into a living trust - if that would protect our assets in case he got into an accident where someone got hurt (and he was at fault.)

Pizza delivery is one of the top dangerous jobs - right up there with construction workers, etc. DH is a very careful and defensive driver. But he also is on the road TONS of time ...

Today I took off work at 3:00 and headed over to the Social Security office. That was over in about 35 minutes ... (The actual process took about 5.) I should have my new card in a few weeks.

Then I rushed to the DMV. Got there about 4:05. Was out of there with my new license about 4:40. I'll change title/registration after we move.

About 4:42 I got into the credit union. (Next door to each other almost!) Where I then changed my name on all my accounts there. DH needs to sign the new signature card for our joint account, and then that will be finished.

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I'm planning on calling various moving companies here to check on rates and availability for the 15th. I am SO ready to be out of here! Even if that means I'll be paying rent for an empty apartment, I don't really care at this point.

I meant to pick up a tape gun and a sharpie today, but forgot. I'll do that tomorrow on my way home from Women's Ministry (we are meeting to finish making the flower pens for Mother's Day.) Then, I'm going to start packing.

I'm not going to be too worried about making sure I have *everything* packed by the 15th - just the vast majority. I also think I'll leave Internet service connected through the end of the pay cycle - that way if I'm here cleaning/packing later, I'll have access.

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How soon should I start calling utilities to tell them the date to change them into my name? Should I wait til we've been sent the closing cost document that tells us how much of a cashier's check we need? Or, can I do it sooner?

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I could barely sleep last night - mostly thanks to my allergies. That's with having taken a full load of meds. Melatonin, Allegra D 24hr, generic Nyquil, generic Flonase ... That's what I get I guess for two nights in a row of getting a bit more than 6 hours of good sleep! (Yes, I consider getting 6 hours a *good* night's rest. Mostly average 5 hrs ...) Had a massive sinus headache today too (again, with all the allergy meds in me ...)

Something's gotta give here soon. I don't want to be feeding my body all these chemicals daily forever ... especially seeing as though they seem to be not as effective.

So DH was talking to me about a lawnmower tonight and a weed whacker. We also will need a snowblower eventually.

DH has a bad shoulder, and so needs an electric start mower, and also wants a self propelled one. He's been looking at Honda mowers - one that starts at $420. I have no clue about mowers ... Any ideas? Suggestions? He thinks the Honda one would have very good resale value if we ever were to let go of it. (I asked him about used ones - he said the used ones were almost as much as the new ones.)

Also looking at a weed whacker. What would you recommend for that?

What other tools are essential for lawn care?

What could be done without?

I seriously have no clue when it come to yard/lawn equipment .. other than rakes.

What about gardening tools? What is essential? Best?

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Update on DSIL - Surgery went well. She was sleeping when we stopped by (with flowers and a card) but we spoke with her nurse. It most likely is a blood infection stemming from her dog biting her. (She was walking around in the dark and stepped on him.) They'll know more about the infection by tomorrow evening.

I was wanting to post last night, but kept getting an error message for the blogs! I was very glad this morning when I was able to get on with no issue.

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Thursday night Mr FT got several texts from his nephew. He was telling him that Mr FTs sister was in the ICU!

During the wedding weekend, his sister, S, had told him that she'd been bit by her dog earlier that week. Also that she had a weird spot on her arm.

It turns out that the weird spot was some kind of blood infection!! She didn't go to the doctor until Wednesday ... They sent her home with some antibiotics and painkillers. On Thursday they got the results of the blood tests back, and told her to come back to the hospital.

At this point, she also had a weird spot on one of her legs.

We found out last night that she is going to be having surgery (now, actually) to clean out the blood infection. We'll be going to visit her later today after she has a chance to recuperate from the surgery and is up to visitors.

Goes to show that you just never know when something is going to happen!

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My goals this weekend are pretty much to get thank you notes written and get my apartment looking less like a whirlwind hit it. (As Mr FT so helpfully intoned when he came over on Thursday - he apparently had no memory of what it looked like on Sunday after bringing in everything from the wedding ... )

I also need to figure out what to do with the leftover cut up veggies before they go bad - there's at least one full veggie tray, plus another large container. A week old now ... I've managed to eat most of the leftover fruit for lunches at work last week.

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I signed the paperwork for the home warranty plan after work yesterday. Also made sure that my mortgage broker J knew that we had home insurance lined up.

A little less than two weeks til closing!

I plan on asking J how long he can make it before our first mortgage payment is due. We'll be having to pay rent and utilities on two places through June. So it would definitely be helpful to not have to pay the first mortgage payment on top of that.

Just one week left of work til a whole week off! Plus, the Branson trip of course.

So a few weeks ago I bought a Groupon for 3 mani/pedi's from the local beauty school. 3 of them for about 35% of the price at a regular place.

Today I had my first 1/2 of the mani/pedi - the manicure. The girl was very nice and friendly and really tried hard. But ... part of the reason I was going for someone else to do my nails, was to have my cuticles taken care of .. and other than pushing them back, she did nothing with them.

It was a very basic manicure, one that I could have pretty easily replicated on my own. (I don't do my cuticles, have had one too many oops doing them myself.) Still, it did turn out looking nice, just not quite what I was expecting.

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After I was done, I headed to Walmart. I bought 6 bottles of Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice for toasting, a variety of teas for the reception, a combination photo album/signature book *$9!* for the guest book, some fake flowers to put in the teapot we were given for our sweetheart table centerpiece, and some other miscellaneous items. Spent nearly $100!

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I didn't realize that cutting fake flower stems was so difficult ... I'd bought one of those styrofoam disc things to put them into, and to put into the teapot. The flat round ball was too big ... so I had to cut it down.

Then I tried cutting the stem of the longest flower with a pair of scissors. Nope. Wasn't happening. Finally got it "cut" with a knife.

I'd planned on cutting ALL of them down so they'd be more even with the top of the teapot. But after my first attempt, decided to try without cutting. They look okay, but I'm hoping to figure out what I need to use to cut them!

Wire cutters?

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I don't think I'm going to manage to get my apartment very clean before Friday. I had been thinking of having the CA contingent eat lunch here on Saturday ...but, yeah, no. Maybe I'll let them come in long enough to meet Kari. Otherwise, we can eat the the cafeteria on the local SDA college campus. My grandma would really like that. (That's what we do when I visit her in CA.)

Only two more days of work! (Well, the paying kind of work at least.)

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I paid off the cake today, and the table/linen delivery people also.

*Note to self - have a $5 bill to give to cake people on Sunday (the lady charged me $5 less than she was supposed to, so I told her I'd give them $5 on Sunday.)

Most of what expenses are left now will be paying the bed and breakfast fees (she's not charging anything until all is said and done - will probably be the $245 fee, plus two room rentals since one couple isn't coming that we'd planned on.) The makeup fee. (Hair is already paid in full.) The other half of the photography fee (but he doesn't want that until he gives us the photos.) Then probably 3 meals out with varying groups of people - two times with the CA contingency, and once with the TX/OH group.

I do still need to get the salad fixings for Saturday night, pay for the pizza, buy the ice cream and rootbeer ... and ?? That may be it.

I think I've decided to not do programs. Is that bad? I'd kind of put together one, but every time I'm out somewhere I might get paper for it, I keep forgetting it. Maybe Thursday when I get the salad stuff, if I see some for a good deal that I like ..

I haven't been keeping perfect track of all wedding related expenses, but I think we are on track to come in under $3500, even with the eating out group expenses (which I hadn't put in my budget plan at first.) That isn't including the honeymoon. Although that I don't think should come in much more than $1k, if that.

This weekend I called Geico, with whom I've had my car insurance for 15+ years to get a home insurance quote and also find out what it would cost to add Mr FTs car to my policy.

The auto insurance person I spoke with was great. Very helpful. I have no complaints about him.

The home insurance person I spoke with was great at first. But then when she figured out that I was only looking for a quote (after I repeatedly said that numerous times...) she got all pushy.

When I told her that I'd been told to not go for any quotes over $950/yr, she told me "but we're offering $10k sewer backup - nobody else will give you that."

I firmly told her thank you, but that I wanted to do some more checking around. She wasn't a happy camper.

(My quote was $1160/yr. for $179k replacement. I think the wood stove in the basement and fireplace probably didn't help the cost estimate.)

Today I got an email telling me that I have a $2.11 bill for my car insurance. So I'm guessing that they've already put Mr FT on my policy? Or changed my zipcode? I'm not sure it's worth a phone call right now or not- my minutes are being eaten up this month majorly.

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I've emailed a couple other places about home insurance and am waiting to hear back from them.

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Last night Mr FT and I booked our hotel for our honeymoon! We both agreed that normally we'd go for the cheapest room, but decided this was worthy of a splurge. So we went with the 1 bedroom condo w/kitchenette on the lakeside. 3 nights will be just a bit less than $300 with taxes and fees. (Plus getting 8 SBs per dollar back.)

We also explored what shows are going on that week, and found a few we could agree on. We haven't bought any tickets yet though.

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I worked on the seating plans today ... and realized that didn't have enough spots for all the people! The rental place called, and while I was on the phone with them I asked how much it would cost to upsize one of the tables - $2. Go for it!

One other thing Mr FT and I worked on last night (with a bit of grumbling from him at first) was writing out the place cards. I wrote messages inside of each place card for my family members, and then wrote what Mr FT dictated to me for his. I hope everyone likes it! (This was possible since we only have 20 people coming. More than that, and it may have been a bit overwhelming.)

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The money from stocks and ROTH have hit my checking account. Now it'll sit there until time to do a huge cashier's check ... At least it will be earning a little bit of interest until May 12. (2.5%)

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My allergies seem to have lightened up some here this week. Knock on wood that the trend continues. At least through Monday of next week.

Today I called the bakery and ordered a cupcake to go with the cake - to give to the owner of the vintage car as a thank you.

I also made two! appointments to have a mani/pedi - one for the mani, and one for the pedi. Not ideal by any means, but the only way I could do it without taking off of work.

I found out that J had been waiting to hear back from me about the inspection before going forward with the appraisal. Oops! I didn't have my debit card with me for the correct account, so will do that tomorrow.

After work I picked up a card from the Dollar Store for S who is retiring tomorrow. He's not even 55 years old! My hero!!

When I got home, I called my brokerage firm and got the ball moving on the ROTH transfer. By Friday I should be able to move all the money to my bank account.

THEN I finally wrote out and addressed all the thank you cards from the Bridal shower. 9 days later isn't too late, is it? Better late than never? .... I'll take them to the post office tomorrow.

Am now taking a slight breather before working on some cleaning that needs to be done.

I'm glad to check a bunch off my list!

I finally pulled the trigger on selling the stock on Monday. They sold at 251, and this morning they open at 249 .. so maybe good timing?? I think it will still be another day or two before I can move the money though.

I tried moving my money from my ROTH, but there is a $45 debit from when I transferred the ROTH from Trowe - so can't do it without making a phone call. How annoying! Why they can't just take the $45 out automatically ... Ugh. At least I'm not in a time crunch.

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Last night I checked my Amazon registry and saw that someone had bought the InstaPot for us! When I looked to see who it was, I was very conflicted. It was my mom's most recent ex-guyfriend. They're breakup wasn't pretty. I called her and asked her what she wanted me to do - she told me to just accept it graciously. So ... I guess I'll do that.

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I had a dentist appointment yesterday. No cavities! yay!

Afterwards I stopped at Shopko to see if they had any tennies in my size at a reasonable price. I thought I had found a pair, but when I got to the checkout counter, found out they weren't wide width. Boo!

I did however find a new pair of dress pants that fit well and were reasonably priced (only due to a sale price!) and two tops (also on "sale") One of the tops I know I'll keep - the other one I need to try with the skirt I'm always trying to figure out what to wear with. Maybe I'll try it on and post a photo here and see what you all think ... I love the skirt, it's just so hard to find a color/top that works with it.

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The wedding is just 11 days away ... yikes yikes yikes! I'm looking forward to seeing my family, but am also nervous about whether I'll have everything put together in time or not. I'm also hoping that my allergies aren't going to be making me miserable that weekend ... like they currently have been ...

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I think Mr FT and I have decided to leave the majority of the flooring in our new house alone. We will take out the carpet in the bathrooms and replace with some kind of wet resistant flooring, but otherwise wait and see if the other flooring will truly be a problem. It was, as I found out, only installed a few months ago. That would be such a waste to pull it up without giving it a chance first.

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I helped Mr FT with his taxes the other night. He's getting a nice bit back. Between that, and his inheritance check, we're going to be able to take a big chunk out of his medical and student loan debt, even with taking some of it to fund "present" and "future."

I also was reading the instructions for the 1095 form, and it mentioned something about if you need to make different allocations due to a marriage in the year. So it sounds like the IRS planned for circumstances similar to ours. That gives me hope for our taxes next year - that they're not going to be a mess or a lot owed.

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Along with my allergies being bonkers, I've been having a really sour stomach the last few days. The only thing I can think of is that I've eaten some fried foods that I don't normally eat, plus been drinking more soda. So .. no more soda and no more fried foods! Hopefully the sour will go away soon ...

We had our house inspection this afternoon! R, our inspector was pretty awesome I think. He had spent a couple hours going through the house before we got there checking everything out. Then with us there, he took us through everything and pointed out a huge variety of things.

He told us that overall, the house is in very good shape. The main concern is the 23 yo water heater .. There was SO much information ... but he's going to be writing a 17 page report with the same info so we can refer back to it when we need to.

We told C, our agent ... Go ahead! None of the issues raised by R are anything we can't easily do ourselves (well, with a little help from youtube ...)

One thing we found out was that the couple selling the house have just had their 70th!! wedding anniversary! The husband is turning 95 soon. We were SO off - we thought they were maybe mid to late 70s at most.

They also are the original owners - they designed the home themselves - back in 1952. The husband custom made the cabinets (he's way into woodworking.)

I didn't get any photos today - just way too much to take in to also take photos. But I will take some soon!

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One thing R told us was about the flooring used in the kitchen/formal dining room/hallways - it's a wood vaneer? He basically said that you don't want to let it get wet, as it can ruin it quickly.

So ... um ... with all our cats, and possibly dogs in the future .. some with possible "issues" of the liquid variety .. We won't always be home to catch "issues" right away. So .. there's gotta be something we can put on it to protect it? Right?

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So, our next hurdle is the appraisal. Then of course getting the stocks sold for the downpayment. (The T stock has been so UP and DOWN - wish I'd sold it on Wednesday!)

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Just two weeks from now, and my brother/grandma/aunt will be here from California!

I still have SO much to do. I stopped at Dollar Tree and SuperSaver to get some napkins/plates/cups/plasticware for the rehearsal dinner/reception. I couldn't find the plates I wanted, so I might have to go to Party City for them.

I was going to stop at this new store FreshT for some great produce deals, but I hadn't eaten since lunch and was getting a sinus headache. Maybe I'll go there on Sunday after meeting with the photographer.

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I finally made it to 100k points in the Achievemint app again. Sadly though, after I redeemed my points for my $100 gift card, I was told that I'd reached the max reward limit. So, I guess they only let you get 2 $100 awards.

This was a slow way to accumulate extra funds, but it was relatively simple and painless. So I'm sad to not have it as a tiny bit of extra motivation.

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I probably should try to do my thank you notes tonight so I can hand most of them out at church tomorrow. Save on postage you know. That probably won't happen though, plus it might be kind of rude ... I don't know.

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Question about homeowner's insurance and liability -- let's say we had a boat and it was within our fenced in yard. Some yahoos decide to climb our fence and get in the boat and goof off and end up getting hurt. Would we be liable? If so, would it be homeowner's insurance or liability for boat insurance that would cover it?

Mr FT and I were having a discussion about this today (as we were discussing where to check at for homeowner's insurance.) BTW - Anyone use Farm Bureau Insurance? R told us about it, and that they have only one deductible for whatever you have insured with them. (house, car, boat ..)

On Sunday I had my bridal shower. There was a nice sized group of ladies there. It felt really weird to be in the center of things ... Some of them thought it was funny that I looked for the card first before opening the gift - I told them that I'd been taught to always try to find the card first and thank the giver before you even know what the gift is. (We also usually give big hugs after opening ... but I didn't do that on Sunday.)

I got quite a few nice items - which made me glad I had spent the time on making the registries. I'd kind of wondered if that had been a whole lot of wasted time ..

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Still helping Mr FT with his big project. Although tonight I had to tell him I needed a break. Hopefully it'll be mostly done by this Friday - otherwise I'm going to have to tell him he's on his own. I have to get some stuff done for the wedding!!

I checked in with the cake baker, the videographer, and the caterer on Monday and Tuesday to make sure everything was still good to go.

I need to write out thank you notes for all the gifts on Sunday (maybe take them to work with me tomorrow ...)

I am SO tired of having people argue with me about route information. SO TIRED!

My sinuses are really acting up = probably somewhat related to the big project I've been helping with.

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The radon testing is getting set up at our house tomorrow so we'll have the results by Friday. C really made me roll my eyes today when he texted me to make sure we'd asked for radon testing. Uh yeah. It was in the offer thing, and I specifically specified it when talking to you ...

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I'm really liking the plant based cooking class - I haven't had time to do TOO much with it yet, but mostly it's just reading background info / watching videos right now.

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Mr FTs inheritance check looks like it may actually be coming in the next few weeks. We've been discussing what to do with it. My suggestion was 30% each to medical debt, present needs (landscaping), and future (retirement) and 10% to fun (his boat fund / 4 wheel vehicle fund probably). He's agreeable to the idea, but we haven't made any final decisions.

I wrote a long entry, and then forgot to copy it ..

Oh well.

Jist of it -

*Been very busy helping Mr FT with a huge project this week. Still lots to do, and not lots of time to do it in ..

*Signed the mortgage paperwork with J on Thursday. Inspections are scheduled for the 8th, and the appraisal will be after that.

*Debating on the timing of selling electric car stock (begins with T) and withdrawing from ROTH. The market has been SO topsy turvy. Especially the T stock.

*Aunt and Uncle (who paid for wedding dress) got their first T car - a the X one. Uber excited. My brother will get to drive it - lucky duck. (I could too, just would mean a California trip.)

(The above Uncle is the one who got my dads whole side of the family to invest in the T stock when it was still under $30.)

* Bridal shower is tomorrow! I'm not sure what to expect, since there is another bridal shower at the same time at the church! I wasn't expecting to even have one, so whatever happens, will be great!

*I've been coming up with many ideas/ways to spend money regarding the new house. Almost as bad as Mr FT with his landscaping/animals ideas. Good thing I have a strong penchant for keeping a strong EF! But will give ourselves a little bit of money to play with in setting up house.

*Finally had a Groupon deal come out for a mani/pedi. There seemed to be a dearth of them for awhile. Maybe because of it being winter? Anyway, I got a deal for 3 gel mani/pedis at a local beauty school for $43. Not too shabby I think. (One will be for wedding.)

*Got my interest for the Brink's account! 3 months worth at 5% - $57.68! I'm glad I decided to wait patiently and see if it would actually pay out 5%!

- Will now probably fund the Netspend card I opened a while ago, but got discouraged about actually using due to not having interest the first month show up. Will only put $40 on it to get the $20 bonus though. Later may put more on there.

* I started the Culinary PX program. I haven't gotten very far with it due to Mr FTs big project, but what I have seen so far, I like a lot. I think it's going to be well worth the $50.

I signed up for one week of Hello Fresh through a Swagbucks offer ($19 after a coupon, plus another 1000SBs) This weekend I made the flatbread pizza (didn't take a picture though) and tonight I made this:



Southwest Zucchini Bake

It used basmati rice which I'd never had before. I wasn't too thrilled by the rice, but the dish overall was really good! (I have enough for dinner tomorrow!)

If I had several recipes I could do the prep work for at one time, then it would make this meal take about 30 minutes. As it was, it took me about 50 minutes with chopping the different ingredients/figuring out how to scoop out the zucchini.

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I did bite the bullet and sign up for Culinary DX plant based cooking lessons for $50. It's a 60 day course, and it starts tomorrow. Prepping the stuff tonight made me hope for better knife skills ...

I do have a good set of Cusinart knives now though. Bought them from Amazon a few months ago when a deal site advertised them - I think they were $19 for six knives? Normally a $100+ set.

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I was so busy at work today, that I had oodles of time to look at different arrangements of cat wall shelving environments. Our cats will more than likely be our kids, so I may spend a little bit of an insane amount to make the house fun for them. (Hopefully eliminate or lessen territorial issues, and also give Kari a way to get away if she needs to.)

I also was looking at various contraptions to let cats be "outside", but not really have freedom. Our deck I think will be perfect for some of the ideas I saw. Eventually, we may build a sunroom off of the back door/deck of the living room. That's a ways off though.

I also spent time looking at DIY home decorating ideas. I really liked one for decorating the front stoop - Mr FT and I will have to discuss it of course, but I bet I can get him to go for it.

Can you tell just how busy I was?
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I woke up around 4:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. Finally I got up and put some music on, and "danced" for about 30 minutes. I am now SO tired. I'm going to try to get to bed here in the next hour or so.

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I updated in the comments, but for anyone else ..

I talked to J today and my interest rate for the loan is locked in at 3.875% (30 years), and no escrow/no fee! I'm meeting him at his office on Thursday with the initial round of paperwork he's needing.

I asked him about taxes. He told me we'd not have to pay taxes at closing - but we'd get a tax bill in December which would be due in March. You know what I'm going to do right?

The back of the house - one door from the kitchen (can go directly to basement this way), and one door from the add on living room area w/fireplace.



The garage


The front of the house


Mr FT and tree in front of house


Mr FT and FT in front of house

They didn't accept our offer BUT they did a counter offer!

Mr FT had told me that if we had to add up to 3k to it, he was fine with it.

They asked for 1.5k more - with the allowance of letting us keep whatever furniture/appliances in the garage/tool shed/house that we wanted.

I of course said YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT - We'll TAKE IT!!!!!!!



C, our Realtor said the couple loved our bio, and that may have been partly what sealed the deal for us.

He's going to come by my work tomorrow with some more paperwork to fill out. Then we're going to get started inspections.

Closing date is scheduled for Friday, May 13 (the day after we get back from our honeymoon.)

OH MY WORD!!!!

Mr FT and I are going to go out to eat somewhere tonight to celebrate crossing this first major hurdle towards the finish line of being homeowners!

SWEET!!!

We need to get my boss something as a thank you gift - she's the one who sent this address on to me to look at. If she hadn't nudged me that way, I may not have even seen it, because I was only looking at places with photos!

OH .. the final offer price is $141,500. The sellers are paying the 3.5% Realtor fee.

So ... we are putting in an offer on a house tonight!

It's a FSBO but we are having our agent do the legwork. It's in L town - towards the NE part. I'd be able to catch a bus two blocks away to get to work.

It's an awesome house! Our offer is at the topmost max of our comfort level, but we are competing with at least one other offer ...

There weren't ANY photos posted online, so we went in only knowing what was listed on zillow about the house.

The sellers are an older couple, probably in their late 70s. Sweet people who love their house, but just can't keep up with the upkeep anymore.

Our agent had me write up a bio on Mr FT and I to kind of personalize the offer. I made sure to touch on how much we love the house, and how we can see ourselves making new memories with our new family unit there - that we'd love and care for the house.

We'll know one way or the other by tomorrow morning.

EEEEEKKKKK!!!!

Just 30 days to go til I change my last name and add Mrs to it.

Mr FT and I had a heart to heart a few nights ago about the househunting. I suggested maybe taking a break from it - he realized that part of my frustration was from feeling like he was dismissing all of my suggestions. It's going much better now (not taking a break.) Who knew, communication, right?

We may have found another really good candidate. It'd be about a 30 minute commute. 3+ acres. We plan on driving out to give it a closer look tomorrow - plus find out the policy on chickens.

Chickens ... the main reason we totally gave up on the house we love. The house we love(d) is now off market.

There is a second home we are going to drive by tomorrow that is actually in L town.

Mr FT has agreed that if we don't find THE house by the end of April, he will be willing to look for a house that is "good enough" for 4 or 5 years. Just so we can get ourselves into ONE household!

Hopefully one of these two homes we're looking at tomorrow will be THE one.

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My aunt from Ohio is going to be making us a quilt! She made me a handmade Cabbage Patch doll when I was 5 or 6 - Rosie - which I still have. I'm really looking forward to seeing it! (Speaking of, maybe I should remove the quilt from my registry ... not that anyone is even USING the darn thing. Ufta! What a waste of hours that seems to have been ...)

My bridal shower is in less than a week!! I really have no idea what to expect. I've been to lots of them over the years, but none since I've lived here. Will be interesting.

We have all but one of the six rooms at the bed and breakfast reserved now. Mr FT's relative may or may not be coming ... We're not sure if she has her panties in a wad because we didn't send out invites to his other relatives (whom he has never met ...) or if it really is just that she's not doing well. No response to my message asking if she'd gotten the invite, and a two word response to Mr FTs message ...

Oh well, I built into the wedding budget this possibility (that we'd be on for two rooms.) If they do come, it will be a nice surprise.

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This Sunday I MUST do some major cleaning of my apartment and my car. Will be having way too many relatives probably wanting to come over and see the place /see Kari to wait to the last minute.

I've been doing more cooking lately, but not been doing so well at cleaning as I go. So .. hence the need for major cleaning.

Tonight I made fried quinoa and asparagus with leftover cooked quinoa (from last Sunday) and asparagus I bought for $.88/lb at a new local fresh grocer last week. Yummy!

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I'm in the midst of working on several projects related to the wedding - slideshow' typing up / putting together final product of ceremony schedule; typing up final unity candle version; typing up / emailing photographer list of must shots; typing up wedding weekend schedule; working with Mr FT to finish up music playlist for rehearsal dinner ...

Just a few things left. Oh yeah, I still need to get the baby's breath for my hair. Forgot to ask the lady who made my bouquet/boutonniere for some.

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With all that's been going on, I've gotten REALLY behind on my budget / recording spending. It's not going to be pretty once I do get it caught up. Especially since some things could go into multiple categories ... Really do need to get it done though soon. Maybe tomorrow night.

Speaking of spending ... my phone bill is going to be the highest it's been since starting to use Ting this month. It's already at $39, and I think my text bucket is going to go into the next level (if it didn't already tonight.) Sigh. Still better than $76+/month no matter how much I actually used. Once this wedding stuff is finished and we're in a house together, the bill will drop significantly.

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I ordered a Hello Fresh delivery through Swagbucks - 1000 SBs, plus a $40 off coupon. That should come tomorrow. It'll be enough for 6 meals for me. $19 is still a lot for that much food - put it on pause for the next week (and will continue to do that for a few weeks, til it's safe to cancel.)

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Work has been up and down this week. Had a few days of major irritability ... but my talk with Mr FT on Wednesday night helped a lot, plus better sleep, so Thursday and Friday were decent.

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Next week need to make the downpayment for the photographer, also for the cake, and probably should check in with the caterer as well. Plus decide how many pizzas / what kind for the rehearsal dinner and figure out how to do rootbeer floats (two cartons of ice cream - one dairy, one non-dairy? Scoop your own?)

Then two weeks from Sunday will be meeting with photographer at the bed and breakfast.

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With all of this, I have been sorely lax in much of any kind of physical activity. Thankfully it hasn't been affecting the scale too much (even though I've eaten my share of junk ...) Am looking forward to getting to a place where I can put a more normal schedule together again.

Mr FT talks about getting back to "normalcy" too ... It will be fun to discover what "normalcy" will mean when it's the two of us +cats in our new home.

Wednesday night Mr FT came over and we got his tux all sorted. At first he was saying he didn't care ... but then when I made sure he knew I was okay with any of them - no matter the $$ (difference between the cheapest and most expensive was about $60 - big whoop in the balance of everything else) - he started having some opinions.

After all was said and done, the tux rental will cost $209. Or, about 1/3rd of the cost of my dress+alterations. I think Mr FT is going to look fabuloso!

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It's looking more and more like we might be going with doing a conventional loan where we put 20% down, and do it in my name only. The loan officer thinks we could still put Mr FTs name on the title, even if he isn't on the loan.

We're still debating about the house we love. Our Realtor suggested putting in an offer of 80k (asking 120k)to just see if they were even willing to entertain a under 100k offer. Then if they are willing to play ball, we'll go out there and do a fine tooth comb look over to make sure we really want it.

Or ... we have two more places we're going to look at this weekend. One is a house that is up for auction - Starting bid of $1k. It's on 5 acres of land. It has a barn, a couple of silos, etc. I think Lucky Robin might really love this place. I'm not so sure about the whole auction thing, but am willing to at least go to the open house.

The second place is $129k and about a 20 minute drive. It covers 3 lots. 1500 sq ft + sunroom. No basement, but does have a heated 4-car detached garage....Built in 1992. Simply gorgeous inside pictures - nice outside look too.

If this second place is as good as it looks in the pictures ... I may be pushing for us to put an offer in on it.

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So ... I've been trying to find a classic or vintage car to use as part of the photos for my wedding. I'd had little luck coming up with anything. Until on Wednesday ... I came across a classic car sales lot in NE and emailed them asking for help. They replied to me yesterday with the name of a group in Omaha that does Model A cars.

I wrote to that group ... and received a response today! A lady in the group is going to be here already for a classic car show, and is MORE THAN happy to bring OLE HANK on by for a shoot. Would love to give us a ride around too ... OLE HANK is a 1934 Model A - green.

My dad would have SO loved this! (And ... get this ... she's doing it free of charge! Just a slice of cake.)

It's pretty cool what can happen sometimes just by virtue of asking ...