Lately!

Lately I have been thinking about what I should blog about. But lately I've had nothing to say. I mean, how many times can I repeat that we are totally immersed in our new house and how I can't even list the projects we do on a daily basis because they are either a) way boring or b) there are too many to remember.  And what's majorly, MAJORLY killing my bloggy mojo right now is that we STILL don't have internet in the house. We ordered on September 13th and they KEEP giving us a new "service ready date".  Our latest one is TOMORROW.  If our @*#%$ internet is not on tomorrow when I get home from work I am going to spend a lengthy amount of time on the phone with Verizon explaining how my followers are growing cross with me over lack of updates.

Our life has been completely consumed by the new house. Not that it's a bad thing, but it is making it difficult to make plans, spend money on anything but the house, etc.  You know what also ruins plans? Your back brakes needing to be replaced. That's how I spend my Saturday. On 2 wheels.

Oh, and while I'm talking about not having any money, let me go ahead and announce that we are gearing up for our REAL One Year Anniversary Celebration (the Disney trip was just a hoax?).  Yep, we're going on a cruise. You heard me. It's a long story that involves St. Patrick's Day, a lot of beer, friends, and a credit card. You do the math.

So today I'm working on my cruise diet. I had 2 cupcakes and a jelly donut so far. How am I doing?!

This weekend is looking up, however. My parents are coming to visit for the first time since we bought the house.  (The hurricane did end up ruining their visit last time.)  We are excited and working on finishing up the guest room so they can stay with us.  We're planning on doing some house work, but also showing them around the 'hood and having some family togetherness (Joey is THRILLED).

I don’t really have anything to promise. I do know that I owe some house pictures, more of the Disney report, etc. But I can’t do any of that until I have internet at my house! AAAND with that, this superbly boring blog post will end.

~SG

Issues

So I keep trying to write a blog about the saga between Direct TV and Verizon Fios, and more stuff keeps happening so I keep thinking I'll write the blog when the saga is over.  Except it's NEVER over!! Well, it's sort of over... I think.

So the same day I wrote that blog about whether to choose Direct TV and Football or Verizon and faster internet, I found out that Verizon has a DEAL with Direct TV where you can get the best of both worlds. Except they don't tell you about it when you call because obviously they want to sell you Verizon service because they get paid more commission for that.  It sucks being a customer these days.

So after much confusion, we ended up with a triple play from Verizon that has the high speed internet, phone service, AND the Direct TV.  WINNING, right?!  Wrong.

Last Sunday we woke up all early (for a Sunday!) at 8 when the Direct TV guy showed up.  He took one look at our ALREADY INSTALLED dish from the previous owners and let us know that our trees were too tall and too bad so sorry you can't get Direct TV and he left.  Ummmmm so there went our lovely day of watching football at the new house. 

So I called Direct TV to cancel our service, and the lady on the line was like "hold up wait a minute WHAT happened?" and "he didn't give you any other options" Um, no.  So she said she'd send out another technician on Wednesday, meaning Joey had to make up a reason to get out of work because of course they can only come on the weekdays in the middle of the day because nobody has a full time job…

So yesterday the Direct TV guy showed up at 1:30.  And he left around 8pm.  I hardly even want to get into the reason he was there for so long because I am still furious about it, but somewhere in the mix he told Joey that we couldn't receive HD in the bedroom so we had to change the order to standard definition in one room. And then I got 8 phone calls while I was at work and each time I had to explain that I WAS NOT AT THE HOUSE and that they needed to call their technician and stop trying to up-sell me to HD when I was told I CANT have HD in that room.

And then 4 hours later Joey calls and says that apparently it was a big misunderstanding and we CAN have HD in the bedroom.  And 4 hours after THAT and a ton of other problems, including them canceling our entire order and us having to call Direct TV and PLACE A BRAND NEW ORDER AT 7PM and the technician walking all over my newly cleaned and polished wood floor with dusty boots, he finally left us with working TVs.

Seriously. It was that traumatic.

And OH BY THE WAY, we have no phone or internet service because apparently there is no connectivity running to our house. So that was supposed to happen yesterday too. But it didn't. So the Disney Trip Reports and Disney Photo posting are just going to have to wait. Sorry in advance to all my stalkers.

And here's one more issues that I would like to rant about.  Our mortgage company decided to immediately sell our loan.  Effective October 1. Which is also the date our first EVER payment is due.  And I called the new company and they are saying not to send in the payment until October 7? Which would make it late? But they are saying something about a grace period? What? I am so confused and all I want to do is pay my mortgage and not worry about the check getting lost in the mail on the way to CALIFORNIA.

OK I'm done now. Thanks for listening!!!!

SG

Disney Trip Report, Day 1

I'm finally starting our trip report! Here is the pre-report and the first day! Enjoy :)

The Cast:

ME: Sarah, 27, been to WDW too many times to count, Love Pirates, my Min Pin, and the lamb shawarma platter in Morocco.

DH: Joey, 26, To the naked eye, looks like he would want nothing to do with Mickey, but he’s a total WDW fan whose favorite park is EPCOT.  He loves going on all the thrill rides and often makes me tag along.

The Dates: Thursday September 1-Tuesday September 6

The Place:  Port Orleans, Riverside. More specifically, Magnolia Bend at Acadian House.

The plan:

Thu: Arrival and EPCOT

FRI: Magic Kingdom and Pirates League!

SAT: Hollywood Studios/Pool

SUN: Animal Kingdom/Downtown Disney

MON: EPCOT/Drinking Around the World!

TUE: Magic Kingdom/Departure

The FUN:

I decided to “take notes” for my trip report in a public arena.  I also felt bad for my Disney loving Mom and I wanted her to be able to “participate” in our trip. So  I made up a twitter account and tweeted my way through Disney World. It’s cool because now we have a tweet-by-tweet account of our trip to remember.  So my trip report will consist of the tweets and the stories behind them. I hope you enjoy them!

-----------------------------

DAY 1

6:30am “Up and at ‘em, Pals!”

OK Truthfully we were already up and at ‘em. We were actually in the car on the way to the airport when I sent this.  Joey and I really like to take the earliest flight possible so we can have as full of a first day as we can!

8:20am “You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!”

This was the last message I sent before powering off my phone. No complaints on this flight.  We sat next to a family who was also clearly going to WDW, and the little girl threw a huge fit right at the end of the flight.  Her parents were completely mortified, but it honestly didn’t bother us.  We know what we are getting into when we board a plane bound for Orlando!

11:05am “Feeling magical on the Magical Express!”

After we landed, I stopped at Seattle’s Best for a vanilla latte and a snack to hold me over until we arrived at Epcot.  Then we headed down the concourse to the Magical Express (free bus ride to the resort!)

12:07pm “We got Anniversary buttons!”

We arrived at Port Orleans Riverside (first stop!), hopped out, and headed straight to Online Registration, where we were the first in line.  We began to be helped by a Cast Member, but then we were interrupted when a guest who was most definitely a rookie and also didn’t speak English very well , interrupted us and asked her for help.  She did end up helping him, which isn’t really that big of a deal. As she put it, “Hey, we were all first-timers once!”

We were given our room keys but no specific room yet, and told we’d get a text when our room was ready. We were going to be in Acadian house though, which is super exciting!  We told her we were celebrating our anniversary but it wasn’t for another month.  But we got buttons anyway! Woohoo! Then she gave us a really long spiel about the resort, all the amenities, etc. and we were nodding politely but really thinking “hurry up! We need to get to Epcot!”.  Finally, we thanked her, dropped off my carry-on at the luggage area, and went to the bus stop.  Oh, but not before I thought out loud, “I wonder if I should bring the ponchos?”.  I wasn’t planning on it, but Joey said I better throw them in my backpack just in case.  He’s a keeper, that one.

12:45pm “First fast pass collected (Soarin’)! Now to get lunch before Joey’s stomach “eats itself”…”

I remember writing this as we walked out of The Land Pavilion.  Joey hadn’t elected to get a snack at the airport so he was a little starving. Plus is it me, or does the Land always smell like bacon?!  We took a leisurely stroll across the park to the World Showcase for lunch.  We  decided that this trip we are going to SLOW DOWN.  We are going to take our time and not rush everywhere and if we miss the bus there will be another one and if we don’t get as many rides in, well, we’ll be back in February…  Funny thing is we managed to do MORE things when we were being relaxed. Someone explain THAT!

1:05pm “Lamb Shawarma!”

Um… this one speaks for itself! This is one of my favorite meals in the World.

1:07pm “PS: Where IS everybody?!”

Epcot was a ghost town. It was almost creepy walking around the World Showcase. You never realize how wide those walkways are until nobody else is on them but you.  There were a few people here and there, but the park was very, very empty.  We were obviously okay with this!

1:34pm “Picked a 7mm white pearl from an ugly, hairy oyster!”

This is so fun!  It's in Japan.  You pick your oyster and they make a big scene and make you bow to it and then they cut it open and bang on the drums and give you your pearl! I have never picked a pearl, and I thought it would be a fun way to start our trip! 

 

1:47pm “Maelstrom!!! No, really! It’s raining! (And we are going on Maelstrom).”

As we left Morocco and headed back towards Nemo, we felt little rain drops.  As we got closer to Norway, the rain drops intensified.  Just as we reached Akershus, the sky opened up.  “MAELSTROM!!”, we yelled! And RAN towards the queue for the ride!

2:21pm “Don’t be shy, explorers! It’s time to come out of those shells!”

When we came out of Maelstrom, the rain had pretty much stopped.  Great timing!  So we headed towards Nemo.  The Seas with Nemo and Friends is a classic ride. Plus how can you not love those seagulls?!

2:33pm “Joey’s embarrassed I’m making him ride Green Mission Space”

Sorry kids, I’m not big into thrill rides.  But somehow I always find myself being persuaded into riding them.  On our last trip (January 2011) the four of us rode the Orange MS.  Yikes.  That fulfilled my quota…for life. Not my idea of a good time, but that’s just me.  The Green side is much more enjoyable, still fun and you get the same experience. What is wrong with that?! My husband was annoyed with me that I didn’t want do to the “fun” one, but he piped down when a family with a hesitant child got in line next to us.  We tried explaining to her that it was fun and not scary, but when the announcement came on that “those afraid of enclosed spaces” should not ride, she was outta there.  Oh well.

3:00pm “Standing in FP line for Soarin’. It’s just as long as the regular line. Insanity!!”

I TOLD you the park was empty! When have you ever seen the Fast Pass line longer than the stand by line? Well I have.  

3:53pm “Lived with the Land. Now forcing Joey into taking pictures!”

I hadn’t been on this ride in forever, and Joey had never been. We also made it one of our goals this trip to ride things we don’t usually ride.  It was actually very cool. I took tons of boring pictures of all the plants but it was really neat to see all the things they do right there inside Epcot!

Our trip package included a photo book, so we decided to take as many photo pass pictures as possible.  Hence the “force Joey into taking pictures” comment.

4:47pm “Rode Spaceship Earth, came out to find another monsoon. Watching waterlogged people from our table at Chefs de France!”

Here’s where I try not to pass judgment on people.  It is your vacation, do what you want. But I just don’t understand why people don’t put ponchos on their little kids in the pouring rain. Or raincoats. Or….something… We had a lovely window seat at CDF, where we enjoyed a delicious dinner while drying out our ponchos. 

5:31pm “We met Remy!”

I got so excited to see Remy! This was very cute and a great act for little ones. 

7:03pm “Relaxing at POR. Relaxation is the name of the game. Trying to slow down and enjoy the trip. Big day tomorrow at MK!”

After dinner, we decided to call it a night instead of staying until Illuminations.  I’m glad we did. Minutes after I sent that Tweet I was out like a light.  We slept for nearly 12 hours that night.  Awesome!

Stay tuned for Day 2!

PSA of the Day

Better keep your umbrellas on hand this weekend.  Or, actually, maybe just wear a helmet...

Blackberry Pics

Since I'm not cool enough to have an iPhone, I can't make my pictures do crazy things and turn crazy colors and stuff. But I can still capture moments that might not otherwise be captured.

I'm going to give credit to my friend and fellow blogger, Chelsea, for this idea.  As long as she says it's ok, I'll come back and add a link to her page!

**Edited to add: Here is a link to Chelsea's blog, "Life is a Sunset"

So here are a few pictures that I have taken over the past few months, but never shared.  They are mostly random, but maybe you will find them entertaining.

Happy Monday!

...I wonder if they called AAA...

Hitchhiker on my windshield

Father's Day

I had to crawl in through the passenger side.

We love grass.

Birthday Flowers from Gage

Hope that fulfilled your random-meter for the day.

~SG

Finally, some updates!

Like I keep saying, it's impossible to list every single thing we have done at the house up to this point. The list would be endless and there is no way to keep track of it all! 

We did, however, hit a major milestone this weekend.  One month to the day from our settlement, we finally spent the night in the house!  Nothing went bump in the night, Doc is a little confused but otherwise did well, and we were there when the Direct TV guy showed up right at 8am.

Overall a success.  I made sure to snap a lot of pictures this weekend.  On Saturday, the final piece of carpet was installed in the family room.  On Saturday afternoon we started moving furniture. (Can I just say that I HATE MOVING.)  So, here are a few pictures of our progress!

New carpet! Plus one Doc

Kitchen with tile, new chandelier, recessed lights, and knobs on all cabinets

Doc modeling the new tile

View into the family room with some getto furniture and the tv sort of installed

Our new bedroom set! Woohoo!

This was my project today. BEFORE....

AFTER

My boys

Well, I hope that satisfies your curiousity as to what the H we have been up to here at the ranch.  Plans for this week include:

-installing new mirrors and towel racks in the master bathroom

-starting to move our clothes, etc.

-CLEAN the kitchen within an inch of its life

-Joey is going to install his home theater shenanigans

-refinish the wood floor in the dining room

-clean and refinish the wood in the library and the foyer

-maybe start hanging some pictures?

I think the most frustrating thing about this whole process is that I am so excited to have an AWESOME house, but we have nothing to put in it, and there are SO many projects to do.  Like for example the horrendous gold on the fireplace.  But stuff like that has to wait.  I just want it finished NOW....

I'll be back later this week with an update on the DirectTV/Verizon debate!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

~SG


Another one of those Apology Posts

Sorry for taking forever to write up our Disney report, as I know you are anxiously awaiting it.  ...

I forget if I told the blogger world, but I left my camera in Disney World. Yep, how could I be so irresponsible, right?! But Disney World is a magical place and every time (yes, there have been multiple times) I call the lost and found they have my item and they mail it back to me with a touch of pixie dust.

And so last night I opened a little brown UPS box and there was my camera with all of our vacation pictures!!! So now I am starting to do a little write-up about the trip and will add in some pics ASAP.

I'm sure it would also be nice if I included a house update as well.  Having not had a camera for the past week, that can't really be done in pictures either.  But I can TELL you some of the things we have been working on:

-The contractors are done with EVERYTHING

-The entire upstairs is painted and carpeted, and both bathrooms are clean!

-Our new master bedroom set was delivered on Saturday!

-The powder room is clean, sort of decorated with a mediocre bath set for the time being, and all it really needs at the moment is a lightbulb that didn't explode/shatter all over the place

-The kitchen tile is mostly done, just need a few more around the edges and to grout the entire thing... cue Joey, tonight and tomorrow.

-The kitchen cabinets all have brand new knobs on them. It's crazy how much better something that small can make it look!

-Thursday we will put everything back in the kitchen (island, fridge, oven, dishwasher, etc.)

-Friday we finish carpeting the family room

And then, we will be done with what I call "The Shell".  The Shell is basically everything we needed to do to make the house livable.  Granted I am completely ignoring our dungeon of a basement but we're just going to pretend we don't have a basement for now, mmmk??

Also Joey and I have both been pretty sick this past week. I'm guessing he picked it up on the plane and gave it to me (how generous).  So I'm writing in a Dayquil daze.

I promise to come back with a great house update and some Disney pictures as SOON as I possibly can!!

~SG

OH! and I cleaned the ant colony out of the mailbox.  I deserve a medal.

HELP!!!

So today I've spent some time setting up things like trash/recycling service, changing our address on accounts, and researching our Cable TV options.

Basically in the area where we live, we have 2 options for TV.

1. DirectTV

2. Verizon Fios

Both are great.  Without delving into too many details (and because I am lazy),  the problem is this:

The price is the same for:

Verizon Phone
Verizon Internet (slower speed)
DirectTV + HBO and NFL Sunday Ticket

OR

Verizon Phone
Verizon Internet (Fast Speed)
Verizon Fios TV + HBO but NO NFL Sunday Ticket.

WHAT DO I DO?!!?!? Do we want slower internet (that apparently is still faster than what we had at the apartment) and every single football game EVER this season?!? (Which is super important in this marriage as neither of our "teams" are local...) OR do we get a bundle from Verizon and just go to a bar every time the Eagles or Cowboys are playing?!

HELP MEEE!! I've created a poll on the side bar. ---->

Please feel free to take the poll and leave me a comment about what I should do...

~SG

Surprise!

And you thought I was just struggling for content the past few days....

WRONG! We were in Disney World!! I used a bunch of back up posts I've been keeping for a rainy day so as not to leave you hanging while we were gone.  How nice of me, right!?

There will be PLENTY of Disney talk, a full trip report, and tons of pictures to come.  But for now, check out the new addition to our family:

What a great vacation!!

~SG

Memory Lane

Lately we've been having alot of those beautiful late-summer days that still have that feeling of Summer warmth but also have the awesome foreshadowing of Fall in the air.  Fall is my FAVORITE season. Maybe that's why I got married in the Fall? [Or maybe it was because Joey sweats a lot and didn't want a hot, summer wedding...]

Anyway it has me thinking back to this time several years ago, when I was moving back into the dorms at George Mason University, getting ready for classes, sorority recruitment, and already practicing several times a week for dance team.  I remember moving back into the dorms after summer break was always so exciting. It was fun to reconnect with friends I hadn't seen all summer, catch up on the gossip, and compare class schedules.

The first few parties of the year were always the best, for several reasons:

1. Everyone was so glad to get out of their parents' house FINALLY

2. Classes hadn't started yet so there was no homework to be done

3. Sorority and Fraternity Recruitment (read: Girls hitting on girls and guys hitting on guys)

4. The cops have had the summer off and may have forgotten the Frat houses for now (and/or the frat houses may have moved to new locations so as to fly under the radar for a few weeks)

And so the natty light would flow like water and the sorority girls would wear "cute" outfits and matching tee shirts that we look back on now and roll our eyes thinking "WHAT the H was I wearing?!"

So as I'm sitting here thinking about all this I guess my "message" here is to all those college kids that may or may not read my blog (I know of at least ONE). 

Don't rush college away.  Enjoy every second of it, because the moment you find yourself at a desk instead of moving the freshmen into the dorm and picking out your "rush crush", you will miss it.  Even if you think you will never miss staying up until 3am writing papers and making sorority crap, you will.  So enjoy it while you can.  And while you are doing shotguns and funnels on the porch hiding from your sorority sisters who might tattle on you for not being “classy”, just think of me in an office sadly thinking about the old days.  So go ahead, live it up! I give you permission. Do that shotgun!

SG

 

An old picture. Can you believe I went out in PUBLIC looking like that?!

 

 

Knuckleheads in the News

Every Monday morning, WTOP (Washington DC news station) has a segment entitled, "Knuckleheads in the News".  And since I'm a huge dork and listen to the news the ENTIRE way to work, I like to play along. 

[In my defense, I HAVE to listen to the news the entire way to work because the traffic report comes on every 10 minutes (on the 8's!) and a lot can change in 10 minutes with Washington traffic. Trust me.]

So each Monday, they read snippets of 3 news stories about idiotic things people did and got arrested for, and then you get to vote on which one is the dumbest!  Fun, right?  Well this past Monday they read one that really cracked me up.  Maybe it's cause I have a good imagination and I can picture this happening and the guy leaving like a dog with his tail between his legs. Tell me this isn't funny!

A Missouri man is in the doghouse because he tried to rob a bank at gunpoint -- until he realized his wife was standing in the teller line. She refused to get down on the floor and simply told him to "go home." He complied and was arrested shortly after.

Bonus, this one actually won the vote for biggest knucklehead! 

You can also check back here every Monday for each week's contenders!

~SG

Theme Re-Visited

I just wanted to clarify a few things.  When I said our house theme is "Antebellum South" I meant that we will be using the décor from that time period as inspiration for the décor of our home.  Nothing more, nothing less.  

I also wanted to clarify just WHAT that means.  Antebellum South can be translated to "French Country".

Like I said, our home as three porches. A front porch, a sunroom, and a back porch surrounded by ivy and big trees.  Plus the weeping willow will look amazing with a little bench under it, no?  Also we decided to paint the walls white (well, not white white, but "Navajo White").  Our carpet will be an off-white as well (Marble).  So we have a lovely blank canvas.  We also have gorgeous wood floors in our foyer, library, and formal dining room.

Here are some photos I'm using as inspiration for what promises to be a long (but fun!) decorating process.

For our Library

Beautiful Living Room

Front Porch Inspiration

I realize this is a lot of white- and that my love for red wine will not mesh well with that fact.  So I promise to include color as well!

~SG