The Many Hats of Joey

As I’m preparing for our upcoming Disney Vacation (don’t tell me you forgot about it!), I’m going through old pictures from past trips and getting SUPER excited!!!

Looking through the hundreds of photos from previous vacations, I noticed a theme.  Well, there are actually several:

1. Safari Animals (Tres boring. When will we ever realize that NOBODY else thinks these pictures are cool??)

2. Pictures of our food (this just makes me hungry)

3. Joey wearing various hats.

Hats? Yes, hats.  There is an abundance of hats in Walt Disney World.  There are hats for all occasions.  Happy, sad, angry, weird.  Disney has them all.  And they are everywhere.

Joey and I have been to Disney World together 4 (I think?) times. In those 4 trips I have apparently gathered a lovely collection of “Joey in Hats”.  I thought you might like to see a few tid bits from my collection:

Star Wars

How American!

Moroccan Fez

Norway. Duh.

Ole!

Yargh!

Probably my favorite... haha

 Hope you enjoyed those gems!

~SG

Grandmother Willow and House Theme Reveal

First of all I would like to announce that we, our house, and Grandmother Willow made it through the storm unscathed.

Who is Grandmother Willow?  Why, I'm so glad you asked! Not only is she a character from Disney's Pocahontas, she's a character in our yard. 

We were a little worried about her, being so old and wise. But she made it through and only lost a couple branches.

Grandmother Willow is not only a Disney character and our family tree (HAHA), she is the inspiration for our entire house "theme".  So without further ado, let me announce that our theme for our house, the decorating both inside and outside, and the "feel" we'd like it to have is:

Antebellum South

Think Gone With the Wind.  We have a beautiful yard, gorgeous weeping willow, not one, not two, but THREE porches- including one perfect for rocking chairs and the other for wicker furniture, and I prefer to decorate with earth tones that will look lovely with the accents I pick out from Country Living Magazine... which, by the way, does anybody want to buy me a subscription?!

We had a very busy weekend and I will be sure to include an update on things we have accomplished later this week.

I hope everyone made it through the hurricane safely!

~SG

Hurricane Prep

This morning the air was eerily calm.  Like even if it were the 1800s and we had no knowledge of the impending doom, there was definitely a feeling of foreboding in the air.  Joey and I woke up at the crack of dawn to go prepare the house for the storm.

First, we moved all free-standing objects inside.  That included the trashcan, the disgusting patio table left behind by the previous owners, and of course this guy:

Staying safe and grazing in the Garage!

Yesterday our contractor informed us that our sump pump was basically a POS.  Since I don't feel like filing an insurance claim after owning the house for a week and a half, we paid to replace it.  We also decided to add some extenders onto our gutters to get the water as far away from the house as possible.

Finally, we decided to forego the last task because the wind was already picking up and it involved Joey getting on the roof to caulk the area around a vent to our attic.  Plus I'm not really sure how he was going to get up there in the first place...

So that brings us to where we are now. Waiting. Watching the news and Facebook statuses of people further south. 

Everyone, please stay safe!!

~SG

Oops

I guess I should have addressed the previous open letter to "Mother Nature" instead of Hurricane Irene. Looks like I didn't go far enough up the chain of command...  So like everyone else on the East Coast, I'm going to blog about the Earthquake.  If you don't know what I am talking about, then you definitely live under a rock.

But instead of telling my harrowing tale, I'm just going to make a short list of things that I learned from yesterday's earthquake:

1. I already had a hunch, but now I know for sure that in any survival situation I will be the first to die.  Think deer in the headlights.

2. If there is ever a real emergency in DC, we are all screwed. 

 mass chaos immediately following the quake and evacuation at Washington Navy Yard

3. Once again, I'm pretty sure my dog handled this event better than I did.

And another quick list for the inevitable FAQs:

1. Our new house is fine.  In fact, Joey is very proud that his white picket fence survived an earthquake.  He’s been talking about it all day.

2. Damage at the In-laws was limited to a book that fell off the TV.

Earthquake Damage

3. No, I didn’t feel any of the aftershocks.

So like I said, perhaps I was a little too curt with Irene, so she tattle-tailed on me to her Mom.  So let me go ahead and revise my open letter, in a nicer tone…

Dear Mother Nature,

While I understand and respect your power and might, I would like to request that you please refrain from any more natural disasters.  I would love to be able to enjoy my upcoming vacation(s) and my parents’ visit without any further issues.  Thank you for your understanding.

Respectfully,

Sarah

 

An Open Letter

Dear Irene,

If you screw up any of the following, I am going to be very peeved.

a) All the work we have now completed on the outside of our new home.

b) My parents' visit to see our new home for the first time.

c) Our Disney Vacation

It would probably be best if you downgraded to a Tropical Storm and turned out to sea ASAP.

Best,

Sarah

Biotch.

Problem Solving

As you can imagine, we spent this entire weekend working on the house. And you can't even tell.  One of our projects was installing a white picket fence for little Mister.  I was a little skeptical at first, worrying that he might be able to squeeze through the bars, but it looks like living with Grandma has actually helped with this.  "See!" she said, "I knew I was fattening him up for a reason! It's for his own safety!"  ...thanks, Grandma.


Just to be safe I tried to squish him through.  Not only did he not like it, but he didn't fit either.  Phew.

So anyway, Joey got to work digging holes and burying fence posts. 

Here is a picture of what it looked like before we actually set anything up or cut the posts down to size.

Joey was digging and I was on the other side of the fence piling up extra dirt (ya know, so Doc couldn't squeeze through the underside) when Joey suddenly makes a weird noise and yells "Stay right there!"

"Uhh, ok... why?"

(points with shovel) "Snake!"

He goes over to it to cut it’s head off with the shovel, and I got all sad and sentimental, but then it reared up and tried to bite the shovel.

"AHH kill it!!"

And so he did.

And we are still arguing about what color it was. *I think it was green and a garter snake. Joey thinks it was brown and a cottonmouth. 

Either way, there are apparently snakes in our new backyard. 

WELL NOT ANYMORE!  Today I ordered this little baby.

And he shall be called Owlbert.  He will be arriving next week.

~SG

 

Thursday: Demolition and Good Friends

**This blog was written on Friday, but with Banny's passing I didn't feel quite like posting about the house. **

Yesterday (Thursday) was our first FULL day of being homeowners! Joey and Peyton worked on the house ALL DAY, as well as the contractor who is fixing the outside of the house.  I showed up after work and A Love met us there with her dog, Jax.  Here is a list of what we've accomplished so far (to the best of my knowledge) and who did it:

-remove faux wood floor (Joey/Peyton)

-remove kitchen linoleum (Joey/Peyton)

-remove basement carpet (Joey/Peyton)

-remove drywall ceiling in living room (Joey/Peyton)

-remove drywall in basement area (Joey/Peyton)

-turn on gas, water, fireplace, etc. and not blow anything up (Joey/Peyton)

-install 2 new toilets/plumbing (Joey)

-remove God-awful bathroom lights/mirrors/medicine cabinets in both upstairs bathrooms (Joey/Peyton)

-remove wallpaper in master bathroom (Sarah/A Love)

-clean up debris (All)

-hammer in all staples that were sticking out from pulling the linoleum up (Joey/Peyton)

-Powerwash entire house (Joey)

As you can see, I've been really hard at work....  but seriously it's more because I've been at work and also I can't really start cleaning until the sanding, tile-cutting, and painting is all done.  So I'm just waiting, biding my time...

I did start cleaning out some cabinets, and I made it through 2 of them before I sliced my finger open. I mean SERIOUSLY?! I expected casualties but I was thinking more Joey falling off the roof while powerwashing...

The project for this weekend?  Build a fence for Doc!

Cast of Characters:
Joey: DH, the boss

Peyton: Right hand man, thinks he can speak Spanish to the contractors

Joe: Father-in-law, would rather drink a beer but will help anyway

Jon: Uncle-in-law, frequently injures himself with chainsaws, motorbikes, etc.

Possible additions:

Diane: Mother-in-law, most likely working

Doc: DD (Dear Dog), too small to be running around a construction zone

Jason: Brother-in-law, might be busy with the GF

A Love: BFF, not sure what she is doing this weekend yet!

This makes for an interesting adventure.

Here are some more pictures of the demolition and work we've done. It's coming along, people!

 

And with all good things in life...

As if God were reminding us that life is full of ups and downs. On a week when we are celebrating our first home, we lost someone very special.

Rest in Peace, Bandit.

You were a very good dog.  I know you will be waiting at the rainbow bridge for Joey when he gets to heaven.

Joey got Bandit when he was only 11 years old. He is 26 now!

It's Official!

At 4:03pm on Wednesday we became homeowners! Or at least that's when I sent the first "WE'RE HOMEOWNERS!!!" text (to my Mom).  We were supposed to go at 12:30, but the documents weren't ready (or correct) so it was a little stressful waiting for the final numbers.  We finally headed over to meet the closer at 2:30pm.  We signed our names 500 times, and initialed even more times.  Why? Because somebody decided that my name is spelled S-A-R-A and wrote it as such on all of the documents. Awesome.  Because that's not my #1 pet peeve...

After signing our lives away we headed to the house to get to work! Like all major occasions in our lives, our good friend Peyton was right there with us.  He met us at the house to start working on pulling up the kitchen floor and the faux wood floor in the living room.  The guys also cut out some of the drywall in the ceiling that needed to be replaced and started pulling up the nasty basement carpet (surprise! It's tiled under there!).

I'm going to do my best to not turn this into a home improvement blog, because while I do enjoy reading them, I think they are super boring.  I do plan on sharing our little projects and the trials and tribulations that we endure along the way.

So without further ado, here are a few photos from Wednesday, and a few more of the inside of the house for your viewing pleasure!

(Coming soon: "Thursday. Demolition and Good Friends")

Across the threshold!

My little helpers

Ceeeelebrate good times COME ON!

Dining room (that chandelier has GOT to go.)

The "Library" (omg so snotty)

Kitchen.  The banister and floor are long gone.  The island, dishwasher and stove have all been moved. There will be granite countertops. Someday.

The cow. It came with the house. I'm too superstitious to throw it away, so it will reside in the side yard where it can graze...

Krystle's Bachelorette Party

Clearly I am way behind on the times since Krystle and Robert are now married!! But I wanted to share some fun pics from our trip to Atlantic City, NJ for Krystle's bachelorette party.

We didn't tell her where she was going.  She was definitely afraid, since her MOH and I are known for planning ridiculous adventures...

This probably helped.

We stopped for happy meals at McDonalds, the power went out, and then we had a little photo shoot by the car.

Fast forward through arriving at the Tropicana, popping some champ, and a relaxing afternoon at the spa.  We came back to the hotel room to this:

Hope nobody was planning on taking a shower!

The rest of the girls had arrived!  Everyone got dolled up and headed out for dinner at Cuba Libre.  We enjoyed delicious food and an open bar!!

During the dessert portion, bridesmaid Sara and I snuck back upstairs to the hotel room to do some decorating. 

When the girls came back to the room, it was party time!! We started with a little lingerie shower and some more champ.

Then we moved on to the task list... it was creatively constructed to start easy and get more embarrassing as the night (and alcohol) went on.

Before we left the room, we played a quick game of "Kiss the Man-poster" (I don't even know what to call it) and everyone decided to keep their hot pink/reddish lipstick on for the rest of the night. SO tacky. But pretty funny because we were all matching as it is...

I can't really share too many of the pictures since Krystle works with high school students and probably doesn't need inappropriate pictures of herself floating around on the internet.

But we did manage to score a private room in a karaoke bar.  This is one of my favorite pictures from the night:

3 bars and a lot of drinks later, with the task list lost somewhere in between the karaoke and the sports pub, we headed up to bed.  Where I proceeded to order 2 humungous pizzas and pass out before they arrived.  I think the delivery guy was pretty mad when he finally woke us up.  I ate like 2 slices and went back to sleep.  We had an entire pizza to take home with us the next day... whoops!

Before we left we headed over to Caesar's Palace for delicious brunch.  From there it was back to VA!

Cheers to a great weekend!

HOTD

Who's surprised?! It's about animals again.

Living in Northern Virginia means that you have to deal with alot of traffic.  On a typical day, I am in my car for approximately 3 hours.  On a bad day, or a day I have to go up to Annapolis for dance, it can be more like 5 or 6 hours.  While I don't like it, I and most other residents of suburban Washington DC just deal with it.  Because what else can we do?  We are used to turning on the news in the morning and hearing about accidents, disabled vehicles, bad weather, construction, etc.  But yesterday it was about horses.

Yep, you heard me right. Horses. On the side of 395.  And everyone was slowing down to look.  Which caused a massive delay. Sometimes I really hate people...

Article about the Horses

Pictures of the Horses Grazing in the median

Clear To Close

We have been waiting to hear those three words for SO LONG. And now that we finally did, I am so skeptical that it doesn't even seem real.  I WANT to write a long blog about our new home and all the fun things that I am going to do to make it look chic and not shabby. But first we have to make it to Wednesday.

So everybody say a little prayer, or stick your pins into somebody else's voodoo doll tonight. Because we need to make it to Wednesday at lunchtime with no further hiccups. And speaking of that, I am going to get back to work. Because they are going to call on Wednesday morning to make sure I am still employed!

Here's a little teaser:

**Note the jungle we will be slashing through in order to get to our front door...

More to come!

~SG

HOTD and Guano

I might want to consider changing HOTD  to AHOTD or Animal-Headline of the Day, since most of my funny HOTD posts are about animals in some way, shape or form.

Here's a good one.  Bats on a Plane.  Almost as good as Snakes.  Watch the video. I laughed out loud at my desk.  Some of you might think this is scary, but I think it's hilarious.

Feeling Batty?

This also provides the opportunity to segue into a story I meant to write about a while ago. Since my friend Amanda (A Love) refuses to make her own blog, I told her I had to write about this story because you just can't make this sh*t up!  (Literally.)

Remember Ace Ventura?

Well Amanda is lucky enough to have a heaping pile of this stuff in the attic above her bedroom.  Here is the account from A Love herself:

"As far as the bats.......yeah they have to come in and basically rip everything out of the attic including insulation and whatnot.  Apparently it's like a $5k expense but the landlord's homeowner's insurance is taking care of a lot of it. They have to clean the whole thing out....and.....the only way to get to the attic without ripping the roof off (which was JUST completely redone a couple weeks ago) is through MY closet. So my room is a wreck right now because my closet is empty so they can get to all of them.

My roommates looked up dangers of guano and apparently it's insanely toxic and bats are full of diseases and mites and rabies and whatever else. "Luckily" for me, according to the exterminator, the heaping pile of $hit is located in such a place that it's extremely unlikely that the ceiling will cave in."

Great!!  Here is a photo of the....mound.

That's a huge pile of sh*t!!!!!

Pre-Trip Report!

Another one?!

Yes we are going to Disney World again, and soon! In less than a month!  Exact dates cannot be shared until after the fact for security reasons.

We are getting close to our one year anniversary, and while we aren't going to be in Disney World DURING our 1 year anniversary (October 10th), we will be there close enough to it that Joey and I put our heads together and came up with the CUTEST tee shirt idea. Ever.

Feast your eyes, mateys!!!

And before you ask why I am talking like a pirate, it is because my wonderful husband got me an awesome birthday present- a trip to the Pirates League (for the both of us)!

Here is our Pre-Trip Report, with interesting details only!

Cast of Characters:

ME: Sarah, 27

JOEY: DH, 26 (yep, I'm a cradle robber until March)

...and that's it!

Day 1

Fly out in the morning and arrive at MCO around 11am

Take Disney's Magical Express to the resort

Head to EPCOT!

Dinner reservations at Les Chefs de France

Romantical Fireworks (IllumiNations)

Day 2

Magic Kingdom!

Pirates League at 10am

Dinner Reservations at Tony’s Town Square (think Lady and the Tramp spaghetti!)

Wishes (The most magical fireworks show you will ever see)

Day 3

Hollywood Studios (please GOD let us ride Toy Story Mania this time!)

Head back to hotel for pool/relaxation around lunchtime

Fancy Schmancy dinner reservations at Citricos at Grand Floridian

Day 4

Animal Kingdom!

Lunch at my faaavorite counter service location- Pizzafari

Dinner reservations at Animal Kingdom Lodge Sanaa restaurant (you can see the animals grazing from the hotel)

Downtown Disney for the evening!

Day 5

Sleep in!

EPCOT for lunch reservation at Akershus to meet all the PRINCESSES!!!

Then we will spend the rest of the day drinking around the World Showcase Pavilion.

Day 6

We never plan anything for the last day, because it’s too depressing to think of our vacation actually being over. 

We’ll probably go to one of the parks and/or do some shopping at DTD.

Fly home and land around 9pm.

Sad.

See? Now I’m sad because I feel like my vacation is over,

BUT IT HASN’T EVEN BEGUN!!

WOHOOOO!!!!

...Looking at all these restaurants is making me HUNGRY.  I should also note that as part of our package, we are getting FREE DINING. Which means we don't pay for anything listed above other than tips and alcoholic beverages. 

Our trip cost less than one mortgage payment (omg, hopefully should have an update on this SOON.) Folks, if you know how to do it, IT CAN BE DONE.

~SG