Money, money, MONEY!

When we took bets on how much the kitchen reno would cost, Tom picked 4k, I said 8k. Guess who is closer?

Oh, that's right. ME.

We went and looked at kitchen cabinets tonight. We were planning on doing pre-fab if we could find nice enough ones. Turns out, most of the pre-fab ones suck. We both fell in love with the (custom, of course) coffee glazed maple.




I think it will be worth it. We can't afford granite, though.So we will have really nice cabinets, and laminate counters. :( Oh well. It's our first house, we don't need EVERYTHING.

Tomorrow we are going back to Lowes to meet with a kitchen designer and hopefully get some of those bad boys ordered!

Why must love feel like a battlefield?

So Tom eventually apologized for the other night. He said he would talk to his dad about what an ass he was and that I shouldn't have to be treated like that just because his dad is a drunk.

Do I think he actually talked to him about it? Nope.

Apparently, his dad doesn't even remember what happened. You know there's a problem when you're THAT drunk. Seriously. I hope he doesn't come down this weekend! I don't know what I will do! UGH!

Relationships are so hard sometimes. It's not worth losing Tom over this...but I don't deserve his dad being such an ass to me either. Maybe we should have moved further away!! That's a thought...

***

We finished cleaning the apartment yesterday, and Tom turned in all the keys today. It's official, goodbye, Apt# 228!! You were the first place Tom and I lived together in, the first place we lived in when we moved down here-away from all our families & friends. It was a good two years, but I'm glad we said our goodbye's because I have an old house that needs my love now. ;)

I spent tonight planting my rose bush (finally) and getting our screen porch cleaned and decorated. Our open house is in TWO WEEKS. We're still not unpacked, and we need another coat of mud on the sheetrock before we can even think about painting and putting cabinets/appliances back in! And we want maple cabinets. Apparently, Lowes doesn't stock maple cabinets. What?! But they have hickory in stock. Nice. Does that make sense? Shouldn't they have maple, what a lot of people want, instead of hickory? It will take 22 days for them to get the cabinets after we place our order. Did I mention our party is in TWO WEEKS?!

I just pray it doesn't rain so people can be outside!

Father-in-law from Hell

I've never been a fan of Tom's dad. I try and try and try, but I just can't really like the man! The biggest problem is obviously his drinking. He is a raging alcoholic. He had 3 DUI's within one and a half years! He drinks every.single.day. And not only does he drink every day, he gets wasted every day. There has been more holidays than I can even count where he went to the bar at 10am and came home drunk before we even had Christmas (or whatever holiday) dinner!

Obviously to Tom, drinking every day is "normal" to him. He comes home from work and has a few beers. That even seems like a lot to me! But he knows I worry about his drinking, and probably even more so because I know what his dad is like and I know alcoholism can be hereditary.

Also, his dad is such a sexist pig! When Tom & I first started dating he told me that I need to go back to college and "make something" of myself because my job wasn't good enough. He said he didn't want Tom having to support me because I can only make $7 an hour. First of all, let's start by saying that no, I don't have a college degree. However, I was working at a big hospital at the time, as a medical secretary making a lot more than $7 an hour! And second, how is it any of his business anyway?! He said that he doesn't want Tom with someone who's going to get knocked up and quit working and just "watch soaps & eat Bonn-bonn's all day." I guess I'm sorry to say it's now 3 years later, I'm STILL working FULL-TIME, making even more than I was before, and I'm not knocked up. Sorry, Papa Tom.

Last night pushed me over my limit with this man. He was drunk (obviously) and joined my conversation I was having with Tom's brother. He didn't know what the hell he was talking about and starting ranting about how I don't like this one friend of Tom's, and he doesn't like me. I told him that out of all Tom's friends there IS bound to be one I don't like and vice-versa. It's only normal. I can't please everyone! And he told me that maybe if I just "learn to shut up and keep my trap shut, as well as all other women, the world would be a better place."

WHAT?!

I was stunned! It felt like he slapped me in the face! I got up and stormed to the house. He said, "Yup, walk away...just like a woman!" I told him (ok, screamed back at him) that I'm not going to sit there and listen to his bullshit any longer and I slammed the door and went to bed.

And then Tom-WHO WASN'T EVEN THERE WHEN HIS DAD SAID ALL THIS- Came in and told me to "cut him a break, he's drunk and doesn't know what he's saying." Excuse me while I step all over that lame-ass excuse! I'm sorry, but I'm sick of people cutting him a break just because he's old, drunk, papa. NO! So I told Tom that his dad can go to hell. The most mature thing to say? No...I admit that. But I was so pissed! And then Tom told me that he will "never forgive me for this" and slept on the floor all night.

We still haven't said one word to each other. Thankfully, his dad left early this morning.

I don't know what to do anymore! I can't stand his dad, I don't even want to be around him! But Tom loves him, he's his dad. His dad was the one who got custody in the divorce and raised all three boys. It's not like he's a stupid friend I can avoid and ignore forever... I also can't stand Tom making excuses for his dad! And not even asking me what really happened either! He just jumped down my throat. I'm sorry, but if we are supposed to become a FAMILY ourselves, then you need to step it up and defend ME. Support ME.

This could seriously be a make-it or break-it issue...

TGIF

MamaKats wants to know what I am "giddy" about.

1- Having a brand new kitchen

2- Our housewarming party in August

3- Ordering a treadmill (SICK, isn't it?! Giddy about exercise??)

4- Almost being at my goal jean size. Only about 6 more pounds to go!

That's about it for now. My life is pretty focused around getting this house in order right now... and not a whole lot else.

***

I was looking (aka facebook stalking) at some pictures someone posted today from high school. There were quite a few of this boy, Ryan. Ryan was my very first boyfriend-insert awwwww here- He was 16 and I was 14. I have great memories of our time together. He was my first everything and he will always have a special place in my heart. We were together for 1 and a half years, which in high school, is a loooong time. I wonder what he's up to today. He doesn't have a facebook page, which sucks because that's what facebook is for! Finding old boyfriends! Networking? Psh, not this girl!

I hope he made something of himself. And I hope he's happy. Obviously I don't want to hook up with him or anything like that. But I would like to be friends with him.We dated 10 years ago, we were kids. I don't think it would be weird to see him, I would be excited! I guess I can only hope that I will run into him sometime...or he eventually makes a facebook page. Although, he never was one for technology...

Either way it was cool to see those old pictures of the 16 year old Ryan, just the way I remember him. :) Ah, puppy love.

And I still think he was the best kisser I've ever had! ;) Don't tell Tom! Haha.

Chaos

That describes my life right now. I hate having my house torn apart.And to top it off, I had cold cereal for dinner tonight. I'm too broke to go out to eat, my kitchen doesn't work, and microwaving a lean cuisine didn't seem too good either...

And I'm having a really hard time getting my puppy housebroken! He's so small and has such a small bladder that he can't go all day without going potty. Most nights he can make it about 7 hours...but the 9+ hours we are gone for work seems to be too long for him. He has a "puppy pad" he goes to the bathroom on, except he walks thru his poop and gets it all over. So when I get home from work the first thing I have to do is clean up dog poop from the bathroom. I don't know what to do! I might get him a crate and keep him in there for the day...I just hate to keep him locked in that small thing all day. (I work too far away, and only have a 30 min lunch, I can't run home at noon...) He's a great dog, and goes outside all the time when we are home... It's just 8-5 M-F that's the problem...

My baby brother got his graduation picture proofs today. I can't believe he is graduating! I feel like I was just in high school! Crazy...

Patrick Class of 2010

Can of worms...

We knew we wanted to put new cabinets in our kitchen as our first project. If you look closely, one and a half walls in the kitchen also had wood paneling. Sweet. We decided to remove it.

Kitchen, Side A

So we ripped the paneling down and found plaster, that was so old it crumbled.

Which lead to ripping all the plaster down... All the way to the studs.

The other half of the kitchen BEFORE

Kitchen, Side B

And after. When they decided they "might as well" tear ALL the old plaster down and re-Sheetrock the entire kitchen.

(Half way done tearing it down)

I now have all the old cabinets sitting in my garage. Sheetrock dust everywhere in my whole house. Oh, and my appliances sitting in my dining room.

And did I mention we are doing all of this by ourselves? With the only help coming from Tom's brother & friends?

It started with wanting to take down the wood paneling. Now, all the walls are torn down to the studs, the cabinets are torn out, and I have no functioning kitchen.

Only plus side is, now it will be exactly the kitchen I want. :) ...Eventually.

New Friend

So...Check out this guy who was making himself comfy in our kitchen!

What.The.F*ck

GROSS!




Needless to say, he got sprayed with about a gallon of windex (which is an excellent bug killer when you have nothing else!) and squished with an old newspaper.

I'm wondering how many more of these nasty things are hiding in this house! It hasn't been lived in in over a year...and I have a feeling the old man who lived here before wasn't too concerned with bug control...

Ah yes, we are officially homeowners now!

Busy Bee

We have been so busy this past month! I'm more than ready for our apartment to be cleaned & handed over, and for our house to be ready to be settled into. My project right now is working on putting primer in the office. The "beautiful" wood paneling isn't my cup of tea, so until we can remove it, I'm painting it! Has anyone ever done that before? It's a ton of work. I'm sure it will be worth it though!

My sister has been staying with us the past week. I like having her stay with us, but I do feel bad because both Tom & I have been sooooo crabby lately! With all the stress of buying a house/moving, we've had our fill of stress for the year! I bought her the new Jonas Brothers CD today as a "thank you" for helping me paint and for putting up with Tom & me.

I have been maintaining my weight these past couple months. Which I guess is okay. But I really REALLY need to get back into counting every calorie (instead of guessing) and working out (instead of considering painting to be my main workout) I actually miss working out. But I seriously have no time right now. I work all day then work on the house all night. We have to have the apartment all cleaned and keys turned in by July 31st...so after that things should return to normal and I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze in 20 mins with Jillian! I need to think about ordering a treadmill too... all in due time I guess...

Another thing bothering me is my relationship with Tom. I know once things get back to normal we will be fine. But he is driving me nuts! And we are both so tired all the time that we are bickering like mad! Ugh! It's terrible! Not to mention, the affection department is totally slacking! I don't even recognize us sometimes...we are crazy! It's almost like we both have raging PMS or something!

Time to grab some dinner and work on priming the office some more...

Weddings!

We had two "wedding weekends" in a row. The first one was Heather's wedding. Heather used to be my best friend. We had a falling out when she ditched everyone when she started dating her now husband. I'm still pretty bitter about what happened between us. Oh well, life goes on.

The wedding was supposed to be outdoors at the groom's parent's house. We got there and nobody was there! The wedding got moved to a church last minute. (it wasn't raining either!) Then during the ceremony the bride did NOT smile! At all! Her pictures are going to look like crap because she looked so pissed off!

Example of Bride's face during the whole ceremony...
and she wasn't crying...



The Kiss!



Husband & wife! (still no smile?!)

We went to the reception site and our "wine" with dinner was this....

We laughed so hard over this! It seriously gave us a good solid hour of entertainment! Dinner was served out of big crock pots. There wasn't really a cake cutting ceremony, they just walked over there and cut it, no announcement or anything...

The Cake

The bride, me, and her daughter

I hope the couple is happy, they have a little baby after all. But Tom & I did not have fun...and it's NOT how Tom & I will do things when we get married. It was total country.

*****

Wedding number 2 was for a guy Tom used to work with. It was held at a very nice resort---except it was the 4th of July! That bummed us out because we wanted to go to the wedding, but it sucked that we had to spend our 4th of July there. But it was a beautiful day and the wedding was outside facing a lake. Very pretty.

The bride & her dad

The kiss!



Mr & Mrs!

After the ceremony, they took some pictures and we had a cocktail hour. We grabbed some drinks and headed out to the deck to take in some sun while we waited for dinner! :)

After the pictures were done we headed in for some dinner. It was decorated very pretty. The centerpieces were pink daisies in different sized vases. (And we had sparklers for favors!) They introduced the wedding party and the bride and groom sat down and had ONE kiss. Then the bride got up and left. It wasn't a big deal at first, maybe she was going to make sure everything was ready for dinner, or that the DJ was getting all set up. Except.....she never came back! The groom went out to find her. We were served salad, bread...then dinner! We finished our entire meal before they came back! Finally we saw the groom outside looking upset. And the groom's mom made an announcement that the bride felt "ill" and wouldn't be returning. Apparently, she had a panic attack or something? So we made the best of it and ate some cake and chatted with the couples seated with us.

Andy & Karen enjoying some drinks! ;)

Our sad faces because the bride left her own wedding!

We didn't stay that long after the "announcement." We went to leave and wouldn't ya know, there was the bride! Drinking in the parking lot with some friends! Woman, if you had a real panic attack, why are you in the parking lot with people instead of in your bed resting like they said you were doing? And also, why aren't you at your reception with your groom? Weird...

The two weddings we had this year are now done with, time to focus all our energy on getting the house ready!

Happy Birthday, USA!

Happy 4th of July!

This is one of my favorite holidays! I love parades, greasy food, and fireworks! :) But today I won't be doing any of that. I'll be at a wedding. Boo! I have no problem with going to this wedding IF it wasn't on the 4th of July!! There are so many other things I would rather be doing today...

Things on the house are going well. We've been there every night this past week working on it. It's really starting to come together!! :) My brother has been down this past week helping us move. He was actually a huge help considering how lazy he is! And we are taking my sister back with us after the wedding so she can stay with us for a week. (And did I mention teenagers eat A LOT?! I am so freaking broke from having to feed a 17 year old boy for a week! haha)

God Bless the USA!