happy houseaversary.

The original point of this blog was to share house pictures, which sadly I've gotten away from. I was looking back at old posts, and realized that there's so much more that we've done to the house since the last pictures that I really should do an update post... and I never posted the kitchen. I'll get to it I swear...

Now it's more about keeping track of what's going on with our lives. That's why I write it.

Anyway, we closed on our house a year ago last Saturday, and it's been a good year. No major problems (knock on wood!!!), we're happy and comfy and cozy and have room to spare. We love this little house, and we're very happy with our first home buying experience.

Happy houseaversary, little home. We love you and we hope you continue to love us in the years to come. :)

labor day

Happy Labor Day (aka extra day off work) to all!

We had a great weekend! And even though there wasn't supposed to be much "labor," we worked hard to entertain, but had a great time doing it!

Friday night we went out with Mom, Dad, my sis and her boyfriend to a great pizza place because she was in from school. Saturday we cleaned and ran errands, and had some good friends (some of my sorority sisters and their husbands) over to watch the Mizzou game! We had a great time cheering the Tigers on to a victory! (Take that, Illinois!!) Sunday was a chill day for us; we went and did some shopping for J, and watched a few movies. It was great to have a break to relax. Today, we saw my fam again and had them over for a BBQ and puppy fest. :) Bailey loved seeing Riley, and Rosie loved all the attention.

Sadly, I forgot to bust out my camera at any of the events, so there are no pictures, but we do have a clean house and lots of leftovers to show for it. :)

Hope everyone else had a great Labor Day!!

gettin' sh*t done!

J and I took the time to make a to-do list a couple of weeks ago because there was too much to do, and it wasn't getting done. The last couple of weekends have been dedicated to crossing things off that list, and it feels GOOD! Here's some of what we've done:

• weed the front garden
• remove caulk in back shower; re-caulk both bathrooms
  
• severely trim the rosebushes and tree out front
• clean out the closets in the whole house
• pull together our large donations pile
• haircuts and baths for both pups
• cleaning/organizing/getting rid of junk in the guest room (mostly my stuff that's been with us through too many moves)-- that room looks SO much better!!
  
• preparing for J's first week of school/the class I'm teaching this week
• organizing our mail system
• taking care of our paper problem in this house (lots of shredding, filing, and recycling going on around here)
  

There's a lot more to go, but it feels SO good to be so productive. Our goal is to get at least one item checked off our ongoing to-do list each night after work/school, and at least one major item done each weekend. We've got plenty to keep us busy for a while... we'll see how we do with that goal :)

flashback!

a little something funny for a Tuesday...

me, circa 1960 (when I was -22)

...and again in 1966.

wanna see what you would have looked like?
check it out

Well, I guess we're stuck.

Yesterday we took a very big step in our relationship.

It only took: two visits to the DMV (during the first one all of the computers for all of the DMVs in our STATE were down), $28, the correct form of proof of address, and 3 years, 8 months, and approximately 19 days of living together.

For the first time, we now have the same address (that we actually live at) on our licenses.

HA!

Great way to celebrate the approaching first anniversary of home ownership, huh? We're really on the ball with this sort of stuff. We've both had our parents' addresses on our licenses for... well pretty much forever, and with all the moving around we did, it just didn't seem worth it to change them. But now that we actually live somewhere that we'll be for more than two years, and that we own (! still giddy about that, even a year later) we figured it was about time.

Nothing says commitment like a shared address in the eyes of the DOR. :)

why the horded posts?

Because my laptop sucks, that's why.

I keep thinking about the things I want to blog, but just to get rolling on these posts, it took FORTY-FIVE MINUTES (!!!) to get my laptop up and running and blogger open. I'm tempting fate right now, because I've been at it for an hour and a half (since I turned on the computer) and my computer hasn't frozen yet. (QUICK! knock on wood fast!!)

I could use J's desktop, but he's getting ready for fall classes and has syllabi to write, so I don't want to interrupt that flow.

So, for now you'll have to deal with all the posts that I've thought of for the last week and a half showing up all at once... and lots of time in-between. Google could also help my problem if they'd let me be logged in to my normal account AND my blogger account at the same time. It makes me crazy that I have to sign out and back in (because that usually takes me 15 minutes plus two computer freezes and restarts) in order to post or comment on other blogs. Bleh.

I would really like one of these pretty things:

but unless I win the lottery, it's not happening any time soon. And, it also doesn't help that also on my wish list are:


(not necessarily that exact one, but I need a sewing machine)

and


Not. gonna. happen.

a girl can dream though, right??

Things I adore...

I love to shop. And more than I love to shop, I love a good bargain.

That's why I'm a big fan of this awesome service that I was introduced to a week ago:

Shop it to me, baby!

I got the invite from a friend, and figured I would try it out. You go through and set your preferences (what brands/stores you like, what sizes you're looking for, what's the max you're willing to spend on something) and then decide how often you want to get the email update. I've been getting mine twice weekly, and though I have yet to buy anything, it's a nice way to get an update about your favorite stores when things are on sale!
So awesome. :) Totally worth checking out.

Form: sure, looks nice. A
Function: well, since I don't have to do anything, A+
Overall: A. It features mostly "pricer" brands, but they're all on sale, and I set my price limit at $200 so that I don't get lots of emails about $2000 purses. Still though, having the sales come to me is pretty sweet!