Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is mine and Chadd's 5 year wedding anniversary and 13 year dating anniversary. I thought I would post some photos to be all sentimental-like.

Homecoming when we first started dating.

Murder Mystery Party Senior Year

Getting our Aggie Rings.

Our wedding

Mardi Gras

Europe Trip 09


I am so lucky.

In need of a Money Tree...

Anyone know where I can find one?

So still have some stuff to move into the house, but we have hit some obstacles. The water was finally been turned on, but once on we figured out we had some pretty good leaks in the pipe. Luckily, they were outside, but we had 3. One was in the front that Chadd was able to fix and 2 were in the pipe going from the house to the garage apartment. Chadd was able to fix one of those, but the small one is still going, so we have to turn the water off everytime we leave.

While over there on Friday, half of the electrical throughout the house quit working, We thought that maybe the it got wet and shorted out, but none of the breakers were flipped. So no telling, but they still don't work. On Sunday we got a call from the security alarm people during Harry Potter. At first we thought the house was broken into, but turns out it lost connectivity. We went over to the house and the plug that the alarm is plugged into no longer works, so we had to run an extension cord to the closet where it is hooked up. Very high class. :)

I think we should just put in a new circuit breaker/main switch thing. We will need more amps anyway, as I think we just have 100 amps going to the house right now. No idea what this will cost. I looked up what rewiring a whole house would cost and that looks to be like 12,000 or so. Not in the budget at the moment, but maybe we can get a new panel for under 2 and rewire a room at a time. We need to put insulation in all the outside walls anyways.

In other news, the AC in my car went out on Friday also, so maybe it is just not meant for me to be cool. The AC condenser froze up and he said he had never seen a condenser freeze up like that with only 60000 miles. Figures. Estimated price - $1000.

Anyone need any yard or computer work done? I'll work for car/electrical work. :)

Moving Sucks

Chadd has decided that we are never moving again. According to him, he can be buried under the floorboards. I think that is a large statement to make, especially since we have yet to actually move in. I would summise that it would be better to say that we will never move again in the months of July and August in Texas. I have said that before even, but apparently it was forgotten somewhere along the way. This is doubly important, if said house that you are moving into does not have air conditioning. Let this be a lesson to everyone, moving in the surmmer sucks!

We have however put a pretty good dent in moving everything. We had a moving company move all of the big furniture out of storage, so that was very helpful and not as expensive as I would have presumed. The week before that, Kyle, Misty, and Jan helped us move most of the boxes out of storage and this weekend, Jr helped us move a lot of boxes out of mom's attic. We still have some stuff in the attic, and lots of stuff in the hallway, and a little bit of furniture left in the living room. We might be able to polish it off next weekend if we're lucky. We have a lot of stuff it turns out, and I am so excited to see it again! I missed all my things!

My biggest issue is the lack of AC. Chadd said he might move in without it, but it is a no go for me. We brought one of the air conditioners that Gary is letting us borrow over, but we haven't tried to plug it in yet. I don't know how that is going to go. Hopefully we won't have to get a new circuit board before they work, or that is going to be expensive. Most of the wiring we should be able to do ourselves, but that one we are going to have to bring in a certified electrician. Boo.

Now if we can only get the water on.....

Things I love...

Trying to cheer myself up now that I am no longer on vacation...

I love...

- when I have absolutely nothing to do.
- learning something new about an old friend.
- when people are genuinely happy to see me.
- looking at the stars and actually seeing the Milky Way.
- watching fish in an aquarium.
- listening to REALLY loud music in my car.
- when I find the perfect gift for someone.
- a really good joke.
- taking photographs. It helps me remember everything!
- the sense of accomplishment.
- getting a card, a gift, or a compliment for no reason.
- Bread.
- singing the Aggie Fight song at weddings or other random places.
- decorating the Christmas tree or carving a pumpkin.
- when I stumble across something that reminds me of my childhood.
- making lists and marking things off of lists.
- listening to rain and thunder and watching the lightening.
- when people are open-minded.
- 70 degrees and sunny.
- good dinner with good friends.
- a tasty bottle of wine.
- planning or designing anything and everything.
- Tivo.
- when it is really cold and I have to huddle under the blankets.
- playing games in the car on long trips.
- bodies of water with no sand.
- reading books, preferably ones with other worlds or ghosts in it.
- expensive massage chairs.
- being able to go places I have never been or just really enjoy going to.
- exceeding expectations.

Making the Right Decision

I generally don't bother myself on whether the decisions I make were the right ones. For the most part, I am content with the decisions that I have made and while I might have changed a few (I should have studied more in college!), there are no things that I have done that in retrospect are mind-shatteringly different.

We recently came upon the quandry of buying a house that I am in love with. This is not the optimal time for us to buy a home for a myriad of reasons, but here it is with the opportunity for us to buy it plopped right in our laps. If we buy the house, we will have no money. The house needs work. It is livable in its current condition, but needs some love in the upkeep department, as well as the fact that it just needs some things changed to make it workable in the long run. All these things cost money with the addition to the monthly mortagage. Do you buy the house? It looks like we are, and I really hope it is the right decision. I think it is, but Chadd thinks it is not. He is humouring me on this one, for which I am very appreciative.

I think the whole thing is a gamble, but one with what I feel the odds are heavily in our favor. I honestly think at this point I am ok with trying and failing. If you don't try, you'll never know if you would have succeeded or not, right?

In other house news....the new roof is on! Looks fancy! Check out the ridge vent. :) The things that amuse me these days! Even if we don't get the house, I am glad the roof is on. The longer that it sat the worse shape it was going to get in.

Bad Grammar and Punctuation

I will be the first to admit that I get things wrong from time to time, but lately it seems like I see bad grammar, spelling, and punctuation way more often. I am sure some of this has to do with so much more writing being done where people can see it (i.e. facebook, myspace, etc.), but what happened to spell check?

Of all the random dumb quizzes I see online, they are all WRONG! This irritates me for some unknown reason and it reflects poorly on the writer. If you are going to go through all the trouble to publish something that hundreds or thousands of people are going to look at, wouldn't you want to make sure that you don't come off as a complete moron? I would think so, but maybe that is just me.

Additionally, I read that a city in Britain has decided to get rid of the apostrophe on any signs. What!? That makes no sense whatsoever. They said it would cost too much to replace the signs. It just further makes bad habits acceptable when public offices start doing it.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,486144,00.html

And what about their, there, they're or too, to, and two? This isn't rocket science people.
I just don't understand it. How do you graduate high school and not know the difference between these words?

Sorry for the rant, but seriously! And, yes, I ran spell check.

Working in New Orleans

I was sent to New Orleans in the middle of April to to help with the merging of the two existing offices that we have there.

I was kinda nervous about the whole ordeal as I was supposed to do some network related things that I had never done before and then people were telling me about how much scarier that NO was since Katrina. Luckily, Chadd was able to come with me.
He was an immense help, and I am so glad he was able to go. I don't know if I would have finshed on time without him, as well as it was much better to be able to eat dinner with someone. I also enjoyed meeting everyone in the NO office. It helps me so much at work to be able to know who it is that I am talking to. It makes everything so much more relatable.

Minus working some nights until 8 or 9, we had some wonderful food and bought some new art. I was on a quest to find some ghosts, and supposedly our hotel was haunted, but we didn't find any. We sat in the dark ballroom for awhile, but it was a bust. We might go back in October, so maybe we'll have better luck then. We nade it for the French Quarter Festival and was able to listen to some music and eat some great food on Sunday. It was neat to see all the vendors, there was a noticeable amount more than usual.

Melissa was able to come out on Saturday. We took her to eat and went on a Swamp tour on Sunday. We had a good time, and I was very glad she came. I just felt guilty due to all the time she had to sit in the airport going and coming.

Overall, I still very much love New Orleans. It is one of the only places I think I could actually see myself living besides Houston. It has such great character and atmosphere. And Pat O Hurricanes don't hurt either. :)