Naughty

I'm using this one this year ... hopefully, it will work!!

Perks

OK, so right about now there aren't many perks to being a builder's wife. He's working super long hours trying to make these houses perfect that no one is even bothering to look at. I understand that times are tough. And I am one of the lucky ones who happens to have a husband who still has his "bill paying job." So after weeks of seeing him only right before dinner until bed, I finally received some perks.


I call them perks simply because they perk up my mood. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not, but Tim has connections. So we are able to get new stuff for our house easier than your average Joe would be able to. For instance, when we wanted our walls repainted, it was easy to get the painter in to do it. When Kendall and Tanner wanted a playhouse built, we had workers here the next day. (No, Tim did not build that himself. But he could have ...) When we need new fluffy pinestraw or a dead shrub replaced, it's done right away by the landscaper. You get my point. So for the perks ...


A few weeks ago we found out a local family-owned lighting company was going out of business. So Tim gets this stuff in the mail alerting us of the sale. So on a Saturday Tim and I set out to find new light fixtures. For one of his new houses, I thought. So why did he need me there? Because the light fixtures were actually going in our house. And our light fixtures were going in the new house. See, perk. Because he is building a house of the same floor plan, the lights match up perfectly! So now I have a gorgeous new chandelier in my master bath, along with new vanity lights. The old ones were OK, but new is always better!


Just this week I experienced another perk. I've been having issues with my dishwasher for months. Apparently one time when Tanner was trying to help me unload, he decided to hang on the top shelf and it popped out of the groove. Tim popped it back in, but every since then it hasn't stayed properly. Most of the time when I'm trying to get all the sippy cup stoppers out and into the right cups, the shelf will fall and everything hits the floor. Then I have to chase the dog down because, inevitably, she gets a stopper in her mouth and runs off with it. Anyway, Tim and I were trying to watch TV the other night while the dishwasher was running. Usually I run it during the day because it is so loud. And most of you know how light a sleeper Kendall is. So the dishwasher was RUNNING and Tim and I were squinting at the TV, trying to hear (Why do we squint when we are straining to hear, anyway???), afraid to turn the sound up because we may wake Kendall, and she'd be up forever, and I wouldn't get to watch TV after all.


I'm on a tangent.


So Tim got online to find a quiet dishwasher. And quiet he did find! The next day he informed me that our dishwasher would be arriving Wednesday. Hooray! (No, we're not putting the broken dishwasher in one of the other houses!) So I now have a new dishwasher from Builder Specialities (because he's a builder, we get wholesale price or something like that). It has a dip in the top shelf so you can put wine glasses in and they won't hit the top when you close the door. It has 4 baskets ... that means I can put stoppers everywhere if I want to! And those crazy 3-piece straws that come in those Dora cups! And it's sooooo quiet. Oh, and I forgot to mention you can put detergent in this little compartment that holds enough detergent for an entire month!!!!!!!!! You don't have to refill every time you wash! I'm so excited!!


I know ... it's the little things ...

Craigs List

I spent my entire morning yesterday putting things on Craigslist. After Tim lectured me on spending all the money in my account over the last month, so I figured I would sell everything in our playroom to make up for it. I also decided that I would try one last time to sell my old prom, formal, and bridesmaids dresses. So for 4 hours I uploaded pictures and posted items. Shortly after nap time, I started getting the emails asking if "this" was still available or if "that" was an absolute price. This is the part I hate. You go back and forth on price and where you will meet. I always put that things have to be picked up from my house to save me the trouble, but after this morning, I may change that.

I checked my email this morning and saw that I had an inquiry on one of my dresses. Since they are all for sale for 10 bucks, I figured they would go pretty quickly. The inquiry was asking if I had a picture of the dress on to see how it fits. I thought nothing of it. So I found a picture from Kendall's birthday party at which I wore the dress to look like a princess. I cropped Kendall out and cropped my head off and sent the picture. No big deal.

About an hour later I received a response : "Damn, girl, that dress looks hot. Got any pictures of what's underneath?"

HUNH????????!!!!!!!!!

I mean, ewwww. Really. My skin is still crawling from that email. What kind of person does that? I mean ... ewwww. I'm just thankful that I cropped Kendall out.

I guess that's what I get for forgetting that there are awful, sick, bad, disgusting people in this world.

So no more pictures of me in dresses. Hangers only. If you don't want to buy it that way, fine. And no more meeting me at my house. I'm totally freaked out. And upset. And getting angrier by the second ...

Too Much Going On Around Here

Even though it seems that, at the end of the day I've done nothing, I feel like I've been super-busy for the last week or so. I was determined to get all my Christmas shopping done last week, and I have achieved this now. Of course, everything isn't wrapped yet, but that can happen later. So what else has been going on?

Well, Tim and I had 4 invitations to 4 functions in 4 different places for this past Saturday. After racking my brain and trying to figure out how we could be in 4 different places at once, I figured we couldn't do it all so we took the first invitation we received.

So Saturday afternoon we headed out to Blue Ridge for Matt's surprise 30th birthday party. We stayed in this gorgeous cabin that slept 14 or so. There were 4 couples and some other people. Luckily, everyone was up for a good time. All of the couples are parents, so it was nice to let our hair down with some people who understand what our lives are like on a daily basis. We ate a low country boil, cake, and drank wine and martinis. All without the pressure of having to drive home. It was fabulous!! We ended our night with several hours in a hot tub ... it was Heaven! It is really great when Tim and I have the chance to relax and not worry about anything. We remember how to laugh and enjoy each other's company and remember how lucky we are to have each other. So, all in all, fabulous trip.

On the way back from Blue Ridge, I made Tim stop on 575 beside the DUI sign for my dad. There are still flowers where his accident happened.

Lastly, Saturday night Josh deployed for Iraq again. 2nd tour of duty. This is my favorite picture, though it frightens me that the government gives my little brother a weapon ... kidding! I talked to him Thursday night, but I was hoping to be able to talk to him again before he left. But we had zero bars in the mountains, so I don't know if he called or not. I'm hoping that he knows how much I love him, how much I pray for is safety, and how proud I am of him. Mary (my sister-in-law) sent the pictures from deployment and I just sat and cried looking at them this morning. It still hasn't quite sunk in that he is gone for another year ...

So that's where we are now. No more online shopping and no more other stuff going on for a while, so hopefully I'll have more time to rest before the craziness of Christmas gets here.