Welcome to our new home!

Yes, I finally took the time to take some pictures to show you people. ;-) I've included captions and a list of things to add/change in each room/area for your reading pleasure. If you have any questions, feel free to ask (aside from name, social security number, street address, etc. of course!!)


Front of the House (we are going to add flower beds under the windows at some point, and probably paint the mailbox post, but that's about it out front!)


Welcome! (Thanks to Jessica for the signage!)


View from the front door (We have one more picture to hang, but this is it!)



View from the couch


Close-up of the “mantle”


The office from the doorway (the paint color is closer to the turquoise box on the top shelf than how it appears in the picture)


Bookshelf in the office


Eat-in area (obviously need to clear it off, and add a tablecloth (probably plain white))


Kitchen (have some decorative plaques to hang, and a secret project for above the cabinets, plus adding baskets to hold the crap on the "island")


Guest bath (adding a hotel-style towel/toiletry rack above the existing towel rack or over the toilet, and possibly some artwork)


Guest room (refinish dresser and bookshelf, buy a queen bed and DIY a headboard, create photo collage on bookshelf. Bedding is already purchased - Nautica spread and shams, CK sheets, all from HomeGoods)


Master Bathroom (adding a hotel-style towel/toiletry rack above the toilet)


Master Bedroom from the door


View from the bed (Just need to hang a print and our mirror!)


Disaster that is the back yard (finish roofing/painting shed, putting in a fence, tilling and seeding for grass, adding a veggie garden next summer)

Q & A

OK, folks, it's time for a little Q & A with GSG. :-) I got a few questions from you readers, and here are the answers.

Elaine at Little Bitty Pickle asked:
"As a little girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

Now, as with most children, I had lots of ideas about what I wanted to be. But the first (and most memorable) career path I laid out for myself was paleontology. I LOVED dinosaurs and studying all about them. I probably checked out every book about dinosaurs from the main library in town at some point between ages 6-9. After that I became interested in Egyptology, followed by a desire to be a veterinarian. This was followed by a period of not knowing what I wanted, then I wanted to be a teacher or a band director. That lasted until the end of my freshman year in college, when I changed my major to Anthropology. And now I'm in massage therapy school, so that just goes to show how crazy life can be, haha.

My second question came from Heather at Life and Times With the Ryans:
"What were the best and worst parts of buying your first home?"

I haven't asked the Mr. his opinion on these questions, but I can pretty much guarantee that we will be of one mind when it comes to the worst part of our first home purchase. We were fortunate enough to purchase a newly constructed home straight from the builder (it was already finished, but unoccupied). While this was awesome on many levels, working with the builder was a nightmare. First we had to deal with them being confused about the incentives they had offered and that were listed on the MLS (notably the $3000 fence/closing cost allowance) and tried to tack an extra $3000 onto the contract price. After that, we didn't have many problems with them until the week of closing. We had a pretty long list of repairs that we had mutually agreed that the builder would take care of before closing, including replacing a dead tree and several other things inside and outside the house. The day before closing these things still were not completed, and after several trips to the house the day of closing, only 1/2 of the items were completed, although the builder told our realtor directly that they had been finished that afternoon. Questionable, no?? So we signed the closing papers but were unable to obtain the keys until the builder completed the repairs, which didn't happen until the following afternoon. To top it all off, the trees didn't get replaced until the following day!

On a more cheerful note, the best part of buying our first home for me was imagining what our life would be like in each of the homes we visited and truly picturing what our future might be like. Although we never know what God has in store for us, I believe that He has many wonderful things placed in our future, and buying our first home was the first step in that journey. This reminds me of a scripture I received via email yesterday (if you're interested in receiving a daily Scripture, email "SUBSCRIBE" to scripture-subscribe@lists.tagnet.org):

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so,
people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from
beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11

Please stay tuned for a mega-update/photo tour of the new house (coming this weekend to a computer screen near you)...

Check back soon for answers to some reader questions and an update on our new HOUSE! That we OWN! :-D

So.

Apparently my blog has only one reader (thanks to biomaj5!). That makes me a little sad, but now I know if I update the blog it's just for my own personal satisfaction, not to enrich the lives of any readers.

To answer bio's question "What is your favorite breed of dog?", would truly be impossible. I have known many great dogs, and have admired others on the television, at parks, etc. It would be a very long list. I wish I had pictures of some of the dogs in my life (besides just my own, haha) to share with the internets, but alas, I do not. Suffice it to say that my aunt owns 2 bullmastiffs (I've only met one, but he's awesome, so I bet the other one is following suit!), and they seem to be great big lap dogs. I love most breeds of large dogs (including labs, retrievers, pit bulls, boxers, Great Danes, Great Pyrenees, etc. etc.), although I've never owned one myself. I also like many breeds of small dogs - beagles, shih tzus, schnauzers, dachsunds, poodles, pugs, Maltese, etc.

So, now that I have presented you with an answer as clear as mud, I will leave you at that. I'm not sure how often I'll be updating the ole blog anymore, but I'm sure I will at least occasionally.

Twilight

Before I begin, just a reminder that I'm still taking questions about myself, my marriage, etc. etc. I've only received one so far, so keep them coming!!

Now, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this here on the blog before or not, but I am completely in love with Stephenie Meyer' Twilight saga. I know these books are geared toward teens, but there is something very seductive about the way they are written and the overall themes that keeps me coming back to them again and again.

I think part of the reason I love these books so much is the way they portray true love between the characters. Not just romantic love, but love of family and friends and place. While the "first love" parts of the books are sure to draw in the teenage crowd, I think as a woman who is married to her perfect match I get a lot more out of these books than a junior high or high school kid ever would.

Today I am reading Midnight Sun (the unfinished companion novel to Twilight written from Edward's point of view), and it makes me wonder how my husband views me, and how he sees me. I know his view is so different from my own, but I can't understand it. I only know how I love him, and that gives me only hazy glimpses of how he must love me in return.

I really need some motivation to update this blog more frequently!! For now I'll settle on an update on our life.

We're about 17 days out from closing on our first home, and I'm starting to get antsy! Our loan just went to underwriting on Thursday, so hopefully we will come through that all right. If that comes back OK, we should be able to set a closing date, because the appraisal and inspection have been done, and the survey has been ordered. We started packing yesterday (the most loathsome part of moving, IMO!), but we still have a looooong way to go. :-/

School is moving right along. I passed my midterms with flying colors (yay!), and I'm only 1 week away from my anatomy and physiology final. I have like a 98 average in that class right now, so I'm not worried, but I do need to start studying, since it is a cumulative final and we have covered a LOT of territory in just 8 weeks. I'm also really enjoying my Swedish massage class (who doesn't love getting a massage 3 times a week?!), and I'm really starting to feel like a massage therapist.

I've also started seeing a chiropractic intern at my school (I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but my massage program is located at a chiropractic college), which has been really cool. I got the most thorough physical of my life, with lots of nerve tests and range of motion tests, and now I'm receiving regular Upper Cervical adjustments (where they adjust the position of the 1st vertebra under your skull) and doing lots of strengthening exercises for my right hip, which is significantly weaker than my left, causing me pain and instability on occasion.

This week my mom and sister moved to their new locations. My mom to Las Vegas, and my sister to Los Angeles. My sister attended orientation for her school program yesterday (at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising), and my mom will be starting her new job at the Cleveland Clinic's Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health soon. We also learned last week that Tyler's father has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which appears to be stage III or IV. He is also having a biopsy on his spine this week to determine if a mass there is cancerous, and the results of that test will be the deciding factor between surgery and hormone therapy. Please be praying for our family, and especially Gary as we go through this difficult time. We are trusting that God has a plan bigger than we can imagine.

And for something a bit lighter, I'd like to follow in the footsteps of many of my fellow bloggers and open the floor to questions from the audience! I'm not sure how many people read this blog anymore, but I'd love to get to know my readers and let you all know more about myself! I try to be an open book on this blog, so I'd like to open myself a bit wider to you all. So, leave a comment introducing yourself (if I don't know you, or if you don't think I do) and ask me a question! I'll try my hardest to answer them all. :-)

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Roots - Family pictures