under contract!!

help!

i keep a notebook in my purse at all times so i can be ready to write an idea down whenever it strikes me. the notebook that i'm using right now has a list of the duty stations that we were considering before my husband got his orders, a list of things to do with my hubby when he came home from deployment, topics to write about on this blog, and most recently, a list of ideas for Christmas presents. i wrote everything down for everyone except for my hubby. the list that i created for him was in a code that i hoped he wouldn't break if he happened to see it. the problem is, now i can't figure it out either... what i did was write the first and last letter of each word and put a dot between those letters. this is the present that i'm having trouble deciphering: c.o p.r w.h so this one item has three words and who knows how many letters between those first and last letters. anyone want to help me out and take a guess at what it means? here it is again:
c.o p.r w.h

the road to the last day of college... part 1

five and a half years of college. and that was just for a bachelor’s degree. simultaneously getting rid of the ex-boyfriend and moving out of my parents’ house for the first time gave me a huge burst of freedom and i lived it up to the umpteenth degree. i suddenly realized that guys actually liked me, contrary to what the ex had drilled into my head, and my friends and i would go wild four nights a week at local fraternity and house parties. our busy weekends concluded with sunday night swing dancing and then it was back to classes for the week. i was asked to join our school’s social council and had a hand in planning every social event that year. what more could i want?
my story probably sounds very similar to most college students’ experiences, except for the whole studying part. graduating high school with honors had been a breeze for me, but this college thing was a whole new ballgame. most of my friends spent their non-partying hours in the library, buried in the books, but i was busy working 20-30 hours a week for an engineering firm and then taking five dance classes a week. when was i supposed to fit in library time? unfortunately, i didn’t try and didn’t think that i needed to. i would occasionally meet a friend at the library to study for a class together, but my study skills were extremely underdeveloped.
at the end of the first semester of my sophomore year, i completely stopped partying. i had started going to this church thing on tuesday nights and one night, it totally changed my life. in an instant, i knew that the partying and drinking had to stop and that i had to make some changes or else my life was going to take some really bad turns. those changes were astonishingly easy for me to make, but sadly, i had already created some horrible study habits (rather, non-study habits) and i didn’t know how to fix them. i continued working 30+ hours a week for the engineering firm and taking numerous dance classes. those were my priorities, and i figured that since the people around me loved me and i was very good at my job, i would quickly and successfully finish college and get on with my career. riiiight. i was obviously very ignorant and reality was coming at me like a freight train.

the last day of college

i've already told you about my first day of college, so maybe i should fill you in on my last day of college. it was equally as interesting and didn't take place until 1739 days after that first day. that's right, for those of you that are looking at that number in disbelief, it took me five and a half years to graduate college (i finished in december, but we didn't have the graduation ceremony until may). college was just so much fun and so much money ($40,000+ a year) that i didn't want to leave until i was absolutely ready. seriously though, i just got my priorities a little mixed up and had to learn a difficult lesson the hard way. curious? i'm sure you are... more details coming soon =)

bad samaritan?

i just passed a man on the side of the road with jumper cables in his hand as he stood helplessly next to his broken-down conversion van. maybe i've heard one too many abduction stories, because i drove right past the guy without even thinking about stopping to help. in a college self defense course, we read the gift of fear and learned to listen to our sense of fear (great book, by the way). had i stopped to help this man, i'm sure i could have used some of my karate moves on him if he had tried to harm me, but what if he had a gun? am i just paranoid?
the good samaritan story always comes to mind in instances like these. we are supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves, but how do we do that in today's world? the world was a dangerous place in the samaritan's day, but he still stopped and put his life on the line to help someone.
there has to be a balance. i want to help, but i don't want to end up on the evening news. maybe that is my problem and i'm just like the levite and the priest from the good samaritan story. does anyone else struggle with this or have some advice?

*update*
if you read the comments, you'll see a very amazing response to my post. also, i just got back from a run with bozeman and while we were out there, it started pouring rain. i didn't mind it, and the dog loved it, but someone apparently thought that we were in need. a lady pulled off of the very busy road that we were running next to, rolled her window down in the pouring rain, and tried to give me her umbrella. what a sweetheart. i thanked her for her kindness and told her that we were enjoying ourselves.

pictures of the house

has a house ever made you cry?

before this past weekend, i would have answered “no” to that question. but now, my friend, i have cried because of a house. the hubby and i went house hunting this weekend, hoping to find our next home in just one day with our realtor. it sounds like a lofty goal, but we had both prayed about it ahead of time and asked God to give us wisdom in choosing the right part of town and the right house.
after endless hours of research on the internet, there was one house in particular that the hubby and i were looking forward to seeing. it was older, 27 years old to be exact, but looked solid. our realtor showed us some rather interesting houses, some really nice ones, and some houses that belonged to families that we felt sorry for because we knew that they needed to sell. finally, we visited the house that we had both talked about ahead of time. as we pulled into the driveway, we saw the homeowner walking out the back door with a basket of something, heading to her next door neighbor’s house to wait while we perused her home. i liked her immediately, although i’m still not sure why. i fell in love with the house as soon as we peeked in through the front door. there were plenty of windows and there was so much sunshine streaming in through them. the hardwood floors ran throughout the entire house and they were beautifully polished; this was a big selling point for both the hubby and me. as we walked through the house, i could envision us living and entertaining in it.
it wasn’t until we walked around the exterior of the house, though, that i started to get teary eyed. when we rounded the corner into the backyard, my eyes started to sting and water. i didn’t know what was wrong with me! the hubby and i were looking at the roof and then at the bushes along the property line that i hoped were blackberry bushes and it hit me that this was the house for us. i’m not an emotional girl, but something just made me tear up, something told me that we had to buy this house. i even thought that the homeowner was sitting in her next door neighbor’s kitchen, watching us walk around the house, and praying for us. i felt it. at the end of the tour, i told my hubby that this was the house; none of the others were even contenders in my mind. i also told him that i couldn’t be analytical about it and he had to be the one to make sure that this was the right choice. we talked about it with each other on the drive home and then we talked to both sets of parents and now we are getting ready to make an offer! woo hoo!

an angel in the darkness

in high school, i had a great boyfriend. no really, he was awesome. he liked to put me down, yell at me, threaten me, drop me off on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere if we got into a fight, and sometimes he would even hit me. yeah, he was so great that i stayed in that relationship for four whole years. don’t ask me what i was thinking, lord knows my entire family and nearly all of my friends (and some of his friends) did everything they could to show me that i would be so much better without the dude. it wasn’t until i went away to a women’s college that i finally got the guts to break up with him for good.
the day my parents helped me move into my dorm was life changing. i met my roommate and all the girls on the hall and we went to dinner as one group. i had never had so many girl friends before. the upper classwomen were so independent and brilliant and out to save the world and were there to encourage the new “first-years” on campus.. in just that first day at the school, i regained so much confidence in myself that my boyfriend had worked hard to destroy over the past four years. that night, well past the time that all good girls should be in bed, my boyfriend called to say that he was sitting outside in the parking lot. lovely. i went outside to meet him and we walked around the campus together. we quickly got into a useless argument and stopped to talk it out on the steps of our school’s old, outdoor amphitheater. i was quickly falling back into the submissive role of the stupid girlfriend, and all i wanted to do was walk away from him and go back to my safe dorm with all of my new friends. tears started welling up in my eyes as i listened to him rant and rave about what an idiot i was. he got mad at me for being quiet and crying and he pushed me. i fell down a couple of the concrete steps of the amphitheater and scraped up my arm and side pretty good. i got up and looked at him in disbelief, and he started apologizing, trying to comfort me for the pain that he had just caused me. at this point, i knew that he had to go, but i had no idea how to get him to leave. we were alone, in the dark, in the middle of a very empty field and most everyone else on campus was in their dorm rooms. i did the only thing that i could think of: i prayed. it wasn’t even a good prayer; i pretty much just said “help” to God. i looked at the soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, not sure how God was going to help, only sure that He would. my eyes wandered past the boyfriend to a tree about 50 yards away and i saw a form. a very tall, dark figure was leaning against a tree near the student center and seeing that figure gave me one of the most peaceful feelings that i have ever felt in my entire life. i knew that that had to be an angel that God had sent to help me get through the next few minutes, because without seeing that figure against the tree, i couldn’t have pushed past my boyfriend and walked confidently to my dorm, ignoring his requests for me to stop and just talk. i walked right to my dorm building, with him on my heels, unlocked the door with the key that i had and he didn’t, and closed the door in his face. my heart was racing as i watched him through the glass, yelling and pleading for me not to call the cops. of course i wasn’t going to call the cops. i was going to get on my knees and thank God that he had rescued me.

stowaway

i have a stowaway with me in the office today... bozeman! the contractor is still working on our condo and i think bozeman was bitten by a spider, so i couldn't send him to doggy day care to play today. he's a good dog, laying on the other side of my desk with his head near my feet. too bad i can't bring him every day!

bookworm

i love, love, love to read. there is a picture of me from when i was 8 years old where i am sitting at the kitchen counter with a book in one hand, bowl of cereal in front of me and my deaf, white cat leaning over my shoulder. not much has changed in 19 years. you can still find me (standing, not sitting) at the kitchen counter with a bowl of cereal, a good book and the dog at my feet.
i recently finished a really good book, the will of wisteria. although it seemed a little predictable at times, i found it impossible to put the book down until i finished it. i read the savannah series that this author wrote with the same fervor. next, i’m working on reading through not for sale. it’s a sad, but a necessary eye-opener. i’ll have to blog about that one after i finish it… i can’t believe i had no idea how prevalent slavery was in the world today.

it sounded like a good idea...

sometimes, i have some really great ideas that turn out to be not so great ideas. my plan to mega-multi-task while at work and get in some exercises in our warehouse has turned into a major pain. i love doing lunges and squats and regularly do them around our condo in the midst of doing laundry or cooking dinner. so of course, when i came up with the brilliant idea of doing lunges between my desk and the bathroom in the back of our office warehouse, it sounded like the perfect plan (don't worry, no one could see me!). i could feel the burn at the end of the day and felt a little less guilty if i didn't make it to the gym... until my knee started to hurt. and it hurt a lot. remember that little backpacking trip where sara thought that the bear was attacking her? during that same trip, i managed to slip and slide on the icey trails enough that all the little knee injuries from years of ballet combined to form one big knee injury. that same knee just started acting up again thanks to my brilliant idea to do lunges at work. oh, did i mention that those lunges were performed while wearing black pumps? that's probably the reason my idea went so awry. a few ice packs and some husband-enforced time off from running have left me walking without much pain, so it thankfully wasn’t a serious injury this time.
oh, another brilliant idea of mine has left my hubby a tad frustrated. while planning out our remodeling with the contractor, he asked if he could throw the remodeling trash in our condo dumpster. knowing that this was a serious offense with our property manager, i told our contractor not to worry about it and that the hubby and i would take care of the disposal of those old toilets, tile, carpet and vanity. oops. what was i thinking? that stuff is heavy! and we live on the third floor! and the dump is very far away from our neighborhood! so what do i do now? should i ask the contractor to haul it all away and just have him charge us? do i call one of those places like 1_8OO_g0t_junk? any suggestions would be appreciated =)

r-e-s-p-e-c-t

i just have to brag about my husband for a minute. this past month has been incredibly stressful for us. we've been working on the condo to get it ready to put on the market, looking for a house to buy in a city that we haven't seen for 3 years (we're going house-hunting in person soon), and just dealing with daily life. although i work really well under stress in the office, i don't think i deal with it so well at home. sometimes, the hubby will find me cleaning the toilets at 11:00 at night just because i suddenly find it more important than going to bed at a decent hour. or, in the midst of trying to de-clutter and move things to storage, i'll start baking cookies because cookies are safe and make me feel like the home is in order even when it is not (ever seen disney's "the kid" with bruce willis? i love his line, "safety in sandwich... safety in sandwich"). thankfully, i have a husband who can sort through all of the stress and create some sort of order for us both. he wrote out a detailed plan and schedule for getting everything completed on time and has even given me tasks to do every day. that might sound pretty old school to you guys, the husband giving his wife "chores," but i asked him for it because i knew that we needed to be on the same page and i really needed him to be in charge and take the lead. i am a very driven, type-a person and the last thing we need right now is for me to take over and start giving my husband orders. and that's just what i would do if he hadn't done it himself. i have a renewed respect for my husband after these past couple of weeks and i just get so excited about it and want him to realize how amazing he is.
here's a more direct example of how amazing he is: the living and dining room have been in disarray because we had to pile all of the furniture in the middle of the rooms and cover them with drop cloths while painting the walls around them. yesterday, the hubby didn't have to go into work until late in the afternoon. do you know what he did all day long? he cleared the kitchen countertop, cleaned up all of the paint supplies, put all of the furniture back in place and even rearranged it in a better layout than before that makes our living room look so much bigger and emphasizes our really cool screened in porch. i got home from work and it was such a relief to have everything back in its place and in order. whew. he even waited for me to get home from work before he left, just so we could sit down and relax together for a few minutes. what a guy...

the talking donkey

bozeman and i take long walks together every morning. it is still dark outside when we walk, but i feel pretty safe in our neighborhood (having a big dog by my side doesn't hurt). sometimes, i just let bozeman sniff every spot on the grass or the trunk of someone's car. other times, he is in a hunting mood and we have to chase every cat or bug that crosses our path. still other times, i just want to go for a nice run with my dog. there have been two early mornings in the past month that i've tried to go for a run with bozeman and he has simply resisted me at the very beginning of our run. he actually stops running, turns in the opposite direction, and either sits down or tries to run back home. rather than yank the leash and force him to keep running with me, i usually turn around with him and we just run around the condo or chase cats together (am i losing my mind admitting that i chase cats with my dog?) and the reason is because i keep thinking of the talking donkey from the bible. anyone know the talking donkey story? all i can think of when my dog decides that he doesn't want to run with me is what he can see ahead of us on the path that i can't see. it may sound silly, but when it is dark and there aren't many people around, i'm going to trust my dog's instincts over my own... and i will continue to chase those cats.

flip this condo!

a few posts back, i very briefly mentioned that the hubby and i were trying to paint every single interior wall in our condo. that was only part of the story. no, we couldn't stop at just painting! we are also getting new toilets and shower/tub faucets for the bathrooms, getting a whole new sink cabinet for the guest bath, new lighting fixtures in the bathrooms, new tile in the guest bathroom and new pergo flooring in the foyer, hallway, dining room and living room. don't worry, we have a contractor helping us. lowe's really loves us right now. a few hundred bucks here, a few hundred there... poor hubby. we are doing all of this work in hopes that it will make our condo stand out from all of the other condos on the market and that it will sell quickly. as soon as all of the work is complete, i'll post some pictures... maybe even some before and after pictures!
and completely off the topic, sara and i may be getting together soon in atlanta. the hubby and i have a wedding to go to and sara just happens to have some plans in the same part of town at the same time.

grown-up vacation

the hubby and i traveled 2 plane rides away this past weekend to go to the wedding of a guy that he knew in college. i loved meeting the guys who had spent four years with my husband and i thoroughly enjoyed hearing the stories that they couldn't wait to tell me about him. our entire weekend was so enjoyable; the city was great for walking and exploring, the food was incredible, and we just had a great time being a married couple on a little vacation together. it was actually our first "married" trip other than our honeymoon if you don't count the times that we have visited family. sure, we went to monterey and carmel on our anniversary, but that was more like a side trip during a family visit and it doesn't really count. i've decided that we need to follow the example of a good friend of mine and take a couple trips together year, even if they are just day trips, and spend time just being us.
and, to follow up with some topics that i discussed in some previous posts, i've included a picture of the dress that i wore to the wedding along with the coat that i ended up buying from banana republic. sara talked some sense into me, reminding me that i didn't really need a coat as heavy as the one that i tried to win on ebay. i love the mini-trench that i got on sale at banana. unfortunately, i didn't get any pictures of me in the dress without the coat. hmm, i must really like that coat! i also ended up soaking my fingernails in acetone to finally get rid of any remaining acrylic nails, and then painted on several layers of natural nail strengthener. please, if i ever talk about getting fake nails again, somebody please knock some sense into me!

fall tv line-up

everyone has their fall tv line-ups posted on their blogs right now and so i thought i'd jump in the mix. except for one problem: i don't have one! that's because we don't have cable in our house. and it's by choice. you probably think the hubby and i are really weird now that i've said that. neither one of us had cable before we got married and we didn't feel that we needed to add it to our already crazy-busy lives after we got married. we rent movies all the time, so it isn't like we are totally against having a tv. it's just that, well, it would be too easy to get sucked into watching a tv show (or two or three) every night if we let ourselves, and we have so many other things that we never seem to have time to do anyhow. right now, for instance, we are painting every single wall on the inside of our condo, trying to decide what to replace our carpet with, looking for a piece of tile to match the cracked one in the guest bath, and looking for houses in the city where we'll be moving in just a few short months. and even if we weren't doing all of that, we have soooo many books that we bought but haven't had time to read, recipes to make, piano to practice, books to write, a dog to play with, etc. the list is always going to be there and i just feel that for us, personally, it would only hurt us to add several tv shows to our current schedule. i'm not trying to be holier than thou, i'm just telling you what works for us at our house. are there any other strange people out there without a fall tv line-up?