New curtains....

First and foremost, I STINK at taking pictures. I go and look at everyone else's blogs and they have awesome pictures. My regular old point-n-shoot just isn't cutting it anymore! Please also note that in the following pictures I did not use a flash because the batteries in the camera were almost dead and I wanted to actually capture the photos before the batteries died.

I have mentioned Lindsay's blog before. Recently she did a post on these window treatments. I'm a sucker for fabric and window coverings, so I thought I would give it a try in J.D's room. Her room is painted a light mint green. I joking used to call it "mental institution green", but I think that hurt her feelings, so I stopped. Seriously though, it's that light, light green that is scientifically proven to be the most soothing on the eye. Architect's drafting boards are usually topped with this color because of it's soothing properties.

Okay, on with the story. We bought boring white tab-top curtains for her room. I like curtains to puddle at the bottom and in order for the curtains to puddle, they had to be hung lower. Well, when they were hung lower you could see the top of the window frame. Every time I passed her bedroom, those window frames made me crazy! (I am totally obsessive... if you didn't know that already) Something had to be done. This is where Lindsay's curtain making abilities come in.

Boring curtains before

That's the view of our front yard. We have a huge front yard. In the window on the left where it looks like the grass is two different lengths; that's where the pasture starts. Usually you can see a horsey out this window. Not today.

Window treatments after

TA DA! Lindsay gave great directions. I definitely love these windows now and they don't make me as crazy when I look in J.D's room. (I still have a few adjustments to make) They honestly took longer to hang than they did to make. Well, maybe about the same amount of time. My aunt came and looked at them last night and she couldn't tell that they were made with a hot glue gun and not sewn! Until I told her of course.

Have a great week!

Pardon moi?

I support law enforcement, I really do. I drive the speed limit. I try to be a courteous driver. I had a spotless driving record, until now!

About a month ago I got pulled over about two miles from my home. The particular street I was on is about two miles long and has one 3-way stop. It was a Friday evening about 7pm and I was going the speed limit. I was stunned when I was pulled over and could not think of what I had done wrong. The officer informed me that I had not come to a complete stop at the 3-way stop. I WAS SHOCKED!

1. I drive through that intersection several times a day and yes, many people do not make a complete stop and this irritates me, so I always stop!
2. I came to a complete stop at that intersection and did not notice a police officer.
3. Said police office pulled me over 1 mile after the stop sign.

The officer took my license, car insurance and vehicle registration and went to his car. He came back five minutes later with a TICKET! He actually said "I saw that your record was clean, but I am going to have to issue you a citation." At that point, I actually burst into tears. This is only my second ticket in my life! The first one being 6 years ago for going 5 miles over the speed limit on a back road, and that isn't even on my record anymore. I was so mad!

Well, I got even more upset today when I went online to check the status of my ticket and found that the fine is $120.00! I will be going to traffic court on April 8th. I've never been and I have no clue what to say. Obviously, I plead "not guilty", but I have no clue after that. Has anyone ever been there before? Does anyone know what to do? Help me out here!

By the way, this ticket has done wonders for my O.C.D. Oh yes, when I reach a stop sign now I count "one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand." I cannot tell you how many cars honk at me! My own very law abiding Uncle Fred was behind me one day and he blew his horn too!

Happy Anniversary!

Meet Mr.

Mr. likes to snuggle.


He snuggles with Grandma's...... Grandma's who don't even like doggies, they love the Mr.

Mr. likes to snuggle with his mommy when she is sleeping. (J.D. snapped this picture)

We rescued Mr. two years ago this month. We adopted him for a local rescue group that I volunteer with. This rescue group specializes in saving the big dogs that aren't usually adopted from the shelter. I can't imagine life without my buddy boy!

Happy two year rescue anniversary Mr.!

DIY- Dog toys!

Most of you have previously made the acquaintance of my youngest dog, Pickle. Pickle is a fabric connoisseur. You name it, she eats it. Our couch, socks, rugs, dog toys, blankets, towels, pet beds, curtains; they have all been consumed by the Pickle. We go through dog toys like Sherman marched through Georgia (very quickly and destroying everything in our wake for you non-Southerners). A few weeks ago, I decided that I needed to do something before Pickle chewed us out of house and home.

The Pickle in the dirty snow

I bought 1/2 yard of clearance fleece at JoAnn's fabrics for $2.00. I bought cute little doggies, but save yourself the money because when you are done you can't really tell what is printed on the fabric anyway. Buy the solid colors, they are cheaper.

Use scissors or a rotary cutter and cut 2" strips. I folded the fabric in half short ways so that I would cut through several layers but still have long strips to work with. Does that make sense? I cut out (6) 2" strips.

Gather your six strips and tie them all together in a knot at one end. Go ahead and tie it a few times. In my experience my dogs have teeth like razor blades and can untie anything. The bigger the knot, the longer the razor blade teeth take to cut.

Gather the fleece strips into 3 sections of 2 strands each and braid the whole thing. When you have braided the entire strand, tie a knot in the end.

I then tie a knot in the middle of the strand then tie two more knots, each knot in between the middle and the ends of the strand.

Your final result is very long, very durable rope toy.

These toys usually cost at least $10 at pet stores. You often see string toys for sale in pet stores and I used to buy them until my vet told me how bad they are for dogs. The strings ball up in your pet's stomach and they can't pass it so they have too have surgery to remove the ball of string. Fleece doesn't have the same stringy effect so it is much safer. For safety's sake I will say that I only let me dogs chew on toys when I am around to supervise. They are much to precious to have anything happen to them! My dogs love these toys and I love the fact that they only cost me about $2 to make!

Egg wreath

Last week I discovered a new blog that I love. Lindsay made this egg wreath. Well, I like eggs and I like wreaths, so I decided to attempt it. It isn't nearly as pretty as hers, but it turned out nicely. I also have camera envy. I don't have an SLR, so my picture is kind of yucky and you can't really see all of the brown and cream speckles on my eggs either. I ended up hanging the wreath on the inside of our carport door. You can see the other Easter wreath on the other side of the glass! I love to decorate.



Lindsay gave awesome directions on her blog. I can definitely tell that she is on the obsessive side, just like me and a lot like the majority of my readers, (Nicol, you would enjoy her blog)! Definitely do a good job on sanding the eggs though. I thought I did a good job, but about five of my eggs had the finish crack and I had to throw them out. I also used a hammer and a nail to make holes in my eggs for the wire. That worked really well. Be very gentle with your hammer and nail or your eggs might crack. This didn't actually happen to me, but I can imagine that it would if you were a little too rough.

I love the wreath. I think it cost me less than $6 for everything! A steal of deal if I say so myself.

Happy Easter!

Oh so excited!

For the next three nights our church is hosting a series "Come up to Jerusalem".

Taken straight from the church bulletin, because really they say it best:

"You are invited to "Come up to Jerusalem" the week as Sister Clare Fitzgerald, SSND presents our Parish Mission. Jerusalem is a sacred and scary place. SACRED because God is there; SCARY because the Cross and Death are there - yet it is the only place to be during this holy season of Lent. As Disciples of Christ we are invited to gather round the Cross, to expose our winter souls to God, to ponder and pray, and to wrestle with the meaning of our own lives and deaths. The "Journey to Jerusalem" lasts three nights - and it is for those who take God, their souls, their life, and their journey home to God seriously!"

I am so excited! For the next three nights we will cover a different lesson in scripture and they are "The Woman at the Well", "The Man Born Blind" and "The Raising of Lazarus". Yesterday at church, Sister Clare was comparing "The Man Born Blind" to an angry teenager who had given up and closed his heart to Jesus and whose parents had given up on him. It is so interesting to look at scriptures in a different light and realize how they still apply to our life nearly 2,000 years after they were written. Amazing!

Blech!

So I am kind of in a bad mood today. I shouldn't be, after all, it is FRIDAY! I ate shrimp for lunch today and now I'm kind of itchy. I really shouldn't eat it because my Dad is deathly allergic to any kind of seafood with a shell that turns red when boiled (like shrimp, crabs, lobster, crawfish, prawns; am I leaving anything else out?) I had allergy tests when I was in middle school and the doctor identified that I had a seafood allergy. I never really had any problems until right after I graduated college and I landed myself in the hospital for several days after eating crab dip at work. Anywho, I love shellfish so it is a struggle for me not to eat it. My dad's allergy showed up in his early twenties at random. He was eating seafood one minute and the next minute he was being rushed to the hospital; red, swollen and not breathing. Because I am Catholic and it is Lent, I can't eat meat on Friday's. I ate shrimp at lunch and now I have been itching for several hours. Oh well, at least I can breathe. I am going to have to give it up one day.

Last night I started on this project that Lindsay has been working on. I love it because I am going to be able to make it for about $7 and if it turns out anything like Lindsay's it looks much more expensive than that! The eggs are primed and have their first coat of white paint on them. I think this is a terrific use for all of those dreadful plastic Easter eggs everyone has lying around. It felt really good to re purpose those things! Hopefully it will turn out well. Crafting is therapeutic for me.

Tomorrow night we are supposed to go to a BBQ for a friend's 30th birthday. I really like this friend, K and her husband, C. I am a little nervous because K's brother P. is supposed to be there. I really like P. About a year ago, P. and I were supposed to meet up for a friendly date, but he kind of bailed without a phone call. I saw P. at Christmas and at a wedding right after Christmas and things were great. I decided to send him a text message and try things out again. Well, once again I never heard anything back. I know he is going to be there tomorrow and to say that I am dreading it would be putting it mildly. Why can men be so daft? All you married ladies are very lucky, I tell you!

Well, I think I figured out the source of my foul mood. It's dreading seeing P. tomorrow and being a little excited about it as well. I'll let you folks know how it goes.

How to decorate like me (not that you would ever want to)

1. Relentlessly read decorating blogs and gather 5 zillion ideas
2. Subscribe to at least 5 decorating magazines and purchase the ones you don't subscribe to
3. Shamelessly flirt with man at Sherwin Williams in order for you to get a professional paint color swatch thingy that has all of the colors that they make
4. Stare at said color wheel for hours on end and decide on lots of different colors and take votes from people you know and don't know
5. Change your mind approximately 95.876 times
6. Buy the mini sample paint cans and cover your walls with twelve different shades of paint
7. Decide that none of those samples work for you
8. Begin again at step 4
9. Select color based on the name of the paint. After all, it strikes up a fond memory
10. Purchase curtains to go in room
11. Begin collecting random items to go in room
12. Have approximately five thousand different ideas in your head about what you want to do.
13. Spend 3.5 hours measuring couch and chair for custom slip covers
14. Decide that you don't want custom slip covers because they aren't returnable if they don't fit and you aren't 100% on your measuring skills. Heck, you aren't even 75%
15. Decide to buy new sofa at ikea. In white. Ektorp. Go to Ikea and leave without sofa. Leave instead with chocolate cookies and sparkling cider. Decide that makes it worth the 45 minute trip to store in and of itself
16. Begin priming wall. Take one month to complete that
16.5. Find fabric you like. Decide to have throw pillows made in fabric designed by Amy Butler. Decide you are going with modern french country look, whatever the heck that is. Find fabulous friend to make throw pillows. Begin the heinous process of trying to decide which fabric to pick.
17. Start actual painting. Finish that in a week
18. Decide not to use the furniture you originally planned.
19. Rent rug doctor and clean carpet. Decide that other people are much nastier than you because your rug doctor solution only turned light brown and not black like other peoples
20. Feel much better because you must be a better person because you aren't as dirty.
21. Begin moving furniture into den. Get couch stuck. Stuck really, really good. Say a very bad word. Not the worst word, but a bad one. Feel really guilty.
22. Have genius superhero sister take feet off couch. Watch couch glide through doorway like you greased it with butter.
23. Decide that original decorating scheme is not going to work, much to every one's dismay. Feel lost and hopeless
24. Run-in Wal-mart the next day for a toothbrush and get stopped/distracted by clearance section. Spot 3 "Better Homes and Garden's" pillows on clearance for $5 each.
25. Give birth to new idea
26. Realize that you think you may have previously seen drapes that you want made by "Better Home and Gardens".
27. Run to curtain section, prepared to drop 'bows on anyone who gets in your way.
28. Do not see curtains
29. Go back to work and look online for curtains.
30. Find curtains online for $19.88 a panel.
31. Pull out credit card to order curtains but read reviews first and notice someone found them at their Wal-mart on clearance for $9.00 a panel.
32. Decide not to order curtains.
33. Wait until the next day. Go online to see if they have them on clearance yet. They don't.
34. Click on "find in store" button to see if any stores near you have them.
35. Find store that says they have them in stock and travel to store 20 miles away on lunch break to see if they have curtains. They don't.
36. Send sister to another store 20 miles away on her lunch break to find curtains. The two of you think she has found them and they are $14.88 a panel. She buys them. You are very excited.
37. Decide on your way home from work to stop by yet another Wal-mart to see if you can find yet another $5 pillow.
38. Find curtain clearance section. The first curtain that you see is the curtain that you want and realize that it is not the curtain that your sister bought earlier. Call sister and verify. Decide curtain is $15.88 and that you like it much better than one sister bought and purchase it. But not before you spend 45 minutes looking at all of the other curtains because you only found one panel and you need two.
39. Proceed to register and purchase curtain. Do big happy dance when curtain rings up for $5.00!
40. Call sister in car on way home and explain that you will be hitting all Wal-mart's within a one hour radius tonight to look for missing curtain.
41. Do not find missing curtain at any other Wal-mart.
42. Sister resolves to check once more at Wal-mart that she originally bought two $14.88 curtains.
43. Spends 30 minutes sorting through boxes of clearance curtains. Finds curtain!
44. Hang curtains
45. Wonder how you strayed so far from original idea.
46. You began with white couches and pastels and ended up with chocolate brown couches and reddish pink and greenish and goldish faux silk plaid curtains.
47. Begin looking at Amish barn stars to buy to hang on wall.
48. Wonder what in the "h-e- double hockey sticks" your contractor has done with your heart pine mantle you ordered six months ago. Briefly consider breaking his kneecaps but decide it isn't worth the jail time or the guilt.

To be continued....

Who loves Vera Bradley?

I DO! I just hate the price tag. I didn't always used to be this way, but I have become a huge bargain hunter in my old age! The best Goodwill stores in the world are in Macon, GA. While we were in Macon the weekend before last reliving are college days, we ran in Goodwill there. I stumbled across this baby for a whopping $2.60!







You better believe I snapped that pretty baby up and marched her right home and put her in the washing machine for a hot bath! I figured if that messed her up, was only out $2.60.

Would you believe that the monogramming cost 3 1/2 times as much as the bag? For a grand total of $12.60, I have a beautiful purse.

That's a deal, if I do say so myself!

Pardon me, I need to rant for a moment!

Pickle, now she's about five times this big.

Zoey, my first baby. Also my most loyal.

Mr. The so called vicious barking dog with Jack, a friend's son.

We live in the country. Well, it used to be the country. All of the houses on our road our on 3+ acres. Our house happens to sit on ten acres. I know I have only lived in this house for five months, but my grandparents lived here for forty years before I did.

People in the country have dogs. Some people leave their dogs chained up all day. (I don't agree with that) Some people build fences or pens and their dogs stay their all of the time. Other people, like me, have inside dogs and their dogs go outside in a fenced area for about fifteen minutes at a time a few times a day. They might be outside in their fenced area for an hour or so on a sunny day.

About nine years ago, a single woman bought the house and land next door to my grandparents. I say next door, but truthfully, her land just adjoins ours. You can't see her house from our house. For the life of me, I don't know why this lady bought this property. Immediately she cut down all of the large trees on the property. Then she installed six large street type lights on big wooden poles around her house and driveway. Then she installed a gate and fence all the way around her house so that you can't even go up her driveway. In understand being a single woman and wanting to be safe, but come on! I have always jokingly referred to her house as "the airport" because her property is so lit up at night you could land a plane in her driveway!

In the nine years she has lived there, I have never really met her. I know at some point she was in contact with either my aunt or my grandparents because she wanted us to agree to selling our land with hers to a developer (sorry lady, not interested). After we moved in to the house in November, I found out she was terrified of dogs! She's a therapist, by the way. A therapist with a major phobia.

She called my aunt two days after we moved in to complain about our dogs. Please keeping mind that between our two houses and the fenced area where we exercise our dogs is a large horse pasture and a strip of woods. She hated the barking. She stated that their barking kept her up all night and she was terrified. This confused me because our dogs are only outside for about ten to fifteen minutes at a time and the last time they go out before bed is at 10pm. At that point, we decided to make a concerted effort to make sure that the dogs do not bark excessively when they go out.

Imagine my surprise when I got home from work yesterday to find a notice from ANIMAL CONTROL on my backdoor. The notice read that we need to limit excessive barking to no longer than fifteen minutes. I HIT THE ROOF! I called my aunt immediately and she was shocked. I felt like I had been punched in the gut. JD and Aunt Gail decided to drive next door to calmly talk to her and see if there was something we could do differently. But wait, there is no way to actually reach her house because the place is so secured! Aunt Gail went down the road to the neighbors on the other side of this lady's house and they happened to have this lady's phone number. JD called but didn't receive an answer or voicemail.

They came home and about fifteen minutes later our phone rang. I guess this lady has caller i.d. She explained to JD that she could tell that we had been trying to keep the dogs quiet but that we were on a different schedule than she was. She sometimes works late and doesn't like it when we let our dogs out at 6:30am to go to the restroom. She felt like going through animal control would be the best way to contact us! SAY WHAT?!? How about a note in the mail? A note taped to our back door? A telegram? A messenger pigeon? Anything but animal control! All because she doesn't have our telephone number? Funny, she could figure out how to get in touch with my aunt when she wanted us to sell our land, but barking dogs... nope!

Because we genuinely don't want to cause anyone to be upset, when JD let the dogs out this morning she went and got them as soon as they started to bark. Hopefully that will be our first and last notice from animal control.

I do genuinely wonder what the animal control officer thought when he showed up at our house yesterday to check out a supposed noise violation and there were no dogs to be found outside! I wonder how silly he felt leaving us that notice. I believe now more than ever that fences do not make good neighbors!

It's done! (almost)

The den is painted! The den is painted! The walls are done, anyway. We still have one coat of trim on the baseboards and crown moulding. The doors also need a coat of paint as well. But the main part is done! I also have no idea how I am going to decorate this room. All of my plans have gone out the door in the last 48 hours.

About six years ago we paid $2,000 for this couch and chair. Ours has different upholstery though, it's covered in a khaki colored cotton duck. I will never spend that much money on a sofa again! It is quite possibly one of DUMBEST things we have done. We even paid extra for scotch guard, which in my opinion is a total rip-off. It doesn't work. The couch was beautiful for about six months. Add a black lab puppy (my Zoey) and it gets a little dirtier. On the advice of a friend, we opted for the two cushion sofa, another huge mistake! It started to wear funny in the middle. Then we added an 85 lb rescued Weimaraner to the mix and the sofa was now 3/4 of the way dead. We our clean people, but we use our furniture. We are those people who let their pets on their furniture and in their beds. I question allowing some children on my furniture, but never the dogs!

In January of 2008 I spotted a 3 piece chocolate brown microfiber sofa, loveseat, chair and ottoman for sale at Sam's Club. It was made by Lane Furniture and was priced at about $1,088. I knew this was a good deal, but I couldn't talk myself into it. In March of 2008 I went back to Sam's and noticed that the same set had been marked down to $500! Hello folks! I called our neighbors, they showed up with their truck and I scooped that baby up!

When we moved, we put the chocolate brown furniture in the formal living room and the khaki colored furniture in our sunroom. Nothing really went into the den but a daybed because we wanted to paint the panelling. We never use our formal living room. The $2000 couch is now looking even worse for the wear because of the addition of puppy #3, Pickle. She has eaten part of the couch cushion cover and part of the skirting on the side of the couch. That dog loves her fabric! Initially I thought that I was going to buy slipcovers for the $2000 furniture and use it in the den. I really wanted something shabby-chic-cottage-y type look. Oh yes, these slipcovers were going to be WHITE. Have I completely lost my mind? Have the paint fumes really gotten to me? I was going to buy wicker to go in the sunroom to replace the khaki covered now slipcovered white disaster.

Well none of that ever transpired. We moved the chocolate brown microfiber into the den yesterday. Oh, yes that was an adventure. That stuff is heavy! Our couch was stuck in a doorway for several hours until J.D. got the bright idea to use the drill to remove the legs from the couch so it would fit through the doorway. (We now have some touch-up painting to do in two doorways)

We have just about decided to give away the $2000 couch and chair. I have thought about putting it up on Craigslist in the "free" section, but don't know what to do. My formal living room now has no furniture. If we give away the couch and chair, my sunroom will have no furniture. We are thinking of putting the chocolate brown loveseat in the sunroom because it is a bit too crowded in our den at the moment.

When I get home this evening I will take pictures of things the way they are because I need help. I feel pretty ashamed and don't really want to let you all know the disaster my home has become, but in the interest of total disclosure (and the fact that I really need help here) I will post the pictures.

Have a great week!

Maison Blanche and a lighted ceiling fan!

Well folks, we put the first coat of color over the primed paneling and I love it! I chose "Maison Blanche" by Sherwin Williams. I picked this color for two reasons: 1) It is a whitish beige which is what we needed and 2) Maison Blanche was the name of a department store in Louisiana when I grew up. I have fond memories of it. Before it was Maison Blanche, it was Godchaux's. Godchaux's had this stuffed snowman-like creature that it would put out at Christmas named Mr. Bingle. I loved Mr. Bingle! Maison Blanche carried on the tradition of Mr. Bingle when they bought out Godchaux's. Maison Blanche is no more, but it lives on my walls! How crazy am I for picking a paint color that way?

This isn't a very good picture, but the left side is Maison Blanche and the right side is primer.

I also have a beautiful ceiling fan. FINALLY! It took us about a month to put it up after we bought it. This isn't even the original fan we bought. This is the fan I always wanted though. The original one was returned this weekend because we thought it wouldn't work. Turns out it would have worked just fine! Uncle Fred was very helpful in installation. Because the house is older, each ceiling fan has a different hanging mechanism. The fan that hung in here my entire life was basically hung by a hook! I don't think they even do that anymore. Uncle Fred got us straighted out and the wiring connected to the motor last night and tonight J.D. and I hung the blades and the light kit. It works beautifully and gives us some much needed light in a once dark, cavernous den!

The beautiful fan!

I can't wait to get everything painted and the proper furniture moved in here. I have bought some really cool decorations and have found an amazing friend, Amanda, in South Dakota who is going to make some throw pillows for me.

I love the early 20th century!

March 1, 2009 was a snowy and icy day in Atlanta, Georgia. We stayed home from church and were like hermits. It was kind of nice to curl up on the couch under a down comforter and not move for hours. While I was snuggled up on the couch I watched a few great movies.

Have you seen "Miss Potter"? Amazing film! I loved it. I always loved The Tales of Peter Rabbit, so it was very interesting to learn more about the author of these classic children's tales; Beatrix Potter.

After "Miss Potter", I switched over to Georgia Public Broadcasting and caught "Anne of Green Gables, The Sequel". Megan Follows does as amazing job as Anne Shirley. Once again, I was mesmerized. So much so that last week I went to the library and checked out the entire Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Lucky for me they are a quick read.

I am such a sucker for period movies. I love the Victorian era! I know that life was so much harder back then, especially if you weren't high society, but give me Jane Austen any day! I think that we as a society have lost so much in the way of good social graces in the past 100 years. It's quite scary to think of where we might end up in another 100!


* I promise to have an update on house projects by Friday. Right now we are in the middle of painting, carpet cleaning and hanging a ceiling fan. I am too ashamed to take pictures and post them!

Buhbopsey Twins!

When I was a little girl I read a book series called The Bobsey Twins. I loved it. Nan and Jan Bobsey were my heroes. Little did I know that when I grew up, I would have my own Bobsey Twin: J.D.

J.D. and I sleep in separate bedrooms, get ready in separate bathrooms and generally don't see each other in the morning until we are walking out the door on our way to work. This morning when I was getting dressed, I put on khaki pants and a pink polo shirt and thought "I look like J.D." (she wears a lot of polo's and khaki's) After I finished getting ready, I decided to pop into her bathroom and announce "GUESS WHO I LOOK LIKE?" Well, as I did that, I realized that WE WERE WEARING THE EXACT SAME THING!

J.D. dressed for work this morning

Me dressed for work. I am wearing khaki pants. I don't have makeup on yet and I look frightening, so please be kind!

What is kind of humorous here is that this happens about 2-3 times a week. It's kind of a running joke in our family. We call ourselves the "Buh-Bopsey Twins".

Ferdoodle!

Ferdoodle. It's a good word. I think it is going to be my new non-swear word. It encompasses all of the frustration I feel right now.

We were supposed to sell our house very soon. In fact, the closing is/was scheduled for next Friday (the 13th) at 9am. All was going well. We were going to have to bring 10k to closing, but were prepared for that.

Last night, the appraisal came back on the house for the buyer's loan. Oh yeah, baby it was 30K less than we paid for the house three years ago and 20k less than what our house was contracted to be sold at.

Can I say that I don't have an extra 20k to bring to the closing table in addition to the 10k we were supposed to bring? Can I say that all of the people who haven't paid for their homes and had them foreclosed on are really bringing my property values down? FERDOODLE!

We don't even live in the house anymore. We can't afford to keep paying for a house that we don't live in. Can I tell you that we have never missed a house payment or been late? We are the people who make extra payments, for crying out loud!

But wait, it gets even better. Our property taxes are through the roof! Rather, they went through the roof this year because the county has our house valued $40,000 more than it is worth. Combine that with the fact that our salaries have been cut because our work bonuses have seriously suffered ( a large percentage of our salaries) because of the economy, and we can barely afford our house note!

I am trying to look on the bright side here, but it is really hard. I know I am blessed to have job that I love to go to and a house to live in no matter what happens; but those things are harder to remember when you are considering the "f' word. And no, that "f" word isn't ferdoodle, it's the one that ends in closure.

Wordless Wednesday- near extinct white rhino

From our Safari at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Nicol at Classy and Sophisticated is doing a Wordless Wednesday and I thought I would participate. Go check hers out, it's even better than mine!

DISNEY WORLD!!!

Well folks, we have been back for almost a week now; so I figure it is time to update the old blog. Disney World wore me out! We had a fabulous time and came back with a bunch of great photos. I am posting a few of my favorites. J.D.'s favorite ride at Magic Kingdom is the teacups, so that was the first thing that we hopped on. I think you can tell from the photos and the grin on her face how much fun she is having!

J.D. and Alex on the teacups

J.D. and Alex

Patrick

Me, acting silly at Epcot. I really like the combination of the colonial hat with the

Abraham Lincoln walking stick!

It was wonderful to spend a week with my family. We had a great time and I personally feel like I have the best parents in the whole wide world. Thanks Mom and Dad!