Photo Follow Up

As promised, here are the photos from our new place (pardon the mess) and Halloween.

Here is the bedroom. There's a nice balcony leading off to the side.

This is the second bedroom. We call it "The Butterfly Room".
Can you tell why?

This is the 3/4 Bathroom. The Full Bathroom has been omitted, but it should be noted that it has a jetted tub. We have yet to take this for a test drive. Update forthcoming.


This is the study. As you can tell, it's more important for me to have my computer up and running than it is to unpack the gajillion boxes we've put in here.
Priorities.


This is the living room. If you look past the box of Saltines over to the TV, you'll notice one of the games that has devoured our lives over the last year. It's called Rotohex.

Here's me as Steve Jobs introducing my shiny 4th Generation iPod touch.


Here's me shortly after deciding that I couldn't look like an old man anymore.


Zombies. That is all.
PS-Rob wanted to have him and I dress up like Plants to counteract the invasion.

Rob's kickin' birthday cake. Once again designed by the masterminds behind such things as
The Grill Cake
and
The Barbie Cake

Hope you've enjoyed this little photo montage!

Home, Sweet Home

So, the wait is finally over! We closed on our condo a little over a week ago and have spent most of our time moving in the interim between now and then. First, I have to say that more than anything I hate moving. I've moved a lot in the last 10 years of my life. I know a lot about living out of your suitcase from my mission and never spent much more than a year at any given apartment during my 5 years of college. I'm at a point in life where I can't really pack everything I own into a small car and cross town to simply plop it down in whatever habitation I've been assigned. I have furniture and clothing and books (10+ boxes of them) and dishes and games and computers and who knows what other stuff laying around to try to travel from A to B with. It's quite comforting to know that now I don't have to move again for a long, long time. Now, we just have to unpack.

The nice thing about all of this, though, is that we're simply not renting anymore. The place we bought costs us just as much as we used to pay rent, but now that money isn't sucked up into the ether. It's (somewhat) staying in our pocket. Our interest rate isn't half bad, either! We bought the place at what seems to be the best possible time, especially if the economy turns around as expected. It's ours! That's the best part. It's our home, sweet home.

In other news, I'm bald. Well, less so now than a few days ago. Now it's more like being fuzzy than bald. I just hope that my hair looks alright by the time my brother gets married next month. Otherwise, I might just have to cut it all off again in an attempt to not look like I'm halfway between shaving my head and growing it back to full length (which is exactly what will be happening).

Why did I shave my head, you ask? Well, sometimes sacrifices must be made in order to have a legitimately cool Halloween costume. Mine this year was Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. He's got some crazy bald spots goin' on, so I had Lovetta shave my head down to look like I was balding. Well, naturally after Halloween was over, I didn't want to look like a 40 year-old man (even if he is a bajillionaire). So, I shaved it all off. Completely. It's starting to grow back. But, I apparently shock people with the lack of hair on my head. One of my co-workers keeps making "cancer patient" comments every time he sees me. Maybe in a few days, he'll be able to look me in the eyes again. We'll see.

Anyway, pictures will come later, either in this post or in another one.

I hate waiting...

Happy Birthday, Tom!

Tom had a birthday! He is not getting old. He is just the right age for his age. :) I made a cake that looked like a grill in honor of our love of grilling. He is amazing. I love my husband! (He's not really turning 8; we added the rest of the candles later.)

Let Me Sum Up

I started school. Awww 1st grade. . . It's school all right. I have some really wonderful helpers: a paraprofessional, and a parent volunteer. They have done so much of the things I never get to. That's nice because I don't feel quite as on my game as I would like to. I'm sure I'll get better as the year goes on. Part of me wants to be home taking care of a baby and not teaching, but I'm doing my best.
We have good friends visiting us, and that has been fun.
I've been eating a lot of tomatoes from our garden. Yum! The tomato plants have produced more than I expected. Tom and I tried making salsa for the first time. It was a success. We are so good. No wonder we were the iron chefs of Park City. Speaking of Iron Chef, our cable is gone. I miss the Food Network. Wouldn't it be nice if you could pay just a small fee and get just the few channels that you want? TV is too expensive.
Tom and I are looking into buying a house/condo. It's weird to think that just a few months ago we were both looking at unemployment and moving back in with my parents. Our life sure changed fast. Now we're both working and looking at changing our rent to a mortgage payment. In many ways we have been blessed.
One of my good friends came back from her mission, and we got together and did art. It was so therapeutic for me. I am determined to do it more often. Over the summer (before Max was born) I started doing The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron with my mom and my sister. I think I will start that again soon. I think sometimes I drop important things when they are really the most important. I get busy and neglect my hobbies when they would help me to relax. I get busy and I stop exercising regularly when exercise would help me stay healthy and happy. I should get better at that.

The Best Steak I Ever Ate

Jokes.com
Brian Regan - Kennedys
comedians.comedycentral.com
Roast of David Hasselhoff It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Russell Simmons Presents Stand-Up Comedy

Half-way through this clip is the pertinent part to our conversation here.

So, I've come to an interesting conclusion. I've decided that the best steak that I've ever had actually comes from The Olive Garden. Really, it's more like steak medallions, but they're probably the most super-delicious beef I've ever had. They're grilled perfectly on the outside and nice and pink on the inside. Whatever the heck they marinade that stuff with is simply heavenly.


Now, you might start to question how it is that the restaurant chain could possibly have the best steak I've ever tasted in my life. It was kind of a shocker to me as well. I mean, for goodness sake, I've eaten a $40 steak before (fun/funny story). Trust me, it wasn't that good in comparison. There's just something about the way they prepare anything with those little steak medallions that makes my mouth automatically open to shove another piece in, even if my stomach tells me I'm going to regret it shortly thereafter. I don't care if I explode, so long as I have a piece of that meat in my mouth.

Just thought I'd let everyone know. Go. Eat. Be amazed.

Real Life

So, I guess Lovetta and I are entering a point that a lot people tend to think of as "real life." And I'm not just talking about what we've gone through with Max (though that surely makes the impact of life on this planet quite real). I'm more talking about the fact that we've both graduated from college and are working at jobs we thoroughly enjoy.

We have two incomes and we're young adults. What should we do with all of this money? Now, that statement should be taken with a grain of salt; Lovetta is a teacher, and I make less than a teacher does. Our incomes are not spectacular, but they now exceed what we pay out every month in our bills. There's a whole world of possibilities before us.

Naturally, the first thing I want to do with this money is buy an iPhone. I've been wanting one ever since they were first released, but honestly, the data plans are killer on a college budget if you don't have someone subsidizing the plan you've purchased. That's not as much of an issue now, though I must admit that after some number crunching, my inner poor college student still cringes at the bill.

They always said that an Apple was the forbidden fruit...

Lovetta, ever the saver that she is, then brings up the good point that now would be as good a time as any to start saving for a down payment on a house. I happen to agree with her; the better the down payment you get, the better the monthly payment you get after. We're certainly in a good position to do some saving. Speaking of saving, another thing we've been wanting to do since the day we got married was start doing some long-term investing. Again, now's as good a time as any to start contributing to some sort of retirement mutual fund or some such.

Still, there are a few toys, gadgets, furniture items, etc. that I feel like we've deprived ourselves of because we simply couldn't fit them into our budget. It's also important to save while you have the wherewithal to save. How do you balance the two? How do you know exactly what to aim for in your long-term savings goals without going over for rainy day funds or entertainment type things?

I think that "growing up" or "entering real life" really is just code for "more confused than you were before" or "have more questions than you have answers."