International and Domestic

I just realized that by the end of the week, this blog design will be getting a new design. We're getting a new couch! Well, we're getting all new furniture before too long, but we're starting with the couch.
These past few weeks have been incredibly busy. I had the afternoon shift at my summer daycare job. I like the afternoons because they go by so fast with nap and kids going home pretty quickly, but I have to stay until 6, which puts me home right in time to EAT dinner (I'm usually the cook). We did plan for that though and Husband picked up some slack. Ain't he grand?
Saturday we left for Maysville to celebrate Mother-in-Law's birthday. We rode out to Tollesboro where Mawmaw cooked a big dinner (i.e. lunch) and napped and chatted for the afternoon before heading over to Augusta for dinner dinner. Three bustling metropolitan areas in one day; look out! I will say that those places are never boring, at least for a visit.
Sunday morning we took off for our annual trip to Canada. Lots of books were read and lots of laziness was enjoyed. I realize the IDEA of doing nothing for a week sounds like a great idea, but it truly is a perfected art form. Most people would get bored after the first day. I actually considered live blogging (ignoring the whole no internet thing...that's what Pages is for!) but decided you just have to be here to get it. 1:00 Finished book 1:05 Threw more peanuts towards the squirrel 1:06 Laughed at said squirrel for not being able to find said peanuts 1:10 Moved chair into shade 1:15 Actually started next book 1:17 Put down more sunflower seeds for the chipmunk. You get the idea.
Monday was completely lazy. I finished a book I had been working on for some time and also read an entire second (it was Nicholas Sparks, so pretty easy read). Tuesday I had a phone interview (for a job I ultimately didn't get. Bummer since I've fallen head over heels in love with the school), but managed to finish the first quarter of another book. Wednesday was supposed to be yucky, so we planned to go into town. We had a Tim Horton's breakfast, went to the public library to check e-mail and play online, and hit the mall. They were having some AMAZING sales (% off similar to going out of business without all of the "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS" signs). I, of course, came away empty handed. Thursday was sunny with a small rain shower. The rain hit in the middle of the afternoon; perfect timing for a nap! That experience was only enhanced by the fact that rain on the roof in the cabin is already heavenly and we have recently put on a metal roof. Pure bliss. We planned to hit the Carver anyway and luckily the rain cleared while we ate ice cream and walked around. I did end up with a $30 hoodie (and that price was in Canadian dollars, so really it was, like, $7 ;)). We went to The Voyager for dinner and enjoyed the evening on the deck. All in all a pretty great trip.

Husband achieving "nothingness"














We did this bit of excitement Thursday: A bald eagle landed in a tree off the deck. Ironic that the first time we see this American symbol is in Canada, but maybe this is an omen that Auburn's football season won't be as bad as I think it will. I can dream, right?






Friday is where the real fun starts, though. We woke up early early since we wanted to get home in time to get Moe's for dinner. We stopped at Tim Hortons (of course) and crossed the bridge. We stop at customs and the agent asks where we were from. I say, "Kentucky" and he gets on the phone and says, "We've got an out of area." He hands us back our passports and asks us to pull into the garage. I have been going to Canada for 25 years and we've NEVER been pulled over coming back in...especially after ONE question!!! We decided they were just really bored since no one was in line. Or maybe we were the "lucky" 500th crosser for the day. Either way I am none too thrilled with the border patrol now. With everyone hemming and hawing over illegal immigrants, how about we actually let legal citzens IN? Whatever. We're probably now flagged on our passports and will always get pulled over or stopped at the airport. The drive back was otherwise uneventful.
Since coming home, we've been busy getting "back to normal." Husband's car had to get towed by AAA (they actually found us this time!) because his car wouldn't start before we left Saturday. Turned out the fuel pump was broken and something else. It all = very expensive. We still managed to get groceries and do laundry before confirming everything before our home inspection, which was this morning. That went very well. He said it's one of the best he's seen in 20+ years of inspection, many of which were new constructions. Let that be a lesson: Just because it's new doesn't mean it's good. It is ALWAYS worth the price of a home inspection. Ok. That's a small shout-out to my dad, but it's true. We have a list of mostly cosmetic things to address with our walk-through scheduled Tuesday morning and the one big issue the inspector found (which we planned to address anyway) and we are still on schedule to close FRIDAY!!!! Get excited!

In one week..

...we will be homeowners. AHH!!! Let packing madness begin!
I'll write more later on today. For now I've got to deal with AAA towing Husband's car. Fun.

Hard to Believe

Summer is over half over. I have a week of work, a week of Canada (yay!), roughly a week of work which is also our walk-through and closing date (double yay!), and a potential trip to Florida for curriculum training.
Week of work: Luckily, I'm scheduled for the afternoon shift, which means my first hour at least is nap time! The afternoon goes by so fast since kids start leaving. I'm just grateful to not have the 3 and 4 year old class all day like I thought. Even the director says they're the hardest class she's seen in her 20+ years of pre-school.
Canada: Annual trip. Preceded by a short trip to Maysville to celebrate Mother-In-Law's birthday.
Work/House: I'll potentially have the 5 year olds/school age (not totally official though). They're generally a good group. Almost all girls, so there's lots of drama, but nothing horribly bad. I'll have to take 2 days for the house stuff--inspection and a walk-through with our builder. The inspection is just to ahve an unbiases set of eyes on it to make sure everything is as it's supposed to be. The walk-through is so we can point out what we want fixed (potentially results of the inspection and other stuff we've found). All to be done by that Friday so we can have one more walk-through to ensure everything IS fixed and then CLOSE!!!! Husband will have to tie me down to keep me out of Lowes/Home Depot/Target/Pier 1/Homegoods/etc.
I intentionally left August open for school stuff, whether they be (at that stage God forbid) interviews or setting up my room, as well as getting settled in the new house. I will in all likelihood though be a second kindergarten teacher at school. One of the curriculums we use, most of the teachers are not fans of, but the incoming parents love. There's a training for the curriculum in Florida that week of August, so my principal would like the other teacher and me to attend. Maybe we'll learn hidden secrets. Or maybe we'll just learn it is as bad as we think and we'll just have to keep doing what we're doing. Technically, that trip isn't definite as they haven't officially split the classes, so be in prayer that I will need to go!

A Year Ago Today...

Husband and I got hitched! We had a great weekend trip to Cave City and Franklin, which I will try to give details later. It's been an amazing, jam packed year and we're both looking forward to many more.

Coming Soon...

Our first anniversary! OMG (yeah, I'm 13, so what?) I can't believe it's here already. This whole being married thing has been pretty awesome. To celebrate, we're headed to CAVE CITY! Now, I realize not everyone...OK, no one, would share in our excitement. Most first anniversary trips seem to revolve around the beach or some other huge vacation. That's not in the cards between the whole me not getting a paycheck in the summer coupled with the whole buying a house thing. We've got priorities! But we decided we could do a weekend trip somewhere relatively local.
While I was still at Transy, every time I would go home and again coming back, I'd drive through Cave City. It was never one of my usual stopping points as I never needed gas by then, nor did I hit it at dinner time. But every time I passed through I WANTED to stop because of a huge dinosaur that sits next to the interstate. On the way down, a sign said "Dinosaur World: You just missed us!" and I always thought to myself, "It would have been helpful to KNOW it was coming up." So naturally I shared that with Husband and we agreed that one of these days when we weren't in a hurry to get to or come back from my parents, we'd stop and maybe hit up Mammoth Cave, since it had been so long since either of us had been (I was 5 and husband was in elementary school).
Well my friends, that day is now! Husband has the whole next week off and we're taking off Thursday either early and hitting Dino World then taking a cave tour (or head out late and just get there for the tour and do Dino World in the morning. We're going to stay the night in a Bed and Breakfast about halfway between Cave City and Bowling Green. Then, we'll either do Dino World, or just head on down to Franklin to visit with my parents the rest of the weekend.
They've already planned for us to go to the Bluebird Cafe. We're also going to hit Trader Joe's for a refill on the coffee we like, but usually only get when his friend sends it to us.
Whew! I'm worn out just thinking about it!

Decorating the house already

I've been on a decorating kick lately. With the help of Polyvore.com, I'm basically painting all of the rooms, even though we had our pick of a standard color throughout the house. Oh well! Our first planned purchase will be the sofa in the living room. Everything else will be in spurts, the first one happening when we get our $8000 tax credit. Basically, we'll finish out the living room and then work on other rooms until the money's gone (or we think of a better way of using it). Here are links to my design boards:

Living Room by aapplegate on Polyvore.com I want to do one accent wall in the dark brown and everything else be the tan. The couch and maybe ceiling fan are the only definites though.

Dining room

Kitchen by aapplegate on Polyvore.com The rug didn't come through very well, but it pulls in the green walls and our everyday dishes.

The color scheme is really the only thing Husband wants. I just went with what we said "hmm, maybe" at the furniture store and bedding that fit the colors. Plus, it will flow well from the living room.

Office. It's intentionally unfurnished, as most of that will come from what we already have. At least one of our desks and probably my childhood bookshelves, which is where the baskets will be (pending measurement approval) to hold my crafty stuff.

Guest Bath by aapplegate on Polyvore.com Hall Bathroom. I figured we'd use the basically new shower curtain and based everything else off that. The red towels won't actually be a new purchase.

guest room by aapplegate on Polyvore.com I'm probably most proud of what I've come up with for the guest room. We saw several gray rooms while house shopping and look so classy when done correctly. Hopefully the white linens and wood furniture will warm it up. Our bookshelf will also likely be in this room.

The Master Bathroom is really the only room I plan on keeping the same color, mostly because I don't have any better ideas. I have an idea board for that as well, but in working on this, I accidentally deleted it and don't feel like going back to get it. It's nothing special, just new accessories and a different color towel.

Dear ESPN P.S.

NASCAR is not a sport. Please remove it from your reporting. I realize that statement may permanently ban me from the state of Alabama, or at least North Carolina, but I never have nor never will understand the athletic ability required to drive a car around in a circle. I've driven further distances by myself, without a pit crew telling me when to stop. Does that make me an athlete?

P.P.S. While we're at it, poker and pool aren't sports either. Please remove those from your line-up as well.