Don't call me again

I can't stand a know it all. I just got off the phone with a dude that I want to find and punch in the eye.

 

*Phone rings. I look and see the area code and know they're calling me incorrectly. I know this because it happens every day*

Me: This is MrsCount

Dude: Yes, I'm calling from Ko/dak

Me: Ok, are you calling about your insurance?

Dude: No, I'm calling about adding my daughter on my insurance

Me: *rolls eyes- ain't that what I said* Ok sir, you're calling the wrong number, let me give you the correct number 1866-555-4576 (my number is 4575)

Dude: That's the number I called

Me: If that's the number you called, you wouldn't be talking to me

Dude: That's the number I called

Me: Hold on, let me transfer you, because this is not Ko/dak, this is TotallyDifferentCompany

 

Ugghhhhhhhhh! For real? I think I know where I work. If I tell you that you have the wrong number, trust me, you have the wrong number!

Love is grand

I've been under the weather, so I haven't felt like blogging or doing much of anything lately. This weekend I worked at a wedding reception. I went up to see the wedding since I remember this lady from my childhood. I was best friends with her niece. The family was always looking for her because she was on drugs and went missing a lot. She has 3 kids, one has downs syndrome and one has severe behavior disorders because she used drugs during those pregnancies.

Well God's grace was on her life. He kept her alive through everything and now she has been clean for a few years and is marrying her former drug dealer who has also been clean for a few years. The church has embraced them and they have a team of people supporting them to ensure they stay on the right path.

Their ceremony was so beautiful and he is so sweet to her! He was wiping her tears and he even shed some tears himself. Love is a powerful thing

House Hunting: Everything?

This is the outside of the house, I had too many pictures for it to post in one email.

House Hunting: Everything?

This is the house we went to see on Saturday. We knew it needed work, but we didn't know everything needed to be fixed. I loved the front patio right off the kitchen and the top porch right off the master bedroom. That's what originally excited me about this house. When we got there I could see the wood rot on the outside. When we walked in there was a powder room to the left and the kitchen on the right. I thought the powder room was good-until I saw the outlet. It's fried! Meaning the electricity likely needs major work. The kitchen wouldn't need immediate work, but I would move cabinets, knock out a wall, and make a bar seating area eventually. The living room had lovely hard wood floors- that are warped. So no good. Upstairs there were 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The master closet is smaller than what we have now. That is a deal breaker for me. The outlets upstairs were all fried too. And the bathrooms need retiling. Up another flight of stairs was the attic that MrC claimed as his man cave. Alright then sir. We finished our house tour in the basement that MrC claimed as his weight room. Clearly MrC was going to bed living there alone because by the end of the tour the only thing that I still liked were the front decks. I'm pretty sure that isn't a good enough reason to buy a house.

 

Weekend and Hobbies

I'm still quite sleepy from my weekend. I'm going to try to get to bed early tonight. We babysat our 9 year old niece this weekend because it was her mother's birthday. Thankfully, she is a super easy child, so we didn't have any problems. On Saturday morning we went to look at a house, I'll post the pictures tomorrow. Since my niece has been house hunting with her mother, she acted as our realtor. She was pointing out problems and solutions in every room. She even volunteered her services to help me knock down a wall! After our house hunt I went to JoAnn's because I decided I don't want to crochet, I want to knit because two sticks are cooler than one. The problem with knitting is- I don't know how to do it. I spent Friday night on you tube trying to figure it out. I actually made it pretty far (ok, I made it through casting on), until I had to use both sticks. Then I was just creating a mess! I was going to take a $35 two hour class at JoAnn's on Sunday, but there weren't enough people signed up, so they probably weren't going to have it. My ma said her friend would teach me so I decided to wait for her friend. After we left the fabric store we drove 1.5 hours to watch our nephews play in a football game. Then we went to see our other niece and nephew at home and we played with them for about an hour. We finally got back home at about 8:30 on Saturday. Niece helped me cook dinner and then we went to bed. In the middle of the night there was a lovely screaming match outside of the building in front of us. Thankfully, somebody called the police and the police made everybody sit down outside while they figured out what was going on. Midnight entertainment at its finest. I think we have new people in that building and I don't think I like them.

 

Sunday we went to church and then to my parent's house where my ma and I decided to teach each other how to knit. Just so you know, it's easier to teach somebody how to knit if you know how to do it. We were both on you tube and had her friend on the phone trying to talk us through it. It was a mess! We were going to a friends house to watch the football game so I took my knitting stuff with me and went to the knithelp.com website as recommended by Adrienne and actually started knitting something that looked halfway decent! I got some cheap purple yarn just so I can get the technique down, but you better believe I'm going to use this thing once I finish! I don't know what I'm making yet, but I'll use it for something. I'll post pictures later this week of my knitting adventures :) Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to work on my headboard and/or chairs. Still haven't picked a fabric though. My favorite was the zebra, it's funny that almost everybody hates animal prints. I loved it! But it wasn't enough to do both chairs anyway. Surprisingly MrC  liked #3. I didn't think he would. We'll see!

Hobby 2: crocheting

Because refinishing furniture isn't enough of a hobby for me, I've also decided to start crocheting! This yarn was on sale for 2 for $5 so I decided to get the 4 I liked most to make a blanket. I'm going to start this project tonight. I bought a book to help me, but the fabric store by my house has a crocheting class on October 1, so if I haven't made any progress, I'll be going to get some real help.

 

**We're going to look at at least one house this weekend. Our hunt slowed down because we weren't finding anything else we liked. This one has potential**

Fwd: Hobby 1: Fabric ideas

Yesterday I went to the fabric store to start working on ideas for my new hobbies. I was looking at fabrics to cover the chairs with. I haven't decided yet if I want the chairs to just blend in with a room, or if I'm going to be using them as the accent pop piece. I don't even know what room I want them to be for either. These are the fabrics that caught my eye yesterday. What do you think? Which one is your most favorite? Which one is your least favorite? I'm going to look at some online fabric retailers today to get some more fabric ideas.

September Daring Kitchen

The September 2010 Daring Cooks' challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John's source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Our options were apple butter, roasted tomatoes, or bruschetta. I chose to preserve roasted tomatoes. Of course, I don't like any of those! This is truly why I joined the daring kitchen. I never would have made any of this stuff if I hadn't signed up. My tomatoes are still in the freezer (cuz I just made it today, lol). I'll post whatever recipe I end up using them in. I appreciate that this was an easy challenge! Y'all know I have struggled :)

The chair

Can you see the chair now? Thanks Jameil for letting me know I didn't post it.

Hobby 1: fixing up furniture

See this ugly chair (and paper on my dirty floor)? I'm going to reupholster it! I got 2 of these chairs for $15 each. I'm going to go look at fabric this week and figure out what to do with the wood. I'll probably do it to match the headboard.

Dumpster Shopping

This is the headboard/footboard I found at the dumpster. I went online and found this exact bed at Room store for $400!  Even if I mess it up, so what, it will be a fun project.

Challenge lost

It appears I have fallen off of the blog challenge so early in the game! Maybe I'll try again next month. I had a lovely 4 day weekend :) There were cookouts, birthday lunches, and lots of family time. On Sunday I did a bit of dumpster shopping. When we were pulling into the complex I saw something wooden by the dumpster. I went to check it out, and it was a headboard and footboard! I ran to tell MrC of my great find, and he shook his head in dismay and said he would help me retrieve it under the cloak of darkness. My inlaws were visiting us, but, as promised, when it was nice and dark, MrC went with me on my dumpster shopping adventure. Those things were so heavy, and of course they were at the furthest dumpster. I'll take a picture when I get home to show you guys. I also need to go back to the hotel resale store this week to get the chairs that I want to reupholster. We sent the realtor a list of houses on Sunday night, so hopefully this week(end) we'll be going to look at more houses! If I keep at it, I'm going to have a house full of found/cheap/repurposed furniture crammed in our apartment while we await our move! 

 

MrC and I got new phones yesterday. We got the Sams.ung Vibr.ant which is very much like an iph.one but on the android market. I much prefer android because I want to help goo.gle take over the world. I love my phone so far and the battery life seems to be much better than on my G1 phone, but it does charge slooooowwwwwwwwwwww as anything. Alright, time for me to get back to this busy day at work!

3. First Date

I don't plan on going on another first date in this lifetime, but I do have an idea for the perfect first date or any date. Go to a downtown area. Any place where you can walk and have access to a lot of stores/eateries. Go in every eatery and each person orders their favorite thing on the menu and then they split it. I think this is a perfect first date because:

1. I'm greedy

2. You have a lot of time to talk as you walk and eat

3. You learn a lot about the other persons tastes

4. Each time you order something different, your story as to why you ordered it is great for keeping the conversation going because first dates can be awkward.

5. I'm really greedy

Once they've eaten till they can't eat no more, go into the clothes stores and split up. She would pick out an outfit for him, and him an outfit for her. They don't have to try the clothes on, but just seeing what somebody else would pick and seeing personal style is fun.

Maybe by the end of the date they'll have a bag of leftover food that they can take to a picnic the next day!

**let's pretend like I'm not 45 minutes into day 4 as I post this**

House Hunting: Our House!

This is the living room. I don't know what that random case thing is. It wasn't there when we went.

House #6 is our house! See that porch? That bay window? That fireplace? That yard? I was giddy just pulling into the driveway. We walked into the front door and there was a powder room, an eat in kitchen, living room, formal dining room, and a sitting room. Yay, yay, yay! We went into the basement and it was divided into 3 rooms. One room was a laundry room. The laundry room had 2 sinks. Pretty odd, but there was still plenty of space down there. I could have shelves and hanging areas, and an ironing board and everything! I think they were trying to convert the basement into a separate apartment. There was a full bathroom down there. Wait, does it count as full if there's no sink in the bathroom? 'Twas the strangest thing. The room that I guess they were trying to make into a bedroom would be a perfect playroom 5 years from now. We walked out the basement into the back yard. Very nice size and a huge deck that spanned the length of the house. Not only did this house have a spot for my hammock, it also had a jacuzzi on the deck! Say what? Freaking awesome. Back inside, we went upstairs. I was immediately happy to see that the master was to the left, and the other rooms were to the right. We walked into the master bedroom and I saw the walk in closet and told the realtor this was the house we were buying. I didn't think we would be able to find anything that had enough closet space for us. There was also a master bathroom, no tub, just a shower. Good, less for me to clean! There was a full bathroom in the hallway with a tub. The 3 other bedrooms were really good sizes. I already picked out the nursery!

All I need is an island and eventually to get matching appliances and we'd be set!

I'm pretty sure this is the master bedroom. They didn't have a picture of the closet :(

Now here's the surprise for you Jameil: There's already a contract on the house, so we're still house hunting. So guess what guys!? We get to do this all over again! We're selecting the next set of houses and going out again next week. I like reading what y'all think about the houses, this is like a team project!

2. Show the world how greedy you are

I had a salad with slices of ham and Parmesan cheese for lunch. So good, but so not filling.

MrC is out of town so I was having a dinner party for one! I coated some potato wedges in breadcrumbs, seasonings, and parmesan and baked them. I also took some ground london broil and mixed in some kraft cheese crumbles and made burgers. Twas yummy!

House Hunting: The coolest backyard ever

House #5 was super cool! The biggest negative, that we noticed immediately, was that it is on a busy street. There was no real front yard, but the homeowner did have a little garden area with a bench, and there was a little porch. When we got their, the lady answered the door and she didn't even know they were having a showing that day! She was totally shocked by our arrival. Our realtor (remember when I said she was a crazy old lady?) said "Well, somebody called me back and said we could come today. Guess they forgot to tell you. Oh well, come on in guys." I wanted to laugh, but I obeyed and walked right on in. We walked into the living room and there was a wood burning stove in the corner. It was love at first sight! On that floor was the kitchen, dining room, a sun room, and a half bath. All a good size. The basement had a bar in the corner and a workshop as well as the family room. Aside from smelling like dog, it was nice. We walked out to the backyard. I can't even describe it, just look:

The backyard was so cool, but it was also a lot of work, and very dangerous for a bunch of kids. I wouldn't be able to send the kids in the backyard to play because the part I could see from the house was all rocks, and there was a creek running through the yard. Too scary to think of my toddlers slipping. After playing in the backyard for about 10 minutes, we came back inside. Her babies were upstairs sleeping, but she let us go up there anyway. There were 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It wasn't very spacious, but it was ok.

The best qualities of this house was the wood burning stove and and the backyard. The current family living there had 2 kids and they had clearly outgrown it. Not too promising.

1. How was your day?

Here I am on the way to Wednesday Bible Study. I'm tired, but I had a good day. I finally finished my 7 page report, had a planning meeting, and a work bridal shower. I consider that a success! A few of my coworkers agreed to try the 200 sit up challenge with me. I can't remember why I didn't finish the last time I tried it with Nerd Girl.

Today I found out that CreepyGuyIAvoidAtWork is even creepier than I thought. He has been harassing/stalking another employee. I don't know why she hasn't gone to HR yet. Dude tried to kiss her but ended up licking her. He keeps buying her and her grandkids gifts. Did I mention he's married? Ummmm no! I avoid and ignore him. He knows I don't care for him. Whenever he's around, he always says "MrsCount doesn't like me." How astute sir! There's only so many times you're going to leer at my body before I shoot a staple in your eye. And that was my day!

September Blog challenge!

I got this challenge from Jurista at The Weight of What is Real. I guess I have to start tonight since they want to know how my day went.

 

Day 1 – A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.
Day 2 – A photo of something you ate today.
Day 3 – Your idea of the perfect first date.
Day 4 – Your favorite photograph of your best friend.
Day 5 – A photo of yourself two years ago.
Day 6 – A photo of an animal you'd love to keep as a pet.
Day 7 – Your dream wedding.
Day 8 – A song to match your mood.
Day 9 – A photo of the item you last purchased.
Day 10 – A photo of our favorite place to eat.
Day 11 – What's in your makeup bag?
Day 12 – A photograph of the town you live in.
Day 13 – Your favorite musician and why?
Day 14 – A TV show you're currently addicted to.
Day 15 – Something you don't leave the house without.
Day 16 – Your celebrity crush.
Day 17 – A photo of you and your family.
Day 18 – Something you crave a lot.
Day 19 – Another picture of yourself.
Day 20 – The meaning behind your blog name.
Day 21 – A photo of something that makes you happy.
Day 22 – A letter to someone who has hurt you recently.
Day 23 – 15 facts about you.
Day 24 – A photo of something that means a lot to you.
Day 25 – What's in your purse?
Day 26 – A photo of somewhere you've been to.
Day 27 – A picture of you last year and now and how have you changed since then?
Day 28 – Your favorite movie.
Day 29 – Something you could never get tired of doing.
Day 30 – A photograph of youself today + three good things that have happened in the past 30 days

House Hunting: Too much Too little

House #3 was a bit overpriced. We wanted to see the inside firsthand to see why they felt they could ask the price they did. We liked the neighborhood much better than Loudon. This house had a garage, which is always a bonus! We walked in and were impressed by the hardwood floors. After having this cream carpet for 2 years, I am really looking forward to the opportunity to not have cream carpet! To the left of the front door was the living room. It had a bay window. I love bay windows! It was the perfect reading room. To the right of the front door was the dining room that led to the kitchen. The kitchen was an alright size. I would knock down the wall connecting the kitchen and dining room though. I loved the old double oven that the kitchen had. Through the garage was a laundry room of sorts. It had the washer/dryer and a full bathroom. It's nice to have another bathroom, but who wants to walk through the garage to take a shower? The basement was finished and a pretty nice size. There was a storage room and another small random room. It had a fireplace! Awesomeness :) We went back upstairs to check out the bedrooms. There were 3 bedrooms and they were kind of small. The master was connected to another bedroom via a bathroom. Not a redeeming feature for me. I need marital privacy when we have kids ;) The closets were quite small. I would have to use the small room in the basement as my dressing closet because there was no way we were going to be able to share that closet peacefully. The backyard was a very nice size and I saw a place for me to hang my hammock (that I don't own yet.) We liked house #3. We could see ourselves living there. But it was totally over priced.

Am I the only one impressed by the "vintage" double oven? Probably.

This is the basement. There were quite a few wall sconces. They were ugly, but I would find some super cute ones to use instead.

The backyard was huge! And see that stupid little tree in the middle of the yard? It would be the first thing to go, lol.

Next...

House #4 was in a gated community. There are a ton of houses for sale in that neighborhood at freakishly low prices- but that is not a good thing. The neighborhood was built about 3 years ago and all those houses are for sale? Not good. We get to the gate and the guard is MIA, even though the realtor called him and told him we were on our way. The house looks good, doesn't it? So do all the other houses we can see in the picture! Dag, they couldn't give any type of breathing room? We didn't wait around to get inside. We went off to see our final two houses.