Special Treat Weekend

This weekend was filled with fun. On Thursday evening, we were able to get an early start, hanging out with the Schuler family. I love Katie and John...and especially little Lucy. It's always so nice to see them and to be able to spend time with them.

Then, on Saturday, Travis and Nicole stopped by. They played in the girlies backyard pool, splashing. It was great to be able to sit and visit with them in such a relaxed setting. Saturday evening, I made a stop at Lisa's party and then onto hang with Cirucci and Camp Laura for the evening. We met up with Travis and Nicole that evening at the bar. It was a great day.

Sunday brought the O's game with Laney and Alie's preschool/ our church. The O's won! First four game streak of the season...the game was definitely fun, but a little too hot for me.

Shopping...

So I've been up to a little online shopping. Lands End is having one of their overstock clearance sales, giving me 10% off of their already up to 65% off prices, plus free shipping. Where can I go wrong with this deal?! Anyway, I'm in need of some new work clothes. Nice work clothes. For the past few years I have mostly been wearing things I bought when I entered the professional world. Back then I had an extremely limited budget (even more limited than my budget now) and no idea what to buy.

My new boss expects a higher level of professionalism (at least in dress) than my former boss and some of my old stand bys just aren't working anymore, especially if I want to be taken seriously. New boss is more along the lines of dress for the job you want, not for the job you have kind of guy. That, combined with the sale at LE meant that some new work appropriate dresses were in order. I figure this fall I'll have to pull out my suits (I have two quite attractive ones and one quite unattractive one). All I need now are some cute new pumps and I'll be all set!

I did happen to buy one or two things for the girlies from the LE sale. How could I resist?

Two updates in one day?!

I forgot to mention the other exciting news....I now have a nice (r) work laptop. It will replace my desktop as soon as the docking station arrives. I have spent part of the day transferring files and favorites to it. I'm excited because this computer is a fresh start. My old computer was bogged down with all sorts of random files that needed to be deleted and random favorites that hadn't been looked at in a long, long while. I transferred just what was important. Now I just need to find a great pic for my background.

The new computer also means better connectivity while I'm on the road. I won't have to bring my personal computer (which is uber slow..which makes me too lazy to turn it on). Instead, I have this nice work laptop. AND the girlies will be able to skype me from our home computer while i'm away. Yay!

A bit of good news!

I have been desperately trying to get some of my wedding photos printed. Carl and I were married back in the dark ages, before digital photography was the way of life. Our photographer has our *gasp* negatives. It has taken them (the photographers) weeks to find them, but they are found. I think I'm going to have to buy the rights to them since they seem fairly unwilling (or perhaps unable) to make prints from them. Instead, they want to scan them. Um no. If I wanted scanned pics, I would scan the prints that I already have. They tell me noone really prints from negatives any more. Um....again, not really the case. I called Ritz camera (first place I called) and the guy on the phones response..."of course we do", in a sort of "duh" type inflection.

So good news, I can finally get some of those great wedding pictures enlarged, printed, framed and hung on the walls in our home! Now to contact the photographer to learn about the price of my negatives....

Yah....

Do you ever just want to scream? That's kind of how I've been feeling recently. Carl and I decided to change banks a little over a month ago. We had been having some problems with our previous bank and thought that a complete withdrawl from that account into a new account was the perfect solution. It turns out, its not.

I spent a lot of time researching the different banks, both local and national, trying to find the best fit for our financial needs. Carl and I went to the bank to open our account, twins in tow. We were assured by the bank lady that the we would be so happy with our new account and would not experience the problems at new bank that we experienced at old bank. Just hearing those words made me so happy. Dealing with bank issues takes lots of time and is most annoying.

Anyway, we are having problems with new bank. I'm not pleased. I'm at a loss as to where to go from here. Should we continue to wait while new bank tries to fix the problems (we've already been waiting a week and a half), or should we pull all of our money out yet again and try another bank?

Sometimes being a grown up is hard. It means making tough decisions and not always have the control you want. It means not always knowing what the right decision is. It means being patient. I'm still learning how to be a grown up and deal with grown up things....maybe i'll have this figured out by the time I'm 30.

Big Goals

Carl and I have set a big goal for ourselves. We have been running a lot recently. Initially, our running was in preparation for a 5k we plan to do towards the end of August. However, we have decided to up the ante and train for a 1/2 marathon. We are really excited about our goal! Of course, I have talked him into one of the girlier 1/2s....the princess half in wdw. It's official, we have caught the running bug :)

remodeling is such hard work...who knew?

I had no idea that my exciting plans for our home would be such hard work, for me. Yesterday, I took a sick day from work. I had a horrible cold and sounded awful. I spent the afternoon moving our china from our family room (where it has resided in the hideous brown closet thing which Carl will be taking down this weekend) to our dining room buffett. I had ordered felt plate dividers and carefully divided all of the plates, saucers and serving dishes. The bummer, I have only begun to scratch the surface of what is in the hideous brown closet. It has been a repository for the past few years and is filled with items that have no home. Carl and I will need to work on that tonight so that he can take it down tomorrow night so that it can go to the dump on Saturday.

Then, two nights ago, Carl is discussing with me the best time to set up our kitchen remodel. Of course, we have to wait until the contractor can get the cabinets in, etc. I instantly decide the sooner the better. Carl tells me to look at my calendar since it will take a little bit of time to completely clear all of the kitchen items out of the kitchen. Sheesh...I never really thought about needing to move all of our pots, pans, plates, food, etc. from our kitchen. I guess I just assumed that the new kitchen would be built magically around our existing items (eventhough many of them will be moving dramatically).

Still excited, just a bit more daunted.....

its been a while

and lots has been going on!

Most exciting for me, I signed and put a down payment on a fence for our backyard! I am SO excited. Its going to go to the back porch and I can't wait until it is installed (4-6 weeks from now as long as I remember to fax the appropriate materials for the permit tomorrow).

Also, I received the first estimate/design for our brand new kitchen. I'm waiting to see the second contractor's price/design before making a final decision, but the first one looks awesome and again, I can't wait!

Also, we have started working on the family room. The hideous paneling is starting to come down and this weekend, we are taking down the incredibly unattractive (i can't stress how unattractive this is) shelving unit. I can't wait to see how much just moving that one piece opens up the room.

AND, tomorrow we have a contractor coming out to look at our front walkway/porch. Both need some serious refinishing (is that what you call it when they fix broken cement sidewalks and porches?)

Maybe I can convince Carl to get started on the crown in the bedroom or dining room and to let me paint the front door this weekend...we'll see.

Laney and Alie are currently at their last official day of school for the year (of course they start summer camp, at school, on Monday). Tomorrow is family fun day, and i know they are really looking forward to celebrating with me. I'm excited too! They have really grown up a lot this past year, and I'm sure next year will prove to be the same. They start camp 5 days a week on Monday and while I doubt that will be a huge adjustment for them, it will be a GINORMOUS adjustment for me. I received their class list in the mail on Tuesday and they are officially in separate classes next year (something that both Carl and I wanted for them).

Finally, Carl's new job seems to be going well. He officially finished training earlier today and I believe he has his first sales appointment this afternoon. I have my fingers crossed for him! He has also been through a lot of changes recently.

AND, we both have decided to start training for a 5k in August. We celebrated this new goal by purchasing a brand new jogging stroller (something that we desperately needed since our old one bit the dust). Its been too hot for Slate to be outside, so we've just been enjoying the evenings outdoors with are girlies (who LOVE the new jogger almost as much as we do).