This weekend

Friday after work we went and purchased curtains for our house. We looked into all tge other window covering options and this was the cheapest route. We bought beautiful poles (thanks to Ross) for super cheap and found curtains & Target. After Target we went to Anna's Linens and found the same curtains for cheaper so of course we bought those and returned the Target ones. We put them up that night and realized brown curtains with brown furniture was just too much. :(

I had an epiphany while I slept that night...why not leave the brown curtains that we like so much but get tan sheers to match the pillows on the couch and break up the dark brown some. Perfect! Found cheap ones at Target Saturday morning but we haven't put them up yet.

Saturday, went to Renee & Jason's for Braden's birthday. That boy is getting so big and looks like he's 4, not 2! Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I have to wait fro pics from Renee.

Sunday we went to Lowe's and scoped out baseboards, crown moulding, and casing for the house. We priced the items we liked and plan to get a start on that next month. We decided on colors for some of the rooms as well.

Livingroom/formal diningroom (bar area): Green & tan
Kitchen/diningroom: Orange
2nd Livingroom: Dark Borwn & tan
Master Bdrm: Red accent wall

That's all so far...still working on the rest. We also decided we are going to put wood floors in our bedroom. We may take the vanity out and replace it but that's up in the air. Oh, I also found the flowers I want to plant in the backyard. i found orange lillies that I must have!!

Busy busy weekend. In between all that I did some homework and read half of new Moon!

HTML codes...

I am sooo lost rigth now. I have tried a few times to cut & paste an HTML code for a new background on here but it never works! I have no clue what to do. It's frustrating. I am going to the right sites as far as I know. I need help.

Stupid phone!

I have this lovely phone that is supposed to be a "smart phone". Well, this "smart phone" is a piece of ish. I have had issues with it from day one. My alarm doesn't work on it when it's on the ringer. It doesn't ring at all sometimes. It does psycho weird things! Yesterday the battery died. I went to charge it and the screen that popped up was asking me to calibrate the screen. OK..sure. I did that. Then the stupid thing jumped to the regular screen, except it wasn't the right background. My biggest fear had come true! My phone reset itself. It wiped it clean of any info I had in there. Email, phone numbers, text messages, pictures...GONE! Yea, so much for a "smart phone"!!

Oh the suspense!

Aggh! I finished Twilight this morning and read the exerpt for New Moon. OMG!!! I am so anxious to buy the book and start reading it. It's killing me that I'm at work all day and can't run off to my vampire world. I'm so curious as to what's going to happen in the rest of the series! The exerpt has got me all worked up! They are celebrating her bday and she cuts her finger...not a good thing to happen around a group of vampires. Oh the suspense!!

Starting a food blog

By popular demand I will be starting a food blog. OK OK that was an overstatement but I am asked quite freqeuntly about my recipes so I decided rather than write each one down for each individual person I will just make a blog for everyone to view.

It will probably take awhile to post all my favorite recipes and even longer for me to make them and take pictures but I will get started on that ASAP!

I will keep you all updated.

Insanely Slow

Work has been super slow. I have been here nearly 3 years and this is the slowest it's been. I was verifying timecards yesterday and noticed most of the crews were off yesterday because there was no work. We've been lucky that Andrew hasn't been told not to come in. He has been mostly getting 4-5 hour days so that is a blow to our pockets but at least he is getting some hours in.

As for me, I'm safe so far. I work in the accounts payable/receivable/collections dept. I'm a one woman show and since my boss doesn't want to have to do my work I haven't had to take time off. The other girls in the office have been told not to come in or come in a half a day. I am thankful we have jobs, I just wish the economy would pick up so things can get back to normal.

With work being so slow it give the owners a chance to nitpick everything and it's so freakin' annoying. Oh and they complain about money and how we need to save money yet they use company funds to fund their vacations, buy the new release DVD's every Tuesday, buy things for friends (I'm talking about a few hundred dollars worth), food (claiming it was for a company party), etc. The list goes on. It's rather frustrating to see all these company charges that aren't for the company at all yet they sit here and say they can't give anyone a raise because of the poor economy. I understand it's their money but if you can't give your employees a raise then don't run around spending the company money that can go towards raises frivolously! They make a 5 figure paycheck monthly(thousands) so why can't they use thier own money for things outside company expenses? It irks me that there is this hypocracy when it comes to the money.

I think I deterred Suraya from college

My poor kid is being tortured. Andrew had to work overtime today which just so happens to be a school day for me. This meant I had to take Suraya to school with me. Thanfully it's not a 4 hour day for me at school. She'd lose her mind. She's sitting here spinning in the chair, wiggling around and telling me how boring it is. This is probably not a great way to get her excited about going to college.

*gasp* The Read My Blog!

In yesterday's shopping blog I mentioned that the kid stores like Charlotte Russe & Forever 21 have no concept of normal sizes. Well, they must have read my blog and went into action because this morning I heard Forever 21 is intorducing their "extended sizes" line. Umm, yea. extended...I'm thinking now an extra large will be a medium in a normal size.

Day of Shopping!

While Andrew went of to the shooting range Suraya and I decided to go shopping. Well, really, I decided to go and she had no choice but to follow. We spent most of the day at the Cabazon outlets. It's so great that I live so close to it now! The outlet has tons of designer stores with their items for a fraction of the price.

Anyway, we walked the entire outlet center and I only made a purchase at one store. Well, the smoothy we had doesn't count. Awhile back Andrew had suggested I shop at Bebe so we went in and walked right out when we saw the cost of the clothes. They were way out of my price range. I hit the jackpot today though! At Cabazon they have a Bebe's outlet! The clothes were still more than I am used to paying but I figure it's time for me to start looking cute and get away from the kid stores, which I have pretty much already banned. For my body shape the kid stores like Charlotte Russe and Forever 21 (ugly clothes) or Papaya make no sense. A large is really a small in their standards. They have no sense of a real person's body. Anyway, I discovered Bebe and am now in love!!

During our shopping spree, if you can call it that...it was more like a window shopping spree, I realized that my little girl is growing up. For some reason she seemed all grown and just looked like a miniature teen to me. She aided me in picking clothes that looked good on me and told me which looked bad. Sometimes she can be a little too honest (yea, I know my tummy jiggles) but today she was super sweet and didn't blurt out any craziness. It hits me sometimes that she isn't this little baby anymore...she's growing up.

On a side note....I STILL haven't gotten my bookshelves for my office or my filing cabinet. My office is turning into a wreck with nowhere to put all my crap.

Andrew's Surprise Party

I threw Andrew a surprise party for his 27th birthday on March 28th. It just came to me one day that we finally had room for a big crowd so I invited all his friends and family. Almost everyone showed up! I think only one couple wasn't able to make it but they told me in advance. The party was a hit!

The appetizers included fruit with an amazing fruit dip that Roxanne showed me how to make, a new found recipe for crockpot meatballs, chips and homemade guacamole, a cheese, cracker, and meat tray, and...hmmm...I'm sure there's more but man oh man was all the food good! Let me tell you the meatballs and fruit dip are party favorites two times in a row now. For actual dinner, we bbq'd hamburgers & hot dogs.

Most people showed up on time and I asked them to park on other streets so Andrew wouldn't be tipped off. I had asked Andrew's brother to keep him away while I did the last minute shopping for the party and set up. He did an excellent job with Katie's help. Once I gave the all clear for Andrew to come home CJ & Katie kept giving me updates on their ETA. When I heard they were close all of us at the party hushed up and gathered by the door. Andrew opened the door and everyone yelled SURPRISE! and some thre pillows at him. His facial expression was priceless. I totally forgot my camera at that point! UGH! He was completely surprised he told me. He said he had no clue!

From there the party went into full swing. There was some dancing..I think myself and Roxanne, drunk as all hell were the only ones though! LOL! Everyone mingled and more people arrived. It was amazing how fun the night was.


















When it was time for the cake, this is what I brought out.........



How awesome is that cake?! I have to say that in all it's awesomeness it was all for looks. It turned out that the frosting was like a foot thick so it made it almost impossible to eat. Oh well. It looked great! LOL.

So, Andrew's party was my first indication that I can throw a kick ass party! Everyone seemed to have a good time! The food was good, the people were great, Andrew was surprised, what more could I have asked for?

Shopping...

I want to shop so bad!! The things that are running through my head....
...shelves for my office
...paper shredder
...new bedroom set
...projector
...tv
...window shutters

Ugh....there's so much that I want!!!

Holy crappers, taxes

I screwed them up big time! I have spent hours upon hours trying to fix the dang #'s and file correctly but it was to no avail. Today I figured it out though. I found out this morning that we for sure needed to amend them and I started freaking out. I tend to need to do things ASAP when it comes to things like that. Since I was at work, I couldn't so it put me in a bad mood most of the day.

When I got home this evening I immediately set out to fix my screw up. It took hours, and I mean many hours, to make it work properly (stupid Turbo Tax is NOT dummy/idiot proof). Finally though I worked it all out and feel so much better. I was afraid we'd have to go to a tax place. I had to recreate my screw up then amend from that because the orginal filing was all screwed up from having played with it prior to tonight. It was one frustrating night!! Oh well. It's almost done with now.

Hehe. So I started printing everything to file by mail (a must when amending) and guess what? The ink ran out on my printer. *sigh* and the saga continues until tomorrow morning! :P

New Furniture

Buying a new house of course means buying new furniture as well. Psssh, our piddly apartment housed hardly any furniture and it was crowded. We moved into the house with the furniture we had in the apartment and sadly, the house still looked empty. Our mission: buy new furniture!

We set out on a journey to find the perfect couch. My idea was to get a dark brown leather couch. I love my tan ones so I wanted something similar and as comfy as those. No luck finding any we liked in leather but we did find this.....

We instantly fell in love! They are magnificent, comfy, and can hold about a bagillion people! Perfect for entertaining which was one of the main goals. So, these babies were seriously pricey but well worth every penny.



Before the couches, though, came the bar. Uh huh, a bar! It's awesome. We saw it at a furniture store for $1300 but somehow the same day I magically went onto Craig's List and there it was! No joke....for $400! How irresistable and perfect timing is that?! Of course we bought it! It's an awesome conversation piece! It sits in the area that is supposed to be the formal dining room. Formal shmormal. Can you see us with a formal dining room? Yea, uh...no! It's such a waste.

And here is our baby.....

*sigh* yes, I know, it's gorgeous.

Lastly (for now) is the kitchen table. Our tiny apartment sized table was no match for our monstrosity of a dining area off the kitchen (yes, there's 2 areas for that in this house). It's fabulous! I love it love it love it!

We also bought Suraya a gorgeous white trundle bed which I have yet to capture on picture. It's super cute though. As far as furniture goes I think that's all. Oh wait...the futon. No pics of that yet but it's really nice and not one of the crappy ones. It's eventually going to be housed in Andrew's game room. when you have tons of extra space you make up things and names for each room.

We have tons of space since upgrading from a 2 bedroom tiny apartment to a 4 bedroom house with 2 livingrooms and dining rooms. All this space makes me anxious to fill it up with more awesome furniture. Too bad we be po' folk and can't afford to do it all at once.

Yup, I chopped it off!

After a battling with my nasty super long to my butt hair I decided I needed a fresh new look. I knew I wanted it short. Not mid back, that would be like having long hair still. I wanted total change.

I Jumped On the Bandwagon!

I am reading Twilight! *gasp* I know, I know...I told everyone that suggested I read the series that it is not my style. It is still not exactly my style but we watched the movie and I liked it. It intrigued me enough to go out and buy the book. I'm halfway through and so far it has kept my attention so much so that I read it any chance I get! Yes, yes I am now an admitted Twilight fan.

Easter

This year the Easter celebration was hosted at my house. I have to say that I was weary of it and not exactly looking forward to it because of some drama that had happened before that and just because I was not in the mood.

The night before, Andrew' mother and stepfather stayed the night. It was nice to have them over. They hadn't seen the house yet so they were excited. The next morning we woke up and attempted to start cooking the ham. Ummm, yea....that's all I have to say. It was my first time and I didn't know which instructuions to follow out of the 2 I had found on the internet. I chose one and ran with it.

I headed out to do some last minute shopping for dinner and came back home to find an almost fully cooked ham! It was ony 9:30am! I had chosen the wrong instructions! Oh well. I took it out and just let it sit until it was time for the festivities to begin.

People started arriving around 2pm and brought food as well so I wouldn't have to bare the brunt of the food-making. My duties were potatos, ham, salad, meatball appetizers, and fruit w/fruit dip. Ok, so my fruit dip and meatballs are party hits! I have to thank Roxanne for the dip recipe.

Both mine and Andrew's family were there and it was a full house but everyone seemed to have a good time, myself included. We ate dinner, which was delicious and then had our egg hunt. It was so cute watching the little ones. After all that dessert was served and the party came to an end.

I am glad we were able to host Easter at our house and it turn out so well! The family's got along great and everyone had a good time. I couldn't ask for more!

Story Behind the New Car

Two Saturdays ago it was decided that it was time for my Jr. Jr. (car) to have some major surgery. There was a huge list of things wrong with her plus she needed the 100,000 mile tune up. We dropped her off and stupidly proceeded to look at the new cars. Bad idea! We were sucked in at that point but still refused to budge on buying a new car until we knew poor Jr. Jr.'s diagnosis.

Man, the salesman pushed hard. Seriously hard. It was annoying. They went as far as bringing the service tech supervisor in to tell us my car was pretty much a gonner. (Ok, so secretly at this point I wanted a new car but wasn't thrilled about having a new car payment.) Even after hearing this we decided we needed firm proof my car would be insanely expensive to fix.

We waited around another hour or so for the final verdict. The verdict was what they had told us. It would cost around $5000 to fix my car. I honestly believe this was a lie or padded quite a bit in order to get us to buy a new car. So of course with that we decided to get a new one just like the pushy salesman wanted. We fell into the perfect hole for them and they pounced!

After hours of negotiating we purchased a 2008 Dodge Charger. I was nto a happy camper at first even though I secretly wanted it but it has grown on me. It is a damn sexy car and it is roomy enough for us to have another child one day!

Things are great but.....

I don't understand why I can never be completely happy for more than a day or two. I am living the life I have always wanted to live. I married the perfect man for me, we have a house, an awesome new car, and yet I still feel a void. Maybe it's not so much a void. Maybe I need constant change. I just cut my hair. That's a huge change for me. With all these changes in the past year how can I NOT be totally happy?

I don't even know if it's that I'm not happy. I truly believe I am. I think life is not enough. I'm even in school with no real goal other than to get a BA. For some reason I feel the need to have constant change. I get so easily bored with everything. It's always exciting for a little while then bam, I get bored.

What is wrong with me? Why can't I be fully satisfied with my life? In a time when people are losing so we much we have gained so much. I should be thankful and rejoice in our luck.