When Steve and I started the house hunting process a few years ago, I had steeled myself for a long, arduous process. Amazingly enough, it only took us about a month to find this house and while it didn’t meet all of our criteria, it had enough of what we wanted for us to be able to make it a home.
And I think that’s why I love this place so much. Because we have made it our home. Of course, there’s always room for improvement but overall, it is beautiful. It’s comfortable. It’s welcoming. And it’s ours.
When I was picking up this weekend, I realized that there are a lot of things here that I truly love so I thought I’d share them with you. These are a few of my favorite things.
Photo Wall: I created this setup initially when we were in the apartment but it really shined when we moved into the house. I think it’s the fact that the wall it’s on is the perfect size for the frames, the wall color complements the frames nicely and the photos are displayed right in our living room/entryway. But it’s something I’m proud of because it not only looks beautiful but it’s a collection of what I think are my best photos of local sites. And I’m constantly switching them out so there’s always something new and fresh available.
Kitchen Windowsill & Plants: I have a nice window above my kitchen sink and while the view is mediocre, it at least allows some natural light in and gives me something to look at while I’m slaving over the dishes. Plus, it allows for storage of my dish stuff because I don’t have any space behind the sink itself and it lets me put pretty plants like these up. And I love these plants! I got them on our last trip to Ikea and to this day, they still make me smile when I walk in the kitchen.
Fuzzy white rug: This was another find at IKEA that we originally bought for Sammy because we thought he would like something soft to lay on. Well, two years later and he barely even acknowledges it. Thankfully, though, it looks beautiful draped over the fireplace brick and really works to tie the whole area together. And since we rarely burn real wood in the fireplace, there’s not much of a fire hazard (we move it when we do burn real wood). It also makes for a nice comfy place to sit when you want to warm your back at the fire.
Sand dollars: We have many of these around the house pristine as the day they came out of the ocean. They serve as perfect ambient decorations and they’re amazingly budget friendly since we can go right down to the water and pull them out. Let them dry out and then soak the shell in bleach and you have what some souvenir shops would charge quite a few dollars for.
Plumeria box: I got this in Hawaii last year and fell in love with it because it had the plumeria flowers on it. I use it to store my daily jewelry in, the necklace Steve bought me and the medical ID bracelet I have to wear. It’s on my dresser right by my bedroom door so it’s easily accessible and the yellow really stands out against the black dresser.
Axe: When I asked Steve what he wanted me to bring him from Hawaii, he said something cool. Well, this was his something cool and it’s been on our dresser ever since. I love that it’s strong and sturdy and it goes nicely with our decor. I’m thinking about hanging it up but still not sure about it.
Inlaid Wood Jewelry Box: My dad brought this back from Italy quite a few years ago and I have always loved it. I love the deep blue and the swirls in the wood. I love the image on the top and the sturdiness of the box. It even plays the Godfather theme when you open it. I typically store small trinkets in here – flattened pennies, bobby pins, etc. But it also stands out beautifully against the black wood of my dresser and matches our decor beautifully as well.
Hawaii Souvenirs: I love every single one of these because they remind me of Hawaii. From the painted kukui beads to the koa wood bowl to the coconut shell hair clip (which is possibly the best hair accessory I have ever purchased), they all remind of the glorious week I spent on vacation in paradise last year. The flash doesn’t do the laughing Buddha justice either as it’s made of a deep coppery substance with sparkles embedded all over. And the Hula girl I bought for Steve but he doesn’t really have a dash, so we keep her around because she’s funny. But all of these, I absolutely love because it reminds me of a place that I will get back to someday.
Monkey candle holder: I got this at Target well before I moved and long before I knew I would adopt black/dark wood as my unofficial color scheme. I loved it because it was kitschy but classy. Dark enough to where it wouldn’t jump out at you but it’s a monkey! So when people got a look at it they’d be like, “Holy shit, it’s a monkey! Holding a candle.” And I think it’s perfect for our home because it’s not obvious but it’s still pretty hilarious.
Wall-E: There’s still a part of me that likes to be a kid and I loved the Wall-E movie so when I saw this toy, I knew he’d be perfect on my bookshelf. It breaks it up enough to where it doesn’t look so serious and when I turn him on, he dances. How could you not love that?
Bookshelf: I love my bookshelves. They are decorative and functional and just contain all sorts of knowledge and entertainment value for me. And yes, I have read pretty much every book on those shelves.
Wallflowers: I like my house to smell good and the Wallflowers from Bath and Body Works are amazing with as much scent as they can put out. It’s strong enough to where you can smell it but not overbearing. And since there’s such a variety, you can change it up for every season. Plus, they come in night lights so I can see when I’m up hunting for water in the middle of the night.
Amalfi landscape: This is something else my dad brought me from Italy and it’s a sort of 3-D landscape of the Amalfi coast. It’s small but pretty and is a nice personal touch to our kitchen. It has come with me through all of my apartments, even when I was living on my own and now it has a home in my very own kitchen. Next to the Benadryl, of course.
My Bed: I love my bed! It’s super comfy. It’s spacious. It’s the first really nice wood bed that I picked out and paid for myself. It’s where I spend most of my time and where we as a family cuddle at night and in the morning. It is my sanctuary. (Sammy likes it too, if you can’t tell!)
Finally, two things that my house would not be complete without.
Diet Dr. Pepper: I need it. Gotta have it. I’m completely addicted. There is usually a constant supply of this in my house and if I’m out, I’m not out for long. It’s how I function. I wish they gave discounts if you buy in bulk because I’ve probably bought enough to own half the company.
And finally ….
My Sammy: My love, my puppy, my child. How could you have a place without a guy like this? 
The post I wanted to write yesterday included the following opening, which seemed perfectly brilliant at the time:
A thick, low lying fog enveloped the Lowcountry today as I drove to work. Since you can’t go anywhere in this area without crossing a (if not a few) bridge, I was treated to brilliant, shining sunlight at the peak of both bridges that I drive over on my way to work and then immediately plunged into dark, murky depths as I reached the bottom.
If I had known, at the time, that it was a wonderful metaphor on how my day would go, I would have immediately turned around and headed back home.
The occurrence of meetings in a professional setting is inevitable. At times, I see the need for them. Other times, particularly when I’m sitting in one that seems to be going no where, I get so frustrated because I could be back at my desk, being productive.
I had an early morning meeting yesterday that lasted longer than it needed to. That was the third day in a row this week that I started off the morning with a meeting. This, inevitably, has thrown me completely off schedule. All of my morning tasks get pushed aside and then I spend the rest of the afternoon playing catch up and it makes me feel like I’m not getting anything done.
Other things that have thrown my week into a tizzy: sitting in traffic on Monday morning for twenty minutes for no apparent reason, one of my two monitors unexpectedly dying on Tuesday morning and someone creating loads of extra work on a project me and another coworker are managing by not bothering to consult with us on the best way to deal with a clean up process.
Then there was the emergency security issue that cropped up yesterday afternoon and had to be taken care of and researched immediately. That was a few more hours spent pushing my daily work aside.
And to top it all of, I’ve been dealing with a massive sinus/allergy headache issue since yesterday afternoon. I barely had enough strength to drag myself home last night and had to force myself to get through the grocery store, of where I picked up only enough dinner for last night and tonight (yes, that grocery list I was talking about a few days ago – still non-existent). I then rolled into the house, dropped my bags and announced I was taking a hot shower. After that, I proceeded to fall asleep on the couch, wake up enough to start work and post those pictures as a filler, then go back to bed.
Today, I felt a bit better in the morning but by 11am, my head was throbbing again and the entire right side of my face felt like someone was standing on it. I broke a cold pack and sat for an hour trying to fight my way through it but I started to feel nauseous and couldn’t focus. Since I wasn’t getting anything done, I decided I needed to be home so I wrapped up for the day, came home, took a HOT, HOT shower then slept from 2pm until 5pm. I told them at work when I was leaving that I would have my cell on in case of an emergency but that I would not be logged in and I would not be working. I would be resting, something that I have failed to force myself to do in months.
Sometimes, I just need to remember that when I’m sick, I should rest. Just going home and working from home is not going to make me feel better.
And I do feel better. I probably going to have a hard time sleeping tonight (I have always avoided naps during the day because then I have trouble sleeping at night) but my head does not hurt anymore and I can function on a normal level. I’m still congested but the pressure is gone and come to think of it, I’m still a little bit tired so maybe I will get some sleep tonight.
Even Steve joked around with me last night, “Feel betttttter, so you can pay attention to me!” which means I really was not enough of myself.
I do plan on retiring to the bedroom early tonight as he and I plan on commuting in tomorrow. I never thought that would be something I could do on a regular basis because he literally leaves here at the butt crack of dawn, but I kind of love it because it’s a nice time we get to spend together and I get a good solid and QUIET hour and a half of uninterrupted work time. Plus, we use those days to go out to lunch together so it inherently helps our relationship too!
So, to bed early then up early in the morning to have a normal, productive and fulfilling workday. Then ready for a weekend of which I WON’T eat my way though but will most definitely get some things accomplished that have been nagging at me for weeks.
Here’s hoping I can close out the week on a better note than I started it.
My boys: Who needs children when this fuzzy guy is just as willing to snuggle?
I think part of my problem is I don’t make time to write. And then, when I finally do, I don’t know how to make the mundane sound interesting. Or how to make a month or two’s worth of information readable without it being a laundry list of this and that.
I always say, “I’m going to do it this month. I’m going to write about something, anything, every day”. Then I spend all day at work on the computer and little tasks at home get in the way and before I know it, the day is over and I can’t even remember half of the little things that sparked even the short thought of, “Maybe I could write about this”.
Sometimes, briefly, I thought about giving up this site but then my stubbornness kicks in. I’ve had this blog for eight years. At this site. And yes, interest has probably waned both on my part and my readers part but at the same time, I don’t like to think of life without it. Partly because I’m resistant to change and partly because this at least is my outlet, even if I only use it sporadically.
So I don’t think I’m going anywhere anytime soon. I just need to give myself a swift kick in the pants to actually START being interesting again.
(Maybe that’s my problem – I’ve done grown up and bought a house and got a real job and just don’t FEEL interesting anymore! Somebody, validate me, please! LOL)
September and October have been rough though I couldn’t specifically tell you why. I feel like these weeks just blew by and thinking back, there are very few moments from them that stand out enough. I’m still working seventy hour weeks or so and have actually been really, really busy during my time at the office. I think that’s part of it all. Work kicks my ass lately and despite the fact that I never wanted to be that person, sometimes, it’s the only thing I’m thinking about, even when I’m not there. Because I want to do a good job. Because I need to be awesome, at everything I do! (All joking aside, I’m kind of serious – I want to rock at my job because it makes me feel like I’m not wasting my life away in a career I hate.)
Early in October, I got this brilliant idea to have a Halloween “gathering”. By deeming it a “gathering”, I figured I could get away with inviting people to my house, feeding them some candy, having them bring their own booze and letting them hang out and play my XBox. Well, I got kind of carried away and now that “gathering” has turned into a “party” of almost twenty-five confirmed guests. And since I seem to think I’m Superwoman or Martha Stewart (or just plain awesome!), I’ve already sailed away on that ship called Overboard and am a little bit knee-deep in a lot of work that I only hope will produce a fabulous celebration.
I made custom spooky wine bottle labels, ya’ll!
It’s a lot of work and I really don’t mind because I was going to put out that kind of effort to decorate our front yard (we like to be that scary house on the block) but the pain is in the details and my perfectionist person just has to learn to let some of the stuff go. Like putting caution tape over the doors in the hallway? Great idea – can’t find my caution tape – DO NOT NEED to go running back to Wal-Mart to get some more. (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to Wal-Mart this month!)
Regardless, I’m sure it will go over well and since it’s in like two days, I can at least start to feel excited about it, instead of stressed about the fact that nothing’s done (trust me, there’s still a lot to do, but I have a LIST! A list always save the day!).
And yes, my floors were finally fixed which is why I’m ok with having the party. Three months later, the living room is back to normal. Now I just have to pay the guys and get MORE money from the insurance money (something about depreciation costs – God, being a grownup homeowner sucks! I would so get my mom to call for me if she could). They also finally fixed the couch, after two service calls. It still doesn’t feel right to me but I don’t think it ever will unless they replace it completely, which they seem adament about NOT doing. So for now, we’ll just delegate that one to company use only (though, come to think of it, it would make sense to use it every day since neither one of us ever sit in the middle – hmmmm, I guess I do get bright ideas when I finally sit down to write!).
I was finally able to get Sammy’s haircut (hey, you talk about your children, I talk about my dog – just put me in the doggyblogger category). I figured it was probably time when he jumped up and ended up scratching my face with his claws. I could have also gauged it around the fact that he was scooting in circles around the rug in my living room but he does that all the time, especially when company comes over, so perhaps not (“Hey Mom, Sammy learned a new trick!”). Poor thing had to go through the stress of the haircut then the very next day had to deal with the workers sawing and hammering the new floors. I’m sure he needed a Valium or something because Steve said he was so nervous he threw up like five times the day the workers were there. I swear, only we would get the dog that is terrified of loud noises but will bite the shit out of you if you look at him wrong!
The big accomplishment with Sammy though has been that I was able to teach him “Paw!” and “Roll Over!” in the past month. Those were the last two he needed to learn and they were difficult because both required him to do something he didn’t want to do, i.e. submit to us and let us touch his paws. But a good bribe, persistence and praise will make them do anything! Granted, when he gives paw now, even without a treat, he kind of claws at our hands like he’s trying to pull them close to get a treat, but hey, before he growled whenever we even held our hand out. So it’s a step in the right direction!
We really need to take him out of the backyard more. A few weeks ago, we took him to dog park and he seemed to enjoy it. He’s definitely intimidated by dogs bigger than him and I don’t think he understands the “play” signals that the little dogs give off, particularly the ones with high energy. He’s definitely a loner and would prefer to just wander in and out of groups and sniff the grass.
I’ll tell you, we love him to death, but sometimes we just shake our heads and wish we had gotten a normal, overly-friendly goofy dog that we can do almost anything with.
We’ve tossed around the idea of getting another one. To be honest, if we had the room and unlimited funds, I’d adopt every animal I could. I would love to have a few cats and wouldn’t mind taking one of them on because they’re much easier than dogs. Losing Scamper this month was especially hard on me but Steve is really allergic to them and it’s definitely not fair to bring an animal into the house that’s going to make him miserable.
Even Sammy gets to be too much for him sometimes!
So we’re still grooving along! Tonight, my parents are coming over to carve pumpkins and tomorrow we have Tyler’s football game then Friday is the party. So I hope to be back this weekend with some pictures to share because you better believe I’m documenting all this hard party work with photos so I can remember how awesome I really am!
How do you take a picture of humble? Because I should probably do that to!
Have a Happy Halloween everyone and if you’re in the area, feel free to stop by! What’s one more person, right?
So it’s Autumn and I guess that officially means Summer is over.
Ninety-percent of me wants to jump and shout but there’s that other ten that’s always sad that the carefree days and lazy nights are gone.
But with Autumn comes crisp evenings (yes, we’ve actually had these in Charleston the past few days! See the grin from ear to ear?), football, Halloween, sweatshirts, fuzzy socks, and things like this (that’s not a paid endorsement – that’s me telling you to go buy the Leaves stuff now!).
Some days I look at the date and am still amazed at how quickly the days pass. It is already the end of September. That means Halloween is right around the corner and pretty soon it’ll be Thanksgiving then Christmas.
I’m excited for Halloween this year. Since I moved out of my parents house, I’ve always lived in apartments, where the demographic didn’t involve small people who would be knocking on my door for candy. This year though, we are in a house, in a NEIGHBORHOOD! With a driveway and a porch and an entire yard that I can do up for the trick-or-treating event. Last year, I went to my parents, and we cajoled the little beggars up the yard to where my brother would jump out of a coffin and scare the daylights out of them. It was always in good fun as the older ones would come back grinning and exhilarated. We refrained from scaring the younger ones because that would just be in bad taste. But it’s a fun night, when the streets are filled with laughter and mysterious faces of people who you see everyday but are hidden behind the mask of whatever creature they have cloaked themselves with that evening.
We have slowly been trying to get back into the swing of a life that doesn’t involve visitors and it’s kind of working. I had a tendency to shun daily tasks this summer because hanging out with our friends and family and showing them the sights was more important (and infinitely more fun) than going through my closets or weeding my garden. But now that the weekends stretch ahead of us, I can accomplish things, like weeding that garden because lord, that thing was sorely, soreley neglected. We were THAT house for awhile. All we needed was some discarded broken toys and a car on cinderblocks and you could slap a big ol’ WT on our front door.
And you’re probably thinking, wow, that’s awfully boring of you to look forward to weeding your garden on a weekend. And it is, because that’s one of the tasks I hate. But at the same time, the sense of accomplishment I get when I can stand in the street (that’s how I roll) and gaze upon my lovely garden and manicured lawn IS something to look forward to. And I don’t feel as guilty when we finally do go out and do something because I’m shirking responsibility for fun.
Overall, I’m just a freak who gets a weird satisfication from crossing things off our to-do list.
Our floors are STILL not fixed. I guess this is just the pain of dealing with homeowner’s insurance companies. We are going on two months of an exposed conrete slab right in the middle of the main room because nobody could completely get their shit together and just cut one damn check within a week of the guys coming out for estimates. Nooo! We had to wait for the adjuster’s estimate to come in and he had to wait for the contractor’s estimate and then we had to wait for the contractor to get his actual estimate to the insurnace company since the adjuster left out some things the contractor had included resulting in us getting a check for half of what it was going to cost to fix it. And now we’ve just been waiting and waiting and waiting for the second check. And I’m going a little crazy because there is a huge chunk of floor missing in my house and damn it, the place is supposed to NOT look like a construction site.
Seriously, god forbid we ever remodel!
Aside from that, the contractor has had our supplies ordered for over month. Sammy desperately needs to be groomed and have his nails clipped but I’ve been putting that off so I can just send him off to the groomer the day that they’re replacing everything (otherwise, I have to pay for another day for him to be in daycare – whatever, yes, my dog goes to daycare if need be!). And I would like to have a Halloween party but don’t want to if the place still looks like crap.
And then the couch broke. The other original couch that had not broken yet. And that was one more thing to add to MY list, despite trying to push it off on the Baron, who just never did it, after me asking him numerous times if he could do that ONE THING, PLEASE, I’M TIRED OF CALLING ALL THESE PEOPLE! So now I have to be at home for someone to come out and say, “Yep, it’s broken, we’ll send you a new one, be at home for that too”.
Then there’s the trash pickup, or lack thereof. Come to find out, we apparently have to pay a trash bill. The old owner tended to pay his in full because he was always traveling and I guess it’s come due. I would have never known had the neighbor not informed me. I just assumed that trash was part of the property taxes you pay. Guess I was clearly wrong.
I think overall, the point I’m getting at, is that I’m tired of shit breaking or messing up because then I have to go about fixing it. And fixing things these days are getting harder and harder. I cannot stand having to make constant phone calls because someone who supposed to provide me with a service or information does not bother to call me back or keep me updated. I can’t stand have to make numerous phone calls because someone on another end messed something up. It just feels like a constant circle that just never stops and sometimes, I really feel like I need to be a lot meaner than I am. Because this catching flies with honey thing just isn’t working.
But I guess, in the overall scheme of things, it could be worse.
Steve and I are getting along well and actually trying to make a point to go out somewhere, anywhere, on weekends so we don’t sit around like sloths and then wonder where the days off went as Sunday night approaches. Sammy is grooving – now that the weather is cooler, he prefers to just plop down on his little booty in the backyard and hang out, sniffing the breeze and watching the birds and squirrels zoom by. He has become rather affectionate the past few weeks, particularly with me, and I don’t know if that’s him just warming up to us more or craving attention. Steve has dubbed him the “cockblocker” because when I crawl in bed at night, he scoots right up underneath my left arm, directly between Steve and I. It’s amusing but awful at the same time.
Work is still there. We’re going to have a rough season because there are tons of projects that need to be completed before year-end. We just went through a live Disaster Recovery test during Tropical Storm Hanna (what better time to test, right?) and are doing some extensive upgrades. So we’re always, always busy. And they’re working on automating the nightly process that I’ve been running three nights a week for almost two years which is dual-edge sword. On one side, I loose extensive overtime that I’ve come to live off of. On the other, I get my Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights free to go wherever and do whatever instead of being tied to some place with a constant Internet connection, usually home.
And family is hanging in there. My little brother, Tyler, who is in middle school, made the high school B (freshman) team and we’re all really proud of him for that. We’ve been going to the games on Thursdays and I’ll tell you, they are much more entertaining than watching the rec football he was playing last year. Hopefully, he will stick with it all the way to varsity because those Friday night high school games are some serious business here. Regardless, we’re really proud of him for doing this! (Love you kiddo!)
Sad news is that our cat, Scamper, who we’ve had since I was like twelve, isn’t doing to well. She is very old and blind and the vet said she is renal failure. I guess her system is just shutting down and they’re giving her weeks, if that. It’s a sad, sad thing for me because she has been around since I was a kid and I’ve never lost a pet before. And truthfully, I don’t remember life without her being underfoot or just coming out to see us when we visit my mom. We had a dog, Baby, that we had got a bit before Scamper but she went when I was still in Pennsylvania and my parents were here – so by the time I got down to visit, it wasn’t as fresh of a memory. But with Scamper, she’ll be there and the next day be gone.
My parents are going back and forth on what to do. She’s going in for treatments for the vet and when she comes back, she is her normal self, albeit a bit slower. And mom doesn’t know what’s best – does she put her down despite her seeming normal and fairly happy? Or does she wait until it gets worse and worse and take the possibility of her having a heart attack or stroke and going in pain or alone, while they’re out, or both? It is a very tough decision and when it’s finally made, it’s going to be rough on all of us.
But enough of that depressing stuff. Life goes on, right? As soon as one thing is done or finished or decided, another steps up. I long for downtime and for quiet but I think, as an adult, you truly never get it because there are always things to be done, phone calls to be made, bills to be paid, etc.
I want to go back and slap my teenage self for all she took for granted and for wanting to grow up now, right now.
It was so much easier when people did stuff for me!
You can tell my dog hates traveling. (In his defense, the flash on the phone is super bright!)
