Afternoon delight

Just when you think you couldn't like your new neighbors anymore, they bring you cupcakes. Jill delivered six big fat vanilla cupcakes to our doorstep this afternoon.

I have been craving cupcakes for the last three days, and briefly considered buying some yesterday at the grocery store. But seeing as how I have zero self-control around vanilla cupcakes, I decided baking 20 cupcakes was probably not a good idea.

Apparently God does reward self-control because Jill appeared like a angel sent from Heaven. Well, actually, I wasn't home when she came but I bet you she had a halo and a pair of wings.

Now I just hope I have enough self-control left not to scarf all three of my yummy cupcakes in a single night!

Get over yourself

To the rude people in line next to me at Wal-Mart this afternoon:

Complaining loudly about the fifteen minute wait and verbally assaulting the cashier is not going to make the line move any faster. You are shopping at Wal-mart on a Saturday afternoon - what exactly were you expecting? A red carpet and VIP service?

If you do not wish to wait in line, perhaps you should consider shopping at Piggly Wiggly on say a Tuesday morning. If you insist on joining the rest of humanity at Wal-mart on a Saturday afternoon, please spare your fellow shoppers your vitriol and allow the poor cashiers to earn their minimum wage in peace.

Gimme Five

Look at that beautiful five-day forecast! Nothing but fall weather in my near future.

We had a big rainstorm last night and woke up to fall temperatures after weeks of the hottest weather we've seen all summer. I can't wait to bust out my light weight scarves and these beauties from Payless which have been waiting in my closet for the first hint of cool weather.

What was lost has now been found

I found my keys!!

After 10 days of looking in the car, in the house, in every box, bag and basket, I finally found my keys - under a box in the dining room!


Who would have thought to look under all the boxes!

(Virtual) Reality Star

Cameron called yesterday to say that the Virtual Tour of our house is posted online! They only posted the 'interesting' parts (family room, kitchen, foyer, loft and master bedroom) but it gives you a pretty good idea of what it looks like.

You can check it out here.

Whirlwind Weekend

Much like the entire last week, the weekend flew by and I feel like I got very little accomplished.

Friday night we had small group at Ray and Renee's house. This was our second week and we have really enjoyed getting to know some more people from church and the neighborhood. Everyone is just so friendly and warm, we really enjoy the few hours we spend there every other Friday night.

On Saturday Nate over-seeded and fertilized the lawn. The backyard is growing nicely in most spots and by Sunday morning we could tell a definite difference from his all his hard work.

I spent the morning running errand for the house and picking up a wedding gift. I think I unpacked maybe a box and a half the entire day. By 1:30 it was time to get ready for Greg and Jess' wedding.

The wedding was in Greenfield, IN about a 45 minute drive from Indy. The wedding was beautiful, the food was great and it was fun to hang out with Nate's coworkers.

Nate and Shawn practice their best Heisman poses while waiting for the newlyweds to come out of the church.


The restaurant wasn't quite ready for us when we arrived at the reception, so the boys amused themselves with a Frisbee that Curtis helpfully provided from his trunk.


Poor Gil got filthy fishing the Frisbee out of the bushes.


Nate with his Roche colleagues. This is one crazy group; it's a wonder they get any work done.


And finally, us at the wedding.


There are a few more pics of the wedding posted on Flickr.

On Sunday, we went to church and then I spent most of the afternoon cleaning the apartment and bringing over the odds and ends that were left over there. Then a little grocery shopping and by the time I got home it was nearly 8 o'clock!

Hopefully this week will be a little more productive on the home front. I am ready to have the moving part done and just be able to enjoy the house instead!

Honey, have you seen my keys?

I am notorious for misplacing my keys, and occasionally Nathan's keys, and last Thanksgiving I even managed to misplace my dad's keys. But they always turn up a few hours later in some random place like the dog's toy basket or the top shelf of the refrigerator.

But this time my keys seem gone for good. It has been a week since the last time I saw them and I have turned the house and car upside down looking for them. I keep hoping they will turn up in a box, bag or basket, but so far no dice.

Have you seen my keys?

(A) Mission Accomplished

Today my boss let me finish up work at noon so that I could run some errands and get some things done around the house. I have been trying to take it easy at work all week without much success. My office is like a black hole that just sucks me in as soon as I sit down at my desk. Despite my best intentions, I haven't done a very good job of taking it easy on the work front this week.

Needless to say, I had big plans for this afternoon - several shopping errands for the house and then cleaning the apartment. We have a busy weekend and I wanted to knock a few things out early.

Thanks to the Office Depot delivery guy, I got nothing on my agenda accomplished. On Wednesday I ordered a printer stand for my monster work printer. It was scheduled for delivery between 8am and 5pm on Thursday. No problem because I'm home all day, right? Wrong. At noon yesterday I got an email from Office Depot Support saying the delivery guy is lost, can he please have a number at which to reach me. So I email back my cell number saying I can be reached at any time all day. Five o'clock rolls around and still no Office Depot delivery guy.

So this morning I give him a few hours to show up and finally email OD Support around 11:00am to say that I haven't heard anything from anyone regarding directions or my delivery. She emails back to say they attempted to delivery yesterday and no one was home. Excuse me?! How exactly did he manage to attempt delivery when he couldn't find the place? And I was home the entire day. The house is big, but there is no way my guard dogs would have let his delivery attempt pass me by.

I very politely inform her that I was home all day during the stated hours and the lost delivery man never called and never came, no where the heck is my stuff? Rest assured, it will be delivered today between noon and 5pm. Well, dang, those were my errand running hours. But I want my cart so I can finish arranging the office. So I wait...and wait...and wait. It is now 10:00pm and the guy never called and never showed. And my errands remain undone.

You better believe Office Depot will be getting an earful from me on Monday morning.

On the bright side, I did manage to use my five hours of free time wisely by arranging my closet. This is no small task by itself, but I also took the opportunity to get out my winter clothes, sort out consignment stuff and put away my summer clothes. It took nearly four hours but I am pretty satisfied with the end result. I still want to hang some more shelving in the closet but that is a project for WAY down the road.

Nate has finally managed to score some space in the master bedroom closet. Here is his corner:


He also gets about half of the left hand wall. The jeans are where my clothes start. And yes, those shoes are all mine (but not all of my shoes!).


Nate's first comment when he saw it was, 'Wow! You've got some space left over.' That sounds an awful lot like permission to go clothes shopping!


After working from home for over a year, I have quite a collection of track suits, tank tops and hoodies for around the house. That's what you see piled on the shelves there.



So I might not have accomplished what I had planned for today, but I certainly have a feeling of accomplishment at having the closet done. One project down, nine hundred more to go.

Tag, I'm it!

I've been tagged by the lovely Leah over at Make it Fabulous.

Eleven of my Favorite Things:

1. Clothes Shop:
I am obsessed with The Limited for many reasons:
- I am a small girl up top (if you know what I mean) and their x-small really is extra small.
- Their slacks and jeans fit me like a glove.
- Their jewelry is amazing.
- Their handbags are oversized and FABULOUS.
- They have great sales and coupons.

2. Furniture Shop:
Do I have to pick just one? With a brand new house to fill up, I have hit practically every furniture and home goods store in Indianapolis. If I had to shop at just one, I would go with Crate and Barrel.


3. Sweet:
Dark chocolate anything. I can lie to myself and pretend it’s good for me while I eat it!

4. City:
Prague, Czech Republic – Nate and I visited in 2002 on our European Tour. It was the place we were least looking forward to and is the first place we want to re-visit some day! The history is amazing, the architecture is breathtaking, the shopping is to die for and on top of all that, it’s dirt cheap to stay there.

5. Drink:
Venti non-fat extra-hot caramel macchiato – I got a Starbucks Visa card just so I can earn free coffee.


6. Music:
Although she hasn’t put anything new out recently, I love Kelly Clarkson; the girl is super talented. I also love girl anthems from PCD, Danity Kane and Carrie Underwood.

7. TV Series:
I am almost embarrassed to admit this publicly, but I am addicted to Gossip Girl. Seriously, the dialogue is so catty and the clothes are so fabulous, I am hopelessly hooked.


8. Film:
Sweet Home Alabama, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and Mean Girls

9. Workout:
Ugh. I was totally rocking the gym for about a year but lately I have been a lazy bum. I love a good cardio or kick-boxing class when I am motivated to actually get to a gym.

10. Pastries:
I love a good cheese danish. Or anything from Baker’s Sweets in Sumter, SC (they can do no wrong in my book!)


11. Coffee:
Yes, please! Seriously, I would take this stuff intravenously if I could, and I am deathly afraid of needles!


And I'm going to tag Pink Polka-Dotted Dreams and Maria (this will give you something to do while waiting for Baby Hine!).

Line of (last) night

Last night's episode of Chuck made me laugh out loud more than once. But this was by far the funniest line of the night.

Roan: "We need to talk about protection".

Chuck: "I don't think it will get that far".

Roan: "I was talking about a weapon".

Oliver and Lola's excellent house adventure

Oliver and Lola's first trip to the new house was Saturday afternoon. I brought them home from the groomers and turned them loose to explore. They ran from room to room checking each one out, then started all over again and ran around each piece of furniture in every room like they were checking to make sure it was all there.

Lola gets up every single time you leave the room to follow you wherever you are going. We have a lot of the upstairs doors closed so that they (mostly Lola) can't get into anything, so every time you open a new door she goes nuts checking it all out again.

They also love running up and down the stairs as many times as you will let them. I swear they will both lose weight these first few weeks, as much running as they are doing. And if they get going too fast on the way down, their feet go out from under them when they hit the foyer floor!

They are also a big hit in the neighborhood. Actually, a little bit too big of a hit! Twice now we have had kids ring the doorbell to see if Oliver and Lola can come out and play. And they are swarmed with kids whenever we walk them in the front yard. We actually had to sneak them out the back door a couple of times to make sure they actually did their business. They get so distracted by the kids, they forget to go!

Lola checks out a new room.


Oliver sticks close to his daddy where it's safe.


Lola found a new favorite spot to sleep. She is going to be very sad when the washer is hooked up and this pile of bedding disappears!


Moving is hard work.

Box by box by box by box

You want to know the least fun part about moving? Boxes. They are dirty and heavy and leave little bits of cardboard all over when you break them down. I sure will be glad when all these boxes are gone.

The move this weekend went better and faster than expected. Nate worked his butt off Friday night loading the rental truck with our mountain of boxes. Early Saturday morning he unloaded them at the house while I took the puppies to the groomer to keep them out of our way. Our wonderful friends, Buster, Weez and the McLovins came to help us load and unload the furniture during Round 2. With their help we had the majority of our stuff in the house by 2:00pm.

Nate and McLovin on the move.


Weez helps unload the truck.


Nate and Buster wrestle a mattress up the stairs.


I spent the rest of the day unpacking while Nate did this:


Just kidding, Nate worked very hard all weekend, unpacking boxes, putting together the beds and carrying all of my shoes upstairs to the closet (no small task!).

On Monday, we had professional movers come move some of the bigger items like the washer and dryer and our monster entertainment center. Then the DISH guy came out and set up our satellite TV. Hopefully we'll have some time this week to relax and actually use that beautiful new television!

For more pics of the house and moving weekend, check us out on Flickr.

Hello, my name is Stupid.

If you've been reading for awhile, you know that we have already met many of our neighbors and were excited to find out how nice they all are. Jill brought us spinach dip and chips on Saturday, Kriste brought cookies on Monday and Renee graciously gave me plastic utensils at 9:00pm on Saturday so we didn't have to eat Chinese with our fingers.

But I really put their neighborliness to the test yesterday morning. I took Oliver and Lola for their morning walk and managed to lock us out of the house. The garage door we exited through is locked. As is the front door, the back door and all twenty-five windows. And I don't have house keys or car keys or either of my two cell phones. And I am wearing Nate's yucky yard shoes.

What's a girl to do? Nearly everyone on the block works, at least the ones that we have met. I am a mess from moving all morning and I have two frantic dogs who are waiting anxiously for their treats. Then God smiled on me, and sent Jill's mother outside with little Zack. I'm sure she didn't know what to make of this stranger walking up and asking to use her phone, but she graciously gave me her cell phone and let me call Nate. And when he didn't answer, she volunteered her husband to drive me the twenty minutes to Nate's office to pick up the keys so that I wouldn't have to wait for him. Half an hour later, wearing zero makeup, a dog-hair-covered sweatshirt, and sandals that are three sizes too big, I am knocking on the door of Nate's building begging to be let in! I must have looked like a homeless person to the poor guy who let me in. Fortunately I didn't run in to anyone I actually know from his office and only took a mild ribbing from Nate while I snatched the keys and fled in embarrassment (it probably helped that there was already someone in his office - he had to be nice to me!).

An hour and a half after we set out for our walk, we finally got back into the house. I know that I will be obsessively checking that garage door lock for weeks to come!

Welcome to Grand Central Station

Whew! Here it is only noon on Friday and I am already exhausted. This does not bode well for the weekend ahead!

We are officially proud homeowners. The final walk through and closing went smoothly Wednesday afternoon and we immediately began moving a few things in - 'marking' our territory so to speak!

First item on the list to move was those silly blinds stacked up in my office. The vertical blinds come in three boxes, two of which are six feet long and one about eight feet long. As I am carrying all three of them out of the building, the eight foot one totally did not clear the door frame and instead got stuck on the EXIT sign above the door. So what do I do? Of course, I look up to get the stupid thing unstuck. At which point the entire sign falls off the wall and hits me in the forehead! In front of the neighbor who saw the whole thing. We're an hour into this moving thing and already I've almost killed myself!

We managed to load the rest of the stuff without further injury and head out to our new home. The grass was looking a little bit sad, so Nate wanted to set the sprinklers up as soon as we got there. He was like a boy with new toys, just could not wait to break those babies open! He spent the next hour playing with the sprinklers while I unloaded both cars. By the time he was done finding the exact perfect placement for each sprinkler, he was completely soaked and his shoes were a muddy mess. He ended up wearing his golf shoes home!

Today has already been a productive day. We had the blinds installed, the bedroom furniture and refrigerator delivered and the internet hooked. I am still waiting for the new TV (yeah!) to be delivered any minute. Sadly, the furniture guys were not very careful and the ceiling is a little worse for wear but I am trying to be okay with that. The house is going to be lived in so I just need to get over these little dents and dings.

We are picking up the rental truck tonight at 5:00 and then the real moving begins. Wish us luck!

Somebody tie me down; I'm about to float away

In case you didn't already know, we are BUYING A HOUSE TODAY!!

I am so freaking excited I could seriously jump out of my skin. I am supposed to be working until 12:30 but I have been totally worthless all morning. I have barely slept the last two nights. Nate seemed to be having a little bit of trouble falling asleep last night too. We would lay there for a few minutes, then one of us would say "Are you awake? I was just thinking about ______ (fill in the blank with a random house concern)". Then a few more minutes of vain attempts to calm the mind and the cycle would begin again.

Wish us luck for this afternoon and the next time I post, we will be HOMEOWNERS!!!