Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Closing Date!

Yep, we FINALLY got our closing date!

As of 3pm on Friday, September 30, my husband and I will be homeowners!!!!  :-D

I'm excited, and a little overwhelmed...  can't wait to call this "home":



And for nostalgia's sake, I'll post below the house tour videos I did of the house we are living in now.  Part of me will be a little sad to move out.  This house holds a lot of memories as it was once my grandparents house-- and also it's the first house we came home to after our honeymoon.  Not to mention we put a lot of hard work in it!  (click on the sidebar "house renovations" to see them all!)





And now... I need to go PACK!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Pics of our new puppy, Earl (and big brother Duke)

Just meeting each other and still checking each other out :)

A little unsteady on his feet still ;)

Being a puppy is exhausting

Duke playing w/his new toy we bought him.  Operation remove squeaker has begun!

Mr. Duke <3

Duke & Earl playing outside

Duke

Earl thinks it's time for his close-up

Sweet lil puppy :)

Dare you not to say "awwww"

Just can't quite make it up the front step yet!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Quick Update!

Ok so I know it's been a few several days since my last post.  All I can say is I'm BUSY!  Here's a quick run-down of what's been going on.  I'm actually updating now from school while the kids are in computer lab!

Work,work,work-  I've been hopping busy with work now!  As you know I'm in a long term teaching first grade.  School is in full swing now so I'm leaving my house around 7:30am and not getting home till 4pm.  I'm also having to bring some things home to do, too.  Brew's been working long hours as usual too, and also because they still haven't hired a third driver, he's on call every other week.  Blah. 

Cleaning & Packing- Since I've been working I got way behind on laundry & dishes.  Now I'm trying to get caught up and back on track in keeping my house semi-clean.  Notice I said semi, cause it's seldom ever completely clean!  I'm caught up on laundry now pretty much.  All I need to do is find my kitchen sink again under that pile of dirty dishes- because I NEEEEEED to start packing soon yesterday!  I am in no way ready to move and that leads me to my next area of updating...

House- We STILL don't have our closing date!  We are currently waiting on the re-inspection to come back.  I'm going to call the bank after school today and see what the status is.  I'm hoping to be able to close next week or the first week in October.  It's annoying it's taking so long & I'm starting to get really impatient.  Even though I'm not ready to move in the sense I have NOTHING packed-- but I'm so ready to move into our OWN house. 

Puppy- We brought Earl (see post from Sept 12) home this past weekend.  He's doing really well, eating like he's starving, and with the exception of the first night home (when he woke crying every hour) he's now sleeping pretty much the whole night.  He doesn't make it through without peeing- so since he hasn't figured out how to wake me up yet to take him out, he's been using a puppy pad in our bedroom.  That's working for now, and we're housetraining him now.  He's doing ok- I wish I could do what I did with Duke and just take an entire week and be home with him and take him out every hour until he gets the idea.  I've already decided to take a few days off right after this long term assignment ends (which my last day is Oct 12)  He & Duke are getting along great and are already BFFs :)

Ok I have to go now- I'll try and update again tonight or tomorrow and I promise TONS of puppy pics!!!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Meet Earl

See that little bundle of adorableness????  Well he will be joining the Dean family soon!  Yes, Duke's going to be a big brother!!!

My sis in law's dog had puppies, so we're taking one off her hands.  I'm hoping it'll help Duke to have a little buddy.  We decided to name him Earl to keep with the theme ;)

He is half beagle and we aren't sure what his other half is, but based on his coloring/markings and thanks to Google image search... we have deduced that his other half has at least some blue tick hound.  :)

He's definitely a little snuggle-bug though...

 He will be ready in about 2 weeks.  *Hopefully* about the same time we are moving.  We're hoping to fence in our back yard right after closing so our dogs have room to run and play.  We're excited to bring him home!

PS--- if you live nearby and are interesting in adopting one of Earl's brothers or sisters, let me know!  My sis in law is searching for homes for 7 more!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

9/11/01



It's hard to believe it's been ten years since the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.

I remember like it was yesterday.  I was sitting in my first block Honors History class my sophomore year of high school.  We had just turned the TV off (for our school's morning news broadcast) and were getting started on our work.  Another teacher came in the room, and told our teacher something.  She immediately went back and turned the TV on to the local news station.  It was shortly after the plane hit.  We were glued to the TV watching what we THOUGHT at first was a terrible accident- an accidental plane crash into the world trade center.  But then the second plane hit.  I still remember the shock/horror I felt when I realized it was no accident.

I always thought it was ironic that when the terrorists wanted to create fear and panic and disunity among us, instead we came together, stronger and more patriotic than before.

God Bless America!  And God bless all of our troops who have fought and are still fighting for our great nation! <3

Friday, September 9, 2011

House update & things we're looking forward to this Fall

Hey just a quick house update... heard back from the appraiser yesterday.  The appraisal is accepted PENDING a couple minor repairs (the deck and some peeling paint).  The owners are taking care of them this weekend (we might be helping them too- we offered at least.)  And then I have to call back and schedule a time to have the appraiser come BACK out and make sure it's taken care of-- THEN I'm hoping hoping to get a closing date. 

We're getting anxious to move in!!!



We don't have any major plans this weekend.  Other than possibly helping out at our new house, we're going to work on cleaning our house and hopefully starting to pack some things.  You know, like the stuff you don't use on a daily basis.  We have our guestroom/office junk room that's full of crap that we obviously don't use.  I also may have enough stuff to have a yard sale, or at least share a yard sale with someone.  I'm NOT bringing junk into my new house that's for sure!  It's amazing how much we've accumulated just since we've been married.

I also found out that I will be working in my current long-term job until October 12.  Then I'm back into the pool.  Maybe I'll luck into another long term?



I know we're not even halfway through September yet, but there are lots of things coming up in October we're looking forward to...

Oct ?- Hopefully moving into our house early this month!  Also bringing home our new puppy, Earl.  (My sis in law's dog had pups and we're taking one-- hopefully be getting him about the same time we're moving into the house

Oct 1- WVU game with Brew, and my brother and his wife.  Planning on hanging out with my other little brother since he's going to school there.

Oct 8- Hosting my friend Abby's bachelorette party!  (hopefully at our new house, if we can get moved in by then)

Oct 14- Hopefully taking this day off work and taking my niece Miryan to Build-a-Bear in Charleston.  That's our 4th birthday present to her.  Super pumped, I love hanging out w/that kid!  Haha. I'll probably also be helping out with wedding stuff for Abby's wedding.

Oct 15- Abby's wedding (& Miryan's birthday)

Oct 16- Clogging show at Bob Evans Farm Festival.  Always a fun time. :)






Did I mention Fall is seriously my favorite season?  What's not to love?  Beautiful weather (usually), football, pretty leaves, apple butter, the list goes on....

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Food Favorite

So I made this for dinner tonight & thought I'd share w/you all.

This is NOT my recipe, rather a YouTuber's adaptation of a Food Network Recipe.  It's called Pizza Di Spaghetti, and it's for leftover spaghetti.  My hubby & I LOVE this, probably even more than the spaghetti itself!

Below is the video where I got this recipe, it's from Courtney at Go Team Hale (her youtube name is kyleandcourt)  ENJOY!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

July & August Video

I didn't have much "stuff" for my July & August video, so I combined them... here it is!

Oh and I do realize a few of my later captions got cut off, I'll do it better next time lol.  For now just pause to read it haha.


Monday, September 5, 2011

Labor Day Weekend

Well we're having a pretty good Labor Day weekend!  It's nice to have hubby & I both home- and he's NOT on call!  Yay!

Friday evening Brew did work late, so my friend Nicole and I went out to dinner and spent the rest of the evening planning stuff for our friend Abby's bridal shower, which was the next day.

Saturday morning we slept in until a glorious 9:30.  Even Duke let us sleep that long!  Then it was time for me to go and help get things set up/decorated/ready for my friend Abby's shower!  It went great!  Here are a few pics from the event :)







Saturday evening, Brew & I went with my inlaws on the Valley Gem Sternwheeler Dessert Cruise.  It's in Marietta, OH, across the river from WV.  It departed on the Muskingham River, then we cruised down to the Ohio, down around past the interstate bridge and island, then back.  It was about an hour and a half long, and included a super yummy chocolate lava cake dessert :)  (The only thing I didn't think to take a pic of lol)  Here are some pics from our evening!










It was such a nice and relaxing evening.  If you are ever in the Mid-Ohio-Valley area you should definitely check it out!  Comment if you want to know more! :)


Sunday was pretty uneventful.  We went to Sunday School & church, then lunch with my family.  Then we headed home for a while, walked Duke and did a few things around the house.  Then we headed out to my mom and dad's to watch the WVU/Marshall game.  Turned out it ended up being delayed due to lightning/thunderstorms right before the 4th quarter.  We went ahead home.  They resumed play in the 4th quarter only to have ANOTHER delay, and finally ended up just calling the game where it was, which WVU won (yay!) 

Today has been a lazy day as well.  We woke up around 9, then headed out to Panera for breakfast, went shopping for a pair of brown shoes I'll need for Abby's wedding, and we've been home loafing around since.  It has been raining non stop today, which stinks cause that means no walk for Duke (and THAT means a hyper dog!)  We're going to go to my inlaws this evening for dinner.  My sis in law and her family are also coming, which means I get to see my nieces :)

The only problem with 3 day weekends is they leave you wanting a 4 day weekend!