FINALLY!!!

I have finally found my card reader so I was able to put some pictures on the blog. I am hoping to be able to take some pictures of the house and do some before and after pics, but first we have to get all the boxes unpacked; So stay tuned for those pics in about a year! :)

We are officially getting our internet hooked up on Tuesday, so for now we are "borrowing" someone else's unsecured network. For now I am trying to limit the amount of time spent online. But I wanted to make sure I put some pictures up, so here they are.

I will blog soon!

Home Sweet Home

I will keep this post brief, as both Ben and I are exhausted! But, we are officially moved into our new home! I still wake up every morning thinking I am at our apartment and am startled to open my eyes to such a large bedroom. Aida has had no problems adjusting to the new place. She loves running in the backyard and throughout the house and I think she is finally getting to burn off some of that excess energy she's been building up.

We had so much fun with Mom, Dad, Daniel, Nathan and Liz over the weekend and were very grateful for their help in moving and getting (somewhat) settled. We both tried our best to convince them to stay another day, but it didn't work. :(

I did take a few pictures and will be posting them as soon as I can find my SD card reader amongst the many boxes that still lay unpacked. Ben goes back to work tomorrow (he called off Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) and he will finally be returning to full duty on Sunday!!!!

I am off to bed. I will try my best to post tomorrow...no promises. :)

Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

Just thought this was funny. Every once in awhile, as many dog owners can attest to, a dog pukes just because. This morning was one of those moments. I heard Aida get up and walk around a little bit before the unmistakable gagging sound began. So I jumped out of bed to find her standing by the bathroom door. This was a really good sign.

You see, every time Aida begins her about-to-puke warning sounds, I rush her into the bathroom and have her put her head over the toilet where she then proceeds to spew into the toilet bowl. Brilliant! I have to say if you can teach a dog to puke into a toilet, that would save your carpet and one's gag reflex from the bile and nasty stuff that comes out.

So back to this morning; After I opened the bathroom door, Aida went directly over to the toilet (Score!). Needless to say, I did not have any cleaning up to do. :)

The Best Laid Plans....

Our apartment looks like chaos. I bet if you looked up the word "chaos" in the dictionary, there would be a picture of our apartment. There are boxes everywhere along with tape guns, bubble wrap, permanent markers and random possessions. I can't wait to move it all out of the apartment and in turn make the house the new poster child of chaos. :)

Today Ben and I attempted to rid our apartment of some of the many boxes. We loaded up the Highlander and headed out to the storage unit. After unloading the boxes, we headed over to the house to commence cleaning day # 2. We had everything figured out; We were going to clean the rest of the kitchen (the upper cabinets, the appliances, and the floor), paint the pantry shelves and touch up the carpet with the handheld steam cleaner. I was thinking, "this won't take long..." I was wrong.

We arrived at the house at about 11:00am. I forgot to bring a sponge to clean the refrigerator parts, etc, so we ran up to CVS (right around the corner). After CVS we swung over to Subway to get something to eat. So we really didn't start cleaning until Noon. Long story short, we finished at 7:30pm.....and I didn't get the kitchen floor or upper cabinets cleaned. It took me a couple hours to clean the refrigerator alone! Cleaning by ourselves definitely made us appreciate even more having Mom and Dad there to help us last weekend!

But we are very excited to get into the house. Ben said that he likes the house more every time we go into it. And I feel more like it's really OUR house each time we go. We have less than a week to go until moving day, I can't wait!

Happy Birthday and Happy Cleaning!

Our visit with Mom and Dad has come to an end, but we are looking forward to seeing them in less than two weeks for the big move!

The visit started off with a surprise, as Mom and Dad weren't supposed to be arriving until 1:30ish on Thursday afternoon. I had planned on vacuuming that morning and then heading up to the store to pick up a few things (coffee, drinks, etc). I got up, showered, vacuumed and got sucked into watching Fried Green Tomatoes on HBO (I had never seen it before!) . So there I sat, in my robe and pajamas and my hair in a towel. I figured, "I have plenty of time!" Somewhere around 11:30, mom called and said they were a couple hours away and asked if they should stop to eat lunch or wait until they got in. She also said she would be calling when they were about 15 minutes away so I could turn the oven on for the roast. After I got off the phone I thought to myself, the movie should be over soon and then I will get up, do my hair, get dressed and run up to the store. I barely finished my thought before my phone started ringing, it was Mom....they were 15 minutes away! Completely took me by surprise! Luckily I was able to get myself presentable before they actually arrived. :)

Ben and I got our first housewarming presents from Mom and Dad. I got a bird feeder and a big bag of bird seed. Ben got a hose, a cool nozzle for the hose (it looks like a firehose nozzle), a stud finder and a laser level. We are very excited to put all our new "toys" to good use at the new house!

So on my birthday Mom and I went shopping while Dad wandered around places like Sears, Home Depot's Expo center (where he had bought a new granite counter top and sink for their half bath on Thursday) and Lowes. Mom and I found lots of good deals and I was so excited to wear a new shirt out to dinner that night. After Ben got off work we went out to eat at Bertucci's an Italian Restaurant in Herndon, VA. It was very good. The pics below are from the restaurant.

On Saturday we left the apartment around 9:30am and headed out to the new house where we put Mom and Dad to work cleaning, after we gave them a tour of course! I, unfortunately, did not take any pictures while we were at the house because we were so busy cleaning. Dad and Ben cleaned all the carpets (except the basement) and fixed a few things here and there. Mom and I had the joy of cleaning the bathrooms (yuck!) and part of the kitchen. We got a late start cleaning(2:30ish) and headed back to the apartment around 8:00pm. We picked up Five Guys for dinner, good as usual. By the time we got back to the apartment Aida had been left alone for 12 hours! But she is a very good dog and didn't have any accidents.

So Mom and Dad headed out this afternoon after Ben made them his homemade cinnamon biscuits. :) Like I said, we are looking forward to yet another visit in just a little over a week. It'll be nice to have both Daniel and Nathan here too!

Overall, I had a very nice birthday and after cleaning the house, it is finally starting to feel like our house!