So yeah... I can't sleep!  I'm working this great gig as a tour guide at a haunted museum taking groups of people throughout a revolutionary war era town... Very exciting to be performing again. However. However? However. I can't sleep.  This is my first year in our little abode and I was really stoked about getting to hand out candy to little chillins!  Adam and I have carved jack-o-lanterns 'Maryland' style - complete with carved flag & crab but alas we won't be home to enjoy it.  In my sweet dream land I wanted to leave my carved, lit (by LED lights) lanterns outside for people to see but I thought if they were lit people would come looking for candy.  I thought I'd do the whole 'leave a bowl - please take one' kaboodle but Adam assured me that the candy would be gone in 30 seconds.  I asked him what he thought about me including a bible verse and/or 'do unto others as you would like done to you.'  He told me that when he was a kid those bowls with the 'please take one' were the ones they especially targeted as a free for all.  This saddened me. Saddens me.  Leaving treats outside and asking for people to take one isn't us being cheap it's so that one and all can have a little sugar num num. Ridic. So then I had this amazing idea... What if I make it a little tricky for these kids to get their candy... Instead of a bowl of treats I'll string a piece of candy to our dead tree using fishing line.  Don't worry about telling me your opinion on this on whether or not I should do it.  I've made up my mind.  I've even made signs promoting my haunted walk for the trick or treaters.  I'm tying the sign postcards to the pieces of candy and of course I'll make them in reach of the children!  I really want kids to have a good time but if they're going to over indulge? They're going to work for it creatively! :-)

    

 

 

As many of you know, I left m great-paying office job because of internal issues that couldn't be resolved.  I also left in the pursuit of something more creative i.e.: event planning and interior decorating.  Unfortunately I've been unable to get a break and  I need a job.  I need to feel as though I helped and contribute to this society.  After being formally turned down from 10+ jobs sand having a bitter taste in my mouth, at the end of the day I still want to do good for others.

I tweaked my resume and tailored it to the government administration world.  I even wrote a little 'About Sarah' section.  Feeling high and confident I decided to go to a special job fair.  This job fair is only open to those who hold government security clearances.  After 8 brutal hours of answering personal questions and 6 months later I was graced with the esteemed 'Secret' clearance.  Having this clearance made me feel as if I had a golden ticket to endless possibilities.

I was getting ready for the fair (my first one ever) so I thought I should Google some research on what to be prepared with.  The site I found told me not to steal too many freebies, don't dress like a 'slore' (slutty whore), don't chew gum, and don't ask salary questions!!!  The site said I should be able to walk up and be able to introduce myself, a Plummer, and my area of expertise.  I thought these notes were stellar.  I couldn't wait to meet these prestigious companies who all demand golden tickets!

I picked out a perfect ‘Sarah’ outfit.  I couldn’t just blend in with the masses and wear a boring black suit.  But I also didn’t want to go the ‘slore’ route.  I chose a fuscia dress complete with wide synched belt and snakeskin peep toe pumps.

I got to the fair a little early.  I checked in, made a name tag (complete with sunshine drawing) and found a place to people watch.  Suddenly I was scared.  I never have had to put myself out there and basically beg for work.  I didn’t want to come off as desperate but I was willing to really take any type of job including a receptionist position.  I needed to calm down.  I went to the bathroom to see if makeup needed a touch up.  It didn’t but by that time nerves had set in and I was a sweaty, hot mess.

I was trying to cool down when a nice looking woman came in.  Although I was nervous, I couldn’t help myself from being friendly.  The woman was wearing a company polo so I instantly knew she was a recruiter and that she needed to know me!  I said ‘Hi’ as an ice breaker.  I let her know that I had taken the train and that I’m melting (because I’m so hot).  She asked if I was here for the job fair.  Didn’t she see my nametag? My sunshine drawing?  I told her I was and that this was my first one.  She instantly gave me the ‘up and down’ look like ‘obviously you’ve never been to one of these.’  She was about to just give me that look and leave me so I took the reigns of friendliness back and I  asked her if she was a recruiter.  She just answered ‘yes’ and I replied ‘You can always tell the recruiters.  They’re always the nicest and friendliest ones of companies.’  She mumbled ‘thanks’ and walked out.

OK So maybe not all the companies’ recruiters will be judgmental and not very friendly.  I walked into the fair.  I had never been to one of these so I assumed it was companies with booths set up.  There weren’t as many booths as I had envisioned.  Even though booth numbers were in short supply I wasn’t deterred.  I assumed these job fairs were like the county fair.  Recruiters saying ‘Step right up. Have we got a position for YOU!’  Definitely not the case here.  I was actually surprised.  Every booth I approached I was met by an awkward stare back at me.  This confused me.  These companies were here because they were the ones who had positions to fill.  Why where all of them, every single one of them so stand offish?  Even though I was blind sighted by all the awkward unfriendliness I thought of my googled site.  These people don’t know you, make them know you.

Every booth I went to I made the first move.  I introduced myself and I was returned with 2 of the same questions: What type of clearance do you have and what is your salary range?  Ah I was confused all over again! Clearance? Type? There are different types.  This I know.  Secret through top secret and then variations of the top secret (such as polygraph, non polygraph).  In my 2+ years working at a government contractor we probably had 10-20 top secret positions.  600+ were just secret.  Still holding my golden ticket I proudly announced ‘Secret clearance’ to whoever asked.  I was sadly returned with the same response ‘We’re actually looking for someone with a top secret.’

I went up to a booth and wasn’t asked what type of clearance I had but rather if I even held one.  I joked to the recruiter that everyone had to have one to  be invited to this job fair so of course I have one.  He asked what kind and I proudly said I had a secret.  He responded with ‘ You can always tell children of government employees.  They come to these things but all they have are secret clearances.’  I laughed and told him that I am no child of a government employee and that I got to where I am all on my own.

Suddenly it hit me what this whole thing was about.  Top secret clearance equals more pay.  More pay for an employee equals more commission for a recruiter.  Of course they don’t want to waste their time with a lowly girl who holds only a secret clearance.  And of course by me not wearing a boring suit and being a bubbly go getter probably was a big red ‘not top secret’ flag in their books hence the awkward stares.

Wow after all this scrutiny over our lovely golden tickets that so many of us held, I was beginning to have a bad taste in my mouth.  The only thing to make that taste worse was the salary questions.  Because my researched site said not to discuss it I hadn’t thought of sassy, smart responses.  Instead I was blind sighted.  Having the Midwestness of morals instilled in my blood I’m a firm believer that people should be paid what their jobs are worth.  Government contractors are paid a huge amount of money.  Teachers need to be paid way more money!

The first couple recruiters that asked me salary questions I gave honest ranges as to what I feel I’m worth.  After being asked it so much I didn’t know what I was worth and started saying really high ranges as well.  I asked one recruiter why they ask a salary question to someone they haven’t even interviewed.  He flat out told me so they aren’t wasting time.  Sour taste.  Sour taste in the mouth.  I had to leave.  I put my heart and soul out there and was clearly not what any of these companies wanted.  I felt I just wasted their time and vice versa. 

After feeling completely useless to society I was trying to stay positive and I had a great thought.  I’m a big people person.  These people working the job fair registration have to interact with people.  I found the job fair coordinator and I asked if her company were hiring.  I told her that I love interacting with people and that her staff was so helpful.  I joked to her that she probably gets a lot of people asking her for jobs.  She just answered, ‘A lot of people do ask. We’re not hiring. Thanks, we’re flattered.’ I mean that was it.  So awkward.

So what a day.  After attending this ‘special invitee only’ function and feeling inadequate and ill prepared I did find out from the coordinator that these job fairs for government are all alike.  Job fairs that state a security clearance are only seeking specialized person with not secret, but rather variations of top secret clearances.  Top Secret JAVA Software Engineers?  The government contractors want you!

One great example of our eventful noneventful life is our little arguments that end in our sides hurting from laughing so hard.  Our motto in our relationship is either 'win win' or 'lose lose' as is evident in this little slice of heaven.

As you all know my mind has been bonkers with 'Autumn'.  I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep.  I usually think of positive rainbow & sunshine thoughts when I'm trying to go to sleep.  Decorating always brings happy thoughts my way.  I was trying to think positive when I had a thought about my sofa in the living room.  I thought that instead of changing the green pillows to the usual red for Autumn and Winter I could use these great brown pillows I had on the guest bed... Except for the fact that I changed the bedding in the guest room... 'Where are those brown pillows,' I thought. 

Suddenly I couldn't just fill my head with lovely thoughts to put me into a quiet slumber.  Suddenly my mind was racing.  I had to think of where those brown pillows were so I could decorate the sofa tomorrow with them.  I quietly had a melt down... Did I put them in the attic?  Noooo I hadn't been in the attic.  Were they in the office closet? Noooo I just organized the office closet for 'fun' and there definately wasn't room for the brown pillows.  I don't understand.  I literally changed the bedding the day before and how could I not remember where these fabulous brown pillows were.  I couldn't take it anymore...

I asked Adam who was in his slumber. 

 "Adam do you know where the brown pillows are?" I whispered.

"What brown pillows?" he asked.

"Ya know, the brown pillows that were on the guest bed.... Ya know... The ones with the gold threading!" I exclaimed.

"I don't know... What brown pillows? I don't know what pillows you're talking about. We have brown throw pillows?" he questioned.

'Yeeeees! Of course we have brown pillows, you picked them out to go with the bedding!!! Brown pillows! We just changed the bedding and I was going to use the brown pillows in the guest room for the sofa and an Atumn look, but I can't remember where they are; and we must find them!' I cried out.

I couldn't  take it anymore.  Now I had to prove to him that we even owned brown pillows.  I said that we had to find them.  He jumped out of bed with me and I thought they had to be under our bed in the box spring storage portion.  We had to lift the bed up and low and behold... Nothing. No brown pillows.  Now I started freaking out.  There's no way they could be in the attic or in the super, just organized office closet.  Adam went in the office shuffling through my organization. I couldn't understand why he was in my beautifully organized closet.  I took inventory and there was no possible way they could be there.  I thought he was going to start going through rubbermaid containers!

I said, "No!" (Which are stored in the organized office closet along with sheets and bedding)

As soon as I spit that out I exclaimed, "Of course they are!"

He asked, "What are? The pillows in the shams?"

Suddenly it hit me.  I changed the bedding and was going to throw the brown pillows on the bed but instead stuffed them into the shams on the bed because it looked better.  We immediately went to the guest room and I pulled out the brown pillows.

''See! Brown pillows with gold threading!'' I exclaimed.

"Ooooh Yeah thooose brown pillows.  Can we go back to bed now?'' Adam said.

This to me was a win win.  Adam figured out we had brown pillows and I figured out where they were. Success!  This was followed by side laughter and a blissful sleep sleep time.

So much goes on in our spicy life that I can't be a lazy bloggette anymore.  I'm officially back again.  This weekend Adam and I talked about how eventful our uneventful life is and how I should blog again so here I am.... Except I can't remember anything I was going to blog about.  But I'm going to start again and see what happens.  I guess I could tell you all I'm in decorating mode again.  Being that I feel it is officially fall (based off the temperature change), I have begun changing home things to autumn looks.  I've been receiving beautiful Potterybarn catalogues but my budget will not allow me to make such extravegant purchases.  That said I can definately be creative.  After coming up with some ideas I went to Michaels and saw even more ideas.  Michaels had some craft projects already done... Isn't the point of Michaels to do projects? Not buy the completed project?  I did a good job taking mental notes on the completed projects and then proceeded to buy supplies that cost less than half of what they were charging.  I need to do some housework but when I have a moment I will show you all my fabulous decorating idears for Autumn... and Halloween!

 

Until then America....

I'm being really blog lazy.. I have a lot more house pics to show you all, but alas it is such a pain to add them to this new layout on MSN Spaces... So I ask you to visit the photos portion for great photos and greater captionsesesness.

We've had a chance to unpack a few things and a few rooms are ready for your viewing pleasure...

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are officially moved in.  Almost... We have a few things to pick up and clean up before we're officially officially done being Arlington residents.  I wasn't really going to blog about moving day except for the fact that so much of moving day is blog worthy.  Ups and downs and junk in the moving day solidified the reason why we were leaving the area.

I can be extremely organized... Organized to the point of over the top organizer.  I've moved 3 times (now 4) and all previous moves I was neuroticly living out of boxes the last month wherever I was.... This place?  I was soooo lazy.  Adam and I were boxing things up and throwing things in garbage/paper bags the night before the move.  Adam created the idear of garbage 'space' bags by using said garbage bag and said vaccum.  Evidence below.

 

We were shocked at how much stuff we had to pack, so the space bag idea was great!

 

We were even more amazed at how well our home-made space bags worked.

 

Pearl was shocked at the size change of the bags too.

 

 

Taking out all the air in the bag we felt as if the bags were ready for space, however not for rubbermaid.

 

So early and so ready to move the space bags.

 

 

We woke up bright and early and super organized Sarah would have been loading boxes on the loading dock at 5am if she had her way.  Adam didn't like the idea of all of our worldy, or domestic belongings hanging out on the open loading dock.  He scheduled us for our building's loading dock from 12-3pm.  We thought this was a good time frame because a couple friends of ours that were helping had a morning marathon and it gave them time to come over to help. 

We decided to trek over to the moving truck facility and pick up our truck an hour before our scheduled loading time.  Our truck?  Massive.  We accidently ordered the largest truck available... After waiting a half an hour we finally got our truck.  Anyone who thinks someone without a 'commercial' license is capable of driving a 26 foot moving truck through DC is really crazy.  Adam and I have never had more anxiety and sweat while driving through little DC streets trying to get this truck to the condo... And this was sweating anxiety before we even got to moving!!! 

 

The truck couldn't even fit in the camera...

 

In the middle of the photo you'll see a big yellow square about 6" below the light... That's our little truck.

 

We got to our condo building and drove around to the back to see a moving truck sitting in our loading dock.  I looked at the clock and it was 12:03... Not good.  Adam and I were already on edge as it were, and he was going to go to the front desk with arms blazing demanding the truck move.  I was scared this would backfire, so I attempted to go in there with honey rather vinegar... I should have used vinegar.  The front desk woman (who I had never seen before) tried to tell me that the current person moving in was scheduled 9-1 and then again from 3-7 which makes absolutely no sense to our being scheduled for 2 hours?  I waited for the front desk woman to work with us and her best idea was for us to wait until 1:00 and if the movers were still there she'd tell us to basically move their truck away.  I thought this was ridiculous so I asked her to call building management as I saw the building manager's car parked right next to our moving truck.  The front desk girl said that management wasn't here.  I told her I found that hard to believe since I saw the manager's car parked there, fruthermore management needs to be on site on the weekend for instances such as this.  The woman basically told me the best thing I could do is wait.  I went upstairs and by this time our friends had arrived.  I felt awful making them wait as they had alredy had a busy morning...

So 1:00 rolls through and we hear nothing.  Adam decides to take things into this own hands and we didn't hear anything from him for a half an hour.  We weren't sure what to do but decided to wait it out.  Adam went down to the front desk at 1:00 and told the front desk lady that the other movers were still there.  She told Adam to go to the mover's floor and demand the elevator key and basically steal the elevator/loading dock... Adam went up to the movers' floor and demanded the movers give him the elevator key.  They said they didn't have it.  Then he spoke to the owner of the unit demanding the key.  The owner/woman was literally making the movers unload a box off the elvator, unpack it, and then put the item where she deemened appropiate... That's why it was taking forever for her movers to move.  The woman who was so adamant about her 1:00 time was shocked Adam came to her demanding the key.  She said she didn't have it, so he went to the movers again and demanded it from them, who had it in their pocket.  Finally they gave him the key.  Unfortunately their truck was still parked at the dock. 

We started to move things down to the dock when we noticed them backing their truck out and purposely blocking our truck from the dock.  I seriously was about to call the police... Not like 911 emergency call, but I have Arlington County 'non emergency' phone number on speed dial.  We seriously needed a mediator in this situation and our management clearly was incompacitated and unable to assist us.

We moved a few loads downstairs and the truck finally left.  By the time we got moving it was 2:00pm.  We didn't get done loading our truck until 5:00pm...and didn't get out to paradise until 6:00pm.  We got flack from residents in our building for not hiring movers.  They labeled us 'blue collar' and also gave us nasty, pompous glares all day.  Again - this solidified the very core of why we left. I am so grateful for  great, authentic friends who stood by us in the midst of the chaos of the day and helped us.

It took us almost 4 hours to move things out of the condo and less than an hour to get them into our little cottage.  We were so exhausted we woke up bright and early just so we could take the truck back and get our little civic... We never missed our little compact car soooo much!  After we got home, we did absolutely nothing all day until...

 

Adam filling up the two gas tanks... Diesel.  Kaching $$$

 

Pearl and I were watching...

Pearl's future furry brother/sister has got to be white for the sake of photos.

 

 

More to come...

Hello one and all!  Adam and I have encountered fun times for being home owners for a couple weeks.  We have well water and for those of you who have it know there's a smell associated with it.  I was pretty easygoing with this whole house but the one thing I did demand was a new water filtration system.  Adam asked his coworker (who lives near our new place) about the filtration systems and the guy told him it would be $2,000.  I thought this was OK and so that's what I budgeted for.  We closed on our house on Wednesday and the following Saturday we had this company come out to give us the shibang about water.  An hour into it I got squirmy and joked that we're ready to take whatever but I did not take into account the salesman's extensive sales pitch.  Finally he brought out his calculator... The fact he brought out a calculator got me squirmy again but for bad reasons.  He started to say words like 'this will be $3098' and 'this is going to run $3295' and finally 'this is $2900'.  I about cried.  He said everything we 'needed' would run us $7,500!  Grr to the max!  I definately did not budget that much just for water.  I was soooo discouraged.  The salesman said that we could finance it, but I wasn't really sold on that either, so we've decided to either a) get used to the smell or b) buy the whole system piece by pieec as we can comfortably afford it.

On a lighter note, we've gotten painting done in all rooms except the laundry room (which dear Adam doesn't believe needs to be painted).  He's not exactly sold on my vertical white/yellow stripes... He likes the idea of the finished look but he doesn't want to have to measure and put up painters tape.

 

Here's some before/after shots of our hall and living room all painted pertilly. :)

 

Before... and After with our jute rug.  You really can't tell a difference in color but there is one.  The before in the hall was really off whitish - almost gray toned white.  I'm not sure why the camera did not see this like this but the new color is called 'cracked wheat.'

We did a shade darker in the hall than in the living room.

 

Another before angle of our hall.. I loved this room so much, it's what made me want to get this place.

 

Here's an after shot of our living room looking in from the kitchen.

  The paint color is called 'popcorn ball.' 

 

The after of our hall looking into our bedroom/living room from the guest room.

 

Living room after.

 

So hola! I'm sending a photo update of our little house.  There are more photos of our home in prior blog posts on the second page, but for all you wonderers... Enjoy!  We took this pic right after closing on it and making the trek out to our bungalow from DC.

 

 

Here's a photo of the living room front door when the house was on the market... I loved the duck lamp.

 

 

 

I took so many photos of the kitchen for reasons of this huge fridge... Now that it's mine it's growing on me a little bit.

 

 

 

We had chairs-in-a-bag/outdoor tables left in our trunk from tailgating back in November.  Instant living room furniture.

 

 

Another picture of our kitchen... Trying to figure out this fridge.

 

 

This is the pizza we got with our realtor whilst our keys were locked in our car for 2 hours after closing. 

Yes there are also puppy treats for the diva furry baby.

 

 

 

 

We were so pumped after closing, we went straight to home depot and bought paint for almost every room. 

I've never had a house to paint, so this was a big moment for me. 

 You will see all of our colors are from an easter basket of lovelyness.  This celery green is for the guest room.

 

 

I really am a pink girl however I felt the need to bridge the gap of gender specific colors and went for a 'blue' for our master bedroom.  This was a huge step for those of you who know my pink fetish.  You will see in further pictures that this turned out to be a nice tiffany blue...

Aww I could use some Tiffany jewels to go with my wall color.  Hint hint.

 

 

Oh my little kitchen.  As you all know Adam is the breadwinner in the kitchenness, however  I feel it is my need to make the kitchen as fabulous as ever.  My whole vision for our little bungalow is cottage living.  Don't be frightened by our choice of 'apricot' for our kitchen walls.  Adam suggested it and I hands down agreed it was a fabulous, yummy color for our kitchen.  We were so excited to get our paint we had to slop a little on all the walls.

You will see the finished product of my vintage/cottage kitchen and go 'ahhhh' and nod in agreement at my choices.

 

 

I'm not sure how you all feel about my tiffany light but  I absolutely love it.  I know I know I've gotten the TGI Fridays comments of where am I going to hang the paddle/soccer trophy on the wall but seriously it's cute and it goes with my vision.  Naysayers - Hold tight I say!

 

 

So we came back this Saturday to complete our work and spend our first night in our first home!  We (I) had this vision that we'd paint all 6 rooms.  Easy peasy right?  Well we had to clean the house.... Clean a house that hadn't been scrubbed ceiling to floor in 2 years!  On top of that we have well water and we had a 'water guy' come out to assess the countryness of the water and get us up to speed and into 2009 with an updated filtration system.  Hours and hours later, and money and money later we finished painting the celery guest room. 

Although we were exhausted we pressed on to the Tiffany blue master bedroom.

 

 

Again, you might be blown away by my color selection but I have a vision and tiffany blue is part of it.  Blue blue bright blue it is.  It really is cheery after looking at beige walls for...ever!  After we painted this room we decided it was sleep time.

 

 

Pearl was a fabulous little angel in all of this.  We gave her a chewy new bone (she's puked up every day since) and she was ready for bed too!

 

 

 

Adam said all of our stuff spread out in the living room made us look like... squatters.

 

 

 

Squatters' master bedroom (this is our office and we're going to keep this room white for right now).

So we tried to sleep in our little paradise.  I must remind you of where we're coming.  We live in Washington, DC across from a bus lot, next to the train rails/Metro Airport.  Needless to say it's constant noise - white noise.  Our new home?  Silent.  Eary, scary silence.  We heard our heat click on and I about jumped 3 feet I was so scared.  The whole point of us moving out of the city was for peace and quiet.  Maybe it's too quiet?  On top of the scurrdness that was me we had a little issue with our sleeping arrangement.  We went camping at Shenendoah a couple months ago and we had a good but freezing time.  Our air mattress kept leaking air.  I was so tired/exhausted that I blamed the leak on the cold. It was freezing!  I forgot about the leak.  Fast forward to our 'silent' sleep time -  we start to leak.  Major leak.  I would have been more comfortable laying straight on the wood floor and not this horribleness.  I was seriously ready to just drive home.  Adam turned to me and said, "I'm tempted to drive home."  I said that I couldn't agree more.  So we packed up all of our stuff and ran out of there like someone spooked us.  We complain about our bed all the time but that night it was the most beautiful, comfortable thing ever.  It was like sleeping on a cloud!

 

 

When we woke up Adam asked if it was OK if we just sat and vedged and watched TV.  I thought that was a phenominal idea.  30 minutes into our tv viewingness I started to think.  We had saved our nickels and dimes for a year and had to sit and vedge for a year dreaming about our house.  The last thing I wanted to do was sit and vedge and dream about our house.  We have our house!  I think I coerced Adam to go back to the house.  I asked him if we could pack up everything in our storage unit since we were going back out there.  He coerced me to not pack up anything and just go.  Win Win. 

Above is the before of our little spicy kitchen getting ready for its spa day.

 

 

This is us 3/4 done.  We were so exhausted from the previous day's work that we were seriously contemplating just stopping here and going home.

 

 

We drudged on and completed all the knicks and corners of our little cottage kitchen and knew it was time to rest.

 

 

By day two Pearl was as exhausted as we were.  She had an upset tummy and she was locked out of the kitchen crying, growling, and barking at us to let her in with us.  She was so ready to go and so were we... until we got home.  All we did was think about our home again!  Until next weekend, America!

So I didn't want to blog until things were for certain for certain!  We got our house!!!  We had a couple hiccups along the way but nothing major at all!!!

Adam and I were so excited to go to settlement we locked our keys in our car... for two hours!  Thankfully we were in fabulous Georgetown so we got to stare at the fabulousity of the area and go to lunch with our realtor, who by the way was phenominal.  I don't care if you're in Iowa or the East Coast I'd recommend her in a heart beat!  After we got our doors unlocked we decided to get our furry baby and go to home depot and buy paint.  I just picked out colors I thought would be fab for our cottage by the bay.  Looking at them all together it looks like an easter basket.  They're all pastel colors. :-)  Yay!  We were so pumped we drove to our new house (an hour from where we live now) and started painting away... Until we realized how late it was and we had to drive back intoWashington, DC to go to sleep.  We're holed up in our lease until the end of March which gives us a nice month cushion to get everything packed and moved.  We are just so proud that we did this all on our little owns and are truly grown ups now!  PS, when people talk about how you sign your life away at settlement I thought it was just talk.. No, we really did.  It's fine though.  We're so happy now and ready for what the future brings us!

Adam and I have been getting ourselves prepared for our Landord to put our place on the market... We're freaking out about our place being spotless and perfect because we're the first tenants to live in this brand new building.  Well, it was brand new 2 years ago.  We got up at 7am and began ultra-cleaning.  Srubbing walls and baseboards.  We took down all of our photos and knick-knacks because we're trying to de-personalize the place.     Before we even started ultra-cleaning I put on the hairstylist cap and cut Adam's hair and groomed Pearl... I did all of that before 9am!  After taking down all photos Adam spackled the nail holes and he even did touch-up paint.  We're so exhausted.  Our place feels so sterile and not like ours, tear, but it's getting us psyched up about our future elsewhere.  We don't have any news about the house we want.  We have a couple more inspections next week, so we'll see what happens.

We went to Inauguration of Barack Obama today and we are exhausted!!!  All of our friends around here told us they'd prefer to see Obama on their TV's.  This is such a moment in history!  Regardless of the 2 million or so people there is NO excuse for us not to be there and witness this.  Coming into DC was just a hop and a skip away we thought.  It didn't take long for us to get into DC at 10:00am this morning, but we definately weren't close.  We were told to either watch the parade or the inauguration. We tried to stake out a place for the parade but we weren't allowed entry, so we decided to venture to the capital for inauguration.  We were well behind the Washington Monument and still packed shoulder to shoulder!  I've attached a few pictures.  There's one of people piled up on porta-potties and another of the sea of people in front of us.  Of course there is one of me and my Adam when Obama took his oath.  Lastly, I made a little map ditty of our position. :)  Adam and I were not able to see the jumbo screens very well but we heard Obama's words and they touched us so deeply.  Everything touched us - even the people piled on the potties.  It's an amazing time in this country and we're so glad we went!

Our life in DC is so exciting right now.  Regardless of politcal party association no one can deny the of history being made right now.  Almost all of our friends here have told us they're not going to Inauguration tomorrow.  I was one of those people because I was pretty afraid of terrorists or crazy people trying to kill us who want to celebrate.  After watching the 'We are One' concert on HBO, I was touched all over again as I was on election night.  Regardless of the said 2 million others that will be there, Adam and I are going to witness history tomorrow.  Someone even joked that if anything does happen tomorrow, at least all of us would be remembered with a monument.  Isn't that sweet?  Hmmm, we're just so giddy with excitement to witness this!

 

On another up note we put in an offer on our little dream of a house and the seller accepted.  We're now under contract and about to get inspections done.  I'm pretty nervous/superstitious.  I honestly think blogging about this will jinx us and the house inspection will come up horrible and we won't be able to get this home.  Tear.  I'm keeping our fingers/toes/eyes crossed that everything comes out alright.  I'll let you all know of course what happens!

 

So hola!  Adam and I have been pre-approved.... I'm not exactly sure if that's totally 100% good news for one and all or not, but I'm just running with it.  Since we're pre-approved we get to put an offer on the house.  I'm absolutely mortified.  I have no idea what I'm doing.  In my day to day life I don't like to piss off/offend anyone.... Bartering with someone to buy their home?  Of course I want to have no backbone and offer the full asking price.  I was talking to a few people and some people around here are suggesting I ask $80k less than the asking price.  I think that's outrageous!  I did look at the comps for the area and most people were able to get $10k off the list price which I thought was more reasonable...  We're meeting with a realtor to go over these scary things... So much stress... haha but it will all pan out.  Just wanted to give all of you an update.

My last entry was titled poof... It appeared our favored house listing was taken from us forever.  Not the case.  We talked to a realtor who informed us the listing agent took it off and was going to re-list it....and knock another $20k off the asking price.  That news has prompted us to want this house even more!  We're shopping around for a home loan and even though the  government bailed out all these mortgage companies, I'm not sure what the companies are doing with their money.  All I know is they don't want to share with the fabulous, spicy couple that is Adam and me.  *sigh*  I don't have this idea that we'll get a 100% mortgage.  I know we must save dinero and then buy a home... It's just very disheartening to hear one thing from mortgage companies with unrealistic expectations and then hear couples getting 100% financing with no down payment.  Whether we're approved or denied a loan, we're still saving our nickels and dimes.  Current mood. Defeated.

So it hasn't been more than a day after my first blog about our house hunt, when I find out some news!  Adam and I were in contact with a realtor to see a few more houses this weekend.  Adam wanted to make a list for the realtor, and he went to my favorite zillow site to look up our cute cottage (see prior post's pics).  He couldn't locate that cute house's listing.  He decided to go to http://realtor.com and http://redfin.com to see if the house was there... All sites said the same thing.  The house has been removed from the listings.  Tear.  I'm a very very superstitious person and I swear it was my blogging that caused the listing to poof. be gone. Tear.

I'm not really one for making New Year's Resolutions, but I have decided to come back to the blogging world.  There's just too much fabulousity in my veins to keep it bottled up and not share with one and all.  Adam and I are getting ready to celebrate 4 years of wedded bliss.  We've decided to be hardcore adults and create a 3 year nest egg in 6 months and buy our first place.  I think this blogging adventure is going to include our trials and tribulations of the home buying world.  We're hoping to buy before April 1, so we can ride the 'first home buyer's $7,500' tax refund... The reality of the situation is we'll buy when we're financially ready.  Tear.  The fact that we're not ready hasn't stopped us from stalking home listing sites such as http://redfin.com and my favorite site http://zillow.com.  Zillow is sa-weeeet because it provides 'zestimates' and comps for the home you're interested in.  As of this sassy moment we've decided to move out of Washington, DC and to the countryside of Maryland near the Chesapeake.  We think we've decided on a townish (I'm not sure how towns are classified out here, therefore I refer to them as townishes.  It's basically a 'town' with a post office but no shops.)  Of course we're not ready to buy at this moment, but that didn't stop me from already falling in love with a super cute house. We're not into the culdisacky newly built homes... We prefer the older ones with character.  A few weeks ago we checked out a few homes just to get a feel for the area, and that's when we found this super cute cottage.  See pics below. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi all.  Long time no bloggie...  What has happened since my last blog entry?  A lot!

Christmas came and went, and it was fabulous.  Our little pupy dog made out like a bandit.  She got everything she asked for and more.  Thank you everyone for all her wonderful gifts: she does play stations and goes from one toy to the next every 20 seconds, hehe.

Adam's birthday was New Year's Day, and I did what any wifie could do, I got him a flying lesson!  He was in such shock.  He had no clue where I was taking him.  I had to drive in DC, and i was my first time... I only almost killed us twice, wait three times... But we got there in one piece, and we had a blast.  He's definately going to be taking a lot more lessons, I can tell.

I'm writing today right after we celebrated our third wedding anniversary.  It honestly felt as if we were married last Thursday (on our anniversary).  We're so fortunate to be so happy and complete in our relationship.  *sigh*  He gives me warm fuzzies just typing this.  I made the mistake of scheduligng our little puppy for getting spade the same day as our anniversary... So needless to say, we didn't do much.  Third year you're supposed to get crystal or leather.  We're going to go for the crystal when we get time.

I've uploaded the semi-up to date scrapbook of Pearl that my Auntie Marnie got me.  It turned out so cute, I have to show everyone.  TY Marnie!

That's about it here.  It's supposed to be in the midd 50's so we're going to take our little girl outside and do lots of playing.

 

-Sarah

Hi all!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in New York with Adam's mom's side of the family.  Although we were there a week, we really needed to s tay a few more to hang out with everyone.  We stayed with Adam's grandma Mary, and witnessed her delicious cooking.  I met people after people, but they were super nice, and make me want to visit more often.  We were able to travel to the finger lakes as well and stay with Adam's auntie Dee and uncle Ray.  By the time we visited them, I was ready to take off another week and have just a vacation there too. hehe. 

 

While I was there I looked at Better Homes & Gardens and got some really nifty ideas about Christmas decorating, so I'll tell ya bout em.  The mag talked about making your Christmas personalized and different... Well, I wasn'ta bout to do some soul searchin and completely go out and buy a whole new 'Christmas' tree dressing wardrobe.  Hehe, so I went within my artsy self and created a Pearl Christmas tree.  I cut out little bone pieces of paper and added some glitter.  See the pics!  I also saw pics of wreathes in windows in the mag... Since living underground for 2 years in the basement apartment, I've wanted to accentuate our windows as best as we can, so I had to do the wreaths!  The first picture is of my sad attempt at a personalized door wreath.  After a little trip to Tarjay and some pieces of holly with my glue gun, I was able to jazz her up and make her a happy wreath.  The candles in the windows is from my side of the family, and the sweet advent calendar cabin?  A super spicy gift from Adam's mama.  I loved the idea of an Advent calendar so much, that I wrapped 24 oranaments and put them on a cake stand... So we get to open a little door on the cabin and open an ornament gift each day until Christmas.  I told Aunt Dee that I love the advent calendars are my favorite and she surprised me with a CHOCOLATE ADVENT calendar!  Wow.  3 things to open each day, hehe.  This is my favorite time of year. 

We had a big day packed in today.  We wanted to go to the Howl-o'-ween puppy parade in  Old Town, Alexandria as well as carve punkins and visit friends at the Marine Corps Marathon... That said, after carving pumpkins for 3 (or more) hours, we had worn out and just wanted to vedge.  We found out little Pearl would be charged $10 to go to the Howl-o'-ween event, and since she's so little and not really participating, we thought that wasn't too necessary.  We could make our own fun for free - except she was more interested in the jack-o'-lantern carving book than the actual pumpkins.  I guess we should be grateful she wasn't all up in the goup that is punkin yuckness. Adam was dramatical and said he simply could not take out the punkin yuck as he would gag.  He meant it.  I told him we're doing a team group project and he needs to get over it... The nhe gagged (sp?). LOL  Too funny.  We carved the most beautiful pumpkins I had ever seen.  Pearl even got her own.  Check out the pics!