Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Our House is a Very Very Very Fine House

I'm pretty sure I've used that title before, but too bad...I'm hot, busy, and exhausted!

Wanna see our house?

www.brinkoetter.com
MSL # 182444

It's a better photo tour than I could provide you.

We already had a showing! Before the photos were even loaded up on their webpage! I haven't heard anything from it, so I'm not expecting this to be it, but I never thought we would be doing this thing already!

I ran home at 11 and found Danny and 3 other helpers working on straightening the garage. So I got my butt in gear and spot cleaned a few of those "never will really go away stains" on the carpet, some we moved in with, some we created ourselves. I threw laundry into the dryer from the basement floor, so I'll have to remember those are not clean and dry. Put a couple of stray dishes into the dishwasher, made the bed upstairs, straightened, managed to eat approximately 6 bites of a salad, then I raced Harrison over to Mom and Dad's and made it back to work with no time to spare in my hour lunch. Actually I think I was 10 minutes late...oh well!

And now that the pictures are online, we will probably be getting more and more of these days. I can't wait to be done with this, but once I saw those photos online, I was really kind of sad. Our house is just to unique and cute! I really hope someone cruddy doesn't buy it and ruin it.

So we're off to the races! Here we go...


erin

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I wanna talk about...

Everything!

Okay, this is a random blog and to start off, I just want to say one thing...

IT IS SO FLIPPING HOT!

The heat index these past few days has averaged right around 105 degrees. Balmy!

What makes it even more enjoyable is the copious amounts of home projects we've endured these past two weekends in order to get the house "top notch" for selling. It's there. It's on the market. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and although it's not quite as bright as it will be, I see the glimmer of being done with this ordeal. Though I will say this, when I pulled into our driveway last night and saw the "for sale" sign in the yard, I got a little sad. And Harrison has bascially moved into my parents house, our house, so we could avoid tumbleweed-sized piles of dog fur rolling around the house and we miss her so much! She'll be home tonight, but then she'll go back on Thursday and any other time our house is going to be shown. Oh this is so fun!

And on a different note entirely, I watched the highly anticipated episode of Jon and Kate plus 8 last night. It was awkward. It was sad. It was hopeless. It was, in my opinion, a cop out. We heard a lot about doing what's best for their kids, but if they truly meant that, I feel like, if it were me, I would stop doing the show, get some marital counseling and see if things could be saved. Talking. Talking is what lets people know the truth. Talking is what saves arguments. These people stopped talking to each other and that is what leads to all kinds of misunderstandings and resentments. I was just discussing this with my sister. And lets not kid ourselves, there are times when talking is REALLY hard, or at least, talking with purpose. But it seems like if you have a relationship that both people want to be invested in, eventually, you will talk it out. You may not figure everything out all at once, but you'll at least see that you both are willing and committed. Okay, end public service announcement for marital discussion.

But mind you, 105 degree heat indeces will make every difficult situation more difficult!

Monday, June 15, 2009

She Said, She Said

Yes!



Let me take you back to June, 2007...

I had just taken my current position at work and was getting into the groove of working full time in an office, no longer hiking and teaching kids. Happy for the benefits, sad about the change (and frankly, that's still the case). This was also the beginning of the first summer in our new house! We'd been there for just over 2 months, settling in, adjusting, all that fun stuff and makes you wonder...are we really sure about this?

But we were sure. We were in it for the long haul. We both knew it, nonetheless, we were still just "dating" technically. Boyfriend and girlfriend, nothing more.

It was all about to change.

I had gone to work that day and after work, I went out with my mom to pick up some supplies for Danny, who was going to the Bonnaroo music festival the next day with friends. I was making sure he had important things I wasn't sure he'd consider like first aid stuff, sunblock, not-quite-so-unhealthy snacks, etc. This was essentially 4 days of camping with thousands of other people, listening to music in the blistering heat of Tennessee. So I get home and Danny wasn't there, I'm not sure where he said he was, but he was actually pacing around his parents house with an engagement ring, nervous as all get out.

So I settle in at home, probably had some dinner or something and got all set to watch a program I had DVR'd about the race horse Barbaro...remember that story? Won the Kentucky Derby, broke his leg in the Preakness, eventually had to be euthanized, very sad. Anyway, I was about 45 minutes into an hour long documentary about this and Danny came home. I told him I had picked up some supplies for his trip and he said thanks and ran upstairs. So I go back to watching. Then he comes down and asks me to go upstairs with him. Now, my first reaction was less than stellar. I was really annoyed that I was going to have to PAUSE the program I was almost finished with to go upstairs and probably do some chore for him like help him pack. But I noticed he was all smiley and when he made me close my eyes, I figured something was up.

We got to the top of the stairs and when I'm told to open my eyes, Danny is down on one knee holding a ring and simply asks "Will you marry me?"

And after a moment of pure dumbfoundedness (pretty sure that's not a word), I said yes!

I made the phone calls to family and friends and everyone seemed to already know, but it was a pretty wild Wednesday night in our house. He was going to propose on my birthday that year, a mere month away, but he couldn't wait any longer and so he went for it.

The next day Danny left for Tenneesee and I went to Chicago. So we essentially celebrated our first weekend as an engaged couple in different states...and Danny got 2nd degree sunburns on his legs. But we still went for it anyway and it seems to be working out alright!

erin

Friday, June 12, 2009

Like the corners of my mind...

In a matter of days, our lovely house will be on the market and it will no longer be just our own.


It's a bittersweet feeling for me, really. And even when I am frantically cleaning the carpets, or not just putting my dishes in the sink for two seconds, but going through with it and putting them into the dishwasher to keep the house nice all the time, I have a little feeling in the back of my mind that when the day comes that we move out, it will be sad.


We've only been in our home for just over 2 years. I looked for MONTHS AND MONTHS before we found this little charmer and all it's space and large rooms and character. I wanted it from the moment we all walked in on the day after the terrible midwest ice storm of 2006. And we got it! And we moved in and my dad put everything in place and it was fantastic and then Danny moved all his stuff in. And then we brought Danny's dog, Nick here to live with us (and while this wasn't my absolute favorite thing in life, it was nice to have a little companion in the house...who ruined some carpet). And then we tore up some carpet. And then we got engaged at the top of the steps on a random Wednesday night. And then we started having band practice in our basement. And then we tore apart the dining room. And then we put up a fence for a future dog. And then we brought that future dog, Harrison, home and watched her grow and play and chew EVERYTHING up. And then we had a wedding and opened many fun gifts for our house and found places to put new, shiny things. And then we had a year of wedded memories in our home and now, we will leave. It will be sad, but we're very excited for the next step of our home-owning adventures. And we'll pack the memories and move them too.

So, just a few more days...

Of course, someone's got to buy the darn thing!

erin

Thursday, June 11, 2009

She's Leaving Home

So...just got back from my lunch break...

I vacuumed and steam cleaned my carpets!

I'm ready to move!


This could be a very long summer....


blah.


erin

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Stand By Me

This was our wedding song. It was my first choice, but not my ultimate choice, and then it became my saving grace.

So...I have to say I was in NO WAY a bridezilla. I was calm, cool, collected. I let my sister be in charge of my wedding planning because A. she is really good at that and B. even though I was one of those "plan my wedding when I was 7" girls, when it really came around, I only cared about the dress and the music. Everything else was not a huge deal to me. So I made decisions, but I had my sister and my mom to make the phone calls, help me narrow down the choices, finalize details, etc.

However, I needed the music to be done right. I worked for months on compiling a play list of all the songs I wanted to hear at the reception, the songs I wanted to play before the ceremony, and of course, the first dance. I had a few thoughts for the first dance, including Stand By Me, the John Lennon version...but one day, Danny and I were riding around listening to his iPod when the acoustic version of If I Ever Lose My Faith in You by Sting came on. We both commented that we really like that song and really liked that version and Danny just casually said, "that should be our first dance." And it hit me...that should be our first dance song. It's an artist we both love, Danny especially, it has the perfect sentiment, it's not overdone...perfect! So we settled on it.

After we picked our dj, a friend of my brother-in-law, I made sure to tell him that our first dance song was the ACOUSTIC VERSION, not just the one from the cd. I asked if he needed me to get him a copy, he said no. I asked him again another time. I had my sister ask. I had my brother-in-law ask.

Cut to wedding day...I had held it together beautifully in those last few weeks leading up to the big day. Through the tearing down our dining room walls. Through getting a brand new puppy and figuring out where she would stay during our honeymoon. Through a very hot rehearsal. Through torrential rains the morning of my wedding. Through the extreme heat that followed. Through all the tiny little details of getting this person here, having this one sleep here, dealing with groomsmen for heaven's sake! Even through thinking everyone left us at the church to finish our pictures and we had to ride to the reception (I ended up riding there in the back of Danny's brothers Lumina). We really had no big issues that whole day.

Then I walk into the reception venue and see my sister walking up to me with a strange look on her face. "Don't freak out about this because we'll fix it somehow..." she says. "Charlie (the dj) doesn't have the right version of your first dance song."

I'll admit, I lost it a little bit. I turned and went right into the bathroom and cried for about 1 minute. I was so looking forward to that moment! Now it's ruined! I asked him if he had the right version 857 times! AHH!

Then she got me to pull it together and my dad pointed out that in the end, we were still married and that is the whole point...but darn it if I wasn't bummed! Danny was also bummed, but seeing how upset I got made him pretend he didn't really care. So then my sister says..."so what song do you want instead?"

Danny told me to pick..."Stand By Me...the JOHN FREAKING LENNON VERSION!"

It turned out to be just right...

Even though I will always be a little bit bummed everytime I hear the other song...

But we are still married.

One year on June 7th.

(also, thinking back, we probably could have just used the other version of the song...oh well!)


"If I Ever Lose My Faith In You"
You could say I lost my faith in science and progress
You could say I lost my belief in the holy church
You could say I lost my sense of direction
You could say all of this and worse but
If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do
Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world
You could say I lost my faith in the people on TV
You could say I'd lost my belief in our politicians
They all seemed like game show hosts to me
If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do
I could be lost inside their lies without a trace
But every time I close my eyes I see your face
I never saw no miracle of science
That didn't go from a blessing to a curse
I never saw no military solution
That didn't always end up as something worse but
Let me say this first
If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do