Quick Update

Hi!! It's Erin (if you couldn't tell by the exclamation points).

I thought I'd give a quick update since neither of us really write in here all that often. The main reason for this is because we don't quite have internet hooked up yet at our new house. Of course, Trent still does at his parent's house (where he is living), but he's definitely at our house more often.

Here are the highlights of the past few days/weeks. They are finishing the house work TOMORROW! Hallelujiah! If you have talked to me personally in the past few weeks you should already know how I feel about contractors, but if not, I DON'T like them very much! haha They're difficult to work with. BUT tomorrow is the last piece of work they will be completing... resurfacing the guest bathtub. I can't wait for them to be out, and all the holes in my walls to be patched (which is happening as we speak).

We do keep finding lovely little things that go wrong with the house, but what else can you expect with a 20 year house (or if you're part of my family as my dad would say)? The brand new fridge decided to leak all over our new hardwood floors, but that guy is coming to fix it today. The outlets in both of the bathrooms decided to stop working, and then to start working again. At least they work now! There is a lovely leak from the Master bath that we have yet to investigate. But, of course these are all tiny little things that don't matter because WE HAVE A HOUSE!! It is actually starting to sink in, that it's all ours. The first mortgage payment helped that sink in...

I have also decided we have a ghost. He's a friendly ghost, though, so we've been calling him Casper. He just likes to move things around and such. But no harm, he keeps us protected at night.

Now that the contractors will be done, Ellie gets to come live with me! I CAN'T WAIT! I have missed my baby so much, and I know she'll be missed over at the Stapleton house, but I need her back! She is going to stop loving me the most I can't handle that :)

Not a funny post like Trent's, but just a little update for everyone. The wedding is in 33 days, and we are so ready! Can't wait to be married!

Ta for now. And just for you, Trent, I posted a picture of the house. It's a "before" picture, though, so it looks much better now. We'll post pictures soon.

Technological impairments

It's not that I don't know how, because I know I could if I tried, but I'm jealous of everyone with photos in their blogs. Does anyone want to be in charge of uploading my photos onto my computer for me so that I can use them in here?
It has been a couple of very interesting days, and that's where the sudden need for photos has come from. I can think of at least three (3) times since Monday that I have thought to myself "I wish I had a camera right now". Writing about them would just not do them justice, so I won't even try, but just know that I have seen some excitement this week!
My brother told me about blip.fm today, and I'm not sure how active I will be with it. I'm still a little confused with the idea behind it. I already really like my music, and enjoy everything that is on my iTunes. I'm not sure if I want to listen to what someone else wants to listen to. For example, the station I am on right now started with a little Gordon Lightfoot (which isn't bad, but if I were choosing I don't think he would have made the cut), MC Hammer (You Can't Touch This....and I won't. This song belongs everywhere), and now it's on to some other kind of nonsense that I have never heard of. Unless there is anyone else with such a satisfied taste in music as I have...in other words, someone that could listen to the same songs a million times and never get sick of them...I'm not sure if Blip.fm is for me. But, regardless, if you are interested in seeing what kind of blipper I become, my user name is tstaple1. In fact, if you are looking to follow me on any kind of social networking site, tstaple1 is probably the screen name..so go see what you can find.
I succumbed to the temptations of the digital age this evening. Erin and I have been looking in to getting the internet at the new house for a few weeks now. She is going to be officially moving in this weekend after the showers are finished, so I wanted to try and have the internet installed so she doesn't die of boredom while at home. We had also decided that we wouldn't get cable yet and save the extra 30 or 40 bucks a month. So I went out and bought a digital antenna, and we were well prepared to continue watching tv on the internet. Neither of us have had cable in oer a year now, so it is not a big deal...until I started finding pricing deals for cable! I got sucked in by the great deals! Now, I am not a cable salesman, and I am not trying to get a job with their marketing firm, but as cheap as Dish was going to give us cable, I couldn't resist. The good news is Erin will no longer be watching the freshly painted walls peeled to pass the time!
My goal for the next entry is at least one picture.

I couldn't think of any clever title for today's entry. I tried to think of something to allude to how busy the past few weeks have been...but nothing I could think of would do it justice. On top of being a full time students, a full time restaurant manager, and purchasing and working on a new home...blogging has been pushed to the back-burner. Nevertheless, much has happened and deserved to be noted.
House update:
Everything is going well. After clearing up the original miscommunication with the contractors, work has preceded quite nicely. The new hardwoods are in place and look great. I have, as of last night, finished installing all of the new ceiling fans and light fixtures. Greg and I somehow managed to squeeze the new fridge into place without destroying anything in the process. I replaced the leaking water valve for the dishwasher. The new hot water heater was installed today and seems to be working just fine. Met a new neighbor, his name is Hudd. Shapour and I have leveled and planned out nicely the first tier of the new garden...by-the-way Shapour, if you are reading this, I need to get the second one finished and get some things planted... you up for playing in the dirt again? The painters finished painting the house today. It's nice to have these things being taken care of!
Wedding update:
I believe things are right on track. But we'll have to ask Erin to get on soon to give a complete update on that.
Life update:
Life is good. Once again, it has become an extremely busy time for both Erin and I. She is trying to pull all f the loose ends together and get things ready for May 29th and I am trying to pull all of the loose ends together and finish the semester strong. Unfortunately it has kept us apart for longer than we would like, but when we both actually have a free night it makes it that much more enjoyable to be able to spend the time with each other. We are getting very excited about the wedding and getting to see some old friends that we haven't seen in a long time! To Mr. Ben Cragun, if you are reading this, thanks for the package from Gallina. I finally got it in the mail this week. I can hardly read Russian handwriting anymore, but I was just able to make out what she said. So, thanks for getting it here, even if it was 3 years late.

Sweet Caroline!

I hope that someone else out there just enjoyed watching Neil Diamond belt out "Sweet Caroline"during the middle of the 8th in on the opening day of the greatest sport in the world.

It sure is nice to have baseball back once again! The Braves are opening tomorrow, and as the commercials are saying, "this is the year"! Spring has definitely arrived! In fact today you could have argued that it skipped right over and went right into summer!..and they games back on, I'll be back in a few minutes...

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter. I certainly enjoyed procrastinating the papers that I needed to get written! 9:30 class was cancelled, so it'll give me something to do in the morning! But for now, once again, baseball season has begun!

As for the day, we spent most of it trying to get Erin moved in. Our plan was to get Erin moved in and ready for tonight to be her first night staying in our new house. The appliances were delivered by Lowe's today, so while Erin organized book shelves and made her bed, I was installing ceiling fans and tried to pretend like I really knew what I was doing. I can proudly say that now I do know what I am doing when a ceiling fan is concerned! Nothing blew up, I was not electrocuted once (which is something that, historically speaking, has plagued my electrical work) and all of the lights turn on and all of the fans spin around.
The big hiccup came when I headed downstairs to the basement to light the pilot light for the water heater. We are having a larger water heater installed in the next few weeks, but Erin was not looking forward to a cold shower at 6:00 AM...and I can't blame her...been there, done that! Of course, as I sat down and checked all of the gas lines to make sure everything was on, found the pilot light, prepped the tank, and felt confident that everything had been done correctly, I lit the match and moved cautiously toward the water tank and....nothing. Absolutely nothing! I tried for a few minutes before realizing that there was no gas going to the tank. So, Erin is bunking at Kelsey and Greg's place for the next few days, at least until we get the new water heater installed and ready to go for her.
The contractors are getting started in the morning. We are hoping that they work ahead of schedule! That is probably not going to happen! But, we can still hope, right? We are really looking forward to getting all of the work finished and getting the house in order...just in time to actually start to have a monthly payment! This month long grace period after closing couldn't be long enough! Once again, any donations can be sent to our new address!
The big event for the past few days was the beginning of the new garden! One of these days I'll get adventurous enough to take some photos and learn how to upload them here...but Shapour and I dug out the foundations for my new garden on Friday! We have a beautiful upper tier, a nice little stone path, and we still have some work today for the lower tier, but it is definitely a garden! Enough to make your average home gardener jealous!
And in one more out, the 2010 baseball season will have begun exactly how I could have hoped...with the Yankees losing! I'm off to enjoy this last out!