Christmas Week

The week between Christmas and New Years Eve is always a little strange. It seems like nobody is working, and the next few days exist just to give everyone a little break from the madness of the holidays and to prepare to party on the 31st.

Even though I didn't get to spend Christmas with my family, I did enjoy spending time with Ryan's family and opening presents with them on Saturday.

Let me back up.

Christmas Eve, I was off from work at Crosby-Volmer. Ryan and I decided to get out and see if we could find a Christmas tree on sale. We stopped by Home Depot and didn't see anything. Then we passed by a furniture store called I'O Metro and decided to go take a look at their couches. We found a pretty cool one- it's a big sectional, very comfy, and the material is a velvety type. I'm not sure what to call it. The color is "taupe," but in the light it looks a bit grey? It's really different.

While we were in the store, a guy from Craigslist called. I have been trying to sell my old set of couches/coffee table/end tables for about 3 weeks and finally this guy wanted to buy it. We headed to the old house and met him there. He talked us down from $500 and we finally made a deal at $420. I was so annoyed, but I wanted to be rid of them. He had his nephew help him load them up, and kept telling me his wif would probably kill him when he brought them home. By the time he left, it was time for me to go to work at Upper Crust. I spent the rest of my night there.

When I got home at 10:00, Ryan wanted to exchange presents. I got him a master remote, so that when he gets his receiver, Blueray, TV and all his sound system equipment someday....we can control everything from one source. I also got him a nice brown sweater, and a green sweater from Dillards. He liked his presents!

But I LOVED mine. He got me this:



I have wanted a Coach wallet to match my purse ever since I bought it 3 years ago, but could never bring myself to buy one. I have already transferred everything to the new wallet, and since I can't stand for it to get anything on it.....I put it inside a ziplock bag before putting it in my purse. I'll leave it in there until someone sees it and makes fun of me.

The next day we went to Shawnee pretty early to visit his mom and Grandma Lane. We got his mom a matching hat and scarf that Ashlie knitted, and she loved it. We got his 78-year-old grandma a purple Snuggy, haha! She looked so cute wearing it.





About 1pm, we went to his other grandma's and stayed there the rest of the day. We had a giant feast for lunch, opened presents, and watched TV/hung out until it was time to go home. Ryan's dad bought us a new lawnmower, which was pretty exciting because I hate paying for boring stuff like that but we really needed one. :)

Sunday, I woke up at 6am to hit the sales! I had intended to go to Macy's to check out their kitchenware stuff, but on the way to the mall I decided to stop into Target and see if it was open. A line had formed, and the store opened just as I was parking. I grabbed a cart and made a beeline for the Christmas aisles. I picked up some wrapping paper, gift bags, lights, the usual....and then I saw they had some Christmas trees on sale! There was only one that I liked, and there were no more in the box. I asked an employee if I could buy the floor model, and she said yes. I called Ryan to come haul it away, and I was very pleased with myself. It's a pre-lit, 7.5 ft tree....and it's in the attic waiting until next year when I can finally decorate like I have always wanted to in my own house. I had to work at the restaurant again, so I dragged my spoils home and cleaned up a bit until I had to be there.

It was really busy during lunch and we were down a few people. I waited on 5 tables and made a good amount of $$. It put me in a great mood, since I had to write a check for the first mortgage payment when I got home. Ha! We used our Dirty Santa present from Dayton and Abby's party (AMC Movie Tickets) and went to see The Tourist. It was great! Johnny Depp is my favorite, and I couldn't stop staring at Angelina Jolie. She looked gorgeous....I am going to try to do my eye makeup like hers for NYE :)

New everything!

I'm on a 6 hour conference call (yes, I'm not making that up. Although to be fair, I think we are breaking for lunch and I'm taking a SUPER long lunch). I figured, what better time than now to update the neglected blog!

Last month passed in the blink of an eye. We finally closed on our first home on November 12th. It was a huge headache, and at the last second the loan company had to take Ryan off all the paperwork because we didn't receive some documents from Sallie Mae in time. They were to prove that he can defer his student loan payments from medical school for a few years until he starts making more money. So, now I'm the only one on the mortgage, and I was the only one signing everything when we closed. I think Ryan's ego took a little blow and he was not happy about it, but we wanted to move in without more delays and they convinced us it didn't matter. If we would have waited for Ryan's paperwork to go through, Jeff Click Homes said they didn't have any openings until December to do the walk-through and do all the closing stuff. I told Ryan he better be really nice to me since I own our house now, and he told me I better be really nice to him since I have a XXX,XXX loan hanging over my head. Haha!

The loan company bought us pizza and soda that night, and I bought champagne. We had our friends, Josh and Jana over to the old house to celebrate. My original plan was to spend our first night in the new house the day we closed, but it was so late by the time we were done at the loan office and it was cold and rainy....we never did have that romantic night alone. Ryan ended up spending the first night there by himself while I was on a business trip in Memphis.

Since the day we closed, we have slowly been moving in. I tell everyone, I will never do this again. Next time, it's U-Haul and ONE moving day. All the way. Last night was the first time I got serious and unpacked a lot of the boxes that have been sitting around everywhere. It's still a state of complete chaos over there, but I haven't had enough time to get everything situated. Jenny is coming to visit for the weekend (YAY!!!) so in between the U.C. shift tonight and the AEP Christmas party tomorrow night, I'm hoping to get some more put away before Friday evening.

I'm so excited that she'll be here, we have all kinds of fun plans! We're going to go eat at Upper Crust, see a matinee, go to a Christmas party at Abby and Daton's house, go Christmas shopping and she'll finally see the house. :) I will also have a fun update after all of that to post next week.

Since we left most of the furniture behind (it was either old and didn't match the feel of our new house, or it was Ryan's mom's stuff), we have a lot to buy. We started with a bedroom suite that we got a pretty good deal on from Suburban Contemporary Furniture. We love that store, it's got lots of cool, modern pieces, but everything is so expensive. I saw on the store's Facebook site that they had an italian dark wood bedroom suite that had been discontinued, and they were offering a pretty good price for it, AND it was a king-sized bed like we had been wanting. We bought that, and while we were in the store I fell in love with this linen colored leather couch. It is amazing, and I don't want anything else. The price is ridiculous, but I've been hoping it goes on sale.....I will wait until it does!

We bought a front-loading washer and dryer set. It took awhile before we found one that was the right price, but Ryan found a great deal on Veteran's Day at Home Depot. When it was time to deliver them, they called us to say the dryer had been damaged in the warehouse and did we still want it? I was so upset, because I wanted a brand new, pretty set. Ryan talked me into accepting it, it has a big crack in the plastic on the door and paint scratched off the front. It still works fine though, and we ended up getting an extra $250 off for the damage.

And finally, we bought a stainless steel french door fridge! It is massive, and it has a freezer on the bottom. Which is actually pretty cool, because now the fridge shelves are really long and hold tons of stuff. We can stick pizza boxes in there, no problem. It's beautiful and I'm really happy with it.

So, a quick update on the work situation- we lost the Regional Food Bank as a client, and I have to say that I am THRILLED. I hated working with their marketing manager. She's my age, and she's the bossiest, most obnoxious person I have ever met and it's a long story, but she tried to get me kicked off the account a year ago. I have loathed her ever since. But that means the situation at the office isn't the greatest. The same day we lost that account, the client we share office space with informed us that we needed to be out by the end of January. They said another company is coming in, and they don't have space for us anymore.

No local clients (except the mayor) and no office makes for a negative atmosphere around here lately. I applied for a job with the OKC Thunder and my fingers are crossed that I get a call for an interview. It's a PR/Marketing position and I would be working with one of my old friends from college, Vicki Guerra. She has the position right now, but I think she's getting a promotion. How cool would it be to work for the NBA? I think the pay would be good enough to where I could quit the restaurant job too.

That's all for now!