The Opera

So, for my birthday Sean bought me tickets to go see Rigoletto. It's an opera that I've been wanting to see forever. I had never been to an opera and have always wanted to go. So Valentines Day weekend we went out to the beautiful restaurant and had the most awesome seafood. Then we went to the Knoxville's Tennessee theatre. It's an old original theatre that they've restored. it's magnificent. Gorgeous details all original moldings and art pieces. And there isn't a bad seat in there. We had perfect seats. And the opera was Fantastic. The main girl was beautiful... and everyone had beautiful voices. Everything was great. It is an experience I'll never forget. Do you think i remembered to take any pictures.... of course not. not even any of Sean and I all dressed up... Oh well.

Spring Fever

I've got it bad! This week has been spring in East Tennessee. We've seen highs in the upper 60's all week. And I've got spring fever bad. The birds all around the neighborhood are twitterpated. We sit on the porch and watch how funny they are. And obnoxious. Today I opened every window in the house and enjoyed the warm fresh breeze. (well, not breeze - Wind. we have a storm coming in. ) We have tulips and daffodils coming up outside. There are buds on the trees and bushes. Sean and I walked around the yard today planning. Which bushes and flowers needed moved, how we were going to put the beds. Where and what we wanted to plant. It was so exciting. I've never been able to do that before. Sean and I both like doing yard work/or at least having a nice yard. So, this will be the first year we can do it. This is definitely a benefit of having our own home.

Speaking of which... i last left off with my lemon of a house... Here is the update. The hole in the ceiling is almost finished. Just need the texture. The heating problem has been solved, we just need to get a heat pump. (which is going to be a few grand, but at least we won't have a huge electric bill every month). Sean's parents are coming in to town in May, so our goal is to have everything finished by then. Hopefully we'll have enough money after the heat pump to get flooring in. The fence for the back yard will have to wait until next year. I'm going to post picture soon so everyone can see the progress on the house. Maybe I'll like my lemon after all! :)
Happy Spring Everyone!

Wow

WOW, it's been a lot longer then i thought. I have been really busy with life lately. Here's what's happened.
So my goal in life was to own my own home before i was 30 years old. I will be turning 30 in Feb. Sean and i were able to buy our first house in November. We are so excited about it. the house is 12 years old. In a really cute neighborhood. the house is really small, but really cute. we spent weeks painting and puting up moldings. We are finally moved in. We were so happy. We assumed when our taxes came back this year, we would put some money in savings, put in hardwood floors, and get a new TV. However - last week while it was pouring rain for days... i saw a wet spot on the ceiling in the main room of our house. by the front door. So, Sean went up to the attic to see if he could see any leaks, or where it was coming from. He couldn't find anything wet up there. However, on his way back down, he stepped on a board that was not screwed in and his whole foot went through the ceiling!!! So, not only do i have a leaking roof, but i now have a huge hole in the ceiling. We've covered it with a towel for now until we can get it fixed. (hopefully, this week) the bad part is that my ceiling has popcorn texturing, so i'm not sure if we will be able to match the patch with the rest of the ceiling. And since it's in the main room in the house, we can't really hide it. so we are really hoping that we won't have to scrape the whole ceiling texture off and start over so that it can match. We'll see though.
So by this point we we not happy with the way things are turning out. Then we got out electric bill. Now, mind you that our house is small, only about 1100 sq feet. And that we keep our heat about about 65. and that's only when someone is home. Well, our bill was $500!!!!!! I about passed out. I assumed $100 maybe $200 but seriously $500 is rediculous. So, looking into we think our emergency heat has been on all month... We purchased a new thermostat hopeing that would do the trick. We can't figure out how to install it. And a guy at church said that it might not be the thermostat at all, it might be the actual unit. So, today the heat and air guy is coming out. Just to tell us what is wrong will be close to a $100. then whatever is wrong - we'll have to pay more money i'm sure. SO... long story short. We were so excited about the perfect house and here we are buying a lemon. lol. Needless to say we will not be purchasing a TV with our tax returns. Probably not even puting in hardwood floors. Hopefully we can get some money into savings though since buisness has been hurting really bad. I'd hate to not be able to pay our morgage, now that we've finally been about to get a house.
Don't you love the life of being a homeowner. I guess grass is always greener on the other side!
:)

car continued...

So, the car is totalled...
I owe $1200 on the car still.
The insurance company seems to think my car is worth $5000.
so after paying off the car and my deductable... i get $2200 to put down on a new car.
so it ended up working out good in the end.
Mini-van here i come. LOL

Totalled???

Last nite, i got home from YW and parked my car in my usual parking space and came in the house... after a long day I just wanted to relax. Went almost immediately to bed. I was in bed when i heard a loud bang outside. This is not uncommon, however... we have a walnut tree and under the tree is a shed with a metal roof. So we hear the walnuts hitting the roof often and i don't even think about the sound anymore. However, this one was a bit louder then usual... I thought, "wow that must have been a big walnut..." Didn't think anything else of it until... Sean went outside and came back in a min later and asked where my car was... "what do you mean, where is my car? i parked it where i always do???" Furiously running through my brain was... OHMYGOSH, did i forget to pay the bill and someone come repo the car? did i leave the keys in the car and someone come steal it????

THEN WE SAW IT....

My car had come out of gear (or did i leave it out of gear???) and rolled 50 feet down the hill into a tree.... (that was the loud walnut falling...)

All in all... not my fault... Sean was sending me text messages and was distracting me from my parking the car correctly!?!?!? or maybe the car wanted to be free...

who really knows what happened here... :)

we are pretty sure it will be deemed total loss, but we should find out in a day or so... for now... you are welcome to join everyone else in laughing at my stupidity...

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Taison had a contest a school. They were to make a robot out of recycled materials. Taison and Daimon both decided to make one. This is what they came up with. They designed it all themselves! just a little help from me with the tape... Taison actually got 1st place in his class and was able to put his robot on display in front of the whole school!!! He was so excited. So proud of you, Taison!

I was having fun with some pics from this summer.