Talk about not being good at blogging!

I am horrible. I seriously don't know why I am so bad at blogging this past summer. It was not like this with my old blog. I used to update all the time. Does this mean I am just too busy with work and the house to blog?!?! I think I need to make a pact with myself to make sure to update on a regular basis. It just seemed like such a crazy summer. But no more excuses!! I am just going to do better with this!

My sister's wedding in August went wonderfully! It was a lot of fun and they were both just so happy. I thought it was one of the best moments to get to watch my best friend and twin sister get married. Not everyone may know this but I am not a crier! Even my closest friends have only seen me cry a few times and those times were during highly emotional situations (ie death in the family). Well I definitely cried at the wedding. I knew I had to make the Matron of Honor speech but I wasn't totally sure how I would react to it so I wrote the whole thing down. And that turned out to be the best decision. I got through the first two sentences and then totally lost it. It wasn't just a few tears running down my face, no I really cried. Joe had to come over and sit in my chair and let me sit in his lap so I could make it through the rest of my speech. All I can say is I had a moment! But now my parent's can finally relax and get life back to normal because all three of us are married and weddings are over! Of course now mom can't wait to have a grandkid. . . She might be waiting a bit longer!

This past weekend I went to Chicago for a college roommate reunion. Four of us lived together for several years, Dianna, Torie, Sandi and myself! The driving factor behind us all getting together was so we could help Sandi with a few wedding details like picking out bridesmaid dresses. It was a great weekend. We haven't all been together at the same time since last October so it was wonderful to all be in the same place. Of course we had several late nights out and daytime shopping trips. We even threw a small bachelorette party for Sandi since we all live in various states across the country and won't have the chance to throw one closer to the wedding. It was a blast! However I am exhausted for the weekend and trying to catch back up this week.

Fall softball starts tonight! I am very excited because it's been several weeks since we had any intramural sports going on. Joe and I miss that!

And. . . It's football season!!!! It's my favorite time of year. Granted it means winter is right around the corner but I will learn to live with that. Fantasy football starts this week!

I leave you now with a few pictures of the wedding and the wonderful Chicago trip!

Chicago!

Finally an update!

So I seriously don't know what happened to the last 3 or 4 months. The whole house process really took over my life. But we are now completely moved in and unpacked. I love the house! It is really wonderful to come home from work everyday to a house and not just a little apartment. We got one of the bedrooms painted and set up as the guest room. And this past weekend Joe started working on the back yard. He weeded out a large area and is beginning to make it all into a flowerbed. Now we are on a break from house things until after my sister's wedding this weekend.

My original intention was to blog through the whole house process but obviously that wasn't successful. It was more consuming than I ever thought but I never thought it wasn't worth it. It was just a lot of time going and looking at houses. And then once we were in contract there was so much paperwork and what not to get together I really just got focused on getting it all done. It was worth every minute!

Here are pictures of the house. The walls are bare and it isn't quite homey yet but that will come with time! We are going to continually make changes to things and I will continue to post pictures as we do so.

Living room

Family room

Kitchen



Master bedroom

Master bath

Guest bathroom

I didn't post pictures of the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms because I have a before and after of one rooms that I plan on posting later. I also have pics of the backyard work to post soon. So more pictures to come soon!

Where did the time go?

I seriously don't know where my life went the last month and a half. I owe some serious time to blogging and updating on everything that has happened. I was really planning on blogging more about the process of buying our first house but we got so busy. I feel like we haven't had any time to just sit at home in weeks! I promise to write a nice long blog with everything that has been going on lately.

House Update!!!

Okay it's been a little while since I posted a blog. Things were so crazy the last few weeks while we were house hunting that I was not spending much time on the computer. Then last week work was busy and I barely had time to check e-mail let alone get online for my personal business.

But we have great news! We are officially in contract on a house! Here is the story from the beginning. Last Monday we were scheduled to look at 4 mores houses. The very first place on the list was a house that Joe had found online. I didn't know much about it but he really thought it was going to be a good one. The moment I walked in the house I knew I loved it. It was everything we wanted and more! So we went to two more houses and then told Drew we knew we wanted to put an offer on the first house. So Tuesday afternoon we submitted our offer. However we found out that another offer had been submitted 2 hours before us. That made us really nervous but we just had to wait to see what happened. The next afternoon (Wednesday) we recieved a counter offer from the seller. The offer included information that they were submitting more than one counter to multiple parties and they reserved the right to chose who the accepted. So within the hour we recieved the counter offer we faxed over our acceptance of the offer. The seller had originally stated that they need a response from us by Thursday at 3pm and then by Friday afternoon they would chose who they wanted to accept. So we accepted their offer but stated that they had to tell us yes or no. So Wednesday night we got word that the seller accepted our offer!!!

Here is our timeline:
Inspections this week
Apprasial next week
Closing June 30th

We have our apartment until September so we have plenty of time to move! We plan on painting the second and third bedrooms before moving but that is all the work that needs to be done on the place before we move in! It's great! The house is 3 bedrooms with a loft upstairs. There is a dining room, living room, family room that is open to the kitchen and eat-in kitchen space. There is also a basement but it is unfinished. I can't wait to move in!!! I am having Joe take pictures this week at the inspection so I will have something for everyone to see soon.

Life is BUSY!

Things have been so busy these last two weeks! Joe and I have barely been home on the weeknights. I am sad to not have any new recipes to post but honestly we haven't even been at home for meals lately. So you might be wondering what is keeping us so busy. . . Here was what went on the last two weeks

Monday - College roommate in town for the night so we went out
Tuesday - Softball league
Wednesday - walked through 7 potential houses
Thursday - Bowling league
Friday - FINALLY a night at home
Saturday - Out with friends
Sunday - Visit Grandma for Mother's Day
Monday - Nothing to do!!!! Actually went to the gym
Tuesday - Softball
Wednesday - looked at more houses

And finally tonight we are going right after work to check out a house and then rushing over to bowling. So why are we trying to fit in seeing this house tonight? Our realtor thinks it won't be on the market long. Here's the story. . . Yesterday Joe got on our listings website and saw a house that just went on the market that day. There were no pictures of the place posted but the details of the place sounded nice. He called the realtor to see if he could try and add it to the list of places to see that night. So last night we didn't get to do a walk through because the seller couldn't make it home to get their dog out of the house for us. So we decided to drive by it and at least check out the place. We followed our realtor over and as we approached I was wondering where the house was. Well it was right in front of me and it is gorgeous!!! It has so much potential for me to totally fall in love with it. So our realtor called us and said we had to get a walk thru ASAP because he is convinced this house will not be on the market long. He didn't want to even wait till next week to go see it. So tonight we are headed out there to walk through and see how it goes. If the inside is as nice as the outside we may find our favorite house tonight! I will definitely keep everyone updated!

We are Preapproved and Britney Spears!

Weird title for my post huh?!?!

We got the news yesterday that we are preapproved for a home loan. And as expected it's for more than we are looking to spend. Joe and I are so excited that we are going to soon be homeowners! We are headed out tomorrow with the realtor to look at our first ten houses. I am excited to see what it's like.

My sister and her fiance are also searching for a home. We are identical twins and have been pretty side by side on major life events. So I shouldn't be surprised they are also looking for a place. They went out last night and found two homes they would buy. So now they are going to have to pick which one is their favorite!

Thursday was the Britney Spears concert that Joe bought me two tickets for as my Christmas present. Torie, my college roommate come in from New Hampshire and went with me. It was a blast. We barely sat down the entire time and my feet hurt so much afterwards from all the dancing we did. We had an awesome time. Britney didn't say or do anything crazy but she sure did dance her butt off. The show was really like a circus just without any animals. She had all kinds of circus acts which made it all that much more fun.

I will edit this post later and add in a few pictures but I can't now since I am at work.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Back in January my cousin made this delicious buffalo chicken dip for a family get together. It was so tasty and very addicting. Once you start eating it you just can't stop. Everyone at the party loved it and I knew I needed the recipe.

This weekend was the perfect opportunity to make it. Joe was having the guys over for the NFL Draft on Saturday. Guys love food so I knew it would be a hit. It didn't last more than 30 minutes once I sat it out on the table. I didn't take any pictures because it isn't too exciting to see.

Buffalo Chicken Dip:

16oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup celery, chopped
8oz Frank's red hot sauce
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

In microwave safe bowl heat cream cheese, celery & red hot sauce on high power, stirring every two minutes until cream cheese is melted. Add chicken and one cup of cheddar cheese. Pour into 13x9 rectangular dish and top with remaining cheese.

Place in oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

I put the celery into a food processor and chopped it until it was very fine. I personally don't like chucks of celery in things so I prefer to have it this way. Also you can use the packages of Tyson chicken that are precooked and found in the deli meat section of a grocery store. I have cooked my own chicken and used the prepackaged kind and both taste the same.

And there you have it. You just serve with tortilla chips! It is my favorite thing to take to parties and is always a big hit. But as a said above BEWARE it is addictive!!!