Finally.

I'm a homeowner!

Signing the last of the paperwork!

Receiving the key to MY house!

As soon as the deal was done, Amanda and I headed over to the house to begin a full-scale cleaning. Soon after, my dad, brothers, and friend, Tom came over to install two ceiling fans for me. Saturday, the moving began.

My dad and half brother, Zeth, taking a break.

k-k-k-kitchen

master bedroom (Does this mean I'm the "master"?)

Being the neighborhood rebel by installing an American flag.

Jeremy, replacing smoke detector batteries.

My table-less dining room.

Guest bathroom

Master bathroom. Cleaning this room was a test of my gag reflex.

Didn't turn out too shabby.

Since taking these pictures, I've painted my front door and half the kitchen. Being able to grow six inches would really make painting much easier. Anyone know of a way I can do that?

I've also met a neighbor. Or, what I thought was a neighbor. I was taking Pippi for a walk yesterday and this dude with a little dog asked if it was ok if our dogs meet. I was hesitant, but Pippi didn't bite his face off. SCORE! Dude then asked if I just moved in and told me that, "this is actually my ex-wife's dog". Oh. Umm. Awesome? I'm glad I didn't tell him which house I moved into.

Today I'm exhausted, but I get to wake up a half hour later than I used to for work, and my drive to the bus lot is probably all of three miles. That's about 20 less miles than I'm used to. I'm looking forward to not having to fill my gas tank up once a week!

Watch out

Guess who's buying a house tomorrow!

Abs and idiots

Today is day 1 of our ab workout challenge! Alyssa and I decided a while ago that we needed help in.. umm...this area. I'm also making Emily do it with us. Just because. She recently registered to run the Hartford Half in October, so I felt the needs to torture her with these ab workouts too. Plus we have the same first name so I'm pretty sure she'd do the same if the tables were turned.

Today's workout (Thanks, Pinterest)

I hate ab work, but I really really need it, so I'm looking forward to (hopefully) getting a stronger core. It's supposed to help with running, too, and since I plan on PRing the shit out of Hartford, I'm going to need the strongest core possible.


And onto my next newest obsession.

Since I'm going to have a completely different financial situation soon, I've decided that I'm going to rely on Netflix instead of getting cable. At least for now. In all honesty, I typically only watch Netflix, Hulu, and DVDs anyhow. I have an obsession with Investigation Discovery shows. I don't know what it is, but something about crazy things happening to people (whether they deserved it or not), is fascinating to me.

My newest find

Currently I've been watching Fatal Attractions. The people in this one all deserve the things that happen to them. The description of the show goes a little something like this: Fatal Attractions seeks to understand why some people risk their lives by having tigers, crocodiles and other dangerous animals as pets.

Yes, Tigers. TIIIGRRRRS! One dude housed a 500-pound tiger in his New York City apartment. Another fella let his "pet buffalo" live in his house. Then there was the lady who was killed by her very poisonous pet snake, which she let roam her home. She'd been bitten by a snake previously but wasn't poisoned, so she thought it meant she was "becoming immune". You know, until she died a violent, painful death.

Sketch a dude's neighbor drew of him after he was eaten alive by his pet lizard.

I think it's funny that you always know if the owner of the animals was killed by the animal or not, depending on who they interview throughout the show.

Haven't you always wanted a pet bear that outweighed you
by 400 pounds? And has sharp teeth? And is known for killing
things??

There was a kid whose grandfather owned a tiger and would feed it by going inside its cage. When the kid was small, he'd play with it like it was just a pet cat. He actually said in an interview that, "I didn't really realize they are as dangerous as they are." Again, it was a TIGER! People are such frickin idiots, but it sure makes for great TV!

"Oh nothing. Just chillin with my WOLF DOGS. I bred 'em myself."

The saddest thing about this show is that these people keep so many of these animals as "pets" to keep them from being killed, but when someone is killed by an animal, they then kill the animal! Oh, you have 23 lions on your property and one of them killed you? Yeah, we're going to have to kill them all. Just to be safe.

Because you are a MORON!

You never do know what's going on at your neighbor's house. It's actually legal in NC to have a tiger as a pet. One of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. There is actually a Carolina Tiger Rescue organization in the town that I live in currently. So very ironic.

To end, I wanted to share something that blows my mind. And makes me want to cry.

My SIL can haggle better than yours

This weekend involved a lot of freaking out and buying expensive things for the new house.

After long last, a bottom freezer (woohoo) fridge with a dent
in the side (aka-half price) has been ordered!

Saturday I went mattress shopping and Amanda came with me.

I was hoping his confidence would be good luck.

As soon as we got in the door, I realized why I wanted to just order a bed online. You walk in the door and *BAM* they're on you like a tick on a hairy armpit. Dude was not understanding the fact that I was on a strict budget and couldn't afford a $700 mattress no matter how awesome of a deal it was. Then the woman, who I suspected was the manager, came over and said, "sit on this one". It seemed comfortable enough but again, $700. When I was looking at the price and frowning, she assured us she was going to fix it. She brought us to the back and showed us that the bag for the box spring was ripped open and that she could give me that and the mattress for $399. Amanda kept telling her, "That's still not in her budget" and then turned to me and asked, "could you do $350?" I could see the wheels in her head turning. When I made a face to $350 like...ehhh maybe? The lady told us, "I"ll tell you what. I can give both to you for $299". SOLD!

Guest room, meet your new bed.

Now I'm trying to decide if I should put the $700 mattress in my room instead and put my current mattress in the guest room. What would you do?

While we were there Jeremy and Amanda decided it was a good time for them to buy a new mattress. After going around the room, they decided on one and, while Amanda went to work out the payment, Jeremy just had to make sure he really wanted this one.

His life is rough.

How's the packing going, you ask?

Yeah, not amazingly.

Although I did make and mail some orders for my shop and the first vacuum, made a few bracelets for Kari, bought some more home things, freaked out a little a lot, and constructed some cheap, homemade coasters for the house.

No weekend is complete without a useful craft project.

It was a nice break from the freaking out.

FOUR DAYS!!!!