Life in D31

Being the sentimental sap that I am I have already starting thinking about all the memories Mr. A and I have in our first place.

We moved in right after our honeymoon in October 2007 and we've made some great memories. We celebrated our first married Christmas we started our Annual Christmas Eve get together which has evolved from just us and our parents to include more family and even friends. We've had a few parties including our Summer '09 games and mocktails party in which we set a record for how many people our little apartment could hold with 15 let me tell you it was standing room only but we had a blast.

We had our first adventures in cooking in our tiny little kitchen, I'll never forget Mr. A's first experience with the rice cooker he forgot to add water and wondered why after several hours the rice had not cooked, or the time I forgot to add eggs to a cake mix and wound up in the floor crying because I couldn't figure out why my cake looked so funny, or Christmas 2008 when I had my great chocolate fiasco let's just say there was chocolate on the ceiling :)

We've definitely had nights with fits of laughter over something we overheard through our paper thin walls I'll just let you use your imagination on that one, and then there was of course the occassional really irritating night of ridiculously loud music at 4 in the morning yep definitely won't miss that.

Summer 2009 we created our own little patio garden and it satisfied my need for pretty flowers in my life and we had fun taking care of our little garden :) We carved pumpkins in October only to leave them outside til right before Christmas and had loads of fun trying to pick them up only to see that they had rotted and we somehow had to get them off of our third story balcony :( Don't remind me about winter 2008 when we had to move our bed because our heads were right underneath a window and were getting cold what posessed us to do it at 3 in the morning I'll never know. We've had a few run ins with the maintenance staff over our bathroom see they tiled directly over an open hole in our shower and now they don't get why they're having to re-tile yet again oy vey. I've had some slips and falls on our stairs the most memorable being with a basket full of clean clothes that wound up all over the place including Mr. A's head. Oh the joys of a third floor apartment :) Wait remind me again why this incredibly klutzy girl agreed to a house with stairs? I have a feeling there's new realms of hilariousness to explore.

We've had some really hot Friday nights in the summer at the laundromat that has no AC (get your mind out of the gutter!!) and some freezing cold winter nights at same laundromat with no heat :) we were always thankful for the dryer cycle in the winter. We've seen some pretty interesting things it's hilarious to see what some people bring to the laundromat including but not limited to a sewing machine not a portable one a big honking huge one, a large TV which he turned up incredibly loud, a chain saw because you know there's stuff in there that needs to be sawed up, and much more.

We had our first big fight in which I called my husband a dippity do head, it wasn't one of my finer moments, the good news after I called him said horrible name we couldn't remember what we were fighting about because we were laughing at my lovely choice of names :) This has since happened multiple times as I'm famous for pulling out the most absurd names, such as geekburger with cheese and nerdsauce yes I find these acceptable forms of name calling during an argument :D it's better than curse words and things you'll regret later right?

this now concludes my walk down memory lane thanks for going with me bloggie friends..

Have a great Wednesday :)



Later Alligators.....

Mrs. A

a question?

Well hello bloggie world how are you today? Sorry I've been a bad blogger lately been digging through financial paperwork and all the good stuff that goes along with purchasing a home. I've also finally allowed myself to start planning out our rooms and ideas for our future home. Mr. A made fun of me yesterday evening cause I went to Lowes on my lunch break and just wondered around cause I didn't have any plans and I thought it'd be fun...... wait a minute hold the phone, did I just say Lowe's was fun, me the girl who despised going to home improvement stores with my parents when I was younger? Yes my friends it's true the closer we get to our close date the giddier I become making plans to make our cute little house our home.

I asked a few of my bloggie friends for their suggestions on cleaning products, and basic toolkit for first time homeowners and I got some great responses including an awesome blog post from My Happy House whose blog by the way is fantastic! However, I thought I'd put it to all you lovely readers. We are after all going from a 750 square foot apartment with no yard to an almost 1700 square foot house with a decent sized back yard oh and a covered deck.

So lay it on me friends what are the basic tools/cleaning products/yard maintenance necessities needed for the first time homeowner?


oh and just in case you were wondering our inspections went well and now we're just playing the waiting game on the appraisal! If all goes as planned we're 31 days from closing!!

Later Alligators...

Mrs. A

Sending some bloggy love SWAP Reveal

Good Monday morning friends. Hope you all had fabulous weekends I spent my Valentine's Day at church helping take care of kiddos so the mommies and daddies could go out to dinner and have couple a time. I had a blast playing duck duck goose and red rover. :) Not to worry my sweet husband took me out to dinner the night before and I got to wear my fabulous headband I got from Mrs. Katie!

But wait I'm getting ahead of myself so let's back up. Back in January Katie At Loves of Life decided that she wanted to give all her bloggie land friends a way to send a little Valentine's cheer to fellow bloggers. So she decided to host a swap we all signed up and filled out a little form with our addresses and our favorite things, a couple weeks later we were matched up with a partner to send goodies to in honor of Valentine's Day. :) I squealed with delight when I got Katie the mastermind herself as my swap partner. I had a blast shopping for goodies for her and I hope she enjoyed them all.

That brings us to last Friday when my swap package arrived well actually I'd been told it was sitting in my apartment office since Wednesday but they didn't call me til Friday to come get it. So anyway when I got the call that it was there I raced home on my lunch break to pick it up knowing otherwise I wouldn't be able to get it til today. Well Katie spoiled me let me tell you well actually let me show you. Here's a pic of my goodies after I'd pawed through them I should've taken the picture first because Katie had it situated all cute and I didn't do as good a job but you get the idea and get to see the super cute basket she sent everything in.



PS I may or may not have already busted open that bag of Reeses hearts :P

Anyway from the package you can see I got a way cute journal that's brown and pink it couldn't have come at a better time as I was getting to the end of my prayer journal and needing a new one so this one is now officially my prayer journal I broke it in with it's first prayers this morning. I actually write out my prayers during my quiet time it helps me stay focused and it's wonderful to go back later and see how God has moved in my life. I also got a cute notepad which I snapped up and toted back to work with me to replace my plain ugly yellow one it makes me smile taking notes for work on such pretty paper. There was also some chapstick and a way cute headband and of course a very sweet card. I was all excited to wear my headband to dinner Friday night with hubs and friends but he convinced me I should save it for church on Sunday so I didn't and then he surprised me with dinner out on Saturday night to celebrate Valentine's and of course I wore my headband. Don't laugh at my mirror pic hubs was taking a shower and couldn't take it for me.



I know it's super duper cute!!

I had so much fun participating in this swap thank you Katie for hosting and for being a fabulous partner :)

I hope if you partcipated too you had a blast and if you didn't maybe you'll consider it next time. Happy belated Valentine's Day.

Later Alligators...

Mrs. A

ready for the weekend and I got my swap gift!!

Oh goodness Oklahoma isn't getting the snow dump that some states are but we're having our fair share of gloomy gray weather which has made for an unusually long and boring work week. Which means I'm more ready for the weekend. I don't have a jam packed weekend planned just coaching on Saturday and then church on Sunday. Mr. A and I don't have big Valentine's plans just dinner and a netflix movie because we're trying to save our pennies so we can use them wisely once we get into our house. EAK!! That's so exciting to say "our house" there were many days I didn't think we'd ever get to this point but after 2 years of scrimping and saving I can say it was so worth it!! Our first inspection is scheduled for Tuesday the 16th wish us luck!


In other news I went home at lunch and picked up my Simply Love Swap package from the fabulous Katie at Loves of Life. Can I just tell you I squealed in delight when I got my e-mail notifying me she was my swap partner!! Oh and Katie your gift made it in perfect condition the little heart basket is absolutely adorable and I am seriously in love with my headband I can't wait to wear it out to dinner tonight with my hubs, I also got some lip balm, my fave candy reeses hearts and a big heart sucker that I'm pretty sure my hubs will steal, an adorable pink and brown journal and a great notepad with hearts on it that I brought back to work with me to replace my plain old yellow one. Don't worry I took pics and I'll post them on the Mr. Linky on Monday!! I loved participating in this swap my only wish is that Katie and I weren't so far away from each other I have no doubt that we'd be very good friends if we lived closer.


Hope all my bloggie pals have a fabulous weekend!

Later Alligators...

Mrs. A

offer, counter, counter, accept!!

Well after what feels like the longest weirdest weekend in history we are officially going under contract on a house.

So here's a few pictures from the MLS listing. Barring nothing happens during inspections we're on our way to being homeowners set to close March 26th if all goes well!!

outside in the front:





living room with sellers things.



and my fave room in the house the kitchen!!

sugar doll award :)

This fabulous lady brightened my day with the sugar doll award. The rules are post 10 interesting facts about yourself, and tag 10 other bloggers. Since I'm pretty sure most of the blogs I read have been tagged for this fabulous award I'm tagging anyone who hasn't received it.

Here's my ten interesting or ridiculously boring whichever way you want to read it facts.

1. I'm a gemini and although I'm not big into astrology I do think there's some truth to the split personality thing. I can be ridiculously loud and the center of attention one minute and fade into the quietness the next.

2. I was a cheerleader for a very long time and am loving being a cheer coach :)

3. I met my husband after locking my keys in my car

4. I played volleyball in highschool although I wasn't very good

5. I wore blue shoes on my wedding day as my something blue (I think I may have used this one before but oh well)

6. I don't consider myself all that interesting and am having a hard time coming up with ten things

7. my mother is battling non-hodgkins lymphoma and I am one of her caretakers and have been since I was 17.

8. green is my favorite color because to me it symbolizes a new beginning.

9. I play piano not well but I can play

10. Mr. A and I are on the househunt and it's taking over my brain :P

Thanks so much Mrs. Life Accounts for the fabulous award :)

Later Alligators...

Mrs. A

and then there were 2..... and a whole lot of randomness

Well after touring houses and seeing 12 in the area we know we want to be in and in our price range, we've narrowed it down to a very promising two houses both of which we really like. We're going to tour both again on Saturday and hopefully make our decisions from there. It's both exciting and nerve wracking that we're literally days away from putting in an offer on our very first home. Everyone we've talked to said we'd just know when a home was meant for us and we're hoping after the second tour of each we'll be certain. If and when our offer gets accepted then I will show you pictures of the one we wind up choosing but not until as I don't want to get attached to a house til I know it can be ours which is easier said than done.

In other news I'm stopping by the post office today to pick up packing supplies for my Swap partners fun gifts. I had a blast shopping for her on Saturday afternoon even if I did have to slide in and out of parking lots due to ice but hey we survived the storm with power because lucky for us what was supposed to be ice falling turned into mainly snow. We're possibly going to get hit by another winter storm this weekend so much so that I was yelling at the weatherman on TV this morning. Dear old man winter don't you understand Mr. A and I are trying to purchase a house and you're making it rather difficult! Knock it off already!!

It's been awhile since I've given an update on my mom and that's because we've kind of been in a holding pattern as to what the next step is going to be. She's now finished six rounds of aggressive chemo and had tests run to see if she was eligible to do the bone marrow transplant I've talked about before. Unfortunately her scan results revealed a blood clot in her lung that the doctor wanted to take care of before they go ahead with the transplant. Well that's all well and good except the treatment for shrinking the clot is pricey I mean really pricey. So right now we're waiting to see if they can come up with a less expensive treatment to shrink the bloodclot. That's all I know at this point and as soon as I know more I'll update again. This has become a very frustrating game of hurry up and wait :(



I've received a bloggie award recently from the lovely Mrs.LifeAccounts and I'm hoping to post about that this evening along with some new cake pictures.

oh and just so this post isn't completely devoid of pictures here's a pic of me and one of the other cheer coaches after my squad's first game. It's not the best picture of me and pay no attention to how badly my hair needed tending to but it's a great picture of my squad :)





Hope this lovely Wednesday is treating you well :)


Later Alligators....

Mrs. A