Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending an all day Scrapbooking event with my future mother-in-law, Steve's sisters and sister-in-law. A few months back I had been to a similar event for the half day (9am - 4pm). I figured I was up for full day (9am -11pm).
Yes - that's correct 14 hours of cropping and eating!
I have never been so exhausted in my entire life. When Steve woke me up the next morning, I was so startled I practically jumped out of bed.
How exactly does one find themselves scrapbooking for 14 hours?
First, you must be recruited by friends, family or future-in-laws. These scrapbookers are tricky - they casually mention these events to you and slowly peak your interest.
Second, you tell your fiance that there is no way you are ever going to get into the scrapbooking thing. You let him know that it would be really nice to spend more time with the ladies in his family - but you clearly are just not in to that type of thing.
What happens next is still a mystery to me as well. But in time you start to think how nice it would be to have all of that stuff you have been saving in boxes (movie ticket stubs, programs, etc) not to mention your pictures displayed nicely all in one place. Unfortunately, it becomes clear that you never were very good at the whole keeping the negatives organized thing and there is just no way you could cut your only copy of the pictures that have sat in boxes for years on a shelf.
But wait there is hope - digital cameras and scanners! Suddenly it becomes very clear that you can do this. It is just going to take a little organization, some time and maybe a few ideas from others that have undertaken similar projects.
If only there was a place you could bring all your stuff, see other people's books, use fun scrapbooking tools and buy some of the things you will need.....
And that's were I was hooked. The scrapbooking event seemed the perfect way to get started. It seemed innocent enough. I was in - but I wasn't going to turn into one of the ladies at Hobby Lobby who is spending all of her money on paper and stickers.
I started gathering the basics and found that I much enjoyed having something else to shop for. When I was still travelling to Texas, I frequented many of craft and scrapbooking stores down there. My new challenges were to find sales and to pack it in my suitcase.
Five months later I have accumulated more colored paper, stickers and scissors than I could have imagined. I am pretty close to finishing my first book which has 2003-2005 (The Dating Years). Unlike after my first scrapbooking event - I now feel comfortable putting my stuff away for awhile (Rome wasn't built in a day). I am also excited about the next book - Wedding and Honeymoon! A crazy thought popped into my head the other day about a mini scrapbook for the guestbook at the wedding - but I am still sorting out if it will be feasible given the timeframe. We shall see :)
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
A Real Estate Transaction
I have been negligent posting of late and not just because I am so busy and need a "personal blogger". Actually, I was hesitant to write anything about anymore prospective buyers of our home for fear that I would jinx it. And of course nothing is final until you go through the closing - but the indicators are good. I have signed a contract with a buyer who is pre-approved. He is dropping off earnest money tomorrow and has a home inspection scheduled for Friday. So everything rests on that home inspection and his loan commitment paperwork coming through in the next 2 weeks.
So - how did we get here?
Well in a previous post I indicated that there was a young couple expecting twins that were interested in our place. It was a mutual warm and fuzzy - we like you - let's help them out and sell to them. The husband had dropped by our very first open house on April 1. Since then, they somewhat dragged there feet on making an actual offer. So in the meantime we kept showing the house and having open houses on the weekend. A little over a week ago a single guy scheduled an appointment to see our place in the evening. After asking what I felt like was not enough questions, he asked us if we were willing to negotiate on the price and take into consideration an allowance for replacing the carpet.
In that moment - it became a real estate transaction. Both Steve and I were surprised that after a few weeks of nothing firm from the first couple, we now had a real offer to think about. In my gut, something wasn't right to me. I was so set on the selling to this couple that I lost sight of what was really important - selling to whoever was going to give us the most money.
After a few days of calls back and forth with the couple, it became apparent that they were not really able to afford what we wanted. It was weird to let go of the emotional part - but nice at the same time. I guess part of it is that I am learning to let go of the home Steve and I have made and prepping for the next chapter in our lives.
We now look at our selling our house as the real estate transaction it must be. Oddly, when I purchased it 2 years ago - I was much more successful at being detached. I think it made a difference that the previous owner was not present during the sale. It was more like I was going to a store and buying a piece of furniture from a salesperson than buying someone else's memories.
And on that note - it is time to look ahead at the memories we will build at 108.
So - how did we get here?
Well in a previous post I indicated that there was a young couple expecting twins that were interested in our place. It was a mutual warm and fuzzy - we like you - let's help them out and sell to them. The husband had dropped by our very first open house on April 1. Since then, they somewhat dragged there feet on making an actual offer. So in the meantime we kept showing the house and having open houses on the weekend. A little over a week ago a single guy scheduled an appointment to see our place in the evening. After asking what I felt like was not enough questions, he asked us if we were willing to negotiate on the price and take into consideration an allowance for replacing the carpet.
In that moment - it became a real estate transaction. Both Steve and I were surprised that after a few weeks of nothing firm from the first couple, we now had a real offer to think about. In my gut, something wasn't right to me. I was so set on the selling to this couple that I lost sight of what was really important - selling to whoever was going to give us the most money.
After a few days of calls back and forth with the couple, it became apparent that they were not really able to afford what we wanted. It was weird to let go of the emotional part - but nice at the same time. I guess part of it is that I am learning to let go of the home Steve and I have made and prepping for the next chapter in our lives.
We now look at our selling our house as the real estate transaction it must be. Oddly, when I purchased it 2 years ago - I was much more successful at being detached. I think it made a difference that the previous owner was not present during the sale. It was more like I was going to a store and buying a piece of furniture from a salesperson than buying someone else's memories.
And on that note - it is time to look ahead at the memories we will build at 108.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
TV Experiment
Ok so it started innocently enough. We turned off our cable for the last few months in our townhouse under the guise that 1. I was travelling and was the main tv watcher 2. It would save us some $$ and 3. We would be too busy to watch tv.
We realized pretty early on that the hike in fees for the internet service + the cost to "turn off the cable" pretty much negated any cost savings. Within two weeks of no cable, I rolled off my project and was no longer in Texas 4-5 days a week.
So the question is - are you ever really too busy to watch tv? Especially when you give your fiance a run for his money on the hours you log watching mindless crap and his nickname was/is "TV Stevie".
Our hypothesis: Less TV channels = Less TV watching
Findings:
In the first few weeks, we determined that basically we are now limited to a few channels - FOX, ABC, WGN, UPN, Channel 26 and several channels in Spanish. To counter balance the reduction in the number of channels, we watched almost every movie in our DVD/VHS collection. This was supplemented by Steve's rentals from the Aurora Public Library, borrowing from friends and a few trips to Blockbuster.
The movies were especially great for the weekends - when nothing is on non-cable television. In time though, activity in preparation for selling the house picked up and there were actually less hours available to watch tv. During that time, I (especially) became less selective in my viewing choices (Batman and Different World, What's Happening!).
When we kicked into full painting gear, Steve was blessed with the first season of BattleStar Gallactica from our friends Kate and BJ. Now this is a show I have never heard of and had zero interest in. It became Steve's retreat from painting and without commercials it became very easy to say "just one more episode" as opposed to wait until the next commercial. I even found myself asking questions about who the characters were as I had no choice but to watch while we were waiting for visitors to our open house. I think we blew through a whole season in a little over a week.
We were then blessed with the first 3 seasons of Family Guy and the Stewie Griffin Movie from Steve's friend Eds. Now I understand the insanity. I can't just sit down and watch one episode - that surely will not help me on my quest to get through all of that tv. Thank God they are not sequential - because I think I am at least 2-3 episodes ahead of the guy in my family who actually watches the show.
So what conclusions can be drawn our tv experiment:
1. If we really want to watch tv, we will regardless of the number of channels, quality/interest in the program and the clarity of what is on the television.
2. Seasons of tv shows on dvd are the devil - there are endless possibilities of shows and you have no choice but to watch them all.
3. God help us when we turn the cable back on (less than 2 weeks until we can be over at 108).
4. Most importantly - TiVo may render both of us useless forever.
For more results of the TV Experiment, stay tuned in....
We realized pretty early on that the hike in fees for the internet service + the cost to "turn off the cable" pretty much negated any cost savings. Within two weeks of no cable, I rolled off my project and was no longer in Texas 4-5 days a week.
So the question is - are you ever really too busy to watch tv? Especially when you give your fiance a run for his money on the hours you log watching mindless crap and his nickname was/is "TV Stevie".
Our hypothesis: Less TV channels = Less TV watching
Findings:
In the first few weeks, we determined that basically we are now limited to a few channels - FOX, ABC, WGN, UPN, Channel 26 and several channels in Spanish. To counter balance the reduction in the number of channels, we watched almost every movie in our DVD/VHS collection. This was supplemented by Steve's rentals from the Aurora Public Library, borrowing from friends and a few trips to Blockbuster.
The movies were especially great for the weekends - when nothing is on non-cable television. In time though, activity in preparation for selling the house picked up and there were actually less hours available to watch tv. During that time, I (especially) became less selective in my viewing choices (Batman and Different World, What's Happening!).
When we kicked into full painting gear, Steve was blessed with the first season of BattleStar Gallactica from our friends Kate and BJ. Now this is a show I have never heard of and had zero interest in. It became Steve's retreat from painting and without commercials it became very easy to say "just one more episode" as opposed to wait until the next commercial. I even found myself asking questions about who the characters were as I had no choice but to watch while we were waiting for visitors to our open house. I think we blew through a whole season in a little over a week.
We were then blessed with the first 3 seasons of Family Guy and the Stewie Griffin Movie from Steve's friend Eds. Now I understand the insanity. I can't just sit down and watch one episode - that surely will not help me on my quest to get through all of that tv. Thank God they are not sequential - because I think I am at least 2-3 episodes ahead of the guy in my family who actually watches the show.
So what conclusions can be drawn our tv experiment:
1. If we really want to watch tv, we will regardless of the number of channels, quality/interest in the program and the clarity of what is on the television.
2. Seasons of tv shows on dvd are the devil - there are endless possibilities of shows and you have no choice but to watch them all.
3. God help us when we turn the cable back on (less than 2 weeks until we can be over at 108).
4. Most importantly - TiVo may render both of us useless forever.
For more results of the TV Experiment, stay tuned in....
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Wedding Dreams
Not so long ago (2 weeks at most), I commented that the purpose of a blog is to write about what is going on in your life and to comment on things going on in the world. I also forgot the all important - means of capturing memories, thoughts and ideas that would otherwise be lost. Hence this post about the "dreams" I have been having over the last few years about my wedding.
I often hear other women say, " I have dreamed about this day since I was a little girl." Now, I remembering playing house and thinking about being married and having a family. I don't really remember as a child every thinking about what my dress would look like or riding in on a horse. Perhaps if I had dreamed those things as a child - I wouldn't have space in my brain for the adult wedding dreams (aka nightmares).
I guess I have to go back a few years. I am pretty sure that this was pre-Steve. My first wedding related "dream" involved my ex-boyfriend from high school MK. Although MK and I have not seen each other in years, somehow I had a dream that MK proposed to me with a huge yellow diamond (this must have been at the time JLo got her pink/yellow? diamond).
It was huge - I am talking like 5+ carats. Wow - that's impressive. Except - it was shaped like Africa. And I mean really detailed that I clearly knew it was Africa.
I am sure there have been others - but I also remember a dream I was having during March Madness 05 (the year the Illini actually went somewhere). This was a few months before Steve actually proposed and getting engaged was obviously heavily on my mind.
Alas, in this dream it was Illini Center James Augustine who proposed to me - the night before a "big game". I think it was the Final Four in my head. Anyhoo - although I knew I wanted to marry Steve in my dream, I decided to "take one for the team" and accepted Augustine's proposal so as to not mess with the streak the Illini were on. Unfortunately, my dream engagement was not enough to get the Illini that final win :(
I do also remember since getting engaged that I had a dream where everything was wrong including the Church. A new church magically appeared next to my church - because my church was no longer available.
Most recently (what spurred this blog), I had a bizarre dream about the guest list. I was at my wedding and not quite sure how many people I had invited as many people were not there. I realized in the dream that the invitations only went out to the people that I currently have addresses for (probably less than half). I also had no clue how many had accepted.
To make things more confusing, there was also another wedding going on right next to us. My jr high boyfriend BB was there with his wife. He stopped by to ask me why I didn't invite him to my wedding. Crazy enough - I remember Steve and I having a great time and basically just dancing the night away.
So I guess my psyche is trying to tell me to get back on the ball and finalize the guest list and get those addresses. I am sure I will have many more weird wedding dreams in the upcoming months (just 4 months from tomorrow).
I often hear other women say, " I have dreamed about this day since I was a little girl." Now, I remembering playing house and thinking about being married and having a family. I don't really remember as a child every thinking about what my dress would look like or riding in on a horse. Perhaps if I had dreamed those things as a child - I wouldn't have space in my brain for the adult wedding dreams (aka nightmares).
I guess I have to go back a few years. I am pretty sure that this was pre-Steve. My first wedding related "dream" involved my ex-boyfriend from high school MK. Although MK and I have not seen each other in years, somehow I had a dream that MK proposed to me with a huge yellow diamond (this must have been at the time JLo got her pink/yellow? diamond).
It was huge - I am talking like 5+ carats. Wow - that's impressive. Except - it was shaped like Africa. And I mean really detailed that I clearly knew it was Africa.
I am sure there have been others - but I also remember a dream I was having during March Madness 05 (the year the Illini actually went somewhere). This was a few months before Steve actually proposed and getting engaged was obviously heavily on my mind.
Alas, in this dream it was Illini Center James Augustine who proposed to me - the night before a "big game". I think it was the Final Four in my head. Anyhoo - although I knew I wanted to marry Steve in my dream, I decided to "take one for the team" and accepted Augustine's proposal so as to not mess with the streak the Illini were on. Unfortunately, my dream engagement was not enough to get the Illini that final win :(
I do also remember since getting engaged that I had a dream where everything was wrong including the Church. A new church magically appeared next to my church - because my church was no longer available.
Most recently (what spurred this blog), I had a bizarre dream about the guest list. I was at my wedding and not quite sure how many people I had invited as many people were not there. I realized in the dream that the invitations only went out to the people that I currently have addresses for (probably less than half). I also had no clue how many had accepted.
To make things more confusing, there was also another wedding going on right next to us. My jr high boyfriend BB was there with his wife. He stopped by to ask me why I didn't invite him to my wedding. Crazy enough - I remember Steve and I having a great time and basically just dancing the night away.
So I guess my psyche is trying to tell me to get back on the ball and finalize the guest list and get those addresses. I am sure I will have many more weird wedding dreams in the upcoming months (just 4 months from tomorrow).
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Wednesday April 5, 2006 Selling a Home
In my previous posts, I have eluded to Steve and I putting the townhouse up for sale and moving into 108 North (a house that has been in my family for almost a hundred years). Last night we had a potential buyer come back with his wife, who is 6 months pregnant with twins.
They love the place and we are looking forward to seeing if it will make sense to sell to them for financial and timing reasons. I am learning more and more about capital gains and taxes each day :) It is really great to be able to see people interested in your place, complimenting your decor and willing to pay money for your sweat equity. What threw me was when the wife asked if it was going to be hard to leave.
Her questions caught me off guard- I haven't had time to really think about it. I also needed to answer in a way that still makes them interested in buying our place. My initial reaction was - no, not really. I am ready to move on to the next chapter in our lives.
Since we starting moving things into 108 and planning out all the renovations that we will undertake in the next few years, all of my energy has been focused on looking forward. It has been fun to see the culmination of our efforts at the townhouse. I must say I might even try to keep the "empty counter" look going for awhile - but without pictures on the wall and little doodles (as Steve calls them) - it does not feel like our place anymore. It looks/feels like a model home/hotel where every morning I must put the shampoo back under the cabinet and take the toaster out to make my morning bagel.
In spite of it no longer feeling like our home and being ready for the next big phase, I am a little sad (and not just because I am no longer within walking distance of the mall). This is where Steve and I had many of our memories - putting in the wood floor, recently painting, chasing the dog around the dining room table (aka his little forest that he hids in on a regular basis).
I guess it is normal to feel that way about your home.
They love the place and we are looking forward to seeing if it will make sense to sell to them for financial and timing reasons. I am learning more and more about capital gains and taxes each day :) It is really great to be able to see people interested in your place, complimenting your decor and willing to pay money for your sweat equity. What threw me was when the wife asked if it was going to be hard to leave.
Her questions caught me off guard- I haven't had time to really think about it. I also needed to answer in a way that still makes them interested in buying our place. My initial reaction was - no, not really. I am ready to move on to the next chapter in our lives.
Since we starting moving things into 108 and planning out all the renovations that we will undertake in the next few years, all of my energy has been focused on looking forward. It has been fun to see the culmination of our efforts at the townhouse. I must say I might even try to keep the "empty counter" look going for awhile - but without pictures on the wall and little doodles (as Steve calls them) - it does not feel like our place anymore. It looks/feels like a model home/hotel where every morning I must put the shampoo back under the cabinet and take the toaster out to make my morning bagel.
In spite of it no longer feeling like our home and being ready for the next big phase, I am a little sad (and not just because I am no longer within walking distance of the mall). This is where Steve and I had many of our memories - putting in the wood floor, recently painting, chasing the dog around the dining room table (aka his little forest that he hids in on a regular basis).
I guess it is normal to feel that way about your home.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
1-2-3-4-5...6-7-8-9-10...11-12
I know - 2 posts in one day!
So I got a crazy email from sir Grosskopf today -
Subject: Do you want to stay up tonight.
And a link to a Chicago Sun Times story paraphrased below -
Unique date offers geeky fun
April 4, 2006
Stay up late tonight, pull out your military watch and see if you feel any different.
C'mon, all the other nerds are doing it.
Early Wednesday, when the clock strikes 1 a.m. plus two minutes and three seconds, the time and date will read 01:02:03 04/05/06.
"It's very rare," said Samad Hedayat, a statistics professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
But if you look at "the way we read numbers" -- meaning the more conventional way of looking at time and dates -- then you'd probably be interested in looking at 1:23 a.m. Wednesday. That's because it will be 1:23 4/5/6. And you could do the same later in the day, when it's 1:23 p.m., he says.
Considering that method, there will be three such occurrences this century.
It already happened at noon, March 4, 2005. And one more will happen this century: 12:34 a.m. or p.m. on May 6, 2007, or 12:34 5/6/7.
"If someone is going to have a baby, they may be able to plan it so the child can later say my birthday is 1234567."
As for the meaning of it all, Hedayat is not so sure about that.
He said that Chinese calendars are much more insightful on those matters.
Lisa Donovan
Couldn't Kate and BJ have waited another week or so for baby Zoe?
Just kidding :)
I am sure Portillo will bark to let me know that it is officially 01:02:03 04/05/06.
So I got a crazy email from sir Grosskopf today -
Subject: Do you want to stay up tonight.
And a link to a Chicago Sun Times story paraphrased below -
Unique date offers geeky fun
April 4, 2006
Stay up late tonight, pull out your military watch and see if you feel any different.
C'mon, all the other nerds are doing it.
Early Wednesday, when the clock strikes 1 a.m. plus two minutes and three seconds, the time and date will read 01:02:03 04/05/06.
"It's very rare," said Samad Hedayat, a statistics professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
But if you look at "the way we read numbers" -- meaning the more conventional way of looking at time and dates -- then you'd probably be interested in looking at 1:23 a.m. Wednesday. That's because it will be 1:23 4/5/6. And you could do the same later in the day, when it's 1:23 p.m., he says.
Considering that method, there will be three such occurrences this century.
It already happened at noon, March 4, 2005. And one more will happen this century: 12:34 a.m. or p.m. on May 6, 2007, or 12:34 5/6/7.
"If someone is going to have a baby, they may be able to plan it so the child can later say my birthday is 1234567."
As for the meaning of it all, Hedayat is not so sure about that.
He said that Chinese calendars are much more insightful on those matters.
Lisa Donovan
Couldn't Kate and BJ have waited another week or so for baby Zoe?
Just kidding :)
I am sure Portillo will bark to let me know that it is officially 01:02:03 04/05/06.
Tuesday April 4, 2006 - Neglecting My Blog
So in my head, the purpose of a blog is to write about what is going on in your world or an opportunity to voice your opinion on what's going on in the world in general. The problem with using this forum is a sounding board is that when stuff is going on that people might actually care to read about - you have not the time or the desire to run to your laptop and write.
Case and point - it's been a jam-packed two weeks. Steve and I learned that it is one thing to say "we're going to put our house on the market on April 1st" and a totally different experience to put it on craigslist.org, stick a sign in our yard and have people actually want to come see it.
We both needed that extra push to make sure that we were ready on April 1 - but it was more stressful than it needed to be. We made it though - paint is done, rooms are staged, clutter is gone and the garage even looks put together. We ended up having more potential buyers than we expected at a first open house on Saturday. Our marketing was limited to an email to friends and family with a flyer (in addition to the sign and craigslist).
Putting your number out there for the world means that you now get bombarded with calls from real estate agents who want to know how you could possibly consider selling on your own without them and their requisite commission. At first I was caught off guard with their line of questioning. When I adamently told one that "NO, I don't want to make more money.", Steve informed me that I needed to be nicer to them. You never know if one will bring us a potential buyer. After the second or third call with the same line questioning, I was much better at both playing nice and not giving them much room to "sell" to me.
We have one of the visitors from the open house stopping by again tonight with his wife who is 6 months pregnant (with TWINS). So we are taking this as a positive sign, but planning to kick the marketing efforts into higher gear this week and have another open house this Sunday.
Steve and I keep joking that it almost feels like we are in the middle of some Apprentice challenge in which each of us passing out flyers on the street. Details to follow if it comes to that.
In other way more exciting news - Kate and BJ had a baby girl, Zoe, on Mon. March 27th. She is beautiful! This is another example of blogging and the timing issue. I didn't realize how much I relied on Katie's blog to find out how the pregnancy was going. In my head I must have pictured her blogging in the delivery room, because all the sudden my link in to the world of pregnancy was appropriately cut off (temporarily mind you). Leave it to Katie to have pictures posted within 24 hours of being released from the hospital! Incredible!
So let's just say that if I keep up my blogging until that point - it would be great if we could hire a personal blogger to keep my blogs recent when I am out of pocket actually doing the things worth blogging about :)
Case and point - it's been a jam-packed two weeks. Steve and I learned that it is one thing to say "we're going to put our house on the market on April 1st" and a totally different experience to put it on craigslist.org, stick a sign in our yard and have people actually want to come see it.
We both needed that extra push to make sure that we were ready on April 1 - but it was more stressful than it needed to be. We made it though - paint is done, rooms are staged, clutter is gone and the garage even looks put together. We ended up having more potential buyers than we expected at a first open house on Saturday. Our marketing was limited to an email to friends and family with a flyer (in addition to the sign and craigslist).
Putting your number out there for the world means that you now get bombarded with calls from real estate agents who want to know how you could possibly consider selling on your own without them and their requisite commission. At first I was caught off guard with their line of questioning. When I adamently told one that "NO, I don't want to make more money.", Steve informed me that I needed to be nicer to them. You never know if one will bring us a potential buyer. After the second or third call with the same line questioning, I was much better at both playing nice and not giving them much room to "sell" to me.
We have one of the visitors from the open house stopping by again tonight with his wife who is 6 months pregnant (with TWINS). So we are taking this as a positive sign, but planning to kick the marketing efforts into higher gear this week and have another open house this Sunday.
Steve and I keep joking that it almost feels like we are in the middle of some Apprentice challenge in which each of us passing out flyers on the street. Details to follow if it comes to that.
In other way more exciting news - Kate and BJ had a baby girl, Zoe, on Mon. March 27th. She is beautiful! This is another example of blogging and the timing issue. I didn't realize how much I relied on Katie's blog to find out how the pregnancy was going. In my head I must have pictured her blogging in the delivery room, because all the sudden my link in to the world of pregnancy was appropriately cut off (temporarily mind you). Leave it to Katie to have pictures posted within 24 hours of being released from the hospital! Incredible!
So let's just say that if I keep up my blogging until that point - it would be great if we could hire a personal blogger to keep my blogs recent when I am out of pocket actually doing the things worth blogging about :)
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