Confessions from the Donkey Bride

A Day in History

2009-01-20T08:23:00.002-05:00

There are not many days you wake up knowing it is a day that will forever be remembered in history. There are not many days you wake up knowing you will remember where you were and what you were doing on that day. Today is a day we will be able to tell future generations with pride how we were part of history. I am in awe of this day.

I remember the first time I saw Barack Obama on Oprah talking about his book "The Audacity of Hope" back before he had ever announced his plan to run for president. (Although Oprah did say she hoped he would.) I remember telling my mom about the man I had seen and how I hoped he would run for President because there was something about him that struck a chord in me the first time I saw him. I remember having conversations with my best friend when Barack Obama first announced his run and I remember her telling me she thought she would vote for Hillary because she simply did not believe Obama could win. I remember being surprised that my democratic, african american best friend of 10 years would feel that way, but I also remember thinking that I've never walked in her shoes. (She did eventually come around.) I remember how excited I was, for the first time in my life, to go vote. Not for the lesser of two evils, but for someone I truly believed in. I remember watching the election results with my parents and my in-laws the night before we got in the car to move to Florida. I will never forget the way I felt when he won.

Today is a day of mixed feelings. In a few hours Barack Obama will be sworn in as our 44th President and I'm not sure I can put into words how happy I am. I did not vote for Barack Obama because he was black, but I'm really glad he is. I believe that Obama is who he appears and that he will inspire change in this country. I believe Barack Obama is going to be a great president. But I am also incredibly disappointed today. I am disappointed to have lived almost my entire life 30 minutes outside of Washington DC, and now, can not be there to celebrete and be part of history. I would love to be able to say "I was there".

Jimmy is going to be coming home from work early to watch history with me. I wish I was there, but mostly I am grateful this day is finally here. I am grateful that this day is happening in my lifetime. I am so happy for our African American citizens because I know what this day means to them. And I am happy for America because I know what this day means to us. I am in awe of this day.

First Post of 2009!

2009-01-01T16:35:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! And Happy Birthday to Jimmy!

We're having a quiet day around the house, but amazingly, because of how hard it was to get drinks at the bar last night, we're not hungover. Tomorrow I'll be taking Jimmy to Orlando for his surprise birthday event. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures to share.

Last Post of 2008!

2008-12-31T16:55:00.008-05:00

This last month has been busy as Decembers always are, but in a very different way as years past. As I had mentioned my parents were able to come down the beginning of the month and we had a great visit. My dad was only able to join us for a few days, but it was nice being able to spend his birthday with him, and he enjoyed the bar crawl he did with Jimmy. One of my favorite parts of their trip was when we walked down the beach to the pier on my dad's birthday. We lucked out as were able to see a dolphin, 2 sea turtles and a submarine going out. All were firsts for me since we moved here and I was really happy I got to share those moments with my parents. And as an added bonus, as we were standing on the pier, we got the phone call that my good friend Missy, who is like a little sister to me, had gone into labor! My dad was pretty happy that Baby Miles decided to share his birthday. After he headed back to MD, it was just my mom and I while Jimmy was at work, and we spent most of the rest of our visit talking on the beach and hanging out on our balcony enjoying the view. Here are some of my favorite pictures from their visit:

Dad enjoying the birthday dinner I made him.

Playing cards with my parents.

One of the stops on the bar crawl we did. (Mom and I didn't last that long since we'd already been drinking for almost 5 hours when it started.)

On the beach on Dad's b-day.

The submarine we saw go out.

One of the sea turtles we saw.

Awww! Aren't they cute?

I was not prepared for how hard it was going to be when they left. I think that because I had SO much going on right before we moved that I just really didn't have the chance to completely absorb the fact that I was no longer going to have them right down the street. I am trying to stay focused on the good part, which is that I do get to spend really great quality time with them when they are here since I no longer take it for granted.

Not to long after they left, Jimmy and I decided we would not be able to go back to Maryland for the inauguration and instead would go home for Christmas and surprise our parents. Why we decide that is a long story I won't bore you with. My Uncle Bill picked us up from the airport Christmas morning and drove us to my parents house. My uncle parked behind some large bushes in front of their house and we jumped out and hid behind the house while my uncle went into tell my mom he had brought her something he needed help getting out of the truck. I wish I had a picture of my mom when she came out in her bathrobe and slippers! I also wish I could remember exactly what she said when she saw us, but I do know she cursed at us before she started to cry. Too funny! Unfortunately my dad wasn't home for the initial surprise, but we did get him by jumping out from the kitchen yelling "Merry Christmas" when he did get home.

From there we had to drive to Frederick to surprise Jimmy's parents who were celebrating Christmas at his sister Lauren's house. Our plan didn't work out exactly as planned, but when Lauren opened the door we jumped in yelling "Merry Christmas". Jimmy's mom cried too. I think everyone liked our surprise.

We spent the rest of our trip catching up with and having a blast with our friends and family. The only problem with going home for the holidays is that other people are traveling too, so we weren't able to see everyone we would have liked to. I ended up with way more pictures I love than I could possible post here, but here are a few.

Jimmy's mom with her babies

Out to lunch for Mom's birthday

Out watching the Raven's game with some of our favorite people

What a year 2008 has been! I can hardly believe it's over or how different my life was at this exact time last year when I was headed to work at Flip's to work New Year's Eve. I hope everyone has a very safe and happy New Year and hope you will stay tuned to see what 2009 will bring!

Love,
Jenn

Merry Christmas from sunny Florida!

2008-12-24T18:04:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Endeavor Rides Back to FL!

2008-12-12T15:10:00.012-05:00

I'm going to go a little out of order because my plan was for my next post to be about my Mom & Dad's visit this past week, but since that's going to take more time than I have right now, I'm going to just go ahead and post these now.

For those of you who live outside Florida and don't get the minute by minute updates on all things NASA like we do here and/or live under a rock, the space shuttle Endeavor landed in California on December 1st. The first choice is always to land the shuttle back here in Florida, but like this time, that can't always happen. Amazingly the same shuttle
which takes our astronauts to space is not capable of flying back to Florida on it's own, so instead NASA has to pay $1.8 million dollars to strap it on the back of a 747 and fly it back here.

These are the pictures I took about an hour ago from the beach in front of my house watching the Endeavor "ride" back home.

It really is amazing what a huge deal the space program is, especially to the people down here. I was very surprised how many people, of all ages, were down on the beach in the middle of a work day to watch it come back. And I am also amazed by how cool it really is to live here.

Turkey Day

2008-11-28T15:55:00.023-05:00

Well it was definitely an untraditional Thanksgiving for us this year. For starters it was our first big holiday ever without our families, and honestly being here alone was a little sad. But it was also fun because it made this move seem like a bit more of an adventure.

I started off the morning watching the sunrise, which amazingly I do most mornings these days. I'm hoping to get a nicer camera and maybe take some photography classes after I have a job, because these pictures just don't do it justice.

We headed down to Cocoa Beach for their annual Turkey Trot just after 7 am. I know, it's hard for me to believe I watch sunrises and leave the house at 7 am by choice too! After having such a blast cheering on Shelby at the DC Marathon last month with my girlfriends, I had high expectations, and so the Turkey Trot
was a bit of a let down.  Only a few people dressed up, and maybe
half a dozen carried turkeys, but Jimmy is talking about running it
next year, so maybe that will add to the excitement. There were some pretty interesting turkey carrying strategies:

From the race we walked over to one of our favorite new restaurants, a little Cuban place called Roberto's and had breakfast. We realized it was the first time either of us had ever been out to eat for any meal on Thanksgiving.

After sharing a half pitcher of sangria we headed home to watch the Macy's Day Parade and enjoy a sangria inspired siesta. I'm pretty sure the pilgrims would have been proud! I then got to work preparing our Thanksgiving Day feast. From here our day got even more untraditional. I realized my turkey was absorbing a lot of juice and had already sucked up 2 cans of chicken broth. To be safe, Jimmy and I decided to run out to the store to pick up another can. We got in the elevator, the doors closed, and I pushed the button for the 1st floor. Only nothing happened. After pushing the door open button several times, and every other button for that matter, we finally had to push the "call for help" button. Fortunately that one did work. We were told help was on the way and proceeded to wait...and wait. We were able to get the attention of one of our neighbors who was kind enough to offer to wait on the other side of the door with us. I told him we were fine, but did ask that he check back with us in 30 minutes so I could have him break into the house to baste my turkey if we were still trapped.   He was very sweet and kept checking back with us, letting us know he had called and was giving us updates on how much longer we had to wait. And after 40 minutes we were finally freed. I was a little disappointed we were not rescued by the fire department because I thought having a picture of us with a firefighter would be really cool for the blog, but instead have this picture of us with our maintenance man.

After being cooped up in the elevator, we finally got our turkey basted and headed down to the beach. It was a little chilly with the wind blowing, but still very cool the weather was nice enough for us to be hanging out on the beach.

And finally it was time to eat. I wasn't willing to miss out on any of our favorites, so we ended up with a ridiculous amount of food for 2 people.   And thankfully, according to Jimmy, his mom's
stuffing recipe came out just like she makes it.

The thing I probably missed the most was our annual post-Thanksgiving party with our friends. We did head down the street to one of the bars at the port and had a good time, but it just wasn't the same. By next year we should have some new friends and hopefully we can resume our party tradition. But for now, we are extremely thankful that our wish to move and start a new adventure together came together this year!

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Late Birthday Update

2008-11-22T08:25:00.004-05:00

Well I'm late posting this, but I was hoping I would have some of the pictures from last weekend to post (hint, hint Mike, I'm still waiting). My birthday was fantastic! Lydia and Mike flew down on Thursday night and we met up with Mike's brother Matt, and Matt's wife Kelly for lunch on Friday. Later on we watched the launch preparations on tv and headed down to the beach with our cooler of drinks and champagne about 45 minutes before the launch. It was truly one of the coolest things I've ever seen! The beach in front of our house is about 15 miles from the launch site, but we could easily tell where it was because of how bright the sky was from the launch
pad being illuminated. We kept watching in that direction, and right on time (7:55) the entire sky lit up like it was daylight. About 10 seconds later a huge fireball came up over the buildings and we watched as it went up in the sky, leaving an incredible cloud of smoke in its wake. Because of our distance we could never see the outline of the shuttle, it only ever looked like a fireball, but it gave me chills to watch it. The sky was clear and beautiful and we were able to see it for a long time, until it looked like a tiny star in the sky and then disappeared. It was so amazing to be looking up at the sky knowing you were watching people travel to space. I've seen launches before on tv, but it is nothing like standing watching it. The only disappointing thing was that we never heard or felt it. According to some of Jimmy's co-workers at KSC, it is really unusual not to be able to hear or feel it and they suspected it had to do with the direction of the wind. Even still, how cool is it to say the last night launch of the shuttle happened on your birthday, right after you move down, and you're able to watch it from your backyard??? We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and consuming to many alcoholic beverages, but we had a great time!

Hopefully I can come back and add some pictures we took over the weekend, but for the time
being these are a couple I snagged from NASA's website.

This one actually looks pretty similar to what we saw only from further away.

And this one give you a good idea of how beautiful the moon was that night.

Jimmy is planning to get us on center to watch the next launch, so hopefully this is what we'll actually see the next time.

"I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream." ~Neil Armstrong

How Quickly Life Changes

2008-11-11T20:45:00.009-05:00

Hello from sunny Florida! The weather is amazing here and despite missing my friends and family very much, I am amazed how quickly I am becoming comfortable in this new life. Jimmy and I have been working hard getting things unpacked and have made amazing progress.   Some of us work harder than others.

Just kidding. I just wanted an excuse to sneak this picture in because I love it so much.

One of the most shocking changes to this new life is that I have somehow become a morning person. I haven't been asleep past 7:30 am in over a week and I'm not even setting an alarm. The verdict is still out on how I actually feel about this. On one hand it's nice to have accomplished so much by 9 am, and it's nice this time of year to have more hours of sunshine. But on the other hand, it's me, and I'm not a morning person.

The best change is how relaxed I feel and how active we've already become. Sunday we took a long walk on the beach and this evening we went for a bike ride around the neighborhood next to us. We also went to the American Police Hall of Fame & Museum this afternoon which was pretty cool. We were bummed to find out they are no longer offering helicopter rides, and we were even more disappointed when we found out they'd only been charging $35 a person for the helicopter rides when they were still doing them. But we had the place to ourselves and got to
see some cool stuff.

The first thing when you walk in is a car of an officer who died in the line of duty. While is car was on display after the tragedy people from his community signed his car.   The car is literally
signed from bumper to bumper.  It was very moving to see.

The Fallen Officers Memorial

Not moving, but very funny was when I walked around a corner to find Jimmy having a puppet show with the McGruff's dogs.

Jimmy and I trying out the electric chair.

Jimmy checking out the forensic evidence display. I was thinking about my friend Detective Jordan while we were looking at this. Jordan, if you're reading this, I hope your first homicide investigation is going well!

Jimmy and I playing dress up with some of the uniforms they had.

I thought this was pretty cool. Before towns had jails built they used to keep people overnight in "Tramp Chairs". Prisoners were normally undressed and left out in the elements while neighborhood children would poke them with sticks.

And a really cool old police car.

So that's what we've been up to so far. I'll be spending the next two days continuing to get our place organized before our first guests arrive and will be job hunting in full force come Monday.

"Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives."  ~A. Sachs

Look Mom, No Tears!

2008-11-07T20:53:00.007-05:00

Amazingly it has been over a week since the last time I cried and I managed to get to our new home without crying once! We got in safe last night, just got internet this afternoon and have the moving truck showing up tomorrow morning. We have had some issues, most notably the fact that we went to the community office this afternoon to be informed no trucks over 24' are allowed on the property. Our truck, which is WELL over 24', was supposed to be here at 8 am tomorrow. Luckily the government transfer office is taking good care of us and
have made arrangements to have our stuff unloaded onto a smaller truck so they can get to us. It'll be later in the day, but our stuff should still be here tomorrow. What a pain!

And my plan was to go get our new FL licenses and tags this afternoon only I realized we carefully packed our lockbox with our birth certificates, social security cards, and other important documents in the car with us, but the key is packed on the truck and some of those documents we need for our new licenses. So much for best laid plans!

Anyway, I wanted to check in with those of you who I haven't talked
to and let you know we got here safe. We slept with our bedroom door open last night and woke up to the sounds of the ocean, so I have nothing really to complain about! We will be very busy the next few days unpacking, but are excited to have Mike and Lydia coming down to watch NASA graciously launch the shuttle to celebrate my birthday! I will update soon!

The House is SOLD!

2008-10-28T00:06:00.045-04:00

The house did go to settlement as planned last Wednesday. I was so thankful that not only did it go off without a hitch, but I also managed to make it through without crying or otherwise making an ass out of myself in front of the buyers, which I was concerned about beforehand. We won't talk about how much we had to pay to sell the house because it's just depressing, but as sad as I am about selling our home, it is a relief to have it over. It is weird and sad to be here knowing it isn't our house, but I am trying hard not to think about it and just enjoy the last week we are here. I have taken some strange comfort in the fact that the buyers are around our age and are engaged. For whatever reason I really like the fact that this will be their first house together and they will get to have similar first memories here. I guess whatever makes me feel better.

Since I never got around to it before, I figure this would be the perfect post to finally show off all all the work we put into the house over the last 3 1/2 years. Please ignore the dark shadows in some of the before pics, I'm not sure what the deal with the camera was.

The front before.

The front after.

The foyer before.

The foyer after.

The kitchen before. Can you say 1970??? Be sure to note the lovely plaid wallpaper, the disco ball light fixture, army green counters and of course, the crafty pineapple stencils. Not to mention there was zero counter space.

The kitchen after. By far the hardest part about leaving our first house behind is leaving my FANTASTIC kitchen. Jimmy was thrilled when he realized by putting in the island that we had in fact installed a regulation sized beer pong table! We knocked down the walls dividing the kitchen from the living room and dining room, and installed all new custom built cabinets with soft close drawers (which I did not pay extra for and thought were completely pointless, but now do not know how I will live without), granite counters, a HUGE granite composite sink, under-cabinet lighting and more. There is so much room to work and I love that everyone hangs out at the island when they come over. I am going to MISS my kitchen!

The living room before.

The living room after. Really just fresh paint and more stylish furnishings.

The dining room before. Could that light fixture be any uglier?

The dining room after.

The hall bath before. It was my bathroom since I refused to use the tiny master bath. The sage green honestly wouldn't have been so bad with better accessories, but that wood toilet seat made me crazy!

My bathroom after.

The guest room before. They must have gotten an incredible deal on that hideous green paint because it was everywhere, including the cement block walls in the laundry room.

The guest room after. A word of advice ~ DO NOT EVER paint a room red until you have purchased the bedding, curtains, or any other furnishings you might need to match. Red can be surprisingly hard to match/compliment depending on the shade.

The office before.

The office after.

The master bedroom before.

The master bedroom after.

The master bathroom before. I cannot begin to describe how much I HATED this bathroom. So much so, that if I needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, I would still walk down the hall to the other bathroom.

The master bath after. It KILLS me that we only finished it about 6 months ago. It's still small, but I finally like it and now we're leaving. I have to say the pictures really don't do it justice. The tile is really pretty with decorative insets and for some reason the colors in the room just didn't come out well in the pictures.

The basement rec room before.

The basement rec room after. It is amazing what a difference painting over the dark paneling made. Another project I am kicking myself for putting off for so long!

The basement powder room before. Apparently mismatching the toilet seat to the toilet was in style at one point??? And more stencils. I did feel a little bad painting over them knowing the last owner had lovingly applied them, but they had to go.

The powder room after. I actually borrowed a wet tile saw from a friend and tiled the bathroom myself while Jimmy was at work. He was super impressed despite the fact me, my cell phone and the cat were all covered in grout!

The basement bedroom before.

The basement bedroom after. This was my office until a few months ago and I really love how it turned out after I staged it to sell.

There's really no before and after to these, but since the deck was one of my favorite spots I still wanted to show off the backyard.

With everything going on my life this quote is particularly touching to me right now:

"Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong. Sometimes it's letting go."
~Sylvia Robinson

One, Two, Three Weeks From Now

2008-10-15T23:29:00.019-04:00

One week from today, god willing, we are scheduled to settle on our house.   This is NOT the market to sell a home in and after all the work we've put into it, it's really hard to swallow writing such a huge check to get rid of it. I wish I could be happy about it, but it's really hard. Adding to the stress is the fact they wanted such a quick settlement (2 weeks and 1 day after they put in their offer), we are having to rent back since there is no way we can be out by settlement, and we failed the radon test. It has been a roller coaster of emotions and negotiations. I am looking forward to it being done!

Two weeks from tomorrow will be my last day at my job and I am officially unemployed. I'm thinking of bartending or cocktail waitressing once I get down there so I'll have more flexibility as far as my schedule and pay, but jobs are competitive down there, so I'm just going to have to wait and see where the journey takes me.

And three weeks from today, we will be moving out of Maryland. This is the only place I can ever remember calling home and I really have no idea how I'm going to take it. Leaving our family, our friends, everything that is familiar to us, the first house we bought together and all our memories is beyond bittersweet. It is sometimes hard to remember in all this chaos and stress that this is really what I want.

BUT, the great part of my week was that Jimmy and I were down in Florida for the last 5 days and found an AMAZING place to rent. We totally lucked out finding a place the guy was desperate to get rented quickly and gave us a $400/month discount over what he was originally asking. No way we would be living there had he not!   So this is where Jimmy and I will be
calling home between now and at least October 31, 2009!

Foyer

Guest Room #1 - We're leaving their furniture in there.

Guest Room #2 - We're leaving the bunk beds so we can sleep more people and still fit our desk in there. I guess we'll have to pull straws when we're having a bunch of people in town at once.



The kitchen! I'm in love with the fact that on top of an island we also have the breakfast bar where you can pull up a stool. The granite countertops and large pantry also soften the blow of leaving the great kitchen we have now! :)



The combination living room/dining room. I think it's about the same size as what we have now, but I haven't measure yet to see how far I may be off. All their ugly furniture, including the decorative mallards will be packed away and put in storage as soon as we get there! The 4 panel slider at the back of the living room opens completely up onto the balcony and we can hear the ocean from the kitchen!!!

Our master bedroom. I finally have a bedroom big enough for a king size bed!!! And from the bed you can see the ocean!!! And it has his and her's walk-in closets!  I am in heaven!

What's that a toilet with it's own door AND a big tub??? I've died and gone to heaven!!!

And the very best part is the view from our over sized balcony where we can see and hear the ocean waves crashing!!! The first place we looked at had a perfect view with no obstructions in between, but this place is so much bigger and nicer that it was worth the compromise.

Was I really complaining about selling my house???   The last few weeks have been incredibly stressful, and I know the next few weeks aren't going to be much better, but I do have some fantastic things, including our new place, to look forward to. We found out while we were in FL that the next shuttle launch is scheduled for my birthday, the week after we move down, and it looks like there is a good chance we will have at least one friend coming down for it!!! We also learned from our real estate agent that there is a "Turkey Trot" on Thanksgiving Day which is a 10K (I think) run where people run through the streets carrying turkeys (why I have no idea, but that is definitely right up Jimmy's alley).

So I am exhausted and am going to get to bed, but I know there were a lot of people waiting to see pics. And as you can see we have plenty of room for people to come visit. Right now it looks like Lydia, Matt and Mike may win the "first to visit" award, but we'd still love to see you soon!

"Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home, sweet home
For there the heart can rest."
~Henry Van Dyke

1st Post of 2008!

2008-09-05T00:53:00.010-04:00

If you're not counting the one I wrote last year and just got around to posting.

So Jimmy's job transfer has been approved and we're moving to Florida!!! His first day at his new job is November 10th. So I've spent the last month dying to hear if it's been approved and mistakenly thinking that once we heard I would no longer have to be stuck in the limbo we'd been living in. Yeah right. Tomorrow we put the house back on the market. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks we will have a good idea if the house will sell at the reduced price. But if not there is a chance Jimmy will be moving down before me. So our limbo went from not knowing if and when we'd be transfered, to now having the uncertaintly of how long it will take the house to sell, when I should quit my job, whether or not we should rent a place for November 1st or if Jimmy will stay in a hotel the first month and we'll rent December 1st...the list goes on. I'm trying to stay focused on the fact it will all work out and hopefully I will not loose my sanity somewhere between here and the beach. It feels so surreal! And scary!

I've also told my mom. That was by far the worst part and I'm happy to have it out of the way.

Well, this is my attempt to get back into blogging. I don't know that I'll be able to get into a regular blogging schedule with so much going on right now, but my hope is to use this as a way to
keep everyone informed with what's going on in our lives once we are no longer living around the corner.

"Life's a voyage that's homeward bound." ~Herman Melville

Better Late Than Never?

2008-09-05T00:51:00.000-04:00

NOTE: I actually wrote this post just shy of one year ago meaning to come back, add the pictures and post it. Obviously that didn't happen. Since it made me laugh when I just now came back and read the draft, I've decided, "what the hell" and am adding the pictures and posting it now.

I started off strong, but here we are 5 days since my last post and it's all been because I've been SO busy! I wasn't this busy when I was working full time! Here's a recap of what I've been up to along with my random thoughts.

Friday night ~ Jimmy comes home from work.

Jimmy: Let's go to happy hour!

Me: No honey, we still have a lot to do to get ready for the yard sale tomorrow.

Jimmy: But you finally have weekends off and I've missed being able to have fun with you! (oh, he's good)

Me: I really don't want to feel like crap tomorrow.

Jimmy: But we can just go and have a few drinks.

Me: Honey, you know that never happens.

Jimmy: Awww, come on. We won't stay long.

Me: Fine. But we will be home BY 8:00 and will finish getting ready for the yard sale.

Jimmy: Ok! (big smile)

I am later informed as we walk out the door that since I took so long getting ready (not my fault, the phone kept ringing), we can come home at 9. He definately should be in sales. We get to our local watering hole where two of our favorite bartenders are working the tiki bar. I instruct them to stop serving us and kick us out at 9. It was a nice try. We do manage to leave before the lights come on, but just barely. We get home just after 1 am. To give you an idea of exactly how out of hand the night has gotten, Jimmy spent the cab ride home with his head out the window and then proceeded to come home and pass out on the deck. Not in one of the 6 chairs we have out there, but ON the deck. By the time I went out to get him he was snoring and I couldn't wake him up. I have little sympathy.

Saturday morning ~ We of course are already running late by the time I drag my butt out of bed. We manage to get our stuff loaded up and over to our friend's house where we are having the yard sale. She lives right on a pretty busy road, so the location is great and we didn't have to pay to advertise. Let me just say that even with my hangover, our yard sale was a BLAST! Of course we did look like a Jeff Foxworthy skit for "You Might be a Redneck", but who cares. I wish I had a picture of all 7 of us lined up in lawn chairs, drinking beer and eating pizza, but I think some of these pictures I did come home with will paint a good picture for you.

Jimmy and Jaleah trying out some of the merchandise.

Jimmy doing some kind of Vegas-style umbrella dance.

Courtney attempting to draw customers by showcasing some of our finest lingerie.

And finally, Missy & Courtney cracking up over some funny cat picture book I was trying to get rid of. I guess what they say about one man's trash is true.

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." ~James Branch Cabell

It's Our Monthiversary!

2007-10-26T12:43:00.000-04:00

We've been married 5 months today!!! Confession ~ I never finished my thank you notes. I should just do them now, but it seems kind of lame to be sending them out so late. I don't know what do you think?

On the married front, I simply can't believe it's been 5 months! On one hand it seems like yesterday and on the other hand it feels like a lifetime ago. Confession ~ I was freaked out about getting married right up to our wedding day. I don't know, I guess it was just the fact that it's so permanent. And also that I would be a WIFE and that would make me feel old. I was also pretty freaked out that guys would never see me as a single girl again. I know that's not the most amazing thing to admit, but it does make you feel young to have guys desire you despite the fact you are already in love with someone else. It really has nothing to do with wanting to be with them, it's just that there's still the option if you met someone incredible. The good news for my single friends is that married life is wonderful. I don't feel old, well at least not because I'm married. In some ways it doesn't really feel different at all and in other hard to describe ways, it really does. I feel like we are closer and better than ever, so knock on wood, being married is great.

I finally finished my second wedding album for anyone who is bored and/or interested. And if not, I'm still throwing in a few favorite wedding pictures here to celebrate the day.

I really should get my butt off the couch and get a few things done before Jimmy gets home from work and I'm still in my pajamas. Especially since I'm hoping to use our 5 month anniversary as an excuse to go out to dinner. But before I sign off, a quick update on the job front.

I haven't heard anything more about the marketing job, but am planning to email them today to see if I can find out anything new. I have started working ~ as a bartender at my cousin's bar. It's pretty sad/funny/ironic that I left my last company so I could have weekends off only to get one of the few jobs that has consistently worse hours. I have zero bartending experience and so far, with the exception of pouring beer or making drinks like "rum and coke" or "vodka and cranberry", I only know how to make a red headed slut. Hopefully I will pick up a few new drinks over the weekend. But it is totally different than any other job I've had and it can be fun and makes me feel young. It's definitely not a long-term job path for me, but it's something to make money while I look for a "career" job. If nothing else I think it's great experience to have since it's always a job you can easily get and fall back on, if and when life throws you a curve ball or when Jimmy and I finally move out of the area.

That's it for now. Hopefully between working this weekend and going out for Halloween/Alex's birthday tomorrow night I will have some funny stories to share next week.

"I used to believe that marriage would diminish me, reduce my options. That you had to be someone less to live with someone else when, of course, you have to be someone more." ~ Candice Bergen

Unexpected Job News

2007-10-17T23:33:00.001-04:00

And the verdict is...they said they can't hire anyone at the moment??? According to the human resource manager, something he cannot discuss has come up and they are not able to hire anyone at the moment. He believes the issue may be resolved by the end of business on Monday, but can't guarantee it and understands I may not be able to wait. My first thought is, are they too afraid to tell me they picked the other candidate? But he says he would appreciate it if I would stay in touch with them and said he would call and let me know as soon as he knew which doesn't really make sense if that's the case. Very weird. I guess at least I know now that I'm not going to know anytime soon.

I could ramble on and on about this, because honestly I am confused, stressed, ticked off and disappointed after having put my heart into trying to get this job (and over 9 hours of interviews). But I am resolving (at least for the moment) to do my best not to let it get to me and continue on with my search from here.

I just have to say that I do have the most wonderful and supportive husband ever! Even though I am super stressed, about money and being unemployed, he keeps telling me not to worry about it and that we'll work it out. I'm such a lucky girl!!!

"It is wiser to find out than to suppose." ~ Mark Twain

Books I've Recently Read

2007-10-17T00:29:00.000-04:00

I love to read! I haven't had as much time to do it over the last few years as I would have liked, and as I result I have read at least 15 books since the wedding. I love having people to discuss books I've read with and wish I had the opportunity to do so more often. Maybe this will help. So anyhow, here's a list of some of the books I've recently read and some thoughts about them.

The Shopaholic Series by Sophie Kinsella ~ I found parts of each of these books extremely irritating. Mainly because I had the overwhelming urge at points in each book to smack the shit out of the main character, Becky, when she would get herself into the most insane situations. Fortunately I also found them endearing, especially the last one "Shopaholic & Baby" and really liked the ending of all the books.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah ~ While incredibly sad, this true account of a boy who ends up a soldier in Sierra Leone's civil war is a must read in my mind. I've often thought about children living in war zones, but I've always thought about it more in a way where the kids were growing up not knowing any different. To hear this boy (who is actually now a man my age living in NYC) talk about his normal every day life being turned upside down unexceptedly when the war shows up in his village was extremely thought provoking, sad, informative and inspiring. I think the fact that he is my age, living in the US for some reason made it seem all that much more real and touching to me.

The Quickie by James Patterson ~ I am a HUGE James Patterson fan! I have read everything he's published to date and normally buy myself the hardback the day it comes out. I have found over the years that with the speed and frequency he's publishing that some books are not nearly as good as others, but I really liked this one a lot.

You've Been Warned by James Patterson ~ Loved this one too! But this one I mainly loved because it was SO different than his other books, but still great. I love that Patterson tends to do murder mysteries, but then really shows his writing talent by publishing books where the style and/or theme are so different than everything else he's written.

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult ~ I really liked her other book Nineteen Minutes a lot better. She has a great writing style and can tell a great story, but this particular story wasn't my favorite.

And now I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's definately making me want to pack it all up and take a trip to Italy and India!

Not Patient, Day 2

2007-10-16T19:25:00.000-04:00

So just thought I would share a little update. Went to get my hairs cut today which was great because it helped take my mind off waiting for the job phone call...a little bit. The 1:00 deadline when the guy said he'd call by came and went. 2:00, no phone call. 3:00, no phone call, but was finally done my hair appt. So I couldn't even wait to get home and called him from the parking lot. At this point I was convinced since he hadn't called that I didn't have the job. But I figured I would put myself out of my misery and call myself. His answer ~ he can't decide. It's between me and one other candidate and according to him, he wants to hire us both but can't. We both have great qualities, but very different qualities. So he's decided to sleep on it.

I had to go to the bar to have a drink to get the knot out of my chest. Does he not realize he is killing me here? So I am practicing being patient for the second night in a row. I'm really trying. Honest! We will see how it goes.

Thank you to everyone for all the good thoughts and well wishes! I will keep you posted.

All Cheered Up

2007-10-16T00:00:00.000-04:00

Well it's just after midnight, so I don't have to feel lame about posting twice in one day because it's technically now tomorrow. Jimmy and I went to see "The Heartbreak Kid". It won't be winning an academy award, but we laughed a lot and it definitely brought me out of my little pity party.

So here's some other interesting (maybe?) things that have been going on. Last weekend Jimmy and I went to DC to hang out with some friends. We ended up at the Chi Cha Lounge where we smoked mango out of a hookah pipe. Why you might ask, would one pay $18 to smoke dried fruit out of a hookah? Well honestly, I have no idea. But we were trendy and tried it out. No pictures of Jimmy and I, but here's Marvin and his girlfriend Katie. Despite the look on Marvin's face it really was just fruit. I swear!

Since we stayed the night in DC and Jimmy had off for Columbus Day we decided to take advantage of what was sure to be one of the last hot days of the year and hit the National Zoo. I was stoked because I seem to always go when the pandas are either asleep or are outside hiding behind a tree. The pandas frankly are the highlight of my visit so it is a huge let down when they don't cooperate. Imagine my surprise when they were not only awake and inside where you could see them, but were playing with milk crates, much to the delight of myself and the 10,000 other little kids jammed in the viewing area. I only had to push a few of them out of the way to get my picture.

We also saw the funniest prairie dog ever who stood perfectly still right near the glass. I wish the picture showed the expression on his face better because it was hilarious.

And according to one mother I overheard talking to her child, the large tortoise on top is "scratching the back" of the smaller tortoise underneath. I'm not sure she found it too amusing when I said "bom chicka bom bom". Hmmm...do you say or sing "bom chicka bom bom" or is it just a noise? Well anyway, hopefully you know what I mean. I suppose I should suspend judgement on a parents decision to lie to their kids about sex until I have kids of my own. I must not be ready for kids because the 4 of us were WAY too amused by the whole situation including the fact that the male tortoise was making the loudest and funniest noise I've ever heard. I think my husband's weird sense of humor is rubbing off on me more than I than I like to admit.

This weekend Jimmy was sick so unfortunately many of our plans didn't end up panning out. I went solo with some friends to see the movie "Michael Clayton" on Saturday night. Good story, but it was long and slow and could have been better in my opinion. Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch. Well, we went to the parking lot of the pumpkin patch. We had not taken into consideration that in years past Jimmy would take off the afternoon on one of my weekday days off and we would go. For some reason the insane amount of children running around came as a surprise to us. So we got back in the car and drove to the nursery up the road to pick our pumpkins out without all the chaos. I got the COOLEST pumpkin ever and will definitely post a pic once we carve them. It's a whitish grey pumpkin that I'm planning to give a ghost like expression. Which is a joke because I have no artistic ability so it will probably have the same eyes, nose and mouth all my pumpkins do. I'm on a bit of a picture kick at the moment, so here are our pumpkins from last two years.

(Only the one on the bottom right is mine, so hopefully that is the face of a surprised ghost.)

I don't know about exciting, but hopefully this was if nothing else, more entertaining than my last post. Ciao for now!

"In youth we learn; in age we understand." -- Maria von Ebner Eschenbach

Confession: I am NOT a patient person!

2007-10-15T20:34:00.000-04:00

So I really thought I'd be a lot better on keeping up with my blog, but since I have other things to feel badly about not getting done I've decided not to dwell on this.

I am sitting here waiting to head to the movies because I will honestly make myself insane if I don't get my mind off things. I had my THIRD interview today for a marketing job I really want. I suppose I am in such a foul mood about this because I had convinced myself the only reason they would call me back for a third meeting would be to offer me a job. Turns out I was wrong. Apparently they are having a hard time deciding between me and another candidate, so they decided to call us both back in. The good news is that I have been assured a decision will be made by tomorrow afternoon. The bad news is that I am completely impatient and feel like I'm going to crawl out of my skin waiting for the phone call which is still more than 12 hours away. Plus the unwavering confidence the job is mine has now been deflated. Job hunting definately was not this hard or frustrating when I last looked for a job 5 years ago.

I suppose this is another one of those tests that life throws a person. I am failing miserably. Like I do anytime I need to be patient. I can only describe my level of patience of that of a 5 year old waiting for Christmas morning and counting down the days. That feeling that you will LITERALLY die if time does not pass faster than the current snails pace it seems to be going at that moment. The only thing worse than this is waiting for vacation!

So it is time to leave for the movies. I promise to make my next post a bit more interesting.

"You have to have a lot of patience to learn patience." ~ Stanislaw Lec

It's the Little Things in Life...

2007-09-20T22:34:00.000-04:00

...that make me giddy. I am such a nerd. For example, today I FINALLY went and bought a new mouse for my laptop. Why it took me so long, I have absolutely no idea. Had I had my mouth washed out with soap every time I cursed at the f-ing thing, I definitely would have gone through a least one case of soap over the last year. It had a mind of it's own and would randomly stop working, followed by the cursing, unplugging, more cursing, replugging, until it would finally start working again. My new high tech mouse is wireless! Woohoo! Although I am not yet enjoying that feature since it has to be plugged in while the batteries are charging. I'm sure tomorrow I will be even more in love with my most recent purchase.

This type of random elation is actually pretty common in my life. Like when Jimmy recently installed my new closet systems. They are the fancy pants type with a tower of wood shelves in the center, one rod set high up on the left and two rods on the right for extra hanging space. You would have thought I was 5 years old and Santa had just come when I got to put all my stuff back in. Color coordinated of course. Have I mentioned I'm anal? I get it from my Dad. I'd be embarrassed to admit the number of hours I've spent lovingly admiring all their organized beauty. This also happened to coincide with the painting of our bedroom. It only took 2 years and 2 months for us to get around to. Why? Again I have no clue. Our guestroom, offices and pretty much every other room in our house have been painted since we moved in. I suppose living with the absolutely retched pea green color for that long did make the transformation that much more satisfying. But I think the lesson here is that we should not put off the things today that will make us giddy and give our husbands yet another reason to make fun of us because of our blown out of proportion giddiness until tomorrow.

I've decided that this is a great place to share one of my loves, collecting quotes, and will try to share ones I love that are relevant (or maybe not) to whatever the subject of the day's ramblings may be. We will see how long it actually lasts, but for today:

"If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done." ~Anonymous

"Never put off till tomorrow what you can avoid altogether." ~John Peers

"The road of by and by leads to the house of never." ~Spanish Saying

Another Victim

2007-09-19T15:42:00.000-04:00

Like the others that fell before me, I too have been sucked into the world of blogging. Jimmy will surely be more convinced then ever that theknot.com is not merely a wedding planning website, but some sort of online super cult when he finds out about this one.

So for those of you who might not know me (which at the moment I'm sure you all do since the only ones who will know about my new blog right away are my knottie/nestie friends), here's a little background about what's going on in my life and what I'm sure will shape some of the upcoming ramblings in my future posts.

I was recently married to my best friend James in a donkey crazed wedding extravaganza by the sea. What you ask? Donkeys at a wedding? Well, yes, but it's a long story. Hence the blog name. (Go Team Donkey!) Some history and a few chuckles can be found by visiting www.jimmysdonkeyfund.com.

I am unemployed! And rather happy about it. Of course a few more dollars in the bank would go a long way to ease my apprehension about being paycheck-less. But the house is looking much better, and frankly I am just so happy to not have to work weekends that I really am not as upset or worried as I probably should be. We spent our first weekend off together at the MD Seafood Festival with some of our amazing friends and then last weekend at the Maryland Zoo enjoying their Reggae & Brew Festival. You definitely take for granted both being able to spend time with your friends and family, and enjoying all the fantastic things the weekends offer when you are stuck working every Saturday and Sunday.

Prior to my recent stay in my pajamas all day while spending 4 hours cleaning mounds of paperwork from my home office days, I spent 5 years employed selling and marketing new homes for builders. It can be a really fun and creative job that I truly will miss. Except obviously the working weekends part. While we are on this subject I do have a confession. I am OBSESSED with all things home. Selling homes, watching house related shows, visiting new home models, home improvement, home decoration, telling people what they should do to sell their homes. You'd think after working all day in the industry I would be tired of it, but no. It's almost a sickness. So, I am job hunting and hoping that I will find a job that will in some way feed this obsession that I have, but allow me to work Monday-Friday so I can still have a life.

I suppose I should wrap up for now. There is obviously much more to me, and my life, but it's now 3:30 and yet again I am still in my pajamas. Not that there is anything wrong with walking around all day in pink pants, a bright orange t-shirt and no bra, but I am actually meeting up with the friend who got me into selling homes for a few happy hour refreshments and so I should probably find an outfit that doesn't scream "I'm unemployed and don't give a crap I haven't brushed my hair yet today".

More to come later!