Hair Cut for Locks of Love

I finally cut my hair off. I'd been growing it for a good three years now with the goal to donate it once I did cut it. It took a lot longer to grow than I had anticipated but I was finally ready to cut it and still have hair left on my head! I had so much hair she had to make two ponytails to cut it!

Here's Before

One ponytail gone, No turning back now!

After!

My two ponytails with a ruler in between.

Mouse

I've been battling a mouse for quite some time now, months I'm sure. In fact, just yesterday I finally cleaned all the mouse droppings out of my cabinet and scrubbed everything down since I hadn't heard it in a while. I reached into the cabinet this evening for my vegetable oil and saw more mouse droppings! Not only had I cleaned out the pantry, but I put everything that it would have been tempted to eat in glass jars!! Last night it ate my cookbooks, and pretty much tore up the outside of my oats container. Well, this evening, it finally got desperate enough to succumb to one of my traps! I was innocently watching tv on the couch, my dog sleeping in his bed when we both heard a loud squeak. At first I thought it was my dog squeaking his ball, but nope, he jumped up looking for where the squeak was coming from. Yeah, it was from the cabinet, it got stuck on a sticky trap and I put gloves on and put it in a ziploc container so I could throw it away cleanly! SICK!! And yes, I took pictures for your viewing pleasure!

SNOW in 2009!!

We Texans, especially those of us living in the more coastal and southern areas of Texas don't see snow very often, and when we do, IT'S SO MUCH FUN! We all had such a hard time working on Friday! Although I was sad when I left work and there wasn't much snow on the ground, I got home to a nice surprise, snow all over! My definition of all over may not be the same as yours because I'm a Texan, but it was on my house and my yard, my dog had to walk through it to pee!! Here are some pics! :)

The front yard

The backyard

The rooftops in the back

Backyard again, with Duncan

The parking lot out my window at work when it first started!

Mamaw is 100

Sunday 11/08/2009 was my great-grandmother's 100th birthday. Pretty unbelievable really. My grandmother arranged for a birthday party for her on Saturday afternoon at their church. There were about 75 people there, so it was a nice turn out. There were even some of my grandmother's cousins there that my grandmother and great-grandmother hadn't seen in a LONG time. Mamaw had a great time. She is mad at us for moving her into a nursing home three weeks ago, but she looks so good, and has been getting therapy which has really done a lot of good for her also. We kept her at my grandmother's house with us Saturday night so she could go to church with us on her actual birthday. She is a lot of hard work! We got tired of listening to the same comments over and over especially since most of them were about her finding someone to take care of her at home so she didn't have to stay in the nursing home. All in all, it was a great weekend. I am blessed (and cursed at the same time) that she has lived so long and is in fairly good health. Not everyone is blessed with a great-grandparent for so long!

My Grammie and Mamaw

My sister, brother-in-law and myself with Mamaw at her party

A picture of Mamaw with her crown and corsage making jokes before church on Sunday

All Moved In!

Here are some pictures from my house since I've moved in and painted! I'm pretty sure the worst part about owning a house is the yard work. I had never mowed a yard in my life until two weeks ago! I'm hoping once I pay all of my bills I'll find out I can afford to hire a lawn crew, but until then, I'm doing it myself... I've finished only parts of the house. I didn't know what my color scheme was going to be in my bedroom until yesterday so I haven't painted it yet. I still need to purchase my living room tables. My grandmother is giving me two sets of twin mattresses, eventually, that I will put in my guest room so until then, it will remain empty! I'm sort of hoping someone will donate a pool table to me, but until that happens I guess my dining room will be empty too! :) I never realized how busy my house would keep me, it's been fun so far though I hope cooler weather comes soon so I can really spend some time weeding out the junk in all of the flower beds.

The dining room without ugly wallpaper! Eventually I'll replace the ugly brass chandelier too.

The living room.

Another picture of the living room, not quite finished, oh and Duncan's there too. :)

The kitchen table, I love it.

The kitchen.

Guest Bath.

My bed

The rest of my bedroom

This will eventually be the guest bedroom. For now, Duncan has claimed it as his!

so much to do...

I will close on my very own home on August 11th, next Tuesday!! Who knew buying a house was so much work?! I think I have been busy every evening since July 13th doing something for the house process. The whole process has been a fun stress I think, though nerve wracking at times. Not only am I purchasing a house, I also have to purchase furniture and appliances. The only furniture I owned previously was bedroom furniture. It will be exciting to see my new couches, dining table, big screen tv, fridge, and washer and dryer when they get delivered! Everything has moved quickly and smoothly so far, there is just so much to think about and have set up. My realtor has been great, though left for vacation on Saturday and won't be back until the night before we close, I hope I can survive without her until then! The day of the house inspection I took some pictures so I will post a few. I will definitely post more once I get all my own stuff moved in! I guess the next step is packing... I hate packing. It doesn't matter what I'm packing for, I hate it! Then there's the unpacking, don't get me started... Maybe it will be different when I get into my own house? I've been saving my money for two years now for the sole purpose of purchasing a home and boy is it dwindling quickly! I'm scared I won't have any savings left by the time I finish getting everything I need for the house! I'll be thankful for the tax credit I'll get next year for sure! Sorry if I sound rambly, that's what my head is like these days trying to make sure I've done everything I need to do!

The front of the house

The kitchen, granite countertops and neat small glass tile backsplash

Breakfast table area

Living room, the master bedroom to the right there

The back patio, where I need to build a fence so my dog won't escape, how they have a dog and no fence, I have no idea!

aahhh!

It's really happening, and happening so fast! I put an offer on a house on Saturday and negotiated yesterday and as of 9am this morning, have a contract in the works. I have so much to do now and I don't even know about half of it! Next step is the loan process.. ick. I'm not even excited yet because I have so much to think about and do before it's all real.