When Being Responsible is Hard...

Ah, home ownership.

I had so many big plans for our house before we moved in. How many have I accomplished? Exactly zero.

It's not a matter of laziness per say...There have been, ahem, circumstances (which I will reveal in time)that have slowed me down considerably. But it's more than just that. I seriously underestimated the time and money involved in the things I desperately want to do to make our house "us."

I want so badly to paint the walls a pretty color, replace the ugly powder-blue carpet, get rid of those god-awful popcorn ceilings in every room, just to bring our otherwise adorable house into this millennium. I had all these grand notions of DIY glory but soon after we moved in I got a big 'ol reality check.

Could we afford to do it this moment? Sure. Does that mean we should? Therein lies the question.

When LT and I made a decision to buy a house, there were of course a lot of factors involved. Basically it came to one thing for us: location. We wanted to be central. The thing is, you pay for that.

For the same money we could have spent on a brand new house 30-45 minutes out, we bought a 1984 2-story in a modest neighborhood- close to EVERYTHING. The grocery store, the mall, the airport, the hospital, our families and most of our friends- all within 15 minutes or less. Also we're in an awesome school district for when that time comes along. 

Yes, we hit the jackpot on location alright, but it doesn't stop the little pang of envy I feel when I make the drive to visit my friends in their gorgeous, newly built brick houses with the pretty upgrades. As cute as our house is, and as much as I know we made the right choice, I can't help but want those things too.

As tempted as I am to throw all of our savings at making our house "pretty", I have to force myself to take a step back and ask:

Can I live with it?

The cold hard truth is, yes, I can. I can live in 1984 for a while. And I just have to take it one step at a time. The people that have to have everything right now are the ones that end up broke and in trouble ("House-poor" as my Mom puts it), and that's the last thing I want for our little family.

I know we'll get all of it done eventually, one project at a time. For now I just need to count myself lucky that we, two twenty-somethings, can afford a house at all. 

It sucks being a responsible adult sometimes.

Much love to ya,

Tall Tails: Tough Love for Winnie

First off I just want to apologize for not staying on top of this little bloggy space of mine. The truth is y'all, I've felt like crap the last few days. The best way I can describe it is a hangover 24/7--only I haven't been drinking! What a rip-off.

I even took a nap in my car during my lunch break yesterday.

Needless to say my free time has been spent on the couch either sleeping or watching TV. Also LT. Hubs is gone for the next two weeks with his unit. He's only been gone a couple of days but it feels like a lot longer and the worst is being sick when you're all by yourself. I miss having someone to whine at and give me hugs even though I'm being overly dramatic. Cause that's what husbands are for right? We'll go with that.

Anyways on to Tall Tails with Adriana and Katie!

As you know we moved into our new house a few weeks ago, and it's been a huge adjustment, especially for Winnie. I naively assumed that once we had a yard she would be automatically inclined to do her biz in it. I mean she's out there most of the time anyway. Uhmmm, not suh much.

As it turns out she'd rather go ALL OVER THE DAMN HOUSE. My once mostly potty-trained pup suddenly has no bladder control whatsoever. Not only that, but we have powder blue carpet from 1984 so wherever she goes leaves ugly green splotches, no matter how hard I scrub. And the splotches are EVERYWHERE. 

So we've basically decided that we're going to have to start from square one and re-potty train which is beyond frustrating. Here's the problem: I suck at disciplining her. I mean, look at her.

I know you love me even if I'm a huge pain in the ass, Mommy.

We've let her have the run of the house up until this point, which obviously was the worst idea ever. It basically became a pee-for-all. But at the apartment she knew to go to her potty pad at the back door if we weren't home to take her out. We thought she'd put two and two together eventually. Clearly she hasn't made that connection yet.

So I've gone back to gating her in the kitchen during the day, like when we first got her. I really hate leaving her all penned up like that for hours and hours by herself. We don't have the doggy door yet so she can't even go outside to chase squirrels. She has her bed and her toys, but it just seems so lonely and makes me feel like a bad mom.

I even leave the radio on for her so it's not like total solitary confinement.

Am I being over dramatic? How do you feel about leaving your furbaby home alone all day?

Much love to ya,

I'M GOING BALD.

Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration. 

But I have been "shedding" a bit more lately, I just didn't realize how noticeable it was until last night. Here's how it went down.

The Scene: LT. Hubs and I, peacefully lounging together before he had to leave for his shift.

LT.: Are you losing your hair?

Me: [stunned silence]...what--am I--DO I HAVE A BALD PATCH OR SOMETHING?

LT: [Laughing] Noooo! I said that too bluntly.

Me: Uhmmm, yeah. You can't just ask your wife if she's losing her hair! But seriously, why did you ask me that? 

LT: I'm just finding a lot of hair everywhere, in the tub, in the sink.

Me: Sorry. More than usual?

LT: Well, you do shed. But I still think you need to relax.

End Scene

Anywho, LT's suggestion for me to relax, while sweet, also struck me as ironic, because I've been a total lazy ass this entire week. I have accomplished nothing but this:

And this:

Literally, I have not wanted to do a damn thing. Maybe it's me feeling overwhelmed from the move. Or possibly because I haven't been sleeping well (Winnie has woken me up around 2am every night since we've been in the house).

Whatever the case, I have pretty fine hair as it is and I can't really afford to be losing it, whether it's stress-related or not. 

Has anyone else had this problem before? Any recommendations for a product I could try to strengthen my straggly strands??

Much love to ya,

Tall Tails: All of our Neighbors Probably Hate Us

I feel like we have taken about 10 steps backwards in Winnie's training since moving into the house only TWO days ago. I'm trying to be understanding about the fact that she's adjusting, just like us. But seriously--she is being a colossal ass-hat.

First, she seems to have completely forgotten the point of her pee pad. Every morning I walk out to at least 2 puddles right outside our bedroom door. Really?! This is why we bought a house with a yard.

Ah, yes, the big glorious yard, which she is enjoying immensely by the way. It's so cute to watch her romp around. It makes my heart smile when she chases after a bird or a squirrel, something she never got to do at the apartment. You can tell she is just so happy, which is what every mother wants for their furchild, right? 

So this morning I wake up, let Winnie out to pee, but then she wouldn't come back inside. Instead she starts running around the yard and howling at the top of her tiny lunges like the survival of all humanity depended on it. 

At this point it's still kind of dark, and I don't have my contacts in, so all I can see is a little black blur zooming back and forth. I can't tell what she's barking about but I'm pretty sure it's nothing. 

After several minutes of this I start to become very concerned about our neighborly good standing. So I start to chase Winnie around the yard in my pajamas, trying to wrangle her. Also, I'm basically blind. This only seems to encourage the madness because,DUH, chase is her favorite game ever. But this was pre-coffee so I wasn't thinking clearly, obviously.

I manage to get her within a few feet of the door only to have her burst into a fresh round of Roooooos and take off again. I needed to leave for work in less than an hour. 

By this time I'm basically in the worst mood ever, so I went back inside to make my coffee, which usually makes everything better. The Roos continued and the caffeine just made me hyper-aware of how annoyed I was.

I take a shower.

Roooooo!

I blow-dry my hair.

Roooooo!

I put on my makeup.

Roooooo!

Eventually she must have decided everyone in the neighborhood was sufficiently pissed awake and came trotting happily into the kitchen. I was so mad at her I just slammed the door after her and stomped upstairs to finish getting ready.

Oh, she knew she was in trouble. She followed me shamefully upstairs and hopped into the bed. She burrowed under the covers and didn't come out until I was about to leave.

Y'all, usually I can't stay mad at her long. I mean, look at this face:

But this morning I couldn't help it. I even begrudged her her goodbye kisses when I left for work. What kind of mother am I?

Fed up is what I am. 

I don't want to be that "rude couple up the street" with the yappy dog, the ones the neighbors all complain about. I'm a considerate person, damnit! But I'm really at a loss for what to do. 

It's one thing if it was something that only effected us, but if she keeps at this every morning our new neighbors will definitely hate us, if they don't already. Plus I'm not a morning person as it is and dealing with this sort of nonsense on a daily basis will not be good for my sanity.

What's a puppy Mamma to do???

Link it up!

Much love to ya,

The Weekend I Smelled like a Man

I apologize in advance for the semi-coherent nature of this particular post. You see, I didn't think I could be any more exhausted then I was on Friday but ohhh it's possible.

Since LT. and I are completely brilliant individuals, we waited until the last minute to pack everything. We thought to ourselves, "oh we don't have that much stuff." 

But you see, we do have that much stuff. So much random crap. And we spent most of the weekend going back and forth hauling said-crap from apartment to house in the 102 Texas heat. Thank God for good friends who came to our rescue. 

The worst part is I have no idea where among all the crap the stuff I actually need is. So all of a sudden it's Monday and trying to get ready for work this morning was a complete fiasco. I couldn't find anything. That's pretty much how it was the whole weekend. I couldn't find my shampoo/conditioner so ended up using LT.'s. I smelled like a man all weekend. Thank God I found my Dove this morning, even though I couldn't find my shoes. 

Anywho, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling totally overwhelmed. The house is a disaster. Winnie keeps peeing everywhere because she doesn't grasp the concept that she has a whole damn yard to go in now. We still have a few more things to get out of the apartment before we have to turn in the keys today.

I also have to say that LT. Hubs is the best husband in the world. He's been doing all the heavy lifting during the move. Also he found my box of shoes this morning, preventing an epic hissy. Thousands of lives were spared.

I really just can't wait to be settled and back on a semi-normal routine, but I know it's going to take a while. Everyone keeps telling me to take it one thing at a time, but I honestly don't even know where to start. 

Advice, anyone?

Much love to ya,

We only had to promise Best Buy our first born child, no big deal.

As Major Dad says, "Money can't buy happiness but it sure doesn't suck, either."

Being a responsible adult, however, does suck.

As we were driving home last night from purchasing our ridiculously expensive fridge for the new house, we started lamenting about how much money we're spending.

LT. Hubs mused how maybe it would have been smarter if we had just continued to live with our parents and save some money after we got married, to which I replied with a grand "HA!"

Isn't it pretty?



But seriously, I'm an extremely money-conscious person. I'm downright obsessive. At this very moment I'm oscelating between writing this post and updating our monthly budget. It makes me happy when I know exactly where all our money is going. If we don't have the cash, we don't spend it. If we can't pay it off at the end of the month, it can wait.

Except having a fridge couldn't wait. So begrudgingly I have entered the land of 18 months/0% financing.

I knew when we made the decision to buy the house that we were going to have to throw down some major green, and to be honest, it scares the crap out of me. I've never spent so much money at one time in my life. We worked so hard to build up our savings over the last year and to see it drop so fast in such a short time makes me sick to my stomach.

I've been trying to remind myself that this is part of the reason for having savings to begin with. I mean, it's there for big purchases and emergencies. What's the point in having the money put aside if you don't plan to spend it one way or another?

I'm determined not to be, as my Mom would put it, "House Poor." So now we get to play the good ol' NEED vs WANT game--hours of fun for the whole damn family!

It's just so hard when there is so much I am dying to do- replace the ugly blue carpet, get rid of the God-awful popcorn ceilings. But I can't justify draining all of our savings for stuff I can tolerate for a while. I can live in 1984 for a couple of months, even though I really, really don't want to.

Any home-owners care to weigh in? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 Much love to ya,