Obstacles

Things have been going so amazingly smoothly for the past month and I've been so happy that it was only a matter of time for things to start spiraling downwards. I may be a little pessimistic and depressed about this, but today has just not been a good day.
This morning was a bit of a huge disaster at work. The spark notes version is this: The night crew did not complete their tasks and in fact only half assed it, so not only did I have to do their work this morning, I had to do double the work to fix their mistakes. I pride myself on being efficient, quick and accurate when doing my job. I live by the phrase "If a task is once begun, never leave it till its done. Be thy labor great or small, do it well or not at all." It really helps me do what I need to do and I make sure it's done right. Otherwise, you have to come back and do it again right, wasting everyone's time. Anyways, we were way behind schedule and my supervisor was having a mental breakdown. I have never seen her act the way she did before. She was crying, muttering under her breath and then laughing hysterically. I didn't know if I should run and hide or laugh. So I diverted my attention to the job at hand and kept telling myself to stay positive.We were able to finish just as the store was opening because we had a few extra hands to help out (thank goodness). I did have to stay 2 hours after to put on the finishing touches, if you will. 
I tried reading when I got home to help calm my mind from such a crazy morning, but wound up sleeping for about 3 hours. When I woke up I had a few texts from Chancho. The last one saying "Call me when you wake up please." That's never a good sign. Him wanting me to call him while he's at work. It always means he has something to tell me that is serious and needs to explain to me. And sure enough he needed to tell me that we might not get our dream house after all. They had the appraisal done and it came in under the price that we're buying it for. Therefore, the bank won't give us the loan that we need. They will only give us the loan for the amount that the house was appraised for. Our options aren't very hopeful. We will 1. have to come up with the difference in cash ourselves, 2. ask the owners to bring down the selling price, 3. hope that the we can use some of the money we put aside for closing costs. 
None of those options seem very realistic. The first option is just out of the question. We can't afford to spare any money at this point without having to go into debt in 3 months. The second option is a reach, but we're pretty sure the owners don't like us. Plus they have backed out on us before. There is a tiny hope that they want to just keep going and will help us out on that. The third option is very unlikely because we have no idea what the closing costs are and won't until the actual day. If we can't afford it we loose whatever money we put down already. 
Just a long day full of disappointments and discouraging news. I've been on such a happy high that this brought me back to reality of how quickly things can turn. Chancho has been supportive as usual saying that we will get this house and even if it doesn't happen, he responded with my motto of everything happens for a reason and we will get a house we love just as much. I did say that if this all does go way downhill and we wind up losing the house, we won't be looking in Middletown any longer. We'll be searching somewhere else.  But that is the worst case scenario. 
Tomorrow will be better.


Quote of the Day: "I asked God for strength and he gave me obstacles to overcome so I can build that strength myself."
Listening to: "Piano Man" by Billy Joel

We're Doin It

Chancho, TG and I have signed ourselves up for Weight Watchers. I finally put my foot down and told Chancho that he needed to lose weight. It has been the giant elephant in the room for some time now and especially after the cruise (with all that awesome food) he has ballooned to an unimaginable size. In reality, he isn't that bad, but he is in an unhealthy weight bracket. So I spoke to him and asked him if this would be a program he would be interested in...I spoke to our friends and asked me to support me on this, so they too could help him see that he is in need of losing weight. Chancho agreed.
We went to our first meeting Thursday night. I loved it. It was incredibly supportive and painless. There was a bunch of clapping, sticker handing out and talking. We got our books and weekly tips. We also had our first weigh in. Along with our weigh in's we were told our point values for what we could eat each day and our goals.
Allow me to break it down (I'll use me as an example)
I am 23, 139.4lbs, and 5'7"
Therefore, I am allowed to eat 29 points a day with a 5% target goal of 7lbs and a 10% target goal of 13 lbs.
Each person gets points based on their age, weight and height.
These points are what you can eat each day. Every single food has a point value. Which helps you make good decisions. The healthier the food, the less the point value is. So all fruits have a point value of 0. Most vegetables as well. The program encourages you to eat whatever you want. If you want that brownie, eat it. Do not deprive yourself. Because then you'll wind up eating twice as much when you break down and eat one or 5. I have always lived my life with this thought process, but my problem is that I don't make healthy food decisions and I also don't do well with portion control. That is another big thing to follow, the serving sizes. There is a reason behind the serving size.
A cool way to earn points towards your daily intake is to be active. So if you go out and play with your kids (tossing a ball) you can add that in and you can get points back! Two days ago I walked/jogged for an hour and got 4 points back. Yesterday I mountain biked for 81 minutes and got 13 points back! You obviously don't need to use the points, because you are trying to lose the weight, but they are there to use whenever you need to. You also get an exciting 49 bonus points weekly. So if you have an event during the week you can plan for it and you don't need to starve yourself. An example, this week we have Yankees Opening Day!!! I will be drinking before and during the game so I'll be using a good portion of those 49 points, which means each day I need to either not go over my allotted 29 points or exercise (be active) to gain more points to drink some beer, which costs me 4 points for each can.
I am very excited about this, just being able to learn how to cook healthy meals and to have the support system from Chancho and helping him live a better lifestyle, makes me happy. He has enough stress on his system he doesn't need weight to be another one. He has lost 17 lbs already!!! He has about 120 lbs to go.
I have a great feeling about this.  

Quote of the Day: "Being happy doesn’t mean things are perfect, it just means you’ve decided to look past the imperfections."
Listening to: "I Wanna Sex You Up" by Color Me Badd

You Want Baby?

Chancho and I took his mother, sister, father and his father's girlfriend or as Chancho likes to call her "the mistress" to go see our house. They of course loved it and approved of it. Chancho's mother is still a little weary about the commute as Chancho will be driving an hour and a half to work every day, but our Realtor kindly suggested she come and stay every month for a week Lord help me if she does to stay connected. It was short visit, but it was enough to reassure everyone that we made a good decision.
On the way home we stopped off a local diner to have a late lunch. As we sat down, his father decided to share with the waitress that we were getting married. I don't know why he said that, but he did. I awkwardly smiled and glanced at Chancho who gave me a puzzled look. We sat down and ordered. Everyone speaks Spanish, except me, so when Chancho is with his family I usually allow them to talk amongst themselves and if I'm involved in the conversation Chancho will translate for me. We were eating our lunch when somehow the conversation switched over to English and we're talking about what would happen if I were pregnant and found out that the baby were to have down syndrome. WHAT?? Where did this come from? And how am I pregnant all of a sudden? His mother needed an answer from me and wouldn't drop it. So I did the only polite thing I could after choking on some fries. I responded with "I would have to actually be in the situation to have an answer for you." I then shoved some more fries in my mouth.
From there she asked, "When you want baby? 10 years? 5 years? How bout 3?"
"Ahhh....ummmm....quick glance at Chancho for help I'm not sure yet, I need to get settled into the house first before I can think about babies."
Chancho felt the need to add in that I wanted children before I was 30, which then opened the door about how I wanted to raise my kids.
"I can raise your kids?"  
NO YOU CANNOT RAISE MY KIDS! "I think we'll be too far for you to raise our kids, but perhaps you could watch them every now and then." By this time, I am digging my nails into Chancho's leg under the table hoping he'll get the hint that I need the topic to change, but not before she adds in, "Oh, I see them while you work. I take them when you go to work and you pick them up when you come back from work."
"That could be something, we could arrange, if I'm still working where I am now."
The check comes. The conversation is done. Thank the Lord.

Chancho's mother is a wonderful lady. Do not get me wrong, but I will be the one raising my children, if and when I have them. I think she did an amazing job raising her daughter and son all by herself, but I also think that it's time for her to be a grandmother and that is all. When I'm ready to be a mother, I will be just that, a mother who raises her kids the way I would like to raise them. I have a feeling this is something that I will be dealing with a little later on, but I am going to be keeping a firm foot down on this topic.
When we got home, Chancho received a present from his father which is always a toy police car. Chancho always sends it to Peru for his grandmother to give to a child. When Chancho's mother saw it this time, she said, "Oh wonderful, I save this. Give it to your boy when you have it."

I think she is really pushing for some grandkids. How about we get engaged first?

Quote of the Day: "If you don't go after what you want, you'll never get it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place."

The Calm Before The Storm

Spoke with the lawyer a few days ago and we got our tentative closing date for May 15th. Tentative as it could take a few weeks to get everything ironed out. It doesn't matter to me because we can't move in until the last week of June anyways. It is nice to have things rolling again after they were put on hold because of the vacation. I have a feeling this will come a lot quicker than expected.
I went to Macy*s one day sale and bought some plates, bowls, and mugs. Then went back the next day with Chancho and we bought a 10 piece set of pots and pans. We figured we might as well start to slowly build up our inventory of things that we need to survive the first few days of living in an empty house. We also stopped in to Crate and Barrel to buy some cups. My sister works for Crate and Barrel and because she loves me so much she's gonna hook us up with some silverware :) I have a small pile going in the corner of my room of all the stuff that we're going to need to pack up and I'm loving it. Seeing that pile every day reminds me that this is actually happening. What I didn't like was I opened my closet and realized that I needed to put all of that stuff into boxes. I have a ridiculous amount of things that need to be packed. I'm debating if I should do that now or later....
We're buying our furniture tomorrow from Bob's Discount Furniture. We'll have at least a couch waiting for us when we move in. 

Bob's Discount Furniture's Vise Versa sectional

Chancho has taken on a ton of overtime to help pay for all this new furniture. I said goodbye to him yesterday as all of his days off will be spent working from now until who knows when, but it's all for the house. And I know that I'll see him every now and again when the Yankees start up again on the 31st. He always makes time to go to Yankee games.


Quote of the Day: "It hurts to find out that what you wanted doesn't match what you dreamed it would be." ~R.K. Milholland

Booked for 2012

The cruise was ahhhhmaaazzzing! I've never had such a good time in my life....well maybe, but this one is definitely in the top 5. I needed that 2 weeks to just relax and do nothing. I am so energized and feel like I can accomplish anything.  WARNING:: Please be prepared, there are a TON of pictures!

Typical Castle shot

We flew to Florida and stayed at his retired partner's in-laws for 3 days (wed-fri) before getting on the cruise. Thursday we spent the day in Disney World (Magic Kingdom). Chancho had never been so it was a great experience for him. He loved everything about it and he wants to go back! Score! We went on the main rides, space mountain, it's a small world, etc... The GPS took us in through the employee entrance so we managed to get in without paying. That was a bonus. Plus his retired partner (Joe) had extra tickets for us so we didn't have to pay anything for our visit! Extra bonus! We also were able to slip in a quick trip to Epcot before it closed. My favorite ride there was the Test Track. I would recommend it for everyone. However, it did hurt my neck. I'm not supposed to go on anything that jerks your neck around because I hurt my neck sledding a few years back, but this ride was worth it. We stayed to watch their firework show and that was definitely worth it.

Epcot

Saturday we boarded the ship (Disney Magic). We had a buffet to start off the day while we were waiting to disembark. There was a party by the pool while we were leaving and our luggage was in our rooms by the time we were having dinner.

Our room for the week.

Our first animal! 

We were in Key West for our first stop. We spent the day at the beach. Rented some bikes and soaked up some of our first rays of sun :) On the way back we stopped in a few stores, but didn't get anything. The stores were still priced the same as back at home.

The bikes we rented.

Monday was a day at sea. I burnt my arms. I fell asleep for about 2 hours. I was a lobster. A couple of people commented on how red I was, but I kept putting lotion on them and I was fine. I wasn't going to let it get in the way of fun. Monday was also Captain night, aka formal wear. Chancho wore a suit and I wore the dress I wore as a bridesmaid in my sister's wedding. Dinner was always great. We had the best waitress. She was always asking if the food was up to our expectations and it always was. Chancho was ordering 3 main courses at a time it was so good. If he couldn't decide what he wanted, he would order all of it. If I didn't like something, I just said so and picked something else. It was great service. After dinner every night we attended the show and I loved every single one.

Tuesday we docked in Grand Cayman. We had to take tenders in to the island because the ship would destroy the coral reef. On Grand Cayman, we shopped. Got some great discounts with a VIP pass from the ships shopping expert and duty free! Spent close to 4 hours in Diamond International speaking to the 2 managers picking out my engagement ring!!! We found the perfect one :) I am beyond thrilled! Now to get him to actually propose. One step closer. After shopping we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach.

They had these like we have cows in nyc

Wednesday we were at Cozumel, Mexico. I loved Cozumel. We booked an excursion for clear kayaking and snorkeling in Uvas. It was an amazing experience. The waters there were so crystal clear. We were able to see a ton of fish through the kayaks. It was my first time snorkeling and the first time I went down, I almost drowned. I came sputtering up out of the water smacking Chancho because I thought I was dying. I told him I couldn't do it and I'd see him back on land. He told me to give it another try and sure enough I was able to figure out how to breath with a snorkel. I loved every second of it once I got the hang of it. We saw a HUGE sting ray, a puffer fish, a lobster, and a few other brightly striped fish. We took some underwater pictures that thankfully came out. I'm so glad we decided to do the excursion. The excursion included a free fresh fruit buffet and 2 free drinks.

Then Thursday was a day at sea again. It was pirate night so we were given bandannas to put on and told to dress up. All the Disney characters dressed up as pirates as well. There was a party on the main deck and to end the night they had fireworks. We had to make a short detour that evening because someone got really sick and needed medical attention on land so we diverted back to Key West where the Coast Guard met us and took them back to the States. It put us back about 5 hours, but at least they were getting the attention they needed. We also bought a Wall-E print from the auction that they had on board. I know you're probably thinking Really?  but Wall-E has special meaning to Chancho and I. When we both saw the print we stopped, looked at one another and said "We have to have this". Wall-E was the first Disney movie we saw together, it was also the first night we had our "unofficial" date, held hands for the first time...etc, you get the point.

Friday was our stop at Castaway Cay, Bahamas, Disney's own island. It was absolutely gorgeous! I could have stayed there forever. We laid in hammocks, had drinks brought to us and the water was again, crystal clear. There weren't any kids to be seen or heard because we were in the adult only section and it was beautiful.

Here are a few pictures of the Final Farewell show Friday night. We packed our bags that night and had them taken so we didn't have to lug them ourselves to our destination. Saturday morning we had an early breakfast before leaving the ship. A lot of kids were crying and hell I would have been too if I didn't have any control. I really didn't want to leave, but we booked another one for 2012 so I have something to look forward to. We spent 2 extra days in Florida relaxing before returning to ugly cold NY.

Sad that it's over, but looking forward to the new adventures with the house.

Quote of the Day: "Here you leave today, and visit the worlds of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy." - Walt Disney