Emotional RollerCoaster

These past couple of days have been mentally exhausting. Chancho and I have seen over 15 houses and have been able to narrow it down to 3. That was the rules put in place by our wonderful agent. I feel like we've met the agent from heaven. He's an elderly man who has sold a million homes. He really is on our side looking for what we want. We sent him one house that we liked and from there he was able to find about 5 other houses that matched what we wanted. Today, we braved the weather (sleet, freezing rain, snow and slush) to go (45 mins) view the house that we want to put a bid on. When Chancho and I got back in the car from looking at it again, we both said "I want it." Our agent had about 3 other houses to show us though just to get an idea of what other houses similar to that price range looked like. The first house, we liked. It had big bedrooms and a beautiful kitchen. However, it didn't have that feel to it. You know that feel that makes you feel home. The second home was a fixer upper. The third home was a winner. We put it on our list as 2nd best. So now we wait for our mortgage guy to tell us what our max loan can be. Once we get that amount we can place our first bid on the Wisner home. I'm going crazy. I can't sleep at night. I have a million and one thoughts racing around. If I'm not imagining what the house looks like and falling in love with it again, I'm thinking about the cost of it all or what furniture we need. We're at the point where not much can be done, but wait and well...I hate waiting. I hate not having something to focus on so I'm going a little nuts. All I've heard though is that there is a lot of waiting. A lot of emotions thrown around because you get close to something and then you're turned down. (good thing I can handle rejection) So I'm trying my best to keep busy with planning ahead. I've looked at furniture, what styles I like, the color, and the theme. It's hard though because we don't have the house yet so I'm planning for 2 houses, which is becoming a little frustrating. However, I love that we are doing this. I love that we are moving forward and I am beyond excited.

Some even more exciting news...For those of you who love The Biggest Loser...Chancho had Bob Harper (Yep, THE BOB HARPER!) visit his precinct today!!!! His CO started a competition within the precinct and has Bob Harper doing one on ones for 16 weeks. If you win the competition you get a free year at the gym around the corner from their precinct. 2nd place gets an ipod. Chancho wants the ipod. I am still stunned that he's going to have Bob Harper train him! BOB HARPER. I'm in love with Bob. He says he's short. I made Chancho promise to get me an autograph. My sister is a huge fan of Bob Harper and is just as ecstatic as I am. She wants Chancho to film their work out sessions.

Tomorrow, I begin my new role at The Container Store as the lead sign and prop lady. The most responsibility that I've been given. I won't have any supervision and I'll be on my own. It makes me a little nervous, but my supervisor prepped me today about what I have to do and how to do it all. I also know that I'll be able to ask for help if I need it. I'm excited that they're finally trusting me for something.

And I have begun the countdown for our cruise. Less than a month away and I'll be laying on a beach getting my tan on!

Quote of the Day: "I know it feels like you have all these options and when you make a decision, you lose a world of possibilities. But the reality is, until you make a decision, you have nothing at all." -Janet Finch

Doing My Thing

In celebration of my brother's birthday I headed to New Jersey Saturday. I was supposed to work until 5pm, but because my manager was leaving early for a wedding he said I could leave early too. I was out by 2:30pm. It was a quiet evening with everyone outside on their newly built deck. My brother built it earlier in the week. It came out nice, shaped like a hexagon. A few drinks were had along with some grilled food. They had Bubba Burgers. I've always had regular Bubba Burgers, but they had Onion Bubba Burgers and my mouth was watering for them. I wound up eating 3 that night. But besides the burgers they had hot dogs, chicken and sausage. One of my sister-in-laws friends was there and she got a tad wasted, which turned into our entertainment for the night as she pranced around, tried to light a lighter as a cigarette, drank everyone's floating beers, attempted to play a few games and then passed out on the couch, but not before stripping off her pants.
The guys played a game they invented themselves out of posts hammered into the ground and beer bottles on top. They then threw a frisbee at the bottle to try and knock it off. They literally played it all night long. I sat with my sister-in-law, the drunkie, and a girlfriend of my brother's friend. As the sun went down we migrated over to the fire pit and sat by the warmth of the fire. Eventually we all trickled inside to head in for the night.
It was a good birthday party. Now I'm off for the week. Chancho was supposed to have the week off as well. In fact that was the reason behind me taking the week off was because he took it off. However, because he's a workaholic he'll be working every day this week. Today he's working a paid detail and then the rest of the week he's working at the deli covering for the owner. Which means, no vacation for us. In the beginning when he first told me this I was upset. Very upset. In fact, I think I still am, but s l o w l y letting it go. When he first told me he had to work I thought to myself alright, only a few hours here and there to fill in for someone. That's okay. We won't be able to go away, but we would still be able to go to the beach more days out of the week than normal. But now, he's working every day and until 3pm. Which means no beach, or anything else. So I'm putting on my big girl pants and making plans for myself. Today I'm off to go mattress shopping. I'm determined to put up my bed that's been sitting in the living room for 5 months now. It will get done this week. Hopefully, by me doing my own thing and keeping myself active while he's at work will let me let go of this frustration.

Quote of the Day: "There are three solutions to every problem: accept it, change it or leave it."
Listening to: "Misery" by Maroon 5

Woody Hill

Sadly I am home from our vacation in Rhode Island. It was just fantastic! I didn't want to leave. I kept asking if we could afford to stay another night, but our wallets wouldn't allow it. We arrived early afternoon at Woody Hill Bed and Breakfast, on one of the hottest days of the year. We dropped our stuff off in our room, the Family Room, which is the biggest of the 3 choices. We didn't really need that room, but it did have a deck and a private bath, so it was a good choice. Ellen, the hostess, gave us a tour of the house and then led us down to the private pool. We swam and sunbathed all afternoon. Once the sun went down we ventured off to go find some dinner. We figured we would head over to Stop and Shop and pick up some chicken because there was a grill available for us to use, so that's what we did for dinner.
We made a lovely little dinner for 2. Then we decided to drive towards the beaches to check out where we would be spending the rest of our time. It turns out that there is a little bit of a night life there, with mini golf, bars, go-karts, and plenty of restaurants. After that we headed back to Woody Hill and even though there was a TV we decided to play card games instead. I was able to win every game we played, however Chancho was a good sport and continued to play.
We were up early for breakfast at 8am with complimentary continental breakfast made by Ellen. She joined us and chatted with us about where we were from, what we were planning on doing and of course offered us her help in anyway. She showed us a map of all the different beaches and gave us the pros and cons to each one. We decided on going the distance to Watch Hill beach. They really robbed us of our money in parking ($15!!) but we walked around to the tip of the peninsula to get onto the beach instead of paying another $12 for the beach pass. It was just gorgeous. The water was a bit cold, but still warm enough to go in. We were also early enough to get our pick of sand. The sand itself was so soft! I could walk on that all day long. The only bad part was that because it was soft, it was lighter than the other corser sand so it was easily blown by the wind. We picked the hottest day of the year, a blazing 92 degrees, but with the wind it didn't seem too bad. I actually fell asleep for a while and woke up with many people surrounding us. After the beach, we stopped in at a local ice cream shop and grabbed some frozen lemonade and ice tea.

Chancho didn't have enough sun so when we got back to Woody Hill we went straight to the pool. I layed out and covered my face, it was turning into a tomato. Ellen stopped by to see how we were doing and when we asked her of her suggestions for dinner she gave us a few options so we checked them out. The first one we stopped at was the Up River Cafe, it was a little too expensive for us so we went with the second option, which was 84 High Street. Let me tell you, it was the best food I have had in a long time. It was delicious. We started out with an appetizer of crab cakes. I had the Chicken -n-chokes, which is chicken and artichoke hearts mixed with penne pasta. Sooo good. Chancho of course had the New York Strip Steak. He never goes with anything unusual in fear of not liking it. However we do have a rule that with every meal that he eats with me, he must try something new. Most of the times, he likes it. It's a good way to broaden his horizens and to be fair whenever he has something that is new to me, I have to try it. He's peruvian, so this comes up often. Finally, for dessert, we had the turtle cheesecake, which put me into a food coma. It was ridiculously good. A really great food experience all around.

The Yankee game was on so when we got back to Woody Hill, we found a radio and listened to a few innings before we passed out. Woke up again for breakfast and unfortunately left to come home again. Over all this was such a pleasant experience. Ellen was just terrific, I cannot get over how great she was. She was there to help us with anything we needed. The house was beautiful and nicely kept, along with the pool. She even had a cat named Jenny who was very friendly. The house itself is literally 2 miles away from beaches and it's secluded enough to take you away to a secluded sanctuary. We decided that this is a place that we want to make part of our traditional summer trips. It was everything we wanted. So without a doubt, I would recommend this place a hundred times over. It is even open in the winter and for special occasions like a wedding.

Now, it's time to start packing for our camping trip. We leave tomorrow morning. Chancho is out getting his oil changed and picking up some last minute items from our list. I hope all goes well with this trip, and no rain! I'll update, when we get back on Saturday. I leave you with one last picture from the beach: