Why Haven’t I Been Watching This Before???

Ugg! I can't believe myself. I was turned on to So You Think You Can Dance by my good friend and I LOVE IT!!! Oh my heck. My favorite pair, far and away, is Twitch and Kherington. I find myself excited to see what they do every week and every week I am more than pleased. So far, my favorite dance of theirs is the Viennese Waltz. It is beautiful and touching and….wow. I get chills watching it!!

I also LOVE Josh and Katee. They're awesome! They haven't done anything wrong yet and they just look like they're having so much fun in their dances. This last week, they did a Bollywood routine that I loved! It was entertaining, energetic, colorful, I could go on, but I won't. Just watch…

I LOVE SYTYCD!!!

Childhood Memories…

…reduced to rubble. Let me explain.

When I was little, my dad made it a point to spend time with us. So much so, he would take one child to breakfast on their Saturday. Since I have one brother and one sister, I was on the third Saturday (unless one of them slept in...*insert evil laugh here*). My absolute favorite place to go was Grecian Gardens. You may know the place, but never knew you knew it. It was kind of a dive on the outside, and all sorts of Grecian kitschy-ness on the inside. It was on the corner of 48^th South and State Street – white building with blue trim. Awesome!! Anyway, we would go and I would always get the French toast and my dad would always get the "Zorba Breakfast" that included these really fantastic pork chop cubes. We would go and sit in one of the many booths and be one of 5 people in the whole restaurant, one waitress serving everyone. Best French Toast EVER!

Well, I was driving past this memory treasure and the building WAS GONE!

Completely removed, gone, demolished. All that remained was the sign… *sigh*. I was so sad, but, I still have the happy memories. Thanks, Daddy-o!

Learning New Things Everyday

So, here I sit at work and as I was fiddling around with my Microsoft Word 2007, I saw that I could create new blogs in Word! Well, I thought to myself, let's give this thing a try. So I did, and here we sit! Awesome!!

I just thought I would let you all partake in my joy. J

Life in an Apartment

Yes, it is sad, yet true. We have been married 2 whole years and are still living the lowly life as apartment renters. Don't get me wrong, we're planning on becoming homeowners very soon, but our current circumstances will not allow it just now...*sigh*.

Anyway...we moved in to the lovely Holladay Villa apartments in April 2006. While it is true that we didn't get married until the beginning of May, all of our lovely wedding presents lived here, while we mooched off of our parents for a few weeks more. It isn't a huge apartment by any means, but it works quite well for us now.

When we moved in, we were in serious need of some furniture. Sean's dad had some extra furniture lying around that we were lucky enough to have, and I had a few things that were labeled as my very own and I could take with me. But between the 2 of us, there was no couch to be had. So, we took it upon ourselves to find a couch that we could afford and afford at that very minute. We found a couch that we really liked in the good ol' thrifties, but that was sold out from under us. Then we found another couch that we liked and even better - it came with 2 free (hideous) lamps! When we went to meet the seller of this couch, we also met his extra friendly dog, Bear. This has bearing on the story due to the fact that after we removed the couch from the seller's home, Bear was everywhere!! We cleaned the couches with our own steam cleaner and with all the hair that we found, we could have made another, larger, Bear! On top of that, the couch smelled...different. Anyway, we were going to do another cleaning of these lovely couches after we had moved in, so I lumped all of the couch cushions together in a corner. One day, we were doing our Saturday clean and I picked up the cushions that had been lumped together and they were heavier. And wetter. And smellier. Yep, you got it right, during a storm or due to the water faucet outside our window, the foundation of our apartment building sprung a leak and watered our Bear cushions. They weren't salvageable, so we went to RC Willey and found some great couches that we absolutely adore.

Moving on. So, needless to say, our couches were ruined and our carpet was ruined, but anytime we complained to the managers, they basically ignored us or waited until the carpet dried to come over and see what the problem was. Due to their laziness, they never saw the problem and we lived with it for another year and a half. During that year and a half, these managers moved out and we were lucky enough to get some wonderful new managers that were SO great. We told them about what was happening in our apartment and they were able to get the wheels moving so that the apartment could be livable.

In the past few months, we have had a foundation guy come and tear out a section of dry-wall right underneath our window and repair the foundation. But, no dry-wall guys wanted to take care of the missing 5 1/2 feet of dry-wall so we sat with an exposed DUSTY wall for about 2 months. Finally, the managers were able to get a guy to come out and replace the dry-wall and paint. On top of that, we get new carpet!!! The previous managers had had a company come and replace the carpet in the bedroom and the itsy bitsy hallway, but neglected the front room. But, ladies and gentlemen, bright and early tomorrow morning, we are getting new carpet in our front room!!! This however has created a storage problem. We have moved all of our living room stuff into our bedroom and kitchen, thus leaving barely any room for us. Take a look:

This is our kitchen in its current state. We have no access to the following: sink, stove, fridge, microwave, dishwasher, dishes (plates, utensils, glasses), popcorn, munchies. I think you get the idea...

This, my friends, is the carpet. These are either stains from the finish from the feet of our couches (crossing fingers that this is the case) or mold. I mean, it's cool that it might be mold, but at the same time, that cannot be healthy.

Anyhoo, this has been a marathon post. Thanks for keeping up with us!! I'll give you a follow up once the new carpet has been installed and our kitchen is again accessible!

Wanderlust

My poor travelling heart. "Poor, wand'ring one..."

I have been spoiled. I'll admit it point blank! My parents always thought it important to take us travelling and see other places. Unfortuneately, my "newlywed" state prevents me from doing so. There's so much I want to see in the world and so little money in my bank account to see it with. *sigh* This post has been brought to you in part by my parents, and their trip to Spain without me and Sean. I'm jealous and as such, am wishing I were anywhere but here. As I'm thinking about it, I just want to be on vacation. Heck, not just on vacation, but travelling. I think it's kind of different - vacation to me is like sitting on a beach chair in the sun next to a pool reading a book. Travelling is wearing full on shoes, getting lost in strange cities, going to museums, getting stuck in tourist traps, etc. That's what I want! Tourist traps!!

Places to See Before I Die
1- England (otherwise known as Sean's second home)
2- Vienna (with Sean this time)
3- France
4- Portugal (I've always wanted to see it, but since Chel has been home...)
5- Africa
6- China (The Great Wall, Terra Cotta Warriors, I could go on...)
7- Japan
8- Hawaii (but, I think this falls more towards the vacation - see above)
9- Peru (Macchu Pichu, to be exact)
10- Egypt
11- Italy (again, with Sean this time)

So, you see, I've got a lot of travelling to do before I die. I'd best get on that. I know that this list is probably just the same as anyone elses, but I really want to see all these places at least once in my life.

Here's to wishing!

Angels

In past years at work, we have done the traditional gift exchange - White Elephant, Secret Santa, etc. As much fun as that has been - and believe me, we have had some pretty great exchanges - this year we decided to participate in a charity - The Angel Tree. This has been one of the most memorable Christmases I can remember.

We started by collecting from the folks at work - we received $500+ which was so exciting!! We then went and selected a few names from the Christmas Angel Tree at the Macy*s store down the street. We selected 3 children and 3 adults. The cards were so sweet and their wishes were simple - on requesting only a "calendar for the upcoming year". We did most of the shopping on Wednesday afternoon, and completed the shopping today. I am not a professional shopper like some women I have met, and I am ashamed to say I was unprepared. My feet hurt, I was annoyed by the lines that took longer than 5 minutes, and I just wanted to go home and sleep. But, as we were shopping, we saw another family that was participating in a similar sort of charity - buying gifts and necessities for others. They were racing around the store with HUGE smiles on their faces, wondering what they could do for someone who was less fortunate than they. As I saw them, I resolved to stop whining and appreciate the things I had and that I had the opportunity to participate in this. We had such a great time shopping and I hope that the Angels we selected will get as much joy this Christmas as I have had. Sean and I have decided to make this a yearly tradition. I think it is important to instill the idea that there is more to Christmas than just gifts - that it is a time that we are to think of others rather than ourselve and to spread the Christmas spirit around.

Merry Christmas to all!!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

Christmas is, by far, my most favorite holiday. Everywhere you go, there are decorations, candy to be eaten, presents to be given/received, etc. Nothing puts me in a better mood than driving down a street and night and see all the different houses with their many different decorations - how can you be grumpy when you're looking at a house all lit up with white, red and green lights? I am firmly convinced that it is not possible!

In regards to this lovely time of year, I have a beef with Political Correctness. I would rather hear someone wish me a "Merry Christmas", "Happy Hannukah", or "Happy Kwanzaa" rather than a generic "Happy Holidays". Political Correctness has its place, but Christmas is not one of them. Isn't freedom of religion one of the pleasures of living in this great country? And if so, don't we all have the pleasure of worshipping how, when, and where we please? And if that is the case, shouldn't we be able to wish people a Happy Whatever-Holiday-We-Choose-to-Celebrate? Well, this blogger will certainly be going through this Christmas season with a "Merry Christmas" on her lips!