House Pics!

I finally found my camera cord and was able to download some pictures of the house last night! We've done a lot of unpacking but still have a ways to go - Check out our progress in the pics below!

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Home Sweet Home

Well, it’s official – Frank and I are homeowners and couldn’t be happier (or more exhausted)! We closed on the new house on Friday and started work right away. My Dad and Uncle were at the house waiting to start painting as soon as we were handed the keys. They managed to get all three bedrooms painted by Saturday evening! (They came out looking great!) And with the help of our great family and friends, we were able to get everything moved into the new house by noon on Saturday. Moving the boxes and furniture was only half the battle, though – My mom, sister, and I spent all day on Sunday cleaning and unpacking. Man, Frank and I have a ton of stuff! Now we just need to figure out what goes where and what just goes! It’s coming along slowly and starting to feel like home. Once I find and unpack my camera cord, I’ll download some pictures and post them - Here's one that my dad took for now...

You Forgot Someone!

Rachel and I have ALWAYS gone on trips together – Jamaica, Florida, Cali, South Padre…This morning my girl left for Venezuela without me! One of our good friends from VT is tying the knot on Margarita Island on Friday and unfortunately I had to pass up the amazing trip. (I just couldn’t justify it after the wedding & honeymoon – Needless to say it was a good decision in hindsight – It wouldn’t have worked out so well if I missed the closing for our house!) Last night Rachel came into town and we caught up with Kel for some Mexican where Rach had the first of her many margaritas that I’m sure she’ll be enjoying over her vacay in South America. We managed to clear enough space for Rachel to camp out on our couch last night and she was out the door bright and early this morning for her 7:05 flight from National. Be safe girl! Wish I could have gone with ya! :(

Less than One Week!!!!

Frank and I are so excited! We close on our house this Friday!!! Which only means that we spent this past weekend packing and shopping for the new place. We started out the weekend with dinner and drinks on Friday night with Mike & Chuck and their girlfriends and had a great night packed with loads of laughs (as usual with those guys!). On Saturday the real work began with lots of errands – We picked out paint colors for our bedrooms, shopped for cleaning supplies amongst other fun house items, made our first Home Depot visit for a few homeowner purchases, and packed, packed, and packed!!! The day wouldn’t be complete without soccer, though! Frank played in an Arlington coach’s game on Saturday night and let me tell you – Fall is definitely here! I was just in a short sleeved shirt, jeans, and flip flops and froze my butt off out there watching him!

Other exciting news this weekend – Last night we finished our wedding thank you cards!!!!! I went to Starbucks on Sunday afternoon and committed to knocking out most of the remaining ones – and then Frank and I split the last of them between us last night and they were done in no time. Thank goodness – They were never ending!

It tastes like chicken

Last night my wonderful husband called me on my way home from work to let me know that dinner was waiting for me – What a nice surprise! He warned me that it was a little ‘sketch’ but since I’d only had time to eat a yogurt and apple throughout the day, I didn’t care what it was; as long as it was editable and I didn’t have to cook it, I was looking forward to chowing down! When I got home and saw that he had made pork chops, I thought to myself, “Well, that’s odd since we just had pork chops on Monday night – Frank must be on a pork chop kick.” Not thinking more of it, I enjoyed my dinner and then when Frank got home from his soccer parents meeting, I thanked him for the pork chops and great dinner. His response? “Pork chops? I thought I made chicken.” HAHA He did mention that he thought they looked a little funny, but even after eating them, he still didn’t realize it was pork! My dear husband…so smart, but sometimes just doesn’t have the common sense in the kitchen! :)

Don’t Mess with Me!

Well, I have to admit that I am not the calmest driver out there on the roads but some people really take road rage to a whole new level. For instance, this morning, I was merging from Lee Highway onto Rt. 66 and when it clearly should have been my turn to merge, the car beside me obviously did not want to let me over, as was indicated by his incessant honking. That one extra car in front of him would have really caused him a significant delay in getting to wherever he was going. Well, I usually have the advantage in my SUV, and this case was no different – I continued to hold my own and merged right in front of his smaller Nissan, giving him a friendly wave, which did not go over too well. Once on 66, he flew up beside me so I braced myself for a harsh middle finger, but no – instead, I got something thrown at my car! Really? I didn’t think they gave licenses to 5 year olds – Grow up, dude! Anyway, the incident did shake me up a bit, so I proceeded to follow him and managed to jot down his license plate number and call the state police. A police officer did meet up with me and took down my report, but since there was no real damage (I think it was just ice that was thrown) most likely there won’t be charges pressed unless the guy admits to his road rage. The cop promised me he would scare the guy as best as he could though. I’d like to have a few words with him myself…

Gimmie More

More 3-day weekends, that is! I'd like to propose that every weekend be 3 days going forward - Who needs a 5 day work week? Not that we did anything too exciting this weekend, but having 2 full days to relax and unwind only made me wish for one more! Our Saturday consisted of running errands, more 'Thank You' card writing, briefly attending the Roslyn Jazz Festival (which was the highlight of my weekend because I got a funnel cake!!!!), and watching Virginia Tech lose horribly to LSU. On Sunday, we went to church, walked to a few shops in Clarendon, and I even caught one of Frank's soccer games on Sunday afternoon...Who wouldn't want one more leisurely day like that?

*On a side note, I (sadly) made it one of my Sunday night priorities to catch Britney Spears perform on the MTV Music Awards...Hence the blog title ;) I have to say, aside from her looking 'thick' as Frank described, she actually didn't look too skanky. Do I hear a comeback sneaking up?

Dinner Date

What a nice surprise – On Wednesday afternoon, my sister called me, asking if I wanted to meet my mom and her for dinner on Thursday night – Well, of course!!!! They drove from Winchester just to have dinner with me! :) We met at Rio Grande in Reston and enjoyed a delicious (as usual) meal outside on the patio. Even despite mom’s mishap with the bird (hehe), it was a great evening and I really enjoyed the impromptu dinner rendezvous. Thanks Ladies! (And Laura – Thanks for the yum-o chocolate chip cookies – I dug into them when I got home.)

Yes, this is Pre-Packed

So – Take a look…When I tell people that Frank & I are busting at the seams in our current apartment, I don’t think they really get it. All of those boxes, etc are shower/wedding gifts – And that’s only 1/3 of it! There’s another corner in the apartment that is stacked with more boxes – Plus a ton of goodies at my dad’s! Definitely time for an upgrade...Closing is less than 3 weeks away!!!

So Accomplished!

What an evening – I went to bed last night feeling like I had accomplished so much! First, it definitely helped that I left work at 7 and luckily hit no traffic on the way home, so was home and eating dinner before 8pm. After dinner, I started packing a few boxes and got a lot of the little stuff packed and out of the way. After all that packing, I rewarded myself with a nice homemade brownie sundae – YUM-O!!!!! Totally worth those unnecessary calories. (It was light ice cream, so I’m sure it was only 500 calories vs. the normal 1000! HA) After gorging myself on dessert, I then started the daunting task of writing our Thank You cards. The cards and our Thank You DVDs finally came in the mail on Friday – In 45 minutes, I only made out 10 cards! Holy cow – It’s going to take a lot longer than I thought to get through those. At least I got started – And hey, coupled with the packing progress, I’d definitely say the evening was a success!

Soccer Fever

Frank and I spent this past weekend in Richmond at the Richmond Cup soccer tournament – And I have to admit, after knowing Frank for over 5 years, his love of the game is actually rubbing off on me. The weekend wasn’t all that bad! I only caught 3 games on Saturday – I snuck away for a good part of the afternoon and walked the streets of Carytown – a cute stretch in downtown Richmond that’s lined with over 300 shops. I enjoyed a great lunch outside from a local deli and got to meet up with my good friend, Laura, and her husband for coffee. On Sunday, being the dedicated soccer wife that I am, I spent the whole day at the fields – for a total of 5 games! Both of Frank’s teams did phenomenal – The Inferno ended up bringing home 1st Place medals with a 4-0 record; The Firestorm’s 3rd Place standing was very heartbreaking since they also finished undefeated – A devastating last minute tie sent their opponent to the finals even though they whole-heartedly deserved the win. The poor kids were in tears at the end of the game – And the coach was quite upset as well. All in all – each team played their hearts out and had a fun weekend in Richmond…Not too bad of a way to spend Labor Day weekend!