Blah, blah, blah...

So today is a dark, rainy, hazy sorta Monday morning. I had a roller coaster weekend thanks, in part, to my daughter having a huge report due this morning, which stressed me out to the nth degree. But, thank goodness, we were able to get her report done, her salt map painted, labelled, and keyed, her stamp cut out, and enough flan made for 5th and 6th grade to taste (with a bit left over). In the end, I was so happy to just kinda collapse on the couch. She should be doing her presentation even as I'm typing.

Outside of that, my weekend was mostly calm.

Friday night I went to a premiere of three short (and some trailers) from other students at WVSU, which is where I'm working on my masters. I hadn't planned on going, but got a last minute invite from a friend and I'm so glad I did. In our area, it's rare that people turn out for events like this. But, this time, we had a mostly full house. It was really incredible to see. It's good to know that the film community in a small area like ours is growing fast. And it's even better to know that I'm a part of it. It made me even more excited to get my thesis done and work on as many other films as I can until that fateful day when they force me to graduate and return full time to the grown up world.

Saturday morning I had planned a bit of shopping with my mom. She has decided to get the kids new bedroom suites for their rooms and she wanted me to see what she was considering for my daughter especially. What I thought would be 3-4 stops over a couple hours turned into 7 stops over like 6 hours. I had forgotten how good Mom is at shopping! I came home with sore feet and one beautiful picture for my kitchen-to-be!

Papaw with his new medal

Anyway, last week I mentioned that my papaw was going to DC to get a medal from the French Embassy (making him part of the Legion D'Honneur or Legion of Honor, which includes the likes of Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, and Laurence Olivier to name a few). They had a wonderful trip and, according to Mom, the French Ambassador made every single man feel as if they were singlehandedly responsible for saving France, and eventually the rest of the world, from Hitler. I just had to post a couple pics since I'm so overwhelmingly proud of him. As Mom said, everyone should get the chance to be celebrated in their last days.

Mamaw and Papaw in DC

He's being honored here in Charleston this week too, so I'm very excited to be able to be a part of it all this time. I've just gotta figure out how to get them where they need to be, which is trickier than it sounds! But I'm sure it will all turn out just fine.

Stealing from ETW...

So I totally stole these questions from the Evil Twin's Wife cause my mind is bouncing all over the place this morning!

1. How old is the oldest pair of shoes in your closet?

None of mine are too awfully old right now. I have a pair of chucks that is probably 4-5 yrs old but that's it. When we moved into our current apartment a little over a year ago, I donated most of my older shoes that I never wore. Since we got Jake the Wonder Mutt, I do well to keep shoes at all since fake leather is one of his favorite treats.

2. Did you buy Girl Scout cookies this year? If so, what variety?

I bought Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs, and Trefoils. I love them. I'm always a sucker for sugar but it's extra nice that they're really good and I didn't have to make them myself.

3. Do you know how to ballroom dance? If not, would you like to?

I so wish I did. When we first got back together, Not-So-Ex wanted to take a class, but I put it off and I wish I hadn't!

4. Were you a responsible child/teenager?

I was an uber-responsible kid. As a teenager, not so much.

5. How many of this year's Oscar-nominated movies did you see?

I'm a (fledgling) film geek so I actually saw most of them. I saw Avatar (yawn), Up in the Air (wonderful), Up (even more wonderful), Inglorious Basterds (effing awesome), and District Nine (meh). I will be watching Hurt Locker, for which I've heard absolutely nothing but praise, soon. I can't decide if I'll watch Precious, which just looks so incredibly good but in a painful sort of way, or A Serious Man, but I probably will eventually.

6. If you're going to have a medical procedure done, such as having blood drawn, is it easier for you to watch someone else having the procedure done or have it done yourself?

Having blood drawn doesn't even phase me. I despise IVs though.

7. What is your favorite day of the week and why?

I think I'll have to go with the obvious and say Saturday. That's the day when work doesn't even enter my mind and there's no pressure to get the kids ready for school or anything.

8. Do you miss anyone right now?

I'm not sure miss is the right word, but I'd love to have the fam with me instead of being in my office!

9. Do hospitals make you queasy?

Normally, no. But I will say that visiting my papaw in a VA hospital a few years ago almost took me out. There was just something about that place.

10. At which store would you like to max-out your credit card. Not that you ever would, you responsible person, you.

There are a few places actually. I could burn through some serious plastic at Old Navy. Plus, Target has a very special, warm spot in my wallet. Krogers also gets a good chunk of my paycheck on a pretty regular basis.

11. Are you true to the brand names of products/items?

I'm normally a cheaper is better sorta chick. But I do buy name brand chocolate chips and chocolate baking bars when I'm baking something special. And Hershey's dark cocoa powder is awesome too.

Brightest bulb I am not...

So yeah today seemed like the perfect time (despite the fact that it's mid 30's outside, I am taking meds for ear infections, and I'm wearing high heels) to walk over to the new house and take a couple pics. You see we bought the house before it was even actually posted so we don't have anything to show friends and family.

I came back to work with a runny nose, throbbing feet, and a couple decent pics which I promptly showed to my co-workers. If any of my friends in bloggerland wanna see, just email!

What a red-letter day!

So yesterday was pretty awesome. Work was smooth, I was feeling better, and then I had good news in pretty much all areas of my life. There was news on the personal front (with the house deal), the professional front (which I'm not discussing yet), and on the family front too (which I'm gonna talk about now).

Pic stolen from my brilliant photographer cousin Eric Conner

My papaw is one of the 30 remaining men from his division in World War II. His division, the 95th Infantry, received a lot of recognition and rewards, not from our own country, but from France. You see his division was responsible for liberating and defending the city of Metz, France, which was, at that time, an important military holding for Germany for both political and historical reasons and earned them the nickname "The Iron Men of Metz." The 95th, along with other divisions, were involved in the Battle of Metz where they were led by General Patton. After France, they went on into Germany where they were involved in liberating the concentration camps, something that haunted Papaw for many years. In the end, his division lost over 10,000 men in World War II.

As a kid, Papaw's war experience was something that was whispered about and told as a secret. We often went to reunions of his war buddies and all of their families, but the true battles were rarely discussed. I heard the stories of my incredibly mischievous Papaw liberating and frying chickens, which weren't hard to imagine at all, or how he managed to arrange for two of his three enlisted brothers to all meet up in Germany (Papaw had four brothers, three of which fought in WWII, and all came home safe). But I never heard the horrors, I was protected from that. As I grew up, more details leaked out and my Papaw grew to be a hero in my eyes. Sometimes I made him more of a legend than he really was, such as when I was in junior high and just convinced that he barely missed saving Anne Frank (yes I was clearly a voracious reader with an imagination to match). But I was always told not to ask him about his service and, even though I didn't understand, I obeyed.

As Papaw aged, he gradually stopped going to the division's yearly reunion saying it was just too depressing to see less and less of them there as deaths became more common. But the bond that they shared was a tight one. And, next week, the 30 remaining men were invited to DC where they will be receiving an award from the French Embassy for their service.

I'm very proud of Papaw, and all the men just like him.

Woo Hoo Baby!!!!

We have a house deal folks! Now we still gotta go through the whole inspection process again but I know this house is in way better shape so I'm sure all will work out just fine.

I also got some other good news, but I'm not allowed to discuss it yet! LOL

What a weekend!

As I said in my last post, I woke up with an ear infection Friday morning and it was driving me nuts! I put going to the doc off till Sat morning when I woke up in pretty considerable pain. Since it was snowing and still early, I figured they wouldn't be busy and I was right. I was in and out in less than 45 minutes. Turned out I had an external ear infection in my right ear (which was what sent me to the doc in the first place), but I also had what looked to be the beginning of internal ear infections in both ears and a red throat. So I spent most of the weekend laying on my side with drops in my ear and taking antibiotics.

That may not sound like the best weekend, but it was pretty great actually. For one, by the end of Saturday, the pain was mostly gone. By Sunday, there was no pain and the antibiotics were helping to lift the vague ickyness I had been feeling for a while. Plus all that time on my side meant plenty of good tv and movie viewing!

And that was all wonderful since we went to look at a house Sunday afternoon. It was the house that our realtor had emailed about last week. She told us she thought we'd really like it but I wasn't sure how much attention she had been paying to what we were looking for. Turns out she was paying a lot of attention. Want a nice kitchen? Check. Original hardwood floors in good shape? Check. Three nice sized bedrooms with decent closets? Check. Fenced yard for the dogger? Check. Unfinished basement for storage? Check. Wanna be close to the Capitol? Big, big check! It even had things that we didn't think we would find like great paint jobs in all the rooms, a nice front porch, and a street full of what appears to be decent houses rather than the popular East End houses far past their prime turned into apartments.

Of course it's not perfect, there are some concerns about the location being a bit noisy. And, while the paint job is wonderful, I may have to change some of the colors. They did a wonderful job of giving the house a nice, calming, toned-down palette, but my Snoopys could use a brighter, jewel-toned background. But that's something that could come in time.

So we made our offer and we'll see what happens now. But it's nice to be excited again and see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'll definitely be thrilled to leave our apartment behind. I have a feeling that, in a few years time, it will become that first apartment where everything was crappy but you were really happy anyway. But for now, it's just crappy! LOL

Thoughts on a Friday...

1. Snow? Really? - I got up this morning and, when I opened my front door to head to work, I was so disappointed to see the snow still coming down. Now I'm generally a fan of snow, but I'm so over it. This girl needs some sunshine stat.

2. Welcome to my infirmary - My house is now officially an infirmary. My son is home sick again. Not-So-Ex is feeling crappy. I have an ear infection. My poor daughter is gonna need some huge amounts of vitamins to keep her from catching something. We're all going to urgent care as soon as I get out of work so hopefully we can get back to normal quickly. But I'm tired of sickiness.

3. We're still looking - The house hunting thing is no longer so exciting. We found an iffy house and a cute house in the exact wrong place (I mean there's one street I won't live on and where's the decent looking house? You guessed it.), but the realtor says there's something coming open this weekend that we might like. But I can't get any more details from her! And it's killing me! I mean she said the words "spectacular kitchen" and then nothing more. I mean come on!!!!

4. I've become somewhat obsessed with Johnny Cash. Especially the American recording sessions. One of these days, I'm gonna spring for this, and my life will be complete. LOL

5. I haven't baked in ages. I know a big part of this is just cause there's so much going on right now. I hope to rectify the non-baking trend this weekend (especially since Cupcake Hero this month is all about caramel!) but we'll see how it goes.

Update - One last thing, the charter school bill I mentioned in a previous post is still kicking!

Why my husband is awesome (today)

These are called hot dogs. The local bakery (Spring Hill for those who are from around here) makes them and they are incredible. They're basically a long thin donut-type pastry cut in half, filled with cream, and drizzled with chocolate.

Today my husband took a day off with our son who is sick again (and Not-So-Ex really needed a day off too cause he's been working like mad) and he brought these little pieces of awesomeness in for me and my co-workers. And, as if that's not enough, he's also taking me to my favorite restaurant for lunch!

It makes for a wonderful morning, that's for sure.

I do have to say, on the slightly negative side, that it looks like our dryer is going out. But, in all honesty, that's not even so bad because it means that, if we move soon, we can just buy a new washer and dryer and have it delivered to our house. That way Not-So-Ex, my dad, and/or whoever else helps us move won't have to mess with getting the old ones out of our basement (we had to take the door off to get them in) and into the new house! Yay!

The one where she feels lucky...

So when we first made an offer on the house that we were going to buy, the realtor sat us down and said that the owners had recently had an inspection done and gave us a copy to go over. As we looked it over she said that, if we wanted to, we could just use their inspection instead of having to pay to have my own done again.

Luckily, I said that we wanted to have another one done.

I received the inspection report yesterday night and was appalled. Now I want to state clearly that we knew it was an older home with an older roof that was showing signs of wear and tear. What we didn't know was that, once you got into the attic, you could see light through the roof.

In addition to the roof, there were a myriad of other problems, some small and some not. In the end, it was clear that buying that house would have been a tremendous mistake. I contacted the realtor and withdrew our offer.

So now we've gone from picking out light fixtures and gathering boxes to start packing to scouring the real estate guide again. While I'll readily admit that I'm frustrated, I'm also incredibly thankful that we didn't get stuck with a lemon of a house. Now if I can just find a good one! LOL

The hits just keep on coming...

So I headed into work hoping for a little break in my bad luck but, alas, it doesn't seem to be coming today.

I got to work and was trying to remove a stubborn staple and chipped my tooth (yeah... I'm sure everyone has no trouble figuring out how that happened to this particular rocket scientist). So I'm walking around with my tongue almost permanently attached to my front tooth because I can feel where it's chipped, even though it doesn't really show unless you really study it. I've had too many sick and annual days lately so, if it continues to bug me, I'll have to wait till Saturday to get to the dentist. Which is just my luck.

Being the kind of person I am, I find these stories so funny that I have to tell everyone. So, shortly after chipping my tooth and telling the woman in the office beside mine, I sat down to have lunch in my office and promptly choked on my pop and had a coughing fit like you would not believe. After hearing me coughing, she yelled out "are you ok?" and of course I said yes. Then she yelled, "You better watch or you'll be dead by the end of the day."

I guess we'll see won't we!

Dear Weekend...

Please end soon! You have not been very nice to me and mine. If it wasn't bad enough that I had such an awful day at work on Friday, you had to really pull out all the stops Saturday (when my grandfather was involved in a car accident but is luckily ok) and Sunday (when we heard from the house inspector that the home we've been trying to buy has a bad roof).

Now I'm sure, in the long run, things will turn out fine. The accident will hopefully cause Papaw to listen to those of us who tell him not to drive, but it's hard for him to give up his independence. As his hard-headed granddaughter, I understand. As for the house, I spoke with our realtor who said the next step is to tell them that the roof has to be fixed or the deal is off. We may well end up starting over from scratch, but that's better than moving in and finding out in a matter of months (and that's a bit optimistic) that we're gonna have to shell out thousands for a new roof.

But anyway, for once I'm screaming "Come on Monday!"

Update: Well the bad luck has continued and spread to our poor little dogger. Trying to be good pup parents, we tried to trim Jake's toenails. Yeah, we'll never do that again.

Sickie, sickie

So we all know this has has been a killer winter. The snow, the cold, and just the way it continues to drag on has about done everyone in. I love winter, and especially the snow, as much as anyone, but I am totally ready for spring.

The other side effect of this awful winter seems to be (at least for my family) a longer cold and flu season. Not-So-Ex has been sick. I've been trying to get rid of a very minor cold since last week. Hunter was out sick two days a couple weeks ago and then got sick again last night. This morning he seemed some better, but his complaints of a headache and dizziness worried me so we're home together.

It sucks cause, while I have the sick time, I hate to miss so much work. I love my job and my co-workers (and my boss especially) are just the best. I definitely wanna keep this gig. But Not-So-Ex is actually working two jobs (both for the same company) right now so he can't spare the time to stay home with Hunt. Plus, when he misses a day, he just doesn't get paid. And his pay is far too good to give up easily.

So I sent my sincere apologies to my boss this morning and holed up with Hunt. In a way, I'm glad because it gives me another day to get myself feeling better. Plus, since Not-So-Ex is working most days from around 7 am to 8 or 9 pm, we haven't had much food in the house. So I hit Krogers with a vengeance. In a bit, I'll start making some pepperoni rolls (some with turkey pepperoni... shhhhh... don't tell my guys) for us to have to snack on today and tomorrow. Plus we got everything to make a nice big dinner of fettucini alfredo, my specialty dish.

Also, ever since the kids got the huge caramel apples I bought them for Valentines, I've been wanting to make my own. So I got all the stuff and I'm planning on using this recipe as a starting point. Hopefully they turn out as good as the ones I bought!

Things that float through my head on a pseudo-Monday...

So today is really a Tuesday but, since yesterday was a holiday, it really feels like a Monday. My lucky little heatherns got a snow day so they get to postpone Monday one more day! But Momma has to slave away for the man so here I sit.

But, as tends to happen, my mind isn't so much on work right now. I have a small stack of donations and reports to enter, which will take about an hour, so my mind is currently on the house.

I have become, quite frankly, somewhat obsessed with light fixtures. The exterior of our house, to me, is very jazzy and New Orleansy. I've only been to New Orleans once and, while it wasn't the best of trips, I loved the look and feel of a city that is steeped in tradition while still being up for absolutely anything.

So the outside of the house says jazz but the inside of the house says "Hi. I'm 80 years old." The carpet is dark and heavy and often clashing. There are these huge, heavy chandeliers that are far too formal for a jazz house.

The first step of course will be to jerk that carpet out of there and refinish the hardwood underneath. That alone will make a huge change.

The next step will be replacing those chandeliers. Here's where we run into the confusion though. I want the inside to feel just as cool and jazzy and New Orleans (modern but with history) as the outside. So I sit and search for pics of houses in New Orleans in the 20s-30s. Thus far, I haven't found much of interest. I think the key for me is to just find modern, simple fixtures with very clean lines. I want to use some bright colors inside as well but I have to walk a very thin line there. The outside is brick, so I'd like to bring the red inside as well (and red is already a theme in my furniture and such) but I don't want to overdo it.

Well anyway, once we get going I am sure there will be much to report. But, for now, I'm stuck researching, daydreaming, and waiting!

More than a Valentine's Day

So yesterday was a big day for our little family and it had nothing to do with the fact that it was Valentine's Day. In fact, since we're a family full of people who can't stand to buy a gift and not immediately give it, we had all already given gifts to each other long before Valentine's actually arrived.

While mentioning gifts, I have to say that Not-So-Ex really outdid himself this year. Months ago he had talked to my uncle, a sculptor who makes huge steel flowers (if you're local, he has a shop called Steel Blooming), about making a custom desk sculpture of cupcakes. The result is stunningly beautiful, not to mention a one of a kind art piece. I was absolutely speechless.

A bad pic caused by super shaky hands!

Anyway, back to my original point, the important thing about yesterday was that it was our awesome, often devilish, pups 1st birthday (or at least the day we designated as his b-day since he was a pound puppy and we didn't know his exact birth date for sure). So Jake Blues the Wonder Mutt is becoming a big boy. We shared special meals with him and bought him new toys and just generally loved him to pieces all day long. It's so hard to believe that it's almost been a year since we broke him out of the pound thinking he was gonna be a little dog, only to have him grow into a full scale Scooby Doo look alike. Now Jakester is a full-fledged family member and fits right into our little family.

In other good news, the house deal was basically done yesterday and now the pre-closing frenzy begins. There is just so much to do... inspections to arrange... window shopping for Not-So-Ex and I to do since there's a lot of things we will be replacing in the house... and that's not even going into the whole packing thing! We're so excited, both for ourselves and especially for Jake who will get a small fenced yard for him to play in without even being tied up.

The first thing we had to do was get the inspection, which I set up this morning. I was so nervous about it because, with it being a very old home, I want to walk in with open eyes and a full knowledge of the shape it is in. I don't want any surprises. Since I didn't know anyone to do the inspection, I mentioned on facebook that I needed to have one done. Within about 15 minutes I found out that an old friend of the family (and grandpa of one of my son's good friends) is a house inspector and I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. I know, without a doubt, that he'll look it over carefully and be very honest about the areas we need to watch and/or work on. So now everything is set up and we should have the full report in about a week or so.

I wish I could post pics of the house, since it is truly beautiful in a very "me" sorta way. But I've come to realize that I need to protect my family and their privacy a bit more than I have been. It saddens me cause I'm more of the open and sharing type (and I'd rather be that way) but I've been forced to recognize that not everyone likes me. While I'm fine with that (and am not always worthy of being liked), I'm not going to open my family up to the judgement and cruelty of those who feel they have a bone to pick with me.

However, if I were one of my readers, I would look forward to plenty of before and after pics of the interior of the house! There will be some dramatic changes ahead!

Pure Excitement

So today we accepted the counter offer from the owner of the house we were interested in. It was an interesting process for a newbie.

We made a super low opening offer because there were a lot of things we were unclear on. We knew the outside of the house was perfect (for me anyway) but, since the house was built in 1929, we wanted to be clear on what condition everything was in. Once we started dealing with them, we found out that the house had a lot of improvements we didn't know about including a brand new heating and cooling system, which means a lot to a chick who is totally over window air conditioners! And we have high hopes for the flooring, which is a big issue since I hated the carpeting.

There's still a lot to be done like inspections and finalizing the bank deal. Things could still fall apart, but we're much closer.

On a side note, my son hurt himself at a school skating party Friday but, luckily, didn't break anything but has to have a stint on his arm for a while. We feel blessed that his injury was small and simple.

Have an awesome weekend folks! Share lots of love!

Big jump!

Well we decided to go ahead and make an offer on the smaller, cheaper, but somewhat fixer-upper house. I'm nervously excited. We made a low offer so I'm sure there will be plenty of negotiating to follow.

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

I'm at work today. I'm one of the precious few at work today. I shoulda stayed home but knowing Not-So-Ex would be working late and that the kids would be with the grandparents made it not such an enticing proposition.

I wish I had kept the kids home this week so that today could've been spent making hot chocolate and playing Wii. But there will be other snow days. So, for today, I'm just gonna hope that I can pick up plenty of slack for those who couldn't make it in and stay busy for the rest of the day.

On the plus side, there will be some lovely house news coming pretty soon I believe! And that definitely has my mind running a mile a minute as visions of hardwood floors, ovens, and funky light fixtures dance in my head! I could really use a young, funky consultant. LOL

Date Night #1

So last night was our first kid-less night and it was one of the best, stress-less, relaxing evenings I've had for a while. The plan was to go out after work, look at a house, go to dinner, and then hit a movie.

We went and looked at the house, which I had already seen but wanted Not-So-Ex's opinions. And, luckily, we both felt exactly the same about it. It has possibilities, but would require money and time before it would be what we would want it to be. Now this house is very cheap and, to be blunt, we would offer even less for it because of all the work and changes that are needed. We could use some of the money we had saved planning to buy a more expensive house and spend it to do some work before we even move in. And the payment would be low enough that we could stay in our current apartment while the work was being done. So the plan right now is to keep looking and, if we don't find anything as it gets closer to the cut-off for the big tax credit, then it may end up being our house.

After the house, we went out for a nice dinner and it was nice to just sit and relax and eat. We had planned a movie after dinner but I was enjoying everything so much that I just wanted to go home, get in my PJs, and watch Chuck. So that's what we did. A perfect evening.

Tonight Not-So-Ex is stuck working a bit later than normal so I'll probably get a jump on the cupcakes I need to make for my order and for the kids' Valentines parties. Love it!

Monday Pros and Cons

Pro: Had the greatest, most relaxing weekend I've had in ages. It took me a little bit to figure out why it was so good but then I realized that it's the first weekend Not-So-Ex has had off for a while. It was nice to chill out, do nothing, and catch up on rest and a little house work.

Con: I didn't want the weekend to end! However, I am still in a pretty damn good mood anyway.

Pro: I wore a brand new, cute little pleated grey skirt to work, which meant I got to pull out the killer grey Mary Jane-ish heels for the very first time. I love rocking awesome shoes!

Con: My cute skirt is shorter than I normally wear so I'm constantly self-consciously pulling it down. And the heels will eventually kill my feet but I really don't care. LOL

Pro: It's a date week! Woo Hoo! The parents and in-laws have the kiddies so Not-So-Ex and I can house shop, hit the movies, and dine out all week long. You really can't beat that.

Con: This is a kinda weak con, but I will miss the kids. But probably not that much! LOL

Pro: This week is Valentines so I have lots of cupcaking to do. I have an order this week plus the cupcake competition at the mall on Sat. I'm really super psyched about it.

Con: I personally think Valentine's Day is a complete crock. I think it's a made-up, bs holiday but I will admit to enjoying all the heart stuff and cool cupcake materials that come with the holiday.

Pro: On the house hunt front, we are going to look at a house today that is our current best shot. I don't know if we'll take it or not (it needs a LOT of work but is so cheap that we could afford to put into it what is needed) but we're gonna give it a look.

Con: I'm a terrible decision maker. And really impatient. I tend to jump into things while Not-So-Ex is much more wary. The last house we bought (during marriage 1.0) was a disaster. We both want to make sure we make the right choice this time.

Pro: I'm working on naming my cupcake business. I've been getting lots of suggestions and the current front runner is Creative Confections, but I still can't settle on one. But I can say that Paigeycakes has been vetoed. Definitively.

Con: There are just so many possibilities that it's hard to pick. And I'm happiest when things are settled.

OK... I think that's it for today! Have a great Monday!

More housey talk

So I don't think I've thought about much this week other than THE house. I talked to one bank yesterday and I have a meeting with another one tomorrow.

It's one of those situations where it's just a bit more than we were looking for. It's a big house that we could grow into but we also don't want to get something that, in the long run, we won't be able to afford. There's really nothing that will stomp the fun out of a new marriage faster than money problems.

That being said, I'm going to go tomorrow and see just how much I can offer, then I will make my offer. We may get shot down, but I want to offer.

Until then, I will be at my desk looking at screens or papers full of words but my mind will be full of floating numbers. And, to me, numbers are a soft, theoretical thing rather than hard, definitive words like yes and no.

But keep wishing me luck!!!