Drama in Suburbia

Growing up, I lived in a very small town. There was an entire acre of land standing between our house and our neighbors. Pretty much everyone had animals of some sort whether it were the usual dogs & cats or cows & goats. I never knew I'd miss 'country' life so much.

The past 5 years, I have lived in an apartment. It was fun at first, but got old quick. The lack of space and no yard to call my own was something I was ready to leave behind.

When we moved into the suburbs, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. 

I had never lived in a housing area before. My husband had, but even still, the houses weren't this close together. I was just ecstatic about finally being in a house. A few weeks after we moved in, the high that I was on began to fade. I still love this house, but getting used to neighborhood life is taking more time than I would have imagined. 

Yesterday morning, as I was in the kitchen getting the coffee started, we hear a knock on our door. Aaron answered, and it was one of our neighbors. She proceeded to say that if we didn't get our dog's barking under control, she was going to call the cops on us. As soon as she said that, my blood started boiling.

First of all, my dog rarely barks. She does bark at people she doesn't know, in situations where she's scared, and when she's being protective. So yes, from time to time, when she's outside, she will bark....especially when she smells an animal or person close to our fence. What annoys me most [other than her threatening to call the cops on us]? Is that the lady said that she has 'tried to be nice to the dog & feed her treats'. UMMM, hello! Obviously if you're trying to get at the dog through the fence and she is BARKING at you, she doesn't like you or she thinks you are trying to endanger her family. If she doesn't want your treats & continues to bark/growl at you, take a hint. She's also claiming that Kami wakes her up at 3:30 am barking, which I know is untrue because Kami sleeps in our bedroom! I don't let her out in the morning until Adelei wakes up, which is usually 8:30 or 9.  I just honestly don't see how this is possible when I am home 90% of the time [in other words, I know if my dog is barking to bring her inside!]. I don't know whether it's true or not, but she says some of the other neighbors have complained as well. She also told us that we needed to keep our dog inside [she's an inside dog, but obviously I let her out to do her business & get exercise], and that we need to video tape Kami while she's outside. Getting the cops called means we'd have to pay a fine, and if they reported it to our real estate company, we could get evicted. I miss living in a place where, if a dog barked or rooster crowed, no one got their panties in a wad.

p.s. Did I mention there are other dogs in the neighborhood?

Landlord Drama

Today we got a note on our door from our Landlord stating that they will be entering our unit on Thursday to do inspections and for us to have our apartment thoroughly cleaned and free of clutter to make it easier on them.

I stared at the note for several seconds, reread it, and laughed.

One more thing to stress over? I think not.

We are moving in two weeks. Boxes everywhere.

Our movers aren't coming until NEXT Friday.

Did I mention that we have a graduation AND birthday party to prepare for? 

Decorations & Cupcake stands everywhere.

What I can't understand is why they would be inspecting our apartment BEFORE we move out.

Isn't that something they do afterward to assess what needs to be done before the new renters move in?

I mean, surely they will have to do it again once we leave, so why do it twice?

Am I thinking way too far into this?

Probably so.

Yesterday...in review

The Good:
Two of my classes got canceled
I got a new laptop [more on this later]
We got to see Wolfman early [and free]
It was casino night on campus
Aaron and I won a total of 210,000 FAKE dollars
With that fake money, we won MadGab
I got triple chocolate pie at waffle house, and it was amazing
We had a lot of fun with our friends that we don't get to hang out with very often

The Bad:
When we got home from the movies, we found out that Kami figured out how to climb onto furniture
She chewed up not only my cheap earbuds, but Aaron's $50 zune headphones AND broke his hardshell zune case by chewing it to death....also, somehow found a way to get the batteries out of our t.v. remote control.....
We tried to use our fake money to win the surround sound Aaron wanted, but a group of people put their money together and got it for 8.5 million fake dollars
Waffle house didn't have icecream :(

The Ugly:
When we got home from casino night, Kami had ripped the entire cover to the back of our BRAND NEW recliner off
I cut myself really bad on one of the nails trying to fix it, and cried like a baby because I was so frustrated

But, Did I mention I got a new laptop?!

Don't wait just tell me all about it

Proof that I'm losing my mind at 22:

• I found my wooden spoon...not in the drawer where it goes, but in the cabinet with the spaghetti sauce.
• I thought I put the tea back into the refrigerator after I poured myself a glass, but found out later I had actually put it in the freezer.
• Also found our candle lighter in the refrigerator.

I don't know if my brain is just temporarily fried from all the stress, or if it is completely going bye-bye.

Anyways, for some happy thoughts, my flower painting is complete and currently hanging in my living room.
Here are some 'in progress' pics. [please excuse the quality, they were taken with my phone]


And here is the final product:
[yes, that big white thing is a cloud]

Questions, Comments, Criticism Welcomed.

You pick me apart while I search for witty things to say

I lost my engagement ring last night.
You see, when my hands get cold, it slips right off. I was sitting on the couch, and I felt it slide off. I thought for sure when I stood up, it would just be laying on the cushion, but no. We looked for it for close to an hour, before Aaron finally gave up. I mean, we pulled the cushions off, he lifted it up so I could look under it, we shook out the blanket and everything. And as I was on the verge of tears, I decided to put myself in the rings position. AS CRAZY AS IT SOUNDS, it worked. I was basically upside down looking in every nook and cranny & I found it. It was wedged between two pieces of fabric in the bottom base of the couch, underneath all of the springs. Needless to say, we had to use tweezers to get it out, but LUCKILY I found it. Talk about almost having a panic attack!

Anyways,

A few of us art ed. majors are leaving this afternoon to head up to a school in Gordo, Alabama to teach art lessons for two days. It should be interesting, but I'm a little bit nervous. We're each going to have our own classes ALL day for two days [thursday & friday]....4th, 5th, and 6th graders.

I'm not even nervous about the teaching part...I'm nervous about the fact that we are supposed to be staying at random people's houses. People who we've never met before. People who are going to be in charge of making us meals, and driving us around. *sigh*

It should be nothing shy of interesting. Wish me luck!

WW:Love is a battlefield

Engagement party pics!

doin' what we do best [fight]

♥

Patience is a virtue

On Tuesday, Aaron and I were pretty determined to get a second car.
Mostly because we have such different schedules, it would be very hard for us to just share my car; especially if he decides to get a job. After the not so great news we received about a lack of funds, we had to sit down and really figure some stuff out.

Once we got our P’s & Q’s straight, we headed out. We started out by going to the lemon lot [a place on base where soldiers try to sell their cars when they get stationed over seas], because they usually have really nice cars for pretty reasonable prices. Of course we found a few that we really liked, but we decided that at this point in time, they were out of our price range. One of the cars was a Mazda3 Hatchback. It wasn’t the car that Aaron originally wanted, but when we saw it, we both really liked it. But, like I said, it was out of our league for the time being.

We were heading to Enterprise to see Aaron’s sister when I remembered there was a Mazda dealership in town. We stopped by, just to have a look, and we found the one we wanted! An ’06 Silver Mazda3 Hatchback with black and red interior with only 32,000 miles on it. We took it for a test drive, and Aaron really did fall in love! He wanted a stick shift [which I have no clue how to drive], but this car is an automatic, with the ‘bumping shift’ which means it can switch between being an automatic or a manual. HOW COOL IS THAT? I basically thought this car was made for us.

Then it came down to the credit check and yadda, yadda. We passed with flying colors, and got the lowest interest rate available, but then it took us FOUR hours to negotiate. I’ll just tell you right now, I was highly irritable. I hate being places like that for so long, but it was worth it. To begin with they wanted $3,000 deposit & then $380 payment each month for 4 years. When we left, we had talked them down to paying a $1,000 deposit & $265 payment each month for 5 years. We saved a little over $3,000 on the car just by not taking the crap they were throwing at us, and almost walking away. We knew how much the car was worth, and they wanted a lot more for it, so we just sat there until they gave us a good deal. Needless to say, we left a very, very happy couple.

Wednesday, they wanted Aaron to come back to finish signing the paper work [since it was so late when we finally left], so he did. He got all the way to the dealership [45 mins away!] just to find out that since he was only 21 he HAD to have a cosigner, or we would have to give the car back. My first thought was, WHY couldn't they have told us that the night before? They knew he was only 21 because they asked him on several occassions for his birthday. They also knew that he was driving almost an hour to get there, so you'd think they would have saved him a little bit of trouble, but no. He called his dad, and asked if he would co-sign, and UNSURPRISINGLY he said no. I knew the answer before he even asked. I started to get really bummed out, because his mom has NO credit, and we knew that from past experience, so we were kind of freaking out. But my Nanny saved the day.

She agreed to co-sign, because she said that even if Aaron defaulted on payments, she would just finish paying it off and give it to me! HA! Notttttt that he will do that, but if it happened, at least we have a back up plan. Thursday we went BACK to Enterprise to finish signing all the paper work.

After days of going back and forth with the dealership, and stressing out about finding a co-signer, we are now the proud owners of this lovely little car:

It's my birthday and I'll LIE if I want to........

That's right. It's my birthday, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm turning 21 again this year. And probably the year after that, and the year after that, & so on until suddenly I turn 29, and I guess I'll be okay with staying at 29 for eight years, too. Or atleast until I come to terms with the fact that getting older isn't a bad thing.

You don't have to tell me, I already know I'm crazy.

But in other news, I actually got a few bucks for my birthday, which means I'll be able to take advantage of this whole tax free weekend by going out and getting new clothes. :)

Other than that I'd just like to say thank you to all of you who have already told me Happy Birthday! Makes me feel all special inside.

I'll update later, but for now......I must go to work. *sigh*