Diversions

When we decided to pull up stakes and move, we left a very comfortable and profitable lifestyle. We both had federal civil service jobs, very good paying, very secure. I was set to get a pretty big promotion in February, and hubby was set to progress pretty quickly too. We lived in a decent house that we bought 13 years ago, with very low payments. We still had quite a few debts to pay off left over from our previous free-spending early 20's. We had quite a few friends, a great church and I had tons of hobbies to keep me busy. I came to realize though, that as good as my job was it wasn't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. My husband had the same realization.

Skip to now, I am in my fourth week on the new job. There have been times where it felt like a perfect fit, and times when I wondered what the hell I was thinking. Living in our spiffy new house with all of our debts paid off except a vehicle payment and the mortgage makes the whole thing seem more appealing. The downside of work is that I'm having to put in lots of hours at work, where we are straightening out a section that has been neglected for a long time. I'm up at 4:45 am and often don't come home until around 6:00 pm. I am constantly frustrated with myself because I'm not learning as fast as I want to.....I don't give myself much of a learning curve. ;) It's been very challenging, and is definately using all of my skills. If I can survive these first couple of months I'll be okay. :)

DIY Sucks

I have sworn many times in my life that I will NEVER buy another piece of put-it-together-yourself furniture. Throughout our married life we have built bookshelves, computer desks, tables, chairs, microwave carts and each time has left us nearly strangling each other. We needed to replace my computer desk since my old one was left in North Carolina. So we picked up a new one at Office Depot, and put it together today. I swear whoever designed it must have been smoking crack. The desk itself is very sturdy and looks very nice, but I have never put anything together that was such a pain in the arse.

On to good things! The picture above is my new kitchen, and I am in love with it. I can't wait to start cooking stuff, I can get in a lot of trouble in here. We did a stocking up trip to the grocery store today, and aside from cardiac arrest from the grocery bill we didn't do too bad. As soon as I unpack my cookbooks I will be in business!

Home Sweet Home

Yay! We're here, we moved into our new house yesterday. It still seems very surreal to me, almost like we're staying in a hotel. After staying with our friends and their teenage kids for the last month, being alone in our big new house made us feel like kids whose parents were out on vacation. We had a very busy day today, we went and bought blinds for the windows, and got most of them put up. We found the grocery store by the house, and also bought a new computer desk for me. We made our first supper in the new house, heated up frozen lasagna. Cheesy (literally) I know, but it was better than fast food. Tomorrow we're going to get the last of our boxes, a few household items and a couple of sets of curtains. Our DSL box came today, and our washer and dryer were delivered. So tomorrow will be laundry day, and our stock-up trip to the grocery store. Should be fun. :)

P.S. One of my favorite things about Alabama so far are the cotton fields. This is a picture of one that is right behind our house. It makes it look like snow drifts in September. ;)

Sunday Mornings

I got up this morning after sleeping in to 6:30 (hey, it's better than the 4:45 that I normally wake up now). I made some breakfast for everyone, the Spicy Autumn Hash recipe I posted earlier and some Tomato Gravy. My friends had really liked what I made for them a couple of nights ago, and said it would be good for breakfast so I made them some. Tomato gravy is now one of my absolute favorites, it's a really pretty one and it has a great flavor but isn't overwhelmingly tomato-ey. Here's the recipe:

Tomato Gravy
1 Tomato, diced
4 c. stock of your choosing (I use Maggi Vegetable Bouillon cubes)
2 Tbs. canola oil
4 Tbs. flour
Salt and Pepper to taste

Bring tomato and stock to a boil in a saucepan, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. In a seperate saucepan, heat the oil at medium temperature and then add the flour. Stir the flour well to eliminate any lumps, and cook for a few minutes, stirring to make sure that it doesn't burn. Add the tomato/broth mixture and whisk vigorously to make sure that lumps don't form. Continue stirring until gravy thickens to desired consistency. Taste and see if more salt is required, and add some black pepper.

Today we are planning on running down to Best Buy to pick me up my new digital camera, and maybe stopping by for a bookstore wallow. I'm making some mashed taters for supper tonight, and I needed to pick up what I need to make my other favorite gravy. Four days until we can move into our new house, I probably won't be able to sleep soon. ;)

Shopping

I was really glad for the weekend to get here, it seemed to be a very long week. We have been going out to get stuff so we'll be ready to move in on Friday. We had to get the oil changed in the car, and then went for breakfast at Denny's. We stopped at Pier 1 and I picked up a new rug for the kitchen, a gray rag rug. I also got a neat candle with a holder. Next stop was Lowe's, where we stood and argued for a while over what blinds we wanted to get, and then gave up and decided that we could agree on curtains earlier. We went to look at some furniture stores for a nice bookcase and were gasping from sticker shock. Bath and Beyond yielded a set of curtains for the master bedroom, along with the rods that match the bathroom hardware, and a bamboo silverware holder. Next stop was Nothing but Noodles, a restaurant that specializes in pasta dishes. The final stop was Wal-Mart where I picked up a new cutting board and some bedsheets.

So the shopping list is getting shorter, we're getting very impatient to get moved in. The boys are out with another moving box bonfire, which is nice to do since it's getting chillier out now at night. I hang out for a little while, and then come back in. I get sleepy really early now that I get up so early, so I don't last too long. Other than that, I'm making more potato hash for breakfast tomorrow and probably some tomato gravy too. We need to get to Best Buy tomorrow so that I can get a new digital camera, and we're probably going to hit the bookstore. Definately a fun day, but also very tiring.

Homeless

So for a bit of an update, the house in North Carolina closed. I have been so worried that something would happen and the buyer would back out, and we wouldn't be able to get our new house. So now I am very relieved and can finally let myself get excited about our new home-to-be. We went out to eat last night to celebrate at TGI Fridays and unfortunately had a very mediocre meal with an unpleasant server. We did go to Best Buy and Linens and Things so that made up for it. I officially bought the first items for our new house, a couple of sets of kitchen towels and a painting. The original color in the new kitchen was a rust-red color, not really what I wanted. So one of the things that we wanted was for them to repaint it a color of our choosing. We picked out a moss green-gray color that I really liked. I think that it was a good choice because it made the room look lighter and more airy than it was before. So the kitchen towels and painting go with the moss-green look.

We have lots of things to get ready for next Friday, when the new house closes. We will be busy this weekend doing some shopping. We had a big bonfire at our friend's house tonight, burning the boxes from their move. My little firebug had a lot of fun setting them on fire of course. I made some supper for them tonight, some potato hash and tomato gravy, which was a big hit. Other than that, I'm kind of a drag to be around I guess, because my new pumpkin time is around 8 or 9 at night. Since I get up at 4:45 am every morning, I'm already starting to nod off around 8. The new job is going well, changes are slowly happening. It's hard to try to make changes and improve stuff when you have to keep the place going. On the downside, my digital camera seems to have crapped itself, so no new pictures until I get another one. Other than that, not much to report, looks like it will be a good weekend. :)

Back in the Salt Mines

So I started my new job yesterday, my vacation has ended. :) Our house in NC is still set to close next week, and our new house the week after that. Work is pretty interesting, definately different than what I was doing before. I hadn't really looked forward to being a supervisor, it was my least favorite thing when I was in the USMC. But I'm actually enjoying it more than I thought I would. Except for today when I got someone fired, but I digress. ;) Showtime is very early, and I will be working some Saturdays. But at least I get paid well for it.

So I probably won't be updating that regularly until we get into our new house and settled in, but I'll try to keep some updates going when possible. :)

Sweet Home Alabama

So we finally got back on the internet, I have been sitting with my eyelid twitching for the last week. We made it and are staying with friends while we wait for our old and new homes to close, in that order. It was very nice of our friends to let us stay with them, saved us from worrying about timing leases, making deposits etc. But I am going nuts...hard to be living with someone else and not have control over what goes on. I start my new job tomorrow, I haven't gotten too nervous yet but I'm sure it will come later tonight.

We spent the first few days looking at houses with the realtor, had a couple picked out and then we walked into one that "felt" like home. I haven't taken a camera with me yet when we've gone, but when I do I'll post a picture. I don't think I've ever had somewhere feel so right, even our house that we lived in for 10 years. So we'll see how it all goes, hopefully everything will go smoothly. Since we had so much trouble with our old house since we've had it, I'm somehow convinced that everything is still going to screw up somehow. But I'm trying not to invest too much emotion in it until the old house closes. Anyway, we are off this afternoon to go get some catfish at a restaurant by Lake Guntersville in NE Alabama. Sounds like fun :) We are looking forward to getting to know this area, seems like a neat place.