GET IT WHILE ITS HOT!!!!

Hey guys,

I'm sorry I haven't been around in awhile, I thought I would have tons to tell while my mom has been here and its not that I don't but I just haven't had time truth be told! I am flying to Maine on Friday so somewhere I will find time to fill you all in!! In the meantime I have an exciting guest post by a great friend of mine who has recently contributed to an amazing book and she would love to tell you all about it!! I have already pre-ordered mine and I HIGHLY recommend you do the same! Take it away Mel!

We all have a story.....I have never "publicly" shared mine until now. As I get older I have find that I have gravitated towards doing the things I LOVE....So I have to ask.....Do you love your life, your career, and most of all yourself on a daily basis? Are you INSPIRED? I am proud to say I have crossed something off of my bucket list and am finally a published author.  We have an AMAZING one day only virtual book launch coming up and I am trying to reach out/spread our message as far as possible. My lovely friend Nicole has let me hijack her blog for the day to tell you about this!!!

This is going to be one of the most amazing collaborative books of the season: Defyeneurs Season 3: Live your WHY directed by Gerry Visca. This is a huge milestone for me to become a published author and I am so excited to share with you my exciting chapter titled: POWER OF CHOICE and also the other 24 exciting authors in this incredible book.

Together, we are helping others live their "WHY" which the founder of the Defyeneurs movement, Gerry Visca, defines as: The World Helped by You. This book series celebrates EVERYDAY people doing EXTRAORDINARY things. No one should ever feel alone and greatness is reserved for everyone.

This is no ordinary book written by just one author - it contains the energy of over 24 authors with an inspiring introduction by the founder of Defyeneurs and one of Canada’s top inspirational speakers sharing his vision of a world inspired!

Please mark your calendar for November 1, 2013 and on that day log onto http://www.defyeneurs.com/ to order a copy of Season 3: Defyeneurs! You will be prompted to enter my name Melissa Goodwin as the author.  This is a book of inspiration, support, and 24 individual messages of how to LIVE YOUR WHY!!!  I imagine a world inspired......

Thank you for your support

Melissa Goodwin Contributing Author - Defyeneurs Season 3: Live your WHY

There you have it folks!! LIVE YOUR WHY! Everyone has goals and aspirations, take the time and read this book and see how other people accomplished theirs, what and who drove them and what they got out of it. Enjoy these wonderful stories and give them the chance to inspire yours!

I may not know all of the authors but I know one and I know her story, I promise if this book is filled with authors as hardworking, dedicated and overall as enriching as her this book is destined for great things, just as all of you are! Thank you Mel for stopping by and giving us all the opportunity to be apart of something amazing!! 

Please check out more about this inspirational book and its authors HERE

Inspirational Men

In life I believe we are blessed with truly inspirational people, people who leave a mark in all different ways. We are all impacted differently and although I truly believe everyone in your life brings you something positive and teaches you something valuable there are some that are so special it's almost hard to describe.

I have been so  incredibly blessed in my life with having so many wonderful people who have impacted my life in a positive and forever changing ways. I have learned from others to be open minded, be informed, laugh louder and love harder, all extremely valuable lessons! I could list the wonderful inspirational life impacting people in my world but the list is too long, and via the title I suppose you think I plan to list the men, I don't... I plan to talk about one man.

Jason and I have been married 3 years this December and as you know when you marry someone their family becomes your family and that is a gift. Because we travel often and don't get a lot of real life face to face time you learn to make the most of the moments you have with people, make them count. We visit Maine when we can to see Jason's family and Toronto when we can to see mine, we make the most of it while we are there and look forward to our next visit.. We never leave assuming it will be our last. You don't think that every goodbye could be forever, that the last laugh should be tucked away because a new one may never come.

This afternoon Jason's grandfather passed away suddenly and a void has fallen on heavy hearts most likely to never be filled. A great man was lost, a great father, grandfather, role model and friend.

Death is a part of life, is often what people say at times like this but that does not take away the pain and sadness. You focus on the good times, the good memories and hope the ache that lies within will eventually fade...eventually.

I had the privilege of knowing Jason's grandfather, and I say that because it was exactly that, a privilege and an honor to know and learn from a great man and experience first hand the kind of admiration that came with being part of his life.

Bob was a fire cracker!! He hated snakes and loved to cook and boy was he good at it! He drank beer and a few other things ;) and lived to have a good time! He once told me not to worry about swearing in emails because him and Jason had said more colorful words then I could ever think of! Bob was a hard worker, having spent years in the coast guard being stationed in different places. Bob was a good father, I witnessed this through the love I saw in the eyes if his children, he was a good grandfather and I witnessed this through the love in the eyes of my husband.

After the passing of my own grandfather I clung a little closer to Bob when we would visit, I suppose looking to fill an emptiness... not to mention he reminded me so much of my own grandfather. He was special. When we were in Maine I always wanted to visit him at his camper and often when we arrived I planted myself on his deck while Jason toured around and enjoyed his company. We joked and laughed, drank and carried on, had good conversations... Conversations to remember. He was so proud of Jason and all he has accomplished, he told me that all the time. This was a man of amazing character, good values and pride was a high compliment not to be given lightly.

I was heart broken to hear of the loss of this great man tonight, and sad to think of all the lessons untaught, words of wisdom unheard, laughs to not be had, love not to be shared. 

I will say that in the short time I knew Jason's grandfather I came to love him, I don't know how someone could not. I will cherish every laugh, lesson and memory I have and find solace in knowing heaven received an amazing angel today and family members gone are now reunited. I hope grieving hearts find peace in his lack of suffering and learn from his "live everyday to the fullest and with a laugh" attitude. 

Only the good die young, and you were just a spring chicken. ;) thank you for your laughs, your lessons and most of all your kind heart! You will be greatly missed but will live on in the hearts if do many! I hope the your days are now filled with the sunny weather you loved so much and you enjoy health and happiness. I know you will smile down on us and for that I am grateful.

Until we meet again my friend! XO

Negative Nellie!

Hey all, HAPPY SATURDAY!

I just typed happy Friday there but then realized it is after midnight and therefore its no longer Friday! I feel like a terribly bad blogger for having not been around here much but truth is one, I decided before that if I didn't have anything to say I wasn't going to bother to post and truthfully I feel good about that decision. On the days that I haven't posted I have thought about it, said to myself.. Nicole get your shit together and post! But I feel better that I didn't, I feel good not forcing myself to do something that doesn't feel natural. Sometimes believe it or not I just have nothing to say, and well.. that's OK! Secondly though I really feel like I have been a negative nellie, getting on here and bitching about everything that is going on with the house and although I love that this is a place that I can vent I don't want it to all be negative either! So that is why I haven't been here daily!

Life is semi boring with Jason not around and just getting use to a new place, but today that is all going to change! Brianne and lady Amelia are coming up in the morning to spend the day with me which I am VERY MUCH looking forward to! I cant wait to see them and just putter around Raleigh, after living here we spent over a year in Alaska and since then our trips back have been quick and to the point, come and deal with house stuff and leave, so any chance to familiarize myself again and get out is great! Then tomorrow night my Mom and Fiona get here for a week and I am so excited!!

I am super excited for visitors and for my Mom to see the house! I have a few things planned for the week, places to go and things to see that I think they will enjoy! Not living at home I definitely cherish my time with everyone anywhere and anytime I get it! Not to mention this weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving and I have lots to be thankful for!

Things haven't changed on the house front much since I last bitched about it, Tony came by today and dealt with a few things. On Friday morning a contractor is coming out to fix a few of our more major concerns and Jason will be home on Monday after.. I cant wait!

So that is really it here, as you can tell its 1:25am here and my sleeping isn't any better. I went to bed at almost 5:00am this morning partly because I couldn't sleep and then I got caught up in an ALF marathon! Do you remember ALF?

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If you don't know who that is, I am sad for you! I LOVE the show ALF! I remember being a kid and watching it with my Dad all the time.. he always wants to eat the cat, he's from Melmac!!! Anyways I laid in bed last night cracking up watching this and therefore didn't sleep! I need to go to bed now though, or try at least because I have to get up in the morning and get ready before Brianne gets here!

I will have things to talk about while my Mom is here so stay tuned! I hope you all have a FABULOUS long weekend whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving or Columbus Day! A long weekend is a long weekend right! 

In Just One Day...

Don't you just love those days when you feel like everything just comes together and works out in your favor? I'm not going to lie I don't feel like that happens very often, or at least it hasn't in the last week, so today was such a blessing!

As usual I don't sleep well so I didn't go to bed until after 2:30am last night and had to be up at 7:00am because Tony was suppose to show up and I didn't want to be just rolling out of bed. Tony never showed, he called at 11:30am. Not a huge deal I guess, who needs sleep.. right? It was definitely fall weather today though and that makes everything better, it was actually so chilly in the house that I turned on the heat this morning!! When I finally realized Tony wasn't coming I decided I would head out and do a little running around for awhile before the furniture arrived.

Do you remember a couple of months ago when I blogged about World Market? I wish I could find the post but I tried and I cant, regardless I blogged about it! Anyways the store is just FABULOUS and somewhat dangerous really, I could have seriously moved in or bought everything for my new house, neither of which Jason would be happy about! They just have amazing and unique stuff and everything is such a good price, I cannot wait to take my Mom there! I only bought a few things, all of which were necessary.. you know, hand cream which you can never have enough of, a basket because when you have a new house you can never have enough baskets and because lately I have been really feeling like baking I decided to start off slow and try one of their scone mixes! I will post about those Saturday!

After World Market I headed to Target because they are beside each other (how amazing is that?) and toured around picking up odds and ends needed. I got out of there spending less than $50.00, I consider that a win! Plus I was just so happy to get out of the house, it rained on and off all day but the air was crisp and there were leaves on the ground, it smelled like fall.. it was amazing!

When I got home I worked on another report for Tony of all the things that we want fixed in the house so Jason can go over it and then work out a plan with Tony for how things will play out when he gets home. While I was doing that the guys showed up to deliver our bedroom furniture as well as our new coffee table and end table! I'm not going to lie I was nervous about the bedroom set, it has been such a long time since I saw it and I couldn't really remember the color and was worried it would clash with the paint we picked, I just worry.. enough said! In the end I absolutely LOVE IT! I couldn't be happier with the set, I feel like when you walk in the room it is so grand and that is exactly what I wanted, I could not be happier with it.. check it out!

Please ignore the bed not being properly made, I just threw the covers back on when they put the bed together so I could take these pictures for Jason, I hadn't at the time intended on putting them on here! Anyways it is huge and heavy as hell! When I stand beside the head board I am only a few inches taller and I have to also take a running leap to get in it.. but I love it none the less! Having said that I am not use to it and when I went to walk around it I WHACKED my left thigh and fell to the floor in tears I seriously thought something broke I hit it so hard, I have a pretty nasty bruise and it is QUITE sore... I'd like to say that I probably wont do it again but that would be a lie. 

It was so great to see a room come together, to start to feel like this place is home! As if the bedroom wasn't enough the living room really came together as well. I absolutely LOVE the coffee table and end table, and I had help to move the couches in! The living room is no longer empty, it looks AMAZING and I have somewhere to sit and watch Good Morning America and drink coffee in the morning.. YAY!

The coffee table is amazing, I could not be happier with its rustic warm appeal, which is really the theme we have been playing on throughout the house. The thing is a monster though, it weighs 60lbs! Worth every penny!

What do you think? This picture makes me so happy! Ignore the temporary curtains in the back, we put those up before Jason left quickly mostly because it would creep me out if they weren't there. We plan to get new ones and what not when he gets home. I really LOVE LOVE LOVE the living room.. I can't believe that all it took was arranging furniture to turn things around so much for me here. I feel so much more comfortable, so much more at home! 

When all was put together and the delivery guys left I decided to make myself some dinner. I haven't really been cooking for myself because I really am happy with a sandwich or something for dinner, I am not a big eater and although I miss cooking for others I am quite happy to munch! However last night I had a dream about a grilled chicken sandwich with Franks hot sauce, so naturally I had to make it! It was DAMN GOOD! I got a cibatta bun at Target, toasted it with fresh garlic, Italian seasoning and some olive oil.. chicken.. hot sauce.. good! 

My sandwich was amazing, but incomplete. In my dream there were pickles and I absolutely LOVE pickles! There may only be 3 things in my fridge but one of them is pickles.. however they are pickles that have never been opened before and let me tell you they were not being opened tonight. I hate screwing with an uncooperative lid, and let me tell you I fought this bastard... I ran it under hot water, banged on the bottom, wrestled it on the floor and all I accomplished were some war wounds.. 

I know its stupid but I was SO FRUSTRATED! I was so mad I had to walk away or I was going to cry. Laugh if you will, it was only pickles but I hate not being able to do something and dammit I wanted a fucking pickle! In the end the jar won, so I tossed it.. TAKE THAT!

It was fine, I got revenge and sitting relaxing on the couch tonight made everything else seem irrelevant. I have been wishing for days things would just come together, talking myself into the fact that it is going to take time and a temporary TV stand or an unpainted wall is not the end of the world.. and its not. 

I felt really content tonight coming upstairs, I felt really good about the day and for the first time since we've been here truly blessed to have this house and all the possibilities at hand in making it our home. I got into bed tonight feeling at peace. Thinking my night could not get any better I picked up my phone to call Jason and noticed I had an email, FINALLY a quote from the painter.. guess what.. WE HAVE A PAINTER!!!! You really don't understand the excitement and relief this brings to my life. One morning next week someone is going to show up, paint the rooms in our house we need painted and its going to be done and I don't have to think about it again.. SO HAPPY!

I have a feeling I am going to sleep well tonight, I have nothing to get up for tomorrow in the morning and nothing to worry about tonight. I feel amazing! 

Tomorrow I am going to do laundry, organize our new dresser. I think I will bust out my camera for the first time in ages and take some good pictures of some of the things in the house for you all! I also plan to make a big pot of the new tea I got at Teavana, Pumpkin Spice Brulee Oolong Tea - its weird because I really hate all things pumpkin (don't unfollow me, I can't help it) but I was encouraged to try this tea and its amazing! It has a more creamy taste almost then pumpkin, its really incredible! I see myself enjoying a pot of tea and The Red Badge of Courage tomorrow afternoon!

I hope you all had as fabulous of a Wednesday as I did!! 2 more days until my Mom and Fiona get here!!!!

Happy Home Owners

That's a lie... being a home owner is a BITCH!

I truly thought being a homeowner of a brand new built home would be easy peasy! The reason we decided in the end not to buy an existing home was not just because we couldn't find what we were looking for but with our situation and traveling so much we didn't want to have projects to do when we would only have very short periods of time to actually enjoy the home in the first place! We knew in coming home this time per our agreement with our builder that they would address any issues that we had and have the appropriate people come in and take care of things.

Yesterday I met with the building superintendent and we went over a damage report we had issued to our builder after closing. I was under the impression that knowing our date of arrival and the things that needed to be taken care of everything would be scheduled as we gave them this week as a window because after that we have no idea how our time here will play out. Unfortunately yesterday it became quickly apparent that nothing was taken care of and that we were going to face scheduling issues. They had scheduled the HVAC people and never told me therefore I was lucky to be up and moving early yesterday because someone was banging on my door just after 8:00am, I didn't even know something needed to be done with the HVAC system.

This morning the painters were here banging on the door long before I expected them to be here, I received an email last night at 11:35pm from Tony telling me that he had scheduled them for today (with no time of arrival) and that he would have to take a personal day and would not be around to oversee things. Perfect. I was asked to go through with the main gentlemen and address all of the drywall and paint issues.. which are basically endless and I figured that not all of it would be taken care of, I was right. He addressed everything he could in the 10 minutes he was able to stay, told the guys where to go next and left. So I went through again with the other guys who although nice and killed a spider for me barely spoke English (I seriously don't think they hire professionals, they hire families) I taped things and addressed them and they worked away and said they were done, I followed up and it wasn't done, so I taped it again and addressed it again and then they said they were done... and left... they were NOT done! My house is again covered in dust from them sanding, paint everywhere although I followed them around when I noticed they were getting paint on my new hardwood floors, assholes. There were things they they didn't even address and by that time I had a cabinet guy in here ripping apart my wine rack so I couldn't exactly chase those goobers around yelling at them TO DO THE DAMN JOB! Most things in regards to the painters didn't even get done. The whole front porch needs to be fixed and painted and they didn't even look at it.

The gentlemen for the cabinets showed up, I was really worried about this because our wine rack needed to be replaced and I feared them ripping it out, putting a hole in the wall, ruining the back splash.. all completely rational fears with the experience we have had thus far! I told Tony that I would speak to the cabinet guy about how extensive the process would be because truthfully at that time I didn't realize how much of a big deal the problem with the wine rack was. All in all we decided to go ahead with it and minus the fact that the wall needs to be repainted and some grout for the tiles need to be redone it really wasn't a big deal. Besides the huge friggin' mess he made that he too didn't bother to clean up. He made a bigger mess of the drawers and didn't have all that he needed to replace what needed to be replaced. Stellar.

All through this I am emailing Jason who is furious about how things are going, furious that he is so far away and Tony isn't here like he said he would be. It is what it is at this point about him not being here but let me tell you this morning it was extremely overwhelming chasing people around, answering questions over the excessive drilling and hoping no one was doing anymore damage then they already had. When they left I just sat and stared.

I decided that I was going to do the touch ups in the living room, but honestly I don't have the right brushes I need and I cant go anywhere to get any because an electrician is coming to re-install the under cabinet lighting where the wine rack is because the cabinet guy wouldn't do it. So I thought I would go upstairs and start taping the loft space. I pretty much got all of it done and said SCREW IT and came downstairs called someone to come in tonight and give me a free estimate.. I am over all of this shit!

I'm sorry but this week has SUCKED! Jason left, painting is the devil, nothing is going right, I cant move the furniture that needs to be moved by myself because I cant drag it around on the brand new floors without scratching them and I have no one to help me. I haven't slept at all and every morning FIRST THING there is someone banging on my door to come in here and fuck things up worse then they were from the get go, I'm done. I am not a patient person to begin with but this is where I draw the line!

I found a stain on our BRAND NEW couch last night, it was scotch guarded so there is no reason there should be a stain, no one has sat on it and when I called the guy said, ya well I did it myself and there wasn't a stain, and by the way I didn't even charge you for the scotch guarding.. hmm why is that asshole? because you saw the stain? I didn't know that he didn't charge us for it, I never got a final invoice, just like I didn't get covers for the couch! You don't get something for nothing in this day and age therefore I have a feeling it was a problem before and that's why he didn't charge for the scotch guarding. Regardless don't tell me there is nothing you can do when I paid for it!

So my mission this afternoon is to write up another list of deficiencies that have still not be addressed so I can share those with Tony tomorrow if he is back to work and Jason has called Tony and told him he does not want anymore repair men, etc in here until he gets home, THANK GOD!

That is my scoop. I woke up this morning and it is a BEAUTIFUL FALL DAY! Finally we are at 59 degrees and windy, big sweaters and boots weather! I am absolutely it in love with it! I opened the windows just to smell the fresh air, I froze my ass off but it was TOTALLY worth it! I am hoping this electrician shows at soon to reinstall this light that is hanging so I can head to Target for some apple cider and melatonin.. this girl is getting some sleep tonight!

If anyone wants to come over and paint to save me the money feel free to let me know!

Reasons Why Painting SUCKS!

Happy Football Sunday All!

Although I have not made it around the house taking pictures yet, I am kind of enjoying keeping you all in suspense, I thought I would share the reasons that painting sucks and I wish I had never agreed to do it while Jason was gone!

1. Taping.. Taping is the devil.

2. Endless prep work, yes this includes taping but it also includes drop cloths, mixing, pouring it (not on the new floors), ladders, etc.

3. Ladders. Turns out I am terrified of standing on the damn things! Its no secret I am afraid of heights, I absolutely despise bridges but I thought I would be OK with a four foot ladder, no dice.. it blows! My legs are extremely bruised from leaning into it so hard praying I wouldn't fall on my head and get paint everywhere and my knees and hip joints hurt so bad from being so tense while using the flippin' thing! From now on, I only paint the bottom half.

4. Corners. I hate painting around corners, trim, window treatments, etc. We have brand new Hunter Douglas blinds throughout the house and Jason assured me they wouldn't need to be taken off... he lied.

5. Touch ups. After completing two coats that feel like they took you FOREVER the last thing you want to do it touch ups, but you notice them and they are obviously necessary.. so lets get out all the paint again for a few spots.. and the dreaded ladder because most of the errors are naturally out of reach.

6. Clean up. Paint in messy, maybe just the way I paint but I was covered in it, my clothes, skin and the brushes and stuff.. ick!

7. Removing the tape... This is the biggest bitch! Besides I made the mistake of thinking I would rip the tape off and move furniture in and bed done... negative.

Sadly I still have two rooms to go! The Flex space should be fine because its just one wall but the bedroom it going to suck! I have a birthday coming, anyone want to get me a painter?

Its been a long day, again with no sleep so I am in bed now and hoping to catch some Zzz's because I have to meet with our contractor at 8:30am and that is usually when I am resting my eyes from a night of ZERO sleep.

Tomorrow I will take pictures if I don't have a million people in here doing work, on a good note though if they are I plan to ask them to do my painting too!

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Blog Vacation!

Hey All,

I apologize for being MIA for so long, I have thought a lot about blogging over our trip and our time here but truthfully I don't know that I could have fit it in anywhere until last night rolled around and I just didn't feel like it. But tonight I am still not sleeping, go figure so I thought what better time to sit down and give you an update!

I last updated on the first leg of our trip and unfortunately after that there just wasn't a window to do so! The second day of driving was long.. too long! We road trip all the time, super long trips that include consecutive 12 hour days of driving and usually I don't hate it as much as most people would but this time although I was so looking forward to our destination I really just wasn't feeling the road trip!The day was long, we made it to Pickton, Ohio I believe.. somewhere right outside of Waverly. We were driving late and eventually hit a wall and just wanted to stop.. we found a hotel in the middle of no where, however extremely nice and new and didn't even bother to turn on the computer. We got up that morning and it was BEAUTIFUL, the weather was amazing and the sunrise was INCREDIBLE!

Overkill on pictures? Probably! Really though it was just sooo beautiful! We ended up taking a drive through Gallapolis, Ohio which was not really planned, the GPS decided to take us her own LONG way through this small town which just happened to be EXTREMELY beautiful! It was along the Ohio River, so peaceful first thing in the morning... definitely a place you would want to wake up to! We just drove through, slowly...but I would go back for a weekend trip to check out the town and walk along the river! 

Here are a few kind of crappy pictures of the Ohio River. 

I was excited to get back to Raleigh and our house, which made the drive seem longer! West Virginia was also part of our drive that day and it was fabulous! Charleston is beautiful and the leaves were changing a little in higher elevations, that drive it just beautiful! We made it back to Raleigh around 3:00pm and the house was still standing.. good sign! We got everything turned back on and started unpacking the truck! Really things didn't take long at all but I hated to see this beautiful new house be filled with shit! Our shit none the less but the clutter and stuff gets to me. We did a bunch of running around and planned for a late dinner so we could watch the Patriots game! We headed to Chili's for dinner and the game and got home just after 10:00pm. It was when we got home that all hell broke loose....

I came upstairs to get ready for bed and I was in the master bedroom and something caught my eye in the master bath.. a HUGE fucking cockroach.. I'm sorry but there is no nice way to put that! I flipped my shit, screamed and RAN FOR MY LIFE! Jason came flying up the stairs probably thinking someone was in here chasing me with a knife.. which honestly might have been better! Jason naturally went in and killed in and I SOBBED! I cant live somewhere that bugs the size of my shoe exist... not only that I was tired and the fact that Jason's impending departure was on my mind, well.. things came crashing down. I pretty much sobbed all night... great first night back. I know you probably think I'm ridiculous but at least I will admit to being a total bawl ass! Besides I don't deal well with changes to my plans and abrupt changes at that, and although it seems to happen often with Jason's job, it doesn't get easier. 

Truthfully I was PISSED OFF! We made a plan, we planned our whole drive, home, we planned our first week at home, we planned our time off and a week before we were suppose to come back they tell Jason they need him to come back because the job isn't finished.. NO FUCKING KIDDING!!! Jason knew that, I knew that, the guys Jason works with knew that, so why did management just figure it out? Well I will keep my opinions to myself on that. I was angry that I feel like sometimes they don't take into consideration that we have a life outside of Jason's job and truthfully I know they don't care, I get this is how it goes and I cant truthfully say it has ever really been different but that doesn't make it easy, its frustrating as hell... ask Tanya... her husband Josh works for the same company as Jason... check out what happened to them here.

Anyways Jason said he would see if maybe he could change his flight to a few days later so we wouldn't feel so overwhelmed. Thankfully that worked out and instead of leaving on Wednesday he was able to get a Friday afternoon flight. I honestly don't know how Jason could have left on Wednesday, as per usual nothing went right and everything took forever and literally the ENTIRE time he was home we didn't stop! Everyday flew by and we never went to bed before midnight, it was in no way restful and now unfortunately Jason is back to work!

The bar stools I showed you before came, one of them didn't have all the right pieces so it wouldn't go together regardless of the fact that Jason tried forever, he then moved onto the other one, got it together and it was too big! Ugh! We returned them and eventually found new ones that I don't have a picture of yet, but I am working on it. Remember the plate set we ordered? We picked it online, saw it in Bed, Bath an Beyond and HATED IT.. had to get news one.. guess what, they are all white! :| We bought light fixtures for the spare bedroom, Jason had a TERRIBLE time getting them up and when the last one was up and ready to go I handed him the light bulb and when he was putting it in it somehow broke in his hand, cut him pretty good and he bled EVERYWHERE! We got a mattress and box spring for the spare room, CRAZY comfortable, we get home and the box spring is ripped on the bottom (not a huge deal) we call, they wont do anything because we bought it on sale... assholes. Then we put the awesome bed frame together that we got at IKEA which was a cluster screw in itself, put the mattress on.. when I stand next to the bed it goes up to my chest.. I'm not even kidding. The dresser didn't come with the proper plug to cover the screws and the closest IKEA is over 2 hours away. The night table screws were the wrong size. FML. Poor Jason was so frustrated and because he is so cheap and wouldn't buy a drill because we have one in Maine he was doing everything with a screw driver, he was a trooper! 

The security system is set up and working, I know this because last night I set it off and scared the shit out of myself! Seriously this place is like Fort Knox now, you cant move inside or out with all the high tech security shit we've got going on.. I love it! We finally got cable and internet and although I hate Time Warner and their technicians its in good working order and that's all that matters. 

Jason got ready Friday morning while I avoided him and sat with the laptop catching up on the shows I had missed. I'm not a total bitch but if I walked around watching him pack I would have cried and therefore I just avoided the situation. I know you all probably think I am ridiculous and its not that I cant be away from him, but I miss him.. I wanted to do stuff around the house together, he's my best friend.. things just aren't the same if I cant share them with him. We are managing though. He was pretty excited for his layover in Toronto and dinner with my dad and brother. I'm not going to lie I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if he skipped his connecting flight to Estevan and headed up north with them for the weekend, and really he should have because his flight ended up being delayed and he didn't get to his hotel until almost 4:00am.

After Jason left I got my ass in gear to paint! We had done all the taping so I just had to start, painting really isn't hard its just a huge pain in the ass and it turns out I am terrified on standing on the ladder so it took me quite awhile. We went with Tiki Hut for the living room and truthfully looking at the finished product I couldn't be happier with it! Its super rich and really makes the room feel cozy, when I touch up tomorrow and take the tape down I will post pictures (maybe, because I don't want Jason to see before he gets home and although he doesn't generally read my blog I am afraid he might be sneaky!). In the meantime this is a swatch of the color...

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I finished painting late last night and came and got in bed, I knew I wouldn't sleep. Part of my issue with Jason being away is that this really doesn't feel like home yet. Right now its a big empty shell for the most part, the couches (which I don't have a picture of yet either) are sitting in the office space because I am painting and the goobers that brought it for some reason didn't have covers on it, we don't have a table, there is paint stuff everywhere and its big and empty and I'm all by myself.. I know it sounds stupid but I am not comfortable here yet, it doesn't feel like home. So I was up until almost 6:00am, woke up around 6:35am and then made sure my alarm was set for 9:00am and went to sleep until the alarm went off. I got up and felt like crap so I set it for 9:45am and closed my eyes again. When the alarm went off at 9:45am I had to get up. 

Brianne, Josie and Amelia came for a visit, which I was so excited for! I was really looking forward to the company and having Brianne see the progress on the house! We went to lunch, toured around the mall, went to Target and came home and made dinner. It was a great visit and I was super sad to see them leave, I mean lets be honest.. how could you not miss this face?

After the crew left I face timed with my mom to go through totes of books I have at my parents to purge and so she could bring me the ones that I wanted. I actually did really well, after many many totes I only ended up keeping two full which if I am being honest is better than I could have ever imagined.... I absolutely HATE getting rid of my things, I think I might be a hoarder! I did really well though and feel good about my choices. 

I talked to Jason for awhile when we got settled in the hotel and now here I sit. Sadly I am not anticipating much sleep tonight either so once I wrap things up here I am thinking about looking for a movie on demand. Tomorrow I plan to touch up the spots I need to in the living room and then get rid of all the tape and what not down there, put the electrical covers back on and then think about moving the couches in, it will be nice for one room to look put together. I am going to start taping the loft space to paint their next and naturally watch football. 

Monday morning I am meeting with our contractor to go over some deficiencies in the home... I have nerves about this because I know he is going to try and brush stuff off and I'm not good at being a stern bitch about things.. hard to believe isn't it? Tuesday morning the cabinet guy is coming to do some repairs and Wednesday our bedroom set and coffee table and end table is being delivered. I am still waiting to find out when my mom and Fiona will be here! 

Things are coming together, its taking time which is hard for me to take because of my hate for chaos and clutter but its all working out. I am counting down the days until my mom and Fiona get here and until Jason comes home. I can't wait to go to the mountains at the end of the month! 

So there is my update, I apologize it took me so long to get around here it wasn't my intention but it just worked out that way. Tomorrow I will try and go around the house and take some pictures of things so you can see the progress that is being made and give your opinions!