Friday Favorites

1) Productive Saturday - Josh cleaned the carpet in the room that needed it most, our living room. It was starting to look a bit dingy in front of the couch (where we have most of our meals). Now, it looks new again! While Josh worked on carpets, I worked on painting the half bath. I didn't get far with this since I realized I would need to prime AFTER I started painting. That's what I get for trying to take a shortcut I guess. I did clean out the foyer and coat closet thoroughly (hasn't been done in a while). While I had all the shoes out of the coat closet, I painted the board that is in there. I hope to make some shelving for shoes soon, so they aren't just thrown in there.

2) Nikki's Birthday Party - We went to a friend's birthday party Saturday evening. Nikki is the first friend I made after we moved up here, so it's always nice to see her. I wish we got to hang out more! Anyway, we had lots of fun at her party. We haven't been to their house in a while and they've done a lot with it since we have. It motivated me to start working on our house again. We've slacked off until a couple weeks ago.

3) Bay Window - Our bay window leaks sometimes. We think it's due to some rotted wood and some issues with the place where the siding meets the wood on the front of the window. We have been wanting to get this repaired for a long time, but we've been putting it off because we thought it was going to be ridiculously expensive. We finally decided to suck it up and get a quote. We are going to be getting the rotted wood replaced and the entire bay window will be capped so we don't have to worry about any further water damage or painting it ever again. It has a double lifetiem warranty, so that means it will be covered through us and the next homeowners, so it should increase the value of our home. Yay! The quote we initially got was less than we expected, but we didn't go for it just yet. They called me again late last week to tell me there were additional discounts available, so it's even cheaper. We have an appointment for them to come out and measure next week, so hopefully it will be done in the next few weeks! We're not 100% sure this will fix the leaking issue (it could be the windows themselves, but we think it's coming in where the siding and wood meet), but it needed to be done anyway. The sooner we get this fixed the better. The quote we have is less than half what we expected to pay. Of course, if they find any additional rot or any damage below the rotted wood, that will increase.

4) Fishing - Josh and I took a charter boat out on the bay Sunday afternoon. We went to Chesapeake Beach, which is a little less than an hour from home. There was a pretty good chance of rain, but our Groupon expires this coming Sunday, so we felt like we had to chance it. I'm SO glad we did. It did drizzle a little, but not enough to bother us at all. I've never actually participated in fishing and I didn't really think I was going to have a good time. Thank goodness I was wrong! We both had a blast! We only caught Spot, but we still had fun. It would have been awesome to catch some Rockfish, but we went a little late in the season for that. I baited my own hooks and took my own fish off, so I was really proud of myself. The only thing I wouldn't do is cutbait. I know it's just a fish, but I just don't have the heart to chop his head off and cut him up. I let Josh do that. We were hoping to catch something bigger than spot this way, but we didn't have any luck. A couple people around us caught some Flounder (YUM!), but they were too small to keep. Apparently there are usually people at the docks to clean the fish for $.50 a piece, but they weren't there when we got off our boat. Josh cleaned them when we got home. It definitely would have been worth a few bucks to get them cleaned! We still had a great time and I would like to do it again.

5) Pretty Little Liars - I wanted to watch this show when it first came out, but Josh was never interested. I started watching it several weeks ago on nights he plays basketball and Saturday mornings before he wakes up. I've really gotten into it and it's probably my favorite show right now. I should be able to catch up by the time next season starts :-).

6) Sookie Books - I've been reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels on and off for the past few months. The first few were pretty good, but I didn't really get what all the fuss was about. After book 4 they got MUCH better and I love them now! I'm flying through them now :-) Thanks Anna!

7) Netflix - We were actually thinking about canceling Netflix soon. It's been a while since they've had any good movies on there. Well, we were browsing last night and there are LOTS of new movies and some more shows. I guess we'll be keeping it! 

Marshall Wedding Recap

So, as Brittany and Lee celebrate their 1 month anniversary, I'm finally posting pics from the wedding day! Saturday, I got up bright and early to get ready with the ladies. We went to the reception site to set up the canty bar first, then we were off to breakfast!

 After breakfast at Western Sizzlin. Yum!

After breakfast, we went to get our hair and makeup done.

 Getting my hair done. This lady was FAST!

Next, we were off to the church to get ready and take pictures

 Dresses with shoes! 

The hangers Brittany made for us. So cute!

I was steaming Brittany's veil before the ceremony and I found a chair with Brittany on it! I couldn't help myself with this pic. So cute :-)


The ceremony was absolutely beautiful!

 We went to the reception site to take some fun outdoor pictures. I can't wait to see these! I don't have any on my own camera.


After taking pictures, we went in to do our intros and get the party started! Guess who backed into a light at the DJ booth and knocked it over during the dances...this girl. It's OK though, it was a low light and I don't think anybody noticed :-). After the dances, we went to our tables and waited to be released to the buffet table. The majority of the bridal party was at our table and we had a blast together. I wondered around and caught up with a few people I haven't seen in a while.

Table 2 was pretty awesome!

LOVE this cake stand

The hubby and I

Kasi and I!


We danced the rest of the night away. We had such a great time. We did the fun dances I already know (Cupid Shuffle and Copperhead Row) and I learned a new one...the Womble. It was funny, because out of everyone on the floor, 1 girl knew it, so we had about 20 people trying to learn it from her.

I helped Brittany get changed into her super cute getaway dress and we watched the sparkler exit. The happy couple made their way to Asheville and we went back to the lodge for the after party.

We were expecting a power outage around 11pm. We were excited that we didn't lose power until around 12! We all had flashlights, so we turned them on and continued the festivities. I found out Lee's brother participated in the same study abroad program I did, so we reminisced about our summers in Australia for a good while. They went to most of the same places and met a lot of the same people we did, so it was a lot of fun comparing experiences! Josh went to bed a little earlier than me since he was going to be driving home early Sunday morning. When I finally got to our room, I realized how much I appreciate light and running water. I tried to brush my teeth in the dark, I didn't want to turn on my flashlight because I was scared I would wake Josh, and without water (this genius forgot to fill up our water bottles before we lost power). That was interesting. When we got up the next morning, I had gotten toothpaste all over the place. Haha.

Playing Catchup

It's been quite a while since I've posted...again. Things have been ridiculously busy, but that's good, right? We've done quite a few little house projects, like fix the garbage disposal (SO thankful for that...THANKS HUBBY!) and start cleaning the carpets. We've decided to attack the carpet one room at a time this time, so the whole house isn't wet at the same time. We've been arranging for some bigger projects too. I'll post more about those as they come up. Work has been busier, and I just haven't wanted to sit in front of a computer any longer when I get home. I've had meetings after work, so I'm getting home later some nights. Like I said, it's been crazy busy!

Anyway, I'll post about some of the hilights since I've posted last...

We went to our first brew party. This is the first time we've brewed with anybody else since we've started brewing ourselves. The guys we visited have been brewing for about 7 years I think, so it was really nice to watch them and see their setup. They keg their beers and they brew all grain, both things we would like to start doing in the near future. We got a great all grain idea from them that should save us quite a bit of money. They grow some of their own hops, which I think is awesome! I would love to do this some day when we have more space. We could possibly grow 1 or 2 varieties right now, but we don't have the space for more. The guy's house we brewed at has an awesome basement with a huge utility room he plans to turn into a bar. I think it will look great when it's all done! His friend lives just a couple houses over, so we went to check out his basement. His bar is AWESOME! I can't wait to have something like it some day.

The day after the brew party, I went clothes shopping. It was tax free weekend, so I decided to go search for some good deals. I didn't buy a lot, but I did get a great deal on a dress I'll be wearing to a bachelorette party next month (originally $60, I spent $11 - Score!), that was probably my best find.

Along those same lines, Harris Teeter had Super Double coupons, up to $2, last weekend. I got up really early Saturday morning to take advantage. I brought my $252 bill down to $126! I stocked up on laundry detergent, Ziplock bags, toothpaste, mouthwash, dish detergent and a couple other things. I stocked our freezer with meats and got some snack foods, tons of cheese and lunch meats, some fresh produce, yogurt and milk. If you can't tell, I get excited when I save us money.

We're finally motivated to paint our master bedroom! The problem...we can't agree on a color. I want to do grey so we can easily change linens and change the look of the room. Josh is tired of grey and he wants a color, but he doesn't know what color he wants. Our bedding is white and green and our bathroom is green, so I think going green would be a bit much. I'm really stuck. I want to find something we both like, but in this area, I think it might be a bit tough to do.

We're also ready to finish our half bath! I started painting it this past weekend, just to discover that I will definitely need to prime it first. I plan on priming early this weekend and hopefully painting later in the weekend. Then we'll just need to caulk, paint the trim and put the hardware back up. This "little" project has taken us forever, so it will be really nice to get it out of the way!

Friday Favorites!

So, I think I may never catch up on my posts! Maybe I'll just be a sporadic poster. 

1) Promotion - We went out for a lunch meeting today, which was nice, but I found out I got promoted, which was VERY nice! I'm very excited and I'm looking forward to seeing where I go with the company. I'm still very sure I made the right decision when I left my old job in April.

2) Bailey - I love our silly pup. She brings so much joy to my life every day and she's so smart! She's making steady progress with learning to put her toys away (we still have a long way to go, but it's a difficult trick and it will pay off!) and we're working on her retrieving things for us too. I left a pack of crackers at the bottom of the stairs earlier in the week and after a few tries I was able to get her to bring them up to me! Josh has also been getting her to bring the newspaper upstairs to me on some mornings. 

3) Camp - This one is directly related to Bailey, but it deserves its own number. She's been super energetic lately since she's not getting as much play time (it's been extremely hot the past few weeks), so we were glad to take her to camp this week. She was exhausted! I had a meeting and didn't get home until late, plus we wanted to watch some of the Olympics so we were up a little later than usual. Bailey was ready for bed and she won't go upstairs to bed by herself, so she just looked at us, went to the stairs and sat down to wait for us to come to bed. She usually only does this if one of us is already upstairs and she's waiting on the other. This time she was just telling us it was time to go to bed. So cute! 

4) Olympics - I don't get REALLY into the Olympics, but I do enjoy them. I love watching gymnastics and I'm thrilled that our ladies have done so well! Way to go Team USA and Gabby! Our women haven't won a team gold since '96. Dominique Moceanu, my favorite gymnast growing up, was on that team. I always wanted to be in gymnastics and I would hop around the living room floor while acting like I was a gymnast. Haha. Silly kids.

2) Carboy Deal - I randomly went to Goodwill earlier in the week. While I was there I found a glass carboy for $8! It came with some of the siphoning equipment and a huge bottle brush too. I wasn't sure how big it was when I bought it, but I know that even the 5 gallon carboys run $30+, so I jumped on the deal. It turned out to be 5 gallons. It will be perfect for racking!

Headed West for the Weekend

Thursday Josh and I took a half day and started our 8.5 hour drive to Spruce Pine, NC for Brittany and Lee's wedding. Since we didn't have Bailey with us, we decided to stop to actually sit down for a dinner. Josh wanted to find a brewery on the way if we could. He ended up finding a place in Blacksburg. It ended up being a really good time to stop. It was close to the halfway point and we were both ready for a break.

 We drove through Virginia Tech's campus since it was only a couple of minutes out of the way. I didn't really get any good pictures, but it's a pretty campus.

 My chauffeur :-)

Bull & Bones is the name of the place Josh found. We both really liked it!

They have 6 brews plus a seasonal. The seasonal brew was lemongrass ginger and it was delicious! 

 They had burgers and BBQ with hand cut chips. Neither of us was very hungry and we couldn't choose what to eat, so we ordered a burger topped with BBQ and onion rings on it. It was AMAZING! 

We ended up getting into town pretty late, but luckily the owner of the lodge we were staying was really awesome and agreed to stay late so we could check in. He was even nice enough to show us to our rooms (which is a really good thing, because we would have never found it ourselves). The main office was a couple minutes and down the mountain from where our room was, and if you don't know your way around, it's probably impossible to find in the dark...and in the rain. A lot of the wedding party was staying at the lodge. There were several rooms and a common area. We decided to hang out for a while once we got in. Lee was staying here, but we didn't know anybody else that was still up when we were there. Everyone was really nice though! We ended up hanging out for a while. 

These are the cabins that were in front of our room. Somehow, I completely forgot to take a picture of our room!

Brittany was able to get most things taken care of before we got to town, so Josh and I decided to sight see a little Friday morning/afternoon. We had to run a couple errands, then we drove around the parkway. The view was absolutely amazing. 

 A Christmas tree farm! They were all over the place.

Love of my life <3 

Friday evening we had rehearsal then dinner. The dinner was at the lodge we were staying at. I didn't take any pictures, but the place was beautiful and the food was amazing. The lodge also has a winery and brewery, so the wine and beer that was served was all made on site. It was so good!

At the rehearsal dinner.

I'll write about the wedding in another post, or else this would be a novel.

Car Shopping

We didn't expect to be car shopping for another 3 years or so. Needless to say, we hadn't even thought about what kind of car we would like when I got in the accident in June. So, while we were waiting to hear back from the insurance adjustor, we sat down and talked about budget and what we were looking for in a car. We want to get an SUV when we have kids, so we even considered getting one now. We decided early on in the search that we would wait to get the SUV until we actually need the extra space. For now, we were much more concerned about gas mileage. 

Once we decided we were getting a car, we had to decide which features were important to us. We knew we wanted a sedan, something with good gas mileage, no black interior (Bailey's white hair shows up very well on black and I know it would drive me crazy), and a decent sized trunk. We were considering new vs used too. These are a LOT of things to consider when you're on a short time frame. We did lots of research online and our top choices were the Honda Civic and Mazda 3. We also considered the Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla. We ended up ruling out the Focus pretty early on. The Corolla was the first car we test drove. We liked it, but it didn't stand out. We found it used at a Honda dealership. I decided before the test drive was even over that I really didn't want to buy a car from this particular dealership. The guy who helped us was extremely pushy and knew absolutely nothing about the car (I actually doubt he knew much about cars at all, he didn't know manuals could come with cruise control). I'm no expert about cars, but if it's your job to sell cars, you should be able to answer basic questions a potential buyer has about the car. We had a max budget for used and new cars, and he didn't even acknowledge that. He was showing us used cars that were at the top of our new car budget. 

The next day, we continued our search. Our first stop was a Honda dealership a co-worker referred me to. He's been buying cars from this dealership for many years and he only had good things to say about them. He put in a call for us, and we went to go see them the next day. We had already ruled out the Accord because of price and gas mileage. We wanted to go with a smaller car, so we drove the Civic. We drove a silver one and we loved it. We liked this dealership much much better than the previous Honda dealership. We told them what we wanted, the salesman got it for us and let us go on a test drive on our own. This was much better and more relaxed than when the salesman is in the car with you. We were free to talk about the car or whatever while we rode. We both drove it and it was very comfy and drove very well. We had leather seats in the Taurus, and they get uncomfortably hot in the summer time, plus we had concerns about Bailey puncturing the seats with her nails (we use a hammock, but it's still a concern). Because of this, we decided we wanted cloth seats this time around. We decided that keyless entry and cruise control were essential, but we were flexible on any other features. I had done some online shopping for used Civics, and I was finding them for less than $1,000 cheaper than a new one. With them having 60-80K miles on them already, it didn't seem worth it to go with a used Civic. We decided on the LX. It had the features we wanted along with a few more. My favorites are the auxiliary input jack, the multi-information display  (We can have a picture display!) and USB audio capabilities. It makes playing the Ipod much easier, which is great for trips. Some of the more expensive models had a sunroof (we had one in the Taurus and rarely used it, so this wasn't a big deal) and bluetooth. The bluetooth would have been cook for the Ipod, but it wasn't worth the extra money for us. We really liked the Civic, but we wanted to drive the Mazda 3 too.

I was really excited to drive the Mazda 3. I definitely liked it better visually. I was pretty close to buying one my sophomore year of college, but Josh talked me out of it. I've liked them since then. We both loved the Mazda 3. We drove an automatic with the +/-. It was pretty cool. You can choose to shift up manually, but the car automatically shifted down for you, and you didn't have to use a clutch to shift up. We both thought that was pretty cool, but we decided after having the car for a few month, we would probably never use it. It drove very well and the sound system was a little better than the Civic. One of the major drawbacks for the Mazda 3 was the interior options. It was either black, or an ugly tan/black combination. It may sound silly, but this was pretty much a deal breaker. Granted, one of the reasons we liked the the way it looked so much better was because it had black interior, I knew it would only take 1 trip with Bailey for that to change our minds. We really wanted gray.

Next, we drove another Civic. We just wanted to go to another dealership to see how the price compared to the quote we got at the first dealership. We also drove a manual at this one. We were interested in one from the beginning, but the first dealership didn't have any on the lot in the LX. We drove the Polished Metal Metallic (darker silver looking color) and we liked it much better than the silver metallic we drove at the first dealership. We liked the interior color better too. We both LOVED driving the manual and we were leaning toward buying it for quite a while. This dealership gave us a higher price (even though the manuals are a little cheaper) than the first dealership, and there was more pressure. We really liked the low pressure at the other dealership a lot. 

We went home and talked about all the cars. We decided we prefer the Civic. Now we just needed to find a used car to compare it to so we could be sure we wanted to get a new one. I had already done this online for a bit, so I kind of knew what to expect, but Josh wanted to go see one just to be sure. We went to look at 1 and ended up not even test driving it. It was 4 years old and had somewhere between 60 and 80K miles on it (I can't remember for sure). It was only $600 cheaper than the quote we got for the brand new car. Obviously, it wasn't worth it for us. If we went new, we would have the warranty, which I think is worth $600 itself. So, we decided we would go with the new Civic. Once we decided on the Civic, we briefly thought about getting the nicer model with the leather seats some other features. I was all for it. I knew leather was a concern with Bailey, but it did look nicer. This car was $4K more. Ultimately, we decided not to go this route since we're still trying to pay off some student loans. We're already taking on a car payment, and we didn't want it to be higher than it needed to be. 

I woke up around 12:30 am Sunday because I was cold. I was SO excited, because this meant our power was back on. We were planning on buying the car the next day as long as we heard for sure that the Taurus was totaled. I was excited and I wanted to be sure about our choice, so I got up to do a little internet searching. I was looking at the awards each car got. The Mazda got things like, fun to drive. The Civic got awards for much more practical things, like holding value. If I were 19 searching for a car, I would have definitely gone with the Mazda 3. I'm much more practical now (and Josh is much more practical than me), so we decided for sure to go with the Civic. They also have a reputation for lasting a really really long time. The Mazda 3 has only been out since '04, so it doesn't have a track record like the Civic.

So far, we're completely happy we bought the Civic. We have decided that we definitely prefer leather seats. Bailey's hair clings to the fabric in our car, but at least it does vacuum up easy. We don't necessarily wish we would have gotten the leather seats since our car payment is much lower, but we do want to get leather seats for our next car. That's really the only thing we don't love about our car so far. 

Friday Favorites!

1) Adjustor - A week after my accident, we finally found out for sure that the Taurus was totaled. We got a fair amount for the car considering its age and we were able to get the check quickly.

2) LaHonda - Last Monday, exactly a week after my accident, we bought our new car. We decided on a '12 Civic. I'll post more about the car shopping experience along with pictures sometime this weekend. It was fun but stressful at the same time since we were on such a short time frame. We love the car so far and we're getting great gas mileage! On our trip to Raleigh this past weekend, we got 40 mpg on the way down and 42 mpg on the way back home. That's a HUGE improvement from the 25 mpg we were getting with the Taurus. 

On the way to Raleigh!

3) Raleigh - We went to Raleigh for Brittany's bachelorette party last weekend. Well, I did. Josh hung out with other friends. We had great time at the party! We started out with Sushi and gifts, then ended the night by going to Glenwood South...SO much has changed since I've been in the area! Saturday, we had a pool party at Chris' house, so we got to catch up with even more friends! Bailey got to play with Carter all day too. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them together this time.

 The whole group at 606

 Anna and I at the pool party (she has a better picture of us)

Bailey on the ride home. She was not as amused with this as I was.

4) Short Day - Since I needed to be in Raleigh Friday evening, we took a half day on Friday. Half day Fridays are SO awesome! My day usually goes by pretty quickly in the mornings, then it seems to just stop after lunch. I didn't have that issue last Friday since I left at lunch!

5) Loans - We paid off our 3 (out of 6) highest loans this past week! After considering all our options for purchasing a car, we decided to use the money we got for the Taurus to pay some of the loans off. We were able to finance the car for .9% and the loans we paid off were between 5 and 6%. We still have quite a way to go, but at least we're paying much less in interest now. Of course, we've added a car payment to our budget, which was NOT the plan at all, but we're both happy and we'll still be out of debt by the beginning of next year (minus the car and house of course) if things go according to plan. 

6) Brewing - We left Raleigh early Sunday so we could get home in time to brew. There's a homebrew competition we're entering in August, and we wanted to make sure we could enter a couple beers. We're entering our Punkin Ale and Honey Pale Ale. In past years, more unique flavors have won the competition, so I'm not sure what our chances are, but it will be fun anyway! The winner's beer will be served on tap in a couple bars in Baltimore and during an event that takes place in October. Since the event takes place in October, I'm sure there will be many pumpkin beers entered, so hopefully ours will stand out. As far as the Pale Ale, we tried something new with the hops this time, and the beer isn't even hoppy enough for me (if you know me, I'm not a big hops fan), that's not really good for a Pale Ale. If we still enter this one, it will have to be entered as something else. We brewed 2 beers at a time. As far as timing goes, it was much more efficient. It usually takes us about 4 hours or so to brew a batch from start to finish. We brewed these 2 batches in probably 5 1/2 hours. Not bad at all! It was extremely tiring though! It's a lot more involved and we definitely have some kinks to work out in the process if we continue to go this route, like buying a little extra equipment so we don't have to keep cleaning and sanitizing certain items. This was the first time we used our new brew kettle and we love it! 

 I LOVE that we can just drain directly from the kettle. It's an extra piece of tubing to was, but it's totally worth it! This makes our old kettle look tiny, but it's really big too!

7) Free Os Tickets - We had some office supplies sales guys come in to talk to us at work this week. At first, I was a little annoyed (I deal with WAY too many annoying sales people), but they ended up being really nice. I handle most of the ordering at work, but the previous receptionist and I both met with them. They ended up giving us some goodies, best of all being skybox tickets to the Orioles v. Yankees game on September 9! I'm not really big into baseball, but I'm still super excited. Going to an Os game is on my bucket list for up here. We had the opportunity to buy tickets through work for a fundraiser for the Saturday game, but it was going to be $100 a couple. YAY for free tickets! 

8) Mad Men - Josh and I used to watch How I Met Your Mother on Netflix all the time. We finished all of what was on there (now we just have to watch the most recent season). Some of the guys at work recommended Mad Men. We started watching it a week or so ago. I wasn't crazy about it at first, but we're both getting into it now. It's weird, because I don't really like any of the characters, but I still like the show. I do kind of like 1, but it's only out of pity. Haha. Either way, it's a good show. Yay for finding something new to waste time on, like I needed that. ;-)