Let It Snow...

Happy Holidays to all who celebrate and Happy Days Off to those who don't.

'Stang

So here are some pictures of the 'Stang:Scott is working on the lights.

And here is the whole thing:It's a project car, for sure, but we're really excited. Scott took it in today to get it inspected. He's been working on it for weeks to get it all ready to pass safety and emissions. Apparently it runs too rich in idle, though, so we'll have to figure out how to fix that.

It needs a paint job, of course, and the entire interior is a mess but for the most part the engine is in good shape, so it's mostly cosmetic work it needs. Scott and I can't agree on colors for it, though. I guess that's a way in the future though, so we won't worry about it for now.

Sad

I don't think I will ever be able to watch/read about Dumbledore dying without crying.

8 Cylinders of RAW POWER

We bought a car. 1968 Ford Mustang. Not even kidding.

It's snowing today (finally).

I put up my Christmas tree today.

I need to reformat my laptop. Scott is going to show me how.

The 'Stang is the coolest thing ever. We are officially cool now.

Very cool.

Sad Buster

Poor Buster scraped his leg pretty badly. All the hair is gone and the skin is all red and raw on a big spot on his leg. I had to bind it up with gauze and Neosporin and wrap it in an ace bandage, and here is a picture of him glaring at me.

Hand Pictures

Since my hand hurts pretty badly lately I am limiting my blog posting. So, since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a visual chronicling of my hand's progress. If you don't like wounds, don't scroll down.

Here's how it started November 3:
That cast was annoying. Especially because I couldn't get it wet and Kwiddens or Scott had to help me wrap it up in plastic and shower.

Here it is, straight out of the cast:
Six stitches!

After stitch removal (I almost fainted):
Then they put glue all over my palm and added these surgical tape strips:
They are supposed to just slowly peel off on their own, and I can get them wet and everything. When the nurse put the glue for the strips on, she didn't clean off the excess glue OR wait for it to dry before throwing me into this new splint:
Fun, huh? So when she put it on, the palm of my hand stuck terribly to the inside of the splint and HOOBOY did it hurt when I had to take the splint off later. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but the palm of my hand is one giant bruise and this didn't make it any more comfortable.

This new splint is even more restrictive than the cast was. I can move my fingers a bit more easily, but I can't rotate my wrist at all. So I usually have my wrist held a certain way when I type and write and open doorknobs and crochet and basically EVERYTHING and it makes doing everything really difficult so I am in pain and grumpy.

Nice Timing

Dear Swine Flu,

If it's you that forced me to leave work early today even though I am SO in the hole for my PTO I am going to be seriously mad. Seriously. I don't enjoy being on Sudafed, Nyquil, and Benadryl all at the same time but this seems to be the only thing that can help me sleep.

Hate,

Anna

Wow, This Is Fun!

So I had my surgery yesterday. It wasn't so bad, really, I was asleep the whole time and everything was numb when I woke up. But let me tell you, it sure hurts today!

Here's my hand:

I really wanted to get a picture of the stitches but I suppose that will have to wait until next Friday when they take this cast off.

Now I hadn't thoroughly considered how much help I would need. I keep trying to do things only to get frustrated and have to ask for help. Scott has had to brush my hair, help me put clothes on, get me food, help me eat the food, get me drinks, open my bottles of water and medicine, scratch my back, fill up my ice pack, the list goes on and on and HOLY COW am I lucky to have him around. He just had to help me take a shower. I know we're married and he's seen it all, but it's still really weird to have someone else scrub you! He had to help me wrap up my arm in plastic bags and plastic wrap and packing tape:

See that smile? That's the narcotic pain meds smile. Oh yeah. And see my super awesome plastic stump.

At least I can use my laptop by myself. Although Scott had to plug it in for me. Ha.

Trick Or Treat!

Halloween is one of our very favorite holidays. Each year we buy a few more things to add to our collection and every year it gets more elaborate, even if only by a little.

First we made Scott a long black cloak. It was perfect because Scott could hide his face but still see out.
It reached all the way to the floor. It was so perfect!
We then blacked out Scott's face, neck, and ears:
He put on a long-sleeved black shirt, black scrubs and black socks. We bought a pair of black gloves that had glow-in-the-dark skeleton hands on it, so he wore those too.

Next we set up the front yard. We bought six tombstones and a skeleton pirate for the front lawn. Scott set them up perfectly:

Then for the front porch we had some spiderwebs, orange lights, and a door cover.
Also we found a cauldron and put some water and dry ice (and Buster's new chew toy) in it.
While we were doing our shopping for this year we decided we needed a new fog machine. We put it outside, blowing over our graveyard (our camera isn't very good so it's hard to see)(Scott is going to get us a new one when he goes to Hong Kong next week):
Now, I forgot to take pictures of the inside of the door, but we built a wooden frame around the door and sealed a chamber with sheets and put our other fog machine inside along with a strobe light and a blacklight. We left the fog machine on the whole time and every time kids would come to the door the fog chamber would be ready and Scott would come out:

Next year we plan on getting more tombstones (we totally didn't have enough) and building a little fence around our graveyard and getting a more powerful fog machine and...yeah we're excited!

So Fluffy

I'm getting cut open in the morning. Expect a post about that (typed very slowly of course, with only one hand) and also one about Hallowee. But, for now, I leave you with Buster.

He likes to hang out exactly where you don't want him to. When you're walking in the house with arms full of grocery bags he's prancing around right in front of your feet. If you're trying to walk somewhere he stands right where you're trying to walk. And of course, here he is hanging out right at the bottom of the stairs. Just look at how long his hair is getting!

Teaser

P.S.

Oh, and we are officially homeowners now.

I thought I would feel different.

I just have a headache. As usual.

Our mortgage payment is more than $100.00 less than we were paying in rent.

Super awesomely fabulous.

Icy Hot Rocks!

I had to put an icy hot heat pad on my wrist underneath my wrist brace for the rest of yesterday and overnight. Then, today, I had to wear the brace as much as I could.

Happy Halloween, Buster!

So we love Halloween. It's our favorite holiday. We even like it more than we like Christmas.

Today we went around to like five different stores and got all of our Halloween decorations and stuff to make Scott's costume (and I found some cute Halloweeny earrings, too). I would tell you what we bought, but it would ruin the surprise.

BUT, while we were out shopping we saw this and thought it would make the perfect (and hilarious) chew toy for Buster:
Yes, a severed hand. Buster really enjoyed playing tug on it with Scott:
And, of course, when we were going through our boxes of Halloween stuff we had to put my old devil wig on him. Because that's what dogs are for.
He wasn't too happy about it.

I have my pre-op appointment tomorrow. Then, one week until surgery.

They're Cutting Me Open!

I had called my doc on Friday but he was out of town for a conference, so I left a message, and they were super awesome and called me back first thing Monday morning, and they were able to see me at 3:15. I went in to the doc and it has been about 8 or 9 weeks since the cortisone shot and that wasn't very long as far as these things go so I made it very clear that I REFUSE to get a cortisone shot every 3 months for the rest of forever just so I can function on a daily basis. They agreed (thank goodness, they would have had to club me over the head to get another one of those shots in me) and so we scheduled the surgery for November 3. I will have to stay home for a week and wear a splint for 10 days or so and I will have stitches (you will totally get to see them) and then I will have a super cool scar (ok, not really, the doc said it would probably blend in with the lines on my hand).

Yummy

I hate how the holidays go in stores. You know, Halloween stuff starts showing up in September (too early) and then Christmas stuff starts showing up right after Halloween (too early) (and what the heck happened to Thanksgiving?). It's ridiculous. It's like every store is doing everything they can to squeeze every penny possible out of each holiday. Maybe that's why they skip Thanksgiving. They probably can't make as much money on pumpkin pie as they can on costumes and presents. Just a theory.

Plus the Christmas music that never ends. But I won't go there.

HOWEVER.

There are some things I can definitely get behind.

It's the seasonal FOODS, dude.

I believe I already mentioned my everlasting love for the Pomegranate 7Up that only comes out for the holidays, but did I mention how much I love egg nog? Then there's the white fudge covered Oreos. Every year Scott and I stock up and buy many many packages so we don't have to limit the absolutely heavenly taste to the holiday season.

Shower and Socks!

So we are so close to closing on the house! I'm really excited, and also very sad that I will see our bank account a LOT smaller than it is right now.

Oh well.

For my first act as homeowner, I decided to take out that stupid, ugly shower door and put in a rod instead. I hate the thing. It has so many crevices that it takes way longer to clean it, and stuff gets stuck in the cracks and you have to use a toothbrush to get it all the way clean, and I am WAY too lazy for that, so it HAD to go.

Now, technically we don't own the home for another week or two, but I couldn't wait and the house is as good as ours so Friday we decided to get it done. Here it is before:

Stupid ugly thing.

So Scott is amazing and super handy, so he did most of the work. Here he is unscrewing the frame:
It only took about an hour and a half, and when everything else was done he let me put caulk in the holes so I can honestly say I helped (a little).

After:
It makes the bathroom look so much bigger! And cleaner!

And here is the shower curtain, rod, and hangers we found:
They match the brown color on the walls very nicely. The only downside is that bathing Buster is much harder now because before the doors kept him from jumping out. Scott and I had to make it a joint effort, with one of us holding him in while the other scrubbed.

Flu Shots

On Friday, we had had flu shots (my work gave them to us for free, yay) and so we were both feeling a little crappy.

Scott had to go out of town this week on business. It's only two nights alone, but I feel so strange sleeping alone. I was so lonely yesterday so I went to the craft store even though I had promised myself I wouldn't buy crafty things until after the mortgage. I only spent $25 but it was the principle of the thing.

On another, completely unrelated note, yesterday I came out to my car after work to this:

I also had to scrape snow off my car, and this morning it was ice. Winter has come, all in one day. And I forgot to turn on the furnace last night so this morning when I woke up it was around 50 degrees in my house...I took a super hot shower to warm up!

Stickers

The other day some Disney stickers came in the mail, and since none of us have any use for such things we put them on Buster. He was NOT amused. But we were...hehehe.

"I hate you."

"I'm not even going to look at you."
"Why would you do this to me?"
"I don't even like Disney!"

Sick Again

So I woke up in the middle of the night last night and my throat was all swollen and there was phlegm EVERYWHERE (you know you wanted to know). My alarm went off at 6:10 as usual. I seriously spent an hour debating calling in sick...I won and stayed home today.

Last Wednesday I also stayed home from work. I was feeling sick and I had a fever so I figured I shouldn't go in and spread it to all my coworkers. The next day I woke up feeling mostly better but that day all through yesterday I pretty much felt...blah. You know the feeling. Not really bad, but just a little down and a little tired and sort of like you don't want to do anything because doing anything might actually make you feel actually sick...yeah. Fun. But I went to work anyway, because feeling blah isn't really an excuse to stay home.

But having your throat swell up and not being able to breathe through your nose because of the snot and body aches and head aches and stuffy ears are definitely an excuse to stay home.

I have been battling this cold for over a week now. I was planning on going down to visit my family this past weekend but I decided not to go because my sister and my mom were both sick and I didn't want to get sick (irony). So I stayed home, which did me ZERO good because Allene's son was sick and so everyone else in the house got sick too, so I should have just gone down to be sick with my family. At least I would have seen everyone. So, the visit has been put off until this coming weekend, assuming we all aren't dead.


Scott came home and we decided we need to be healthier and stop eating out so much, so we went grocery shopping and got lots of fruits and veggies and stuff to make actual meals and stuff to make lunches so we aren't spending so much money. Hopefully we will lose some weight and feel healthier. Either way, our wallets will be fatter.

At the store today I stubbed my toe (again, this is a trend) and it was bleeding all over. Yay me.

I Miss College SO BAD

Brilliant. Just...brilliant.

36!

My cell phone said I had a message. This isn't weird or anything. I get almost no cell reception where I work so sometimes my phone doesn't ring and then ten minutes later I have a message.

So I checked my message and it was Scott. He sounded SO HAPPY and said there was AMAZING AWESOME news and to call him NOW.

Cool. I called him and he gave me the awesome news.

However first you need some background information:

When we moved in to this house we signed a rent-to-own agreement. We agreed that at the end of one year we would buy the house for $XXX,000, and every month $400.00 of our rent would go toward the down payment on the home. If for some reason we didn't buy the house for $XXX,000, we would lose that $400.00 a month and also the $1000 deposit we made on the house when we started renting it.

Cool.

So for the last year, we have been saving and preparing ourselves to take out a $XXX,000 mortgage.

Now here's the cool news:

We got the house appraised the other day. The appraisal came back saying the house was actually worth $30,000 less than the $XXX,000 we originally planned for. This wasn't terrible surprising, since the housing market has been so insane this past year and we really didn't know how much the house would appraise for. I'm sure that before the market crashed this past year the house actually WAS worth $XXX,000, but not now.

So we called our landlord, the guy who is selling us the house, and told him. We were expecting him to be really disappointed. After all, he would be getting much less for the house than he hoped. BUT.

Not only was he totally cool about selling it to us for the appraised price, he also said we could keep our original deal and still have the money we put toward equity all year!

So, we saved $30,000 from the house appraising lower than we expected.

We saved $1000 for the security deposit that he's putting toward the payment on the house.

We saved $4,800 for the money that went toward equity each month that he's also putting toward the payment on the house.

So, about $36,000.

So, Scott and I went around all day practically walking on air and saying "We saved 36 grand today!" every five minutes.

So happy day!

This means our bank account won't be as empty as we thought. We'll still have to scrimp a little for a few months, but we're going to be totally fine.

Too bad we'll be zillions of dollars in debt.

Oh well. We've already started making plans for the renovations we want to do on the house. So exciting!

Open Windows

Of course, the night that it's lovely and cool outside so we decide to open all the windows is the night the air force base decides to scramble the jets. And, since we live about two blocks from the base, it's LOUD.

Make it stop!

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me A Match!

Let me start off by telling you how ridiculously clumsy I am. I have a terrible sense of balance. When I am on my treadmill I have to be facing forward. I can't even turn to look at something without grabbing onto the handrails because I WILL tip over. You'd think I would know this by now. Apparently not. This is what happens when you tip over on a treadmill:
Yay, the belt skinned me! Yay! My ankle hurts...and I just looked at it, and it looks way worse now. Scabby.

Here's a picture of an adorable thing:

Buster in a kerchief. He did not like it. Now, I have the matchmaker song from Fiddler on the Roof stuck in my head.

Change On Buster

Scott put change on Buster's back and he actually stood still. He's worth about 10 cents now.

I went to the beauty school on Saturday and got a haircut and color. I like the haircut very much. The color turned out to be a little too brassy, I think. It looks ok though, except for when it's wet, and then it looks orange for some strange reason.

It's Buster Time (And A Quesadilla)

Scott made me a heart-shaped quesadilla. I have the best husband in the universe. It's true. And tasty!
And, since we can never get enough of Buster:
Sleeping on my legs on the couch:
And this is a total role reversal. Usually it's Buster doing the prodding:

Giant Bone

I have to post a picture of Buster, it's the law:
Eating a bone he stole from Wayco (Allene's dog). Good boy, Buster (I don't like Wayco...)!

In other news, I found a "used" treadmill on KSL (I say "used" because it's only been used like two times and it's nearly new) and I went down Farmington to take a look at it, and it's perfect! And less that $200! It wouldn't fit in my car so we have a friend with a truck and he will help us pick it up tomorrow after work.

It Covers His Eyes

Buster's hair is getting long and he can barely see. If it were me I would be terribly annoyed, and maybe he is, who knows, but it's so cute I refuse to get him a haircut. Come on, can you even resist this?

So Much For The Couch

So we had the garage sale, and it was really good. We had a steady stream of people from 7 a.m. to about 2:30, then nobody at all, so we closed up early. Sunday we (meaning Scott and Allene, I was still in bed...couldn't get myself out of bed to save my life) set up again with what was left and NOBODY came at all so they gave up around ten and took the rest of the stuff to the thrift store.

While the sale was going on, there was a group of kids that live down the street that were coming and TOUCHING EVERYTHING and they bought a little toy for like 15 cents and they kept coming back and asking to trade for something else. At one point one of the kids asked to trade his toy for a little box of knitting stitch markers, and I asked him if he even knew what they were and he said yes and I asked him if he knew how to knit and he said yes so I let him trade...whatever. Then, about an hour later, he came back and asked what they were and asked if he could trade them back for the original toy he had bought several hours ago. Oh, did I mention the snot? This kid had snot running down his face. It was so disgusting.

BUT we ended up making a couple hundred dollars.

We were planning on selling our couch and buying a new one because there's a tear in the arm (we tried to use one of those vinyl repair kits but the tear was too big) and it's driving Scott crazy. So we were going to use the money from the sale to get a new couch, along with the money we get from selling the old couch.

We were also planning on buying a new treadmill because the old one overheated and in order to use it you had to open up the motor casing and put ice packs on the motor. Annoying.

However, we have to delay both those purchases because 1) we're doing the whole mortgage thing and trying to make sure we're not flat broke when we're done with it and 2) THE CAR BROKE. Stupid car.

There was a whiny, screechy, whistly noise. Turns out we needed a new water pump. Freaking $434! Lame.

So, no new couch. No new treadmill. We will wait until after we have bought the house and built up our savings buffer again. Sad.

Something Amusing

So take a look at this picture:Apparently, if you are a man, you see PUPPY PAWS! If you're a woman, you say, "Scott, what did you do to make her so mad?"

You see, I look mad when I'm concentrating. So pretty much all the time that I'm knitting or crocheting.

Scott tested this out at work and it's very amusing.

Anyway.

Something cute:
He puts his face on my toes whenever he wants attention. It's cute.

Yard Sale

We are planning on having a giant garage sale on Saturday. We have been going through all the stuff in our whole house (you know, when we moved into this house we had about enough stuff to fill up about a third of it and now our stuff has multiplied and replenished the spare rooms and we're stuffed to the brim now. WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM??) and Allene is going through all her and her son's stuff too, and my family might come and bring their stuff too.

Some Stuff

Buster has this cat-like habit of perching himself on the back of the couch and watching whatever is outside. He does this all the time. But, the other day we were just sitting, watching TV, minding our own business, when we hear a THUNK. Buster lost his balance and took a nose-dive down into the space between the couch and the windows. HILARIOUS. Then, it happened again. MORE HILARIOUS.

Pain Medicine

Last week my wrist got so bad I couldn't move it at all and I was at work...no good. So I went to the doctor and she gave me some non-narcotic pain medicine so I could take them and still work. They helped but they DID make me sleepy, contrary to what the doctor said. Oh well. It's gotten better since then, but I had a physical therapy appointment yesterday and he wants me to wear a brace as much as I can until I can get surgery. I also have a list of exercises/stretches and hot/cold baths he wants me to do every day. No problem. It is a little difficult doing things with a brace on, though.

Ouch!

I don't feel like digging through Vegas pictures tonight...the truth is we didn't take as many as we planned. For one thing, we didn't do as many things as we planned (it turns out if you walk down The Strip in 1,000,000 degree weather you will not feel well and will not want to do anything for the rest of the evening). And, of course, we both kept forgetting that we have a camera. Lame, I know.

GOOD NEWS: The cortisone, though incredibly painful and just plain MEAN, is working! I knitted for like ten hours today and I'm a little sore but my hands aren't lifeless and numb and I'm not dying of pain. Awesome. That means that it IS, in fact, carpal tunnel (we knew this but in order for insurance to pay for the surgery they have to "prove" it...) and so in two weeks I go back in and we can schedule surgery and I will be cured. Except for the part where I have to stay home from work. That just stinks.

I went to the store today to get buttons and ended up getting snacks and Scott and I just had the laziest day ever. It was nice...I relax on weekends all the time but he doesn't relax with me as much. But, aside from a few calls he got on the tech phone he hung out with me all day. But anyway, when I was at the store I SLAMMED my little toe into something and I'm not sure if it's broken, but it was bleeding and there is still pain hours later so it might be a possibility. The total number of times I have broken a toe comes to...I've lost count. I'm not clumsy or anything...

It's All About The Bacon!

While we were in Vegas we went to The World's Largest Gift Shop. It's HUGE. There were so many hilarious things in it, so we took lots of pictures. Today's blog is brought to you by bacon.

Gummy Bacon (actually strawberry flavored, thank goodness):
Bacon Bandages:
Bacon TOOTHPICKS EEEEW:
Amusing.

So my hand is not hurting today, which is nice because it was AWFUL yesterday. I did everything left-handed at work and I am so awkward with my left hand because I never use it for anything. So, no pain today, but it did get tired easily, and then it was doing this weird thing where it felt like I was getting little electrical shocks in my hand and arm. Weird.

The dog tried to eat my Oreos. Jerk.

Fremont and Pain

So here's another tidbit about Vegas:

The Fremont Street Experience is actually pretty cool, albeit ear-bustingly LOUD. During the day you can walk around and look up and it just looks like some sort of sun shade is over the street, but then periodically throughout the night the whole street turns its lights off and the canopy LIGHTS UP. It's actually made of a kazillion little LEDs. These are a few pictures of the neat shows. The whole theme was "Summer of '69", because it was the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. The entire staff of our hotel was wearing tie-dye, which was pretty fun. Anyway, so the shows on the giant sky-TV were all about that, and there was some good music too. I was actually surprised at the crowd; it was much smaller than I expected.

On another, unrelated note, I went to the doctor again yesterday. Apparently we need to "prove" that it is actually carpal tunnel, so they had to give me a cortisone injection INTO MY HAND DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW PAINFUL THAT IS. They injected numbing stuff in along with the steroid, so last night I couldn't feel anything, and then it wore off.

Pain. Oh yes, pain.

And all day today I had to do everything left-handed and it was hard and awkward and I was sad. But the pain is mostly gone, except typing this isn't exactly pleasant.

So I go back in three weeks, and if the cortisone has helped, then we know it is, in fact, carpal tunnel, and then we can proceed with planning surgery. The surgery will have me out of work for a whole week and I have no idea how I am going to handle that. I take one day off and I get so excruciatingly bored, so a whole week? Let me just say, there better be some good pain medicine to go along with all this.