Wow, It's been a long time

During the past 7 months we have gotten settled completely into our new house. We will be taking a week off at the end of July to paint in the house. We have selected colors for each room and can't wait to get rid of the white walls. JJ and I have decided to spend our government stimulus check doing the decorating. I also have a re newed interest in scrapbooking. Last month I bought myslef a Cricut cutting machine and have been having a great time putting together our wedding photos into our own album and one for my parents. I have also made a couple of cards for some friends and family. I am planning on purchasing additional cartridges soon to start Christmas cards in the fall as it does take some time to put things together My camera has been broken for a few months and a week after I got it fixed it was stolen at work. I have just purchased a new camera and will be updating photos soon. I will be adding pictures weekly on my two days off of the projects I am working on. I am off right now to get some cards in the mail and when I know that they have been received I will post pictures of these cards.

House Pictures

Here are some pictures of the house :)

I didn't realize that I haven't taken an updated shot of the whole front of the house. I just wanted a picture of the landscaping when it was put in last week.

The sofa in my den will normally be in front of the bay window but the tree is currently in it's place.

This is one of my favorite parts

I love my new kitchen. It is such a pleasure to cook here. Last night I made Christmas dinner just for the two of us. We specifically came home to dine in peace and watch the Santa Clause movies. Today JJ made a spice cake cause we had my family over today.

Our lovely guest accommodations

Our master bedroom is far from being done. Actually the guest bathroom is the only room that is finished. We start small.

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate and Happy New Year

Home or House Sitting

I am really not sure if this is home sweet home yet or if it is more like house sitting. The house is getting better but I feel like it is far from being done. There are still boxes in our bedroom that really need to go. Everyday when I get ready for the work I have to dig through a box for the stuff I need.

We have installed ceiling fans so far in 3 rooms. We have two rooms to go. The Christmas trees are both up. And only the guest room is missing blinds. I went to Wal-Mart for the blinds in Chandler but one set was missing the hanging brackets so I returned them and then tried to buy the same ones out here in Queen Creek and they were $2.00 more. I don't understand why they would cost more other than the fact that we are 20 minutes away from the next closest Wal-Mart so they figure they have a captive audience.

I had the day off work today and ran a bunch of errands in the city including turning in the apartment keys. It feels good to be done with that.

The cable and internet has finally been turned on. That part feels like life is back to normal. During that time JJ's XBox broke too. It is really hard to get things done when we are renting movies every night. When you are watching nothing on TV it is easier to get other things done like unpacking and organizing.

And I Thought I was Tired Before

I am not exhausted. The actual moving things part was not bad as we had two wonderful gentlemen from the moving company take care of that part for us but the rest of this process is exhausting. In the past few days we hung blinds in every room except one, and four sets of curtains so far. Yesterday I spent a gift card that I received from Home Depot on some ceiling fans, a coach light (for the side of the driveway), two shower heads (I don't like the water saving type I like the rain type), and a new light for the entrance way light. So far the coach light has been put up and everything else remains in their boxes. Hopefully we will have more progress tonight. I would love to post some pictures but my computer at work doesn't accept a memory card so pictures will be waiting till my next visit with family and/or next Monday after the Directv and DSL gets installed. I caved and decided to go with Directv. I can't stand not having cable. Not to mention that the only channel we get with the bunny ears are from Tucson and not the local Phoenix channels. I am not sure if this is because the weather has been lousy all week and the clouds are affecting it (I have never not had cable, I have no clue).

So Tired

We got our keys to our brand new home earlier today. I wish I felt more thrilled right now but I am way too tired. We are not even done with the packing yet. The movers will be here at 8:00 in the morning and I feel like we will be lucky to get in bed before they arrive. I am going to pack up the computer now. Next post hopefully from the new house but more likely from my office at work because of delay in finishing the wiring in the neighborhood for cable we will not have internet or cable for a while. I am not sure if they will finish before I give up and get satelitte but I am hoping that they work quickly.

Walk Thru

Tomorrow at 12:30 is the walk thru on our new house. I am really really excited. I did some packing of our food products tonight and all of my clean clothes are packed with the exception of an outfit for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and pajamas for each day as well. Tomorrow we will be finishing the laundry and picking up more luggage at my parents house on the way back from the closing appointment.

When the builder call me to setup the closing appointment and the walk thru they stated that only the home purchaser is allowed to attend the walk thru. I am sorry for them but with the purchase price of the house my father will definitely be there to make sure everything is perfect. When I buy a $20 coat I usually want my mom's opinion.

I have decided to buy a couch from a homeowner at the club. Fortunately one of the guys from work will be picking it up after work on Saturday night and bringing it to our house on his way home. There aren't many people I know that live in that direction so this is wonderful. The sofa is really inexpensive and the fabric is not great looking but I have a green sofa cover that I will be using for it. We bought the cover last year but the sofa in the living room is oversized and it doesn't fit. The used sofa also has a hide-a-bed and the mattress is brand new. The will provide us with two guest rooms available.

One of my employees from the Cafe is also helping me out greatly. On Friday when she is off work well will be picking up a mattress, box spring, and bed frame from my grandparents house that they have been storing for me. When I called to let them know that we would be by in the afternoon they also told me they have a new TV for us. That is going to come in very useful. We were in need of additional TVs and we are now equipped with a TV for each room. The unfortunate part is that I just found out that the cable company has not completed installation in the neighborhood. We are able to get DirecTV but it requires a two year contract and I don't want it permanently because everything is on eastern time zone, which is too early with my work schedule.

On Friday I am going to take our bed apart. The movers would do it but we will be paying by the hour and I like Ikea furniture. It is like LEGOS for big kids. I have decided on one of JJ's Christmas gift and it means more Ikea assembling for me.

JJ's den still needs a couch so I am gonna do some looking on Craigslist and see what is out there. I want to find a black couch. I am doing his room in black, white, and gray. The accent colors will be Phoenix Suns to highlight our basketball collection.

Box by Box

I am enjoying every minute of packing. Well, maybe not every minute last week I ran out of tape in the middle of packing (that wasn't so great) . I also broke my tape dispenser last night but now that I am almost done I am not going to bother going out for a new one.

The walk thru and closing are scheduled for next Thursday. That is only eight days from today :) On Friday we get the keys and on Saturday the moving truck is coming. We also have delivery of our new washer and dryer scheduled for Saturday. It will be such an exciting day. We bought the washer and dryer on a "Black Friday" special. "Black Friday" is the day after Thanksgiving. It is the biggest shopping day of the year. The stores were having even crazier specials this year than last year. The earliest opening that I heard of was 4:00am.

I purchased the washer and dryer from Best Buy. The store does have a website where you can order things online but when I tried to order the washer and dryer I got an error message that our zip code was not recognized. After finding this out I resorted to my original plan which was to wait outside the store until it opened. I arrived at the store at 11:45pm (and athere were already 150 people in front of me) wearing an undershirt, long sleeve t-shirt, sweatshirt, and jacket. I also had a blanket in my bag and a candle to read my book with and keep my hands warm. Well, it got much colder than I was expecting. After two hours I called my brother who is always up really late and he drove over to the mall and gave me a bathroom break while dropping off a sleeping bag for me to sleep in. I got comfortable and layed down much warmer.

About 30 minutes after that my brother called me and said that the website seemed to be working and he was able to input our new zip code and it was accepted. YEAH! I was able to pack myself up and head home at about 2:30 in the morning. Because I am crazy for "Black Friday" shopping I didn't go straight home. I instead went to drive by a few shopping centers were stores were scheduled to open at 4:00 but since there was nobody waiting in the other parking lots I decided to head home and go to bed. JJ was already in bed cause he had to work on Friday morning so it was nice to join him in bed. I am really happy to have the new appliances for our new home.

I have since then been spending almost every spare minute packing. I am happy to say that we have multiple empty spaces now. And we have a wall of boxes ready to go. Tomorrow I need to call the moving company to schedule the move. We have decided to move the majority of the stuff to the downstairs and also to try taking apart the bed ourselves next week in order to minimize the hours it will take the movers.

Our Own Driveway

We now have our own driveway. I went to the house last week and there was no drive way but this past weekend I was actually able to park in my own driveway. The house is now also locked up and to see the inside you have to go to the sales office and pick up the keys. There are stacks of tiles in the house and the cabinets are in the kitchen and the bathroom. This is the first time there is something worth stealing. I took some pictures on Sunday and I am really happy with the progress. We now have less than 3 weeks till the move.

See the wonderful driveway

Some of the tile in the family room is done. By next weekend the edges and the grout should be done. I need to find a large area rung for under the sofa. I think that will be the Ikea trip.

The kitched cabinet and counter top are in aswell. There was a little scare last week abou the cabinets not being deep enough for a plate but this week I brought my plates with me to check.

I have done a lot of packing tonight and have another person coming over for a quote tomorrow. I think the last quote we got was overpriced. I think the man thought we had a lot more stuff. I don't think he realized that although there were stacks of boxes there was very little left in closets, drawer, and cabinets. I think we are also going to put all the boxes downstairs in the kitchen before the movers arrive in order to make it quicker. I am loving puting the boxes into the packing log. I can't wait to use it while unpacking. Each box has a room number - box number that refers to the packing list. The movers will each get a copy of the floor chart with the room number and I will be hanging a sign on each door with the number so they don't have to refer to the floorplan each time.

Home Progress

The progress of the house is amazing to see. We now have a walk thru date of December 6th and the appointment with the title company that day. On the 7th we get our keys and the moving truck will be here on December 8th. We will only be moving the valuables, files, and kitties.

I will be taking the weekend of the move off from Thursday through Sunday. I have to work on Mondays but wil be off again on Tuesday. By the time I go back to work on Wednesday I want everything where it belongs. I would also like to make the Ikea trip on Tuesday. We need some shelves, cheap end tables for JJ's den, and a TV stand. We are also in need of a new vacuum cleaner, a stainless steel trash can, new litter boxes, and blinds. Fortunately Wal-Mart is already open in the area so that is one of the easier stops. Ikea on the other hand will be about an hour drive each way. Ikea is well worth the trip though.

Work has been really busy lately. I got a promotion in August. The promotion was supposed to put me in charge of half of the catering functions at the Country Club. The person who I was going to share the position with has now decided that he cannot accept the additional responsibility. The is his decision to make and because he has a young daughter I think it is the right choice. I would not be able to work these types of hours if we had kids. The promotion is going well so far but season has just begun. The Christmas parties begin the fist weekend of December and turn into Holiday parties at the beginning of January. They really don't show any sign of slowing till late February.

I worked till 8:30 tonight and have been packing since I was going to enclose some pictures but seem to have forgotten my camera in the liquor room at work.

Old Men Shouldn't Drive

On Tuesday afternoon, while on the way to my house to pick up movies that needed to be returned I got into an accident. Some old F*** ran a red light. And not the kind that just turned red but the kind that can only be run if you don't give a flying F***! I was using the other street of the intersection and intending to go strainght. Neither of us made it much farther than the intersection. Below are some pictures from the accident. My car is the white one DUH! The other is the typical old fart Buick.

We Have Walls

We now have walls. I looked around the inside and outside of the house today very thouroughly. I noticed that the outlets on the side of the house that are supposed to be in the eaves are too low. They seem to have put them in about a foot lower than they should be. I took a picture while I was there and brought it to the sales office. The guy in the office was really nice about it. He got the paperwork out right away and said that they will take care of fixing it tomorrow. The outlets are supposed to be hidden so that we can put up Christmas lights without cords draping around the side of the building. Here are todays pictures...

The Front of the House

I Love the Window in the Guest Bath

This is the whole for the outlet is. It is supposed to be above where the HLAND can be seen.

1st Family in the Neighborhood

Today when I went to the house I saw a man parked in his driveway. He is the first in the neighborhood. Nobody else even has a driveway. On June 15th his house was just a slab and now he is moving in. So June 15th-July 15th-August 15th-September 15th = 3 months. We were at slab on September 3rd-October 3rd-November 3rd-December 3rd - 3 months right??? The Lady in the sales office even said that it would probably be in Late November :) Soon it will be cooler out and maybe they start to work faster when it is cool outside. So here is this weeks progress.

I was able to take a bunch of pictures of the plumbing and wiring today. I didn't get everything I wanted to so I thought of something easier. Rather than doing all this from the car I am going to wait until be move in and then on one of my days off I will go to another home under construction and take proper measurement and notes of where everything is located.

The Frame Goes Up

YEAH YEAH YEAH YIPPEEEEEE! It is amazing what these construction guys can do in a week. Today I met my new next door neighbor while I was out looking at the house. I think she is about our age. JJ and I are planning on throwing a block party when we move in so that we can meet everyone. It seems like a safer place to live when everyone knows each other. That way when someone sees someone that doensn's belong they are more likely to keep an eye out. Here is the progress for the week.

This is the first time there have been two sides to photograph :)

My Parents have a New Bundle of Joy

This weekend my parents adopted an adorable doggy. He was a rescue dog and is really well behaved. His name is Chewie. My parents were afraid at first that it wouldn't work out with the cat but she has since come out of the laundry room and started to walk around the house. The cat has shown her dominance and smacked the dog in the face a few times (she has no claws).

To go along with the adorable dog picture he is a house update. The house should be framed by the end of the week. The wood has been delivered and is in the back of the foundation. It is really cute almost like a little house building kit.

A Foundation to Build Upon

We have a foundation. Next stop a HOUSE. Gotta run to work just wanted to put up the exciting picture.

Our driveway will be on the left side and the bay window of our front room is onthe right. The front room will be my office. Although the house does not include a window seat I would like to build on for my office. I think it will be a nice place for JJ to sit when it storms out. In Arizona it storms so rarely that he likes to watch the lightning and the rain. We ahve heard the it storms a lot more out in Queen Creek which is why it was so easy to convince JJ to move out there.

What a New Week Brings

Yesterday I drove up to our lot and took a couple of pictures. It doens't look all that different but before they pour the foundation they have to water down the pad to compress the ground. This is what the next step looks like.

Today I started training for a new position. I am now going to be the catering coordinator as well as my current position as the cafe, lounge, and ballroom manager. This sounds like soooo much fun. I have a lot to learn but fortunately I have worked the actual events for the past 4 years and am very familiar with what we have to offer.

I have started a new blogger to post pictures of our events with little tidbits of information. I want to use this website to giev to my guests to show work that we have done in the past. I will also be putting together banquet presentations tailored to each of the clubs (such as tennis, bridge, golf) and show ideas we have for their events. The new site is www.cottonwoodcountryclubbanquets.blogspot.com

The Look of Progress

I just took a week off and couldn't manage to find anything post worthy. Now I do have some great news though. They have now gotten back the construction permits and have dug for the plumbing. Our lot is now ready for the foundation to be poured. It should be poured early next week. I am going to the interiors place this Wednesday to pick the interiors for our house. I have to bring pictures of the stuff we have at home. I am going to bring a drawer from our bedroom set and the family room because it is open to the kitchen. Here is the latest picture of our house.

Home Sweet Home

Okay maybe not. Maybe it's just a patch of dirt. I drove out to our lot this weekend and took a couple pictures. I was told about that after they dig for the foundation you are supposed to drop coins in all 4 corners of the house. It is supposed to bring luck and wealth to the household. Then when the house is done before you move in you are supposed to put coins in every drawer in the house. I am really really excited. The house should be done before Christmas but it would be really nice if it is ready before our first anniversary.

This is our lot

This is down the other side of the street. See we aren't too far behind anyone else. Nobody lives in the neighborhood yet.

Tomorrow I am going to make some appointments for movers to come and give us estimates. I also have to Fedex the mortgage company paperwork back. I have to renew the lease. I need to clean up before anyone comes for the estimates. I would also like to set up an appoinment to have our carpets cleaned once now and once before we move.

I also have to pick up a wedding card for Nicole and Guy. Congrats to Nicole and Guy on their 7/7/07 wedding. They even got married around 7:00 in the morning. That is really cool idea but 7:00 is pushing it. Hope everyone had fun in Vegas and isn't too broke.

We have Dirt

So we did it. We bought a lot and signed the contract to build a house. The construction will be done in 4-6 months. That means that worse case estimate we will have a new house for Christmas. I am soooo excited. I would like to use a few more "O"s but I think that everyone gets the picture. I will be taking pictures of every step of the constuction process. I can't wait to see a house spring up oout of nowhere.

The lot that is colored in dark purple is ours.

This is the elevation that we picked. The stone work on the front of the house is optional and we decided to keep it. We also picked the green/gray roof tile. The most popular roof tile is pink but that is overdone. Most movies that take place in Arizona show the pink, peach roof tile color. We have also chosen to put a bay window in the front which will give us 3 windows that look like the one shown.

On the Home Front

Here is the latest on the home finding journey. Last week I met with an agent in Queen Creek and we found the most perfect home. The home that we really want is already built but never lived in. The people who selected the house and had it built now cannot qualify for the financing. The development is going to give them until Friday to get the financing through another lender but they don't think it is going to happen. In the mean time we have put down a deposit to hold a lot for the constuction of a new home that is the same floorplan. If the house that is already done falls through we will move to that house. Otherwise we are going to go back out on Sunday or Tuesday to begin the paperwork on the new build.

The new build is really excitting cause other than the basic floor plan we can pick all the options. That includes everything from the look of the front of the house, the color of the house, the doors, cabinets, souround sound, and a million other things. Tonight we got an option list so that we can start to look through it and make some choices.

The floor plan we decided on

Although it would be really nice to pick everything ourselves it would be nice to move out of our apartment sooner. The new build will take 4-6 months but during that time our rent goes up by $200 per month (which is quite close to what our mortgage payment will be so it seems stupid to pay rent).

Wine Tasting

Last night I held the first wine tasting of my career. We had a group of 38 people at the restaurant for a tasting a ligth hors doevres. We served 18 wines. The reason for the tasting is that we have just changed our house wines. We will not longer be serving a wine called Inglenook and will now be carrying Southern Point wines. We wanted to invite everyone in to taste the new selections. I made the wine list this past week and a card for each wine with the descriptions from the wine menu. Each of the guests received an envelope on their way in, which contained a card for each wine with space for comments and a golf pencil. The guests had a wonderful time and I got dome good feedback. This is the first event in which the food and beverage director didn't step in and take over (she is a control freak).

One of the wine displays

The white wine display

Learning with Scattered Disappointment

We received a phone call from our real estate agent today and he spoke with the real estate agent of the bank that owns the house and they don't want to budget they want more money. This whole time I thought that banks don't want to own a home but they seem to like it. So the searching continues. I don't want to take off the picture I posted because this was a great learning experience. I wouldn't want to trade it unless of course we had gotten the house. I will be going out with our real estate agent on Sunday to see what else is out in that area. He was pulling some more listings this morning.

I found out today that our lease is actually up in the middle of August so taht gives us a lot less tiem than we thought. We do have the opportunity to go month to month but the rate goes up by $300. I am hoping that Mark and Lauren would like to move in here when we move out. I don't think that they like stairs like we do.

I have been working all day and I am exhausted I have so much going on right now and there were not enough hours today.

Quick Response

Today we got another real quick answer from the bank that owns the house. They came back with a counter offer on the house. In the previous counter offer they asked us for our last best, highest, and most final offer and we provided them with it in hopes of beating out the other buyers. I guess that we might have done that because they countered to us. We have decided that we don't want to go any higher because they already asked us for our best offer. I hope that they are going to come back and agree anyway. I mean why would a bank want to continue to won a home. They are not making any money with it sitting there empty. If not there are other houses out there and one of them is for us. We just need to act fast once we find out so that we don't have to renew our lease.

The Waiting Resumes

This morning we put in a counter offer so our waiting has started again. This time we requested a response by June 11th (which is Monday). If this is going to go through we really can't have an answer any later than that cause we would be closing at the beginning of July and need to get all the things rolling to finish this. I also have my boss going in for surgery at the end of next week so I really don't know when or even how much free time I will have to take care of this stuff. I guess JJ will probably end up taking care of some things while I am at work.

Tonight we watched the movie Idiocracy and I thought it was really funny. You can totally see how the world really could get dumber. We already accept people saying things such as "I did good in that class". It makes my ears hurt when people talk that way. I know that I don't use proper english but that just sounds stupid.

I got quite a few things accomplished today which I was worried about with my boss' pending surgery. I send out the counter offer, went to the bank (got a fee waivedon our account), got a raise (the one I've been waiting for), picked two new pairs of glasses (one brown, one black), went grocery shopping, made dinner, and watched a movie. I like to have good useful days off like that.

Back to work tomorrow and it is review time. I have done 4 of my reviews so far and have about 10 left. I have to write one more and it is the most difficult. I keep writing it and starting over.

Waiting Ended Early

While I was at the eye doctor today our waiting was ended. At the time I had just had my eyes dialated and I couldn't read anything so our agent read it to me. We have put in the offer an they have responded with a counter offer. The counter states that they have multiple offers and we need to respond with a new offer by tomorrow at 2:00pm. They really don't give you much time. We are very confused right now cause the counter doesn't have a specific number on it. The multiple counter just says that they have another offer but doesn't say what amount they want. It asks for the highest, best, last and final offer. I really don't like it. They sent this to both or all of the offers, which means that maybe our offer is higher than the other offer already. There is no way to know. The other thing that makes this harder is that our agent is currently on vacation in Indiana so we have been doing all this today by phone, e-mail and fax.

So we have to look at the numbers again and see what we want to do and e-mail the contract back tonight. We also still haven't had dinner and it is almonst 10:00pm.

4 Days till the answer

I am trying to take my dad's advice. We are waiting for an answer to our offer on the house. In the offer we said that we would like a response by Friday. My dad's suggestion is to look forward to having the answer on Friday so that if we get an answer in the mean time we would be a lot more excited. It does sound better than being disappointed all week that we haven't heard anything yet :)

So to sum this up we have still heard nothing.

Today at work I got smashed in the back with the door to the walkin. There was a chef on the way out of the cooler and I think that he kicked the door open with his foot because his hands were full. I was standing outside of the cooler with my back to the door. My back is currently now killing me. I am going to end up with a bruise from just under my shoulder to the hip. I am going to be because sitting at the computer is hurting too much.

New Home Update

Absolutely nothing!

The Secret

Tonight I watched the Secret. I first heard of this movie a few months ago on Oprah. At the time I decided not to order it and figured that at some point I would come accross it again. I looked at the video store but didn't see it there or on netflix (a mail DVD program). About a month ago I was in Virginia for my brother's graduation. While I was there I bought a DVD player so he gave me a case of DVD's to bring back from Virginia since they were moving out here and had sold their TV and VCR in preparation for the move. I looked through the movie and didn't think anything of the one called the Secret until tonight. We were looking for something to watch and decided to look up the movie on the internet that we were unsure of and I realized that the Secret was THE SECRET from Oprah.

I have watched the movie tonight and would like to officially state what I will acheive...

Within a year

1. Puchase a single family home in a quiet family neighborhood.

2. Make improvements on our new house.

3. Continue to contribute to my 401K and increase the bi-weekly contribution to $100.

4. Get the raise I have been waiting for by being the best manager.

Next year

1. Go on vacation to Montreal and New York

2. Trade in the truck and buy an SUV

3. There are other goals that I plan to reach but they are confidential :)

We have now gotten the paperwork for the loan pre approval that we were waiting for and are now ready to put in an offer on the house. I hope to be able to get together with our real estate agent on Saturday night in order to put in the offer. On Sunday after work I am planning to go out and price some appliances for the house and also carpet or time samples. The kitchen, entryway, hallway to the bedrooms, laundry room, and dining area are already a really nice tile pattern, but the cartpet definitely has to go. I would love to do wood but I wouldn't want to remove the tile (it is in really good shape). We also need a toilet tank top as the one in the house has a crack in the second bathroom. We also will need the matching shower curtain for our bathroom set. We currently have only one shower as the other is a half bath. I can't wait to move in, yes I know the house isn't ours yet but it will be.

We need...

1. Fridge

2. Washer

3. Dryer

4 Stove

5. Carpet

6. Paint

7. Ceiling fixtures (2 are missing)

8. Toilet tank top

9. Back yard needs watering system (all the grass is crunchy)

10. Wall patching stuff

11. New door frame for back door

And probably a bunch of other stuff. We went and looked at two other houses that are the same model that we are buying and it is amazing how different the house can be when different people live in it. I really like the layout of this perticular home because of the open living room, kithcen area. I am gonna go day dream about all of the options.

Buying a home

Buying a home is really tough. We have been working with a real estate agent for a couple of weeks now. We went to see a couple of homes last weekend and would like to make an offer on one of the houses we saw. The area we are looking to move to is called Queen Creek. It is a very new area and has started to develop in the last 4 years. It is south east of Phoenix currently in what seems like the middle of the desert. There is a wal-mart and two strip malls but not really anything else out there yet. It is really excitting though. In the area where we currently live we cannot afford a single family home with a yard and a garage so we are going to make the move which is approximately 45 minutes from where we are currently. Fortunately, I work oly 30 minutes away from our new (hopefully) house.



In the city where we live currently the apartment complexes in the area have recently started to convert to condos. There are a lot of units for sale but we really want to have a real home and our current apartment is much nicer than the complexes that are for sale.

Anyway we are currently waiting to hear back in regards to our mortgage application. We need a paper stating that we have qualified for a mortgage before we can put in an offer because the property is has been foreclosed on. A few years ago there were all sorts of special offers for 0% interest and a lot of first time homebuyers purchased homes and did not think that the adjustable rate of the mortgage would be a problem and I guess it is because quite a few of the homes have been foreclosed on.

We are going to keep our fingers crossed and hope that we get a good answer.

Friends

This is going to sound really harsh but I dont ever go out of my way to make time to see friends. By the time that I am done with work I just really like to be at home watching some tv with JJ and relaxing. I however have decided that I need to find a hobby where I can meet people that are in similar places in life as me. I don't have any friends here my age that are married or know people that are in similar jobs. I cannot hang out with people on my staff because I don't want to be in a position of treating them differently from other employees. The only thing that I really have in common with the people that I work with is that our paychecks are signed by the same person.

They are nice people but half are younger than I am and like to party and are all single. And the other half are older than me and have multiple children, or are retired. So when I do go out with them like tonight (for Cathy's power hour) all I have to talk about is work and I feel weird about that. It probably doesn't help that I don't like to drink. I just don't think that anything tastes good. Why pay $6.00 and tip for a drink that doesn't taste good when a coke only cost $1.50.

I think I'm going to pick up the city programs flyer and see what is being offered. I would like an art class like ceramics or something like that. Maybe I could meet people there.

Tonight I had inventory night and it was pretty upsetting. A couple of weeks ago I found some discrepancies in my liquor sales versus the amount of product we had used during my daily liquor inventory. I think that night I was blowing off steam at the other club with the dining room manager and said "that is it I'm going to can everyone", and apparently someone overheard the conversation and told my staff about the comment this past week, so everyone is already on edge. Well, during my end of month inventory I found another product missing. So that added to my aggrevasion. I really hope that nobody besides that theif knows what happened to the missing liquor cause otherwise I am really disappointed in my staff.

Now that it is 3:00 am and I have to work tomorrow I am going to head to bed.