Homeowners

Jeff and I have learned ALL about the definitions and responsibilities of being homeowners over the past 4 months, but nothing has beat the information acquired in the past week.

Here are a few of the things I have learned:

1. If a garage door goes up, it will not necessarily go back down. The opposite is also true.

2. If a garage door experiences difficulty, for Heaven's sake move your car out of the garage before fiddling with it!

3. Muscles you do not realize you have will be sore for days after manually lifting and closing garage doors.

4. Garage door openers cost a lot of money.

5. Areas on the carpet that have been saturated in dog vomit will need to be gone over several times with a steam cleaner to get rid of the smell.

5. Steam cleaners cost a lot of money.

7. Dried chunks of dog vomit ruin vacuums.

8. Vacuums that don't suck cost a lot of money (well, more than I'm willing to pay 'cause I'm kind of cheap).

9. Gracie Lou will catch on to other things not working and decide to give us problems.

10. Fact: New cars cost a lot of money. Fact: Gracie Lou is just being temperamental and we will drive her until she falls apart.

11. Water heaters built within a certain number of years and installed in every house are missing a type of chemical in their pipes. This chemical prevents calcification and back up of plastics in the lines, which lead to low water pressure. Fact: our water heater was obviously built during this time, and no, it is not covered under any home policy we have.

12. Water heater issues cost a lot of money.

13. It appears we only had 1 mouse.

Finally, to sum up (and I'm fairly certain if I asked my wonderful husband he would remind me of a few more issues in our recent homeowner history), the last few weeks have been pretty stressful. Funny, but stressful. Hope all is well with you and yours. :)

The Hunt

Oh, it's on.

For those of you who have somehow missed the weather channel entirely (something that I believe is impossible to do... I mean, with great programs such as "Local on the 8's," "Storm Watch," and "Wake Up with Al," what's not to love???), Kansas City has had plenty of below freezing temperatures. This is wonderful for those of us who love the winter and cold (like me) and bad for those who HATE the winter and cold (like Jeff). This has also been very bad for us as a new family with a new house. Why? Because we have had another family move in with us... a 4 legged, furry family seeking warmth and nibbles of our wooden kitchen spoons.

It began like this:
"Um, Jeff, I think we have a mouse; the toilet paper has been shredded in the laundry room and there are droppings in the - "
"WHAT?! WE NEED TO GO BUY TRAPS RIGHT NOW!"

Cut forward an hour, and our home looked about the same except for the 24 (not even kidding you) traps now being assembled military style in the kitchen and placed at various locations around the house. We were not messing around.

We searched carefully for other evidence of mice throughout the house and found none. Feeling somewhat secure they were safely contained in the basement area, we went to sleep and work the next day feeling somewhat normal (although there is now a smell of peanut butter mouse catching glue strips permeating our house... and interestingly enough, those traps are the ONE thing Duncan has shown absolutely no interest in and actively avoids).

The next evening I was cooking dinner and reached in a drawer for a wooden spoon, which had very neatly been nibbled on all along the edges. By the next hour, much of our kitchenware was running through the dishwasher and I was hand washing plastic containers to put clean utensils in. Needless to say, we knew we were outnumbered and called our handy exterminator. He found the entry point of the mice and quickly sealed our home from other intruders. In addition, he laid out traps that are guaranteed to rid our home from pests. They have their marching orders and should be gone within 24-48 hours. Jeff will be handling the ridding, as I reminded him if it were up to me, I would probably get rid of the carcasses and call someone to cleanse our home from the blood shed (you may see we have differing styles of approach).

Duncan, of course, has not appeared to be bothered by these creatures in front of us, other than a heightened fear of dark places (which he was already afraid of) and excess fur shed around his crate (we feel as though they are probably messing with him when we are not home). We also believe if given the chance, Duncan would probably try to make very good friends with them. He's just such a loving doggy.

Hope all is well with you and yours, and hopefully I will be posting next from a home with Duncan as our only 4 legged furry friend. :)

Snow Day

For those of you unaware, KC has really taken a pounding this year in terms of winter weather. I myself saw 2 cars slide off the road on my commute home (1 was airborn before hitting the ditch... scared me to death). All of my meetings and appointments were canceled for today, and I thought I would share with you what snow days are all about:

Things NOT to do on a snow day:
Work
Clean
Eat healthy
Be responsible
Anything productive

Things to do on a snow day:
Talk on the phone
Play a gaming system or 2
Watch movies
Watch trash tv
Love on a puppy
Write a blog
Ensure all posts and statuses on facebook are updated and commented on

I jest. I have actually been alternating both lists and completing almost everything on here. Please stay safe and enjoy whatever you are doing. Hope all is well with you and yours. :)

Decade-tastic

Hey all! As many of you know (hopefully), not only did we usher in the beginning to a new year recently, we also ushered in the beginning of a decade. Therefore, my typical "yearly review" took the opportunity to expand.

In the last decade I: graduated high school, graduated college, successfully held my first post-college job, met the love of my life, completed my masters, became licensed for practicing social work, bought a house, got a dog, and got married. WOW.

Now let's take a look at just this past year: Masters, licensed, house, dog, married.

I think after reviewing this, I believe my New Year's resolution is definitely to slow down!!! I also have taken up James' challenge of no fast food for 6 months and no fried food at restaurants (excluding some of the fried sushi). We shall see how this goes. :)

Duncan is now reminding me that it's time for him to eat, so I need to wrap this up.

Hope all is well with you and yours, and may this year be better than your last. :)

Peace and Love,
Jeff and Heather