Stuff to Do - BFW

Some possible activities for BFW.

State Street
http://www.explorewisconsin.com/communitypages/state_st.html

Malls
http://www.hilldale.com/
http://www.shopwesttowne-mall.com/
http://www.greenwayshopping.com/
http://www.tangeroutlet.com/ (Wisconsin Dells)

Other Fun Things
http://www.wisdells.com/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/08/earlyshow/series/main628274.shtml


Much more to come...

The Countdown Begins!

so tired

I woke up at 3 this morning thinking that it was time for my alarm to go off and I could not get back to sleep at all. Not even for a few minutes. Thank goodness it is Friday. I don't think I could make it if it were a Monday.

Less Than 8 Hours To Go

We close at 4:00 today. I'm finally starting to get a little nervous. And I don't know what to wear! How does one dress to sign papers on their home loan?

So it looks like our closing costs will be minimal and we'll actually make the money back & then some because Desire & JT have to give us a check for $500. YAY! What that means for us is that there is a chance I can come to visit. Doug wants to go see his friend in Texas so it benefits him too. Here's the bad news though, now he says he may not want to go to Vegas. I told him about the issue with Josh's final so he thinks that we probably won't get to go. I really think he's doing it just because he has told too many people we might get married and now he has to cover his ass. I'm going to talk to him more later. He brought breakfast home for me this morning so he's got to be in some kind of good mood. Hopefully it'll all work out and we'll get to do everything we want to do.

I found the perfect vacation for us...

right here. Would that not be great and it is sponsored by your favorite store!

More Decorating

I think I'm going to use this stuff to decorate my kitchen with. It's 30% off this week, so I'll have to make sure I get out there and get it. I have already bought a sunflower plaque thing to go in the kitchen, but this stuff will still go because it has sunflowers & roosters. I'm trying very hard not to over do it though. I don't want anyone to think I have a collection going on. Otherwise I'll be stuck with sunflower/rooster stuff forever!

Living Room Color

Tell me what you think of the color of these bowls...I bought one today at Pier 1 because I think I might want to paint the living room walls this color. Neutral enough to go with our mismatched furniture. Then I'm thinking of adding bits of crimson here and there around the room for some pop. I already found a nice print at Michael's that I'd like to get when they go on sale. I figure if I want to do crimson now is the time to start looking because there is a ton of fall stuff with the perfect shade right now.

Random Things

We're closing on the house on the 27th now instead of the 28th. They couldn't get us in on the 28th, so they changed it. Fine with me, I don't mind doing it a day earlier. It is one less day I have to think about it. It really is kind of surreal though. Especially since, no real money is changing hands. Oh, I know it is real money, but you know what I mean. I have to find out for sure how much we will need at closing so we can get that ready, but I know it won't be much. Crazy, isn't it?

I talked to Angela last night. I wish I talked to all of you more often, now when we talk it feels like we have to have these marathon conversations to make up for all the time we didn't talk. Oh well. I think we're going to do something in a couple of weeks, so that'll be fun.

Are you on myspace? I've searched for you & Josh but didn't find you, so I'm assuming not. Anyhow, yesterday I had a message from my friend, Andrea. You remember her right? The boy-crazy one. Yes, it's all coming back to you now, isn't it? Anyhow, she's in the process of getting divorced right now, so I guess she's looking for a new guy and she had some kind of racy pictures on there. Too much information for me. I guess I'll just avoid the pictures section from now on.

Today's my day off. I have to go to the insurance company to get a bill for our first years homeowners insurance and then get the information to Cassie. Then Becky & I are going shopping. Then later this afternoon I'm taking my grandma to the doctor, so I've definitely got a full day. I should be home all evening though if you feel like doing any planning.

New Website

Here is my new favorite website. Right now I want to get some curtains they have in there. If you do some searching they are cotton canvas panels with grommets. So neat. Eric & Becky have them in their living room and kitchen and they look so good. I'm not sure what color yet, it'll depend on what paint colors we choose. Decorating & shopping for decorating stuff is so much fun!

Okay, the appraiser left a little bit ago. She really didn't look around too much, but I'm still glad I cleaned the house some.

Where are you?

I just called and got your voice mail, I think. Where are you? You're forcing me to clean my house now (well when I'm done posting anyway). The appraiser lady is coming at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. Doug & I cleaned right after I got off work today, but I still need to wipe off the countertops, swiffer the kitchen & bathroom floor and clean the bathroom sink & toilet. Hopefully she won't look in the shower. I don't feel much like cleaning that at the moment. I guess I'll go and do the easy stuff real quick and then try to call you back.

Decorating Ideas

This is what I'm using as a starting point for decorating my kitchen. What do you think? The picture is a little fuzzy, but you get the idea. Actually, if you go here and look under "Stoneware," you'll see the whole collection. It is called "Welcome Home." It's more expensive than what I initially planned to spend, but I love it. And I think it'll work well with the green countertops and floors, don't you? I'd like to paint the wallls that same yellow or a warm beige, I just hope it won't be too much. I'd love to do a faux textured finish. Maybe I should see if Home Depot or Lowe's has any classes coming up...

Hello, my name is Misty and I'm a wedding-aholic.

Truly, I am. Doug mentions again this morning that he'd like to get married while we're in Las Vegas and I spend the entire obsessing about wedding plans again. I even started coming up with ideas for our reception. Then of course I get home tonight and tell him that if we are going to do that we need to start making some plans and he tells me that he's not so sure that's what he wants to do. ARRGH!!!!! So then I gave him the silent treatment the rest of the night. He did do the dishes and take out all the trash and kitty litter to try to make me feel better (it didn't work), so at least I got something out of it. But now I'm so irritated I can't sleep. Is it so wrong that I want to marry the man I love? Is it so wrong that I'd like to have a baby or two with this same man before I'm 30. Am I just freaking out because my 26th birthday is less than 3 weeks away and we are buying a house?? What is wrong with me? At least I didn't cry. I wish I wouldn't have told my mom anything about it though. Now I have to tell her that that's not what we're doing and then hear the lecture on how she thinks Doug wants to be like his brother and not get married or have any kids until he's 40.

Haircut

I'm getting my haircut this morning. I was showing Doug pictures and of course he felt like they were all too short. I don't even care. It is my hair and keeping it as long as it is has been a big pain. And it only looks decent if I put it up every day. So I was looking through some old pictures and found the pictures of me I liked the best. I don't know if you remember what my hair was like when we graduated. It was about shoulder length, layered around my face and I had bangs. I look really cute in my pictures. I just hope the cut isn't too outdated. I'm taking one with me to Sharee's this morning and asking her what she thinks. And for the record, shoulder length is not short! It is medium length. I'll try to post a picture of it later.

More on House Buying

Last night Cassie brought over a huge packet of papers for me to sign and she brought over the title packet for Desire'. So I guess this is really happening. I thought maybe the approvals were some kind of pre-approval thing, you know how they send you those notices in the mail for credit cards that say, "You're PRE-APPROVED!" I was thinking it was something like that. And what makes me feel even better, was when Cassie told me that I had not1, not 2, but 3 approvals and they all came back right away! I just find it a little hard to believe that not 2 years ago I had trouble getting a car loan, but now they want to give me $75,000 to buy a house. Is that crazy or what?? Definitely makes you feel like a grown-up in a big hurry! Anyway, Cassie says she can have everything wrapped up by July 28. What a great birthday present for me!

And now for the bad news...I'm not sure how much out-of-pocket expenses we are going to have, but I don't think I'll be able to make it in August. That makes me very very sad. :( September might still be a possibility, but I don't want to say for defnite. And even if it isn't, we'll still have Vegas in December and next year we'll do our BFW. I'm sorry. I feel really bad, but I know you know what it's like when it comes to buying a house. Of course, you are more than welcome to come here if you want to. We do have a guest room and we would be happy to have you. And Josh too if he wanted to come with you. We'd be thrilled to see the both of you. If you can't, we understand. And it might be better if we all save our money for Vegas. This will be the first vacation Doug & I have ever taken together and we want it to be a good one. Doug keeps threatening that we'll get married while we're in Vegas, so be sure to keep an eye on us if we start drinking too much, it might just happen. Maybe I should buy a white dress, just in case!

Buying The House

Did I tell you that Cassie was handling our mortgage stuff? She works for a mortgage company now and when the bank rejected us, Desire' suggested her. So Wednesday night I called her and gave her our preliminary information and she was going to put it in on Thursday. I waited all day for her to call on Thursday and nothing. But I just checked my voice mail and I have message from her about approvals...yay! But she said she wanted to check with us about payment ranges because the ones she got seemed kind of high. I don't know if she means high compared to what we pay in rent or just high in general. I know we have crappy credit so we probably got a sucky interest rate and that is probably why they are high. I can't call her back just yet, because I want to wait and do it when I can be uninterrupted, which won't be until 2:00 when Amanda gets here. I am so relieved and excited. Just think, Doug & I might be homeowners in a very short amount of time. My heart is pounding like crazy right now. I can hardly type this entry.

Picture Time!

I love having this digital camera. It is so much fun. I love that I can take a picture and immediately upload it to my computer and then post it on here for you to see, just like I'm about to do right now.

I was in the process of picking up the house a little bit ago and had some laundry out and found Boomer like this. Too cute!

I have 4th of July pictures too. We ended up having my mom, dad, Sarah, Doug's mom, Eric, Becky, Nate & Kaden over. We watched the riverfront fireworks and then went to Doug's dad's house for more fireworks.

I took a ton of fireworks pictures, but very few of them actually turned out very well, even in the fireworks setting.

Mishty, Unc Gug, & Nate! (no, those are not typos.)

This is my favorite picture of the whole night!

Long Night

Last night we went to Doug's uncle's 50th birthday party. We didn't know half the people there...well, I didn't know 3/4 of the people there, Doug did know some of them. And we even had total strangers asking us when we were getting married. Someone mistook me for Doug's wife and when he corrected them (ever so quickly), they said "well, she's pretty cute, don't you think you should do something about it?" Granted, I think it was the lady who was hosting the party, but still.

Then I made the mistake of talking to Doug's mom about who Kaden looked like. I was wrong again there. And she's so short with me when she tells me. Like there is no possible way this child could look like anyone other than who she says. I know it's a silly thing, but it makes me crazy. I think we've had that conversation at least 3 times now (you'd think I'd give it up already) and every time I end up feeling like an idiot. Is that what I have to look forward to in a mother-in-law? I told Doug that I hope our kids look very obviously like one of us and that there won't be any inbetween about it.

Then I had the pleasure of talking to Doug's cousin and his wife. I like his wife. She's the sweetest thing. His cousin on the other hand, is a pompous ass. Things were going okay, until he started telling us how we should go about getting our mortgage (we didn't ask for your help or your opinion) and then he told me that libraries were useless (after he found out I worked at one) and that everything you can get from a library you can get on the internet. And we talked to them for at least an hour, maybe longer. Do you know how hard it is to fake smile that long???

We finally left the party and headed over to Doug's brother's to sit on the deck and have a drink. A much needed drink for me, I had none during the party. So that was nice. We left there with more than enough time to make to Bottom's Up for a drink (Doug's) or two. Something happens in bars to make Doug sappy, I think. He started telling me how much he loves me and how important I am to him. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing that. I just wish I heard it a little more when he was sober. Anyhow, while we're sitting there talking they are playing this song. So I jokingly said, "this should be our wedding song." And Doug stopped, listened to the words a few seconds, then looked at me with tears in his eyes and very seriously said, "this is our wedding song." So we have a wedding song now. Woohoo...I'll take what I can get, where I can get it, I guess.

Then we came home and we were up until 3 in the morning. Doug was calling all his friends and we were enjoying sitting outside. It was beautiful out.

Now it's Sunday morning. Doug's still in bed and will probably be there for awhile. We've got alot to do today though. We're supposed to go visit his grandma this afternoon and I want to go get a new cell phone today, plus we were going to clean out the rec room. We'll see what happens though. It may end up being a lazy day for us.