Goals in Mind!

Big week at the Moser-Remynse house!

1. Our invitations went out. All 203 of them. In one box. Stamped. Stuffed. Addressed. And Returned addressed. Felt good to see them go out. My cousin and bridesmaid, Kate, designed them and I do think they are so cute. I wanted something that fit our design and used our pictures! These did that for sure! We’ve had some great compliments on them! We are even getting RSVP’s back…and it brings a smile to my face to see them. We had a few electronic ones before the invites, but now I get a few trickle in each day.
2. We finalized details on the tuxedos. Matt picked out the colors and design for each wedding party member and he even let me put my 2cents in. I’m excited to see how the final product looks on the whole party but I think I’m very excited to see Matt dressed up…I know I’ve seen him in a tux a couple times, but I think this may be the best one yet! I’m also very impressed with those that got their sizes in already. Matt was obviously the first but the second one to get it all in was my father followed up by his father! Made me smile and my father even got a call from me!
3. We are officially moved in. We went and got everything out of the storage unit and brought it all back to Dickinson and unloaded it. Those were some icky boxes and Matt and I will have to do some purging as it appears we both have a bit of hoarding in us. I’m a little more aggressive in thoughts to toss so we’ll see how the unpacking goes.
4. We went to Menards and Lowe’s for some of the final details of the house. We didn’t have great luck…we had okay luck. Vanity, purchased from Menards, last one in stock…took 9 hours to locate. Sink (Lowes), the one Matt wanted had one in stock, they couldn’t find it. Thought it might be the damaged one in back. Masterbath hardware (Lowe’s) had only a hand towel ring left…no paper dispenser, no towel racks, no hooks, so we couldn’t go with that one. The curtain rod (Lowes) I wanted had one in stock….never found it. The faucet for the master that we wanted had to be purchased as the demo because that’s all Menards had. It was one thing after another. Either we have popular taste and people keep buying what we want OR we don’t and they don’t want to reorder them. The only saving grace for this ordeal was that we had great customer service in both places.
5. After our exciting day picking things up, we knew we had to install them! We put up bathroom hardware, hung a picture, and put up curtains and rods. We also are still working on the master bath. We bought a vanity and light. We got the light installed, hauled the vanity from the garage all the way upstairs into the master suite, out of the box into the bathroom and we realized the plumbing was on the wrong side. Hooray for special orders!
6. Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. This doesn’t have as much to do with our household but more the mood of a certain individual in the household.

 

Best Meal: Matt smoked ribs for me and I put together a squash veg packet for the grill. I love when he makes me ribs.

 

ALM in basement (with the kitties)
MJR in den watching TV
MJR: You @$$h013$, seriously get your heads out of you @$$3$.
MJR: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
MJR: WHERE’S THE EFFING WHISTLE?
MJR: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
MJR: CLEAN UP THE ICE!
MJR: WHY AREN’T YOU GUYS TALKING TO EACH OTHER!
MJR: WAHOOOOO, YES! YES! THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!
MJR: Minute left!
MJR: YEAH!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!
MJR: Honey, we won! WE WON!!!
MJR: What channel is QVC!?

 

 

                                          74 days

Parents!!!!

One of my new favorite things.
If it weren’t for parents, I wouldn’t be here and even if I got by that magical rule someone, I’d still be moving! Matt and I were lucky enough to get both sets of our parents out. Randy and Michele and Dad hadn’t been out yet so it was their first time to see our new place but Mom was crazy enough to come out the second time after we worked her fingers to the bone the time before!

We got right to work even before 5:00. For a couple reasons, our power was shut off because we thought we’d be out by that point, but due to me being sick, that didn’t exactly happen. The shut off wouldn’t have been terrible if we didn’t have 2 freezers of meat still in the basement, and watch me freak out, all I could envision was this meat rapidly defrosting and we’d have to cook ALL of it on Saturday. AHHHH! I wasn’t too happy about it, but surprisingly, they moved over verily decent. We got Matt’s over first and sorted, which needed to be done and then we took mine over. From there, we took another load and sat down with all of our parents for dinner.

Saturday started kinda bright and early, and got brighter later because the men installed the chandelier I’ve been DIEING to put in! The update looks so good and it’s amazingly bright. From there we headed over to Park Avenue, Mom and I got to cleaning while loads were being hauled out. Matt did clean his fridge as it gave me the heebeegeebees. We got everything out and cleaned in time for a late lunch. While we got everything back in and sorted, the Dads-of-the-year put together our house warming gift that Michele and Randy picked out for us. I thought I loved my patio before, holy crap, it practically pleads for me to come out there now! Mom was wonderful on the spot jobs while Michele took on the closets, I’ll admit she may have had the worst job of the day, she painted both the coat closet and finished up the Master bath closet. By the time I put my parents in the car and sent them home, we had the kitchen pretty much done, the patio in good shape, my bedroom a complete chaos, the den and other rooms in pretty good shape, and a truck waiting to go to the dump.

Sunday was a bit more relaxing. I slept until 9 and was glad as sleeping has been a bit tougher with being sick. I hope to get my voice back sometime this week! But we enjoyed breakfast, put together the past closet so I could start organizing and sorting, swapped out the shut off valves in the master bath, and did a bit more cleaning. They got to watch a bit of the US Open before taking off and leaving Matt to watch and grit his teeth on his own, same as the last Stanley Cup Finals game.

Either way, we ended up Sunday in a completely unexpected way. We found ourselves playing in the mud and maybe after 3 weeks of pushing and spreading ourselves a bit thin, it’s what we needed. We technically weren’t supposed to close until June 12th…so we are ahead of our own game but we have been living in 2 places and spreading ourselves very thin and “living” in two places, so when we decided it was time to do a bit of gardening, it was a bit of a treat to start playing “home” finally. I wanted tomatoes and he wanted beans and mom brought us preplanted jalapenos. So we had previously picked out my tomato plant variety and his bean plant variety. I picked out Super Fabulous, for obvious reasons. I also planted a few flowers for the front and a few hanging baskets for around and we still have two pots that we need to find filler for. Felt a little grown-up attempting to figure out how to garden and buying tomato stands and all, a boring grown-up all the same, but I’ll take what I can get.

Was great to see both Dads for Father’s Day weekend, same as seeing both Moms for Mother’s Day weekend, couldn’t have planned that out better if I wanted. Ironically on the day of, I think both were happy doing something that made them smile. Randy was enjoying the US Open and when I called my dad, he was “hauling shit”. And seemed to be glad that it was going well! Oh Matt and I have such diverse backgrounds!
 

Best meal: Matt’s been on a grilling kick and it’s a continual benefit to me, 1. Because he will cook and 2. Because he’s so good at it. My favorite was Sunday night’s dinner. We had ribeye steaks and shrimp scampi sitting out on the patio enjoying our chairs, looking at our garden, and feeling relieved to have moved.

Reviewing some items in a room, left by the previous owner

MJR: Are we keeping this? (Holding item up)

ALM: I hate to throw it away. Especially since we have such little counter space in these bathrooms.

MJR: Well I don't think it will give us any more specific room.

ALM: Hold up, do you know what that is?

MJR: It's a toothbrush and towel holder.

ALM: (giggling)

ALM: No, honey, it's not (more giggling). It's a something for your blowdryer and your curling iron and/or straightner. See, this is where the blowdryer goes and the straightner goes here.

MJR: (staring)

ALM: (giggling)

MJR: That is ridiculous.

                               82 days

Down for the Count.

The week has been kinda uneventful for 1 reason. I got sick. I hate being sick. When I went into the clinic, he looked at me and said, you have a sinus infection, ear infections, and I’m not even going to bother testing you for strep because whatever you have will be taken care of with the medication I’m prescribing. Then he asked if my hearing was off and if I had a cough. I said no to both, he said, you’ll develop this later. So here I sit Thursday morning, with my balance a little off, my ears unable to pop, and a cough that is shaking my chest. I hate sick. Who knows if I picked it up from someone or if the past 2 weeks has been a gradual wear down and my body has finally flown the white flag, either way, it sucks.

So in lieu of doing what we wanted to do, we did move some things over. My yellow dishes, some pots, some clothes, and the beasts. We got them prepped and moved over and watched the exploring begin. I do think they like it, especially the stairs, as I typically see the girls lying on one. Otherwise, they are still adjusting. Nike wants to get out, TonyDanza has already begged for food, and Lola has already done her echo cry. I hope they adjust quick. The hard part for my adjustment is that the door doesn’t close to our bedroom. That translate to we have constant intruders throughout the night that want to sleep with us. And if these intruders all got along, things would be better, but I hate fighting in my bed, by my face, interrupting my sleep when all I really want is just to sleep so I don’t feel like crap. We even

Lucky for Matt his week hasn't all been bad, he had a successful go with Delta. They had their first flight on the 10th and he came home smiling because it went well. I like to see those big milestones made. They official "yahoo" for the airlines is scheduled for the 21st.

I need to get better because Matt and I are putting together a crew made of parental units for official moving as we need to be out of the basement apartment by Sunday. I am looking forward to them coming and also getting things done, actually not sure what I’m more looking forward to.

Most popular meal of the week: ramen noodles, they felt good on my throat

MJR impersonating TonyDanza: I think something’s wrong, something’s not right. OH they took our food, SOMETHING is DEFINETLY wrong!!! Red Alert!! This calming collar is NOT helping!!

                                               86 Days

Weddings and Condos!

I think I needed a vacation from my weekend. It’s been a crazy but wonderful weekend. Two amazing things happened: we spent our first night in the condo and one of my best friends got married.

The best part about Shantelle and Rick is how they met. Matt actually holds quite a bit of weight as he’s the reason Rick moved to ND and he also gave me the idea that the two of them might be compatible. From there I took the ball and ran with it, I let Rick in on the deal, but I couldn’t tell Shantelle, as I knew it had to be “her” idea. So basically I tricked her. Her wedding planning and our wedding planning has been great as it’s nice to know what she’s been having problems with, we’ve shared ideas, and most importantly, we’ve lamented together. No one likes to turn into a bridezilla or a nag but there are times when it seems that things don’t get done until we become those things. I think at one time, she was completely at peace with the fact that her music was going to be an ipod and Pandora. I understand. And as Tiff preps for her wedding, I’m hearing her understand too.

She picked out a dress that’s perfect for her, lace with a slight train and it fit her to the tee. Her colors were yellow and orange with gray suites. I wore the contrasting orange with yellow. She held tight to waiting to see her groom for the moment that they walked down the aisle. We busted through pics after that and headed to the reception. She had a fishing theme wedding and I’ll be the first to say that I really scoffed at it but she did it with great thought. Each table started with a mirror that had three mason jars on it, two of the jars looked like lanterns with handles and candle light. The third jar was filled with water, contained minnows, a bobber and a ring floating

on the hook. Around the jars were twigs that she gathered and each place was set with a coaster that they had handmade from tree cuts with their initials and a date. She had made her own cake and they had strung bobber lights along the head table and cake table. It was a great day, one that seemed to rush by, made me a little jealous for our own to get here a bit quicker. I will admit that I thought about tears more than they happened, but the speech still got me. Dang it. I better pack kleenex’s for my own!

What’s ironic is Shantelle’s first night married, was our first night to sleep in the condo. Matt had moved the bed over during the day. It was a bit surreal to wake up on the 2nd floor, versus our typical place, but it was completely wonderful to see the trees and sun come up. Maybe a bit too early but all the same, we got a bathroom, a bedroom, and we even re-found the kitchen over the weekend. It was like all our work was finally presenting itself.

Best meal: Shantelle’s rehearsal dinner, her cousin, Lori, and her husband, Brad, made shredded pork for sandwiches and put together with cupcake with buttercream frosting…mmmmmmm.

MJR: I’m so glad Shantelle put you in this dress. You are easy to find.

89 Days

Big Ol' Jet Airliner....

As I watched the plane come in and land, I realized I was watching one of Matt’s biggest professional goals come into reality. United had its first arrival on 6/5 and we watched the plane come in. This wasn’t a one night build up, or a 3 month build up, I know he’s been waiting for this day for the past seven years, since he first stepped foot on the grounds. And after months of meeting, negotiating, back and forthing, and dreaming, it finally materialized in front of his face. The first scheduled flight will leave 6/6 and they are running over 90% full, which is a great start to further support the need for regional jet service. I was awful proud to see him and his dream taxing into the airport.

We are still pushing forward with the condo too. I realize the pressure that he’s been under: 2 airlines, remodeling, paid parking, wedding, house buying, condo renovation, it’s not like these aren’t major life events. What will we do when these things are complete?



Here’s how it looks:
Monday: textured the walls and they looked wonderful, 2 bed, 2 bath
Tuesday: primed the texture. So far we’ve put 11 gallons of primer through the house. We also did the first coat of ceiling paint, 2 bed, 2 bath
Wednesday: Second coat of ceiling paint in both beds and then we put the first coat of paint on the 2 baths and master bed. We still aren’t sure about colors for the second bed.
Thursday: we plan to put second coat in master bed and both baths, cleaning up, and prepping for the return of the carpet cleaner.
Friday: the carpet cleaner will return

We are also waiting for flooring to finish out as I’m working with the guy that did floors for me in my first house but he’s been very busy, I’m hoping that we can get that worked out soon as Matt wants to move a few items so we can start getting boxes out. These include the sofa, love seat, and bed. I know that I will not be of much service this weekend with Shantelle and Rick’s wedding but we hope we can start sleeping and staying there.

Best meal: We met each other for lunch at Mama Rosina’s…that breadbowl is always so good!

MJR: Come and look at this?
ALM: What?
MJR: Do you think it’s light?
ALM: Yes, but I thought that when we bought it.
MJR: I thought it would be darker.
ALM: No, this is what I warned you about.
MJR: I wanted “Italian marble”.
ALM: That’s what we got in the bathroom and I wanted the bathroom darker.
MJR: Well I wanted the bathroom in “cotton ball”.
ALM: I don’t remember hearing that.
MJR: Well I thought this would be darker.
ALM: I didn’t, that’s what I said when we bought it. What do you want to do?
MJR: (staring)

                                           93 Days

Good Help is Great to Find!

Another weekend come and gone!

We made progress that mostly has to be credited to temporary expansion of our workforce. We grew 50% on Saturday to include my mother in the prep process of the house prep. And she didn’t waste any time in getting things going, we ripped wallpaper off in the bathroom for probably 6 or so hours, her exact words made me feel a little better: I knew it was going to bad but I didn’t know it was going to be this bad. I had really thought I was just feeling sorry for myself and this whole process. This room (Master bath) was the last in the series of hard pushing and it was the last of the blue/wheat daisy’s that I had grown to detest. Mom and Matt’s wallpaper techniques are very similar (the wallpaper will go faster when I push hard and go faster) but Mom’s patience with the process was

better than Matt’s and she stuck with it despite her attempts to upgrade equipment, hack walls, and even resorting to cutting herself. Matt was a bit upset I was more sympathetic to her attempts to quit than his. Mom even did the laundry room. It was in the plan for eventually but it feels good to not stare at that too now. I can’t believe all she helped accomplish, don’t know how I can say thank you enough. The picture is what we kept "finding" underneath the wallpaper, along with some cryptic notes about style and placement. It felt very mocking. I can happily report that as of 6/2 at approximately 3:00pm, we are wallpaper free.

We had a bit of trouble the next day, as Matt’s paint sprayer appears to have a hiccup so we did end up rolling all the primer, putting our texture back a day as we wait for primer to dry. With three people, it amazed me how quick we got 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms done. Matt and I will texture tonight, prime soon and paint will come. With that, we’ll trigger our floor guy to come in and replace the master bath floor and we’ll finish out with a carpet cleaner to freshen it up for a final hoorah and let the living begin. We now have the plan that we’ll start moving in this weekend, which is also the same weekend as Shantelle and Rick’s wedding so Matt may be doing some by himself as I will be a bit preoccupied! To be honest, if we wake up there on Sunday morning and the bed is the only thing that’s really there…I’m okay with that.

We did do a little trade for labor to start the weekend off though. Before we got Mom, Matt went and helped Dad. With everything from bulb changing to tire changing, to loading bulls, Dad and Matt hung out while Mom and I were at Amber (Daniel, my cousin’s fiancé)’s shower that my aunts put on for her. Was a nice shower that had a range of family and friends to support the couple. I told her I’d be taking notes from her wedding for mine!

Best meal: We’ve had a lot of McDonald’s lately, because it’s easy. I’ve found the definition of plate changes when you are packed/moving because we’ve run out because they are packed. I’ve used a glass bowl and a cutting board lately, so if you think just eating off things because creative, can you imagine how we feel with cooking.

“I’ve got a lot of firsts!!! I got to see the condo before Randy, I got a key before Randy, and I got to sleep at the condo first! Ha! Another I win!” – my mother, gloating.

96 Days