Who's Counting?

We are officially 100 days out.

That’s a bit more than 3 months and to be honest, although our plans are nowhere close to being complete; there are days when I’m very ready to be married to him. We really solidified our relationship by buying a house and we have started the big steps in mingling our finances which doesn’t seem like the passionate stuff that love and marriage is made from but I think it’s part of the foundation that we need to ensure that we have the trust and commitment that have shaped our ideas of marriage, these two things that we have seen growing up in our parent’s marriage.

Last week was my parent’s anniversary, 33 years, and Matt’s parents celebrated their 30th year this year as well. We know we are lucky to have parents that have committed to each other for the long haul and we both know that they did not have easy roads. It’s great to see both sets act as teams and serve as guidance for what we do want and value in a relationship. Their relationships have shaped ours.

In terms of sealing our wedding date and starting our marriage, that’s really what we know that September 7th is about, starting our marriage and celebrating that. We’ve looked at venues, picked out DJ’s, picked out cupcakes, and made decisions in a manner that are reflective the marriage that we want and the relationship that we have. We’ve made them authentic to us and in a manner that reflects the respect for each other. Sure, sometimes it’s a compromise, I will not have a chicken dance and Matt wants to start the grand march in a particular way but as we set our plans in motion, we are doing it together. We ask help when we need it but we are listening to each other and that’s what brings a smile to my face and makes me tick off the days. It won't be about the dress and the cake it will be about Amanda and Matt.

We had our Dickinson engagement pics taken and as we get closer, I’ll share pics that we had taken.

Weekend Warzone: In Summary

Saturday and Sunday and Monday are a blend. I don’t even know if I changed clothes (also I was getting behind on laundry and we had to go to Walmart and get Matt deodorant as there were a few moments of “intensity”).

Here’s a bit of a rundown.

Dining Room: after getting all wallpaper and glue off, Matt sanded the remaining walls, we primed. Waited for the prime to dry and then textured it. We had a bit of struggle with the texture but thanks to a little patience and a little direction, we got going in the right way.

Kitchen: ripped 2 coats of wallpaper down, washed the glue off, plastic-ed the whole thing up and down, Matt sanded the walls, we primed, textured, primed, ceiling painted, and finally got a little “Goldilocks” on the walls. We had to do a second coat before ripping down and the plastic. Our next step is washing and putting shelving paper in.

Den: This was the room that he/she must have smoked in. We had to use a special wash to go these walls to get the smoke stains off. We primed the walls and ceilings twice before putting ceiling paint up. Matt even got the paint sprayer out to do a layer of priming. We ceiling painted and got a layer of “Orchard Hills” up. Needed a second one too and hope to get a final carpet cleaning and we’ll consider this room done.

Living Room/Stairwell: Glue was the main problem here. I scrubbed as far as I could reach or until I started taking the wall/texture off. Got a little direction from someone about a product that really changed my day, “TSP”. That got the thick glue down pretty well, just had to keep it soaked. We ended up going back to ace to take that on again for another room(s). We’ll get the painter in to prime and finish these out hopefully within the week. We are anxious to trade out the lights here and in the dining room.

Guest Bedroom: (Matt is temporarily calling this room the Matador room) We’ve ripped the first layer of wallpaper off and are staring at the glue that’s behind. The nice thing is that instead of the whole room, it’s only one wall. We still want to prime and paint the whole room but we’ll do that after we put up texture.

Master Suite: This room is exhausting as it had wallpaper over wallpaper and the top layer was painted. This stuff is coming off in pieces about the size of a quarter and underneath the bottom layer is untextured, which means that when we

get to close to the sheetrock, we’ve made some “divots”, which will have to be repaired before we prime, texture, and paint “cotton ball” on the wall. Matt’s patience with this room is 0. In fact, I’ve rewarded his bad behavior and kicked him out of the room while I sit and “peel” and he can go paint fun things. This is the ugliest wallpaper that you’ve seen in a long time. Once we get it out of the bedroom, we’ll get to get it out of the bathroom as it’s also taken that room over. And then I also want to paint our walk-in closet. Our longer term goal is to replace the fan in there too as it’s not exactly our style.

That’s pipe dream material. Heck, maybe taking the wallpaper down is a pipedream.

During this time, we’ve been to Ace, Runnings, Wal-mart, Menards, Sherwin Williams, and Lowes. Experiences have been mixed and even shitty at best, I think I had a minor blow up at Wal-mart one day because of the quality of help. We’ve bought tools, paint, mud, cleaning products, treatment, more paint, sponges, and brushes. I’ve eaten so much popcorn because in my head, we’ve spent so much at Ace that I should eat what we’ve spent in popcorn to make up for it all.

We've been up most nights at the house til midnight. I miss my bed and I think our kitties miss us.

Best meal: we’ve eaten crap lately, I’ve got nothing. My favorite was probably tacos from Taco Bell because it was cheap.

(Staring at a wall with fresh texture)
MJR: Is this how you want it to look?
ALM: Is this how it’s supposed to look?
MJR: I don’t know.
ALM: You’ve had more experience with texture than me.
MJR: We have the same.
ALM: Na-ah, you had Bob texture your house in Lansford, you’ve seen how my mom textures. She puts the mud on the wall and calls it a day.
(More staring by both)
ALM: Maybe you didn’t go light enough.
MJR: Thank you for not freaking out.

Enemy: Thy Name is Wallpaper

Friday was an escape – we started at the house discussing with my parents our options. I think they knew I was feeling awful defeated “clearing” my 5 foot by 1 foot. We brainstormed a bit and I know Dad was concerned about us doing it right to ensure that we didn’t have to redo what we were sweat equity-ing it right now. We ran around town, everywhere from Lowe’s to Menard’s to my hair dresser, to the mall, to the seamstress and on and on. It was amazing all the items and supplies that we got for the house. We filled a full cart at Menards. I had forgotten how expensive home ownership was, and we haven’t even moved in yet.   

We did get a bit of wedding stuff done too. We went out to Hawktree Golf Course and met with the catering/event manager. It was great to sit down and go over what we wanted for both the ceremony and the rehearsal dinner. We have our menu planned and verified with hopes that we can get the twist that we want. We also relooked at the layout and determined where the vows will be and how people will come into the ceremony. Makes me excited to see it laid out a bit more. Overall, it was a great meeting.

Matt let me sleep a bit on the way home but when we got there we hit it hard again. Third night in a row that we’d been up to midnight. We worked on the glue, which thanks to the help and product of Gary, a family friend, we got the glue pieces up. Gross job.

Best meal: We had a late lunch of soup, salad, and breadsticks at Olive Garden. I love their soup and the service was great. Was perfect for the rainy day weather that we’d been dealing with all week.

MJR: (Looking around): We’ve got a lot of work to do.

ALM: (soaking a wall): I know.

MJR: I’m glad to be doing it with you.

Pieces of Pieces

After a night of ripping off wallpaper, we were pretty jazzed. We had hauled out 2 contractor black bags and 3 big kitchen garbage bags out and we still had some left up but we had the majority of the paper down.

Now one thing that people don’t realize is that the wallpaper is not the enemy, it’s the glue. That’s the treachery that causes pain and agony and heartbreak. And as I sat there on the floor peeling the glue off in quarter size pieces mad and angry while Matt installed the water heater, I questioned who on earth would continue to put up wallpaper. It didn’t take long to get my answer. Janie and Jerry stopped by as they were on their way back to Fargo from Arizona.

They got the official tour and Janie informed me that she is so anxious to wall paper up but can’t because they put “that dang texture” up and ruin the wallpaper. I would have traded her in a heartbeat as we realized as we were ripping off and it came slowly and painfully that many of the wallpapered rooms have only seen wallpaper and have no clue what texture is.

We finally quit to head to Bismarck. We had hot water but I had only 1/25 of the wallpaper glue up.

ALM: I don’t get it?
MJR: What?
ALM: I would have loved to have been in the room when they decided to wallpaper or even better when they decided to put wallpaper over wallpaper. OR even better, when they decided to paint over the wallpaper that was over the wallpaper.
MJR: Yeah, I hate wallpaper too.

Homeward Bound!

We did it.


WE CLOSED!

We are officially homeowners. My third, Matt’s first, and our first home together. It’s very exciting right now. We met at 2:00, signed papers, initialed out initials and got a set of keys. The excitement continued into the evening as the first thing that I did when I got to the house at 5:00 was grab a corner of the wallpaper and rip. It felt amazing. It felt more amazing to have a place. I know that we have work in front of us, but that rip (all the way to the ceiling) was the first step in that work.

Matt came after work and the ripping continued. We ripped and pulled and tore. We found more wallpaper under the wallpaper and more paint over wallpaper than we would’ve liked but we kept going until midnight.

Best meal: our first meal in the house was pineapple and pepperoni pizza. The ironic part is how it went down.

(on the phone)

ALM: What were you thinking for supper? Do you want to grab a hot and ready or Dominoe’s since it’s right down the street?

MJR: Yeah, let’s do Dominoes, we can call and get that taken care of.

(Goodbyes said)

Later on….

(on the phone)

Dominoe’s pizza guy: Carry-out or delivery?

ALM: Carry-out, I’ll have a pepperoni and pineapple pizza and are your breadsticks fluffy?

Dominoe’s pizza guy: I don’t think so.

ALM: Sounds good, just the pizza.

Dominoe’s pizza guy: Great, will be ready in 10 minutes

Later on…

MJR: Our pizza will be ready in just a few minutes.

ALM: Oh you stopped by?

MJR: Yeah, on my way over I ordered it.

ALM: I thought you wanted me to order it. What did you get?

MJR: A pepperoni and pineapple pizza with an order of breadsticks.

Girl's/Girls' Weekend!

Sometimes it’s amazing how fast a weekend can go. This past weekend was the last weekend of calm before Shantelle’s wedding. It was a great time to spend with her too and made me wonder why we don’t do that more often.

The weekend started off with a trip to Bismarck to pick up her dress. It’s a beautiful lace dress with a small bustle that fits her and her personality so well. I love that she did lace as it’s her middle name, so it all ties together. The dress fits her like a glove. Seeing her ready with dress ready makes me get the butterflies and anxious for our day.

From David’s Bridal, which she feels the same way about that place that I do, we went to Johnny Carino’s for dinner and a drink. But the highlight of the night was drinks at Peacock. I love their martini’s and I love when someone else enjoys a French Martini with me. It was great to sit at the bar enjoy a couple martinis and talk over plans. The band had a great sound too, which is always a benefit.

From there we headed out to the MSR Bed and Breakfast where we enjoyed a final glass of wine and kept my mother up to wee hours of the night. The next morning, after some breakfast and conversation, Shantelle and I headed off to town to finish errands and final shopping, it was a relaxing midday, we had a slight plan, but nothing to serious. By early afternoon, we were back to Dickinson and I was fully prepping for her bachelorette/lingerie shower, and Matt even settled my nerves and helped out some, which was appreciated. The night went off with smiles and it was great to have the event, hear Shantelle stories, and play a few games. After dropping her off that night, I even got an “I love you.” I do believe her but think it may have been lemon-drop induced. Ha!

Sunday was a day for Matt and I for the most part. I laid in bed as long as possible and him and I even talked about upcoming plans (house and wedding) in between his work shifts. We even managed to go pick up paint supplies for the den, feels like this house thing is really starting to come together!

Best Meal: Shantelle’s bachelorette party was at Spaghetti Western and I enjoyed one of my favorite things there: Pecan Salad with gorgonzola cheese and apples.

Doing Laundry
ALM: Why don’t you presort? You see all these piles on the floor yet you still throw everything into the basket.
MJR: Well I didn’t know how you had these sorted.
ALM: Did you even look.
MJR (looking)
MJR: Won’t it be fun?
ALM: What (exasperated)!
MJR: When we do laundry at the new house, we can just upturn the basket at the top of the stairs and watch them fall all the way to the first floor.

Home Run!

So it’s official….

After viewing 40 houses ranging in price from 180,000 to 340,000, putting in 3 offers (2 were rejected), talking with 3 banks, and stressing out since April 10th, we have good news. On April 22 at 2:00, we will officially close on the condo. We’ve been holding our breath for the past couple weeks as we’ve argued with condo associations, gathered up requested docs and letters, and had many visits about options. It feels so good to have everything in the right direction right now.

Matt’s been under a ton of stress with the housing situation, the jet service, the remodeling/work being done at the airport, the short staff situation which has been causing him to work more hours, and let’s not mention the wedding. I didn’t realize how deep it had gotten for him until he started talking about ticket counters, people’s responses, and locations in his sleep last night. I actually woke up and asked him what he was talking about, he didn’t answer back. It feels good that one section of our life has a bit more clarity, even though it will require more work, we will be in a better place with our living situation. Maybe one weight off his shoulders.

The second best news, the neighbors moved out. Living under those “people” has been agonizing. They moved out over the weekend while they were gone. They left things better than I expected but still on par with their yard-takingover, dog-crapping, kid-screaming, baby-crying, driveway-hogging, loud-sleeping, guitar-bandplaying, cold-showergiving ways. Good Riddance!

Best Meal: I had chicken sandwiches from Schwan’s in the freezer and with some lettuce, tomato, and cheese, they really hit the spot, kind of surprised me! Maybe it was the fresh buns that I got from the grocery store in Richardton. (Not exactly Randy’s Pizza/Michele’s Sushi/My Mom’s sloppy jo’s but it’s mid week, this may be as good as it gets)

ALM: I really think I want the yellow stand mixer for the kitchen.
MJR: I thought we put the silver on the registry.
ALM: We did, we do. It’s just the yellow one looks so happy.
MJR: Have you been going into our registry without me and editing.
ALM (nods): I can’t help it.

114 days

Fun for the WHOLE Family.

I love those weekends where you want to do it all over again. Matt and I headed to Bismarck for the weekend for a couple reasons but mostly family. We somehow managed to get both our mom’s within a close vicinity for Mother’s Day, and I loved it. We got Michele and Randy there on the presence of work and their own curiosity, as we branded calves, 115 to be exact(ish). And I think everyone but me worked their tale off. Matt and Mom worked the back of the chute, Randy pushed them into the table, Dad and Wade worked the table, and Michele kept Dad supplied with tags and shots.

On Sunday, we took things a bit slower, we had a leisurely morning with our mothers before everybody going separate ways. Mom and Alaina headed into town to see Grandma, Michele and Randy packed the camper up and went back home, Dad went out to the field, and Matt and I headed into town run some errands in Bismarck. I was proud of Matt for his continued interest and involvement in the farm. It’s nice that he also wants to share it with his parents. It’s such a big piece of who I am and the basic of where I came from that if he didn’t accept or enjoy it, I don’t know if Matt and I would be where we are at today.

On the home front, we keep working through the loan process. We went into final underwriting on Monday after getting a condo clearance that morning. Matt says we aren’t official until we get a clear-to-close but I’m feeling much better and more secure. We are picking out paint samples, getting quotes on painting and flooring, and making plans. It feels good to have a goal and we should know something by the end of the week. If we need to have a plan B, we’ll figure it out then. I hope we don’t have to figure it out then.

I think we are both ready to get a bit more organized and more unpacked. Matt got upset last night because I packed the strainer and he couldn’t make hot dogs. I got upset at 4:00 in the morning as I couldn’t find the box marked medicine and drugs, I needed an aspirin.

We are also planning our first big DIY project…the master bath. We want to almost gut it and then tile the shower, painting, new flooring, and so on. We went and priced things at Lowe’s and had the big discussions as to how we want it to look and the things that we wanted to see. All in all, I was happy with what we chose but am a little nervous to get started. I’m an antsy to start ripping wall paper off the walls though, the sooner we get all that stuff off the better we are!

Matt and I did get our first round of golf in. We tried to get into South Heart but wouldn’t make it in time, so we took in the New Salem golf course, which is the base of the Salem Sue Butte. We were actually pretty happy with how we did. I didn’t lose a ball, I just decided that I wasn’t going to walk over to the last hole to get it, stupid driver, I don’t know why I even try. The course was pretty empty so we didn’t feel too pressured. I even had a par on a 4par hole, I haven’t ever done that, so I was pretty happy with myself.

Best meal: I love when Randy makes me Pizza and then to top it off, Michele brought sushi. Seriously. Can a girl get so lucky and it was good sushi and good pizza. I could eat that meal every weekend.

PM: Do I have smart phone?
DMM: No.
PM: Yeah, it’s a dumb phone. It tries to guess who I’m calling. I put 4 in and it thinks it’s Gary, then 0 and it thinks it’s George, and then another 0 and then it doesn’t guess anymore, it’s must have figured it out! Who uses this?
ALM: I do.
PM: And this voice activation thing, what is this?! Call 255-7525!
PM’s phone: Did you say 258-7568?
PM: Nope!
PM’s phone: Did you say 255-9605?
PM: Nope!
PM’s phone: Did you say 222-7356?
PM: No!

May: Waiting and Hoping and Counting.

May has arrived. Which means a couple things, we are about 125 days out from the wedding day, we finally have some decent weather with some beautiful sunshine, we are 33 days from Shantelle and Rick’s wedding, and we are finding out more our “housing” situation.

Wedding update: We have a majority of our wedding party asked. We both need to make a few phone calls to a few special people but we have bridesmaids, groomsmen, ushers, and host couples. I’m starting to build out timelines and starting to figure out where we are at. I have some projects that we’ll need to start soon but haven’t been able to get to them until the housing situation is worked out. I’ve begun to send Matt weekly to-do lists. He may not yet be aware that these are weekly. I actually went through Shantelle’s to-do/what’s left list with her for her wedding, which is June 8 and my stomach butterflies started going! I can’t imagine how it’s going to be for me when I start getting closer. I need to start getting organized. I’m amazed at what Shantelle is taking on on her own. She’s creating her center pieces, her favors, and her own cake, all 16 layers. HOLY COW! I admit I may be able to do some of those…but not all, and to think, I consider myself pretty crafty.

Housing update: We’ve gone through all the pre-stuff, we got our appraisal, we got our offer with accepted addendums, we have made it through underwriting almost scotch-free, and we get to keep on rolling. We aren’t a FOR-SURE deal, but we are still moving forward, which is a great feeling as we continue to pack things up and plan to move. I realized that we really are putting all our eggs in one basket when I began to look at the labeled boxes and I’m labeling them for the condo (Master, Den, Office, Secondary Bedroom) and if it this doesn’t work we’ll really need a good plan b, or d, or f? I did find out that they are doing a carpet cleaning this week, so I think the sellers are just as ready as we are to get them out and us in.

I think the kitties are actually okay with the moving because we’ve put the bed up against the wall and now the girls (Nik and Lola) will crawl up the boxes onto the mattress so they can look out the window all day and have a comfy spot to sleep on. What’s ironic is they still aren’t getting along the best but when they are on top of the mattress they seem to have a bond/peace treaty in place. I look forward to the new house so that they can spread out a bit and have their own space, that will mean more cleaning on my end and Nike is so hard to keep up with because her hobbies seem to include rolling in the dirt and her pet peeves are baths and brushings.

Best meal: Friday night we had a unplanned date night. Matt made ribs for me, which is always a winner. We then went to the golfing range and shot a couple buckets of balls. We ended the night with a visit to CherryBerry. What a great night together.

ALM: What are you thinking about?
MJR: Worried.
ALM: About what? The house? The wedding? The jet service?
MJR: My golf game.
ALM: Serious? You aren’t supposed to get goofy/crazy about that yet!
MJR: You started this! You suggested that we go to the range.
ALM: That’s because I thought you could handle it and wouldn’t get to be a weirdo.
MJR: A weirdo??
ALM: Yes, and you better not break more stuff this year, otherwise we can’t afford to have you golf.