HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM THE WILLIAMS!!!

Our First Home

Blaine and I are officially moved into our first home!!!


Last Friday we closed successfully, and began the big move. We had 8 people helping (well 7, sorry Susan playing pool all night doesn't count as helping ; ). Actually by the time we finished closing, our families had already brought most of our things out from the basement to the driveway. It was SO nice having so much help. Saturday ALL day we painted, and wow did we accomplish a lot. The entire upstairs including ceilings (except the master, which apparently needed a new corner, don't ask me). Sunday we were all exhausted, and I was sad to see everyone go so quickly.

The week flew by. I now know what it feels like to not have enough time in the week. Between working, trying to get some studying in, and unpacking/cleaning/finishing the master, today I am completely wiped. AND there is still so much to do! But I love it! I look forward to coming HOME everyday.

Tonight Blaine and his buddy are having guys night (played pool for a good 3 hours, and are now carving pumpkins - how cute). I feel a cold coming on, which I thought I had kicked earlier this week. So I'm staying in, studying, and getting ready for a fun night out tomorrow - Swill-o-ween!

Here are some pics to appease everyone's curiosity!

(The kitchen - in progress)

(The Master - note the beautiful corner Blaine did, and all the dust in the air as a result)

(Second bedroom - now much cleaner, and someday to be an office)

(The living room, one room we actually have some nice furniture for)

(The dining room - the accent wall was a day-of decision, and I LOVE it!)

(Deja-kins! Can't leave my baby out : ) She loves the new leather couch, and still an awesome cuddler...She hasn't adjusted to having her own room, so we are working on weeing her of me)



Have a great weekend everyone!

Closing and Moving and Painting!!!

This afternoon Blaine and I close on our very own first home!!! I couldn't be more excited. And our families will be here to celebrate and help us make the big leap! It will be lots of work, but I know it will be well worth it. Last night we had our final walkthrough of the house. It was unbelievably clean!!! I just got even more excited, knowing it will be OURS. I love it. It was a long, stressfull at times process, but in the end I think it work out for the best!

The Gay 90's

My afternoon of volunteering on Friday was a learning experience. There were probably about 50 kids, and about 30 of us volunteers. We got there before the kids arrived, so we helped clean and organize the facility. I was at the Boys and Girls Club, which I learned is a place for 6 to 18 year old to go Monday through Friday. The kids can come and go as they please, which is something the Club has been criticized for. Once the kids arrived, we were able to help them with their homework, read with them, or play games. We played tag, and then a very long game of kickball. Although we only were with them for a few hours, I was exhausted. Of course the kids still had plenty of energy. Most of the kids seemed to be good kids, but a couple of were not the nicest. There were also a couple of little girls that were very clingy to the volunteers. You just have to wonder what kind of home they come from.

My Friday night was just spent relaxing. I was pretty tired from the whole week, so it was nice to just lay back and watch a movie. Reign on Me with Adam Sandler and Don Chidle is really good, really sad, but really good.

Saturday I got up with the intentions of getting a lot done. It started out well. Deja and I went for a nice run. Its been a long while, so I was impressed that I made it about 2.5 miles without stopping. It felt good.

I was planning on running some errands and then getting some solid studying in, but then my mother-in-law called. She was in town with her friend, and invited me to lunch and shopping at Ikea. Sounded like a good idea to me! After all that shopping, we decided to have an afternoon drink - martinis! Then they invited me to go to dinner with them, and then go downtown to the Gay 90's. Something new! I was excited. So I drove back home fed the dog, let her out, all that, and of course felt completely guilty for leaving her right away again.

The Gay 90's was awesome! There was a drag show, and those ladies were unbelievable! Some of them wore such skimpy outfits for their skits, it made you wonder "where is it?" Haha! Fun Fun!!

Today I slept in, and I am very sore from my run yesterday. I am hoping to get some studying in today, as this weekend has not been productive at all. I hope I can study and watch the Vikings! Blaine comes back today! Yay! After he hears what I did last night, he may not want me hanging out with his mom again!

Happy Sunday!

Lets Go M.A.D!

Today the company I work for is having its annual volunteer day! They had about 6 different events you could choose from, and I chose Boys and Girls Club. So this afternoon I will be doing some cleaning, and then hopefully get to play with some little kiddies! After that we have a social! But I just realized I might not be able to make it to the social. Blaine has drill this weekend at Camp Ripley, and they left this morning! He has never had a drill that made him take the day off work, crazy MN guards. So that means there will be no one to let Deja out and feed her. I can't neglect her like that. And if I drive all the way home, chances are slim that I will want to drive back in, just to be late. I hate going to things by myself too, especially since I'm new and don't know everyone yet. Blaine's drills always fall on a bad weekend.

So the people we rent from are gone this weekend too....house to myself! Hopefully that means I will get a lot of studying done.

Blaine and I are extremely excited to be moving in ONE WEEK!!!!! It will be SOOO nice to have a place of our own for once. Renting has not been the worst, but its not the best situation either. Two married couples in one house (good thing its big!) However, it is not OUR house, so you kinda always feel like you are stepping on people's toes. Especially because the people we live with are tad anal. And by tad, I mean extremely. And they love to leave us little notes, which just really gets on my nerves. Its more the husband than the wife too. Anyway, they want to keep our deposit and get the carpets cleaned. First of all, the carpet is dark green, with not a stain on it. Second of all, we only have lived there 3 months. Thirdly, we aren't even living there the whole month, while we already paid for the whole months rent. Blaine asked if we could just clean it ourselves, because his mom is bringing a carpet cleaner for our new house anyway. They had to think about it. geeez. I guess I'm not surprised though. Hey we did have to live with mice for awhile...cut us a little break. Oh one more week....Seven days!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!

Hidden Lane

Alright, well I kept my mouth shut as long as I could. Blaine and I found another house! We actually found it a few weeks ago. After a little negotiating, we felt we got a fair price and we're ready to finish the process completely this time. Last week was the inspection and the appraisal. Both went well! The appraisal came in yesterday, and was high enough to get us a loan for the amount in the purchase agreement! The inspection only noted that a lot of items in the house are orignal - water softner, furnace, those type of things. So we got the seller to pay for a one year home warranty. Good deal!

We close next Friday, only a week and one day away!!!! We were SO excited that a couple of weeks ago we went to Sherwin-Williams and picked paint colors for every room, haha! We can't to have family come help us move and paint, oh and also scrape the popcorn ceilings! The ceilings have glitter in them, apparently the cool thing to do back in the day. Painting over popcorn is a lot of work, so we figured we may as well just scrape it. Also a lot of work, but it looks more clean and modern. Hopefully that goes well!

Now we just need furniture, and lots of it....

PS - the comedy club was great! And Deja does not hate us : )

Comedy on a Tuesday?

Today was a busy one. We are trying to finish all the work on this benefit plan by tomorrow. Our biggest problem is the client contact. They claim they don't get emails, and when we call their secretary always says (after we say who is calling) that they are out. Annoying. I feel pretty exhausted.

I know I will be even more exhausted come tomorrow. Blaine called me at about 5, and asked if I wanted to go to a comedy club with M&R tonight at 7. Thanks for the notice! Of course I want to though. Poor Deja is going to hate us. I got it arranged for the girl we live with to feed her and let her out. I hope she plays with her too. Sometimes when we are not around they just keep her in the basement. Sad, but I can't expect them to care for her.

I'm starving, I hope they get their butts down here soon!!!

Here's to lots of laughs (I hope)!!!

NIGHT

I PASSED AUDIT!!!!!!!!!!


3 down 1 to go....

Bad Hair Day

Today is Friday, but I can tell it is just going to be "one of those days". It's only 8:30 AM, and all signs are pointing to a crappy day. It started at about 3 this morning. I nice loud thunderstorm. Don't get me wrong, I love thunderstorms. I just don't like when they wake me up in the middle of the night, and then keep me up. So when I actually got out of bed at 6am, it was still storming. Perfect. In Minneapolis, one rain drop pretty much stops traffic. So I had that to look forward to. I can't complain about the bus ride. For some reason, it was quite empty on the bus, and the ride was pretty quick. Just the walk to the bus and from the bus to my office was not fun. I happened to be wearing pants that have become slightly too big for me (I chose them simply because they did not need ironing). So the cuffs got nice and wet. So here I am walking, trying to keep my umbrella over my head, and my pants up above my waist. Of course my hair can not handle any moisture, so it is all over the place. What a mess. Now sitting at work, my senior has decided to go to another client for a couple of hours before coming into the office. Super, since he left early yesterday because he felt sick, and the day before, and the day before that. So not only am I pretty much doing the entire audit myself (I really am, and I know this because I have the engagement on my computer and he has not logged into yet even), but I also am left alone with no clue of what I am doing. Well, I guess have fun reviewing that. Last complaint, I think I am catching whatever he has. My throat hurts, icky. Even the Caribou latte I bought to cheer me up isn't doing the trick.

Now that I have depressed everyone, let me tell you about last night. This is good though. Blaine and I bought a plasma on Saturday! 42"! So we had our friend, the expert in electronics (works at Best Buy Corporate designing media rooms for rich people!), help us pick it up. It did not fit in Blaine's car on Wednesday when he tried to pick it up. So I bought a Papa Murphy's pizza and some Blue Moon to thank him for his help. And he got it set up just in time to watch Grey's Anatomy!!! It was awesome. Since we are renting the basement of a house, we put the tv in our room. Whoa, I hope I don't get use to having that big of a tv in my bedroom. Then we would have to buy another one for the living room when we eventually get a house! Anyway, its great. And we got 2 years interest free financing, so we only have to pay $50/month for it. NICE!

Well I hope the rest of the day brightens up a bit. I am going to try to work now!

Have a good one!

FAR

Well I finally did it. I scheduled my (hopefully) last exam for the CPA - FAR. Saturday, November 17th at 12pm. Eeks. It is definitely enough time to prepare for it, but I just need to get going and stop procrastinating. I have gone through about 2 1/2 of the 9 sections, so I have a little start. No more weekends of relaxation. I am going to go to the office on Saturdays so that I focus and get a lot done. I'm so excited! (Meanwhile I still have not gotten my score from the last part I took Sept.24). So if I don't post as much, you know why....

Turns out I kinda like benefit plans. Everyone else seems to cringe at the thought of auditing a benefit plan, but I don't find them that bad. I think maybe it is because its pretty easy, and I can actually do a lot of the work on my own without bothering my senior every 5 minutes. The only bad part is we can't find last year's paperwork. Since neither of us have done a benefit plan, we have to research how to test everything.

I think tonight is an ice cream night. It is just calling my name...mmmm...

Well back to the studying!

(PS - the cavemen from the Geico commercials have their own show on ABC - weird)