Birthaversary Phase 2

We finished texturing and painting the walls for the room at my parents house. We were all moving a bit slower this time, but we did get it done pretty quickly once we got started. We ran into a snafoo though - when we peeled off the tape from the wall we had finished last time, the paint and some of the texture came with it. My Dad said he'll fix it before Thanksgiving.

The Lion King

My husband bought me tickets to see Disney's The Lion King at the Civic Theater in San Diego for my birthday. My favorite all time Disney movie is The Lion King, so needless to say I was thrilled to get the tickets (I did remind him that was what I wanted though). The show was last night and was absolutely amazing. They modified a few parts of the movie but it definately enhanced the overall feeling. I couldn't get over the props, costumes and the set. Actually the set itself was fairly simple, it was just interesting how they used the same backdrops and props and just changed the lighting to create a whole new mood. I could have watched the show over and over and still been amazed at everything all over again.



I love the theater and I love The Lion King.

Moved / ing

Well, we finally moved into my in-laws place today. Officially a house full of Gardners haaah!! (does anyone else find that funny?) We decided to move this weekend a few days ago, after looking at what our weekends would be like before the holidays rolled around and this weekend worked the best. We've still got a bunch of things left at our "old house" that we need to pack up and put into storage but everything we need to live on is now moved over and we're going to be sleeping here for the first night, tonight. Tomorrow we plan on getting all of our food and miscellaneous items we couldn't fit into our cars, as well as our desk, file cabinet, and other office items. We ended up getting rid of more stuff today too, basically anything that we couldn't fit into our two closets. Craig has the one in our office/guest room and I have the one in our bedroom (and of course mine is organized yet still packed to the brim!!). I also got the dresser and Craig ended up having to hang everything he owns except socks. I'm not allowed to buy any more clothes, purses or shoes - sad times.

It'll be interesting living here. Between the four of us adults we have five small dogs (Roxy, Princess, Ginger, Yenna and Hef), one big dog (Bender) and two outdoor cats (Fred and Reeses). Currently there are four dogs curled up on our room right now, three on the bed and one on the floor - the other two are with Craig's parents at the trailer at Lake Hemet. Which reminds me, we also won't have our California King bed anymore, as it was too big to fit into our bedroom along with night stands and dressers and ourselves. My poor 6'-4" husband will have to suffice with the queen mattress his parents had as their guest bed. Its much more comfortable anyways.

I don't know how long we'll be living here,  hopefully not TOO long. We're here because his parents are both unemployed, I'm unemployed and we're all going to help one another stay afloat/get afloat. It'll work out and the future looks promising so we're happy with the decision to move here.

Costume Construction

I was trying to think of what I could be for Halloween this year and like the majority of women I wanted to go with the sexy-wouldn't-wear-this-on-a-normal-day costume (aka excuse to dress slutty). I first thought I'd be a pimptress again because no one really saw the costume, I have zero pictures of the costume and I wouldn't have to spend any money on it because I still had everything I would need. After dabbling over this idea I decided I wanted to be a hooker, cause I have these really awesome boots I wanted to wear. Not your traditional hooker though - Pretty Woman was the thought. They don't sell her hookin' outfit in stores though so I had to make it!

I started in my closet. I had this hanes undershirt that was a bit aged and I didn't care about chopping up for my costume. It retails for about $5 at walmart if you wanted to go buy one.

I then went to a thrift store to find something to use as the skirt portion of the costume. I found this women's size medium stretchy tank top that was the perfect color and would fit around my hips nicely ($3). I of course intended on chopping this up too. I turned both the white tank and blue tanks inside out and very carefully marked with a sharpie where I was going to cut out the sides of the dress. Careful not to push too hard with the sharpie cause I didn't want the ink to seep through. I also left an extra 1/4 inch for seam allowance.

I found an old t-shirt clip from the 80's in my Moms sewing supplies. It normally has a bar through the middle but you can see where I cut it out so it'd work with the costume. I only found one so I decided to use it on the front and just sew the back.

With my Moms assistance I hemmed each piece and sewed it all together. I had to put everything on every so often to make sure things were lining up properly and I wasn't showing my undergarments to everyone while wearing it.

The finished product turned out pretty well. My only issue is that I have a sway back and it's really obvious in a tight outfit. There wasn't any way to fix or disguise this in the outfit. I might wear a mens white dress shirt over this though, cause it'll get cold.


Total cost of the outfit was $3 (about $10 if you don't have a tank and t-clip). I just need to get a wig now. I'll add pictures of me in the costume to this post after Halloween.

Update 01/01/09: I went to buy the perfect wig only to find out it was $40. No way. So I went without and it worked out fine (I am so glad Vivian's wig comes off in the movie!!) Here is the result:

Birthaversary Phase 1 (and stuff)

My Mom's Birthday is August 23rd, Dads is October 16th and their Anniversary is November 18th.

Craig and I thought it'd be awesome to do a "little" project to celebrate my parents "Birthaversary" this year. My Mom had surgery on her spine on Tuesday so we also wanted to spend time visiting with her and I really wanted to do something that would help her get her house ready for Thanksgiving company. We decided to texture, paint, and install base boards in two of the rooms in their house. We both arrived at different times on Friday night. I arrived sometime around  3:30pm and my bestest Krystle came over because she wanted to make her Halloween costume and we needed to get the materials! We went out to JoAnns, Starbucks, Jack in the Box and then finally back to my parents. My Mom was expecting two of her sewing friends to come over to visit her so this worked out perfectly, since my Mom wasn't able to do much, her friend Carol helped Krystle cut out the pattern for her costume. Once that was done my Moms friends left and Krystle, Craig and I all left to see Couples Retreat and to finally meet Krystles boyfriend, Angel (whom I totally approve of). We got home about 1am and went to bed.

The next day we started what is now called phase one of Birthaversary. Over the course of the weekend we textured a total of two walls and then painted them, painted the base boards and installed them on those two walls. My Mom loves it so far and that is motivation enough to finish the rest of this project before Thanksgiving. I will post pictures of the final product once all phases are done, as I don't want to spoil the before and afters.

In other news, my friend Laurel works at Warner Springs and said that she could get me a few days of work with her (paying cash) so I took her up on the offer and spent today packing boxes and boxes and boxes of GoVino wine glasses with her. Going from minimal activity to this sudden burst of constant movement, lifting, getting up early, staying up late etc... is taking it's toll. I am SO exhausted physically but mentally I am keeping myself moving. It's nice to have something to do during the day. I will be joining her again tomorrow for the same thing and possibly more times in the future. Apparently there are 5 more pallets of unfolded boxes that need folding and packing into the shipping boxes for orders that come through. It's a lot of standing and repetative motions with my wrists and arms but it's money. I am still unemployed though.

Short Sale Frustration

I now understand why people begin to beat the crap out of their houses when they go into foreclosure. Not that I would be one of those people that would do that but I "get" how those people were feeling. We've struggled to make house payments for over a year now, roughly around when my hours got cut working for Stouse. At that time, we called the bank to see about getting our loan modified and were denied (a few times) due to the "inability to pay back the loan" (gee, really?!). About 6+ months ago I was laid off at Stouse, so making payments got even more difficult and we decided to short sale our home. At first we were just going to walk away but decided to go ahead and short sale it so that my credit wouldn't be as f*ed up (2 years vs 7 years). We got three offers on the house within the first two weeks and sent one in to the bank for approval. Now, there are a few departments that need to approve the sale before it is completely accepted. First is the bank and second is the mortgage insurance company. I just  got a call today from our Realtor and she informed us that our bank approved it but the only way the mortgage insurance company will accept the short sale is if we sign a promissory note in the amount of $15,000 paid over the next 10 years with no interest unless we're late or miss a payment.  I know that only equals $125 a month but it's for 10 years and that's still ridiculous to us. If we decide not to sign the promissory note then our house goes into foreclosure status. I understand that they would like to recoup as much money as they can, but at the same time it makes no sense to me that they would rather deny a short sale; in which they would be losing approximately $160k, and gain a foreclosure; in which they would stand to lose even more money, the house would sit unoccupied, unmaintained and stands the potential for break in's and squatters. Their method just seems too risky in this type of market and just irritates the hell out of us because we tried to avoid foreclosing only to have it happen anyways. This is about the time I started to feel like punching holes in the walls and ripping out sinks, plumbing, cabinets and the like. I won't, but I am tempted.

We talked this over and decided that we're not going to sign the promissory note and instead increase our monthly savings by $125 and in 10 years we'll actually have something to show for it. By then the foreclosure will be off my record and we'll be fine. If the bank doesn't want to work with me in this type of market, they can have the place, maintain it, and not profit a damn penny from it. I will say though, that it's kind of depressing to see all of our friends getting houses now that the market is better for them. We thought we were buying in a low market and it turned out to be just the beginning of the change in the market. Now we'll be screwed while prices are good, fantastic.

Live and learn.

Oktoberfest

We went camping this weekend in Aguanga, California for TVHA's first Oktoberfest. We got there on Friday night to help set up and get things ready for Saturday's events. We also go to test out our new tent for the first time. The last time we went camping was in May and we had an old tent that my husband used when he was little. We set it up (in the wind) and discovered that it didn't really hold up in any kind of weather because the wind was blowing it flat to the ground and the zipper was broken. Thankfully one of the couples that was at that camping trip had room in their trailer for us to stay. I am so glad that we finally went out and bought ourselves a tent. With that said, we still suck at camping. The Oktoberfest was planned to have two potlucks, one was on Saturday night and was a German themed potluck dinner while the other was on Sunday morning as a potluck breakfast. We brought food for both potlucks, plates and utensils to share with everyone, food for our Friday night dinner, as well as beer to drink for Friday night and Saturday morning (everyone brought beer, of course). Stupidly, we forgot to think about breakfast and lunch on Saturday and didn't bring anything for ourselves to eat (and if we had, we had nothing of our own to cook it on). So by about 10am on Saturday I asked Craig if we could run to the store (50 minutes away, also right near our house) to get some monster energy drinks cause I wanted one then and knew I would want one on Sunday morning. As we headed home, we ran through Carls Jr and ran through the gas station for monsters as well as a snack for later. We got home to shower and brush our teeth, got shorts and different shoes, and then headed back to the camping, all the while laughing at what great campers we were! The next camping trip, we'll be more prepared (I hope)!!

Day 1 of 1001

So today is my start date for my 101 things in 1001 days list. My status so far? Well...

1.Get a job, any job...and then what I really want when it becomes available!

I've managed to land an interview at the Macy's in Temecula. The interview is set for October 6th. I am so excited about this interview so wish me luck! I have been out of work since April, collecting my unemployment, applying for job after job, and sitting on my ass the rest of the time. I need to get up and moving and hopefully making more than what my unemployment is. I'll keep you posted.

14.See a Broadway show live at least once.

Well I think this should have read "an Off-Broadway show" My husband bought us tickets (for my birthday) to see The Lion King at the Civic Theater in San Diego on October 20th. I love him!

61.Update my address book with as many friends and family members as possible
 62.Add friends and families birthdays and anniversaries to calendar (with years)

I've started this process, it's just taking a while for my family and friends to respond to my inquiry.

93.Improve posture (get back brace thing)

I've ordered the back brace and should be getting it this week. It basically pulls my shoulders back thus improving my posture and eliminating the potential for lower back pains. I have wanted to correct my posture for a long time and after seeing a few recent candid pictures of myself it made me WAY more motivated to do so. I look like the stick version of The Hunchback.

98.Get 4 tickets to Ellen show

I managed to put in a request for tickets to this. They offer them three months in advance of show dates and tends to fill up fast. Once the request is put in, the producers call on a first come basis. So now I am just waiting for a call. The show I was able to request for was October 26th, but if they don't call then I get nothing and have to try again.

100.Update my blog when I complete items on this list [0/101]

So far so good, although nothing is 100% complete yet.