kimmers for life

Pretty much your standard resolutions post

I am the queen of making and breaking resolutions all year long, so this January? My biggest resolution is to KEEP THE RESOLUTIONS THAT I MAKE. With that in mind, I'm trying to make everything on this list as attainable as possible.

RESOLUTION #1 - get in shape. I want this to be the time that I FOR REAL get serious about getting and staying in shape. I've put on somewhere between 10 and 15 pounds in the last 6 or 9 months, and I'm ready to kick them to the curb. Ideally I would like to lose about 20 pounds and do some significant toning allover. Nick and I NEVER use our gym membership now that we don't live around the corner from the gym. Our membership ends this month anyway so tonight we went to look at a few gyms that are local to our current location, and I think later this week we're going to sign up with the local Y. I can drive there in 3 minutes! I really like the low key, community feel of the place. The're starting a Biggest Loser kind of contest (with teams!) on February 1st, and if we decide to get memberships there I'm totally in. I think it could be a great way to start the membership feeling really motivated and supported.

RESOLUTION #2 - get through all of 2010 without using a single credit card. I've already started this, but I really want to keep it going. I'm trying really hard to become reasonably financially responsible. I think if Nick and I can make it through this next year without relying on credit cards it will say a LOT about how far we have come in that department.

RESOLUTION #3 - get into school and get my Masters of Education and my teaching certification. I've already applied to school, I have an interview on Monday, and I'll find out whether or not I've been offered a spot in early February. I'm very anxious for this to be settled. I'm really eager to jump right in and start school and it's hard not to get my hopes up about being accepted! Right now I'm trying to take this one day at a time.

RESOLUTION #4 - Recommit to the blog. Lately I've been sort of struggling with staying focused on this. I think mainly so many things in my life have shifted lately, and it's been a little overwhelming! But I've taken a little time away from it and I've found that I have really missed it - the writing and also the connections. So I'm back and I'm resolved to try harder. Which brings me to...

RESOLUTION #5 - Maintain, rekindle, and develop some internet friendships. There are people whose blogs I read and I just think, I would freaking love to get a drink with this girl sometime! Blogs that routinely make me laugh or nod vigorously in agreement. Blogs that I can't WAIT to have come up on my Google Reader. And yet I can't even find the time to leave a simple comment on a great post. (I swear I do read them! I'm always reading them, whether or not I'm commenting.) So it's time that I took the time and made the effort to actually connect with people. I need to get on 20sb (which I joined way back when it started, then promptly ignored and now know absolutely nothing about. Epic fail) and poke around and figure out what that's all about. I need to log into Twitter once in a while. I need to blog, and read blogs, and comment on blogs, and send out an email every once in a while. And I need to be consistent about it.

I think I'm going to leave it at that for now. 2009 was a great year and there's no reason 2010 can't be even better! I'll try to update here occasionally on my progress with these resolutions so I stay accountable.

What are all of you resolving to do, or not do, this year?

You can basically sum up this post by saying I'm paranoid about MONEY

What are you paranoid about?

1. Falling back into debt and bad financial habits again in the future, after working so hard to get back on track.

2. Buying the wrong house. Paying too much and being forever stressed about making the payment. Paying too little and being forced to upgrade sooner than I want to. Buying too soon, before we can really afford it. Waiting too long and not getting as good a deal as we would now.

3. Spending too much on our wedding and regretting it 24 hours later. Letting the expense of the wedding push back when we can afford to buy a house.

4. Spending too little on our wedding and always regretting that.

5. Not selling my car quickly. Not selling it for enough to pay off the loan. Not selling it at all.

6. Making the wrong decision about the great debate with Dunkin's ears - To Crop or Not to Crop. Regretting it later either way.

7. Losing my job just as I'm turning things around financially. Ditto on Nick. In this economy you just never know.

8. Not getting the baby urge until it's too late and suddenly I'm either an old mom or no mom at all.

9. Never writing that book, because I don't have the time or it seems too overwhelming or I don't know where to start or I just plain don't believe in myself enough. Waking up one day and realizing I've lost any writing talent I ever had because I so rarely use that muscle where I used to flex it constantly.

What are you paranoid about? Head on over to Mama Kat's and link up! 

ETA: I'm overdramatizing somewhat here for the sake of the assignment... I assure you, there is plenty that I'm NOT paranoid about!

We're like traveling gypsies over here

So just to keep things interesting, Nick and I are moving. Again. To give a little perspective, this will be my FIFTH move in TWO YEARS.

APRIL 2007: I move into my first apartment, in West Hartford.

OCTOBER 2007: Nick asks me to move in with him, I move into the Farmington condo with him.

MAY 2008: In a misguided attempt to save for a house, we rent out the Farmington condo and move in with Nick's mom. Nick's mom is absolutely wonderful. However, we quickly learned that once you have your own place? Forever after you will NEED YOUR OWN PLACE. Which led to...

JULY 2008: We buy and move into the West Hartford condo, intending to stay there until we had paid off some debt and saved some money to buy a house.

PRESENT: Looking to move back into the Farmington condo, probably the last week of April.

This most recent move is the product of a few different things sort of converging on each other. First and foremost, as of March 25th Nick and I will both be working from home full time. Our company is supplying each of us with 6' desks, desktop computers, 2 flatcscreen monitors and a comfy desk chair.

Important to note is that our West Hartford condo is approximately 560 square feet. It's possible that when we were first told that we would be working from home we considered this fact and rather than, say, taking measurements and moving furniture, we just said "oh well, it'll work".

It's not going to work. There is no way possible for it to work without our entire condo essentially being an (extremely crowded) office, with a bed and a dresser sort of shoved off to the side.

As we were coming to this realization, I got a call from our Farmington tenant, saying her hours had been reduced and she wanted us to let her out of her lease and find a new tenant. Nick and I stopped by to talk to her, and literally the moment we walked out the door, we started talking about moving back there ourselves.

As much as I HATE MOVING, OMG IN HEAVEN WHAT DID I DO WRONG IN A PAST LIFE TO DESERVE THIS MUCH PACKING AND UNPACKING AND DRAGGING HEAVY FURNITURE IN THE LAST TWO YEARS, HOLY SHIT!! it just... makes sense. In a lot of ways. The Farmington condo is considerably larger than the West Hartford condo. It's laid out in such a way that Nick and I can set our desks up in separate rooms and not have our "offices" completely overtake the condo. It has a dining area, so we can have people over for dinner again with everyone crowding around the coffee table. The complex has a pool, and since we'll be working from home, we can spend our lunch breaks poolside and actually relax and get some use out of the pool this summer!

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd I can get a puppy. Because unlike the West Hartford condo complex, Farmington allows dogs. Since I left my parents' house in 2007 I haven't been able to have a dog, and I've really, really missed it. Plus, spring is the perfect time to get a puppy because it's so easy to housebreak and train a dog when the weather is nice and you can get outside and be active with the dog. No to mention that we'll be home all day. So once we move in and get a bit settled, we'll be getting a puppy. Which I am... extremely, ridiculously excited about. Nick seriously already can't stand to hear one more word about local breeders or training classes or cute puppy names. NOT ONE WORD.

So! The move is a good decision for us right now. We've talked it out and we both feel good about it. Even kind of... excited?? And god willing, THIS really will be the last move before we buy a house. But still... GOD I HATE MOVING. Now that I know we're definitely doing it (and fingers crossed I THINK we have a good tenant for this place for May 1st) I just want to start packing and getting organized. I want the move to be as stress-free as possible.

I've also decided that since this time we have a little notice before we actually make the move, we should take the opportunity to weed out some junk that we seem to keep holding onto. We have stuff in our storage unit that has gone through multiple moves and never even been unpacked! Whole boxes could go missing and I guarantee we'd never know what had been taken. So I'm thinking this is a good chance to streamline things a bit. Weed out the endless piles of crap stuff we don't need and either sell or donate it. The Farmington condo comes with a basement storage unit, so we CAN continue to store some stuff, but I want it to all be really organized and accesible so if we need something we can easily find it.

I'm absolutely dying to start packing and weeding stuff out, but until we 100% for sure have a tenant for this condo, I feel like we can't afford to have boxes piled everywhere. This place is small enough without being messy and crowded too. At the moment it's the cleanest it's ever been thanks to constant appointments with prospective tenants. But the second we have a credit check and a deposit? BRING ON THE BOXES BABY.

(Nick is just so damn excited to start packing, let me tell you. He loves that shit like he loves a good root canal.)

Pray for us, we tend to become crabbier, short-tempered versions of ourselves when packing and moving are involved.

Final thought? Skin cancer be damned, I am getting a tan this summer!!

Post #100 hitting newstands... right now

So I was sitting here tonight trying to decide what to write about when I realized that this will be my 100th post! Which for some reason makes me feel a certain amount of pressure to Write Something Meaningful. Which immediately put me at a loss as to what topic seems worthy of a 100th post.

Solution? Procrastinate by reading blogs! As I was reading some new blog posts I saw this relationship meme that Dooce posted to help readers get to know her husband a bit more, and I thought you know what? GOOD CALL. So for your entertainment, here is the meme of Kim and Nick.

What are your middle names?
Mine is Helen, for both of my great-grandmothers. His is Joseph, I think because it sounded nice after Nicholas.

How long have you been together?
The simplest answer to this question is that we started dating in May of 2006.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
I think it's possible that we were dating for a while before either of us really acknowledged that we were more than just friends... so not long? We met in early may and started hanging out later that month.

Who asked whom out?
He asked me out. Actually he asked me to "hang out", many many times over the course of one extremely confusing, not quite platonic, are-we-buddies-or-are-we-dating month of frustration. Then we made out at a party and the answer was suddenly clear.

How old are each of you?
I'm 25 and Nick is 29. Until like a month ago my mom for some unknown reason thought he was 26.

Whose siblings do you see the most?
I'm going to call this one a draw. We're in CT, my brother is in NY, and Nick's sister is in NH. Both are a pretty decent drive away.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
I think the biggest frustration for us is money. It's not even that we fight about it, we're just both constantly stressed about having so little of it. But this question actually cheered me up a little, because we won't always be broke, so there's light at the end of the tunnel, and if lack of funds is our biggest problem that's not too bad!

Did you go to the same school?
Nope. I went to UCONN and he went to CCSU.

Are you from the same home town?
No. Nick is actually from West Hartford, which is where we live now. I'm from Woodstock, which is a small, rural town in the northeast corner of CT.

Who is smarter?
I think we're each smarter about different things. I'm the bookworm and the writer so I'm more likely to bust out with some random factoid or SAT word. Nick is a walking calculator. When he goes grocery shopping he keeps track of the stuff in his cart in his head, and he's usually within a few cents of the total.

Who is the most sensitive?
I resent this question.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Cheesecake Factory. There's one within walking distance of our place and we both love it.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
So far, Florida. Planning a cruise for next February.

Who has the craziest exes?
We are not a couple that spends much time talking about our exes, but I'm going to go ahead and assume that I win this one.

Who has the worst temper?
I think this one's a bit of a draw. Nick is more easily annoyed by small things, but he also gets over arguments very quickly. Whereas it takes a lot to push my buttons, but once you've crossed the line? Watch the fuck out. And I WILL NOT let something go once it's been started until we've hashed it out and the at fault party has apologized. Sincerely.

Who does the cooking?
I make dinner every night. I also plan ahead and make enough to cover lunch for the next day. Once I start working from home I'm hoping to start trying some more involved and time consuming recipes.

Who is the neat-freak?
I'm pretty sure each of us thinks the other is a slob.

Who is more stubborn?
We are both pretty stubborn but once I really get fixated on something I am totally single-minded until I get whatever it is that I'm after. And usually in such an annoying manner that Nick's quality of life improves significantly when he just gives in.

Who hogs the bed?
I tend to sleep in the flamingo position, so probably me. I'm also a major blanket hog when it's cold.

Who wakes up earlier?
Nick. Always. On the weekends I always sleep in and he is always up by 8. I admire him for it but I just don't seem to have that ability myself. If I wouldn't feel so guilty and waste so much time I would sleep until noon.

Where was your first date?
I honestly can't remember. The first few times we hung out was in small groups of friends after work. I remember the first night that felt like a date. A bunch of us had met up at the bar for happy after work. After a few hours Nick asked me if I was hungry and I said yes, thinking he was about to order me a slice of pizza at the bar. Instead, he took me out for a really nice dinner in West Hartford. It was very sweet and unexpected and I loved it.

Who is more jealous?
Me for sure. Although I think he has his moments, much as he would die before admitting that.

How long did it take to get serious?
I think we developed serious feelings for each other very quickly. Then there was a brief panic over said feelings, and we backed off for a bit officially but those feelings sort of remained in the corner of the room and continued to grow, and then one day we basically moved in together and never looked back.

Who eats more?
Me, sadly. I've got an appetite like you wouldn't believe. Fortunately as much as I love my snacks and my sugar I'm just as fond of fruits and vegetables, so my eating doesn't do too much damage.

Who does the laundry?
Currently we share that chore. When we get a house (and no longer have to walk outside to do laundry) I will take it over.

Who's better with the computer?
Definitely me. I'm not IT genius but I can work my way through most issues. I'm fairly intuituve when it comes to tech stuff. And when I do get lost, I can call my brother who IS an IT genius.

Who drives when you are together? Nick. He would say it's because he wants to live, but really it's because he hates to be the passenger. And after a few years of this I can honestly say that my driving skills have deteriorated significantly. Self-fulfilling prophecy?

This was fun... if any of you decide to do it let me know so I can come and read!

Honest Scrap about Kimmers

I've been tagged by Blogging Matilda for the Honest Scrap meme. And I really want to do a Florida post, because the trip was completely wonderful... but our flight was delayed and Nick and I are both coming down with something and I'm cranky and exhausted and just totally not up for the Florida post tonight. So! Procrastinating as usual! Meme it is! 

We'll save the Florida post for another day. But it's coming, I promise, along with a few pictures.

According to the rules of Honest Scrap, I'm supposed to list 10 honest and interesting things about myself. I know I've done a few similar memes on here before, so in an attempt to avoid any unintentional overlap, I'm going to try to list 10 things that are true about me RIGHT NOW. Current stuff that I may not have had a chance to blog about yet.

1. Nick and I were recently approved to work from home full time, starting on March 25th. I couldn't be more excited. I'm soooo not a morning person, and the thought of no longer having to wake up at 6 (ok, most days 6:40) to shower and make myself up and style my hair and pull together something cute to wear... is such a load off my shoulders. There are so many things about working from home that I think will be fantastic. I look forward to summer days in shorts and a tank top and lunch break walks to coffee shops and the library.

2. I recently joined the local gym. It's extremely expensive which I'm hoping will motivate me to go at least 3 and hopefully 4 times a week. With my schedule that will definitely be an effort so I'll be really proud of myself if I manage to stick with it! I really want to lose a few pounds and do some allover toning so this summer? Bikinis won't stress me out. Here's hoping.

3. I'm trying to cut back on what has, over time, become a raging Coke addiction. I figure there's not much point in killing myself at the gym only to down countless empty calories when I get home. My first attempt at cutting back was to give it up cold turkey - until 2 solid days of raging headaches and misery broke me down and I hit the bottle Sunday night (ha). A coworker today suggested that I try transitioning to Diet Coke so I can nix the calories but keep the sweet, sweet caffeine - so as soon as I can get to the grocery store I think I'm going to give that a try. Oh Coke. You've been so good to me. I'll miss you so.

4. Nick and I found two houses for sale in West Hartford that we're interested in possibly going to see. They're dramatically less expensive than the houses we had been looking at and we're thinking one of these houses could be the perfect solution for us right now. We could buy one of these houses and finally have some space for ourselves and to entertain in, a real office for work, and a yard for a dog. We could afford a house like this while still paying off some debt and saving for a wedding. We could get into a mortgage at a really great time and spend the next few years building some equity until we really need and can afford a bigger place. In the meantime both of these houses are extremely cute (at least online and in drive-bys) and would definitely fit our needs right now. So... we'll see. Time to see them in person, crunch some numbers, discuss our options. But I'm really excited about the opportunity.

5. I really, really want a puppy. Truthfully I want a pair of them. And we can't have any until we get a house because we're not allowed to have dogs in this condo complex. Our condo is way too small to accomodate a dog anyway. It's frustrating for me. I always grew up with dogs and I miss having them around.

6. I really, really, reallllllly want a Kindle 2.0 - to the point of obsession. And Nick tells me we can discuss it if we get a decent amount of money back for our taxes... so CROSS YOUR FINGERS PEOPLE. THIS IS LIFE OR DEATH. Clearly.

7. Nick and I saw the movie Taken last week and it was the best movie I've seen in ages, by far. Definitely a must-see.

8. I am in total Countdown to Summer mode right now. Florida completely drained me of any last shred of patience I may have had with the evil that is winter. I'm impatient for shorts and flip flops and walks around the town center in the sunshine. Why does winter in New England last so incredibly long?

9. I'm obsessed with bowls. Well bowls, serving dishes, casserole dishes, platters, pretty much all of that kitchen stuff. I could walk into Crate & Barrel and buy out the damn store. It could also just as easily be Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, whatever. I'm an equal opportunity bowl covetor. This is nothing new really, but house hunting brings it out in full force in me.

10. When we do get our tax money back, the biggest chunk of it is going to pay off my highest interest credit card... and that feels really, really great.

I think I'm supposed to tag 7 people now but I'm far too lazy sick for that step, so you guys get a free pass today. If you do decide to do it, leave me a comment so I can come check out your 10 big reveals. :)

Current stressors, or Why Do I Always Procrastinate?

1. Nick and I leave for Florida this Friday at 630 a.m.

2. We leave for the airport tomorrow (Thursday) night because we're staying overnight at a hotel near the airport to save time in the morning.

3. I have not packed ANYTHING yet. It's 1019 and I'm still in the middle of 3 loads of laundry. The condo is a mess, my car (which Nick's mom is borrowing while we're away) is a mess, my camera's not charged and in fact? It's anyone's guess where the charger even is.

4. I'm going to need a new pack of birth control on Sunday. I usually wait until, like, SUNDAY to get that because if I go sooner my insurance almost always denies me. My intention was to *attempt* to get it tonight so if I got rejected, I could call my doctor tomorrow and make him straighten things out.

5. I forgot. So I'm pretty screwed if CVS doesn't want to give up my pills tomorrow. Dammit.

6. I have so, so, so much work to do before I leave, a lot of which got pushed off from today when my center's RVP asked me to sit in on a (2 1/2 HOUR) marketing meeting. Which was actually awesome, but did eat a big chunk of my day.

7. Working late tomorrow is not an option because I have to tutor right after work. Before eating dinner. And probably packing. Maybe a little cleaning. All before 9, when we leave for the airport.

8. Leaving any later for the airport is not an option, because if Nick and I don't get some sleep Thursday night? Day one of our vacation will be a DISASTER, because we are both HUGE ASSHOLES on zero sleep. As it is we're pushing it considering if I want to shower Friday morning I'll be getting to the airport hotel around 10 p.m. and waking up around 4 a.m. Have I mentioned how *not* a morning person I am?

9. I feel sick. My stomach has been a little off for the last few days. I just feel sort of randomly queasy and not right. And I'm *famous* for getting sick just in time for vacation. Pray for me.

10. BUT! After work today, I went to the bookstore and I bought a few books for the plane. About a week ago I put some decent music on my ipod. Last Friday I got a haircut and a foil, so my roots look good and my hair has that just-cut bounciness that I love. And I got a truly fantastic manicure and pedicure tonight. Best of all, in less than 36 hours I WILL BE IN FLORIDA!!! So all is not lost. :)

Have a fantastic week without me!!!

The love you feel for your jeans is forever love

Excerpt from an email conversation with my good friend Sarah:

ME: I told Nick that after we get some of our debt paid off and we can start making the budget a little less rigid, he can upgrade to a nicer car and I will keep my damn Cobalt, I just want a clothes budget every month! He's like "what about your infinit FX35?!" I go, "screw the Infiniti, if I don't buy some new jeans soon I'm going to KILL MYSELF." Honestly, the extra $100 or $200 a month? I would seriously rather spend on clothes and books and things than on having a sick car. We drive to work together anyway, why bother upgrading both cars? I imagine that he was slightly appalled that I picked jeans over a car. Then again, "you can have the nice car" may have been the part that his brain focused on haha. He probably barely even heard the "I will buy lots of clothes" part.

SARAH: You know, I can fully support giving up a nicer car for some new clothes/nice jeans. Because the novelty of a new, nicer car kind of wears off for a while, but the love that you feel for your jeans is forever love. And you get to keep upgrading and buying new ones and trying different styles! Just talking about it is making me want to drive over to National Jean Company right now.

ME: Seriously. We're sitting here talking about this and my fingers are itching to start looking at new styles online. I'm calling you the minute I have a clothing budget.

SARAH: TOTALLY.

ME: I'm still laughing every time I read "the love you feel for your jeans is forever love"... this is totally going on my blog. And that is officially the best. quote. ever.

My budget is the bane of my existence and one of the best things that's ever happened to me

I've noticed that since Nick and I put ourselves on a strict budget several months ago, I've started to get really, inordinately excited about every small extravagance (I'm not sure if this makes me feel "proud" or "horrified" but I digress). We go to the movies once every other week or so (on half price night!) and I look forward to those outings like a crack addict looks forward to their next fix. Nick unexpectedly buys me a coffee and I'm still kind of smiling about it hours later.

Tonight we're going to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (before you start thinking our budget can't be TOO strict if it allows for dinners out, we have a giftcard there, leftover from Christmas). Even in the gloriously wasteful pre-budget days, The Cheesecake Factory has always been my favorite restaurant, and now that we don't eat out much? I'm literally embarassed by how much I'm looking forward to dinner tonight. It's 4 pm and I am sitting here planning what I will wear later, what I'll do with my hair and makeup, do I want to wear my warm coat or my cute one (the restaurant is walking distance from our place).

The same is true in other areas too. Where a trip to Sephora used to mean grabbing whatever I actually needed and then loading up my basket with 3 or 4 other little novelties that caught my eye, now it means saving up until I can afford the things I need, and being excited about that purchase, never mind the shiny new lipglosses at the checkout counter. Where I used to get a full head of hilights every few months, now every other time I go to the salon I get a partial because it's cheaper (please, you don't expect me to give up my hair color, do you?? Let's not get ridiculous here. I'm 24, I need good hair.) I used to buy lunch at work every day or go out and get Subway, or Au bon Pain... whatever u felt like eating that day. Now every morning I make lunches for both Nick and I. I can't remember the last time I bought clothes or shoes. The last books I had that didn't come from the library were courtesy of a Barnes and Noble giftcard Nick's dad gave me for Christmas. The budget has definitely changed our spending habits completely.

But if I'm going to be totally honest? It's really not that bad. I mean, obviously some days it sucks, no question about it. Some days I feel like the world is going to end if I can't go to dinner/ buy a new pair of jeans/ restart my daily Dunkin donuts routine. Sometimes I am consumed  by bitterness that I made so many thoughtless choices in the past and that fixing them means going without a lot of things for a long time while we pay off the debt that we've accumulated. Some days I would kill to find a hundred dollar bill on the ground and on those days I know that if I did find that hundred dollars, I'd be spending it in the nearest shop inside of five minutes. But most days? Most days I am struck by how much money we used to throw away without even realizing it. Most days I am awed and a little embarassed by how quickly dinners and coffees and lunches and DVDs and cute sweaters (half of which I don't even wear)Padded up. Most days, far from being regretful that we are stuck with this budget, instead I wish we had started the budget sooner.

Yes, I look forward to the day that I can go to dinner/ grab a coffee/ buy some new clothes without breaking the bank or having to use a credit card. I look forward to the day when our debt is paid off and our budget can be a bit more relaxed. But in the meantime? I'm glad for the budget, because as hard as it may sometimes be, it's forcing us to adopt more responsible spending and saving habits. It's reminding us that we really don't need a lot of the things we used to spend money on. We don't even miss a lot of the things we used to spend money on. I think in the future, when our credit card balances are at zero and our budget includes a "personal allowance" category, we'll appreciate that money all the more for going without that category for so long. I think we'll give more thought to our purchases and avoid the impulse buys we've both been prone to. We'll live much more carefree lives without the stress of this debt hanging over our heads, but we'll remember what this time in our lives was like, and it will keep us on track financially in the future.

And in the meantime, we're making the best of it and tonight? Tonight we are going for a fun, romantic dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and I can't freaking wait.

3 day weekend bliss

Hell apparently froze over recently, because Nick and I have Monday off from work. We also managed to make it to the weekend with damn near nothing on our social calendar, which is nothing short of a miracle in and of itself. I'm so damn excited I can't stand it. I can't decide  what to do first: sleep, eat, eat, sleep, sleep or obsessively read blogs. This definitely has the makings of a fantastic weekend.

Maybe tomorrow I'll finally swallow my shame and return the library books that are now MONTHS late, which is patently ridiculous considering I live down the damn street from the library. I'm a little afraid of the late fee but my fear is outweighed by my need for new reading material. Suggestions welcome!

In other news, I am now 21 days from my Disney trip! I still need to book our park and fly, find a reasonably priced rental, buy our park tickets, and (eventually) pack. It's hard to believe I'll be in Florida in less than a month! The way the damn weather has been lately, a week away from freezing new England will be a wonderful thing.

Still haven't heard back from our broker about a loan yet. We're trying not to get our hopes up too much. We decided that if we don't get this house, we'll spend the next 6 months paying off some debt and we'll buy a house this summer. Another 6 months here is no big deal, and ultimately that may be the better way to go anyway. We'd probably feel great about reducing some debt before buying. It just would be a shame to miss out on this adorable house, with the big yard and the beautiful sunroom, in our dream neighborhood. Regardless, either way we should be settled in a house before the fall rolls around, and whether that's next month or this summer, it's a pretty fantastic thing to look forward to.

Happy birthday, humor and other inner qualities

Today Nick is officially 29 years old. He's not very excited extremely pumped about it. As someone who treats every birthday like a second Christmas (although I admit when Nick pointed out that in two weeks I will be A QUARTER OF A CENTURY OLD it gave me more than a few panicky twinges, and come to think of it, those really haven't subsided) I'm having a hard time accepting his birthday nonchalence. I've been knocking myself out all day trying to get a little birthday excitement out of the guy.

It's also writing prompt time over at Mama Kat's, and in honor of Nick's big day (he'll cringe when he reads this) I'm choosing prompt #1 and describing Nick's best inner quality. Obviously I think he's got a lot of them, but what I like best about Nick is that he can always make me laugh. His sense of humor is the first thing I noticed when I met him, and I distinctly remember that when I started feeling serious about Nick, I felt very sure that I had found someone who would always be able to put a smile on his face. Nick and I have our ups and downs like everyone else, but I know I'm with the right guy when I can be just about ready to kill him and he can STILL coax a laugh out of me.

What about the rest of you? What do you like best about YOUR significant other?