Never Say Never

As I mentioned earlier, Greg and I went to Pueblo this weekend! We have had this weekends trip planned for a little over a month. And the main reason we were going was because we heard that Gordon's Jewelry was having a huge platinum trunk show that day. My wedding ring is platinum and my wedding band was purchased separately and when we bought it, we bought it in white gold, not knowing that you have to get white gold jewelry re-dipped to keep it from looking yellow. To me it was very obvious that both rings were made out of different metal so we've been on the hunt for a new platinum band for awhile now. When we went to Pueblo about a month ago we learned about this show and so we made plans to attend. I also desperately needed to get my ring re-sized, so I have been "single" for this past month by not wearing either ring so my finger could go back to it's normal shape.

We arrived at Gordons just minutes before they opened their doors and I was soon so disappointed to discover that they didn't bring any platinum wedding bands. But, luckily a sales lady decided to show us some of their white gold wedding sets and said that we could order them in platinum. I was determined to walk away with a ring that day so I wasn't thrilled about the idea of ordering rings but I figured I'd humor the lady and have a look-see anyway.

Now, there have been several times when Greg has asked me if I would ever just want to upgrade my ring. And I always said, "Absolutely not!". To me, that ring symbolized our past and who we were at that time. That is.....until I saw this:











let's just say, "never say never". At first I considered just ordering the wrap in platinum to go with my ring. But the more we stared at the beautiful solitaire ring along with the wrap mine just seemed to fail in comparison. I had never seen or heard of black diamonds before and I love to wear things that are different so this was right up my alley. And the deciding factor was that they offered us a trade in on my platinum ring that was well over one and a half times what Greg originally paid for it! Of course before we made up our minds completely we walked away so we could think logically. I even called my sister since she used to work in a jewelry store and told her everything and she said it sounded like a great deal!

So now I have an absolutely gorgeous rock on my finger and I seriously feel like I'm newly engaged all over again. I can't stop staring at it! And remember that white gold wedding band I was wanting to replace? Well, they were only going to give us a $200 trade in for it, so we re-sized it so I could wear it on my right hand. So at least I still have some of our original wedding set!

And get this. I mentioned that I had been needing to get my ring resized for awhile now. Well, I had her tell me what size my old ring was and it was a 5 1/4. Guess what my new ring size is? 7! No wonder it was a struggle to get that ring on and off! And since my new rings fit so much better, I'm determined to listen to what my sister preaches to me, and I've been taking it off when I shower, sleep, clean, wash dishes, etc.

As if my Saturday couldn't have got any better, I even bought a new coat! I absolutely love coats! Seriously! But, if you've been a faithful blog reader, you know I do have issues when it comes to shopping (I know you're all rolling your eyes). But I literally haven't bought a new coat since my freshmen year of college. (OK, in retrospect, I did buy a denim jacket and a corduroy jacket, but they were both from Harolds while I worked there so I'm pretty sure I paid next to nothing for them!) And Greg absolutely hated my heavy winter coat because he thought it was ugly. So....this is my gorgeous new coat!

It's from the Jessica Simpson collection (I absolutely heart her and her clothing line!) And I love it because it has two different looks! If I don't have the top button buttoned, then the collar is more of your traditional collar. It is soooooo super adorable! But, I have to admit, (hopefully Greg doesn't read this) I am beginning to have a tad bit of buyers remorse over this. In the store it was a toss up between this and a cute white down coat. But, of course, I chose this one because it's dressier and more unique, which is more my style. But, after wearing it last night, I'm realizing that the bell sleeves are not all that warm. So, I'm trying to decide if I want to exchange it for the coat that is warmer and not so original.

Moving on to other subjects, I am super excited for what the rest of my week has in store! Greg is going to try super hard to get off work a little early tomorrow, which will mark the start of our Thanksgiving Vacation! We are going to Canon City to stay the night at Warren and Nell's house, and then on Wednesday morning we will be waking up and continuing our journey on up to Rangely to spend Thanksgiving with my brother and his family! I have not spent a holiday with them since they moved to Colorado way back in the early 90's. I honestly cannot wait and I'm sure I'll have a nice blog post all about that when I get back next week!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I got a Face Lift

Well, not technically me, but my blog did! Thanks to my sister for clueing me into www.thecutestblogontheblock.com I have been wondering how some of my friends manage to have the cutest blog backgrounds! And now I know. So (of course) I decked mine out for Christmas! And for your listening pleasure I've added one of my all time favorite Christmas songs! Enjoy!!! P.S. We're going to Pueblo for the weekend! Hopefully I'll have some awesome purchases to blog about on Monday!

It's Begining to Look a lot like Christmas!

I'm sure some of you saw the title and though, "Uh, we haven't even celebrated Thanksgiving yet!" But, I was inspired by my friend Krissy's post! Recently a couple emails floated across my screen from different family members who mentioned that stores are already playing Christmas music and that neighbors are already decorating their homes for Christmas. They weren't too happy about it because they felt it was "too early". But, now I must confess, I have already decorated for Christmas! And I downloaded my fave Christmas song (a song I can't even spell that's performed by the Trans Siberian Orchestra) to use as my ringtone wayyyy back in October!

But before you start thinking I'm some Christmas fanatic, let me give you a glimpse of what my past two Christmases have been like:

2006-We were in the process (as usual) of remodeling our house. When we moved in in January we ripped ALL the flooring out of the house. We carpeted the back part of the house but knew we wanted wood floors in our living/dining/kitchen. I don't know if any of you have bought wood flooring recently, but it's not exactly the cheapest stuff in the world to purchase. Needless to say we walked around on the concrete slab for well over a year. And there was no way I was getting my tree out and my pretty tree skirt to leave on the yucky concrete floor. Not to mention all the dust we were constantly creating from sanding down our kitchen cabinet doors and the fact that Greg was building cabinets for our master bathroom and walk in closet.

2007-We had just sold our house the month before and were living full time in our *tiny* trailer. There was absolutely no room for any type of Christmas decor. I did manage to hang a Christmas swag type thingie on our front door, but after Greg discovered it was scratching the fiber glass it was quickly trashed.

Fast-forward to the present: 2008-Two weeks ago Greg was with me at Wal-Mart (this normally wouldn't happen, but my truck was in the shop, remember?) and HE said, "Should we maybe look at Christmas decorations to hang up in the trailer". My first thought was, "Who just possessed my husband?" which was quickly followed by, "Well, I better strike while the irons hot!" So our cute lil trailer now has festive garland hung in various places with miniature stockings, mini red bulbs, and mini gold icicles! I am containing my excitement just a lil by not changing my ringtone on my phone until Thanksgiving if that makes any of you feel better!

I'm mobile once again!

We finally got our truck back late Tuesday evening! Yay! Literally, words cannot express how annoying it is to have to be stuck at home or rely on others to tote me around. And as far as what was wrong with the truck, well, Greg is at work so he's not here to tell me. But I know one thing was the fuel pump and then there was something else. Who knows! The best part was, our truck was still under factory warranty! Woo-hoo! So we had to pay $100 and our truck was completely fixed! Which included an oil change! An oil change on our truck normally costs $75 anyway, so I was pretty happy about this. And thankfully this didn't happen while we were towing our house on wheels! That would not have been a fun day!

So, now I get to celebrate by going to Wal-Mart and the Post Office all by myself!

A Year Ago.......

This is a pretty significant day for me. Why? Because a year ago my husband and I were moving out of our house and going to the title company to sign the papers that officially sealed the deal. We were fortunate enough to pre-sign before the buyer signed since we were going to be out of state and that was the only weekend my husband could get off work to help me move the big stuff. Signing the paper work and receiving our proceeds check was exciting since we had completely remodeled the place ourselves, but it was also a little bittersweet for obvious reasons.

I remember vividly going to the house for the very last time on Sunday to do a last minute clean and to grab the few items we literally couldn't fit in our truck when we were there moving the day before. Unfortunately, Greg didn't have it planned out the way I did. He was excited to sell our house and move on to what the future held in store for us. I have a tendency to resist change, and I wanted the house to be perfect for the new owner. I had a long list of things I wanted to dust, wipe down, vacuum, etc. Not that the house was dirty. I had it looking "show-room ready" while it was on the market and since my husband was working out of state, it was very easy to keep the place extremely clean and tidy! But, really, the main reason I wanted to clean was because I wanted to stay in the house for as long as possible. It really was my dream house and I was a little apprehensive about living in a travel trailer for a few years. (Wouldn't you?) But my husband had other plans. He had friends he wanted to visit since he was in town and he said, "You know people always clean before they move into a house anyway. You're wasting your time." Which is true, I know. But still!

So I begrudgingly left the keys on the counter along with the folder I had filled with useful information for the home's new owner (I'm the best seller in the world, I know! lol! JK! That's the old Realtor coming out in me!) I settled into our truck and immediately burst into tears. Of course, since we've sold our fair share of homes in the past couple of years Greg knew this was coming. And as usual, he laughed at me (his way of making me feel better). He asked why I was crying and I told him it was because we were officially homeless. He, being the typical guy that he is, hadn't looked at it like that.

Now, fast forward to today, it has been one year of being "homeless". I really can't believe it has gone by so fast! The one exciting thing to think about since pretty much 99% of what we own is now in storage is the fact that if we happened to end up in a town that we absolutely loved, we could buy a house and just settle down there. Of course, that's fine to talk about. But, my husband has a tendency to get stuck in towns for long periods of time, so we haven't been able to travel and see as many places as we would like. On the flip side, we do still talk about moving back to Oklahoma. And the tricky thing is, is that whenever we talk about it, I instantly picture our former house. I still think of it as "home". How sad is that? And what's funny, is it's the little things about the place that I miss. Like opening up virtually every single wooden blind in the house every morning because I just love natural light so much. And the feel of the soft cut Berber carpet underneath my bare feet. I even miss vacuuming our swimming pool and the cute little baby frogs that were sure to greet me every morning when I checked the skimmer baskets. I miss having the option to take a bath. I miss my built in make-up vanity that my husband designed for me in our master bathroom. I miss having a dishwasher. I miss the security of having an alarm system. I even miss sweeping off the front porch and decorating it for holidays! Do you really want me to continue?

We have drove past our old home just once since we sold it. And it was when we were in Oklahoma back in March. (Or maybe it was when we were there in December...who knows!) And at that time it really helped me. The OKC area had been hit hard by an ice storm. So when we drove past our old property, there were literally tree limbs everywhere in the front and back yard. One of which that landed on the swimming pool cover and tore it. Shingles were missing from the roof and one part of the chain link fence had fallen down. Honestly, seeing it look like that made me feel a little bit better. Is that terrible? I have since learned from my former next door neighbor that the new owner has put a 12 foot privacy fence all the way around the back yard area. So I know if I drive past it again it really won't look like the home I remember so vividly.

Sheesh, I'll try to end this on a positive note. If you own a home, cherish it! I have seen my fair share of properties that people do not take care of. And it's really a sad thing. Pride of ownership is evident when one walks into someones home. And if you are reading this and do not own....well, what's stopping you?! This is a buyers market so please take advantage of this great opportunity that can leave you with one of the best feelings there is, which is saying that you own a piece of the All-American Dream.

Today's The Day!

It's my husband's birthday! (I bet you thought I was going to say it's Election Day). And what does he get for his special day? Truck problems! Yesterday I went to a girls house who is going to host a Girls Nite Out party for me this Saturday. I had to drop off a hostess brochure, and when I left, I started the truck. It started A-OK, but when I pushed the gas pedal (diesel pedal?) it barely rolled forward. I thought that maybe I didn't have it in gear, so I put it in park, then put it back in drive and had the same result. However, this time I smelt smoke, and when I looked in the rear view mirror, I saw all kinds of smoke coming out of the exhaust. Yikes! A guy had happened to be standing in his front yard and saw the whole thing happen. He was kind enough to come over and look under my hood, even though we both had no clue what to look for. He even had the nerve to ask if I accidentally put gas in it instead of diesel! Hello? I'm not an idiot....

Anyway, I eventually gave up and called a friend who luckily I knew was in town. She happened to be a couple blocks away and was able to pick me up. The downside was that the truck was left in a not too great neighborhood on the wrong side of the tracks, if ya know what I mean! Once I finally got ahold of Greg on the phone, I think he was more worried about where the truck was left parked, rather than the actual problem at hand. He was fortunate enough to get off work early and he was pretty relieved to see that the truck still had wheels, no broken windows, and our fifth wheel hitch perfectly intact! However, the truck still behaved the same way. We had come prepared and had a chain so he could tow me to the Ford Dealership. Now that is something I hope I never have to do again. Talk about being stressed out behind the wheel. Thank God for speakerphone! If it wasn't for that I would have probably done some damage to both our truck and Greg's company truck.

It's now 11:30 my time, and we still haven't got a call from the Ford Dealership as to a diagnosis of the problem. We're praying it's not a head gasket. In the meantime, I'm stranded. Which means no yoga for me today. :( So, the best Birthday present my hubby can receive is a relatively small bill from the Ford Dealership!