Complain post about how pathetically out of shape I am...

I just finished the first 20 min beginners session on this DVD...


...which I ordered for a whopping $1.99 last week on Amazon with a gift card earned from collecting Swagbucks and free shipping with my trial of AmazonPrime.

I finished 20 min ago. I'm still panting. My heart is still racing. I can barely type. My arms are quivering. My legs are quivering. I'm slightly dizzy. I'm slightly nauseated. My face is beet red. My clothing is damp and sticky. I'm SO pathetic.


...but I think I love it. I've heard many good things about it. I'm not necessarily looking forward to reliving that 20 min workout everyday for the next week (and then many weeks after that), but I am excited to see what results it will produce by next Monday. And the Monday after that. And the Monday after that.

For now, I'm going to go collapse on the couch and not move for the duration of a movie...maybe longer....:)

New Year's Eve 2011...

Signing in for the first time in just over 4 months. I had almost forgotten how to redress and rearrange everything.

The last few weeks have been slow and quiet as Jase and I have taken turns catching several cold and stomach bugs that have been making the rounds. We missed being able to make a trip to my family's Christmas celebration and missed opening gifts with Jase's side. I have 2 big bowls, a 9x13 casserole dish and 2 square ice cream tubs of dipped pretzel, cookies and truffles sitting on my table and buffet, results of my normal overdone holiday baking spree and not being able to deliver goodie tins to my immediate and extended family. I must find something to do with it all. I am determined to avoid sugar starting tomorrow and there's no way the two of us can eat it all ourselves before it goes bad. I suppose I'll try freezing the cookies and truffles.

~

I picked my Swagbucks account back up last weekend. I found $15 in amazon ecards sitting in my account and promptly spent them on a pair of brown boots. I've been wanting brown boots for years. They are scheduled to arrive today and I cannot wait to get them on my feet. In the last week I have done enough trials and deals that I'm just over the 3000 mark. My goal is an average of 700 a week, but i'm beginning to think I can do more than that. As long as I don't lose interest. For those not familiar with the value of swagbucks, 700 a week will give me enough over the course of a year to redeem over $400 in amazon ecards. And that's if they don't go on sale, in which case my swagbucks go even further. Yay! I'll probly branch out to more than amazon cards soon though...I have my eye on some paypal cash and fandango cards...and maybe a few restaurant.com cards...we'll see...

~

One of the deals that I took advantage of to earn some credits was a free customized calendar from VistaPrint. I only paid shipping which made it quite a bargain as calendars are stupidly expensive even for just a no frills wall calendar from Walmart. I spent three days finding pictures of us, one for each month of each year that we've been together, uploading them to picnic, editing, saving, organizing by month, then reuploading to picnic again to make collages and then finally adding collages to the calendar and adding personalized captions for Jase. It was a lot of work, but I'm really excited about how it turned out and I can't wait for it to get here.

In the process of the calendar project, I discovered something. Over the last couple of years I have gradually taken less and less pictures of us. Over the last year I've gradually taken less pictures in general and when I have they've been of random projects or events and not of us. Part of that is laziness. Part of it is that I find it difficult to be motivated to take pictures when life is stressful. Part of it is because I hate the way I end up looking in pictures, especially when I'm carrying extra weight. And I'm definitely carrying extra weight.

And that brought me to 2 main goals for 2012. Be healthier, exercise more, shed a few lbs (not the first year that this has been a goal), and take. more. pictures. Regardless of how I look or feel, find SOMETHING to take pictures of and purposefully take more pictures of US.

I want to get to the end of next year and be able to spend WAY more time browsing through a year's worth of pictures and finding many more pictures of us to bring back even completely forgotten memories than I did this year. Then I will also be able to take advantage of more free (or discounted) photo prints deals and put together physical scrapbooks as well.

I even signed up at project365.com thinking that maybe participating in that would motivate me and give me a goal...that's broken down into small, reachable daily goals. Then I realized, that if I'm not motivated to keep the blog I already have, it's pointless to start a new one. So I redirected back to my sad, forsaken blog and spruced it up for the new year. And I'll be trying my own project365 right here.

~

I'm drinking a fizz tab and uploading some pictures to clarkcolor.com so that I can take advantage of their current 40 free prints deal. :)


I'm about to plug my new earbuds into my comp and turn on some Bocelli, Acoustic Eidolon and Adele while I download this weekends files and play my newly downloaded Plants vs. Zombies... free music downloads and $2 game from yet more awesome swagbucks deals. :)

~

Poor Hubby is finally getting some much needed sleep after about 5 consecutive sleepless nights this week. This happens every time he gets a cold that settles into a cough. He's so exhausted. :(

~

I'm looking forward to another cozy, lazy day and bringing in the New Year with my Love...

Happy New Year to all! I'll be back in 2012. :)

~Tonia

I have grout in my tile!...

Picking up from where I left off last with the pics...
















































I'll post more later...

Finding a Home

Guest post from: Constance Rodgers

Looking at apartments when I was still single was fun but it was even more fun looking for houses to buy! I was really sick of living in a tiny place so I started my search for a single-family home late last year and it took me several months to find this great place. It’s amazing what people put on the market and what they try to price stuff at but I got lucky and found this place that was bank owned that didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. I’ve been working on things like home improvements and ALLHomeSecurity.com security and all that stuff that goes along with being a homeowner and I’m actually having a really good time with it…I love decorating and I can’t believe I get to do my own place now! I feel like this is the most adult thing I’ve ever done and I can’t wait for the next phase in my life whether that be marriage or kids or just getting a dog!

So we haven't moved yet...

...and I'm living out of boxes for the next month. A week ago today we got up for a few hours of work before Jase's sisters, Rachel and Jonnah, and his brother, Micah, showed up around 7:30 to help pack and clean. Sarah Baker showed up a few hours later and we spent the morning and early afternoon packing, organizing, cleaning. About 30 min before we were scheduled to pick up the moving truck, I sent Jase down to get a checklist from the office and let them know we were planning to be out the next day. A few months back, we had tried to extend our lease by another month, and although we had been told at first that it was fine, we received a notice a few days later that there had been a mix up and the apartment had been leased to new tenants before we tried to extend, because the office thought that we had already turned in our notice to vacate at the end of june. As I sent JAse out the door I remember thinking " Watch Jase come back and tell me that the notice to vacate had been a mix up and the office doesn't actually have us scheduled to move out until the end of july". Well, sure enough. We were scheduled to be here for another month. And everything I owned was packed and sealed into boxes stacked in my living room. Ugh.

We weren't obligated to stay since we hadn't signed the lease extension yet, but since the barn isn't ready to move in to yet, and we were planning on camping between the Burks and the barn, we opted to take on the extra month of high rent and stay put. Having our own place, with air conditioning and highspeed for another few weeks will be way worth it. And hopefully this way the barn will be either ready or much closer to being ready to move into when we have to be out of here.

So we're still waiting on some paperwork to get the permit to start digging the septic. And the guys are still working on running some electrical things. The grand and several other heavy objects that are still sitting in the living room have to be cleared out. The doors need to have those little rubber seals attached to the bottoms to keep bugs from the shed out, some holes need to be patched and the bathroom needs to be painted. But now we have the rest of the month to complete it. It's a big relief to have everything worked out the way it did.

Here are a few more pics of the place...


Yup, it's a barn...




Looking up the driveway from the barn...



The driveway extends past the barn and a circle drive and runs down into some lower fields behind the barn...



My kitchen view...



We're surrounded by fields and trees....it's so super pretty out there...

I hate packing...

Not because it's necessarily difficult. It's just time consuming and a pain in the butt. And I hate the process of clearing out an apartment that's been home for the last year and that has so many memories attached to it. I so look forward to the day when I can move into my own house and stay for a LONG time...maybe even forever. It's a nice thought.

Another reason I hate packing is because I can't stand to just throw things in boxes randomly. It has to be organized. Especially this time, since I'm faced with the task of figuring out what I'm going to need to access immediately, what can be lived without for a little longer and what can be put into storage for relatively long term. This is proving especially tricky with my kitchen. At the moment, we're not sure if we're actually going to be able to move straight into the barn by the time we have to be out of here. So we may be looking at spending several days or a week (hopefully no more than that...fingers crossed) with Jase's family until the barn is liveable and has passed inspections. While we're with them I likely won't need any of my kitchen stuff. But once we're actually in the barn, I'll need a few pots and pans and utensils for making simple meals on the stove that mom and dad are bringing....whenever that happens. Most of my baking stuff is going into storage at least for a while... :( That makes me sad. I suppose I'll live. :)


My growing stack of boxes in the back room. It may not seem like much, but in my opinion it's a bit ridiculous considering that we are only two people and that's maybe HALF of our stuff. I'm still trying to figure out how in the world two people need that much...and I've weeded out a lot over the last few months in prep for moving. *shakes head*


Packing station...



And this is why it's taking so freaking long to get things into boxes...My list so that I know what is where...I'm a little OCD...But I NEED to know where things are or I'll go crazy. Each box is numbered and has a simple label...then the list contains a more comprehensive list of what each box contains.


:)

The girls came over to help the other night. My original plan was to have them help me pack. But by the time they got here my control issues had set in and I couldn't cope with the idea of not sorting, wrapping, packing and labelling things into boxes with my own two hands. So instead they helped wipe down bathrooms, sweep floors and help me clean out my fridge and freezer which were long over due...the help was wonderful. :)


Most of my cupboards are emptied...I hate living in the clutter, but I put it off long enough. We're down to 4-5 days before we have to be out of here. The month ends next thursday but I garauntee they will be wanting us out by the 28th, which is next tuesday. They're gonna have to live with that not happening. :) I'm expecting to likely be out by next wednesday or at least be finishing up moving the last few things, finishing up the cleaning and turning in keys by thursday morning...we'll see...



This is what my pretty living room used to look like....I miss it already...

Better get back to work...

The Barn...

As of about 1 week ago, we made the decision to take up an offer of a 'house' on a farm on the north side of Springfield. The landlord attends our church and gave us a generous deal that will allow us the opportunity to save up a lot faster for land and a house of our own than we were accomplishing living in apartments.

It's not technically a house. More of an apartment and it's built inside of a shed/barn. When it was first offered to us, we immediately dismissed the idea because of all of the work that was still needed to make it liveable. I hadn't even seen the place (Jason had helped put the flooring down years ago and was familiar with it), so in order to not just blow Dan (the landlord) off, we decided to go take a look at it (just to be polite) and keep adding to our already established list of reasons why it wouldn't work out, so that we could sit down with Dan and thank him but explain to him that it wasn't for us.

By the time we had finished our first walk through we were still pretty convinced we didn't want the place, but we were seeing ways that we could make it work if we chose to take it. It wasn't until a night or two later that it dawned on us...if we were willing to make some sacrifices and put in some work to make the place liveable, it was an opportunity to do two things that we had been wanting to do for some time: pay off some debt that we acquired last year and start saving towards our own land. Of course, those were two things that could be done anyway, but this was an opportunity that was going to allow that to happen MUCH easier and faster than any of our other options at the time. So we went to look through it again and started a list of questions for Dan.

A few days later we had the opportunity to meet Dan at a nearby McDonalds and sit down with him to discuss our questions and options. By the time we walked out of the restaurant we had decided to take it. And then life started to get hectic...

We were about 2.5 weeks away from having to be out of our apartment and I didn't even have boxes yet. We had to call and cancel our reservation for the apartment we had planned to move into (and which we had already put down a nonrefundable prelease on :( ). And the list of things that had to be done at 'The Barn' was growing. It had to be cleared out and cleaned. The electrical needed work and additions such as smoke detectors and a few other things to pass inspection. We had to figure out how to get internet out there so that we could continue working online. A septic system needed to be put in, which required a soil sample to be done and a permit before we could start installing the system. And so on...

Within the first two days after our talk with Dan, we had it cleared out and had accomplished the first round of wiping down walls, setting of bug bombs, sweeping out dirt and bugs, scrubbing floor and windows, had internet figured out, etc. Yesterday the soil sample was completed and we are now waiting for everything to come back from that so that we can apply for a permit to start installing the system. We still have to install smoke detectors, figure out water heater details and stove hookup details.

Today is a little frustrating because it's my light work day and Jase's off day and we could be spending the entire day out there working on things, but everything is on hold while we wait for permits and such. I finally have boxes and we're picking up packing paper from a friend today so I'm in the process of packing. And we're about a week away from needing to move. I'm learning patience.

At first I was super excited about the prospect of moving out to the farm. I still am. But I've had a day or two already where I couldn't help but ask myself 'what have we done?'. Ha. Even with everything that we're hoping to have accomplished by the time we move it so that it's liveable, there is still alot of work that will be needed before it's really a house. There will be two bathrooms, but only one is finished. There is no kitchen, only hookups for a sink and a water heater. Dan has the wood to make cabinets but they will have to wait until we're in and we figure out how to make them. So they will be a work in progress after we move. As soon as a stove hookup is installed we should have a stove, because mom and dad are bringing their old one afew days after we move in. I'm super grateful for it, because I was planning on only being able to use things that could be plugged into the wall for making food...like my crockpot, foreman grill, griddle, etc. We still need a fridge but we'll have to make do with borrowed space in a deep freeze and a cooler filled with frozen water bottles and cold packs. It's gonna be interesting for sure..

But when it's done it will be nice. The only thing that will not happen, ever, is washer and dryer hookups. I'm still trying to adjust mentally to the idea of not having my own washer and dryer for several years. Fortunately Jase's parents are just five min down the road and we should be able to do laundry at their place once or twice a week. It's going to take some getting used to.

As far as the 'house' itself, it's gorgeous. Red walls, white trim, beautiful hardwood floors and stone tile in the bathroom. For now we're moving into the downstairs and eventually the upstairs will be made liveable too, with the second bathroom up there. The levels are not connected so we have to walk out into the shed to access the stairs to the second floor. Not super convenient or comfy but definitely doable. For now the upstairs is storage.

It's definitley small, but the location is gorgeous. I've been missing my fields and trees and country air really badly, especially over the last year. Now I'll have a nice long driveway for walks and jogs, plenty of fields and creeks to walk and explore. I may even learn to ride the horses that we will be sharing the 'yard' with.


The wall where the kitchen cabinets will go. The sink hookup is under the window and you can see the water heater hookups to the left. The bathroom door is on the right.



The bathroom and the 'back' door to the right. These pics are all before we cleared it out and did the first round of cleaning.



The living room view from the kitchen with what will likely be used as the 'front' door once we're moved in.



The closet area that will be used as a pantry. I want to line the walls with shelves to give me plenty of storage until I get cabinets.



Part of the downstairs bathroom. Once the water is turned on that hole will be patched, the walls will need to be painted and the trim finished out.

I'll upload more pics later. My internet keeps dying on me...better post what I have before I lose it. :)