Big weekend

This weekend is Gus Macker. That means babies and corn dogs. It doesn't get much better than that.

I moved my cards.

Here. Check 'em out. Follow it. Tell people about it.

I'll be slowly adding my inventory over the next few days.

Thanks.

Thanks, life.

As usual, just when we started to get ahead, everything needs fixed/repaired at the same time.

A couple of days ago I ran over something that obliterated my tire. I have an AWD car which means I have to replace all of my tires at one time. Great.

Klif went to the dentist today to fix a chipped tooth. Turns out he needed an immediate root canal.

It's stuff that I know needed done, so it's not like I'm angry that it had to happen. It just all happens at once!

On a more positive note, I bought that lot of stamps for $90, kept half of them, and resold the rest for $80. So essentially I got 500+ stamps for $10. Nice.

Stamp heaven

I just scored another awesome deal on craigslist.





For $90 I scored 950+ Stampin' Up! stamps (some of the best quality out there) plus 19 stamp pads, a stamp pad rack, refill ink bottles, and tons of extras.

That's about $.10 per stamp, when these retail anywhere from $5-$20 for a single stamp.

They took up my entire craft room floor just to look at all that I had bought.

Lots of good food.

Last Thursday I was excited to go home, get a little work done, and head to bed early. Life had other plans. I went home and made some banana bread (this stuff has gone over very well, and is so easy!).

I was just getting ready to head to bed when Klif called and let me know that he had picked up an overnight shift and could I bring him some food. I packed up a lunch bag with odds and ends so that there would be something that would sound good to him, and drove the 20 minutes downtown. Just a little behind my planned schedule, I headed back home to sleep. On the way, I got the text.

From: Jeremiah Cooper
"The baby is making a run for the border!"

I let him know I'd be there shortly. I stopped by home, packed a bag with work clothes for tomorrow, changed into my PJs, and grabbed my banana bread.

As soon as I walked in the door to their hospital room they wheeled her out. Turns out her water had broken the day before and she hadn't dilated at all. On top of that, Nichole was starting to get a temperature, and both her and baby's heart rates were raising. The doctors suggested a c-section to limit risks to either of their health.

About an hour later, Lily was born. Her blood sugar was a bit low, so she couldn't come into the room until about 11:30. I briefly held her, and then we all left so they could get some rest. I had to be at work in an hour and a half anyway, so I drover to work, let the security guards know that I was there, and napped in my car for 45 minutes until time to go in.

That was a rough morning at work. I left very early, and came home and slept until 4pm. Klif and I went back up to the hospital so Klif could see Lily, and then we went to dinner with mom and dad at Fox and Hound Pub.

A little too smoky, but the food was really good.

That night I cooked up some freezer meals for Jeremiah and Nichole so that they could relax a little.

The next morning I got up and headed to Muncie. First to get my haircut (thanks, dad!) and then to grandma's. We ran all over Muncie to different stores. After that it was time to go to mom's to get her my pictures of the baby for her printing needs. As always, that took 5 hours. By that time the storms were coming in really bad, so after having dinner with mom and dad at Taco Bell, we picked up grandma to stay the night with us.

Saturday we ran to some more stores, and then I went to see UP (3-D) (again!) with dad. After that, some putt-putt, and then to grandma's for the night. The next day was church, and then Father's Day lunch with dad, mom, and grandma.



I picked up Josh and Jill's dogs on the way home as they were on their way to Chicago for a couple of days.


Work as usual through the week. Tuesday Klif an I had dinner with an old youth leader of mine and her family. I met her youngest daughter, Hannah. She was adorable and had a great temperament!


I many be needed to watch Lily on Friday night for about an hour. I'm totally stoked.

Meet Lily!

Meet my new niece.




Lily Sunday Cooper was born Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 6:53 p.m. to my brother and sister-in-law Jeremiah & Nichole. She weighed 8 lbs. 9 oz., was 19 3/4 inches long, and has dark eyes and a full head of hair.

Baking machine.

The housewarming party was a success, and although I failed to take a single picture, I can assure you one thing. There was plenty of food.

Buffalo chicken dip, black bean/cream cheese dip, and parmesan bites were eaten so fast that I didn't get a chance to try them. As a matter of fact I spent a good amount of time assembling the parmesean bites just to have the whole pan eaten within 2 minutes. Next time I throw a party, I am throwing a parmesean bite party. Seriously.

We also had as amazing desert spread including cookies, brownies, creme puffs, and best of all...the Irish Car Bomb cupcakes.

Yes, you read that right.

And they were amazing.

We had a good turnout, probably about 25 people in and out or so. And the dogs got some sweet gifts. And we got tiki-torches, so that was pretty sweet.

I was really happy with the evening, as the day was really hectic. I stopped on the way home to pick up some baking needs and some frames to cover up the shoddy TV mount job that was done the day before. I immediately started getting food ready. Kyle and Sara helped clean and prepare and Klif did some yard work. My parents even came a bit early to help with prep. I finished up most of the food just as the guests were arriving, and we all seemed to have a good time.

The next week we had the TV installation company send out another guy to fix the first one's mistakes, and are now pretty pleased.

After that it was back to work. About 2 weeks ago they announced 820 jobs were being eliminated, and we just got an email yesterday saying that they were completed. Only about 20 people at our location were laid off (out of about 900)so that was a huge relief.

Tuesday was Klif and I's 2nd anniversary. We celebrated on Monday by going to see UP (3D) (awesome) and then eating at Logan's. The next day, our actual anniversary, we spent cleaning. Hah.

Today I felt ambitious so I came home ans started baking.

Do you know what this is? I bet you wish you do. I'll tell you in a minute.


I also decided to make 12 more cupcakes, since I had leftover filling and icing. Please note that this is all made from scratch. Icing and all. Here are the cupcakes right out of the oven (The cupcakes are a Guinness chocolate batter).

I swear I don't know where the missing cupcake went.

Here they are after I take the lid off of the Jameson bottle and extract holes out of each of them.


Here they are after I fill those holes with made from scratch Jameson chocolate ganache.


And here they are after covering them with a heaping dollop of made from scratch Bailey's Irish Creme butter cream icing.



Stop drooling.

Oh yeah, and that pan full of amazingness I showed you earlier?

Bourbon Banana Bread. Let's just say I already bought more bananas.

I even did all of my dishes afterwards, which means I am exhausted, and now I want to go to bed.

Bueno!

We've still just been working around the house and working.

We decided to test out our new(to us) grill, once I replaced all of the guts.



We ended up with some pretty tasty burgers.


I also tried to make some homemade ice cream with a maker that my grandma gave me. It was an expensive and time consuming process. It involved cooking the milk, cream, eggs, chocolate, etc. on the stove, cooling it for 3+ hours in the fridge, churning it in the machine for 40 minutes (during which we had to continuously add salt and ice to the bucket), and then packing and freezing it for another 2 hours. Imagine my rage when I found out that something went wrong and it was laced with chunks of egg white. It was disgusting and inedible and we had to throw out all 4 quarts.

On the 16th, I took Klif on a 2 hour road trip to his favorite fast food place: Taco Bueno. One was opened in Jeffersonville a year or two back, and ever since he moved from Texas he has missed it immensely.


He ate so fiercely that he broke a sweat.


Since we had gone all that way, we decided to drive an extra hour and have dinner with friends.

Arrive: Lexington.



We ate at a pretty sweet place called Cheapside.


The patio had a great balcony and atmosphere.


Then Cara got pooped on by a passing bird.


Klif got this amazing meal called the "Downtown Brown". It was toast covered in ham and bacon and tomato and cheese and probably some more delicious stuff.


Then we decided to get some drinks. First off to McCarthy's, where we found a sign quite appropriate for Klif.


Here I was also introduced to the amazingness that is known as a buttery nipple. Perhaps we got too acquainted.

Next off to Horse and Barrel (or something like that) for more drinks and some amazing chips and queso.


Then, off to the fountains that I had wanted to see last time we were here, but didn't get the chance.




Then, back to McCarthy's because I "forgot to get a picture". In reality, we were trying to get the already quite wobbly Klif full fledged drunk for the first time.


Tequila shots should help achieve that.


Then to some bar with the name Molly in it. At that point Klif started to knock over chairs and have trouble getting to the bathroom, so we decided we had achieved our goal. We headed back to the car (I had not had a drink since the first bar many hours before, for your information) and when we stopped by a bathroom Klif proceeded to fall over in the hall.


Then we found Liz Lemon's car.


Three hours later and we were very thankfully home. Mostly me because I was dead tired and Klif was either maniacally lauging or snoring the whole way home.

After that it was back to work. This weekend is our housewarming party, and I just made 100+ meatballs.


Two days to go and I have a ton to do still. Oh well, I work best under pressure.

Back online!

We finally got our internet hooked up, and I finally got all of the spam and ridiculous forwards from old ladies at work deleted from my inbox. It has been a tremendously busy couple of weeks, and I'll try to catch up as much as possible. I am warning you right now that this is a long long long post. But I want to remember this stuff, so deal with it.

I spent the week after Easter packing like a madman. It was tax deadline week, and I was scheduled to work 60+ hours in addition to closing/moving on Friday and and co-throwing a baby shower on Sunday. I did as much as I could after work while still giving myself enough time to get a good night's sleep so that I wasn't a zombie at the end of the week.

I waited and waited all week to hear from the bank that we would be able to close on Friday. The paperwork had multiple delays throughout the process, including the bank writing up all of my paperwork for the wrong amount the first time around, causing a two week set-back. I called them daily, always hearing "It's still at the underwriter, we hope to have it by Thursday!" Thursday rolled around and they were still waiting. I got really impatient, as I was scheduled to pick up a rental truck that night and also had multiple people coming to help me load the truck.

Finally, at about 2 in the afternoon (3 hours before people were supposed to show up), I got the confirmation call that the paperwork was back.

Dad came in from Muncie, and came a little early to get an early start. We went and picked up the truck, and once Caleb, Megan, Jeremiah, and Nichole showed up, we decided to go out and eat instead. We went to Bub's in the Arts and Design District:



(Oh how I'll miss you, Big Ugly Burger!)

So much for getting an early start.

The guys made some serious progress on the large items, like the couch, dressers, and washer and dryer. Once we got the large items loaded and a nice start on the boxes and small stuff, they headed out for the night and I headed straight to bed so that I could get a good 3 hours before work time.

Friday was ridiculous. Kyle and Klif continued to load the night before, and Klif was left with the task of finishing as much as possible by the time he had to meet me for closing at 1:30. After work, I headed out to the bank to pick up the cashier's check I would need for closing costs. On the way to the bank Aaron, our REA, called and informed me that the title company needed two additional things: new proof of home owner's insurance since the previous fax cut off the provider's name, and proof of receipt of gift funds as documented in our paperwork. I freaked out because
1. It is almost 1pm, and I am on my way to closing, and have no access to my HO paperwork, and
B. I didn't need the full amount of gift money that I originally documented, so I only had my dad send a check for what I needed.

Aaron said just to bring what we had, and everything would work out. At the bank, I got to the teller and gave her my withdrawal slip. We bank with Ball State FCU, which is in Muncie, but has the benefit of being able to deposit and withdrawal through any shared credit union. The lady entered my information and then waited. Then looked up at me and said "I'm sorry, the Ball State server is not responding long enough for me to cut your check." At this point I came unglued. After three more tries, she got it to connect long enough to print my check, and even waived the fee, probably noticing how stressed I was.

On the way from the bank to closing, one of the mortgage loan people called, and began berating me for the whole gift money fiasco.

Her: "What made you think you could change the amount that your dad was giving you? This has to be the exact amount. You will need to get the rest of the money from your dad or we will not be closing today."

Me: "My dad lives over an hour away, I don't know what you want me to do. I wasn't aware that I had to have it to the penny from the application amount. (frustrated) Well then I guess we just won't close today."

We came to the conclusion that we could call my dad and have him wire me the balance. This was an ordeal and lets just say I ended up in the parking lot of the closing offices crying not knowing what was going to happen. Thank goodness dad was available and very sympathetic/helpful.

Into closing.

Things went very smoothly, and in 20 minutes we had received the Reader's Digest version of everything and signed all documents. Dad's wire confirmation was received, but not the funds, so they had to wait on that to cut checks (aka, pay the seller and give us back our closing cost overpayment), but the seller's rep gave us our keys anyway, under the assumption that everything would be smoothed out within hours.

Time to unpack, and so glad that all of the technical stuff was done with. We headed straight to the house, and Klif and I began to unpack before everyone else showed up.


Then, I got the call.

The mortgage lady called, informing me that there was a problem. Dad had wired $200 too much, and that would not fly with our original paperwork. We determined that the best solution was to fill out a new gift letter and fax it to her asap. But we have no computer, no internet, no fax machine, and no dad present. Ugh.

I left Klif to unpack while I drove to Jeremiah's, waited on the email, and then printed, filled it out, signed it, and left it for dad to stop by and sign and fax it to her once he got into town. Back to the house.

Dad called, informed me that everything was done, and I once again was glad that all the bank stuff was done with. More unpacking.

Just a few minutes later, the back calls again. "The letter is great, but we have no confirmation that this money came from your dad's bank account. We need copies of his statements showing the withdrawals." AAAGGGHHH. I caught dad before he left Jeremiah's told him what to do, and he did. Thank goodness. Done with bank stuff, finally.

Everyone else joined us at the house, including some of Klif's work friends, and we knocked out the truck quite quickly. Then, the phone rang. Oh my God, it's the bank again. I almost didn't answer. I mean, I have my keys, what are they going to do, come take them from me (they probably would have)? Turns out dad took the wire money out of a different account than was on his gift letter, and that won't work. But it is 5:30 now and the banks are closed and we will just have to deal with that on Monday. So we are now moving into a house that we do not yet own.

We unpacked all evening, at one point meeting backyard neighbor dogs Peyton and baby chihuahua Pico The Guy-o:




Then some of us sat around while some worked on putting my fridge together (I am way too in love with this fridge):


I also have to include this picture. It speaks for itself:


We made sure we had all of our necessities in place:


At 11:30pm I called and left a message at work, informing the manager that I had been up for 23 hours, wasn't done yet, and would have to be up for work in an hour if I went to bed now, so I would not be in.

Saturday we slept in a bit, and spent most of the day running errands. We had to go to Carmel to get a few more items from the apartment, Menard's to have blinds cut, Mattress store to pick up new bed rails, and other random stops. The closest hardware store to our house is a bit of a drive, so I wanted to get everything out of the way now. Back at home I started on the dryer, by swapping out the pigtail. This was harder that I remember the last time, and took me way too long. On to the washer. As I was hooking it up, I found out a certain piece was too long and I would need a hack saw to cut it. Crap. Back into the car, and to the hardware store. Got back and fixed the issue and continued to hook up the washer. Turned on the water lines. Water started spraying everywhere. CRAP. Need new hoses.

I decided that this time I would drive the opposite way on the main drag, and there would have to be a closer hardware store. Wrong. 20 minutes later I found a Menard's. Back to the house, more unpacking.

Sunday I was off to Kokomo to co-throw a baby shower for Nichole. Everything went well, even making everyone eat baby food.




It was a long day, after an unbelievably long week, and included some family drama. When the time to leave came, I was eager to get home. Home.

I basically had to come home and go to sleep, as it was back to work the next morning. On Monday, I decided that since tax week was over and our work volume was decreasing, I was going to take the rest of the week as vacation days. I love my job.

I spent the whole week unpacking, putting things away, cleaning, washing every piece of cloth we owned before putting it away and washing every dish before we put it away. Klif started on installing blinds and shower curtain rods. After a some trouble and a bit broken off in the wall, I taught him how to use a power drill.

He did a great job with the blinds, except for maybe the vertical blinds, which ended up being about 10 inches off of the ground.

Mom came one day and helped clean and sort, and she came back another day with dad and he fixed the vertical blinds, helped me install the mantle, and helped with other stuff like weeding my "flower beds". They were a huge help and kept buying all kinds of stuff for the house, like my new awesome step stool (which I need to read the top shelf of my kitchen cabinets), cleaning stuff, food, linens, and dishes (as well as a ton of other stuff).

I was so thankful for the week off and also for all of the help.

I went back to work the following week, quite uneventful, and just trying to get back into my sleep schedule after a week of sleeping in. Saturday we celebrated Jeremiah's birthday at his house:



We were warned that this friend of Caleb's was "unique", especially after he had a few. He kept starting sentences, trailing off, and I would just stare at him and say "Are you going to finish that statement?" and he would be totally zoned out.


I love this picture for so many reasons:


Then we took a family photo.


I had to leave almost immediately afterward, because as I was kneeling down for said family photo, I slid my hand across the deck rail, and ended up with this awesome multiple entry point splinter the size of toothpicks:


It wasn't cooperating with tweezers because some how both ends of both pieces were embedded in skin. How does that happen? Time to go home for some minor surgery.

Then we celebrated Robbie's birthday with a bunch of Klif's work friends by going to a hookah bar and a pub that had great boneless wings. (Yes, we have a friend!)

Really the next week was uneventful as well. More unpacking, working, organizing, etc. I put together my new kitchen island, which I love, maybe as much as my fridge. Today, something amazing happened:



This will be completed tomorrow afternoon. I'm really tired of typing, and this took way too long, so I'm quitting now.