When It Rains, It Snows

At least that's the case today! If you haven't been following St. Louis weather, it has been raining since late last night, getting colder and colder since then as well. Around noon today, the rain turned to freezing rain and sleet, and by tomorrow morning parts of St. Louis could have up to ten inches of snow. But that's all way west of me. We're only expected to get three to five inches here in my neck of the woods.

Luckily, my outpatient foot procedure (getting my two large toenails removed and killed forever, YAY!), was early this morning and I was home and doped up by noon. I've had time to get some little things done today that I wasn't sure were going to get done, like writing our Christmas letter for this year. I'm waiting for Ben to come home and read through it to see if I'm missing any little typos or any other info he wants to share, or not share. I'm going to have to send out e-mails to make sure that I've got everyone's most current address on file. Somewhere....

You know how that goes. You've got three of four different address books; one through Outlook, one on your PDA (which should be sync'd up, but aren't always), and one hardcopy that's about five to ten years old...

Thank goodness for this severe weather, cuz now I don't have to take another "sick" day for my feet tomorrow, my boss thinks that the district will call "Snow Day!" by early morning! Yay!

Day After

I had a nice Thanksgiving. Two meals, one with the in-laws and one with my family later in the evening.

I got the Secret Santa Gift Exchange set up for the Bellinger Family. I think that I have entered everyone's e-mail who wants to participate. Now it's just a waiting game for everyone to respond to the invite.

Everyone was so excited about the house purchase. None of the Bellingers had known we were even looking for a house, so it was all a complete surprise to them. They all can't wait to see it when we have our house warming in late January/early February. I can't wait to close. Only three and a half weeks.... Dec 19.

I need to find a counter to put on this page for countdown to close time....

Let's Give Thanks

What I am thankful for this holiday:

1) My husband Ben. He's the best. Sorry gals, I took the best one. Luckily, he loves me too. Who could be more lucky than me? For Ben, I am eternally grateful.

2)My Family. That includes the Bellingers. I have such wonderful parents, my sister and brother-in-law are great (will be good neighbors who won't "borrow" eggs and milk... read her blog.). My brother has gotten better since he's an adult now, and his wife is a sweetie. My baby sister is a sweet, smart girl.

3) My job. I truly enjoy my boss and co-workers. The work is fulfilling. I love the subject.

4) My friends. They are funny, smart, cool people to be around. Obviously.

5) My house! We got it! The papers are signed, we close on Dec 19!!

So what are you thankful for? Count your blessings in my comments.

OMG

We're homeowners!! The sellers accepted our counter offer (after having to offer it twice...)! I was notified as 12:55 p.m. Central time. I am SO excited! It's a huge relief after all the back and forth phone calls with my realtor and Ben. Now we just have to hope that no one else offers something higher than our offer between now and when we sign the paperwork this afternoon. Apparently, in Illinois, a verbal agreement isn't enough, signatures must be on the paper in order to make it binding. So, now I'm just in a hurry to get "home" to sign the papers. I say "home" because this house we're in now isn't ours. Hehehe... I'm a homeowner!!!

House

Not the TV show (although I hear it is good...might have to borrow the uber-cheap Season 1 box set from Bob when he's done watching).

We offered on the ranch-style home last night. As of 6 a.m. this morning, we had a counter-offer waiting in my cell phone voicemail. We split the difference and I am now waiting to hear back from my realtor. I'm totally freakin' out/anxious. I just want them to accept this counter-counter-offer. I want to know if I'm a home owner or not.

I'll keep you all up dated.

What to do...

Ben got his Wii this morning, apparently after getting no sleep on a very cold night. So it's still in it's box, waiting. I'm sure he'll hook it up either later tonight or sometime tomorrow. He spent the day catching up on sleep. He said the wind last night just blew right through his blankets and the layers of clothes.

Ok, I lied. Ben's woken up enough now that he's taken the Wii out and is setting it up now. It's TINY! compared to other consoles.

Well, pizza should be here soon, and Harry Potter is on....

My Husband is a Wii-ner

Yes, I intentionally spelled it that way. Ben is staying the night tonight in front of Target. The store. It's due to be in the 30's tonight. And he's staying out there for a game console, the Nintendo Wii. His prerogative, I suppose.

It's been about two weeks since the last post. Sorry about that, y'all. We've been dealing with Ben's Barrett's, my trivia night (more on that in a minute) and house hunting. Ben's condition is OK. He is trying his best to stick to the prescribed diet. He is taking his Nexium religiously. Hopefully his next scope will show some healing.

Trivia night went well. I even included a tribute to my best bud, Morgan. The question was "Renamed for a famous banker who also collected gems and minerals, pink beryl is now more commonly known as what?" The answer? Morganite!! Named for J.P. Morgan. But placed in my trivia night to honor my friend from across the state who I haven't seen in forever. Not her fault, we've just both been busy. I'll see her soon at the holiday get together. Back to Trivia Night. We raised over $1300 for our Center. Yay! That will help get some stuff for our programs.

House hunting.... we're now torn between two houses. Once we make a decision, we can go ahead and make an offer. Ranch vs 2 story, Cheap vs upper affordability range, finished vs unfinished basement, close to family vs close to highway, smallish bedroom vs good bedroom size, ofallon schools vs fairview heights schools (but OTHS), 2 car garage vs 3 car garage. We're truly torn.... urgh. What do you think?

Totally 80's Halloween

Technically, the Totally 80's Halloween bash was two years ago, but last night was a close second. We started out the evening with dinner that I prepared from scratch. Chicken Gardner. Chicken, potatos, carrots, onions in chicken broth and wine sauce. It was preety good, although I could do without the wine part.

Then, we played Totally 80's Trivial Pursuit. It was fun!! I liked it, and I didn't even win. But then again, I love trivial stuff... by the way, please check out the Challenger Learning Center Trivia Night. We really need a few more tables... Check it out HERE.

After 80's trivia, we played a short game of Apples to Apples. There was only five of us, so it was a very short game! But a hell of a lot of fun! If you've never played Apples to Apples, you need to, it's friggin' hilarity in a box!