The Life of a Dress.

In my last post, I mentioned that the dress I wore at Sean's wedding is my favorite dress. I love when I get a chance to wear it. So, I thought we'd follow the dress through the years!

2005: I originally bought the dress from Banana Republic for a semiformal in December. Here I am wearing it for the first time!

2006: I went to my sororities National Convention in Nashville with my friend Emily since she was President and I was VP of our chapter. We had to have a semiformal dress so I wore the one I already had. You can't see the whole dress in this picture, and I'm pretty sure that is a good thing. This was during my weight gain period and I was very close to not being able to wear the dress! Thankfully that was only a phase!

2008: When it was time to think about a dress for my rehearsal dinner, I couldn't think of a better dress to wear than my favorite. I know it was the perfect time to buy a new dress, but I looked and I couldn't find one that I liked more than this one.

2009: Here we are at my friend Amy's wedding. I think this was the first wedding where I wore this dress. I have worn it to a few more weddings. I know it is probably getting stale, but I love it so much! Note: I don't wear it to every wedding! It is just the one I wear most frequently.

2012: Here we are at my most recent wearing of the dress. Thankfully the weddings I seem to wear it to are for different groups of people, so hopefully no one is thinking I only own one dress.

So there we have the dress through the years. Hopefully the dress will continue its story. If I ever get to the point where I can not fit into the dress, it will become my goal to fit back into it. Hopefully, thought, that will not happen!

Basketball

JP and I have always enjoyed watching basketball.  We've also played fantasy NBA basketball. In the NBA, JP cheers for the Suns, and I cheer for the Mavs. Although I like NBA basketball, I love college basketball, especially March Madness. Go Duke!

Here we are after the Suns Mavs game in Phoenix. I was the only Mavs fan in the group!

So, we've always watched basketball, but over the past few months JP has started to play basketball.

It all started with the CPA league this past spring. JP played for PWC and discovered that despite his height, playing basketball is much different than watching. He asked me why others were so good. I told him probably because they played in high school- something he never did.



Once the CPA league ended, it seemed like other opportunities to play basketball started to present themselves.

On Monday nights, guys from our church meet to play basketball with some of the middle and high school guys that live in Woodlawn and at the Hospitality House. They have been doing it for a while but JP was unable to go when he was taking classes on Monday nights and then work interfered. But in May, he no longer had commitments on Monday night so he was able to start playing. He really enjoys getting to play basketball but also getting to know these guys. One thing that made us laugh- one of the high school guys told JP, "You ball above the knee" pointing out that JP's basketball shorts fall above the knee. Now not by much but they don't go over the knee.

In August one of the guys from church started recruiting guys to play basketball on Tuesday mornings at 6am. JP has consistently participated in this. Every Tuesday there are 10 guys that play. I was kinda surprised that many guys are willing to wake up so early. That start play at 6am but get there at 5:45am to pick teams! This event was such a success, they started doing it on Friday mornings too!

To help improve his skills, JP frequently goes up to the church near our house which has a basketball goal in the parking lot. I sometimes will go with him but I really have no basketball skill. I would much rather watch the sport than play.

Oh the Places You'll Go... Missouri/Kansas

JP and I recently ventured to St. Joseph, Missouri for the wedding of Sean, one of JP's closest college friends. JP and Sean ran on the track team together all four years in college and lived together two of the years.

Sean was a groomsman our wedding.



And now JP was a groomsman in Sean's wedding.

JP and I decided to rent a car and make the 12 hour drive to Missouri. We went got to spend time in a total of seven states on this trip: Alabama (of course), Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas (Sean actually lives in Kansas- Kansas City is in both states), and Indiana (unintentionally- I messed up the GPS on the way home).

We got to passed Busch Stadium on our way (after the Cardinals recent beating of the Braves I still yelled Go Braves when we drove by) and Kauffman Stadium (the Kansas City Royal's stadium).

Our first night, Thursday, we spent in Kansas City eating dinner with Sean, his family, and other out of town guests. We stayed the night at Sean's house with several other out of town people.

Around noon on Friday, JP and I drove to St. Joseph which is about an hour north of Kansas City. We checked into our hotel, got JP's tux for the wedding, and got ready for the Rehearsal.

I had to take a pic to send to my mom because she had not yet seen the dress I bought for the occasion.

The Rehearsal dinner was held at an old house in St. Joseph that had been turned into a museum. It was really cool! St. Joseph is where the Pony Express started and where Jesse James died. Here we are with a scary bear. Apparently the main who originally lived in this house was a hunter.

While we were at the rehearsal dinner, I met one of the groomsman's girlfriend, Sarah. I was very glad I met her because we ended up spending a lot of time together while our date's were busy doing wedding stuff. Neither one of use knew anyone that was not in the wedding party.

After the rehearsal dinner JP and I, Sarah and her boyfriend, and one other groomsmen went to the Pony Express museum for their annual pumpkin lighting. The one night we are in St. Joe's just so happened to be the night of the pumpkin lighting. I read this in a tourist brochure I saw a the rehearsal dinner location and knew we had to go. We were all glad we went!

However, we did not know that in the process of going we actually got in a time machine and went back to 2002 (Seriously, this was the sign they had at the entrance of the lighting).

Saturday was the day of the wedding. Here we are before the wedding. This is the dress I wore to a sorority semi-formal, my wedding rehearsal, and several other weddings. I'm pretty sure I love it. It is my favorite dress and I will keep wearing it.

I followed the guys around as they took pictures.  JP Kaal does not like taking pictures. He did fine taking pictures but for every serious picture, there was immediately a silly/ridiculous one that followed. For example:

A very nice pose...

 Followed by muscle man...

I did not take any pictures at the wedding reception, but we had a great time! We danced and danced until the the reception was over. My feet were tired! The bride's brother actually collects records. He DJ'd the wedding using all of his records. It was pretty cool to have legit turntables at the wedding. He had a huge collection of records! The thing that made me laugh though was as soon as he started to play Call Me Maybe (he did play a few non-record songs) every girl in the place ran out onto the dance floor and every guy went and sat down.

One of the really cool things at the wedding was the favors. The bride and her friends had a baking day earlier in the week and made at least ten different kinds of cookies. There were cute boxes for guests to pick out cookies to take home.  Another cool thing at the wedding was the bride's mom made the wedding cake!

We had a great time in Missouri and are glad we made the long drive!

Oh the Places You'll Go... Santa Rosa Beach

For the second year in a row, my college friends and I reunited for a trip to the beach. This is such a fun tradition as we don't see each other much during the year due to leaving in different locations and busy schedules.

We all rode together in Brittany's mini van, which ended up being so much better than riding in two separate cars. We made a stop at a fabric store that apparently is a store those who sew think highly of. I realized why when just being in the store made me want to learn to sew. Every fabric they had was something I deemed worthy of being turned into a pillow, dress, or curtains. Note: Once we left the store, my desire to learn to sew disappeared. Maybe one day.

I had never been to the 30A beaches but was not disappointed. The beaches were just beautiful, and the water was so clear I could see my feet on the bottom! Our first view of the beauty occurred from the deck of Bud and Alley's where we ate lunch the day we arrived.

When we got to the condo- which was the nicest condo I've ever stayed in. I would def recommend it- we exchanged gifts. The year before we all drew a name and kept who we had a secret. Over the year (or the month/day before for procrastinators like me) we got gifts for our secret person. We had determined a price limit that everyone held to.

I had Brittany as my secret person. She owns a business- Birds on a Fence. I had my other friend Brittany who paints canvases paint Brittany's business logo on a canvas to hang in her sewing room. I was highly pleased with the way the canvas turned out. I also got Brittany a gift card so she could treat herself to a shopping trip just for her- something a mother of two doesn't get to do very often!

Blair had me as her secret person. She had just returned from Israel and included in my gift some bath salts from the Dead Sea and a cross made of olive tree wood. How cool is that! She also included a gift card to Chickfila- obviously one of my favorite places to eat.

I had such a great time catching up with these girls over the weekend. Even though we don't see each other frequently, when we do get together it is like we were never apart.

 Blair: She is responsible for setting JP and I up. When she visits our house she, JP, and I all end up sitting on our king size bed talking. I love it. I loved hearing her talk about her recent trip to Israel. It was something she had been wanting to do for years and years.

 Laurel: The first time I remember hanging out with Laurel was the summer of 1996. We spent the day at the pool and then went to a banana split party at her church. She also had Nintendo brand glasses which she convinced me she could use as a video game control. You know you are friends for life when she asks who her Freshman year CP teacher was and I can tell her.

 Brittany: I remember Brittany teaching me how to paint my toenails French manicure style for Rush one year. She always seems to be doing just that, teaching me things I should know how to do but don't. I'm pretty sure she also helped me get my hair side swoosh right for Step Sing. Note: I admire Brittany so much for her hardwork in creating her business Birds on a Fence. Did you notice the hats we all had on in the beach picture above? She made them!

Emily: She was one of my first friends at Samford. She can quote movies and tv shows like no one else I know. It seriously is a skill. On this trip she got points in my book for venturing out into the ocean with me pretty far out. It was a great chance for just the two of us to catch up.

Ashley: I have gotten to know Ashley more after college than during. I love Ashley's honesty. Recently she has started working for a company, Free Set which offers employment to women in India trapped in human trafficking. It has been cool to see her heart grow for this ministry.

Looking forward to next years trip. And, getting things for my secret person for next year! The questions is, who is it?

Oh the Places You'll Go... The Marriott Grand

This August Mom, Sister, and I took are third annual trip down to the Marriott Grand. This year we had the chance to spoil my Sister with a few days of luxury after she had just spent a month living in the wilderness.

We have made it a tradition to pack a picnic lunch to eat at a rest stop on the way down.

There is so much to do at the Grand. We take advantage of the pool at the hotel as well as the hotel's country club. The country club has a lap pool. Sister and I like to pretend we know how to swim, especially this year after the Olympics. However, Mom- who was a swimmer in high school- clearly has more swimming skills than either of us. Note: I'm no swimmer but I'm better than Sister. So swimming and bowling are the only two sports I'm better at than her.

We played a round of mini golf- I was terrible.

And tried our hand at fishing. Sister, who has a fishing license in the state of Wyoming and has fly fished in the Wyoming wilderness- determined the hooks provided were no good. So, we caught no fish.

We enjoyed working out in the super nice gym. The best discovery of the trip came in the gym. In the gym, there was a door labeled as the accountants office. If you know my sister, who is an accountant, you will know that her dream would to have her office in a gym. Note: I promise the sign on the door says accounting.

Tea time is a tradition at the Grand. This year we went when kids were in school so we did not have to wait in a super long line for our tea and cookies.

 Riding bikes is one of our favorite things to do at the Grand. It is a great way to take in the beauty of the area.

We had such a great time on our trip!

The September 18th Vote.

I never thought I would be one to write a political blog post.  However, this month there is something going on in the world of politics that has brought me here.

We all know there is a huge election in November, but if you live in the state of Alabama are you aware of the voting opportunity you have Tuesday September 18- tomorrow?  I first heard of this voting opportunity in an email sent by the CEO of my place of employment.  This email stated Vote Yes on September 18.  I had heard absolutely nothing of this vote until this email.  The more research I did, the more I learned that most people who do not work in a state run facility or listen to political radio all the time had no idea that there was an election of September 18.

So in case you do not know, on September 18 we will be voting on a bill that will allow the government to take 437 million dollars out of the Alabama Trust Fund in order to fund government programs- Medicaid being the biggest headliner.  Currently, the way things are set up, a large percentage of the taxes obtained from oil & gas revenue go into this trust fund each year. The interest this fund gains each year is placed into the general fund. Currently, only interest is touched, NOT the principle.

Before, I get into what I feel about this topic, I just want to mention that whether you agree or disagree with my opinion, it is so important to vote. So many people are not aware of this vote. Whatever the result of the vote is, it would be a much more reliable result if everyone voted. Most people who are aware of it are only aware because they have been told to vote yes but don't know much about the issues. Please, educate yourself on what you are voting for. Whatever opinion you form, I completely respect it. Just make sure you have formed an opinion by educating yourself instead of just listening to what someone tells you to do without doing any research.

If I were to walk into the voting booth and read the ballot without knowing anything but what I read, I would likely vote yes when reading that a yes vote will "prevent the mass release of prisoners from Alabama prisons, and to protect critical health services to Alabama children, elderly, and mothers." However, I have decided to vote NO in order to prevent the release of prisoners and to protect critical health services.

Wait, how does a NO vote, do these things? By taking money out of the principle of the trust fund, we are putting a bandaid on the problem. In the future (estimated 3 years), we will be right back where we are today.  And then, we won't have as much from the trust fund to pull from.  Plus the interest we will be putting into the general fund will be a LOT less when that account is 437 million less!

However, if I vote NO, the government will be forced to make hard decisions regarding the State's budget.  They WILL continue to fund Medicaid and prisoners will NOT be released.  Just paying state employees via direct deposit instead of via check will get them ~50% of the money needed.  Instead of just placing a bandaid on the problem, something will actually be done about the problem.  Three years down the road there will be no question as to if the critical health services will be in jeopardy.

I'm no political person so I would recommend you reading this article that really says everything I would like to say... but better.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20120916/OPINION0101/309160031

However, if you do not read the article, at least read this quote and think about what you would do if this was your personal finances.

"Your referendum is more akin to dipping into your 401(k) each month for the next three years to pay your mortgage note without first looking for a smaller house or a better paying job. That is not just fiscally irresponsible; it is reckless."

A Year+ Later

Warning: A lot of words- no pictures. Don't let it intimidate you from reading!

It has been over a year since we handed over the largest chunk of change either of us has ever dealt with in our lives.  July of this year marked the one year anniversary of the purchase of our house.  Thinking back to the house buying process, I remember how overwhelming and fast it was.  Overwhelming because the purchase of house is not only a huge investment but it also requires contact what seemed like a zillion people and making a lot of decisions- especially when purchasing a foreclosed home.  Fast since our house was a foreclosure the asking price was a good deal so there were multiple people making offers.  Therefore, after spending ~ an hour in the house over two visits we had to decide within 24 hours if we would put an offer on the house and if so what the offer would be.  Seeing as I am someone who took a year to decide if I wanted to purchase a $100 pair of shoes, this was like going from 0-60 in one second.

When making such a huge decision in such circumstances, it is sometimes hard to know if you are making the right decision.  Over the past year JP and I have decided that we are, in fact, content with the decision made last Spring/Summer.  Part of the satisfaction comes from the fact that we had thought about purchasing a house and had compiled a mental list of what we wanted in this said house for quite a while.  We feel this house meets those needs we determined to be most important.

Neighborhood
JP and I wanted to live in a neighborhood that was close to our work locations, close to shopping and restaurants, and not too far from friends.  A huge desire was that we wanted to live in an active neighborhood.  Not only a neighborhood that would provide an excellent environment for us to run and walk, but a neighborhood where we would not be the only ones doing this.

We love our neighborhood!  I had been dead set on living in one neighborhood because I knew it had everything I wanted. However, we were able to get much more house for our money- especially with the foreclosure asking price- in this neighborhood.  I was a little nervous but it has everything we wanted.  My commute to work is much better than what it was at our apartment- and that wasn't even bad.  We are approximately 2.5 miles from not only one but two of the main shopping areas in the city and just 4 miles away from my favorite shopping area.

Our neighborhood is perfect for being active.  On the main street there are sidewalks and there are tons of side streets to make for interesting walks.  There is even a public basketball court nearby where we can practice our terrible skills.   The coolest route of all is our easy ability to walk on a long road at the top of a hill that looks out over the entire city.  It is very cool to see the lights of the city at night!  Other people are always out and the Tour de France (what I call it when I see cyclist pass by) occurs almost daily outside our house.  We have even made dog friends in the neighborhood with a boxer we play with on our long route and a little dog on our short route.

Kitchen
We do a lot of cooking and were so ready to be away from our galley kitchen in our apartment.  We wanted a kitchen that was big enough to easily cook, had enough cabinetry for all our cooking supplies, and was a room that people could hang out in as meals were being prepared.  As JP kindly pointed out when we registered for china- "the kitchen is the center of the home."

We love our kitchen! It is the biggest kitchen I think we looked at in a home in our price range.  There is plenty of counter and cabinet space and includes a wonderful island.  We have already cooked meals while friends/family visited with us and there was definitely enough room.

Garage
We looked at a lot of houses without substantial garage space but we determined that we really wanted a place for JP to store his tools.  I guess you feel that way when you spent sometime living with an air compressor in the one bedroom of a tiny apartment.

Our garage is great.  There is plenty of storage and even a tool room.  The garage doors have needed some work but JP has taken care of that himself.

Good Sized Bedrooms
We looked at a lot of homes that had tiny bedrooms and that we wanted to try and avoid.

All of the bedrooms are good sized with good closet space.  Some may prefer a bigger Master but it meets are needs just fine, as does the Master closet space.

Entry Way
This was not high on my list and I would have taken one without it, but I really wanted to have an entry way into my house, not just having the front door open into the living room.

Our house definitely has a traditional entry way.  I have yet to do anything with it, but I will.

Yard
It was pretty important to us to have a decent yard.  We both like spending time outside and preferred a house with what a yard and trees.  JP knew that this would require mowing and he did not mind.

Our yard is big and does have a lot of trees.  It is definitely more up keep then some of the smaller yards we looked at but we don't mind.  JP is great at mowing the yard- one of the few things I refuse to do.  We have done zero landscaping- unless you consider cutting down trees as landscaping.  Hopefully once we get the inside close to how we want it, we will transition more to the outside.  One of the things I love about our outside is the fact that there are trees perfectly placed to hang a hammock- one of my favorite things.

Neighbors
Now this is something we really had no control over.  Growing up I always had great neighbors who were not just neighbors but friends who we saw pretty much daily.  One summer the grass had gotten very flat on the path between our two houses since the path was traveled multiple times a day over the 3 months of summer break.  I would love to have this for my whole life!

All of our neighbors are very friendly, although most of them are older with high school age children.  However, the couple next to us is closer to our age and they have 16 month old boy.  JP- who should probably win the overly friendly neighbor award- has really connected with the guy.  He helps JP with yard projects.  Additionally, they are always on their back deck grilling so we will join them to chat sometimes.  There dog is always in the yard and JP will chase the dog around- it is really quite a site.  When our power was out during the Olympics, we went over to their house- they have a generator- to watch the gymnastics with them.


Now of course one can never expect to get everything on their list of wants.  I feel like we did pretty good but there are two big things I have decided this house does not have that I would like to have.

Porch or Patio
Saying I love to be outside is an understatement.  Growing up my parents house had a huge front porch and we spent/spend SO much time out there.  It was like another room.  I would love to have not only a front porch- I love watching the neighborhood in action- but also a back porch, patio, or deck.

Unfortunately this house has no porch, patio, or deck.  The front of the house consists of a small stoop- which I do sit on sometimes- and really has no potential for adding a porch on.  The back of the house has not deck or patio.  However, there is a high potential for the addition of something.  We will do this eventually.  Until then we make best with what we have.  When we have people over for a grill out we still hang out outside.  And, like I said above, I love the perfect trees for hammocks.

Laundry
I'm not good at laundry.  I know how to do it, but it always seems to take me forever to get it all done.  My Mom has a wonderful laundry room and I think having a place devoted just to laundry would help it not seem like laundry was exploding all over the place.

Our house does have a place for the washer and dryer but it is more of a laundry closet.  It pretty much just holds the washer and dryer.  No room for a drying rack or folding area or anything like that.  I've turned on of the bedrooms into the laundry room, for now.  Honestly I just need to get more organized and efficient at doing laundry.  I would love to have a real laundry room.  However, in this room I will likely never have that as there does not seem to be any easy way to add this on.


So overall, I'm pleased with this house and am very thankful for it.  No buyers remorse.  I can see us living in this house for much longer than five years (the minimum number of years JP has required us to live in a house).  Although I don't seeing us living in it forever, I would be ok if we were.  Although if we are still here in twenty years and don't see us moving anytime soon, I will figure out a way to add a laundry room!