My House is for Rent!

There are a few friends who have been asking to see more photos of my house for a while, and... since it's for rent, I now have awesome photos!  And consequently, it's probably the cleanest it's been since we've moved in... whew.  Cleaning/moving/looking for junky looking areas is hard work.  It's taken me three afternoons.

Anyway, here's some not retouched images of my home sweet home!

-mrp-

ps: If you look closely, you can see Bentley in one of the photos, as well as a half painted wall... I promise, before we move out, it will be fully painted ;).

Less than a year ago....

Less than a year ago, we were looking for a house to buy, and had already seen the house we would eventually pick.

....

This year we've been at it again.  Not buying a house, but finding a new house to live in, and starting to pack boxes.

It's so bizarre.  When we bought this house, we knew the possibility of it not lasting long, but I'm think I wanted to not believe that.  I wanted to be set for a few more years.  The Realtor told us to think of this as our 'starter house', that we'd be here for 5 years or so.

When all is said and done, we'll have been here one year.

Sigh.

I'm a bit sad.  Partially because I had all these plans in my head for gardens, patios, parties, organized office space, re-done kitchen, hosting clients, etc.... and while I've done a few updates [okay, really all I've done is paint a few rooms that I thought needed it so the house mostly matched itself], it's sad those dreams won't manifest.  And I know that's how things work.  Some things come to fruition and some don't.  I'm still going to be a bit sad about it though.

So here's the the new people that will live in this amazing wonderful house.  Lucky.

-mrp-

poop

You guys.

Last time I was going to the bathroom [in the upstairs of our house], I came face to face with a mouse!!!!  [the first in this house].  I did what any good woman does, screamed, wiped, pulled my pants up and stood on the toilet.

Luckily Ronald came up because of the sound and wanted to know if "I had made a noise", then proceeded to not believe me, when I complained, "I'm the only one who ever sees the damn mouses!"

When he started shuffling things around though, the mouse jumped out of his hiding place and at him.  After screaming again, I laughed and laughed... from my toilet pedestal of course.

-mrp-

smarts

My day to day life consists of the following: talking with teachers [a bit], talking with, working with and teaching kids [a lot], doing photography stuff, and talking with the husband.

While I love all of this, most conversations I have in my day to day life just don't really require a ton of concentration to follow along and grasp a bulk of information not padded with at least a bit of fluff.  You know the professor who says two sentences at the beginning of class and if you missed one word or started bunny trailing your own thoughts, you'd have NO idea what he/she was saying 30 seconds later?  I remember feeling so overwhelmed with those professors.  A good overwhelmed, but definitely one of those situations where I have to sit in the front row of class, be properly caffeinated, and keep my eyes on him/her and my notes.

Today though, we had a psychologist in, and before he left I asked him if he tested for dyslexia.  He proceeded to talk in that exact way, and used words I didn't know and asked if I knew about so-and-so method, etc.... and it was lovely.  It was so refreshing to have that challenge [even amid some kids who needed copies, and other interruptions], be able to follow along, and probably also be able to recount it to someone else if I had to.

Anyway, it made me feel smart.  And it made me think, "If I were to do it again, maybe I would have double majored in psychology and art.  It's fascinating.

-mrp-

No, just no.

So my two friends and I went out to eat the other night:

friend number 1 = recently engaged, has a bunch of wedding magazines on the table, 23 years old
friend number 2 = recently [more or less] married, 26 years old
me = okay, the oldest, but not by much, 30 years old, professional wedding photographer

Here's how it went down, we sit, chat, waitress comes over.
Waitress: "Oh, is someone getting married" [smiles]
#2 and I point to #1 and smile.
Waitress to me: "Are you the mother?"
me: [smiles], "Nope, just friends."

I've been asked if I'm a mother before, but not for someone who is old enough to be getting married.

*sigh*

-mrp-

ps: you bet your ass I went home and did both my hair and make up for the following day. #iknowimnotyoungbut #30flirtyandoldlooking

hash tagging

The place I use hashtags the most... text messaging.

#imdoingthisright
#winner

shoe fund....

I told Ronald that I was going to use some money to buy some brown boots [I have brown cowboy boots, but have recently decided that maybe I would like to have some brown riding boots].

In any case.  Last week it snowed.

My 'brown boot fund' is now going to be a 'knee high snow boot fund'.

Why do I live here?!?!

-mrp-

taboo

I know it's taboo to say [especially as an educated, semi-patriotic american].... but I really don't care about politics.

What I do care about, is what I CAN control.  Where I donate my time and money.  Being able to see a need and fill it.  Loving people.  Living with integrity.

meh.

-mrp-

back-to-back...

Last Thurs = b session 2.5 hours
Friday = photoing friends 2 ish hours
Saturday = photo wedding 9 hours
Sunday = engagement session 2.5 hours
Monday = back hurts/pulled hip muscle while putting on my pants :/

So I sat down in front of the computer just now, after arranging the ice pack in my drawers just perfectly, and said to myself, "Ha ha. I'm going to win."

As if this is a competition. [laugh].

[shakes head].  [sigh].

If I'm not winning in the next hour, I'm going to just go ahead and book a massage for this week.  I've got a wedding and engagement session and loads of editing this week... I've got to win!

-mrp-

m+r = 4

Our marriage is now four years old :).

Something they don't tell you...

When Ronald is away and hasn't given specific information on when he'll be home, I freak out a bit inside when he doesn't answer my texts, and it's 9pm and dark out.

Maybe I'm the only one, but when you get married, they don't tell you that when you care for someone so much, and depend on that someone for socialization, and dinner conversation, and a hug, that you will freak the hell out and imagine crazy scenarios in your head about what could be happening/has happened, and you don't know about it because you're not listed under 'ice' in his phone... not to mention no one would be able to get into his freakin phone because it has a lock code.

meh.  I just have a husband to love and care for.  I don't now how you people with tiny humans do it.

-mrp-

Conversations in our house...

R: "Okay crazy lady"
M: "Okay husband"

For whatever reason, when he calls me crazy lady, it's not offensive ;)

-mrp-

New House!

On April 16th, our offer for a house was accepted.  Then on May 16th, we signed our name 8 billion times on so much paperwork with phrases I had no clue what the actual meaning was, and got some keys [like 11 of them for the front door lock].

And on June 16th, I thought I would post this picture, but then forgot... so it's here now!  on June 27th instead :).

We're slowly but surely getting things on the walls, and arranging the furniture just so, and my goal is to get the front room painted in on color [it currently has 8], before my parents come visit at the end of July.  The other rooms will be painted eventually too, but I'm bad at making decisions, so it might be a while... and another 8 sample paints later ;).

It's a two bedroom, two full bath, michigian-style basement, with a HUGE back yard [we have plans for an apple tree, strawberry patch and raspberries].  It's not as close to downtown as we initially wanted, but it's close to the water and within walking distance to a cool park.

And we're very excited to live here and be able to make changes to the house that we want to [all within budget of course, can't be spending more money than the house is worth via debt].

Eventually I'll get some more photos up of the interiors :).

-mrp-

tears...

There are certain things that make me tear up.... Marriage equality is one of them.... Way to go Indiana.

-mrp-

Duvets... and other things.

So last year I mentioned we were considering buying a house [which was ridiculous, because we just really didn't have the cash for the down payment [Dave says NO; no cash saved up, wait a bit longer], and we tend to be anti-committal.

We're still commitment phobe's BUT we're going to buy a house.  Our lease ends May 30th, and it's just time to pour our money into something a bit more permanent [who knows what exactly that means, but ya].

In any case, this past few weeks, instead of making decisions on houses, I've been obsessively looking at duvet covers on-line instead.  Seriously.  Obsessing.  Like, I've looked on pinterest, and pretty much every store you can think of [including etsy], to brows and pin duvets that I might like.

The avoidance makes sense when you think about it.  A duvet cover will probably run me $75-150; a big enough amount of money to think about and research into, and decide on a favorite.  A house will run me $57,000 to $90,000, and a mortgage that will last for as many years as I've been alive.

I can change a duvet after a few years, if it tears, or has stains, or whatnot.  A house is a bit harder to change, since you have to sell off the old one before investing in a new one technically.

No one is going to break into my duvet and steal my comforter.

The value of my duvet isn't going to go down depending on what kind of shit happens in the neighborhood.

I don't have to worry about resale value, because I'm probably not ever going to need to sell my new duvet cover.

All that to say, I'm much more into buying the duvet cover than I am the house.  We've narrowed it down to 4 but my head is going to explode trying to weigh all the options [price, location, bathrooms, age, air conditioning, yard, blah, blah, blah].

-mrp-

ps: I feel like I need a good algorithm to solve my 'which house should you buy' crisis.  Something where I can answer on a 1-10 scale about each house, and it will tell me which is the best fit.