News!!

This past Saturday we had my dad's 50th birthday party. It was a lot of fun! Here's a couple pics from the day:

My sister, my dad, and me :)

Just me and dad :)
He got about 8 or 9 bottles of crown!
Definitely enough for another party! ;)

This is my Aunt Rose. She's the best.
But she lives in NC, so I don't get to see
her much :( 

So while we were drinking and eating and having a good time, Chris and I were talking to my cousins about this house they're fixing up. It's a 2-bedroom, 1-bath in Florissant and they said they'd rent it to us. We kind of laughed about it and let it go since we had never even considered living in Florissant. 

Well come Sunday we were driving back to Farmington and thinking, depending on what the house is like and how much they'd charge us for rent, it could be worth looking into at the very least. So we drove all the way back to Florissant just to go look at the house. And we loved it. The back yard is huge and has a nice patio. It has a one-car garage, a breezeway/mudroom type thing, and a good-sized basement. The only downside is that there's no dishwasher (but we generally eat off of paper plates most of the time anyway...) and there isn't a ton of storage in the bathroom. The closets are also a little small, but we figure with the basement and garage, that should give us plenty of extra storage for all the stuff we don't use on a regular basis. 

I called them on Tuesday to tell them that we officially want to rent it so it should be ready for us sometime in September. For those of you who are wondering, yes, this adds another half hour or so to my drive. Which will suck. But I have a couple options. 

I can always stay in Cape a couple nights if I really have to. And I'm hoping I'll be able to keep working from home at least one day a week. But I've also decided to start looking for jobs in St. Louis, even if they're just part time. I've got a few reasons for this. 

First, I'm already exhausted and I'm not even in school right now. So adding more time to my drive, plus classes is gonna make that worse. Second, because I'm doing so much driving, I'm spending a ton on gas and car maintenance. Yes, working for the university means I only pay 30% of my tuition, but it also means that I get almost none of the loan money I get approved for (I don't understand why this is but I guess they figure if most of my tuition is covered I don't need the extra money). So this semester--before we even decided to move to Florissant--I decided I wasn't going to take the tuition discount, because I get all of my loan money that way, which I need. So whether I continue working for the university or not, I'm not using that discount anymore, so I figured I might as well start looking in St. Louis. I'll just have to find a place that's willing to work around my class schedule. 

There's too much math involved to really get into the details. But basically if Chris and I are living and working in St. Louis and I'm only driving to school a couple days a week (instead of 5), we'll save a ton on gas and all that. 

And we get to switch our internet to AT&T! Unfortunately that means paying HughesNet's outrageous cancellation fees. But once that's done, we'll be paying about the same amount for cable and internet as what we're paying for internet alone now. So we'll be saving a lot of money as far as stuff like that goes once we move. 

We're super excited about the house and can't wait to move. The fact that we're so close to moving makes our current house seem that much more unbearable. 

Things will definitely suck for a while with all the driving and possible staying in Cape that I will have to do. But when we talked about it and whether we thought it was a good idea or not, we had to think long-term. I'll be starting my last semester of school this time next year. And we had plans of moving back to St. Louis after I finished school anyway regardless of where we were living at the time. Plus, my cousin said if we want to buy the house from him in a couple years, he'd sell it to us for pretty dang cheap. And we already know we like the city and the area and want to stay there, so if we end up loving the house too, why not buy it? So, thinking long-term, we just couldn't pass this up. 

Plus Copper is going to love that back yard! 

Memorial Day Weekend Recap

How was everyone's Memorial Day? Mine was pretty busy, but it was good. We stayed with my parents. Copper had a blast running around like a mad dog in their back yard. Saturday night we went to Gettemeier's with my sister for a few beers since we hadn't done that since she turned 21. We had a good time.

Sunday breakfast was delicious, as expected. Biscuits and gravy and fried eggs and some fruit salad. I was going to try to go for a run on Sunday but I was exhausted, so we were lazy and napped for a while before we got ready to go to a graduation party. I got to see my best friend, Dani, who I haven't seen in far too long. We didn't get to spend a whole lot of time together, but it was fun. After that we went back to my parents' to watch a movie.

I finally went for a run on Monday. It wasn't a great run, but I got out there and did it (or tried anyway). And, I even read a little more in American Psycho! Not much, but I'm getting there. I'll finish it eventually. :)

We had ribs for dinner that night and they were delicious. Someone fell asleep on the way home:

Copper was a sleepy puppy after a nice long weekend
of running free in a nice big backyard :)

We got home (a little earlier than we expected!) and it seems like it took forever to unpack. I hate packing/unpacking. Once we were finally finished with that we sat down to relax and watch a movie. Copper passed out on the couch. I kept hearing a noise, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. Eventually, I realized it was the cat scratching at the door--she wanted to come out! So I cracked the door open for her and she came out to explore. She even walked right up to Copper since she was asleep and all, but she moved and scared Cocoa off.

Look who came out to explore!

Copper has gotten a little braver every day and the other day they were growling/hissing/barking at each other from opposite ends of the hallway:

Demon kitty trying to scare Copper. 

Cocoa is slowly becoming more tolerable of Copper. Today she let Copper in the room (I was holding Cocoa though) and she didn't growl or hiss at her--until Copper started eating the cat's food. Kitty didn't like that. 

Friday night we're going to dinner and then the Cards game with my parents. And it's a fireworks night after the game--my favorite! :)