Peace and Quiet

You'll never guess what happened?

Yesterday, our tenants moved out. Mike has been living in Germany, working, since before Thanksgiving. Becca and the kids finally received their orders and a moving company came on Friday to pack all of their stuff.

It's so weird that it's so quiet around here. They moved in about a month after we did, so they've been here for about a year. We've never really had a chance to be newlyweds in our first home.

There is absolutely nothing in our basement. Our minds are spinning over what to do down there. I'm sure that there will be lots of posts over changes that we make down there. I'll get some before pictures up soon.

Countdown to Vacation

There hasn't been too much going on, hence the lack of blogging. Mike, our tenant, left for training yesterday. Becca seems to be taking it fairly well. I don't think it's really sunk in yet. I can't imagine having to go through what she's going through. I am fully appreciative of all those men and women that serve our country. But, I am so grateful that Drew stays home with me.

We're gearing up for vacation, which we leave for on Thursday. We're visiting the Daughtry's in North Carolina. We leave bright and early Thursday morning. My wonderful husband scheduled our flights for 7 AM!!! I'm not so stoked about that. But, we do arrive in Charlotte at about 10 AM, where we will leave directly for Hilton Head Island. I've never seen the ocean, so I'm super excited to be able to see the Atlantic and stick my feet in there. Hopefully, the weather will be nice. When I checked the weather at the end of last week, they were calling for scattered thunderstorms. So, the next couple of days will be a flurry of cleaning, laundry, and packing. The fun parts of going on vacation!

I'm going to try to blog through vacation, like I did on our honeymoon. I can't make too many promises, because I'm sure to be kept pretty busy. Plus, there's little Emma that I am totally excited to snuggle with. I'm sure that she's not going to help the baby fever one little bit.

How to Thoroughly Piss Me Off!

I kind of lost it last night.

First, let's back up to Sunday. Drew was working and I was getting ready so that I could meet him for lunch. It was about 11 AM. Mike came upstairs to cook some breakfast. He asked me if we had some pancake mix that he could use because something happened to theirs, but I didn't want to know what. I told him that if we had any, it would be in the pantry. A few minutes later, he asked me what temperature I set the oven to if I'm making cupcakes.

"Whatever the box says to set it at"

"Well, I don't have a box" ::I give him the side-eye:: "So, what do you usually set it at?"

"I have no idea."

He says ok, so I walk back to the bedroom to finish getting ready. I walk out to the kitchen a few minutes later, after he has walked back downstairs, to find cupcakes made out of pancake batter cooking in my oven. As I left, him and Andy had buttered and syruped their pancake cupcakes and were sitting in the dining room eating.

I got home from lunch with Drew to find that the remaining pancake cupcakes, syrup, and open butter container were sitting on the counter. Both sides of the sink were filled with dirty dishes, and their plates had just been thrown in the sink without really being washed off. Becca came home from church and they all left. About an hour later, they came back and she got some stuff out of their fridge and left again. The kitchen remained the way that I had described.

Drew got off work and we went up to my mom's house for a little bit. We stopped and got some dinner and got home about 8:30 PM or so. They still weren't home, and according to Drew didn't get home until about 11:30 PM.

Yesterday morning, we got up and got ready and went to work. The kitchen remained the way I had described. I decided to go tanning after work so I got home about 6:45 PM. Drew had a softball game last night so he wasn't going to eat dinner and I would be making my own. I walked into the kitchen, quite famished at this point to start my dinner. The butter and syrup had been put away, but everything else remained the way I had described. I didn't have a clean pan to cook my dinner in because they had apparently already made dinner for themselves. I couldn't even easily wash a pan to cook my dinner because both sides of the sink were filled with dirty dishes. Mind you, the dishwasher was filled (well, half-filled because Mike decided to empty the bowls and plates from the bottom rack of the dishwasher) with clean dishes.

That's when I lost it!!

I stormed out to the living room (where Drew was playing a poker game) to vent over the state of the kitchen. We had been laughing over them leaving their stuff out for so long and were wondering how long it would take for them to put it away. I was livid at this point. I rant for a few minutes and then go back into the kitchen to clean up so that I can make dinner.

I don't think that I could have made any more noise while unloading the dishwasher unless I broke things. I was slamming the glasses and cupboard doors. As soon as I get done unloading the dishwasher, I yell to the living room, "How long did that take me? Oh right, two %(#&%)# minutes!!" I start reloading the dishwasher and cleaning out the sinks so that I can wash a pan and, low and behold, Mike and Becca come walking into the kitchen carrying some dishes. He tells that they were 'just coming upstairs to wash their dishes'. Uh huh! Right!! I continue to load the dishwasher and start to grab some of the dishes that Mike had just set on the counter. He tells me that they can wash their own dishes, then picks them up and comes over to the sink to start washing them, shoving me out of the way in the process. So now, I've got the sinks emptied so that I can finally wash a pan and he's standing in the way washing his own dishes. I storm out of the kitchen once again and go into the living room where Drew is at. I look at him, tell him what happened, and then tell him that he better get in there and do something before I stab them with a dirty fork.

Drew goes in and fills a pan, that they had washed, with water and starts it boiling. Drew said that they couldn't even look him in the eye. They finish cleaning up the kitchen and go back downstairs, not to be seen for the rest of the night.

I don't think that I overreacted. Maybe acted a little immature in the slamming of cupboards. But enough is enough. They rarely do the dishes. I think that Becca has helped out less than a handful of times. And they cook in there plenty of times. Only time will tell if my little tirade will change their behavior. I don't care if they don't like doing it or not. I don't particularly enjoy doing the dishes either. But it's part of being an adult and living somewhere.

Our "Tenants"

A couple of posts ago I mentioned our new "tenants". And you're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about, who these people are, and how they came to live with us.

As I explained here, they are Mike, Becca, Andy, Johnny, Toby, and Mercury. Mike works with Drew, just in a different area. A couple of weeks after we moved in, they came over to come hang out and see our house. We were showing them the basement and I told them that I would love to rent it out to somebody. Drew jokingly said that they could rent it for $300. ("Jokingly" would be the operative word there.) Apparently, Mike and Becca went home and had a serious conversation about it and decided that they wanted to actually do it. They were living in a small apartment not far from our house. The neighborhood is kinda sketchy I guess.

The next day, Drew came home and asked me what I thought of it. I was shocked at first. First, that they actually wanted to considering the size of their family and the size of the basement. (Granted, our basement is pretty big.) Secondly, $300 seemed pretty cheap. (Granted, it is a basement, but we aren't charging them anything for utilities.)

We have to share the kitchen, but it's big also, so it's not that big of a deal. Strike that.....

It's becoming a HUGE deal. They've been drinking our water, pop, milk, using our condiments, eating our food. We've been cooking dinner for all of us on a regular basis, and you would think that they would have the courtesy to clean up the kitchen. Or at least put away the stuff that only they use.

And don't even get me started on their parenting skills. Or lack thereof.

Thank God I have Drew to vent to about things, and he has me to vent to. We probably would have snapped by now. Remember when I blogged about MTV? Betcha they didn't see this drama? This is not exactly how I expected to spend our first year as newlyweds. We both try really hard not to fight with each other about it. Some days are better than others. It's getting to the point where we're going to say something to them. It's only a matter of finding the right time.

'Cause You've Gotta Have Friends

Our new "tenants" have been living here for about 2 1/2 weeks now. They are Mike, his wife, Becca, and their two sons, Andy (almost 4) and Johnny (5 months). Along with them also came their two pets, a beagle named Toby and a cat named Mercury. I was probably the most worried about the fact that two new animals were coming into our house. Simon has been an only pet since we got him and he has not had any good experiences with other animals.

Simon's new favorite activity is hanging out in the bathrooom sink.
He absolutely L-O-V-E-S when I turn the faucet on so that it's a slow steady steam. He sits there for a while and drinks it and plays with it. He is one happy little kitty!!

When everybody moved in, we just kind of let the animals do their own thing. We each picked up our cats and let them sniff at each other until they squirmed to get out of our arms. It was a few days before Simon began venturing downstairs to see what exactly Mercury was and what he was doing here. It only took a day or two of cautious sniffing and a couple bats at each other for Simon and Mercury to become best friends.

These two are inseperable now! Mercury is upstairs more than he is downstairs. (I think that part of that reason may be because I actually give him some affection.) Most of the time, Simon and Mercury are side by side. Or at least not far from each other.

I walked in on the two of them the other day and Simon was licking Mercury. At that point, I walked out to where everybody else was and said, "Great, now we're going to have to get another cat when you leave!" I am really happy though that Simon and Mercury have made friends. That was a true statement though. I have a strong feeling that when they move out and take Mercury with them that Simon will be lonely. It will then be only a matter of time before we adopt another family member.

Drew is lobbying for a dog. He's going to have to keep wishing for that one for a long time!!!