Christians Are Annoying

I don't really know this Francisco dude, he goes to my parents church. All I got to say is waking up to his "Why do Christians drink alcohol" really rubbed me the wrong way. Obviously there's a dialogue to follow. And if I'm wrong, may God correct me. But, I pray, I AM NEVER THIS KIND OF CHRISTIAN. HOW is this EVER going to bring anyone to Christ?

Oh, and this was my "nice" comment back to him, cause I really wanted to lay into him.

Francisco is wondering why the heck Christians drink alcohol. He is going to write a note about it soon. 10:43am - 3 Comments


Mary Pitts at 11:06am October 31
Jesus did

Francisco Vázquez at 12:05pm October 31
Id like one specific reference where the Bible records Jesus drinking alcohol. And we also cant make the fallacy of comparing the wine of before to the wine today; alcoholic content is greatly different. Also, if Im not mistaken, grape juice fresh from the wine press would have been considered wine, but not the same type of wine as alcoholic wine. Yeah, Hebrew is weird like that...

Mary Pitts at 3:42pm October 31
If you're going to start changing meanings of words, lets go ahead with "homosexual." That's a slippery slope you're headed down. And where do you stop? If Jesus turned water to wine, why wouldn't he be ok with drinking it? And clearly bible "wine" had alcohol in it because there are tons of drunks in the stories. 95% of my Christian friends drink alcohol. None of us have a problem with it. None of my non-Christian friends have a problem with it. It's only the angry, judgmental Christians that have something to say. Where do you get off being my judge? Isn't that supposed to be left up to Jesus? This is why Christians have such a bad wrap in todays society. It's really hard witnessing to people when they have come across statements like you just made. All you do is alienate those who are unsure of what Christians are about and push them further into the dark. It brings no one closer to Christ.

Dining Room Curtains

This is what we did this weekend.

Shopping Spree

Jordan is coming to terms with kissing his money good bye. And this is what we have in return. The green vase/urn things are on the ledge above the sliding glass doors. The white vase things are going in the dining room on the buffet. And we're getting two of the orange ottomans to use as a coffee table.

The Weekend

Has come and gone too fast.

I worked Friday night, which always makes the weekend feel not so much like a weekend. I woke up to Jordan taking down the 8 hundred billion feet of black wires that circled the exterior of our home. Apparently someone was too lazy to loop the wires for their satellite through the attic, which produced a lot of unnecessary holes in our house too. So Jordan pulled down all the wires and caulked all the holes. No bugs will find their way into my humble abode!

I don't really remember what I did Saturday for the house... I had to pick my parents up from the airport that night and came home to beer and pizza. I guess I didn't do anything too significant.

Sunday we got a lot done. Jordan did all the exterior lights, the foyer light, hung the curtains in the dining room and I painted more. I think I'm going to paint myself to death. And I'm really starting to not like it, which I've never had a problem with it before. I still have to do both bathrooms and the dining room wall and ceiling before the housewarming party, ugh. Speaking of bathrooms and paint, I picked out the exact same paint color for our master bathroom as we had in our old master bathroom. I wanted more of a grey blue, so I'm gonna have to figure out how to tweak it a little.

Today I hung pictures and decided I don't like the curtains for our bedroom. I think I'm going to take them back and get another color.

The dogs are currently on the patio pushing stuff around trying to hunt down a lizard. Jelly is a true outside dog that comes inside smelling like dirt. One of her favorite past times is digging holes, which she gets in big trouble for. Peanut has started a new thing where she brings in acorns, crunches them up, and leaves them in a messy pile on the floor. All I can say is thank God for this ugly, indestructible tile floor.

Again

Jordan took this picture for our realtor, Jaime, to put on the recently sold list. I liked it a lot more than the last house picture.

Progress

We ordered new appliances last night. We have drapery for every room in the house. We have all the lighting needed. And we have all the paint, except for the tray ceiling and dining room wall. I will be ordering these to go on the dining room wall. The demask-like pattern matches the drapery. Hopefully this weekend we will get all drapery and lighting hung. Then I'll start on all the painting.

Times Like These

Keep me sane

Bunnies

I want a bunny

More Tooting Going On

My own horn, that is.

The benefits of stress: I don't eat. And I fit in jeans I haven't fit in for 2 years!!!

Finally Home

Finally! I can get back to making my house a home. The cruise is out of the way. Isn't it sad I viewed it that way? It was a weird 3 days. 8 women together is bound to have drama, which was actually kept to a minimum! But our boss was there... it was weird... We all felt like we had to be on our best behavior, which just killed the mood of a cruise, drinking and dancing. The surf was SO choppy. The boat was rocking like crazy, especially the last night. We didn't even get to go to CoCo Cay, which was going to be my favorite part. So ya, most of us just wanted to get it over with. This is a picture of us at Senor Frogs, 6 out of the 8 at least.

Drapery

Our new drapery for the living room. The verticals just had to go. We planned on using rings to hang the drapery, but they looked better without. That means Jordan has to lower the bar. Poor guy. I'm going to the Bahamas and he's going to be working his butt off here.



Close up view

Tooting My Own Horn...

....Cause sometimes you just deserve it!

Clearly the stress level has been a little high for the past 2 weeks, especially since I don't handle pressure well at all. We have been living on fast food for those 2 weeks. We don't prefer it, but cooking or having a sit down restaurant meal just isn't an option. I was convinced I had gained some weight back. See, for the past 2 months, before the chaos began, I had been making healthy choices and walking 30 minutes a day for 4 or 5 days a week. I got down to my lowest weight in a year, but thought the past 2 weeks had ruined it all. Last night a weighed myself and I'm now weighing less than I have in 2 years! The girls keep asking if I'm going to wear a bikini (cause quite a few of them are too self conscious) and my answer is "Oh yeah! I've lost 15 lbs!! I deserve to wear a bikini" And the reason I lost 2 more lbs in these past 2 weeks... I'm not quite sure, beyond hard work and being near nervous break downs. 6 more lbs and I'll be at my goal weight! And that's my story and I'm sticking too it!

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day

I'm so tired. So tired I picked up Jordan's tooth brush almost started brushing. We have been working non-stop for a week now. No down time. No church. No sitting and eating dinner. No internet surfing. Just running from point A to point B from 9 am to about 11 pm (and 9am to 9am the next day when I work).

The guys managed to move everything Sunday to the new house. We had to pile everything up in the dining room since we weren't getting carpet until the next day, Monday. The carpet guys came Monday morning and the transformation was amazing. The new carpet looks so good.




I've been taking pictures, so once we're more done, I'll post all of them.

The bedroom has turned out really nice, but no room is complete until you hang drapery, so once that's done I'll post the pictures.

The living room furniture looks really good with the wall color. The pink and green tile doesn't even look THAT bad, but it hurts my feet to walk on, so I don't like it.

The kitchen is packed to the brim. I don't see how I got all that stuff in the condo kitchen. Just proves organizing is a must and once we get organized we'll be better off. Right now it looks like we filled up the whole house. I have to keep in mind we have an attic now. I put the suit cases in the closet and Jordan reminded me we could put them in the attack, duh....

Last night the seller's cat came onto the patio and the dogs flipped out. He ran off. Not 10 minutes later, a raccoon came onto the patio and just looked at us. Once the dogs charged at the glass he ran off too. Hopefully since we aren't feeding the cat outside like the other people did, the raccoons will find a new home.

Speaking of previous residents... what dirty people! The carpet was rusted and stained more than anything I've ever seen before. The smoke alarm is yellow stained from their cigarettes. The air filter had nothing left to it except a think layer of dust. My dad said it probably hadn't been changed in years. He was going to take it to work to use it as an example of what not to do. All the light switches have a dirt ring around them (could be because of the useless air filter). I found a patch in the wall that consisted of duct tape that was painted over. I don't think the bath tub has ever been cleaned considering I scrubbed it til my hand was sore and it still has a dirt ring around it (any cleaning suggestions?). My conclusion, dirty people should have to live in the woods. My 2nd conclusion, if you buy a brand new house (or in our case, condo) it's REALLY hard to buy used after that. Spoiled to say the least. But hey, no one can say I don't know what hard work is.

I work tonight and Friday I'm off for our girls only weekend cruise to the Bahamas. Jordan will have plenty of time to get speakers wired and the lawn mowed. Maybe even finish some painting - hint hint.

Oh yes, and I forgot to tell you about my over-joyed puppies. They are having the times of their little lives. The mastered the doggy door 2 milliseconds after finding it. Jelly wants to be an outside dog permanently. She begs to go out from the time she wakes up in the morning until we make her came in at night. She found a hole in the gate and spent the first day going from the back to the front yard before I blocked her in. She is scarring all the trees the best she can. No squirrel will ever be in our yard again, and come to think of it I haven't seen any lizards back there. Peanut is a little more loyal to us. She likes the backyard but doesn't spending every waking moment back there. And she likes exploring more than terrorizing. Anyway, it's been one of the best parts of the house, getting to see our dogs have the time of their lives.

Almost There

Ceilings painted. Master bedroom painted. Most of the living room painted. And almost completely packed. Moving in 12 hours!

Jordan in the skylight

2nd Favorite Fail

more fail, owned and pwned pics and videos

I'm tired and it took me a minute to figure it out, but when I did, I cracked up. Love it!

Paint

Paint paint paint paint paint

Thanks Jen and John for the help, or it would have been even more

paint paint paint paint paint.

So Much to Do

Monday we closed. Tuesday we shopped. Wednesday the ceiling was scrapped of all popcorn and the yellow jackets were killed.



Thursday I painted a gallons worth of toffee crunch on the walls, Jordan changed the locks and my parents came to see the house.



Today I will paint more. I hope to get the bedroom done before the furniture and carpet are done. The brinks guy is coming to update the security system. And we need to hang the plantation blinds, because our verticals in the breakfast nook are missing half and you can see straight through the house from the front yard. Tonight Jordan and John will be painting the ceilings. And tomorrow morning they will probably still be painting the ceilings. More power to them. I'm already sore from painting yesterday.

Jordan brother, Adam, and his girlfriend, Abby, came in town last night. They are at Disney all day today and everyone (except me) is going to LSU vs Florida tomorrow. Adam got me a LSU yard gnome that I just love. The little guy will go nicely with the rest of our collection.

I'm already exhausted and we still have 3 days of this.... I worked on the house for 5 hours yesterday and came home around 9:30. I remembered why I was feeling so tired at that point, I worked the night before and got 4 hours of interrupted sleep that morning. I'm so ready for that cruise next weekend.

Obama the Muslim Anti-Christ

And no, I don't believe that for a second. But I did get this forward and I'm shocked at how many people out there really do believe this! Between the racists and him "being" Muslim, I think he might actually be kept out of office.

I don't agree with him, and I won't be voting for him, but it has nothing to do with either of those 2 things. Now saying he's the anti-Christ, that's a possibility. Just kidding.... Maybe...

And the reason we don't profile people is because this is AMERICA!! If you're a terrorist, you get to be one until proven guilty of doing something illegal. Being Muslim is not illegal. Having extremist view points is not illegal. This idea of Muslims being terrorists does nothing but spur hate towards the religion, and 99% of them aren't terrorists.

Guess what, there are extremists in every religion. Christians tend to blow up abortion clinics. Catholics perform exorcisms and incidentally kill people.

I would be proud to have a black president. I think it's about time this country does have one. If you aren't going to vote for Obama, do it for other reasons than he's black and Muslim descent (knock knock, you are probably of Muslim descent too)

Oh, and ALL the examples used below are Muslim extremists, not people of Muslim descent, which completely negates the entire argument.


"A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.

Pause a moment, reflect back.

These events are actual events from history..

They really happened!!!

Do you remember?

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male extremist.

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslim male extremists.

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim male extremists.

4. During th e 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by Muslim male extremists.

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim male extremists.

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim male extremists.

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens , and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim male extremists.

8. In 1988 , Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim male extremists.

9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim male extremists.

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim male extremists.

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, =2 0 one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim male extremists.

12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim male extremists.

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by-- you guessed it-- Muslim male extremists.

No, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people... Absolutely No Profiling!

They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males alone lest they be guilty of profiling.

According to The Book of Revelations:

The Anti-Christ wi ll be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, he will destroy everything.

And Now:
For the award winning Act of Stupidity Of all times the People of America want to elect, to the most Powerful position on the face of the Planet -- The Presidency of the United states of America ... A Male of Muslim descent who is the most extremely liberal Senator in Congress (in other words an extremest) and in his 40s.

Have the American People completely lost their Minds, or just their Power of Reason ???

I'm sorry but I refuse to take a chance on the 'unknown' candidate Obama...

Let's send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Aldreds and other stupid attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves -- if they have any such sense.

As the writer of the award winning story 'Forrest Gump' so aptly put it,
'Stupid Is As Stupid Does'



Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet...do it! or again. . . just delete if you disagree."

It's Already Started

Last night we took Peanut and Jelly to the new house to play in the backyard. The electricity had been turned off since that afternoon so we weren't able to do a whole lot. Jelly ate the trees and Peanut went hunting through the bushes. Peanut found a yellow jackets nest and got herself thoroughly attacked. She had them all over her and she was quite pitiful looking. She got at least 6 stings, we had to pull out the stingers. I called the emergency vet and they told us to give her benedryl. She was in so much pain last night. She would lay down and get right back up to lick her stings. Then she would wonder all around the house, then try laying down again. It was so sad and had me near tears.

Today I spent the day running errands. Home Depot, utility company, Appliance Direct, Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond. I decided I want to replace the appliances. I bought paint to try out on the walls. And flying insect spray. I decided I was going to be brave and attack those that attacked my poor dog. I figured out where the yellow jackets were coming from (it was dark last night and we couldn't tell), a rotted out tree stump. I could see part of the nest, but there's a fern growing out the top so I wasn't sure. So I sprayed, got scared and ran in the house, back and forth about 3 times. Until I'd used 2 cans of pesticide.

After that I tried out some paint on the walls. Cleaned some of the electrical outlets, since the previous owner painted over all of them. And I hung the doorbell. Just call me Mrs. Fix-It.

So about an hour of all that I went back outside to check out the nest. I could see some dead yellow jackets and thought I had won the battle. I threw a rock at it and this HUGE swarm came out. Big enough you could hear the buzz, and hear their bodies smacking into each other and leaves. FREAKY! Time to call the professionals.

First guy I called quoted $350!!! I think he heard my gasp over the phone. Second guy I called was an "average" of $225. Whew, better, but holy cow! Third guy is going out there in the morning to do a free quote. I'm willing to pay whatever it takes to not have this happen to my dog again, but the unexpected expense is kind of a quick in the gut.

Tomorrow the electricity will be turned on. The ceiling guys will start tomorrow also. I love just being in the house. I'll be even more excited when it's ready for us to move in (And the yellow jackets have been completely removed).

Got the Keys!

So that means it's official! Paperwork complete, money wired, check written, keys in hand! We went to the house after closing just too check out our new home. The realtor gave us a "money tree" and a card, so sweet. And apparently we inhereted a cat with the house. Poor cat isn't going to last long once Peanut and Jelly move in. We bombed the place for bugs and went to Lowes. Bought new blinds for the breakfast nook, new door handles, concrete filler (oh ya!) and that's about it... for $500. The joys of owning a home and caring what it looks like has already set it.

Fail Blog

more fail, owned and pwned pics and videos

I found this website through a friend and love it. It cracks me up.

Final Walk Through

We just did our final walk through. The house looks, and smells, so much better without all their furniture in it. The drywall guy met us there and is going to call Jordan with the price later. He said he could start on Wednesday and it will be done on Thursday. Then hopefully we can have the carpet laid on Friday. Sunday we will move in.

We still don't have the numbers the broker is supposed to give us. I don't know what their holdup is, but last I heard, the underwriter still didn't have the mortgage package. We'll see what happens on Monday.

Cops and Robbers

Jordan is in Tampa for a football game. It would have been a perfect night to go out with the girls, but they seem to all be at work. Instead I went to my parents house and took the dogs. Mom made a great dinner, Mamaw came to stay with them (she still hasn't slept at her house since the break in), and Vernon and I fought like we were teens again. After dinner about 8 o'clock, Dad went in the front yard for something, and there was a young guy walking back and forth on the sidewalk opposite our house. It's a small neighborhood so my dad knew he didn't belong there. So after about 10 minutes of him walking back and forth, eyeing my brothers brand new Mustang GT, they called the police. Before the police showed up, another guy appeared with him and they were seriously casing the car. As soon as the police car pulled in the neighborhood the two kids ran off between some houses. The police went after them and called for backup, but didn't catch them. My dad had alerted the nosey neighbor down the street and he got the whole thing on video. So after having the car for 2 days, Vernon almost got it stolen! Unfortunately, Mamaw was at the house for the whole thing. The last thing she needs is to fear my parent's house also. And it is a pretty big coincidence that her house was broken into a week ago tonight.

If it wasn't a manual, I might be tempted to steal it too



For house news, tomorrow is a pivotal day. The sellers haven't agreed to change the closing day to Monday, so they could potentially cancel the contract. The mortgage company is trying to give us a higher rate because they don't want to give us what they originally quoted (all due to the recent loan colapse). The underwriter is getting the mortgage package tomorrow. We will know if the lender gave us our orginal 5.625% rate or the higher 5.875% rate. We will also have the number that the bank has to write the certified check for that covers the down payment and the closing costs. Buying our condo was so easy. We didn't do all this craziness.

Just Awesome

Jordan just called to say he got the promotion he's been waiting for 2 years for. He's now the Senior Interface Designer. With the promotion he got a 10% raise. And his potential bonus went from 15% to 20%. Now is that good timing or what?!

Don't Do It!

This is the best video I've seen in a long time. Talk about a stress reliever.

I've been in a pretty awful mood the past 3 days. It's bad enough that I'm blaming it on hormones. I feel like I could yell at just about anyone, forget about composure. It could be the house stress. You can only be pulled so many different ways until you have nothing left to give. That's how I feel. There's nothing left inside me except anger and bitterness so leave me the f* alone. I don't think I'm going to answer any more phone calls about the house. I just don't have anything left. Yesterday I was to the point of saying keep your stupid loan, I'll stay in my easy condo. But that's not going to help anything, and we know we have a good thing going here.

Our insurance agent never did get in touch with our mortgage broker, after multiple calls and emails over 3 days. Mortgage dude was begging for a response and we still haven't heard from insurance Reject. It was to the point where mortgage dude told Jordan and I we were going to have to move our closing date if he didn't get the documents he needed. Thankfully Jordan took care of this. Got Liberty Mutual and mortgage dude on a three way call and fixed everything. They had to use a new agent, since first Reject still has not been heard from. Mortgage dude said he has never dealt with such a difficult insurance agency. So I called Liberty Mutual customer service and filed a complaint against Reject.

While Jordan was taking care of the 3 way call mess I was holding this tiny little baby:



Christa (from the banging baby shower) gave birth to Madison Renee at 9pm last night. Madison was born 8 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long. She's a pretty cute newborn. She was making a funny face for this picture:



And I took this video cause she was apparently having a dream. Her eyebrows were moving up and down and she was breathing all huffy.

Jumping Through Hoops

8:30 last night I'm at work and get a call on my cell from our mortgage broker. I know this is a bad sign if he's calling me after hours. He tells me the lender wants EVEN MORE documents from us. Keep in mind they have our checking statements, saving(s) statements, 401k, pay stubs, tax forms, 2007 W2, and employer numbers to get verbal verification of employment. Not to mention they've run our credit!! Our debt to income ratio is lower than average even WITH the two mortgages!

So, he calls to say that the underwriter wants to know "what we are hiding" since my printed pay stub was missing a page. The second part of my pay stub looks like this

00.0 00.0 00.0

It's adding up the PTO and ELB I don't get (since I'm pool, I get paid more hourly and don't get PTO or benefits), so it's all zeros. And I didn't feel the need to fax a page that looks exactly like that! SO I refaxed my most recent pay stub and included the zeros. They will probably want to know now why I didn't use the same pay stub as the last one.

Besides needing my zeros, they also want our current mortgage statement. I was thinking... ok, to see that we pay *this* and owe *that*. NO! It was to make sure our taxes were rolled into our loan. WTF!??!?! This is literally about $2500 a year??? Again, the debt to income/credit history should prove we aren't having a hard time paying our taxes. Whatever! Just one more thing we have to fax.

***Note to future home buyers: invest in a fax machine

Whoever is doing this loan must have some screws loose. They wanted to know why we had had so many credit checks in the past month. Um, cause we were looking to buy a house and shopping for loans! Mr. Underwriter, people check credit before they approve you (or even preapprove up), as you should know since you're checking ours so thoroughly.


And just to add a cherry to all this wonderfulness, he informed us that the lender is no longer doing 95% loans as of today. Which tells me they regret saying yes to our loan, but they already did so they have to follow through. It almost sounds like a threat too.

Now I know this is a bank being safe and trying not to end up in the exact situation banks are in, but come on now. Debt to income/credit report should be enough proof. Problem with the economy, people brought home $2500 a month and got a mortgage for $2000. That obviously doesn't add up. But hey, I'm clearly not a banker....

Until the signatures are on the dotted line, I will not be breathing easy (quite literally, my chest is tight and it hurts to take deep breaths. You know that saying "it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest"? It does)