7 Quick Takes: Doorknobs, Cellphones, and a Cute Sous Chef

--- 1 ---

Well, I got the call I was fearing today. My childhood pet died. Frisky the cat lived a wonderful 20 years, roaming around the cul-de-sac I grew up on for all those years. I wrote a post about a month ago about my cat if you want to know more (like why he only has 3 legs).

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Speaking of my family, they are all driving here for the holiday! My mom, dad, sister (pregnant with twins!), her husband, and 2 kids are all piling in a van tomorrow and making the trek from Georgia to Indiana. They'll be stopping overnight and getting here on Sunday. I'm so excited. I even have a list of fun stuff we can do--which was a harder list to make now than it would have been a few months ago, since a lot of things are just not doable or even open in the cold weather.

--- 3 ---

In a house update, we have been changing out the door knobs this week.

BEFORE

AFTER

It's definitely an improvement from the brassy gold thing (and that obnoxious handle thing which can't be childproofed and I kept getting my finger caught in). But I'm still not 100% sure about it. I feel like oil-rubbed bronze would have looked better with this wood, but I loved the kitchen knobs that were stainless on wood so everything just got based on that. I don't know, what do you think?

--- 4 ---

We also got a tile and grout cleaning done by Stanley Steemer today. I thought it would be more dramatic, but it turns out that our grout had long ago been sealed and painted. That's good, in a way (except for the grout paint that got on the tile), but I'm still glad we did the cleaning.

BEFORE

AFTER

Now if it's dirty, I can only blame myself! (Or, um, a certain toddler who throws food if she doesn't want it . . .)

--- 5 ---

I have spent the last month researching, and I think I'm ready to take the plunge. I will soon be a smartphone user! B decided to cancel his dumbphone with Verizon, since he has a company iPhone. He has barely used his dumbphone in the past year, but we kept paying for it every month. Well, that frees up just under $40 per month for us, and I can finally cut the apron strings from being on a family plan with my mom and dad (which was cheap, but, um, I've been married for 4 years! It's time!).

I have decided to go with a no-contract plan, since for a single user I am 100% positive it's a better deal than any of the big names. While Republic Wireless is probably the best deal out there with Virgin Mobile a close second, I have decided to go with Ting instead. I'm going to buy a Samsung Galaxy S3 off of Ebay for about $200. The good news is that if I hate the plan, I can just find something else. I'm purposely choosing a good phone that can be used with a lot of different no-contract plans, just in case this happens. But I'm excited about this. Hey, I might even join Instagram! I've been a dinosaur for wayyyy too long.

(Also, there is a referral program that can save you money so let me know if you want to join after I join. Some internet stranger gave me a link for a $25 credit!)

--- 6 ---

My husband B has his "weekend" mid-week for whatever reasons. This is good sometimes, like when I want to go to the gym while Cora naps. B confessed to me tonight that while I was out on Tuesday, he decided to watch Sleeping Beauty on his own while his daughter was asleep. He mostly did this because neither of us could even remember that movie. (I'm actually not sure I have ever even seen it.) Cora has some Disney princess board books that we read, and in the Sleeping Beauty one they call her Briar Rose just randomly, and it bugged him.

Well, over dinner tonight he gave me the entire synopsis of the movie and even threw in a critique of why it was sub-par to Snow White. It apparently needed more singing.

--- 7 ---

As much as I feel that Cora is a Daddy's girl, she is starting to get pretty clingy to me. Especially when I try to cook dinner. She clings to my legs and wants me to pick her up.

My solution: making her my sous chef. I even put an apron on her today. (I think Santa needs to bring her one in her own size. Hint hint, big guy.)

My phone started ringing right as I was taking the picture.
She immediately went from "cheese!" and smiling to this.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

What I Wore Sunday (Football, Skirts, Contact Paper)

First off, happy September! This month means a few things:

1. Football is in full swing! I stayed up late to watch my beloved Georgia Bulldogs fall short of Clemson. At least it was a good game, right?

I found this football book for Cora at the library:

See how happy she is with her book??

That is, UNTIL we got to the letter F.

Whomp whomp.

Yes, the only picture of my team in the entire book is of our player fumbling the ball. I should probably just take this thing back to the library and be glad I didn't waste actual money on it.


2. September is the month of Skirtember! Hey, if the boys can have 'Movember' to grow nasty moustaches (I hate those things, by the way), why can't we have something, too? Today I chose my casual LBD with some extra stuff.

Black and brown, yessirree
Dress: Liz Lange Maternity from Target (nope, not preggers today!) // Cardigan and belt: Charlotte Russe // Cami bra: Maidenform // Sandals: Merona from Target

Outfit is just a re-worked version of this old thing. In that post, I discussed taking Cora to mass by myself and Chick-Fil-A. Well, today I also took Cora to mass by myself, and I also wanted to share with everyone that you can get FREE breakfast at Chick-Fil-A by going to make a reservation right here. Now you can't say I never gave you nothin', right? Except for those of you unfortunate enough not live near any of these delicious chicken biscuits. You should probably move.

3. Not sure how much this has to do with September, but we worked all day at our new house yesterday. I painted the pantry. Why does a pantry need to be painted, you ask? The short answer: because the previous owners were slobs.

My MIL and I also removed a ton of contact paper the previous week, including from the pantry. I have no idea why anyone feels the need to put contact paper onto laminate shelves, which are basically waterproof on their own, but I think these people (or possibly the owners before them) were addicted to the sticky stuff.

Here's your first before-and-after pic from our house.
Contact paper on the left shelf, removed on the right.

And you see how scratched up the wall behind the shelf is? Yeah, I tried to clean it, but it was a no-go. We found some paint in the basement, and I went for it. My FIL took out some of the shelves for painting, but the big one was just a bit too much so I worked around it. The built-ins are very nice (sans contact paper), so this was a fine solution for me.

Wall is scratchy!! Paint looks less green in real life.

Sorry, no complete after pics yet because we didn't have time to get all the shelves in. But soon! I'm happy at least one room in the house is done, even if it is just going to house all my food.

4. Extra pic of Cora because she did great at mass and looks cute today:

We all look cute today.

Closed!

This past Monday, two days after got back from our trip, we closed on our house!

This picture has over 100 likes on Facebook. Didn't know I even had that many friends.

We're not planning on moving in right away. There's actually a whole host of things we (er, I) want to get done before that, and we have our apartment lease until the end of October. The main thing we're getting done is an overhaul of the master bathroom. We'll also be getting a half bath installed in the basement (somehow), painting, hanging shelves and pictures, and buying enough furniture to actually fill a house. I have some longer-term DIY projects in my head as well that will be conquered later. And yes, of course I will be uploading before & after's to the blog!

This is the only picture I have from the inside of the house right now. 

One thing that has already happened with searching for and then buying a house is unsolicited advice. I've heard you get a lot of this when you have a baby, but that actually didn't happen to me much (minus a random lady at Wal-Mart telling me about some baby who died from getting a vaccine the day before Cora's 2-month shots). Anyway, a few close family members already have a lot of toes in the toilet, or whatever the expression is. At least one of those family members will be helping us with a handful of stuff, so I guess I should listen. Or something.

I'm actually very overwhelmed with the idea of home-ownership, especially since B works so much. I've never had to do much maintenance or upkeep in the small apartments we've rented, but now I have to learn a whole new world (while simultaneously keeping a small child alive and happy). That bathroom renovation I mentioned? Yeah, I don't even know where to start. I think I need to call a bath designer, but where does one find one? Google is okay, but I only got like 3 leads from it. Maybe I need to go old-school and check a phone book.

Let's focus on the positive so I stop whining about achieving the American Dream. The things I am looking forward to once we move in? Well, they're the little things.

• Decent water pressure. Our apartment has absolutely terrible water pressure and it takes so long to fill my water bottle in the kitchen sink that I usually do something else while I wait. (I'm thirsty and impatient!) And we use the toilet plunger more than we should.
• Not having to haul groceries up an extra long flight of stairs behind a very slow toddler. I can just bring them through the garage!
• A large pantry. You don't even want to see the state of our apartment pantry right now. Pretty sure when you open the door, everything falls out.
• A dedicated laundry room with a door that closes.
• Lots of counter space in the kitchen (yes, that's an island you see in the picture!) Finally going to ask Santa for a KitchenAid stand mixer.
• A basement for all of Cora's big toys. No more riding cars into the kitchen while I'm trying to cook!
• A dining area large enough to have more than 2 people over for dinner. My mom has already inquired into bringing everyone up here for Thanksgiving! ("Everyone" is my parents plus my sister's family, so 6 extra people.)
• A garage for my car! (This will be more awesome in the winter.)

Well, it's an incomplete list, but those are the things I thought of today as I was inconvenienced by my current living situation (which is actually a rather nice apartment).

But here we go on our next adventure. Yikes.