It feels like it's been a while since I've written, but let's see if I can catch us up.
Mike has been living in Craig, for the past 25-27 days now. He's really enjoying it up there, and is really loving this new job and the people that he is working with. I know that I've mentioned this before, but it's so nice to have him come home in such a positive mood, instead of hating life. There are so many good things that are coming out of this job for him, new opportunities to grow and learn, and that really is all that he wanted at the old Memorial. Mike told me today, that a nurse was asking about me, and asked what I did for a living, and after telling her that I was focusing on photography, she asked him for a business card as she would probably contact me in September do to a wedding shoot. Seems like I might get a little work being here!
Last week on Friday, we had the carpets in the house cleaned. It needed it badly! The guy who did it was very professional, and did the whole house pretty quickly. There are some stains still left behind, but they look so much better than it was before he did his work. I mean, after all, those are the original carpets in the house since it was built back in 2000.
You can clearly see a difference!
Since the floors were wet, and wouldn't be walkable, it made sense that I was heading to Craig anyways. The cats had to be locked up in a room because of the carpets and because I was leaving. However, we wouldn't be able to have showings on the house as all the small move able furniture was crammed into the kitchen and other tiled walkways.
Last weekend, Mike and I did more house hunting, and saw another seven houses. There was a house that we loved the weekend before, as it had homemade stained glass, built in bar with a big fish tank, a huge vegetable garden and flower gardens all over the property, and a walkout deck off the master suite....the rooms were large and spacious, which was hard to come by in Craig, but we just loved it. So last weekend, we walked through the house again, to really look for things that weren't us, or that we'd have to fix or replace. After talking it over, we realized and agreed that as nice as this property is, there were some things that would hinder us. For example: we would have to replace all of the toilets and showers, as they were for miniature people and with how beautiful that yard and flower gardens were, if we somehow weren't able to keep up with it, or keep it as nice as it was, then we'd be letting the community down and would most likely hear," Oh, there goes the people who let that property go to waste. We didn't want that kind of pressure. Besides, if the main reason we liked the house was because of the gardens, we can do that anywhere.
So we started looking again last weekend, and the first house we saw, was pretty ideal for us. We didn't see anything right off that screamed that there was a problem, and we did hear, however that there was rumors that this house had water damage. Well, lucky for us, it rained over the weekend, and we asked to see the house one more time, to figure out if the house would fit our stuff. The second walk through allowed us to see if the furniture would fit, and it will, and we looked for any signs of water damage, and we didn't see any. Mike and I decided to move forward and make an offer on the house.
That Monday, I headed back to the Springs to take care of the house, yard and cats. I was going to stay in Craig with Mike until Tuesday, and make it a long visit, but we had a handyman coming out to do some work, or so I thought, and needed to be there. Monday evening, I moved things back into their places, let the cats out, and did some cleaning. Tuesday morning came earlier than I would have liked, and the handyman was running late, but came when he said that he would. He looked at the things that I asked him to take care of, then told me that he'd contact me within a few days with the estimate. Estimate? I thought you were working? Oh well. So when I hear back from him, I'll set up the time and day for him to do the list of things that I was hoping he was taking care of that day.
Once he left, I decided that I really needed to take care of the yard before I headed back up to Craig. Mike and I discussed my arrival to Craig this week to be on Thursday, so that I could sign papers, if our offer is agreed upon. I spent four hours on the yard, receiving four blisters, and a sunburn for my efforts. The new sod had grown very tall and was still holding in a ton of water from the watering each morning and evening. It stalled the lawn mower a few times, but I raised the blades up to as high as it would go, and continued on...it took me so long to keep the mower from dying on me. The weed whacker ended up tangling inside, so I had to take it apart to fix it, and that took a while as the knot was preventing my efforts to removed the component that I needed to remove to get access to it. I also had to rake all of the wet cut grass shavings, and by the time I was finished, I wasn't a happy camper anymore.
During the time outside, Mike had texted me to tell me that he had been called about a counter offer on the house we were looking at. He wanted to discuss our options and I finally texted him back to let him know that I was available to talk. I told him that we could certainly counter offer again and see what happens. That night, I was told that an agreement was reached and that I'd have to sign papers on it, when I came up on Thursday.
I decided that I would head up to Craig on Wednesday, instead, to surprise him. I locked the cats up again, which they will hate that room soon. I got the house in order, and bags loaded into the car and headed out. I had to drive through a couple of storms, and I managed to grab a quick picture of the storm head before going into it.
When I got to Mike's temporary housing, I called him, as his door was closed. He normally has his door open to allow air to come moving through the hot apartment, but this day, it was closed. I asked him how he was doing, and what he was up to. He told me that he was waiting for the realtor to call him so that he could head over to sign papers on the house. He asked me what I was up to, and I asked him why his door was closed. It took him about five seconds to process what I just said. He opened the door, still on the phone with me to say," I guess you're here!" It was a nice surprise for him that I showed up early. I'm making it an extended trip this week, as I arrived on Wednesday afternoon and will most likely leave on Monday morning.
I signed papers with him, and we had a nice dinner at a local Italian place. Mike didn't eat a lot of his meal, packed it up to take with us, but left it behind at the restaurant. He headed back, but by then, they had tossed it. He was beating himself up over that. I felt bad because I wasn't paying any attention to his leftovers, as I didn't have any to take home. I was pretty hungry from the five hour drive.
That night, we decided to just relax and watch a movie. Since Mike finally finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo, he chose to watch that movie. Now, for those of you who have read the book and seen the movie, you know that the movie is very very loosely based on the book. The movie doesn't really follow the book at all. But if you watch the movie first then read the book, you think that you're reading the wrong book. It's still a good movie, great cast, but it doesn't follow anything. Not that this isn't normal in Hollywood, but still.
This morning, I finally got to sleep! With the cats clustering around me at home, even though we have a Cal-King bed, they still like to cluster around me. Mike and his co-workers had asked that I come to lunch at the hospital today. So I did. The hospital is so nice and clean, and not like a typical hospital clean. It looks and feels very homey like being in a lodge. We had lunch and talked, and then Mike showed my the pharmacy and some of the hospital.
We have plans tonight to head to the local farmer's market that they hold every Thursday, June-Sept. from 3-6pm. Since Mike gets off at 430, I figured that it would be nice to head over together and take a look at what it's like and see if there is anything worth buying. We'll probably head over to the Wal-Mart here and grab a soccer ball too, and possibly kick it around some. I'm not sure what we are doing for dinner, but it's supposed to be a really nice day here, so if we go out for dinner, it would be great to sit outside!
Things are starting to really fall into place. I'm very lucky to have the life that I do, and I'm very fortunate to have the man that I fell in love with. I know it's only a matter of time before the next great chapter comes out, but until then, I'm going to enjoy this chapter. I am still amazed how much life is great when you're living more positively, and surrounding yourself with amazing friends and family.
Tuesday night, I had a girls night and I had so much fun! I'm really blessed to have the friends that I do, and the ones that treat me as family. We had dinner and watched Mirror, Mirror. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. I was surprised as it was very witty and funny! Even with the added commentary from the peanut gallery that was watching it with me... =) I've suggested that we get together again soon, as I'm not able to do weekends much anymore because of the Craig trips.
Well, I'm not sure what else to say, as I think I've pretty much covered it all.
Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment