Interestingly and coincidentally, I’ve been skulking around this site: Dave Ramsey.com, lately, and I’ve been impressed. This guy is so simple. There are no gimicks – it’s just “Save, save, save, and CUT your debt.” (Sound familiar?) He gives you a lot of instruction and eye-opening examples about how typical folks waste money. He’s even a proponent of the 100% down program for buying a house. Wow.

Now that we’re homeowners and only have secured employment for a few more years, I guess it’s time to get our stuff together…

So, check out Mr. Ramsey’s website and enjoy this random sequence of pictures that I took of Spectre and John wasting time in the pool while I slaved away with the laundry a couple weeks ago.

Mom and Arms had lobster together their last night in Armour’s place… and here’s a pic of us having lobster before I leave for Qatar and Bahrain. If I go down in the Atlantic…Ma’s got a good meal to remember. HA!

Please try not to notice Mom’s hair, which looks like Mr. Energy from the Rudolph cartoons they show at Christmas…or the fact that I’m trying to press in my girth surreptitiously.

{Sigh}

Uh, huh. OK. Enough pics. I’ve got softballs to retrieve.

Thank you.

We went to lunch, at our “new” favorite place Grillsmith:

It’s our new favorite place because it has a Pet-Friendly Patio!

Plus we got to bring the dog…

Cool Thunderhead outside the office, next to the Airborne trainer.

But the highlight of the day was spending some time in our new house!

But, People! I am in LOVE with this kitchen!!!! I would like to HUG, lie down on, and snuggle with, these beautiful countertops which look like yellow quartz…and yellow is one of my favorite colors – although it can never top my all-time favorite color.

Hmmm…a wine fridge?

Can you tell how I feel about that? Granted, until I get to the weight I want, its a no-no. But aftah? This sucker will be put to good use!

And the fridge looks nice on the outside…but the inside? Lets just say it will be glad to see the Maid Brigade next Monday…

We love the “open-ness” (word?) of this house…and we love the retro mail slot. But we don’t like the wallpaper. We also don’t think we like the chandelier – which is not our style – and it is hung WAY too low. I mean, People – I’m 5’4″, and my head hits this thing.

Total Hazard.

This is our Master Bedroom and Master Bath!

…complete with lizard carcass. Oh, well. Can’t have everything.

View through to the “other wing”. Wow. Doesn’t that sound deliciously ostentatious??? Seriously, though – the majority of our time during the week will be in the bedroom, the kitchen, and the living room. The guest room, the two offices/guest-rooms-if-need-be, and other full bath will only be used if we have guests.

So COME VISIT! (But give us until September so we can be ready!)

Guest room…great light.
Holly’s office/room – not such great light. We don’t have a shot of John’s room or the Library – but we’ll get to those in a later post.

And then, of course, there is the Pool…Spectre’s Pool, that is. He’ll definitely be the most frequent occupant.

Here are some shots of John coaxing him in for the first time, and taking awhile to coax him out again. (We’ll need to get that pool cleaner hose out of there for the next time.)

Hope you had a great

Independence Day!

John is here for a couple more weeks before he ships out for Aghanistan, and until I can meet him in Bahrain a couple weeks after that.

Since he’s been home, he’s (and he’ll kill me for posting about this) been discouraged that Deadeye seemingly wants nothing to do with him. In fact, Deadeye only wants to sit on my lap, and sleep next to me. It’s funny, because ever since John came into my life, “my” cat prefers John…and I’ve had Deadeye since I rescued his sorry little bony carcass from The Pound outside of Ft. Hood in June of 1992 when I was just a 2LT, and had much better things to do with my money. (I guess.)

Anyhoo – it seemed that since he had come full circle and preferred me after all, all was right with my world.

And then, tonight, after cleaning up the kitchen, I rounded the corner of this Godforsaken Apartment to find THIS:

So, I moved in for a close-up to see if he’d look me in the eye…the Little Opportunist…and of course, he wouldn’t.

So, I got a little closer…and he still avoided eye contact!

Deadeye, that is a classic sign, Buster.

A classic sign that you know you’re wrong.

So I gave him a little space – thinking…he can’t keep this up…as I noticed his tail wrapped around John’s arm – all snuggly and conspiratorial-ish.

Last chance, you old persnickety Feline – let me down Mano-a-Mano, Baby. I can TAKE IT!

But all I got was this: