2 down, 80+ to go

Today is our 2 year anniversary and even though I think I have already posted this picture I am going to do it again because I think this is my favorite picture of all time. We took this at Siesta Key beach in Sarasota when I came out to visit Pat right before he started spring training. It was our first official vacation together and it couldn't have been more fun. We stayed at a really cool hotel in longboat key, went out for delicious Florida dinners, hung out in the pool during the day and went out to the "Daiquiri Deck" at night. I think that trip was the beginning of me wanting to move away to an island, live in a hut, and stay in vacation mode all the time with Pat (but who doesn't want to do that I guess). Anyways, this picture along with this momentous occasion has made me think of how lucky I am to have such a cute husband. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to be all cheez and shmooz, Pat can totally suck sometimes (and "I guess" I can too) , but what I have always loved about Pat is that he plans the most thoughtful dates and is always so much fun to be around.

After 2 years of being married and 5.5 years of dating before that it still feels like we are totally boyfriend and girlfriend (not boring husband and wife). Maybe just to prove that point to ourselves, we went on another very last minute vacation for our anniversary that I will have to fill you in on as soon as I can remember to load the pictures.

So anywho - Pat and Katie are still married... We still like each other....and we are probably going to be doing this whole anniversary thing next year too!

Total Bummer = Understatement of the year.

Okay so forget the tacky christmas wreath and this house is fabulous right? Yeah Pat and I thought so too. That is why we put an offer on it, put our deposit down, got our loan approved, picked out new granite for in the kitchen, designed a fabulous new patio area, picked out paint colors, and ordered one last extra little inspection just for "peace of mind" before we moved in.

Well guess what? That one last (extra) inspection that we had done killed the deal. I am soooooo sad to say - we are not buying this house anymore. Apparently my anxiety and Pat's skepticism kept us from falling into a really really bad situation, but still I am more sad than anything else.

As it turns out we really did dodge a bullet with this one. Our first inspection came back basically fine. There were a few minor things that we asked to have fixed (as one would expect) but all in all we were pleased. After we got the "okay" report our 1st inspector, explained to us though that in Ohio stucco on houses can sometimes be problematic. With the snow and other wet weather it is possible for moisture to accumulate between the stucco and the frame of the house blah blah blah so he suggested that we do this one other inspection. We debated becasue it was $1,500.00 but ultimately decided that we would sleep better if we did it. Well the $1,500 probably ended up saving us somewhere in the 5-6 digits in repairs.

The moisture readings were apparently off the charts in some places. We aren't sure if the seller knew about this or not ( it obviously wasn't part of the disclosures), but regardless it still is pretty devastating and sooo weird becasue there were not any visible signs of water damage in the house, outside, or in the basement. I thought that this house would be the end of a very long, very frustrating house search, and the beginning of a fabulous "settled" life in Ohio, but no dice. With no other immediate prospects in sight it looks like my landlord just totally lucked out. We are staying put for a while. To be honest - I couldn't go house hunting right now if i tried. I hate houses and I hate the snow that casues gorgeous houses to turn into giant crap heaps without you even knowing.

Take this as a little lesson for whenever you are buying your next house. It is so easy to fall in love with it and rush to the finish line without being as careful as you should. If i was doing this alone, I might not have ordered the extra inspection (especially since our realtor said we didn't need it - interesting huh!) BUT, A little bit of extra work upfront can save a huge huge headache in the future.....you just have to deal with the fact that the extra work might just make all of your fun design ideas worthless. Eff.

Wishful thinking

(see below)***

I got dressed for work this morning hoping that I could "mix it up" a little bit and throw a dress on. I picked out a cute green wrap dress that I haven't worn in months and paired it with some boots. Despite the few inches of pastey pastey leggy I decided to show off at work, I thought I looked "cute" and my outfit was "okay." Although, as the day went on looking "cute" seemed pretty stupid once I realized that I would be sitting at my desk freezing all day. I was actually cold enough that I went home and changed my clothes at lunch. Ridiculous huuh? I think that this occasion is the first obvious sign of my stupid cold weather denial that inevitably starts after the first semi-warm day of winter. Guess I need to keep the legs covered, keep the socks on, and button up my coats for a while longer....it has been proven, I cannot will the weather to improve.

*** here is my new warm outfit for today, matched with my new warmer hair color that i have not posted any pictures of. I decided to post these together becasue not only have I learned that you cannot wear warm weather clothes when it is cold...but also, you cannot easily maintain super blonde hair when the world you live in is devoid of sunshine.

**** By the way, not sure what is going on with my rumor willis chin in this pic. Can't blame that one on the cold!

Super Sunday Soup

Delicious Chicken Tortilla Soup.....

sautee onion + celery+ then add chilli powder

cook for 3-4 min. add Diced tomatoes + chicken broth.

Squeeze about 6 limes into the soup then admire my artsy lime photo :)

Be lazy. Buy a grocery store rotisserie chicken...

Shred the chicken. Add it to the soup.

other delicious ingredients to add:

black beans

cilantro

corn

sliced avocado (on top - when serving)

crunched up chips (good but not the same "healthy" soup )

cheese (good but not the same "healthy" soup)

sour cream (good but not the same "healthy" soup)

I am an AuNT!

I can finally make it official.... Kristen and Jim are preggers and I am totally an AUNT (which also means that Pat is an Uncle- obvi) !!!!!! I am seriously so excited i can't even contain myself. The baby's due date is August 30th which happens to be 2 days after my birthday! We don't know what they are having yet so I have affectionately coined the term "niecephew" to describe my new favorite addition to the family.

I haven't seen my sister since they announced the big news so I am really thinking that it will be totally to surreal to see her baby bump for the first time. Not because it is surprising that she is going to be a mom though. She has been a mom since she was born.

So anywho.... if any soon-to-be Dowd parents are reading this Congratulations again for like the 600,000th time. Love you guys! and I can't wait to meet my niecephew.

My 25 things....

I am pretty much afraid of everything. Most of all I am afraid of water. Even though I am a great swimmer I am terrified of being out of control and drowning. I do not like snorkeling unless I can quickly swim to shore. I even have panic attacks being on boats in choppy water (p.s. I was not like that until a few years ago)

I have moved a ton in the last 5 years… I have lived in South Bend Indiana for college, I moved back to the OC for a year afterwards, I moved to Jacksonville Florida when I got engaged, and a year after I got married I moved to Ohio. Pretty sure I will be staying here for a while though
My cute husband and I are in the process of buying a house. It is fabulous and I can’t wait to move in and get settled.

I seriously hated high school. I took correspondence courses my senior year so that I could leave at noon everyday and avoid having to sit through lunch time.

I always hated being taller than most of the guys I knew. When I would complain my mom would joke that when I went to college I would meet some huge “corn-fed Ohio boy” that would be taller than me. Ha ha – I totally did.

I love to cook but I HATE touching raw meat. If I am serving chicken I cut off pretty much everything even a little bit gross and everything that came close to touching the gross part. When I am cooking for myself I also tend to cook meat until it is dry as can be. I love it that way.

I actually love my job. I work in advertising and even though there isn’t a single person close to my age in my office I always have fun at work. It is the perfect mixture of business and creativity so I never get bored or feel like I am not being challenged. Nonetheless, I do want to retire soon and have kids :)

If I had to eat one thing every day for the rest of my life without any consequences I would eat cheese fries with ranch dressing.

I modeled for Hollister when I was 16. The pictures never showed up anywhere until I was 21…and fat. There were huge wall sized pictures of me up in malls when I was a senior in college and it just embarrassed me because I didn’t look a thing like that anymore – ha ha. (damn cheese fries)!

After always having a dog my whole life I have decided that I do not want any pets of my own. I know they are cute and super loving but they are also dirty and they keep you from taking last minute trips and other fun stuff.

I have had stitches in the back of my head, the bottom of my foot, on my chin, on my back, and on my eyelid. I have also had staples in my head too, but I have never broken a bone.

I think I would take my husbands advice over anyone else in the world. He is the perfect mix of book smart and super practical smart….please don’t tell him though.

I recently dyed my hair a darker/warmer shade of blonde than my usual – and a lady (who I really like) at work told me “this color is a little more (dramatic pause) “believable”…….wow. Who said I ever claimed to be naturally platinum? – ouch!

I felt like I had about a 2nd grade understanding of math until I was in college. It wasn’t because of some great teacher or any specific class- I was actually assigned to tutor homeless people in Math and I realized that a vast majority of them knew more than I did (thanks VPHS) so I started to buckle down and force myself to learn more.

My boyfriend/husband and I dated for 5 years before we got engaged. That whole time I would only see him the fall semester of school. Then he would leave to go play baseball and I would only see him once every two months for the remaining 8 months of the year.

I have this one pair of boots that makes me feel like Hannah Montana every time I wear them. I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

My parents live in Florida, my sister Lauren is in California, my brother Marty is in Boulder Colorado, and my sister Kristen is in Chicago. I miss them all.

My best piece of marriage advice is to say sorry even when you aren’t. Being stubborn gets you nowhere and eventually giving in feels better than fighting just to prove a point.

Other than tennis shoes and boots I don’t think that shoes should be worn with socks. It always looks bad.

I am not big on accessories. I will wear bracelets/bangles, but usually I pretty much stick to diamond studs and my wedding rings.

I am notorious for re-telling stories. I constantly hear “ yeah you already told me that”

I went to dinner with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner once when she was pregnant. They didn’t know that I would be there, but we did end up at the same table. True Story.

If I could have any job in the world I would want to be a country singer.

I suck at returning phone calls and emails. Not because I don’t care, but because I am usually in a different time zone than the person who called and I never check my voicemail.

I am a little embarrassed that I spent so much time on this thing. Like anyone really cares to know this stuff about me.

I'm Out of Ideas....

February is a big month for gift giving in our house. Not only is it Valentines day, but we also have our (2nd) anniversary. With Pat's Birthday in November and Christmas obviously in December, I find it hard to come up with lots of cool gifts during this short stretch of time.

I have done all of the traditional gifts like, the watch, the nice wallet, a monogrammed card case for business cards, cool running shoes, workout clothes, a really non-gay leather jacket, an ipod, fancy dinners, cuff links, a freaking badass ashton kutcher camera - pretty much everything. This one time (our first year in college when we had been dating like 2 months) I even bought him a turtleneck sweater. Seriously - i did. I bought it becasue I thought that that was what guys in Ohio would wear when it got cold. WRONG. Very WRONG. I have learned my lesson, but I am totally out of ideas now. I know that the big things that I would like to get him are usually things he would rather pick out for himself but he always gets me awesome gifts so I really feel the pressure to come up with something and be the hero this time around.

I was thinking something for the new house (like tools) but that is sooo not romantic. It is kinda thoughtful becasue he likes to be handy but not really anniversary-worthy????

I need some ideas. Really good ideas.....Even if they are "anonymous" ideas becasue you don't want to come clean as a being a blog stalker :) and P.S. I like blog stalkers and I am totally one too so please help!

Monday Morning

I reluctantly arrived at work this morning to an "interesting" surprise. I walked really slowly in the parking lot so that my work week wouldn't have to start any sooner than it had to - and once I hit the front door , I almost (and really should have) turned around and ran back home. "It" hit me like a ton of bricks....and "it" was the overwhelming stench of sewer- hell! Apparently all of the snow melting outside made the pipes in the sewer system overflow and my office smells like a giant poopsicle. Despite the fact that sitting at my desk makes me feel like I am chillin' in a diaper, I am not allowed to go home. We are "muscleing" through it. I might puke.

Total case of the muuundays today. Hopefully things will get less "crappy" as the day goes on. Ha. Ha......Ha?