Dazed and Confused

What?Huh?What?
REALLY?!?
This is necessary?
Am I naive? out of touch?

I'm confused.

So let me get this straight. There is enough of a need to have an over the counter paternity test readily available. When did this become a problem? When did this need arise? Are we just...?
Shouldn't we...? How come...?

NEVERMIND!

I don't want to know. My head hurts already and I'm sure any answer you could give to any question I may ask would just make my head spontaneously combust with many many more questions.

Trading Places

At the end of last year, my contract ended at my previous job. For three and half months, I was a unemployed and bored out of my skull. To make it worse, Matt would come home and occassionally tease me by calling me “House Wife” and then, one day, he looked at me and playfully told me that I wasn’t allowed to pester him about money since I “couldn’t even hold down a simple job.”

Ooooooooooooooo, did he get THE LOOK! Well, guess what happened today?
Go ahead, guess.
Yep.

Today was Matt’s last day of employment. Not only because he is moving to Northern Virginia but his contract has now ended (yeh, perfect timing). And….he hasn’t not yet been able to locate a permanent position here. So, guess who gets to tease a certain HOUSE HUSBAND about not being able to hold down a simple job. ME! HA!

My, my – how the tables have turned.

Impulse Art

Did I happen to mention the expensive purchase that Matt and I made on the Honeymoon, completely on impulse? No? Well, I’ll have to share that story now, won’t I?

We were bored one day on the cruise ship and decided to wander around for a bit. We came across an art gallery and became very enthralled in two paintings** in particular. We checked the prices and thought, “No, we couldn’t, not for that much” plus, they had “Sold” signs on them.

From that moment, we would wander down on a stroll around the boat and stare at our favorite paintings. The more we looked at them, the more we wanted them. I just couldn’t justify it.

(You see where this is going now, right?)

I knew they were holding 3 art auctions on the boat and I managed to avoid the first two. The last one, we wandered into (there’s a lot of wandering going on) after arriving too early for a wine tasting. And then, Karma happened! We walked into the art auction and they were removing the previous paintings and putting up ours. OURS! As a bonus, all auctions were starting at half price. I made my decision right then. I looked at Matt and asked him how much he would offer for each piece. His price matched mine and off I went – auctioning away. No one else bid against me so my first bid accepted. And those other people were lucky – I was ready for a fight.

After the signing of all pertinent documents, I looked at Matt and said, “HOLY SHIT – WE JUST BOUGHT ART! ON A CRUISE SHIP!"

They were delivered a couple of weeks ago and I’m still immensely pleased with our purchase. I love them. I think they are fun, cheesy, cool and different. Just like us. Abnormal. If nothing else, we can look back on these and wonder what on earth we were thinking. Although, I hope not. I hope we will look at them, giggle, and say, "Remember when...?"











My favorite is above and called "Pool Shark" and Matt's favorite is to the right and called "Olive Party.




**I call them paintings, but they are really limited edition lithographs of the original painting. Out of a possible 397, we received numbers 134 and 167. We can’t afford an original, although it would be really cool if we could. We also received Certificates of Authenticity and a brief biography of the artist, Michael Goddard. If you get a chance, check out his site.

MATT & LORI"S WEDDING DVD

I have finally finished editing our wedding DVD. I've put the first 6 minutes or so of it below. It's great being an editor and being able to edit your own wedding. Not only for all the money it saved us, but also for the creative freedom it allowed me to have with it.

If you would like a full copy of it, please let me know, and I'll try to send you one as soon as I can. You have to let me know soon though, as I will be losing my Mac laptop soon, a big : ( because it's owned by the college, and I only have a week left there, so I won't be able to make any copies until I get my own. (Which probably won't be anytime soon, being that we are trying to buy a house in the next seven months.)

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the sample. Let me know what you think.

Take care,
Matt

Pictures

Finally!

I've put up pictures from Venice. Click on the big blue side bar and browse or just click here. Let me know what you think. I hope to have the post about our time there up tomorrow.

Also, Matt has finished the wedding video. He may put up a small clip from the video here soon.

I'm slowly working on the other pictures too. Stay tuned for more.

Tid-bits #3

Realization of the Year

So, after a year of planning, preparing and stressing out for a wedding - suddenly it's done. I've come to realize that no one tells you what to do afterwards. How to go back to normal. I've felt like, "What now?" for a month now. I still feel like I should be looking at wedding stuff in the stores, searching websites, making lists and phone calls. I caught Matt looking at wedding stuff the other day too. Suddenly, it's just back to normal life and it feels kind of weird for us. Huh - who knew?


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Wedding Night Funny

Matt and I had no intention of being anywhere near sober on our wedding night and I'm happy to announce that is a goal we fully met. As many of you know, we went to our favorite pub after the reception with a few friends and family in a party bus. We drank ourselves silly and hopped back on the bus for the hotel. Matt and his brother wandered off to find food at ridiculous hour o' clock and I found my way to our room. I showered** and plopped into bed. Later, Matt came in and I was woken to giggling. Loud giggling. In my drunken, half awake stupor I asked him what was so blessed funny.

Matt: (giggle) Today, (giggle) you nupted with me. (giggle giggle)
Me: Get into bed and go to sleep, you freak.
Matt: Love you
Me: I love you too.
Us: Sigh..........

**I should mention the number of bobby pins that was holding my hair up. HOLY! I seriously thought I would be standing there for the rest of the night pulling those out. Thanks Karen. I have a "few" extra if you run out and need them back, just call!
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Stupid People

I took my car into the shop for a check up and oil change. As I'm still learning the roads here in Northern Virginia, I thought I had gotten lost so I called the dealership for directions. (makes sense, right?) The nice lady answered the phone and said her shpeel that ended in "how may I help you?"

Me: Yes. Hi. I'm trying to find you.
Her: ME?!?! (alarmed and confused)
Me: No.
Her: (confused silence)........
Me: The dealership.
Her: OH!

Lookie-Lookie

Look what Matt did!

http://www.mattlandeen.blogspot.com/

He created a demo blog so that prospective employers can see his work on-line.
That's my creative man!

Click on the link above if you wish to see examples of his work.

This will get him a job for sure. I hope....

News and such

Matt finally landed yesterday afternoon and all is well. I am so happy to have him here. I miss him greatly. Thank goodness for my friends, Sarah and Gabe, who I would be lost without right now.

Today, Matt and I went apartment hunting and what luck we had! We visited several places that were all perfectly acceptable but, I had to keep searching for the biggest bang for our bucks. We came upon a place that had a couple hundred extra square feet for a bit cheaper and (BONUS!) just a couple of miles from my office. As well all know, this will save quite a few pennies in gas money. We are going to sign a 6 month lease and hope that Matt will find a job soon so that we can house hunt more seriously. I'll let you know how that goes. It will be tight on only my salary but if we watch our pennies carefully, we should make it. (and I'm goooooooood with pennies!)

Also, I've begun (sloooooooooooooowly) to add pictures to our Flickr site. Flickr is kind of like a picture blog. If you look in the left hand side-bar of this blog, you'll see a big blue box with some pictures in it. Click on any picture and it will take you to our picture site. I will, again slooooooooooooowly, be adding pictures from the wedding, honeymoon and our life and adventures moving to and living in Virginia on this site. Feel free to wander through it. I've only just begun to add pictures to this site so there are only a few up. I'll let you know when I've put up a significant amount.

And, if you haven't noticed, this is my second post in as many days. Do you know what that means? Yup. I got my new laptop. Happy girl. Happy happy girl. It's funny. I may not use or even turn on this thing all the time but, not having it at my finger tips is like torture to me. I must really be a technology junkie. Sigh....lets see. I have a chemical engineering degree, I love to read AND I love techie-toys...Yep. Sounds like screaming dweeb to me. Meh. I'm ok with that. Call me what you will, I'm happy.


We also received some very sad news today. Matt's childhood friend, Todd, was in a head-on accident a few days ago. Todd is a close friend of Matt and Adam from their childhood in Minnesota. He's holding on and fighting. Please keep him in your thoughts. His family has set up a website to keep friends and family posted, please visit and send warm fuzzies his way. I'm sure, at this difficult time, he and his family could use all the support they can get.

Good News!

After much flight drama (delay, cancellation, delay, new flight, etc) in Atlanta, Matt is finally on a flight and heading my way. I thought for sure he was going to be stranded in Atlanta. He will be here for a week and we will be looking at apartments. I'm sure Sarah and Gabe will want their downstairs room back eventually and as much as I really really really really appreciate their hospitality and willingness to share their home with me, it will be nice to settle into our own place. Even though we are planning on buying a house in the next 6 months or so and won't be able to really settle in - it will still be nice to be in our own spot.

Also, I bought a new laptop so that I can post more often. (and No, I did not pay that much for it, I got it on sale) They had run out of them at the store here so I had Matt check the store in Florida. He bought it down there and is bringing it up with him. I'm such a geek! I'm just as excited about the new computer as I am about seeing Matt again. I love new techie toys! They make me all giggly. Yes, I know it isn't a MAC but it's really all I need. As much as I like MACs, I don't need all that. Matt will be needing one soon enough and we will be a PC/MAC family. One really expensive computer is all we really need.

Finally, the last bit of good news. I received a mini-review from my boss at work yesterday. We have a full-review/bonus every 6 months but, he likes to let us know how we're doing along the way so we're not surprised and have time to turn a possible bad review around. Anyway, I felt all warm and fuzzy. Apparently, I'm doing the right things and I'm on the right track. It was nice to get that kind of feedback so early on. At least I only feel like a train wreck and not actually being one. It's been 3 weeks now that I've actually been doing my job and I'm feeling like I may be "getting it", slowly. I still have a HUGE amount to learn but at least they think I'm getting there.

GO ME!

Your Comments Are Appreciated

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Hello all!!

First I would just like to say thank you all for reading our blog. We have fun writing it, and hopefully you enjoy reading it too. One of the things that makes blogging so fun and unique is the interactive participation you have with your readers. I know when I read Lori's friend Sarah's blog (sarahandthegoonsquad.com) half the fun of it comes from reading the comments of her readers. I'm aware that some of you may not know how to access the comment section. Well, I'm going to tell you now.

After every blog post, you'll see a small underlined link that says "comments". If you click on that link, it will take you to a page where all you have to do is put in your name, your email address, and your message to us and other readers. Don't worry, your email address won't show up, only the name you put in and your comments will show up. Enter your comment int he 'Leave Your Comment' box, and where it says 'Choose an Identity' click on Name/URL . Enter your name in the 'Name' box, and just leave the 'URL' box blank. Then click 'Publish Your Comment'. I know this all sounds confusing, but it will make sense once you open the comment page.

We really would like to hear from you, even if it's just to say hi. All comments get emailed to Lori, so we'll be sure to respond. I'm going to try to get the final days of the Honeymoon Diary up, hopefully by the end of the week.

Take care,
Matt and Lori