The dance days are over...

Saturday being St. Patrick's Day I made corned beef and cabbage for myself, my husband and a couple of friends whom I thought were joining us for dinner. Let me start off by letting you in on an Irish secret. Corned beef and cabbage is like the easiest thing in the world to make and looks extremely impressive and then you get to tell people you've been cooking it all day. The secret of this: The Crock Pot. In the morning I threw in some carrots, tiny potatoes, chopped up onion and then placed in the beef and filled the pot almost completely with water and some seasoning. Put the lid on top, set the heat for low and then waited for dinner. So friggin' easy, so amazingly delicious.

As I had mentioned earlier I had thought we were having some friends over for dinner. I get a text message from them at 10 asking what we're up to tonight and I tell her "Making corned beef and cabbage, and we were hoping you guys were joining us." We had discussed doing just this the week before but hadn't ironed out details yet, didn't seem like we needed to. She told me that she had been invited out by other people who she told she was free to. I told her that if she wants to go that's fine, but we wouldn't be invited so to let me know if she was planning on showing up to our house for dinner. This was probably a mistake of me because I wasn't fine if she didn't show up. I was actually pretty hurt. This was made all the more difficult that they were hanging out with my ex and his wife. Not that I have a problem with them anymore. Quite the opposite. The last time I saw them she was extremely nice and personable to me and I am nothing if not forgiving of people. But I do know that even though we may be on good making small talk, trading house buying and pregnancy advice, and not insulting each other anymore terms, we're not people that they'd invite out for a night on the town. My friend decided to go on the one outing there was no way we could join. After we had talked months about how much fun we had together on St. Patrick's Day and how we had to do something together this year and because I what, didn't set a time for her coming over she was bailing on me?

She asked if she was mad and of course I said no, because I'm a doormat and let people walk over me all the time. She then spent the rest of the day sending me text justifying her actions: we had just seen each other last week, she hadn't seen them in some time, she just wanted to live up some of the glory of past St. Patrick's days, etc. I knew she couldn't do that with a pregnant friend in tow. Kenny's not a drinker, I am. I can't move on the dance floor like I once could, and more importantly: I don't want to. I was excited for my crock pot dinner and potential game night. I liked thinking I wouldn't have to pay money to spend time with people at a bar where we couldn't hear each other and was full of drunk college kids and high school kids with fake id's. I was looking forward to being a grown up.

Then I started to cry. I realized something about me, about my life now. I am a grown up. The St. Patrick's Days of getting ex boyfriends to drink water after overdoing the liquor and tequila shots were over. The driving drunk friends home only to have them get lost on the way because they're too drunk to tell you where they live. The receiving of hilarious text pictures of aformetioned exboyfriends who fell into ditch puking on the way home that night. I think that's what I'll miss most of all. That was my life 5 years ago. My life now is picking out colors for the nursery. Inviting over the inlaws so all that food doesn't go to waste and then having an amazingly fun evening anyway. Having everyone rave over my ever so easy to make dinner recipe. Playing a game with my sister and brother in law at 9 pm and wondering if it's too late to start another. Cleaning up the dishes in my new remodeled kitchen and putting them in my favorite Christmas present from my parents: a new dishwasher. Having a husband who holds me in his arms as I cry out my death of youthful times and reminds me of happy times we have coming up. Yes, the dance parties of St. Patricks Day are over, but next year I'll have a new mostly Irish lad or lassie to celebrate with and we'll have all new traditions. I can't wait.

Full on Grown-up

Well, I'm 27 now. In my late 20's. That's, like, old. First season of "Friends" had Monica say she was 26, and I remember watching that at age 12 and thinking, "Wow, that is like a full on grown up." And I guess that's what I am too. I reread my post last year and can't help but to feel a little proud. I do have that extra ring on my finger. I have that house in the neighborhood with the good school. I do have more hours at the library, though not nearly as many as I'd like. I'll post more on that later. No bun in the oven yet, but not for lack of trying (more on that later too).

This birthday I also get my house back. My sister in law has been staying with us since May and she's pretty much moved out now. I mean most of her stuff's still here but Kenny promises it will be out this week. I can vacuum at 10 am without worry of waking someone. I can get stamps from the guest room at any time. I can wear my skimpy night gown once more. I have full run of the house. Woot! That's really the best birthday present I could hope for. I mean, I'm all for helping out family but I really like my space. And 5 months is plenty for helping out family. Other gifts included the first two seasons of Community and season 6 of How I met your mother, so I'll be quite occupied for this week. Quite a few gift cards too. Not really sure what to buy with them. Shoot, maybe this is maturity. Like material goods don't buy happiness or something. Na, that can't be. I spent a couple of hundred dollars down at Disneyland this weekend and felt happy as a clam. Though thinking of it now most of that stuff was for other people...

Anyways, where do I want to be at 28? Motherhood most likely. I have baby fever in the worst kind of way only made worse by my cousin's adorable baby girl. She's so far away that I'll need to have my own lest I go broke trying to visit the east coast more often. I also want to be down to one job, be it the library or some other job I'm in love with, this whole 2 half time job thing ain't cutting it. I also want to rid myself of the crap I don't use. I've lived with Ken almost 3 years now and few things have moved over with me. I should get rid of the things that haven't and I should get rid of the things that have and aren't used. This will be my big winter project. Especially if I'm planning on bringing more stuff into our house, even if it will be baby sized. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

Baby Fever

So I know I'm supposed to give an update on my decorating class, but I don't have the energy for that right now. It's going well though, and I'll post pictures and stuff later. I'm very jittery from drinking a whole pot of coffee by myself this morning. Why a whole pot you ask? Good question. I'll get back to you on that one. It was one of those good ideas I have like finishing the bottle of wine by myself or eating all the pasta so I don't have to throw any out.

Last night, I had not 2, not 3, but 4 dreams about taking a pregnancy test to positive results. First off, I hate dreams where I pee, it makes me really scared when I wake up that I'm gonna wake up in a puddle. Second off, I know I'm not pregnant. Like positive I'm not. So what's the deal? I may just have babies on the brain. Last night Ken and I went over our friends house to have pizza with their two and 3/4th kids (she's due in December). Their oldest who's almost 3 loves me. She was following me around all night, constantly sitting on my lap, giving me hugs, really pushing on my biological clock. Ken said I'm not allowed to visit the kiddos til the dreams subside.

I don't know, I mean I'm almost 27, I'm married to my partner of 3 years, I have a house so it's not completely out of the question to have kids, but do I really want them? Ken's great with kids, like really really awesome with them. We had people over to the house a few weeks back and he was playing with the kids in the backyard as if they were his own. He's a father, he just doesn't have kids yet. When I see him light up with kids there's no way I can deny him that.

This will change both our lives significantly though. It means less vacations, no more afternoons at the wineries, at least not for a while, and no guest room (though that's nothing new).I feel like I just got my adult life, am I ready to start my parent one? I feel like this is the time, but I'm enjoying life so much right now I don't want that to change. Is there a way to freeze time for the next year or two where we won't get older? I suppose it's not out of the question to put off having kids for the next couple of years. My parents didn't have me til 30 and even if I waited two years I'd still be ahead of them. But Ken's ready now. I know he is. And having kids might take a few years of trying too. Maybe I should just see what happens. *Sigh* how does one know when's the right time?

When does summer start?

So I've been pretty busy lately. Even now I'm supposed to be going to work in half an hour but lets see if I can get a quick update in first.

Summer is here but it doesn't really feel like summer. Maybe it's because I have yet to go to a single baseball game. I don't know if it's the A's have let me down so much the past couple of years that I can't stand to look at them anymore, or if I'm just so annoyed by all the bandwagon Giants fans that the sport has me kinda turned off to it. But my team the Phillies are doing well and I just don't have the patience to watch them.

I also really haven't been to the beach this summer either. I went on a camping trip to Morro Bay a few weeks back and despite being right next to the beach, it was just too cold to lay out on
the beach. We walked on it a few times but it's not the same as having a towel out on the sand pretending that I'm tanning when anyone who really knows me knows that's not ever going to happen. It was still a fun trip, though my inlaws brought a bus they converted to an RV and we spent most of the "camping trip in there watching movies and drinking coffee. We also got some wine tasting in, some shopping done, ate at a really nice restaurant, you know, all the typical camping things. We did almost make smores though. I feel like I should get credit for that.

I really only have myself to blame. I have been working a lot, but even on my days off I decide that it's best spent shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond and then watching IT Crowd on Netflix. I haven't seized summer in a way I normal do with happy hours, bbq's, trips to Santa Cruz, etc. At least this weekend I have a trip to Disneyland planned. That's not a summer event for me normally, but I'm excited for it. I also have a goodbye summer BBQ happening at my house. Sadly, I think this will be the most summer like thing I'll do this year. Oh well. I guess this is growing up.

First post as a Mrs.

Well gentle readers, I'm back from the busy void that was my wedding and honeymoon and recovering from said wedding and honeymoon. Married life is super awesome. The other morning my husband got up early to make me breakfast and hot tea before I had to be at work at 8. He's pretty damned awesome and I still can't believe my luck that he decided I was worthy of his love. I might be posting on the wedding or honeymoon at some point, but seeing as all 1 of my readers attended the wedding and saw the pictures of the honeymoon on facebook, there might not be much point.

Anyways, now's where the real fun begins. I'm a grown up. I got married, got a house, really all that's left is kids, and I don't want that yet...I don't think. Time to also keep good on my resolutions. I haven't read any books yet, and it being almost May, I need to read 5 this month to keep up. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. The good news is my creative projects are actually caught up on. I'll keep you posted on those too.

So this post is kinda boring I know, but it's a promise of better things to come. I've been pretty addicted to Rotten Tomatoes Top 5 count down, been thinking of doing a few of those myself too. Lets see if I follow through. Goodnight, everybody!

Happy New Years

So 2011 is upon us. Should be a good one for me. Before the first quarter of it is up I'll be married, going to Disneyworld, and moved in to my new house. Oh yeah, by the way, I have a new house. A house! Like a real live house with doors and walls and mortgage payments and yay! The house is going through some cosmetic changes right now, once it starts looking more put together I'll post pictures. Here's one to tide you over in the meanwhile:

The front probably won't change too much other than the possibility of getting a mailbox that says "The Mendez's" or something like that. So with that awesomeness in mind, here are my New Years Resolutions:

1. Make this house my own. I've been going through paint and carpet samples like crazy. I have the first ideas picked out. This weekend I should get to paint and once it's up on the walls I'll probably have a better idea. But I get to paint and that's awesome. I can put all the holes in the wall I want without worrying about lost deposits. Ken's got some great ideas too that I'm looking forward to seeing in the flesh. February will be much less stressful than January.

2. Read a book per month. I've checked out dozens of books this year, I think I've only finished two, and even that might be generous. I want to be more well read. I work at a library for crying out loud. The first book I'm reading: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I've seen it many times, but never actually read the story. I think I can knock it out by February. I'll welcome suggestions as to my next month's book.

3. Do one project per month. I finished my shark scarf last year. Took me almost two years to do it. That's stupid. I made a new one for a friend within a week. I think if I put the pressure on I can get some great stuff made. My first project is a Christmas ordainment (notice my procrastination). Should be a nice easy start to boost my confidence.

That's all I got. Last year I only had 1 which was to plan my wedding, which I mostly did. I still have some more details to smooth out on that one, but yeah. Small lists are more doable. Lets see if I keep it up. Wish me luck!

Our big purchase

So in the craziness of being 4 months away for a wedding which now every family member I know and a few I don't is planning on attending, Ken and I decide it's time to buy a house. This is a big step, biggest purchase we'll ever make, and we somehow got through the hardest part in 3 days. Sunday our realtor Juan took us out to look at houses. We told him the key points: price range, minimum bed/bath, and most importantly: must be in Morgan Hill. It is pigeon holding us a bit not to search down in Gilroy or San Martin, but Morgan Hill is our home and there's no denying that. Juan showed 6 out of 16 houses that met our criteria. It would have been 7 but the first house on the list was right across from my parents house. Being that close to my brother would have driven me bonkers.

1st one was blah. It was a bank owned house that had the charm of an abandoned department store, complete with boarded up windows. Yeah, there was potential there, it had 4 beds 2 baths, was right down the street from Kenny's cousin/ future babysitter, nice backyard, but there was warmth missing. Might have had something to do with there being no carpets anywhere on site. Lets keep looking.

2nd house also had potential. 4 beds and three baths this time, dining room area, pretty foyer, nice backyard, lots of parking, cool garage. Needed some loving care, but nothing we couldn't handle. Great price...but also connected to the house next to it. As it was on a corner you could barely tell and really didn't seem much closer than my parents house is to their neighbors. I took some pictures and promised to keep an open mind about if this was meant to be our dream home.

3rd house was a glorified townhome. Not that there's anything wrong with townhouses, but if they're going to be a townhouse they should fess up to it. I don't think I could have fit on the side of the house. We didn't actually get to see the inside of the house as they were having plumbing problems and would rather us look another day, but I had seen enough. It was on the "bad side" of Morgan Hill, which means just a few more loitering teens than the good side, but was missing charm that the 2nd house's neighborhood had.

4th house also had people living there. Adorable neighborhood and a beautiful shady tree out front. I walked in and was instantly reminded of houses of the east coast. So many windows looked out to the most well maintained back yard I've ever seen. Bird feeders and wind chimes hung from beautiful trellises while trees shaded the cleanly cut grass. Inside was charming as well. A tiny kitchen next to an adorable breakfast nook which looked into a sunken in den with a fireplace. "I'd have a hard time painting over this" Ken told me from the bedroom. I enter to see a forest scene straight out of Sleeping Beauty painted on the wall. Curtains covered the closets. Candle sconces placed perfectly throughout the house. Ken reminded me most of the stuff would be going with them and I was sadden. "But I could get my own replacements. In fact my green curtains would look perfect in here..." I thought to myself before realizing I was already mentally moving in. I didn't want to leave. There were other houses to see but I was done wanting to look at them. Much like when I started dating Kenny I was done dating. When I tried on my wedding dress I was done dress shopping. I had found the one. With hesitation we left to look at other houses.

5th house was brand new inside. Huge backyard, giant master bedroom, breakfast nook, new kitchen, new bathroom, cute neighborhood. *Yawn* That house should have been the winner but it wasn't. It didn't have the sunken in living room, didn't have the pretty trellises in the backyard, the eucalyptus tree out front. This was not our house.

Neither was the 6th house despite it's view of Anderson Lake and walk in closet. It didn't matter, my mind was made up and I wanted my pretty little 3 bedroom house.

We set up an appointment the next night to look at the house again with Ken's dad. Once he went over, gave it his blessing, we were ready to make a bid. We asked for 10,000 under asking plus a 6000 credit for closing costs. They countered on Tuesday with an ok, but no more than 2,000 of that can be section 1. We agreed, and it went into pending. No one else can make offers on that house. Then came the waiting for the relocation company to give their blessing. It took nearly a week but we're now in escrow. The only ones who can back out of the sale now is us and I don't think we're going to do that. In as little as 2 months I can be sitting in my living room posting about how awesome life is. As for right now, I'm trying to stay positive that that could happen instead of going to worse case scenarios where the house burns down, or we get robbed, or I don't even know what. I don't think I'll get a full nights sleep though until it's inside our new house.

A little older and a little wiser

Well hello being old. I guess 26 isn't that much older than 25 cept now 30 looks ever so close. I mean I guess I can look at the bright side of life, I'm pretty much where I thought I'd be at 26. Well maybe I thought I'd be married already, but the wedding's only a few months off. We're in the early stages of house hunting. We have an adorable kitten. And really we're just putting off kids until we want them. I got a good job, an amazing partner, and a shiny new laptop for my birthday. Huh, I didn't mean for this to start off as a brag about how awesome my life is, but it would seem it has turned into such.

I usually treat birthday's like a form of new years where I make resolutions as to what I'd like see happen in the next year. This next year I can check getting married off the list, but I feel like there's more that I should be working towards. Blogging might be part of there. I have fun reading other's blogs and wish I was more witty/ motivated/ interesting enough to have a blog that others would want to follow. I'm a very social person and have been feeling increasingly antisocial lately. I'm still not sure if this is good or bad. This is the first year that I can remember where I did not have a birthday party. Really, I doubt I'd even be noticing it at all if my family and Ken's family didn't insist on having me over for dinner or what not. Last year I spent my birthday in disneyland getting engaged, this one's bound to be less noteworthy. I think I prefer that though. Like I bragged about early, I have a great life, I have everything I could want. There's no need for presents when I'm going to be getting wedding gifts in a few months. Ken provides me with anything I could want and couldn't afford, and really, there isn't much I would want and not be able to afford.

Maybe this is maturity. I have an acquaintance that spread his birthday out over three days cause he wasn't satisfied with how the first or second attempt went. This dude's in his 30s. That is just so sad to me, but I look at his life and kinda understand it. He's got a part time go nowhere job, no girlfriend, not too many people who could stand him, but who would deny a birthday boy a drink or a pat on the back. He had to milk that sucker for all it's worth. I guess I don't need the attention or the free drinks and gifts because if I wanted to do what I'm doing on my birthday I could, everyday. That's pretty effing cool. So at 27 I want to be here too, maybe in a house vs an apartment, maybe with a bun in the oven, maybe getting more hours at the library, but certainly with another ring on my finger. And certainly with the same awesome people leaving 15+ happy birthday messages on my facebook before 9. Happy birthday, me.

New thing I'm trying

So I don't know if the two of you who read this have noticed, but I don't post on here at all. I try to, but can't think of much to say that I don't already say on facebook. Here's my idea, I'll take my posts on facebook and talk about them in greater detail here. It will also give me the chance to have the opportunity to be more vague there and let things off my chest here where no one will see it. Ok, so here's the first one:

"Julie is constantly amazed at both how much cheaper and tastier cooking at home is than eating out at a restaurant is."
June 30th

Sunday night when trying to decide on what to have for dinner, Ken and I started looking through cookbooks and decided to try a new recipe. I found one for steaks and a wine sauce. We walked over to the store, bought any ingredients needed for it, over all $14. After much cursing and fretting in the kitchen, I emerged with a delicious dinner. I made a recipe not taught to me by my mom or middle school cooking class. It was good, and as a bonus I got to drink the rest of the open wine along with it.

Empowered by this success, last night I tried mac and cheese. It was quite the adventure at the store, looking for Colby cheese and only finding Colby jack, worried that would ruin everything. Searching high and low for bread crumbs. But $18 later I was home starting a meal that I usually left up to Kraft. Ken had arrived home sooner than I anticipated so I set to work on the meal without premeasuring out everything I'd need. Big mistake since some of the steps require only cooking it 30 seconds before throwing in 3 more ingredients. More cussing ensued, especially since our kitty Logan who believes we only go into the kitchen to get him cat food and was meowing nonstop at my feet. Still, finished product came out amazingly tasty and now Ken has lunch for work for the rest of the week. Now to decide what to make for Thursday :-)

I have a home!

I'm up way too early and I hardly slept at all last night. Last night, Ken and I got the apartment in Morgan Hill. It's a beautiful (well, decent anyways) 2 bed/2 bath upstairs apartment and it's ours. Not his and his roommates, not my parents, but ours. In fact, it's more mine than his at this point since I put down the deposit by myself. Holy shit, I'm becoming a real grownup.


A little backround for any of my 3 readers out of the loop on why this is so big for me: I "moved" in with Ken back in July when my dad came back from his 3 month east coast trip to learn how to get sober....completely hammered. Realizing that I spent almost all of my free time with Ken and not wanting my dad to be sent away again, I tell dad to move into my room. Mom probably hates dad more for this having "run me out of the house" despite the fact that since Ken and I have gotten together, we've maybe spent 10 nights apart and we're going on a year pretty soon and I half used the giving dad my room as an excuse to move out without having dad hit the roof. Since then I've confined myself to Ken's room whenever I'm home and he's not. His roommate doesn't have a job so is always around and I didn't want to get in his way...like at all. I know that when he signed up to live with Ken for the 7th or 8th year in a row (they've been roommates since Ken's second year of college) he didn't expect Ken have a chick move in as my lovely fiance wasn't exactly a lady's man. Because my fear of upsetting the roommate, we have rarely used the kitchen or living room and have either eaten out or ordered in for almost every single meal eaten here. I know, it's rediculous, but it's how I feel and I'm beyond thrilled that that time is almost over.


That's why I love this apartment so much: I'm going from 1 bedroom to 6. I'm getting a bedroom complete with a walk in closet (oh the shoes that will fill it!) and a bathroom with an outside sink and vanity. No more trying to do my makeup while Ken's in the shower steaming up the mirror.

Then there's the living room, complete with a wood buring fireplace. We've already planned on buying a flat screen to put above it so we can enjoy both a fire and a movie, or maybe a movie about a fire since that would be nice and ironic. But it's a whole other room that I'm allowed to go in because I live there, I signed the paper, my name is on the mailbox, well, metaphorically speaking anyways.

There's a kitchen where I can use the coffee pot Ken's parents got me for christmas and the Kitchen Aid mixer that they got him. We have bar stools already that we can put up to the bar and eat our meals there since there are two of us living there. There's a dining area to put that table his parents have been holding for him for years. We can have people over for dinner for a change and use our beautiful china we bought ourselves as an engagement gift.There's a washer and dryer, and a linen closet (yet another place for shoes as we don't have too many linens). There's a whole second bath room, like a whole one, not one of those half assed numbers with just a toilet and a sink. There's a tub! We could both take a bath at the same time without junk being squashed.

Finally, there's a second bedroom that we don't even know what to do with. We've considered making it another walk in closet, but realistically I think it's going to be our office, perhaps with a futon in it for when Dan comes visiting.

The bottom line is this is a place we found together and it's one of the few things that's going to be ours that wasn't mine or his first or wasn't bought by one of us as a gift to the other. It's a home that we're going to fill with stuff and decorate and really live in, not just sleep at. So I guess it's no wonder I got no sleep last night, people usually don't sleep well when they're away from home.