Proof that more expensive energy efficient appliances are TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Longest post title ever, but I am squealing with excitement.

We splurged on an energy efficient A/C (18 SEER) and furnace (90% AFUE) to the tune of $8,000 when we bought our house. The old one was well on its way out, so the sellers gave us a credit (not that much, but like I said, we splurged). Well, it was TOTALLY WORTH IT! I think it's pretty common knowledge that your HVAC uses up the most energy in your house. Well, perhaps not ours. Our power bill this past month was........drumroll please.......$52! It was also way cheap last month, but I don't recall the number. For comparison, our power bill at the 1,000 SF condo we rented was around $90 for hot months and the former owner's power bill for this month last year was $216! We also got a new fridge, washer and dryer (all energy efficient), which are contributing to our amazing reduction in power consumption. Of course, we also turn the A/C up during the day or when we're gone, turn out lights when we leave rooms, etc. but $52!!!!! I'm going to go do a happy dance now. Bye!

Updated House Pictures

Finally! It took me long enough, but I grabbed some pictures of the updates we've made since moving in.

The newly painted stairs (aka: the bane of my existence).

Front door without the lovely lace curtains.

We still have A LOT of decorating to do, but we're getting there slowly but surely. I think it's a HUGE improvement over the former look, and I know once we get more things on the walls and more furniture, it will look even better!

Edited to add: before pictures here, here, and here.

Da Na Na Na Na

Go Gators!

It was a typical gameday weekend in Gainesville, FL... too many people crammed into the bars, 95% humidity levels, good friends, good tailgates, a Gator victory, and a dance party. I brought my camera and took pictures, but I have no good pictures of the hubby and me... once again. I'm determined that we get at least one good picture during our second year of married life. We have 354 days left to accomplish that, so I feel good about the chances.

We ended up with tickets to the game at $100 a pop, but we got them very early on in the day and it was worth the money to not worry about it and enjoy the tailgates. The seats were 11 rows up in the south endzone, so it was a view I had not previously experienced. It was awesome when they were down on our end of the field, and I was able to get a few good pictures of my future husband, Tim Tebow. Don't worry, Matt knows that when Timmy shows up on our door to whisk me away, I'm gone... he's on "my list". ;) In fact, Mr. and Mrs. Tebow were at the same tailgate we were, and it was pretty hilarious to see all the people that wanted to take pictures with them. They were very nice people and obliged. I wonder if it gets old to them or they are just relishing in the awesomeness that is their son.

Anyway, maybe I'll post some pictures when I get home, but probably not. I have a big event tonight for ULI Atlanta, an organization I'm very involved with, so I'm excited for that. It's the Annual Development of Excellence Awards, and it is our signature event. I'm also on the Executive Committee, so I'm looking forward to sitting at the VIP table (or as my co-chair, Ellen, called it, the FOE Table... Friends of Ellen). Then, tomorrow is Friday. Hallelujah. I'm ready for the husband to come home. Can you believe it's already been EIGHT months that he's been in Tifton!? Craziness.

Atlanta Flooding

Absolute craziness. I'm sure if any of you have been paying attention to the news, you've seen the flooding that's in and around Atlanta. It took me TWO HOURS to get home from work yesterday. It normally takes me 20 minutes, as my house and office are only about five miles apart. Here's what I saw yesterday.

You should click in to that to make it bigger. I normally drive on that street. To the left is Peachtree Creek. The road straight ahead where you can see the traffic light is Northside Drive and there is a small bridge (see next picture) that goes over the creek. That is the bridge I spoke of yesterday. Normally, the creek is a good 8-10 feet under the bridge.

Here's what I saw today.

Those barricades are keeping people from driving over the bridge until they can make sure it's stable. I drove down the once flooded street above to take this picture, and I was paying so much attention to seeing if the road was open, I forgot to look at the houses along the street to see what kind of condition they were in.

This is all mud washed up from the creek... look at that fence. This was on a street that ran perpendicular to the creek and there was another street that runs parallel with the creek all that water had to rise over to get to this house.

You can see the water line on this house. I think this was four houses on the same street as the picture above. I absolutely cannot believe the water rose all the way up here, but I don't know how else to explain that line.

You can see the creek behind those trees and all the muck it left when the water receded.

I am thankful that we did not have any trees down, and our house is dry and has electricity. I knew it would be really hard for our house to be flooded, but we do have a creek that runs UNDER our property. Weird. It runs in a pipe under our property and our neighbors', but opens up to a creek a few houses down. So, who knows if that pipe could burst, but that would be very unfortunate for us. The thing is, a lot of these people probably did not have flood insurance, because many of the places that flooded are not in the 100-year flood zone. Hopefully things can dry out before it pours again!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Holy cow, y'all. It's raining cats and dogs in A-town. I am pretty sure it has rained every single day since last Sunday. And, it's been on and off downpours since we returned from Heaven... I mean, Gainesville... yesterday (more on that later). I wish I could've stopped for a picture, but when I was driving to work this morning, Peachtree Creek had broken its banks and was about 150 feet up on the Bobby Jones golf course. The creek had risen to a level that it was only about a foot under the bridge. And, with the ongoing deluge, I may not be able to drive that road home for fear of being washed away. Two roads flanking the creek were completely covered in water, and I think another couple of inches has fallen since then. I hope our house doesn't flood! Well, I don't think that would happen, but our crawl space could.

We are the boys...

...from old Florida.
F-L-O-R-I-D-A.
Where the girls are the fairest,
the boys are the squarest
of any old state down our way.
HEY!
We are all strong for old Florida,
down where the old Gators play.
GO GATORS!
In all kinds of weather
we'll all stick together..........
for F-L-O-R-I-D-A.
GO GATORS!

I can't wait to sing this at the end of the 3rd quarter with a 40 point lead over the Vols. Hopefully we'll get some tickets to the game, but if not, I'll still sing it in the middle of Salty Dog or Balls or whichever classy college bar we choose to watch the game from. Gainesville, here we come!

Bad Commercials

I really wonder who comes up with some of the commercials out there. In general, pharmaceutical commercials are the worst, but of those, I think the birth control genre takes the cake. Don't get me wrong, erectile dysfunction and irritable bowel syndrome are right up there, but the unbelievability of birth control commercials just makes me laugh. I am the target audience, and I would NOT buy a specific brand of birth control due to their ridiculous advertising. Take the NuvaRing commercial, for example. One of the commercials shows a group of 20-something girls sitting around discussing birth control with a TV on in the background. First, I don't know about y'all, but my friends and I often have very interesting conversations, but I don't think we've ever spoken that in depth (or cheesily... I made up that word) about the type of birth control we use. Yes, a question or two has been asked of those that do use an intervaginal birth control or an IUD, but it's mostly, "Can you feel it?" or "Does it interfere with you know what?" My favorite part about this commercial is that there's a NuvaRing commercial on in the background and when the side effects come on, one girl hushes the others and tells them to listen. I mean, I get that it's required by the FDA, but it always seems like such a funny way to tell people they might gain a lot of weight or experience hair loss. Yaz is another one that's pretty bad. So, that's my random rant for the day. Are there any commercials out there that just make you cringe?

Busy weekend... busy life... can't complain

Well, I had every intention of blogging last night about the weekend, posting some pictures from our wedding just over a year ago, etc. but I worked kind of late, then decided I really need to start working out again (if you're pressed for time and have Comcrap on demand, Jillian Michael's 20 minute workouts are actually kind of hard), then whipped up a salad for dinner and it was 8:30 and I didn't feel like sitting in front of a computer. Do you care? Yeah, I didn't think so. :)

Anyway, so the surprise anniversary plans were tickets to see Chicago (the musical) at the Fox Theater! So fun. I love the music, but I have to admit, I'd only seen the movie! It was very different to see it in production... the set was very minimal, but I enjoyed the choreography and singing, and the show had some funny moments that weren't in the movie. It also featured Jerry Springer as Billy Flynn. He was good, but he wasn't as good as Richard Gere in the movie. The actor who played Amos Hart was awesome, and Matt and I both agreed that our favorite song of the show was Mr. Cellophane. Overall, we both enjoyed it, but I was worried Matt would be let down since the only other show he's seen was In the Heights during its initial run on Broadway. I told him that this was going to be very different, so I don't think he was let down.

One of my best friends, Dai, and her fiance, Andrew, were in town this weekend. They stayed with Jenn and Matt, but they all came up on Saturday. The girls did some wedding dress shopping in the morning (and found the one) and then we all met up at Park Tavern for lunch with Matt and Jenny. After lunch, we returned to our house to watch the Gator game (a bit delayed thanks to DVR) and hung out until dinner. We went to JCT Kitchen, which was delicious, as always. And, to our surprise (and argument), the out of town guests picked up the check. Very unnecessary but appreciated, nonetheless. Then, we all parted ways, and I think Matt and I were in bed by 11:00 that night. Only a year in, and we are old married people.

Sunday was our actual anniversary. We exchanged cards in the morning and then went to the Falcons game. Just after 5:00 on Friday, I had some brokers call and offer me their tickets. We'd never been to a game and didn't have plans, so I thought what the heck. I don't want to say I didn't think we'd enjoy it, but we're not exactly Falcons fans, so I figured we'd go once and have our fill. Well, we had a really good time and definitely got into cheering for the Dirty Birds. It helped that we had great seats, it was a good game, I really like Matt Ryan (the QB), and one of Matt's fantasy football players is a Falcons receiver. We left at the beginning of the 4th quarter, did our Sunday grocery shopping, and prepared a nice grilled chicken salad and bruschetta with our home grown tomatoes for dinner. Then we watched True Blood. We LOVE that show, and I'm sad the season is over. Sunday nights will be back to me watching Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters on my own while Matt watches whatever he watches.

So, all in all, it was a great weekend. I do have to say that I'm becoming a picture slacker in my old age... a few years ago, there's no way our first anniversary would have gotten by without a picture... and I have none save a few from the Falcons game and we aren't in them! Since I never really posted any of our wedding pictures, I leave you with some below.

I love the happiness and excitement in my face in this one.

My bub "giving me away." We're so grown up now.

The church we were married in is amazing.

Check out our view!

Party animals... both of my grandmas tore up the dance floor!

The photographer left before the reception was over, but some of the best pictures are definitely the randoms from the end of the night when everyone was having a really good time. The dance floor was packed. A year later, I look back with great memories of that day. There's nothing like having the people you love most together for a big celebration. As Matt said, it was the best wedding we've ever been to.

P.S. Happy birthday Momma Kath!!!! xoxo

Surprise Anniversary Plans...

Sunday is our one year anniversary. Matt has surprise plans for us tonight and all I know is I can wear "jeans or whatever." I'm really at a loss...

We also have one of my bestest friends coming in town, doing some bridal gown shopping, and the Falcons game Sunday! Exciting weekend... I'll come back and reveal the surprise.

Never Forget

09.11.01

Eight years.

Hard to believe.

Still remember it like it was yesterday.

Thoughts and prayers with all of the family members and friends who lost dear loved ones that horrible, tragic morning.

Never forget.