Great news!

We closed on the house in Greer! YAY!!! On Tuesday we drove up to Greenville to officially sign all the documentation and close on the house. What a feeling of relief! John and I were both anxious up until the last minute because we know several instances where a potential buyer has put down earnest money, started a contract on a house, and then backed out of it. Only paying one mortgage is SUCH A RELIEF!!! We didn't turn a huge profit on the house but we got back every penny we put into it.
Tuesday really exemplified a lot of the reasons why I love John and why we are good together. Children and money tend to be the main catalysts between many couple's fights and we see perfectly eye to eye on those topics. I am a hoarder with money; all I want to do is save, save, save. Things don't make me happy. Having a large savings account and retirement savings makes me happy. John is more of an investor. Either way, neither of us are tempted by new cars or toys or vacations or things like that. We poured money into the house in Greer and, if John would have stayed at his job up there, would have had it completely paid off in November of this year. Since we did this, we weren't upside down on the house. We can pay for at least one semester of my education, a car to replace John's car (more on that later), put money in our retirement savings, and purchase a few items for our new house. I am just so happy!

Best Cuddle Ever

At about 5 this morning, John reached over to snuggle with me. We faced each other with my head tucked under his chin and his arm around my back. Cujo was on the bed with us and was pressed right up against my stomach. I could feel his little doggie sleepy breathing. It was the BEST CUDDLE EVER.

It's like a cult initiation...

Thus ends my 2nd week of being a housewife. Last week was truly manic. I had 3 close relatives in the hospital for different things and didn't have time to call or send a card. I truly was unpacking/ cleaning/ organizing 13 to 14 hours a day. We did the big, U-Haul rental move last weekend and are going up to Greer for one last time (sniff sniff) tomorrow and Sunday to clean up the house and meet with carpet and vinyl repair people. I'm happy with the work I've done planning Allie and Alex's wedding (location decided on, deposit made for location, caterers narrowed down, wedding cake baker procured, invitations purchased) and feel like I will be busy but managable until all the awesome festivities are over. I've been reading the Bible much more than I have in the past several months and having a closer relationship with God makes me feel wonderful. However, this week I have had several moments of wondering, "What do housewives DO?" I don't mean stay at home Moms, I mean housewives. For real, I have a house to unpack and even I'm done my daily errands by noontime. My goal for the rest of the summer is to learn to drive a stick shift. However, there is one housewife-ish habit that is slowly, lecherously growing on me like a barnacle or mold or kudzu...Jon and Kate plus 8.
SWEET SASSY MOLASSY THOSE KIDS ARE CUTE!!! First, allow me to list all the very legitimate, well considered reasons why I despise the show. 1) I am totally against fertility treatments. Hey Catholics, do you recognize that, in theory, fertility treatments are just as much messing with God's procreation plan as abortion is? And yet no fertility doc is killed at his church. NOT THAT I AM SUGGESTING THAT AT ALL. AT ALL. However, there are FAAARRRR too many children in foster care and for domestic adoption who need loving parents to legitimize using fertility treatments. 2) Whoring kids out without the kids' consent is horrible. At least the Duggars (http://www.duggarfamily.com/ ) have older, consenting kids to whom their show gives most of it's attention. There's a very thin, wavy, gray line between mother and madam when you have basic cable videotaping your infants coming home from the hospital. 3) It really irks me when people think their kid is super special. There's a difference between being happy that your child really practiced hard and won the soccer regionals or whatever and feeling that everyone needs to be intimately aware of your totally normal kid's totally normal goings on. Like, when parents have blogs or YouTube channels or whatever, that's for a specific audience who chooses to participate. I mean, I guess America can turn the channel, but still, TLC, come on, stop telling me about these kids.
BUT THEN THE TIDES TURNED. OH MY GOD Y'ALL. Alexis and her Aldergator? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhYB4IxXPTQ Joel telling the camera crew he has a weiner? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhzLXvndXgs Alexis telling people Aaden will throw up on their hands? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAbF6FI85S0 Collin eating everything, all the time? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOvLI9zpj4E&feature=fvw

OVARIES SET TO DESTRUCT! OH MY GOD THESE KIDS ARE CUTE!!!
P.S. If any more advanced bloggers, or like, people from 2004 or something can tell me how to make words into links without having to paste the actual link into my blog, that would be awesomesauce.

Open Letter to T-Mobile

Hey T-Mobile,
I hate you. You make my life difficult and you make every day tasks annoying and arduous. I have NO T-Mobile reception in my house. I am a housewife. We have no landline. The only way I know if someone's called me is if I leave the house to check my voicemail. Oh wait, there is about 5 square feet of space in the living room where I get reception. I have a house to unpack, termite exterminators to contact, grad school to apply to, floor repair people to schedule, and I have to tether myself to this TERRIBLE PHONE THAT I HATE WITH NO SERVICE. I have to look up, say, carpet repair online, write the number down, go across the street to my neighbor's yard where I do get reception, and call from there. Oh, and pray that a live person picks up, because if I leave a voicemail and someone calls me back, I only know if I have a voicemail when I leave the house. If there was an emergency that didn't happen in the living room in the teeny area where I get service, I have no way to contact anyone. My husband ordered some cell phone booster gizmo from the internet and you best cross all your fingers that thing works, or else I am off to the Sprint store down the street so fast I will leave a hole in the wall, Wile E. Coyote style.
Sincerely,
A Girl Named Stewart

Goodbye job

Today is my last day at my job and it's bittersweet. I'm glad that I'll get to be with John all the time now and having a summer vacation is pretty freaking awesome!!! I don't really like goodbyes. They make me feel awkward and I think they make other people feel awkward as well. It's a slight surprise that today is my last day and that helped eliminate alot of the long goodbyes, which is a good thing for me. One of my bosses asked for a picture of he and I together before I left. He is on vacation today, so I took some pictures of me at his desk for him in lieu of a group shot.

Somehow I don't think he'll be too mad that he missed getting a picture of me.