Oh shoot.

My part-time job as a liquor promoter takes me to a local Army base almost every week. Since my vehicle doesn't have a fancy Army approved decal on it, I have to check in with the MPs. This is a usually painless process of showing them my driver's license, registration and insurance and explaining why I'm coming on base. Leading up to the entrance area, which looks like several toll booths, there are signs warning about prohibited items. I was waiting in line to get checked in and was getting out my registration from my glove compartment and OH CRAP...there's one of John's handguns in my glove compartment. Yikes yikes yikes! All I could think was how NOT fun it would be to have to explain to several MPs why a civilian was taking a concealed weapon that did not belong to them on an Army base. WOW. Fortunately my car wasn't searched so I was in the clear but my lesson was definitely learned. The car is now a 100% gun free zone!

He was injured. Injured bad.

Sorry there haven't been a ton of new posts. These past 2 weeks have been really busy. One of the things that's been keeping us from settling down is that John got into a car accident 2 weeks ago. I know that God was looking out for John and I.

Remember how I hate T-Mobile with the burning passion of a thousand suns because they can't get signal in our house? John bought a cell phone booster and installed it on Wednesday night. I had just gotten in the shower on Thursday morning when I heard the phone ring. I figured it was John calling to remind me to do something or just asking a general question, so I didn't answer the phone. The phone rang 2 or 3 minutes later and I got out of the shower to answer it. As I heard John say that he was in an accident and wanted me to come be with him, someone started banging on our front door and ringing the doorbell. John's accident happened in our neighborhood and one of our terrific neighbors ran to tell me what just happened. I got to the scene and saw the mangled Celica, John, and an ambulance. Someone had parked a U-Haul with an attached trailer on one of the main streets in our neighborhood instead of on a side street or in their driveway. Since John drives east to work, the morning sun temporarily blinded him and he couldn't see the unusual vehicle. He didn't even hit his brakes. Needless to say, the Celica is gone forever.

I'm glad the ambulance came so quickly, but once John realized that he wasn't critically injured, we turned away the ambulance and a trip to the emergency room and opted to go to the urgent care facility close to our house. John initially wanted to just go to work, but I told him that there was no way I would let that happen. He was bleeding from a large cut on his head and wasn't able to remember certain things, so I asked him to think how I would feel if there was something wrong with him and I didn't make him go to a doctor. Plus, I rationalized, a doctor would be able to at least give him very strong pain medication which he would CERTAINLY need. We went to the urgent care facility where his Mom and sister were waiting. (Most amusing part of the day: we were waiting to get checked in and a nurse comes into the little waiting area and asks, without looking up from her clipboard, "And who are we seeing today?". Hmmm? I wonder?) A CT scan and X ray showed there was no bone damage and no brain swelling or bleeding. John did get 14 stitches at 2 different cuts on his head. It looks like his head hit the steering wheel and then the roll bar.

We are so fortunate. If John wouldn't have installed the cell phone booster, there is literally no way I would have known what was happening until someone came to our door. We settled on the house in Greer less than a week after the accident, so we have enough money to get John a nice used car without having to take out a loan. I moved in with John barely 3 weeks before the accident. If I wouldn't have moved in with him I don't know what would have happened. He may have just gone home, changed clothes and gone to work. It's a scary thought.

All's well that ends well and we now get to have alot of fun picking out a new (for John) car. YAY! I think that's a pretty great silver lining.

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.