I LOVE NEW YEARS!!

Loria and Brad and Paulie are going to be here soon! I can't wait! They already got lost because they took VA-40 instead of NC-40, but, now that Brad has a hold of the map, I think they will make it alright. More to come...pictures from the party will be posted!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Caleb looked like Frankenstien this Christmas...hence, you won't see a lot of pictures. He managed to get slugged at our indoor soccer game two Thursdays ago and needed 18 stitches in his lip. Then, one week later, he broke his finger while chasing and catching someone with drugs. He promised me that he will not go to the hospital again for at least two weeks. Let's see if it can happen!

Home for the Holidays!

Caleb, Kirk, and I hit the road for Maryland for a pre-holiday visit. We stayed in Baltimore for a couple days and then went to York, PA to see his relatives. Here are some pictures from our trip. Kirk saw his FIRST snow! As usual, his face reads "I'm not sure I'm going to like this" in the pictures below. But, he soon "warmed" up to it...hehe.




Also, this was the last time I would see my childhood dog named Jessie. She died about a week later. Here are some pictures of her when we saw her last. Can you believe that I bought her from the PennySaver for only $15. Wow! I have an "I'm getting old" story.


This is a picture of Jessie Benke Thompkins. January 1993 - December 2005.


Here's all three dogs waiting for their holidays treats. They know that Santa is on the other side of the door. They can smell the goodies waiting for them!


This is my mom, stepfather, and their other dog Sandy Peanut-Lopez Thompkins.

Help, fellow boggers!

Maybe I'm just impatient, but can anyone tell me how to post this picture to my profile? It keeps saying that the maximum size if 50 or 70 something or others. Thanks for any advice you have!!

Trees + Mountains + Arguello's = A GREAT TIME!

We got our Christmas tree in the mountains this year. We met up with Paul's whole family (about 10 people) and headed to the North Carolina Mountains. We had so much fun! When we got home, we met up with Joe and Christina and they helped up set the tree up.

All the trees were on the side of this mountain. You got to walk all around, pick one out, and have the man cut it down with a chainsaw, then wrap it up tight and stick it on top of your car. The trees were color coded with ribbons. I swear, the little tree man said the red ribbons were only 7-8 feet tall. (By the way, your sense of height is completely off when standing on a mountain surrounded by trees. "Sure! It'll fit in the living room" HA!) When we got home, it was a little tall. We have 9+ foot ceilings! After a little cutting, the tree fit!

It's been TOO long!

The last time I wrote on my blog, my parents were coming to town. If I had ANY readers at all, they have all certainly abandoned my blog. I apologize for such a long delay. To make up for it, I am going to put pictures up! I don't know about you, but I love to see blogs with pictures!

Well, my mom, stepfather, brother, grandmother and their dogs came to visit. We had a lot of fun!!!





Kirk was very possessive of his bone (can you tell?)! We're a little afraid that he might be spoiled. (No, Adrienne, really? He only sleeps in your bed, gets the best seat on the couch, and goes everywhere with you!)

Kirk is getting a real dog bed for Christmas. You might wonder why he doesn't have one of his own now. When he was a little puppy, he had a bed and then "went" all over it. After "it" dried, he destroyed it. He thought that his bed was either a giant stuffed animal or a place that he had to dig through. If you ask Katie, she will attest to his "psycho" digging fits on his bed.

We want Kirk to start feeling a little more like a dog and not a human. The first step is a bed all for himself. (How many of you think he will go to bed in his bed and miraculously appear on ours....either by him jumping up in the middle of the night or me picking him up putting him there?)

Week-end Open House

This week-end, my mom, stepfather, brother, grandmom, and kirk's aunt Sandy are all coming to my Open House. Actually, the house is only open to them. But, I get to show it off! I can't wait. Pictures will come!

Things I've Learned While Living In My House

1) Every Saturday Night, we will hear the sounds of high-powered rifles. This is "OK". It is not the neighbors, it is the Turkey Shoot around the corner!

2) We have Black Widow Spiders that live under the rocks around our house. This is bad. It's better if I don't know about these things.

3) Kirk barks at EVERYTHING. We really need to get blinds so he can't see the neighbors.

4) Our houses are so close together...you have to make sure that the neighbor is NOT watering the lawn while your windows are open. Many things were ruined!

5) Grills are great! If you can't grill it, you shouldn't eat it!

6) When you open the windows, don't forget to turn off the heat (That one's for Caleb!)

7) Block parties are fun! Neighbors are nice! The home owner's association meeting will be long (kind of like old RA/RD meetings).

8) My husband is a thief (But I won't tell you why!)

9) My BJ's is better than your food store any old day!

10) It's so quiet in my house...I can hear Kirk breathing when he is UNDER the bed! Maybe he had a cold!

More Helpers!

Thank You All For Your Help!

Thank you Thank you!!

Any Day Now...

We're going to be homeowners on Friday around 8:30AM. I can't wait! Everyone and Anyone that comes into the same vicinity as me knows that I'm excited. I can't even hear the word "Friday" without saying something about the house!

The prices went up on all new homes in our soon-to-be neighborhood...How great!! (Not that we want to resell it right when we buy it)

Tomorrow, I get to do the final builder walk-through. Thy are going to have all the appliances in tomorrow and all the paint touched up! Friday, we get our Cable Internet set-up and the Washer/Dryer delivered (Thanks Dad and Jill)!

I'm so happy that Caleb managed to be off for the move. That takes a lot of pressure off of me and my dog. But, I still have a lot of packing to do tonight! I just have to keep the end in sight.

I can't wait to see a lot of you on Saturday! Caleb's picking up the truck at 8am. We'll probably begin packing it up at 9am. Pizza on us for lunch! Then, we're either going out to eat or grilling out on Saturday night (Don't worry...if you can't help us move, you can still hang out with us for dinner!!... just let us know)

Well...I have good news and bad news!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying about Caleb's transfer back to the Downtown District (DD). The good news is that it is official (knock on wood). He got the transfer! For those of you who do not know why this is so important, it will be closer to our new home, Caleb only works 15 days a month (every other week-end off), and he really likes the people in that district (no offense 22).

The bad news...the transfer takes place on October 29th. Yup, we close the day before. The 29th was the Saturday that we are going to move. It looks like Caleb will have two options if he can't get in the books (on such short notice) to take the day off. Either 1) he can move all morning, work all night, and stay up 24+ hours or 2) he can elect not to help in the move. If you were Caleb, which would you choose? hehe I know he'll work something out (fingers crossed)!

Needless to say, anyone who is free on October 29th to help me move (Ahem...Campbell friends and their boyfriends) would be showered with Pizza and Caffeine! Just let me know if you think you can help! It really shouldn't take that long...and I promise to feed you!

To Pack...or NOT To Pack

We are procrastinating! We are moving is less than 10 DAYS! (I don't count today...and I don't count THE day we move...so it's only 10 days)

Caleb insists that he will not PAY for boxes. He has been all over Cary looking for decent boxes for us to move with...any suggestions? If he doesn't find them by tomorrow...we're buying them!

Tuesday is the big day to start packing! We have a little two bedroom apartment and not a lot of stuff. It shouldn't be too bad, right?

The Walk-Through

I had a lot of fun today. First, I got to leave work early! Then, I got to go to the house AGAIN. I had the walk through with the builder today. So, there was me and my agent with the builder and his agent...all walking through the house placing green dots on things that need to be repainted, touched up, fixed, etc. My eyes are still used to seeing small minute imperfections. I can't even look in the mirror or look at my dirty car without wanting to place a green dot on something.



Found out that the dishwasher still leaks. They are going to reseed our backyard and lay straw on it. Some weird mold thing is growing on our garage door...that has to go! They are fixing the shower that has a messed up caulk job in it and touching up all the paint and dents.



Also found out today that come October 22, prices are going up on all houses in the neighborhood. Looks like we got into ours in the nick of time. Want to buy a house? Try out Vantage Point at River Ridge (it's a golf community). You'll love it! Better get in now though!!



I took pictures of the windows. I need to figure out what curtains and blinds (if any) to put on them. Pictures are on the way.

viva la copa

Well here's my first post. Ever. And it's about soccer. We're looking to Germany for World Cup 2006. The US is still a strong team, maybe not a quaterfinal team like in '02, but strong nonetheless. Add this fact, that the small South American nation of Ecuador has qualified AGAIN for the Copa Mundial, and you have a crazy idea brewing in my head. Could we go? For those of you that know Paul Arguello, you know what the call was like: "Kellitos! Kellitos is that you? ECUADOR! ECUADOR! ECUADOR! We're in it again! (Insert Profanities Here) ECUADOR! ECUADOR..."(period of stunned silence on my part) Paul again: "So? Are we going?"
And so it begins... The Quest for the Cup

caleb

New Pictures On The Way...

This Wednesday afternoon, we get to do the walk through with the builder. I'm hoping to take some more pictures when I go. I have to get pictures of my windows so that I can start to pick out curtains to buy...or make!?!?

The Chair

This is the closest picture that I could find that looks like the chair we just bought. I think that ours is a little shinier...like it has just been "polished". But this one is pretty close!

"Under Contract"

Today we saw the sign...the "Under Contract" Sign. If it hadn't been for all the rain, I would have gotten a picture with it. One will come...I promise!

We had the inspection today. There were no major problems except a leaking dishwasher. (Maybe they'll upgrade it). We also got to pick out our appliances. Wanna see?






I have to say...picking out the refrigerator was easier than we thought. We were out of the store in less than 20 minutes. Did you know that stainless steel is 1) VERY hard to keep clean and 2)NOT magnetic. Do you know how disappointed I would have been if I picked out a refrigerator that I couldn't hang cute pictures of Kirk on? It would have to go back if that was the case! We picked out a Clean Steel Fridge. This way, it fools you to think that it is stainless steel, but it's magnetic. Also, it only cost $145. Isn't that great? It helps that the builder agreed to put A LOT of money towards it.

OH! and I forgot to mention that we bought a brown leather recliner today! Caleb's happy with it because "it's all a man will ever need" and I'm happy with it because 1) it means my mom can come to visit with my grandmother (who only sleeps in recliners) and 2) it really matches my living room furniture! It was a WIN/WIN situation.

the point of our blog

I am not going to post my innermost thoughts and feelings on this blog. (Sorry to disappoint you all). Instead, I am going to use it to share pictures and news with my friends and family. We're planning to close on our house on October 28th at aproximately 11:00 AM. How exciting! Stay tuned...

and a fenced in backyard for Deputy Kirk!

More pictures...this time of the inside!

7137 Orchard Knob Drive

I can't believe I started one of these!

Caleb is going to kill me!

But...I wanted a way to show pictures of our new house. And I want to "be cool" like everyone else. Yeah...he's going to kill me! (hehe)