The apartment PICTURES!

FINALLY! I took a few pictures of the apartment today so I could post them on here lol. We've(well... I've) been trying to decorate and make it all homey feeling. I'm getting there slowly.

Finally hung the curtains!

I thought it was cute :)

The living room, a bit messy and the furniture
isn't how we want it so we'll see.

My favorite picture of Ryan lol. Oh and that's the kitchen...
Small but it works.. kinda lol

I'm pretty happy with the way the apartment is going right now. We still have a lot of stuff to do to make it feel like home but that will take some time. Ryan has had 4 interviews in the last 2 days so hopefully he will be getting promoted soon :). As for me... I have signed up for classes, unfortunately I wasn't able to get any online classes like I had hoped but oh well.

Ok, well that's my Southern Soapbox for the day :) Good night!

It's Gettin' Hot In Here!

Holy crap it's HOT! The high yesterday was 108 and the high today is 109! 17 people died the other day due to the heat. It's been disgusting! I was outside last night and it was 99 degrees, AT MIDNIGHT! Whats worse is it felt good lol!

So, Katy and Austin left yesterday to go back to Mississippi. I had fun while they were here! Before they left me, Katy, Austin and Maegan all went to eat at The Twisted Root. I LOVE that place! The burgers there are AMAZING! Mammaw stayed behind to help with Aunt Emily's surgery. She is having a hysterectomy on Friday and I am on Mollie duty. I will be watching Mollie, Emily's daughter, for at least two weeks. I am happy to help but am already a bit stressed because I will probably have to wake up at 5:30am, leave at 6am so I can make the hour drive and get there at 7am when Mollie usually wakes up. Mollie is a great kid but she is VERY energetic and requires a lot of entertainment, which makes for a very tired Julie.

This week I have been watching four kids for 3 hours. I was on my way to work yesterday when Lumpy Larry Lumina (AKA my car) died twice. I was afraid to keep driving it out there because it is mostly one way roads and Larry doesn't have hazard lights. We just got Larry fixed and it is WAY to hot for Dad to get out there and look at it.

Fibro Update
I have been extremely busy this month. I haven't had any big flares but I have been sore lately. My joints have been aching and my shoulders, as always, hurt. I have been falling asleep earlier but when I wake up I am SOO tired! I am sure it won't get better anytime soon but hopefully I won't have any flare ups.

Family insanity

My grandmother and two cousins, Austin and Katy are in town! Life is never boring when they are around. They got in yesterday and we just hung around the house and played games but today Katy and I had fun!

Austin woke me up, which I wasn't totally thrilled about but whatever. I watched a little bit of TV and then Katy and I went over to Ryan's apartment to let Jixer out. Thank god I went there because he hadn't done the dishes. So while I did the dishes Katy wrote on Ryan's mirror in dry-erase marker and hid a champagne glass in his bed. Yes, I know that's weird, and yes, that's the point. Maegan, my sister, had called earlier and asked if we would come play with AJ while she cleaned, we, of course, accepted.

Before we headed over to Maegan's house, Katy and I decided to stop and get something to eat. We were going over to Subway by Ryan's apartment and drove by Chicago's Gourmet Pizza. YUMMM! We quickly decided that eating fresh was over rated and that pizza was a MUCH better plan. Sorry Jared. This place was AMAZING! We basically got a supreme pizza but instead of mushrooms we got pineapple. It was the best pizza we have EVER had! Definitely going back! We ate a 6 slice pizza with only one left over! (It was my piece that was left over, I'm sad to say).

HUGEEE Dr Pepper!

YUM!

On our way to Maegan's house Katy saw an interesting car. We spent at least 5 minutes trying to get a picture of the sign on the side of the drivers door! It was so random and funny that I was passing cars trying to keep up with him. Several minutes and about 6 pictures and a video later we got our shot! I know you can't read it but it says "Paranormal Society Investigators". We thought it was really random and were determined to get a picture lol. I don't think the guy noticed lol.

So we eventually made it to Maegan's house and helped her clean because AJ was napping. We got a lot done! Maegan had seen these new nail thingys somewhere and wanted us to try them so she and Katy went to CVS to find them while I stayed with AJ. The nail things are SOOO COOL! I recommend all you ladies try them. They're little sheets of nail polish that you stick on your nail. They're supposed to last for a while and they look really cool! I was going to post a picture of it but for some reason my phone won't let me email it to myself so I will have to post it another time :(. Anywho these things are really cool!

Apparently today was a day for weird car experiences or something. We were on our way home from Ryan's apartment (we went back over there after being at Maegan's) when we saw this nice Toyota SUV or something like that change lanes. They turned on their blinker, which most people don't bother doing, and they changed lanes. Wellll the crappy Civic behind them changed lanes at the EXACT same time they did. At first I thought it was a coincidence but then it happened 3 more times. It was kinda creepy but at the same time rather funny, what in the world was this person doing? They weren't tailgating the Toyota or anything like that, just changing lanes exactly when the Toyota did. Obviously the Toyota got freaked out and acted like he was going to turn onto a different road, but didn't end up turning. I was going to do it to the Civic but he turned into a neighborhood before I had the chance :(. It was SOOO COOL! I wish that we had videoed it!

OK, well that's my Southern Soapbox for the day. Have a good night y'all!

Getting Creative...

... while making supper last night. Ryan had made a special request for enchiladas. Lucky for him, my mom has a YUMMY, easy, cheap recipe. Not so lucky for me... the can opener didn't work. Well that's not true, it opened one can. I needed 4 more opened.... but it decided to die. So I had to be creative a resourceful. At first I started stabbing the can with a kitchen knife but that was barely DENTING the can! So I called Ryan and asked if his knife was there. He said yes and that I could use it. Sooooo... I did.

If you look closely you can see a small hole within the part of the lid that I cut into lol. It worked though and we ended up with a pretty good meal :). 

George has decided that he LOVES sitting on the printer and pretty much always ends up pushing a button. I had to take the paper out because he kept printing the little "align cartridge" button lol!

George printed a test page.

Me and Rebel

BTW, I am REALLY tired of drama. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. One would think that grow adults would be able to grasp such a SIMPLE elementary concept. Seriously, I am tired of bending over backwards for people and then getting slapped in the face regardless. The only person you are really hurting is yourself. If you continue to live this way, no  one will want to be around you and you will end up alone. It's already happening.

OK, that's my Southern Soapbox for the day. Good night all :)

Getting Settled

Ryan is moved in!

I was supposed to pick up the key Tuesday night but had to work so ended up doing it Wednesday afternoon before work. It was a bit of a pain because for some reason I didn't think about having his first months rent when I went to get the keys so I had to go the thirty extra minutes to get his check then drive back the the apartment THEN go home, let the dogs out and rush off to work! It was crazy BUT worth it because I got to walk the apartment before he started moving in! Not going to lie, I was TERRIFIED that he wouldn't like it but later that evening he leaned over to his friend Brett and gave me the validation I had been looking for! I was OVER THE MOON! Lol.

We were able to get all of his stuff moved in Wednesday night, which just means that Ryan has very little furniture lol. We were going to do more work Thursday but ended up going to Arlington with our friends Meagan and Brett to find them an apartment. We found them a REALLY nice place that I think they are excited about but I am a bit sad that they will be so far away from us. :( I hope we don't all get too busy and loose touch.

Friday I got to Ryan's at noon to start washing all of his dishes and everything. My work was brought to a SCREAMING.. ok, not really a scream but definitely a yelp, halt when I moved a plate and a roach creeped out from under it! I quickly left and made a trip to Home Depot, which thankfully is literally right next door! I sprayed around the kitchen and put in a call to the office for the pest control to come around. That may be over kill but roaches are disgusting destructive horrible creatures that should be eliminated! Anywho, I ended up being able to recover enough to finish the dishes. I was a bit paranoid and very jumpy but I got the job done. I made a run to Kroger and made Ryan's very first meal in his apartment, three cheese tortellini! It took a while to figure out that the big eye on the stove wasn't working so I had to use one that was too small but I was determined :D. 

I know he isn't excited about paying more money for rent but I can tell that he is starting to see the benefits to living on his own. Hopefully after the first few months when there aren't as many things to get for the apartment money will start to free up and he will be a bit less stressed. I can't wait for that day lol! I know no one ever has "enough" money but you know what I mean.

Well, that's my soapbox for the day! Good night!

First apartment!

Thank God! The search for Ryan's apartment has ended! I know we only looked for two days but that is  A LOT to do in 2 days! I had to research them, go visit all the properties, somehow manage not to get shot, and then after ALL that work... we found something!

So I found out that he needed to move on Monday but didn't know how quickly so that night I stayed up late looking for different places. I found about 6 or so in his price range. Most all of them were in the 635/75 area in Dallas, and area I apparently knew NOTHING about. Well pretty much all the places over there were pretty sad and not even close to what we were looking for. THEEENNN we found the diamond in the ruff! I mean this place was AMAZING! I was ready to sign the lease right there! Thank God I didn't! My sister called me in a panic yelling DON'T YOU DARE GO BACK THERE! Apparently that apartment REALLY was in the ruff! Little did I know, it was a very popular drug spot and you could frequently hear gunshots. Well that was the only thing we found that was decent and now it was a no go to. So we went home feeling VERY tired and VERY deflated after being out looking from 10am-5pm! I went home and started looking for some more.

I had 5 on my list for the day. We quit after number two.... because I signed the lease. After talking to the ladies in the office I felt VERY safe and I knew that neighborhood. I drive around there all the time and my mom's favorite cross stitch store used to be across the street! It is right between my parent's house and Ryan's work too! I called Ryan from the office and told him I refused to look anywhere else, this was the place. He gave me the green light and the ladies put a rush in to have his apartment finished by tuesday night! So he will be moving in on Tuesday! I am so proud of myself and relieved to know that Ryan has a place to stay and it isn't in the middle of Hell! I won't be getting shot at here! He is still pretty stressed out but he always is. The idea of being under a lease and having to pay more rent is a bit nerve racking but I think once he gets settled and starts to take advantage of his new freedom life will be MUCH better!

Well, that's my soapbox for the day! I'm sooo tired! Good night!

Insanity... quick post

So it's 2am and I am about to go to bed. I just thought I would give a fast update.

Ryan and Meagan have officially been kicked out of their rooms. They were told that they have to have all of their things out by the end of the week or else Becky, their "landlord", will throw it all out. I found this out last night and immediately began looking at apartments for Ryan. I found a good amount of options and was able to show them to him. I have picked out 5 to go look at tomorrow with my mom and will narrow it down to, hopefully, 2 options for him to see. I am having to do the weeding out process because he doesn't get off work until 4:15pm and all the apartment offices close at 6pm so he wouldn't have time to look at them himself. I'm pretty nervous about the whole looking and asking questions process of tomorrow. At this point, I am responsible for finding Ryan a place to live, otherwise, he won't have one. That's kind of a lot of pressure lol! Also, I've never actually gone apartment hunting so I'm just flying by the seat of my pants. Hopefully the landlords won't notice and take advantage. I am also hoping that having my mom there will make me feel a bit more secure but at the same time I tend to use her as a cruch sometimes. I feel like I'm playing wife trying to find an apartment for Ryan because I am not going to send him somewhere I wouldn't live because chances are... I will end up living there or at least spending a lot of time there.

I have done as much research as anyone can do in like... a day... and have tried to get it as organized as possible. I typed up all the questions I want to ask the landlords and printed them out. One for each complex, and have written the name of the complex on each paper so I can write down the answers. I also wrote down the name, address, how many beds/baths I am looking at and how much the rent is estimated to be. I hope I find something for him, I don't want to disappoint him :/. It is nice to know that he trusts me enough to find him a place to live though :).

Well that's my soapbox(or at least all that I have time for) for the day. Good night and wish me luck! I will let you know what happens!