The Princess Cake

One of my team members grew up in California and moved to Texas a few years ago. When she was a child, her mother worked at Disney. She was also infatuated by the characters at Disney and decided she wanted to play one of them when she became old enough. She always had her eye on the princess, Belle. Unfortunately, a move to Texas ended that chance. She told us this story several months ago, so we all patiently waited until it was her birthday, so we could surprise her. Her birthday was Friday, so my hubby baked her favorite cake, Red Velvet, and we threw her a princess themed birthday party. There was a castle shaped candle with little princess figures on her cake, princess plates, princess birthday card, and it goes on. Amazingly she never caught on to our plans and was totally surprised. Now I have to figure out what to do for the team members birthday that comes next month.

Princess Cake

Tomorrow is the birthday of one of the girls on my team. Today hubby baked her favorite cake, Red Velvet, so I can take it to her tomorrow. She moved to Texas from California a few years ago. When she was in California she always wanted to play a Princess at Disneyland. So, tomorrow she will have a Princess themed birthday. The cake topper is a castle shaped candle with Princess figures to go around the castle; the plates have various Disney princesses, and her card is princess themed as well.

I can't wait to see the look on her face when she sees the cake.

I'm Back

I was out of commission for a while during the move to our new home, but I am back now. We are not all settled in yet, and probably won't be for a while; but at least all of our belongings are finally in one place.

The first couple of nights were too quiet for me to sleep; I had grown used to the noises of an apartment community. Now, after sleeping in our house for almost a week, I am sleeping better than ever.

The dog are having a blast in their back yard and we are slowly making the place our own.

Officially Homeowners

Hubby and I have officially entered a new phase of our lives - homeowners. We closed on our new home yesterday and put the first of our belongings in our new home today. We are more than happy to be leaving the apartment life of 20 years behind. I haven't had that feeling of "wow this is our house" yet, but suspect that will not happen until all of our belongings are in one place. However, it does feel great to know we only have limited days left to deal with obnoxious neighbors.

We had the most fantastic realtor who made everything super easy. Although I know it was his job, he truly did go above and beyond to make sure we were able to get what we wanted. Anyone in the Austin area looking for a great realtor, I know just the person.

Kick in the Head

I am a very active sleeper and always have been. I have been known to carry on conversations with objects such as fans, desks, or mirrors and have no recollection of the event; at times even get out of bed and wander around the house. Hubby has gotten used to this activity after 20 years and he no longer even wakes up when it happens. The other night I went to bed and fell asleep as normal. All of a sudden I wake up when I feel something hit me in the head. I was so disoriented. I didn't know where I was or what had hit me in the head. It was pitch black and I couldn't even see the night light we keep in the other room. Finally in a panic I realized there was something covering me and pulled it off. That is when I realized it was hubby who had kicked me in the head because I was completely turned around in the bed. My head was at the foot of the bed under the covers and my feet were on my pillow. I had been dreaming that I was moving boxes and somehow ended up in that position. I repositioned myself in the bed and slept normally until the alarm went off. The next morning I awoke so tired, I was dragging all day long.

Neighbors

We have new neighbors that live above us and they are the worst neighbors we have ever had. They are young kids who don't appear to have ever lived in an apartment before. When they walk it sounds like they are stomping. I can't fault them for that because these apartments are not very sound proofed. Since they all have hardwood floors the noise travels even more. My issue with them is their smoking and drinking. My yard has become their ash tray. Every day I pick up between 5 and 10 cigarette butts from my yard that they have just tossed over their balcony and in to my yard. When they have friends over they like to go outside to drink and then they throw their beer bottles on the ground. It makes the area around our apartment look terrible.

Today when we went outside, it was just too much and we had to file a complaint with the management office. There was the usual array of cigarette butts but this time there was also a broken beer bottle in my yard. Thankfully we saw it before one of the dogs cut their feet on the pieces of glass. Hopefully they won't get worse now that we have complained.

Almost Homeowners

We received the notification today that everything is completed and we will be able to close on our new home on January 30th. What a relief. Now I can stop worrying about where we will live and change the focus to packing, setting up utilities, and changing addresses. My vacation got cancelled for the week that we are scheduled to move because of more reorganization efforts at work. I am not at risk for being impacted this time, but I will have to help deliver the news to those who are being impacted. Because my vacation was cancelled, hubby is taking the lions share of handling this move - which I appreciate immensely.