Photos of the Front Steps and a Sunday Update

Well, it's Sunday, and I'm (gasp!) skipping church. The husband had to go to camp with his little troop so he was getting ready and leaving about the time church began. I didn't want to miss seeing him off.

I have been almost looking forward to his being gone--not because of *him*, but because there are all sorts of cleaning projects around the house I've been dying to do. This week I'll be so bored that I'll actually DO those projects! They're all fairly small but irritating--things like scrubbing the tub, hemming pants, tidying the laundry room, cleaning the kitchen table, organizing my clothes and putting the sweaters in the chest...very, very dull week ahead of me, but once it's over, it'll feel SO good!!! Last week we did a lot of work on the outside of the house and it made a huge difference. Here are the before and after pix:
BEFORE:















AFTER:















This week I want to do the inside, and since the hubby won't be around to distract me, I hope to get a lot done. I will miss him a lot though. I'm going to channel that energy into cleaning.

Yesterday we went to the Museum of Science downtown and had a good time. The OmniTheatre was showing a movie on ancient Greece and that was absolutely worth seeing! Hubby kept having to shut his eyes because of motion sickness but I thought it was great.

On the way home we were discussing how our lives have changed, and we realized that we've both had to streamline our lives significantly. This was not actually done from choice (at least originally)--we both tried to live more open lives with friends in and out all the time, but found that being young and married made us so different that that lifestyle wouldn't work. We simply don't fit in with the folks our age nor do we fit in with other marrieds (who are all older). So, our course of action has been to concentrate on our careers, our home, and our marriage while keeping in touch with true friends who live far away. On one hand, this disappoints me (not having loads of local friends to hang out with), but on the other hand, there have been unforeseen benefits. For example, we are pretty clear-headed about our long-term goals and we are intentional about our choices. Perhaps it's a toss-up. This entire conversation came about because I mentioned that I wished we were the type of couple who retired to the patio after a long day of work for a glass of wine with some friends. (Does any American really do that anyway? The Greeks in the movie made it look so easy...) I think in my imagination, getting a lot of these nagging chores done will make my return home after work more relaxing. When I don't have things hanging over my head, I feel so much more free. (Free to do what? Ummm, walk the dog? But that's not the point.)

One thing I'm becoming more and more clear-headed about is that I will likely apply to business school in a year. We've done a lot of thinking about how we want our lives to go--and what lifestyle we want to live--and it looks like I'll have a lot more freedom with an MBA than without one. Oh, and for those of you who are wondering "what happened to having a baby?," I'm going to be shamelessly honest and say we realized we can't afford it right now. With our student loans, every month I don't work we'd go in the hole at least 1k--not counting baby expenses. We have some savings but not that much. When the hubby said he was up for having a baby now, I thought he meant for me to stay home permanently, and he meant that I could stay home for the paid maternity leave and then go back to work. Well, we all know how expensive day care can be, and even if I did continue working, we'd likely be living paycheck to paycheck after baby and daycare expenses. By waiting a bit and getting some things paid off, we'll be in a much better place when we have a baby. This was not an easy or fun realization but I'm going with it for now.

In terms of the house, we have some upcoming large expenses we didn't expect, and we're a little frustrated about a few of them. However, they must be done, and we're grateful we both have steady work to pay for them.

Oh, goodness gracious, I JUST remembered that I have an important meeting today at 4:30. Good thing I didn't forget that!!!! Whew!

Well, I'd better throw on some work clothes and get a move on.