It was brought to my attention that I had not had a house party since moving in my new place, so I decided to invite over some friends for a “Girls Night”. The night was consumed with lots of good conversation, food and a serious overload of chocolate. I think all my guests enjoyed themselves and I enjoyed the company. When a handful of us found ourselves still talking at 3am, 3 people decided to stay overnight instead of making a sleep deprived drive back home.  I invited both new and old friends and everyone got along so well that I am sure there will be more “girls nights” ahead (although maybe at a more central location… I apparently live in Oklahoma compared to where the rest of my friends live!) You can check out pictures on my flickr page. Unfortunately I did not start taking pictures until later in the evening and some people had already left (I promise I will do better next time, William).

At the last minute I decided I wanted to visit Kyllan over the Labor Day weekend. It was a very exciting trip. I got to spend time with Kyllan, help her move into the new house and go to Drew’s 2nd birthday party. Before I get back to packing for my trip to Memphis, where I get to see Kyllan again during my mother’s family reunion, I wanted to make a quick post. You’ll will find a video tour of the new house below. I will post more about the trip and upload pictures to my flickr account when I get back to New Orleans. I guess I will also be making a post about the reunion and uploading pictures of that. Enjoy the tour!

William and I are officially home owners! The closing went very smooth. My bank account is crying, but I am thrilled to have a beautiful new home. It’s the best money I have ever spent. I have posted new pictures on my flickr page. So now the long weekend of moving begins. I am moving tomorrow, mainly b/c my lease expires and I don’t want to pay for an additional month, but since the house is ready I may as well move now. It gives me the long weekend to unpack. My internet service here is suppose to turn off tomorrow, so I will be MIA for a while. I may not have internet service until sometime next week, but I will still have access to my e-mail via my phone. I will try to get an e-mail out as soon as possible with my new address. Thanks for everyone’s support during this process. It has been very exciting, but I am glad is is finally over!

Kyllan has posted some more pictures of the house to her flickr account. It seems like just yesterday she was complaining about rain delaying the pooring of the foundation. It’s amazing to see how far things have come.

After much “discussion” my good friend Neil has decided to start a blog. If you check out the url you will notice that he wasn’t very creative. He and his wife Tammy are expecting the birth of thier first child sometime this week. I know a few friends from Xavier have been reading my blog. You guys should visit Neil’s and say hello. There is now link to his blog in the right sidebar under the “Friends and Family” section. We will see if he actually updates it.
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Just in time for the anniversary of hurricane Katrina this news story popped up. A man took a boat and saved over 200 poeple during the flooding is being sued by the boat’s owner. “Embarrasment” and “mental anguish” are cited sited as some of the reasons. I will not be making a Katrina anniversary post. I wouldn’t know where to even begin. I tried watching Spike Lee’s “When the levees broke,” (the first Lee film credited “A Spike Lee Film,” and not “A Spike Lee Joint”) but it was too much and I turned it off. Here are a few news articles if you to see what other people are saying about the upcoming anniversary. I’m sure plenty more will pop up on the 29th.
Here, here and here

Better yet, if you want to get a sense of what life is like here in New Orleans one year after Katrina, check out “B’s” flickr page and blog. He is a faculty member at Xavier, my alma mater, and lives in an area of mid city that was flooded. His blog, “Life in the flood zone,” really provides a peek into how the aftermath of Katrina has effected our daily lives. Even if you don’t read a single post you should scroll through a few pages just to get a sense of what life is now like in their neighborhood post-K. His flickr page is filled all to familiar images of the damage that still remains. If you go back far enough, he has pictures of Xavier’s campus about a month after the hurricane. I am adding links to his blog and flickr page to the “favorite blogs” section of the sidebar.

My closing got pushed back one day, but no big deal.  I can hold off an additional 24hrs.  As long as I can still move in next weekend…. I am good.

It is official…. I am set to close on the house next Wednesday, August 30th!  I am very excited.  I am already making plans to move next Friday so I can take advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to unpack.  I am also excited b/c it worked out perfectly with my lease that ends Sept. 2nd.  I was hoping I would not have to pay September rent, so that worked out great!  The only thing that has not worked out so well is that DirecTV can’t come install my new dish until September 11th!  But, there is nothing really on TV during this time of year anyway.  I tried to take pictures yesterday, but my camera was out of batteries!  I will try to take pictures at the walkthrough on Saturday.  So… the next few weekends will be packing and unpacking for me and trying to remember to make all the proper contacts to change my address.  More pictures and updates to come! Stay tuned…. 

While in Dallas our parents toured the construction on the new house. My dad used the video capture mode on his camera to record a brief tour. You can check it out below. My parents flew out today. Kyllan’s Parent leave tomorrow. I’ll let make kyllan post and tell everyone about all of the wedding details they planned this past week.

Well… the countdown continues…. and the hardcore wedding planning is about to kick in.  My parents and William’s parents will be in town this weekend and next week.  I have taken all of next week off work so that my mom, William’s mom, and I can visit wedding vendors until we collapse (just kidding).  I don’t know if the moms know what they are getting themselves into.  I can be quite indecisive at times, so when it came to narrowing down the vendors, I did the best I could, but I still ended up with about 20 different appointments while they are here.  This will include tasting wedding cakes, talking with florists and for the first time ever…. I will try on wedding dresses, which I am sure will feel very strange.  We will also look at possible rehearsal dinner sites, and let William’s parents see the reception site.  So… things are finally start falling into place, which would be nice because that we mean we would have the majority of the wedding planned a year in advance.  I will try to keep everyone posted on how things go. 

In the meantime… progress continues on the house.  I have posted new pictures of the cabinets that went in today!  I was very pleased with how they look.  I will say that the pictures do not do the cabinets justice.  The color is actually a bit darker than the photos make them appear, but it will have to do for now.  This phase is very exciting because when you pick out colors and finishes at the design center, you still don’t quite know what it will look like in the house, so to see the choices come to life is great!  I am very anxious about the paint since you don’t know the true color until it is on the wall and it dries, but I am sure it will turn out fine.  The paint should be done by the end of the week, so I will post more photos then.  You can always check to see new photos on my flickr page.  The link to my flickr account is on the sidebar on the right side of the page.     

Last week and over the weekend, the sheetrock process and the brick work started. It’s becoming more exciting by the day as the house gets closer to completion. You can check out more photos on my Flickr site.

After a delay in the construction at the framing stage, the house is finally making progress again.  The insulation was put in on Friday and the sheet rock is set to begin next week, so things should go much smoother and faster now.  I am in the process of preparing documentation to turn in to the mortgage company this week so that we can have a smooth closing.  The tentative closing is scheduled for August 30th, so hopefully that will stay the same.  Once the sheetrock is up, I will post more pictures.

Thanks to everyone who is checking out the site.  William says I don’t post enough, so I will try to post more often.  If there is something specific you want to know about…Let us know!