Packing and pinning

Remember this? About a year ago we were in the exact same situation. There are banana boxes everywhere again. I've spent my days off packing, pinning for the new house, and grooming Bully. In the last few years he's grown a lot of paw hair.

Our closing had been extended to on or before the 30th of this month. I never thought contracts were ambiguous but apparently they are in real estate. I wasn't going to sign the adendum but our agent bought me a drink and I caved. I can be bought, did you know?

Maybe within the next few days we will have a house. Maybe not. That's real estate.

I'm not complaining, but..

Look, I am ecstatic that we negotiated a new roof for the same  selling price. And we finally got our loan approval. But does it have to rain all day, every day this week? I'm sticking my tongue out and blowing raspberries at the clouds right now. "Did Shawn know he married a brat, " you ask? Oh, he knew, boy did he know. OksorryIlove you!

Meanwhile, my new-house-ideas pinning has gotten out of control, so maybe I'll chill out until we actually close. I don't want to jinx it.

House Update

Credit approval finally. Shawn's been on the phone constantly with our loan handler. He got very stern, too. Seems like they made a few errors, and mis-communicated a few figures. I'm so glad he handled it, and now we can move on.

He seems so masculine when he's stern. I like it!

Sea Turtle cupcakes

Two days off, and this what happens. I make two dozen (plus three that I "tasted")  sea turtle cupcakes for a work event. I hope these kiddies like this party favor. They were more time consuming than I realized. Thank goodness, I had this time off! I got the idea from here: http://family.go.com/food/recipe-852443-squirt-happy-turtlecakes-t/ and the originals look like this.

These are obviously the most perfect three out of like, six dozen, but hey, handmade has a certain quality, eh?

Here are some tips of what I found to be helpful:
-Get a sharp knife to cut the candies into pieces. You must use wintergreen slices, which are pretty hard to find at Target. CVS or Walgreens seemed to always have them. It was pretty hard to find only green or only red gumdrops, so I bought several bags of assorted, and picked out the colors. I ended up wasting more candy than anyone could eat.
-Stick a toothpick or skewer in the side of the gummy drop head and dip the point of the mini chocolate chip in white frosting. Stick the pointy part of the chip into the hole so it stays in place, and press the flat side so it goes in. The frosting "white" of the eye tends to get messy, so wipe around it.
-Not sure why, but I made Angel Food cupcakes. The candy is too top heavy for angel food, so make a real cupcake!
-Since I made these ahead of time due to my work schedule, I froze them, which moistened the sugar on the candy too much.

Update: the kids loved them, although they left blue haired. Ooops. Looking back on it, I probably wouldn't have used conventional food coloring. White frosting looks fine, but if you like color, here is a link for natural blue food coloring via Whole New Mom. The color won't be a vivid blue, but really, that blue looks too artificial to eat.

Pinning!

 Time for a house update. I'll present it to you in outline form.

I. Made the third house offer
 A. Offer accepted
II. House inspected
    A.Roof fails inspection
        1. Roof re-inspected after patch job
III. We cancel the contract because we're not comfortable.
IV. Seller agrees to replace roof!
  V. Re-sign the addendum to the contract
      A. Re submit paperwork
          1.Re-submit paperwork
       C. Make phone calls
           1. Re-sumbit more paperwork
           2. Make phone calls

and this brings up to date...I wish I knew more, but at least we're getting a new roof! We've been pre-approved for this loan, and now we're just waiting for the underwriter to approve everything. Did I mention a NEW ROOF??!!

So here's some pics of the house, and I've started a pinning some ideas for the rooms. Too soon? Who knows...but here it is!

We' re planning a lush Key West front yard, partly inspired by our trip. Ok, also, because I don't want to mow a front yard.

 Visit my pinterest page to see my ideas and progress!

http://pinterest.com/leilani29/

A little secret

I'll let you in on a little secret.

My hubbs is obsessed with The Voice.  Possibly more than I, because he actually voted. Twice.

And tonight, as we're watching these "last chance," performances where there is no audience voting involved, he is so moved by this one performance, that he reaches for his phone. It's adorable. We love that show, though, and do our best impressions of the contestants and judges. It's our most inside joke at the moment (meaning: you probably won't find it amusing).

So how was your Easter? We spent Saturday with my sister, and her fiance's family at Universal. I think we ate more than anything. Oh, wait, we rode a few rides. But mostly, we ate. Then we rocked out to Cyndi Lauper. Btw, did you know she now sings blues? Well, we found that out for about forty minutes! Of course, she stuck the favorites in her encore.

Now I have to stream Glee and the New Girl.  Television has been good lately.

Key West with my Bestie

and our dog...

  Last year, on Shawn's birthday, we were in Ft. Lauderdale making the decision to move down here. A year later, we are deciding on a house to buy. And to top it off, I took him to Key West!

We stopped at the beautiful Islamorada for lunch. You must check out Anne's beach and feed some Hungry Tarpon. The water is so colorful.
My hubby looks so handsome eating a Cinderella yogurt. I got cute little napkins and plates. Even brought sparkle candles for the petite cakes, but kinda forgot  about them. I blame it on the views.

  We stayed at this cute 'lil B&B on a quiet street but very close to everything. Having Bully there allowed us to walk and explore the neighborhoods. Shawn took dozes of pics of houses and their front yards to get ideas for ours.

 We were into the flora. Look! Orchids growing wild on trees!

There was oyster happy hours, marina strolling, fish feeding, wave running, and beach time.

 Big Tarpons

Shawn in volleyball Action

  The island's unofficial bird

When in Key West, you must: Scoot

Go see this buoy. Get serenaded by a gentleman at the turtle museum.

 Stop by the Western Union

 We had a blast. How will I top it next year? Perhaps, a huge partay at our own house.... I've started planning the menu this morning ;)

Bully's new glasses

 Bully's old glasses, shown here, just needed an update. He now prefers a more mature look. He's now more Brooks Brothers, less Warby Parker.

He still is not happy to be photographed. He feels his new specs have to be specially adjusted.

"See?" He says, "They just go straight into my ears."

Well, now it appears that we have to find optometry that specializes in canine head shapes.

Thanks, Bully.

We needed a little laugh lately.

Farewell, Daddy

Virgilio Miranda Reynante 1937-2012

 I wish I could be there with you and Mommy to say good-bye.

I pray that you are resting in peace.  Someday Shawn & I will visit you. We love you.
Love,
Lala