What's on Your Nightstand?

I just finished The Lucky Ones, and as much as I liked it, don't read it if you ever want to eat meat, or dairy, or eggs again! I am seriously thinking of becoming a vegan!

When Life Gives You Peppers...

make pepper relish!
Husband's assistant had sent home a big bag of banana peppers and I wasn't really sure what to do with them. Then I started looking up recipes using them and found one for a pepper relish. All I had to do was purchase a green bell pepper, red bell pepper and some jalapeno peppers and I was good to go!
Can't wait to try it!

Last Monday

Last Monday was a teacher's workday, so the teens didn't have school. I thought it would be a great day to head downtown so daughter could use her new camera.

We headed to the Heyward-Washington House first. Thanks to my reciprocal pass from Middleton our admission was free!

I love the house, but the tour guide we had sounded like she was reading off a script, quickly!

I really enjoyed the gardens out back.

We then just walked around while daughter took photos.

I had thought about going to the Gibbs Museum, but then remembered that they are closed on Mondays. :(

It was getting close to lunch so we headed to East Bay Deli for lunch.

They have the best sandwiches!

 On our way we passed a food truck so we went back for some dessert; a Red Velvet cupcake. It was really good! I'll have to keep my eyes open for this food truck again!

Before we got home we ended up stopping to look at a pair of boots that daughter was lusting after! And because I am such a pushover, we bought them!

Such a great way to spend an early fall day in Charleston!

 

 

They Did What?

I went to Sam's Club to pick up husband's contacts that had come in last week.

They told me that they had already been picked up. I told them that was not possible as husband had just asked me to get them if I was in the area. 

Well, the computer shows that they were picked up on the 18th. The bin they were in now holds a new order for another patient. 

Really?! They gave the contacts to someone else? They don't check an ID?

I can't wait until that person tries to use them, as husband is blind as a bat!

At least they are ordering more for him and said they will have them shipped to our house so I don't have to make another trip!

What a Weekend

We are back from our weekend in the upstate.

We headed up as soon as everyone was home from work and school on Friday. The 18 year old wasn't too happy that we were taking him away from his friends for the weekend and that attitude caused a little drama between he and husband. That in turn made me call for a return home on Sunday instead of Monday as was planned! :(

We left son to stew in his own juices on Saturday while we went to Clemson to watch them play Virgina Tech. We had great seats! And what a game! So glad we won!

My sister and her husband were at the game and we met up during half time out at their tailgate. Someone needs to remind me not to let a 30-something mix a drink for me. Their idea of a vodka and cranberry juice is a huge cup of vodka with a splash of cranberry juice! I had a hard time waking out of the stadium after the game!

Since we weren't in a hurry to leave afterwards, we met up with husband's sister and her boyfriend and grabbed a bite to eat. I had a wonderful Caprese Salad and many glasses of water! Then we headed to one of husband's old haunts when he was a student and people watched. 

When we got back to the house, son had called my mom, who lives about 40 minutes away, to see if she could come over and see him. But, she had a prior commitment and couldn't make it. I think he was pretty glad to see us and may reconsider sitting out the next game at the house!

We grilled steaks and watched a movie before turning in for the night.

Sunday morning daughter and husband tried their luck at fishing. Didn't get anything but muddy!

We ended up leaving around noon to head back over to clemson to meet up with our neighbor's son to give him some sweatshirts and a jacket that his mother sent with us. 

The weather has really turned cooler and I started with sneezing and a runny nose over the weekend, so I was so glad to just get home and be able to put on my pajamas and relax.

The teens don't have school today because it is a teacher workday. So daughter and I are heading downtown Charleston so she can take some photos with her new camera.We may even hit up a few of the historical homes while we are there.

Did you have a good weekend?

Weekend Wrap Up

We had a great weekend. The weather was just gorgeous, I love this time of the year here in the lowcountry!

Saturday night was Pokeno night with the girls. Always loads of fun with this group!

I actually won a few times.

Love this little pillow I won:

I also won these:

As there was a big college football game on that night and many of the group are fans, we made it an early night. I was home by 9:30 and was able to watch the rest of the game, though I am not a fan and was pulling for the other team!

Sunday evening husband went with me to the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at the plantation where I volunteer. It was a lot of fun. I wish I had taken my camera because the views onto the Ashley river from the bluff were unreal! I'll have to remember for next year! I have been volunteering for only a year but the volunteer that had been there for 25 got a piece of the family's china from the early 1800's! I want some of that, so I guess I have about 24 more years to go! 

Got a  busy week this week, finishing up college applications with son, two days at Middleton Place and getting things together to head out of town on Friday. 

How was your weeekend?

 

 

 

It Feels Like a Huge Weight Has Been Lifted

The for sale sign is gone. 

The lock box is off the door.

The listing is no longer on the MLS.

And I feel like a HUGE weight has been lifted!

The house was on the market for 15 months! That was 15 months of making sure that it was "show ready" at all times. Making sure I didn't cook anything that would leave an awful after smell! I didn't even cook bacon anymore. If we wanted it I would only make it at the lake house or the mountain house!

I felt almost giddy all day! 

Now, I have a long list of things I want to do to this house since we are staying in it for a couple more years!

Well here it is Monday morning. The past weekend ended up being really kind of emotional.

You know we got an offer on the house... It was pretty low, so we countered. Saturday they came back to look at the house again. Previously only the wife had looked with her children. Their realtor had told ours that their first offer was the best they could do and they had to close on or before the 30th of October.

I had not even started looking at houses because there was no need to look if our house wasn't sold. We are determined that we are not getting into a mortgage again! 

So I quickly started looking at what was online and available. Because we have one child that will still have two more years of high school we didn't want to move outside the lines to another high school. So, that really limits our prospects, but I thought that wouldn't be a problem since there was really only two neighborhoods I would consider. And in the past there were tons of houses for sale and some that I really liked!

Well, guess what? That was a problem!

There was NOTHING in the one neighborhood in our price range, (remember we want to pay cash). And in the other neighborhood there were only 4 houses that I would even consider, but none that I felt that excited about. I don't want to move just to move. Or to settle. 

So, after much back and forth we aren't going to accept their offer, they did come up $15,000 with a counter to our counter! I wonder what happened to "this is the most they can offer"? I really hate the whole making an offer game. Don't lie to me and tell me this is the best you can do, when obviously you can do more. Sure, you can play that "game" and we can go back and forth but don't think you can play on my emotions and get me to accept a low offer because I feel sorry for you. Just start with the low offer and leave all the sob stories out of the equation! One funny thing though, when they came back with a higher offer they  had a few things that they wanted too. One was the refrigerator. I started laughing when our realtor told me because it's 10 years old and the ice maker does this weird thing where the ice will sometimes start going down the back area of the freezer so I am always having to clean out ice that I keep finding on all the shelves. I didn't even plan to take it to the new house. Then they asked for the mirror in the powder room. Again, I wasn't even planning to take it! I mean why would I take the mirror from the bathroom? I did have to buy it when we moved in because the last owners took the one that was there when they left but I think it only cost $50 from Lowes! The last thing they asked for was the rug we have in the den. I really started laughing when I heard that! We have hardwood floors in there and I knew I needed something pretty comfortable for the kids to lay around on when they watched tv or whatever. I bought it probably 7 years ago and it is just a carpet remnant that I bought and had the edges bound so it looks like a big area rug. It is so dirty even though I am continually cleaning it! But I found it funny that they would even want it! It would have saved me from having to throw it away!

So, since we can't find a house we like we are going to have our realtor take it off the MLS, come get the lockbox and the sign out of our yard today. 

I think we will try to sell again in the spring of daughter's senior year. That way if we do sell and we can't find anthing, we could always put our stuff in storage and go live in the lake house until we could find what we like.

Let The Games Begin

It has been blowing my mind at how many house showings we have been having.

Last year after school started we didn't have a single showing until after Christmas! This year has been so different! 

Yesterday we had two showings within 45 minutes of each other, and one of those made us an offer!

Our realtor just called a couple hours ago to let us know, and of course husband is out of town today for work and I haven't been able to even tell him. And, it is a pretty low offer, but we will counter and start playing that game! I guess I should say that husband will start playing the game! I just tell him to let me know when it is over!

So, keep your fingers crossed, I guess? I was almost to the point of taking the house off the market and just waiting to try to sell when daughter is almost out of high school. In fact earlier this week I had told myself that if we didn't get any showings by friday I was going to call our realtor and tell him to take it off the MLS, and come get his sign and the lockbox. Well, I guess we'll see what happens and I guess I might need to start looking for a house to move into!

Happy Weekend!