Pleasantly Southern: May 2009

So this blog is going to have a theme... yes, it is about patience.

First of all, to all my millions of readers (yeah, right!), you have to have patience with me about blogging! I haven't seemed to be able to find the time lately! Lots of new things to tell... let's see... where do I begin??

The last time I blogged was after my friend Leslie had been here for a long weekend trip. It was great to see her since it had been many, many months since a visit. Almost the entire time she was here, it RAINED!! She came in on Thursday night, and we decided to go out to eat close to home. We drove up to Clarksville which by interstate is only about 20 min away. We were both tired so we just decided to eat, go to Wal-mart, and then go home. We had Rafferty's. I like the food at the Rivergate Rafferty's better. Don't really know what the difference is?? Anyway... the next day, we went into Franklin because I wanted to take her downtown. When I say that we were soaked to the core, I mean "sopping wet." It rained on us all day long! Neither one of us thought to bring a stupid umbrella. We ate lunch at HRH Dumplins which is a cutesy little "tea" room in downtown Franklin. I got poppy seed chicken casserole and Leslie had tuna salad I think. They have the best cloverleaf rolls there with honey and strawberry butter. After eating lunch, we walked along the storefronts on Main St. trying to stay underneath awnings. We went in a cool tea shop with all different kinds of homemade tea leaves; then to a bath store that had homemade soaps, powders, face masks, etc; next to a cutesy store that had Vera Bradley; also to a gourmet kitchen store; and finally to a cupcake store. About this time, the rain stopped! We decided to go get a pedicure in Green Hills! It was so great! By this time, the rain was back, and we were thankful for the parking garage at the movie. We saw Ghosts of Girlfriends Past with Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner. I thought the movie was good, however, it is a definite chick flick! After the movie, we ate at Carrabba's for supper and then it was on the way home. The rest of Leslie's visit was a basic rewind-repeat visit. Because of the rain, we did pretty much the same thing everyday... minus the pedicures.

On to other big news, I am going to be a homeowner on June 26th, Lord willing and the creek don't rise (as my Memaw says). I am beyond excited!! My Dad is being very gracious in helping out so that I can afford to have this house. This is where the patience comes in that I was talking about in the first part of the blog. I can tell you from this experience, patience is the best option when deciding on how to deal with buying a house. We had to go through 6 offer/counter-offers, and there were many times when I thought I wasn't going to get the house. After the inspection, we asked for some work to be done on the house regarding the outside, the owner refused. Here again, I thought the house was a goner. However, God had other plans. We came to an agreement (finally), and I have some wonderful family and friends who have volunteered to come help out on some of the issues that will not be fixed by the owner. During this whole process, I have become addicted to watching HGTV, and it has really, truly taught me lessons about buying my first home. Whenever people are asked on these shows to give advice to other home buyers, they always say "Have patience and let the process work." If you are interested in watching some of the HGTV shows, I would recommend House Hunters, House Hunters International (amazing prices for not very much square footage), My First Place, Income Property, Property Virgins, the Unsellables, and the Stagers. They have tons more to choose from so go check them out. Here are some pictures of the front of the house.

So there you go... my new humble abode! I can't wait to start painting the inside and moving all my stuff in.

That is about all the news I can remember for now. I will leave you with a couple of pictures that Maggie wanted me to take of her this morning (yeah, right!) I title this masterpiece "the Faux Mohawk."