Grownuphood

I made up that word.

There is a difference between being an adult and being a grown-up. (And by the way, I just put the word grownup in dictionary.com to see if it is one word or has a hyphen and the dictionary people said that either one is acceptable.) You are technically an adult when you turn 18. Although, you don't have any leverage with your parents if you are still a senior in high school when you turn 18 and say something like, "I'll do whatever I want! I'm 18 now and that means I'm an adult!" However, I don't ever remember saying that. I'm sure my dad will clear things up if I did.

But I have felt rather adult-ish since I graduated high school. I think that going to and graduating from college is a very adult thing to do. Getting married seemed like something an adult would do. Living on my own (duh, and with Justin) seemed like an adult thing to do. But have I felt all that grown-up? Meh. Not all of the time.

Until this past week. Last Tuesday, Justin and I put on our big-kid-pants, grabbed our one-way tickets to Grownuphood and have not looked back. We are currently involved in a very grown-up process: buying a house.

Now I hope my closest friends and family members aren't reading this and feel very betrayed for me not sharing the news. But it has all happened so fast that sometimes I really have to concentrate to believe that it's really happening. We went to meet with a mortgage guy (for lack of his real, official title) last Tuesday to see if we would even be able to get a loan and for how much. After signing our names four bajillion times, we found out we did qualify and mortgage guy gave us the name of a real estate agent that he really trusts. Justin and the real estate agent were best friends by the time we left the bank after he called her and the whirlwind began.

The real estate agent said that if we got the ball rolling and were in contract to buy a house by the end of April that we would still qualify for the $8000 tax credit. (Thanks, Obama.) While $8000 sounded very appealing (sometimes, somedays, $8 sounds rather appealing) we didn't want to rush into anything unless we really loved a house and everything seemed to be falling into place.

So said real estate agent found us some houses in our area to look at. There weren't many since we really wanted to stay in McCordsville, and well, it's not that big. But I love, love, love this location. It's very close to school for me, a close drive to my sister's, my friend Ashley's, Target, the Hamilton Town Center, and other important places where we like to go. By Friday of last week I was off to look at four houses with Jess since Justin had to work.

The first two were not good. Not good at all. The first one's master bedroom was about the size of our closet and the carpet was stained beyond repair. The second one smelled like my Aunt Hazel's house used to...moth balls...times ten. Plus the layout didn't wow me. The third one had pretty much the same layout as the second one but these people had not only painted their walls bright yellow, black, and red, but had also painted all of the trim in almost every room and they had some lovely indoor/outdoor carpet going on throughout the whole place that would have to be replaced because I like a little plushness underneath my Flinstone feet when I walk around the house.

So on to house #4. I was discouraged. I hadn't fallen in love with any of the houses so far and I didn't think I would love the fourth one based on the pictures I'd seen. I figured we would be in the apartment forever, just throwing rent money down the drain.

But, by some miracle, house #4 was a million times better in person than it was in pictures. I immediately stepped into it and knew that Justin would love it, and I loved it too. The layout is awesome, it is in great condition, and it kind of just screamed at me that this was definitely the house that we are supposed to live in.

I gushed about the house to Justin and he was able to see it on Saturday. He liked it as well. It was harder for him to love it as much as me since he didn't have anything to compare it to (we couldn't get into the other houses that day) but I told him to trust me. And he did.

So while we were still riding the incredibly fast house-hunting roller coaster, my dad and Lea came to look at the house on Monday afternoon and liked it as well. And yesterday, our train officially arrived in Grownuphood and we made an offer on the house. Holy adult decision!

Now, don't worry. We didn't settle on this house just because we wanted the $8000 tax credit. I really do love this house and think it will be a great starter home for us. We heard back from the seller today and while he didn't accept our first offer (we knew he wouldn't), he did counter offer and we will be responding to that tomorrow. If your fingers weren't already crossed for us, do that now.

The whole process has been very overwhelming and very confusing. Me? Know something about buying a house? That's funny! But my dad has been very helpful, the real estate agent has been very helpful, and Justin has really self-educated himself with this whole process via Google, so he has been very helpful as well.

We are excited about this new chapter in our lives. I will be sad to leave our apartment. I tend to get attached to material objects/structures/houses. Let's face it, I surprise myself sometimes that I don't take off to Muncie and throw myself on the front yard of my parents' old house and cry my eyes out because we don't own that house anymore. But we need more space and need to start putting our money into something other than rent. Besides, if we have to live underneath the McStompers for much longer, we will both go crazy.

Wish us luck!

Back to Reality

Ugh...work. Ugh...school. Ugh...responsibility. OK, just kidding. Well, sort of. I go back to school tomorrow after two wonderful weeks off. I can honestly say that I don't think that this break went by too fast. I feel like I had a lot of time to see family and friends as well as get some much-needed rest and relaxation. I will be sad to see it go but it must come to an end.

I started on my organization mission today. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped since I stopped in the afternoon to get things ready for school tomorrow. The paper sorting/file making is coming along nicely, though.

And speaking of going back to work, a bit of a funny story to share. Justin doesn't love to hear me say that I don't want to go back to work since I just had two weeks off and he barely gets a vacation each year, but I do it anyway and he groans every time. So we are watching the weather tonight and see that "they" are calling for a snowstorm on Thursday and the weatherman says "I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of school delays and closings on Thursday and Friday." I kind of laugh and say, "Yeah, after a full day tomorrow, it might be nice to have a break." Justin didn't find it amusing. Oh well!

Traditions

It's funny how locations can change, the people around you can change, and you can change, but you always end up finding comfort in doing things you've always done. It's comforting to carry on traditions, especially at Christmas.

This year marks the second Christmas without my mom. In some ways it is more painful than the first. I think last year I was still numb from it all; still in shock that she wasn't coming back and also on a honeymoon, just-got-married high. But this year I feel it has settled in more. However, it's nice to find peace and comfort in traditions.

This Christmas will be the first Christmas that I don't wake up in a twin bed at my parent's house in Muncie. Instead, I'll wake up next to my husband (yep, didn't even wake up next to him last year...I believe he was freezing on the floor below me on an air mattress) with my sister a little further away in our guest room and my dad two hours away in Fort Wayne. So, yes, the location has changed, the people around me have changed, but we've still carried on traditions this year that have helped me accept these changes and embrace new holiday happenings.

Since Justin and I moved last year on the day after Thanksgiving, we barely put up a tree, so I was very excited to decorate the entire apartment for Christmas this year. With my dad selling our house in Muncie, I inherited several of our Christmas decorations so now our apartment feels a little bit like my house always felt like during this time of year. A few of our family Christmas decorations:

Our family Christmas tree with most of the ornaments that have always adorned it.

My stocking (on the left) and Justin's. My mom made my stocking when I was little and then made one for Justin when it became apparent he was going to be sticking around.

These stocking holders held my stocking and Jessica's for over twenty years. They now hold my stocking and Justin's.

My favorite Christmas decoration. I remember how I would have to wait for it to be my turn to move the mouse one day closer to Christmas. Now Justin let's me move it everyday and have all of the turns.

My maternal grandmother used to have two ornaments like this one on her tree, then my mom inherited them and now I have one my tree and Jess has one on hers.

While it's traditional to have those decorations decking our halls, it's nice to have a few new ones to look at, like these:

Our Colts tree!

The wreath on our front door.

An ornament of Cinderella's Castle that we bought on our honeymoon last year in Disney.

Another Disney ornament that we bought to mark our first Christmas together, and a few more below that we received as gifts last year.

In carrying on with another tradition, Jess came over today (bags in tow to spend a few nights with me and Justin) and we spent the day baking Christmas cookies and making fudge.


I also made some killer barbecued ribs in the crock pot for dinner:


Justin got home around 8:15 and we all had dinner together. He also finished wrapping presents and the underneath of Christmas tree is growing into the middle of the living room now.


So while I may still cry at mother/daughter Christmas commercials or tear up when I walk by the "Mom" Christmas card section at Hallmark, I'll keep carrying on these family traditions that bring me comfort and creating new ones that excite me for the future.

Now, in just one more tradition, I'm going to go try and convince Justin to take my dad's place in reading "The Night Before Christmas" to me and Jess. Then we all need to get in bed so Santa can come!

Ups, Downs, & Indifferents

A way to organize the last month and a half:

UP: Justin and I celebrated our first anniversary on October 18th. It was a very low-key celebration that included Justin being home for four days straight without working (the next time that might happen is when we have a child...and they might not even let him have that much time off then) so we enjoyed the company of each other from Thursday to Sunday and found it strange to eat dinner together four nights in a row.

UP: I coach some of the best cheerleaders around. We are now out of competition season and I am proud to say that the JV came in third in the state competition and Varsity placed first in the small co-ed division at the Indiana Cheerleading Association state finals. Yep, first. Which means they are state champions. Which means they have gold medals. Which means that they will be fitted for state championship rings in the next couple of weeks. And it means that they are a great group of kids and I'm pleased and thankful that I got to be a part of such a huge accomplishment.

DOWN: My grandmother passed away last week. She was the head of my family on my father's side and the whole heart of the family, really. I spoke at her funeral and felt honored to do so. I think several of my family members will feel lost for a long time, but we will find comfort in each other, and like I said at the funeral, we are the lucky ones that got to be on the receiving end of her love and while she may not be here, at least we get to hold on really tight to that love.

INDIFFERENT: School. Ugh. So overwhelmed. I should be grading something or making an answer key for something or writing a lesson plan for something right now, but I had to take a break. But now that I just wrote that I feel guilty for not doing something for my job. Geez.

UP: I went to a Relay for Life leadership conference this past weekend and had an amazing time. More on that in separate post, but I got re-energized to plan this event. It really just confirmed that I am doing something awesome to honor my mom and that makes me feel good.

DOWN: My dad is selling my childhood home in Muncie and Jess and I had to go there yesterday to help go through some stuff. I'm having a really hard time with this. Is it just a physical structure? Technically. Is it so much more to me? Absolutely. It's hard. I feel like one chapter of my life is ending and I'm definitely not ready to turn the page. It is bringing up a lot of grief from my mom's death that I thought I had worked through. And I feel that I need to keep everything from the house. I feel like if I get rid of something, then I'm getting rid of the memory, and while I know that's not true, it's just hard and that's the only way I can explain it.

UP: It is the holiday season and if I didn't have a million things to do for school, I would totally start decorating for Christmas right now. I absolutely love this time of year and if the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas could last for a few months instead of one then I would be one happy girl!

DOWN: My little Maggie kitty is, indeed, getting older. Justin and I took her for her yearly check-up and found out that she has the early stages of hyperthyroidism. Basically that means that her metabolism is extremely high (which explains why/how she digests food so fast and is hungry all the time...including wanting breakfast at 4 a.m.) and she will continue to lose weight gradually (which an 11-year-old kitty should not do) and eventually it will be full-blown and by then her life expectancy should be about two to four years, which really will be her expectancy anyway by that time. So we are just going to weigh her each month and see when she goes into full hyperthyroidism and go from there. But I continue to snuggle with her as much as possible and feed her scraps from the table almost daily!

DOWN: I haven't seen my friends since BSU homecoming and I know I haven't been the best friend lately since I have been so overwhelmed and busy with cheerleading. But I will see them this weekend so I can make up for some lost time!

UP: Today is Justin's birthday! He is 28 today. Since it is Monday (and if Justin didn't work at the theater on a Monday the place might cave in on itself) he won't be home until around 8:30 so we are having a party when he gets home. The guest list consists of the two coolest girls around...me and Mags. So I am about to put his birthday cake in the oven (he's not a fan of store-bought cake) and I will be ready to sing a solo "Happy Birthday" to him when he walks in the door...party hats and all. I'll take pictures!

Ok, gotta bake a cake! And grade...

Great Weekend!

I truly need more weekends like the one I just had!

Friday night, I went to my friend Katie's bachelorette dinner at Chopsticks Bistro downtown. I had never had sushi before (unless you count the bite I had one time from someone's sushi lunch from Marsh...but I don't) and it was really good. I'm definitely a meat and potatoes kind of girl but I tried two different kinds of sushi and really liked them both. They also had the best crab rangoons I have ever had. Other than the great food, I had a good time with my teacher friends from school.

I woke up way too early on Saturday morning to head to Muncie for homecoming at Ball State. We all met at Allison's house and headed over to wait in horrible traffic to get into tailgating. I was a little nervous at first because we were out by the softball diamonds to tailgate and we had never been out there before (and it was freezing!), but we ended up having a really great time playing football, grilling out, people watching, and catching up. It was nice to act like a college student again, if only for a few hours.

With the best friends a girl could ask for: Laura, me, Ashley, Jess, and Allison.

Laura and I were the first ones to succumb to the cold temperatures and hang out in the car!

Ashley's 16-week-old pregnant belly. There's a little girl in there! I just know it!

I left Muncie around 5:30 to get back home. Then, something happened last night that is extremely rare in the marriage of Justin and Jennifer Leavell. We spend Saturday night together and went out on a date. Shocking, I know. Due to school, cheerleading practice, and yearbook meetings being back in full force and Justin and I already working completely opposite hours, I couldn't remember the last time we had spent more than two hours together, let alone a whole evening. So I came back home to get ready (and let me pause here to brag about the fact that I got home at 6:33, fed Maggie, took a shower, and was ready to leave at 7:40...that's quite a feat for me) and once Justin got home and changed, we were off. We went and walked around at the Hamilton Town Center for a little bit and then went to eat at Olive Garden.

This is how I liked dinner to be served...off of a menu...and not out of the kitchen. OK, I know that sounded horrible, but I'm still trying to get into this whole cooking thing.

We had a great time together. We are really trying to make more of an effort to make the most out of the time we do see each other each week. And yes, I know that there are couples out there that have it way worse than we do, but I can only attest to how our lives are.

Today has been spent doing laundry, cleaning up a bit, and grading. I also found out that Maggie did something that she had yet to do since she has lived with me and Justin--she got us for two meals at breakfast. Since Justin has to get up so early on Sunday mornings to go to work, I got up and fed Maggie as soon as she came into our room crying at 5 a.m. so she wouldn't wake him up. However, she got Justin when he got up because she cried and cried like she had never been fed and he gave her another bowl of food. To a 16-pound cat that gets no more than a half a cup of low-calorie food a day anyway, it must have felt like Christmas morning. Here she is basking in her victory:


If our cat can get the best of us, I hate to think about what our kids will trick us into one day!

I'm Back!

My loyal blog readers (all six...OK who am I kidding...all three of them) have requested that I get back into the swing of this blog thing! And I agree! I was kind of afraid that this would happen when school started. I know I would put this thing on the back burner but that's exactly what I don't want to continue to do...so here we go.

Speaking of school, things are going well in my third year. I always said that the first year of teaching is like keeping your head above water, the second year is when someone has thrown you a life jacket, and by your third year you should be in a boat and sailing smoothly. Well, I'm not sure how smooth I'm sailing my boat, but it's sailing! I'm really busy with teaching a couple of new classes this year as well as cheerleading and yearbook. Our 2008-2009 yearbook just came out and it has been receiving really positive feedback so now I feel that the pressure is on even more to do well for next year. We are in full competition mode with cheerleading and soon I will have cheer competitions for four Saturdays straight.

And if all that wasn't enough with trying to be a good little wife (more on us in a minute), I decided to take on something else to put on my already over-flowing plate. I am now the Event Chair for the 2010 Fortville/McCordsville Relay for Life. If you aren't sure what Relay for Life is, check it out here. I've really been looking at doing something to honor my mom ever since she passed away and the opportunity came up to be on the RFL committee and not being one to sit in the corner of a committee meeting, I took the reins and now I'm the Event Chair. Justin and my sister, Jessica, are also serving on the committee so it's nice to be doing this with family. We are currently recruiting other committee members and are in the early stages of planning, but I feel really good about this and feel that is a great way to do my part for cancer fund-raising. I always know that my mom is proud of me, and I couldn't feel more strongly about that since I made this decision.

But with the committee and everything going on at school, I could wear about ten of those "stressed" nametags from my last post everyday. I enjoy everything I am involved in and that's why I do them, because I have a passion for each one, but it all gets to me sometimes. I was talking to my principal this past week and he said he could definitely tell that I had a lot going on. We had a really nice talk and he said that while I may love everything I do, that nothing should keep from setting aside some time for me every now and then. And, well, the only time I get to myself these days are those four to five hours that I sleep each night. He said that people would still like me and think that I am a good person if I say no every now and then--something I struggle with and inherited from my mom, I think. He's right, though. While I am going to continue to do everything I am doing now, I have to start making sure that I am putting some hours into the day for myself.

Now on to the newlyweds. We are technically still under that title for a few more weeks now! Justin is great (working all the time) and while we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, we still enjoy the time we do get together. I cherish our Tuesday and Wednesday nights together (his days off) and even though we usually just spend it making dinner and smiling every now and then at each other as I grade papers/plan lessons and he watches TV, those are my favorite nights of the week. He is taking three days off for our anniversary weekend and I'm excited to get see him for a full 72 hours!

Jess and I went to our family reunion today. It was great to see family members from my mom's side of the family. I forget how much fun I have just talking and catching up with family. We're enjoying some down time right now before we head back to New Castle to watch my uncle's band play. Yep, I'm related to a rock star.

I think you are now caught up on my life. And for more late-breaking news: I'm thinking about biting the bullet and just doing it...joining Facebook, that is.

Canoe Country

What is included in a great summer afternoon? How about family, perfect weather, lots of laughs, and a relaxing canoe trip? That is exactly what our afternoon consisted of yesterday. Justin's brother Shane mentioned his interest in canoeing last week so we set the date to go yesterday and invited my sister, Jessica, along for the ride. The decision to invite Jess would prove to be quite an entertaining one, but more on that later.

We made reservations at Canoe Country, a business in Daleville, IN that allows you to rent a canoe, drops you off at a location on the White River, and picks you up at your final destination. Wanting to get the most out of our trip, we decided to do the 10+ mile trip which takes about four hours. We were dropped off in Daleville and paddled our way for four hours to Edgewater Park in Anderson, IN.

The weather was perfect yesterday and even the mid-80s didn't feel hot since we were down on the river and under the shade of trees during a large part of the trip. This was the first time canoeing for Jess and myself. Justin and I were in one canoe and Jess and Shane were in another. Once we got the handle on how to actually steer the canoe...well, I guess once Shane and Jess got a handle on not canoeing backwards or sideways (Justin was a pro at steering from the beginning), we were on our way down the White River. We brought drinks and snacks along and I am definitely disappointed that I didn't bring my camera, but Canoe Country warns you not to take anything that you don't want wet or lost, so we were safe for this trip and left the camera at home.

We had a leisurely ride down the river, enjoying the scenery of the parks and pointing out each duck and turtle and snake (eek!) we saw. We were about three and half hours into our trip, and even though it was proving to be a fun-filled and relaxing afternoon, what happened next would definitely be the biggest memory of the trip--the memory that we will sit around ten years from now and say, "Hey Shane and Jess, remember that first time we went canoeing and you..."

Now nothing short of an actual first-hand account of this incident can do it justice of just how funny it was, but I'll try my best. For about the last mile of the trip, we decided it would be a good idea to race. Things were going great (because Justin and I were winning) but Shane and Jess caught up and we reached a shallow part of the river. With rocks scraping the bottom, and my competitive nature kicking in, I yelled at Justin to get out and drag the canoe out of the rocks. Jess and Shane followed suit and abandoned their canoe to start dragging it as well. With the rocks a little painful under our feet and with Justin noticing that the water was deeper a few feet in front of us, we got back in our canoe and were pushing off the bank when I looked up and saw Shane and Jess neck-deep in the river and their canoe completely sideways and taking on water. Knowing that the water wasn't deep enough to go over their heads, Justin and I could not help but laugh. I guess Jess lost her shoe and they were both trying to get it while realizing the river wasn't shallow anymore and when they both tried to get in the canoe again at the same time, mother nature wasn't on their side. Seeing our siblings scramble, Justin and I could not stop laughing while Shane was trying to get the canoe upright and Jess was going for the oar that was quickly floating down the river along with all of the other contents of the canoe. Already soaked from head to toe, they gathered everything but the oar and pulled the boat up on some rocks while Justin and I went down the river for the oar. In the end we didn't lose anything (but I was glad not to have the camera to worry about!) and we got a drenched Shane and Jess back into their canoe and down to the pick-up area.

At the end of the day we were a little sunburnt, a lot tired, (some of us very wet!), but glad for the good time and the laughs had with family. I think our afternoon of canoeing may just become a new summertime hobby!

When the Wife's Away...

It's been awesome being home this past week after my whirlwind of short and long trips the previous couple of weeks. And as nice as it was to come home to my favorite guy and my favorite feline...


...and as much as Justin said that he missed me...I have a feeling that there was a part of him that was a little happy to have the apartment to himself and revert back to his bachelor days. What makes me think this? Oh, I have evidence.

Piece of Evidence #1: The Reese Cups
OK, so I found these before I left and while Justin confessed to having these before I found them, I still chalk them up to a secret. The conversation went like this when Justin got home from work late one night:

Setting the scene: I was watching TV in bed when Justin got home. Since we hadn't seen each other much that week, he came into the bedroom to eat and talk with me. After random chatting, this happened...

Me: "Do you know we have absolutely nothing sweet to eat in this house? I wanted a cookie or candy so bad after dinner I couldn't stand it."

Sidenote: We've been trying to make healthier options at the grocery store.

Justin gets a weird look on his face.

Me: "Babe..."

Justin: "I've had candy stashed in the kitchen for a few days now." He runs away from me.

Me (outraged): "WHAT?! WHERE?! Why didn't you share?"

Justin: "You've been doing so good eating healthy, babe, that I didn't want to ruin it for you."

Me: "You mean there has been candy in this house and I wanted chocolate so bad that I literally drank the Sundae Syrup this evening?"

Justin then fessed up to his stash. Apparently there were Hershey bars in the kitchen but now just Reese cups remained. And where did he hide them? In the most obvious place. We have a drawer in our kitchen that somehow got nicknamed "the candy drawer" but for the past six months has only contained Christmas Lifesavers, hard marshmallow Peeps, cough drops, and expired popcorn. So I never thought to look there. But there they were...


Piece of Evidence #2: Coors Light
Yes, beer. I can't remember the last time that beer was in our refrigerator. I'll take a safe bet that we haven't had beer since we lived in Justin's old apartment on 82nd street. Not that we are goody-two-shoes that don't drink, but when you don't have a lot of money to spend at the grocery store, you buy milk, diet coke, and Kool-Aid packets...cheap beverages...not beer. But as I am in my tired daze after Allison's wedding trying to run around the house and pack for Washington D.C., I open the fridge for a bottle of water (re-filled from the Brita...see...cheap) and see this:


Piece of Evidence #3: More Chocolate
Not only did that six-pack greet me when I went into the refrigerator for an innocent bottle of water, but more candy stared me straight in the face, right there in plain sight on the bottom shelf:


I guess I can't blame him too much for indulging a little while I was gone. He did say he missed me and he remembered to feed Maggie everyday, so I can't fault him too much. But next time I want chocolate, I'm searching high and low in the kitchen before I resort to drinking the Sundae Syrup.

I'm Not Tyler Perry

I don't ever claim to be a typical 1950s wife. Number one example: I don't skip in the door after school, put on an apron, and proceed to fix a gourmet dinner for my waiting and hungry husband. The only nights that Justin and I eat dinner together are Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and the routine usually goes like this: I get home from school (except Sunday of course), start asking Justin around 4 p.m. when he wants to have dinner, start begging him at 5 p.m. if we can start dinner, go into the kitchen around 5:30 or 6 when he is finally hungry and I put some kind of meat product in a pot/skillet/baking dish and start cooking it. I then maliciously go over to the computer and start doing something for school and let Justin finish the rest of the dinner. I think he has caught onto this game.

Unlike me, though, Justin is Mr. Experiment in the kitchen. He's slightly obsessed with the Food Network and secretly idolizes Tyler Florence and Guy Fieri. Thank goodness for this. I am a creature of habit and would really be OK with eating the same thing for dinner for a couple of weeks straight. I think I have made a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch for the past 13 days. But Justin is always looking for new recipes and meals he can add his own touch to. I honestly think that if we were quarantined in our apartment for a month, we could survive on recipes that he would come up with based on what food is in the freezer and in the back of the cabinets.

Tonight, we planned to have hamburgers. I knew this would be all his doing so I didn't even try my start-dinner-and-run-away-sneak-attack. He started making the patties with different spices flying everywhere. He looked like a chemist trying for the Nobel prize. I feel this is where I should mention my habit of being a backseat chef. While I was on the couch organizing my English 9 vocabulary binder, I couldn't help but to question the temperature of the skillet since I heard very loud sizzling like he was burning the hamburgers right to the core. He is the one that burnt bacon one Sunday morning and our apartment smelled like charred pig for a week. But he kept insisting it was OK and I finally accepted the fact that he probably knew what he was doing and that these burgers would probably turn out better than the ones he made a month ago that were completely raw in the center. I'm still thankful that dinner didn't land us both in the emergency room with E-coli.

When it was precisely time to eat, and I say precisely because apparently there is a fine art to how many minutes to cook each patty on each side, I prepared my hamburger bun (I'm a plain Miracle Whip kind of girl; Justin likes Miracle Whip and ketchup), put the perfectly browned patty with cheese oozing out of it on my plate and proceeded to the dining room. Oh wait. I meant that I proceeded to the TV trays in the living room since our dining room still functions as a catch-all with no table and chairs. Anyway, I was nervous to bite into Justin's latest concoction on my plate. Either it would be like last time and I would sink my teeth into the raw innards of a cow, or it would be good. It was the latter. It really was one of the best hamburgers I've ever had in my life. It tasted a bit like my mom's used to and a little like a Five Guys burger. So when we both finished the last bites of our respective Nobel prize-worthy hamburgers, I tried to give him a compliment, but I think it turned into an insult. The exchange went like this:

Me: "You're a regular Tyler Perry aren't you?"

Justin (confused): "I'm Tyler Florence. I'm not Tyler Perry."

Me: "Right. That's it. Will you let me take a picture with you and the other two hamburgers?"

Justin: "You want to blog about this, don't you?"

Me: "Yeah. You can put a hat on in the picture if you want."

Justin (insulted that I thought he might look better in a hat than his disheveled hair): "Thanks, babe. Don't forget to mention that in your blog."

Oops. However, if this dinner is any preview on how our marriage will be, I'll be happy to have Justin experiment more often in the kitchen. And thankfully for him, I may be able to clutter our spare bedroom to the ceiling, but I can't stand a messy or dirty kitchen...so I cleaned up. Check him out with his awesome creations:

Spare Change

Recently I decided to clean out our coat closet. Having a ground-level apartment gives us the advantage of a larger coat closet since the closet consists of the entire area underneath the stairs of the apartment above us. I should also mention that having a ground-level apartment also gives us the wonderful background noise of the four children that live above us that scream, run, bounce 7 basketballs at a time, and from what we can gather, throw each other into walls and down the stairs all day and night. But back to the closet. As I was rearranging the several empty boxes that occupy the back of the closet (yes I said empty...Justin refuses to throw away any box that any appliance or electronic device came in), I came across the object that I loathed the most in our apartment--the larger than life plastic Budweiser piggy bank. While we aren't usually ones to carry cash on us, and thus have spare change, I thought that there has to be a better way for two married adults to collect the leftovers from a dollar bill. I scrounged through some boxes from my parent's house and found some empty Ball jars and a great idea came to mind. I dumped out the contents of the ugly Budweiser piggy bank and sorted through the coins, lint, and Chuck E. Cheese tokens, putting quarters in one Ball jar, dimes in another, and so on. I decided to display our makeshift savings account on the kitchen counter and call it our "Next Disney World Vacation Fund."


While we were just at the happiest place on earth six months ago for our honeymoon, we are itching to get back. Going to Disney was the best decision for our honeymoon and we had an amazing time. We hope to make it a family tradition and become that annoying family in the airport that talks about how many times we've been to see Mickey and about the best-kept secrets of Disney while first-time travelers to Disney World look at us like we are insane and need to get a life.

As you can see from above, we need a few more quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies to make our next trip a reality, but we continue to save little by little and keep our spirits up by savoring 30-second Disney commercials on TV and our own videos from our honeymoon, like the one below. Being that it was my first time at Disney, and my first time on the teacups, Justin was sure to make it a memorable one. Next trip I'll remember to not let him have the wheel.

We've Only Just Begun

I've had the idea to start this blog for about two weeks. However, I feel that I have a weird obession with the meaning of numbers, so my obsessive-compulsive mind wouldn't let me start the blog on an insignificant date, which is why I waited until today. Since my ultimate goal for this blog is to document the life that I have with Justin, I thought starting the blog on our six month wedding anniversary would not make me lose sleep over the fact that I started the blog on a random day. Crazy, I know.

Like I said, the idea for the blog came a couple of weeks ago when I was watching Oprah and Justin overheard the story about the woman that writes Dooce, a blog she started that now makes thousands of dollars in advertisements each month. The popularity of her blog allowed her husband to quit his job and work from home with her and help manage the blog that now supports their entire family. Once Justin heard that, I think the conversation went like this:

Justin: "What!? She makes enough money by just blogging that her husband got to quit his job?"

Me: "Yep."

Justin: "Why don't you do something like that? Get started."

Me: "Sure, babe. I'll fit that in while writing my best-seller."

Justin: "Ok."

Only he was serious. While my expectation for this blog isn't to make millions, the more I thought about the idea of starting a blog, the more I liked it. I've tried to keep a journal more times than I can count and failed miserably each time. It's the time that it takes to write in the journal and the inevitable mistake that I would make while writing in ink that would make that obsessive-compulsive mind of mine rip out the page in the journal and start over so that each page was perfect in spelling, grammar, and handwriting. Thank goodness that typing allows for instant revision and no need for me to obsess over the fact that I'm having a bad penmanship day.

I'm hoping that this blog allows for us to document every important moment in our lives, whether the moments be completely boring or utterly exhilarating. I hope that it pushes us to take more photos, create more memories, and I hope it gives us a way to look back in a year, ten years, or twenty years on how we began our lives together as Mr. and Mrs. Leavell.

Oh and that reminds me--the reason for the title. Being an English teacher, the title had to be creative, and surprisingly, it came to me quickly. There was no better place to look for inspiration than to our last name. In the six months that I've officially been a Leavell, the name has had some instances of entertainment for me. If you ask my principal, he swears we pronounce it wrong (it's pronounced "level") and that it should be pronounced "lah-vell", which I think makes us sound French. Perhaps if we are rich one day and have a mansion, that's the pronunciation we'll go with. There was also the time in class when one of my students learned of my new last name and said, "Hey Mrs. Leavell, if you have a baby and it's a boy, you should name him Laser." He then erupted in a fit of laughter like that was the most clever idea in the world. So when deciding on the title of the blog, the first idea that came to mind was the phrase "on the level." I knew it meant something about being honest so I looked it up and found that it is a term from Freemasonry which uses stonecutting and the tools of that trade as metaphors for moral qualities. Some definitions for the phrase include "straightforward" and "sincere". I also read another definition that said the phrase meant "being as one should be--truthful". The idea for this blog is to be nothing but straightforward, sincere, and truthful, so using the play on words and replacing "level" with our last name, the name of the blog was born.

Since I imagine that I will almost always be the sole author of this blog (Justin gets anxiety over writing a personal message in a Hallmark card), I'm excited about the outlet it will provide for me to write about anything and everything in our lives. At least it will give me something to do on a Saturday night while Justin is at work instead of cleaning out the area under the bathroom sink.

So in order to meet my original goal of starting this blog on a meaningful day, I better post before it hits midnight. In honor of the day, enjoy a few of my favorite wedding photos.