Eleanor Rigby

Today Eleanor snuck into the garage when I had gone out there to get some stuff (something she does often; she is a sneaky bugger). When I let her back in a while later, she ran in with a home depot bag stuck around her belly. I'm guessing she must have wrestled with the bag. I think the bag won.

new times three

new couch


new credenza


new accessories



all equals a new and improved loft!




We painted and rearranged things to make room for the new furniture & I love the outcome. We got the credenza at Salvation Army for $37 and the couch from CraigsList for $80. The picture frames are from DI, $1 each. The lamp was on sale at Target for $5 and the shade is from Goodwill for $2.99. Being thrifty looks good, huh?

i love worms

Tyler & I have finally been released from our prison sentence, I mean calling, in the nursery. Apparently we haven't learned our lesson because we are now Cub Scout leaders; specifically the Wolf Den. Duhn! Duhn! Duhn!

All kidding aside, I think it will be fun. This past Tuesday was our first official 'den meeting' & of course only two boys should up, one of which was 20 minutes late. Awesome.

The theme for this month is 'Leave Nothing but Footprints Behind'. Even the church is 'going green'. Anyway, since dad BAILED on me (just kidding Dad!), Tyler came up with the brilliant idea of ripping off Erin (thanks Erin!). We made a worm compost with the boys (at least with the 2 that showed up) and then in a couple of weeks we'll do a den meeting at our house to use the worm compost in our garden (which also adds an item on our to do list: build a garden). Anyway, it was a lot of fun with the boys and they loved seeing the worms. We then had dessert of oreos, pudding, and gummy worms. Clever, I know!

conversation in the car

Stopped at a light after some guy tried to cut in front of us and is now behind us; after flipping us off, of course

Alie: What are you thinking about?

Tyler: Nothing

Alie: ...

Tyler: Well, I was just thinking about trying to make the guy behind us more mad.

Alie: How?

Tyler: After the light turns green, just sitting and waiting for a second before I start driving. But I won't.

Alie: That's awesome cause my first reaction was, "Yeah, do it! It'll be funny". And you should always do opposite of my first reaction, because I am the devil.

Tyler: Whatever.

Alie: Seriously. Why do you think I married you? You are my ticket into Heaven.

i get annoyed with my job

But no longer will I get annoyed with my job! April 8th. That's the day I resigned from my crap job. In the middle of a recession I decided I couldn't handle this work environment anymore. Crazy? Oh well.

When I turned in my resignation, Jabba the Hut asked me to stay for a month to get everything set up for my replacement. Seriously? A month. I quit for a reason, crazy. I figured I could be gracious and settle with 3 weeks. Plenty of time to get everything squared away.

It's been quite a change for me, knowing that I'm not going to have a job. Especially that I'm not going to have this job. I can feel a huge difference physically, I didn't realize how deeply working there has affected me. I can feel myself returning to the happier person I was once, before I ever took up employment in this scam of a business.

So what plans for the future? Most definitely I am taking some time off to regroup and detox. The husband has been beyond supportive of this whole nightmare, what a lucky girl I am.

We've done some major work on the house after Christmas and want to show off our awesomeness! We laid laminate floors in the living and dining rooms, painted, and bought a new fridge yesterday. Thank you, tax return!

Tyler prepping the floor


Tyler using his new tape measure

Thanks Erin & Michael!

The finished floors



Painting the main living room wall



The finished product



Our new fridge!

i love the wii

So, we had family over for the weekend and Andrew wanted to play Super Mario Sluggers on our Wii. Little did he know that we were recording him, it was awesome and hilarious. Way hilarious. Check out the videos.

i love lists

The Rules: you answer the following 12 questions about yourself

01. What is your first name? (alison)
02. What is your favorite food? (kung pao)
03. What high school did you attend? (community college high school)
04. What is your favorite color? (orange)
05. Who is your celebrity crush? (christian bale)
06. Favorite drink? (dr pepper)
07. Dream vacation? (backpacking in europe)
08. Favorite dessert? (frozen yogurt)
09. What do you want to be when you grow up? (a mom)
10. What do you love most in life? (familia)
11. One word to describe you? (stressed)
12. Your Flickr name? (a.knotek - not easy to find)

want to play?: type your answer to each of the above questions into flickr's search. using only the images that appear on the first page, choose your favorite and copy and paste each of the url’s into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows)... enjoy!

1. brick wall alison, 2. kung pao chicken, 3. Austin High School, 4. Orange, 5. Christian Bale, 6. Drink Dr. Pepper!, 7. Barcelona, 8. Frozen Brigadeiro, 9. who are you?, 10. ellos, 11. focus, 12. 440977

So it's been a while but we have some more pics of our house and we got a kitty; we named her Eleanor Rigby. Can you guess the reference? Anyone? Bueller?

We did it!

So the house is ours and boy it took some time to clean it up!

i love live music

Last week Tyler and I went our first concert as a married couple, and the first concert I've been to in....a long time. It was Tegan & Sara and Death Cab. We went mostly for Tegan & Sara and I must say, they were pretty great. Their set wasn't very long, and we got there kinda late, so we missed some, but what we saw was so so so good. I really enjoy them. Death Cab was okay - they played a lot of new stuff that I haven't listened to. When they did an encore they played all the old stuff that I love - so that was awesome. Tyler took this picture of Tegan & Sara with his cell phone...not bad for a phone.This is our house! Or, our maybe house. We are in escrow (again) but things are looking good thus far. The inspection went well and there are no major problems with the house. We actually are getting a MUCH better house (at least once we clean it - it's GROSS). Our estimated close date is May 19th -- so hopefully nothing goes wrong before then. We have our fingers crossed.

i love lists

A: ATTACHED OR SINGLE?
Attached.
B: BEST FRIENDS
the fam
C: CAKE OR PIE?
chocolate cake or dad's apple pie
D: DAY OF CHOICE
Saturday
E: ESSENTIAL ITEMS
carmex (i have 3 that i keep in the house, one in my purse, and one on my desk at work
F: FAVORITE COLORS
green, brown, orange
G: GUMMY BEARS OR WORMS?
gummy bears
H: HOMETOWN
stinky vegas
I: FAVORITE INDULGENCE
sleeping in on saturdays
J: JANUARY OR JULY?
january - its a little chilly, but i'd take that over the 110 july temperature
K: KIDS?
we've only been married like 8ish months people, give us some time
L: LIFE ISN'T COMPLETE WITHOUT...
those you love
M: MARRIAGE DATE?
july 14, 2007
N: NUMBER OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS
3 sisters, 0 brothers, 1 sisters-in-law, 4 brothers-in-law
O: ORANGES OR APPLES?
apples
P: PHOBIA OR FEARS
loosing tyler...in a myriad of ways that i always conjure up in my head until i am near tears. i can be neurotic sometimes -- oh, and lately i fear us not finding the right house, we are on our seventh, SEVENTH!!! offer
Q: QUOTE
the power which resides in him is new in nature & none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried - emerson (cross reference that to d&c 58:26-28)
R: REASONS TO SMILE
a clean, organized home, beating tyler on the wii :)
S:SUPERMAN OR WONDER WOMAN?
Wonder Woman.
T: TAG 5 PEOPLE
I don't even know 5 bloggers! ha! (besides my sisters, which erin already tagged!) i tag mom & jessica l.
U: UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME
i have killed all of our pets. ok, so they were only fish - but total: 17 fish...2 betas, 3 angelfish, & 12 little ones i cant remember. (tyler says its not my fault, but he has a beta at work that someone gave him forever ago & his is just fine) maybe i SHOULDNT have kids..
V: VEGETABLE
corn, green beans, asparagus, tomatoes, avocado
W: WORST HABIT
i wear my emotions on my sleeve and i HATE it
X: X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND?
just x-rays & an echo on my heart - not fun as a missionary: the guy totally had his hand up my hospital gown all over my chest...awkward
Y: YOUR FAVORITE FOOD
lately, tuna sandwiches from capriottis
Z: ZODIAC SIGN
scorpio

Square One...we meet again

Well, we're back where we began - we're looking for a house again. The plumbing in the house isn't faulty...yet. It would most likely fail at some point. The fittings used are known to corrode and burst, there is a class-action lawsuit against the manufacturer. And wouldn't it be our luck to have those crappy pipes. So we are going to begin looking all over again. I have come to the conclusion (after much crying and whining and complaining...and more crying) that it is for the best - it gives us more time in our condo and more to time get financially secure. So it's okay.

On a happier note, we finally sold our piece of crap impala - YES!! It is a happy day for the Knotek's. We are going to buy a new cheap car this weekend. So that is definitely a relief.

House Pictures

So I finally have gotten pictures of the house. I went originally on Friday with Mom & Dad to show them the house & to get pictures. When we got to the house the garage door was open but there was no car in the driveway. I thought it was pretty odd, but we went in and called out, but no one answered - so we walk in and the dryer is sitting in the middle of the living room. Random. No one was in the house and nothing else was misplaced - we guess that the thieves must have left before they finished. Apparently it is common in Vegas for people to go with a realtor to a house and watch as they put in the code for the keys. Then they go back later and steal all the appliances. We assume that is what was going on - why they left, we'll never know, but I'm sure glad they did. We had the realtor change the locks - so we should be okay. Anyway, here is the inside of the house:


Here's the entry, stairs, and the living room. Note the dryer is still chillin' in the living room, we'll move it back once we actually move in.


More of the living room - the small wall separates the dining room & kitchen from the living room


(Sorry these next two are sideways - you'll just have to turn your head)


This is the half bath just off the kitchen - the door on the right goes to the garage, the one on the left is the pantry/closet


The downstairs bathroom


Kitchen


The rest of the kitchen


This is the loft right after you come up the stairs. The master bedroom is straight ahead, just right of the bathroom. The door to the left of the bathroom is the laundry room. The second bedroom is to the right - you just can't see the doorway in this picture.


Opposite view of the loft


Bathroom


Laundry room - that's where the dryer WAS and where it SHOULD BE. jerks.


This is the second bedroom


This is the master bedroom.

And that's our house. Everything is going well thus far, we have the signed contract and the inspection is scheduled for Friday morning. Our closing date is March 28th at this point.