Getting Back to Normal

Whatever normal is, that is.
It's about that time to start fixing up the house we are living in and also to keep improving my house, where my parents live.
My house has the biggest bill currently as we just had to have the HVAC replaced - OH YEAH!  Other than that we got someone to do the back yard for us.  Put in stone and planted a bunch of plants around the wall to give it some color and life.  Everything looks good.

The fun part will be fixing up the place we are living currently, which is her Aunt's house.  Granted, all of the home improvements get deducted from the rent but I really just don't want to do the work.

We have a couple of interior doors that need replaced because they have fist holes punched through them.  They are all basic hollow-core flat doors, but when we start replacing them she wants to go with the 6 panel doors.  This means that every interior door is going to have to be replaced because the ones that aren't will look out of place.  So this puts the total at 6 interior doors.
The door from the garage to the house also needs replaced, or at least just the self closing hinges since the door does not self close as per code.
The exterior doors (2 doors and a sliding patio door) are also on the hit list, but not as important.
And, I'm told, she also wants to add at least 2 closet doors since none of the closets have doors.

On top of that, she would really really really like for me to put laminate throughout most of the house, before the end of the year.

So, It looks like I have a lot of fun lined up for me.

Other than that the next 6 weeks or so at work are going to be less than fun.
My longest tenured employee is off for 6 weeks for surgery and my number 2 in command is going to be off for 2 weeks during that same stretch.  This leaves me with just myself and another guy.
However, have no fear, the retail police have come to my rescue by allowing me to borrow a guy during that two week period.  A guy with very little experience with the company (hired as a seasonal person currently) and no experience in my department.  And, if that wasn't enough he also cannot work anything but open shifts leaving the rest of us (all two of us) to take all the closing shifts for those two weeks.

It is retail and these are the shitty situations you will find yourself in when you work there long enough.  It is only 6 weeks though and then things will be back to normal on that front.

It's getting to be about time to start planning our trip to Disney for the kids birthdays this year.  We only plan on doing one day at Disney to save on costs and probably two days at the beach for rest and relaxation, but it will be 3-5 days of getting away from the desert and life as we know it.

Married life is awesome.  Every day I wake up feeling blessed to have my wife next to me and our boy sleeping on the couch because he hates the idea of sleeping in his room (this we will be trying to fix soon).  Life is amazing and I have a hard time not having a smile on my face.

Time to go read some new comic books and sort some others!

Throwback Thursday - Two weddings

The first picture is I believe from the end of 2008 at my buddy's wedding.  The 2nd photo was from my wedding just recently.

What a difference a few years makes right?

Hopefully I'll be adding to this in another two years with yet another dramatic difference.

The Honeymoon is Over

Man oh Man.

From the week leading up to the wedding to the over week long honeymoon including a trip to Hawaii in there I have really been on cloud 9 the past few weeks.

My wedding was AMAZING and everyone who attended with attest to that.  The amazing pictures that were posted on my Facebook and all the kind comments that flooded in were truly touching.  The dinners and hanging out with friends before and after are moments that I will treasure until the day I perish from this mortal realm (or get reborn back into it depending on which religion has it right).  The week in Hawaii exploring Kauai via Tours and rental cars with my beautiful wife was so amazing that it hurt to actually fly back to Las Vegas (which is a place I never want to move away from).

It always felt like a cliche but I have never been happier.  My wedding day was so amazing and everything went so perfect.  It also appeared to fly by in the blink of an eye because it started and ended and I didn't get a chance to fully take it all in.

We have pictures back from the ceremony and we are awaiting pictures from the reception.  I posted a million pictures on FB from the honeymoon (most of them with cocks depending on who you ask).  I can't wait to watch the video of the ceremony when it finally comes in just to see if the moment lives up to my memory of it.

Now that reality is back and haunting me I'll once again be coming back to this space a few times a month to update you on the life and times of the grrouch and his missus.  You all are probably pretty disappointed by that sentence :)

A few random picks from my last few weeks.