Owning It

The title of the blog post totally made me think for a second that I was writing about one of the following things:

Women's Rights?

Girl Power?

Snapping your fingers in a Z-formation?

All really good guesses, but it's actually about my car - the Honda-Girl - as I so lovingly call her. Well, the Bensons had a momentous occasion this week: we finally paid off my car. When I we got the zero-balance bill from Honda Financial and I told the hubby the news when he got home that night, I'm pretty sure we ran slow-motion into each others arms and ended the embrace with some kind of high-five eff-ya number.

This was actually the first major purchase we made together - just one month after we got married. We were originally trying to pay it off in 4 years, but we got tired of it so started pumping money into and paid it off in 3 1/2 years. Yay for being responsible! Plus, I feel like I just got a pay raise.

Want to know something else about my car? It's magic. Yes, it's a magical car. So a few months ago, I ran out at lunch to a nearby shopping center and in my hurry to get back to work, I totally hit a car in the parking garage. Boo.

I knew I needed to get it fixed, but things were so busy that I thought I'd wait a few weeks. So, a couple of weeks later, I went out to get in my car and noticed - BAM - (as Emeril would say) the bumper had totally popped back into place! Still have a few scratches, but I can live with it for now.

Some might chalk it up to the warm weather, but I'm pretty sure it was magic. Surely, that will help with the resale value, right?!

Master Bedroom Part IV: Piecing it Together

It's HERE, it's HERE! It's finally here! After talking about it FAR longer than I ever intended to, a big piece of our bedroom re-do has arrived. Yes, we finally put on our grown-up panties and got bedroom furniture. I ordered this lovely headboard (I really do love it) several months ago and have been putting off getting the rest for some time. But over the holidays, Greg and I set out to choose furniture. The old stuff? We Craigs-listed a couple of pieces, but more to come on that later!

After salesperson-dodging at several stores, we finally found the perfect set at Weir's in Plano. And lucky us, we just happened to run in on the day of their annual sale. (Um, holler.)

And little did I know the store actually has an outlet store upstairs. I'm pretty sure I blacked out from excitement when I was up there. I just remember the hubby saying, "OK, I think you've had enough for one day. Let's go..." as he pulled me from this glorious place.

And I came across this little number that I'm quite sure needs to live in my guest bedroom. Even though it was on sale, there are just so many other things I'd like to spend $700 on so we moved on.

(forgot to snap a pic of it in-store, but it looked just like this!)

(from here)

So, here's one shot of the room with our new espresso, traditional furniture.

Also, after obsessing about it for months now and a couple of failed shopping attempts, the hubby sent me off to go buy these gorgeous West Elm lamps I've been wanting for months now.

(the silver one)

The problem? They are back-ordered until April. So my goal of having the bedroom re-do complete by the end of busy season, probably not all that doable.

The next step is new bedding (which I'm hoping to tackle this weekend), wall decor and accessories.

Baby steps...

I Need a Vacation

I'm... dreaming.... of a white... SANDY BEACH. You thought I was going to say Christmas, didn't you?! Well, I love Christmas as much as the next person. I love spending time with family, I love decorating the tree, I love wrapping gifts (call me crazy, I LOVE wrapping), I love Christmas Eve Mass and celebrating the real meaning of Christmas... And I could really go on. So I am by no means trying to "get through" the holidays, but I just feel like there is just SO much to look forward to in 2012. (More on that later...)
  
But one of the things I'm REALLY looking forward to is vacation. Greg and I had so many weddings, plane tickets and places to travel last summer, that we didn't have the chance (nor the funds) to take a vacation. In 2010, we went on our first vacation (post-honeymoon) to Fort Lauderdale and had an absolute blast.

 View of the rooftop pool and ocean from our hotel room

 Uh. We seriously considered going back. Seriously. So. Fun.

Ever since then, we've been waiting to go on our next vacation and we just decided on the location. We're going to Key West!

(I just Googled Image-Searched this. I'm pretty sure Key West does NOT look like this... Actually, now that I look at it, I think this is computer-animated)

Last weekend I spent about 3 hours researching locations, hotels and flights. Unfortunately, my planning got caught off by other responsibilities. Things like "laundry" and "cleaning" pulled me away (uh - lame), but I can't wait to start planning the trip after Christmas. Pending vacation approvals from work, we're hoping to get away for about 4-5 days in June-ish.

If anyone has been and has any tips/recommendations, drop me a line! Anyone else already planning vacations a long time away?

Car Wars: The Finale

Well we have an addition to our family. Meet our new baby! (No, not that kind of baby. We don't have pets or children so I sometimes think of our things as our children)

It was long over-due but Greg now has a new car! It's a GMC Terrain and he's in love. He was so excited to play around with all the new features that he chose to listen to the World Series game on the radio instead of watch on TV.

I've told you before that I'm socially awkward when car-shopping, apparently, but I'm happy to announce this purchase went off without a hitch.

I mean, I reeeeeallly wanted to look the salesperson dead in the eye and ask him if the car came with Lorenzos on Yokohama tires (bling, bling), but I resisted the desire after the cold shoulder I received from my joke with the last sales guy.

Anyways, we had originally been deciding between the GMC Acadia (my pick) and new Ford Taurus (Greg's choice), but after test-driving them both, we ultimately decided the Taurus just felt too small, but the Acadia felt like a bus. So, Greg came across the Terrain: it's smaller than an Acadia, not too "chick-like" like a Ford Escape and it's American. Buying American was an absolute must for my very patriotic hubby. (For full effect, please cue Toby Keith's "Angry American" song, if you will.)

So, here's our shiny new baby:

Funny enough, when we originally decided to purchase we didn't realize it had cool features like a car-reversing camera or a DVD player with TV screens in the headrests, which we think is so cool! (Uh, we are simple people. It does not take much to impress us.) Then, we realized it was kind of hilarious because, um, who's going to watch them? We have no children, no pets, nothing. I can just picture myself sitting in the backseat on our car trips, prissing the hubby around like he's a chauffeur. Driving Miss Lauren, anyone?

But I'm so happy for my hubby to have a sweet new ride!

Resting Our Little Heads

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I am absolutely dying to re-do our master bedroom. I had some ideas for bedroom furniture/headboards and luckily people pointed me in the right direction. We were loving these two headboard, but what we actually wanted was something in between both (the scroll shape with nail heads outlined). Lucky for me, one of my pals, Emily, even pointed me in the direction of a headboard really similar to the West Elm ones I had mentioned but this one was several hundred dollars cheaper and from... JC Penney! I know, I couldn't believe it either. (I didn't even know they had headboards!)

Since it was online-only, we sort of just had order and cross our fingers that it would work. But the price was too good to turn down. It was originally over $1,000, on sale for $599, but of course being the savvy-shopping sistah that I am, I found a promo code, which took about an additional 25% off. So with tax and shipping, we paid about $550. At least $200 then what we would have spent on the other options. (Um, holla.)

The little guy was dropped off on our doorstep. It was HUGE. Whoa

(You'll notice my hubby in the background, who is obviously just as excited as about our new arrival as me.)

Last weekend, we put it together (read: my husband put it together while I offered support and positive reinforcement) and got it all set up.

We're really happy with it, but it just makes me want new bedding (already picked out, actually), new furniture and to decorate.

I'm aiming to pick out and buy new furniture by November and from there I'm going to start piecing together the decor (more to come on that later, though) and hope to have it mostly complete by the end of the year.

In the meantime, we're loving the new addition to our bedroom!

Car Wars

So, we're car-hunting. Yes, Greg's old truck is going to be passing on soon and, let's face it, it's time for an upgrade. The poor old truck - it's suspension is so bad, when you're driving (or riding in it) even on the smoothest of roads, you're bouncing all over the place like you're in the Beverly Hillbillies truck.

So the debate began about what kind of vehicle he would drive. Greg wants to drive a car, (he's driven a truck basically since he turned 16 and he wants something with a trunk that is small). I think he should drive an SUV (so we would have one car and one SUV). At the top of our list to test drive was the GMC Acadia (my pick), the Ford Taurus - new body style (Greg's pick), the Jeep Grand Cherokee (new body style) and we cut it off there.

 

We decided to go test drive the Acadia and the Taurus just to get a feel for what they were like inside, how they drove, etc. 

 

 

And then shiz got weird. And I'll take about 90% of the blame. Sometimes, I feel the need the be friendly, chatty and inquisitive when in situations like this (driving around in a car with a stranger, for example), but for some reason it just came across as awkward.

 

Scene: We just got finished test-driving the Taurus. I could tell Greg was in lurve with it. We were taking a look at the bells and whistles and the sales guy suggested we check out the trunk. He opens it up and I blurt out,"Wow, that's huge!" (In my defense, it was surprisingly large.) "You could fit a lot of bodies in there!"  Um. What? What? Why did I say that? The sales guy not only didn't laugh, but awkwardly walked away. Greg looks at me and mouths "BODIES? Really?" Uh, yeah. So inappropriate.

 

Now I know the big question you all have and the answer is yes, ABSOLUTELY. I had to fight EVERY urge to jump in the back seat, poke my head in between the sales guy and Greg and say "How fast does this thing go? Does it have automatic transmission? Does it have four wheel drive?"

 

Yes, that Home Alone 1 reference just happened.

 

We're leaning two different ways; at this point, we're just going to think about it some more, possibly test drive a few different models and (knowing me) make a car/suv pros and cons list. But ultimately, I'm leaving it up to the hubby as this will be his car. More to come on the car-hunting adventures! I've promised the hubby I will leave awkward, innapropriate commentary at home this time.

 

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend!

Neighbors, Sweet* Neighbors

I'm not sure if it's the heat we've been living with the past week or the fact that our sweet* neighbor ( no, not that neighbor)always feels the need to make passive-aggressive comments about - oh really everything related to our home.

"Looks like you've got some weeds in your yard." - Sweet Neighbor
(As he's sweating his rear off pulling weeds) "Yep." - Hubby
"Well if you need the name of a lawn company... I mean, MY LAWN doesn't have weeds..." - Sweet Neighbor

Thanks. Really.

"Well, YOU KNOW... the guy who did your fence was a drunk." - Sweet Neighbor
"Um, oh, really? Well that was before we moved in, but we think it's pretty nice." - Me
"Oh, I mean, I guess. But it's not made well. I mean, he smoked weed."
".... ... Really, are you sure about that?" - Me
"Oh yeah..." - Sweet Neighbor

Again, very helpful.

"So you're having issues with the A/C?" - Sweet Neighbor (after I'd mentioned our A/C problem)
"Yes, do you still have the same unit from when the house was built?" - Me
"Oh GAWD no. But yeah, your unit looks terrible. Loud, too." - Sweet Neighbor
"Oh sorry about that." - Me
"Well don't worry, I have a guy..." - Sweet Neighbor

Great.

It's for situations I've just narrated that explain why this photo just makes me smile.

Whatever, I'm a child. And yes, I sort of feel like a high school boy with a huge truck that's trying to overcompensate, but my house is cold (or getting there), energy efficient and I'm a happy girl!

*Not actually all THAT sweet

Because if you Don't Have an iPhone...

We've been pretty anti-iPhone for the past few years. The idea of a touch keyboard seems quite daunting and to be honest, the Apple commercials are just really obnoxious.

Because, I mean, if you don't have an iPhone, you don't have an iPhone.

Could this be any more pretentious?

Well, the Bensons are finally moving up in the technological world. Only about 3-4 years late, but we finally both got iPhones this weekend. The hubby's is black and mine is white. While we're actually both really loving it so far, I'm quite sure we spent more money on the protection of the phone than the actual phone. With Apple Care plus a protective case (I swear, I was about this close to buying the crazy Otterbox case) plus the screen protector, I would say we are ready to go.

Oh dear Lord, I'm afraid we're going to be those parents with the tall gangly child, wearing head-to-toe protective padding, helmet, goggles. Poor little guy or girl doesn't stand a chance, do they?

I'm most excited about the higher-quality camera. I'm hoping this will ensure a clear shot while doing any neighbor-creeping or likewise.

Anyways, since we are iPhone newbies, anybody have any must-have app suggestions? You can keep your Apple car decal, though. :-)