You'll eat it and you'll like it!!

Call me sensitive, my hubby is a big 'ole A-hole some days! We both worked today, all though my work hours were 1:00-5:00 because after I got Savannah dressed and took her to school, I did some shopping. I went over to the mall for a specific item, only to find out they don't carry it at that store. Grrr! This may be SC, but it's not like I went to some tiny store in the middle of nowhere!
Anyway... After shopping I had a 11:15 doctor's appointment that lasted an hour. Went to school, dealt with 80some kids, picked up Savannah and came home. Steve flops on the couch with her as I cook dinner. I had a new recipe I was excited about. OK- I wasn't EXCITED about it, but I thought it sounded good. It was easy enough to prepare and took just long enough for Steve to take a nap.
Dinner's ready! We sit down to eat. I ask Steve what he thinks (mistake!). He says it's OK. Actually, half way through eating, he dumps what's left on his plate onto mine. "I don't like it," he says. Heats up some lefts overs, puts is plate on the counter and goes to finish watching TV.
UGH!!! Why do I even bother! He doesn't help, he doesn't like it and doesn't clean up!!! Do your honey's cook? Do they clean? Or can you empathize?

YAGBTS- White Trash

What the heck is YAGBTS? Go here.
So ya'll know we moved in our new house this summer. I gotta tell you- one of the BEST parts is that we live next to my parents. I know, it could be scary, but really, it's a good thing. Even Steve will tell you that. But one of the BEST parts about that is Daddy takes off our trash.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with such rural traditions, we have to load up our own trash and recyclables and take them to the nearest collection station. You could pay out the wa-zoo and have the big garbage truck come by, but we don't want that bill.
When I was a kid, we just had a burn barrel. Stay with me...we took all our trash, put it in a big metal drum out back and burnt it. Sounds crazy, but I was about 10 before I realized that not everyone did this. The dump (as we call the trash collection place) was where you took things that did not fit into the burn barrel and occasionally scored something to take home. No lie. I remember getting a table from the dump that I used for years and years. I finally took it to Goodwill this summer when we moved.
Now, the dump is closely monitored and you have to play by the rules. No scavenging and no putting any and everything into the trash compactor. They have little stations for everything from magazines to colored glass.
So as I was saying, Daddy comes and gets our trash about once a week which is great, in my opinion, because Steve absolutely sucks at taking off the trash. If left up to him, once a month is perfectly acceptable. But then he has the nerve to be offended that Daddy takes over this job for him. He should be glad b/c that's one less thing for me to gripe about and one less thing for him to do. If he wants to get offended, he needs to hang out in the garage when the trash has NOT been taken out for a month.

Labor Day

What started out as a perfectly lovely day took a nose dive and now I'm here trying to find some redemption or sympathy...whichever comes first. Me and the hubs had a big fight and now I'm trying to cool off.
Why do they have to be such A-holes???

An American in Paris: Part V

"Royal Cheese"
Remember in the movie Pulp Fiction when John Travolta is telling Samuel L. Jackson about McDonald's in France? It's true. They do eat mayonnaise with their fries and the Quarter Pounder is the Royal Cheese. And it was damn good. Call me a redneck. Call me clueless. Call me tasteless. I don't care, but I was not crazy about the food in France. I had REAL French cheese, wine, quiche, and crepes and it was all OK. I love cheese: cheddar, feta, provelone, Swiss...but that stuff I ate over there just didn't taste right. Needed more salt or something. The wine: too sweet. The quiche: (see the note about the cheese). The crepe: it was good, but not a whole lot of taste besides the Nutella it was drowned in.
We ate dinner twice at local cafes. It was fine, but it took forever (culture thing) and dinner for 2 one night ran us about $90 U.S. We were just as happy to eat at McDonald's, KFC, Quick (fast food) and the corner bakery. We knew what we were getting, it was fast and it was cheap.
I will say the desserts and breads were very good. We had breakfast 3 mornings from the local bakery: A sweet roll and and bottle of water we could eat on the train hit the spot.
Any sandwich was served on traditional French bread and it was always good. Probably our 2 favorite things we ate were dessert from the cafe one night. Steve had dark chocolate molten cake and I had pistachio creme brule. Mmmmmm!

Bon Voyage!

I'm off tomorrow morning to go catch up with Steve in Paris! I'm excited, but since I've only been planing this trip about 2 weeks, I'm not crazy-excited. That and the shitty job and house news I got this week (we probably will NOT be moving in the week of the 15th).
I've looked a lot on-line to try and figure out what to do, where to go and what to eat (besides the fries, dressing and toast). Foreign hotels sorta scare me so of course, I looked that up, too. Even though this info came straight from the Best Western website (BW in Paris? who knew?), it was obviously written by someone whose native language is not Engligh:
"Our 34 rooms offer exceptional comfort in a contemporary style with modern warm colors and exotic prosecutors. All rooms have air conditioning, with a flat screen, WiFi access, individual safe, trays of courtesy, hair dryer, and quilts. Our team welcomes you with attention."
Exotic prosecutors? What does that even mean? Samoan lawyers? And trays of courtesy? I think they mean all the little shampoos and lotions that I stuff in my bag.
And this occupancy notation was on there, too:
"Child Policy: For Every Two Paying Adults, One Child 2 And Under Is Free In The Existing Bedding."
Dang! I left my kid home with grandma for five days. I sure don't want another one, even if it is free and comes with it's own blankie.
Until then, au revoir!...I think...I don't know a lick of French!

French Fried

Steve and Savannah made it in fine on Sunday. It was nice to see their faces and thankfully, Savannah wasn't drinking a beer and her teeth were brushed. However, there' nothing like a pre-schooler to suck the life outta you. Yesterday and today I have been so tired! Maybe I'm just recovering from all my happenings last week.
This week I plan to finish up work for the summer and then I have to get ready to pack. No, not the house, although it looks like we may be moving in the week of the 15th. I'm packing for Paris! Ya'll know Steve travels all the time with work. This time he is making stops all around Europe and I'm going to fly out and meet him in Paris. His flight will be paid for and we got my fight SUPER cheap with frequent flyer miles, so I'll still have some $ leftover to buy a few things for the house.
Anybody been to Paris and have some travel advice? I've been doing my homework and have some ideas. Also, Steve was there about 5 years ago. The Eiffel tower is a must as is the Louvre, but I'm open to other suggestions.
I know... some of you want to drink the hater-ade, but I might bring back a sercy as a giveaway!

Snap, crackle, pop!

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day. Mine included catching up with my old friend the Today show, some quality time with Wii Fit, a boat ride on the lake, riping staples off the bottom of my dining chair (to reupholster), packing some glassware and checking in on Savannah.
Yep, she and Steve made it to IL just fine, but I'll be damned if they didn't make a trip to the ER within hours of being there!
So I'm at my niece's birthday party last night when I get a call from Steve around 7:30. I can hear Savannah whimpering in the background. "What are ya'll doing?" I ask. "Savannah's mad because I hurt her." "You hurt her? What happened?" "Well," he says, "we were playing helicopter and I was swinging her around when I heard a crackle (his word) and she starting saying her arm hurt." "Well, I don't know what you want me to do about it 800 miles away. I guess you know where the ER is if she's still complaining about it in a half hour."
So...he calls me back later and says they, along with his sister who works at the hospital, are headed to the ER. And then suddenly he says he has to go. He will call me back when he knows something.
Now I am an easy going person. I don't worry, I don't obsess and I don't fuss over people. I won't call you to make sure you got there OK and I don't agonize over little stuff. Same rules apply to motherhood. But when Steve told me they were at the ER, I was freaking out! Damn, Steve! He's back home for a few hours and he's already damaged our child!
He calls me back a little later and says she is fine. She had Nurse Maid's Elbow (Google it. I did) and it's OK now. The swinging got her arm out of joint, but moving it during the x-ray got it back into place. He said she was happy, and moving it and that you'd never know the difference.
Whew!
I checked on them today and she is fine. Just figures, though. I guess that's what I get for not going.

Picks of the Week

I finally sat down and had some quality time with my camera, my computer and the USB cable. What does that mean for you? An update with pictures!
OK. Here is my hairdo photo. I had another one but the background was too dark and you couldn't separate my hair from the background. Anyway, I think I found the trick today. I like the ends flipped under, not out. It was a little too "shag" looking that way. Not a bad self-portrait if I do say so myself!
We went to Charleston a couple weeks ago to visit some friends who were in town from IL. We had a great time visiting old favorites (did I tell you I lived there for college?) and the weather was not yet sweatin-my-ass-off, so it made for a nice day! This was a really cute pic of Savannah and her Daddy.

The Poultry Festival (aka Chicken Fest) was this past weekend. It was OK. We only made it to the parade and it was less than fabulous this year. IT was also pretty hot so we didn't stick around long. Here are the girls stealing a cool moment in the shade.

Then we went to the zoo this week with some friends. The weather was perfect and the kiddos enjoyed a morning out. Here's a cool pic of the flamingos. Good thing they're so gorgeous because they STANK!

And last but not least, I have a YAGBTS update for you. I saw this painted on the ol' rock the other day and HAD to take a picture. As I was taking the photo, Savannah asks what I'm doing. "Taking a picture of this redneck crap," I said without really thinking. Then from the backseat I hear, "what redneck crap? I want to see redneck crap." fabulous.

Ed McMahon, have I got a job for you!

On a previous post I started talked about date night and decided to save that for later. I was thinking I had mentioned date night before, but couldn't find it under my labels. Anyhoo- My friends' church has date night once a month and we drop the kiddos off for a few hours. We take turns picking them up and hosting a sleep over at each other's house.
Last Friday was our night "off" so Steve and I opted for a real-deal, grown-up date night. No, we did not order in sushi and watch porn. We went to a wine tasting at the zoo. It was to be a very nice evening out in the botanical garden, sipping wine and listening to jazz. But oh yeah, we had to go by the funeral home first. No lie. One of Steve's friend's mother passed away so we had to work that into date night. What a way to kick off the evening. The rest of the night was good and I learned I really don't like most wine.
I also learned, not at the wine-tasting, that those cash for gold parties are pretty successful. I know people who have made up to $800. I, myself got $70 for 2 dinky bracelets and a pendant. Wouldn't it be cool if you could cash in other stuff?
Cash for unsolicited mail! 20% off Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons? How about $20 bucks for Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons?!
Cash for plastic water bottles! We'll recycle them and give YOU the reward!
Cash for fast food toys! Trade in your teeny Beanie Babies for bonds!
Cash for dryer lint? You give us the lint, we'll give you the loot!
Cash for empty flower pots because you didn't water it enough/too much and it died. Payout for pots!
$$$$$$$$$$
Whoo-hoo! I just surpassed Warren Buffet...

Bust a move!

I woke up this morning expecting to find a winter wonderland outside. After all, they had already cancelled school and much of the South had already been blanketed. What did we see out our window? Nada. Nothing. Zilch. All that fuss and no snow. Oh, well. I'm not turning down a free day off of work!

We had a great weekend. Friday night we took in the Playhouse Disney Live show featuring Mickey, Handy Manny, Pooh and the Little Einsteins. Pre-schooler heaven! The show was cute and we managed to escape buying any crap souvenirs.

Saturday night my cousin hosted a beer and wine tasting party at his house. Sounds classy, right? Initially it may have been, but add some country boys, one Yankee, some dance music and enough micro-brew beer and you get this:
A dance move gone wrong... It really was a lot of fun! We got to try some new beverages, catch up with old friends and get our groove on. We plan to make it a regular event.

Hope y'all had a great weekend, too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We don't have any big plans for this weekend. We're going to the movies tomorrow as a family. We didn't make an effort to get a sitter, but that's fine. We can have family date night. After all, Steve and I have been together for over 13 years! In fact, we were engaged this weekend in 1997. Long story short...he was in the Navy and had been stationed in Virginia since January. I was still in college in Charleston and working at a bar on the weekends. He told me to take off one night on Valentine's weekend because he was coming in town. So I took the 15th off.

We made plans to go out to eat, but first, he wanted to ride out to the Folly Beach pier.

So we get there and walk all the way out on the end, up on the second level. The next thing I know, he's down on one knee. I was totally surprised. I mean, we had talked marriage - just not THEN! Of course I said, "yes" and the rest, as they say, is history!

Atari, iit's not

Hello, out there iin Bloggiieland! Thanks for the well-wiishes! Whiile I am stiill not 100%, I am much better and Savannah is nearly 100%. Thank God, because I couldn't take iit any more iif she had to be on that antibiitic any longer! I think it made her mean!
It's been kiinda busy here siince goiing back to work after the holiidays and then haviing famiily iin town. Steve's mom and step-dad flew iin on Friiday, then we headed straiight to the mountaiins, stayed for one night and then came back home. We haven't done anythiing too exciiting except play the Wii. Yes, all the double "ii"s are in honor of Steve fiinally gettiing the damn thiing. It's fun, but iit iis, afterall, a viideo game - a very expensiive viideo game with lots of expensiive assessoriies.
Last night we bowled, golfed, boxed, played baseball, played tenniis, and diid some cross-bow game. Sadly, after about 9 rounds of boxing, my butt and arms hurt today! How sad iis that?!?

Talk Turkey

It's been another busy week. I'm not bragging, it's just that this is usually how my time goes when I am not working. The summers fly by, we're busy going here, there and doing all kinds of things. School starts up and I wonder how I ever had time for a job? This past week I was off and we were out of town like 5 days. Then there was Thanksgiving.
It was a great day of food and family spent at my Grandma's. I made Paula Deen's Pumpkin Trifle. It was pretty good, but I'm not a big pumpkin fan so there is a pile of it still in the fridge. Steve actually cooked a turkey. He wanted an ole' fashioned turkey like back home (that means stuffed with Stove Top) so he decided to do his own. It was fine, but he can have that nasty stuffing.

And we shopped yesterday - on Black Friday. Savannah stayed with mama and Steve and I got up at 4:00 a.m. to hit the stores! We didn't get any super-fabulous deals, but it was still some good shopping and we were home again and it bed by about 9:00 a.m. Whew!
I hope everyone else had a great holiday.

Week in Review

We've been busy lately and that's why I haven't had a chance to post, but I have pictures so that makes up for it, right? So here's why I've been missing lately:
-Thursday: Big fight with the hubby. I considered signing up for "Wife Swap."
-Friday: Wet, cold and nasty out, but I managed to go get a haircut and run some errands.
-Saturday: No, my dears, I didn't mean "blue" as in baby, furniture or paint. I mean the blue Wiggle: Anthony! We went to see the Wiggles last weekend. It beats the heck out of Dora and besides, my friend won tickets, so we went for free! It was a cute show and the girls had fun.

What I want to know is what did this guy do to deserve being drug to the Wiggles? Is his collar "popped" because he's that cool or is it to hide from anyone he might run into there?
-Sunday: church and then lunch at Grandma's. Steve left that afternoon for Boston for a few days.

-Monday thru Thursday: work as usual. Had to suspend one kid. Had to kick out another one.

-Wednesday: USC vs. Clemson ladies basketball game. I soooo did not want to go but it ended up being an OK time. Clemson won (yeah!) and Savannah loved seeing Cocky and the other mascots. Cocky even picked her up and danced with her for a second.

-Friday: went out with my pal Jenn to see a band play. Actually, it was the lead singer of our fav-o-rite band who are no more (sniff). We had a great time, but stayed out too late! Dang, I'm getting old.

-Saturday: left to visit friends and hit a sale! Quoizel had a close out sale and we scored a stained glass panel ($50), a hanging light fixture ($50), some under the cabinet lighting, and 2 towel bars. I've seen similar panels for around $150 and similar fixtures for around $230. Score!

We also went to see some Christmas lights. It was a drive-though event, but you could get out and roast marshmallows, see some artwork and a giant Christmas sand sculpture. Here are the little girls...

and the big girls...BFFs!
-Sunday (today): We went to church, ate lunch out, then headed home. Tonight there was a community Thanksgiving service and a reception afterwards.

Whew! I think that covers it. Oh, some of you have asked about the house. It is coming along quite nicely- despite the fact that someone stole 30 buckets of sheet rock mud!! Anyway, they started to brick up the house this week (view from the back yard).

Sheet rock is up and finished also. I'm not sure what's next but probably cabinets and/or paint. We're also ordering appliances. I haven't heard otherwise, so move in date is still planned for sometime around February. We'll see...

Well, that is all for now. Let me see if I can go catch up with some of you people and your blogs!

To Blog or Not to Blog

...that is the question.
When I first started this blog, almost exactly 1 year ago, my intent was to let off some steam and share some of my mommy stories. I quickly found out that I couldn't be completely honest with my rants. REAL people read this occasionally, some of whom I know in person. I didn't want to come off as a total psycho who couldn't stand her husband and disliked being a mom. But let's face it, being a wife and mother is hard and sometimes those thoughts occur and you have to let them out. I don't communicate well, and sometimes writing it all out makes me feel better.
It's not that I'm afraid to put the "real" me out there, it's that I got a lot of personall sh*t going on sometimes and I don't particularly want everybody and their mama to read about it. While I would perhaps appreciate the input of an impartial stranger, I don't need the mailman to offer his two cents. Or Aunt Susie or my sister-in-law... So I sorta tried being funny and sharing silly anecdotes, like "Blueberry Hell" and "Southern Nectar." I've had some good ones, I think, but even then, sometimes I don't get any response. nothing. nada. It's not that I'm in this for the love, fortune or fame. I have no interest in BlogHer, stats or followers. I'm not an aspiring writer- been there, done that- Okay, maybe writing for a small daily newspaper doesn't REALLY count, but technically I've been published more times that I was ever interesting in.
I do love some comments though, as we all do, so I joined SITS - just a way to get and encourage comments. It's been good and I've come across some fabulous ladies out there, but sometimes it's overwhelming. SO many bloggers and roll calls, SO little time. And even that doesn't bring out the "lurkers,"- yeah, YOU!
But like I said, I've enjoyed "meeting" lots of you and my blog roll has expanded lately. Even my husband started his own dorky blog. I guess now that he reads mine he figured he would get in on the action, too. I don't know. If you happen to check it out, notice his use of theorems and geek-talk. Seriousley, we watch "The Big Bang Theory" and he knows what Sheldon is talking about!
So now I'm kinda wondering, "Why am I doing this?" If I feel like I need to censor myself, knowing that nobody may ever read it, but then again, maybe suddenly lots of people will read it....I don't know. I do know that I enjoy other blogs I can relate to. Everyone wants to feel validated and like they aren't alone. I guess, if I can share my ramblings with people who get something out of it- whether it's a chuckle or a "me, too!"- then that's why I'm here. To make those small connections with people. Uber cheesy? I know, this post sorta went all over the place, but I've found that it's better if I don't over-edit.
So, anyway. It's been a hell of a week and I'm ending with scripture:
"If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete..." -Philippians 2:1-2

The Cat's Out of the Bag!

For those of you who knew about my little blog prank, Steve was busted this weekend. For those of you who are clueless, let me explain...
I have had this blog for about a year now, but I chose not to let my husband see it. It's my place to rant and say whatever I want and I don't have to hear any lip from him.
A while back, I had suspected that he found it, but had no proof. However, when he want on his 2 week trip to Asia, low-and-behold, one day I had a hit on Feedjit from Malaysia! What are the odds?!? I had subsequent hits from Korea and Tokyo - all places he was visiting. So I decided to play a little joke.
Thanks to Carolina Girl and some others of you out there, I decided to hit him where it hurts: his wallet. Technically the prank involved MY money, but that's not really the point.
Despite my objections, Steve had decided he was doing some of the work on the new house himself to save money. Not such a bad thing except that he doesn't have time for it. He was gone half the month of October for crying out loud!
So I wrote this post, basically saying I had blown a large chunk of $ to pay somebody else to do the tile work, and it was only half of what I would owe them when it was all said and done. Somehow Steve managed to hold his tongue for almost 2 weeks.
Jump to this past Friday night. We're out with our friends Amy and Ron, who are in on the whole thing. The conversation moves to technology and blogs. Steve says, "I think Shannon is addicted to blogs." And Ron's like, "They're very interesting to read. Come on, you've never read a blog?" I'm about to burst out laughing at this point. Amy and Ron say, "Yeah Steve, haven't you read Shannon's blog?...maybe while you were in SINGAPORE?!?!" And we all starting laughing. Steve was clueless about the Feedjit map. He was even more clueless about my prank, cuz after a few minutes he goes, "And I can't believe you paid some guy at Lowe's to do our tile!" I said, "That was me dangling the carrot to get you to bite." He still didn't get it. "It was a joke," I said. "I made it up to get to to admit you read my blog!"
So anyway, the secret's out. And I told him he still better keep his mouth shut about what I write.
You got that, Steve?!?

I'll have some artichoke dip and Reisling next time...

Yeah, yeah, I know I've been a little MIA lately. Just been busy with Steve getting home and work and housework, etc... Since he's been home it's like a little part of each room has spontaneously blown up!
"Oh look! Two dirty socks, a candy wrapper and a Chinese Spirograph over here...and in the bathroom is a pile of toiletries, an empty Coke bottle and a bus map from Malaysia. Don't forget the size 12 shoe party happenin' in the kitchen! Isn't that nice!"
By the way, I DID make him that chocolate chip cheesecake...
And now I have new SITStas dropping by and I got nuttin'. It's like having a friend come visit your house, only to offer them stale Ritz and Juicy Juice. Sorry, girls. I'll do better next time.

20 Questions: Steve Style

In honor of Steve getting home from Asia tomorrow, I'm playing the "husband meme."
1. He's sitting in front of the tv, what is on the screen? football, History Channel, Sub-Atomic Particles and Their Origins, Part III
2. You're out to eat what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? French
3. What's one food he doesn't like? Cake Icing...just means there's more for me!
4. You go out to the bar, what does he order? beer, usually what's on special
5. Where did he go to high school? Peru , IL
6. What size shoe does he wear? 12
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? plastic water bottles (he must, because he never wants to take them to the dump!)
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Philly cheese steak
9. What would this person eat every day if he could? Pizza, burgers, junk food
10. What is his favorite cereal? Cookie Crisp
11. What would he never wear? a turtleneck sweater, especially the way we made fun of him for it the last time.
12. What is his favorite sports team? Chicago Bears, USC Gamecocks
13. Who will he vote for? McCain
14. Who is his best friend? Eric and Chad
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? not keep my checkbook exactly balanced.
16. How many states has he lived in? 4 (IL, FL, SC VA)
17. What is his heritage? part Polish, part Irish, part Cuban, part ???
18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? Chocolate chip cheesecake
19. Did he play sports in high school? football, basketball
20. What could he spend hours doing? sleeping, not just the normal 11 pm to 8 am, he could really sleep all day and I expcet he will when he gets home after being on a 12 hour time difference for 2 weeks!!!

"Our State Fair is a Great State Fair..."

...don't miss it, don't even be late!" (I know that's from some big movie musical , but I can't remember which...just know that we sang it in 7th grade chous. Go figure?)
We went to the State Fair yesterday and that was fun. No, I don't have any pics, believe it or not. I went with my parents, my niece and Savannah. We got there when the gates opened and stayed a few hours. It was actually pretty warm out by lunch time so that piping hot corn dog didn't quite hit the spot. Oh well. The girls enjoyed the rides and we enjoyed all the exhibits.
Steve gets home from Asia on Sunday. We've talked a few times, but usually not for very long or about anything in particular. I know he's ready to get home, though. It's cute- when Savannah talks to him on the phone she ends with, "Bye Daddy! I love you! hug..." and she hugs the phone!
So I'm one of the few probably NOT watching the debate right now, but that's OK. I'll just wait and hear the short version later. Just a little apathetic, since I'm not thrilled with either candidate, but I know who I'm voting for anyway. It is what it is...

House Update- Part II

So I was on-line Saturday and at Lowe's looking at appliances. I don't have the exact ones picked out, but I think I have it narrowed down. I also looked at some more paint swatches - I swear I have one for every day of the year - and I about have that narrowed down too. I'm thinking Sherwin Williams "Rain" for the living room and "Cay" for the bed/baths. Most other rooms will be a shade of khaki and then of course, my RED kitchen. Play with your own color palate here.
I also happened on a deal for the tile. We bought the cermanic floor tile for almost the whole house a while back- super clearance price at Lowe's. Well, Steve has it in his head that this is something he's going to do himself (like the electrical and cleaning up) but I say he doesn't have time for it. I mean "hello," he's gone 2 whole weeks this month!
So anyway, I was talking to one of the guys in the store and he has a cousin who does work on the side. He said they do good work, I just need to call him and tell him what I want. So I called the guy up, told him we had all the tile, I just need someone to install it. He said they were busy, so If I wanted to make sure I got them lined up before Christmas, I needed to give him half the estimate up front. That wasn't a problem, I had some cash on hand I was saving and we have been putting away money each month in an account for this kind of thing. I don't have any money left now, but that's OK. I have several more months to save. If I needed to, I could dip into our Christmas fund. It will be worth it knowing that the job will get done witout Steve trying to find time in his busy schedule. Now, how do I tell him when he gets home?!
P.S. Thanks for all your input, girls! ;)