I will be at work tomorrow, I bet.

Last week, I was unable to help my team decorate for our company Christmas party due to the time of Hayley's choir concert. Given that I'd be missing a work function, Hayley immediately determined I would need a 'sick note' to pass onto my boss.

Let us set aside the probability that this is the first in a long line of forged parental notes to "ride the bus home with so-and-so," while we instead focus on her use of college-level argumentative writing techniques including concession, humility, repetition, and visual illustration.

Crack Pants

On the way back from our company's shareholders' meeting in Little Rock, we stopped off for gas at a small roadside station. But you know how that goes: small town, big standards. Thank goodness I wore my sans-crack elastic-waist pants.

To Suzy: "Aim high!" Love, Santa

Letter from the POA

We emailed the POA with some questions about our recycling program. The President's reply is below. However, I've included my own interpretation in red.


Meghan,

Welcome to the neighborhood. Kind of. I was actually outside the other day when your husband was picking through your recyclables. Awesome first impression. Really nice sweatpants.

The recycling is handled through the waste contract and the city of Rogers. Unless you guys want to do it... just based on what I've seen. The company they are using does not recycle glass for some reason. It is a concern for other residents including my family. Then again, so is having trash-picking neighbors. You should be able to find the information on the Internet. You've heard of it?

You'll need to contact the waste management company about getting a second recycling bin. ...that you can live in if this whole homeowner thing doesn't work out. You can contact them through Rogers Water and Utilities. This is who you pay for garbage pick-up. Money only; not cans.

I hope this is helpful. Help.

Let me know how we can help you find some new pants. I live at 4507 right across the street from you. We have ADT.

Scott
President
Highland Knolls Property Owners Association

Confessions of a First-Time Homebuyer

Why is this Extreme Goo Gone taking the finish off my cabinets?

(Reading the back of the can) "Not for use on wood surfaces."

Oh.

Confessions of a First-Time Homebuyer

:: Hmm. So when I turn the switch on the thermostat to 'heat,' this big machine in the garage gets a fire inside of it. I guess that means this is the furnace. ::

Cribs

Welcome to the Ozarks edition of Cribs.

We had our final walkthrough today (in Arkansas, you must complete your final walk-through of the home a minimum of 5 business days prior to closing on a vacant home) and I had the opportunity to take a few more pictures. The house was very warm and bright as we walked through today. It was very inviting. As you'll see, we will need to do some painting and wall paper removal. I didn't get a picture of the polka-dots on Hayley's walls, or the sea-green mermaid bathroom, but you can imagine. I shouldn't poke fun; my mom let me paint a mural of a sleeping moon on my bedroom wall with glitter paints when I was in High School. (In retrospect, mom, this was unthinkably kind of you and I thank you for sacrificing the potential sale of your home in exchange for the expression of my creative inclinations. That said, we're going to make Hayley express herself on paper.)

So, with that, here is the grand crib tour (cue the 'Big Pimpin' music):



The family room. Built-ins for the TV and sunlight for Polski to roll around in.




Dining area and the front door. The picture doesn't show it, but the paint on the bottom is pretty close to mauve which is... er, not cool in person.



The small gathering room off the kitchen. And our Realtor, Mary Jane Jennings.




The kitchen which opens to the gathering room.




More of that.




Another shot of the main family room.




Blah, blah, blah.




This is Hayley's room. Polka-dots are to the right. And they broke her closet doors and replaced them with curtains. We'll have to get her some new doors.




Bedroom 2. It's green. Really, really green.




Bedroom 3. Those are curtains with football players on them. Could this be the "dShrine to Michigan" room?




Master bedroom.








Troy inspecting the yard. Take a good long look at those leaves, honey. In a week they'll be allllll yours.








Apparently I like the kitchen. Big windows in all rooms which I hope will keep our energy bill low.




Little window in the kitchen that serves as a pass-through to the dining room. It's the Lazy Susan of serving up a formal dinner.

That's a wrap. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

More after move-in.

Aunt Angela Hits Hogville

Angela brought mad love and Michigan vibes to The Natural State. We all loved having her and we can't wait to see her back here in November! Angela has captured our fab football weekend in a photo series for your enjoyment.


If you've ever seen Tiny Toons back in the 80s/90s, this is Almira. If you haven't, this is just Hayley squeezing Polski.




Sibling Rivalove.





Angela, we're going to need to work on your Sassy Knee-Raise/Toe-Point.





Big Love for the Big House.





When in Rome...




I mean, as tough as it was to get into cheering for a whole new team, Hay sure does make their colors look a lot cuter.



I should note that Hay has mastered the whole 'support your team' thing. She'd wait until the crowd got REALLY quiet, then say "GO RAZORBACKS! YOU CAN DO IT!"




Note: Troy did not sell out his team. His shirt does not say 'Razorbacks.' Wearing red was as committed as he was willing to get.





The coldest day in Arkansas since we've been here. Plans for tailgating were replaced with snacks and sodas in the car.











Hay gets her Halloween treats from Grandma, Papa and Aunt Angela. No, she's not spoiled at all.

Sidebar: Aunt Angela has taught Hayley to say "Dolla Dolla Bills Ya'll" like a little Gangster when she receives money. Needless to say, Meghan can't wait until Aunt Angela has children so Aunt Meghan can teach her kids how to represent their gangsta style, "flash their bling" and "make it rain."

The New House

So, this morning as I was talking to my sister, I realized that I never shared any updates about our new home since we've purchased it. A lot has happened since the last home-related blog post.

Here's what happened. The last house I blogged about, we didn't get. The bank wouldn't come down off the price which was ridiculous for its condition and its location.

Reinstating our search, we found a home in a neighborhood that we've had our eye on since we've been here. The neighborhood is called Highland Knolls, it's an established neighborhood (homes built in the late 90s), each home is unique and varies in price starting at 200K going up to over a million. Here's what we love about the house:

- 2240 square feet
- 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths (As Hayley moves closer to teen years, she will certainly want her own bathroom.)
- fenced-in backyard for Polski
- playscape already in the backyard (for Hayley and future kids)
- both the backyard and the front yard have beautiful trees.
- house came with an older model of Bose surround sound (we're hoping it still works)
- all bedrooms are attached to a bathroom (Two of the bedrooms share a Jack and Jill bathroom. And Hayley will get her own bathroom separate from those.)
- nice-sized kitchen with good counter space, countertop for barstools plus space for a kitchen table, and attached small gathering room with fireplace
- designated dining room with wood floor
- large family room with built-ins
- deck that exits off the family room and master bedroom
- all brick home
- repairs that showed up in the inspection were pretty minor
- excellent neighborhood with varying homes and lots of kids
- excellent elementary school right in the neighborhood
- the home comes with a membership to Shadow Valley Country Club, a private club that offers a restaurant, gym, challenging golf course, pro shop, tennis, basketball, swimming pool and kids play-scape

What we'd like to change:
The house hasn't been updated since 1997. Cosmetic changes can be made like kitchen counters, appliances, flooring, paint and light fixtures over time to make this home glow. Right now, everything in the house is in working order and we don't need to spend money right away to get the house updated which is great. We can make changes at our leisure.

We're scheduled to close on it on November 13th. We hope that everything stays on schedule so that can actually happen. Movers are supposed to come November 15th at 9am to help us move out of the apartment. I wish I had more photos of the home, but the real estate agent has taken most of them down from the website. He's reposted some on Zillow.com which I've posted here.

We're praying for a happy transfer:)

Note: Thank you to all of our parents and friends who have offered advice and an ear for us to vent our house-hunting experiences. We can't wait to have you all come visit so you can see the home in person.

Halloween 2009. Rockin' the new neighborhood.

We've decided that we're pretty much the awesomest family Halloween 2009 has ever seen. And our new neighborhood? Pretty much the rockin'est neighborhood our Big Ten hearts could've asked for. Allow me to set the scene:

I've just finished giving Hay some "firecracker" pigtails, affectionately named for their spray-like shape with her new short and sassy 'do. All dressed in our Michigan gear, we piled into the car to head to our new neighborhood! We pulled into our new driveway and the streets were already buzzing with Halloween excitement. The people across the street had their garage door up and had a Halloween party in session. We were in front of the house taking advantage of the daylight for a pre-TrickorTreat photo session for not 5 minutes before our across-the-street neighbors come over to introduce themselves. (Meghan, internally squealing with excitement.) They invited us to come enjoy their halloween spread if we needed a break between houses. SO nice.

So we headed off on our trickortreating adventure. Within the first hour of trickortreating, I started to think we've moved right back into Big Ten country. We had equal amounts of "Go Blue"s and Razzing from Michigan fans/grads, Penn State grads, Michigan State grads, Ohio State grads, Notre Dame grads, and Wisconsin grads. To me, it was unbelievable. We walked down the street behind us and there was an enormous blow-up SPARTY on their front lawn! WHAT? WHERE ARE We?! At that point, I wasn't even annoyed... I was just excited to have neighbors who understand us. Now, of course there were diehard Arkansas fans and SEC gurus, but they seemed to be matched by the number of people from other conferences. At the end of the night, one girl gave Hayley double candy for being a Michigan fan, another lady was wearing a big bright Michigan block M and gave Hay a big "Go Blue" and to top off the night, some OSU fans told Hayley that if she said "Go Buckeyes" she could take a second handful of candy. It was so bizarre, I didn't even get mad (at first). Needless to say, Hayley totally sold us out for the candy.

Tonight, from across the map, it's good to feel close to home.



Troy and Hay in front of the new house.

Excited for Halloween 2009!

Hay in front of a house that turned their entire front yard into a crazy graveyard!

Not Pictured: There was also a Rolls Royce in the driveway.

Hayley choosing her candy next to some old bones.

Crazy Halloween party at one of the mansions 2 streets over.

Same mansion. These people were awesome. And Wisconsin fans!

8pm and still sassy.

The spoils. Count 159 pieces of candy. And after this pic, that Crunch bar didn't stand a chance.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!

All Hallows Eve, Deliciously Spooky

Eyeball Cupcakes!

Hay's ghoulish frosting.

Daddy threatens to take a bite!

Spooking Servings!

Mummy dogs and Witches Hands

Shirley Temples of Doom!

Let's rewind to Hay's party.

Hay reciting her totally memorized poem like a literary genius.

Hay's teacher dressed up like a red crayon.

Waiting in line before the parade:)

Cuter than cute.

She's so cute, we hardly noticed she was wearing the wrong team's outfit.

Cutie cute!