House For Sale... again

Back in July, Paul and I decided it was time to put our house on the market in hopes we would be one of the few homeowners to have a quick sale.... Well... that did not happen. In fact, we only had one previewing and one showing in the 4 months it was listed through that particular agency. About 3 weeks ago we went ahead and took the house off the market since our realtor was obviously not helping us sell our house. This past week Paul was talking to a friend from work who told him about a realtor in Charlottesville who was apparently (her and her husband are a team) one of the top realtors in the area. Monday we drove to town and had about an hour long meeting talking about our house, what we wanted out of the sale and what their opinion was, being the pro's. Today the came to the house to do a walk through, take pictures and talk about price. Selling this house has turned into quite the experience. I have learned a lot so far and it reinforces my desire to NEVER move again after this. They gave us some great tips on how to spruce up the outside and we have a minor repair to do in the basement. All in all, I actually have a tiny bit of hope that this couple will be able to sell our house. I guess all we can do now is wait and see what happens. They both seemed to love the house and they totally fell in love with our dog Harley. Believe it or not, they have a dog that looks exactly like him. If they were together, you would never be able to tell they did not come from the same litter. They were so impressed by how sweet he was.

It is so hard to believe that December starts tomorrow!!!!! It's almost shocking. The weather this past week has not screamed CHRISTMAS, that's for sure. It has been in the low 70's high 60's for over a week now. Today is the first day it has been cool and it's currently 44 outside.

Paul and I decorated our livingroom/diningroom on Monday. I cannot say we decorated our tree b/c here's the simple truth... we have a 3 foot tree and we did not undecorate it from last year. We simply covered it with a sheet and put it in the basement. Sad, we know! Our tree is sitting on an end table in front of the window. It's kinda funny b/c if you drive past the house, it looks like a 6 foot tree :) Sneaky, sneaky, lol! I love the Christmas season and I am really looking forward to snow. I love sitting on my couch with all of the lights turned off and drink hot chocolate while looking at my pretty tree. We have the stockings hung up over the couch. My mom and sister are coming to Virginia for Christmas!! YAY!! I am so excited to see them and to make sugar cookies with my mom and deliver them to the girls at work :) I still have to decide what to get my husband. He does not think so, but he's very picky. He has given me a couple ideas so I am sure I will go with one of those ideas :) I hate giving people gift ideas... but so far, Paul has done a wonderful job buying me gifts :)

Well, that's all I have for now! I hope everyone had a wonderful November!

LQ

Awwwwww... November!

I love November! I love the cool weather and the bare trees. I love the sound of the leaves crunching under your feet as you walk. I love laying on my couch in my comfy pj's with my warm blanket and my dog. I love making hot chocolate from scratch and eating hot chocolate chip cookies. I love buying candles that smell like pie and vanilla and other yummy things. I love having cold feet as my excuse to snuggle up to my husband when we go to bed. I love how life slows down in the fall.

My sister-in-law Kaylyn and her 2 little girls Corin and Kendall are in Virginia for the next month!!!! I am SOOOO thankful that I have had such much needed bonding time with her and the girls :) I am so thankful for the family I married into and the time this week that we have had time to just relax and talk!

This past Saturday I had quite the... situation! My mom recently bought me a Pampered Chef veggie/food slicer and I thought it would be a good idea to slice cucumbers for work. Well, I was doing a great job and then Paul came into the kitchen to talk to me before getting ready for work. Too bad for me, I did not have the guard on the cucumber and I ended up slicing off the end of my finger. Aprox 4mm. Despite our pervious plans to go to work... we ended up at Urgent Care in Charlottesville. They were unable to attach the end back onto my finger so they used some skin growth promoting foam and wrapped it up. I went through 2 days of really bad pain but it's finally starting to feel better. I'm anxious to see my finger next week when they take the bandage off :)

Well, that's about all I have for right now. Life is pretty slow!

Liz

Ode to Little Debbie Swiss Rolls

Oh little swiss roll
how I love your creamy filling
rolled up in chocolate goodness
oh how you make me fat
- LQ

That's my poem for the day :)
I have talked and talked and talked some more about how frustrated I am at the reality that over the past 16 months of marriage I have gained right at 13 lbs. Most people would say that's not a huge deal but to me it is. I view myself totally differently now that I have put that weight on. Starting tomorrow, Paul and I are going to get up every morning an hour early and go for a 3 mile walk. He's been wanting to drop a few lbs that he has also gained. There is no better way to lose the weight then to do it together.

I've been rolling around in my mind the past several days, why it is so darn difficult to get motivated to lose these 13 lbs. For those of you who don't know my weight-loss story... In September 2008, I weighted right at 213 lbs. After moving in with my mom in February 2009 I found I was dropping weight like crazy. I got down to about 170 without any effort and then started walking the rest of the weight off. By September 2009 I was down to 145 lbs. That's a 68 lb weight loss in 7 short months. When Paul and I got married I felt AMAZING!!! I remember standing in my bedroom in running shorts and sports bra and thought DANG I look good :) Somewhere in the past 16 months I've lost that "dang" feeling!!! I WANT IT BACK!

Soooooooooooo, Paul and I are going to start walking and I am going to stop eating the Little Debbie snacks that are adding the chunky to my chunky butt.

My little sister is graduating from college in April 2012 and I want more than anything to buy a cute cute cute dress for her graduation and feel really good about myself in family pictures.

Tomorrow is "D" day! Bring on the hunger pains, snack cravings and my "i could kill someone for a mnt dew" attitude :) BRING-IT-ON!!!!!!

What a wonderful trip to Missouri :)

What a gloomy day it is in Virginia! Yesterday we had almost a full 24 hours of rain. We sure needed it! I'm so thankful for the fall weather and the wonderful temps we are being blessed with.

This past Friday, I flew into St. Louis and then drove the hour from the airport to my mom's house in Bowling Green, Mo. My dad was so wonderful and left his truck at the airport for me to use while he was heading to South Carolina with my brother. I picked up the truck and jumped on the highway toward my mom's. I wish I could explain how amazing the weather was. I grew up most of my life in Missouri and never remembered it being so beautiful or smelling so good outside. I drove the entire way to BG with my windows down and a huge smile on my face. What am amazing start to an amazing vacation.

My 1st stop was to my mom's school so I could give her a big hug! I hung out with mom at her middle school while the kids ate lunch and she finished up a class. After lunch, I left and headed to McDonalds so I could check my email and get a soda. I had a hair apt at 3:00 with my very favorite beautician Chelsey :) She recently got married so I wanted to take a few minutes to buy her a wedding present before my apt started. Mom's town has a beautiful gift shop and for Paul and I's wedding, mom bought us these 2 amazing spatula's. I went back to that shop and bought the same spatula's for Chelsey. At my hair apt, I had her cut quite a bit off and color my hair dark brown again. Saying I love it is an understatement. I beyond love it. I think it looks beautiful and natural. She's so talented! After getting my hair done, mom and I headed to Wentzville for dinner and a movie. We went to Olive Garden and shared a Tour of Italy. It's one of my very favorite dishes there but it's a ton of food so perfect for two people. After dinner we realized we were both beyond exhausted. Mom had been busy at work that day and I had been up for about 24 hours at that point. We decided to head home and listen to the rest of the Cardinals game on the radio. Cardinals won! Going to bed never felt so good as it did that night!

Saturday was a crazy strange, Stone women sorta day. Mom was under the impression from a friend of her's at church that our church was having Stake Conference that weekend in Nauvoo, IL. We got up and did a few last minute things around the house and then grabbed our church clothes and headed to Nauvoo. I have to first mention that the temp was 86 and not a cloud in the sky. We left the house, washed the car, grabbed a soda from McDonalds and headed to Quincy, IL. Somehow along the way, I ended up accidentally sticking my middle finger in my mom's tube of lipstick that did not have a lid on it. I did not realize it until it was all over my hands and smeared across my forehead. Mom told me she had "baby wipes" in her truck... which ended up being Clorox Bleach wipes. I sucked it up, used them and prayed they would not bleach my newly died hair. It was a success. We stopped by TJ Maxx in Quincy so mom could buy a new purse and then we headed over to Sams where mom bought me a cute new cardigan sweater and I found 2 Izod denim skirts for $3.58/each. What a steal!!! We were hungry but did not want a big lunch so we settled for a hot dog before we left Sams. You can't beat 2 huge hot dogs for under $3.00 total. We made it to Nauvoo and on our way to the book store, we ran into a couple in mom's ward. They asked why we were in town and mom said for Conference. They informed us that we were a week early. BUMMER! I was so excited to see friends from other towns. You can't cry over spilt milk I guess. After a few minutes of chatting we headed to the book store! I found a book I was needing to read and mom and I had a wonderful time looking at odds and ends, wishing we had a million dollars to blow on church stuff! We left and went to the fudge factory! YUMMMY. I bought mint chocolate fudge to bring home to Paul and mom and I bought a caramel apple to share. We walked around the Temple and then called it a day and headed back to Hannibal where we stopped at Drakes for dinner. I ate a HUGE pork steak and it was beyond amazing. Nothing better then a pork steak.

Sunday we got up and headed to church. I woke up with a horrible migraine. I swore I was going to be sick. 3 I buporphen, 2 Excedrin migraine and about 2 hours later I finally started to feel like a human again. We attended 2 hours of church since we told my grandma we would have lunch with her while I was in town. She took us to one of our favorite places! Fiddlesticks. It was yummy food and I loved spending time catching up with my grandma Becky. After lunch we stopped by my Aunt Susan's house and chatted with her, my uncle and my cousin Jake. It's nice to see family! We then headed to my sister's cemetery where mom and I put new flowers. The flowers that were currently on her grave still looked beautiful so we always recycle the flowers and give them to people who don't have any. The 1st person mom tried to donate flowers to was technically still alive. It was just the head stone with the birth year. We sat and laughed about it for quite a while. Funny memory! Sunday ended with us spending some time with a friend of my mom's from church and relaxing at home :) It was a perfect day.

Monday mom and I spent the day at home together. She called in sick from work so she could drive with grandma and I to the airport. I was so thankful she was able to come with us. I loved having a little extra time at home with mom. We stopped for lunch at Casa Gallardo in St. Louis before heading to the airport. I cried a little when I got on my 1st flight toward Virginia. I was looking forward to being home again with Paul but I was already missing my mom!

My flight's were good. The 1st one left a little late b/c the police had to escort a couple off the flight. I'd love to know what happened... but I guess I'll never know! I read on my 1st and 2nd flight and my 3rd flight I chatted with 2 nice guys about sports, etc. I got home a little before midnight on Monday and was so glad to be back in my own bed again!

Sorry that was more like a moment by moment recap of my trip, but friends/family ask how my trip was and want to know what I did. There you go! That's what I did :) I had the very best time with my mom!

I often wonder...

Why we spend our time watching shows we have no interest in to begin with? I hate sushi! And yet, I spent the past hour of my life watching how to make sushi at home on Giada at Home. I cannot imagine eating something with raw fish in it. I can't bring myself to eating 99.9% of all cooked seafood. Sushi takes my mind to the movie Cast Away. I don't know if I could have survivied on raw crab. It makes my skin squirm just thinking about it. Paul loves sushi... so it must tast good to some people. Not me! NOTE: I did try it once when Paul and I went to dinner and I could not gag it down. I physically was unable to swallow it.

I am feeling horribly lazy today. I did go to Walmart when Paul left for work to purchase a book to read on my flight Friday. I ended up buying a book about a little boy who died during surgery, came back to life and tells his story about his time in heaven. Coming from a very strong LDS background, I often wonder if it is actually possible for us to remember such a thing, or if Heavenly Father would cause the veil to remove those memories from our minds. I am very anxious to read this book. My cousin was very sick as a little girl and was in a coma for a period of time. When she came out of her coma, she told my mom that she had seen my sister Erin who had passed away a short time earlier. Children are so young an innocent. I believe the veil may be thinner for them. Just a thought.

As some of you know, we were scheduled to have a showing of our house a couple weeks ago. Well, after hours of cleaning and painting and cleaning and a little sleeping and yard work, the house looked amazing and then the showing got cancelled. BUMMER! At least it pushed us to get the house super duper clean :) Although I am not giving up hope that the house will either be sold or under contract by January, Paul and I telling ourselves that we will HOPEFULLY be in Wyoming in April (ish) looking at different cities, police departments and hopefully Paul will be testing during that visit. Although a move out west would take us far away from Paul's family in Virginia... I cannot help but to be excited at the idea of being closer to my family. It would put us within driving distance from my oldest brother in South Dakota and that almost gives me butterflies. I know it will all work out one way or the other.

One of my dearest friends ( Sabrina) is moving to Washington DC in a month or two. This really excites me! She has been a very good friend since I was a freshman in HS. She is originally from Oklahoma City, OK but went to college in Missouri where I lived at the time. I am looking forward to finally having a friend within driving distance of me.

I am leaving for Missouri on Friday. It seems like I technically leave tomorrow because I will sleep from 5-11 pm, wake up in time to spend a couple hours with Paul when he get's home from work and then leave my house around 3 am to meet Randi at her house and ride to the airport with her. My flight leaves at 6:45 am and I SHOULD land in St. Louis around 9:45. 4 hour flight with 1 layover in Ohio somewhere. Not too shabby. Coming home will be not so fun though. I have 2 layovers and it's going to take me 7 hours to get home. Let's hope and pray the St. Louis airport does NOT get his by a tornado this time. I have been going back and fourth as to whether or not I should pack tonight or tomorrow. Sigh... I think I will go ahead and try to get it done tonight. The great thing about short trips is that I get to travel with just a carry on and a back pack :) Can't get much better then that!

Well people who read this, I think that's about it for now. I'll post more after my trip home.
Liz Quillon

See ya later Summer, HELLO Autumn!

Happy 1st day of Autumn to everyone who actually reads my blog :) I am SO excited that summer is gone, I decided to type in orange to honor the beautiful season which is upon us. The other day we were driving to town and I noticed a few maple trees are a tiny bit beginning to turn red :) In a matter of weeks, we will be able to look around and see all the colors of fall!

I think I am actually going to buy pumpkins this year, carve them and put them on our porch. Even though I am working Halloween night, I think it would be fun to be a wee bit festive this year. Who know, I may even splurge a little and buy a few indoor decorations! I flew home from Missouri last year on Halloween so I did not take the time to decorate. What's the fun in that? I'm smelling a great FHE in the Quillon home in a couple weeks. I'll make Paul my dad's famous hot chocolate and cookies or something. I think that will seal the deal! He will carve pumpkins if I feed him :)

This time of year ALWAYS reminds me of the years I spent growing up in Wisconsin. Every Fall, my family would drive to Devil's Lake. We would hike and then stop for caramel apples on our way home. (IDEA: Maybe I will make Paul a caramel apple while we carve pumpkins!! ) I will never forget those years with my family. I grew up in such a wonderful home, filled with amazing holiday memories.

I am flying home (to Missouri) in 2 weeks. I'll only be home for 4 days which means I won't have much, if any, time to see people I want so much to see... but I will have lots of quality time with my mom! I can't wait to spend that time with her, just the two of us. This is kinda a last minute trip home but I am ready to spend a few days with some of my family.

We actually had a realtor come for a previewing yesterday. She did a quick walk through and then left. Apparently there is an elderly couple who's moving to the area from our of town/state (not sure which). Their realtor fears the house will be too big for them, but we will have to wait and see. They are apparently coming to see the house early next week. I sure hope they don't decide not to come b/c Paul and I worked our rear end's off getting the house ready for the showing. I will say though, the house looks awesome now. Monday I have to go to Lowes and buy a few bags of mulch for the front of the house, but other then that, the front yard is not looking too shabby. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the couple likes the house. Testing dates for Rock Springs, Wy PD is the 2nd week of January. We are sooooooo much wanting the house to be sold by then. We would love to be able to fly to Wy in January so he can test for their PD. It's a strange feeling to be pulled to another area of the country, but be tied down to your current location. Wish us luck :)

I think that's all we have for now. I'm off to the grocery store to buy milk and popcorn.

Holy cow it's September, WOW!

August bid fairwell and September has arrived! I cannot express how excited I am knowing that the HOT summer months are over and things are starting to cool down in Virginia. I love seeing the high temps for the next week only reaching into the mid 80's :) It's such a beautiful thing.

Speaking of weather... Mother Nature has not been so kind to Virginia the past several weeks. As you all know from my last post, we had an earthquake in central VA about 2 weeks ago. That was an something I never care to experience again. I was hopeful that the one big earthquake would be the end of it, but apparently we have had almost 20 aftershocks. Most of which I have not felt. We had a 4.3 aftershock on my Birthday (Sept 1). Last week VA also got hit by hurricane Irene. Lucky for us, we got a little rain and a little wind, but that was the extent of our hurricane experience. Some friends closer to the ocean were not so lucky though. I'm thankful our house has been kept safe from Mother Nature!

I celebrated my 28th Birthday on September 1st! It was a bitter-sweet day for me. Although I enjoy having a day to celebrate "me", I have struggled the past few years with the idea of getting older. Everyone tells me they enjoy getting older, I don't. I down right hate it. I'll be honest, I started the day off on quite an emotional note but by the end, it was a perfect day. Here's how it went : Originally I had plans to get together with a couple friends and have dinner...but that pretty much fell through so I decided I would just stay home by myself and be sad. After several minutes of feeling bad for myself I decided to take a shower, get dressed and take myself to a movie like I had originally planned. When I told Paul I was going to be spending the evening alone, he said he would meet me in town when my movie was over and have dinner with me at Buffalo Wild Wings. I left the house and headed to town to see The Help. If you have not seen it already, it is a MUST SEE!!! Wonderful movie :) Well, about 30 minutes into the movie I got a text from Paul saying he had the rest of the night off and he would meet me at BW3 when I was done with the movie. I could not figure out why he had the rest of the night off. When the movie was finished, I haded to BW3 for dinner. Paul told me that his SGT asked him after line-up if he wanted to grab something to eat. Paul explained to him that he was meeting his wife in town b/c it was her birthday. His SGT told him they had plenty of people to work and told him to take the evening off. HOW NICE IS HE!!!!!! After dinner we went to Walmart and ended up in line behind the 1 person in the store who could not count and was trying to get 40ish items through the 20 items or less counter. There was a long line of people behind her. All of us had fewer then 10 items and everyone was getting frustrated. I was puchasing a yard stick and I wont lie... I wanted to smack her with it. I can't stand people like her. What was worse was that I could not stop looking at her.... she had done WAY too much botox... it was nasty! My little sister Emily sent me flowers on my birthday too :) I was not home when they tried to deliver them so I got them the next day. They sure are beautiful!!! The bouquet has roses, lillies, daiseys and sunflowers. It really made me smile when I saw them! Saturday was my big celebration day with Paul. Instead of him buying me a present, I wanted to go shopping to buy some clothes for this fall! Saturday was so much fun too. I loved spending the day with my sweet husband. He did such a great job shopping with me :) My only rule that day was that he was not to act nervous or fidget and he did not do either! We went to Buckle in Shortpump. I love their clothes. Although they are a weeeee bit expensive, I'll have them for several years and can add to my wardrobe over time. I'll post pictures of the thigns I got. We ended the day at Cheesecake Factory. It was so amazingly good. We bought 4 slices of cheesecake, most of which we brought home with us. I think Cheesecake Factory is the place where we will celebrate big occasions. We both love it there!

Most of you also know we are selling our house. Well, trying to sell our house. The market is crap right now so I am not holding my breath. We have decided to lower the price of the house by $8,000. We hope that the drop in price will draw more attention and we will find a buyer. Paul and I have been trying to decide if we want to stay in Virginia after the house sells. Both of are feeling a pull to move out West. We are thinking Wyoming. My oldest brother would like us to at least look at South Dakota where they are.... so I may try to talk Paul into at least looking... but we both feel really really good about Wyoming. It provides a totally different lifestyle that we would both love to have when it comes to raising our children that Virginia does not have. We have been looking at Police Departments, Real Estate, apartments, etc is all of the major Wyoming cities. We get more and more excited about the idea. But first, we have to sell our house. I'll keep you posted!

That's about all I have for now.

Liz