Updates on Life

In my last post, I mentioned the possibility of our getting a house this year.  Well, we met with a mortgage broker (we're meeting with another one tomorrow, too) and we were pre-qualified for a first-time home-buyers' loan!  We were pre-qualified for more than we're willing to spend, though, so we knocked our limit down a little and have been looking for houses in that range.  For what we can afford right now, there isn't too much out there.  We've looked at several houses, but they've been in pretty bad condition.  The thing that's holding us back from spending any more is my Master's Degree classes.  If I don't have my Master's Degree by summer 2012, I lose my teaching certification; so that's the big thing we're saving towards right now.  Classes are obviously pretty expensive, so we're focusing on getting that out of the way first.  We're gonna continue looking for houses, but we're not going crazy doing it right now.  If we have to wait until 2012 to get one, then we'll be fine with that, too.  We're not planning on having any kids before then, so waiting till 2012 will work just fine (although we do have a back-up plan in case we have a "surprise").  Plus, it'll give us a chance to save up even more for a house and/or renovations on it.  In the meantime, I've already begun looking up decorating ideas and making plans in my mind (starting to save some on the computer, too) and it's a lot of fun!  I've really gotten into the idea of interior decorating lately. 


In other news, I've been asked to be in two weddings in the fall, which I'm really excited about.  Ben (my brother) is getting married in September and I'm gonna be a bridesmaid and my friend Rachel is getting married in October and I'm gonna be her maid of honor!  Even though our wedding is over, I still love all this wedding planning stuff.  I'm really excited to be helping with the planning of showers and everything else that goes along with being in a wedding. 

Speaking of Rachel, last night she and her new fiancé came over for dinner and to hang out with us.  I got to use my new brownie pan that I got for Christmas from my parents (I've used it several times already, but I really enjoy it!).

Not to brag, but I've kinda always been good at making brownies.  Cutting them, however, is NOT something I'm good at.  In fact, I'm pretty horrible at it.  When I normally cut brownies, they come out all different shapes and sizes.  It's pretty bad.  So I was pretty happy when I opened this up on Christmas Day.  All you do is put the brownie batter into the pan, insert the divider, and bake them as usual.

Then, when they're done baking, you just take the divider out and let them cool.  They come out perfectly (hence the name "Perfect Brownie Pan Set", I guess)!  They're all the same shape and, for the most part, the same size (for some reason, the middle row is always a teeny bit bigger) and they're so smoothly cut.  Plus, it comes with the rack (as you probably heard in the overplayed commercial) that makes it so you don't even have to take the brownies out of the pan.  It just pushes the inside of the pan up to make a tray-type server.

Well this has turned into way more brownie-talk than I expected it to.  I think I'm done. Dave is making dinner tonight and it's just about done...time to go eat and watch TV (oh, and get to all the paper-correcting I've neglected this February vacation...).  =)