Excited and nervous

   So, we are buying a new house.  Not just any house, but my DREAM house!  Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, the basement has been fully converted into a one bedroom apartment, two car garage, a brand new roof (guaranteed for life!), brand new central heat and air conditioning, granite front yard (no lawn to mow!!!), a garden tub in the master bathroom, a separate shower, his and hers sinks, and a toilet that is separated from the rest of the bathroom by a door... a tiny "toilet room" in the bathroom!  Two more bedrooms and another bathroom upstairs.  Walk down the stairs and you are in the foyer.  It is HUGE and opens into a large living room with cathedral ceilings.  Then you can turn left into the first entrance to the kitchen or take the second left to the dining room and sliding doors leading to the backyard.  The kitchen is my favorite part! It has a self STEAM CLEANING oven with a glass top, and all of the other nice stuff... pantry, lazy susan, garbage disposal, dishwasher, large fridge.  It's huge!  From the kitchen you can go to the downstairs bathroom, the laundry room or down into the basement.  The basement is huge and carpeted.  There is one door in the basement that leads to the basement apartment bedroom and the other door leads to a very large storage room that is fully plumbed to become another bathroom.  We would simply have to put in a toilet and sink.  In the storage room is a deep freezer.  T.C.'s favorite part is the two car garage.  He is going to make it into a shop.  I also promised him he could do whatever he wanted with one of the upstairs bedrooms.  The second bedroom will be a guest room.
The basement bedroom is going to become a THEATER!!!  Two rows of theater seats (the second on a raised platform), a 3D capable projector, a stand up popcorn maker, a mini-fridge for drinks, SERIOUS surround sound and, of course, the long red curtains.  It will look like an actual tiny theater. That will be our first project.  The second? A gazebo with a hot tub in the backyard.  Then, we are making half the basement into a gym and the other half into a game room.  We want to put in a bar, pool table, ping pong table and dart board.
  I am super excited... and nervous.  The house payment will be less than our current rent, which is cool, but the first month is going to be a KILLER.  We have to pay the last month here, the cleaning costs to move out, the truck rental to move our stuff and the first month there.  We have been saving, but after working only part time for over a year it was only a dollar here and a dollar there.. not as much as I would like.  We will be flat broke until at least December first.
  Our last place was such a dump, this is a dream come true. And I did get a significant raise (by going full time) and I quit smoking (T.C. started his round of Chantix this morning!!!).  We have been living off of beans and grilled cheese and other cheap crap...

 The house

The basement: the top one is from the stairs and the bottom one is from the other side of the room.

Half of the kitchen.. I wish I had taken more pictures of the kitchen!!  I will once we are moved in.

The master bathroom tub and sinks.

The foyer (Yup.. the piano is ours).

The dining area off the kitchen.  I love the bar!!  I am going to put bar stools in.

This picture doesn't do the master bedroom closet justice!!  It's a GIANT walk-in closet!

The view of the front room from upstairs. T.C. says he wants to give me my library in here.  We will put in a roll top desk, bookshelves (full of books, of course!), an electric fireplace and a couple of cozy reading chairs.

This is the smallest bedroom.. it's the one in the basement.

This is the storage room in the basement.  It will be our safe room/prep room.  Food, water, weapons, etc will be kept in here.  The deep freezer is in this room.

I wish I had taken pictures of the backyard and stuff.  But, there is plenty of time.

Awww..

   So, yesterday I got home from work and TC says, "I love how in love we are.".  I asked what he meant and he said that he saw a meme on Facebook that said something about finding your soul-mate and how it didn't have to be your lover, it could be your best friend.  He said that he read that and realized he had both.  Just Awwwww!

  I am off work today.  I ran out and got red velvet cupcakes and delivered them to work because today is a co-worker's birthday.  Then I stopped at the store and got a TON of cleaning supplies.  As soon as I am done here, I start cleaning.  Dishes first, then the oven, floors, bathrooms and shower. Every since I started working I haven't had time to deep clean.
  While I was at the store, I found organic whole roasted chickens for $2.50!  I bought three.  I am going to rip off the breast meat from one of them and shred it so I can make TC Chicken Alfredo for dinner tonight (with homemade apple chimi-cheesecakes for dessert!!). The rest of the chickens will go in the crockpot with veggies to start homemade chicken soup for tomorrow.  It means having to get up in the morning and deboning them before work, but it will be totally worth it.  I love homemade soup.
  The girls sent me a picture of the four of them having coffee yesterday.  (Well, not Pie... she has cut out caffeine for the babies).  I haven't heard back from her about how she feels about the maternity clothes I sent.  I hope she likes them.  I hate shopping online.
  Okay, off to surprise the boy with an amazing clean house and fully dressed, made up wife.

 

What a great Sunday.

Today T.C. and I spent almost the entire day naked, cuddling in bed.  It was amazing.  We watched (still naked and in bed) a Walking Dead marathon. Then we took a shower together and made dinner.  He had steak and potatoes and I had sort of a taco burger (no bun) with salsa on top.

It has always been pretty common knowledge in my house that I can cook anything... except steak.  I can bake.  I can casserole with the best of them, but steak... nope.  So, T.C. asked me to give it a try.  I could cook it any way I wanted, but he wanted me to attempt to make steak.  "How bad could it be?" he asks.  LOL.  Little did he know....
I did a little internet research and dived in.  We aren't talking about a cheap steak here.  We are talking about a very large rib-eye.  Something we can not currently afford to replace.
Miracle of miracles... I did it!!  He actually said that my steak was BETTER than his.  I almost passed out from the shock.

He rebroke his foot. Like the bone graft is shattered.  It sucks because they have already started his medical retirement process and so now they are saying that he can't have the required surgery until AFTER he gets out so the V.A. can handle it.  They didn't even want to give him anything for pain... they just wanted him to wait until he took the pain management class at the end of this month.  It sucks.  He is in pain.  :(

He tried calling the kids tonight.  The Ex didn't answer.  He left a message, but of course she didn't have the courtesy to call back or even text.  Nice, right?  You would THINK that since she insisted that he call at a certain time, she would honor her part of it and make the kids available to talk at that time, or at least text to let him know that the kids weren't available for whatever reason.  He thinks it's because she's pissed that he asked her to let them talk to his dad, so now she has decided to be a turd and cut him off from the kids for a few days.  I hope that's not the case, because that is a completely immature power play.  I can't wait until he goes to his JAG appointment and has child support/custody stuff done.  We have talked about the different options.  He is getting out soon and so we have discussed what he wants for child visitation/support/etc.  He is going to stipulate that the child exchange be done in a public place.  Nothing unreasonable, but he will make sure that there is something in there about the kids being able to see his family when he has them.  We have started documenting (again) his calls and such.  Like the times when she doesn't answer.  All of that will go to the lawyer.  We'll see what happens.

Just wow.

 T.C. talked to his dad today.  His dad always asks about T.C.'s kids.  T.C. told him to call and talk to them.  He said he didn't think that The Ex would let him.  So, T.C. sent a text to The Ex asking if she would let the kids call his dad and talk to him.  She said no.  Not just no, but she did the whole "I don't have to explain myself to you.  They are MY kids" bullshit.  Because they aren't also T.C.'s kids, I guess.  Her issues with T.C. and his family don't change the fact that they are still family to the children.
  Seriously, just because you didn't get your way with T.C. doesn't mean that you should throw a fit and use the kids as a weapon.  "I'm pissed, so you can't have any sort of relationship with your children/grandchildren and I don't have to explain myself because *I* am in control... *I* am the boss!!! *stomp*
  VERY immature.
 Get over it.  No one is asking to have any sort of relationship with YOU... just the kids.  No one WANTS to have a relationship with YOU.  Maybe that's the problem.  There really has to come a point when you realize that not everything is about YOU.. it's about the kids now.  Why in the world would you want to limit the number of people that your kids have a loving relationship with??  Just to prove that you are the boss?  To make a point? To get some small, childish revenge on the man that broke your heart? What?  If having that relationship posed a danger to the children that would be one thing.  But, cutting grandparents or whatever out of your children's lives just because YOU have a problem is just selfish, immature and stupid.  Is it going to hurt the children to talk to their grandfather on the phone for a few minutes??
  What T.C. did was wrong.  Not the leaving part, but the crap afterward.  The lying... the false promises.  But, that is (was) between the two of you.  His dad didn't leave.  His dad didn't make you the secret side chick for two years. None of that had anything to do with the kids at all.
  Whatever.

 That is all.

Despite the feelings of others, we are doing really well.

T.C. and I have had several conversations about his ex recently.  I have suggested on more than one occasion that he should talk to her.  I mean really talk to her.  I believe that she still loves him and misses him.
He has steadfastly refused.  He insists that he would never want to "go back to that life". When he calls to talk to the kids (who are sounding all grown up and super cute), she makes attempts to engage him in conversation (like, asking him if he has kept up on Game of Thrones or whatever).  I pointed this out and told him that I thought this meant that she probably wanted to actually talk to him.  He just sort of shrugged it off saying that if it didn't have to do with the kids, he didn't see any reason to speak with her.
Yesterday, he had to contact her regarding the child support.  He received papers at work and wanted to call and talk to the case worker.  She flipped out (according to him.. I was not there).  He said  that she was worried that he was going to find a way to stop paying child support.  (Why would he even want to do that?  They are his kids, too, and it is only right that he pays to help support them).  He said with her it is always about the money.
Later in the day we were talking and he said, "I have to tell you something.  I called the kids and [Ex] and I talked for a little while."  He said that they were talking about the kids when she suddenly changed the conversation over to "I hope it was worth it" and "You walked away from your family" and "How can you be with a home-wrecking bitch that talks shit about your kids?".  She (according to T.C.) went into the whole "why did you choose her over me?" stuff.
Honestly, it kind of makes me sad. It has been two years.  It is too late now, but what he did to her (stringing her along after he had already left) was awful and he should have found a way to give her closure long ago.
We have finally gotten to the point where we can talk openly about what happened and he says (I am paraphrasing his words here) "For a VERY long time, I was miserable and thought that she was the best I could ever do.  I tried SO HARD to be what she wanted me to be, but I was never good enough.  She cheated and lied and insulted me and made me feel like shit.  She withheld sex and told me I was unattractive.  I had NO self esteem at all.  Then I met you, and you were everything she wasn't.  You were amazing.  That was when she suddenly decided that she wanted me.  She would do anything to keep me.  Suddenly, she wanted to be everything I wanted her to be for so many years.  I think it was because she felt like she owned me and that I always be there no matter how bad she treated me.  It shocked her that I would actually leave.
  But, at the same time I had you.  You were perfect and I couldn't let go of you, but I also couldn't walk away from this thing that I had worked so long and so hard for.  It was fucked up and wrong, but for a little while I felt like I was on top of the world.  I had a perfect woman at home and then there was her.  Suddenly giving a shit.  Suddenly wanting to make me feel attractive.  It was a lot like having an abusive parent.  If your mom or dad beat you and belittled you, you would do everything you could to win their approval.  She was abusive and I finally had her approval. I was helpless to stop. As awful as it sounds, I craved it (her approval and desire).  I was suddenly something after many, many years of being NOTHING."
 When we were in therapy, he talked to the therapist about this.  She agreed that it would have been VERY difficult for him to walk away from that for those very reasons.   It doesn't excuse what he did to both of us, but it makes sense.
 I have suggested that now that they have had time apart, that maybe things would be different.  I know how much he misses the kids.  I know that she still holds some small amount of power over him and that they have a long history that created quite a bond.  I think that if he went back to her, they might actually have a shot.  He says that as much as he misses his babies, that it wouldn't be fair to him, me or her.  That even if they could make it work, he believes that it would go back to the same thing it always was.  He also says that he loves me very, very deeply and it wouldn't be fair to her to return simply for the sake of the children.
  Okay.  On a different note, my boss is in love with me.  T.C. is aware of it.  He isn't the first guy that has fallen in love with me since T.C. and I have been together.  I am just not sure how it happened.  Well, that's not entirely true.  We were friends and formed a bond based on the fact that his wife cheated on him and I was there to talk to because I understood.  I believe his feelings aren't actually love, but that I represent something else to him.  A woman that won't cheat.  I am what his wife (of almost 20 years) was not.  I have suggested this to him, but he swears that his feelings are real.  T.C.'s feelings on this are mixed.  On one hand, he says that he can't fault the guy for falling for me.  He says that I am pretty much the ultimate wife (cooking, baking, cleaning, sewing, etc) and that I am "sexy as hell" (yeah, whatever).  On the other hand, he worries that at some point, one of these guys will take me away.  He says that he knows what he has done to me and that he could totally understand if I left.. and that a man who wouldn't hurt me has got to be tempting.  (It's not).
  Despite all of this, or maybe BECAUSE of all of this, we are doing better than ever.  We are talking more openly than ever before.  We are connecting.  Our sex life is OUTSTANDING.  It seems that we are always touching, cuddling, kissing or making love.  When we can pry ourselves apart for a minute, we DO stuff together.  He helps me with sewing projects.  We watch videos on hot rods or sword making... together.  We just lie in bed and talk about everything for hours at a time.  For the first time, it feels like we have no secrets between us.. it is just all about US.
  I have read that there are couples that actually get past infidelity and that IF that happens, their marriage is stronger than ever.  I didn't believe that until now. I didn't think we would EVER get past it.
  This doesn't mean that I can slack off and stop trying to be the perfect wife.  Now, though, it isn't because of the pressure of "if I am not perfect, if I don't work out and dress up and put on make up and do my hair and clean the house and cook great meals and give him head all the time, then he will leave me".  Now, it is simply because I love him and I love being his wife.  I love doing things for him.  He loves that I love doing things for him.
  Do we still have problems?  Sure we do.  He still eats foods that are completely terrible for him.  He still drinks too many damn Rockstars.  He smokes too much.  I still have mood swings.  I still nag about his eating habits.  I get mad when he leaves the gas tank empty.  But, these are NORMAL problems.  I love it.  I love him.  I love my life.
  Oh, and did I mention that I got promoted at work?  (this has nothing to do with the boss I mentioned above.  He is not the manager, just a supervisor that has nothing to do with my career path).  I got a two dollar an hour raise.  Then I got my yearly review and got ANOTHER thirty cent an hour raise.  Now I am getting promoted again and this will take me up by FIVE DOLLARS an hour and take me up to full time.
  We are going to be fine.  It looks like I got my happily ever after after all.