House.

Mitch and I have a slight obsession with the TV show House. Okay, maybe more than slight. We have seen every episode and have it all on DVD. We've always liked the show, but we really got into it when we first got married. We had our little apartment, but didn't have cable yet. So we started going through the DVDs and found the first season of House. We watched all of it within the week. Then we immediately went out and bought season two and three. It only took about two weeks to watch all of those episodes. When we got season four, we took a little more time to watch it because season five wasn't out on DVD yet. We preordered season five and had it sent to us. The high point of everyday was going to check the mailbox. Awful. When we finally got it, we ended up watching all 24 episodes in a day and a half. Insanity. We stayed up until about 2 in the morning to watch it, went to bed, and woke up at eleven to finish it. A very productive weekend. Now season six just started on TV. But sadly it's on Monday nights. I don't get out of school until 6:55. :( I guess we'll have to go find a VCR so we can tape it. Life is so hard sometimes.

A thick envelope finally arrived and it's, it's---HOUSE! Instant satisfaction!

Meet Murray.

Yay, Mitch and I got a new car. We decided to go ahead and trade in my Explorer and get something more dependable. Since my truck's trade-in value was only about $1,900, we decided it'd be best to go ahead and take the cash for clunkers deal. As much as I didn't want a car note, we thought it'd be better than waiting for my truck to blow up and really sink us in the hole. We looked around at smaller sedans and finally decided on the Nissan Versa Sedan. It's small, but not tiny like the Chevy Aveo and Toyota Yaris. And Danny got us the hook up at the Nissan dealership, so we got the nicest Versa with all the bells and whistles for a great price. It's black with tan interior, but it's the nice luxurious fabric. :) I also have the neat Bluetooth thing where I can talk on the phone and it comes through the car speakers. It's pretty sweet--Mitch loves it because now it's impossible for me not to hear my phone in the car. It has taken me awhile to realize that I'm not in a taller vehicle with a V6 or V8 engine anymore. That is all I've ever driven, so I've almost gotten run over several times pulling out in front of people. But oh well, we are very happy with our little coke can car which gets 30 mpg. We have named her Murray and she's the first "big purchase" Mitch and I have gotten to make as a married couple.

Mitch and I patiently waiting for them to get our loan approved--scary!

This folder was blank when we arrived, but I had to pass the time somehow--some of the salesmen wanted to frame it. :)

THE DESK, we waited forever to get here--the final stretch.

This is George, he introduced us to Murray--and was a super sweet man.

Goodbye Explorer, thank you for saving my life--we had a good two years.

There's Murray, she was sitting there waiting on us to take her home!

Welcome home, the Ivy's are a Nissan family..

Wreck.

Yep, I had another wreck. Luckily nobody got hurt and I didn't even get hit by the airbag. :)

So this is the story. I'm driving down Shelby Drive on my way to work. It's pretty congested and everyone is just poking along. Then I get behind a red Camry and we are chugging along at a nice pace. So we're in the far left lane, then change into the middle lane--and completely unaware that a cop has someone pulled over in the far right lane (because there is an 18 wheeler in the lane blocking the view)--the Camry changes lanes, I follow and in that same moment the Camry swerves back into the lane and almost hit me. I swerve even harder now that I am about to hit the cop. I cross over Shelby Drive almost to the other side and then back again, crashing through a fence into someone's backyard. I missed the cop by about 5 feet, almost hit several cars, almost flipped due to my complete over correction, and hit the fence about 30 feet in front of the cop. Basically I made a big U shaped maneuver across Shelby Drive and the cop was amazed I didn't get hit. Of course he thought I was crazy as I bailed out of thetruck and took off running--this is my usual reaction when I have a wreck. I'm always afraid the truck is going to blow up like they do in the movies and I didn't want the airbag to have a late reaction or something and get smacked in the face. But yeah, I made it out alive! It barely even did any damage to the truck! Thank the Lord. But the stupid cop gave me a ticket for "failure to maintain safe lookout." I almost wished I had hit him because there was a side street like 30 feet further he could have pullled the man over on, rather than on Shelby Drive in 8 o'clock traffic. But oh well--things could have turned out much worse.

Paper Mache Soup.

I attempted to make mom's banana pudding. I started to get out the ingredients, but had to send Mitch to get flour and sweetened condensed milk. I didn't even get to the 3rd step before I had to call mom and ask a question because the recipe doesn't say at what temperature to heat the milk and flour..it just says remove from heat on the fourth step. I'm one of those people that needs to have EXACT directions. As I mentioned earlier, it said to combine the flour and MILK together--this recipe calls for milk AND sweetened condensed milk. But considering I left the little can of sweetened milk in the Walmart sack, I completely overlooked it. Still unaware of my blunder, I began layering everything and realized I wouldn't have enough pudding. So because I'm a genius I grabbed a box of Jell-O instant vanilla pudding and finish off my layering. I made the meringue, which I was most worried about screwing up, and put it in the oven. As I am cleaning up, I find the sweetened condensed milk---$&%*@)#!---ugh. So when the timer goes off, I am totally not excited anymore. The meringue was perfect, but when I spooned some out it was nasty soupy muck. There is a reason that the pudding has flour and whatnot in it, instant pudding wasn't a good substitute. And because I didn't put the sweetened milk in it, the pudding was like paper mache! So Mitch and I ate all the meringue off the top and tossed out the paper mache soup. It took forever to make, made a mess of the entire kitchen, and turned out awful. Mitch and I were completely disappointed.

Hah, I would like to note that the first picture is quite ironic. I didn't notice until I uploaded it, but my "Anyone Can Cook" cookbook is a screaming contradiction as I am preparing the paper mache pudding--on top of a Domino's box because I gave up on making dinner the night before.. :)

Teaser.

Well, as you can see--Mitch and I have been busy bees. I have a lot of updating to do. But sadly, I cannot find my battery charger for the camera. And I just cannot bring myself to tell a story without pictures to go along with it. I have a system, and I'm sticking to it.. So there won't be any serious blogs yet. I'm buying a charger tomorrow. SOOO, by Thursday there will be at least six blogs for you to read. Yes, they will be overflowing with all the hilarious anecdotes of our action-packed life that you crazy nuts love so much. (I know it's the highlight of your life) So check back Thursday and you can delve into the intoxicating activities that Mitch and I have been up to lately. Yippy. So back of mom--we don't need another brick crashing through the window with threatening notes. :)

Rolltide and Braves.

Well, even though we are going to be a bit loaded for awhile we've still managed to throw some fun in there. Mitch and I get to enjoy a wonderful FREE Braves game in September. Apparently the Braves will give you a free ticket for your birthday! Since Mitch and I are both in March, we decided to take our freebie. And we have that Monday off for Labor Day. Yippie. Even though they aren't the best seats, we'll take them. The less fortunate can't be so picky. Also we found some good tickets to an Alabama football game in Tuscaloosa. Mitch swooped in at the last minute and got them pretty cheap. My little eBay expert. Even though we had to click on all the help buttons to figure out what we were supposed to do. Oh well, we've got a nice September planned out. I hope this is interesting enough for you mom. :) Also, I would keep blogging but there is a huge storm and I'm afraid the lightning will come through the computer and electrocute me. 

School and work.

Mitch started school today. It was depressing. I'm so used to getting up and going to work with Mitch. I fiddled around forever because I forgot I wasn't supposed to be waiting on him. But once I got a hold of myself, I took myself to work. Luckily, I don't start school until next week. :) But it's going to be a busy semester for both of us. Mitch goes to school from 9 to 10:50 and work from 11:30 to 7 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. School from 8 to 1 and work from 1:30 to 8 on Tuesday and Thursday. I'll go to work from 7 to 5 and school from 5:30 to 8 on Monday and Wednesday. Work from 7 to 12:30 and school from 1 to 8 on Tuesday and Thursday.  Crazy schedule. But at least we always have the weekends off! Mitch and I try to keep our glass half full.