Story from the past...

Casey tagged me..
He's such a cute guy, so I'll do it, just for him! ;)
When Merrill and I were first married, we lived in a lovely, but small apartment. Summertime was the season in season at this particular time, and it was hot, and we were bored. Our new-found way of living was already, becoming monotonous... I needed to shake things up a bit.
I was at a party supply store (no, I was not going to throw a party to shake it up.. I really can't remember why I was there..) and I found a package of plastic spiders.. Merrill HATES spiders. I was the spider murderer in our house for a LONG time; he disliked them sooo much.
I was pondering what to do with these little pant-peeing-inducers, where to strategically place them and so forth, when I decided to consult my dad, the master of practical jokes.
He gave me the best spot, a better spot I would have never come up with in my own, inexperienced mind.
Under the toilet seat.
Right next to where his hand would have to be to lift the seat, to commence in doing his business..
So, I rushed home to plant the bugger, before he got home from work. I used a little dot of rubber cement, my scrapbooking adhesive at the time. It was there! Waiting...
He came home, and me, being the perfect wife, had a warm, balanced, nutritious dinner, waiting for him at the table.
I honestly thought he'd have to go use the facilities before dinner.. he didn't.
He probably was wondering what sort of girl he had married when I kept asking him, if he had to go to the bathroom.
"Don't you have to go yet? I mean.. you haven't gone at all since you've been home.."
Weirdo.. he must have been thinking..
Bedtime came. He brushed his teeth, but no toilet-using needs.
We said prayers.. then I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom before we retired for the night.
Like I was his mom and he was a newly trained toddler who knew not the feeling of urgency.
Yup, wierd-o... me.
So, I let it go. Feeling much like a child on Christmas Eve, not being able to sleep due to much anticipation and excitement.
I finally did doze off...
I woke a little after seven.
No Merrill next to me in the bed.
A smile, a sly, satisfied, devilish smile surfaced on my tired face.
I went to find him.. and did.. sitting on the couch, remote in hand, watching Fox 13's morning newscast, with the angriest look on his face.. okay, maybe not so much anger.. more annoyance.
He proceeded to give me a full account of the event that transpired in the bathroom, much earlier that morning.
"I woke up around four, needing to go to the bathroom. I didn't turn on the light, I didn't want to disturb you.. I lifted the seat, and began.. then, as the sleep left my eyes, just enough, I saw something black on the toilet seat, right next to where my hand had been. I stopped.. and you know how bad that hurts Mindy!!! I backed-up, to get the broom from the closet. My plan was to hit it with the broom, and knock it into the toilet, then flush it. I kept hitting it, and it wasn't moving!! I hit it harder.. and nothing. Then it dawned on me.. IT WASN'T MOVING.. and I knew what you did. I was so full of adrenalin, and so mad, I couldn't go back to sleep.."
I was rolling!!!
Imagining him , trying to knock a fake spider off the toilet seat, from the opposite end of a broom.. in his PJs!!!
Oh.. I was so good!!!
Until he told me to watch out.. he was going to get me back...

Flashback Friday..

Flashback to February 2001.. we had been married for almost one year. We were living the apartment life.. in the blue "homicide apartments" (let's face it.. it happened there, a lot..) next to Bonneville, ready to move on and put all that rent money towards a house payment instead..
So, we looked.. and one night, while I was at work, Dixon and Val took Merrill by this place they thought we might be interested in.. Merrill loved it! Now, I don't know if he necessarily loved the house itself, or the idea of getting out of the apartment.. but he told me all about it, very excitedly that night when I came home from work. I was excited too, to see how excited he was..
He said, "Do you wanna go and see it?"
"Of course! When can they take us through again?" It was after 10 pm, mind you.
"Now.. I have the key." Dixon told Merrill to keep the key, take me through when I got home and put it back into the lock box when we were done.
We were sold..
We put an offer down as well as some earnest money. It was a foreclosed property that had sat empty for over two years, close to three. We offered to take it as is..
It was listed at $136,000, we offered $105,000.
They countered us at $109,000 and we countered back at $107,000.
To which they countered back at $107,500, which we took, and signed our lives away, happily.
We didn't want to pay another month's rent, so we began packing, and moving the less used things to the house, hey, Dixon told us to.. he said it was a done deal, who else was going to offer them what we did?
Then we moved in.. a little shy of three weeks to closing :) We lived with the drapes tightly drawn... and we re-keyed the locks.. left the old key in the lock box, but re-keyed the locks :) Have you ever seen a confused real-estate agent? I have...
We found many fun things in our home.. and outside as well. We have enjoyed many do it yourself projects.. and have loved every second of them!
We did have to get a new furnace, our existing one had holes in the chambers which = carbon monoxide poisoning. The first night we stayed there, with the old furnace, Dixon loaned us his carbon monoxide detector, which was fairly new then.. Merrill would wake up every hour to make sure we were still alive.. checking to see if I was still breathing.. what a sweet guy!
When the snow melted, we found many exciting things..
No front yard; dirt and dandelions instead..
A tree that only half was blossoming, the other half, was duck-taped to the trunk of the tree to make it appear to be whole.
A mailbox that was ready to fall off and leave it's post as a awesome place to impale yourself upon.. while trying to dig out the dandelions, of course..
And, last, but certainly not least, a deck, with soup can lids nailed and/or screwed to the surface where the knots in the wood had fallen out of the planks.. rusted soup can lids I should clarify.. (we found a DOG FOOD CAN LID screwed to the floor in the upstairs hallway when we re-did the floors up there.. I have photographic proof..)
We have done many things since.. only one room still has the original paint color on the walls.. I plan to remedy that soon :)
Merrill is calling it "our nice little starter house"..
I say, after all we have done, I wouldn't mind living here forever!! And that's what I planned on the moment we bought it!
But we still have our fond "apartment day" memories...