Happy Easter!!!

Yesterday, we celebrated Easter with my family. We were worried that we would have to hunt eggs in our apartment because it was so rainy. Luckily, it cleared up and the afternoon was absolutely beautiful. We went to a park near our apartment to hide eggs and to let Natalia and Bailey play. 

 This is Bailey watching Natalia practice her balance.

 Natalia was SO excited to get outside and play.

After Natalia played for a while she hunted for eggs. Bailey kept trying to get them out of her basket. 

 Bailey found the lucky egg! It was so funny. She picked it up and ran off with it.

 Going for another one. 

 Natalia wanted to take tons of family photos.

 There was a birthday party going on at the park. The little boy in the middle of this pic was turning 2. At one point he leaned down and kissed her. It was so adorable. 

 Me with Daddy, Natalia took this one.

Me, my mom & her boyfriend. 

Our First House!

We’re SO excited! Remember the last house I posted about, we just went under contract! As long as the inspection and everything go well, we're good to go! The inspection should happen next week so I'll have more updates then :-) We were starting to think we were going to have to do a month to month lease at our apartment. I’m SO glad we don’t have to because the monthly rent is CRAZY expensive.

So, since it’s official I’ll tell you a little about our house. It’s a 3 bedroom inside townhome. There are 3 levels and a garage with a long driveway (SCORE...SO glad we won’t have to scrape all the ice & snow off the car next Winter!) All the carpet is new...this is good and bad. It’s good because it’s new...of course. It’s bad because I wouldn’t have picked carpet, but I can’t justify ripping up perfectly good carpet to replace it with wood. The same goes for the kitchen floor...it’s linoleum. I would have picked wood or tile...but I hate to rip up a brand new floor. We may end up replacing the kitchen floor within a year or so, but the carpet will stay until it is worn or we’re ready to sell.

There is a little bit of a yard but it’s not fenced in yet. We’ll probably get around to doing that next summer. We’ll also need to build a deck off the dining room (on the 2nd level). Putting up a fence & deck is very expensive up here. On top of materials & labor you have to pay for permits & get it approved by the HOA. I think it’s going to be a pain. I’m used to my dad just throwing up a new deck or something whenever he wants. I guess that’s one of the advantages of living in the country. For now, there’s a patio off the den on the first level. That will be just fine for us. We have a little bit of space for a small garden so I’m really excited about that!

There really aren’t many changes we’ll make right away. We have to get a washer & dryer. I think we’ll probably wait a few months to get our new appliances. I want to wait until we save enough money to get all of them at one time. I think having half new stainless/half old white appliances will drive me insane. We’ve had old crappy appliances in our apartment, I can wait a few months to get the ones I want :-). That will also give us plenty of time to do some research to find the best appliances for us.

I’ll be sure to take my camera when we have our inspection. I’ll post more pictures then :-)Here are a few from the main floor.

 This is the view of the living room from the stairs

 This is the dining area...we might just use this as an extended portion of the living room since there's another dining area off the kitchen.

The dining area from another angle. This is facing the kitchen. I love how open it is. I do not love that fan. It has to go ASAP.

Our settlement date is May 20. I can’t wait but I know time is going to fly by. We've been working so hard to make this happen...now it's finally becoming a reality! This is going to be a really busy month but I’m really looking forward to this new adventure!

No Self Control!

Spring is here and Summer will be here before I know it. Like everybody else, I’m trying to get in shape. Not only so I can fit in my clothes from last summer, but because I want to be healthy too. I’m not a big runner but I try to be. I force myself to run. I know it’s some of the best exercise I can get. Lately I’ve been pretty good about running. Josh and I go in the evenings after work a few days a week. On Thursdays he plays Ultimate Frisbee and I run by myself. We have had wonderful running weather for the past 2 weeks or so, so it’s actually been slightly enjoyable. We had a really good run yesterday, probably the best I’ve had in a long time. The downside to running outside is I have no idea how fast I’m running or how far I’ve gone. I don’t really care about the specifics, but I would like to know how I’m progressing.

As far as eating, I’m doing horrible. I do just fine at home. We have a lot of carbs because we’ve been on a tight budget since we’ve been saving for the house. Pasta & potatoes are cheap and they’re some of my favorite food anyway...so we’ve been eating a lot of that. Work is another story. When we have clients, we get food. This food is usually delicious, fattening, junk food. Today, I had 2 doughnuts. Yesterday, I had a piece and a half of baklava. I probably would have eaten more if there would have been more to go around. I have NO self control. I still have a little bit of college kid in me. I don’t think I’m capable of turning down free food. It also sits in my office/kitchen all day, so I have to stare at it while I work. When I get hungry, what do I go for? I don’t go for any of my leftovers I brought for lunch. Nope, I grab a doughnut. I really want to eat healthy...why can’t carrots taste like chocolate?

I want to live a long, healthy life. I know eating healthier and exercising regularly is a big part of accomplishing that. But sitting on the couch watching an entire season of Prison Break in one weekend while binging on Oreos is so much more fun. (Yes...I actually did that...quite recently actually.) Oh well...I ran yesterday...and hopefully I’ll run tomorrow...we’re taking baby steps here ;-)

Easter!

I mentioned in a previous post that my parents are coming to visit for Easter. I’m really excited for them to come. We haven’t had any visitors since November! People quit coming to visit us once it got cold. haha. Anyway, I thought last Easter would likely be the last Easter I got to spend with my family since it’s not a holiday we would home for. I thought Josh and I would just go to Church and maybe I would make a special meal or something. This will be the first holiday we get to celebrate in our apartment with our family! Unfortunately my sister has to work and won’t be able to make it. My dad, niece, mom and her boyfriend will be coming. (Yes, my family still celebrates holidays together even though my parents are divorced. A little weird I guess, but I’m still thankful for it.)

My parents are planning on leaving tomorrow after work. That way they will be here all day Friday & Saturday :-) It’s supposed to rain both days though :-/  We’re going to do the Easter egg hunt for Natalia and dinner on Saturday so my everyone can get home at a decent time on Sunday. I’m still scrambling to get a menu together (we haven’t been planning this very long). Here is a tentative menu:

Ham

Potato Salad OR Twice Baked Potatoes

Grilled Asparagus

Carrots (not sure if I’m going to go sweet or savory with these yet)

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Baked Macaroni & Cheese

For dessert I’m pretty sure I’m going to go with banana pudding. YUM!

We may do a second dessert...maybe something chocolate...I’m not sure yet.

Maybe we can make Easter at our place a tradition :-)

I’m also very excited because Bailey will be coming home! She had her 8 week checkup today. She weighs just over 11 lbs. She is doing well...almost all of her worms are gone. She’s doing better in the car and on the leash. She does pretty well with whining to go out to potty. My dad doesn’t have any carpet and we have almost all carpet...I’m curious to see how she reacts to it. Hopefully it won’t matter. I’m mostly worried about the crate. She doesn’t like for her door to be shut on her crate at all. My dad lets her sleep on a pillow beside her bed and she has accidents during the nights sometimes. That isn’t an option in our house, she will have to learn to sleep in her crate...with the door shut. Hopefully we won’t lose more than a few nights of sleep over this. :-/

I’m still waiting on nail clippers and her name tag to come in (I ordered them online). Other than that, we have everything we need. We just need to put away a few things that are not puppy friendly and we’re good to go.

Pretty Shiny Things!

When I was planning our wedding I decided I wanted to do as much as I could to personalize it. I decided I would make the jewelry for my bridesmaids. I made simple pearl necklaces and earrings. I really enjoyed making them. Jewelry making kind of turned into a hobby after that and I've been doing it since then. It's something I can do on my own time that kind of just clears my head from all the day to day antics. I decided to start an Etsy shop. If you don't know about Etsy, definitely check it out. You can find all sorts of handmade items there. Anyway, you should check my shop out :-) You can find it here.

Just because I'm having a pretty awesome week and I'm in a great mood, I'm gonna give one of my items away! To enter, just leave a comment telling me which of my items is your favorite...if you hate all of it, just leave a suggestion :-) I'll choose a comment at random in a week. The deadline is next Tuesday at 11:59 pm. The winner gets to choose any single item valued at $10 or less.

Big Changes & Old Memories

Josh and I are getting really excited about Bailey coming home this weekend. I absolutely love puppies. I do love our quite weekends too though. We've got some big changes coming our way fast! It's been about 7 years since I've gone through the whole puppy thing. I know exactly what I'm getting myself into.

Last night, (while puppy proofing the apartment) I came across a ton of old pictures. I found some of Kila when she was a puppy. It's hard to believe she used to be that small! She doesn't look like she could do a lot of damage. That's very misleading. She has destroyed numerous toothbrushes, razors, a couch, Christmas ornaments, more flip flops than I can count, a bathroom cabinet, door jams...pretty much anything. She used to actually jump on the bathroom counters to find things to chew. Luckily now I'm a lot more prepared. I know to provide Bailey with tons of toys...if I don't, she'll make her own. She already likes my dad's couch. Anyway...some pictures of Kila from '07. She was a 4th of July puppy :-) These were taken right after she came home so she's probably about 6 weeks old or so. Notice my senior t-shirt from high school. That's how long it's been since I've had a puppy!


I wish I could bring her home with me :-/...and that she was still this small.

But I know I will love Bailey just as much. I'll give you a few updates on her. She has had her first bath and she actually really liked it. She is fine with riding now. She still likes her crate...just not with the door closed. She gets away with having her crate door open during the night at my dad's, but that won't happen here! She is really good about whining to go out to the bathroom. She loves my niece. She is doing well with learning to walk on the leash. From what my dad has told me our biggest struggle is going to be getting her to stop whining while she's locked in her crate and keeping her from chewing up our entire apartment. She'll be going to the vet Wednesday for her booster.

We have pretty much everything we need for her. We ordered a few things online (including her name tag) that we're waiting on. We just need to get her a red collar. She wears a purple one my mom let us borrow. My niece told me we have to do something about that and get her a red one :-) 5 days to go!

The House Rollercoaster

This whole house thing has been a whole mix of emotions for us. It's been super exciting, scary, stressful, fun, annoying, tiring...you name it, we've probably felt it. We put an offer in on the house I posted about a while back. We couldn't come to an agreement with the sellers so we just decided to walk away. At first I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do but I'm so glad we did now. It was a pretty annoying situation at first but now I'm so glad we didn't go for it. I'm a very emotional person and it's not always a good thing. Luckily, I'm married to a very logical man. We talked about how much faster we could reach our goals if our mortgage was a few hundred dollars lower. I decided to ignore my heart and go with my brain when Josh asked me what I wanted to do.

We went to look at houses again on Friday and we found one we love! The appliances need updating and there a few minor things we want to do but it's move in ready. There's nothing that needs to be done now. We will need to fence in the (very small) yard and we want to build a deck eventually. There's a patio already so we would have an outdoor area to begin with. Anyway...we put an offer in today! I'm over getting attached to homes. I'll be extremely happy if we end up in this house, but I'll be fine if we don't...I know we'll end up right where we're meant to be :-)

I don't want to post too many pictures now...it's part of the not getting attached to the house thing ;-) But here are a couple teasers.

I'll obviously want to make some changes in the kitchen but I really like the layout.

If you were to come visit us...this is where you would stay :-)