Call me the Queen of Suburbia.

The exodus from Apartamento to the Suburban Castle (our new humble abode) went smashingly well. We have some amazing friends in our lives for helping us on one of the hottest days of the year so far. There were some hiccups, but I was Zen like all day. I know, shocking, right?

Two weeks in and we are getting the hang of the space. I'm still wrapping my head around the amount of storage space we now have. There are about 5 boxes in the living room that still need unpacked, so bare with me, but we have gone from this:


To this:


Another angle:


The tree tapestry seen in the last photo is the coat closet; this place is full of craptastic old closet doors, which now live in the garage. We also took off the ones in the master bedroom and the girls' room. Here is a peek at their room (as of Sunday):

I sort of want to hang a curtain of some sort on their closet...but I'm not sure? There is a lot of storage/toys going on in there, so I feel like it would be nice to close the curtain at bedtime. I have a cute black and white floral cloth shower curtain I'm not using right now, so I might pick up another tension rod and try it? Not sure at this point about that. Also, I am secretly ecstatic that I got to hang up the teen magazine posters in an orderly fashion; you should have seen them at the apartamento. It was chaos.

from the door:

I plan on getting two more sets of curtains to frame out the pink sheers, something purple I do believe. I think it will cozy it up a bit. We also want to get some of those over sized letters for the girls' to decorate and hang over their beds. I saw some cardboard ones at Hobby Lobby a while back, which I think is perfect, because if it does fall off the wall, it won't hurt them.

I have these on order from Amazon, for a project for the bedroom (more to come later). IKEA will also be getting a good chunk of my monies soon.

Since I love a good list, here is a run down of everything we still need to do/get:

Living Room
Curtains (IKEA sheers, for starters)
DVD Storage (Lerberg from IKEA x3 or 4)
Closet doors off; tree tapestry turns into curtain w/tension rod and clips
Switch out ginormous ceiling fan? Perhaps!

Kitchen
Island (buy or re-purpose something else)
Chalkboard Wall
Girls' Art Gallery-need to ID drawings for this and get sizes for frames (IKEA)

Laundry/Utility Room
Steel Shelving to create pantry storage
Hang curtain to hide furnace/Hot Water Heater (IKEA again)
Organizing bins for cabinets over washer/dryer

Hall
Hang Framed photos (size each with paper ads, hang papers on wall in pattern, nail through and hang up pictures)

Bathrooms
Get 1 small and 1 large rug for main bath, brown
existing large green one goes in half bath
Something for walls-one picture has been printed, just need a frame and I'm thinking of shopping what we already have for the half bath.

Girls' room
Hang up collage wall near Kiddo's bed
Organize toy bins/put in closet/take off closet doors to maximize floorspace
Curtains (still need purples, IKEA?)
Big Letters for over their beds
Spice racks as front facing bookshelves from, you guessed it, IKEA
DIY Canopies (maybe)

Master
Long and low dresser 6-8 drawers, I want to find old one and re-paint and get new hardware for
Bedskirt/new bedding
DIY project with Wallflowers-ordered
Prints off Etsy (frames IKEA, do you see a pattern here?)
Different curtains-eventually

I have yet to unpack my books and get the Expedit 100% organized, so that is on the agenda for tonight.

I love how this place is evolving and I can't wait to see what it will become by the end of the Summer. The husband and I keep saying this place makes us feel like grown ups; I feel like it is exactly where we need to be right now. We have the opportunity to acquire all the crap we need for a house, without having to worry about the upkeep on things. I think by the time our lease is up (in two years) we might actually be able to look into buying. Or not, but that is okay too.

The other day my sister says, "what's with all the talk of "projects"? When did you become so crafty?" I've been reading on the interwebs about all this stuff basically since I got married in 2009, now I have a blank slate to execute on, and I'm so excited. And you know what? I just can't hide it.

(Browser)Window Shopping.

I've had an epiphany: Craigslist is like a cyberspace thrift store. I love thrift stores, therefore I love Craigslist. I spend many more hours than I'd like to admit browsing its pages, imagining random pieces of furniture in my (soon-to-be) ranch style duplex-condo-apartment-half house type of dealy.

I love me a good Craigslist browse.

Then I remember, we have no extra monies because of the impending move into said ranch style duplex-condo-apartment-half-house type dealy.

Sad face.

I really need to stop imagining where furniture will go in the new place. If I have learned anything in almost two years of marriage, its to stop having expectations, you won't be let down when things don't go as you imagined and reality can be better sometimes.

But it is so very hard.

I am so very excited about the new place. With its storage and multiple toilets and washer dryer hookups. Do you know what this means?! It means no more brand new tops shrunk in the dryer when my laundry doing husband forgets isn't told to leave something out. So Exciting.

A Change Would Do You Good.

I like to pretend I'll commit to new projects, and be consistent. Then I'm not.

The 40DaysMovement project sort of fell through, although I am starting the 30 Day Shred video today after work, and I'm excited to do so. I need a kick in the ass, and I know annoyingly fit Jillian Micheals will do it for me.

I want to try to resurrect the Snapshots project though, especially with all the stuff coming up for us. We'll see how that goes.

Oh well, call me a bad blogger, if you will. I do always come back, eventually, making up excuses (mostly for myself) about why I, once again, failed to stay consistent at posting. Or exercising. Or much of anything. Oh well. I'm going to forgive myself this time, and not dwell.

Besides, I mostly write this blog for my own little documentary purposes, even if they are meager at best. So I'm really only letting myself down.

Anyway.

Crazy-exciting news. We are moving. As of June 1 we will no longer be in our hippish-small town, but in Surburbia. I will miss our little town, but the 'burbs have their perks, both in the physical space we call home, and in a more general, accessibility of things. It is a ranch style duplex-condo-apartment-half house type of dealy. (I don't like the word "duplex" so I'm having trouble naming it.) It is one building, with two units. The landlord lives next door, and she is pretty cool, and we tend to keep quiet these days anyway.

The new place perks:
One story aka: no more 21 steps of death.
Garage. YAY.
Washer/dryer hookups meaning no more laundry mat.
Utility room. No more cat box in the ONE storage closet we have.
Side patio
Backyard
Ceiling fan in living room
Coat closet in living room ie: for shoes, coats and board games. (yay storage.)
Gas range, I grew up with one, and prefer it to electric.
1.5 baths, which is FANTASTIC since I have a husband who enjoys camping out in the bathroom sometimes, if you know what I'm saying.
3 bedrooms ( More STORAGE!)
Attic above the Garage...did I mention I'm really excited about the Storage?

I am now realizing we have basically be living with all of our crap in plain sight since we moved into together. Neither place we've lived has had ample storage. The amount of storage in this place is making me giddy. I thrive on a tidy home, and being able to store the less visually appealing things we own makes me so very happy.

Let's say it one more time: STOOOOORRRRRAGE! Yay.

This is place is literally within walking distance to the husband's work, a fishing pond and a huge playground. It is also a 5 minute drive to some really great friends. Target and Kroger's are right down the road.

I think it will be a great change for everyone, even the girls. We discussed the fact that the move puts more distance between them and us. The husband pointed out the way things are with both of them, being 1 hour away is no different than being one town away; we are (sadly) not included in their lives with their mothers and their maternal families. So he is 100% alright with us being closer to my hometown than his and subsequently, further from the girls as well.

New half casa, in iPhone photos (nothing exciting, since it's just empty rooms, but pics nonetheless):

Living Room, from front door, with husband in doorway to kitchen

Kitchen, side door to patio is left of Fridge, Hallway right of oven, Utility Rm right of Hallway

Full Bath, from main entry (one of the lights is out, hence the super bad lighting)

View standing in Master, looking through the half bath into the full (there are pocket doors)

The packing has began. And I have some plans to document the move. Good things to come!

Just call us Gypsies.

I have dedicated some serious time in the very recent past to google maps. Why you ask? I'm trying to map out the best place between work(not my current place, but the state capital where a majority of Ohio's jobs are right now, where I may or may not have interviews in the next month, stay tuned), Kiddo and Little One (who live approximately an hour apart) and our families (which is hard since I'm from 30 miles north of Cincy and he's from 30 minutes west of Columbus).

There is no place that is a neutral good in-between place for us to be.

Right now, we are 30 minutes from Kiddo, 45 minutes from my parents, 1 hour from my niece, 1 hour 20 min from my in-laws and 1 hour and 45 minutes from Little One.

The closer we go towards the kids and his parents, the farther we become from mine. I have come to accept this, but it doesn't make the idea of being even farther away from them any easier....especially since I've become increasingly attached to my sister's offspring.

Even factoring out the distance to my side of the fam, it is hard to come up with the best place between the kids (in two different towns, mind you) and Columbus.

Then there is my need to be within a 20 minute drive to a Target that further complicates things, since its Blue Signed Department Store Country, excluding the ritzy burbs of the state capital.

I'm on the verge of suggesting RV living for us, because really, thinking of all the driving and the cost of gas to do that driving, makes me ill.

A friend on Twitter even informed me the particular Blue Signed Department Store welcomes overnight RV parking for free. Parking Lot-Sweet-Parking Lot.

I guess I need to accept the fact that we will be spending some major time in cars for the rest of our lives....and then start saving for something roomier but gas efficient, since my car hit 100,000 miles earlier this summer and really isn't all that great for Ohio winters.

It sucks to grow up.........

Determined.

To get back on the right track, you have to get out of the old rut.

I am climbing out of the rut, so to speak. I will do this. I will feel good about myself and my body and I WILL start moving more every day.

There, I blogged it, so it must come true...right?

Sometimes I think the hardest part of this whole weight loss thing for me is, I haven't been a thin person since I was about 6 years old. I have no recent memories of being in good shape, besides when I was this time last year which was when I hit a plateau and stopped losing. I was working out 4 to 5 times a week then, and I'm not working out at all these days, so I'm hoping that will boost things.

It is just very hard to do the whole visualization thing when I don't really know what I am going to look like. I don't have a "skinny picture" to use as motivation. Plus I'm afraid if I try and do this, I'm going to visualize myself too thin and never reach that mental image.

All I really want is to be happy in a swim suit....and I'm not talking a bikini or anything...I doubt I could achieve that type of body without a trainer and working out 3 hours a day. I'm not striving for perfection here...just comfortable in my own skin. Which I can do.

I love lists.

Things to accomplish in the next week:
1. Attempt to enjoying cooking/baking for Turkey Day
2. Possibly get keys to new place from new Landlord
3. Pack and move as much as possible on days off
4. Drive to far away small town to take care of some financial business with Bf
5. Enjoy the company of our families, no matter how different the experiences will be
6. Try and not feel like a failure/have a mini-crisis due to amount of time it is taking to finish Master's Project work

Things I'm looking forward to in the next month:
1. Moving into our new place
2. Painting the bedroom for Kiddo and Little One at the new place and possibly furnishing it with new pretty things
3. Buying normal sized pre-lit Christmas tree and decorating with Kiddo
4. the possibility of a proposal at any moment
5. apartment warming/bad Christmas sweater party that is TBA but totally happening
6. Seeing my brother
7. having more time off of work
8. Getting back into a healthy lifestyle.
9. Buying Christmas presents

Things I want for Christmas:
1. World Peace (totally for serious, I think war is pointless and dumb)
2. Someone to do all my moving for me. I am so excited to move, but the actual moving of things will not be fun.
3. Kiddo's mom to have a lobotomy and not be a crazy beeotch anymore (okay okay that is a bit extreme, but I wish she could at least get on some paxil or prozac or something)
4. A visit with Little One for Bf would be awesome, but there is little to no chance that will happen.


Places I would love to be right now: (just for fun)
1. On the beach in Hawaii
2. In a big snuggly bed with Bf with loads of movies at our finger tips
3. On a couch, in front of a lit fire place reading a great book
4. Having a late lunch with my bff talking about her/our wedding plans
5. Driving a new (to me at least, not brand new) VW Rabbit with a Manual Trans., and fully loaded accessories

Its November 14, 2008...what are you doing with your life?

Holy moley I am busy as crap right now. Lots of things going on all at once.

I had been calling about a ridiculously large, awesome priced apartment in town and finally got a call back from the guy. We went to look on Wednesday evening and I completely fell in love. It has two bedrooms, huge kitchen with a counter/bar area and dining area, big bathroom and the whole place is 1300 sq. ft if that gives you an idea of the size. The landlord told us its very quiet and extremely well insulated and the girl who is moving out heated the whole place every winter for four years with two ceramic heaters. We went ahead and filled out an application, and are waiting to hear back. I'll probably cry a little if for some reason it doesn't work out.

We also set up an appointment to look at this awesome completely renovated house that is for sale/possible lease with the option to buy, but it is way expensive and the guy didn't sound like he wants to lease at all (which is dumb since in the listing it says "call about possible lease option"). We are still going to go drool over it this evening.

I've been so busy at work this week. Its been a bit unreal but actually awesome. I wish I was that busy all the time.

The Master's Project needs to get finished ASAP, and I've been pushing to work on it a bit each day. I'm thinking about doing a long day in the labs tomorrow to try and punch out the rest of the data entry so I can actually start analyzing.

Boyfriend received a certain credit card in the mail last Friday for a certain jewelry store which I hope he uses soon :D

The more I think about wedding stuff, the more I want to streamline the whole thing and make it as simple as possible. Mostly because I feel a little sick to my stomach whenever I think about the nitty gritty detailing of most weddings. And I know this isn't going to go over well, but the more I think about it, the more I don't want a huge bridal party. I really just want MOH and sister and him to just do BM and one groomsmen but I doubt that will work since he has two brothers and wouldn't want to have to pick between them...UNLESS....my sister can be escorted by both his brothers and then just his BM! That just might work. I don't think he cares that much, but I guess we'll see.

argh...I've had shitty girl cramps for about 4 days off and on this week. Its a bit annoying. Ah well, life goes on.