Busy Bee

Let's catch up.  We've been busy over here!

#1.  Home Sweet Home!  We moved into our new house over a week ago!  I can't believe it's already been that long.  Time is flying by... but everything is coming along so well.  Jason installed the stair runner this weekend.  It looks great and he did it all by himself.  Such a handyman.  So why did we install a stair runner?  Well, I like to wear socks and I found it rather slippery going up and down the stairs, especially when I carry the laundry.  But let's be real.  The real reason we installed it?  So our dog can safely move between floors without slipping.  Yes...our dog.

Some bigger projects that we are looking forward to this summer?  We plan on installing a fence this month.  Then hopefully by the end of the summer, we'll work on our wall in the kitchen.  We want to install a window/bar/countertop thing-y.  Not sure what to call it, but all I know is that it will be fabulous.
 
#2.  Date Night!  Jason and I had our first date night since the move on Friday.  We needed a night to just sit, enjoy a meal, and catch up.  We went to La Tolteca - a little Mexican restaurant (for sure, a Small Wonder).  I absolutely love Mexican cuisine and was in the mood since we are approaching Cinco de Mayo this weekend.  Our experience was great.  From the moment we walked in, we were immediately impressed with the decor.  All of the walls and the booths has hand painted murals.  The lighting was dim and set the tone for our evening.  We were also in love with the food.  Jason had burritos and I have a taco salad.  I'm a sucker for the tortilla bowl.  And the drinks were delicious - we went with frozen strawberry margaritas.  The location is also super convenient to home...we can walk there!  We're looking forward to going back this summer...or this week...either one.

#3.  Broad Street Run... This Sunday was the Broad Street Run.  I was so looking forward to running 10 miles down the center of Philadelphia at 8:30 am on a Sunday.  Honestly...I was.  I love training for races - it gets me motivated to actually go outside and do something instead of just watching Lifetime movies.  So when I realized about 3-4 weeks ago that I wouldn't be able to?  I was devastated.  I sprained my ankle back in the November which landed me on crutches for awhile.  A few months passed and I still didn't feel right.  I would find people asking me if I hurt myself because they would notice me limping after running, long walks, or even standing for awhile.  Regardless...I didn't let it heal long enough.  And in the end?  I couldn't run Broad Street.

So while I'm on a short but necessary hiatus from running, my husband is on the opposite end of the spectrum.  He did run Broad Street.  AND he finished 10 miles in 68 minutes.  Impressed?  You should be!  I'll brag for him.  His pace was 6:49 per mile, which is just amazing.  My man can run...and he can run fast.  I love him dearly and couldn't be more proud of him.  I'm sad we couldn't do it together this year, but I'm looking forward to our next race together. 

#4.  The Tomson Twins.  I saved the best for last.  My sister and brother-in-law are having twins!  AND last week, they found out that they are having twin girls.  My heart is literally bursting with excitement.  I was secretly hoping the whole time that she was having same sex twins, but specifically girls.  I see the relationship I have with my sister.  It's something I can't describe or put into words, but it truly is special.  I'm so happy that the Tomson girls will always have each other.  I can't wait for September to get here so I can meet these little babies!

Slowly but surely...

The house is officially ours!  And we've been non-stop ever since.  And when I say non-stop?  I mean it!  Every.single.night.  I love all the progress we have already made into making the house our home...but I'm going to complain a little bit.  This is exhausting!  My eyes burn when I close them for more than two seconds which makes me not want to open them back up.  I couldn't even put my contacts in this morning!  It was a "glasses, hair in a bun, no make-up" kind of day, which seems more and more frequent as the school year progresses.

But today...I lost it - all of my motivation went out the window.  I had full intentions to do a lot tonight.  That quickly changed because of my Keurig.  See, I have a minor obsession with coffee that has slowly developed over the past year...year and a half.  Every day after work, I have a cup of coffee, catch up on all my favorited tabs on the web, and then do some work.  But today...the move threw a kink in my plans.  My Keurig is at the new house.  All of my coffee mugs and Keurig cups are at the apartment.  I quickly ran to Dunks and got my fix, but it was too late.  My plan to finish packing up the kitchen, fold laundry, clean the bathroom, etc. - gone.  I'm tired - even with the coffee!  So instead?  I came home, sat in bed, and watched re-runs of Friends.

And I'm OK with that.  Everything that needs to get done will get done.  Sometimes I just need to take a breather and often times I forget to do so.

So tonight I'm slowing down.  Relaxing.  Doing nothing.

Tomorrow?  I'm moving over all of my mugs and K-cups to the new house.

Let the moving preparations begin!

This weekend, it sorta-kinda hit us that we are moving soon.  So on Saturday, my husband and I decided to get the ball rolling.  I had the brilliant idea of "let's start packing!" as much stuff as possible.  An hour later?  I'd say 40% of our stuff was packed, walls were empty, holes were spackled.  I didn't take into consideration that we would be living amongst boxes for the next 12 days...oops!

On Sunday, we then decided to take a field trip to Lowe's to pick out our paint colors.  We're going to be repainting the interior of the house before we move in all of our furniture.  I think I'm most excited for the bathrooms.  Yes, the bathrooms - more than one!!!  We have two themes going that I absolutely love - I'll share them another time.

Other than paint colors, we wanted to buy our stair runner, hallway runner and living room (all matchy-matchy).  But of course, the style we wanted doesn't exist any more.  We paced around the store debating back and forth -  should we spend more money on a different style? OR should we figure it out later?  After two plus hours of being in Lowe's - we decided we'd figure it out later.

On the way home, I threw out the idea of going to Home Depot - two major hardware stores in one day?  Every girl's dream!  And what do you know?  There it was.  The stair runner and the hallway runner.  Not only did they both exist, but they were 1/2 the price of Lowe's and we could take them home that day!  Downside?  There was not a matching rug for the living room.  I'm not too worried about it.  I'm already searching the Web for the perfect rug  (confession:  I love online shopping).

This weekend is our last weekend in the apartment.  We plan on doing some fun things non-house related.  Picnic in the park.  Walk with Tyger.  Rita's?  Hopefully this nice weather continues!

We're moving on up!

Welcome to my blog.

I've been thinking about blogging forever.  I haven't quite found the reason to start until recently.  But now that we have a major life event coming our way, I want to start documenting it (other than the major social networking sites).

We bought a house!

A lovely house. And it happened fast too.  My husband and I have been browsing for the past few months.  We had a timeline set in place (because I'm a timeline type of person) and we were actually looking to purchase something in late summer/early fall 2013.  But then March rolled around and house after house started popping up on my Zillow app.  Look at this one babe!  My husband would look at the pictures, nod, and give me a reassuring smile which said "not yet."  Usually I would show him houses way out of our budget.  Or I would show him houses that were not fit for our commute.  He knew.  He knew I was itching to get out of our small apartment.  Our two bedroom "home" had served it's purpose.

We decided to get a real estate agent.  Just in case something popped up and we needed to make moves...we would be able to.  We spent a few Sundays going to open houses in different parts of the city.  After we finally decided the exact location of where we wanted to be, we knew it was just a matter of time.

Then it happened.

The ideal house for us went on the market.  We called up our agent and set up a showing.  There was an open house that Sunday, but we wanted to get in before hand.  The house was awesome.  Everything we were looking for give or take a few, minor things.  When we left, we found out that someone else had put an offer in.  Disappointed?  Of course.  But I fully believe in the saying that "everything happens for a reason," and this was one of those times.  Everything with this house was moving way too fast.  Faster than we wanted.  And we just had a feeling that it wasn't the one.  Apparently...when you know...you know...

So we waited and waited.  And then it happened (again)!

The ideal house for us went on the market.  We called up our agent and set up a showing.  There was an open house that Sunday, but we wanted to get in before hand.  The house was awesome.  Everything we were looking for give or take a few, minor things.  Sound familiar?  Yea.  But this time?  We knew.  As I was walking through the house, I truly imagined us living there.  Raising a family.  Hanging out with our dog in the backyard.  Family dinners in the dining room. (I know...I know... - the sappy stuff).  But I saw it.  I got that feeling.  This is it...this is the one.

So?  We put an offer in and we got it :)

We'll be settling April 19th.  Stay tuned for future posts about our life in the Small Wonder State.