newlyweds

Movin’ on Up!

May 4, 2013 10 Comments

Preface: I spent way too long on this post for it to look the way it does and also jump all over the place. It perfectly reflects my life right now. You’re welcome.

In the course of ten hours (on the same calendar day) we hired movers to get all our things out of the condo, closed on that former home, purchased our new forever home, and had those wonderful men with muscles and a truck move all our new things into the new place. It also happened the first day of standardized testing fell on our moving day, so this teacher showed up for the last 3 hours of the moving-in piece. Thank goodness for husbands and Power of Attorney (and also paid men who move your stuff)!

We did it. We moved. And now? We unpack.

((sidenote: I can’t figure out how to get this darn picture bigger. just click on it, mmkay?))

(mover men know how to get your box spring in through the 2nd floor bedroom window)

But first we attended my college roommate/bestie/interwebz guru wedding! Yes, 4 days after moving we picked up and headed to Asheville where there are no boxes and only microbreweries, beautiful scenery, and fun times. We broke the cardinal rule of unpacking by opening about a gagillion boxes for the sole purpose of finding my boots (yes, the boxes were well labeled…all with “boots”). The distraction proved necessary and the celebration fabulous. Many pictures and a post are forthcoming, of course.

The worst part of taking a vacation after moving is coming home to realize the unpacking elves took a vacation too.

Our animals are adjusting well, exploring loving the extra space and ability to run up and down the stairs.

I’m getting used to the absence of sound. Although we’re still in DC proper, we no longer live next to a fire station and this street lacks traffic. Those are nice changes of pace and will suit us well in the years to come. Our neighbors are likewise very nice and I’m planning on how to get the sixteen year old girl next door to watch the cats when we travel next.

In the process of setting things up we discovered our desktop lacks a wireless card since previously we had it hardwired in that other small place we lived for almost 5 years! (hence, the phone picture and lack of posts, recently)

Don’t worry we ordered a new, stronger router and wireless card. Soon the 800 pictures from the last two weeks will escape my dSLR and turn into posts on ALL THE THINGS we’ve been up to….and there’s a lot of great blog fodder in there. (including the time I fell off a chair at a wedding rehearsal party and thought I fractured my kneecap for the week following…)

Things are good, busy, hectic, and full of boxes – but good.

I’ll leave you with this gem of a picture. I think it proves machines will take over the world one day. Our refrigerator is smarter than this thirty-one year old!

Any unpacking or adjusting advice out there?

Filed Under: awesomeness, future, newlyweds, shut the front door, thats life, update

Our First Home

October 10, 2012 8 Comments

A little over four years ago, around the end of December, I decided our days of paying rent were over. I wanted to not live with roommates anymore, I needed a place of our own, and I sought out an investment. Mike agreed and around March we found and closed on our first home: a one bedroom, questionably 600 square foot (probably more), recently remodeled condo.

Sure, we will still only boyfriend and girlfriend, but we had dated for about 5 years at that point. We knew the other wasn’t going anywhere and more than willingly signed the deed to our place with two different last names. Buggy before the cart? yes maybe, but I think where we are now proves the point we knew and were comfortable with what we were doing.

Sure, the one closet only fit Mike’s clothes and an IKEA trip provided extra storage right off the bat. Our two cats ran their kitty-500 from the bedroom to living room back to the bedroom many times, in the absence of extra room. Getting a (not tiny) dog probably didn’t help the space issue, but it helped with snuggles. Then after our wedding we received “real” flatware, dishes, serving dishes, china, fancy pots, and a super vacuum along with other random kitchen accessories. It became clear, quickly, we needed more leg-room, cat-room, storage, and extra breathing room. We were probably silly to think this place could provide everything and more. We’ve grown. We need more.

Over summer we hit our breaking point. We rented a storage unit and all of a sudden SPACE appeared. We painted where we always wished we had and beauty appeared. Our first home finally became what we wish it always looked like, but will never really be for us (unless someone can give us another bedroom, an attic, and maybe a craft space?).

I will miss this building, with only 12 units allowing me to really know all my neighbors. My neighbors take my dog out when a migraine hits, or watch the cats while we’re away. We have happy hours together. We watch out for each other.

I will miss this living room, where Mike and I curl up on the couch and watch TV, where friends come over to hang out, where our animals all coexist somewhat peacefully.

I will miss this kitchen where we baked cookies, made dinners, and cheers to good times.

I will miss our bedroom and having all my clothes in one place!

You can’t really “miss” a bathroom, but it’s been good to us, in whatever way a bathroom can do that…

For now I’m ready to stop vacuuming every day, in the event that buyer comes along. I’m ready to stop wiping down the counters and making the bed every morning. I wish putting on a sweater for the change in weather didn’t involve a drive to the storage unit to trade out shorts for pants and sleeves.

We’re ready for the next place, wherever that may be. Someone PLEASE buy our first home. It’s been good to us, and I know it will be good to the next person/people!

All photos borrowed graciously for this post. If you want more information about this lovely condo for sale in DC, please contact Capitol Realty Team.

Filed Under: future, halp, Mike, newlyweds, pets, photography, shut the front door

Reverse Stereotyping

October 2, 2012 6 Comments

I love my husband, dearly and completely. I also love birthdays and celebrating.

So it may come as a complete surprise to you when I tell you I can’t remember my husband’s birthday.

Here’s my long winded excuse as to why I can’t ever remember my husband’s birthday: My best friend’s birthday is either the day before or after my husband’s birthday, but I can never remember which it is. Also my eldest niece shares a birthday with Mike, thus making the remembering harder. So many important people, so little calendar and brain space.

Here’s the short story of why I can’t remember: I’m calendar-lazy.

Calendar-lazy: (n) Origin: English, made up 2 minutes ago; relying on technology to remind oneself of important upcoming dates

Facebook does a great job of telling me friends’ birthdays and makes wishing them well even easier. My google calendar is set to remind me of upcoming important dates, too. Unless I never enter the important dates. Because, duh, a wife should know her hubby’s birthday.

Except me.

I couldn’t tell you my husband’s birth-date if I was booking a flight and it depended on getting that good rate before time expired.

Which is exactly what just happened to me.

Mike is out of town on business and in a hotel with horrible cell reception. Not wanting to be so terribly obvious that even though he reminds me every time, I again have forgotten his birthday, I text once. Five minutes later I call, without answer.

I figured I’d get creative and text my sister since her daughter & my husband share a birthday. But then I also confess the scenario, so it makes sense why I’m asking about April at the beginning of October. Except she was out and didn’t reply fast enough to my timely needs (because not everyone has their phone attached like me…). So I decide my brother-in-law can be roped in on this silliness. And no instant reply. Finally I called my mom, who laughs and asks why I can’t remember, as in “whats wrong with you are you having another migraine?” (which bee tee dubs, would be an appropriate reason for me to forget such information, but no, not this time).

For the record, my brother-in-law texted back while on the phone with my mom, and my husband shortly there-after. Maybe Mike’s right about that patience thing. Also, he’s right I do need to sear April 9th into my memory.

I figured if I write about it, maybe I have a chance of remembering next time.

…that and I need to call myself out on such things. Where I succeed in baking or other domestic wifely duties, I fall short in remembering one important date! One date!

Good thing my husband never pulls this, or he’d never hear the end of it!

Filed Under: birthday, Mike, newlyweds, thats life

Wedding Cake, revisited

June 29, 2012 2 Comments

You might remember our wedding cake:

and how we painstakingly picked out the flavors (vanilla pound cake with blackberries, lime yellow cake with strawberries, and chocolate/chocolate/chocolate/raspberry for the top tier). The ruling was, serve all the cake! Let them have their cake (and open bar) and eat it too, duh. Why save anything when our guests want to stuff their faces with yummy cake? I also promised to eat the heck outta that cake, and oh yeah I didn’t do much eating that night.

But anyways, you can imagine our surprise the next day when we returned to the venue to collect intentionally left items, and our venue rep told us not to forget the cake in the freezer. Cake in the freezer? But why? The caterer told us not to save the cake, that they would happily whip up another “top tier” for us a year later. So whatever, we had cake! We took home the top tier (chocolate! YES!) and stashed it in our freezer for a year.

Fast forward to June 21, 2012 (we were at the beach for our actually anni, 6/19).

Hello seemingly giant refrigerator with PITA (pain in the arse) pull out freezer basket drawer thingy that everything falls behind and I curse, daily.

Hello overstuffed freezer basket drawer (probably the reason things fall behind).

And yes I love Trader Joes.

But what’s that?! No, not the froyo. Look for the UFO shaped object covered with aluminum foil and taking up precious space in our stupid freezer. I see it!

We figured after saving it for an entire year, we might as well defrost and eat it,

or try to eat it!As I shared on Instagram, it didn’t look very good, but….

it honestly tasted great!

And now there’s none left!

So the moral of the story? Go ahead and freeze your wedding cake for your first anniversary. There’s no harm in trying, and then stuffing your face!

Did you save your wedding cake (or try), or do you think you will?

first awesome picture by Studio Juno, all other “normal” pics by me

Filed Under: cake, caterer, eat your heart out, newlyweds, wedding

Celebrate good times, Come on! {Picturama}

June 24, 2012 4 Comments

This first week of summer vacation rocked, somewhat literally. We celebrated our first anniversary in Atlantic City where I’m proud to say the cows in the penny slot machine only took $30 of my money. Mike broke even at the black jack tables! We ate and drank our way through our mini-vacation: deep fried Reese’s, thawed year old wedding cake, & not cheap champagne from an engagement gift. Bliss.

I jokingly wonder what will happen after this first year of marriage, since we had such a rock-star time this past year! Immediately after we wed and dropped the ‘honeymoon’ line, the congrats and free stuff flowed. Using the newlywed status to our advantage worked as well. Then for our first anniversary hotel upgrades and older couples couldn’t help but shower us with well-wishes and free wine.

The other night we caught a Yellow Dubmarine show with friends. They’re a reggae Beatles cover band. It took place at a small-ish seated venue with limited dancing room, but we made due. I scored the drum sticks and set list, because why not? I task you all to see their fantastic show. You’ll know all the songs and love their spin on the music. Tickets are cost effective and they tour all over the place. No this is not sponsored by them, I really enjoyed the show that much.

This week has final last name changing paperwork in store (only a year later…), some organizing (major home purging in the works), and general relaxing (maybe with less indulging).

What are you up to, my friends??

Filed Under: awesomeness, beach, newlyweds, summers off

Movin’ on Up!

Our First Home

Reverse Stereotyping

Wedding Cake, revisited

Celebrate good times, Come on! {Picturama}

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