Friday, June 29, 2012

A New Chapter


May 29th
I never thought I would be moving. I thought for sure I would be stuck in Illinois for the rest of my life, because after living somewhere for almost 20 years you get to know what “home” is. If I didn’t believe that Illinois was my home, I would probably think Colorado was. That’s where I was born, that’s where my family is, that’s my dream place to live. So one would think that maybe this would be where I would relocate. Well we tried, but no. Ed got a new job in Columbus, OH.
Columbus, OH? Ohio was never on my list of places I would consider living. New York, Minnesota, Colorado, Arizona, California, Portland…are among some of the other places that had come up that, yes, maybe I would have had on my list where I would like to live and make a life. Never Ohio.
Ed got a job at an up and coming marketing firm where he will be on their creative team. Are you asking yourself, “why would you move for him? Why is this job better than the one he already has?” Well, being married to someone that knows what he wants to do with his life and loves his career and thrives in his career and industry, its hard to say you can’t follow your dreams. I’m someone that still doesn’t know what I want to do with my life and still trying to figure out what my career will be and I have no real “love” in life when it comes to what I want to be when I grow up. So, why hold him back when I don’t know what I’m doing? I can’t. So, the position was better, the money was better, the cost of living is less and it will all and all be a fresh start. But to say I’m excited may not be the correct term. Bittersweet maybe.
In fact I just left him this morning in his new apartment he will be living in until we can sell our house. Anyone looking for a 4 bed 3 bath home? I’m staying back until the house is sold or I stumble upon a job in Columbus prematurely. We’ve never done the long distance thing and honestly it breaks my heart and is straining on my soul; not to get sappy or anything. Its hard to leave my husband of one year to go live somewhere else for a few months when we haven’t been apart for more than a weekend.

June 29th.
I wrote the exert above exactly a moth ago when I was on the plane on my way from Ohio to visit family in Denver. I still feel the same, but its getting more real everyday...this is why.
We accepted an offer on the house. 
The house was on the market for less that a week and a guy made us an offer we couldn't say no to. We could have said no, if I wanted to be "single" longer, but we thought it was a good offer and I will be back with my husband starting a new life hopefully in 31 days. 
31 DAYS!?
Pending the inspection, closing will be on the 31st of July. This is crazy. I thought for sure I would be here until christmas. Stranger things have happened I suppose, but everything seems to be falling into place and I guess when that happens, you know you're doing the right thing. I will miss everyone here, family, friends and coworkers but I am excited to start a new life.

Here are few images from our house. Its not exactly have we lived with it, but its de-cluttered and slightly "staged" for the showings.



















Thursday, June 21, 2012

MIA

I know. I haven't posted in a loooonng time. Ugh I've been extremely busy and hope to have time in the very near future to fill you all in.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Past Weekend's Events

This weekend was pretty eventful starting off Thursday and a surprise yesterday...

Thursday we went down to Chicago to see The Tosh Tour Twenty Twelve. It was probably the funniest shows I have ever been to and would highly recommend anyone who likes Daniel Tosh to see him live. Prior to the show we had dinner at Elephant & Castle, a pub style restaurant where we have been before and is close to the Chicago Theater. Afterwards we had some time to kill so we ventured over to a cute little cafe called Toni Patisserie & Cafe near Millennium Park. So cute. Imported French and Belgium ingredients and everything made in house. I partook in a brownie and a giant mug of hot tea, Ed had his go to, a double shot of espresso. I wanted to try everything there, I will definitely have to go back sometime.
Giant Mug
Tiny Espesso
I think I'm going to skip Friday...I got home from work, had dinner and then passed out around 6:30. I'm not embarrassed to say that I slept all through the night until 5 am, then back to bed for another 2 hours after taking care of the dog. Obviously I needed some sleep!

Saturday night Ed and I went out for a nice date night. We headed over to Pinstripes for some appetizers and drinks. Delicious! We had a bottle of wine, spinach artichoke dip, sirloin sliders and some sort of grilled shrimp. We did leave full and a little tipsy, but it was well worth it! 


Sunday was Family day...not picture worthy I guess. It was Ed's brother's 21st birthday party shared with his Dad's birthday as well. Good food and conversation, then off to my Family's house for dinner. Yum. We also went to target for some much needed items including, of course a new toy for Charlie. I think he liked it.


Now... I got home last night to a Husband that had gotten home early. He told me he traded in his car. That story may have to be told another time. So then he says "well I got you something". Why? To soften the blow of you being slightly idiotic? What was it you ask? 2 of the Tiffany Bracelets I had asked for for our anniversary (which is May 14th). He was going to wait for our actual anniversary to give them to me...of course...but he does have an issue with keeping secrets or surprises, so even if he hadn't done something stupid, he probably would have given them to me sooner anyway. He's so thoughtful. I love him so much and wouldn't trade him for the world.




Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Card Making

I've been dabbling in card making and also dabbling in the idea of making a business out of it. Problem is, I only like doing it when I'm making them for other people. I can't seem to just make some and have them sit as "inventory". I'm trying.

So I'm currently making some Thank You cards for a friend of mine, Kelly, the owner of Empty Canvas Art and Design. Here is my palette.

Now, of course I bought way too many choices, but I just couldn't find the "one" paper I liked so I plan on making a few mock ups. Hopefully she'll love them when they're finished.

Here are a few other cards I have made in the past...
Bridal Shower









Nephew's 3rd Birthday


So, I'm trying to build my inventory. These are all a start, either made for my family or for friends to give to people.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Some Book Reviews...

I started reading "Fifty Shades of Gray". 
Apparently everyone is talking about it (as it shows in the image) so I said , hey why not. I'm actually listening to the audio version, not actually reading it (which is annoying, the narrator sounds like a valley girl). I'm not that far yet, but from the starts of it my initial thought is, "are all love stories this cheesey?" Besides the fact that apparently this is a re-imagined story of Bella and Edward from the Twilight series...with more adult themes.

I have read quite a few "trashy" romance novels and its the same thing, why are they so cheesey? Is this really how girls think and this is definitely not how real men talk, at least I haven't met any and I know, this is probably the point, for women to delve into the fantasy of the "perfect man". Listening to this has somewhat inspired me to write a real life love story...but maybe another day. It kind of makes me laugh, but I hear this book trilogy is pretty good and steamy, so I will continue the story. I'll have a follow up when I finish book one.


Of course, like the rest of the country I recently re-read the Hunger Games Trilogy. 
I also saw the first movie. I love, love, loved the books and have re-read the first book right before the movie, the movie disappointed me, a lot. I wanted more. I felt like it was the book on fast forward. Don't get me wrong, I understand that movies would be 7 hours long if they put in every detail of the movie, but I felt that if I hadn't read the book, I would have been UBER confused. They barely even introduced some of the characters... With that said, it was an overall good movie and I would definitely recommend the books and the movie to everyone over the age of 13.

"The Night Circus" is a book I highly recommend to people who like fantasy, magic, whimsy and twists and turns. Oh and maybe if you like being confused until the end. I loved this book! It fits into the popular fantasy/magic/creature/circus theme that everyone is into right now but its different and very unique. I actually wish they would make a movie, I think it would be interesting to see how they would interpret some things. 
The book is about a dual that needs to happen between 2 "magicians". In the background of the story is the Night Circus and its followers and workers. It's a circus that is only open at night and disappears and reappears without notice. The story is kind of confusing with a lot of characters and a lot of different points of views but in the end it ties it all together for a very rewarding read.

Finally, my brother told me I need to read this book... "Food Rules". 
I guess this will make me only want to eat real food...and by real I mean food where you know what most of the ingredients are on the nutrition information. He told me I needed to read this after I asked him why he wasn't putting Cool Whip on his dessert the other night. "Have you read the ingredients on Cool Whip? Thats not real food". This is when he gave me the book to read. With my recent Weight Watchers and healthy eating venture I say, why not. So I plan on reading this soon...scary.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Weight Loss

Weight loss has always been a problem for me. As a lot of other Americans. You know...why are we the country that struggles the most with eating and taking care of ourselves? Before I delve deeper into my own problems let me reflect on my experience last September in London.

First, I lost 5lbs in a week on my vacation. This is mostly from walking, yes, but oh my gosh was the food amazing. I'm not talking about the actual taste or look or anything. I'm talking about portion control and quality. Quality vs. Quantity is what I brought back to use in my own life here in the US. The markets there are markets, not big box grocery stores. Here in America you only get a discount for buying bulk...but I don't need bulk, but I also don't want to pay double for half the item. So what happens? Half of it goes in the trash or it goes bad. When we were in London, I spent the same amount I would spend on a pound of grapes for half a pound. They were the best grapes I have had in awhile and every single grape was edible and delicious. So worth the money and I didn't waste any of them. If that were the same situation here, besides the fact of buying too many, I would have picked through to pick out the good ones. What is wrong with this picture? I feel bad throwing some of the produce away, but I also want to try and treat my body well by putting good food in my body. It has skewed my view of grocery shopping. instead of doing a trip once a week and buy for the month or whatever, i often go every day after work for dinner that night to ensure the freshness. This is tedious and annoying, but I often feel satisfied with using the things i buy just hours later instead of having to smell something before I use it a week later.

I digress...

Back to struggling with weight loss. I have always been off and on diets since High School, but I've never stuck to something and I have never had an addiction or disorder. So I conclude that in the end I'm OK with how I look and feel and if I'm not I go on a quick healthy eating kick until I feel better. Is this good for me? Who knows. I did Weight Watchers for 3 months (through the Holidays!) and lost 15lbs...just by changing how I ate. PORTION CONTROL! Thats it. I didn't even workout that much. Since then, which I stopped in January, I have plateaued , but I haven't been following anything it taught me either. I would love to lose another 20lbs, so what am I going to do? Go back to weight watchers. We will see what happens.

BUT I HATE EXERCISING!

Absolutely hate it. I need help. I need a system. I need a motivator. Exercising is not fun for me and its a chore to go and do it. People say I just need to get into a habit and I will learn to love it. No. I still hate it, its still not fun. So what do I do!?

Man, this is really disorganized. I apologize.

So all in all I need a system and routine. Its hard. I work all day in an office and then I come home to take care of a puppy and cook dinner for my Husband and I. We relax a bit and the last thing I want to do it work out, I want to go to bed more. Haha.

Weight Watchers starts Monday. I will keep you posted how the progress goes. I would love to look better than my Husband someday.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Dealing with a Newborn...puppy




To the left you will see Charlie and I. As I try to do a little research on some upcoming house projects, he insists on being at my side at all time. He is not very nice to my Macbook so I replaced it with his chew toy. He loves that chew toy...but only when he can't find anything else he's not supposed to chew on.

Let me rewind to a few months ago.
Husband - and from now on I will use his name, Ed: "Hunny, lets get a puppy!"
Me: "not until our 1 year anniversary (in May)"
Ed: Ok sounds good.

In the meantime, I do some research on what kind of dog we should get. We own a home, but we have terrible landscaping and it would be a horrible yard for a dog, like a Lab or say a German Shepherd to run around in. We have 2 cats, VERY  SOCIAL dominating cats, so we are going to need a "chill" dog. Anyone watch Modern Family? Stella, the French Bulldog is adorable! Lets get one of those. *research, research, research* Holy crap they are not easy to find and damn they are not cheap! They have gas issues?!

So I mention my findings to Ed. He falls in love with the idea. We finally find a breeder and after an undisclosed amount of money, and a 6 hour drive, BAM we have a new puppy. Clearly well before May.

How hard could taking care of a 10 week old puppy be? I'm not a parent but I could imagine this is like taking care of a human newborn. Up 2-3 times a night, crying, peeing and pooping everywhere, no alone time, scheduled feedings, chewing on everything they find to put in their mouths. Yeah, I have friends with kids and this sounds really similar.

So its been about a month and I will admit, he is getting a millions times better. He is 90% potty trained and crate trained, he gets along with the cats and enjoys playing fetch. He still has an issue with chewing...things and people and he hates when he has to entertain himself. Overall, he's a good puppy. Ed takes care of him most of the time, but for some reason he is attached to me by the hip. He will wait patiently outside the bathroom door for me and needs to be touching me at all times if I'm sitting or standing still. Its adorably annoying but I love him and I can't wait to see how he grows up. I just wish he would leave me alone for one minute!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Introducing...

So...here I am. My husband, bless his heart, has suggested I start a blog. Kind of like a story of our life together where someday maybe someone (in our family) in the future will want to read and hear about all the crazy things we did. Now, this prompted from my Father's letters we found in my Grandparents house after they passed away. They had kept every letter he sent when he was away in college. They're fascinating, hilarious, thought provoking...and most of all, I see a lot of myself in them.

So let this first post be an introduction:
This handsome (if I do say so myself) man is my husband. This was taken from our Honeymoon last September. Since then he has lost 45lbs. Use your imagination to what he looks like now...yes, you're correct, like a skeleton.
This is Aston "Martin", he's our 3 year old cat. We got him with his brother, Ecko as kittens for free. Ecko has since passed away from cancer at a very young age. Aston or "grumpy" as we now call him, is our Alpha Male, weighing in at 20lbs...shown above in his favorite pose. He's not shy and may smother you if you get too close.
This is Barney "Stinson". He just turned 1. We adopted him for my Husband's birthday last year. He is our needy baby and will cry at you for attention. He also has a very strong love for style scarves. 
Finally...our newest addition, Charlie "Chaplin". He's our 3 1/2 month old French Bulldog. He  is now the attention hog of the house. He's a pain, he's fun, he's a handful. He's lucky he is adorable. 

So those are my boys. We also currently have a friend living in our basement, but I'll get to that another day. I started this too late, I need to get to bed. More to come tomorrow.