Let the Moving Begin

So today, our moving process begins! We've been living in a chaotic disorganized condo for the past week and it's been driving me crazy. We've got boxes galore and I haven't bought a good load of groceries in 2 weeks so we've been having interesting dinners to try to have less food to transport to the new house. Which also translates into we haven't been eating very well hah! For example, last night we had perogies and chips and salsa for dinner. As if being a horrible cook wasn't bad enough, I've hit a new low.

For someone who likes order and everything in it's place, there's nothing like literally having everything out of it's place to stress you out! I can't even look at that picture for too long...and that was a few days ago, it's gotten much worse! For sure, the awkward kitchen appliances are the hardest to pack. Like how do you pack a heavy stand mixer? Or the unnecessarily large chip/dip tray? Or the Keurig? I've realized that I've inherited a quality of my father's. And that is being awesome at packing. It's like a giant puzzle/rubiks cube. Which is good because, Ryan is self-admittedly NOT good at packing. He's been filling holes with spackle and packing his books. Books he can handle ;) Gotta love his effort.

My parents and brother are coming and up and are staying as our first house guests this weekend. We'll round out the weekend celebrating Easter with our Harvest family, surrendering our condo keys to our landlord and a big Shaughnessy-Hopper brunch at PJ Skidoos. Hopefully, we'll all still be sane at that point. It's definitely going to be a full weekend and without a doubt a joyful one too!

This weekend we took advantage of a furniture sale and bought ourselves a nice new sectional L-shaped couch...luckily it has to be ordered otherwise we would have no place to put it at the moment! Ryan has always wanted a couch with a chaise to prop his feet up. We also bought some gallons of paint and two ceiling lights to replace some ugly outdated ones. I have a feeling we'll be spending lots of time (and money) at our good friends Lowes and Home Depot. We're excited to get in there and finally roll our sleeves up!

Happy Easter everyone! The tomb is empty!

It's Official! We are Homeowners!

So guys, it's official, we own a house! Last Thursday, we signed lots of papers (I got LOTS of practice with my signature; still trips me up!), met the sellers and were handed the keys. I never in a million years thought we would own a home as early into our lifetime and marriage than now, let alone in the expensive and competitive area we currently live in. We are incredibly grateful and lucky to be homeowners at 23 and 24. I just also have to say how proud I am to be married to Ryan. He handled all of the details, made sure we were both well educated to make good decisions and let me pin things while he handled the nitty gritty details.

Can I just add how cute my husband looks??!

Now, we wait! And pack. We'll be moving in Easter weekend. I'm already finding with the little packing we've done that we have a lot of stuff. It all hides in the kitchen cabinets and drawers, people! We've had several sweet friends offer to help us move and are attempting to move sans moving truck. I have a feeling this will be the last time we do that. I'm anxious to get into the house, start painting and really making it ours. And you know, put my Pinterest board into action! The house doesn't need a ton of work, but there are some minor changes we'd like to make that I think will have big impact!

And while we're still talking about big news and change, just yesterday I put my two weeks in at my current job. For someone who doesn't like change, a lot of change is happening! The job that I almost took around this time last year held onto my name and passed it along to another smaller accounting firm who was looking for someone in marketing. They reached out to me on LinkedIn and over the past month, I've been talking and interviewing with the firm to see if it would be a good fit. After a lot of careful prayer and thought, I decided it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. The best perk is that my commute will essentially stay the same (instead of doubling). Oh and they're right down the road from a Potbelly. Just saying. I'm excited for the fresh start and what's ahead! I see many-a grilled chicken and cheddar with mushroom sandwiches in my future!

Thank you to all of the family and friends who were our prayer warriors, advice-givers and sometimes just a listening ear through the homebuying AND new job process! We feel so supported and loved and couldn't imagine going through life without the awesome support system we have. I can't say enough how blessed we truly feel and how moved we are to see the Lord orchestrating the big and small pieces in our lives.

The Travel Bug

One of our favorite things to do now that we're married is traveling to places we've never been to before, just the two of us. We haven't wasted any time doing some traveling here and there in the Fall and Winter. We've been to New York City, Charleston and Boston within the past three months. But I'm still feeling the travel bug! It's bad when you've just bought a house and don't have the budget for places like Europe or St. Lucia. Sigh.

Doing what we do best: Eating

I have to say, one of my favorites and most memorable trips so far was this year's Valentines Day. Ryan pulled the best Valentine's ever and booked a hotel in DC at the Dupont Circle Hotel for the weekend. He's a keeper! Even though it's practically our backyard, we had so much fun really exploring the city we live in just outside of. As per usual, our whole itinerary revolved on where we were eating. It's proof you don't have to go very far to really "travel". We got to (finally) visit Eastern Market. I've heard so many of our friends rave about this place and now I know why! There are so many adorable vendors and eclectic things people are selling. Of course, now that we're gearing up to move, I'm always looking for fun things we can hang on the walls. We found the "Map Guy" and bought a map from the 1800s of the Amalfi Coast, one of our favorite spots from our honeymoon. I'm excited to hang it up! I already can't wait to go back during the Summer when there are even more vendors/fun things to see! If you ever come up and visit us, we will definitely be taking you to Eastern Market!

On a side-note/house update: We finally have an official move-in date! We'll be moving in at the end of March. So since today officially marks March 1st, we get to say we're moving in THIS month! We're so pumped!