Uh Oh

Sometimes I facebook stalk people that I peripherally know who have just had babies.  I used to do that with people I knew who got engaged and then with people I knew who got married.  This is a bad sign.

So instead, I will focus my thoughts on puppies, houses and alcohol.  Mostly on alcohol.  Wine tasting this weekend and Vegas one month from today.  Phew.  Feeling better already. Pin It

It's Day Two in Dietland

And I'm feeling really...hungry.  I hate diets.  I hate them more when there's no motivation associated with them.  And I really hate when I'm at the gym and there are tiny little pregnant women who look better than I do.  Bitches...

And, yet, I love stepping on that scale and seeing the number creep back down (a very little bit) towards wedding weight.  Ugh. 

With two vacations coming up in the next two weeks this really may not be a realistic time, but I've convinced myself that every time since January has been unrealistic, so it's time to suck it up and roll with it.

Until dinner time... Pin It

Kitchens

After spending an afternoon of laziness on realtor.com, I have realized that I am freaking obsessed with kitchens.  I clicked through photos and descriptions of tons of houses, and the ones that made my list were the ones with gorgeous, big, open kitchens with sprawling granite countertops, flawless stainless steel appliances, and gorgeous cabinets.  Honestly, who cares about the rest of the house.  Can I just buy the kitchen?  Pretty please?

These are stolen off of realtor.com...

I could die a happy person in this one...

Love the tile in this one too...

**Note:  I'm trying to include more photos in my entries to make them generally less boring for the zero people who are reading this.  We'll see how this goes...**

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Relief

Phewwwwwww.  As quickly as it came, our busy season at work has officially ended.  More things may come up, but my four little monster events between April 7 - May 15 are over and done and I can take a deep breath and prepare to be bored. 

I have officially been at this job for six months now and I don't know that I can succinctly type what a wonderful change it has been for me.  My last job had me flat out depressed and hating my life, especially between March and July, and then again between September and November.  There was no free time for family, friends, even Mr. H at some points.  It sucked.  This job keeps me busy, but not crazy.  I'm doing what I want to do and enjoying it, and I really couldn't ask for anything more. 

And now it's kind of our summer time, despite the ugly fog and rain outside my window, which is something that I've never experienced here.  If the summer was chill at my old job, it's going to be amazing here.  I'm looking forward to what the future holds for me, and for now, I'm going to relax and enjoy the ride. Pin It

Busy Bee

Spring time is event time, so work has been busy.  Luckily, all of this busy-ness has forced me to focus on things other than houses, but that will all be over tomorrow after our last big event of the season, and then I'll be back to dwelling on it. 

The latest decision in the house saga is to hold off on the house.  Because although it is perfect, my grandfather always used to remind us that we had to think about "location, location, location" and that's what it's really coming down to.  While I love the house, I would love more to be in a perfect little neighborhood where I could (eventually) make perfect little mommy friends and arrange playdates with my perfect little children after their day at their perfect little school.  And, to be honest, without the neighborhood, the rest of the fantasy is kind of ruined.  It may be unfair, but it's true.

So now we have a realtor, and she's going to show us houses.  I'm excited and anxious, but Mr. H is a little apprehensive, and he'll be fine because, although work is slowing down, everything else is picking up.  I've got a few working weekends, trips to Seattle, wine country and Vegas, Father's Day weekend, and a bridesmaid coming into town who I haven't seen in ages, which basically brings us all the way through the July 4 weekend that is packed with things to do.  And the realtor hasn't really started sending us anything (which may be because I expressed this packed schedule to her), so I don't have anything to get too excited about yet.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to being done with this weekend and on to all of the fun that lies ahead! Pin It

Stewing

Today is one of those days at work.  I have two big events coming up next week, but we're at that calm before the storm point where I'm still waiting for some points of information but everything is pretty much set unless something crazy happens.  So it's one of those days that I have to be here with my head in the game in case something happens, although at this point I feel like absolutely nothing is happening.

So I do a little bit of house research.  Because that's the big thing on my mind right now and I can't stop thinking about it so I may as well research.  I made a mental comparison chart between two neighborhoods that we're considering.  One of them has the house but also isn't as nice of a neighborhood and the other has the great neighborhood with normal houses.  And then I looked online and found out that there are slightly older houses in the same general area that we could get for up to $100,000 cheaper.  Which means I could have an almost-the-house, like, right now.  Research part two brought me back to the cute little community that resembles my hometown like craz.  We couldn't get anything there for uber-cheap, but there are still some cute looking little houses (according to the photos that I can find online) that are in what we now know is our price range. 

I honestly feel like I should be on an episode of one of those addicting HGTV shows about first time homebuyers.  "Will the H's end up in the brand new home that they fell in love with in a good neighborhood or in the older home in the upscale neighborhood where they feel like they could stay forever?" Pin It

Mamas

Mother's Day weekend is almost here.  Since my mother-in-law is going to be out of town on Sunday, it has become a whole o' weekend of fun as opposed to a brunch or bbq.  Mr. H and I both have really strong bonds to our families, so it isn't too far off to think that a holiday about moms will turn into a weekend of family time, either.

Mr. H suggested that, since his mom was going to be out of town, that we have her over on Saturday.  She missed the Easter extravaganza, so she was very sad that she didn't get to see her little entertaining daughter-in-law at work.  So what started as "we could have her over" turned into "we can make her dinner" and very rapidly became "I can make her dinner."  So we're having a little dinner party for three (his dad is out of town)...but just because it's for three doesn't mean that I'm not going to prepare a ridiculous amount of food and stress over it like a crazy.  I already have a five page doc of menu, timeline, recipes and grocery list ready for my shopping trip and pre-cooking tonight.  Because, you know, that's what I do.

Luckily, that evening will be followed by a BBQ at my parents house, which is basically the most relaxing place in the world for me.  And as much as I've pleaded, my mom won't let me bring anything except for the leftover cheesecake from the feast the night before.  And of course, most of the chatter will revolve around the fact that both Mr. H and I, and our parents, are both trying to buy new homes right now.  Which is something that I can't seem to get off of my mind so it certainly is going to be in my blog.

Mr. H's birthday is coming up and, although I've found ideas for both his mom and my mom to get for him, I still don't have the perfect gift from me.  So that's next on my mental agenda... Pin It

Times Are Changing

I decided to take last Friday off after the craziness that was my work for the last few weeks (thus, the lack of posts).  Mr. H had Friday off too, so we decided to spend the day together.  Little did I know that this day could seriously change my life.

Let's rewind to that "I want" list that I posted a while ago.  Well, I found a new one that's bigger than all of the others and is seriously going to put a dent in my spoiled little spending ways.  We found the house.

Now, we've gone house hunting before.  It started unrealistically with million dollar condos in the area and then moved to the similarly unrealistic area where I grew up.  Then, we started to become more realistic and looked in the area that we're now focusing on.  But still, everything was either a bit too big and expensive, a bit too small and cramped, or just a dump (let's be honest here).  But this weekend we didn't just find a house, we found the house. 

It's the perfect little house of our dreams and right at the upper end of our price range.  The bottom floor is basically a huge great room with high ceilings and a massive kitchen.  No silly formal dining room/living room that we can't fill and don't need at this point in our lives.  And upstairs there is a gorgeous master suite with a walk in closet, soaking tub, and tons of windows.  And there are two perfect little bedrooms (for two future perfect little children...and a guest bedroom/office for now) and a laundry room (!!!) and tons of storage space.  This is the house that I've imagined in my dreams.  This is it.  And to make it even better, it's in a brand new community where they're still building, so we can take our time, pick our lot and design our own brand new home from the ground up.  I could not be more excited. 

There are two little things that are holding us back from running into the main office and jumping up and down for joy.  The first is that minor issue of money.  We spoke with the lender and he thinks that there will be no problem qualifying on either one or both of our salaries, but Mr. H is still concerned that he couldn't handle the mortgage plus living expenses if I quit working.  I try to encourage that I'm not going to quit for quite some time (until the babies come) and that we can save up a nest egg in that time to help us have what we need until he eventually (knock on wood) makes enough that he can cover by himself what both of our salaries used to cover. 

The second issue is the dynamic of the neighborhood.  I'm spoiled.  I have no problem admitting that.  I grew up in an upper-middle class suburb and have since moved to a neighborhood that mixes upper-middle class post-college kids with uber rich condo and home owners.  It is odd for me to go about my day and not spot designer purses, huge diamond rings and ridiculously expensive cars.  So to move out to a suburb that we could comfortably afford right now would be...different.  And I'm not sure how I feel about that.  In addition, the schools that connect directly to this home are good but not great (not bad enough to effect resale...I hope..).  I went to a great public school district and want nothing less for my children.  But at the same time, I doubt that our perfect little starter home would stay so perfect with two screaming children and another on the way (again, knock on wood).  By the time my children are school age, hopefully Mr. H is making enough money and we have enough equity in the house that we can find a new the house in a slightly better neighborhood with stellar schools for my not-even-concieved-at-this-point children.

So what this comes down to, after the mega post of the world to get everything I'm thinking off of my chest, is the fact that I'm going to have to sacrifice and compromise in order to make this happen for us (including the addition of Penny, who would probably then come post-move).  And it's going to be a huuuuge step if we actually move forward with it.  Times are a changing for us.  Mr. H said that he never imagined that we'd be seriously considering buying a home after being married for only three months, but I reminded him that we've been together for almost six blissful years and there's no one else in the world that I would rather take this big step in life with.  Life is good. Pin It