I've already had two coffees earlier but heck, since it's Sunday, I've decided to pour myself another one and come here to say hello and have a little chat. So, hello there! And happy Sunday!
If you read my last post, you know I've been a bit of a stranger when it comes to blogging. And since I've dropped off the blogging map more times than I count, I have no idea if there's even anyone out there still reading at this point. So if by some miracle you are, hello there, again!
Instead of rambling on and on (and on) like I normally would about why I stopped blogging and how much I've missed coming here and sharing things, I figured I'd just jump right in and do a little update since I've been away.
The last 6 months have been both busy and extremely slow all at the same time. We've been kept busy and preoccupied, but yet somehow day to day and week to week, it seems life has been much slower with a lot of our time spent at home. Maybe it's because we've been doing things with our house, or maybe it's from trying to save a little extra money so we can do more things with our house, or maybe it's just good ole winter hibernation!! Something tells me it's a combination of all three. But thankfully we're into April now which means that it's soon time to come out of hiding.
This is definitely the most exciting thing that's happened recently. In October we put an offer in on a house, and on December 8th we were handed the keys to our new home!!
The whole process went so much quicker than we both ever thought it was going to, and as I'm sitting in our "new" living room now writing this and looking back, I still find it surprising just how quick it really did happen. There were times throughout the last few years that we would talk about moving one day, but it was always just a "one day" type of conversation. But a few weeks after we returned home from our trip to Vegas, I got it in my head to go online and start looking at houses just for fun! And within a week I had a list of houses that I thought we should view...again, just for complete fun! Since we weren't serious about house hunting, we had no location in mind, no "must have" items, not even a price point determined for that matter.
Our first viewing was set for a Thursday night, and I remember it so plainly because as it turned out, it's the house we're living in right now!! From the moment I opened the doors I instantly fell in love, and it had this good feel to it that I don't even know how to explain. I just knew there was something special about it.
Over the next week we went to the remainder of the viewings, but none of the other houses gave us any bit of excitement like the first one that we saw did. In fact, over the next few days, I would constantly think about that first house and how disappointed I'd be if I found out it got sold. I also remember thinking that I probably wouldn't feel this way about any other house, regardless of what else became available. It was then that I knew that it was the house - our house! Luckily Todd felt the exact same way, and within a week or so we were putting in an offer.
It's surprising how it happened, but it's even more surprising to me how I was during that time, especially since I'm probably the most indecisive person to ever walk this planet, and one who finds it extremely hard just to take the plunge with things. But I remember taking that as a sign. And I'd like to think I was right because within only the first few days in our new house we both felt like we had lived there forever. Even with barely any furniture and a million boxes still left to be unpacked, I felt so at home already.
Although our house was "move in" ready, there's still a lot of things we'd like to do with it. Instead of rushing and buying things for every room of the house just to try and fill it up, we decided to slow down and just take one section at a time before moving on to other parts of the house. Right now we're currently in the process of finishing the first section we tackled - the living room and dining room. I'm hoping to share some house updates along the way so stay tuned for that!
If you read my last post, you know I've been a bit of a stranger when it comes to blogging. And since I've dropped off the blogging map more times than I count, I have no idea if there's even anyone out there still reading at this point. So if by some miracle you are, hello there, again!
Instead of rambling on and on (and on) like I normally would about why I stopped blogging and how much I've missed coming here and sharing things, I figured I'd just jump right in and do a little update since I've been away.
The last 6 months have been both busy and extremely slow all at the same time. We've been kept busy and preoccupied, but yet somehow day to day and week to week, it seems life has been much slower with a lot of our time spent at home. Maybe it's because we've been doing things with our house, or maybe it's from trying to save a little extra money so we can do more things with our house, or maybe it's just good ole winter hibernation!! Something tells me it's a combination of all three. But thankfully we're into April now which means that it's soon time to come out of hiding.
WE BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE
The whole process went so much quicker than we both ever thought it was going to, and as I'm sitting in our "new" living room now writing this and looking back, I still find it surprising just how quick it really did happen. There were times throughout the last few years that we would talk about moving one day, but it was always just a "one day" type of conversation. But a few weeks after we returned home from our trip to Vegas, I got it in my head to go online and start looking at houses just for fun! And within a week I had a list of houses that I thought we should view...again, just for complete fun! Since we weren't serious about house hunting, we had no location in mind, no "must have" items, not even a price point determined for that matter.
Our first viewing was set for a Thursday night, and I remember it so plainly because as it turned out, it's the house we're living in right now!! From the moment I opened the doors I instantly fell in love, and it had this good feel to it that I don't even know how to explain. I just knew there was something special about it.
Over the next week we went to the remainder of the viewings, but none of the other houses gave us any bit of excitement like the first one that we saw did. In fact, over the next few days, I would constantly think about that first house and how disappointed I'd be if I found out it got sold. I also remember thinking that I probably wouldn't feel this way about any other house, regardless of what else became available. It was then that I knew that it was the house - our house! Luckily Todd felt the exact same way, and within a week or so we were putting in an offer.
It's surprising how it happened, but it's even more surprising to me how I was during that time, especially since I'm probably the most indecisive person to ever walk this planet, and one who finds it extremely hard just to take the plunge with things. But I remember taking that as a sign. And I'd like to think I was right because within only the first few days in our new house we both felt like we had lived there forever. Even with barely any furniture and a million boxes still left to be unpacked, I felt so at home already.
Although our house was "move in" ready, there's still a lot of things we'd like to do with it. Instead of rushing and buying things for every room of the house just to try and fill it up, we decided to slow down and just take one section at a time before moving on to other parts of the house. Right now we're currently in the process of finishing the first section we tackled - the living room and dining room. I'm hoping to share some house updates along the way so stay tuned for that!
WE CELEBRATED THE HOLIDAYS
I know talking about Christmas in April is probably illegal, but I can't do a recap over the last few months and not briefly touch on the holidays.
With moving in to a new house only a few weeks before Christmas, you can imagine how busy the entire month of December was for us. My sister and her family came home this year so we had them staying with us for a few days and then we all headed out home (to our parents house) to spend the rest of the time together out there. Watching our nephews (and niece, although she pretty much just sat on her mom's lap the entire time since she wasn't even 1) Christmas morning was definitely the highlight! Kids definitely make the holidays even that much better!
Unfortunately Todd's grandmother passed away at the end of December, so we spent some time with Todd's family during that time. Although it wasn't under the best of circumstances, it was nice ringing in the new year all together.
Also, we decided to keep our previous house as a rental (since it has a basement apartment), so we had to make some time over the holidays to get the upstairs apartment (where we lived) cleaned and ready for the new tenants who would be renting it and moving in on January 1st. Thankfully my parents helped us, and within a couple of days we had the place looking brand new!
WE LOST OUR SWEET BOY, SAMMY
Even months later, sharing this piece of news still makes me sad. At the beginning of January, after his struggle with cat kidney disease, we had to put our sweet boy Sammy to sleep. Not only losing him and saying goodbye, but the entire time leading up to then, was just really hard. It's so hard losing an animal, but I honestly think it's even harder having to watch them decline day by day.
If you're not familiar with cat kidney disease, it's when the kidneys stop working normally, causing them to not properly eliminate waste, which eventually leads to toxicity in the bloodstream. As the Vet told us, it's like they're slowly poisoning themselves.
It was a tough few months, but the biggest struggle came towards the end when we were constantly asking ourselves who we were helping more at that point - us or him.
I feel like I could write so much on this, and maybe another time I will talk more about it and share our experience (because finding other peoples stories online definitely helped me), but for now I'll just leave it by saying how much we still miss our first little boy and how he truly was the sweetest part of our family!!!
If you're not familiar with cat kidney disease, it's when the kidneys stop working normally, causing them to not properly eliminate waste, which eventually leads to toxicity in the bloodstream. As the Vet told us, it's like they're slowly poisoning themselves.
It was a tough few months, but the biggest struggle came towards the end when we were constantly asking ourselves who we were helping more at that point - us or him.
I feel like I could write so much on this, and maybe another time I will talk more about it and share our experience (because finding other peoples stories online definitely helped me), but for now I'll just leave it by saying how much we still miss our first little boy and how he truly was the sweetest part of our family!!!
WE CELEBRATED TODD'S BIRTHDAY
At the end of January we celebrated Todd's 33rd birthday with some friends at our house. It felt like such a long time since we've had a get together with everyone, and it ended up being such a fun night, lasting until about three in the morning!! A few days after, on his actual birthday, I took the afternoon off work and we went for brunch and then for a couples massage. I think I definitely enjoyed his birthday more than him!!
WE GOT OUR WEDDING VIDEO BACK
At the beginning of February we got our wedding video back, and since Todd was away working at the time, we decided to wait and watch it around Valentines Day and have a little date night home. I was so excited to watch it for the first time, but also a little sad that our wedding chapter was officially finished.
We were so happy with how the video turned out, and it was so much fun getting to see and relive everything all over again. That day was such a blur (past brides, I'm sure you can agree, right?), and there was so much about the day that we had both forgotten about! We're so glad we decided to get a videographer because it's something we'll definitely appreciate even more later in our life.
I just realized I still haven't shared anything about our wedding day yet, but I'm hoping that will be the next thing to come. I'm thinking I better get to that soon while I'm on a blogging role and before I drop off the map again! :)
Well, I think that's our last few months in a nutshell. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!
Until next time.
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