Home Sweet Home

And its OURS!!!!  We completed the walk through as well as signed the one million pages restating over and over that it was our house and we would pay for it.  I almost felt like asking for a moment of silence for all the slain trees on that one document.  Our agent was AMAZING and anyone looking or selling in the area please ask me for her contact information.  She made this whole process comfortable and fun!

Ed's birthday was a success.  After we signed I picked up my mother along with folding chairs and a table.  We grabbed mini cheesecakes and tarts from Whole Foods and some birthday decor and made the empty house into a mini party place.  It helped that my Aunt sent us two balloon collections.  One was Congrats on the new house and one was Happy Birthday for Eddie!

We met up at Mexican with friends and family for a great dinner and then went back to the decorated house for everyone to see and to give Eddie his gifts.  My mother had a Rhino painting (Ed's favorite animal since he was a little kid) commissioned for him.  His mother got him a gorgeous ladder ball set.  It is made of very pretty wood.  I got him a globe bar for the man cave.


His mother and grandparents gave us such sweet house warming gifts.  They are very precious and so special. This neighborhood is so friendly.  My car was in the driveway 10 minutes and two separate neighbors dropped in after seeing a different car and wanted to introduce themselves!

Today began home improvement.  We bought paint for a bunch of the rooms!  I am so lucky to have sisters and friends volunteering to help us paint over the next few weeks.  We are also painting  the closets and trim to brighten up all the white.  Eddie is going to rebuild our pantry and then on to improving the garage and the backyard.  We hope to have a housewarming this summer, but we won't be doing most of the yard until the fall.

I also kept on packing and found some great old books that I am putting up in our 4th room for all the kids to play in at family gatherings and for when we have a kid eventually.

Snacking & Shopping

Perfect snack for on the go.  I don't always want the normal easy-to-port cubical snacks such as 100 calorie bars and reduced fat Cheez-its.  So getting some fruit and variety in is great. Bonus is its all natural and gluten free.  I am allergic to EVERYTHING so these two facts please me greatly. Eating tiny/healthy meals constantly help to boost your metabolism too.

Tonight my mom and I joined some friends for a shopping party at a cute boutique in town center.  They catered cupcakes and yummy drinks.  I entered to hopefully win another shopping party.  Got the perfect blouse for signing on our house and celebrating Eddie's birthday on Friday!  Shopping & snacking make the best combination!

Longest week

This is going to be the longest week! So excited to sign on Friday.

I have been multitasking to stay busy. Ed and I LOVE banana bread so I made muffins.  The box stuff is great, but they're even better if you add some apple sauce, fresh bananas, and a tablespoon of vanilla extract!

I FINALLY finished all of our Easter cars.  I am hugely addicted to snail mail.  Formal invites and paper cards are more personal to me then text messages, evites, and facebook.  In the digital age a little old school can be refreshing.  Plus the stickers are great and it especially allows me to catch up with my grandparents and extended family members who aren't attached to their computers like some of us are.

And so the packing has started.  We began with the DVD and VHS collection along with books.  I am dividing things up based on what rooms they will go to in the new house.  Normally all of our movies stay together, but our niece gave us a suggestion.  We have a spare 4th room.  We were leaving it empty until we decide to have a kid.  We new we could use it as another guest room.  Bella suggested a toy room. At first we thought we had no toys, but then realized she was brilliant.  We have old Disney movies, my old dolls, etc so we are storing all of that in the spare room so when we have family gatherings if its raining or kids don't want to play outside they have a space to color and play and have some fun away from us stuffy adults.

Day 1 down!  Come on Friday!!!!

And so it Begins!

Eddie and I have both been working lots trying to make any extra money.  I am so proud to have a husband that works and hard as he does.  I worked until about 1 Saturday and then instead of dragging Ed all around after work I went to different stores with my mom and brought options home to him.

We are going to lay new carpet in The family/dining room, living room, stairs, 4th room, and our room.  I found great carpet at Lowe's. I wanted carpet that had a little variation in the color so you can't see every little piece of dirt.  Ed's job results in dirty shoes and unless I followed him with a vacuum I loose.  So this seems like a great solution.  It will be great to for whenever we decide to have kids because they are messy little creatures too.  We are also painting a few rooms.  Most have great colors already, but we will be painting the family/dining room and adding bead board as well as repainting the guest room, and Ed wants to paint the man cave too.  The master, the 4th room, the living room, & the kitchen have wonderful color choices already.  We agreed on the family/dining room and guest room, but have to go back for more man cave colors!

Now begins the packing process!  I have had some amazing friends help out with box and newspaper donations.  We found out to check out the "donated" boxes section at the U-Haul places too.  Other than boxes I am a big believer in using suitcases.  We will wait on our hanging clothes and throw them in a comforter and lug them like that over to the new place.  We have a month and a half so we can slowly move and unpack something prior to the big furniture being brought in.

SURPRISE

I have been slacking on my blogging because I had a very large secret.  We are buying a house!  We got the call this week to set up utilities.  We are so excited.  Be ready for home improvement and crafting blogs.  It is perfect and in the exact location we wanted.  The best part is all that is really needed is things that have to do with our tastes verses the previous owner.

Hoping that furniture sales happen ASAP.  The best thing I have learned is to excepted almost anything offered.  Luckily my mother is getting new furniture so we shall be taking her old set off her hands.  We cannot wait to be able to have our wedding gifts in our home.  It will be fun reopening all of them and remembering what we have.

Spending all weekend cleaning, purging, and packing.  Throwing out anything still in a box from our move 2 years ago!!!  We decided to not be rushed so even though we close this month we have until the end of May to move.  It makes it easier to paint and lay new carpet in an empty home and then fill it slowly with all of your belongings. 

I know our friends will be incredibly happy because we will actually hire a moving company this time hehe.  All of those lovely movers who volunteered last time will only have to sit back and relax this time.

Today is work's Spring into Spring potluck.  I made fun colored Hummingbird cupcakes.  They are super sweet and easy.  Flour, a bunch of sugar, fruit such as bananas, peaches, & pineapple, vanilla, and cinnamon and TADA all done!  Decorate with fun colored icing!

Have a lovely Friday!