Ramblings

* It's 6 a.m. Darla has been up since 4 a.m. I have to get up with her, otherwise I sit awake in bed while she barks and get sweaty armpits thinking about how much our neighbors must want to kill us. She was also up to pee at 2 a.m. Now she gets to sleep all day while I go to school/work feeling (and looking) like a total zombie. Whose idea was it to get a puppy again?? Oh right. Mine.

Passed out in the kitchen. After 3 hours of barking, peeing, playing, eating.

* This will be our last weekend in our apartment. My excitement about our new place has sort of faded into anxiety + nostalgia + bitersweetness. This was our first home together. We love our little apartment. Our neighborhood. Our down-the-street restaurants. Our beautiful landscaping. Our park next door. I'm sure there will be plenty to love about our new location, and I'm more excited than I am anxious... but its hard not to have mixed feelings about leaving this place. Even if we are only moving 10 miles away.

Hard to see, but this is the floor plan of our new condo. It helps me get more excited and less sad to look at it :)

* In other panic-inducing news, today is my last official day of law school. I have a final next week. I haven't opened a case book since sometime in January (not. joking.) and I'm having mild panic attacks about how I'll pass this one last class. My head also spins when I think about how fast this 3 year journey has gone... I've heard people say something like "the years fly by but the days drag on" - that about sums up my law school experience. I thought it would never end. Now, its ending.

* Speaking of time flying by........... I'm turning 25 on Sunday. I don't feel like I'm 25. My 16-year-old self didn't picture my 25-year-old self quite like this. I don't feel as mature as 25 sounds. And I don't feel like I have accomplished everything I expected I would a quarter of a century into my life. I feel like I hit the pause button on adulthood to go to law school. I want to have a job, buy a house, take real vacations, enjoy actual weekends. I'm excited for what this 25th year of life has to offer!

* Unrelated. {If anyone is still reading.} My brain has turned to scrambled eggs from lack of sleep (see: puppy paragraph above). I either mailed, or lost, or threw away 1) my MIL's bday card and 2) my Ohio drivers license renewal application -- complete with vision exam paperwork, a check, and my license. That's right... I mailed off my actual license. I hope. If I didn't mail it, its lost in space. It was with the birthday card... which if I mailed, was sent last Wednesday. My MIL hasn't gotten her card yet. If she never gets her card, my license renewal envelope is MIA. Cross your fingers that my sleep-deprived brain dropped both things in the mail, will ya? For the life of me I can't remember if I actually mailed them. I don't know how all you moms do it - this no sleep stuff is serious business. 


Off I go to splash some cold water on my face and get on with my day. 


Excuse my ramblings. Don't like it? Joke's on you for reading it through to the end...

This was oddly therapeutic. But I have no plans to ever write a nonsensical post like this ever again! If you don't unfollow me after this, bless your heart.

Condo Decorating

I'm doing my best not to get ahead of myself with condo decorating... We don't move for 2 weeks still, so in the meantime I'm collecting ideas rather than collecting more furniture and stuff to move, per my husband's demand request. It's so hard to visualize where I want everything to go in this new space, and its even harder to refrain from shopping for new stuff I'm picturing in my head until after we're in the our new place!

Sooo until I have the keys and somewhere to store all this furniture and decor I'm plotting to buy/make, I'll just keep storing my ideas on Pinterest. And in between pinning, I'll do some of that more useful, practical moving nonsense........ like change our address, schedule a technician to move our cable/internet service, and get someone out to re-install our security system. But mostly I'll be pinning. And drinking coffee.

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 Our laundry room is about this size... just a little nook. But I'll take this nook over our laundry closet any day! I'd love to put some shelving/storage above the washer and dryer. I'm also debating putting all of Miss Kitty's stuff in this room (food, water, potty) and gating it somehow so the puppy doesn't have access........ TBD.

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 Ok, ok. This is a pipe dream. While our new master closet will be long and narrow like the one in this picture....... it has exactly zero organization built-in. Unlike the 2-bedroom condo we almost rented (in the same building) that was the former model home and had model home perfect professional closet organization in every.single.closet --- the 3-bed unit we decided was better suited to our growing family of furbabies has closets that need some help! I like this shoe storage idea. Seems like a good use of space.

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 No, we won't be decorating a nursery. BUT I do love the idea of a little window bench. There is a "sunroom" area off of the living room with a big window that would be perfect for a little bench. I've found some great DIY ideas for this sort of thing... so I'm leaning toward making a piece like this myself. We'll see!

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 Our office was/is the most neglected room in our apartment. It hardly ever gets used for "office" purposes, and really just serves as our guest room. Now that we'll have a guest room and and office - and now that I'll be spending 10ish hours/day in said office studying for the bar (ew) - I want to make it a more inviting, organized space! And I'm mildly obsessed with floating shelves right now. Don't know why.......

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Another far fetched idea? Perhaps. Andrew has been talking about wanting a hammock on our balcony/deck for weeks. I'm not sure how serious he is, but the more I think about it... the cooler it sounds! I'm trying to find one on Craigslist that is relatively cheap and I want to see if with our bigger outdoor area mayyyybe we can find a way to make a balcony hammock work and still have room for a little bistro table and a grill??? This one is way too cramped. Our deck will be at least 2-3x bigger. I think it would be fun :)

Ok. Thats enough day dreaming for one morning. I guess its time to call AT&T.........

Moving

We're heading to the 'burbs!

........ sorta.

After 3 years in our city apartment, we've decided to move our zoo to the suburbs. We'll literally be .3 seconds outside of the city, so its not that big of a deal. We have outgrown our rented 2 bed/2 bath space, and are just itching for a little change of scenery! Most of our friends have migrated from the hustle and bustle of the city into the quieter (but still close and accessible) suburbs... and while we aren't entirely ready for all of the cliches associated with suburban living, we're making this move for several pretty good reasons:

1) We'll be closer to Andrew's school - major plus, as he has sucked up a pretty long commute to be close to my school since 2009... since I'm donezo in just a few weeks (YAAAY!) its his turn to be a quick 10 minutes to school for a year. 

2) We'll be closer to the friends we spend most of our time with - and we're so looking forward to a 1 mile drive (or walk!) home instead of a 20-40 min drive from place to place nearly every weekend night.

3) We'll be walking distance to shops and dining that we really love... and we plan to take advantage of this "walking distance" luxury during the last year we live in the warm, sunny South!

4) We'll be saving $$$......... this is a no-brainer. Our city rent climbed higher and higher with each passing year, and the renewal paperwork we received a few months ago pushed the monthly rent they were "pleased to offer" us into the realm of utterly ridiculous! This made it a heck of a lot easier to part with our first home together. 

5) We're gaining square footage (and a {small} bedroom) - not entirely necessary, since its just me and Andrew... but our furbabies take up a lot of space, and we could use the additional storage for their beds, crates, toys, etc.

Other bonuses inclue: hardwood floors instead of carpet, a first floor unit to make it easier to get the dog in/out 17382 times a day, a laundry room instead of a laundry closet, and a separate jetted tub and walk-in shower in our master bath! Oh ya, and the fact that there is a "master" bath at all... with 2 sinks instead of 1... is a bonus in and of itself :)

With a summer of bar studying ahead of me, I'm anxious to settle into this new condo and make the 3rd bedroom my designated study space. The next few weeks will be filled with packing and organizing (and hopefully a little clutter purging). And I've already got a list going of little things we'll need to fill this house and make it feel like home......... 

I'll post inspiration pictures soon!

And if you've been following along lately... you know that "soon" is open for interpretation. 

{Sorry for being so MIA!}