Snow Day

I'm working from home today and hope that my productive weekend streak runs through the next eight or so hours.

This weekend we got tons done.

Friday was spent with best friends over dinner at a restaurant not far from home so that when we finished and I was tired, I didn't have to jump on the train or drive miles and miles back to the house.

Speaking of the house, Bub and I were extremely productive both on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we had a nice walk through town. We can actually walk to get errands done! It was nice to get out and see more of the new surroundings by foot. We also checked out our backyard. I hadn't really walked way down to the end of it and seen everything since it's so woodsy. No surprises there. It had grass, trees, and leaves!

We cleaned and did more unpacking. All of the old lady curtains have been demolished! Yeah! And more wallpaper steaming was completed, courtesy of Bub.

Saturday night we had dinner out after seeing some horrific furniture and then we tried to watch the Pats win, but promptly fell asleep and then woke up grumpy, uncomfortable (on the couch), and went to bed.

Bub lived at the condo yesterday while I made more progress here, with only one room left to unpack and some cleaning here and there we'll finally be ready to focus 100% on our furniture and decorating needs. Those boxes that are left will be the few stragglers meant for the basement or ones to be thrown out with this week's trash.

The new tenant for our condo moves in tomorrow and we officially hand over the keys tomorrow night. We'll be happy to not have to clean, paint or do anything in there unless something goes awry (knock on wood) for a while.

So to all you snow bunnies, have a great Monday. Here's to a productive and good week! And a short one at that; we're off to NH for a weekend away courtesy of a wedding gift from my sister. Let the countdown begin.

PS--We seem to have a ton of ladybugs living around this house. I just looked up to view the snow outside and saw another ladybug. And the other day? We found one in our bed. We changed the sheets, don't worry. We aren't fans of bed bugs.

Making Progress

The good thing about watching a ton of home improvement shows is the fact that when you've seen enough sparkling new kitchens, bold paint jobs, and snazzy furniture, it makes someone who just moved into a 93-year old house with much to do feel like crap.

For two nights in a row I went off on Bub that there was so much to do and it'll be a month come Tuesday that we'll have lived in the new house without any painting or remodeling done whatsoever.

Then I realized how crazy I sounded and profusely apologized to Bub. Sorry!

Back to the television watching... So, last night after watching one of those "How Much Can I Sell My House For?" pieces, I got off my ass (shocking, I know) and for only a mere 1.5 hours I straightened up our dining room. Really? Only that long to finish unpacking the china, to finish sorting through the bazillion vases we have (we need not another vase until we're 60), and even getting some stuff together for good will. Hi, ugly plate with big tulip not from our wedding registry. You came out of no where. Be gone!

So our dining room has our old kitchen table in it, all Pledged clean, complete with chairs, and my fabulous new crystal bowl sporting the clementine-orange centerpiece look. It reminded me of The Break-Up when Jennifer Aniston when ape shit on Vince Vaughn when he wouldn't get her the appropriate number of lemons for her centerpiece.

Anyway, I also tore down in true demolition fashion the ugly ass old lady curtain donnning the cool slender 3-window set we have going on in that room. What's left are rickety shutters, but they give good character, so they shall remain for now.

I did manage to scratch the wood floor (damn!) when moving the table to the perfect position. We shall get into fixing that later when we get to rip up carpeting! (I know, the fun that we have in store!) I'm just so proud of my progress that I think I can make great strides to finish unpacking the rest of the 3 rooms that still have boxes in them this weekend. Then there'll be a cleaning party, complete with gloves and me frowning. Because hi, we have close to white kitchen floors which get dirty in two seconds and those pine needles from the Christmas tree? Still there.

Hey, it was hard enough to get off my ass, did you think I was going to go and get all crazy with a vacuum too?

Happy Weekend!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Wishing all of you a very lovely holiday. Eat, drink, be merry...

+++

When I was decorating the Christmas tree while Comcast set us up with a phone line, Internet, cable, all that grand stuff that keeps us, uh, connected, I was in Christmas-mode, decorating the tree, wrapping presents...Bub was upstairs doing some unpacking and was okay with not decorating our tree. It made for some quiet time to reflect on memories of decorating our tree when I was growing up. My family would go out together, pick a grand tree, go home, put on carols, and then my sister and I would go to town with the ornaments after Mom and Dad put on the lights and put it in the spot in the house where they wanted it to be shown off.

So as I decorated my little tree, I thought, something's missing...That little person, whether it be a boy or girl, or some day both, with a sparkle in their eyes and a silent smile on their faces, they'd hang Santa or an angel on the tree branches with pride.

Someday soon I hope to create those memories. Memories of a family. The reality of that life comes alive in this house.

Merry Christmas. And without further ado, our tree! Our camera needed to be charged, so you get the blurry phone pic. But you get the gist.

Home Sweet Home

So. We are here.

Our new house, our new town, our new address. We are so happy to be rid of the coin-operated washing machines and non-working dryers at our old home so the washer and dryer here? We have, no joke, done at least ten or so loads of laundry already. And? I don't mind doing laundry at all. I'm GLAD to!

Our tree is up! We got it last night and it looks like a poodle tail at the top. The branches and needles stop and then a perfect clump of branches follows. Oh, and it's like 3.5 feet. It's a cutesy little bub tree. Pictures to follow.

I got to hang a little wooden mitten I just bought on our front door. Our old door was not conducive to hanging decorations...

We have a landline for the first time in five years. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Did we just take a step back in technology?

So that's the quick update. The closing was smooth, quick. The move? Hard, but fun since we had so much help.

Sure, there's plenty to unpack, clean, and decorate. We are irked somewhat by the old lady curtains left behind, the peeling wallpaper, and unsatisfactory electrical work. But we wake up surrounded by the silence of the outdoors. We glance outside to see nature and not dirty trains. I get smiley when I pull into our driveway. We're on our way...there is so much to do that it's hard not to get overwhelmed. There is so much cleaning and on top of that there's the snowy weather that makes it even harder to keep things sparkling...

So it's back to work tomorrow.

Good thing it's a two-day week for me!

I'll Be Home for Christmas

So we're growing closer to D-day as my work friend likes to say.

We made a ton of progress last night with packing. All that's left are the items we need day-to-day like soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, sheets, um, the bed, hair products. There are my brown boots that don't give me a hard time when I wear them, my basket of knitting...since I don't ever really knit but would like to, and then a bunch of breakables in the kitchen.

Bub moved the sofas so that they face each other closely and hover near the remaining stray empty boxes.

There is dust and there are bunnies and there are also the turtles who must wonder what's going on.

We have one final item regarding the Christmas cards. Oh, and we're about 10 cards too short on supplies. But no big deal. They're the least important people anyway. Kidding.

Tomorrow I'll work a half day after we do a final walk through of our house. Then we'll close. And we'll release an old man of his childhood residence. Together Bub and I will begin a flood of new memories.

I think that although it is strange to be moving during such an off-season that the fact that it's Christmastime is helping. The XM carols, the decorations I see as I drive my long commute home. To think that this time next week I'll be working my last day of 2007 and have a mere 15 minutes to trek to and from our new house to the office sounds so nice.

I'm a bit anxious about settling and decorating. I like getting things done, crossed off my list, never to be thought about again. But we move in Saturday after an afternoon of cleaning tomorrow and we will not have yet steamed off the drab wallpaper or torn down the 60's drapes. In time, these things will get done. I want to get a feel for the space first. We moved into our condo after painting every inch of it. It was a little rushed towards the end. But since it was small, it was doable.

Not that our house is a McMansion, no, it's rather a cozy little abode that we are so excited to make ours, but all I wanted was to be home for Christmas. Fitting in renovations and painting would have interrupted the moving chain of events. And so we will be home for Christmas, we will be.

So I'm signing off until next week. Because I won't have a chance to write sooner and because, well, our Internet will be disconnected and I won't be at work either.

So until then, belt out some carols, drink some egg nog if you like it, and shop 'til you drop--but sneak in a fun gift for yourself. And if you live near where I do--good luck with the fluffy white stuff coming our way.

Whirlwind

We move in 3 days just in time for a snowstorm they are predicting for Sunday.

I haven't been to the gym in ahem I *think* a month and the only meal I had yesterday outside of dinner was that of anything Hershey's, thanks to a partner.

We've made good progress on the holiday cards. Another make your own project. I'm not sure what we were thinking by trying to make these and move in the same week.

My face hates me. The great zitfest of 2007. I have a zit on my neck that screams chicken pox. It looks like one of those things and since I'm pale it's smack dab in the center of my light skin. What gives? I'm already thinking about the new sweater/top I should buy in case it doesn't go away in time for Bub's Christmas party at work.

My arms feel fat as I type this and they squeeze against my body for warmth.

I'm freezing.

I have 2.5 days of work left this week and a 2-day week next week. Then I'm off until 2008. Reminding myself of this is what's getting me through the stress.

Our condo looks like it threw up boxes.

There is so much to do.

On the fun front, there's a local organic farmshare in our new town. We are already in the organic club and can start ordering organic fruits and veggies this week if we want.

Now all we need is a dog so that we can partake in the local dog park with Sass.

I still haven't gotten my period and I'm confident I'm not pregnant. But I've never missed a month so I wonder if I should call the gyn. Ugh.

More later.

Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?

I've been doing some soul searching lately and I haven't enjoyed it.

I've been complaining, whining, bossing, and acting like a plain old snob.

I think I'm in a rut.

I think the holiday bug has bit me, but in a I-must-be-obsessive-compulsive-and-get-all-this-stuff-done-so-that-we-can-enjoy-the-holidays mood. I've been barking at Bub, freaking myself out that after Bub's Christmas party, the night before we close, that we'll be all holiday-cute and stuffing boxes with newspaper-wrapped items until dawn instead of snuggling in our warm bed and celebrating that we're moving! and to our first house! and yeah!

Last week I emailed several friends and family members to help us move in 10 days, a mere 10 days before Christmas and the response? Overwhelmingly positive. I don't get it. Ask me to do that for someone else and I would have laughed at the computer screen and told Bub, are they for real?

So for this I am grateful, but I don't know what it is about my 'tude that is making me this way. I think I'm stressed.

So, moving on to more stress. What the hell do I buy my sister? She is not a girly-girl, her birthday is in a little over a week and the best I can do? The best I can do is think that a set of knives is a good gift.

Someone set me straight.

See, my sister lives in her condo and is a bonafide work-aholic. That is fine and that is what her work is all about--the client--and deadlines--and I could never do it because you need to know math. And so yeah. I thought knives would be a good gift because we went and carved pumpkins before Halloween at her place and she said she had this one crappy knife aside from a kit she bought. She needs some home love. Knives could help, right?

And the funniest part is? Bub thinks knives are OK for her gift too. Um, can you imagine if we go through with this and get her knives?

This gets better. So we decided on a Restoration Hardware gift cert for Bub's parents. They are doing some remodeling and Bub's mother told me how she really likes the store, so we think this is a great gift idea. Except apparently I go haywire with gifts (I know, I am about to purchase knives, but go with me here) and Bub's mom is all like we're asking for no gifts or to spend no more than $25. They are sweet, and all like, you just bought a house so please don't concern yourself with buying gifts. But hello? You can buy like 2 coffees at Starbucks and a piece of gingerbread and go over that amount. So we decide to get a gift cert for Bub's mom and dad thereby making it $50 ($25 for Mother-in-Law and $25 for Father-in-Law). I still think this is too little so we think that getting a small something else as a joint gift will complete the giving.

So what do we get? I don't want to get something geared towards one gender more than another or else it's not a joint gift and so at least three times Bub has suggested that we get.... socks (as in the things you put on your tootsies) as a gift.

Hi Mother-in-Law, how are you? Oh, yes, enjoy the gift certificate, complete with your socks. We got you the special white kind. We didn't want to go over the maximum amount, so no gold-toe brands were purchased.

Although the woman who thought I was preggers earlier this year? She bought me socks for Christmas last year.

I won't knock them though, they are pretty nice.

Phone is ringing, ohmygod!

Work this time every quarter blows balls. Literally. And if you're offended by my language, you should hear me talk to Bub after work on these days when I am up to my ears in this quarterly task.

First, it's the emails. "I was wondering if you could tell me our number for this quarter?"

Umm...no, I can't, but yes, you and 303 other partners would like to know that, I know. I'm sorry it's incovenient for you to have to contact me to find this out because your happy little check with the report hasn't arrived on your desk. But I'm the one still stuffing envelopes with an immature intern because this is what I do each quarter. And this quarter? This one has been one of the worst since I started working here.

So then you start calling. "Thanksgiving is around the corner. We need that lift. All those returns."

Not my problem. Wait. It's only the 15th TODAY. That means I tell you nothing before then unless I'm really, really nice. I was for this person.

I'm also starting to fret because the Tuesday after Thanksgiving I am getting on a train (again, a very early one) with my boss and her boss and another VP...so that we can go to the sales conference of one big to-do partner and present in front of a number of people, all of whom have super duper fancy titles. And though I feel a tiny bit important having the opportunity to attend this, my boss wants me to speak in front of said people.

I may just die.

I took the public speaking class in college. I did swimmingly well. But something about work and presenting in front of my boss's boss, whom I've never presented in front of before, coupled with all these important peeps makes me want to secretly scream and hide under a blanket.

My boss said it will be good "practice"...Silently I thought, for what? Practice for my...job? As in the one I have now?

I told her I'm happy to sit in a chair and listen. That didn't go over too well.

She laughed.

On the good news front, we signed the P&S yesterday (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Some think that is great (I am one of those people), but some feel as though it's also sad. (We just wrote one big honkin' check.)

The Country

So my immediate family and in-laws know about the house. As do some of our friends. And the responses have been great. Some have had a twist where you can tell people don't know much about the town we're moving to so they say what they've heard about it, stereotypes included. That's OK with me because as I learned with planning my wedding, everyone has a frigging opinion about something.

So it's no secret that we're moving to the 'burbs. Yes, yes we are. And right now we are in the city with trains and cars and students and noise and convenience. We can walk or ride the train and don't need a car, but we do and we like having one to take us when the train is packed with obnoxious students or Red Sox fans. I digress.

Now we will move to a suburb. Sure, we'll be farther away from some of our favorite bars and restaurants. We won't have the building maintenance guy around any old time we need him to pick our lock when we get locked out of our condo while doing laundry. In the basement. Oh, and laundry? I won't miss doing that whole coin-operated thing down five flights of stairs and up again.

I grew up in a suburb and it wasn't until my first job when most people lived in Boston and wondered how people could do it. Live in a suburb. Where is everything? What is there to do? And I never considered my upbringing in a suburb because we weren't that far from the city. My hometown has changed, and for the better, but it's still too familiar for me to return to it in a different part of my life: as an adult. I love to visit, and the church I went to growing up is forever in my heart because that's where we got married, but I need something new. But don't get me wrong, I will always cherish my roots there.

And Bub, he didn't grow up in a city either so when we put in our offer for this house and we said to each other: Wow, this could be it, we felt the shock.

This is going to be our new surburban life.

But it wasn't until I started to spread the news about our house when people said that they really liked the idea of living in the country.

The country?

To me country is cows, manure, fields, and farms. It's not a suburb so much as it's like, you know, the country.

There are no cows where we are moving, but wait, we heard that the dairy there has the greatest ice cream....

It has not fields but forests because the town is home to various trails and conservation lands...

But we haven't seen any farms or smelled manure, er, not yet at least. I smelled enough of that in my later years of college because the farms were literally down the road and it really was country there. It smelled the worst during the summer. Open up the windows for fresh...manure scent.

So how do I feel when people say "Oh, I'd love to live in the country"?

Well, I think there must be a new outfit I can buy to fit the part.

The Next Step

We've done it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We put in an offer, negotiated, and agreed on a price.

Our inspection takes place on Halloween.

It's happening.

And we even know which room will be the nursery for that Next Step.

It will be bittersweet to move from here, the home we made our own and learned to love together.

Although I helped with the painting (or thought I did), it was Bub's home first. He did all the heavy hitting with being Mr. Homeowner. I remember the phone calls as I listened to the drama that came with the negotiations. I remember listening to the home inspector, and I remember as I sat quietly at the closing. I've always felt that it was my home from day one, but this is different. This new home will be our first house.

This is me being a grown up.

When did I become one?!!!