Move Update & Some Fun Links

We are officially in our new house!  We had a ton of awesome helpers this weekend and everything went pretty smoothly.

 Our entertainment center being sent to it's final resting place in the burn pit!

There's still a ton of work to do, but it feels good to be in!  Our immediate to-do list consists of painting the living room and purchasing new couches.  I think we're going furniture shopping on Friday.  Then next weekend someone is coming to look at our chimney and we're getting an estimate for installing a fence.  I'm not quite ready to share a house tour or anything, but here's a sneak peak at the bedroom that we painted.

We obviously need to hang curtains and stuff on the walls, etc.  But I love how a fresh coat of paint alone can really transform a space.  More about the house soon to come, but in the meantime how about some fun links?!

• Just so you know, this video is definitely not work appropriate so bust out those headphones, but I seriously love it! 

• Speaking of love, who loves their crockpot?!  I haven't been using mine nearly enough.  We're trying this slow cooker chicken tikka masala for dinner tomorrow.

 

• This apple pie smoothie might be dessert.

• This video might be life changing.  This is one of my most hated tasks.

• I love this trick for finding the best prices online!

• I'm obsessed with this little corner.  I'm still brainstorming how to organize and decorate my dressing room. 

 

• And let's plan a road trip, ok?!  Who am I kidding... I hate long car rides, let's book our flights ;)

Have you purchased living room furniture recently?  Where did you get it from?  Any recommendations or advice?

Tomorrow!

OMG OMG OMG we're moving tomorrow!!!!!  Most of our house is packed up but I'm still beyond belief that this is actually happening.  I thought our tiny house didn't have that much stuff in it, but when we started going through everything, it ended up being more than I thought!  We've done our best to sort through things as we go, donating what we can and trashing the rest, but as we approach the deadline things are starting to just get shoved into boxes and bags!  We have both friends and family coming first thing tomorrow with some pick up trucks and another set of loved ones coming Sunday to help us unpack.  We've already had so much help with the house and we are so grateful that we have people that care about us so much!

I'm getting so pumped to organize and arrange everything in the new house (I know I'll be taking this back later lol).  I'm excited to dive into the world of decorating and I've been jonesing for a huge shopping trip to Home Goods, Ikea, and Bed Bath & Beyond.  I stopped into Ross yesterday to purchased some new sheets, bath mats, and a shower curtain, but I'm not letting myself do any major shopping until we get in and see what we have.  Our wedding gifts have been sitting in their boxes since my shower in March, opening them is going to be like Christmas!

 Thanks for the photo & the help, Shayna!

Poor Puddin' does not understand what's going on.  She's been to the new house quite a few times and she knows something's up, but it seems like she thinks we're leaving her behind.  She's been anxious and super needy, I feel so bad.  It also seems like she knows that she's losing the freedom she has where we currently live.  Since our neighborhood is so close knit and she's always been so good, we've been letting her roam around unrestricted for a while.  Usually when we call her to come in, she appears a minute or two later, but yesterday she didn't come back.  So I went searching for her up by our neighbors'.  I couldn't find her, but suddenly a bunch of deer came running from the woods with Puddin' right on their tails!  She disappeared a second time and I found her getting love from a bunch of our neighbors standing around having a beer.  At the new house we're surrounded by neighbors we don't know, a new pooch next door, and a semi busy road, so Puddin' will be limited to a run strung up between two trees.  She has access to most of the yard, but it definitely won't be the same.  We want to put in a fence soon (especially since I want to add another pup to our family!), but for the time being... womp womp for Puddin'.

In other news, I skipped the gym all week since I figured any spare time I had should be dedicated to packing (or sleeping).  They're doing maxes all week and everyone is hitting all these new PRs that have been exploding all over Facebook and Instagram.  Let's just say I'm a little jealous!  I've also been eating like crap and (here's a big shocker) feeling like crap because of it.  October is already such a busy time with cheerleading but adding in the move has taken it to another level and cooking healthy meals has not been a priority.  I'm looking forward to getting settled in our new house and breaking in my new kitchen!

Speaking of cheerleading, my girls had their first competition this past weekend.  Unfortunately, most of the squads in our area do not field the max amount of girls (35 - which is how many we have, that's right, I coach 35 13 & 14 year old girls, let that soak in a minute...), so we ended up in the large category by ourselves.  But we still had to meet a minimum score to advance and we wanted to make sure we held up our reputation of last year's National Champions.  Our practices leading up to competition had been a rollercoaster of hard work, injuries, progress, and drama, but the girls looked so great on the warm up mat and I knew they were ready to rock the floor.  Unfortunately, we had some major falls and a few other errors on the mat.  But overall the caliber of the routine was above & beyond all of the other squads and we managed to meet the minimum score to move on!  I believe the day was a good learning experience and perhaps just the kick in the pants the girls needed.  This is my 15th season coaching and my 15th season advancing my squad to Regionals.  Yeah buddy!

From Regionals last year!

This past year has been so full of blessings that it's hard to think it can get any better than this!  I feel like the luckiest girl in the world and I do not take any of it for granted!  Moving out of Midgley Lane is slightly bittersweet and it really feels like the end of an era, but I know soon we'll be settled in, having friends & family over for dinner, and snuggling up on the couch in a place we call home.  Thank you for all the support and for following along on our adventures on this little blog :)

Oh and almost forgot, today marks 5 months of marriage!  Love you husband!

Any last minute moving tips for us?!

Spill the Beans!

Most of our family and friends know by now, but we did keep it a secret for quite some time.  And now it's finally time to let everyone know...

We're moving!

Dave has lived in our little old house for over 7 years (since he graduated college) and I moved in 2.5 years ago.  It was a perfect spot for a bachelor and then a young couple plus a pooch.  But now that we're married and our 30th birthdays aren't so far away anymore (yikes), it's time to move on.

Photo cred goes to Megan!

Our new house is about 10 minutes away from where we live now.  Although Valley Forge National Park won't actually be in our backyard anymore, it's still super close and we have a creek that runs along the edge of our yard, so we can pretend.  The house is huge with 5 bedrooms and 3.5 baths!  The storage space is unreal.  We have a wood stove and a fireplace.  There's a huge back deck.  The school district is awesome.  There's a nice park and a local trail right down the street.  It's an amazing house (minus the often soggy backyard and super steep driveway - yes, we'll be investing in a snow blower)!

Courtesy of googlemaps - hence some of the weird glitches in the photo.  I owe you a better one!

The house belonged to Dave's grandparents.  His grandfather moved into a gorgeous retirement community about 2 months ago.  Although the grief from his grandmother passing in February is still present, I know that her love will live on in the house.  I think of how unique it will be to create memories with our own family in the same house Dave grew up spending time with loved ones and celebrating holidays in.  Although I can't say we're sticking with the ivy wallpaper themed kitchen, there are plenty of details and decorations in the house that will continue to remind us of Dee for years to come.

We're slowly but surely prepping the house for our move in, but we've been so busy that it's sort of been on the back burner.  We're currently removing wallpaper, picking out paint colors, and doing lots of cleaning.  We're also working on meeting with a contractor to redo the master bathroom (goodbye tile & stand up shower).  Our goal is to move in sometime in October.  It sounds so far away, but there's plenty of work to do and my weekdays are currently consumed with cheerleading!  Did I mention I've never painted a room before?

At some point I'll have to do a house tour, but in the meantime...

Do you guys have any painting tips?  What's your favorite living room wall color?