Autumn Dreaming...

Hello all! I hope everyone has had a good and eventful July. Only one more month of Summer! I'm so thankful. Even though this summer has been incredibly mild, I'm definitely ready for fall. I know July isn't even over yet, but I've started to look at fall tags on Pintrest and Tumblr. I even went crazy and ordered two cute pairs of boots online today. I'm going to look so cute this fall.
I don't know why but I have good feelings about the upcoming season. Work is finally settling into some normalcy now that I finally found a replacement for my old position, we'll be going home in a little over a month, plus fall is just beautiful. I get as eager as a little kid on Christmas this time of year. It doesn't seem to last very long here though. It seems like one minute it's summer, the next the leaves have changed, a week later it's snowing. Which is depressing because I have always been so in love with East coast autumns. I think I may need to go to Connecticut or something to get a more substantial fall season. Sigh...
It hasn't been too eventful around here lately. We work, we come home, we go to work again... We still haven't been kayaking. It just never seems to pan out. We have made it to the pool at least. We spent the fourth at our friend's apartment, poolside with drinks in hand. It was nice and relaxing. I still can't believe I haven't been to the beach this summer though. It is a drive, but I mean, we're on the East Coast... Aren't you sort of required to go to the beach??
In other news.... I think I may actually be going back to school this fall. I applied and signed up for classes, but I was hesitating on the tuition. I knew we wouldn't get any aid and I was worried once I saw the total I'd freak out and bail. Luckily, it seems that it is going to cost half of what I thought and student loans should cover it! I was really concerned about having to take out a whole bunch of private loans that would just eat away at us. But student loans I can live with. I figure everyone has student loan debt they have to deal with and mine really won't be too bad once I'm finished. I could always save a little from each paycheck and have the amount basically ready to go when I finish. I'm excited and nervous about starting school up again. I've been out for awhile and I'm worried I'll be a little rusty or won't remember how certain things are supposed to go. I mean, I haven't written a research paper in over 4 years... I think I have to go in knowing I may not do as well initially as I'm  used to doing in school. Straight A's my first semester may not be realistic. I'm also a little apprehensive about the tole it will take scheduling wise. Working 40 hours plus school plus being married... it's going to be a lot to handle. I'm going to have to stop any and all time wasters and schedule out my days and follow accordingly.
I hope it works out though. It's well past time that I did it. Tyler will be out of the military sooner than we want and I want to be prepared for anything.
That's all for now! Have a good night!!
Chrissy

Fourth of July... Poolside.

Dinner??

Car selfies for life.

I am my own best date ever.

I may have went a little crazy at the used bookstore...

Enjoying cool weather...

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Lazy Days of Summer? Wishful Thinking...

Hello all!! Another month is drawing to a close. We're officially less than six months away from Christmas. How insane is that?! I swear I say this every year, but every year goes by more quickly than the last. Fourth of July is in a week. The next big holiday after that is Halloween! Crazy.
June has been a blur. I literally don't think I did anything but work. Nothing eventful or too exciting. How depressing is that? I am still only doing 40 hours a week, but doing the job of two people is exhausting leaving me no energy for anything exciting after work. I was hoping July would bring some relief, but it looks like I'm still on my own. I'm hoping we get my old position filled soon so my schedule can change a bit. Hopefully, I won't have to work as many weekends since my old position required me to work almost every Sunday. It'll be nice to, you know, actually hang out with my husband.
Speaking of my husband, we finally found him a truck! It was such a huge weight off of our shoulders to finally find one. It was more expensive than I was hoping for and overpriced, but it was exactly what he wanted so I didn't complain. Now if he would only take care of his two non-working motorcycles and get rid of the truck that no longer works....
Despite finally getting a truck, we haven't been kayaking yet this summer. I can't believe it either. But our schedules just haven't matched up. I'm way too tired after work to go for even a quick trip and he has classes on Saturday and I work Sundays. Sigh.. I'm hoping we get to go out for the Fourth since I managed to get the day off. I'm looking forward to getting on the water and spending some quality time together.
We've started to really plan our trip home in September for Ty's sister's wedding. I asked off for two weeks which my boss wasn't thrilled about. But I haven't taken any sort of vacation the entire year I've been there and I have plenty of PTO for it so he can deal with it. We've decided to drive too which is going to take away two of our days. It's just going to be easier than finding something to do with Pheobe and way cheaper. I'm looking forward to getting out of town and seeing the family. It'll be stressful having to drive all over the freaking Midwest to see everyone we need to see, but oh well. I can't believe it'll have been almost 2 years since we've been home. That's the longest we've ever gone without going home. All part of being the family members living a thousand miles away I suppose. I wonder if it'll feel strange at all. I know it will. Everything is different back home than when we were there. On my side of the family at least. My mother is married and in a different town with his kids. My dad is married and in his wife's hometown. My little sister is married and in a different city. Luckily, Ty's side is all pretty much in the same place. Sure, his sister is getting re-married, but she's been living with him for over a year, so no real change there. It's strange to think that my family have new families that I've never met. I've only met my mom's husband once when they came to visit before they got married. I've never met his kids or been to their house. I've spent a little time with my dad's wife before we moved out here, but I've never been to their new house or met her kids. I've never met my sister's husband (still too weird to say). Yet another drawback to living so far away.
As much as I feel a disconnect to my family now being so far away, I like that we have our own life out here. I like that we aren't stuck in the same towns we grew up in. I like that we don't have our families constantly looking over our shoulders or butting in. We've done it all on our own. Sink or swim, it's just the two of us. I definitely think that has helped our marriage. We figure out how to deal with things and each other on our own.
I'll stop my rambling there...
Hopefully everyone has an exciting Fourth of July! I'll spend my kayaking and then drinking and eating by the pool... sounds so nice right now. Can this week get over with already??? Until next time!

Birthday dinner outfit. I own this dress in three colors....

Did I mention I love to lift? If not, here's a douchey post-workout photo to show you

Rainy days and big mugs of coffee make for very unproductive days off..

5:30 am has it's perks..

I've started filling in my eyebrows (really random) and I think it's the best life choice I've ever made.

New hair!!

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This Thing Called Life...

Well, May has turned out to be quite the eventful month...
We are fully moved in to our new place and are still in love with it. It definitely feels like home. Except to poor Pheobe... I don't know if I've mentioned before, but she's afraid of walking on tile/hardwood floors. And our new living room and dining room are hardwood. She immediately took up residence on the bottoms stairs and entry rug in front of the front door. It took a lot of coaxing, but we finally got her to walk from the door to her dog bed in the dining room where her food is. She didn't like it and some times took one of us calling her, but she got used to it. Well, I'm not sure if she slipped at some point or what, but now she won't cross the living room at all. We have to drag her across. It's worrying me because I know she's only getting food and water when we drag her to it, but I just keep thinking if she gets really hungry she'll just go for it. Sigh... weird dog.
One unfortunate thing that May has brought us is the death of Ty's truck. We knew it was coming eventually. I mean, the thing has been lopsided for a good 9 months. But we just kept thinking it would hang on until the fall. Obviously, it didn't. It just wouldn't start one day and there's no way we're putting money into it to get it fixed (it's 20 years old and a pos) but now he's without a vehicle. Ok, that's technically not true. He does have two motorcycles, but neither of them happen to work at the moment. (Insert eye roll here) So we've been sharing my car which means him shuttling me to work at 5 am and me waiting around an hour and a half after my shift for him to get off of work. Then I'm without a car on my days off so I've been stranded at home. It's been stressful. He's been looking for a new vehicle forever it seems, but a. he's insanely picky and b. when we find one we're interested in, it doesn't work out for whatever reason. I am hoping and praying that we find one soon... Not just because it'll be less stressful, but because he can't take his bikes to be repaired without one and I'd like to go kayaking sometime this summer!!
Besides that drawback, May has treated us pretty well. It was my birthday this last week. The not so big 24. I didn't really plan on doing much besides going out the weekend before. I took a three day weekend to treat myself. Unfortunately, Ty was in class all day Saturday and the rest of the evening was spent driving an hour away to look at a truck. I was a little disappointed that we didn't go out to a fancy meal or anything, but the next day we spent together. We had doughnuts the size of our faces and ice cream and laid around watching the Big Bang Theory all day. Nothing too eventful but it was nice just to spend the day with him. On my actual birthday we did go out to eat, but after him working all day and me having to be up super early for work the next morning, it wasn't too crazy. It's weird to think I'm 24. Almost a quarter of a century has passed since I've been on this Earth.. Some days I don't feel like I've accomplished anything. But then I glance at my husband and our pup and think about the places I've been, I'm pretty content with where I'm at. I'm still young. I don't need to be a huge success or to have it all figured out at this point in my life. I'm incredibly happy and that's all that matters.
The next day at work I received a surprising birthday present. I was promoted! Not too shabby of a gift, huh? I wasn't really expecting it to happen this quickly or how it did. I knew it was going to happen by the end of the year, but I figured I'd have to go to another store or something like that. But it turns out the person above me is leaving the company. So they gave me the job! It was between me and another girl at the same level as I am, but I have more experience with this position and this position directly oversees mine so it makes more sense for me to have it. I officially start next week. I'm really excited about it, but also a little nervous. It's going to mean less super early mornings but more closing shifts which I'm not thrilled about.It's also way more responsibility and doing things I'm not used to. I'm basically going to be in charge of keeping the store running and all of the paperwork completed. But the pay is nice and it's nice to finally be on an upward progression with my job. I was in the same position for four year due to me moving around. And now I'm promoted again in less than a year! Not too bad... It's interesting to see how far I can get without a degree. I mean, I'm still "planning' on going back this fall, but I've made it pretty far without one. Old Navy is not my dream career, but I enjoy what I do. And you can make a decent living from it if you keep working your way up. There's always somewhere to go with it, which I like.
The hubs and I had the day off together today for Memorial Day. We had planned to hang out with friends by the pool all day, but they sort of bailed so we did what we do best: drink, eat, and shop. It was nice, but it would have been more fun to drink by the pool I think...
I hope you all had a more eventful Memorial Day! Remember what the day is really about: All of those who fought and have fallen for our freedom. To them, we give our thanks and owe our lives.
Until next time!
Chrissy

Birthday flowers from my mamma

Spring in our new neighborhood.. 

We told her to sit and I think she just panicked...

Lazy day...

Didn't I tell you they were huge?!

This is my "Hey, I'm 24" face

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Hello May... I've Been Waiting for You...

May is finally here! One of my favorite months. And not just because it's my birthday month, although that helps. Spring is in full swing, the weather is lovely, and winter has finally melted away. I have good feelings about this month. It's going to be great.

Well, we pretty much spent all of April moving. We got the keys to the new place on the 10th and moved non-stop up until the end. We took car-fulls at a time since we didn't want to rent a u-haul. It was exhausting with just the two of us but we did it. Unfortunately, the moving was followed up with unpacking and cleaning our old place. Somehow the cleaning was left to me... hmm... It wasn't too awful but cleaning 3 floors is still rough. I started to panic last week when we were having difficulty finding an exterminator and carpet cleaner. I couldn't find a carpet cleaner under $400 and exterminators were running $300! I thought that was ridiculous since the whole reason we were doing it was to get our pet deposit back which was only $500. I almost said screw it and just walked away as is. But we luckily did find affordable places and got it done in the nick of time. Now we just wait and see if we get our full deposit back. 

I am so relieved to finally be finished with everything and to be out. It was insanely stressful worrying about getting everything moved and cleaned and taken care of. Luckily our new place is smaller so it'll be much easier to deal with when we leave. We're loving our new house. It's exactly what we needed. There are some quirks about it since it is about 10 years older than our last house, but nothing too major. The decorating  bug has gotten to me. I want to make this house really look nice. For some reason, we never really "settled" at our last one. We didn't hang pictures and had a lot of unpacked boxes. I want to live in this house. Even if this isn't our permanent home, we should treat it like it is.

Besides moving which has taken up most of our life, I've officially enrolled in classes for the fall. I'm still deciding if I'm regretting it. I'm hoping once the bill comes that I don't back out. I need to get over the fact that I'll have loans. Everyone else in the middle class does too. I just need to do it. I really don't know if I'll do anything with a degree, but it has earning power at least. I know doing school and working full time will be difficult, but now's the time. Ty will be out of the military soon and I'd like to have a degree under my belt by then. That way, if I  need to get a better paying job, it'll be a little easier.

We managed to fit in a nice Easter amid the chaos. We had friends over for brunch and mimosas and it was amazing.. I LOVE breakfast food. I wish I could eat like that all of the time. But I'd way 200 lbs in a week... After a post-mimosa nap, we went over to their place for dinner. It's nice to have another couple to hang out with sometimes. They enjoy doing things that we like which helps.

We actually went to a baseball game with that couple as well. It was my first MLB game. We went straight after I got off of work and got dinner after stopping by the hotel. Dinner took awhile to get to us, but we weren't complaining since the drinks were tasty even though we missed the first inning. We finally made and I was surprised how good our seats were. We could see everything. Baseball isn't really my thing, but it was fun to be in the crowd and experience it with friends. Unfortunately I had to be at work at 6am the next day so I passed out right after the game. I'd really like to do it again on a weekend that I don't have to work that way I can really enjoy it. 

Not much else is going on with us. Moving takes up most of your life. We're anxiously waiting for our first kayaking expedition, but we've had a ton of rain so it'll have to wait. I have a feeling we're going to spend most of the summer on the water which is fine with me. It's a free activity at least! 

That's all I have for now. Hopefully May is treating you all well so far!! :)

Unpacking...

She is not thrilled about all of the hardwood...

Home sweet home...

Easter dress...

This happened...

Sometimes you should just buy yourself some flowers...

Aren't we cute??

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On to Something New...

Well hello there!! Long time no...see? Write? Whatever. Sorry for the absence but we've actually had quite a bit going on.
First off, we're moving! Finally we found a place we love. It's not exactly what we were looking for but it's cute nonetheless. We've started the packing process and get our keys tomorrow. I'm really excited to move and start somewhere fresh, but it's been stressful. House hunting was torture. Getting my husband to lower his expectations to reality was difficult. I searched Homes.com everyday for months. Everything was either too far away, too expensive, or not what we were looking for. We wanted an actual house with a yard which is very hard to come by around here unless you want to pay for it or be about 30 minutes away. If we couldn't find a house, we agreed we'd take another townhome, but only if it was cheaper than where we're at now. I couldn't find anything that fit for the longest time, but we finally found something that looked decent online and when we went to see it, we fell in love. It is a townhome, but a little smaller (which is what we want) and about 200 cheaper than our place now. It's only about ten minutes away from where we're at now but it's in a new town and doesn't really effect either of our commutes. I'm really excited about it. It's got beautiful hardwood floors on the main floor and is the perfect size for us. Unfortunately, the actual moving out part is proving to be stressing. The day after I informed our landlord we would be ending our lease at the end of the month, he called letting us know he already had a showing. So we frantically cleaned our house in the 2 hours we had before they arrived. I couldn't believe he did that. Since then we've had a showing about every other day which means we have to keep our house looking presentable which is sometimes a challenge when you work at 5 or 6 am. I'm also a little worried about getting our security deposit back. We haven't done anything to the property but there are some minor issues that we discovered pretty much since we first arrived but they didn't bother us so we didn't mention them. I'm afraid those things are going to get blamed on us and they're going to screw us out of our money. Plus, we have to get our carpets cleaned and the house exterminated since we have a pet. The carpet cleaning itself is inching close to 400 with how big the place is and our pet deposit was only 500. Sigh. I wish I could just say screw it, have them keep the deposit and take care of it all. The only good thing is that our lease can't end until the end of the month but we're starting to move in to the new place tomorrow. So we've got some time to make sure everything's clean and ready to go.
So that's what we've had going on. It's been a busy month.
We've had some bad news too last month. My great-grandmother passed away early in March. She was 90, so it didn't come as a complete shock, but it was upsetting nonetheless. We had thought she was going to pass a hundred times in the last 10 or so years, but she always managed to pull through. So it was hard wrapping my mind around the fact that this time she didn't. It was and is surreal for me. Since I'm not there and wasn't there to experience everything, it doesn't feel like it actually happened. It hit my mother hard though. She was the last of her parents. I was sad for her more than anything else. I didn't make it home for the funeral. I knew with the move coming up we didn't have the extra money. But I know my mother and my great-grandmother were surrounded by people who cared about them, so I didn't worry.
Spring has finally arrived it seems. The cold has finally broken. It's going to be almost 70 this week. I'm anxious for what this season holds and all of the beauty and new beginnings it brings.
Chrissy

Spring.

Yum

Sunshine... Finally.

I made this. I'm so domestic. 

Today: Packing.... so much packing. And coffee of course

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