Getting settled in

Our apartment has pretty much been a disaster since we returned from the honeymoon. All of our wedding frames sat empty in a corner of the living room. The Hawaii photo albums we bought sat unfilled on the floor. There was just random crap everywhere from redecorating, piles of things we didn't want anymore or needed to take to Goodwill. And we were sick of it, but never had time to catch up on anything. With me working, Rick working, my Grad school, social engagements on weekends, and trying to work out and cook, our days were pretty much filled.

We vowed to get some crap together this weekend. Rick had today off, so we went to the Apple Orchard for a little fun. We got there at the perfect time; there wasn't even a wait to get in. We stocked up on all sorts of {unhealthy} goodies: caramel apples (to be fair, I got regular apples too), apple cider donuts, apricot preserves, and caramel corn nuggets, which taste just like caramel popcorn, except light and airier. I've already dug into that bag! Then we stopped at Home Depot, so Rick could get some stuff to (finally) hang some pictures.

I should mention that our Saturday night was spent picking out a ton of pics to print at Walgreen's. We were literally there for about 1.5 hours. Before we went, we wrote down every pic we needed for different frames and albums and what size we needed. We meticulously went through and picked out each picture, one by one. While we were waiting for them to develop, we decided we might as well get our flu shots, since we were there. It was a rockin' Saturday night, let me tell you. Flu vaccines and printing pictures at a Walgreens.

It took awhile, but Rick hung two of our big frames this afternoon! One was a photo montage frame of a bunch of wedding pics, and one is our photo mat frame that we had our guests sign at our reception. They both look great! We also filled a bunch of stand-alone frames, and I started putting honeymoon pictures in our Hawaii albums. We still have a lot of crap left out that we need to find a home for, but we are getting there, slowly but surely. We also need to put our fall decorations out on our balcony and toss the dead flowers that currently reside there from this summer. I don't know about you, but I feel very stressed when my house is a mess. I hate coming home and being here when there's stuff all over, so it feels good to finally get the clean-up process started. Now my closet is a whole other story....

We made a decision on the house I posted about last week. We are holding off on moving until after the holidays. Rick was called back for a second interview for that job I posted about (4 are called back out of 12 candidates), so if he gets it, we will be looking at places in a whole different price point. It is also hectic to move. I would much rather deal with that once my Grad school is over than right now, when things are so crazy. Plus, I just ordered return address labels and checks with our current address! I am NOT re-ordering all new ones so soon lol. So that's what we decided about that. We'll have one more Christmas at this place, and after the New Year, start looking again.

We have been doing better about working out/cooking at home. We cooked at home this entire week, and even had leftovers last night instead of going out. We are looking for good new fall recipes to try, so if you have any, pass them this way.

Something I want to try (though Rick is skeptical) is Dough-less Pizza. 

It's basically a cauliflower crust pizza. It looks good to me! It might be weird to eat pizza without the dough, but I would be up for giving it a try. Would you eat dough-less pizza? What toppings would you put on it to keep it healthy? If we end up making it, I'll do a full review on here.

I should go help straighten up the place. I will try to post more often; life is just very hectic right now! Hope all our friends are doing well :)

Indecision....

So this morning we went to look at a house for rent. As some of you know, we've been wanting to get out of apartment living for awhile now. I have been living in apartments since I was 20 years old and am ready for either a stand-alone house or a duplex, attached on just one side.

Our must-haves:

• in-house laundry
• at least a one car garage
• 2 bedrooms
• yard/outdoor entertaining area
• allow us to paint
• allow pets (for our future dog!)

Our wish list (We'd really LIKE to have):

• three bedrooms
• 2 baths
• 2 car garage
• dining room/area
• walk-in closet
• attached garage

We found a cute house for rent on a cul-de-sac and checked it out this morning. Now we are completely undecided. It has a lot of what we're looking for: hardwood floors, huge yard, they allow pets, two bedrooms upstairs and one that could be used as a bedroom downstairs, brand new washer/dryer, two car (detached) garage and in a safe neighborhood.


However, the closet space really worries us. I currently have a walk-in, plus Rick has a pretty large closet plus we have a large hall closet. This place only has three small closets. I honestly don't think my clothes alone would fit in them! It also doesn't have a separate dining room, so our kitchen table would have to go in the kitchen, and we'd have to put one of the sides down and only put three chairs around it, as one side would be flush with the wall.


Those are our two biggest concerns. Otherwise, we really like it. The rent they're asking is a little high, but they said it was negotiable. So now we have to weigh all the pros and cons and make a decision soonish (move-in date would be Oct. 15!!!!) We'd also have to break our current lease (which he had planned on doing when we moved).


I'm not asking for you to tell us what to do, as I know this is a decision only we can make. But would these cons be a deal-breaker for you? What are your must-haves in a living space?


Here are some pics of the house:

Thoughts on marriage....

How come so many of the phraseology we use to denote marriage has a negative connotation? Getting hitched. Taking the plunge. The old ball and chain. True, it is a huge decision not to be taken lightly. And lots of couples go through a lot of stress and worry when deciding to "settle down" or take that next step. For Rick and me, it wasn't that big of a deal.

I don't mean for that to sound insensitive. But when you have been together as long as we were, plus you lived together beforehand, most everything you could know about the other person, you already do. Sure, marriage brings with it legality. Now if I get sick of you, I can't just run away to the nearest Holiday Inn. Well, I could, but legally I'm still tied to you. It also might bring joint checking accounts, new last names (which are a pain in the butt, by the way), and joint holidays that you now divvy up between families. It might bring talk of children, or in our case, pets. But most of all, I think it just brings about learning how to live your usual, boring, everyday lives with each other without totally driving each other crazy. So here is just our experience in a nutshell and what we found most important to learn before getting hitched.

1. Learn each others' little quirks. When we first moved in together, Rick and I had an issue with towels. I grew up washing a towel after every individual use. Rick grew up re-using a towel for the entire week, which grossed me out. We drove each other nuts with our opposite towel ideas. This seems trivial, but it's one example of how we learned to compromise. We don't use towels for the whole week, but I have slowly learned to re-use them once (maybe twice) and not freak out about one hanging over the towel rack in the bathroom. Rick has accepted that we will do laundry more than he is used to. I'm glad we got that sorted out before we got married.

2. FINANCES are a big one, especially if you are making different salaries and/or have different ideas about spending and saving. I don't blow money, but I am not as frugal as Rick. If I see a pair of shoes I ZOMG have to have, and it won't empty my checking account, I usually buy them. Rick wears his t-shirts until they're practically threadbare. If I have one piece of advice (and again, take all this with a grain of salt seeing as we've only been married a month and a half), it would be to get your crap in order regarding money. Do you want separate or joint accounts? Do you have to discuss all purchases with each other before doing them? How much do you want to save? What are your financial goals in life (buying a house, vacation fund, etc.)? We may only have been married a short while, but we have been a couple for almost 7 years and have had many many money discussions over the years, some where we got frustrated and it didn't go anywhere, some where we had a good talk and accomplished something. We are currently on the same page money-wise and it has made the transition into marriage so much easier.

3. You should probably talk about kids. Luckily, we haven't been hounded with the "When are you having kids?" question since getting married. All in due time, I'm sure. We have both decided we are still way too selfish and have way too much other stuff we want to do right now before having kids, but we definitely want a dog as soon as we live somewhere that allows one.  We're not sure if we want kids in the future or not. But we are both on the same page with that. If one of us definitely wanted them and one of us didn't, I would assume that would lead to problems and/or resentment in the future, which would be not fun.

4. Remember what you fell in love with. I feel like our honeymoon period only lasted for the literal honeymoon. Because when we came back, the "real world" slapped us in the face rather quickly. I had a bunch of Grad school homework to get finished in a week, plus planning a new class for work. Rick started working right away again. We had a ton of wedding gifts we had no room for, our apartment was a mess, I was struggling to get back on track with eating well and working out, and we were just exhausted and missing vacation. It felt like normal life, like what it was like before the wedding and fantasy land. That's OK. Real life happens. Amidst the bills, work, car issues, grocery shopping, and cleaning, it's good to remember what you fell in love with when you first started dating that made you want to marry the other person. It's good to still hold hands on date nights, open the door for your significant other (guys), have picnics on your living room floor, go out to movies, dance in your living room, and give each other surprise gifts "just because." No, those things don't pay the bills, but they make your life fun and enjoyable and keep your marriage alive and fun.

So, we are by no means marriage experts. For pete's sake, it hasn't even been two months. And I know dating for 7 years doesn't make us experts either. But those were just a few things we learned along the way that make our marriage easier (so far). I don't know why marriage as an institution has started getting sort of a bad rap. It could be the divorce rate, I suppose, but most things in life that are worth it involve some risk-taking, some sense of the unknown. I think a lot of it (the way it's portrayed in movies and TV shows as being boring, the romance-ender, etc.) is a mixture of humor and the real-life doldrums dragging it down. The thing is, those real life issues will be there, whether you are single or married. When you're married, you have someone else to go through the doldrums with, which makes it a little bit more bearable. I also think some people enter into marriage with false preconceived notions. They think problems they had pre-marriage will automatically go away with the marriage license and wedding bands, but they are wrong. I got angry at Rick's driving way before we got married, and I still can't stand his driving. Our wedding didn't make that go away, but that's OK. I didn't expect it to.

So if you are thinking about getting married, I'd encourage you to think about it long and hard, but not be scared off by how it's portrayed so often in the media. And if you are married and have some great, awesome advice to share with us, let me know! I don't mean for this post to come out sounding like "Marriage is so much fun! Give it a try. It's so EASY." In fact, I hope to convey the opposite. It's hard. I know that just by the short time I've been married. Nay, I think relationships are hard, and marriage is just seen as harder because it's legally binding for the most part (doesn't sound romantic when you put it that way). But in my opinion, it's worth working for. Both relationships and marriage are worth working for. Especially when you figure out what the heck to do with your towels.

Fall Love & other things

I absolutely love fall. It is probably my favorite time of year. You would probably think summer would be because I don't have to work (and that is a huge perk!), but I can't stand the humidity, or that feeling of stickiness when you're outside for even 5 min. and you feel like you have to shower all over again. Plus forget about running outside! Nope. Fall is where it's at. Rick makes fun of my overwhelming love for this season. But let's look at some of the wonderful things about it.

First, and probably most important, pumpkin spice lattes make their return to Starbucks.

They are just so amazing. And I love the smell of cinnamon/nutmeg. It's like they took autumn and bottled it up inside one beverage. I will get one about 4 times a week until Nov (when they leave and peppermint mochas return. DUH!) Not wallet- or waistline-friendly, but eh. I get nonfat and usually forego the whipped cream.

It's also time for apple orchard visits.

(I don't know the kids; this is just what I could find in Google images). The apple cider donuts are seriously dangerous. Last year when we went to the apple orchard, I had ONE while I was there and would not let Rick purchase any for our home or they would have been gone in one day. I think I'll have to do that again this year. We did purchase some delicious apple butter for toast. And of course, a bunch of delicious apples, which are nutritious. You've also gotta get the hot apple cider (it's gross cold), which means this is a trip you must take when it's at least a little chilly out. It's weird going to the apple orchard on a hot day. An addition I think I'm making this year is the purchase of two pumpkins for carving. We haven't carved pumpkins in about four years, and it's high time we did it again.

I also like everything about fall clothes. In fact, I just went on a little fall shopping spree today!

The boots, the scarves, the chunky knits, the tights, tweed, structured jackets, cardigans. They're all just so CUTE! Sorry, I get very excited about my clothes. Summer doesn't have anything too cute except sundresses. Winter involves heavy mittens, scarves, and hats, so blah. Fall is where it's at. Among what I bought today: trouser jeans, a tan faux leather motorcycle jacket, lots of deep jewel colored tops, and lots of tan/black knits, which is a popular color combo it seems for fall this year.

And of course, I love being able to run outside!

Rick unfortunately has to work today, so I went out on a short jog of my own. The leaves haven't started to turn yet, but it was nice and brisk and sunny this morning. Just cool enough where you could wear a t-shirt and be fine once you got going a little bit. This weather will definitely motivate us to run more often!

So those are some of our favorite fall things. Yesterday Rick was off and we went to a wine festival of sorts at a local winery. They had grape stomping, which we wanted to do, but I was under the impression it would be ongoing, kind of off to the side, and you could just hop in whenever. But in reality, they had a concert going on and just did the stomping at break time. You had to sign up ahead of time and it was way up front, where they announced your name and everything. And while you were stomping, you were expected to dance stupidly to songs like "The Chicken Dance." This turned me off of the idea. But we did have fun drinking sangria and watch people act silly and listening to music while swinging on benches. And I will one day get to stomp grapes, I just know it!

Well pretty soon we have to go take my car in because the A/C stopped working. But if you didn't read my brief funny story on FB, I'll re-tell it here. Friday, Rick tells me that this lady and her college-age daughter were at his work. He said hi to them and the mother kept talking to him and telling him about her daughter (who was mortified). Rick got the feeling he was trying to get set up, so he took his work gloves off and tried to flash his ring to no avail. The lady just kept going, but eventually went away. Fast forward to today. The lady sans daughter comes back in and goes up to Rick. She actually says, "So my daughter is single. Are you seeing anyone?" Rick said he kind of laughed and said, "Actually I am seeing someone." Before he could say more, she asks, "Well, is it serious?" To which Rick replied, "Well, we're married and have been together for 7 years, so I'd say it's quite serious." She then said "Oh" and walked away. Haha. I wish I could have been there. I don't know how she didn't notice he was wearing a ring.

It's back to work tomorrow :( Hope you all have a good rest of the week!

Happy Long Weekend!

Hopefully all of you get Monday off as well. This weekend could not have come soon enough! Although this week was five days like all the others, it seemed to drag by for some unknown reason. And apparently Mother Nature thinks it's July again because the past couple days have been almost 100º outside. At least it is supposed to cool down this weekend I believe.

We don't have any huge plans in our household. We're getting back on the P90X wagon (much to Rick's chagrin) after work today because I desperately need to get back in shape (so that brownie last night was probably unnecessary). Rick has Sunday off though! We want to take a short day drip somewhere. Suggestions? I had originally wanted to hit up the outlets in Aurora, but that's like a 2-2.5 hour trip, which is tough when we only have one day. We did Starved Rock a few months ago. St. Louis is too far away. Hmmm. It's a dilemma. Hopefully we'll come up with something.

We also want to continue with our few last home decoration projects. I'll probably get some pictures printed off. Oh! And we (I) also want to get a new pet since our dwarf frog passed a couple months ago :( I really wanted another frog. Well, the pet store had fire-bellied toads, which just sounded cool, plus their bellies were red with black polka dots. So stylish. It was a possibility until the guy told us they eat bugs. Um, no. I don't keep bugs, dead or alive, in my house, thankyouverymuch. So no fire-bellied toad. We can't have dogs. We can have cats, but Rick is against them. I'm not a huge fish fan because I feel like all they do is die. I don't want birds because they talk and they're annoying. I don't want anything that smells too bad. So what does that leave me. Ideas?

I should probably get ready for work. I hope you all enjoy the weekend, whatever you are doing. Maybe do a little bit of this...

                                                                       and this....

 Happy weekend!