Apartment Living.....

It's been cold and rainy here since last Friday. I am so thankful we got our house packed and loaded up before the rain started.  This has kept us inside quite a bit but honestly the down time has been nice.  For a few weeks leading up to the move, we were eating out a lot.  No time to cook a ton of homemade meals and once we boxed up the kitchen, there was no way to cook even if I wanted to.  I was excited to get settled here and start cooking again.  I hate eating out over and over again.  Makes me feel blah after a while.

The rainy weather made me crave soup.  I like this recipe but add more chicken stock to make it an actual soup.  Yum!

As I mentioned the other day, we are in a furnished corporate apartment until our house is finished.  We have a downstair bedroom for the boys (with 2 twin beds) and there is an upstairs loft with our bed and bathroom.  The loft is open to the space below so we all hear every sneeze and cough and see every light that is on in the evening.  I'm already craving more privacy and "my" space but I can do anything for a month, right?  Yea, ask me that again next week.  Ha!

I would not consider myself a clean freak.  I don't like a dirty house but I'm one that struggles with "piles" of stuff.  So clutter is more of my downfall.  That said.....I am tempted to sweep the floors a hundred times a day when I see these speckles.  I sweep and they don't disappear and I realize they are scuffs in the flooring.  Drives me nuts!  It looks like cracker crumbs.

The first time I used the cook top on Saturday, this light came on and stayed on.  Its now Wednesday, and that light is STILL on.  At first I was really paranoid that I had not turned the burners off.  Now it just annoys me.  It's like its taunting me.....

Introducing the worlds tiniest washer and dryer. Seriously, ya'll.....I can wash about 4 whole towels in it.  I've officially done a hundred a lot of loads since we have been here.

Kinda hard to see in this picture but I am almost certain that there is a rock on this step, under the carpet.  It's on the second to the bottom step and I've accidentally stepped on it multiple times now.  I'm calling it now.....there will be a twisted ankle or broken foot before this is all over with.

A "stocked" kitchen consists of 4 plates, 4 bowls, and a few small plates and coffee mugs.  Don't you dare plan a meal that requires each person to have 2 bowls or multiple plates.  Cuz it's not happening.  I'm about to buy a years worth of paper plates.

As annoyed as I have been or as unsettled as I feel.......I look around and see little reminders of my boys and I am so very thankful that we are here together. 

And I know how fortunate I am to be in a position that I get to move or own a home.  Just wanted to document some of our first days here to look back on down the road!

Goodbye House.....

The weather around here has been crazy!  One day its 70 and the next day its 20.  Last week, we had a day with some snow flurries.  It didn't stick and stay for very long.

Teenage boys are crazy.  Hudson refuses to wear pants.  At dismissal the other day (when it was "snowing") I watched and saw almost every other middle school boy walk out in his uniform shorts.  This is an area that I've learned to let go.

This popped up on my FB feed the other day.  How cute is this?? I'm temped to buy one of those vinyl machines so that I can make it.  You create this large US map and then any time you visit a state, you put a photo from your trip in that space. My goal is to visit all 50 states one day so this would be so fun to fill up!

Last week was full on packing mode.  Hudson assembled these banker boxes for us and stacked them really tall.

Boxes and boxes and more boxes.  Oh my! I spent forever going through things. I gave so much away, sold a ton and tossed a lot too.  And it still seemed that we had so much left.  I'm sure I will get rid of more at the new house but I kept some things since I wasn't sure what I would be using there.  The movers came on Thursday and spent 10.5 hours moving us.  Everything was boxed and ready but they had to take our beds apart and wrap all our furniture.  We are having them store it for the next month or so until our house is ready.

Last Tuesday, Cooper started Upward basketball.  He's never played before but they have been learning some in PE at school.  I've heard such great things about Upward....how its somewhat competitive but its really just a way for these kids to have fun.  No crazy parents in the stands cussing and screaming when kids miss a basket.  He enjoyed his first practice.

The last 10 minutes is a little devotional with the coach.  I love and appreciate that they are focusing on God while learning to play.

The boys standing next to our "Jason" tree. One of my friends, that owns a landscaping company, planted this tree for us the week after Jason died.  Its grown so much and its so pretty in the spring and summer!  The boys kept asking if we could bring it with us but I'm worried it would die from disrupting the roots.  We will have to plant our own at our next house.

Friday, our cleaning lady met us at the house and cleaned while we made a few more trips to our apartment.  After school, we brought the boys back to see it one last time.  Hudson kept pointing to spots in the house and saying "remember when......" and it just about killed me.  His chin was shaking and he was trying not to cry.  Shawn took the boys and gave me a couple hours in the house alone.  I needed to walk each room and soak up those memories.  16 years in a house is a long time.  Its the longest I've ever lived anywhere.  And its the last big thing and last big chapter with Jason that I'm closing.  I will say that leaving that house without him was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

We are exhausted....physically and emotionally but we are finished.  We are now in a furnished apartment for the next month.  We are praying that our time here is short.  Now to unpack all of this and get settled as best as we can.

One benefit is this view.  We are on the 4th floor (thank you Lord for elevators!) and the view is great.  Its been pretty foggy here but I know this view will not disappoint.

Happy New Year

On New Year's Eve.....we packed up our car and headed about 3 hours east to a tiny town called Clarksville.  Shawn's sister and husband have about 400 acres out there.  In fact, Shawn's parents just bought about 10 of those acres and plan to build a house there this year. 

A 3 hour road trip means that I get to DJ all the music and sing and dance in the car.

Can't you tell how excited he is about that?  Ha!

The boys love getting to hang out with cousins.  At one point, I looked over and saw all these kids playing and laughing together and my heart was so happy.  That was always one thing I really wanted for my kids- cousins.  My sister does have 2 amazing kids but they are older and while my boys love them to pieces.....they've never been at the same stages with them.  When my boys were really small I would often get sad at the thought that my boys wouldn't have memories of playing with cousins.  When Shawn and I got married....it was really cool to blend these families and gain some cousins that are the same ages and like the same things.

Cheers to a new year!

Driving around and checking everything out.

Back at home, this guy asked to do some of his science experiements.  I am up to my eyeballs right now in boxes but sometimes you just have to stop and make lava lamps with your kid.

For Christmas, I decided that I wanted to get my boys a "box" subscription so that each month they get a different activity mailed to them.  For Cooper, we got a science box called Spangler Science Club.    This was our first box and Cooper loved it!

For Hudson, we got one called Tinker Crate.  Its hard to tell (I should have taken a video) but you turn the handle and those little boards go up and down....which carries the ball to the end and back around.  I was super impressed with it.

We are feeling the heat around there.  Movers come next Thursday to store our stuff temporarily.  We get keys to our apartment Thursday afternoon and we will spend Friday here with our housekeeper getting everything cleaned and ready for the new owners.  

All House

So our house is a crazy construction zone still but I tried to snap some pics over the last couple of weeks. Its crazy that its already changed some since these were taken.  We are getting so close.....yet still very far away.   They are saying February sometime.

My farm sink was installed a few weeks ago and I am IN LOVE.  I am excited about the single basin and just the overall look is so so pretty.

Working on the back splash.  It now has grout......which changes the entire look.  I don't have current pictures of that yet.

I'm pretty much obsessed with this decorative back splash.  It turned out exactly how I had it pictured in my head.

I think its starting to look nice.....we still have the chocolate glaze to do on all the cabinets and the appliances change it up a bit too.  But it's coming together!

Cabinets will have a glaze like this.  This will really pull it all together.

Our guest bathroom.  Looks different now with the grout. I love that decorative band going around.

The shower in the boys "Jack and Jill" bathroom.

Once this is cleaned up, I think this will look great!

Shower in our upstairs bathroom.

We've had several bumps in the road with this build.  I still haven't had the energy to document our kitchen granite issue.....but this one was an easy, but expensive fix.  The tile we picked originally for the upstairs bath and also the boys Jack and Jill bath was HORRIBLE.  You know how it goes when you are picking these things out- you see 1-2 tiles in the showroom.  No grout and weird lighting.  What they didn't tell us is that this tile has a lot of variety and the 2 we happened to see that day were very "calm."  The coloring on those 2 were also more brown so we thought we had made a good choice.  Once they started installing the tile in the upstairs bath, I immediately knew it was wrong.  It was very busy and many of the tiles were an orange shade.  It was just ugly.  We halted the work and had to make a different selection.....costing us a bit of time, a hefty restocking fee, and labor for them to remove what they had already laid down.  Thankfully, they had not done a ton. 

Here is what we originally picked.  Honestly, these pics don't do it justice and it doesn't show how orange it really is.

We swapped it out for this tile and its SOOO much better.

Meanwhile......back home......we are starting to pack.  I am selling things like crazy.  Sold our kitchen table, bakers rack and bar stools the other day.   So, we get to eat on this for the next couple of weeks.  I'm pulling things off the walls and listing that on local FB sale sights.  My house is an absolute disaster.

We had a couple of friends give us some moving boxes so I'm not sure who wrote this but in the midst of craziness yesterday, I got so tickled when I saw the label on this box.  Ha!

Movers come on Jan 12 and we hand the keys over on the 13th.  We are living in a furnished apartment for about 3-4 weeks until our house is finished.