Savoring it

I'm sorry, (I know I have been saying that a lot lately) but I have been eating up the time with my family lately. Between working, moving, and trying to get settled there hasn't been enough time with my husband or our kids. Especially the newest edition, that's right folks, meet Murphy:

To give you an idea of his size Izzy the cat is only 6 pounds. Yeah, he's tiny. How could you not want to spend time with that little guy? It has been a bit crazy around here, between Murphy and Pepper wrestling around the living room and all the boxes filled with crap we're trying to find homes for, I barely get any time to do the things I want to do, like blog.

I have to admit, I took a lot of stuff for granted when I was unemployed. Like all the time I had to do the things I needed or wanted to do. If I ever wanted to see my friends or family I could do it whenever I wanted, if I needed to clean the house I could do it while Andy was at work and then he and I could relax together at night. Even when I was in school last year I still had a lot of time to do what I wanted and needed to do. Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful to have a job and be contributing financially, it's just taking some getting use to. I promise to try to blog more, I'm starting to get a hang of this whole time budgeting thing, it's just taken some adjusting. Come back soon. I promise to fill you in on the move and more pictures of Murphy.

A letter to my husband

Okay folks, I'm warning you now, I'm about to get sappy. So if you are in the mood for some cheese, grab a bottle of wine and read on, if not, take a hike and try back next time (I'll still <3 you, promise).

Dear Andy,

This is it. The final two days we will ever have to be seperated. Finally, the unannounced trips, the drives to the airport, the late night phone dates, are coming to an end. Our dreams are coming true, we got married, we have moved into a beautiful house that we are working to make into a home, we are expanding our family, we have jobs, we are living the life we had always talked about. It wasn't easy, we have worked our asses off to get to this point. There were fights, tears, endless talks, hard times, scary times, sad times, and I'll admit there were times I thought we would never get out of the rut our lives were in. There were moments that I never thought that we would see this day. Let me tell you, all those moments make the coming days that much sweeter. I want you to know that you are my rock, as corny as that sounds, and I want you to know that we wouldn't be where we are if it weren't for your encouragement and never-failing optimism. We make a great team and I am so happy that we get to take this journey together. I want you to know I love you so much and I can't wait to see where this journey leads us.

Love forever and always,
Your wife, friend and partner

" I've missed you, I've missed you all...

...I had a dream about you in Copenhagen, you were there and you and you." Sorry, any chance for a Gilmore Girl quote.

I have internets again!!! Everybody say YAY!!! I think it's going to take a little time to get back on a blogger schedule but I wanted everyone to know I am alive, I just didn't get the internet back until last night. We are still moving a lot of our stuff in so I need to be a good wifey and unpack and nest a bit, but I hope that by the middle of next week I can update everyone on our move and my new job!

And FYI, I really did miss blogging. I've gotten used to it plus there are my loyal readers that leave me comments and make me feel happy, you guys totally rock my socks!

I'll be back, very soon. Promise.

The Crazies

Not the movie. It's what I am currently feeling at the moment. A side note/disclaimer: The only reason I even feel okay posting right now is because at this very moment I'm doing laundry, washing a load of dishes and also getting in touch with potential homes for us to rent. Talk about multi-tasking.

Anyway, I am feeling the full-on crazies at the moment, there is just so much to get done and I start my new job in less than a week. We need to pack the entire apartment, I still need new identification with my new name (note to other newlyweds changing your name, don't put it off!), also to order my new credit/debt cards, oh and the kicker is we still are in need of a place to live. Haha, so yeah, as you can tell life is fairly crazy at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I am happy and excited about this move, but I am also a bundle of stress, nerves, and tension. I'm scared to death of moving away from my family and friends, but I am more afraid of staying here and not having a job. I'm worried about Andy and how this is affecting him, I'm worried about myself and how this will affect me. I have felt a hundred different things over the last few days since we found out and I'm sure I'll continue to feel those things. It's hard, every day the realization washes over me that next week I won't be living here anymore. That is just so mind boggling to me. It's this huge life-altering thing that we are doing and it's happening so fast. I guess I just haven't had time to fully process it and I don't know if I will have the time between now and next week. Gah. Crazy. I know it's our choice but it is happening so quickly.

Have any of you other newlyweds had some life-altering changes come at you fast? How did you process or deal?

It's Facebook Official

You know we mean buisness when something goes on Facebook, we are officially moving. That's right, both (yes, BOTH) our job offers came through in Columbus. I start in just over a week (!!!) while we aren't quite positive when Andy starts. More than likely we will have to be seperated for a few weeks while I work and we manage a move, sad panda, but both of us working means we get to do and have the things we want, like renting a house and Murphy. We are both so pumped, happy, stressed, worried, and a million different emotions and mostly we are overjoyed. I can't wait to share our stories with you, it's going to make for some interesting blogging. If posting ends up being lighter than usually over the next few weeks I appologize ahead of time, but I promise as soon as we are settled in our new place we will both be back at it.

Yay? Blah?

I left you all in suspense last Saturday by telling you we had some big exciting things on the horizon but I never got down to the specifics. I was waiting to something concrete to be heard before I said anything but it's taking a little longer than expected and I'm getting impatient. This last week both Andy and I had interviews in our temporary location. We are both really excited but we haven't heard anything yet, so we will see. We are both hoping that it turns out the way we would like but we have to wait and see. I was really hoping that we would know by today so we could celebrate all weekend long (or spend the weekend recovering from the disappointment if that's the way it goes). But alas, we don't know, we can only hope and pray. So wish us luck y'all and have a very happy and safe 4th of July weekend!

Expanding the Family Dynamic

Amanda and I are almost done having kids. No, we don’t have a back-room sweatshop of little rugrats running around making us shoes and necklaces, nor have either of us actually reproduced yet, but we do have our brood of furry babies. Allow me to introduce you to them:

Pepper Anne

The eldest of the bunch (~4 years old), Amanda found our first kid running down the side of a back country road. She’s a Australian Cattle Dog mix (mixed with what exactly, we’ve never found out, but I’m guessing she’s part angel).


One of the smartest dogs I’ve ever been in contact with, Pepper loves chasing balls until she passes out, taking dad’s spot on the bed when he wakes up for work, and licking anything and anyone.

Izzykins Destroyer of Worlds

Cute, ain’t she? When we found her at our first apartment we lived in together, she was shivering outside mewing for her ma. I originally said “no”, but the damn thing had to go and sleep on my chest after I got home from work, and we ended up keeping her. Izzy started off well enough, but then she noticed she had these little sharp things on the end of her paws, and boy do we like putting them into mommy and daddy!

This little ball of fury is very independent, only allows you to pet her when she deems you worthy, and is generally the terror of the house; although when she gets in the loving mood she will NOT be denied.

Josie (a.k.a “JoJo”, a.k.a. “Tons of Fun”)

Oh Jo, you’re such the sweetie that Izzy could never be, and you’re also 3 times the cat Izzy is (and we’re talking square footage here). If you ever need some cuddling or nonstop purr action, this is the go-to furrball, just don’t let her step on you.

She’s not fat, just really big, and it feels like she carries all 13 pounds of her in her feet. We picked up this princess in an animal shelter in Lexington, KY., and she ended up helping to mellow Izzy out, so we’re happy with this addition.





So these are our 3 kids, and we couldn’t be happier with them. But you might’ve noticed a bit of a theme here. That’s right, they’re all female, and if you count Amanda, that makes it 4 females against 1 male in the house. Not really fair for the Y-chromosomes, if you ask me.

Ever since Amanda and I have been together, we’ve always said that we wanted 4 animals, 2 dogs and 2 cats, no more, no less. So with our recent nuptials we’ve decided to make our family whole (non-human, of course). And since Pepper was always Amanda’s girl, we decided that I get to pick out my little man. After many months of narrowing down some breeds and researching, allow me to be the first to introduce you to my buddy,

Murphy Einstein

Murphy was born on June 6th. He’s a pembroke welsh corgi, and the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen, although I may be a smidgen biased. We won’t pick him up until we’re settled in our new house, but we’re hoping he’ll be the pal for Pepper that she’s always needed.

NOM NOM NOM!!!

So our family is almost complete. I know that 4 animals seems like a lot, and most of our friends have 1 or 2 animals at the most, but I’m pretty happy with our kids. Yeah, they need taking care of and cost a little bit of money to keep fed and happy, but they make us so happy that it’s an easy tradeoff.