Spring in Fast Forward

Wow!  Where did April go, let alone half of May?!?

Tal and I have been busy working on the house.  We have our living room, dining room and kitchen painted.  The colors are a robin's egg blue, a storm deep blue and a terracotta orange throughout the spaces.  The first floor has come together nicely.  Our bedroom has a duvet cover that continues with the color theme, and the main bathroom flows with the color palette.  It makes me feel happy and more settled in our home.

Plus, we have enjoyed family and friends coming to visit with us.  A house feels more like a home with people in it.  It has been a pleasure hosting our loved ones.  Hope the trend continues through the summer with warm weather.

Next, we are shifting our attention to the outside.  We spent one weekend ripping up a bed of ivy.  Then we took to two spots that once had dead trees and filled up the soil to plant grass.  Most of what we are doing to the yard is in preparation to start new.  Someday we would like a garden.  Just have to work on getting all of the overgrowth cleared.

As for the late spring and summer, I have lots of travel plans.  One of the trips is a conference for work and most of the others are to visit family and friends.  I should have travel plans each month for the next six months!  But, the end of the travel blitz will be to celebrate my 40th birthday in Key West.  I'm so excited for that trip!

Life has been pretty good.

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As of Late

Some brief updates since my last post:

• Been focusing on my health to get my body in better shape, both for myself and when we want to be more actively trying for a child.  Being better about taking my vitamins and getting enough regular sleep.
• Had gotten back into building a more regular workout schedule with running and some biking.  I was making good use of my planner to map out my workout time for the week and recording it once it was complete.  My hope was to train for another half-marathon in the spring.
• However, much of the progress I made on my health goals came to a grinding halt when I got sick.  I was really sick!  I got a nasty upper respiratory virus that later turned into an ear infection.  It all lasted seven days (plus two trips to the doctor) until I actually started to feel a bit more normal.  I did a lot of nothing but rest and take in fluids.  On the eighth day I was well enough to return to work.  Tal commented that I was actually much more myself and I don't think it was until then that he fully realized how sick I was.  Fortunately, I only had to miss two days of actual work because of my rotating schedule.  Unfortunately, I was sick during my long weekend off and two other days off and had to work four straight when going back to work.
• Had a bit to catch up on at work the following week.  While it was just two days of actual work missed, I had a lot planned for those two days, plus emails and it being busy season at the hospital (peak of flu season).  So, I didn't really get back to exercise because I was letting myself get plenty of sleep while I was still recovering from being sick.
• Working on the house.  During late fall/ early winter, we painted the dining room and living room.  Took a break during the holidays.  After rebuilding some of the savings, we recently bought some new furniture and lamps.  I think it has been hard for me to really jump into more actively trying to have a child because I want to feel more settled in the house.  We hope to paint the kitchen in a few weeks.  And we are just about done unpacking the last bits from the move.  Our house is feeling more like a home.
• Enjoying time as a couple.  It is important for us to connect.  While having a child at our age is not preferred and time is ticking, I don't want to rush things to just check a box.  We need time for us and our relationship is a priority.  Without a solid relationship, it would be very challenging to raise a family.  So, we enjoyed restaurant week, went to a concert and talked about future plans.

So, moving forward, I plan on getting back to the gym, we've picked some dates for finishing up the painting and hopefully we can schedule delivery of our new furniture soon.  By spring we should feel much more settled in our house.  May have to pick a different race and scale back to a 10K, but it will feel good to reach a more attainable goal.  And we have to focus on our timeline for when we feel ready to take the next steps.  Time will tell if we may need to readjust our family building plan, but I'd rather take the time we need to build a solid foundation than to rush something that needs that foundation.

Settling In

It has been about two weeks since we moved into our new house.  It is already starting to feel like home.

When we first moved our stuff into the house, we then left for Cleveland for my cousin's wedding.  So, we didn't stay in it until after we came back from the trip.  T~ walked me across the threshold.  Newlywed fun, and a great way to celebrate just over six months of marriage!

I kept fairly mum about the house as I was worried something may not work out.  We actually put an offer on another house in February, but we missed it by an hour.  There was a contingency offer on that house and the other family sold their house just before we submitted our offer.  It was disappointing.  However, it all worked out because we really like this house more.  The other house was very nice and an easy practical choice, but it was one of four houses we looked at when really starting to look since toeing the waters in the fall.  It almost seemed too good to be true.

Our closing was in the beginning of May.  You can see a picture here.  It took us about six weeks to move into the house because we needed to get some electrical updates.  While the kitchen and bathrooms has been updated, the rest of the house only had two pronged outlets.  We needed to do a little bit of updating to be able to plug in our TV and computer.  Plus, there was no previous washer and dryer, or even electrical outlets for them.  We believe the prior owner who lived in the house may have used a hand crank washer or went to the laundromat.  Plus, I wanted better lightning for the basement stairs and a light/fan combo for the main bathroom.  Not flashy upgrades, but we are excited about them!

However, with the delay in our move, it gave us time to take advantage of some nice sales.  We bought a new washer and dryer.  It is crazy the amount of technology has changed washers and dryers since the last time I went shopping for them.  Leaps and bounds!  Whenever I turn them on, I feel like I am in the future.  We also bought a new couch and got a really good deal on it.  Unfortunately, the old couch does not fit in the basement, so we will have to sell it.  Then, we got some awesome super sales on two rugs.  One is for our bedroom and one is for the guestroom.  We have hardwood floors throughout, which we really like.

Still plenty of packing, but it is coming together slowly.  We are happy to be in our new home!

Home Sweet Home

We bought a house!  We are so very excited!  It is just the right house for us.  It has charm, it is a bit quirky and it is just the right size.  Can't wait to make this our home!

House Scouting

It may not be fair to say that T~ and I have started house hunting.  I prefer to call it house scouting.  We skimmed the realtor websites in the fall getting a feel for houses in our area.  Then we saw an older house with lots of charm where the priced dropped and thought it was worth a looky-loo.  That put us in contact with a realtor who sent us some links to some homes and showed us a few one Saturday afternoon.  While doing our research, we also noticed some new homes being built in the area for a similar price.  It has gotten us thinking and with the wedding and holidays behind us, I believe we are beginning to move from looky-loo to more serious hunting.  With all of this has come some important conversations.


We have been talking about what each of us finds important in a house and things that may be nice, but not completely necessary.  We have talked about in the city, country or suburbs.  Schools are important, whether or not we have children.  We have talked about size, layout and yard space.  The one tricky spot for us has been size.  We grew up in different homes, so definition of space and how it is used is different.  I grew up in a small ranch house and shared a bedroom with my sister.  T~ grew up in a two-story home where he and his brothers had their own bedrooms.  I had a living room and a semi-finished basement.  T~ had a living room, family room and a finished basement.  I grew up in a family where we shared more common space, where as T~'s family had room to spread out with opportunities to individualize space.  We have seen some very nice homes, but it seemed the reoccurring thread was the discussion of the amount of space.  While there have been homes within our budget that have additional space, I just felt like it was too much house for us.  It seems silly and almost wasteful to buy a home with several more rooms in it than what we need on a regular basis.  I'd also rather spend less on the size an upkeep on a house and use the money for travel, fun and life experiences.  However, T~ was concerned that we may get too small of a house and it would not fit our needs for when family comes to visit or that a smaller house may feel like more of an apartment than a house. 


Again, after our last look at houses, we returned to the conversation of house too big/ house too small.  T~ felt like there was something more in how I was feeling.  And there was.  It was the fear of future regret.  I told him I was afraid of getting a house too big for just two people.  While lots of two person families may have two-story homes with a family room, living room and formal dining room, I was concerned that if we lived in that kind of house and if we could not have a child that it may end up feeling like a reminder of what we could not have.  I did not want to be haunted by the empty rooms.  Another concern would be regret in if we spent more on our house and then maybe struggled with having the money available to adopt.  Fortunately, T~ was understanding.


It seems to us that we are trying to find a house that is not too big or not too small--a house that will give us opportunity to grow, but not trip all over ourselves--a house that will feel like home for both of us.  I think we are getting closer to that idea, and now we just have to find the house out there.  I think we will know it when we see it.

Houses on My Mind Again

Every now and again, I get this incredible itch to look for a house.  This yearning will well up and I will scour the internet checking out realtor websites to research homes in different neighborhoods of where I live.  This is not the first time I have felt this overwhelming desire to find a home, dreaming of settling into a life where having a family seems more tangible...or maybe more bearable without a child because less of life will feel in limbo.

Last winter, a friend, who knows about my history with IF and was pregnant at the time, said with a smile that I'm nesting.  She is hopeful that one day I will be a mom.

It is difficult to have these feelings with nothing to nest.

At Home in the Midwest

Today was the first day of my new job.  It is the start of a new chapter.  I've returned to my home state of Ohio, and it makes me feel happy.  I have not lived in Ohio for nearly 16 years, and I have been longing to come back home.

I missed being closer to my family and long time friends, a car ride verses a plane ride.  Just doing everyday things together and not feeling like every visit is about trying to catch up.  Wanting to be there instead of living through pictures.  Feeling the hugs and hearing the laughs instead of remembering them or imagining them as we spoke on the phone or sent messages.

I missed the seasons, the snow and the fall.  I missed it being cool enough to enjoy hot tea or hot chocolate.  I missed the rich warm hues of fall leaves.  I missed having some gray days to hide away and curl up with a blanket.  I missed the quiet brightness of the snow.  I missed the tulips and daffodils.  I missed the rustle of leaves when the wind blows.  I missed the cool summer nights.  I missed the reduced humidity, so as not feeling like you need gills to breathe.  I missed the sweet corn.  I missed the richness of the varying shades of green and grass that feels soft beneath your feet.

T~ will follow once he secures a job.  Then he will come with all of our stuff.  I will be in temporary housing until then.  He is also excited to return to Ohio as his family live here, as well.  It will be nice to be closer to family.  And we have friends here and near by, too.

Something about home runs deep.  It feels good to be home at last.

Microblog Mondays