If you know it's what you're meant to do, don't mistake God saying "hold on a second" for Him saying "no". It feels like the same thing, but it's not. Everything can change in 6 months. Everything can change in a DAY!" - Sarah Buxton

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Moving...ughhh

We officially got the keys to our new apartment on Monday! Since then, we have been loading up Edgar, my Ford Edge, with boxes from our storage unit at least three times a day. The storage unit is about half empty now, and most of what is left is furniture and bigger things, that Hubby will have to move on Saturday when he rents his child molester van.

I'm being a terrible wife this weekend because I'm going to DC with my girlfriends and leaving Hubby alone to move all the furniture. However, we're lucky to have some of the best friends in the world who are willing to help us with the moving process. In fact, my friend Ashley's fiancĂ© is coming down here from Charlottesville just to help hubby with the move (plus, I think they are going to have a little boys weekend too, while Ash and I are up in DC with the girls).

But anyways, before I leave I'm hoping to at least have all of the boxes out of storage and maybe I'll start unpacking some of the kitchen. I'm dreading it, to tell you the truth. Our new place is so small - I'm not sure where I'm going to put all of our stuff! Plus, we're realizing we have multiples of a lot of stuff, so I'm betting we will be making a lot of trips to goodwill. Superfun.

Anyways, time to get back to the grind.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Orange Bowl, Baby!

For those of you who don't know (and if you aren't aware you must be living in a hole) the Hokies won their game this weekend are are now ACC Champions!!! We're BCS bound!! We've had quite a nice weekend and I'm really sad that it's over.

On Friday we went out to dinner at Sal's for Italian food. We haven't eaten there before, but we both really liked it. After dinner we went to Bull & Bones to meet a friend for a few beers. They just started featuring their Winter Ale, which is a very smooth brown ale with and IBU of 23 and an alcohol content of 7.0%. Hubby drank like five beers, so obviously I had the honor of driving home.

Saturday we went Christmas shopping in downtown Blacksburg and found a few really great gifts. It was snowing the whole time we were shopping, so I felt like we were in a movie scene while walking around in Blacksburg. After we bought a few gifts, we walked around the farmers market. I'm really excited about all the different things that can be bought at it - there were even vendors selling bread and meat! After shopping we headed back home to enjoy the snow and watch football.

While we were waiting for our game to start, we played a few intense games of scrabble. I won once, and Hubby and our roomie tied for first place during the second game. They were really excited to beat me (as you can tell from the picture). 



Now, we're relaxing and watching TV, and getting prepared to move into our new apartment tomorrow!! I'm not looking forward to packing/unpacking and all of that, but it is exciting that we're going to have a place of our own with an awesome backyard for Buddy to run around in.

I'm also excited because Hubby's parents bought tickets to the Orange Bowl, so we're going to Miami, baby!! We just bought our flights! We will be in Miami from January 2-4! What a way to start the year!!
 

Thursday, December 2, 2010

A Thrilling Post About....Mattresses!!

I'm not really sure what to blog about today...nothing much has been going on. I was going to blog about our epic Thanksgiving weekend, but my mom beat me to it! You can check out her blog post HERE. It's written better than I could have done, and I encourage you to check it out because we had a great time!

Last night Hubby and I went out to find a new mattress. It was probably one of the most interesting challenges we've faced in our marriage, so far. We went to Mattress Warehouse first and tried a bunch of mattresses. It was really difficult to find one we both like, since I favor a plusher mattress and Hubby likes a firmer one. I told him if he wants to sleep on something rock hard there's always the floor - yeah, that didn't go over so well. We ended up finding a good compromise that we both felt would be fine, but unfortunately it was about 300 dollars over budget. Money is obviously really tight right now, and I just don't feel comfortable spending more than we had planned.

We decided to stop at Grand's furniture on our way home, and went to look at mattresses there. Hubby loves that they give you a coke in a glass bottle, so he was all smiles while we were there. They had this really cool set up that asks you questions about your hight, how you sleep (side, stomach, back) your age and if you have any body pain. We each took the survey and then lay down on a test bed that finds all the pressure points on your body and does a bunch of other calculations to figure out what bed is best for you. Of course, Hubs and I need completely different beds. This is where it gets cool - they sell beds that are half and half. So we found out that I was blue and Hubby was red and they make mattresses with that combination. The blue side was perfect for me, plusher and comfy with enough support while the red side was everything Hubby could have ever wanted - firm and supportive. Best of all, the mattress is right in our price range!!

We decided to wait a few weeks and see what we get for Christmas before we make our final decision, because I really liked a mattress that was the half/half type with a pillow top, but it was about 500 out of our budget. We are thinking we might direct some Christmas money towards it, because a mattress is really a long term decision.

Well, this wasn't really what I planned on blogging about, but here it is, a thrilling post about mattresses. Hope you didn't drift off while reading!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Gobble Gobble

It's almost Thanksgiving!! My parents are halfway here, Hubby is almost done with work and I am baking rolls! I so love this time of year. This is the first holiday we will be spending together as a married couple, and I can't wait! We have a very exciting weekend ahead of us, and I'm so excited to get to spend it with my parents and one of my best friends, who is coming to celebrate her second thanksgiving with us.

Last year, we hosted thanksgiving at the farmhouse where I used to live while working for Perdue in Salisbury, MD. We named it "A Very Ghetto Thanksgiving" because we didn't have much as far as cooking utensils and luxury items go. We ended up having a great time cramming about 15 people in our tiny house. We even deep fried the turkey (well my friend's boyfriend did) and it was the BEST turkey I've ever eaten! The food was amazing and it was so much fun, that we decided we just HAD to do something similar again this year.

Now that we are living in Blacksburg, we have the opportunity to go to the VT football game the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Last year we decided that, if possible, we wanted to tailgate Thanksgiving - so that is our plan. After the game, we are going to have everyone back here to deep fry a turkey and eat all the fixins. I can't wait.

My parents are on their way down right now (I just checked Google Latitude and they're in State Line, PA) and we have a busy weekend ahead of us. Tomorrow, we are eating a Thanksgiving lunch at the Inn at Virginia Tech. Friday, we are driving to Smith Mountain Lake and are looking at a few houses my parents are considering buying, we're then getting dinner at Château Morisette, a winery in Floyd. Saturday we are going to the game with my friend and her boyfriend who are visiting, and then we are having tailgate Thanksgiving!!!!!

I really love being around my friends and family and that is why I LOVE THANKSGIVING!!!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Nice Little Saturday

Well, every day is the "weekend" for me right now...really the only thing that is different about the weekend is that Hubby is home, which I love. It's pretty lonely to be by yourself most of the time, which isn't something I thought would be an issue when we decided that I would quit my job and we would move down here. Of course, right now I'm home alone because my husband decided to go golfing today, since it's probably one of the last days it will be nice enough to go. I'm trying to be supportive of it and let him have a little fun, but I'm still upset to be left here alone all day. To cheer myself up, I'm watching the best Christmas movie ever, The Holiday!

The past few days have been busy but entertaining. Friday, I got up at 8 and did p90x, which I have been doing daily since being unemployed. It's nice because it's quick and effective and free, but I do miss going to the gym. The town of Christiansburg has a rec center that is free to use if you are a resident, and I've signed up, but can't seem to get the courage to go! Something about going to a new gym for the first time is just so terrifying to me, but maybe I'll get to the point where I'll just go despite being scared, who knows.

Around 11 I got dressed up and went to drop off a job application at a building right across the street from where the Hubby works. We decided to get lunch together at Lefty's Main Street Grille in Blacksburg. It's one of my favorite places, and few undergraduates go there, so it's usually pretty quiet.

Friday night I made pasta with vodka sauce and then we went to see Harry Potter. My poor husband was sooo lost because he's never read the books and we didn't re-watch the last movie before seeing the new one, so I don't think he enjoyed the movie very much. I, however, did like it because I felt like it followed the book the best of all of the movies. I didn't like how it ended right where the book gets really exciting, but I guess it was the most logical place to break the story into two.

Saturday was mostly spent watching the VT vs Miami game at Bull and Bones with a few friends, after a delicious breakfast made by Hubby Himself. After watching the game, we went down to Sharkey's, our favorite bar, for celebratory "Townie Bombs". I don't know what is in this drink exactly, but it's sort of our group of friends "signature drink". I know theres Redbull, and maybe black raspberry vodka, I'n not really sure. Anyways it makes your heart beat fast, and I'm not the biggest fan, but the boys just HAD to do one. After Sharkey's, we went to a friend's house up the street for some drinks, beer pong and card games.

 I'm starting to get excited for Thanksgiving and seeing my parents!!!! Only 3 more days until they get here!

Anyways, this rambling post is plenty long, so I'll end here. Hope everyone who reads had a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by =)

Friday, November 19, 2010

A Little Link

My hubby just sent me a great article that I feel like sharing


Good to know at least one other person has been through this.



Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Find me a JOB

Yesterday I met with one of Hubby's old fraternity brothers who now works as a recruiter for a company my favorite professor's son runs. Yeah, Blacksburg is a small town. I'm really beginning to think being in a fraternity is a great thing, and I probably shouldn't give my hubby so much crap about his, since the majority of the people we know in Blacksburg are involved with the fraternity in one way or another. The recruiter gave me lots of great tips about my resume. Hopefully he can help me get some interviews and find a job!

Yesterday's dinner turned out awesome. I even made a Paula Deen white chocolate macademia nut pie. It is soo rich though, I can only make it through a few bites. I had an extra pie shell left over, so tonight I made chicken pot pie for dinner. It turned out really yummy, and the only thing I had to buy specifically for it was more garlic, which I didn't figure out until I was half way through making dinner, ugh. So I had to run out to the store and grab some, and the guy checking out made fun of me for only buying garlic! Rude!

Anyways, that's pretty much all that has been going on here. I forgot to put that Hubby and I celebrated one month of marriage last week. I can't believe it's already been a month! He got me these pretty flowers to celebrate, because he is awesome.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Let's Play "Catch Up"

Busy? Me? Shockingly, despite being unemployed, I have managed to stay super busy lately. Well, at least too busy to blog. So now we've got some catching up to do! Where to start?

I guess I'll start with our biggest news - we've got an apartment!! It's a duplex actually, and I'm really excited about it. It's a pretty small 2 bedroom 1 bath place about 10 minutes from the Virginia Tech campus and about 15 minutes from Hubby's work. My favorite things about it are; it has a washer and dryer, its a short term (7 month) lease and it has an AMAZING FENCED IN BACK YARD!!!! My least favorite things are; it's pretty far from most things (but that can be a plus, no undergrads as neighbors) and the lease ends the day before my birthday, which means we will most likely be moving over my birthday. So our lease starts December 6th and I'm so excited!

Getting the apartment was kind of a crazy fiasco, though. We had pretty much decided on a townhouse in Christiansburg right near I-81. It is an awesome townhouse with three huge bedrooms, a walk-in closet in the master, two and half bathrooms with a giant kitchen, living room and dining room. The only things I wasn't in love with were the fact that it didn't have a washer/dryer and it didn't have a backyard. I was completely willing to give those things up, though, because the house was so nice. We filled out an application and wrote a check for the security deposit, but didn't sign the lease or anything like that. After we had decided on the townhouse, I got a call from another person we had contacted much earlier, who had initially told us the apartment we were interested in had already been rented. It turned out the girl they were going to rent it to never paid her deposit, and the apartment was open again. I figured it wouldn't hurt to at least go look at it. Well, we decided it was a much smarter to move in to the more affordable apartment than to move in to the nicer, but more expensive, townhouse. The owner of the townhouse graciously returned the check to us, and the rest is history! We will be moving in on the 6th!

Other than apartment and job hunting, I have been honing my housewife skills and watching Hokie football! I've been doing a lot of cooking and baking, which is fun and a good way to fill my time. Tonight I'm watching Glee with a friend and cooking dinner for all of us (pot roast, mashed potatoes and green beans). I'm also trying to make a Paula Deen White Chocolate Macademia Nut Pie. However, I'm not using anywhere near as much heavy cream as she calls for, because I'd rather not have a heart attack at the age of 24. Maybe I'll blog a picture of the pie, if it turns out well.

The only other exciting thing that has happened over the past few days is that we watched the VT vs. UNC football game at Bull and Bones, our local brewhaus. I really enjoyed trying their beers, especially their Belgian Wheat and their seasonal Pumpkin Ale. We met up with quite a few friends, and we had a great time. Hopefully, we will repeat the fun this weekend watching the VT vs Miami game (hopefully we'll repeat the win, too!)

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

STRESS!

Let's play a game of good news/bad news. Good news - hubby and I found a great apartment today. Bad news - it's about $150 more than we wanted to pay. So, do we suck it up, tighten our belts, and take this amazing apartment that has pretty much everything we need, or do we take the chance that something better might come along? It really wouldn't be expensive at all, if I had a job. But unfortunately I do not, and who knows when I will find one. I think we are going to go ahead and apply for the apartment and take our chances. If worse comes to worse, I can always get a job waitressing. God, wouldn't that be horribly awkward to wait on people I went to college with...

This has been a pretty good motivator to find a job though, and I've applied to two since getting home. The problem is, I may be able to get a job, but I doubt I am going to find a job that fulfills me in the way my previous job did. Obviously, it was worth giving it up to be with my husband, but it is still tough to have given something up that I enjoyed and was good at.

Anyways, just a short post/rant about what's going on.

Monday, November 8, 2010

A Weekend Away

This past weekend, my hubby and I took a trip back up to the DC/Baltimore area. I went to visit two of my fellow Hokies in DC and he went to visit his former roommate (aka his grandma). Friday night was the first night we spent apart since we got married and I missed my husband! Luckily I was with people I love almost as much as I love him!

My friends live in an adorable apartment in Adam's Morgan in DC. This is pathetic, but the main reason I was motivated to visit them was because they had recorded all of the TV broadcasts of the recent World Gymnastics Meet. I really love gymnastics, and I didn't get to watch worlds because it was broadcast during my honeymoon. So most of Friday night and Saturday morning was spent watching gymnastics. We also got falafel, which was amazing! After a relaxing day of gymnastics and college football, my friends and I went out for dinner in Dupont Circle. We had planned to use a groupon at a sushi place, but they had no openings until 9:45, and we were not interested in waiting that long, so we went to a great "diner" called Luna. I had the most amaaaazing tomato soup ever.

After dinner, we tried to get cupcakes for dessert, but found out the shop was closing when they literally shut the door in our faces. We then headed to Dupont Circle to check out FotoWeek DC. They had a giant projector screen set up displaying the top 100 photos submitted. They also had another screen set up displaying black and white photos of people's faces, it kind of looked like the pictures were taken in a photo booth. We walked around and noticed a long line of people waiting for something - we couldn't figure out what, but we got in line just to see. As we were waiting, we realized that there was a photo booth set up, and the pictures that were taken were being displayed on the giant screen! Soon, we realized that *added bonus* the photo booth was printing out the photos!

We took this picture:


We loved it so much, we got back in line and took another one!


After our impromptu photo session, we started the walk back to the girls' apartment, when we walked past a cupcake store. We decided to risk getting a face full of door again. Larry, the owner of the cupcake shop, was much friendlier than the people of our first cupcake attempt. We got the most delicious red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

The next morning, we met the hubby at Circa, a restaurant in Dupont Circle, for the most amazing breakfast I've had in a LONG time.

I had a great weekend in DC with my friends and I can't wait to go back again! But for now, I'm back in the 'Burg making dinner with my hubby - and that's not so bad at all!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Hokie Football!! (and some random ramblings)

I'd like to start this post out with a "Let's go HOKIES!"

We went to the VT vs GT game last night with a few friends of ours and it was just like old times, except it was completely different...I think I'm going to have quite a few of these reality checks over the next few months. I know that things won't be the same as they used to be (I'm not an undergrad anymore and the overwhelming majority of my friends have graduated and moved on) but it was still kind of a shock. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I didn't have a great time at the game, but it was just so different from tailgating and watching the game with my core group of friends and the brothers of my husband's fraternity. I'm sure that at some point, I will become closer friends with the people I know here, and then things will be a little more fun for me. The game was intense and FREEZING but in the end, we pulled out the win, thanks to my favorite player, David Wilson.

Today, the hubby and I are going to look at an apartment that we can't afford and then we are driving up to D.C. to see some friends for the weekend. Well, the hubby is going to go up to visit some of his family in Baltimore while I visit friends in D.C. I'm kinda having a sad moment because it will be the first nights we've spent apart since we got married - and I'm gonna miss him!!

We have been talking a little about buying a small "starter" house instead of renting. It's looking like it is just barely out of our reach on just the one salary...I'm really hoping I get a job soon. I met with a dual career counselor at the university yesterday, and basically got told that my husband and I don't actually qualify for the  program - but they're going to help me, anyways. It seems like I will still have to find the jobs, but they will help by contacting the hiring manager and letting them know I am enrolled in this program. Hopefully, something will turn up.

I'm going through heartbreak right now because I found the perfect position, and was in the middle of applying for it, when it closed. I literally had uploaded my resume and was going to upload my cover letter when the position closed. At 3:19 pm. REALLY? Cuz that's not random at all! Apparently, they only have 2 people that they are interviewing, so I'm hoping that neither works out, and I can apply to the position when they re-open it. We'll see.

So anyways, that's what has been going on here, now I'm off to pack for D.C. The hubby had to work today, so I know he'll be exhausted by the end of the day and I'll probably end up doing some (or a lot) of the driving...boooo

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

An Overview of Our "Situation"

I'm starting this blog at the suggestion of a good friend, who also recently started a blog of his own. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Truthfully, a lot of the reason why I decided to start this blog is because I really don't have anything better to do. You see, right before my husband and I got married, he accepted a new job down in Blacksburg, VA. This meant I had to give up my job in Salisbury, MD and pack up and move down with him. I'm really excited for him to have a job that he is excited about, despite my now being unemployed (and consequently having a lot of time on my hands).

I'm thinking this blog will touch on all the fun new things that go along with being newlyweds. You know, getting to know each other in a completely different way, establishing traditions and routines, traveling to see friends etc. I also know that I will be posting often about the frustrations of attempting to find a new job and somewhere to live here in Blacksburg.

Currently, we are living with a good friend of my husband's, who also happens to be his boss.We're searching for an apartment or townhouse that we can afford on just my husband's salary, which surprisingly isn't that hard to do. However, we are having a really tough time finding somewhere that will take our dog, Buddy, who is about 65lbs. Most places have weight restrictions of 25 or 35 pounds. Yesterday, we looked at a townhouse that would be completely sufficient. It was affordable on one salary, a shorter term lease (we want to buy a place once I get a job), and it accepts pets. Unfortunately, we found out today that they have a 35lb max for dogs - so we're back to square one...oh well.

So anyways, there's a little glimpse at our life, and as the days pass you'll get to know it better and better. I'm sure that there are going to be a lot of ups and downs in the next few months, and I look forward to documenting them here!