Let's Try This Again...

So, it's been awhile since I've blogged. My life got super busy and I left blogging behind, but lately I've been thinking about starting up again...here it goes!

Catching up: What's been happening for the past year?

Well. A lot. Hubs and I moved into our duplex, we loved it, I got a job (that I hated), I got another job (that I like), we outgrew our duplex, we BOUGHT A HOUSE, we moved into our house, my parents bought a house on Smith Mountain Lake and moved down full time. Now we're just another boring married couple living in suburbia. I'll probably try to do a better recap of all the milestones we've passed since I last posted, but at least now you've got the cliff notes. 

Why am I blogging again?

I started thinking about blogging while on a 5 mile run in the park near my house. I'm training for a really exciting and scary race on May 5th called the Dirty Hog. It's a 9-12 mile mud run with an obstacle every 1/2 mile. While on my training run I thought "wouldn't this be a cool experience to blog about? Even if no one reads it but me, it'd be so cool to have my thoughts and reflections on my experience to look back on." And so, as I ran, I found myself thinking more and more about blogging. That's what's drawn me back here. 

What's to come?

My plan for the next few posts is to catch you upon specific things, my new job, our new house, and my training for the Dirty Hog with the SOWS of Blacksburg. Once I'm caught up on all of that, we'll see where it goes. 

Thanks for reading! =)

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 fiancé 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.

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!!

 

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!

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!!!

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 =)

A Little Link

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

http://deltroad.typepad.com/delta_tau_delta_the_road/2010/11/living-unemployed.html

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