Updates!

Wow, it has been over two weeks since I posted last. I don't know where the time has gone. . . oh wait. Yes I do. We closed. We moved. Work is crazy. We are crazy and we have a ta-da list a mile long.

We have more projects than you can even imagine. A garage full of boxes which needs to have cars in it soon (fall will be here before we know it and winter will be right around the corner).

Our first week was an absolute blur. Our moving day, I will have to post about on our house website, believe me, it deserves its own post. We have been trying to balance the whole work, home, social life still, I need to have fun stuff thrown in to keep my sanity. My nights have been fluctuating between a night of really good sleep and a night when I lay there awake thinking of all that I would like to do, sleep has been at a premium.

I am looking forward to having some normality, but I am also realizing that it is going to be a while before that happens.

Some highlights from the past couple of weeks,

I am loving working back downtown again. Work is going okay, definitely challenging, but I just love the downtown vibe and feel and cannot believe how much I have missed it. Not even a happy hour yet and I still just love having the accessibility that I do. Saks Off Fifth is here, and I have not even popped in yet, but I love the ballet flats that they carry. Target is downtown, so if there is something I need I can just pop over. Barnes & Noble to pick up the books for the two book clubs I am in and the Farmers Market every Thursday (today, yahoo! Fresh Flowers!). Great restaurants and catching up with friends I don't get to see as often as I would like, I now have the opportunity to get together for lunch!

I also love working with more women. I didn't realize just how much I missed it. I don't think I ever mentioned this, but about a year ago, there was a woman at my old workplace, who did not work in my department directly, nor did I work directly with her. She pulled me aside and told me that I dressed to feminine in too many skirts, dresses, florals and colors and she felt it made the men that we worked with uncomfortable. I was really taken aback. No one had ever told me anything like that before and granted, it was towards the end of summer, and I definitely do wear a lot of dresses, skirts, and color, but that is just me and who I am and what I am comfortable in. I save the black and darker colors for the winter (keep in mind that this was not even a business casual work environment, but the men wore jeans or khakis and polo shirts or tee shirts). I asked her if someone had complained, no, I asked her if my dresses or skirts were too short (which believe me, they are always to my knee or just past my knee or mid-calf), no, too revealing, no. Just too feminine. I was really upset, but again, it was the work place. Here, I LOVE getting dressed for work, and someone is always paying someone else a compliment about a cute dress, outfit or accessories, I just love it! There is a much "hipper" vibe downtown as well!

My dad is coming over on Sunday to help me customize and work on my closets so that they are configured perfectly and suit all of my needs, I cannot wait! Currently I have all wooden hangers with a few of the skinny velvet gripper hangers thrown in, but I have been picking up more of the skinny gripper hangers as they tend to take up less room and be lighter when hanging. I can't wait to get all of necklaces and jewelry coordinated and organized as well. And don't forget about the shoes, they will play a big role in the closet and reorganization process as well. I went through all of my shoes back in April, my goal was to get rid of 40 pairs, and I did, which brings me down to 200 now I believe. Not too bad, but my goal is also, one in, one out. We will see how I do! I need to go through my clothes as well now. I know I have a ton that doesn't fit or that I need to get rid of. This will be a great time of year to do that as we approach fall and I begin to turn my closets over.

I have been gathering lots of decorating ideas and we have been picking up things that are needed as we go. We have a half bath on our main level. Eventually the dark brown tiled floor will come out and either new tile or hardwoods will go in (this is still up in the air). The vanity needs to be changed as well as the hardware and lighting, but for now, we put up a towel bar, bought a couple of cute hand towels and some cute accessories, hung a vintage mirror and it will suffice.

We are still in the process of trying to decide on lighting for different areas, and as we were having the appliances installed, we came to the conclusion that while we would love to wait at least 12 months to have the kitchen re-done, it is going to have to be a winter project. We just don't know exactly what we want yet, so we will hit a couple of parade of homes houses this fall and gather ideas. We do love our new appliances though.

We still don't even have all of our furniture in the right places, but we are getting there. I am not sure yet what we will still need or where things will ultimately end up, but we do have lots of ideas. We had water in the basement on move in day, and then again last Friday, so that is the big project at the moment. Once we are convinced that we have covered all of our bases with the basement and are protected from no more water leaks, I will definitely feel better.

We ordered our "just moved" announcements the other day, and they are perfect. I was looking online, and the boy wanted to have some input, I had sent him about 10 different options, that were all pretty good, when I came across, "the one". It literally is perfect for us, so I am excited to get those next week and get them addressed. I have also ordered some new stationary and mailing labels, some have arrived, and some are on their way, but I am excited to get those.

One of the rooms that is getting "close" to being done, is definitely my office and I am hoping to finish it this weekend (once my closets are done) and will take pictures to post. I am still not sure about window treatments, but I will probably pick up some blinds of some sort just to get me through.

We picked out colors for our master bedroom and master bathroom. We of course have lots of projects in both rooms, but we have new towels and accessories in the master bathroom (I am LOVING HomeGoods lately! We went with a really pretty silvery blue with cute little bees on it!) and a new comforter set from Martha Stewart Macy's collection. The boy and I had originally found one that we really liked, and of course when we looked at it, it was 50% off, but then, when I went back to purchase, full price. I did find one that I thought he would like, and it was close in colors, so we went with that one. BUT, it is still not on our bed. . . this weekend? Add it to the list! We definitely need to get window treatments up in that room. Right now we have a robe hanging on one of the small side windows, my parents were over last Friday before we went to dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday and I had to explain the ghetto decor!

The guest room is pretty much a huge mess. The guest bathroom is partially cleaned with zero decor. . . add it to the list.

I have taken a few moments to schedule some social time as well. Last week I saw a screening of "Eat, Pray, Love" with a few girlfriends. I tried to read the book, but just could never get into it. I know a lot of people who said that they thought she was so inspiring and blah blah blah I saw her on Oprah, blah blah blah, but to me, she was kind of just copping out on life and I don't think that she ever really grew up or figured out who she was. I don't think she ever spent enough time inside her own head to get to know herself and she kept looking to other places and other things to solve her problems and to tell her who she was. I did love the scenery though and would move to Bali in a heartbeat!

I also got together with my JLM committee for this year for a nice meal and to go over our roadmap for the year. Great group of girls and I am looking forward to working with them going forward. I have a lot of ta-da's to cross off of my list for the year, and also try to think about what I would like to do next year.

Friday evening we celebrated my mom's birthday, a week late. We were supposed to go to dinner and a show, but I ran late getting home from work. My mom and dad were busy looking around the house at the progress we had made, the Groupon we were going to use for the restaurant I was going to use I couldn't print because the site was down. Well, you can see where this is going. . . .so we wound up going to a restaurant in our new neighborhood, we really enjoyed it and had a good time catching up. After dinner we took a drive around the lake that we now live near and then stopped by the grocery store near home and picked up dessert to have back at home. It was a nice way to celebrate my mom's birthday.

Last night we caught a screening of "Secretariat". I LOVED it and Diane Lane is absolutely wonderful in this film. I loved the story line, the scenery, the wardrobes, the whole thing. We went with my parents and friend P (his girlfriend C was traveling) and friend J. It comes out October 8th and I highly recommend putting it on your calendar. You won't be sorry!

Tonight, we are off to pick up the boys car which is being serviced. Dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and a trip to Menards for more home repair items. I have a ton of work which needs to get done for a full day of meetings tomorrow, but I am also hoping to work on a few things at home and organize our home project plans!

More to come, and I will definitely not go two weeks without blogging again!