New Year, New Home!

Well it's official-J and C are residents of Roanoke VA! It took a loooooong week of traveling back & forth between states, packing and unpacking and moving things around and putting that new thing together and 'that shouldn't go there' and 'where is that one thing?' and 'oh that won't fit there just donate it to charity'......BUT we are now living very practically in our new apartment yay!

I had high hopes for our 1st New Years Eve as a married couple, I was envisioning shiny high heels and a new dress and someplace festive with sparkly confetti--Turns out when you are knee deep in boxes your New Years Eve dream becomes putting clean sheets on the bed and going to sleep at 8:30 pm....We did wake up long enough to watch the ball drop (so anticlimactic could have stayed asleep). Better luck next year New Years Eve--plenty of time to find those shiny shoes!

In honor of the New Year (whoa 2012 seems crazy) I wanted to give a little salute to 2011 because it was a wonderful year!

These things happened in 2011:

• I graduated College--good riddance RU
• J and I got MARRIED!!
• We went to Jamaica --Yeah Mon!
• We started living together
• We moved to Pittsburgh
• We had a lot of new experiences...
• We celebrated Birthdays!
• We prepared for another move
• We celebrated Holidays
• We ate good food
• We slept in on Saturdays
• We experienced love
• We experienced loss
• We Lived---Thanks 2011 we won't forget you!

2012 has started with a bang-We have moved to a new place, J has already started working (long hours *sigh*) and I will begin working a new job starting on Monday! We already found a supermarket and TJ Maxx is just around the corner. Little Paris is starting to bark less and less and the neighbors outside...2012 is looking pretty great!

As far as this blog goes...J and C are not really living in the 'city' anymore---but if you take in mind we come from small town USA, I think the title can survive a little longer (plus its catchy!)

Happy New Year to you and your loved ones--I am excited to share our new experiences with you this year!

The Countdown Begins.

Today its mid-December in PA and it is actually surprisingly warm and sunny. I am starting to think that we got very lucky because I was expecting snow boots and gloves everyday, BUT I am certainly not complaining.

We have only a couple weeks before Christmas and our next big move, so I am starting the packing extravaganza-sighhh-anyone want to come help? We are so excited to be back in VA and closer to our families and friends and now its time for me to find a new job. Yesterday my Nanny Diaries ended -sniff- and now I am looking forward to the next chapter in my life. We will just have to see what exciting things God has in store for us over the next few months. I was so blessed to find a sweet family to work for while we have lived here, I will miss those three sweet ladies...

With Christmas just around the corner, I feel so excited for everything this season represents and I cannot wait for our big multi-families to get together and celebrate the birth of Christ.
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones! J and C will be back in the New Year with a new city to call their home.

Update...

Okay so a few blogs ago I wrote about how hard it is to get groceries from the car alllllll the way through a few doors and down into our apartment. Any of you out there who are apartment dwellers know my pain here--the worst part is seeing one of those terrific 10for10 deals and having to think about how you will really pay for those progresso soups later when the trip from car to cabinet commences. BUT I have finally found something that truly has helped and used it for the first time today...so I am super-de-duper excited to share with anyone who has this same conflict.

It's the thirty-one Large Utility Tote!

You would not believe how many grocery bags fit in this beauty! (This photo is not mine btw mine just has a big 'S' on there for Smith!) Honestly this has CHANGED my life after grocery store trips :-)

You can get one HERE

They are $30 but well worth it! Plus you can choose from many different patterns and add a cute monogram.

Just wanted to share a little tip for some help when its time for groceries, especially shopping for Christmas dinner! 

Thankful.

This past week was our first Thanksgiving as a married  couple...and wow we had so much to be thankful for. Living away from your family really makes you appreciate those little things that we so often take for granted. We definitely took some time to enjoy those special family things that only happen on holidays. Just to name a few:

• The ever-present separation of men and women--men to the TVs women to the kitchen
• The family dinner (J and I rarely even eat at our own table...)
• Morning coffee--J never drinks coffee so I love having coffee time with our families because I am pretty sure he is the only one who doesn't have coffee in the morning

Of course I enjoy every moment spent with our families, but those are some of those cozy moments that I miss way up here in PA. Speaking of...our moving day is set, and we will be residents of Roanoke, VA by January 1, 2012. New place for a new year!

We found a new apartment in Roanoke that we are super excited about! We will be living in 300 more square feet than we currently have for $1 less a month than we currently pay...still deciding what to do what that $12, any suggestions? Seriously though I can't wait for another room--I'm thinking craft room/office/reading area, I can't wait to decorate! AND in other news we will be having our very own WASHER/DRYER in our apartment...for those of you who don't have one you know how awesome this is!

So needless to say, J and I had so very much to be thankful for this year. We have had an amazing year in 2011 full of awesome experiences and now we are looking forward to the next chapter of our lives. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful large family and so many great friends and now we are going to be a little bit closer to everyone.

Now we just have to pack up everything and get ready for our big move...easier said than done.

J and C and a NEW City

Just as we were getting used to our new location up here in PA--its time for another move.
Drumroll please.....

Salem VA here we come!

We are quite the excited pair because this move is taking us much closer to our families and friends back in SW-VA, and J is especially excited to be back in VT country!

So for now we are scouring the internet for a new home for J, C and little P in the smaller and more familiar city of Salem. Just like our last move, we only have a few weeks to get ready for the 308 mile trip to our new home.

Hope Salem is ready for us-we can't wait to get back to Virginia. Time to start packing...seems like we just got organized :-)

Clutter.

My whole life I have had an interesting relationship with clutter. During my earlier years I basically ignored clutter to the point of interventions. These interventions included but were not limited to-my mother attacking my closet on her only day off from work, my friends 'coming over for a sleepover' and organizing my room, my grandmother showing the actual way to fold that turtleneck, and my sister demanding that I find her long lost tank top that I absolutely did not borrow....ooops sis I found it!

So now that I live with a boy (gasp!), in a one bedroom basement apartment, with lots of new exciting things from our wedding, clutter is lurking around every corner ready to pounce.  The thing is, J is not going to give me an intervention if the laundry isn't done on time (thank goodness!) so I have to do my own mini-interventions every now and then!

Living in a small space with tons of stuff makes your relationship with clutter become quite tense, therefore clutter and I have finally parted ways for cleaner pastures. This has been very satisfying, and now I truly know where every tank top resides. But the thing about clutter is that just a few more things can make it come back with vengeance. So with the arrival of my mom, sis, and step-dad this past weekend, clutter returned!

That clutter was so embraced because having it made their visit so real and it made our apartment so homey. Three girls getting ready in the floor of the dining room with hand mirrors is definitely not the most convenient way to primp, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Yes, we were crowded, but that's the best way to enjoy family, and most of our time was spent outside exploring.

We so enjoyed having our visitors and their clutter that after they left it felt very empty. So this morning I am drinking my coffee alone and looking at a messy Lebanon News piled up on the coffee table, I might just avoid throwing that treasure away for a few more days.

Our trip to Trax Farms!

Moms...How do they do it?

Okay, so being a nanny has got me thinking about how in the world all of you wonder-moms do it all?! I have been discussing this little mystery lately with some of my friends and family because I already feel like there aren't enough hours in the day. And this is what we have come up with...

When you become a mother God gives you the superpowers of:

• No need for sleep
• Ability to shower and dress yourself in under 10 minutes
• Ability to stretch groceries like the 'fish and the loaves'
• Ability to make every part of dinner be ready at the same time (my mother-in-law should teach a class in this...and cooking in general)
• Super willpower regarding NBCs new fall line-up
• A new sense of turning trash to crafts
• Knowledge of what temperature is right for a coat and scarf

So naturally I have none of the aforementioned superpowers, but being a nanny has really got me thinking that there are a few more superpowers I hope to recieve once I become a mother--these are things that all of you super-moms out there have already mastered...

• The incredible ability to multi-task above and beyond the call of duty(my mom has got this in spades!) Yes this bastically covers everything except...
• The ability to use Saran wrap...If having a baby doesn't give me this, I think im never gonna get the hang of it

So okay you power-moms I really don't know how you do it all, and still have clean and stylishly dressed children on your hip, but I just wanted to let you know I've been thinking about all of you and your masterful abilities to get it all done! To all of you working moms out there, just wow you are amazing. To my mommy thanks for having all of these superpowers I love you!

As for me, I think I need a few more years of practice being a wife before mommyhood...but oh its fun to dream!