The (Hopefully Last) Big Move!

Hey all!

I promised to write again soon, and I am now about to start fulfilling that promise.

Remember how I said there would be some new and exciting news?  Well...my boyfriend and I bought a house!  It's definitely a bit of a fixer-upper, but we both love it.  We closed on April 18th, and started preparing the main rooms the next day so that we could begin moving in ASAP.  We painted the living room, and cleaned the house from top to bottom.

The first coat of the green made me question EVERYTHING about this paint...but the second coat transformed it, and we ended up absolutely loving it, especially when paired with the yellow I picked out....so much so, that we decided to do the spare room with the leftover we had of these two colors!

A quick picture I snapped before they started moving the living room furniture in.

Plus the furniture and some more chaos.

See? The green worked out really well.  (I don't think Darryl realized I was going to take this, lol)

After that, we started moving things in from Darryl's apartment.  I wanted the living room, kitchen, and bathroom to be finished first so that we could kind of have a command central.  We lived out of the spare bedroom for a couple of weeks while Darryl and his best friend, Justin, installed floating floors in the upstairs (the upstairs consists of two rooms - one sort of leads on to the next, so we're using both of them as the master bedroom area).  I also painted upstairs, and the finished product looks like a completely different space than it did when we started.  It is absolutely freaking amazing.  (Stray piece of information: Every wall in this picture that isn't white, we painted.  The only wall in the house that didn't start out white was a brown wall in the living room - that's the green wall behind the couch now.)

I forgot to take a lot of better before pictures until things were already well under way, but I did have this and a couple of others!  This is upstairs in the one half of the bedroom.

Annnd, almost after!

The other half of the bedroom, while it was in progress.

We got this flooring from Lowe's.  It's called "Tavern Oak".

I'm in love with my kitchen.  I'll post pictures of it plus our stuff later, but right now I have boxes all over the place from where I moved more of my stuff in last weekend.

Once that was completed, we moved our bedroom stuff upstairs and started working on the spare room, then after that, the office.  I had the painting completed in both rooms long before the floors were completed (again, floating floors), but honestly, the guys really had the hard part.  The house was built in 1938, and it seems like there isn't a completely straight wall anywhere in the house, as they found out while trying to get the ends of boards to match up exactly.....I don't think it ever happened precisely the way they wanted it to. lol

One corner of the spare bedroom, post-painting.

The office, in progress.

Almost all of our stuff is in now (some of mine is still in a friend's garage, but we're slowly moving it in as we get other stuff out of the way).  It's really starting to come together!  Darryl put a bunch of his photos up a couple weeks ago, and as soon as I dig out the box mine are all in, they will join them!

Leo and Sawyer and Felix (you all haven't been introduced to him yet, but he's Darryl's hamster, lol) are all here and right at home.  Leo is ornery as usual, but he's much better behaved and happier now that he's back with me full time.  (My apartment situation over the last year didn't really work out well at all, and I ended up pretty much just in and out to take care of Leo and Sawyer and clean anything that needed done on a regular basis, and that was about it - not an ideal situation at all, and I hated leaving them there, but I had nowhere else to take them - where I was staying didn't allow them.  So now we're all back together, and it's so much better!!)  Everyone has adjusted incredibly well to the new place.  Leo is still nervous of new people when they come in, and his go-to is to jump behind the couch and stay there until the new people leave, but he's slowly beginning to come out quicker and quicker, if he even hides at all.

It's been an amazing experience so far, and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Wordless Wednesday - Fur Baby Love

Wordless Wednesday

Merry Christmas!

To everyone out there, from my fur babies and I!

Fitness!

So technically it's "wordless Wednesday", but I have a chance to write while I'm waiting on ArcMap software to load on my computer, so here I am!

(Don't worry, you still get a picture of this cutie.  She's finally big enough to jump on top of her house and did it for the first time last night.  What a racket she made, wheeking and singing and hopping all over the place in happiness afterward....right as I was going to bed. -_-  She's too cute to annoy me though.  I just went picture crazy instead.)

So, as of late, I've been trying to get healthy. I get on a healthy kick every once in a while, and it usually tapers off. This time I feel like it's different though.  I truly want to. I'm tired of being exhausted and feeling crappy all the time, and there's just no time for all of that.  I have too much stuff on my plate to deal with feeling like that.

I've been eating healthy stuff and cooking for myself more often.  And don't get me wrong, I'm still eating what I want...if I'm actually hungry.  And if I am hungry and what I wanted isn't something super healthy, I allow myself to have it - just in a small portion.  And then if I'm still hungry, I find myself something else healthier to fill me the rest of the way up.  But the bottom line is, I'm only eating when my stomach actually feels hunger - not when I'm craving whatever and I'm not actually hungry.

It took about a week (I'm halfway through my second week of this), and my cravings have pretty much stopped. I actually look forward to working out, which I've been doing almost every day.  I've started running again (in smallish amounts - I downloaded the C25K (Couch to 5K) app to my phone and have completed the first week + repeated one of the first week runs (4 runs total) so far).  I haven't done any week 2 runs yet because I have absolutely HORRIBLE shin splints that are killing me at the moment.  Instead of running like I wanted to yesterday, I went for a hike instead.  It still hurt, but at the same time it felt good to be moving around and outside and just doing something.  

It's good that I'm living where I am at the moment.  My grandpa has a treadmill I can use if the weather is bad.  There is plenty of open space where I can go to run outside when the weather is decent.  I have access to a full kitchen with every possible cooking tool imaginable (my grandma was an amazing cook and cooked all the time, so she had everything).  I'll eventually be moving back home for a while and will still have the kitchen part, but not a treadmill, so as far as getting started, I'm glad I'm at my grandpa's, at least to establish some good habits.  They'll be easier to keep up once they're drilled into me.

So far, I've lost 3 lbs since last week and a couple of inches from my waist.  I didn't think I'd be seeing progress this soon, so I'm super excited.

I'll keep updating when there's time!  I hope you're all doing well!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Sawyer is the Happiest Guinea Pig in the World

Fur Family Addition!

So, I just feel like you all need to meet the newest addition of my fur family.  I haven't even had her for a full 24 hours, and I already love her so much!

Back during the spring, my mom got my brothers each a guinea pig.  I loved them both instantly when I went home and met them, and I've been contemplating getting one ever since.  Well...

Yesterday my mom took me out for an early birthday lunch.  While out, she offered to pick up anything I might need from the store.  The things that immediately popped to mind were all for my animals - a fish net for Fiyero, because I've somehow lost his in one of my moves, and litter and food for Sprinkles and Nugget.

Lo and behold...We went inside Eastern Pet Supply, and while in the hamster section, we saw an enclosure with baby guinea pigs.  I was saying how cute they were and how much I want one, when my mom pointed out that she had given me money for my birthday.  Decision made.  My birthday present to myself was going to be a guinea pig.  When I went to one of the employees and said that I wanted one, she asked if I had seen the ones in their small animal room.  Wanting to give each pig a chance, I followed her back to the room to see them.  There were two.  I asked how old they were, and she said that most of them were from the same litter and were the same age.  Then she paused and pointed to a smaller one hunkered down in the corner that I hadn't quite seen yet and added, "This one is younger though."  I leaned in to get a closer look, and my heart melted.

She was a little white, black, and brown baby.  It was instant love.

The attendant put together a box for her while I told Mom which one I had chosen and reasoned that since she was the youngest, she would be the best because she'd imprint on me more and be easier to tame.

Everyone who has met her so far has fallen in love with her as much as I have.  I even got my grandpa to hold her for a couple of minutes last night...slightly against his will, but by the time I came back downstairs, he was smiling at her as he pet her and she sat there calmly for him.

Her name is Sawyer. :)

She seems to be adjusting well so far.  This morning, she allowed me to pick her up without running from me for the first time.  She purred some last night as well.  I had her out for about 2 hours, cuddling and playing with her.

She doesn't quite understand the concept of how to eat a treat yet. lol

Normally, you buy guinea pigs in pairs because they're social animals.  I only bought one.  However, if she seems to be depressed at any point due to being alone, I'm completely prepared to run out and get another one to be her roommate. :)