Why I Haven't Blogged Lately

You know what they say about the best intentions and the best laid plans, etc.  I know I slack on here a lot, but I usually get my 30 days of pictures done within 40-60 days lol  Well, that did not happen this year and here's why.  Get comfy, this may take a while.  I like where I live, but I was single when I bought it so I didn't need a ton of space.  At some point the hubs and I would like to have a child, we'd also like a yard, and just more space in general so I met with a realtor over the summer to see about listing my condo. It sounded doable, but I needed to declutter and do some minor repairs in the bathroom.  Trying to find a contractor willing to do minor repairs anytime this year proved challenging, but I was eventually able to find someone who would do it in September.  September is a crazy month at work so the plan was to list in October.  In the mean time, my husband broke his leg while we were vacationing with my family in Alaska--that deserves its own blog post, but not right now.  During the first half of November he was cast free and back to work. Our home went on the market on a Saturday in mid-November and what a whirlwind that week was!  Being ready for stranger's to enter your house on a moment's notice is well, let's just say it's an adjustment, but the house was sure clean!   By Tuesday we had an offer on the place and after some back and forth we had a signed P&S that Friday.  Now we could start looking for a new home!  We looked at several places without much success.  Black Friday we looked at a place, liked it, and made an offer on it.  Our offer was not accepted--someone else made a better offer that same day.  A few days later another house came on the market that looked promising.  We went to the Open House, liked it, went back with our realtor that same afternoon, and decided to make an offer on it.  The following day after a little bit of countering, our offer was accepted.  We were so excited, but we did wonder is it too good to be true?  This is a really nice, good-sized house in our price range, what's the catch?  We had the inspection that Saturday and there were a few things we wanted fixed, but in general, all looked well.  Now we were really starting to feel happy and in fact we went to a Christmas party that night and started telling people about "our" future house.  Our house had been inspected the previous day and my realtor said it sounded like all went well.  But what's that they say about how things can change in the blink of an eye or the roll of die or in a heartbeat?  Pick your cliché.  It happened.  My realtor called me on Sunday and let's just say some tears were shed.  Our buyer was no longer able to purchase our home and without the money from our sale we could no longer buy "our" future house so we had to withdraw our offer.  I hoped a miracle would occur and our home would sell quickly and we could reoffer on "our" home, but no luck.  I know people say if it's meant to be it'll be, and God has a plan, and everything happens for a reason, but right now I'm just sad.  I was so excited.  I purposely didn't get my hopes up until after we had the inspection, then I started visualizing how I would set up and decorate the rooms, how nice it would be to host Easter brunch and the St. Patrick's Day parties with all that space--it gets a bit crowded in here with 37 people over for St. Patrick's Day.  :-)  And of course we had now told a bunch of our friends that all was looking well so now we had to go back and tell them (and our families) that the deal was off.  Our home went back on the market right before Christmas, which I've been reading is a horrible time to sell so who knows how long it'll take.  I really hope it sells soon and that we can find something nice again, but in the mean time I'm trying really hard to be patient and positive.  Here's hoping...

Why I'm Slacking

So I'm totally slacking on this because we made the brilliant decision to try to sell our place and buy a new one during the holidays.  So I may need to pick a new month for pictures! 

Here we go again, day 5

Here we go again, day 4

Here we go again day 3

Early Christmas present from the in-laws

Here we go again day 2

Birthday flowers

Here we go again, day 1

Here we go again with 30 pictures in 30 days. First one is from Monday.  Happy Thanksgiving all!

Summer Bucket List 2018

Earlier in the week, I did my annual declutter the closet and found some clothes to donate and sadly, one to get rid of.  I have a pink cardigan that I love, but it has a random big whole in the sleeve.  No idea where that came from, I wore it on vacation in February and it wasn't there then. Perhaps it got caught on the hanger.  Sigh.  Anyway, this lead me to go through my dressers and clean out a few things there too and in the process I came across my summer bucket list from last summer.  I'm pretty sure summer bucket lists might have been meant for children when I saw one last year, but I don't care, I made my own.  I managed to complete almost everything on my list (and later that day I created a list for this coming summer).  So here's a summary of the aforementioned bucket list:
-Go on a trip--yep, to AZ and CO and a long weekend trip to NYC
-Go to the beach--yes, it was late in the summer, when this finally happened, but it happened at the end of August
-Eat outside--yes, on a trip
-Drinks outside--yes, while visiting my brother
-Spend a whole day reading--yes, I noticed mid to late summer that this hadn't happened yet so I grabbed a good book I wanted to read and parked myself in the recliner--I did still go to the gym that day
-Go to a movie--yes
-Go someplace I've never been (near or far)---yes, a few places, but one I particularly liked was the Painted Desert
-Go to a sporting event--baseball games
-Spend a whole day watching movies--I believe I watched 3 that day
-Girls Night--yes, wasn't supposed to be, but the guys decided to go out instead of stay with us
-Date night--yes, good thing we have a summer anniversary ha ha (we had a couple nights out actually)
-Mini golf--had to practically beg my husband, but he finally gave in and we went
-Make a scrapbook--yes!
-Read ten books--technically, it was past summer when I finished the 10th one
-Go strawberry picking---yes, but we went late in the season and didn't do so well                              
-Go blueberry picking--yes and I made some delicious treats with them
-Host or attend a cook-out--yes (attended)
-Game night--yes
-Go out for breakfast--yes
-Do something crafty--yes, but I didn't like the way it turned out (a heart made out of pictures of my husband and me, so I returned the frame and spelled out LOVE with pictures, instead, but I never finished it because I need to get some different sized pictures, so technically I started to do something crafty, but I still need to get more pictures and finish it)
-Volunteer somewhere--yes, twice at the Soup Kitchen
-Go to a winery/brewery--yes, a few I think
-Go to a farmer's market--yes, but I wasn't super impressed with the one I went to
-Trivia Night--yes
-Go to a play/musical--yes, The Book of Mormon (not exactly what I expected, but it was funny)
-Go out for ice-cream--yes, a couple of times
-Eat someplace I've never been--yes, a few places since I traveled a bit
-Make a new dish--yes, but now I forget what I made
-Do something touristy in New England--yes, well, sort of, I went to a locally famous amusement park, I'm not sure if that counts or not
-Declutter something at home--yes

My list for this summer has a lot of similarities on it, but I decided to do 25 things instead of 30 and I changed a few things so we'll see how it goes.  I also decided to start it in May and do May 'til Labor Day even though technically I know summer is late June 'til late September so maybe I should call it my summerish bucket list.  :-)  I'll let you know how it goes.

Day 30

Ready for Christmas Eve (I was assigned dessert.)

And that  concludes my 30 days!

Day 29

Christmas with the girls (and guys)

Day 28

Annual friends' holiday party

Day 27

Ready for the annual friends' holiday party tomorrow.

Day 26

Christmas lights at the brewery in the next town over

Day 25

I failed to take a pic today! So here is a picture of the Christmas trifle I brought to the Christmas party on Saturday.

Day 24

Got tickets to go see "Kinky Boots" in the spring.  It's become an annual tradition to see a show every year with a girl I befriended in Ireland.

Day 23

Ugly Christmas sweater day at work

Day 22

Day 22 I baked for our work cookie swap.