Life update

Hey there, long time no update dump.

As to be expected with a cross-country move, things have been crazy. A little busy, a little wild, a little fun, a little stressful, a little bit of a lot of all over the place.

I digress.

Here’s what life has looked like for me lately.

Saw Hamilton

One of the biggies! Chad got me Hamilton tickets for Christmas and we cashed them in before we left Colorado. We went to the Buell Theater in downtown Denver and had a magical time at the matinee showing. It went by entirely too fast – we loved every single second.

Goodbye tours

I joked that Chad and I were on legs one, two, and three of our Farewell Tour – the process of saying goodbye to the people and places that we love. Sadly, our tour was pretty short. I guess that’s the consequence of making a life-altering decision and executing it, all in under a month.

What we accomplished felt pretty good. Leg one was in Denver and involved several friends and family. It was really special to see our friends who were parents-to-be at the time, and get to share a few moments together before their lives changed so radically.

After that, Chad and I got to spend a quick but fun weekend in Grand Junction with my parents. We had our favorites – Taco Party, margaritas, a movie, and a lunch at Las Marias. We laughed and I super, super cried on the drive home.

We also squeezed in a very quick visit with Chad’s parents, meeting at Starvin Arvin’s and handing over the keys to the Jeep. (That’s one I definitely don’t miss, lol.)

And last, our neighbors through us a going away party. It was really sweet – an evening full of laughs and delicious homecooked Italian food. Our hearts felt incredibly full.

The move

Ooof. The move was crazy. Starting with signing the closing documents to sell our house, followed by the stress and fury of dealing with a moving company that didn’t seem legit. (Note: we still don’t have our stuff…almost a month later.) When the movers finally finished and hauled our stuff away, we decided to hit the road at 4 p.m. First, though, Chad and I walked hand-in-hand through the house, saying goodbye and recapping the top moments, letting a few tears fall.

The drive was a little unhinged: we kicked it off with some Qdoba and then decided to just go for it. So, we did. We stopped only for gas and bathroom breaks for Wally at rest stops, switching drivers every couple of hours so that the other could recover. And 20 hours later, we made it to Wisconsin.

Side note: night driving through Nebraska is nice. Cruise control works the best there – there are too many hills in Iowa, which was hugely disappointing, lol.

Apartment life

One of the biggest updates is that now we live in an apartment! It’s temporary but is thankfully only two blocks away from where our house will be; meaning: can fall in love with the area permanently.

So far so good! The toughest part was Wally’s adjustment period, where he barked at every noise (there are always a lot, lol), didn’t want to be in his crate, and how taking him out (and down two flights of stairs and around the block) is such a lengthy process compared to before. We also don’t care for the air mattress or the sink water.

Everything has improved (except for the mattress lol) and our mindset has adjusted to just accepting that things aren’t harder, they’re just different – we just do what we need to do. There’s no time to dwell on the aspect of “before” if it’s not helpful. We sip our filtered water and appreciate the walkability, and Wally loves his daily walks.

Plus, we live on the river! It’s gorgeous. We can (and probably will) be at Lakefront Brewery within 3 minutes if we hustle.

St. Paddy’s Day

We have a friend here!!!!! We were able to connect with a friend of our good friends, and hung out together for a St. Patrick’s Day pub crawl. It was a new experience for all of us, but we had a fantastic time hanging out with Haley, even if the next day was not quite as fun. 🙂

What we’ve been watching

Before I list all the shows and movies we’ve been consuming lately, let’s start off with a twist: I read “The Paris Apartment” by Lucy Foley and it was w o n d e r f u l!!! I highly recommend it.

Onto the screens:

• Inventing Anna
• F1: Drive to Survive
• The Bachelor
• Modern Family (our current comfort show)
• Righteous Gemstones
• The Proud Family
• The Adam Project
• The Family Stone
• Spiderman: No Way Home
• The Batman
• Person of Interest

What we’ve done

Adventure has been afoot! Here’s a brief list of some of our latest adventuring.

• Visits to the beach – Lake Michigan is truly like the ocean. HUGE, beautiful, and the beaches are sandy
• Exploring the east side
• Bowling at Landmark Lanes
• Moving watching (The Batman) at the historic Oriental Theater
• Selfie Museum at 3rd Street Market
• Mitchell Park Domes

Things we’ve purchased

After officially closing on our Colorado home, Chad and I have been able to buy a few things. We’re trying to save most of our money, but there were a few upgrades that felt necessary for now.

• A new TV. Our first TV purchase ever! And a doozy. Chad humored me when I told him about my dream TV – the Samsung Frame. I just love that it displays art work when it’s not on. It turns out that it’s super fancy and smart in all respects and has been quite a worthy big purchase.
• Temporary furniture. Our apartment was empty other than our air mattress, so we got two chairs from Target, a TV stand, and a side table. Oooo lala! Lol.
• Dyson Airwrap. Jeez, I’m spoiled with this one…it’s not quite as necessary. Except that I needed to buy a hair dryer. Chad encouraged me to get the Airwrap as something I’ve wanted for a while, and as an investment in a lifetime regular-use product.
• A laptop. The timing of this one was unfortunate, but my computer died. It’s our only device (other than our phones and now TV, lol) and I run my entire business from it. So, we pulled the trigger on a new Dell laptop. I didn’t want it, but I admit that I do kinda love it.

Car troubles

It hasn’t all been sunshine here – a week into our move, our car started randomly powering down while driving. Very scary! Very unsafe! So I had to take it to a shop. It was a really great experience overall, and educational for me as I had to walk to and from the shop and explore a little more. Chad also walked to work for that whole week.

I have to say: I’m SO grateful to our little car for getting us to WI safely without any kind of issue. 🙂

Wally at Dogtopia

Our cute dood Wally had a meet and greet at a doggie daycare facility and he passed! He had a wonderful day at Dogtopia East Side and I’m so excited for him to hang out with his new furry friends twice a week. 🙂

HOTWORX

I joined a gym! It’s called HOTWORX and it’s all about short workouts in an infrared sauna. They have isometric workouts, as well as HIIT equipment classes. I’m really excited to go here, and am even more excited about the 7 minute walk over.

You can read about my first HOTWORX experience here.

Chad’s first days at work

Chad and I had a fantastic week together in Milwaukee before he had to start work (though we did a lot of lame stuff, like unpacking, sleeping, organizing, shopping for essentials). Him starting work was incredibly exciting! His time off started at the end of January, and though it was packed full of necessary activities and very little fun, I really really loved having him around and instantly missed him the moment he left. And the best news is that Chad loves his job so far. 🙂

Birthday girl

On March 29, I turned 27! Wowza. I love celebrating my birthday, but it’s crazy to see a number higher than I ever imagined for myself before. The origins of this blog was the series “married at 22,” to contextualize.

This year my birthday was…pretty rough. I wrote a post about it – you can read it here. 🙂

New house!

Perhaps the most exciting is that Chad and I closed on our new house on April 1! I say that it’s exciting, but our reality has been that we haven’t had any bandwidth to really focus on it and lean into all of the feelings associated with owning a home…until it was crunch time and so many things seemed to go wrong. However, we’re confident that settling in will also mean more time and energy to spend on the things that matter most. 🙂

Annnnd…that’s all for now! (I think!) Hopefully next time there won’t be as much of a gap between posts, now that I’m feeling more settled. Finger’s crossed!