Still here…and just days away

Much of my life recently has been consumed by: thoughts about the house, stress about the house, getting sick from said stress about the house, thoughts about decorating the house, stress about making sure all the financing came through for the house, stress about making sure the appraisal came in where it was supposed to, and oh yeah, did I mention getting sick from the stress?

Well, everything came back fine, and we will be closing on the house at 9 a.m. on Friday and then move in! I am really excited, excited to make the space ours, excited to buy furniture, to stock up the pantry, to paint, to hang pictures everywhere, just generally excited.

I’m over the sickness that I had (I think it was a stomach bug, only made worse because I was anxious), I dropped 10 pounds in one week (a LOT on me) and pretty much ate nothing but brown rice for a week. My stomach is back to letting me other foods, which is fortunate, as I was growing rather tired of brown rice. My skin is still a total mess (I think I got cross-contaminated somewhere recently, and oh yeah, stress eats my skin just as much as it eats the insides of my stomach). Once we are in the house, I am going to be making everything from scratch for a while, no eating out until my body has a chance to calm down. But I love my new kitchen, so this actually is going to be really fun.

Other than that, B’s friend Tommy just came down from NH to visit us for a few days. I did a lot of cooking, we went to see Rent (amazing musical, so much talent). We went rock climbing and I was very happy to discover that my time away from rock climbing actually improved my climbing, I felt like my body knew how to move better. I also got a trail run in over the weekend and forgot what good medicine running is for me.

Sorry it’s been quiet here for a while, but one of the best parts of the house (for me, anyway) is that I will have my own art space and I am looking forward to painting and drawing and writing more. Fun stuff will be coming I’m sure, as will pictures of us moving into our house and starting to decorate 🙂

I am also now less than 4 months away from my wedding. Fortunately, I don’t have much to plan, because I haven’t done anything. I need to get a dress, wedding bands, make up a wedding playlist, get our honeymoon squared away…but once my brain space is no longer preoccupied with buying a house, I can start to focus on the next big life event!

Wheeee!

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Stalking the house

After we went to the flea market (the post below this one), we decided to take a drive out to see the house we are buying (going to the bank first thing tomorrow – Monday – to sign the loan paperwork, and then we have the appraisal, and we have to go back to the sellers for a couple of minor things from the home inspection – those are the last few hurdles right now). We were dorks and totally cased the house, peering in all the windows, going around out back, and of course, taking a few pictures. The real estate listing has already been pulled down, of course right before I was going to download some of the listing pictures, but soon enough, we should be able to start taking pictures of us moving in!

We drove up, and YAY! It has a sold sign!

B on his soon to be porch. He loves front porch sitting, as he calls it. Of course I do realize he isn’t sitting in this picture, though.

This kind of gives you an idea of the front of the house

And me, happy!

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Some photos from the Raleigh Flea market

On Saturday, B and I went to the flea market held every weekend on the state fairgrounds to look for furniture and other things for the house. We weren’t looking to buy then, just getting an idea of what we could find there. I brought along my camera, and realized I haven’t been shooting just for fun and the joy of capturing the neat things I see for a long time. Here are some of my favorites from our trip.

Can you lend me a hand?

I might have lost my marbles

The curious case of buttons

I would love to know these boots’ story

The glass one on the left feels like it would open doors to magic worlds

I was so fascinated by these old knobs. And even though I am pretty sure these were all haphazard placements, to me, they said art and beauty.

Guaranteed to never wilt, although they will likely rust

Isn’t that a great truck?

Thanks for looking at the beauty and magic I found at the flea market (and we did find some furniture we fell in love with, too!)

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A happy puppy

Myra Wonderpup was looking at my blog recently (she is only allowed on the Internet with Mama supervision, and she loves to see my blog) and was very sad to see that there haven’t been any posts about her lately. And I agree, it has been far too long since the puppy has been spotlighted here. She is, after all, the Wonderpup.

Some happy puppy pics from this weekend:

She loves soccer balls

She is super fast, usually the fastest pup on the field, at least when it comes to balls

Life pretty much doesn’t get much better than this for a pup…

unless you are doing this!

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We got the house!

The sellers countered our offer, and we accepted….so, we are going to be homeowners! We are looking to close either Jan. 30 or Feb. 6. EEEEEEEEEEEE!

Hugely excited. And rather terrified. Mostly hugely excited.

I am already dreaming of colors, what I might want to paint, fun design elements I like that are cheap, photos of mine that I want to print and matte and frame to hang in our house, dreaming of buying more artwork, and being able to hang things on the walls without asking for permission from a landlord. Being able to paint so I don’t have to live with beige walls and beige carpet. I am sick of beige. I want fun, vibrant, warm, inviting, personal!

Thus begins the whirlwind! I’m excited for the ride.

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A house offer and really flat pancakes

B and I went looking at more houses today, and the first one we looked at, we really loved. It’s in a nice, safe, quiet neighborhood that is six miles from my work and close to a big lake. The house backs up to a golf course (so no one could build behind the house! And B loves golf). It is really bright and open, and has rooms for a library, B’s office, my art space, a guest room, and a master bedroom of course (with a HUGE garden tub. I could happily live in that tub). (our grand total of furniture at the moment is a couch, two desks, a bed and a bureau, so we will need to buy some furniture). The kitchen is updated, with lots of cabinets and good counter space, with an island built in, and a huge pantry. All of the appliances come with the house — dishwasher, side-by-side fridge with ice dispenser, washer/dryer. The house was built in 2004 and is in immaculate shape.

It was pretty much everything we were looking for (although it will require paint, everything is beige, and we want COLOR!). So, we grabbed each other’s hands, and jumped excitedly off the ledge and sent in our offer to our realtor. We are dropping off the good faith check tomorrow morning, and then negotiations (hopefully) begin.

I wanted chocolate chip pancakes for dinner to celebrate. I thought I had some gluten-free pancake mix at home, but I just some GF all purpose flour, and various other GF flours. I tried to make my own pancake batter, and it wasn’t so much batter as pancake soup. No matter how much flour I added, it continued to defy cooking logic and it remained soup-like. And no matter how many chocolate chips I added, they wouldn’t scoop out with the batter. We cooked them anyways, and they ended up cooking like kind of thick, chewy, kind of flour-y crepes (much thinner than normal pancakes but not thin enough to be crepes). Some with three chocolate chips, some with more chocolate chips than pancake batter. They were certainly not the best pancakes I have made, but they were very entertaining. And covered with strawberries and syrup, they were at least mostly edible.

A good day by all counts 🙂

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Friday night at the Mermaid House

Mik is out of town this weekend, visiting her friends up in Mass. B and I had the house to ourselves, and Friday night, we started working on the poster that Santa brought for us to color together. It was a perfect Friday night.

It’s going to take a while to complete, but I love it so far, and I love coloring with B.

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My Space (not myspace)

My desk is my favorite spot in the house, because I am surrounded by color and magic and art and things that I love. Thought I would share my magic spot with you 🙂

Overview of my desk area

One corner of my desk. I have visited Paris several times, and don’t love the city like many do, but I love art of Paris, especially if it also looks like old postcards!

A Wall-E sticker and Ariel button, given to me by Mik. They are two of my favorite Disney characters. And two rocks that B gave me, from a walk he took while we were still living apart and worried that the distance would make me doubt our future.

A shell I found at Topsail Island, and small bottles. I adore small cute things, and I love blue glass, and glass bottles.

If you squeeze this fish, his eyes bug out and it always cracks me up.

I am a July baby, my mom got her for my birthday one year, I love the art

The Blue Fairy Queen, sitting on a bubble

An Irish Fairy I got for Christmas, she’s holding a four-leaf clover

A rose made of a palmetto frond, that B bought for me in Wilmington, and more glass bottles.

Emma, my first cat

A warrior fairy queen. She declined to be photographed clearly.

Elephants given to me by Mik, the one on the right is Horton. I love Ellies, and they are also for Elu, my Invisible Elephant who has her own story that I am writing.

The WonderPup, against a snowy background, the first and only time in her life she has seen snow, and another bottle.

Fridge, the baby polar bear B bought for me when I said I wanted a baby polar bear. I meant a really live baby polar bear, but I love Fridge (and yeah, um, I don’t really dust)

Some of my art, and some inspirational wall hangings

Another fairy queen and a mermaid

I met her at a craft fair, and immediately fell in love with her confidence and grace

The fairy who dances from my light

A picture of my parents and more bottles

Another little fairy.

Various journals of mine

Glue and glitter and some inspirational words cut from a magazine, waiting for my next creative project

Thanks for touring my space with me!

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To 2008

2008 started out innocently enough, but I was questioning the relationship I was in at the time and feeling as though it wasn’t the relationship I was to spend the rest of my life in.

Then I got the call at work. My mom had had another grand mal seizure and was in the hospital, maybe a day or two before I was scheduled to fly up for a slightly post-Christmas Christmas with my family. I felt as far away and helpless as I did when I got a similar call in Portland. But this time, it appeared even worse, as my mom was even in greater pain this time and we learned she had fractured more vertebrae in her spine. All of a sudden, our Christmas plans flew out the window and I scrambled at work to make arrangements. All I knew was that I had to be home to help my mom, and I didn’t know how long I would be out of the office. My boss and everyone at work were great and helpful. When I arrived in Massachusetts, seeing my mom in the hospital bed, in pain, was heart-wrenching and frightening. Daughter had to become Mother and I had to take care of my mom, as she couldn’t do much on her own when she came home from the hospital and my dad couldn’t take that much time off of work. I will always be grateful to my boss for making it possible for me to be there, through some creative figuring of my vacation and sick time.

But despite the fear and my new role as temporary caretaker, the time up north also presented me with a gift. While I was up there, I had a chance to go to New Hampshire on a day my dad had taken off work to take my  mom to see her neurologist. The trip to NH was to see B, for the first time in almost a decade. He had e-mailed me back in November and our friendship immediately began again with that first e-mail. I drove up north to see him on Jan. 8, nervous and excited and even more. When I first saw him, when he first picked me up in a mighty bear hug and swung me around, I knew. My heart knew.

When I left Massachusetts to return to North Carolina, I was nervous to leave my mom, even though she had made significant improvements just in the two weeks I was home with her, and I knew that I had to end things with Tim. It was hard, but very amicable, Tim wanted me happy, and he knew things with us weren’t working. We are still close friends.

Ending one relationship, I walked into another, one that felt like coming home, but B was still living in New Hampshire. We spent a lot of the first half of the year on planes and airports, and I cried more in those months than I had probably in the year or two previous. Every time we left each other again, my heart ripped out of my chest, and missing him was my constant companion.

Not long after I came back to NC, Mik moved down from Massachusetts, and she and Loki moved in here with me and MyraWonderPup. I had never really had a roommate — I lived with two of my past boyfriends, and I had a roommate briefly before I moved in with Tim, so we both had some learning and adjustments to make.

B finally moved down here, home with me, in August. Since then, I have started rock climbing with him, and found a new love and passion.

Through it all, I’ve  fallen more in love with photography, got back into painting, began to explore more with cooking, and started dancing with the stories in my head again.

2009 looks like it will be a busy, adventurous first half of the year — buying a house, moving, planning for our May wedding, honeymoon in Belize. But I really want to find and take more time for me this year, to pursue and focus on the things that get my heart stirring and send my spirits flying – photography, writing, playing with color, climbing, being outdoors, and of course…loving B, and adventuring side by side from now on.

Welcome, 2009.

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