These Days

This post is not terribly exciting.
It is just an update of what has been going on in my life recently.

Lots of house hunting.  An exhausting roller coaster ride of emotions and time.
Eli and I both dedicate at least an hour of our work day to house hunting (interspersed throughout the day of course, and during lunches/breaks).  We'll message each other about house-hunting and if I find a gem that just hit the market I scribble the MLS down on a post-it and run down 2 flights of stairs to his desk (remember, we work at the same company) and go "look at this one!!!!"

We've put down offers on 3 houses and gotten outbid every time.
The last one was the hardest-- our agent talked to the seller who agreed to lower the price to compensate for things the house was lacking (needed a new furnace for example), and we had given them until 4pm.
Around 2pm the seller called our agent and said they were going to accept our offer and just had to get some things ready.
At 3pm someone called the seller and offered them list price and just like that, we were out of the deal.
It was like so much water running through our fingers.

Tonight we are going on a mad grand house hunting excursion with our agent and seeing 8-10 houses.
Then we'll rush by the grocery and grab something for dinner and hunker down, watch Django while I work from home (I'm on call tonight, of all things).


We've also been spring cleaning in a sense.  We are sick to death of our shoddy little apartment in the ghetto (it isn't really In. The. Ghetto, but the people that live there and the people that manage it are all awful.
And after 2 years of holing up in this little place we are both itching with angst to get out of it! We need a yard! We don't want to walk down 3 stories to take the trash out, or haul our laundry out every weekend because there aren't washing machines there.  Our dishwasher leaves everything looking filthier than when it went in, our oven has a mind of its own, and lately the bathwater has been running cold.
First World Problems, I know, but we have House Fever running high--both to get out of the apartment and get into a home and make it our own.  We enjoy that kind of fixing-up work.

So this weekend we went through and pulled out our summer clothes, packed away the winter clothes, and donated 4 bags of them.  It always feels good to thread out what you don't need anymore and pass it off to someone you know will appreciate it.  I donated 2 gorgeous dresses that I don't have the occasion to wear, and I hope a less fortunate girl than me can wear them to the Prom, or something equally exciting and important, and show them the good time I rarely did.

We're going to start packing our stuff up bit by bit so we aren't overwhelmed by it at the end of July, when our lease is up...or, hopefully, if we get into a house sooner and can break our lease.

I've been exercising a bit.  Which I haven't done before, for various reasons (health problems).
My body likes it.  Does your body ever crave attention--a good stretch, a long walk? Mine does.
So jogging on the treadmill, even if only for a half mile helps me relax and I don't feel so restless.

We've been looking in a lot of animal shelters and pet shops lately because we are both dyyyyying to get a dog.  Once we get our house fixed up (carpet, paint, we don't know what to anticipate since we don't have a freakin house yet), that will be the first order of business.

We found a black cat with green eyes named Chief at the animal shelter on Saturday that was an absolute doll.  Eli is allergic to cats and we don't really plan on getting one, but he does love cats, and his brother who is also allergic got over it when he and his wife got a cat...and we both fell in love with Chief to the point that Eli was going "Damn it! If we had a house I would take this cat home right NOW!"
This cat literally stretched his paws up to hug me, then climbed onto my shoulder, nuzzled me under my chin, and reached his paws and face out to Eli for attention.  He was such a sweetheart, I hope he gets adopted soon, or I may find myself back at the animal shelter this weekend.

This weekend Eli and I are hoping to paint our bedside tables the same Tiffany blue as my dresser. We've wanted to for a while, but weather was not permitting.
The weather in Salt Lake hasn't been permitting at all lately. It has been a complete tease and torture.
We want to get out and go hiking! Play Frisbee (I'm terrible somehow) in the park!

In the meantime, we'll keep hunkering down dreaming of our future house, yard, and dog.

Now for some recent photos.

TRYING to FaceTime with my bestie.

She gets here in July !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those little darlings turned their wheel into a nest.

Went to the zoo in the rain. We prefer going on those dreary, cooler days because the animals are more active! We learned this trick from my mom, who was a docent at Hogle Zoo for years.

BBQ Night.

With a decadent fruit salad as dessert.

Going through my brother's and my childhood stuffed animals. Oh the memories! We donated a bunch and tucked the rest away for posterity.

101 Dalmatians is my favorite movie (now and growing up) and we had dalmatian everything (we even had 2 dogs that were dals growing up!). Here is my Perdidah and his Patch.  We loved the noses (and in Patch's case, the ears) off these guys!

An improvised lemon chicken dish I made last week.  It turned out beautifully.

The amazing kitchen of the last house we put an offer in on and nearly got.  It was lovely.

We drowned our sorrows over losing the house in sushi.

Last Saturday we wandered the neat old houses of downtown. This one was perfect for a horror show, but could be absolutely gorgeous if it were given some major repairs and love!