Wednesday, December 21, 2016

What's Up Wednesday




1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK:
Well last night Ted and I attempted a mini impromptu date night.
My "dinner" was so gross I didn't eat it and it was taken off the bill. It was so loud where we were sitting and the awful music was so loud that I couldn't wait to just leave. 
#datenightfail

The pickles were the best part 

Aside from that, I think I'm making tacos tonight and probably just chicken tomorrow.
Then we're going to Ted's sisters on Friday for pizza...
and then it's Christmas!


2. WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:
I've been thinking a lot lately about the family trips we used to take at Christmas time to Vermont or New Hampshire. I've mentioned these places before but I can't help but miss the snow and nostalgia and Christmas overload these two places are all about.

 The Mountain View Grand
  
The Mount Washington Hotel

Both of those places are what Christmas is all about.
Hot coco by the fire
Horse drawn sleigh rides through the mountains at dusk with snow falling complete with jingle bells
Gingerbread houses
Board games
Christmas carols
Santa

It's just perfect.




3: WHAT I'M LOVING:
NOT working this time of year.
For real.
I absolutely couldn't imagine working and getting everything done that I do in a day. I don't know how people do it. 



4: WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO:
Buying a house!
I mean... It's been so much fun thinking about actually being in our new house, but all the things leading up to it has been crazy. 
We've literally ran in to every silly little hiccup you could imagine. 
All minor, stupid things, but ugh enough already!

My no Starbucks might have to wait until after we move!



5: WHAT I’M DREADING:
Moving again! Haha Oh my. 
We moved the weekend of a nor'easter in the pouring rain with crazy wind. 
I joke and say this time we're going to be moving in a blizzard.
Strike me if I'm correct, I swear, that's our luck.



6: WHAT I’M WORKING ON:
All things Christmas.
Baking cookies, wrapping gifts, shopping.
As well as calling our lawyer, e-mailing our mortgage lender, going through paperwork, and just generally staying on top of everyone so we close on the 30th!

This was my cookie and packaging for this yeas cookie swap!


7: WHAT I’M EXCITED ABOUT:
Well this shouldn't be a surprise, but our new house! 
Ha. I love my mom. More than anything in the world, but living with her is tough. It's not easy to live on top of someone elses stuff in their home but when it's your mom, and she tends to go back to treating you like a kid, its HARD.
She reminds me that this is HER house every now and then. 
So we are more than excited to be back in our own space again.
And the fact that it comes with a beautiful new hot tub doesn't hurt!





8: WHAT I’M WATCHING/READING:
Hallmark Christmas movies
All.The.Time. 
When I have a free minute, that's what I'm watching.


9: WHAT I’M LISTENING TO:
Baby toys. 
The little music from Austins bouncer, or his walker, or all his toys.
Haha - Ted and I joke about how the "songs" get stuck in our heads.
Beside that, it's Christmas music...


10: WHAT I’M WEARING:
Currently, pajamas.
But my typical outfit these days has been jeans, uggs and a hoodie.
Fashion icon over here, I know. But its been cold and I've been rushing around between naps and when Austin eats so it is what it is and I don't really care all that much. Once my life settles down a bit more and I find the rest of my clothes (haha) maybe I can wear my nice sweaters and scarves again.


11: WHAT I’M DOING THIS WEEKEND:
It's Christmas!!!!
Friday night we are "doing" Christmas with Ted's sister and her soon to be hubby.
Saturday my mom hosts my dads side of the family for Christmas Eve and we go to church and have dinner at moms house.
Christmas Day we will be at my moms of course and we just can't wait for Austins first Christmas. I mean, I know he's only 9 months old so he doesn't quite get it, but 1st Christmas is a big deal. At night we are going to my in-laws for dinner.



12: WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:
MOVING!!!!!!!!!!!
Gosh, I just can't wait to paint and clean and unpack and all the sometimes fun but not always fun stuff that goes along with moving, again. 
We're going to be spending a lot of time painting this house!
I mean, the paint choices and carpets and carpet COLOR is just awful.
Ugh, shades of green and marroon and purple my goodness.
1994 called and wants it's decor back!!


13: WHAT ELSE IS NEW:
I have a chest cold which has lowered the sound of my voice a bit and comes with a nasty cough that sounds like I'm unable to breathe. I'm hoping this clears up in 3 days. 
Not a fan of being sick on Christmas.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

December - Mid Month Confessions

December
Mid month confessions

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  

I truly can not believe it's almost 2017.
Not sure where the year went....
Oh yeah, had a baby, sold a house, moved in with my mom, bought a house.
Yep. That's right. 
It's been a busy 2016.
I'm HAPPY to move on to 2017...

That being said, I haven't really been keeping track of all my mishaps, but I know I have SOME confessions, so here we go.... 

*

I'd rather buy 2 1/2 gallons of milk than 1 gallon because I hate how heavy and awkward the 1 gallon of milk is to pour when it's full. This is weird but I honestly get annoyed with a full gallon of milk.

Austin is 9 months old (yesterday) and I much prefer him napping ON me still. It's not the best habit but I just don't care.  He's only going to be napping for so long and napping on Mama even shorter. He's just so perfect and peaceful.

I'm averaging a shower every other day lately. With the amount of time I'm on the phone or running to a lawyers office or lenders office or realtors office all while keeping Austin on his schedule, I don't prioritize showering. Luckily, I'm not necessarily dirty and dry shampoo works wonders.

I had become obsessed with Starbucks recently. To the point where I was spending like $7 a day on a venti drink and a cookie. I had to re-evaluate whether or not that was an actual priority or not. Turns out $50 a week on things like that shouldn't really be a thing. Also.....CALORIES?!
Lol so I've cut back and decided it's only going to be a treat now. That was just crazy. I've also switched to rook coffee which is a local shop I've talked about before. They truly have the best local organic coffee and it's waaaaay cheaper! A $12 bottle of cold brew lasts 7 days. And I don't have to lug a baby in and out of Starbucks. #keepingitreal
*
*

Buying a house is probably the most stressful thing I've ever done. Ted bought our first house before we met (well, re-met) and so I didn't know what all in entailed. I thought selling a house was a pain but man was I wrong!! I've never done so much leg work before in my life. It's exhausting but so going to be worth it.

We are being super aware of our finances til this house deal is closed and Ted and I talked about not spending a lot on each other for Christmas this year. However. I told him I want a Roomba and an Apple Watch. Haha nothing says don't spend a lot like $700 on two items! But hey, one can dream.

If you don't follow me on Pinterest, you're probably lucky.  Haha. I have been a pinning FOOL as of late. I'm obsessed with this new house so I just can NOT wait to get in and make it our home! Follow me on Pinterest here if you're interested...

Every night as I'm going to sleep I think about the new house. I feel like a little kid about to go to Disney or wake up on Christmas morning. I'm just do darn excited. I can honestly say for the last couple of nights that is how I fall asleep.
A rerun of Friends and "day" dreaming about our house.

And for fun... here is another glimpse at the house... 
I'm gonna be painting forever 

Have a good day!
#tryingtobeabetterblogger
#wheredoestimego
#mamaneedsavacay

~Tiffany~


Thursday, December 1, 2016

Hello December.... Hello Blog!

So here we are... December 1st!
Austin is 8 and a half months old already.
8 and a half months!!! - Gaah.
Here's the quick update of life lately in bullet form.....

September 16th is when I last posted on my blog. Yikes!!
We have been busier than I could have ever imagined.

We went away for one night for our 2 year anniversary to Rehoboth Beach Delaware with a stop in ocean City Maryland. We had an amazing time. We definitely needed the get away, but my gosh it landed the weekend before we moved. We had this planned and booked though before we sold the house, so away we went!


On the ferry to Delaware

Thats me in the hoodie, rescuing a seagull that was tied up with fishing line. The man in the hat held it and I cut all the fishing line off and took the hook out of its belly. My gosh that was crazy!

I only took like 2 pictures on the actual trip because all our focus was on each other and our get away with out Austin (Thanks Mom) but this is the boat ride home!



Love him ~ we had so much fun

* * * * * * *

We sold the house the 16th of August and closed on October 3rd. 
The weekend prior to the closing we moved. 
The weather was absolutely atrocious. 
It was storming and pouring and windier than I have ever seen.  It was horrible.
It was so hard to watch all our sweet friends helping us in this miserable weather. 
But, we are SO thankful for everyone!
 
Ted picking up the moving truck!

I've learned that once you move out, moving home ESPECIALLY with your husband and family - not easy. I love my mom dearly but it's not easy living in "her" space.
I had to borrow my girlfriends SUV to pack and move more at once time.

In the weeks between, we purged, packed, cleaned, downsized and figured out a way to move all of our 1250 square foot house, a baby, 2 cats, a snake and a blind dog into a bedroom and a half at my moms.
This was our living room
We have a section of our friends basement taken over.
Half of my moms basement. 
And a large portion of the upstairs of my moms garage. 
Yeah. It's insane.
And....we're going to be doing it all again very soon!

* * * * * * * * 

The weekend we were moving also fell on my cousins wedding. 
So tired, and with minds racing, we went to their beautiful wedding.
It was lots of fun! 

This was the final leg of the move.
There I am - unshowered, tired and wet.
Theres my boy in the back there
And look closely next to me - my two cats. 
Poor little girls... they were less than thrilled.
Thankfully they adjusted just fine living with my mom and her cat.
Adios old house!

Chaos.

We were both a little sad, but I'm SO happy we don't live there anymore.
So we have "stuff" in a storage unit that is legit full to the brim.
I seriously didn't think we could fill it, but we did. Quickly.
My car looked like this for like a week. We just ran out of space to stuff everything. 
It was terrible.
And apparently I wore this sweatshirt a lot haha
We moved in to my moms and set Austins "room" up first. It's actually cute and quite functional.
Happy Boy
We "celebrated" the start of hockey season.... 

Just like his daddy
Austin went for his first bike ride!
He LOVED it!

I snuck over to the beach early one morning to take pictures of Ted and his buddy surfing.
There is nothing better than living 4 minutes from the beach.
The beauty in this picture is breathtaking


We went pumpkin picking as a family of 3

We celebrated Austins first Halloween

I went on "election day" to the best pizza place in NJ with my Pop Pop and my Aunt.
This place was my dads favorite. Its a favorite in our whole family actually 
DeLorenzo's in Trenton/Hamilton - go if you're local.

Austin and his Great Pop Pop

I've decided what cookies I'm making for my annual Christmas Cookie Exchange
They are Frosted Cranberry

I've also decided that we need an SUV. 
And lately, I'm liking the Ford Explorer Sport

We've eaten a lot of Broad Street DoCo donuts
and drank A LOT of Rook coffee lately!!
OMG Delish
We celebrated Austin's First Thanksgiving

We road tripped to Easton PA for an impromptu lunch with our favorite cousin

 Ok so on to the good stuff....
We weren't really actively looking for houses but something popped up.....

Soooooo... we're buying a house!!

We should be closing by the end of the month.

I mean. Phew.

So now we are waiting for all of the details to go on and get finalized. And I definitely will post about the house - but not until it's all said and done. But let me just say, I've had my eye on this house since I was 15! I've always loved it and have said numerous times "if that house ever goes up for sale I'm buying it"

Here's a sneak peak....
  

We are so excited!! 

So that's my recap of the last several weeks.
Hopefully I'll blog more because I definitely miss it!

~Tiffany~ 

Friday, September 16, 2016

We're Officially Moving !!!!!!!!!

The day has finally come - we are moving !

So we listed our house (for the second time) on August 15th.
We had 3 showings that day.
On August 16th we got an offer from the first couple that looked at our house.
On August 17th negotiations were final and we moved toward attorney review!!!
Here's a few shots from our listing:

This is our living room from the front door. I hate how the carpet photographed after the retouching. Ugh it looks filthy! It's soo not!!

Our little kitchen 

Austin's Nursery 💙

So on October 3rd we close - which means I've been a packing and purging fool!!

Packing absolutely stinks.... but there's a reason why I despise it so greatly for this particular situation. We haven't found a new house yet. So for the time being, we're moving in with my mom.
It's certainly going to be interesting moving our little family in with her but it's what we need to do for now.

So the frustrating thing about packing is what is going where. We have items going in her basement. We have boxes for winter use while we're living there (clothing, hats, scarves etc).
We have stuff going in to storage that we won't be needing while we're living with her.
We have our bed frames from our room and the guest room going in a friends basement.
Ted's cabinet with all his "man clothes" lol (like camo coat and hunting stuff) is going to his parents house.

So needless to say, it's chaos.
Throw in a 6 month old who's not a fan of napping in the morning for longer than 45 minutes, a blind dog that moves every time I do, whom I also trip over constantly and my general lack of motivation to do all this once I get a minute when all the above are calm.
So Ted and I have been burning the midnight oil...ok ok - the 8pm oil who are we kidding we're in bed by 9:30.
 We have piles everywhere. 

We are not sure where we are going to move and what exactly our plan is but we do know the two neighborhoods we want to live in.

Do we buy something that needs some work?
Do we build on a lot since there are so many?
We talked to two builders and one of them has several plan options. I like this one:

Do we wait and see what comes on the market?
For now we're gonna just stay put at my moms until after Christmas & New Years.
Then we are going to really think about what to do next.
Unless of course in the mean time something fabulous pops on the market.
Because now we have buying power with nothing pending, no contingencies or anything.

I mentioned a while ago that we had a contract on a house and I loved it then.
But the more we talked about it and looked at it the less we were in to it.

Everything happens for a reason, and this just wasn't ours. 

In the meantime, this guy turned 6 months old and Ted and I are scout to celebrate our 2nd anniversary!

He has a tiny bit of blonde hair on that cute big ol head of his! 
I've really loved making his food. It's so easy and kinda fun in a weird way. 
I love knowing exactly what he's eating. And he seems to love it too!

We should be all out of this house by the 30th so once we are settled I plan to blog more. 
We are going away for the night next weekend to celebrate our anniversary. We seriously can't wait!! 
I just hope no hurricanes foil our plans because if the one out in the ocean hangs a left our plans are crap. 

Happy Monday!

~Tiffany~


Monday, August 15, 2016

August Mid-Month Confessions



It's been a while since I've blogged. I have just been so busy.
Our house is officially BACK on the market as of today!  
So I have been cleaning and purging and painting etc for a few weeks.
Throw in our blind pup that is still adjusting and our 5 month old and the fact that it's been like 100° for the past 2 weeks, it's been a bit crazy!! 
Needless to say, I have some confessions so here we go.....

(1)
The real estate photographer came last Wednesday to photograph our house again since we renovated the kitchen and updated some things.... So we all remember my shoving my laundry in the car thing....well surprisingly, the laundry was done! Shocking, I know...
But I used the laundry baskets (plural) to toss everything on top of the dressers and framed pictures and anything else that was "out".
It's still sitting in the back room. I need to empty it out. I'm just not in the mood. 
 
Buuuuuuuut - the pictures came out amazing!!

 

(2)
I haven't cooked dinner in a while. Well consistently at least. We've been eating at my moms. Or ordering in. It's just been way too dang hot! But tonight I'm cooking. We went to Whole Foods yesterday so we're all stocked up! 

(3)
We booked our anniversary trip and I honestly cannot wait to go away with my husband. We haven't gone anywhere since the babies been born which was only five months ago so that's no big thing. But him and I could use a night away. My mom is watching Austin & Jake and we're going for one night to Ocean City, MD. We can not wait!! 
 
 

(4)
Once our house sells we're moving in with my mom until we find something else or she does. She's been talking about down sizing since her house is kinda large. So we'll see if that is an actual true feeling. Then we'll buy her house. We just haven't 100% decided yet. But regardless. I can't wait to live with my mom. And neither can Ted lol. 
#momscooking #liveinbabysitter #savemoney #noshame
 
(5)
I love love love being a full time mama. But I wanted to do something to make some "shopping money" so I joined Rodan & Fields as an independent consultant!
I'm so excited about it.
I got my consultant kit and started using the products already and OMG I'm in love!!
The eye cream alone is just amazing!! 
 

If you are interested in purchasing products, becoming a preferred customer (which has TONS of perks) or becoming a consultant, please email me!!
I'd love to talk to you about these amazing products and an amazing business opportunity!! 

TiffanyNagyRF<at>gmail<dot>com

I'm sure there's more to confess... but my brain just isn't coming up with anything more!

Have a great week!!

~Tiffany~