Happy Friday!

Happy Friday! Max had his first business trip of the year this week (and first since we moved to the new house). We we have been missing Dada and are ready for him to be home tonight! Yeah! Here's what else is on my mind this wintry Friday...

1. Our playroom! 

From day one it has been my very favorite spot in the new house. It's upstairs and had skylights so we get lots of sun here, and we kept everything soft and carpeted for little man to be comfy. We mixed and matched all of our old furniture when we moved to the new house because the new house's layout was so different from our old one; we actually didn't have a "playroom" at the old house, so this new room was drawn from a bunch of different places (the sofas are from our old den, the teepee from the former great room, the ottoman and wall art from Parker's old room...). We are still missing our children's bookcase that will go under the wall art (it was damaged in the move so we are in the middle of our claim to the moving company) but other than that it's a finished space! We've already logged in so much time in this room - I love it!

2. My budding artist

We usually have "coloring" time in the evenings while I'm fixing dinner. Parker sits in his highchair and goes to town with his "gwuhs" (crayons). I decided to mix it up last night and brought out a leftover set of watercolors from my classroom days. Little man had a blast! I hopped on Amazon and ordered bigger (more toddler appropriate) brushes for him, plus liquid watercolors that I read are also more toddler friendly (they are easier to keep separate while painting versus the trays that can end up all mixed together). Parker may or may not have started painting his hands and arms during his session, eek! 

3. Speaking of art

We have this Michelle Armas print coming our way, yippee! It's funny, we "downsized" moving into the new house (by about 800 square feet!) yet we have way more walls now (our first house was very, very open so there were very few walls). I'm having so much fun planning out gallery walls and picking out art like this canvas! The colors are so bright and vibrant, it makes me happy just looking at it. Now, to decide where it will go...

                            

4. Yum

Max's business travel was to Atlanta. As soon as I heard his destination, I reminded him that Richard Blais (Top Chef All Stars Winner) has a restaurant there and he had to go. He was totally on board and I made his reservation for "one" from my phone right then and there. Max dined at the restaurant (The Spence) last night and I got a play-by-play via text pictures. I was twelve kinds of jealous. Apparently this semifreddo was amazing. Sigh. I'm trying to convince Max we need to do a family Atlanta trip for Parker's upcoming birthday, partially for their awesome aquarium and partially for this dessert. 

5. Bye-Bye Boot!

This is our last photo with the boot...

That's right, as of Monday we have been boot-free! Parker seriously was such a trooper with his broken leg, still being his happy go-lucky self even though he couldn't walk. The leg was rather shaky when he fist attempted walking, but he is almost back to normal! He's quite a bit slower than pre-fracture Parker, and I am constantly worried about him falling again, but it's amazing to see him up and walking again! My heart is so happy!

Linking up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci   

and Darci, Christina, April, and Natasha 

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The New House!

I'm in love! Yes, with my hunky husband, obviously, and yes with my darling toddler, of course. But most recently, I have fallen head over heels for our new house! We celebrated one month in the new house on January 18th, and each day, I find more and more reasons to appreciate it and love it just a little bit more.

Relocation was not easy, and finding our Alabama home took many hours on the internet, many days touring, and even a some tears (all mine, and I did cry in front of our realtor which she said was a first, eek!). You see, when we decided that we would be moving from Scottsdale to Huntsville, we assumed we could get more house for less money. I envisioned a gorgeous brand new kitchen with a gas stove, and told myself it was okay that we were moving where we didn't know a soul, because I could bake in my beautiful kitchen!

We were in no way expecting to find a house like we had in Scottsdale (it was, in a nutshell, our dream house complete with a theatre and resort-style backyard). But, let's be honest, we were moving from a metropolitan area (a resort destination!) to a small city in the south. We thought we could get a lot more for our money in Alabama. We were wrong. Part of the problem was that we were only interested in buying in a few specific areas of town, close to the center and where Max would have a 20 minute or less commute to work. These also happened to be the older, established areas, which was good and bad. Older and more established meant huge trees and a "neighborhood" feel. It also meant that the houses were fifty-plus years old (and small, since houses weren't built as big back then, or with master suites for that matter). A number of the houses in these areas have been "moved off the lot" and replaced with gorgeous new builds. These were nearly twice our budget. What we could afford were the houses that had been remodeled and built onto, giving us the space (4+ bedrooms) that we wanted. Here's where the tears come in. We saw the houses in our price range that matched our wishes, and all of them had been remodeled and built onto several times and by several owners. What emerged was a mishmash of construction and a wonky fun-house type feel (and not in the good way). I began to worry that we'd never find a house that felt like home!

We played around with the idea of buying a house that needed work (something I really didn't want to take on after already relocating cross-country), and with buying a newer, nicer style home in a neighborhood that wasn't at the top of our list. Then, we saw "the one", though neither Max nor I knew it at the time. I liked it for sure - it was located twenty minutes walking from the downtown square, on a cute street where most of the homes have been rebuilt or redone, and it had been remodeled and built onto, with almost everything we wanted: a big backyard for Parker, an office for Max, a two-car garage plus extra work space, four bedrooms, three and a half baths... it was on a corner lot, to boot. It still took a second look and a night of sleep before we put our offer in, I think mostly because the house was SO different from our Scottsdale home.

The house we found was originally built in 1955. Whoa. That means it will turn sixty this year and we totally want to celebrate it. It also means that the neighborhood has been here that long, wow. Walking into the downtown we pass even older, historic homes, which I think is very neat (and totally novel coming from Arizona, a state that didn't even join the union until 1912). The remodel on our house happened in 2004, and it covered a ton including the kitchen and all bathrooms, so we get to enjoy funky quirks of an older house with updates and a modern feel. I love it.

Move-in day was such a happy day for us. After six months of being apart (followed by weeks of living in the one-bedroom condo) we were ready to have our own place!

Parker waited patiently for the "kkkkuh"(truck).

Truck number one...

 Followed by two and three. I think we had around 20,000 pounds of stuff. Wow.

Max stayed outside (in the cold, thanks, babe!) and kept tally of the boxes as they came into the house. 

Parker and I directed the movers once the boxes were inside. We had the nicest, nicest moving crew! 

I swear I wanted to kiss all our furniture when I saw it. And I had a major reunion with my clothes. It was also funny that our house had been packed up at the end of October, but was being unpacked right before Christmas, so we were looking at things like my blackboards that read "Stay Scary" and "Happy Halloween".

I didn't get my dream kitchen or gas stove (I'm still holding out for white shiny subway tile, white marble counters, and a Viking range, eee!), but I did get a ginormous walk-in closet. As in, one of the remodel changes was to convert an original room into the master closet. Always a good choice, people. I mean, the closet has windows!! This is my area, and Max's is on the other side of the window. My shoes have never been so happy.

The previous owners also added stairs and a second story, so our top level (boasting two rooms with en-suite bathrooms, an open room which we are using as Parker's play area, and a storage area) is completely new. Downstairs was added onto as well, so we have two (two!) mudrooms, one that's so big I'm using it as my craft room.

We are slowly getting settled. We started off with a bang and got lots done very quickly, but this last 20% or so (hanging things on the walls, getting curtains up, those few boxes still unopened in the second guest room) is still hanging there, not urgent enough to really motivate us, but annoying enough that the house still doesn't feel "finished" - does anyone feel me on this one? Plus there is they techy-stuff that Max is working on (hanging security cameras and making our house "smart" like the last one with home automation). There is not one single room that's 100% yet, but as they finish I promise to post befores and afters!

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2014 by the Numbers

2014, the year of the move. Our lives were flipped upside-down in spring of this year when Max was contacted about the CTO position on the other side of the country. Here's how our year breaks down...

6 - Number of months living apart (ouch) after Max accepted and started his new job in Alabama. It was just me and little man in Arizona!

4 - Weekends spent house hunting for our new home

37 - Number of homes toured looking for "the one"

2 - Number of houses that made Mande cry (we saw it all, including a bathroom with two toilets, houses with four and five levels, secret passageways, and bedrooms that all connected door to door)

1 - House sold (Scottsdale)

1 - House purchased (Huntsville)

1,773 - Miles driven on our road trip to Alabama

16 - Plastic collectors cups we have picked up in our short time living in Huntsville (they seem to give them out at every restaurant here)

0 - Nordstroms in our new area (we do have Anthropologie, H&M, Sephora, Michael Kors, and Kate Spade, so I can't complain too much)

24 - Flights flown by Parker (repeat trips to Dallas, California, and Huntsville). He's our frequent little flyer and does so well on the plane. He loves looking out the windows, especially at take-off and landing. We are still following the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics and give Parker zero screen time, so he is kept happy the old-school way with crayons, books, and playing with mamma or dada. In a pinch (like on our recent thirteen-hour travel day when Parker didn't nap and got cranky) we'll whip out our iPhones and let Parker scroll through our "pa"s (pictures), but for the most part he just likes observing the world around him.

37 - Flights flown by Mamma (Parker's trips plus solo trips to California, Huntsville and Mexico)

79 - Flights flown by Dada, he wins (or, depending on how you look at it, loses, as most of these were for business travel which I hear is so not fun)

But, his frequent business travel also means he collects perks for us like first class upgrades, holla!

7 - Nights spent in our new house!

25 - Degrees fahrenheit for the low in Huntsville this last night of 2014, brrr!

Just a tad different from last year's picture, no?

More to come on our new house, and how we plan to make it a home in 2015!!

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(Still) Moving

Relocation. Really, it should be a four-letter word. We have been "relocating" since June. It was five months of single-momming it in Scottsdale with Max working on the other side of the country, followed by the last month of living out of a suitcase. I am ridiculously happy that we are all back together, but I miss my clothes. Silly, I know, but I currently have two pairs of pajamas that I have been wearing since October. They pretty much need to be washed after each wear because a certain almost-21-month-old is constantly covering them in yogurt at breakfast. Why so messy you ask? Oh, because we are still eating on the floor in our one-bedroom rental. Which reminds me, I miss high chairs, and tables and couches, too. And our Christmas decorations. Don't get me started on the Christmas decorations. You see, we were only supposed to be in the empty one-bedroom for a week. We were set to close on our Alabama house on December 1st. Just a few days prior to that, some problems were uncovered on the seller's side that delayed closing, which also affected our move. We had to cancel our move-in date, keep our things in storage, and extend our stay in the condo. Just this past week were able to secure another move-in day, whew! I know we are extremely lucky to have movers, and to not be doing the heavy lifting. We are lucky that our closing even happened, and that we own a house. This was also a move of choice, and an incredible opportunity for Max's career and for our family. But really, I'll be happy to not ever again have to do meals like this:

Not that it seems to be bothering little man. He's pretty happy with life, period. 

And really, the delay moving in is giving us a chance to explore the new house, do some cleaning and even have some painting done.  

Parker is already feeling right at home whenever we visit.

 Looking forward to when "visiting" changes to "living" - counting the days! Hi, New House!

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5 on Friday

This was our first week living in Alabama! There were three of us in the one-bedroom temporary condo, eek! Here's how it went down...

1. Monday

Dada was off to work so it was just me and Sweet P, on our own in our new state for the first time. We went grocery shopping at Publix and I even had dinner on the table when Max came home from work. And when I say "table" I mean "floor" because we basically have no furniture in our temporary condo so it's picnics for days here. Literally.

2. Tuesday
Our first rainy day! Parker and I checked out Storytime at the Huntsville library (it will be just a walk away when we move into our new house!).

3. Wednesday
I had my first I'm from California and people can't understand me moment. I was dropping off Max's dry cleaning and I walked in with Parker and my bag of laundry and announced that I had some men's shirts and slacks to drop off, but it was my first time in the store. The woman at the counter just stared at me. I was waiting for her to ask for my name or phone number, but she just stared. Later I realized it's because she had no idea what I had said. Something similar happened on our first trip out here, but I was the one with the language barrier (I couldn't understand a word of what our rental car agent was saying). So weird to be on the other end! Max has always said I have a California accent, and now I might believe him! We met Max for lunch this day and did a walk-through of the new house, then Max was off to the airport for a business trip and P and I would be flying solo for the rest of the week.

4. Thursday
Parker and I hit up Bridge Street Town Centre to get our shop on. I get tired of feeding my son on the floor so I vow to eat out for the rest of the meals until we get our house, ha!

 5. Friday!
The most exciting day of all - we bought a house!! We had been having some issues with closing (not on our end) so it was SUCH a relief to finally get it done! Parker was perfect for the whole closing, and I had power of attorney for Max so it was a lot of signing for me! But it's done and we couldn't be happier. Max returns tonight and we can't wait to get our move on! Happy Friday!

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