Unfortunately, this is a phrase I am saying far too much lately. Yet again, the half marathon gods have thrown a kink into my training. After Thursday night’s soccer game, I came away with a seven inch long bump with bruise on my shin and a sprained toe. (It’s not broken, so I guess sprained is the best way to describe it. Some people have also called it ‘turf toe‘.) So yet again I am out of training a soccer for a bit, but hopefully only a week.

I get frustrated that I can’t go injury free, yet I refuse to give up soccer. Many ‘wiser’ (not older) adults in my life say I should slow down a bit on soccer. But I love soccer and I look forward to days when I get to play soccer. I make the choice to keep playing on top of running. With these two injuries, I am hoping they will not affect my ability to run the half marathon. I’m trying to stay positive, but also be realistic and listen to my body.

On another note, here is my new purchase for the house. Not really exciting, but needed.

After over two months of waiting, I finally have living room furniture…well a few pieces that is. Since moving in, Heidi and I have shared a small love seat, which Ginger generally occupies, and a crappy old TV stand. Not anymore. Yesterday, my two couches and entertainment center were delivered. My first reaction, “OMG…it’s so big” as I had my momentary freak out. But thanks to Heidi and her visiting family, we moved things around and I felt much more at ease with my furniture. My house truly feels like a home even more now, with a comfortable seating area and entertainments center. I love it! Now…back to relaxing on my new couch!

Well it has been two week since I moved into my house. Truthfully, I am still in awe that this is my house, but I love knowing that this is where I will call home for many years! I am still learning the quirks of my new house as I begin to settle into the house. This weekend, with the help of my mom and my sister, I went furniture shopping.

Furniture shopping is not what I call fun, so I was thankful to have my two ‘consultants’ there to help me through the process…although I think my sister was a bit frustrated with my lack of decorating vernacular. We drove around to multiple furniture places and spent about five hours looking at furniture. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, but I found pieces I wanted…but of course I had to sleep the decision to make a large purchase.

So the next day, I bought two double chairs (which are a bit bigger than love seats) and an entertainment center for my living room. In addition, I bought something I have always wanted…a sleigh bed. I found a beautiful dark wood sleigh bed that I immediately fell in love with at first glance. Although the couches and entertainment center will take a few weeks, my bed comes this coming week, so I am super excited for that.

Truth be told, there are still some things that I have been unpacked yet and my garage is looking less than perfect, but I am still starting to feel settled. I am waiting for one of my organizational moods to kick in so I can completely organize the house. Until then, Ginger and I are enjoying the house…and for once, I am actually doing some relaxing!

Well, I am officially in my first home. After a long day of packing and moving, I am finally in my house. There are still many tasks to be completed…but I feel that this will always be the case. Moving went very smoothly with the help of so many of my fabulous friends and family. It only took one trip with the Uhaul and a few cars to move my stuff…and within a few short hours my house was mainly unpacked and we were scarfing down on pizza and beer. With so many people helping, this was my smoothest move ever!

Thanks to Leo, Dylan, Susan, Kyle, Shanna, Chris, Micah, Rachel, Brad, Sara, and my mom, dad and sister. I couldn’t have done this without you! Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

So I was over hanging out with the llamas on a long overdue dinner night, when the girls and I decided to take Susan’s new car to drive to my new house. As we were looking at the house, the seller and the seller’s real estate agent were in the driveway cleaning up. I shouted out of the car that I was just showing my friends the house. To my surprise, the agent said, “Do you want your keys?”. Of course I was over joyed to get my keys. Susan quickly parked the car and we ran towards the agent like little school girls! Rachel, Susan and I went into the house and looked around. Rachel rolled around on my living room carpet, while Susan stated that I needed better curtains (which I agree with). I got their approval and we headed back to eat with the boys. It was very exciting to get into the house and know that it was all mine! So I guess no more procrastination on packing…because I start moving tomorrow!

Well we got the kinks all worked out and my house is fully funded! I get my keys on Thursday to my new house. OMG….so excited!

So I have hit a small bump in the road regarding the funding on my house. There are two items that need to be fixed on the house before they will fund my loan. The first fix is easy….removing rose bushes. I am bummed about this because I love the roses, but they need to be 12 in away from the house. The second fix is finishing the Z-flashing on the side of the house. This one may be a little more complicated. I am having my real estate agent working on taking care of the his. My overall goal is to still get my keys by Friday. So everyone cross your fingers and think good thoughts about my house!

Grrrr….

Well today was a major milestone in my life; I officially bought my first house. I had my final walk through of the house and signed all those silly papers. Owning a house was one thing I wanted to accomplish by the age of 25; and I did it. It feels so good to have accomplished one of my life long goals.

Thanks to all my friends and family who have supported me through this house hunting process!

Well today was not so much fun. A few big bummers today…

First off, the roommate I thought was going to move in with me is not going too. She would have made the perfect roommate, but I respect her decision as she needs to save money currently. I was really looking forward to this, but I guess it won’t happen. But on the plus side, I made a friend out of the deal.

Secondly, I have had a strong feeling of helplessness at work lately. Although I can’t get into specifics due to confidentiality reason, I am feel helpless when working with one of my students. This student has a lot negative things in his life and it feels like no matter what I do, I am not able to help him or his family. I guess part of working in a helping profession is realizing that I can not always “save the world”. I just feel frustrated when I put so much effort into a student’s education, and I feel like nothing is working. I’m trying to focus on the small successes, but sometimes the bad out weighs the good.

Sigh…..

On Thursday, I had my home inspection on my new house! Everything came back clean. It also helps that the house was only built in 1999, so there was not too much to worry about. There were some minor issues with the crawlspace, which I intend to ask the seller to deal with. The one thing that made me cringe was how saturated the back yard was. When we walked around the house to the backyard, we walked through a really muddy lawn. I am not a big gardner and I don’t like to do a lot of yard work, but I have a feeling that next spring, my project will the the back lawn. Good things I have friends who are experienced as putting in a new lawn (hint hint llamas)!

So now I am one step closer to having my first house. The plans are still to close on October 22nd, which is only a few weeks ago. I’m still excited, but overwhelmed at the thought of going through and packing up everything…(sigh).