We made it, guys. (In case you were concerned.) We made the move and have made some progress with unpacking. I'll break it up into sections because that seems to be easier, the past 3+ weeks have been a little crazy. I'll throw in a TL;DR at the end for those who get bored.

The Move:
I'll try and be short with this, but I'm recapping for myself too. We started packing our stuff up about 3 weeks before the move date, which wasn't soon enough. (It never is...) The week of the move, Nix and I both had shifts left at work- a poor choice. On Tuesday am I went to sign and pay for the moving van. Nix was at work, so a friend of ours came later and helped me bring it home. I put like, 3 boxes in the truck and packed more boxes in the house. That afternoon I picked up Nix from work (oh the joys of a 1 car family) and we started loading more stuff into the truck. A few friends showed up to help, which was amazing of them. We sold off our entertainment center for $50 (yay!!) and we actually were able to get the whole truck packed (except for the vacuum/hoover) by about 8:30, and we had only started in earnest about 3:30! That's even including a break for pizza. We realized that we were all starving but didn't want to go out and stop progress, so delivery was the way to go.

We stayed up til about midnight scrubbing and emptying out the fridge and whatnot. Wednesday morning I woke up about 5am and showered, then we continued with packing the car and finishing up the scrubbing. It took longer than expected, but we were at the leasing office by 9:30 and turned our keys over. We said another round of teary goodbyes with our best couple friends. We headed out finally about 11, and stopped for coffee and to fill up the little car.

The kitties rode with me, Lucy in a carrier and Natalie in a basket in a harness. Neither were thrilled about it, but it seemed to work better than Natalie in a carrier. She didn't get car sick once!! We expected the drive to take us like 18 hours, but it only ended up taking about 15. We stopped about midnight so I could take out my contacts, and to just "rest" for a few minutes. That turned into a 45 minute nap, which turned out to be exactly what we needed. We were about 3 hours away at that point, but it was necessary.

We rolled into his parents house about 3 am and then crashed for a few hours. That afternoon we went and looked at our new apartment! And signed the lease... But that's next.

The Apartment:
Our apartment! It's amazing. I don't have any pictures of it with our stuff all organized in it because, well, it's not organized yet. But it's amazing. 1300 sq ft, which, as it turns out, is the same square footage as a friend's HOUSE. 2 bedroom, 1 full bath and 2 half baths. The layout is a little weird at first, but you get used to it. The back patio has a fence around it! So we've sat outside the past few evenings enjoying a beer or something and just hanging out with the kitties. Yes, we let our cats outside with us - but only supervised and only for a little while because the tiny cat decided to squeeze under the fence & make mom (me) go trespass in our neighbor's backyard/patio and scruff her so I could throw her back into our apartment.

I already have a couple of project ideas rolling around in my head... but I'm not allowed to start any of them until we are completely unpacked (boo!). So far I know I want to make us a "coffee cart"/storage thing for our dining room. There's not enough counter space to have the coffee pot & accessories (grinder, filters, beans, etc) in the kitchen. So, dining room it is! There's a perfect corner for it, I just need to find the piece I want to refinish/repurpose for the coffee thing.

I also want to find a bench/chest with storage for the foot of our bed - we have enough room for it. And eventually, a mirror with a shelf or two and hooks for my purse/keys for the front entryway (okay it's really more like a corner, but I like to feel fancy and call it an entryway).


The Careers:
Me: I started work about 3 weeks ago - wait - it's been 3 weeks already? Woo! I feel like I'm (sort of) part of the team, which is nice. They pull me into meetings where I wonder why I'm there until they turn to me and say, "What have you seen in the industry?" or "What do you think?" like I know shit. But.. wait, crap! I do! I know that shit! It's so weird, starting in a position where they actually expect me to know how to do stuff right away and have answers and things. Weird, but awesome. I mean, this isn't an entry-level job. I got hired because of my experience in construction. Terrifyingly awesome.

Nix: HUSBAND GOT A JOBBBBB. And by job I mean like, full-on adult career-type job! As-in, this is his very last week working retail!! I will finally get to spend an entire Thanksgiving/Christmas day with him. Guys, this is just... oh my gosh exciting. He's nervous, understandably so, but, I think he's also excited. He'll have some PTO too, yay! We can take PTO days together! Occasionally, ha. I have a few more days than he does for now, but his work-week is "abnormal". He'll work Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning/early afternoon, and then M-Th. Yes, that's right, Fridays off. Which means hopefully he'll be able to do the grocery shopping for us on Friday mornings or afternoons (though, I actually enjoy grocery shopping..) and we can get lunch together on Fridays!! I mean, we could other days too because we're close enough, but Fridays work out. He can bring lunch here and we could sit outside by the lake and have ourselves a "romantic" little workday picnic. Yum. AND - I just thought of this - if we have a dog, HE COULD BRING THE DOG FOR LUNCH TOOOOO. That would be fun. Anyway, I'm excited, he's excited, holy crap we both have adult-like jobs now.

The Plans:
Which actually leads quite nicely into this section... planning for our future. Since we have these adult-like jobs, we're going to actually sit down and work on our budget. We have some debts to pay off (minor credit card bill & student loans), and we want to buy another car and eventually, a house. So we're going to try and live off of only my salary, and then use all of his to pay off stuff and save for the house/car purchase. I think that will work okay, depending on how much we can pay & save. I'll save some of my salary too, since I think we can make it work.

I also discovered that I'm not eligible for maternity leave until I have been working with the company for 12 months. No big deal, honestly, because we weren't even considering trying for a kid until the end of this year. So, maybe push it back another few months until we have moved into the house we haven't bought yet. I'm not sure being pregnant while moving would be beneficial for anyone. I know we could do it, but if we don't have to, we're going to try and avoid that. But, when that time comes, Nix will also be eligible for 6 weeks of paternity leave (he'll get that 12 months after starting work). Which, lets be honest, is amazing. So I'll get 6 whole weeks off - and then if I want to I can take an additional 6 weeks of "leave". Those 6 weeks would be working part-time in the office and part-time at home. Woo! But basically, these adult-like jobs have pretty much cemented the fact that our kids will be in daycare. Whatevs. I wanted to be a SAHM for a while, and sure, if we could afford it, I'd love to. But at the same time, I kind of really like my new job. And I know Nix will like his job, so, we're both going to work. I have flexible enough hours that when the kids are older and in school, I could go home and be home for when they get off the bus and then put in a few more hours after dinner.

So at least for now, we have some semblance of an organized life. We're hoping that we will be able to get all unpacked and organized before husband starts work in about 2 weeks. He'll be taking a week off between jobs so that week will hopefully be extremely productive. It's so nice to be "home", and near family. However... well, that's a story for another blog. It may not even really be a story later since us living here is still "new" and stuff, we haven't figured out a routine yet.

Also, I really miss our friends in Maryland. A lot. I'm hoping that we'll get to go out and visit them, or maybe they'll come here! Who knows.

Oh, one last thing before I forget: MY SISTER IS ENGAGED! Yes, that's worth all caps. She was engaged in like, 2007 and had the whole wedding planned and then like 5 months before the wedding the jerk broke it off. But, I think it was better for her. The guy she's with now is weird, but awesome. We all like him a lot, and I know she's happy. Which means I'm freaking thrilled. I don't know if she'll have a wedding with the dress and the party and everything, they may do it up courthouse style. Who knows. In any case, I'm betting we'll party hard in September when my family gets together for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary.

TL;DR: We packed the truck on Tuesday, drove Wednesday, moved in Thursday. I started work Monday. Nix was working at Starbucks and had interviews with 2 churches nearby. Beginning of week 2 he got the offer from one of them! He'll be starting work there in about 2 weeks. We're going to save up $$ for a house, car, and dog. And eventually have a kid or two (but that's at least a year out). Life in Indiana is good, but a teensy bit stressful. We miss our friends in Maryland. My big sister's engaged! My parents are celebrating 40 years of marriage in September.