Random New Favorite Things

• Driving down the neighborhood street to my place where all the houses have Christmas lights up! Didn't see that in the single-hood-ville that was my previous neighborhood.

• My baking center. The photo says everything, right? Everything you need to bake with at your finger tips. No more going all over the kitchen to gather ingredients or put them away. The baking center consists of the cupboard and the two drawers below it. Grab what you need from, measure it, put it right back! (Got the idea from Pleasant Home. Thanks Jodi!) Okay. Okay. Yes. It is also hot chocolate central. And yes there are 12 different kinds of hot chocolate in there. :)

• My new slippers. I never thought I'd get slippers, but my place is kind of cold... and so I bought some and I looooove them. Teri - they are just like yours. :)

• Already getting mail from friends at my new place - addressed to my new place. That's one of the perks of moving just before Christmas card season.

• Having a laundry basket for whites and one for colors... and more importantly room to have two baskets in my closet!

• My washing machine. Still. It's probably done 20 loads of washing. And it's going to get me $150 in rebates from my utility companies for being energy star rated. It's the purchase that keeps giving. And! I haven't even washed my sleeping bag, down coats, or quilts in it yet. Wait until I wash those - then you'll see excitement.

• My special dishes cupboard. Some of those have been packed away for years! It was like an early Christmas unpacking them. The blue Wedgwood mugs were purchased on my beloved study-abroad in England. Rice dishes from wonderful memories in San Francisco's Chinatown with my sister(s). A darling hot chocolate pot from friends that know me well. And mugs from all different people and times throughout my life. And a few childhood pieces. Sigh. :)
  

Tour of my Condo

Okay! Here they are!! Photos of my condo that I bought. I've really enjoyed living here so far. It's definitely a little quiet at night, but thankfully I can hear the people above me - they aren't too loud - so that makes me feel like I'm not alone in the big place! I've really loved getting settle and opening all my boxes of storage. It's been like an early Christmas! And I loooooove having a kitchen to myself and a fridge. That has been the funnest part - to organize my kitchen. I still have a lot to do, but I think that is the fun part!

(The descriptions for the associated photo are on top of the photo.)

My buildingThe outside of my condo. I think the tall grass is cool.
And this is my patio. I have a little storage closet off of my patio. There is a picture below of the closet.Looking into my living room.A straight-on photo of my beautiful bookshelves and entertainment center.
See the antique skis?Other view of my living room - with my entry way. There is the cutout into my kitchen.My beautiful couch and pillows from Pier 1! And my star quilt.My wonderful kitchen with tile floors, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances.
My laundry room! This was the cherry-on-top that convinced me to buy this place.
The guest "Rubber Ducky" bathroom.
The guest bedroom - kind of lacking in a bed right now, but it will get my old day bed soon.My hobby room - a little cluttery right now. It is housing all the random stuff that I haven't found a home for yet. My "Parisian Escape" master bathroom.
Don't you just love the toile shower curtain and Eiffel Tower photo?
I also have a jetted tub.Master bedroom.Master bedroom from another angle.My awesome walk-in closet!! This is only half of it. My storage closet: full of my bikes, skis, snowshoes, and other random stuff!

That's it!! Welcome to my home! :)

Time for the Winter Blog Mast and.....

Photos of my place tomorrow! Be excited! :)

431 for a Stress Score

I was talking to a colleague at work today about the stress I'm under right now... of stuff that has all occurred within the past week and a half!! She mentioned that there is a theory out there that adds up your stress score. So I googled it. It's called the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale. They say a score above 300 indicates you are prone to illness. Woo hoo! That usually does happen to me when I'm feeling stressed. It usually comes out in TMJ symptoms... I've never been officially diagnosed... I've only experienced the symptoms.

So here is my list of stress causing events that have occurred in the last month with most of them occurring in the last week and a half. Whoa. But you know what is pretty cool... I think I'm doing okay. I think I usually handle stress pretty well.

• Relationship ended (2 times) - enough said
  
• Relationship reconciliation - enough said
  
• Change in financial state - really! Buying this house is really stretching my dollar after I've been living the high life for a while.
  
• Major mortgage - enough said
  
• Change in responsibilities at work - my new job as an instructional designer wannabe
  
• Change in living conditions - new condo, no garage, no roommates - for the first time ever! I've always had someone in my house with me.
  
• Revision of personal habits - my gym routine! Ugh! And my commute is a bit longer.
  
• Change in working hours or conditions - mostly change in the building I work in... away from my closest colleagues
  
• Change in residence - enough said
  
• Change in recreation - I think so cuz I'm further away from all my favorite friends, movie theaters, restaurants, etc.
  
• Change in church activities - new ward, no calling, probably a new calling now
  
• Change in social activities - new friends, new neighbors, no roommates, new ward...
  
• Christmas - I just had to tack that one on there since Christmas is coming up. :)
  

I Am Now a Homeowner

Well, folks. The deed is done. The 20 million signatures have been signed and the ink dried now for 10 hours. I don't have the keys yet... good ole Fannie Mae needs 3 business days to process and record the closing before I can get the keys. But I'll have them by Friday so I can move in on Saturday as hoped for and desired. I CANNOT BELIEVE I AM A HOMEOWNER!!! So wild!

The place is absolutely beautiful.... I studied it in detail this afternoon and evening... during my extremely long and thorough last walk-through (in which I also cleaned as I checked out everything). I was really hoping to get the keys today so I could spread out the cleaning and last of the packing over the next few nights, but since I don't have them yet... I did my cleaning all this afternoon and well into the evening - all under the guise of a last walk-through. :) And then I hid my cleaning supplies so nothing would look suspicious.

Tomorrow they will change the locks on everything. And I'm really glad I exercised self-control and did not buy the remaining big ticket items yet because my money to bring to closing ended up being $600 more than expected. I had a feeling something like that would happen. And most of that extra money had to do with my HOA - the transfer fee, the prorated fee for the rest of this month and the 2 months paid in advance. Good gravy! But it's done. I'm home. And I'm going to bed. (Yes. Yes. Pictures will come... but give me some time to get moved in and unpack... ;))

Random "Lately" Thoughts

We got our first real snowfall yesterday. I usually take a picture out in it... but ... meh. What's wrong with me?! That is a tradition of mine. Guh! We've seen snow fly before but it didn't stick like this one did. Yay for snow! And Yay for my favorite season.


So BYU is still in a hiring freeze... and we just received notice from a woman in my department that she is leaving. The work she is doing happens to be our vice president's pet project... so needless to say it is my big boss's pet project as well and he doesn't want to see it fall by the wayside. So guess who they asked to take over her job? A job I know nothing about!?! Yeah. Me. She is an On-line Training and Development Consultant in our Human Resource Development department. So yeah... nothing to do with my current job. But I guess my big boss discussed it with all the directors in HRS and they all decided that I would be the best one to replace her since I'm a quick-learner, have a really good technical aptitude, good influencing skills and good organization skills - those were all adjectives that they used to describe me apparently. I'm kind of excited about it... but I'm also really nervous. I'm only going to get 6 days of training with her. But I was thinking about it Friday morning, and you know what? I'm getting the best aspects of moving to Seattle ... a new place to live which happens to be my own place and a new job! And none of the scary aspects... the stress of making new friends, the rainy weather (which I don't think I would have really minded), the stress of dealing with a vastly different work environment, etc.


I got my season pass to Sundance in the mail this last week... the picture is horrible! It is orange. Good grief.


I'm set to close on my condo on Tuesday. Yay! Exciting. I'll get the keys then but I won't be able to take possession until Saturday so I'm planning on taking this week to get the carpets cleaned and clean the whole place thoroughly while it is empty. So I went to Wally-world (Wal-mart) yesterday to buy the cleaning supplies I needed... holy cow. It was so fun to pick out the cleaning supplies! I know. I'm a nerd.


I bought a couple books that I've really enjoyed flipping through - Pottery Barn's "Home" which is all about planning living spaces throughout your home and of course it has beautiful pictures and ideas for decorating. And Martha Stewart's "Homekeeping Handbook" which has everything in it that you can imagine - from setting the table for a fancy dinner to maintaining your furnace. Very cool - I stayed up until 3 am looking through all 700 pages of that last one.


And if you are still reading this... then I can tell you an update on my time-occupier, John. We're not together anymore. It wasn't really a quick relationship, even though I just barely mentioned him on my blog. In fact it was a roller-coaster for 7 months... maybe 8 months. I just have a policy of not mentioning boyfriends on my blog until it seems like it might be a long enough or stable enough relationship to broadcast on the internet. :) We dated back in April, broke up, couldn't get over each other all summer, and then we got back together late October... now we've broken up again and hopefully it is for good this time. It's probably for good since he de-friended me on Facebook... which that little action bugs/hurts me more than being broken up. Weird. Don't worry about me... the Lord is carrying me right now and I actually feel pretty good considering the circumstances.


Happy quiet, snowy Sabbath everyone!

Occupying my Time Lately

So life has been pretty busy. It's amazing how much time buying a place can suck up. I'm burning through my vacation time pretty bad - what with taking time to meet with my lender and sign his documents, going to retail stores to pick out my appliances and being there to help get them delivered to my new place. Good gravy!

I'm also burning through my money pretty quick too... earnest money, inspection, appraisal, vacuum, couch, TV, 16 quart stockpot (since I'm going to miss my roommate's too much to not buy one of my own), knives, and now my down payment... yikes!

And yes - I did discover a couch that I love and I bought it! I didn't think I'd get leather, but... eh... I liked it and the more I looked at and sat on it the more I loved it. I've tried to see if I can put a pic of it here on the entry... but I guess you'll have to wait until the tour of my new place.... which won't be too much longer now since we're shooting for a November 17th close date. Woo hoo! It cannot come any faster... I wish it were here today! I'm so excited that I'm going to start packing this weekend. :)

And then, yes, there is another time occupier... John. :)