Houses are hard work.

I feel like I am finally making headway in this mess of a house.  I am not sure if I made a good choice, but I decided to paint my office a light purple (my mom questioned my choice).  Listen, I haven’t had color in my life since I was 17 years old and living at home.  From dorm room to apartments to rental homes, I never wanted to make long term improvements to something I was going to leave in a designated amount of time.  So right now I’m obsessed with color and narrowly escaping spilling and dripping paint everywhere and having it land on places it is not intended for.

I got restless when my husband was coming home extra late from work so I was bored and had a compulsion to make him proud by doing a WHOLE WALL by myself.  Tape and everything.  He was extra impressed that all of the extra paint got on my legs and feet but not the carpet, and that I remembered to tape the outlets.  So many cool wife points for me.   The below “after” is pretty true to color, I’d say a little less gray and more purple in real life.

I also was accomplished in removing the previous owner’s masterpiece without incident.

Onto the family room.  We’re going to paint the bedroom too but we need to hold off on that since we want to rip out the carpet.  My vision for this room is tan gray and navy blue.  Nobody will let me paint the whole room a navy blue and I don’t trust my design ideas for anything so I suppose we will go with the lighter color and add dark accents in other ways.

These couches are going to the living room and we ordered light tan couches to go here.  I really enjoy the carpet I found at home goods for no sort of deal or discount at all.  I have caught the “convenience over price” disease that my mother has had all her life.  This is a complete character change for me because I am usually unbearably CHEAP.

In sort-of concord with the actual theme of this blog, I am BACK TO RUNNING and it feels great.  I love the new routes I’m finding in our town and haven’t even hit the trails they have yet.  I am only up to 12 miles this week because I am taking it slow and doing the 10% rule but I swear I will be half-marathon training in no time.  More on that later.

The request of the day is to give me your off-topic advice/feelings/anything on interior decorating.  How long did it take for your place to feel “done”?

Also: How many miles are you running this week?

I made Cookie Dough Cheesecake.

I feel fonder than I expected of my new kitchen.  While it’s smaller in square footage than my old kitchen and not as cool and trendy, it has AT LEAST twice the storage and many efficient drawers and pull out fixtures that help keep me organized and me being organized = happy and emotionally stable Raychel.

The white appliances don’t even bother me; they’re actually better than my rental’s bottom of the line GE stainless steel crap.  The new fridge we were forced to buy doesn’t hurt either- sometimes I open it just to stare into the sparkling clean 25 cubic foot abyss.

It has been too long since I made magic with an oven.   So I decided to pick an outrageous recipe to make for my LifeGroup meeting tonight (there are many foodies that will eat everything and conveniently prevent me from consuming every crumb before it is even cut).  I made a fantastic decision.

New photo background because I am still in awe of the fact that I have a pool.  I KNOW that you want this recipe, so here it is.  Make it for someone you need to cheer up, fatten up, impress, entertain, or for JUST YOURSELF this weekend.

My husband moved in with a 6 year old this weekend.

It is time to sound the trumpets.

We FINALLY CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE and moved all in 48 hours.  The closing went off without a hitch.  The move?

Not sooo much.  It turned out fine, especially after about 5 or 6 people that said they would be happy to help just randomly became busy, which is exactly what happened the first time we moved as a married couple.  People are the worst sometimes, except for my friend that didn’t show up because I did believe him when he said car actually broke down the morning of.

After all of our 3 bedroom house was unloaded into our new garage, our friends and I hung out at our new tiki bar with some pizza and beers feeling particularly blessed.

Then later that night I went to put the leftover pizza in the fridge, and it was STILL HOT inside.  It was running for over 12 hours and while it magically passed inspection (THANKS A LOT), the fridge was broken.  I had a Class A meltdown not because we had to shell out thousands of more dollars for a new fridge, not because we’d have to spend money eating out until this said fridge is delivered, but because I had a full quart of ice cream that had to be thrown out. I am a ridiculous person.

Meltdown #2 occurred when we realized that no modern refrigerator would fit in the space that was in our kitchen and my husband could not promise that he’d have the cabinets removed by the next day for the delivery.  It appears I have the maturity level of this fantastic child.

Thankfully my husband is magical and destroyed our kitchen within 30 minutes and our brand new fridge (that we got for over 50% off due to it being a floor model) is now sitting magnificently in our kitchen keeping our new food cold.

BEFORE   AFTER 

I am quite pleased with life right now and back to my adult self.  ESPECIALLY since we now have a landline for the first time ever.  Should I attempt to employ my husband to install a wine rack on top of the fridge?  I don’t know what else to do with it.  Any other ideas?

Something to aspire to.

Since I am busy packing, setting up utilities, stressing out over moving logistics, I would like to show you something we should all practice and strive for instead of complaining when we have to work out indoors/on the boring hamster wheel.

Happy hump day

I have lost it

This is the second year in a row that my husband and I came home from a trip to a house that immediately needed to be packed and moved one week later.  What am I doing wrong in life that this happens to me?  Hopefully since this new house is a PURCHASE, we wont’ be moving for a very long time  Fingers crossed.

After a week of eating 2 cupcakes every day and then getting home and ordering pizza hut, Chick Fila and eating out all weekend (it sucks to cook when your house is in disarray), I set out to run today.

I had fully embodied the fat kid while running a pathetic 3.1 miles and I could not be any more frustrated.

My heart rate was sky high, I was panting and sweating, all while maintaining a pace I averaged when I was struggling through my initial couch to 5k program.

I take back my last post, I’m feeling the guilt now.  Well, not really guilt,  but maybe regret.  I did enjoy every second of my cupcakes and other free and fattening eats at the in-laws.  I’d rather work harder than sacrifice enjoying life (which for me is eating).  I will always be a fat kid inside, but the goal is to not be one ON THE OUTSIDE.  UGH!  Here’s to another l o n g journey of getting my running fitness back, hopefully in time to do a half marathon at the end of the year.

How long of a break does it take for you to lose your fitness?  

I know the food for me expedited my loss, but I would’ve guessed 2-3 weeks.