Welcome Home

So, I bought a new house! I was able to move in that last Sunday in August and spent a few days with my mom scrubbing the place clean (GROSS!) I am not sure how it was so dirty and nasty because I never got that when I saw the house before buying - of course than I had shoes on and didn't poke around in places like vents and the fridge. 
Anyway... Here is the picture of the front of the house just before I bought it.

I have not taken any pictures of the outside of the house since I have bought it, but I really need to!  Do you see those two huge bushes in the front, they were too close to the house and too big so they needed to be cut down.  My sister came up the first weekend of Sept and her and my mom worked outside, and ended up cutting down the entire bushes versus trimming them.  It really does look completely different out front.  I need to re-grade the ground around the house so water will flow away instead of towards the house, so still some changes to make there.  When I remember I will take a picture of the front and how it looks now to show the difference without the two bushes.  The bushes kept lots of bugs so that is a positive to have gone.  During my home inspection I was standing outside the front door and got dive bombed by a bug that stung me under my eye and HURT!

So, a little bit about my house.  It was built in the early 1950's and is a 1 and 1/2 story bungalow.  I have a mostly unfinished basement (with one room that is finished - wood paneling, blue carpet, built in bar). The main floor has two bedrooms (one is my office!) a full bath, dining room, living room, kitchen, eat in area, sun room.  I have a milk bottle slot in the side of the house - back in the day your milk would be delivered there its a area between the outside and inside so the milk would not go bad - never saw this kinda thing until I started looking at house in Ohio.  The entire main level is the original hard wood (someone before me ripped up whatever carpet was done before).  The top floor/converted attic has hallway storage, a full bathroom and a large bedroom.  The stairs going up were carpeted when I bought the house with an ugly railing and the hallway had the carpet as well.  The house has about 1580 square feet, more than enough for me.

I have had lots of projects that I wanted and still want to get down and my parents have been a big help with things.  Some things I will have to save up to have done, but others have already started and a few are finished. 

When I get rooms finished I will post before and after pictures so you can see what the new place looks like!  I have a spare room and an air mattress that can be used in the office so I am open for visitors whenever you want to come :)

Charlotte

Back at the beginning of July 2011 I flew down to Charlotte for a weekend with the girls.  It was just an amazing weekend!! Amanda opened up her home and let everyone stay with her for the weekend.  She and her husband Stewart are the best hosts ever!!  Glynda, Shenna and Liz came up as well for the weekend.  It was such a nice break from everything and I couldn't have had better company to spend the time with.  I cannot wait to do it again sometime soon.

Here is a picture of us girls from that weekend.  Miss all of you!!!!!!

Europe 2011

Back in May 2011 (the 14th-25th) I flew back to Denmark and stayed with my amazing big sis and her fabulous family for a few days before embarking on a road trip that ended in France for the DZ SS Euro Reunion. Angel was gracious enough to open her home to me once again (as I was there in May of 2010 as well) and I spent a few days with her and her family.

We had another sister, Sara, join us a couple of days into my trip. We were only in Demark one day after that before setting off for France.

On our way to France we traveled primarily through Germany and stayed overnight a cute little town (Hameln) that Angel had arranged for us.

When we reached France the Euro Reunion was in full swing. We stayed with another fab sister, Amber and got to meet her adorable new baby Victor. In France we were joined by two other sisters - Deanna and Didi :)

On the first full day in France we drove up to Brugge Belguim which is an amazing place!

Next we spent some time walking around Lille France.

We finished off that day with a wonderful group dinner.

Here is a shot of Amber, Deanna and Sara -

And a picture of Didi and Angel. On the way back to Angel's house after the reunion we spent the night at a different town in Germany.

Well that is the down and dirty summary of my trip to Europe this year. I cannot wait for the reunion in 2012 :)

Sold

So I am a little behind. Anyway, towards the middle to end of May this year I went to Europe to spend time with some fabulous ladies! While I was there my house in Michigan sold!!!
It was crazy and hectic trying to respond to things while I was overseas and thankfully my parents helped since I had to move out of my house and close less than a week after I returned to the states.
Once I signed the closing paperwork (and boy was that a pain - at one point I thought the buyers were backing out) I started the house hunt process in Ohio. I am now the proud owner of a new home (my second one!) - but that is for another post.
I will miss my house in Michigan. It was such a good house for a first home and I really enjoyed living there. There really is nothing like living in a newly constructed, never lived in home. I wish the new owners all the best there!

Head of the Class

I can't believe that I am headed back to school on Tuesday. I will be taking three graduate courses this semester and two in the fall. Moving to Ohio meant I had to apply for licensure once I was here. Apparently the fact that I graduated with my masters from an accredited university, passed the NCE, am licensed in MI, and a national board certified counselor doesn't mean OH will let me get my license. I didn't have 5 courses that OH wants me to have in order to be licensed by them. This is completely frustrating for me as I currently am not licensed in OH and have to go back to school. Oh the joys. So I applied to a University near where I am staying and will start my classes soon.
So, a little over 5 years after I graduated with my masters I am packing it back up and headed to the classroom. I actually like school and am just bummed that what I am doing now isn't going to give me an additional degree. While I thought I was getting close to being able to pay off my student loans, I now get to add another 10-12 thousand on top of that total for these 5 course (I am going to a private university).
Then there is the part of me that is excited to buy new school supplies :) The classes I am taking actually sound interesting and I think will be very helpful so that is a positive.
I will be in class Mon, Tues Wed from 6-840pm. So as soon as I get down with work those days I will head to class (as the drive will take me about 30-40 minutes). That will make for some long days. This time around I will still be working a full time job, but it will be during the day versus the overnight shift. That has got to be helpful!
All of my books have been ordered and have arrived - I love new books!

Wish me well as I start the new classes, it will be an adventure to say the least :)

Funk

I have been in such a funk lately and I am not really sure why. It is just a kind of lingering sadness that I can't seem to shake. I know I let myself get hurt by thinking something was supposed to be one way and then it wasn't. The funny thing is I really didn't want it to be that way, but I had been told it would be so I just got used to the idea of thinking that. Then I find out in what I think is not the best way that it wasn't going to be after all. Part of me is happy, because really I didn't want that anyway.... But part of me is wondering what was wrong with me to make it turn out that way - did it have anything to do with me? Or hey, how about a heads up before it goes public?? Whatever though... in the end it really is what I prefer... and I would prefer less than what is right now. I got my feelings hurt either way though.
As a result I think I have started pulling back from things - the clinician in me is saying that is just stupid. One thing that I have been doing is staying away from social media type sites more. Honestly I would check them all the time through out the day. It was ridiculous, did i need to get on Facebook, twitter, and SS again and again... ugh! So to prove I could do it I stayed off Facebook and SS for a week (impressive for me). Then I started checking on FB and Twitter once a day... but really not posting. I got back on SS after a week because I needed to send some PMs, but then I haven't been back so far this week. I think it is good for me right now. I will check in some, but keep my lurker status.
But still... can't break out of this funk. I really would love for my house in MI to sell!! I am tired of living with my parents - really tired. My mom decided to put my clean clothes away the other day (apparently sitting on my dresser for a day was not okay with her, even though i am staying in the basement out of sight). It isn't good enough how i have my clothes organized in my dresser. I tried to find socks this morning and took forever. I looked for a shirt tonight and had to go through all the drawers to find it when I knew where it should have been. Petty, but drives me bonkers!!
So that is what is going on in my world lately. If you read this whole post thanks for listening to me vent a little!!

Christmas Card

Ack so I suppose I gave up on the 30 days of me... oh well :)
So I normally take a picture of my pups for my Holiday Cards - I took pictures this year but just haven't been feeling the whole holiday spirit. What that boils down to is the fact that I did not use any of the pictures for my holiday cards. They were super cute though, wearing the doggy pjs that their grammie bought them!! I have to share the pictures so everyone gets the chance to see them!


How cute are they with their little bums showing!! They are super furry here and in need of a hair cute so their fur is poking out over the edges! They have had gotten hair cuts since these pictures and the pjs fit better now, not so much fluff poking over the collars :)

Happy Holidays to you!!