A New Home Calls For A Few Transformations

Real talk: we move a lot. If you know me or have read this blog long, you already know this. We have lived in 5 homes in 3 years of marriage, so moving is kind of our thing. You know how Ross's thing is divorce? Well, ours is apparently moving. (If you aren't an avid Friends watcher like myself, please side step that last sentence as it probably made zero sense.) One thing about moving so often is that you can't really buy things to go into a specific house. We have our furniture and decor and try to make it look good in each home we live in, but we always end up doing some re-purposing on different items to make them look better in the next home. 

 

We have been working on several little DIY projects that we are excited to unveil soon, but one of the first things we did was repaint my desk. I work from home, so Parker built me a desk last year that I decided to paint turquoise. I loved the pop of color, and it just made working a little more fun. My new office has very light blue walls with white trim. The turquoise desk was just not working in there, and let's be honest, it's always fun to paint and change things up. 

We decided white would be the perfect color in the new room, and I couldn't be more pleased with the results! My office feels so bright and open with the white desk. This is definitely my favorite office to date!

We finished painting late last week, so today is my first official day working at my desk. After bouncing around from the couch to the bed to the kitchen counter, I have to say, I am pretty excited to have a dedicated place to focus on work and a dedicated place where I can leave work once the clock hits 5:00. A lot of people say they would absolutely hate working from home because they would go stir crazy. I get it. I definitely miss the social interaction at the office, but working from home is a huge blessing with this military lifestyle. 

 

One of the most difficult parts of working from home to me is feeling like work is separate from home. I am just like the next person- once work is over, I want to focus on my family and take a break from thinking about the office and clients and responsibilities until 8:00 AM rolls around again. Working from the couch doesn't allow for that separation because Parker and I hang out on the couch after work too. The past couple of weeks have been slightly frustrating in that regard, so I am upgrading today. Having a dedicated space in a dedicated office makes a world of difference. I love love love my new work area! 

Before:

After:

We will probably move about 50 more times in our lifetime, so who knows what other colors this desk will end up being. For now though, I am loving the new white!

The Power of Positivity

Moving requires equal parts patience, positivity, and ice cream in order to go well. I firmly believe all three are key. This move from Texas to Virginia has been the most stressful yet, so it's been all about perspective to get through it. To sum it up, I had to coordinate the packers by myself since Parker was away at the time, our packers and loaders were unprofessional and careless with our things, our move manager would not respond to calls, our things got temporarily misplaced, they were delivered 2 weeks later than they were supposed to, and we have a page and a half long list of damaged items. Not the best move we have ever had.

With each new item the unloaders wheeled into our new house, Parker and I cringed and held our breath to see what would be wrong with it. The coffee table Parker built when we got married is in pieces and ruined, the new dining room table my parents bought us for Christmas is banged up on the ends, my favorite pair of boots are scuffed, our dresser is chipped at the corners, wine glasses, a vase, and my cake stand were shattered, the washing machine is dented... I could keep going, but you get the idea. Moving day was supposed to be so exciting, but it quickly got pretty depressing. 

The movers had to bring our things in two trips. When they left to go get the second truck, I turned to Parker and told him that I felt so defeated. I didn't really want to see the rest of our things because I knew that list of damaged goods would just get longer. His response makes me smile and shake my head as I replay the situation in my brain. He said "It's okay! You know I have been wanting to build a new coffee table anyway. It's just stuff". I don't know why this surprised me since Parker is easily one of the most positive people you will ever meet, but it still took me by surprise. Instantly, my perspective changed. He was right.

The two most important things to me, and the only two things that mattered out of everything we transported, didn't get damaged in the move. Parker is in one piece, and so is Jenny. Stuff is nice, but it's meaningless. It doesn't bring me true happiness. Parker and Jenny make my world go around, and they both got to Virginia unscratched.

We had a choice to make as they brought in all of our things. We could be mad/sad/depressed/annoyed, or we could choose to see the positives. We can file damage claims, so we will be somehow compensated for all of the things that were broken. It may be a little banged up, but we have a table to eat at again. No more dinners in lawn chairs! It may have a small hole in it, but we can sit on the couch as a family again. It may be a little dented, but the washing machine still works, and I can finally do some much needed laundry. It may not all be in one piece, but we have stuff. 

Had Parker not been so sunshine and rainbows about the whole thing, I probably would have been pretty bummed out. His positive outlook forced me to see the forest for the trees, and in turn, I felt blessed instead of angry. Being negative is contagious, but so is being positive. That little dose of optimism is all I needed from Parker. I want to be that little dose of optimism for someone each day. You can be that too! Like I said, a positive attitude is contagious and just plain fun to be around. We can't always plan for life's bumps and bruises, but we can choose how we react to them. I always say you have to play the hand you're dealt. Sometimes, you get dealt a really crappy hand. I imagine you get all the twos and threes of the deck while everyone else seems to have the kings and aces. We don't always have control over what happens to us, but we can always control how we perceive it. There is so much power in positivity. The choice is yours, friends.

Sleepy eyes and big smiles... it must be moving day!

Real Life

I love this blog because it's a place where I can share our experiences and memories while hopefully inspiring and encouraging others. I try to be as real as possible, but at the same time, I am definitely guilty of showcasing the "sunshine and rainbows" part of my life more than anything else. Parker and I love our life together, but we face the same real life annoyances and stresses that everyone else does.

Our life has been just the opposite of glamorous lately (Is it ever really glamorous? Not particularly.), so I thought I would share what real life has looked like lately in our neck of the woods.

Let's see, where to begin? Well, we moved from Texas to Virginia. Moving in and of itself keeps you on your toes, but it gets taken to another level when the moving company misplaces your household goods. Yep, that happened. We are going to be without our things 2 weeks longer than we had planned, and honestly, that's just the nature of the beast. We have gotten so lucky with our previous moves and have always had friendly service and quick delivery. This has pretty much been the opposite of that. I am not going to speak poorly of the moving company on the blog, but if any of you are looking to move, I am happy to tell you who I wouldn't recommend. Eeesh. Anyways, in light of moving into an empty house and waiting patiently for our things to arrive, this is our life in a nutshell:

• We purchased an air mattress and two $5 lawn chairs so we would have a place to sit and sleep. We are keeping things super classy over here. It's been fun having friends over and offering up the nearest lawn chair. Hosting has taken a turn for the worst since moving to the east coast.

• We have been eating dinner while sitting on top of the kitchen counters. Then we upgraded to the lawn chairs. Again, classy.

• I have been lining shelves like it's going out of style. We may not be able to unpack or decorate, but I can make sure every single shelf in the house is lined to perfection! It is, by the way.

• I decided I wasn't going to let not having household goods stop me from making Parker a nice meal on the 4th of July. I had borrowed one pot and one pan from a friend, and I bought a pie plate from Target so I could make a peach cobbler. Cobblers and the 4th are like peas and carrots. I planned it out well, until I started making the crust and realized I didn't have any measuring cups. Baking should not be done without measuring cups. Ever. I decided I had made enough pie crusts in my day to recognize the right consistency, so I measured out handfuls that I thought were close to a cup. It was ridiculous, but the cobbler actually came out edible. Good grief.

• Our new little Darla pup has a habit where she pees when she gets really excited. She's been in a new place where everything is exciting, so Parker and I have gone from purposely trying to get the pups excited for things like we do with Jenny to talking in monotone voices and walking around like robots. It seems to be working. Jenny probably thinks we've gone nuts.

• Parker and I decided to clean out the shed in the backyard, which essentially looked like Parker raking out tons of rat poop and me pretending to help. Then, Parker found a flower pot with leaves in it and... yes, 3 baby rats. We felt badly killing the rodents, so we set them free in a field far from our house. What is wrong with us? Parker really wants me to blog about the experience and share the videos we took of the process, but I am just not sure I want to subject y'all to that.

Lining shelves all day, every day. That Blue Bell on the counter was necessary. It was also thawing a bit, because have you ever tried to serve ice cream with a plastic spoon?

Pizza on the counter! At this point, we are just so thankful to be eating something that isn't a fast food hamburger.

See ya later, rat poop. Not our favorite evening so far.

Peach cobbler time: a pot was the mixing bowl, and my hand was the measuring cup. That looks like about a cup, right?

You've gotta love pups. In the midst of all this real life happening, they just want to wrestle. Ah, the simple life.

So that's what real life looks like over here! Honestly, I kind of love it. It may not be glamorous, but it sure is fun.

Antsy

We've come to the part of our program where house hunting is in full swing, dinners are comprised of random ingredients we have on hand, and final trips to our favorite restaurants are being made. Yep, it's moving month!

This is our fourth move in under three years, so it's nothing we aren't used to by now. There's something that feels different about this one, though. I can't put my finger on it, but Parker and I have both been a little more on edge about this move. Moving from Texas to Pensacola was nerve-racking since it was our first move with the Navy, but it didn't really stress us out too much. Maybe it was a time zone thing. We were still in the central time zone, and we were a day drive from home. The moves to Kingsville and Corpus were nothing because they were basically like moving home. Telling two Texans to go back to Texas is like telling Jenny to go chase bunny rabbits. You didn't have to tell us twice on that one! For the first time in my life, I am changing time zones. The central time zone has always seemed so neutral. It's the Switzerland of time zones, really. You are always within 2 hours of anyone in the U.S., and it's the perfect compromise between the Pacific and the East cost.

 

Something about the move to Virginia just feels different. I wouldn't say I am stressed, but I'm definitely antsy. We are heading into the transitional period of switching our lives from one location to another. I've said before that Parker and I don't mind moving. In fact, we kind of like it. Moving is fun, but transferring our entire lives involves a lot. I am so thankful to the Navy for loading all of our stuff into a truck and driving it to Virginia, and I am so thankful to have friends in Virginia who have helped us with the house hunting process (shout out to Cayte over at Blogging with the Browns for being one of these wonderful helpers!). Still though, there is something about this move that leaves me dancing anxiously in my seat as I wait for this to unfold. 

As with everything else, we are trusting God will find the perfect house for us in the perfect neighborhood. We are trusting He will get us to our new home safely. We are trusting He has big plans for us in our new state!

So here's to the next three weeks. They will consist of packing, driving, coordinating, driving, over-planning, and driving. Did I mention there would be a lot of driving? Texas and Virginia are not neighbors, let me tell ya. Life is happening, and we are along for the ride. 

How We Moved To A New City For Under $200

Moving is kind of really expensive. Parker and I have lived in 4 different cities in under 3 years, so that's a lot of moving. Fortunately for us, moving doesn't cost us a cent since we are relocating on military orders. When Parker and I get the news that we are packing up and moving to a new city, we get really excited. The Navy packs us, loads up all our stuff, transports it, and unloads it in our new house. We are just responsible for getting ourselves to our new location, hardly anything worth complaining about.

Well, since this last move was from Kingsville, TX to Corpus Christi, TX (just under an hour away), we had to move ourselves. Cue the complaining and whining about having to pack up our entire house and move it. I mean seriously, we have been so spoiled by the Navy that moving ourselves seemed less than enticing. However, if we were going to be forced to move ourselves, we were going to do it on the cheap. We have a house full of stuff and had to get it all from point A to point B, but we found some cost cutting solutions that kept our entire move under $200.

1. Boxes can be free. One of the most expensive parts of moving, if not the most expensive, is buying all the boxes. Those pieces of cardboard are not cheap! We could have easily spent several hundred dollars on new boxes, but we found a way around that. First, ask people who just moved for boxes. They are eager to get rid of them, so it's a win-win. If you don't know anyone who recently moved, then take a trip to your local Lowes and ask them for boxes. Huge shipments of merchandise come into these stores multiple times a week, and the boxes just get thrown away once the merchandise is unloaded. Parker went to Lowes one evening about an hour before they closed and came home with 20-30 boxes. The disadvantage of this route is that your boxes are all different sizes and harder to stack. The advantage? They are free. If you are moving far away and it's important to stack your boxes compactly, Lowes has the cheapest boxes to purchase as well.

2. Renting a moving truck is like buying a car. It's negotiable. I found the very best deal online and then called the local Penske company in town. I told them the deal I found, and they matched it. We knocked $100 off of our moving truck because of this.

3. Blankets and towels can double as bubble wrap. You have to move all of those blankets and towels anyway, so why not use them to wrap some of the more fragile kitchen items? The trick to this is to pack the fragile items in smaller boxes, very compactly. I wrapped all of our drinking glasses in towels and packed them tightly together, and it kept them safe during the bumpy truck ride.

4. Pay your friends with pizza to help you load/unload. Loading and unloading is a pain, and we honestly couldn't have done it by ourselves if we wanted to. I am just not strong enough to help Parker lift the heavy furniture, so we needed man power, literally. We had a few friends help us pack up the truck in the morning in exchange for free breakfast burritos, and we paid people to help us unload that same afternoon with pizza. Much cheaper than paying movers, and who doesn't love a little free pizza?

5. Ask for help, and don't forget to have fun. Moving is fun. Yes, it's a pain in the rear end, but it's exciting to pack up and move to a new place. Don't focus so much on the work and stress that you forget to enjoy the process. This tip won't actually save you any money, but it could save your sanity. Ask your girlfriends to help you pack and have a girls night. If you're married, reminisce about all of the memories in your old home and talk about all the new ones you want to make in the next place. It's so easy to get frustrated and annoyed with each other when you're moving, but believe it or not, you'll actually realize packing up and moving was an enjoyable experience. Note: You won't realize this until it's been a few weeks, you're all unpacked, and the move isn't such a recent memory.   

I hope these tips are helpful to anyone with a move on the horizon. What could have cost us over $1000 cost us less than $200, and all it took was a little creative thinking.

Have you ever moved yourself? Pleasant memory or horrible nightmare?

The Moving Game

I mentioned on Monday that moving can be really fun. Yes the packing is tedious and the loading/unloading furniture makes me want to run to the nearest chiropractor, but the whole process is exciting. We are less than 2 weeks out from another move, so we are currently playing what I like to call "The Moving Game". This is the completely made up game where we see how empty we can get the refrigerator and how much we can downsize before it's time to move.

Dinners are going to become less than blog-worthy as I serve Parker tuna with a banana with yogurt and a side of almonds. Wife of the year, right? Thankfully he is a guy and will literally eat anything I put in front of him. Thank you Lord for an easy husband. It's all about emptying that fridge and clearing out those cabinets.

We started going through our closets and making a pile of clothes we haven't worn in a while or items that have just been collecting dust since our last move. Now granted we hadn't done this in a while, but we had a trunk load ready to go to Goodwill in no time. It seems just a little ridiculous, especially for a couple who seems to move like it's a casual hobby.

So now I am trying to adapt a new art form: the art of downsizing. We have a lot of things sitting on shelves that we don't touch. We have picture frames in closets still taped up from our last move...literally. We have gadgets and gizmos that really just junk up the room, for lack of a better way to say that. Parker and I talked about this a lot one night this week, and the next morning we both jumped out of bed and started grabbing things to donate. If we haven't used it since we moved to Kingsville last May, it's clearly something we can live without. That was our rule of thumb as we rummaged through our things, and we couldn't believe just how many items fell into this category!

In light of this new downsizing concept, we will be playing the moving game on steroids. Less clutter, less stuff, less stress. That makes sense, right? One of my goals is to be more organized with our life and with our things. I used to be so organized and have everything sorted and stacked perfectly. I don't know what happened, but that Chelsea is no more. Chelsea version 2.0 would lose her head if it weren't attached. Seriously, it's bad. In organizing one room at a time, I was able to identify what we needed, what we would like to keep, and what was just unnecessary moving forward. Adopting this philosophy has Parker and I energized and excited about the future and living in a new place!

Have you ever gone through a downsizing phase? Did you just take a breath of fresh air at the end of it all?

Thanks, Navy

One of our favorite parts (okay, probably our favorite part) of Navy life is moving. I might be certifiably insane for saying this, but we really do get so excited each time we move. Moving can be seen as a huge inconvenience, and understandably so. It's not fun to pack up your entire house and then unpack it all, switch all of your utilities, and forward your mail. I am not going to sit here and lie and say that it's not an inconvenience, but I do mean it when I say that the positives outweigh the negatives.

Getting to explore a new place is just plain fun. We enjoy meeting new people and have met some of the greatest people on the planet through the Navy that we never would have known otherwise. Most people wouldn't really consider getting to live in Kingsville, Texas hitting the jackpot. It's a small town in every sense of the term. We don't have a Target. We don't have a mall. We don't have a Costco. We do, however, have some of the nicest people I have ever met. We have quick and easy access to the beach. We have sunny days almost every day of the year. Those little things make living here such a treat. Of course we are biased because we are Texans through and through and genuinely love this state so much. Seriously though, it's been an awesome place to be stationed. We will be moving at the beginning of February, and we will really miss this place. We are excited for our next adventure just up the road in Corpus Christi, but it's sad to close the door on this chapter in Kingsville. The Navy truly has sent us to some awesome places, and I know it's only going to get better.

Parker and I took the Jen pup to a random little beach we found south of Kingsville this weekend and had the best time. We really do feel so lucky to live here. I mean seriously, how great are these views? We definitely don't have the nicest beaches, especially having lived previously in Pensacola, but a beach is a beach is a beach. Am I right?

We are excited for our next adventure, but we will definitely miss this place. We are so happy to have gotten to live in Kingsville for the past 9 months. They flew by, but they were a blast. Thanks, Navy.

Texas Residents Once Again

Greetings from the newest residents of Kingsville, Texas! I know everyone is probably getting so sick of all my moving posts, but that's our life right now so I want to be sure to document! We arrived in The Woodlands where my parents live Friday afternoon, drove to Texas A&M in College Station Friday night, drove back to The Woodlands Saturday afternoon, and drove to our new home in Kingsville Sunday. We spent 17 hours in the car this weekend, and let's just say it's good to finally be home. I just called Kingsville home, and that's a little strange. I guess I'll just have to get used to it! Being back on Texas soil feels so good.

I got so excited when I saw this sign!

I'll do a separate post on this weekend because it was so eventful, but for now, we are setting up our new life in Kingsville, Tx! This was the last picture of team Phelps in Florida taken in front of our old house. The guy that bought our house had a repairman there to replace some doors the morning we left, so I solicited said repairman to take a picture of us. No shame- I wanted the picture!

Happy Monday everyone!

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

Has anyone ever heard of that song?

Make new friends, 

but keep the old.

One is silver, 

and the other gold.

My Nana sang that to me all the time growing up, and I have had the silly little jingle in my head these past few days in light of the move. Parker looked at me like I was a crazy person when I sang it for him and asked if he had heard it. Maybe it's not so common.

Anyway, as you read this, we are making our way to the great state of Texas! Parker and I are both from Texas and sooooooo excited to be headed to Kingsville for a year. We are biased, but we are so in love with our state. Amidst all the excitement, we can sum up this move in one word: bittersweet. If you would have told me 16 months ago when we got here that I would be sad to leave, I would have found that a little hard to believe. We knew very few people down here, and we were farther away from our families than we ever had been before. However, the amazing people we have met over the past year have made our time in Florida nothing short of an absolute blessing. We've already had to say goodbye to a lot of our close friends, and saying goodbye to even more has been hard. I'm such a sap and not the biggest fan of change, so it's hard to imagine not seeing these people every weekend. With the families so far away, your Navy friends kind of become your family. I'm so blessed to know the people we met here will be friends for life. We had our goodbye dinner at Chili's (seemed only fitting since we are mildly obsessed) and we loved having all of our friends together one last time!

The Navy packed us up Wednesday, loaded us up Thursday, and we had the daunting task of cleaning the entire house Thursday afternoon. It was so weird seeing the giant moving truck at our house. Is this actually happening?

We had a little downtime and enjoyed some nice family togetherness. Jenny was not impressed by all this moving stuff.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! We are excited to be on Texas soil and out of the car! I'll be driving carefully- I have precious cargo! :)

One Week From Today...

Is this real life? Are we really moving back to Texas one week from today? Knowing this is enough to make me jump out of my chair with excitement, completely freak out with all we have left to do, and feel sad that we are leaving so many sweet friends. Mostly though, we just can't wait! With all the craziness that comes with moving, we are just excited for a new chapter.

We know this next week is going to go by so very quickly, so this weekend is project: soak it all in. We are excited to celebrate our friend Rodney's winging this weekend and spend as much time with our friends and each other as possible. Sunday is our last ever church service with Harvest Pensacola, and we are going to miss that place! We have been mentally making a list of all the places we want to eat before we leave (sad but true), so we may be hitting up a few local eateries before the week is up, but it's a delicate balance because we want to try to eat as much of our food at home as possible so it doesn't go to waste. Seriously, the past three weeks, I have been so careful when going to the grocery store and trying to only buy things I know will get eaten before we leave. Does anyone else do this? We both hate wasting food and it's become kind of a game to see how empty we can get the refrigerator before we leave.

I started making a list of all the things we will pack in our cars (the Navy will move our stuff for us and should deliver it about a week after we move in). I want to make sure we have anything important packed in one of our two cars, and I guess Jenny is important because anything related to her has made the list. Her massive amount of toys and treats have somehow replaced my jewelry and clothes, but I'm not mad at it. Pups need entertainment!

This was kind of a random post, but the thought of moving our lives one week from today is just completely blowing my mind. Ready or not, our last week in Florida is here!