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?