Get ready to be excited

I started my job today and frankly, I wonder how I'll squeeze in four full days of work each week. What with weekend trips to NYC, searching high and low for a day care, throwing Ashley a baby shower, planning a Triple Baby Birthday party for Edie, Camden and cousin Lexie, hanging with Edie, and buying a house, it's a wonder I have time to eat a snack.

I do operate well when going full throttle, but the last couple weeks have been a bit nutty. In early July, Dave and I stumbled upon an open house and decided to go in, just to get the ball rolling on the house hunt. I was pushing for buying a place whereas Dave was open to renting again, since we knew that buying could take a while. However, I'm plain sick of moving. I'm sick of packing, unpacking, getting rid of stuff, buying more stuff, dusting, undusting, and paying astronomical shipping fees.

The open house was nothing great

but it did unlock a bit of excitement, so I contacted a referred agent and provided our requirements (close to our walkable downtown, on a side or "local" street, on the north side of town, and in a good school district). Also I have a ton of other requirements that I hold close to my heart (i.e. far away from a soul-less subdivision, with trees in the yard, and no neighbors with cars jacked up on cinder blocks for a three-mile radius. Call me picky.)

We saw six homes, and fell in love with the second house our agent showed us. It's been very well maintained, has cute details like arched doorways, with ample storage space, good sized rooms, and a gorgeous (intimidating) yard. More importantly, it doesn't need a lick of work. (Have you seen me or Dave with a drill? It's not pretty.) Honestly, we both got a good feeling, and it fit within our requirements. We had my parents come take a look the next night. My Dad is a contractor and my mom is a talented home-renovator, so we value their opinions. They each gave a thumbs up, and we moved forward with the offer. Since then, we've been collecting, transferring, signing, and copying a ton of paperwork. Hopefully it all pans out, and we can unload the POD late August! We'll wait with baited breath until the closing.

It's pretty crazy that we found a great home so quickly, but life has been "coming up Kitzman",

as Ashley put it. You know that quote, "The harder I work the luckier I get"? We are really lucky, but we are also hard workers. When I tell folks that I got a job, sometimes they say "Wow, you got a job a week after you moved here?!" Yeah, but I hustled my buns off for the past 8 months in Seattle, updating my web site, contacting strangers to do informational interviews, creating marketing materials, and going to many interviews that didn't result in a job offer.

Now that we've (almost) nailed down a home and a job, I've been researching and visiting daycares that make geographic and financial sense. The problem here is not so much lack of supply. It's that the affordable daycares are run by fluffy cat-loving eccentrics and the lovely daycares that meet our standards (not depressing with compentent caregivers and a no-nut policy) are pretty spendy. As with everything in life, you get what you pay for.

Amidst figuring out the logistics of our lives, I took a quick trip down to NYC to hang with my sister in Brooklyn. We got our nails done, walked the High Line, shopped, walked a ton, she took me out to dinner, we saw a movie, ate a bagel, and I slept till the late hour of 8:30am. So much sister fun!