Category Archives: Umisms

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50f5133aafe6385db80297af1a803a6e

50f5133aafe6385db80297af1a803a6e

50f5133aafe6385db80297af1a803a6e

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I just can’t. What the hell is this weather? I didn’t sign up for this. Last year, it hardly went over 80. The summers were beautiful and occasionally it got dry and hot, but nothing like the sweaty humidity that’s the East coast. It’s funny how quickly we forget the things that are uncomfortable. I had COMPLETELY forgotten (or blocked out – whatever is more appropriate) the ridiculous humidity of the East coast during the summer. When I got off the plane in June, the 70% humidity (and it was only in the 70s, guys) just knocked me over. My hair, no joke, was soaked my entire trip. Even when it’s 100, it never gets to be that way here… but seriously… 105? This is just absurd.

What little of what I planted in the garden is all starting to flower. That may sound nice, but you don’t want your vegetables to flower or the leaves/vegetables become incredibly bitter. :( My cilantro, spinach, and lettuce all flowered, because of this oppressive heat. The veggies just weren’t having it. They quit. All my raspberries came in early. My grass is dying (which is fine). Uhg. Tomatoes are my only hope. They are the only thing that will do well in this heat. Hopefully.

Here we are 4 months after the closing. Our TV room is pretty well furnished, with a futon/couch that we found at a moving sale, an Ikea coffee table, stools we found in Fred Meyers, Ikea book shelf, and Ikea and media console. (Yeah – we’re still heavily reliant on cheap Scandinavian furniture. I joke to my husband, that it’s his heritage.) We found a dining table that seats 6 people for under $100 at the same moving sale. (Although they were also selling a fish stand and aquarium for $200+, but unfortunately that wasn’t something we were ready to jump the gun on.

Not going to lie, most of what we’re looking at is either Ikea or Dania.

What we still are lacking in is:
hemnes-daybed-frame-with-drawers-white__0159184_PE315622_S4#1. A bed for us and a a guest bed

For us, we’re looking for a simple slatted bed. For the guest bed and other multi-purpose furniture, Ikea has a great selection of convertible day beds/single beds. I like this bed, since it’ doubles as a huge couch, single bed, or the equivalent of 2 single beds.

friheten-sofa-bed-with-chaise-beige__0188774_PE341595_S4#2 Sofabed for the TV room

We were looking at several different beds, but honestly, the look and price of this piece is right. It’s pretty comfy and we’re hoping that it helps when we have friends over. Some other beds we considered are Dania’s Oregon Sofa with Chaise.

29365#3 Seating for the living room

The living room is almost completely empty. Last week we got some Kallax bookshelves to start to fill that space, but we’re divided on what we want to do. My husband isn’t really keen to set up another sitting area, whereas, I think multiple nooks for sitting is fine.

He wants to set up a craft desk in the living room, which I don’t know how that would work… but he’s the more adventurous one out of the two of us, so we’ll see. Eventually we’re hoping to move his baby Grand Piano into this space, but currently that’s in his parents’ place.

#4 Our own TV (currently we’re borrowing a 36″ TV from my in-laws from their guestroom)

Pretty self explanatory, right? We’re hoping to acquire a good 50″ and wall mount the screen.

#5 And another coffee table

Again, pretty self explanatory. We need some more surfaces in the living room. (I haven’t thrown out the idea of a sitting nook, just yet. I mean, our fireplace is here, so … I am fully expecting to curl up with a book in that room.)

Am I missing anything? I’m planning a couple of other decorative things, but these are main pieces of furniture that we need to get.

Also … rugs. My biggest beef with rugs are that a lot of them are just so ugly. They are so patterned or with a specific color, that it freaks me out to commit to it. I found some that I like, but compared to other necessities, this one may have to wait.

This weekend we’re dog sitting Sadie. She’s a medium sized dark mutt and an amazing sweetheart. And luckily for us, she’s really no trouble at all.IMG_4785.JPGIMG_4783.JPG

Of course, my cat wasn’t having any of that. She stayed away for the most part during the initial meeting (she was curious in the beginning and approached him, but nothing other than some scoping out happened). Once Sadie came to stay with us, he quickly showed her who’s boss, when she approached him hoping that a friendship would form. Poor Sadie backed up into our legs in despair. Between hanging out with us and her runs and walks, she’s been longingly staring and following the cat around ever since. The moral of this story is that my cat is a big bully that bosses around dogs 3-4 times his size.

Hi Ho!
(What am I? A dwarf?)

It’s been a long time! 6 months, actually… -_- I’m embarrassed to say. Well, it’s been a CRAZY 6 months.

Around the time of my last post, my husband and I started seriously looking to buy a house. We’ve had started the discussion around pre-approval since the summer we moved, but we finally got our paperwork started and decided to put in the earnest effort in February. We took the month of February to get all of the paper work (oh! the paperwork throughout this process!) together and started looking at properties at the end of the month. Compared to all of my friends who bought in NYC, my story sounds quick and easy, but the next few months were filled with house hunting, putting in offers on 3 different houses and finally closing in the beginning of April.

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(Now we have a house! But we had to re-do the floors! And now we have a garden! (And a lawn!))

So, you can imagine we had tons of Ikea trips (Actually, we just went today). We actually didn’t get to move in until May, since we had a trip to NYC planned in April. And since we were just staying with my in-laws, we weren’t in any real hurry to leave. (HA HA HA.)

My husband and I both had 2 trips to NYC between then and now. 1 was for pleasure, for me, and 1 was for work. For my husband, both trips were related to work, but we hung out a little in April, since it was actually the first time in a year that either of us had been back to NYC!

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IMG_4493.JPGWhich also brings me to my intrepid kitty traveler. On my last trip to NYC (which was incidentally for work), I took the opportunity of bringing my cat and mother back with me. My mother landed in the ER in March. Although she’s incredibly self sufficient, I wanted to see whether it was possible for her to get treatment here with me. I also wanted her to attend my sister in-law’s wedding, so I kidnapped her and my cat. I was so incredibly nervous to travel with my cat. He’s sweet to me, but very skittish. I went completely overboard and got a dog harness and leash, drugged him, and was still paranoid that he would put up a fuss at the airport when I take him in and out of the carrier. Getting him inside at my mom’s was an ordeal… believe me. But at the airport? He was quiet and nervous and just clung to me. He was such a good boy. The flight back with Jetblue was one of the more comfortable ones, since they gave my mother and I the whole 3rd row. My cat was quiet throughout the flight and recovered pretty well afterwards.

Between my mother’s trip to the ER that turned into 4 nights in a NYC observation room, the NYC trips, re-doing our floors, moving into our new house, hosting 3 separate instances of out of town guests, and helping with and hosting relatives for my sister in-law’s June Wedding. The last 6 months have been a whirlwind.

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IMG_4523.JPGAnd of course the wedding was another few weeks of fun and chaos. I got back from NYC exactly a week before the wedding (a day after my sister in-law got into town) with my mother in tow. 3 days later the Egyptian relatives came. Then the Mexican/Uruguayan realtives came in 2 days after that. We stayed with the in-laws again and lent our home to 2 couples and their kids. their brother, and their father for the wedding. I think we had like 9 people in the house at it’s height. Between helping out for the wedding and showing people around, the next 2-3 weeks flew by!

Honestly July is the first month where we don’t have any plans. We don’t have anyone visiting us, no plans to go anywhere, and no huge events. Phew.