yep. i'm back, baby.

If I were to describe the last two months in one word: ridiculously insane.

(okay, that's two words. but that should only prove how truly crazy it has all been)

The big news is: WE MOVED INTO OUR NEW HOUSE!

This also means that:

1. We sold our house. It's never a good sign when your realtor says, "In my 30 years of real estate, I've never experienced selling a house quite like this." Besides the FOUR times we were under contract, we dealt with radon, termites, a possible underground oil tank and asbestos. But we got to kiss* our shit-ass neighbors good-bye!

*Our kiss was in the form of one specific and slender finger being extended upward in the direction of their house and crappy caravan.

2. I have fallen in love with my orange beast of a stove. It's amazing. So far I've only used 3 burners at a time. But wait until Thanksgiving - 8 burners and 2 ovens will be fired up. We won't have to heat the house for a month!

3. I lived out of my car. Shameful, but true. Between keeping our valuables away from all of the strangers walking through our house, to packing up our lives and not knowing where anything was, I became the girl with the Trash Car. You name it, I was driving around with it:

• diamond earrings
• marriage license
• leftover tiles to be returned to Lowe's**
• makeup and hair products
• sneakers
• bills and checkbooks
• vito's leash

**still in there.

4. I have 2,357 mosquito bites. Buying more acreage = bug city.

5. I'm no math wizard, but when you move from a larger house with lots of storage to a smaller house with less storage, something doesn't add up. For instance, in our old house, we had a built-in cedar closet in the basement, where we would house all of off-season clothes. Now, all of my sweaters and boots are in boxes piled up in the spare bedroom. We lost an entire room of furniture, which is conveniently in the garage***

***the garage, which should be filled with our cars, is bursting with large tools, furniture, boxes, wall hangings, and more furniture.

6. I'm a hot mess every morning. I still don't know where anything is. My poor shoes are in boxes, and I never have time to dig through to truly find 'the right pair' to wear each day. We didn't find the iron until last week, so I was wearing just a select few outfits to work, since everything else was a wrinkled mess.

7. A to-do list a mile long:

• paint the mudroom
• scrape, prime and paint the study
• put bars and shelving in closets
• make butcher block counter top
• organize basement
• make yard look less Sanford and Son
• convince Vito that we aren't going home, we are home
• hang stuff on our barren walls
• clean out garage
• remember what cabinet the dishes are in

And yes, even with all of my complaining, it was truly worth it. We couldn't be happier. I couldn't love my kitchen and its 47 cabinets any more. And we couldn't miss our old neighbors any less.

(I missed you, blog world!)