We're Moving!

My husband and I are moving again, and this time I'm not just talking about moving to a new apartment across town. This is going to be the real deal. The really crazy and exciting part, about knowing that we'll be moving, is that we actually don't know where we are moving yet. Fun, huh?! (:

On top of the world

The reason behind our move is that my husband was offered a job at another airline! We worked really hard to get him prepared for the interview. I say we, because my job was to grill him with interview questions and help get him a new suit and play stylist. I am super excited and proud of him for getting through the interview and landing the job. There were around 5,000 applications on file, and out of the 60 some pilots interviewed my husband was one of about 15 chosen for a position. (Alright, I'm done bragging... for now). This new job opportunity is the reason for moving, because the airline he'll be working for does not have a pilot base in Colorado.

He's come a long way...

Our upcoming move will take us out of state, and it will put us somewhere entirely new. (Unless it lands us in Michigan, but I think that chance is pretty/extremely small). There are bases all across the country from the Pacific Northwest to the very Southeast. We won't actually find out more about where he'll be based for around a month or so. Until then we play a waiting game, but we do know that we'll be moving! I figure since I have moved all alone before, that moving with someone very special should be even more fun and exciting.

Road Trip!

There are a few states where we might be based, and they include: Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, or Florida. Which one will it be?! If it was you, where would you like to live?

No matter where we end up, this new adventure will be fun. Either way we are both really excited about this opportunity, and we look forward to what a move will bring.

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* There's so much to write about, but it's hard to include it all. Please excuse me for not being a very good blogger/Tweeter/communicator lately. We have so many things to do in order to prepare for all of this. (:

Dinner of Champions

If this is not a perfect meal, then I don't know what is.

Dinner

Dessert

Sometimes the most simple dinner is the most enjoyable. Needless to day, my husband was working the night that I enjoyed this as my dinner. He's not as big a fan of instant noodles as I am, but he sure does love the cookies.

These chocolate chip cookies are made using the best recipe I have yet to find. If I had it with me, I would share it. However, I am away from my cookbook. I am really not good at memorizing recipes, so don't even ask me to recall it right now. I would totally forget or mix up one of the most important ingredients, and you would probably end up with cinnamon raisin cookies or something. Seriously. * Maybe I can share this recipe in another post at a later time.

Do you have a go to dinner when you just want something simple and stress free?

Hotel Toiletry Hoarding

I have a confession. I'm a hoarder. Don't worry though. We don't live in a rodent infested pig sty or anything like that. My favorite kind of hoarding is much more hygienic than that. I hoard hotel toiletries. At least we're clean around here! Over many years I've collected miniature bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. Even though I have enough to last for quite some time, I can't stop collecting those cute little bottles. I can't stop!

all the goods

When we travel, I fill travel-sized bottles with my own products from home so that I can bring home the hotel toiletries. You ask, "Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of the hotel provided toiletries?" Yeah. Pretty much. I use my own products while away from home, but I get to bring home these little gems. The only hotel that beat me at my own game was the Sheraton in Punta Gorda. They use toiletry dispensers in their showers, and those bad boys are attached to the wall. There's no taking their shampoo. I suppose they're sticking it to people like me. Ha!

I've scored some pretty nice products over the years. I have mini products by Crabtree & Evelyn, Gilchrist & Soames, Aveda, and some from the Ritz Carlton Battery Park. A part of me loves keeping the toiletries as a little reminder of our travels. It's fun to relive a good vacation by using the delicious smelling shampoo years later.

I'm growing quite the collection of hotel toiletries. Not all hoarding is bad, right?

If you're ever a guest at our place, maybe you'll get to take some of these bottles home with you. I promise I'll share these some day. Unless we can no longer afford shampoo or conditioner. Then I may them all to myself. Until then, I'm going to continue 'hoarding' and hope to share them some day. Now who wants to come and stay with us?

What is your item of choice when it comes to hoarding?

Out of Sync

I have to admit, that I am a huge fan of sticking to a schedule and having a routine. Being married to a pilot makes that challenging. My husband's scheduling throws a big old monkey wrench into my love for having plans or at least an idea of what might happen next. If anything though, I am getting better at going with the flow of things. However, it's not easy.

My husband and I on a little trip to Estes Park

Lately, it seems like our life has been a bit hectic and we have abandoned any semblance of a routine. Husband gets home after 9pm, and then we eat dinner. We get to sleep around 11pm maybe. Someone *coughAshleycough* likes to read in bed until maybe midnight (maybe 2am if I'm trying to finish a book). Husband gets up early for work, and we repeat. This has been a bit tiring. For both of us I'm afraid. This girl likes her dinner at 6pm sharp! Sort of like we're old folks here. Nothing wrong with older folks, but man do they seem to eat dinner early and stick to a tight schedule. I love it. Hopefully when my husband and I are old, we'll have a strict routine too. That would be so cool. Ha!

Not only have our schedules been somewhat turned upside down, but our apartment is in minor disarray too (I say minor because I'm too anal obsessive compulsive to let it get much further than that). Our lease is up soon, and we actually have no plans as of now for where we are moving to next. Great. We are doing this the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants way I guess. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. It makes things more exciting I suppose. For now, I believe that things are just accumulating around our place in anticipation of being packed away and moved again.

If there's such a thing as a neat mess...

I think it's this.

Seriously though, sometimes being married to a pilot has its perks. It also has its downsides too. Our 'social life' is pretty lame, because we don't have a lot of extra money to spend on fun stuff. We have pretty major combined student loan debt. On top of that, Nate gets his schedule for the following month in the middle of each month. That makes scheduling things difficult, because he has to know pretty far in advance what days off he needs. If something important is coming up, we usually need to know at least 40 days in advance! Even advance notice is not always enough, because he sometimes gets called in to work at the last minute's notice. Though since he has been working in the training department, that doesn't happen as often as it used to for us. His schedule varies month to month too. He doesn't just get weekends off like a lot of people with careers do. That was serious torture for us when I was working every week day. At least it was for me, because I would have a weekend off and he would be working. Thank goodness that has changed. We do enjoy free/cheap tickets to fly places, but we rarely take advantage of it. Being married to a pilot has its ups and downs. That is life.

I really need to work on being okay with...

having plans that are up in the air.

I hope we somehow get back to our 'irregular routine' here soon. Things have been a little more hectic and disorganized than I like them. Plan for no plans. Right now that's our life.

Color Me Happy

Last week I mentioned that it was very spring-like in Colorado, and that beautiful weather put me in the mood for some bright colors in my life!

Spring for the day in Colorado

Chelsea, over at A Colorado Cupcake, posted a blog that inspired me to find the perfect polish, so I went on a search for some colorful nail polish that would be perfect for Spring. If the nice weather is not here to stay, at least I can force some cheer out of the day by having brightly colored nails. Yeah! Let me tell you. Choosing the perfect color was not easy. I can be incredibly indecisive, so I walked back and forth in front of all the colors for what felt like a half hour. Ouch. Hard work pays off though! Just remember that.

testing, testing

After testing quite a few colors on my finger nails, I settled on a couple of fun colors from the Essie collection. I did not buy the greens or blues (this time), but I might go back and get 'Coat Azure' sometime later, because it came in a very close third after this polish search. The 'Mint Candy Apple' came in fourth place. If only I had endless dollars to spend on polish. I might have bought them all. After testing and trying and contemplating, I bought bottles of 'Lilacism' and 'Tart Deco'. Just so you know, Lilacism really does "whisper springtime". I heard it. Go get some if you want to hear springtime whispers too! It just might brighten your day. I know it does mine.

Pretty Polishes

I still have nails that look like the ones below, because it's been hard to choose which color to paint all of my nails. Maybe I'll just leave them looking like an experiment gone wrong. Who knows? Not really. Hopefully I'll get to painting them one color soon.

hard to choose just one

Do you have any springtime favorites when it comes to makeup or polish?

Spring Fever

The past few days have been lovely in Colorado! I try not to get my hopes up too much though, because it will more than likely blizzard on us a few times by the end of April. I know that Spring is not quite here to stay yet, but I cannot help but get out and enjoy it while it is here.

Now I grew up in Michigan, and worked retail while in college. It always killed me how spring clothes came out so early in stores, because Spring is a bit delayed in Michigan (and often in Colorado too). I try not to buy many clothes for warmer weather until that weather is here to stay, but window shopping is fun either way!

Yesterday's sunny day also called for a boba tea! (aka bubble tea) Have you ever had this stuff before?! I love love love it. There was a place in Ann Arbor called Bubble Island where I used to get my fix, and I am glad to have found some in Colorado. The weather was incredible, so I sat outside and enjoyed my drink. Unfortunately we will probably face more snow this season, but it did not stop me from enjoying the sunny day we had yesterday.

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Is it Spring yet where you live? How do you enjoy a lovely Spring day?