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The (Moving) Struggle is Real

Hi, friends! I can’t believe it’s already December 1  As of tonight, I have our all of our Christmas decorations up and it’s really starting to feel cozy. I’ll be posting a Christmas Home Tour soon – I promise! Planning to carve out some time this weekend to work on my interior design courses and knock out that blog post.

Sneak peak of my Christmas decor

Sneak peak of my Christmas decor

Since I don’t have Christmas pictures or beautiful photos of our new house yet, I thought I’d share a bit of my heart with you in this post. Anyone who’s ever moved knows it ain’t easy – and if you’re a military spouse (or part of a military family) you move a lot. We have moved twice since April – two moves in six months. As exciting as a “new beginning” in a new town is, there are some parts of moving that really are a struggle. Especially leaving behind great friends and familiar routines.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m up for an adventure! And for our first move, I never struggled emotionally. I was bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for our next chapter. But for some reason with this move, even though we got the duty station we hoped and prayed for, my heart has been struggling to get on board with emotionally moving in. All of the boxes are unpacked, and I love our new town, our new neighborhood, and our new house. But for some reason, I have really struggled with enjoying the things – like decorating – that I normally enjoy with moving into a new home. Any of you out there who’ve experienced this?

It doesn’t help that life in general is pretty crazy right now, especially with the holidays and my busy season at work quickly approaching. I’m hoping we will fall into a routine (we haven’t been home for more than a week at a time up to this point) and I’ll bounce back soon.

Our honeymoon to Colorado was supposed to help us move into this season relaxed and ready to go, but I’m afraid our week away spoiled me! What I would give to be back at our hotel enjoying yummy foods and exploring the mountains.

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On a brighter note, I had some major wins at TJ Maxx tonight! Sometimes all a girl needs is to jump in the car, grab some nuggets and a sweet tea at Chickfila, devour said nuggets and sweet tea in the TJ Maxx parking lot, and celebrate some savings victories. DP was kind enough to stay at home and handle his own dinner – he knows when I need some “me” time, and that two hours I had in my happy place really made a difference. I was happier styling my new decorations than I was when I put up our tree a few days ago! I’m telling you – the struggle is real!

My heart feels a bit lighter now  Thank you to anyone who made it to the end of this post. While we were in NYC at my in-laws for Thanksgiving, I finally announced my Slice of Style Instagram to my personal Instagram followers and the support I received was truly amazing. Thank you all for your support as I begin this journey.

 

Getting Settled

You know what doesn’t sound like a good time? Going 2.5 weeks without your belongings (including a washer and dryer)  Believe it or not, moving in the middle of Hurricane Matthew to eastern NC was not the best idea in the world – although the Marine Corps didn’t give us much of a choice.

Oh well, we survived! And we’re probably better for it. Now that we’re on the other end of this experience, I’ve finally gotten enough sleep to share with you the process of getting settled in.

DP was out of town when our movers finally arrived, but thank goodness both of our moms were in town to help. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without them!

DP's mom was in charge of Lilly while the movers unloaded everything

DP’s mom was in charge of Lilly while the movers unloaded everything

Lilly loves move in day! So many people, smells, noises and exciting things happening at once. DP’s mom was in charge of making sure she didn’t get in the movers way (or get stepped on). The movers were super fast and had everything unloaded and furniture assembled in under 3 hours!

After the movers left, I went back to work while the moms started the unpacking process. They helped us unpack at our Corpus rental house, so they know the routine! Having someone else unpack your kitchen is the way to go – seriously, they prevented so much stress.

Settling in is always an adventure. Thanks to the moms’ help, I’ve almost got everything the way I want it. But I’m waiting until it’s 99% finished before posting here  For now, here are some of the “before” pictures to show you what it looked like on Day 1.

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As you can tell by the photos, Lilly is super excited about her new house …and we’re pretty excited too!

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While DP was out of town, I was able to spend the little bit of downtime I had decorating and buying new decor/furniture. Here’s some insight into my design and decor process when settling in:

I designate one room as the “shopping room” and anytime I need something, like a floral or picture frame, I go into the shopping room to pick something out. It’s effective and it’s fun, but the mess always kind of gets to me after a couple of days. Believe it or not, this picture is what I had left after I finished decorating…oops. With all my fall decor out right now, this stuff went in big storage bins until after Christmas. Once the holidays are over, I’ll bring it all out of storage and lay it out on the floor again to re-decorate for spring and summer.

The “after” pictures are coming soon! I can’t wait to show you what the house looks like now. My dad built a farmhouse console table and a farmhouse table for me, and they are to. die. for. When DP got home and saw everything, he walked around for 10 minutes saying, “Wow! Em! This is great.” and other variations of that sentence 

Overall, I think we’ll be super happy here and I can’t wait to continue this journey in NC. I’m starting my interior design classes this week and we’re finally taking a honeymoon next week (yay!!), so there will be plenty of posting in my future.

Moving wears a girl out

Moving wears a girl out

For now, Lilly and I are just excited to catch up on our sleep.

Finding “The One”

…rental house that is 

Before hitting the road to NC - Farewell, Corpus rental house!

Before hitting the road to NC – Farewell, Corpus rental house!

Did you know it’s possible to tour 16 rental houses in a day? Neither did I until two weeks ago! DP and I found out in mid-September that we’d be moving to MCAS Cherry Point in Havelock, NC. We also found out that we’d have movers at our doorstep in early October. So, the panic ensued and we quickly made an insane plan to drive cross country twice (I told you it was insane…), and house hunting in between during that two-week period.

Not only did we have the move to plan for – I also had two work trips back-to-back. Our plan went like this:

  • Drive to NC for the first time on a Friday-Sunday
  • House hunt Monday
  • Sign a lease Tuesday
  • Fly to DC on Wednesday (me), Fly back to Corpus on Wednesday (DP)
  • Packers pack on Thursday
  • Movers move on Friday, I fly back to Corpus from DC
  • Drive to NC again on Saturday
  • Arrive on Tuesday, fly to WI for work
  • Fly back to NC on Thursday
  • DP leave on Sunday for training
  • Movers arrive on Monday in NC

So now that DP has left for his training and we’re at the end of this madness, I’m finally getting around to writing a post about what rental house hunting is all about.

When looking for a rental house, I focus on two main things in this order: functionality and quality. I’ve mentioned before that since I work from home, it’s crucial that I actually enjoy our house – the way it looks and the way it works. It’s important to me to feel comfortable and content within the four walls of our house, even if it’s only for a temporary amount of time. DP would say this makes me picky – I think it makes me happy in the long term 😉

We started our house hunt bright and early Monday morning and had a day jam packed with 16 showings. The first house was perfectly functional – right layout, great size, and even had space for a man cave. It was equally as pretty and high quality. Hardwoods throughout, updated light fixtures and hardware, etc. But the one thing it didn’t have? A fenced in yard. Lilly may be small, but she loves to run her little legs off. So, it was a dead end and not a great way to start our day.

We saw a few more houses and they all led to disappointments. Too small, too old, no fence, poor quality, etc. Towards the end of the day I was really getting disappointed! We had only seen one house that marked every box on my checklist. But, it was $150 over our monthly budget. I called the landlords (who happen to be the owners of the house) to let them know how much we loved their home, but that we just couldn’t make it work because of our budget. And you know what happened?! They came down in price! Some things are just meant to be.

Lease signing day!

Lease signing day!

So now I’m sitting in our NC rental house and I couldn’t be more excited for our things to arrive tomorrow and to start decorating. The owners custom built this house for their family, so it’s a beautiful home with so many upgrades and personal touches. We’ll spend the next 4 years here and I can’t wait for the memories we will make. It’s already been an exciting ride and we’re just getting started!

Tonight, it’s just me, my laptop, and our new mattress. I might make a few Wayfair purchases while I wait for our furniture to arrive tomorrow… 😉

Time Flies

To say we’ve been busy this past week would be an understatement. DP wrapped up flight school and we had 5 people come into town for his winging ceremony. That’s right – 7 people sleeping at our 3 bedroom house, one of which is my office, so it doesn’t really count as a bedroom  We’re super excited to have loved ones visiting and were creative with sleeping arrangements so everyone could be comfortable.

The day of the ceremony was packed from 6:30am-midnight. I told DP it’s like a wedding day except this time, he was the bride. We started the morning with the Blessing of the Wings ceremony, followed by his “soft patch” winging where he received a new patch for his flight suit with his wings on it. Then we went to the simulator building and tried our hands at flying – I landed twice without crashing! The formal winging ceremony was that afternoon and DP received his wings of gold.

It was such a special moment and the culmination of many years of hard work. I couldn’t be prouder to be his wife or more excited for what’s to come.

After the ceremony, I asked DP’s visiting friend to keep him busy for a couple of hours while my mom and I set up his surprise party. The theme was “time flies” and it turned out even better than I expected. DP was over the moon about having everyone in town to celebrate and really appreciated the special touches at his surprise party.

My mom is much craftier than I am, so she helped with a LOT of the decor. I spent a ton of time (and way too much money on sticker letters) creating this “Departures” board filled with significant events in David’s time leading up to his winging.

We still have a few visitors at our house until later this week. It has been so nice for everyone to see and enjoy our home before we move next month. There’s nothing better than a home full of love and laughter!

I received so many compliments on my decor, which was a huge confidence boost as I begin this journey in publicly sharing my style. It’s easy to scroll through Instagram and get lost in how my house isn’t “this” or isn’t “that”, but with a rental house you really have to take what you get and make the most of it. I’m really grateful for friends and family who unknowingly reaffirmed my excitement and boosted my confidence.

I haven’t officially shared this yet, so here it goes: our next stop in this journey is Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point in Havelock, NC! We are so excited to head back to the East Coast for a few years to be closer to friends and family. Stay tuned for the house hunting and moving adventures ahead!

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