Our Nest

Many of you have been asking for pictures of our new place and I figured the best way for you to see it without having to send you a ginormous file was to post them here! We are really starting to love our place. It is very different than what we are used to. Lets just say it is much more "cozy." Our kitchen/living/dinning area is flanked by two walls of floor to ceiling windows. Really cool, right? Well, sure, but it sure does make you feel vulnerable! I feel like people are always watching me! But truth be told... who is the creep with the binoculars? Yeah, this girl! (Brandon's Note: Yep, it feels kinda weird having binoculars on the living room coffee table...) Oh geez, I hope no one from neighboring buildings stumbles upon this. I swear I am no a creep... okay maybe my desire for a higher powered scope would qualify me as a creep, but until I actually get it I am a harmless voyeur. There are also no ceiling fixtures or fans!! Everything is lamp light! Weird!! This is has been a hard transition for me because I LOVE light! Just ask Brandon. I am often in trouble for leaving lights on. Have they never heard of can lighting?

Okay enough with the rambling. Here is the grand tour!

This is from the front door looking in. To your left is a very small den/ office and to the right you will find the guest bath and bedroom. Up ahead to the left is the master bedroom and to the right the main living area. (I have always wanted to be a tour guide.)

This is a look into the den. We need to get a small desk to put in here!

This is the guest bath. Yes it has a toilet but I could not get it all in the photo!

This the guest bedroom.

This kitchen has no pantry! This is quite painful for a girl who likes to buy in bulk! Guess who just got a Costco membership? ME!!!!!!!! (Brandon's Note: Yes McGhee's, we have crossed onto the dark side!)

Our living and dinning area. I am not a big fan of the red. I had red walls and red couches back in college . Yikes! I am so over it. Who wants to come paint for me?!

Oh yeah! That black building in the faint background is the Sears Tower!

Our balcony needs a grill. (Brandon: YESS!)I attempted to make steaks on the George Foreman two nights ago. Fail!

This is our bedroom. Ahh it needs color. Again, anyone want to paint? And yes for all you designers out there, I know putting the bed against that window is an awful idea visually, but we had the room arranged the traditional way and it was so cramped. We practically had to tip-toe around the end of the bed. I am fully aware that my Fung is off my Shui. Oh well!

This is our master bath. Brandon and I are back to sharing vanities again. I liked it better when we had separate vanities because I could ignore the messes he made. ( Love you, mean it!)

Ahh! A nice big shower!!!

And that is the tour! I hope you enjoyed my sub-par photography skills. I also hope this will entice all of our friends and family to come visit. Who wants to shotgun the blow up mattress in the living room?!

See Ya Texas!!! Here we come Chicago!

THE MOVE
Where do I even begin? The past three weeks have been a whirl wind. Two weeks ago we were residents of Texas and today we reside in Chicago. It has been quite an adjustment! I felt like we were in a rush when leaving Texas. There was so much more that we needed to get done and so many more people I wanted to say goodbye to, but I am so thankful for the love and support of our friends and family back home. Brandon's family came to visit two weekends before we left and my family came in the next weekend. It was great to see them and enjoy their company (not to mention the food they brought us from the valley and all of the stuff we were able to pack into their cars to take back home)! Our friends were also great! We were fortunate enough to have been a part of a wonderful bible study group while we were in Houston. It was hard (and still is) to leave them. They are such a great support system and a constant source of joy and laughter. Before we left they threw us a surprise going away party and Brandon and I felt so blessed by their thoughtfulness. (Brandon's Note: Seriously, that was completely awesome. Man I miss them!) We also miss our neighbors! I know that might sound odd to most of America but our street is always hopping. Even though we are gone they still are helping us with our house and have been just a phone call away. Margaret (neighbor from across the street) was kind enough to let us sleep at her house on our last night in Texas. We had packed everything in the moving van and it was nice to have a bed to sleep on. (Thanks to everyone who helped us pack up! It was a long process. Sarah forgot to mention we had a HUGE garage sale and probably sold more than half of our stuff. We BARELY fit everything in the van and the car. We had to go from a 2400sf house to a 1300 sf apartment....)

We left Texas on the 10th and began our two-day journey to Chicago. We underestimated exactly how we were all going to fit into the cab of the van which made for cramped quarters for two days. With two adults and two dogs, there was no getting comfortable. Bexar "Bear" (our 70lb lab) had to ride between the two bucket seats for two days and there was no room for him to stretch out. Poor baby! (Man that was a rough ride. I wanted to stay on Interstate, because of the weather, but that meant driving through Louisiana, which I will never do again. Next time we'll take the straight shot up US59. It took us about 22 hours (15 hours the first day, 5 hours the next), pulling a 16ft van and a car dolly, against a head wind. Yup I got a sweet 8mpg....)

Riley (our 15lb rat terrier) was a happy camper because he got to ride in my lap the whole way but that meant that I could not do anything with my legs! Brandon was a champ because he drove the entire way! Upon arriving in Chicago, we both looked at each other and said, "We will never do that again!" (We arrived to Chicago snowing. Good thing I hired some movers to get furniture and boxes in the elevators for us! I was at least that smart! But parking a truck in the alley was a nightmare. I kept having to move the truck to let people by. To make matters worse, at the end of the day, I locked the keys in the truck and had to call AAA - (thanks Lady!) As you can imagine, by the end of the day I was pretty frustrated and rethinking this whole ordeal. But hey, we made it without any big mishaps!)

OUR NEW PLACE
We are happy with our new home. We are in a great building and we feel safe and comfortable. We are all getting used to having to suit up every time we go outdoors, taking the dogs out at least twice a day and walking instead driving. Our first week was pretty rough. We need a guide to Chicago for Idiots. It is a whole different language up here and you need a permit for everything! (Seriously, a permit to have a dog, a permit to run the dog off leash, another one to have a car in the city, and the list goes on. I'm noticing though that nothing is really enforced though...) Last Friday was my birthday, but don't let that fool you because it was a HORRIBLE day! When I look back on it now it is really comical, but in the moment I was not having fun. Bexar started to get sick on Thursday night. It came out of now where! Again, it has been quite an adjustment. When your 70 pound dog desperately needs to use the bathroom there is no way to get there fast! (Hallways, waiting for elevators, more hallways, and then a walk to the park)That being said we had our first accident on the elevator! Not cool and totally embarrassing!!! It just got worse from there! He continued to get worse, which meant we were up taking him out every two hours and still not making it every time. Thank goodness I packed all of the left over puppy pads. I won't go into anymore details because it is just nasty, but I spent most of my birthday cleaning up after him! Bexar got progressively worse and I later had to rush him to the pet hospital where he spent most of the rest of Friday on meds and IVs. He is fine now. We are still not really sure what made him sick, but we are keeping a close eye on him. Since Friday was a giant fiasco, we decided to "re-do" my birthday on Saturday. Saturday was PERFECT! Brandon and I got up early had waffles (my favorite) and then walked through Grant Park, ate at Pizzeria Duo and went shopping. We finished the day off by walking to a great sushi restaurant down the street.

Hopefully, I will post pictures of our new place soon, but I will leave you with a picture of Riley walking in his snow boots!