Even in a pandemic, I didn't blog. I'm the literal worst.

Being home all day, every day, for the last bit of forever, still somehow did not lead me to blog. I have zero excuses. I mean, I have *some* excuses, but I'll save them and just recap. Charleston was kicking my ass all over the place. Between the never ending mold, the humidity, and the excessive heat AT ALL MONTHS OF THE YEAR, I was D O N E. Hubbs' job had us relocate to just outside of Paris, France for 3 months (yes, we lived in France for 3 FULL MONTHS and I still have yet to blog about it because, again, literal worst.) We discovered that the fresh air, the mold free environment, and the food- good Lord THE FOOD- not only improved my anxiety, but had boyfriend absolutely blossoming. We agreed then that we needed to get out of SC as quickly as possible. It broke our hearts to leave our cul-de-sac crew. We could not have dreamed up a better group of people to neighbor with, and leaving them was gut wrenching. Leaving the house that spent 5 years trying to kill me? Not so much.

  Hubbs got a temporary (at first) position at the Boeing in Philly, and we moved back to where my heart has always called home- New Jersey. Don't laugh. It's gorgeous here and it's one of the most populated states, so, you know, we're right and Jersey rocks. It turns out that all those years Hubbs tried to get a position in Philly, his resume wasn't even looked at. When we got married, he was not a citizen of the US. A few months after we got married, he became a citizen.... and forgot to put that information into the Boeing system. As Philly is a military site, he couldn't get a job there. He became a citizen in 2006. He updated the Boeing system (accidentally) in 2019. Oops. Insert face palm here. Since neither of us wanted his commute to be an hour and a half, we decided to live in South Jersey, about an hour away from both of our parents. Jersey is a very small state. And somehow I had never been to south Jersey. I don't even understand the logistics of that, but it is what it is. We're finding it's an entirely different state over here....and also I can't stop referring to us as "up here" to everyone in our family when we are most definitely down and a little over, because directions are hard. We had a fantastic townhouse rental for the first year while waiting to see if the job would become permanent that had basically a professional kitchen (the landlord owns a bunch of restaurants). I will always and forever miss the fridge there. Le sigh.

We started looking at houses in February 2020. We saw a LOT. A ton that I thought I would love- open floor plans, newer construction, giant kitchens... and they all sucked. Like didn't take us more than a 5 minute tour to decide thanks but no. There was one farmhouse, from the 1850's, that I had my heart set on. THE FIREPLACE that had room for like 8 people inside of it. Dreamy. We finally got to see it...and I swear it was haunted. I could not get out of there fast enough. I have lived with enough ghosts (seriously) and I can not handle that ish right now. We had one more house to see. From the pics on zillow, I was 1,000% not interested. At all. It was of course hubbs' first choice. We pulled up, and it felt like home. It was a no brainer. Our 1853 farmhouse had been lovingly rehabbed by the people we were buying it from, and they stayed as true as they could to the original. They kept the original floors, and the walls that needed repair they kept plaster instead of dry wall. It used to be a 15 acre raw dairy farm, but there are only 3 acres now. We do have 2 giant barns and 2 huge silos which still contain a lot of old equipment, so huge win!

I still can't believe we live here. Also. If someone could give me some tips on how to turn my black thumb green, that'd be great. It seems like a huge waste to not be growing our own food since we have AN ORCHARD with all sorts of delicious fruit trees. But I'm the black plague of plantlife. Anyway, a whole separate post needs to be done on this house and all the work we've done and aaaaallllll the pics and how it's led to my obsession with Cheap Old Houses (who will hopefully be visiting us someday!). 

 

And not to be all cavalier about it, but I've been in some serious anxiety/ depression spirals these last few years. Turns out, trauma and mold and health scares and unknowns with your kiddos can build up and explode and leave you grateful for a pandemic where not leaving your house is recommended. Again, separate post for aaaallll of it. I'm grateful I can see the other side now, and aware I still have so much work to do. That was heavier than intended for a "hey remember me!?!?!?" post but here we are. 

And then there's these clowns.

Our circus has expanded by one old dog- an 8 year old lab/bull dog rescue who is the sweetest and also who murders the groundhogs on our property with little to no blood shed, so also very handy to have around. Girlfriend is an actual artist- her paintings, drawings, and cake decorations are mind blowing, and her love for all things animals knows no bounds. And boyfriend is still Houdini reincarnate, class clown and best smoosher. I may have had to drag hubbs back to the dirty Jers, but he's pretty excited about his giant garage and workshop so I think he's forgiven me. These peeps are my whole entire heart and I can't believe we have a 10 and 7 year old. On a farm. With a dog. Like, how???

 Buying and selling houses and moving amidst a pandemic was not as much fun as you'd think. But 2020 for us will always be the year we moved to our forever home. Life looks absolutely nothing like I thought it would 20 years ago when I met hubbs, but it turned out to be what we didn't know we needed. 💖