I'm happy to say that part one of our two-part relocation is complete!  Somehow I made the six hour drive with Mickey in tow last Thursday albeit questionable at times.  His meows started as I turned out of the neighborhood just after 5am.  After having been on the road for about twenty minutes, his white and gray paws rapidly emerged from the side zipper of his carrying bag.  He quickly pulled the zipper further and jumped to the passenger seat.  If he'd chosen to sit quietly in my lap for the drive I would have let him.  But he chose to climb around, checking the view from any window he could reach.  I had no choice but to make a pit stop-  so there I was in the parking lot of a QT shoving my cat back into his carrying bag, hair flying everywhere.  Eventually I caught back up with Dan and the trailer but the meows didn't die down until after crossing into South Carolina.  Even then, it was short lived.  I did discover his taste in music as he quieted down when the Black Keys played on my iPod but went to town when the Allman Brothers came on.  Once in North Carolina, it seemed like he had finally settled down although I don't know if it was because he exhausted himself trying to break free again, damaged his vocal cords from the incessantly painful meows, or if the radio just got progressively louder as the morning wore on.  Either way, we made it and I'm not sure who was more excited to get out of the car.

The last few days have been busy cleaning, painting, unpacking, and organizing what we can.  The kitchen got a coat of Safari Vest and I am really loving the way it turned out-  cannot wait to get my white plates on the wall and our copper pieces scattered throughout.

                                            Before                                            After

Mickey has successfully transitioned to being an indoor/outdoor cat (his dream come true!).  He has a kitty door to our shed and can lounge in the sun chasing bugs as he pleases.  Abbey is also in love with her new backyard, begging to go out constantly.  Lucky for both of them-  Dan and I have been waiting for an outdoor space like this for a long time ourselves!

We've met some neighbors who have welcomed us with sweet treats as well as a new ball for Abbey (brought by the little boy next door who says he LOVES dogs) and spotted two bunnies who reside under our front porch.  

This morning after Abbey and I took a walk around the neighborhood, I snapped some pictures of the beautiful flowers growing throughout our front and backyard.  Now to figure out how to take care of them and keep up this beautiful landscaping...

While it seems like we have been camping out since we got here sleeping on a mattress on the floor and figuring out how to cook with no pots and pans (how did we end up with no pots and pans with the amount of boxes we brought labeled "kitchen"?!), it already feels like home:)

  

As I sit on hold with AT&T trying to set up internet installation for Friday, I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone:

We arrived back in town from our Memorial Day weekend trip to Boston yesterday and wasted no time getting round one of our two-part move underway-

The biggest U-Haul trailer we could rent is now loaded and ready for a 5am departure tomorrow morning.  The back of Dan's truck and my car will also be packed down and ready to make the trek to our new Raleigh home.  I'll be in touch on how Mickey handles the 6 hour drive...

But, before we picked up the U-Haul and got back to reality, we spent a few fabulous days in the Boston area.  

The group braved the wind and rain our first day and a half in Salem but were thrilled to see the sun shining for the wedding day in Marblehead!  We celebrated the beautiful couple with some breathtaking views of the coast along with local food and drink.  Time was also made to drop into Boston for a quick and informal tour of the city.  Among the sites we saw were The Old North Church, Boston Common decked out in a sea of American Flags in celebration of Memorial Day, Paul Revere's gravesite, and the bar that inspired the television show Cheers.  After a family style Italian dinner in the North End that was to die for, we called it an early night anticipating the events that are now moving us full speed ahead.  Raleigh here we come!  

School is out in 5 days and we close on our house in 15 days.  But who's counting?  We are fairly confident in furniture placement after playing with our paper models over the last few weeks and since Dan spent a week in Alabama for work, I had enough time on my hands to come up with a few projects to get us going in the new house:

We know we want to paint the kitchen so after scanning the paint chips at Home Depot, I may be set on something a little like...

Safari Vest

I'm excited for Dan to try his electrical handiwork again on a light fixture that's also for the kitchen.  We picked up 4 glass insulators last weekend at a local flea market/vintage store for 5 bucks a piece.  I'm convinced we can recreate one of the looks here (and for much cheaper)...

Starting at $299.00 at Napa Style

Dan likes to remind me that one of the reasons we loved this house so much is because it's "move in ready." I like to remind him that it's because the house is move in ready that we can already make plans to add our personal touches right off the bat!  

We did it!!  After three trips, more than 35 houses, and a few tear drops on my end, we found the house we will call our home in Raleigh!

We are right around the corner from the neighborhood pool, walking distance to Crabtree Valley Mall, and have access to Shelley Lake Park and other greenway trails without having to crank the car.  Not to mention a mere 7 miles from the heart of downtown Raleigh.  It was certainly worth the wait and worry.  We are thrilled and cannot wait to settle in beginning of June!

As we bide our time in limbo, Dan is honing his architectural skills drawing blueprints of our house to scale while I have visions of furniture placement and paint colors dancing in my head.  In just 5 weeks, seeing Abbey catch the frisbee in her new fenced in backyard will make it all worth while!  She's getting in some good practice right now though at her grandparent's house-

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." -John Lennon

This about sums it up.  This time last year I thought life was pretty crazy planning for a wedding.  I can now say at this point, planning a wedding has nothing on selling a house, moving (twice in a month and half), buying a house, relocating to another state, and finding a new job.  We are now in a single-digit countdown of days left in our town home.  I figured I'd spare you pictures of the spackled walls and rows of boxes and bags that are making their way to storage.

But, as John Lennon said, just because our life is busy moving to another state doesn't mean we haven't simultaneously had lots of other plans to keep us going at a rapid pace.  And these are the pictures I will share with you!

Spring has sprung and we are enjoying it as much as we can in between trips to the storage unit and to California-

Dan celebrated his Golden Birthday on the 28th!  Abbey made a special card for her Daddy and I gifted Dan with a custom knife made just for him by Kaelan's dad, courtesy of Schneeberger Designs-

We made our way back up to Raleigh with what seemed like a very successful trip.  Upon making an offer on a home we were very excited about, we found out there were multiple offers on the table and ours was not the chosen one.  After I spent a day sulking, I decided there must be something even better out there for us!  Since we first got news of our relocation, everything has moved seamlessly, affirming the decision to take on this adventure which leaves me confident that buying a house will follow suit.

Ready or not Spring Break came and we packed our bags to cash in our Favorite Things trip to San Fran, Sonoma, and Napa.  We had a ball!  Good weather, great food, grand wine, and gorgeous scenery.  

San Francisco Bay

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz

Chinatown

Trolley Ride

Jacuzzi Family Vineyards

Hess Collection

Michael Mondavi Family Estate

Robert Sinskey Vineyards

CADE Estate Winery

Del Dotto Vineyards

  

Upon coming home last week and seeing this in the front yard, we decided it was time to start making plans for our future in Raleigh.  

We called up our relocation real estate agent and told her we were planning a last minute trip to Raleigh.  We were desperate to finally see the city and felt like we needed some house hunting under our belts.  

So in an incredibly quick weekend, we made it to Raleigh.  After doing a quick tour of the city ourselves, we lunched at The Pit.  Then we saw the good, the bad, and the ugly (not in that order) on our first house hunting experience.  But it was helpful in determining areas that we like and want to consider further.  Outside of Raleigh proper, we loved the towns of Apex and Wake Forest.  We even stopped in at the White Street Brewing Company, a local brewery in the quaint downtown area of Wake Forest and had a quick and refreshing drink-

Hers & His

So glad we were able to squeeze in the trip and we are already trying to pencil in another weekend when we can get back and make some more progress on knowing the city and feeling at home!  In the mean time, we are left with Dan's fortune from our Saturday night dinner...

We've officially been on the market since Friday evening. We had our first viewing Saturday morning at 9am. By 1:30 our listing agent called to say a full price offer had been made. We have two more scheduled showings today (Sunday) and could not be more excited and totally overwhelmed. I told Dan yesterday, assuming everything follows through, I'm going to be extremely spoiled the next time we list and sell our home...the turn around this time has got to be beginners luck!

By Saturday night a few snow flurries found their way to Suwanee making a spot in front of the fire place a point of contention-