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By kilax, February 6, 2016 6:40 am

I’m exhausted and we haven’t even started moving things in to the new house! Ahh!

But the good news is:

• I slept REALLY well last night. Best sleep in a long time.
• My parents are here helping (and lots of friends have offered to help!).
• We hired movers and they’ll be here soon!
• Bobbi and her daughter helped clean the new house last night.
• And we won’t have to move again for a very, very, long time. Yay!

Here we go!

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By kilax, February 4, 2016 6:04 am

• We actually have a close date – tomorrow! FINALLY! We have movers set up for Saturday! THIS SHIZ IS GETTING REAL, YO!

Why yes, this creepy room is in our basement!

• Work has been nuts for a few months, but it’s reassuring to know that I can always let my boss know when I’m overwhelmed – and that she’ll get it and help me out. She’s been so understanding about the house and health stuff. I hope she’s my boss for as long as possible (people move around a lot at my office).
• I haven’t run with anyone yet this year! But I have cycled six times with Steven and twice with Tina (and once with class). I think the run stat will change soon – my parents are visiting this weekend to help with the move, and it should be warm enough for my dad to cycle with me while I run. Yay! (Other than that though… I really enjoy my solo runs.)
• Since I know you guys are super interested in my first no chip manicure (ha), I have to report it is no more. By Sunday five of the nails had peeled off, so I picked the rest off (which you are NOT supposed to do!!!). So it lasted two weeks and a few days. Even though it didn’t last a long time, I would think about getting it again, because it was nice not to have to worry about my nails chipping (just peeling off).
• Do any other iPhone users have issues receiving texts from Android phones? Every few days I won’t receive an Android text, and I’ll know because a group convo won’t make sense, and because the messages show up a day later. Restarting my phone helps, so I need to remember to do that each day. But… wtf. It’s annoying.
• Did you guys hear about that college that requires all the students to wear a Fitbit (article here, pdf here)? The students that go there have always been required to track their exercise via a point system each week, and now the mandatory Fitbit makes it easier to track. Interesting!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 84

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By kilax, February 2, 2016 6:34 am

Do you guys still have nightmares about school? Missing tests and forgetting to study and all that?

I still have them, but my school nightmares are a bit different – I’ve forgotten or simply put off doing an architecture project until right before it’s due, which is ridiculous, because they took me weeks of preparation.

It’s amazing the panic these dreams still make me feel. And I’m so grateful when I wake up and realize I’m not in school and don’t have to do all that anymore. Now I do a completely different set of things I don’t feel like doing, ha! (But have great work/life balance, the majority of the time, so it’s fine.)

Throughout the years, I’ve slowly gotten rid of my architecture models from school, until the move to the rental house, when I got rid of all but one.

Bye bye models!

The one I saved

I wonder if this one will make the final move?

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By kilax, February 1, 2016 6:23 am

1. Moving (at some point)!
2. Taking a few days off work to settle in at the new house (and finally showing it to you guys!!!). The long Presidents’ Day weekend.
3. Seeing my parents… when they come to help with the move… I hope?! Ha!
4. Seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens again (haven’t seen it since December 31st!!!).
5. Spending time with friends.
6. Watching the Olympic Marathon Trials on February 13th.
7. Valentine’s Day boxing class! I’ve been working on a fun playlist. (And really, I am excited for all my classes.)
8. Setting up our home gym at the new house!
9. An already scheduled pre-race massage, and
10. My first race of the year!
11. Documenting house projects/doing projects with Steven! I’ll explain more after we close, but we got a special type of loan that includes money for home improvements that will begin shortly after we move in! And there are MANY projects that Steven and I will do together (now, and over the years!).
12. And… seeing what the month brings!

What are you excited about in February?

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By kilax, January 30, 2016 9:50 am

Our old townhome had some amazing sunrises:

The rental has some amazing sunsets:

I wonder what we’ll be able to see from the new home? It’s heavily surrounded by trees (yay) and that doesn’t make for much of a vista! I know I’ll find one to run to!

Comments (27)

By kilax, January 28, 2016 6:23 am

• Steven freaked me the eff out on Monday! He called me and let me know he couldn’t find Data. And that there had been people working on the rental house. And he hadn’t seen Data since they left. Gah. Steven was looking for Data outside when he called me. Then he went back in the house and thankfully found Data under our bed – a CO detector was being tested while the workers were there and scared Data so much he hid under the bed for a long time. Gah. I was freaking out until Steven found him!

A photo Steven had sent me of Data from that morning

• Yesterday wasn’t a great day for Data at the rental, either, with the new owners and their kid visiting. I can’t wait until we’re settled in at the forever home and Data doesn’t have to deal with that stuff. Unfortunately though, there will be construction at the forever home for awhile… I hope it doesn’t bug Data too much. He’s done well with construction at the townhome – he just hates it when the smoke detectors go off.
• I am not the best version of myself right meow and I don’t like it. I am the highly stressed version of myself. Work is completely nuts, the house stuff is all effed up, I have some health thing to check out, and yeah… GET IT TOGETHER, Kim. Thanks to my friends/family for letting me vent to them so you guys don’t have to hear the details! (this bullet is actually replacing three that were listing the house details, ha! basically, we definitely aren’t closing tomorrow and still don’t know when we are – maybe next week?!)
• I’m certain I have complained about this before, but what is with people who don’t have their work phone number listed on the signature on their work email (or don’t have a signature at all)? You don’t want to be called? Me either, but a lot of times, you gotta call someone, and that would be such an easy place to find your phone number. Ugh.
• Another (no chip) nail came off Sunday night, but the other eight are going mostly strong, ha! I’ve been painting the missing nails with my own polish (seen on the right below). I can’t stand to have one nail not painted or chipped so I am happy these haven’t peeled off when I’ve been away from home and can’t fix it!

Thank gawd I take pictures of EVERYTHING to share with my snis so I have this sort of thing documented to share. Ha ha. 

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 83

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By kilax, January 23, 2016 7:05 am

(I mean, beyond the house itself, the location, the privacy, and so on…)

Is picking out new appliances!

Some people seemed surprised we left our appliances at our townhome. We liked the appliances we had there, but we were excited to pick out new ones – which we completed last night!

We spent a few nights this week looking at display models to make sure we liked what we found online. The hardest thing to find to look at was the fridge – most of the fridges in stores have a freezer bottom and french door top. We want a freezer bottom and single door top, which we finally got to see last night. Now we can place our order after we close! Yay! Shiz is getting real!

We’re only getting one dishwasher and one fridge – I’m just showing them opened and closed in the image. The kitchen appliances are KitchenAid, the hood is Broan, and the washer and dryer are LG (I must have never posted about it, but we had to buy a new clothes washer in early March last year and got this LG model (in white) and really liked it!). 

It doesn’t show up in the image above, but all the KitchenAid appliances have knurled handles with red caps on the end. Fance!

Not on our list of appliances to buy? A microwave. We never had one at our townhome. Our rental has one and I’ve been using it, but I’m not in love with it. However, Christina gave me this schweet neck wrap that you can heat up in the microwave*, which I am in love with, so maybe I need a microwave just for that. Ha!

Late night picture I text to my snis!

Still left to pick out (but not an appliance) is a bathtub. The home has two bathrooms, and one is only a half bath so we’re having a bathtub/shower added to it. Yay! Having a bath is essential for me – that’s the only way I can really warm up after some of my cold runs (a steaming hot shower and hot cup of tea don’t seem to cut it!).

*Or cool in the fridge, which I haven’t tried yet

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By kilax, January 22, 2016 4:31 am

Last year I wanted to focus on doing more strength training at home and not just rely on getting it in 2-3 times a week teaching class.

That was a bit of a fail.

I did 18 strength workouts at home last year. Compared to teaching 117 classes. Better than nothing, for sure, but I didn’t put in the effort I could have.

But! I can already tell this year will be different!

Something about having a designated space in the basement, where all the weights are set up together, near the bikes, makes me more likely to use them. I get off the bike (or home from a run), and head right over to the weights. And I enjoy it.

We had this weight rack and bench in our bedroom at our townhome, but it felt inconvenient to use, and we definitely didn’t have this much space. I am getting stoked about setting our equipment up in the basement at the new house! We have a decent size unfinished basement to use (this is just part of it):

And I am also stoked to show you guys more house pictures when we close (maybe in a week?!).

Anyway. I think this is a case of setting myself up for success. I didn’t last year, but I’m going to this year!

Comments (16)

By kilax, January 21, 2016 6:23 am

• Hmm, so much for a no chip manicure. My thumbnail chipped on the fourth day. It has a crack in it though, so maybe that’s why? The other nails are still doing great.

• Ha ha, I am such a liar!!! I wanted to give the MBP bracelet to Mom or Christina when I saw them last weekend, but I didn’t want them to suspect it, so I asked Bobbi to text me when she was checking in on Data that she saw him playing with the bracelet at the house. Only, I sent her that photo and actually had the bracelet with me the whole time. Ha! My mom and snis were totally tricked when I showed them the text from Bobbi, and I laughed really hard when I got a text from my snister when she found the bracelet in her purse on Monday at work. Buah ha ha. Ha. Ha.

• Still no close date on the house! It’s all dependent on when the appraisal comes back, if it requires any repairs, the seller signing some clause, then a request for clear to close. And all those timelines are up in the air. I kind of feel like we’re just going to get an email that says “Your close date is tomorrow!” and I am going to respond with “I can’t go tomorrow, I’m in training/with a client!” Sigh. But we’re moving forward with some stuff, like deciding on appliances. And getting quotes from movers. Whatever. I am chill about it. It is what it is.

• This tiny little pink hat didn’t even fit Bobbi’s youngest daughter’s head! Gosh, I really messed that hat up. Bobbi’s daughter said she’d like a hat, in purple, if possible, so I made her one, in hopefully the right size. Look how fun the yarn pattern turned out!

• The super awesome thing about our new house is that it’s 5 miles/a 10 minute drive from Bobbi’s house. We’re practically neighbors!!! YAY!
• Did you guys see this article (pdf here) about the new Mio trackers that will track your steps, as well as your heart rate and give you a combined score they call PAI – Personal Activity Intelligence? The idea is that people need more than a goal of 10,000 steps a day (did you know that goal is from a campaign from Japan… from the 1960s?!) – they need to focus on getting their heart rate up, too. So these Mio wearables track both and give you the PAI score, which you want to keep above 100. It’s cool that you’ll actually get credit for things that don’t include steps (like riding a bike). I am not surprised to see something new from the wearable/trackable industry. I see so many people wearing these things, it makes me wonder when the bubble is going to burst, and people will lose interest. Gotta come up with something new to track, to keep people engaged!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 82

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By kilax, January 9, 2016 7:16 am

Gosh, I cannot express how nice it’s been to have some FREE TIME since Christmas! Hallelujah!

From October to December, we were focused on selling our house, moving, unpacking, finishing things up at the old house, traveling to Dallas, then prepping and hosting Christmas. We were constantly on the go. Ha, one night in early December, we set up our DVD player, put in a movie and sat down to watch it, then when the previews were over, said to each other “Do we actually have time to watch a movie?” NOPE! We shut it off and went back to the office to work on things. Ha ha.

But since Christmas, we’ve had free evenings, and weekends again. What a treat! We’ve actually gotten bored at night. I know, whuuuuuut?

(Seriously though, after doing so much in the evenings for so many months, I feel weird sitting down and watching movies again.)

I am deeply cherishing the quiet now, because I know it’s short-lived before we pack up and move again (we still don’t have a close date, but I am getting estimates from moving companies, anyway), then have to unpack again. And begin house projects at the new house. Just in time for some busy days at work, too, if things stick to the made up schedule in our heads. Schweet. Ha.

But anyway! I started writing this whole post to say I’ve had time to read at night, and on the train, and that it’s relaxing and fulfilling for me. I love how reading a book or magazine (as opposed to anything online) makes me slow down and ensure that I fully understand what I am reading. I am almost done with How Bad Do You Want It? and pulled The Rise of Superman out of storage to start next. And I asked for a few books from my family for our late Christmas (which is soon, yay!).

I hope you are having a relaxing start to the year, too!

Data is having a relaxed January… except when he remembers there is a ceiling fan in the office