the presents are wrapped ...

... but there's no tree to put them under!

 Thank goodness we're doing Secret Santa this year because there's no way I'd be able to find the time & strength to go shopping for everyone this year.  To give you a little idea of how bad its been ... instead of Christmas decorations, we have boxes and packing material in every nook and cranny ... we don't even have a Christmas Tree this year!  I knew we'd be spending the last couple of weeks packing and fixing up our condo so having a tree would just be an extra headache and more things to pack.  Yeah it's pretty sad ... but lets just say I have BIG plans for next year ... can't wait for after Christmas sales ... I'll be stocking up for sure!

I'll be home for Christmas...

... If only in my dreams ;)

I am soo excited to announce that we finally got the keys to our long awaited dream home! {and by "long awaited" I really do mean Looooooong ... it took us almost 2 years to find a keeper}

It's actually a really interesting story ... we first saw this house in fall 09 and totally and completely fell in love with the gorgeous windows, tall ceilings, and fabulous pool in the backyard ... so obviously we put in an offer over the asking price ... however we still got outbid ... we were completely devastated, well mostly me cuz I really had my heart set on it ... for months and months after I would still go online and check the status of the sale... hoping and praying for a miracle, that somehow things wouldn't work out with the other buyer ... I know funny huh? ... well that miracle came in September when magically the house went back on the market!  I contacted the listing agent early the next morning ... it took months of negotiating back and forth with the banks but our real estate agent has been really great and made it work ... so here we are 3 months later with a brand new home!

Our house was in good condition and move in ready when we bought it ... notice how I'm using "was" in the past tense, because right now it's completely unlivable.  We still had a month left in our condo and have been saving for a while so we naively decided to do a complete overhaul to really make the house our own.  Right now it feels like a big mistake since we only have a week left in our condo and this is what our house currently looks like...

 

Actually I'm lying, because the staircase is not there anymore... I have big plans for that staircase and will have to share more once we actually have some progress.  I gotta keep telling myself that it'll all be worth it in the end to keep myself from going insane ... but at this point it's still kind of hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The painters started today so hopefully by Monday I'll have an update!