So with that said, I will do my utmost best to recap events over the last 8 months in this post to bring everything up-to-speed. I think it's best to jump right in, so, here goes:
I resigned from my position, we relocated to the greater Philadelphia area, and we got married!
Ian got a promotion in his line of work and they relocated us to Pennsylvania at the end of May. To back track, we came here for the first time at the beginning of April when Ian was still on-the-fence about taking the promotion. The purpose of the visit was to explore the area and determine whether or not we'd like to live here for at least a year.
Originally, we traveled here with the mindset we would hate Philadelphia. We had heard that people in the Philadelphia area were not exactly warm and fuzzy. We heard their personalities were much tougher and colder than what (most) Midwest folks were used to being around. But we came to find out in our visit how much our frame of mind had changed once we explored the downtown area, interacted with some locals, ate at a few (famously, great) restaurants, and found out how close we were on a map to New York & the ocean. We really loved it. So Ian accepted the promotion the following Monday and he moved out here the next month while I stayed in Indianapolis for a couple of weeks.
I had to put in my two week notice at my job and I also had to begin packing our lives into boxes, which is one of my least favorite things to do. (I always love unpacking and decorating after getting settled but the actual packing process is annoyingly easy to put off.) In that two weeks I also had to arrange where I would stay when I returned to Indianapolis in June to plan the rest of our wedding, which was to take place over the fourth of July weekend. Luckily, my parents and my sister and my sister's husband still live in the Indianapolis area and they offered for me to stay with them in the interim. One of my clients told me prior to my last day: "They say the three most stressful things in life are getting married, quitting your job, and relocating to another city. And you are doing all three in a matter of a couple of months...good luck."
My client was absolutely right when it came to my stress levels...they were through the roof. I will speak honestly about my experience in doing all three of these transitions at once. I would not recommend it to anyone. I'm not saying to not do it if the opportunity presents itself as it did with us but I would definitely not encourage anyone to go out of their way to experience all three at the same time...unless you are looking for a reason to pull out your hair. Kidding! Well...sort of. Not really.
I admit I had been wanting change for some time at that point so I gave very little resistance throughout the acceptances of each decision. Granted, I was sad to say goodbye to the people I had worked with for almost 3 years. That was no easy feat and I miss them a lot. I think I'll always miss them. And while we still stay in touch it's hard to leave an establishment you've been every day for that long. But I truly didn't realize how drastic of a change all of this would be, in retrospect; however, I did get what I asked for...change. Life's (or God's?) sense of humor gave me exactly that. "Ask and it will be given to you...". - Matthew 7:7. I wouldn't go so far as to say you should be careful for what you ask for but I definitely learned I do receive what I ask but it's never in the form I think it will appear. So typical, right?
In any case, Ian came back to Indiana after 2 weeks because we were going to have the legal ceremony in Indiana for a couple of reasons: The first was because my insurance with my company would be cancelled after I resigned and I needed to be added to Ian's insurance. And the second reason was because it was a heck of a lot easier to get our marriage license in the state you reside versus trying to get an out-of-state marriage license.
I had planned to make arrangements at the courthouse in Indianapolis however Ian surprised me with the news he had found an officiant who was available to marry us in Bloomington, which is where we met. His element of surprise never gets old...I was swept off my feet (literally) after we said our, "I do's" on May 28, 2014. It was a fast ceremony but it was very sentimental and the two things I will remember most from that day are that May 28th is my mother's grandmother's birthday and the other detail is that our Officiant's name was Tom. Our initial officiant called off sick that day so Tom stepped in for him. Since I was marrying a 'Thomas' it only seemed appropriate and I had to remember to wink at the stars that night.
Afterwards, we packed up all of the boxes, put them into a U-Haul, and moved every last piece of furniture to Pennsylvania. For the future, or for anyone who may read this, hire movers! After a 13 hour drive (normally only 9 1/2 hours but due to the size of the Uhaul it took longer) we had 9 HOURS of unpacking the truck and carrying everything up 3 flights of stairs to our new apartment completely by ourselves. I still shake my head when I think about that day. What I would have given to have hired movers...for goodness sake, I lost 4 pounds in that day alone. Get the picture? Hire Movers!
After finally getting every box and piece of furniture into our new apartment it took several days to unpack our lives. Unfortunately, I was only able to be there for a week before Ian had to go to a meeting in Boston and I had to travel home to Indianapolis to plan the remainder of our wedding. It was fun being in Indianapolis for just under a month. I had my bachelorette party in Nashville, TN while I was surprised by my best friend in the entire world, who attended the party, all the way from Tallahassee, FL. She is truly the greatest friend I have ever had the privilege of knowing. But while everything was fun while I was in Indianapolis I really missed Ian. That was definitely the longest we have ever been apart from one another and I care not to repeat it.
Ian and I got married on July 5, 2014 in St. Joseph, MI at The Inn at Harbor Shores. The weather was gorgeous - plenty of sunshine with low humidity. The food and drink were tasteful. And all of my DIY projects (centerpieces, music playlists, hair & makeup) turned out quite well. But most importantly, our friends and our family who surrounded us that day created the best memories of all. After going through months of stressful planning it almost felt like the frustrations and worries became insignificant to us once we were joined by those friends and family members. It felt like a lot of the details we fixated on leading up to the big day were washed away, taken with the waves into Lake Michigan.
So I will conclude the overview of our wedding with this:
The wedding planning process was not shy of drama, comedy, suspense, or horror. And while there were certain details that could have published our event in any of those genres the one category the actual ceremony and reception belonged, without question or doubt, was romance. And Ian was, and still remains to be, my Prince Charming (or Prince Manly, as he prefers to be called).
Overall, we've been really happy. The changes have been cumbersome at times but it doesn't take a lot of reminders to look at the bright side of where we are at currently, which is back in Philadelphia full time.
Our apartment is really cool although it does not come equipped with all of the bells and whistles as our previous apartment. Our monthly rent in Indiana afforded us a dog park, private walkways, a modern fitness center and pool, black appliances in the kitchen, 3 bathrooms, an enclosed patio, and spacious floor layouts. We lived quite comfortably in Indiana, needless to say.
Here in Pennsylvania, our monthly rent (not very different than what we paid in Indiana) affords us a dog friendly, one bath apartment...that's it. No bells or whistles here unless you want to pay the big bucks, which unfortunately, we cannot do right now nor do we really see the sense in it. Once we are in a position to pay a lot more in our monthly payments I'd eventually like to buy a house. But I'm not sure where we will end up in a year because of Ian's job. Therefore it makes it a bit challenging for us to plan for the future. Buying a house isn't realistic quite yet but I'm not giving up on the idea! I'm enjoying this transition...er, uh...well, trying to embrace the changes while also trying to not freak out or panic about the unknowns. (That is the actual challenge right there...not panicking.)
As I mentioned at the beginning, the location of our apartment is spectacular to us. We've visited Rehoboth Beach & Dewey Beach in Delaware, which was also the first experience for both Ian and Micky to visit the ocean. It was really beautiful to see them jumping in the water and chasing the waves as the sun set. A total Kodak moment. And we've also visited New York - Ian took me to Ippudo, an absolutely delicious Ramen restaurant. (My sister introduced us to this Ramen joint prior to our most recent visit and we are totally hooked. If you've never been you should definitely put this restaurant on your list of places to visit in New York.) And we've also visited the Jersey Shore. I've come to realize there are many boardwalks along the shore with carnival food vendors, rides, and games. Since we are missing the Indiana State Fair this year I'd say visiting Wildwood made up for it, easily.
We've eaten a ton of food out here already, which has been the easiest thing we've done so far! East Coast Hoagies, fresh seafood, fruits, & vegetables, rich meats like prosciutto, capicola, & pastrami, and all of the different cheese...it's made preparing anything at home difficult! All you want to do is eat out every night! But with Ian working a lot right now and wanting to make a good impression on his new team, I've been putting my hands together in the kitchen. I recently prepared Monster Cookies for his staff, which seemed to have gone over well with them. I modified the recipe from the show, Pioneer Woman. I've gotta say she was definitely right when she said you could add and/or change whatever you wanted because of the batter. For someone like me, who is awful at baking, these were really easy. I would strongly encourage anyone to make these for a solidly delicious cookie!
Ingredients:
- 2 sticks (1/2 Pound) Butter (salted) Softened
- 1/2 cup White Sugar
- 1-1/2 cup Brown Sugar, Packed
- 2 whole Large Eggs
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 1-1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
- 3 teaspoon Baking Powder (I had no Baking Soda so I had to modify the recipe)
- 2 teaspoons Salt
- 1-1/2 cup Oats (either Quick Or Regular)
- 1 cup M & M's
- 1 cup Macadamia Nuts, Roughly Chopped
- 1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chip
- 2-1/4 cups Rice Krispies
Cooking Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Cream butter with sugars until fluffy
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
- Add vanilla and beat
- Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to mixing bowl and mix till combined
- Add in remaining ingredients
- Add Rice Crispies at the very end, mixing until just combined
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop balls of dough onto a cookie sheet
- Bake until golden brown, then allow to cool on a rack.
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