s p r i n g a i r

as i type this post, i am sitting outside on the screen porch, sipping lemon water and relaxing while baby D snoozes in his rocker. it is seventy degrees, a little bit overcast, but not too humid yet. i can see the storm clouds rolling in but the sky still has patches of blue for now. i love this kind of weather. the only thing missing is the sound of the cicadas in the trees and the ADF drums echoing across campus. these are the sounds that i identify with summer in durham. everyone is out walking around, riding bikes, throwing frisbees for their dogs. its just too nice to be inside!

this morning we went for along walk around the east campus wall, up to ninth street and back. its easy to go a little stir crazy when you take care of a baby all day, so when the weather is nice we take full advantage of being outside for as long as possible. 

we even stopped by my house so i could open all of the windows to let the breeze in. there is truly nothing better than being able to sleep with your windows open, and it looks like the rest of this week will be the perfect temperature to turn the heat off and get some fresh air into my home. with all of the boxes everywhere and nothing on the walls, it was beginning to feel a little depressing in there...but nothing a little spring breeze can't fix!

b o x e s o n b o x e s

i can happily say that yesterday was super productive on the box front! after doing a little bit of research online, and deciding that i wasn't desperate enough to dumpster dive, i decided to go and ask some local businesses if they had any boxes they needed to get rid of. everyone was super helpful especially Sam's Quickstop, Harris Teeter, Smitten, and Whole Foods. if anyone ever needs good, free moving boxes i definitely recommend asking around because it is  much cheaper and there are literally boxes everywhere. 

however, be prepared to have to pick them up from grocery stores at the ass crack of dawn. i made the mistake of saying i would pick them up this morning, after staying up until after midnight watching the duke game, and then there was that pesky 'spring forward' life ruiner. we got there in the end though. so now i have about a million collapsed, empty boxes...time for the fun part.

thankfully, my friend Brittney is a pro-mover and is coming over to get me in line later today. because it turns out that no amount of coffee, spotify or pinterest has motivated me to actually put things in boxes yet today. 

if anyone has any moving or packing tips, please share them! i could use all the help i can get ;)

w e e k e n d h u s t l e

this weekend was a blur. it seems like whenever i want time to slow down, it speeds up with a vengeance. and since this is james' last weekend before he leaves for pensacola (two months before me) it was over before i knew it. we also had a million things to get done this weekend which didn't help, all fun things mostly though! 

saturday we spent the day in charlotte with j's aunt, who has been kind enough to bestow some great furniture on us for the new place. we also made a trip to ikea, which lasted a grand total of 37 minutes. that has got to be some kind of record...we may also be the only lunatics who go to ikea for a can opener, but you try making chili with only a pair of scissors and an attitude to open all those cans! of course we also walked out with a bajillion tea lights and some other accessories but hey, thats ikea for you. 

after a wonderful lunch at a cute place called The Rabbit, we booked it back to Durham for the Duke vs. Syracuse baseball game. of course the blue devils killed it and the cameron crazies were on point with their less than tasteful but awesomely hilarious taunts. my parents nagged a couple of extra tickets for this game and the four of us were able to have a nice dinner together before the game. i know its going to be tough leaving them when i make the move to florida so its nice to spend any time i can with them :) 

today james had to help his brother and sister in law scrape the popcorn ceiling off in their new place. as a real estate agent i do my best to avoid any such home improvement activity and leave it to the professionals. if it involves sloppy goo falling on my head, I'm probably not down (must be all of those years watching people get slimed on nickelodeon). so instead i baked cookies for the scrapers and got some stuff done at home including a nice hot batch of chicken and wild rice stew. 

overall, I'm happy the weekend was so productive, and i knew this day was coming where james and i would have to be apart for a little while. its not like we haven't been here before, what with his job as marine and everything, but this time i got to keep him for two whole weeks! soon enough we will get into our new place together and this won't be the norm anymore. but, until then, i have 3 weeks to somehow manage to pack up all of our furniture and belongings that are scattered from here to raleigh to charlotte, pack them onto a 26 foot moving truck, and get them down to pensacola without a hitch. then, a month more to wrap up a few real estate deals and my nanny gig, pack up the fur kids, and make the move myself. no big deal, right? As my parents would say, at least it builds character...

until tomorrow though, we are going to spend our last night watching the new season of House of Cards, drinking wine, and doing absolutely nothing. happy sunday everyone!