Good chaos!

Holy chaos!  It's been so crazy lately!  I feel like I would lose my head if it wasn't attached.  Christmas was great, but I haven't had a second to post pics from it.  Good times with the fam!  After Christmas, we went shopping with our gift cards and bought some furniture for the new place.  I cannot wait to decorate the new place!  I actually have to keep reminding myself that it's really not mine...and that I shouldn't be purchasing furniture just for THIS place.  It must fit in another place too.  Oh well.  Here's our first purchase...a new couch from Crate & Barrel.  It's slated to be delivered on Wednesday.  Yahoo! We'll have something to sit on!!

We also found this great store next to Crate & Barrel in Brentwood called I.O. Metro.  It's a super cool place with fairly reasonable prices.  We bought lots of stuff there.  Here's a pic of the chair we selected to go with our couch. It's a funky slate houndstooth pattern.

 

We also got a dining room table and chairs...

 

 

...and bar stools.

 

I think everything should fit into any place nicely.  Now to find a coffee table, end table and a rug for the living room.  Man, Chad is going to have to ask for a raise already!!  LOL!

Yesterday was my last day in the STL office.  It was so weird to pack up everything.  I actually shredded two huge piles of papers and threw away two bags of trash.  I've definitely been there too long.  Ha!  After work a few work friends and non-work friends grabbed some drinks in Soulard.  I completely forgot to take pictures!!  It was a nice way to end the work week though.

Today the packers came.  I was completely stressed about this.  We woke up crazy early this morning to start packing our own stuff for the next week, because we had no idea which day our things would be arriving.  Then we had to clean the house for a showing this morning.  All this before 8:30AM.  I'm definitely going to crash tonight!! The packing went well.  I have heard so many horror stories about movers and packers, so I think that I was expecting the worse.  The packers were totally professional and considerate.  Go United!  (I hope that I can say the same when they deliver everything...safe and sound.  Ha.)  They were all done within 5 hrs!  We have another showing this evening, so we're headed out to dinner at Jefferson's one last time.  Keep your fingers crossed, everyone, that this all goes well...and the house sells!!!!

Tomorrow the movers come to load everything.  They don't think that it will take long at all.  I'm really hoping for that, because I have other little errands and chores to do...like clean out the refrigerator.  Then tomorrow night Judy is throwing us a "going away" shindig that we are super excited about.  I'm definitely going to take pics at this one.  Happy Thursday!!!

Holy Meetings, Batman!

Finally made it home tonight after an intense work week in KC.  I was out there for a variety of meetings.  The last two days of meetings were the most important...and related to the business surrounding my new position.  I haven't had any insight into my new role yet due to some legalities surrounding the contract bid that we've just submitted.  As soon as 1/1/12 hits, I'll have much more insight though.  Busy times ahead!!

Enough about work.  Let's talk food!!  Monday night, a few co-workers and I tried out this sushi place in Leawood, KS...Ra Sushi.  Super yum with a very zen atmosphere and great happy hour food and drink specials!!  

Tuesday Chad and I met up with our realtor to sign the lease on our new place and place the deposit.  Very excited to move in to this modern monstrosity!  Love, love, love the new neighborhood!!!!!  After that Chad, Gene (a coworker) and I hit up Flying Saucer...a great place for craft beers not too far from our new place.  Great selection!!


Wednesday evening, we had a group work dinner.  Not too exciting, but the food was good.  Jack's Stack is a BBQ chain in KC...that is pretty decent.  I'm not a huge BBQ fan, but I do like this place.  We went to the one in Crown Plaza, which has the best atmosphere...and best of all, it was free!!!


Lots to do this weekend to get ready to move.  Wish my Chad was with me, but he will be soon.  G'nite all!  Happy Friday!!

Kansas City, here we come...

So this past weekend Chad and I headed to KC to try and find a new home.  I've been able to transfer with my job to a similar position, and that job will begin in January.  So we're anxious to find a new place.  It's going to be a bit stressful paying for two places, especially with our extravagant tastes.  ; )

Now of course it wouldn't be "us" if we weren't also looking for new places to eat!  Ha!
Friday night we stumbled across this little Spanish Tapas place in the West Side neighborhood...La Bodega.  It was super yummy!!  Saturday morning, we opted for a big breakfast since we'd be out running all day long.  A friend of Chad's suggested this quirky little place, Succotash.  It was super good...and they serve brunch all day on the weekends.  I ordered the Crab Benedict, which was fabulous!

OK, ok!  I'll get to the good stuff now!!  We started out at a place called 909 Walnut,which we were very excited to see.  Lots of amenities!  Here's some of the pics from the place and the view from it!

 Green space on top of the parking garage.

Another place we saw was Fleming Place.  It's a much smaller building next to the Crossroads District in another part of downtown.  It was a great place, but no amenities.  It also didn't have indoor parking, and it wasn't close to very many restaurants, etc.  It was very unique though.  You could enter on the street level, which was the 3rd floor of the place or the first level, which was where the parking was.  I might have been sold on this place if it had more natural light...very dark.

So the place that we actually decided on is in the River Market area of Kansas City...north downtown.  It's a super cute area...very "neighborhoody" but still downtown.  We can walk to so many restaurants, bars, wine shops, gyms and the best...the huge Farmer's Market one block from the place.  It's even open year round!  Here's pics from the outside of the building...

A cute little building across from the loft.  There's also a coffee shop and Italian cafe directly across the street.

 

The living room...not the garage.  ; )

There is a huge wall of windows with blinds that raise up or lower down.  The entire place has finished concrete floors.

 

The cute little balcony, which will be just room enough for a bistro table & chairs and our gas grill.

The super cool kitchen with 6 burner gas stove.

The guest bathroom

The super cool master closet with custom cabinets.

...and finally...the drum roll...the crazy, not-so-private, Master Bathroom.  This is the view from the bedroom.  Ha!

(We're going to have to get over the privacy issue, but I can't get over how cool it is!  Jetted soak tub (which I'll never use) and a steam shower with two heads!)

So we should know Wednesday night or Thursday morning if the HOA Board approves us.  Keep your fingers crossed.  If everything goes well, we'll be moving the first week in January!

 

Going once...going twice...

Not sold!

Well, I thought we sold the house this past week, but I was sadly mistaken.  On Friday, we received a very unwelcome phone call from our realtor stating that they "buyers" were pulling out of the contract.  The supposed "buyers" were pre-approved for a FHA loan.  I even had a copy of the pre-approval letter!  Somehow though they couldn't come up with the 3.5% down payment. So onward and upward...at least that's what I'm trying to tell myself.  I just buried St. Joseph in the yard.  So now it's time to get this house SOLD!

After much deliberation, we are still keeping our reservations for KC this coming weekend.  We have contacted a realtor who specializes in the downtown area.  So hopefully we will have more of an idea of what/where we will be living soon.

Our Thanksgiving holiday was very nice, but we spent a good part of the days running errands and doing chores at our house in between visiting relatives, visiting Grandma in the convalescent center and being on-call for work.  I didn't even partake in the Black Friday shopping as usual.  It was a different holiday, but still very nice...just not quite as relaxing as it usually is.

I'm very thankful for all the family and friends in my life.  I hope everyone had a great holiday!

If you like it, then you better put a ring on it...

...and so he did!  Finally!!!!

With Chad set to leave this past Monday, I had made reservations for us at Charlie Gitto's on The Hill.  We had been there once...a few months ago...with the Travers family and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!!!  So since Chad and I had only spent time together with the basement remodel lately, I wanted us to have some normal couple time.  He surprised me Saturday morning by informing me that he had booked a room at the Four Seasons St. Louis!  This was a complete surprise, but I didn't expect anything.  I was too busy painting basement trim at the time.  Ha!

We decided to check into the room before we went to dinner.  It was a phenomenal room.  Chad did an awesome job!!!  There was even champagne in the room...and it faced the Arch. Check it out!

He surprised me after we got settled and "popped" the question!  Yay!!!!  Then we were off to dinner.  He surprised me again when we arrived at Charlie Gittos.  They already knew that he had proposed!!!  He had called the day before to inform them.  He must have been pretty sure of himself.  ; )

They made quite a fuss of it all, which was super nice and flattering.  He even made sure we got the waiter we had the first time, Tim.  I whole heartedly recommend Tim!  The Travers family had even called ahead and had a bottle of our favorite wine sent over to us!  How sweet!!!  They are such a great family!

Tim made sure that we got an extra special serving of our favorite...creme brulee!

 It was truly a fabulous night!!!  In the morning we woke and ordered room service.  It was a superb break from the basement work that we had been enduring...but had to go back to Sunday morning.

This past Monday, Chad left for a month of training in Madison, WI.  I have completely mixed feelings about this.  I'm soooooo happy for him!  He deserves this new job more than anyone I know.  He's worked so hard for it!!!  But I miss him terribly!  He'll be home on Thanksgiving pending the Wisconsin weather.  Keep your fingers crossed!!