The Craycrafts Go House Hunting: A Prologue

Those who know me know that I have been itching to get out of our condo and into a house for quite some time now. While living in 800 square feet of wedded bliss is lovely, our 27 and 28-year-old selves have quickly outgrown the allure of living near the Buckhead bars, which is what drew Matt in when he bought the condo straight out of college.

Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to own our own home and even more grateful that my mother came down to Atlanta approximately 3 weeks after our wedding to transform it from a bachelor pad (think Civil War General decanters, a pink and green floral couch that was missing an entire section that flew out of a truck bed and onto the interstate during the 2010 move, "limited edition" UGA Bud Light cans positioned on shelves as "decorations," you get the picture...) to an habitable, cohesively decorated living space for a newly-married couple.

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Our condo definitely has its perks that I take for granted and will sorely miss when we buy our first single-family home together: concierge, fully loaded gym, pool, extremely secured building access, little to no home maintenance, the adorable 5-foot-nothing octogenarian Japanese couple that lives across the hall from us. However, there are many other things that I will happily wave goodbye to once we move: sharing walls/ceilings with noisy neighbors, haggling over guest parking spots (and trying to navigate guests through the aforementioned extremely secured building access), sharing one single-sink bathroom with a ginger-headed grizzly bear, not having enough space to comfortably host dinner parties/visitors, etc...

Putting off buying a house has definitely been a test of patience for me, given that almost every other married couple that we know of immediately bought a house/got a dog post-wedding. Our situation was a tad different than everyone else's, however, since Matt returned to school full-time to pursue his MBA (a 2-year process, mind you). With his first year of school already coming to a close and a paid-internship/job-offer on the horizon, the green light to start the home selling/buying process has gingerly begun to flicker. Hey, I will take what I can get!

We are both type-A planners, and Matt's extreme love of Excel spreadsheets and personal finances allows me to rest a bit easier about our ability to buy a house. Couple these things with the fact that both of my parents are real estate agents, and our Summer 2016 time frame seems more in reach than ever.

I've watched enough episodes of House Hunters to know that you can never get everything on your wish list, but it never hurts to dream about our future Casa de Craycraft...

1. Charming curb appeal 

This house is currently for sale in our preferred neighborhood and we LOVE it!

2. Master bathroom with double-sinks 

3. Located in our preferred neighborhood with close proximity to work and church

4. Fenced-in backyard so that I can FINALLY get the Brittany that I have always wanted

5. Large updated kitchen 

6. Front porch or back porch/patio

7. Open space to throw parties and entertain friends and family 

My wish list is exhaustive, so I decided to cap it at lucky number 7. If anyone out there has any helpful house hunting tips then please pass them my way!

Happy Friday!

Easter 2015: Forgotten Suitcases, Soccer in St. Louis, Wardrobe Malfunctions, and Easter Bingo

You know that your trip is off to a great start when you finally arrive in Memphis after a 6 hour car ride and your husband looks at you and says, "We have a problem." My first reaction was obviously focused on me, myself, and I -- did you forget to load my suitcase in the car, husband?! You didn't? OK, then what is the problem? Ohhhhhhh - you forgot to load YOUR suitcase in the car! Super! 

Yes, it is true. My lovely ginger-headed husband got out of school early on Thursday, spent 5 hours at home, loaded up the car, picked me up at work, drove us to Memphis, and then realized that he packed everything I had laid out for him EXCEPT for his suitcase. He even told me that he had added stuff to his already-packed suitcase while at home during the day and still forgot it. He luckily remembered his hanging bag with his Easter suit, and my mother's semi-extreme couponing habit came in handy as we raided her stockpile for toiletries, but we had to venture out the next day to buy underwear and dress shoes so that we didn't have a "Very Redneck Easter" on our hands. I should have known this day was coming. We have a lot of experience in the bad packing department (i.e. forgetting to pack underwear, packing T-shirts and no coat for 35 degree weather, etc.) and I now oversee all of Matthew's packing jobs, but I never thought I'd also have to monitor the loading of perfectly packed suitcases in the car. This marriage thing is definitely a team effort!

After the shock of Matthew's SNAFU (that has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?) wore off, we settled in and caught up with my parents and the dogs, Bella and Lucy. 

As many of you know, my dad had emergency surgery to fight a nasty infection that attacked his artificial knee. In addition to PT, he has to go to the doctor every day for 6 weeks to get IV antibiotics, so Matt and I served as his chauffeur on Friday and ran our errands (i.e. buying things Matt forgot to bring) in between my dad's sessions.

Since it was Good Friday and we could not eat meat, we feasted on a dinner of peel and eat 'em shrimp, salad, and baked bread.

One of the initial factors that drew us to Memphis for the Easter holiday was the fact that the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team was playing New Zealand at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Holy Saturday. St. Louis is not terribly far from Memphis and I am a die-hard USWNT fan, so I roped Matt and my parents into going with me. My dad's unforeseen surgery prevented him and my mom from making the trip with us, so we sold their tickets on StubHub and hit the road bright and early Saturday morning for St. Louis. 

We arrived in St. Louis with a few hours to spare before game time, so we wandered around near the stadium and then headed over to a burger joint, Bailey's Range, for lunch. This restaurant was only a few blocks from the stadium and was buzzing with patrons. After not being able to eat meat on Friday, a nice juicy burger accompanied with some fried pickles, french fries, and an ice-cold Coke sounded just right. 

After lunch we headed over to Busch Stadium to check out the sights and sounds. We saw a lot of people tailgating outside the stadium, dressed to the nines in their red, white, and blue get-ups. While our get-ups were on point (US soccer jerseys, beads, face paint, American flags), our ability to tailgate was lacking. I definitely want to wrangle up a group of soccer fans to go to the Gold Cup semi-finals in Atlanta this summer, so if you want to go then let me know!

The USWNT defeated New Zealand 4-0, and we were lucky that three of the goals were scored on our half of the field. Coupled with their victory over France in the Algarve Cup last month, this win for the USWNT definitely eases my mind a bit more as we get closer and closer to the Women's World Cup, which kicks off in June in Canada. (A quick fun fact - this was the second most attended game in USWNT history after the 1999 Women's World Cup, which was the last time we won the World Cup). 

Here are the goal highlight videos:

              

              

              

              

The drive back to Memphis after the game ended was rough, but we got home just in time to see Kentucky lose to Wisconsin (sorry, Calipari!). The next morning we were supposed to attend mass with my grandparents, but on our way out the door Matt informed me that you could see straight through my new dress. Ahhhhh!! I thought our misfortune with packed items was over, but oh was I wrong. I purchased my organza embroidered Easter dress months ago after seeing it featured on Gal Meets Glam, but the fall and winter months precluded me from wearing it until Easter morning (big mistake). A few panicked minutes later and I was out the door wearing one of my mom's old slips, not really having the time to check and see if it was going to stay up (spoiler alert - it didn't). Mid-way through mass I realized that the slip was just too big and was not going to stay up, and thus there was no way that I could walk up for communion without the slip falling down and giving the entire congregation a view of my backside. Epic fail. We scooted out of church faster than you could blink, and my mom worked some safety pin magic on the slip to keep it from falling down before Easter brunch. We were even able to snap a few pictures post-wardrobe malfunction.

My family celebrates all holidays at my grandparent's house, so we trucked on over to Granny and Paw Paw's for Easter Brunch. Nothing says Easter like silver serve ware, cookies, Honeybaked Ham, Sister Schubert rolls, and mimosas.

My brother's girlfriend made these cookies from scratch - are they not adorable?!

Last year my mother introduced a new tradition to our family gatherings - themed Bingo. This Easter's theme was all about the "Bunny-jamins," with family members battling it out for either gift bags or money-filled eggs. If you win a round of Bingo, then you can only claim your prize if you do the "Bingo Boogy," which is always fun to watch. I won a gift bag that Granny put together and Matt won $10! Winner winner chicken dinner.

Easter wouldn't be complete without a visit from the Easter Bunny, who I must say did very well this year. Matt and I walked away with some new Easter decor and a renewed subscription to Bella Vita's Candle of the Month club.

                                          

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday!

P.S. - We may not have a sweet little puppy to greet us when we walk in the door, but look what was patiently waiting for us when we returned home on Monday afternoon...