livin on a prayer & a travel sized bottle of wrinkle releaser.

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.
okay. hi. remember us?

so we're in Idaho now. I don't necessarily want to say we LIVE in Idaho because it technically doesn't feel like we do yet.

let me rewind.


so we packed up all of our crap and drove across the country. the few and the proud who follow my instagram were tortured for 3 days straight by my constant road shots from the passenger seat (sorry about thaaat.) . let's relive a few of the highlights:

WHAT UP GUYYSSS?

St. Louie

Mom Jeans in Nebraska. I'm not a woman anymore, I'm a mom.

Ohhh I was so jealous of her.

That all seems so long ago...

So here's what's happened since we've arrived in Idaho Falls:

Taylor started his job. He likes it so far. Some really devastating news for me is that he has to wear a respirator mask AND SO HE CAN'T HAVE A BEARD!!! I mean, it makes my heart hurt just to type it. So he's keeping the mustache but it just isn't the same.

Our first week here, we stayed at the super 8 while we decided to look for rentals. That didn't go great. On Sunday at church we met a lady who is a mortgage officer person lender guy madam sir. Whatever they like to be called. We ended up getting pre-approved with her on Monday for a home loan and decided it would be a good time to buy, instead of throwing away money on a stupid rental again. The mortgage sir lady gave us the name of a realtor who we decided to go with and he is great.

So, we house hunt while staying in the Super 8 and house after house we don't have a ton of luck, until Friday when I find this adorable perfect little house. So we put an offer on it and our offer got accepted! Yay! But less yay! after the inspection happened.

By this time it's week two and we're staying in an even WORSE hotel hoping to be able to move in to this house early but it turns out, this little dream house was actually a wet dream and I don't mean that in a perverse way. The basement was wet and moldy and the only way to fix it would be to excavate from the outside and fix the foundation. This was a very stressful time for us because we did not want to keep living in hotels because IT'S EXPENSIVE! But then by the grace of God and the goodness of the people of Idaho, we got hooked up with an RV in an RV park. So yep. We're living in an RV. It's okay, you can call me trailer trash, I won't even be sad.

I know what you're dying to hear, WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT ADORBS HOUSE? Well, they refused to fix the foundation before we bought and so today we were like SEE YA!! Which I'm not really sad about that either because I can't deal with wet basements. I really hate em.

This blog just got way too long, even for me. And Taylor is eating an apple way too loud so I'm in a bad mood right now.

But to sum things up, we are starting the house hunt over tomorrow, we are RV trash, we are doing okay, and we have some really cool friends near by. Also it's getting cold, which sucks. But, I love to be fat and wear sweatshirts, so BONUS.

spanish moss.

So, good news! We got the house!

However, we don't move in until the 1st. But at least we can rest easy in the meantime and relax and enjoy our weekend in Valdosta with the fam. AND I CAN BRANG MY PUPPY HOME FINALLY.

I will definitely take pictures when we get in there. Or, make Taylor do it.

So today was mostly a day where I killed a lot of time. I also went and got some Halloween costume stuff for the husband and I. 

On a side note, WHY DO ALL WOMEN'S COSTUMES HAVE TO BE SLUTTY? That's why I never buy costumes but it gets so old it's like, everything has to have "Sexy" at the front of it. Sexy Grandma Costume, Sexy Baby Costume, Sexy Horse Costume, today I even saw a Sexy Flamingo . Which actually does not look like a flamingo at all but rather a fluffy hooker. 

Also, I went for a little walk today around the neighborhood and I have to say, I fall more in love with this place everyday. Ever since I was a tween, I have wished that I could live in the South, and now I do. Not only do I live in the South but Savannah really embodies the whole southern essence that I love, the southern drawls, the spanish moss, the trees, the marsh, the screen porches, the big old plantation houses, the rivers, everything.. It really feels like I am home. I just hope we get to stay here for awhile. I feel so blessed to have ended up somewhere desirable.

So, while I was walking I took some pictures and I thought I would share. This place is just so beautiful. 

our new house.

Just Kidding, maybe someday I will have a house like this.

home coming, house hunting, and another hospital visit.

So, we made it in one piece with all 6 pieces of luggage!

Everything went pretty smoothly on our way home, surprisingly. Even though we had to recheck in our luggage when we got to Atlanta to fly into Valdosta.

I was pretty tired when we finally made it to Valdosta but my first order of business was to go get Lux from Drew and Julie's and I was really scared she would forget who I was. But, when we walked in she was really excited. She was shaking and licking the crap out of us when we picked her up. It made me happy.

It made me even happier when I fell asleep that night and I woke up with her in between us on her back under the covers with her little paws and head poking out. I love my sweet puppy.

Our initial plan on Saturday was to get up and go to Savannah and look for a place to live since we are coming back to Valdosta for Halloween weekend. But we of course, didn't. We stuck around and visited with everyone. It was nice though. And my sweet Mother In Law saw my blog and made sure to have Diet Dr. Pepper waiting for me. :) Thanks Sheryl! You're the best.

We finally made it out of the house by 12:30pm. and headed to Savannah to look at house that I was pretty sure was going to be the one.

That was until we got there. AND THE BEDROOMS AND LIVING ROOM HAD DIRTY WHITE LINOLEUM [like linoleum that they used to put in school halls and cafeterias] instead of hardwood or carpet. I can deal with a lot of things, but I just can't deal with living in Lunch Lady Land. Also when we went back outside and the yard was huge, but it had a chain link fence and our potential neighbors had some crazy redneck situations going on in their backyard. And yes, I often judge people based on how they keep their yard. SO WHAT?

Anyway, it just wasn't for us, I just didn't like the vibe I felt when I was in there.

So then on Sunday we went to the ward we will potentially be in and it seemed pretty good. A lot better than when we were in Florence and no one was under the age of 75 (very sweet people, just no one to socialize with). Then we met up with Aunt Martha and Uncle Gary (who are so graciously letting us crash at their place and feeding us delicious food!!) for lunch and I ate some Chicken and Waffles for the first time and I have to say, GREAT COMBO! Taylor ate fish and grits. I love America. and I really love Georgia. and I really really love Savannah.

After lunch we spent about 5-6 hours driving around looking for rentals. We found some, and we were able to get a feel for the neighborhood better. But we weren't really able to look at any on the inside. But all in all it wasn't a totally wasteful day. We decided that our preference was to live in town. Since we're so hip and cool and indie.

On Monday Taylor had set up a couple of showings during his lunch break (he's already started working)  so I met up with him to go look. The first place was okay but it was a little pricey and a lot of repairs needed to be made and it had a separate occupied apartment upstairs which I wasn't very keen on. Then we headed over to the house that I had my eye on for awhile when I was looking on the internet from England. I actually blogged about it (with pictures!) here. I was nervous to go look at it because I had been disappointed by so many and I really wanted it to be as cute as it looked online. Luckily, it was! It was dirty (they will have it cleaned though) It has wood floors all throughout, a separate dining room, fireplace, 3 bedrooms, a HUGE two car garage (maybe we can get started on some food storage), a fenced backyard and a big screen porch.

So we have pretty much decided that that is the one we are going to go with. We turned in the rental application today so we should hear back in a couple of days whether or not we got it. If we don't, that will be awkward and we will be homeless some more.  But if we do get it I am going to be way excited!

Today has been a busy day for me. Remember how I had to go to the hospital last week in London and they told me it was food poisoning? Well the horrible pain has been coming and going all week (its even woken me up in the middle of the night it's so bad) and I talked to some friends and my dad and they all said it sounds like I have kidney stones. Which makes a buttload more sense than food poisoning. So I finally got to see a doctor today and then the doctor said it could just be gas (seriously?) but it's possible that it is kidney stones, so he gave me a prescription for some pain killers and sent me over to the hospital to get Xrays just to see if I need to go as far to get a CT scan.
They gave me a wrist band when I checked in for my Xrays. Which made me a little scared that I might be trapped there forever. But it only took like 45 minutes.

It's still kind of crazy to see my new last name on stuff.

hopefully those numbers don't mean anything significant. don't want my identity stolen.

Also, when I dropped my prescription off at Walgreens, the pharmacist dude looked like Drake. Which automatically made me like him.

I had to drive all over town going to doctors offices and the hospital and target and best buy and the real estate office, which normally I would have hated but I went so long without the freedom of a car in England that I was actually just grateful to be able to drive myself around. 

OH. Speaking of Best Buy, I got my Kindle replaced. (cause I already broke it, but Taylor knew I would so he got a replacement plan) Unfortunately they didn't have anymore white ones, which made me sad. But I didn't want to seem Ereader-racist, so I accepted the black one. Plus the white ones get dirty so easily. I am just happy to have one again. 

So that's pretty much everything that's happened so far.

I knew blogs would be boring when we weren't England anymore. WELL SORRY! I still love our life!

7 days to homelessness.

I can't believe it. I can't believe we only have 7 days left in Jolly Ol' England.

I remember two days before we left America, spending 5 hours in the southern heat, just the two of us and our restless dog, unloading the U-Haul into the storage unit. I remember hating everything Taylor owned and swearing to get rid of all of it. And I remember when we finally finished, taking one last look at all of it before we pulled the door down thinking, "I don't have to deal with any of this for 3 months, hallelujah." 

Now, I am just days away from having to deal with it.

I'm less worried about dealing with all of that and more worried about FINDING A PLACE TO LIVE!
I realize that I don't have to decide RIGHT now, and I also realize that we will find a place to rent but it is tricky, let me tell you why:

1) Savannah is not necessarily a safe place and even though  I ain't never scared, I still would like to live somewhere relatively safe, since my dog is useless as far as protection goes, and really, who wants to live somewhere they might get shot up? Anyway, it's really hard to determine where is safe and where isn't safe when all you have to go off of is this crime rate map.


2) I've said it once, and I will say it again, my husband is a diva. I found this super cute (old, but still really fun) house that has a fire place, a garage, 3 bedrooms, a washer and dryer, a separate dining room, and a big screen porch. And on top of all that it was cheaper than any one bedroom apartment we've found (that ISN'T in the Ghetto) Here are some pics:

Okay, so yeah it's a little ghetto right? But still, it's cute. I like it. But Taylor was trying to act like it's not good enough for him. It might have been cause I was PMSing but I thought I was going to go all Wayne Brady and choke him out. Doesn't he know that I am a woman and I can make anything awesome? Anyway, moving on.

3) We don't want to rent an apartment, I understand that beggars can't be choosers and we are definitely beggars right now. However, usually with houses you have privacy, and they are the same price if not cheaper than smaller apartments. I also understand that we don't necessarily need a bunch of bedrooms. Sue me if I want to have a craft room and a place to put Taylor's computer without it being in our bedroom.  Also, if we have enough space we won't need a storage unit.  On top of all the that, I always want to have a guest bedroom, because I want people to come visit me all the time, and I feel like since I will be super close to the beach, that will lure them all in. Anyway, so the problem is not that we can't find a house to rent, but that we would ideally like a lease that is not a year long (just because Taylor hasn't passed is "trial period" at work yet) and most house rentals require at least a year (that we've found so far.)

So what is a young married couple to do? I don't want to temporarily move into a tiny apartment because I JUST WANT TO STAY PUT SOMEWHERE FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD. I hate moving. But you wanna know what I hate more than moving? I hate living somewhere knowing it's only temporary for a couple months. Even though my best friend's beast of a sister-in-law once referred to me as "UNSTABLE", I am not, and I don't like feeling like our lifestyle is unstable either.

Normally, I would like to put this all aside and enjoy the time we have left, but I've been sick and stuck inside for 3 days, so I've only just had time to think and worry.

Don't feel bad for me though, I'm like the luckiest girl ever. I got a man who love me and 3 months of English vacation under my belt.

There's about two things left on our English agenda, Tomorrow, the Battle of Hastings reenactment and then my most favorite thing...

CITY AND COLOUR CONCERT IN LONDON ON WEDNESDAY.
I can't really describe to you how stoked I am to go to this concert, not just because I love LOOOOOVE City and Colour, but because I get to go to a show in LONDON,

EAT YOUR HEART OUT HIPSTERS!

and now, I shall leave you with a video of City and Colour so if you aren't jealous yet, you can be.

booya.