Three: Birthday Edition part 2

Last Friday night Ryan and I went to dinner with my entire family to celebrate my aunt and I's birthdays and then they all came over to see our new place, eat cake and open presents. It was great catching up with all of them because I haven't seen everyone together in a couple months. On Sunday, my actual birthday Ryan's family came over from Daytona for a quick afternoon lunch near the water. Last weekend I felt like I was on vacation again. Ryan and I had 2 full days off together (which is veryyyyy rare) so we got a lot done around the new place which is nice so we can relax during the week after work.

I can't believe that tomorrow will be the same month as our 1 year anniversary! We have done so much in a year and have decided to go to.....Orlando for our anniversary. Haha, Orlando right? Well, we haven't been there in over a year and we miss our friends :/ We figured we got married with everyone we might as well celebrate with everyone too!! So if you wanna hang out while we're in town let one of us know!

I had 3 different kinds of cake in a matter of 2 days. (Ryan insisted on this being taken.)

In LOVE with my new phone case, a present from myself. 

I'm 24 now....eeeeek.

House tour: part 1

I thought I'd show off the new place throughout multiple posts; mainly because there are still some rooms that we're not completely done organizing/decorating. I forget that we live in an apartment complex sometimes until I hear the person running a marathon above us, or until we walk out and there's people everywhere walking their dogs. It feels more like a hotel with all these amenities that we have. Also, having the bathroom sink separate from the shower makes it really feel like a hotel. It's all good because that alone has cut down on how long it takes us to get out the door.

The sink outside the shower.

I put all the necklaces and bracelets that I don't wear that often in a mason jar to show them off.

All my perfume is neatly displayed in a nice basket.

There's nothing special about this except that I found that basket at a thrift store for  9 cents. They should have just given it to me!

Our lovely king size bed.

As you can see we don't have that much extra space so we put the TV on top of a bookshelf  instead of a dresser.

I think Ryan needs more books. lol.

We are going to tackle the walk in closet this week. (we're still kinda sorta living out of suitcases and boxes) 

I've never had a room so bare before, but I kind of like the simplicity of it. 

Three: Birthday Edition

Since my birthday is on Sunday I thought it would be fun to show some of the celebration pics throughout the most recent years. Growing up I was always the youngest of the class and my birthday always fell during the first week of school (one year it was the first day of school!), it was something that I just got used to. Now being older the end of August just rolls around like any other month. I can't believe I will be 24! Where has the time gone? 

19 years old with Faith my little cousin who just started high school (wait, now I feel reallllly old.)

20 years old. My cousin Madison and I are 1 year and 2 days apart. This was the first year we were able to celebrate together. 

21 years old with my first legal drink!!!!

August Birchbox Review

I'm not going to lie, this box I got a little impatient with this box and accidentally found out what was going to be inside before I got it in the mail. I was checking on the status to see if it shipped or not and on that same page it had the list of things that were going to be in it. I love the surprise factor of not knowing so I was a little bummed when I found out. But after trying the products I got over it.

August box. "Beauty School theme"

What is in the box.

Volumizing hair spray that works great with letting your hair air dry.

Sample of Juicy perfume. Love the smell but it doesn't stay on me for long.

Tinted moisturizer. It has sunscreen in it but it doesn't feel greasy after applying it.

Face wash that has made my skin really soft at night. This is also a full size bottle worth over $30!

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade

I don't think I need to explain ourselves and the decisions we've made about renting an apartment but with all this hype I've made about buying a house and it being cheaper than renting maybe I just need to explain how stressful and overwhelming becoming a homeowner is. You see, our mortgage would have been around $200 but when you add flood insurance, house insurance, taxes, electric, garbage, internet, cable and bills that have absolutley nothing to do with a house it all adds up very fast and it costs even more than rent would each month! (In the end after putting everything out on paper and what we would need to buy a house we realized we mentally are not ready for this. We would have no money left and not be able to live a life, we would go through our savings in no time fixing up a house.)

I think it hit me when Ryan's parents asked me how much each one of those things were to cost each month and I had never even heard of some of them. (All I kept seeing was dollar signs.)

Our budget was very small to begin with (we were only putting the mortgage in my name because Ryan has student loans and that would count against us.) It was so small that we had to compromise with the location of a house which would have been Holiday/New Port Richey and if you know the area then you know that's not the most happening part of town. Every time we went over the boarder to Pasco County I just got this pit in my stomach thinking that "I've never once thought I wanted to live here."

With all that said we've made the decision to rent. (Yes it will be expensive to get everything started but we won't be living paycheck to paycheck.) In that process we will save up some more money, start paying off Ryan's student loans all in hope of finding the right house in the right location in a year or 2. We both agreed that we thought we had to buy a house because it was the next thing you do in life after you get married, but that is certainly not the case.

Our new place is in Palm Harbor in the most central location of all, right off of 19 (this is just about where we wanted to be all along!) It's just a 1/1 but the living room is very spacious and it even has a fireplace. We're on the first floor (perfect for Gizmo and Barney) and only a few steps away from the pool and clubhouse that has a gym, workout class room and even a sauna. As soon as we drove onto the property we fell in love with the surroundings, everything is covered by trees and it is very very quite (at least it was on a Monday afternoon.)

living room

kitchen and hallway

living room and dining area

kitchen

living room and front door

hallway

huge laundry room

sink outside of the bathroom

bathroom

master bedroom

hugeeeeee walk in closet

fireplace

front door and porch 

outside of our building

my dad and I already put up shades to block the sun

Three

After making the decision to rent I have been pretty stress free this week (as much as I can be at least.) Knowing that we will be getting the keys to our new place tomorrow tells me that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. This week has gone by pretty fast. Ryan and I don't see each other that often, I work during the day and he usually works at night so when we have an afternoon off together we get a lot more done.

Monday we toured an apartment complex and decided on the spot we were going to sign the lease, they told us we could get the keys on Saturday, SOLD we said! I finally finished the 2nd book, 50 Shades Darker sometime in the beginning of the week (I have a lot of free time on my hands at work.) Wednesday Ryan and I spent 5 hours looking, measuring and picking out new things for the apartment. The model we looked at was not the one we will have so we really don't know what to expect, size wise. The only major piece of furniture we bought was a king size bed! 

A king bed is a pretty big deal to us. After Bamboozle 3 years ago in NJ we stayed at a hotel and slept in a king size bed for the first time, our lives were changed. Ever since then we've both agreed that when we have our own place one day and can afford a nice bed it will be king sized. So after 3 years of waiting the time has come!

The location of our complex.

I personally liked the first one better, it took me longer to read this one.

I took this as soon as we parked, when we left it was dark!

Sunday Funday

Every other weekend I have 3 days off (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) sometimes it feels like a vacation and other times it drags on. This past Sunday felt like a vacation day! Ryan and I finally had the same day off and we took full advantage of it. We went to John's Pass and Maderia Beach. Neither of us had been there before so it was neat exploring the area, even though all the shops are the same in every beach tourist town. It wasn't that bad of a drive and the beach wasn't packed with tourists so that was nice.

"Over the shoulder shot" -Ryan

People anchored their boats and had a party...at least that's what it looked like.

Free wine samples. 

Maderia Beach, FL.

It's always 5:00 when you're at the beach.

Pirate ship.

Three

This past week has been yet another stressful one dealing with the house inspection (it went great, except the one concern we thought we had is now OK and the inspector has had us thinking of a different one.) Sometimes I think it would be easier to just give up and rent somewhere but that's just not an option for us, financially. We are constantly reassuring ourselves that we can do this even though we have absolutely no idea what we are doing! Thank goodness for our parents, my grandma, my aunt, our realtor and even the inspector for all of their help. It makes everything a lot easier having people to talk to who went through this same exact thing.

I'm still feeling great from the hot yoga Allison and I did last night. I don't like yoga but I really pushed myself though the 75 minute class in a room that was over 100 degrees. It was exactly what I needed to get away from the world for a while and not have to think about anything!

With that said lets reflect back on some things that happened this past week....

Turquoise and caicos is the perfect summer color for nails.

Ryan came home with a seafood medley. There's squid, clams, octopus, shrimp, and sausage.

My friend and I at work got this genius idea (from Pinterest of course) to decorate coffee cups that refer to the book 50 Shades of Grey. Dollar store cup, sharpie then bake at 350 for 20 minutes. 

Three (and a little more on the house)

Quick update on the house: our inspection is tomorrow then we will have a couple days to really decide if this is the house for us (if the inspector finds anything major.) Then all the papers are do to the realtor, bank and title company (I'm probably missing some, this is a long process.) I'm positive that this is the right move for us. I've learned that even though buying a house is a long and expensive process in the beginning, it is cheaper in the end because rent in this area with 2 dogs is right under $1000 BEFORE bills. Our mortgage is going to be less than half of that! (That's what I'm excited about!)

Since I was just a little excited about our offer being accepted I did not do my usual "three" post on Friday. I just wanted to share a couple of things that happened last week in the life of Shannon and Ryan.

I started and finished 50 Shades of Grey in 5 days! I'm not much of a reader but I was reading over 100 pages a day for a couple days last week.



I've already made note of what we absolutly need I think we need to get at Ikea.



Last Saturday Ryan and I had a much needed date night that ended at Wet Willies at Channelside in Tampa.