Hello Hello!

Hello there! Sorry I've been M.I.A. for so long but I never felt like updating on nothing :) Anyway, it's been quite a few months since I've blogged so I thought I'd give an update on how things have been going here!

Life is pretty 'ho hum' lately, in a good, calm, relaxing, 'finding ourselves' kind-of-way, but also in a boring, uneventful, waiting-for-things-to-happen kind-of-way. I have my ups and downs. I really like our life here and wouldn't change it, it's been a great experience so far, but I still feel like we're 'waiting' for things to happen. We're still trying to meet people and force ourselvse to have a social life (it's nonexistent!). And recently for the past few months, we've been trying to find a house.

The house hunt has been down right frustrating. We've done everything from expanding our search to more parts of town, stretching our budget (with no luck) and doing everything to try to find something. Now we're just going to sit back and wait to see what new listings come on the market. I feel like we'll know when it's 'the one' and that it'll all work out on it's own. So I'm trying to tell myself to stop thinking about it! It's not that I hate our apartment, I just hate the rent payment going nowhere every month!

Once we find a house, I'm hoping that'll help us to meet some people/neighbors. Or if we'd continue our church hunt, that would help too. I feel like right now we're stuck in some 'waiting' limbo, waiting to find a church, waiting to find a house, waiting to meet friends, etc. Ross & I are not very proactive in any of those areas, and I think we need to force ourselves to come out of our shells... eek!

Our jobs are going well. Ross is extremely busy at work and holding down the fort for the labor relations team this summer, thanks to some reorganizational changes. His schedule at work makes me reconsider buying another fixer-upper :) My job is going really well too. My dept. got a new manager last month so there's been some adjustments there. Now if only I could get used to my 7am-4pm work schedule, life would be good. Is it possible to reinvent myself as a morning person?!!  :)

As for the church hunt, so many people have given good suggestions about what churches to try, etc. but after about 10 churches we'd given up. I guess it's time to get back on that bandwagon with full force ahead! Of course, it would help if we knew what part of town we might settle down into one day :) Again...the waiting! I don't want to become attached to a church here then move 40 minutes away. Ack! Our house hunt has GOT to come to an end so we can figure out where to lay down some roots.

As for now, I'm looking forward to coming home in March for Michelle's baby shower and am very excited to be home for 4 days and being able to focus on visiting with just my friends and family. Xmas break was fun when Ross & I came home but was way too chaotic. Halfway through our stay we were burnt out, exhausted and didn't get to truly enjoy the time we had left in Pgh. So I'm happy to have some time to myself in March to spend in Pittsburgh. Ross is actually visiting Pgh next week (he has a seminar for work in Pgh) so he'll get to spend some time with his own family and friends. Unfortunately, it's so much easier when we visit Pgh by ourselves but at least we both agree it's easier :) haha And while he's gone next week, I'll be planning a few chick flick movie nights and junk food extravaganza. Call me excited!!

Talking about junk food though, Ross & I have finally started to do something about our unhealthy eating habits! Although we weren't ever truly horrible, we thought it was finally time to start working out and planning better dinners again. It feels great to finally be doing something about it and not just talking/whining about it. And we're not quitting this time. We've got an all-inclusive beach vaca to Punta Cana planned in May with our best friends staring us down! Bring it on Punta Cana....bring it on! When our friends asked us back in July if we'd be interested in going, we couldn't turn it down! We're justifying it as our 5-year anniversary gift to ourselves. 5 YEARS. Holy cow. When did that happen?!

So yes, our 'ho hum' life is going well. We have so much to be thankful for and lots of things to look forward to for this year. I have a feeling it will be a big year... new house? new friends? new church? Here's to hoping :)