Daylight

"... It's just a season thing. It's just this thing that seasons do. And that's the way this wheel keeps working now." Wheel, John Mayer

I'm so thankful for Daylight Saving Time. I know a lot of people complain about the lost hour of sleep and the adjustment in general, and I'll admit waking up in pitch black this morning threw me for a bit of a loop, BUT the fact that there was sunshine when I left work and when I got home trumps all of that!

I needed this time change bad. I don't think I ever fully adjusted when Daylight Saving Time ended last year... The fact that days were getting longer was already lifting my spirits. There's just a certain lazy inducing factor when you come home in the dark.

But when there's daylight? There's still so much that can be done in the day! I'm not saying the lack of daylight is what was keeping me from running a marathon or doing a slew of other athletic things, BUT it puts you in this homebody mentality (am I right?) And I love being a homebody as much as the next person. But for everything there is a season. And I am oh so thankful that there are seasons, both in life and in nature. It's so refreshing for mind, body and soul. Truly.

The extra daylight makes me excited for many reasons, namely:

• longer walks with our pup
• bike rides
• drinks and dinner al fresco
• maintaining my sanity in traffic (I think daylight helps with that...)
• the simple psychology that the day does not end when work does

Enjoy the daylight everyone! This girl sure is.

Pretty unrelated, but extra daylight makes me want to be outside more ... and bring the outdoors in! These succulents are adding some new life to our bathroom window.

Blue Monday

Apparently today is Blue Monday - "the most depressing day of the year." This is based on some pretty scientific things like:

• Twitter posts from the past 3 years
• People having to go back to work after the holiday break
• The reality of holiday expenses showing up on your bills
• New years resolutions already failing

Ok, so it's not scientific at all;) And the only reason I know it's Blue Monday is because I'm at home watching The Today Show. That's right - HOME! No Blue Monday for this girl - my office is closed today because of the foot of snow that fell this weekend (and it's frigid!). And it couldn't come at a more perfect time. 

Because this weekend we added four adorable paws to our little family. Meet Clover Klamm, a 1 1/2 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever mix that we adopted from Petsmart on Saturday.

I think hers is a story of God's sweet, perfect timing. You see, we saw Clover at Petsmart back in October before we moved to our new, pet-friendly home. We saw her, she was adorable and we resisted (because we had to). Since then, we'd been back to Petsmart a handful of times and she was no longer there. We weren't seriously searching during this time though because we had just moved and the holidays were approaching which meant traveling and a lot of non-routine events for a new dog. We had our heart set on a lab/retriever mix of some sort, stalking a golden rescue organization on Facebook and getting used to the idea of starting our true adoption search at the end of January when Jonathan got back from a weeklong trade show in Las Vegas. In the meantime, we began nesting, ordering a crate, a cover for the trunk in Jonathan's new Pilot and even a DropCam (aka Puppy Cam) for us to keep our eyes on the pup when we're at work. We joked that we were crazy parents already and getting all these things prematurely. Then Saturday happened.

Mind you, this weekend the city of St. Louis was preparing for Snowmaggedon. Bread shelves were going bare at grocery stores. People were stocking up on shovels and salt. End of the world type stuff. No better time to peek into Petsmart adoption day, right? We pulled up to the parking lot and it was uncharacteristically chaotic. Again: people were preparing for the end of the world (which I guess means Target and Trader Joes for everyone). We drove around, no parking spots to be found, I said it's not worth it, let's just go home. Jonathan said go take a peek, I'll take a lap and come get you. I walked in and crate numero 1 held a familiar chocolate brown retriever baby. Clover. She had been returned a month ago. I rang Jonathan and I think at that point he already knew we weren't leaving that store empty handed.

She didn't mind the snow one bit before the temperatures got so frigid. 

Clover was adopted and returned twice. Her info sheet said she was high energy and got into everything. Red flags to most people, I suppose, but then again people who adopt a dog pre-snowmageddon are not your ordinary folks ;) She was mellow as could be in her crate so we took her out as her foster mom told us more about her. How she LOVES to play fetch, which we quickly learned. That she's great with people, dogs and cats. She just needs some consistency, a routine and to know what's expected of her. And a young couple to keep her active. Okay. Where do we sign. 

And that was it. We became a little family of three strolling through Petsmart, saying to each other, "We just did that. What are we doing?" buying all the other things we hadn't nested with yet (leash, collar, food, dog bowls, toys, treats -- dogs need lots of things!) I can't begin to imagine the process of preparing for and having a baby.

We got in some good play time in our backyard and a mile walk Saturday evening before we settled in and waited for the snow. She slept in her crate like a champ the first two nights and has only had two in house accidents so far (I'd like to see you try to potty in -7 degrees!). 

We love her. Every night the past few months we've said a little prayer that our future pup was somewhere safe and warm until we got her (we're just so silly...). Her timing, a little unorthodox (it's the dead of winter, Jonathan is traveling for work next week, I'm going home the following weekend), is a sweet reminder that our plans are small and timid compared to His.

Our First Place

Every couple remembers their first place. For some, it's a fixer upper they stay in for years. For others it's a tiny flat in an exciting city. Whatever the space, it's special and sacred.

For us it's been a condo in the charming historic Demun neighborhood in Clayton, Missouri. This is where we moved in the day after Thanksgiving last year, two weeks newlywed. It's where we decorated our first Christmas tree, hosted our first Easter, played game nights with friends, tried new recipes and created traditions. It's where I nested the first few months of marriage while I got acquainted with a new city and searched for jobs. Where we learned what it meant to be roomies, husband and wife, friends through thick and thin. Where we developed the Saturday morning tradition of breakfast at the original Kaldi's. Where Jonathan dreamed up leather goods and made them a reality. Where I spent late nights hunched over our kitchen table proofreading and being thankful that I have an outlet for my passions and creativity. It was a perfect first place, better than we could have asked for, so now that we're two weeks away from moving out, I'm left nostalgic and feeling bittersweet. And since I never did a proper house tour when we first settled in, I wanted to do one now.

Back door entrance

Master bedroom

Bathroom 1 

I would call this the second bedroom, but it's been much more than just that. As you can tell, it's our bike storage, our spare closet, an occasional guest bedroom and what eventually evolved into a leather/sewing workspace. We don't like to limit our rooms, you know.

Bathroom 2, and for the sake of keeping things real, 80% of the time this is what that bathroom looks like because in the spirit of not limiting our rooms, this was usually my air-drying room too.

Living room

Bar, leather storage, etc.

Reading nook (that was rarely a reading nook but that sounds like a nice description, right?)

Dining area

Kitchen 

If you'll notice, we have a golden retriever calendar but no dog. That, dear reader, is the foremost reason we're moving out of this great first place. We have dog fever, BAD. And perfect as this place has been, its biggest flaw is perhaps the fact that we could not have a dog. Flaw #2 was that we weren't allowed to paint the two random green walls. It's a good thing we like green. 

There you have it, our special first place. We'll miss the neighborhood, the cozy open lay out and plenty of other things, but we're excited for Chapter 2. Coincidentally, we'll start our second year of marriage the day we're moved into our new place. I can't wait for all that year two will hold (read: we can't wait to get a dog!)

Thanks for stopping by!