Renters No More

In one week we'll be celebrating our first month in our first home. Or really our third home, but our first house (and the first we own!). But before we can celebrate our third (first), I want to give due attention to our second place. We only lived there for seven months, but it held a lot of special times nonetheless.

Our second floor flat had a lot of natural light, which I loved. When we moved back in November, our first project was to paint the master bedroom that was formerly red. Not pictured is the second bedroom that often just sat empty and the study turned leatherwork room. This place had some great character, namely the built in bookshelves in the living room, awesome wall of windows and great archway leading to the dining room. The kitchen was bigger than our first place and offered a lot more cabinet space. All in all it was a great home.

We had planned to rent this place for a year and a half, so the seven months that we ended up staying sound a little crazy now. But life's funny that way:) Anyway, the short time that we were there held some lovely moments:

• We celebrated our first anniversary the first day we moved in
• Our second Christmas together was celebrated with a lovely tree in that window-filled living room
• We adopted Clover and enjoyed many a game of fetch in that backyard
• I enjoyed my first working girl snow day
• We hosted our first big dinner party of 10 guests
• Friends and family visited
• Mom helped me spruce up the front porch and grow my green thumb

Thanks for the short but sweet stay, Linden.

On Working Out

Today one of my coworkers mentioned that she was in dire need of coffee after waking up at 4:45 for a 5:30 cycling class. 4:45! 5:30! Mind boggling. Awe inspiring. Straight up unfathomable.

This illustrates a struggle I've been having for the past few months (well, if we're honest, the past year) - the notion of working out. You see, for a small period of time, late 2011-2012, I went to the gym fairly regularly and did Jillian Michaels workouts at home. I broke a sweat, I was sore, I got more comfortable lifting weights in front of that awkward mirror at the gym. I also had our wedding date in sight as a major motivator, and I lived at home so I was spoiled by the fact that my mom cooked dinner and had leftovers waiting for me whenever I got home.

When we got married and moved to St. Louis, while I job hunted I had no excuse not to keep up my work out routine, so I joined a gym and kept up with one or two workouts a week. Then I got a job and just as quickly I dropped my membership. I knew waking up early or going to the gym right after work just wasn't going to happen for me. I traded the expense of a gym membership for a subscription to Birchbox. Priorities. Fast forward a little over a year and not much has changed.

To those of you who maintain a steady workout routine, I applaud you.

To those of you who do so with a spouse and pets, hats off to you.

To those of you who do so with a spouse, pets and kids and get up at the crack of dawn in order to juggle ALL of those things ... I full on bow down to you. You're superhuman.

All of this is to say that it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. And maybe one day I'll join a gym again, I'm not ruling that out. But for now, I'm going to try to show myself a little grace and accept that my preferred form of exercise revolves around being around those I care about. Going on a bike ride with Jonathan. Taking long walks with our pup. So my baby step has been hitting the snooze button less during the week so I can take Clover on a long walk in the morning. She loves it, I love it and it's a peaceful way to start our mornings.

Plus, I'm convinced that holding back a dog that is ravenously trying to catch squirrel after squirrel is some yet-to-be-named arm workout.

Fly-over Country

Lately, St. Louis has felt less like a fly-over city and more like a stop-through town. I love it! In the past week, three friends from three different states have been through this city of ours.

Leigh Anne and Matt stopped in for less than 24 hours on their drive back from Wisconsin, but it was a fun-packed visit full of local eating at Pastaria and Half & Half and late-night catching up. Plus it's the first time we were all together since Jonathan and I got married - so that was bizarre/exciting! :)

Abby visited us the next weekend for what has become our annual March Abby visit - I really hope that's a tradition! Again we enjoyed some local eats at Dressel's Pub, Seoul Taco and brunch at Cucina Pazzo (lemon ricotta blueberry pancakes: you complete me), finally watched Frozen (Olaf! I love that singing snow man so much!) did some outlet mall shopping, and visited Bowood Farms so Jonathan could start a bonsai tree and I could try my hand at keeping a new houseplant alive (we'll see how I do...).

This is a chocolate chip cookie stuffed pretzel. Yes, you read that right.

Mistletoe fig ficus, I'll try my best to keep you this green.

And then! Thanks to the NCAA games happening in St. Louis, Amanda, my oldest friend from elementary school, was in town on Sunday to cheer on her UK Wildcats. So we got dinner at Pi after! Quick catch up, but oh so dear considering I saw her last at my wedding and before that it had been six years.

Moral of the story: St. Louis is the BEST place to reunite so come on through - plus we have delicious food to share with you!