Thoughts on House Hunting

Do you know what's stressful? House hunting is stressful. Yea, sure, it's fun. Or, at least parts of it are fun, but as it continues it becomes stressful. A month and a half into our hunt and we have driven countless miles, lost track of how many houses we have seen, and put in four offers to be back at square one. 

When we put our house on the market we loved the fact that the market was so hot. It meant fourteen showings in three days and multiple offers. We were riding high! Now, on the other side of coin, we are drained. We have seen houses in immaculate condition and houses that are falling apart. We have been to the top of our price range and to the bottom. We have waited outside houses to go in (because so many others are there) and have been some of the first. It's exhausting, but has taught us a lot. A few things we have learned:

pictures can do wonders

There are some really good photographers out there who can make a rough house looks amazing. Unfortunately for them pictures can only take you so far. . .

asking price just won't cut it

In this market you better be prepared to go above and beyond asking if you really want a house. 

not all realtors are equal

Our realtor is AMAZING. She has been so helpful and has truly gone above and beyond. If it weren't for her I'm pretty sure I would have lost it already.

the TV shows are not realistic
"Reality" is definitely not what those "reality" house hunting TV shows are. There are WAY more than three houses to see and usually takes more than one day to see them all and make a decision.

we are very fortunate
We are so fortunate to be able to go on this crazy/fun adventure!

Settling In

Happy Monday from Raleigh! We are officially here and as unpacked as we're going to be for now. It's been a bit of a whirlwind week so I'll do my best to fill y'all in quickly. . .

Monday

The fabulous packers arrived and refused to let me help do anything. I begged and pleaded but they told me just to hang out. So, I did.

 Hey, they told me to relax. . .

Tuesday

Much the same except this time they were loading up the truck. Imagine the biggest 18-wheeler you've ever seen-that's what they packed our junk in. I picked Amelia Grace from my parent's house in Winston and we hit the road to Raleigh!

Adios, Ravenscroft Lane. . .  thanks for the memories!

Wednesday

The movers arrive (by this point we were BFF's) and start cramming 2600 square feet worth of stuff into 1100 square feet. We chose to go with an apartment for the time being while we get a feel for the area and housing market. Things go like CRAZY around here (I looked at a house in Cary the day it went on the market and less than 24 hours later it was under contract!) and we wanted some time to find the perfect house for our family. I also snuck away from the unloading for a bit to go see a few houses. 

We have an entire room devoted to stuff that won't fit elsewhere. . . I think we need to re-read Seven and do some more purging!

Thursday

Amelia Grace and I were officially residents of Raleigh so obviously we had to find the closest Target. I also took the time to unpack the NINE boxes it took to pack up our kitchen. This was also the day AG decided to spike a 102 fever and introduce us to the local urgent care. The good news is I think we found a great doctor for us to visit!

Friday

Breathe. 

With David's new job he is working four, ten-hour days so he is home on Fridays with us! We took the time to explore the area a little bit.

Here, Dad, let me help you with that beer

*No, we did not let her sip of the beer!*

Nachos and beer-I'm in heaven.

Saturday

We hit up our first two Raleigh breweries with some of our sweet friends! David actually went to high school with Christine and Ashley and I lived with each of them at different times. Can't wait to continue our Raleigh brew tour with them!

Sunday

David woke up feeling super icky so he laid low most of the day, but I got a chance to visit a satellite campus of Vintage and loved it! It reminded me a lot of our church in Charlotte, Hope Church. Amelia Grace and I also hit up the gym (more on that later) where I participated in my first hot yoga class. Needless to say I'm hooked!

As you can tell, things have been kind of crazy in our world. We're trying to figure out our new normal and find a groove that works best for us. We're praying big prayers for what God has in store for us here and where he wants it to happen. I'm really hoping his plan doesn't include us staying in this apartment long-term, though i think AG is digging all the new things to explore ;-)

Movin' On Out

No, we're not sending Amelia Grace to Raleigh on her own though I'm sure she would love the adventure. It is with excitement that we announce our family is moving to Raleigh to start a new chapter in our lives!

As most of you know, David and I met and fell in love in our great capital city, so it has always held a special place in our hearts. When David was offered a job here in Charlotte before he even graduated college we leapt at the chance to start our adult lives and didn't even think twice about leaving Raleigh behind. It didn't take us long to realize how much we missed the city and our church there. 

Fast forward a few years and our hearts were feeling restless. We knew something wasn't right so David began applying to jobs. Through God's infinite grace he was awarded an interview with Duke Energy for a coveted position. Over 800 people applied, 72 were interviewed, and 36 were offered jobs. David happened to be one of the lucky few! To sweeten the deal even more they offered him a promotion along with the job and a relocation package to help us with the process. Say what???? 

We began to notice God's favor through the whole process and felt ridiculously blessed. We decided to go to Raleigh that coming weekend to really get a feel for the city as potential residents and pray for our future there. If you know my husband you know that his brilliant engineer brain is always working in overdrive which often leads him to stress as he is usually thinking ten steps ahead of the rest of us. While we were there we both felt immense peace about the whole situation despite the fact that the housing market there is crazy stressful! And when we attended our old church (Vintage) on Sunday morning it was like we had never left despite being gone five years. 

 We've been praying for months about our future and what that could look like and we are over the moon to see God working in big ways! We are sad to leave behind our friends, family, and home here but couldn't be more excited about the new adventure God has laid out before us. Please continue to join us in prayer as we know this won't come without its challenges. 

Weekend Visits

This past weekend we ventured up the road to Raleigh to visit with some friends and introduce Amelia Grace to one of our favorite cities. 

This being our first time taking her with us longer than an hour away we planned to follow thru with the regular bedtime routine and then pop her in the car so she could sleep on the way there. Well, she was so excited NOT to be getting in her crib she did her little "dance party" routine (picture arms and legs going crazy as fast as she can make them go) for the first 15 minutes we were in the car. She eventually settled down and dozed on and off. She was a trooper and settled in pretty well once we got there-whoooooo!

Friday morning we wandered around town in betweens naps and showed her some of our favorite places. That evening we regrouped with our friends for a fabulous supper at a local Mexican restaurant. 

Saturday included more wandering and the opportunity for our fabulous hosts, Steve and Caroline, to babysit a bit. Hopefully she didn't scare them off of wanting their own kiddos;-)

That afternoon we hit up the Blues and Cue Festival in downtown Raleigh where we enjoyed delicious local brews, fantastic BBQ, and awesome Blues. Aside from the cuckoo amount of people when we first got there, it was a lot of fun. And Amelia Grace is definitely a Carolina girl who loved her first taste of Blues music and BBQ. 

Sunday morning found us back at our old church, Vintage. They have since moved locations, but other than that it was like we had never left! 

While we didn't get to visit as many people as we would have liked there will be plenty of time for that later. Until then we will remember this stellar weekend and look forward to the next!

The fam minus Daisy. 

Kisses from Auntie Caroline. 

David was rocking it. 

 You have a baby. In a bar.

AG loves Bark Boxes just as much as the dogs do!

Weekend Fun

Happy Monday, folks! If you're anything like us you did not want the weekend to end. We were fortunate enough to witness two of our greatest friends get married in one of the greatest cities this weekend and after the fun party they threw it was hard to come back to reality! Sweet baby snuggles certainly make it better though;-)

We have known the lovely Caroline and Steve since our college days and each were lucky enough to live with these cool kids for some time. Caroline and I lived together for one year but Steve and David lived together for three! You may even remember them from our Spring Break Cruise a few years ago? You know you're good friends when you can not only live with them, but still want to go on vacation with them afterwards! Haha. I think it's safe to say we know these kids pretty well and were excited to celebrate this amazing day with them! 

Caroline thought through every little detail and it showed at the venue. The centerpieces and wall decor were beautiful as was the bride! In fact one of her bridal portraits will officially be an ad in a magazine for the photographer! Fun fact-their photographer, Amaris, was our wedding photographer as well and she did our FANTASTIC newborn pictures last month. More to come on that later this week! 

If you know these two in any capacity you know that they like to have fun and what better way to have fun than to throw a great party?? After supper (which included asparagus-my fave!) we hit the dance floor and didn't really leave. My husband LOVES dancing at weddings and would make a career out of it if he could. In fact, a good chunk of the pictures from my sister's wedding are of him breaking it down. Steve and Caroline's big day was no exception!

We had a great time and can't wait to see these two cuties in a few weeks when David and Steve continue their tradition of completing the Tough Mudder. This year they'll be adding my brother, TJ, to the team. Should be fun times for all!

Friday's Letters [10.18]

Happy Friday, folks!

Dear Raleigh, We're coming for ya! Even though our trip will be brief I'm still excited to see you for a bit and to celebrate Caroline and Steve's engagement!

Dear busy weeks, Whooooeeeee you sure do want to run me down, but I'm not going to let ya! Between all the school stuff and fun things we have planned for the weekends I'm beginning to think I'm going to need a personal assistant to keep it all together. Instead of fussing I'm going to make this the best few weeks of the year. So, there :P

Dear government, Welcome back from your vacay. Glad to see y'all were able to swallow your childish pride and find some way to work through the mess you've created. If you need help learning to resolve your conflicts I have some very mature 8th graders who'd love to show you how.



Dear full moon, I'm not going to let you scare me. I know the effect you typically have on my kids but I'm not letting you this time. We have too much to cover in a short amount of time so there is no room for your shenanigans! 

Raleighwood Visit

This past weekend found us venturing North on I-40 to Raleigh. One of our friends moved to Colorado, but was going to be in town this weekend. What a perfect excuse to visit him and a few other friends!

We arrived Friday evening before Scott's flight got in. We grabbed supper with Steve and Caroline before picking Scott up. It was so fun to catch up with them and see some of how the area has changed since graduation. We made grand plans to go downtown after picking up Scott, but that all flew out the window when around 10pm we decided we were tired and old. Caroline is a teacher too, so between the two of us we were able to convince the fellas it was more fun to stay in and hang out. We even made the wise choice to grab a cookie cake form Harris Teeter to nosh on;-)

The next morning we picked up David's brother, John, and headed to The Farmer's Market for breakfast. This place has pancakes the size of your head and omelets that are so stuffed with farm-fresh veggies you won't eat for days afterwards. We then meandered around the real farmer's market and picked up some veggies for the week. Love buying fresh and local!

Afterwards we headed over to explore the new Hunt Library on Centennial Campus. Sounds lame, right? Wrong. This place is amazing! For starters there is a way for a robot to retrieve any book you need. How cool is that? Also, it is incredibly unique in its design. Floor after floor caters to thinking and productivity with group centers, work spaces, well-designed furniture-the list goes on! Needless to say, if we lived close that is exactly where I would get all my schoolwork done.

After dropping John off at his dorm we drove through campus and years of memories came back!

That evening we headed out to watch the State vs. Carolina basketball game. My little, Amy, was able to join us in the festivities! If only NC State had no played their usual ridiculous way and lost it would have been a perfect evening. It was still fun, but that W would have been even better!

It was an amazing weekend, and I'm so glad we were able to make the trip. Looking forward to when they can all come visit us!

Friday's Letters [10.05]

Hip hip HOORAY for Friday!

Dear iPhone 5, Why are you still not here?? Do you know how frustrating it is to log into AT&T and see "pending shipment" day after day?? It was promised that you would arrive within 24-48 hours and not only are you not here after a week, but you haven't even shipped! Hurry up, please?!

Dear pumpkin flavor, Thank you oh so very much for showing up in just about every thing. I love you in my coffee and in my cookies. I adore you in my pop tarts and on my biscuits. Just keep on doin' your thang.

Dear NC State, Want to share what's going on? I mean honestly, fellas. This continuing to play pee wee football against the big boys is just pathetic. How about stepping up your game for FSU this weekend? Your fans would greatly appreciate the effort!

Dear Raleighwood, We're coming!! Please prepare accordingly:-)

A Wolfpack Win!

Happy Monday, folks! I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but it is dreadfully dreary here in North Cackalacki. Instead of dwelling on the details of yucky weather I'm going to reminiscence about our fabulous trip to Raleigh for a Wolfpack win!

We had grand intentions of rising bright and early on Saturday morning and accomplishing things around the house before we left for the game. I should put a large emphasis on "intentions" because our lazy bums slept in until 9:15! That is unheard of in the Mobley household, but was much needed after a long week that had both of us working late into the evening each day. When we finally did get out of bed we greeted the day with our usual Saturday breakfast of eggs and bacon before lounging around for a bit more.

When we finally did get our behinds in gear we set out for Raleighwood! It was a quick drive for me thanks to the nap I took between Winston-Salem and Mebane. I don't think David could say the same about the trip;-). We met his parents at their hotel and then we were off to tailgate! For those of you not familiar with football in the South, tailgating is half the experience. Getting out there hours early to sit, talk, drink, eat, play a few games, and just enjoy each other's company is what it's all about. We had quite the spread of food and were sure to pig out on ALL of it before entering the game for kickoff.

 Go Pack!

The Wolfpack dominated from the 6:00 kick-off until the bitter end! The final score was 31-7, with South Alabama scoring those 7 points at the end of the 4th Quarter when our second-string quarterback came in. It was a bit of a blow out, but fun for us fans! We ended up leaving halfway through the 4th Quarter thanks to a nasty headache coming on, but we were able to beat a lot of the traffic back. My sweet husband then loaded up on coffee and we hit the road again. As soon as he hit cruise control I was out like a light. Seems like I owe him quite a few turns at driving. . .

It was a great day had by all and we are excited to head back to Raleigh to cheer on the Wolfpack again!

Friday's Letters [09.14]

It's another fabulous Friday to link up with Adventures of Newlyweds!

Dear Friday, Thank you for finally arriving. For whatever reason this week just crept by and I was convinced you were never arriving. I do appreciate your appearance and hope you stick around a while.

Dear caffeine, It's not you, it's me. Our love affair has gone too long and I really think it is time to nip it in the bud. Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate all that you have done for me through the years, but I think it's time to part ways. Please don't be mad.

Dear Raleighwood, Are you ready?? We will be arriving in time to see NC State (hopefully) whoop up on some South Alabama booty! Can't wait to be back again!

Dear Davido, Thank you for picking up my slack at home this week when my schedule hasn't really allowed me much time to be a wife. I promise I will jump back into the swing of things next week! Can't wait for date night tonight. . . that is if we can ever make a decision about where to eat!

Dear Triplets, Happy (almost) Birthday! Congrats on making it through your teen years and into your twenties!

Fun With Friends

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.

-Elbert Hubbard

A few weeks ago I posted about attending my sweet friend Kelsey's wedding in Raleigh and what a great time we all had there. Since our graduation and move to the Charlotte area we haven't gotten much of a chance to see them, so any time we do we make the most of it! So you can imagine my excitement when she texted me to let me know they would making a trip to IKEA and wanted to stop by for a visit!

They came bearing gifts for the pup and flowers and food for us-talk about great friends! We headed to the pool for a few hours before the precious newlyweds insisted on cooking supper for us. I mean honestly, how awesome is that?! And boy were we hungry after swimming around and heading down the water slides a few times. That's right, folks, water slides. A bunch of adults flying down water slides? You bet! Every adult swim we would scurry over there to beat the other adults:-) A few pictures from our stellar afternoon:

Then we headed back to the house for a fabulous summer meal. They made us homemade burgers with bacon and barbeque sauce-nom nom nom. We also feasted on salad and grilled corn. We wrapped up the meal with homemade Nutella Brownies warmed up with vanilla ice cream. Needless to say we were all pleasantly full following supper!

It was a wonderful afternoon/evening spent relaxing and catching up with friends. I cannot wait to have many more of these times once summer officially begins!

Wedding Season

Happy Tuesday, folks! I apologize for my absence. This is a cuh-ray-zeeeee time at school. To be honest my postings will likely be very sporadic until the end of the school year. Before I disappear into total end-of-year oblivion I did want to recap my sweet friend Kelsey's wedding!

Kelsey and I met before school even started our freshman year of college and we became very fast friends. Three years of living together, many frogs, and a few major changes (by both of us!) she finally found her prince charming. David and I couldn't be happier for Kels after seeing her hurt by so many jerks. It's like Kelsey and Casey were meant to find each other, they just had to find each other on God's timing and not their own.

We swung by my brother's apartment and picked him and his precious girlfriend, Megan, up when we reached Raleigh. We headed to an older chapel downtown for the sweet ceremony. Casey's dad officiating the ceremony made it even better with his stories and jokes about the both of them. We then headed to a hotel (also downtown) for the reception. It was here that we got to see some of our old friends from college and make a few new ones!

It may have only been two years since we graduated (is that real life?!) but when you go from spending a ridiculously awesome amount of time with people to almost nothing, two years can seem like a lifetime! A glimpse at our evening:

Mr. and Mrs. Mallett's first dance!

Yes, the groom's cake is representing both NC State and Tennessee

My husband, the dance machine.

What a neat way to ride off into the sunset!

With my husband of nearly two years (eek!)