Life is short make it count. #11

Since the last time I posted an update, we've had two major storms roll through our area...one is actually going on right now. Good thing I'm already in the basement! :) The last one cut off our power for over 12 hours, thankfully my cousin has a generator so we hooked up the fridge. One of the major highways going through Atlanta also burned and collapsed...so that's fun. Both sizes of highway 85 are shut down for months. It should make for a fun trip to the airport the three times I have to go there this month! The good news is no one was injured, which blows my mind as it happened around 6:15 PM, rush hour traffic in Atlanta.

Not much has changed with us, we are still waiting on our closing date of April 14th for our new house. I faced my fears and went to a different gym closer to my cousin's house. I HATE going to new gyms, especially alone, but was happy when I got there and I was only the 3rd person working out. We also bought season passes to Six Flags so we went there on Sunday. It reminded me of being a kid, I used to go all the time. Ohhhhh and I got my hair cut...or I should say trimmed since it doesn't look much different, for the first time since August. :) I suck at selfies and I'm not sure why I decided to wear black and my hair is basically black...you could tell better with the picture on my phone but my hair is basically to my butt. It grows SO FAST. I think it has a lot to do with nutrition, quality supplements, and not drying it every day or using a lot of heat on it.

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I've been to the gym a few days each week but prefer to just go hike. I'm loving the new trails I've found...even if the pollen count has been outrageous lately! Want to go swim with some pollen?!

And just because it's cute...I don't think that Rambo hates it here...

Alright, so I told you I would share more about what we are eating and how we grocery shop now that we aren't living in our own home. I keep meaning to take pictures of our <much smaller> grocery store shopping trips and I don't ever remember until after I've put everything away. :)

P.S. Visit this link for our shopping lists and this link for ways to save money grocery shopping.

Before we moved out, we tried to use up everything that we had and limit our grocery shopping. We did a pretty good job but still had to bring a lot of stuff over. We do have a small fridge in the basement with us too so that helps. Instead of the large Costco trips we used to make and stocking up on chicken and other items when on sale, I've been going to the store more often in order to avoid taking up too much space.

When we first moved in we went and bought some items that we don't eat very often but still enjoy like Amy's frozen burritos, Van's frozen waffles, and things of that sort. We have much more room in the freezer so this was an easy call for us to make. I'm not kidding you when I tell you that since the entire time we've lived in my cousin's basement we've eating salsa chicken and bison every week. We are those crazy people who actually prefer to eat the same thing butttttt when we are in our own home we do have a little bit more variety. This just allows us to keep it simple here. We do eat out more often than normal but get things like Whole Foods salad bar and Whole Foods sushi.

Every few days I will buy eggs, sweet potatoes, chicken, bison, and kale. Other items that we've been eating more frequently are things like protein bars and shakes. We also keep rice cakes, nut butter, hemp hearts, and other easy snacks. We have basically been eating like we do while we are on vacation. When we travel we always have food with us but don't have our own large kitchen so it has been similar to that experience. A little adjustment at first but overall it works!

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In other news, while all of this moving and temporary living is going on I've also been working on our taxes. I'm the kind of person who actually prefers to do it all at one time. We have an awesome CPA but I need to get everything organized for her. So, I'm trying to do our taxes out of moving boxes. We do have an extension but I want this off my mind ASAP!

As if moving and taxes are not enough I also had to renew my personal training certification. I'm hoping once we get moved in life will calm down a little but I don't see that happening until May! We will be in CA until Tues, AZ the next week, and Scott goes to NC while I go to Chicago the week after that!

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Until next week, have a good one! Let us know if you ever have any questions or comments! I've loved hearing from you about the updates! Click here to read all of our updates.

Life is short make it count. #10

I know that it has been awhile since our last update but I just couldn't handle even sharing anything...I was just trying to get through each day. So, what are we up to lately?! Let's see...we closed on our house Friday, March 10th, and had to be out by Sunday, March 12th, at 12 PM. Our emotions have been ALL OVER THE PLACE since then. I started writing this post last week and couldn't even finish a few sentences. I was in a really low place and had no idea what was going on in my life. I was sitting on the bathroom floor in the basement of my cousin's house with my cats and seriously questioning every decision we ever made. It was just a lot of shock and change all at one time. We sold our house, we didn't move to Montana (yes, all our decisions), we had to temporarily move in with family, we were stressed and tired from moving, and it was cold and rainy outside.

We slept on the floor (using whatever linens we still had laying around) of our old house on the night before we had to move out. We had already moved our mattress and sold our bedroom furniture. Surprising, it was actually pretty comfortable!

We had a contract in on another house but decided to back out after the inspection (we were still under our due diligence period). As I mentioned, we are temporarily living in my cousin's basement (thanks Greg and Teri!). While it's not the ideal situation we are very thankful to have family that is willing to give us a place to stay. We have our own bedroom and bathroom in the basement and share the kitchen with them upstairs. The cats have been my biggest concern. We have two cats and I'm just not comfortable yet letting them roam around, they have really only known our old house. I purchased a large cat condo (at least that's what I'm calling it for them!) and while I am gone I keep them in there and when I am home I let them out to explore. It seems to be working well and they are handling it much better than I expected! The house is on the lake so there's always a good view! The last few days I've been exploring trails around the lake (I usually post pictures on Snapchat (hesheeatclean) and Instagram!).

This whole entire process has just been really stressful, as any move is. I think that ours was even more so because for about half of the time our house was under contract we thought we were moving to Montana so we spent time looking at renting or buying property there. The whole idea was to sell our house and build our own or move to Montana. At this time, building a house seems like a disaster because we can't really find any buildable land where we want and the permit process for a house the size we want is a pain (and in some areas impossible). So we've been looking into other possibilities, all the way from townhomes to existing smaller homes. We were excited about our recent offer as it was a 1,200 square foot house on the lake (no dock!) but, after inspection, it came back to be more of a fixer upper than what we were looking for (and not at a fixer upper price!).

There is a community that we've always thought was great but never really knew they had smaller homes in it until a ranch was listed last week. Right after we backed out of the lake house, a home around 1,700 square feet showed up in my search and it was in this neighborhood (the house we were going to have to build would have been around 1,400)! We jumped on it and our closing date is April 14th (I hate to share stuff like this in fear of jinxing it but it's all part of the story so...). It's not quite as small as what we wanted to build but we will have room for foster kids this way. :) It's about 30% smaller than our last house square footage wise and about 98% smaller yard wise...which we love! Sounds crazy but we either wanted a lot of land or a very small piece of land. Our last home was on about 3/4 of an acre so if we were going to build something we were looking at 5+ acres. Eventually I do think we will end up with that but right now I truly believe this is where we are meant to be. We also had the opportunity to build in the same community but decided to go with the existing house because we absolutely love the location!

We talked about what we loved about the city we were going to move to in Montana and although we can't bring the mountains of Montana to Georgia, we can still live in the same type of community we were drawn to. Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee also have awesome mountains and activities too that we just take for granted. This community is very active, the neighborhood has huge hills (which I LOVE!!!), it is planned around a lake, it has pools and tennis courts, tons of green space, and activities. And get this, the name of the street we will live on is Big Sky Drive! I mean, seriously, how more perfect could it be?! Big Sky is a city in Montana that we love and would have been near if we moved! Our last house was nice (it was too large for us though) but there was NO sense of community at all.

As I briefly mentioned above, one thing that we have wanted to do for years (me since middle school!) is be foster parents. I was actually kind of sad that if we downsized too much we would not be able to foster but we can in this house! We are hoping to start that process towards the end of the year and starting fostering in 2018.

We didn't really workout for a week and our grocery shopping has been way off. Instead of stocking up like we normally do, I go to the grocery store every few days just so that we don't take up much room in their refrigerator. We are eating out a little more than normal but still try to limit that also. I'll do a separate post on the things we have been cooking and buying soon! Below is a picture I shared on Instagram of one of our meals at Diablos Southwest Grill. We basically order the same thing we do at Chipotle. You can read about our Chipotle order and hacks here!

We did hike Blood Mountain again on Sunday while we were contemplating our buying or building decision. It was definitely a different look from the last cold and foggy time we hiked it! P.S. I also shared this on Instagram, so if you aren't already, follow us there!

Until next week, have a good one! Let us know if you ever have any questions or comments! I've loved hearing from you about the updates! Click here to read all of our updates.

Life is short make it count. #9

* I was looking for a quote to share and although I'm not sure I 100% agree with the one above, it brings a little bit of peace just sharing it. :)

Well, where do I start?! It's interesting that I now do these weekly updates so you can see exactly how insane we are. Right?! Long story short, Scott received a job offer in MONTANA. At the first sound of that you might think that we were indeed crazy to not go. We LOVE Montana (you can tell by all of the trips we take out there!). It's the place I've wanted to live since I was a kid, before I even visited. It's the place we go to almost once a year for hiking and/or skiing. The decision weighed on our mind for days and caused many sleepless nights. It seemed like everything was lining up for us to say "yes". Things like the fact that our house was sold and we hadn't yet bought land or another house. However, it just wasn't the right opportunity for many reasons. We know we will eventually end up in Montana but we want to make sure the time is right, which means moving across the country for the right company or when we are ready to just move ourselves. We still question if we made the right decision, especially when we see pictures or hear something about Montana. I think that we would question the decision either way. As one of my friends said, you just have to make a decision and not look back.

We are still scheduled to close on our house on Friday and we have to be out by Sunday. We haven't even packed the first box. To be honest with you though, all the work we've done over the last three months to clear out clutter and things we never used is going to make this really easy. We have a three bedroom house (plus a bonus room) right now (we only use one bedroom) and all we have to pack up is our clothes, hiking gear, office supplies, and our food. We joke that we will have more boxes of food than anything else!

The original idea was to sell our house and build a small house near where we are now. However, we've found a few options around us that are already built so we may end up with one of those. We shall see. I'll keep you posted. ;-) In the meantime, we do have a few options for short term living arrangements either with my cousin or a friend so we shouldn't be homeless!

In the midst of all of this, I have to renew my personal training certification! I had my portion of the CPR training re-certification on Sunday so at least I got that out of the way! :-) Oh, and that government thing called taxes...yeah, not sure when that's going to get finished!

Did you see that I FINALLY posted the orange chicken recipe we've been making each week?! The base is what we use for the "copycat" Chick-Fil-A egg white grill. Here is the recipe!

I didn't even have time to take pictures last week but I did make a note of our food prep and grocery trips. We went all the way to Whole Foods (about 40 minutes away) to get sushi and their sushi maker was gone for the day and it was only 7 PM on Sunday!!!!!

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Workouts

I'm still using the Run Builder as a guide but adjusting as I see fit. I don't really run that often so I normally swap out incline training and sprints for straight runs.

• Monday: HIIT class (AM) + Back + 20 min easy cardio (treadmill)
• Tuesday: OFF + 3.6 mile walk
• Wednesday: 2 mile walk + Arms + 20 min incline cardio (treadmill)
• Thursday: Little bit of legs, shoulders & chest + 15 min easy cardio (treadmill)
• Friday: OFF + 2.2 mile walk
• Saturday: Piyo + 4 mile run/walk
• Sunday: OFF

Grocery Shopping

Visit this link for our shopping lists and this link for ways to save money grocery shopping.

Costco ($33.14):

• Organic Kale $8.98 (2 at $4.49)
• Cage Free Eggs $3.59
• Avocados $7.49
• Lemons $7.49
• Organic Tortillas $5.59

Publix #1 ($14.07):

• Ground Chicken Breasts $5.29
• Lindt 90% Dark Chocolate Bars $5.58 (2 at $2.79)
• Sweet Potatoes $2.79

Publix #2 ($11.74):

• Ezekiel Bread $4.99
• Sweet Potatoes $1.95
• Spring Water $1.74 (2 at $0.87)
• Unsweetened Almond Milk $2.70

Whole Foods ($22.32):

• Our Daily Red (wine) $16.99
• Grapefruit $3.43
• Oranges $0.59

Dining Out

• Whole Foods ($21.90) 2 salads

Food Prep

• Zesty Grilled Chicken
• Lean Mean Bison Burgers
• Zesty Grilled Onions
• Salsa Chicken

Until next week, have a good one! Let us know if you ever have any questions or comments! I've loved hearing from you about the updates! Click here to read all of our updates.