An Exciting Picture Post

I forgot to tell you all about my big announcement: I got the job and start this Monday! I’m so excited I did a dry run by riding the bus to make sure I knew what stop I needed to get off at to walk to the lab yesterday! Hope you enjoy photos of the new place!

Living Room

Kitchen

Entry/Front Office

Guest Bath

Up the stairs…

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Back down some stairs to Nate’s art studio!

The walls in the studio are such that you can push pins or nails straight into the walls! Obviously he’s not set up and upacked as decorating and unloading our living stuff took first priority in our new space…

Do you like?

Oh Baby It’s Cold Outside + Sneak Peek!

I am a weirdo who is drinking smoothies in the dead of a cold front. Berry February anyone?

Chia+almond milk+frozen berry medley=delish!

Balancing it out with some warm, nourishing soups in my parents bowls from the 1970s no joke!

Here are a few teaser photos of the new place! Enjoy x

That’s some of Nate’s art on the wall by the way

I promise to post more photos soon! We are so close to being unboxed completely and done with hanging decorations. Definitely by this weekend! We have been loving the fact that Trader Joe’s is our closest grocer and Nate sampled some beef Pho from a nearby Vietnamese eatery and loved it!

Power up!

Good evening blogland! I’m trying so hard not to let these days get away from me but let me just say I am never bored! My days start early and end late and right now, I’m kinda liking it! Another week of this and I’ll probably crash but hey while I’m being productive a few things of interest.

1. Fuel perfection in the form of almond butter bites. I used Junia’s recipe here. I did not change a thing! They came out picture perfect, see…

2. The best part of moving into a sweet city place is that I get to be creative and live spend a couple days in Ikea. Girl needs to hydrate for a marathon of shopping Thumbs up!

3. After lifting heavy flat pack boxes all day, you need to take advantage of the Ikea cafe. The food is good I swear!

his: swedish meatballs with ligonberry sauce!

hers: gravlax on the cheap! i love the honey-dill-mustard sauce so tasty!

We walked away with some really great stuff today and need to go back again this weekend to pick up our new bed! Our subcompact was just a tad too small for it so when we rent the moving truck to get our final storage unit trip we’ll swing by Ikea and throw it in the back as well. See, I’m all about efficiency and on the cheap! I cannot wait to take photos of the place all decorated but I’m thinking I won’t be quite settled for maybe another 7-10days.

**Stay tuned, I have a big announcement coming up!**

1. Do you like Ikea?

2. Have you ever tried their cafe?

Apple-Coconut Muffins

Hi blogworld! Just popping in super quickly to share a recipe I tweaked from April over here. I know you’re probably like ‘what the heck is she doing baking instead of packing?!’ Well my friends, I’m using up inventory in the form of eggs/coconut flour so I have less perishable food to pack Smart and nourishing no? Yep, that’s my inner genius working right there.

Here are my tweaks since I kinda hate bananas (the smell just kills me and the texture of raw just grosses me out). I only use frozen nanners in smoothies. I used 180g unsweetened applesauce and 2 tsp coconut oil instead of the butter. These were so moist and delicious! Usually I struggle with the crumble factor in baked coconut duds but this was perfect! I paired one with nut butter and the other with my favorite blackberry preserves! Enjoy x Ok, back to packing!!

Head over to Hillary’s blog to enter to win some Barney Butter! Nom nom nom.

Life Changing News!

Prepare for text ahead! Quick recap: Many of you knew that I put my house on the market last summer and it did not sell. We took it down so we could enjoy the holidays without a parade of people trouncing through our house every night. Not to mention that I hated cleaning/making the bed every.single.day.

This year, Nate & I decided 2011 would be better than every year we’ve had so far. We listed the house again on Jan 4th. Friends, it sold in 6 days! There is however, a catch. We must move out by the end of this month!!! Yep, I gave my two weeks notice yesterday and we will be city bound! Our choice to leave the suburbs and head to the city was based on the fact that Nate’s design work required an urban environment for more opportunities to grow in his career. Also, we are young and disliked the lack of nightlife/fun the quiet of the suburbs provided. Lastly, we were just ready for a big change! We’re so excited and every day that passes feel like we are just going to burst!

I started applying for jobs on Sunday (48hrs ago) and have had 3 interviews offered to me already! Obviously, I cannot go through with these until I make the move at the end of the month but all of the employers are being flexible. I have 2 interviews the day after I move and 1 scheduled for the following day. Yay science! Biotech is rocking my socks right now I feel so confident that we are making the right decision in going ahead with the move. Getting list price and not paying a dime in closing costs sealed the deal and is worth the inconvenience of a quick move in my humble opinion! The housing market sucks right now so I am elated to get out! I am in some ways a restless creature so the responsibility/implications of home ownership left me feeling a bit trapped. I think we are both ready to rent an apartment now! It will be many years before we feel we are ready to settle down into a home again! While home ownership had its perks, it is NOT worth it in our situation (young & childless).

I hope you will continue to bear with The Delicate Place as the next couple weeks will be sporadic posting if at all! I know you understand! Home inspection was yesterday and an appraiser is coming out today. Things are moving at the speed of light up in hurrrr. Hopefully, I will  have more good news to report very soon. Cross your fingers for sweet, urban apartment digs! x M

Tornado

Apologies in advance bloggies. This is going to be a whirlwind post. To recap the last 36hrs…

-I hocked sold over $350 worth of stuff on eBay in preparation to move.

-I was a research animal subject for a physiology experiment that required me to get microneurography on the leg. I have some bruises and it wasn’t too painful but I did make $75!

-Everything I do at work seems like a blur right now and one day just slips into the next so quickly…kinda good/kinda bad

-I’ve been internalizing a lot of stress and it reared its ugly head in the form of a stomach ulcer which makes it 1)incredibly painful to eat or feel hunger 2)making me feel run down and not very energetic at all

-I scheduled a facial for this Friday to try to help me relax. Here’s a photo of me 1 month ago after my very first facial ever! I was so nervous but I was glowing afterwards. Check it out!

-The hubs is making some networking connections in our new city and it’s very exciting but I need to keep quiet for a while about that

-I am also seeing jobs that I know would fit me perfectly both moving forward in my research career but also in which I AM QUALIFIED YAY!

-We got our first call about our house today!! It went up for sale in the MLS listing a couple days ago (Friday) and someone is coming to do a tour of it tomorrow from 6:30-7:30pm. It worked out great because we have a dinner date with my FIL at one of our fave mexican eateries in town.

CROSS YOUR FINGERS!! Here’s a song I’ve been listening to a ton lately because it completely brings me peace. It’s called ‘tornado‘ by Jonsi in fact I’m listening to it right now and feeling better about everything already. Thanks for listening x

Natural Selection

It’s been quite some time since I last blogged and it’s not been very easy during that time. I wish I could say that I was so busy vacationing or loving every second of life and that’s what has kept me away for so long. However, circumstances far beyond our control have made the act of blogging an afterthought. Both Nate & I have been overwhelmingly busy at our jobs in the last month. It’s been somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster and I’m finding it ironic that I began this blog as an intentional reminder to enjoy the journey and see the hope in every situation. To be honest, my hesitation in writing has been a result of complete denial. I have evaluated the last few weeks and decided upon a few things. It’s been plaguing me so badly that I actually woke up this morning thinking of a list of things I wanted to include on this post. Perhaps it will even be beneficial for me to look back upon in the next couple months as things start to get stressful. Here’s a recap:

1. We bought a house a 1.5yrs ago and completely renovated the kitchen

2. We both had jobs in our career paths that paid well & provided a supportive environment to challenge ourselves

3. I found out that I would have a job until July 31st. Then a little while later it got extended to August 31st.

Yesterday, I found out that the project I work on will be moving to Ann Arbor, MI on September 30th. I’m not going to Michigan. FIN, DUNZO, that’s all she wrote! As you know, we had discussed selling our home and moving to a city. That is exactly what we must do like…yesterday ha! It’s times like these when you either sink or swim, I call it young & dumb natural selection. I certainly don’t “enjoy” the stress and chaos that comes with a move and to be honest this is the first time selling our house. I’m scraping every penny and banking it to ensure that we are going to be ok no matter what happens! I volunteered for a research study (one of the perks of being a research scientist-I’m privy to trials that pay I have also been selling things on eBay and craigslist. We are trying to do whatever we can to make this move as smooth as possible. Here’s the game plan:

1. Sell anything we can to live more simply

2. List the house in 2 weeks and hopefully have it under contract in 1-2 months with a 30-60 day closing

3. Once the house is under contract, secure jobs in our new city

4. Rent an apartment and move…could be as early as Sept/Oct…now THAT is hard to digest

I would completely be lying to you if I said that I wasn’t scared and trust me I’ve had a couple cry fests in which Nate has been the shoulder I’ve used as a tissue ;p BUT this is not going to stop me. I am determined to make Limoncello out of these lemons! We have a bright future ahead I can feel it, we just have to clear the jungle to find our path. P.S. I came home to a bottle of my favorite red wine, flowers and homemade Larabars last night courtesy of my soul mate He used this recipe to make Cashew Cookie and Cocoa Mole (add cinnamon, cayenne and/or chili powder to taste)

And because my inner geek was LOL’ing at this: