Good night, and good luck

I had to tear myself away from the third book of the 'Dragon Tattoo' (or 'Millennium') series to make good on my promise to blog! I have been antsy to blog for days now, but every time I've had a spare second, I've gone back to Lisbeth Salander (I even uncharacteristically stayed up until after 1am reading last night!). My gosh, if you haven't read the series already, I highly recommend it. The story is just incredible - I aspire to write something as riveting one day!!

In all honesty, I was hoping to close out this blog with a giant announcement. It is the holidays, however, and we haven't yet taken the official step of putting an offer in on the house that we hope to call home in a few short months.

During the life of this blog, the Hoey House-hunting Mission was in full swing. Initially, I thought finding a house would be a piece of cake. The reason for this is because I don't need much - the basics needs for me to be happy in life are:

my family (both immediate and extended - this includes close friends as well as my canine family, Maggie and Myko) - Check,

spending my work days doing something that I love - Check,

and going home to a place I love - half-Check (oh, how we've outgrown this apartment!).

When I think about what type of house I'd love to live in, there are really three major features for me that define whether I could be happy or not in a place - 1.) the neighborhood - is it safe and family-friendly?, 2.) a nice-sized yard, and 3.) a nice-sized kitchen. Cosmetic things (flooring, paint, cabinetry) can be changed, I realize this. And I've done my assessments of places accordingly. My loving husband has a much longer list of things that he wants in a house. This has resulted in an (so far) 8-month search for our home and has spanned every county that surrounds Atlanta.

Whenever Bryan and I have named any surrounding town or city in our search, the response has been "Wow, your commute will probably be terrible". Yes, this is true for every single place we've looked. I work downtown - it is awful to get in and out of downtown during rush hour regardless of where we live. So the commute time for me really doesn't enter the equation, I commute during off hours and have a flexible schedule (I can also get away with working at home a few days a week at times). Recently, we have focused our energies into giving Bryan an easier commute. I think this is a great thing due to the fact that he sometimes works extremely long days (who wants to drive for 45 minutes after a 9-10 hour workday?).

We're hoping the 3rd time is the charm. I blogged during the Summer that we had lost one house in a bidding war. To me that house served as our "training wheels". A great house in a great neighborhood - I think we would have been extremely happy there, but it didn't work out. It took us awhile to move on from that house. Other houses in the same area didn't compare and we switched up where we were looking.

When we did fall in love with a house again, it was fantastic. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, unfinished basement (a rarity in Georgia!), giant yard...our offer was accepted and we moved quickly on having the house inspected. Unfortunately, during the inspection, some major problems were uncovered - holes in the roof, water damage, plumbing issues. We were heartbroken. And again, while we continued to search the area, we could not stop comparisons to what we thought was our house.

Finally, we switched gears into another area north of Atlanta. I am definitely a subscriber of the belief that "everything happens for a reason". Even if we don't end up with my current "this is our house" obsession, I am convinced we're supposed to live in Cumming, Georgia. Bryan and I are both thrilled about the area and very happy with the house (although it seems that now we don't get quite as excited anymore given our previous difficulties). We know anything can happen so we're trying to keep a healthy, positive attitude. But in my mind, this is our house, this is my kitchen (ok...our kitchen) and Maggie's backyard.

There are a few more things I want to talk about as this will be my last blog. I will not be blogging about married life. This does not mean I won't be writing about it - but it won't be posted for the public anytime in the near future. From what I've heard, the first year of marriage is one of the hardest. In the two months that Bryan and I have been married, things have been pretty much as they were before we were engaged. But I would be naive to think that our marriage will never encounter any sort of obstacle and I don't really want to live out such things on the blog out of respect for what is between the two of us. I don't claim to know the in's-and-out's of marriage and I don't want to jeopardize or jinx anything by detailing our private life for everyone to read. As the M.O.B. has told me, "Some things need to be just for the two of you." I learned several years ago to listen to the M.O.B.'s advice :-)

I will say that I have enjoyed the post-wedding life so far. I didn't even realize how consumed we were with wedding-related things until the wedding was over. It's back to just being 'us' again - the 'us' we were when we fell in love (we were 'us' during our engagement - but a wedding-crazed, house-obsessed version of 'us' that was constantly exhausted and running from one place to another). We decorated our first Christmas tree together (a 7-ft. beauty!), we've been watching classic Christmas movies, we baked cookies together over the weekend, we continue to watch football together (as always!), and we hang out and read together. We eat breakfast and dinner together every night without fail. Our relationship was fabulous pre-engagement, during the engagement, and continues to grow even now. I know we will continue to share our lives with all of you through personal interactions as the years go on - and I have faith that there will be a myriad of exciting experiences to come!

It has been a pleasure having this blog through our engagement (and these few post-wedding months). I feel that I exceeded my goal of wanting to keep everyone in the loop in our adventures of planning a wedding and I hope that you all felt included in the adventures! I am additionally really happy that I even blogged about the craziness and stress of trying to find a job. When I go back and read what I wrote during those times, I am reminded of how daunting and scary it was to be staring in the face of possible unemployment. While the search worked out for me in the long run, I am constantly mindful that there are millions of people that are not as fortunate - I hope and pray that the tables turn for them soon.

I am extremely grateful for everything that has happened in the past year. I could never have imagined the responses I would get to this blog. I started the blog confident that the M.O.B. and my Aunt Claire would read it. To find out that my extended family, most of our friends, Bryan's extended family (now, also my family!) and people that I know (but maybe don't talk to that frequently) have also followed us on this journey was nothing short of thrilling.

I have received many compliments on my writing in the past year which is a MAJOR confidence-builder for me (ok, so maybe 90% of them have come from my Mom...it's still nice!). Honestly, I am incredibly happy about this especially due to the fact that I don't do any major editing/proofreading of my writing. When I write these blogs, it is unabridged (obviously - they're so long!) and straight from my head and heart to the keyboard.

For everyone who has recommended compiling these blogs for a possible publication, I do intend to look into that option (although I'd need a very patient editor!). It is no secret I would like to moonlight as a Fiction writer. I plan on enrolling in a writing course beginning Summer 2011 to strengthen my writing skills and learn the trade. Whether I will begin a blog of one of my impending novels remains to be seen (I am toying with this idea...). For now, I am focusing on being a good wife, sister, daughter, daughter-in-law, friend, and every other possible hat I can wear.

Thank you all for reading - I hope this journey has been as fun for you as it has for me! Have a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!!!