the past couple of weeks...

the beautiful bay bridge that lights up at night with a pattern that won't repeat for 20 years!

what i do for every flight: purchase a book in the airport & jot down the mission.

it adds to your book collection & makes you look back on them and smile!

brothers reunited... taking our first stroll in the city

happy & exhausted!

breaking into our patio before the closing date

and sneaking a peak! (father in law & husband)

the view from lombard street! or any street for that matter!

drinks & tacos at Tacolicious!

and my new obsession since coming here: chai lattes. where have they been all my life?!

oh you know... just another amazing view of water & mountains & stuff.

hanging with the coolest corgi there is

and my high school prom date who also lives out here!

and how could we not take a trip to in-n-out...

 it is better than five guys & shake shack combined! ya i said it.

and then we finally were allowed to move into our new condo. cheers!

and what is a moving day without a little splurge from Merrimekko?

(i've had my eye on this mug for years now. it reminds me of spain & i just love it. 

so excited to have it be a part of our ever growing coffee mug collection!)

& then we went to this place for the first time. the only thing they serve is mac + cheese.

(i got the trailer park version: hotdogs & potato chips!)

and this is like a couple blocks away from our condo. good news? or bad news ;)

all photos taken from my iphone. if you hadn't already noticed!

more on the way...

this is about cats.

so if you don't like cats, then get out. 
just kidding. but seriously this is going to be all about cats so if you don't like them, nothing to see here. 

so there are two stories i want to share right quick. one is why our two cats Kairos & Leo didn't move out here with us, and the other ties into how my parents went from having one cat, to six... ya, you read that right... six.

so pete and i rescued Kairos from SPCA in new jersey right when we moved in with each other a couple years ago. he is an Abyssinian and we are the luckiest people in the world to get a cat in that breed from a shelter... and he rocks. he's always been the coolest cat there is. & then we wanted to get him a friend so enter: Leo. the cutest little orange kitten i ever did see. but man, what a little bitch he turned out to be. living in our one bedroom apartment in jersey, he loved to get up on any table, dresser, high place and knock everything over. he kept us up at night, he would eat all the food. he sucked. 

 kai & leo in new jersey

so flash forward to a year ago, right before my surgery & my parents had just one cat. an older cat named Tiger. well, we felt bad for Tiger & thought he needed a friend & it just so happened a girl i used to do gymnastics with was giving away a little calico kitten. so my parents were like "okayyyy..." and she became my little brother's cat, and he named her Lulu. well, what we quickly found out was that this little Lulu was a crazy ball of energy that the older cat Tiger wanted nothing to do with. so one day pete decided to go to an animal shelter to get Lulu a little friend & he saw these two:

as you can see, they were brothers & just so freaking cute & he called and convinced my parents to get them. so with the addition of Hobbes & Stark (named after game of thrones obviously... even though they are dropping like flies on the show.. but that's a whole other story) my parents went from 1 to 4 cats within a week... which is a lot to some people, but not really a big deal to my family. i grew up with four wild cats when i was little. i say wild because we have lots of property & our cats are all outside cats. 

so then things didn't go well with my surgery & i had to move back home, yada yada. and so our two cats had to come as well. SIX CATS. six freaking cats. but six cats that helped me recover. no joke. i spent everyday with these cats & kittens. laying on the couch, sitting with outside. it was a blessing having that many furry little loves around the house.

so when it came time to move to california last month, we visited our vet & with her strong advice we did not take them with us. because they are outdoor cats now & they are the happiest i have ever seen them. our little turd of a cat Leo is now a completely different animal. he runs, he hunts, & eats grass, he cuddles for once, he does flips all the time. our vet said the second we put those two cats back inside they would act out & be awful. so i had to leave my first born children behind. single tear. BUT. now i have the best instagram full of cats thanks to my mom who sends me daily photos of them. i'm probably so annoying to her, but it puts a smile on my face when she sends me pics of all the crazy felines. and i can't thank her enough for taking care of our little babies while we are out here!

Kai taking a power nap + Stark sleeping half & half

Leo in the bookshelf & Kai in the t-rex position

Leo being sweet + Lulu jumping in the suitcase

Hobbes playing through the screen + Lulu wanting to come to cali

& my little Kai + Stark being Stark

so there ya go: your cat overload for the year. as you can tell i miss them more than anything & this post makes me happier than any wardrobe post so thanks for reading!

*this post is dedicated to my fellow reddit friends ;)

whew.

well... it is good to be back!!
long story short: i bought soundtothebay.com last year for $10 a year through google. right before our big move i kept getting emails saying my domain name would be automatically renewed. sweet! nothing to worry about then, right? well, come to find out i put it on a card last year that i no longer have. so my domain name expired & by the time i figured it out & got internet here in the condo, it was too late. so it took lots of emails, & talking to some non helpful people... and then yesterday i was at the gym running & it hit me: i could just go back to the original domain name through blogger. it has an added "blogspot" to the website, but honestly, who cares ;) as long as i can blog again!!

so anywayyys, blah blah blah. lots of blogging in the near future, i promise. it has been a craaaazy first month here. to say the least. it is finally calming down, but there is still SO much to do. still lots of unpacking, & decorating, and finding my first job out here! 

some updates: pete is back in school during the day & learning the ropes of real estate by night with the guy who sold our condo to us. he's freakin awesome so it is fun for pete to be doing something that he really has fun with now, instead of military bullshit! i am slowly getting used to being back living in a city. it has been a little overwhelming doing such a big move after this past year, but i have the best husband who is so supportive of me slowly getting back into being a real person. job wise, i found the cutest little bookstore down the street that i totally want to work at. with my grandmother being my nursery school teacher & my mom being a kindergarten teacher, i have a huge love of books. childrens books are my favorite. i have always always wanted to work in a bookstore & i used to watch You've Got Mail & dream of one day owning my own bookstore. and since physically it isn't possible for me to coach gymnastics at the moment, i am hoping this will be a great little positive job to have for now!

there is tons more to share, but i don't want to bore you with a long novel. check in daily for lots of pics over the past couple weeks & now that i've unpacked my camera, get ready for lots of pretty pics of our new stomping grounds: San Fran, we love you already!

you know when...

you stress & you stress & there is this looming date and it takes up so much room in your brain... and then it comes & BAM, the day is over. and you are left being like "well that wasn't too bad" & "why was i so stressed?"

that was today.

today was a day when i turned to pete and said "you were right babe." 
because for the last couple months i've been a total basket case worrying about this big move. because it's not like we are packing up a few things & moving to another part of the state. it's not like one of those moves where you forget something & it's no big deal because you can grab it later on. connecticut to san francisco isn't a hop, skip, & a jump. and we are bringing with us a lot of stuff. and a lot of that stuff has been scattered all over different parts of my parents house over the course of a year. so in my head, it really overwhelmed me thinking about how we were going to pull this off. how was i going to box up all of our crap & get it into a corner so that the movers could easily load it and be on their merry way?

and so, they arrived this morning and (of course) started un-doing ALL of the packing i have done over the past few weeks. like literally taking every single cup, spoon, plate out of the boxes & re-wrapping them themselves. because the military (like pete told me many times) packs up your stuff themselves so that they are responsible if anything breaks. so that made me do an inside "ughhhh!!!" ...but then things went so smoothly!! & the movers were wonderful!! & really the only thing that went wrong was somehow my purse got mixed in with our things & is now chilling at the bottom of a box with my wallet & keys. so thank god for my passport otherwise i won't be flying on friday!!

and so, this day is done. and i can breathe a nice sigh of relief. & the next couple of days i can just relax and spend time with my family. and then we fly out friday, close on our condo the 17th, & the moving truck comes a week later. and then the fun part really begins: getting to decorate our beautiful industrial style loft in SoMa!


*below are the online pictures of our condo. this loft is an investment that pete, my in-laws, and i are making together. after much debate we agreed that it didn't make sense, from a financial standpoint, to throw away any more money on renting apartments (which is what we have done for the past four years).  with the help of an amazing realtor and our complete trust in my father in law's taste, we saw these pictures below online, fell in love, & now feel extremely blessed to call this beautiful place our first home!

i will be sure to post more pictures with my camera once we are moved in!

over the past week...

i turned 26!!!!!

 i went & watched my little brother's soccer game with his girlfriend 

& busted out the saltwaters.

husband celebrated his last day at coast guard station sandy hook!

& celebrated in nyc while i saw my college roomies in poughkeepsie.

(anddddd kept the sun off my face with some Utah love!)

i fell in love with this new essie color "go ginza"

 & snagged this gnomie candle for california to remind me of my gnomie roomies!

and i found the prettiest soaps that come in the cutest reusable tins 

& started re-reading outlander... cuz it's that good!

the past week started with the best roomie reunion. it was much needed time spent with two people who i love dearly: miss mary & minna. my birthday followed two days later & then pete celebrated his last day in the coast guard on wednesday. i just have to do this right quick:

AHHHHH HUSBAND IS DONE WITH THE COAST GUARD!!!!!!! 

HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE EVERRRRRR!!!!!!!

ok i'm good. 

i seriously can't believe he is done. well not totally done, he is going to stay in the reserves for a little bit, but the ridiculous crap we have both put up with for the past 4 years of him being stationed in nj has come to an end. an END! i don't even know how to react i am so excited. it is sunday night & i keep thinking pete has to go to work tomorrow but he DOESN'T. it's so crazy! only military wives can understand what i'm talking about. it is so hard to wrap my head around the fact that i get to see my husband everyday from now on. it's so exciting i can hardly contain myself.

and then, on friday, pete and my best guy friends brett & keith planned a little surprise going away party for us & that was just the best. talk about flip cup, salt 'n peppa pandora station, & mixing dunkin donuts fruit coolada's with vodka (my greatest idea ever!), mixed with my favorite people... it was just a great night with great people & i am so thankful. so thankful i have a husband who has become friends with all of my friends because he knows how happy that makes me, & just genuinely loves seeing me smile. i don't know how i got so lucky.

and sooo... happy sunday everyone!! we are getting ready for some serious game of thrones action... can't wait :)

see ya tomorrow!