Wanting It All

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This weekend was a disapointing one. I was set to go home for my godson’s (my best friend’s son) baptism in my hometown of Toledo, Ohio. It was short trip, just Fri night – Mon am, but I was so excited to get just a few days with my family and best friend. I haven’t seen any of them since September.

Unfortunately snow in Chicago caused my flight to be cancelled on Friday and the earliest they could get me into Toledo was 11pm on Saturday night. Since I had to leave Monday, it just wasn’t going to work out. I decided to refund my money on the flight to use for another time when I can stay longer.

Driving away from the airport, I had tears in my eyes. Situations like this, when I am missing something important to the people I love because of distance, makes me feel terribly homesick.

I still haven’t figured out a way to balance the amazing lifestyle we have here in Tahoe with the distance it puts between us and the people we love.

On one hand I imagine us starting a family out here and not having anyone there for first birthdays or baptisms or summer days at the beach. That is so sad to me.

On the other hand I imagine life in Ohio and see jobs we aren’t excited about and a lifestyle that is missing on all the things we love to do like skiing, hiking, being on the lake etc.

I want it all and that is impossible it seems.

When I got home, I found Luke sitting on the couch by the fire. I curled up in his arms and told him about all the worries I was having. He let me talk it through and empathized with how I felt. I appreciated that he didn’t try to “find a solution” but instead just said:

“Babe – there’s just no way to know where life is going to take us right now. But I do know that life is about being happy and we’ll do whatever we need to do to feel that way. So let’s just see what happens and not worry too much about things down the line.”

Then we talked about how I could go home more often to see my family and to make sure I’m able to be there for special moments I don’t want to miss.

I love that just when I’m feeling sad and filled with worry, Luke is able to calm me down and help me see that nothing is permanent or binding. And that together we’ll figure it out.

I feel like having him by my side is going to mean that I will always be able to be happy no matter where we are.

Rustic Chic Home Decor

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While I wait for the paperwork on our house to go through, I’ve been slightly obsessed with day dreaming about how to decorate. We own literally nothing but our bed, so this house will be a completely clean slate design-wise.

The house itself is VERY Tahoe, as you can tell by the Christmas Tree porch.

The interior has a lot of nice, light pine wood on some walls, banisters, cabinets etc. The floor is dark hardwood and the kitchen has dark green granite. Automatically, you’d think that this house should be decorated in a “mountain” theme like most homes here are.

But this:

Is pretty much my worst nightmare! Yuck! (sorry if you’re into mountain decor)

My style is much more cottage, country, shabby. I love big, comfy couches. Antique furniture made new. Light furniture with a punch of color. And a bit of mountain flair thrown in. And for the most part, Luke agrees.

I’ve been trolling Pinterest gathering my inspiration and I think the best way to describe what I like is “Rustic Chic.” Here are some of my favorites:

You can see all my “rustic chic” inspiration on my Pinterest board.

I have so many ideas running through my head:

– Floor to ceiling white, sheer drapes to frame the 20 ft windows in our living room
– Two big comfy chairs right by the fire place for reading
– A chandelier hanging down from the high ceiling in the entryway
– An old trunk that’s been in Luke’s family as a coffee table in the TV room

My mind is filled with ideas to make this house feel like our home. Finally after 10 years of renting, living with other people’s furniture and only buying IKEA, I’ll be able to make this place feel exactly like “us.”

The Waiting Game

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Few things frustrate me more than having to wait for someone else to do something in order for you to be able to do something. Does that make sense?

Case in point- our house situation. We’re going on 6.5 months since our offer was first submitted and I’m seriously losing my patience.

Everyone told us a short sale can take on AVERAGE six months, but this is starting to feel ridiculous. Especially because ALL we’re waiting on is the second bank to complete the paperwork for their approval.

They’ve already verbally approved it. We did the inspection. We’re just waiting on two pages of paperwork to sign. Two measly pieces of paper.

And yet it’s been three weeks since they verbally approved and nothing. Super frustrating. I’ve gone into full on stalker mode, emailing our real estate agent almost daily asking for updates, calling the bank mediator, annoying the crap out of Luke.

I am just SO excited to finally have this home be ours. I want to decorate and finally own my own furniture and be able to have friends and family visit and not deal with landlords anymore.

Anyway, while we wait, we are keeping busy. This weekend we have a lot of fun things planned:

– Friday night: Bowling league then mustache birthday party for Whitney!

– Saturday: Republican caucus* then skiing at Northstar with our friends Kelly & Mike, then all-you-can-eat sushi

* It’s true, this Democrat officially changed to Republican so I can vote for Ron Paul. He is the bomb.com. Read up on his beliefs to see if you agree: http://www.ronpaul.com/

– Sunday: Skiing at Heavenly then to colleague Jen’s for a Superbowl party. I’m making my bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers. 

And in between all that I’ll likely be doing one of my favorite things … researching dogs we can adopt once we do own our home and repeatedly asking Luke if we can get one even though I know he is 100% against getting a dog. Now or ever.

But come ON look at this guy…his name is Tripod for peets sake!

And this one is like the angriest-looking, old man dog ever. I must have him.

okay, things are getting weird in this post. I think it’s time to wrap this up.

Have a great weekend!

The Craziest Week of the Year

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WOW- what an absolutely insane week!

Starting last Wednesday through Saturday I was helping organize and host a social media conference here at Heavenly called Snowcial. (we’re pretty cute, huh?)

We had about 120 influencers across the ski and social media industries come to Heavenly for the conference, which included two days of speakers, three days of skiing and a lot of parties inbetween.

Here’s me trying to be smart by asking a question during one panel. :)

Although a team of about six of us have been planning the conference since June, it still was a beast to manage. Imaging planning a conference AND a ski vacation for 100+ people. There were so many details like – lift tickets, rentals, shuttle buses, hotel rooms, cocktail parties, conference badges, speaker presentations – to coordinate.

While at times I felt like everything was coming apart at the seams, I was happy to hear from attendees that they were impressed with how smoothly everything flowed. That’s the key to events – keep everything rolling smoothly and when mistakes happen, just smile and move on.

For those of you in the industry who read my blog, I have to say I was really proud of the caliber of speakers we had at the conference including: the founders of Klout and Foursquare, the CEO of Vail Resorts, the former CMO of Virgin America, as well as panelists from Google, eBay, Micorsoft, WOMMA, IMG, Pabst, and professional skiers Daron Rahlves and Michelle Parker. On the entertainment side we had a special performance by Young The Giant.

Making things even more interesting – we happened to get our first big snow storm of the season right during the conference, which meant our team had to do double duty marketing the snow through photos, social media, PR and emails all while also  organizing Snowcial.

Like I said – last week was INSANE!

At the end of the day though, it all came together and everyone had a great time. Now I can relax a little and enjoy the three feet of powder we got this week!