Progress Can't Come Soon Enough

Ok, so I'm going to look at several houses tomorrow and officially begin my home search. This is exciting, right? Well yes, but it's also freaking me out more than anything! I suddenly feel very much under pressure to make a decision, and a good one at that, FAST. I got the letter from my apartment complex today asking me to make my intentions clear as far as lease renewal. Which made me look at a calendar and suddenly think "OH NO. OH MY GOSH. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??? WE ONLY HAVE 12 WEEKS UNTIL OUR LEASE IS UP!!"

Yeah. Twelve weeks until our rent goes up by $175 a month, if I don't find a house and close on it before then. I'm thinking we need a miracle here! Also, the thought of packing this whole place up and moving again in just 12 weeks (or hopefully not much longer than that!) is stressing me out. I know I'm jumping ahead of myself, but I can't help but think how much work it was to pack up everything that fit into the one little room I was living in before we moved here, and how much more work it will be to pack up all the things that can fit in almost 900 square feet! All I can say is, I'm really glad I'm not in school right now! It would be way more than I could handle while still keeping my sanity.

I'll try to keep updating and posting more often, but bear with me while I try to keep myself organized and make the largest purchasing decision I've ever made!

Family Time...

My Sundays are pretty much always spent at mom and dad's house. It's the only time we can all get our schedules cleared and they make all my favorite homemade meals :) I can cook for myself, but nothing ever tastes as good as mom and dad's cooking! We usually just relax and watch a movie (last week we watched Food, Inc., which was shocking and disturbing. I'm planning on buying a lot more organic food now, thanks to that movie!) or watch tv. We always call my sister and put her on speakerphone so we can all enjoy her hilarity. But last week mom and I decided that we didn't just want to watch a movie and lay around all day. Instead, we decided to make some cookies!

We made a yummy, shortbread-type cookie with raspberry jam centers and chocolate centers. They were more trouble than your average cookie, but they were extremely delicious! I would definitely make them again. For some of the cookies, we put jam between the top and bottom layer and filled in the middle with chocolate, and for other cookies we did the opposite. Chocolate + raspberry jam + cookies = DELICIOUS! I don't remember what these cookies were called or where mom found the recipe, but maybe she will post a link in the comments if she remembers where she found it.

I'm off to get my taxes done so I can use my refund to help buy myself a house! The hunt officially begins this week once my realtor gets back into town! I'll be sure to update you all on the exciting and somewhat terrifying process!!