RICHMOND CATCH UP

Whaaaaaaat two posts in two days? Don't get used to it. My last post was a little too personal for my liking so I wanted to get another post up here to show that even though this move has been difficult we have also been having FUN!

So think of this as a photo dump (I hate that phrase) of what I have managed to capture in the last few months. Warning: this post will most likely not be too interesting and filled with sub par iphone pics. Enjoy!

One day my friend Brooke and I were looking up cool (free) things to in Richmond and the Hollywood cemetery was high up on every list we googled. It was actually pretty neat. 

This is what our apartment looked like for the first month or so. We went back and forth of wanting to get unpacked but also being too lazy to do it. 

Celebrated our two year anniversary a week after we moved! In an effort to save money we had a romantic dinner on our counter since we didn't have a table or chairs yet. 

As much as I love IKEA I would be ok with not returning there for a bit. Lots of driving. Lots of buying. Lots of assembling furniture. 

If you ever want to test how strong your marriage is, assemble 13 boxes from IKEA together. 

I know our door is not super pretty. But I like our mat. It is an effort to try and make friends with our neighbors without having to actually talk to them. Someone did come ask to borrow a muffin pan once. She never clarified if she asked us because of our super inviting mat, but I would like to think so. 

One weekend we went up to Falling Water in Pennsylvania with Scott's parents. I am no architecture buff but it was pretty sweet. I wouldn't mind having it as my summer home. 

One of my favorite things we have done so far was apple picking! I took one picture that day so here it is-

Lots and lots of graffiti in downtown Richmond. 

Also I don't know how I survived before boberry biscuits. 

Another super cool thing was the Road Bike World Championships, which took place literally outside of our apartment. 

We look pretty natural right?

I have loved loved loved making our apartment feel like a home. And Scott was such a good sport hanging up everything I asked him too. 

Yay for high school friends on the east coast. 

And yay for some film projects to keep me from being a professional netflix binger. 

I went to Time Out for Women with my in-laws. It was basically a two day conference for women to take a little time out from their lives (hence the time out for women name) and listen to some inspiring speakers, listen to music, and reflect on what is really important in this life. It was a blast. 

We bought an iPad. Some thought I was pregnant. 

Maybe when I really am preggo I should use snapchat to announce it to the world. 

Our blinds in our bedroom broke and since we would rather not be greeted with blinding sunlight in the morning or let the apartment across the courtyard watch us sleep, we brought our mattress out to the family room. It ended up being a week long sleepover and probably something we will do again in the future. 

FALL IS AMAZING. I am so obsessed with the changing leaves. We were so busy this year that we didn't get to go on a drive to really see all of them, but I have already made Scott promise next year we will make time. 

Still- just the leaves around town were amazing!

I am so excited for the holiday season! And for Richmond to start feeling more and more like a home. Also give yourself a pat on the back if you made it to the end!

THOUGHTS ON MOVING SLASH LIFE

^^ Scott Hiatt Photography everyone. He is becoming quite the little artist behind the camera. Please email scottishottphotography@gmail.com for bookings. Anyways....

Moving to Richmond has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. For awhile, I felt silly admitting that because hellloooo there are like 99 billion bigger problems going on in the world right now. I don't really have any right to think my life is hard.

But you know what? Life is hard. If it were easy there would never be growth. And that is the way it is for e v e r y single person. There were so many times in the past three months when I would see friends who had made recent moves post stuff on social media, yes I know social media is a lie let's stop beating a dead horse please, and it just looked like they had it all figured out and they had adjusted so easily. And I couldn't help but wonder why it was so hard for me. Why did I suck so much at change?

Change is a part of life. Whether that is change we are ready to deal with, change we think we can deal with, or change we don't want to deal with, it is change nonetheless. And it is going to happen. I realized I could sit on the couch, try to block out the real world, and think about all the ways my life could be better, or I could embrace my current situation and make the most of it.

I realized that every second I spent not adjusting to my new situation, was a second I would never get back. I realized I didn't want to live my life hiding from hard things. And I realized that even though I was coming to these realizations, there were still going to be hard days. Days I am reaaaally not going to want to change. But that is ok. I think that this is true for everyone. I know the feelings of doubt, confusion, not being good enough, wanting to hide in bed forever, are feelings everyone has experienced. I was not alone. I still am not alone. There is something hard going on in everyone's life, but it is not our place to judge whose problems are bigger. The only thing we can really do, is try to find happiness in our own situations and love those around us. And that is what I intend to do from this point on.

Yes one of my many challenges in life is being terrible at adjusting to change. But there is so much change ahead of me, I better learn how to get used to it. So three cheers for embracing the new, looking at the positives and being happy. I dare you to do it too.

ITALY VIDEO

HERE IT IS! HERE IT IS! HERE IT IS!

I think we will be playing this on repeat the next few days so we can feel like we are back there. 

Enjoy!

LAST NIGHT IN ITALY

^^My hair lasted down for a approximately 30 seconds after this picture.

I wouldn't have wanted to spend our last night in Italy any other way. We grabbed dinner, had one last gelato, and spent hours talking on the Spanish Steps. It was all so surreal. I could not believe we had made it to Italy, let alone our time there was ending. Everything was changing. We were going to be starting our real life, and I just wanted to hold onto that night forever. 

Here is to the most amazing, life changing trip. It was the perfect end to a chapter in our lives. I am so happy that we will have these memories to hold onto forever. Take it from two people who were going to save all of their money and start working right after college. Don't do it. Spend what you have and go see the world. Scott and I realized we have the rest of our lives to be responsible and plan and save. When would we have another opportunity to be completely free to travel with our best friends? You can't put a price tag on the experiences we had and the memories we were able to make.

Thanks for everyone who has been following along! It has been SO much fun to relive our trip through these pictures. This blog is usually a place where I share snippets of our lives so if you want to keep reading you should! I can't promise they will be as exciting as these Italy posts, and I definitely will not be posting as frequently, but sometimes we do fun things.

And if these posts haven't made you feel like you were on the trip with us... THE ITALY VIDEO SHOULD- which will be posted this week! 

LeHiataly2015 forever and ever.