Hello hello! It’s been a while since I’ve checked in, and we’re overdue for a bit of an update!
Here’s what’s been going on in the Saxton house over the past few months:
Adam was accepted into a PhD program.
We found out in March that Adam was accepted into two PhD programs to study political science, and in April, he decided on the University of Chicago. I’m so ridiculously proud of Adam. Getting into a fully funded PhD program is extremely difficult, and it’s been a dream of his for years.
We bought a condo!
After Adam decided on a program, we started looking at condos. We had lived in Hyde Park, the neighborhood around the university, before we moved to DC, so we knew first-hand that the rental market was fine but not spectacular. Since we’d be in one spot for five to seven years, buying actually made sense!
Thankfully, the current condo market is not quite as insane as the market for houses. Still, it felt like another full-time job to figure out how to buy property for the first time from across the country. Within a week of our first conversation with our realtor, we were booking plane tickets to tour anything that was available in a two-day window.
Thankfully, we found something on our whirlwind tour that fit our needs and our budget! We’re both delighted with our cozy new place. It’s in a great walkable area, both Adam and I have our own office spaces, and we’re (mostly) enamored with the charm of our vintage building. We’ll share more about the place as we continue to get set up!
Our new place after closing. The bookshelves! 
Our first takeout on the back porch
(P.S. If you happen to be buying in Chicago and need a realtor, please reach out! Ours was amazing, and we’d be happy to connect you with her.)
We moved from the Maryland suburbs of DC back to Chicago.
Ugh, you guys. Moving always makes me an emotional ball of frazzled nerves. And this move, alas, was not the exception.
When we moved to the DC area two years ago, I didn’t anticipate how much we would grow to love it. We had a great little apartment we adored, some wonderful local friends, and access to everything from museums to fantastic hiking trails within a short drive. Even though we both love Chicago and were excited to move, leaving Maryland was harder than we anticipated!
And then there’s the always-painful logistics of packing and moving. Blech. No matter how much we prepare or how many lists I make, it always takes twice as long and costs three times as much as we’re planning.
From collecting boxes 
to an empty apartment!
Anyway. WE DID IT. We survived moving 700 miles with our sanity mostly intact. (Though it was a real close call when our U-Haul didn’t fit through the gate to our back lot and our movers were trying to coach Adam through turning a 20-foot truck around on a one-way street while I lost the key to access our parking lot in my seat. But I digress.)
Since we arrived at the end of July, we’ve been unpacking and painting and organizing and making Target purchases like crazy. We were trying to get as much done as possible before Adam’s program began, and we’re feeling pretty happy with our progress for now. Sure, there are rooms we’ll repaint eventually and projects we’d like to tackle in the long term, but all the boxes are unpacked and all of the rooms are functional. We’ll take it.
And regular life kept happening…
In the midst of all of this, we hosted a number of visitors who wanted to see us before we moved, crossed a few things off our DC bucket list, and traveled to MN to see family and watch my brother get married. I also flew to California to see my sister and completed a freelance writing project that took quite a bit of time and research. Oh yes, and we both worked full-time through most of July.
IT HAS BEEN A RIDE.
What’s next?
A nap. (Joking. But also not.)
Adam is getting ready to hit the books. As for me, I’ll be continuing my full-time job with the tutoring company I worked with in the DC area. I guess this is one small blessing from Covid: figuring out how to tutor virtually during the pandemic means that I get to keep working with the same great team and students even now that we’ve moved!
As for this online space, I’m just beginning to get enough brain space back to start thinking about creative projects again. (Turns out that buying a property, figuring out moving logistics, packing, and continuing to have a day job leaves basically, um, ZERO time or energy for anything else.) Now that we’ve got a little more margin, hopefully you’ll be seeing more posts on the blog and in your inboxes very shortly.
Talk soon!