**I totally snagged this from Jenn, I hope she doesn’t mind!**

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Started planning my wedding. Other than that, 2009 has been a relatively unexciting year. I didn’t move, or change jobs, or go on any awesome vacations. Sadface.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I made a laundry list of resolutions last year, and probably ended up keeping less than a quarter of them. This year I decided to go with the flow. If I don’t make a list, then I can’t be disappointed in myself for not accomplishing them. I have enough on my plate in 2010 with buying a house, finding a new job, and getting married. I really just want the upcoming year to be as happy and stress free as possible.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? A lot of acquaintances have, it’s crazy. It seems like everyone spent the better part of 2009 reproducing!! But recently my friend Blagica gave birth to her first child, Liljana, a few weeks earlier than expected.
4. Did anyone close to you die? *knock on wood* my family has been very blessed and lucky this year.
5. What countries did you visit? Sadly, none. I’m hoping to change that in 2010. *cough chris take me to europe for our honeymoon cough*
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? A little extra money would be nice. Some vacation time for traveling as well.
7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory and why? The Nintendo Enthusiast dinner at BlogHer. Such an amazing night.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Paying off most of my debt. Such a relief.
9. What was your biggest failure? Definitely failing to even come close to my weight loss goal.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Thankfully I’ve been really healthy.
11. What was the best thing you bought? A TV for our bedroom. Now we don’t have to fight over the TV in the living room!
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? All of my amazing friends. And of course, my fiancé.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Ugh, my grandfather. Old age sucks.
14. Where did most of your money go? Paying off my credit card, books.
15. What did you really, really, really get excited about? BlogHer, planning my wedding, seeing my family at Thanksgiving.
16. What song will always remind you of 2009? Any Lady Gaga song.
17. Compared to this time last year are you:
Happier? I’d say about the same.
Thinner? Definitely not.
Richer? A little bit.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I wish I spent more time at the gym, saved more money, spent more time with my family.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Stress out over things I can’t control.
20. How did you spend Christmas? With my fiancé. Even though he’s so sweet, it still couldn’t make me forget about the fact that I missed being with my family.
21. How will you be spending new years? In my PJs. Like most nights. What of it?
22. Did you fall in love in 2009? No because I was already in love. But not falling out of it is a total win.
23. How many one-night stands? None. Random question?
24. What was your favorite TV program? Bones, Psych and Monk.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? There’s people that I’m no longer friends with, but I wouldn’t say I hate them.
26. What was the best book you read? Oh god, I don’t think I can pick just one, I read so many fantastic books this year. The Thirteenth Tale was a really good one. I’m currently reading The Pillars of the Earth which would definitely get my vote for the best book, but I doubt I’ll finish 500 pages in the next couple of hours.
27. What was your biggest musical discovery? Cobra Starship. I can thank Thomas for introducing me.
28. What did you want and you got? My wedding dress!
29. What did you want and not get? Moving back to Pittsburgh (next year!)
30. What was your favorite film of this year? It’s a tie between The Hangover and (500) Days of Summer
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old did you turn? I turned 24 and I spent it traveling to and from The Printed Blog tweet up. God I despise the Blue Line.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Being engaged to a wonderful person.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? Mostly comfortable, but when I did dress up my style has gotten much more feminine.
34. What kept you sane? My mom, friends, the fiancé, and of course blogging.
35. Which celebrity did you fancy the most? ugh, who cares. Yes some of them are cute, but I’m not 12.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? The bailouts, healthcare reform.
37. Who did you miss? My family.
38. Who was the best new person you met? Gosh, so many amazing people. This year I made some of the most amazing friends. It was a good year for friendship.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009: Have a little faith.
40. Quote or Song Lyric that sums up your year: I’m lame; I can’t think of a good one

Over our Thanksgiving holiday Chris and I got the chance to do some house hunting*. We took the early flight into Pittsburgh and arrived around 930am and by 1030 we were meeting with the realtor. There were 7 (yes, SEVEN!!) properties on the itinerary and only about 2 hours to cram them all in.

Remember the house I posted about a few weeks ago? It was the second house we got to see and I pretty much fell in love immediately. It had a pretty open floor plan, 3 HUGE bedrooms, and tons of closets and storage space. I was pretty much ready to call off the hunt right then and there. Luckily my dad was along to be my voice of reason and we kept moving along.

The second to last one was the other one that left an impression on me. It also had a fairly open floor plan, an attached garage, and an ENORMOUS finished basement. Right now though the house is a total bachelor pad. We would probably have to dump quite a bit of money into getting the carpets cleaned up or even replaced (more than one guy living in a house=total slobbery). And it was the most expensive out of the seven we saw. Still, it’s a high contender for us.

Since my mom wasn’t able to go along with us the first time around, we met with the realtor again on Saturday to look at the 2 we liked a second time. Except the people who are living in place #2 are a bunch of assholes and refused to show the house so we couldn’t see it again. It gave me second thoughts regarding the place. The people who are currently living there are renters, and the owners are in Peru. I have a feeling the renters are kind of being kicked out and I could see some legal drama surrounding the whole thing. Yikes.

We also stopped at another place between House 1 and House 2. It’s pretty much exactly the same layout as House 2, but it’s still under construction. Which means if we were to purchase it we would get to pick out everything from the floors, to the cabinets, to the door handles and bathroom fixtures. Suddenly House 3 is the highest contender. Although it would lead to loads more bickering down the road, for the time being Chris and I agreed that we both liked the idea of a brand new house best.

We were very excited to get back to Chicago and get started on the pre-approval process until: SETBACK. The realtor emailed Chris and said she had spoke to their pre-approval department and informed us it would be virtually impossible to get a pre-approval for a loan in Pennsylvania while we were still employed in Chicago. Obviously our salaries in Pittsburgh would be slightly less than they would be here in Chicago and until we have jobs there’s no way to really determine how much we could afford loan wise.

I have been researching about first time home buying though and did discover there is a difference between Pre-qualification and Pre-approval. I’m wondering if I could still get a pre-qualification just to give us a ballpark estimate just to make sure we’re definitely seeing houses in our price range. Honestly though, the whole process with interest rates and the tax credit thing has my head spinning. I hate numbers. I have a really bad habit of not caring how much things cost if I really want it and I have to get out of that mindset. Fortunately my dad has a knack for finances so I’m sure we’ll be relying on his help a lot in the upcoming months.

So right now we’re kind of at a standstill. We need jobs before we can move forward. We need somewhere to live if we get jobs, and we also need cars to get us there. Sigh. I’m sure everything will fall into place as it should but when I want something, I want it right now.

Patience is not a virtue I possess.

*I brought my G10 to take pictures of all the places but I’m a schmuck who also forgot to put a memory card in it. Whoops.
**I also have something I’m dying to share with you all but I don’t want to jinx anything. Until I actually know anything, I’m remaining mum.

PS. BIG thanks to Matt from Life Without Pants for guest posting yesterday. If you have any thoughts, please jump on in to the discussion. We’d love to hear it!