Our Utah Trip

We just got back from a week in Utah with Chris' family. It was too short, as usual, but we had a lot of fun. Chris' mom works at the county courthouse, so I got to put on the judges robe and play judge. We got to visit with Chris' grandparents, his sister and kids, and I got to drive up to Provo to see one of my college roommates and her husband and little girl. Chris' youngest nephew, Eric, last year wouldn't come near either of us, but this year was so friendly, it was so much fun! It only snowed the first night we were there, which was a little disappointing, but it made for much better driving conditions. We can't wait to go out again in July!

 

We have a living room!

My grandparents have recently sold their house and moved into a condo, which means they've had to get rid of a lot of stuff and we have been benefitting from it! Most recently we got two recliners and a table that we're using as a coffee table so that it actually looks like we have a fully furnished living room, it's very exciting.The cookie jar is something else that they were getting rid of and Chris thought it was the greatest thing. Well, more to the point he thought it looked psychotic and would be funny sitting in our kitchen. So, now that there's a picture of it, it's going into storage - permanently!

It's Christmas Time!

As I'm sure is the case with everyone spending their first Christmas in their first house, I couldn't wait to put up my tree. It's just the fake one we've had for years, I wasn't quite ready for all the pine needles and watering that a real tree requires. I went out today and bought a cute holiday welcome mat and cute holiday hand towels for the powder room. I'm having so much fun! And hopefully this weekend we'll be able to put up our outside lights, we've never put up outside lights because only a handful of people would have seen them on the farm. But no inflatable snowmen for me, that's a little over the top.

Thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving yesterday with my parents and brothers. It wasn't our first time hosting Thanksgiving, but it was really exciting to have it in our own house this year! My brothers helped us set up the dining room table and living room rug that my aunt and uncle loaned to us. Our living room is finally starting to look like a real living room, it's so exciting!

Scrapbooking

I had my first big event at my new house this past weekend, a Creative Memories party. It was so great to be able to have so many people over and actually have room for them all! I got some great stuff and, of course, had a lot of fun.

My Apologies

Just wanted to say, I haven't forgotten to put more pictures up, I've been busy this week getting the house looking respectable for a scrapbooking party I'm hosting this weekend. On top of that I'm getting a bad cold for the second time in a month and I had to work today. And by the way, I think I will enjoy my job, once I get more used to it. I did do one transaction all by myself today! So anyway, I'll get some more pictures up as soon as I'm feeling better.

This and That

Several people have told me I need to put more pictures of my house up, but I feel like all I've been doing is posting pictures and half of the reason I started this blog was so that friends and family who we don't get to talk to that often can keep up to date with our going ons. So, sorry to those who want more house pictures, none this time. My biggest news is that I found a job working one day a week at the local auto auction. It's perfect for me since I didn't really want to go back to work, plus it pays pretty well. Yesterday was my first day and it was amazing to see all these used car dealers with thousands of dollars of cash in their pockets. I've never seen so many hundred dollar bills in my life! We've now met five of our neighbors, all of whom seem very nice. The lady in the house on our left works crazy long hours and we don't see her really at all. She has a black lab who barks every time we come home and we always feel bad for him, cooped up in the house by himself for so long. The couple on our right is also very nice, they gave us a cake on Halloween as an official welcome-to-the-neighborhood thing. We haven't eaten it yet, it's in our fridge (luckily they don't know about this blog!). They've been giving all kinds of tips about the neighborhood, when and where trash gets picked up and things like that, it's been great. It's a very quiet neighborhood, which we like. I do wish it was a tiny bit more social, but I really can't complain. It's in a very nice area of Bel Air, so there's not much crime and no welfare families. We soooo lucked out! Oh, for those of you who I haven't told this story to, the only reason we were able to buy such a nice house is that the people we bought it from weren't using a realtor and for some reason had no idea how much their house was worth. We got it for close to $30,000 less than what they should have been asking! The girl had bought it from her sister, so we're assuming she didn't pay full price either and maybe that's why they didn't know it was worth so much. Whatever the reason, it got us a really nice house! I think that's probably enough rambling for one day. Next time I promise to post more pictures, I have to admit I do love showing off our house.

Still Unpacking............

There are still plenty of boxes to unpack and things to buy (like a slipcover for that pink sofa! Gotta love hand-me-downs), but it's starting to feel like our home. I guess it'll still be awhile before it looks totally put together, but it's been fun and we both love having more space. We even had our first house guests this week: two of my brothers and the farm dog, Peanut. My brothers really only came out to see Peanut and to play on our Gamecube, but it was fun having them. It's a lot easier to play hostess when we're not all tripping over each other.

My first Halloween

I was so excited, this was my first year handing out candy from my own house! So many kids come to our neighborhood, so most people sit outside all night. It gave me a chance to get to know some our neighbors. I didn't have much time or extra money for decorations, I'm hoping to do some sale shopping today for next year. Anyway, it was lots of fun! Oh, I guess I should explain the picture with all the kids. They were my first trick or treaters! And just so you don't think I'm insane, they are my friends' kids and I coerced them into being my first trick or treaters.

Moving Sucks

Here are two pictures from the day we moved all the furniture and the majority of the boxes. We took a lot of breaks while loading the truck, making plenty of time to spoil the dog. Then, at the new house, we put pretty much everything in the living room to sort out later, so it turned into a maze. Now, five days later, there are still plenty of boxes, but it's a little easier to navigate. I've never done a big move like this before and I was not prepared for how long it would take and how tired I would be at the end of EVERY day. With Chris' work schedule I was pretty much doing it on my own, which was horrible, and I really had no idea how much stuff we were actually able to cram into that tiny apartment! It took a whole week to get it all cleaned out. But now we're in our house and I just get to focus on unpacking, which is fun for me.

 

 

 

Our New House!!

This is a picture of our living room, looking into the kitchen/dining room. We had dinner in our new house and bought a couple things for it. I can't wait to start moving stuff in tomorrow!

My birthday!

I had such a nice birthday yesterday! My friend Sarah came over and made me brunch, which we ate on the boxes that are now taking over my living room. Then my friend Kelli made me dinner and a cake and we played games, it was so fun. Chris did give me a couple cute gifts, of course my big present comes on Monday when we settle on the house!

Old House, New House

My sister has been bugging me for awhile to take a picture of the house we're buying (in two and a half weeks!) so I figured I would also take a picture of where we live now and post them both so that everyone interested can take a look. The pink building is our current apartment, the door is hidden behind the hideous wisteria bush that my aunt is attached to. Don't be fooled if you think it looks bigger than a one bedroom apartment, the garage is the bottom half. I know you can only see a little bit of our new house because of the trees, but trust me when I say it is a HUGE improvement!

My first blog!

Alright, so many of my friends have created family blogs, I've broken down and decided to do the same. Not that I think our life is all that interesting, but it seems like a really easy way to update all our friends and family who live far away. So, this week Chris has been really busy at work having all the board of directors in town for a big meeting. He's been going in early and getting in late, so I haven't seen very much of him. Mostly I've been taking care of all the paperwork for our loan application. It's down to four and a half weeks until we settle on our house! I haven't really started packing yet, but I've been thinking about it a lot! I could go on and on, but I'll leave it at that for now. I don't want to bore everyone too much right away!