A Tribute :)

In 2009 Greg and I bought our first home together. Maybe I should say we rescued it. I loved this house the moment I saw it online. It was in desperate need of repair. I begged Greg that we needed it. It needed us! He finally agreed, and we rescued it from despair. We (and my dear mom & step dad) changed just about everything in the house - flooring, paint, fixtures, bathrooms. 

In the end, it was truly ours. And oh, I loved this house.

This was my favorite room in the house. The kitchen. (The furniture is outdated and was not my first choice...but home repairs left little money for furniture upgrades!) Regardless, walking into this room felt like getting a big hug. Not to mention, 7 days after our closing, we hosted Thanksgiving for our families and Greg proposed to me in this very spot.

Yesterday was our closing on this house. After an unexpected (but welcomed) job offer for Greg, we had to move on. So yesterday, we signed it away. But we're onto bigger and better things, and new adventures, and {hopefully soon} new house hunting. I just felt the need to pay a small tribute to the pretty blue house on Surrey Lane that I loved so much.

"It always amazes me to think that every house on every street is full of so many stories; so many triumphs and tragedies, and all we see are yards and driveways." Glenn Close

Happy Veterans Day

"This nation shall remain the land of the free because of the brave."

I was looking through old pics the other day and stumbled upon these. They are Veterans Day cards made by 1st graders which were sent over to my husband's unit during their 2008 Iraq tour. I am so thankful that I took some pics of my favorites before I sent them out. 

I am posting them here as my Veterans Day tribute, because they are so genuinely sweet & sincere. Love that about kids! 

When the teacher asked this child why she drew this picture she replied:

"Because if I was far away from my home, seeing a picture of my mom would make me feel better." 

How can you not smile at that?

Happy Veterans Day to all of our brave soldiers out there...

our country wouldn't be the great nation it is without you!

No turning back now!

The moment I have been waiting for has arrived. The three magical words every DIY bride wants to hear. After weeks of research, designing, printing, cuting, gluing, stamping (& of course, bedazzling), the invitations are...wait for it...IN THE MAIL!

I have to say that even though I significantly underestimated the time it took to me to put 80 invitations together from scratch, I loved that I handmade each one. As cheesy as it sounds, as I did my final "quality control check" (as G called it) & placed each one in its envelope, I couldn't help but feel like I was sending something extra to all of our guests. Something you can't buy in a store. And that's what I hope our wedding turns out to be; handmade, and something that couldn't possibly be bought in a store.

On a lighter note: Nothing says "there's no turning back now" than inviting 150 people to watch you get married. (Grin)

Where has the time gone?

Time is a funny thing isn't it? For instance, I'll share a funny story from my day.

I got out of work today a bit earlier than usual, and my drive home was filled with excitement of thoughts of all I could get done with my "extra" time in my day. However, this was squashed when I pulled into the driveway and realized both my house keys and wallet were nestled inside the house in my gym bag, not in my purse. I spent the next hour and a half on the phone with G (who is not-so-conveniently out of town) devising a plan of how to get into our house which I have so affluently demanded be more secure than the white house. The credit card swipe didn't work (thankfully for my own sanity), the idea of breaking the window was ruled out (as it's winter and replacing a window is not in my skillbook) so we settled on a locksmith. Ok, necessary digression...to sum it up, my "extra" time was shot, and when I finally got into the house, it was almost 7. Not that this was all that late, but my motivation went out the door with my $100 and the locksmith.

But I guess it wasn't a total loss. I spent the night planted comfortably on my couch, catching up on my girly DVR'd shows, and reading up on friends fabulous blogs (new favorite is A's craft central, here); which made me realize that I have my own blog which I've been neglecting. And this made me realize (yes, this strange string of events really is how my brain works...ha) that sometimes we get so caught up in "time" and using it wisely, that we neglect the lighter side of life.

So the moral of my story? Well I guess my point is, is that I need to hold myself accountable to spend more time "wasting" time. You may think that's easy to do, but for someone who has spent the last 3 months moving, packing, unpacking, renovating, planning, cleaning, there hasn't been much time left over to "waste". Whatever that may be...blogging, crafting, sewing...we'll see. But here I am! Stay tuned for more....

What a month!

I realized a couple things today...1, that I haven't posted in a while. 2, that a lot has happened in the last month! First things first, Greg's job offered him a position in Manchester, New Hampshire, and it kind of made the most sense, so we decided to give it a whirl. The following all happened as a result...

1. I quit my job with the Y of 8 years, without having a new one yet.
2. Had my first job interview, almost ever. (My last interview was for a camp counselor when I was 19!)
3. We moved to New Hampshire.
4. Officially graduated from college...finally. :)
5. Was offered aforementioned job (only 7 days after my last day at the Y, and only 2 days after I finished my last class.) I'm now an Auditor with Plodzik & Sanderson, an Auditing firm in Concord.

I am amazed at how everything worked out so well. Needless to say, Greg and I are settled in to our temporary teeny apartment, and having fun house hunting. There is a prospect in the works, so more on that when the time comes. :) I love the new job and other than that, we're just loving life exploring what our new state has to offer. We joked when we decided to move down here that "Who knows, we might even like it!" And so far, we do!