Thursday, August 27, 2009

Onto the next great adventure..

So now that we've had the house warming party and the house is in a livable state I'm feeling like its time for the next big (or medium, or even small) thing. Done with the house, onto the next project/idea/object of focus! ....Like, traveling!

Our Fall season is starting to fill up with trips and I'm really looking forward to it. While we were looking, buying, moving into, and settling into the house we didn't really go anywhere (nevermind that we had just got back from Ireland and Vegas, that's beside the point) but now that it's all over with I'm ready to hit the road! Well that, and I can see the end of summer is so very close and I will get a reprieve from sweating like a pig* - and be able to enjoy the outdoors again! Oh how I love thee, Autumn! So far there are a couple camping trips in the works, a quarter-decade anniversary trip to the NC mountains**, a trip to Busch Gardens, and a weekend trip home to see family. YAY

Back later with more info.
Heather


*I broke my summer hibernation rule by going to the Lazy Daze art festival this past Saturday. It was an awesome festival with a lot of cool stuff that we drooled over, boggled at the prices of, and a few things that we happily carried home. Some of these included a jack-o-lantern made from a propane tank and a few cute hand sewn pumpkins. (Again, can you tell we are looking forward to Fall??) We went early in hopes of beating the summer heat with no luck there - I almost drowned in my skin at one point. I thought we were moving somewhere cooler than GA. How sadly we were mistaken.

** Glenn has planned our anniversary trip with little input from me. Its great to have a trip coming up that I don't have to worry about planning. I'm really looking forward to seeing whats in store! :-)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Catching up and settling in

Wow… it's been six weeks since my last post… how'd that happen? Clearly I've been slacking off on the blogging — time to fix that!

So, what's happened lately? Nothing much… and by nothing much, I mean a lot!

The biggest thing is that we're really, truly moved in and settled in now. Everything's unpacked except for stuff that's staying in storage, the furniture is arranged in pleasing and practical ways, pictures and artwork are all in place on the walls… it's a wonderful feeling! We put in a major push over the last couple weeks to get everything ready for the housewarming party and it was worth it. It's amazing how motivational a deadline can be, isn't it?

I think we actually surprised people with how settled in we are now — we got more than one comment about how “it looks like you've been living here for years.” (I think they meant that positively — “you've got it all figured out and made comfortable” — rather than the opposite — “jeez, you've been here for two months and already trashed the place!”…)

Anyway, I've really been struck lately by how everything in this house already has meaning for us and memories associated with it. It's a really good feeling. I'm going to post some examples now — please bear with my ramblings, or ignore them and just see some of the house pictures you've been asking for (though now that we've had the open house, a lot of you have already seen this stuff by now!):

Of course the pictures on the wall themselves have a lot of meaning — our wedding, the places we've traveled together — but the stairway itself also makes me think of how Heather spotted the opportunity that this big blank wall presented, and how we worked together to get the pictures arranged and hung aesthetically. A real team effort!

Our office/guest room/craft room is full of thoughts and memories. The bookcases from our eight-hour IKEA shopping spree. My D&D books and miniatures, both old and new. Even the successful room layout itself, which came from Heather saying thoughtfully, about a week after we moved in, “This room just isn't working! What if we switched all of the furniture around the opposite of how we have it right now?” This is a really cozy, comfortable room, exactly as it should be.

Our “Mickey's Shadow” walls make the bedroom a wonderfully tranquil place. The bed frame was a spontaneous purchase when we found a deal too good to refuse, a pleasant change from our usual modus operandi (see also, 8 hours at IKEA). The comforter on the bed was made for us by my mother from the tablecloths at our wedding rehearsal dinner.

See what I mean? Memories and good feelings everywhere I look!