Our First Anniversary

Amongst the business of our regular weekend activities, we were able to celebrate our anniversary and enjoy being together for a full year of marriage. We reminisced about how we first met nine years ago, and how we have grown and changed together. We remembered our wedding day and how special it was to have so many friends and family celebrate together with us. We attempted to piece together our wedding dance without success. We enjoyed a slice of our wedding cake and recalled all the love and energy poured into them. We commented how grown-up we have become since purchasing our new house. We realized how lucky we are to have jobs that we enjoy. We laughed and joked about our crazy family of four cats. We spoke of our future and where it might take us. We felt our love strengthen.

On Saturday, these beauties were delivered to me at work...

while these were being delivered to the house!

Zach did a great job getting the new washer and dryer working. There was a slight problem with the water valves that warranted a call to a plumber, but was fixed with the help of Zach's dad. They actually play a cute little song when the cycle is done.

I think it's grand!

Our official anniversary celebration was spent Saturday night with a dinner out to Julianna's in Harrisburg and then the Harrisburg Symphony concert. Since we had a bit of a hang-up with the washer and dryer, we bumped our reservations back a little bit and of course Zach had to explain why we were late to the restaurant staff, so everyone knew we were dealing with a washer and dryer crisis. It was pretty funny.

On Sunday (our actual anniversary day), we had a music concert at church. Since we didn't have time to go home after the morning service, we stopped at Diener's, our favorite breakfast place in downtown Mechanicsburg.

We saved the top tier of our wedding cake and enjoyed a slice on our anniversary. It brought back so many fond memories of baking, prepping, icing, and transporting all 16 cakes for our wedding!

Zach sharing a moment with his best buddy, Beeker.

My love.

Not much

We have continued to get ourselves settled into the house. We both feel comfortable and absolutely love our own space. The house is really a perfect fit for us - open, peaceful, and relatively low maintenance at this point. We are pleased with our purchase.

It has been rather rainy this week, but I've spent a few nights weeding some big problem areas in the yard. There is still a pile of yard trash from the prior owner that kind of scares me, but hopefully Zach and I will tackle it together this weekend. If not, it can wait for another weekend because I'm afraid of what critters I might find once we reach in!

Speaking of this weekend...it is going to be special! First, our washer and dryer are scheduled to be delivered Saturday. (Yeah - bring on the clean clothes!) Saturday evening, we plan to celebrate our one year anniversary by going out to dinner and the Harrisburg symphony concert. (I can't believe it has been a year. How time flies when you're old!) At church on Sunday, we'll have a guest choir for our joint worship service and in the afternoon the church is providing a music concert that Zach and I are participating in. It should be a nice weekend and I'm looking forward to it!

Interior Updates

Since the weather has been kind of crummy, I've worked on unpacking and rearranging this week. Things are finding a home, but there are still some spots that aren't quite there yet. It's hard to use furniture that fits your old space and find a way to make it fit your new space. Also, it still seems slightly impersonal since I don't have anything up on the walls. Zach doesn't want any nails in the perfect wall, yet. So it seems as if I'll be investing in those hooks that attach to the wall and come off without a trace.

Here is your virtual tour. It's always difficult to find the right angle, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit for some rooms.

First, the kitchen and living room:

New refrigerator!

Wedding gifts out and in use!

Lots of cookbooks.

Beautiful view.

Next, the office:

Functional, but still need to find spots for a few things.

Our entertainment center (we don't have TV).

Next, Bedroom and bathrooms

Half of the bedroom. The other half still needs work!

Master bathroom was hard to photograph.

So was the guest bathroom.

Finally, the den:

I may have vacuumed the carpet...
removed a few cat toys...
and a litterbox or two...

just to take pictures of this room.

Our little stream

This past Sunday we had some heavy rainfall throughout most of the evening. We woke up the next morning to find our little stream flowing with lots of water. Zach almost wanted to kayak, but figured most of the driveway bridges would be too low. Here's a picture of what it looks like today, as comparison.

Today I spent the afternoon clearing out this dog kennel in our backyard. It was filled with tons of leaves, weeds and vines (more than likely some of it was poison ivy, though I didn't see any). Now it's cleared out, but I can't see it looks pretty. Unfortunately it has a concrete base, so even if we sell the fencing, we've got to haul that concrete out too. Not sure what we'll do with it at this point. For now I'm thinking of planting some morning glories there. What do you think?

Home Improvements and Congratulations

Ok, sorry, but there are no house pictures yet, because frankly, it looks just as it did the day after we moved in. Now that being said, those of you that saw it on Sunday know it's fairly well unpacked, save for about a hundred boxes that need to be sorted. But it's too gorgeous not to be outside working in our yard!

Zach took our new mower for its inaugural test drive. The yard looks great and he had a blast. (Well, not quite sure he'd agree with that statement, but he's not here to defend himself. He was pretty proud of his work, though!) Anyway, cruise control was apparently very helpful, but it's still quite a work-out due to the steepness of our property. We are very grateful for the gift and it is pretty awesome to actually have a yard to mow. Thanks Mom and Dad H.!

While Zach mowed the lawn, I tackled the task of the vegetable garden. It needed a lot of TLC, weeding, and then planting. As you can see, it looks splendid, though (Before and After shots). There was some ground cover at the top that was well established, a very large oregano plant, and an unidentified plant on the lowest tier. The rest got cleared and tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumber, zucchini, and beans were planted. I don't have a picture of the veggies, but most of them were seeds anyway, so you'll have to wait for another month or so. I also planted sunflowers and giant zinnias. Yeah :) (oh, and guess what - I have poison ivy!)

In other very exciting news....Zach has been offered a new job! He will be working as an inside salesman at H&H Associates, an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) sales and service company. He is super excited for this great opportunity and I am sooooooo proud :)

Some moving day pictures for you

Packing, packing, packing...

This is a pile of boxes at the apartment...only the beginning of the long process of moving. I spent about 2 weeks slowly getting all the boxes packed, but in the end I ran out of steam and boxes. We were using all sorts of creative ways to pack those last "few things" that just seemed to be endless.

All of the cats loved the piles of boxes that continued to grow and change. They investigated every nook and cranny.

Hauling, Moving, Unpacking...

We had so many gracious helpers ready and willing to get things started early on Saturday morning. Our day started at 8am and with eight people, the apartment was empty in no time. The truck was parked on Main St., so the sidewalk outside the apartment soon became filled with all of our stuff. I couldn't believe we had fit everything into that place! I don't even want to think about moving a house-ful of stuff in the future!

While the truck was being loaded, some people went to the house with loaded cars. More helpers arrived later, offering fresh muscles ready to tackle the unloading. The truck arrived at the house around 12:30, and if I recall correctly, it was unloaded within 1-1 1/2 hours. The weather was nice, but it was about 90 degrees and humid, so we were also pretty wiped out by the time it was finished. Thankfully we were rejuvenated by the great spread of food my mom brought.

Isn't the yard just gorgeous? Mel commented that it felt like you were camping and everyone had their own spot at the campground. (Of course on a larger and more permanent scale.) I thought the comparison was great. That's definitely how we feel!

Decisions, decisions....where should everything go?

Lots of heavy lifting. Good thing Tony was able to help us out. He did such a great job in packing and driving the truck. We could not have done the move without him!

Yeah...we go from a pile of boxes in one place to a pile of boxes in another. Seriously, couldn't there be an easier way to move?

What can I say? It was a hot day and we were getting tired. But there was no rest for the weary.

Our new refrigerator was delivered and it really filled the spot nicely. We're both happy with our first big appliance purchase! Next will be the washer and dryer. I cannot wait.

Zach's first home project - hooking up the ice maker. Thanks to his dad for helpful instruction and pointers. (We'll have you on speed dial, Dad!)

Since moving day, we have been able to unpack quite a few things and have the house feeling comfortable. We absolutely love it and still feel like it's not really ours yet. It is just so different from our downtown apartment living and we are so grateful. Zach commented that it was difficult to fall asleep last night because it was so quiet.

The cats are adjusting rather quickly. They are constantly rotating from spot to spot, windowsill to windowsill. There are a ton of birds and squirrels for them to watch. I think they're loving it.

Will post some pictures of the interior soon, once I get a few more boxes out of the way.

Moving

I am writing this very short post from the comfort of our new home! We had a fabulously hot and sunny day for moving, but everything went quickly and smoothly. We're hitting the sack early tonight, so I will post pics and info later.