Happy Anniversary My Love!

4 years ago I married my wonderful husband. We have been through so many wonderful things, houses, a baby, vacations, job changing/unemployment, school, and everything in between. Here is to many more years with you. We are a team and I can't imagine going through this crazy life without you. When I am weak and down you pull me up and pick up my slack, I challenge you to be the best that you can be. I think we are a perfect fit - and to top it all off we have this amazing little boy that we made and he is growing up to be one happy and perfect little man. 

So....for our anniversary we had to keep it a little low key since we are still recovering from the expense of buying the new house, plus dumping money in to it to get settled in. We had Kay watch Marcus for the night and we went out to celebrate with friends. Buffalo Wild Wings with Matt, Tina, Ben, Tegan and Joe. Then afterward we went out downtown to let loose a little. We even hit up the new ice bar and did ice luge shots for something different. It was a great night and was wonderful to go home and sleep in the next morning. Then we enjoyed a quiet breakfast just the two of us at Pinnacle before heading off to pick up our sweet boy. 

A New Home!

I have fallen off of the face of the blog world for a few months, and for good reason. We sold our house and bought a new one. This was a multiple month process and very drawn out I might add. Boy am I glad it is done too, it was very painful, particularly the selling part.

We decided to tackle selling the home on our own in order to save us almost $5000 in commission fees and we did it! I listed the house on the MLS with a company called Lowes Flat Fee Realty for $450. Roger was great and we had no complaints whatsoever. In fact he was very helpful. Although our buyer and buyer’s realtor were nightmares (I will spare us all the gory details) I would go through this all over again even with all of the frustration because it was worth the $5K that is now in my pocket (or rather put towards paying off Cole’s car). We dealt with a buyer that was a judge, unwilling to negotiate fairly, argued over fees and was just plain nitpicky. But we are done, and we made a profit on the house even after all fees and commissions were paid….now on to the good stuff.

We have such wonderful friends and family. We had help packing, moving furniture, use of people’s trucks, babysitting, and cleaning. My sincere thanks goes out to all of them – Matt, Tina, Jessica, Jake, Megan, Mom, Kay, Alex and Tony – they were all awesome. I must admit as I drove away from my first home I got emotional. Four years of such wonderful memories are in this house I left behind. We got married, I graduated with my Master’s degree, Marcus was brought home there, and so many other countless memories will be left in that house. Though they won’t be forgotten. It was a great little house for us to start out in and a great investment.

Our new house….it is fabulous. Located off of Ustick in between Cloverdale and Eagle Rd. The best part about it, it is HUGE! 2918 square feet to be exact. It is a 2007 two story home that is gray with navy blue trim. It has 5 bedrooms and 2 ½ bathrooms. We had the choice between a home that was upgraded and complete that we would have had to do nothing to, but was considerably smaller at 2000 sq feet or this one. We chose this one because we can live in it as is, but yet we have the opportunity to do some upgrades to really make this house our own in the long run. So we will do things such as tile the kitchen, put in granite countertops, landscape the backyard, etc.

Things I am loving about the house right now:

1. The space! It is huge, the kitchen makes our table look dwarf sized. Marcus runs around the house every day from room to room yelling in delight and touching walls indicating that he thinks this much room to run around is fabulous.
2. Our shower. It is a tub/shower combo but the tub portion is like a soaker tub. So I can take a very relaxing bath in it.
3. Our closet. Just like the rest of the house, it is huge and there is so much space for our clothes.
4. The lighting in the house. It has great light flow that makes it so I hardly have to turn on the lights in the house, this was not the case in the old house. Hopefully this will help offset some of our huge electric bill that will come from heating and cooling this giant beast!
5. Lastly, and currently my favorite, there is a peach tree in the back yard! At first look at the house Cole thought it was a plum tree and I took his word for it. I wasn’t too terribly excited about a peach tree. But about a week and half ago we discovered it was a peach tree and I was excited. Then last night, I was ecstatic. I got to pull 10 ripe peaches off of the tree and make a peach crumble. I LOVE peaches and love that now I won’t have to pay for them.

So....without much adieu, here it is!! The new home!!

Date Nights

Although we haven't gotten any pictures of them, we have had a few fabulous date nights recently.

Yesterday we got to go to the Postal Service. This was my belated birthday present celebration. Tickets went on sale the day of my birthday and sold out. Cole worked his magic and made sure we got tickets. So, the night was spent first at a nice dinner at Fork. We don't get to eat out at too many nice places anymore so I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity.

The concert was fabulous, and the house was packed at the Knitting Factor! Although we weren't crazy about the opening act, the Postal Service didn't disappoint. Cole and I share a love for concerts and ones like this where we have been listening to them for a decade are really special for us. It brings me closer to my love. Yes the concert was on a Tuesday, so there wasn't much excitement afterwards since I had to work.

Marcus did fabulous with Aunt Megan and she said for the first time ever he didn't cry when we left. I think he is finally starting to get over his separation anxiety and slowly realizing that we will come back.

This past weekend Marcus had his second sleepover with Kay. It had been a few months since the last one so we figured it was time to try again. I was just as nervous as the first time, but I think he did better. He actually ran to Kay for the first time ever when he saw her as we were dropping him off. Now this was proceeded by crying once he realized that we weren't going to eat dinner with them, but I was told he was okay after Jim and Grae cheered him up.

I bet you can't guess what Cole and I did....that's right, another concert! This time we were on the complete opposite end of the music spectrum and saw DJ Rusko who is a house/techno music performer. Once again tickets were sold out and the performance was good. We actually did like one of the openers Candyland better than Rusko. I am still undecided on what I think of the Revolution Concert House as a venue, but at least the music was good. Jake, Jessica, Joe and Coco went with us and we had a great time. Cole and I were able to go home and have some quality alone time just the two of us after the concert and the next morning before we had to go and pick up Marcus.

The best part about picking up Marcus after the long time away from him....I got my first unsolicited kiss from him. It was perfect. I was radiating love as I could just tell it was his way of saying mom I missed you so much. Now since then, I get these unsolicited kisses a little more frequently. They are still so very special, but that first one trumps them all. Now to just wait until one of those days where I hear 'I love you'.

Liz and John's Wedding

We were fortunate enough to be able to travel to South Carolina for my friend since elementary school Liz's  wedding. We had a fabulous time, although what's there not to like about wonderful company and amazing southern food? Cole gets along great with Liz's husband John so he had just as much fun as well. As for Marcus, he was the only child there so he was the center of attention and stole everyone's hearts. I was able to catch up with some old friends (Kiley and Kate) I haven't seen since my wedding and we even had some down time. Oh and then of course there was Waffle House. We had breakfast there on Friday and Saturday morning and Cole relished in everything about it.

Thursday evening when we got in consisted of Liz's bachelorette party. She wanted something low key so we went out to Thai food and then to a bar for a little drinking fun. Afterwards it was home for the evening where we met up with the guys who were out on the back patio drinking scotch and smoking cigars (something that they did constantly while we were there).  :o)

On Friday we were able to help with last minute needs for the wedding and started getting things set up. The rehearsal dinner was amazing as it was true southern bbq complete with sweet potato crunch (not the dessert, this was the vegetable people even though it tasted like sweet potato pie without the crust) and different cakes for dessert. We drank and spent time visiting late into the night before we retired back to our hotel room.

Saturday was the big day and it was wonderful. The weather was overcast and rainy but the rain subsided just a few minutes before Liz walked down the aisle. Marcus stole the hearts of many and was a ham the whole night until he crashed in the clubhouse with noise all around him and slept the rest of the night away.

On Sunday we were able to go out to breakfast with the wedding party before most of them went home. Then Cole and I packed up our stuff from the hotel and headed over to Liz and John's to spend the rest of the trip with them. We were able to catch up at their house and then went to downtown Greenville for dinner. It is a fabulous area that reminds me a lot of the Riverwalk in San Antonio, just not directly on the river. Once we got home we spent a few more hours talking the evening away while the guys continued to smoke their cigars.

Sadly we left on Monday afternoon. We had enough time that morning to eat breakfast with Liz and John and say our goodbyes before we headed to the airport.