Trees

One of my requirements in the house hunting process was that our yard would have lots of trees. For the majority of my life, I've lived surrounded by trees. My childhood home was right night to a nature center and had a crick running through the backyard. My parents current home is on 3.5 acres and has over 100 trees on the property. I could never live in a clear-cut development where you can look right through your backyard into your neighbors house. I need shade. I need privacy.

One of the things I love about this house is the yard. It has nice open green space, but plenty of trees. Although there are houses behind us, we can't really see them (well, maybe in the winter). And although it may mean lot of raking, at least we'll have our own private place for our kids to play. Here are some pictures of the yard:

Looking out the window

The shed and hot tub (yes, hot tub!)

Right side of shed - we plan to make a dog run in this corner

Not Much to Report... and a little preview

This past weekend was wonderful. Friday night was spent at dinner and playing games with friends. Saturday I woke up, and honestly didn't know what to do with myself. I had NOTHING that I HAD to do. I enjoyed a lazy morning, made some chicken and rice soup and brownies... and other than that, I can't really remember what I did all afternoon. I haven't had a Saturday like that in awhile.

This week is a little busy at work, but we have a fairly open weekend. Inspections on the house are Saturday morning - pray they go well! I wandered around Pier 1 tonight looking for ideas, but wouldn't let myself buy anything until inspections are done. Sorry for the bad picture (it was getting dark, and I just had the P&S along), but here is a little preview of our home:

We Have a House!!!

We put an offer in on a house on Monday, and have been going back and forth since then. This morning, we agreed on a price!!! Plus, rates dropped below 6%, which is wonderful. Hopefully everything will go smoothly with inspections, etc, and we'll move in mid-December! I can't wait to post pictures, but am going to wait until things are finalized - I don't want to jinx anything.

The house is in Wyoming - Burlingame and 44th area. It will be so nice for Ben to have a shorter drive to work everyday. I AM SO E.X.C.I.T.E.D!!!!

Another Year Older

Another birthday gone by... another year older. I don't feel older (yet), but I am officially now in my upper 20s. When I was young, I imagined I'd be married at 21, which means I'd probably have a few kids by now - crazy! I really like my life and where we're at, though. Some day (hopefully) we'll have kids, but for now, we're having a great time just the two of us.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. For awhile, nothing too exciting was going on, and then this past week was crazy-busy. We've still be looking at houses and found one we really like this weekend. We're going to look at again tomorrow and then might be putting an offer in within a week or so. I'm taking my camera, so if our offer is accepted, etc, I'll definitely post pictures.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. I'm blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends and family! Happy Birthday to my Uncle Karl as well! I was born on his 16th birthday - can you imagine a better birthday present? :P

It's All Gone

I got my haircut!!! It hasn't been this short in 5 years! I couldn't find a good recent picture of it before, but you can kind of see what it looked like in the Cali pictures below. Here is the new hair... please excuse the crappy pics from the webcam on the laptop :).

It's almost mid October?

Seriously... where does the time go? I had great hopes of this fall being less busy and having more time to relax and home and spend time with Ben, but that doesn't seem to be happening. I can't imagine how busy life will be some day when we have a family.

This weekend Ben and I, along with his parents and brother, are heading to Iowa and Minnesota for a wedding. We're leaving tonight, and I really hope I can go. I haven't been feeling very well since Saturday. Ben and I are not ready to start a family, but I was feeling so crappy I even resorted to taking a pregnancy test to see if there was a surprise!!! (It was negative) :) . I'm taking it easy right now, taking meds, and hopefully will be feeling good enough for a long car ride. Not fun.

A few weeks ago my sister picked me up at work on a Tuesday and we headed out to Grand Haven to take a few pictures of her and her fiance Jay. They were having their actual engagement pics taken downtown (check them out), but wanted a few in Grand Haven, since that is where they got engaged. We had fun, but it was REALLY windy. Ben had met us in GH after work, so I just rode with him. Well, the next morning I walk out the door and the truck is not parked out front. I think to myself "Well, maybe Ben accidentally took the truck instead of the car", so I went around to where we park the car and that was gone too. My next thought is "Someone stole the truck!!!", and to be honest, I had a brief moment of excitement... I've been waiting to get rid of that thing! And then it dawned on me... I had left the truck at Calvin. Luckily, I live close enough I can walk. It just wasn't how I planned to start my morning.

Anyway, here are a few of the pictures we took:

The Golden Gate and The Coastal Redwoods