One year! We made it!

Well, we made it to a year! We celebrated Saturday night and tried to "surprise" each other. Jon wouldn't tell me where he was taking me to dinner, but I figured it out. Melting Pot!! He did try to confuse me by driving all around Grapevine in order to throw me off - and to kill time. Turns out we were early for our reservations. We had a fabulous meal and a really great time enjoying the chocolate - you can never go wrong with the Melting Pot dessert.

First anniversary is traditionally paper. So of course Jon got me a keyless remote entry system for my car!!!! Makes perfect sense to me! I actually loved it and he was just so happy to get me something completely unexpected. I love that for our first anniversary he got me something completely practical - totally me!!!






There is also a modern take on anniversaries, and the gift for "modern" first anniversaries is a clock. I didn't even know this when I bought Jon his gift - more than 2 1/2 months ago!!! It's a watch he's been wanting for the longest time. I actually wanted to give it to him as a wedding gift, but was too broke. First anniversary ain't too bad! He figured out what his gift was ahead of time, but didn't tell me. I'm just glad he never saw it - hard to hide something for that long in the close quarters we had been living in! And yes - he made me take this series of pictures below...

This is a terrible picture, but we had to take it anyway for posterity's sake. Darn flash!

Here's a picture we took on our actual anniversary. We needed one for the anniversary book Lucille gave us as a wedding gift! Jon brought me these flowers on Friday, and had a card for me every morning for 4 days. I love his cards. The bouquet had lilies and roses just like my bouquet!!! We also re-enacted the "kissy-face" picture from the wedding, but they didn't turn out so well. Maybe I'll get brave and post them.

What a year it's been. I'm not sure we can top it - or that we'd want to!! Such a blessed feeling knowing we were celebrating moving into our first house just as we were celebrating our first year of wedded bliss. So surreal - and we thank God for every second of it.

Although we DID forget to eat the cake.... I can't believe we forgot the cake!!! I made it such a huge priority to have Jon get a cooler and dry ice so we could transport it from Vegas. His parents made plenty of room in their freezer for the thing, and it had even already made its way to our new house! And we forgot it!!! Oh well... we're just prolonging the celebration. :)

Moving right along!!

It's been a busy week!! We closed one week ago today - and time has flown! With the exception of Jon's bike and golf clubs, which are still at Don & Jane's house, everything has been moved! Things are slowly finding their places as I unpack. Jon has been working overtime so has not had much time to do things. But he's made a really good dent in projects. I'm posting pictures of all the things we've done and continue to work on...

Jon hung a new storm door in the back. It still needs a handle, though. And best of all... it's got a doggy door! The dogs took a while to get used to using it, but now they're pros.

Don and Jane graciously hired a company to install a garage door opener for us as an anniversary/welcome home gift. After watching them install it, I'm SO GLAD Jon did not attempt to do this himself.

Jon removed the chandelier from the office and installed this ceiling fan.

And moved the chandelier to the entryway!! It looks fabulous!

We've even started organizing the garage!

Though it's still a work in progress....

Jon's work bench.

And my first order of business.....

BUT I had to be fair....

We did it!!!

We signed the papers and now own the house!!!

So silly, but we can't wait to get the dogs over there to have them run around the backyard. As I said before, it's the little things.

I can't sleep - I've got 2 hours until my alarm is set to go off this morning. I guess I'm a little bit excited, huh? The movers are scheduled to show up this morning, then Jon and I are heading over to hopefully find new bedroom furniture. Then we'll swing back by Don & Jane's, pack up the rest of our stuff, load up the pups and head back home! (I'm sure we'll manage to squeeze in another trip to Lowe's along the way.)

Here's a link to the album. I'll make sure to upload another one when we've gotten our furniture set up and a picture or two hung up. http://picasaweb.google.com/hollyhanes/OldMacGregor

We have a fridge!

ohhh, it's the small things, isn't it? We have a Sears Outlet where all of the damaged/returned merchandise gets sent to. The fridge we found actually was in near-perfect condition. It only had a few minor scratches/dents on the sides where it will be hidden anyway. But it had EVERYTHING we wanted: Sateen finish (yay! no fingerprints!), water in-door, ice maker in-door, perfect height, everything.

Everything's moving right along. There's SO MUCH to do, but I think I've done everything I can do at this point. Got all utilities ready to be hooked up. Movers have confirmed they'll be at the house Friday morning. We have our walk-through at noon tomorrow and closing appointment at 1:00pm. From what we hear, the sellers were able to get the builders to fix every single thing on our list from the inspection - we had only asked for 2 things. And they've also apparently had all the wood blinds professionally cleaned and have patched up and painted over all the nail holes.

We feel so blessed!!! I'm glad I don't have to go back to work until Thursday - although I know I will be wanting a REAL vacation after all this. We know it's worth it.

Now we just have to figure out when to squeeze in a BIG trip to Lowe's. Oh yeah, and did I mention that Jon doesn't have any time off at all? So we've still got to manage to let him sleep all during the days while I'm home fixing things up. We'll make it work somehow...

We are scheduled to have internet up and running by next Wednesday, so unless I can "borrow" an unsecured wireless line somewhere in the neighborhood, I most likely won't be posting again until shortly after that.

Thank you for all your prayers!! They're being well used.

til next time.... !!!

Sunday Goodies

Jon and I went back to Irving Bible Church yesterday. It's been very easy to become complacent on Sundays with Jon now working nights, but we fully realize how important it is for us to not only attend but to become involved in a church. IBC is a bit far from our new house, but we both really like it, so I think it's where we'll wind up. Yesterday we attended the young couples study following the first service and we really enjoyed it. And we met another couple who live in the development next to our new one!! Such encouragement.

After church we went to Tom Thumb (Vons for all our Cali/Nevada friends) and were hungry - which is never good. We overshot it a little bit when we got a big box of mac & cheese, however we also got a container of the yummy tomato basil soup and a sourdough baguette. We're still talking about how good it was.

Jon hit the hay shortly after and I went to browse Lowe's for goodies for the new house. Kind of overwhelming but definitely exciting. We can't wait!!

Less than a week away!

Jon and I close on our new house in less than a week. We're scheduled for Thursday, July 19th with movers scheduled to come first thing Friday morning! So far, so good. Things have been really smooth - we just hope it continues that way!

I'll have off work for a week starting Thursday. Friday after the movers leave, the plan is for Jon and I to rush over to Lowe's to go shopping! We are in need of a refrigerator, washer & dryer, lawnmower, trimmer, doggy door, etc... !!! Very exciting, yet a tad overwhelming.

We're on our way!!!