Back to the Writing World

Wow, I can't believe how long I've been away from this blog. I know that my cousin will be happy that I finally wrote since she already commented on my absence already.

So what's been going on in my life? Not too much I suppose. Justin and I have celebrated our second anniversary which was amazing :-). We went down to Washington DC and got to spend time with my cousins that we never see. It was so much fun down there. And it wasn't as nerve-wracking as I thought. Like I figured me coming from up here in the boondocks I would be flipping out in our nation's capital but I was really surprised that the number of people really weren't overwhelming. Then we went up to Philadelphia for the rest of the week and spent time with Justin's cousins. That was a lot of fun since we don't really get to see them either. We went to the city once but otherwise we just hung around their area. Probably the nicest part was going to Longwood Gardens. It was so different than everything we have up here <3.> Well, this was short but at least it was a post so I'm feeling good haha. I PROMISE I will write more though. xoxo

Our New Family

So, Justin told me that, for our second anniversary, we would get a puppy. This made me extremely happy! I was looking into small breeds of dogs thinking of a maltese or something like that. Well, plans quickly changed when a guy who works with Justin was surprised to find that his dog had given birth to a litter of four puppies. So with the agreement of a free puppy we took a dog. We wanted a little black one but they were all boys so the only little girl was a white one. Yesterday, as I relaxed on a couch, Justin called and said we were going to get the newest member of our family!

As I write this I have a little white lump laying on my foot. Our bundle of joy is named Poundcake. Her dad was a BIG lab and her mom was part huskey, part border collie and part something else. That mystery part kept her and her sister fairly small though so Poundcake could go to either extremes. Of course, everyone I've talked to thinks it would be adorable for a mini-lab and I kind of agree haha. She's not very curious as of yet. Instead she likes to sleep and pee in people's houses and places of work. We're learning that this is not appropriate behavior. And for this reason, mommy has to watch her like a hawk lol. Her days mostly consist of sleeping with 10 min. bursts of energy here and there. I love watching her sleep though and it's fun to just be around here.

As for the rest of the dogs in the family? Dakota could not care less about this new puppy taking over her pillow. Teddy investigated her a bit more but didn't really know what to think. (My grandma wanted to keep her haha.)

Potty break! Sorry, but if I don't get her out RIGHT after waking up we have issues lol.

So anyway, we are now a family of three. I know she's not a real baby but dogs become so much more than pets. And until I get a real baby, Poundcake more than enough makes up for things she gets into. And believe me...that's enough haha.

I Love Them Carnies!

Actually, carnies scare me lol. So, Justin and I went down to the Wellsboro carnival the other night. It was ok. Lots of lights as the night fell. Almost everyone in the town was out to experience the first night. Carnies, in a haze of smoke, called to the potential customers walking by them. Little kids screamed and had the fun in their eyes. So, Justin and I were there and experienced the carnival once again. Obviously, the best part was the food and watching the the little kids fly down the inflatable slide. I seriously think that was the best part of the whole night haha. Oh, and I also realized that we can totally hear the rides and announcers from our house.

The one thing that I do know though is that it's not as fun now as it was when I was little. I've even talked to some of my friends and we all have the magical ideal as to what it was like when we were young. The lights were brighter, the rides were better and the food was better lol. But then I think, was it really better or is it the problem we all face as we grow older. Times were better, people had more morals and the carnies were decent men without the inherent creepiness that is almost required of them today. I hope this isn't the case though. I want to still believe there is magic in the air even though I'm an adult now. The only thing that I could think of last night was that I couldn't wait until my children would be able to experience the same thing that I use to feel coming to the fair.

And I also think it'll be a good excuse, once we have kids, for Justin to be able to go down the fun Slide lol.

I Wear My Flipflops!

Diamonds scattered across the velvet midnight sky twinkled down upon the tiny town below. The glimmer mirrored in the flashes of light from fireflies on the ground. Light summer wind blows gently, barely rustling the blades of grass where the ladybugs have settled in for the night. A soft hush falls over the town. Hidden on a porch swing, a young couple sits and gazes into the night sky. She cuddles into his body as he wraps his arms around her and pulls her close. She sighs and closes her eyes. He kisses her forehead. The only noise comes from the crickets calling to their lovers. No words said; thousands of sensations felt.

Love, True Love, in its Finest...

Our New Home!

So it's official...Justin and I have moved into our new home! We signed the last of the paperwork a week ago today and we absolutely love it! We have two floors, full baths on each, a laundry room, beautiful kitchen, large livingroom, a formal diningroom/library (our 3rd bedroom), a reading area for me, a baby's room (haha, yeah we're thinking), our master bedroom and our second enclosed porch is going to be turned into my sewing room!!!

So far we have most of our things put away. Our master bedroom is all done in red. And yes, I know that people will be like WHAT??? But it really looks nice and everyone has really loved it. You just have to see it to appreciate it. And Justin painted the downstairs bathroom a nice blue. It's a warm beach theme. We're going to get ready to paint the other few rooms in the coming weeks and have a yard sale to get rid of all our extra things.

I'm just really happy that we finally have our own place. I know when we got married it's when we really started our lives together but this move just makes it seem more real I guess. We have our own place. We can get a dog. We can have babies. And it's such a beautiful place that I thank God all the time for showing it to us and it being His will.

Wedding

The other day (Apr. 3rd to be exact), Justin and I were able to go down to State College to witness one of my best friends, Shonna, get married to the love of her life, Dan. I was honored enough to be her maid of honor! After like a Noah's ark type of rain, Justin and I made it down the two hours and got to hang out until the rehearsal. It was really nice, although I met one of the scariest women pastors' in the world! Made me pee my pants lol. The next day was chaotic...especially when the hair stylists' place had no power! Yeah, luckily the women were able to figure it out. Shonna and Dan had a beautiful wedding and the feeling of love was clearly felt throughout the entire place. May Mr and Mrs. Dan Preston have a wonderful and blessed life together!

I started thinking about our wedding. It was such a wonderful day, even with everything going wrong. I know that our married life isn't always the easiest but I'm so lucky to have him as my husband. He's such a wonderful guy. Justin works so much harder than like anyone I know and I appreciate him so much for trying to make a good life for Justin and myself. He'll make a wonderful dad someday and I can't wait until I see the loves of my life, cuddled on the couch sleeping. I love him so much and am honored to be his wife!

House Hunting, Part Deux

So, our house hunting might possibly be done. You see, we looked at the three houses I listed last time. Two were pretty good but enough things wrong in them that we wanted to keep looking. We were going to look at 3 last Sat, but 2 ended up selling and the owners of the 3rd called at like 11 pm Fri and said that their kid was sick. Possibly a lie but doesn't matter. Anyway, that morning Mark P. and Robin (Justin's mom) both called telling us about a for sale by owner house which seemed too good to be true. Like 3 beds, 2 full baths, new everything! But Justin called and finally got a call back from it. Luckily, we were both at a time when we could go look at it.

It's up on Wetmore St. above Patterson's Lumber. It's like the second to last house on that road. It's blue. A good sized yard. There's an apple tree, peach tree and grapes there. And also a shed. There's 2 porches, one enclosed and they're going to work more on the second. You walk into the kitchen. New fridge, dishwasher, stove and microwave and front loading washer/dryer. Expensive "Glitz" (what the owner called it) is above the counters. And the walls are really thick! And awesomely quick heat throughout the house. Pretty good size living room, with a door leading out to the enclosed porch. A downstairs bedroom which also has a door to the porch. Then you go upstairs and there's a long hallway that has two bedrooms and a second full bathroom with an area for a vanity! Justin and I absolutely love it!

There was a couple that looked at the house before us and were set to get it but it was taking awhile to deal with their bank and they said that they knew there were others interested in it and to just go ahead with the next couple...US! So God definately blessed us with this house. It seems to be His will and I hope that He blesses this other couple with a wonderful home of their own. Now we just hope that all of the paperwork and inspection goes well. That'll be the only thing that takes the house from us. Please continue to pray for us all.

House Hunting

So this is entitled "House Hunting" and that's just what we're going to do! That's right, Justin and I are going to begin looking for homes!!! We've picked about 8 homes (mostly in Wellsboro but 2 in Mansfield) and have broken them down into 3 or 4 to see at a time.

The first time we're going to look is this Sat so I'm UBER~excited! The first is a pretty one on East Ave. I like the look of it and the pics of the inside look really nice as well. The second is a red one right here on Bacon St. It's a shaker style one. Justin's just concerned about the size of one of the upstairs rooms cause he's like a freakin giant haha. And the third one is one up on Woodland Ave. It kind of looks a lil small but we REALLY like the big lot size of that one. And it's nice that no one can build behind us. So these are the homes and I'll keep you updated as we embark on our search for our new home :-)

Finally an Update

Howdy everyone!

Ok, so there's absolutely nothing interesting going on, but my dear, dear aunt (lol) desperately wanted me to update as much as my cousin does ha. So this is what you're going to get...

Work is going pretty well for me. We're going to take all of the kids up to see Elmo Live in Corning, NY on Wed. That should be fairly interesting wit

h 30 some kids plus their parents so it should be all types of crazy. I'm also still working on quilts. There are three more big ones I have to do (one top is like all done). I was able to do two baby ones and still have two more baby ones to go.

The best thing that we've gotten to do lately is last weekend, Justin and I took a trip down to Penn's Cave and Centralia. The caverns were so much fun and it was exciting to take a boat ride through them. Ooh, and we totally caught a ghost on film twice! How crazy for that! Oh and Justin bought some crickets and ate them! Ok, I tried one just to say I did and yeah, it's as disgusting as it sounds.

Then we went down to Centralia. This is a place where there's mines of coal and back in the summer of 1960's sometime, a fire started that hasn't been able to be stopped since! And people project that it'll continue to burn for 1,000 years! Can we say apocolypse? It was neat seeing how much of a ghost town it is now. And the steam rolling out from the ground is crazy. And hot! Taking pics were the greatest cause it's like "Honey, go stand next to that poisonous gas so I can take your picture!" Yeah, we're a special couple.

Back to Real Life

That's our picture from Christmas Day at my Grandmothers' house. It was a wonderful day with fellowship of our families as well as some amazing gifts! We hope you all had a special day as well.

So now it's back to real life. I've been spoiled this past week and a half (like many people) and got to have the entire time off. That's a lot when it means not having to work with little kids hehe. I am excited to get back to my job because I'm getting a little restless here, but boy I'm not looking forward to it. Only because after that long of time the kids will be bouncing off the walls! And I can forget about my favorite time of the day...quiet time! There's lots of new happenings though. My boss expanded to a room in the elementary school so she's going with another worker and about half of our kids so Dee and I have about 16 kids and a new worker so it'll be interesting to say the least.

We're hoping that 2009 will be a new year for Justin. He's interested in doing a comic strip that we hope will take off. And he's heard really positive things about his job at Pizza Hut from both of the high up bosses so hopefully in December when things are more or less "settled" he will be able to begin a new future.

And the biggest thing is that we're in the process of looking for homes. It's a very slow process and we're not even sure if we can do it as far as loans and the economy are going right now, but we wanted to start anyway. There's a few houses that we've seen on the internet. We ask that you keep us in your prayers for God to show us when He wants us to move and also where.

And that's our life right now. Getting back into the swing of things. I have quilts to make and books to read so hugs and kisses to you all! xoxo