hi all!
my sincerest apologies for the lack of updates since the last post... but as you might have guessed, we hit the ground running as soon as we set foot in raleigh! it's been quite the whirlwind (it's already november?!), but we are finally settling in to our new stomping grounds. since oodles upon oodles has happened since we last spoke, grab a coffee and get comfy... it's gonna be a long one...
we arrived in raleigh on july 22 and saw our very first home for the very first time (yes, in case you didn't hear, we are the crazy people that buy a house without even seeing it in person first... not even our parents had seen it... did we mention how much we love our realtor?! we obviously placed a huge amount of trust in him!). thank goodness... we LOVED it! we wanted to move in immediately... but it would be about 4 weeks before that would happen...
within the 1st week, paul had started his job (which he loves... another big 'thank goodness'!!) and i was on the hunt for a place to work. i started interviewing at several places almost immediately, but didn't settle on a decision until mid-september. so, as of now, i am working per diem ('as needed') physical therapist at unc hospital with high hopes to transition to a full-time pediatrics position when it becomes vacant (as planned) within the next few months. i am loving working at unc hospital... the therapists are excellent and my boss is a dream! (our neighbor across the street is even a pediatric nurse on one of the floors where i treat... how fun is that?!)
we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on july 28 (less than a week after being back in raleigh) with a treated trip to the angus barn (thanks, mom + dad!)... needless to say, it was delicious!
we spent our actual anniversary day celebrating my cousin's twins' (i call them my niece- and nephew-lettes) first birthdays! caroline (our Goddaughter) + everett get more and more adorable by the day, and it was such an honor to be included in the party! since then, they have both started walking (err, running) and continue to be absolute sunshines in all of our lives!
(everett was a little unsure about his introduction to sweets...)
(that's my girl! get it, caroline!)
(everett loving his new walking stick/duck from auntie erin!)
(7.28.2012: the photo for our anniversary album)
in the past 3 months, we have spent a whooping 3 weekends in raleigh(!!)... and those 3 weekends have included (1) moving into our first home, (2) an engagement and bridal shower for my amazing sister erin, and (3) erin + jon's wedding weekend! we are quite blessed to be so very busy and busy spending time with those we love. (note: we did just spend our first official weekend in raleigh without an overwhelming amount of planned events... and it was fab.) here's what we've had going on...
- many trips up to west jeffy with my wonderful family! i cannot get enough of those mountains... it had been 2 years since i was last up there. bonus: it has been confirmed that livi-dog is a mountain dog... and i adore that.
- a trip to tennessee to see the 'gentlemen of the road'... a.k.a. mumford + sons festival! so many stories, so much laughter.
- we bought our very first home on august 16th... both nerve-wracking and thrilling! and can i just say that we have the hands-down best family and friends in the world?! so many people came out to help us prep the house and move-in... we are forever grateful!!
- alongside his dad, paul re-ignited his sailing fever and participated in the nationals sailing regatta in new bern... they did great (especially for not having sailed together in over 6 years)!
- on labor day weekend, erin flew into town and we met alan, jackie, aunt judy + uncle speedy up in west jeffy to celebrate judy turning the big 6-0... she does that number well!
- the girls took over charleston as we celebrated erin's last hurrah of single-ness september 7th-9th! it was such a treat to spend time with my sister and those who mean so much to her... i think we should have a reunion trip each year!
(the non-traditional bachelorette garb... what a beautiful bride-to-be!)
(soon-to-be sisters and sisters-out-law!)
(cousin shot!)
(gang's all here!)
(love my seester.)
- paul + i were lucky to finally give my dad his birthday gift (only 7 months late)... tickets to the brewgrass festival in asheville! the 4 of us had the greatest and craziest time (as paul was pretty certain that brewgrass is heaven on earth). along with enjoying ourselves at brewgrass, we loved taking the opportunity to explore all of our favorite and newly-favorite asheville hotspots!
(gf pretzel necklace and boxed wine at my feet... i can still rock brewgrass.)
(party animal.)
- our oldest nephew, scott, turned FOUR (4 already?!) right after his rockstar of a dad turned FORTY in mid-september... how wonderful!! we loved being able to celebrate scott + jason's birthdays on the east coast this year.
- paul (+ i) attended his 10-year high school reunion(!!), and we had a great time catching up with old friends and classmates. is it really true that we are getting to the age where we have high school reunions? weird.
- i turned an older age in late september... my only birthday request being for paul to hang up some frames and a bathroom mirror on our bare walls... he obliged and i was thrilled.
(my precious denver nephews and my sweet sis-in-law sending me some birthday love! this photo made my heart happier than you can imagine!)
- my sis-in-law sarah brought her boys from denver to visit for most of october! they stayed at paul's parents' for most of the time, with a gorgeous schroeder wedding that they attended in-between, and we were blessed and happy to get to see them as often as we could. those handsome little ones are growing up so fast... edmund is running all over the place and tasman is the best little conversationalist! oh, how i love my nephews!
- my sweet cousin meredith and i hosted a 'monograms + mimosas' shower for erin in late september. we hosted the shower at our new home, and we were happy to see so many loved ones of erin to attend. we could hardly wait for the big day!
(some of the party details... more to come...)
- the next weekend, we flew up to beantown to visit erin + jon and so many of our other close friends who, fortunately, also live in boston (mark, allison, brian... and megan c. joined us from raleigh to boston for the weekend)! it was the best. time. ever. and paul + i want to visit as often as possible from here on out (hope that's okay with y'all, erin + jon!). jon found the best bbq'ed food around, we ate at an amazing (gf) italian restaurant on the north end, we drank delicious coffee and cocktails, and we even managed to run a half marathon during our time there! the weekend was a success... obvi.
- i headed down to charleston in mid-october for one of my dearest friend's bachelorette weekend! whenever all of my bff's from college get together, it's an utter blast filled with scheming and laughter. with all of us scattered across the east coast now, it's hard to get everyone in the same place at the same time... but luckily that will happen twice this year with rachel's wedding festivities! can't wait to celebrate rachel + matt this new year's eve!!
(meredith being fabulous on night 1... gah, i miss seeing this face every morning!)
(also on night 1, we celebrated katy field's 28th birthday! oh my... are we actually getting into our late 20's? but i thought we were just in college?!...)
(the beautiful matron of honor... who is also 'with child'!! oh my gosh, so stinkin' excited that one of my best friends is having a baby... cannot wait to spoil the little bean!!)
(meghan getting the party started... good thing she brought her tu-tu and boombox!)
(a maria g special!...)
(starting off the night at the ever-so-successful wet willy's... we had to commemorate the evening with purchasing their classy water bottles.)
(mireland creeping on the bride-to-be.)
- to kick off erin's wedding week, paul and i decided to take advantage of a north carolina fall tradition... the state fair! we abstained from heavy fried goodness, but we definitely owned the goldfish booth. we came home with 4 new finny friends, but only 1 lasted until the next morning. (spoiler alert: the lone ranger only stayed with us for an additional week before swimming off to a higher place... turns out he preferred eating breadcrumbs to actual goldfish food... who knew?)
- after driving the clarke family volvo (donned with a 'unc' sticker... gads!) for almost 3 months, paul finally found his dream car and has been riding with the top down ever since! he does look quite dashing while driving this new ride (maybe it's the perma-grin from ear-to-ear)!
- on october 20, 2012, my very best friend married her person!! that's right, my sister is now a mrs. and i couldn't have designed a better partner for her than jon. it makes me smile with a tear in my eye whenever i think of them together... they are MFEO (in case you have never seen 'sleepless in seattle' and just decided to emerge from that rock you've been hiding under - i jest, MFEO = 'made for eachother'). the day, and entire weekend for that matter, was as if it was plucked from a dream. i will post photos from the big weekend in my next few posts... but here is a preview...
(we celebrated after their rehearsal dinner at our very dear friend's new restaurant, bida manda! wally/van has done an absolutely fantastic job creating and running this space... it has quickly become my (and so many others') happy place! go check it out... www.bidamanda.com... located in downtown raleigh!)
- my lovely person came into down for the day while she and her hubby were traveling up and down the east coast!! deana is one of my closest bff's so it was a dream to see her after 3 months of separation. we are already scheming my first trip back to california to be reunited with the girls!
- the next weekend we traveled to asheville to celebrate the marriage of our friends graham and melinda... we had the best time and loved making hilarious memories with all of the 'hollow boys.' congratulations, graham + melinda!
- psst! - 10.28.2012 was our sweet 2nd nephew's THIRD birthday!... can you believe that little tasman is already 3?! we are having a tough time believing it, too! happy birthday, tasman charles... we love you SO MUCH and we are thrilled with the little man that you are becoming!!
- we kicked-off halloween 2k12 with our first official year of trick-or-treaters... even hot-dog livi-dog got in on the fun!
(we scooted over to diane + jason's the next evening to see our sweet nephews dressed-up in costume...)
(is this not the cutest lion cub you have ever seen?! he even roars!)
(it was hard to get a shot of super y! he was flying all around the house and racing uncle paul...)
- this past weekend, paul had a chance to attend his first ncsu football game of the season while i soaked up working on the pediatrics floor at unc (i think i had the better saturday, hands-down, as state unfortunately didn't pull out a win in honor of paul's homecoming). we wrapped up the weekend with a little half marathon action for the city of oaks races. my bff, meghan, ran her 2nd marathon (as you may remember, we ran our 1st together in sf over a year ago) and kicked it... finishing more than 30 minutes faster than her last marathon! i was pleased to finally break 2 hours for the half marathon... but i think next time i will actually try and train for the race... if you see me around town, ignore my 2-days post-race funny walk.
(meghan rocking it towards the marathon finish line!)
(how we finished off our weekend... our first fire in the fireplace and a movie marathon to follow the half marathon... ahhh, the first real weekend at home!)
so basically, that brings us to the present! with so much happening all around us, we are so blessed to be where we are right now. i'll leave you with some random photos of how we have crammed the 'settling in' happenings into the spare moments throughout the past few months...
(2 days post-move-in... such a great unpacker-helper.)
(happy graduation!... a gas grill from momma + poppa c!)
(after bringing only 1 mattress set and 1 dresser back with us from california, i finally caved and corralled momma c to make the 3-hour trek to ikea with me. at the check-out, we started to get concerned about fitting our loot in the subaru...)
(despite the funny looks and disencouraging comments from other customers... we made it happen!)
(the office starts to take shape...)
(livi continuing to supervise the projects.)
(fun housewarming gifts from aunt debbie!)
(tjuta loves that he is now camouflaged in the master duvet...)
(my extremely talented sister has already made her first masterpiece for the house!)
(tjuta gets comfy.)
(that's pretty much how i felt about the painting-the-chairs project as well...)
(barstool love.)
(let's get moody in the guest bath.)
(grey for the guest bedroom, per alan's request.)
(my stud of a handyman husband! another bad light fixture is replaced!)
(what do you mean the heating system doesn't work?)
look forward to posts of erin + jon's wedding festivities... they're up next!
