Tea For Two

Faithe and I got together on Saturday for a fun day of shopping the boutiques along Main Street. Faithe found success at The Bel Air Country Store with the purchase of a beautiful wreath and we both enjoyed browsing in the Pink Silhouette. We finished our afternoon with high tea at Tea By Two. It was nice to take some time out to relax and chat! Looking forward to the next get together!

As promised...

These pictures are from a few weeks ago, so there have been even more changes, so we'll be adding more pictures soon. It has been fun setting up house! Enjoy the progress!

First Things First

The first piece of furniture in the new house was the piano. From start to finish it took the movers less than two hours to disassemble the piano and move it and put it back together at the new house. We love having the piano!

Bridal Shower Brunch

Yummy specialty punches! Hey - it was 5:00 somewhere!

The fabulous spread with the Omelet Man hard at work!

Almond and chocolate cake

Bill Henry from Acoustically Sound sang some great tunes. Melissa and Miss Laurie having a serious discussion in the foreground. Perhaps about the song? :)

Natalie, Lori, Kaira, and Courtney (Thanks to Ross I can count these girls as friends!)

Shelby, Miss Peg, Miss Pat, Miss Mary Jo, Michelle, and Sonia (Shelby and Miss Peg, you've known me a LONG time and still love me!) These ladies are friends of mine and Mom's.

Miss Pat, Miss Jo, Marian, and Mary (Secretary buds of Mom's and now I work with Mary at Ring Factory!)

Heather (with newborn Aubrey), Cynthia, Stacey, Shanna, and Kellie (with newborn Kaiden) I am excited to be joining the crew!

We have not forgotten about the blog!! Things have been very busy as we tie up loose ends for the wedding, continue to get the house ready, and start moving in. We have lots of new pictures of the house (which is now furnished!!) so check back soon. Since I was feeling guilty about not having posted in over two months I have some pictures from my bridal shower - which was truly an awesome day. We celebrated with brunch provided by the Omelet Man, and music provided by Acoustically Sound. October 25th was a rainy fall morning, but we had a wonderful time. Thank you Mom for all your hard work putting together a perfect celebration. Thank you to Jillian and Dan, and Ross for helping with set up and clean up. Miss Pat - the drinks were divine - grazie! Melissa and Jen - you are wonderful gift recorders and photographers, respectively. Thanks for sending these pictures along. Ross loved the video you took! Thanks Miss Mary Jo for being on call all day - you helped to make the shower possible! Thanks Jen for all of your help packing up and then organizing all the beautiful gifts back at the house (and to Gabe and Noah - for being so patient!!). You are right - we're all grown up! And to everyone there who has been sharing in all of this wedding excitement - thank you!! I have the best friends! Enjoy the pictures. I love that the wedding is providing all of these opportunities to celebrate my friends. Check back soon for pics of our house!

Laboring on Labor Day!

The past few weeks have been busy. Not only has it been a successful transition back to school, but we accomplished much at the house. The walls in the house are now painted (we still need to paint trim and doors), new trim was placed in the great room, and we have some of our lighting in the kitchen. We purchased new countertops for the kitchen and the next few evenings and weekends will be devoted to painting trim and doors. Enjoy the pictures of our most recent progress!

This is a close up of the baseboard trim. We picked a colonial trim that suits the style of the house.

This is the new "S" shaped track light in the kitchen. It's pretty and provides great light. We'll also have three pendant lights above the kitchen sink.

A close-up of the new countertop. Ross is currently in the process of cutting out the kitchen sink. We love the color and think it coordinates well with the cabinets.

New trim around the kitchen window. Ross installed...Jacqueline painted. We love that teamwork!

Ross built the trim around the back door to match the trim around the front door (below). It looks awesome and I am planning to put the Cats Meow Bel Air houses (thanks, Mom!) above both doors.

The new (and improved!) kitchen so far! We've come a LONG way!

Transitions

It is hard to believe that we are quickly approaching the first day of school. For me as a teacher, late August and early September always mark the start of my new year! I officially started my new job today as a teacher mentor. I spent the day with a new kindergarten teacher who is absolutely delightful. We attended a professional development session at a sister elementary school and were able to get some great ideas for how to set up the classroom. We got back to the classroom and I was thoroughly enjoying putting books, blocks, and games away. As I turned to look at what we had accomplished this afternoon, seeing the sun pour in through the windows across the rocking chair and bookshelves, I did feel a small tug at my heart as I thought about all the wonderful late summer days I spent setting up my little learning community and preparing for my charges.

I will miss having my very own group of students, and my own classroom, but I am looking to this new phase in my career and growing as a learner myself!

We had a great weekend and were able to spend some time with friends last night. That always refreshes and renews us and we are very much looking forward to the days and evenings when we are entertaining and the laughter is ringing through our cozy home!

We'll be posting more pictures soon, as the house is being painted this week! Yay!

Hurray! Hardwood Floors!

These pictures capture the sequence of events that led to us walking barefoot across our beautiful hardwood floors this weekend! Much of the dining room boards needed to be replaced and special care had to be taken in placing wood down where we had removed walls. The floors look great and the hard work to meet this deadline was totally worth it - although Ross is looking forward to slowing the pace down just a bit! Next up on the to do list...painting.