A Set of Firsts -- Dinner and Birthday (E and I) Parties

We had friends over last weekend for dinner. E cooked out on the grill. I have to admit I'm still a bit intimidated by the grill. It's run by natural gas and plugs directly into the house line. Thankfully E is happy to be the grill master so I turn it over to him. Excited to be trying out a more new recipes and bringing out the old ones -- anyone remember the shrimp, bousin, prosciutto and basil? Pure heaven.
He loves to putter in the yard. The tomatoes and the flower/ornamental grass beds have become his new hobby. He is usually out in the evenings watering and carefully maintaining the garden. He's already had to re-stake several of the tomato plants since we've moved in. Needless to say, we've got LOTS of tomatoes. I think I may make some sauce or blanch and freeze them. I don't want them to go to waste.

It was also E's birthday yesterday. I baked him homemade pizza with pineapple and Canadian bacon - his favorite. Amongst his presents were a new turntable (will also burn the LPs to MP3s) and an indoor/outdoor weather station. For those of you who know about E's Weather Channel fix (who else would know the names of anchors and that they have their own shows??), he was very excited. He was playing the records and enjoying ones he hadn't heard in years.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

We'll we've finally gotten a bit chunk of the boxes unpacked, with many thanks to my parents for their help. The kitchen is unpacked and we've been able to sleep in our own bed for the past week and a half. We've only gotten about half of a dozen or so left (all books and can't get unpacked until we get more book cases...) to go and are like we're starting to settle in. There's an odd sense of appreciation and ownership that overtakes one (at least the case for us) that we have a new found sense of home. Not just a place we are paying for (aka renting), but rather a place that we have a sense of roots in. It was a big step for either of us to make the leap to buying a house, given that we'd both been serial renters for so very long. It's a nice feeling coming home to that just it, our home. When we go out and stake the tomato cages or water the flowers, they are our. What a great feeling, although you all out there (our family and friends) have all taken the plunge and bought a house so we've not likely telling you anything new. It's just our new to us. At least for awhile. Kinda of like new car smell. Great for awhile, but then you realize that it starts to fade away and you find a rhythm. I'm sure it will be like that for E and I with our new home.

E went through the house and some pics -- they are below. We hope that you'll all be able to come up and see us sometime. While the Tri-Cities is a bit off the beaten path, we've got a lot to offer.

Our still pretty empty Living Room...Perhaps in the next year or so we'll get some additional furniture...

Our new Dining Room. The small table in the entry way is from J and E (my maid of honor at the wedding). J made it for us as a wedding present.

Note the lamp in the right hand corner here. My dad made it from an old surveyor's tripod and an antique lamp shade he found at a tag sale. It's even prettier when lit up.

Our new Family Room....Many of our pictures on the walls are from my Aunt. We finally have enough wall space to put them up.
Our little eat in kitchen area.

Our office, which is covered on 3 of the 4 walls with books. Somehow either E nor I can seeming part with a book. We've got many years of them between us, which is necessitating a trip to IKEA to pick up some more inexpensive shelves. The trick is to find more wall space for them.

Here's a final wave from E. He's fixing the part of the banister the movers dinged with our dresser. It's all still a work in progress, but coming along.

Last minutes signing and boxes (lots of boxes)

We're finally in! We had some additional papers to sign on Monday due to an error by the mortgage company. Our real estate agent and I drove around town getting E's signature and returning them to the appropriate place so the closing could go through as planned on Monday. I think we got it in at the 11th hour and finally got keys late Monday.

Friends came over and helped move a few fragile items and the fridge/freezer food, but most of the items were boxed up in the garage waiting for the movers. They came early Tuesday and got everything out of the old place and into the new. When we started moving boxes in, it started to get a bit more real. Still sinking in, but as we unpack more and more, reality starts to hit. It's nice to finally have space to unpack things. I opened boxes that hadn't been unpacked since E and I lived back East over 3 years ago.

The prior owners took great care of the place. So much so, that when we came to pick up the keys, the Mrs. was here watering the plants (she let us know we needed to water them 2x daily) and taken out the garbage so that we had an empty can when we moved in the following day. Nice, but I think perhaps they are having trouble letting go......Not having owned a house before, I can't know how it must feel for them.

My parents are here helping out with the cleaning and unpacking. My mom has been dusting and cleaning and helping get the kitchen unpacked. My dad has been tackling the garage. It's been a really big help.

We'll post photos once we find the connection to the camera. Seems to have been misplaced in a box somewhere.....