Congrats, Tracy & Andre!

Since I posted about Tracy's bridal shower, I figured I would share a quick post about the wedding! Tracy & Andre were married on Saturday, June 14, 2008, and everything was absolutely gorgeous. I haven't known Tracy that long, but I honestly have never seen her happier. She truly looked like a princess, and Andre, of course, was as handsome as ever. Somehow, I managed to take pictures of everyone except for just Tracy & Andre together, so I have included a picture of the happy couple with Crystal. Congratulations - may you always be as happy as you were on your wedding day!!

You Don't See Many of These in the City...

I was having one of my days where I just can't help but miss my mom. I was feeling sorry for myself because she isn't here to help me make decisions, and she won't be here to be a part of the wedding day. Don't get my wrong, I know I am so very lucky to have such great friends and family who have been so supportive and helpful... Sometimes I just want my mom. Well, Ryan must have known because he brought this home with him from work today. Something about rainbows always make me smile... Now, if only we could find that elusive pot of gold!

89 Days and Counting...

We are officially at the 3-month mark before the wedding. It's so hard to believe that it's 89 days away. With all the commotion of the last few months of buying/selling the houses, the wedding got pushed to the back burner. It's back to the front again as we are back in the swing of wedding planning (well, at least I am). I think Ryan really enjoyed not having to think about wedding planning these past few months so he's having a hard time getting back on the wedding track. Quite frankly, I think he's just plain over it. We're working on all the little details now, and I actually think this part is much more fun than the big picture stuff. A few weeks ago, I went with some of the bridesmaids to the florist to pick out our flowers. We are using Amour Flowers (http://www.amourflorist.com/) in Frederick, which is the florist my mom used to work for. Pierre, my mom's former boss, always told me that when I got married, he was going to do the flowers for my wedding. I was so excited to call him and tell him the good news after we had gotten engaged. And, of course, meeting with Pierre to go over the arrangements was great - he seemed to really get it, and I know he will do an amazing job! I cannot wait to see how everything turns out.

We have also finally booked the transportation. We will be providing shuttles from the hotel to the church and back after the ceremony so that our guests will not have to deal with parking at the church and will only have to park once at the hotel. The shuttles will begin running at 4:30pm and will pick up from the Pier 5 Hotel. That's about it on the wedding front. Ryan is working on putting the finishing touches on his latest project, so hopefully I'll be sharing that with everyone soon!

A Grown-Up House

I really wanted to post about the new house when we wrote the contract, but thought it'd be best to wait until the house was officially ours so I wouldn't jinx it. I'm a little late on the post - we settled about 2 weeks ago now... but better late than never. Selling and buying a house at the same time turned out to be quite an experience. The inspection on the old house was fairly uneventful... until we got a call from our agent a week before settlement to tell us that we needed to install railing leading to the basement. So, Ryan installed railing going down the steps to the basement. Simple, right? Not at all. The day before settlement he gets another call from the agent to tell him that the railing was not sufficient, so he spoke with the loan officer and they agreed that parallel railing on the main level would be sufficient. Again, not so much... The next day, while we were at settlement for the new house, Ryan gets the same phone call about the railing being insufficient! In addition to all this, our settlement on the new house took about 2.5 hours as our 2nd mortgage wasn't officially approved until the bank got to review the revised settlement sheet. We finally finished up with the new house, and Ryan and my dad headed to Lowes to buy some supplies to install railing and balisters at the old house. What we thought would be an easy day off of work turned into a pretty stressful day, but it finally ended around 6:30pm with Ryan signing all the papers to settle on the sale of the old house. We are done with living in the city!!

Despite all of the struggles, we couldn't be happier living in the new house. It is so quiet out here in the "country", the first night we had trouble falling asleep, but we have gotten used to the peacefulness very quickly. The first day here, we saw a deer in the woods behind the house - you definitely don't see many deer in the city! It has also been so nice to come home and have a parking spot in the garage! I will admit that I needed Ryan to help me pull into the garage the first time as the door is a bit narrow for the Pilot... but it gets easier every day. We are slowly getting settled and are looking forward to hosting our first family event next weekend for Father's Day! Also, I wanted to say thank you to both my dad and Crystal. My dad came and waited for the movers during our marathon settlement and also helped with the railing on the old house and anything else he could help put together for us when we moved in. We are also very lucky that my dad likes to collect lawn equipment, so we have a lawn mower and weed wacker, among other things! Thanks, Dad. And thanks to Crystal who came the night before we settled on the new house in the dark and in the rain to plant such pretty flowers in the flower bed out front. What a nice surprise when we got here to move in! I also want to thank my dad and Crystal and everyone else for all the advice/opinions on the house buying process and for helping to keep us both calm with all the stress. You guys know who you are, and we couldn't have made it through the process without you! I have included a picture below of the house, although, I think most have already seen it.