I forgot!

Here are some pictures of a few things we have done around the house. There will be plenty more pictures this summer once I get the rest of the rooms done! Enjoy :)

Finished painting the porch, planted some azaela bushes.

We still need to pull up 2 of the trees.

I painted the bathroom green, hung a new towel holder, and a new mirror.

New curtain in the bathroom.

My china cabinet! It works beautifully in our dining room.

Mom bought this for my collector dolls when I was younger - now

it holds all my beautiful dishes and glasses. I love it.

It's been a while...

Sorry it's been so long since I've last posted some news. Things have been crazy busy with school and getting the house ready for our party.

We celebrated our 1 Year Wedding Anniversary on May 31st. I can't believe it's already be a year married - it went by very fast! We're still doing well! No complaints! We had a party to celebrate our anniversary and our new house on May 30th. Our little house was filled with many friends and family to share our joy. It was wonderful! Thank you to everyone who made the trip to see us! We had a nice BBQ and tiny bonfire in the backyard.

As we were cleaning out the garage for the party... we found a surprise in the garbage can - 2 baby kittens! They were just days old. We ended up keeping them in the garage and gave them a box and a few blankets to keep warm. Their mom kept coming in to feed them, but she moved them this week! So... we hope that they're okay. We haven't seen them in a few days. We wanted to keep one, but I guess it's for the better :)

I'll be starting the last week of school tomorrow :) I couldn't be more excited to be finished! It's been a long first year, and I'm definitely ready for a break. I went to Lake Compounce with my 8th Graders on Wednesday and they had their Semi-Formal Friday night. Both were a lot of fun. It's nice to see the kids outside of the classroom and really enjoying themselves! Their graduation is next Monday - which I'm sure will bring many tears! I will miss them... even if they put me through so much this year! I have become attached!

No job lined up for the summer just yet... I've applied to a few retail stores but no reply. We'll see what happens. We planned for me not to have a job, so money wise we're still okay for the summer! I'll just be bored out of my mind if I can't find a job! Fingers crossed...

Ryan finished his first set of classes with A's in Math and English! We were very excited. He starts summer classes next week - to add to the rest of our busy lives! He's taking another English class... should be easy with some help from his English teaching wife!

That's about it for now... Enjoy some pictures of our busy month!

My Team - 8 Red Teachers

Me with Lillian and Dean (at formal)

Raymond, Ambar, Me, Stephanie, and Steven - Some of my favorite students at formal.

Lillian and Brianna - Way to Lake Compounce - My Homeroom kids.

Steven, Davon and Ricardo - More Homeroom kids.

The black kitten.

Black and white kitten.

The kittens.

After cutting our cake.

Our little food set up at the party.

Mom and dad at the bonfire.

Cutting our icecream cake - It said "Today, tomorrow, and always" on it from our vows.

One month has already passed!

Just wanted to add a few more pictures...

We put up new shutters, got a coffee table and bookcases, painted the front door and hung up the rest of the curtains.

Still more to do, but we're taking it easy for now.

Done for now...

We've decided to take a short break on fixing up the house. We have finished all the rooms downstairs except the kitchen... which is a whole other story. We painted our master bedroom and might even pick a color for the guest room if we feel up to painting it. The office and bathroom upstairs are on hold until we gather up some extra funds. With summer vacation coming for me (and not getting paid for 2 months...) we need to figure out exactly what we want to accomplish on the house, and what we can afford to do.

For now we are just happy to be living on our own -- in our new house. We are still incredibly excited and can't believe that we finally bought a house. It seems like it took forever, but we made it somehow!

I guess I'll just have to keep busy with school and wrapping up my first year of teaching. Thankfully (and sadly) it's almost over! It will be sad to say goodbye to my first class of students, but I am ready to see them go! 8th graders are difficult -- especially the closer to June we get. I'm praying to patience as the year winds down, I know I'll need it.

Enjoy the pictures, and again thank you to everyone who helped us out these last couple of weeks! We couldn't have done it all without you!

Parker enjoying his yard.

Master.

The gift from our realtor.

Family room. New couch.

Family room with curtains and paint.

Looking into the dining room.

Close up of the dining room.

Week 1

This first week has been filled with exhausting days and long nights of unpacking and CLEANING! I have no clue how a person could live in the disgusting conditions we found our house in...

On a positive note it's finally cleaned out and starting to smell clean and fresh! We have begun the long (and painful) process of unpacking all of our boxes. I never realized how much stuff Ryan and I have accumulated over the years. I can only imagine how much worse it will be the longer we're married! So far we only have one room completely painted and the ceiling of the family room painted. We have come to the realization that we are NOT painters by any means. In fact, I REALLY do not like to paint due to the fact that no matter what it ends up ALL over me. Yes. I even had paint on my back when we were painting Ryan's "man room". I leaned up against the paint roller. Paint and I just don't mix!

I have had to work this whole week, but now I'm thankfully on Spring Break so I can get some work done! Ryan has worked so hard this week (he's been off) cleaning and unpacking. Not to mention we have had so many friends and family volunteer their time (and cooking) to help us out. We really couldn't have done it without everyone's help! THANK YOU!

Tomorrow we get our new couches, and then the rest of the furniture will come on Tuesday. It has been kind of odd living with very minimal seating and storage this past week! We finally got our gas and cable hooked up too! So life is becoming much easier...

We are all loving the new house and adjusting well! Parker seems to like it, but is much more on edge than usual. He went from NEVER barking to barking at everything. I like to think that he's trying to protect us from everything... including the neighborhood cats and kids. Hopefully he'll settle down once he gets used to the noises. We're definitely not in Newtown anymore back in the woods! He even barked at a couple of flags in someone's yard when I took him on a walk! I just don't get it...

Our new chairs in the family room.

Butlers pantry with our dishes.

Parker "helping" us.

Ryan putting together furniture.

Painting Ryan's man room.

Already fixing things...

Feeding Parker on the first night. Yes - that's faux brick.

First Night...

We've crossed our t's and dotted our i's... we're homeowners! Parker even got to come with us (yes... in the attorney's office, by request) to sign the papers. He was so well behaved! As soon as we got the keys we headed over to the house and settled in for the night - after some cleaning that is.

The house is FILTHY but nothing we can't handle with some elbow grease. We're moving in the rest of our furniture tomorrow... we can't wait!

We're thankful we finally have a place to call our own :)

CLOSING DATE!

April 2nd at 3:30 Ryan and I will be official homeowners. It's less than a week away (even though it seems like an eternity!) and we are busy packing up our "resting place" of 2 years at Mom and Dad's. We can't even remember what it's like to live on our own anymore! It will definitely be exciting...

We'll be busy the next couple of weeks, but I will try to post before and after pictures of our new home :) For now... enjoy this sneak preview! It needs some work, but it's ours!

All of our waiting finally paid off... we got news on the house yesterday. We got it! We have an inspection on Monday morning at 9:00 AM so we'll know if the house is worth keeping (I hope so after all of this!) Definitely will keep you posted.

We're almsost home owners! I can't believe it!

FRIDAY!

We just received an e-mail from our realtor saying that we SHOULD hear some news about the house on Friday! Fingers crossed :)

Patience is a virtue... right?

So we're still waiting for ANY word on the house. It will be 3 weeks tomorrow since we put an offer on the house. No word... the realtor said it should be a minimum of 2 months. If that's true... I don't know if I can wait that long! We are still looking around for houses in New Britain, but honestly nothing can even come close to the Stewart house. I'll try to be patient...

In the meantime the yearbook is keeping me quite busy and very stressed. My first deadline is February 16th and tomorrow is our last day of school before break. Of course this means I get to finish the first 1/2 of the book by myself. Lets hope it turns out all right!

Ryan has started school and is loving it! I have to say that I am quite proud of him for going back to school after 9 years. That must be tough, but he's doing well. Unfortunately he's going to have to stay at Gamestop for at least another year... I know it's difficult for him, but it will be worth it in the end.

Keep your fingers crossed on the house! Of course... I will try to keep you posted.

Growing Up!

Just wanted to give a quick update... we found a house that Ryan and I LOVE! We put an offer on it today, so now we're just waiting to see if the offer gets accepted.

Keep thinking good thoughts! I know we are :)

Christmas Card

This was the picture we used for our Christmas card this year. My brother Chris took some AMAZING pictures that I might post eventually...

Newlyweds

So I finally caved... after having so many friends and family ask Ryan and I, "What's going on now that you're married?" I started a blog. Good timing too as we are in the middle of house hunting.

Before we get to that... after the wedding in May we went to Jamaica for our honeymoon. It was absolutely amazing and we can't wait for another Caribbean getaway (maybe next year...). We are officially hooked on all-inclusive resorts! We can't imagine any other way to completely relax and still be budget conscious. Even though Hawaii and Disney World are still dream vacations, we just need extra funds to justify those trips!

I started my new "big kid" job in September. I am an 8th Grade teacher at West Side Middle School in Waterbury, CT. WSMS is where I completed my student teaching and they were so impressed with my 16 week teaching stretch, they hired me on the spot! It was quite exciting. Yes, it can be EXTREMELY difficult at times, but I absolutely love it. It's nice to know that I can really make a difference in the lives of these kids. They definitely need a positive role model amidst all the chaos! All in all, I am very happy and feel blessed to be in such a wonderful school right out of college.

Ryan is still a manager at Gamestop in Danbury, CT. He is doing well, but growing tired of the retail world. This January he is going back to school for his associates degree at Naugatuck Valley Community College. He will be enrolling in to the RN program at the college which will almost double his current salary! Needless to say we are quite anxious for the completion of his schooling, but we know it will take a while (and lots of money) with him working full time.

We have recently been pre-approved for a mortgage and have begun to look at houses. We have decided to stay in CT for at least the next 5 years and settle in the city of New Britain. Why New Britain you ask... WE MISS IT! New Britain is where Ryan and I met, where I went to college, where we first lived together, and where we got engaged. We have history there! Not to mention that moving to Newtown has been quite the death of a social life... a majority of our friends live past Hartford and we are excited to be closer to them. We have found a few houses we could see ourselves living in (one in particular) and way below our price range. We're scheduled to look at 8 more houses on Tuesday and then hopefully put our first offer on a house!

I think that is it for now... a quick update on the last 7 months of our life as newlyweds. We'll try to keep you posted as the house hunting progresses.