Our Serendipitous Journey

Well, we did it. We moved to New Jersey! It wasn't exactly easy, and parts of it weren't fun, but we did it! Our stuff is moved in and definitely not unpacked, and we are starting Chapter 3 of our house tour. I'm hoping this is a long chapter. Back to March, we put in the offer on the house in NJ, it was accepted, and we sold our house in PA. Our inspection went fine in PA, but the one on the new house wasn't without issue. We were able to negotiate what we needed to and everything worked out extremely well.We closed a few weeks before school was out so we could get most of the work done before moving in. Every single timeline was met perfectly from floor guys to painters to the roofer. Andy was able to stay in NJ and meet contractors as needed while I stayed with friends (seriously, the BEST friends a girl could ask for) in PA. The movers did a fantastic job and I got to leave my teaching job in PA and drive home to NJ. I am in a bit of a fog as I can't be...

I just looked at my last post from July 2018. I said I would post again before summer was over. I lied. Sorry! But here I am again with a another year long update. Last summer my friend and I decided that we needed to make the most of our summer and instituted "Traveling Tuesdays". We made a point to get out and see things as many Tuesdays as we could so we couldn't say that the summer got away from us. It was fun to have something to look forward to each week and to travel around PA a bit. The things that seemed big and scary, like taking a train into Philly, all of a sudden became normal and easy. It made the summer special and will always be a summer I remember well! This summer I also spent some time FINALLY going through our last moving boxes of photo albums and unpacked everything. I emptied every single box and took a trip down memory lane. There were smiles, there were laughs, there were tears. Pictures really are a special thing. Then it was back...

As I mentioned before (7 months ago), Andy and I loved being home for the holidays. It felt so good to be in our own house and we appreciated being in PA for Christmas. Then, we got the travel bug. Well, I did. I pretty much always have it and Andy just entertains me. In January I went to Denver to celebrate Brinley's birthday with my family. It was great to have most of us all together in the same house at the same time. That has become very rare! We had a great time hanging out with Brin and celebrating that perfect little girl. Well, at least I think she's perfect. It was a short weekend trip, but so much fun! February's highlight was that Lisa and Nick came to town. Their trip was WAY too short, but we had the best time. We brought them to one of our favorite local restaurants and got to do a day in New York. We also did a day in Philly and Lisa and I got some girl time out in West Chester. It was so fun for them to finally see where we live and what it...

September and October are a beautiful time of year, but the time change in November always sets the clocks AND me back. I don't like the short days and the early nights make me so tired. Whenever the clocks change, I start the countdown until December 21st and the Winter Solstice. Once that hits, I feel a tiny bit better knowing that the days are only going to get longer and that the sun will be up for just a couple of minutes each day. With that positive vibe, let's catch up. I left off last time with Andy's dad and Kathy getting to our house for the first time. They came to town a couple of years ago when we were in the apartment, but it was a quick trip and we spent a day in Gettysburg and a day in Philadelphia so we didn't really get to show them around our neighborhood. That being said, we didn't really have much of a neighborhood and we were still figuring out our way around. During this trip we had more time and had an actual home. We got to bring them ...

Blogging is not as easy as they make it look. I find myself thinking of things to write all the time, but never actually getting in front of the computer to write it. I have found with all of the technology at my fingertips, it's hard to find a keyboard where I can actually write a decent amount. I am not a big texter, and every email I write from my phone has ridiculous grammatical errors and auto-corrects. If I "Respond All" to an email that should not be "Responded All" to, you can guarantee it was sent from my phone. That being said, here is a recap of our summer! Firefly was fantastic, yet again. We have a great group of friends to go with and I love starting off my summer with live music and very little concern about time. The only reason we check a clock is to see when the next show is. This year I was at a "Weezer" show as they played their new song "Feels Like Summer" and just smiled, thinking about the whole summer ahead o...

This week was the one year anniversary of us closing on our house. The moment we stepped into it we said it felt like it was always ours, and it still feels that way. We can definitely call it home. This school year has flown by, as they always do. I almost feel like this one went even faster than most though. I feel like I'm still trying to get caught up, and it's to the point that I'll probably just have to let some things go. I like the curriculum that we teach in 4th grade so everything was interesting to me and that makes it even more fun to teach. I also have an incredible team which makes everything more fun. I fell into the best school and work with some really incredible people who have become my good friends. I am one lucky girl. This winter/spring we really did stick around the area and have some visitors come see what PA is like. My friend Amanda came in January and we did a day in DC, a day in Gettysburg, and got to downtown Philly. That was a whi...