7.5 months later...

Wow. I think I can officially take the title of "Worst Blogger EVER".

It's not like I have a huge crowd that reads this blog so hopefully most of the people that do haven't been too terribly disappointed in me for the last half a year.

It's hard to gauge where to even begin after the last few months. It truly seems like we've lived a lifetime in the last year or so. I guess I'll start where I left off the last post...just the hi-lites...

Memorial Day weekend we celebrated my 27th birthday and our 2 year anniversary by going on a mega shopping spree (thank you first time homebuyer credit!). We bought a new couch and loveseat, a wing chair, a new dining room set, a flat screen TV, and a new entertainment center. We also painted the living room and dining room that weekend. Wow...it was such a fun day. :-)

June was Andrew's birthday and along with a group of our friends, we went and had an awesome day at the Baltimore Orioles baseball game. Again...way fun.

We both took an extra day off from work over 4th of July weekend and we ended up spending the entire 4 days down at our friend, Kati's parents place on the Chesapeake Bay. What a BLAST. Probably the best 4th of July EVER.

In August, we had my sister Katie and my cousin Matt in town for a few days. They had to be here for a class for the family business and they stayed over an extra couple days to hang out with us. So fun. I also went back to Kansas City again (solo this time) to celebrate with my friend Melissa for her various wedding festivities. A quick weekend in KC is never enough time....but it was a wonderful weekend and I got to see some of my best girlfriends.

Labor Day weekend, our friends Aspen and Chris Swett and their little guy, Cypress drove up to Maryland to spend the long weekend with us. They are such great friends and it was so much fun to play with Cy all weekend. We had a great visit and we were so glad they made the trip.

The week after Labor Day we got news that would end up changing our life forever. We found out that Andrew's dad would need to have a dangerous procedure at the end of that week. The procedure ended up going terribly wrong and on Friday, Sept 10th we were on a plane to Kansas City not knowing what we would find when we got there. After the longest and hardest 48 hours of our family's life, we said goodbye to Bob. He passed away at 5:29pm on Sunday September 12th at the age of 60.

I could probably fill an entire blog post dedicated to Bob and the man he was...maybe someday (if I ever blog again) I will do just that. For the purposes of this post, though, I will give a very brief synopsis...

Bob was my father in law and he was my friend. He was the most amazing father to his boys, husband to his wife, and grandfather to his two darling granddaughters. Words can't express how much our family misses him everyday. He was so good at putting together little funny songs or lighthearted quips at the snap of a finger. He loved to cook for his family. He loved anything having to do with his family. A few months before Andrew and I got married, Bob tore his Achilles tendon and had to wear a boot. Three days before our wedding, he got word from the doctor that he could take the boot off. Later that day we went to pick up Andrew's tux and we ran into Bob at the shop coming to find one size 14 left tux shoe...the swelling hadn't quite gone down all the way yet in that ankle so he had to accommodate. We were pretty sure that was the first (and maybe the last) time that particular tux shop owner had ever fielded such a unique request. The last Sunday dinner we had before we moved to Maryland, Bob hugged us both and he cried. It wasn't the last time we saw him before we moved...it was just the last Sunday dinner that we would be present for a while and that meant something to him. It meant something to us too. Every time we went to the house, I would always say "oh don't get up, I'll come down to you" to give Bob a hug because I knew how bad his knees hurt him and I knew he'd probably been on his feet most of the afternoon creating whatever culinary adventure we would experience that evening. But Bob would never listen to me. He always got up to give me a hug. Every time. No matter what. What I wouldn't give for another hug from Bob right now. He was big guy. A gentle giant. He was just an incredibly sweet man. He had a booming voice but I rarely, if ever, heard him raise it. His death was an incredible and shocking tragedy. I miss Bob. A lot.

And now here we are, approaching Christmas...our first Christmas without Bob. Bittersweet is the only word that comes to mind.

This will be our first holiday back home...we stayed here in Maryland for Thanksgiving and my family came here to us. It was a really fun couple of days. Certainly not easy...thinking of being back home, pulling it all off out of one kitchen, etc....but fun.

It sounds so cliche...but my advice to everyone reading...

Give good, long, strong hugs. Your people will still be able to feel them even after you're gone. :-)

Love to all...and have a very Merry Christmas!

Visitors!

The first family members to see our new home were Andrew's uncle Jim and aunt Denise. They live about an hour away in Virginia and they were nice enough to accompany us on the day of our home inspection. Then Jim was here to help us move which was so so nice of him. Denise was sent to Abu Dhabi for work for three months so she hasn't been back here yet since the inspection day. We are so excited for her to return and come see our home!

Our next visitor was Andrew's brother Matt just a couple of weeks ago. He was in Towson, MD for work and instead of flying home right after his training, he stayed an extra night and spent the time with us. We had great weather that night so we grilled burgers and hung out on the deck. It was fun! Always great to see family and we were of course excited to show him our house. I forgot to take pictures!!

Two days after Matt left, Andrew's cousin Rebecca was in town from San Francisco for the weekend. Rebecca is an interior designer so I was definitely excited to get some advice from her on paint colors and other design projects for the house. We had Rebecca and Bill and uncle Jim over for dinner Saturday night. We made an awesome chicken stir fry for dinner and everyone loved it! Rebecca gave us some great suggestions and she is sending us some swatches to take a look at to figure out exactly what we're going to do paint-wise in the house. Thanks so much Rebecca!!

And that brings us to this weekend. It feels good to finally have the blog updated to present day. Hopefully from now on I will be able to update more frequently. Things seem to be calming down a little bit and we're settling in nicely at the house. The walls are still bare because we want to paint before we hang anything, but otherwise it is all coming together nicely.

Friday morning, Andrew found out that Ben Folds and Weezer were playing at the football stadium at the University. I have always wanted to see Ben Folds, and I really liked Weezer in the 90's...so we decided to go. What a GREAT night! The weather was awesome...it was warm out but there was a really nice breeze that kept up all through the show. It was so fun.

Saturday night we had Andrew's cousin Bill and his girlfriend Michelle over for dinner. The weather was really nice that night too so we cooked out and made grilled chicken sandwiches with provolone and fresh avacado slices. Delicious. We also made an awesome potato salad with bacon and roasted red peppers. A little corn on the cob to go along with it and dinner was a complete success. Thanks so much for coming, guys! We had a great time!

Today, I had a friend from work's baby shower to go to. It was a really nice shower with tons of great food. Erin got lots of super cute gifts and she seems well prepared to welcome her little one, Chase, in just a few weeks! Congratulations to Erin and BJ!

Another event going on today was K-State Cheerleading tryouts!!! My little sister Sarah is a rockstar cheerleader and she was trying out. I couldn't stop checking my phone all day long to see if I had a text or a phone call from either my sister or my mom telling me how the tryout went. Just a few minutes ago, I got the call that Sarah made the team!!! I am SO happy for her and SO proud!!!! Way to go Sarah!!! GO CATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's all for now, friends. I will really make a concerted effort to keep this thing updated better than I have been.

This week I am interviewing for a promotion at work. Wednesday at 10:00am to be exact. I am excited for the interview and hopeful that I get the job. It will certainly be a challenge but one that I feel I am ready to take on. Send good vibes my way this week!! Maybe I'll update again Wednesday evening and let everyone know how the interview goes. :-)

Adventure to Clearwater Beach, FL March 17 - 21

This year we were lucky enough to get to visit Clearwater Beach, FL for 5 days.

My Grandma Kit rented a house on the beach last year for the month of March but we weren't able to go...so this year we asked for the plane tickets for Christmas and made the trip! We were so glad that we did. In the midst of buying a house and an impending move approaching, a beach vacation really could not have come at a better time.

We arrived around lunch time on Wednesday March 17th just as my uncle Mark and aunt Susan and their kids were headed out to get to the airport for their flight back to KC. It was great to see them and catch up even though we only had 15 minutes or so. We went and had lunch that first day with Grandma at an awesome place but I can't remember the name of it. I had the fish and chips and Andrew tried his first soft shell crab sandwich. I think its funny that we moved to Maryland months ago and the first time we tried soft shell was on a trip to Florida!! Oh well. Both of our meals were delicious!!

After lunch, we headed back to the house to hang out and wait for my parents, little sister, and all of her friends to get there. It was sunny and warm out so we sat on the beach and we both ended up falling asleep in our chairs! Thankfully, we didn't stay asleep roasting in the sun for too long and we both avoided serious sunburns. Mom and Dad, Sarah, and 5 of her friends arrived that evening. We ordered pizza for dinner that night and just lounged around at the house.

The next three days were filled with minimal activity, a lot of reading, catching up, and general relaxation. It was such a wonderful trip. We also got to watch KU get knocked out of the tournament while we were there, and K-State move forward...who are we kidding? That was totally awesome. Across the country, people's tournament brackets crumbled in a matter of moments. Always proud to be a Wildcat. :-)

That Sunday when we left, it was raining and a little bit chilly...so that made leaving a bit easier. It is never fun to leave a vacation on a sunny, hot, beautiful day. We said goodbye to the family and our shuttle picked us up to head back to the airport.

Monday morning we were both back at work and trying to get back into a routine. That weekend we finished up our packing and prepared for the following week...Wilco Tuesday night, closing Wednesday afternoon, and moving Saturday. It was a big one for sure!!

The Wilco concert was down in Bethesda at the Strathmore Music Center. A gorgeous space, relatively small, a very cool venue. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures from that night because they do not allow cameras...but it was a great show. It was "An Evening with Wilco" so they had no opening act and they played for a full three hours. It. Was. Awesome. We ranked in probably our top two favorite Wilco shows to date. We heart Wilco. :-)

And we heart Florida vacations. :-)

Me and my sis...tan girls :-)

Gorgeous Florida sunset

My love playing guitar on the beach

On the deck overlooking the water/sunset

Sisters. :-) Love her.

The Spring Breakers! They're too cute. :-)

Home buying adventure

Hello Friends!

Wow...has it been an eventful couple of months since my last update!!!

February 5th was my last post and I gotta say it...that seems like eons ago!

Since then we have completed our house hunting, went on a 5 day vacation to Clearwater Beach, FL, closed on our house, moved, been to a couple of concerts, had a few family visitors in town...I'll just start from the beginning.

I truly do have every intention of updating this blog more frequently than once every couple of months...but the theme for me so far in 2010 is that time just FLIES by before I have a chance to catch everyone up.

House hunting continued throughout our weekends in February. We found "the one" on February 20th and that day turned into probably the most stressful day of our life thus far. The house had gone on the market on Feb 18th, it was very well taken care of by the previous owners, and it was staged beautifully by the selling agent. We knew it was going to go fast. Our realtor came across the listing the morning of the 20th basically by accident and she knew we had to see it. We weren't three steps in the front door and we were both already in love. The selling agent told our agent that she had three other offers going in that day and that if we wanted to make an offer, we needed to do it that day. A couple bottles of wine, a lot of stressful phone calls, and a couple of minor freak outs later...we had made a pretty aggressive offer and were told that the sellers would be accepting Sunday afternoon!! We couldn't have been happier. Turned out...it was well worth the few painful hours we had gone through that day.

Pretty much immediately after that, we started packing and getting all of our ducks in a row to move...again. I think its safe to say that moving is mine and Andrew's least favorite pastime. But, knowing that this move was going to land us in OUR home kept us motivated and within the first weekend, our apartment was 80% packed up.

Our closing date was set for March 31st which worked out perfectly because we had time to squeeze in a vacation to Florida and a Wilco concert.

We closed on Wednesday March 31st and we moved in Saturday April 3rd. Thanks to a few great friends and family members out here, the move went off pretty much without a hitch and we were "in" after just a few hours.

Since then, we've made a couple of purchases...the most significant and most important ones in our minds being the deck furniture and grill. :-) With summer quickly approaching, we plan on spending as much time enjoying our deck as possible. Ah...it's so nice to say "our deck". :-) The moral of this story is that we are thrilled to be first time home owners. And we are hopeful for lots and lots of visitors!! Please accept this as your invitation!

It's ours!!!

Deck furniture and grill...we love it out here!

For more photos of the house, you can visit my facebook page and view my photo album titled 7353 Hickory Log Circle.

Pictures to accompany the last post...

Grandma B, Olivia, and me at the Annual Zender Family Christmas Lunch

The view just outside the back door of our building on December 19

The view just outside the front door of our building during the Feb 6 blizzard

Andrew playing in the Feb 6 snow

Winter

Hello friends!

I have finally found a little bit of time to sit down and update. I apologize that this post is going to be REALLY long. But I've got 2 full months to catch up on!!

The last adventure I wrote about was our great day spent in Alexandria, VA. After that, we laid low for a few weeks. December 19 brought a snow storm of epic proportions. Our area got 2 FEET of snow. It was craziness. That weekend was filled with lots of warm comfort food, a good amount of junk food, and lots of movie watching. Coming from the Midwest, we thought we knew what "a lot of snow" meant. But after December 19, we realized quickly that we were wrong. Wow. It took us nearly three hours to dig our cars out...and a quick trip to the chiropractor for me the following week was definitely in order. Luckily, our December 22 travel plans were not hindered and we were able to make it home to Kansas City that day for Christmas with our families.

Our trip home was so great. We enjoyed our annual lunch with the Zender side, Christmas Eve with the Witcher side, and then Christmas Day split between both sides of our family. We also got to see lots of our friends while we were there. Both of us fought head colds Christmas week, but we powered through and enjoyed the time so much. On our last day in town, we were lucky enough to get to meet a big group of our friends and a couple of cousins down on the Plaza for lunch. We hung out, caught up, and had such a great time. Our friends Melissa and Kasey were there and at one point when Melissa got up to go to the restroom, Kasey pulled out an engagement ring to show us. We all literally jumped out of our chairs! He asked Andrew for some suggestions on how he should propose and they talked for a moment...but it ended up that Kasey couldn't wait! That night, when our plane landed in Baltimore, I had a text message from Melissa telling me that Kasey had proposed and that they were getting married! We are so so excited for them!! Congratulations Melissa and Kasey! A couple of weeks later, Melissa asked me and 3 of our other great girlfriends to be bridesmaids in their wedding this coming October. The MG's are all honored to be bridesmaids and we absolutely CANNOT wait for October 23!!! So that was definitely an awesome way to finish up a great trip.

When you move away, you appreciate every second spent with the people you love that you don't get to see as often anymore. We had such an awesome time while we were home and I'd be lying if I said that it was easy to leave. We absolutely love Maryland but when you get a taste of "home" and you have to leave; it can be hard. So, that being said, to everyone that we got to see while we were home for the holidays, we love you all and we miss you so much! And to everyone that we didn't get to see, we hope to see you soon...we love you and we miss you too!!

We made it home safe and soon we were back to work and back to our routine. New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful. We stayed home and I fell asleep on the couch around 10:00pm. Andrew woke me up at 11:58 in time to watch the ball drop and have a quick New Year's kiss, and then we went to bed. We opened our champagne on New Year's Day and made a nice dinner.

The first week of January, we decided to start looking for a house. We were SO excited to begin this process! Our first step was to speak with a mortgage expert to figure out what price range we should be looking at. We got through that step and since then, it's basically been a whirlwind! We were referred to a realtor in the area by a friend from my office and we were online basically immediately searching listings and trying to figure out which areas and neighborhoods we should focus on. The first couple of weekends we just drove around. Like all day. Due to the fact that we are not from here, we do not know what areas are "good" or "bad", we don't know where there are good schools, we really don't know anything. So we wanted to be sure to check out neighborhoods and surrounding areas first, before we started looking at actual houses. After that, we were able to narrow our search a bit and at least focus on some general areas where houses are on the market in our price range.

Our first weekend out with our realtor was interesting. That's really the best word to describe it. While we would love to end up in a single family home, but in the areas that we are interested in it's just not going to happen. Townhomes and duplexes are basically the only options that land within our price range. So we swallowed that reality our first weekend out and we were able to narrow our search a bit more. That first weekend we saw some dumps. There's just no better way to say it. But we were not discouraged in the least. We were looking at the wrong things...and since this is our first home buying experience, we decided that we had to learn that early on and move forward with our hunt.

Our second weekend out was MUCH better. We saw some very nice places and just had an overall much better experience. We even saw one place that is "on the radar" as a possibility! So that's super exciting.

On that same second weekend out, we also volunteered at the Polar Bear Plunge in Annapolis, MD. That day could be a single post all on it's own!! But since I'm just catching everyone up on the last couple of months, I'll just talk about it here. My company, Aerotek, is a founding partner for the Polar Bear Plunge. The event happens every January across the country...but its huge in Maryland. I mean HUGE. For those of you that don't know what the plunge is...its a fundraiser for the Special Olympics. A bunch of crazy people come up with at least $50 to donate, and they can participate in the plunge. Which happens in January. When the water in the bay is like 40 degrees. And they all jump in!!!

Now I'm going to pause and take my place on a soapbox real quick. If you have ever met me, you are most likely fully aware that I am ALL ABOUT the charity. I LOVE fundraising, I LOVE giving to those who are less fortunate. I LOVE to volunteer and raise money for good causes. It is just part of who I am. Now I am going to state the following with the utmost certainty...unless it were a life and death sitation...I would not, under any circumstances, EVER, jump into 40 degree water in the middle of January. No way. I firmly believe that the people who did jump in the water that day are nuts! I am REALLY impressed with their commitment and I can't believe the number of people who actually did it (the number was in the 1000's). But no way, man. I couldn't do it. I am a big baby when it comes to cold and especially cold water.

So Andrew and I volunteered at the registration tent on the day of the event. Oh wow. It was FREEZING. Oh...and a snowstorm hit that day as well. (again...those people who jumped in are crazy) But we got home and thawed out, and we started talking about our experience. We decided that the people who participate in the Special Olympics face challenges every single day. And that if it meant we had to freeze our booties off for one day to raise money to help those people, it was worth our goosebumps. It was worth our time. And in the end, we were glad we did it.

THEN...that night I talked to my cousin Kristin and she asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding!!! Talk about crazy excited!! SHE had called me a couple weeks ago randomly on a Friday night and when I picked up the phone she was acting like she was just calling to chat. At some point entirely too far into the conversation, I said "wait? What are you doing?? Aren't you in Chicago this weekend for your sorority reunion??" and she goes, "well, yes...but I just called to tell you I just got ENGAGED!!!" Krisin's boyfriend Andrew surprised her in Chicago the weekend of her reunion and popped the question at the Signature Room at the top of the John Hancock Building (which is amazing, by the way, if you haven't been there before). Congratulations Andrew and Kristin!! We are so happy for you!! Andrew and I were there the night that Kristin and Andrew met so this engagement is particularly exciting to us. I was beyond thrilled when she called to ask me to be a bridesmaid. I absolutely cannot wait!

The following Monday night, my aunt Mary (Kristin's mom) was in DC for a meeting that she goes to every year and she asked Andrew and me to meet her at her hotel for a drink. We are always THRILLED to see people from home (ahem, hint hint...come visit ANYTIME!) so we jumped at the chance. We had a great time catching up with Mary, we had some fabulous wine, and some delicious appetizers. It was such a fun visit. Thank you again Mary!!

And that finally brings us to present day. Are you relieved?? Haha! I got to leave work a couple hours early today because the forecast is calling for 2 to 3 feet of snow this weekend...and it started this morning. So my boss let everyone go a bit early to ensure we all got home safely. Andrew and I went to the store on Wednesday to get prepared for another weekend stuck inside. We also attempted to buy a snow shovel this week. HA! That has proven to be an impossible task. We considered buying one after the first huge snowstorm in December that I mentioned earlier. But everyone we know out here told us that it only snows that much in this area every 15 years or so. I guess they were wrong. I think it's safe to say we will be purchasing a snow shovel this week. And even if we don't need it for another 15 years, I bet we'll be glad we have it.

Until then....we're going to watch our cars get completely buried all weekend...and we're going to stay inside. We have all the "fixins" for a delicious chili and some cornbread that we're super excited about. And our house hunt will continue online-only for this weekend as we, and our realtor, are not planning on driving around anywhere in all this snow!!

Stay warm, everyone! And if you've made it this far reading this novel of a post, thank you for reading!

Our trip to Clearwater Beach, FL in March cannot get here fast enough!!! :-)

Ho Hum

Hello Friends!

I apologize that the old blog has been neglected lately. December was a pretty hectic month and I just could not find the time to sit down and write a post or two. I swear I will get a posting up very soon.

In the meantime, Happy New Year to everyone! I hope your 2010 is wonderful!