New Home!

We had our first official night as home owners. Tom and Aron brought the mattress over, which we placed on the floor to sleep on.

So this is how our first night went down. I arrived at 4, and the key was waiting for me under the mat, left by our Realtor. I went right in and frolicked around enjoying the fact I was in MY HOUSE! Then I started on the cleaning of the kitchen and downstairs bathroom. I got word from Aron that the closing was done and he was on his way back from Stamford. His parents met me at the house for their first official tour. They loved it! Then Aron's mom helped with the cleaning, which I have to admit had stalled at this point. We some good teamwork going, the kitchen and both bathrooms got cleaned and the floors all got swiffered.

Aron arrived and we toasted some champagne. Him and his dad headed off for supplies and dinner while we finished cleaning.

Ann and Tom and little Tommy arrived to help with the moving of the mattress. At some point my parents also arrived to check out the place. It was pretty much chaotic, but great. After everyone left, we took one final trip back to the apartment for the night to pick up a few more things.

It was weird sleeping in a new place. We are going to have to get used to the sound of cars at night. But other than that, our first night in the new house was great!

Tonight I have New Kids on the Block, and Aron and Oren are going to pick up our new BBQ and move some more stuff. The rest of the moving will be this weekend. I can't wait for our new furniture to arrive on Saturday!

HOME OWNERS!

In just a few short hours, Aron and Julie will officially be homeowners! I met the lawyer yesterday to sign all of the paperwork, and Aron is going to the closing at 4. Meanwhile, I am going to be sitting at work today trying not to bounce off the walls with excitement. I am going to go straight from work to the new house and await the key so I can get in there and start cleaning and get ready to move our stuff in! We did the final walk through last night, and it went well.

I hope this day goes by quick!

Closing has been scheduled for 4pm....this Wednesday.

So the closing is in less than 48 hours!

Home sweet home.

So on Friday, after much faxing and paperwork, we have officially cleared the biggest hurdle on our quest for a mortgage! If all goes well and all parties can make it, we are going to close on the house this Friday! It is exciting and scary all at the same time! Packing is going well, and the apartment is chaotic, but it is only for a few more days.

Yesterday we made some big house purchases. We now own a washer, dryer and a lawn mower. We are scheduled for delivery on Saturday. Hopefully we can have some furniture delivered that day too. If all goes well, we are looking to have the family over for Fathers Day!

Countdowns:
4 days until we close?
4 days of school
54 days until the wedding
55 until our honeymoon! (and by that point, I could really use a vacation!)

Sign in

I ordered our photo guest book yesterday! And not to sound conceded (because I designed it myself), it looks awesome! It features 20 pages of our engagement photos with the lyrics to our wedding song as captions throughout. It is simple white leather with white pages and black text. There is plenty of room for people to leave us nice words around each of the pictures and text. I know that the concept of a photo sign-in book is relatively new, so I am going to design a fun sign to sit next to it instructing people to write in it. It should arrive in the mail next week, and I am so excited to see the finished product!

Shower

Yesterday was my work shower. It was supposed to be a surprise, but someone accidentally spilled it on facebook (and my principal accidentally dropped a lot of hints). It was for the 4 girls in my building that are getting married this summer. It was hosted by our Sunshine committee and all of the teachers brought something. It was after school in place of our weekly staff meeting. Everyone was really generous and I got a very nice gift card for Macy's and a bottle of wine. It was really nice. Now I have to start on the Thank Yous.

It all feels real.

Now that people are officially beginning to receive their invites, everything is beginning to seem more real. Most of the local people got their invites yesterday, and the rest should have them today. Now I can officially begin stalking my parents mailbox for RSVPs. So far I have heard that people love the invites, and that the calligraphy is really nice. It makes me feel better about the amount of money that I spent to get them addressed. I think they came out awesome and it was worth the money.

So now that we are less than 2 months away (and my blog counter starts with 1 month!), everything seems to be moving quickly. We find out today from the mortgage company it we are officially approved to close, and June 19 looks like a good possibility for our closing date. We should know more soon.

Time is flying by. The school year is just about over. Moving is just around the corner, and as soon as we are settled in the house, it will be time to get married!

Relay for Life

I didn't want to lump this in with my post about excite over the invites, it deserves its own post.

This weekend was Relay for Life. It is such a great event. I went this year with Aron's mom, and it was her first time. Our friend Sherly convinced her that she needed to come as a survivor. The whole Pinkussohn family came, including John (Aron's dad). We did the survivor dinner with Sheryl and her family. We watched Beth do the survivor lap with Sheryl, and then we all joined her for the caregiver lap. We all had a great time, and a great experience.

But things like this make me a little sad with the wedding coming up. Cancer and illness has touched so many in family, as I am sure it has many others. As the wedding grows closer, I am thankful that Beth's treatment was quick and the recovery was good. I am thankful that Grandma Arlene is a strong breast cancer survivor too. I am thankful that Grandpa Dave battle 2 different types of cancer, and despite the very long road to recovery, he will be there to share our special day.

It also makes me sad that Aunt Sandy will not be there to share our day with us. I know how much it meant to her to be able to be at Heather's wedding, and I wish that she could have been here for mine. I know she would have loved to be there.

And even though it wasn't cancer, I wish Grandpa Larry was still here. I know that he loved watching Heather and I grow up, and he would have given anything to be at our weddings.

So this post is for all of the loved ones who are no longer here to share this exciting time in our life with us. We miss you.

In the mail!

The invites are being put in the mail thanks to my wonderful assistant Jamie. After spending the weekend stuffing envelopes, 109 envelopes will be mailed today. 3 have been hand delivered over the weekend. I stuffed about 75 of them by myself over the weekend, and Jamie volunteered to help me with the rest. It went about 10 times quicker with her helping. She assembled, I stuffed, she stamped. We managed to do the last 35 in less than an hour. I am so excited to start getting the reply cards in the mail! Tonight I am going to make a spreadsheet for the rsvps and meal choices. I can't believe I got them done on time. All along, my goal had been to mail them on June 8, and I made it exactly on time.

Exactly 2 months from now, I'll be waking up to start getting ready for the wedding!

Life keeps on moving forward

Invites are all address and ready to be picked up. I'll go after work on Friday. That gives me whatever part of the weekend I have to assemble (and possibly Monday evening). My goal is to have them in the mail no later than Tuesday. Maybe I will swing by the post office today to pick up stamps.

We got an email from Realtor on Monday confirming my guess that the renters are out of the house. After many drive bys over the weekend to show Tori and Aron's family the house, I concluded that the people must be gone. All of the patio furniture and kids toys were gone, and who packs that up during this time of year until you are moving out? But anyway, that means that the owner to ready to close whenever we are. Everything is set, except for the mortgage. When the mortgage company is ready, we are ready. So closing might be earlier than the 26th. We will see, we are kind of playing it day by day until we hear from the bank.

Countdowns:
?? days until closing
11 school days (only 2 more Mondays!)
65 days until the wedding