We find ourselves employed and with a hint of fall in the air. Summertime is over, but the time of the Summers' is just beginning... and what a busy time it has been. We apologize for the large lapse in time between blogs, but like we said, we have been busy. We got hitched, went to Spain, have been dealing with house shenanigans, writing thank you notes, going to the beach and Philly, reading The Time Traveler's Wife, seeing GI Joe and Julie and Julia, brushing cats, making Paula Deen Mac'N Cheese, dealings with garden chores, and school has started back. Actually, since school has started back things have been a little more leisurely.
We recently had a new roof put on the house. It was in pretty desperate need of a little TLC as apparently there was basically no gravel left on the shingles. It's not like we really have to go up on the roof, but I guess it is a pretty important component of a house to keep in good shape. In order to get the roof put back on the roof over our porch had to be redone because there were boards that had begun to rot. That was a task. Sam and his dad worked many long hours tearing down and resurrecting this structure, all the while we were suffering a tad bit of melancholy because we utilize our porch pretty frequently. Thankfully all is now complete. The roof guys stampeded the project and were done in just a few days. While they were up there we asked them to put a piece of metal over the chimneys. Soon after our return from Spain my niece and nephew stayed the night with us. It was fun: we hiked; made pizza and ice cream; had a dance party; and watched a movie. Unfortunately when it was time for bed, a slight annoyance was uncovered. Sam and my nephew slept in our bed. My niece and I slept upstairs. While doing so I, the only one still awake, heard squirrels busily chirping away in the chimney. Soon after we started investigating and found that there were chimney sweeps in one in other room. Needless to say we had them cap off the chimney to keep unwanted guests out.
The new roof is our project focus for this year as we are also learning about finances. I bought my first new car. Conveniently during the "CARS" Cash for Clunkers program my dad offered me his yellow truck (The Golden Goose) as a trade-in. It was a pretty stressful few days because I was making my purchase in the few days after the money had run out from the first allotment and the government was deciding whether or not to reassign more money to the program. I had to go to Spartanburg. SC to get my car because the Honda dealership in Asheville which I had originally decided to go and had a deal in progress decided to freeze the program. Nevertheless, I am now feeling pretty swanky driving around my new metallic gray 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid...but am only able to afford it because I have to spend next to nothing on gas. Needless to say, it was definitely a good deal and while my car wasn't exactly ready to kick the bucket, it is getting up there in age and can't be depended on for long trips. Even with the monthly car payments, I feel like it was a good deal and a good decision. Here is a link to a picture of a car like the one we got: Honda Insight
This very large purchase was all made feasible by the very good news of Sam getting a job. At the end of the summer we were left with the disarray of the budget and Sam being jobless. He was in the paper and everything. Luckily, being one of the 80 in the school system that was layed off, his name was sent out to schools in need of English positions. He now works at the Buncombe County Early College which is described to be "a bunch of kids with rolling bookbags" AKA a blessing for teachers. These are the students that teachers love to have. They are the nerd birds that the traditional high schools do not cater to; the ones who do not play sports or are not interested in the extracurricular activities offered by a normal high school and thus need an alternative high school setting. They are willing to learn and all have very unique personalities. Sam is very satisfied with this career move and thinks that all turned out for the best.
So here we are at the beginning of the 09-10 school year with blurred images of a summer. However, the images from our wedding found at the following link are not blurred: The Hitchin'
And of course, I'm sure you'd like to know what happened after the wedding....dun dun DUN! Until next time!
