It's Christmas

And there's no snow here. A little weird, but it's ok. We had a nice Christmas together. As odd as it is not being around all our family, it was relaxing to not have to have a few different places to squeeze in 2 days.

Our first Christmas together wasn't quite what I pictured, but I wouldn't have had it any other way this year. We didn't spend it in our new house, but we spent it in anticipation of our house. We can't wait.

We both had a good Christmas. So did the cats. Buster actually played with store bought toys! And they got a couple items which will make the move to our new house a little easier, and keep the environment familiar.

Tomorrow, we will go hunting through the sales for a refrigerator. We'll also hit up the gym with my new membership (Thanks Don!) . Hopefully, I can utilize my membership and get myself back in a better shape so that I'm happier with myself.

So, the countdown is on! 19 days til our house!!

Life happens...

We had gotten some bad news. Don's grandmother passed away Dec. 1. We got the news that Monday evening. Within minutes, Don was looking for airfare to fly back to Illinois. Unfortunately, last minute airfare for the weekend is expensive. So, I talked to my boss, Don talked to his, and we both we able to get a couple days off.

Thursday night, we got on the road to drive to 20 hours back to Illinois. We arrived at our friend's apartment at 4 pm, Friday. Spent the night, and headed back to his hometown Saturday morning for the funeral. We stayed there until Sunday late afternoon, and then started the 20-something hour drive back home. We made it back 2 pm Monday. Such a long exhausting weekend, but it was good to see a couple of friends and his family.

And yes! We made it back alright, and we're not filing for divorce. I'm not saying we were happy the whole time. But we have great patience with one another. Spending all weekend with each other, and driving for a total of over 40 hours together, we still spent Monday evening together. I really am not sure how we do it, but we do :)

My brother said at one point after we moved in with my parents here in Texas "If they can make it living there, they'll be together forever". Well, we got 26 days left, I think we'll be fine. We make sure to communicate and understand each other so we can support each other. Part of our vows we said on our wedding day were, "I promise to be not behind you or in front of you, but beside you always." I think that's the base of our marriage, and is probably how we can take extremely long car rides with each other, spend entire days with each other, and not rip each other's heads off.

In other news, we close January 13 on our house!!!!! We are super excited, and can finally start seriously shopping for fridges and couches. I was telling Don last night, "We're buying a house together and shopping for furniture. We're getting serious" :)

Day before Thanksgiving...

and I got my sickness back. Don was sick for like, 2 days. Mine seems to keep on going. Hopefully I won't be too sick for the dinner tomorrow.

House update: We have cabinets, countertops, trim, paint and bricks!

Our bricks outside (Don visited at night)

Half of my kitchen! Countertops and cabinets!

And my little pantry shelves! I love what they did. The "standard" is just shelves in the back wall. But we talked to the construction guy about bigger shelves, and we got this! I love it.

Looking into my kitchen from the living room!

Meet the Family

And a final updating post, our little family right now.

Rocky wanted to make sure I showed off his Halloween Costume

Buster is not quite as evil as he looks here

Rocky about to take a nap

Buster is the older cat. He's 11, and has been with me through a lot of ups and downs. He's a grumpy old man, but can also be sweeet (sometimes). Rocky is the baby kitty. He's just over a year and half. We adopted him from Don's grandparent's farm when he was 9 weeks. And he's been causing trouble ever since :)

In the years to come, Don and I hope to add more to our little family, both in fur and furless.

Today, Don has a little cold. He probably caught it from me. When he gets sick, he acts like a big baby. Which is exactly the same as when I get sick. So if we ever get sick at the same time in our house, everything will go downhill for a few days, lol. He went to bed early, so hopefully he'll feel better for tomorrow and Sunday, so our weekend isn't dampened. I was sick last weekend, so we didn't much. Not fun at all.

We found out our house was painted on the inside, and my pantry shelves were installed! Pictures (or a link at least) will be posted once we get them. We originally were told we would close January 6. Now the construction guy says we will close Jan 13. I hope they don't push it back again. We want to get into our house!!

The house is coming along!

Nicole has been after me for a bit to add stuff to the blog. I did some updates on my website to highlight the work KB Home has done on our house. I hope she likes it and knows that I do care.

Work on the house

This couple’s blogging thing is going to take some time for me to get down.

A brief history to bring you up to date

I met Don on match.com in January 2005. 2 weeks after we started talking, and our 3rd date, we became officially a couple. It was love at first sight. We both pretty much knew marriage was in our future from the start. Countless hours were spent talking on the phone, getting to know eachother. Living an hour apart, we made an effort to spend almost every weekend together.

January 21, 2006, almost exactly a year after those first emails were exchanged, Don finally asked me that question and gave me that ring. It wasn't too much longer after our engagement when Don finally made the decision to move in with me. There were some ups and downs, but after 2 years of living with each other, we were finally married and happy.

The decision to move from Chicago to Houston was primarily Don's desire. My parents had moved down here, but I never really considered it. It was nice of Don to let me know of his mindset quite a few months after he decided it :) But, I was up for an adventure. We weren't really all that happy with our surroundings in our little college town, and it didn't look as if we would be able to get out of there to the suburbs anytime soon. We just weren't getting ahead with our jobs.

Donald and I arrived in Houston on June 4th, 2008, and have had no regrets since. When we came down, we started looking for jobs immediately (we looked before moving, but it was difficult). A month after coming down, Don got hired at his current job, and I got hired at mine a week after him. We used about all of our savings moving down here and paying our bills until we got jobs, so we basically started from zero once we started working. And as difficult as it has been, we are very lucky my parents let us stay with them.

So, we are in the process of watching our first home being built! Estimated closing date is Jan 6, 2009 (54 days away!). From zero to homeowners in 7 months, I'm proud of the way we worked together to plan out and stick to a budget so we can get finances in order to be able to afford the house.

All in all, I couldn't be happier with the decision I made to be with Don, and the decision we made to start our new life together in a new place. I can't wait for our life to really start in our brand new house, together, on our own.

This blog is to document our journey together... there will be many more posts to come.

Tag Team Couple's Blogging

So Nicole was like, "Bunches, write this blog with me. I don't feel good..." So here I am. Trying my best to enjoy this and appease my sick wife. So here we go...

Weighing in at 157 Lbs. Mr Bunches! And in this corner, weighing in at XX Lbs... Mrs. Bunches.

**Edit by Nicole** Donald...