Going to the Chapel and We’re….Gonna get married!

Although I’m terrible at blogging, I think by this point it’s common knowledge that Matt and I are getting married!!

On August 25, 2010 (also Christines birthday!) Matt took me up to his grandparents cabin, where he asked me to marry him. I’ve told the story about 200 times, but every time I make sure and end it with “it was absolutely perfect, and the entire thing fit Matt’s personality, I wouldn’t have had it any other way” – basically because to someone else, the proposal on the front porch might not have been quite how they imagined… but if you know Matt, you know he loves being outside, four wheeling, camo hats, and basically loves just enjoying the small things in life – which is exactly how it went, nothing fancy (although the ring, is absolutely breathtaking!), but simple and quaint, exactly how our life together is, perfect – for us.

Since then, all bets are off. I have been in full wedding planning mode. I immediately booked our venue for the reception and ceremony for September 3, 2011. It will be outdoors, in St. Mary’s County, on the water. I am absolutely I love with the site! I have also decided on a dress. After trying on lots of dresses, I found one that really gave me the “this is the one” feeling. Although I didn’t really expect to have that feeling, I knew the dress was it the moment I put it on. Won’t elaborate too much tho – if you want to know more, just ask! I also decided on our wedding party, colors, food, etc. If you ask Matt, I’ve slightly turned into a bridezilla. Thankfully I have a wonderful family, great friends, and an amazing finance (ahhh finally getting used to that word!) to keep me from getting out of control.

All in all, its been a busy couple of months- but basically I’m the luckiest girl in the world, and I can’t wait to be Mrs. Brown!

Life in Calvert County

First, let me apologize for my lack of blogging. The past few months have been crazy with moving and such, but now that I’m firmly settled into what I will be calling “home” from this point forward – I guess I need to step up my game, at least with keeping up on my blog.

Life in Calvert County is nice. It’s quiet and it’s a bit slow; what I would call a happy medium between St. Mary’s 7th District, and Baltimore Cities Federal Hill. All in all, I am loving the new house, loving living with Matt, and moreover absolutely in love with the natural beauties that are found right in my back yard. (not literally, but close enough!)

Now let me preface my next statement with – I love working at ADA. But (yes, there is always a but) sometimes things can get a bit overwhelming, and after what I would call – being on the verge of a freak out- Wednesday, I decided it was a good idea to take a personal day. So I came home Wednesday night very chipper that I could sleep past 5:45am on a weekday, woohoo!

Wednesday night Matt and I went in search of a public beach near our house. I have been aimlessly driving around for weeks, with little to no luck in finding any sort of “public” recreational area for lounging. Surrounded by water…literally we are nestled right between the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay, it would be logical that a public beachy area would be easy to find. Not so much. After another failed attempt at searching for the beach, I was slightly disheartened. Non the less, after a great night sleep, we headed out again to search for the sand.

After finding 2 other small beaches, Matt, Ginger and I stumbled across Flag Pond Park. We had to pay to get into the park, and then walk to the beach…but after so many failures, we figured, hey what’s one more walk? After a leisurely walk for about ¾ of a mile we came to the clearing on the beach, and WOW was about all I could say. The beach I have so anxiously awaiting to find, has finally revealed itself.






I can’t take credit for these photos, however this is exactly what I saw when I came through the clearing. It was most certainly worth the wait. In fact, we almost immediately went home and got our swim suites, and the three of us spent the day lounging on the beach. (Ginger was a little confused & didn’t love that we tried to make her swim – maybe next time she will be a little more brave when it comes to the water)

Anyone who knows me knows I love the beach. And somehow, I think Calvert County just won my heart.

Spring has Sprung

Spring is finally here (although I heard something about flurries on the radio this morning…) and I can’t believe how refreshing it is to just be outside. Maybe this Winter felt exceptionally long – 3 major snow storms can give just about anyone cabin fever if you ask me – but I know when the first signs of Spring started appearing a few weeks ago, it was like I turned into a totally new person! Daylight savings time came early this year, but if you ask me, it couldn’t have gotten here fast enough. Now that it’s actually light out when I get home from work, I feel like I have my life back. I am motivated to exercise, run errands, and just generally stay awake past 8pm. I feel like I have been more productive in the past 2 weeks, with my home life, then I have in months!

With the new beginning of Spring, comes new beginnings for Matt and me. We have our pre-settlement walk-thru on our house today, and we move in permanently on Wednesday. I can’t believe that Matt is actually buying his first house! I know I have been there every step of the way, and I have helped with just about everything, but when it comes down to it, Matt is the one signing the papers, and I am so proud of him. Most people our age aren’t even thinking about buying homes, and he has really made my dream become a reality.

There are so many things to be excited about with this new house of ours, so maybe highlighting the most important things is the best route to go:
- Matt and I can have time together
- Ginger will no longer bother her aunty Kirby
- I will have my own Walk-In closet
- Our commutes to and from work are going to be much shorter!!!
- The HUGE bathtub

We are planning a house warming part-tay; details to come.

Shopping Attempt - Fail

So the contract on the townhouse has been ratified and accepted and so now should be the fun part – shopping for house ‘stuff’. Mom and I went out this weekend (both Saturday and Sunday) with intent of purchase. After about 8-10 hours of shopping split between two days, I returned home defeated, only purchasing a small shelving unit and a spaghetti strainer.
As I trucked up to Bel Air on Friday night, traffic was a nightmare and it took Ginger and me about 3 hours, I anxiously awaited the weekend ahead. Mom and I had a list of stores that filled an entire 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper that we were going to go to. Everything from Target and Bed Bath and Beyond, to Goodwill and antique flee markets. Now I know that sometimes these type of stores are hit or miss, but really? How is it possible for all 12 of them to be a miss?! We strolled thru shop after shop, and I eagerly awaited something to ‘pop’ out at me. You know that feeling when you see the perfect dress, and you think “this is it!” Well that is what I was waiting for, on just about any and all house stuff…and all I got was a strainer.
Although slightly disappointed, I came home knowing that the stuff that is meant for my house will come eventually. So if anyone is getting rid of any household goodies, don’t call the truck before checking in with me! So far, the best treasures I have gotten have been from other peoples garages!

Business Travel

So this past weekend, I went on my first business trip. My travels took me across the continental US to the lovely state of California, San Francisco to be precise. To be quite honest, I wasn't that excited about the trip. First of all, it meant I wasn't going to be having a weekend, and secondly the 'biggest snow storm to ever hit MD' was occurring within hours of my departure. Being the worry wort that I am, I was a bit nervous about traveling in the big snow, and even more nervous about being stuck in San Francisco. Despite my worries, I made the trek to the airport at 2 a.m. on Friday morning, and after several mishaps (to avoid whining I'll just leave it at that) made it San Francisco at 6 p.m. local time (9 p.m. in Baltimore)

The trip was a big success! The 57th Annual Postgraduate Course, the conference I have been working on since I started at ADA, went off with flying colors and raving reviews, and I loved San Francisco! I can't wait to go back! The city was gorgeous, the people were nice, and the weather was a perfect 60 degrees. Coming from the 25 degrees in MD, it felt like a taste of Spring...which was just enough to put a little pep in my step.

I spent Saturday night out on the town with ADA's newest intern, Cassie. We had dinner at a cute little place down in Fisherman's Wharf, had Irish Coffee at the famous Buena Vista Cafe, and rode the Cable Cars up to the top of the hill. All in all, it was a great time and we did some fabulous sight seeing!

After several problematic phone calls with the airlines (mostly non-weather related) I finally made it back to MD on Tuesday around 2 a.m. (again to avoid whining, I'll leave it at that)

Although I was very unhappy about missing the big snow, I think in retrospect I'm glad I wasn't here. The latest and greatest 'blizzard of 2010, round 2' has got me stuck inside with cabin fever and longing for Spring time. Not to mention the heaping piles of snow just waiting to be shoveled.

The "Weekend"

As I have now moved from the full time occupation: Student, to the full time occupation: Specialist, Sci-Med & Professional Education, I am started to learn that ‘weekend’ has an entirely new meaning. Prior to entering the workforce, to me, weekend was a time of relaxation and fun. Friday night (well in all reality Thursday night) meant it was time to let loose and have some fun! Although this is still sometimes the case, I am finding that I am now looking at the weekend in a more literal sense, meaning the work week is over, and now it is time to do all that stuff I was way too tired to get accomplished during the week. Things like laundry, groceries, general chores and visiting family/friends. Not to minimize family and friends into the category of necessary obligations, but simply to justify that making time for people outside of the immediate living situation can sometimes be difficult when working a ‘9-5’ job.

I had a chance to catch up with some old friends this weekend. It was really nice to chat, fill in the ‘what’s new’ which in my case is just about everything, and to just enjoy some FANTASTIC Baltimore football. However during our ‘what’s new’ conversation, I made a comment about how the ‘9-5’ job wasn’t as fantastic as I thought it would be, as far as having time to do other things was concerned. When I said this, my friend (who has been in the work-force a bit longer then I have) chuckled and quickly corrected me with “oh you mean 7-6:30 job”

Somehow, I feel like the reality of the work day, is that even if you are supposed to work 8 hours, or 8.5 for me ( 1 hour lunch included) it really never ends up being that way. For some, like my dear friend who just recently became a CPA for a major accounting firm, 9-5 some how equates to a depressed text message at 8:30pm Saturday night that reads “just finished my 70 hour work week, FML” For others like myself, it means working the allotted 8 hours, and assuming there is no extra work that needs completion, driving the grueling 60-90 minutes home thru traffic. Add 60-90 minutes each way to work, and somehow 8 hours turns into almost 11.

All that being said, I’m finding it really hard to balance work / family / friends. This weekend I went home to visit with my family. It was so nice to just be able to relax and know that someone would take care of me. I spent the majority of the weekend camped out on the couch watching re-runs of Law and Order with my mom. I did have lunch with a girlfriend and her adorable daughter, breakfast with a lovely journalist friend, and like I said, watched some great football with some old friends, but somehow I feel like the weekend was slow. Slow in the sense that I didn’t get anything accomplished. I didn’t do laundry, I didn’t go grocery shopping and Ginger didn’t get the bath she needed - - but honestly I don’t really care. Maybe my weekend wasn’t the ‘let loose and have fun’ weekend that it used to be, but it was full of familiar faces and down time, and I think that was exactly what I needed!

On House Hunting

So Matt and I have started ‘house hunting.’ With my new job in Alexandria, VA I was left with no choice but to uproot from the comfort of Northern MD, and head south. Lucky for me, my lovely boyfriend happens to already live in Southern MD so my new destination has been St. Clements Island. St. Clements Island is a very nice, southern area. It has big rolling fields (farmed in the summer time, but fairly desolate right now) and a beautiful water view. Unfortunately, it is a bit of a hike from Alexandria, so Matt and I started the long process of house hunting.

Being a first time home buyer, there is a great advantage to purchasing a home prior to the end of April 2010… and by great advantage, I mean an $8000 tax credit. That being said, we decided it would be very beneficial if we got our tails in gear and started seriously moving on the house project.

Part of being a first time home buyer means that you have NO idea what you’re getting into. Lucky for us, Matt’s parents have a good friend, and real estate agent, who is taking great care of us each step of the way. We started working with him (better not to list his name) sometime in Mid-December. Between then and now, Matt and I have learned that we aren’t going to get our dream home, but if we get lucky, we will get something that meets our needs (and some of our wants!)

Our main goals are to find a home somewhere that is reasonable for both our work schedules – We decided on Prince Frederick, MD. It’s going to be about 50 miles for me and about 20 -30 miles for Matt. Ideally we would find some where right in the middle, but as we quickly learned, pricing for homes is based A LOT on location. We are also looking for something that doesn’t need an extreme amount of work…neither one of us have the time or cash right now to be working on a ‘project’ home. And last but not least we are looking for a house that will be do-able with our furry friend. Ginger needs a lot of space, and we would really like to be able to give it to her. Obviously we won’t give up a great home because the back yard is not huge…but if all goes as planned we are hoping to get something with a nice backyard.

Maybe I’m not going to be moving into my dream home- you know, walk in closets, full cathedral ceilings, a grand foyer, wrap around porch, yadeyadeya… but I couldn’t be happier that Matt, Ginger and I are going to be finding a place to call home!