Kickoff to Summer

Memorial Day Weekend is when I feel like I can offically say that summer is beginning! I ab-so-lute-ly LOVE summer! Here are all the little signs I have come to know and love:

Ted and I celebrate our marriage, even if the 27th doesn't exactly fall on the weekend. 2 years this year!!!

The people of Charlevoix get together and plant over 1200 flats of petunias along the city limits of US-31. Where else can you drive down the road and get scents of flowers all the way through town?

Road workers sweep the streets and then paint fresh white and yellow lines, which makes the streets seem like new. ...Only a person who likes things super neat and clean would take the time to acknowledge this! haha

You can be 90% sure that you have seen the last frost so you can begin planting flowers in your garden. Me, I planted some petunias around our little porch and then bought some baskets of flowers. We aren't doing much this year, because 1) Eloise, and 2) Ted's aunt, Mary Fox, is coming in late June to help me plan out what I even want/need. Let's just say I am not really a gardener....yet.

The lawn is mowed for the first time. And, this year, it was mowed with our brand new moterless lawn mower. You know, the old fashioned kind, that wheels around and makes almost no noise and doesn't contribute any pollution! yay! It was a great buy. :)

Kilwin's, an ice cream shop, is actually open past 4pm, so you can get some yummy ice cream after dinner.

People fill up our town and the population practically triples. I love the busyness and hustle and bustle...Ted, not so much. But, with the people come all the festivals (and boats, and golf carts on city streets, and lots of traffic, especially when the bridge goes up). But, I wouldn't want it any other way.

Summer is what makes it worth it to live in Northern Michigan!

A Prayer Comes True!

The answer to our prayers is: A Gorgeous Home!!!!

Theodore and I have a place to live and it's IN Charlevoix, 5 minutes from everywhere we always go! It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a finished basement! It is on a nice corner lot, has a heated garage, and we LOVE it!

Sorry for all of the exclamation marks, but I really can't help it. We are so excited, and we can't wait to move in. We now have a place that we can call our own. We can be home by ourselves, make dinner together, and have an hour less in the car each day. We get giddy when we talk about it. We can have small group, youth group, friends, family and more come over to OUR house.

Now we understand the pride that comes with home ownership. Ted and I are excited to care for our home as well as clean it, fix it up, mow the lawn, shovel the drive, paint rooms colors we want, and more. We are excited for the responsibility. Now for some pics of our HOME!

Here it is! (more pics once we move in)

A Home for Sarah and Ted?

We are very excited to announce that we might be in the process of almost buying a house!

WOW, we have come so far!

For those of you who may not know, we have lived in three different places during our first year of marriage. Each place has been unique, each place has had its ups and downs, and each place has never really been our own.

Place #1:

Apartment, Charlevoix, MI

Very cute, 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment. Comes with your own yard and a white picket fence. Please disregard noisy neighbors, skunks who enjoy the trash, and the kitchen/living/dining room combo.

Place #2:

A Farm House, East Jordan, MI

AWESOME, 5 bedroom, 3 bath home, with extravagant country views. Professional grade appliances included! Tons of room for hunting and Christmas parties. Also includes the one of a kind experience of chopping, stacking, and then the chucking of wood into an outdoor boiler...twice a day!

Place #3:

Parent's House, Boyne City, MI

Spacious, walkout basement with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. Parents in the upper level of home are practically unnoticed. Free meals on the dining room table around 6pm every night. Offers the chance to bond with mom and dad in a way that you thought was never possible with your spouse; including sharing a washer and dryer, having lengthy debates about politics/education and more!

Three houses, three towns, one year.

Ted and I are ready for a place to call our own, to say the least. But, in all seriousness, we have had such great experiences in each of these places. We will never live in a house that is as nice as Place #2 or Place #3. And, we will never trade living in downtown Charlevoix at Place #1, during our first summer together, for ANYTHING else. We are so grateful for what we have and where we live. No matter where it is. Our home is wherever Ted and I are...together. That is enough for us!

Thanks to CHX Apt.'s, the Shaw's, and the Polleys Parents!