It’s always Autumn in England

As I was on my way out of work today, I called Evan as I always do and he suggested that we meet somewhere for dinner to celebrate our Anniversary. I was momentarily confused, because we got married in January. Then I remembered, it is our 1 year anniversary of having moved to the States. For the first time since 1989, I am calling America "home" and yes, I used those correctly. Any TCK or ATCK understands what I mean by the concept of home…for more of that rant, see this post.

So, in honour of this anniversary, I tried to think of something fun to do on my blog and I really didn’t think of anything other than a quick reminder of all that has happened in the last 12 months.

3rd July 2008 - pack up and sell my belongings in England and fly to America

August 2008 - I got a job at E91. I bought a car and totaled it two weeks later when I hit a deer coming home from my little brothers football game.

September 2008 - Purchased a new car, a Mustang GT. See pictures here. I never did name this car…suggestions welcome!

October 2008 - I turned 27. I also flew back to England and finished the process of becoming a British Citizen. I still have not sent off the paperwork for my passport, maybe I should do that.

November 2008 - I cut my hair and donated it to Locks of Love for the second time

December 2008 - I went to Costa Rica on a missions trip. I also celebrated Christmas with all 3 of my siblings for the first time since 1999 (I think that was the last time all of us were in the same place for christmas, but please correct me if I am wrong).

January 2009 -  Evan and I celebrated our 5th wedding annivesary by going to China Buffet on request of our 5 year old neice. She loved it, I’m not so sure about us, but we did enjoy the company! It also snowed in January, a lot, and I hated all of it.

February 2009 - We closed on our very first home. Nestled on 6.3 acres with a silo, a pool and a wrap around porch, it was all we wanted in a first home!

March 2009 - We spent the ENTIRE month working on our house: http://autumninengland.blogsome.com/2009/03/ Thankfully, Evan’s truck did not have to be replaced that month, even though at one point, we thought it might.

April 2009 - We MOVED IN to our own home after spending 9 months living with Evan’s parents. I am not sure we can ever express the full gratitude that we feel towards them for allowing us to live there. I do know that as grateful as I am to them, I am loving having my own home again!

May 2009 - I trained for, and walked a half marathon. Wow, never again, I say. Occasionally, if I have sat for a long time, my knee still hurts me after walking 13.1 miles in 3.5 hours.

June 2009 - Evan was ordained at the end of June. This also completed the 6 month contract he had at Brady Lane church and he has started searching for work again. I know he loved working there, and is sad to leave, but I also know God will lead us to the next step. We also held an open house following the ordination.

July 2009 -  I don’t know what this month holds for us, but I am excited to see what comes our way…I am going to see a dog on Sunday, so maybe that is what I will post about this time next year…who knows!

Thanks to anyone who vited for Blakedown Primary school the other day. THEY WON!!!

A friend of mine and my family is the headteacher at a small Church of England School in England. His school has a blog and they are entered in a competition. Today is the last day of voting and they are number 2…against a much larger school. Please go to: www.primaryblogger.co.uk/vote and vote for BLAKEDOWN PRIMARY SCHOOL.

This morning, they were about 200 votes down from 1st place. They are now only 94 votes down…go and vote!

Here is a newspaper article on the school: http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&bypass=true&pnum=&refresh=qQ02G6a141Fz&EID=80c1df60-de7c-4547-9a2f-6ccd4553bc78&skip go to page 16 for the article!

This is what the hallway looks like now. When you walk in the front doors, you can see down this hall 

This is the hallway before all of our work

Since I am on a roll of putting up pictures of the house, here are a couple more.

This is the wall you see when you enter the house. It is the center wall of the living/dining room

Here is what this looked like before

Dining Room now (with the correct chairs now). We have a few pictures up, but need to get curtains and slowly some nice antique stuff for the hutch.

For those of you that have not seen our house in person the family room and dining room are all open plan, one room, 30′ by 15′. The previous family had the family room where we now have the dining room table.

this is the guest bedroom. thanks to my mother-in-law i actually have matching bedding and valance! and i have already had 1 guest!

This what the room looked like before

Evan and I have nearly completed our bedroom. Our bed, matress and box springs have all arrived and we went out this week and bought a quilt, sheets, pillows, etc for our bed. We decided to get a King size bed, so that meant all new bedding!

At the foot of the bed, is the incredible chest we found at a local antique store, Over the Back Fence.

As a reminder, here is what the bedroom looked like when the previous owners live here.