Summertime Beach Bum

As you have read i closed on my house on Friday November 7th. On saturday i went to honda and put a deposit on a new car! Then this past friday November 14th i went to honda and picked up my new car! there was a total of 18 miles on it. Thats it! I am so excited to finally be driving my new car. I have posted a picture of it below. I love the color, the look and the ride :)

Make Candy Apples On 11/4/14 Mark helped me make candy apples. At the store in the baking isle i bought a bunch of things. I bought a bag of caramels meant for melting. Then i also bought sprinkles, peanut M&Ms, chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips. First i melted the caramel and dipped the apples, stuck them in the fridge for a while. Then i did the same with chocolate and before those cooled i dipped them in the different candies. I found this idea on a blog on line. Here  is the link to the blog if you want to check out a step by step.  Read a Novel On 11/3/14 I finished another book. It happened to be the second book in a trilogy. It was a really good book which i talk more out here  in this blog post. I cant wait to get started on the third one! Close on My House On 11/7/14 Mark and I went to the attorneys office for 4pm. We all sat around the table with the attorney, my realtor, and my mortgage consultant. Once all the paperwork was signed we went out to a bar

Try a New Recipe On 10/31/14 (Halloween night) I tried a new recipe for Mom, Dad, Mark and I. It was a 7 layer taco did. It was really good. First i layered the sour cream, then the taco meat with the taco seasoning, onion, avocado, tomatoes, lettuce and shredded cheese. Next time i would put a little extra sour cream in the bottom.  Enjoy Hot Cocoa On 11/1/14 I had hot chocolate the way i like it. With mini marshmallows and a candy cane melted inside. Marks is the one without the candy cane, however he agreed that it was better with one.  Rake Leaves and Jump On 11/2/14 my parents were cleaning up the leaves around their house. Now i dont actually have any leaves at my house since there are no trees. I actually swept this pile together, but i counted it :) Connect to my Fall Bucket List

I finished another book the other day. The book was called: The Last Boyfriend by Nora Roberts. It was the second book in the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy. In this story you still have the three montegomery brothers, and the three best girl friends Avery, Hope and Claire. It continues the relationship between Beckette and Claire, as they prepare for marriage, and building their family, possibly with a pregnancy! You can read my post about the first book  here . This story really focuses on the relationship that continues between Avery and another brother named Owen. They had dated when they were in elementary school, and Owen was Avery's first boyfriend, and turns out by the end of the story, he is going to be the last. By the end of the book they decide to get engaged. I am really into the book and the series. I can not wait until i start the third book. However i am going to be very sad when the series is over. I am going to have to start another series by the same author, i just hope

As i had posted before, the backyard of the house i bought was pretty awful when i moved in. You can see the full extent of the back yard here . The person who owned the house before me loved to garden, and she just let it go. The gardens were all over grown. Below are the before pics. You will be able to see all the areas of overgrown gardens.  A view from the far corner.  This is the raised garden in the middle. You can barely even see the back yard with how much is back here. Below are the during pics of trying to make the back yard better. It took a lot of weeding and digging.   We took the bricks from the raised garden and turned it into the fireplace. After we had weeded just a little, we found this patio that was already there. Perfect for the fire pit.   The raised garden after taking out the bricks. We started to smooth out the dirt. I had found someone who wanted the dirt so about a month after this picture we got all the dirt out. A view from the gat

I have left home several times now, once for college, once for my apartment, and then the most recent was for my own home. I figured I would tell a little story for each time i left home.  College It was a warm August day. My whole family packed into two cars, along with all my college stuff. It was a whirl wind of a day, between the waiting in line, and then everyone helping pack all my stuff into bins and then dropping it off into my dorm room. Then meeting my new roommates and their families, and getting used to this new life im living. We realized we were missing a few things that i needed and because i didnt have a car on campus mom and dad drove me out to the store. When it came time to say goodbye mom started to cry and then i started to cry. It was tough to say goodbye, but it was the start of a new adventure.  Lowell Last september i had to rent my own apartment to finish up my degree. It was in Lowell, MA. This is also where i met mark and started a relationship wi

For anyone out there who understands the mortgage world: The mortgage that i am applying for is a USDA/CHFA, it is a combined loan. So that is all fine and dandy, but what that means is that not only does one company have to approve me, but TWO have to. So this past tuesday i found out that i had been approved by USDA, and then my files were being shipped out to CHFA. I found out yesterday (on a saturday), that CHFA had now approved my loan!!! Yay for me! Im getting one more step closer. The lady i have been working on with my mortgage said that now all that is left is for her to schedule my closing!!! She is hoping for my closing to be this week, which of course makes me so excited. I cannot wait for this whole thing to be done, and then all i have from then on is to pay my mortgage. Ill post an update once i close on my first house!

Visit a Corn Maze  On 10/23/14 Mark and I went to a corn maze before Michael's football game. It was shaped like a vikings hat, and it was actually really fun. I had been to one when i was little and i had always wanted to go back to one. I was finally glad that i found one that was affordable! Last year all the corn mazes i had found cost about $30 or more. This one was $7! Perfect and i can not wait to go again next year.  Visit a Fall Festival  On 10/25/14 the town of Essex, CT held their annual pumpkin festival. I had been many years prior when i was babysitting someone, and i loved it! This year i made sure to look up the date, and when Mark got out of work we drive 30 minutes. The festival was fun! They had all the pumpkins that were carved and lit up. They had a band playing music and food and hot chocolate. It was a nice little festival to walk around together with my boy.  Carve Pumpkins  As you know we had bought pumpkins a few weeks ago,

Go For a Walk On 10/17/14 Mark, my mom, dad and I all went for a nice afternoon walk. There is a loop near my home that has a few good hills, that mom and I like to walk. The fall foliage was beautiful!  Get Cozy By a Fire On 10/23/14 Mark and I had our first fire in the house. It was so nice to be having a fire since it was finally getting cold outside. I grew up having fires in the house, and it was nice to be able to carry that on.  Visit an Apple Farm  On 10/23/14 Mark and I went to an apple farm when we went to the corn maze (i will post about that later). On the way down to the maze we stopped and picked up an apple each to enjoy :) Connect to my Fall Bucket List