the things I didn't post

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

2009 brought a lot of change for me: marriage, a several-states-away move, and a career change from full time graphic designer to wife and homemaker and occasionally a freelance designer. All very good changes. All welcome changes. But transition is still hard…even when it is desired. I left all that was known and familiar and came to this place…a place I never would have chosen to live…to be something I had never been before.

It was the best year of my life.

I didn't blog much. There was a lot of processing going on, and I am just not one to throw that all out there to the world at large. I took a ton of pictures…but just never got into a routine of editing and posting and talking about them.
So, here are some pictures I didn't post in 2009…but that I'd like to share here for posterity or something. Some snapshots of our year in transition.

We enjoy sitting on our back deck and watching the golfers as they attempt to hit their balls out of the reeds. We're about halfway down the 10th fairway, and we collect a lot of balls that end up in our yard. The house gets hit every now and then, but is mostly blocked by the trees. The neighbors across the fairway have a pond with fountains in it. This is way better than the gravel parking lot that was my backyard back in my single days!


Sometimes, it hails. We get great storms here!


We bought me a bicycle…it's the only thing that will get me moving when it's 85 degrees at 9 in the morning. I can eek out about 8 miles if I hit all the nooks & crannies of the neighborhood. The golf path is a great ride, too…best to take it around dusk when most of the golfers are done for the day.


One of the fun challenges we had was combining my stuff and his stuff, and turning his bachelor house into a home we both love and feel comfortable in. It's a beautiful house in a great neighborhood…he did a great job picking it out when he moved here! But we had each accumulated a lot of stuff in our years of living alone…a yard sale and then a trip to IKEA was in order fairly early on. We got rid of some things we really didn't like all that much, and then found some pieces that were a bit more functional and fitting with the rest of our things. I have to say, our decorating styles are really quite different! But there is some overlap…so we just have to find that overlap and live there.

These are just a few corners of our home…maybe I'll do more like this later as I get the house staged. The mirror used to be brown…it was my first spray paint project, and I love how it came out. I've done several more since then…am thinking about a before and after category on the blog. There's just always so much more to do…like refinish that dresser shown below!





I really love front porches. And adirondack chairs. Love it that we found these on clearance at the "end of the season" which is when the weather starts feeling more like summer in NY and it's not so hot I start dripping sweat upon walking out my door. It was great to have a place to sit and read in the shade even into the weeks when the weather got cooler.


Here's just some bits and pieces of creation we are surrounded with here. Pine cones and mushrooms and frogs and bunnies and birds.










2009 was fantastic. It was a gift from God to have such a year…stress-free and full of love and life and joy and the fun of being newlyweds. There were no deployments to deal with, no separations at all. There were misunderstandings and some examples of lousy communication on both our parts…but mostly we just really enjoyed this first year together…the year of transition as we figured out what it meant to be husband and wife…to share our lives with another. We traveled and spent time with good friends and made new friends and explored new places.

There's more I want to post, but blogger has made the posting process painful and confusing!…so maybe you'll get more of 2009 later…and maybe not. no promises either way :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post. Thanks for putting up these pieces of your new life for us to see. Love the porch chairs - would sit and gab for awhile on them!
Andrea

Jenny @ Words on Wendhurst said...

I've been wondering how life has been treating you lately. That first year is blissful as newlyweds, and remember, that feeling doesn't have to change! We're in our fourth year and still have that feeling. Love ya girl!

Victoria said...

I cannot believe it's been almost a year! The pics prove it has been a beautiful one.

Only time you'll ever see people wearing gloves in SC is when they're holding snapping turtles!:)

Dave said...

"Only time you'll ever see people wearing gloves in SC is when they're holding snapping turtles..."

Or strangling other drivers...