Landscaping!

One of the downsides to purchasing a home in the winter that my husband and I stumbled upon, was the landscaping. Apparently it's an unwritten rule that you have to wait until late spring/early summer to see what treasures (or not) await you. Well, whether it was intentional or not, we did just that. I will say, we had some very pretty tulips come up in the spring, and recently had some beautiful lilies bloom. However, we had some very, well, large "decorative" grass take over the front flower beds as well. They were half dead and made the house look smaller than it actually is. That all changed this weekend.

B's parents and sister came to visit with us this past weekend, along with their two dogs and his brother's dog. Yes, we had four dogs running around our house, but that's another post for another day. In the week leading up to their arrival, my mother in law asked if she wanted me to have her bring some plants down to put around the house. As hesitant as I was, I said yes, and I'm so thankful I did. Since B had to work all weekend (again, another post for another day), the three of us, with his sister supervising, completely redid both front flower boxes, the area around a tree in the front yard, as well as two corners in the back yard. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself! And hopefully, it looks even better next year!

Before:


After:


Just a side note, that porch is a "spare" front door if you will. I have no idea why, but we have two front doors. The covered porch leads into our dining room where our table blocks the door. Before the end of summer, I hope to put a couple chairs and a little table out there, and repaint the rails. Oh the joys of homeownership.

first post/our story

Welcome to our blog! I must say, I've been meaning to do this for about a month or so now, so I'm very excited to start. For those of you who don't know, here's our story:

My name is Liz, and I'm a twenty-something newlywed. My husband is Brandon, who is also a twenty-something newlywed. Go figure! We currently live in our first home (woohoo!) in Central Pennsylvania where B works for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and I work with credit unions from all over the state, including some from Ohio, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. We got married in September 2009, and I don't think we've slowed down since. We got new jobs, moved away from home, adopted a dog (expect to hear a lot about her), got even better new jobs, bought a house and moved again, and traded-in vehicles and bought new ones, all in an eight month period. Whew, I get exhausted just typing it!

In the middle of all of that, something that will change us forever happened. While we both had the desire to start a family, we knew we wanted to be more settled before we made that next step. Someone else had other plans. In March 2010, we found out we were expecting. Both of us were overcome with such love, joy, and hope for the future. We were going to have a baby!

Everything progressed normally. I got had morning sickness (all day sickness is more like it), cravings, food aversions, and other common symptoms that I'll spare you from. I even started to get a tiny bump, and although it was more bloat than bump, I loved it all the same. We went for our very first appointment and ultrasound when I was what we thought was 8 weeks and 1 day along. The ultrasound informed us that we were in fact only 5 weeks and 6 days along. Our midwife assumed we were off on our calculations, and saw no reason for concern. She booked us another ultrasound the following week, just to be sure everything was going the way it needed to be. So, the following week, Thursday, April 8, we went for our follow up. This time, the ultrasound reveled that we were now 7 weeks and 1 day along. Growth! We had one final follow up scheduled for the following week, just to be sure. We never made it to that appointment.

After a long, emotional, painful weekend, on Sunday, April 11, we lost the baby. Words simply cannot describe the emotions we felt that weekend. Or even that first week. Two months later, I still have days where I can't describe what I'm feeling.

This blog is not to host a pity party. It is not to evoke sympathy. This is to document our story as newlyweds (however late in game I may be) and our miscarriage is most certainly a part of our story. If just one person can relate to anything written here, I will be overjoyed. We have decided that we would like to try and start a family in September (God willing), so while some posts may be day to day happenings, some may be miscarriage related, and some may be baby making (G-rated of course) related. To all of our friends and family who may stumble upon this, please do not share with anyone what you may read on here. We wish to keep any future pregnancy "less public" to those who know us outside of the internet world, and will share when the time is right for us. Until next time.