Happy Birthday to Me!

I recently gained another year-- one year older, one year wiser (let's hope!). We had a wonderful time celebrating!

PART ONE

Julian took me out for dinner and dancing at a bar that plays salsa every Tuesday. It was a late night for us, but it was fun to dance and spend time with good friends!

*dancing with my amazing husband*

*with Gio and Carlos Miguel*

*wonderful friends!!*

*there was even a performance!*

*eating part of Julian's hamburger, which was tastier than mine :) *

PART TWO

Julian took me to a soccer game for my birthday! (DC United vs. AC Milan). The game was great, with several highlights, such as Rondaliño from Brazil bicycle kicking the ball into the goal, only to have the ball hit the goalpost and bounce right back out! We were amazed by the enthusiasm of the fans, who jumped enough to make the stadium shake, and who never stopped their drum-beating and flag-waving during the entire game. Plus, DC won!!!

*crazy fan section*

*go Ronaldiño!*

*not really the final score... but it looks good!! the final score was 3-2*

Mulberry Pie

*it's ready for the oven!*

We have three mulberry trees growing in our front yard. Two of them don't have berries yet, but the other one is dropping black, juicy berries. I had never had mulberries before, but when we found out that they're sweet and safe to eat, we harvested the first crop of mulberries! Last night I baked a mulberry pie (which was delicious)- a very proud moment since it was my first fruit pie (with a lattice top, even!) and it was even more delicious knowing the berries came from our yard!

Now I'm spotting mulberry trees on my way to work and in our neighbor's yards... most people dislike mulberries because they stain, so maybe Julian and I will provide a neighborhood service of picking the berries :) Pie all summer long, yum!

*my wonderful husband, picking mulberries*

*proudly displaying our haul*

*time to make it into a pie!*

*fixing the crust*

*nice and warm- time to eat!*

New Windows

*new windows!*

We decided when we first bought the house that we wanted to take advantage of the government rebates for energy savings and replace our original (rope-pulley) windows with new, energy-efficient windows. Although I was sad to see our unique windows torn out, we're very happy with our new windows!

*goodbye old windows*

*hello new windows!*

Happy 2 Years!!!

*love pancakes :)*

Julian and I celebrated two wonderful years of marriage together earlier this month. After the craziness of buying our house and moving in, we decided we would have a much-deserved day of rest. We slept in, had a nice romantic breakfast, and then went to see Avatar (great movie!). We had dinner at an Irish restaurant to try something new-- we shared a Shepherd's Pie and a quesadilla (in case the Shepherd's Pie was not very tasty). It was a wonderful, relaxing day, and we look forward to many more anniversary celebrations together :)

*Julian brought me a new flower to plant for each year of our marriage-- a great surprise!*

*happy with our new flowers!*

*anniversary brunch*

*Julian is enjoying his love pancakes*

Our Home

*proud new home-owners!*

We're finally in our new home, and semi-unpacked! It looks wonderful, and feels wonderful to be in our little place. We're very happy with the paint colors-- it feels much warmer here than in our white-walled apartment :) We're already learning the joys of owning a home, with a leaky shower faucet that we're repairing to little ant friends in the kitchen... but they really are joys because it's exciting to have our own place to fix!!

Here are a few pictures of our new home:

*Julian and Dad, hanging out in our living room*

*kitchen!*

*our bedroom*

*guest bedroom*

*Home Sweet Home*

*our new home, the left side of the duplex!!*

After about year of searching for houses, we finally found one that we loved and had been waiting a couple of months to see if our offer was accepted. In January we found out it was, and the fight began! Julian fought with everyone involved in the process to keep them from adding "junk" fees, and he was extremely successful. The Lord blessed us a LOT by lowering the price considerably, a wonderful blessing and surprise!!

This weekend, we finalized the sale!! It is taking awhile to sink in, since we're not moving for another month, but we're very excited to be homeowners. Now comes more work to fix up the house and make it into a lovely home!

Come visit!!

Misc. Winter 2010

We've stayed pretty busy this winter! We were going through the steps of buying a home, and we were snowed in from 2 blizzards! We still managed to have a lot of fun :)

*Washington Wizards v. Miami Heat. Miami was amazing!*

*Bryan and Laney came to visit!!*

*Our romantic fondue dinner for Valentine's Day*

*enjoying yummy fondue*

*Julian with a percussion instrument made from a donkey's jaw*

*with a member of Creole, a musical group from San Andres (a Colombian island) that we saw at the Kennedy Center*