How The House Hunt Went Down

We were not really "looking" for a house, we had taken a break and were just enjoying the winter, skiing, and having free weekends. We had seen the house before online and driven past but kept thinking it just wasn't the right time. At the beginning of March I looked at pictures online of the house again and really liked it, my brain said "just wait" but my heart whispered "why not look?" I asked Charlie if he thought we should look at it, just to look, he easily agreed and set up an appointment with the listing agent.

I was nervous and excited all day leading up to the appointment to see the house, but didn't tell anyone because I was tired of telling people how excited I was and having a house be a dud. As soon as we walked in my brain and heart both screamed "Never leave, you belong here." We were literally standing in the front doorway and I still had my boots on, but I never wanted to leave. Of course I couldn't say that to the listing agent so I  kept it to myself. Every room we looked at was great, and if not great it had potential. On the way home Charlie and I talked about what we loved (a lot of stuff) and what we didn't love (minor things that could be changed; i.e. paint colors). I say we talked, but mostly I yelled and waved my hands around excitedly.

We contacted a family friend, Debbie, who is a realtor and she took over the rest. We could not have done this without her. I am so appreciative of her help, it's been such a good thing having someone who knows Charlie and I (from parties, weddings, and my blog) to advise us and just know what we're feeling even if we don't exactly know. She said before she even set foot in the house she looked at pictures online and felt like the house said "Charlie and Lauren." I've also felt that some people we had worked with in the past were not exactly genuine and didn't really know or get us. Debbie gets us, and has been a huge help.

After seeing the house for the first time we set up an appointment to see it the following day with Debbie, just as she suspected it seemed like a Charlie and Lauren house, and I felt even more like it was home. All of the other houses we'd looked at had felt just nice. None felt like "home" to me. Until this one. Debbie informed us that there was another offer on the house and said if we wanted it we needed to make an offer soon, and make a strong offer.

On the drive home Charlie and I didn't talk at all, we just thought to ourselves. Over dinner we finally both spilled the beans and said we really wanted to live there. We talked about what would happen if we did get it, and what would happen if we didn't. We figured out how much we could afford, and what everything would cost. Then we said let's do it, if it's meant to be it wil happen, if not then we'll just keep looking. That night Debbie wrote up the paperwork for us to make an offer, e-mailed it to us, we signed it, and the next morning I nervously faxed it to her from the office fax machine. A teacher I work with had to help me figure out how to make the fax machine work and I told him quietly that we were making an offer on a house and how nervous I was. That was my excuse at least for not knowing how to fax something, really I just don't know how to use one.

The day went by pretty quickly which surprised me since I thought it would be slow as molasses. I checked my phone and e-mail several more times that day than I typically do (which is already a lot). After school Penny and I went running and we waited for my brother to come to visit. Just as we heard Garrett yell from the street outside (he doesn't have a cell phone so he just yells) my phone rang with Debbie's number. The knot in my stomach instantly got tighter. Debbie said "Just wondering if you can rent a Uhaul on April 23rd?" It took me a few seconds for that to sink in; I think even if she had said "You got the house" it would have taken a few moments.

Debbie said that the other couple who put an offer on the house had had a simular offer. She then informed me that the reason the seller picker us was because they have been living in an apartment closer to their new jobs and their apartment address was the same as our apartment address. It all felt very serendipitous, like everything that was meant to happen was happening. That night we hung out and I kept saying "I can't believe we got the house" over and over again. The weekend was filled with skiing with Garrett and our friends. We shared the news with them and they were very excited for us.

The home inspection was the following week. I was very nervous for this. The last house we almost bought had a terrible home inspection; which prompted us to not buy the house and to seriously re-evaluate what types or houses we were looking at. I didn't want that to happen again. Luckily, the opposite happened. The home inspector pointed out small areas of need, and told me that either we could do it or a carpenter (like my dad) could easily fix the problems. He also kept saying what a good house it was. That was very reassuring.

Charlie has done the money stuff, while I do the "fix it" stuff. He has a good relationship with the mortgage consultant and keeps assuring me that things are in order. That brings us up until now. I am counting down the days until we can move. Until then I am pinning lots of ideas for room colors and a garden in the back yard. I've also been checking Craigslist often to see if they have any zero point turning lawn mowers. I told Charlie I would happily mow the lawn (and our neighbor's) if he bought me one.

I probably wouldn't mow the lawn in a pea coat and skirt though. 

Thanks for sharing in our excitement. We'll keep you posted on the details. 

Lauren 

Bravery vs. Cowardice

Where to begin when such a sad thing has happened. Charlie and I both know several people who were running today. Charlie ran the marathon two years ago and my family and I had a wonderful time being spectators.  The Boston Marathon has been a big part of my life. I remember my parents taking my brother, and my friend Lexi and I to see my aunt run in the 100th Boston Marathon 17 years ago. I always like to watch it, and was glued to my computer at work today watching the instant streaming during my lunch break of the mens and women's race. My brother in law Jay, as well as a friend from college, and one from grad school were running today. Several friends from all walks of my life, as well as family members, were in Boston today watching the race.

I am so grateful that no one I know was injured. I know others are not that lucky. My heart breaks for them.

It seems like as good a time as any to get down on the world and feel like there is no hope for tomorrow, or the future generations. Let's be serious, that feeling overcomes us all at points like this. It seems like everyone first reaction is to think "what has the world come to?" It's easy to dwell on the terrible things that have happened and to want to seek out the person or people who inflected such unspeakable pain.

What's harder is to instead view footage, read stories, and watch coverage and think of the tremendous amount of bravery that police officers, volunteers, spectators, and other runners exhibited in a time of need. Before the smoke had even cleared hundreds of people were already working to help the injured.

I think it's very easy and tempting to focus on the terrible things that happened today, but please don't forget about the courage that was demonstrated either. For every one sick person in the world who would do something terrible like this there are hundreds of thousands who will and did run into danger without hesitation to help those in need.

Please, if and when they find out who did this, don't remember the persons name, instead try to find coverage or stories about the hero's of this tragedy and focus on their bravery. When the media focuses so much on the cowardice of a select few individuals it only makes other cowards feel that they can do the same and get the same reaction. By focusing on the heroism exhibited at times like this we can show the cowards that we are going to focus on the good, not the terrible.


Thank you to all of the people who demonstrated so much bravery in the face of such a terrible thing today.

Lauren

Big News

No, I am not pregnant so stop asking. Charlie and I are buying a house. Wahooo!!!

Since Charlie is so nonchalant about everything (with the exception of me chewing gum, which makes him go off the deep end) I can't tell if he is totally over the moon about this like I am; but I am over the moon about this. It is my dream house. Charlie is just happy if I am happy, and he's super happy there is a room for his ping pong table. He says he's missed it these last 9 years.

The house is in Bristol, where we live now. It's only 3 miles from our apartment (woot, easy move {except if you're moving with me, nothing is easy}). It's on a big hill, my ears pop driving up the road. It has 5 acres, plenty of room for Penny to run and play. The floor plan is pretty open. There are tons of windows and fabulous light. The basement has a room which I have already named "the sewing room".   There is a garage; I figure if I'm going to have to actually drive to work I absolutely cannot be expected to scrape ice and snow off of my car! And the best part, it has a view of the mountains! I told you it was a dream house. Did I use enough exclamation points?

We are moving over April vacation. As if I wasn't excited enough for a week off from work, add in moving to a new, bigger, better, brighter place where I can decorate to my hearts content? You know I'm pumped.

Charlie is excited that there are tons of trails to run on right out of the front door. Penny will be excited once she gets inside to have more space to run around, and lots of critters in the yard to chase. And don't tell Penny but we're hoping to get another dog to be her pal. We're going to wait until the summer to do that though, she'll be an only dog for a few more months.

We're had the home inspection, our loan is in order, and we're signed tons of paperwork. Now we just have to wait for all of the other things to fall into place. And wait for April 22nd when it will officially be ours!

More soon on the whole story. 

Lauren 

Paper

After deciding to scrapbook more, I realized how un-enthused I was with my paper collection. I like them separately, but not so much all together, they are not exactly cohesive.

At work on Monday someone put out a box in the word room of "free" things. One of the things was a pack of construction(ish) paper. It's a bit heavier than construction paper, but lighter than card stock. It was kind of plain to begin with, so I added some pizzaz the other day. I told Charlie I could cook dinner and he came home to me cooking in the kitchen painting. He was not excited, but not surprised.

I used some paint and Mod Podge Luster on these. I've never mixed the two, but it made the paint a bit shiny, which I liked. Here they are:

Red paper with just Mod Podge.  White with Mod Podge and silver paint polka dotted on with a foam circle brush.

More silver dots, grey mixed with Mod Podge and scraped on with an oil paint mixer.

Dry brushed green on green. Then green and grey scraped on.

Grey zig zag (looking at it now it looks like Charlie Brown), and gold dots.

I'll keep you posted about how I use these different papers.

Lauren

Scrapbooking: Plans for the Future

I've been trying to do more scrapbooking lately. I find that I only scrapbook about something big that's happened. Prime example being our wedding. I think this happens for three reasons. The first being that it's a big deal, and I obviously want to document it in terms of pictures, but also my thoughts about the event. The second is, I have a lot of pictures from big events. Third would be that big events have a story-ish line to them. I can document them from start to finish. Our wedding scrapbook goes from our Engagement to the Thank you notes we sent for coming to the wedding. Pretty easy. It could have even just been the day of the wedding.

All of the other scrapbooks I have made have a clear beginning and ending point. The first one I made was for our 2 year anniversary. The beginning was when we met, the end was what we were doing for our anniversary in 2008.

When I first started I typed my blurbs and referred to myself in the 3rd person. Now I just write "I" and write with a pen. However, since the first one I've pretty much made scrapbooks with a clear beginning and ending point. When I make them is also always when something is over; my book from Grad school was created after graduation:

I made one all about Lorelei's wedding, which was made almost a year after the wedding.

These are from our road trip in 2009. I did a better job with this one, and made it a few months after we got home.

I've been trying to think of ways to get out of that mind set that it needs to have a beginning and ending before starting. It's quite daunting to create an entire book at once. I take my time and try to focus on each page but I always seem to rush the last few pages because I just want to get it done and am sick of working on it. I also feel like working on something a few months to a year or longer after the events have happened makes it hard to remember details or how you felt about something at the time. I can't tell you how many times I've yelled to Charlie from my desk "What was the name of the mountain we hiked in ____ on _____?" Luckily he remembers every hike we've been on.


My hesitation about this is that I am struggling with where to start. I don't want to miss things, but I also don't feel like waiting. So, I've just decided to jump right in. I've decided to do two things.

1.) Make a small album held together with rings, not my typical book layout. This allows me to add as many pages as I want. I can also make them different sizes, within reason. I'm going to attempt to stick to some sort of color scheme. I think that will be easier than I am making it out to be, since I am drawn to the same colors over and over (purple, blue, and green, I'm looking at you.) I like this idea because now I can write about little things. And document more small, everyday life stuff. I'm not going to turn into someone who will have a scrapbook page about cleaning my ears or folding laundry, but I want to have pages about hikes we go on, our mini adventures with Penny; more of our daily lives than just the big huge events.

This is my first (an only) page so far. I like it. I think it's a good place to start.

2.) A "We" book. I've seen this idea before, in a slightly different format, and want to make one for Charlie and I. Every month I'll take a picture of us, and then write a blurb about what we did that month. I'm not picturing this to be a scrapbook per say, but more of a timeline/memory book. I think it will be fun to look back on in a few years and see what we were doing. I'm hoping the pictures each month can be kind of topical, and relevant to what was big in our lives at that time. I want to keep it simple, with only one picture for each page, and just a short written segment. I could easily get carried away with this, but I am hoping if I start simple I will not get out of control, and will also easily be able to keep up with it. I haven't actually started this yet, but I am planning to. Just need to work out some more detail in my head.

Hopefully by adding some posts here about my ideas and progress I will be held accountable to some extent.

Thanks for listening.

By the way, this started off as a totally different post. Maybe we'll get to that idea soon.

Lauren

How Charlie and I Met and Fell In Love

I could pretend someone asked me to write this post but really most (if not all) of the people who read my blog know. I might also be writing it so in case I get Alzheimer's I will be able to look back and remember, or so our future kids can read it, or just because I haven't posted anything lately. But mostly I am writing it because it's April 1st. We'll get to that at the end, I promise.

My sophomore year of college I needed to take a Statistics class. I signed up for one, and my roommate/best friend, Lorelei signed up for one as well, a different one. On the first day of school we decided it would be cool if we took Statistics together, but we weren't sure which one of the two we were signed up for would be best. The benefit of my class was that it was in the late morning, which afforded us enough time to sleep in, and also allowed for our afternoons to be free for practice, as we were both on sports teams at school. The benefit to Lorelei's class was that it was taught by a new graduate student who was from Maine. My class was taught by an old professor from India. Now, I am by no means racist or anything, but Statistics is hard enough without adding in a language barrier.

In order to figure it out we both went to each others classes. So Lorelei and I meet outside of DPC at 10:50 am on the first day of school and went to the Stats class I had signed up for. We sat in the back row and chatted as other students filled the room. Charlie, or Chuck as he was called in those days, walked in and Lorelei waved at him. She told him to sit with us and he did. She introduced him as "Chuck" and he instantly said "Charlie", to which Lorelei and I gave each other a funny look. Lorelei explained that he was on the track team with her, and that I was her roommate. I don't know what else we talked about, I do remember Charlie laughing about something and thinking to myself "he has a funny laugh." As we left the class to go to lunch Lorelei said; "You better watch out, or he'll have a crush on you." I just laughed it off. You see, I had a boyfriend at the time. It's funny to me that I don't remember what we talked about but I can remember my exact outfit. Blue capris from Aeropastale, a white tank top and a white bolero with beading on it.

Later in the afternoon we went to Lorelei's class. I remember the room was in the top floor of a building on campus, not sure which one, and it was super hot. After the class let out I walked to practice and explained why I was late to my coach. He never said I had to pick one class over the other he just told me to figure out which would work best. Even though I had a feeling Lorelei's afternoon class would be easier, I decided to stick with my mid morning class.

The next class day Charlie sat next to me. Then a girl named Joan sat on the other side of me. She wore brown clothes everyday and talked about horses constantly. Once she told Charlie and I that she and her boyfriend always dressed exactly the same "in brown tones". We still laugh about that sometimes, even thought I don't know why it was so funny to us at the time. So Charlie and I sat next to each other and talked before and after class. We had to do problems from the book for homework, but instead of just saying do 1-10 the teacher would say "do 1-4, 6, 9-12, 23, and 27" but he never wrote it down.  I had this issue where I would do problem 24 instead of 23 or something ridiculous like that. Charlie made fun of me quite a bit for that. Our first test came and went and as the teacher was handing them back I said "I need a tutor, I suck at this." Charlie volunteered to help me and do homework, saying something along the lines of "At least then you'll do the right problem". Once I got my test back I ended up with a B- and Charlie had a lower score. I wondered to myself about taking help from someone who got a lower grade than me but figured it would be good to have someone help anyways.

We would meet in the Union after practice/dinner and do homework together. I never told my boyfriend where I was going, not sure exactly why. Once though he found us doing homework and Charlie still laughs about the interaction the two of us had. He came in while Charlie and I were talking and said he'd been looking for me. I basically blew him off, telling him I was doing homework and needed him to stop bothering me. After he left Charlie and I talked for about an hour and did maybe 2 problems.

We continued meeting to do homework, and kept chatting in class. I got good grades on my homework, since I was actually doing the correct problems. However my test grades were falling. Since Charlie was "tutoring" me I took little initiative to do anymore work for Stats than what we were doing together; which was not much. I figured the tutoring needed more time to sink into my brain and then I would "get it". If you know me you know that I do not "get math", so that was a pretty dumb assumption.

During that semester I ended up breaking up with my boyfriend, it took three attempts but the last one finally stuck. The final nail in the coffin so to speak was when I started hanging out with another boy. This new boy and Charlie were in the same major at the time so they knew each other. One night I was with the new boy and we were going to go to a party, we left his dorm room with a bunch of other friends and Charlie left the dorm room next door, to go to the same party. We chatted about how funny that was and then all walked there together.

Another time the new boy and I went to a hockey game. My grandparents had season tickets to all of the UMaine games and they gave me the tickets for a night that they were no able to go to the game. Who should be sitting in the seats behind us? Charlie. Out of an arena that holds 5,000 plus people, Charlie was sitting right behind us. Charlie and his new girl friend that is. We talked about how weird our run ins had been and then watched the game with our prospective partners.

Charlie and I ran into each other randomly throughout the semester. He was on the Cross Country team so I would see him in the field house or out running with his friends. He also was injured for a portion of the time so he did a lot of pool running and we would see each other there, since I spent a lot of time at the pool. At one point we were walking to the field house and we passed my cousin Tyson, and both of us waved to him. I asked how Charlie knew Tyson and he said "Oh I know him pretty well, we took a class together and he lived in my dorm. How do you know him?" To which I responded "Well, he's my cousin."

The new boy and I ended up breaking up. Charlie and his girlfriend kept dating. Honestly, it never crossed my mind until December that I liked Charlie, or that there might be some reason behind our random run ins.

Charlie and I met up to study before our final and kind of studied. I found out later that Charlie studied more after I left. After the final was over I said goodbye to Charlie and went home for vacation. This was back in the days of IM so we chatted a few times over break. We had more random coincidences  I remember once talking to him over IM and mentioning that I had been to the dentist that day, and he said he had been to the dentist that day too.

On New Years Eve my Mom had just bought a house and my friends came over for a party. Nothing was set up, there were boxes everywhere and mattresses on the floor. I had told my friends that I kind of had a crush on Charlie and we all giggled as 19 year olds do about that sort of stuff. Right before midnight my cell phone rang and it was Charlie, he called to wish me a happy new year. I remember talking to him in the garage at my Mom's new house in my bare feet on the freezing concrete. My friend Allie kept saying "Lauren loves you!" through the door so talking in the kitchen was out of the option.

After returning to school in the winter I had a nasty run in with my ex, ex boyfriend. The one who was suspicious from the start about Charlie and I. Apparently he remembered my e-mail password and had been reading e-mails I had sent to Lorelei over break. He then took it upon himself to freak me out while I was at school for winter training (ie: in my dorm alone for 2 weeks before everyone else got back to school). This prompted me to sleep in my friends dorm for a week, and change my IM name. I let Charlie know that my IM name was different and explained things to him. He was very nice about it. I thought we would see more of each other but as it turns out when you have a girl friend and aren't in the same class anymore you have less time to devote to a random girl you don't know has a crush on you.

The semester was off to a kind of crappy start. I was still freaked out by the ex boyfriend incident, Lorelei had a very serious boyfriend (who is now her husband) and was with him a lot of the time. I pretty much threw myself into studying for my classes, practicing, and listening to Death Cab For Cutie's album "Plans" on repeat. During this time everyone on the team was not allowed to drink. It's called "Dry Season". The coaches felt that dry season was needed to make sure everyone on the team could preform their best and be ready for Championships. Since I was not legally allowed to drink this wasn't a huge deal but it did cut down on the parties I went to, and parties that people on the team threw.

We had our Championship meet at Boston University in February. After Champs that guys on the swim team who lived at the "Swim House" (a messy house with 4-5 messy guys on the swim team) were going to throw a huge party to celebrate the end of dry season. The party was called "The Beer Olympics" so you had to have teams of four and compete in different events. Seven years later this sounds absolutely ridiculous, but at the time it sounded like a great time, and wait it gets worse. My friend Kiki, her boyfriend (now husband) Pat and our friend Megan were all on the team named "I'm with Stupid." I think the name was Pat's idea. Kiki and I drove, or attempted to drive to Bangor in a snow storm in order to get supplies to make out outfits for the party. She got into a fender bender on the way there so we turned around and went back to school; where we convinced Pat to leave work at the Rec Center early and drive us. Oh the power of girl friend persuasion.

That night Kiki straightened my hair (a big deal back then) and we made up our shirts for the party. We also decided it would be cute to wear jean skirts and leggings. I confessed that I had a crush on Charlie to Kiki and Pat before we left. And we talked about the dilemma about him having a girl friend. Kiki said to me on the way out the door; "Just steal him."We laughed and drove through more snowstorm to get to the party (it was Maine, you had to drive through snow all the time).

Our team did terribly in all of the events, and were out of the running very soon. Charlie and his friends "Team Malarky" showed up at some point and Kiki kept jabbing me in the ribs to go talk to him. I never got the guts to do it, but my jean skirt pared with leggings and a shirt that said "I'm with Stupid" was apparently all I needed to get Charlie to dance with me. We were dancing and then all of a sudden he kissed me. And I kissed him back. And every ones jaws fell to the floor because "Diver Lauren" (as they called me back then) never did anything like that. Seriously, I am not scandalous, I had never kissed a boy who wasn't my boyfriend already, and never in front of that many people, and I'd never kissed someone with a girl friend before.

My friend Kristen said "He has a girl friend!" to which I responded "He likes me better." It all made perfect sense to me at the time. Another friend, Justin, pulled Charlie aside and told him if he was messing with me he would get beat up. Justin was still on edge about my other boyfriend incident and had my best interests at heart. Then I left the party with Charlie and to the shock and amazement of all of the people at the party. I went back to my room and the next morning I realized it wasn't as easy as "He likes me better" and felt terrible for kissing a boy with a girlfriend. So, I ran away to my grandparents house for the rest of the weekend.

I had a knot in my stomach for the whole weekend until Charlie e-mailed me from school while I was in Pittsfield and told me he'd broken up with his girlfriend. I happily drove back to school and we hung out that night and talked and talked. We've been together ever since.

Just like our random run in's the semester before, we kept finding out weird little coincidences or things we shared in common. On April 1st every year at the Old Town Dairy Queen everything is 50% off. So on April Fools Day Charlie and I, as well as two other friends, went to DQ for half off everything day. The line was out the door to order and the people working inside were covered in jimmy's and soft serve. When we got to the counter Charlie ordered a salad; quite a random choice looking back on it now, and when the person working asked what kind of dressing he wanted in my head I said to myself "blue cheese" since it's my favorite dressing and was what I would have picked had I been ordering the salad. And then Charlie said "Blue Cheese, please" and then ordered a Cookie Dough Blizzard; which is my favorite type of Blizzard. When the server asked what size he asked if I wanted to split it with him; obviously I said yes. That was the first moment I knew I wanted to marry him. Not many people can say they fell head over heals in love with their husband over blue cheese dressing and a blizzard at DQ.

So that's our story. All the scandalous details (well, most at least). Charlie says he can't remember the first time he knew he wanted to marry me, but he did talk about Blue Cheese dressing in his wedding vows.

Happy April Fools Day!

Lauren