Our first post

Well, more like Jess's first post. I decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon after reading a few of my friends blogs and seeing how therapeutic it can be.

One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog was to document the next phase of our lives. We got married on September 12, 2010 at the Saphire Estate in Sharon, MA. I think I can speak for Josh too when I say that it was the best day of our lives. We were surrounded by family and friends that love us, and we had the best time. The best part was that it didn't end there, and we were able to spend seven amazing days and nights in Aruba. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the wedding and the honeymoon:

 

We loved being in Aruba so much that we've already planned a cruise for March 3-11, 2012. We're heading off on the Serenade of the Seas and visiting Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Croix, and St. Thomas. It's something nice for us to look forward to after I'm sure what will be a long, cold winter. After that, our next adventure will probably be Europe, and maybe hopefully one day New Zealand or Australia.

Our other upcoming adventure is beginning to look for our first home. We are meeting with a realtor this week to talk about the process, what we should do and when, and then we'll begin our search. Now that we are both hunkered down in full-time, stable jobs, we're ready and excited to settle down and create a nice little home for ourselves and one day, our future mini-Gaskell's. We have our fingers crossed that we will be able to find something in our price range that doesn't need too much work, but we also aren't going to buy a house just to buy a house so hopefully we'll be able to find something that we love and can afford! I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with the show Property Virgins but it's on HGTV and the woman on the show helps first time home buyers find homes and we actually have talked about trying to be on the show. At the end of the show they always give the people a gift, and when I say gift, I mean an entire living room or office set, or a flat screen television, or something amazing.

Something else that we are both looking forward to is that we are in the process of adopting a cat (again), but this one will not have been born on a farm, and will therefore (hopefully), not be mentally insane. I spoke to the lady at the adoption agency yesterday and we have an appointment to go meet some of the cats on Wednesday. When I was looking at the website I fell in love with three or four of them, so let's hope that Josh can keep me from bringing home ten cats and becoming a crazy cat lady or an animal hoarder. Speaking of, has anyone seen the show Confessions: Animal Hoarding? Wow.

Another thing that I am especially looking forward to is buying a new car. Josh currently has a lease which expires in July. When that time comes, he'll be returning his lease and taking over my Elantra, and I'll be getting a new all-wheel drive Hyundai Tuscon. Well, Josh says it's for both of us, but I'll be driving it most of the time. I am really excited for this new car. I hopefully will finally have that sunroof I've always wanted! I'm also really excited about all of the storage space that will give us.

And I think that's enough out of me for today!