A Very Good Birthday Plus A House!

Monday was my 31st birthday and it was lovely and low-key.

My brother, sister-in-law, niece M (3) and nephew A (6 months) came to stay with us in our two bedroom apartment that is currently filled with boxes. It was cozy (which, incidentally, is M's favorite word. Everything is "cozy" from her "cozy towel" to dry her hands in the bathroom to the "cozy sofa" to the the "cozy bear." Adorable.)

It was such fun having them and we did so much! We went to the pool at my apartment, to the Baltimore zoo, to see our new house (oh, make that our "cozy house). I played restaurant with M several times. G even got into the game one night to play the chef at a "Japanese restaurant." He really outdid himself when he brought us a "birthday cake" (aka a piece of bread with the candles from my cake stuck in it. Suzanne said that would now have to be repeated at home.) M loved it.

G and Suzanne made me a delicious chocolate and peanut butter cake. Two pieces left for tonight yeah!

I had some lovely gifts. Of course, my gifts from G was some of the yarn I bought at MD Sheep and Wool. Plus we went shopping and got these cool chairs from Pier One for our new sunporch.



And I got this lovely bag from my mom.



Joe and Suzanne gave me a beautiful purple necklace. How gorgeous!



And L outdid herself with this wonderful book



and this amazing yarn! That's Seasilk in Rose Garden. How lucky am I?



But the best birthday present is our new house, on which we closed last night! This picture is from a few weeks ago, when the azaleas were in bloom:



And the backyard w/ dogwoods! It is so beautifully landscapped. I am so excited that I don't have to start from scratch. Plus it has so many of my favorite flowers: roses, daffodils, irises, lillies-of-the-valley and many more. It reminds me of my mother's yard, which I've always found lovely.



We bought the house from the original owners who lived there for 50 years. It is in beautiful condition, though we will be taking out the pink carpet and painting over the pink walls. It's a good house. It seems happy. And we saw it completely by accident.

We were going to look at a house on the same street, but at the bottom of the hill. Well, our realtors turned on the street, saw the Century 21 sign and stopped. We were at the door before they realized it wasn't the right address! But they had the code to get in so we decided to look at it, why not? Even w/ the pink carpet and walls, we could see that it was a lovely house. I remember standing in the backyard, looking around thinking "this feels like home." Only it wasn't so much those words as a feeling of being home. Hard to explain. It's a soul house (you know, like a soul mate).

Anyway, we saw a lot of other houses (including a beautiful one in a rat-infested neighborhood--thank goodness G likes to strike up converstation with the neighbors!) and did lots of homework. So we didn't pick solely on emotion. But we love the house and are so glad that we got it. As the previous owner said last night after we told her the story, "It was more than just luck" that we found it.

So here we are: the happy owners.