The Herndon Herald: November 2009

Introducing the newest member of our family!!

Adam has been vigilantly watching the newspaper looking for a good breeder from which to get our new puppy. Well, last weekend he found just that and we drove to Gates, NC Monday night to see a litter of three month old yellow labs. We looked at four male pups, but decided on the lightest in color and largest in build, boy was picking him out a tough decision because they were all so cute. He came home with us that very night. He is such a love!

We'd like to introduce you to SAMSON!

The pup has champion blood lines and was quite the find. For the most part, training has been good and he's learning new things every day. He's playful, but not too hyper (yet) and we just LOVE him! He even met all the dogs at my parents on Thanksgiving and they got along well.

He's been a wonderful addition to our family!

I have been praying for a couple years now (literally) that when the time came for us to finally get a dog (because Adam has waited patiently, but has been dieing for one), I would love him and be excited about it and God has definitely changed my heart about pets, at least our pet! I am very lucky we found such a sweet puppy to break me into pet ownership and Adam is nuts about Samson. He is already this man's best friend! Feel free to come by and meet him!

Housewarming Tour and Festivities

This past Saturday night we had our housewarming party.

If you weren't able to make it, here's a bit of the tour you would have gotten.

Here's the living room as you enter the house.

Followed by the dining room, which is home to my Nana's dining room set.

This is the coat closet that we converted into the downstairs half bath.

(There's a toilet opposite that sink, but that's it for this bathroom).

You are now entering the kitchen.

We opened up this wall to give the galley style kitchen a more open feel.

Now we're headed upstairs where the master bedroom is on our right.

Mom and I reinterpreted the old set of curtains (for one window) into two new valence style curtains, and to think they started out as a bed skirt.

The master bath

The hall where we have our laundry closet and bookshelf which houses our Starbucks mug collection.

Our guest bathroom

Our guestroom/office

And now for the evening's festivities...

We put the dining room to good use and had a nice spread of finger foods from mozzarella, tomatoes and basil to bruchetta to sausage and peppers and desserts too.

We enjoyed having everyone over to celebrate our new home.

Here's some shots of the evening's guest...

Our middle school Waves leaders

Celeste and John came all the way from Charlottesville to celebrate with us!

Anna and Haley traveled from Radford and Richmond to see the place and Courtney came WITH her new hubby to see how our new house has been shaping up.

Friends from church stopped by too and hung out.

A bunch of us...this seems like it may become a popular spot for future group photos!

Thanks everyone for coming over to celebrate our new home!

We are so blessed to have the house and so many wonderful friends and family to warm it.

Rachel and Nick's Wedding

My cousin Rachel Giuffre married the love of her life Nick DiDio November 7th in Philadelphia.

(Adam was in Charlotte for his last seminary class, but my parents and I met Anna and Will in Philly for the wedding festivities which we'd all been looking forward to for a year.)