Magnolia virginiana

A couple of months ago, we planted three sweetbay magnolia trees in our backyard.  I'm glad we heard them referred to as sweetbay magnolias, because the other common names for the trees don't make them sound quite as appealing:

• swampbay
• swamp magnolia
• whitebay
• beaver tree (?!?)

These trees are just lovely.  The leaves are green on the top side and silver on the bottom side, and they have the most amazing lemon-vanilla scent.  Not to mention how beautiful the blossoms are:

In other plant news, our beloved Yoshino Cherry tree ("Yoshi") has gone to a better place.  Well, not really since his remains were hauled away in a garbage truck full of yard debris, but you get the idea. 

R.I.P. Yoshi.

After we spent some time remembering all the good times we had with Yoshi, we decided it was time for a new tree.  Meet "Blazer," our Autumn Blaze Maple tree:

I drove home from the nursery (8 miles in crazy DC Metro traffic) with this tree sticking out the back of the car.  And let me tell you, it was not a fun time.  But I made it home with minimal damage (just a few scratches on branches from the trunk lid bouncing around).

Welcome home, Blazer!

Father's Day Weekend

Happy Father's Day to our two favorite Dads!

Enjoy your special weekends - wish we could be with you!

Lucky Seven

The odometer on my way to work this morning:

Getting close to joining the 200,000 mile club - not sure whether the club will send its congratulations or its condolences.

Anniversary #3

On our 3rd anniversary, our wedding song still says it best.

"We Are Man and Wife" by Michelle Featherstone

All the things you are to me
Darling you have set me free
Always give you what you need
and what you deserve
All the joy and all this love
I know that it is from above
And now together there's enough to fill this world

'Cause you are the love of my life
You are the love of my life
And now we're man and wife

All the things that you will do
And now i'm standing next to you
And darling I will see you through the rest of our lives
With you beside me I have won
I'm glad I've waited for so long
There is no doubt that you are the one
for me

You are the love of my life
You are the love of my life
There'll be times (we make the time)
There'll be things (we will bring)
Everything is going to be fine
Now you're in my life
So I give you heart and soul
It's yours to take wherever you go
Through the years you'll always know it's yours to keep
God has blessed this sacred vow
Angels high above and look down
See the two of us, we found the perfect love

You are the love of my life
You are the love of my life
You are the love of my life
Yeah, you are the love of my life
Now we're man and wife
We're man and wife
Now we're man and wife
We're man and wife
We're man and wife

Polka-rific

Yep, this really happened.  All three of us showed up for church wearing polka dot dresses!

Luckily, two of the three wear robes during service.

Making Progress

Slowly but surely, we're starting to get things organized and put away in our house.  We had a couple of hectic weeks when our tile floors were being installed AND we were moving the rest of our belongings out of our old condo.

But I'm happy to report that everything is moved now, even if a lot of it is still in boxes, scattered around, and/or piled in the garage.  But we're making progress!

It's a great feeling for some of the rooms to start coming together.  I'll confess that I had to move some boxes and random stuff out of the living room to get this picture, but it's encouraging nonetheless.

My phone's camera didn't handle the lighting very well so it's a little washed out artsy.  Also, J is a cord perfectionist and wasn't happy with the cord concealers we tried a while ago, so he's been plotting what to do with the TV cords.  I'm afraid it's going to involve drilling holes in the wall, so I'm trying to ignore what he's planning to do.

More updates to come!