Peonies: 10 years later

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary a few weeks ago, and I hate to let it pass without mentioning it-better late than never.

When Theo's school calendar came out last summer, I admit I was pretty bummed to see that his last day of kindergarten was on our 10 year anniversary-which meant no fun trips on our proper anniversary.  But, our trip to AZ back in October was pretty much our anniversary trip, so that was okay.

I helped Theo celebrate/mourn his last half day of school (he was sad to be switching schools), and then we headed up to the zoo to kill some time until Brian finished working.  Then we met him in National Harbor for dinner out (Mexican of course, like so many of the meals our newlywed year) and playing in the sand.  There was a fun DJ, dancing, and lots of people-watching to be done and it turned out to be a great evening (gone is the phase where we couldn't stand to take the kids to restaurants, thankfully). 

Brian did surprise me with a peacock box filled with jewelry, but I considered our new home to be our anniversary present to ourselves.  And, he doesn't have to buy me any flowers in the spring anymore because our new home came with peonies!  I worried about whether the home we chose was the right one, but when I realized that the green bushes in the front were actually peonies about to bloom, I knew we had found the right place.

Ten years ago, I picked peonies for my wedding bouquet, and Brian has always claimed he would plant me some when we ever bought a home.  They take a while to get established and aren't easy to move, so we never tried them at our rentals.  For them to already be growing and weeks away from blooming when we finally closed on a home was pretty clandestine.  I knew we didn't make a mistake in getting this house.

Our House Story:

Back in February, we had the hardest time finding our home.  We'd assumed we would get a townhouse, and must have looked at over a dozen.  The first two that we put contracts on went with other buyers (even though we offered asking price), and we were just about to give up when we viewed a couple new townhouses (neither of which wowwed us).  Our realtor had mentioned a single-family home that wasn't back on the market yet (it had been for 60 days in the fall), but that she knew wanted sold.  I didn't want to even see it, because there was only one full bath.  But at the last minute, she asked if we wanted to see it and I looked at Brian and said "yes" in the same moment he said "no".  

After seeing the house (and more importantly the yard and location) on a beautiful, unseasonably warm day we said we'd sleep on it.  We decided to go ahead and make the offer (third time's a charm apparently!) and minutes later we got the email confirming the job offer that we'd been waiting on (the exact letter we would need for the mortgage).  I am still amazed that we were able to close in 28 days, and that the original owners could be out by the time we needed to be in.

So, seeing the peonies was like the cherry on top when we moved in, knowing we'd made the right choice.  (The sticker on the door "Sherry's room" also helped confirm our decision, since that is my mother's name and I was planning to keep a room as a guest room.)