7 Quick Takes: I'm baaaack

1) We now return to our regularly scheduled programming. I know, I know, you're sick and tired of reading about our trip. Well I'm done now, no more posts about that. But I bet next time you'll think twice before telling me to "tell us everything about your trip." Because I will. And I did. You're Welcome.

2) My family visited! Last week my mom, dad, sister, brother in law, and nephews came to visit us in Maryland. We had so much fun and I will post about it later with more pictures. It was a great time, even if it was amid a ri-donk-ulous heat wave. My nephews are the cutest things ever. Grady is a big ball of energy, and Reece is the chillest baby ever.

3) My very first earthquake. At 5 a.m. this morning, Bogdan and I abruptly woke up to a shaking house and bed. I groggily ask, "What is that? Is the AC breaking?" Bogdan leaps out of bed, runs to the window saying, "It might have been an earthquake." I roll my eyes and reply adamantly, "there are no earthquakes here." He says, "anywhere there's mountains, there are earthquakes." I lay back down, he peers outside unblinking. "Do you see anything?" I ask. "No," he replies disappointed. We then try to fall back asleep. "Do you think our AC is about to explode?" he asks worriedly. "No," I reply, regretting that I ever brought that up, "no, I don't. Let's go back to sleep." And when we finally got up, we heard it was a 3.6 earthquake. The largest in the area since the 70s. Crazy.

4)  The front room. Last weekend we bought some awesome wall sconces for our front room. The room does not have an overhead light, so we've been planning the lighting in there for a while. We were at the Pottery Barn outlet and found these lights on deep discount. I really like the way it looks. And now we can see things when we're sitting on the couch.

5) New roof. We finally got a new roof. I say finally because when we bought the house we worked the cost of the new roof into our closing costs. We knew we had to replace it, so we made the sellers help us pay for it. When we got home from our trip, the roofers showed up the next day and the roof was finished in three days. It looks awesome. And it doesn't leak. Score!

6) Curtains can do that? We also bought curtains for our dining room (finally), and it amazingly brought the whole room together. We weren't crazy about the wall color in there, but now with the curtains we think it really works. I'm excited that the room is finally coming together. It's taking forever!

7) I love my Moleskine. Right before our trip I bought a Moleskine notebook because I needed a new one. I love it. They tell you that Hemingway used the same notebook, but they don't tell you that Hemingway used to chase and hunt pigeons in Luxembourg Gardens so that he'd have something to eat. I wonder how he afforded to spend so much on a nice notebook?