happy birthday, house!

we've been here one whole year! an entire year of owning our first home together: of being the boss of what we do and how we do it, the boss of saving money to demolish our grandma bathroom, the boss of googling how to fix it [and the boss of sometimes just shutting the door and ignoring it].

this is the house with the neighbors who brought us a house warming pie, and the other neighbors whom we love, with the ellie, the german shepherd puppy and the son who plays target practice with a bow and arrow in their driveway.

this is the house where i had a little bit too much fun on several occasions, but always with wine and my best friends.

this is the house where we spent our second married christmas, when evan convinced me to go against my very nature/every childhood teaching and open all of our presents on christmas eve [because he could.not.wait for that signed bears jersey he didn't know he was getting].

this is the house where my father and brother helped us install our garage door opener and made things infinitely more difficult than necessary. and then 6 months later did the same thing to our roof. but now we have a working garage door and a brand new roof (and look how pretty it is).

this is the house where we had three valentines days in a row, where we celebrated our love three different ways because it was a big year for us.

this is the house where evan prayed over me while we waiting those three grueling minutes for a tiny little stick to turn blue.

this is the house where i fell more in love with my husband every single day.

this is the house where i started a secret list titled, "never doubt the love of a man who..." that is full of the craziest and most romantic and truly beautiful things that evan has done for me that scream "i love you."  

this is the house that taught me who is worth keeping around and who isn't. emphasis on the "isn't."

this is the house where i learned how to eat raw sushi and then had to promptly stop eating raw sushi.

this is the house that is 75 times too big for the two of us. so we fixed that.

this is the house where i beat evan for the first time in a game of risk.

this is the house with the underground sprinkler system and a dry well. THUMBS UP.

this is the house with the fridge covered in our favorite memories. and the walls full of our pictures. and a messy table and breakfast bar because we live here. and a to-do list longer than a dictionary. and a glitter painted fireplace. and a pink and green and maroon (BARF) bathroom with only one outlet (BARF, again). and plenty of memories that make me laugh until tears stream down my face. and plenty of memories that aren't funny but still make tears stream down my face.

house, get ready for year two. it's going to have lots of babies and probably some more tears and a lot more laughs and definitely a lot of dust from our first demolition project. i promise to plant more flowers and pound more holes into your walls for all of my pictures and make a new wreath and cook more and be more on top of the laundry.

 and i promise to keep you full of people that make this place a home.