Ice storm

We got hit by a bad ice storm over the past two days here in PA, as did most of the country! We already had a foot of snow on the ground, so now there is an inch of ice to top it all off. Luckily we don't have to go anywhere. It is really pretty though... from inside looking out!

Christmas

Wow! We had a busy holiday season! It all started, of course, with cutting down the Christmas tree!


Henry came and "helped", but the kittens were the ones that were really interested when we got it in the house. Since this is their first Christmas, it was also their first Christmas tree. They spent lots of time under it and around it, but most of their time was spent trying to know the ornaments off it!


We spent Christmas day and a few days around it in Ohio with Andy's sister's family. Christmas morning was so much fun with all the kids tearing into their presents!


We had a really great visit and it was fun to spend time with them!


After Christmas, we came home for a few days and then drove up to my parent's house in CT for New Year's Eve and Christmas #2! Even Henry got a present this time (a new blanket:) which he immediately curled up on and fell asleep!



All in all, it was a great holiday with lots of family and friends. But we're exhausted! :)

Happy Holidays!

We're leaving tomorrow to visit family for Christmas, so I probably won't be blogging again till after the New Year. We have had a rough couple of months here at the zoo and I have to admit, I'm looking forward to 2011, if only for a fresh start. I know I've been kind of absent lately... not blogging much or commenting, but I have still been reading everyone's blogs and I'm hoping to get back on a regular schedule soon!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

All our best,

Erin, Andy, Pumpkin & Patch, Arthur & Guinevere, and Henry!

Singing Snowmen

I can't believe it's the holiday season already! Where has this year gone? Andy and I have been so busy. We're barely ever home at the same time, like last night for instance. I was home while Andy was working so I decided to do a little decorating. I got out a bunch of Christmas stuff, including these singing, dancing snowmen that I have been collecting for years now. They are from Hallmark, I'm sure you've seen the commercials. Every year when I get them out Andy groans because they are so silly and tacky, but I love them and they are great fun to torture the animals with :)

Happy Halloween!!

Life goes on...

Life has been busy the past couple of weeks. We went to Chicago and back for a wonderful, joy filled wedding weekend, full of amazing friends who feel more like family. Andy and I both work at colleges, so the lull of easy summer work is coming to an end as we prepare for the return of students at the end of this month. And of course, being a slave to two rabbits and one dog keeps you busy too:)

We met some kittens last night that stole our hearts away. They will be joining the family tomorrow evening, and I can already tell they will be up to some serious mischief soon after they settle in. We still miss Chloe terribly. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her. I still find myself looking for her in the house, and when I remember she's gone, it still hurts. But as they say, life goes on, and I can think of no better way to honor her memory than to adopt again.

New house!

Hi everyone! We're finally back online after a couple weeks without internet service. There are still lots of boxes to be unpacked, but we're settling into our new house. We love it here and are so happy to be closer to friends and family again. I'll have pictures up soon, but the zoo seems to like their new digs just fine and everyone survived the move unscathed:) More soon, I promise!

The Real Zoo!

I dragged my father-in-law to the Philadelphia Zoo with me yesterday. After all, what's the point of being unemployed if you're not going to enjoy it, right?!? :) If you ever visit Philly, you should definitely make a visit to the zoo. I've been there a few times now and just love it! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from yesterday.

Goodbye Rochester

So a lot has happened since I last wrote... We moved out of and sold our house in Rochester, we went on vacation to Cape Cod, we moved into my father-in-law's house in PA, we've seen lots of family and friends, and Andy started his new job!

Moving is such a pain in the butt. We decided to do this move ourselves because frankly, hiring movers is SOOOOO expensive. So we rented a trusty UHaul, and hired two guys to help us load it in Rochester and unload into a storage unit in PA. We have sold our house in NY but we won't close on our new house in PA until September 25th, so we had to find somewhere to store everything in between. We are living with Andy's dad in between houses, and I have to say, the man is a saint! He not only welcomed us into his home for a month in a half, but all four of our animals as well! Pumpkin and Patch have a space in the basement that they, of course, disapprove of, Chloe has taken over the whole house, and Henry has decided that Dad is his new best friend. Dad works from home, so Henry now spends all day right next to his desk on an arm chair, sleeping and barking at things out the window. It's very cute.

So, it will be a while still till we're settled in our new home, but we're excited for this new part of our lives together. Andy's new job is going very well. It's only week 2 but he loves it! I've started looking for a new job as well, but mostly concentrating on finishing up all the paperwork for buying our new house. So, that's it for now! I'll keep you all updated, and I promise to get some more picutes up here too:)


The truck full with everything we own!


Empty living room :(



Goodbye to our first home!

Packing.

Wow! It's getting dusty around here. I just wanted to check in and let you all know that we're still alive! We can barely walk around here without stepping over boxes, but it will all be over soon. We're heading down to PA this week to start house hunting, then we will move all of our stuff out of the house and into storage in PA, then we'll go on vacation to Cap Cod (YAY!), then we'll head back to PA and we will all move in with A's dad till we find/buy/close on a new house and then A will start his new job. Did you get all that?!? Not too complicated, is it? :) We don't like to make things easy on ourselves. What fun would that be? Cross your fingers that we'll find a house fast so we don't have to torture my father-in-law for too long!

Almost sold...

So, we got two offers on the house, accepted one of them, the engineer's inspection is on Friday... so... as long as everything goes as it should and there are no surprises, that means, we sold our house!! Yay! Overall, it's gone so much fast that I thought it would, and so much easier too (knock on wood). We're not done yet, but we're getting there.

The only thing is... now I have to start packing. I hate packing. And unpacking. Come to think of it, I hate moving! But it's worth it. And besides, if I procrastinate long enough, A will do most of it anyway :)

Don't tell him I said that...

The Zoo is Moving!!!

So, one of the reasons I've been MIA lately is that we're moving to Pennsylvania! We've been working really hard the last few weeks on cleaning up the house and getting those last few projects done that we've been putting off forever. Our house is on the market as of today and we're having an open house tomorrow. Crazy times. Keep your fingers crossed for a quick sale!

Andy got a new job at a small university about 1 1/2 hours outside of Philadelphia, in the Allentown/Reading area, and we jumped at the change to move back east. We'll be a lot closer to friends and family, but it means we have to say goodbye to Rochester and all the great friends we have made while living here for the past 3 1/2 years. It looks like if all goes well, we will probably be moving sometime in August, but we're figuring things out as we go:)

For now, the buns have been relocated to the basement :( as their room is really a bedroom and it needed to go back to looking that way. They disapprove of being down there and Patch keeps escaping and running back upstairs. Hopefully the house will sell fast and they can move back up! Henry and Chloe seem confused as to what's going on but they will figure it out once we start packing! That's it for now. The countdown begins!

Welcome to the World Jonah Paul!

Baby Jonah Paul was born Monday night at 11:55 pm to my cousin Lauren and her husband Dan. Congrats to the new family and welcome to the world Jonah! We can't wait to meet you!

Happy (belated) Easter!

We went to CT for Easter, and brought home a stomach bug. Yuck. I got it first and now A has it. Stay far, far away from the zoo right now. You don't want this, trust me.

Hope everyone had a great holiday with their Easter bunnies!

My husband is a saint...

Me: Don't forget to wake me up tomorrow morning. I have to go to work tomorrow but I have Saturday off.
Him: Ok, I'll wake you up after the news.
Me: You watch the news in the morning?
Him: Yes...
Me: I didn't know that...
Him: You do realize that I'm awake for 2-3 hours everyday before you get up right?
Me: No! What else do you do??
Him: Why do you want to know?
Me: Cause... you have, like, a whole other life in the morning that I don't know about...
Him: Well, maybe you should get up earlier.
Me: Yeah, don't count on it. I don't want to know that bad.

Welcome to the world Justin David!

Our family welcomed a new member yesterday, Justin David, 5 lbs 15 oz, son of my cousin David and his wife Holly. Congratulations to the new family! We can't wait to meet the little guy:)

It's over!

Yes we can!!!

A and I got out and voted first thing yesterday morning and anxiously awaited the results last night. What a great day for our country! Now we count down the days till January 20!

Election Day

GO VOTE!

Ok, this time for real

It's snowing now. A lot. I can see it. Now I'm really going to cry!!!

Snow.

It's official. Snowflakes have been sighted. I did not witness them myself but got a first hand account of their existence.

And the only thing I have to say... is it spring yet??