- Cutting board shaped like Pennsylvania. Hooray for Joshua's best man Scott and for engraved wedding gifts! If you cannot see it well, it says "Laura and Joshua August 19, 2006" Then it marks out Carlisle on the map with a dot. How awesome is that?!
- Weight bench and a full set of weights that are located in our very full and extremely organized basement. We traded our gym membership at Sweat Fitness (known for its meatheads and bikini models) for a much more economical home gym.
- A new Thompson, but you will have to ask Brian and Bridgette for the details on that one. We couldn't be more excited!
- Play Station 2 to keep Joshua out of trouble while I am doing schoolwork. Although it probably gets him in more trouble because all he does is yell at Madden "for being stupid" while he plays that football game.
- An island for the kitchen (Ikea's Ensta), which we have been wanting since we moved here. Now we can sit on our stools again as we eat breakfast and watch each other cook. Those stools were a favorite part of our apartment so we wanted to reincorporate them back into our lives.
- A mustache, which is getting progressively bigger and "twistable" much to our enjoyment. Joshua's Halloween costume this year is going to be awesome. Although there are almost too many options!
- Mr. Bento, which is a Japanese-style lunch box that is already causing some marital strife as Joshua is suspicious that I might love it more than him. (Laura Bento has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?)
- A BBQ grill as a housewarming gift from M&D Thompson. It has been providing plenty of quick and yummy meals.
- Lots of time to read about the things that interest me. It is so wonderful that I have this time to read and think in such an intense way again. (I always look so studious, don't I?!)
- Since we are still slowly building our base of friends in Philadelphia, we have had the joy of spending a ton of time together. We went to Hershey Park together a few weekends ago, have been taking more walks around our neighborhood, and have just generally enjoyed being married to one another. Even though our motto was going to be "First year for love, the rest for spite" we aren't living that out very well! (Obviously, that wasn't going to be our motto. Our real motto is something like "Try to act older than toddlers.")
- The return of rugby season! Saturday's match featured a guy whose nose was moved closer to his ear than the center of his face. It was pretty amazing ... and pretty awesome that it wasn't Joshua in that situation.
Next: A rugby trip to Pittsburgh to visit Kate and Neal!
