Friday, July 29, 2011

Gorgefest

Last night was a complete gorgefest a.k.a. our anniversary dinner courtesy of Hubb's parents. It probably didn't help that a friend was in town and so before dinner we met up with them and got my favorite drink cranberry/peach schnapps, and fried pickles. Note to self- always ask if they are spears or chips! I could have saved myself $4 and more room in the belly if I had asked this question. Pickle chips, no me gusta.

So we met up with his parents at Andiamos. His mom used to work there so she wanted us to try her favorite appetizers. Beef tenderloin tips in their signature zip sauce, (to me I thought 'zip' would mean a spicy marinara, but it was more like a super buttery rich gravy) and we got risotto rolled around mozzerella cheese, fried and topped with marinara. Yum!

We also had bread dipped in olive oil, basil and capers. I usually don't like capers but you couldn't really taste them. So I liked it. We had our salads come out with the house garlic parmesan dressing. And finally my main course of gnocchi with creamy marinara sauce. Which I could only eat like 3 bites and get to enjoy the rest for lunch today :) We were all too painfully stuffed to even look at the dessert tray. It was weird though, it sounds like a lot but it was really just a bit of everything. I think my stomach is shrinking- I used to be able to really pack it away. So maybe that is good?

So yes, it was delicious. And it was really generous of his parents to take us out and celebrate our anniversary with us. We are very blessed!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

date night (?)

Last night I didn't have to work late at work, so Hubbs and I had the evening together. Is it really a 'date night' when you just eat leftovers and watch a movie and then go to bed? I guess we just aren't that exciting anymore :)

We watched 17 Again, which I picked up at Target for $4.75. I had seen it before and I still liked it the second time.


Hubbs was laughing too.

Anyway, maybe tonight is another date night qustion mark. His parents are taking us out for dinner to celebrate our 1 year. So yes, I guess that's a double date!

Monday, July 25, 2011

catching up

last week was super busy at work, and that's all I have to say about that.

2 weeks ago hubbs and I came out of the movies to this sky:
it was freaky.

Good meals throughout last week:


Andrew made this gem last week when we had our vegetarian friends over, yum!

then one night we had this:
Delicious omlet with potatoes, cheese, peppers and turkey bacon.


chicken and peppers stir-fry
and here's Hubbs reading the sauce recipe, mmmm...


one of my favorite meals: peirogies, turkey sausages, and veggies. Lovingly made for me by my Hubbs at the end of a day of work overtime for me.

and something I tried that was not so good, a 'protein muffin'

strange sponge-like texture, tasted like nothing. But the bananas with peanut butter and chocolate chips were delicious :)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Tennis & Geocaching

Last night we met up with my best friend and her hubbs. We played the laziest tennis game ever, or maybe I just felt that way since it hardly came to me. My friend's husband is really into geocaching. Apparently it's like treasure hunting in a city using some sort of gps thing. So he gets his fancy phone out and soon we are following a digital compass. We get to a tree and bench outside a resteraunt and start to look around. I've heard crazy things about the treasure being buried underground, in water, super hard to find, etc, not our case last night. Less than 2 minutes later my friend's husband announced he had found it. It was a tiny plastic jar, like what paint comes in w/ the snap lid, and it had a magnet glued to it to hold it under the bench. Sometimes there are tiny trinkets, or coins or something for a treasure inside. This one just held a scroll for you to put your name and date on it. We didn't even have a pencil. So my first experience with geocaching was not really that exciting, but I can see how it might otherwise be fun.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

driver's ed

Last night I was coming home from work and noticed that some of the traffic lights were out because of the thunderstorm we had earlier in the day. I slowed to a stop and saw that to both sides of me the other lanes of traffic were just zooming by. And I wondered- was everyone asleep in class that day that they taught us 'a dead traffic light should be treated as a 4 way stop'. Seriously, am I the only one that knows this? I was practically rear ended as I actually stopped and took my turn. Anyway, it was crazy.

In other news, I really need to get busy uploading my pictures. Not that anything crazy has happened, but I like having pics with the blog. It's just a four step process of actually getting the picture from the camera to the computer, so it doesn't happen that frequently.

Hubbs and I have been watching a Extreme Weight-Loss show, mostly because it comes on after the Bachelorette and we get sucked in, but it is good. It's sad how those people have just let themselves go, I can't imagine. It seems like it would be harder to be that heavy. Think of those grocery bills! But it is really inspiring to see lives changed. Much more inspiring than the Bachelorette ;) but I still like that show! :)

Monday, July 18, 2011

Hot

wow, last month when I wrote about my hot apartment, I had no idea the inferno that it could become. I miss the days of 82 degrees. Our thermostat needle is now buried below 90. Woke up last night at 4:20am by Andrew tossing and turning, complaining about the puddle of sweat he was laying in. So we put a fan in the window, turning our room fan total to 3. I was reluctant for a window fan- our apt window faces the parking lot so we have a super bright light outside the window and a family of birds that wakes up in song right around 5. But it really did help. Bird family songs must have been drowned out this morning by our fan trifecta.

We mostly like our apartment. There are inconviences like having 1 kitchen drawer, something I did not notice in the walk-through, and our neighborhood isn't that great for running, but it is a good area for us workwise. We got our lease renewal notice last week. When moving in they said after a year we could go month-to-month, but they didn't mention it's $100 extra. So we'll probably stay another year. And hope that hubbs is able to find a job, and that we aren't just trapped here by a lease. We're trusting it will work out. But seriously, this heat is making me almost want to look elsewhere. For an apt that doesn't face the setting sun without any buildings to shade it. What we gain in sunsets, we lose in sleepless nights. Pretty soon fall will come, this year is going so fast, and I'm sure it will be fine.

This weekend was a busy one with a Tiger's game, going out for Mexican, yum!, church, going to the viewing for Andrew's professor's wife, out for Italian, lots of laundry and cleaning our apt. Making these delicious cupcakes, and now back to work!

Friday, July 15, 2011

In My Perfect World

In my perfect world, my all-time favorite band:


would have come up with a new cd by now. Seriously guys?? 2003??? GET TO WORK!!!

I know they were a compliation of Death Cab for Cutie and Headset who just collaborated once on a cd, but it was soooo good! I want more!!

I have listened to this cd, I'm sure over 100 times, and love it all (except #8) my brother made fun of me because everytime he got in my car (over a period of a year or more) it was in the cd player. Yes, it is that awesome.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Lincoln Lawyer

Last night we went to see a movie:


I wish working in a law office was that exciting!

It was a good movie and a nice treat after a long, not so great day. We love living close to a dollar theatre! Actually we can never figure out the pricing, sometimes it's 50 cents, at most it's $2.50. But cheap!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Gods Plans

There's a quote by Woody Allen I'm sure everyone has heard: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” I'm feeling like that these days. Everything I want to do is somehow thwarted. My possible back to school plans are now bumped back to 2013, who knows if Hubbs will be able to get a job, a house I like will probably be long gone by the time we can save any money, and I don't even want to go down the potential family thinking line of plans.

On the other hand, we learn planning from God. He planned the creation of the world, and the steps that would both take humanity away from Him and then lead them back, etc.

I'm not going to stop planning. And wishing. And hoping. Maybe a better title for this post would be "patience" or "trusting that God is good and in control even though you feel disappointed about all your stuff turning out differently". I still believe that anyway.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Hitchhiker

The other day I was chopping up celery for making chili and I saw a tiny black bug nestled in the crook of the celery rib. Still wiggling his little legs. It wasn't as bad as when I found this guy a month or so ago:


A sluggy looking little guy that proceeding to crawl his way off the celery and onto my cutting board. I was so grossed out. That thing had been living in my refridgerator for weeks, happily munching on my celery. I thought about killing him, I was holding a knife at the time, but just thought it would feel so gross. So I carefully carried him outside to live under a tree instead.

But the bug yesterday went down the drain.

What is it with finding bugs in my apartment now?!?! For the first 9 months of living there I never saw a single thing. Then, on the very day I bragged about this fact to my book club girls, I came home and found a spider on the window blinds. And then the other day, when hubbs was conveniently gone, I saw some other spider/bug thing... sheesh. Well, at least they're not roaches!!

Monday, July 11, 2011

My Weekend As A Single Girl

So Hubbs went away on the weekend on a guy's trip. Last summer he did his bachelor's party camping and tubing down a river, and liked it so much, they decided to go back.

I think we've only been apart 2 nights since we've been married, so I was worried if I'd feel lonely, but I was ok.

Friday my BFF Liz came over and we had dinner, went on a walk, watched a movie and had a sleepover since her hubby was also out of town. It was fun! I miss those sleepover days! Saturday after she left I did feel kinda lonesome for a bit, but I made a to-do list and in no time was super efficient and busy. Sunday went to church and then Hubbs was back, so we were back to our usual Sunday routine of laundry and naps :). In all, it was survivable. I wouldn't like him to be gone more than a weekend, and I like fun mini-trips too! He said next year it'd be a couples trip. So yeah, it was nice having some "me" time, but mostly I like "us" time!

We made this recipe from my friends blog and they were soooo good! Super spicy. I use a half can of the chipotles instead of 1/4 can, and it was HOT. We also made this corn that had a sauce of 1/2 stick butter, zest of a lime, little bit honey, and a chopped jalepeno. Oh my gosh- cutting that jalepeno I touched my tongue with my finger and suddenly my lips were burning too. But simmering it seemed to cut the heat down (almost all of it) and it wasn't spicy at all. It was ok, you could taste the lime more than anything. I think my favorites corn-on-the-cob toppings are still just plain old butter, salt and tons of pepper. Mmmm, love summer food!