2009 has come and gone, so I thought I'd close it out with some of our Christmas pictures.
Christmas pictures
As you can see from the pictures, Paige's parents came to visit us for the holiday. They also treated us to an awesome weekend in Napa!
Christmas in Napa pictures
In addition to all of the great wine we had at the wineries you can see from the photos, we had amazing food from Bottega, Mustard's, Redd, and Bouchon.
New Year's was pretty low-key (we had no plans since Paige thought she had to work and most of our friends were out of town), and since then we've just been getting back into the regular routine and de-Christmasing the house.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Photos of recent events...
As promised, here are some photos from the events that Paige has blogged:
Napa Valley
We're just sitting outside in the garden enjoying some wine before our tour :)
Muir Woods
The entrance to Muir Woods.
Myself with some rather large trees in the background.
Perhaps this picture can give a little bit of perspective, but there's no way to effectively capture 300ft trees on camera.
Halloween
The Bee and her Beekeeper, tasting the 'Toxic Tonic'.
Just part of the delicious spread.
That's all for now, short and sweet.
I'm sure there will be some more pictures taken on our trip back east next week, so stay posted!
Napa Valley
We're just sitting outside in the garden enjoying some wine before our tour :)
Muir Woods
The entrance to Muir Woods.
Myself with some rather large trees in the background.
Perhaps this picture can give a little bit of perspective, but there's no way to effectively capture 300ft trees on camera.
Halloween
The Bee and her Beekeeper, tasting the 'Toxic Tonic'.
Just part of the delicious spread.
That's all for now, short and sweet.
I'm sure there will be some more pictures taken on our trip back east next week, so stay posted!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Getting into the swing of things
Hello everyone!
We are getting so excited about our trip home in a few weeks!! :) We will be arriving in Jackson on Wednesday, November 18th around 2:00pm, and we'll be hanging out in Jackson until Friday afternoon. On Friday afternoon we will be OXFORD bound!!! Woohoo!! We will hopefully get into Oxford in time to go grab some food and then out on the square!! We are hoping to see as many people as possible!! We miss everyone so much! On Saturday we will most definitely be in the Grove and then at the game!! We will head out of Oxford on Sunday morning and fly back to California at 6:00pm on Sunday night! It is going to be an action packed trip, and we are hoping to get to spend as much time as possible with as many people as possible!
We're finally getting into as much of a routine is possible with our schedules. My schedule is all over the place, so its the one that is making things difficult. I am so thankful to finally be a pharmacist...it took what felt like FOREVER, but I am finally licensed and on the schedule! However, my schedule is ridiculous. Unfortunately, I am working EVERY WEEKEND in November except for the one we are going to be out of town. I am also working a lot of overtime and filling in for people at other stores. I really don't mind this at all because most of the days I am off are during the week, so its not like I have too much to do during the day when everyone else is at work, so I may as well make some extra money! It is also helping me learn my way around the area! I am so thankful that we got me a Garmin when we moved here because otherwise I would constantly be lost trying to find all these different Wal-Marts! The first few days I worked alone, I was EXTREMELY nervous that I wasn't going to know what to do. But over the past few weeks, I have gained some confidence and now I feel completely comfortable working alone!
A few weeks ago, Scott and I decided to take a day trip to Muir Woods. Muir Woods is a redwood forest that has the tallest living things (the redwoods) in the world! We left home around noon and drove up to San Francisco where we stopped and got lunch at Memphis Minnies...a much needed little taste of home with the yummy BBQ! After stuffing ourselves, we headed over the Golden Gate to Muir Woods, which is about 12 miles past the Golden Gate. At Muir Woods we wandered around the paths and even hiked a little bit! The trees were just beautiful! Pictures do not even kind of do Muir Woods justice! There is no way to capture how tall the trees are because you can't even fit the entire tree into a picture. Scott will post our attempts to capture the beauty of Muir Woods soon!
For Halloween we invited over 2 other couples to have a little Halloween get together. I get really excited about all holidays, so I went all out and cooked all kinds of yummy "themed" goodies! I made snake breadsticks, pumpkin, ghost, and spiderweb cookies, eyeball cupcakes, and corn dip. It was so exciting to get to use all of our gorgeous serving pieces to put everything out! Once again, I'll have Scott post pictures soon!
This weekend we are planning on going to a birthday party for one of the new couples we met at the Halloween get together! We are loving the opportunities to keep meeting new people!
I have just found out that Adrienne is coming to visit us for our birthdays! She will be arriving on Scott's birthday, Friday, December 4th, and leaving the following Monday! We are really excited because Friday, December 4th is also the Microsoft Christmas Party, which we have heard is very very fun! We may try to take a little day trip to Napa or somewhere else to celebrate my birthday on Saturday, December 5th! Whatever we are doing I know it will be great to have both Scott and Adrienne in town to spend it with!
Well, I guess that's about it for our life update. I promise I will get Scott to post pictures of our latest adventures soon! I can't wait to get to see everyone soon! I miss yall!
We are getting so excited about our trip home in a few weeks!! :) We will be arriving in Jackson on Wednesday, November 18th around 2:00pm, and we'll be hanging out in Jackson until Friday afternoon. On Friday afternoon we will be OXFORD bound!!! Woohoo!! We will hopefully get into Oxford in time to go grab some food and then out on the square!! We are hoping to see as many people as possible!! We miss everyone so much! On Saturday we will most definitely be in the Grove and then at the game!! We will head out of Oxford on Sunday morning and fly back to California at 6:00pm on Sunday night! It is going to be an action packed trip, and we are hoping to get to spend as much time as possible with as many people as possible!
We're finally getting into as much of a routine is possible with our schedules. My schedule is all over the place, so its the one that is making things difficult. I am so thankful to finally be a pharmacist...it took what felt like FOREVER, but I am finally licensed and on the schedule! However, my schedule is ridiculous. Unfortunately, I am working EVERY WEEKEND in November except for the one we are going to be out of town. I am also working a lot of overtime and filling in for people at other stores. I really don't mind this at all because most of the days I am off are during the week, so its not like I have too much to do during the day when everyone else is at work, so I may as well make some extra money! It is also helping me learn my way around the area! I am so thankful that we got me a Garmin when we moved here because otherwise I would constantly be lost trying to find all these different Wal-Marts! The first few days I worked alone, I was EXTREMELY nervous that I wasn't going to know what to do. But over the past few weeks, I have gained some confidence and now I feel completely comfortable working alone!
A few weeks ago, Scott and I decided to take a day trip to Muir Woods. Muir Woods is a redwood forest that has the tallest living things (the redwoods) in the world! We left home around noon and drove up to San Francisco where we stopped and got lunch at Memphis Minnies...a much needed little taste of home with the yummy BBQ! After stuffing ourselves, we headed over the Golden Gate to Muir Woods, which is about 12 miles past the Golden Gate. At Muir Woods we wandered around the paths and even hiked a little bit! The trees were just beautiful! Pictures do not even kind of do Muir Woods justice! There is no way to capture how tall the trees are because you can't even fit the entire tree into a picture. Scott will post our attempts to capture the beauty of Muir Woods soon!
For Halloween we invited over 2 other couples to have a little Halloween get together. I get really excited about all holidays, so I went all out and cooked all kinds of yummy "themed" goodies! I made snake breadsticks, pumpkin, ghost, and spiderweb cookies, eyeball cupcakes, and corn dip. It was so exciting to get to use all of our gorgeous serving pieces to put everything out! Once again, I'll have Scott post pictures soon!
This weekend we are planning on going to a birthday party for one of the new couples we met at the Halloween get together! We are loving the opportunities to keep meeting new people!
I have just found out that Adrienne is coming to visit us for our birthdays! She will be arriving on Scott's birthday, Friday, December 4th, and leaving the following Monday! We are really excited because Friday, December 4th is also the Microsoft Christmas Party, which we have heard is very very fun! We may try to take a little day trip to Napa or somewhere else to celebrate my birthday on Saturday, December 5th! Whatever we are doing I know it will be great to have both Scott and Adrienne in town to spend it with!
Well, I guess that's about it for our life update. I promise I will get Scott to post pictures of our latest adventures soon! I can't wait to get to see everyone soon! I miss yall!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Hello again!
I know it has been FOREVER since you have last heard from us...over a month...we know...sorry! For most of it, I was doing as my last blog said, studying like crazy! I took the NAPLEX, which is the Pharmacy Board Exam, and I passed!! woohoo!! That was very exciting because it made me an official pharmacist in Mississippi, since I had already taken the Mississippi Law Exam and passed it before we moved out here! A week after I took the NAPLEX, I took the CPJE, which is the California Law Exam. That exam is known to be very very hard, so I was super nervous and was trying to study extra hard! I had to wait almost a month before I heard the results, but last week we found out that I passed the CPJE, so I am officially a pharmacist in California!!! Well, almost officially...I still have to wait another week for them to process everything and THEN they will give me a license number and THEN I can begin acting as an official pharmacist! YAY!!!
Since I took the CPJE, I have been working part time in the WalMart in Mountain View (the one close to our house!!) so that I can get used to the store. One of the full time pharmacists from the Mountain View store just left to work at a brand new Walmart that opened closer to his house, which left a spot wide open for me to fill in! The timing could not have been more perfect! I am really excited about beginning full time in that store! I really like everyone that I work with, and I like the pace of the store too. It is consistently busy, so I don't get bored, but it rarely gets too busy to where I feel overwhelmed. But the best thing about it is that I live 5 minutes away, so the commute is wonderful!
We have finally gotten all of our furniture, so our house really feels a lot more like a home! I will take some pictures soon and post them so you can see our loveseat and ottoman! We love our little home so much! We are expecting the last shipment of our dishes next week, and then we will pretty much have a complete home!
A few weeks ago we took a day trip to Napa with another couple. We left Mountain View early and set out for a day of wine tasting and yummy food! We ate lunch at a restaurant called Botega that is owned Michael Chiarrelo, one of the chef's that has a show on food network and has also been on the show Top Chef Masters. The food was awesome, and I also got to see Michael Chirello doing a cooking demonstration, which really made my day!!! It is so amazing that we live so close and can just go away for such an amazing day trip...trust us...we are not taking this for granted!! Another plus to our Napa trip is that we have discovered one of the VERY FEW chick fil a's in CA is about 20 minutes away from Napa! So of course, we took a little side trip on our way home to enjoy some yummy chick fil a that we have been missing so much! Our friends had never had chick fil a before, so we were very glad that we were able to introduce them to this little bit of heaven! It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day!
This past weekend, we celebrated me becoming a pharmacist by going to Alexander's Steakhouse, which is a SUPER NICE steakhouse in Cupertino. The food was unbelievable and the service was just as good! We spent about 3 hours eating dinner...everything was so good, we couldn't stop eating...we were still full today! My favorite thing about Alexanders was that they served everyone COTTON CANDY at the end of the meal....what a genius idea! I absolutely love cotton candy, and in my opinion, we need more opportunities to eat it than the occasional fair or circus.
Other than what I've already talked about, we have just been watching a lot of football and hanging out with friends! We feel so blessed that our life here has fallen into place so easily. We have no complaints, other than we wish we could see everyone at home too! We miss you!
COMING HOME UPDATE!! We think that we are going to be able to come home the weekend of November 21st, which is the weekend of the Ole Miss vs LSU game! We hope to be able to spend a few days in Jackson and then the weekend in Oxford! We are so excited! We miss the grove and watching our Rebels play! Hotty Toddy!
Since I took the CPJE, I have been working part time in the WalMart in Mountain View (the one close to our house!!) so that I can get used to the store. One of the full time pharmacists from the Mountain View store just left to work at a brand new Walmart that opened closer to his house, which left a spot wide open for me to fill in! The timing could not have been more perfect! I am really excited about beginning full time in that store! I really like everyone that I work with, and I like the pace of the store too. It is consistently busy, so I don't get bored, but it rarely gets too busy to where I feel overwhelmed. But the best thing about it is that I live 5 minutes away, so the commute is wonderful!
We have finally gotten all of our furniture, so our house really feels a lot more like a home! I will take some pictures soon and post them so you can see our loveseat and ottoman! We love our little home so much! We are expecting the last shipment of our dishes next week, and then we will pretty much have a complete home!
A few weeks ago we took a day trip to Napa with another couple. We left Mountain View early and set out for a day of wine tasting and yummy food! We ate lunch at a restaurant called Botega that is owned Michael Chiarrelo, one of the chef's that has a show on food network and has also been on the show Top Chef Masters. The food was awesome, and I also got to see Michael Chirello doing a cooking demonstration, which really made my day!!! It is so amazing that we live so close and can just go away for such an amazing day trip...trust us...we are not taking this for granted!! Another plus to our Napa trip is that we have discovered one of the VERY FEW chick fil a's in CA is about 20 minutes away from Napa! So of course, we took a little side trip on our way home to enjoy some yummy chick fil a that we have been missing so much! Our friends had never had chick fil a before, so we were very glad that we were able to introduce them to this little bit of heaven! It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day!
This past weekend, we celebrated me becoming a pharmacist by going to Alexander's Steakhouse, which is a SUPER NICE steakhouse in Cupertino. The food was unbelievable and the service was just as good! We spent about 3 hours eating dinner...everything was so good, we couldn't stop eating...we were still full today! My favorite thing about Alexanders was that they served everyone COTTON CANDY at the end of the meal....what a genius idea! I absolutely love cotton candy, and in my opinion, we need more opportunities to eat it than the occasional fair or circus.
Other than what I've already talked about, we have just been watching a lot of football and hanging out with friends! We feel so blessed that our life here has fallen into place so easily. We have no complaints, other than we wish we could see everyone at home too! We miss you!
COMING HOME UPDATE!! We think that we are going to be able to come home the weekend of November 21st, which is the weekend of the Ole Miss vs LSU game! We hope to be able to spend a few days in Jackson and then the weekend in Oxford! We are so excited! We miss the grove and watching our Rebels play! Hotty Toddy!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Busy, Busy, Busy! Study, Study, Study!
Once again, I have failed on keeping up with the blog! We have actually been very busy lately, so we have just forgotten to keep everyone updated! This is going to be a short life update on what we have been up to since the last post.
On the weekend after the successful dinner party that I posted about, we took a day trip to Santa Cruz, which is a beach that is like 30 minutes from our house. It is a very interesting place, that is VERY touristy. There is a boardwalk that is about a mile long and pretty much has a year round state fair type thing with rides and games right on the water. It was a good place to see once, but it was SO crowded and kind of dirty and touristy, so I think once might be enough for us. There are some other, more low key, beaches around Santa Cruz that we will most likely go to whenever we need our beach fix.
On the Sunday after the Santa Cruz trip, I woke up feeling TERRIBLE with a really bad sore throat and body aches. I pretty much stayed in bed for several days until I went to the doctor and got an antibiotic. It took me around a week to fully recuperate. Of course, as soon as I started feeling better, Scott started feeling bad, so we were sick and not doing too much for about 2 weeks.
However, right when I was starting to feel better, and Scott hadn't fully started to feel bad, Sophia and Matt (the people we had invited over for dinner) invited us to their house for dinner. We ate some yummy kabobs, homemade grilled pizza, and bananas foster at their house and had a great time!
The next week I started my first week of work at a store in Fremont, which is about 30 minutes away. It was good to get out and start working, but it was definitely an adjustment. Many things are different in California than they were in Mississippi, so I had to relearn different ways of doing things! I feel better now that I have gotten a little bit accustomed to working in a pharmacy in California.
While I was working, I FINALLY received the letter from the California Board of Pharmacy that allowed me to sign up for the NAPLEX (the pharmacy board exam) and the CPJE (the California pharmacy law exam). I will be taking the NAPLEX on Friday, September 4th, and the CPJE on Tuesday, September 8th. So until then, I have time off to study, study, study! Which is exactly what I will be doing, so I can pass and finally be a real pharmacist!
We did take a study break this last weekend, and we went for a walk at the Dish on Saturday afternoon. The Dish is the place that I went walking with Heather that is over by Stanford and has BEAUTIFUL views of the entire bay area. It was nice to finally get out and get some exercise and enjoy the beautiful day.
On Saturday night, we went out with Matt and Sophia and several of their friends to a country bar. It was very ironic going to a country bar in California, but it did make us feel a little at home :)
When we got back from the walk, we were talking about how great the weather is here, and how we need to find something to do to get out in it more often. We decided that we should take up golf! This is perfect since there is a course right by our house, we are both beginners so we will be learning together, and it will be something fun to do to go outside and enjoy the day! So on Sunday, we had our first lesson with the pro at the Shoreline Golf Course. We had a really good time! He gave us several drills to practice and told us to go to the driving range several times to master the drills before we sign up for our next lesson. We are really excited about our new hobby and can't wait to get back out there and hit some balls!
On Sunday night, Sophia and Matt came over to our house for dinner and to watch True Blood, a show that we all love on HBO.
All this week, I have been spending most of my time studying. Today I went with Heather to the Dish for a walk and then we went out to lunch afterward. We are planning on another morning walk on Friday, so I am excited to have someone to exercise with!
Sorry this was so much at one time! I miss everyone and love you all! :)
On the weekend after the successful dinner party that I posted about, we took a day trip to Santa Cruz, which is a beach that is like 30 minutes from our house. It is a very interesting place, that is VERY touristy. There is a boardwalk that is about a mile long and pretty much has a year round state fair type thing with rides and games right on the water. It was a good place to see once, but it was SO crowded and kind of dirty and touristy, so I think once might be enough for us. There are some other, more low key, beaches around Santa Cruz that we will most likely go to whenever we need our beach fix.
On the Sunday after the Santa Cruz trip, I woke up feeling TERRIBLE with a really bad sore throat and body aches. I pretty much stayed in bed for several days until I went to the doctor and got an antibiotic. It took me around a week to fully recuperate. Of course, as soon as I started feeling better, Scott started feeling bad, so we were sick and not doing too much for about 2 weeks.
However, right when I was starting to feel better, and Scott hadn't fully started to feel bad, Sophia and Matt (the people we had invited over for dinner) invited us to their house for dinner. We ate some yummy kabobs, homemade grilled pizza, and bananas foster at their house and had a great time!
The next week I started my first week of work at a store in Fremont, which is about 30 minutes away. It was good to get out and start working, but it was definitely an adjustment. Many things are different in California than they were in Mississippi, so I had to relearn different ways of doing things! I feel better now that I have gotten a little bit accustomed to working in a pharmacy in California.
While I was working, I FINALLY received the letter from the California Board of Pharmacy that allowed me to sign up for the NAPLEX (the pharmacy board exam) and the CPJE (the California pharmacy law exam). I will be taking the NAPLEX on Friday, September 4th, and the CPJE on Tuesday, September 8th. So until then, I have time off to study, study, study! Which is exactly what I will be doing, so I can pass and finally be a real pharmacist!
We did take a study break this last weekend, and we went for a walk at the Dish on Saturday afternoon. The Dish is the place that I went walking with Heather that is over by Stanford and has BEAUTIFUL views of the entire bay area. It was nice to finally get out and get some exercise and enjoy the beautiful day.
On Saturday night, we went out with Matt and Sophia and several of their friends to a country bar. It was very ironic going to a country bar in California, but it did make us feel a little at home :)
When we got back from the walk, we were talking about how great the weather is here, and how we need to find something to do to get out in it more often. We decided that we should take up golf! This is perfect since there is a course right by our house, we are both beginners so we will be learning together, and it will be something fun to do to go outside and enjoy the day! So on Sunday, we had our first lesson with the pro at the Shoreline Golf Course. We had a really good time! He gave us several drills to practice and told us to go to the driving range several times to master the drills before we sign up for our next lesson. We are really excited about our new hobby and can't wait to get back out there and hit some balls!
On Sunday night, Sophia and Matt came over to our house for dinner and to watch True Blood, a show that we all love on HBO.
All this week, I have been spending most of my time studying. Today I went with Heather to the Dish for a walk and then we went out to lunch afterward. We are planning on another morning walk on Friday, so I am excited to have someone to exercise with!
Sorry this was so much at one time! I miss everyone and love you all! :)
Friday, August 7, 2009
Successful dinner party!
So yesterday was a crazy day! It started by me waking up and deciding to do laundry, so I grabbed the landry basket and started down the stairs. Of course I slipped on the first stair and the heavy laundry basket dragged me down the entire flight of stairs!! To make matters worse, I was also holding a full glass of water which went ALL over me!! Haha...great start to the day! Today my rear is not feeling so swell and I also think I somehow managed to hurt my shoulder falling down the stairs? Not really sure how I did that...maybe the arm that was carrying the laundry got yanked? Oh well, hopefully it will be feeling better soon!
On Wednesday night my wish for us being motivated to tidy up and hang pictures came true! We picked up the pictures I had sent off to be printed and went by Michaels and WalMart to look for frames. We ended up finding some good frames at WalMart that were much cheaper than the Michaels frames, so we went with those! I call the wall across from the table our Oxford wall because the collage of frames are all Oxford pictures and the picture over my desk is a Larry Wamble print that was a wedding gift and says "We may not win every game...but we ain't never lost a party". We also hung my van Gogh painting over by the kitchen. Here are some pictures...
This picture is the overview of the wall. I think I could have gone a little bigger on the pictures and frames for the collage, but we had already bought and hung everything, so I think Scott may kill me if I go out and reprint pictures, buy new frames, and make him measure and hang a whole new set of pictures! The perfect alignment is definitely Scott's patience and need for perfection kicking in! It definitely took lots of measurements and working with the level to make that happen!
I'm not sure if you can really tell what these are, so here's the descriptions from top to bottom.
Faulker on the bench from on the square, Bottletree Bakery, Walk of Champions, Speed limit 18 sign from on campus, Rowan Oak, Ajax door
We had so many more great shots that we wanted to include but these were the pictures that we liked the best and thought looked the best in the frames.
This is a close up of the Larry Wamble print that is hanging above my desk.
This is the picture of the van Gogh print that is hanging right outside the kitchen.
I think that having pictures on the wall really cozies the place up! It feels a lot more like home now that the walls aren't so bare! And I really like that we were able to use pictures that we had that actually mean something to us and make them look great without spending much money! :)
So yesterday I spent most of the day preparing for dinner. I went ahead and prepared everything so that when they got there, all I had to do was pop things into the oven! For the appetizer I made Mrs. Thrash's cheesy corn dip. They LOVED it...as everyone does!! For dinner I made Scott's mom, Donna's, spicy shrimp and rice casserole with bacon wrapped asparagus, salad, and garlic bread. And for dessert, we had homemade ice cream cake that was tiramissu flavored with Kahlua, coffee, and vanilla and chocolate ice cream! Everything was very yummy! All the prep work that day really paid off since everything was ready so I didn't have to spend all of my time in the kitchen!
We really like Matt and Sophia! Matt was Scott's mentor last summer when Scott was working for Microsoft as an intern. They just got married last year and are around our age. We got along great last night, and have already started talking about taking a trip to Napa soon!
I also enjoyed getting to use all of our new wedding gifts for the first time! I LOVE all of our Juliska pieces! They look so pretty together! Here is a picture of our set table.
It makes me so happy! I love all of our choices and how great they all look together!
Well today is back to the books, but I thought I would give a quick (or not so quick) update on how things went last night! I told y'all I was going to work on blogging more often!
On Wednesday night my wish for us being motivated to tidy up and hang pictures came true! We picked up the pictures I had sent off to be printed and went by Michaels and WalMart to look for frames. We ended up finding some good frames at WalMart that were much cheaper than the Michaels frames, so we went with those! I call the wall across from the table our Oxford wall because the collage of frames are all Oxford pictures and the picture over my desk is a Larry Wamble print that was a wedding gift and says "We may not win every game...but we ain't never lost a party". We also hung my van Gogh painting over by the kitchen. Here are some pictures...
This picture is the overview of the wall. I think I could have gone a little bigger on the pictures and frames for the collage, but we had already bought and hung everything, so I think Scott may kill me if I go out and reprint pictures, buy new frames, and make him measure and hang a whole new set of pictures! The perfect alignment is definitely Scott's patience and need for perfection kicking in! It definitely took lots of measurements and working with the level to make that happen!
I'm not sure if you can really tell what these are, so here's the descriptions from top to bottom.
Faulker on the bench from on the square, Bottletree Bakery, Walk of Champions, Speed limit 18 sign from on campus, Rowan Oak, Ajax door
We had so many more great shots that we wanted to include but these were the pictures that we liked the best and thought looked the best in the frames.
This is a close up of the Larry Wamble print that is hanging above my desk.
This is the picture of the van Gogh print that is hanging right outside the kitchen.
I think that having pictures on the wall really cozies the place up! It feels a lot more like home now that the walls aren't so bare! And I really like that we were able to use pictures that we had that actually mean something to us and make them look great without spending much money! :)
So yesterday I spent most of the day preparing for dinner. I went ahead and prepared everything so that when they got there, all I had to do was pop things into the oven! For the appetizer I made Mrs. Thrash's cheesy corn dip. They LOVED it...as everyone does!! For dinner I made Scott's mom, Donna's, spicy shrimp and rice casserole with bacon wrapped asparagus, salad, and garlic bread. And for dessert, we had homemade ice cream cake that was tiramissu flavored with Kahlua, coffee, and vanilla and chocolate ice cream! Everything was very yummy! All the prep work that day really paid off since everything was ready so I didn't have to spend all of my time in the kitchen!
We really like Matt and Sophia! Matt was Scott's mentor last summer when Scott was working for Microsoft as an intern. They just got married last year and are around our age. We got along great last night, and have already started talking about taking a trip to Napa soon!
I also enjoyed getting to use all of our new wedding gifts for the first time! I LOVE all of our Juliska pieces! They look so pretty together! Here is a picture of our set table.
It makes me so happy! I love all of our choices and how great they all look together!
Well today is back to the books, but I thought I would give a quick (or not so quick) update on how things went last night! I told y'all I was going to work on blogging more often!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Another long life update!
Sorry it has been so long since you've heard from me! I'm not sure what I have been doing, but I have been staying busy! I've gotten into a bit of a routine lately. I usually wake up as Scott is leaving for work, start some coffee, and eat some breakfast. After breakfast, I usually do whatever housework needs to get done, go work out, and figure out what we're going to have for dinner so I can get the meat out of the freezer to thaw. Then it's usually lunch time, so I make some lunch and relax and watch some TV while I eat. In the afternoon I usually study, write thank you notes, and run errands until around 5ish when I get ready to start cooking. I typically have dinner ready when Scott gets home around 6ish, and we eat dinner, and then watch TV or hang out until bed time! Haha, I can't believe we have already settled into this routine, but its actually really comforting and I like it a lot! :)
However, the routine is about to change! I met with Emmanuel, my Wal-Mart district manager, last week, and we got me put into the system and all ready to start work! Until I get licensed, I am going to be filling in wherever they need someone, so I will be going to several different stores in the area. As of right now, my first week will be August 17-21st (Monday-Friday) from 10-7. I'm excited, but also nervous about starting work out here! I've gotten pretty good at this whole house wife thing :)
Last Friday I met the across the street neighbor, Heather, when I was out studying. Later on that afternoon, she and her husband, Ben, came by the invite us over for dinner on Saturday. Unfortunately we had already made plans with one of Scott's coworkers to go to a movie on Saturday night, so we had to decline :( However, we did go over to their house later that evening and drank some wine and talked with them for a few hours!
On Saturday night, Scott and I met one of his coworkers to go see Funny People. It was an interesting movie...not really what we were expecting. It kind of had some slow depressing parts, which was kind of weird since it was advertised as a comedy. All in all, it wasn't terrible, but it certainly was not in my list of favorite movies. After the movie, we were supposed to meet up with his wife, Sophia, who had been in San Francisco all weekend. However, since the movie lasted so long (almost 3 hours!) and she got home later than she expected and was tired, we decided to postpone to another time.
On Sunday, Scott and I went to a church down the road. We first tried out this church the Sunday before, but there was a guest speaker that Sunday, so we decided to give the actual preacher a try. We had decided to try out this church because we had read good things about it on Yelp.com (a common place to go to see reviews of different businesses, etc.). I know that's a weird place to find a church, but when you don't really know people, it's the best you can do! Everyone had raved about how great the church was, and it was also just down to street from our house, so we thought we would give it a try. The first Sunday we went was the one with the guest speaker. We were not really into the guest speaker, but decided to give it a second try to hear Pastor Paul, who everyone had raved about on Yelp. It wasn't necessarily bad, it is just not really what Scott and I are looking for. It's a very charismatic church and kind of feels more like you are listening to a motivational speaker than a preacher. It was nice that we were able to walk there, but I think we will be looking for other options in the coming weeks.
Today I had my first outing with a friend! Heather, the girl from across the street, called me yesterday and asked me if I wanted to go walking with her today. We went to this place called "The Dish" that is over in Palo Alto right next to Stanford. It is a really neat trail that wanders for like 3.5 miles over hills and you can see the entire bay area below...it was gorgeous! I'm really glad that she introduced me to it! We also took her little girl, Bella, who is 6 months old. I'm new to having friends with babies, but Bella is a great baby and loves to go on walks! We're looking forward to hanging out with Heather and Ben more often!
Tomorrow night we are having Matt and Sophia (Matt is Scott's coworker that we went to the movie with) over for dinner! I'm going to be working on planning out what we are having tonight, so I can go by the grocery store tomorrow and start cooking! I'm hoping that this will motivate us to tidy the place up a bit! My newest project is for the big empty wall next to the table. I edited some pictures I have from favorite places around town in Oxford and on campus, and made them all black and white and am having them printed as 5x7s. Right now my plan is to frame them in black frames and do a collage type scattering on the big wall. We'll see how it turns out!
I am sad to report that my geraniums that were so pretty in one of the previous posts are struggling at the moment. :( I'm not really sure what I have done to them...I am doing the same thing I have been doing the whole time. I usually water them daily and pick off the dead buds. At first when I picked off the dead buds, new ones would start to bloom very quickly, but now they aren't really coming back anymore. I bought some Miracle Grow yesterday and gave them some of that, so I am hoping that maybe they were just hungry. Please let me know if you have any idea what I might be doing wrong or need to be doing! They don't look quite as pretty in front of the house with no blossoms!
Also please email me (ppblackburn@gmail.com) or comment here if you have any good recipes that I can make ahead and freeze or good crock pot recipes! I am trying to gather some of these so we can still have food when I am not here all day to prepare it!
I'll try to get a little bit more regular at blogging! I'll report back on how dinner and the picture hanging goes!
However, the routine is about to change! I met with Emmanuel, my Wal-Mart district manager, last week, and we got me put into the system and all ready to start work! Until I get licensed, I am going to be filling in wherever they need someone, so I will be going to several different stores in the area. As of right now, my first week will be August 17-21st (Monday-Friday) from 10-7. I'm excited, but also nervous about starting work out here! I've gotten pretty good at this whole house wife thing :)
Last Friday I met the across the street neighbor, Heather, when I was out studying. Later on that afternoon, she and her husband, Ben, came by the invite us over for dinner on Saturday. Unfortunately we had already made plans with one of Scott's coworkers to go to a movie on Saturday night, so we had to decline :( However, we did go over to their house later that evening and drank some wine and talked with them for a few hours!
On Saturday night, Scott and I met one of his coworkers to go see Funny People. It was an interesting movie...not really what we were expecting. It kind of had some slow depressing parts, which was kind of weird since it was advertised as a comedy. All in all, it wasn't terrible, but it certainly was not in my list of favorite movies. After the movie, we were supposed to meet up with his wife, Sophia, who had been in San Francisco all weekend. However, since the movie lasted so long (almost 3 hours!) and she got home later than she expected and was tired, we decided to postpone to another time.
On Sunday, Scott and I went to a church down the road. We first tried out this church the Sunday before, but there was a guest speaker that Sunday, so we decided to give the actual preacher a try. We had decided to try out this church because we had read good things about it on Yelp.com (a common place to go to see reviews of different businesses, etc.). I know that's a weird place to find a church, but when you don't really know people, it's the best you can do! Everyone had raved about how great the church was, and it was also just down to street from our house, so we thought we would give it a try. The first Sunday we went was the one with the guest speaker. We were not really into the guest speaker, but decided to give it a second try to hear Pastor Paul, who everyone had raved about on Yelp. It wasn't necessarily bad, it is just not really what Scott and I are looking for. It's a very charismatic church and kind of feels more like you are listening to a motivational speaker than a preacher. It was nice that we were able to walk there, but I think we will be looking for other options in the coming weeks.
Today I had my first outing with a friend! Heather, the girl from across the street, called me yesterday and asked me if I wanted to go walking with her today. We went to this place called "The Dish" that is over in Palo Alto right next to Stanford. It is a really neat trail that wanders for like 3.5 miles over hills and you can see the entire bay area below...it was gorgeous! I'm really glad that she introduced me to it! We also took her little girl, Bella, who is 6 months old. I'm new to having friends with babies, but Bella is a great baby and loves to go on walks! We're looking forward to hanging out with Heather and Ben more often!
Tomorrow night we are having Matt and Sophia (Matt is Scott's coworker that we went to the movie with) over for dinner! I'm going to be working on planning out what we are having tonight, so I can go by the grocery store tomorrow and start cooking! I'm hoping that this will motivate us to tidy the place up a bit! My newest project is for the big empty wall next to the table. I edited some pictures I have from favorite places around town in Oxford and on campus, and made them all black and white and am having them printed as 5x7s. Right now my plan is to frame them in black frames and do a collage type scattering on the big wall. We'll see how it turns out!
I am sad to report that my geraniums that were so pretty in one of the previous posts are struggling at the moment. :( I'm not really sure what I have done to them...I am doing the same thing I have been doing the whole time. I usually water them daily and pick off the dead buds. At first when I picked off the dead buds, new ones would start to bloom very quickly, but now they aren't really coming back anymore. I bought some Miracle Grow yesterday and gave them some of that, so I am hoping that maybe they were just hungry. Please let me know if you have any idea what I might be doing wrong or need to be doing! They don't look quite as pretty in front of the house with no blossoms!
Also please email me (ppblackburn@gmail.com) or comment here if you have any good recipes that I can make ahead and freeze or good crock pot recipes! I am trying to gather some of these so we can still have food when I am not here all day to prepare it!
I'll try to get a little bit more regular at blogging! I'll report back on how dinner and the picture hanging goes!
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