It's La Push baby, La Push

A few weeks ago Matthew and I hauled ourselves onto an airplane (me for the first time in, like, 12 years!) to visit friends in Washington.  This is a huge deal because I absolutely hate flying. But, I pulled myself together, without the help of heavy liquor I might add, and we made the trip.  Besides the dreaded flight we had a really good time!

We started out at Lindsay's parent's lake house.  We spent a few days there and enjoyed her dad's delicious cooking (rotisserie chicken, bbq, and copper river salmon. yum!).  I got quite the tan hanging out on their little island and Matthew got a workout tubing behind the jet boat.  It was definitely a fun time for all!

A few days into the trip, Lindsay, her mom Anita, and I went on a girl's trip and left the guys at the cabin.  We took the Mustang convertible and drove all over the Washington Peninsula.  Our first stop was an adorable cafe called "cafe garden" in Port Angeles.  We wanted to eat at the Italian restaurant in Twilight but it didn't open until later in the day. Regardless, the food was delicious!

After Port Angeles we went to visit Hurricane Ridge.  The view of the mountains was amazing! We even got to see (and touch!) snow... in August! Can you believe it? At times we could also see Canada.

From Hurricane Ridge we went to La Push. We saw the Quileute reservation and played in the ocean where Jacob first told Bella of his tribe's legends.  As cool as that is, the water was even cooler... literally! It had practically just melted off a glacier so it was really really cold.

The first night of our "girl's trip" was spent in Forks in a Twilight-themed hotel room. There really wasn't much to see in Forks since most of the movie was filmed in Canada. However, from a book perspective it was neat.

The next day we hit a few more beaches (Ruby beach which I LOVED and Kalaloch) and Lake Crescent (which Lindsay jumped into, fully clothed).  We also went to Quinault and hiked through the rainforest.  Apparently it is the only temperate rainforest in the world.

Later that night we reunited with our men.  We spent the rest of the trip near Seattle at Lindsay and Nate's apartment.  We had dinner one night at the jazz club/restaurant where their wedding reception will be in October.  We also spent a morning in downtown Seattle visiting Pike's Place and having coffee at the first Starbucks.

I'd like to say that after such an adventurous trip our flight home was uneventful but I sadly cannot.  Our flight out of Seattle to Detroit was full of turbulence.  Once we got to Detroit we were told our flight had been canceled and because it was weather related Delta wouldn't cover hotel costs.  The next flight to Louisville was scheduled for 8am the next morning so we spent the night at the airport.  It.was.miserable! On top of that, it took forever to find which gate we needed to be at.  Our new boarding passes didn't show it and it didn't pop up on the flight screens.  We FINALLY were able to find an employee to point us in the right direction only to find that the flight was delayed for three hours. Ugh! We finally made it home, though.  Now it is back to work and routine. Oh well, vacation was fun while it lasted!

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Long day.

I know we have all had those moments where we do something, stop, and then think to ourselves "did I REALLY just do that?"

You know how I know? Because I had one of them today.

Porter has been sick the last 24 hours so I called our vet to see what I should do.  They suggested I go ahead and bring him in.  Since they were closing within the half hour I had to head straight out the door.  While I was on the phone, my boss was calling me.  I got Porter ready in his harness and leash, grabbed my purse, and fought with my phone to call back my boss.  I turned the lock, closed the door, shook the handle to make sure it was locked, and that's when that moment I was talking about hit me.

There were no keys in my hand. Only a purse, dog leash, and a cell phone.

OMG.

I really just locked myself out of my own house. I looked into the living room window and Alice is just sitting on the sill watching me. I think she was laughing at me, really.

Luckily it was a really nice day.  I made some phone calls knowing good and well that the only other person with a key was at least an hour away at work. My amazing father-in-law showed up with a full keychain of random keys, hoping one of them might have been the spare we gave my brother-in-law for our honeymoon and haven't seen since. No such luck.

To make a long story short, I rescheduled Porter's appointment for 8am tomorrow morning (that's gonna be rough...) and hung out with my FIL and his dog Riley until Matthew was able to get off work to rescue me.

Oh boy what a day.

I did manage to have a little photoshoot with Porter and Riley while my FIL was in Wal-mart. Enjoy :)

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My Wedding Story: Part 4

4. the ring: tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too!

Hmmm... the ring. Well, here's the story about the ring.

Matthew took me multiple times to look at rings.  He wanted to get an idea of what I wanted and he wanted to get me sized.  Initially I thought I wanted a standard three stone princess cut ring.  However, I found they made my fingers look funky.  You see, I have small hands and thing fingers... not creepy thin, but still thin nonetheless.  We were looking around at a few stores and I tried on rings I liked, but none that I loved.  That changed when we went to Kay's Jewelers.  I saw a ring and was curious about it so I asked to try it on.  Once it was on my finger I was in love! It was so unique and it looked great on my finger.  He said he would think about that one but wasn't sure he would get it because the diamond wasn't the quality he was looking for.  I was bummed but I knew I would love him and marry him no matter what ring he slid on my finger.  When he proposed, though, I was pleasantly surprised to see my dream ring in the box :)

Matthew's ring is pretty simple.  We went together to pick it out.  It is made of titanium so it's strong.  This was VERY important because of his work with computers.  I wanted something that wouldn't break or scratch easy.  It has the silvery color and no gems... just the way he wanted it!

Not the greatest picture in the world of our rings but you get the idea :)

I love our rings and nothing makes me happier than when I casually glance at him and see his ring on his finger.  They are a constant reminder of the union we have made together and how he is forever mine <3

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The Big Reveal

Alright, so I finished the cake. It turned out different from the picture I was sent, but I was still very happy with the end result. Let me know what you think!

The inspiration pic:

*source unknown

And here is what I ended up with:

  The fondant proved more difficult than anticipated but I learned a lot. Each time I make a cake and/or work with fondant I feel more confident in my abilities.  Even though it was a lot of work and really frustrating at times, I really enjoyed making this cake :)

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My Wedding Story part 1

Since my posts about my wedding have been practically nonexistent, here is a fun questionnaire that should help fill in the blanks.  I'll answer one question every Sunday. Sound like fun? Feel free to join in!

1.  How it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? first picture together.....etc.

We met at church when I was in high school.  We were friends but honestly I was closer to his brother initially since we were closer in age.  His family moved to a different church so I didn't see him for a while until I ran into his dad at one of our church events.  From then I got a hold of Matthew and we started talking and hanging out as friends.  Eventually, well, you know the rest ;)

It's hard to pick a first date because we did all kinds of things as friends, particularly going to the movies and Starbucks.  It's difficult to tell where the friendship ended and the dating began.

Our first kiss was at Cove Springs in Frankfort.  We were walking around and he kept trying to kiss me but I kept avoiding it.  He must have gotten tired of it because he ended up putting me in a headlock to kiss me!!  It makes for a funny story but believe me I didn't mind a bit :)

We've been together for almost 5 1/2 years now.  We were dating for 4 1/2 years before we got married.

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Bday party

It has been a very long time since I've gone to a bday party for anyone under the age of 15. Yesterday, however, I went to my niece's 2nd bday party. Actually, I didn't just go... I made the cake as well :)

I used a butterfly shaped pan I bought on clearance at wal-mart. I did a trial cake earlier this week and it turned out so great! It baked way above the pan so evening out the bottom was a cinch! However, I should have known the actual cake would be a different story. It did rise, but not nearly as much as the first cake. It also broke completely in half when I tried to take it out of the pan. Thank goodness for icing! I put the cake back together and had to do some tricky slicing to get it even, but I did it! Ugh it was so much work but totally worth it.

I made some matching cupcakes too. The bday girl was very excited about her cake (well, at least about eating it!!).

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No rules.

So 2011 is in full swing and I have been one busy girl! You know we have been in our house since last August and our living room is the room I struggle the most with. It's very open which makes for limited wall space which oddly equals less furniture space. And to make matters worse, there is a vent under our large window. When we first moved in, I closed the vent and moved the loveseat under the window. This arrangement worked fine when it was still warm out. The only other vent available to heat the living room is on the complete opposite wall in the dining area. Now that it's gotten colder, this plan isn't working out so well. I was inspired by a post a few weeks ago from Thrifty Decor Chick. She too has a very open living area with limited wall space. She inspired me because she did something non-traditional... so I decided to do the same. After all, there's no such thing as the couch police right? RIGHT? please tell me I'm right! haha If not and you don't hear from me in a while, well, you'll know why!

So anyway, onto the fun part. The before and after pics!
(please excuse the mess... I blame it on after Christmas shenanigans and trying to move everything out of the way to move furniture!)
Before:

Ugh. So much empty space!

After:

This new empty space feels so much more productive than the first empty space, if that makes any sense! Keep in mind this is before I finished cleaning! I've since moved the rug back and put the coffee table back in front of the couch. I think we'll eventually replace it with something rectangular or oval compared to square. I also have a plan for curtains and I'm trying to decide on wall decor. So far this new arrangement is working pretty well for us!

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Haircut.

So I'm a few days late with this one, but Porter had his first haircut on Monday :) I can finally see his little eyeballs, and amazingly enough he doesn't run into stuff... at least not as much haha

So my little furball went from this:

To this:

I'm not sure why the picture is sideways, so sorry about that. But you get the idea right? He is still fluffy in the body but I can actually see his little face now! Although that makes it so much harder to discipline him when he looks up at me with those big brown eyes!!

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It's Beginning...

... to look a lot like Christmas :)

We have roughly two inches of snow at the moment with more coming down.  It's stunning! My only wish at the moment is that my hubby was here to watch it with me instead of at work.  Anywho, I thought it would be a great time to update on how the house is looking for the holidays!

 Recognize this tray???

 I had the hardest time with the hutch. Matthew ended up finishing it for me. I think he did a pretty good job!

 Our tree and stockings with some goodies :)

 I lurve this little snowman nightlight!

 This is hanging on the dead tree in our front yard. Props go out to Charlie Brown :)  

(Click here if you don't get it)

 SNOW!!!!!

If you look close in the window you can see the lights from our tree.

So there you go. That's all I have at the moment.  Look soon for a quick, cheap, and easy Christmas craft :)

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November

I've spent a lot of time looking at my agenda book lately.  I thought my semester was rough already, but I have quickly realized it has only seemed that way due to personal stress, not academic stress. Now I know the academic stress is going to show itself starting tomorrow and continuing until the last week of classes.  I have a lot of presentations and papers due and a lot of practicum hours to make up.  Practicum has been an issue as well. I'm positive I need to find a new site for next semester but I have no clue where to look.

Aside from the negative busy stuff, we are heading straight into the holiday season. I want to be really excited for my first holiday season with my husband (and puppy!) but I find myself also stressed because it means the year is almost over and I have so much to do! However, I want to focus on the positive so I look forward to making candy with my cousins, Thanksgiving dinner with family, Black-Friday-shopping with my Mother and Sister-in-law, Christmas shopping, and spending Christmas Eve with family and Christmas morning with my hubby. I can't wait to put up our tree and deck the house out for Christmas!

So lots of things over the next two months to look forward to, and a few things I'm not real excited about... but it should still be fun! And to finish off, here is a super cute pic of our Porter-bug :)

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Day 5.

Day 05: A picture of somewhere you've been to.

 Calica, Mexico <3

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Day 2.

Day 02: A picture of something you cannot live without.

 

♥ Love ♥

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Day 1.

My BBB has begun a blog challenge for herself, and me being the procrastinating lazy bum that I am has decided to take the challenge as well as a way to get back into blogging. (Plus, she's super cool and I want to be just like her :) ) You can check out the challenge here, and while you're there check out the rest of her blog because like I said, she's super cool. What other reason could you possibly need?

Day 01: A Recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself.

1- I'm easily swayed by trends, as proven by this challenge (and also the super comfy Toms on my feet).
2- I love baking, especially for other people, and especially baking cakes.
3- Trash tv is my guilty pleasure (tough love, celebrity rehab, charm school, etc.).
4- When I'm driving I'm almost always singing at the top of my lungs (unless someone is in the car with me!).
5- I talk a lot when I'm nervous.
6- I like watching paranormal shows even though I usually end up scaring myself. I have to have all the lights on if it's dark, and I really prefer hubby to be home when I watch them!
7- I almost always have a diet pepsi in my hand. I'm not sure it's because I'm always thirsty.. I think it's more of a boredom or comfort thing.
8- I really enjoy having people over and entertaining.
9- Reading to my husband is one of the highlights of my night.
10- I absolutely LOVE swings.
11- I use to scrapbook in high school and I really miss it.
12- I didn't think I would, but I really miss having cable. The internet and netflix can only do so much to keep me entertained.
13- I'm pretty sure I'm ADD.
14- I'm also pretty sure I'm a touch of a hypochondriac.
15- I love my husband so much! He really is my best friend :)

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Pics

The video won't upload right now. I'll try again later. Sorry :(

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