party!

On Saturday we threw a joint birthday party for Ted and our friend Dee. Dee & her husband, Chris, live in Colorado. They were Ted's friends (for quite a while) before I came along, and now I am so tickled to be able to call them my friends also. They really are great people. The kind of people you want to know. Chris was also the best man in our wedding... the stories... some of the best memories of Cancun happened when we just hanging out, drinking, and having amazing times.

There was tons of yummy food - pulled pork & smoked jalapeno poppers (c/o of Ted), homemade bbq sauce & smoked baked beans (c/o of Ted & me), cream cheese wantons & loaded tater skins (c/o our friend Nicole), a really yummy fresh fruit salad with a strawberry-poppy seed vinaigrette (c/o my momma),  various chips & dips, the BEST coleslaw you've ever tasted (c/o my FIL), a Harry Potter themed ice cream cake for Ted, a white cake w/ strawberry filling for Dee, and an absolutely show-stopping-delicious rum cake (c/o one of the guests, Suni). It was seriously just a feast of never-ending food. 

Of course, the beer was flowing (in bottles), great friends all around, & weather good enough to enjoy the pool. What more could we ask for? Not much. :)

long weekend

What's better then a long weekend? Nothing, I tell you. Nothing.

Well, unless that long weekend is in the Bahamas or something, I guess that would be better.

Whatever.

I hope everyone has a fantastic, fun, & safe long weekend!

it's seriously happening (maybe, who knows)

We are seriously starting the reno of our bathroom this weekend. (I should be hearing a collective: EEEEEEK!!!!! right now) I say we are seriously doing it, but you have to remember we have been "seriously" about to start it about 10 times now, and have big fat FAILED each time... obviously. We're chickens. See we're doing all the work ourselves, which is exhilarating, liberating, and scary as hell. Luckily Ted is really handy & knows a lot about... a lot, and his dad is the same way. So if we run into a problem then I'm sure his dad can help.

Hopefully we (1) actually follow through so we are no longer chickeny liars, & (2) remember to document with pictures! :)

I hope everyone has a great long weekend ahead. I'll be in the shitter all weekend. (that was classy)

life of leisure?

Sooo... yesterday I started & finished The 8th Confession. This is both a testament to how much I liked the book, and the fact that I had absolutely nothing to do yesterday*. Clearly, I liked it - a lot. I mean... I read it in one day. I honestly don't know what else I can say to convey the fact that I really enjoyed it.



*except for cleaning the kitchen, living room, bathroom, loading & unloading of the dishwasher, & laundry - which still all need to be done.

havasu weekend

As I mentioned last week, we spent the weekend in Lake Havasu this past weekend. It was so fun, so relaxing, so needed. Our friends/neighbors ended up coming with us, and it was really fun having them there. I mentioned to them that I really appreciate and value these short trips now that we're married, on our own, & own a house. The time & money to do things like this just isn't there all the time, or even half the time we would like it to be. The weather was GREAT. It felt like the temperature only hit about 90, which is awesome. Not too windy at all. If anything, the water was a little chilly still since it's only May. Regardless of that chilly water, we all had a great time hanging out in the water, relaxing, enjoying a beer (or two, or three, or...). I got one of our neighbors to go tubing with me. She didn't like it that much, but she tried! Her husband also went tubing & he seemed really like it. It all depends on what you want - a smooth ride, or a crazy ride.

There was some delicious food had for... everyone.

Ted smoked up a pork shoulder so we could have pulled pork sandwiches (SO GOOD). We ended up making way too much pulled pork, so the neighboring campers had pulled pork sandwiches with the rest of us. I wish I had gotten a picture of it all! It was a nice spread. Homemade barbeque sauce & homemade coleslaw to go with it all. That's always what I envision camping to be like - relaxing, and sharing with those around you. Getting to know your "neighbors" if you will. Great times had by ALL.

Now it's back to reality time. I was actually really happy to be back in my own bed (always the thing I miss the most) and see the puppies. Those dogs were so happy to see us! It makes their annoying moments worth it.

I'll finish this one off with a picture of Ted manning the grill. This time with carne asada. Mmmm... those carne asada burritos were delicious. One of Ted's goals is to own a big truck with a big trailer to haul around a big grill & smoker to camping trips like this. The man has a dream... :) I can back it up, he does know his way around a grill. So much so that I would be willing to give him all the cooking responsibilities at home. What can I say? I'm a giver.

it's Friday!

It's finally Friday. After 2 mornings of false-Fridays, I am left wondering why I was apparently yearning so much for Friday. I'm not really sure, other than Friday = The Weekend, and The Weekend = lazy days with my man.

April is wrapping up... where has the month year gone? Wasn't I just in Cancun getting married?? I could swear it was yesterday. Things looking forward to in May: Mother's Day brunch (I love brunch... & my mom, of course), Havasu, aaaaand.... that's about it. For now. I'm almost positive there is something else going on in May, but for the life of me I can't remember.

And I'm boring.

weekend fun

I have to be better at posting reviews of the books I read when I finish them. I got lazy and wasn't posting my reviews right away, which made me forget some things & make it seem like I read nonstop. That's not really the case. So I finished 7th Heaven on Sunday (4/25). I seem to finish books on Sundays. It's because Sunday is usually a lazy morning for us. We hang out in bed with the dogs for a couple hours & just enjoy the calm. That gives me a lot of uninterrupted reading time, which I have really come to enjoy. Ok, so onto my review of 7th Heaven... I really enjoyed this book! Probably as much as I loved the 4th book in the series - 4th of July. The stories in this one just kept me going. I was a little slow to start, but I think that's because I'm getting burned out on the Women's Murder Club series in general. I've been reading them back-to-back & I think it's time for me to read something else because I delve into the 8th book in the series. Back to 7th Heaven - The stories kept me interested. There were twists & turns I didn't see coming. Times where I was wondering how the stories would ever play out or come to a close. I am really, really wanting to start the next book... but I'm holding off for now! :)

On Saturday we returned some duplicate wedding gifts we received. We decided with that money we were going to treat ourselves to something fun - an Xbox or a Wii. We didn't get either. We I got a nook. See... I couldn't find any games I would want to play on Xbox, and Ted couldn't find any games he would want to play a lot on Wii... so here we are in Best Buy, with money to burn, and Ted suggests taking a gander at the nook's. He said he was planning on getting me one for my birthday anyways, so why not get it now? So we got one, and now I have to read as many books as I can on it, before the 30 day return window closes, in case I don't really like it. So far I really like it, it's pretty easy to use - and B&N gives you a few free books when you register it, which is always awesome - especially when 2 of the 3 free books are on my reading list :) Score! So now I am going to be reading A Dirty Job: A Novel by Christopher Moore. I've been somewhat torn on the issue of e-readers because I really like books... but I'm giving this new technology a try! I'm a giver.

And finally to wrap up this uncharacteristically long blog post... on Sunday evening I went with my mom & my friend Simone (my brother's gf) to see The Eagles in concert at the Honda Center in Anaheim. It was SO FUN! Seriously, they were so good. I mean, what the hell do I know? They sounded great to me. I had fun. My mama had fun, my friend had fun. What else is there?? I pretty much knew all of their songs with the exception of songs off their new album (which I totally want to buy now!). Those guys are some seriously old, talented dudes. And I mean that totally respectfully. I'm guessing there was some pretty hard partying on their behalves in the 70's, and they earned those wrinkles, amongst other things. They played "Hotel California" just 3 songs in... so of course the crowd went wild. I also thought it was really cool that they played it so early into the set, they really gave the people what they wanted early on & that helped set the mood for the rest of the show. As it turns out we are all old fuddy duddies (technical term) and didn't stay to the very end. I'm sort of kicking myself for that because I didn't get to hear my favorite Eagles song, "Take It Easy". Ah well... it was really fun, and I got to spend some time with my mom & Simone. It was a GREAT weekend. Oh, and did I mention I got to because my brother backed out at the last minute? Yep. And on our way out we saw David Spade - seriously. Ya know, maybe not the coolest celeb sighting, but cool nonetheless. We did not say Hi. Simone swears that while she was in the beer line she saw the oldest son from Home Improvement - Zachery Ty Bryan (yes I did have to look that up). Fun all around!

working for the weekend

I know it's only Monday but I'm already dreaming of the weekend. I would say I long for the weekends to be here most on Mondays and Wednesdays. Wednesday, I have no idea why I wish for the weekend so much on those days? I guess because it's the middle of the week, and Friday still seems so far off. Two more mornings I have to wake up at 6:30?! Booo! :( Hahaha. Lets be honest, I'll be up 7am at the latest on Saturday & Sunday anyways since our dog, Nova, is wide awake by then and whining to be let out. (insert love-hate relationship here)

We don't have any weekend plans yet... we have been sly and both avoiding talking about how we really, seriously, I-really-mean-it, need to start our bathroom renovation... like WEEKS ago. We had plans to start it a couple of weekends ago, then realized that weekend was Easter and we would be spending all of Sunday shuffling between both families. There is really nothing standing in our way anymore, other than fear.

We have to do the work ourselves because (1) hiring professionals is expensive, (2) my husband happens to be very knowledgeable & handy in many areas, and (3) we know he can do it himself (and probably with some help from his dad).

Maybe this will be the weekend we start demo. One other thing holding us up (well this falls under the FEAR category) is that this is our only full bathroom. Luckily we do have another bathroom, but it's a half bath. So basically we have to make sure we do this renovation in such a way where we can both use the shower. We aren't replacing the shower & tub, so this shouldn't be that big of an issue. I just hope I don't step on a rusty nail.