Today I am thinking about...
-food
-last minute Christmas gifts I still need to buy
-last minute Christmas gifts I still need to make
-how our tree isn't sucking up as much water as it once was and now seems to be slowly dropping pine needles...will it make it to Christmas?
-how I'm almost done with my book and should have taken my ma-in-law up on the offer of taking the other books in the series too
-the meal that I ate last night at my work party...seafood etouffe. Yum. Scallops, oysters, clams, shrimp...all on top of cheesy grits. Fantastic.
-one more full week of work, followed by a half week...and then Christmas! Seriously? Time flies.
-what am I going to wear tomorrow? I really need to iron but MAN do I hate ironing. blak.
-tomorrow's trash day
-Jason is almost done with finals and then he has 5 weeks off...I'm slightly jealous of the fact that he can sleep in for 5 weeks straight. :( I like sleep.
-I don't have a title for this post yet. I really hate thinking of a title. It always ends up being some cheese ball "catchy" phrase like, "Today's Happenings." I think I am just going to title every post by the number that it is for now. So much easier. :)...you think I'm kidding...
Anyways, today I utilized puff pastry and Jason's left over steak from last night. The product was a hot flaky buttery glorified "hot pocket". I cut two sheets of defrosted puff pastry (bought at Trader Joe's...though you can get it anywhere) into 4 quarters. On one quarter I slapped some mustard on it, some thinly sliced steak, and some...ok, a lot of... cheddar cheese. Then I put one of the quarters of the puff pastry on top and pressed the edges together. Then repeated it three more times to make 4 yummy savory lunch pastries! :) After that I slit the tops, beat an egg and brushed it on top of each "sandwich", and popped it into my 420 degree oven for 25 minutes or so. Finished. Yum. Seriously, it's so easy and so yummy (healthy? ha. I laugh in the face of healthy). I've had the puff pastry in my freezer for quite a while but kept forgetting about it. I think you could substitute nearly any sandwich meat on hand and it would probably still be good. So there you go. Our Sunday lunch. Way better than a cold sandwich :)
Now it's time for bed. I prefer to be in bed around 9:30 and it's now after 10. good night.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
'Tis the Season Fa La la La la"
It's Christmas time. Yay. My absolute new favorite thing is to turn out all the lights, plug in the tree, light a candle...and read on the couch. Jason took one look at me last night when I began to prepare for this and said, "You are going to fall asleep in two seconds." Yeah. I did. That's ok though. It was undeniably too cozy to keep those heavy eyelids from falling. So here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.
Here is our lovely tree. Sparsely adorned but that's ok. We don't have many ornaments between the two of us and since we are on a budget I took advantage of the $1 tube of Target ornaments. Sparkly! 
The star? Also a $1 ornament from Target. It's actually a snowflake. It came with two and so I just tied them back to back at the top of the tree.
Here is our lovely tree. Sparsely adorned but that's ok. We don't have many ornaments between the two of us and since we are on a budget I took advantage of the $1 tube of Target ornaments. Sparkly! 
The star? Also a $1 ornament from Target. It's actually a snowflake. It came with two and so I just tied them back to back at the top of the tree.As you can see in the 1st picture...Jason has a lovely stocking that his ma made for him back in the day. I have had a new stocking every year. haha. Where they go, I have no clue. Stockings though are a huge deal...for both of us. Growing up there were the presents which were great but there was always the stocking full to the brim of things that you didn't really ask for but that your mom knew you'd love none the less. Things like fancy shampoo and the really good expensive razors! :) And lots of candy. Anyways, so I needed a stocking...but once again, minimal money spending was key. I saw a felt one that was a model in the store that was similar to the one I made and decided to go for something like that. It was way easy to make...and for like $3. Not too shabby.
And finally...here are some pictures from Thanksgiving at my fam's house...
The Thanksgiving meal. Yum.
And finally...here are some pictures from Thanksgiving at my fam's house...
The Thanksgiving meal. Yum.
Target shooting is a Lyons Family Tradition on Thanksgiving Day. And just in case you're thinking "Who is this guy and why does he have so many guns?" My dad is a cop and in SWAT. Ease your worried mine. :)
Pictures like the one below remind me of how much better Jason is at taking photos then me. I took the one above. He took the one below. I'm a true blue "point and shoot". He always finds a way better angle. haha
And, what's Thanksgiving with out a little go-cart driving...without brakes. haha. No really, there were no brakes. We had to grab the cart to stop each other. It makes the down hill part way more exciting! haha :)
Monday, November 29, 2010
I'm done.
Well, I'll say it like it is...I'm a quitter.
The photo thing was a good idea...I had good intentions buuuuuuuuut...I'm done.
It's just tedious to search through all the pictures upon pictures. Also, some of the pictures at the beginning were easy buy some of the more recent one's are a little more interesting and hard to come by...like a drunk picture? hahaha. Not sure that anyone has ever snapped a picture of me during my many times I've been drunk. Ok, so maybe I haven't been drunk before. I was a little buzzed once. I downed a glass of really yummy red wine with out eating first. My lips went numb and I decided that it was a good idea to tell my father and mother in law this new development in my physical state. Let's just say they thought it was hilarious and I have yet to live that one down. haha.
Anyways, T-Day was quite great. We went down south (we were one of THOSE people who had to drive somewhere on the holiday, WEIRD!). We spent a couple of days with my parents and a couple of days with Jason's parents. I got a little bit of Christmas shopping done while down there because it is CRAZY up here. I can't even tell you how many times I have been rammed with a cart and not a peep comes out of the mouth of the perp. Maybe a sorry? Nope. This is before Christmas shopping started so I would like to avoid shopping up here if I can.
We're getting back into the swing of things after 4 days off. Jason only has a couple of more weeks of the semester left. It's weird to realize that he's half way through his first year. Crazy how time flies. I'd imagine too that the rest of the time is only going to go by faster.
Oooh. We have a tree. We spent a whopping $20 on the tree, $4 on the lights, $3 on ornaments, $1 on the star...oh and $1 on the candy canes that we're just going to eat anyways. I love Target and I love Home Depot who sell small Noble Firs for $20. I thought we'd have to settle for a Douglas Fir since usually those are the cheaper ones. Anyways, our camera is dead and we can't find the charger but as soon as we find it we'll post a pic.
Adios :)
The photo thing was a good idea...I had good intentions buuuuuuuuut...I'm done.
It's just tedious to search through all the pictures upon pictures. Also, some of the pictures at the beginning were easy buy some of the more recent one's are a little more interesting and hard to come by...like a drunk picture? hahaha. Not sure that anyone has ever snapped a picture of me during my many times I've been drunk. Ok, so maybe I haven't been drunk before. I was a little buzzed once. I downed a glass of really yummy red wine with out eating first. My lips went numb and I decided that it was a good idea to tell my father and mother in law this new development in my physical state. Let's just say they thought it was hilarious and I have yet to live that one down. haha.
Anyways, T-Day was quite great. We went down south (we were one of THOSE people who had to drive somewhere on the holiday, WEIRD!). We spent a couple of days with my parents and a couple of days with Jason's parents. I got a little bit of Christmas shopping done while down there because it is CRAZY up here. I can't even tell you how many times I have been rammed with a cart and not a peep comes out of the mouth of the perp. Maybe a sorry? Nope. This is before Christmas shopping started so I would like to avoid shopping up here if I can.
We're getting back into the swing of things after 4 days off. Jason only has a couple of more weeks of the semester left. It's weird to realize that he's half way through his first year. Crazy how time flies. I'd imagine too that the rest of the time is only going to go by faster.
Oooh. We have a tree. We spent a whopping $20 on the tree, $4 on the lights, $3 on ornaments, $1 on the star...oh and $1 on the candy canes that we're just going to eat anyways. I love Target and I love Home Depot who sell small Noble Firs for $20. I thought we'd have to settle for a Douglas Fir since usually those are the cheaper ones. Anyways, our camera is dead and we can't find the charger but as soon as we find it we'll post a pic.
Adios :)
Saturday, November 20, 2010
A Catalytic Converter and A Barbie Cake
What do these two things have in common? Not much...other than they were both a part of our weekend. So...let's start with the catalytic converter.
Last night around 5:30 or so my co-worker went out back to throw away some trash. We park our cars behind our office building and she noticed two guys next to my truck...one was bent over beneath it. She yelled out, "What are you doing?" and came and got me. Then I said, "Um? What are you doing near my car?" The guys were all, "We're just working on our car." They had their car hood open. It seemed weird and I told my co-worker to keep the back door open. I foolishly thought, "What could they want with our old truck, I'm sure it's fine. Maybe they dropped something under my truck." As soon as they realized that we saw them though...they took off. My co-worker said that she thought I should go check my car and turn it on. I looked around, the doors were still locked, everything looked alright. I then got into the car, turned it on...and wow, what a sound. They stole the catalytic converter. Apparently it has platinum in it and they can trade it in and get a whole whopping $50 or so for it.
So, after calling the cops, Jason, and my dad we made the decision that I would go ahead and drive the 20 miles home and my co-worker would follow me. The truck was so embarrassingly loud. It was like a ghetto rice rocket times 10. My ears were ringing. Of course to top it all off there was an accident on the freeway that made the whole trip stop and go. It took me an hour to get home and I drove primarily in 1st and 2nd gear...the loudest of them all. haha.
Today we had it fixed and $215 later we have a car that no longer sounds like it's on the verge of blowing up. Really sad though being that we don't exactly have a lot of flex money. :(. Oh well. 'Tis life.
Anyways...
So I made a Barbie cake. Well, a "Dollar Tree Barbie Equivalent" Cake. My co-worker's niece turned 4 today and she was going to spend about $100 on a Barbie Cake. (Apparently her niece went to the bakery with her and that was the one she picked out) I told her I could do it...for nothing :) It may not be quite so perfect as the store bought one but it would certainly be cheaper. It was my first go at significant piping. I made the light pink and white parts out of fondant (oh, and her hair tie haha) and the rest is good old butter cream. It was pretty fun...and VERY pink!
***(Added the next day) And in case you weren't sure as to whether I have a cake baking problem...I made a baby turtle for Jason the next day with the extra fondant. I was going to make a bigger cake but it fell apart (awesome) and so I mixed it all together with a little buttercream frosting...smashed it into balls, through some fondant on it....BABY TURTLES! Yay. (Pardon the dusting of powder sugar still on him...apparently he hadn't been cleaned off before the picture...the very blurry picture)****
Last night around 5:30 or so my co-worker went out back to throw away some trash. We park our cars behind our office building and she noticed two guys next to my truck...one was bent over beneath it. She yelled out, "What are you doing?" and came and got me. Then I said, "Um? What are you doing near my car?" The guys were all, "We're just working on our car." They had their car hood open. It seemed weird and I told my co-worker to keep the back door open. I foolishly thought, "What could they want with our old truck, I'm sure it's fine. Maybe they dropped something under my truck." As soon as they realized that we saw them though...they took off. My co-worker said that she thought I should go check my car and turn it on. I looked around, the doors were still locked, everything looked alright. I then got into the car, turned it on...and wow, what a sound. They stole the catalytic converter. Apparently it has platinum in it and they can trade it in and get a whole whopping $50 or so for it.
So, after calling the cops, Jason, and my dad we made the decision that I would go ahead and drive the 20 miles home and my co-worker would follow me. The truck was so embarrassingly loud. It was like a ghetto rice rocket times 10. My ears were ringing. Of course to top it all off there was an accident on the freeway that made the whole trip stop and go. It took me an hour to get home and I drove primarily in 1st and 2nd gear...the loudest of them all. haha.
Today we had it fixed and $215 later we have a car that no longer sounds like it's on the verge of blowing up. Really sad though being that we don't exactly have a lot of flex money. :(. Oh well. 'Tis life.
Anyways...
So I made a Barbie cake. Well, a "Dollar Tree Barbie Equivalent" Cake. My co-worker's niece turned 4 today and she was going to spend about $100 on a Barbie Cake. (Apparently her niece went to the bakery with her and that was the one she picked out) I told her I could do it...for nothing :) It may not be quite so perfect as the store bought one but it would certainly be cheaper. It was my first go at significant piping. I made the light pink and white parts out of fondant (oh, and her hair tie haha) and the rest is good old butter cream. It was pretty fun...and VERY pink!
***(Added the next day) And in case you weren't sure as to whether I have a cake baking problem...I made a baby turtle for Jason the next day with the extra fondant. I was going to make a bigger cake but it fell apart (awesome) and so I mixed it all together with a little buttercream frosting...smashed it into balls, through some fondant on it....BABY TURTLES! Yay. (Pardon the dusting of powder sugar still on him...apparently he hadn't been cleaned off before the picture...the very blurry picture)****
Thursday, November 18, 2010
I already forgot I was doing this! Day 7
Day 7: A photo of someone you love
Alright. So, I'm going to do the obvious because after looking through my pictures I have realized that I don't have many pics of family. I was also hoping for a pic of my dear amigo Cliff who I used to take care of but lo' and behold...none of him either.
So...I love this man! He's athletic, tan, buff, and good at so many things it blows my mind. He's also incredibly sweet and patient with me and seems to fill in where I lack just perfectly. Yay! What a guy and he's all mine mine mine.
Alright. So, I'm going to do the obvious because after looking through my pictures I have realized that I don't have many pics of family. I was also hoping for a pic of my dear amigo Cliff who I used to take care of but lo' and behold...none of him either.So...I love this man! He's athletic, tan, buff, and good at so many things it blows my mind. He's also incredibly sweet and patient with me and seems to fill in where I lack just perfectly. Yay! What a guy and he's all mine mine mine.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Day 6:
A photo that makes you laugh...
I'm not entirely sure why this is funny to me...or Jason. Maybe it's because we have deemed the photo "Fat Anna". In other words...what my legs would look like if I had a bit more meat on my bones (ok, a lot more meat on my bones). This is the fruit of a nearly 48 hour traveling trip to Sri Lanka. It was my 2nd trip and this certainly did not happen the 1st time. It took about 2 days for my ankles to finally go back down to a normal size. It was REALLY uncomfortable...especially in the 90 degree weather with 100% humidity. blak. It's a small taste of being pregnant! ;)
Note: this has never happened since this time either. Whenever I'm on the plane though I make sure that I move my ankles and legs a lot. I think the coma inducing sleeping pill helped my fat leg syndrome a great deal. I wasn't exactly moving around and keeping the circulation going during my 12 hour snooze! (ha! 12 hours! Can you imagine?!) Slept great...and woke up 70 lbs heavier in the legs! :)
I'm not entirely sure why this is funny to me...or Jason. Maybe it's because we have deemed the photo "Fat Anna". In other words...what my legs would look like if I had a bit more meat on my bones (ok, a lot more meat on my bones). This is the fruit of a nearly 48 hour traveling trip to Sri Lanka. It was my 2nd trip and this certainly did not happen the 1st time. It took about 2 days for my ankles to finally go back down to a normal size. It was REALLY uncomfortable...especially in the 90 degree weather with 100% humidity. blak. It's a small taste of being pregnant! ;)
Note: this has never happened since this time either. Whenever I'm on the plane though I make sure that I move my ankles and legs a lot. I think the coma inducing sleeping pill helped my fat leg syndrome a great deal. I wasn't exactly moving around and keeping the circulation going during my 12 hour snooze! (ha! 12 hours! Can you imagine?!) Slept great...and woke up 70 lbs heavier in the legs! :)
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Photo Challenge? I'm in.
Alright, I'm catching up so I can be on the same photo as this hot mama!
Day 1: My facebook profile picture.
This picture was taken quite some time ago. I put it up on my facebook profile for two reason. #1. I like that shirt. #2. I feel like I look noticeably younger. It's weird to be looking at pictures of me as an actual adult and still be able to say, "Wow, I was younger looking then."
Day 2: A photo of yourself a year ago.
This was literally about a year ago to the day. We were at the bus station in Copiapo saying goodbye to everyone. We were on our way to a much needed vacation in the south of Chile and then....back to the USA. So strange to realize that it's almost been a year since we were living in Chile. It sort of feels like a dream.
Day 3: A photo that makes you happy
This picture was taken in New Orleans during demo that we did after Katrina happened. The BEST trip I think I've done yet. It's funny to me that out of every where I've been I was most fulfilled and blessed right here in the USA, helping the people of my own country. Now the reason why I look like I'm going to rob a bank is because I had just ran up to the guy on the ladder and pretended like I was going to rob HIM. It actually scared the crud out of him! hahaha. Good times. We were all laughing pretty hard.
Day 4: A photo of the last place you went on holiday.
The south of Chile! I'm modeling my butt-pad that I'm about the slide down the face of the volcano on. :)
Day 5: A photo of you.
This photo was taken in Sri Lanka (I think I'm like 19 or something...maybe 20 tops) and is pretty much the ugliest photo ever. haha! So, there you go. Don't you like my bedazzle? One of the girls at the orphanage gave it to me and it would hardly stick because my face was so oily from the humidity. I remember them being puzzled on why it wasn't sticking and kept trying over and over to push it on my face. Obviously their skin was a bit more acclimatized to that weather! :)
Day 1: My facebook profile picture.
This picture was taken quite some time ago. I put it up on my facebook profile for two reason. #1. I like that shirt. #2. I feel like I look noticeably younger. It's weird to be looking at pictures of me as an actual adult and still be able to say, "Wow, I was younger looking then."Day 2: A photo of yourself a year ago.
This was literally about a year ago to the day. We were at the bus station in Copiapo saying goodbye to everyone. We were on our way to a much needed vacation in the south of Chile and then....back to the USA. So strange to realize that it's almost been a year since we were living in Chile. It sort of feels like a dream.Day 3: A photo that makes you happy
This picture was taken in New Orleans during demo that we did after Katrina happened. The BEST trip I think I've done yet. It's funny to me that out of every where I've been I was most fulfilled and blessed right here in the USA, helping the people of my own country. Now the reason why I look like I'm going to rob a bank is because I had just ran up to the guy on the ladder and pretended like I was going to rob HIM. It actually scared the crud out of him! hahaha. Good times. We were all laughing pretty hard.Day 4: A photo of the last place you went on holiday.
The south of Chile! I'm modeling my butt-pad that I'm about the slide down the face of the volcano on. :)Day 5: A photo of you.
This photo was taken in Sri Lanka (I think I'm like 19 or something...maybe 20 tops) and is pretty much the ugliest photo ever. haha! So, there you go. Don't you like my bedazzle? One of the girls at the orphanage gave it to me and it would hardly stick because my face was so oily from the humidity. I remember them being puzzled on why it wasn't sticking and kept trying over and over to push it on my face. Obviously their skin was a bit more acclimatized to that weather! :)
Friday, November 5, 2010
Bullet Post
Seriously, I love "bullet posts." I'm pretty sure I think in this way. No real, clear transition from one thought to another. Just thought. Thought. Thought. Anyways, so here are some of those thoughts for your reading enjoyment.
- I have homemade pizza in the oven which is my go-to meal. It's somewhat fast and oh so good! Date Nite involves us staying in tonight. We already spent our date night money earlier in the week to get burritos so we could watch the last game of the world series on their big TV.
- I have realized that the majority of our lives involve "waiting," waiting for SOMETHING always. So why are we all still so impatient? It seems like we'd be used to it by now.
- The pizza will be done in 4 minutes! Yay!
- I got a tip today. From this incredibly cute and stubborn old lady. She told me to get coffee with it...$10. haha. I told her $10 was too much for coffee. She told me to go get really good coffee. All that for changing out her nose pads. Nice.
- Today we got a thermostat so that we can turn the heater on...when we eventually need it. I guess that's good but being I love the heat and heat is expensive...I'm afraid it may be too much of a temptation. Hefty heating bills are definitely no bueno.
- It's now the next day....Saturday morning. I got tired of typing, wanted to eat my pizza...an then we watched Toy Story 3.
- Jason is off getting the truck smogged. Is "smogged" an actual word? I'm a little nervous because the "check engine" light has come on a couple of times. We got it diagnosed and they said that it was most likely some dumb little gauge that is slowly failing. That dumb little gauge is about $200. The light always turns off though so we haven't done much about it. The guy told us how to reset it so it won't show up when we get it smogged (I guess it can read if the check engine light has come on). If it doesn't pass...we can't register it. Blah. Oh to have even just a "newish" car. I LOVE the truck though. It's named and everything so it will be a sad day when it has to be retired.
- San Francisco is in general cold and damp. Especially where we live. Mold has become and issue and Jason FREAKS over it haha. Poor guy. SLO has no mold issues...it's nice and dry. The only real experience he has had with mold is doing demo in New Orleans which was mold to the 10th degree. Good gosh. SO MUCH and SO THICK from the floor to the ceiling. So, the slightest amount wigs him out. I have a little more experience being that we lived in North Carolina and it's nice and humid there. I still don't like it either way. Lame. It takes a fair amount of work to keep on it.
- I am so excited for Thanksgiving. To go home and escape the big city. My parent's house is the epitome of escaping the city...about 20 minutes outside of a not so big city, nestled in the middle of 10 open acres. Nice. I'm ready for some good food, family time, and just to...relax.
- I love bleach. Yep. It helps with mold. It also cleans my plastic shower curtain but most of all...it whitens my 15 white t-shirts and my white duvet cover for our down comforter. I love white. My favorite outfit involves comfy jeans, rainbow sandals, and a white tank top...or any white t-shirt for that matter. White is so crisp and clean...especially with the aid of bleach.
- I've been playing the guitar more and I am hoping to take a guitar playing class at the local JC. I think I've hit the wall on what I can teach myself. I've also been playing worship for our small group (well, I've done it once). It's REALLY stretching for me. I'm not an on the spot performer. I like to make people laugh in an impromptu setting....no problem. But when it involves me being serious...I feel like that is way more vulnerable.
- I am determined to do some deep cleaning today soooo...I'm off. Have a great weekend guys. Sleep in! Oh wait. Most of you guys probably have little kids. Hmmm. Welp, better you then me! hahahah. Ok, that was mean. Sorry. My deepest apologies! :0)
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Pumpkin Carving and a Little Somethin' from the Garden
Jason and I decided to carve pumpkins. Today. Yep, a day before Halloween. Oh well. At least we don't have to worry about the pumpkins rotting before Halloween comes. We ventured on over to the nearby pumpkin patch and it turns out that a decent size pumpkin is $10. Um. yeah. I probably would have considered it except for the fact that I had just been at Trader Joe's where they are selling the same size pumpkins for $2.99. So...off to Trader Joe's we went. We first picked out our two lovely pumpkins and prepared what we needed to carve them.
Then I considered just leaving my pumpkin like this. It looks rather hard core and brutal...
After that I decided that maybe I'd actually carve it instead of brutally stabbing it...so we started to cut the top off.
Next we scrapped and got all the guts out...
Once we were done with that we picked our design and carved away (which we have no pictures of that process). Then we proudly displayed our works of art...
Finally we stuck candles in them and watched them glow. Yay. I love Jason's! It's the classic Jack 'O' Lantern look. :)
Once that was all done I went inside and roasted the pumpkin seeds that we saved from the pumpkins. I little bit of vegetable oil sprinkled on them with some salt at 300 degrees for 45 minutes. Yum.
As you can tell they were good...being Jas couldn't even wait for me to take the picture before he stuck his hand in the bowl :)
At the end of it all I made a pumpkin cake. In a bundt pan. Because I thought that it kinda looked like half a pumpkin...with a hole in it. Anyways, the cake was not made with the pumpkin guts. It was made from a can. My mom made both types of pumpkin pies once (one from a pumpkin and one from the can). They both tasted the same and yet the one from the pumpkin was 3x's the work.
In other news. I thought that I would show you this fall season's bounty from my garden. Take a good long look...
Yep. That's it. One radish plant. And it was a tasty radish plant. You see, I actually planted lettuce, radishes, carrots, and Brussels Sprouts. Because we aren't rolling in the dough I bought seeds which wound up being a whopping $5. It turns out though that I don't really like to water plants. Especially ones that I can't see. Like little seeds that will apparently and eventually turn into actual plants. But, some how this one little radish plant made it. I have no clue how but it did. The funny part is that now that it has rained...I have all of my seeds sprouting out there. Hopefully they will make it before the frost comes. I think come spring I will break down and by the actual plants rather than the seeds. I'll probably be better about watering it if I know that it cost me more than $5. :)
Then I considered just leaving my pumpkin like this. It looks rather hard core and brutal...
After that I decided that maybe I'd actually carve it instead of brutally stabbing it...so we started to cut the top off.
Next we scrapped and got all the guts out...
Once we were done with that we picked our design and carved away (which we have no pictures of that process). Then we proudly displayed our works of art...
Finally we stuck candles in them and watched them glow. Yay. I love Jason's! It's the classic Jack 'O' Lantern look. :)
Once that was all done I went inside and roasted the pumpkin seeds that we saved from the pumpkins. I little bit of vegetable oil sprinkled on them with some salt at 300 degrees for 45 minutes. Yum.
As you can tell they were good...being Jas couldn't even wait for me to take the picture before he stuck his hand in the bowl :)
At the end of it all I made a pumpkin cake. In a bundt pan. Because I thought that it kinda looked like half a pumpkin...with a hole in it. Anyways, the cake was not made with the pumpkin guts. It was made from a can. My mom made both types of pumpkin pies once (one from a pumpkin and one from the can). They both tasted the same and yet the one from the pumpkin was 3x's the work.
In other news. I thought that I would show you this fall season's bounty from my garden. Take a good long look...
Yep. That's it. One radish plant. And it was a tasty radish plant. You see, I actually planted lettuce, radishes, carrots, and Brussels Sprouts. Because we aren't rolling in the dough I bought seeds which wound up being a whopping $5. It turns out though that I don't really like to water plants. Especially ones that I can't see. Like little seeds that will apparently and eventually turn into actual plants. But, some how this one little radish plant made it. I have no clue how but it did. The funny part is that now that it has rained...I have all of my seeds sprouting out there. Hopefully they will make it before the frost comes. I think come spring I will break down and by the actual plants rather than the seeds. I'll probably be better about watering it if I know that it cost me more than $5. :)
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Our Estate Sale Finds...We are so Weird.
Today, on the way home from grocery shopping I spotted an estate sale about 2 blocks from our house. When I got home I asked Jason if he wanted to come with. He said yep and off we went.
It was totally old, and dirty but so fun. The funniest part about it was how naive I was in thinking that I would actually be the one to take longer. HA! Yeah right. Jason was the one that probably had the most fun. It was an old man who passed away and his kids were selling his stuff. He had a ton of old tools and random fishing stuff so Jason was having a good old time sorting through all of his stuff. I found an old 1900's illustrated Little Men book. Also, for $1 I bought a press for the stove top grill I'm hoping to get for Christmas. ;)
Jason is getting more and more into wood working and he bought about 9 wood files for $3. We also found a super old "Rock Cod identifying" book for Jason (Some Rock Cod are illegal to catch but it's really hard to find any literature with good illustrations and descriptions. This book had it!) And some old heavy duty jigs and hooks.
I thought we were done after a while and then Jason went BACK to the table to look through all the tools one more time. All of a sudden he said, "Whoa, Cool!" From beneath a pile he pulls out a rusty metal thing. I realized too what it was and.....It was an old antique animal trap. Hahahahaha. Even the kids that were selling it didn't know it was there. They are completely illegal to use because they are very inhumane but it's still pretty cool. Jason was out back for a while trying to engage the thing. It took a lot of strength and struggling but he finally set it up and proudly showed me how an animal (his wooden stick) could get caught in it. I don't know where our camera is so here is a pic of one kind of like it from google. It's similar to this but ours is probably quite a bit older by the judge of the chain...and that it was made in the USA. I mean, do we make anything anymore? ;0) Good times.
It was totally old, and dirty but so fun. The funniest part about it was how naive I was in thinking that I would actually be the one to take longer. HA! Yeah right. Jason was the one that probably had the most fun. It was an old man who passed away and his kids were selling his stuff. He had a ton of old tools and random fishing stuff so Jason was having a good old time sorting through all of his stuff. I found an old 1900's illustrated Little Men book. Also, for $1 I bought a press for the stove top grill I'm hoping to get for Christmas. ;)
Jason is getting more and more into wood working and he bought about 9 wood files for $3. We also found a super old "Rock Cod identifying" book for Jason (Some Rock Cod are illegal to catch but it's really hard to find any literature with good illustrations and descriptions. This book had it!) And some old heavy duty jigs and hooks.
I thought we were done after a while and then Jason went BACK to the table to look through all the tools one more time. All of a sudden he said, "Whoa, Cool!" From beneath a pile he pulls out a rusty metal thing. I realized too what it was and.....It was an old antique animal trap. Hahahahaha. Even the kids that were selling it didn't know it was there. They are completely illegal to use because they are very inhumane but it's still pretty cool. Jason was out back for a while trying to engage the thing. It took a lot of strength and struggling but he finally set it up and proudly showed me how an animal (his wooden stick) could get caught in it. I don't know where our camera is so here is a pic of one kind of like it from google. It's similar to this but ours is probably quite a bit older by the judge of the chain...and that it was made in the USA. I mean, do we make anything anymore? ;0) Good times.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Last Week and Weekend In Bullet Form
- Friday Night Date Night was great fun this last Friday. We went to a place called "Kingdom of Dumpling" to have, you guessed it...dumplings! So, it's basically the Chinese ravioli. Soooo good. It was a total hole in the wall where we were practically the only white people. We ordered some super yummy chow mien and two types of dumplings...pork and cabbage and pork and corn. Pork and corn...random huh? It was really good though. All in all we had Chinese food for 2 people (and it was a lot of food) for $21. What a deal!
- This afternoon Autumn, a friend of mine who recently moved up to the Bay area came on down and we went thrifting. We went to this place in the Mission district that was HUGE. Literally ginormous. Two stories. Autumn found a rad wall hangy thing...and some funky plates to go with her growing collection that she has. We got some yummy coffee and overall just had fun catching it up and enjoying each other.
- Church has been going great. I have really grown to love it and look forward to going every Sunday. We are in a small group that is super cool. It has a few young married couples in it...of which we are meeting up with on Monday to have dinner. It's really nice to be getting plugged in and creating relationships. The church is very solid and I would love to get more involved in ministries.
- So, update on the whole "what am I going to do with my life" thing. I have done some thinking and talking with Jas...and Jesus :) and have decided that nursing is something that I may be interested in...but not enough to really pursue it, at least right now. I think that for now I'm content with the little skills I possess and if the Lord one day gives me the opportunity to go to school then I may go for it. For now though, I'd say I'm way more passionate about food then I am nursing sooooo...nursing just isn't calling to me. It was an easy thing to go for. Highly practical, the schooling was affordable, the pay afterward is good. In the end though I think you should be passionate about what you do. Not just do it because it's convenient. I'm not going toward a career in food or anything. Just not going for nursing as of now. So there you have it. :)
- Jason has been enjoying school. He seems to be learning a ton...including some Chinese. I have to admit that I laugh sometimes when he's practicing because...it's just such a different sounding language. Both my doctors at my work speak it though and about half the population of SF (ok, maybe not that many) so it's becoming not quite so foreign of a language! :)
- Plans for tomorrow...church, wash the truck, pull some weeds, work on our Chile scrapbook, maybe see what's happening with Fleet Week. The Blue Angels are in town and it's been super cool to see them flying around in formation!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
HAPPY....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!
Today is my mother dearests birthday and I can't be there... :(
But...
Thanks for being such a fantastic and great mom! Hope your day is special and you feel loved.
Love,
Anna and Jason
Saturday, September 25, 2010
We Walked...
A LOT! Does it bother you when people smash "a" and "lot" together to form...alot. ???? Yeah. Totally not a word. I remember the moment I learned that alot it not a word. It was 4th grade. It rocked my world. Seriously. I felt like I had been dooped. That I had spent all almost 5 years of my primary school years as an ignorant person. Yep. I'll never forget it.
Any whooooo...
So, Jason and I had a great day. FIRST...brace yourself. It was SUNNY and HOT. Yeah. I was shocked too. Gosh. The even better part is that supposedly...it's just going to get hotter. Or more hot? What's the proper way of saying it? Baaah. This whole "Jason in grad school becoming an expert on the English language" thing is really throwing off my speaking groove. I find myself second guessing everything I say.
So, we started the day by doing some work outside. There's something extra fulfilling in working outside. I have no idea what it is. Maybe the same feeling that a farmer gets. Not that I'd ever want to be a farmer for a living. My dad's stories of his Minnesotan farming days has kicked that desire swiftly out of me and yet...I love working outside, getting dirty, gardening, and etc.
After work we played. We went to a bakery that had homemade pizza and pastries. I loved the pizza. Jason didn't so much. I am a HUGE fan of sourdough while he isn't quite so fond of it. We didn't know it but the pizza crust is sourdough...making me a very happy camper and him...content with the pizza yet not in love. Oh well. You never know till you try it.
After the bakery...we hit some Blue Bottle which is THE BEST COFFEE ever. Well, sort of. It turns out there is a coffee drink on their menu that I'm not a huge fan of, it's called the "New Orleans style Iced Coffee". We wanted something iced and so I decided to get it. It was tweeker coffee to the max. So strong. I added a ton of sugar and half & half to it and still could not finish it. Blak. I'm sticking with the latte's. Oh well. :)
Once our (or my) coffee was chocked down, I mean drank...we decided to walk to the Embarcadero. It took a little over an hour each way. We were in our Rainbow's...which we haven't worn much lately and we both ended up with blisters. It was bustling with tourists and actually was rather unappealing. Not sure why. I think we know more of the real SF now and so it just wasn't as fun as exploring the places that the locals go to. Oh well. We got to be outside, with each other, and get some exercise.
Overall it was a fun day. It was nice to spend a whole day with Jas where there was no homework, grocery shopping, cleaning, and other such responsibilities to separate us. I think we all need those days every so often. Tomorrow though...it's back to business. ;)
Any whooooo...
So, Jason and I had a great day. FIRST...brace yourself. It was SUNNY and HOT. Yeah. I was shocked too. Gosh. The even better part is that supposedly...it's just going to get hotter. Or more hot? What's the proper way of saying it? Baaah. This whole "Jason in grad school becoming an expert on the English language" thing is really throwing off my speaking groove. I find myself second guessing everything I say.
So, we started the day by doing some work outside. There's something extra fulfilling in working outside. I have no idea what it is. Maybe the same feeling that a farmer gets. Not that I'd ever want to be a farmer for a living. My dad's stories of his Minnesotan farming days has kicked that desire swiftly out of me and yet...I love working outside, getting dirty, gardening, and etc.
After work we played. We went to a bakery that had homemade pizza and pastries. I loved the pizza. Jason didn't so much. I am a HUGE fan of sourdough while he isn't quite so fond of it. We didn't know it but the pizza crust is sourdough...making me a very happy camper and him...content with the pizza yet not in love. Oh well. You never know till you try it.
After the bakery...we hit some Blue Bottle which is THE BEST COFFEE ever. Well, sort of. It turns out there is a coffee drink on their menu that I'm not a huge fan of, it's called the "New Orleans style Iced Coffee". We wanted something iced and so I decided to get it. It was tweeker coffee to the max. So strong. I added a ton of sugar and half & half to it and still could not finish it. Blak. I'm sticking with the latte's. Oh well. :)
Once our (or my) coffee was chocked down, I mean drank...we decided to walk to the Embarcadero. It took a little over an hour each way. We were in our Rainbow's...which we haven't worn much lately and we both ended up with blisters. It was bustling with tourists and actually was rather unappealing. Not sure why. I think we know more of the real SF now and so it just wasn't as fun as exploring the places that the locals go to. Oh well. We got to be outside, with each other, and get some exercise.
Overall it was a fun day. It was nice to spend a whole day with Jas where there was no homework, grocery shopping, cleaning, and other such responsibilities to separate us. I think we all need those days every so often. Tomorrow though...it's back to business. ;)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Weekend and a Gas Pumping Story
Well, there was very little playing done this weekend. Honestly, it was about time we decided to be grown-ups and act like we have some actual responsibilities to do...like MOVE-IN! hahaha.
Our living room/kitchen/bedrooms are just about all put together. Jason is putting the last finishing touches to a jewel of a table that his lovely aunt gave us. She's into the shabby/chic antique look. She had this super cool wooden table and had left it outside for a long period of time to give it a "worn look". I totally liked it the way that it was. Jason though...Jason saw more. He decided that he was going to sand down the whole thing, take it all apart and re-glue it, and stain it. Well, the table turned out to be mahogany. It's super cute and we stained it an ebony which turned out A.MaZ.Ing! The kid is such a "fix-it" home do-it guy. So, I think by this next weekend we will be dining on our lovely kitchen table...making our kitchen/living room area complete.
This weekend, since the weather wasn't all that lovely I decided to finish up some looming projects. So I...
-Finished our couch pillows.
-Took a really hideous beige blanket and added a row of cute fabric squares to each end making it about 602 x's cuter.
-Finished the curtains in Jason's study room.
-Hung pictures on our really naked walls.
-Ordered pictures of Chile to finish/start our Chile book.
-We put new windshield wipers on the truck (holy cow, I didn't know such clarity existed). Fantastic.
-Made a sewing machine cover for my sewing machine...because the house we live in is SOOOO dusty. Seriously. It's dusty. And I'm tired of taking it in and out of the box it came in.
So, the weekend was productive. Thus, we voted that next weekend be WAY more fun. We can only handle so much of this responsible behavior you know! ;)
Oh, and now for a story....
So, I cursed. Yep, loud and clear for all to here. Then I tried to fix it by saying "I mean, oh shoot" To which the old man next to me pumping his gas said with a laugh, "Yeah, you better clean up that potty mouth." :) Well, you know. Anyways, what was the occasion that the lovely word referring to fecal matter came out of my mouth?
I will tell you...
I went to get gas. I fill the tank once a week and it will get me through from Sun to the next Sun. But it has to be full. So, I had a little gas in the tank already and decided to put in $27 cash (that's what I had). I pumped the gas and it didn't click off on it's own so I figured that it still needed more. I then swiped my card and put in some more gas. Well, it stopped at 42 cents. Nice. So, annoyed that it was only 42 cents I decided to go up to 50 cents...you know, make it at least a somewhat round number (I know, "topping off" is bad). To my great surprise (obviously since I busted out some sailor talk) gas began to pour out of the truck when I took the nozzle out...I mean, like all over the place. Thankfully, it had rained and so you couldn't tell that I had just destroyed the SF table water with my gas spillage. Anyways, some how, by 8 cents, I overfilled the truck with gas. From my little bit of auto shop I knew that such a thing was not a good thing and thus called Jason to make sure that the truck wouldn't explode when I turned it on or something like that. He assured me that it was fine and that I should step away from the car with the gas all over...since I was on a cell phone. (hmm, yeah, that's right.)
Anyways, so, my truck gas gauge has been PAST the full line for quite some time now which means that I either broke it...or overfilling your tank and dumping gas all over the parking lot does have some sort of benefit after all...a full tank for a very long time! ;)
PS. Being that I HAVE driven away with the gas pump still in my car I believe that I have now experienced most all "do NOT's" when getting gas. Nice.
Our living room/kitchen/bedrooms are just about all put together. Jason is putting the last finishing touches to a jewel of a table that his lovely aunt gave us. She's into the shabby/chic antique look. She had this super cool wooden table and had left it outside for a long period of time to give it a "worn look". I totally liked it the way that it was. Jason though...Jason saw more. He decided that he was going to sand down the whole thing, take it all apart and re-glue it, and stain it. Well, the table turned out to be mahogany. It's super cute and we stained it an ebony which turned out A.MaZ.Ing! The kid is such a "fix-it" home do-it guy. So, I think by this next weekend we will be dining on our lovely kitchen table...making our kitchen/living room area complete.
This weekend, since the weather wasn't all that lovely I decided to finish up some looming projects. So I...
-Finished our couch pillows.
-Took a really hideous beige blanket and added a row of cute fabric squares to each end making it about 602 x's cuter.
-Finished the curtains in Jason's study room.
-Hung pictures on our really naked walls.
-Ordered pictures of Chile to finish/start our Chile book.
-We put new windshield wipers on the truck (holy cow, I didn't know such clarity existed). Fantastic.
-Made a sewing machine cover for my sewing machine...because the house we live in is SOOOO dusty. Seriously. It's dusty. And I'm tired of taking it in and out of the box it came in.
So, the weekend was productive. Thus, we voted that next weekend be WAY more fun. We can only handle so much of this responsible behavior you know! ;)
Oh, and now for a story....
So, I cursed. Yep, loud and clear for all to here. Then I tried to fix it by saying "I mean, oh shoot" To which the old man next to me pumping his gas said with a laugh, "Yeah, you better clean up that potty mouth." :) Well, you know. Anyways, what was the occasion that the lovely word referring to fecal matter came out of my mouth?
I will tell you...
I went to get gas. I fill the tank once a week and it will get me through from Sun to the next Sun. But it has to be full. So, I had a little gas in the tank already and decided to put in $27 cash (that's what I had). I pumped the gas and it didn't click off on it's own so I figured that it still needed more. I then swiped my card and put in some more gas. Well, it stopped at 42 cents. Nice. So, annoyed that it was only 42 cents I decided to go up to 50 cents...you know, make it at least a somewhat round number (I know, "topping off" is bad). To my great surprise (obviously since I busted out some sailor talk) gas began to pour out of the truck when I took the nozzle out...I mean, like all over the place. Thankfully, it had rained and so you couldn't tell that I had just destroyed the SF table water with my gas spillage. Anyways, some how, by 8 cents, I overfilled the truck with gas. From my little bit of auto shop I knew that such a thing was not a good thing and thus called Jason to make sure that the truck wouldn't explode when I turned it on or something like that. He assured me that it was fine and that I should step away from the car with the gas all over...since I was on a cell phone. (hmm, yeah, that's right.)
Anyways, so, my truck gas gauge has been PAST the full line for quite some time now which means that I either broke it...or overfilling your tank and dumping gas all over the parking lot does have some sort of benefit after all...a full tank for a very long time! ;)
PS. Being that I HAVE driven away with the gas pump still in my car I believe that I have now experienced most all "do NOT's" when getting gas. Nice.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Where Did the Weekend Go...and some added pics?
I can't believe tomorrow is Monday. aaaah. The only bad thing about a 3 day weekend is how short the next regular length weekend feels in comparison. Oh well.
Anyways, I have a few pics to post but I will have to put them up later...too lazy to upload them to this computer (**I actually just added some to the bottom. Not so lazy after all eh?). Last weekend Jason and I decided to ride to the Golden Gate Bridge from our house. It was such a beautiful, warm day. The ride ended up being about 25 miles though. haha. I definitely felt it considering I haven't exercised in quite some time. It was so beautiful out though and we had a great time zipping and weaving through the busy traffic of SF. Those drivers probably hated us. hehe. Oh well. The bridge was awesome to ride across. We got to witness some kite surfers while there. It's so windy in the bay that they can catch the wind out to the middle and surf off the wake of the boats. I'm pretty much convinced that this is my next sport to try. It was soooo cool! Anyways, we never brought the camera so there are no pictures of that.
As for this weekend....not too much was done...just the regular "get ready for the week" thing. I lOvE me some opera and there was a free concert being put on today by the San Francisco Opera in Golden Gate Park. The plan was to go but by the time we got out of church the place was packed out. We would probably have had horrible seats. It just didn't end up being enticing enough for us. Oh well. Maybe next time.
I think we may be settling down into a church. It looks like we will be joining a small group. Kind of cool. It's all tentative...in the sense that we are still feeling the church out. The best way to really get a feel though is to continually go and also get plugged in. I honestly didn't love the church the first time we went but...I've warmed up to it and I was actually pretty excited to go this Sunday. If you want to check it out it's called City Church. Here's their website! :) I LOVE their worship. I will say that! They mostly sing hymns but they have a contemporary twist. The lyrics of hymns are so...God lifting. I feel like some of our more contemporary Christian worship songs have more to do with the way WE feel about God then about God Himself and His greatness. Not that this is necessarily always bad...I just love hymns! :) Anyways, that's all for now. Pics of our weekend to come...and my curtains and bed skirt I made, house, etc! :)
Just Kidding. Here are the pics now. So, here are my curtains. They have quite a bit of color. :) I'm more into neutrals with pops of color usually. The room was just soooo...white. That and the continually gray sky showing through the windows....I decided some color was needed.
After the curtains I decided that a bed skirts was definitely needed. The box spring was showing and these plastic things were falling off of it...making it look a little...um, ghetto. Thus, with my last $20 from my birthday I decided to buy some fabric. I didn't use a pattern. (seriously, I have used a pattern once or twice and it never turns out fantastic. My confession is I'm terrible at reading them). Anyways, the things not perfect but it's better than before. It's a brown and white pattern...similar to the curtains but a little different.
And...here's our house below! Yep, that WHOLE thing. In the city of San Francisco. We're rich don't you know!?! Ok, so maybe not. Basically our door is next to the garage...which you can't see. It's broken up into a downstairs and an upstairs. The people who own the upstairs don't live their permanently. Apparently they live somewhere else in the city and come to this place once in a while. So, it's like we have the place to ourselves practically. We are free to garden the backyard, use the washer and dryer, and use part of the garage for our stuff. Nice! When we get more of the inside of our house put together I'll take pics of that too! :0)
Anyways, I have a few pics to post but I will have to put them up later...too lazy to upload them to this computer (**I actually just added some to the bottom. Not so lazy after all eh?). Last weekend Jason and I decided to ride to the Golden Gate Bridge from our house. It was such a beautiful, warm day. The ride ended up being about 25 miles though. haha. I definitely felt it considering I haven't exercised in quite some time. It was so beautiful out though and we had a great time zipping and weaving through the busy traffic of SF. Those drivers probably hated us. hehe. Oh well. The bridge was awesome to ride across. We got to witness some kite surfers while there. It's so windy in the bay that they can catch the wind out to the middle and surf off the wake of the boats. I'm pretty much convinced that this is my next sport to try. It was soooo cool! Anyways, we never brought the camera so there are no pictures of that.
As for this weekend....not too much was done...just the regular "get ready for the week" thing. I lOvE me some opera and there was a free concert being put on today by the San Francisco Opera in Golden Gate Park. The plan was to go but by the time we got out of church the place was packed out. We would probably have had horrible seats. It just didn't end up being enticing enough for us. Oh well. Maybe next time.
I think we may be settling down into a church. It looks like we will be joining a small group. Kind of cool. It's all tentative...in the sense that we are still feeling the church out. The best way to really get a feel though is to continually go and also get plugged in. I honestly didn't love the church the first time we went but...I've warmed up to it and I was actually pretty excited to go this Sunday. If you want to check it out it's called City Church. Here's their website! :) I LOVE their worship. I will say that! They mostly sing hymns but they have a contemporary twist. The lyrics of hymns are so...God lifting. I feel like some of our more contemporary Christian worship songs have more to do with the way WE feel about God then about God Himself and His greatness. Not that this is necessarily always bad...I just love hymns! :)
Just Kidding. Here are the pics now. So, here are my curtains. They have quite a bit of color. :) I'm more into neutrals with pops of color usually. The room was just soooo...white. That and the continually gray sky showing through the windows....I decided some color was needed.
After the curtains I decided that a bed skirts was definitely needed. The box spring was showing and these plastic things were falling off of it...making it look a little...um, ghetto. Thus, with my last $20 from my birthday I decided to buy some fabric. I didn't use a pattern. (seriously, I have used a pattern once or twice and it never turns out fantastic. My confession is I'm terrible at reading them). Anyways, the things not perfect but it's better than before. It's a brown and white pattern...similar to the curtains but a little different.
And...here's our house below! Yep, that WHOLE thing. In the city of San Francisco. We're rich don't you know!?! Ok, so maybe not. Basically our door is next to the garage...which you can't see. It's broken up into a downstairs and an upstairs. The people who own the upstairs don't live their permanently. Apparently they live somewhere else in the city and come to this place once in a while. So, it's like we have the place to ourselves practically. We are free to garden the backyard, use the washer and dryer, and use part of the garage for our stuff. Nice! When we get more of the inside of our house put together I'll take pics of that too! :0)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
This and That
Well, Jason and I are still enjoying our life here in SF. I have found that I really enjoy the big city. I'm guessing that it will get old eventually but I actually like the fact that there are SO many people, haha. It's interesting. Driving back and forth from work though...mmm, not certain that's my favorite thing in the world. Overall I'm not an "angry" driver but I would say that I definitely get annoyed. Mostly over simple things, like merging. Not sure why that's such a difficult concept for some but...apparently it is. At least there are a lot of good radio stations up here to listen to while I drive. There's one particular morning talk show that has me laughing pretty much every morning. Then again, the morning commute isn't so bad. It's the evenings when I get off at 6pm (3 days/wk) that it takes me about 50 min. to go 18 miles. Nice. Oh well, what can you do?!
Last week was my birthday and my birthday gift was $$$. Wohoo. I got to enjoy some SF shopping...including shopping at one of the best Marshall's ever! So fun. I also went into a place called Nordstrom's Rack which is apparently Nordstrom's, discounted. That place was INSANE. I'm pretty sure that more than half of SF's female population was there. My gosh. They had things like True Religion jeans for $90. hahahahaha. Sorry, I would never in my LIFE pay $90 for a pair of jeans (though I would certainly take them as a gift :) ). Those things are $250 normally though so I just couldn't understand why you would go to Nordstrom's to buy them for $250 when you can buy them at The Rack for $90. hmmm. These things I ponder.
I'm also about done with some curtains that are literally the happiest curtains in the world. They brighten up the room a ton. Since there won't be much sun shining in to brighten up the room I figured some bright happy curtains were the best solution. **Note: We STILL have boxes to unpack in our house, haha. Maybe one day...**
Hmmm...what else...
Ah, my future. So, I've been thinking and praying a lot lately about a possible career for me. Jason is the priority right now. I'm working and getting him through school. Yet, there is a part of me that would like a "skill". One that can be used in the work force. I know that when some kidd-o's come around they will be my number one priority but what happens when they go to school? (I'm thinking we will not be a homeschooling family. Especially if we are living abroad with Jason's work. The kids would be in school with other native speakers of the country). Anyways, I've been kicking around some ideas in my head...and with Jason. I'm leaning toward something that can be done through a community college with minimal debt. It also needs to be something that is usable abroad. The medical field is very intriguing to me and I've been leaning toward nursing or radiology. We will see...
Anyways, I know there's the "stay at home mom" vs. "career woman mom" debate. I'm a bit in the middle. Especially when the kids are little pre-kindy age...I want to be home, caring for them and molding their little brains into what Jason and I want. :) But, once they go to school...esp. when they're gone from 8-3...I feel like, knowing me and my personality...that I'm going to want something to do outside of the home. Honestly, I really love working. I mean there are days when I would surely rather sleep but overall...going to work isn't hard for me. I like interacting with and helping people. I also enjoy a paycheck every now and then. I guess there are other thoughts behind all of this too. I like the idea of having my income as a backup. It's funny because I always envisioned that if I did work we would try to not use much of the money for day to day use. Invest it, save it, use it for retirement, give it, use it for kids college education...awesome family vacations. Weird yeah? Anyways, these are some thoughts of mine. So, I'm praying and seeking the Lord. Trying to see what's of "me" and what's of "Him".
Well, that's all for now. I will say that we are very much looking forward to the three day weekend. Yay. Plans for the weekend...maybe a trip to REI, unpacking and settling more into our house, a trip or two to some thrift shops, RUNNING. There's The North Face Half-Marathon Trail Race in SF that I would like to compete in this Dec. We will see. :)
Last week was my birthday and my birthday gift was $$$. Wohoo. I got to enjoy some SF shopping...including shopping at one of the best Marshall's ever! So fun. I also went into a place called Nordstrom's Rack which is apparently Nordstrom's, discounted. That place was INSANE. I'm pretty sure that more than half of SF's female population was there. My gosh. They had things like True Religion jeans for $90. hahahahaha. Sorry, I would never in my LIFE pay $90 for a pair of jeans (though I would certainly take them as a gift :) ). Those things are $250 normally though so I just couldn't understand why you would go to Nordstrom's to buy them for $250 when you can buy them at The Rack for $90. hmmm. These things I ponder.
I'm also about done with some curtains that are literally the happiest curtains in the world. They brighten up the room a ton. Since there won't be much sun shining in to brighten up the room I figured some bright happy curtains were the best solution. **Note: We STILL have boxes to unpack in our house, haha. Maybe one day...**
Hmmm...what else...
Ah, my future. So, I've been thinking and praying a lot lately about a possible career for me. Jason is the priority right now. I'm working and getting him through school. Yet, there is a part of me that would like a "skill". One that can be used in the work force. I know that when some kidd-o's come around they will be my number one priority but what happens when they go to school? (I'm thinking we will not be a homeschooling family. Especially if we are living abroad with Jason's work. The kids would be in school with other native speakers of the country). Anyways, I've been kicking around some ideas in my head...and with Jason. I'm leaning toward something that can be done through a community college with minimal debt. It also needs to be something that is usable abroad. The medical field is very intriguing to me and I've been leaning toward nursing or radiology. We will see...
Anyways, I know there's the "stay at home mom" vs. "career woman mom" debate. I'm a bit in the middle. Especially when the kids are little pre-kindy age...I want to be home, caring for them and molding their little brains into what Jason and I want. :) But, once they go to school...esp. when they're gone from 8-3...I feel like, knowing me and my personality...that I'm going to want something to do outside of the home. Honestly, I really love working. I mean there are days when I would surely rather sleep but overall...going to work isn't hard for me. I like interacting with and helping people. I also enjoy a paycheck every now and then. I guess there are other thoughts behind all of this too. I like the idea of having my income as a backup. It's funny because I always envisioned that if I did work we would try to not use much of the money for day to day use. Invest it, save it, use it for retirement, give it, use it for kids college education...awesome family vacations. Weird yeah? Anyways, these are some thoughts of mine. So, I'm praying and seeking the Lord. Trying to see what's of "me" and what's of "Him".
Well, that's all for now. I will say that we are very much looking forward to the three day weekend. Yay. Plans for the weekend...maybe a trip to REI, unpacking and settling more into our house, a trip or two to some thrift shops, RUNNING. There's The North Face Half-Marathon Trail Race in SF that I would like to compete in this Dec. We will see. :)
Monday, August 23, 2010
Last Week in Photos
THE CAKE...So for those of you who don't know my grandparents just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. I wasn't able to make it to the party and so as a "gift" I made them an anniversary cake. Grandma wanted to have it look just like a little wedding cake. So, I went to work. I had so much fun! It wasn't perfect by any means but it was worlds better than the last one. Can't wait for cake #3! :) The cake is a white fondant cake with white buttercream piping here and there!
Putting a few finishing touches on it...the thing took WAaaaaAy longer than I thought it would. So fun though and totally worth it!
TADA! All finished. It turned out the most stressful part of the whole thing was transporting it the next day. ugh. My truck has no AC and so I was terrified that it was just going to melt into a puddle once I got into Atascadero. It didn't. hehe
There were so many people! Seriously we had to wait in line forever and a day...only to find out that they were out of empanadas and we had to wait an EXTRA 20 min for them to make more. They were worth it though for sure...
Yum. Ok, got to go! The library is closing and it's time for me to check out my 12 cookbooks! hehe :)
Putting a few finishing touches on it...the thing took WAaaaaAy longer than I thought it would. So fun though and totally worth it! TADA! All finished. It turned out the most stressful part of the whole thing was transporting it the next day. ugh. My truck has no AC and so I was terrified that it was just going to melt into a puddle once I got into Atascadero. It didn't. heheSF FOOD FESTIVAL...We went last weekend and it was great fun. We ate Malaysian food (including rose milk) and Chilean empanadas. We also found Tartine! The bakery I have been raving out and it was as AMAZING as I thought it would be! Yum.
Yum. Ok, got to go! The library is closing and it's time for me to check out my 12 cookbooks! hehe :)
Friday, August 20, 2010
Two Things I'm Excited For...
Thing #1:
The SF Street Food Festival
http://www.sfstreetfoodfest.com/
Blocks and blocks of good food from all over the world. It's this Saturday and I am really excited to go get my grub on. Yum. Top on my list to try are Kasa and Sabores del Sur.
Thing #2:
My oh so lovely friend Autumn aka as my maid-o-honor and her hubby are moving to me. She really missed me and talked her huz into uprooting their life in SLO to come live near us! Haha Ok, maybe not. In actuality he got a job about 20 min. from where we live...NICE! I'm superty duperty excited to have me an amiga here in nor-cal. Yay! :) They are moving in a couple of weeks. I see many a shopping trips and coffee dates in our future!
The SF Street Food Festival
http://www.sfstreetfoodfest.com/
Blocks and blocks of good food from all over the world. It's this Saturday and I am really excited to go get my grub on. Yum. Top on my list to try are Kasa and Sabores del Sur.
Thing #2:
My oh so lovely friend Autumn aka as my maid-o-honor and her hubby are moving to me. She really missed me and talked her huz into uprooting their life in SLO to come live near us! Haha Ok, maybe not. In actuality he got a job about 20 min. from where we live...NICE! I'm superty duperty excited to have me an amiga here in nor-cal. Yay! :) They are moving in a couple of weeks. I see many a shopping trips and coffee dates in our future!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
*SiGh*, the SUN!
So, big news...
The SUN came out in our SF 'hood yesterday! Jason sent a me a text telling me. He was slightly excited. First time in just about 3 weeks. When I drove back into SF after work the sun was still mostly out. Some observations...
1. The ocean is really close and really beautiful. haha. Didn't really realize it until yesterday. You stare directly at it as you're driving down our street toward our house.
2. Everything looks better with the sun. Our neighborhood is so cute. haha.
3. The sun is a real mood lifter. I swear people were more courteous drivers with the sun shinning.
So, that was exciting.
In other news, Jason has orientation on Fri and then next Tues. I ship him off to school! :) Aaaw, his first day of grad school. How cute. Definitely a picture op if you ask me!
On Sunday we are going to pop over to the City Church. It's our first time trying a church up here. I'm excited. The church seems super solid. It's had many great recommendations. I love that they believe in preaching the gospel to both nonbelievers AND believers. They have incredible outreaches. Ministry to the homeless, those with AIDS, and etc. It seems like there are some huge opportunities to be stretched far beyond our comfort. One difference though...there are female deacons AND elders. It's funny because this totally rubs me weird even though it seems that there isn't explicit Scripture against this. I know Grace is possibly moving toward this...maybe. :) (Oooh, ooh, soap box time! Watch out!) I guess to me it seems that we are in a culture that is so dominated by women already. If we have them take these roles also than it seems possible there will ONLY be women in these roles...that the men will just slump away. Woman have decided that the typically male roles are better...therefore leaving men to feel "purposeless" since there are so many women occupying what previously was their role. So, the seemingly male response? Backing off and choosing to have no role at all. Does that make sense? Anyways, there are actually more male then female elders (I counted, haha) and so this theory isn't correct in this circumstance...which is good!
All in all, I'm excited to hear the Word! It's been 3 weeks since we've been to church and I am missing me some preachin', that's for sure.
What else? mmm. Oh I did another cake this last weekend. It was my grandparents 50th anniversary. So I baked a two tier cake. Grandma wanted it to look like a wedding cake...and so it did! It was super fun, and also super time consuming (I'm thinking it took about 6 hours). Honestly, I LOVE baking and decorating cakes. I have endless ideas in my head and I'm pretty certain that I'm going to bake MYSELF one for my birthday, hahahaha. Just to practice. Theirs's was a white fondant cake. I will post a couple of pictures as soon as I have our camera and the internet in one location. Maybe this weekend.
Anyways, I learned a lot and made huge improvements between the 1st cake (the fish cake) and this last cake. For example, you HAVE to hand carve the whole cake to make it perfectly smooth...filling in the holes with frosting doesn't cut it. hehe. The carving is super time consuming too. The time spent is well worth it though....you have a nice and smooth fondant coating if you do it right. Also, refrigerating the fondant does actually make it more manageable (go figure since the recipe SAID to do it). Also, TV is so beneficial. Watching Ace of Cakes has done wonders, hehe. TV isn't always a complete waste of time! ;)
Alright, so, I'm done! Hope everyone has a good rest of the week! <3
The SUN came out in our SF 'hood yesterday! Jason sent a me a text telling me. He was slightly excited. First time in just about 3 weeks. When I drove back into SF after work the sun was still mostly out. Some observations...
1. The ocean is really close and really beautiful. haha. Didn't really realize it until yesterday. You stare directly at it as you're driving down our street toward our house.
2. Everything looks better with the sun. Our neighborhood is so cute. haha.
3. The sun is a real mood lifter. I swear people were more courteous drivers with the sun shinning.
So, that was exciting.
In other news, Jason has orientation on Fri and then next Tues. I ship him off to school! :) Aaaw, his first day of grad school. How cute. Definitely a picture op if you ask me!
On Sunday we are going to pop over to the City Church. It's our first time trying a church up here. I'm excited. The church seems super solid. It's had many great recommendations. I love that they believe in preaching the gospel to both nonbelievers AND believers. They have incredible outreaches. Ministry to the homeless, those with AIDS, and etc. It seems like there are some huge opportunities to be stretched far beyond our comfort. One difference though...there are female deacons AND elders. It's funny because this totally rubs me weird even though it seems that there isn't explicit Scripture against this. I know Grace is possibly moving toward this...maybe. :) (Oooh, ooh, soap box time! Watch out!) I guess to me it seems that we are in a culture that is so dominated by women already. If we have them take these roles also than it seems possible there will ONLY be women in these roles...that the men will just slump away. Woman have decided that the typically male roles are better...therefore leaving men to feel "purposeless" since there are so many women occupying what previously was their role. So, the seemingly male response? Backing off and choosing to have no role at all. Does that make sense? Anyways, there are actually more male then female elders (I counted, haha) and so this theory isn't correct in this circumstance...which is good!
All in all, I'm excited to hear the Word! It's been 3 weeks since we've been to church and I am missing me some preachin', that's for sure.
What else? mmm. Oh I did another cake this last weekend. It was my grandparents 50th anniversary. So I baked a two tier cake. Grandma wanted it to look like a wedding cake...and so it did! It was super fun, and also super time consuming (I'm thinking it took about 6 hours). Honestly, I LOVE baking and decorating cakes. I have endless ideas in my head and I'm pretty certain that I'm going to bake MYSELF one for my birthday, hahahaha. Just to practice. Theirs's was a white fondant cake. I will post a couple of pictures as soon as I have our camera and the internet in one location. Maybe this weekend.
Anyways, I learned a lot and made huge improvements between the 1st cake (the fish cake) and this last cake. For example, you HAVE to hand carve the whole cake to make it perfectly smooth...filling in the holes with frosting doesn't cut it. hehe. The carving is super time consuming too. The time spent is well worth it though....you have a nice and smooth fondant coating if you do it right. Also, refrigerating the fondant does actually make it more manageable (go figure since the recipe SAID to do it). Also, TV is so beneficial. Watching Ace of Cakes has done wonders, hehe. TV isn't always a complete waste of time! ;)
Alright, so, I'm done! Hope everyone has a good rest of the week! <3
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Road Mysteries and Such
Hello all,
Well, I'm actually writing a post...and not a title. nice. Anyways, things are good here. I've been at my job now for about 2 weeks. There was a bit of an adjustment period but overall I really like it. The commute is about the same as the one from Morro Bay to SLO. Although, on the way home it takes longer...more people on the road for some reason. You would think that those same people would be GOING to work also in the morning but apparently not. One of those mysteries.
Speaking of mysteries. Have you ever been driving on the freeway and looked to see a dead ground squirrel. The one's that really get me thinking are the one's that don't look flattened by car wheels and are on the SIDE of the freeway...not in the middle of the lane. I've noticed this down south on Highway 1 also. I'm just trying to figure out how this works. It wasn't' killed by a tire...and if it was, how in the world did it get to the side of the road? Did some one stop and drag it to the side after they hit it? Did some one see it start to cross the road and then swerve and yell out, "Squirel! 10pts!" in order to hit. All of these things make no sense since the squirrel isn't FLAT! It literally looks like it stepped out onto the asphalt and had a heart attack right there. Maybe it was the heat of the road???? Ok, so this is what I think about on my commutes. :)
Our house is great. A bit small and so it's taking some creativity and a few trips to IKEA to figure out how to arrange everything. All in all it's good. What's not so good is the weather where we live. Not a sunny day yet. As in...the sun hasn't even APPEARED! Pure and solid fog. With bouts of mist. Blak. Apparently we live in a little micro climate because last Sat. we took the muni to the downtown area where we took part in what will now be a weekend ritual...Blue Bottle Coffee. To. Die. For. Yummmm. Anyways it was sunny there while it was cloudy where we lived. Oh well.
We also got to see a free ballet down the road from our house. Awesome. I love how big cities have so much to offer culturally. Super fun. I REALLY want to see an Opera though. Can't wait for that season to come around.
Anyways, that's all for now. Hope all is well with ya! :)
Well, I'm actually writing a post...and not a title. nice. Anyways, things are good here. I've been at my job now for about 2 weeks. There was a bit of an adjustment period but overall I really like it. The commute is about the same as the one from Morro Bay to SLO. Although, on the way home it takes longer...more people on the road for some reason. You would think that those same people would be GOING to work also in the morning but apparently not. One of those mysteries.
Speaking of mysteries. Have you ever been driving on the freeway and looked to see a dead ground squirrel. The one's that really get me thinking are the one's that don't look flattened by car wheels and are on the SIDE of the freeway...not in the middle of the lane. I've noticed this down south on Highway 1 also. I'm just trying to figure out how this works. It wasn't' killed by a tire...and if it was, how in the world did it get to the side of the road? Did some one stop and drag it to the side after they hit it? Did some one see it start to cross the road and then swerve and yell out, "Squirel! 10pts!" in order to hit. All of these things make no sense since the squirrel isn't FLAT! It literally looks like it stepped out onto the asphalt and had a heart attack right there. Maybe it was the heat of the road???? Ok, so this is what I think about on my commutes. :)
Our house is great. A bit small and so it's taking some creativity and a few trips to IKEA to figure out how to arrange everything. All in all it's good. What's not so good is the weather where we live. Not a sunny day yet. As in...the sun hasn't even APPEARED! Pure and solid fog. With bouts of mist. Blak. Apparently we live in a little micro climate because last Sat. we took the muni to the downtown area where we took part in what will now be a weekend ritual...Blue Bottle Coffee. To. Die. For. Yummmm. Anyways it was sunny there while it was cloudy where we lived. Oh well.
We also got to see a free ballet down the road from our house. Awesome. I love how big cities have so much to offer culturally. Super fun. I REALLY want to see an Opera though. Can't wait for that season to come around.
Anyways, that's all for now. Hope all is well with ya! :)
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
We Chose...
House #2!
(I totally feel like I'm on "House Hunters")
The two main reasons were the proximity to Jason's school and the washer and dryer! :) It will cost more to live there since we will be footing our own utilities and what not, but all in all I think we will be much happier not spending our Saturdays at the laundry mat. I think Jason will appreciate not having to ride a bus for an hour each way every day for school too!
So, our moving truck is all ready! We finished packing at 12:30pm (pretty good eh?). Jason's cousin came and helped us move the heavy stuff into the truck which was AWESOME! Tomorrow morning we head out at around 7am and begin our life in San Francisco. Crazy stuff. We're super excited. It feels pretty surreal as of now but I think it will all set in once we role into our new drive way. On Monday I start my new job! Lots and lots of change. But, change is good...usually :) The good news too is that we really aren't that far from home so...we can visit if we need a break from the fog!
In other news...a blog post from about 2 months ago of mine was taken down...by the copyright people who manage the blog world. :) hehe. I think I copy and pasted a pretty picture from the Internet of Morro Rock. Hmmm. Oh well. So, watch out! Big Brother Internet copyright man may come to get you too! Unless I'm the only one in the world who's done that. ;) Probably not huh?
**Tip of the Day: When moving to a new city where you will be driving two seperate vehicles, do not pack your cell phone chargers (both of them) at the bottom of the truck in some unidentified box unless you are 100% certain that your phones have a full battery. If you don't heed this advice you may realize that both your phones are dead and you suddenly have no way to tell the handsome man in front of you in the Budget moving truck that your 3rd cup of coffee has finally caught up with you and you really REALLY have to go...NOW! :)
No worries, this scenario never played out but it was certainly a possibility until the smart female in this relationship thought to go to the Verizon store and tell them our pitiful story. Pat my own back! They're charging right now and will be ready for pick-up in one hour! :)
(I totally feel like I'm on "House Hunters")
The two main reasons were the proximity to Jason's school and the washer and dryer! :) It will cost more to live there since we will be footing our own utilities and what not, but all in all I think we will be much happier not spending our Saturdays at the laundry mat. I think Jason will appreciate not having to ride a bus for an hour each way every day for school too!
So, our moving truck is all ready! We finished packing at 12:30pm (pretty good eh?). Jason's cousin came and helped us move the heavy stuff into the truck which was AWESOME! Tomorrow morning we head out at around 7am and begin our life in San Francisco. Crazy stuff. We're super excited. It feels pretty surreal as of now but I think it will all set in once we role into our new drive way. On Monday I start my new job! Lots and lots of change. But, change is good...usually :) The good news too is that we really aren't that far from home so...we can visit if we need a break from the fog!
In other news...a blog post from about 2 months ago of mine was taken down...by the copyright people who manage the blog world. :) hehe. I think I copy and pasted a pretty picture from the Internet of Morro Rock. Hmmm. Oh well. So, watch out! Big Brother Internet copyright man may come to get you too! Unless I'm the only one in the world who's done that. ;) Probably not huh?
**Tip of the Day: When moving to a new city where you will be driving two seperate vehicles, do not pack your cell phone chargers (both of them) at the bottom of the truck in some unidentified box unless you are 100% certain that your phones have a full battery. If you don't heed this advice you may realize that both your phones are dead and you suddenly have no way to tell the handsome man in front of you in the Budget moving truck that your 3rd cup of coffee has finally caught up with you and you really REALLY have to go...NOW! :)
No worries, this scenario never played out but it was certainly a possibility until the smart female in this relationship thought to go to the Verizon store and tell them our pitiful story. Pat my own back! They're charging right now and will be ready for pick-up in one hour! :)
Friday, July 30, 2010
I Have...
an eye twitch.
Because I'm so tired
From packing...
aaaand packing...
and packing...
packing things that I didn't even know we had.
Only to not use it in the next place we live.
Seriously folks! We have no kids. We've been married a year and a half...10 months of that we lived abroad and literally bought nothing! How in the heckety heck can we have so much stuff? I don't think of ourselves as material people but after this move...I'm thinking a little differently! hehe :)
Anyways, we have a lot to do...
Time to geter dun.
Because I'm so tired
From packing...
aaaand packing...
and packing...
packing things that I didn't even know we had.
Only to not use it in the next place we live.
Seriously folks! We have no kids. We've been married a year and a half...10 months of that we lived abroad and literally bought nothing! How in the heckety heck can we have so much stuff? I don't think of ourselves as material people but after this move...I'm thinking a little differently! hehe :)
Anyways, we have a lot to do...
Time to geter dun.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
SF here we come!
Well, I have a job! Yay. I'll be working about a half an hour south of San Francisco at an optometry office. I got the call on Friday. The doctors offered me the job and I accepted. It's funny. It's kind of like my first "big girl" job. They pay more than I've ever made before (the cost of living in SF makes up for that though), I get paid vacation/sick days, 401K, and benefits. Well, they help pay your premium on your health insurance each month. Better than nothing though! :)
Anyways, I start Aug 2nd. Yep...in a week. haha. We don't exactly have a house but we have actually made some serious progress on that front. We have looked at houses two other times outside of yesterday and let's just say that we were a little disappointed. Then yesterday I lined up 6 places to look at, out of the 6...I would live in 4. Out of the four one was a bit higher in price and too far for Jason so we scratched that. Another was ok but it required me to commute down a road that was a little nuts on Saturday...so I can't imagine what it would be like on a Monday morning. So, we scratched that one. This leaves two REALLY good options. One is in Daly City. The other is in a neighborhood close to SFSU. We wish we could combine the two and make one perfect option but...it can't happen. So, what do YOU think is better?
Option #1: Daly City
1 hour commute on bus for Jason
25 min. commute to work for me
-1 bed/1bath
-$1300/month with utilities including wifi
-no washer and dryer
-no real place to store something like bikes
-comes with some furniture
-no oven, just a cook top
-all new remodeling, fresh paint, etc
-owner's of the house upstairs
-back entry...through the side of the house
-sunny open house
Option #2: SF City
prob. about 20 min. commute for Jason on bus
maybe about 1/2 hour commute for me
-technically 2 bed/1 bath.
-$1300/month w/o utilities
-no wifi-and we'll prob. need it for Jason's school
-includes washer and dryer
-can use some garage space to store bikes
-beautiful new oven :)
-remodeled and new interior
-weird entry but it's a front entry
-nobody living upstairs
So, what do YOU think? What would you choose? It's really a hard choice if you ask me!
Also, Jason found a Asian type bakery in SF. We went in to buy a treat and we were the only caucasians in that store, haha. That place was crazy! Anyways, we bought a mochi cookie and HOLY COW...yum o yum. It was so good. So, here's to moving to SF and eating more of those mochi cookies!
Anyways, I start Aug 2nd. Yep...in a week. haha. We don't exactly have a house but we have actually made some serious progress on that front. We have looked at houses two other times outside of yesterday and let's just say that we were a little disappointed. Then yesterday I lined up 6 places to look at, out of the 6...I would live in 4. Out of the four one was a bit higher in price and too far for Jason so we scratched that. Another was ok but it required me to commute down a road that was a little nuts on Saturday...so I can't imagine what it would be like on a Monday morning. So, we scratched that one. This leaves two REALLY good options. One is in Daly City. The other is in a neighborhood close to SFSU. We wish we could combine the two and make one perfect option but...it can't happen. So, what do YOU think is better?
Option #1: Daly City
1 hour commute on bus for Jason
25 min. commute to work for me
-1 bed/1bath
-$1300/month with utilities including wifi
-no washer and dryer
-no real place to store something like bikes
-comes with some furniture
-no oven, just a cook top
-all new remodeling, fresh paint, etc
-owner's of the house upstairs
-back entry...through the side of the house
-sunny open house
Option #2: SF City
prob. about 20 min. commute for Jason on bus
maybe about 1/2 hour commute for me
-technically 2 bed/1 bath.
-$1300/month w/o utilities
-no wifi-and we'll prob. need it for Jason's school
-includes washer and dryer
-can use some garage space to store bikes
-beautiful new oven :)
-remodeled and new interior
-weird entry but it's a front entry
-nobody living upstairs
So, what do YOU think? What would you choose? It's really a hard choice if you ask me!
Also, Jason found a Asian type bakery in SF. We went in to buy a treat and we were the only caucasians in that store, haha. That place was crazy! Anyways, we bought a mochi cookie and HOLY COW...yum o yum. It was so good. So, here's to moving to SF and eating more of those mochi cookies!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Some thoughts on Northward Moving...
I seriously can not figure out how in tarnations (how do you spell that?) it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. Crazy beans. Where are the days going? Oh wait. Maybe between driving up to SF for interviews (what feels like every other day) and looking for a house (what feels like every waking second of my day), time has just escaped me.
So, this is going to be short but sweet.
We are out of our current, fantastic, lovely, and beautiful house on the 31st. The goal is to find a job and a house in SF by then.
We could use prayer. Prayer for patience, contentment, faith, love for one another, and just...just trusting in our Lord that He will provide all that we need in His good timing. It's hard not to dwell continually on looking for jobs and housing. Sometimes though, I just need to stop. Stop searching, stop thinking, stop hunting, applying, looking at Craigslist. I need to stop, and just meditate on our Lord. We need to trust and allow His peace to come over us.
Honestly, we are really nervous to move up to SF. You all who know us are probably totally aware of the fact that we are in no way big city peeps. We would choose open space over a bustling city any day. Yet, it SEEMS this is where the Lord is taking us...
So, tomorrow. Tomorrow I vow to not hunt for housing, not dwell on upcoming interviews, and not stress about what's to come. Tomorrow I take a break. Tomorrow I will pray more than I worry and praise more than I stress.
:)
So, this is going to be short but sweet.
We are out of our current, fantastic, lovely, and beautiful house on the 31st. The goal is to find a job and a house in SF by then.
We could use prayer. Prayer for patience, contentment, faith, love for one another, and just...just trusting in our Lord that He will provide all that we need in His good timing. It's hard not to dwell continually on looking for jobs and housing. Sometimes though, I just need to stop. Stop searching, stop thinking, stop hunting, applying, looking at Craigslist. I need to stop, and just meditate on our Lord. We need to trust and allow His peace to come over us.
Honestly, we are really nervous to move up to SF. You all who know us are probably totally aware of the fact that we are in no way big city peeps. We would choose open space over a bustling city any day. Yet, it SEEMS this is where the Lord is taking us...
So, tomorrow. Tomorrow I vow to not hunt for housing, not dwell on upcoming interviews, and not stress about what's to come. Tomorrow I take a break. Tomorrow I will pray more than I worry and praise more than I stress.
:)
Monday, July 5, 2010
Interview Madness!
Oh my gosh, that's right I DO have a blog. Shoot dang, I totally forgot! :)
Anywho, I have been interviewing. Up in 'Frisco. :) hehe. I really don't like it when people call San Francisco, "Frisco". I have no idea why. It just sounds dorky. Do people from SF actually call it "Frisco"? I would imagine not. Who knows.
Anyways, the first interview was up on the Embarcadero at an optometry office. It went well but I really felt like the doctor needed someone with more experience as an optician. (*Note: There are three "opto titles". Opthamology deals with the health of your eyes and eye surgery. Optometry deals with the health of your eyes but more the prescription and vision portions of your eyes. An Optician is someone who adjusts glasses, fits them, fixes them, etc. They are not a doctor. That's more what I do...though I'm not highly experienced. *End note). So, I'm assuming I didn't get the above mentioned job because well, she never called me back, lol. Usually a bad sign. :)
Ok, so then I had another interview last weekend. Wow, that was interesting. Let's just say I thought I was interviewing for one job and it ended up being a different one. Don't worry. I figured it out BEFORE I walked into the interview. hehe. Crazy though.
And now it's Monday and I have NO work today which makes me very very happy. Hope everyone had a great 4th. Have a great week all! :)
Anywho, I have been interviewing. Up in 'Frisco. :) hehe. I really don't like it when people call San Francisco, "Frisco". I have no idea why. It just sounds dorky. Do people from SF actually call it "Frisco"? I would imagine not. Who knows.
Anyways, the first interview was up on the Embarcadero at an optometry office. It went well but I really felt like the doctor needed someone with more experience as an optician. (*Note: There are three "opto titles". Opthamology deals with the health of your eyes and eye surgery. Optometry deals with the health of your eyes but more the prescription and vision portions of your eyes. An Optician is someone who adjusts glasses, fits them, fixes them, etc. They are not a doctor. That's more what I do...though I'm not highly experienced. *End note). So, I'm assuming I didn't get the above mentioned job because well, she never called me back, lol. Usually a bad sign. :)
Ok, so then I had another interview last weekend. Wow, that was interesting. Let's just say I thought I was interviewing for one job and it ended up being a different one. Don't worry. I figured it out BEFORE I walked into the interview. hehe. Crazy though.
And now it's Monday and I have NO work today which makes me very very happy. Hope everyone had a great 4th. Have a great week all! :)
Friday, June 25, 2010
10 Things I've Learned...
Jason has been in Mexico with the youth for the last week. This is the first time we've been apart since being married. There are a few things I have learned about myself and our life together while he's been gone. So...here's the 10 things I've learned....
10. The Office is about 16 x's funnier with someone there with you to watch it.
9. I am completely content eating oatmeal, cereal, or grilled cheese for dinner every night (I <3 to cook but it's just not as fun when it's a meal for one!).
8. Some how Jason and I together produce 4 x's the quantity of laundry then when I'm by myself. I just don't get how that's possible...we're adding only ONE more person to the picture. hmmm.
7. I talk to myself...a lot.
6. I have trouble sleeping with out him and yet thoroughly enjoy the full rein of the bed.
5. Friday date night is totally lame without a date! Although I got to choose what the movie was with no one saying, "Ug, not a giiiiiirl movie!"
4. I enjoy pushing the snooze button about 3 times because there's not a soul around to think about how lazy I am.
3. I am totally not a huggy person and yet I really REALLY missed his hugs. They're just so cozy and nice.
2. Jason is such a disciplined person and he adds a ton of structure to my life...i.e. earlier bedtimes, balanced meals, etc :). In the end...it's a better life style! hehe
1. Life is so much sweeter with my main squeeze by my side. I'm incredibly independent (often to a fault) and I enjoy my alone time but all in all...life's so much bettah with the huz! <3
Yay! He's home!
10. The Office is about 16 x's funnier with someone there with you to watch it.
9. I am completely content eating oatmeal, cereal, or grilled cheese for dinner every night (I <3 to cook but it's just not as fun when it's a meal for one!).
8. Some how Jason and I together produce 4 x's the quantity of laundry then when I'm by myself. I just don't get how that's possible...we're adding only ONE more person to the picture. hmmm.
7. I talk to myself...a lot.
6. I have trouble sleeping with out him and yet thoroughly enjoy the full rein of the bed.
5. Friday date night is totally lame without a date! Although I got to choose what the movie was with no one saying, "Ug, not a giiiiiirl movie!"
4. I enjoy pushing the snooze button about 3 times because there's not a soul around to think about how lazy I am.
3. I am totally not a huggy person and yet I really REALLY missed his hugs. They're just so cozy and nice.
2. Jason is such a disciplined person and he adds a ton of structure to my life...i.e. earlier bedtimes, balanced meals, etc :). In the end...it's a better life style! hehe
1. Life is so much sweeter with my main squeeze by my side. I'm incredibly independent (often to a fault) and I enjoy my alone time but all in all...life's so much bettah with the huz! <3
Yay! He's home!
Monday, June 14, 2010
ONWARD!
Well, some of you may know that Jason has been applying to a bunch of grad schools. It was quite the process. Literally the day we returned from Chile (practically) Jason started studying for the GRE. He studied for about a month and took the test. He then applied to 3 grad schools...and was excepted to well, all of them. haha. The choice came down to Arizona or San Francisco. So after much deliberation and thought I think it looks like good ole'...
SAN FRANCISCO!
Crazy.
We are moving.
To another city in California.
And we are about 10 times more nervous about it then we were when we moved to Chile.
Another country in the WORLD. Go figure.
So, there you have it. I am applying to jobs like mad. And we are looking for an abode. And this is all supposed to happen by oh, mid August at the latest. If you think about it you can certainly pray for us. We are in need of the Lord and in need of His provisions! It's hard to pick up and go...especially when there isn't necessarily a job and everything set up before you. Yet, there are so many things that have brought up to this point and it very much seems like this is where the Lord wants us. Also, if any of you are from that general SF area or know of any great evangelical churches we would love to know about them.
So, there you have it folks. It looks like we're trucking it up north. Time for the next adventure! Time for some more edu-ma-cation and time for me to find a job that pays a tad more than I'm currently making! :) I'm going to be the sole bread winner ya know! Well, for a little while at least.
Oh, and Jason will be receiving a Master's in Teaching English as a Second Language...did I mention that before? Probably.
AND...I really want to go to this place...
Tartine Bakery!
It's in SF and supposedly it's to DIE FOR good...as in wake up before it's open on Saturday and stand in line for hours with a bunch of food crazy peeps...sounds like my kind of thing. Can't wait!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Summer at Last?
Well, it looks (please oh please let it be true) like we may finally be moving into summer. Some warm weather. Where you wear shorts. Where you wear tank tops. Wear I live in my Rainbows and pretend like I possess the capability to tan. Ugh. One word. FINALLY! So, I've heard a lot of people complain about our fickle, not so May almost June weather. It seems like we've been stuck in February...well, since February. Now normally, this would be annoying for this hot weather lover. But this year, it's particularly and completely annoying. Because, in case you forgot, we went south of the equator...right before it started to get warm here. So, we had fall, then winter here at home, then we went to Chile and had fall, then winter, then we came home and had....you guessed it...fall, then winter. Add that up peeps and that's close to two years of FALL AND WINTER! Aaaaaaah! So, we have absolutely relished in today's hot weather!
I love a day where you have pretty much lived in a bathing suit. We surfed, kayaked, and now we are going to close out the day by BBQing some cheeseboigahs (my dad always says it that way). Yum oh yum. Jason also brought home a load of fresh veggies from the school garden. Sweet, eh?
Anyways, I haven't blogged in a while so I decided I might as well throw some words up on this pathetic blog. So, I hope everyone enjoyed this weather as much as we did and I am so completely stoked that there's no work on Monday! Yay for 3 day weekends. Woot wooht! Alright, I guess I'm done! :)
I love a day where you have pretty much lived in a bathing suit. We surfed, kayaked, and now we are going to close out the day by BBQing some cheeseboigahs (my dad always says it that way). Yum oh yum. Jason also brought home a load of fresh veggies from the school garden. Sweet, eh?
Anyways, I haven't blogged in a while so I decided I might as well throw some words up on this pathetic blog. So, I hope everyone enjoyed this weather as much as we did and I am so completely stoked that there's no work on Monday! Yay for 3 day weekends. Woot wooht! Alright, I guess I'm done! :)
Saturday, May 15, 2010
I went to the store in Styyyyyyle!
Well, my dear huz and his cuz hit the ocean once again to try their luck at fishing. Normally, Jason's cousin borrows his parents Tahoe and they transport the kayaks that way. This weekend though his parents needed the Tahoe and so they needed to use the truck. Thus leaving me with no wheels. Really, I was fine with it. I thought I'd run, clean, and just lay around the house. But then, the unthinkable happened. Jason's cousin said, "Well, if we take the truck I'll leave Anna with MY car so she can still drive." Um, YES PLEASE! Because....THIS is Jason's cousin's car....
A PORSCHE BOXSTER! HECK YEAH!
So, I drove it, I loved it, I'm pretty sure I drooled on it, and for a day I pretended that it was MINE! All mine! I'm actually pretty certain that God WANTS me to have one. He just hasn't realized it. So, if you see one floating around with out a home. It's mine. Don't touch!
Ok, so I love to drive. I really do. I have always had a dream to drive something really REALLY fast...like a Ferrari on a windy twisty road. I didn't push my luck on this car since I know the owner pretty well, haha, but I certainly gunned it on the freeway like no one's biz! Did I go 50mph in only 2nd gear? Why yes, I did. Did I accelerate at a rate that was faster than I have EVER experienced behind the wheel leaving everyone behind? Why yes I did. Did I go probably way too fast on the freeway (I know, SO bad) just because the car could? Why yes I did. Did I partake in way TOO much pleasure today? WHY YES I DID and I loved it. There's nothing like a really fast car to get one going!
Anyways. It was fun. Thanks Bryce!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Saturday Went Something Like This...
First, there was no cleaning done. I mean Zip, Zero, Nada. Now, this probably isn't that big of a deal to some but for this lady who works full time...not much cleaning happens after 8 hours in the office. Thus, the weekend is a key time to clean. So, now that it's 7pm on Sunday...I'm slightly regretting this choice that I made. Hmmm. Oh well.
Well, anyways. Yesterday Jason was supposed to go kayak fishing. His partner in crime was not able to make it and so I volunteered to kayak out with him and have him fish while I messed around. I have kayaked a couple of times on lakes and rivers before. I have NEVER kayaked on the ocean...especially where you start from the beach and have to make it out passed the waves. The wind was howling and I didn't even realize that I was being pushed way down shore. Anyways, it was a struggle but it was invigorating and definitely a challenge. I felt good, I felt like I made it pretty far. The waves started getting a little bigger and a little more frequent though. I knew that I would be fine as long as I kept the kayak pointed out toward the ocean. I figured the only way I would flip is if the kayak became parallel to the waves. Well, it didn't take long before the wind, tides, and waves pushed me side ways and of course at that moment a wave broke on top of me and down I went. I lasted about 10 minutesout there, haha. AND I lost a pair of sunglasses. I was struggling to tread and try to flip my kayak back over when I realized my feet grazed what felt like sand. Seriously? There's no way. I paddled so hard...I felt like I was pushing it to the limit...I can STAND UP?!? Yep. Sure enough. haha. Oh well. Anyways, Jason made the call that it was way to windy and rough to go out. Another day, another time. Hopefully tomorrow! :) I feel like I need to conquer it now!
Then I volunteered to go pier fishing with Jas later that night (I'm such a good wife!). Because it was windy and cold I decided that it would be a good idea to wear a beanie and my hobo gloves. Yup. We weren't 5 minutes into fishing when I realized that I had some how hooked my beanie. I looked up at Jason and said, "Um...a little help." He of course thought that this was hilarious. Especially the fact that I was trying to take the hook out with the beanie still on my head. Can we say dumb blonde? Yes we can. So, he helped me out of the dilemma and we kept on fishing. It wasn't 5 MORE minutes when I realized that this time I had hooked both my sweatshirt AND my glove. The glove was hooked so badly that I had to quit because we needed to cut the barb off of the hook to get the glove off. So, I walked back to the car sheepishly...with my glove hanging from my pole. Jason pretty much laughed all the way to the car. You know, I can hold my weight in a lot of outdoor activities but I'm thinking fishing isn't one of them. haha. So, needless to say, I was a poor replacement for his normal fishing buddy. Oh well, I tried.
Well, anyways. Yesterday Jason was supposed to go kayak fishing. His partner in crime was not able to make it and so I volunteered to kayak out with him and have him fish while I messed around. I have kayaked a couple of times on lakes and rivers before. I have NEVER kayaked on the ocean...especially where you start from the beach and have to make it out passed the waves. The wind was howling and I didn't even realize that I was being pushed way down shore. Anyways, it was a struggle but it was invigorating and definitely a challenge. I felt good, I felt like I made it pretty far. The waves started getting a little bigger and a little more frequent though. I knew that I would be fine as long as I kept the kayak pointed out toward the ocean. I figured the only way I would flip is if the kayak became parallel to the waves. Well, it didn't take long before the wind, tides, and waves pushed me side ways and of course at that moment a wave broke on top of me and down I went. I lasted about 10 minutesout there, haha. AND I lost a pair of sunglasses. I was struggling to tread and try to flip my kayak back over when I realized my feet grazed what felt like sand. Seriously? There's no way. I paddled so hard...I felt like I was pushing it to the limit...I can STAND UP?!? Yep. Sure enough. haha. Oh well. Anyways, Jason made the call that it was way to windy and rough to go out. Another day, another time. Hopefully tomorrow! :) I feel like I need to conquer it now!
Then I volunteered to go pier fishing with Jas later that night (I'm such a good wife!). Because it was windy and cold I decided that it would be a good idea to wear a beanie and my hobo gloves. Yup. We weren't 5 minutes into fishing when I realized that I had some how hooked my beanie. I looked up at Jason and said, "Um...a little help." He of course thought that this was hilarious. Especially the fact that I was trying to take the hook out with the beanie still on my head. Can we say dumb blonde? Yes we can. So, he helped me out of the dilemma and we kept on fishing. It wasn't 5 MORE minutes when I realized that this time I had hooked both my sweatshirt AND my glove. The glove was hooked so badly that I had to quit because we needed to cut the barb off of the hook to get the glove off. So, I walked back to the car sheepishly...with my glove hanging from my pole. Jason pretty much laughed all the way to the car. You know, I can hold my weight in a lot of outdoor activities but I'm thinking fishing isn't one of them. haha. So, needless to say, I was a poor replacement for his normal fishing buddy. Oh well, I tried.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
I actually STINKIN' did it!
So, I'm really proud that I actually carried this out. It was a cute idea, I wanted to do it...and yet I doubted myself and my real ability to follow through. Granted, just about all the pics are at the end of the day...right before I put on my PJ's, but I did it none the less. This lovely lady came up...or maybe she saw it somewhere else, well whatever, anyways, what you do is you take a pic of what you wore everyday for a week to show others what YOU wear and also so you can see what other's wear too. I'm SOOOO not a fashionista and yet, yes, I like clothes in general. Looking cute always feels good and I love seeing what other's are sportin'!
Also, my absolute favorite part of this is the laundry in the background. The hamper gets more and more full, then the clothes pile moves to the floor, then it disappears. Oh, and in case you're thinking that I'm a "dressing overachiever" I work in an office M-F. Thus, I need to look somewhat nice. Except for Friday which is the best day ever invented...JEAN DAY! OH...and one more thing. Yes, I am standing on a step stool to get my shots everyday. Yep, that's dedication. And enough jabber, here you go...
Also, my absolute favorite part of this is the laundry in the background. The hamper gets more and more full, then the clothes pile moves to the floor, then it disappears. Oh, and in case you're thinking that I'm a "dressing overachiever" I work in an office M-F. Thus, I need to look somewhat nice. Except for Friday which is the best day ever invented...JEAN DAY! OH...and one more thing. Yes, I am standing on a step stool to get my shots everyday. Yep, that's dedication. And enough jabber, here you go...
THURSDAY
Hippy Flowy Pants (hence the Peace Sign): a boutique downtown
White T-Shirt: Old Navy
Brown Sweater: Target
White Flat Sandals you can barely see: Old Navy
FRIDAY
Striped Shirt: Gap
Jeans: Old Navy
Awesomly Awesome Dansko Clogs: REI
SATURDAY
Ugly Old Jeans: Old Navy
Shirt: Target
Toms Shoes: Boutique Downtown
SUNDAY
Undershirt Tank and Yellow Sweater Thingy: Forever 21
Jeans: Old Navy
Sandals: Target
MONDAY
White Shirt: Forever 21
Black Skirt: Forever 21
Red Shoes that I wore as my wedding shoes: Payless
TUESDAY
Turquoise Shirt: Forever 21
White Capris: Express
Most Comfy Ever Moccasins (and like 7 years old): Boutique Downtown
WEDNESDAY
White Shirt: Old Navy
Khaki Skirt that is really in my opinion ugly and frumpy and yet I wear it anyways: Gap
Black Sweater: Boutique Downtown
Shoes: Target
THE END
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