June 27, 2007

It took us two more trips to Target to finally spend the rest of our gift card money. After the first trip we still had about $180 left to spend. On the first of two trips this past weekend we bought: an iron leafy wall sconce to go over the head of our bed, orange tea lights to go in the sconce's seven little candle holders, a frame for a really cool watercolor landscape I found to go in our bathroom, a flour sifter, a pair of tongs, a basting brush, and new handsoap pumps for the bathrooms. On the second trip, we bought two more frames for two more watercolor landscapes to go in the bathroom, a nifty soft sided cooler that will fit behind a car seat, a small duffle bag to use as a toiletry bag on trips, and stuff to make chocolate chip cookies.

We also spent our Linens n' Things gift card (just got another one on Saturday) : big round spatula for using in the new electric skillet, a nifty pizza cutter, a cooling rack for baked stuff, a 7" Santok knife by Farberware, and an orange pillow to go in the wicker chair in our room.

We spent the Walmart gift card mostly on groceries, but also bought some new shirts for Jamie, a new shirt for me, and a new cedar birdfeeder that will hopefully last longer against the squirrels than the plastic one we had. The squirrels completely chewed through most of the old plastic feeder. We got $50 Walmart card this weekend. There's not really much else we want (that we can actually buy cheaply at Walmart), so we'll probably put it towards groceries too.

The new crockpot and electric skillet have already been put to the test. Both work fabulously. I used the skillet to brown up 6 pounds of hamburger at once and then we made chili (using some of that hamburger) in the crockpot. YAY!

We also splurged and bought Jamie a new espresso machine from Starbucks. His old Krups machine died in route to NC for the second time (he had shipped it back to WA the day before he was supposed to fly back in January, so we had to ship it back to NC when we flew out to WA a few weeks later). He's had to go since January without a machine, and making several trips to Starbucks for a $4 mocha every week is kinda expensive especially since I usually get something too and the bill is closer to $8 or $10.

By luck, I got some free tickets to the zoo. We've been wanting to go for a long time and now we have no excuse not to go. I hope we can go this weekend, but the weather forecast isn't looking very promising for an outdoor activity. We'll make a decision Saturday morning. Luckily the zoo is only about an hour away!

June 17, 2007

June 17, 2007

Last Sunday we celebrated our wedding reception with the folks back in my hometown. My mom, the ladies of her church, and my grandparents threw us a nice little party. We had about 40 guests, and even my friend Shelly came!

We had cake, peanuts, veggies and dip, crackers and a cheeseball, cheese cubes, M&Ms, little pickles and olives, mini ham and cheese sandwiches, sausage balls, mints, and punch.

And, we got a ton of STUFF! We got:

Lots of kitchen stuff -- gadgets, spoons, baking pans, dish towels, casserole dishes, drinking glasses, tupperware, tablecloth, placemats, roasting pan, trash can, dish detergent, cleaning cloths, colander, cutting board, apron

Two lamps and shades

Two matching vases

An answering machine

$160 in cash

$65 in Walmart Cards

$380 in Target Cards

Plus we got a few checks before and after the party, and a few other gift cards beforehand too. Plus Mom framed a picture of us on our wedding day at the courthouse, a copy of our reception invitation, and a photo of us in our nice party clothes. We're going to hang those in our bedroom.

The party and hanging out with my folks was great, except that I had pulled something in my lower back on Friday afternoon before the party on Sunday and was in a LOT of pain all weekend. The backache took all week to finally ease off. Today isn't so bad.

Yesterday we braved the rain and thunderstorms to spend our $50 Belk's gift card and some of our Target money. Our "booty" from yesterday included:

A crystal egg tray, a 4 cup slanted measuring cup, a big spoon and slotted spoon, a whisk, and a manual can opener from Belks; and 2 pillows, a 300ct sheet set in orange, 2 250ct pillowcases in red, a silicone baking mat, a 40" fan, a 4qt crock pot, a 16" electric skillet, and a fire safe box from Target.

And we STILL have money to burn at Target. I think we've got all the kitchen stuff we have room for at the moment, so we might spend the rest of the gift cards on clothes for Jamie.

I hope to have pictures soon. Mom's going to burn them to a CD if Mema's computer will be nice and let them. We took "wedding" photos in Mema's yard on Saturday. Luckily, we took them before my back had me crying in pain.

Oohh, for the record, we went to IHOP for our one month anniversary and partook in delicious (though horribly bad for us) country fried steak. Jamie got the steak and eggs plate with pancakes and hasbrowns, and I got the regular dinner plate with a salad, mashed potatoes and onion rings. Mmmm so good!

June 4, 2007

Today is our one month anniversary! Not sure what the appropriate gift for a one month anniversary is. Since the traditional gift for a one year anniversary is paper, the gift for one month must be a smooch or a e-card.

We're trying to figure out what to do for dinner. Since it is a sorta special day, I don't think leftovers will do the evening justice.

Our wedding reception is this weekend at my mom's church. All of the church ladies are super-excited and very eager to help out in anyway. I'm so glad other people are handling all the preparations. I love event planning, but it is very nice to just sit back and let others do the work. Hey, what can I say? I'm a tad lazy. (Ok, more than a tad!) I'll post pictures ASAP.

I watched some episodes of Bridezillas this weekend. Jamie and I wonder if any of those couples are actually still married to each other. With the way some of those brides acted, it's a wonder they had any friends left after the ceremony. I definitely was NOT a bridezilla. My only demands for the reception were: must have cake, punch, peanuts, mints, and a veggie tray. Of course there will be more than that, but that was the bare minimum I wanted. Luckily, one of mom's church ladies has offered to make one of my all-time favorite munchies -- little ham and cheese sandwiches. YUM!

Jamie is having a bit of trouble getting used to the weather in NC. About the time he gets used to the hot and humid, the weather turns chilly. We had about an inch of much needed rain yesterday. It rained all day long. A nice slow and steady rain. Sadly, it wasn't enough to put much of a dent in the drought. At least it was a little help though. Flowers always do better with a bit of rain. The tomato is bigger, but it's still the only one. Hopefully more will come soon!

May 29, 2007

Man is it hot. For the past few days we've had 80+ degree temperatures with little breeze and absolutely no rain.

Over Memorial Day weekend we contributed to the $139.8 million that Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End took in. It was a really good movie. Pirate movies are really good in the theater what with all the action and swashbuckling and Arrrrr! Very few people stayed all the way through the credits to see the easter egg scene at the end. I wondered if they'd seen the ending scenes in the previous two movies. Eh. Their loss.

We also scoped out a nearby park. It was blazingly hot but a nice walk since it seemed to be one of the few places around here that's actually pretty level. Halfway back to the car I realized I was supposed to be at a rehearsal (honestly, who schedules a rehearsal for a holiday afternoon?!). But luckily, I remembered it just in time and we ended up being at rehearsal 30 minutes before I needed to be on stage. The rehearsal is the Academy's choir concert this Friday. I'm playing in a quartet, which is accompanying the singers for Vivaldi's Beatus Vir. I have no idea what Beatus Vir means, but the piece is pretty easy and very Vivaldi-sque. I like Vivaldi. He's very Baroque, and the earlier the music is (history-wise) the more I like it!

Above is a photo of our very little baby tomato. Isn't it cute! I can't wait for it to grow up all big and strong. And, JUICY! I think I'll have it on a BELT...or maybe a BELT with cheese. (That's bacon, egg, lettuce, and tomato!). Nummy!

May 15, 2007

We celebrated our one week anniversary on Friday with a trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant, which happens to be only about 100 yards away. Unfortunately we didn't walk to dinner because the sky was very rumbly and we didn't want to get rained on....even though it never did rain. Then we headed to Costco to cash-in our gift membership (Thanks Nana J!).

We enjoyed our first weekend together as a married couple, and didn't do much besides play video games, watch the race at Darlington, watch movies, and just be lazy. It was perfect! We're hoping to be lazy again this weekend.

I told Jamie the other day that no matter what we're doing, even if he is on the computer and I'm in the living room watching tv or playing a video game, I'm never bored with him around. One of my favorite things to do is to watch him play games either on one of the game consoles or on the computer. My absolute favorite game to watch (and one of my favorites to play) is Age of Empires 3. Soooo fun!

We officially have two chipmunks. Soon after we'd moved in, we saw a chunky little chipmunk. Then just a few days ago we noticed the chipmunk looked tiny. We finally saw both of them out at the same time this afternoon. They're so cute!!! I've discovered a new past time---laying on the floor by the back door and watching the birds, squirrels (we usually have 3), and the chipmunks. So much fun!

I'm going to start archiving old posts on the front page of our website to our blog. I'll keep the three most recent posts on this page, and the rest will go to the blog. You can click on the link to the left to get to our blog. I may occasionally still post to my Yahoo 360 blog, but most of my random writings will be here.

May 9, 2007

We have been married for a whole five days! Eeee! So exciting!

We're enjoying married life, though it isn't really too much different from life these past six months. We just have pretty jewelry to wear now. Poor Jamie...his ring is too big! We had to order a smaller size when we ordered it from Marks and Morgan, but now his smaller sized ring is too big. It slips off his finger VERY easily. We'll have to look into getting some plastic ring sizers for him. His ring is made of tungsten carbide, so it can't be resized like gold or silver. It has to be cast for the correct size, which is what we did the first time. Oh well. Hopefully his fingers will swell up a bit when the humid NC summer kicks in.

April 29, 2007

Welcome to our new website! We figured we needed something to keep our friends and family up-to-date on what we're doing.

Like the masthead on top of the page? Yeah, I made that. All by myself! Cool, huh. One of the best parts about marrying Jamie is all the stuff that he brings, like his 52" HD tv, his XBox 360, his Playstation 2, and his monster computer which has the coolest software (including Photoshop CS2 that I used to make the masthead). If anybody out there needs some cool website artwork, just give me a holler!

Oh and just for your information, we're registered at the following places (gift cards welcome!):

Walmart

Target

Linens N' Things