Valentines day is, by no means, a well celebrated holiday in our house hold. Largely we both think of it as a Hallmark holiday, but one that has some amazing deals on food (champagne, steaks, seafood, chocolates etc). We took advantage on Saturday (read: NOT the big V Day) and picked up a couple of nice steaks along with some manila clams.

We cooked up the steaks using a recipe that we pulled off of a main dish challenge viewed on Worst Cooks In America (Anne's Rib Eyes with Mushroom Sauce) and we steamed the clams in a white wine/garlic reduction. It was bliss. I was in heaven. I love good deals on food.

I'm getting hungry just thinking about what we had on Saturday night.

I may have to go grab my lunch a couple hours early.

Drool.

At any rate, you may be wondering what we did last night. We didn't ignore it all together. We usually spend the evening in. Together. Watching a movie, or whatever else strikes our fancy. Last night? We had sandwiches and watched Smokey and the Bandit II. We washed it down with some $4 champagne.


What can I say? We keep it classy around here in Jonesville.

This is my guy. Isn't he handsome? He has earned many, many kudos recently and deserves to be told how fabulous he is as often as possible. He has maintained (mostly) a positive attitude through this whole business with unemployment, but there are more reasons as well.

1. He's quitting. Smoking that is. He's only broken down and had one twice since he quit. He's gone cold-turkey. I am beyond proud of him. 
2. He cooks for me. If you haven't had his food, you're missing out. Though we may be on simple fare now, due to our budget, but he pulls off this fare flawlessly. Because I'm the only one working right now I'm usually not allowed to cook. 
3. He cleans for me too. Same deal, he cleans like a mad person and generally doesn't allow me to clean because I'm the one working. 
4. In the face of some pretty serious adversity he has done his best to support me, and I him, to hold each other up and to just generally do good. 

I love this man more than I can even begin to explain. He makes me laugh every single day and he's my best friend. 

Also today? He got the job. I'm going to go home and celebrate with him this afternoon, because he is more than deserving of this opportunity.

ACK!

The wedding reception table

I completely forgot to post our Anniversary blog! EEK! Meh - Looks like no one has noticed, so none of you will mind it going up a few days late. December 19th, Mike and I celebrated our first year of marriage... it is also just shy of marking just shy of 7 years together. I know, it's crazy but true.



Our first year of marriage was, by no means, easy. It was fraught with difficulty, stress, more stress... and some stress. But we made it through it, stronger and closer. I won't go into details... since it's all on the site for your reading pleasure... or at least most of it is. (hint, hint)

Rob & Mari dancing

The guys (Rob G, Justin V, Mike)

In the coming year we have yet more to help each other through. And, while I cannot say I look forward to all of it, I will say that I look forward to the growth that it provides us as a couple and as individuals. We'll be moving in April, living alone (hopefully) for the first time in longer than I can count. He still doesn't have a permanent job, but I will say that things are looking up on the employment front. We hope to continue our adventures with some of our very closest friends, and hopefully tackle some gorgeous hikes this summer. Through all of it, I look forward to keeping you all in the loop. Coming up next week there will be a year in review post... or perhaps I should call it a coming in 2011. I don't know. We'll figure it out.

The girls (Katie V, Me, Jen G)

Regardless, we're all here for one another.




Christmas is just three short days away. Wait... is that right? Three? EEEP! Our stockings are hanging, the tree is up and decorated. I've baked more Christmas treats than I can count... or eat, the cards are sent and most of my shopping is done. So I guess I've got that going for me.

Much love and happy holidays from our family to yours!

Christmastime is, without a doubt, my favorite time of the year. The twinkling lights, beautiful paper, and giving gifts. It's the season for snow, hot apple cider, and crackling fires. I adore the functions and the hustle and bustle of the season.

This Christmas, as mentioned in a previous post, I'm having a tough time really getting into the mood of the season. Or rather, my mood for the season. To help me rediscover my misplaced holiday cheer, however, my wonderful and loving husband is doing everything he can to keep some of our little traditions alive.

Tree:

My tree is a nearly sacred thing for me during the holidays. With the twinkling lights and precious little memories hanging on it... the darned thing just screams of love and joy. Normally, we don't get the tree up until a couple weeks before Christmas.. We like our real trees. This year, however, we'll be getting the beast (we have very tall ceilings) a little early... next weekend early! Stay tuned for some photos of this years beauty.

Even if it is the one thing we can manage this year... it will go a long way towards making it feel like my favorite time of year.

I know its a little early for this post. Thanksgiving hasn't even arrived yet... but I'm going with the feeling anyhow. 

I'm having a heck of a time getting into the holiday spirit this year. I feel like I'm just going through the motions of winding up for the season. I feel badly for it too. The Christmas season is my favorite. I start thinking about it the moment we clear the hurdle of Halloween and, if I didn't have a penchant for live trees, I try to start decorating the day after Thanksgiving. I love finding the perfect gift for someone and hope that it is unexpected and lovely for them to receive it. Best of all, Mike and I will be celebrating our 1st year of marriage just before Christmas this year. 

I'd  originally had visions of a lovely day spent Christmas shopping and baking together before ending it with a celebratory meal at one of our favorite restaurants, but with Mike out of work we won't be able to do that. Realizing that our budget constraints have reached their ugly little fingers into my favorite time of the year was a blow. A crushing one at that. 

And to be honest? It's kinda put a hitch in my giddy-up. I'm sure we'll manage for the anniversary, we're still sending cards out ... I'm ordering them tomorrow, in fact. We'll still have evenings in front of the fire with a Christmas movie on... it just doesn't seem to have the same sparkle for me that it normally does. 

Hopefully the snow will cheer me up this year (I've got my fingers crossed for the anniversary since it didn't snow on the wedding)... Snow always brightens my day. We may even have some this weekend. 

Happy mid-week to you all. 

I distanced myself quite a bit from all of the social media outlets: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, ... pretty much everything... after my dear friend suffered the loss of her little angel. I felt like I needed to refocus, regroup and just generally get my bearings. It was hard. Really hard. I had a really tough time coping with it for a while and then I discovered something.   I am that person. The lady that shows up with a veritable truckload of food for two people.

It helped to be able to help them. I'm at their disposal whenever they need me.

But, while dealing with tragedy, the world spins on. It's pretty much the way of things. And with the world spinning on... I have some general updates to bring everyone up to date!

Family Shout-Outs
We've had two birthdays this month - both were celebrated this past weekend. Both are such fabulous people that, really, they deserve shout outs of their own. I'm combining them because I neglected to post them on their respective birthdays.




Mom: My mom's birthday fell in the middle of last week. My mom is my hero. It's pretty much all I can say... and yet it doesn't even begin to do her justice. The woman has a strength and resilience that I can only hope to attain a shadow of in my lifetime... and yet she is possessed of  limitless warmth, compassion, wit... I could go on, but I'll stop here. I guess, to sum up, she is one of the most fabulous people I know. She taught me so much about baking, one of my favorite hobbies, and I really think that everyone should meet her. Happy Birthday (belated on the blog, not in person) Mom! I love you!




Dad: Hubs' Dad's birthday is four days after my mom's. It makes for an interesting week in Mid-October. He is a fabulously funny and caring guy. He has done nothing but make me feel like a part of the family since I met him... during an admittedly trying time in his life. He never fails to make me laugh, regardless of the mood I'm in. Happy Birthday! We love you too!








News
In other news... Hubs finally got an interview! HOORAY! Interestingly enough the company he interviewed with conducted the interview over the phone. Regardless of how he interviewed... it is done! He made it through round 2ish of the hiring process! This week he is brushing up on some math he hasn't had cause to use since high school, so that he can take a competency test on the 29th. Everyone? Keep your fingers crossed! I've got absolute faith that he'll be fine, but every little thing helps, doesn't it?

That's all I've got for today - I should be more regular around here again.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

It should come as no surprise to those of you who know him well, that hubs is really just a big kid at heart. I, very occasionally, have to remind him to pick up his socks, or that the house is not a playground - and that rough-housing with the dogs is really best done outside. As you can imagine things like this, while endearing at times, can also be very frustrating. (I was not impressed the day I came home and he had to explain why one of our wedding champagne flutes had bitten the dust) At other times, however, he gets excited over the simplest of things that just hit at my heart... and truthfully makes him completely adorable.

Over the weekend Beauty and the Beast came in the mail. I hadn't told him that it was coming.. I mean seriously why should he care about a Disney animated movie? He hemmed and hawed about getting the mail Saturday night, complaining about the rain (I admit it was a little on the side of torrential downpour), but eventually he went and got it anyway. When he dropped my main unceremoniously on my lap, he asked what the package was. I shrugged and told him it was a movie and saw to the rest of the mail.

Hubs: What movie didja get?

Me: It's whatever the feature of the month is..

Hubs: Hannah Montana?

Me: Don't be snide...

Hubs: Open it!

Me: I'm getting to it..

Hubs: Open it now!

Me: Alright, Alright... I think it's a vault movie  (He perked up at this one)

Hubs: OOOOOh... which one?!?!

Me: Umm... (as I'm opening the movie) I think it's Beauty and the Beast. (I couldn't remember... it seems like they have you make a decision on your movie a month before it even ships... so I always seem to be a month off. As a result? I couldn't remember if we were getting that movie next month or if it was here now.)

Hubs: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST? I LOVE THAT MOVIE

I hope the caps gets across his excitement at the prospect of this movie being in the container... I pulled the movie out and held it up to show him that it was, indeed, Beauty and the Beast. He grabbed the darned thing, snapped a picture and sent it to his parents squeeeing the whole time over the newest addition to our movie collection. We were watching it an hour later.

It is his favorite Disney Movie.

God I love him, he cracks me up.

Mia was in town this past weekend. It had been just shy of three years since the last time I saw her. Being one of my favorite people, I was super excited. (Heck... I moved with her to New Jersey...I really hope I like her)  To celebrate her first visit to the Seattle area since she left 10 years ago we decided to hit up some of the places she missed last time she was here.

Thursday morning dawned beautifully and Hubs and I were really looking forward to cracking out the last couple of things we needed to get accomplished before Mia's arrival that night. Unfortunately, we started the day in the ER. . . discovering that the poor guy is a kidney stone production factory. Suffice to say, he was in pain. He's still working on passing... or not passing a rather large one, so you'll understand when I say he was a trooper this weekend. He hung in there for most of our escapades all weekend. And let me tell you... when we get together, we can sometimes be a handful.

At any rate, it was a jet setting weekend!

Friday morning we all got up early and headed up to Deception Pass. It's really quite beautiful up there, however Washington decided to roll out the fog and mist for the day.

When we'd finally given up on seeing the bridge from the beach below, of course the fog started to lift and we were treated to a truly haunting sight! We moved up to the top of the bridge to walk across and enjoy the vistas. While we were there, we also discovered that you can walk under the bridge!

We lunched at the La Conner Brewing Company with some fabulous pizza and amazing smoked cheddar dip. After which we finally decided to head home. For Dinner we hit the crab pot (one of the few things Mia requested was excellent crab... this place has it!)and finally called it a day.

Saturday was dinner at Jak's with a mutual friend of Mia's and mine along with some much needed lazing about. Yesterday, we headed off to Leavenworth to show her our cute little Bavarian village. We had lunch at a small place right in the middle of town, where the staff looked like viable candidates for the cast of Waiting 3. We're all back now, Mia has jetted back off to California... we will miss her terribly, but hope she comes back to visit soon.

If you're a lurker of this blog, you'll note that some new pictures will be popping up in the flickr photos on the right of this blog. I've finally rediscovered the desire to finish processing wedding photos. I'm sure you're all very excited at the prospect of this.

I'll be posting them to Shutterfly, as usual, so that y'all have access to purchase what you'd like. Thank you all for your patience while I slog through this task with minimal photo editing software to use. Flickr's partnership with Picknik is awesome, but it doesn't really give you the fine tuned control that actual editing software does. Since it's cost-prohibitive to own such software all of my processing will be done via Pikinik, so I still love them.

The shutterfly link has made it's way to the right side of the page... somewhat under the flickr shortcut, but it's there.

Our wedding was unfortunately a small one. Sure it was beautiful and I wouldn't trade it for a darned thing in the whole world, but it was small. As a result of it's size . . . and possibly due to the abruptness with which we decided to get married, many members of our family and friends have not yet had the pleasure of meeting either myself or Mike.This makes us both sad.

But wait! I have hit upon a solution: I will simpy introduce us here! Check past the break to actually get to know us!