Movin' On

This past Thanksgiving weekend, Aaron and I moved out of the apartment we've been living in since we were married in December of 2007. It was a bittersweet experience, because we're eager to move on to bigger and better things, but we've shared a lot of good (and a couple of bad) times there in the last two years.

We've moved in temporarily with Aaron's parents, who live in Dallas, GA and who have been so kind as to let us stay with them until we find a home that we want to buy. In the meantime, we have the tremendous blessing of being able to save some money and pay off some debt, since my wonderful in-laws are not charging us any rent. This is a huge blessing to us, since our piddly salaries make it pretty tough to get ahead financially.

The move went fairly smoothly overall, although it took us several days to get all the packing and cleaning finished (who knew you could accumulated so much stuff and so much mess in two years!), and we'll undoubtedly still be unpacking at the rents' place and making runs to the storage facility that we're stashing most of our stuff at for quite some time, but the worst is over, and for that I'm very grateful.

Introducing Kenneth "Danger" Murrietta

If you've checked out my Facebook profile lately, this is old news, but I wanted to write a post about our new kitty, Kenneth. We got him a few weeks ago from one of my co-workers, Diane, a couple days before he turned 6 weeks old. He is the apple of our eye. I named him Kenneth after my favorite character, Kenneth Parcell, from the show 30 Rock, who coincidentally is also from Georgia. There is a major difference between our Kenneth and this character, however, and that is that fact that Kenneth Parcell is sweet. Kenneth the kitty is not, although his looks would indicate otherwise.

Our Kenneth is VERY active. Nothing is safe when he's around. He loves to pounce on, bite, and scratch our hands, feet, and faces. He is very social and smart, though, which is a relief, since I had my doubts initially. When he first came to us, he wouldn't eat food, but instead would chomp on his kitty litter and think that was just great. Now's he's eating big kitty food (although he much prefers people food) and using the litterbox as it was intended.

As you can see in the above photo, he loves to spend time with us, although not always in the way we would like. Kenneth especially seems to enjoy when Aaron and I cuddle together, because he'll jump up between us and snuggle in too. Here you can see him taking a nap with Aaron:

He also enjoys solo naps as well, preferably in unexpected places and positions, as evidenced below:

His new trick is climbing to the top of the highest thing in the room. I nearly had a heart attack when I was in the kitchen and turned my head to discover my tiny little guy doing this:

Despite his naughtiness, I still adore my baby, to the point that I worry that I may be be on the verge of becoming one of those crazy cat ladies. I give him kisses on his cute little face all the time, a thing which I've never done with any of my family's cats in the past, even though I have to restrain his little paws so he won't scratch my eyes out with his needle-sharp nails. There's just something so endearing, though, about seeing him run to the door everyday when I come home and listening to him purr and purr and purr when I pick him up.

I think we'll keep him. :o)

My Projects

I've noticed lately that, although I love my life, I don't have very much going on right now that excites or interests me. My job, while I am very grateful to have it, isn't the most stimulating way to fill one's week. So I've decided that I wanna be like the many talented friends and relatives in my life that I've always admired who make and do interesting things. Here are a couple of projects that I've been working on lately:

Beaded Vase

(I should note here that this is a photo I swiped from joann.com, where I got the instructions on how to make it [http://www.joann.com/static/project/0903/P070154_beaded_brilliance_vase.pdf]. It is not the one that I made because I forgot to snap a photo of that one while it was still in my possession. However, the finished project looks relatively close to this one.)

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

I made these for a work party that I got to help plan with my co-workers Kristen and Lori. It was lots of fun!

Below is a pic of the whole snack set-up. Lori did the lemon cupcakes and Kristen (sitting behind the table) did the vanilla ones with colorful sprinkles:

I think it all turned out kinda springy and nice, what do you think? I also made a dip for the crackers too, one of those cream cheese-pineapple-pecan-bell pepper dealies. Here are the recipes, if you're interested:

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

chopped hazelnuts (optional)
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate hazelnut spread, divided
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/4 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 18 standard (2-1/2-inch) muffin cups with paper or foil baking cups.
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Beat 1/3 cup chocolate hazelnut spread and butter in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Beat in sugar until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling two-thirds full.
3. Bake 20 to 23 minutes or until cupcakes spring back when touched and toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.
4. Frost tops of cupcakes with remaining chocolate hazelnut spread. Sprinkle with hazelnuts.

~~

Pineapple Cream Cheese Dip

2 – 8 ounce packages softened cream cheese
1/3 cup finely chopped scallions
1/3 cup finely chopped red and green bell peppers
1 cup crushed pineapple in syrup (drained well)
1 cup pecans (finely chopped in processor)
1 tablespoon seasoned salt

Add cream cheese, scallions, peppers, pineapple, pecans and seasoned salt to bowl. Mix with a mixer to a smooth consistency. Serve with your favorite crackers. Keep in refrigerator.

~~

Next on my list is to take up knitting. We'll see how that goes...

Not-so-recent happenings

Wow, do I ever have some catching up to do! I'm a major blog slacker. All I can say is, life's been busy, although at this point, I'd be hard-pressed to tell you what with...

So, anyway, yeah, remember Valentine's Day? I barely do. Nonetheless, I found this image on my digital camera that I'd meant to share months ago of the breakfast I prepared for my hubby on Feb 14th:

I made him cinnamon rolls (one of his all-time faves) and scrambled eggs and served them to him in bed, which made he was pretty stoked about since he'd never had breakfast in bed before.

Aaron had planned on washing and waxing my car for my Valentine's Day surprise, however, it rained a good part of the day, so that plan didn't exactly pan out, but he did replace my windshield wipers, so all's well that ends well. It wasn't what you'd think of as a traditionally romantic thing to do, but it was what I really needed, so I was more than happy with it. I should mention, too, that Aaron also surprised me with a gift certificate for a massage at a local day spa. I used it the following weekend and was in utter heaven!

To dispel any thoughts you might be having about our gift-giving being one-sided, let me assure you that I did indeed purchase a gift for my hubby as well, however I will spare you the details of exactly what it was, because it was... well... bedroom-related and would fall into the category of "too much information." (You're welcome.)

Later that night, we had dinner at P.F. Chang's with our friends, Dean and Stephanie Hubbell. Good times were had by all, primarily due to the fact that we were one of the few parties that had actually made reservations. The place was PACKED, but we pretty much got right in.

All-in-all, it was a quiet but nice day. I've never been a huge Valentine's Day fan, but now that I'm married, I'm enjoying the chance to have a special day set aside for being just a little extra romantic and showing your spouse that you love and appreciate them. Aaron does so many sweet and thoughtful things for me throughout the year, and I seldom give him enough credit.

Love ya, babe!

Eureka! I have found it!

This may seem like a silly thing to blog about, but I feel the need to broadcast my joy to the rest of the world! I have finally found a satisfactory Indian restaurant in the Atlanta area (something that I thought was sorely lacking in this otherwise metropolitan area)!!! On my way home from a doctor's appointment last week, I saw a sign on the freeway for a restaurant that I'd heard of before, Haveli. I promptly hopped off the 75 and followed the arrows until I found this blessed place:

The restaurant didn't look like much--like a poorly renovated old Chili's from the 80s--but I took a chance and placed a to-go order for Chicken Tikka Masala (for me), Tandoori Chicken (for Aaron), and some basmati rice and paratha (yummy wheat flatbread) to share.

It was fabulous! My husband and both couldn't stop raving about the fact that it was just as good as the Indian food I left back in Washington DC, if not better. We're definitely going back as soon as we can afford to eat out again. ;o)

My life is now complete. Just thought I'd share.

Time for Change

I've been mulling over some ideas for some resolutions for 2009. Normally, I'll make a list a mile long of every single thing I can think of that I'd like to improve on, but I've come to realize that this is not a terribly productive approach, as there is no way I can successfully change 74 things about myself. So this year, I'm narrowing my focus down to three major goals:


1. Health Overhaul

Note: This does not simply mean weight loss, which is ALWAYS my #1 resolution every single year. Frankly, I'm sick of thinking about my weight and beating myself up over failing at diets. So instead, I'm determined to make a change for the better in my overall lifestyle. This will involve:

a. eating foods I know I should eat and eliminating the ones that I shouldn't (primarily sugar, which has become an unfortunate part of my daily food routine as of late)

b. portion control (only eating until I am satisfied)

c. getting some form of moderate exercise at least 3 days per week

d. finally kicking my Diet Coke habit


2. Increasing Spirituality

a. remembering to have personal prayer more often

b. incorporating daily scripture study (both personal and as a couple) into my/our routine

c. more faithful church attendance (i.e., not skipping out on Sunday School)


3. Becoming a Better Wife

a. watching the negativity and sarcasm

b. engaging in more effective communication (really listening and responding in general conversation, not giving the silent treatment during disagreements, etc.)

c. not finding fault, but rather looking for the positive deeds and attributes


Wish me luck! I'm hoping by posting these resolutions (personal though they may be), that I will feel more accountable for doing them. I hope that by 2010, I will be well on my way to being the kind of woman/wife/daughter of God that I know I have the potential to be.

I'd be very interested to hear some of your resoluations as well! And, whether you decide to make that information public or not, I wish you luck with them too.