Happy Holidays

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written. Life happens - Tom and I have often said things like, after college, things will slow down. Or after our wedding, things will slow down. Or after we move into the house, after we get settled, when Daisy grows up a little bit... the list goes on and on. I'm beginning to believe everyone who keeps telling me life doesn't slow down. That's okay - I think that's the way I like it. As my uncle says, you can sleep when you're dead. This was my motto in college, and I must say that I've fallen off the wagon a little bit with it lately. I've just been so tired for some reason! But, I have decided to start anew - no matter what time I go to bed, I'm going to get up at 7 every day except Saturday! There's just so many things I want to do that I don't have time for so I'm going to make time. I see this as another step in my adulthood, and I'm going to embrace it. For those of you who don't know me very well, I'm a very mind over matter kind of person. When I was in middle school, my allergies got really bad - almost to the point of surgery. Thankfully, we were able to avoid that (after seeing a string of doctors, taking a slew of medicine, and having 2 CT scans). However, I was told I would have to take allergy medicine for the rest of my life - every day. At 13, I just couldn't fathom taking a pill EVERY day for the REST of my life! I mean, that seemed completely absurd. So I quit taking them and haven't looked back. Before you start thinking I'm too much of a whacko, at the ripe old age of 26 (twice what I was when I started putting this philosophy into place), I have realized that some things you just can't will yourself to get over. I have problem feet. They've always been hard to fit in terms of finding shoes, but as I get older, I have find them more and more unwieldy. This, I have tried to ignore for some time, but I admit publicly to you today - I have a problem. After seeing a podiatrist who recommended surgery as soon as I could, I have put away my love for high heels and have started ridding my closet of them in favor of comfort and lifelong health (I kind of want to be able to walk when I'm 50... and 80 for that matter!). Who has time for a recovery period of 4-8 weeks?! I certainly don't so I will bow to his recommedations to prolong what he sees is the inevitable.

Now, for the fun stuff! I've been doing some cooking and a lot of decorating since I last wrote. Enjoy!

 This is a ham and broccoli quiche I made from a recipe I found on foodnetwork.com. I love that site! I had some broccoli leftover from a shower that I needed to do something with (same as the broccoli cheese soup from last post). As you can see, it was pretty good - it didn't last very long :-)

 Tom and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. His parents came to stay with us, and we had 8 people eat Thanksgiving lunch. Tom and I cooked the turkey on our new grill - it was delicious, but it had to cook 12 hours so poor Tom stayed up most of the night basting and adding coals every few hours. What a wonderful husband I have!

 We enjoyed decorating our house for the first time for Thanksgiving.

 Mom and I found most of these things for our table at Kohl's - that store has the best sales!

Here's our bird - finally done! It was delicious - we were so impressed with how well it turned out!

 Here's Tom's parents. We had quite a spread of food, as you can see - turkey, ham, dressing, sweet potato casserole, asparragus casserole, spaghetti and cheese, gravy, rolls. My mom came over and helped us cook everything. It was neat to see how it's all done and participate more than I ever have.

The cold stuff table - cranberry jelly, whole cranberries, cranberry relish, pickled peaches, lime jello delight, and homemade mayonaise. It was a feast for sure! We have so much to be thankul for...

 These beautiful leaf placemats are from our Rehearsal Dinner. LOVE them.

 We've really enjoyed decorating for Christmas - we've been looking forward to that since we moved in in June.

 This is our little Auburn ornament tree that sits in our Auburn room - can you tell we're Auburn fans?

 Tom and I tried to go cut our own Christmas tree this year like my family used to do when I was younger. Apparently, Christmas trees don't grow in the wild like I thought, but we had a good time walking around in the woods. We supported our local economy by buying this one the next day. It's so pretty without anything on it... every year my dad says he wants to just have the tree the way it is. Maybe we'll do that some day.

Here is it decorated in all it's glory! It smells so wonderful, too. Daisy's not quite sure what to make of it, but right now, I'm just glad she hasn't eaten any ornaments or pulled it over! I hope each of you has a wonderful Christmas with your families - don't forget the reason we celebrate. God sent his only son, Jesus, to die for us and save us from our sins. Christmas is about love and family and faith - hard to remember sometimes when you're speeding to get to the stores for the killer sales - but very important. Merry Christmas!

Our First Anniversary

I really can't believe it's been a year since our wedding, October 30, 2010. It's been so wonderful - married life is even better than I ever dreamed. Tom and I have had such a good time, and we are looking forward to all the experiences to come that God has in store for us. In honor of our anniversary, I'll devote this blog post to our story. I'm sure some of you have heard this a million times while for others, it's the first. Either way, I hope you enjoy :-)

How we met...

Tom and I came from different high schools to start as college freshman in August of 2004. We met in an Engineering Physics lab the second week of school. I got lost finding the room (it was our first lab) and came in late to find only one or two seats empty. I went to sit down, and this guy next to me turned to let me know that stool was broken. He got up and got me a different stool, and flustered, I sat down. Next, we had to get into groups. As I looked around totally lost, he asked me to join his group. The rest, they say, is history...

I took notice of Tom for several reasons that night - As we were working on our lab, it became abuntantly clear that I had no idea what I was doing, and he was right at home. As we answered the questions, I had to totally rely on him because I had no clue. We got to this particularly long, wordy question in the form of a paragraph that began with "Explain how the ..." I read the question, turned to see Tom skim it, and then write simply "Yes" and move on. I was met with a predicament - I knew I knew nothing about Physics, but I was fairly sure the answer wasn't yes. So, I tried to very politely say - Umm... I don't think yes is the answer to that one... He read it again and laughed out loud and started over. I was flabbergasted! I mean, here we are - the new kids at a very big school trying to fit in and make friends! I would have been so embarrassed, and he just laughed at himself and went on like nothing happened. I took a liking to Tom right then.

As we finished lab, I said I was going to a block party to meet up with some friends from high school. He said he'd come, too. I was glad to have someone to walk with me as it was about 8 pm and very dark. We chatted for a while, and I mentioned that my computer had somehow gotten a virus and wasn't working. Tom offered to come look at it for me which I gladly agreed to! As we were walking to my dorm, I started thinking - are you crazy? what are you doing? you don't know this guy, and you know your roommate isn't home! what if he's an axe murderer?! So I called my friend, Cliff, who also lived at the same dorm and asked him to meet us there. Long story short, Tom, bless his sweet heart, spent two hours fixing not just my computer but my roommate, Jennifer's, too. After that, we became the best of friends and spent a lot of time together studying, going to games and events, and just enjoying college life. We started dating January 7, 2005, and it's been so amazing sharing life with him ever since. Here's the first digital picture I have of us - taken at the end of freshman year.

Our engagement...
So fast forward to Friday, March 26, 2010. We had both graduated from college and were working. Tom was living in another state but was coming into town that night to spend the weekend with me. I got off work at 2 to go to the grocery store and finish getting ready for his visit. When I walked out to my car, this is what I found...

I was really confused.... I called Tom immediately and started looking all around. When he answered, I said, "Someone left a rose on my car - do you know anything about that?" Basically, he responded with, "I might... Why don't you come to your apartment to find out?" And I must admit, dear readers - I had been hoping Tom would propose for months, but somehow, I didn't see it coming. The thought didn't even enter my head. I was just excited he was in town already! Dense, I know. When I arrived at my apartment, the door was cracked, and when I opened it, here's what I saw...

Now, here's my favorite part of the story (which Tom vehemently denies, but I know the truth) - I ran in and got down on my knees to hug him. When I pulled away, he said, "Can I change knees?" Lol - apparently, he'd been on that one knee for 10 mins waiting on me to get there. His proposal was so beautiful and heartfelt. It was a great day. Here's one of my favorite engagement pictures...

I really enjoyed wedding planning - some people may think I'm crazy, and maybe I am - but it was just right down my alley. Our October wedding was just fabulous - the colors were so rich and beautiful, the weather was perfect, the trees were changing - God really gave me a perfect day to marry my best friend. Here's some of my favorite wedding pictures...

 (this crazy look on my face is because I literally could not see through all the bubbles!)

We honeymooned in a little cabin outside of Pigeon Forge, TN - it was exactly what we wanted! Here's the view from the cabin so you can see what I mean.

For our anniversary, we went to Pine Mountain, GA, to stay in a little Bed and Breakfast, which I'd never done before. It was really neat! We enjoyed it a lot, and I'm sure we'll be doing a lot more of that in the future. We spent one beautiful day at Callaway Gardens including doing their new Tree Top Adventure obstacle course. It was awesome, and we had such a great time! Pictures of that in my next post :-) We spent our second day at FDR State Park canoeing and then at the Little White House. This little getaway was just what we needed.

I will admit I spent a large part of our canoe trip taking pictures and yelling "Row! Row!" (Geico commercial anyone? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU6hmgTY76M) Lol - but I really did do a lot of rowing, too. It was so peaceful out there on the lake. I hope we start doing a lot more stuff like this.

Lastly, I'll leave you with some tasty tidbits - my wonderful husband makes the best omelets around! He made me this one when we got home from our anniversary trip - ham, cheese, onions, and red peppers with salsa on the side. Yum!

That last picture is some home-made-up broccoli cheese soup Tom and I created the other night - I had a bunch of excess broccoli from a baby shower I hosted that I had to do something with so we got creative. It actually turned out very well! Just cream of mushroom soup, steamed broccoli (that I put in the food processor), sherry, milk, chicken broth, salt, seasoned pepper, and a little flour - oh, plus a ton of shredded cheddar cheese :-) Bon appetit!







Pumpkin time!

Tom and I finally got around to carving our pumpkins this past weekend! Here's the progression -

 (the line up before!)

 (tools of the trade - thankfully, mom got us a pumpkin carving kit; I thought it was cheap looking at first but that green scoop and tiny saw were great - could't have done it without them!)

 (step one - cut the top off - make sure to cut at an angle so the top won't fall in when you sit it back on top)

(Tom hard at work on his - I love this face he's making!)

 (pretty good job cleaning out my pumpkin, I'd say...)

 (my first one - a flower)

 (my second one - a B)

 (Tom's - looks like Doug Funny to me)

 (the final lineup!)

 (lol - love this one with his 1 question mark ear - I envision Doug Funny saying, "Huh?")

(hot chicken salad and roasted asparagus that I made for dinner - I can't leave y'all without at least one food picture :-) It was really good! Let me know if you want the recipe!)

Can't wait for our anniversary this weekend - so hard to believe it's been a year, and I so look forward to celebrating one of the best years of my life with my wonderful, loving husband :-) Stay tuned for pictures from our trip!



Domesticated

I am constantly amazed at how domestic I've become - I really enjoy doing things around the house - even cleaning and yard work! One of the things I've gotten really into lately is cooking. Tom and I found early on that we came from two totally different backgrounds when it comes to the kitchen. I came from a household where both of my parents cooked - by and large, they actually cook the same things just in different ways. I'm used to two kinds of potato salad, meatloaf, cole slaw, etc. My parents cook traditional Southern dishes in the traditional Southern way - a very meat and three kind of attitude with recipes and methods that have been passed down through generations. My mom uses recipes for formal things like Thanksgiving/Christmas dinners, but my dad just operates on the pinch of this, smidge of that philosophy. Bottom line, both of them cook at least 95% of the time without a recipe and make 95% of what they cook from scratch. This is the exact antithesis to what Tom is used to.

His mom was the only one that cooked. She makes a lot of casseroles - things that are a whole meal in one dish basically. They make Jiffy cornbread and gravy out of a pouch, and they NEVER cook anything without a recipe.

This has been one of the many ways we've grown through our relationship. If you know us, you also know that I'm Protestant and Tom's Catholic, and we go to both churches every Sunday - we have for years. Our differences in cooking have been very much like our differences in worship - we have grown so much by experiencing each other's traditions. Not only did we learn about how the other half lives, so to speak, but we learned more about ourselves through these explorations.

So, exactly as you might expect, Tom and I went about learning how to cook just like we were raised. I would come up with these crazy concoctions out of whatever I had in the pantry at the time, and Tom would carefully select a recipe and make a grocery run for those ingredients. I make it a challenge to wait as long as I possibly can to go to the store by pulling together whatever I have in the pantry. I am proud to say that after almost 7 years together, we've rubbed off on each other nicely. I regularly utilize Food Network for new recipes, and Tom (when once petrified at the idea of cooking without a recipe) has thrown a pinch of ambiguity into his analytical life by branching out of his recipe bondage.

The past few days are a perfect example - a veritable amalgam of our family traditions. Get ready for the slideshow :-)

I have been hearing Tom reminisce fondly about his mom's homemade juice for years, and in the many times I've been to his parents' house, I haven't had the priviledge of trying it for myself. This past weekend, we remedied that! We spent the weekend at the in-laws' and made homemade apple juice, orange juice, and carrot juice. Here's what we started with -

After some washing and chopping, we ended up with apples and carrots in this configuration -

The oranges took a little more work. They needed to be peeled. I've never used a citrus peeler before, but after one time this weekend, I will never go back to my old ways of just using my fingers. This thing was awesome! Take a look at my handiwork :-)

 First, you take the peeler and score the orange all the way around. Then, you use the other end of the peeler to pry up the peel. Below, you see my first completed orange - the "fruit of my labor' if you will :-)

Here you have it - my bowl of completely (and beautifully I think...) peeled oranges along with my crowning achievement - I was able to peel a whole orange in only two pieces! I'm a dork, I know, but it was pretty exciting :-)

Next, we put them into the juicer, and out came the juice. The orange and the apple were really good! The carrot - not so much. It tasted like dirt - literally. I just couldn't stomach it, but I figure 2 out of 3 ain't bad (as the song goes).

I'll leave you with a few more tasty treats from my kitchen so far this week! Last night, I made salisbury steak (hamburger patties, onions, mushrooms, beef bullion, and cream of mushroom soup served on toast!). It turned out really well!

Tom really enjoyed it, and Daisy wanted some, too!

Then, this morning, I was actually able to get up and fix breakfast - scrambled eggs with ham, onions, tomatoes, and cheese - my favorite!

 Unfortunately, we ended last night on a rather bad note. I accidentally left my phone outside, and Daisy made it her new chew toy. The back looks like it was melted over a fire, and the front is all chewed up including missing the letter K entirely. Amazingly, the thing still works, and this wouldn't be such a tragedy since I don't need the letter K very often, except for the fact that the apostrophe is also on the letter K. I certainly use that a lot. As a former copy editor, it really bugs me to not use corrent puncuation. So if you receive a correspondence from me in the next little while with poor grammar or puncuation, please forgive me and blame Daisy ;-)

Lastly, I mentioned that some friends and I went to see Wicked at the Fox Theater recently. Here we are after the awesome show!

Until next time...

What a year it's been...

I began this blog talking about all the changes in my life this year, but that was me tantalizing you again since I never spilled the details about those changes - the real reason why I decided to start this blog and call it Our Moving Target. It's been moving super fast for us lately!

We got married almost a year ago, October 30, 2010 - one of the happiest days of my life, the day I married my best friend... so you can imagine that the time before that was extremely hectic with showers and gifts and decisions and planning. Well, it hasn't slowed down since! Writing thank you notes and organizing our gifts carried us straight to the holidays - our first holidays spent together. It was such a special time, and we were able to make it work out where we saw both families for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Tom's parents were so kind to come spend Christmas here with us and my family to make our first Christmas easy on us, and I appreciate that so much.

(here we are in front of our Christmas tree!)

After Christmas and New Year's, Tom and I started seriously thinking about buying a house. We met with our realtor friend, Monte, saw a bunch of houses, and finally decided to build. We say build, and everyone looks at us like we're insane. Without exception, people always say - "Wow, you're newlyweds and building a house?! That's the hardest thing we ever did! If your marriage can survive that, you can survive anything!" (Which is just terribly encouraging I must say...) Well, I guess we'll stand the test of time because building our house was one of the easiest things we've ever done! Granted, it's one of those planned neighborhoods where you choose the lot, the floor plan, and all the colors (paint, granite, wood, etc.), but we had a great time! We came out to the house every day (sometimes more than that) and watched in amazement as our first home was built from the ground up in record time! They actually finished early - critics be damned!

 (here we are having a picnic on our foundation - thanks for the great idea, Mom!)

Of course this wasn't enough to keep us busy either - what better to add to newlyweds building a house than a brand new puppy?! Yes, in our infinite wisdom we brought home our beloved Daisy. Much like most of our major decisions we make (getting engaged, building a house), we felt like it was God's plan for us on God's timing, and she has certainly been a blessing. I plan to devote a whole post to the Daisy Dog so stay tuned for that :-)

Lastly, all that just wasn't enough on our plates, so I began studying for the Series 7 - the General Securities Exam - to be a Registered Representative of the financial industry. Some how, I began studying for this test (which takes 4 months to prepare for) in March, poor timing since we started building the house (which also takes 4 months to complete) in March. Yeah, not the smartest thing I've ever done. But it worked out okay. They finished the house early. We moved in. My very benevolent boss gave me paid time off to get moved in and settled AS WELL AS time to finish studying for and taking the test!

Thankfully, and by the grace of God, I passed and took the state licensing test a month later. This was followed closely by a small housewarming party that included about 50 guests and a shower for Mal the following week! (The housewarming party is quite a story since I convinced Tom to let me invite that many people by promising him that only half would come! Needless to say, he freaked out a little when the RSVPs kept coming in...)

My dad went into the hospital for a low sodium problem at the end of August, and trying to do what I can about his health (plus Mallory's wedding and the associated activities) has brought me to October. So you see, it's been a pretty crazy year. It's gone by so quickly, and people say it only gets faster from here. I simply can't believe that, but I guess it must be true. I will certainly try to soak it all in, never let a moment slip away unappreciated or unexplored, but still I find myself at the ripe old age of 25 and having no idea how I got here. It seems like just yesterday I was heading to take my driver's test with my dad on my 16th birthday. Wow...

Next up, a trip to visit Tom's parents, the Run to Read benefiting my mom's nonprofit, Jean Dean RIF, our anniversary, and year 2 of our holidays as a married couple :-) Bring it on, life - I'm ready for you!

(here we are in front of our house - I wish you could see the looks on our faces - Daisy was going CRAZY while we were trying to take these pictures!)

Already late...

It was my intention to update this blog every weekend. Here it is, only my second post, and I'm already behind schedule. Oh well, pardon our progress, I'm working for YOU! :-)

I do have a good excuse for missing Saturday's post. My two good friends, Amy and Amy, lovingly referred to as The Amys, came to visit on Friday. We try to get together once a month - it's been really neat to keep in touch that way. We alternate who's house we go to, and this one was my turn to host - mostly because I'm the closest to Atlanta, and we had tickets to go see Wicked on Saturday!!! It was my second time to see Wicked, one Amy's third time, and the other Amy's first time to the Fox Theatre at all, let alone first time to see the play! Tom went with us, too, and we had a great time! We listened to the music all the way there, singing our parts at the top of our lungs - I'm Elphaba, and Amy is Glenda. Tom just listens :-) The next phase of the trip was to eat at what has become my favorite restaurant - seriously, it's that good. It's Figo Pasta (pronounced fig-like the fruit-OH). There are, like, 5 locations in ATL so if you're ever in the vacinity, you have to try it! It's the freshest, most affordable, most delicious food I've found, and the locations are all so trendy and fun. www.figopasta.com Now that I've finished my Dave from Wendy's unofficial spokesperson routine, back to the show :-)

Wicked was great - so much fun! I'd post pictures, but one of the little usher men got on to us for even pulling out our cameras so the best I've got is a picture of us outside the theatre. I'll post it next time - I have to add some suspense to keep you coming back for more :-)

That reminds me - I talked about my husband and my puppy in the first post, but I was remiss not to post pictures. Here is the most up-to-date picture I have of Tom and me. Wow, I just realized I don't have any pictures of us since Easter... that's pretty sad...

 As for Daisy, bless her heart, I dropped her off at the Vet today to get tutored (if anyone remembers that Far Side cartoon...) She was so excited to see new people and dogs though - I hope she can maintain that happy attitude when she has to spend the night. Here's a picture of her in the car on the way over and then waiting to be taken back...

(she just sits on the back seat like such a big girl!)

Haha - she's so excited - she has no idea what's coming - but she's excited nonetheless!

Time to go get ready for my weekly lunch date with my husband then work. I'll leave you with one last picture - this is me right before Mal's wedding (that I also talked about last post). Until we meet again...