What's this? A new blog?

I must confess that I'm sometimes a little bit of a blog-stalker. And I've noticed that I tend to get a little irritated when people don't update their blogs as often as I think they should. This might be slightly hypocritical of me since our last blog was posted in March. (And that's only because my husband decided to write it... the last post I wrote was in January!)

So, where to begin?

Bryan started school last month and is really enjoying it. He's taking English, Math, Psychology and Microcomputers. He's pretty much acing every paper, test and assignment he takes. (He almost didn't let me put them up on the refrigerator, but I did anyway. I'm a bad wife like that.)

Work is going pretty well for me. I'm realizing that being a supervisor can really suck sometimes, but I'm learning a lot. My boss is sending me to a management class in September, so I'm looking forward to that. (I realize that sitting in a hotel conference center listening to someone tell you how to manage doesn't sound like fun, but I get paid to miss work, so I'm happy. Also, I can't imagine the class will run as long as my normal work hours (8:30 to 7:30), so I should be able to have a relaxing evening too. Maybe I can even cook dinner!)

For Memorial Day, Bryan and I drove up to Indiana to visit my parents. Even though we could only spend the weekend, we really enjoyed spending time with them.
(And ice cream from the Chocolate Moose was also a highlight!) Bloomington is a really neat city... tons of ethnic restaurants, cool community resources, a pretty downtown/campus, etc. Bryan and I drove up again with Amy, Steve and Jason about a month later to help my parents celebrate their 40th anniversary! We had a great time exploring more of the city and we managed to plan the weekend around the Taste of Bloomington, which was really nice. Nothing like getting to try lots of different restaurants all contained in the same city block!

Sorry it takes so long.

Well Laura hasn't done this in awhile so i thought i would try. Okay I got laid off in Jan and haven't had the best luck in finding a new job. It isn't very fun sitting at home so i cook and clean, I guess you can say i have become the stay at home husband.
I actually went golfing for the first time since we moved and shot two birdies. Laura is still working a lot, they treat her well in my opinion. I think she enjoys her job too.
Laura just had a birthday and I bought her the Wii Fit (we love it). she also got to go buy all new clothes, because she has lost so much weight her clothes didn't fit. We went to the Buckhead Diner for her birthday dinner. One of the best dining experiences and the food was so amazing.
Laura had a glass of wine, then the sweet potato bisque, which was so savory and sweet with a little spice to it. For an appetizer she of course had a crab cake it was crispy and flavorful. She had grilled swordfish with braised fennel, artichoke, and rhubarb. I had a very nice quadrupel and kriek, and instead of soup i had a beet and goat cheese salad (for those who know wow right) with spinach and a raspberry vinaigrette. For and appetizer i had sirloin garrpacio with arugula and capers, it was mouthwatering i just can't describe it. I also had the grilled swordfish. For dessert Laura had double layer chocolate cake with a cappuccino and I had peach bread pudding with an Irish coffee.

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year's!

Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great time visiting my parents in Indiana. Amy, Steve, Jason and Puck were able to drive up the week before Christmas to spend time with my parents, and Bryan and I drove up Christmas Eve after work. Amy and Steve had to leave Christmas day, but we were able to have breakfast and open presents with them before they left. The whole trip was very nice and relaxing!

For New Year's, Bryan and I very happily stayed at home doing absolutely nothing! (Well, we did manage to clean the house and do some much needed laundry. Other than that, we watched movies and played the Wii.) As much as we enjoyed visiting both our families for Thanksgiving and Christmas, it was nice to have a four-day weekend where we didn't have to get on a plane or be in a car for more than 20 minutes!

Unfortunately, we received some bad news this week. Bryan's work has been slow for a few months now and on Wednesday, Bryan was told that he's been laid-off. It's scary, especially with the economy how it is, but we're both optimistic that something great will come from this and Bryan's using this as an opportunity to find something even better.

We appreciate all of your love and support and hope all of you have a wonderful and prosperous 2009!

A photo tour of our new apartment.

Welcome to our new apartment. If you've ever visited any of our previous apartments, please note that our (permanent) places of residence are getting progressively nicer. (Case in point: we've lived at this apartment for eight days and I have yet to see one police car in the community. Just sayin'.)

As you "walk" in, you'll see the living room to your immediate right and the kitchen and dining room straight ahead. You'll also notice my husband who is relishing in the unnatural relationship between a man and an ugly, leather recliner. This picture doesn't do it justice, but take my word for it... it has gold rivets... it's ugly. (But also free, so who's complaining?)

To your right is a sliding-glass door leading to the patio. I won't be showing a picture of that as it has vertical blinds and vertical blinds violate the very essence of my being.

Passing through the door on your right, we have the bedroom. Since we haven't added window treatments or pictures or anything remotely personal, really, it looks a little bare, but it works for the moment.

The one thing I do appreciate about this room (and the whole apartment, really) is the large window, which lets in a great deal of light. After living in our first apartment (which was located approximately three feet away from another building) we appreciate all the natural light we can get!

Next up is the master bath, which is probably the smallest master bath in the history of real estate, but, again, works for us.

There's not too much to say about this room, but enjoy looking at our Cities-of-the-World bathroom set, which we quite like.

(Oh, and another feature we enjoy is the curved shower curtain rod, which I'm pretty sure expands our showering space by several yards.)


Back through the living room, we make a stop at our beautiful, beautiful kitchen and dining room. There's not a ton of cabinet space (which makes for some interesting demonstrations in grocery organization), but we love the open space between the kitchen and living room, so we deal with it. We have pretty stainless steel and black appliances and nice granite (or granite-like, probably) countertops. I especially like our "bar" (which consists of a martini shaker and ice bucket next to our ultra-cool globe-shaped liquor dispenser) and our gas (yes, gas!) stove.
(By the way, for those of you who are trying to decide whether or not to visit our new apartment, the globe-shaped liquor dispenser will house a whole helluva lot of Captain just as soon as we have money to spend on liquor and not, say, fuel.)

Through the door in the kitchen is the laundry room which you won't see since I'm embarrassed to own a washer and dryer that are older than I am.

Heading right from the dining room (left from the front door) is a hall which leads to the guest bathroom. There's the sink area of the guest bath (with the cool bambooish bathroom set that we got for our wedding), to the left,
then there's the actual bathroom area of the guest bath (to the right), which includes another cool curved shower curtain rod (so, another pro on the "deciding whether or not to visit Bryan and Laura's apartment" tally.)

I'm not quite sure why I thought you needed to see so many pictures of our bathroom (and our guest bathroom at that), but you get them anyway.

Finally, just opposite the bathroom is the guest room/office/man-cave/Roomba's bedroom. (Roomba is our vacuum cleaner. Our relationship got off to a rocky start, so I tried giving it its own bedroom... it seems to be working, but that may be short-lived since we just bought a second cheap vacuum for quick clean-ups. I'm not sure he's noticed yet.)

We don't particularly use this room very often, but, again, I enjoy the large window and the VERY large closet which has allowed us to keep all of our belongings at our apartment and not in my sister's basement.

This concludes our home-tour for the day. I hope all of you will consider visiting us at some point. (Please note that there is a queen size bed in the guest room, as long as you're willing to share with Roomba. Or vice-versa.)


Happy Columbus Day!

So, it's been a while...

I apologize that it's been, like, 3 months since I last posted. I could argue that we've been pretty busy, but that's kind of a lousy excuse.

The upside of not posting for 3 months is that I get to share lots of good news at the same time. First of all, we BOTH have jobs now. Bryan is working at a local vending company and really enjoying his job. And, so far, his boss seems to be acknowledging his skills, so that's very good! I'm working at an integrated health clinic (i.e. medical doctors, chiropractors and physio therapists in the same clinic). I was a little unsure of the concept at first, but I really like the people I work with and I can definitely tell that we're helping patients feel better.

The other good news to share is that because of the aforementioned employment opportunities, we're now less than a week away from moving into an apartment! Yay! For the first time in SIX months, my husband and I will live alone! (I really loved living with both Bryan's family and my family, but it will still be nice to have some privacy!) We found an apartment complex that is less than ten minutes from my work, so we were able to work out our transportation situation without needing to buy a second car! Our apartment has two bedrooms and two baths, which means we can finally break out that second bathroom set we got for our wedding almost a year and a half ago!

Another great thing about our new apartment is its proximity to Trader Joe's. I might be borderline-obsessed with Trader Joe's. It has really great (and good-for-you) food that is actually cheap. (Particularly when compared to certain nameless overpriced grocery stores that specialize in selling "whole" foods, but I digress.)

I think that about sums up our good news for the time being. While it took us longer than we thought to get back on our feet after moving to Georgia, I think we're finally starting to feel like we're back on track again. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts/prayers/love/friendship/spare (or not so spare) rooms!

If someone could make a sacrifice to the god of good jobs...

By the way, the pictures has absolutely nothing to do with the post. The only other pictures I have are pictures of my nephew and I didn't want a picture of him under a title mentioning sacrifice.

Moving on.

Bryan and I are both needing good job chi. Bryan accepted a job almost a month ago and still has yet to hear from the company. We went through a lot of stress and money trying to get the necessary tools, Georgia drivers' license and motor vehicle report for the job and they've pretty much dropped the ball. Bryan has tried calling them on several occasions and they make excuses for why they haven't contacted their insurance company (the last step, according to the supervisor.) So, needless to say, Bryan's entering the job-market again, just in case. He heard from another vending company (which sounds like a better company AND a better job), but it's fairly far away from where we're living now and where I've been looking for jobs. It would be great as long as I get a job near there and we can move into an apartment fairly quickly, but it would be hard until then, since we only have one car at the moment.

I, on the other hand, have had little luck with the job-hunt. I did have an interview last week for an office management position that I would love and think I would be perfect for, so getting-the-job-vibes would be great!


In other news, Bryan made his grandma's reeeeally good rum cake tonight. As you can tell, it turned out really well and tasted even better!

Definitely adding this one to my ever-growing folder of yummy recipes!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Things That Must Go.

This time I'm stealing from my favorite radio station in Salt Lake City. Also you don't get a picture, because I don't normally take pictures of my least favorite things.

1.) Boiled peanuts. Disgusting, vile little things. Peanuts were born crunchy and should stay that way.

2.) Movies with any of the following themes: inspirational sports movies, children's fantasy not involving wizards and/or wardrobes and anything involving Steven Seagal.

3.) Job scams. I will scream if I write one more resume/cover letter (that is specifically written for each job I apply for) that comes back with the reply, "make $10,000/month working from home!"

4.) Online Gamers. Specifically the ones who have nothing better to do than play online blackjack all day and yell at other players for not reading the computer's mind. Get a job, man. It's a game. A free one at that. You never run out of chips, so it DOESN'T MATTER.

5.) People who inappropriately show compassion. For example, using the word "bummer" when someone's grandmother dies, etc. My favorite example of this is someone who compared her friend's 1 year old son losing his hearing to Mitt Romney dropping out of the presidential race. You know, in terms of tragedies. Yeah, not even close to being the same.