Happy Anniversary!

Recently I posted about how my husband and I met and today we are celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary!

  

When we got married two years ago I knew it was going to be a journey! And boy has it! We haven't had many downs but a life is filled with many little ups and downs. 

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We have learned, grown, shrunk (in terms of a little bit of weight lost!), enjoyed and worked hard at having a loving relationship in the last 2 years! I cannot wait for the life that is to come with my groom because it has been great thus far! 

 

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Now, lemme tell you marriage is not all candy and roses. There are tough times where we both have learned to lean on our faith in a loving and forgiving God. I don't know where we would be without this faith. I am more than overjoyed that I made the choice that I made to marry my hubs!

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To my loving husband- I love you bunches and bunches! It has been so fun to live life with you. I love beginning and ending each day with you along with all that life brings in between. Thank you for caring for me, loving me and making me a better person each day. Watching you with our new kitten this week has made me even more excited to one day have a family with you! There is so much waiting for us and I cant wait to experience it all with you! I love you!

Sincerely your loving wife,

 

JOY: Chores and Cookies! :)

So much JOY to report this week!


There are 2 things:
1 The first is my husband. He has brought me much joy tonight. I came home in a rush. running about 25 minutes later than when i had wanted to be home to make sure to pick up our apartment for our weekly life group that we host/co-lead. Well, as a was walking up the stairs i was thinking of the laundry list of things i was about to spend the next hour and a half doing before i could blog! I knew the dishes needed doing, the laundry i had laid out needed putting away, our dining room table needed to be cleared and coats/jackets needed to be put away. I also needed to make sure we ate something and then i could relax a little. Well, hubby stayed home today and worked from home and surprised me with almost the entire apartment cleaned. He even changed the sheets on the bed! He had already vacuumed, done the dishes, straightened the living room, put away laundry, cleaned the bathroom and I think a few other things! This made me feel like i could actually relax and not feel completely rushed! That is a feeling i have not been familiar with all week or even for a little while (at least on a school night!) So my joy comes from the fact that he thought about me. He realized i may have needed a few minutes to relax and that brings me so much joy! Words cannot even say how much joy that brings me! Plainly put, he ROCKS! Thanks to my handsome hubby!


2. The second even that brought me joy is one of my co-workers. This week has already come with its little bit of drama and when i shared my feelings with another member of my team, she obviously knew i needed a little pick-me-up! The next day she waltzed into my classroom holding a box of Girl Scout Cookies! Its funny because right before the kids had come into the room (coming from PE) and were all talking about how my co-worker was holding Girl Scout Cookies. Despite the heads up from the kids (which in my mind i blew off as just kids talking), I was touched! This co-worker of mine is always so kind, compassionate and always ready to lend a listening ear. Words cannot express how blessed I am to have this person to work with. I know she knows how grateful I am, but it cannot be said enough. So, you know who you are, THANKS A BUNCH! BTW the cookies were the Lemonades and boy are they YUMMY!


So what brought you joy today? Or even this week?

Ornaments all packed away!

So today my husband and I spent the day relaxing and doing nothing .... ha ha! That's a joke, we did a bunch to clean up CHRISTMAS! I know so many people reluctantly put away Christmas decorations, but today I only reluctantly cleaned. Some may feel sad when the decorations disappear and get packed away for another year, but not me. I dreaded putting in the work because i knew the garage could have used some organizing before everything was all put away. So anyway, we began when I returned from my normal Saturday morning kickboxing class and breakfast! I am completely off track ... this post is not all about cleaning.... it is more about one of the traditions we have as a married couple. 

Last night, knowing we were putting the Christmas stuff away, I thought I would share about the ornaments we buy each year and how we store our ornaments each time we get new ones. So, there is a great nursery that always decorates and has plenty of BEAUTIFUL ornaments for sale here in Orange County. Each year my husband and I make a visit and pick out a couple ornaments. We usually wait until later in the season so that the ornaments go on sale, but here are the ones we picked out this year! 

This one was my favorite this year. I love the contrast of the white and the beautiful poinsettia leaves. 

 I know this one is a bit blurry, but we had it on a rotating thing that made just a few select ornaments spin when the lights were on! That added a nice touch this year. 

This was my husband's choice this year. He wanted a snowman, and a snowman he got! He also got a great Christmas village that we added to the decorations this year. It looked great! 

Anyway, so when it comes time to pack everything up, each year i write a description on the individual boxes for each ornament. Here are the examples for the ornaments i showed you. I also am sue to include the year the ornament was purchased. Oh and I get the boxes from that great nursery where we purchase them. They are free at the gift wrapping station and they will give you ribbon and the whole bit if you buy them as gifts. 

So, that's our tradition and how we store those beautiful ornaments! 

K, my husband is starving and we still have yet to figure out where to eat... gotta go! Have a great weekend! 

Meal Planning Part 2

Today is COOK Day! Like i said yesterday, I cook on Mondays. So after a long day of work i usually want this to take the least amount of time possible. I truly try to make it take no longer than 2-3 hours including clean up time. If it takes longer i get really cranky after a long day of work and then crash after. 

I thought that today as I cooked I would document how I do this and package all my food (and my husbands too!). So on the menu this week is Bean & Sausage Soup for our dinners (Tuesday thru Thursday) and a green salad with whatever I felt like buying from the store this week four lunches Tuesday thru Friday. 

Tonight i began with the soup and this recipe was easy! It was made even easier by buying a few items that save on prep time. I buy mirepoix to save on chopping time. If you don't know what this is - it is chopped onion, chopped celery, and chopped carrot all in one container. This is not always sold prepared, but it is used to create a vegetable base to many soups. In addition to the mirepoix, I use my food processor to help slice, chop, or even blend things quickly. Tonight I do not know what I would have done without the food processor! 

Anyway, once the soup had gotten going, I  finished adding what was needed and skipped the spinach because I will be adding that on a daily basis. Soggy spinach doesn't excite me so, I figured it will be fresher if I add it each time I heat up a bowl. I then moved on to some Sassy Water which was a snap with the food processor. It literally only took me 5 minutes to make and the longest part of the process was filling up the HUGE pitcher with water.

Our salad for the week will have red onion, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, with celery, grilled chicken, and some white cheddar cheese that is cubed. The greens consist of Romaine and spinach! We usually package our salad dressing the morning before we leave for work. The key to all of this is keeping the ingredients with the most moisture separate from the lettuce or anything else that should not sit in moisture until it is eaten. 


After the sassy water, I moved on to salads and started by filling 8 containers (2/day for 4 days per week) with romaine and spinach.


Then I packaged baggies with the chicken and the veggies. I made 8 baggies so we can easily take them each morning. 

The cheese came last and this time I used snack size baggies and packaged the cheese separately to prevent soggy cheese. Again, soggy = not yummy! 

In the end, I put the soup into one large container and stuck it into the fridge after I served my husband a bowl with fresh spinach! The soup got good reviews, so I hope you night try it some time! 

Hope you enjoyed reading!