Farewell!

Home for the next week. Bon voyage!

Fall in love

Today is me and Ryan's 4 year anniversary! After all these years together, it still melts my heart to look into his eyes and see how much he loves me. We had a spectacular day just hanging out together.

We started a tradition of going to Stonewood Grill and Tavern for our anniversary dinners every year. We always order basically the same thing, he gets a steak, I get the porkchops and then I'm always jealous of his steak. You'd think I would learn to just order the steak, but not yet. I ordered the chops again this year and envied his steak the whole time. And why doesn't Stonewood have regular, good ol' fashioned broccoli? They have some weird relative of broccoli which is nowhere near tasting good. I'm just saying.

This is us on our 1 year anniversary:


2 years together:

We didn't have pictures from the actual day in 2007, so here's a picture of us on our first cruise. We were, together, a full 42 pounds heavier! 3 years:

For our anniversary last night, I made a second attempt at baking. I chose to use a metal pan instead of a glass one as a precautionary move. This time the cake actually made it into the oven. See?

And finally, here we are with our lovely cake. Strawberry supreme with butter creme icing. The lettering is supposed to be red, but apprently it takes a million drops of red food coloring to make icing the red I wanted. I settled for that shade of pink.
On a side note, whenever I make a card or anything artsy for our anniversary, I always spell "anniversary" wrong. I spelled it wrong on the cake this time...I shouldn't have been an English major.

Anyway, we are happily in love.

disaster in the kitchen

I've never exactly been a great cook. I put together very simple meals for Ryan and I, not venturing too far out in recipes. I frequently miss an ingredient there, burn something a little here, just little things that don't exactly ruin a meal, but don't make them gourmet either.
Today, I was making a blueberry bread out of the mix instead of the run of the mill muffins. I was even going to try a new glaze to go over it. It was going to be so tasty and I was very excited.
Ryan was standing behind me washing the dishes. I had used pretty much all of the very limited counterspace we have to work on the bread. The oven was preheating and I was trying to get at a piece of tape. The box for the muffin mix was taped close at some point, the tape landed on the counter and then got stuck to the baking dish. And then the whole glass dish filled with blueberry goodness (which was completely ready to go in the oven) slipped out of my hands and shattered on the tile floor. My pants were covered in blueberry goo and there was glass and the rest of the mix everywhere. All I could do was stand there and stare at the mess. All hopes of a new vanilla glaze atop a fresh take on blueberry muffins were out the window. I can't remember a time when I have broken a dish like that. It was my mom's loaf baking dish, too. I've had it for years, but somehow she can always walk into my kitchen and point out what used to belong to her.
Anyway, we cleaned up the mess and headed to Publix because I was still craving something sweet. We ended up with a slice of key lime pie, a boston creme something and buy one get one free cake mixes. In the next couple of days, I will try the whole baking thing again. Strawberry supreme cake with a light vanilla glaze sounds scrumptious. We have family coming in on Sunday night, so we can all take off for the cruise together on Monday. They can help us eat the yumminess if it doesn't land on the floor.

I am the QUEEN of homework and job applications

I have never in my life been such a good student. I created an organized outline of all of the things that I need to do just this week for school. There is so much to do! It was all sitting in the back of mind like a living, breathing blob resting on my brain. I had to get it out, hence the organized outline where I could see it broken down by day and not feel so bogged down. I actually got ahead of schedule yesterday, which prompted serious slacking off tonight. Other areas of slacking off include working out and charging my phone (::goes to plug in phone to end the disruptive beep-beep of said dying phone::).

I filled out several applications today. I have my stats memorized so throroughly I could read them to you in my sleep. Though I am slightly stressed about the job situation, I somehow feel like it will really all work out in the end. At least my homework is benefiting from all the free time lately.

In better news, we leave for the cruise in 21 days. My life can't be that hard, right?

One Month

I have been unemployed for one full month as of yesterday. I think I am going to really lose my mind pretty soon. I have been working on keeping some sort of structure to my days; trying not to go to bed too late or sleep in too much. I've gotten into a good rhythm of getting up early-ish every morning, working out every other day or so. The apartment is looking cleaner than any apartment I've ever called home.

School started last week (thank goodness). I am still anxiously awaiting a book in the mail. I have a lot of reading to do once that gets here. I'm not usually an over-the-top kind of student. I do what I need to do to get a decent grade, but I think the topics are increasingly more interesting this time around. The classes I'm taking are semi-overlapping one another which is helpful and confusing when I'm doing short anwer quizzes. It's all about how children perceive their surroundings, how it influences them, how researchers study child behaviors in certain situations and who plays a role in a child's development. For some that may be boring, for me it is very interesting. I wanted to say it's fascinating, but I think that would put me in the "big dork" group for being so interested in school. Except that I do find it fascinating. Oh well. Big dork it is.

I had a job interview last week. I haven't heard from the guy, so I'm thinking I haven't been chosen. I am currently going through the application process to become an extended-day care assistant. At least that would put me a classroom or at least in charge of a group of little people. Eventually, things will come together for me to start substitute teaching. I am anxious to see what it's like to stand in front of a group of children, without the help of a teacher who actually knows what he or she is doing. Anyway, I need a job and I need it soon.