My Grandparents' 60th Wedding Anniversary

60 years ago yesterday, my grandparents were married.  To celebrate, we (except for Sean-he is in NC for work) all met at Lonestar for dinner and went back to Sunrise (where my grandpa lives) and had cake.  Grandpa looked so handsome and Grandpa looked equally pretty - they both dressed up for the special occasion:) 

My grandma told us a little bit about their wedding day...  At the time, my grandpa was a Private in the Marines and he didn't have enough money for the marriage license, so the night before, he set up pins in the bowling alley for the money that was needed.  The next day (which was Thanksgiving) they drove to Philadelphia because to get married in Virginia, you had to get blood taken and my grandma didn't want to do that. 

My Grandparents on their wedding day - November 23, 1950

My Grandparents' 60th Wedding Anniversary

November 23, 2010

{New} Home Sweet Home!

As of Friday afternoon, we are officially homeowners!  It was quite an experience to get to this point...  We are so excited, though for our new home and all of the memories we are going to make in it!  Over the weekend the house was scrubbed from top to bottom and the carpets were deep cleaned and then steam cleaned.  We won't be officially moving in until the second or third weekend in December and we can't wait!

Off of Private and Back to Public

About two weeks ago I turned my blog onto private after a freak-out moment when the guy who found Sean's iPhone that he lost in Miami (on our way to the airport after our honeymoon) called me asking for the passcode to get into the phone.  I was paranoid that since he had my full name and cell phone number, he could just google me or something, find my blog, and know a lot of stuff about us that I don't want random people to see. 

But let's be honest, my blog is probably really boring to those who don't know us!  SO, I don't think that the guy will really care about it if he does take the time to 1) google me and 2) read the blog.  Also, some people mentioned to me that they didn't have gmail so they couldn't look at my blog anymore, etc., so to make life simple and for everyone to be able to see what's going on in our little corner of the world, I made the blog public again.  I hope everyone enjoys reading it (and I apologize I haven't added any pictures yet from the sealing dinner, ring exchange, or honeymoon - life's been really busy, but I promise I will soon!) <3

New Recipe

Ok-I have been HORRIBLE with my new recipes New Years Resolution these last couple of months!!!  Last night I made my first new recipe in a long time...  Here it is:

Japanese Chicken-and-Egg Rice Bowl
cook 2 cups of white rice (for a total of 4 cups of cooked rice).  Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over medium-high heat.  Add 4 chopped scallions and saute for 2-3 minutes.  Stir in 1 cup of chicken broth, and simmer for 2 minutes.  Add 1/2 cup of shredded carrots and 2 cups of baby spinach and stir until the spinach has completely wilted.  Stir in 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/4 cup of soy sauce.  Add 4 chicken cutlets cut into strips and simmer for 3 more minutes.  Pour 5 large beaten eggs over the chicken mixture and simmer until the eggs are cooked through, stirring occasionally, 8-10 minuts.  Serve the mixture over the cooked rice.

SURVEY SAYS:  "it's ok" - Ethan actually ate it, but it wasn't a favorite.  Maybe I will try making the eggs separate next time, as the way the recipe has you do it, the soy sauce and egg get cooked together and it just doesn't taste quite right...

Oh well - at least I tried! Only a couple more weeks and I will be able to cook in my new kitchen with a double oven!!!  Ahh-the possibilities will be endless!!! :) 

Halloween 2010

This year Ethan wanted to be an ARF Trooper from Star Wars (according to him, it is like a Storm Trooper)...  As tradition, we went to my parents house for trick-or-treating:)

Untitled.

Yesterday was my first day back at work since the wedding.  A co-worker came in my office and we were talking about work stuff and I noticed that her eyes looked so sad.  I asked if she was OK, and she broke down and told me that she wants to leave her husband - that he is really mean to her and calls her names all of the time (she told me some of the things he calls her-I can't believe anyone would say such nasty things to another person, let alone your spouse). 

My heart aches for her.  I can't imagine dealing with what she is going through right now.

I am so grateful to have found a man who treats me (and Ethan) with upmost respect, is always complimenting us, and helping out whenever he can.

Honeymoon!

6AM Saturday morning Sean and I were up and headed to the airport to catch our flight to Miami.  We arrived in Miami, took a taxi to the port, and boarded the Norwegian Epic.  It is practically brand new (just had its maiden voyage in June 2010) and is the biggest ship out of Norwegian's fleet.

We boarded the ship, walked around, and ate some lunch.  Our room was finally ready around 4 so we could drop off our carry-on bags. 

What an amazing and memorable trip!  On board, we saw the Blue Man Group, Cirque de Soleil Dream, Second City (comedians), the Newlywed Game, and so much more!  And of course, a lot of laying out in the sun getting tan! :)  There are also three waterslides on board, which we tried out, including one that is a "tube and bowl waterslide" - which was by far our favorite!

We went to St. Maarten (or St. Martin), St. Thomas, and the Bahamas.  At St. Maarten, we went snorkeling, shopping and the beach. It was definitely different than the other islands we visited.  It is a small island and it is split between the French and Dutch.  Our snorkeling excursion was fun, but because of a storm out at sea, we couldn't really see anything except rocks at the bottom, but Sean and I had fun swimming around and floating on our backs looking up at the bright blue sky.  Much to our dismay, the rest of the gang were anxious to move on to the next stop since they couldn't see anything.  We still had a great time, though!

St. Thomas was one of our favorites - it was absolutely beautiful!  A couple of people recommended Megan's Bay as a really nice place to go - so we went there for the day.  We are so happy that we took their advice!  It is such a beautiful place - truly amazing.  The water is crystal clear, the sand is really soft, and the scenery is so nice.  We will definitely be going back there someday!

The Bahamas was our last stop.  It was tied as our favorite spot (with St. Thomas).  We went to Blue Lagoon and swam with dolphins!  It was the thing that I was most excited about - I have wanted to swim with dolphins since I was in the 6th grade and wanted to be a Marine Biologist "when I grew up."  We were expecting them to just put us in with the dolphins for a couple of minutes and then make us get out, but they totally surprised both us of by having the dolphins interact with us.  We danced with them, fed them (a bird stole the first shrimp right from my hand that I was going to feed one of the dolphins!), they even kissed us!  The dolphins showed us their basketball skills and gave Sean a present (a rock from the bottom of the ocean).  At the end, the animal trainers asked each of us one at a time to float on our stomachs with our arms outstretched and our feet flat with our toes pointing to the bottom of the ocean.  A dolphin came swimming up and pushed us with his nose on our foot and pushed us about 60 feet - it was SO AWESOME!  If you arched your back up, you were able to go higher.  It was definitely something that I will never forget and hope to do again soon!

That's seven full days of fun in a a quick overview - I missed Ethan so much, it was the longest that we've ever been apart, but I'm glad that we had the opportunity to get away for a little bit and relax and have fun!

more pictures soon!