Blog-a-licious

It's just like Smitten Kitchen and Pioneer Woman around here...



well, kind of..

Tonight, I got really inspired and made the Raspberry Buttermilk Cake from Smitten Kitchen (with strawberries). I think I was a little over-eager in turning it out of the pan because half of it stuck (evidence above). All the bits I've eaten have tasted REALLY good though, so I think it'll be okay.



...but it is kind of embarrassing to mess up a cake. Maybe I should eat the whole thing before John gets home so he won't ever know. ;)

(I also learned how to make buttermilk when you don't have it on hand--how did I go so long without knowing this?!? If you've been in the dark like me, just read down to the bottom of the recipe)

I also made Baked Lemon Pasta from The Pioneer Woman.



It's creamy, lemon-y, and awesome, and there's a LOT of it (guess what I'm taking for lunch tomorrow and the next day and the next?)

Two new recipes in one day. I think that may be a record!

Happy Happy Happy

We grilled kabobs tonight--one of my all-time, favorite foods (right up there with cake and eggplant parmesean). We also got to use our new skewers. Cute, huh? Another plus-they don't catch on fire (one of my problems with bamboo skewers).

Unfortunately, I stabbed my fingers about a zillion times (or more like 15 times) putting the kabobs together. I was also so distracted by my excitement about the kabobs and the pain in my fingers that I kept forgetting to add tomatoes.

Notes for next time:
Be more careful with skewers!!!
Decide on a kabob pattern from the start (to avoid forgotten tomatoes)
Add more pineapple (I had my doubts, but it was delicious)

Dear knitting girls,

Thank you SO much for the wonderful wedding presents that you made for me and John.



We were overwhelmed by the amount of work that you put into your gifts (and the sheer amount of knitting items that you guys had gotten into that box)! When we opened it, there was just more and more and more (our families were there, and they were also really impressed!)



Knowing that you guys took the time to make every one of those washcloths and scrubbies and mitts (and rug and bag), and having to sneak around at knitting group so I wouldn't see your WIPs, and all the covert/black-ops style yarn distribution, it makes me smile just to think of it. I really feel like you guys gave us a box full of love (disguised as useful and adorable knitted objects).



We've already started using some of the washcloths, the bag, and the rug (thankfully it was just washed or else I couldn't have put it back in there with everything else). I've tried to get pictures of a lot of the different items--so I hope you can see something that you made! I just can't get over everything you guys have done--and all the cute patterns!!



I'd also like to thank you for the wonderful wedding shower you had for me (or was it the October business meeting of the Athens County Knitters? ;) ) I had such a great time, and it was so cool that my family got to meet you guys!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the wonderful gifts, the wedding shower, for being there on Wednesday evenings, and for being my friends. I am so glad that you are a part of my life.

Much love,
Abbie

I'm a bad dog owner

I decided to take Callie for a walk on the bike path this afternoon. The cherry trees are in bloom, so I brought my camera along.



My poor dog...I got 120 pictures, and she didn't get much of a walk.

In case you missed Asian Restaurant News...

...you can also see a picture of mine in my credit union's monthly newsletter (scroll to page 3)

http://www.oucu.org/home/fiFiles/static/documents/newsletter_apr09.pdf

I'm super excited about it, AND it looks like I get a $25 gas card. Sweet!

Here's the same picture (the quality in the newsletter is a little iffy). I took it last April when the cherry trees were blooming near the bike path.

Writing my first speech...

a spot opened up in tomorrow's meeting, so I'm working on my introductory speech right now. I need to finish getting it written so I can practice it on Callie (as long as I have dog treats, I'm sure she'll love it ;) )

Wish me luck!

Something new

I'm all excited because I just joined our local Toastmasters club. I've been thinking and thinking and thinking about it. Then today, I finally went to one of their meetings.

And LOVED it!

Sitting there, I realized just how much I miss being in 4-H, and Toastmasters is like 4-H for adults minus the county fair, the livestock, and every project except public speaking and leadership.

I'm psyched about getting to do public speaking again and improving my skills, getting to know a whole new group of people, AND having a reason to leave the office every Tuesday at noon. My office has absolutely no windows and the hallway at work has no windows--it's good to have reason to go outside.

Last month, I also signed up to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. I think they're having a volunteer meeting this month and start building next month. I'm really excited about that, too.

I've just been in a rut recently...crazy bored. My Dad likes to say, "Only boring people get bored"--so I've been bored AND boring (and somewhat annoying to John, I'm sure).

I read somewhere that "to change everything, change one thing," which sounded do-able (even when you're boring-bored). So, I have....

Signed up to volunteer with Habitat and joined Toastmasters
Started doing "back care" exercises to take care of annoying, random back pain
Started eating more fruits and veggies (have even reached 5 servings a few times)

and I'm not feeling as bored, so I think things are starting to change (except me being somewhat annoying to John, I'm afraid he's stuck with that ;) )

It's also getting warmer and greener here--thank goodness for Spring!

(oh, and I just got a call from John--I'm off to buy 4 avocados and get free sushi in return -YAY!)

Love. Love. Love.

In honor of Valentine's Day, my favorite quotations about love...


"Love,in my opinion, is not a fantasy, not the stuff of romance novels or fairy tales. It's as gritty and real as the subway, it comes around just as regularly, and as long as you can stick it out on the platform, you won't miss it."
- Lois Smith Brady


"Don't worry about you lipstick or your height, because it's not going to matter. Just live your life well, take care of yourself, and don't mope too much. Love will find you."
- Lois Smith Brady


"Love imperfectly. Be a love idiot. Spill things. Tell secrets. Let yourself forget any love "ideal" or comparison. Be misshapen. Wake up laughing and cry frequently for no reason. Perfection in love is a narrow and suffocating path."
-SARK


"It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis."
- Margaret Bonanno


"We were together. I forget the rest."
- Walt Whitman

Snow Day!

We had the weirdest combination of snow yesterday, and then freezing rain, and then plain old rain and then snow again. When Callie woke me up at 6:40 morning, I checked online (hoping, hoping, hoping) to see whether they'd canceled classes at the university and THEY HAD! (I couldn't believe it). So I went back to bed until 11, got up and made scones, and hung out in my pajamas (I'm still in them right now)...

I let Callie run around in the snow (she loves it and didn't want to come in) while I took some pictures...so here's Miss Callie out in the snow.

16 Things About Me

Callie...uninterested in learning anything new about me...

1. I've been collecting my favorite quotations since 1998.
2. I LOVE to read magazines
3. and young adult and children's literature.
4. In college, I had to go to the ER twice--both because of bike wrecks.
5. I like to eat breakfast food first thing no matter when I get up
6. I have no sense of direction.
7. I wish they still played Square One on public television
8. I met my husband at boy scout camp (he was a staff member)
9. Mopping is my least favorite chore
10. I made the blanket in that picture.
11. I've had short hair since 1998, and I can't imagine ever growing it out.
12. I want to learn to speak spanish
13. I consider myself a "formerly shy" person but I can still be pretty darn shy in some situations (I'd rather speak in front of a large group than try to mingle afterward)
14. When I was little, I told my parents I wanted to be as tall as Danny Manning, a 6'11" KU basketball player. I'm glad that didn't actually happen.
15. I check my email all the time
16. I love getting rid of stuff, and I think donating good stuff to the thrift stores gives me good thrift-store karma

If you're reading this and have a blog, consider yourself tagged...if you're reading this and don't have a blog, you can always comment with your 16 things (or about how cute Callie is ;) )

What I'll do for free food...

Actually, I'd take pictures at the restaurant anyway (the free food is just an added bonus).

Welcome, welcome 2009!

Happy New Year to you and yours...we're having a relaxed day today (after staying out tooo late last night). I wanted to take a look back at 2008...so here it goes...

For the very first time in 2008, I...

got married! (exactly two months ago today!)

grew my very own vegetables and fruit (Strawberries, tomatoes, and banana peppers)

learned to make bacon without setting off the smoke detectors (very exciting but unfortunately I didn't document it or blog about it at the time...however, my bacon this morning?? Excellent!)

tried food photography and had my pictures in a magazine (see previous post)

tried firework photography

ate durian fruit (I learned about it watching No Reservations and then I happened to be at a party where someone brought one and tried it. It smells REALLY bad but the taste was kind of garlic-banana-like. Not awful but also not something I'm dying to eat again)

knit adult-sized socks (for me!)

made a quilt (I really don't think that's ever going to happen again)

Tried felting my knitting

Used a real TV camera (to help film a show at work when no students were in town). It was fun...but they've never asked me to do it again (might not be a good sign) ;)

and became totally obsessed with reading blogs (see "random websites I like" but honestly, that's only a portion of them) and fell in love with lolcats and loldogs

Right now, that's all I can remember when it comes to new stuff (may come back and add some later ;) )


During 2008, I loved:

Jasmine Rice (it is amazingly better than normal rice AND you can buy it at the grocery store and make it at home, I'm kind of obsessed)

the Sex in the City movie, Horton Hears a Who, and Quantum of Solace

finding out how much TV you can watch online (my favorites being Jon and Kate Plus Eight, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Starter Wife, and Lipstick Jungle)

Playing Wii fishing, racing cows, and the Wind Quest game, and for the last 4 days of 2008 - Animal Crossing (way obsessed with that, too)

Jon's salmon at Lui-Lui Restaurant (my other fave being the veggie feta pasta but that's not new this year)

Lemon cookies and sweet potato bisque at Village Bakery


For 2009, I'm looking forward to:

Moving to a different house (no more freezing pipes!! actual closets!!)

Our first anniversary (yay!)

Visiting Bren and NYC (not sure when that's happening but it is GOING to happen)

Going to Florida for Mike and Tracy's wedding (kind of like a mandatory vacation--I'm into that)

Trying the gardening thing again (more veggies, fewer flowers)

More photography--and using my new flash.

Doing other new, exciting, and yet-to-be determined things!


Here's hoping we all have the best and brightest year yet!

Seen this month's Asian Restaurant News??

Yeah, I didn't think that you had...but here it is! Complete with my pictures on the cover and inside...



and the pictures I like from the inside (can you see John making pizza??)



The restaurant where John works was featured as a success story, and Jade asked me to take the pictures for it. Pretty exciting to see them in print.

Baked goods craziness

This is actually the first year I've made and decorated gingerbread and I LOVE it! My favorites were the "James Bond" gingerbread men (with the bow ties, pictured above) and also the ones I made with winter scarves. My favorite of John's was his smiling star from the Mario Brothers games (complete with the song and added dancing).

I think John is making the dough for our third batch of gingerbread cookies tonight, and this is after making fudge (chocolate and peanut butter), truffles, no-bakes, Stolen (German bread), peppermint bark and cranberry chip cookies over the weekend! The peppermint bark and cranberry cookies were all me, but the rest? All John. What can I say? He's a total baking rock star (and I am a total baking rock star groupie). He even came to my rescue last night when I got tired of decorating the cookies to take to my office party.

Thankfully, we've managed to give MOST of the baked goods away...but there's still enough here to keep munching and munching and munching. At this point, I am totally sick of gingerbread cookies...but that still leaves about 26 other sweets to get sick of ;)

The tree!

Christmas Decorating!

Yesterday, we put up our Christmas lights and the Christmas tree. It was just a perfect day for it. It was snowing all day and totally Christmas-y. We put our LED lights on the outside of the house and then John put lights on the inside of our front windows. When we bought them last year, I wasn't sure about the LEDs, but now I love them. They are really bright and colorful...so when you turn onto our street, there's our house all lit up (it helps make up for the fact that our house is the only one on our street with lights)

We put the tree up next...I'm waiting until tonight to get a picture (it looks prettier without all the light coming in the windows). John put on his ornaments and declared that they tree was now "sufficiently geeky"...I'm still loving his Darth Vader ornament that talks when you turn the tree on (Callie was very curious about it this morning)...and of course the blinking tree topper that John got from his parent's house and fixed last year with a new string of lights, a glue gun, and a lot of patience...



I'm so excited--it finally feels Christmas-y here! I'm ready to wrap presents and listen to Christmas music 24-7 and bake Christmas goodies! =)

I actually started off this morning making pumpkin chocolate chip muffins a recipe that I found on a blog I really enjoy, Get Rich Slowly. They were so good...and now I'm trying to decide whether we need to eat all twelve or whether we should share. ;)

John's really excited because we're going to see Quantum of Solace this afternoon. He's already been you-tube-ing the theme song, trailer, and general James Bond music (which has now evolved into Monty Python clips...).

That's about it here--will post more pictures of the decor later!

Getting back to normal...

but don't worry, there are still more wedding pictures coming (well, okay...maybe you weren't really worried about that, but I'm still in the stare-at-wedding-pictures-for-hours-on-end stage, so I figured I should make everyone else do the same ;) )

Things are good--I think we've almost got all of the wedding stuff put away, have found places for the gifts, and I am part-way done with name-change junk...did all the paperwork at work, and a new social security card is on its way. This weekend, I'll get the new driver's license (fingers crossed for a better picture this time) and then I'll start calling the bank/utilities/credit cards/etc. etc. (the stuff I've really been putting off)

It's started to get kind of cold here--teeny flurries yesterday and honest-to-goodness snow today (I was psyched--beats gloomy cold rain any day). It's got me humming Christmas carols and thinking about holiday baking--but honestly, I can't believe it's already almost Thanksgiving

that's about it for now...time for a book and some cuddling on the couch with Callie-dog

Pictures from my Dad!

WE'RE MARRIED!!!!

More posting later...right now I'm dealing with (or really ignoring) all the decorations/presents/clothes/tablecloths/etc that are taking up half of the living room ;)

busy...

I know it's been forever since I posted...things are really busy around here. The wedding is on SATURDAY!! I can't believe it's so close!

They had a surprise bridal shower at work for me today--it was so fun! I got two pieces of stained glass art, a "slinky nightie" ;), a native american seed pot (pit fired by my coworker and everything), and a heart keychain (and cards, and cake, and punch)...it was really hard to get back to work after that, but I HAD to because today was my last day of work for a week.

Tomorrow is errands, errands, errands, knitting group at 5, and then my parents and Erin are going to get in around 8ish (yay!)

We still have a list of things to do--put together the reception playlist, get John's costume together, get cups, napkins, etc. etc. etc...

whew!

and today...

we went on a walk. Callie was all worn out from playing with Baxter last night, so she actually sat down and let me take (a few) pictures. I was planning a longer walk, but she started pulling so we cut it short and headed back home. Then it was pumpkin curry soup for dinner, and now I'm back to knitting on John's socks (as soon as I get this posted)

Today...

I came home and gave our stinky dog a bath...



(this is an after picture)

Birthday Pictures!

For my 28th birthday, John, Callie and I went to Stroud's Run (lake near here) to have a picnic in the afternoon and let Callie swim in the lake. John made chocolate angel food cake with chocolate buttercream frosting (he had enough batter for a normal size cake and then a little cake made in a mini loaf pan). So we had the mini-cake just him and me at the lake. Callie ran around like a crazy dog and swam and swam and swam.



Me and John (with the outhouse in the background...tried to crop that out ;) )



The wind made it hard for John to light the candles



Callie isn't quite understanding that she should bring her toy back to John after he throws it (and not just leave it floating there). She had so much fun but smelled REALLY bad after being in the lake (she got a bath as soon as we got home).

Then John had to go to work. It was sushi night at the restaurant, so at 6:30, I met some friends there for dinner...John wasn't busy so he got to come say hang out for a bit, and we had sushi and dinner, and then John brought out the cake with 28 candles all lit...it was so beautiful and the cake was amazing! (we had our mini-cake at the lake because if he had been busy, he wouldn't have been able to have cake with us).



My dinner (the owner of the restaurant carves carrots for your birthday - how cute is that?!?!)



Here is all of us with the cake (Sonja, Stephanie, Krista, Me, Yvonne, and Nancy)



And another group picture

YES!!!!

With enough patience...

maybe all of my tomatoes will start to turn red!

Everything's still pretty green, except for this guy. I was beginning to think there was something wrong (and that I should start looking for recipes for fried green tomatoes) but then a few days ago, this one started looking slightly yellowish...and now I think it's definitely getting a red-ish tone ;)

We've already enjoyed a couple banana peppers...one just by itself and another with pepperoni on a pizza (which I recommend). You can see them (and Callie) right here...



The strawberries have also come back and we've gotten a handful of them...definitely need more plants than just two in the future.

On a non-gardening note, wedding planning is going well...getting down to the last few things...

I've got an appointment with the seamstress tomorrow (fingers crossed that alterations cost less than I've budgeted--it'd be like finding free money). I know where we're getting the flowers, just need to finalize that. John's going to work out the menu with his boss, and I think me and the moms (mine and John's) are going shopping for their dresses next weekend (because my mom is coming to visit! YAY!)

Nothing new in knitting-land though...I've been making the same washcloth for about a month. Next are the socks I'm making John for his birthday, I was thinking about the "Manly Socks" in either Baby Ull or Trekking Tweed (probably Baby Ull...I've seen the Trekking Tweed I like, but have yet to find any for sale)

Happy Birthday John!

For John's birthday, we went to Zoe for dinner with his parents and his brother, Jimmie. Zoe is an awesome restaurant that's located in an old company house in the Eclipse Mining Town (in The Plains, which is very close to Athens). It's actually right off of the bike path, but since we were dressing up, riding our bikes wasn't really an option (although I'd love to ride out there to eat...how awesome would that be?). The food was incredible and everyone had a great time.

Then we came back to the house, where we all played Wii, opened presents, and ate cake. In the picture above, you can see John sitting next to the cake, but what you can't see is that he's sitting in a rickety old chair that's mostly broken...a few moments after he blew out the candles, it broke for real and he landed on his butt on the ground. It was pretty funny (luckily he wasn't hurt).

Loving this...

A Guy's Opinion: Planning a Wedding Is No Big Deal

It would be even funnier if I weren't prone to getting totally stressed out about wedding stuff...

From now on, I'll just pretend I'm totally chill about wedding planning and never get stressed out (and I'll just count on the fact that you won't talk to my mom, John, my sisters, John's mom, my dad, several of my friends, random people on the street...) ;)

But things are good...my dress is here! and wonderful! and Brenna's boyfriend agreed to play guitar for pre-ceremony and aisle-walking time...so I'm really excited about that, too!

Yay!

Too hot for wool (blend) socks

Just finished these this morning...had to turn on the air conditioning and eat a bowl of ice cream just to get the pictures taken ;)



Pattern--7 stitches per inch pattern from Getting Started Knitting Socks

Yarn: Lion Brand Magic Stripes (thanks to Nancy for letting me buy it off her ;))

Started on May 16th, finished July 26th

Best part: I finally learned a better way to pick up stitches...I held off looking into it for so long, decided on the second sock that I was going to see if I couldn't find a tutorial on the internet, found one--and learned the mystery of picking up stitches in about 30 seconds...it makes sooo much more sense and looks better than what I've been doing for the past three years

And the weekend zooms by...

(Me and Callie on the way to Nancy's for a cookout)

I'm at the end of a wonderful and busy weekend. First, John's best friend Peter came to enjoy Brew Week. We hung out on Friday evening and then they headed off to the bars and I headed to the couch to watch August Rush (so cute!) and knit.

Saturday, we watched that silly basketball movie with Will Ferrell--the name is totally escaping me right now--and went to Boogie on the Bricks uptown. There was music from the Royales, hay bales to sit on, and beer to drink (although I think they ran out of all the good microbrews at 6...so by 10:30 we weren't drinking anything awesome). It was a really fun time and great atmosphere...we ran into Stephanie and then headed to Tony's to enjoy the very last of Brew Week...stayed out way past my bedtime (which, at the latest should be midnight) but it was definitely worth it!

When it was all said and done, I tried 15 different microbrews--my favorites being White Weasel Wheat from the Weasel Boy Brewing Company, Scholz (??-I don't think that's the spelling but I'm really not going to look it up right now) from the Marietta Brewing Company, and the Raspberry Wheat from Jackie O's. John tried somewhere around 40 beers, with his favorites being Dark Apparition from Jackie O's, Dark Horse from Elevator (or was it Magic Hat?) and the beers from Barley's (but we knew that one already) and is planning to start sampling on Monday next year ;)

Sunday was for sleeping in (I wish someone would tell Callie though!) and then working on the wedding invitations...they're almost ready to be printed but I'm not fooling with them anymore tonight. Then we went out to Nancy and Brian's for a cookout...we had a great time and Callie wore herself out running around and playing with their dog Brady. Came home and did a few of the chores we've been ignoring. Now, Callie's asleep in the middle of the floor (and believe me, I'm not far off from it) and John went to see The Dark Knight with a friend from work...

whew!

Baby tomatoes...

I also have one baby Roma tomato (something has eaten all the others) and tiny banana peppers. My squash plants are flowery but looking pretty pathetic...I'm thinking maybe I should've sprayed them for their mildew issue instead of just leaving it.

Other news...

My wedding dressed is being shipped to me right now! I can't wait to have it and see it!

It's Ohio Brew Week in Athens, so I've been having fun trying a few of the micro-brews that are in the local bars this week. John's been having significantly more fun than me (because he's decided that he needs to try them all ;) ).

Fireworks!

We went to Lancaster for the 4th of July--got to hear the Marine Corps Band play and watch all the fireworks. I also decided to take my camera and my itty-bitty tripod to see what kind of pictures I could get.




Before we left I goolged "taking pictures of fireworks" (I don't know what I ever did without the internet!) and got all the tips I needed to try it out...including the idea that, since I didn't have a remote, I should use the self-timer function so that I wouldn't shake the camera pushing down the shutter button...

So here's how our firework watching went down...I hear them shooting off a firework. I press the button...there's a ten second delay, then my camera takes the picture for about 6 seconds and then the picture shows up on the back screen. I press the button again, 10 second delay (cringe as I realize that I've missed all the fireworks this time), takes picture for 6 seconds, picture of nothing shows up on the screen, and...I push the button again, 10 second delay...



I did this for pretty much the whole show...took about 80 pictures, most of which were of a TOTALLY blank sky...but I did end up with a few that I liked. Probably would've worked a little bit better with a remote, but then, it wouldn't have been quite so exciting ;)



(also, thanks to John for picking a great spot to sit...you do know your fairgrounds ;) )

Garden (and everything else) Update

I have good news--my garden is doing well and I've only had one almost casualty (in a Monty Python-esque way that little tomato plant is "not dead yet" but I think it will be soon). Here's the overall picture of how everything's doing...



(You can see kind of the strawberry plants on the side, tomato plants in the middle, one yellow squash in the back side, banana peppers in the front right, and zucchini and acorn squash on the back right)

A few weeks ago, I moved them all to the center of our backyard so they'd get more sunshine. The plants all seem to be doing better out there, and we've only had one Callie/tomato plant collision right after I moved them. I was concerned that hauling water out there would be a big pain, but it's been raining on and off so much that I've only had to water them a couple times.

I did get some miracle grow (the kind you mix in the watering can) and it has been kind of impressive...



I'm crediting it with bringing the zucchini and acorn squash back from near death (or else squash has some crazy regenerative super powers that I wasn't aware of!). I'm excited that they've perked back up, and am looking forward to (hopefully...maybe) having some squash in the future.



Another exciting development--flowers on the tomato plants! More proof that plants the are in my care may actually produce vegetables. It's totally amazing to me!

Other pictures...



One of the banana pepper plants--they were originally in a too-small container so I wasn't sure if they'd ever do their growing thing...but it looks like they've perked up a bit (another Miracle Grow success story?).



My herbs seem to be doing okay, too...I don't think they're big enough to start cutting them yet though (in this picture--Basil, the second pot has rosemary, curled parsley, and thyme, and the third pot is lavender). I'd like to also have dill and mint but I haven't bought them yet, so we'll see...

The plants on my porch are doing well...and I went through and weeded the flower bed along the sidewalk. Last Sunday, I planted wave petunias there (heck yeah, $5 at Lowes for 30 plants...turns out it does pay to procrastinate sometimes) so I'm hoping they grow and fill in some more (either way it looks better than all the crazy weeds that were out there). One of my hanging baskets is looking a little yellow-ish...so I'm cutting back on watering it some (it's holding the water like crazy so I think it may have some draining issues) and I'm going to make sure it gets some magical miracle grow, too.

What I've learned so far:

1) Make sure to get ever-bearing strawberries. My two strawberry plants produced a grand total of 3 strawberries--2 that were eaten by the bird and one that I split (yes, I cut the little thing in half) with John. They're still growing but don't seem inclined to produce any more berries.

2) Tomato plants need taller stakes or cages. I had one plant break in the last storm and another that was all bent over because their stakes (umm...actually random sticks from our yard) were too short. So I found some bigger random sticks to use as additional stakes...but I think next year, I may just start with cages and let them do their thing.

3)Using bigger pots for the veggies could be a good idea...they seem to be doing okay, but I've seen pictures of HUGE tomato plants in containers...so maybe next year we'll do that.

And now...everything else...

Wedding planning is going (only 4 months to go!). We still need to get the cake lined up, but we've got a meeting next week for that (and I think it's going to be adorable!!). I got his wedding band, and we're still looking for mine. Having some trouble finding a band that looks good with my engagement ring, but we'll keep looking. I'm designing the invitations and having them printed here...so that'll be happening sometime soon. We also found readings that we both like a couple nights ago (!!) which is something I wasn't sure would happen.

We're going up to Lancaster for the holiday weekend, staying with John's parents. Hopefully, we'll get to see the fireworks tonight and the Marine Corp Band perform tonight(it's a little bit rainy), and then we'll be helping paint the living room on Saturday and Sunday.

Well, that's about it here...hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!!