Pumpkin and Cream Cheese....YUM!

Do you like pumpkin?! I have never been a huge fan of pumpkin flavored things.  Pumpkin seeds? Yuck!  Pumpkin bread? No thanks.  Pumpkin pie? One slice, once a year, the end.  However, lately I have been all about the pumpkin.  On Sunday, I made these pumpkin cream cheese muffins.  Very time consuming (and very large clean-up), but OMG, they are good.  I followed this exact recipe and I am happy to say they turned out just like the picture.

Unfortunately, my baking track record shows that I will never be able to recreate these muffins.  Why is baking so frustrating?! I swear I make something one time and it is amazing and then when I try to make them again, ew.  Does this happen to anyone else? Or is it just me?

In other pumpkin news, Trader Joe's has brought back their pumpkin cream cheese.  Amazing! Especially when you use the cinnamon sugar pita chips to dip.  Seriously, you need to go try it.  You won't be disappointed!

7 years

Yesterday, the husband and I celebrated 7 years together.  Crazy, right?! Well actually compared to our grandparents who have been married for over 110 years combined, we have a long way to go I guess.  However, my math teacher husband did crunch the numbers and apparently we have been together for nearly a quarter of our lives.  Fun fact, right? Anyways, to commemorate the last 1/4 of our lives, here is a little walk down memory lane.

November 2005:  Just a few short weeks after we made it official and our very first ducks game together.

Summer 2006:  In London during a month long trip through Europe.  We took a class for three weeks and then traveled on our own.  Let's just say we are lucky to both be alive after that trip.  What were we thinking?!

June 2007:  Husband had season tickets to the ducks and I was working my first season as a Duck's Power Player.  And guess what?! The Ducks won the Stanley Cup!

May 2008:  We graduated! And began our long journey of paying off that little piece of paper :)

June 2009:  Justin popped the question at home plate of Angel Stadium! 

July 2010:  We officially became husband and wife.  Best. Day. Ever.

June 2011:  We celebrated our first anniversary by taking our very first cruise together.

December 2012:  We bought our first home.  

It has been a wild ride, but I think everyone can agree that doing life with your best friend is the best thing ever.  Here is to many more years!  Love you husband!

I'd like to check you for ticks....

I must admit, Brad Paisley makes the whole tick thing sound a lot more glamorous then it really is.  I have grown up in Southern California (most of my life about a mile from the beach) and I couldn't pick a tick out of a line-up.  Who knew ticks even lived here?! Well I didn't until we discovered a tick on our poor Chesney puppy.  Let me just tell you, if you have never seen an engorged tick before, you should go buy a lotto ticket because you are so lucky! Finding that "thing" was one of the nastiest things I have ever seen, in fact I am getting chills just thinking about it! Anyways, Friday night the "thing" was discovered on our family outing to g-spoon (yum!).  So I spent the majority of the weekend cleaning every inch of our house and putting million dollar tick repellant on our puppy.  Well it wasn't actually a million dollars, but it was enough to throw off our budget this month (that's what the emergency fund is for, right?!).  Besides scrubbing the house down, we also did some pretty fun things this weekend:

Our school officially broke ground on our new campus. Yay!

We went to one of my favorite places on Earth, Bates Nut Farm!

We were "those"people, taking pictures of our dog.

Annndddd we were tee-peed for the first time.  Does this make us official homeowners?!

We actually found out via f-book! The husband woke me up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to show me a post of his girl's soccer team rocking out to some song at a sleepover.  In my mind, I am thinking so cute, but much cuter in say, two hours?! Then he scrolls down and I see an album titled "Is this your house?!" (which it was...) and the house is literally covered in toilet paper! Let's just say I was awake after that!  When I told some of my students the story today they said it meant we were really popular.  Well duh! :) Enjoy the rest of your Monday and gooooo Chargers!

A few of my favorite things....

Since we are still in the getting-to-know-you phase, I thought I would share a few of my favorite things on this Wednesday evening (which ironically, is not my favorite day, for the record):

1.  This guy.

2.  Getting fun packages in the mail! Rewind about a year to our first anniversary.  The husband was too sweet and took the whole paper tradition thing very seriously (he even bought me a pad of paper).  Anyways, he decided to make a photo book of our first year of marriage.  I LOVED it! So, when I scored a free photo book from Shutterfly, I decided to keep the tradition alive.  I can't wait to look back on all of our books one day :)

3. Wednesday night TV.

4. Fall.  I love this season and this weather we have been having! It might even rain tomorrow *fingers crossed*

Cheers to Columbus

I am not sure why exactly we have a whole day to celebrate Columbus, but this girl is not complaining. It was so nice to have that extra day to get caught up on things, and by things I mean our DVR.  In all seriousness, we did lay pretty low this weekend because our Chesney puppy was recovering from getting fixed on Friday.

Check out that battle scar.

Friday night was such a sad night.  Chesney was so miserable :(  I decided that our future kids will have to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's when they are sick.  How can parents stand it?!  She bounced back quick though and was ready to play Saturday morning.

Saturday we began our Operation Baby Backyard Makeover.  My dad came over for a "consultation" and set the husband and I up with our first task.  Some highlights from Task #1:
-We confirmed that we do in fact live on an ant hill (and  concrete parking lot)
-Husband used a chainsaw for the first time
-We pulled two trees straight from the ground!

For some reason, this is the only "Before" picture I can find.

After Task #1

Next week, we will continue with Task #2 and attempt to install a sprinkler system.  Stay tuned on that.  I was also able to finish my laundry room project.

After painting those letters, I was in the painting mood and was inspired by my best friend to give our dining area an accent wall.  

I can't wait until the budget allows for some decoration/furniture for my new area.  Until then you all can thank Dave Ramsey for the delay...Have a great week everyone!

I'm back and keepin' it real...

I'm back! It has been three years since I started this blog and over two years since I have posted anything on it.  This blog was originally created to chronicle the crazy journey of wedding planning.  At the time it helped all of our friends and family stay connected with the planning and, most importantly, it helped me stay sane throughout the process.  Now two years later, I am obsessed with the world of blogging and have decided to get back at it.  I think blogging is the coolest way to share and store the precious memories of life.  When I shared this great news with the husband he made me promise to keep it real.  So here it goes.  Our life is not perfect.  I am not the perfect wife and although he is a great one, the husband is not perfect either.  We argue probably more than we should.  We are way too busy for our own good.  We have burnt meals and put holes in our brand new walls.  Our puppy has peed all over our carpet and our couch (ew). She has chewed through the baseboards and carpet.  It takes me forever to cut up vegetables and when I cook I make a giant disaster in the kitchen.  Most nights I am so tired, the husband lets me eat dinner on the couch.  I am a perfectionist (and not in a good way).  I spend way too much time on facebook and then complain there isn't enough time in the day.  Luckily, my husband and my God seem to have endless amounts of grace for me. Anyways, I hope you enjoy my thoughts, ideas and silly stories.  Most of all, I hope one day we can show our future children how cool we were "back in the day".  I hope one day we can look back and laugh at what I made for dinner or cringe about the time our new house was overtaken by an ant colony.  Just keepin' it real!