Stop SOPA!

Our blog is on strike to protest the tyrannical power that Hollywood currently holds over the archaic marionettes in our nation’s beloved capital. SOPA will cripple the greatest technological advancement of our generation by granting intellectual property holders unfettered access to shutter websites without court order or legal intervention. Lamar Smith, you will live in infamy for this supreme act of foolishness.

Oh, and PS Lamar, you should probably stop stealing background images for your website if you are going to sponsor and draft a bill the likes of your beloved SOPA.

The Little Homemaker

These past few weeks, I have been working more days, which is fantastic, but exhausting. Last week, after a long day at work, an obnoxious patient (who took his sandals off and was walking around in his bare feet and told me “Don’t take offense if I jump out of the chair, I hate things touching my teeth”. mmmkaaaay.), and an exhausting drive home in traffic, I walk into our home to find so many surprises. It put me in a far superior mood.

When you first walk into our place, you walk straight up the stairs. On the wall when you look up, I found this:

Continued on upstairs to find this:

And then saw THIS!

I was SO excited about the tree because now that we have our own place, I have been dying to get a tree and decorate it. But Nathan’s finals consumed him and I didn’t want to go get one by myself. He finished finals the Friday the week before Christmas, so the next day we ran a bunch of errands and picking up a tree was on our list. But we were so exhausted and hungry, we never made it over to the tree lot. So I thought, oh well, it’s too late to get a tree, whatever… So I was SUPER excited to see this cute, little, fat tree. It smells so good. And don’t worry, I gave it a little makeover. I will post a picture of that soon.

And THEN, I saw THIS waiting for me under the tree. You see that little brown bag? It says, “Nothing Bundt Cakes” on it. I am obsessed. They are SO good.

They have the seasonal Pumpkin Spice bundt cake. We were driving by a few weeks back and I really wanted to stop and get one, but I stopped myself. I would not give in to the temptation. So Nathan surprised me with this little, scrumptious treat under our adorable tree.

We sat at our fancy dining room table (the couch) to enjoy a home cooked meal by my cute homemaker.

Brown rice, chicken, and brussels sprouts. YUM. Nathan scarfed his and then it was off to tithing settlement. I’m excited for December to be over. Which is tomorrow

It was such a pleasant surprise. Thanks, honey!

Long Beach, CA

A few weeks ago my Mom sent me a text message and said that jetBlue was having a super sale on tickets from OAK to LGB and I needed to figure out a time when I wasn’t working so we could go. It was a short trip, but we had a great time. We flew in early Wednesday morning and headed over to the Queen Mary. We toured this cruise ship from the 30′s and had a delicious lunch.

Afterwards we headed up to Hollywood to drop our stuff off at Gino’s, then off to do some Christmas shopping while we waited for Gino to get home from work. We had dinner at this delicious little Italian place called Fabiolus. We finished the night off with a riveting game of Scrabble.

Early the next morning we headed over to Griffith Park and drove up to the Observatory. It was so beautiful and warm.

Lovely LA polution…. Breathe it in… ahhhh

Afterwards we grabbed some sandwiched at the tasty Mendocino Farms.

We said our goodbyes and Mom and I drove back down to Long Beach. We hung out on Ocean Ave. and watched the sunset, then headed to the airport.

Thanks for a fun trip, Mom! I love you!

No Self Control

When it comes to a treat made by Trader Joe’s,  I just cannot stop myself. Once I start, it really seems impossible to quit. Right now, it’s TJ’s mini Gingerbread Men with white fudge icing. YUM. I’m obsessed.  I think I need to stock up before Christmas is over.

THANKSGIVING

This year, we had/have so many things to be thankful for.

We are so thankful for our families and that we live so close to both of them.

We were thankful to have two Thanksgiving meals.

Lunch (salivating right now)

and Dinner. YUM YUM.

We are also thankful for the rain and the sunshine.

Rainy and overcast on our way up to Santa Rosa

And gorgeous sun on our drive down to the East Bay

It seems so crazy that this 2011 year is almost over with. It seems like it went by really slow and really fast all at the same time. How does that happen? Everyday we have so much to be thankful for.

It’s Official!

We have our own place! Yay! It’s only been a year and a half, but Nathan’s Mom has been so gracious to let us stay with her while we got our lives in order. Our lives are still trying to get in order, but it’s a work in progress. We’ve slept in our new bed for almost a week now. The place is still a disaster zone. Slowly but surely we will get settled. We finally purchased new furniture and got the most important thing set up:

This was Nathan’s #1 priority. Now that the tv is all set, it’s on to studying for finals. Boo. I’ve been working all week and then it was Thanksgiving, so we haven’t had a lot of spare time to get organized yet. We went to Ikea with my parents last weekend. I know my Dad and Nathan had a blast We got a ton of stuff and Nathan spent hours putting it together while I slept (sick). He’s so amazing. And extremely handy.

It was so much fun going through all of our wedding gifts again! They have been stored away in my parent’s storage container for one year and six months. We got to take everything out of their boxes and finally use them! It’s been wonderful. We still love the dishes we picked out. Here is my first breakfast in our place:

Luckily, Nathan’s elderly neighbors gave us a couch way back when we first were married. It was still pretty new, but they decided it was too soft for them. We already had a bed frame that we bought from Ikea on super sale before we were even engaged. haha. Here is our first dinner we had in our new place, ground turkey tacos. We don’t have a kitchen table yet (why is furniture so expensive??), so we ate on our couch.

It’s so much fun to finally have our own space. We will post some more pictures once we get settled and the place looks decent!

The Blue Angels!

Well, well, well . . . it’s been a while since I’ve committed some formal blogging time to this beautiful website dedicated to the oh-so-exciting lives of Nathan and Rachel (at least that’s what my significant other has claimed). Consider though, that the lack of formal blogging does not necessarily equate to a void of care for this fine source of literary enjoyment. Note for instance, the now detached header that has been centered and lifted above the main reading column of the site. Or the addition of several new beautiful background wallpapers gracing the populous pixels of your digital display. Alas, I digress and will return to what will please Mrs. Rachel.

On Saturday, October 8, Rachel and I attended the San Francisco Fleet Week festivities along with our friends the Swensons, my dearest mother and Rachel (sister Rachel). We figured our tardiness would preclude us from getting close to the action in the city so we stopped off at Treasure Island. The island just happened to be the perfect viewing location as it was a central flyover point for the Blue Angels. Below are pictures for your visual enjoyment: