Happy Hour Friday

Well I decided to join in and rave about all the thing's I'm happy about today.

- Today is Friday and my day off. That in itself makes this a WONDERFUL day!

- I just paid all the bills. Why does this make me happy? Because I have a job that pays me well and allows me to pay my bills and enjoy my life. Not only that, but I have a job that I love so it makes all the weekly hard work worth it.

- Jared and I ordered new flatware last weekend and it should be delivered here today. I've never had new silverware. What we are using was a very old set of my grandmother's. While I am a little sad to stop using it because it was my grandmothers, even she would have agreed that change is good.

- I'm getting ready to clean my house. Doesn't sound like a happy thing to you? No...well I don't mind it and the end result makes me HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY! Nothing better than a clean house.

- I get to open all my new pots and pans from the wedding and start cooking with them tonight. I can't wait! I got new cookware when I first moved out on my own but it was very generic and cheap. It's all but fallen apart and we were lucky enough to get a beautiful new set of Calphalon for our wedding. I am very excited to have new things to cook with.

-Thanksgiving is growing ever closer, which means my all time favorite holiday will be right around the corner. I love Christmas! Everything about it puts me in good spirits and I am looking so forward to decorating my own house for the very first time.

Well that about sums it up for me today. What makes you happy?

Check out Otin and RxBambi to see what makes them happy as well.

The joys of being a home owner!

For once I got the good end of the deal. While I stayed inside yesterday, working my lonnng 10 hour shift. Jared was off for Veteran's day. I wasn't sure if I would be thrilled about him being home all day while I work, as many times it can be a distraction, but in the end it was a wonderful day. He took care of me and cooked me meals as well as pretty much stayed out of my way. Additionally, he did the one thing I've come to hate most about being a home owner, which is RAKE the 5 million leaves in the yard.

During the summer I came to love our three large trees for the wonderful shade they provide for our tiny house. We have two sweet gums and one very huge oak tree, which is pictured below (well really just a part of the tree is seen) Anyway, the trees create lovely shade from the hot summer sun; however, once the summer ended and the leaves began to fall, I started to dispise those damn trees! Anyway, my wonderful husband spent his day off out in the yard raking leaves. I couldnt resist taking a break from work to pop out to capture some shots of his progress as well as some pictures of our little man Dudley playing in the nicely raked piles. He was having a blast!

Enjoy!




Also I decided I wanted to play around and make something funky. So this is what I got.

Wordless Wednesday

Getting to know me (stolen from Goose)

Well I am completely bored and have been out of things to blog about as of late but saw that Goose put this up on her blog and I thought it was interesting so I'm stealing it from her, much as she stole it from someone else. As most of you know, I'm Becki and the hubby is Jared. Here is some more useless information for you about each of us.


1. What are your middle names?
Ann and Andrew

2. How long have you been together?
Dated 6 years 7 months and have been married almost 2 months

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating?
We met in college and lived in the same dorm, about 6 suites away from one another. His suite mate became a good friend of mine and through virtue of that I started hanging out with Jared about 4 or 5 months before we started dated. We started out just doing stuff around campus together but before I knew it we were together all the time. I had such a huge crush on him but that was really nothing new for me, guys were just never interested back. But...turns out Jared was very interested back haha.

4. Who asked who out?
Well I'm not really sure one asked the other really. Jared made the first move but we had asked one another to go places before we really started dating. I was slowing trying to build up the courage to tell him how I felt, which was a painfully slow process. Apparently, he was sorta doing the same thing. Then one night after we had gone to Mardi Gras in St. Louis we were in his dorm room with a couple of friends. The friends eventually left and I stayed. I was sitting on his bed, which was about 4 feet off the ground. He was standing in front of me. We talked for awhile and before I knew it, he leaned in and kissed me. My heart was pounding out of my chest and even now when I think back to that kiss...I get butterflies in my stomach. Yeah...it was THAT good!

5. How old are each of you?
I'm 30 and he is 28

6. Did you go to the same school?
High school no. College yes

7. Are you from the same home town?
Nope. His hometown is about an hour north of where I grew up.

8. Who is the smartest?
Oh I like to think we are both smart about certain things. He is much more "book" smart than I am. While I feel like I have a step up when it comes to common sense smarts.

9. Who majored in what?
My degree is in nursing and Jared is not finished with school yet. Like alot of us, he has had a tough road but is hoping to go back and finish soon. His degree will be civil engineering.

10. Who is the most sensitive?
Oh lord I am. I cry about everything!

11. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
San Francisco, CA

12. Who has the worst temper?
Ohh, I dunno this is hard. We are both pretty hot headed about certain things. I'd say when I get angry I am more explosive and he more shuts down and doesn't want to talk. But both nasty in different ways

13. How many children do you want?
I'd love to have 2 but really don't know if that is in the cards for us or not.

14. Who does the cooking?
98% of the time I cook. Jared likes to grill so he will do that but I enjoy it too so we flop back and forth.

15. Who is more social?
Geez I dunno. In college I would have said me. I was very outgoing and social but the older I get the more that seems to ease off. Jared is fairly social but not overly so either.

16. Who is the neat freak?
ME!!

17. Who is the most stubborn?
Jared. If he thinks he is right about something he will ride it till it dies. Sorta like beating a dead horse. Drives me nuts! I can even prove to him that he is wrong but he won't listen. Very stubborn.

18. Who wakes up earlier?
On work days, Jared. On weekends, me. He has to get up before me for work so that is really the only reason he does but on weekends the man likes to sleep and if I let him he would sleep the day away.

19. Where was your first date?
Well like I said earlier we sorta went on dates before we were dating. But if you want to be technical about it, I'd say it was at a bar in my hometown.

20. Who has the bigger family?
Me for sure.

21. Do you get flowers often?
Nope, but I love when I do get them. Usually I have to drop little hints that I might love to have some but there are times he brings them home for no reason other than to make me happy. Those are the best ones!

22. How do you spend the holidays?
Well pre-marriage we tried all sorts of things and what worked best at that time was going it alone to our own families. Since they don't live really close it was difficult to juggle the schedule to fit it all in plus we didn't really feel like we HAD to be with the other person on the holidays. Now this year, there is a new expectation since we are married. We are going to try and juggle going everywhere so I have a feeling the holidays will be a pretty big train wreck for us.

23. Who is more jealous?
Me

24. How long did it take to get serious?
Not terribly long really. We were really good friends before we started dating so I think that helped us know more what we were looking for. I just felt from the moment we started dating that I could stand by him forever. Good thing it stuck!

25. Who eats more?
Humm...we both eat too much but I'd say Jared eats more than me. Little bastard doesn't get fat from it either. Yeah he has a little belly on him but as much as he eats he should be a BIG guy.

26. What do you do for a living?
I work as a medical writer and Jared is a engineering technician

27. Who does the laundry?
We take turns...ahahaha! No really I do most of the laundry but from time to time Jared will do it. I'm just sort of picky about it so I find it easier to just do it than have him mess up my clothes.

28. Who's better with the computer?
We are both computer savvy but all in all I like to think I'm a bit better than he is. There are alot of times I've had to help him with different things.

29. Who drives when you are together?
Mostly Jared though from time to time he makes me do it haha.

30. What is your song?
Journey-"Faithfully"

What a weekend!!

Phew I had one of the best weekends ever. Seems hard to top the wedding, and it didn't quite make that but it was a close second. I went to my hometown this weekend to attend the annual Halloween party I talked about in my previous post. I had no idea I was in for so much more. Friday night the hubby and I packed up and headed north. My hometown is about an hour north of where I live. We had plans made with my family to go out for a Friday night dinner. This is sort of a tradition in my family and a means for all of us to get together without much work. As we got into town, we took our dog to my parent's house to drop him off on our way to go eat. My younger brother called Jared and asks if we can stop off where he works on his way to dinner. He says he got called in to fix a problem and he can't do it alone. Naturally, we say no problem and head to the place he works, which is a city park. When we get there he meets us at the door and tells us to follow him that the heater broke and he needs both of us to help fix it. Okay, no problem. As he leads us through the botanical garden and into a hallway I see these large neon pink footprints on the floor. My brother tells me there is going to be a party in this great room later on and he needs to get the heater fixed before it begins. Once again, I say sure no biggie. As we follow the neon pink foot prints I see this 7 foot tall replica of The Pink Panther, which just happened to be my all time favorite childhood toy and cartoon. I say, "wow a pink panther party! I want to stay here!". My brother and Jared just sorta laugh at me. I round the corner into this great room and hear, "SURPRISE!!!!!" All of my family is standing there. Little did I know I got to stay for the Pink Panther party after all. It was a surprise 30th birthday party for me!

In years past I have had some not so great birthdays where I always feel sort of forgotten. Last year was no exception. My younger brother has a birthday 5 days after mine and growing up we always had a 'combined' party cause it was easier on my parents and family. Well, I always hated that, it made my day feel less special! So over the last several years, my special day has felt anything but special and I started to complain that I wanted my own special day. They listened! My younger brother's wife put this party in the works almost a year ago. Everyone knew about it and kept it quiet the whole time. I knew absolutely NOTHING about it. It was fantastic. My dad made this 7 foot tall pink panther and everything in the room was done in pink...my signature color. I guess a key piece of why I didn't ever suspect anything was because my birthday was awhile ago, Oct. 20th to be exact. 3 days after the wedding. I celebrated with Jared but nobody else. Per the usual routine, my family called that day and though I knew I would be getting birthday gifts and celebrating the birthdays this weekend; I never suspected I'd get my OWN party!

I guess 30 is a milestone age. I feel older, more adult-like now. I always thought of people in their 30's as being adult. I guess in my head I knew when I reached it I would be seen in a different light. Anyway, I had the time of my life! I can't say thanks enough for all the hard work everyone did to put on such a great event for me. Here are some pictures to show off the evening.

Now, the fun didn't end there. Saturday night was the annual Halloween party. What a blast. The only down side is that we do this outside and it was FREEZING! My costume was the board game Operation.



I thought it was pretty creative! Other costumes included an Oktoberfest girl (Goose), Hans and Frans (E and Jared) from SNL, Mr. T, Zombies, Bees, Cowboys, Cowgirls, and a Hippie among others. I love getting to see what creative ideas people come up with. Jared and I have already picked out our costumes for next years festivities. Here are some pictures from the party including our dog as Dudley Vader. Enjoy!

Halloween = Pumpkin Carving

Halloween is almost here. Though I can't say it is my favorite holiday....or even a holiday for that matter. Yet I do enjoy this time of year. You all know I love fall and all the changes in store for the world and Halloween just fits right in to this season. One of my favorite things about Halloween is carving pumpkins. Jared I have dated for a long time now and have yet to cave a pumpkin together. Until this year! In years past we haven't done it for various reasons, sometimes because we had no money to buy them and other times because we were to busy. In addition, my brother and his wife throw a costume party each year for Halloween so most often we are gone and figure it is a waste. Well there is a party this year, which I am excited about as usual, but we decided to go ahead and carve one anyway and just take it with us for the party. I did the digging of the guts and some of the carving and Jared did the rest of the carving. He had a blast so I had to capture photo's of our first pumpkin carving extravaganza!

So there you have it. Our pumpkin with the cat, spider, and other pumpkin in the window. Cute eh? Okay so it's not fantastic but it was fun and that's really all that mattered to us. So like I said, we are going to a costume party. I am thrilled about it, every year we have such a blast. We have it outside around a fire and friends and family come all dressed up. We cook hot dogs and everyone brings a dish to share. Always makes for such fun to see what costumes everyone comes up with. I like to think I have a good one this year. I'm going to be the board game "Operation" complete with red nose and all the fun body parts. Jared is hooking up with Goose's fiance' to do a couple's costume. Very unique and very funny though I can't tell what it is right now. I'm sure pictures will follow next week to show off our fun time. Have a look at one of our only Halloween decorations. Its a small pumpkin with a tea light candle in it. I think the picture came out really good! You can even see the dust on the top of it! (it was in storage and i was too lazy to dust it off last night)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Learning how to shoot

Like I said in my previous post. The hubby and I bought a nice camera for a wedding gift. I decided to get it out and take some shots with it. Nothing spectacular, just things around the house but I want to post them for you all to see. Give me feedback if you can!

Daisies!


My bridal bouquet


Same shot, focused on the flower instead of the berries


Add my ring in and you get this




My cats...Jerome is the black one and Basher is the tabby




Our puggle Dudley


So, what do you think? I think so far the pictures look pretty good. Can't wait to get better at it as well as have time to go out and take some pretty photos.