what we've been up to...

sorry we've been so MIA in blogland. missouri is the blackhole of several things including but not limited to decent ice cream, beer or any other grocery that is not expired, and..... good internet service.

it sucked, but i spent the afternoon getting everything set up through a different company and i have high hopes. at the very least their customer service reps are easy to deal with.

anyway... we've been doing some things. mostly they involve school, work, house. we throw some weeds in now and then, but mostly just the latter. i guess we've also been eating good...

our version of these chicken sandwiches. we eat corn almost every day here. it is SO SO good. its the only produce that is better here than in Oregon.

the return of the no bake strawberry pie

sorry...i know pictures of meat are kind of gross, but you should SERIOUSLY make lamb chops. they are kinda spendy but SO SO worth it. marinate them in whatever and grill.

we also made kabobs. these are my fav. this time they look better than they actually were. they got a little dried out on the grill...

G needed a desk to work at from home. he is always really good about coming home at a reasonable hour to be with me and only works minimally on the weekends, but if he is going to work out of the office then he needs a proper set up. i'm secretly in love with his desk...its SO spacious! and it was an amazing deal.

always have to confirm it is sturdy. wouldn't want it going anywhere... =)

i love this one. so cute trying to build a lawn mower. there was quite the saga with a lawn mower we were going to buy from a neighbor so we were glad to give that back and move forward with something new.

there is a LOT of grass. it was so freakin' hot the days he did this... seriously over 100 with close to 100% humidity! i cursed our move that whole week.


we've also been experiencing our first intense lightening storms. this video is kinda long but around 47 seconds there is a really good bolt. this seriously felt like we were in a club with a strobe light!!

and this is me doing what i do... curl up with my table, blanket, and a latte to study. we have an exam every monday all summer long. it really sucks up my weekend, but all A's so far so I've been able to let up a little.(you like our coffee table?? yea i still havent even finished sanding it let alone staining it...)

then i do this. really this doesn't happen very often, but this pastweekend i was SO tired a nap was necessary.

in other news...

1. do you see my new bag in that last picture (on the right). i'm in LOVE with it. i tried to go with out a proper school bag, but i couldn't handle it. if you need something to hold a lot of crap that is sturdy you should get one too! i bought mine from planetshoes.com - they are much cheaper there!

2. we are going home soon!!!!! we've been so homesick, especially since summer hit so we are beyond excited. i will be in Portland Aug 4-16 and G will be there Aug 7-16. we hope to see lots of friends and family and soak up all the Oregon-ness! CAN NOT WAIT!

work in progress

lots of requests for in progress house pics. here they are...

basically we are at a point where we can live in *almost* every room, but have nothing decorated or in its final resting place, ya know??

the floors WITH the moldings... you like?? the moldings are annoying and hard, but G made huge progress last weekend. he has the rest of the hallway and kitchen to go.

such a good little worker bee.

i painted the second bathroom. it took me way longer than i expected, but i like how it turned out!

some craft room pics. i just kind of threw everything in a place, eventually we'll get me a sewing desk and some shelves/cabinets.

the other corner. i love having new carpet and paint!

took the closet doors off to make a little office. i can't wait for it to be cute - i think it will be an awesome use of space!

the last room in the house to get some attention. for now we just close the door. my goal is to get it in order this weekend. we got G a new desk and it came last week so it will be really fun to get it all in order.

our bedroom - needs decorating, but i love this color!

i heart antiques.

nothin' too exciting here, but we are loving the space.

we FINALLY got this room in order. i can't tell you how nice it is to be able to have our living room and couch back. monday night we actually ignored everything we were supposed to do and laid on our couch to watch a movie together. it was so nice. G claims it was the first time i haven't crafted while we watched a movie together since we've been in columbia.

do you like how we have 2 chairs at our table?? we've never gotten around to putting the other four together, but its on the to do list!

thank you Mr. President!

we submitted our paperwork for the first time homebuyer tax credit!!!

too good...

not to tell you as soon as i remembered -


google FINALLY made picasa for macs! this makes me SERIOUSLY happy. someday when i am able to take the time to learn photoshop this won't matter, but right now it makes me so happy.

its the simple things in life, right??

workin'

i'm WAY behind on blogging... so get ready for some updates!

last sunday (like not this past weekend but LAST sunday) we worked on the house. shocker - i know! our friends Aaron & Sara were gracious enough to give up their sunday to help - can you believe that??

as i was organizing boxes in the garage to go up in the attic i almost kissed what i thought was a fake snake. when my face was about 2 inches from it - i saw the tongue move. OMG thats not cool. we "let" Aaron handle it (i.e. we were freaked out). it didn't want to leave but eventually 'Aaron the snake whisperer' (a Grant given name) got it out.

as an aside - our back yard is its own little eco system - on a daily basis we see rabbits, birds, frogs, snakes, and just about every bug you can imagine. i wonder if we ever mowed our lawn if they'd be around still???

this is just to show you we were STILL living in boxes. see that couch WAY back there??? it had been weeks since we'd sat on it. =( at this point we were living between the two bathrooms and had the kitchen and our bedroom situated.

Aaron hung all our blinds! no more sheets and towels in the windows!


he also worked to get our vent covers back on - they are surprisingly difficult to get on...


poor G kept plugging away at the flooring - he has been working on getting the quarter round moldings down - lookin' good!

Sara was amazing and painted the master bath for us. This was HUGE - we were able to get settled in there the following day and we finally feel like we can get ready for each day without hassle.

I worked on getting my office/craft space set up - sooo necessary so I could study effectively. plus i just want to get as many boxes out of our house as i can - i'm in true purge mode - wanting to get rid of EVERYTHING!

berry pickin'

these would have been up earlier this week had our internet not stopped working for the thousandth time since we got service. i must go all day without internet - can't a girl just come home and be able to check her blogs?? now that my rant is over... this is going to be short and sweet. its late and i have an exam in the morning, but i wanted to get these up before my 13! hour day at school tomorrow.

saturday we went berry picking. it was a really nice morning - sunny but not humid. don't even get me started on my hair and the weather out here. it is out of control. anyway we had fun but the berries SUCK. they taste horrible and they are tiny. again... don't get me started on the quality of produce in the midwest. it is such a sad sad topic.

we were laughing about how abnormally long my femurs look in these pictures

G took this and had no idea both of our feet were in it. kinda funny. love his duck flip flops! our bank here has UO checks for free - SO excited about this. we are way WAY homesick lately. probably because Oregon is way cooler than Missouri, especially this time of year.



ok so it wasn't such a short post after all. have a good weekend!

finally

there haven't been very many fridays in my life that i looked forward to more than last friday. it has been such a roller coaster we really needed a weekend so we could reconnect and focus. both of which are necessary for us to finally relax into our life here.

it was good. SO good.



this is our new routine - eating on our patio. we love it and stay out as long as the mosquitos let us.



do you know about tostadas?? they are one of our very favorite dinners. corn tortillas fried in oil til crunchy then layered with beans, taco meat, cheese, olives, lettuce, tomato, CILANTRO (soo freakin' good), salsa, sour cream, and pepper. don't forget the pepper it is SO good on the sour cream.

after our relaxing dinner we entered about 10,000 lowe's reciepts into our budget spreadsheet - all i can say about that is - WOW. i have pics from the rest of the weekend and will try to get them up in the next few days.

on a side note... can you tell i'm feeling better? about thursday last week things just started to click back into place and not feel so overwhelming. i think i needed the prospect of a productive weekend with my husband and successful completion of my first two exams behind me.

thank you for all the love and support - we truly appreciate it.

change

this is my new life. see that wine glass? i will probably be upping my consumption considerably. its been insane and completely overwhelming, but i've made it through two weeks. thats good right?? (8 more to go...) did i tell you i needed 11 books for this one semester?? that might give you just a bit of an idea of what i got myself into. the craziest part - my life is easy compared to many of my classmates. how they do it i will never know. 

G has been amazing picking up the slack around the house and helping me through my daily breakdown. i think its just a little bit too much all at once. as you can see in the picture we have sheets in all our windows because we've barely had time to breathe let alone get anything unpacked or settled around here. i don't think there has been one minute since we got the keys to this house that either of us has felt at ease. hopefully we can work hard to unpack this weekend and get a place where it feels like a place we can relax in. it does look damn good though...if i do say so myself! 

keep G in your thoughts...his vertigo has been really bad since we stressed his system with all the house work. we are hoping to find him a doctor who can give him better answers - 'there is nothing wrong' doesn't cut it when you can't get through the day without feeling like you are going to fall over. 

OH... i also meant to post last week to say 'happy birthday' to this little blog. it turned two may 31st. i had hoped to sit down and reflect on how different our lives are since may 2007, but here is the quick and dirty.

in the past two years we have... 

gotten engaged, 

quit grad school (n), 

started a new job (n), 

planned and created a wedding, 

gotten married, 

gotten way sick on our honeymoon, 

finished a phd (g), 

searched, interviewed and secured a post-doc with an amazing mentor in a place n could go to nursing school (g),  

hosted our first thanksgiving,  

quit a job (n), 

celebrated three years together, 

drove across the country  (twice actually... ), 

moved across the country (still so homesick), 

settled in to a crap apartment for 6 months,  

settled in to a new job with a completely different kind of research (g),  

experienced unemployment (and loved it) (n), 

searched and found a home  (we looked at at least 40), 

bought a home,  

renovated a home,  

started school (AGAIN) (n)....

isn't that insane? no wonder i break down... we've experienced almost all of the major life changes in the past two years...most in the past 9 months. but we feel so fortunate for how things have worked out and are excited for some calm.