Life happens…

Hi all,

Did you miss me?

Have you noticed my absence lately? Have you wondered where I was? Why I wasn’t blogging all about our newlywed life?

(If you didn’t miss me, notice my absence, or wonder why I wasn’t blogging, be a dear and not tell it to my face, okay? Okay.)

Anyway, the reason I wasn’t blogging about our newlywed life was because I was simply too busy being a newlywed wife!

Things have been hectic and wonderfully busy in our little corner of the world lately.

We have housing developments and job developments all in the works. We’ve been to weddings and showers and parties dinners out with friends.

Here’s the gift I made my sister for her graduation party. She now has her doctorate of physical therapy!

We’ve been trying to keep up on cleaning the apartment and stocking the fridge while hunting for bargains at local garage sales.

Heck, we even took home a free kitten from a flea market to live happily ever after with my parents on the farm last weekend.

Our cute little tabby cat we got from the flea market for my parents. He stands out from all the black and gray long-hairs my parents have at their farm!

And we’ve been cooking at home together more than we ever did before.

These veggies and potatoes are Hubs’ new favorite. He can’t get enough! And I think they are pretty good, too. Add in pan-seared chicken and some grilled zucchini and yellow squash? That was a dinner for a king!

We were also healing. From our sunburns. Ouch. And ick. (We’re now both in the peeling stage, and I’m reminded even more often how different girls are from boys in that regard. While I’m disgusted at the way Hubs peels off flakes of skin, he’s excited and amused. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Good thing I love him!)

I guess the main thing we have been doing is settling in.

We’ve been married almost 11 months now and that means we’ve also been living in the city, together, for almost a year. (I can hardly believe that!) And with this, I am learning, comes the slow realization that this is home. This is our new normal. This is where we live.

I guess part of the reason I didn’t feel really “at home” in the city before now is because we just weren’t that busy. We weren’t really making a life for ourselves up here. It always felt as if we were visiting, or playing at living here.

All that’s changing though, and I find myself feeling both excited and sad about it at the same time.

I’m happy that we’re finally settling in. I’m sad that it means I’m settling in away from family and friends that are still so dear to me but that now live 2 or more hours away.

I know things change and can’t stay the same, but I’m finding myself both sad and sometimes homesick as well as overwhelmed with the joy I feel at being married to my best friend and amazed by the blessing it is to live together and make this life for ourselves.

So that’s what I’ve been doing–living and loving. What about you? What’s new with you? Any new developments, realizations, or adjustments in your neck of the woods?

Dinner with Friends, and more…

Last night, Wyatt and I had the blessing of having my best friend and her fiance over for dinner. It was our first time cooking for others in our little apartment (other than breakfast or dessert of something small like that) and I admit I was a little nervous because we don’t really have an open kitchen so it’s hard to talk to people while we’re cooking. Still, it was super fun to have them over for good conversation and good food.

(Is it wrong for me to call my own food good like that? I don’t think so…)

We had burgers topped with blue cheese butter (that I made), bacon, lettuce, and tomatoes, twice baked potatoes, and baked zucchini fries. (You’ve seen several of these recipes before, so I’m not going to worry about pictures and recipes, except for this one.)

Pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting. Oh. My. Yum.

I used the last of my fresh pumpkin I roasted (read about that adventure here) instead of the canned puree that the recipe calls for. And I didn’t use toffee bits to top them, I used a little pumpkin cookie mix I had leftover from the crust of the four layer pumpkin dessert I made and some pumpkin pie spice. I also substituted the ginger and nutmeg with pumpkin pie spice.

And I admit I used canned cream cheese frosting and added, real maple syrup (more than it called for), vanilla, and a pinch of salt to make my frosting. I wanted to make the real stuff, but I already had the cream cheese frosting and I wanted to get it out of my cabinet. Don’t judge me.

Also, I used my little mini cupcake maker I got last year from Christmas.

How cute, right?

It makes the cupcakes a bit more dense, but still pretty good.

They take only a few minutes to bake, but you have to check them because they don't cook evenly.

But they are super yummy when they come out. And hot. Watch out, they’ll burn you.

Like little muffins, but cake.

And I got to use my pretty serving platter. Liz, my best friend, said they looked like something from Martha Stewart. I don’t know about that, but it made me feel good, none the less.

YUM. YUM. YUM.

Needless to say, I’ll be making these again. Maybe for my family for thanksgiving, if they’re lucky.

Oh, and in case you haven’t had enough of Halloween yet, I wanted to show you some more pictures of our Halloween parties.

Here’s my friend Liz and her fiance. At Halloween party number 1.

They’re Jack and Sally from Nightmare before Christmas.

At party number 2, Drew Woolery, our host, had a photo booth set up. So there were tons of crazy awesome pictures. Here’s some to share with you guys. (Thanks, Drew, for letting me post your photos!)

Good times with good friends.

It was a fun time.

I like the Ms. Frizzle outfit. Nice!

Perhaps a bit too much fun for the little one…

Poor thing! All those shirtless guys!

There was lots of creative costumes.

Mr. and Mrs. Pacman.

And of course, your newlyweds…

Our clue characters made another appearance.

Anyway, I have more stuff to share with you guys, so be on the lookout for more posts to come soon!

Don’t forget about the opportunity to ask us questions (Yes, US, Wyatt said he would answer questions, too!) so we can all get to know each other better!