Happy New Year!

Happy 2010!

I don't have a whole lot of interesting things to blog about - it's been a fairly uneventful weekend of staying in town and catching up on cleaning.

Clayton came over to watch the Mizzou game with us on New Year's Eve (they lost, unfortunately), and Eric and I's evening was spent making a quick trip to Wal-Mart. It was so exciting that I fell asleep on the couch at 9:00 (no joke!). Needless to say, neither one of us made it up till midnight. Friday we went to the movies and I made chicken cacciatore in the crock pot for dinner (mmmmm...!). I even tried the recipe my mom gave me for roasted broccoli. See below...

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(it's so hot in the picture you can see the steam!)

Chicken Cacciatore
{my slightly tweaked version from the original recipe which I'll post later :) }

Ingredients:
-2 chicken breasts, thawed
-1 can Hunt's diced tomatoes
-2 cans Hunt's tomato sauce
-Dashes of pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and thyme - I don't really measure it out, I just dash it in :)

Cut chicken into small cubes. Combine above ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve over pasta.



Roasted Broccoli
Ingredients:
-Fresh broccoli
-Parmesan cheese
-Olive oil

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Break up broccoli into small clusters on a large pan and baste with olive oil. Cook for 15 minutes. Take pan out and flip broccoli. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on each piece. Cook an additional 5 minutes.
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The rest of the weekend was just spent running errands and relaxing at home (and watching the hogs' LUCKY win). I think we're both about to freeze to death here with the below-freezing temperatures. This morning it was -3...I've never experienced so much pain from being cold in my life. My office has been heating up for 3 hours now and still isn't to 70, too. Brrrrr. Apparently my closet isn't good enough for this weather! Here's at least a pretty picture of Jesse Hall on campus in the snow... I tried to get a quick shot as we were driving to church.



And Charise, this is for you! Eric in his Christmas sweater...



Happy New Year!

Handmade Gifts

Each year, I try and do a batch of handmade ornaments as Christmas gifts. In the past I've done canvases and knitted scarves, so this year I decided to try out ornaments and wreaths. The wreaths of course being inspired by Anna-Marie after the one she made for us in October!

Check out some of the final products...

Thanksgiving Break in Pictures

Our break has been a BLUR - it's hard to believe we'll be back to work/school in less than 48 hours!

We left Saturday for Fayetteville to see my family for a few days...


Our dog, Drake


We got to go see the lights on the square with Emily, Drew, Anna-Marie, and Michael




And then us girls had an ornament-making party (Robyn was there earlier in the night, too!)



I actually got Eric to go antique shopping again while we stopped in Prairie Grove!




And then Wednesday we hit the road to Memphis!


Thanksgiving lunch was delicious!




And Friday we hit the bargains at the mall (after sleeping in of course - we can't do the 5am stuff! :) I managed to survive my first Black Friday experience, and actually got a lot of my presents taken care of! - I'm usually pretty last-minute :)

Hope your break was great!!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! I'm sure counting down the hours until the weekend! :)

So, to update from the last post, we caught the mouse! (Thank goodness!!!) Maintenance stopped by our apartment and put down the "old school" mouse traps in our kitchen, and sure enough by the time we got home after school/work, the big fat black mouse was caught and dead. (I wouldn't even look at the thing - thank you Eric for being brave enough to dispose of it!) Hopefully that will NEVER happen again.

We got to make a quick trip to Fayetteville last weekend to see the Hogs, Anna Marie and Michael's new house!, and have a little "dog date" with Chloe, Summer, and little Linus! Linus is Emily's new ADORABLE puppy - we were so excited to meet him! I think Eric walked out of there pretty sad that our apartment doesn't allow pets, because I know he'd get one in a heartbeat!





Summer


Chloe


Drew and Linus


Anna Marie and Linus


Linus - I actually caught this photo before he ran all over the place again!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Halloween Weekend

So we had a somewhat uneventful Halloween weekend filled with multiple trips to Wal-Mart, studying, and painting. We did get a nice date-night dinner in there though at Ruby Tuesday's which was delicious!

Eric volunteered for the "Tiger Night for Fun" sponsored by Children's Hospital on Saturday, and he and his MHA friend Clayton dressed up as Power Rangers...
Unfortunately Eric won't let me share the pictures of him in the child-sized red Power Ranger costume... ;)





And then we woke up this morning to... a mouse. Of course, it's a Monday, too.

I walked into the bathroom this morning and a minute later, I see a black blur zip into the room. I jumped, let out a blood-curdling scream, and ran to the office to stand on the futon, and Eric leaped out of bed thinking I was dying. Needless to say, I spent the next 45 minutes locked in the bathroom sitting in the sink getting ready for work while Eric, the brave mouse hunter, searched up and down the entire apartment. Unfortunately, the mouse hid pretty well, so he hasn't been found. Hopefully maintenance will have trapped the guy by the time we get home in a few hours.

(In case you couldn't tell, I HATE mice, hate them. As well as fish, snakes, frogs, and other creatures of the like, too :) Luckily though, I have an AWESOME, Eagle Scout, dragon slaying, prince charming, (you get the point), husband who isn't afraid of those things! - THANK YOU ERIC!)

More to come later this week!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Eric and I made the long (5 hour!) drive to Arkansas this past weekend to see the hogs beat Auburn! It was so great to be home and see family and friends...I wish we could have stayed longer!






{Anna Marie, Emily, and I at dinner}



I even got some shopping in there, too {thanks Mom!!}. One of my wonderful friends, Anna Marie, made a wreath last week that I just fell in LOVE with! She was even nice enough to put one together before we left! Just because we're in Tiger country doesn't mean we can't show our Razorback pride! :)

The calm before the storm...

Wow, what a crazy (and absolutely wonderful) past few weeks! It seems like we've been going non-stop! Finally we have a calm weekend actually in Columbia for the first time - although, things pick right back up on Monday with Eric starting his MHA program! He's already saying he's not going to have a life after that...hopefully it won't be that bad!

We went "home" to Fayetteville last weekend for Anna-Marie and Michael's wedding which was just GORGEOUS! They've been together for over 5 years now, and I've been waiting for this day for quite some time. :) Anna did an amazing job with planning and everything looked awesome - even complete with doves in a birdcage! Here are some photos:







Eric had orientation sessions this past week and got to meet some of his professors and classmates. Maybe I can get him on here later to blog a little bit about that... Maybe? :) I've decided my new project once he goes back to school next week is revitalizing my art business - new logo, updated site, an Etsy site, you name it! We'll see how that goes, but in the mean time, let me know if you need some art!

We're currently in the final stages of sending out thank you cards and tracking down gift givers to no-name gifts - talk about exhausting! Goal: ALL thank you cards mailed out by Monday! Hopefully that's possible! {And if you gave a no-name gift of blue salad plates, let us know! :)}

TGIF!!

Weekend Update

Anna-Marie and Emily came and visited me this weekend! In the less than 24 hours they were here, we toured around town, did some shopping, and tried out the famous Shakespeare's Pizza downtown. They helped me get some antique furniture, too! A coffee table and a chair!
Our sofa and bed were delivered yesterday as well - things are looking more put-together now.

Antique table before...


And after painting it!


The living room is looking more complete now.


And I don't have to sleep on an AeroBed anymore!


I went to mass this morning at this cute old church downtown - definitely a neat building! (Here's a pic of it I found online)



Tomorrow is my first day of work! I'm excited, but I hope I can manage to get up at 6:30 - not working the past few weeks has sure altered my sleep pattern! It will definitely be a busy week...I've got several surprises/projects up my sleeve to get done for Eric's birthday next week! I'll post pics on that next Sunday after he sees it all! :)

Hello from Columbia!!

Hello family and friends,

I thought this would be a fun way for us to keep everyone updated on Eric and I's new life and adventures in Columbia! We're 18 days away from the wedding and I couldn't be more excited to see everyone!! I can't wait!

Eric traveled up here to meet my family over the 4th of July to help move everything in, and my wonderful Dad drove our local Rotary club's truck filled with all our stuff (THANK YOU DAD!!!). We wouldn't have gotten everything up here without him! :) Here are some before and after pictures (click on any to enlarge):




Eric's so excited about unloading all the stuff!!



Our kitchen and dining area (complete with an antique table and chairs I repainted!)



Our bare-walled living room - sofa comes Saturday! :)



Desk area and our porch!



We have a washer and dryer! And the antique tables I painted that I just LOVE!





Office/art room (Eric better get here quick before I take it over!) complete with the infamous futon, bookshelf I put together, and diploma frames from Cindy and Dave! (We still have yet to receive our diplomas though...)

Eric won't be here again for another 12 days so I think I'm going to take the time to decorate a little more...Hopefully I won't make things too girly for him. :) Our remaining furniture should be delivered on Saturday - I'm so ready to pack that AeroBed back up!

2 of my amazing bridesmaids/interior design friends, Anna-Marie and Emily (shown with me below at graduation), are coming to see me this weekend - they're making the 5 hour per way drive just to be here for less than 24! I'm so excited that they're coming! We'll definitely be doing some shopping in the short time they're here.



In other news, I have a job (thankfully!). Unfortunately, the design position I was going for and really wanted didn't work out because of the current economic conditions and the fact that there isn't as much of a demand for interior designers here (*sigh*). However, I will be working for the University of Missouri School of Nursing as an administrative assistant beginning (hopefully) sometime this week - still waiting on paperwork to go through. I'm really excited about being in a healthcare-related position and of course the pay and benefits. I know Eric's excited, too, about our picnic lunch dates on campus now that we'll only be a building apart. :) LOL (He's rolling his eyes right now, I just know it...)

That's all for now!
Love,
Caroline