Rain Drops Fallin' on my Head...

I dont know why, but whenever there's a holiday or something that involves being outside and BBQing, it rains. It's getting really old. Really.

Anyway, on Sunday, one of my friends from high school came to visit for and early Memorial Day! She's stationed at Norfolk in the Navy, and I love getting together with her. She brought her incredibly cute baby, Maddie, her hubby, Jacob, and their puppy, Daisy. It was great to have some much needed girl time, and Peter got some man time also. It was really crappy weather-wise, but we were still able to have a lot of fun!

Yesterday was Memorial Day, which is one of my favorite holidays. Since my dad was a Marine, patriotic holidays were always a lot of fun on base. There were always BBQ's honoring those who have served, and the base always did something special. Plus, I love watching all the war movies on TV. It's great to think about those who have given their lives so that we could enjoy the freedom that we have today. I am so grateful to them.

Today, I had the last class of the first course of my Wilton cake decorating. I love these classes! I love making roses out of frosting, and have learned some neat techniques. Hopefully I can take the next course in June. I haven't taken any pictures of any of my 'projects' because I generally don't finish them. That, and I'm a perfectionist when it comes to decorating...so I haven't really liked any of my run-throughs. It's hard to color coordinate everything that we have to do. But, I did take a picture of my final project.


Here are the roses we had to work on...

Our New Couch!

Our new chocolate brown faux suede sectional that we designed ourselves arrived yesterday! We designed it a couple of weeks ago on homereserve.com. It's a really cool website, because you can literally design each piece of your couch! They have a bunch of different options for arm rests and the back pillows etc, and hundreds of fabrics to choose from! Were planning on ordering a couple pillows from there in a few weeks - once again, TONS of options. You can design sectionals, couches, chairs, 1.5 chairs, armiors, wall art to match, automans, etc. They have example ideas that are really cool too. And, you can always send any of it back if its not what you expected.

But anyway, we designed a sectional with an automan attached to one end. All the setions have storage under the cushions, which will come in handy at one point or another. I love the chocolate brown, though its not quite as dark as i had thought it would be. The only catch is that it comes completely unassembled. They literally send you the pieces of wood, the pillows, cusions, and fabric in stacks in the boxes. It only took us 3.5 hours to put together though, which was impressive.

We LOVE it!

Before...

...after.

Our First Anniversary!

One year ago today, Peter and I were married in the San Diego Temple. I cant believe how fast time has gone by! So much has happened in the past year. I love spending time with my awesome hubby, and I'm so glad we had today together

Peter took the day off from work so we could spend the day together without any distractions, which is very uncommon. Peter made an awesome breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns, and English muffins! YUM! After breakfast, we folded a mountain of laundry together. Not too exciting, but we got to talk some more, and I always like it when he helps. Shortly after, UPS dropped off our new couch! Ill have to write more about that later when we have more pictures. This couch came - literally - in 5 boxes and we had to completely assemble it on our own. But we had fun doing it. Great anniversary gift! Though it wasn't really intended to be lol.

We went to an AMAZING restaurant in Charlottesville called Cassies. It has a fine dining atmosphere, and because the weather was great, we sat on the patio. The dishes come in smaller portions so you can pick 2 or 3, and the prices range from $10-15 each portion. I loved this because I can never pick just one dish! I chose the pesto salmon with a wonderful citrus orange sauce, and mussels with English peas in a garlic butter sauce. Peter chose a garden salad with roasted pistaschios, goat cheese and balsamic dressing, and a duck breast in an amazing sauce (he doesnt remember what it was called). For dessert, I had an apple tart with homemade ice cream and carmel sauce, and Peter had cream brulee. All in all the food was absolutely wonderfull. You could tell everything was made from scratch, the service was great, and they paid attention to us, bringing our food when we were ready for it. We cant wait to go back again! After dinner, we walked around the downtown mall for awhile. During the summer, there is a lot of nightlife - unlike the winter completely - so its a lot of fun to walk around and 'people watch.' Everyone brings their dogs too, which is always fun to watch. I love going out at night; it was a lot of fun!

Im so glad that I married Peter, and it has been a great - yet trying - year! We have learned so much from each other. I cant wait to see what the future has in store for us!

Fresh Cut Grass

It just doesn't feel like summer until you can smell the aroma of fresh cut grass in the air! Living here is great for that, because the gardeners come here pretty often. Combine that with sunshine, and it's a perfect day!

I've started taking a Wilton Cake Decorating course, which I absolutely LOVE! The instructor is wonderful! So far we have learned how to make frosting into different consistencies, and what techniques use each consistency. I will never use store bought frosting ever again! We have also learned different techniques to frost a cake - most of which I already knew from Cold Stone. My project that was due yesterday was a standard tort cake - which means it has a filling - and we had to use a star technique, choosing from 2 options in the book. I did the rainbow option - lame, I know - and it turned out pretty well!

It was Samantha's first birthday on Sunday. We took her to Petsmart to buy treats and puppy food. When we were checking out, there was a cardboard picture of a puppy against the window and Sam was afraid of it. She barked at it and it was pretty amusing. She's pretty much nuts.

Hopefully we'll have a few more updates later this week!

Summer To-Do List

So, every summer I make a list of goals/things I want to do over the summer and even though I'm not done with all my finals yet (2 down, 2 to go!) I decided to make the list now.

In no specific order...

1. Take cake decorating classes
2. Keep up with going running
3. Take the philosophy course online
4. Go to Busch Gardens a bunch (We got season passes, I wanna use them!)
5. Spend tons of time with the hubby
6. Get a summer job...
7. Go on a couple day/weekend trips to DC
8. Eat LOTS of gelato!
9. Go on a mini vacation (or 2 hehe)
10. Go somewhere nice for our anniversary
11. Go on a picnic
12. Figure out what I want to do with my life, and how to do it
13. Go swimming
14. Take Sam to the lake
15. Go to the Holocaust Museum again
16. Get a mani/pedi or 2 hehe
17. Get a much needed massage
18. Get a new couch
19. Watch all of my favorite movies
20. Do something fun for my birthday

At the end of the summer I'll try to remember to send out an update of how many of these things I actually got done, lol.

Home Stretch

Its finally the home stretch with classes. Next week is finals week, which I am very much not excited for at all, but Im excited for summer. Still looking for a summer job, but not having much luck. Any suggestions? Im going to take a cake decorating course, which is great. I Loved decorating cakes when I worked at Cold Stone, so this should (hopefully) be fun!

The puppy has a new hobby: taking her giant raw hides (the ones that are 3 feet long), chewing them in half, and rolling each half down the stairs, which then hits the hall door. After sending them both down, she runs down full speed and brings them both back up. Repeat. She's a crazy one.

Rosetta Stone went public last week, which was exciting for Peter. He was given some pretty sweet company stock, which is really nice. It's had a really great response! He's waiting to see what stock options Rosetta Stone is going to offer employees, and will most likely buy some more stock. He's pretty happy with that.

That's about all that's been going on lately. Pretty boring, I know.

Through the Eyes of Kids

A friend emailed this to me and I though it was really cute! Ive seen these types of things before and theyre so much fun to read!

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY? (written by kids)
You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
-- Alan, age 10

No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with...
-- Kristen, age 10

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
-- Camille, age 10

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
-- Derrick, age 8

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don't want any more kids.
-- Lori, age 8

WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough...
-- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure?)

On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
-- Martin, age 10 (isn't he ready for the world of dating?)

WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?
I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns.
-- Craig, age 9

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
When they're rich.
-- Pam, age 7

The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that.
-- Curt, age 7

The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them... It's the right thing to do..
-- Howard, age 8

IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
-- Anita, age 9 (bless you child)

HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?
-- Kelvin, age 8 (I like this kid)

And the #1 Favorite is ....

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.
-- Ricky, age 10 (He'll be married forever)