Rachel's Visit

I am lucky enough to have a wonderful relationship with my older sister. She has constantly been a great presence in my life and I am deeply thankful for her. She was kind enough to come down to Abilene to visit me for a few days while Adam was out of town. We had a blast!!

Big sisters are wonderful (or mine is anyway) because they help you do things that you do not have the confidence to do on your own. The biggest example of that during her most recent visit was with my gardening. I have had five types of seeds I have been wanting to plant but I didn't know how/what I needed to buy/where to put the seeds/how much water to give them/ etc etc etc. One day while I was at work Rachel was kind enough to buy me some soil and we determined that the next day would be "planting day". The next morning we made labels for each plant and planted them in their own little pots! I was thrilled! I'm not sure why the idea of planting these seeds terrified me so much...but I was very nervous about doing it wrong! Luckily, I have a fantastic older sister who is both smart AND experienced with gardening.

At the moment my green beans, purple bell pepper, and tigger melon have all sprouted and seem to be doing well! It's really fun to go check on them...I feel like a proud parent! When I upload my pictures I will share all the photos I have taken during this process...so fun!

So thank you, Rachel, for always helping me, showing me new things, teaching me, and not getting too annoyed when I ask 1,000 questions. I love you!

Grace&Peace

Running update

Howdy! As you may know, I have started running. Many reasons have gone into this...including stress relief while Adam is away, tiring myself out so I can actually sleep while Adam is away, and of course...for the health of it! The main catalyst for this new hobby was a request to be part of a group of people running a marathon relay. Hopefully there will be five of us running the marathon...therefore dividing the 26.2 miles by five...and running 5.24 miles each. The marathon will be sometime in the fall...I'm not positive of the exact date (I should find that out huh?).

Although I ran the mile in middle school (that's a big deal right?) I have never been a big runner. I have never, EVER been one of those people that thinks "I didn't work out today, I feel so awful". I'm more like..."I want to work out...but can't muster the energy to do so....oh well." But I really love the way I feel afterwards... A combination of feeling very accomplished, proud, and healthy.

So now I have been jogging a few times a week for about three weeks. At first I could barely run 3/4 of a mile. I really wanted to stop running after the first 20 steps and say "Well, I'll just have to tell them I quit the relay team!" But now I run a mile fairly comfortably! My goal is to increase the amount I run by 1/4 mile every 1-2 weeks. I have started to enjoy it more and have a great motivational tool (more on that later).

Grace&Peace

CWells

The Honeymooners

Thanks for checking us out guys!

(OK I gotta be honest, I didn't mean to add this picture and have no idea how to delete it without screwing up all my other formatting. I need blog lessons....but in the meantime, enjoy the random picture!)

Here we are listening to toasts at our wedding. Our wedding was a beautiful, emotional, intimate, and spiritual time. But this post isn't about our wedding...it's about the WEEK AFTERWARD!

Adam and I got married in Bryan then drove to New Orleans, LA, spent one night there, then drove the rest of the way to Destin, FL. Here is a shot of our amazing hotel that we stayed in (called The International House) while we were in New Orleans, LA. It was one of those boutique-fancy-shmancy hotels. What a treat!

This was our FIRST dinner in Destin. We went to a place called Goat Feathers. It is a fish market on the bottom floor and an AWESOME seafood restaurant on the top floor. The best part about it is that it is within walking distance of the house we were staying at. My family has been coming here for years but I had not been here since I was in high school. It was DELICIOUS and we actually went there for dinner the next night also. :)

Here we are at dinner at the Melting Pot. This is a great restaurant for overly-mushy-newlyweds. The funnest part of dinner was that we got to make each others food using the fondue pot on our table. Another good aspect about this eatery is that, since you cook your own food, the meal can takes a very long time. Adam and I are BIG fans of meals that take a very long time so this was a great place for us.

Exploring Seaside....one of my favorite little towns! Adam is holding a gift bag from a shop where we bought OUR first Christmas ornament. This was exciting for us because then we could have a memory from our beautiful honeymoon AND have an ornament that belongs to BOTH of us.

Our last night in Destin :(. We went out for a casual, relaxing dinner and went out to see The Hangover!

Our last dinner in Destin...We enjoyed pizza and beer on a patio at a small pizza place by the beach. We are obviously very simple people...that enjoy simple things. :)

That was a basic synopsis of our beautiful Florida honeymoon. We can't wait to go back and do it all over again!

ilovecooking

This blogpost is dedicated to my absolute favorite things in the world: cooking and baking. Since Adam is out of town during the week, I find myself with a lot of spare time in the evenings. Don't get me wrong, some days I make something very simple/warm up leftovers. But other days, when I'm feeling adventurous, I venture into the kitchen and see what I can make based on what I already have. So far this has led to summer pasta (which is my 100% made up name for cold whole wheat penne with blanched green beans sliced roma tomatoes and homemade lemon vinaigrette ), blondies, baked macaroni and cheese, stove top macaroni and cheese, soy breakfast tacos, roasted eggplant and squash pasta, and a few other goodies.

This week I plan on trying to make chicken pot pie, my big fat Greek pitas, and homemade veggie patties (all from the hungry girl cookbook http://www.hungry-girl.com/). Also, it's long overdue and I NEED to try to make crock pot oatmeal. I am particularly excited about breakfast apricot crisp (from http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/06/breakfast-apricot-crisp/).

So now there is yet ANOTHER reason for you to come visit us here in Abilene, I have an excuse to cook for more than one person!

Grace&Peace