Of jam and gardens and dumplings and things!
Remember the whole "learn Spanish and do tons of reading for uni" plan? The Spanish is coming along well enough, but I've ditched reading in favor of temporarily turning into domestically-inclined woman. I made a dozen jars of blackberry jam, over 200 shrimp dumplings (now frozen and ready for soup at a moment's notice, huzzah!), put together garden beds and planted them, and I've cooked every single day for a week. It's weird, but it's also been nice. I feel productive, woohoo! Oh! And Rob has declared my enchiladas as the best, and refuses to eat my mother's. Not going to tell her that, though I did persuade her to not fix them for a large group of girls (I'll get into this later.) I've also been performing on the cello frequently, and arranged a piece from voice and piano to soprano, alto, 2 violins and a cello. (Again, I will explain this below)
Other things that are going on:
Rob and I have started exercising together. We both realized we've gained weight (not going to say how much!) since getting married, so exercising together has been a good start. And I've been including veggies/salad at lunch and dinner, so that's a good change as well. It hasn't even been that much more time/work than I'm used to! The local asian grocer started carrying gai lan (chinese broccoli) which I'm essentially obsessed with, so we've cooked that up twice already. Between the exercising/eating better, I feel much better. :D
We're also getting ready to submit a petition to have his permanent resident conditions lifted. Yay for tossing $600 at the government, then having relatives go on about how everyone should immigrate legally! You try paying over $3000 a person for the whole process, and have a high chance of getting rejected $800 into the process while on the average Latino's salary. Make immigration cheaper and easier, the way it used to be. Bleh. Anyways, we realized we're sadly low on pictures of the past two years, but we dug up enough to show we've had an ongoing relationship - and the shift in my hair color and length has been a -fantastic- time marker!
Rob turns 31 on Monday! I'm excited, but Rob's apprehensive about getting older. We don't have any real plans - Vegas was kind of our big exciting thing for the summer. We're having my family over on Sunday, and Rob's requested double-chocolate pumpkin cheesecake (this doesn't fit in the "eat healthy" plan, but it's for his birthday) and so I'm going to make it. It was the first cheesecake I ever made, and even with three layers and a ganache it came out great. This time around, my pride is probably going to bite me in the ass and make it turn out horribly. Ah well, I'm making it Friday, so I have time for a do-over if I need it.
This month, from the 22-24 I'm going to be at my parent's lodge (still can't call it a cabin) while my mother runs girl's camp. It's a churchy thing, but she couldn't find anyone that would commit to being in charge of the food (which will be done ahead of time, just needs someone to heat/basic prep, serve and clean up). Way to go mom's congregation, it's great to know that unless you're specifically TOLD to do something, you won't lend a hand, even with a 6 month advance notice! Anyways, I agreed to help because otherwise it would just be her for the food IN ADDITION to running the activities. There will be a few other people up there helping, but they all have tasks as well. (Girls camp requires each year group to complete certain requirements - oh I don't miss those days).
And finally, some pictures.
Maximus, my parents' 10-week old samoyed puppy: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v420/bluestarchic/?action=view¤t=PICT0020.jpg
House when we moved in: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v420/bluestarchic/House/?action=view¤t=Front.jpg
House Monday evening: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v420/bluestarchic/?action=view¤t=PICT0023.jpg
One of the garden beds: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/bluestarchic/PICT0022.jpg[/IMG]
Other things that are going on:
Rob and I have started exercising together. We both realized we've gained weight (not going to say how much!) since getting married, so exercising together has been a good start. And I've been including veggies/salad at lunch and dinner, so that's a good change as well. It hasn't even been that much more time/work than I'm used to! The local asian grocer started carrying gai lan (chinese broccoli) which I'm essentially obsessed with, so we've cooked that up twice already. Between the exercising/eating better, I feel much better. :D
We're also getting ready to submit a petition to have his permanent resident conditions lifted. Yay for tossing $600 at the government, then having relatives go on about how everyone should immigrate legally! You try paying over $3000 a person for the whole process, and have a high chance of getting rejected $800 into the process while on the average Latino's salary. Make immigration cheaper and easier, the way it used to be. Bleh. Anyways, we realized we're sadly low on pictures of the past two years, but we dug up enough to show we've had an ongoing relationship - and the shift in my hair color and length has been a -fantastic- time marker!
Rob turns 31 on Monday! I'm excited, but Rob's apprehensive about getting older. We don't have any real plans - Vegas was kind of our big exciting thing for the summer. We're having my family over on Sunday, and Rob's requested double-chocolate pumpkin cheesecake (this doesn't fit in the "eat healthy" plan, but it's for his birthday) and so I'm going to make it. It was the first cheesecake I ever made, and even with three layers and a ganache it came out great. This time around, my pride is probably going to bite me in the ass and make it turn out horribly. Ah well, I'm making it Friday, so I have time for a do-over if I need it.
This month, from the 22-24 I'm going to be at my parent's lodge (still can't call it a cabin) while my mother runs girl's camp. It's a churchy thing, but she couldn't find anyone that would commit to being in charge of the food (which will be done ahead of time, just needs someone to heat/basic prep, serve and clean up). Way to go mom's congregation, it's great to know that unless you're specifically TOLD to do something, you won't lend a hand, even with a 6 month advance notice! Anyways, I agreed to help because otherwise it would just be her for the food IN ADDITION to running the activities. There will be a few other people up there helping, but they all have tasks as well. (Girls camp requires each year group to complete certain requirements - oh I don't miss those days).
And finally, some pictures.
Maximus, my parents' 10-week old samoyed puppy: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v420/bluestarchic/?action=view¤t=PICT0020.jpg
House when we moved in: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v420/bluestarchic/House/?action=view¤t=Front.jpg
House Monday evening: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v420/bluestarchic/?action=view¤t=PICT0023.jpg
One of the garden beds: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/bluestarchic/PICT0022.jpg[/IMG]
![http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/bluestarchic/PICT0022.jpg[/IMG]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/bluestarchic/PICT0022.jpg[/IMG]){kind=link}