Apple Cream Pork Chops

Tonight I totally made a winner!

Like, before I was barely half finished with my own dinner, Eduardo had scarfed his down and was eyeing my plate. After offering him part of my own chop, it disappeared practically before I could even take my next bite. Then he announced that if he sat at the table even a minute longer he would over-eat and get a stomach ache, so he dashed away and left me sitting there still happily enjoying mine. I think I'll make this again. : )

This recipe was super easy because it involved ZERO chopping and has only a few steps and ingredients. Once I had it simmering I barely paid attention to the dish since I was making mashed potatoes simultaneously. The pork chops turned out sweet, moist and tender because they simmered slowly in apple cider which eventually became an incredible apple cream sauce. If you love fall flavors, you will love the combination of the pumpkin spice mixed with the cider. Try this before the season ends, seriously!

If I had known how fantastic this recipe would turn out, I would have documented the process with pictures. But here's the recipe (from a meal planning website / app I use occasionally called Food on the Table):

4 (4.0 ounce) boneless pork loin chops (I used 2 huge "thick cut" chops and they turned out extra moist)

Coating:
1 (teaspoon) salt
1 (teaspoon) pepper
3 (tablespoon) all-purpose flour
1/4 (teaspoon) nutmeg and 1/8 (teaspoon) ground allspice  (I didn't have these so instead I used a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin spice, which includes both of those. It turned out great!)
2 (tablespoon) cornstarch

Apple Cream Sauce:
1 (tablespoon) butter
1 (tablespoon) olive oil
1 (cup) apple cider
1/2 (cup) chicken broth
1/2 (cup) half-and-half or cream

1. Combine all the "coating" ingredients in a large ziplock.
2. Put the chops in the bag and toss them around until well coated and shake off excess.
3. Heat the butter and oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Sear the chops 3 minutes on each side (until golden brown).
5. Pour in the apple cider and bring to a boil.
6. Cover and simmer on medium-low heat 20 minutes.
7. Add half-and-half and chicken broth and simmer until sauce is thickened.

There was just enough extra sauce to drizzle a little over my mashed potatoes. Next time I'll probably double the sauce and really drench the potatoes because the sauce was incredible! Enjoy, and happy fall!

Mini Date Night

Since getting home from work today, I've done nothing but browse the web aimlessly and smell the delightful smells coming from my kitchen. Although cooking has become a bit of a hobby for me, it does easily become a chore when I have to do it every night. Usually I'm the primary chef in the family, especially with Eduardo still in school - but not tonight! He's in there slaving away on a delicious taco feast and I am incredibly pleased. Here's how I ended up in this privileged situation:

We've been participating in a marriage mentoring seminar at church, which meets every Thursday night throughout this semester. But tonight our mentors are out of town, and while we could have simply jumped in with another couple and their mentors, Eduardo talked me out of it. He said joining a discussion with complete strangers wouldn't be very beneficial to us (or to the strangers who would have their group invaded) and if I would be willing to skip our seminar he would make dinner! He even did the grocery shopping, since I hadn't planned on needing anything to fix tonight. In just a few short minutes it'll be ready! I'm so delighted! Isn't Eduardo just the sweetest?!

Me: A to Z!

Hi there!

Well, it's been one of those weeks... you know, the kind where instead of going to your wonderful small group from church you decide to stay home because you have a cold and need the rest, but then it turns out to be a really boring and lonely evening. Poo. But now I'm trying to distract myself from my sniffles with a fun little blogging activity - Me from A to Z. I hope you learn something interesting!

(Thanks Laura for sharing this!)

A. age :: 23

B. bed size :: queen

C. chore you hate :: picking up all my hair off the bathroom floor - ew. 

D. dogs :: none! So hate me, I'm not much of a dog person... weird I know.

E. essential start to your day :: snooze button (so bad!)

F. favorite color :: So many... but most often kelly green :)

G. gold or silver :: silver 95% of the time

H. height :: 5'1".... on a good day!

I. instruments you play :: piano, occasionally

J. job title :: hmmmm, I think technically it's "Associate Engineer"

K. kids :: none yet

L. live :: Urbana, Illinois 

M. maiden name :: Bradbury

N. nicknames :: don't really have any... that I care to share ;)

O. overnight hospital stays :: none thank goodness

P. pet peeve :: feeling like I have dirty feet

Q. quote :: I'm not big on inspirational quotes, mainly just funny ones. Like from The Office.

R. righty or lefty :: right

S. siblings :: Kevin, age 20 (goes to Texas A&M but we don't have to bring that up...*wink*)

T. time you wake up :: between 5:30 and 6:30 depending on my work location for the day. UGH.
Or about 11:00 if it's Saturday. Ridiculous, I know.

U. university attended :: Baylor University (SIC'EM BEARS)

V. vegetables you dislike: don't really love 'em, but don't really hate 'em, I guess

W. what makes you run late :: just about every morning as I'm finishing breakfast I think to myself "oh, the dishwasher ran last night after dinner. It'll only take a minute to unload and then I won't have to do it tonight while cooking dinner!" And then, inevitably, it takes at least twice as long as I think it will.You'd think I'd learn, but no.

X. x-rays you’ve had :: my right hand. because one time when I was young, my regular pediatrician couldn't see me so my mom took me to this other crazy paranoid doctor for my checkup, and the doctor got all worried about me because I've always been in the bottom 5th percentile on height and she thought maybe I had some sort of growth problem and apparently a hand x-ray could verify her theory. thankfully it didn't.

Y. yummy food :: CHOCOLATE!!!!!!! 

Z. zoo animal favorite :: probably monkeys because they are usually more active than the others, and therefore more interesting to watch

So there you have it! Now you know a little more about me and I've successfully kept myself distracted for a bit. I really miss you guys, smallgroup!

Changing Seasons

In Texas, Fall means the end of 100-degree temperatures and the changing of the leaves - from green to brown to gone. It also means decorating with reds, oranges, and yellows so that we can dream about real seasons and pretend to experience them.

For the first time in my life, I've gotten a taste of what Autumn is really all about. Several weeks ago, out of the blue, I started seeing Fall colors on my drive to work. Cooler weather arrived as well - even though this Fall has apparently been "unseasonably warm" here in Illinois, we've had a few pleasantly brisk days that make me want to break out the sweaters and boots.

To celebrate our first official Fall season, Eduardo and I went with another couple to a local apple orchard! Before heading out to the field, we filled our bellies with fresh apple cinnamon donuts and frozen apple slushies from the general store. We also stocked up on homemade cider and apple butter - yum yum! Then we headed outside for our apple picking. I was amazed at the pretty little trees, each laden with hundreds of apples. It didn't take long to fill our bags with dozens of apples, all hand picked by us! Since then, we've enjoyed sampling all the different varieties we were able to find in the orchard.

Here's a picture of Eduardo hand picking a Golden Delicious apple, with another already in his "apple picker" tool.

Here's our friend Emily with a cute little apple she picked.

Happy Fall everyone - whether you are enjoying the colors with us or not! :)

Happy Birthday Katherine!

Today is my friend Katherine's birthday. Since she lives in England, I probably won't get to talk to her on her actual birthday. So sorry Katherine, but this blog post will have to do! ;)

Katherine and I have been friends since 6th grade and we've known each other longer than I can remember. Thankfully I don't have any digital pictures that go back quite that far... but what's a birthday post without a walk down memory lane?! So I dug up a shot of us at our senior prom. Oh, the memories - what would I have done without you back then Katherine?!

Our friendship survived 6 years of grade school, 4(+) years of college, and a wedding (I hope I didn't get too bridezilla on you!!), and now here we are, continents apart. Life gets busier and it gets harder and harder to stay connected, but it is worth it! You are a lifelong friend :)

So, I hope you have a fantastic British birthday! As always, take lots of pictures and make lots of hilariously interesting memories and send them to me for my entertainment! And in return, I will continue to send you stories of my normal life in central Illinois. Love you Katherine!

Happy Birthday Eduardo!

My dear hubby Eduardo turned 24 this past Thursday! I love making birthdays special for people and I really wanted Eduardo to have a great one since we're far away from our family and old friends.

On his actual birthday, the two of us celebrated with presents and Eduardo's requested dessert - pumpkin pie. And not just any pumpkin pie either. He specifically requested his mom's recipe, and even added "Don't try to sneak in anything to make it more healthy!" Smart man, 'cause he knows I would've. I'm not a big fan of pumpkin pie so I don't have much of an opinion about how it turned out, but he seemed please with the result :)

Last night we invited friends from our church small group to join us for birthday dinner at a pizza place here in town, followed by chocolate cake at our place. We felt so honored to already know so many wonderful people here in Illinois to celebrate with! It was really fun to have our apartment full of friends for the first time since the move. I wanted to do a fancy 2-layer cake with homemade frosting and it turned out deliciously fantastic if I do say so myself! I did realize that I may have been a little over ambitious - it was my first time doing a layer cake, and it was my first time making homemade frosting. It turned out to be pretty easy, but definitely a lot more work than I anticipated! I don't think it'll stop me from doing it again though, because it was so tasty (even if it was a little lopsided)! I never want to go back to that canned stuff! I know someone took pictures but I don't have them yet, so hopefully I'll get those soon.

In all, I had a lot of fun celebrating Eduardo - hopefully he did too. Here's to another great year and many more birthdays!

Lisa Gets Crafty

Hey there!

I started this blog because of all the other blogs out there that I enjoy so much. Sometimes the blogs I love feature creative home decor ideas or crafty little DIY projects, and I always get so inspired to make my home more beautiful and enjoyable - and usually for so little money! So of course, I am a being a copy-cat and I'm not afraid to admit it. I only hope that one of my little projects just might inspire someone else too - especially if you know me, because then you probably know that I am really not a crafty type person :)

The other day I posted about my living room decorating progress and mentioned my lamp.  Well, here's the  step by step as promised! First I would like to say that I got the idea from Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour. One of the other blogs I read often posts recipes from this one, so I check it out occasionally and happened to find this post a while back. For whatever reason, it stuck in my memory as being something I could totally do. Then, right after we moved up here, I was hit with this unusual desire to go garage sale-ing one Saturday morning. Although I wasn't really looking for a lamp, one caught my eye and I decided to give this project a shot.

Here's what I started with:

First, I set up my work area. We have a balcony outside our 2nd floor apartment that has just enough space for small projects. I put down a kitchen sized trash bag and a couple flattened cardboard boxes to try to protect the walls and deck. Unfortunately when I was finished and picked them up I could see a line of blue mist where they had been - so I guess I didn't do a good enough job. My advise to you is this: be over prepared when it comes to protecting your work area! Moving on...

Second, I prepared the lamp. I removed the lamp shade and light bulb and taped over everything that I didn't want to get painted (the cord, the switch, and the place where the bulb goes).

Third, I primed the lamp using white Krylon primer. I really know nothing about choosing paint, so I just went to a craft store and read all the labels really carefully. This one said it works on metal and ceramic, and my lamp has both so I figured this was a good choice.

After the primer dried I applied the blue paint (it said on the can it only had to be a few minutes, which was lucky because I was in a painting mood and didn't want to wait!). I also used Krylon...

I don't have any gloves, but I recommend getting some. As you can see I got paint all over the can, as well as my hands. Blue paint looks weird under fingernails, and it doesn't come out easily!

I did 2 coats of the blue paint. I probably spray too close to the object I'm painting, because I can see a few little drips on my lamp from up close. It's not really noticeable though.

Finally, after my paint had dried thoroughly, I brought it back inside, untaped everything, and replaced the bulb and shade. In my opinion, it turned out awesome!!

Unfortunately, I don't have a great camera, nor do I have very good photography skills, not to mention good light in my living room. So here's a very poorly lit and unimpressive picture of the final product. In person I think it looks great, and once my living room has more awesome blue stuff in it this lamp will look right at home. I am so glad that I have a funky and useful lamp in the exact shade I wanted, and for so little money! Like the newb blogger that I am, I didn't track my expenses closely enough to give an exact dollar amount, but I would confidently say that I spent less than $15 on the whole project. Now where could you find a deal like that at the store?!

So there you have it folks. Lisa's first DIY tutorial blog post! I know, I know, it wasn't unimaginably cute or ingenious and it didn't require any real skill or unusual supplies. I could easily sum up this entire blog post by saying "Hey guys, I'm decorating in this weird color that I can't find anywhere in stores, plus I'm super cheap, so I bought a garage sale lamp and spray painted it! You should try it!".  Then I wouldn't have to put so much effort into writing all these "instructions". But it's a start! Now go be inspired! Be crafty! If I can do it so can you :)

Xoco

A few weeks ago Eduardo and I spent a day in Chicago. A few of our beloved Texas buddies were in town for a wedding on Saturday afternoon, so we got to spend Saturday evening as their "local" tour guides! We had a blast, and hopefully they did too. It was fun and so refreshing to spend some quality time with people we've known longer than a month.

Although we weren't meeting up with our friends until around dinner time, we drove into the city in the late morning to meet another couple for lunch. These friends also recently moved to Illinois from Texas, but while we have been settling in to life in a small town, they are adjusting to the big city lifestyle! They have a high rise apartment just a few blocks from the corporate real estate office where she works, and he is attending the University of Chicago. So far, we were happy to hear, they love their new life! And while we were in town, we benefited from their growing knowledge of the best that the big city has to offer - a multitude of options for amazing cuisine from around the world!

At Nicole's suggestion, we made plans to grab lunch at Xoco, a small authentic Mexican casual cafe. She informed us that it was started by the famous chef, Rick Bayless, who lived in Mexico for many years and has published some of the most famous and popular authentic Mexican cookbooks. He is better known for his two fancier downtown Chicago restaurants, but his little lunch cafe Xoco is clearly well known and loved, based on the crowd we saw there! And for good reason - the food was amazing! But that is getting ahead of myself...

Eduardo and I arrived in town just early enough to park and take a stroll around the block, taking in the city and all there is to see there. Shortly before the time we had agreed to meet our friends, we made our way back to the restaurant and joined the line that was forming rapidly. During our 10 minute wait, we browsed the menu and watched as the line grew out the door and down the street. Our friends joined us in line and before long we had placed our orders and were seated at a table outside in the gorgeous August weather (to you Texans - ha!). Let me tell you, the food was incredible! There were so many flavors, and they were perfectly combined to work together. I ordered the Milanesa tapas (think Mexican sandwich): Crispy Gunthorp chicken, black beans, artisan Jack cheese, tomatillo-avocado salsa. The most memorable part was the creamy cilantro dipping sauce that tasted incredible, and enhanced all the other flavors too! To end the meal, we all shared an order of churros, which were the best I've ever had by far. Everyone loved their food and agreed that we would definitely go there again. In particular I am convinced that a trip to Chicago in the winter would be incomplete without sampling one of their many made-from-scratch Mexican hot chocolate varieties. Yum yum!

In all, it was so fantastic to catch up with some friends and find out all about their new lives as real city slickers, not to mention the amazing food! And if you are ever in Chicago, let me highly recommend that you make a stop at Xoco for lunch!

Happy Weekend everyone!

Living Room Progress

I may as well set a default on blogger to start every new post with an apology about how long it's been since the last post... or perhaps I should just try to get better about blogging more regularly!

Anyway, we're still making progress on settling in to our apartment, but lately it's been barely creeping along. During the 2 weeks we had here in Illinois before work started, we were able to get rid of all the boxes and put most things in their places. We also managed to get a few things hung on the walls. However, this place is far from feeling "complete", and now that we are both working not a lot is getting done around here.

I am trying to make the living room / dining area a priority. It's definitely our biggest space, and the one seen by anyone who might come over. Unfortunately it's probably the most challenging room too. First, it's kind of a strange shape, which makes furniture arrangement a little unusual. Also, none of the furniture we already own really goes together and we have to make do with that. Not to mention, the colors we chose aren't exactly the most common for home decor, so it's been tough to find things that will work. But I am hopeful that it will eventually all come together, and I think in the end we will love it. I will share my ideas and progress with you all and hopefully you will love it too!

It all started with the blue loveseat we were given by my in-laws. It's a really nice piece of furniture and pretty comfortable too, plus it came at our favorite price - free! Since it was the only thing we owned that had any color at all when we first got married, we decided to make the best of the opportunity and do our whole living room in blue. It worked great at our other place because the room was a lot smaller and we were allowed to paint. Two blue walls made up for our lack of success in finding other blue objects to put in the room. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to paint the stark white walls here, so I am once again on a quest to bring some blue into our living room.

My original inspiration

It was actually long before the move that I first saw this collection at Target and was immediately hooked. At first it only caught my eye because the wall color in the photo is identical to the shade I had on my walls in Texas. But now I realize, after looking through dozens of blue-and-white-living-room inspiration pictures, that this is exactly what I am going for. Blue and white is a classic combination for making things feel homey, but the bright shade of this blue plus the bold patterns make the look modern. It was such a mistake not to jump on this collection so many months ago when I first saw it! In addition to the awesome lampshade, they had some very neat wall art that was so unique and perfect. But the coolest items were gone long before the collection hit the clearance section online, which is around the time I realized what I had passed up and tried to go back for it. Now I am left with only the memory and a determination that I can accomplish this look without Target dropping everything I need into my lap. It would have been so easy...

Let me say at this point, thank goodness for Pinterest! I'm not quite as hooked as many other bloggers, but it has been a huge help as I've looked for inspiration and ideas. Here are some of my pins for living room inspiration: (for simplicity, they are all on my Pinterest Board)

I love the colors in all of these, and I'm especially encouraged that some actually feature blue couches! I often worry that white is the only (attractive) option and there is no way a white couch could survive in a real person's house, right?! To make these pins more perfect, however, they would need to have a nice modern, bold pattern somewhere - for my living room I am hoping for some great curtains. Which brings me to my next point....

I am hoping to make my own curtains! They look so easy online, I'm hoping to save a little money, and a friend here offered the use of her sewing machine. Despite all those great reasons, my main motivation for going DIY is because I'm being so picky about fabric. I want a white-on-blue, large geometric or bold floral pattern. The shade of blue itself might prove to be a bit of a challenge, but the real key word here is large. These are going on a sliding glass door which is pretty big, and I want to be able to see the pattern from across the room without it looking too busy. Needless to say, it's been hard to find a fabric that lives up to all my expectations. I do have a few ideas though:

Waverly Lovely Lattice Lapis

Croscill Felton/River

I haven't settled on either of these because the pattern isn't quite as large as I was hoping for. I prefer the second one except the that color might be slightly off. It's so hard to tell from a computer screen! So my search continues...

I have had success with one project, thankfully. Thanks to a few online tutorials from fellow bloggers and a morning of garage sale-ing, I have turned this...

into this!

(Sadly the amazing bold blue color looks kind of purple in this picture. Maybe it looks better on your computer?  Either way it is awesome in person!)

Perhaps someday I will get around to posting the whole step-by-step process, but let me tell ya it was easy!

I also have several other projects up my sleeve that I just may end up doing one of these days... all from Pinterest of course!

DIY Doily Art 

Collage of Blue Frames 

DIY Sunburst Mirror

I'll keep you updated - wish me luck as I try to complete my new living room!

We are here!

Well I'd better make it official by declaring it on the blog - we are here! We've been in Illinois more than a week now... so it's not as exciting of a post as it could have been. Of course I have the excellent excuse of "being busy". Which I have been! Sometimes. Anyway...

Special thanks to Eduardo's younger brother Conner, who spent the week with us starting in Waco loading the truck, helping us drive the vehicles during the big move, and finally carrying most of our furniture up the stairs at our new place! Also special thanks to my parents who joined in for all but the truck loading, since they were coming in from Houston that day. Hopefully they felt as appreciated as they were. 

The actual loading of the truck wasn't nearly as bad as I had been afraid it might be. One of the big reasons it went so smoothly was that we had just about everything in boxes, suitcases, or plastic tubs, so we weren't carrying very many random objects back and forth and trying to find places for weirdly shaped things. Also, we started the process at 5:30 AM, while it was still "cool". Being an August day in Texas, of course it would be hot. But of course, it had to be at the tail end of a record breaking summer for Waco, accompanied by an extreme drought! The weather forecast was for temperatures up to 108 degrees and without a cloud in the sky, which is waaaaay too hot to be outside, especially doing any kind of manual labor. So it could have been terrible, but the early hour made all the difference there. However, the biggest contributor to our truck-loading success was the guys from our amazing lifegroup: 3 of them showed up between 6:00 and 6:30 AM ready to do nothing but carry furniture and heavy boxes for a couple hours before going to work. Between the 3 of them, plus Eduardo and Connor, they had all our furniture in before I could even finish making bacon for their breakfast burritos! In the end, I think we had the truck door shut by 8:30 and we were able to spend the rest of the day in cool air conditioned places. We are so thankful for our lifegroup!

We also got up early on our first day of driving, so we could throw in our last few items and hitch up the trailer that would be used to tow our second car behind the moving truck. Thankfully, our two full days of driving were so uneventful that waking up a little early is the most interesting thing I have to report! We passed a lot of green farmland and lush forests, so it was a pleasant drive. Mainly I was eager to arrive at our new place and get to work settling in!

Eduardo and I had 2 full days with my parents and Connor in Urbana before they had to head home. During that time we unloaded and returned the moving truck and tried to start unpacking some boxes. By the time they left we had a fully functional kitchen, we had our bed and our TV set up, and all our clothes were in our closet, but the place still hadn't really begun to feel like home. It was nice to be able to show our family around town and take them to visit our new church here in town. 

The five of us also had a blast on our little one-day vacation to Chicago that we all took, using the excuse that the airport was there anyway. We rode the L train, visited the Chicago Institute of Art, ate authentic Chicago style pizza at Gino's, and of course visited the bean. We even got rained on a tiny little bit, which was a real treat for us Texans this summer. At the end of the long day we dropped my parents off at the airport and headed over to Wheaton to spend the night. 

Our 2nd day in Chicago was all business - Eduardo and I took Connor to visit Wheaton College, where he hopes to attend next fall. He had an admissions interview, we all went on a campus tour and swung by the bookstore, and we even squeezed in a visit with the good'ole financial aid office. We also got to visit 2 little museums - one was about C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and other authors; the other was about American Evangelism and specifically Billy Graham. They were both pretty interesting, but I didn't enjoy either one as much as just walking around campus. It's really a lovely school and I enjoy being on college campuses in general. The biggest bummer for me was that the whole experience made me miss my dear friend Megan, who attended Wheaton but now lives in Honduras and I rarely get to see her. I wish she could have been my tour guide!

Things around our apartment quickly got to that point where we had unpacked the big easy stuff and the things we use everyday, but getting settled further has been quite a chore. I've completely rearranged the kitchen cabinets at least 3 times (I'm not sure I'm done but they have gotten a lot better) and I'm still working on organizing our 4 (FOUR!!) storage closets. Why am I complaining?! I absolutely love it here, and it has already been so nice having more space than we are used to. I am sure that once things are settled, we will be a million times more organized here than in our last place. Hooray for being able to store all junk! 

Tomorrow unofficially ends our little month of "summer". Even though neither of us has started work yet, Eduardo and I both have to go into our offices tomorrow morning for meetings. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone, but I'm still a little sad that my free time will be gone. It's true that I've stayed pretty busy, but it has been amazing to have a month off with no work! Who knows when that will happen again? I guess it's just part of the adventure that this has all been. Until next time - adios!

All Good Things Must Come to an End?

My experience with Mars Chocolate was incredible from beginning to end. To start out, the position sort of just fell into my lap at the exact moment I needed it. Despite not being an official industrial engineer (since my degree is in mechanical), I was able to meet the minimum qualifications and I got an offer. I knew the work would be challenging, and it certainly was. Usually, this was something I appreciated. I enjoy constantly learning and I knew any knowledge gained would only help my career in the future. Plus, my coworkers were more than understanding when I had questions and were almost always really helpful. Not to mention they were generally fun to be around and a few became my friends.

At first it was tough to bring the sad news to Mars that I would be leaving. Partly I felt guilty for being there for such a short time. Also I felt frustrated that all my personal efforts to learn how to do my job well were wasted, since I had just started to really get the hang of things. Plus, I felt more than a little anxious that my next job would never be able to measure up to everything I loved about working for Mars.

Visiting Urbana-Champaign for the first time helped a lot. Instead of the upcoming move being a huge question mark in my mind, I was able to picture my new apartment, the little shops and restaurants downtown, and the friendly people I had met. Making a few connections that would lead to some potential employment opportunities didn't hurt either!

Once I got excited about the upcoming move, I was able to dive into the task of finishing off my work well. I finally forced myself to tackle that to-do list of items I'd been putting off. In the end, my last week at Mars turned out to be one of my busiest, since I was so determined to get everything done! I was working hard up until my last minute there, when they handed me a 72-count box of Snickers, wished me well, and pushed me out the door. By the way, would anyone like a Snickers? ;)

And can I just say, who would have ever thought I would get to work in a chocolate factory?! I can't even say it was a dream come true - it was beyond my wildest imagination!

Knee High by the 4th of July - My 2nd time in the Corn State

Howdy y'all!

Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. I'm back in Champaign-Urbana this week, and I've been trying not to make it blatantly obvious that I'm a foreigner around here!

I'm here in my new hometown for a few days because I have 2 interviews! So far I think the first one went well. No matter what happens, at least it's been nice to have someone else pay for flights, hotels, and rental cars this time! Other than interviewing, which has kept me fairly busy, my goals have been to find more potential job options and to learn my way around town a bit better. Armed with a map I found inside a free visitor's guide and my iPhone Google Maps app, I've spent several hours driving back and forth around town. Usually it's right when I feel like I'm really figuring things out that I suddenly realize I'm not where I thought I was! But for the most part it's been enjoyable and helpful to have this free time to explore.

And now, for some personal observations as well as some fun facts about the area:

1. Personal observation - the weather is amazing (today)!
According the visitor's guide I picked up -
        Winter = Avg low 16, avg high 32 and 4 - 7 inches of snow per month
        Summer = Avg low 65, avg high 85 and 5 - 7 thunderstorms per month
        Spring & Fall = Avg low 45, avg high 65.
Most importantly: "During June, July, and August, there are an average of 6 to 7 days per month when the temperature is above 90 degrees." WOWEE!

2. There are more than 200 restaurants listed in the visitor's guide, listed by categories such as- BBQ, Chinese, Cuban, Greek, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Pizza, Seafood, Spanish, Steak, Swiss, Thai and more!

3. Yesterday, it took me less than 20 minutes to drive literally from one edge of town to the other. Seriously, I drove straight through the middle of the city, past dozens of traffic lights and even a few blocks of construction, I didn't ever get on a freeway and I still made it across town in no time. This is new and different!

4. Geographically, it's kind of weird here. Explanation:

The outlying parts of the metropolitan area differ from the suburban areas of many other metropolitan areas. Instead of a sprawling suburban skirt that encircles the urban area, the urban area abuts large swaths of farmland, with small to medium sized villages that originated as farming communities.

Thanks Wikipedia! This explains why I feel so overwhelming like I'm in the middle of nowhere as soon as I get to the edge of town. I feel like one minute I'm driving down a street that looks like it could be in downtown Austin and 5 mintues later I'm literally surrounded by corn and it's so flat I think I can see for miles. It really is an unusual thing, apparently.

5. Speaking of Austin, everyone here wants a Texan's opinion of our state's capital city! I have had multiple people ask me about it. Apparently they've all heard it's a cool place. Pretty funny!

3. Other cool random stuff:
- They have an Urban Outfitters, a Ten Thousand Villages, a coffee shop called Uncommon Grounds (yep, I just like the name), and a ton of other places that look awesome although I actually know nothing about them.
- It has been listed in Newsweek as one of the Top 10 Tech Cities outside of Silicon Valley and ranked 10 out of the Top 25 Green Cities in the US by Country Home magazine.
- Famous rapper Ludacris was born in Champaign.
- 36% of the population of Urbana is between 18 and 24 years old. The median age is 25. Super young city!
- In 2011: A Space Odyssey (weirdest movie of all time), Hall 9000 is dying or whatever it is that he does, he says he was programmed in Urbana. Wait, is that a good thing?!

And now back to the title of this post: Knee High by the 4th of July. I learned the phrase yesterday. It means things are going well, based of the generalization that if your corn is up to your knees on Independence Day you're going to have a good harvest. Let me tell you, the corn is certainly tall around here right now - literally and figuratively! :)



Snapped this phone pic while stopped at a traffic light. I think this corn is around 5 ft right now.



A Summer of Weddings

It's been a summer of weddings! In fact, this is the first weekend I've had in six weeks (!) without an out of town wedding to attend. It's been nice to stay home relaxing, getting some errands done, and not spending several hours in the car... but each of the weddings I've been to in the past 5 weeks has been so lovely! Here's a recap for the rest of you wedding lovers out there:

The Woods, June 3, 2011

images by Sharon Nicole Photography

Nicole is a good friend from my college small group at church. She and Robbie dated 7 years before finally getting to tie the knot with an extremely elegant evening. The wedding and reception were at a gorgeous bell tower and Nicole had every detail planned perfectly. For me, the highlights were...

- Her Dress - a satin strapless sweetheart with sparkley beading  - so much like my dress!
- The Colors-  amazing flowers, beautiful bridesmaids dresses, and everything else in a wonderful deep purple. 
- First Dance - choreographed by Nicole herself!
- My Dinner Company - I had a blast catching up with some great friends from the church college ministry.

Now they are moving to Chicago, where Nicole has her dream job with a real estate company and Robbie is attending University of Chicago for law school!

The Walkers, June 11, 2011

taken by my mom; snatched off facebook!

I've known Megan since 2nd grade... I think. I guess I've known her longer than I can remember! Throughout intermediate and high school she was one of my dear friends, and I'm thankful for the chances we've had during college to try to keep in touch. She met Jared while attending Texas Tech University and I know they are so happy together! Their mid-morning wedding in a garden was so lovely, and just so Megan, which I think is just perfect. Highlights included:

- The Reunion - getting to see Megan and her family again - it had been a long time!
- Megan's Adorable Wedding Gown - a combination of unconventional and classic, and perfect for a garden wedding.
- The Flowers - tons of amazing romantic pink arrangements

Now they are staying in Lubbock to settle down - Megan is an adviser in the Texas Tech business school and Jared is a year into med school!

The Wilsons, June 18, 2011

image by mark romine photography

Eric and Audra are both great friends of Eduardo and me from our church college ministry. Like Nicole and Robbie, they are high school sweethearts and are finally married! Another fun fact - they are from Champaign, Illinois! Small world, huh? Just as Audra hoped it would be, the wedding was so beautiful but also laid back and fun. The high points were

- The Exit - the couple ran down the steps of the gorgeous church and into their horse drawn carriage as the crowd cheered and rang wedding bells!
- The Party - we got to dance it up one last time with Eric and Audra and a dozen or so other wonderful friends
- And of course, being in my new hometown, which I fell in love with!

Now, sadly for us, they are moving permanently from Champaign to Waco. Eric will be managing a brand new Jimmy Johns sandwich restaurant (one of their favorite places) and Audra will be finishing her degree at Baylor.

The Milams, June 25, 2011

image by Photography Shoppe

 Diana was a Baylor engineering student in the same year as me. We became close during one of the trips I took to Honduras with Engineers with a Mission. She is incredibly smart and such a hard worker. She did an amazing job putting together a beautiful Houston wedding while getting her masters at Cornell in New York. She and Ben are both so passionate about their faith, which makes them perfect together. Things I loved about the wedding included:

- The Music -beautiful and worshipful music, especially the David Crowder songs!
- The Food - a burrito dinner catered by Freebirds - delicious and unique!
- The Old Friends - a chance to catch up with a bunch of old engineering buddies, who have all grown up, gotten jobs, and joined the real world since I last saw them a year ago

Now Diana and Ben are off to North Carolina, where Diana will be working for Siemens Engineering and Ben will be teaching physical education.

The Stricklings, July 3, 2011

snatched off someone's facebook album, I don't mind admitting it!

Sam was Eduardo's randomly assigned freshman roommate in the engineering dorm at Baylor. The two of them plus one of their suite-mates, Shane, ended up living together for a total of 4 years. They spent a lot of time together in their apartment, at the cafeteria, at Baylor sporting events, and in most of our engineering classes. Of course, once I started dating Eduardo I spent a lot of time with his roommates too! Although we don't see them nearly as often as we used to now that we're married, it was fun to go to Sam and Kalie's wedding and spend some time with Sam and Shane again. Highlights:

- The Colors - green and gold everywhere! This was definitely a Baylor couple.
- The Food - homemade fajitas made by Kalie's dad.
- The Entertainment - I taught Shane and Eduardo how to play MASH with the cards provided at our table.

Now Sam and Kalie will be living between Austin and Waco while he works for National Instruments in Austin and she finishes up her education degree at Baylor.

Next Up - The Bonds, July 30, 2011!

someone in Greg's family took this picture

We have 3 weeks off before Eduardo and I head to Lubbock to be part of the wedding party for soon-to-be Greg and Meaghan Bond! We actually knew both Greg and Meaghan separately through classes before Eduardo introduced the two of them at a conference in Indiana. They are probably the smartest combined couple I know, and they are really fun to hang out with! Eduardo and I love going on double dates with them, and spending 4 days together for their wedding weekend will be a blast! I'll have to post again with details from their wedding in a couple weeks. I can't wait!

Well, that concludes our summer of weddings! I have absolutely enjoyed each and every one. Weddings help me relive my own amazing day, and I get to share that joy with my newly married friends. Happy honeymooning, newlyweds! :)

Brief Thoughts on My First Time in Illinois

Pretty much the whole time I've known Eduardo, I have know that he is more ambitious than me in many ways. When we started dating seriously, I appreciated both his ambition and the knowledge that it would take him to great places one day. I was always excited about the possibility of following him wherever his ambitions may take him - especially since I never was big on goal setting for myself.

Now, Eduardo has the opportunity to get a PhD at a school ranked #5 in the country for Mechanical Engineering. Not only that, but he received the National Science Foundation scholarship, which allows him to earn a living while he is in school! We are incredibly blessed and I am so proud of him. I am also not too surprised that we are about to end up living for 5 years in a state that I have never even been to (until very recently, that is). The school, of course, is the University of Illinois. From the internet and hearsay I've learned it's a large school (about 40,000 students) in the twin cities of Urbana and Champaign, whose populations total around 100,000 including the students. I have told several people familiar with the area that we are moving there, and I've pretty much only heard two things in response:

"You think Texas is flat? Illinois is flat. " and "I promise, if you move there, you'll love it". "

 I'm always happy to hear one of those comments; I'm not so crazy about the other one! But now that I've been able to visit, I think they are both true.

It Has Begun...

I guess our moving process is officially starting today - but not by our choice! Due to an unplanned situation involving water in some unwelcome places, we are cleaning out our storage closet. With cleaning comes (hopefully) getting rid of a few things that haven't seen the light of day since we moved in last May, and possibly putting some stuff in boxes! I am excited :)

Here's the story: We made it home from our Illinois visit yesterday (more on that later). I went to do a huge load of laundry but was greeted by this in our laundry closet:

Uh oh! We quickly called our landlord Joey and found out that the leak was coming from our upstairs neighbors' AC. He thought the problem had been fixed, but we kept seeing drips. To make a long story short, Joey made several visits to our apartment, and I got the following text at work today:

"Joey and the repair man came by the apartment. Bad news: there was water in the storage closet. Good news: nothing is ruined."

I also got this picture:

My mind jumped to my wedding dress, which is stored in that closet. When I got home, I was able to confirm that Eduardo was right; nothing was ruined - except a cardboard box labeled "Eduardo's childhood memories"! But no worries - his mom had plastic wrapped everything! Everything was dry but the box :)

Like I said earlier, we now have an excuse to empty out our storage closet to make sure everything else is okay. Our camping chairs are currently airing out on the patio. I'm not sure if we'll actually be able to pack up anything yet, but maybe we can get rid of a couple things. Mainly I want to take advantage of my eagerness to pack while it lasts!

Hello World!

This isn't the first blog I've ever started - that would be my old high school Xanga, for which I won't be sharing a link! Thankfully I gave that one up once I got my college email address and could sign up for facebook. Remember when you had to be a college student to have a facebook? Those were the days. Anyway, hopefully this blog will be more interesting than my last.

I've wanted to start a blog for a little while now, since reading blogs has become one of my favorite hobbies, but my biggest fear has been not having anything to say. Well, I have some big changes in my life just around the corner, so I'm thinking it's now or never in terms of having good subject matter! Hopefully friends and family across the country might be interested in keeping in touch this way too.

And now, a brief introduction:
Hi, my name is Lisa! Currently I live in Waco, Texas with Eduardo, my hubby for just over a year now (I can't believe it!), and I work as an engineer for Mars Chocolate. In just over 6 weeks we are packing up our apartment and moving across the country to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois! Eduardo will be starting his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois. While I have experienced a variety of emotions about our upcoming move, right now I mainly feel incredibly excited. It'll be such an adventure! We are both native Texans, and I know we have a lot to learn about living in The Corn State. That's the inspiration for the title of this blog by the way! :)

Well, that's all for now! We'll just have to see how this blogging thing turns out...