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!