Grown Up

Today is the first day of June.  Today I've been married to the man of my dreams and my best friend for three weeks exactly <3 Today I'm feeling all grown up.

I'm married.  That's grown up like.  As husband and wife we share a bank account and pieces of plastic. That's grown up like.  I have a job, my husband has a job. My husband and I got up early today for his job, and both of us will be out late for our jobs.  That's grown up like.  We have a beautiful place to live (a bike ride away from the beach) ;) which means we have rent and other bills to pay.  That's definitely grown up like. We have an adorable puppy to take care of that is still in training at eight months old.  That's grown up like.  We have house chores that we cannot whine and bugg someone else about until they do them, so we have to.  That's grown up like.

So to counteract this grown up feeling. I'm going to listen to disney songs and watch children's television while I rollerblade and get those stupid chores out of the way for the day. :P

I'm Making Dinner Tonight

I decided that I was going to make my hubby dinner tonight.  Usually he cooks for me, but I thought we might switch things up.

I was thinking starting with an italian salad then a main dish of lemon pepper chicken with broccoli.  Maybe braising the chicken? And lightly steaming the broccoli with it?

9 Simple Steps to Great Braised Meat

There are 9 basic steps to braising meat:

1. Season the main ingredient with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a few tablespoons of oil and/or butter in a heavy pan or Dutch oven.
3. Saute meat or vegetables in the pan on medium-high heat until the meat browns.
4. Deglace the pan by pouring broth, beef stock, wine or juice and scrape any pieces of meat that are stuck to the pan and stir.
5. Add cooking liquid (water, stock, wine, juice or some combination) to the half-way point of the main ingredient.
6. Cover and place the meat on the middle of a rack in an oven that has been pre-heated to 300° – 350° Fahrenheit.
7. Cook until completely tender. This can range from 1 hour to 6 hours, depending on what you are cooking.
8. Remove the pan from the oven and strain the meat and vegetables out of the liquid.
9. Remove the excess fat floating in the liquid, and then reduce the sauce to desired thickness by cooking it down over low heat until it thickens. Or, make gravy by adding a mix of equal parts fat and flour (a roux).

(http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/how-to-braise-everything)

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It turned out very lemony.  Looked good :)

It was missing something to counteract the lemony flavor, but I couldn't figure out what it was.  ...  I was disappointed about how this turned out.  I think my hubby's going to do the cooking from now on, for the most part.  

I'm Married!

Ahhh!!!  How awesome is that!?!?!?!? I'll tell you: it's amazing!!!

I'm so lucky to have the love of my life by my side every night, to wake up to his snuggles and come home to his loving arms.  To be so active and play with him each day!  Luckiest woman in the universe right here!!! <3

The day of the wedding actually turned out a lot better than I thought it would.  Started out a little rough, but we got everything figured out and worked out in time.  It was so awesome to have my very best girlfriend here to keep me on track and focused, not freaking out at anything, and my family to help put things together.   It was a very fun and special day!  :D

Now we need to get thank you cards out and figure out the honeymoon part.  We know we want to go on a cruise, we just need to figure out when and if we need passports on other paperwork done first...

Oh, I'm so excited for life and the near future!!!

(Thank you to our friend Stephen for taking our wedding photos, and thank you hubby for processing them!)
Timothy Capp Photography

small rant...

Today was ... well let me tell you about today.

Today I woke up to my wonderful fiancè snuggling me, I was expecting to get the dishes and laundry done before the shift I picked up at work, but instead we went out for classy burgers and met with someone to sell a camera to. Which, it sounds like he's getting both the camera and the lens, yay!

We stopped by the bank on the way home. By the time we got home I had a few minutes to get ready for work and be there... so no dishes or laundry got done.  The laundry that really needed to get done was part of my work uniform too. Allways have a back up!  And I called work to let them know I was on my way (they didn't even know that I was stepping in for someone yet.)

Almost immediately after I hung up I hit a red light. I stopped and my eyes wandered around the horizon.... I noticed a sign was flashing, looked like the lights were going out in it. Then the lights turned green.   .... my car went nowhere. I realized my car wasn't on, so I tried starting it again, I could hear the engine turning, but to no avail. Some nice people got out of their cars and helped me push it to the side so I was out of traffic.  I had to call work again, this time my gm picked up, I just explained to her what was happening and she didn't seem too worried about me being late.

My handsome man came and saved me. He called a tow and now my car is sitting in the parking lot of an auto repair shop that was already closed because it was already late in the evening, but they're open bright and early. I will be calling in that bright and early to see if they can do something with it...

My night in shining armor drove me back home and let me leave him stuck at home while I took his car to work. I showed up an hour and a half late. What I really love about this new place is that when I got there everyone knew why I was late and wanted to know that I was okay. I don't know if they did it on purpose, but my fellow servers ended up giving me extra tables and I was able to stay later. That's a real team right there. Tonight was a great night at work too because we really worked together well there was a great team put together tonight!

Two weeks

This song. Lyrics express exactly how I feel right now.  :)

I am super very excited!!!  In 14 days (2 weeks) I am getting married to my best friend, to the love of my life!!! <3 <3 <3

I'm super, super excited to go out into the Gulf of Mexico where my man proposed, in kayaks and stand-up paddle boards (Thanks to Tarpon Tom's for the rental).  Announce my love and devotion to this man with many friends and family as witnesses.  Then celebrate and enjoy the beach for the rest of the day!!!  I'm super excited to be bringing my bestie and maid of honor to Florida for the occasion and to have some important family members celebrate with me too.

Two weeks, we still need to write the ceremony and our vows. We need some decorations.  We have some ideas, but need to finalize what we're doing for cake and other food items. Other than that we're ready, I'm ready! <3

<3 This is going to be the best day of my life! <3

<3 I found this image in a google search, thank you whoever posted it! <3

Fast!

The day went by super fast today! It was a nice lazy day for a day off, I'm working the next three days....
So today I did some marketing research and photo booth prop ideas.  There was an awesome thunder storm and we had some awesome visitors today! A falcon and a tree frog!

Both photos credited to Timothy Capp Photography

Awesome!

How freakin awesome is life!? That I can ride my bike to the beach with the love of my life and sit watching dolphins swimming in the gulf. :)
Awesome!

love my life :)

Today has been an awesome day! My husband to be and I want out for a bike ride, we went some where around twenty miles! We rode down the Penallis trail, stopped by the primate sanctuary, and had a subway sandwich on honeymoon island causeway.  On our way home we stopped by winn-dixie to get supplies for dinner and salsa makings.

My hubby made me a terriaky pinapple chicken sandwich. While we watched lilo and stich. :)

Now snuggles and movie time with my boys!!!

Sunny

This morning I got to wake up to the sun shining in my window.  Its been a warm day. Went out on the kayaks with the love of my life we went through our canals and into the bayou. We got surrounded by manatees and as an added bonus we had the pleasure of spotting dolphins too! It was fun and nice to go out and see all the wildlife.  Tomorrow its supposed to get cold again, I'm not really looking forward to that. Well, time for some lunch and to play with my puppy before work...

Decent to great

Started the day off with heading to work, it was painfully slow today in the resurant. So after being let off early I stoped by the store to get a bottle of moscato and headed home.
Got my new toy: a nook.
To top the day of I went for a walk on the beach to watch the sun set with the love of my life.
Now to play with my new toy till bedtime ....

A nice day serving

Today a group of five guys came in, just having a good time... soon after, a couple came in celebrating a birthday.  Half way trough their meals the couple got up and moved to the other side of the restaurant.  I was informed of this move while I was getting their main course out of the kitchen.  I had a fellow server run the couple's food out to them while I got the guys their food.  When I set the tray down I said (sort of jokingly), "Now I have to play parent... I heard you guys were using foul language and made those people move.  What is going on here!?"  They told me that they felt terrible that they had moved, they weren't trying to be grotesque and they wanted to offer the couple dessert.  When I told the couple the guys were offering them dessert they informed me that it was her birthday and they already had cake at home.  But the gentlemen insisted that they get them something so they offered them a bottle of wine, which the couple accepted.  Both parties went home happy!