I don't like cream of mushroom soup!

I feel as if Andy and I become more and more of a family everyday. As I have said in previous blogs, our marriage has been tough between work schedules, homesickness, and all the other stuff that comes with the start of a marriage. Moving into our own place has made things so much better. We have really been working as a team to get our place together...and really just working as a team on everything. Just today we were discussing if we should get a futon or two recliners for our entertainment room. I had said that it didn't make a difference to me and Andy reminded me that my input was important because we're a team. I liked hearing that.

There is a point to all this.

Since we've moved in, I have been cooking more often. Some of the meals are super easy that I've just learned to make up out of the need to eat but too lazy to really cook. BUT, Andy and I are starting to make meals that our families would eat. I made my mother's tuna casserole. Andy enjoyed it, much to my relief. I love tuna casserole. Tonight was Andy's turn.

He told me he wanted to make pork chops in cream of mushroom soup. I hate cream of mushroom soup and only like it in tuna casserole. I have to be honest and say that I have been worried about it for two days. He assured me it was really good and that the gravy it ends up making is so yummy with rice.

Andy taking a picture of me taking my first bite

I admit, I went to the store and bought a brown gravy mix just in case. But I'm happy to announce, I didn't need it. I wanted seconds but didn't! So here some pictures from Andy cooking (a baker AND a cook, yippee for me!).

Andy preparing the chops with salt and pepper. Something that made me laugh was that Andy was grinding the pepper, but never took off the top. Some cook!

Browning the chops

Adding the cream of mushroom

The chops as they cook. It smelled delicious...but I was still nervous.

Andy the Chef...or basketball player

Don't you think we should have added a veggie? We'll have to get better about that!

Me giving it a thumbs up!

Waiting

I'm waiting right now for the guy to come fix our dishwasher...but he is already 16 min. late! He was supposed to be here at 7 this morning. I got up early and took my shower so I'd be ready when he came. But apparently that makes no difference.

So I thought I'd take the time to update the blog while I waited.

Friday night Andy had to work until 11:30 PM, so my friend and co-worker, Annie and I had dinner. We went to one of my favorite restaurants, and Italian place called Assagios. Yum! After dinner we went to Ross and did a bit of house shopping.

Annie works in my room in the afternoon. She's my age and has a degree. We tend to have a lot in common and I enjoy chatting with her. The really funny thing is, we see each other so often that I repeat things to her. She thinks I'm having early onset of dementia =)

Andy and I had a very productive Saturday and laid back Sunday. Saturday we took the car in to get this light checked out. When Andy was in WI the check tire pressure light came on. So Andy said to just go put air in the tires. So I did, but the light didn't go off. So after about a month we got it checked out. Apparently I put too much air in the tires. Oops! I didn't have a tire gage so how was I supposed to know? I got teased a bit for it, but oh well. The Nissan guys were kind enough to check the tires out and makes sure there were no leaks, but didn't charge us.

While they were doing this work to the car we walked to Denny's and had breakfast. On the way back we stopped at the plant shop. I want to do some landscaping in our front yard. It's so blah. They had so many colorful plants that we both liked. So that will be the next project, after we get the inside landscaped =).

After we got done with all of that, we went on a hike. It was a moderate hike but the views were phenomenal. Andy and I posted pictures on facebook already, so I feel like everyone has probably already seen them. Since it now seems like our family and friends are all on facebook. So I won't post them on here. The hike was so refreshing. The day was beautiful and breezy.

Later in the afternoon, we went shopping and took in a movie. What a busy Saturday!

So on Sunday, we relaxed. We slept in until 7 something (can you believe that is considered sleeping in?) and lounged around, cleaned up the house, played PlayStation (Andy, not me), and made breakfast. I ran (drove) to mall later to the book store while Andy napped. Then we walked to the exchange to buy a large pan with a lid. Later we walked to the basketball court and shot around a bit. Last, we watched a movie that Andy just bought. I can't remember the name though. Great movie just the same! And went to bed. That was our Sunday in a nutshell.

Softball Season Begins

Tonight Andy had his first softball game. He played okay (I think. I was talking during the whole game and might not have been paying very close attention...oops). The team did win tonight, so they are starting off well.

Most of the wives got a jersey, including me. Out of us all, I was the only one who didn't wear it. I feel bad about it. I'll wear it for the next game for sure! We'll take a picture. The jersey is big on me and I feel a bit uncomfortable in it. I thought I was ordering a t-shirt, but they ordered everyone a jersey. I wanted to take a picture of Andy in his uniform, but he thought that was dumb. I did get a picture of him after the game but it's on Andy's camera. He'll probably give it to me tomorrow and then I'll add it.

During practice this past weekend Andy suffered his first (hopefully his last for the season) injury. He was trying to catch a ball and it hit him on the leg near his ankle. His ankle and below his ankle have been swollen and bruised since Sunday. Needless to say, it is tender tonight after the game.

His next game isn't until next week. I'll keep you updated as the games go on.

All but the decorations

Here is our itty bitty kitchen. It's good enough for us though.

Our dining room

Our dining room table

My little work station...just enough room! And the desk folds up if I need to move it!

Living room with no decorations and Andy sitting in his new game chair. It will be moved to our entertainment room when we set that up.

Another view of the living room and our new couch and love seat. Do you see the KSU blanket and Oliver sitting on the couch?

Our bedroom. We're working on getting more pillows to make the bed pretty.

I know the pillows don't match, but Andy bought the pillow and sheet set for the bed before we got the comforter set. Those are 500 count sheets and pillow cases and the set came with 200 count. We'll hide them under all the pretty pillows after I get them done =). And one more night stand now that we know we have the room for it. We were concerned what we had wouldn't fit, but it does.

I'm Only Going to be the Muscles

Andy and I went to Pier 1 yesterday to look at dishes. Andy said "I'm only going to be the muscles, you're picking them out". It didn't quite go that way. It is true, he was the "muscles" (has very little arms but they're strong), but HE picked out the dishes. I would have never of picked out the set of dishes he did, but after I saw them, I really liked them. So here are our new dishes!

Andy being Vanna White

A close up

And last...a picture of the plate on our dining room table

A night out

This past Wednesday, Andy and I met up with an old friend. Andy went to elementary and middle school with him and I went to high school with him. He is known as "The Charlie" now, but we simply know him as Chuck. He is in the Air Force and flew in for one night. I'm so glad he thought to call us so we could meet up. I hadn't seen him since we graduated (11/12 years) and Andy hadn't seen him for (I think) 14/15 years.

We went downtown and had dinner and (me) way to many drinks. We didn't end up getting home until 1 in the morning. We were dragging the next day. We had been tired from all the moving, so this just took us from tired to worn out. Thursday night, we were in bed by 8:30! Here are some pictures from the evening.

Us at Dukes

Us at The Yardhouse

Chuck drinking my fruity beer that I couldn't drink anymore

Me tipsy, Andy looking goofy.

Tie-Dying

Our annual Easter Parade is coming up and we have to dress the kiddies up. But what do babies wear? We decided to make them an Easter egg. We got onsies and tie-dyed them!

I had never tie-dyed before. But our roommates' girlfriend was here and she told us what to do. After several days of preparing and buying stuff, we were ready to make them.

Andy and Tova (roommates' girlfriend) twisted the onsies and rubber banded them while I got the dye ready.

Andy is especially proud of the green ones because he picked out the color and did all the stuff with the onsies to dye them. He's so funny about it!

Here is the end result. The solid pieces of dyed cloth are sleeves from old undershirts of Andy's. We are going to use them as hats. I would like to show you how they look on the babies, but I don't think I can put their pictures on here.

Andy really pulled through and helped me out a lot with this project. I really appreciated the help!

UPDATE: The onsies looked sooo adorable on the babies. The "hats" worked out great too! Except everyone thought they were jelly beans. Andy was happy to hear that people thought the green onsies that he did looked really nice (not that I wanted to tell him that, he already has a big head after the basketball article!). We had a great parent turnout and the kids really enjoyed it. We had a parade and then a baby carnival including snacks for the adults. It was truly an awesome day!