M.I.A.

Hello lovely people out in the bloggy world,

I have been absent from my blog, but I have legitimate reasons, I promise! I didn't forget about this wonderful little corner of cyber space. 

Hubby and I have been thinking, deciding, and praying about some changes for us. We have been wanting to move and experience somewhere else (Oregon, you are beautiful, we will be back). At the same time, I really want to start my teaching career this fall....badly. My time has been sucked into filling out job applications literally all over the country, and even England!

But in the midst of this, a great opportunity opened up. My grandparents live in Boise, Idaho. They own a few different rental houses there and are moving from there current one of 10+ years to another of theirs (on a golf course, with now stairs). This means their house is vacant, and we are moving in! Hello, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms on one acre.

 This blog will be a great outlet to share my experiences of moving and decorating our first house. And, getting a puppy too, shhh:)

I feel like doors are opening for us and I feel at peace about this big move for us. What a blessing! I have a job interview coming up in the next couple weeks in that area, so I would appreciate any prayers/good thoughts that you wouldn't mind sending my way!

Good News & Bad News

We have had a fantastic, busy last three days.

First and foremost, my hubby was hired Friday, on the day his internship ended, for a full time job! What a blessing. The restaurant is well known, but smaller, so we thought the chances were slim to none of him getting hired now (we thought maybe they'd call him in the future). I am so proud of my hardworking man. 

When I got off of work Friday night, we headed about 80 miles south to go visit family and friends for the weekend. My husband's parents and grandparents all live there as well as many of our friends. Stephen had a "dude night" while I enjoyed night out with my college roommate {of 4 years}. It was a fun time. My roommate and I went to two of our favorite bars and had some yummy cocktails!

Saturday morning, I woke up to find a text from my husband that said  something like "I am up, come get me asap so we can go see my grandparents." Great, I woke up a few minutes later, hopped in the shower, and was on my way to get him. Except not. I backed out of the parking space I was in and turned to go down the hill. As I went down, all I heard was a "thump, thump, thump." Great, I have heard that before with my previous car. I had a flat. NOT a fun surprise. There was a lady outside smoking who watched my face as I realized I had a flat, and she also watched me get out and assess the situation, in which I immediately responded with "crap". I didn't want to wait for AAA to arrive, so my roommate kindly took me to pick up Stephen who was able to put the spare on. Once the tire was off, we saw a nail shoved all the way inside the tire. That was the problem. Luckily, Les Schwab is a life saver and fixed it for free since I had their tires! That was the best part of the bad situation- a free fix.

It was hard to capture a picture that actually looked accurate. The whole bottom part of the tire was flat.

Anyways, it is fixed, and just like new.

The rest of the weekend we spent with his dad and family. We hung up, chit chatted, and went to happy hour. It was much needed and great to see everyone. We stayed the night at his mom's house and went to his sisters soccer game- it was at 9:20 PM. Late game but we enjoyed it.

We were able to shop around some of our favorite stores in town and do the things we enjoyed doing them we lived there.

I'd say the weekend was a success. Hope you all have a great week!

It's OK Thursday

It's OK...

...that I planned all week to enjoy this beautiful, sunny day at the zoo with the girls I nanny for...and I couldn't be happier that we did!

...that all my free time is wrapped up working on my current project: our wedding scrapbook. See a picture of one of the layouts here.

...to feel bad for my sister who fell off a horse during her lesson this week and got a concussion. Ouch! And apparently studies have shown that thinking too much while healing from a concussion can cause permanent damage. Therefore, it may be two weeks before she can attend school full days again and she isn't allowed to take any tests. Odd!

...to be so proud of my husband who finishes his internship for culinary school tomorrow!!!!

...to be happy that we haven't had to cook much this week because we have either had salads (easy) or the chili I made in the crock pot (so simple). 

...to really, really want the Breaking Dawn part 1 soundtrack.

...that I am annoyed with this season of the Bachelor. Ben has really been bugging me and the fact that he likes someone like Courtney? Don't even get me started...

Tomorrow is Friday! Yay!

Tutorial: How to add a "pin it" button

Want to learn how to add one of those Pin it buttons so that it automatically shows on each blog post? It's easy, let me show you how!

Step 1: From your blogger dashboard, click on "Settings". Then select "Template".

Step 2: Click on Edit HTML.

Step 3: Click the box to add a check mark where it says "expand widget templates".

Step 4:  Find the text in the html coding that says <div class='post-footer'>.

 Immediately after that, paste this code: 

<div style="float: right; margin: 4px;"><a href="javascript:void((function(){var%20e=document.createElement('script');e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8');e.setAttribute('src','http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)})());"><img alt="Pin It" class="aligncenter" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v419/green_tea/pin.jpg" /></a></div>

Step 5: Select "save template" and you should now have a Pin It button on each blog post!

_______________________________________

To use your own image, replace the image code in the html above with this: 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v419/green_tea/pin.jpg

To add the Pin it button to the left side instead of the right:

Replace <div style="float: right; margin: 4px;"> coding with just <div>.

Happy Weekend

Saturday has arrived and I couldn't be happier.

Hubby is working today so I am grocery shopping and starting season 2 of Big Love. Between that and starting to watch Dexter, I've spent my fair share of time watching t.v. lately. 

This weekend I am making these:

I found them on Pinterest and have been dying to try them. Don't they look scrumptious?

We have also been re-growing our green onion roots left over from one of our dinners last week. 

We have them sitting in water on our window sill so they get enough light. This is Day #3 and you can see the little sprouts forming at the top. I will be showing the whole process in details soon, so watch for it! This is a fun little project and it will be great to just snip off the green onions we need and to let them regrow again. 

I want to make this with the girls I nanny for in the next couple of weeks for St. Patrick's Day. Adorable, isn't it?

How fun and easy! I know they will get a kick of out making them. 

I've loved seeing all of the creativity and projects that have been linked up for From Scratch Friday in the last month. It's been great fun. Remember to come link up next Friday! The linkup is still open for this week, too, if you have some recipes, crafts, or DIY projects you want to show off. 

Now, I'm off to the grocery store. How fun, I know.

Follow @marriagescratch

Valentine's Day Recap

What a fun, sweet day we had on Valentine's Day this year. With a husband who used to serve at a fancy restaurant and consequently was required to work on this day (one of the busiest days for restaurants, of course), it was so wonderful that we both ended up having the day off together. What a treat! 

Stephen woke me up with this surprise that I mentioned yesterday. After that, we got ready for the day, browsed some of our favorite stores, went out for sushi (for him; I had chicken bento), relaxed and caught up on a show or two on dvr, and then had this amazing meal that words can't even describe.

We enjoyed wine throughout the evening and also watched a movie that hubby has been wanting to see. 

I gave him his gift. He was incredibly touched as he read through the 52 reasons I had written. It was so sweet to see his reaction. After reading through them, he stood up, kissed me, and told me "this was probably the best present I've ever given him." Wow. And I have given him a lot of gifts! What a hit this special gift was.

How did you celebrate this day of love?



Pin It

Get Your Blog Out There!

My name's Christina.

I am:

A wife, (grand)daughter, sister, cousin, niece, and friend. 

A Christian.

A lover of pink.

Outgoing.

Married to an amazing man who cooks for me!

A nanny with a teaching degree.

A scrapbooker and craft lover.

A wine lover.

Coffee drinker.

Silly song writer (yes, I make up goofy songs).

If you're new...take a look around & be sure to leave a comment so I can come visit you too!

Weekend Pictures

1. Enjoying a perfect, beautiful, sunny Saturday.

2. My little (14 year old) brother's basketball game.

3. Some of our super bowl grub (minus homemade spicy sausage & a veggie platter).

4. My first Shellac manicure. Loving it so far!

5. Super bowl beverage: Citrus vodka, pineapple juice, raspberry liqueur, & pineapple chunks

6. Homemade pitas (yum!)

Happy Weekend

This was my view as I drove home from work last night. Amazing. I couldn't help snap a few pictures when I was stopped at a light.

We enjoyed amazing sourdough homemade bread that Stephen made with dinner last night when my mom and her boyfriend came over. 

While hubby is at work today, I am going to: relax and start the show Big Love, wash my car, do laundry, hang out with my dad, and go to my little brother's basketball game. 

Happy Weekend!

Beach Trip

We had an enjoyable weekend. We relaxed Friday night and spent Saturday evening with friends at the Oregon Coast. 

When we arrived (after Stephen got off work) they were having dinner. We just hung out for awhile, had some drinks, and then headed off to the casino.

We played the penny slots at the casino. Once we headed home, we played my favorite game: Apples to Apples (if you haven't played, you're missing out!). We stayed up until almost 4am which is the latest I have stayed up in a long time. Actually, to tell you the truth, I can't remember the last time I was up that late. But it was fun!

In the morning, we woke up at about 11am and headed to breakfast at Pig N' Pancakes. Yum. I enjoyed a delicious strawberry waffle while Stephen had a clam burger (or something). 

This is the ocean as we were leaving the coast on Sunday. It's hard to tell from this picture, but the waves were gigantic! It was incredibly windy (some at 110 mph even) , rainy, and stormy earlier in the week and the waves still hadn't calmed down.

We are now recovering from the fun we had. I thought it would be harder to wake up at 5:45 this morning. I mean, I wanted to continue sleeping, but I got right up when my alarm went off. I'm looking forward to having tomorrow off though.

Happy Monday everyone!

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Where I am linking up today...

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

{I made dinner last night for my husband for a change. My first time making pesto. Yum!}

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Our Weekend

Our weekend didn't go exactly how I had planned originally. I came down with a cold Friday night and by Saturday hubby had it, too. We were able to soak up a lot of rest time together though which was nice.

We drank lots of tea, snuggled, and napped. Saturday night Stephen had plans with friends so I took advantage of my alone time and rented Water for Elephants. It was amazing. I've been wanting to read the book and haven't yet, but I was skeptical about whether I would like the movie or not. I am so glad I watched it though. If you haven't see it, rent it. You will fall in love with it like I did!

Source

My wonderful sister-in-law brought me my (belated) birthday present on Saturday night also. It was so sweet.  She gave me tazo tea, an assorted package of delicious hot chocolates, and this adorable Starbucks mug I had been telling her I really wanted:

I know Christmas is over, but I've convinced myself that it is just a wintery mug so that I can continue to use it instead of packing it away with our Christmas stuff.

Speaking of packed Christmas stuff, Saturday morning we had a much needed all-house clean. I wasn't feeling well but I knew I had no other choice because our house was miserably messy. During this cleaning time, I put all of our ornaments back in their boxes and packed them up. I was sad to discover, however, that one of our precious ornaments had been thrown out with the tree. I was so afraid that would happen. It wasn't just any ornament either. It was one of my husband's Hallmark ornaments that his great- grandparents gave him in 2008. Bummer.

We decided to make homemade lasagna Sunday night and it was delicious. Cheese-spinach-hot sausage=yum! I love making meals that produce lots and lots of leftovers. So it was not only delicious but will become many more meals for us!

While we enjoyed dinner we gave the movie Midnight in Paris a shot. Sometimes Woody Allen's movies can be a little bit out there but we really enjoyed this one! It's a fun movie and worth seeing.

Source

Despite being sick, we had a good weekend. I was sad to see it end though. Why do the weekends fly by so fast and the weekdays seem to drag on? Funny thing.

Link up parties I'm participating in today:

Happy New Year!

It was an odd feeling for me to see 2011 end because so much happened during the course of the year. 

1. Graduated from Oregon State University
2. Moved back to Portland
3. Started a new job
4. Got married
5. Learned how to live with a boy
6. Went to Hawaii
7. Met some awesome new friends
8. Visited my grandparents at Thanksgiving in Boise
9. and much more!

I know that 2011 will be a tough year to beat, but I am sure there will be many exciting new adventures in 2012!

We brought in the new year with some close friends of ours, Kevin and Carly. 

Another couple that they are friends with hung out for awhile with us too!

We had delicious drinks and finally figured out how to play Balderdash (very fun, by the way!). 

That is their adorable lab, Moose, in the picture with us.

We stayed the night there that night and woke up to find Kevin making us delicious breakfast burritos in the morning. 

Happy 2012!

Stream of Consciousness

I have been off work for 11 days now (with the exception of working one half day) and have become very used to sitting on my couch watching movies. This is all thanks to my mom who got us the perfect Christmas gift for two people with a break from work/school. One of the things she gave us was a 3 month pass to rent unlimited dvds, blu rays, or games at Blockbuster. We have been swapping them out and enjoying being able to catch up on many new releases we have yet to watch.

Tomorrow I return to work. Hubby went back to school today. It is going to be quite a shock waking up at 6am, but our bank account will thank me.

My wonderful mother-in-law met her New Year's resolution for the last year. and I am so proud. She walked/ ran 1,000 miles since December 31 of last year, and on that date this year she met her goal. Woohoo. She also lost 100 pounds in that time too.

Our tree is still up. And it's dead. Very dead. I really need to take the ornaments off so we can take it to the dumpster, but I haven't yet. 

I'm still not sure what my resolutions for this year are. I want to eat healthier. I want to start working out. I don't want to set anything too crazy because then I won't stick with it. I do not that I want to finish our honeymoon scrapbook and begin making our wedding album, though.

On New Years Eve I had the chance to see my wonderful friend Kylee. We met for frozen yogurt and spent time catching up on life. She is awesome.

Tonight there is a new episode of How I Met Your Mother on plus the season premier of Bachelor. Yeah, I'm excited.

8 Days!

Well, the one week countdown until Christmas is on! I am soooo excited. 

We are busy making Christmas and birthday plans with our family. We are blessed to have many birthdays around this wonderful time of the year! My MIL's birthday is the 22, SIL's birthday is the 26, and my birthday is the 29. This week my hubby will be making a birthday dinner for his mom and we will happily cram into our little apartment to share a special meal together. Then Saturday we are having my family over for Chrirstmas Eve dinner and then again Christmas morning (before we head south to see hubby's parents and fam). 

Speaking of birthdays, I got home a bit ago from a birthday party for the now-four-year-old girl that I nanny for. There were 23 kids there...wow! I am tired. It was impossible for me to just chill and hang out. I took care of the twins (they are two) the whole time. But it was fun. Unfortunately, the birthday girl has been feverish all day and she was not in the mood for the party that was being thrown for her. But, her sisters had fun anyway!

I am currently enjoying a glass of wine while hoping that my best friend (the one home from Boston for the holidays) will come over. We went to dinner last night and had a great time. We are completely different but  I love her more than words can say. I have known her for 23 years, her entire life, and we have shared many ups and downs together over the years. She was my Maid of Honor at our wedding in July, and boy were those special times. 

Happy weekend!

Stream of Consciousness

Today was a long day and I could hardly wait to get home to my hubby and enjoy our evening together. I only live 8 miles from work but I drive into Portland so it usually takes me 30-40 minutes to get home at night. Tonight? It took me 2 hours. I am beat and very, very frustrated. I have no idea why there were so may cars on the road. I know tomorrow is the last day of school, so why were the roads so busy tonight?

Hubby dragged me to the store to buy ingredients for his eggnog that he has started to make every year. He is now making it in the kitchen as I sit and struggle to keep my eyes open.

Christmas is only 10 days away...let the countdown begin! 

I opened the mailbox today to find that I received my annual angel ornament from my grandma. Meet Viola:

I am so glad it is almost the weekend! And, my best friend is home for the Holidays from Boston!

Time for bed, Night!