What? It's our anniversary already?

Has it really been nearly three months since I've blogged? What's wrong with me? Oh, that's right, we've been busy. But isn't life always that way? Well, regardless, here I am, blogging again. And it's because some fun and important things are happening!

First, we're going to have a furry houseguest for about a week. Our friends Tara and Ryan (and their adorable daughter Samantha) are going on vacation (they're so lucky!), so we get to kitty-sit for their super lovey-dovey Oliver. We've met Oliver a few times already, and love him to pieces. He's very affectionate, and somewhat of a talker, and I'm just so excited to have another little personality around. I've always been a cat person, and have been missing that extra something, so this is perfect - for the time being. I think they're also hoping that this might be a good way for us to do a trial-run for permanent ownership of Oliver. Tara and Ryan are expecting their second baby, and are thinking that they can't give Oliver the attention he deserves. And seeing as we're childless right now, and we have a ton of love to give, I'm hoping he'll grow on us and won't want to leave. But we'll see how this goes first, and go from there.

Then Sunday is our anniversary! We'll have been married just one year, but oh how our vows have been tested! Not only did we get sick on our honeymoon (sickness and health), we had some financial struggles to start out with, too (richer or poorer, which led to some better and worse in there). We really have come out stronger on the other side, though. And we've had a very adventurous first year, too! We went all the way to Europe and back. But we're so excited for Saturday, because we get to go pick up our fresh anniversary cake from our baker who made our wedding cake. We're thrilled we don't have to eat frozen cake, and my husband is so happy that he got to pay $18 for a second cake so we can have two flavors. We loved our cake so much, and are so happy we actually get to enjoy it this time! But honestly, it truly doesn't feel like an entire year has gone by since we walked down that aisle. I have a picture of us from the wedding on my desk at work, and I can remember that moment like it was yesterday. It was such a great day, shared with so many great people, and I'm just so happy that it was him that I married. I'm more in love with him now than the day I married him, and I'm so thankful that our love keeps growing every day.

Ione is 1!

So this weekend, my brother Stewart, my sister-in-law Danielle, my gorgeous niece Ione, and my mom came over to celebrate Ione's first birthday! We would have gone to her original party, but I had to work, and mom had gotten strep throat, so we couldn't go. We made up for it, though! Juan and I made different kinds of panini sandwiches with prosciutto, brie, mozzarella, arugula, goat cheese, tomatoes, pesto sauce, and balsamic vinegar. They were so good! We love our panini press, it made putting them together super easy. Mom brought baked beans and potato salad, and Stewart and Danielle brought a green salad. So good!

Ione really was the hit of the party, she's so cute! We got her a plush puppy dog that sings and talks when you touch its hands, feet, or tummy. It's really cute! Plus, once she figured out what it did, she was dancing and swaying to the music, which was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen any child do. :) She's really the perfect baby. She's happy, calm, curious, smart, and just an all-around amazing child. I love her so much!

Then we went to Pine Lake park in Sammamish, which is really nice. It's got swings (we put Ione in a swing and she thought it was the most fun thing ever, which was totally cute), playgrounds, a big expanse of grass to throw a frisbeen on, and the lake is great for swimming. It's got a pebble beach, and lifeguards. The water was really warm that day, so that was a huge plus. It was so nice to spend some time outside and see my family. I can't wait to have them over again! :)

Back from the dead.

We're back! Well, we've been back for about 6 weeks now. But I'm back to post, which is something I haven't done in a long time. Needless to say, I miss blogging, so I'm going to try to make more of an effort to blog more often. Our lives are getting sort of interesting, so maybe I'll have more to blog about!

For some reason, it seems I'm always blogging when I'm sick. Last post, I was sick, and here I am, sick again. Much better than when it started over a week ago, but a cough is still hanging on, along with a perpetually full nose. Juan has stayed well so far, so I'm grateful for that. Hopefully he stays well!

We were up at my in-laws house last weekend for Father's Day, which was lots of fun. Of course, I was a bit under the weather, so I was happy to sit on the couch and be catered to. We barbequed some ribs, steaks, and turkey burgers, made some fun pasta salads, and had lots of good drinks. My husband loves to be bartender, and we'd recently had Happy Hour drinks at a nice bar/restaurant in Bellevue, Barrio. The bartender there was super nice and shared some of his secrets with us, so Juan was giddy to try and recreate the drinks. They were a hit! Everyone was super impressed, which Juan loves. It was also a great weekend, because we were able to introduce the second season of True Blood to my mother-in-law and brothers-in-law. We'd watched it already, but we ended up watching the first four or five episodes again with them - and we wanted to watch more! But we had to get to sleep - we stayed up until about 3am! I'm definitely getting too old to do that. I felt horrible the next morning, and was tired all day long! Anyway, it was a great weekend, and I'm glad we went up there.

We're also working on getting the house more organized. We already started on our bedroom by rearranging the furniture, which gave us so much more room! We also organized our closet, got rid of a few bags of Goodwill clothes, and now all we need is a new comfortor and new pillows for the bed. We also need new furniture in there (dresser and night tables), but they can wait a bit. We're also talking about getting rid of a lot of stuff in our office. We're thinking of going down to one computer and one desk, getting rid of a bunch of DVDs (or putting them away in the garage or something), and moving said computer and desk to our bedroom. This way we can have the office as a spare bedroom. It's going to take some doing, though, because the office has become our dumping grounds for just about everything. There will be a lot of paper, a lot of garbage, a lot of wedding presents that have yet to find a home, and just random things that need to be gotten rid of. It will feel so good once it's all done, but I think it's going to be a summer project for us. Now if only I could catch up on laundry...

Some of you are probably wondering where the recap of our Europe trip is. Well, it's still in my camera (and Juan's camera, for that matter) because I've been too lazy to sit down and get all the pictures off and talk about the trip. But I promise it's coming! Soon! (I think if I have it here that I'm going to do it, it'll motivate me to actually do it, haha.)

Until then, ta ta! :)

Recovery.

Juan successfully gave me his cold. So, as the end of last week came, down I went. Runny nose, sneezing, fatigue, headache, cough, the whole enchilada. I spent half of Thursday sick at work, the entire day Friday sick at home, and then worked half of Saturday sick as well. I rested the rest of the weekend, and now I'm finally seeing the end of it. I'm glad it didn't turn into anything more serious than just a cold. Usually when I get sick, it turns into bronchitis and a sinus infection. Lucky me. But this time, I think with the careful application of soup from Whole Foods, lots of water, the right cold meds, and lots of TLC from my hubby, I'm doing much better. Not 100%, but much better.

Now we get to focus on getting ourselves ready for our trip next month. It's almost a month away, and it feels like we have months to go! We still need to get some new clothes, I need to get new shoes (ones that are good for lots of walking but still look cute with most outfits), and make sure we have everything fit into one suitcase. That's right, we're sharing a suitcase. 2 weeks worth of stuff (not really, since we'll be going to a laundromat a couple of times on the trip), and I have to share luggage space. What's a girl to do? I get my own carry-on, though, so that'll be nice. I might get a smaller bag to keep some stuff in, and we're also packing a collapsing bag to bring stuff home in. :) Can we say real Italian balsamic vinegar, anyone? I keep trying to convince Juan that we need to bring home a giant wheel of parmigiano reggiano like Giada did, but he still thinks we don't have enough room. I told him for that cheese, we could make room.

So, even though it's only Tuesday, I'm yearning for the weekend. I can't wait to spend it with my amazing husband. :)

Sick puppy!

Well, we don't have a dog. We're not really dog people (except my doggie-niece Sophie, she's the best). But my husband was so sick the last 4 days, he was acting like a whiny puppy (don't tell him I said that!). No, he really was a trooper, and even though he had fevers, a cough, a clogged up nose... he made it through, and is now on the other side feeling much better. We're now well stocked with cold meds, so in case I happen to come down with it any time soon, I'm set. I hope that doesn't happen though, I need all my PTO hours for the vacation! Anyway, I'm just so glad he's feeling better, because we'd stopped kissing each other so he wouldn't get me sick. So yesterday, after he'd been fever free for 24 hours, it was so nice to be able to smooch my hubby again! ;) I never thought I could miss smooching him so much, especially since he was right there the whole time!

Anyway, I get to work this Saturday (again), which is fine with me. But then Hubby and I get to go hang out with my cousin Addy and her boyfriend Teal! We're going to attempt to get the Giada de Laurentiis-approved doughnuts at Lola, but it might be too late... Keep your fingers crossed for us!

By the way, Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

Someone got a promotion!

... Not me. Again. BUT! My husband did!! I'm so proud of him! Juan got promoted, and also got a raise! This is so great for us, and I know it's wonderful for his self esteem! :) He's so capable, and I know he will do so well in his new position. He's looking forward to the challenge, and hopes to move up from there in the future. We had some bubbly last night to celebrate, and it was also a great coincidence that I'd been home yesterday, so I had made dinner (sautéed chicken breast, wild rice, and baked sweet potato - yum!), and it was great to not have leftovers on a night we were celebrating! :) I'm just so proud of him, and can't wait to see how far he can go! Way to go, babe, I love you!

Guess who turned 35!

...Not me. Thank goodness. LOL But Juan turned 35 on Sunday, so we spent the entire weekend celebrating! We started off on Friday evening with his family, heading to Purple in Bellevue for drinks and appetizers (a usual), and then moved over to Barrio, which is right next door to Purple and owned by the same people. It has a more Mexican flair, and the food is amazing! It's a little on the spicy side, which is a bit of a hazard for me, but since Juan and his family are full-blooded Mexican, they absolutely loved it! I was able to navigate the menu and find something I liked, too, so I didn't feel left out. I got the mushroom tacos (minus the salsa verde), which were really good! I never would have thought to put sautéed mushrooms as taco filling, but they worked out well. Their drunken beans are great, too. I think they're made with beer, and they tasted so good!

Saturday was also fun, because we went and hung out on Capitol Hill in Seattle. We had coffee/pastries (I had a fabulous spinach and feta croissant) at Victrola Coffee, and then had lunch at Six Arms, which is a great pub-type restaurant and bar that serves McMenamin's Brewery stuff. Juan's favorite beer is the Ruby Ale, and the family must have gone through 5 pitchers of the stuff. We also had their famous tater tots, mini corn dogs, and Juan and I shared an order of their fish and chips. As you can tell, we were under the whole It's-Juan's-Birthday-So-Calories-Don't-Count umbrella all weekend. :) For dinner, we went to a place called Tango, and the food there was also tremendously delicious! I had pork with a side of mashed yams with roasted corn. Wow, talk about great! It was a little on the spicy side, but the flavor profile was so good, it wasn't really about the heat, but about how it tasted.

Which brings us to Sunday, when it was just Juan and I left to spend the day together. We drove to Bellevue, and went to Belle Pastry in Bellevue to have coffee and (you guessed it) pastries! I had their amazing ham and cheese croissant, and Juan had a slice of their bread pudding cake. :) It was his birthday, how could I tell him no? Then, we took a nice long walk, and went to Blue C Sushi for a quick, very yummy lunch before going to see Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3D. :) I highly recommend it! It'd be great for older kids (probably 12 or older, there's some pretty violent/scary scenes), and it was just very entertaining. And of course, it was a classic Tim Burton-ized fairy tale with Johnny Depp at the helm. The new Alice was great, although I'd have loved to see her with some blush on. The story was great, and I loved Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway!! They were spectacularly well-done with their makeup and characters. Very enjoyable! Then we headed to Crate and Barrel for some retail therapy, then we went to El Gaucho's for their Sunday Happy Hour. All of the bar bites were half off, and the drinks were about half as well. We had a $75 gift card that Juan and received when he got my engagement ring a year and a half ago, so we decided this was a perfect opportunity to use it! We shared the mushroom/marsala flatbread, the mac and cheese (OMG SO GOOD), and a burger. We also splurged and got a couple glasses of champagne. We ended up only paying about $11 for dinner, minus the gift card of course.

Come Monday, both of us were so glad that we'd taken the day off! We were so tired from all the running around and celebrating! Unfortunately, Juan's driver's license had expired on his birthday, so we had to drive to downtown Seattle to go get it renewed! But we were able to go get coffee at a great place downtown afterwards, and then we went to have breakfast at a place called Brief Encounter Café in Bellevue. After that, we went to Fred Meyer for some essentials, and then to Whole Foods as our last stop of the morning to get food for the rest of the day.

It really was a great weekend, and I'm so happy that I was able to spend it all with my amazing husband. He really is the light of my life, and I'm so happy to have married him. I hope he had a great birthday, because he deserved it! :)