Cheese, Wine, and Late Night Swimming

It has been hot here. Really, really hot. Lucky for us my mom's friend is house-sitting at an amazing house in the hills above Jacksonville. We got to go here to swim...

I made some fruit and cheese platters to take with us. We swam, sat by the pool, drank wine, and ate- it was a wonderful evening!

Dinner and Breakfast

I made swiss, bacon, pepper, and caramelized onion quiche and even made the crust myself! Usually I just cheat and buy a pre-made pie crust, so this was a first for me. We also had salad with roasted beets, goat cheese, and toasted hazelnuts. YUM

For breakfast the next morning, me and David went to the farmer's market and shared a crepe filled with nutella and a blueberry pastry.

Our Saturday...

We had a rather hot but fun summer Saturday. I found these great things at local garage sales in the morning:

This awesome organizer for my future classroom, which was only $10.00!!!

Some more children's books, which I have been collecting. These were all only 25 cents each. I also bought a set of three black shelves for our bedroom.

We caulked the window trim on all the new windows put in so far and filled in the nail holes so we can prime them on Monday, went out to lunch to Red Robin...

and I made the same cake my parents had at their wedding 11 years ago for their anniversary. It was an almond torte with a vanilla bean custard filling and whipped cream frosting, it turned out better than I was expecting as you can see by how much is left (I'm not much of a baker).

I like this picture, my mom is happy and Matt is eyeing the food, as usual. All in all, it was a pretty medium day :)

I have been neglecting my blog, I have been so busy lately. On June 12th, I graduated from Western Oregon University. My wonderful family came to support me and got very sunburnt! We had a great graduation/engagement party at David's parents house afterwards where both our families and friends helped us celebrate. We are lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives!

In other news, I moved! I was sad to leave my Monmouth apartment and roommate but excited to not be living four hours away from David and my parents anymore. It was awful packing and carrying boxes down the flights of stairs. My things barely fit into the U-Haul, my Jeep and my mom's car were packed, not to mention it was very hot that day. But we made it. I am still currently staying at my parents because our house is in renovation mode. We are hoping to be in there full time in the next few weeks. It is in Medford in a great neighborhood. We have been painting, putting in new windows, cleaning, putting in doors, and David will be putting in the hardwood floors this week, we are not sure how that is going to go. I am excited to decorate and be settled in and I will be posting pictures of our progress and of course once it is finished. We have two great roommates that will be joining us in September.

I am still job searching and trying to survive on NO money, I keep applying for teaching jobs and am keeping all my fingers crossed. I am also getting on the sub lists for four school districts in the area. I got my teaching license in the mail yesterday and am just wishing and waiting for my own classroom...

Last Weekend

This post is only one week late, but I had a great time last weekend! Since David was at the beach, I got to spend part of the weekend with Elizabeth! I went to a baby shower on Saturday afternoon for my old neighbor and then headed to the Johnson household. We talked, ate, slept... well kinda slept, (thanks again Peanut!), woke up, went to the coffee and the Milwaukie farmer's market, then I headed home to see David for a bit before he headed back to Ashland. I can't wait until this long distance thing is over- only one more month!

I liked these flowers as possibilities for the wedding- they were the perfect color

Eating and Drinking

So the "Be Married" has been discussed, as for the eating and drinking, not so much. My roommate and I planned to have a party Friday night, but then decided not to. Well, I bought too much party foods, so I made them anyways... for dinner. Luckily David was going to a bachelor party at the beach so I sent him away with the leftovers. We had a delightful dinner of chips and guacamole, fresh fruit with a yummy dip, and mango mojitos without the mint- well because me and David don't like mint, but you could easily put the mint back in. I don't follow recipes when I cook normally so here is my approximate, do-your-best-guess-at-what-feels-right-and-tastes-good-when-you-try-it kinda recipes:

Mango Mojito Minus Mint (look at that alliteration)
1 mango (puree it up with a little water and sugar if it isn't as sweet as you would have hoped for, that's what happened with ours) and set aside
In a cup, add 1/2 a lime cut into quarters and one sugar packet of sugar in the raw (I may or may not have stolen these from surrounding Starbucks- but only because I couldn't find them in the stores). Use the handle of a wooden spoon to muddle the limes and sugar, a great way to work off your frustrations from the day (If you want the mint, add it with the limes and sugar and muddle all together). Add 1/2 the mango puree, a shot or two of mango rum, ice, and top it off with club soda. Serve with a colorful straw and repeat so your other half gets a drink too. These were very tasty and just what I needed after teaching 1st grade for the week. I took a picture but am not artist and am not a good photographer, so they didn't turn out. And David was getting grumpy for making him wait to eat and drink so I could document our dinner. So I gave up, on with the guacamole!

Guacamole (quite a big batch):
six ripe avocados
1/4 cup fine diced red onion (they are purple not red)
1/2-1 jalapeno finely diced
1/4 cup minced cilantro, or more- I love cilantro
3 limes with the juice squeezed out of them- I made David do this because I was finding all the paper cuts I have acquired from teaching 1st grade.

Put everything in a big bowl and mash away- I used a pasty cutter, it works well to mash it up but leaving some texture and chucks of avocado- just the way I like it!



I didn't take a picture of the fruit dip, but it is just white and doesn't look special in anyway. But it is so easy and oh so good. Take two softened blocks of cream cheese and mix with a jar of marshmallow fluff: That's it! YUM We ate ours with pineapple, grapes, and strawberries. And I maybe had it for breakfast this morning, with the leftover mango from our drinks.

The Decision

I think we have made our decision! I obviously could not stop thinking about Deepwood Estates and compared all the other venues to it. So David called and we are written down for Sunday July 31st, 2011. Almost all the Saturdays were booked already and we were hoping to be as close to our anniversary as possible, which is August 1st- so we will be getting married one day before our seven year anniversary. Plus, it was 600 dollars cheaper to rent it on a Sunday! So be ready to party on Sunday night, get Monday off work, or just suffer through for one day :)

However, I am thinking a lot about the Settlemier house as well. You can see the pictures on the previous blog. This place is almost 1000 dollars cheaper than Deepwood Estates, but the ceremony and reception would take place in the same area- making an awkward transition. And we would be responsible for all taking down of chairs, tables, everything. And there is only street-parking, but it seemed to be plenty. hmmm suggestions and thoughts are appreciated- we have to Monday to sign our contract with Deepwood... yikes!