22nd Birthday

Yesterday was my 22nd Birthday... another year older... and a fun day to celebrate with friends and family.  The night before, we went over to our friends' place (Cait and Josh) and had pizzookie and stayed up until 11pm!  I haven't done that in a while and I could tell because I started to get really silly and tired at the end of our visit.  But it was delightful to enjoy their company.  When Brian and I finally got home, we ended up staying up until 12pm and I got to open my first gift: tickets to Beauty and the Beast play at Pantages theater!

Saturday morning, I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep so I decided Brian and I would have breakfast in bed.  I threw together some eggs, sausage, toast, and juice and busted out our wooden tray. 

We haven't had breakfast in bed since we moved into our apartment and we decided it should happen more often.  Then, Brian worked on Blaze (my blazer who has been having some troubles lately) this time it was the front breaks which we thankfully did not have to take in to get fixed.  Around noon, Josh, Cait, and Kris (Josh's mom) came over to see our place and hang out.  Brian also needed Josh's help to finish the brakes.  The ladies all enjoyed coffee and tea indoors while the men were out getting greasy (which think they secretly or not so secretly love). 

Of course, I needed a nap on my birthday menu so I definitely made sure that happened once everyone left. 

In the evening, we drove to meet Jodi and Jeff near Universal City Walk for dinner.  I chose Miceli's, an old Italian restaurant where they sing and play music.  The atmosphere is very neat. 

The food was spectacular.  Flaky homemade rolls along with lasagna and fettuccine. Next, we headed to the City Walk, unfortunately, we did not come prepared for a down pour... We payed 10 dollars to be drenched and running from store to store.  Memories were certainly made. Quickly, we grabbed some Starbucks to warm our insides and then headed to a Stop and Play shop... this is what ensued:



The guys fought crime while Jodi and I were just thankful to be indoors with our warm drinks.

You may noticed our jackets are soaked.  And then more combat continued...

And, of course, since we were at Universal City, Brian and I were awarded the Best Couple Award (Auntie, I thought you would appreciate this).

After receiving our reward, we continued to celebrate with a warm and gooey brownie Sunday.

Still wet, but the day was wonderful!  And so was the heat that was on full blast all the way home.

Chef Brian

When I married Brian, I completely underestimated his skills as a cook... he is amazing!  Brian has grilled a lot of things and he likes to cook, but I have been extremely astounded by these new recipes he has been bringing out and putting together.  I cannot get over how delicious they taste.  I think I mentioned to you that I came home one night, right after we had moved into our apartment, and he was ear marking all the recipes he wanted to try.  And what fun scrumptious creations he has made!  Our menu for Valentine's Day was another great meal he put together.

The inspiration...

The chef at work...

It was amazing!  Salmon with a ginger brown sugar glaze... "Honey Ginger Salmon" is the official title.  It was a spectacular Valentine's present.  It is nice to come to a good meal or a meal that is being made for you especially after a long day at work.

A lovely day

Yes, today was a lovely day... it is Valentine's Day!  And my students suprised me at school with so many wonderful gifts.

Flowers, chocolates, enormous kisses, a stuffed monkey.... and, oh wait, Krispy Kreme heart donuts!  What will they think of next?!  My kids are very giving and so are their parents, it makes you feel so blessed and cherished.  We celebrated a fun day with it being Valentine's Day AND 100's Day.  Of course, they all brought in 100 of something (cereal, M&M's, paper clips, legos, marshmallows, and cheese-its).  They were pretty cute grouping it into 10's to see if they counted to 100 correctly.

Then I came home...

Yep, more of a lovely day.  My husband had this waiting on the table and my heart did a flip.  Flowers, a card, and CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES!!! YUM! Not only that, when we came home he let me know that there is a menu planned for the evening and put on some nice music... including Fly Me To The Moon... one of our recent fav's. So this wife is in wedded bliss.  Today has been a lovely day and I'm sure it will only continue.

Life Today

Today has been a slow day. Mainly, I have relaxed and worked only a little bit. It's good for me to have these days but then it gets hard to be motivated to go do something. I get so lethargic. Brian and I have been discussing our plans for Valentine's Day (which we will celebrate tonight or tomorrow night): A fancy dinner for two, a trip to Borders, a beach trip, Downtown Disney, an authentic restaurant... we will see! We stopped by the grocery store and I picked up a few Valentine's Cards and read them to Brian... we enjoyed browsing through them. It's fun to experience this all as newly weds and read the 'To My Husband' and realize that is one I can give now.

Our Saturday Mornings

So I have to share with you our typical Saturday morning. I feel like a slacker because I haven't posted that much during the week. So now, with a day off, I will share with you a Saturday morning at the Juola's place:

Step 1: Sleep in.

Step 2: Decide it's time to get out of bed

Step 3: Clean! I love this part. (Silly, right? But let me explain.) Before we got married, Brian and I talked about how we wanted to set up our place and various details about living together. And if you know me, you know that I appreciate cleanliness. So, we chatted about how we would tackle this. Should we set up jobs or rotations... goofy, but sometimes if you don't schedule it or talk about it, it doesn't get done. However, it has become a thing that every Saturday morning we wake up, we talk about cleaning our bathroom, kitchen, and vacuuming and we divy it up! I love this time, us taking care of our apartment.

The best part however, is that we do it together. Brian and I are all about doing everything together: We cook together, clean together, enjoy our friends together, and everything else together (aside from work, but even that Brian will help me grade papers or work at school when I need it.) We love being together! Guess that's how it should be when you are married :)

..Mornings..

I know I've talked about this before, but I still am in love with the mornings... There is something about sleeping in just the right amount, then getting up and accomplishing something. This morning was one of those! I actually slept in until 8:30, amazing for me who usually wakes up at 5:30am and wishes I could go back to sleep but my mental alarm says its time to get up. After waking up, I piled out of bed with my feather blanket, grabbed my yellow teaching cart roller, and attacked my weekly lesson plans. And success, they were finished in an hour! With my 'homework' done, I have the freedom to enjoy some relax time without concern to what has to get done. Oh, and I also unloaded the dishwasher and cleaned a little. Not to bad of a morning. Now, I'm just waiting for Brian to get back from work, he had a shift this morning from 6-10am so he kissed be goodbye and headed off. One good thing about him being a student and working part time: he gets little breaks in between. This means, that on my day off, we get to have quite a bit of time together. We were talking last night about how fun it is to have days like this.

Long Overdue Home Blog

We've been moved into our place now for just over a month and I still haven't posted pictures of our new place. So here goes...

Welcome to the Home of the Juola's

Our apartment is bottom left. You have to cross a neat little bridge with fountains on both sides, it is very cute!

This was our first look in...

Kitchen...

Living room...

Bedroom...

And bathroom...

Oh, and our little porch area...

But now check it out... our dining room.

Our Kitchen... aka 'The Juola's Kitchen.'

The board above our sink:

And the board on the wall in our kitchen:

Our living room with Brian and Papa's wonderfully crafted coffe table and side tables.

Of course, a little pizookie to enjoy in our living room.

Our bedroom, still in desperate need of a bed skirt.

It has been so exciting to set up our own place. We are so blessed to have a home to call our own. And we would love to have company anytime! Just let us know.