Quick Update

I know I haven't posted a lot lately. It's not that we've been overwhelmingly busy, but there hasn't been a whole lot to report on.  We haven't had snow that's lasted for more than a few hours, which is nice.  We're crossing our fingers that the roads to Spokane will be clean and easy-going.  Tomorrow afternoon we are leaving to spend a week in California!  I'm so excited, I can hardly wait!  Zak has been trying to get in enough hours so it will balance out him being gone for a week.  I had a few busy weekends at work (both college graduation weekends without my co-hostess partner, major craziness!), but am happy to have a little time off.  Zak is relieved to be done with school for a few weeks.  We've been spending time with our friends, we even saw the new Muppets moving with Zak's co-worker/our friend, Kandace the other week.  We are definitely feeling like we're a bit more settled now.  It's nice to have a good group of friends to hang out with.

Yesterday I spent the entire day making treats for our Moscow friends.  I will post the recipes soon, but I'll tell you what I made: chocolate (semi-sweet and white) cookie bark, Oreo truffles (both peppermint and 'original), and my mom's Christmas cookies.  I had to be a bit creative this year for gifts, and budget things out.  And I figured our friends wouldn't mind treats, they love when I bring goodies in for the office.  I actually made the cookies for a party at Chad & Bryan's, and there were a bazillion left over, so they just set them out at work for the customers.  They were gone in one day and everyone raved about them.  :)

That's been about it for us.  We've just been trying to make it to Christmas and now it's almost here!  We are so excited to see our California family, it is going to be a great vacation.  Merry Christmas to everyone, I'll update this once we get back to Moscow!

Thanksgiving Break

the poster that Zak finished the day after they got here

We had a very fun, food-filled, family-oriented Thanksgiving break.  My brother Kenny & Zak's sister Delaney drove up from Rexburg to stay with us for the week.  We were expecting them by midnight on Tuesday, but they showed up at 9.  The posters we had for them weren't done, Zak wasn't even home yet!  But it was ok, the roads were clear and fine and we were happy they were finally in Moscow.  We stayed up and talked for awhile, and Kenny fixed our wifi that he had broke, haha. 

yes, there are 3 laptops there..he was trying to fix mine

yummy cinnamon rolls!

I had cinnamon rolls in the fridge, so the next morning we got up and had them with some cocoa.  Zak had the day off on Wednesday, so we took them to the mall and the bagel shop.  Then we just relaxed and watched some t.v., and had lasagna for dinner.  Delaney and I made the pies for Thanksgiving: pumpkin & lemon meringue.  We also introduced the game Guillotine to Delaney and started our tournament.  We had helped Chad & Bryan move into their new place on Tuesday, so Chad came over after work on Wednesday to pick up Hampton.  It was so sad to say good-bye to him, after a month of him living with us!  But we will visit them often and get to play with our favorite pig.

We got up early on Thursday and drove a few hours to Moses Lake for Thanksgiving at Aunt Ronda's.  We arrived a few hours early so we could hang out and socialize with the family.  Kenny and I got our hands on a puzzle and, like the pros we are, finished it quickly.  Everyone was so impressed, haha.  We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner/lunch.  Everything was so tasty and it was nice to be able to spend some time with Zak's side of the family.  But we had to leave so Zak could get home and get to sleep for Black Friday. 

siblings

spouses

siblings, sigh

nicer one

family!

Black Friday was a decent one.  Zak was very tired after his shift ended at 1 (he got to work at 4 AM), but stayed away long enough to watch a movie and eat lunch with us.  While he napped, I got dinner prepped: teriyaki chicken with vegetable and shrimp tempura.  After dinner, we played some more Guillotine and watched some t.v.  Zak opened on Saturday, so once Kenny and Delaney were up and showered, we went to get him for lunch and walked around downtown.  There's not a whole lot to do in town, but we had a good time.  We took them to Winco and they were so excited about the bulk candy, so they got a fair amount of it for $3 apiece.  We had leftovers for dinner and played some more Guillotine.  Zak ended up winning the tournament, I came in second, with Delaney placing third and Kenny ended up in last place (a rarity in our family).

Delaney VERY excited about getting all of the leftover jello salad

Since they had to leave Sunday, we decided to treat them to the Old European breakfast house before they took off.  It was worth it and everything was delicious.  Kenny & Delaney both got the Scandinavian breakfast plate [German potato pancakes, buttermilk pancakes, Swedish strawberry cream pancakes, stuffed sausage & harvati Danish aebleskivers].  Zak got the goulash with potato pancakes (his favorite) and I had sausage eggs Benedict.  Everything was fantastic and we left very, very full.  Then it was time to say good-bye.  I sent them back to Rexburg each with a loaf of bread from our bread machine, some freezer jam, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. 

scarily excited about breakfast

pleasantly excited

appropriately excited

It was so nice to have them around all week.  They are fun to have around and it's easy to cook for four.  Thanks for visiting, guys!

Pig-Sitting

We are currently baby-sitting our friends' Chad & Bryan's pig, Hampton.  They had some issues with their neighbors and landlord, and decided it was for the better to move into a different place.  While they are looking for a new place and for someone to take over their current lease, they needed someone to watch Hampton.  We agreed in a heartbeat!  We are entering into our third week with the little pig and it has been super fun.  He is a funny little animal, and very smart.  Since I'm home most of the time, he's connected with me a lot (Zak gets a bit jealous, but Hampton loves him too), and is pretty demanding of me cuddling with him a lot.  Sometimes it does get a bit tiring, but then he makes the cutest little sounds and looks up at me and I melt.  He loves to root around on our inner or outer legs, arms, basically wherever he can.  It's funny but after 5 minutes and your arm goes numb, it's a bit much.  He also loves our soft purple blanket, he knows that's the cuddling blanket, because we usually have it on our laps when he's on the couch with us.  If I leave it on the ground while I run Zak to and from school, he'll just curl up with it and sleep.

Hampton also loves the baseboard heaters, oh my goodness.  He will sleep next to them, rub his butt or face on them, he is so funny about them.  I think he just loves to be warm.  Chad told us that about a week before he came to stay with us, Hampton had just figured out that when he or Bryan were eating, it was also potential, possible food for him as well, so he tries to get at our human food when we eat.  We have to use some creative maneuvers, like Zak will wrap him up in the blanket and put that next to him, with his elbow near the entrance.  My tactic is to sit on Zak's chair (he rarely jumps up onto the chair, he is almost an expert at jumping onto the couch) or have Zak hold him while I eat.  Or stand and eat.  As of today, he has conquered going up and down the stairs, if he wants or needs to.  It's pretty funny to watch him pull himself up the stairs and tentatively go down them (pigs don't like their feet off the ground

He is a sweet little animal and it will be sad to let him go in a few weeks.  He makes the funniest sounds, from deep grunts to high-pitched squeaks and squeals.  He's very communicative.  We also love to play chase with him; he loves it as well.  He will even wait for me and look up as if to say, 'Well, are we playing or not??'.  But then he'll hide under the table so we'll stop, and then he'll wait for us to get him again.  When he's on the kitchen floor it's like a scene from any cartoon, his feet will be going a million miles a second, but he can't get traction, it's so funny.  It's been so much fun having him around.  We love our little piggy!  And here are lots of pictures because we don't have kids yet, so I feel justified in sharing twenty pictures of Hampton! 

we tried putting a little baby booty on him (secured with a rubber band), he was not having it; once we got it on, he didn't care but it was a struggle

his favorite activity after breakfast

both hamster and Hampton could care less about the other

doing homework with Zak

Professor Pig

I covered him up in the scarf I was working on so he'd be warm

his little snout is so funny

loves this blanket

this picture just makes me giggle!

coyly smiling

Chad told us that we could put some peanut butter on our finger to give him a treat; he went nuts for it! Such a happy pig!

Halloween

We didn't do a whole lot for Halloween, some shenanigans and pumpkin carving, hanging out with friends, the usual. I dressed up as Belle from Beauty & the Beast; Zak went as LumberZak. Here are some pictures:

our friend Chad's pumpkin, Zak drew the stencil, pretty cute, right?

our friend Bryan's pumpkin eating another pumpkin

our pumpkin...it didn't turn out exactly right, as you can see the pencil marks Zak left..we picked this one because we felt it had 'good cheekbones'

LumberZak

Belle & LumberZak

a nice one

not bad for about $2 worth of costume!

Chad went as 'the 1% rich guy'

Apple Adventure // 100th Post!

This is the 100th post on this blog, whoo!

Zak and I had a day off together this weekend and we decided to go to an orchard I'd heard about to pick apples.  I grew up getting apples every fall with my family and have sorely missed the tradition, so when my friend told me about this place, I thought it would maybe help fill the void.  We went to this place about 40 minutes away, in Garfield, WA.  It was a small orchard, with several types of apples, and even pears and plums.  And cider presses! 

I saw that there was cider pressing on the weekend, but wasn't sure what that entailed.  The website said to bring jugs and boxes, so we brought a few gallons jugs for cider.  I thought we would just fill them up with cider readily available, but we ended up pressing the apples ourselves!  One of the owners explained it to us, and I will admit it sounded a little intimidating at first, but once we got down to it, it was pretty easy!  And fun.  We pressed two gallons full and then go to apple picking.  We grabbed a bunch of different types of apples, about 10 pounds' worth.  Then I made us some apple crisp, and it was wonderful.  All in all, a very nice day spent together, having fun.  Here are pictures!

Garfield, it's a small little town

You were expecting this, right?

People pressing cider

Our 'private suite'

The people supplied the apples for us

Turning the handle to crush the apples

Being manly and the like

Pouring our cider into our jugs

The apples after being smushed

Our view

Yum yum yum, best cider ever!

Smushing the apples

Apple carcasses

Pretty trees in the orchard

Being tall was an advantage

Posing with apples, naturally

A Rainy October Starts

It has been raining a lot lately, which is fine, because that means snuggling, soups and hot drinks.  And I'm a fan of that.  It's nice that it is finally starting to feel like fall.  We are hoping to go pick apples at an orchard about 30 minutes away the next chance we get.  I grew up going apple picking up in Sonoma (an hour north of my town, just west of Napa, in wine country) every fall.  I have such good memories from those trips, eating apples and cheese in the park downtown and visiting all the orchards with my family.  I haven't been able to go back since I've been in college and married, so I'm really hoping Zak and I are able to go pick apples ourselves soon!  I can almost taste the apple crisp now...

Zak has been doing well with school, his grades are all good.  Although it has been a bit of a stressful week or so for him, trying to get everything done for school, and the regional manager was visiting work last week, so that added to everything.  But he's getting it done and I am doing my best to not be nagging, but gently reminding him of everything that needs to get done.

Work has been going alright for me.  A few weekends ago it was U of I's Dad's Weekend, so those nights were absolute mayhem.  Last weekend it was U of I's Homecoming (we lost), which was busy, but not so busy I about had a panic attack.  This weekend it's WSU's Homecoming and then it will be not so crazy for a week or so.  I'm finally getting into the swing of things, and it's fun working with just about everyone there.

Next month, my brother Kenny and Zak's sister Delaney will be coming up to visit for Thanksgiving!  We are all super excited to see them, even for a brief amount of time.  They'll stay with us and we will go visit the grandparents in WA for Thanksgiving.  I don't know what my work schedule will be, but I'm sure Zak will have to be at work early for Black Friday (the joys of retail, right?).  Nevertheless, we are glad we'll be able to see our siblings for a few days.  

We recently found out that we are going to be very lucky and spend Christmas and my birthday in California with my family!  My mom mentioned it in an e-mail and once we cleared the dates with our bosses, my parents got the tickets as a gift for us!  I am beyond thrilled, because I had thought that going back home for Christmas was basically impossible, because we can't afford it and we already used up vacation time for Zak when we went home in the summer.  But my parents really wanted us to be able to spend a Christmas as an intact family, now that Kenny is home and not on a phone in Sweden, because it probably won't happen too much after this year.  But let's not think about that.  I am so happy that I can't help myself from listening to Christmas music (I usually restrain myself to wait until the day after Thanksgiving, but not this year).  And don't get me wrong, Zak is happy too.  It'll be nice to be out of the snow and be a little bit pampered by everyone.  And I'm very excited to have a family birthday!  So we are looking forward to that.  I might even make some kind of countdown because I am still so giddy.

Other news, hmm.  Oh, Zak bought me a beautiful 'harvest' bouquet after an awful weekend at work.  He is such a good husband to me.  :)  Zak has been loving his weights that he got with some birthday money.  I've been doing some weight exercises as well on my days off, and it's nice to see some progress for both of us.
Oh, I know!  Our friend Bryan bought a baby pig for his boyfriend, Chad (Zak's co-worker) as a surprise early birthday gift!  We went over to their place for dinner the other night and got to see the cute pig.  He's 8 weeks old and very warm, and likes to snuggle and sleep on laps.  He's so cute, and I think the name 'Hampton' is going to stick for him.  We would love to get a piggy if we had the money or were allowed to, but it's nice to be able to go over to our friends' place and see their cute pets.  Here are some pictures!

little piggy!

he loved Zak

pig in a basket, how cute????

snuggling while watching t.v.

he fell asleep on me a few times, awhhh