Vitamins!

Since we don't have home cooked meals every night, we sometimes lack in the vitamins we get from fresh food.

I've tried taking daily vitamins, but they either upset my stomach, leave a bad aftertaste or I just plain forget.

We went to the market the other day and I saw these:

Gummy vitamins!

They are just like gummy bears, but in the shape of fruit and they are good for you!

They taste good and are easy to remember to take!

{I might have been thinking about them all day while I was at work}

If you have trouble getting your vitamins or don't like regular vitamins, I highly recommend these!

Take two and call me in the morning!

Happiness

Here are 5 things making me happy this week:

1. A joyous song! (artwork courtesety of Susan Branch)

2. I planted some sweetpea seeds, hopefully they will bloom soon!

3. Aaaahhhh...a bubble bath!

4. A yummy meal made by my hubby with a sweet topping

5. A fun photoshoot last week with my love!

What is making you happy today?

Unexpected surprise!

This is what our house looked like before we bought it (probably in November)

Green (multiple shades of green in the lawn alone!), lush bushes and trees full of leaves

See that tree right there?

The one that is full of leaves?

See it now? Can you see it? No?

 Oh, maybe because it lost all of it's leaves (picture taken in January) and looks like a huge dead plant growing out of the grass. 

Our next door neighbor demanded suggested that we take the tree out because it blows leaves all over her yard. We considered it (not just for her sake) because it did get messy when it lost it's leaves. As with most of our plants/trees/shrubs, we decided to leave it until we could figure out what type of tree it is and until we had a design plan for our garden.

Well, when we were working in the yard the other day I noticed it had a little red ball hiding inside of the leaves so I went in for a closer look and found...

I was ecstatic to find them, I absolutely love cherries!

Chris wasn't so excited to try it, concerned that there could be something wrong with them, but I couldn't wait and took a bite!

 OH. MY. SWEET. DELICIOUSNESS!

It was warmed from the sun, sweet, and like a little bite of Heaven in my mouth!

I am so thankful that we didn't chop down our cherry tree! I am looking forward to picking them and having a sweet snack right from our garden!

Weekend part 3

It was wonderful to spend some relaxing time in Los Osos. Being out in the sunshine, enjoying the eucalyptus scented air, and spending time together always warms my heart and makes my worries seem so much smaller.

We spent a wonderful evening around the fire pit talking and enjoying the stars.

When we visit, our tradition is to play Upwords. It's like scrabble but you can play letters on top of others to create words and the tiles all count for the same amount of points. We love it!

We ate lunch at House of Bread in SLO. It is situated on a busy corner and we sat outside getting some vitamin D and people watching.

We also had some donations to drop off at our favorite thrift store. It is nice to donate to a cause that is so special to us. Hospice is such a great organization and a wonderful group to support.

On our way back from Morro Bay, the tide was coming in and the steam/fog/mist coming of the water was magical...a little hard to capture from a moving car though.

We gathered eggs and we put up the Cluck sign on the chicken coop. Very sad to say, we found one of the girls passed away inside of the coop when we went to check for eggs. Clara is now buried with our fish and other pets that are no longer with us.

It was a wonderful weekend (other than losing Clara) and we are so thankful for the good weather, good friends, good family, and great visit that we had!

Weekend part 2...Wedding Day!

Wedding day was just gorgeous! Clear blue skies and bright sun made for a picture perfect outdoor ceremony. 

The groom's father made the wedding arch and the personalized sign for the ceremony.

Beautiful Mother of the Bride, Pam, and the bride, Tami. These two are so sweet!

Tami was so calm before the ceremony.

{when asked if she wanted a sip of water right before the ceremony, she replied "Yes, the bride is thirsty!"}

Tami and her Dad, Tim, when meeting Todd at the head of the aisle.

Tami and Todd

They were both so focused during the ceremony!

I think this is the only picture that Todd did not have a huge smile on his face, they were both so happy!

 

The happy newlyweds!

The picture that greeted guests on their way into the reception.

Yummy snacks during cocktail hour!

The room had white twinkle lights and tulle all over and these flower balls were hanging over the dance floor.

The first dance, they never stopped staring at each other.

The happy and relaxed parents of the bride

Chris helped out with a little photo shoot with the bride's brother and sister-in-law.

Todd's sister made the cake!

It was so beautiful and delicious {the bottom layer alone had seven different layers in it!} The cake was decorated with sugar flowers and the pictures on the table are of the parents of Tami and Todd cutting their own wedding cakes.

The wedding favors were Hotlix suckers, but these didn't have any bugs in them!

Me, Dad, and Mom at the reception.

We had a great time and could easily feel the love the enveloped the entire day. 

Congratulations Tami and Todd!!!! 

Weekend...part 1

  This weekend was full of fun, hard work, love, and togetherness. I have so much to share that I'll have to break it down into parts.
  Our weekend started on Thursday with us driving up to Mom and Dad's house. Unfortunately we had to drive separately because Chris had to work on Sunday and I was planning on driving up to Fresno to visit a friend on Monday (I ended up not going to Fresno, which gives me some much needed house cleaning time).

 Once we made it to Los Osos we got started right away baking and getting ready for Friday's activities.

We made sandwiches with this bread

{I didn't get any pictures of the end result but it was beautiful and delicious!}

Mom had already made potato salad and gotten the dessert basket together, so all we had to do was make the fruit salad.

 There were two loaves of bread dough left over so Dad and I made chili/lime bread and also...

fresh rosemary bread with rosemary snipped from their garden. 

Friday:

We had lots to do on Friday because we were helping to decorate the venue for a very special wedding, the wedding of one of our wonderful friend's daughter.  

My Mom, the bride's Aunt, and the Mother Of The Bride

The wedding was held at the Officer's Club in SLO. There were about twenty of us helping to decorate and it was wonderful to see how a few hours of work could transform the space into the perfect wedding venue for the wedding.

The wedding colors were Purple (the bride's favorite color) and Red (the groom's favorite). The venue came together beautifully and it was wonderful to see how many people came together to support the loving couple.

Friday night:

Chris and I have new cowboy boots {pictures coming soon!} and we wanted to show them off, so we took Mom and Dad out to A.J. Spurs for dinner. Dad joined us in our western finery in his plaid shirt, cowboy boots, and special belt buckle.

Mom and Dad

Chris and I

Me and my cowboys!

There was a wonderful singer in the bar at A.J.'s and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and time together.

Stay tuned for the rest of the weekend...

Check this out!

While floating through blog-land (you know...where you read a blog, then skip over to another's blog and then you find yourself reading new blogs and you can't remember how you got there?) I came across

This

Oh. My. Gosh. What an inspiration!!

I have done this a few times, but only with spaghetti, chili, and some chicken with BBQ sauce.

With our crazy schedules, I really need to put this into action at our house. I love to cook with fresh ingredients, but we never really know if we are going to be home or not and most times they go bad before we are able to eat them.

This way, I can make meals for two and just pull them out when we know who is going to be home.

Do you have any cooking tips and tricks you use?

Idea help!

 Now that we have our furniture in place, it is time to start decorating and adding to our space. We are still figuring out our "style" but I am in need of some suggestions and would love some of your wonderful ideas!

The living room:

It is very beige/brown!

(the slatted bed frame leaning on the wall was donated, so that is a big open space now too)

I am hoping to put some art on the wall that brings in color and we also want to get a coffee table.

What would you do with the big expanse of wall? What is a good way to bring in more color to this room?

The den:

Another big expanse of wall!

I always love lots of photos on the wall but can't seem to make it look put together and organized (even with the organized/random look).

I saw this: {find it on etsy here}

and thought this would be cute in the middle of the den wall with pictures surrounding it. I'm not sure what word I would use though.

Do you have any suggestions for our decor? I'd love any ideas you have!

5 Things that make me happy today

Here are five things that are making me happy today:

1. Fresh eggs from my Mom's chickens

2. Super sweet, local strawberries

3. Designs in my coffee from my favorite local coffee shop, Element.

4. Hearts showing up in unexpected places

{Such as in a paint drop on my sandal}

5. A wonderful lunch, inside jokes, and conversation with some of my coworkers.

What is making you happy today?