The Adventures of a Wife and Career Woman

Whoops

2011-04-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well...

Whoops :)

It appears that I have forgotten to blog for quite sometime.

A lot has happened since last October... B and I were married!!!! :) I decided to take the semester off from school and settle into this new chapter in my life (don't worry... I start back this summer). I have a new job!!!!! And we adopted our second little fluffer-nutter (aka... a kitty cat).

The wedding was ridiculous and gorgeous! I really loved it! Honestly it didn't even feel like we had gotten married until we got our wedding pictures back! A HUGE thanks again to Carissa Uribe for taking our pictures! If anyone needs an awesome photographer... CHECK HER OUT! Seriously. Do it now!

This new job is really incredible. I'm now a manager at Maurices, and seriously I love it! Not only is it an awesome way to boost my resume but there are so many advancement opportunities! I'm excited for this path that God has provided and even more excited to see where it takes me :)

I'm really glad that I didn't have cats prior to getting married. I honestly think that I would have become that crazy old cat lady with million cats pouring out of house. Dogs have been (and for the most part) my favorite, but these little rescue kitties have weaseled their way into my heart.
Having two cats had been interesting to say the least. Most of the times it like living in a hairy zoo. Both of the cats seem to think that everyone in the apartment should be up by 6:30am and will try to suffocate and headbutt you into getting up. Sadly it works.

The best thing about these two is that they have basically morphed into independent dogs. They both play fetch, and greet you when you come home. Heck, they even snuggle with you when your are sick and/or sleeping. But they still retain all of the independent qualities that cats are known for. Which is kind of nice!

Now only if they would clean their own litterbox...

I apologize for the neglect, and also my incredibly sporadic writing. Perhaps when I'm not writing at 11:45pm things will flow a little bit better :)

But for now... it is sleep time :)

Growling From the Bathtub

2010-10-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

Sigh.

After a week of abandonment I have decided it is time to take up the blogging again. I'm really trying hard to see this through!

This past weekend was a much needed break from school and excessive amounts of homework. While in high school, I really didn't see the point of a fall break. Oh, sure it was great to have an extra day off, but my life was neither stress-filled nor was the school work particularly taxing. My appreciation of fall break definitely has grown since I've been in college. It provides students a much needed break from the everyday monotone drone of professors, and the seemingly endless piles of reading/homework that accumulate.

Thankfully last weekend was fall break! And while it was a break from school, it was not a break from wedding planning! I am thankful though that so much was accomplished and it will definitely make the days leading up to the wedding much less stressful! :)

But besides the nice break from school, my roommates and I are realizing that the house we are renting is really a P.O.S. It's always nice to come back after a short break, and discover that some sort of small (or large... we aren't sure yet) animal has made it's home in your basement. More specifically... under our bathtub. How comforting knowing that there is an opossum, raccoon, squirrel, cat, wombat, or human digging away at the bathtub, just waiting to make an appearance someday.

We have already dealt with bees/wasps building a nest inside of our kitchen wall because our landlord was too lazy to properly install the siding. And the ridiculous amounts of ants we "Raid"ed the hell out of earlier this summer because there were so many, they were on the verge of carrying us all off.

I am very much ready to live with B in his apartment!

Hopefully life will get a little more boring after this, but I have a feeling it won't!

Blessings
Natalie

What to do when the going gets tough

2010-10-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows the cliche saying "When the going gets tough, the tough get going!"

Well it is time to get going!

The fall semester is in full swing, and it is getting pretty rough already. Plus throw in work and wedding planning... Well you just have a stew that will breed stress and craziness!

This is why I am thankful for God and Fall Break! I cannot wait for sometime to just slow down and appreciate life and the people that I'm on this journey with!

I hope everyone has the ability to just take some time out, and really look at the people that surround you. Appreciate them. Love them. And most of all thank God for them!

Blessings
-Natalie

Betty Crocker-ish Moment

2010-10-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

So yesterday's eggplant lasagna turned out to be quite yummy :)

I still have yet to acquire a taste for eggplant, but the veggie inside is super delicious! And let me just say, I was super proud of myself. I decided to take the time and make from scratch tomato sauce... it was FANTASTIC!

The whole sauce process started about 2:30pm and I wasn't done with it until about 7:30pm, but it was well worth it! And no, ladies and gentlemen, I didn't even use a recipe! I just created, my own "family" tomato sauce! The best part is that B actually liked it :)

Here is my own personal sauce recipe

4 cloves of garlic minced
half of a large vidalia onion finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil (3 good "glugs" from the bottle)
3lbs of Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
about 2 1/2 cups of red wine
1 large can of San Marzano crushed tomatoes
salt & pepper
2 sprigs of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
2 bay leaves
dash of red pepper flakes
dash of cinnamon

I started out by heating the olive oil over very light heat in a large sauce pan, and immediately put the minced garlic in the oil.

Once the oil was scented with garlic, I added the sweet onion. At this point I also salted and added pepper
I let the onions sweat out, until they were translucent, and a thick "sauce" had developed. This took about 20-30 minutes, because I was cooking over such a low heat.

While the onions were sweating out I chopped up 3lbs of Roma tomatoes

I added about 1/3 of the tomatoes to the garlic and onion mixture, and let the tomatoes break down, till the sauce had started to take on a pink hue, but most of the tomatoes were still in tact.
Then I added the second third of tomatoes and stirred, and let the mixture simmer until a greater portion of the tomatoes had broken down.
Finally the last third joined the mix, and I let the whole thing simmer for 30 minutes. After adding each third I made sure to add salt and pepper.
Once about 80-90% of the tomatoes had broken down, I added the most delicious red wine(about a cup)!

This wine just happened to fall in my lap. My roommate Lib and I were at Kroger, looking for a nice red to use in the sauce, when all of sudden this man started hitting on both of us. So needless to say, I grabbed a cute wine bottle and came out with a deeeeeelicious french Pinot Noir called Red Bicyclette. If you are ever in the mood for a very sweet wine with a crisp finish, this is definitely one that you should try out!

Anyways, so after adding the wine, I let all of it just simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the wine has soaked into all of the tomatoes and onions, and has developed a sweet flavor.
I then added a full large can of San Marzano crushed tomatoes to the sauce, and gave it a good stir to make sure everything was incorporated.
Then I just threw in the springs of thyme and rosemary, and the bay leaves. I also gave 2 shakes of red paper flakes and 3 dashes of cinnamon. And followed all of those wonderful spices, with a good amount of salt and pepper.
From then on the sauce just simmered on the stove, and I would stir it occasionally. About every 45 minutes I would add half a cup of the wine and taste the sauce for flavor. From then on out it was making sure the flavors developed into a deep, sweet, rich tomato sauce!

I hope that despite being such a long post, maybe it inspires someone else to create a dish that they can be proud of and pass on for generations; Creating their own family recipe (oh and also to try a great wine)!!!

Blessings
-Natalie

Eating Healthy and Always Feeling Hungry

2010-10-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago I was put on a super restrictive diet/eating plan. Mostly because over the last 6 months I had gained an astronomical amount of weight despite eating healthy, and exercise. Even before that, I was working out 2-3 hours, 6 days a week just to maintain my weight. So after a thyroid test, it was determined that I needed to be super restricted in what I could eat.

Here is the gist of the diet:

no grains (bread, pasta, rice, cereal, etc)
no potatoes and no bananas
no cheese
no red meat (steak, bacon, sausage, etc)
NO SWEETS!
All the veggies and fruits I want
Lean meats (chicken, turkey, salmon, tilapia)
Skim milk
Non fat yogurt and non fat cottage cheese.
Exercise at least 30 min a day 6 days a week (preferably an hour+ a day)

Needless to say this has been a little challenging to get used to. One of my saving graces is that I am able to have the Atkins granola bar-ish things. They have some delicious options that still allow me to feel like I'm endulging, but are actually relatively healthy.

So far I've lost 10lbs in about two weeks!

My question for everyone today is... Do you have any good healthy recipes to recommend? Or ones that I could possibly substitute veggies for pasta or something like that? I'm looking to expand my recipe box, so that I have an arsenal of dishes to make so that B and I won't get bored.

I have one for a delicious egg-plant lasagna that I cannot wait to try out tonight! But the more recipes... the better!

Blessings!
-Natalie

Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

2010-10-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hello to the wide world of blogging!

As I was thinking of what to write for this first post, I thought it might be a good idea to catch everyone up on where I am in life!

Almost 3 years ago, "B" and I began dating. We just met by chance (he was seeing someone else at the time... oops) at our univeristy's fall musical. I'm not even sure how we began talking or what lead to us hanging out, but I'm so glad we did! I cannot even count the number of nights when we would finish homework, and would go out walking hand in hand together. Our favorite spot in the world was in a little private subdivision behind the schools baseball diamond. We would walk around a decent sized pond, to a gazebo that gave us a great view of the starry night sky. There we would sit next to each other on these small wooden benches and talk about anything and everything. It is one of the fondest memories I have of our early relationship.

Fast forward to December 12th 2009, and B has me blindfolded and is leading me around a path. Honestly I felt like I was going to fall off the side of a cliff. When he finally un-blindfolded me I was standing at the gazebo. It was lit up with luminaries, and the first song B and I slow danced to was playing. Sigh! He is super romantic, right?!

This past year has been a whirl wind of planning for our wedding, and our life after. I'm excited for B and I to begin the journey together, and I'm personally excited to learn the ropes of being a wife while also starting my career in (hopefully) marketing! I hope that over this first year of actually being an "adult" that I can capture the ups and downs, and hopefully gain some insight from others!

So if you have an advice to impart on any of my posts I would love to hear!

Blessings!
-Natalie