It's All Good!

It's been a while! We have been busy, but most of all we have been enjoying this wonderful fall season and pampering ourselves. Hubby and I had gotten into a wonderful habit of creating new dishes together on the weekends, so I had lots to blog about, but we haven't done that in a while... until tonight actually, but more on that later.

So what has been going on since my last post? Not a whole lot. The most exciting thing that has been going on is enjoying being newlyweds. We got some awesome news on the 14th last month that the long legal battle with my hubby and our former employer had ended. They had started the lawsuit back in May when he left the company to work for a competitor, and then after a motion to dismiss the parties decided to explore a settlement. Hubby said he is very happy and that it could not have gone any better, so we of course went out to celebrate. Since then we have pretty much been thrown back into newlywed bliss and celebrating ever since! For the first time since November 2010, just 3 weeks after our wedding and the week after we returned from our honeymoon, we are both employed, not trying to leave our jobs, there is no pending lawsuit, and we are very happy and content with our lives. It was a long 10 months, but it is finally over, and we are so much happier now on the other side!

What else...? We met with our photographers to get all of our pictures and go over our final selections for the photo album. There has been so much going on since we got back from our honeymoon, that we never really got around to it until recently. It will be another 2-3 months until it is ready, but until then I have been going through the pictures and getting my favorite ones and posting them online. Here is a teaser!


As part of us enjoying our new, relaxing, newlywed bliss (again), we have been doing some fun date nights. We went to see the re-release of Lion King, and I got to see my first movie in 3D. It was really good, and definitely worth the extra price of the 3D ticket. Neither of us saw it in the theater as a kid, so it was great to be able to see one of my favorite Disney movies in the theater!

We also went to the Grand Opening Night at the OKC Philharmonic. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Pearl's Oyster Bar and then watch/listened to performances of Wagner's Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III (my favorite piece of the concert), Liszt's Les Preludes (also a wonderful piece), Turina's Danzas Fantasticas (a piece that sounded part romantic and part contemporary that I didn't like so much), and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto performed by violinist James Ehnes. James Ehnes played Tchaikovsky so delicately and precisely. I never used to be a fan of violin concertos, but have really started to enjoy them more in the last two years. Tchaikovsky is probably my favorite composer, so naturally I really enjoyed the performance. The Philharmonic sounded the best they have sounded in years. The last few years have been good, but not great. This past concert sounded much more rehearsed, the orchestra was together more, and they just sounded excellent. We have season tickets again this year, and I'm really looking forward to the remaining concerts if the first one was any indication to their new sound.

Speaking of orchestra, after a year break from playing, I have returned to the OU Civic Orchestra. I didn't join Fall 2010 because I was too busy trying to finalize our wedding, and would also have to miss about 4 rehearsals. That wasn't fair to the orchestra, and I don't think I could have handled anything else on my "to-do list" last fall. In Spring 2011 I was unemployed and trying to save every penny we had, so that was part of the reason for not joining. Even though hubby encouraged me to join, I was on round 4 of 5 of interviews for a big company in downtown OKC. If I had gotten the job, I would have had to drop out as I would not be back in Norman in time for rehearsal. If I didn't get the job, I still didn't know if my new job would have a schedule that would accommodate it. But I am employed now in a nice 8-5 job, so I have once again joined. We are performing Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (New World Symphony) and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor"). I'm very happy to be playing again. Hubby has been spending money on paint ball stuff, so I decided I deserved some new strings, new chin rest pad, new metronome, and a pickup tuner that clips onto my instrument and plugs into my tuner so I can tune in noisy places (it will be very handy trying to keep the new strings in tune through rehearsal). Everything came in the mail last week, and I am one happy musician!

Hubby got really into football the last two weekends in September and I didn't feel like trying new recipes alone, so we didn't do anything fancy. There hasn't been a whole lot to post food wise from the last 4 weeks. Instead we have been enjoying the season. Last year at this time, we were getting ready for our wedding and were very stressed. We were too busy to stop and enjoy the season. We didn't get to do any of the stuff we normally do this time of year: going to a pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, decorating for fall, decorating for Halloween, baking yummy pumpkin things, laying in bed enjoying the cool weather, and eating way too much. This year, we have done almost everything on that list! We were going to knock off the pumpkin patch on that list this weekend, but our patch is flooded.

For those of you who don't know, Oklahoma has been going through a horrible drought. All of our small ponds are completely dried up and have weeds growing them, and the larger ones are very low. Wildfires have been a big problem, and the summer heat was unbearable. We broke all kinds of records. This weekend however, we are getting some much needed rain. It started around 3:30 PM yesterday, and it pretty much has not stopped. As I'm writing this, we have had 3.80" since the event started. Once the rain started, the temperature held around 61F until today around 4:00 PM when the temperature started dropping again. It dropped to around 57F at about 7:30 PM and it's been hovering there ever since. The rain has been so refreshing. There has been lots of flooding, but we need the rain so bad that no one is complaining.

So that's about all that's been going on. Last week we finally got back to making dinners at home and trying to get back on the diet. Then this weekend, we used the cooler, cloudy weather to stay in and created some new dishes. I'll report on those in another post. We had a wonderful weekend together in true fall fashion. We slept with the windows open listening to the light rain last night, slept in this morning, and ate a late breakfast together. Hubby has gotten into coffee, so he filled the house with the wonderful aroma of coffee while we ate. I don't like the taste, but I sure do like the smell! We actually got hubby a french press and a hand crank coffee grinder (any decent electric one is really expensive!) last weekend and he is thrilled with the new addition to the kitchen that's just for him. After breakfast we went to see Moneyball, which was one of the best movies we have seen this year. Then we came back and cooked up a new meal. While Hubs was watching the Green Bay Packers game I baked up a yummy fall treat and caught up with my blog.

Well, I think we are all caught up. I'll try and post more soon. Off to bed to start a new work week.

A Surprisingly Great Day

The first day back to work after a holiday weekend or vacation is usually sucks. After one of the best weekends since probably our wedding, I had little hope for today. When I went to bed last night I was prepared for a rough day of getting back into the swing of things. But that was not the case at all...

This awesome weekend managed to stretch into this morning! And for the record, I am not a morning person. It got down to 49.6F last night and we slept with the windows open again. I woke up snuggling with my hubby in the middle of our big King bed under our down comforter in a crisp 68F bedroom. ahhhh :) I managed to wake up on my own without an alarm, which usually makes my mood much better. We laid there for silent with our bodies pressed together for about 20 min. I had my eyes closed and was enjoying the cool breeze, fresh air, and the warmth of my husband. When my alarm went off at 6:45am there was an awesome orange glow outside as the sun was beginning to rise. It was all very familiar... It all reminded me of staying on Lake Forggensee in Fussen, Germany on our Germany trip in late September 2009. It was a perfect morning!

In Germany, we stayed in a little B&B right on the lake and the room had this sort of country cottage feel to it, complete with flannel sheets. At this point in the trip, we both had mild colds and the heat had not been turned on yet, so we huddled in the middle of the bed to keep warm. As I reluctantly got out of bed this morning I was telling my husband about this, and he said he thought the same thing. That trip was one of the best times spent together that we have had. Here is a picture later that morning as we were waiting to tour Hohenschwangau Castle. This picture was taken on the far northeast edge of Alpsee Lake, about a mile and a half to the southeast of where we woke on up Lake Forggensee.


I was in a state of bliss this morning with all those memories. But I still expected the day to be hard to get through. I walked outside though and it felt wonderful! It was 58F and not so cold you needed a jacket, but cool enough that for the first time in months, (maybe more than 5?) I turned the A/C in the car off on my commute to work. And for the first time since I started my new job in May, no hot blast of air as I arrive to work and step out of the car. It's amazing how much cooler weather improves my mood!

My day at work wasn't all that bad either. I was able to put my head down and really dig into my project without getting interrupted too much. I even got to go on lunch date with my husband to our old Thai restaurant. They shut down for 2 month, remodeled, and changed owners, so I was anxious to try it. I was disappointed to find out that their portions are smaller, the prices are about $1-$2 more, the lunch buffet is gone, and the food isn't as good. But it was still a nice little date night with the hubs. I think we will be sticking to a new Thai restaurant that we found as our "affordable go-to Thai place."

I had our 2nd Civic Orchestra rehearsal tonight, and I was dreading it. I had such a wonderful day by late afternoon that I wanted to just go home and continue the relaxation and just hang out with my husband. But, skipping rehearsal is not an option, so I left work and rushed through my leftover dinner and made my way up to rehearsal. As I was walking in the door, a cellist came out and asked if I was going to rehearsal. She then told me how there is a note on the door that rehearsal is cancelled due to the conductor being sick. I was a pit peeved as the conductor had just sent out an email the night before outlining the rehearsal schedule and never bothered to send another email earlier in the day that he was too sick to conduct.

As I drove home though I got very happy because I had been given the gift of time! I didn't really want to go anyway, so this worked out pretty well. I now had 3 extra hours I didn't have before! So I came back home, opened the house up again to let all the cool, fresh air in, and am just hanging out at home relaxing, which is exactly what I wanted to be doing anyway.

This weather has put me in a very good mood! I usually start decorating for fall in early September but I figured it would be so hot it just wouldn't fit. But this cold front has been strong enough that I think our 100F days are over for the year. Our house is finally really clean, so I think I will have to start decorating for fall this weekend a bit.

Fall is in the air and I could not be happier! :)