employment.

This has been my first week of work.

Everybody say it with me, hooraayy!!

My short-lived fantasy of sleeping in, being crafty, cleaning house, lounging around in my pj's, watching movies all day, meeting friends for coffee in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week...is long gone now, and I am a working woman. Nay, I am a LENDER! For the interlibrary loan department at liberty university! And I am proud.

This week has gone really well. It's without a doubt the most chill job I've ever had. There are three of us in the office, plus one student worker, and it's just a really nice, quiet environment. There's a lot of down time, and I'm surrounded by books. I just opened my interlibrary loan account, so I will be receiving all kinds of memoirs, fiction novels and best-seller list books in the next few weeks! The world is at my fingertips!

I have my own desk, and a giant corkboard behind me that is still undecorated. That is one of my tasks this weekend...gather things to decorate. It will be bright, crazy, colorful, and all over the place.

Dusty and I have decided to take the shuttle to school/work every morning, because the parking pass for Liberty is really expensive, and doesn't seem worth the hassle. The shuttle comes to our apartment complex at 7:15 (when Dusty goes) and 8:15 (when I go). And it brings us back at 5:30. It's worked out well! (Except that first time when I couldn't find my shuttle drop-off and had to run across campus to the law building, but who cares about that?)



In the meantime, I have been learning about wifehood. Cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, multi-tasking, being supportive, being sacrificial, finding ways to get plugged in with other women that know what they're doing...and this week has been a good milestone for me. I've been trying to get up really early every morning. My shuttle leaves at 8:15, and my goal by the end of the month is to get up at 6:00am every morning. I'll have time for my quiet time, working out, making breakfast for Dusty before he gets up at 6:40-ish, and making our pack lunches. My time right now is 6:30am...so of course, I scrap the working out part :)

I also went to a prayer group this past Thursday with two other law wives. It was really nice. We talked for almost two hours, about our lives and struggles and triumphs, and spent the last part in prayer together. It's going to be a weekly thing, and I'm so excited about it!

And, according to Dusty, I made the best meal I've ever made this week. It was so good, I made it twice. Take a look at these babies!



The first time I made them, I didn't use red bell pepper. But it's basically chicken breasts, stuffed with cream cheese, fresh jalapeno (with some slices to put on top), red bell pepper, and cheddar cheese. :) then I season it with garlic powder and Tony's creole seasoning. I gotta say, I was pretty proud of these guys! My self invented recipe. Mmmm, mmmm, good.

We also had some more food adventures this week. We went to Bojangle's, a southern chicken and biscuits fast-food joint. It was so good! They had yummy sweet tea. It had me singin' "Mr. Bojangle's" all day long. Dusty thought I was making it up.



I also finally got around to decorating our downstairs guest bathroom!! It's actually more of Luna's bathroom now...(we have her litter box and food in there), but I keep it nice and clean and wanted to put some of my own personal touches in there. The theme? Romance.



I really love how it all turned out. The small details and coral/pink colors of the towels and accents really add a lot to this small, under-the-stairs space.

I'm so glad it's the weekend now. And it's cold outside! I went to the farmer's market again this morning (did you know that homemade jam sometimes has mold along the top layer, if it's made from dark berries? It's not harmful mold, it's simply from the yeast in the berries, and...etc. etc...so yeah. Now you're informed like me, haha! And I got free biscuits for asking, too!)



Sigh. Such a lovely day to relax, chill out,
do some crafty things...Dusty is still sleeping, Luna is asleep behind my head
on the couch, and it still feels like early morning, with all the cloudiness
outside. I am a happy camper.

In love,

Cait

P.S.

Meet Thunder. He is our resident stray cat! He is very friendly,
always comes up with us to our door (sometimes tries to come IN our front
door...) and he's an outgoing, all-around friendly guy.

menu? what menu?

Our fridge and pantry are value-rrific.

Making leftovers last for days, buying the orange-sticker, off brand discounted items...Dusty and I both realized the other day that we couldn't remember the last time we had eaten a real vegetable. Our meals have consisted of bread, tortillas, beans, rice, beef, chicken, canned tomatoes...in any mixture and combination. I gotta say, I've been pretty creative. But Wednesday I splurged and bought some jalapenos, bell peppers, and some frozen peas, green beans, and broccoli. It made for a rather delicious onion/jalapeno/veggie stir fry last night!

On Wednesday night I made hot dogs. :) it was really fun. I had them all ready when Dusty walked in the door, and we had a fun time eating hot dogs with onions and chopped jalapenos, and lots of ketchup and mustard. Yum!

I pretty much wing it every night. We have enough food, it's just what to do with it all in order to make it a meal. I buy .49 cent value bread, and we eat bread for every meal that week...we garlic it up, or use it for PB & J, or make a sandwich with whatever we have in the fridge. It's been great! And this morning, I went to the farmer's market again, and actually bought some stuff. I got some yummy fresh corn, that I plan to use to make corn on the cob, seasoned with cajun seasoning. Those were .50 cents a piece. Then I got some peaches, $3.00 for a quart, and some sundried tomato goat cheese and homemade triple berry (black raspberry/wild raspberry/blueberry) jelly. Those last two were rather expensive...but I figure, I gotta try the local homemade stuff at least once!



They had pumpkins, and it made me so excited for Fall. The weather is getting absolutely gorgeous, and I love all of the Fall colors (and let's not forget the holiday drinks at Starbucks...it's time for me to be gettin' a Pumpkin Spice Latte!). This will be my first opportunity to really decorate seasonally, because there will actually be seasons here! Hoorah!

We also tried a new restaurant, called "Moe's". Dusty had been there before, but I hadn't. We went with our friend Michael, and it was quite delicious. A wannabe Chipotle, but still fairly good! They have amazing white queso. And despite it being one dollar for the tiny little container of it, it was worth it...if only for this first visit. (Also, every 9 visits you get a free entree. So, maybe in a year or so we'll get a free meal out of it!) And with free chips and salsa, it's a pretty good meal.



I am hoping to start work this coming week, and am looking forward to having a job. It is such a wonderful blessing, and I am so happy to be working in a library! I can only hope that I will start on Monday or Tuesday -- because not only am I ready to work, but we're ready for some constant income :)

In love,

Cait

P.S. Our house is happy, with the addition of a lovely bridesmaid bouquet on our dining room table :)

indeed, i shall

This was wedding week for us.

Our two best friends from college got married over labor day weekend, and we made the grand trek across the country to Northern California to share in the joyous occasion!

Britany and Bryce became our go-to couple at school. We went on double dates, hung out, were in choir together, and shared some of the best memories of our entire college career. Britany and I roomed together junior year. We were in similiar situations in our relationships with our now-husbands, and shared a lot of advice and encouragement! We quickly realized we were kindred spirit in sarcasm, humor and general merriment. She was in our wedding, and over the years we shared many meaningful moments, jokes, late nights, and revelations.  All four of us continued to become very close, and when they asked Dusty and I to be in their wedding, it was easy to say YES!

It was a bitter-sweet vacation, knowing that this was the last for-sure event we had to look forward to during our time in Virginia...not to mention the last scheduled time we would be seeing our dear friends.

The future is blurry and uncertain, and we knew this trip to California may be the last for a very long time.



My side of the trip included a lot of girl time, errands, starbucks, bachelorette outtings, girl talk, setting up, decorating, and making tissue paper poofs!

It was wonderful to get to help out. We got out there late Wednesday night, and stayed until Sunday morning.

One of my favorite places we went was the salon that Brit got her hair done the day of the wedding. The owner is an artist, and wanted to make her salon a combination of her two passions. So it was also an art gallery! It was in the upstairs of an older building in downtown Auburn. It was chill and quiet, (and they played "coffee house" satellite radio the whole time, which was wonderful!) They allowed me to use one of the stations to do my own hair, while Brit and her other bridesmaid Jessica got their hair done. It was so relaxing!





Because I was doing my own hair, I had the time to run to Starbucks for the three of us. I of course LOVE Starbucks runs, and had them write "Bride" and "Bridesmaid" on our cups. The young barista was so excited, she went all out and wrote little hearts on every inch of Britany's cup. She was cute!



While I was there, I was wearing a giraffe-type print cardigan. As I was walking out with our drinks, an older man stopped me and said, "Excuse me, is that a giraffe outfit?" I shrugged, "Uh...yeah?" He smiled, "That's greaaaat."

Haha. What a guy.





Brit had some wonderful ideas for decorating her wedding. The location was an old barn, called the Blue Goose!

She decided to go with a vintage feel, using old decorative books, mason jars, lavender, tissue paper poofs, and twinkle lights. Her colors were purple, grey/silver and white. I'm showing you some of my favorite details of her wedding!



I'm so happy for our friends. Their ceremony was beautiful, and they wrote their own vows, which were so touching. One of the best moments was at the beginning of the ceremony, when the pastor was asking them questions -- and Bryce responded, "Indeed, I shall" rather than "I do". A classic Ol' Brycer, and one of the reason we all love him.

We'll miss them! We wish them a long, happy, devoted, loving marriage...and they will always be our favorite friends, from some of the best years of our lives!

I hope you enjoyed the details of their wedding, too :)

In love,

Cait