da bird

We heard about 'da bird' from a lady at a cat show. She told us how crazy her cats went for it, and we checked out the website, but thought $10 was a lot for a couple of feathers on a string. But, the Petco in West Oaks is closing and everything was on sale. We got 'da bird' for $7 (still a lot but I was curious) and brought it home. We had barely gotten it out of the package and they went CRAZY! It kind of spins so it looks like a bird flying around, which we all know they love. I had read before that bengals can jump higher than most cat breeds, and we discovered today that this is very true!

Christmas, part 1

We decided to have our own little Christmas yesterday. Eric had the day off and I got out of work early and we realized that if we waited to exchange our gifts until the actual Christmas day, we would have to abandon them for all of the family things we have to attend, and Eric has to go back to work the next day (this working for hospitals thing is a lot different than working for a college like he used to) so we wouldn't really have time to spend playing with our new toys. So yesterday when I got home from work, we shut off our phones,  I put my pajamas back on, we made some tea, and exchanged gifts. It was really fun! Eric got me: some new socks, raspberries, swiss cake rolls, a pomegranate, lounge pants and a hoodie from Pink, pajamas with matching slippers from Victoria's Secret, and, a LAPTOP!!!! Its so cute, I also got a printer/scanner/copier to go with it, and a cute pink case to keep it in. Its a MacBook, neither of us have ever had a Mac before so we have a lot of learning to do. Luckily, Eric also got me a training thing where I can go in once a week for a whole year to the Apple store in the mall and have a 1 hour training session on anything I want to do with my computer. We went in yesterday and had our first session, and they even gave me a book of all the command code things and it has spaces for notes and questions we come up with for next time. I was impressed with how friendly everyone was...who knows, maybe we're becoming Mac people!
The laptop has a built in webcam, so we were able to talk to and see Eric's brother Brandon last night. We also got to meet a few of his friends. That was fun, we haven't seen him in a long time.

It also has all kinds of fun photo editing things, so we've had a lot of fun playing around with it, as I'm sure you'll see as we post our weird pictures in the next couple of days.

Hanukkah Pictures

Before it gets too late, I have to post about the amazing Hanukkah celebration we had! The ladies started the afternoon with lovely conversation and delightful appetizers while the men got to work in the kitchen. The latkes were better than they had ever been! Grandpa said Eric must have helped that because this was the first year he fried, and that he'll have to make sure he does it again next year. They were so so good. I have a couple of pictures but have yet to get them up yet. It was a really fun Hanukkah! 

Picture time

Janelle's Wedding Pictures

The wedding was fun, we had a good turn out despite the weather. It was a very busy and crazy weekend but I think everyone had a good time.

Our little tree

We put up our little tree last week...and the cats promptly took it down...so now it is just a bare tree in the middle of the dining room table. But we do light a candle every night to give it that real tree smell!

12 days of Christmas

December has just been flying by, I can't believe Christmas is only 12 days away. Happy Partridge in a Pear Tree everyone! We're getting excited about the holiday, I can't wait to see what Jasmine got me, and I can't wait to see her face when she opens my gift to her.

I've already taken both of my finals for this semester, I'm still waiting for my grades though. Only 2 classes left and I'll have my bachelor's! I got accepted to the MSIS program at Walsh. I'll be starting in the spring, right after I get my bachelor's. I should be done with that in 2 to 3 years, depending on how many classes I take each semester.

We're getting ready for the crazy wedding weekend, today feels like the calm before the storm. Although Sam is over and she and Jasmine are running around talking about hair and clothes and jewelry and accessories...I'm glad I don't have to stand up at this one. We're looking forward to being able to relax at a wedding and not be the center of attention.

This past Sunday we took the eldest 3 children of the Moore clan to Chuck E. Cheese's. I was just as excited as they were, it was a lot of fun playing all the games and winning a bunch of tickets. Between all 3 kids we had about 450 tickets, which were cashed in for a bunch of little toys, including a dart gun, some jewelry, and bubbles. I can't wait to go back!

I'll try to post more often, I'm sure Jasmine will have pictures to post after this weekend.

Stuffing Strut

I'll be doing the 5k Thanksgiving run, formerly known as the Turkey Trot but this year it is the Stuffing Strut. Next year I predict a Cranberry Cakewalk. I am doing it with Jasmine's dad, who has been running all season, so I am hoping to keep up. We are hoping to come in first and second, since everyone else will be scared away by the snow, right?

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. We are going to Aunt Karen's house, and maybe Sam's later on. I will be working part of Thanskgiving but will be done in time for dinner! Family dinners are always fun.

Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Its elf season again...

Check us out!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9542363453

Thinking about a haircut...

What do you think?

Bengals

We've had a lot of people ask about our cats lately...how they can look so different and be littermates, and about their amazing personalities, so here are a couple of links so you can see for yourselves.

for some information about the breed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_cat

A page about the various color patterns
http://www.encorebengals.com/colorspatterns.htm

And for those of you who still don't believe that they can be from the same litter, here is a picture I found where the mom is very light colored, but she has brown marbled and spotted babies.














We adopted ours from a lady who was getting divorced and couldn't keep them anymore, and instantly fell in love with their beauty and personalities. If anyone is thinking about getting a cat that is both playful and cuddly, and so unique and beautiful, a bengal is definitely the way to go. As much as I'm a believer in adopting cats that need homes, I really think I'm sold on bengals.

What's for dinner?

You're still checking my recipe blog, right? There is a link to it on the right side of this page. We've been making some yummy meals!

More easy charity

Aunt Chris reminded me of another great site where just clicking can help a lot.

Clicking Sites

There are 6 sites in one on this link, you can see them in tabs at the top. By clicking the button on:
The Hunger Site, you donate 1.1 cups of food to the hungry
The Breast Cancer Site, you help a woman in need get a free mammogram
The Child Health Site, you help a child in need get health care
The Literacy Site, you help a child in need attain literacy
The Rainforest Site, you help preserve 11.4 square feet of rainforest
The Animal Rescue Site, you donate .6 bowls of food to rescued animals.

Besides all of the easy clicking, there are a bunch of other ways to help. They have a store, (its the same store in each tab, but depending on the tab you are in, the money will go to different things) where you can buy cute gifts and stuff, and part of the money goes to the charity. There are even things you can buy that were actually made by people in specific countries. I especially like these Bazura Bags, which are reusable grocery bags (good for the earth) that are made of recycled juice boxes (also good for the earth) by women in the Philippines to send their children to school (good for the kids). There are also things like fair trade coffee, and my favorite, Gifts That Give More. On this page, there are different needs from around the world with set dollar amounts, from $14.00 for a pair of school shoes for a girl in rural Africa, to $100 to heat a school in Afghanistan for the winter.

We did it for a couple of Christmas gifts last year, and it was great. You get a certificate that you can print out that explains where the money went that you can give to someone.

You could really spend hours on this site looking around, but I tried to put some good shortcuts into this entry. Check it out!

learn words, earn rice!

http://www.freerice.com/

I guess they use advertising on the web page to pay for grains of rice. For every word you correctly define, you earn 10 grains of rice to feed the hungry through the United Nations. Here is a quote from the FAQ page

"The rice is distributed by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). The World Food Program is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good. Wherever possible, the World Food Program buys food locally to support local farmers and the local economy. We encourage you to visit the United Nations World Food Program to learn more about their successful approach to ending hunger."

Seems like a good plan, right? Well here's the thing. I counted 10 grains of cooked rice out, its like reaching into the bowl and taking a pinch...a small pinch. Thats 10 grains. I googled it, and apparently a cup of uncooked long grain rice has about 7250 grains. 1 cup of uncooked rice makes about 2 cups of cooked rice, but still, thats a lot of words to define!

Its actually really fun though, there are a few I don't know, and some that you can guess based on the root word. Try it out.

Happy Hundredth Post!

Everyone keeps asking when we're going to post about the honeymoon...I'm working on it! Eric wants to help too, and its really hard to get a decent amount of time with both of us together right now.

I work in the morning, and he works from noon until 8:30 so we usually miss each other during the day. He tries to come home a couple of times a week on his lunch break (which is at 4 so its more of a dinner break) but by the time he drives home and eats, its almost time to drive back. And by the time he comes home its almost time for me to go to bed since I have to get up early.

I had a miscarriage a couple of weeks ago. I was only 4 weeks along, and it wasn't really planned. We're doing okay though. We spent a loooong day in the hospital and then I was on bed rest for a couple of days but I'm feeling much better now.

We went and got our first marital pumpkins from Long's, they're so orange and round! I think tonight we're going to carve them. I don't know if we'll get many trick or treaters. Eric has to work but I'll hang out for a while and see if we get anyone, and if not I'll go to Adam and Amy's, they always have lots of cute trick or treaters. Fall is such a pretty season at our house!

This is the view from the sliding door

We've gotten a lot of decorating done in the house, all of the art is up now, it really looks like a nice little house. We discovered yesterday though that our red slip cover has dyed the wall behind the couch and the carpet beneath it red...thats no good. I don't know what exactly we're going to do about that but I'm thinking we may need to replace our 4th generation couch. Underneath the pretty red is a very ugly white leather couch that has previously belonged to my grandparents, then my uncle, and then my parents before coming to us. Its a very comfy couch but the white leather just doesn't cut it. So we'll see what happens with that.

Yesterday we had our very first big family gathering. We did September, October, and December birthdays with my dad's side of the family, which is my mom, Aunt Laura, Uncle Rick, and my dad. I made my Great-Grandma Rose's meatball recipe and steamed veggies. Aunt Karen brought a veggie tray, my dad brought cranberry relish, and Grandma Susan brought a fruit salad. My mom and I made the birthday cakes. It was fun. We had some trouble with the rice cooker (it overflowed and we called the help hot line, it was a big mess) But overall, it was a success. I think everyone had fun.

Today was David's Halloween party at school. It was so cute! I got the kids in their costumes, dropped Ninja Turtle David and Darth Vader Thomas off at school, and Cheerleader Kaylee and I went to Panera for coffee and a blueberry bagel. I'm really enjoying the one on one time I get with her while David is in school, she's at such a fun age. We went back to the school in time for the party. The kids sang some cute songs, then did some games and crafts. It was so funny to see them eating the marshmallows and donut holes hanging from strings without using their hands.


We have another cat show to go to with my dad next weekend. Its supposed to be a big one so hopefully we'll sell a lot. We've done well at the other shows we've been to, and we're starting to get people that come to the show just to buy more of our stuff.

This morning was the first frost, it was pretty, but I never look forward to winter, at least driving in the winter. I did just get a new winter coat that is really warm from Land's End, so I was excited to wear it to work today!


I think thats all for now, I'll try to keep up!

Our little buddies

a tiny update

Just thought I'd post a picture of the cutest little boy in the world! Camden is 4 months old already! I get to hang out with him a lot these days while Sam goes to school and work, he's so fun!

some pics

Part of the honeymoon...working on uploading all of the zillion pictures. Check back later for more.

Good Luck!

Good luck to Aunt Karen, who is participating in the Michigan breast cancer 3 day walk starting today!

http://mediamatters.org/items/200709210007

Bill O'Reilly's amazing epiphany that black people, are, in fact, people. It was amusing to see on The View. Love Whoopi Goldberg. "Has he never seen The Cosby Show?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/26/watch-whoopi-and-sherri-_n_65961.html video of Whoopi and Sherri's reactions

The honeymoon was amazing, when Eric gets home from work we'll write about it together. We had lots of fun but we're so tired.

Its been awhile...

Sorry we haven't updated, we've been busy.

As you saw in Eric's post the other day, our home is now complete with a new tv. It was tricky getting it in the entertainment center, it barely fit, but its nice. We watched Grey's Anatomy in HD, and between the quality of the picture in HD, and the size of the screen, we could see every blemish and hair on the actor's faces when they did the close-ups. They can't be happy about that.

We did a cat show with my dad this past weekend selling meowijuana. My mom also handmade some little quilts, which sold like crazy, we ran out. Our cats each have one, and they're obsessed with them. They also wash well (and make great gifts!)The quilts aren't up on the website yet but we can take orders if you're interested. For those who haven't seen the site, its www.meowijuana.com Its funny to watch people read the sign when we're at shows, they always think about it for a second, and usually start laughing. (we do get looks from some parents though)

Its also fun to see all the different kinds of cats...there are some freaky looking cats. I'm still unsure of how I feel about the Sphynx Cat, or some of the other really odd looking cats there, but its fun to see.

We are almost all organized...my mom is closing Gymboree and is giving us a bunch of her shelving, so we've been waiting on that to finish organizing everything. Eric's grandma has graciously offered to adopt our little lovebird, since we don't really have a good place for her here, and we have to organize the spare room a little bit, but other than that it pretty much looks like a home.

I go back to work every day tomorrow. I've been doing 2-3 days a week all summer since my boss is a teacher, but school starts tomorrow for Walled Lake. I'm excited to get back into a routine. David starts school on Wednesday.

Thats all for now, I'll try to keep up from now on ;-)

=)

Happy Birthday

Happy 2nd Birthday Asia!!!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 5th birthday to Amy!!!

New Job

I have been looking for a new job, I love OCC but I am a contractor here with no future career. I did an interview with Trinity Health and they want me to work for their helpdesk. I have had classes with people who work at Trinity and they all say it is a really good place to work. I told my boss and the guys at work that I would be leaving and they are sad to see me go but happy for me. Jasmine is real supportive even if my hours won't be the best. I'll be doing Thursday and Friday from 8am-6:30pm and Saturday from 4pm-2:30am. I know, it is only 30 hours a week so I am going to start there part time, but they said there is plenty of OT to get and that I should be able to move full time after not too long. The benefits are much better there as well.

I start a week from Monday with 4 weeks of training, I am very excited and doing something new with many opportunities. Wish me luck!

One Month!!!

Today is offical, one month of marriage!!!

Things have been going great for Jasmine and I, we finished painting the kitchen with some help, all we have left is the trim in the bathroom. We got the entertainment center put up and we have our computers set up now. The month has gone by quickly but I've enjoyed every minute of it.

My Education Blog

I started a blog for my E-commerce class, but decided to post all of my educational works on it, check it out! =)

Plus if you click my ads I get money ;)

http://andurn.blogspot.com

Tired of LOL

I got tired of saying LOL and not actually laughing, so I decided to coin my own phrase...

LOTI - Laughing on the inside

My goal is to get it to be a well known internet slang word, wish me luck!!!

Wedding Video

http://swensenvideo.com/recaps.htm

Scroll down on the right until you find us =)

They're here!!!

The wedding pictures are up!

Go to www.mikegreer.com but DON'T click on enter. Look to the bottom right and click on current clients. Find our picture, put in your email address, and the password is sovel.

You can order them from the site, he does high quality prints, but we also get a cd of all the pictures so we can email them to you. I don't know when we'll get that. He also does really big pictures that look nice and you can get the big pictures put on canvas, which looks beautiful! Since we know you all want us on your walls ;-)

Family Day

Today we went to Aunt Joyce's, and Uncle Joe and his wife Mantha were up visiting. He hasn't been up in 15 years!



From the left: Uncle Joe, Uncle John, my mom, Grandpa, Aunt Joyce, and Aunt June
not pictured: Aunt Janice

Eric got up early and made me pancakes this morning! He left them on the counter, which, we discovered, we can no longer do. Max dragged a pancake off the plate, and was actually eating it! We snuck up on him (with the camera) and caught him red handed. As you can see, he was unable to hide his guilt!

trying out youtube

We bought a shade for our bedroom window and made a new cat toy with the box! It is a little dark, and you'll have to excuse the messy house...we were in the middle of cleaning up after all of the installing of things we did all day.

It might take an extra couple of seconds to load but its really cute!

Maybe we shouldn't encourage it...

but its so cute! We have a bowl of cherries sitting out on the counter, and yesterday we saw Ian carrying one. We assumed it had fallen on the floor. But tonight, we watched him jump up on the counter, get a cherry out of the bowl (by the stem) carry it under the table, and then start batting it around and pouncing on it!

Happy August!

Yeah, he might just be the cutest kid ever.

Camden is 2 months old now, and doing great. He's so big! He's starting to really smile now, and he's starting to make baby noises. We used to just stare at him, but now, he stares back, and makes funny faces at us! He smiles the biggest when Sam is around. He's a momma's boy!

We have had a pretty busy week. While Eric was mountain biking with Uncle Guy on Tuesday, Sam and Alex came over to watch the wedding video. I made a salad and chocolate chip banana bread (that is sooo delicious!) and we ordered pizza. It was a lot of fun.

On Wednesday, we had the first bridesmaid's meeting for Janelle's wedding. That was fun...but I think we did more laughing than planning.

After the meeting, Eric took Sam and I out for a drink. I had a raspberry stoli and lemonade, which I really liked, and Sam had a long island (which I really don't like) and then we shared a fuzzy navel (which was a little stronger but I liked it). Eric had a sprite. I'm on a quest to try all the drinks (well, just the ones that are fruity and delicious). Its going to take awhile. My next 2 goals are one that is blue, and one that is frozen.

Today I had lunch with my dad, ran some errands, and then made dinner for Eric. Clam chowder with bread for dipping, corn on the cob (from Grandma), and beet greens (from Eric's mom's garden) sauteed with garlic, cumin, pepper, salt, and hot pepper flakes. The flake bites were a little much for me but Eric liked it. The clam chowder was from a can...but I'm looking up how to make it for next time. I still haven't used my crock pot...maybe I can use it for that.

Yummm

I can't believe its already August! I'm excited to go back to work though. I miss seeing the kids every day. David is going to a new preschool, and its 3 days a week instead of 2. That will be exciting. And Kaylee is so talkative now. She's really funny. Last week she said "I love David" and I said "I love David too" and she said "no, you love Eric!"

This weekend is organization weekend...trying to get everything put away and not just stuffed in the spare room. We need to put up some more shelves, and I'd like to hang the art we got for the dining room.

If you look up on the right of the page, I added a link to my food blog. You can see my recipes, pictures, and you can write reviews!

Made a new drink ;)

4 parts pineapple juice
1 part vodka
2 parts sour apple pucker

Pretty tasty, even Jasmine likes it!

I forgot to mention I went to the secretary of state last week and got my name and address changed on my license, and my voter's registration card. I am now officially Jasmine Darlene Sovel-Charnesky!

Life the past week

We're finally getting into a routine now. The cats help, since we give them a little bit of canned food in the morning and at night, so thats when I do my morning and evening tidying of the kitchen. When I go back to work every day in the fall it will be a new adjustment. Right now I have tons of time to clean so we'll see what happens with that.

The cats are so much fun! We started locking them out of the bedroom so we can sleep...Max is fine, he plays all day and sleeps all night, but Ian likes to sleep all day, so he licks and nibbles our faces in the middle of the night, and that just had to stop. They haven't seemed upset about it, they don't whine at the door or anything so thats good.

Max is pretty dog like...he plays tug of war and meets us at the door when we get home, and loves to go for walks outside. He has a little harness and collar and he gets all excited when I get it out. He loves to walk...when I take him out during the warm parts of the day though I don't like to let him go out in the road because I think it might be too hot for him. He doesn't like when I carry him across the road to go to the grassy area...he wants to get down. He likes to stalk birds, and he catches a couple of bugs each time. He doesn't shy away from cars, and he always wants to go up to people. Ian isn't very interested in going out so he usually takes a nap while Max and I get some fresh air.

When Eric gets home from work he usually likes to lay on the couch and relax for a little while, and Ian is right there with him, usually on his chest where he can lick his face. They're good matches for each of us.

We went to see the Simpsons movie with Eric's cousin Jason and his fiance Tanya on friday for Jason's birthday. He loves the Simpsons. It was cute. The guys really liked it.

On Saturday we went to Natalie and Dave's wedding which was beautiful! I can't believe Grandma Charnesky made Natalie's dress!

Tomorrow I'm really excited because Eric is going mountain biking with Uncle Guy, and Alex and Sam are coming over (2 of the bridesmaids) and we're going to have pizza and make drinks and watch the wedding video. Just a nice relaxing girly night...since I've been living with a boy for 3 weeks!

Between eating at parent's houses and getting leftovers, and going to weddings, I haven't really cooked anything in the last week. I did make sloppy joes for the first time last week though. Eric said thats one of his favorite foods...I thought it was just okay.

My mom has 2 big crock pots so she gave me her small one, so I'm excited to try that. I've never used a crock pot before. I'm an on the stove kind of gal usually. I have the other half of that meat chunk I used to make pot roast before...anyone have a good recipe for a big chunk of meat in a crock pot?


My cousin Jennifer took this picture of us, isn't it beautiful? She's studying to become a photographer. (clicking on the picture makes it bigger)

Like a Bee!

Hey everybody! This have been so busy lately I have not had much time to post...

Things are going great! I had my midterm at Walsh this week for my E-Commerce class, it went swimmingly! Our kitties are so adorable and so fun to play with, Ian especially likes to let me know how much he likes me at 4 in the morning with kisses. Max seems to be a bit more playful but they are still warming up to their new home.

Jasmine has been fantastic, I hope she posts some more recipes of all the stuff she is cooking soon! I registered for my final class at OCC, it makes me feel a little sad knowing I won't have to take any more classes there after the fall semester, I know, a little weird, but still sad.

I finished Harry Potter, it was satisfying, I suppose...Still a great series

6 more weeks until this semester is over at Walsh, then only 4 more classes, I can't believe I am that close!!! March 2008 seems much closer now than before.

I'll see if Jasmine can post some pictures for me, I know we have a lot of kitty pictures, but they are adorable!!!

Love
-Eric

The kitty life

New kitty pictures have been added. Eric will make a post tomorrow but check out the pictures!

Kitties

Eric surprised me the other day by telling me that he had arranged for us to adopt 2 kittens. We went to pick them up today. They are soooo cute!!!

Kitten Pictures

We haven't named them yet, we have a couple of ideas in mind though. They are 7 months old, and they're brothers. They're Bengals, which seem to be very interesting cats.

Wikipedia-bengal cats

Basically, the breed was started by breeding an Asian Leopard Cat (a wild cat from Asia) with a domestic cat. Ours are f4, which means they are 4 generations in from that. The point of breeding them is to get a wild looking cat that is friendly.

A lot of people say they have the personalities of dogs, which seems to be true. I played tug of war with one of them, with a feather stick, and he just kept pulling! They're also very vocal, the wild cats make a lot more sounds than just meows so that they can communicate in the wild. We've already heard a few of these noises.

They're so much fun already! I keep stopping this post to take more pictures. :-)

pictures from our first week as a married couple

Click for pictures

Finally

All of the wedding excitement is just about over. The gifts have been taken out of their boxes and are starting to get used, people aren't coming over everyday, and the mountain of thank you cards has a small dent in it. The rose Larry and Vlad got for our wedding night has officially died, and the leftover food has been either eaten or frozen. It will remain frozen for a very long time, as I don't want to see a piece of chicken again any time soon.

My dad came over this weekend and helped Eric measure, plan, and install shelving in the front closet. What was once a dumping grounds for anything we didn't yet have a place for is now 3 rows of shelves and a rod for hanging coats. When everything is organized on the shelves, it looks like a lot less stuff than when it was all stacked up on the floor.

Eric's grandma gave us some plant cuttings, including 2 plants that belonged to her mother, which is very cool. I also potted the ivy from my bouquet into 3 pots and put them around the house. It really adds something to the house.

We also had our first wedding gift breakage...I was washing the mirror in the bathroom yesterday and knocked the soap dispenser off of the counter. It only cracked on the outside so it doesn't leak, so thats good.

Aunt Ann Marie sent us our first pictures for the house, Grace, Zach, and Ana's school pictures which are adorable! We need to get a frame or something for them, but for now they're leaning against the clock on the entertainment center.

The house looks really different again, lots of new additions. Unfortunately my computer is still at my parents house but hopefully this week we'll get it over here and I can post more pictures!

The days that Eric has class and I don't have anything planned are pretty lonely. Its a long enough day at home when he's just at work but when he has class until 10 its like I don't get to see him at all. I may need a hobby...besides cleaning the house all day. I lemon pledged the table for the first time today, its beautiful and I may do it every day. I also used bar keepers friend on the pots today, which worked well.

I signed up for the fly lady website. I figure if I start out on it, it should be easy. Today it said to get out the duster and get all the cobwebs. I went all over the house...but didn't find any. I dusted the grates though.

8 1/2 weeks until the honeymoon!!!

New drink!

I have discovered my new favorite drink. I read it in a recipe for a different drink and then modified it (and renamed it)

Coco-kahlua float

put a scoop of ice cream in the bottom of a tall drinking glass. Add 1 shot glass kahlua, and 1 shot glass coconut rum. Cover the ice cream with chocolate syrup, and fill to the top with milk.

Yum!

a couple of ceremony pictures

pictures

This is the start of our collection of ceremony pictures. If you have any good ones, send them to us. We'll be adding more as we get them.

A great day

It is nice to come home to clean house and a home cooked meal made by your wonderful wife =)

To top it off, Banana Split for dessert!!!

We are catching up on our house cleaning, we still have some organizing to do but we've made a good dent! Next comes the thank you cards...

I'll put some pictures up, if we could charge $4 for these banana splits we would be rich!

I can't believe I am almost 1/3 of the way done with the semester at Walsh, crazy 11 week semesters!

Lots of Love!

Pot Roast Recipe

My very first from scratch recipe as a wife was a hit. It smelled sooo good all day, and Eric and I both loved it! It has surprising ingredients, but its super easy. While it was cooking, I also conquered the laundry (finally!) and did some other cleaning around the house. I'm super wife!

Coffee Pot Roast

• 3 pound beef pot roast
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 can (approx. 15oz) diced tomatoes with liquid
• 1 cup black coffee
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 1/2 cups diced carrots
• 2 1/2 cups diced potatoes
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen veggies
  
• flour mixed with cold water to thicken liquids, optional

PREPARATION:

Brown meat on all sides in butter in heavy kettle or Dutch oven. Add tomatoes, coffee, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Add onion and carrot; simmer for 15 minutes.

Add potatoes and cook until vegetables are tender; add frozen veggies and cook for 3 or 4 more minutes.

To thicken liquids: Make a paste with 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour and a little cold water; stir until smooth. Stir into hot liquid a little at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Pot roast serves 6.

Wife'n it up

We're finally getting into a somewhat normal schedule. All of the out of towners have gone home and Eric went back to work. Yesterday I had to work too, Eric got up and made waffles and we ate breakfast together before going to work. We had our first married shopping trip on Monday night. We had so much chicken left over from the wedding, and a lot of strawberries and grapes from Larry and Vlad's surprise, and Eric stocked up on pasta before I moved in so we didn't need much. Frozen veggies were on sale so we stocked up on that, and ground beef. We forgot milk and ran out of eggs so we went back last night and decided we needed more beef, we're so sick of chicken. So we bought a thin steak for stir fry, and a big chunk of meat that I'm going to attempt to make roast with. We bought freezer paper, so I cut the chunk in half, I think I used the freezer paper right, and put half of it in there (remembering to label and date it clearly) We didn't get the crock pot we registered for so I'll be attempting the pot roast in an actual pot. If the recipe is good I'll share it. Last night was our first real dinner here, I made macaroni and cheese and we put some frozen veggies in, and Eric shred up one of the chickens from the wedding and put some of the onions and peppers and sauce from the chicken container. It was really really good. We had what Eric thinks is called a brown cow for dessert...pepsi and chocolate ice cream. We have so much pop and ice cream left over.

We put the bookshelf together in the bedroom, and it even has books on it! We went and picked up the entertainment center but haven't put it together yet. The house is really coming together. We'll put up more pictures soon.

Eric's potatoes are old so I'm off to buy some new ones.

Pictures from the disposable cameras

There were 573 pictures taken on the disposable cameras. Some of them didn't come out, a few were innapropriate, and there were a LOT of me, and a lot of the little girls, who were so cute taking pictures of everyone. Feel free to save any of these to your computer or make prints of them, I think there is a picture of just about everyone that was there.

Don't forget to share your pictures with us (we know you took them!)

We'll get to see the professional pictures in about 2 weeks but these will do for now.

pictures please

Thanks to everyone that came and celebrated with us, we had a perfect wedding. We know we smiled for a lot of pictures, but none of them were on our camera. So if anyone took pictures at the wedding, could you email them or put them on a cd for us?

Charnesky777@gmail.com

The whole day was kind of a blur for us so we would love to see the pictures!

Hopefully we'll get everything organized here at home and be able to post more later. We're really enjoying married life!

With love,

Eric

This is our first entry as a married couple! The wedding was great, we'll have pictures of that at some point. We have pictures of the rehearsal dinner, which was fun, we ate dinner and played games and hung out with our friends. The wedding day was a lot of fun, it was pretty hot in the church and there were some minor issues, but nothing that we can't laugh about later. It was fun to spend the whole weekend with all of my closest friends. The reception was great...Larry and Vlad were mischievous as usual, but they actually came through and left us a great surprise when we got home. A bowl of strawberries and grapes, candles everywhere, and some romantic music.

We also have some pictures of the church reception, and of our 'day after' party, where a few close family members came over to help us eat leftovers and watch us open our presents. We also had a surprise birthday for Kana.

Kana's visit has been wayyyy too short, but it was fun to meet her mom.

I haven't quite settled in to married life...I still feel like I'm just visiting. And figuring out where everything is, and having a choice of bologna or ramen for a snack. But its a lot of fun.

We'll be sure to keep everyone updated as the pictures start coming in but enjoy the ones we have, and thanks to everyone that shared our special day with us!

4th of July

Yesterday was SO much fun! Its one of my favorite days of the year, everyone goes to Uncle Rick and Aunt Laura's and just hangs out by the water. It may be a little less relaxing for them since they're the hosts and had to get everything all ready for it, but everyone just has so much fun. There were boat rides and paddleboat rides, yummy grilled food, SO many desserts, the kids went fishing, and when it was getting dark we made s'mores and played with sparklers while watching the fireworks. It was nice to just relax at a party that isn't all about me...between birthday stuff and wedding stuff I feel like I'm always in the spotlight lately, which I don't always mind but it was nice to just enjoy myself and not have to entertain.

Here are some pictures of the day

Eric and I were sitting out on the dock at one point, and Mikal and Adam came out and told us they were going fishing. They got their poles and got all ready and in position, and then looked at us and said "where's the worms?" The worms were in a box by our feet, and they were the huge nightcrawler kind. So I said "they're right here, you can get one out" and Mikal said "I'm not touching that!" and Adam said "You think we're crazy enough to touch a worm??" I wasn't about to touch them, they were too big, and Eric doesn't touch any creepy crawly stuff. Finally Malik came to my rescue and got one out for them. There weren't any big fish hanging around, but they caught a couple of small ones.

The fireworks on that lake are always so good! Everyone just sets them off on their own so there were little firework shows all around the lake.

This may be my last entry before I become Mrs. Jasmine Charnesky. I don't know how long it will be until that name starts to sound normal.

Today Sam and I are going to the Tricho salon and spa for my facial and nails, and Sam is getting a manicure. Then back to her mom's salon to get our eyebrows done. I can't believe the wedding is the day after tomorrow!!!

We had a little scare last night with the oven. My mom is making the wedding cake, and she was going to start baking today. The oven light burned out so my dad was replacing it, and shorted out the oven! Luckily he was able to fix it and wedding cake baking is going as planned. It smells so good in the house!

Aunt Karen loaned me some cds to use for wedding music, songs like the hokey pokey and the chicken dance, and then some other party songs. One I had never heard before, but am going to remove from the list, is Strokin' by Clarence Carter. Most innapropriate oldy song I have ever heard in my life! I'm glad I was listening to them while I was ripping them to my computer! There are a lot of really good ones on here though, I'm really excited!

Time to get ready for the spa! I'll see a lot of you tomorrow!

Bachelorette party!

My bachelorette party was tonight, I was a little worried because literally half of the party backed out at various times during this week, so there were only 5 of us but it ended up being really really fun. We met at my house and drove out to Ann Arbor to Janelle's house, then Janelle drove us to Sodako? A sushi restaurant. We got a huge platter of sushi, and managed to eat it all. Then we went to....an adult themed store, where they wanted to buy me some accessories. I convinced them to let me get away with just a sash and tiara that both had flashing lights and said 'bride to be'. Once I was all suited up, they started the first 2 games. In one game, they gave me a task, such as asking a guy to show me his belly button. The other game, I didn't know it but they each had a word that, if I said it, they made me do something. So when I said shoes (which I said often because they were killing me, I had to do a hula dance. And when I said Eric I had to flex my muscles. So I had to pay attention to what I had said right before they made me do it and had to guess what the trigger words were. I also had to get advice from 5 married couples, and 3 business cards. The other tasks you can see in the pictures.

We were walking around downtown Ann Arbor, right near the university, so there were a lot of young guys around, and 4 of them just happened to be playing beer pong in the front yard of their frat house. I had never played before, and didn't even know the rules, but they let me play, actually they just let me throw the balls until I got one in. I only drank a sip of the beer because it was soo gross but it was a fun experience.

Eventually we went back to the house and made some drinks and had chocolate fondue, and played some games. It was a lot of fun. The girls gave me a gift, a little nightgown and a robe. Shannon also gave me a lingerie set from Victoria's Secret, and a lollipop from Brandon. I'll let you guess the shape.

Ryan has a well stocked bar, so I got to try a couple of things, (kahlua and milk is going to be one of my favorites) and I found a recipe online that I thought sounded good, so I had them pick up the ingredients and I made it for all the girls (that were 21) and they really liked it, so I thought I'd put it up here:

Big Hawaiian (aka Jasmine's bachelorette party drink)
2 not quite full shot glasses of coconut rum
1/2 shot glass of watermelon schnapps
a 6 oz can of pineapple juice
1/2 shot glass of grenadine

It called for rum and coconut rum but we just used coconut. It made 3 little glasses of it.

It was a fun party night...Eric is in Canada right now with his bachelor party, I'm sure he'll post about it tomorrow.

21!!!

My 21st birthday is officially over (in this timezone haha). It was really fun. Eric surprised me at 6:30 in the morning by coming to my house and making me pancakes. My dad read me the Dr. Suess Birthday Book (which he's done every year since I can remember) Then I spent the day with Sam. We took Camden to Kensington, and then went to Dairy Queen. After Eric was done working, he drove us to Ruby Tuesday for dinner and drinks. I got a Ruby Relaxer, which was Skyy Vodka, Malibu Coconut Rum, DeKuyper Peach Schnapps, pineapple and cranberry juices with a squeeze of fresh orange. It was pretty good...I discovered I'm not a vodka fan. Sam got a Long Island Iced Tea that she liked but I thought was really gross. And I got free dessert since it was my birthday, and the waiter let us go to the salad bar and didn't charge us either. So we had lots of food and lots of leftovers to take home. Then we went back to Eric's condo, he wasn't feeling well so he took a nap and Sam and I went to Meijer and got ingredients for appletinis. I got to use the shaker Janelle got me, that was pretty cool. Again, I liked it except for the vodka part, so I made myself a new drink with the sour apple schnapps and apple juice that I thought was pretty good. We didn't drink much, just a small glass each. Then we played yahtzee and hangman and laughed hysterically...the vodka may have contributed to the laughing part. All in all, it was a really good birthday and I loved sharing it with my 2 best friends.

Here are some pictures of my celebration!

It has been a while

Wow, 11 more days until the wedding!!! I am so excited!

Everything is coming together now, just the few last little details to go.

I got an A in my Software Engineering II and BIT Compliance classes, and an A- in my Database Administration class. Another successful semester at Walsh!

I just had my first E-Commerce class, the professor seems pretty cool, a little weird and off the wall, but cool. It should be a good class.

Tonight I have my Business and Technology Strategy class with Barbara, I am looking forward to this class =)

Work is going well, keeping busy learning Vista.

Also, I WENT SKYDIVING!!!
YEAH!

http://picasaweb.google.com/princess62986/SkydiveDay?authkey=zx9aEpFS4Oc

Jasmine got some good pictures, I'll see if I can get the video online later =)

Brandon went with Dad for his 1998th jump, he had 3 of his friends go with him.

I was Dad's 2000th jump, so I told him I would do it again for 3000, but I might want to go again sooner!

7/7/07

An article about how popular our wedding date is...we didn't know, we swear!

Game Day

Saturday was an impromptu family day. We went to Adam's last soccer game, and obviously Aunt Karen, Uncle Chris, and Amy were there, and Uncle Rick and Aunt Laura were there too.

Then we went back to Eric's condo, where we finally had the chance to play tennis against my grandparents. They challenged us last year but we needed some time to practice. We lost horribly...we played 6 games...and lost 6 games. Although we got points in almost all of the games. My parents, Aunt Karen, Uncle Chris, Adam, and Amy came over and everyone hit the balls around for awhile, then we all went to the Tropical Smoothie Cafe (our new favorite sandwich shop down the street) and ate lunch (Grandpa paid) and then went back to the condo to show everyone around. Grandma brought a cake and we all sat around and talked and ate. Then Grandma and Grandpa had to leave, and the rest of us went down to the pool. The kids had a great time swimming. It was a really fun day, here are some pictures!

Then Sunday we had our pre-wedding photoshoot. Our photographer is awesome! He's so nice, and he's funny. We had a great time. We went to Robert Long Park, and took pictures all over the park. It was a little weird because everyone was staring at us everywhere we went, but it was really fun. We get to see the pictures Wednesday or Thursday, I'm so excited!

Eric

I can't believe finals are next week at Walsh, after that I'll only have 3 more semesters!

Things are going great, the condo is looking awesome.

29 days until the wedding!!!

More later...

Sam and Camden update

Sam and Camden came home from the hospital late Wednesday afternoon. They are both sleeping a lot, and are doing great!

There are a couple of new pictures in the album I posted a couple of days ago if you want to check them out.

6-7-07

So, today is June 7th. You know what that means... ONE MONTH!!!!! Thats right folks, 30 days left until the big day. I have mixed feelings. I'm SOO excited for the wedding, and to be married, but I'm a little stressed out about all of the final plans. We still have to get music (so if anyone has a cd I can borrow with good weddingy songs that would be nice), we have to get the teeny tiny little details like who stands where when and who is in charge of getting what to where. This month should be fun too, if I can avoid being stressed out. Even though I'm not planning on partying or going crazy at all, I'm excited to turn 21. And I have a bachelorette party, which, thanks to my wonderful Sam, I can be sure won't be too crazy.

Sam got to bring Camden home yesterday. He is just so cute. He looks just like his dad, but has Sam's ears and nose. (Sam has an ear with a point, like Spock, and both of Camden's ears have points) and instead of curling up like most newborns, he's always streched out. So far everything is going really well for all of them.

Finally!

Sam had a doctor's appointment yesterday and discovered she had preeclampsia, so she went to the hospital where they induced her. Her labor went really quick, only 5 hours. Camden John was born at 1:31 am on June 5th, 2007. He weighs 7 pounds, 8 ounces, and is 20 inches long. And he's just the cutest little guy ever!



More Camden Pictures

update

Some updated house pictures

Painting

Our plan was to get the condo all painted, and then start moving furniture in. So last night my dad and I went over there and my dad and Eric sanded, then Eric and I went to Melvin's to get all the paint. Then this morning I went to Eric's house just before 8 for a quick pancake date, and around 8, Uncle Rick and Aunt Laura came over with all of their painting tools and expertise. They gave us a few tips and we got started. We painted the living room/dining room/stairway/hallway area and Aunt Laura started the trim for the bathroom. The living room looks great! It went by so fast! They could only stay until 1 and even though we took a lunch break, we got the whole first coat done! We are using Benjamin Moore paint, I don't know if you can look up the colors on the website or not but we're using Milkyway for the living/dining/stairway/hall, Moccasin for the bathroom, Wales Green for the kitchen, and Bashful Blue for the bedroom. They're all hard colors to explain, but we'll put pictures up as soon as we get them done!

Everything is going great so far! Eric has lived in the condo for a full week now, things are slowly but surely getting moved in, this will speed up after we have paint and can move the furniture and stuff in, and the tomatoes on our plant on the balcony are starting to turn red!

Today is Sam's due date, she's been dilated 1 centimeter for the past 2 weeks, so hopefully that will change soon. She isn't enjoying the heat but she's still so cute! If she doesn't have him by next Saturday, they're going to induce her. So in the next week at some point I'll have a nephew!

Pictures...words will come later

Shower Pictures

New House Pictures!

Move in day!

So, I am officially moved in! Well, I still don't have much stuff but Jasmine's Mom and Dad and my Mom and Dad brought over loads of stuff...We have dishes, pots, pans, appliances, table, chairs, pillows and some clothes. I still have more work to do to get the place ready for Jasmine to move in, in July, like painting and furniture and cleaning. Good thing one of my oh so kind neighbors has an open wireless connection, hopefully they aren't just using it to steal passwords... =/

I used the fitness center at our complex tonight, I could only run for about 12 minutes at a 7mph pace, I think I need to drink more water, I got a bit dizzy so I took a break, then got on the stationary bike and did a strength training workout for 8 minutes. It is going to be so nice to have a workout room so close by! I mean, who runs on sidewalks anymore?!? ;)

Well, I am exhausted now, time to grab my sleeping bag.

We will have some pictures up soon, Jasmine forgot her camera at home with all the excitement, good thing her Mom had her camera.

Lots of love for everyone!

Shower

Our shower was amazing!!! Grandma Ruth came up from Florida and she, Aunt Karen, Adam, Amy, and one of my bridesmaids, Kelley, were all at the church with my parents on Saturday to decorate. It looked beautiful! Jaimie and Jenna spent Saturday night so they could be there to help, and all of the bridesmaids were there to make the sandwiches and finish doing all of the food stuff. It was so fun having everyone together! Its nice to know that there is a big group of girls there to help me whenever I need it. 54 people came to the shower, and it was so much fun! We got so many great gifts, I can't wait to put them in the new house! Aunt Ann Marie coordinated a recipe collection in everyone's invitation so I got a recipe from almost everyone, I'm really excited to try all of them! I even got Grandpa Bob's latke recipe, and my Great Grandma Rose's meatball recipe!

The dentist on Thursday was no big deal, I was nervous because I had never had a cavity that required a shot and numbing and stuff, but it wasn't bad...I got 3 shots but none of them hurt, and it was weird to not be able to move half of my mouth...I accidentally bit my cheek a couple of times but not too hard. And I love my dentist so much, she's so nice! I hope she's on our new insurance...

Eric was sick and then I ended up getting sick on friday and saturday morning so we haven't made it to see Shrek yet :(

But today is the walk through for our condo!!! I'm so excited to see it again! We close on Friday and Eric is moving in then. Uncle Rick and Aunt Laura have offered to help us paint, and they painted their house so they're experts.

I'm so glad we have so many family members and friends that are there to help us with everything we do. We couldn't do any of this without all of you!!!

We'll post shower pictures either today or tomorrow so check back!

Oracle

Wow, I got a great score on my Oracle midterm.  This is that class that we only meet 4 times and we have to teach ourselves from the book because not enough people sign up for it.  I still have to wait and see what kind of curve he gives the score but I am doing pretty well =)

The crazy life

Since May hit, things are just going going going. Our calendar has at least one thing in it for just about every day right up to the wedding. Just a reminder of our countdown, for those who can't believe how soon everything is already:

The shower is this Sunday! I can't believe that, they started planning it forever ago!
We close on the condo next Friday (the 25th) and Eric is moving in
My Grandma is throwing a small shower next Saturday for close family and a few of her friends to wish me well. We also hope to paint the condo that weekend...any volunteers to help?
June 3rd we are meeting our photographers for a photoshoot that lets us get to know them and their photography style. I thought that was a very nice idea. As if there won't be enough pictures of us this summer, right?

And in the midst of all of this, Sam is due June 2nd. We started a baby poll a couple of weeks ago so everyone could guess when she'll have him. As long as its not this week or she'll miss the shower she's been planning for so long! I picked May 29th so that his birthday will be a month before mine.

Eric's Grandma gave us a hand crank ice cream machine, it makes the best ice cream ever! We had some last night and I've been thinking about it all day! Look out, wedding diet! Too bad there isn't a good way to make low fat ice cream in it. We looked :(

On Thursday I have to go get a couple of little cavities filled, I'm a little nervous about that, I haven't had a filling done in years! So this week is funny because I want the week to go by quickly so I can get to the shower, but I also want it to go slowly because I don't want to go to the dentist. Its just one thing to get through though, so it will be fine.

I'm almost done working every day too, which I know will be nice because I'll have lots more time to get stuff done, but I always miss being there with the kids every day. (for those who don't know, the mom I work for is a teacher so in the summer's I only work a couple of days a week, and I don't have to get there as early in the morning) Since I started in the summer with them, this will be my third summer working for them. I can't believe how long its been! So it will work out nicely, I will be done working every day not long after Sam has her baby, so I can be there to help her out during the day and we can get all of the wedding plans done together.

I'm so excited for this summer!!!

School

Things are going well, Week 7 of 11 for the Walsh spring classes already!  I sent my OCC transcript over to get my last two transfer classes officially added, that should be done this week =)

I can't believe I only have 3 more semesters after this!

Mother's Day

So Grandma gave us a hand crank ice cream maker...and we used it! Its in the freezer cooling, but nobody knows we snitched...except Shannon now, because she's hanging out with us. We worked in the garden with mom, we'll put some pictures up when its done. We do fine work.

I'm halfway through the semester at Walsh, things are good...and crazy

I'll post more later...we just heard that some people check every day so we wanted to give them something to read.

P.S. 55 days for those who are counting!

Happy Birthday

Happy 5th Birthday Anya!!!

So fast

I can't believe how fast everything is going. I am already in week 4 of the Spring semester at Walsh. The wedding is 73 days away and I am closing on our Condo in 4 and a half weeks! This is the last week for classes at OCC so after this I'll only have 1 more class to finish my 2nd Associates degree. Things are going really well though and I am excited for everything to come. Time to get back to my homework...

Eric's Birthday

Eric had a successful 20th birthday weekend. Janelle and Ryan came in on Saturday and we had dinner and cake and ice cream at my house, and then on Sunday Eric's parents invited my parents to their house for dinner and more cake and ice cream. He got lots of presents, a couple were even from our registry!

Eric and I went to Robert Long Park on Sunday (his actual birthday) so we could spend some time in nature on Earth Day.

Here are some pictures of the birthday weekend

Condo.................Mania!!!

Yesterday we went to the condo to measure...pretty much everything in the house that could possibly be measured. Since we are closing in 6 weeks, its time to start thinking about moving, and storage. Its not a huge house but it has some very good opportunities for good storage. Which, with the help of Ikea, will be neither hard nor expensive. After the condo, we went to Ikea and measured a few things that we had our eyes on, and even got some new ideas for things we like. We added them to our Wish List Page on our website.

Its so nice to see how excited everyone is getting as the wedding gets closer...we're really excited too! Many of you have told us to let you know if we need any help; don't worry, that day is coming fast! As all of the festivities get closer (5 weeks until the first shower!) We will definitely be enlisting all of our happy helpers. We really appreciate all of the support we have gotten from our family and friends. With a wedding this big, we need all the help we can get to stay sane!

Here are some pictures from our day at the condo yesterday.

Wish lists

A lot of people are starting to ask where we are registered. Here is a link to our wish list page, which you can also find on our main page (click on wedding wish lists on the left of the page). You can also go to Bed Bath and Beyond or Target and look up our registries there. We also made a list of things from Ikea we would really like. It was suggested to us that since there is no way to know who bought what from Ikea that we ask everyone to keep the items in their packaging in case we need to return something.

Sam's baby shower

I forgot to put the pictures of up the baby shower I threw for Sam (paid for by her mom and dad). It was a crazy week getting everything together but the shower was so fun! She got just about everything she needed for the baby.

She is doing really well, she's in the middle of her 32nd week. She's getting really big, every time I see her she looks bigger. We're all getting really excited about the baby coming soon!

Classes

This whole directed study class thing is weird. We've met once for the BIT compliance class and we are not meeting until a week from Thursday for the Oracle Database Aministration class. My software engineering class is awesome though, we started getting into full swing for the big project. This is going to be a rough semester, lots of papers and projects, it should be fun though!

Easter

We had a successful Easter at the Sovel's. Eric's parents were in Delaware with Amanda and the nieces so he celebrated with us. We started off at 9:00 breakfast at church, then Sunday school and church, then Janelle and Ryan came over and we colored eggs and had hamburgers and hot dogs (nobody in this house is very fond of ham). And then searched for our baskets. Here are some pictures. You can comment on the pictures as well.

Walsh

I just got a call from my professor at Walsh. The BIT 347, Database Administration, class only had 3 students enroll. I know the others girls who enrolled so that is nice at least. He said the class is going to be shifted to a 'directed study' which means we learn the stuff ourselves =/

I guess there is not other way to do it though, the college can't pay him to show up every week and teach so they do it this way, I hope it works out.

Tonight I have my first class of the Spring semester, Software Engineering II. It is the second semester of the class I had last semester. The same teacher teaches it so it should go really well.

My Wednesday class, BIT Compliance, only has 4 people enrolled, but I have not heard from that professor yet, I guess I'll find out what will happen on Wednesday.

I am excited for this semester, the classes seem interesting and I hope I'll get some good stuff out of the classes.

Also, all of the honeymoon planning we have been doing is so much fun, I am really looking forward to going to Disney World =)

Hopefully the cold weather comes and goes really quick, just long enough to kill mosquitoes...

Happy Spring everyone!!!

Honeymoon!

On Saturday we went to Carlson Wagonlit Travel Agency in Plymouth (there are a surprising few travel agencies left in this area...but its so much easier than trying to figure it out on the website I think) We booked our honeymoon to Disney World!!! Our original plan was to go down on a Friday night and then not go to the parks until Saturday, but if you are staying in a Disney Resort, your ticket days start the day you get there. So the travel agent called and asked how much it would cost to add one more day, and it only cost $4.70!! That includes tickets and the dining plan! So we moved our Friday flight to the morning, and we'll just spend the afternoon there. For $4 thats worth it.

Our plane takes off at 10:15am on September 14th, and lands in Orlando at 12:53. We have reservations at 5:15 at Tony's Town Square in Magic Kingdom, which is based off of the Lady and the Tramp movie, which was my very favorite movie until The Little Mermaid came out. I'm really excited about that, I'll be ordering spaghetti! And we were able to get reservations at Cindrella's Royal Table on the 17th at 7:40pm, thats the restaurant in Cinderella's Castle!!! They start taking reservations for this restaurant 180 days in advance, and it says its a hard reservation to get so we were a little worried but we got it! We also have reservations at Marrakesh, a Moroccan restaurant, Les Chefs de France, and at Chef Mickey, which is supposed to have a lot of the characters wandering around a lot. We still have other reservations to make but the 2 restaurants I really really wanted were Cinderella's Royal Table and Tony's Town Square, so I'm happy. One of us will set up an itinerary link on our website so you can check out our plans as they happen, and we're hoping to be able to borrow a laptop so we can keep everyone updated while we're there. We have tickets for 9 days, on the 10th day that we're there (the 23rd) our flight leaves at 1:30 so we won't be going to the park then.

We are getting really excited about it!!!

As if it wasn't confusing enough...

Eric found a way to combine our blogs. So now you can catch up with both of us on the same page, as well as leave comments, and I think we can put picture links in...somehow. To see who wrote each entry, you look at the end of the entry and it will say Posted by:Jasmine. Maybe we can use different colors too...

well the point is that changes are being made, so be patient as we figure all of this out :)

Blogger

I finally got all of our posts moved over from the old site to Blogger =)

Both Jasmine and I will be posting to this shared blog, it will say who posted each post at the bottom next to the post time...

We'll be doing some more updates pretty soon!

100 days until the wedding!!!! We're in the home stretch, the time in which everything is getting soo crazy! Our wedding shower is May 20th, mark your calendars, but you'll get an invitation too of course. We went and registered at Bed Bath and Beyond, where they give you the little scanner and you go all through the store...it was so overwhelming! It was like this pot, or this pot, or this pot, and the wall of kitchen utensils like whisks and spatulas and stuff has never looked bigger. It was really fun, but not something I would want to do on a regular basis. It took us a good 6 hours total I think, we did it on 2 separate days, and one of the days the store closed at 7 but they let us stay until we finished, which was a little after 9. It was fun to be the only ones in the store, that made it a lot less stressful. We haven't gotten around to anywhere else to register, we'll get there. Its exciting, and stressful, and the next 100 days should be very very interesting!

Finished

Wow, that Winter Semester at Walsh went by so quick!

I got an A in both classes though! My cumulative GPA is 3.833 now =)

This next semester which starts in one week from Tuesday is going to be tough.

On Tuesday I have Software Engineering II, the first semester was good, I expect this class to be good too.

On Wednesday I have BIT Compliance, it is all about different standards and laws that apply to information technology, it should be interesting at least.

On Thursday I have Database Administration, I think this class will be a lot of fun, it is probably going to be one of the more technical classes I'll have at Walsh.

Sadly, my Friday Interpersonal Communication class at OCC will be going until April 27th so I'll have 4 night classes a week for 4 weeks.

Things are going well though, I am getting ready to finalize everything for the Condo and just about everything is planned for the wedding!

Happy Spring everyone!

The First Final

Turns out the Online Orientation was scheduled to go until 7 so we had to find another room...

We got settled down and then had to fill out the professor evaluations so we didn't get started presenting until 7PM.

I ended up fourth out of fifth, not my favorite position. I usually like to go first or last, I wanted to go last this time so I could gauge everyone else's presentations. It was an odd room so everyone else sat to do their presentations, I prefer to stand. Also, the girls were somewhat dressed up, but I was the only guy with a tie on (I hope that means bonus points).

My presentation went pretty well, I felt a little scattered, but I was trying to go through it fast because I didn't present until 8:30. My professor seemed to l like it though, he said he felt I obviously knew enough about network architecture.

We got out at 9, everyone was relieved.

Now I just have to worry about tonights final, it is open book and open notes, but the review questions were pretty tough...

On top of that, I left my books and notes at home, luckily Mom is going to bring them up and we can have lunch together, that will be nice.

Alright, back to work, more later.

The calm before....

So, I finally get everything finished for class and I get to school and they are doing online orientation in our room! So all of us just went into the other lab and hijacked some computers to do last minute touch ups for our presentations and papers. Things are going well, I managed to get everything I needed to get done finished even with time to spare. I am looking forward to my classes next semester, I am taking Software Engineering II on Tuesday night, Business IT Compliance on Wednesday night, and Database Administration on Thursday.

The only sad part is that my Friday night class at OCC isn't over for a few more weeks so I'll have 4 night classes a week for a bit...

I keep forgetting I am in an online class, it is pretty much a joke, I just have to go on once a week and do a few things, write a few paragraphs and I stay caught up.

Interestingly at work, an opening for a Datatel Programmer (which I am not really qualified to be anyway) had been opened back in September that was closed and they were doing interviews last month. I guess they didn't find anyone they liked to they re-opened it. It says minimum qualifications are a bachelors, but mine is in progress. I am going to email around and see what I can find out =)

After Wednesday's final I'll only have 4 more semesters at Walsh until I am done, wow that is going by fast!

I am already starting to look into schools for a Masters Degree, I don't want to get stuck in a rut only going to Walsh, but we'll see...

Alright, off to class now, wish me luck!