Check, Check, and Check!

I can mark off more of my 101 tasks! Hurray!

1. Donate $25 worth of non-perishable food items to a food pantry once a month for a year. I'm three months behind, ugh. 9 of 12 months completed.

2. Visit DC for at least four days. This is being set into motion. We'll be in DC Sept 12-15th, although the 15th hardly counts for a day. We'll have breakfast at the hotel then head to the airport. Even though this trip was really impromptu, I'm so glad we're going.

16. Help with a Girl Scout troop. On July 31st I met with a Girl Scout Volunteer Organizer and registered as an adult volunteer. I hope to be working with a troop starting this fall!

17. Influence someone to make a 101/1001 list. I suggested doing a 101/1001 list to my personal trainer Paul because he'd recently gotten out of a relationship and had more time to focus on work and such. Well, he went a little overboard with work and doing really long days. He's really liking his list and has already completed some tasks. Awesome!

21. Use my 5 passes to work out with a trainer at the gym. Turns out I only had 3 sessions that came with my membership. I used those, and bought an 11-pack, which I have also gone though. Big fat check mark for this one!

24. Try 10 different flavors of ice cream at Amy's. I think I'm up to four of 10 now. The last one I tried was white chocolate with reese peanut butter cups--so delicious.

31. Go to a wine tasting event. This past week my mom took us to a vineyard south of Salem, Oregon, and I got to try 6 samples of wine. I really liked their vintage pinot noir. Then she took us (Marshall was there too) to a winery in Salem. I tasted another 4 wine samples (was that 10 oz total?!), and absolutely loved their tropical sunset wine. It's like fruit cocktail syrup with wine, yummy.

50. Have Thanksgiving at my parents' house. Marshall and I recently went to Oregon to visit my parents, sisters and nephew for a few days. Thanksgiving is my mom's favorite holiday to cook, and the day we arrived we had a Thanksgiving dinner that night. Check!

88. Visit 5 Austinite restaurants.  Not too long ago my boss Carrie took my coworker Emily and I out to lunch at Matt's El Rancho, a Mexican restaurant. I'm not sure if they have more than 1 location in town, but it is an Austin restaurant. My fifth one is actually happening tomorrow morning. I'm meeting a new friend at the Magnolia Cafe, and Carrie has approved it as an Austin "must go" place. :)

101. Take a glass blowing class. Today was the glass blowing class I organized through a meetup.com group that I joined. 10 ladies participated, and everyone had a blast. I get to pick up my purple and pink ornament on Monday after work. I'll post pictures this week. Check!

Modified September Plans

We added another vacation to September. Yep, this brings the count to 2. Marshall has a Navy hearing in Washington DC on September 14th, so we'll be in DC the 12-15. His ticket was picked up by the Navy, but I had to pay for mine. I didn't want him going alone, especially since it's a pretty nerve wracking ordeal. We've also wanted to travel to DC together.

We're still going on our car trip to NM at the end of September for the Intl Balloon Festival. Dang, September is going to fly by!

Hostess

I recently hosted a baby shower at my house for a friend at work who is due with a girl at the end of September. We had california rolls, lumpia and edamame. I even made Weight Watchers sangria. For dessert I made rice krispie treat cupcakes with strawberry frosting. I added sprinkles and a strawberry 'A' for Alice, the baby's name. Her middle name is going to Sakura, which is Japanese for cherry blossom (hence the theme). Here are the pictures I remembered to take of my prep. I made the mom-to-be bibs and receiving blankets, and got her some things that she'll need on the first day home (aka diapers and wipes).

Marshall's Birthday

Marshall turned 28 on July 28th (golden year), and I got him the second Flight of the Concords CD. He was actually thinking of getting me the CD just because. Ha, I got to it first!! :p The following night Marshall's dad came up from Houston as a surprise to Marshall, and we all three went to a murder mystery dinner downtown. We all had self-imposed aliases: Marshall and I were Jeremiah and Agnes Frownski, and Jeff was Popeye. He really enjoyed that one, lol. We had a great time and will probably do it again next year when they do a new mystery theme.

Here's a picture of us from our night out.

Wedding Anniversary

July 31st was our one year wedding anniversary! We had such a beautiful wedding in Idaho last year.

All the bouquets together.

The bridal party (yes, that's Jenn skipping).

Planting our unity tree.

The alter.

Sealed it with a kiss.

Uncle Jet doing the Airplane!

Marshall's parents got us a present to celebrate!

Here's Marshall getting excited about what's inside.

It's a bottle of champagne and 2 crystal flutes that have our names and wedding date on them. I have the best mother-and father-in-law. :)

Home Decor

While Marshall's been solarizing the backyard this summer, I've had my own house project to do. I painted our great room (living room, dining area, and kitchen) yellow. I added copper and white curtains to the living room windows. The papasan chair pillow is red. The cats love the curtains! Although their claws have gotten suck on the threads of the white oness, they've done really well at not damaging the copper ones. Eventually we will replace the carpet with hardwood floors.

End of July

Last week was very busy for me at work. I think I worked something like 50 hours, even pulling two 12-hour days back to back. We had a big audit by a huge potential client (has anyone heard of Samsung before?!) on Thursday, so we were frantically trying to get our shop looking marvelous. I think we pulled it off, lol. I won't know if Samsung liked what they saw and will be sending us business anytime soon, but at least all the craziness is over.

This past weekend I went to San Antonio to spend Saturday night with a friend from North Dakota as it is her birthday this upcoming Wednesday. We went to dinner, and I got to play with her 11 month old daughter. Of course we talked non-stop. It was nice to take a drive away from the city.

On Sunday I went grocery shopping while Marshall slept. All summer he's been preparing meals, cleaning, and doing house projects while I've been at work. I decided I would take something off his list while he slept. This week for dinner we're having:
*Lasagna with eggplant, vegetables, and ground turkey
*French onion soup
*Eggplant Parmesian
*Lemon chicken with stir fry pasta
*Grilled chicken breasts with fruit salsa
*Cobb salads

I also started working on presents for Melissa's baby shower that I'm hosting on August 7th. So far I made a receiving blanket that doubles as a towel and 2 bibs. I need to go get some more thread so I can finish up more sewing projects for her. :) I'll post pictures when I have everything completed.

Tonight has a relaxing night. We watched Sunday's episode of True Blood together. I made pico de gallo while Marshall put together the lasagna. Can't wait to have some in a little bit! Tuesday night I have a personal training session at 6pm. Wednesday is free at the moment, and Thursday is the big day--Marshall's 28th birthday! I have one present for him that he's going to love. His bigger birthday present is a murder mystery date downtown on Friday night. Shhh, he doesn't know this but his parents are coming up from Houston as a surprise. We haven't seen them since April, so it will be a really great evening with the four of us together.

Saturday I'll go to the gym after my WW meeting, but other than that the weekend is still wide open. Sunday is our one year anniversary of our wedding in Idaho. I can't wait until we move there in 8 years, lol. :p We haven't decided on what we'll do on Sunday together yet. I guess we better get crackin' on that, huh?

July is always a good month, but I feel that the end really signifies the beginning of the climb towards the holidays. Kids will be counting down the last few days of summer while parents save up to buy school supplies. Then it's all about dec'ing out the house for Halloween. We'll probably stay in Austin for Thanksgiving since I want to run the Turkey Trot 5K on that morning, and I've volunteered to work the day after Thanksgiving incase my co-worker Emily wants it off. Then of course the big event of my birthday is next--I'll be 25--followed closely by Christmas and 2012. This year will be another good one for us, but I can't wait until '12 because then we're closer to Marshall being finished with school...and babies. :D