p.s.

the very day i posted my last blog, we chose an apartment. =)

...

west annapolis, here we come!

(we move nov. 7! so soon!!)

the great apartment adventure

i haven't even gotten around to posting pictures of our "new" apartment, and here we are looking to MOVE!

i don't know about you, but i'm super excited.

our top 5 reasons for moving:
1) there's no washer/dryer.
2) there's literally 4'x1' of kitchen counter space.
3) there are only two closets, and they are tiny. seriously, one isn't even deep enough for a clothes hanger to fit. so lack of storage space is a challenge for us.
4) it is not in the best of locations/neighborhoods. i do not leave the property by myself. even in the daytime.
5) now that it's getting chilly out, the heat has been turned on. it's a super old house, and the heater makes it smell like the house is on fire. or spritzed with diesel. =P

and with the addition of the bacon i'm bringing home now, we are ABLE to move! praise God!

our 3 options:
1) annapolis street.

• this is a 2nd floor, 625 sq ft apartment above commercial space in west annapolis - charming! it has a fabulous kitchen with lots and lots of counter space, including a spacious breakfast bar. the washer/dryer is stacked in a closet in the bedroom. the living/dining space is plenty big. all of our key furniture should fit. we measured. =) a HUGE perk of this one is that i could easily walk to work - parking every day in downtown annapolis is NOT the funnest part of my job, as any of you annapolitans can imagine.
• the drawback is that storage space is still limited to two closets. they are slightly bigger than the two we have now.

2) harbour gates.

• this is a 1st floor, 645 sq ft apartment directly across from all the wonderful amenities - indoor and outdoor pool and hot tub, raquetball, and a big fitness area. the washer/dryer is NOT stacked, which is nice, and the room sizes are almost identical to the annapolis street apartment. there is also a storage space off of the balcony/patio, which would take care of the storage issue.
• the kitchen is not quite as fabulous as the annapolis street one. counter space is somewhat limited, though almost anything is more than what we have now.

3) annapolis roads.

• this apartment complex is tucked into the bay ridge area, off of edgewood road. it is near where we live now, but in the nicer (safer) part of town. it is a 3rd floor, 800 sq ft apartment. there is a whole laundry room, which would provide tons of storage space, as well as a little room for jack, so that we wouldn't have to crate him so much. the unit we are considering is all the way at the end of the complex, which goes out to the water. you can see the bay bridge from the parking lot! an additional safety feature of this one is that you have to punch in a code to get to the stairwell, so you can't just walk up to people's front door.
• you have to go through the bedroom to get to the bathroom. not my favorite. also, the kitchen is extremely closed off from the rest of the home.

so... what do you think??????????

my first sale!

and i did it all by myself =)

about 15 minutes before closing, with no sales at all for the day so far, a man and his adorable little girl walked in. i'm not sure what the occassion was, but they were shopping for a gift for mom, to be from this little girl. they had a pretty good idea of what they wanted, and i helped them find something they thought she'd really like, in their price range, the color they had hoped for.

it. was. so. exciting!

i rung them up and put the earrings in a gold gift box. i slid it across the jewelry case to the little girl and said, "i put it in a pretty box for you." her eyes lit up as she took it in her hands. she looked up at her dad, and said, "look how shiny the box is, daddy!"

SO CUTE!

i was so glad to help them find just the right thing, and so proud to have finally made a sale all on my own.

want to know the best part? on his way home from school, my adoring hubby drove past my store. through the window, he could see that i was with a customer, because we were at the jewelry case closest to the window. he started praying real hard, right away - "God, please let her make the sale!! not for the money, or even for jeff or the store, but just for her. oh, God, it would encourage her so much if she could just make this sale!"

yeah, baby. thanks for praying for me. =D

on that note, i'd really like to be a blessing to this store. i don't make a very big percentage on commission at all - like, we don't even include commission income in our budget. but it would be amazing if we could all pray together that God would bless jeff and niland & co with better sales. the past two or three weeks have been especially slow. in this economy, jewelry buying has taken a hit, that's for sure! but now, as things slowly begin to turn around, i pray that i might bring in sales to benefit this company that i've come to care about.

bringin home the bacon

or at least SOME bacon, at last =)

my last job paid very well by the hour, but i hardly got any hours. so i've been job searching like crazy, and God finally gave me one! hooray!

i'm working at the local jeweler where daniel and i got my engagement ring and both of our bands. i even had a little sterling silver, engagement ring made for daniel at this place =) he wore it on his right hand. anyway, the place is called niland and company jewelers, and i just help out all around. sales, organizing, record keeping, hanging out and chatting when it's slow. it's very laid back and non-stressful, which is lovely.

i work saturdays, but i have sundays off. so i work 10:30 to 6 tuesday through saturday (they are closed on mondays). so daniel is going to try to do lesson plans and grading till i get home from work each day, and when i'm away on saturdays. so hopefully we will still have plenty of time together.

i've only worked two days, but so far, i have a feeling that this job will be a good fit for me, and that i will be a big help to jeff, the jeweler.

photos galore

so, interim grade reports were due thursday morning at daniel's school.

this means he was up till 2 a.m. finishing the grades.

this means that i was up till 2 a.m. with him =)

to stay awake, i posted FIVE new facebook photo albums - photos of jack, our honeymoon, a really cool date we had to celebrate 3 months of marriage, my brother's wedding, and some random photos of married-ness. it was pretty fun, since i have a mac and iPhoto has this sweet facebook photo exporter. also, i like that now we have some pictures of life AFTER the wedding =P

so check it out!

you MUST try this!!!

new favorite recipe, adapted from Rachel Ray (whose show i cannot stand, but whose cookbook i adore).

super stuffed french bread pizza!














before you get cooking, get 12 oz of chopped frozen spinach defrosting.

in a large pan (we use a "jumbo fryer") start off by getting about 5 links of sweet italian sausage (casings removed) browning on the stove, in about 1 Tbsp of olive oil.

while that's going on, chop up 1 medium sweet vidalia onion and 1 orange bell pepper.

once the sausage is browned, dump the onion and bell pepper into the pan. add 2 or 3 large cloves of minced garlic (or 1-2 tsp jarred minced garlic). stir it up. saute till you think the onions and bell pepper look fabulous.

while THAT'S going on, take a french bread baguette, and cut it length-wise. then cut the whole thing in thirds the other direction (you should have 6 "pizza crusts"). tear out the soft bread on the inside, so that the bread is stuff-able.

drain the thawed spinach and then get a bunch more water out with paper towels. add the spinach to the pan and stir it up. when it's mixed, take it off the stove and transfer it to a large mixing bowl.

add 1 package (15 oz) of part-skim ricotta and 1/2 c parmesan cheese to the mixing bowl. or, if you love parm like me, add a whole cup =) mix it up.

now you're ready to stuff the bread. load it up! you might even have a little left over, but try to really cram it all in there. mound shredded mozarella on top. really mound it - it will be so much yummier that way.

stick it in the oven at 425 for 10 minutes or so. when the cheese looks too good to resist for a moment longer, take it out.















eat it up.















the end.

(seriously. try it. AMAZING.)

p.s. hi, eve! =)

the return of the camera!

hooray!

this saturday we went to silver spring and had a lovely dinner with daniel's uncle peter and his family. it was so much fun. AND we got our camera back!

so, long overdue, here is the video from our visit to new jersey that i've been dying to share with you. it is of jellybean, daniel's family's beagle.