October's Us Photo

From this past weekend at Oktoberfest. It's a tradition of ours to go every year, eat a brat with all the fixings and walk and check out all the vendors. Such fun!

September's Us Photo

From our date at Birch aquarium :) And looking at this I've realized just how dirty dh's hat is. I think I need to find that guy and stick him in the wash...lol

Birch Aquarium and Squire's Cafe

So earlier this week Rick and I had a much needed date. Lately our dates have consisted on lounging at home, going out to eat at our favorite restaurants or doing a little shopping. Truthfully I haven't had a whole lot of energy or desire for much else. But we finally decided to get our lazy butts out of the house and go on a date that would count for my blog. I honestly hadn't even realized just how long it'd been since we did one of these!

So we decided to head out to the Birch Aquarium and to lunch. Typically when we have tried a new restaurant for this blog I've gone online and done a little research before hand. I just can't help it, it's in my nature. Well this time we decided to just go with the flow. We headed to La Jolla for the aquarium and decided to just find some random little place along the way. Rick noticed Squire's Cafe and we thought we'd give it a try. It was overcast and slightly cool so we decided to skip the little patio and eat inside. The menu consisted of lots of yummy sandwiches, most of them named after local cities in San Diego (I love when places do that!). I ordered up the Del Mar, which was a crabcake sandwich on sourdough (LOVE sourdough), while Rick ordered a turkey veggie wrap. The food was pretty tasty and hit the spot, and the sample of the oatmeal cookie that we snuck was so yummy! All in all it was a nice little lunch. Not necessarily something I'd drive to just to eat because it is a good drive from home, but if I lived in the area I could see myself eating their regularly.


Then we were off to the aquarium. I've been before as a kid, growing up here it's just one of those things you do-- usually on a school field trip. But Rick hadn't been yet. I'd say it's a pretty popular little tourist spot too considering it's in La Jolla and has amazing views of the ocean. And as far as tourist attractions goes the price is more than reasonable. We looked at all of the different tanks, my favorites being the seahorses (so cute) and the jellyfish (the way they look is just amazing). We even took some time to rest our feet and watch everything in the big tank. I don't have much to compare it to, as the only other aquarium type thing I've been to are at Sea World, but we had a fun time and enjoyed it and definitely plan to go back in the future.

Amish White Bread

I've never made bread before, but it's always something I've wanted to do. I found this recipe a while back (on allrecipes.com) and thought it'd be a good one to try for my very first time. It didn't seem very complicated and didn't require a bread machine. I'd been holding on to it for a while, waiting for the perfect moment to make it. Yeah, for whatever reason I thought it'd be a good idea to bake it in the middle of the afternoon on a hot summer day. LOL.

All in all it was a fairly easy recipe and really didn't take a crazy amount of effort. The majority of time was spent waiting for the yeast to foam, and then waiting for the dough to rise. Rick even got in on the fun and helped me to knead the bread. I enjoyed a small piece straight from the oven with a little butter, and made plenty of sandwiches for Rick. The recipe made two loaves and I was able to freeze the second one and give it to my parents a few weeks later. They both really enjoyed it as well :)

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups bread flour

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 168 | Total Fat: 2.9g | Cholesterol: 0mg

August's Us Photo

#79 Join a bookclub

This is something I've wanted to do for a long, long time. Ideally I'd make my own bookclub group with some of my close friends. Unfortunately not all of my friends here in San Diego share my absolute love of reading, and those that do are busy with school, life, and other commitments.

I had started hearing a lot of good things about www.meetup.com as a means of finding other people who share your interests. So I went on and found a book club that appealed to me. It had a lot of different meetings to meet everyone's schedules. The books that were chosen were varied so you were bound to find something that interested you. And best of all it was just for women. I had signed up for two prior meetups with this book club over the last several months, but they just never worked out with my schedule. Now that I'm no longer working though I decided to go for it.

I signed up for a day time meeting to discuss "A Wrinkle in Time" at a local restaurant. I had never read the book, and while it wasn't my most favorite read ever it was good. The easy part was done. The part that took a whole lot of effort was stepping outside my comfort zone to go to a restaurant and meet a bunch of strangers to have lunch and discuss this book. Even while getting ready I dealt with the strange mix of excitement and nerves. It was tempting to not go. But that would have been the easy thing to do. However, life isn't all about easy and sometimes you really do just have to force yourself to try new things, to meet new people, and to do things that make you feel a little uncomfortable. In my mind these truly are the experiences that help us to grow.

Overall the meeting went well. I got there a few minutes early and chatted with a few of the girls while we waited for the others to be seated. For me that was probably the best part as far as conversation went. Once we were seated it was actually a bit overwhelming. They had never met as a group at that restaurant and normally most places provide them with a secluded area for the meeting. Not at this place. It was crowded with the brunch rush and we were right smack dab in the middle of it. By nature I'm not a loud person so I kind of just took a step back, tried to enjoy my food (which didn't taste as good as I'd hoped, and was late to come out), and mostly listened in on the discussion.

Would I attend another meetup? Absolutely. The "daytime" book doesn't really appeal to me so I'll probably sit out that meeting. But I do plan on attending again very soon.

July's "us" photo

I would have posted this sooner (like in July) but I was pretty nervous. I gotta admit, I'm still nervous. But we are taking this blessing a day at a time and enjoying every moment of it that we can.

This was taken on July 2 and baby was just shy of 6 weeks at the time. I honestly can't think of a better "us" photo than this...