The Time Has Come

Finally! I know you all have been checking our blog everyday for our next post, waiting all so patiently. Well guys the day has finally come. Buckle up this is going to be a long one, we've got a lot of catching up to do.
We'll start back in November when we suddenly found an opportunity to go to Oregon and visit Nolan's family. It was definitely worth while. It gave me a few days to get away from work and recover from a nasty cold (at the risk of Nolan's family), and get in a bit of bonding time before the holidays especially since we couldn't make it out there :(. Nolan was able to see/hang out with some of his old peeps while I was busy developing my sewing skills with some major help from Kim. Our shabby little apartment definitely needed a bit of a face-lift so I thought some curtains would do the trick. And I must say I am pretty proud of the way they turned out.
We decided to cover two of the window's in our apartment, our bedroom one being very simple (obviously because Nolan and I are the only ones who are ever in there, no need to impress others). I must mention making black curtains is not necessarily a good idea. Granted black curtains blocks out all sunlight and makes the bedroom pitch black, but that only makes waking up and getting out of bed in the morning 10 times harder.
The other curtains however, are pretty darn awesome I must say. It was all Kim who talked me into doing them. I would never have been brave enough to attempt these on my own. I was really glad I had her help.Here you can see the pretty intense pieces and pleats. We're all very proud and now our apartment is much more homey.
Speaking of making our apartment more homey we decided that this year since we can't really spend much time with either of our families for the holidays that we'd buy our own first Christmas Tree. It was really fun and got us excited for the holidays.
Once we finally got the tree up, stockings set and a few presents wrapped(all from Nolan who started shopping early) we spent many nights watching the Rankin & Bass Christmas movies as well as the Disney Christmas shorts while perfecting our skills at oil painting.
All in all, the last couple of weeks leading up to the holidays have been great. We've enjoyed this time together to establish our own new traditions as well as continuing both of our long lasting family traditions.
Love you guys.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Don't Worry

I know you all are anxiously awaiting our next post. But here's the deal. Thanksgiving was busy for both of us (especially me since I had to work the entire weekend after) and now were in the middle of finals. So don't worry as soon as finals are over and work settles down there will be a post. Then you guys can see our lovely new curtains!

ABOUT STINKING TIME

Finally. After 3 months of absolutely zero excitement in our lives Nolan and I finally found something noteworthy to talk about. Ok, that was a lie. Our lives are exciting but not necessarily blog-worthy. But thanks to Halloween we were able to find an excuse to update you all.

This year at my new job I was informed that I was required to dress up for Halloween, which turned out to be quite the dilemma since I wasn't feeling at all festive. But thanks to my amazing employee discount I was able to score a last minute costume for only $3.50! That definitely made Halloween a little more exciting. I was just a lady bug nothing exciting but I tried to get into it. I even painted my fingernails red with black polka dots. The day of Halloween Nolan was feeling a bit discouraged because I was all ready to go and he still didn't know what to dress up as. He also needed to dress up for work but didn't have a costume. But he was determined to find something absolutely awesome. And that he did.

Let me just tell you the story as it happened.

So I'm at work handing out candy to all the little kids and I get a telephone call from Nolan. He asked, "Where do you keep your black nail polish? and ugh.. how do you make your eye make up run?" I sat there stunned. I knew exactly what was going on and I didn't know how I felt about it. This is what happened.

He went as an Emo. Oh the shame. Especially when he showed up at my work (as I'm helping some young innocent girls) to buy a magnetic lip ring. But honestly I had to give him credit because he pulled it off beautifully. Well as beautifully as it can get being an emo. He got the swooped hair, bandana, eyeliner, fake peircings, cut wrists, black fingernails, homemade emo band t-shirt all the way down to his grafetti converse sneakers.
This is my favorite because he looks like he's really playing the part but really I just took the picture as he was blinking. He looks so sad :(. Emo through and through.I must say I am proud of my husband. Whenever he sents his mind to something he goes all the way. Never forgets any minor detail. How lucky am I? Way to go babe!

Our big day out

Since it was Nolan's birthday, and mainly because I needed any little excuse to get out of the office and get some fresh air, I convinced Nolan that he needed a day off. Which actually took a bit of convincing. So besides dictating his right to chose to go to work, I let him decide what he would like to go out and do. We ended up traveling downtown to Baltimore and went to the aquarium right on the harbor. We both really like animals, and fish especially sharks so we had a lot of fun.. Not to mention it was one of the only things to do that didn't require being outside in the blistering sweaty heat.
There were lots of big, angry sharks...
But Nolan's a bad A and scared them all away. But this aquarium had more than just sharks. Besides its gianormous sting rays, variety of fish, and a gimp sea turtle about the size of love sac(it was missing its left fin) they had a neat exhibition on frogs.
This fat one was our favorite. For obvious reasons.

The aquarium also had what they called the "Australian Exibit" where you walked through what felt like an Australian forest. Those are bats that were just flying over our heads. I didn't like that so much and was afraid that I was gonna get rabies. Luckily they already have a cure for that (thanks to The Office). ;)
Then finally after walking for what felt like days we then saw the aquariums 4D spectacle IMAX experience. And it was quite the experience. We got splashed by hump back whales, bitten by snakes and flew over the world's largest water falls.

After our adventure at the aquarium we were pretty wasted so we retired to Edo for some sushi and a bit of cola. After that I decided that I have a ways to go with perfecting my chop stick abilities.

On our way home Nolan decided to drive me through some of the area's that he installs in. It was so sketch. I felt completely out of place. He started driving me through the "less ghetto" areas, which I thought was completely ghetto and not safe whatsoever. Until he showed me the projects. It was definitely a humbling experience. We found these old projects that were boarded up and abandoned that honestly, to me, looked almost like concentration camps. It was so eerie with everything boarded up and trees and plants over grown. It looked like no one had been there in years, despite the fact that this area covered about 15 blocks. We later learned the the government closed down these projects, forcing all those people, which I would estimate to be thousands, onto the streets. It definitely was something I felt fortunate to witness. Helped put things into perspective and helps you realize how truly blessed so many of us really are.
- If you want to see what these projects look like, just look up either Nolan's facebook or myspace.

NOLAN'S 23rd BDAY SURPRISE!

This year I asked Nolan what he wanted for his birthday and all he said was, "Surprise me." So since I was limited on time and transportation I made a homemade bday poster and added some color to our pad. He was so surprised when he got home...Well actually this is him re-inacting his first responses because I didn't have the camera out in time. Pretty close though.. looks totally believable
He was so excited he even ate his candy before I could document it.. and if you know Nolan, you know he loves candy!

Nolan showing his enthusiasm about the sweet poker set he got for his birthday. Which I'm excited about, because that'll give me an excuse to practice up for my 21st next year. It came in a pretty sweet metal titanium briefcase with foam padding and swede for the chip holders making it look completely legit.

Time for the update

so i know many of you have been dying to know whats been going on with us as well as see some pictures of our recent adventures. no need to worry, i'm finally figuring out this blog thing and so i no longer have an excuse. after re cooperating from the wedding madness we made straight for the east coast, which also required some re cooperating time because of the incredibly long drive. but we made it and we started working right away. while nolan starting installing for apx i also began working for them in the office which gave me the opportunity to sort of work with nolan as well as kill lots of time. although we've run into a bit of trouble (with nolan not being licensed in maryland) we still both have jobs in the meantime until they kindly find us another office to work in.

since we've arrived here i've become really antsy especially being cooped up in an office all day. i've tried numerous times to convince nolan to go site seeing on our only day off. however, since nolan works really long and hard throughout the week he only wants to sleep on his day off. but i have been successful a couple of times. the first sunday we were here nolan and i went to downtown baltimore to "size it up." the bay area is really fun and pretty with waterfront restaurants and shopping, with huge ships. its pretty neat and we'll have to go back and take some pictures. we were also able to go to washington d.c. another sunday with a friend of ours john cronan. it was really fun seeing all the big monuments and sites but i must admit i didn't know how much walking was involved and i wasn't prepared. needless to say i kinda wimped out.

nolan and i in front of honest abe.

nolan showing his oregonian pride.

the classic view
(which i am here to testify that it is a long walk between the lincoln and washington memorial)

i'm glad nolan and i were able to get a little taste of our nations capitol. its funny how nolan lived in washington d.c. all last summer and never once went to go see the sites. my father would be so ashamed if he knew. we're looking forward to going back and going to some museums and hopefully some other real neat things. i hear the zoo there is amazing.

one of the things nolan and i have decided we are going to do over the years is go through as many different temples as we can. so we were really excited to finally get the chance to go to the washington d.c. temple. its so pretty and old but the best part about it is the scenery outside. it has tons and tons of trees surrounding it with paths that weave in and out around the temple with secret fountains and gardens. it was really neat. what was ironic though is what we saw on our way to the temple.

this would be the seventh-day adventist WORLD headquarters.

luckily we continued on our way and found what we were really looking for.

we're the two ants standing in front of the temple.

all in all our adventures thus far have been fun and good for the both of us. hopefully we'll be able to do a few more exciting things around here before they ship us off to a new office. like go to the original hershey chocolate factory, or see the amish, maybe even NYC. we'll see what we can do!

PATIENCE

updates are coming shortly.

I'm ashamed

I never thought I'd get caught up in the world of blogging.. I'm still skeptical but I'll give it a try