My Snow Day and other pictures I forgot to upload!

Wednesday morning I decided to take you through my daytime routine, plus a little sightseeing, to see all the snow! Of course, it is not as much snow as is coming down at the moment, but it was really pretty! I hope you enjoy!! I have also posted a few pictures that I didn't post before. :)

The tree outside our apartment's balcony...looks like the flocked trees Alicia likes.

The view out the door of our apartment. Headed to the bus stop.

There's the bus stop

I have to walk through that?!

The vast whiteness surrounding the bus stop

Our apartment complex, from the bus stop.

View from the train...Arlington National Cemetery

The George Washington University, view from my building

The mall!! People were out playing on it :)

Footprints: Leigh and me. We wanted to walk through the virgin snow in the middle of the mall.

Me with the Capitol Building and all the snow!

Leigh and the Washington Monument

Me and the Washington Monument

Look at the snowy Capitol! So pretty! It was such a gorgeous day.

Oh my gosh! It was so cold the tree froze and turned to ice!

haha, only kidding...it is some sort of sculpture tree

They were building a snowman and I thought it was adorable!

Klassy souvenir trailor at the Washington Monument...

Leigh at the Washington Monument.

The walkway was so pretty! It was like we were in some picturesque movie lane or something.

The frozen reflecting pool and the Washington Monument bathed in sunlight. The Capitol is hiding there somewhere, too.

From the Lincoln Memorial (left, not pictured) you can see the house at Arlington National Cemetery.

Jesse and me hanging out and watching tv. :) <3

Oldies:

Happy New Year!

Mwwahh!!

Jesse popping the champagne.

Cheers!

Me and Amira.

We had icicles on our balcony one day!

Peekaboo!! She crawled under the desk! How are cats so smooshable?!

That's all folks!

January endings

The semester is getting off to a great start and we are doing fabulous!! Abby continues to be adorable, but crazy and she does not listen to us in the most obvious of times!! Like she will be chewing on a cord or on a foot and we will yell and snap and squirt water at her and she is totally unphased!! Ay ay ay. Cats. :-p Below are some pictures of the silly girl.

We had a snowstorm on Saturday. It was only supposed to be a light dusting, but it flurried for like 12 hours! I ventured out to the grocery store because we needed to restock and Jesse wasn't feeling well and I spun out!! Only 90 degrees and there wasn't anyone else around me, so no harm done, but it was a little bit scary!

I am liking my classes thus far and still trying to have fun. Leigh and I went to the Holocaust Museum last week, but since we both like to read everything, we only made it through the top floor. We are going to go back and do the others, but it's so heavy! We made a snowman, even though the snow was super powder-y. It was a pretty lame snowman, but I wanted to do it and Jesse hadn't ever made one! Pictures below, as well. M&Ms and quarters served as our features.

Today I was super productive and studied the day away while I made copies for work. The heat in our building at school has been unbearable!! They tested it and it was 110 coming out of the vents! One of the guys from my class actually had to go to the ER after lab on Friday!! Needless to say, they shut it off so they can figure out what is the problem, but that means that there is snow on the ground and we have no heat! Thank goodness for space heaters! :) Here's to a great February!

Me and the snowman

Jesse and his first snowman!

she tries to cover her business with the floor...weirdo.

looks like she is a pair of shoes!

I bought this kitty on the internet :-p

she is a climber!! crazy girl! daredevil is what we should have re-named her :-p

And so begins the semester

My new classes are good...but it's odd to not be all together all the time like we were last semester. I am taking Advanced Exercise Physiology II, Environmental Health, and Exercise in Selected Chronic Diseases. Hopefully it will be an interesting and fulfilling term.

Friday, Jesse and I worked out at his gym and did a bunch of hard arm exercises and we did some kettle bell swings. I figured my arms would hurt from the pull ups, bench presses, push ups and curls, but the only thing that hurt were my inner thighs from the kettle bell swings! Geez.

Saturday I met up with Caroline at the National Archives while Jesse and Jeff went rock climbing. We each had fun in our respective pursuits. :) I made red bell pepper hummus that night. Yum-o!! Sunday Jesse worked and I worked from home. It rained ALL day! Monday we had a lazy day. :) I did some work and Jesse went to the gym. We had dinner at CPK to benefit the St Anthony's Food Pantry. Then we came home and made whole wheat bread! It was fun and looks and tastes just like the kind you buy in the store! I am so proud!

Today the weather was beautiful! Erin and I even took a 45-minute walk outside wearing t-shirts!! (it was like 50 degrees!) I'm giving a guest lecture on nutrition in an undergrad class on Thursday. Hopefully it goes well.

Here's to a great week!

end of vacation

Hello! Tomorrow begins the new semester for both Jesse and myself. We will see how it goes! :) I have class MTW and will be coordinating a study on MWF. Jesse has class MW and this month at least is working SuTTh. Matt and Love are getting married March 6th and we are going to try our hardest to get out for the wedding. Here's a picture of our new fur child, Abby. :) So named because of the collar we found and the character on NCIS.

Friday night we went to Maryland to visit my cousins. I met Adam in Spain when I was there a few years ago. He was staying with our family as well. He, Olatz, and I are all the same generation and our most recent common ancestor is our great-great-grandparents.

This is Adam, Jesse and me.

This is Adam, me, Laura, and Mike.

We had a great time. It is nice to know we have another bit of family close by. :) We have an open invitation for holidays, etc.

Here's to a new semester and what comes with it!! Love, me.

A little bread and a little history

I spent Sunday (off and on from 8:30am to like 10pm) on ancestry.com (I hit up the 2-week free trial :-p). I traced the Vaux side back to 1500 (the name changed from Vax to Vaux sometime between 1593 and 1620). It flew by!! But what else was I going to do with myself while I waited for my bread dough to rise, eh?

My second workstation of the day. I made 3 french bread loaves from scratch! It was really fun and the work paid off!! The first thing that I did was slice my finger open on the carrot slicer when I opened the drawer to get a spatula :( oops!

The dough had to rise for 2.5 hours the first time.

My library bread cookbook :-p I will be renewing this!

Rising dough! After it rose the first time, I had to punch it down and let it rise for another hour and a half!

I didn't get glammed up to bake and dig into history :-p

still rising...

my three loaves had to rise again for 45 minutes on the cornmeal sprinkled pan under a towel

it also had to be baked with a pan of water steaming below it...

but look how beautiful it turned out! (I forgot to slice three slices in the top of each to allow for expansion, oops!)

ta daaaa! (I also grabbed a pan to move it out of the way and forgot it had been sitting on the oven the whole time and it burned me!!)

yummm!!!

Today we picked up my friend Amira and went to Mount Vernon! It was FREEZING outside!

They have a scale model of the mansion! Jesse was really excited to take pictures :)

there it is! George Washington's house!!

This is hilarious! They had the most up to date technologies...including a "Necessary" or today it is also known as an "outhouse!"

they brought in a camel for Christmas. His name is Aladdin.

Amira, Aladdin, and me :)

they also had a woman making chocolate candies as they would have in the 18th century

We went to Petco and the Humane Society Thrift Store today to pick up our cat supplies!! We are set! The carrier is the same kind we had for Juliet!

Our set up. :) We have been practicing closing the closet doors and I am putting the Christmas decorations away tomorrow so hopefully we will be cat-proof! :)

We are having a good 2010 so far! Hope you are, too!!!

Happy New Year

After school was over (straight A's thank you very much!) my friend Leigh and I decided to do some sightseeing. We went to the Library of Congress. Below we are pictured with our friend George.

Then we met up with Amira and Meagan at the Holiday Market. We bought some Christmas ornaments and enjoyed some street food. It was pretty cold!

The next day Jesse and I headed home to California for the holidays!! We flew out of Reagan National, which flies over the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetary! Pretty neat view!

Steve picked us up at the airport in Sacramento and we had a yummy pizza dinner at 4pm :-p we were hungry!! Then we went over to Steph and Duke's to borrow a car. Evan thought Matchi was funny :-p

Friday we went our separate ways to hang out with our friends. I got a haircut at Erika nad Tobias's salon, then went to Davis to see Deacon Clark, Taryn, Mary, Ivan, and Dani. Jesse hung out with Matt (recently engaged to Love, congratulations!!) and got the Christmas tree. Saturday Jesse went to the camera store he used to work at, Steve and Alicia worked in the morning, so I went to return Duke's inhaler and hang out with Evan. :) Then we went to see Avatar with Matt, Love, and Josh. Good movie! During the movie a cold attacked my immune system and I was feeling gross!! We went to dinner at Il Fornaio (yummy soup!) and then decorated the Christmas tree. Sunday was our Christmas with the Bjerkes. Jesse and his cat Silo took advantage of the lazy day to take a nap :)

Monday we went San Francisco to have lunch with Uncle Dennis and check out his Christmas tree!! It was very fun. :)

Then we drove through rain and rain down to Fresno (it took 4.5 hours for the usual 3 hour drive!!). Soon after we arrived we heard music...we found this crew on the front porch!! They played us 12 songs!!

Tuesday we got to see Mariana and Morgan, and had a gnocchi party!! Instead of the usual everyone making the gnocchi and Mom making the sauce, Mom made all the gnocchi (with the help of Jesse, me, Alicia, Steve, and Annie) and the guests made different sauces! Tia Julie's sauce (made by Tia Tess) won. Sage sauce...I am going to have to get the recipe!

Wednesday morning Jesse left to return to VA for work :( as Dani was arriving! So I got to send off and greet two of my favorite people at the same airport at the same time! I went to breakfast with Tia Tess, Tio Joe, and Dani. :) I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Mom, seeing the Blind Side with Mom and Manana, then I had dinner with Ashleigh! Fun times.

Christmas Eve was spent working out with Mom and Dani to prepare for the excessive eating to occur the next two days. :) Alex and I went to Dad's for Christmas Eve and had fun with Uncle Jim, Aunt Mary, Steph, Duke, Evan, and of course, the hosts, Dad and Cathy. We got to meet their new dog Marshall, though he wasn't well behaved and incurred lots of damage to their house the past few days, so he is no longer a member of our family. :(

When we got back to Mom's, we did our stockings and gifts with Mom and John. It was fun, but we stayed up so late! Christmas morning dawned bright and beautiful!!

We went to Mass and Mom and Papa made me say I was visiting from DC. :-p After church we went to the Antonino's for the Petrucci celebration!

At some point during the festivities, Evan somehow managed to get himself into this position and started wailing on the drums! I think we have his musical instrument of choice!

We had the usual appetizers, Christmas play, and gifts, followed by dinner. As we were hanging out afterwards, Tia Tess was preparing dessert! How cute is this? Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies with shots of milk!

I flew back on Saturday morning. Jesse had Sunday off and we had a lazy day. :) Monday he worked again, so I went to the district to hang out with a junior high friend and her family. We went to the American History Museum. I have now seen all exhibits there! Hooray! Of course, there is always more to see, but I am proud to say I have done a whole museum. :)

It was pretty cold this week, and Tuesday when Jesse was at work I took a walk to the local library (0.5 miles). I met a man on the way walking his dogs. He said I must be from out of town to be out in that weather without a face mask! :-p It was pretty windy but sunny! I was bundled so I didn't have a problem. I checked out a Nora Roberts book (which I finished in two days :-p) and a bread cookbook! Tomorrow I will attempt to bake bread! Thursday night my friend Amira came over and we watched a movie and the CNN broadcast. Jesse got home at 11:40pm. We all rung in the new year together and she went home around 1am.

Yesterday we went to visit kitties! We went to two homes, one with very cute kittens, and one with a 2-ish year old calico. After spending time with them all, we decided to adopt the calico! Her name is Lily. Pictures below. We need to buy the necessary supplies and kitty-proof our apartment before we bring her home. We are also in the process of changing banks, so we want to do that before we pay for her, etc.

Here's to a great 2010!! Happy New Year everyone! I love you and am so blessed to know you!! Love, me.

Our first snow!

It is snowing. Not sticking to the ground too much, but white flakes are definitely coming down.