Ay, Ay, Ay!

Another perk of working at Qualcomm...

winning free Chargers tickets!

Walking down the hill to the stadiumEating yummy stadium food during pre-gameKeading and Scifres warming upJourney sings the National AnthemSan Diego SUPER C-H-A-R-G-E-R-S!Kicking some Niner tail. :)Having a good time with daddyThanks, QC!
Twas the perfect way to end our vacation!

Me loves the weekends

Remember that relaxing catch-up weekend I talked about?
I'd say that was a pretty fair prediction.

Aside from working until 7p on Friday,
the weekend consisted of things like:
Purchasing a new couch
A couple Starbucks stops
Catching up on DVR'd shows
Watching a few movies
Starting on Christmas cards
Stops at Home Depot, Lowe's and Ikea
Columbus Day gifts from Mom and Lys
A little bit of leisure reading in the sunshine
Dinner at my Parents' house
Football Games and MLB Playoffs
Christmas shopping
and a Sunset Double-Date Night on the Harbor

The sunset was beautiful.

Christmas Vacation in 10ish Words

Movies: Sherlock Holmes. Lost. 500 Days of Summer. Gilmore Girls. Enchanted.
Shopping: Michael's. Joann's. Home Goods. Anthropologie. Container Store.
Games: Blitz. Idiot. Islander. Super Mario. Football.
Cleaning: Laundry, Sheets, Dusting, Organizing, Vacuuming..
Crafting: Wedding Shower Gifts. Banners. Cards.
our Favorite People: Family. Friends. New Babies.

And a trip to the Wild Animal Park
I could get used to this.

... everywhere we go

This weekend was full of friends and family. Gosh, I absolutely love this season.

On Friday night, we had Chris and Alyse over for a movie night. We stuffed our faces with chocolate covered pretzels, licorice, 7-layer bean dip and chocolate chip pumpkin cookies (and we surprisingly didn't get sick!) while we watched one of my favorite non-Christmasy Christmastime movies: Family Man.

On Saturday, we headed down to Loma for Dan and Erin's Tacky Christmas Sweater party. We got to eat, drink and be merry with some of my favorite people from college. I even convinced Jeremiah that we should wear these beautiful handmade sweaters: Mrs. and Mr. Snowman :-]]]

and take plenty of pictures with our friends. Take a look:

The McGoverns, the Schanakers and the McLeods

Girls from Klassen 2nd North

The J's with Ali and Anna

Some nice manly love
Mmm.. the J-Mc clan

Jay and me

My darling husband ruining another picture. Shocker.

The girls: Ali, myself and Jay

Disclaimer: I apologize if this post looks an awfully lot like this one, but I'm a loser and didn't take any pictures like Jordanna did so I've stolen all of hers. Good goin, Jess.

Today, we went up to Fallbrook to go to church and lunch with Jeremiah's family. Then we watched the Chargers sneak by the Cowboys and we celebrated Jack's 3rd birthday with the Lowell's. (Jack was the ringbearer in our wedding this summer!)

Tomorrow night it's off to dinner with my family to celebrate my mom's birthday!! Mmm... Christmas is almost here!!

Happy Birthday, Papa!

My Papa

He's brilliant.
He tells me he's proud of me.
We can chat about work together.
He knows anything and everything about every sporting event that has ever taken place.
His heart is overflowing with love for his family.
And tomorrow, he celebrates his 80th Birthday.

My family drove up to Thousand Oaks to surprise him yesterday. We got there super early and my sister and I sat in his big chair waiting eagerly for him to get out of the shower. And then...
SURPRISE!


He was shocked! And then he saw my parents. And then my aunt and cousins. And then his sister and her family. What a fun surprise for him. He deserved it.


Happy Birthday, Papa! I love you!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I first must say that I loved, loved, loved having a mini-vacay this weekend. I'm definitely a fan of the four-day-weekend so keep em coming Corporate America.

Jeremiah spent Wednesday evening with his family while I had lunch with a friend, crafted some more, and caught up on a few tv shows I'm healthily addicted to. :)

We headed up to my parents' house for Thanksgiving #1 on Thursday.
High Points: Thanksgiving Day Parade. A Cowbow win. Debi's Guess-what's-in-the-bag game, Mom's party favors, Sweet Potato Casserole, and Christmas movies gallore.
Low Point: The darn turkey made me so stinkin' tired - I was practically passed out by 6. Pathetic. But oh so relaxing.

After meeting another friend for breakfast, we went up to Jeremiah's folks' house for Thanksgiving #2 on Friday.
High Point: Almond Champagne. Seeing my sister-in-law. Sweet Potatoes: Round 2. A walk around the neighborhood. Playing with the puppies. And not getting last place when we played cards.
Low Point: Jeremiah and I had to drive home separately because we had two cars there. Boo.
Saturday was San Diego's one and only glimpse of winter (I secretly hope). It rained all day and once I got home from getting my hair cut, I loved it. I cozied up in sweats, addressed our Christmas cards and crafted some more. I may or may not have watched three movies before Jeremiah came home from work.

On Sunday, I planned to get a ton of chores and oddsNends done, but was pleasantly surprised when I ended up spending the day at my parents' house. Jeremiah was studying so I left the house all nice and quiet like a sweet wife. We went to a Holiday Decorating class at Pottery Barn (slightly disappointing, but still inspiring), enjoyed lunch together, and of course, crafted.

Mom helped me make this little beauty to hang above our bedroom window:

And this moss covered tree that I've used as our kitchen table centerpiece:

It was a fun and relaxing day to spend with my family... pretty much the theme of the weekend. Fun. And Relaxing. Now for a couple busy weeks before Christmas is here!!

6 for 6 and Deck the Halls

6 Things I Value about Jeremiah, in honor of our 6 Months of Marriage

1. He loves me, as a whole, quirks, flaws and all.
2. He's a hard worker.
3. He's considerate/generous.
4. He loves his family.
5. He makes me laugh. hard.
6. He gives good advice.

I'm not typically one for celebrating Monthiversaries (insert foot in mouth), but being married is so much fun that I've learned to find any little reason to celebrate.

Last night was the first night in a little over a month that Jeremiah was able to do whatever he wanted, without having to think about his CPA exam. Soo... we went out to dinner to celebrate and watch Monday Night Football of course.

And we decorated our Christmas tree!! Gosh, I love Christmas. And I love having our own space to decorate (insert shameless plug for my mother) this season.

[please ignore whatever strange show Jeremiah had on tv :) ]

I seriously feel like Buddy the Elf with my long list of things I want to do with Jeremiah now that we're CPA free for Christmas: go ice Skating (holding hands, of course!), decorate Christmas cookies, enjoy December Nights at the Prado, go to Cider Celebration at Loma, drink plenty of Starbucks, watch movies, take walks (with earmuffs, of course!), play games, dance in the living room... ahh the list goes on!

T Minus Ten Days to Turkey

Really, is Thanksgiving really in 10 days? I can't wait!

Thanksgiving means a 3-day work week, a 4-day weekend, family & friends,
lots of delicious food, football and putting up our Christmas tree!!!!

Okay, so I'm a tad over-eager. Psh!

Halloween Weekend

Gosh, we're such the Old-Married-Couple already. This weekend, we didn't go to any parties, or dress up. We didn't even carve pumpkins or buy any Halloween candy to hand out. Instead we relaxed, spent good time with family, and enjoyed some tasty treats. That's my kind of fun anyway.

Friday: I came home from work to find that my sweetheart of a husband had cleaned the bathroom, unloaded the dishwasher, taken out the trash, and hung up a new project I had just finished (without asking!) While Jeremiah studied, I watched, count-em, 4 episodes of Gilmore Girls and then cooked a lovely little Thanksgiving-like Dinner: parmesan chicken (which is totally similar to turkey ;-)), stuffing, sweet potato casserole and green beans. Jeremiah even joined me to watch The Proposal. Quite the relaxing evening at home.

Saturday: I woke up early on Saturday to do some stuff from work and ended up cleaning the house all morning while I watched old Halloween movies on tv. I also made some chocolate chip pumpkin bread and made a trip to Michael's to pick up some new crafting supplies. Now that Halloween's out of the way, I'm definitely diving into Christmas mode at full speed. We spent the evening at my parent's house, where we enjoyed a yummy little dinner and opened the door to the most adorable trick-or-treaters on the pla-net. My favorite was the cutest little blonde boy, probably about 2 or 3, who was dressed as a beautiful butterfly. It made my heart flutter.


Sunday: With daylight savings time ending, Jeremiah and I were well-rested and up bright and early on Sunday morning. We decided to watch Sunshine Cleaning while we enjoyed tea/coffee and some of that tasty pumpkin bread. Then I headed out for Ali's Birthday Brunch. I could have spent the rest of the afternoon, flopped on the couch, watching the Chargers beat the Raiders, but we went up to Fallbrook to spend some time with the in-laws. Dinner. Card Games. And a rockin Magic Show. It was a great way to end our weekend -- though i strongly believe weekends should not end.

Now it's Monday, but alas, the sun was shining brightly when I woke up and the smell of Christmas fills my office.

Sunday in the Park

This morning Jeremiah and I rolled out of bed just before 6am and dragged ourselves to Starbucks before heading down to Balboa Park for the 20th Annual AIDS Walk. It was a beautiful picture of community with otter pops and gorgeous views to boot. We're glad we were able to remember our dear friend Earl in this special way.



After the walk, we headed down to Nick's in Ocean Beach to enjoy some California Omelets with our friend Megan. And then watched the Chargers play Miami.

I love Sundays.