My weeKend List.

01. dinner date with my most favorite person.

02. lots of talk about the next few years + our plan for our life.

03. wonder with anticipation where we will be a year from now.

04. continue good conversation on the way to get a $1 redbox move rental.

05. watch said movie rental & cuddle close in our freezing bedroom.

06. sleep in.

07. part ways for my special girls day out.

08. massages and fondue with my best.

09. catching up, laughter, heartache and dreams shared.

10. race home to surprise my hubby.

11. wait impatiently for said hubby.

12. surprise hubby followed by lots of appreciation.

12. sleep in.

13. wake up and make sweet mimosa's in bed.

14. say a silent prayer for the life we've been given, and the man who loves me.

15. open Christmas cards together from dear family + friends.

16. smile + say another silent prayer because each of these people bless our lives.

17. hastings walmart run for necessary Christmas items & chipotle.

18. watch the vikings game.

19. use elbow grease to clean the entire house.

19. enjoy dinner together.

19. crash in bed from our full, exhausting but completely blessed weekend.

Help us pick a name!

We've been thinking about it for awhile and we've decided that we need a name for our blog. 2010 is the start of a new year and so a name is needed-a new look and a new face for our little blog home. We are leaning toward staying with our "lovebirds" theme. We'll be brainstorming this weekend. Hopefully we will have a name by Monday to share! If you have any ideas please do share!!

Time to get dolled up for date night, hubby will be here to pick me up soon. Have a happy weekend!

::snowed in::

Tonight we are snuggled up at home and enjoying our night in. This is why I love winter snowstorms....they make you feel so cozy! Last night we watched Carrie Underwood's Holiday variety show and made our almond bark pretzels, and tonight we are relaxing. I'm pretty sure if the snow keeps up like it is supposed to, we will both have the day off tomorrow. I am keeping my fingers crossed!! Jay is ordering some books for his last semester of classes so I am doing a little blogging.

Here are a few more questions from the Q&A:

What are you most afraid of?

This is a toss up between flying and winter driving. I'm so terrified of flying, and it's really weird because I love to travel. I'm the one on the plane who never relaxes and jumps at every odd sound or movement and convinces herself the plane is going down and we are all going to tragically die. Winter driving makes my stress level unbearable and shoots my blood pressure through the roof. I think I just worry too much in general. For Jay this would definitely be snakes.

How do you stay motivated or what motivates you to continue blogging? I run out of things to blog about often.

This is a really good question/statement. Some days I don't feel like blogging or like I have anything to say--but I write as if it's my online diary. So some days I ramble about nothing and other days I feel like I actually have something to say. It motivates me when people comment on my posts or send me an e-mail sharing that they love to read my blog, or that a certain post was inspirational. It's really nice to know that people enjoy reading! I also get a lot of positive feedback from Jay. I think he appreciates the attempt to keep people in the loop and updated on our lives & even if he doesn't contribute to each post he reads them and enjoys it. Mostly I just love to write, so I probably need less motivation than the average person to sit down and write =)

Hubby's done on the computer so that's all for tonight ;) I hope you are all enjoying this snowy night!

Traditions & Festivities

It's already December 7th. 7th! This is craziness in my mind. This year Christmas is going to be really fun. It's been hard for us to get in a groove and start our own traditions because everyone wants to see us and that is a lot of families & celebrating! We made it our own tradition to wake up, make a delicious breakfast and open presents together on Christmas Eve morning. We'll hang out for a few hours and then get ready together and head to my Dad's for Church. Last year was our first year with our new tradition because it was our first Christmas living together after the wedding. It was so fun!!! One of my favorite memories was when we were finished opening gifts {or so I thought!} Jay gave me a card with some clues to find one last gift. It ended up being an eternity ring hung in a red velvet bag and hiding in our Christmas tree! I just remember thinking that it was so great to not have to go anywhere or do anything or please anyone, we could just sit and enjoy each other. It's like our last few moments of peace before craziness ensues. So we are excited for that this year!

We put our tree/lights up already but have not trimmed it yet. We are hoping to do that this week. We just love our little tree. It was $6 on clearance two years ago and we have been making good use of it! Eventually we'll get a real tree when it's not just the two of us, but for now it saves us a bunch of money and time spent cleaning up pine needles =) and we are so busy that we don't have a ton of time to sit around it and enjoy it. If we did than we'd get a real one ;) We also don't have a ton of space and don't want to cram it in. So that's another tradition of ours. We each have a box full of ornaments from when we grew up & it's fun to pull them out and share the story behind them with each other. I like the combination of our histories on our tree. I always think the themed trees are so neat, one day when we have more money {and space} maybe we'll have a few trees in our home!

We also make home made carmelcorn each year. Mmmmm delciousness. Usually we do this at my Mom's because she the carmelcorn master and we learned from her {guidance is usually suggested on this for me!} It is so yummy and it's fun to make it as a family. I think by the time we get done half of it is eaten =) We also make Almond covered Christmas pretzels & Christmas cookies. This week we are planning on some baking and this will be fun.

Each year we see a Christmas play with my family. Usually it's A Christmas Carol, but it hasn't been that great the past few years so this year we are seeing Beauty and the Beast {!!!!}. A few years ago we saw A White Christmas & The Sound of Music. It's so fun to dress up for a night, go to a fancy dinner, and see a play. This is one of my fondest memories growing up as a little girl. I'm glad we've continued to do this and I can't wait to continue this tradition with a family of our own.

I received a ton of responses to the FAQ, mostly by e-mail so I am going to answer a few questions per day because it would take me too long to answer them all at once and I'm going to answer the easy ones first. I'm lazy today =)

Would you say you and your husband have more commonalities or differences between the two you? (personality wise)

Differences. Oh my, I'm laughing as I read that in my head-because we are so different. I'm high strung, and energetic {he calls it hyper, whatever } and creative. He is super easy going, even- keeled & rational. We couldn't be more opposite.

Where is the next place you want to travel to? and p.s. how can you afford to travel so much?

We are both so excited to visit Spain this summer. I just love traveling to Europe because the lifestyle is so different than America. Jay's never been over there so it will be a lot of fun to experience that with him. We can afford to travel often because we make smart decisions. We watch our favorite online sites and we wait for deals. Prices always go up and down, so if you are keeping an eye out you know what a good price is. When they go down we book. Most of our travels we have paid around $200-300 per person for hotel, airfare AND transportation. That's dirt cheap. We also make it a priority for us. We agreed that we both want to travel as much as possible in our first few years of marriage. We save a little bit each month and my photography business helps immensly. It's been on of our greatest marriage blessings, because it helps us get away together so often. We don't spend money in other areas where some people spend a lot {going out, entertainment, shopping, big items for the home, etc.} I also {still} have a piggy bank that we will put random change in & when it fills up we cash it out. You would be surprised how fast it gets filled and there is usually around $100 in it. We bring that for spending money. We live within our means.

I can't believe no one has asked this yet....when are you having kids???

When we get sick of traveling & each other. Haha. I'm kidding. Kind of. There is a lot we want to do before we make that huge commitment. Most of it involves travel but some involves saving, preparing, etc. We want to have kids soon though, within two years for sure. We'll see what happens though because it's not really up to us! I'm just hoping we CAN have kids.

Ask me anything!

So we've been blogging for almost two years now and I've been getting e-mails with people asking random questions about us, so I decided a Q & A might be kind of fun and interesting. I've never done that before and it will be fun to hear what you are interested in knowing. So-leave your questions below in the comment section (you can comment anonymously if you prefer that) or email them to me {abbey.duval@gmail.com}. I'll wait until Monday and then post the answers. I will answer anonymously as well. I've always said i am an open book, and I will not leave any question unanswered, so ask away!

*update* oops! I had restrictions on comments so only registered users could comment, but I changed so that anyone can post anonymously now. =)

Thoughts on Thursdays

My husband is crazy in bed.

Literally.

The title caught your eye didn't it? ;) before you go too far-what I mean by that is the way he sleeps. This is one quirk that is definetly hard for me to live with. The man sleeps with no sheets! yes, ew, my darling husband. I cannot stand it. Apparently he says that he never slept with sheets growing up {clearly his memory is bad} and to this day I wake up with all the sheets bunched up around my feet. Ok. {deep breaths} if you know me, you know one of my biggest pet peeves is a messy bed. I like my bed extremely clean, tidy, and made. I wash the sheets at least once a week, sometimes more. I can't sleep if the sheets are not straight and feel tucked in {I hate when they inch up and your toes pop out and can touch your comforter}. It drives me bonkers if the sheets are twisted, bunched, etc. and I will have to get out of bed and re-make/tuck the sheets back in so I can sleep. He says the sheets make him hot. I tell him that the name refers to the thickness of a product, how can a "sheet" of anything make you hot? It's like paper thin! I ask him to simply fold back the comforter/sheet if he gets hot instead of kicking the sheet under the blanket my way in the night. He had a water bed growing up that had a fitted sheet and then he slept with a blanket {cringe}. Oh the joys of marriage!! hehe. I joke that his New Years Resolution is to become a better sheet sleeper =)

Cayenne rubbed chicken with pineapple avocado salsa

Thank you, Martha! Here is the easy recipe I promised to share last week. It's fast & delicious. We added the pineapple on our own so if you don't like it, leave it out.Coarse salt and ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 to 8 ounces each)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 Hass avocado, pitted and cut into chunks

1 small can of pineapple chunks (Dole)

In a small bowl, combine 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and cayenne; rub all over chicken. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add chicken, and cook until browned on the outside and opaque throughout, 8 to 10 minutes per side. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine onion and lime juice; set aside. Just before serving, fold avocado chunks into onion mixture; season with salt and pepper. Serve chicken topped with salsa & pineapple.