A community home.

I promise this is my last post about the house for a while (ok, maybe I can't make such promises, but I'll try). I have just been day dreaming of all the good times we've already had in this house. Friends gathered around a fire in the backyard, delicious food on the grill, and most importanty, lots and lots of laughter.

When I begin thinking of the upcoming year in this house, all I can do is smile. Its not really the house itself that brings us so much happiness, but rather all that it provides. I am pumped to have a space where friends can gather, a guest room to offer up to anyone that needs a place to stay (or just wants to come visit us), a kitchen to cook & bake & share good food with others, a garden in the a backyard that will produce veggies and herbs & a space that we consider "everyone's."

Will and I from the beginning decided that wherever we lived it would be a space for everyone. We would share it with friends & family & offer it up to whoever needed a place. My heart is so full knowing that we can bring people together in this home. I am looking forward to picnics and cookouts, bike rides around the neighborhood and friends gathered around the dining table.

Home sweet home

We're officially all moved in to our new place! We have already fallen in love with this house & are so enjoying having a yard. It is wonderful to have a lazy morning drinking tea on the porch and enjoying the first signs of spring.

View from the front stoop: 

Saturday was the big move day & honestly it went smoothly (I had anticipated the worst!). All I can say is that we are blessed with friends that are willing to give up their Saturdays and haul large boxes and furniture for us. Those guys had the apartment emptied in about thirty minutes. I did find that all the prep work I did the week or so leading up to the move helped a ton. It is crucial to have everything ready to go and labeled well.

Sunday we had a few friends  over to show them the new place & to have a fire (of course). I have a feeling that we will be out by this fire pit every weekend. Will loved having a fire & I loved the s'mores. I can imagine some good memories will be made in this home.

We still have plenty of unpacking and organizing to do, but it already feels so homey. Unfortunately, Revolution decided to film out of town this week so Will is away in Raleigh and won't be back until Saturday at the earliest. The positive to this is that I can (hopefully) get lots of unpacking and organizing done. I am just moving slowly from one room to the next. More updates to come!

So.many.boxes.

I've been sort of MIA from the blogging world because I've been packing boxes like a mad woman. It seems that you never realize how much stuff you have until you move. 

Fortunately, the ABC store here gives out boxes for free. I walked in last week and the lady at the counter was staring me down and clearly thought I was too young to be in there (naturally). I asked her about boxes and she told me take as many as you can fit in your car! I've loaded the lil' camry up a few times now. I finally feel like I'm making a dent in the moving process! We still have a ways to go, but it will get done.

We are stoked about moving from an apartment to a house. Will & I both love to be outside which is something we've really disliked about an apartment. We are excited for sitting around a fire in the backyard, riding bikes in the neighborhood and eating dinner on the patio. 

This upcoming week/weekend will be crazy, but hopefully we can get settled fairly quickly. I have attempted to be organized in this moving process (something that is so not me). I've got all the boxes color coordinated and labeled (ie: pink tape=kitchen, orange=master bedroom). Hopefully having things organized beforehand will help cut down on the unpacking time. 

Will informed me yesterday that Revolution will be filming in Raleigh for over a week starting the Monday after we move. Not too excited about that, but on the bright side, I'll have plenty of time to unpack while he is away. 

i'll admit; i'm already pretty sore from lifting boxes and carrying loads in and out. 

We're MOVING!

We are excited to announce that we are moving!! Its just about 10 minutes from our apartment now, but we're gaining more space & lots of yard space. We found a cute little rental house and are moving in less than two weeks (crazy!). I've got lots of packing to do, but I am thrilled & can't wait to move in. 

Pictures to come!

Giving thanks

A few things I'm thankful for this week:

For sweet coworkers who bring hot tea on a cold, rainy day.

A table for eight filled with great friends & homemade pasta

For my wonderful dad who sends singing telegrams on Valentine's day to my mom.

Patton & all the joy he brings our family.

My best friend.

Just like every Monday, I'm reliving the moments from the weekend and missing my sweet husband. Mondays are always hard getting back into the swing of things for the week & adjusting to the long hours ahead of us. We're hoping for another "short" (less than 70 hr) week.

This weekend we had no plans and spent a lot of time just enjoying each other's company. We ate some good food & spent time with our wonderful friends, but mostly we just lounged around the apartment and tried to stay out of the rain.

Once again, I was reminded that I think we have something rare. Will is my husband and will be forever, but he is also my best friend.

We are both very laid-back and tend to have a more go-with-the-flow attitude towards life.  People always talk about getting annoyed with their spouse or friend if they spend too much time together, but honestly that rarely happens between us (maybe its because time together is often rare haha). We so enjoy each other's company and love just being together. Clearly, we don't spend all of our time together because that would be incredibly unhealthy, but we do enjoy our quality time. Never have I met a man (other than my dad) that is more loyal, loving and tender-hearted than this man of mine. I am so thankful to have him as my best friend; to share good days and bad days and everything in between with him.

The photo above is Will at one of our favorite places: La Tapatia. An authentic Mexican restaurant down the road from us. When we go we are literally the only English-speaking people in the place, but the food is incredible. Will always makes me say our blessing in Spanish and then usually our meals are filled with learning new Spanish vocabulary. So thankful that this man appreciates my love for the latino culture and all my other quirks.

Yikes, this was so sappy; Sorry, thats just what happens when I start talking about my family.

Chocolate cupcakes with coffee buttercream icing

I've never really gotten into the cupcake craze; I've always preferred to bake cakes or pies, but yesterday I gave a go at it. 

We had a 50th birthday celebration at work today for one of our nurses & I was assigned dessert. Since my coworker loves coffee, I decided to incorporate that into the cupcakes. 
Since I don't like chocolate or coffee, I had no clue if these tasted good. I called in my trusty quality control and he confirmed that they were in fact edible and, moreover, "delicious!"

So y'all should give cupcakes a chance too. Its my personal opinion that cupcake bakeries are a fad, just like the fro-yo places, but hey, they taste pretty good so I'll won't object too much.

Chocolate cupcakes (adapted from joyofbaking.com)

1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 c. boiling water
1 1/3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Once the water comes to a boil, mix the water and the cocoa powder stirring until dissolved. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Cream together the butter and sugar in your mixer making sure that it becomes fluffy. Then, add the eggs one at a time. Once those have been incorporated, add the vanilla extract. Mix in the dry ingredients until blended. Finally, stir in (by hand) the cocoa concoction, which has hopefully cooled by now. Pour into 16 lined muffin tins filling them about halfway or so. Bake at 375 for 16-20 min. I always set my timer for well below and then continue to check it so that they do not over brown. 

Once the cupcakes have come out of the oven, set to the side and let them cool.

Coffee Buttercream Icing
1/2 c. butter, room temp
1 1/2 c. confectioners sugar (powder sugar), sifted
1-2 T. coffee (ground very finely) or just instant coffee
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar together. Adding the coffee, followed by the vanilla extract. Taste to make sure its not too strong of a coffee flavor. I used more like 2 T. of coffee but no one thought it was too strong and it pairs nicely with the chocolate.

** Joyofbaking.com had suggested using dutch cocoa, but I adapted the recipe to use just regular cocoa. Her recipe called for 1/2 c. dutch cocoa and 2 tsp. baking powder. I did some research and when you want to swap these two, you have to change around baking powder with baking soda. Use the same amount of cocoa, but if using regular cocoa use baking soda and only half the amount, therefore 1 tsp.

*Photo cred: my incredibly talented husband