Welcome Home.

I love our new house! It was so weird waking up here yesterday morning. It feels like we're on holiday or something. Our bedroom is huge and our new bed is nothing short of luxurious. After two years in a full size bed, we feel like we could swim laps in this new king size one. I know we both woke up at multiple points in the night and were more than a little surprised to find that we weren't even touching. We actually each have our own side of the bed and can stretch out a bit without kicking the other. It's magical.

We're still tired and not feeling super motivated but we did accomplish one thing yesterday -- we emptied every single box labelled "Games." Steven has, for lack of a better term, a man cave. Tara and I tried to dub it The Cave of Wonders but I'm not sure that name really stuck with Steven. Oh well, we tried. We actually found a way, even with our limited shelving, for all of the "good" games to be out on display. You can see the tower of glory in the corner there. Those are most of the favorites. All of the "normal" games are on the shelf in the closet: Boggle, Clue, Monopoly, etc. Steven doesn't even acknowledge that we own those games, but I think it would be weird to be the "boardgame people" but not actually own any of the classic ones that normal people know how to play, so we keep them.

I wanted our first dinner at home to be something special. I'm tired of camping out and eating whatever's easy (frozen pizza, cereal, toast) so I wanted to make a real dinner with a real dessert. The menu for the evening: Tuna marinated in soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar, ginger, oil, and vinegar, and then baked in the oven, white rice, salad, a glass (or two) of Moscato (we received this bottle as a gift a while back and have been saving it for something special. I think it is my favorite wine though and might be all we buy from this point on), and a browned butter raspberry tart for dessert. Carl, from the fire department, caught the tuna over the weekend and was kind enough to share it with Steven. I had never cooked tuna before but I just marinated and baked it like I might a piece of salmon and it turned out to be delicious! The tart was slightly more difficult as I was unable to locate my measuring cups... I did my best though and it was tasty too.

Hilde came over yesterday! She was our first house guest :) We had a pretty chill day including a walk to the store for dinner stuff and Jamba Juice (Steven and I love having Safeway -- with a Jamba! -- just a 4 minute walk away) and then a little walk and some frisbee at the park. We had salmon for dinner, and bread pudding for dessert, and then played a really intense game of Castle Panic, which Hilde and I barely won! I dropped her off at the airport at 4:45 this morning and she's on her way back to Norway. I wish Norway wasn't so far away. I would love to see it and I would love it if it were easier for her to visit us.

I went back to work today after a 4 day weekend. I really didn't want to go and thought it would be weird since I hadn't started the week with the kids but I was glad I went. Steven is working tonight but then he has a nice long break and we have a fun weekend ahead of us. It's supposed to be sunny and 80+ degrees all weekend and I turn 25 on Saturday -- woohoo! Happy August by the way. Can you believe it's August already?? Me either. July was both the fastest and most drawn-out month of my life as we prepared to move. I'm glad it's finally over but can't believe how quickly it flew by!

p.s. This is my 200th post! How awesome that it's about something so wonderful. I love it.