The Dinner Situation

So...as we all know I am a newlywed gal. I just got married...and therefore...I am a newlywed. I was wondering the other day, just how long can you be a newlywed? I was thinking it must actually be a state-of-mind, but I was wondering if people (obviously wrong people :) have a timeframe for how long you are a newlywed? I was guessing it's probably something like a Year because every day you spend together is a day you've never spent married until you hit the anniversary of your wedding.

SO anyway...this is about the kitchen. I am telling you...I am GOOD in the kitchen, GOOD I tell you GOOD! And I am STILL kind of stumped! It's so weird! I always felt so confident when I was home with my parents, cooking sometimes for them or making cookies or pies or risotto. I felt CONFIDENT! And now...it's like everything is SO DIFFERENT! I mean, me and Andrew were walking around Shoprite last night and I am going "I am at a loss...I have no idea" because what exactly IS the difference between CHUCK and BOTTOM beef?!? (I can kind of guess the 'bottom' one actually...eee. ) What DO I make for two people?! Suddenly all the combinations of dinners my mom has EVER cooked for me has FLOWN out of my brain and went to hawaii for a nice long vacation. It's actually the same with actually baking things...when I was at home, I would use ONE spoon, ONE pot, ONE BOWL!!!! But here at the apartment when I bake or cook ANYTHING I end up using every spoon, bowl, pot, mixer, tray, pan availible to me, and I don't know why? I think it's because I am trying to make it all fast because I want to get to playing video games with Joe and Andrew though! :) The good thing is it's not like my crazy-brained-ness overflows into the actual taste of the food...because according to Andrew all the cookies, dinners (except I recently found out he has a strange penchant disliking certain textures of food...weird.) and everything else I've made has been good! I have made Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and today after I am done typing I am going to make Haystacks (My favorite christmas cookie!) And Tonight is the BIG NIGHT! I am making a roasted chicken, cheddar mashed potatoes (My own recipe so we will see how that turns out!) and corn and Rolls. I am excited...I get up this morning...go check on the Chicken...and are you kidding me our fridge works ALOT better suddenly then it used to! I put the chicken in there to thaw yesterday MORNING and it's still frozen. So i read that thankfully there is a 'speed method' for thawing chicken.

Immerse Chicken in cold water (I wonder why not warm? Will the chicken get stiff, puffy and inflamed like when you make the awful mistake of putting frozen feet into hot water bucket after playing in snow? Yes...I did this once) for 1/2 an hour for every pound. SO...I am doing that, and it's kind of fun figuring out all of this. I am actually having a great time, even during the times when I feel like I am going crazy because I cannot figure out what to have for dinner....or when to have it ready. Especially because Andrew is always saying "We figure this all out together!" And I am so happy that he is so sensitive and sweet, and isn't like some other guys who say "Dinner is YOUR Job! Figure it out!" Everything seems easier when you have someone else to help you, this may be something everyone else knows automatically but it's taken me time, a family and now a husband to be slowly learning that. I used to be a bit too proud to ask for help even in the big things...and especially in the small things. I am starting to see that God gave us loved ones so we could help them and so they in turn could help us! That's what family does! So I don't know if you ever have it ALL under control...the dinner situation, but I know my mom SURE always seemed like she had it totally under control!! I am kind of looking forward to the day when I know exactly what we need from the store, exactly what combinations of what can make the most various meals. I don't know WHEN that will happen but for right now I am just going to enjoy finding it all out, and the knowledge that I am finding it all out with the man I love...that makes even such a small thing as dinner, Fun.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! We are decorated, we are LOVING looking at the ornaments you gave us, the ones we got as children from our parents and the ones we got just recently (I LOVE my Angel Ball, Gramma Pat!!) and we are so happy, and we thank God for all of you! We love all you, our family!!! Near and Far! WHEREVER YOU ARE! (i rhymed on purpose) :D Have a blessed Christmas!

Our First Tree!

So we decided to go and get our tree on Wednesday December 10th, we got it at home depot for a really great price. I was so excited the entire time because I still could not believe my luck that our apartment building allows Live Christmas trees! I am used to always having a live Christmas tree at my house, I think the smell of a live Christmas tree is one of the most beautiful smells ever created by God. Andrew was always used to having an artificial tree so this was a new experience for him! I asked him if he minded having a live tree this year...and he in his eternal sweetness replied "no of course not!" Even with the thought in mind that live tree's are a lot more work...and it's the kind of work guys are usually better at such as screwing long weird shaped screws into the wet trunk of a tree.



Finally we got the tree in place and all squared away and everything, even through my endless laughing as usual and taking pictures of Andrew from weird angles because he looked funny trapped behind the tree on his side with his head all the way under the tree. Andrew is a very patient man. You definitely need to be patient when one of your wife's bad habits is giggling at you sometimes with no better reason than: "just because". :D
So then we started to decorate! Of course the first one that got put on the tree was my first ornament, a red house shape with a little house and tree and barn glued onto it and 'Sarah 1989" written on it. My mom made that ornament for me when we moved into our new house, she made one for all of us kids with a BROKEN ANKLE! And then Andrew's first ornament went on...one he received at birth practically...so I think he has me beat there. And then of course went on our newest ornaments, the beautiful crosses we got from Mom and Dad Gilbertson and the one we got for ourselves on the honeymoon...a model of the Reliant from The Wrath of Khan that LIGHTS UP! And as we were decorating Andrew was telling me stories about when he got each ornament and then I would tell him some of my stories: "This is the one I got when I first learned how to ride a bike." I remember learning how to ride a bike, I wanted to learn SO BAD and being the little dramatic I was I remember dropping my bike in a ray of sunshine and falling to my knees and praying out loud "GOD, please let me be able to ride my bike RIGHT now! Please!" And thinking it would work. It's actually a good illustration for life because sometimes we ask God to give us something "RIGHT NOW!" We ask that we will know an answer or figure out how to do something "Right now!" and it just doesn't always work like that, I probably wouldn't be as good at riding a bike if I hadn't learned how to ride it over time. God knows that for the most part, we as humans, need to learn things as we go and gradually because we actually reap much more benefit, including confidence in Him, that way. Also if God answered all our prayers instantly like that we wouldn't be able to help anyone else get through times like that, we wouldn't have the experience, we wouldn't grow spiritually and we would always remain 'babies' in the spiritual sense.
Andrew then was going to open a box of his most favorite ornaments, a ship in a glass bottle and an octopus...sadly neither survived the journey across country. :( Although I still argue that the octopus (Which I keep spelling "ocotopos" as I type) should still be hung up because his two legs broke off in the BACK, and you can't see the back. He showed me his Bianca and Bernard from 'Rescuer's Down Under' when McDonalds used to make Christmas ornaments (they probably would get sued now if they dared make Christmas ornaments!:D ), and his Fievel stocking and the cutest little green dinosaur made out of cloth that he said he still remembers putting on the tree when he was a little little boy. I love thinking about him that way and I wish I could go back in time and see him. If God blesses us with Children I hope that we have a little boy that looks exactly like Andrew so I can see in a way what he was like as a little boy. :)
And then we were done and it was 12:30 at NIGHT! It took us that long! We had hot chocolate and then stumbled off to sleep. It was a great night for us. I keep on thinking how great next year will be, God willing, how we will have had more time to plan out Christmas and we will have memories of our first Christmas still fresh as yesterday in our minds. I love being at the beginning with Andrew, it's so strange thinking how fast time has already passed for us though! It makes me realize even more the importance of taking it a day at a time and just being thankful for every moment you get to share together.