Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

Tonight, our friends Jon and Holly came over and enjoyed some chicken wraps with us for dinner. But the best part was definitely the dessert.



Most. Delicious. Ever!
If you have ever gone on a Carnival cruise, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You dig your spoon into luscious chocolaty goodness and get a little vanilla ice cream on there, and you have what pretty much tastes like heaven. I found the recipe here. (I cut the recipe in half to fill four ramekins) And the best part is...it's practically calorie free. If you take out the butter, sugar, chocolate....etc....

Picture stolen from the internet.

House Update

So upon calling the bank lady today, I found out that it will take yet another week to hear back about our loan pre-certification. I'm getting concerned that it takes so long just to get pre-certified. I mean this isn't even applying! It is just proving the fact that we can apply for a certain amount of dollars.

More than anything, I'm just getting impatient. I really want to look at the house again. In fact, I want to start moving my things in a little at a time in hopes that the owners will cave in and give it to us for a super good deal. I mean what if someone buys the house before we get a chance to make an offer?? I know, that is just how it goes sometimes. And there ARE other houses.......so I've been told. :-) Keep your fingers crossed.

Sunday afternoon blogging

Matt and I are pleasantly surprised with how much we like Huber Heights, Ohio. We have lived here for more than a year now and are not looking to move elsewhere unless Matt gets some crazy cool job offer somewhere else.

So what does this mean, ladies and gentleman???

You guessed it. We are looking for a house. Sort of.

Last Sunday, we randomly went to a few open houses around our neighborhood. We fell in love with one of them, so I e-mailed the realtor when we got home to see if the owners would be interested in renting it out. I promptly received a phone call from the realtor, pressuring me to think about buying a house because it is soo much more valuable than renting. She gave me a contact for a mortgage loan banker and I called her the next day. Then, we met with her to discuss what it would look like for us to get a loan. We are now going through the pre-certification process and will know by Wednesday what kind of loan we could be considered for if we apply. At that point, we will find a realtor and try to look at a couple other houses (although we already have our hearts set on this one)

Whew! Had no clue we would even be considering this, but I think we are ready. If we can't get a house, I decided for us that we will just have to use the down payment $ on a cruise instead! We'll see....so stay tuned for another update this week. If you would like to look at the pictures of our dream house, here is the link.

Anniversary Recap

On June 13th, Matt and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. But because we spent the entire day in the car on the way home from vacation with the fam, we celebrated a couple days late. This is what I came home to after work one day that week.



A table set with blueberry muffins, candles lit, a card, and a dozen red roses.

My hubby prepared a special dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. Mmm it was delicious!



And when I went upstairs to change out of my scrubs, I was happy to find that my husband does have a romantic side.


Rose petals everywhere! After dinner, we went to the Danbarry Dollar Saver $1.75 movie theater to see Date Night. (Gotta love a good deal like that!) It was a memorable first anniversary and I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful husband. He is my best friend and I love him even more now than I did on our wedding day.



I LOVE YOU MATT!!!

Vacation and a New Job

This week is my vacation week!!! And it's already Wednesday. Because of the way my office works, it was necessary for every employee to take a mandatory "vacation" in July without pay in order to satisfy this month's atypical 3 pay periods. Because I was not given much notice, we failed to plan a fun vacation away from home. But it all worked out because my wonderful husband was hired on the spot in his interview last Thursday!

Matt B. Focht, Communication Coordinator at Elizabeth's New Life Center.

Check out the website at http://www.elizabethnewlife.org/

He will be in charge of designing and maintaining their websites, flyers, etc. I'm not sure what etc. includes yet, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. Yesterday he was in training all day. Today, he has to go get fingerprinted, then to work to meet with the IT guy (also named Matt) so that he can get familiar with all the fun computer files and programs they use.

So Matt's at work while I'm at home. This is definitely a change! Today my plans include cleaning out some closets. That's all I have planned so far. A camping trip might be in the near future.

Jewelry Tree

One of the reasons why I love the area we live is because we are within walking distance of so many stores and restaurants. Last Wednesday, Matt and I took a walk to Bed Bath and Beyond just to check out all the cool little gadgets they have there. We looked at all the kitchen things and kept saying "wow this is for the person who has everything" I mean who doesn't have a berry colander? Or a watermelon slicer? So I decided I just need a bigger kitchen.

I ended up finding something that I realized I so desperately needed and ended up going back today to get it.

.

Once you see this pile I have to go through to find what I am looking for, you will understand how necessary a jewelry tree really is.



See what I mean??? It's about time I get some jewelry organization going on in my life. Now I can find a set of earrings without dumping out a whole box of them. I can see all my choices as they hang beautifully from their individual hooks. It looks pretty nice on the vanity, too.



Needless to say, I am very pleased with this purchase and would recommend it to any girl needing a jewelry tree. Anything to make life more simple and beautiful, right?

Cars

Happy Thursday Everyone! For me, today is my Friday and I'm so happy this weekend is off to an early start. Even though I'm working, somehow my body still knows it's summer, which thus forces me to stay up late almost every single night. Matt has literally had to kick or push me out of bed this week. Ahhh so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow :-)


So today's topic is CARS. Here is a pic of me with my favorite car at a car show I went to on vacation this summer.




Ahhh what a beauty! She's a Mustang but that's not why I liked it. The COLOR, of course!! I love neon colors, especially lime green. But anyway....take a look at my real dream car.




It's the MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE SPYDER. Every time I see this car, I gasp at its beauty. I think I like it because of how sleek and modern it looks. Sporty, yet not TOO sporty. And I would take it in no other color than burnt orange. Maybe some day....

But unfortunately our budget could only afford this:



This is a 2001 Hyundai Accent that we just recently bought. Isn't she a beauty? I know you're probably jealous. But we figured it was time to buy a new(er) car before the Grand Prix was too far gone that it would have to be hauled away.

To wrap things up, I'd like to share the Craigslist ad I would have written for the old red. Enjoy.

FOR SALE!!!
2001 Grand Prix Special Edition
Up for sale is a brilliant red sportscar that would be perfect for anyone, young or old. It is like mint condition minus the following :
Paint job is flaking off (but the red parts are still shiny)
Power steering rack leaks (no power steering, grows great muscles)
Dent in passenger door (door creaks open)
No A/C (hey, just open the windows)
No heat (wear a parka in the winter)
Defroster is extremely slow (just plug in a hair dryer to warm up the windshield when it's iced over)
Passenger seat belt a bit beat up (dog ripped it up)
RUNS GREAT!!! Come look before this one gets away.

In the end, it sold for $800. Of course my husband made the ad sound much better and some desperate young man drove away with it the same day the ad was posted. We pray for his safety.