Leapin' day

So today is the 29th of February, a day that only occurs every 4 years. So you may not know that it takes 365 and 1/4 of a day for the earth to orbit the sun 1 time. Well this would be tricky to have 1/4 of a day at the end of each year so that's why every 4 years, we have an extra day. Cool, eh?

There are lots of old wives tales/traditions having to do with leap year and the most popular is women can propose to men on February 29th. Anyone seen that cheesy movie with Amy Adams called Leap Year (confession, I actually liked it!). A Greek tale says that a marriage is bad luck in a leap year and that 1 in 5 Greek couples plan their weddings around a leap year to avoid it. {source}

(this photo has nothing to do with the post, Chunky was cracking me up yesterday, he just sat there and looked at me for a good 5 minutes while I took pics of him, he is his mama's furball!)

So fortunately I didn't have to wait for a leap year to pop the question to my hubs and I thought it would be cool if you all shared your engagement stories with me! I wrote a lengthy post about our engagement and you can read it here. In short, Jon proposed to me 3 days shy of our 1 year anniversary after a week of recreating a few of our first dates. It was perfect and very us. 

You can also view more engagement pictures {here}

(so weird seeing Jon ringless!)

So if you are married, tell me your engagement story! Did your man take you on a hot air balloon ride over the Eiffel Tower? Or did you ask your guy? Was it awful? Perfect? Awkward? Romantic?

And if you are single...what is your ideal engagement?! Will you be devastated if your family isn't there to watch the magic? Or are you set on getting engaged at a baseball game on the kiss cam?

Also, for you ladies in waiting, you should definitely read this post from Heather at Finding Beauty in the Ordinary, you will be glad you did!

Happy February 29th y'all! 

Hashbrown quiche

My girlfriend Leah made this recipe for me and Jon a couple months ago and I have made it multiple times since. It is so easy and delicious, perfect for a weekend breakfast.

Ingredients

3 cups, shredded frozen hash browns, thawed & drained
4 tbsp butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
3/4 cup chopped deli turkey
1/2 cup diced green onions
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper

1. Mix the hashbrowns with the melted butter and press into a pie dish to form the crust

2. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 450 degrees until the hash browns look golden brown

3. Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients

4. When hash brown crust is done, pour egg mixture and return to the oven. Lower the temp to 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes until the top is puffed up.

5. Enjoy!

(these were pictures of heated up leftovers so they look a little odd but seriously guys...this is a MUST make!)

P.S. Today is my 1 year blog-iversary!! Check out my very first post here. 

Chocolate chip banana muffins

Easy. Healthy. Delicious.

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup applesauce 

2 medium bananas
1.5 cups chocolate chips

*makes 12 BIG muffins

1. Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips to form a thick batter

2. Stir in chocolate chips

3. Line a 12 cup muffin tin and equally distribute batter into each cup

4. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes

P.S. Today is my 1 year blog-iversary!! Check out my very first post here. 

Friday Randoms

Good morning and happy Friday friends! I want to thank you guys for all the congratulations and well wishes on yesterday's post. I also want to thanks you who gave me encouragement and support when I talked about Jon being the spiritual head of our household. I am so happy that we can be an example of a Christian marriage because that is what we attribute our great relationship to :-)

I mentioned yesterday that Jon is skiing this weekend and I wanted to share a photo he sent me. We were exchanging photos, particularly of the weather because it was snowing in Denver and 88 in Austin.

Yesterday evening I went to my brother's first track meet and it was super exciting watching him win 1st in each of his events! I was very impressed with his hurdle skills (he ran the 300 hurdles)...I don't think I was taller than a hurdle at his age!

I also mentioned yesterday I am shacking up with my parents this weekend to hang with them and family that is coming into town today. I slept in my old room last night too. Our current home doesn't have a ton of extra storage space so I still have some stuff stored at my parents and I am so grateful for that. I decided to go through a couple of boxes and found my old yearbooks and scrapbooks from middle school and high school.

My bff Alyssa and I traveled to Southeast Asia the summer after graduation

My cutie baby brother...with 3 big sisters he was such a prince

I also went through a box that was filled with Jon's dads things. Jon's dad passed away in the summer of 2009 and his stepmom has given us a lot of his things. It's cool because she saved a few gifts Jon gave his dad and I want to put them up when we move. We have his bible that is actually falling apart at the binding that was given to Jon's grandpa then passed down to his dad. It will be neat to pass it down to our son one day. We also have his passport and my favorite picture of my father in law (it is super old but I think Jon looks so much like him). 

Jon's dad was a music man...he played the bass and made music with his brothers all the time (we love hearing old stories about his dad being a rocker!). Robbie as a kiddo and Robbie as an adult

Jon's grandpa also gave us a Hart family history/genealogy that dates back to the 1600s. We have been through it a few times but never in depth. Look what I found is a Hart family name..

Ebenezer!!!!! Which happens to be Ernie's middle name!!!!! Hahaha. Jon chose Ernie's middle name because he and his bff have an inside joke about this church in Waco and have a little dance that goes along with this joke. Well now when people ask, I can say it is a family name. Another cool thing is we have had a baby girl name picked out for a long time and after reading this huge book...I found out it is a family name!!!!!!! 

So I looked under my old bed to find a huge plastic bin filled with plastic swords, guns, and bats lol. Grandsons are gonna have a blast at their grandparents someday!

Ever since we put in an offer for the house on Monday, I feel like I've been in house nesting mode. I went through our shed and took two big bags of junk to Goodwill and spent 2 hours weeding the backyard. I have memories of my dad making us weed at the lakehouse so it is funny I was actually enjoying this. I would love to do some work in the yard in the new house, plant flowers, and maybe even some things in a garden. I am so lame but I had to take a pic of the weeds I pulled, it is sad how out of control we've let them get. 

I tried to sign into my Craigslist account because I really want to sell my Tom Tom GPS and a new iPod we have but for some reason my account is blocked. I don't think I've ever sold anything under this email address on CL so I can't understand why. I tried contacting support but I just get an auto response...anyone have any idea of what I should do? I think I will just have Jon post them if I can't figure it out.

Now for your Ernie fix of the day

My brother's kitty (her name is KD, after Kevin Durant) was taunting the dogs last night. Ernie loves barking at her and chasing her and she bats at him with her paws, it is so cute and funny. 

& one last thing....

Tomorrow is my blog-iversary!!! One year ago tomorrow, I started this blog! I never thought I would get so much fulfillment from blogging and make such amazing, true friends. I want to thank all of you for giving me the motivation and encouragement to write everyday. This blog has changed my life and I cannot wait to see what the next year has in store for me and my blog! You can find my very first post here (as you can see I got no comments and probably 5 views hehe). Heck I never thought anyone but my family and close friends would be interested in what I have to say. Love you guys!!!!

Have a fabulous weekend!

House sweet house

Warning...wordy post!

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you will know that Jon and I bought a house yesterday! We put in an offer on Monday afternoon and after 48 hours of countering, we came to an agreement. We couldn't be any happier (well yes we could, we will be happier after the inspection on Monday!). I can't thank you all enough for the well wishes, congratulations, and most of all- prayers throughout this entire process.

I wanted to give you a sneak peek of the house but didn't want to reveal too much...

(don't worry...you will get lots more pictures in the near future. I can see house projects taking over the blog!)

This is such an amazing time in our lives and we feel so great about our decision. We got married, got a new puppy, and now a house. I remember early on in our dating relationship we were both excited about one day owning a home and those dreams are coming true. We decided to pay off Jon's student loans right when we got married and have been scrimping and saving since then. It's funny because I have seen such a change in myself over the past year. I no longer lust after clothes, shoes and jewelry...I literally haven't bought myself anything along those lines in probably a year. The house was my goal. I guess that is what being a grown up is all about.

Jon and I have to give praise to the Lord for guiding us through this journey. We have been praying about Him helping us find a home for a few months now and He answered. We have been asking Him to help guide us to a home that we can grow in, both spiritually and physically. It is such a cool feeling knowing this is the house we will become parents in and hopefully lots of babies. And this brings me to a story about how we chose this house...

We had been looking at houses for a few months online and tried to go to a few open houses. We finally decided on a neighborhood, Steiner Ranch for you Austinites, and decided we would start really looking at the beginning of the year. The 2nd weekend in January we looked at 7 houses, one of which was the home we purchased. It had been on the market for a couple months already and we fell in love. But the timing wasn't right. We have our current lease until April 30th and it was just too soon. We ended up looking at 3 other houses a couple weeks later and had our top 3 (the house we bought being our #1). We promised we wouldn't get our hopes up because a house can sell at any time (and houses in that neighborhood were going fast!) so we prayed. We asked the Lord to show us the house He wanted us to live in and continue to glorify Him in. And we kept on praying. 2 of the 3 houses sold and we were bummed and thought for sure someone would buy our favorite. But no one did. Last Friday night we were sitting in our hotel room when Jon looked at me and said "I think we should put an offer on the house." I had been so focused on work and then our trip that I honestly hadn't thought about the house in a while. We planned on making an offer in March and I assumed that was still the plan. Jon said he was feeling convicted and that God was showing us that this was he house. And I agree, he was! Our other 2 favorites sold and this one continued to stay on the market. We chatted with our realtor that night, pinged our mortgage guy and planned to see it Monday. We put together an offer and submitted it Monday night. We didn't hear anything until early evening on Tuesday. Tuesday was truly a wonderful night. We decided to pray together and then pray separately so we could decide what we wanted to do. The Lord was so present in our house and brought us to tears. I am so lucky I get to share this deep bond with my husband, thinking about it sometimes makes me  so happy that I want to cry. We were both indecisive and kind of wanted the other to make a final decision and this is what I told Jon. I told him that he is the head of our household (like the bible and our God commands) and that I support him 100% on what he decides. If we walk from the deal, I am behind him. If we counter, I am behind him. And if we accept, I am behind him. Jon is such a great leader and Christian influence on my life and I hope you don't think I am old fashion when I say he is the head of our house, we are just obeying God's word. Over a 10pm dinner, we decided to make one last counter and walk if they didn't accept.

Conveniently, Jon left yesterday afternoon for a ski trip in Colorado to celebrate his best friend's upcoming wedding and I was bummed at the thought of us not getting to see each other if we didn't get the house. We woke up super early to spend some time together and I headed off to work. I knew Jon had a customer meeting right by my office at 2pm so I didn't think much of it when he said he was outside my office to say goodbye one last time. Now I am a typical girl and always make up situations in my mind so when I got the call, I thought maybe...just maaybbee he was telling me we got the house. But I shook the thought out of my head. He got out of the car and gave me a big hug saying he was gonna miss me this week and then looked me in the eye and with the biggest smile said "we got the house!". I started laughing, tearing up, smiling and kissing him. What an awesome way to spend the afternoon! Although our meetup was all of 5 minutes (that included talking to our realtor about next steps), I am so glad he told me in person! We will definitely do some celebrating next week but I am happy to be celebrating with my family this weekend! My g-parents are in town and lil sis is coming in from school so I am kicking it old school and spending the night there. I am so excited (and jealous that my husband will be skiing and snow tubing). 

So....the house isn't ours yet (I couldn't get myself to write home sweet home as the title...it's just a house yet, not our house) so we would really appreciate prayers that the inspection goes well on Monday! Our predicted close date is April 4th so we will have lots to do before then. 

The moral of the story is...prayer works!!!!! God has such intricate planned for each of us and we are so happy that He has opened this door for us. 

I will leave you with a picture of my favorite thing in the house..

(a double oven...I may keel over from excitement!)

I have to say it again, thank you all for the love and support!

Oh and PS....we applied for House Hunters! Cross your fingers!

The city of love {San Francisco}

Last week Jon and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary and Valentine's day (both a little late) in San Francisco. I was in San Jose for the first half of the week for a tradeshow for work and Jon met me up there on Wednesday night. The next morning, we rented a car and headed to the city of loveeeeeee.

First stop on the trip was breakfast in Sausilito where Jon ate a salmon omelet...wow. We can't wait to make one at home! Next up, Muir Woods. I had been a couple years ago but Jon had never been. The trees are absolutely amazing! They are so big and old, it is really a beautiful and peaceful place. 

It was so cute, there was a group of elementary school aged kiddos coming in for a field trip as we were leaving. They had their books and pencils to write things down and were all so excited. As cute as it was, I am glad we were out of there because they were loud and we loved the peacefulness of the woods.

Oh and Sic Em Bears!

We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and back into the city to check into our hotel. I shared the pics I took via Instagram on Monday but had to re post this one again...

We stayed at the Sheraton on the Wharf and we highly recommend it. Luckily I found a deal where parking and internet was included, normally they really nickel and dime ya ($45 a day for parking!). We were a block away from Fisherman's Wharf which was awesome. 

We pretty much ate our way through the city...clam chowder in breadbowls, fish & chips, calamari, and best of all...chocolate. We have this thing when we go on vacation...Jon calls it going "buck wild" which means we eat a lot of dessert. Lunch AND dinner. It is glorious. 

The weather was really good...50s-60s and sunny but some major fog. Or smog. Who knows. We were disgusted by the layer of smog over the city when we were in LA this summer (part 1 & part 2). Because of the haze, we couldn't get the best view of the bridge from the Wharf but that's okay. 

We bought the 24 hour transportation pass that allowed us access to all trolleys, cable cars and buses...it was a life saver. Parking is a nightmare in San Fran so having that was awesome. We rode the trolleys from start to finish to get a tour of the city (Lombard Street, Nob Hill, etc) and then rode to Union Square to do some shopping. Now I can say this because I live in one of the "weirdest" cities in the US but San Francisco is WEIRDER! There are so many odd people on the streets...homeless, performers, musicians, and just weirdos. San Fran definitely trumps Austin! Oh and I almost forgot to mention our experience on the bus in China town. We hopped on an empty bus at the Wharf to head downtown and even made a comment on how it was nice to have it to ourselves. Little did we know, we would soon pick up about 200 people in Chinatown. We got kicked out of our seats by 2 little old ladies who then continued to talk crap about us in their language (I hate that!!). It reminded me of seeing pictures of the city streets in China how people are literally shoulder to shoulder. Quite interesting.

One of my favorite things about San Francisco is Pier 39. I could watch the seals all day...they are hysterical! Something that surprised us was all the blooming flowers around the city. Seriously they were everywhere! And tons of flower markets, I wish I could take some home with me.

Another highlight of the trip was visiting the Bay Aquarium. Jon is an animal lover and has a big love/interest in fish. It baffles me when he starts naming off the types of fish we see, I think he has a minor in marine biology or something. His dad loved having aquariums in their house growing up which has helped fuel Jon's love for them. He can't wait to have one when we own a home. We want to visit all the big aquariums around the US and this was our 2nd together...we went to Shedd in Chicago in 2010 and then we've each been to a few separately. We had so much fun taking tons of pictures inside. I was enamored by the jellies...seriously memorized. The aquarium had 3 octopus and that was neat to see and learn about. I also got the chance to touch different rays, it was so cool!! It was right before feeding and they were being little hams and splashing around. Jon was cracking up watching me and taking lots of pictures. I am so amazed by marine life!

My all time favorite thing that I've done on any vacation has been Alcatraz! I went on the day tour about 3 years ago but this time around Jon and I went on the extended night tour. We were hoping it would be haunted but it wasn't too scary. We got to see a lot of the "rock" that they don't show you during the day along with extra presentations and videos. Pretty cool. 

If you've been reading for a while, you know that Jon loves horror. He loves everything spooky, scary, and Halloween related so it didn't surprise me that he loved Alcatraz, especially at night. He thinks its so funny that I am so obsessed with the whole idea of it. I love reading articles and watching documentaries about "the rock" and love the cheesy Fox show about it. One of the special things we got to do on the night tour was visit the prison hospital. We got to see where 'the birdman' was locked up for 11 years because he was so psycho and had to be confined...talk about creepy! Here is an awesome shot of Jon in the prison operating room...eeeek

After our Alcatraz adventure, we headed to a nice dinner off the Wharf. I showed a few pictures in Monday's post and asked you all where you thought we were (remember the penis shaped cookie?). Turns out we had dinner in the Castro District which is the LGBT neighborhood/area of San Francisco. We kind of noticed a lot of couples at our restaurant but didn't think twice until we talked to our friend. It was funny because when we found out where we were, we instantly noticed the rainbow lights and stickers on the surrounding buildings, restaurants, shops. It was such a fun time and only the Harts would end up in that area and not know it! I've gotta say, we had one of the best meals we've ever eaten at Catch in the Castro District...it was out of this world! :-)

It was such an awesome trip, I love getting away with my hubby. Over the past 2 years we have taken quite a few weekend trips all over the US and definitely want to continue. Why not take 3 small trips a year rather than 1 big trip? We always book flights with points and find great deals on hotels, cars, activities online. Jon and I aren't big shoppers (clothes, electronics, etc) and love the idea of spending money on experiences. I am so glad we are on the same page about that!

What's the last trip you went on?  

Felt flower headband tutorial

San Francisco Instagram

golden gate bridge

'full house'

us on coit tower

fisherman's wharf

watching the seals

boats at the pier

ellis street...a hart family name we love

waiting for a trolley

beautiful flowers all over the city

anthropologie love

ghiradelli square

the most delicious cupcake in the world

yummy chocolate

crabby hat at the aquarium

jellies

shark man

wonderful food on the wharf

one of our hart ancestors married a woman named buena vista so we had to go to the cafe :-)

buena vista = 'beautiful view'

we love trader joes!

my italian stallion

night at alcatraz

visiting 'the rock'

does anyone know why there are so many art galleries on the wharf?

boobs...oops!

who doesn't want a $200k mustang in their living room

 

incredible dinner at catch

little did we know we were in the castro district

any guesses what that is? hehe

we ordered a 'butch' bar at hot cookie...wow!!!

coming home to my little chunk

& his big ole' head

we are watching kelli girl, my parents dog, until this afternoon

full trip recap coming up later this week :-)