Homemade Spaghetti Night

Last night Paul and I made homemade spaghetti! It was so much fun, and it was delicious! Paul's dad and step-mom were sweet and got us the pasta maker attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer when they stayed with us, and I was so excited to use it but also a little intimidated by it. I was worried that it wouldn't turn out and that it would be a huge mess and a two person job. However, on Friday night, Paul and I were both home, and had no desire to go out for the evening. I had recently looked at the pasta recipe booklet again to see what ingredients I would need to have on hand to make pasta, so I knew that I had them all. We were talking about what we should make for dinner, and I suggested giving homemade pasta a whirl. Paul was game, and so the process began! Our pasta making attachments were initiated into use, and now, I can't believe we have been missing out on homemade pasta this long! It was so good, and really easy to make.

We bought some giant meatballs from Marina market and a marinara sauce that was from Italy that was amazing. We opened one of our fancy bottles of wine that we're always saving for a special occasion and put on the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Vertigo". It was truly a perfect night!

P.S. Homemade pasta is very long.
P.P.S. Paul's fun in the kitchen!

A weekend drive to Point Reyes

Cattle in the pasture on the farms on the drive to Point Reyes!

Me with the lighthouse in the background. I think they said it was 300 steps up to this point!

It was a gorgeous day!

The water was so blue!

My hubby, looking cool in his shades!

We had a great day!

Valentine's Day with my Hubby!

This was one of the most fun Valentine's Days ever! Paul and I went shopping on Union St walking our way over to Washington Square. We then walked through North Beach over to the Ferry Building where we had dinner at Taylor's Automatic Refresher, a kind of spruced up diner on the water. We had cheeseburgers, fries, and a shake, and then walked over to the Embarcadero and watched the annual Pillow Fight. What a riot...people from all over the city come together, walking around with their pillows from home...and then take out all of their pent up frustration regarding love, or just have a blast hitting their loved ones and random people they've never seen before. It was a great Valentine's Day all around. I love you, Paul!

Are you happy?

I have to laugh whenever I hear Paul or myself saying, "Are you happy?" or "It's a happy day!" These are phrases that we've adopted from my cousins Luke and Paige when they were little.

The "Are you happy?" phrase came recently from my 2-year-old cousin Luke, who, sitting in church, concerned about the happiness of the stern looking older gentleman sitting next to him, asked him repeatedly, "Are you happy? You happy? Are you happy?" He was required to ask repeatedly because the cranky old man refused to answer him. (I think Luke was onto something and the man was not happy.) This story always makes me smile, and Paul and I tend to use this phrase randomly throughout our life now! It's a nice reminder of Luke every so often! And it always makes us smile.

The "It's a happy day!" phrase came from when Paige, who is now 12, was about 2. Every time she got up in the morning or from an afternoon nap, she would get a big smile on her face when she saw the sunlight coming in through the window and say, "It's a happy day!" We now find ourselves commonly saying this to one another when we get up in the morning and are trying to coerce the other person out of bed..."Time to get up...it's a happy day!"

It's definitely children who see the simple things in life!

I get the prettiest flowers from my husband!

And better yet, I get them just because. It's always the biggest surprise, and they're always different and more beautiful than the last ones.

Enjoying the sun at Crissy Field and Sailing

We enjoyed the sun this weekend by going out on the water in the morning with Jake and Megan on Jake's sailboat. After getting some sun, drinking some champagne, we headed over to Crissy Field and enjoyed a barbq with friends and some more sun! What a great day!

Our two versions of heaven!

I had to laugh when my last two sets of pictures were for my ideal place to stop for a treat and then Paul's dream stop for a treat. My location was Miette, a local pâtisserie and candy store. I walked in and didn't even know what to do with myself. They had taffy, caramels, cupcakes, chocolate, and more! It was truly heaven! I enjoyed this "old fashioned cupcake" which brought back memories of my mom, because it was the same double-boiler icing that she puts on her angel food cakes. I was expecting the red dot on top to be a jelly bean or red hot type candy, and giggled when I bit into it and discovered it was a Boston Baked Bean! I hadn't had one of those since I was little! Anyhow, I loved this place, and can't wait to go back again!

Then we move on to Paul's heaven...El Farolito! Best mexican food ever! We enjoyed some nachos and a grande burrito, and washed it down with some mexican beer. Located in the Mission district, this is our new favorite mexican dive! We sat there, talking about which of our friends and family would fall in love with it. The list was long. I'm glad I could take my husband to such a wonderful establishment tonight. He is now ending his weekend a happy man!

SF Apartment - After the movers left!

So I flew out to San Francisco the weekend that the movers delivered the goods. Paul was already out there and staying with his buddy, Jake, who he works with now. He left for work on Friday morning, and left me the key for our new place. It was like Christmas...I could not wait to walk over to our apartment and go check it out!

So, around 7am I got up (thinking it was absurd that Paul had already been at work for 2 hours!), got clean, and walked over to our place from Jake's place. It was only a few blocks away. I got a bagel on the way from Noah's and admired Chestnut Street, the cute street we live by with all of the fun shops and restaurants and bars!

I arrived at the apartment door, opened it up, and found this! Holy crap! This is unpacking! Paul was prepared for it, I was not! He had moved more in his life. I guess I didn't expect everything to be put away, but I guess I expecting less massive piles, and more organized, spread out, items to be put away. From the looks of it, they are not allowed to put things on the floor, so they just pile them all in the sink, or bathtub, or on the desk. It was crazy! And yet, still exciting. The little organizer in me was totally pumped! Have I told you that I think I could be paid to organize people's lives? I love it!

It was like a giant puzzle. Ok, this needs to be put away, but the spot it goes in has this in it, so where does that go? And I basically worked like that until I found an open spot to put something away in. Well, I worked my little butt off so that I could win the game I was playing against myself of, "How amazed will Paul be with how organized I get this place by the time he gets off work!?!" Well, I won. He was very amazed. And yet, I think he expected no less! :) I was sending my mom photos from my phone of the mess, and then I would update her along the way of rooms as I tackled them. It was fun!

The thing that annoyed me the most was the built-in bookcase. I guess the movers have to put books on the bookcase, to say they are put away. But look at how they stacked them! It was twice as much work for me, because I had to take them all off, and then put them all back on the right way! How silly!

So...here are the pictures of what it looked like when I got there.

Moving Day

Well, this was a very sad day. We had movers come in and pack up all of our belongings and load them on a moving truck. It was time to leave our house on Luke to begin our adventure in San Francisco. I loved that house on Luke. It was such a beautiful and happy 1st house. I guess the thing to remember is all of the fun first memories that we created there that I will never forget. It was a great house to be newlyweds in!

On another note, this was the biggest moving truck I have ever seen! It stretched from the neighbor's house on one side of us to the neighbor's house on the other side. A true 18-wheeler. Well, maneuvering it in Phoenix was tricky enough, but getting it to the apartment in SF was going to be a whole other story. We were told they might have to shuttle our stuff to the apartment from another location where they could park the truck.

The good part of the move was we didn't really have to do much. Mom helped me A TON pack up all of the stuff that we would not have room for in San Francisco, and that we would keep at their house. It was hard to wrap up my beautiful china, but I'll have it again soon! Mom and I had fun doing this, of course. We can pretty much make any task fun together. :) However, other than the stuff that Mom and I packed and cleaned, which was actually quite a bit, the movers did all the rest. They packed all of the stuff that they were going to be moving, and they loaded it on the truck which was the best part! Then, when the truck arrived in SF, they would unload all of the boxes from the truck, and unpack all of our stuff. I told Paul, this is SO much better than us and a U-haul! :) We have officially been spoiled by his company, and we are never allowed to move again unless a company pays for this service! :) See you on the other side of the move!