We've Moved!

We finally did it! We're all out of the old apartment and we're in the new place.

Let's name off all the fancy, grown-up things that we have now:

-Stairs
-Landing
-Office
-Basement
-Backdoor
-Dining room
-Private bathroom
-Freedom to walk from the bedroom to the bathroom sans pants

Now let's look at some pictures!
Note: These were taken around 3:00 on Sunday, the day after we got everything moved in. We've made a few more strides since then, except for the office. That's sort of become the room where we put all of the stuff that didn't go in any of the other rooms.

Here's the kitchen. Yep, the whole thing. It's smallish, but it's mine and I love it. Also there are ants, but they're temporary.

No cabinets on one side, I have open shelving up here and down below the counter, but I like the openness of it all.

Dining room...and a table that we sit at and eat food. It's kind of plain right now, we might get a hutch in there and maybe some wall hangings.

Left side of the living room from the dining room. All of Jay's graphic novels are in that antique bookshelf. There's a TV stand to the right of it now with the TV on it.




We're very excited, very sore and very tired. Moving sucks. But it's worth it.

Cooking With Meg And Jay

We have one week left in our apartment in Normal. Well, we sort of have two and a half, but we begin moving into our new place in Chillicothe next week. When we went grocery shopping, we kept that in mind and really planned out what we'd be eating for a week. We have a ton of frozen chicken from Meijer so that means we have a world of options open to us.

Long story short: I saw a package of potato gnocchi in Target and bought it along with some basil pesto sauce and planned on combining it with some chicken.

We didn't measure anything when we made it, so this recipe is incredibly vague. I'm a teacher, not a chef.

1 package of Archer Farms potato gnocchi
1 jar of Archer Farms basil pesto sauce
2-ish chicken breasts
Grated parmesan cheese
Milk

1) Cook the chicken according to package directions
2) When the chicken has about 15 minutes left, cook the gnocchi according to package directions
3) In a lightly greased skillet, over medium heat, add the chicken and about half the jar of basil pesto sauce; stir
4) Once chicken is coated with the sauce, add the gnocchi and the rest of the jar of sauce; stir
5) Add about 1/4 cup of milk to thin out the mixture a little bit (we probably didn't need this, but it was still good)
6) Add parmesan cheese to taste (also makes a great topping for individual servings)

And that's it!

We also enjoyed some Market Pantry french bread and an attempt at Biaggi's bread-sauce stuff:
Olive Oil
Butter
Parmesan cheese
Parsley

Goes great with Moscato!

Mega-Zord-Update

Nine pageviews today when I haven't written anything in weeks? Alright, I can live with that.

I got a big girl job (i.e. a job that uses that degree I worked on for 5 years)! I'll be an English teacher in Pekin High School starting in August. Until then, it's Flarget for another 19 days. And THEN, Jay and I are moving at the end of this month to Chillicothe. It's about 20 minutes away from his job and it'll be about 30 minutes away from mine. Either way, it's better than one of us driving an hour every day.

I can't wait to move. Normal is nice, but we desperately need to live somewhere on our own now. It's been almost a year since we got married and 2 years since we starting living together. I see people I know EVERYWHERE. It'll be great to live somewhere where neither of us work and we can be as anti-social as we want.

Today was the first time I taught and got paid for it too. Man, I'm taking leaps and bounds this month! I'm subbing for my cooperating teacher while she is on vacation for a week. She had me plan the lessons for this week (I've taught the class twice) and teach her students for her so that when she comes back, she can just move into the next part of the project. It was a good time today! Class was from 7:45 to 10:15, I worked in the English office for a little bit afterwards, securing plans for the rest of the week, and got home around 11:45. Iced coffee drink is the best thing ever by the way. Wish I had had it all of last year.

However, instead of looking like I taught a class today, I look like I just rolled out of bed (swapped proper clothes out for schlubby clothes and my hair is "feh"). The roommates have guests over, and I feel very under-represented. I taught children for 2 1/2 hours today, but as soon as anyone saw me like this they would think "lazy." I don't like feeling like I have to look presentable just to walk out into the apartment. I'll just stick with the hermit vibe, close the door and take a nap.

I've discovered Pinterest and all it has to offer, though. So it's between that and napping. I'm definitely tired. Wouldn't it be great if I could do both? Pin and nap at the same time?! Oh the possibilities.