Hey Good Lookin'... Whatcha Got Cookin?

The new oven has arrived!!! I have several pictures to update you on so I put them in a short slideshow.

The new oven arrived yesterday around 10 am and I spent about a good hour reading through the manual because I had no idea how to use it! It's really quite smart for an appliance! Andrew was the first to really "use" it, he heated up some soup on the stove top yesterday afternoon. I baked in it for the first time today, and so far I think it's great! I'm really amazed at how quickly it can preheat and how it has so many different settings to turn on and off automatically when you program it. You can basically cook an entire meal without even being home. I wish LG would come up with a robot that removed you dish from the fridge and put it in the oven...

It also has an interesting feature called the "Sabbath Feature." I guess GE was the first to introduce this feature and then other manufacturers followed suit. You can read more about it here if you're interested. I wasn't aware of this, but from what I can tell, strict interpretation of the Torah and Kosher Jewish traditions prohibit anyone from "lighting a fire" during the sabbath. In modern times this extends to turning on an oven, which would make it difficult to prepare a meal. Star-K, a kosher certifying agency has approved this technology, so I guess it's a big relief to Jews who observe kosher laws. It's cool that ovens are so smart, but I'm glad to be a gentile!!

Moving on, I pretty much have finished unpacking and arranging our master bedroom. We still don't have nighstands (I am using a wooden barstool and Andrew is using the floor) but other than that, everything is done. The over all look of our room is a French Country motif with toile pattern through out and several fleur de lis. I've had the toile for a while now but I really wanted to extend the French Country theme beyond that, so I found a few fleur de lis accents to use around the room. You can see all of these things highlighted in the slideshow. I can't say I've ever been to France, but I thank the French for their decorating inspiration! The master bathroom still needs a second coat of paint which I might get around to this week. We have not put up any of our towel bars or fixtures since we were waiting to finish painting. We have been using over the door hooks for our towels, so it will be nice to eventually have real racks for our towels!

Last night we attended an engagement party for Lindsey and Jake so it feels like my matron of honor duties are officially starting. It's fun to get to be apart of all of these events with them and I can't wait till we host our bridesmaid/ college friends shower in January! I already had made a few purchases in preparation but I can't divulge on here since I know Lindsey reads this!

Today we had some friends over for my work friend Riana's birthday. This was the first "big" function we've had at our new place and I think it went pretty well! It got off to a slow start since most everyone was late, but we kind of expected that. We grilled burgers & hot dogs for 11 people and had a lot of other munchy items. I baked a German Chocolate cake for the occasion, which was the first thing I made in the new oven! Riana's baby, Kade, just turned 1 a few weeks ago and he is adorable! He is such an easy going and fun baby and they are lucky to be able to bring him to so many places. I hope someday our kids are as easy as Baby Kade. We all had fun and most importantly Riana had a good time. We have lots of left overs, but that is never a problem for us! Since we started early, everyone was gone before 8 and we were done cleaning and doing dishes by 8:45. That is a good party!

One other small house update is a new light fixture that Andrew put up. This one hangs over the entry way at the front door. We now have all the light fixtures on the first floor replaced, and they look great and very updated. You can see the picture of it in the slideshow.

It's been a fun weekend full of friends, food, home improvement, and most importantly for Andrew, football. Congrats to all the Texas fans reading! Andrew and the dogs are now pooped, as you can see from the last pictures in the slideshow.

Thanks for checking in!