hello monday.

it's been a lovely couple of days.

by the time i got off work on Friday, i was pretty wiped out, but i still had a fun little evening to myself.  the first thing i did was go grocery shopping (and pick up the CUTEST fall towels ever.  see for yourself).

after coming home, i immediately lit my pumpkin spice candles, and cleaned and organized more of my room.  then, i started on making honey-lime chicken, a recipe i had pinned last week and wanted to try SO badly (i've come to love most anything with lime in it).

 

i also finally opened a bottle of wine i had won at a work party back in April, poured some into a mason jar, and settled into my kitchen table, while i made playlists on iTunes and went through some hilarious picture boards on Pinterest.

Ethan came over later that evening.  we watched half of Miss Congeniality while eating the chicken (we ate ALL of it.  i was a little sad there was none left over.) and some baked garlic asparagus.

on Saturday morning, i made ANOTHER Pinterest recipe i had been wanting to try: breakfast grilled cheese.

i revised the recipe to my own liking:

3-4 tablespoons of cream cheese: nuke for 10 seconds; mix in a 1/2 to a whole tablespoon of sugar.
spread your mixture onto both sides of your bread of choice; mine was whole grain bread.
put fresh blueberries in the middle.
put on the stove until it's crispy enough to meet your liking;)
enjoy!

(i am in LOVE with this recipe.  it's filling, but not too heavy or overly sweet, in my opinion.)

anyways, i have been having a BLAST with this whole Pinterest recipes deal. i love getting on there and seeing what kinds of things i can try out.

i also made bacon, eggs, and coffee, and Ethan and i had breakfast while we finished watching Miss Congeniality.

after breakfast, we headed out to downtown San Clemente, where i fell in love.

for tourists, it's probably not that exciting of a place, but i LOVED it.  it was quaint and quiet and felt like the first real beach down in SoCal.  while there are a lot of fun beach towns down here, most are over-publicized, commercialized, and extremely crowded.  San Clemente, however, had a quaint little downtown, a pier with a real seafood restaurant overlooking the water, and a quiet, family-oriented beach.

meet Herman, my new friend.

i think i told Ethan about 50 times that day: i'm so happy.  gosh, i'm so happy.  gosh, i just love it here.  it was amazing to go somewhere so sweet and quiet.  that's what i always dreamed living by the ocean would look like.

after wandering down the pier and in and out of a couple shops, we stopped at a neat Mexican restaurant for a late lunch, before heading back to my house.

the sign right above the toilet in the restaurant.

the sky was AMAZING on the way home--covered in bright pink and orange clouds.  it looked like the sky was on fire.  of course, no matter how many pictures i took, none of them even came CLOSE to capturing how gorgeous it was.

the rest of the evening, we spent at a used record store nearby.  i ended up with a Nichole Nordeman cd, which cost me a whole 27 cents, so i was happy.

we ended the day by eating snacks and watching Short Circuit, one of my favorite movies from childhood.

on Sunday, we made the same breakfast and watched a movie Ethan had bought called The Great Raid, based on a true raid the Americans had done during World War 2.  really good; really inspiring. i definitely recommend.

our Sunday afternoon was definitely one of my favorites i've ever had with Ethan.  we debated on and off for an hour about whether to take a drive up the coast or stay at my house and do nothing.  we chose the latter.

shortly after, we settled in on my bed and ended up reading Bible verses on my computer (something we've never done before).  and what ended up following was a long, incredibly honest conversation about God.  unlike me, Ethan isn't one to talk about God.  but for the first time,i feel like he was transparent with me about his feelings about God and faith and Christians.

one comment that Ethan made was how he wanted to KNOW that it was all real.  and i wondered what it is that makes me believe that it is real.  what i told Ethan is: i've known being with God.  and i've known not being with Him.  and in those seasons i'm not with him, when He feels so far away, i feel like nothing.  like moving is painful.  like my entire being is empty and i'm nothing but a shell.  and i wonder how i can feel something so strongly for Someone who doesn't exist. 

the whole conversation inspired me and made me hope for big things.

after our talk, we got fried chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner and laid in my backyard and had a picnic and watched the hummingbirds and told stupid jokes.

Ethan: what's brown and sticky?

Me: do i wanna know?

Ethan: a stick.


my stomach hurt from laughing so hard.  this is why we are dating.

after that, the evening kind of took a downward turn.  i don't know if it was the chicken or the potatoes or what, but almost at the same time, we both started feeling sick.  weak and nauseous.  we went to the grocery store and forced ourselves to waddle through the aisles for medicine and soup.

we spent the rest of the evening sipping tea, eating chicken noodle soup, and laying on my bed watching episodes of Roseanne.  of course, if i had to be sick, i wouldn't want to be sick with anyone else.

it was a really lovely weekend.  Ethan is away for training this week, with no phone access as far i know.  it's funny because it's only 4 full days apart, but i already miss him.  already i'm counting down until the next weekend.



on the upside, it's been a good Monday.  i made some headway on work projects.  bought the cutest owl candle at Target.  had a phone date with my little sister, where we caught up and laughed and talked about coloring our hair and the kind of tattoos we both want to get.  now, i'm writing this, while some raspberry + nutella puff pastries are baking in the oven.



good weekend.  good Monday<3

xoxo.