This Is Love

How do I know that Jonathan loves me? 

Every time I get the closet light stuck, he gets up there and fixes it.  And sometimes it is frustrating for him.

Easter 2012

After we left Charleston, we came home and got ready for Easter.  Basically, we went to the store and bought eggs and an egg kit.  One of us (me) was more excited than the other one (Jonathan) was.  Since this was our first Easter without family around, we invited our friends over for lunch.  I made a (pretty delicious) pot roast and everyone else contributed sides.  We had a great lunch, but I was pretty busy hosting and didn't take any pictures.

Spring Break

Over my Spring Break, Jonathan took a couple of days off, and we went to Charleston.  We did a lot of fun stuff, but I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do.

 Just for all of you who were wondering...Dave IS alive!  Jonathan, Jackie, and I met him for lunch.

We were able to snag a swing at Water Front Park.  I got a pedicure a few days before we left, so I wanted to show it off.  

On our last day in Charleston, we went to a cool restaurant and Jonathan had an enormous burger.

New Project

We have been working (for the last 2 years) on restoring this park bench.  We started in the summer of 2010, but it was too hot and I had to abandon the project (I don't handle the heat well, you know).  Now that we can both work on this, we have been trying to do a little bit each weekend.  These are some pictures of the progress we've made.

As you can see, the legs were very dirty when we started.  We think that the bench just sat in the yard and got disgusting while the other people lived here.

We started cleaning the legs with wire brushes, then decided to break out the big guns.  By big guns, I mean the drill with a brush on it. 

This is what the legs looked like when we finished cleaning them.  We primed and painted the legs, but I didn't take pictures.

We started cutting the boards for the back and the seat.

The Plant That Hates Me

I have never had a green thumb, not that I'm horrible at growing things, I just don't really know much about them.  Anyhow, Jonathan's cousin, Deborah, gave us this really pretty flower for Christmas (I think it was an amarylis).  I tried, I really did...it just refused to grow.  I finally had enough and decided to part ways with the plant.  So, I carried it from the window it was growing in to the sink until I could decide what to do with it.  On the way to the sink, the plant jumped to its death.  It spilled in the sink (not a huge deal), but then, it fell all over the floor, which I had JUST swept, vacuumed, and steam mopped.  I was a tad perturbed.  Not only had I just vacuumed, I had rinsed the filter out, so it wasn't dry and I couldn't re-clean the floor.  Instead of letting the dirt that I couldn't sweep up with the broom be tracked all through the house,  I just put a plastic tablecloth over it.  It's still there, in case you're wondering.

Oh, Hail No!

We didn't have plans for last weekend (which was GREAT!) so we just hung around here on Saturday.  We worked in the yard some, but just as soon as we came in, the rain started.  Then the hail started.

It wasn't enormous, but there was a lot of it!  This is a close up of our front porch.

Through the front yard, with Jonathan's car.

Looking at my car through the mud room door.

Later, we went out to Lowe's, and saw this beautiful rainbow!

Schnitzel and Perogies

One of Jonathan's favorite meals was the pork schnitzel he ate in Romania a few years ago.  He has tried several times to recreate it, and I think we've finally found the solution.

We use chicken instead of pork, but you can really use any kind of meat, from what I understand. 
Here are step by step instructions.

Start with very thin pieces of chicken.  You can tenderize them or just buy them already sliced thin. 

(That's what I do).

We soak the chicken in chicken broth first, then flour the chicken.

After you flour the chicken, coat it in an egg that you've beaten.

Cover the chicken in bread crumbs.  You can do as much or as little as you want.

Finally, fry the chicken.  We put butter in the pan before frying.  The picture below shows what the chicken should look like when it goes into the frying pan and what the finished product looks like.

That's all!  We usually eat schnitzel with perogies, which is pasta filled with potatoes. 

In Pap's words: Scrumpudious!