Children/Things 'Old People' Do

Often as it seems erin and I end up talking about kids. Not that we want any in the close future, but I think that because so many of our friends around us have them the conversation goes that way. So the other day we were in Costco, enjoying the plethora of samples and I think we found a safe alternative to children. The nice thing is that you don't have to feed, change or really play with them and the chances of being hit by a car are lower... But they did seem a little impersonal and kind of cold.

I think that we have managed to recover from all the crazy travel. We have worked out the mostly everything with the airlines and as of right now I am back on my normal work schedule. We moved up the start date for erin's work and she will start on the 11th of April. (WHOOHOO!! She adds).

Thankfully life has not gotten too busy that we cannot get in some quality time together. Last Monday for our 'date night' we spent the night in and started on a puzzle. It is one of the activities we like to do together that often makes our friends comment that we are an 'old' couple. I guess we are already an 'old' couple after only 2 months of marriage then I am sure that I should be scheduled to retire in the next year or so. Not sure how that will work out. So I will have to let everyone else decide. Until then, enjoy the completed puzzle below.

-Nick

The Beef Experiment: French Dip a.k.a. Au jus

Every Monday night Erin and I have 'date night'. It is the night we claim for ourselves to do whatever we want together. Some nights this is watch movies, other nights we go out to eat, well for tonight it was making dinner at home, and tonight's main course, french dip.

Erin slaved over a hot crock pot for many hours to come up with this dish. You can see the initial steps to the process here.

Then rising early in the morning with me, erin took care of setting our little roast (which we got in the discount meat section of Fredmeyer, yay for cheap meat) along with the collection of spices into the pot.

After a whole day of work, the dish was ready. Oh the scent of the dish when I walked into the house. Here is the end product. Along with a few pictures of erin and I preparing.






And so after our intense preparation and table setting we had the end product seen below. Happy little french dips on dinner rolls.

First Adventure Post

Welcome to everyone who is out there reading. We have just finished what I think was one of the most stressful and crazy adventures that I have ever had. An emergency evacuation from a Navy base on Yokosuka, Japan. You can read some of my and my wife's adventures on my old blog: nicktojapan.blogspot.com.

Now, I am happy to say we are here at home. I am enjoying my second cup of coffee, using the strategy of taking in large quantities of caffeine to conquer the desire to rest while erin, she had a different approach... actually napping.

Either way, I am sitting here creating a new blog and she is letting our decorative pillow create cool impressions on her cheek. The reason though behind the blog is after realizing that we had a lot of craziness happening in the last 72 hours keeping communication open was tough, and well my old blog I had geared around trips to Japan, and the title of the blog made sense being 'Nick to Japan' and I wasn't updating it when I was not in Japan. So overall, we had some communication breakdown and I know family and friends would love to be kept up to date on our lives outside of the trips we make to Japan.

Also I know it isn't always as easy to keep up with everyone all the time and this is hopefully another way that those interested can follow along with our lives. Well without getting on Facebook all the time and not everyone is on Facebook. I know though keeping this up to date is on our shoulders, so give us a little grace and hopefully we will remember to update it often enough.

So, welcome again to a new blog, a new title, and a new address and new adventures.

-Nick