Happy Hallowiener!

this past weekend Eric's mom invited us downtown to Balboa park for the annual dachshund halloween celebration: Hallowiener



Pookie dressed up as a bee, though she refused to wear her antennae, and had fun playing with the other puppies (er, princesses, bananas, pirates and inmates)

We watched the puppy parade--here were some of the cutest costumes:





mailman...see the letters coming out of his pocket?




this little german boy..uh,puppy was too cute!




Some owners even dressed up to match their pooches:







If there was an award to be had, [and I was the judge], these would be the two winners.

This girl made this catdog costume herself! And her dog wore it!


This couple dressed their baby as a monkey and their puppies as bananas.


But pookie didn't stay interested for long:


We also found an adorable black long-haired dachshund that was up for adoption...and we're feeling a little bit sad that our landlords said no pets!

So, from the Chappells...

Happy Halloweenie!!

Weekend Hike

This whole not having a camera situation is getting a little hard on me!

This weekend's project is to dig up Eric's very old camera to use for the next couple of months.
[ps. this one is on my christmas list!]

This weekend we decided to spend Saturday afternoon at Torrey Pines, which is a state park on the coast with really beautiful hiking trails.  Since I don't have any pictures from the day, I'll share with you some pictures of the last time we went to Torrey Pines...spring break 2008!
(although the foliage was much more brown and the fog was heavy this time around.)

house update

We wish we had more money and time to spend making our house look homey, but for now we have to work with what we have. I'd like to start going to thrift stores/flea markets etc to fill in the gaps...our walls are looking so lonely and with some cooler weather finally coming in, and us looking towards spending a little more time indoors, I'm scouring the internet for cheap decorating ideas.

Here are a couple of our latest couple of projects:

I found a photo in a design book from the library that I'd like to somewhat model this shelving area after (with some modifications to make it less beachy and cluttered)



Here are our living rooms built-in shelves, previously loaded with books: (you saw a little of what it looked like before in this post)



We've got a long ways to go but it's so nice with the books gone!  We're thinking of blowing up a honeymoon photo for over the fireplace--any other ideas?

And here's where all the books went. (Billy bookcase system by Ikea...missing the corner brace in this shot)



Eric's study

Farmer's market

Last weekend Eric's mom and I visited the local farmer's market. 
We got adventurous and tried a cactus quesadilla.  It wasn't bad...the cactus strips tasted like slimy green beans.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it, but it looked something like this:

 photo source

I spent less than $10 and got peaches, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, & zucchini....enough veggies to last us a couple weeks!

Thankfully, this was a couple days before the tragic camera incident, so I have some photos to share:

Prickly pears (Jungle Book anyone?)



Bitter Melon. The lady at the booth said people cut it into strips and put it on salads.



I miss the family's garden mucho.


Crazy and yummy flavors of juices!  (plus horchata)


Peaches galore


and some lovely orchids



I wish I had a photo to share as well of the pretty autumn bouquet Eric's mom bought me...but our camera broke before I got one of it arranged in a vase.  It included sunflowers and dahlias in yellows and reds.

It finally cooled down this week (in the mid 60's) which was a welcome surprise. I'm craving pumpkin everything and hope to pick some up in the next week or two :-)

First thing on the menu: homemade pumpkin spice lattes.  Take that, Starbucks!

Life update

It seems like school started (a month ago already!) and our lives made a sudden turn onto busy street.  I'm hoping we're finally settling into a schedule that sticks.
Here are a couple of the highlights from the last month!

• Soon into the semester Eric and I realized that he was not going to be able to continue to work as well as fulfill the other responsibilities of class, internship, young peoples, etc...so he turned in his resignation to the travel agency he was working for.  This was a big relief for both of us, even though our wallets have tightened up a bit.  Eric is able to use that work time to accomplish other things and we're both feeling like we have a little more time for eachother.
  
  
• We're continuing to lead young peoples on Wednesday nights and are enjoying it.  Eric gives the talk about once a month and is going though the book of John.  We're also studying Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges and discussing them in small groups.  Myself and the wife of another seminary student have been leading the junior and senior girls and have enjoyed getting to know them.  (Eric has been leading the senior boys small group)
  
  
• This weekend was the first session of a bi-weekly Saturday morning women's Bible study led by Mrs. Godfrey (the wife of the president of the seminary).  We're also studying a Jerry Bridges book, Growing Your Faith.  There are about 20 attending, mostly moms of young children, and older women.  I"m looking forward to it (And actually enjoying the motivation to get up at 8am on a Saturday!)
  
  
• Eric and I are auditing the class "Theology of the Sacraments" at WSC and are learning a lot about the history of baptism (primarily) and the Lord's supper from the early church to present time.  It's been really interesting and enlightening so far, but we're both glad we don't have to write the 15-20 page paper at the end of the semester!  It's amazing how little I know about the sacraments after 21 years in the church.
  
  
• We had a couple of Eric's friends from seminary over for dinner the week before last.  It wasn't a flawless dinner, but I think the guys appreciated a home-cooked meal, and it was fun having them over.  We're hoping to have a few seminary students and couples over for dinner this coming Sunday.  I love hostessing, but it still takes so much energy, and I'd really like our house to be in better shape before we make a habit of it.  Luckily, most of our friends are either poor sem. students or poor newlyweds, so they're not very judgmental :-)
  

Anyway, that's life for us right now!  I have a bunch of posts planned this week to catch up, than hopefully I can stay on top of it.

Also, this is a picture free post because last weekend, my camera fell off the desk in the kitchen and broke.  I can't get it to turn on at all.  I don't think it's worth fixing as it is almost 2.5 years old...unfortunately, our budget isn't allowing a replacement right now...and my picture-obsessed self is suffering (it broke not an hour before we had a grogeous double rainbow!)  Christmas idea....*hint hint*

Several weeks ago we hosted our church's young peoples at the house.  About 30 kids came over and 5 leaders (plus us) squeezed into rows of chairs around the bonfire.

Eric remembered the famous Gesch nacho dip (I was previously unfamiliar with it), so we took the opportunity to make it for this night.  4 ingredients + a few minutes in the microwave = some very happy kids (Eric included)

So here's the recipe:
half a block of velveeta cheese cut into cubes
1 package of cream cheese cut into cubes

place them in a 9 x 9 pan or casserole dish





pour 1 can of hormal chili with no beans over the cheese cubes
pour 3/4 bottle of picante over cheese and chili
(forgot to take a picture of this step)

Microwave for 3 minutes, stir, and microwave 2 more minutes, until all cheese is melted.



dip and enjoy :-)

Here's a blurry picture of some of the kids over sitting around our fire pit.



and standing over on the back patio by the food.


the end result of the dip?



yum, yum.