SQUIRRELS. Are Pesky.

Helllloooo!
I hope everyone had a delicious, thankful, and pleasant Thanksgiving!
Steve and I are getting settled into our place! We found a nice house with 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, all hardwood floors, fresh paint, and a garage that fits both of our vehicles. We moved in on Thursday, November 19, so we've been here just over a week now. So far things have been coming together nicely. We had to get just about everything that anyone would need to furnish a home and was just starting out. We literally had Steve's TV, my bed, our clothes, and minimal kitchen "furnishings," (I guess you would call them...). So needless to say we had a bit of shopping to do. Woe is me. Hehehe.
We've since purchased a washer and dryer, a dining room table and chairs, a dresser, a TV stand, a desk, and we are waiting for our new couch to be delivered today!

Here is Steve admiring our new "espresso" counter-height table and chairs. My favorite part about our table is that the leaf to expand it is stored under the table top and comes out butterfly-style when you need it! How cool is that?

Here is the first meal that we ate at our new table. I made tilapia, rice, and butter beans.

Steve and I had read about butter beans before we moved to Alabama. We found some at the grocery store and wondered what all the hoop-lah was about.

Me, about to try butter beans for the first time. Are they any good?

Yes, they are!

They are an earthy-tasting bean with a very potato-like texture on the inside. The inside is even white like potatoes, like butter beans were actually potatoes in disguise. Or something. And, (amazingly!) they taste fantastic with butter on them.

Our table was delivered the day before Thanksgiving, and thank goodness because I decided 2 days before thanksgiving that "darn it, I want Thanksgiving dinner." So yes, I cooked a full-blown all-out Thanksgiving dinner for Steve and I that probably could have fed a family of at least 8. But it turned out well. And we still have about a half ton of leftovers to eat. I made my mom's cranberry relish, a pecan pie, a 12 lb turkey, a box of stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, veggies, rolls, and gravy! Yum yum. I was going to make a pumpkin pie too but ended up buying a pre-made one due to the "shortage" of canned pumpkin this year. :-(

Here is what our Thanksgiving spread looked like. Lovely on our new table!

Here's is my turkey! It was yum-yummy. :-)

So I'm sure, at this point you're wondering, so what does all this have to do with pesky woodland creatures? Well I'll tell you. Come to find out, it's nesting season for flying squirrels, and around this time of year many people have problems with them invading their attic. Oh yes, we definetly have squirrels, but they aren't in the attic. They decided to chew a hole in the side of the house and are now living in the wall in our bedroom RIGHT next to the head of our bed. SQUIRRELS ARE NOT QUIET! And become particularly ACTIVE at DAWN. We notified our landlord who had humane traps set out a few days ago, but the squirrels have proved to be smarter than we thought. :-(

Steve and I were listening to the chewing and scratching at dawn this morning, making sure to give the squirrels a few good bumps on our bedroom wall as a thanks for waking us up at dawn again. And then, Steve was listening to the wall and said "I think it's right here. And when he touched the wall, it broke! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The squirrels had not only been chewing on the framework inside the wall, but also on the wall it self. To make matters more interesting, the squirrel was right inside the hole!!! So at dawn this morning, Steve and I are stumbling around the house in the half-darkness looking for something to put in front on the hole until we could call our landlord to have something done about it. "Put this cardboard and some packing tape!" "No the tape will take the paint off the wall." "There's a HOLE in the wall!"

There is now a board and a heavy box in front of the hole, because a squirrel has already stuck a nose, a bushy tail, and one teeny tiny paw through the hole into our bedroom. (We're convinced it's a squirrel-monster and it's trying to get us!!)

SEEEEE?!?!? Squirrel-monster!

I checked on the hole earlier and they (we think there are 2, actually) are having a grand old time making the hole in our wall bigger. It's all very interesting, LOL.
I shall continue to provide breaking coverage on this squirrel story as it develops.
<3 Hilabee

We made it!

Hooray! We made it into Birmingham last night. We checked into a temporary living facility where they charge by the week instead of by the night like a hotel. It's a quaint little studio with a bed and a kitchenette and a bathroom, enough to get us though until we find a place to live. We searched online for the better part of the day today for houses to rent, and came across a few that looked promising. There are definitely some cute houses out here!
The remainder of our drive here was uneventful, by the last day I was so tired of driving I could hardly see straight. 4 days of driving 10 hours really wears on you. Alabama is definitely alot different than California. I think the food is the main thing, there is tons of butter and grease and frying used in alot (scratch that, ALL) of the food out here, and my stomach is just not used to it. I can't wait until we get into our home so I can start cooking again.
On another note, there are tons of beautiful trees out here, and they are everywhere!
Once we got into the eastern-most area of Texas there started to be less and less desert and more and more forest. There are also alot of rivers and lakes in the area, and there's this really clean and fresh feeling in the air. :-)
After Odessa, TX we stayed in a little town called Minden in Louisiana. Yesterday, our last day of driving, we left Minden and drove over the Mississippi river and through Mississipi. (I snapped a picture as I drove over the Missisippi, see my Facebook!)Once we crossed into Alabama it was only another 3 hours or so into Birmingham.
I saw a dead armadillo on the side of the road yesterday. Interesting looking little creature. I had no idea they existed out here!
I'm going to go relax with my hubby now, we've got a date with some wine and a goofy movie!
Ttyl y'all,
Hilabee ;-)

Texas

Hello again! Steve and I stopped to stay tonite in Odessa, TX. We made it over 500 miles again today. So far the trip is easy going. We've been blessed with beautiful weather both days. There are alot of oil pumps out here and they are right next to the highway. They have a smell unlike anything I've ever smelled before- it's like a cross between something burning and an earthy yet chemical smell. After a while it was starting to make my nose burn, like when you clean the bathroom and use to much bleach. Lol. I also saw a large male deer (buck) grazing about 5 feet off the side of the road today, which was odd because it was in broad daylight. My dad said it's mating season for deer roghtnow and it's got them roaming and acting strangely. Anywho, off to bed now, good nite!
<3
Hilabee

Hello from AZ!

Helllo! Steve and I left CA this morning for Alabama, and we made it to Benson, AZ tonight. We drove a total of about 9 hours today and averaged about 60 mph. Benson is about 35 miles east of Tuscon. We drove past Picacho Peak and Tombstone already and I wanted to stop both places! Anyway, we're going to have dinner at Denny's now and then get some rest.
Until tomorrow,
Hilabee

Packing & Moving, Moving & Packing

Hello there! As most of you know already, Steve and I were married in a small, quick, civil ceremony on Friday November 6. We had only close family there and we all celebrated with a sushi lunch afterward. Steve and I spent the weekend at the Hilton as a "mini honeymoon" before we got back to reality and got down to business on moving. When we got home on Sunday I immediately started packing again and Steve went down to see about getting a truck. He came back with out a truck due to a problem with the bank, but he went back down there this morning after talking with the bank and got one without a problem. He then went to his storage and got all of his belongings out of it and should be on his way over with everything so we can get my things loaded into it. I'm going to try my darndest to post daily while we're on the road so everyone can stay in the loop!
Ttyl y'all!
<3 Hilabee

Well Well Well

Oh my! It's been a week since my last post! Well Where do I start...
Tuesday was my last day at work. My boss was very kind and wrote a letter of recommendation for me to give to prospective employers. :-)
Wednesday I did a bunch of running around, and my Grandma is visiting family in San Diego so I met her down there and stayed the night.
On Thursday morning we got up early and went down to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego for Steve's graduation from Recruiters' Course. Hooray it's over! And he looked handsome in his dress blues. :-) We all went out to lunch afterwards at Fillippi's and had some delicious hot-from-the-oven pizza! Yumm yumm!
Steve and I then had some running around to do but over the course of Thursday afternoon and Friday we:
Took my engagement ring in to be sized and repaired (one of the prongs was bent) and bought wedding bands.
Purchased a whole bunch of ribbons, buttons, and the like for Steve's uniforms that he'll need when we go to Alabama.
Went to his bank to add me to his account (no job=no income for me!)
Picked up our marriage license.
Reserved the hotel rooms where our parents will be staying the night before we get married.
Packed for our trip to Wisconsin.
And had a birthday party for me/going away party for us on Saturday!
Thank you to everyone who came to the party and to everyone who sent their happy birthday wishes! It was a happy birthday indeed!
:-)
We're off to Wisconsin for a week starting tomorrow. I'll try and keep posting!
<3

Where the Wild Things Are???

I took my 10 year old sister to see the new movie Where the Wild Things Are tonight. It was a favorite book of mine when I was kid and my sister has read the book as well. Except the movie wasn't at all what I expected. It was just so strange. I don't remember the book well enough to remember the exact story line, but I remembered enough to recognize the characters. It was just so unsettled in their little monster community. And when things went wrong they acted irrationally and child-like. One monster was even really violent throwing things and punching walls. It made me think: what kind of lesson is this for kids who go to see the movie? And then when the movie was over, I felt like there wasn't really a resolution to the problem. It was all just really bizarre. I thought kids movies are supposed to be happy?
My movie rating: Rent It.
Did anyone else think the same thing about this movie? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
<3 Hilabee