NAVY Move Number One

After the honeymoon, my main goal was to find a place to live down in Charleston. Naturally, I have been looking at places since April, but the market down South moves quickly. One month is not enough time for me to try to find a place that I love. I began to stress out as the days rolled by and I could not find anything that I loved. The worst part is knowing I have to be out of my house by the 31st of July. To me that means out by the 30th in order to clean and make it live-in ready for the next tenants. Which means: I AM MOVING OUT THIS WEEKEND! CRAZINESS! Of course my stress level is skyrocketing!

Monday morning I made a dozen phone calls trying to figure out the move in dates and stipulations on houses in Charleston. Out of 10 houses, only two were move in ready and pet friendly. Great. I did not have much to work with. They original town house I was leaning towards was move in ready by Saturday. The owner was buying a house and would close on Thursday. Meaning he would move out on Thursday, have the house cleaned and ready for us by Saturday. Perfect! The other property was in the area that we wanted. A three bedroom, two and a half bathroom town house with a fenced back yard. My only concern was the outside of the house did not look that great. After sending my sister to check it out, my opinion completely changed and I began to lean more towards the three bedroom house.

I received a few emails and phone calls last night that made my decision which place I was going to go for. The man trying to buy a house found out he could not close until next week. Therefore, it was not going to work out. I called the real estate agent for the three bedroom house, filled out an application, and sent it back to her. Today I mailed off the checks for the deposit and first month of rent and she is mailing me the lease! I am patting myself on the back for a job well done for securing a place to live for the next two years of our lives!

Now for pictures.

The front of the house. You can see why I was skeptical at first. The front patio is fenced in.

The kitchen that has 100% more counter space than my house now. I can't wait to have the WHOLE fridge to my self! (Well us)

The Family room. We are getting two leather couches from Adam's grandmother. And I can just imagine how I am going to arrange them!

The dining area. I cannot wait to repaint my table and set everything up!

The upstairs has three bedrooms. And you bet you can expect more pictures as soon as I set everything up! Check back for a post post-move! :)

Angry Bird Infant Hat

Tonight I conquered the Angry Bird. I designed an Angry Bird infant hat. I will do the remaining colors, but I started out with the red bird. I will post the pattern once I have finished the rest of the birds.

Home Made Mac N Cheese

One of my favorite meals of all time is macaroni and cheese. I just love it! Partly because all I ate when I was little was Easy Mac. Now, I like to try home made recipes.

Like most pasta recipes, you cook the noodles first. I used shells noodles. 

I then melted the butter and added the flour. After the flour and butter mixture thickened, I added the milk real slowly. And continued to stir.

Once all of the milk was added, I added the cheeses.

Adding Milk.

Finished sauce.

Finished product.

Ingredients:

-1 box of noodles

-2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

-1/2 Parmesan cheese

-3 cups milk

-1/4 cup butter (half a stick)

-2 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Cook noodles according to the box. Drain. Set aside.

2. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour to make roux. Add milk slowly, stirring constantly. Stir in cheeses, and cook over low heat until cheese is melted and sauce thickens.

2. Poor sauce over noodles and serve instantly.

Enjoy!

Baby Fever

At this point in my life I feel like the character Tina Fey plays in the movie "Baby Mama." Everyone around me is having babies! My cousin's wife recently had a baby boy. I could not be more proud of him! Baby Gregory is going to be spoiled rotten by me! Being the crafty person that I am, I made some baby items to stuff in a "Welcome to the World" baby basket!

The sleeves

Sewing everything together (it's inside out)

The finished product! 

Also being the big Disney fan that I am, I decided to pass on the love to little Gregory. Check it out.

The main part of the hat.

Adding the buttons.

Mickey Ears

Ears and hat.

The finished product.

I used this pattern Mickey Mouse Hat.

I cannot wait to see Little Gregory wear these items. I will keep posting all the goodies I continue to make! :)

Nantucket 2012

My husband was given orders by the NAVY to sail to Nantucket July 9th. He is an officer and his job was to instruct midshipmen and teach them how to sail. For a sailor, that is not a hard job. For a newlywed husband, this was not an ideal job. However, you cannot say no to the NAVY. I pouted quite a bit. He was supposed to be gone for about two weeks. He was due to arrive in Nantucket Thursday night and dock Friday morning. Wednesday night I decided that I was going to surprise him in Nantucket. I considered my options on flying versus driving. It turns out that it is much cheaper to drive. I planned out my trip and mapquested my directions to Nantucket. I left for Nantucket Thursday night.

Driving through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel

Traffic on I95N

Welcome to Delaware!

Very neat flag arrangement.

Delaware Bridge

Welcome to New Jersey!

I drove to Jackson, New Jersey, where I stayed with my freshman roommate from college. I was just trying to break up the trip so I was not driving through the night. Once I got to her house, her mom and sister decided to take me to the Jersey Shore. Off we went. I experienced delicious Italian pizza pie and even better Italian Ice at Strollo's. It was the perfect experience.

5:30am was my departure time from New Jersey, but I could not sleep at all due to my excitement! I just wanted to see my husband and surprise him! So I left the Nappi household at 3:00am and started driving north. I passed through Manhattan early in the morning and I watched the sun rise over the New York City skyline. I continued on into Connecticut, Rhode Island, and finally into Massachusetts! I arrived in Hyannis, parked the car, and walked to the Ferry station to catch a ferry to Nantucket Island. Poor Tora was scared to death, but behaved extremely well on the ferry. The ride was about an hour long. As we pulled into the dock, we passed the NAVY sailing boats. I waved like crazy and shouted for Adam. I could not wait to get off that boat to see my husband!

New York Skyline

George Washington Memorial Bridge-Upper Level

Driving through Manhattan

Beautiful Sunrise

Welcome to Connecticut!

Welcome to Cape Cod!

Very neat bridge

Cape Code carved into the bushes!

Waiting for the ferry.

On the ferry.

watching little kids run by.

I'm not happy mom....

Why are you torturing me?

Navy Sailboats!

Upon arriving, I raced off the boat, grabbed my bags and headed straight for the sailboats. When I bumped into my husband, who was coming to find me! :) We then walked to his sponsors house. Dropped off some things. Then drove to our hotel called the Beachside. It was beautiful and quaint. We  walked down to the beach while waiting for our room. Tora, who is normally frightened of water, walked into the water to cool off. :) I was a proud doggy mommy. 

We dropped Tora off at the room and went on a search for something to eat. After exploring the docks, shops, and yachts, we decided to eat at Sea Dog Cafe where I got the MOST DELICIOUS Adult Root Beer Float. It was truly amazing!

After dinner, we walked around the downtown area some more. We were both tired from our trips. Adam spend 92 hours on a sailboat and I had spend about 9 hours in the car and only got 1 hour of sleep. So we turned in early. We woke up early to go to the FOG Cafe where we had the best eggs benedict. We walked around looking at all the yachts some more, then walked back to our hotel. We swam in the pool, then went back to town to walk around. We ate dinner at CRU Oyster Bar. A really nice restaurant overlooking the nicest yachts on the docks. After dinner we walked around and shopped until it was time to go on our ghost walk! We walked around and viewed some of the oldest buildings in Nantucket and heard of the hauntings. After the ghost tour, we were very hungry so we walked down to the docks to eat at Early Street Cafe. Then we walked back to our room to play with Tora and watch our new favorite television show, "Tanked". 

The next morning we ate breakfast at our hotel, checked out and began walking back towards town. I hopped on the next ferry departing to Hyannis and said my goodbyes. 

Nantucket was a beautiful place and I wish I had more time to spend there. It is so rich in history and so beautiful and filled with nature.