Oh Panera, you give me such joy in visiting you. With your selection of pastries, bagels, breads, and not to mention your delicious soups, salads, and sandwiches I feel that the possibilities are endless. And my most favorite thing…free wifi. I have so many fond memories of spending time sitting in your comfy booths catching up with my girl friends. Before I moved, you were less than 5 minutes away from me and were walking/biking distance. Now, you’re about 20 minutes away and my heart is NOT happy. When Jimmy and I move, one of the first things I shall do is find my nearest Panera Bread for my weekly fix. Thank you for always being there for me.

Always,
Jen

Anyway, things are going great! A few weeks ago Jimmy got his date to leave for basic training…November 29th! We were awaiting a call to let us know he’d be leaving any day now, but it’s nice for us to have a date and make the most of the time we have left together before we are away from each other for 8 weeks. We’re thinking of taking a mini-vacation somewhere, but not sure where yet. It’ll be nice that he will get to be here on Thanksgiving, but the thought of spending Christmas and New Years without him makes me cry a little inside, and I’ll definitely be crying on the outside when he’s gone. All I gotta say is that we better have one heck of an amazing Valentine’s Day when he comes back!!

Coming up: Disneyland pics, Palm Springs, outfits, and so forth

x
Jen

She came to visit me a little while ago and our day consisted of lunch at Johnny Rocket’s, shopping, and being silly with my camera in the playground down the street!

my top is from Marshall’s, shorts and belt are thrifted, and shoes are from Target.

We probably looked so silly at the playground with my tripod set up and running around and posing, but…it was fun so who cares! If we looked dumb, we looked dumb together. I love my friends

x
Jen

Lemon poppyseed muffin with vanilla chai….

and a very grumpy Jimmy.

The muffin may have been questionable as well. As soon as I finished it, Jimmy walked into our room and our conversation went something like this…
Jimmy: “You didn’t eat one of the lemon poppyseed muffins, did you?”
Me: “…Why?”
Jimmy: “…They have some mold on them.”
Me: (still chewing the last of it) “….Oh.”

Umm, whoops.
However, it tasted fine, and 6 hours later I feel fine….hmmm.

Jimmy and I at a family friend’s place

Enjoyed a pool party with family and friends. And also, my sis-in-love Jax and her bf BJ came for a visit from Australia for a total of 6 days. Spending time with them was so lovely and parting was emotional since we don’t know when we’ll see them again, but all in all, such a blast.

dinner party with a bunch of families and friends

amazingly yummy desserts,

So now that Summer is slowing down and coming to an end, my hours at work are picking up. The end of summer will probably bring lots of changes for Jimmy and I. We are still patiently waiting, and at times even feeling a little antsy, but trying to make the most of it and cherishing our time, with each other and with family. We’ve been going on dates and hanging out with our friends often and it’s been so much fun! Jimmy’s 21st birthday is coming up in about a week and we will probably go out to dinner and order his first glass of wine

I just finished answering questions for another blog interview so I will be posting about that later. Blog interviews are way too much fun! Take care friends

x

plain bagel with strawberry cream cheese and chocolate soy milk (thanks jax!)

but right about now i’m craving…

expect my next post to be a mushy one!

yummy brunch:

Jimmy, Jen (me), Jacky, Jim, JoAnn, Jon, Jhen, Josselyn, Great grampa & Great grandma Hammer. So many J’s!

Great grandma and grandpa Hammer with their new Great-grandaughter, Joss.

The happy little family of three.

Beautiful baby girl Joss

Baby, mom, and aunties

Mom and dad! I loved taking these.

And us

I tried to make this entry short but it ended up being long anyway. Hah, oh well. Anyway, these were taken a few weeks ago. It was such a fun day, we went out to celebrate Great grandma Hammer’s birthday. Jimmy and I actually have our one year wedding anniversary coming up and I’ve been thinking lately about how thankful I am for such an amazing husband and best friend but when I look at these photos I realize that I am also thankful for his amazing family that I married into. I have fallen in love with them and feel so blessed to be a part of the clan. God is so good. I just wanted to share the happiness of this day with the e-world

xx

artichoke and feta!

More posts coming soon! I am in lazy mode and haven’t touched my camera in a week or so, which is a big deal for me.

So that’s my update. Here are some pictures from when Jimmy took me on a date to Oak Glen a few days before Christmas. Jimmy and I agreed that as laid back as we are, it’s nice to go out on dates every so often and have some quality alone time together. And although we don’t have a little family of our own yet, when we do, our dates will definitely still be a priority. That boy never fails to make me feel special and loved, so you can imagine how much I enjoy our dates. I am such a lucky girl. =]

And to make up for my lack of posting, I’ll make this a very image-heavy post.

Lunch at Apple Annie’s, and a look at their bakery…

Then we went to the petting zoo

Peacocks are one of my favorite birds ever. It was so fun to see them walking around freely.

favorite favorite FAVORITE moment of the day. Everyone who knows me well knows that deer and fawns are my favorite animal!

And in case you were wondering what I’m wearing…

my coat is from forever21 a few years ago, the circle scarf is from wet seal, and my dress and oxfords are thrifted.

Most of the pictures are of me because Jimmy preferred to be behind the camera snapping shots, but I stole the camera from him a few times and snuck these in. He does makes a dashing cowboy, if I do say so myself.

And us

If you actually read through this entire entry and looked at all the pictures, my hats off to you!

double chocolate chip muffin with hot chocolate and extra marshmellows. i’m surprised i didn’t get a tummy ache! but if i did, it would have been worth it

these are the books i just got done reading.

i have sort of a book project going on right now, you could say.

and us!