Monthly Archives: November 2007

Nov 22 2007

happy thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish all my wonderful readers a Happy Thanksgiving!

I woke up this morning to the sound of RAIN! Wonderful, delicious rain… I am so thankful that God gave us rain today. It’s been mighty dry here. Now we only need 19 1/2 more inches. ;-)

I also woke up with two little kitties curled up next to my body. I am so grateful for cats, and that I can have two of them living with me. Even if they want breakfast at 5am I am thankful for them. :-)

I was able to take a hot shower this morning. About two weeks ago, our hot water heater started having problems. We went for about a week without hot water while they were trying to fix it, before they finally just gave up and replaced the whole hot water heater. I am grateful for three things: 1) that my apartment complex was very prompt in attending to it, 2) that we haven’t had any problems with it since they put the new one in, and 3) that we are renting so we didn’t have to pay out of pocket for any of it. :-)

I am also thankful for friends like Beth and her family. This is the third year they’ve invited us to their house, and when we told them this year that Paul had to work and so we wouldn’t be able to get there until 4-ish, they were very willing to push their dinner back so we could join them. I am so happy that CNN let Paul take the day off today! And so dinner can be held when originally scheduled. :-) I am thankful that I get to spend this day with dear friends and with a dear husband.

Thank You, God, for everything You’ve given me! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (And f you’re not American, well I hope you have a good day still!)

 

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the LORD is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
- Psalm 100

Nov 21 2007

do you like Christmas music?

And, do you like Michael W. Smith? Well I like both so I was really excited to see BooMama’s post today.

If you are a blogger who lives in the U.S. then you can go take advantage of a CD giveaway of Michael W. Smith’s Christmas album, It’s a Wondeful Christmas. They are giving away copies to the first 150 people who sign up! So hurry! Click on the image below!

UPDATE: I just checked, and all the CDs are gone now. Sorry! You can still listen to the music by clicking the link below.

mws banner

Nov 21 2007

our new car

Thanks to Joanna for passing along this link. Kia is making a new SUV and I think we should get it. What do you think? Looks like they made it just for us!

In other news, Paul just found out he is getting tomorrow off!! We thought he was going to work, but his boss decided to cut the staff down to the minimum! I hope this doesn’t hurt Paul’s chances of getting Christmas off. :-/ But for now, I’m so excited to see him ALL DAY tomorrow!

So, Thanksgiving is tomorrow. We are going to be spending the day with our dear friends, Beth and her family. This will be the 3rd Thanksgiving we have spent with them, so it’s becoming somewhat of a tradition!

Nov 20 2007

homemade pumpkin pie

Editor’s note: Check out the updated recipe, with more pictures and some refinement after 3 years of making these pumpkin pies.

This year, Paul has really gotten into homemade pumpkin pie. He’s made three pies already! He was going to make a fourth pie, but I think he ran out of time. Here is the process he followed.

The best pumpkins to use are pie pumpkins. They are fairly small, about 2 lbs each, and can be bought at the grocery store. We found them at Publix for $0.99/lb.

First, you need to cut it in half and scoop out the insides. Save the seeds – you can cook them later for a yummy treat! Mmm! Then put the pieces of pumpkin in a dish face down (unlike how they are pictured) and put some foil to cover the pumpkin. Bake it for an hour at 375 degrees.

Here is what it looks like cut and de-seeded. This was Paul’s first time so he cooked them face up. He has since decided that it is better cooking them face down.

After they are cooked scoop out the pumpkin with a spoon. This part should be easy – the pumpkin practically falls off the skin. Mix together the following ingredients until smooth. (Paul added flour if the mixture seemed a bit runny.)

1 1/2 cup pumpkin, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.), 2 eggs

Pour the mixture into a pie crust. We cheated and used a store-bought crust. So I guess it’s not COMPLETELY homemade. Still tasted good, though! Cooking pumpkin pies can be a little tricky. They first go into the oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes but then the temperature is lowered to 325 for 45 minutes.

Mmmm…. It smells good! Is it done yet?

Our crust got a little burnt, but otherwise it was delicious! We decided that we liked it better after it sat in the refrigerator a day or two. We covered it with foil to protect it. If you’re Paul (or a Garrison), you will mark the foil: “Pumpkin 3.14159265″. Savor and enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 19 2007

a new chapter

My dear blog readers,

On my blog I have chronicled many changes of my life, and you have followed me through all of them. Especially those who have been around since the beginning – Beth, Joanna, Matt. I’ve gone from a college student, to a college grad. I’ve gone from single, to engaged, to single again, to engaged again, and then finally to married! I’ve gone from pet-less to having a fish, to having two cats, to having a dog, to not having a dog, to having a dog again (for the last time), and now dog-less. I’ve gone from a dorm, to a college apartment, to my own apartment, to a townhouse, and now back to an apartment. I’ve gone from Indiana, to Orlando, and now to Atlanta. I’ve gone from childless to- haha, I’m still childless, gotcha. ;-) I’ve gone from a part-time job at our college, to a temporary full-time position, to a full-time salaried job.

And now, I enter a new phase of my life.

Many of you already know this, but last September I stopped working at my job as a full-time graphic designer at an advertising agency and am now pursuing freelance work at home. Paul and I had been debating about this for a long time, and God finally made it very clear to us that this was the road He wanted me to take. The goal is to build up my business, continue paying off our loans, and hopefully when we have children I’ll be able to bring in some income without having to spend a lot of time marketing myself. (Our home IS my main priority, but I don’t ever want to stop designing.)

One of the reasons I wanted to work from home is so I could focus a bit more on being helpmate to my husband. By being home, I can work harder to decrease our living costs and keep a handle on the housework and cooking so Paul can relax when he gets home. (I plan to go into this a little more in-depth later, about my views on gender roles and how that has impacted our choices.) Since we don’t have children (yet!), I don’t really NEED all-day-every-day to do housework and cook. And, since we do still have financial needs, I am going to work from home doing graphic design! I am very blessed to have a career that makes this possible. I am also excited about the flexibility this affords me – if it doesn’t work out and I need to go get another job, I can. And, I am able to work as little as I want – so for now, I can work more, and then in the future when we have kids I can work less.

These past few weeks I have been working on getting my website together – I decided to name my business “twentysixcats design”. You can check out my website here, including my newly updated portfolio! So if you were familiar with my last portfolio, you should go check out this one and see what new pieces I’ve done. If you know anyone who is in need of a designer, send them my way! And if I’ve done design work for you, send me a few sentences for my “testimonials” page!

You may notice the focus of my blog shifting a bit. I will be putting more emphasis on frugality and home-y things, more recipes and the like. I will probably talk a bit more about my design work. Of course, I’ll still be the same Ashley, that crazy girl who loves cats so much she named her blog after them. So thanks for reading, and please continue to stop by!