I AM SURROUNDED

Seth and I have talked numerous times about how disoriented we are in South Carolina. We are no longer surrounded by the Wasatch Mountains but we are surrounded by trees. It feels a little claustrophobic.

The picture below is a picture from our front door. Seth has wanted to go and explore the "woods" I have been a little bit of a party pooper and refused to venture out. Seriously...it sounds like a perfect set up for a horror movie (Young newlywed couple goes on a romantic walk in the woods when...). He tried to venture out the other day without me and was unable to locate an entrance due to the thickness of the "woods."

We also have a great view of the pool and tennis court. I know the pool looks quite enticing. You would expect it to be nice and cool but it is really like bath water. We have enjoyed it nonetheless.

Here is a picture of our "great" room. As a mentioned in a previous post, we have hung up some of our pictures and put out frames. If you look closely you will see that most of them are still empty. We haven't quite got around to putting pictures of "us" in them. We are waiting for our wedding day pictures. Our photographer Stacy has a sneak peak on her blog. If you want to check it out.

Here is a picture of our bedroom. I should have taken a picture of our pillows in particular. It was an absolute pain to find the shams. We had registered back in June and by the time we got out here many of the stores were nearly sold out. Two stores and one online order later...we had all our shams.
Here is our computer/guest room.

There was also a huge pile of boxes/tupperwares on the opposite wall as the computer this morning. I decided to tackle the challenge and try to fit them in our storage room. I had to adjust the shelves on the storage shelf we bought and as I was struggling to pull one of the shelves up I chipped my tooth. I ran into the house to check out the damage (and to ask Seth if he would would still love me with a chipped tooth). It isn't too bad but it is going to bother me until our dental insurance kicks in at he beginning of the month. For the next couple of weeks I will have a bit of a snaggle tooth.

After assessing the damage to my tooth I headed back out to the storage room and quickly cut my finger on the metal shelves. It is days like this when you wonder why you got out of bed. At least we don't have a pile of boxes in our room.

Guest bathroom.

Master vanity and bathroom.

Cute husband making me a gourmet breakfast burrito.

Fry Friday...The tradition continues

I thought I would update you on the state of Fry Friday.

Two weeks ago we fried french fries. We learned that the oil has to be really hot for french fries. Did I mention that we learned this after the first batch. In short...the first batch didn't cook quickly and had a good chance to just soak in all the oil. The second batch cooked up a little better...we still ate all the french fries.


We also made chocolate purses also referred to as sweet wantons. You simply wrap a slice of banana up with a piece of chocolate and marshmallow in a wanton wrapper. We forgot the marshmallow wrapper but they still tasted delicious. We sprinkled powdered sugar on the top. A word to the wise...powdered sugar does not feel good when inhaled. I forget every time.

Yesterday was our one month Anniversary and Fry Friday. We decided to make Navajo tacos. First we browned and seasoned the meat. Then we caramelized onions and mushrooms and added them to the meat.

We prepared all of our toppings which were colorful and for the most part healthy.

We had a scone mix that we mixed up, rolled out, and cut up.

Then the best part...we fried the scones.


Assembly of the final product came next...It tasted even better than it looks...yum.


We finished the night off by frying up some bananas. The batter had coconut milk in it. We found a new cookbook at Costco that has Asian recipes with photographed steps. We did learn that the bananas can't be fried in the basket. We had a few cook right to the basket. We also learned that you can't fry blackberries...it seemed like a good idea.

Back to School

It is that time of year again. The time of year where the song "Back to School" from Grease plays over and over again in my head. This could quite possibly be my favorite time of year. A new school year symbolizes a new beginning, a chance to start over, a chance to get it right. With a new beginning comes new clothes, new school supplies, etc. In the movie "You've got mail" Meg Ryan talks about sending a bouquet of sharpened pencils...that pretty much sums it up for me. While I go back to school every year...technically...Seth is headed back to graduate school.

I snapped the picture above on our way to campus wide orientation. Campus wide orientation was a little boring...but we got a free t-shirt. Today Seth had department orientation and as he walked out the door this morning I asked to take his picture again...he laughed and continued walking out the door. I don't think he is used to someone documenting every moment of his life. I told him that his family is probably grateful for me because they finally know what is going on in his life.

I remember as I was starting graduate school I said to my dad "I just wish these next two years will go by really fast." My dad wisely looked at me and said "Suzanne, don't wish your life away, enjoy every moment of it." Well that is exactly what I plan to do while Seth is in graduate school. I plan to enjoy every moment...or at least try to enjoy every moment in the next two years. South Carolina is absolutely beautiful...it is hot...but absolutely beautiful. The people here are friendly and very religious. I have never heard "amen" or "praise the lord" so much in my life. History is thick here...everywhere you turn there is a historical marker. We have a lot to learn and a lot of places to visit. I just hope we can get to it all.



Here are a few of the fun facts we have learned so far.

• State Motto: "While I breathe I hope"
• State Tree: Sabal Palmetto
  
• State Fruit: Peach
  
• Wikipedia told me that "It has been a Clemson tradition dating from September 24, 1977 for Clemson fans to spend two dollar bills on away game trips. This began when Clemson played Georgia Tech "for the last time" as Tech refused to travel to Clemson. Of the seventeen games played between Tech and Clemson between 1953 and 1977, only once, in 1974, did the Yellow Jackets deign to come to Death Valley. To show the Atlanta business community how much money Clemson fans contributed to the local economy which would not be coming to town anymore, Tiger fans spent vast quantities of two dollar bills, many of them stamped with Tiger Paws. This was the start of Clemson's two dollar bill tradition, which was very popular in the 1980s and 1990s, but has waned since then."
• The official uniform for the other students in Seth's department appears to be a polo shirt, khaki shorts, and loafers.
• The official uniforms for all of the undergrad co-eds appears to be short athletic shorts all of the same style and tank tops.
  
• Everyone wears orange on campus...okay not everyone but there is a lot of orange.
  

South Carolina...Home Sweet Home

On July 31st we finally arrived in South Carolina. We drove by our apartment and picked up our keys. We ended up staying the night at a hotel. After church we came back to our empty apartment. We spent the night on the floor. The next day our trailer came. We had a little help from our new ward friends unloading it.

I stayed up entirely too late unpacking but we got almost everything unpacked that first night. I will post pictures of our place as it looks now soon but until then this is how our place looks empty.

A picture from our front door looking into our living room and kitchen.


A picture from our kitchen looking into our living room.

Guest bathroom
Master bedroom
We have been getting settled and have loved testing out our new kitchen appliances. Here I am preparing gourmet panini sandwiches on our panini maker.

Yum.
Here Seth is trying out his new deep fryer.

He made some yummy burritos. We have decided to make every Friday a "Fry" Friday. This Friday we will be making fries and wantons filled with chocolate and marshmallows.

Our Friend Mandi told us about Blue Bell ice cream before we moved out. Once we got here we spotted it and had to give it a try. We have tried blueberry cobbler so far and it is delicious.

We have even hung a few odds and ends up. Thank you Sarah and Joe for this beautiful sign. We have it above our kitchen table and think of you every time we sit down to eat.

I convinced Seth to let me buy a bread machine with some of our Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift cards. To be honest it wasn't hard to convince him. His mom makes yummy bread in a bread machine every time we visit. This was my second loaf a cinnamon raisin swirl.

North Carolina

I have dreamed of living in North Carolina for the last nine years. It all started when my family took a trip back East. Maryland was the furthest South that we visited but I decided that I loved all of the green trees and wanted to live on the East Coast. I looked at a map and chose North Carolina as my dream location. Why North Carolina...I liked the name. So for the last nine years I have dreamed of living in in North Carolina. I have had North Carolina on my watch list for Travelocity and Southwest and have toyed with the thought of moving away from Utah several times. Well on July 30th all my dreams came true. After visiting the Smoky Mountains Seth and I drove down to Asheville. We arrived in the late afternoon so we took in a movie (Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio) and stopped at a pizza place for dinner.

On July 31st we visited the Biltmore Estate. The estate was built by George Vanderbilt and completed in 1895. It is the largest residence in the United States. We took an audio tour of the house and enjoyed the gardens. This place was amazing. I have been to Versaille in France and was much more impressed by the Biltmore. George Vanderbilt apparently spent half of his fortune to build the estate. It is truly remarkable. If you come to visit….I will probably take you there.

Here the happy couple is in front of the Biltmore Estate.
Seth volunteered to take a photo of me in front of the Biltmore.

He quickly discovered his new favorite game of "keep the camera away from Suzanne." I will spare you all the photos he took. I am quite positive that he will keep me laughing everyday.

He also volunteered to take a photo of me in front the Lion just outside the front doors. The night before we had looked through the pictures of our trip and he realized most of the pictures were of him.


These pictures are from the back porch. The views were spectacular. I'm not sure it looked quite this way when the Vanderbilt's lived in the home. They planted most of the trees on the Estate.



The picture below is outside the Grand staircase tower. There were doors on each level...I suppose to allow servants to keep the windows clean. I wish we could have taken pictures inside...but it was not allowed.

Inside of this room the Vanderbilt's only child Cornelia was born. She gave birth to her two sons in the same room.


The gardens were exquisite. If only Darcy would have hopped out of the pond.




At this point it started to rain. I thought it was romantic...at least until it started pouring.





We thought the trees below were quite interesting. They had shaped a pear and apple tree into this shape. Who knew you could do such a thing.


We arrived back at the car drenched.

Then we had a picnic in the car.