life with the campbells

okay, so I'm procrastinating. I don't wanna help Mr. Soup with his paper and I don't want to pack.....
Okay, so a lot has happened since I last updated our family blog. We are no longer newlyweds as we hit the one year mark on March 21st, 2010. It really feels good to have hit that mark. Our first year of marriage was unbelievable. I think if you asked me a year ago what I knew about my husband it would differ drastically from what I know about him now. We have been so blessed to have found each other and to spend our first year of marriage together successfully. That doesn't mean we haven't gone through our share of problems this year. I think we both did not realize how much of a toll his graduate school would take on both of us. I think this semester will be the most difficult semester because of his research class. But he'll be done with his master's in December 2010!
And being happy in marriage is great....until you start gaining the love-weight. Yep. I've packed on ten pounds....eek. Mr. Soup has gained some weight too! So today I started back on my calorie counting. This is what I did three years ago and I lost 20 pounds. I hope to lose the same amount. I did really good today and stayed under 1200 calories. I just need to maintain that at all times. I ate horribly at Easter and this past weekend, but I put it all behind me and I'm moving on to a new me!
Abby had her tonsillectomy. The surgery went well and so did her recovery. We're hopeful that the surgery will prevent her from getting sick as often and missing as much school as she has in the past. We are looking forward to her visiting us again this summer!
Okay, so the big news is that we are under contract for our first home! A month ago we started looking for homes and after visitng 8 homes we found the one. Well actually we found two, but one turned out to be the one. I am really proud to say that we stayed under our pre-approval price and we found a house that one of us could afford on our own, so that if one of us lost our jobs or decided to stay home we could. We also recieved some help with the down payment from a Texas teacher bond program and some generous family members. So, our out of pocket contribution has been minimal which is nice. We will also qualify for the first-time home-buyer tax credit since we went under contract before April 30th. That being said, homebuying has been somewhat stressful. Mr. Soup and I are learning so much about homebuying and about each other. some good...some bad....but overall it renewed my faith in us as a team. I feel like we work so well together and even though it's scary at times, I know I can lean on him for support.
okay, so back to the house....We really wanted to live near my school, but we actually found a home near where we live now, but in a different city. The city still has good schools (and even if I want, I can send the kiddos to my school district) and our home is near a dog park. Our house is around the corner from my gynocologist and a hospital...a sign? Our home was built in 1973, but the woman who owned it (a former teacher) kept it in really good condition. We have four decent sized bedrooms, two car garage, a fenced backyard, a fenced sideyard, two living areas and two dining areas. Our kitchen has been updated nicely and our master bedroom is very spacious! So, it is definitely a home in which we can stay for a while. We really lucked out on it. After seeing some duds and some nice ones out of our price range, I figured we were doomed. I love our new home. I'll post some pics once we are closer to closing. I do not want to jinx anything yet....

March Craftness

I thought I'd add some of the paperie stuff I worked on while watching basketball today. One is an anniversary card for Mr. Soup. I had some cool Mexican themed paper for his card, but since we didn't get to go to Mexico I opted for the orange and blue fish (his favorite colors). I like the lone orange fish because I feel like he picked me out of a sea of blue fish! I put the star on the back because it was kind of a running theme in our wedding, plus we have stars all over our apartment as decorations. The card I made Abby is a get well card. She had her tonsillectomy on Wednesday and since there is snow in KS, we won't get to see her this weekend =(

Last night Mr. Soup and I met with the realtor. We narrowed down an area and we are going to start looking at houses next weekend. I have a favorite and Mr. Soup has a favorite. My favorite is a little small, but it is completely update. Brand new carpet, floors, new cabinets and brand new bathrooms. Mr. Soup's is a little dated, but it's huge and has a pool. Both homes have 4 bedrooms and a tall fence (those are our two must haves), so we'll see what happens.

MARCH MADNESS

This is my favorite time of year! I absolutely love college basketball. One of the reasons why we had our wedding in March last year was not only because we met in the spring, but because of my love of basketball. I love that each year we'll wedding anniversary and basketball season during the same time. I filled out my bracket today and entered in a few pools! Mr. Soup was really excited that UNT made it, but I have a feeling that K-State will pound them. Nevertheless, I'm sharing in his excitement.
March Madness extends a little bit further than just basketball in our household. Last year we were preparing to marry. We had the craziness of tying up last minute details, getting our marriage license and hosting friends and family in our city. This year we will spend our one year anniversary on the road. We still plan to eat our cake and drink some wine when we return. Abby will have a tonsilectomy tomorrow, so Mr. Soup and I are going to drive to Kansas this weekend to see her. I wish we could've been there for the actual surgery or that she could've had it done here, but it was all very last minute. I know she'll be fine, but surgeries are a big deal, especially for a little girl. I'm glad we'll be able to spend some time with her afterwards.
I paid off my car! I mailed in a big ole' check (I paid it off a few months early) a few weeks ago!
Mr. Soup and I finally got preapproved. We were really lagging on getting all the paperwork ready, but we finally did and got preapproved a week later. We got $10,000 more than we pre-qualified for and we meet with our realtor this week. We've already found some homes that we'd like to see. It all seems surreal, but I know it will feel very real, very soon.
So the madness in our house started very early in March, but we are very excited about it!

One Year Anniversary Trip

So, Mr. Soup and I just got back from our one year anniversary trip. It was a trip of extreme highs and lows. I'll start with the lows first:

When we arrived in Galveston, we filled up my car at a local Exxon station. We were approached by a guy who wanted to sell us a parking spot at his lot which was conveniently located next to the Exxon (excellent marketing). He told us that the cruise ship had not even come in due to the fog. We ended up going with his parking company (he was ten dollars cheaper than the port parking and Murad talked him down an extra five dollars). He and his workers took us to the port and told of us some places where we could kill time. We expected the delay to be a couple of hours and we quickly got bored walking the Strand, so we went to the port to check in. After waiting for four hours, we were told that the cruise ship would not come in until Friday and we would now be going on a 3 day cruise to nowhere....yep....nowhere. We planned to go on a four day cruise with one stop because it was our first cruise and we didn't want to be stuck on a 7 day cruise if it sucked. However, I wish we would've done a cruise with two stops, so that we could at least go somewhere. So, we went and got a hotel room. Luckily Mr. Soup brought his mac, so we were able to watch tons of movies to kill time. And we were very lucky to have met the discount parking guy. He arranged for rooms to be held at the Howard Johnson for the people who parked at his lot. Most of the hotels shot up their prices to $100, but we got ours for $60. Not bad. Plus, Mr. Soup is going to be reimbursed for the day we lost on the cruise. We just won't get the money for three weeks. We also got 20% off on our next cruise and we received some on board benefits. It wasn't too bad, but Carnival could've done a lot more!

Oh did I mention that two of my former students (they still attend my school, but they are now in 8th grade) were on our cruise? Nice, huh! Actually it wasn't that bad. Even though they were only a floor above us, I hardly saw them and they didn't see me in a swimsuit which was my biggest concern. They are good kids, but sometimes you just want to get away!

Mr. Soup forgot his wallet at the hotel the day we actually were going to board. Luckily, the cleaning lady found it. Our wonderful parking people came to pick us up, took us to the hotel and then turned around and brought us back to the port. They seriously were the NICEST people. They were also hilarious too!

The Carnival embarking and disembarking process could be a little more organized.

The food could've been a little better.

The drinks could be a little cheaper and stronger or at least free!

Everyone who works on the Carnival Cruise ship is not American. I don't know why this bothered me, but it did. I pictured a modern day slave ship going to various countries and convincing these foreigners to come work for them for $5.00/hr. And those people really do work all the time. Our room was cleaned twice a day. We had one waiter at the pool in the afternoon and then saw him working the late night shift at the night club. I do hope they are adequately compensated, but I have a feeling they are not....

Okay, so the highs:

Uninterupted Soup time! I love spending time with my husband. We always have so much fun together no matter what we do! The roadtrip was fun and even though we sat on the floor of a port terminal for five hours.

We went to the pool all three days. Now those of you who know my husband know he doesn't drink. Prior to the cruise, I've drank with him a total of three times: Once when KU won some football bowl (he took a crimson and blue shot with me, Christina and the owner of some bar), once at our rehearsal dinner tasting (he had wine) and at our wedding (not sure what he had that night). However, we drank from the time we got up until we went to bed. I know, I know, I shouldn't encourage his drinking, but I did! We went to the pool and ordered drinks all three days. We drank at dinner, we drank at karaoke and we drank at the night club. We had a blast! All the drinking made for late mornings, but we still enjoyed our afternoons. Carnival had comped us for lunch and dinner on the day we didn't board, so our on-board alcohol hall bill was $0. However, since we weren't going to stop in Mexico and buy souvenirs, we decided to use that money to buy more drinks. So we did end up with a balance, but it was sooo worth it!

We also played a few sports and by that I mean ping-pong and miniature golf. Mr. Soup beat me three times in ping-pong, but I beat him in miniature golf! All those summers of junior golf paid off!

We also made some great friends on this trip. We had a formal dinner each night with assigned seating. Luckily, we were seated with some awesome people. We met two girls from Houston who were a lot of fun, a couple from Katy (Houston) and a couple from WICHITA! We had a lot of fun eating dinner with them each night. Mr. Soup and the guys thought it was fun to order a dinner as a dessert. They would eat lobster for dinner and instead of ordering dessert, they'd order a steak dinner. No, I'm not kidding. It was a little embarrassing, but I'm glad my husband wasn't the one who iniated it, but he sure did enjoy doing it! We went out at night with the couple from Wichita and the two girls from Houston. Since we have 20% off from Carnival, we may try to take a trip together next spring or summer. In fact, we are going to Wichita this weekend and we're going to hang out with the couple when we go down there. I'm very excited! I love meeting new people, especially randomly!

The night life was the best part of the cruise. My favorite of course was karaoke. I didn't sing. I would've but we had late dining and we never made it in time to get our names on the list. However, I absolutely loved the DJ. He was my favorite person on this trip. He was very flamboyant, but hilarious. He loved hip-hop music and wanted every karaoke singer to make it clap! We ended up drinking with him one of the nights at the club. He told us he loved BET! ha!

The comedian was hilarious! We saw him at the opening night show and at his own comedy show. The variety show wasn't that great. In fact, it was pretty cheesy.

I really like the night club. I loved being able to just DANCE! I danced with Mr. Soup, but it was also fun to hang out with girls and dance to songs that were popular when I was in college. I don't go out and just dance enough, so this was perfect for me.

So that's our trip in a nutshell. I'm sure I'm leaving some things out. I think what made this trip memorable were the ups and downs, spending QT with my man and meeting some great people on the way!

I gotta new attitude

so the blog is back and open for view to all who care to see what goes on in this girl's life!

I decided to kick the negative attitude. I can't control the things that happen, but I can control how I react. I have so many good things in my life to let a few things stand in the way. things were out of control for a little bit, but they're back to good....for the most part. this week was exhausting at work. Tonight was my first free night in the entire week. Mr. Soup went to go see Cornel West speak at UNT, so I made plans for dinner with a friend, but they fell through. I'm just chilling with Sampson and Maya. Some days it's nice to come home and relax with them. I love my students, but lately I've been overwhelmed with their problems, academically and personally. While Mr. Soup and I are anxious to start a family next year, I do love being a dog-mommy. I never have to worry about Sam or Maya using drugs. All I have to do is feed them, walk them and love them and they're pretty content. Plus they are adorable. I know Mr. Soup and I will have beautiful children, but Sam and Maya are as cute as can be!

I was talking to one of my co-workers and she mentioned how a lot of her students wrote essays on their new dad. The stories were all similar in plot in that they all started out with biological dad and mom together, fight ensues, mom takes kids/dad leaves, mom gets a new boyfriend and bam new dad. I thought this was really sad because you can't replace people. One of my students asked me how come I refer to my stepdaughter as my stepdaughter and not my daughter. I told her that my stepdaughter already has a mommy and I cannot replace her mom; I can only enhance her life. I do feel as though Abby is my daughter and sometimes (most of the time) I do not always agree with her mother's choices. However, I would never want to replace her as a mother. I am so thankful to have Abby in my life and to be part of hers. I think she benefits from having two families rather than one. I wish more families could see that. I wish my students' families could see that. Maybe it'd make their time at school a little more bearable if they knew they didn't have to choose between biological dad and new dad, etc.

Okay enough of that rant! So, Mr. Soup officially started his new job and officially has weekends off now! He booked our cruise and we're set to go! We're still trying to get stuff together for buying our first home. We keep going back and forth on where we want to buy. We love our area now. Great schools, shopping, parks, and restaurants. Plus, we can get to Uptown/Downtown pretty quickly. However, the homes over here are more expensive. We looked near where I work, and while we could get more house for less money, I'm just not in love with the area. Ugghhh...what to do! I am glad we're going through this process. I just have this feeling it's not going to work out, but Mr. Soup keeps reminding me that it will.

champagne cupcakes

I'm posting pictures of the champagne cupcakes. They were a success. One thing that proved to be difficult was folding the eggs into the batter. I googled for tips and found a video to help me, but it was still a challenge. The frosting was not a success. Luckily, I planned for this and bought regular frosting from Wal-Mart. I then added champagne and food coloring to it (violet + sky blue = periwinkle). So we have champagne cupcakes with periwinkle frosting to celebrate our first Valentine's Day as a married couple. Murad is taking me out to eat in a little bit, so I need to get back to getting ready! Enjoy

cooking with the campbells....for real, son!

I am a collector of recipes. I love collecting recipes and then redistributing them as my own to others! No lie. some of my favorite recipes include: zesty barbeque chicken, turkey/spinach meatloaf, chicken croissant casserole, fiesta chicken casserole (can you tell I like casseroles?), chicken roll-ups....but I don't have too many baking recipes, so I'm taking all the dessert recipes that you have!

so tomorrow is valentine's day. since we are low on funds due to some rather large upcoming purchases, I will be making some edible treats to celebrate my man! I am very lucky that my husband loves my cooking. He is always encouraging me to try new recipes and he usually loves everything I make. However, pastries are another story. We both love buttercream frosting, but our tastes kind of end there. So, if you have anything extra sweet and buttercreamy, please send it my way.

We both love chocolate covered pretzels, so tomorrow I'm making candy-covered pretzels and I'm wanting to try out this new recipe I found....champagne cupcakes. Mr. Soup and I have 6 or 7 bottles of champagne left over from our wedding. We plan to open a bottle of wine or champagne from our wedding every anniversary until we run out. However, I kind of want to open a bottle tomorrow to make these yummy treats. I'm a total dork and think it's kinda cool that they are champagne cupcakes and one of our wedding colors was champagne. Maybe I could find some periwinkle sprinkles to go on top!

Here is the recipe: http://gimmesomeoven.com/champagne-cupcakes-with-sweet-champagne-buttercream-frosting/