September 2023 Happenings

Pottery Class
We started the month with a fun new experience — making pottery on a spinning wheel! Jac’s been wanting to do that for some time, so I booked it for his birthday surprise.  It was fun!  Jac was good at it, I was terrible!


 

Here’s what we made–Jac made the plate and I made the cup.  Love it. 🙂

Making Our Home
We spent the majority of September getting Jac settled into ‘our’ house.  Check out this newly-roomy basement!!!  Jac had to saw through an old washer and dryer (huge deal!) so that we could get it out of the basement and haul it to the dump. That freed up a ton of space!  And then we just set up our combined existing shelves down there. And look at us now….TONS of space!!  TONS!!


We also shopped around A LOT for the perfect new sheds. We finally settled on Wrights Sheds way up in Kaysville.  It’s gonna cost big bucks –$16,000!–but we’ll get two big sheds out of it that we will use the heck out of.  So…can’t wait!

 

We traded beds with mom (our queen bed for her king bed) and that was AMAZING!!!  Best trade ever!!!  Mom is so nice!  Look how Beverly Hillbillies we are. 🙂

  
 
And lastly, I finally got all my books out of Cindy’s basement with the intention of donating all, or almost all.  Jac played with his new barbeque/smoker while I REALLY TRIED to say goodbye to my books.
 
  
But I couldn’t.  I wanted them all.  So when my sweet supportive Jac said “just keep ‘um all”, that’s what I did.  I now have six or more boxes of books in our newly roomy basement.  Will I read them someday?  Dunno. But maybe?  (Below are spines of some of the books that I HAVE read and really enjoyed. I took this to remind myself that I do like reading after all!)


Speaking of Jac’s new barbeque, we had some amazing meals in September with Jac’s new toy.  Check out these kebabs….yum!

Table X
After hearing about the super fancy, 10-course-meal restaurant that Alexa works at (called Table X in Salt Lake City), mom decided to splurge big time and treat us all to dinner together there.  So nice!!!! We were all sooo excited and couldn’t wait for the night to finally come….and then it did!  

Here we are, all smiles, ready for this ultra-unique experience (well, unique for all of us except Jac.)



I took pictures of each course, starting with the amuse-bouche (the bite sized hors d’oeuvre that gets the meal started).  Here they are, in order I think:


It was definitely very delicious, but for the price tag ($1,000!), I don’t think I need to have this experience again.


Still, it was SUPER FUN and memorable.  And sooo nice of mom!!!

 
(Sidenote — Look at my handsome man, all dressed up in big-person pants.  Awwww!!)

Jac’s Table X
A week after we went to Table X, we were having the family over for dinner and Jac surprised us with his own ‘rebuttal’ to Table X.  He planned a fancy, multi-course meal, and wow’d us with his many culinary creations.  

Here’s the fancy restaurant before our guests arrived:

And here are pictures of some of the courses ( I forgot to photograph one or two):

It was absolutely delicious, with stunning presentation (MUCH more memorable) and for a serious FRACTION of the price. 
 
We are so lucky to have such a culinary master in our lives! 

Weekend Adventure
For a little get away, we traveled to Elko, Nevada to catch their annual hot air balloon festival. You can read about it by clicking here.

New Kitty
Our September wasn’t busy enough (ha ha), so we decided to get a new kitty!  This is Billy. He used to be mom’s cat, but she wasn’t really ‘feelin’ it’, so we agreed to take him in.  He’s an absolute sweetie–soo affectionate and social–but he’s also very, very, very active.  Probably because he’s still pretty young.

Jac and I are really getting to like having him here, but Oliver isn’t so sure.  It’s been tense, even after keeping them separated for a few days (to get familiar through a door) and then introducing them slowly.  There’s still a staring contest most of the time.  Thankfully, the hissing and swatting are less frequent, but still….it remains to be seen if these two little guys can live together in peace.  We hope!!!


I Wrote a Book About Jac
In September, I ‘made’ a book about Jac — about why Jac he’s my man, why I love him, why I am so glad he’s in my life, what I’m excited about for our future, etc… I ordered it from Amazon, then added lots of thought and time into making it even more special. And he LOVED it.

 
It was supposed to be Jac’s birthday present (but I didn’t do it in time)
-OR- a present for Jac on our two year anniversary (but I couldn’t wait to give it to him).  So,
on a random Saturday in September, I ‘presented’ Jac with this book I
made about him.  Here it is:


And here are some sample inside pages:





It was truly fun to make, and Jac LOVED it.  And that made me happy. I love giving homemade gifts to Jac.  🙂 
 
Our Own Little Garden of Eden
The garden continued to produce vegetables galore, and was just so dang beautiful.  It’s definitely my happy place!
 

And….SERIOUS Deliciousness
Jac outdid himself in September.  Wow am I a lucky girl!!! Here are  some sample shots. What a month:

 



 


 
And lastly, a new tradition…
From now on, the first Friday of each month will be “cocktail of the month” night.  I found a list online of the best cocktails, and put it on here (see top righthand side, under challenges).  
 
This month was the minty, delicious mojito.  I’ve wanted one for months, having first tried it in Spain. SOOO delicious and refreshing! Jac surprised me with it when I got home from work.  (And the ‘cocktail of the month’ idea was born out of that). 

 

Since we had this near the end of September, we’re counting it as October’s drink.  Our next month, November, will be Jac’s favorite drink: a white Russian.  Can’t wait!
 
(We’ve decided we will have one hard-and-fast rule that we’re gonna stick to. We are only going to buy little bottles of the hard stuff. That way we don’t have hard liquor left
over.  We just want enough to make the drinks for that night, and maybe
one more time after that. If it leads to excess drinking of ‘the hard stuff’, we are
gonna end this little tradition. We both agree on that. 🙂 )