Football, fish, food in general.

Life has continued on... as it usually does. 

Mostly, I work. 

Sometimes I cook.

But we always have fun.

Here are some highlights from the past couple of weeks. First comes my next big meal experiment. I tried my hand at cooking fish! I chopped up some onions, green pepper, mushrooms, and mixed them with butter and bread crumbs. I layed out the fish after having spread some crumbs on the bottom, and threw my little concoction over the top. I cooked the fish at 400 degrees for twenty minutes. It was good, but I am fairly certain I should have sauteed the onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Any suggestions?

Then one night, after work, I came home and found my apartment suprisingly spotless, flowers on the table, candles lit, and a story written out in a card for me.... it was a good night.

Next came an MLS football game. Stephen, Dinger, and Miller all played football together, so it is really fun to go to games with them. They judge every movement on the field, whilst I have no clue what is going on...

Then came Jay-mas at home this past Friday. It was so nice to be home even if it was just for a little bit, and even when I wasn't actually home, I was at Liz and Jays (AKA Grandma and Grandpas). It was so nice to be with Jay, Liz, Mom, Dad, Lori, and Melissa Taylor again. Pretty much, it is movie quotes, laughs, and jabs at each other all night. Loved it!

This brings us today, the end of an eight day stretch at work, and moosh came to visit! She had some things from my room at home to bring and wanted to... help me cook dinner..... We made mussels, pasta, and ceasar salad, and it was FABULOUS.

Life continues... who knows what is coming next?!

How to make a kick-a** sandwich!

Ok. So some of you know I really enjoy my cheese sandwiches. I started eating them when I was a vegetarian and just never stopped! In Stephens' opinion, I make the best sandwiches (meaty or otherwise) in the whole world and we thought I should share my expertise with the rest of the three people that read this blog.

So here is what you need to know:
    1. First of all, you need to freeze your bread. I know it seems annoying to have to defrost it everytime you want some but this is the first key. When I defrost it, I put it in for thirty seconds and this leaves the bread a little cold and a little warm. This half and half temperature is a tricky thing to figure out.. on my microwave in Bloomfield, it takes 14 seconds, but in my Bay City microwave, it is a solid thirty.

   2. After you have defrosted the bread comes the time for the mayonnaise. THIS IS IMPORTANT. You MUST spread the mayo evenly from bread crust to bread crust. The amount you put on is up to you; I prefer to have just a little brown showing through the white, but every bit of the surface needs to be covered. This makes me a crazy person, I am aware, but it is incredibly important. If you want to get really specific, I determine the amount of mayo based on the amount of stuff you plan to put on top of it (3 pieces of turkey, two pieces of cheese, etc).

   3. Then comes the substance. The issue here is to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. I know Stephen and myself pretty well, so I know that I don't like meat and I know he only really likes turkey and not too much cheese. So, Stephen gets two pieces of turkey and one piece of muenster. I prefer my two pieces of cheese, either muenster on muenster or muenster on provolone. All you need to know is preferences to do this part well.

4. THE KEY: lettuce. You MUST have something crunchy to have a good sandwich. Maybe I am just a texture freak but the idea of all mushy things = EW to me. Therefore, I put a WHOLE bunch of lettuce on top. I probably use three or four leaves per sandwich, preferably the CRUNCHY parts of the leaf. Use the nutritious parts for a salad :-)

5. Cut diagonally and you have the perfect sandwich.

6. Serve with Cheez-its and a yogurt and you have the perfect lunch:-)

I hope this was informative and that all of your sandwich pleasures are now fullfilled.

Life = Work... again

Life is settling once more. I have begun my job. It's pretty wonderful. Everything is so similar to the H.I. that my training is pretty complete. After a few more morning shifts I will feel quite confident in most every area. After a doosy of a first week (7 days straight and three in a row not seeing my husband), I have been loving my "weekend" these last two days. I got plenty done and my feet got a wonderful break!

Truthfully, there is not much to share. I am making dinner tonight and it is a little bit of an experiment... Tilapia topped with bread crumbs, chopped green pepper, chopped onion, chopped mushrooms, and a little bit of lemon juice. I am throwing it in the oven momentarily so we will see how that turns out. I am also cooking up some corn-on-the-cob sort of as a back up plan... or just because it is corn season and it is so wonderful!

I think that is all for now! As I say probably 123,948 times a day... Have a great day!

The Wedding Season.

I truly did not understand what the wedding season was until this year. I only officially second shot two weddings but with the addition of my own as well as Dinger and Kristy's, it was a busy couple of months from July to August.

I thought I would just put up a couple from each wedding that I went to, whether I was an official shooter or not. I enjoyed each one and each one was perfectly wonderful! (Mine was of course the best but, to view those photos, you will need to visit www.stilllifephoto.com/sleich )

Alright. I am done plugging. Enjoy!


First came Jon and Carly Van Eck on July 10, 2010.

Then was our own big fiesta... like I said, please visit www.stilllifephoto.com/sleich for pictures :-)

Then I was second shooter with Ambie at James and Laura Zandstra's on August 6, 2010.

and finally, Stephens best friend Nathan Breidinger married miss Kristy Clark on August 14, 2010.

 And there you have it! One more to go.. Josh and Sarah, here we come!!

And life goes on...

Since the honeymoon, Stephen and I have been having many new adventures. I shot a wedding with Amberle in Chicago, Stephen has gotten underway at his full-time job with the H.D., Stephens best friend Dinger married his beautiful wife Kristy, we have fully unpacked and put everything in its place, we have finished our wedding shower thank you cards (its a start;-), and as of recently, I found myself with my own full time job at the H Hotel in Midland!

The first weekend after our honeymoon, I headed to Chicago with Ambie to shoot a wedding with her. While we were there, we got to see and play with Christopher, Ryan, and of course Tucker (their dog).

And, Stephen and I have discovered (well its pretty hard to miss, ) that we have approximately 134 ducks living in the pond behind our house. Sometimes we feed them. Sometimes they are vicious. I had the terrifying experience of watching one duck bite a seagull in the neck, just for being in the crowd waiting for food. I tried really hard to get the seagull some food but, to no avail. He was sort of far away from the rest of the ducks after that and bread isn't super aerodynamic. Here's our ducks; the little devils...

They really are nuts. Anyway, I have also tried my hand at cooking a couple of times now. (Though I still think Mac'n'cheese and hot dogs make a perfectly good meal.) My first attempt was to do a baked pasta that Lily is super good at and, as far as I'm concerned, I thought it was fabulous! And so did the boy which is probably the most important as he usually eats most of whatever I cook...

I tried enchiladas this week! I made them last night and Stephen managed to finish them off my lunch today. Guess that went well too. I also went home for a day last week, while Stephen was at work. Miles was chillin with Mom for a couple of days so I thought I would get in on that action; plus, Lily had the day off and I still had more stuff to bring back here.

There's my guy. Love him.

I have orientation for my new job today! That will definitely be an adventure. The hotel is a LARGE one. It's not so much that there are so many rooms, as there are a lot of rooms, a full work-out facility, two restaurants, a few banquet centers, and I don't really know what else. Check it out for yourself!

Anyway, I think thats all as adventures go for the last couple weeks. I might throw some pictures up here from the wedding I shot as soon as I finish editing them, as well as some from Dinger and Kristy's and our weekend up north! See ya real soon!

Well, we did it.

Stephen and I have been married for a couple of weeks now and I feel the need to write it down. These are very new adventures we are embarking on and if you are interested, you can come along for the ride.

The honeymoon was FABULOUS! It was so fun to be taken care of every step of the way. We stayed at Old Key West resort at Disney World. The second we got off the plane, we were greeted by cast members who lead us to the Magical Express that whisked us away to our resort property. Then began the congratulatory remarks. When you have those just married pins on, you become a celebrity; and when you wear the hats, everyone else becomes the paparazzi. We made our way into many peoples family albums. Here are a few pictures from our family album!

The trip was absolutely perfect. We had a shuffle board tournament (which I won, of course), we took tons of boat rides to and from downtown Disney, we cooled off in the pool, went to Animal Kingdom and Epcot, and got free deserts with every meal. If we could have stayed longer, I am sure we would have. But back to real life we came, and this time we didn't have to say goodbye!!

On that note, married life is weird. I love it, don't get me wrong. But the things you disagree about are just different than before. For example, we had a solid discussion about which side of the sink we should regularly run the water on. In my family, it always runs on the disposal side, but in his, it runs on the sinky side. These are strange discussions. I never would have even thought to ask him this before we got married. It doesn't really even matter. Marriage is just weird. I think I will stick with it though...

As a happy post script, I will add that I have an interview at a swanky little hotel in downtown Midland today! Wish me luck!