I'm still alive :)

I haven't blogged in awhile, I know. Here are a few updates for what has been going on with us lately. I painted the living room and kitchen recently with the help of my mother-in-law, and now it is "Lime Granita" - light green. :) I really like how it turned out. The living room used to be a golden yellow color which I never really loved even though I picked it out! Sometimes paint just doesn't quite turn out how you pictured it in your head. So after two years of living with the yellow, I am much happier with the green. I think it brightens up the room and makes it feel bigger. The kitchen used to be red (it was a bear to paint - it took three to four coats to keep it from looking magenta!) and I loved the red. However, with the oak cabinets and the 80's floors it made it feel kind of old, and again it made it feel darker and smaller. The green makes the kitchen feel really big, which was the first impression we had when we looked at this house to begin with. I think it was one of the major selling points for us! So I am happy how it has turned out. Now I need to look into some curtains for both the living room and kitchen... darn. :)



On a different note, Aaron's sister Rachael and her husband Justin came back to visit this past weekend.


They came back to Iowa City for five days, and then they are off to Davenport to see Justin's sister's new baby boy. While they were here we celebrated Rachael's birthday and I made her birthday cake - red velvet cake with pecan coconut cream cheese frosting. The cake was from my Grandma Trunnell's recipe, and the frosting was a Paula Dean recipe and I think they went well together. I told Aaron I may have missed my calling in life since I really like to bake things! (I could never make it as a baker - they get up way too early!) Here is the birthday cake...


I also made the cake with the traditional frosting too. I have to say, after trying both it is hard to decide which is better. I think it depends on what you are in the mood for.


Anyway, I had to throw in some pictures of Aaron and his dad making the pizza we had for Rachael's birthday dinner. It was really good! Pizza margarita (maybe that's not how you spell it) with homemade tomato sauce, homemade pizza dough, fresh mozzerella, and fresh basil (from the planter on my deck :) - it's ridiculous how much that little basil plant has grown!).



Well, it has been a good summer so far - I'm excited that I still have a few weeks left before I have to go back to school. We'll be heading out to California in August to see Rachael and Justin, and then we'll spend a few days in Vegas after that. We're excited for that! Hope you all are having a good summer!