Easter
For Easter, we went to Corner and stayed with my parents. It was a nice weekend. Maximus LOVES playing in the country and getting spoiled by Gran. This year, Easter fell on a very special day. It was the same date, that 15 years ago, my wonderful Granddad passed away. The anniversary of his death has never been on Easter before, and I found that to be very special this year. My Granddad was not just a mediocre, average granddad, but he was, by far, the BEST granddad there has ever been. I have missed him terribly for the past 15 years, but I know he has a front row seat at everything I have done since then and I can't wait to see him again one day. Easter is an amazing holiday, I pray everyday we are reminded of the significance and meaning it gives to our lives.
Happy Birthday, Lance!
Lance's 28th birthday was April 11th, so the weekend following Easter, we loaded up and headed to north Georgia to visit Lance's family. Another nice trip. We took Maximus along to Taylorsville for the first time, and he did very well, except for the attempt Lance made at introducing him to his cat, Popcorn. That was not very pleasant. Lance had a nice birthday, it was the first birthday I have celebrated with him and we can't wait for MANY more :) He also racked up. Lance got a new pair of flip flops, dress shoes, and three shirts, plus a "husband" birthday card! .....in two years he will be 30 :) Once we got back to Auburn, Sunday afternoon I made Lance a special birthday dinner, which will lead us to the next topic. For dessert, I made my first ever attempt at vegan baking. I have made plenty of vegan dishes, but was very excited to bake! This is not the prettiest picture (and, No, the marshmallows are not vegan, but they are Lance's favorite!) but, if had tasted it, you wouldn't care how ugly it looked, the BEST thing I have ever tasted.
Vegans :)
That's right, Lance and I have finally made the full conversion to vegans. It took a while, but I think our process is a very successful one. We never really had vegan as our ultimate goal, we eventually just stumbled upon it. We started out just vegetarian, then we went all-natural (we ate nothing processed, hydrogenated, or with high fructose corn syrup) which was a very extensive label reading processed if we bought something pre-made, this led to us making a lot of things from scratch to eliminate all the preservatives. Then, we decided to rid our diets of dairy. We figured the only thing we should do now is proclaim a vegan diet, so we did. I love vegan cooking, some of it can be very involved- it's so much fun. I had a few recipes down, but they have gotten very repetitive in our weekly dinner menu, so I ordered my first vegan cookbook and am anxiously awaiting the delivery of veganomicon. I have never heard a bad review of this book, so if only UPS could get it here a little faster, I would be thrilled :) Lance and I have found quite a few favorite staples in our diet. We LOVE Almond Breeze almond milk, we buy the refrigerated one, but they also sell a shelf stable :) It is amazing, we get unsweetened vanilla. Another favorite discovery of mine (not so much for Lance) is carob chips- Oh my!- they taste just like robin eggs Easter candy. Carob is the replacement for chocolate, you can get carob chips or powder, and I am sold, I love it! I am addicted to these Luna bars. They are amazing, I also can settle for caramel nut brownie, since you can find them for cheaper in a box of 6, but cookies n cream and white chocolate macadamia are my FAVORITE. Lance likes to explore gluten free options and loves his tapioca bread. We traded out our Kroger bagels for Thomas, just check the ingredient list and see the high fructose corn syrup- yuck! We love Morningstar chik'n grillers , and vegan Bocas. I am very proud of myself, I now make my own polenta :) I love whole grain oats and frozen raspberries each morning for breakfast, I made this switch from instant oatmeal :) Lance still has his egg beaters and occasional fish, he's a laid back vegan. I actually got lobster for his birthday, it was precooked so I just had to let it thaw and boil it for a few minutes to warm it up. It was a WHOLE lobster, I used to like seafood, but this really grossed me out. I lost my appetite, I just knew at some point it was going to start crawling away!
School
On to our final subject, school. I GRADUATE IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!! I am so excited. What the future holds, who knows! Hopefully a job, that would be nice. Lance is presenting his PhD proposal next Wednesday, the 21st. I am very thrilled, I get to attend and make goodies to take for his committee :) I am using some of my new Fiesta serveware :)
So, there is your Haney update :) We are just loving our married life. It's so special spending every day with your best friend.
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