7 Years

Today Ryan and I are celebrating 7 years together. We met 7 years ago at Clark University at Hughes Hall where we lived on the same floor a few doors down from each other. We have stayed together through 1.5 years at Clark University, 2 years long distance while we both finished our Masters Degree and 1.5 years living at my parents apartment and 2 years in our first apartment together in Brooklyn where we got engaged and married last March. It's a special time as we are also about to celebrate 1 year of marriage! I couldn't be happier spending this time with my best friend (and our wonderful cat Haley who is celebrating her half birthday as well today as she turns 6.5 years old).

We started the morning early with a FreshDirect delivery - we got a few premade salads (Nicoise, Grilled Salmon and Blue Cheese/Pistachio) and a few dinners for the week. Tonight we are going to make coconut rice with Chicken Tikka and a side salad. We also have Grilled Salmon with Lemon and Capers and Mashed Yams. FreshDirect sides in a snap and meal helpers are so easy to prepare and most are gluten free, clean and contain no preservatives or hydrogenated oils. They make meal time easy and fun and keep us from microwaving a meal that has a lot of sodium and isn't the best option - though sometimes they are what we need to just eat and be done with the meal quickly. I also got everything we need to make Chicken Parmesan with gluten free linguine for Friday's dinner!

Ryan has been working so hard on the apartment and staying up late to make the track lighting in the living room perfect. He installed a dimmer last night and hung a picture in the entryway. Everything is really coming together beautifully and I have to give Ryan and lot of credit. I may be able to spend money non-stop to decorate the apartment, but without the lighting and photos on the wall, it wouldn't be a home! Our dining room table should be arriving this weekend / early next week so we are going to get the track lighting up soon so we aren't drilling the ceiling above a glass table!

This morning I was up early for the food delivery so I made Ryan breakfast - bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese wrapped in a corn tortilla (left over from taco Sunday) and a red juice that had spinach, pear, orange, apple and a beet! The color was beautiful and I think he liked it, though he mentioned that next time I should not juice the rind of the orange because it makes the juice bitter and not sweet!

It got really cold and bitter this morning so I couldn't bike to work, but I took the bus and was at the office within 15 minutes of leaving my house! I did a focus group last night and biked home in under 10 minutes! It's such a great thing to be able to commute so quickly. It's cold in the winter though so I'm not biking as much as I would like and I just hope in the summer bikes are available at docks where I need them and I don't have to go looking for an available bike!

Have a great day everyone and stay warm!
XO