hangin' with mom and pop meldrum!

Roberta made tomato soup with sour cream cobwebs!

Blackened grilled cheese (veggie cream cheese, colby and gruyere) with bugs!!!!!!

Ta-Da!! Mom and Dad Meldrum holding our pumpkin "Shrek"

Our spooky place settings :) I looooooved it!!!

i love halloween

Note the flying bat!

His eyes light up!!

Since we won't be home for the first halloween in our new place, hubby surprised me today by decorating the house for when I got home! I am obsessed with all of the scary movies that are on right now (Halloweentown, hello disney channel!) all things pumpkin scented and orange...and just the overall feeling of fall. I cannot wait to hand out candy next year, eat blackened grilled cheese sammies at the in-laws and break in our house halloween style. So000, hubbs drapped "caution" tape along our fence, only it says "caution fresh graves" it is sooooo cool!! He hung up a bat that turns on and flies in circles, and put up cobwebs and other fun stuff. I love it, and him for making our house so spooooky!!!

pumpkin fest '08

monday, relaxing monday...

After a wonderful lunch in the city with my hubby, I came home from a long day to a wonderful surprise...he decided Mondays would be his night to cook!! Oh holy, I was dizzy with happiness. That meant I could putter around, watch my shows, take a bath..and do NOTHING! He's a great cook too! He actually follows the recipes, while I just rush through everything. Plus all of my dinners end up tasting like pepper flakes anyway ;)
I got to plop down on the couch, watch gossip girls, eat brie and crackers and think about what a thoughtful husband I have...not to mention the amazing aromas that were coming from the kitchen! We ate healthy burritos and cuddled in our clean, pumpkin smelling house...mmmm...is it Monday yet? Thanks babe!!!

happy "one month married" anniversary!

Saturday- whilst the hubby was at work, I went to SJ to pick up my bridesmaid dress from alterations. She did an amazing job. I am now dubbing this the million dollar dress :) Alyze's wedding is in one week!!! It's a whole weekend of events, starting during the day on Halloween. After the rehearsal, we are going on a bus to the city for cocktails and dinner with the wedding party and her relatives from NY. Hubby and I are making a romantic weekend out of it, staying in the hotel and most likely remembering our wedding :) Speaking of...today is our "one month married anniversary!!!" Happy Anniversary my darling! He's coming to the city today for lunch, YAY!!! He's the best.
When I got home from SJ, I CLEANED. When I say cleaned, I mean I scrubbed our baseboards with a toothbrush kind-of cleaned :) I lit a pumpkin candle and watched scary movies...it was perfection. This continued through-out the night. After I made dinner we went on an adventure to buy scratchers (hubbs won $75 off of 2!) and find me some candy :) The weather, the time of year..all of it puts me in such a cozy stay-at-home kinda mood!
Sunday- Hubby had an intense work-out planned. Afterwards we got a surprise visit from 2 of our favorite prople, the Sorensens! They had been at a wedding in Palo Alto but stopped by anyway, it was sooo great to see them. We made plans for us to go to their house in Visalia in December. I can't wait!! We then had to quickly get ready for my aunt Maria's "Mad Hatter" themed b-day party in SJ. We dressed up as the king and queen of hearts (simply by pinning face cards to our shirts, lol) photos above. Her house is next door to the famous Falafel Drive-In...YAY!!! We picked some up for dinner. yummmm....

a visit to the wine country- east bay style

We are inheriting my old piano. I fully intend on taking lessons again!

These posts are totally random, but since I closed my wedding site I want to have certain photos up from our weeks before the wedding. I want it to remain clear in my mind everytime I look at the blog. It's sort of like a trip down memory lane for me, details for me to remember when I sit down and finally write that novel! Anyway, we went with a few friends to Livermore on a Sunday to watch a hula hooping contest at a winery. No joke. Here's us practicing, and a few from the remainder of the day.

world series already?!

With all of the wedding planning, I didn't even realize baseball season was almost over! Here is a photo from the last game I went to with Jen. It was a gorgeous day, and we had so.much.fun.

Love you Jen :)

pizza bar anyone?

For last night's celebration I had intended on making a grilled pizza, but by the time I got home it was dark, so we decided to use the oven. I had bought all the ingredients for a pizza bar!! What is a pizza bar you may ask? I had 4 WW crusts, with toppings such as:

jalapenos

pineapple

gruyere, jalapeno jack, parmesean and chedder cheese

kalamata olives

spinach

olive oil

bell pepper and onion sausage

& of course veggies!

The hubbs fav was the gruyere cheese and sausage one. My fav was a mixture I had thought up of no sauce, just olive oil, parmesean, spinach, kalamata's and pepper flakes. SO GOOD!

My boy got to smoke a cigar, play his guitar and sip on some pumpkin beer from buffalo bills. All in all I think he had a wonderful night! Congrats babe!

my auntie Sue

Lately my thoughts have been on my aunt Sue, and what an amazing gal she is. She's going through some pretty difficult medical treatments right now, and although a very brave woman, it doesn't make it any easier. For a post-bachelorette gift, she gave Matt and I this disney sculpture: it's my 2 favorite things :)

We love you auntie Sue!!! xoxo

love from a family friend...

I received an e-mail from Diana today, with such a lovely comment that she had tried to post but didn't go through. She said:

You're not the only one who thought your wedding was amazing, Aleyta... I truly think yours was the nicestwedding I've ever attended- including my own 35 yearsago (yikes!) Your family and Matt's were so presentand obviously WITH you. And it was all about yourlove- for each other and your families and friends. It was homespun and had such caring touches. We had alovely time... even though I wept from the momentyour mom walked down the aisle until you and Mattwalked together. You done good, sweetie.love, diana

Thank you Diana! And thank you to everyone who helped to make our wedding day so totally perfect. Muah! xoxoxoxoxo Last months bride :)

yay hubby!!!!

This is from Thanksgiving last year...I can't believe it's already fall. Time passes so quickly when you're happy!!!!!

My wonderful husband is now off probabtion at work. What that really means is that it would be really hard for them to fire him now, not that they would ever have any reason to. He truly is the prodigal husband and professional. So I celebrated with him last night by cooking him red meat! I usually don't make much red meat, when we eat tacos or burgers I use ground lean turkey. This dish had both top sirloin AND jalapeno sausage. I will post the recipe tomorrow. I found it in this months edition of "Cooking Light"

Tonight I'm going to make grilled pizza on the bbq! I found a recipe that looks too good to pass up. We wanted to sit outside before it gets too cold. For his pizza I am using gruyere cheese, sausage, nutmeg, cheese and mushrooms. Mine will be the same minus the meat. I can't wait. I can't TELL you how hard it is to be back at work and away from the hubs. Luckily I love my job, but I do love my house more and spending sime with my boy...so it's been a long week. My cousin is coming over this weekend to teach me how to cook manicotti (can you tell I relate being a new wife to learning how to cook??) and help figure out a decorating style for our house. I really want to use all of my new kitchen appliances, so anytime I'm not totally exhausted I've been trying to cook a real meal. Our new non stick pan, compliments of the Sorensens is AMAZING. I know, it took me awhile to jump on that bandwagon, but I've gone in head first and now want a whole set. Love them. I'm going grocery shopping for pizza ingredients as well as a few other things:

cucumbers

tomatoes

sweet potatoes

WW pitas

granola

soy milk

cous cous

Anne's organic bbq sauce

hummus

brussel sprouts

peppered turkey

WW tortillas

Has anyone ever used Bob's Red Mill products? I've been meaning to try them. Oh, and I plan on cleaning my baseboards tonight in between celebrating my hubbie's success. Until tomorrow!

some non-pro wedding pics!

These were taken by Sarah and her husband Kyle.

the married couple

I got this photo from Linda Ziebarth, a close friend from Minnesota. I love it. (and him!)

disneymania!

I decided to post a few photos from my bachelorette party since it was such an amazing adventure. It was so well planned, and such a fun time I get teary eyed just thinking back on it. All my favorite people were there and the girls all became friends, and all of my aunties got new nieces!!
This is at dinner one night, the background was so pretty I took a photo with each of the 13 girls!
I am a very competitive person, as is Sarah. I won though :) Getting pretend arrested by the Anaheim cops. Pretty entertaining stuff.

Yes my aunt held this up the entire day for our group to follow. She also made those hats, personalized each one and we all wore matching shirts!

Just before the new Toy Story ride. It was the best ride EVER.

Below was the itinerary my aunt sent out...freakin' awesome:

Another Princess Heads for Happily Ever After Itinerary

Disneyland Resort, Anaheim California Friday September 12th through Sunday September 14th
Carousel Inn and Suites, 1530 Harbor Blvd. Anaheim, CA 92802 800-854-6767
Reservations under Autumn Gutierrez #160902, #160903 & #182208

The following princesses will be in attendance and will arrive at the Castle Carousel through a variety of conveyances:
Aleyta Carroll

Megan Hubbs
Katy Smith
Sarah Sorenson
Kathryn Hunt
Jessica Dillon
Kristen Warren
Natalie Carpenter
Alyze Veliz
Anna Schochenmaier
Autumn Gutierrez
Genevieve Gutierrez
Lisa Jacobs

Jennifer Hansen


Friday September 12th Royal Coach Departures from Burlingame and San Jose
Coach Pumpkin - Jennifer, Katy, Megan and Kathryn
-Meet in Burlingame at 320 Clarendon Rd at 6:00am for a 6:15am roll away. Kathryn cell (650)400-1889
Coach Pixie Dust- Aleyta, Autumn, Genevieve and Jessica
-Meet in San Jose at 1183 Fruitdale Ave at 6:30am for a 6:45am roll away. Autumn cell (408)656-4038
The two coaches will meet at approximately 7:15am at the intersection of 101 and 152 east at the Starbucks to caravan on the road to the castle. Approximate arrival at the Carousel Inn is 1:30pm. All other royalty will arrive at various times. When you arrive, please call Autumn on her cell and you will be given any last minute instructions
Roommates are as follows
Sleeping Beauty’s Chamber (View Suite) = Aleyta, Genevieve, Anna, Jessica, Kristen & Sarah
Ariel’s Grotto (Resort Suite) = Alyze, Jennifer, Megan, Katy, Natalie
Neverland (Resort Suite) = Autumn, Lisa & Kathryn

Activities
Friday September 12th
6:00pm- cocktail party in Sleeping Beauty’s Chamber
7:30pm- Disneyland Park/Fireworks
Midnight- Midnight Madness Lingerie party in Sleeping Beauty’s Chamber

Saturday September 13th
Breakfast on your own. The hotel has a free continental breakfast until about 9:30am. McDonalds and Denny’s nearby.
10amish (negotiable)- group will meet at Sleeping Beauty’s Chamber and head to California Adventure park (DCA). Bring a pair of denim shorts, capri’s or jeans to wear for this day.
2:15pm- gather inside gates of Disneyland for special team event.
5:30pm- Dinner at Downtown Disney Tortilla Joe’s
8:45pm- Electrical Parade at DCA
9:00pm back to Disneyland to close the park down

Sunday September 14th
Sleep in, pack up & check out at 11am.
Caravan will leave to go back to SJ & Burlingame at approximately 1:00pm

my husband the vegetarian?

Last night I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner, and I was not giving in to his everyday request for La Pinata...so I pulled out my vegetarian chik patties and said, we're having these! I laughed, thinking he wouldn't want them, but he surprised me and said he really wanted one. So I threw together a salad and some appetizers and we were set for the night. As we were eating he said, "I'm going to become a vegetarian!" Again I laughed, but he told me to get up and shake on it. He's a man of his word, so I believed him.
This morning I get a text from him saying, "baby, is it okay if I'm only a vegetarian at home, because my coworkers are going to Quiznos for lunch and I REALLY want to order a turkey and avocado sammie!" Oh man, that boy kills me he's too adorable. I have a feeling the vegetarianism will not hold up at La Pin either:)

now that the wedding planning is over...

We miss the planning, the build up and the fact we got to see our family and friends every weekend :) I'm sure everyone thinks their wedding was the best, that their family does the most and their hair stylist rocked. Buuutttt...I really think mine was, is and did. I don't mean to keep harping on the wedding, it's just that it was the best day of our lives and I can't stop thinking about it! Up until the day of I don't think a smile ever left my face. There was zero stress and I woke up refreshed every morning. I could probably write a novel (one of the many I want to attempt) about common bridal sense! I'm just so gosh darn happy I don't know what to do with myself sometimes. I'm sure the missing of the wedding planning will pass...in fact I know it will. And in its place is the decorating of our house (now taking applicants for interior decorating help!!) the purchasing of a puppy (if I don't let Matt have one he's going to make me have babies!) and the holidays. This is the first time in my life I get to start my OWN traditions. I didn't have many growing up, and the ones I did have I've clung onto so tightly that at the age of 29 I still get chocolate covered marschino cherries in my stocking "just because" it's a tradition and my Aunt doesn't want to let me down.

PS Yes, she knows I don't eat them...

my in-laws are better than your in-laws!

We lucked out. My in-laws threw us the best dinner possible, in a gorgeous location and I can honestly say nothing will ever top it. My family and friends looked totally amazing, our boots were hot and everyone got along. I met my Dad's side of the family with whom I will never lose touch with again! At the end of the night Robereta sent the guests home with homemade cookies and milk cartons. We appreciated every last bit of it.