May is the start of summer. There are so many great things going on this month to look forward to, so I thought I would post a May Calendar so I can see all the great things that will happen this month! I love summer and getting to travel around doing lots of fun things. Even if it means being very busy, I love being in the sunshine and with good friends. Hope you have fun plans for May too!
May 6 (today!): Our Sixth-Month Anniversary of being married!! AAH I can not believe it's been that long already! It's bizzare that we have now been married longer than we were engaged! We counted down every day and it seemed to take FORever! Now each day flies by as we have nothing to worry out because we finally have each other!
Also today we are celebrating by going to see Cirque du Soleil ("Circus of the Sun")! One of my fantasies has been going to Vegas, and every time I look at hotels I see ads for Cirque du Soleil. I never thought I'd be able to go (even if I went to Vegas) because tickets are like $100 each!! Who would ever pay that much for a show?? Well, I'm not putting you down if you have, but I don't think I could bring myself to pay that much. When I was buying tickets for Whit's birthday to go see Brian Regan, I noticed that Cirque du Soleil was coming to ROANOKE, VIRGINIA! What the heck. We watched the preview and were hooked. We got the cheapest seats, which were only $40!! And it's for a prime showtime. YEEES. We love the circus and wish we were performing tonight instead of just watching (we're weird). We can't wait for all the colors and acrobatics! (Also today we finished our year at Tech! It flew by! It's crazy that it's over but I'm ready to move on. Bring on the next step!)
Sunday (May 8) is Mother's Day! I love my mom and am so glad I will be able to spend Mother's Day with her this year! My parents are coming on Saturday to hang out with us in our place before we move, and my mom and I are planning to do a Beadsburg date (I've always wanted to take her!). This holiday is extra special this year because I have a new mother-in-law! (And so does Whit!) Don't forget to thank your mom for all she's done for you this Sunday!
May 13 will mark the one-year anniversary from when we got engaged! Wow, can you believe it's been a whole year? Okay, you probably don't care that much, but I can't believe it! It's been a great year!!
The next few weeks we will be enjoying Blacksburg summer! I don't have a picture but just imagine it - green grass, sunny skies, blue mountains, low humidity, sneaking in to the Village pool, hiking, eating downtown with no rush of students, buying local goods from the farmer's market - oh how I treasure Blacksburg in the summer.
In a few weeks we will go to Virginia Beach! We will see a lot of our good friends - I love hanging out with them!
Then the next two weekends will be full of weddings,
weddings,
and more weddings! Seriously - we are going to four weekends in two weekends! Maybe we are crazy, but they're all on different days so we're planning to go to all of them! Can't wait to celebrate with our good friends in this special season of life!
In between those weekends of weddings, we're going to use up our vacation days (we won't get any next year :() and go to Saint Marys!!! My parents have a house there (it's the last exit in Georgia on 95 before you get to Florida) and I've always dreamed of the day Whit and I could vacation there as a married couple!! What a blessing for them to let us use it! It's so bright and beautiful and clean - there's bikes and beach chairs in the garage and a pool at the clubhouse. And I am very ready to take a vacation with Whit where we can get away together (we're doing a lot of traveling this summer but it won't feeeel as much like vacation because we're staying at other people's houses).
I miss this Georgian/Floridian atmosphere!
Ready for the beach!
May lucked out just in time - on the last day of the month we're going to our first Phish show of summer tour! We'll head up to Holmdel, New Jersey to chill out to some crazy jams with other people who love music. All the shows we're going to this summer are outdoors, and we have lawn tickets for all of them (unfortunately), so it will be a great way to celebrate summer - grass under our toes, good music in our ears, colorful lights to watch, and my best friend to take it all in with. :)
Happy May!
I cooked my new all-time favorite meal. I love these bright colors together! Strawberries photograph well. :) 
When Mexican is in the mix, you can't disappoint me. 
Yum yum yummy homemade cinnamon tortilla chips. New fave.
Also known as the pancake cake lens, this cutie shoots wide angle while allowing your NEX to be even smaller than it already is. I just tried it out tonight and it makes me love love love the NEX more than I already do! 
The camera is so much smaller overall - it almost makes you think it's a point-and-shoot. But the NEX is too sophisticated to really make you believe that; it's sturdy and carries itself like it knows what it's doing. LOVE it. 
Here are some test shots from around our house!
These were taken to show the wide-angle. The first one was taken with the other lens at 18mm, and the second with the 16.
Notice that you can see the picture on the wall on the left as well as the edge of the bookcase.This picture shows that there is some distortion with the lens (look at the angles of the doorframe and canvas). Overall I don't think it's a huge problem, and can be corrected more or less with an adjustment of the camera angle/height.
I love this next set. Probably because I love our little kitchen so much! I'm going to miss it.
Finally I'll be able to take pictures of small places and get it all in one shot!
We stopped at the overlook briefly to take in the view. Love the panorama!
Believe it or not, summer has got me in the mood to cook! Before we even came home I made a meal list of dinners to make. I think I was inspired by Whit's drastic change in acid reflux when we were eating real food instead of pasta and Digiorno's! Regardless, I whipped up another dinner, which was delish. Actually, I can't claim credit for the whole meal; Whit made the mashed potatoes! His mom taught him how last week so now he is a pro. I had never made mashed potatoes before, and I was surprised at how good they were. 
I had fun using our new masher too, which we bought specifically for the occasion. I am proud that I am still a cordless cook!
Whit isn't the only legit cook though - I made this cole slaw from SCRATCH! And I mean I peeled the cabbage with a swivel peeler! Haha! I will probably not make that move next time but hey it worked. I was so nervous about this slaw because I got the recipe from a friend and it was not specific at all, so I thought for sure I'd mess up the ratios. However, it tasted exactly how I remembered it! Score! 
The main dish was this delicious meatloaf - unlike any meatloaf you've ever had before. 
I have been craving this meal since I left Venezuela. Karlayne used to cook every week for our servant team meetings, and this combo ranked at the top of the list. It wasn't exactly the same, but everything tasted great and I'm glad I finally pulled together a sweet homestyle meal.
