How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck...

if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Picking out hardwood flooring is so grown up!

Home Renovations!

 Daniel and I had a wonderful weekend with friends. I worked all day Saturday showing properties while Daniel worked on our yard at home. After I got back from all my showings, we took McCrae out on a bike ride to a nearby pizza eatery called Napa Valley. We've driven by it so many times and are trying to find more dog friendly places so we don't have to leave our pup at home. (He has major anxiety and we have to crate him anytime we leave the house. So sad!) Anyway, the food was delish and it's literally a few blocks away from our home, so we're glad we found a new joint to visit. 

We ended up checking out a new place called Saddle Ranch with a group of friends at the Triangle Square in Newport Beach. Triangle Square underwent a major renovation and are opening a ton of new restaurants----and even a new bowling alley. WOOHOO!!! (We can literally ride our beach cruisers to all these great places, and IT IS AWESOME.) Afterwards, we ended up taxi cabbing over to Fountain Valley and had Kappo Honda since they were one of the only ramen houses open after 12 AM! (It's yakitori style J-food.) 

My moms birthday is tomorrow, so we're inviting the parentals and six of her friends over to our house for a Cajun crab boil! Fun photos to come soon--but for now, here are a couple foodie pics from meals cooked by yours truly. <3

Breakfast for Daniel on Sunday Funday

Pulled pork sandwiches on King's Hawaiian buns and horseradish coleslaw

Daniel and I are going to be renovating our home soon. We just booked our contractor who will be coming in about a month to measure and give us quotes for everything, so we spent a good portion of our weekend going to stores looking at products. We're at odds with a few things, so we'll have to work those out before the contractor comes. Otherwise, we're excited as can be and cannot wait for our new kitchen!!!!

Gotta get back to work now----ciao!

Muffins and a Sunny Weekend

Oh my gosh, California, I LOVE YOU.

The weather today is absolute perfection. I cannot wait until summer!

Daniel stayed home today to go over some business plans with my real estate partner so I got to wake up and make him breakfast again. My favorite days are the ones where he never leaves. Although we spend a lot of the time sitting across our giant dining room table working on our own business, I like to have him right in front of me where I can see him. It's seriously one of the best feelings in the world! He used to complain that I was too touchy feely. Dude---I can't help it! He's just so cuddly and cute as a button. I'm so, so glad I get to keep him forever!

We had 3 super ripe bananas that I knew were not going to get eaten, so I decided to whip up some banana coconut wheat muffins really quickly for a yummy breakfast with a side of coffee. (It wasn't much today, but I had a lunch date with my old roommate from college, so I figured I'd do something easy.)

Daniel loved it.

Oh, I did, too.

I actually rarely eat muffins, cookies, sweets of that sort, but I used a conservative amount of sugar and they turned out wonderfully!

We had guests over for dinner last night. Its always fun having friends over for dinner during the work week. I feel like it breaks up the week and you have something exciting to look forward to! Our friends are due soon with a baby boy, so I tried to cook something delicious and healthy. Chicken Herbs de Provence it was! (MIL's recipe) It was super easy to whip up and full of flavor. I bought a french bread loaf from C'est Si Bon to dip into the soup. It was ever so yum.

Complete with artichoke hearts, olives, baby potatoes, onion and tomato wedges, and chicken.

A quick brie and hummus appetizer. Easy peezy. (Oh, and that cute, little wrought iron mouse was a purchase from Denver at a boutique. I use it for display on almost all of my cheese platters when friends come over!)

Bought some fresh purple stock from TJ's. Love it!

Our evening ended with a delectable box of macarons that our friends brought over for dessert. It was lovely and such a pleasant way to end our Thursday.

Up next tonight---I've been cooking up all day (literally about 10 hours) 2 lbs worth of pork tenderloin to make mini pulled pork sandwiches for our Friday dinner. (Sandwiched between little Kings Hawaiian Rolls.) We had a friend who wanted to hang out so he'll be joining us in our food festivities. Have a sunny weekend, y'all!!!

Much love,
The Morgans

Trees Scaled Back, finally!

Ahhhh, our morning view outside our bedroom balcony just now. I can breathe again now that the giant trees have been scaled back.

Good morrrrrrrning, everybody!

This is the LAST time I'm ever doing a LAST name change. EVER.

Quick! Somebody get me a bottle of wine and a straw.
500 pages to read over and page after page of docs to submit just to change my last name.

I'm doing this once and once only! Daniel---ya heard!!!!

Fun fact: I was born with the last name "Jan". My dad changed it to "Tsan" when I was in the first grade because he said it was misspelled.

(Then of course, at 6 years old you don't have to worry about changing much of your identification other than what's written on your cubby.)

In all seriousness, I'll be stoked to be able to start using Morgan as my last name for all my real estate material. Woot woot!

Quiet Times on the Balcony

We have a balcony. It is a wonderful little balcony.

Our balcony sits off of our master bedroom and overlooks a beautiful garden where people come and go to plant their own flowers, vegetables, and herbs. There is no one else behind our home, and I know a thing or two about houses---so I can definitely appreciate our location. Despite the ominous clouds and passing planes, I snuck in some quiet time with my bible, journal and a mug of warm jasmine milk tea. It was quite a delight!

Half of our balcony is currently being engulfed by giant trees that shed worse than McCrae. (I didn't know it was possible--but alas, it is!) Our gardeners are coming on Saturday to scale these gargantuan trees back. $500 later---we'll still be able to keep our privacy from any potential peeping neighbors, but hopefully at least feel like our backyard/balcony is a bit more spacious.

Now that our wedding is finally over, I intend on keeping up with blogging again. AHH--release of mental thoughts and a go at creative outlets coming soon! Thank you for keeping in touch, friends, your attendance is much appreciated. :)

With that, I depart with you a little matchbox mentality from my coffee table...

and a great daily reminder: 

Bye for now, amigos!

Let's Play Catch Up!

Hey guys (and gals)---so---errrr---apparently we got married. CRAZY!

Well, I guess not so much.

Although, our much highly anticipated nuptials were over within a blink of an eye. I can't believe all those months of planning, countless hours of restlessness, days upon end of envisioning how it would all pan out....is now over.

And quite frankly, I think both Daniel and I are thankful we can finally breathe a bit and enjoy married life. Our wedding, by the way, could not have been more perfect. They say that every little girl dreams of her wedding day---her BIG day. I never have and never did until the day Daniel asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. I didn't know what to expect and how to react to everything when it finally came day of.

I always thought I would be one of those people to choke up at the altar---barely able to finish my vows. I was wrong. I was completely wrong. The flood of emotion began well before I stood in front of everyone. While I walked down the long stretch of open field approaching our guests, tightly holding onto my father's arm, I quickly realized how significant this day was. It was a huge turning point in our lives---and there I was---losing it. Seeing the faces of all the people who meant the most to us sent a wave of memories and I was overwhelmed with so much joy. I couldn't hold back the tears, and as I walked down to the end of the aisle---well, let's just say the rest is history.

 

and now, friends, I can start my happily ever after.