7 Quick Takes Friday

Hello friends! It's been quite awhile since I've actually been home and not traveling on a Friday! So after a few weeks off, here's the latest 7 random things about life in our household these days.

**1**
It's my baby niece's first birthday!! I wish I could be there to celebrate in person, but I'll have to settle for a video chat date this afternoon to watch this new "big girl" on camera :) Happy, happy birthday Lily-girl, I love you more than you will ever know!

**2**
We are getting so excited about our move! Definitely overwhelmed at this point, thinking about all the logistics, but we started conversations with a realtor yesterday and are seriously looking into house hunting, even setting aside a weekend in early November to head up to look in person. The other night we were talking and over and over again my husband kept saying "I'm so excited! This is going to be such a good place for us!" We have a lot to do in the next couple months, and I think it will be a little stressful (moving always is!) but we're getting ready!

**3**
Last Friday we went to a wedding quite unlike any I have been to! I think that is a theme for this year, we've been to a LOT of weddings and several have been especially unique or memorable! This past Friday our friend, Megan, married Harout, an Armenian man with a large Armenian family :) Their wedding was quite the extravaganza in traditional armenian fashion. I have never seen so much food at a wedding in my life. When we walked into the reception site there were platters of food already on the tables, and you were expected to begin eating immediately. A half hour later, more platters were bought out. We arrived at 7:30. We left at 10:15. They were still not done bringing food, and hadn't even come close to cutting the cake and serving dessert! It was incredible! (The food was delicious!) Megan and Harout entered with an entourage of Armenian dancers and musicians which was very cool. Bottles of wine and brandy were on each table, and the party was expected to go all night (the bride and groom decided to leave around midnight, but traditionally they are to stay all night with their guests--Megan said that was not how she was spending her wedding night!)
Jenn & Josh

Becca tasting the brandy

A couple people tried sips of it, but our bottle was mostly untouched.

Standing on our chairs to get a better look as the bride and groom and entourage entered.

This was some kind of non-alcoholic punch, but we weren't sure what it was. The color was awesome, but it tasted just like black licorice.Tera, me, Becca and Jenn--Megan's small group. Probably one of our last group photos :( Tera and Dave moved this week to Virginia and since we're moving soon too our small group is kind of fizzling--it was an awesome 3 years together though!
**4**
I might have found a new TV show that I kind of like a lot. Granted it's not exactly new, it's on it's 10th season, but I've never watched it until this year. Yes, I am addicted to the Biggest Loser. This show really is amazing. I have learned a ton about food, diet, exercise, motivation etc. It's super inspiring and has made me sad I've had a sprained ankle for awhile now and haven't been able to get out and go for walks lately!

**5**
I started trying something new this week in the realm of housekeeping that is working fabulously for me. Many of you probably already do this, but for some reason it took me forever to figure this out. I used to wait until Saturday to do the main household chores, but I found that I would end up spending all day Saturday on tasks like laundry, bathroom cleaning, deep cleaning the kitchen, changing linens, vacuuming etc. After spending 8 hours cleaning our apartment last Saturday (we'd been gone for a month and it was horrible!) I decided I don't really want to spend all my weekend time doing chores. So, I started assigning each task to one day of the week, most of which can be done in about 15 minutes. I try to do a general pick up of all the things that have been left out of their normal places each evening, and then spend like 15 minutes on my "chore" of the day, and so far, our house is still remarkably clean a week later and I'm not looking at having to spend all day tomorrow straightening up!

**6**
This weekend we have another friend's wedding here in Pasadena, although I really don't know this couple well at all (it's a surfing buddy's of Chuck's). Then on Tuesday I get to head to Portland! My best friend is getting married next Saturday & I am very excited to get to be there and celebrate with her/help out throughout the week.

**7**
It has been such an insanely crazy fall that I am STILL working on book 1 of my list of 30 books to read this year! I am wondering how successful I'm going to be sticking to this list this year with all the upheaval going on in our family?? I'm still reading Heidi, which really is not hard to read (it's a children's book for goodness sake!) but for some reason I cannot seem to make solid progress. Hopefully it will be done this weekend and I can move on to book 2 :)