I’m finding that deciding what to make for dinner is a lot harder than it used to be. Dinner for me used to be a cheese stick and some crackers, maybe a piece of fruit, or maybe the easiest option – just skip the meal (except when I was eating at the Jensens’ house – one of my weekly meals last year). Now that I’m married, I’m finding that skipping meals is not the way to go.

Tuesday I was trying to figure out what to serve my man for dinner…what can one make with ground beef and potatoes (no – we didn’t have cream of mushroom soup, so beef/potato casserole options were out). Fortunately for me, Deb was online and gave me a great suggestion. After a bit of research, I threw together some ingredients and made dinner. (Don’t ask me for the recipe, because I don’t remember exactly what I did, but Josh gave the meal “two thumbs up.”)

No – this post isn’t an announcement. My grandma Sutter is an amazing woman when it comes to coupons and grocery shopping. Weekly she saves hundreds of dollars by combining coupons with store sales to get incredible deals. She then takes her goodies and gives them to missionaries, church members, families in need, and her family. Our apartment is stocked with free toothbrushes and all sorts of other nonperishable items from Grandma’s basement.

Now that I’m a married woman, I’m trying to continue the heritage that Grandma Sutter has begun. Every Wednesday I pour over the sales ads to find out where we can get the best deal on grocery items. Thanks, Grandma Sutter for your great example of saving money and of generosity to others!

My husband has spent the past two weeks explaining to me that Monopoly is not a game of chance but rather a game of skill, strategy, and scheme. I have opposed his view until tonight, when my great strategizing bled his resources drier than the Sahara Desert! I had the great fortune (I mean, strategy) to land on both Park Place and Boardwalk and to develop my properties fully, so that the unfortunate party who landed on Boardwalk owed me a whopping $2000.00 on every visit. Third time is the charm! Looking forward to game number four!

Since moving to Texas, we’ve enjoyed getting to know Micah & Anna Martin, a newly wed couple (as of May) from our church. Micah and Anna are both taking classes at UTA and spend all Tuesday and Thursday on campus. We’ve been able to have them over twice for Thursday evening meals after Anna’s class and are looking forward to many more meals with them (that is, as long as they don’t grow tired of my cooking).

In their spare time, Micah and Anna are working on revamping/remodeling/re-everything the house they bought. They are very much looking forward to having their own home…so who knows, if they get desperate, maybe someday we’ll have pictures up on the blog of our working on their house. It’s been neat getting to know some “real Texans” (Micah even goes boar hunting!), and we are blessed with their friendship.

Josh here. I’m not sure whether I’ve shared with everyone what I’m doing this semester. The Lord has very graciously given me about 30 hours of work a week:

• 10 hours as a Graduate Research Assistant (working in the linguistics computer lab and maintaining the linguistics website)
• 10 hours as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (attending Formal Syntax class, making photocopies, facilitating class on the two days that the professor is gone, perhaps doing some grading)
• 10 hours for Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency

The linguistics website work is a continuation of what I did this summer: redesign our department’s website. The site is still under development, with a couple more major sections to be added or revised this semester. As part of my 10 hours a week, I also clean keyboards, run software updates, and keep the printer paper stocked.

As far as the teaching assistantship, I was supposed to teach an ESL research paper class for graduate students. But only one student registered, so the department moved me to the syntax class. Overall, this has been very good for my schedule (less prep, less grading), and I was grateful that I was able to keep the stipend I was planning on having.

For Carolina Hope, I work on the website, adoption forms, and blog. (You might want to read a post I put up yesterday — a sweet story about a little boy with his adoptive mom.) I also recently helped my boss develop an online education course about adoption homestudies.

Of course, the most important thing this semester is spending time with my wife. But you know about that already!

Everyday since June 28th, I’m learning what I wonderful man I’ve married. Josh has been so good to me and very patient with me as I adjust to life in Texas as a “Mrs.” and search for a job. This week Josh accompanied me to a Pampered Chef party (those of you who know me know that Pampered Chef parties are not my kind of fun). We were under the impression that Josh’s officemate would be there and that the guys would wander off after a while. However, that was not the case. My dear husband sat next to me and kept me company for almost the entire presentation before his officemate showed up. So again, I was reminded that I have married the most wonderful man in the world and reminded of his love for me…that was shown to me this week by his sitting in a room with a bunch of women (and one rather strange man) to keep his wife company. That’s my man – thanks, Josh!

My parents and sister, Emily, stood in line for hours yesterday to attend the McCain/Palin rally in Lancaster, PA. Their waiting paid off! Not only did my dad get to shake both McCain’s and Palin’s hands, but McCain’s armpit rested on Emily’s head while he shook Dad’s hand. Quite an exciting day for the entire family!

(If you look at the first picture, you will see my parents standing two rows behind Emily.)

Today is my dear friend Mr. West’s 86th birthday. During my past four years at Cleveland Park Bible Church in Spartanburg, SC, Mr. West has become my adoptive grandfather. Mr. Leo West was born in 1922 and served our country during WWII in France and Germany. He is a faithful servant of the Lord and continues to serve those around him. Even though his knee causes him severe pain, he still helps his friends with their yard work and assists with the upkeep of the church’s grounds. Happy Birthday, Mr. West!

On August 21, 2008, my older brother Sam married Ashley Baker on Long Island, New York. We’re delighted to have Ashley officially join the Sutter family and look forward to the times when our whole family can be together.

Why am I happy at 11:45 pm? Well, I can think of a couple reasons:

1. Amy made me really good peanut butter cookies today! After supper while I was doing my GRA work, she went to Wal-Mart and bought the ingredients and served them up to me warm while I finished up for the day.
2. We just finished a game of Monopoly. I won’t say anything other than this: I think it’s no coincidence that on the front of the box, the guy holding all the money also has a respectable amount of facial hair.

Welcome to our apartment! Our apartment is on the second floor. Our window is the middle one directly to the left of the stairwell. Last night we completed our last move-in project and hung up all our pictures. Here’s some pictures of the rooms in our apartment. (Click on each picture for additional information on each room.)

Last evening we finished our last major apartment project: decorating the walls. Amy will tell you more in a later post (which will include photos), but this 37-sec. video — unedited and in real time — shows you the frenzied pace that we keep up here in Texas.

(This video requires Quicktime player, available as a free download from Apple. Or you can download the video here — right click and save target — and watch it in Windows Media Player.)

What does one do with old t-shirts, a blue sharpie, Elmer’s glue, scissors, and the Dallas Cowboys logos?

Chick-fil-A is introducing new bigger, tastier, dippier Chick-n-Strips and sauce – and you can try them for free. This Labor Day, from 10:30 a.m. to close, wear any football team logo into any Chick-fil-A location for a free three-count of Chick-n-Strips. Unfortunately, we don’t own anything with football logos. But thanks to the ideas of Deb, this morning after I made our own Dallas Cowboys t-shirts, we went to Chick-fil-A and enjoyed two servings of their Chick-n-Strips.

This week we entertained our first guests, a young couple (also just married this summer) from our church, New Life Bible. They are both UT Arlington students, and each week they spend all day Tuesday and Thursday on campus. So we had them over for dinner on Thursday evening.

Since Amy won’t tell you this, I will: the food was fabulous. We forgot to take photos on Thursday, but we had leftovers for lunch today, and I snapped a photo of the corn, potatoes (thanks, Ruth Bixby, for the recipe) and the chicken wrapped in bacon (thanks, little sister-in-law for that recipe).

Good job, Amy. And thanks for the fine cooking!

For the past several months, we’ve been praying for UTA campus housing, but as Josh’s semester approached, the Lord did not see fit to make an on-campus apartment available to us. So we found another apartment 10 minutes away from campus and left for Texas on Tuesday, August 12th. Upon arriving in Arlington Wednesday night, we found out that we would not be able to move into our apartment until 4PM the next day. While we waited on Thursday, we were contacted by The University of Texas at Arlington and told that someone had canceled his housing reservation and that there was a campus apartment available for us to move into – not in 30 days – but that very same day!!!! We were amazed to see how the Lord worked every detail so perfectly and we continue to praise Him for our on-campus apartment.

This evening we played our first game of Monopoly as a married couple. We have a beautiful set received as a wedding gift from Rebekah Pringle. (Thanks!) The last time Amy and I played Monopoly was at Jon and Ashleigh Sutter’s house. One of us might have taken the game a little too seriously — at least that’s what the other thought.

So tonight we began around 9:30 and played till 11:45. I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say, it’s a good thing that I’m in charge of the budget in real life, too. One of us ended up with almost all his or her properties mortgaged and $335 in debt to the bank. (He or she was married to the banker, who floated an extra loan — which started as theft but was graciously legitimized.)

If I weren’t being tickled right now, I’d write more. But I think it’s time to retire for the evening.

Dear Josh ~

Thank you so much for creating our very own blog!! I’m very excited about sharing our lives with all our friends and family! I a-d-o-r-e YOU!

~Your Amy

Dear Amy,

This blog is for you. As we agreed, I’ll try not to spend too much time on the little details…. But it is fun!

Happy 2nd-month anniversary! I love you!