domestic dilemna.

It's common knowledge by now that cooking isn't my favorite thing to do. I'm rather lazy, honestly, and I'd much rather go out to eat or order pizza. At most, I'll microwave a t.v. dinner or heat up some Hamburger Helper. Not once have I opened up a cook book and gone to the grocery store for specific ingredients to fulfill a tasty recipe. Shocking I know.

Since the wedding, we've received a vast number of kitchen items and a full library of amazing cook books with great recipes. But I have no idea where to even start. It's a little intimidating to just open up a book and start buying ingredients.

But, I'm a married woman now, and with that comes responsibility! I feel semi-inadequate as a wife if I can't cook up something nice for my husband at least a few times a week. So my new goal is to learn some new (and easy) recipes that both of us will enjoy.

Here's the dilemna. Our food tastes are VERY different. Ryan doesn't like potatoes (which I love) or green vegetables, and he LOVES creamy sauces (which I hate). Hmmm. Thankfully we both love meat and fruit and mostly anything else.

Any of you faithful readers up for the challenge of finding us a good and easy recipe?

On the other hand, I absolutely adore (yes, adore) baking. Especially cupcakes. And I literally can't WAIT to use my new Crate & Barrel cupcake carrier as well as the cupcake book I got too! Now that's something I can handle!!! Maybe one of these days, in my wildest dreams, I'll open up a cupcake bakery (ala Sprinkles) and everyone who laughed at my lack of cooking skills can come taste my wonderful cupcakes. :) Until then, I'm learning how to be a domestic cooking machine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Alexandra's Mobile [Ad]itude - We obsess about user experience

Posted by Alexandra Kenin, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

In my last post, some of you expressed concern that intrusive and oversized advertisements on a small screen could result in a poor mobile user experience. You asked how we strike the delicate balance between ensuring a good user experience while providing effective advertising. At Google, we care very deeply about this balance and we're constantly striving to make sure that you have the best experience possible. In this post, I'll tell you more about some of the things we're doing to try to achieve this.

At the core of striking this balance is working hard to improve ad quality. The more relevant the ads, the fewer ads there need to be. In fact, when you go to google.com on your phone and do a search, we now return no more than two text ads per query. These ads can appear above or below the organic search results and most take up just two lines of text on larger mobile screens. And while a single ad may appear at the top or bottom of a mobile content page, a double ad unit can only appear at the bottom of a page. Watch the video below to learn more about ad size and placement.

Of course, we also want to make sure our advertisers have a good experience with Google mobile ads. Fewer ads per page can be beneficial for an advertiser because there is less clutter on each page and each ad gets more visibility. More importantly, showing relevant ads and maintaining a good user experience results in better click-through rates and return on investment.

I hope this addresses some of your questions. Thanks so much for your comments on my last post and keep submitting more questions. This is your opportunity to guide the direction of this series!

dose of reality

I'm not gonna lie... It is HARD coming back to reality after a wonderfully care-free and relaxing week of drinking pina coladas and soaking up the sun. Where our biggest concern was "what are we going to eat today?" or "would you rather snorkel or watch a movie?"

Coming back to the real life has been quite a challenge for me. Waking up to an alarm clock, going to work all day, coming home exhausted and then paying bills, writing thank you notes and figuring out insurance & taxes. It seems like all the little stuff just piles up, and sometimes it feels overwhelming.

Thankfully, there is a bright & shiny silver lining, and his name is Ryan. I have LOVED coming home to my husband every night and spending the evenings with him, cooking dinner and living our day-to-day lives together. Poor guy has had a lot to handle this week with my post honeymoon blues and moodiness, but he handles it like a charm :)

There's something to be said about the truthfulness of reality though. When all the stressful stuff comes flying at me and I'm missing the fairy tale, at least I still have my husband--or in this case, Prince :)

And... there was your corniness for the day.

the pre-wedding festivities post!

The days leading up to the wedding were super fun and jam-packed with exciting festivities!! My last day at work was on Wednesday, and that night I got my hair done and then went over to the McCrady home where they gave us our wedding present--a 40" SONY Bravia LCD HD-tv!!! Ryan was totally shocked and couldn't speak for a few minutes... He has been wanting one of these for a VERY long time, and it was definitely better than the girly wedding presents "we" have been getting :)

On Thursday, Ashley picked me up and we went out for lunch and massages! It was absolutely fabulous, and I was actually able to relax despite all of the things on my mental to-do list! That afternoon, Karen and Steph came by my apartment and helped me pack all of my bags for the weekend and get organized. Then, all four of us went out to Fridays for dinner, and I ended up getting 10 hours of sleep!

On Friday, I went with my bridesmaids to get our nails done at the nail place I've been going to since Jr. High. We had such a great time being girly and getting pampered. Then, we went to my Bridal luncheon at the Chocolate Angel. I gave everyone their gifts, and we enjoyed some last girlie time before all the craziness. After that, we checked into our hotel rooms and got ready for the rehearsal. We got to the rehearsal an hour early so that the girls could do a prayer time for me. Everyone had a special verse they had picked out, and everyone gathered around me, read those verses, gave me some well wishes and blessings, and they prayed over me. There were lots of tears, but lots of laughter too. It was such a cool thing. The rehearsal went off without a hitch, and then it was off to the rehearsal dinner at La Hacienda! The food was awesome (complete with cupcakes), and we got to watch the slideshow which was really cute too :) Then it was back to the hotels to get some rest (although I didn't get much due to the party people next to mom's and my suite.
Next post: The wedding day! :)

the wedding day post!

I woke up on Saturday feeling really excited and ready to get the show on the road :) The girls brought me some Starbucks, and we all went up to our "getting ready" suite to get pampered. My grandmother's 2 sisters brought us some brunch to enjoy, and the lovely ladies from Haute Facade came to do hair & make up. Getting 10 girls ready quickly is a challenge, I'm sure, but they were SO fast, and we were ready in no time! We all just hung out, listened to music, and chatted while other girls were getting ready. It was really nice and relaxing... I also gave the girls their REAL presents: a mini scrapbook with pictures, memories and prayers for them. It was definitely a HIT, and I think they really enjoyed them!

After a few hours, it was time to head over to the church! This is when I started getting nervous... (Not nervous to get married, but nervous to be in front of all those people!) We got to the Bride's Room, everyone got dressed, and then helped me get into my dress. We took pictures, and then anxiously awaited the big moment!!!

The moments before walking down the aisle with my dad were filled with big butterflies in my stomach! I just couldn't wait to see Ryan, because I knew I'd feel so much better and calmer with him next to me. I remember feeling so proud and thankful to see my girls walking down the aisle before me. Then it was my turn! All I remember was having this HUGE smile pasted on my face and staring at Ryan the whole time. The ceremony was mostly a blur, but I remember Mr. Machen doing a great job...along with some pretty corny jokes. Oh well :) Apparently I was "bouncing" when we were about to have our first kiss... I totally don't remember this, but at least I was excited!!

After that, it was so fun to say "I'm a wife!!!!". We took tons of pictures, and then headed over to the reception. Oh but wait... My car was TOTALLY covered with seran wrap, shoe polish, and cans attached to the exhaust. It was a pretty funny site. The reception was wonderful!! The food was great, cake was great, music, people, etc. Just wonderful! It went by way too fast, but we were so happy!

When we got up to our room, the hotel coordinator had left us some champagne, chocolate covered strawberries and other fruits for us to enjoy. It was such a nice touch!

Up next: The honeymoon post!

the honeymoon post! (days 1-3)

*Note: This is in a few posts since there were technically 8 days of jam-packed honeymooning involved!

Day 1: Sleeping in the next day was WONDERFUL. We had all day on Sunday to get the last-minute honeymoon details finished before we left, and it was such a nice day to relax and enjoy being married! We had our first meal together at McDonalds...So romantic :) And then we took a bunch of stuff back to my apartment that we didn't need, and we finished packing for the honeymoon. Later for dinner, we walked down the street to Nicola's and took our dessert to-go and ate on our balcony in the honeymoon suite.




Day 2: On Monday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn, and Mom drove us to the airport. We had to be there 3 hours early since it was an international flight...So we were pretty tired, but we got to read all of the scrapbook pages that people filled out at the wedding, so that killed some time :) The flight wasn't too bad because we were super excited. Once we landed, we got in a little shuttle taxi and drove to the resort. Driving through the town was a little scary because it was so poverty-stricken, but once we arrived at the resort, we were greeted with champagne and warm towels!


Then they sat us down and said that we had been upgraded to the PRESIDENTIAL SUITE!!!! We got the best room in the entire resort, and it was incredible. Most rooms had a very nice little balcony with a hammock, but ours was a HUGE wrap-around balcony that overlooked the sunset! We were sooooo excited. We mainly just spent the first afternoon getting settled and exploring the resort (as well as laying out on our private balcony).






Day 3: We were so excited to go lay out by the pool all day and soak up the sun. We enjoyed some free (everything was free!) margaritas and pina coladas, and just completely relaxed. It was SO NICE. We also went snorkeling and saw some incredible fish. I can't wait to get my underwater pictures developed! That night we got dinner at the Mexican restaurant and saw some fire dancers!

the honeymoon post! (days 4-5)

Day 4: Since Ryan had a bit of a sunburn, we decided it would be fun to go out into the toursity part of town and walk around the shops. It was a gorgeous (and windy!) day, and we had fun looking at all the cruise ships docked there. Highlights: getting a Starbucks frappucino and a Coach knock-off bag as a wedding present from my husband! Later, we went snorkeling again, and that night, we ate at the nice Italian restaurant and watched movies!











Day 5: Our last full day was pretty cloudy outside, so we mostly just watched movies & napped...and I would rush outside to lay out every time the sun poked out :) We went snorkeling (again), walked around the resort, and had our "Honeymoon Romantic Dinner" overlooking the ocean.

the honeymoon post! (days 6-8)

Day 6: By the time we were leaving Cozumel, we were ready to get back home. We missed American food, tv, internet, phone, etc. But it was a little sad leaving, and we'd always look back on those fun times in that hotel during our first few days of being married! When we got back home, the McCradys picked us up and took us out to eat at Cheesecake Factory. Man, were we happy to have REAL portions! Haha. Mom met us up there, too, and we showed them all of the pictures on my camera and told them all the stories about our trip. After that, we went to Mom's house and opened up ALL of the wedding gifts. Again, we felt so blessed. That night, we were both hit with a big slap of reality though. I remembered I had bills to pay, phone calls to answer, suitcases to unpack, and a thousand thank you notes to write. And on top of that, we had to move the rest of Ryan's stuff, go to the grocery store, etc. etc. It was just a little overwhelming.


Day 7: After a good night's rest, we woke up and started getting stuff done. I unpacked all of our suitcases and started laundry while Ryan hooked up our new TV!! Then we organized all the gifts, and I wrote a list of thank you's. It was pretty productive!


Day 8: Our last day before I had to go to work... We skipped Easter morning church (shh!) and went to the Mavs vs. Spurs game. Dad had some tickets from his work, so he gave them to us and said "I think they're pretty close to the floor." Um...they were the FIRST ROW of the floor RIGHT behind the Spurs bench! Ryan was in absolute Heaven. We could practically touch the players, and we'll probably never get seats like that ever again... So I took a ton of pictures. Too bad the Mavs lost though :( Then last night we went to Texas Roadhouse for our last big meal before Reality starts.