Homemade Chicken Soup for the Soul

Yesterday (Aug 30th) was our 4 year dating anniversary (awww).  Since we're married now, that anniversary is still important obviously, but has taken a backseat to our new wedding anniversary (coming up in November).  So while I was out shopping at Wally World, I had picked up a sweet card and one of his favorite candy bars to stick in his lunch box the next day - just a little something.  Unfortunately, a day or two before, I gave John  the cold that I was getting over.  Only he got it much worse than me.  So he didn't take a lunch to work that day and instead came home from work around 10am to try to sleep it off.  Kinda ruined the plan a little bit since I had to tell him to look in his lunch box once he got home... but I think he was still pleasantly surprised :-)  .  


That night I came home to find beautiful white flowers and a card waiting for me.  So sweet!  

Lilies and roses. I'll post another pic when the lilies bloom :-)

And to end the night, I decided to attempt making some homemade chicken noodle soup.  Chicken noodle soup always helps when you're sick!  And if I do say so myself...it turned out pretty tasty.  And it made quite a few leftovers!  

Super simple recipe, but so tasty!

Anyone else have great home remedies for colds??

Camping at Pismo Beach

A couple of weekends ago, John and I drove down to Pismo, CA to go camping on the beach for the weekend.  We met up with some friends Jenna and Mike.  Jenna and I have been friends since Jr. High (oh how time flies!), and Jenna and Mike got married a few months before John and I.  We also met up with one of John’s friends from college, Rob.  He and John were roommates at Purdue, and Rob recently moved out to CA, so we were very excited that we could all spend a whole weekend together!

It turned out to be a small adventure for everyone.  I was the only one that had previously been camping in Pismo – for those who haven’t been, it is actual beach camping...tent on the beach = sand everywhere for weeks afterwards.  When we first got to the beach, it was a little bit of a shock.  There were miles of RVs and Campers and huge trucks oh my!  Even I was not expecting that.  When I had gone previously, it was while I was in college, and it was during the school year.  There were a few tents, but nothing to write home about.  This…was a whole ‘nother world.  We were finally able to find a little spot on the beach nestled back in between some RVs where we could set up our tent.  Lucky for us, the wind decided to pick up, and the sun started to set as we (John, Rob and I) attempted to set up a rather large, 3 room tent…with no instructions.  It was quite the fiasco as you can imagine.  But…in the end, we managed to get it standing minus two extra poles (those were optional…right?!) and by miracle, it stayed standing all weekend!

A little later Jenna and Mike arrived, and we were able to get our relaxing beach camping weekend started.  We cooked over the bonfire (we had to get creative on this one), danced to some Katy Perry (courtesy of Rob), made smores, played some corn hole (also courtesy of Rob…Girls 3, Boys 0!!!),  watched the sunset over the ocean, and rented some ATVs to drive around the dunes for a few hours on Saturday.  The dunes are beautiful, my pictures with my little ‘point and shoot’ don’t do them justice.  Riding the ATVs was a really fun experience!

All in all it was a really great weekend (minus the 'hike' to the nasty port-a-potties) and I’m so glad we could get together with some amazing friends that we don’t get to see often enough!  

My First Post

So I’ve been reading a lot of other people’s blogs lately, and it sparked an interest in me to start one of my own.  After much time debating on what to put up as my first post (why is the first one the most difficult?), here I am.  I figured a little introduction would be a good way to start things off.  This blog is just to keep others updated on the life of us Barkers.  I’m sure the topics will vary greatly, but hopefully they will be mostly interesting :-) .

First things first…a little about us for those that don’t know.  My name is Melissa, and I currently work as a Business Analyst and I’m also a Mary Kay consultant.  I went to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo where I got my degree in Computer Science with a Math Minor.  Cal Poly was also where I began playing Ultimate Frisbee.  I played on the Cal Poly Women’s Ultimate team for a while until I graduated.  Things I enjoy: Ultimate, snowboarding, country music, line dancing, most outdoorsy stuff, shopping (yes, I’m girly), hanging out with friends, family, and my puppies :-) .

Me with Lexi

My husband (almost 10 months as of this post!) is John.  He currently works as a design engineer in the aerospace industry.  He attended Purdue University in Indiana (where he’s from) and got his degree in Aerospace Engineering – smarty pants ;-) .   Things he enjoys: Baseball, football, golf, ok…just about any sport, techy stuff, outdoorsy stuff, snowboarding, and also hanging out with family, friends, and the puppies!

John with Paddington (Paddy)

We met while John was out in CA with an internship in 2007.  His roommate drug him out to a pickup game of Ultimate that I played in and the rest is history!.  We were married in November of 2010 and are quickly coming up on our 1 year anniversary (eeek! Where did the time go?!  Gift ideas anyone??)  We live our happy basic life with our two puppies. 

So I hope you enjoy my little blog about Our Barker Bunch, check back for more updates, I'll do my best to keep it up to date!