Happy Almost New Year

As the year comes to an end many people can't wait for the new year to start hoping that it will be a better year than the current. I can honestly say, I loved 2011. It was full of lots of work to do, but also many fun times and family.

I will mark 2011 down as an AWESOME year. I'm sure if I think hard enough that I can find things that did not go so well, but I will choose to remember to good times and everything that made the year amazing. Life is so short and you cannot wish for a year to end, because in reality you do not have an unlimited of new years to count on for things to get better.

Here's to hoping that everyone can find the joy and happiness from the past year and be thankful for everyday. Here's to hoping that 2012 will be an even more awesome year for everyone. :-)

1 week down.

I am still alive after one week of vacation. The first four days were the worst, but after that I seem to be doing much better. I have done a ton of cleaning and cooking. Then Kevin's sister Libby came up to visit and I have been spending lots of time with her.

I am optimistic that traveling down to So Cal will reduce my boredom since I will be surrounded by people and busy doing lots of different activities.

Happy Holidays to everyone and hopefully your vacation is enjoyable :-)

Vacation :-/

Why am I so bad at vacation? I guess it is simply that I do not enjoy not having work. I know there are many wonderful hobbies and activities that one can do, but I thrive off of assigned work.

I have been on vacation since Thursday (making this day 4) and it feels like it has been a month. I am dying of boredom. I want assignments. In general, I just want to be required to do something.

As my family and friends know, I am not the type of person who can just relax, so vacation is a long agonizing process for me.

Here's to hoping that the next two weeks go by quickly so I can get back to school and things that will keep me busy. :-)

Starlight Mint Wreath

With Thanksgiving over, everyone is putting up their holiday decorations. I typically don't do anything mainly because Chanukah is normally over right around Thanksgiving. But this year is different. Chanukah is at the same time as Christmas so I can put up decorations now and leave them up for a long time.

Now, I don't really have any Chanukah decorations and I am not a huge fan of Christmas decorations, but I did find a tutorial to make a starlight mint wreath last year and it caught my eye. I was intrigued by the project and filed it away as a project to do eventually.

This year I got the motivation to actually do the project. Although it may be a little "Christmassy," I justify it since it is made of candy and candy is for everyone, not necessarily just for Christmas.

So after collecting all the materials, of which there weren't many--foam wreath, starlight mints (lots of them!) and hot glue--I assembled the project which only took a couple hours. Most of the time was spent opening up the mints.

The final project - just needs to be coated with something so the bugs don't eat it :-)

It was a great project and it looks beautiful and rather elegant on the front door. I am now inspired to make wreaths with all different candies to see what other cool designs I can make. I might just have to start a candy wreath line....haha.

Here's to hoping I continue on my creative crafting spree and create many other beautiful things :-)

Thanksgiving 2011

Kevin and I spent our third thanksgiving living together and our first thanksgiving as husband and wife. Of course, just like usual, we cooked a full thanksgiving meal. Although, one change this year was that we abandoned our excel spreadsheet schedule that said exactly what to do at what time. Abandoning the schedule did result in eating an hour later than usual.....but who cares?

In front of our crazy huge thanksgiving meal :-)

It was a wonderful day cooking together. We make such a great cooking team. We had a huge menu. We roasted two chickens, made sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, whipped potatoes, Mrs. Cubbison's dressing, gravy, crescent rolls, our awesome salad, gluten free cornbread muffins, and last but not least our icebox lemon cheesecake.

With no schedule, I seemed to be much more calm about the whole process. In the end we had an awesome meal and were able to spend a wonderful day together.

Of course we had to have a funny picture :-)

I guess I should be cliche and say what I am thankful for......well, I am thankful for life and everything in it, the good, the bad, the ugly, the sickness and everything else that comes along with it. Where I am in my life right now is AWESOME, and it is everything and everyone in my life that has gotten me here.

Here's to hoping that I continue to appreciate everyday of life and everything that life has to offer me :-)

Life as Mr. & Mrs.

After many years of dating and engagement, and what seemed like a lifetime of wedding planning and such.....we are finally Mr. & Mrs.

Although I wish I could tell you that we are in some sort of fairy land with rainbows and unicorns, life is pretty much the same. Everything feels the same, we are back to our normal routines, but we simply have a piece of paper that will give us a tax break and I have to deal with the paperwork nightmare of changing my name.

Don't get me wrong, being married is AWESOME, but that is simply because life is the way it has been. We loved each other and our life before getting married. So the fact that our life is the same and we still feel the same about each other is perfect.

Here's to hoping we have a lifetime of happiness, love, fun adventures, and general AWESOMENESS :-)

First Day as Husband & Wife

After a crazy weekend of AWESOMENESS, Kevin and I spent Sunday having even more fun.

We started the day off by sleeping in, what a wonderful treat after so many busy days. We ordered room service for breakfast which was quite delicious. We had a number of visitors stop by as they began their journeys home.

We spent the day at the Aquarium of the Pacific with both of our parents. It was super crowded because there was some sort of Halloween thing for little kids, but we were still able to see quite a few cool sea creatures.

Cool Pumpkin LEGO man at the Aquarium - I think they were having a contest.

After going all around the aquarium we headed back to the hotel, thankfully Kevin's parents drove so we didn't have to do the walk again. We sat and chatted in the hotel for a little while and then Kevin and I relaxed for the rest of the evening.

We ordered room service for dinner, which was wonderful and we didn't have to go out at all. Instead of anything exciting, we instead fell asleep early which we so needed.

Us just before digging in to our awesome room service dinner :-)

The next morning was our day to head back home. We repacked the car to fit everything in, checked out, turned in our marriage license at the LAX court house, picked up our wedding gifts from my parents and headed back to our home as husband and wife.

It was a wonderful weekend and everything worked out so well. Here's to hoping that we can always remember how wonderful our wedding was and make the rest of our life just as AWESOME.

Dance Time!!!

After it all, planning, setup, getting ready, the ceremony, dinner, speeches, it was finally dance time.

What is there to say about the dance time? It was AWESOME. We danced right up to the end and just thoroughly enjoyed it. It was dance music pretty much the whole time. The only slow dance (not the singular) was near the end when the celebration was winding up.

The DJs were great and kept the party going. They danced, played limbo and who knows what else. I wish I could remember every detail, but unfortunately I was having too much fun to notice it all.

Not even on the dance floor, and still dancing away :-)

There was only one interruption to dancing and that was to cut the cake. This is the infamous cake we got at Baskin Robbins on Thursday. We put on our ponchos and suddenly everyone was paying attention. I guess putting on funny looking poncho grabs people, or maybe it was because they knew something ridiculous was going to happen. We cut the cake, or attempted to, which was rather difficult since the cake was still pretty frozen. After finally breaking off a piece of cake, the fun times began. We smash cake all over each other's faces and had lovely blue faces for pictures. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world.

Kerri got one of the best pictures of the cake smashing aftermath - don't worry, I got more cake on Kevin's face after this picture was taken

P.S. the ponchos worked great and our outfits stayed perfectly clean. :-)

I can only hope we can continue to dance for the rest of our lives. Dancing in the car, the living room, anywhere that good dance music begins, we will bust out our incredible white people dance skills. :-)

Speeches

After everyone had sat down with their dinner, we commenced speeches.

It began with Adrienne, my maid of honor. She had not been having the best day so far, but her speech definitely came from the heart. Lionel, Kevin's best man, gave a speech about how Kevin is good at every game or sport you play against him at.

My dad then gave a speech about our wedding was just another special moment that he would always remember. Kevin's parents spoke about how proud they were and how they have seen us grow in the years we have been together.

After those speeches, we then opened up the mic to anyone who wanted to say something. All of the bridesmaids and groomsmen spoke, and then to my surprise my uncle spoke. My Uncle Sid is an amazing man, and I was definitely in shock when he stood up. My surprise continued when he spoke. He spoke about how proud he was of me and Kevin. Even though he didn't really know Kevin, what he did know about him made him so happy. My uncle was happy that we were doing what we wanted to do and seemed to be having a great time doing it. I'm not sure there are any words to describe my happiness in having my uncle say these words. To make my uncle proud is something that I had always hoped to do, and it seems like I have succeeded.

In addition to my uncle speaking, he pulled me aside during the dance time and wanted to dance with me. He told me he was not very good at dancing (neither am I) and he then repeated those same words. He was just so happy that we were doing what we wanted. My uncle expressed his joy for us and how he wished he could have done exactly what he wanted.

I know this is not the most well written explanation of what happened, but it doesn't matter. I, personally, will always remember the words and emotions expressed by our family and friends. And in the end, that is all that matters. My memories will outweigh my horrible writing skills.

I can only hope that we will continue to make everyone proud and continue doing what we want and loving life. :-)

World Record Ceremony?

After all of the prep work and setup, we were ready to go. Everyone was lined up and the ceremony was about to begin.

Kevin, and then all of the groomsmen and bridesmaids walked in. Then it was my turn. I remember asking my parents if my hear should be beating this fast. It felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. I'm not sure what I was nervous about? I knew I was marrying the right person and I knew the room look awesome. I think more than anything I was just nervous to have everyone look at me.

I made it down the aisle, gave each of my parents a hug and took my place on the stage under the chuppah. The ceremony proceeded, with Jeff Kogen officiating. We had written out a script, so we knew everything that would be said. It was beautiful, even though I can't remember much of it.

Photo by Daniel Nguyen - It's amazing anyone got a picture of the ceremony since it was sooooo short :-)

We all walked out after the ceremony and into the lounge to sign our marriage license. Now, it was official, we had the ceremony and we signed the license.

It wasn't until we were talking to guests that we realized how short our ceremony was. Estimate of 9 minutes including walking in and out. Sounds perfect. We did video record our ceremony, but I doubt we will ever actually watch it, but at least we have it for the memories.

I can only hope we will live up to our vows and have a harmonious relationship of equality. In addition, I can only hope that we can continue to be as efficient as our ceremony was. :-)

Getting Fancified :-)

After getting a lot of the decorations setup and falling a bit behind schedule, I finally went into the lounge with my bridesmaids to get ready.

I hadn't really planned much out, like anything. I knew I had to do my hair and makeup, but beyond that I knew nothing. Thankfully my bridesmaids are much more girly than I am. Libby and Shayna became my hairstylists extraordinaire, and Adrienne became my fabulous makeup artist.

I sat in a chair for what felt like hours (even though it was only an hour max). They straightened my hair, teased my hair, curled my hair, super hair sprayed my hair and who knows what else. I couldn't actually see what was happening, but the entire time I kept trying to look up and to the sides to see what was happening (which isn't very effective to see behind you.) I did finally decide to hold my camera above my head and snap a photo. The first one didn't turn out so well, but the second one worked and I finally knew for sure that there were two people working on my hair, rather than ghosts or something.

My wonderful hairstylists/bridesmaids (one of the only pictures I got during getting ready time. Our photographer Margaret took a bunch of amazing pictures of this time :-)

My sister did my makeup while I was getting my hair done, and that was just as complicated because I was not allowed to move my head and now I was being told to close my eyes. Talk about complicated. I wanted to see everything, but had to close my eyes, and couldn't look around because I had to hold my head perfectly still. In the end, it was all worth it. My wonderful bridesmaids made me look so beautiful. They were all so wonderful and helped me out so much.

We somehow got me zipped into my dress, I handed out the AWESOME lego bouquets, too pictures, and then the waiting began. With cocktail hour before the ceremony, I stayed in the lounge so nobody would see my all dressed up. Shayna was sweet enough to stay with me the whole time, and Adrienne brought us some appetizers. This was the longest hour, just waiting, but before I knew it, we were getting lined up for the ceremony.

I can only hope that I don't have to dress up fancy anytime soon. While I know I looked nice, the time and pain are just not worth it. At least, I have lots of pictures showing me all fancified :-)

LEGO Flower Bouquet

The most important part of our wedding, other than the actual marriage part, was my bouquet and my bridesmaids bouquets.

While most brides visit florists and bring in wedding magazine photos and color swatches to pick flowers and arrangements and such, I did none of that. About a year before we even got engaged, I had found a picture of a LEGO vase with LEGO flowers in it. I decided to try to recreate it, but it didn't turn out quite like the picture. Nevertheless, I loved the concept of LEGO flowers and decided that we should use LEGO flowers at our wedding instead of real flowers.

Photo by Karla Nunez

Now the idea seemed so simple, but a few hundred LEGOs, assemble them into flower shapes, attach some sort of stem thing, tie them together and you're done. Well, it didn't turn out that simple.

Photo by Margaret Jacobsen - our photographer

Assembling the LEGOs was the easy part, but then we had to epoxy each petal on so that they wouldn't fall apart as easily. Kevin thankfully has the precision and skill to complete this task. We had to put two points of epoxy on the underside of each petal to try to help them stay together.

Once the flowers were all made, it was time to make stems. We settled on a twisted metal wire thing that we found at Lowe's. I cut enough pieces to make all of the stems, with only a few injuries in the process. The only problem was how to connect the stems perpendicular to the flower itself. Kevin had heard about epoxy putty and figured out how to make this step work. It was almost like using silly putty, but extra sticky and smelly. It took a couple weeks to complete this step, since every flower had to be attached and then almost sculpted to make the connections pretty and consistent.

Photo by Kerri Quezada

Now we had a ton of LEGO flowers on stems. Success. It should all be easy breezy from here. Wrong. The flowers won't just bend into bouquet. So I had an idea to use foam hemispheres and stick each flower through in it's particular spot. This would give us the shape we envisioned. This step went pretty smoothly.

But you couldn't just pull all the stems together at the bottom, since the flowers would just spring back together after we removed the foam. So we painstakingly bent each stem to a center point and secured them together with a rubber band. They were finally starting to look like bouquets.

We started cutting out the foam and the flowers began to come back together once the foam was gone. I will admit it, I had a breakdown and was crying and thought the world was going to end. Kevin was able to use his amazing skills and bend each flower to it's exact position. Thank goodness he is a talented LEGO flower bouquet creator, or I might have passed out.

Photo by John Shen

After many weeks of dealing with each of steps, we were finally almost done. We secured the flowers together at the stem level with some sort of construction adhesive, to keep them from wiggling, and then we wrapped the stems with awesome red ribbon. Finally we had LEGO bouquets.

A project that I thought would take a couple of weeks ended up taking about 9 months to complete, but in the end it was totally worth it. We had created beautiful LEGO flower bouquets that matched not only our wedding, but who we are as people. I had been very cautious to make sure nobody saw the bouquets until the wedding day, and they were a hit. From all of the guests to the catering staff, everybody was fascinated with the bouquets and asking lots of questions about them. It made all of the work worth it.

Photo by Shayna Isenberg

We now have a beautiful LEGO flower bouquet centerpiece on our dining table that will always remind us of our wedding. And my bridesmaids each have a LEGO bouquet in their homes as well. A craft project that took way longer than expected, ended up looking way better than I could imagine. :-)

(P.S. all of the pictures are from guests at the wedding. the bouquets were probably one of the most photographed elements of the wedding :-) can't ask for much more)

LEGOs + Crafts = Wedding

While most people just have to worry about flowers from a florist for their decorations, we had a bit more to think of.

Everything about our wedding, other than the linens was created and/or purchased by us. It all started right after we got engaged. I decided I want something that lights up for our centerpieces, so we found cool fiber optic centerpieces online. We ordered thousands of LEGOs to put around the centerpieces along with who knows how much candy from Costco. Centerpieces were done, simple yet completely fun.

The centerpieces (this table had a lot more LEGOs) but you get the idea..

In addition to the centerpieces on the tables, there were the favors, which were nothing more than cute little frosted chinese take-out boxes with a note in them. Sounds lame, but I figured it simplified the process by just allowing people to take what they wanted as a favor. We didn't have to pre-pack candy or legos in boxes, it became each persons own choice.

You are probably thinking the decorations were all as easy as what I've written about above....wrong. Those were the simple things and there were some simple signs just printed with a red border, but everything else was outrageously work involved starting with our invitations, through the table names and usher cards.

All of the usher cards with a LEGO figure for each person :-)

I'm not sure when the idea arose or how I even thought of it, but some time about 2 years ago after buying the red and black paper I was thinking through design options and came up with this great idea to rivet everything together. I will admit that everything that was riveted together looked cool, but Kevin will tell you how much of a hassle it was to make all of them (and I don't disagree). For everything we had to punch each layer of paper separately while keeping them so they would all line up and they we had to align everything and rivet. Sounds simple, until you have to this well over 10,000 times. You heard me right, between the invitations, response cards, table name signs, usher cards, and thank you cards (don't forget the mess-ups too) it was tens of thousands of hole punches that had to be made. Kevin was a trooper and we somehow got it all done. Everyone was amazed with the design and wanted to know how we did it. I am glad all of that torture and work paid off and made everything awesome.

Table Name Sign on our table.....more rivets

The last big crafty project we had was the chuppah, or should I say "wedding house." We had agreed early on to have one, but didn't want to have a quilt for the top. So I decided to sew all of the fabric ourselves. I must have thought I was some sort of Martha Stewart sewing wonder, because this process turned out to be a nightmare. Originally it was going to be red on the inside and black on the outside, but I quickly gave up dealing with two layers of fabric and we settled on solid black. After hours of ironing on stitch-witchery (so I wouldn't have to sew) we finally had some semblance of a chuppah. In the end, it didn't line up perfectly, but it was good enough for the purpose we intended. In the end I am glad that I made the fabric structure, but I don't plan on doing it again.

Our Chuppah - simple and not perfect, but it worked :-)

Needless to say, it was a long process of arts and crafts that took months and months to complete, but in the end it all looked AWESOME. It was so wonderful to see people notice all the small details and tell us how cool everything was. We couldn't ask for more.

We can only hope that arts and crafts from here on out will not involve repeating each step 10,000 times, or any riveted. I think we have fulfilled our rivet quota for life. :-)

Run Forrest Run

After an exciting yet super busy two days, we weren't done yet. The entire bridal party headed out on the walk to Bubba Gump's for our rehearsal dinner, or should I say "night before the wedding dinner" since we did not have a rehearsal.

I had originally been quite scared of the walk after driving to the hotel, there was a gigantic hill and everything seemed further apart than I had imagined. Nevertheless, I decided that I would at least try walking to dinner and maybe find a ride home afterwards. We set out at about 5:40 on the walk that was less than a mile.

The bridesmaids on the walk to Bubba Gump.

It was an easy walk in the end and we made it to the restaurant with no problems. There was already a group of people waiting for us. We let the host know we were there and they proceeded to get everything all set up. We were led in to our dinner. There were a number of round tables and a couple of booths set up for us. It was just the casual atmosphere I had hoped for.

I convinced Kevin to wear the "groom to be" pin.....and also forced him to take a picture wearing it :-)

Everyone wandered around trying to figure out how we would seat ourselves, since I hadn't made a seating plan. In the end it all seemed to work out. We met our waiters and began eating our salads. Once we ordered the entree we wanted, the fun really began. They began the Forrest Gump trivia questions. It was such fun to see what people knew about the movie. I probably should have known all of the answers since I had just watched the movie 6 days earlier, but it was fun either way. There were fun prizes including bracelets, shot glasses, bbq sauce and who knows what else.

After wonderful chatting time, our meals came out. The food was quite delicious, but the garlic bread was by far the BEST thing ever. I could probably live off of that bread if I needed to.

Kevin enjoying the AWESOME garlic bread.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the table next to us were ordering alcoholic beverage, which of course I don't drink, but I found out they came in light up glasses. I decided to order water in a light up glass. It seemed like a good idea, until the cup came to the table. The flashing lights were so bright that I began to get a headache. So I had to sacrifice the awesomeness of the cup and turn the flashing lights off.

Just a few of the tables at the dinner.

During dinner, Annie and Bob made very nice speeches and Annie surprised us with "All is well in the land of Kevin and Lindsey" shirts. It was such a sweet idea and we were glad they were not some crazy shirt with our wedding date on it.

Everyone chatted and enjoyed the time together. A few of us got some fun stuff at the gift shop including myself. I got an apron, and oven mitts which I will need to use any time I cook shrimp from now on. After what could only be described as an AWESOME day and dinner we headed back to the hotel. The walk seemed easier going uphill which makes no sense, but it was a lovely walk.

All of the boys chatting it up after dinner.

Everyone in the bridal party, except Adrienne, came up to our suite and we just hung out and chatted and enjoyed the evening. It felt almost like college when you have no obligations in the world to worry about. We all caught up with each other and told super funny stories. It was such a wonderful way to end the day.

We were able to get to bed around 11 that night so we wouldn't be too tired on our wedding day.

With everything going so well, we had no worries that the wedding would run just as smoothly.

Fun Times with the Bridal Party

Friday had arrived and we had big plans. Since our bridal party is from many different placed, 4 states to be precise, we decided to have just fun time together on Friday with everyone so they could all meet and get to know each other a little bit.

Kevin and I started the day by ordering Togo's for Saturday lunch before the wedding, and then headed down to Irvine to Z Pizza. We got there early and then took over the majority of the seating for our large group of about 12 people. The staff was super nice and accommodating. We had a hard time picking the pizzas to order, since there were so many delicious combinations. Ultimately we settled on a hawaiian pizza, one that had tomato and basil and another one with artichokes and mushrooms and such.

All of our wonderful friends and family found the restaurant and we promptly devoured to pizza. It was so delicious, and it was so wonderful to have everyone together. After a lovely, casual and totally fun lunch we headed to Boomer's for mini golf fun times. We traveled there in a bunch of cars but maintained one single file line the entire way.

Once we arrived in the parking lot at Boomer's, we gathered everyone around and gave out the groomsmen and bridesmaid gifts. The girls received monogrammed bags, with chocolate and necessary things for the wedding, along with a lego heart necklace and a unique black and white bracelet. They all seemed to love them which made me so happy.

My beautiful bridesmaids with their adorable bags.

The boys gifts were wrapped in trash bags, and when they opened the bags they found two Nerf Vortex guns in them. They wasted no time opening the boxes and began shooting at each other. The little bright green disks ended up all over the parking lot. It was great fun to see them all enjoying the gifts.

The boys posing with their guns.

After tons of nerf gun fighting we cleaned up the parking lot and headed into Boomer's. Kevin paid for mini golf for everyone along with a few unlimited video game cards. We mini golfed altogether, which takes a while with more than ten people, but it was tons of fun. We free styled the majority of the way, with multiple people hitting balls at the same time, so there was the risk or two ball collided. The group had a number of hole in ones in addition to tons of fun.

Mini Golf Fun Times.

When the first round of mini golf was done, all of the girls except for me, decided to do a second round of mini golf. I headed inside with the boys to start the arcade time. After hours of fun in the arcade, we had racked up about 500 tickets. The tickets didn't get much in the end, some goo, a yo yo, and an assortment of candy.

Enjoying some fun video games.

We headed back to the hotel to prepare for dinner, except we hadn't totally planned for traffic. The drive down to Irvine was so easy and traffic free, but driving back up the 405 during rush hour was not the most practical idea. Thankfully we all made it back to the hotel in time so that people could check in. We met at our suite before beginning the walk to Bubba Gump's for dinner.

Staring the walk to dinner.

After such a fun day, we still had our rehearsal dinner to go to. We could only hope that the excessive amount of fun would continue into the evening :-)

Driving into our future

Well, nearly 3 weeks after our wedding, I have decided to finally blog about the whole experience. Maybe I should start with the 2+ years of engagement and all of the wedding planning that went along with that, but I will choose to forget that chaos. Instead, I will blog about our wedding weekend, starting with our wonderful drive down to Southern California.

After class until 9 pm Wednesday night, Kevin picked me up. Of course me being me, everything was already boxed up and organized by importance an

d how accessible it needed to be in the car. Kevin, being the wonderful person he is, let me go to sleep while he packed the car.

I woke up Thursday morning to find the living room and dining room void of boxes and our little car packed to the brim with way too many boxes. Kevin somehow fit it all in the car. We packed our final few items that morning and set off on our journey at about 8:30 am.

Driving down to So Cal.....sometimes I worry we have too much fun together :-)

The drive down to L.A. is a drive we have done many times, but this time was extra special. We got lucky with an easy drive down to SLO. Made it there in time for lunch. We had planned to eat at the Chinese Buffet where we ate on our 1 month anniversary, but I had looked it up on yelp and found out it had closed. So we reverted back to our standard procedure of Firestone. We had a lovely lunch eating delicious food, and in no time we were back on the road.

After another few hours, we made our standard bathroom stop at my parents house and then at about 4 pm we headed out again to get to the hotel. After what L.A. drivers call normal traffic, and what I call a nightmare, we finally made it to the Hilton. We had a littl

e trouble and should have followed the GPS versus the signs on the road, got a little lost, but made it there anyways.

We parked in the underground parking and checked in. We returned to the car with one of those fancy cart things and piled on our luggage and the suitcase full of candy (didn't want it to melt). After dropping off the welcome bags at check-in, we headed up to our hotel room.

The door to our suite.

Because we had a block of rooms we knew we were getting a room upgrade, but we didn't quite know what to expect. We got to the 14th floor (out of 15) and headed down the hallway. Our room was at the end of the hallway....with a name on the door. Yes, our hotel room had a name. I thought only celebrities stayed in rooms like those. The best was yet to come. We opened up the door and saw the huge room. It was a wide open suite with a lovely decor. We were quite excited and then we headed out the balcony. I had read on line that a lot of rooms have a shared balcony and so that is what I expected, or a little juliet balcony. We opened the sliding door and saw some pool lounging chairs and then turned the corner and saw a dining table for a lot of people. This whole balcony was our, and in fact, it was bigger than the hotel room itself.

Part of Our Hotel Room, can't see the dining table since that is where I am taking the photo from

Our Crazy Huge Balcony - I believe there were enough seats for 11, but space for way more

After trying to control our excitement and shock about the room, we put our luggage in the walk-in closet and returned the bell-boy cart thing downstairs. It was time to head out to dinner with Annie, Bob, Jan, Paul, David and Ruth. We made it to Baja Fresh just a little bit later than expected but it was still great to see everyone. Once they found out why we were there ("rehearsal dinner") they gave us free chips, it was a nice gesture.

After a lovely, casual dinner at Baja, we headed over to Baskin Robbins with Kevin's parents to pick out our wedding cake. We found two choices that had mint cake.....our choices were either scary balloons or a colorful paint swishes. We went for the not scary one. Kevin tried to be funny and say that we were last minute picking up a wedding cake, and I of course didn't get it and told the lady what was actually happening. I really didn't mean to ruin Kevin's joke. We paid for the cake and headed to the church.

Yes, this is from the wedding, but you can see our awesome ice cream cake with the painty swipes on it.

That night we were taking down the choir risers. There were bunches of people there, so I ended up sitting and talking with Ruth while everyone else did all the work. It was a good deal if I do say so myself.

So now, after a crazy busy day, we headed back to our amazing hotel room to relax. Kevin's parents came with us to see the room and Libby met up with us as well. When we got back to the hotel we had a lovely tray from room service on the table. It was a fruit and cheese tray with crackers. We all enjoyed bits of it while we sat on the balcony taking in the view. It was a great way to start off what would surely be an exciting weekend.

Sitting on the balcony enjoying the yummy food :-)

After a crazy busy day, we could only hope that the rest of the weekend would run so smoothly.

We're Married!!!!!

This past weekend Kevin and I got married. The wedding was on our 6th anniversary and it was the most awesome day ever. It was full of fun, family and friends. In addition to that we had a great weekend with everyone as well. It will take a lot of posts to show all of the cool things from our special weekend, so watch for those.

Here's to hoping the awesome fun times of our wedding carry over into our everyday lives. :-)

I'm a Slacker

So, I have come to the conclusion that I am a blogging slacker. It's not that I live a boring life....well maybe it is. I do thrive on the routine of my life.

Let's think of why I haven't had time to blog....oh yeah, our wedding is in 3 weeks and essential the week before and after that time I am taking the national court reporting test.

Just wait until 6 weeks from now when I am free from all of this work I have given myself. Watch out, there may just be a blogging explosion.

Here's to hoping that after the wedding and RPR test I go from a blogging slacker to being a blogging overachiever :-)

9-11-01, 10 years later.

I'm not the type of person to write about current events or politics, but this day has a level of significance that cannot be avoided. September 11th is that moment for our generation.

Throughout school they would always teach us about these moments that change history, such as JFK's assassination, but I never assumed there would be a moment like that for my generation.

I distinctly remember September 11, 2001. My dad woke me up before he left for work and, in my hazy half-awakeness, he told me that a plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers. In reality, I had no idea what the Twin Towers were, but I went in the family room and turned on the news. I was confused as to what was happening. Was this some sort of pilot error?

I sat watching the morning news, and then turned away for some reason, and turned back on the screen and a second plane had hit the other tower. Part of me is upset that I was not watching the news and seeing the second plane, but another part of me is thankful I don't live with that memory. I know they replayed the crashes on the news, but I don't think I ever watch the actual impact, so thankfully that image is not in my mind.

Despite the chaos of that morning, I proceeded to get ready for school. I sat back down to watch the news, and the first tower began to collapse. I, along with the rest of the nation, knew at that moment that this was a significant event.

My mom dropped me off at school and, of course, the conversations at school that day focused on only one thing. There were announcements over the loudspeakers to not turn on the T.V.'s in the classrooms, but that didn't stop anyone. We spent that day watching the news reports of what had taken place that morning. Instead of studying history in class, we were watching history be created.

I have spent the last 10 years coming to understand how significant one moment can be in history, and how that one moment can define a generation. September 11th was the biggest terrorist attack on the U.S., killed thousands, and sent our country into war. Not only did I watch a defining moment in history, I saw a war begin, I have watches news reports of the deaths of soldiers.

I woke up that morning, ten years ago, worried about Spanish class and getting homework done, I had no idea that it would be a day so significant in history.

While I am thankful that no one I knew was hurt or killed on that day, I know thousands of other families suffered severely. It is a day that will live in history, but a part of me wishes it is a day that we never had to deal with.

Here's to hoping that September 11th, 2011, 10 years after such a tragic day, can be a reminder to our country to unite and have pride in what we can achieve and how well we can work together. :-)

Look, we're grown-ups

A few months back, my parents came to visit during my spring break. It was the first time they had seen our new condo and it was overall a wonderful visit. I had spoken about how the next big purchase Kevin and I make would be a new bed. We have been sharing my Ikea bed that I got in college. Now, not to insult Ikea, especially because almost all of our furniture is from them, but that bed was not the most stable thing. You would flip over in the night and it felt like there was an earthquake. Not to mention the fact that it was only a full size, and for two people a full size bed just does not cut it.

My parents said that when we found a bed we liked they would purchase it for us as gifts for every occasion for many years to come. A good deal since I am not a fan of gifts to start with. A few weeks after they left we found a bed that I loved and that Kevin didn't mind sleeping in and we scheduled a delivery.

This is where the fun began. They came at the scheduled delivery time and opened up the first box of the bed frame and we realized it was the wrong color. Darn. They left the mattress and box spring and said they would return in a couple of days with the right bed frame. The second delivery of the correct color bed occurred right on schedule. They opened up all of the boxes, everything matched and was exactly what we wanted. They had almost finished assembling it and realized that it was a defective frame. Some of the holes required to assemble it had not been drilled. They packed it all back up and promised to deliver again with a bed frame that could actually be assembled. Finally on the third delivery we got a bed that was the right style, color and could actually be assembled.

Despite the complications of delivery, in the end we now have a new bed that is perfect. Much fancier than my old Ikea bed and something that turns our house into a home.

In addition to the new bed, this past weekend Kevin and I went to Ikea (not to look at beds of course), but instead to get bedside lamps to complete the look of the room.

Our beautiful new bed with our awesome lamps as well -- can't get much cooler than this :-)

Our room is now complete. It is elegant and grown-up looking but still representative of mine and Kevin's unique style.

Here's to hoping we can enjoy our new home and the beautiful furnishings that make it look even better. :-)

Kevin's New Favorite Thing

After quite a few weeks of Kevin asking for a barbecue and me saying, "maybe next year," I finally gave in.

We had been discussing the idea for quite a few weeks and I was worried I would end up having to clean it all of the time and it would just become another nuisance for me to deal with. One weekend we ended up going over to a friends house for a barbecue and we remembered how delicious barbecue food was and how there was no easy way to replicate the flavors without an actual barbecue.

Kevin and me with our beautiful new BBQ

A few days later, I think, Kevin headed out to Lowe's to purchase a barbecue that we had been looking at. He picked out some grilling tools that he liked as well. He headed home with a gigantic box in the back of the car and we then assembled the barbecue.

It fit perfectly on our patio and has since become a great addition to our home. We have enjoyed barbecue food quite often and even had a 4th of July BBQ with friends.

I must admit that Kevin was right and getting a barbecue was a great idea. He is a pretty smart guy and I am thankful that I gave in, or I would be missing out on so much delicious food.

About to enjoy our first barbecued meal :-)

Here's to hoping we continue to cook awesome food on the grill and that Kevin continues to clean it. A few nights without having to clean dishes from dinner is a welcome reprieve. :-)

Cooking 2011

So just like my baking goal for the year, I also made a cooking goal. My goal is to cook 75 new recipes by the end of the year, and I am well on my way. I think I only have about 10-15 recipes left. Instead of posting pictures for every single recipe I will simply post a picture of my most favorite meal.....wonton soup.


This recipe took forever to make. Filling about 100 wontons is a laborious task, but the delicious outcome makes it completely worthwhile.

Here is the list of all of the other new recipes we have cooked this year so far:

Hot Dogs a la Rose
Spinach, Pesto and Gruyere Lasagna
Open Faced Avocado Chicken Burgers
Sloppy Joe Pizza
BLT Salad
Terrific Teryiaki Burger
Egg Salad Pockets
Family Favorite Taco Salad
Sesame Shrimp and Rice
BLT and More Salad
Ants Climbing a Tree
Dijon Crusted Chicken Breast
Ideal Chopped Salad
Spaghetti and Meatballs with Garlic Crumbs
Fast and Fabulous Thai Chicken Salad
Thai Fried Rice
Wonton Soup
Parmesan Crusted Tilapia
French Canadian Tourtierre
Cheesy Shell Stuffed Shells
Breakfast Tortas
Peanut Chicken Pockets
Bacon Cheese Stuffed Shells
Cajun Shrimp with Mango Edamame Salsa
Asian Chicken Salad Wraps
Pecan Crusted Chicken with Blue Cheese Sauce
Ginger Chicken
Herb and Cheese Stuffed Burgers
Taco Soup
Four Cheese Lasagna
Easy Chicken Strips
Rosemary Garlic Roasted Potatoes
Turkey Reuben Loaf
Chickpea and Feta Salad
Easy Barbecue Ribs
Lemon Chicken
Teriyaki Shrimp Stir Fry
Spicy Ground Beef Taco Filling
Barbecue Shredded Beef
Crispy Traditional Potato Pancakes
Grilled Caesar Chicken
Chicken Pesto Asparagus Rice Dinner
Cheese Egg Scramble
Shrimp Stir Fry
Island Pork Tenderloin & Coleslaw
Turkey Burgers w/ Cheese & Garlic Mushrooms
Chicken with Broccoli
Chicken Tarragon with Cream Sauce
Funghi and Tallegio Pizza
Fiesta Taco Salad
Mushroom Basil Cheese Tortellini
Simply Seasoned Chicken
Chicken Provolone Pizza
Beer Battered Fish Filets
BBQ Sausages
Three Cheese Florentine Burgers
Loin Sirloin Steak with McCormick seasoning
Three Cheese Mushroom Calzone
Grilled Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Here's to hoping we continue to find and make super delicious meals.

Baking 2011

For those of you who don't know, I make a list of goals for the year. Kind of like resolutions but with no pressure. One of my goals was to bake 30 new recipes. I am a little over halfway there and wanted to show you some of the delicious treats I have made.

Francois Payards Flourless Chocolate Cookies --- surprisingly similar to IOTC's cracklejack...hmmm

Lemon Crumb Muffins -- super delicious

Gluten free mini berry cheesecakes -- our passover seder dessert

Star studded mini strawberry pies for our 4th of July celebration -- super simple and delicious

Here is the actual list of new dessert recipes I have made this year thus far:

Francois Payard's Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies
Lemon Crumb Muffins
Huey's Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies - w/ rice milk
Orange Marmalade
Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Tuxedo Brownies
Light Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies
Slow cooker hot fudge sundae cake
Cookie Pretzel Peanut Bark
Microwave Marshmallow Fudge
Rice Pudding
Healthified Triple Berry Mini Cheesecakes
Simplest Homemade Brownies
Lemon Bars
Star Studded Mini Pies
Tiramisu

Here's to hoping I can finish out my goal for baking and share these wonderful desserts with anyone who is interested.

Finally a vegetable garden.

So after two failed attempts of starting seeds indoors and transplanting them to the pots outside, I finally decided to just put the seeds in the pots outside and hope for the best. For weeks I watered daily and saw nothing, but then suddenly the seeds began to sprout. After a few months of watching the plants, I finally realized I should take some pictures of our beautiful garden and it's bountiful harvest.

Planters that Kevin made growing watermelons, radishes and cucumbers.

Tomatoes and Beans. We are finally beginning to have the tomatoes turn red.

Our little herb corner: basil, chives, rosemary, green onions, parsley

Here's to hoping we are able to continue enjoying the food and herbs our garden produces and that we can continue to have a beautiful garden in the years to come.

and I'm back

So I promised a lot of blogs to catch up on the past few months, so here it begins.

A few months back, April to be precise, Kevin and I redid our patio area. When we moved in there were two huge plants on either side of the walkway and not much else. They were overgrown dieing in sections and overall just not appealing. One day I decided that it was time to change the garden and remove them. Kevin and I headed over to Lowe's picked out some flowers and bought a shovel to dig up the old horrible plants.

The almost before picture. Forgot to take one before we started digging, but you get the idea

After not too much time we realized that we only needed to remove one bushy plant on each side and then it was suddenly better. We added cute little flowers and some pavers so you could easily get to the patio. In just a few short hours we gave new life to our entry way and personalized our new home even more.

After. New pavers, plants and overall much better.

A few months later. Everything has grown in and we moved our hummingbird feeder.

Here's to hoping that our garden continues to inspire us and bring us daily joy.

Goodbye Abbott 0:-)

I woke up this morning to very sad news. My precious cat Abbott had died. He had been pretty sick for a few weeks, but we were all hopeful that the vet would be able to get medication to help. He was having kidney problems, and who knows what else, but he was clearly getting sicker. He lost a lot of weight, and his fur went from light in color and fluffy to dark and oily. My parents took him to a 24 hr vet clinic to have him put on an IV, and apparently his sodium levels were so high that the machines couldn't even read it. This morning my parents made the decision to put him at peace. Although it is hard news to hear and I haven't stopped crying since finding out, I know that it is what was best for him. He was sick and probably in pain and did not deserve to live like that. I know he is at peace now and no longer suffering. But, while he may be at peace, all of us who loved him so dearly are left with the pain.

Abbott in his healthier days :-)

Abbott, you were a wonderful cat. I remember bringing you home as a kitten with your brother Costello and you would both chase me down the hall biting my ankles. You were always the timid one who would hide inside the couch to avoid any people. You were a little crazy, just like me, but you were the sweetest cat when you wanted to be. I loved you dearly, and your life was cut too short. We had about 8 wonderful years with you and I am hopeful that you felt loved and had tons of fun. I know you are at peace now, and I will try to remember all of the wonderful times with you. I will miss you everyday Abbott. 0:-)

Abbott just a few weeks ago, he is clearly not doing well

Here's to hoping Abbott was not in pain and that he is at peace now. Here's to hoping that we are all grateful for the time we have with those we love, because it can be cut so short. 0:-)