In case you missed Asian Restaurant News...

...you can also see a picture of mine in my credit union's monthly newsletter (scroll to page 3)

http://www.oucu.org/home/fiFiles/static/documents/newsletter_apr09.pdf

I'm super excited about it, AND it looks like I get a $25 gas card. Sweet!

Here's the same picture (the quality in the newsletter is a little iffy). I took it last April when the cherry trees were blooming near the bike path.

Writing my first speech...

a spot opened up in tomorrow's meeting, so I'm working on my introductory speech right now. I need to finish getting it written so I can practice it on Callie (as long as I have dog treats, I'm sure she'll love it ;) )

Wish me luck!

Something new

I'm all excited because I just joined our local Toastmasters club. I've been thinking and thinking and thinking about it. Then today, I finally went to one of their meetings.

And LOVED it!

Sitting there, I realized just how much I miss being in 4-H, and Toastmasters is like 4-H for adults minus the county fair, the livestock, and every project except public speaking and leadership.

I'm psyched about getting to do public speaking again and improving my skills, getting to know a whole new group of people, AND having a reason to leave the office every Tuesday at noon. My office has absolutely no windows and the hallway at work has no windows--it's good to have reason to go outside.

Last month, I also signed up to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. I think they're having a volunteer meeting this month and start building next month. I'm really excited about that, too.

I've just been in a rut recently...crazy bored. My Dad likes to say, "Only boring people get bored"--so I've been bored AND boring (and somewhat annoying to John, I'm sure).

I read somewhere that "to change everything, change one thing," which sounded do-able (even when you're boring-bored). So, I have....

Signed up to volunteer with Habitat and joined Toastmasters
Started doing "back care" exercises to take care of annoying, random back pain
Started eating more fruits and veggies (have even reached 5 servings a few times)

and I'm not feeling as bored, so I think things are starting to change (except me being somewhat annoying to John, I'm afraid he's stuck with that ;) )

It's also getting warmer and greener here--thank goodness for Spring!

(oh, and I just got a call from John--I'm off to buy 4 avocados and get free sushi in return -YAY!)

Love. Love. Love.

In honor of Valentine's Day, my favorite quotations about love...


"Love,in my opinion, is not a fantasy, not the stuff of romance novels or fairy tales. It's as gritty and real as the subway, it comes around just as regularly, and as long as you can stick it out on the platform, you won't miss it."
- Lois Smith Brady


"Don't worry about you lipstick or your height, because it's not going to matter. Just live your life well, take care of yourself, and don't mope too much. Love will find you."
- Lois Smith Brady


"Love imperfectly. Be a love idiot. Spill things. Tell secrets. Let yourself forget any love "ideal" or comparison. Be misshapen. Wake up laughing and cry frequently for no reason. Perfection in love is a narrow and suffocating path."
-SARK


"It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis."
- Margaret Bonanno


"We were together. I forget the rest."
- Walt Whitman

Snow Day!

We had the weirdest combination of snow yesterday, and then freezing rain, and then plain old rain and then snow again. When Callie woke me up at 6:40 morning, I checked online (hoping, hoping, hoping) to see whether they'd canceled classes at the university and THEY HAD! (I couldn't believe it). So I went back to bed until 11, got up and made scones, and hung out in my pajamas (I'm still in them right now)...

I let Callie run around in the snow (she loves it and didn't want to come in) while I took some pictures...so here's Miss Callie out in the snow.

16 Things About Me

Callie...uninterested in learning anything new about me...

1. I've been collecting my favorite quotations since 1998.
2. I LOVE to read magazines
3. and young adult and children's literature.
4. In college, I had to go to the ER twice--both because of bike wrecks.
5. I like to eat breakfast food first thing no matter when I get up
6. I have no sense of direction.
7. I wish they still played Square One on public television
8. I met my husband at boy scout camp (he was a staff member)
9. Mopping is my least favorite chore
10. I made the blanket in that picture.
11. I've had short hair since 1998, and I can't imagine ever growing it out.
12. I want to learn to speak spanish
13. I consider myself a "formerly shy" person but I can still be pretty darn shy in some situations (I'd rather speak in front of a large group than try to mingle afterward)
14. When I was little, I told my parents I wanted to be as tall as Danny Manning, a 6'11" KU basketball player. I'm glad that didn't actually happen.
15. I check my email all the time
16. I love getting rid of stuff, and I think donating good stuff to the thrift stores gives me good thrift-store karma

If you're reading this and have a blog, consider yourself tagged...if you're reading this and don't have a blog, you can always comment with your 16 things (or about how cute Callie is ;) )

What I'll do for free food...

Actually, I'd take pictures at the restaurant anyway (the free food is just an added bonus).

Welcome, welcome 2009!

Happy New Year to you and yours...we're having a relaxed day today (after staying out tooo late last night). I wanted to take a look back at 2008...so here it goes...

For the very first time in 2008, I...

got married! (exactly two months ago today!)

grew my very own vegetables and fruit (Strawberries, tomatoes, and banana peppers)

learned to make bacon without setting off the smoke detectors (very exciting but unfortunately I didn't document it or blog about it at the time...however, my bacon this morning?? Excellent!)

tried food photography and had my pictures in a magazine (see previous post)

tried firework photography

ate durian fruit (I learned about it watching No Reservations and then I happened to be at a party where someone brought one and tried it. It smells REALLY bad but the taste was kind of garlic-banana-like. Not awful but also not something I'm dying to eat again)

knit adult-sized socks (for me!)

made a quilt (I really don't think that's ever going to happen again)

Tried felting my knitting

Used a real TV camera (to help film a show at work when no students were in town). It was fun...but they've never asked me to do it again (might not be a good sign) ;)

and became totally obsessed with reading blogs (see "random websites I like" but honestly, that's only a portion of them) and fell in love with lolcats and loldogs

Right now, that's all I can remember when it comes to new stuff (may come back and add some later ;) )


During 2008, I loved:

Jasmine Rice (it is amazingly better than normal rice AND you can buy it at the grocery store and make it at home, I'm kind of obsessed)

the Sex in the City movie, Horton Hears a Who, and Quantum of Solace

finding out how much TV you can watch online (my favorites being Jon and Kate Plus Eight, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Starter Wife, and Lipstick Jungle)

Playing Wii fishing, racing cows, and the Wind Quest game, and for the last 4 days of 2008 - Animal Crossing (way obsessed with that, too)

Jon's salmon at Lui-Lui Restaurant (my other fave being the veggie feta pasta but that's not new this year)

Lemon cookies and sweet potato bisque at Village Bakery


For 2009, I'm looking forward to:

Moving to a different house (no more freezing pipes!! actual closets!!)

Our first anniversary (yay!)

Visiting Bren and NYC (not sure when that's happening but it is GOING to happen)

Going to Florida for Mike and Tracy's wedding (kind of like a mandatory vacation--I'm into that)

Trying the gardening thing again (more veggies, fewer flowers)

More photography--and using my new flash.

Doing other new, exciting, and yet-to-be determined things!


Here's hoping we all have the best and brightest year yet!

Seen this month's Asian Restaurant News??

Yeah, I didn't think that you had...but here it is! Complete with my pictures on the cover and inside...



and the pictures I like from the inside (can you see John making pizza??)



The restaurant where John works was featured as a success story, and Jade asked me to take the pictures for it. Pretty exciting to see them in print.

Baked goods craziness

This is actually the first year I've made and decorated gingerbread and I LOVE it! My favorites were the "James Bond" gingerbread men (with the bow ties, pictured above) and also the ones I made with winter scarves. My favorite of John's was his smiling star from the Mario Brothers games (complete with the song and added dancing).

I think John is making the dough for our third batch of gingerbread cookies tonight, and this is after making fudge (chocolate and peanut butter), truffles, no-bakes, Stolen (German bread), peppermint bark and cranberry chip cookies over the weekend! The peppermint bark and cranberry cookies were all me, but the rest? All John. What can I say? He's a total baking rock star (and I am a total baking rock star groupie). He even came to my rescue last night when I got tired of decorating the cookies to take to my office party.

Thankfully, we've managed to give MOST of the baked goods away...but there's still enough here to keep munching and munching and munching. At this point, I am totally sick of gingerbread cookies...but that still leaves about 26 other sweets to get sick of ;)

The tree!

Christmas Decorating!

Yesterday, we put up our Christmas lights and the Christmas tree. It was just a perfect day for it. It was snowing all day and totally Christmas-y. We put our LED lights on the outside of the house and then John put lights on the inside of our front windows. When we bought them last year, I wasn't sure about the LEDs, but now I love them. They are really bright and colorful...so when you turn onto our street, there's our house all lit up (it helps make up for the fact that our house is the only one on our street with lights)

We put the tree up next...I'm waiting until tonight to get a picture (it looks prettier without all the light coming in the windows). John put on his ornaments and declared that they tree was now "sufficiently geeky"...I'm still loving his Darth Vader ornament that talks when you turn the tree on (Callie was very curious about it this morning)...and of course the blinking tree topper that John got from his parent's house and fixed last year with a new string of lights, a glue gun, and a lot of patience...



I'm so excited--it finally feels Christmas-y here! I'm ready to wrap presents and listen to Christmas music 24-7 and bake Christmas goodies! =)

I actually started off this morning making pumpkin chocolate chip muffins a recipe that I found on a blog I really enjoy, Get Rich Slowly. They were so good...and now I'm trying to decide whether we need to eat all twelve or whether we should share. ;)

John's really excited because we're going to see Quantum of Solace this afternoon. He's already been you-tube-ing the theme song, trailer, and general James Bond music (which has now evolved into Monty Python clips...).

That's about it here--will post more pictures of the decor later!

Getting back to normal...

but don't worry, there are still more wedding pictures coming (well, okay...maybe you weren't really worried about that, but I'm still in the stare-at-wedding-pictures-for-hours-on-end stage, so I figured I should make everyone else do the same ;) )

Things are good--I think we've almost got all of the wedding stuff put away, have found places for the gifts, and I am part-way done with name-change junk...did all the paperwork at work, and a new social security card is on its way. This weekend, I'll get the new driver's license (fingers crossed for a better picture this time) and then I'll start calling the bank/utilities/credit cards/etc. etc. (the stuff I've really been putting off)

It's started to get kind of cold here--teeny flurries yesterday and honest-to-goodness snow today (I was psyched--beats gloomy cold rain any day). It's got me humming Christmas carols and thinking about holiday baking--but honestly, I can't believe it's already almost Thanksgiving

that's about it for now...time for a book and some cuddling on the couch with Callie-dog

Pictures from my Dad!

WE'RE MARRIED!!!!

More posting later...right now I'm dealing with (or really ignoring) all the decorations/presents/clothes/tablecloths/etc that are taking up half of the living room ;)

busy...

I know it's been forever since I posted...things are really busy around here. The wedding is on SATURDAY!! I can't believe it's so close!

They had a surprise bridal shower at work for me today--it was so fun! I got two pieces of stained glass art, a "slinky nightie" ;), a native american seed pot (pit fired by my coworker and everything), and a heart keychain (and cards, and cake, and punch)...it was really hard to get back to work after that, but I HAD to because today was my last day of work for a week.

Tomorrow is errands, errands, errands, knitting group at 5, and then my parents and Erin are going to get in around 8ish (yay!)

We still have a list of things to do--put together the reception playlist, get John's costume together, get cups, napkins, etc. etc. etc...

whew!

and today...

we went on a walk. Callie was all worn out from playing with Baxter last night, so she actually sat down and let me take (a few) pictures. I was planning a longer walk, but she started pulling so we cut it short and headed back home. Then it was pumpkin curry soup for dinner, and now I'm back to knitting on John's socks (as soon as I get this posted)

Today...

I came home and gave our stinky dog a bath...



(this is an after picture)

Birthday Pictures!

For my 28th birthday, John, Callie and I went to Stroud's Run (lake near here) to have a picnic in the afternoon and let Callie swim in the lake. John made chocolate angel food cake with chocolate buttercream frosting (he had enough batter for a normal size cake and then a little cake made in a mini loaf pan). So we had the mini-cake just him and me at the lake. Callie ran around like a crazy dog and swam and swam and swam.



Me and John (with the outhouse in the background...tried to crop that out ;) )



The wind made it hard for John to light the candles



Callie isn't quite understanding that she should bring her toy back to John after he throws it (and not just leave it floating there). She had so much fun but smelled REALLY bad after being in the lake (she got a bath as soon as we got home).

Then John had to go to work. It was sushi night at the restaurant, so at 6:30, I met some friends there for dinner...John wasn't busy so he got to come say hang out for a bit, and we had sushi and dinner, and then John brought out the cake with 28 candles all lit...it was so beautiful and the cake was amazing! (we had our mini-cake at the lake because if he had been busy, he wouldn't have been able to have cake with us).



My dinner (the owner of the restaurant carves carrots for your birthday - how cute is that?!?!)



Here is all of us with the cake (Sonja, Stephanie, Krista, Me, Yvonne, and Nancy)



And another group picture

YES!!!!