Great weekend!

We had a great weekend and the fact that we had today off made it even BETTER! There really is nothing better than a 3 day weekend... I wouldn't mind working longer days to just have an extra day on the weekend. I actually feel caught up on sleep and ready to go back to work tomorrow.
St. Patrick's day weekend is always a fun one and this year was no exception. Geoff and I celebrated our three year anniversary by going to our friend's annual St. Patrick's day party (where we met), going on a hike, out to a nice dinner and a lovely surprise this morning with breakfast in bed! All that (plus more!) in one weekend... it was perfect!


We hiked around Mt. Hamilton. It was FREEZING, but so gorgeous with all of the rolling green hills.

Read carefully - we couldn't resist!


Not sure what I was doing here - it's oh so country western!

At our friend's St. Patrick's Day party! (I just realized I haven't posted about Geoff's rugby injury that ended with 30 stitches - check out that scar.)


Geoff brought me breakfast in bed this morning with a sweet anniversary card. What a lucky gal I am!

4 EVA

I haven't posted in 4 EVA (name the movie...) so I thought I'd drop in and say hi. My friends have been great bloggers lately, and I've been a bit of a slacker. It's time to watch some crappy TV, so I'll quickly bullet point the top three things on my mind right now...

• My student's mom was diagnosed last weekend with liver cancer. It's not good... and I've been trying to grapple with the idea of how to deal with my student when his mom does pass away. Sadly, he's exiting my program this year, so I probably won't be around to help him. I'm worried about him and his family right now.
• Recently I've been thinking about how I want to get into photography (thanks to Melissa!). I'm debating on if I should should off until after the wedding, mostly because right now is not a great time for me to buy a nice camera.
• Geoff and I are about 98% sure we want to go to FIJI for our honeymoon! If only there was more time in the day to research and begin booking our flights and accommodations!

"It's a great time to buy!"

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that, we'd be able to afford a mansion! We've recently been pre-approved for a loan and have begun house hunting. My online searching has brought me to this one house a few times and in the desciption of the house it says "more than a fixer-upper, it's a project of a lifetime." WOW! Now that's one we can't let pass us by. (Insert frustrated face here!)

Bodega Bay

We left for our getaway to Bodega Bay on Monday after a rough 2 days of food poisoning hell. This is the first time I've ever got it and I hope it's the last. It made for a very unromantic Valentine's Day, but Geoff came up with the great idea to bring our fondue fixings on our trip with us, and bless his heart he acted like he didn't mind cleaning up my vomit on what's supposed to be the most romantic day of the year.

The first day and 1/2 of our trip to Bodega Bay was torrential down pour, but that didn't stop us from enjoying our time. We spent Tuesdays driving up the coast heading towards Armstrong Woods Redwood Reserve park, home of impressive redwood trees that are over 300 feet tall. We felt like little ants as we walked through the park and enjoy the trees and the RAIN. A lot of RAIN that made the trees very happy and made us wet and soggy. The sun did shine for us on our trip and the ocean was sparkly blue and the hills were lush and green.... we even flew a kite on the beach! The little towns around there are small and precious and you could feel how the hard times of the economy were just slamming the little businesses. Quite sad, so we did our best to spur on the local economy and bought a few trinkets to remember our trip by.
We got a lot done on writing our wedding ceremony and it's really starting to feel like we are getting MARRIED. It was fun to put our minds and hearts together and see what we could come up with. We both have a good vision of how the ceremony is going to play out, but we still need to work on the details. Getting away to do this was the best idea ever, and since we still have to finish the ceremony we're thinking getting away again in the near future is a must-do!

Ski week... perfect

We have a week off and I could not be more happy about it. I didn't realize how much I need this break until today. It's been a long week at work and not only do I need a break from my students, I'm sure they need a break for me! It's really amazing how well timed our vacations are.... when you feel like you can't take one more day there's usually a day off around the corner!

On Monday Geoff and I are headed up north to Bodega Bay for a 2 night getaway. We are going to spend most of the time writing our wedding ceremony and are looking forward to being just the two of us, for two days, with no distractions. I know writing our wedding ceremony is going to be a huge project, so I'm trying to remember to take it slow knowing that it doesn't have to be finished right away. I think it's going to be a really good time to reflect and step away from planning the wedding, and focus more on our relationship and how it came to be what it is today. <3

:-)

Last weekend I went on a play date with my friend Jill and her one year old, Brooklyn. Isn't she ADORABLE?! It's fun to see how much she grows and learns each day.... she's spunky and super fun to play with! I hope she thinks the same of about me. :-)

More pics....

I wanted to add a few pics onto my last post. Looking back at the pictures I feel so blessed to have such amazing family and friends supporting Geoff and I in this wild and crazy adventure of marriage! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get pictures of everyone... but here are a few good ones!


My dad gave a very touching toast to me and Geoff.

My girls (and my sis!)

The Pease's and The Abodeely's.... aren't we lucky!?

The whole Abo family together! It doesn't happen often.... but it's so special when it does! 2009 is quite a year for us!

Yummy spread!

My dearest girlfriends from college - Alison and Stacey.

Update

Ok, I've been a bad blogger. There has been a ton of stuff going on and I know I'm going to forget to talk about things! Before I start, I'm home sick today (ugh!) so I have to apologize because my head is a bit fuzzy and I'm sure this post won't be the best. I'll try not to write too much and put up mostly pictures!
The biggest event** since I posted last was heading to Seattle for a long weekend for our engagement party! My whole family was in town and Geoff's mom, step-dad and brother came also. It was a love filled, fast paced, totally exciting weekend! We also celebrated Abo family Christmas - you gotta love Christmas in January!

Anne, my dear childhood friend, flew in from Arizona for the weekend to celebrate with me and Geoff. It was so wonderful to spend the day with Anne and celebrate with her on Saturday night. It's amazing how you can not see someone for years and instantly be back to being close friends, like we've never missed a minute together.

The in-laws walking the streets of Seattle!

Me and Mom at Macy's.... of course there was registry touch-ups that only Mom's can help with!

Our engagement party!

HAVE I TOLD YOU THE EXCITING NEW!?!?!? JJ and Piper are pregnant and I'm going to be a real AUNT for the first time! Baby boy Abodeely is due May 21 and I know the two of them are going to be the most amazing parents.... I hope they are prepared for the amount of spoiling involved with the FIRST grandbaby!








**Of course, the biggest event was the swearing in of our new PRESIDENT, Barack Obama!

The holidays... in pictures!

I hope all my dear readers had a fabulous holiday season! It's hard to believe that the celebrations are over (atleast for awhile!) and we are 5 days into 2009! It's gonna be a GOOOOOD year! ;-)

We spent this Christmas with Geoff's family and it was nice to stay local and take part in Beckstrom/Pease family traditions. I feel so blessed to have such fabulous in-laws and I look forward to many more holidays to come with the family!

Christmas Eve dinner.... Preparing the butter molds for my (once again) delish Aunt Jo rolls.

Christmas morning at Barbara's house.... check out those dutch babies! Yummmm.

Geoff's brother gave us pig pot holders that we registered for - it was a great surprise to get them early!

The stocking in the middle with the stripes was a gift to me from Mo (Geoff's sis).
It made me :-)

We rang in the New Year at Cassandra's house with some friends.

(Geoff later regretted this move!)

New Years with my fiance! I get to marry this man... I'm pretty lucky! :-)

Look out!

I'm famous!

Ok, not really... but I sent in my favorite ring picture to my cheesy wedding blog and they published it!! I took it with my little point and shoot camera and sent it in on a whim and they picked MY picture! I'm so excited you would think there was a cash prize or something. Geoff just reminded me to "thank the little people".
I've always wanted to be a photographer, so I think this is a sign that it's time to follow my dreams. Check out the link!

http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/12/28/reader-ring-shots-part-ii/

Aunt Jo rolls.... by popular demand

Dough will keep in fridge 5 days, yield 40 - 45 muffins.

10c flour
1 handful sugar (Aunt Jo size hands... my mom uses 2 handful, I use 1!)
2T (heaping) salt
1c warm milk
1/4 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 pkg yeast
1/3c vegetable oil
5c warm water

Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and powder together in a large bowl. Mix dry yeast and 1/4c warm water (not too warm - don't kill the yeast!) together in a small bowl and stir to mix. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. Mix milk, water and oil together in another bowl so that they are luke warm combined. Add liquids, including yeast mixture, to dry ingredients and mix with hands until wet. Dough will be lumpy. Cover loosely and store in fridge at least overnight or until ready to use.
Spray muffin tins, add dough till about 3/4 full. Bake in pre-heated oven at 400' for about 20 minutes. Broil till more brown on top of desired - watch carefully so they don't burn.

Enjoy and be sure to thank Aunt Jo! Also, by family tradition we serve our rolls with butter in the shape of something festive. I bought these this year to keep up with the cheesy tradition.

Christmas break!

I am loving this time off right now... it is much needed after a pretty hectic last few weeks at work. It's nice to have a break from my students and have time to get some things ready for Christmas. On Friday we had a party with our friends at our apartment and we celebrated over Holiday Punch and Mulled Wine. (See a fab recipe here... it was a hit!) It's nice to have a decent spaced apartment so we can entertain, and we also were able to show off our first Christmas tree!
Today we've spent the day getting ourselves organized for Christmas and doing some food prep. Santa delivered a special bowl for my "Aunt Jo Rolls" so I can do the whole recipe in one bowl instead of spit it into two. (And I got to wear my new Christmas apron that Laurie made for me!)

Geoff was busy with his first attempt at my mom's famous carrot cake that he absolutely loves (and one of the MANY perks of marrying into my family!). We won't know until Christmas, but it seemed to have turned out really good.

In the meantime, I did a photo shoot with my ring (my wedding blogs told me to do it!).

Picture of our tree!

Geoff's sister Monica came over and took a HDR picture (you'll have to ask her what that means!) of our tree so you could see the lit present. It turned out nice so I thought I'd share. Thanks Mo!

Wedding registry.... yikes!

For some reason I was SO overwhelmed with the idea of registering for our wedding and pretty much put if off as long as I was "supposed" to (according to all my ridiculous wedding blogs, you're supposed to register about 8 months before your wedding!). I'm not really sure what I was worried about... I'm not great about making big decisions when I know it's something that I'll have for a long, long time (such as dishes and bedding)... silly, I know. Anyways, we decided to register at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Macy's and Crate and Barrel. It ended up being a lot of fun and we actually did most of the registering online when we got home, after we had a minute to digest it all. We both keep going in and changing things around, which I guess is the fun of it, and have also been kind of obsessing about it, which is more pathetic than fun. I took some pictures... as you can see Geoff was really into it. He went into the whole thing mostly uninterested, but was quickly excited once he could use the scanner.


Looking for our everyday dishes... probably one of the bigger decisions.


Taking a break on the massage chair. He wanted to scan this too.

The bride and groom!

He comes with a lifetime warranty.

All I want for Christmas is....

Christmas decorations!

I took out my Christmas decorations the other day and here is what I had....



Pathetic, right? So, we did some shopping and now the place looks better....




It's our first very own Christmas tree and decorations so it was really fun collecting things. Being the cheap-o that I am, I didn't want to buy too much stuff because I know that after Christmas we can hit up some fab sales and get Christmas decorations atleast 50% off. But, our collection was pathetic and we are hosting Christmas dinner at our place, so we knew we needed to get some things. And yes, the tree is a little off, but I figure someone had to buy the special one!

A little shout-out to Laurie, a staff member from my old class, who gave me that cute "present" under the tree. You can see it in the first picture and then lit up under the tree in the last picture. It's hard to tell in this picture, but it is SO cute and looks great under the tree. This year she gave me a hand-made apron... she is so handy and creative!

The other gift is from Santa! I was out shopping with a friend yesterday and came home and some how Santa found me and left me a gift!

As you can see, it was a very productive weekend for us. We also registered for our wedding so I'll post a few pics of that. I hope everyone is enjoying getting ready for Christmas - it's a fun time of year!

PS- Feel free to comment on the chair in the first picture... I've been working on getting rid of it for 2+ years, but Geoff won't budge.

Aunt Jo rolls - success!

The rolls turned out delicious and for some ridiculous reason I was totally stressed that I'd botched the recipe and they'd be gross!


They were a little blackened... Geoff put them on broil for the last few minutes, went to the bathroom, and came back to find some crispy ones. He told me I can blame it on him, but since I put them in I probably should have been in charge of taking them out. Instead, I was outside doing a photo shoot with my sis, Shawn and Ziggy. Aren't they cute?!


I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. There is so much to be thankful for and being able to spend the holiday with Geoff's family was just one of them!

Email from my parents

I wanted to share this with everyone. Geoff and I are going home on Thursday and we can't wait to give them a BIG hug!

---------------

Hi all!

We arrived in Mumbai last night and have spent the day wandering the streets with no particular plan in place. Heightened security everywhere but the streets seem to be returning to normalcy. Arriving from the airport last night, we drove past the sea wall where uncountable numbers of people were out lighting candles along the wall in memory of lost lives - very sad and uncharacteristically quiet. One of the art galleries we visited today had an exhibit where multiple artists have decided to donate any sales made to aid the cause.

Our plane is on schedule and we'll leave late tonight.

Love to you all,

M&D

My parents in India

A few of you have asked about my parents so I thought I'd post real quick. They are safe and thankfully were not in Mumbai during the terrorist attacks. They did fly through Mumbia the day after the attacks started, but were only in the airport. They were supposed to spend one day in another town and then fly back to Mumbai to spend their last 3 days there. Those plans changed and now they are spending extra time in the other town and then flying to Mumbai to spend just one night there before flying home. They are staying north of the financial district (where the attacks took place) and in their last email said they feel safe and have no reason to worry right now. I can imagine the security level being extremely high so possibly it's one of the safer places to be right now. Thanks for your concerns.

More posts to come later today inbetween writing my LAST few papers for my masters program!

Aunt Jo rolls

This year I won't be going home to Seattle for either Thanksgiving or Christmas, so I'm pretty sad about that. I love sharing holidays with Geoff's family, but it also means less time with my family and missing out on Abo traditions. I know it's just a new normal to get used to, but it's not all that easy for me. I feel SO grateful to be welcomed into Geoff's amazing family and I'm looking forward to the holidays with them this year, but I knew I'd have to bring a bit of home to our dinners. So, tonight I attempted to make Aunt Jo Rolls to bring to Barbara's house for Thanksgiving. We have these rolls every holiday at the Abo house. One batch makes 40 rolls and we usually only have leftovers for a day or two! Keep in mind, this is probably the easiest Abodeely traditional recipe but given my cooking history it's quite the challenge. I thought I'd take some pictures to share with my parents, who are in India. I probably would have called my mom atleast 5 times to ask her questions about the recipe, so it was sad to not be able to talk to her!

The mess

The dough is done!


In the fridge for a few days! I hope they turn out okay!

I found this as I was cleaning up. Look carefully under the Joy Of Cooking. It's a blob of dough. Not sure how that got there!