Mele Kalikimaka

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me - a Maui honeymoon!

Ashlee and I hopped over to the next island after being married on Oahu - Maui!  It was the best week ever - we caught some rays, relaxed, went swimming, ate local food (lots of fruit and a little fresh fish), drove all around the island, saw the 7 sacred pools, and hiked to waterfalls through bamboo forests!  It was perfect.  On Sunday we went to church and it was testimony meeting - a woman got up to speak and said she had gotten married in Hawaii and after 5 years her husband had taken her back to Hawaii every year.  It was pretty neat and a great idea. Hopefully I can do the same thing somday.

Thanks Ashlee for such a perfect memorable week!  Mele Kalikimaka!  I love you!

12 Gifts of Christmas

I have to apologize for not blogging earlier - not only have I never blogged before but Ashlee is great at it and I have been so busy in grad school I never made the time to start.  Its been almost a year and a half since Ashlee said yes so I think its time I started to share some of our love stories about being newlyweds.  I would be content to leave the sharing of our love stories to Ashlee - she is great at it, but every story has more than one side so I'm going to try blogging to help tell the stories in full. 

I am also starting to blog as a Christmas gift to Ashlee!  With both of us having grad school loans we are on a budget - you could say it is tight.  Last year, on our first Christmas together we got each other inexpensive gifts for the 12 days of Christmas!  This year, with more school loans, we are not spending any $ on gifts.  So, I decided to give gifts that don't cost any money but cost more important things like, time, thought, and self.  It is impossible to share all of our first year of marriage and a great start to our second, but I will try my best to share my side of our love stories as 12 gifts of Christmas to Ashlee!  (a picture tells a thousand words so I'll use a lot of pictures!)

Better late than never some believe so here I go:

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me - a Hawaiian wedding in Laie!

 

 

 

Thanks for marrying me Ashlee and making me the happiest boy in eternity!  It was the best day of my life and your love is the greatest gift I have ever received.  I hope you remember that day, our whole wedding, and how you felt, during this Christmas season.  Merry Christmas!  I love you! 

a very merry thanksgiving and columbus day too!

to all my canadian friends and family, i hope you've had a wonderful thanksgiving celebration with all the fixings that go along with it!

another added bonus of being married to my cute canadian husband is that i get to celebrate this favorite fall holiday twice.  that's twice the amount of mashpotatosandgravy, twice the amount of seven layer salad (that is actually now a 6 layer salad for me), double the helpings of green bean casserole, and of course my favorite- the pie!  ooooh the pie!

since jon is in school all day today- until 10pm (whodoesthat?!) we celebrated last night!  it was a perfect end to a great fall weekend here in these parts.

and so i'd like to say that i'm so thankful for this holiday- and that i get to celebrate it twice a year now!
but for real- i am thankful to have the most wonderful friends and family a girl could ask for.  i'm thankful for a job that i love going to each day.  i'm thankful for my healthy body and that all of my needs are met.  and lastly i'm thankful for that sweet husband of mine that i get to wake up every morning and take care of everyday.

And the other reason i'm posting (nope, it has nothing to do with columbus day- i actually think it's dumb that this is a holiday that people actually get off of work...)
i tried a new recipe for green bean casserole i wanted to share.  i've never, in my life, made green bean casserole, can you believe it?!  the only reason why i was tempted by this recipe was because it was made with sour cream- and for those of you that don't know- i love sour cream.  so here it goes- this will now be a staple in our holiday meals!

Green Bean Casserole (adapted from allrecipes.com)
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 c diced sweet onion (i used closer to 1/2 c)
1 c sour cream
3 (14.5 oz) cans of french style green beans- drained
2 c shredded cheddar cheese (i only used like 1.5 cups- just enough to cover)
1/2 c crumbled buttery crackers (i used ritz crackers)
1Tbs. butter, melted

1. preheat oven to 350
2. in a large skillet over medium heat melt butter.  stir in flour until smooth and cook for one minute.  stir in salt, sugar, onion and sour cream.  then add the green beans and turn off the burner.  mix until everything is coated.
3. transfer everything into a 2 1/2 quart baking dish. cover with cheese.  in a small bowl combine butter and crackers.  then spread crackers over top.
4. bake for about 30 minutes until crackers are golden and cheese is bubbly.
5. enjoy every bite of your sour cream-bean goodness! and be thankful!

that thing right there in the center- are those sour cream green beans

there was no turkey- but he did cook up some chicken for himself

  

happy fall

fall is officially upon us & i'm ready!  bring on the sweaters, jeans & flats.  i'm welcoming the fall time treats with open arms too; my latest obsession- candy corn flavored M&M.  jon doesn't really care for them- so more for me!  please enjoy responsibly... just sayin'

my other obsessions for the moment- new musics.  i've been listening to these two on repeat for a few days now:

kimbra: settle down.  i'm mesmerized by the beat and her voice.  just can't get enough.  the dancing is a little awkward, but i find i just can't look away.

the lumineers: ho hey.  completely beautiful all around.

well that's all for today.

hope everyone has a happy fall & weekend too!

enjoy your treats and music!

color splash

of course my new job requires skills such as critical thinking, program development, and oh yeah, shaping the future of the those little lives i work with; but can i just say that one of my greatest joys these days is picking out an outfit that doesn't require me to wear all black - or any black for that matter.  for so long i never had an option... and now i can display any layer of color, texture, print or design my little heart desires! i'm sure the novelty will wear itself out, eventually.  but until then i'm going to take full advantage and continue mixing and matching.

first day of work

my mini shopping spree for work attire 

cinnamon spice and everything nice.

it most certainly felt like fall on saturday.  and my favorite kind of fall day, at that.  we started off our weekend with breakfast at our favorite place.  a treat that was long overdue too.  i think the last time we were there was before ottawa.  this is the place that jon and i went to for our official first date...  it will forever hold a special place in my heart.

after breakfast was a run around the house with all the cleaning gear and vacuum in tow.  the husband and the cat snoozed as i cleaned, which is to be expected when you wake him up before 9am on a saturday.  by noon the laundry was done, floors scrubbed and i had a sparkling clean tub.

and all of that had to be done of course, before i could get to my favorite fall activity - yummy, delicious treats that come from the kitchen.  yesterday was my attempt at 2 new projects: numero uno-  homemade granola {yes, i am a hippy at heart}, and two- no bake cookies....  and i know you think that is just impossible for a gal that loves cooking {and chocolate + peanut butter}, but its true!  i have never made a batch that has actually turned out.  2 attempts in the past that failed {so horrible, i had to just scrap 'em} so i just never tried again until yesterday.  last week i got an email from lara j. asking me to send her a recipe for them.  so i had to test a few out before i could tell her how to make them.

so it was pretty perfect.  a perfect fall day actually, to have a house smells like cinnamon + treats to munch on the rest of the weekend.

hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as we did!

   

tender mercies

today at work there was a woman that came in for coffee that works at the salon across the parking lot.  she comes in every so often and usually gets the same thing.  i wasn't the one to actually ring up her order, but i started making her usual.  what i didn't notice was that she had actually ordered a size smaller than what i was making.  i commented that i wasn't paying attention and made her usual size drink and smiled that my error was in her favor.  she quickly thanked me and responded that my mistake was an example of our Lord's tender mercies.  she didn't have enough money to get her usual so she compromised with something smaller and was blessed to receive confirmation that the Lord does in fact know her; enough to answer her tiniest prayers.  her story about how she felt the Lords hand in her life at that moment struck me.  what a beautiful thing to know that we are so loved, loved enough to have our silly, tiny, meaningless wants, wishes and hopes made possible.

today, i also received that confirmation with a phone call where i was offered a full-time position as the Life Skills Coordinator with a refugee program in the area.  after almost 2 longs years of searching,  stressing, and almost giving up i landed a job. a real job that actually uses the degree i earned and feared i was starting to forget.  i think i'm still in shock that it's actually happening- lets just hope i can get over the shock by wednesday at 9am when i report for my first day!  

thank you so much friends and family for your love, support and prayers!  what a beautiful day it has been- full of tender mercies.  

Family Photos

I'll say it again- I can't believe a whole year has already gone by.  I so love this boy and his sentimental side.  He surprised me with another band for other side of my engagement ring and we got Austin to capture the moment.  I can’t wait to show our children these pictures some day- of when their dad managed steal their mom's heart away for a second time!

On another note, tomorrow Jon officially starts school for fall semester.  I have some mixed emotions about what will happen in our home after he begins classes- somehow I end up spending a majority of my time at home in the kitchen preparing meals, my gym buddy now works out with his books, and when we are at home together I don’t exist until maybe an occasional date night and on Sundays when the school books are put away.  2 more years of this and it will be over before we know it.  

Enjoy these gems (some of which are unedited but, I just couldn't help but post)!  

love. 15. 30. 40

in an earlier post i mentioned that jon and i played tennis over our vacation with the fowlers.  i'm usually pretty reluctant when it comes to trying new things that i feel like might make me look foolish...  not sure where that mentality started, but i'm getting better.  that's besides the point, the point is, we played tennis together and loved it.  so much so that its now become our thing.  our thing we do together {and he does not just let me win!}.  not that either of us are really that good- we are pretty equal in skill so it is something we both love doing together.  i'm a quality time gal and this is just the fix.

another thing about the game that my husband loves so much is that playing brings out a side of his wife that he does not see anywhere else... on the court i turn into a sass talkin', fiery competitor {i know right, me and competitor do not go in the same sentence!}.  i sometimes even make the tennis grunt on my returns. who knew how much aggression you can work off by hitting a tiny ball as hard as you can, at with your husband?!

after a sweaty match for date night 

 

a happy belated one year photo shoot

over our weekend in traverse city, jon and i had one year photos taken by my lovely sister inlaw!  at the very end jon surprised me with another band that matches my other wedding band {sweet, sweet boy, totally won my heart over again with this one}.  i couldn't help but post a tiny sneak peak of the photos she took.  thanks austin- we had sooo much fun!

Anniversary Lantern Send Off

Jon's dad sent us these lanterns as a part of our wedding gift, along with the movie Tangled...  the song at the end, "I see the light", reminded him of us- that we had finally found each other.  So we went down to Lake Lansing to send off a celebratory lantern.  

It was the perfect end to an amazing anniversary.

i love you to the moon and back

... and then back again.

one year ago today jon and i were married for time and all eternity in the laie, hawaii temple.  it has been the shortest and longest year of my life (all in a good way of course).
the other night, we went out to dinner with some friends (that have been married just over 6 months) and they asked us (in all our wisdom of being married a whole year) what the secret is....  we both laughed. ha!

i wish i could begin to explain what it's like to be married....  nothing like i really anticipated.  it's so much better than i thought it could ever be; even the bad days are better than the worst days i ever had before.  it's so much more work than i ever thought it would be; but it's the most satisfying thing i have even done.  i have never learned so much about myself in my entire life!  and everyday he makes me want to be better, for him and for myself.

so, all in all, i like this thing we have going on here.  if year one is any indication of how the rest of the years will go - i'm so grateful we have forever.