Date Night!

To finish off the first weekend of our honeymoon, Dan and I headed out to our local movie theater for $5 Sunday movies.

We both got all dressed up, because how else could you possible enjoy a $5 movie?

Yes, he does wear this exact outfit to work.

I definitely don't wear this to work.

We saw the new Bourne movie. It was certainly entertaining, but some of the camera work was a little sickening (we had to sit pretty close to the screen) and it left a lot of unanswered questions. Personally, I think movies should be able to stand on their own, even if there is a sequel planned. This movie really didn't--it was basically a set up for the next movie. Disappointing.

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A Weekend in San Francisco

Warning: Our weekend was almost entirely technology free, so no pictures.

Dan and I got married in January, but because of work commitments were unable to take our honeymoon. Since I have four weeks off of training, and Dan has vacation time to use, we decided to take a honeymoon of sorts this month.

Instead of a traditional one-week vacation, we are taking multiple mini-vacations in the area. First stop: San Francisco!

Dan took Friday off of work and we headed in to the city for some touristy fun. We had a hotel near Union Square and spent most of our time in the downtown area on Friday. I only brought shorts and a thin jacket, so we spent at least an hour trying to locate some acceptable pants--it was very cold in the city!

Friday night, typical of my luck, I had a hankering for ramen and we happened upon a ramen shop mere blocks from our hotel! It wasn't the most incredible ramen I've had, but it hit the spot and warmed us up nicely.

Saturday, we enjoyed breakfast buffet at the hotel, before trekking up and over some of San Francisco's hills to Fisherman's Wharf. We considered taking the cable cars, but the 200+ person line changed our mind.

Instead, we burned some calories before heading out to lunch at Greens, an all-vegetarian restaurant serving primarily local and organic food. Dan had a southwestern style omelet, with chili, potatoes and some spices. I had polenta topped with wild mushrooms, peas and poached eggs. Delicious!

For dessert, Dan and I split a mocha and a few slices of banana bread, topped with cinnamon vanilla butter. They considered it a breakfast pastries: we thought it was decadent enough for dessert. Still, the food was decadent and delicious and made no apologies for the lack of meat.

We had considered an ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli square, but after lunch found any more eating completely unnecessary. Instead, we trudged back over the hill and found some place to sit and rest our feet. People watching in San Francisco is a treat.

For dinner, Dan and I grabbed some salad and met up for a double date! We sat in Union Square enjoying good company and good food until the setting sun caused us to shiver our way home.

Since I haven't had a weekend at home for awhile, Dan and I are spending Sunday back in our apartment catching up on life.

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Tidbit Tuesday

A little known fact about me:

My all-time favorite fruit of all-time is definitely the white nectarine. Not as tart as it's yellow cousin, it's juicy, decadently sweet flesh reminds me of summer. The freestone version are by far superior, and crunchy is preferable to sweet--even the less ripe version of these fruits tend to be plenty sweet. My favorite way to eat them? Removed from the pit and cut into 8ths (or 6ths, if you prefer).

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Pantry Philosophy

Before we had a dining table, or even pots and pans, in our new apartment, we had an assortment of dried goods, snacks and even produce. I saw a well-stocked pantry as an absolute necessity.

Now, I'm not so sure.

In my family, most bulk goods are kept at an equilibrium supply. My parents have a decent sense of what and how much they use of any given pantry item; it is restocked before supplies reach critical levels. For example, they always have enough pasta on hand to last until their next trip to Costco.

This allows them to buy in appropriate quantities and take advantage of bulk purchase deals as appropriate. It also means ingredients are always on hand for a quick dinner or impromptu baking session.

This works for most of the ingredients they have in the house, but things change. For example, when my mom stopped eating gluten, the store of flour was suddenly useless. Or, when my dad went on a risotto kick, the equilibrium store of arborio rice increased; when the kick ended, we were left with a lot of arborio.

Dan's family is on a different end of the spectrum. Items are purchased on an as-needed basis. Most items in the pantry are fortuitous leftovers from previous cooking adventures.

Because of the damp climate on the Oregon coast, dry goods don't last as long--so this style is as much practical as necessary. It does also allow for more creative cooking: menus are planned freely, instead of around pantry items.

There are a few downsides, though. Trips to the grocery store are frequent--a difficult task with no car. There are also often leftover ingredients, in quantities challenging to use up. Impromptu cooking is also made more difficult, and I'm no good with creativity when I'm hungry.

Dan and I are working our way towards a middle ground. There are a few things that are challenging to get (white whole wheat flour, nutritional yeast, or good cheese, for example) that we like to keep stocked at all times. We try to replace these before we finish them off.

Most other things, we are trying to replace after we've used them up completely. For example, we are working our way through our supply of wheat bran--purchased for a this muffin recipe--and don't plan on replacing it until we want to make bran muffins again.

We're hoping that as we eat down our pantry a bit, we can also get a better grasp on what our food budget really is. Since we'll be replacing items as we use them, we're hoping for a bit more consistency in our spending.


How do you stock your pantry? Any new ideas?

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Only in the Bay Area

Dan and I had a spectacular weekend of adventures. After Saturday morning's practice, I hurried on home to spend some time with my husband. After a quick search online for weekend happenings, we headed over to BART for a quick ride into San Francisco.

We popped out at Embarcadero station, a quick 12-minute ride from our apartment (and less than $7 round trip!), and wandered out onto the giant plaza.

After some looking around we found this:

The World Naked Bike Ride was suiting up (down?) and getting ready to ride. Naked events are certainly not unheard of in the Bay Area, but they're still quite the experience.

After watching people sunscreen places that had never before gotten sunscreen, and marvelling at their boldness, we continued on to the Ferry Building to enjoy the farmer's market.

The market near our apartment is in all ways superior, but we enjoy wandering around and sampling from the various vendors. We tasted fresh stone fruit, dark chocolate almond brittle and even some Humphry Slocombe ice cream! (I'd never had it before.)

We also stopped in for a simple lunch: cheese from the Cowgirl Creamery and Acme bread.

We had their wagon wheel cheese, a lightly aged mild and creamy cheese, along with little sour torpedos from Acme, all enjoyed in the sunshine on the water front, with a view of the Bay Bridge.

From there, we walked about 15 minutes down the main drag to Union Square, where we did some shopping. We stopped at the Apple store to play, and then headed to Williams Sonoma, where I had a gift card. We also wandered the shops and malls, and did some much needed clothes shopping for Dan.

For dinner, we just headed to the basement of the mall (also attached to the BART station), where there are tens of booths serving incredible food! In the mall! We finished off our meal with another sample (or two) of hazelnut gelato.

Sunday morning, after work for me and a workout for Dan, we ventured out into the 85 degree heat. Our original plan was to go to the $5 movie at our local theatre, but tickets sold out as we waited in line. Instead, we wandered about another local farmer's market a block away, toured some work of local artists, and then headed to a nearby coffee shop to cool down.

After all of this adventuring, we came home for some rest and relaxation, and enjoyed incredible rice wraps for dinner. The instructions are simple:
Cut up a bunch of veggies (cucumbers, radishes, carrots, bell peppers, corn, lettuce, etc.). Make this peanut sauce. Soften rice wraps in warm water. Fill, fold, dip, eat.

It didn't heat up the house, and the easy clean-up is leaving us some time to enjoy the now reasonable weather.

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Full Time Training

Last week Monday, I started training with a local rowing club that specializes in preparing athletes for international competition. Who knows what the future holds, but the present holds lots of exercise and LOTS of eating.

Although I compete in a weight restricted class, training for upwards of six hours a day requires I eat as much food as I can just to maintain my weight and my energy. I carefully track what I put in my body and what I ask of it so that I fuel properly.

Here's what a day of training looks like:
 6AM - wake up
Breakfast: peanut butter banana sandwich with large glass of milk, strawberries
7AM - bike to boathouse, 20 minutes
Snack: 200 calorie energy bar
7:30AM - get boat out, row for around 60 minutes, easy pace
9:00AM - quick break
Snack: chocolate milk, plus a few Belgian chocolates from a teammate
9:15AM - weightlifting, 75 minutes
Snack: almonds and dried blueberries
10:30AM - bike home, 20 minutes
First lunch: cheese roll from a local bakery
Second lunch: oatmeal with spinach, Parmesan cheese and a fried egg, strawberries
Third (!) lunch: leftover chickpea salad in pita, plus sliced cheese, oreos
Snack: mocha from Starbucks, with whipped cream
2:00 - nap time! Plus stretching.
4:00 - second workout, 45 minutes of biking, plus another 50-60 minutes on the rowing machine
Dinner: stir fry with tofu and brown rice, Oreos
Dessert: S'mores cupcake

Despite eating three lunches, and as much dinner as I could stomach, I was still more than 100 calories short of the calories I burned. A lot of my calories came from less than ideal sources--chocolates and cookies.

I'm trying to find a balance between being able to eat enough and eating well, as many of the foods that are good for me are also very filling. I'm working to increase my consumption of whole grains, dairy products and beans, and finding ways to incorporate them into easy snacks.


Expect to see lots of good snack ideas in the future!


Some tricks so far:
- When I menu plan, I make a list of snacks that use the ingredients we have on hand
- We use our slow cooker to make beans and oatmeal, and make extra rice/pasta when we have them for dinner
- Condiments can take something really simple (beans and rice) and put it over the top. One of my favorites: chickpeas, sticky rice, Sriracha sauce, sesame seeds
- When I'm looking for something to eat, open the fridge first; if I absolutely don't want anything in the fridge, then I look in the pantry

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On the Menu

Dan and I have been getting much, much better about planning out our menus and really using everything in the fridge. We find that if we only plan out dinner, we tend to end up buying enough food for breakfasts and lunches as well.

Here is the plan for this week, in no particular order:
- Stirfry with bok choy, celery, carrots, bell pepper w/ rice
- Salad with lettuce, cucumbers, pre-cooked chickpeas and pre-made salad dressing from last week, olives, cheese, and radishes and spring mix from the garden
- Barley with peas, cheese, and chorizo
- Pea shoots with bread/pasta and roasted chicken for Dan
- Quesadillas with black beans and a cabbage slaw
- Baked potato fries with roasted or grilled broccoli

We also have applesauce, granola bars and salsa on the 'to make' list.

When we plan our menu, I go through our fridge and make a list of everything in it, sorting into fruits, vegetables, herbs/seasoning, dairy/protein, etc. From there, I tried to plan a few meals around what's leftover.

Some weeks, we have very little leftover. Most weeks, though, we end up going off menu for one meal, eating out, or repurposing a main ingredient. A little bit of creativity uses most of this stuff up pretty quickly.

Once the leftovers have been planned, I pick a few recipes using seasonal ingredients. These recipes come from my cookbook collection, blogs, and recipe archives around the internet. We almost always cook seasonally. First, the seasons in California are very long, so this isn't very limiting. Second, where we shop, they stock almost exclusively seasonal produce. You pay dearly for out-of-season produce, both with money and quality.

As the menu comes together, I make a comprehensive list of what we need for each recipe, underlining the things we don't have. This creates our weekly shopping list.

Our first stop is the farmer's market, where I try to buy most of our weekly groceries. The busier my weekend is, the more I try to find at the market (or do without), to save us a trip to the grocery store. (With bikes, it takes about 2 hours.)

If we need to, we'll also make a stop at the Berkeley Bowl. Otherwise, we'll pick up any leftover items at Trader Joe's (2 miles away, instead of 4.5). If we're short on ingredients, I can also run out to the store midweek, or we can use our abundance of stockpiled dried and frozen goods, like beans, rice and spinach, to make an additional meal.

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Exercise Update

I took some time off of seriously working out to prepare for our wedding. I know this is the opposite of most brides, but losing some muscle probably helped me fit into my dress.

It was a pretty snug fit--the dress was strapless

Now, I'm getting back into the swing of things. I haven't been out on the water for way too long, but have found it impractical to travel out to work early to get on the water, miss out on carpooling, and get sweaty and cold for the kids' practice.

Instead, I've come up with some alternative solutions.

First, I've started running the stairs in our apartment building. Of course, Dan informed me that in football, they made the players run stairs as punishment. Fortunately, I don't weigh 250 pounds, so running stairs is fun, not torture. It's also a great way to redevelop my leg strength.

I've also been doing some running outdoors. It's finally warm enough to run in shorts, so I'm starting to branch out and explore our neighborhood. Last week, I ran the 2 miles to the closest bread bakery around. The route runs by our local lake, and I saw lots of other joggers out--nobody else was carrying a baguette.

Other than rowing and running stairs, my third favorite work out is on the rowing machine. Instead of paying $40/month to join a gym, Dan and I decided to purchase a rowing machine! The club where I work is selling their used machines.

It's a little bit big for our apartment, but they stand up vertically. We plan to keep it in our bedroom, but in the summer I look forward to wheeling it out onto our balcony! I'll probably get strange looks from passersby, but at least I'm exercising!

As my mileage increases, look forward to more and more cake recipes! I eat a lot when I work out.

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Wedding: The Party

We celebrated our marriage at a local restaurant situated above the boathouse where I learned to row. The city has put a lot of resources into beautifying the lake since I rowed there, and it ended up being a gorgeous backdrop.

Dan and I loved having our reception at a restaurant. Because they coordinated a lot of the details--including food, tables and dinnerware, and extra tables for gifts and the cake--our stress was pretty low approaching the wedding. The room even had a built-in speaker system, so my sister acted as DJ.

My mom and best friend organized all of the flowers--it made my life super easy.

Just like our ceremony, our reception was relatively small, with only our closest friends and family in attendance. We began the evening with mingling, and got to talk to most of the guests before we even sat down for the meal!

Talking to my grandpa at the beginning of the evening

I enjoyed a rare treat--a Shirley Temple--before dinner, and filled up on crudites to prepare for the rapid dinner to come. During the meal, which consisted of a salad appetizer and a main course, Dan and I made our way around to the tables to talk to our guests.

We were totally happy with the size of the party--we had an opportunity to stop at each table, and talk with each of our guests for a reasonable amount of time. Of course, all of this happened during the dinner, so Dan and I both had to scarf down our meals relatively quickly. Dinner was not the star of the show.

After dinner, we got to cut our cake! If there were two things I wanted out of my wedding, they were a husband and a delicious cake. I got both.

Aiming was just as difficult as expected.

Having been to weddings before, I've been uninspired by the wedding cake. I love cake--it is my favorite dessert-- and to waste such an excellent opportunity on sheet cake seemed a pity. So, Dan and I did some serious cake-tasting research.

(Actually, we only went to one bakery--a childhood favorite. But we did sample a lot of the flavors, many times.)

In the end, we picked an unusual design, inspired by the De Stijl art movement, in the color scheme of the wedding. The cake was primarily made of chocolate-hazelnut cake with a thick layer of buttercream, all wrapped in marzipan. The top tier, which we took home, was a princess cake.

We regret not delaying our dancing by five minutes to enjoy a second slice of cake, but we've promised each other a trip to the bakery.

We concluded the evening with dancing. Dan and I danced to Hard to Concentrate by the Red Hot Chili Peppers--one of our favorite songs. My dad and I danced to Daughters by Jack Johnson--during which I shed my first and only tears of the evening.

I was wearing 4 inch heels. Dan is TALL. 

As the evening began to wind down, and people headed home, Dan and I also rode off into the darkness to begin our very brief honeymoon (part 1).

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Wedding: The Ceremony

Although it was over 50°F out, the howling wind made outdoors slightly chilly in a strapless dress. We met on a grassy knoll over-looking the lake where I learned to row. We tried to position ourselves to maximize sunshine.

Dan and I decided we wanted to have a very small, private ceremony, with our very closest friends and family. We also opted to have Dan's dad officiate our wedding, making it a very personal affair.

Despite the weather, we both managed to make our promises to one another. I was shaking as much from excitement as cold.

The whole ceremony was over in around 15 minutes. Afterwards, we made our way quickly indoors to warm up before picture taking.

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Wedding: Getting Ready

After a week of 60 degree weather and gorgeous blue skies, we woke up on Sunday morning to gray skies and cold. I packed up my bags, bundled up like a good Californian, and headed to my parents house to get dolled up for the event. My two bridesmaids were over early to get the party started!

We spent the morning finishing up a few last minute details: getting a guest book, making adorable meal cards (thanks Tomas!), and picking up my great grandmother's pearl necklace (we had it restrung).

My sister, Katrina, also made us a delicious stirfry for lunch. I put her in charge of making sure I ate enough, and she did an awesome job. The stirfry had broccoli, tofu, carrots, and roasted sweet potato. It was different than any stirfry I've made, and incredibly delicious (like most things my sister makes).

In the afternoon, we worked on our nails, hair and make-up. It took the three of us at least an hour to paint our nails and ever so slightly pale nude color. Clearly, we are out of practice.

Hair was somewhat more successful, and with one attempt and some solid bobby pin work, we had it in place. With the wind howling outside, the plan to wear my hair mostly down was vetoed in favor of an equally gorgeous, but slightly more tame, hairstyle.

Make-up went on before the dress. Since I don't usually wear make-up, I tried to make it as subtle as possible: a tinted moisturizer, mascara, and light brown eyeshadow. My yogurt, honey and oatmeal mask the evening prior left my skin relatively smooth and moisturized, so I tried to expose it as much as possible.

Once the bridesmaids were suited up in their dresses, with hair and make-up done, it was time to get dressed!

I purchased my dress in early November, and it spent the last 6 weeks with a seamstress, getting tailored to fit me perfectly. Because the dress is strapless, it needed to fit snugly around my waist so it would stay in place.

With some effort, we got it all zipped, clipped and pinned in place. Katrina helped me buckle my shoes, and held my train as I walked down the stairs.

By the time we left the house, the grey skies had parted in favor of blue. The wind was still howling, and the temperature didn't break 55°F, but the clear skies were absolutely stunning.

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Cooking Extravaganza

With less than a week until our wedding, Dan and I expect to be severely busy for the next week or two. When my sister offered to come home and help this weekend, we knew exactly how she could help.

We've spent the past two days making sure we would have easy, healthy, dish minimizing dinners and desserts for the next two weeks.

After several days of menu planning, the weekend started with a massive grocery shopping trip on Saturday afternoon. Normally, we bike to the grocery store (we don't own a car). It was glorious not to worry about how many pounds of carrots we bought, or whether it would fit into our backpacks.

By late afternoon on Saturday, we got started. I started by roasted veggies--potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower and brussel sprouts. Although delicious plain, we also had thoughts of these going into a pesto pasta.

Meanwhile, Kat started on frying up frozen potstickers--her awesome idea for good, hot, savory snack foods. While they aren't the healthiest of options, I would rather grab a few potstickers for lunch than a piece of chocolate. If we'd had time, I would have loved to make them from scratch, but sometimes, life demands compromises.

Sunday, our to-do list was much longer, but with three of us in the kitchen, we accomplished a lot. Dan and I started the day by making muffins.

These are my all-time favorite muffins--slightly decadent, but full of fruit and whole grains. They take a bit of effort but the recipe could easily be doubled to make a huge batch of breakfast muffins. They freeze really well.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Cranberry-Walnut Whole Wheat Muffins
makes 12 large muffins or 18 small muffins


1 stick unsalted butter
1c packed brown sugar (do not substitute white sugar!)
2 large eggs
0.5c milk
1.5c white whole wheat flour
2t baking powder
0.25t baking soda
0.5t salt
1c chopped walnuts
2c whole fresh cranberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, letting it brown as much as you're comfortable with. (Butter burns quickly, so if it's your first time, turn the heat down as soon as you see brown bits.)
3. Once the butter has browned, turn the heat to medium and add the sugar, stirring vigorously for 2-3 minutes.
4. Remove the butter/sugar mixture from the heat.
5. In a medium mixing bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. (Omit the salt if your nuts are heavily salted. Mine were unsalted.)
6. Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, stirring thoroughly and immediately to incorporate. The mixture should become more homogenous with the addition of the eggs.
7. Add the milk to the butter  mixture, again stirring to incorporate.
8. Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined.
9. Fold the walnuts and cranberries into the muffin batter.
10. Divide among muffin tins, filling to a maximum of 2/3rds full (for large muffins) or to half full for small muffins.
11. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops spring back when pressed. For browned edges, turn the oven up to 375°F for the last 5 minutes of baking.
----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Meanwhile, Kat got started on a miso-ginger lentil soup. The miso adds umami, instead of adding meat, and the ginger adds some sharpness.

Once the muffins were done, Dan and I split up. He worked on hard-boiling eggs, while I made no-bake granola bars.

We then started on making a big batch of chili con chorizo, while Kat marinated chicken for stirfries. To end Sunday, Kat made two huge batches of cookie dough to stash in the freezer--one chocolate chip and one chocolate cherry. We of course sampled, and both are delicious.

We still have a few fresh veggies in the fridge to use as we see fit, but we definitely have enough food to last us for most of two weeks.

How do you plan ahead for busy weeks? What's your go-to freezer meal?

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New Year's Resolutions

I've never been one for resolutions. Then again, I've never been one to follow recipes, plan menus, or not eat meat, and all of those things seem to be working out well. So this year, I'll give it a try.

Maybe all I need is some good ol' accountability.

1. Update the blog at least twice a week
I have plenty to post about, especially as we try new recipes and cook for ourselves for the first time. I just need to get in the habit of writing it down, and getting Dan to take pictures.
2. Learn how to use Dan's camera
A lot of the time, I cook and bake while Dan is at work. I'd like to have a record of those adventures as well. He has a really nice camera, so why not learn how to use it?
3. Continue to train regularly
I haven't really decided what I'm training for yet, but I have some ideas in my head. I really don't like running, so I'd like to be able to join an gym with a rowing machine.
4. Get my personal trainer certification
I've been working on this for a month or so. I love coaching, but the hours are pretty limited. I'd like to be able to expand my work, and start working as a personal trainer as well.
5. Try at least two new recipes each week
We've been menu planning, so we've been trying lots of new recipes each week. I want to continue the trend, and expand our repertoire.
6. Bake at least once a week
With a new KitchenAid, a new apron, and a new baking book, I'm looking forward to rediscovering the oven. Baking is one of my favorite things in the world, and I've barely scratched the surface! There's so much more to make than chocolate chip cookies.
7. Remember that I'm not in college anymore
In college, homework seemed to fill all of the nooks and crannies between athletics, class, work and sanity. I'm in the habit of leaving those spaces free, and I need to retrain myself to fill them with friends, family and fun.
8. Go on one adventure a month
I want to explore! I love seeing new places, or seeing old ones with new eyes. Adventures keep life interesting, and I like interesting.

It's a short but ambitious list. I'm looking forward to seeing how I do with it!!

Do you have resolutions? How long do you stick with them?

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Goodbye 2011!

So much happened this year! 365 days ago, Dan and I were getting ready to board a plane back to snowy New Jersey, with paper deadlines and finals looming.

In January, we mostly huddled inside, trying to study for exams, prepare for thesis presentations, and finish off our second to last semester. At the end of the month, I took a trip down to Austin, TX with Princeton Crew for our annual winter training trip.

The team in Texas.

At that point, I was still in the second boat. Occasionally, our coach gave me a glimmer of hope that I might be considered for the top boat, but it was always fleeting. I also really got my weight under control in January/February, regularly hitting 129 pounds.

February began our final semester at Princeton. The month went by in a blur, with the exception of Dan's wonderful V-day surprise.

During February, I also worked my way into the top boat with the Princeton lightweights as we prepped for our first race.

March marked the start of our racing season, where we blew our competition out of the water. We immediately took the top of the national polls. It also marked a rapidly approach deadline: my senior thesis due date.

In early April, my thesis was handed in, and the beginning of the end began. The lightweights finished our undefeated regular season, Dan and I completed our final classes at Princeton, and we prepared for finals and graduation.

In May, we won the regional championships!

And then Dan and I graduated.

I got sick during graduation. Lots of people, incredibly high temperatures, and the stress of training were not a good combination. I stayed sick through June, when we raced at the national championships, and came in second.

Dan and I briefly parted ways while he visited home in Oregon and I flew to England to race one last time.

Rowing in England!

We were reunited in Berkeley shortly thereafter, where Dan began his search for work, and I started work as a rowing coach. We also began planning our wedding!

In August, Dan started work at an architecture firm in San Francisco. As we both got busier, the year began to march away a little bit more quickly.

September and October were spent looking for housing and making money. We finally moved into our new apartment in mid-November. We enjoyed Thanksgiving with Dan's parents, as they came down to help us move.

Thanksgiving on the beach! Only in California.

December brought frantic wedding planning, including the arrival of my wedding dress! (Yes, it still fit!) We also celebrated the holidays both in California with my family and in Oregon with Dan's.

Now, one year later, Dan and I are out on our own, and preparing for our wedding--a short two weeks away!

Stay tuned for New Year's Resolutions tomorrow!

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