36 Hours

I absolutely love this series by The New York Times and it's the first place I turn when I'm going somewhere new for the weekend.  I was so excited to find that they've made a book out of the articles - have I told you how much I love Pinterest?!  So many great finds.  This would make a great gift for a friend who loves to travel or a great coffee table book/resource for yourself!  

Anthropologie

Bonus ... I found it on Amazon for much cheaper :)

First Snow

Last week's major snowstorm was our first snow in our house!  I'm not sure if there were snow flurries in December while we were gone or not, but if we weren't here, it doesn't count ... right?!

Anyways, our house looked so cute blanketed in snow:

And we enjoyed our snow week by ... driving over to Oak Harbor to the navy base everyday!  And no, I am not kidding.  All of the area school districts were closed, the base was closed and the roads were snowy, but VAQ 141 had flown in several people from Japan to teach classes that we had to attend before the move and they could not be rescheduled.  We had a 2-hour delay each day, but we still had to make the treacherous trek over to the island!

All in all, it wasn't THAT bad and I did get my Japanese driver's license out of it, so I guess I shouldn't complain!

In other Navy news ...

We had to reschedule our wedding once we found out J.'s 2012 deployment schedule ... 

We (FINALLY) got our orders and expect to move in early March ...

and we are almost done with all of the paperwork for the big move.

I'll be glad when it's over.

October - December, 2011

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my previous post :)

So I realize I have sucked at blogging over the past few months.  And I am definitely trying to do better :)  And I hate to drag you all back to October 2011, but the last recap I did was of my trip to Yakima which was the very first weekend of October.  And I am Type A and can't feel good about moving on to 2012 until I finish writing about 2011.  So bear with me.

In October ...

R., M.C. and I watched the UW v. Colorado game at Duchess Tavern.  It was lots of fun, but we felt OLD.  Yikes.  Apparently we can't hang with the college kids anymore.  And we were rooting for Colorado (R.'s alma mater) so we were slightly out of place. 

I had dinner with an old friend from law school at my favorite restaurant, Phoenecia, in West Seattle.  If I lived closer to this place, I would be fat and my bank account would be empty.  It's a must go in my opinion!

I visited my mom and sister in Chicago.

My sister and our friend Joe took me out to one of their favorite restaurants, Sunda.

I met my sister for lunch and got some yummy cupcakes from Crumbs:

We went for dinner at Quartino ... another delicious restaurant!

I had brunch with Face at The Breakfast Club:

Went shopping for an afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery:

And watched my grandfather play the cello in the Evanston Symphony!

Isn't he adorable in his bowtie?

After Chicago, we celebrated Halloween at R.'s:

as the trio from Alice and Wonderland!

In November ... 

I had a spa afternoon at The Chyrsalis in Bellingham, compliments of J.  It was awesome and if I ever strike it rich, I am definitely going to be treating myself to spa afternoons more often!

I got my first speeding ticket in 10 years.  Thank you Island County.

The squadron Wives Club started preparing for the homecoming. 

And I spent a week in Houston for Thanksgiving! 

In December ... 

I saw The Nutcracker at the Pacific Northwest Ballet ...

J. came home from his four month deployment:

Mr. K13 met baby Noah for the first time and the whole hangar was teary eyed.  Meg and Aaron from Evantide Photography captured the moment beautifully.

We got engaged ... which you can read all about here.

And then we went home for two weeks!

It was a great way to end 2011.  

Thanks for sticking with me through my blogging rut ... I hope you all have a wonderful MLK weekend!

The Proposal (and a ring pic!)

My friend Cari, over at Cari & Ryan, requested that I blog about the proposal story and share ring pics.  And I can't say no to her, because her husband is deployed, her dog ate all her shoes, and she's having a rough week.  So here you go Cari ... I hope you're having a better week :)  

So, I knew that the ring was being made, because it's pretty hard to hide anything financial-wise when you are deployed and your significant other is in charge of your finances.  And we had previously talked to our jeweler to get some estimates.  J.'s good friend, G.S., has a younger brother who sets diamonds at Tiffany's and also designs his own rings on the side.  I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, so this seemed like the best way to go.  Plus, he's a friend and J. had seen his work before, so felt confident we would be getting a good quality ring.  They kept me out of the loop, but I sent T.S. a few pictures of what I liked so he could get some ideas.

So, I knew the ring was being made.  And J. came home from deployment.  But no packages had shown up at the house, so I didn't think it was going to happen immediately.

They returned on a Thursday (and I have pics, I could blog about that too!).  I can't remember what we did on Friday and Saturday nights, but I am pretty sure we went out with friends.  Sunday we stayed home and got a bunch of stuff done.  And J. offered to make dinner.  

On our very first date, way back in January 2006, J. made me dinner instead of taking me out.  It was this delicious chicken, in a creamy sauce, over angel hair pasta.  I'd never had it before, nor seen a recipe anywhere online, until Pinterest!  So, when he proposed, he made me the same dinner and then asked me to marry him afterwards.  And he got me some flowers too!  It was low key which was the way I wanted it.  I was terrified he was going to do it at the homecoming in front of everyone ... the only thing making me feel better was knowing that the ring couldn't be shipped to the boat so he most likely wouldn't have the ring yet!  Haha.

Sorry for the iPhone pic ... I don't have a better one!

It's an oval diamond with a halo of diamonds and a split band.  

Maybe tomorrow I will actually blog about the homecoming, Christmas, our week in Houston or 2012.  

Happy Wednesday friends!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012! 

I never intended to take such a long break from blogging,

 but the month of December was BUSY around here.  

Since my last post, I ... 

worked a lot at the end of November/beginning of December 

saw The Nutcracker at the Pacific Northwest Ballet 

welcomed J. home from his first deployment! 

GOT ENGAGED!!!!!

watched Miss Lucy graduate from Basic Training 

had a very fun and full week in Indianapolis

bought my wedding dress

had a wonderful Christmas in Louisville

and a wonderful week in Houston visiting more family :)

I have lots to blog about ... like wedding plans, Christmas fun, 2011 in review and my goals for 2012.  I can't wait to catch up on all your blogs as well!  I hope your holiday season was filled with family, friends and fun!