Catching up and a Dedication

Hello! Wow, it's been almost two years since I've updated my blog. Holy cow. So much has happened since my 1JAN12 post. Let me summarize.

Pinterest made the deployment days go by quickly. And I found lots to do to get me out of the house. So much so that I didn't even get a chance to sit down long enough to write about it! I do plan on writing about the places someday, I promise! A teaser--I took a really awesome ghost tour of Old Town San Diego, and got some VERY interesting photos with my phone's camera. I highly recommend it!

We celebrated my grandpa's 90th birthday to boot! He turned 91 earlier THIS year. Many more happy ones to come, que Dios lo bendiga, we all love that man dearly.

I also took a few interior design courses because I knew they would help me out once we bought a house.

Hubs got home in the summertime. It. Was. AWESOME! I love homecomings, one of THE BEST feelings in the world!! A few days after his return, we put in an offer on our dream house. We got it. He went out to sea a few times which left me to do most of the packing and unpacking for the move, so I got busy.

As soon as we knew our offer was accepted, we decided to add on to our family. I grew up saving the neighborhood feral cats. My dad and I used to catch them, take them to animal control to be fixed and release them back into the neighborhood. Many of the cats adopted me over the years. So when it came to adding to our family, I knew in my heart that I couldn't go to a breeder and get that French Bulldog I've always wanted when there were so many beautiful dogs already waiting for forever homes. We searched the local rescue groups and found a beautiful lab mix. We named her Bowie. :)

Lady B

The cats weren't thrilled but now they manage to tolerate her. Bow's foster mom highly recommended she get a friend, and about 6 months of dealing with puppy behavior issues, we indulged that request...

We wanted to adopt a sidekick, so another lab wasn't in our plans. We found a group that rescues the street dogs of Tijuana. When I first saw this guy on their website I knew I had to have him. He looked like the Target dog mixed with a chihuahua. He was the one. To stay true to his roots, we re-named him Ignacio. Once he came into the picture, our lady's behavior issues were nonexistent. Our little nugget must have had some life on the streets. He came to us with a huge scar on his backside and was left tied to a tree near the rescue. One would think after a life like that, it would make even the nicest animal lose faith in anyone. Despite it all, he is the most loving, snuggle-y little guy I've ever met. People at the dog park know him by name, to the point where he has practically reached celebrity status at the park.  Our duo is inseparable.

Ignacio

I really wanted to get back to writing on this blog for another reason. Shortly after we got the Nugget, I found out that my very dear mentor/friend had passed away unexpectedly. He was way too young to die. He was my work mentor who became an uncle to me, an avid follower of my blog, and a very private person, so to honor that I will keep it at that... The day after I found out about his passing, the Hubs and I were on our way back from a date. As we were crossing the county line the radio station we were listening to had gotten fuzzy, though neither one of us had paid much attention. My mind was back to thinking about my friend. No sooner had my thoughts gone back to musing over the sadness that I heard through the fuzz, "It's a shame we have to die my dear/ but no one's getting out of here, alive" and the rest of the song was garbled, but two more times when it came to that part of what I thought was a line in the chorus, it came through well enough to hear. Through the tears, I couldn't help but crack a smile. He never wanted anyone to fuss over him, so it seemed fitting that those were the words I heard. I had never heard the Foo Fighters song DOA until that point in time, and to this day I've never heard it in its entirety, but to me it meant something that at that very moment, those words were audible in the radio static.

To my friend, thank you for all the advice and support, both professionally and personally, over the years. I dedicate this post to you. You are greatly missed. RIP.

Reflections and Resolutions

Happy New Year! With the new year upon us and last year's memories fresh in my mind, I have no regrets, only desires to improve. With 2011 I saw many a change; I traveled, I made new friends, I stayed in love, I got engaged, I got married to the love of my life. I became a proud Navy Wife. I had good times, I had rough times. But I feel like there is always room for improvement. With deployment in full force and being far from over, I deem it critical to maintain a certain level of being a busy-body. I decided to make my self-imposed activities productive and constructive.

Without further ado, my resolutions:
- Take one photo per day. Why? Because I believe it will help me focus on the positive aspects and/or beauty in life. Who takes a picture when they're in a bad mood?

Day 1. Orange infused creme brulee, made by yours truly.

- Make a bucket list. We've all had those "someday I will..." dreams. I figured I might as well make it an actual document and give me the satisfaction of being able to cross it off the list once it's been accomplished.

- Make AND finish our wedding album. We have so many amazing photos from the most beautiful day of our life. I have every intent of putting an album together so that we can look back on it whenever we want without having to scroll through all 1200+ photos. (It takes a while)

- Bake an awesome cake. I have baked a few favorites over the number of years that I've been a cake decorator (and that's been a pretty long time), but this year I want to make a cake that'll blow all my previous favorites out of the water. Maybe a homecoming cake? Maybe a super cute cake for someone's birthday... My grandpa does turn 90 this year! That's a great excuse to go all-out!! Maybe both.

- I have a number of projects that I've got in my queue. They usually include sewing projects like pillowcases and care package ideas to send to hubs. I haven't been bad so far at starting up projects but I plan to follow through with them.

- Take exercise classes. Now when I say room for improvement, I mean it! I intend to maintain some level of activity to stay fit and get in better shape.

Photo from wholeliving.com

- Think of 1 thing I'm grateful for each day. Today, I'm grateful for my husband. Although there are oceans between us, I am so lucky to have him in my life. I eagerly await his return.

Photo from photobucket

- Add more healthy foods to my diet. I don't eat badly at all-- I seldom eat processed foods, I make higher fiber, higher protein or lower fat substitutions everywhere I can. But I don't have a lot of fish in my diet, and the meats I do consume are not the best I can buy. I intend to make better efforts to buy from ethically friendly places. I found a website I really like called wholeliving.com, with great recipes and tips for living a healthier life. I will definitely check this site out on a regular basis.

Pantry staples to have on hand. From wholeliving.com

- Organize!! Yes, we all have clutter. I am following two decluttering sites. One offers one activity a day to maintain a clutter-free life. The other is a week-by-week list of sections of the house to focus on. I decided to follow both to maybe have the place tidied up sooner rather than later. Ambitious? Yes. But no harm in shooting for the moon!

One declutter calendar I'm following; see mysimplerlife.com

- Do at least one cool thing a month. Now that's vague, I know. But I want to keep it that way because I want to see an indie film, add a new item to my wardrobe every now and then, hop on a train and visit some not so far away town, go for a hike or a picnic, maybe even train for a half marathon (ok that one might be a stretch).

Seeing as how this is the first day of the new year, I decided to be off to a good start. Today I went with a few Navy wives to Coronado. We hit up dog beach and after the canines were wiped out we headed back. We soaked up some rays in the 70-something degree weather. Ya, first day of the year and it's in the 70s. Life doesn't get much better. I think I just found what to be grateful for tomorrow.

View of SD out of the car window on Coronado Bay Bridge.

My Traveling Taste Buds, Part I

Hello lovelies! I underwent a delightful little procedure earlier this week that has rendered me useless around the house. Because I am not operating in my full capacity as Domestic Goddess, I shall reminisce about our mini-vacay the Hubs and I took last month.

Our vacation began by visiting family in the Midwest. While there, I asked Hubbie's family where I might partake in some local cuisine. As we were driving along the highway I spotted a Culver's whose claim to fame was frozen custard. Of course, being the sugar-loving lady that I am, I had to try this Midwest delight. And my family was so kind to oblige.

So there we were at the freezer trying to decide which delectable flavor to enjoy. We decided on raspberry cheesecake. While we were at the counter paying we figured we might as well have a little smackerel as well. So we opted for the chicken fingers and cheese curds. One of my friends had recommended that I also try cheese curds. Two birds, one stone. Awesome!

Three words sum up the frozen custard: Oh. My. Goodness. I must get a recipe for this frozen treat! I've never had ice cream so creamy. And intertwined with the frozen raspberry crunches and the bites of cheesecake... Hubs and I ate the whole thing between the two of us. I was certain I gained 10 lbs from eating my half! I will no doubt be posting about my frozen custard adventures when the weather warms up again.

And these tasty nuggets. I've always seen the commercials for the happy cows and their taking residence in Cali, but the cheese curds we ate were amazing. I always hear Midwest folks brag about how their cheese is better. Well sure, anything is better when it's battered and fried! Trader Joe's sells cheese curds on occasion. I'm not sure which cows are the source of Trader Joe's cheese curds, but I feel a cheese curd night comin on. No need for ketchup or anything!!

The rest of our vacation was spent in Lake Las Vegas, a romantic getaway for two (literally--we were almost the only two people there). We had a lovely hotel room with a fantastic view of the lake.

After a day of relaxing we decided to venture out on a guided tour to Hoover Dam, which also stopped by the Ethel M Chocolate Factory. Well how could we possibly pass that up?

We arrived at the dam and I could not resist feeding a friend. Can you spot my little buddy? He was munchin on a cracker. Anyways, back to the "Dam Tour"...

What an amazing feat that these engineers and builders were able to not only envision, but to execute such a tall order given the limited technologies of the time. As an engineer, I am impressed by the quality of the work and the pace at which the dam was completed. Says a lot about the work ethic of the working man's culture back then.

After a two hour tour marveling at the engineering masterpiece that is the dam, we got back on the bus and made our way over to the chocolate factory. Our "sample" wasn't nearly enough to satisfy our chocolate craving, so of course, since we were on vacation and all...

Our favorites were the dark chocolate with caramel and sea salt. Hubby will definitely be getting some homemade chocolate caramels in his next care package!

We had a lovely time meeting family in the Midwest, and a great romantic escape during our week and a half off. But more importantly we thoroughly enjoyed each other's company before he went on deployment. The memories we made will last a lifetime and I'm so grateful that we got a chance to spend time with each other before he had to leave.

The Navy Wife Way of Life

Good readers,
It has been a good while since I've last blogged. I spent the last month and a half or so enjoying my hubbie's company before he deployed. I promise to write about our adventures together soon. But now, I blog as a means to pass the time, and I've been careful about not having too much idle time so as not to dwell on the fact that he's not around. In other words, I've been too busy with things to do outside of the house that I can now blog about.

The evening after my hubs deployed, I went with a few of the wives whose hubbies are also deployed to Coronado's Holiday festival. While it was more geared towards children, we enjoyed sipping some hot cocoa and seeing the beautiful Hotel Del Coronado all lit up. We decided to check out one of the newer restaurants nearby, and from the window watched a firework show as we discussed projects and goods we were going to send in care packages for Christmas and hobbies and projects on our to-do lists to help pass the time. It was a great way to connect with people who understand what it's like to be a Navy spouse.

The Del lit up like a Christmas tree.

Now, more than ever, I have found the need to seek people out. But not just people, Community. Which is why when I saw that South Park was going to have a Winter Walkabout, I had to tell some friends about it. I went to the last Walkabout and I was not disappointed. For several blocks, small mom-and-pop shops stay open late on a Saturday night. Each offers anything from cookies and cocoa to wine and cheese to patrons who peruse their store. There are people playing Bingo on the sidewalk outside the little candle shop that also sells a delicious jalapeno jelly. Street vendors try their best to stay warm as they merrily chat with passersby. And every single store is packed with mingling people. It's an event that is appealing to me with every sense--food, sights (I loved browsing through every store I could walk into), sounds of people enjoying the evening, the scents of the candle shops and restaurants we walked by and the feel of the fabrics that I grazed as I searched for a scarf I'd seen in October, which sadly was not to be found this time around.

One storefront display was a mannequin dressed in lotto tickets!

I also enjoyed taking a peek at the little vintage boutiques which boasted little knick knacks on antique trunks. So much to take in and enjoy.

I finally ended my weekend with a trip up to Irvine to see the hilarious Ms. Anjelah Johnson. I went with a couple of friends who wanted to take a ride on The Spectrum's ferris wheel after the show. With me being afraid of heights I happily (and safely) took pictures from the ground.

Irvine Spectrum Ferris Wheel, as seen through my iPhone

Irvine Spectrum's Ice Skating Rink, also taken with my iPhone

Overall, it was a good first week, all things considered. Now back to my projects.

Fall Activities

Fall is my second favorite season, after summer. Living in San Diego, we really don't see many of the seasons, just the good ones. This fall has been a pretty warm one, but that hasn't stopped me from celebrating the change of the seasons. I went to the Little Italy Farmer's Market and picked up a bunch of absolutely beautiful cream roses. Even Spartacus had to get his fill of fall.

This fall, I've been inspired to include pumpkins in my home, but in particular, my kitchen. I kicked the fall season off by making a pumpkin spice waffle breakfast one Saturday for the hubs and me. I attempted baked pumpkin donuts (I say attempted because I was at high altitude, and my mom didn't have baking powder, so I had to improvise, they came out like gingerbread but they were fantastic!). And my last pumpkin creation was a pumpkin roll with filled with whipped, sweetened cream cheese.

In honor of what I thought would be a lovely fall weekend (it was lovely but MUCH warmer than anticipated), my hubs and I decided to check out Lakeside's Stelzer Park with a picnic. Boasting a few hiking trails and picnic grounds, we thought it'd be nice to get away from the hustle-bustle of the city and head to the quieter suburbs. About half an hour outside of SD's famous gorgeous skyline lies the quaint Lakeside. Most people know it as the place you have to drive through to get to one of the closer casinos in the area.

On a whim I packed some goodies for sandwiches, some chips with some homemade jalapeno jelly mixed with cream cheese (the hub's favorite dip of the moment), some smokehouse almonds, root beer, and because we didn't have the $3 fee to park, we ran back to the local convenience store and I got us a maple donut to split so I could take cash out.

After our lunch, we decided to take a hike. The trails are uneven and rocky but well-marked. Poison oak is everywhere. After about a mile hike we decided to turn around.

 On our way back, just outside of the park entrance we saw someone holding up a sign with newly developed homes for sale on 1+ acres of land. Hmm, maybe we'll have to revisit this place sometime soon...



We're Hitched! Yo ho, yo ho, it's a Navy life for me.

After four months of not blogging, which I blame fully on wedding planning, I am back! As stressful as most people convey wedding planning, it was a joy for me. It was super-exciting to see what was in my mind's eye come to fruition, and all within my tight budget. I believe I found my true calling in life!

We had a fairy tale wedding in a country club in August. Our colors were navy blue and green apple. We had green hydrangea, green cymbidium orchids, jade roses, every kind of green flower imaginable, were incorporated into our flowers. Our bridesmaids dresses were navy blue. People blew bubbles after we were pronounced husband and wife. The food (AND CAKE!!) was amazing. Our DJ gave the whole night such great energy. It was by far the most beautiful and emotional day of my life. I'm so happy to have found my partner-in-crime!

I have been debating for some time as to whether or not I should make the fact that I am now a Navy Wife an integral part of my blog. Seeing as how I will face many a deployment as a Navy wife, it's a lifestyle that not all can handle (I'm still learning the extent to which military spouses sacrifice, having already had a missed birthday and that our 1 month anniversary will be apart) and I plan on using my blog as a happy distraction, an outlet for my creativity and to pass time while I wait for my husband's return! I do want to give a shout-out to all the strong women (and men) out there who are Navy spouses. It's not always rainbows and butterflies in Marriedland; deployments, underways and duty certainly don't make it easier. Hats off to spouses, because we serve too.

I have lots of ideas for things to do while he's away. Getting back into my hobbies now that the wedding festivities are over would be one genre to get me going. Of course, spotlighting different parts of San Diego will keep me out and about as well. Great ideas for blog entries are not in short supply.

With fall already here (my, my how time does fly!), I am drawn to fancy coffee drinks (hello Pumpkin Spice Latte), blankets and caramel apples. I remember for years, my family used to ring in Fall with a trip to the apple orchards in Yucaipa. The last few times we went, we ended up going too late in the year to pick the apples ourselves, but that didn't stop us from having a huge picnic and buying freshly baked apple pies from the dozens of quaint little country store-esque bakeries lining the way out of the orchards. I would love to get everybody together again to do that, it's been ages.

This past weekend I woke up craving some freshly baked goodness for breakfast. It was still summer, yes, but the air was cool and the clouds were letting us know that Fall is on her way. I remembered I had thrown some ripe bananas in the freezer a couple weeks ago with every intent to use them. So that I did. With our eating habits as, um, extravagant as they've been, I decided to make a lowfat and somewhat healthy rendition of banana bread. Here's what I came up with:

**LOWFAT BANANA BREAD**
1.5 c wheat flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 egg
1 c mashed banana (I use frozen, just defrost the whole thing slightly and the peel comes right off, and it's already the right consistency too!)
1/2 c sugar
3 Tbls applesauce (I used no-sugar added applesauce NOT sugar-free, instead of oil, adds fiber and cuts out fat)
a pinch of citrus zest (for this last week's loaf I used lemon zest, but I think orange would be even better)
1/4 c chopped walnuts (I'm not a fan of walnuts, too strongly flavored in the banana bread, but that's just me)

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, stir in egg, sugar, banana, applesauce and zest. Add to the flour mixture until just combined, and if you'd like to add walnuts you may do so at this point.
Pour batter into a prepared (non-stick cooking spray) pan (you can use a loaf pan but I used a square pan as I have no more room to acquire a loaf pan, which also benefited me because it took less time to bake).
Bake at 350F until a wooden toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean. For the loaf pan it will be about 50 min, for the square pan I used, it took about half the time. Let cool before serving. Happy eats.

And Happy Fall!

Wedding bells are ringing... and trying to live in the moment.

Once again, I have fallen off the blogging bandwagon, in all the efforts to plan a wedding for 150 guests. It's been only about a month since we've been engaged, and I think I've made significant progress!

Photo from our engagement photographer, Tina Jankowski. She did a GREAT job!

Week 1- exactly one week after we got engaged, I was trying on wedding dresses. It was the second dress that I tried on that I fell in love with, and decided that was the one. Of course I still tried on a bunch of other dresses because it's fun, and it only happens once, and it didn't seem like it'd be so much fun to try on wedding dresses after getting married. So I thought I'd have fun with it and enjoy it. I bought my dress that day.

Week 2- I was so worried that 5 months would not be enough time to plan a wedding as extravagant as I (well, my mother, rather) wanted. The fiance and I were fine with a small beautiful ceremony near the ocean at sunset. As long as he wore his beautiful uniform and I found the perfect dress (and shoes, of course) I was fine with an intimate cocktail reception. Classy, elegant, simple. But my mother would have none of this. She claimed she and my father had a large wedding, they had almost 300 people, and that a wedding half that size was not really all that big. Ummm, ok. By week 2 the fiance and I had scouted out a beautiful place that was available around the dates we wanted, but were still searching to make sure all our options had been exhausted.

Week 3- The next thing of course was to show the venue to the parental units. They fell in love with it also, and the venue was booked. Between making invitations and making sure I'm on track with our wedding to-do list, I was booking appointments with DJs, florists, etc.

Week 4- DJ interview went well. Met with a florist. The bridesmaids picked out their dresses. Sooo many details! I found my shoes!!!! Those of you who know me know that I have a great love of shoes. So it was no surprise to me that finding the perfect shoe was going to be a big undertaking. I absolutely had to be in love with these shoes if they were going to be on my feet when I marry my Prince Charming. I went to several different stores, looked online, but nothing really caught my eye. I was frustrated, I love shoe shopping, but nothing had piqued my interest! That is until I walked in to Macy's on Saturday and had a very lovely salesman help me out. He took me straight to the Badgley Mischka table and said "If I could show you a 'bridal shoe table' it would be this one." There were about 4 other women, who all happened to be brides, looking at this table. I knew I was in the right place. He picked up a pair of gorgeous shoes. I tried on a pair. For the 5 minutes I had the shoes on, 4 women stopped, looked down at my feet, and were in awe of the beauty that lay below. I was sold.

Week 5- We found our photographer! So excited! A very good friend of mine I've known since high school informed me that a friend of his that we used to all hang out with has a photography business with his wife. Awesome. Only leaves us with our cake (it was included with our venue, so next week is cake tasting!) and flowers. Oy, flowers. Sooo expensive!! I've decided that since I'm taking the week before the wedding off from work that I shall be the one to put the centerpieces together. It should be fun, I hope.

And so has been the story of wedding planning. It's a lot of fun planning, it's all going by so quickly. I don't think it has quite sunk in yet that I am getting married, much less that I'm engaged. I am enjoying every minute. One thing our DJ told us is that the night goes by very very fast and it's important to streamline all the introductions and hugs and all that because especially after dinner, it's like a whirlwind and it's all over.

Funny how we spend so much time and energy planning for a 5 hour event of 1 day of the rest of our lives. It's so much fun and you're looking forward to it, then all of a sudden you blink and you're married. It's something that I have been looking forward to since I was just a little girl, and it will soon be behind me, a moment I will never get back. Kind of bittersweet when I reflect on it that way. But I plan on enjoying every minute.

I leave you with a poem that has stayed with me since high school, about the passage of time. I memorized it 11 years ago and it's a fitting poem about life and bittersweet moments.
"Caminante, son tus huellas, el camino y nada mas.
Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace camino, y a volver la vista atras,
se ve la senda que nunca se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino, sino estelas en la mar."
-Antonio Machado

My roughly translated version to make sense in English:
Traveller, there are your footprints, the path and nothing more.
Traveller, there is no path, you make the path as you go.
As you go, you make the path, and when you look behind,
you see the path that you will never return to step.
Traveller, there is no path, only wakes in the sea.