Show and Tell Tuesday-My Love Story

My love story aka good thing he was persistent and took the risk because I am oblivious!

My fiance and I met in grad school while we were both getting our MBAs.  I started school the semester before he did so I had my first class with him after being back in school for about a year. We had a few classes together but never really ended up in the same group for projects or presentations.  I knew who he was but we didn't really know each other very well.  I didn't know this at the time but apparently he thought I was pretty but assumed I had a boyfriend.

About 6 months before I graduated we were in fairly small class together and ended up sitting near each other.  I thought he was super nice and friendly but being oblivious I didn't think anything of it.  He was trying to fish out if I was single and if I was someone he wanted to go out with but I was oblivious so I just thought he was talking to me since he was nice.  We ended up in a group together twice (once just the two of us) during that class and through that he was able to fish out that yes I was single and that he wanted to ask me out.  Right near the end of that class he discovered that we were not taking the same class the next semester and he hadn't figured out how to ask me out yet.

After the class he tried to find me on Facebook but I have a fairly common name and to be fair neither my profile picture nor my cover photo showed my face.

This was my cover photo at the time!

Fortunately for both of us I was working on setting up my connections on LinkedIn as my time as a student drew to a close and he was one people who showed up as a suggested connection.  I sent him a request and he accepted it.  

A few weeks later I got a message on LinkedIn from him asking if I would like to be his "guest" at a MBA honor society induction ceremony/dinner thing.  I was a little thrown off by his use of the word guest but after a few messages back and forth and me rearranging my work schedule a bit it was a date.  This banquet took place about a month after he asked me to it (the RSVP deadline was early) so by the time we got to what could have been our first date we had actually gone out a handful of times already.  

Our first date was at a burrito place we both liked and I was late.  Our second date was at a sushi place and he eats super fast and I eat very slowly so he accidentally ate most of the sushi before I really got any.  Despite these not so perfect beginnings by our third date I knew this relationship was different than any other I had been in and to make an already long story a little shorter two years later here we are living together, engaged and planning a wedding.  I cannot think of anyone I would rather have as my partner in this adventure and look forward to many more adventures in the years to come.

Friday Favorites-Healthier Food Options Part 1

With a trip to Hawaii and going wedding dress shopping coming up in May I have been trying the time old philosophy of eat less and move more to prepare for these occasions.  Ok that and doing Weight Watchers online too for a little added help.

Here are a few of my favorite things that have been helping me on this journey

Blueberries
I am at a desk much of the day and blueberries are something that are easy to snack on while at my desk that are healthy and don't make a mess.  It doesn't hurt that I love them!

Coconut Water

Another easy thing to take work are these coconut waters.  They have just enough flavor and calories that they actually stop me from being hungry while waiting for it to be lunch time.  They are defiantly best cold but thankfully my office has a refrigerator.  The first time I bought these my fiance asked if he could have one and of course I said sure.  He tasted it and said it tasted like it was fermented.  I shrugged my shoulders and told him it was ok if he didn't like it.  Apparently fermented must be a good taste because now when I go shopping I have to buy extras because he keeps drinking them.

Edamame

 These are another easy snack to eat at work that isn't messy.  I buy them frozen and put some in a little tupperware and put them in my work refrigerator.  By the time I want to eat them in the afternoon they are defrosted and delicious.

Greek yogurt

 Anyone who knows me knows I like Mexican food.  I have been replacing sour cream with greek yogurt for years in my homemade tacos and chilis and I don't even notice the difference. It is lower in calories and higher in protein than sour cream so it just makes sense.

I have a few more favorite healthier food options but I decided rather than make this post a million miles long I will split it up into two posts.  Come back next Friday for part 2 of this post.  I might even share how much weight I have lost so far...

I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites!

Yum Pie!

I took 3 pies to work with me on Monday and they earned rave reviews.  I brought one ice cream pie and two berry pies.  The first berry pie was gone in a blink of an eye and the second one went almost as fast so by popular demand the recipe for Summer Berry Pie.

This a recipe my mom found in one of those little cookbooks you find at the checkout of grocery stores.  With a few minor changes it has become a favorite of my family.

Summer Berry Pie

1 graham cracker crust
3/4 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch
1 1/2 cup water
1 small package of strawberry jello (the kind with 4 servings)
3-4 cups of berries
Whipped Cream (lots and lots)




Combine the sugar and the corn starch in a medium sized pot and slowly add the water stirring with a whisk to avoid lumps.  Heat over medium to medium-high heat.  The hotter the heat the more attention you need to pay to what is going on in the pot.  When the mixture comes to a boil let it boil for one minute and then remove the pot from the stove and whisk in the jello.  Let the mixture cool until it is room temperatureish.  While you are waiting for it to cool you can prepare the fruit.

You can come up with the 3-4 cups of fruit any way you wish but I generally use a big clamshell of fresh strawberries and a package or two of frozen mixed berries.  I try to buy the frozen berries that don't have strawberries in them so the pie doesn't get overly strawberryish but whatever combination of fruit you want will work.  I generally take the frozen fruit out of the freezer first thing to give it time to defrost.  The crust can be homemade but I generally buy the pre-made grocery store kind that says 2 extra servings.

When the jello mixture is cool (the more frozen berries you are using the less cool it needs to be) mix the berries into the mixture and just pour the whole thing into the pie crust.  Be careful not to over fill the pie because the mixture is still quite liquid at this point an has a tendency to run over the edges.  I may or may not have firsthand experience in this tendency.  Put the pie in the refrigerator for at least a few hours (preferable at least 4-6) to let it set up and then enjoy topped with lots of whipped cream. Enjoy!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Hello Monday! You are not my favorite day of the week but I will make the best of it with a recap of my weekend.

Friday night I came home from work with my fiance and had a nice quiet evening at home.  It was windy and raining so the was a perfect way to spend the evening. I was going to cook something for dinner but we ended up just having some hummus and pita chips while watching a new episode of Blacklist.  I spent the whole episode holding my breath or speculating about the plot twists but that is pretty normal for me.  I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't watched it but it was a good episode!

I woke up fairly early for a Saturday to head down to Pacific Grove to get my hair done.  I know I know yes that is a bit of a drive (a little over an hour) just to get my hair done but I love my hairdresser and I usually try to combine my appointment with something else down there.  I forgot to take a picture of my hair on Saturday after I got it done but here is a day old/slept on picture of my hair.  I am growing my hair out so I have lots of options for my wedding but I still have to get it trimmed to keep it looking fabulous!

I met one of my sisters for lunch at the mall in Monterey before heading back home.  Yay for sister time!  Saturday night I was giving myself a bit of a panic attack because my eye had been hurting all day and I was worried it was something serious since it was really hurting by the end of the day.  I woke up Sunday to my eye feeling much better.  Crisis averted.

Sunday I had a lovely morning lazing in bed listening to the rain outside my window and talking to one of my best friends on the phone.  I eventually got up and got dressed to go look at an open house with my fiance.  More details on that if it becomes anything...

After the open house I dragged my fiance (ok he actually volunteered) on my typical Sunday afternoon errands to such exciting places such as Target and Trader Joe's.  He stayed in the car while  I shopped in Trader Joe's but decided to come into Target with me.  We only came out of Target with a few things that were not on the list.  He is not allowed to shop alone (especially at Costco) because he would come out with random things we don't need and not get everything on the list.  Once in a while he comes shopping with me but our budget is much happier when I shop alone.  

My manager at work had a birthday on Saturday and in our office we like to have a little afternoon desert to celebrate birthdays.  There are a little over 30 people in my office so that leads to at least one birthday almost every week.  Sometimes the desert is store bought and sometimes it is home made.  I volunteered to make something and here is what I ended up with..

Summer Berry Pie

Thin Mint Ice Cream Pie

Eating a piece of one of these pies should brighten anyone's Monday!  Happy Monday!

Clothing Basics-Friday Favorites

Now that you know all about my undergarments it seemed only appropriate to share some of my other favorite things to wear.   These are things I either buy over and over again or like so much I have bought multiple of.

Friday Favorites

Despite being super short waisted I usually like to wear a cami under my sweaters and thinner shirts just for the extra layer of coverage and length.  This is a cami I buy over and over again.  It comes is tons of colors depending on the season but I go back and buy the same four colors over and over again.  I buy it in white, off white (they call it Whisper White), navy and black.  I have it in a grey and a pretty emerald green and while I wear them I don't have multiples of those colors.  I have at least 2 of each of my basic colors and as soon as one starts to near its retirement age (a year or two for the dark colors and a bit less for the whites) I immediately buy a replacement.

Clean Cami at The Loft

If I am not at the gym I am almost always in some sort of ballet flat.  These are one of my two favorite shoes at the moment.  The other is a pair of cute shiny silver flats.  I don't know how but I always manage to walk through my flats in about 6 months of wear so I am constantly on the hunt for a new pair of flats.  I try to always have at least one black pair in my rotation along with a neutral color (like nude or silver) that goes with everything.  Once I have have those two colors set the more fun and/or sparkly the better!  A couple of times I have actually found little ballet flats covered in glitter.

These leggings are not just for working out!  They are great for holding everything in while working out but in the winter I wear them as often out of the gym as I do in the gym.  They work really with long tunic type shirts and boots or under dresses that are just a smidge too short to wear to work alone.  I love that they are thick enough not to be see through since as much as I love underwear I don't need the whole world seeing mine.

Zella Live in Legging at Nordstrom

These hair bows are a newish favorite of mine.  They are from an Etsy shop called Ruby Blue and the colors and styles they come in changes daily depending on her supply.  They come in sizes all the way from infant to adult and they have saved me from many bad hair days.  I know wearing a giant bow on your head may not be everyone's style but I think they are kind of fun and quirky.

You wouldn't know it from the pictures in this post but I promise I do wear lots of different colors!  I guess it makes sense that my basics are of a more neutral color palette.  Happy dressing!

What Have You Been Watching?

My fiance and I don't have the most similar tastes in television but we have found a few shows that we both enjoy.  Since we don't have cable we never watch them on the day they actually air but between Hulu and Netflix we only have to wait one day.

I love all kinds of "dramatic" shows as my fiance calls them.  I like things like The Biggest Loser, Project Runway, The Challenge and Survivor and as much as he swears he thinks they are too dramatic he generally knows all the contestants names by the end of the season, so he can't hate them that much.  Ok actually I usually watch Project Runway on my laptop with earphones to save him from that one.

What we watch together:

I used to live with my cousin and she turned me onto this show.  She went to college in Portland and always knew a lot of the places they filmed the show.  My fiance loves this show and is always asking if there is a new episode to watch.  You would think he would learn what day of the week it aired but he never bothers to remember.

My fiance is a big Marvel fan so it only made sense for us to watch this one.

We were in Southern California over Thanksgiving and my future brother-in-law and I were talking about shows we watched and he thought we would enjoy this one so we gave it a try.  We watched the whole first season on Netflix in about two weeks and then got caught up on the current season just in time for new episodes to begin again this week.  We are hooked.

When there are no new episodes of the shows I watch or when I am puttering around at home cooking or blogging I tend to watch a whole series on Netflix or Hulu.  I watched all of Top Chef this fall and have been watching all the old seasons of The Amazing Race recently.  I watch the current seasons of these shows too but it is still fun to watch all the previous seasons too.

Any recommendations on new things to watch?

A Little Bit of Wedding

I got engaged on Christmas Eve at the church I grew up in with my parents and sisters looking on.  It was just perfect and I was totally surprised since I thought he would propose either Christmas morning or on New Year's Eve.

First kiss as an engaged couple!

Now that I am officially engaged I get to plan a wedding!  We are not getting married until the Summer of 2016 so we (and I mean mostly I) have about 18 months to plan this thing.  Having so much time to plan is going to be a blessing, but also a curse.  Sometimes I feel like I have so much time that I can't plan certain things yet but I want to make the big decisions sooner rather than later.  The sooner I make the big decisions like date and place I can then start planning the stuff little girls dream of like dresses and food and decorations.

In terms of all the small details my fiance is pretty chill about all of it and has said he is perfectly happy to stay out of all the little planning unless I really want him to help.  I think he would prefer me to just tell him where to show up, but that is not happening.  To make sure we were on the same page for the big stuff and the things I actually am making him have an opinion on we have set aside time to have Wedding Meetings complete with agendas and minutes.  Laugh all you want we both have MBAs and it is working for us.  Along with being The Queen of Everything I am also the bride so I get to be the chair of these meetings!  

We had a meeting last weekend and assigned each of us topics that needed further research and are meeting again in a month to report back.  One of his big things is that he wants to get married in a church so that is his research project.  I am doing research on photographers to take engagement photos (we are aiming to get them done in June) so if anyone has suggestions in the Bay Area or Salinas/Monterey area of good photographers or good locations I am all ears!  

More details to come in the coming months...