Lately

Sometimes you just get caught up in a groove with things and feel like you'll never get over them. Then one day you do, and something else replaces them. But until then...

I am...

Listening:

Getting ready for work in the morning...cooking dinner in the evening. Can't stop. Here.

Watching:

Thanks Erin and Becky. And Netflix. Here.

Drinking:

Slightly chilled. With your feet kicked up. Here.

Reading:

I'm finally reading it. Here.

Dreaming:

A beachfront room in only 2 months. (Summer is flying by.) Here.

Hello from Reston!

Well here we are! Reston is our new home, and it's finally starting to feel like it. It's taken these couple of weeks to get settled and make the mental adjustment of calling a new place home, but now I find myself looking forward to going home after work or feeling the comfort of home after a long day. For the first week I thought that would never come, but it crept up on me and one day I just realized that I had a home again.

We've been enjoying getting to know our new area and finding new fun things to do. We're right across the street from the Reston Town Center, which offers so many possibilities for date nights, girls' nights, and good times in general. Last weekend Erin and I walked over to meet Kara for a free outdoor concert they have every Saturday night during the summer. The Air Force jazz band (Airmen of Note) were playing, and we sat at an outdoor table of a restaurant to enjoy the tunes.

View from outside our condo entrance

Trying to get these two to move out here so we can be in the same town again!

In terms of getting settled in, we're just about there! There are still a few lingering boxes, several things that are yet to adorn the walls, and an extra project or two to complete (like painting our bathroom and cleaning off the patio), but we're making progress. My goal is to have the guest room and bathroom finished off in time for Samantha, my mother-in-law's arrival next weekend. (Very excited about that!)

Right now I have so many different posts in mind, so stay tuned! I have so much more time these days to do new things and come up with new ideas to share (thanks to my ONLY-5-minutes commute!), so expect to see more in coming days. -Including a mini-tour of our new home, snapshots of our 2nd Anniversary, and some goals I have for how to use the extra time in my day. :-)

a happy birthday

I am so thankful for the wonderful birthday I had this year. If you know me well, you probably know that birthdays are a big deal to me - one thing that hasn't changed since childhood. I was amazed this year at how that child-like kind of excitement still overwhelms me, even as I celebrate my 23rd birthday. I hope that never goes away.

To me, my birthday is a reminder of the blessing of life and all the people and things that make my life so rich and sweet. It is a day to throw (not all, but a lot of) responsibility the the wind and just give myself a break. Maybe even do a few things from sheer impulse instead of calculation and measurement.

This year, it was a day to soak in the crystal clear skies and abundant sunshine, to enjoy fresh cinnamon rolls, to clean my house a little bit with the windows open (just because I wanted to), to browse through a magazine, to visit friends, and to go out to dessert with my loving husband.

Before I went to hang out with some friends before Levi came home (he was working late on a side-job painting project) I fixed myself this delicious birthday dinner that I ate slowly and sweetly with the breeze blowing through the window next to me.

We had a birthday party dinner with friends the night before, where Jacob brought that bouquet of flowers, and Erin gave me a chunky pearl necklace of love. It was great to talk and laugh with good friends - a necessary feature of birthdays! Levi got me an orange baby pocket knife (ok, I admit, I'd been wanting it), and some earrings with opals in them (my birthstone).

Today brought more presents of immense happiness from two very special people, Lindsay and Molly. They completely made my day and made me miss them sososo much. The presents were so pretty and made me so happy that I had some fun arranging them for pictures. (Can you tell how much I love presents? :-D)

The pumpkin spice candle and blue dress are from Lindsay (and she made the happy birthday card -  isn't it amazing?), and the scarf, earrings, and lotion are from Molly. (I now own things from London! Cool...I know.)

 

To everyone who has present-ed me, cared for me, loved me, invested in me, and made my birthday such a special and exciting day...thank you.
I am so blessed and feel so loved because of you.

Fine Dining

Last night Levi and I went to a gourmet restaurant that features all fresh, exquisitely-prepared foods that will make you think you died and went to heaven. It's a very small place, and we arrived around 7pm (on a Friday night, at that), so we had to wait a little bit, but they bent over backwards to make it up to us. For instance, they were supposed to be done serving the special for the night, but they said they would run back and tell the chef to prepare it for us if we wanted. So Levi agreed, and as it turns out, he got the very last one. And here's what it was: 

Pan-seared scallops on forbidden black rice, which had been soaked to perfection in mango and pineapple juice and mixed with chunks of each fruit. And on top of each scallop was an edible flower that a local had just picked off the plant that afternoon and brought to the restaurant fresh. And here's the finished product: 

It was the most perfect, incredible blend of flavors either of us had ever tasted in our lives. Literally breathtaking. And here is proof that Levi has in fact....eaten flowers. But his manliness has not been compromised.

I ordered a pork chop wrapped in bacon and topped with peach bbq sauce and peach wedges. Wouldn't think of that combination, right? But it was heavenly. It came with a potato cake and roasted zucchini. And the pork chop, freshly delivered from a local farm, was soaked in brine for 2 days prior to arriving on my plate. We both agreed that Levi's dish beat mine, but that's only because it was a matter of comparing EXTRA extra fantastic to extra fantastic. And what kind of comparison is that, anyway??

We finished off the evening with mexican chocolate balls, which we were too excited about to take time for a picture. But it was a chocolate cake mixed with ganache and cayenne pepper, rolled into a ball, and topped with cinnamon and sprinkles of kosher salt. With whipped cream on the side. And our blissful, happy faces to look upon it.

All in all, it was an unforgettable experience that is not rivaled by any other. I woke up this morning trying to re-live it in my mind, and just couldn't.

I Said Yes

At about this time on this day one year ago I was at Levi's apartment in Leesburg hanging out with him and his housies (do guys who live together even call each other that?) after church. I may have changed into my "re-do Easter" outfit by now. It was the Sunday after Easter, and since we didn't get to take pictures together on Easter, we were going to do them that afternoon instead.

(Here's me before we left,

looking amused at Jacob's joking as always.)

 

(And here's Levi, trying to get Jacob to stop revealing the fact that Levi actually WAS looking forward to taking pictures.)

So off we went to a little park a few miles away and took a few pictures. In those months, and especially weeks, I was anxious for a proposal...anxious to be a "fiancée" instead of "girlfriend," and anxious to plan the details of our wedding that we wanted to wait for engagement to plan. So naturally, as I was at this park getting pictures like these taken, I was wishing...maybe even expecting?...the dream moment. 

 It didn't come. We took pictures for a while and loaded back up in Jacob's van to leave. But there was another area Jacob "happened" to know about, so we went there to get a few more shots. It was a manor - Rust Manor - that had lovely scenery and garden grounds. And then we took more pictures. A LOT more pictures. So many more pictures that even I was tired of taking pictures. This was odd for Levi, but I didn't think much of it because I was so focused on not being upset at the proposal I hadn't gotten earlier.

(Us on the back steps of the manor.)

The time came for Jacob to pack up and go get our table at Olive Garden, so I started heading that way, but Levi wanted to stay a little while longer and walk around. Ok, I thought...I guess this would be a good time for a proposal too, but I'm not going to let myself think that this time, because I won't be able to enjoy dinner very much if I'm too disappointed.

So I tried to ignore the strange silence that was between us by making strange chit-chat conversation that probably didn't even sound natural because I was so focused on NOT thinking about getting engaged. I guess it lasted for a few minutes as we wandered around the garden until we arrived under a tall, sturdy tree. As we approached it I got a stronger sense that maybe this was really it, but kept pushing it away. Levi started talking to me though, and as I was listening, I realized that this was it. 

After some introductory remarks, he got down on one knee, and a few moments later, asked me to be his wife. In shock that it had actually happened, I said yes, and despite the fact that he was holding a diamond ring out in front of me, hugged him so hard while wearing a smile that must have extended into the air because I don't think it was one my face could contain. How ever many moments or minutes later, he reminded me about the ring and put it on my finger.

We didn't go to Olive Garden that night... We went to Tuscarora Mill where a huge bush-bouquet of roses greeted me (even though I didn't notice them at first) from a cozy, private corner of the restaurant. 

That was one of the happiest meals of my life, and not because I was even aware of the food I was eating - I wasn't - but because I sat across the table from the man who would be my husband and we started planning our wedding. Dates. Wedding party. Plans. It was wonderful, and it was by far the happiest day of my life until we got married 3 1/2 months later. 

I can hardly believe that was a whole year ago...but it was, and I will never regret that day - the day I said Yes.

Happy Anyway

It's been kind of a hectic beginning of the new year in terms of things going wrong or needing to be sorted out. I was talking to a friend last night about life's phenomenon of everything deciding to happen at once. You know when there are just a lot of nagging things to fix, call someone about, or sort through? Basically, that. I know, my last post was kind of about that too, but what can I say - it's life right now.

After my car problems from the end of last year were fixed (it's great having a handy-man husband who wants to figure out how to replace radiators on his own), there may have been a time when everything was mended, still, and generally normal. And when I say my car problems were fixed, I mean now it runs, even though you can't really be sure by the sound of it, and the heater isn't very, well, heat-y.

So there was this still period for a little while. And then Levi came home one morning after working through the night and told me that he was in a wreck, after which it was determined that the car was totaled. Right after that we handled insurance companies, car rentals, a trip south for Christmas, getting a new car (that we still haven't picked up thanks to our bank), a trip north for New Years, signing up for Spanish classes, handling school finances, coordinating rides with people to pick up my car from the bus stop every morning, and Levi having sinus sickness.

On the way home from dropping Levi's sister off in Fredericksburg today (using a friend's car) it just dawned on me. I said to him, If you think about it...we have a lot of broken stuff right now. Only one car. That barely runs. Without a decently-working heater. AND a broken dvd player. (We really like watching movies together, so that might just as much a toughy for us as the car...)

A few seconds later he just shrugged - he does that a lot because he's chill like that - and said, I'm happy.

Yeah, I'm happy too, I said. I think I was just talking about it because it was the first time I really thought about it - probably because I'm happy anyway too.

I'd like to think that without Levi, I would be just as happy in the absence of these basic "life necessities." (How Americanized we are, yeah?) I'm not really sure though. But I think that's part of what marriage is about, right? - one person influencing the other in a positive way to help them grow. I am glad my husband isn't really concerned with material possessions and that he doesn't tend to let circumstances bend him out of shape. I think I would be weaker in that area without him. He has a shrug-and-move-on approach to a lot of things in life, which really helps me take things less seriously sometimes. 

I'm so happy I married him.