The Undeserved Flowers.

October 25, 2011

There was a beautiful arrangement of flowers sitting on my porch step yesterday. The card said they were for me. Me. The one who's been a complete grouch lately. If someone deserved them, it sure wasn't me. You see, I don't always deal well with change. I usually adapt OK ... somewhere down the line. But at the beginning? When things have just changed? Watch out world, Lane will complain about almost everything.

So, the fact that, despite all my complaining, Nathan thought I deserved flowers shows me that I'm actually one of the luckiest girls in the world. And I have everything I absolutely need.

The Honeymoon, Part 2: Oahu, Hawaii

October 20, 2011

Halfway through our honeymoon, Nathan and I flew to Oahu to begin our next adventure (see part 1 here). We visited Waikiki and stayed at the Hale Koa, a military hotel. At that point, Nathan was still in the Air Force (he's out now, working in the "real world" as we say), so it worked out well. Then we drove all the way around the island to the North Shore, where we stayed at Turtle Bay Resort. It was around this time that we got extremely lazy. Like all we could make ourselves do was sit at the pool and shove food in our mouths. Seriously, you don't want to see the breakfast buffet we were eating off of each morning ... SO MUCH FOOD. It was quite [deliciously] disgusting looking back on it, but at the time, after months and months of job searching, wedding planning, and preparing to move, it. was. glorious!

Hawaii sounds pretty good right now, especially considering this rainy, gray, cold weather we've been having lately. I hope these pictures cheer you up a bit if the weather's less than par where you are. And, if you've been super busy, I hope you get an extremely lazy day soon. Tons of food and all!

If you'd rather WATCH the pictures instead of LOOK at them (did that even make sense?), I made a video with all our pictures and video clips at the bottom.

The view of Honolulu from our hotel!

And the view of Waikiki the other way!

Oh, you're wondering what I'm doing? Just grilling my dinner!

Nathan became a pro paddle boarder. I did not. I was much better at sitting on the board and riding.

OK, you guys. I'm really putting myself out there with this absurd snorkeling picture. My mask was too big! I had to downsize to a kids mask.

This was the most amazing beach I have ever been on. We got to go to Bellows Air Force Base because, again, Nathan was in the military. Floury white sand on an Air Force Base?? A-MAZING!

Yes, that sand is as pristine as it looks.

THIS PICTURE CRACKS ME UP! It was too ridiculous not to post. The hair, the floating hand, the cheesy smile. Hahaha! This was one of many attempts at a self-timer picture. The problem was that after setting my camera, I had to [very carefully] run over tons of pointy rocks to get in place.

We had to do the obligatory visit to the Dole Pineapple Plant. I've never seen so many pineapple products in my life.

Our last hotel had a restaurant where you could eat on the sand. Like a dream come true! :)

Haha! We had to get a touristy picture. Aloha!

And, here's the video! The song is Good Life by OneRepublic. My favorite!

101 in 1001: #28 Pick apples.

October 17, 2011

Apples are so much better when you pick them yourself. For real. Nathan and I visited Eddy Fruit Farm a couple weekends ago to pick apples and grapes, and it was a perfect fall activity. The weather was GORGEOUS, we picked about 25 apples and 324 pounds of grapes, and we got a 45-pound pumpkin to carve. Go big or go home, we say!

Back at home, we made a completely apple-inspired meal: apple and turkey paninis, roasted cinnamon apples and carrots, and apple crisp. I'm not a huge fan of apple crisp (or any cooked fruit for that matter--I'm a texture person), but this was delish. Here's the recipe in case you're interested:

Old Fashioned Apple Crisp (from foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients

5 pounds McIntosh or Macoun apples (we used Jonathan) Grated zest of 1 orange Grated zest of 1 lemon 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the topping

1 1/2 cups flour 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup oatmeal 1/2 pound cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 14 by 2-inch oval baking dish.

Peel, core, and cut the apples into large wedges. Combine the apples with the zests, juices, sugar, and spices. Pour into the dish.

To make the topping, combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, and cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Scatter evenly over the apples.

Place the crisp on a sheet pan and bake for 1 hour until the top is brown and the apples are bubbly. Serve warm.

(And here is my original 101 in 1001 list, in case you're interested.)

The finished product! :)

101 in 1001: #10 Get Married!

October 14, 2011

Well, it's about time I showed you our wedding pictures! 9.3.11 was such a great day (and so beautiful in Oxford, Ohio, where we got married!), and I'm so thankful to have such beautiful images to remember it by! To be completely honest, that whole day was a blur. Everyone says your wedding day will go by in the blink of an eye, and it's true. The most important thing though is that I got to marry my best friend and now we get to start a life together. I can tell you one thing, living an hour apart for four years makes you really appreciate being in the same house. I know this is the "honeymoon phase," but even washing dishes together is a novelty (and I HATE washing dishes ... by hand ... because we don't have a dishwasher!)

I'm so, so thankful for all the support of our family and friends, too. Our wedding day reminded me how blessed we are to have each and every one of you in our lives. It means so much to the both of us that you were there sharing in our vows, our first dance, our cake cutting. :) We love you all.

And without further ado, I present to you ... OUR WEDDING! Thank you, thank you, thank you Amanda Donaho for capturing the day so beautifully. You're the best. :)

(This is a looooooong post! I just couldn't narrow down the images because I love them all! If you get through the whole thing, you get a cookie!)

My dress was handmade by one of my mom's friends, Kathy Guidone. After looking at dresses in the stores, I just couldn't find anything that went with the picture I had in my mind. I didn't want fluff and beading and sequins, so getting my dress made was the BEST thing for me.

A big thank you to Nancy of BRIDEface for doing a fabulous job on my makeup and Amanda Smith for my hair. :)

This was right about the time I thought my dress wasn't going to zip. Haha!

First look! :)

This is totally going to be a big canvas. Amanda, you did an outstanding job on our portraits!

I absolutely LOVED our flowers. I wanted a wildflower, garden look, and Kim Peterka did an unbelievable job. Wait till you see the centerpieces she did!

Oh boys. :)

Love my bridesmaids. :)

I was absolutely blown away by how good the centerpieces looked. I had the idea in my head forever, but when other people are bringing it together, you get a little nervous! I didn't even set these up and they look better than I could have done! Also, huge thanks to Sara Rabin for designing all our paper products. I should probably mention here too that our reception was held at the Oxford Community Arts Center. Such a cool, old building that used to be part of Miami University when it was a women's college!

Most of my details were handmade or came from Etsy.

Our lovely families. Definitely couldn't have done this without them! We got married in Oxford Presbyterian Church, where I went to church when I was in college!

One of Nathan's requirements of our reception was that we have a lot of dessert. If you know him, you know he has the biggest sweet tooth ever! So, we did a dessert table with sweets from The Cakery. And Funky's did our amazing food. We wanted a brunch that was fairly healthy and not too heavy. It.was.delicious. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!