Food, Finals, and DIY Fun

Food first (those two words may or may not be a way of life in the Lanier/Heinrich household). I mentioned in a previous post that Terry and I are partaking in a 10-day challenge to eat all real food and no processed food. We started Wednesday, and we love it! So far, we have eaten these new recipes:

• Whole wheat crepes
• Whole wheat French toast with real maple syrup (our favorite so far)
  
• Whole wheat macaroni and cheese
• Spaghetti sauce with whole wheat noodles
• Peanut butter and jelly smoothies
• Caprese salad sandwiches
• And tonight's dinner: whole chicken in a crock pot

Macaroni and Cheese

Crepes

Vegetable Stir-Fry

All recipes are from the 100 Days of Real Food blog - check out the idea behind it and all the other yummy recipes! It's surprisingly easy to eat only real food, and in only a few days we've eaten more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains than we would in two weeks. For bread, the blog recommends buying bread from the Great Harvest Bread Company. I found one in South Pasadena, not too far from my work, so we have been completely spoiled with delicious (and healthy!) bread all week. I highly recommend the honey wheat!

In addition to our food challenge, Terry has had to study for two finals this week, and today he's finishing up the second one. What a stud - almost done with his Master's! He'll graduate in June, and we are both very excited for him to be done. Working full time and doing a graduate program is ridiculously difficult - but he's ridiculously awesome, so it all works out. :-)

This week, between the new recipes and receiving my pink slip (you like how I just slip that in there?), I found some time to relax with some fun projects. We're starting the invitation printing and assembly process tomorrow, so I focused on our guest book for the wedding. We played around with a lot of different ideas that we've seen at various weddings - a framed picture with a large matte that guests can sign, a regular guest book, a giant wine bottle with silver Sharpies, postcards, but ultimately we decided that we want to use our gorgeous engagement pictures from our wedding photographer, Rhee, and our good friend Roxanne. Between the pictures at Point Dume and UCLA and in downtown San Jose, we have over 200 pictures we can use. So we're making a little keepsake book that guests can sign and we can then place on what will hopefully be a new coffee table. :-) We're still in the design process, but if it works out and looks good I'll share all the details and make a recommendation!

Fat Tuesday and a Busy Month Ahead

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Lent, so today is Fat Tuesday. Terry was raised Catholic, and we both really believe in the idea of Lent, so now we both observe the 40 days of giving up something important or indulgent. Tonight we're going out to ice cream (well, frozen yogurt, at our favorite add-your-own-toppings shop, Twist) to indulge before we dive into Lent. Our sacrifices for the next 40 days: chocolate (for Terry, although I am cutting back also), cheese crackers (for me, because I love Cheez-Its and the like), and soda.

Tomorrow also marks the beginning of our 10-day real food challenge. Today I cleaned out our fridge and pantry to purge all the processed food and make room for the loads of groceries (from THREE stores, plus a bakery to buy real whole grain bread) that we bought today. I planned out all ten days to make sure we have plenty to eat, and the fun begins during breakfast tomorrow (on the menu: whole wheat toast and fruit). We love participating in these kinds of endeavors together to challenge ourselves, improve our health, and grow closer to each other. Terry has been very patient as I've explored the 100 days of real food blog and thrown out endless facts about the food industry, but he is on board for some healthy eating! Wish us luck!

Meanwhile, between the food challenge, work, and Terry studying for his final, real life must continue. We are planning to move to a new apartment at the end of the month, and we've (hopefully) found a place we really like - more to come if we actually decide to live there. So the packing process will begin soon, and my parents will venture down to LA to help us move (they owe Terry's parents big time for all the times they helped us!). We are so excited to find a lovely new apartment that will be our first married home! On a down note, I will be let go from my teaching job at the end of this school year (again) - the budget cuts are hitting us along with everyone else. While that puts a damper on things, we are grateful to have plenty of warning and the opportunity for me to apply for other jobs. While dealing with that, we're also shopping for a new (used) car, which we'll purchase after we make a decision on an apartment.

And finally, oh yes, that whole wedding thing. Last night I added stamps to all the reply envelopes and continued work on one of our DIY projects - the place card holders. Despite the minor battles with the glue gun and X-ACTO knife, we're well on our way to finishing one of our first big projects! Terry has promised me a wedding work day (well, a few hours) this Sunday after his finals to get our invitations underway and to finish up the designs on the response card and information card. It'll be nice to finally have something wedding-related to report on the blog! I'm trying to take pictures along the way so I can come back and document it all later, and I look forward to posting those in a few months.

So, tomorrow is March 9th - the first day of Lent and four months to the wedding! I'm looking forward to reporting our progress on the things we are giving up for Lent, the 10 day challenge, our new apartment, and the invitations!

One Year!

Today marks one year to our wedding! We get one more year of betrothal before the wedding, and then married life begins! Today we visited Solvang and Los Olivos to enjoy some wine tasting and quality time with Terry's mom, Sharron. The perfect weather and great company made for an awesome day.

So far, Terry and I have loved the engagement. Some people question the length of our engagement, since by the time next July 9th rolls around it will have been 23 months since Terry proposed, but we have no qualms about taking our time with the wedding. We only get to be fiance and fiancee once, so we like the idea of extending that time. Plus, two of our favorite couples are getting married this summer! Heidi and Edward will wed next Saturday, July 17, and Winnie and Brian will marry on August 7. Terry and I feel very lucky to be a part of these weddings, to hear all the planning details, and to receive their wedding and marriage advice in the coming year!

We feel so excited to share the next year together. Our roommate (my bridesmaid Jenn) is moving out to live with her boyfriend, and we are thrilled for them even though we'll miss their company. A half-hearted apartment search and a whole-hearted agreement later, Terry and I decided not to move when Jenn leaves. We love our location in Mar Vista, near Santa Monica, we have reasonable commutes to work, we feel safe, and we love the amount of space in the two bedroom apartment. Amazingly, we already grew out of a one bedroom, and we look forward to having both a bedroom and an office/spare room. We hope to stay in this apartment through our first year of marriage, and it provides plenty of space for us to grow a little more. More than anyone, I think Terry's dad is thrilled we aren't moving, because he was always the one burdened with the bulk of moving us over the last few years! Also, not moving was one of our goals from the beginning of the year, so we can check off another one!

As far as wedding planning, the one year mark means we can really get serious about our plans. With all my down time, I have been working on the wedding guest list, organizing my Excel sheets and collecting addresses. I love using my etiquette book (Emily Post's Etiquette, a gift from Terry) to determine how we should go about planning a formal wedding, and the book has been helpful in determining our budget for each aspect of the wedding, such as save the dates and invitations. We plan to send out save the dates within the next three months (many of our guests will be coming in from out of town), so Terry needs to finish up the designs. My mom and I found favors that we love and that work great with the wine theme of the wedding. We have seen so many incredible ideas for favors, including a candy bar with a cute box or bag, or a photo booth, which I hear is a blast. Looking for favors is easy online with websites like My Wedding Favors, Little Things Favors, and WeddingFavors.org. The tough thing is finding something unique and useful, as opposed to something everyone will simply throw away. I have also heard of couples making a donation in lieu of giving individual favors, which I love, but we haven't made a decision yet.

Centerpieces. Ugh. I am SO not looking forward to centerpieces. First of all, no flowers. Yes, I have seen the millions of pictures on The Knot and other sites that display gorgeous floral centerpieces, but Terry and I have agreed that we simply will not spend that kind of money on flowers. As beautiful as they look, we have decided that we want to focus our funds on other areas. So don't expect many (if any!) flowers at our wedding! Expect simple, elegant tablescapes with simple, elegant centerpieces. We want our guests to focus on each other, the food, the dancing, and, well, since it's our wedding, us! No need for all those flowers to distract everyone. I would love for the centerpieces to all be different, which should be a fun challenge for our 25+ tables. I haven't created any mockups yet, but I know we will use ivory candles, wine corks, and clear glass vases. The actual compilation is TBD.

We are so excited to be getting married in one year! Thankfully, the extended engagement has given us plenty of time to plan without stress, and we love every step of organizing our wedding. Meanwhile, we look forward to enjoying Heidi and Ed's wedding in a few days! Congratulations to a wonderful couple!

Sunday Night Dinners

At the beginning of the year, Terry and I set a New Year's resolution to cook one new meal every week. We love trying new foods, and we love cooking together, but we often fall back on our easy, usual (read: boring) meals when life gets hectic in the middle of the week. So we decided on one new meal per week, and to stick to it, we set aside Sunday to fix our new creations. Every Sunday, we pull out my binder of recipe collections (from magazines such as Cooking Light, Gourmet, or Food Network) and choose something that sounds good.

The Sunday Night Tradition has proved a huge success! We have cooked a new meal almost every Sunday since January 1, and we truly look forward to the time we spend shopping for, preparing, and enjoying the meals. Even cleanup can feel fun, because we discuss what we liked or didn't like, what we would do differently next time, or future meals we might make. Cooking is a great bonding experience for us and a good break from school, work, and the general stress of life. Enjoy some photos of our creations!


Goat cheese-and-prosciutto-stuffed chicken with ratatouille

Pepperoni and bell pepper pasta (one of our favorites!)

Salad with homemade vinaigrette and croutons

Greek salad with Mediterranean chicken

Steak and arugula salad








Yum!

Awesome Air Kicks

While not specifically related to the wedding, my foot surgery certainly affects our wedding planning and the rest of our summer. I have a bunion on each of my feet. The condition has plagued me for as long as I can remember. Essentially, my big toe grows in the wrong direction, which causes immense pain most of the time. The condition can worsen based on genetics, activity levels, shoes, etc. Over the last few years, the pain has grown increasingly worse, so I opted for surgery. The procedure will be extremely routine, but I'm still very nervous about the recovery time. According to my doctor, I will be in a full cast and unable to put any kind of pressure on my right foot for the next six weeks. I have crutches, so I can get around, but I won't be able to drive or help much around the house. Ultimately, the next few weeks will be a great opportunity for me to rest, take care of minor chores (shredding old paperwork, for example), and research more vendors for the wedding. My dad came down today to take care of me for this first week while Terry works, and Terry is excited to take care of me after that, which is great, because he will be cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and driving me everywhere! I'm very blessed to have such awesome men in my life.

If you're at all interested in the condition or procedure, or if you're a person who thinks bunions are "gross" (like my loving big brother), check out the website from my surgery center. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery! Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9). Here's to being able to do some awesome air kicks in six weeks!

Easter and Extended Family

This weekend, my parents drove down to LA to celebrate Easter with us and to meet Terry's extended family. I think we all felt a bit nervous for the big meeting, but the day's relaxed atmosphere put everyone at ease.

Weekends like this one can feel busy and stressful sometimes, but the fun food and outings made it worth any stress. We enjoyed Damon & Pythias, one of our old favorites, Ichima Sushi, one of our new favorites, and even a home-cooked meal. We played a game, took a long hike in Griffith Park, and enjoyed some incredible wine and conversation. Then today, we introduced my parents to two groups of Terry's family members. My family only consists of very few people, and I barely knew my grandparents before they passed away. I love spending time with Terry's family, and I feel so lucky that my parents seemed equally excited. In turn, Terry's family generously hosted us and seemed to enjoy getting to know my parents.

We feel incredibly lucky that our parents and families get along and support us in our relationship. I look forward to officially joining the Heinrich/Andersen family next year, and I know Terry is already part of the Lanier family!

**Note: This weekend also marked accomplishing one of our goals!

10 Goals for 2010

One of my favorite teachers - and lifelong mentor - from junior high gave me the idea recently of creating 10 goals for 2010. It's along the lines of resolutions, but with a positive twist. Here are mine:

1. Introduce my parents and brother to Terry's extended family, and introduce Terry's parents and brother to my extended family.
2. Finish out my first year teaching with organized lesson plans that I can improve upon next year.
3. Continue working out at least 3 times a week and try new types of work outs throughout the year.
4. DON'T move this year.
5. Continue working at Gabrielino for 2010-2011.
6. Floss every day.
7. Try a new "LA thing" once per month.
   
8. Save money.
9. Get bunion surgery.
   
10. Travel to at least 3 places I've never been (Denver, DC, and TBD!).

I mention these goals for two reasons: 1) I think it's a great idea, which is why I assigned my students to create their own ten goals, and 2) Several of the goals relate to Terry and me as a couple, so they indirectly relate to the blog.

The saving money thing was an easy one to tackle. My brother suggested that we open a joint savings account, which we did! We have talked about combining our monies for some time now, but this is our first real step in that direction. Now, honestly, we already have the "my money is your money" mentality, but we are excited to save for our future, which will simultaneously accomplish goal #8. So we set out for Bank of America (my bank) and, despite some communication issues with our teller, opened an account within thirty minutes. We're hoping to set up an automatic transfer each month to help us put away money.

We are saving for three particular "purchases": our honeymoon, our puppy, and our first house.

The Honeymoon: London and Rome

The Puppy: Old English Sheepdog or Bernese Mountain Dog

The House: We'll see...
As for the other nine goals, a few of them are in motion. My parents are coming down to LA over Easter to meet some of Terry's extended family; we've flossed every day since the beginning of the year (it's a team goal); we're visiting Denver this weekend; we went to Point Dume ("new LA thing" for the month!) this past weekend!

If you have your own goals, please share! It's fun to hear how ambitious people are and what different people choose to focus on in their lives.

Coming soon: Engagement pictures!