Indonesia Trip!

The trip to Indonesia was 2 weeks of family, eating, and experiencing a culture that is 180 degrees different from our everyday. My sis and I have been going since my sis was 8 months old so we knew what we were in for. My brother in law and Mr. took everything in stride though and did a great job of assimilating into the culture evan though being "Orang Bulle" they stuck out and got lots of attention! 

Soo many stories so I just thought I would show a few of our pictures. 

Us at the Mud Volcano. This is a huge natural disaster caused by careless oil drilling. The mud has overtaken 5 villages and growing. I really wanted to jump in and play around... However, Mr. said that was not a good idea... I still don't see what the big deal was. 

Exploring the supermarket to get an upclose view of some of the different fruit in this part of the world. This is durian. We also tried Mangees, Salek, and Rambutan. Yummy weird different fruit. It is amazing the different fruit that grows in different parts of the world. 

My sis and I love to eat from food trucks like this one while we are in Indonesia. It is basically an all out assualt on your digestive system but it is part of the culture as these carts are everywhere and portable so that the owners can travel down the streets selling their dishes. Some of what we sampled included: Pachel a breakfast miz of peanut sauce, rice, and veggies, Chwemie which is noodles with dumplings, Sate, Mr's favorite, a chicken kabob with a sweet and peanutty sauce, and Soto ayam a soup of chicken rice and yumminess that is my sis's fav. 

This is us Jalan Jalan (walking) down Telamoyo the street where my mom grew up. 

This is the group outside the van/public transport bus that we caught a ride home on one day. 

We went to a spa one day. I did not give my bro in law a foot massage. He got one from a trained professional. 

This is a bacha. A traditional taxi. This is us hijacking one!! 

This is an entire cart full of krupuk, an indonesia chip made out of fish or shrimp. They are really yummy. The seller drives around selling these to pedestrians on the street. 

 This is Mr. at a 900 year old Hindi Temple that we went to tour at Blitar. 

Sis and Bro posing at the Temple. 

The group of us along with some family in front of the building that my uncle is a professor. My mom lectured while we were there to Master's and PhD engineers about Lean manufacturing. 

Family in front of my grandma's house.

Bro n law and I in Singapore trying the Singapore Sling.

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas has been a whirlwind of travel that has only just slowed down before the next go round! I wanted to pause and upload some picts from this year's festivities. This is a pic that my wonderful Sis took of Dill in front of our tree! Lindsey and Evan were our wonderful housesitters while we went to South Carolina to visit Mr's Fam. It was my first Christmas away from my own fam and with Mr's. It was kinda sad to not wake up surrounded by my family Christmas morning but it was a whole new set of family traditions and dynamics! This weekend is my family Christmas and I am super excited!!! Two Christmases is better than one.

 Lindsey and I made some "creative" Christmas cookies!

 This is a cute little Christmas decoration that Lindsey got me at after Christmas sales. Thanks, best sis ever!

This time last year, Beautiful Photoshoot

Last year around this time, we had a beautiful photoshoot with an amazing and sweet photographer Abby.
Here are some of the more fun shots. There were so many that were good it was hard to pick just these! maybe I will post more again. 

Honeymooning in Paradise.

When Mr. and I got married a little over a year ago because of the strenous PA program I am in there was no time for a honeymoon. (we literally got married over the 7 day break I had between the spring and fall semesters). We hesitantly chose to postpone our honeymoon until there was more time. I tried to not make a big deal about it but the last breakfast we had on the island that week of the wedding I wanted to cry. We had had a wonderful time entertaining and celebrating with all our family and friends but I had no time to ourselves to share the joy of being in love.

So fast forward a year.... and here we went back to Anna Maria to celebrate our honeymoon. And boy was it worth the wait! Here are some pictures to explain.

Our hotel suite, The flounder!

 Standing in the exact spot where we got married!

 Wishing you were here!

 I had to sacrifice my pedicure but it was worth it.

I surprised Mr. with a deep sea fishing trip. Mr. caught way more than I did. This is him with his favorite fish to eat. Grouper!

 This is us with our Red fish we caught. (over two feet in length and about 15lbs each.)

 I caught two Red fish! I never realized that the hardest part was reeling the fish into the boat!!

Mr.'s honeymoon surprise for me was to order a cake from the bakers who made our wedding cake and get a bottle of wine for the little shop that we bought all the wine for from the wedding. (Mr. also bought me several bottles that are going to be shipped home yum!!)

PS. we got to keep all our fish from the fishing trip. Snapper, Mackrel, flounder, and red fish (the only fish that I contributed to our bounty was a red fish) But I did catch a baby shark!! sorry no pics of that one you will just have to believe me and my fisherman tales! .... Come over and eat some with us ok??

Simple living

Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of life you look up and say what am I doing... I've recently become interested in simple living. I am at the beginning of my thinking/experimenting with this lifestyle but really I am just interested in distilling my life down to what makes me and Mr. happy and fulfilled.
One of the ideas from the simple living manifesto (posted above) is to come up with simple pleasures and sprinkle them throughout your day. Here is a sample list. and here is the beginnings of my own list.

•  Coffee
•  Painted nails
•  a hot bath
• a glass of wine
• baking/creating
• a good book
• watching Mr and the dogs play
• blogging 
• catching up with a dear friend
• a massage
• getting my eyebrows waxed
• going for yogurt
• Christmas music/decorations
• laying on the beach
• walking barefoot
• a quiet saturday morning
• kolaches 
• fresh baked bread
• staying up talking 
• sitting on the porch 
• a baseball game
• a nice walk
• the way you feel after a good workout
• dinner out 
• pizza carryout
• new sheets 
• planning a weekend away
• dinner with friends
• a new piece of clothing or shoes
• curling my hair
• JIF peanut butter on bread
• a clean house
• clean dogs

I just came up with 33 things in like 5 minutes and just making the list brought a smile to my face. That is what I want my new lifestyle to be about: making myself happy (I hope you don't see this as selfish, I see it as filling my tank so I have more to give to Mr.'s and others), using my time more wisely and not stressing the small stuff. I look forward to adding to the list.

TOGETHER: One year and counting almost...

I am not an anniversary person. I never celebrated dating anniversaries (well one year two girl friends and I all had concurrent anniversaries with our boyfriends but we spent that day together just the three of us smoking cigars and listening to Delila in a backyard hot tub (best anniversary ever)).

But mine and Mr.'s first wedding anniversary is coming up, and I have been thinking about that lately. More so just amazed that a year has passed already and reflecting over the past year of being married to the best man. (well he was the groom, but you get it)

I can't believe that I love Mr. now more than the day we were married. (I am not trying to be sweet or especially sentimental) Just saying I understand what people mean. We have been together longer. TOGETHER in the sense of waking up in the middle of the night with  Mr. wailing uncontrollably and thinking I was going to have to take him to the emergency room, or TOGETHER in the sense of bursting out laughing to keep from crying while my Mr. is hysterically yelling because the Jo Jo  has ... wait for it... vomited on the bed (that had newly changed sheets, as if it could be any worse). TOGETHER in the sense of "honey I'm going to sleep on the couch because your sick"... "no really you're keeping me up and I don't want to catch what you have!" TOGETHER meaning being mind bogglingly bored trapped in the house while the walls are almost shaking because the music at Cowboys stadium is so loud and the traffic is too horrendous to leave the neighborhood.

The other day I realized, I married a man I had never been bowling with. (We went and neither of us bowls very well).

Life is amazing and ridiculous. **Sometimes I want to take our marriage back.  It's true sometimes I am weak, scared, frustrated. But the wonderful thing is, it is done. I can't take it back. I mean don't think I can ... I don't think you can get in annulled after this long ... But I digress.

But marriage doesn't end just because I want to quit that is the beautiful thing about marriage. I didn't go into this marriage thing thinking everything was going to be fairy tales and roses even though that is what it was May 10, 2010. But the things brought us closer and made me (hopefully Mr. too) love each other more is the hard things. The times that were frustrating, and hard, and scary made me trust and rely more on us TOGETHER rather than just me.

I'm not perfect. Obviously see asterisks. But Mr. is much better than I am: more patient, understanding, loving and forgiving. He is my yang. He doesn't complete me (neither of us can bowl!) But he does a hell of a job complimenting me. We make it work.

We are less than a month away from 1 year. Hopefully there will be many, many more years.

Sisters

My Sis is my best friend. As my lil sister I feel like she grew up in my shadow and it wasn't until college that she grew into her own. I have no problem saying the roles of sisterdoom have now reversed.  Man did she grow into her own! The freespirit has always been there but now I see she is so strong and determined.

Lndz,
I'm sorry I locked you out of the house when we were little and you got stung by a wasp.
I'm sorry I punched you in the face for the basketball,
and hit you in the head with a baseball.

After all that is a amazing you still turned out as pretty and smart as you are now!

My mom

This post is a tribute to my mom. She along with my sis have become my best friends since college. I talk to her about everything, it is really wonderful to have a sounding board who knows you... and I mean KNOWS you like only a mom can.

She is my rock, my compass. I love you mom

Family Pictures

I have been in Temple, Texas at Scott and White doing my internal med rotation. It is alot of long hours and I have no internet at my hotel. I wanted to post some pictures from our Family photo shoot Thanksgiving. Abby with Sweet Fix is an amazing photographer.

:(

So I feel extra sensitive to criticism from Mr.'s family. Cousins and family members that I didn't know existed or that move 3-4 times a year who feel slighted because they have not met me or did not get an invitation to our wedding or reception. This is hard because I want to please and feel like I am setting out on the wrong foot with this family but it is not my fault. I just have to vent!!

Also, I feel like since I got married I have Martha Stewart syndrome. I just feel like I have to play perfect. Something I learned long ago I couldn't do, or at least couldn't happily do. But for some reason being married has made me feel compelled to try to achieve perfection again... I hate it.

sad times today. :(