Saturday, February 28, 2015

Currently

Reading:  I just finished Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs while we were on vacation.  Christopher read The Dumbest Generation, and we both enjoyed our books.  I haven't started anything new yet.

Loving:  Vegetables.  We didn't eat a lot of salads in Mexico, as we tend to avoid the salad bar.  We were craving veggies when we got home, and our grocery trip consisted mostly of plants:


We've had fish and salad:


Soup loaded with greens:


And, a new favourite, a warm chicken salad (we roasted the veggies first):


The roasted veggies were placed over raw baby kale, and all of that was topped with chicken, and a homemade Asian-inspired dressing.

Thinking:  About recipe creation.  We have a few ideas to try soon.

Frustrated:  By my suitcase that needs unpacking; I hate to unpack!

Feeling:  Excited for our trip to New York coming up.  I miss that city so much, and have felt a longing for it for the past three years.  It will be an excellent place for Honeymoon Part 2 - and I cannot wait to introduce Christopher to my favourite city. 

Anticipating:  A wonderful evening with my in-laws!  They are having us over for dinner tonight.

Watching:  We were watching Fresh Prince today for a bit; I forgot how funny that show is.

Sad:  That I didn't sleep well.  On Saturday mornings I seem to wake up around 4:00 a.m., and then am unable to fall back asleep.

Working:  For less than 30 days before we're on vacation again!

Grateful:  For all the kind words regarding our secret wedding.  People have been so understanding, positive, and happy for us, and that makes us even happier.

Listening:  To Christopher playing bass (a Beck song).  He has taken up bass, and he's a natural.  It was funny, when he told me he was going to start learning bass, I didn't expect to sit down with him and hear him play a bunch of songs on his first day playing. 

Wishing:  To be back in the hot sun of Mexico - it was glorious, and it's freezing here.  We're already looking at when we can go back.

What are you loving?  Wishing?  Anticipating?

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Honeymoon in Mexico

Thank you for all the sweet comments regarding our marriage - we really appreciate it!  We have gotten such a great response regarding our secret ceremony, and actually met a bunch of people on our honeymoon who had done the same thing either recently or 20 years ago!

On Valentine's day there was a horrible blizzard in town, and it was treacherous driving, even within the city.  We had to run some errands though, as we were leaving for Mexico the next day.

On Sunday morning we were off to the airport!


We got free champagne on the flight so we "cheersed" again to our newly married selves.


The resort was bigger than the one we were at in April, but not too big. 


We had an ocean view room, which was so nice.  The king size bed was really comfortable.


There was a legit sports bar that served typical pub food, including poutine and made-from-scratch jalapeno poppers.  The best thing about the sports bar food, was that it was cooked fresh to order.


We spent most of our time around the pool, soaking up sun.  The weather was absolutely perfect the entire time ... and HOT!  Puerto Vallarta has the best weather!


We hit the beach a bit too.


We ate at the buffet a lot ...


But the fresh guacamole from the Mexican a la carte couldn't be beat.


We thought the Italian restaurant was really pretty ...


The Japanese restaurant had some good sushi and soup, but I was busy staring at this guy:


We got some nice honeymoon treats in our room:


Overall, it was a very relaxing trip. 


Honeymoon part 2 will be in about 35 days in NYC!

Has anything interesting happened in your lives in the past couple weeks?  What have I missed?  What have you been up to lately?

Monday, February 23, 2015

Surprise

I've been a little MIA lately, because I was busy getting married to the man of my dreams in a top-secret ceremony, and then taking off to Mexico for a honeymoon

We had always talked about an elopement, but the logistics of getting married out of country are just too big of a hassle, so we did it in town on Friday, February 13th

Our family and friends found out a few days later that our trip was really a honeymoon.  Sticking with our non-traditional theme, we worked on our wedding day, wore clothes from our closet, and I got my favourite ring resized to wear as a wedding ring. 

We put the entire focus on the vows, saying both the traditional phrases, and personal vows that we wrote for each other.  To us, the words we were speaking, and the promises we were making were all that mattered, and we didn't need an audience for that - it was personal.  There were laughs, tears, and a whole lot of smiles; it was perfect, and we wouldn't change a thing!



Our ceremony was in the main event room at Crave.  Once the ceremony was complete, we had the room to ourselves to have our first couple of dances.  Our first dance was to Latch (the slowed down Sam Smith version).

We then shared a bottle of bubbly:



And dined in a private room for two:





Christopher made a playlist with songs that meant something to us to play during our meal together.  It was intimate, and exactly what we wanted.






Christopher & Jolene
Friday, February 13th

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Using Things Up

The new oven element showed up today, and Christopher had it fixed in no time!  Yay!  We can now roast this bunch of veggies for dinner tonight:


We're having them with a big salad, as we're trying to use things up from the fridge before vacation.  Our fridge is usually full of vegetables, so that's what we've been using up.

The other day we juiced a bunch of them:


We had the juice with a fabulous plate of homemade perogies.


Last night, in our attempts to use up loads of veggies, we ended up making the best chili we've ever had


We cooked the veggies for a while first, then added ground beef, some soaked red lentils, tomato products, and spices


It was perfection, and it happened by accident.  I love when that happens!  We'll be remembering this chili for next time, and we'll write some stuff down so I can post a recipe for ya'll.

We topped it with other things we were trying to use up, such as cilantro, sour cream, and cheddar cheese.


How's your week been going so far?