Developments

It's been a while, right? Living in a foreign country sure provides a lot of blog content. Being a normal American who goes to work every day and perhaps meets up with friends once week doesn't really make for an interesting blog.

Since my last post (January 2nd), some things have happened. I had a day off of work. Adam and I watched the Golden Globes and laughed. Adam and I celebrated our one year anniversary.

And oh yeah.

We got engaged.

We had planned to go out to dinner the night before our anniversary (I didn't have to work that day), so we went out to a wonderful restaurant and lived it up like we were rich people. It was threatening ice and snow and I admitted to Adam that I'd probably have to go home early. Instead, Adam insisted I stay at his place, telling me he had written a song for me. He got out his guitar while I sat down on the couch, and he sang me a song that led up to him getting on one knee and proposing. And I cried.

That was January 16th, and our lives have suddenly turned into a frenzy of wedding planning. We are getting married in June, and with my mom only in town for a limited amount of time (she has to travel back and forth to Mexico), we've gotten an amazing amount of things down for only being engaged for 4 weeks!

So what else can I say? I am planning a fun wedding, and more importantly I am marrying the most wonderful man I could have ever hoped for. Life is sweet.

Christmas

We had a very busy Christmas around these parts. My brother's family came in for the weekend, and we celebrated Christmas Eve with some members of our extended family (and a couple of friends). Manfriend makes great In-n-Out style burgers and he was commissioned to create them for our Christmas Eve get together.

We had a great time just hanging out, eating, and enjoying each others' company.

On Christmas morning, we woke up (the girls and I first, as we were sharing a room), and opened presents.

This is what I look like in the morning. I'm sorry. (That's my 12k shirt!)

After opening presents, we went over to the house my cousins were renting, and had brunch. And karaoke. Karaoke on Christmas? I guess there's a first for everything, but it certainly was worth it to see my brother and sister-in-law bust out "Bohemian Rhapsody", with my cousin Scott doing backup and my mom laughing hysterically.

Manfriend and I took off from that party and headed to Washington to visit his family for a few days, which was nice and relaxing. There aren't too many exciting pictures from that, except we did take a nice portrait before we left.

Happy New Year!!

Road Trip!

I had a few days off from work, so Manfriend and I decided to head down to Southern Oregon to visit my brother's family. Living 5 hours from my nieces is much better than living in another country, so I have to take advantage of that and see them when I can! They are 8 and almost 6. Kids are fun at all ages, but it's great to have them reading and so interactive with Manfriend and I. The girls (and my brother and sister in law) met in May when we all went to Disneyland together, but haven't spent any time together since, so this was a good chance for everyone to get to know each other better.

I made my sister in law show me how she makes cinnamon rolls, because every time I try to make them I fail. Fail with a capital F.

While Rinda and I were making cinnamon rolls, Manfriend played team Boggle with the girls.

Wow. That's the extent of my pictures from the trip. We did a scavenger hunt for the girls, who in turn made a scavenger hunt for Manfriend and I  - and executed it perfectly. I can barely put together a scavenger hunt without confusing myself, and these girls totally nailed it. We all went out for pizza together one night, and got doughnuts the next morning.

Pizza Party

In case I haven't mentioned it enough, my manfriend loves pizza. He writes reviews for an online food community. He makes his own. He has friends who own pizza places. He's... obsessed.

But, I will say, he makes one super-fine-delicious Sicilian pizza. This is pizza baked on a cookie sheet that has an edge. Manfriend covers the homemade dough with freshly made sauce, four cheeses, and fresh basil. It's... yum.

So I've been bragging about it, and anytime you brag about a pizza aficionado making his own pizza, it means people want some. A couple weeks ago Manfriend slaved away in the kitchen to make pizza for my mom and some family friends.

Also, I'd just like to say that my Manfriend looks great in an apron.

Manfriend time.

Hey there! It's only been two weeks (insert eye roll) since my last blog entry. On one hand I haven't had much talk about. On the other hand, I have, but have been lazy with my camera. I'll try to do some updating as I go along, but I can't promise that it's terribly exciting.

Manfriend came and visited last week. We had last seen each other at the beginning of June, and the span of time from June 5th to July 16th (6 weeks) was the longest stretch we had gone without seeing each other since we've been together. We did it, though. On visits past we've taken a ton of pictures, but I guess our excitement has died down. We took one obligatory "we're together so we should take a picture" picture.

Manfriend actually works from home, and so this time he brought his work with him. What a jip. We spent most of our days apart, while I taught kids and did dishes and other stuff, and he hid away in his room, working on his computer. That was strange, but a good introduction to what it will be like when we both have real jobs, and aren't seeing each other all day because we're on vacation, visiting each other.

I insisted on taking a picture when we made milkshakes. Why? Manfriend had never had homemade milkshakes before. WHAT? That's crazy. I know! That's why I took a picture of the occasion!

By the way, that is a look of pure enjoyment, not disgust. I know it could go either way.

Manfriend left me all by myself here in Mexico. He was like "Sayonara!" and off he went. It was easier this time, however, because I will see him at the end of August, and at THAT time we will start living in the same city. Excitement abounds. Also, we e-mail about 20 times a day, so we can't miss each other that much, right?