Our One Year Wedding Anniversary!

I've been considering what to write for this commemorative post for several weeks now. Did I want to reminisce about our wedding, discuss the ways that we've grown as a couple over the past year, wax poetical about love and marriage in general terms? I even looked back to my journal for inspiration. What I found there made me laugh:

January 18th, 2011

Official confirmation of plans to wed.

January 23rd, 2011

Is this really happening? To me?! I am 110% ready to marry Matt and spend the rest of my life with him. I do not doubt that we can conquer and work through anything that comes our way. One big rule: we will NOT be the gender stereotypical husband & wife, but partner & spouse. Things have been so crazy and I really need more to time to relax but life is running me ragged! Maybe next weekend? I promise myself right now that this will NOT get out of hand. I will have a beautiful celebration but not at the expense of my sanity or anyone else's. What I care about wedding-wise: spending time with my family and Matt's family; a pretty, simple dress; a clean, handsome suit; two comfortable rings. Screw the rest!

March 6th, 2011

Talking to Matt on the phone - today has been stressful - the past few weeks have been stressful. I bought a dress for the wedding celebration. SIGH. Things have gotten difficult. Fast. But I guess we will survive. This will all end soon. 10 week countdown to May 15th, 2011!

And that is the last post in my journal. A few months after my last entry, I started this blog but that is a lame excuse for my absence in a journaling habit I've kept over the past decade. In my defense, I think that the 5 months of our engagement were the craziest, busiest and most emotional months that I've experienced since I was a wild and hormonal thirteen year old.

Anyway, after great indecision I finally decided to share the two pieces of relationship advice that have stayed on my mind over the past year. The first nugget of marriage wisdom comes from Matt's cousin, Autumn, who wrote to us and said, "There is no magic formula for a successful marriage, only love, trust, honesty and open communication. When all else fails there is always paper, rock and scissors to help with compromises!"

I love this advice because it demonstrates the basic tenets of any good relationship (love, trust, honesty, and open communication) while admitting 1) that marriage takes effort and 2) what works for one marriage won't necessarily work for another. It also recognizes that comprise and humor are useful tools when problems arise (which they undoubtedly will)!

The second piece of advice came from a random gentleman at the grocery store. Matt and I were debating the merits of different coffee brands and flavors when he approached us. He told us that we reminded him of a younger version of himself & his wife who came to pick out their daily brew just after being married forty three years ago! After telling us this adorable anecdote, he cautioned us with a gentle phrase, "Hang in there. Stay in love."

At first, the phrase "stay in love" seemed a little too generic to be good advice, but after reflecting for a while I think I understood what he meant. He meant that we should stay fond of each other as people, stay interested in the daily things and small quirks, stay connected and aware of one another. All those little things that people in love do without a second thought. 

Why those two pieces of wisdom have stuck with me, I don't know but I like them and there is comfort in knowing that good advice is out there, even if we don't really need it just yet, still being newlyweds and all. One year down, seventy eight years to go (I'm going to live to be a hundred, don't cha know)!

Anniversary Dinner Date!

Autumnal Bliss

Gingerbread man tree stump!!

As you may have noticed by my last post, I am very excited to experience the autumnal bliss of living in the North. I am busy planning day trips we may (or may not) be able to take in the coming weeks to see the foliage. You see, Matt's work schedule varies from week to week which makes it difficult to plan anything in advance. And as I will soon join the workforce as well (with a truly unremarkable job as a waitress to fill my time and buffer my bank account until I manage to finagle a career out of this economy), our ability to venture out into the Washington wilderness will be severely limited. On the other hand, it is going to continue to get colder as the season progresses so I probably won't want to be outside that much anyway.


One thing that I do have planned is filling my kitchen with fall food goodies! Apples, squash, pomegranates, and cranberries. Salted Caramel Mochas, Peppermint hot chocolate and Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Ahhhhh, seasonal treats! The other day, I added a new recipe to my autumn arsenal - Sweet Potato Muffins. A few leftover sweet potatoes had me searching the internet for ideas, until I ran across a muffin recipe and smushed a few versions together into the following recipe.

Sweet Potato Muffins

12 muffins 

Ingredients:
1 1/2 - 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
2 eggs

1 cup white sugar (or brown sugar if you have it, which I didn't)
1/2 cup oil
3 tbsp milk
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg (or to taste)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
1/4 tsp ginger (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grab your 12 muffin tin and line it with muffin wrappers or lightly grease the tin. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. In a smaller bowl, gently beat the eggs then add the sugar, oil and milk. Mix wet ingredients to combine then add the mashed sweet potatoes and continue mixing to combine. Finally, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter should be pretty thick and with some lumps. Pour into muffin tin and bake for about 35 minutes.


Just as an aside, Matt ate three of these muffins in quick succession right after they came out of the oven because he loved them so much. We quickly polished off the batch by the third day of our muffin's short lives. When I first made this, it was late at night and I was on a baking frenzy. I just hope I managed to give you all the right recipe notes...I'm making these again tomorrow so I can verify everything (Oh, darn!). If you make a similar dish or have any good ideas about this one I would love to hear about them! I read a suggestion to use 1/2 pumpkin puree and 1/2 sweet potato =D

Anyway, Matt and I still regularly venture out into the state park wilderness in the immediate area. Here are a few pictures from our last trip:

Coastal beach on the Puget Sound.

A sad beached jellyfish the size of my shoe. I (gently) kicked him back to the water.

A random treehouse built into the shoreline trees on a public beach.

And of course, I had to venture up! Neat place, but it
didn't improve the already awesome view.

The forest side of the shore was a wall of some clay-like substance. It
appears to be the preferred place for adolescents to graffiti.

The trail we took leading from the beach into the forest.

And here I am on the trail reppin' UTD Soccer!

A mushroom colony that gives me the urge to hunt for smurfs.

And here is the Matt man in all his goofy glory!

The Countdown Begins!

Tomorrow, I will drive 5 hours to visit my childhood friends before being the first to move away from the state.

In 3 days, we will have a going away party to retrieve all the luck our friends can gift and give the biggest hugs possible in return.

In 4 days, Matt and I will stow our belongings in a moving truck to live out of suitcases for 2 weeks before our possessions reach us.

In 8 days, we will begin a 35 hour road trip from Texas to Washington - the longest we have been on together.

In 9 days, Matt and I will have spent 24 hours in a car together. Who knows what kind of delirium we will be experiencing at this point!

In 10 days, we will arrive in Seattle exhausted and excited and anxious and on-the-edge and oh so many other emotions.

What are you waiting for? (Source: PostSecret.com)