Month One: Married Life
I vowed that, once married, I would keep a blog again because I wouldn't be as busy. But boy, I still feel like I can't keep up with the pace we've set for ourselves!
The wedding was lovely, though in 100+ degree weather. Erik and I had steeled ourselves for the hottest day of June, and we got it. We wanted to keep everything moving along so there wasn't much sitting around and roasting in the heat, especially when the cake was beginning to lean, and I think we did a pretty good job. We ate roasted chicken, sweet/sour Big Franks, green beans, black bean-corn salad, tomato-cheese salad, fresh melon, spinach dip, and jalapeño-artichoke dip. The cake was three different flavors: Chocolate with Nutella filling, white with pistachio filling, and carrot with cream cheese filling. By 3pm Erik and I were on the road to Tahoe.
Night one, we both slept just AWFUL. Overtired, overheated, and overthinking. We went to brunch that morning then went straight back to the room for a nap. Around 5, we saw "The Proposal," and really enjoyed it, and that night, we saw "Carnival Cabaret" which is Tahoe's longest running show, featuring men dressed as women. Three men took two each of a Celine Dion, Reba McIntire, Dolly Parton, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, and Cher. They lipsynced a medley of the pop hits and the best part was at the end, they all came out dressed as women, started singing, and slowly started removing their wigs, their dresses, their makeup, and put on tuxedos--Ta-da! Men. The show wasn't as good as I expected--impersonators would have been funnier, but seeing the power of makeup was really cool.
The next day was our hiking day. We started on a trail to Cascades Falls, which was just a nice, even hike to a waterfall. Then we went to Vikingsholm, a Scandinavian inspired castle built in the 30s. It started raining on the trek back UPhill, but we survived, with the thought of Thai for dinner as motivation!
Wednesday, we went to breakfast then started going through the list of things to do. "Beach? No. Movie? Seen it. Hike? Too sore. Shop? Not enough to see." It suddenly occurred to us that we'd like to be home a day earlier. So we talked to our hotel and they weren't going to charge us the extra night and off we went, happy campers. It's a good thing too! There was laundry to be done, sheets needed changing (some of his friends had used the bed when they were visiting), furniture rearranging, grocery shopping... It was nice to have that extra day.
Thursday night, my parents drove over late with the first batch of gifts and slept on the air mattress. We were up at 4am to drive to Southern California for the reception with Erik's family. The drive went by quickly with wedding photos to go through and details to discuss. We spent the afternoon at Erik's parents' house (Ana and Heriberto) and met a bunch of relatives. Saturday was more of the same--food prep in the morning, and the reception at 4:30. Delicious tacos for all, then the fun began. We had a Dollar Dance, which is when different people dance with the bride and groom and pin bills on their clothes. I thought it was literally a one-dollar-apiece affair, but it definitely was not! We accrued quite a chunk of change!
Next came the bouquet and garter toss. Erik and I stood on chairs facing one another and held hands, forming a bridge and all the single ladies and men, respectively, formed chains and ran all around, until they gathered to catch their souvenir. Much fun.
The cake was huge and pretty, and tres leches, which I really like. After some dancing, people drifted away around 11pm. The next morning, Erik's and my flight was at 9:40, so we were back in Sacramento by noon. The gifts were all opened by evening, when we got a call from my parents, saying they had driven up a day earlier and wanted to stay overnight again! We were surprised, but totally ok with it. They had the second batch of gifts, so we opened them that night.
Ever since then, we've been settling into a married routine. Erik's working 6a-4p Monday-Thursday and has Fridays off. He has lots to do a work, so comes home tired but feeling rewarded! I've been organizing cupboards and closets, but surprisingly, aren't even close to finished. I've enjoyed cooking and baking as well, and am so glad I have leisure time to pore over recipebooks and get comfortable with food prep. Erik's pleased too! He's a very capable cook, but the last two times he cooked, we had enough for probably eight people and had way too many leftovers! haha!
Most of our errands have been to Target (where we were registered) and home furnishing/decor stores. Our last piece of furniture was moved in on Sunday though! My grandpa made a curio cabinet for our dishes and it was the first piece of furniture we were expecting to have, but the last to come in! It's just lovely--made of pine, stained in walnut, with nice clean lines and ample space for dishes!
That old friend, the piano is here too! I had resigned myself to not have it and Erik and I never really discussed it but once, he said he was disappointed that I hadn't fought to have it. It made me sad to hear that and I decided then and there, I'd measure some walls and make it a priority! My mom brought it over two weeks ago and it's so nice to have! I'm in the habit of not playing anymore, but I've diddled around a few times and last night, talked almost entirely music with Erik. I could feel the excitement speeding up my voice, and I remembered how music was my life for awhile.
We've watched a lot of movies, and I have to say, a Netflix subscription is one of the BEST wedding gifts someone could give. We didn't receive it as a gift, but I definitely want to give it in the future! We've watched a good 20 movies in the last four weeks... that's a lot!
I'm planning to start some prereq courses at the end of August to get into a masters program for TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Because I'm not officially enrolling in the program and until Spring, I'm applying as a guest student, so may not be accepted to the courses if they're full. We'll have to wait and see, but I'm not concerned since I can take the prereqs when I'm in the program. Just trying to get a headstart. Once I'm more certain of how that pans out, I'll search for a job more vigorously. Thankfully, we're comfortable enough for me to not need a job, but some extra pennies wouldn't hurt!
Tuesday was our month-iversary. I made a dinner of honey-lime salmon, a zucchini-tomato bake, and toasted focaccia with goat cheese. Then we road bikes downtown to a chocolatier. I got a piece of chocolate gianduja cake, which means it has hazelnut like ferrero rocher. Mmmm! Erik got a homemade ice cream sandwich that was uber-rich and just delicious!
This weekend we're headed to my grandparents' house to see some family we haven't visited with in awhile. I'm bringing cupcakes and will experiment with making cute ones. We'll sleep in the tent on their deck and head back Sunday, since I have a choir audition in the afternoon! Slowly but surely, we are building our life and routine!
Well, I'm racking my brain for any other details to share about married life, but that's all I can recall for now! Hopefully I keep up a bit better with this now, but if not, an update every few months can't hurt!
The wedding was lovely, though in 100+ degree weather. Erik and I had steeled ourselves for the hottest day of June, and we got it. We wanted to keep everything moving along so there wasn't much sitting around and roasting in the heat, especially when the cake was beginning to lean, and I think we did a pretty good job. We ate roasted chicken, sweet/sour Big Franks, green beans, black bean-corn salad, tomato-cheese salad, fresh melon, spinach dip, and jalapeño-artichoke dip. The cake was three different flavors: Chocolate with Nutella filling, white with pistachio filling, and carrot with cream cheese filling. By 3pm Erik and I were on the road to Tahoe.
Night one, we both slept just AWFUL. Overtired, overheated, and overthinking. We went to brunch that morning then went straight back to the room for a nap. Around 5, we saw "The Proposal," and really enjoyed it, and that night, we saw "Carnival Cabaret" which is Tahoe's longest running show, featuring men dressed as women. Three men took two each of a Celine Dion, Reba McIntire, Dolly Parton, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, and Cher. They lipsynced a medley of the pop hits and the best part was at the end, they all came out dressed as women, started singing, and slowly started removing their wigs, their dresses, their makeup, and put on tuxedos--Ta-da! Men. The show wasn't as good as I expected--impersonators would have been funnier, but seeing the power of makeup was really cool.
The next day was our hiking day. We started on a trail to Cascades Falls, which was just a nice, even hike to a waterfall. Then we went to Vikingsholm, a Scandinavian inspired castle built in the 30s. It started raining on the trek back UPhill, but we survived, with the thought of Thai for dinner as motivation!
Wednesday, we went to breakfast then started going through the list of things to do. "Beach? No. Movie? Seen it. Hike? Too sore. Shop? Not enough to see." It suddenly occurred to us that we'd like to be home a day earlier. So we talked to our hotel and they weren't going to charge us the extra night and off we went, happy campers. It's a good thing too! There was laundry to be done, sheets needed changing (some of his friends had used the bed when they were visiting), furniture rearranging, grocery shopping... It was nice to have that extra day.
Thursday night, my parents drove over late with the first batch of gifts and slept on the air mattress. We were up at 4am to drive to Southern California for the reception with Erik's family. The drive went by quickly with wedding photos to go through and details to discuss. We spent the afternoon at Erik's parents' house (Ana and Heriberto) and met a bunch of relatives. Saturday was more of the same--food prep in the morning, and the reception at 4:30. Delicious tacos for all, then the fun began. We had a Dollar Dance, which is when different people dance with the bride and groom and pin bills on their clothes. I thought it was literally a one-dollar-apiece affair, but it definitely was not! We accrued quite a chunk of change!
Next came the bouquet and garter toss. Erik and I stood on chairs facing one another and held hands, forming a bridge and all the single ladies and men, respectively, formed chains and ran all around, until they gathered to catch their souvenir. Much fun.
The cake was huge and pretty, and tres leches, which I really like. After some dancing, people drifted away around 11pm. The next morning, Erik's and my flight was at 9:40, so we were back in Sacramento by noon. The gifts were all opened by evening, when we got a call from my parents, saying they had driven up a day earlier and wanted to stay overnight again! We were surprised, but totally ok with it. They had the second batch of gifts, so we opened them that night.
Ever since then, we've been settling into a married routine. Erik's working 6a-4p Monday-Thursday and has Fridays off. He has lots to do a work, so comes home tired but feeling rewarded! I've been organizing cupboards and closets, but surprisingly, aren't even close to finished. I've enjoyed cooking and baking as well, and am so glad I have leisure time to pore over recipebooks and get comfortable with food prep. Erik's pleased too! He's a very capable cook, but the last two times he cooked, we had enough for probably eight people and had way too many leftovers! haha!
Most of our errands have been to Target (where we were registered) and home furnishing/decor stores. Our last piece of furniture was moved in on Sunday though! My grandpa made a curio cabinet for our dishes and it was the first piece of furniture we were expecting to have, but the last to come in! It's just lovely--made of pine, stained in walnut, with nice clean lines and ample space for dishes!
That old friend, the piano is here too! I had resigned myself to not have it and Erik and I never really discussed it but once, he said he was disappointed that I hadn't fought to have it. It made me sad to hear that and I decided then and there, I'd measure some walls and make it a priority! My mom brought it over two weeks ago and it's so nice to have! I'm in the habit of not playing anymore, but I've diddled around a few times and last night, talked almost entirely music with Erik. I could feel the excitement speeding up my voice, and I remembered how music was my life for awhile.
We've watched a lot of movies, and I have to say, a Netflix subscription is one of the BEST wedding gifts someone could give. We didn't receive it as a gift, but I definitely want to give it in the future! We've watched a good 20 movies in the last four weeks... that's a lot!
I'm planning to start some prereq courses at the end of August to get into a masters program for TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Because I'm not officially enrolling in the program and until Spring, I'm applying as a guest student, so may not be accepted to the courses if they're full. We'll have to wait and see, but I'm not concerned since I can take the prereqs when I'm in the program. Just trying to get a headstart. Once I'm more certain of how that pans out, I'll search for a job more vigorously. Thankfully, we're comfortable enough for me to not need a job, but some extra pennies wouldn't hurt!
Tuesday was our month-iversary. I made a dinner of honey-lime salmon, a zucchini-tomato bake, and toasted focaccia with goat cheese. Then we road bikes downtown to a chocolatier. I got a piece of chocolate gianduja cake, which means it has hazelnut like ferrero rocher. Mmmm! Erik got a homemade ice cream sandwich that was uber-rich and just delicious!
This weekend we're headed to my grandparents' house to see some family we haven't visited with in awhile. I'm bringing cupcakes and will experiment with making cute ones. We'll sleep in the tent on their deck and head back Sunday, since I have a choir audition in the afternoon! Slowly but surely, we are building our life and routine!
Well, I'm racking my brain for any other details to share about married life, but that's all I can recall for now! Hopefully I keep up a bit better with this now, but if not, an update every few months can't hurt!