This weekend marks the one year anniversary of the day Chad and I sealed the deal. At the risk of sounding too poetic, it's really been a totally awesome year. In it, we:

Got married, duh

Went to Mexico

Moved from out starter studio into a indulgent 2 bedroom apartment.
Went to Arizona twice to visit family
Went to Utah once to visit friends
Went camping twice (shi-shi beach and some other place in Eastern WA)

Went white-water rafting
Ate duck
Made macarons that were consistently edible

I started school full-time
Chad was re-organized at work into a position that he LOVES from a position that, well, he didn't exactly love so much.
Moved into a new ward with some seriously incredible friends (I'm looking at you, Judkins' & MacD's)
Got LOST together
Bought and killed two goldfish, one after another
Gave up trying to keep a goldfish alive
Made each other's birthday cakes, both were awesome

Went to six flags and rode roller coasters until we were sick
Got car insurance and updated tabs/title
Got, then cancelled Netflix
Hosted Thanksgiving dinner
Had our first Christmas as a married couple
Painted an enormous credenza together without filing for divorce (BRAG)

Cooked, cleaned, laughed, kissed on the mouth, held hands, had a two week lapse in judgement that made us decide to have a baby right away
Came to our senses
Cancelled our iPhones, rejoiced, moved to Verizon, rejoiced
Attacked every issue, every problem as a united, unbreakable force
Fell in love, then in some more, then in some more

For our anniversary, Chad bought me a beautiful antique ring. He said he wants to make it our tradition to get a new ring every year that we're married, which I, of course, have no objection to. Chad knows I know I love everything gaudy and sparkly, and this ring is no exception. It's beautiful. We got it at the antique mall that is almost annoyingly vast and well-stocked. It is the store that I will miss the most when we move from here.

We're giving serious thought to packing up our lives and moving back to the Motherland. We love it here; Seattle is like a sweet salve on my yearning for bustle, busy, and short walking distances. But we're living a very indulgent life here, and when we start popping out those babies, they deserve grandparents and cousins and a yard. There are better things to spend a half-million dollars on than a condominium, methinks. We are biding our time, intoxicated by the hope of leaving the romance and excitement of Seattle for the much more romantic, much more exciting prospect of planting the roots of our family into dry, dusty, southwest soil for good.

So thank you, Chad, for the most lovely first year of marriage that one could ask for. Thank you for doing the dishes and always finding the keys and always kissing me goodbye before you leave in the morning, even though I don't always remember it. You're the most bad-ass husband that exists. Truth.

Lovelovelove.

parties and pastries are what make December the best. we've got such lovely friends.

Ever since the GREAT PURPLE POM-POM EXPLOSION of 2009, I haven't been able to get enough of them. To wit:

Our Christmas branch cluster-cuss. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving came and went with great success. Addy and Ryan came up from Utah to spend the long weekend here. They are lovely houseguests.








Brock and Layla joined us bearing gifts of the most excellent stuffing and mashed potatoes. The whole dinner went swimmingly. I got a pretty gnarly migraine, so I excused myself for the majority of the afternoon, but we all reconnected to play Trivial Persuit and enjoy the general merriment. It was the best.


I found myself being insanely grateful for Chad, the fearless husband. He is the best sous-chef and stress reducer that I could ever ask for.


Thanks to Alton Brown, we made a turkey that was basically the best one I've ever had. Ever. The white meat was moist!

We hung pom-poms!











It was basically the perfect first thanksgiving to share as a married couple. Next month, Christmas in Arizona with family!


This is my sweet niece singing Thanksgiving songs. I've been singing, "Pass the CRANberries I'll have a shcoop of those!" in a little lisp all weekend.

I've been pretty bowled over this weekend by how much love I have. We are settling into a pretty nice groove. We have so many great friends here. I'm excited for the next month of fun and finals and road trips.

I am currently in Arizona visiting my sister who just had a baby boy. He is the cutest little lima bean. At 8+ lbs, i thought he was going to be a little chunk, but as it turns out, 8 pounds is still really, really little. I'm here for the long weekend. I went to Illinois last week to visit Tina and listen to 2,4 and 6 year olds sing Beat It, Eye of the Tiger and Barracuda with remarkable accuracy. (Don't forget Beyonce's Single Ladies!)

This year has been busy: we got married, honeymooned, visited family, business tripped, camped, camped again, went to Colorado for a wedding and slept in and saw a movie on a weekday afternoon. So Chad is hoarding the last week of his vacation for Christmas. I stopped working at the end of July and effectively had a sweet two month summer vacation. After many years of offices in Corporate America, I am going back to school. Full time, seventeen credits. I'm really excited to go. It will be the first time in memory that I will spend my days working on something I'm really happy about. Microsoft was great; it felt good to accomplish goals and do good work, but my heart was never in it. I am beside myself at the thought of working hard. Though Chad would disagree, I don't feel like I've done any stimulating, frustrating and rewarding work in a very long time.

Bear with me, I'm slowly snaking my way toward my point.

So, I went to Illinois and now Arizona without Chad. I think, married people do this all the time right? Dad stays at home to work and Mom and the kids head off the cabin to meet up with Dad later in the week. I mean, I know I will miss him but we're such a connected people now: texts, calls, video chats. I can watch Iron Chef America with him from two thousand miles away.

But the thing is...it's unbearable.

Aside from the physical distance, which makes face smooshing and hand holding impossible, we aren't that type of couple. We can't live separate lives, only to reconvene in the evening or after a weekend to "catch up". We are...different. We are not whole without each other.

I always hesitate to talk in any length about Chad on here, because he is so exactly the person for me, so perfect in his ability to love me, that I feel like however I choose to express it will not ever be enough. He doesn't want to make me be a better person in the abstract, I constantly want to adjust my behavior so that I can more closely resemble his goodness. I feel so...at ease. I can be a better friend, student, sister and daughter because I am married to Chad.

Last week, at Sea-Tac airport we hugged and cried and I swore I would never go anywhere without him again and then bam! My sister had this perfect little lima bean a week early and the opportunity to be Super-Aunt before school swallows me whole presented itself. And I am back, writing this on the side of a Wendy's bag in the airport sending him a picture of the airplane patterned carpet.

We are just so perfectly in love, and that idea doesn't give me sea legs anymore.

Hi team. Still here. I'm currently overcoming a cold that's knocked me down. In the last month, I celebrated my birthday at the park with friends. We double-dutched, barbecued, and Chad made me a totally sweet birthday cake, to celebrate my 25th year of life and the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. he made the whole cake, found black food coloring and made the lunar module out of chocolates! It was perfect.

All in all, life is really great right now. like, really great.

My friend Andy sent out the following email:

My friends and I entered a video contest thing for Apartments.com and are finalists!!! It's all about how my cat Harvey and my beautiful girlfriend Jen are best friend roommates 4eva (based on a true story). If you have a second it would be really awesome if you could watch the video and vote for us.

Our video "Jen + Harvey 4eva" is here:
http://roommateoftheyear.shycast.com/submission/show/155/
It's pretty epic and we could really use your vote to crush the other cat lady in our category and come out of this thing victorious. "

Rock the vote people. Regarding his personal worthiness to win: he gave Chad and I one of our most favorite wedding presents, boxes and boxes of dishes that we use every single day. See? So go spend 4 minutes out of your hours and hours of web surfing and help them get free rent for a year. Come on, team!

"It's sometimes weird to think that I'm not the only person in my family who knows who Ray and Charles Eames are."

"Take heart, at least they know who Ray Charles is."

indeed. and that's why they're the best.

My best friend Lindsey got Micheal Jackson's HIStory when we were in elementary school and we would listen to it non-stop. I liked MJ alright, but he was Lindsey and her older sister's favorite artist, and she was in high school. And she was a cheerleader. And she was blonde and really pretty. So loving MJ was more a desire to emulate the perfect high school life. My high school experience couldn't have been more different from her older sister, but we both loved Michael Jackson.

Her house was the best. She was the only kid at home for the most part. It was always clean, unlike the disaster zone that was out family's house.

I ate Ding Dongs and cheese-filled hot dogs and other totally awesome delicacies that were never in our fridge. Fruit roll-ups! Gushers!

One time, we walked to Albertsons and got a huge Malt-O-Meal bag of Lucky Charms and ate them all night and felt so awesome about ourselves.

I watched my first R-Rated movie there. Stand By Me. It felt so great.

Another time, we snuck out of her window in the middle of the night and walked to her community park and played on the swings. We just liked sneaking around, but we didn't really have anywhere to go. When we came back in through the window, her dad was sitting on her bed and I remember exactly what he said, "Have Wendy get her things, I'm taking her home." After I got home, I went into my parents room and said, "I'm back from Lindsey's, I didn't feel like staying over anymore." They were groggy and confused, but I didn't get in trouble the next day.

I think Lindsey had speed skates that she brought to Skate Country, she didn't have to rent the brown and orange ones. Am I making this up? I don't remember, but she was much better at skating than me. And becuase her sister had worked there, they would sometimes let her throw the huge fuzzy die in the middle of the rink when everyone was playing 4 corners.

Her mom would buy her Adidas shoes, not the fake ones.

And she liked WWF wrestling. I remember her telling me about The Undertaker and how he would put his competitors in body bags after he'd beat the crap out of them.

I basically had the coolest friend possible.

i try to keep my modestly foul mouth under wraps on this site because of the readers: parents, siblings, church friends, foreign dignitaries. but i would be remiss if i didnt' say that i was one bitchin seven year old.