It's kind of funny how certain milestones are overshadowed by even bigger life events. Earlier this year, my 30th birthday came and went with hardly a tear or second thought. Who could worry about such a huge event when there was something even bigger on the way?
Today, J and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary by consoling a very grumpy little baby, hanging out in the pediatrician's office for his two week checkup, and enjoying a quick (and very early) dinner at a restaurant downtown -- thanks to my Mom for babysitting and insisting that I not check my cell phone while on our date. We also stole a quiet moment as we passed in the bathroom this afternoon for a smooch and a hug. Oh, and my wedding band and engagement ring fit again. Bonus!
This year there weren't cards or gifts exchanged because quite honestly, we were both too exhausted to even put any thought into it. For a couple of hours it was nice to have a taste of our former lives, as we huddled together over small plates and delicious cocktails and people watched while sipping drinking chocolate for dessert. However, it was great to come home to our sleepy, chubby little boy. I couldn't imagine a much better anniversary gift.
After browsing online for ways to redeem our frequent flyer miles yesterday morning, I sent an email to Jesse at work hinting that maybe we should take the plunge and book a trip to Belgium and Germany. Luckily, Anna and I were out for most of the afternoon, so I was able to contain my excitement about the prospect of a trip until dinner time. Jesse got home a few minutes before me (enough time to decompress from the office) and I immediately started bubbling over with ideas. I thought he'd be a harder sell, since planning for a giant trip hardly seems like the prudent thing to do while the economy is totally in the shitter. However, he was on board -- maybe not as insanely excited as me, but pretty darn happy about the prospect of finally going on our honeymoon.
We discussed potential dates over a delicious bowl of vodka pasta and decided that anything less than a week in each country would be inadequate. This morning over coffee, I perused the airline website and before I knew it, we were looking over our calendars and settling on the exact dates. Then, click, click, click, we booked two round trip tickets to Belgium (leaving September 3rd and returning September 18th). The decision to just take a trip was impulsive, yes, but in reality we've been planning on this vacation for nearly two years (and when you have the opportunity to fly overseas practically for free, you kind of have to jump at the chance). Also, it will coincide with our second wedding anniversary and I can't think of a more awesome way to spend it!
After booking the tickets, we grabbed our bikes and rode straight down to the library to pick up some travel literature. There are so many guide books out there that it was hard for me to choose just one or two. I think after sampling several from the library I will have a better idea of which ones provide the kind of information on the kind of experience we want. Then, I'll narrow it down and purchase a couple for us to carry around.
Jesse also has a few books that he wants to purchase that deal solely with the highlight of this trip -- beer. I've already perused a couple of the Belgian guidebooks and picked out a few breweries and an abbey to tour and, of course, sample the fares. At this point, Germany is still a bit up in the air. We're having a hard time deciding whether to focus our time just on Munich and southern Germany (with a side trip to Austria), or to split our time equally in Munich and Berlin. I think as I read more the answer will probably be pretty easy.
I'm not exactly sure how I will even sleep for the next seven months anticipating this long awaited vacation, but somehow I'll have to manage!
Right about this time last year, I wrote my first posts on our future plans and my exciting first visit to Portland. One year later, we're here and settled. I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the past year and realized that Jesse and I have accomplished a lot! I sat and read through my blog archives this morning and realized that my posts in February last year looked a bit different than they do now. While work, moving boxes, and tape were the focus of my attention last spring, it seems that food and projects (whether for work or pleasure) have dominated my daily routine since my arrival in Portland.
My life has changed a lot since our move and I'm just now starting to feel comfortable with my contributions to our household. Monetarily, I am not contributing in the way I did in D.C., but I am cooking a lot more and we're eating a lot healthier than before. As a result, we feel better, and I've been able to pare down our budget considerably. Also, I realized that instead of obsessing over having a full-time job that I should enjoy my time off and volunteer, continue experimenting with food, and dream about fun things in the future.
So today, that's exactly what I'm doing -- dreaming of fun things in the future. I talked with my good friend, Lauren, on the phone last night. It was good to catch up with all of her news and mine, but it was also wonderful to hear her talk about the trip she is planning to Italy with her husband, Ken, this spring. They're flying into Milan and visiting northern Italy, hitting Venice and Florence along the way. It sounds divine and I can't wait to get all of the details about their travels. It made me think about that trip that Jesse and I have been planning since before our wedding (a trip that we hoped to take as our honeymoon). Since our love was founded on beer and grilled cheese at Toledo Lounge happy hours in the early days of graduate school, we decided that a beer tour of Europe would be the most awesome honeymoon ever. Belgium and Germany produce our favorite brews, so our itinerary is pretty much set -- one week in each country. Of course, life happened and our move to Portland was much more important than a trip overseas. Life is still a bit hectic now to think about a big trip, and neither of us really want to travel to Europe in the summer, so this fall seems like the soonest that we could even think of going anywhere.
However, that hasn't stopped me from doing research on the feasibility of a vacation in September. I checked online and found out that we have enough frequent flyer miles to book round trip tickets to either Brussels or Munich. Throughout our move, we have been very careful to not touch the travel fund that we saved before our wedding, so our two weeks in beer paradise would not really affect my iron-clad budget. This afternoon (after going on a fabric-hunting trip with Anna to make a roman shade for her baby's nursery) I am going to the library and parking myself in the travel section. I'll probably also make a pass through the stacks to see if I can scrounge up a few books for Jesse on Belgian ale.
I know, I know, it's a long shot, but a what's so wrong with a little daydreaming?
After browsing online for ways to redeem our frequent flyer miles yesterday morning, I sent an email to Jesse at work hinting that maybe we should take the plunge and book a trip to Belgium and Germany. Luckily, Anna and I were out for most of the afternoon, so I was able to contain my excitement about the prospect of a trip until dinner time. Jesse got home a few minutes before me (enough time to decompress from the office) and I immediately started bubbling over with ideas. I thought he'd be a harder sell, since planning for a giant trip hardly seems like the prudent thing to do while the economy is totally in the shitter. However, he was on board -- maybe not as insanely excited as me, but pretty darn happy about the prospect of finally going on our honeymoon.
We discussed potential dates over a delicious bowl of vodka pasta and decided that anything less than a week in each country would be inadequate. This morning over coffee, I perused the airline website and before I knew it, we were looking over our calendars and settling on the exact dates. Then, click, click, click, we booked two round trip tickets to Belgium (leaving September 3rd and returning September 18th). The decision to just take a trip was impulsive, yes, but in reality we've been planning on this vacation for nearly two years (and when you have the opportunity to fly overseas practically for free, you kind of have to jump at the chance). Also, it will coincide with our second wedding anniversary and I can't think of a more awesome way to spend it!
After booking the tickets, we grabbed our bikes and rode straight down to the library to pick up some travel literature. There are so many guide books out there that it was hard for me to choose just one or two. I think after sampling several from the library I will have a better idea of which ones provide the kind of information on the kind of experience we want. Then, I'll narrow it down and purchase a couple for us to carry around.
Jesse also has a few books that he wants to purchase that deal solely with the highlight of this trip -- beer. I've already perused a couple of the Belgian guidebooks and picked out a few breweries and an abbey to tour and, of course, sample the fares. At this point, Germany is still a bit up in the air. We're having a hard time deciding whether to focus our time just on Munich and southern Germany (with a side trip to Austria), or to split our time equally in Munich and Berlin. I think as I read more the answer will probably be pretty easy.
So today, that's exactly what I'm doing -- dreaming of fun things in the future. I talked with my good friend, Lauren, on the phone last night. It was good to catch up with all of her news and mine, but it was also wonderful to hear her talk about the trip she is planning to Italy with her husband, Ken, this spring. They're flying into Milan and visiting northern Italy, hitting Venice and Florence along the way. It sounds divine and I can't wait to get all of the details about their travels. It made me think about that trip that Jesse and I have been planning since before our wedding (a trip that we hoped to take as our honeymoon). Since our love was founded on beer and grilled cheese at Toledo Lounge happy hours in the early days of graduate school, we decided that a beer tour of Europe would be the most awesome honeymoon ever. Belgium and Germany produce our favorite brews, so our itinerary is pretty much set -- one week in each country. Of course, life happened and our move to Portland was much more important than a trip overseas. Life is still a bit hectic now to think about a big trip, and neither of us really want to travel to Europe in the summer, so this fall seems like the soonest that we could even think of going anywhere.
However, that hasn't stopped me from doing research on the feasibility of a vacation in September. I checked online and found out that we have enough frequent flyer miles to book round trip tickets to either Brussels or Munich. Throughout our move, we have been very careful to not touch the travel fund that we saved before our wedding, so our two weeks in beer paradise would not really affect my iron-clad budget. This afternoon (after going on a fabric-hunting trip with Anna to make a roman shade for her baby's nursery) I am going to the library and parking myself in the travel section. I'll probably also make a pass through the stacks to see if I can scrounge up a few books for Jesse on Belgian ale.
Our first date. This was the scrap of paper that Jesse tore from his City Paper in D.C. for me to jot down my phone number. We found it while unpacking some of Jesse's things before our move in August. "Froggy Bottom May 7th after turning in paper for Goodyear." He called about a week later and asked me out to dinner. We went to Pasta Mia. We saw each other every day for the rest of the summer. 
We spent many Wednesdays at Toledo Lounge in Washington, D.C. during our first summer as graduate students. $2 pints of beer whenever it rained. Luckily (for our thin wallets), it was a very wet summer. 
Our first Halloween was one of the best. I dressed as the Ice Queen and Jesse was Wolverine. He grew a beard to get those sideburns. (I filled in the patches with eye liner.) In preparation for the night, we gelled, and combed, and moussed each other's hair. It was quite an evening. 
This was our first case of roller fever. We were whisked back to our childhood when they played the Ghostbusters theme and dimmed the lights - recalling all the broken arms that were sustained by friends who were caught at the bottom of a roller skating pileup. Jesse loved skating so much that he developed a walnut-sized blister on the bottom of his foot.
There have been a lot of "firsts" over the past five and half years, but this one feels pretty darn amazing. Even though today's "first" will be rather low-key (given our still unpacked state), I couldn't think of a better place to celebrate - in our apartment, starting a new adventure in our new city. 
