I have a plant.

My husband can attest to my being a huuuuuge whiner about my sad, empty little pots, three of them to be exact, that have sat vacant for almost all of their existence. One of them we used for keys at our old apartment and one truly did have a plant in it for a brief moment in history, the other has had the loneliest job of never holding anything - not even our junk mail.

So when we made the move I was determined to use my lovely pots for plants and plants only. I sat them outside our door so they could make their home there and I resolved to put plants in them immediately. Well, it's been a while. I'm so ashamed when I come home and I see unidentifiable bugs and weird things growing inside their hollow shells. I KNOW this is dramatic, but I really do feel strongly about it.

This is the hang up, it's a fun fact about me if you don't know it already. I'm an all or nothing kind of girl. So if I'm going to have plants, I'm going to be the best plant keeper ever. I want to know about them and how to take care of them and know what they are called. That's a commitment, so every time I go somewhere with all these high hopes of purchasing three little plants, I back out. All the doubts flood in...I'm going to kill it, I have no clue what that even is or what kind of soil to put it in. I don't want to fail.


Chris and I did stumble upon this lovely little shop in Venice one day. We were there for the only reason we've ever gone to Venice and that of course is Intelligentsia coffee. (Side note: this was also the day that Barry Watson's kid ran in to me with a scooter, no lie, and Barry apologized to me and I was all "that's Matt from 7th heaven" in my head of course. I was way cooler out loud.) So back to the shop. There were beautiful succulents everywhere and a lady was in the back garden potting all of them and I all I wanted to do was talk with her and learn from her all day. She said I should come back with my pots next time and she'd fill them with me. Yes please. Well I can't excuse driving all the way to Venice just for that, so I'll have to get Chris all drool-y and talk about going to get a latte. Yes. That is precisely what I should do.

So even though I hesitate, I don't commit to being a plant person while I am a pot owner and have been for years (that sounds funny right?) I still whine to my husband allll the time about my empty pots and how I need to go get plants. I linger when we are at stores that have them and it rustles up all my emotions on the subject.  Chris is the strongest man alive, I'm a disaster most of the time and he just smiles, laughs, and loves me. Chris is also the most thoughtful person and he knows how to love me in my love language, which is gifts. Love giving them, love receiving them. Partially because I looooove surprises and a gift is almost always a surprise.

The day just so happened to be valentine's day but knowing my husband he would've done this for me any day. I got home from work not expecting much because we said no gifts and that we were just going to eat a nice dinner at home. Well, he already broke the gifts one because he bought me Hunger Games. Booooya. I was so happy. So I reeeeally wasn't expecting anything more. But I open the door and this sweet man had a potted plant sitting on the counter for me. Not just any plant but a beautiful orchid, my most favorite of favorites. I loved her instantly. Then I freaked out because I'm scared to kill her. BUT I've got a plant. And there's no turning back.

Note the card. This cutie patootie of a man sent me on a scavenger hunt around our apartment laying out the evenings menu which was all of my favorite things. This I will now brag about via a million pictures.

 

Welcome back Saturday.

If I'm being real, which I am, I will let you in on a fact about Chris and I's life since we have lived in California. Saturday sucks. Big time. This is partially due to the fact that Chris is a full-time seminary student and Saturday is a homework day. It always ended up that way because Chris works part-time, wish he didn't have to, but he does. While Chris was on break we could at least enjoy the morning/afternoon together but ever since we have moved here he has worked every Saturday from 4ish until almost 1 in the morning. And again, I'm being real, I don't really have a lot of friends so I've spent...oh probably two Saturdays actually doing something other than shuffling through crappy movies on Netflix.

Thus...Saturday suuucked.

A couple weeks ago we mourned as we realized we would go back to the Saturday schedule where Chris does homework all day and then works all night. While I stare at him for hours or clean every inch of our apartment. And then God was awesome. He gave Chris a new, perfect, wonderful job at Biola and YES he doesn't work Saturday anymore. So today we celebrated.

Let me introduce you to two of the best things about Orange County.
1. Bear Flag Fish Company
2. The OC Mart Mix

First things first, Bear Flag. You have all caught the picture that we are major foodies. But what I have yet to expose on this blog is my favorite of all favorites...and that is sushi. Sometimes people hesitate when asked "what's your favorite food". Not me. I will answer the question before you even finish because I am confident in my selection. Nothing makes me salivate more than a plate full of raw tuna. Bear Flag was a brief walk from the condo we lived in at Lido and let's just say it's good for the wallet that there is a bit of distance between us now. This place is so good I think every time I have been there has been a line out the door. It's also one of those places where I feel like I've walked on to the set of The Hills or one of those "reality" shows about Orange County. Every one looks famous and or like they spend every dime they have on their clothes. And if you aren't wearing Ray Ban you might as well just get out. I hope you're getting the picture here. Normally that might deter me but the Poke bowl at this place (what you see so magnificently to the left) is so life changing I actually am beginning to fear the day we move away from it. I know, that's big.

Let's move on to the second portion of our favorite things day. That would be the Mix, one of our most favorite places to hang out. And there are many reasons.
1. Amazing coffee...Portola Coffee Lab is there, contender with Intelligentsia but there's still a little more affection for Intelly at this point.
2. The best cookie YOU. WILL. EVER. EAT. I'm not joking. Christopher Garrens' Let them eat cake. All the pastries and cookies are half off an hour before they close. Yes we know too much.
3. Fooooood trucks. North Carolinians you have no clue what I'm talking about. If you think of the food trucks in NC, get that out of your mind because it's opposite.
4. Adorable baby clothes. Random I know. It's not just the baby stuff. There are some incredible shops all throughout the mix.
5. Grade A people watching. Again this is a place that is stereotypical California at it's best. Lots to giggle at.

Today we just focused on the coffee part since we already had our fill of Poke. And let me just rewind a second to tell you how much Poke means to us. I didn't finish mine. Which is alarming. But we still wanted to hang out at the Mix for a few hours. So we went to two different gas stations to find ice so we could keep my leftover poki but not have to miss out on the mix by taking it home. It's kind of silly but there were no regrets.

Bottom line. Saturday is redeemed. Even if I'm still mostly staring at him doing homework, which is what sort of happened today. And I was awesome and filled out his planner with his course work because I'm wife of the year.

Now I will leave you with some really cute pictures of my model husband. He's going to appreciate this. Perhaps even hack in to my blog and delete this part. I'll just change my password. 

I hope you're not hungry.

Seriously, if you are hungry you need to take a moment to get a snack because I am about to throw down some stuff that's going to make you salivate if you even remotely appreciate pork.

Ok. If you are ready now we can proceed. Chris and I try and mix things up every now and again by throwing some completely new recipes in to our routine. Sometimes we fail, mostly we succeed. This week we had an especially successful discovery and we have the Pioneer Woman to thank yet again. We would be lost without you lady, I don't even know her real name which I'm just now realizing is a little sad. Chris purchased a pork shoulder and we threw around a couple options and landed on one we were both a little nervous about beeecause...it has freakin Dr. Pepper in it. Whaaat? Gross. I know. But it was so far from gross I can't even convince you enough without shoving a fork-full in your mouth (and we do have some leftover so if you live in Southern California and or would like to come visit us in the next day there may still be some left).

Chris and I especially love a meal that lasts us for many days and my goodness did it. After we ate it for the first time it honestly looked like we hadn't touched it. Pioneer Woman is a far superior blogger (clearly because it's how she made her career) so I'll just let her describe the recipe in all her witty ways. Mmmmm pork. Click on the word pork :) this is where you will need the snack to prevent the grumblings.

Now back to our humble kitchen. Check out what we did.

The credit really goes to Chris on the amazing tacos, but my big moment came the next night when I whipped out these bad boys. 

You're probably thinking, "what in the world are those, they don't look that exciting?" Well they are and true credit goes to my dearest roommate, Jamie. You wouldn't know it when you look at her long blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin but this girl was born and raised and IS South American. And I am soooo thankful because she exposed me to some crazy good food. My favorite of which were arepas. And if Jamie is reading this blog she probably is laughing out loud as she recalls the way I say arepas, because I say it wrong and in a very white, non-hispanic way. Seriously though if Masa is not in your life, get it there, fry it up and shove some pork in it because oh.my.gosh it's incredible. 

I don't think I'll drag the pork thing out any further. Even though I could. I will leave you with this comfort food deliciousness that is our other most recent success. If you are a RealSimple subscriber all I have to say is that last months issue came when Chris and I were very, veerrry hungry. We had just flown across the US from Jen's wedding and we got our mail and the most beautiful picture of chicken pot pie was there on the cover torturing us at 11pm. 

Here's our version. 

Now it doesn't look like much but if only you could have some kind of tasting option via internet...that's kind of a weird suggestion but I just want everyone to understand how yummy it is! It's not your classic pot pie (which I still love) It's a little lighter, and then the bready goodness on the left is puff pastry in all it's flaky, warm heavenliness which was so great with the less creamy pot pie. Ok seriously, I could keep going but I'm going to stop. I don't have an accessible version of this recipe but it's in last month's RealSimple and it's worth tracking down. Or if you feel passionately about it, because I do, I can write out the recipe :) 

See I told you, snacks are necessary. I'm going to go eat a brownie. 

You need to see this.

So I was trying to put together this elaborate word picture so you all could get a grasp of the romantic, beautiful day that was Rob and Jenny's wedding. And it was hard because it was too magical to put in words. And I know you can all affirm that indeed my camera does suck because the pictures on my last post were dreadful and I did't even want to put them up because they did no justice to the day.

Good news. Jule I say again is a crazy incredible photographer. And thank goodness, her blog post is up. So now I will direct you to it so you can ignore my previous post where I try and explain what happened. Now you can just look HERE. Get pumped.

Something worth writing about.

Epic Fail. I didn't want to become a blogger because I didn't want to become that person who blogs three times and is never to be heard of again. I wrote exactly three times...and then it was 3-ish months later. Crap.

My issue is I begin a blog and then erase it because I think, this is not worth reading. However, something amazing just happened so I'm going to blog about that.

My big sister, one of the most beautiful examples of what a woman is and should be in my life, got married. WOOT WOOT. And I knew it was going to be awesome but it ended up being breathtaking. Somehow Jenny transformed a beautiful, old church in to a magical world of candlelit romance. Seriously, as soon as we got there on the wedding day with her team of girls running around setting up, I just wanted to grab my man and kiss him because I had just entered in to a romance novel in my mind.
She picked out maybe the most perfect music on the planet which made me cry...and I say again I'm not a cry-er so kudos to Jen. It may have been a mixture of the music plus watching my best friend in her beautiful (I mean ridiculously beautiful) wedding dress walking towards this man who was going to become my family in a moment.

AND THEN. Libby the wonder woman of all that is decorating transformed Cobblestone Hall in to this vintage, shic, every girl in the room was coveting - land. I wanted to have a wedding all over. I'm sure most of the already married girls reading this can relate. I loved my own wedding but every time I go to a wedding I just want a do-over because there are so many things you wish you did. Don't even get me started on how bitter I am that pinterest wasn't a thing until after I got married. Every girl from now on has no excuse because that site is a goldmine, GOLDMINE. I wish I could just post a million pictures of this wedding and stop talking about it but my camera sucks like you wouldn't believe so I have only poor representations of the beauty. You can stalk Juliefaith.com for pictures, she's only one of the greatest photographers I know :)

This is a very blogged about wedding already but I had to put in my two cents because I was inspired all over to be a blogger when I was home. Probably because I miss it so bad and it's a small way for me to feel like I'm still connecting with all of you back in the good old NC. I had this moment of panic when Jen was leaving, like I was losing her because I had to say goodbye without knowing when we would say hello again. I know...sappy sad, I'm turning in to some foreign version of myself. Distance has never affected me this strongly before. There is something so hard about being in really new eras of life, marriage and babies and new family, and being so so far away. We feel like we are missing everything.

So this is a request for everyone in my life to blog about everyday, hour by hour, so we don't feel left out. I mean...that's a joke, but if you want to I'm really supportive of that idea and I can guarantee you I won't do the same. Three months since the last blog. It's just kind of embarrassing. To all of you really good bloggers out there who have this "aww good for them" sense with those of us who suck at it, I work full-time and I don't like being on the internet for long periods of time because I can actually feel my brain starting to hurt. But I will try at this. Because I do really think it is awesome and covet everyone that has more than 10 followers and somehow got ADs (seriously how do you get ads? that's crazy!?) We can all thank the beautiful day of January 22, 2012 for inspring my return.

Plus Chris and I have been cooking up some yummy-ness recently that needs to be shown off, and I WHILL. (if you caught the Hot Rod reference you can just let me know because Chris and I would like to be your new best friend)