California Love

 Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Patrick and I have officially been residents of California for over a week now and we wanted to share with you our journey so far.

About a week and a half ago Thursday, we left at 4am. Earlier in the week we said goodbye to our families and friends. To my credit, I only cried twice. Once on the car ride home from seeing Elise and twice when I had to say goodbye to my nephews. I mean, I cried other times that week (I am a human), but only those times in front of people. Also, I really held it together the morning we left my parents' house. But I attribute that to the fact that it was 4am.

Anyway, we packed up the car Wednesday night and we were packed TO THE GILLS, people. We had a S-Cargo carrier on top of the car that was full (and questionably attached to the top of the car by Patrick, Lee, and my dad). And the back portion of my car had literally no space and, one time, a muffin tin fell on Memphis.

So Thursday morning, I slept through most of Iowa. Patrick was a real trooper and did that leg pretty much on his own. Well, he drove the whole thing, but that part was without my moral support. I woke up for the tail end of Iowa and then the front part of Nebraska.

Now. No disrespect to Nebraska, everyone, but it is, like, the WORST state to drive through. And we didn't drive through part of it. We drove straight through the exact middle, which takes about 8 hours. And it's 8 hours of flatness. And 8 hours of being unsure when we'd find the next gas station (although that was Nevada too).

So I fell asleep in the afternoon of Thursday too. I pretty much sucked as a driving buddy on Thursday.   We got to Laramie, Wyoming (yes, like Fort Laramie from the Oregon Trail!) around 7:30 the first night. But it was 8:30 for us because we were then in Mountain Time, so we went back in time. So Patrick drove 16 and a half hours.

When we woke up Friday morning (at 6:30am), we found that it had, like, iced/snowed overnight.

And because we figured we were going to California, we didn't pack our ice scrapers. And the gas station didn't have any in stock yet. But they did have this random ice spray? And that helped. But that Friday morning drive was just a little treacherous. I stayed awake as moral support for Patrick that morning until I deemed it safe enough to take a nap. But then I only napped for like a half hour. I promise I'm not the worst wife ever!

Also, at this point, I should mention little Memphis poochie puppy, who was the real trooper. Poor boy is a very active doggy by nature and I think this trip was pure torture to him. But he mostly slept and laid. At first he wasn't really drinking any water either (we think because he was unsure of when rest stops would be), but then we tricked him by giving him ice. For those of you who don't know, our dog treats ice like treats. It was like Christmas for Memphis on parts of this trip.

                  

Anyway, After Wyoming came Utah, which was probably the prettiest state we drove through.

Also, it was downright enjoyable because we were in Utah for about 4 hours.

 Then came Nevada. And Nevada was okay, but it was also very long. It was cool around Reno, though.

And finally, Friday night, we made it into California! We stayed an hour outside of San Mateo since we couldn't get our keys until 9am anyway. So that night, we stayed in Vacaville (which in spanish means "cowville"...fitting for us Wisconsinites!). We got in at 8pm that night, but again, we had gone back in time (official Pacific timers now!), so Patrick drove 14 hours that day. I am a lucky, lucky gal! To show my appreciation (and because I wanted some), I introduced Patrick to In 'n Out burger.

He approved.

Saturday morning, we drove across the Bay Bridge into the city! And it was a beautiful day and it was kind of surreal that this is going to be our stomping grounds for the next few years!

We couldn't believe we made it and that the S-Cargo actually stayed on the whole trip! Like, seriously guys, there was duct tape and random things tied and zip ties and the thing made weird noises the whole time.

We got our keys and all the boxes arrived so we set to work unpacking!

With the priority being (obviously) the kitchen, I set my goal to get most of it unpacked Saturday night. I did pretty well Saturday. So well, that we got our first grocery shop Saturday night. This is where we learned our first California rule: Bring your own bags to the grocery store.

Now. We usually have our own bags anyway. But we JUST got here and the bagging boy looked at us like we grew up under a rock. I mean we had to buy EVERYTHING at the grocery store because so much couldn't be packed. So this was a fairly large grocery shop. So you get charged 10 cents per bag and there is NO plastic bags at all. Very environmentally friendly. But one, even if our reusable bags came out here with us, there's no way they got unpacked that day. And two, I actually use plastic grocery bags for the gigantic Memphis excrement that usually doesn't fit in those small dog bags you find at parks.

ANYway. The guy looks at us like we are cavepeople "Didn't you know that?" he asks. "No," Patrick says, "We just moved here today from Wisconsin where we give people bags for free". The checkout girl then gave us all of our bags for free and told us not to worry about it. But I've been again and I can tell you I have brought my bags each time to avoid ridicule. Lesson learned.

That night, we ate Chinese food in style. My sister Erin started me on this tradition, but I wholeheartedly embrace it. The first night in a new place, one should eat Chinese food out of the container. We also drank some champagne my parents' friends gave us.

The rest of the week, I unpacked and organized our new little living situation. Here's a small picture. Mind you, those will not be the chairs for that area (those are chairs for the table). We need new chairs. But you get the idea. And! We have a fireplace!

Monday, Patrick had his first day at Google. So he set out to work in his new gear:

What a handsome guy! And, in between unpacking and organizing, I have since set to applying for jobs and getting my RN license transferred. Definitely the "not fun" part of this whole thing. 

This weekend, though, we did a little exploring. Friday night, we went into Downtown San Mateo (it's a small quaint downtown. I like it) and had dinner and saw Bad Grandpa (so funny and so disgusting). 

Saturday we hit up a pumpkin patch in Fremont

And Saturday night we took the Caltrain into the city and had dinner at a restaurant called Town Hall. And it was so so delicious. I forgot my phone otherwise I'd have pictures. They had really great Old Fashioneds (holy grail to Wisconsinites) But the best part was dessert! We had pumpkin bread pudding with an almond brittle on top. Oh my gosh, we ate the whole thing. I can't even describe how delicious it was. It was cinnamon-y and pumpkin-y and gooey and crunchy. It was Fall dancing on my taste buds.  I'm definitely going to experiment for Thanksgiving!

So that has been our first week or so out here in the Golden State! Now that we're unpacked and everything, I'll be cooking again and can share some more fun healthy recipes! While I'm definitely not going to be as strict diet-wise, I want to work out regularly and eat well. I found that it was pretty easy to do so, so might as well stay on track! Plus. The holidays are coming up and it's way more fun to hog out when you've been working hard up until then.

Hope everyone else has a great week! We miss everyone so so much! Especially these little guys:

Mr. and Mrs!

Hey, everyone!

Well. We did it! We tied the knot! And the evening was so wonderful (if not a little bit wet) and I wish that we could relieve October 4th-13th forever and ever.

The week before was just a touch rough. But honestly not too bad. I had heard wedding week horror stories, but I think Patrick and I prepared ourselves pretty well. We had some last minute things to do. And we had one kinda big fight. And I ate vanilla wafers with Nutella on them once.

My mother and father are dears and helped me with some last minute DIY things...

And then Patrick's mom Beth helped me stamp everyone's place card with little winecup and grape stamps. And then my mom and I went to Victoria's to tie green raffia around about 400 napkins.

And then it was finally Friday night and our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner was great and we got to see a few people the night before and talk and laugh about the fact that the date was just HERE now! We'd been waiting so long and then it just showed up!

I didn't sleep a wink Friday night. I take that back. I think I slept somewhere between the hours of 5:00am and 7:30am because I had a strange dream in which the brakes of my car didn't work and I backed into a woman's car in a grocery store parking lot. Weird.

At 8:00 all the ladies got their hairs done and a few got makeup and before I knew it, it was 11:15 and I was heading to the church with my sisters. I had a very Old Hollywood Glam looking going for the wedding which was fun and I had a fun birdcage veil that I wore....and it drove. me. so. nuts during the ceremony that I took it off immediately afterwards. But I had a very complete "look" during the ceremony.

And then during the ceremony I cried. But so did Patrick. So it's okay. But it was really beautiful and wonderful and I would do it all over again and in the exact same way.

Afterwards we took pictures in the 3rd Ward with our awesome photographer and then we made our way to the Edelweiss boats to have some fun on the river. It was then that the Heavens decided to open up and DOWNPOUR just as we were making our way onto the boats. They say it's good luck/means many blessings to have rain on your wedding day. If that's the case, we will be just fine for life because it was like sheets of rain for about 20 minutes. Everyone (well. Everyone except me because I think I had two umbrellas and about 5 people holding up my dress...) got soaked to the bone.

But after all that downpour, it was actually a beautiful day. Then we went to the Marcus Center for Performing Arts and ate a little bit of food (it's true what they say. The bride and groom don't eat a whole lot) and got to talk to all of our fabulous and wonderful guests who braved the weather to be with us. We were just so thankful everyone came and we had such a great time!

Saturday night, we stayed in our honeymoon suite about 5 hours. We got up at 5:30 am to get to the airport to fly to Jamaica at 7:40. We hit Montego Bay right around 4 pm and the trip was so awesome. We literally laid on the beach and ate and drank to our little hearts' content. And the honeymoon is why brides torture themselves and it makes it all worth it!

We drank champagne almost every night, ate appetizers with almost every meal, and usually had dessert as well. Not gonna lie, I felt like a beached whale by the end of the week in my swimsuit, but I really didn't care all that much. I felt like all my hard work and dieting paid off because I felt great. 

Our last night, Patrick surprised me with dinner on the beach which was really romantic and fun 

And then Sunday morning we left. I highly highly recommend an all-inclusive resort and I highly highly recommend Jamaica. Everyone was incredibly nice and kind to us and we just had a blast! We were pretty sad to leave paradise, but also excited for everything we have to look forward to! 

Now it's our last week in Wisconsin and I'm packing up the car with the last of the wedding gifts and mapping our 31-hour drive to San Mateo. 

We'll keep you posted with our lives in The Golden State and we're pretty sure we won't find the cows to be happier ;) 

So We've Got Big News...

Hey everyone! We've got huge news!

No, we're not pregnant....

We're moving to California! Some of our friends and family know this already, but we couldn't tell everyone until Patrick made things official at work. So now we can tell everyone that as of October 17th, we will be moving West! Patrick accepted a position at Google (I'm so proud of him!) and we will be living in San Mateo, about a half hour outside of San Francisco, which is just so exciting because I LOVE San Francisco.

We found our place Labor Day weekend when we took a little house-hunting trip. Don't worry, little Memphis poochie dog is coming and he's pretty excited to become a California hippy/surf dog. Most of you who know him, he already has the right mindset....

Needless to say, this has added just a LITTLE stress before the wedding. Patrick's place gets packed up tomorrow and Tuesday and he has to be out by Wednesday. And, if I want my stuff packed too, then my stuff needs to be AT his place. This also means I need to be packed for about 3 weeks of life (and life before a wedding) and then also be packed for the honeymoon about 2 weeks before I'm going to go on it. So. All of this is a lot fun. And only a touch stressful.

 Like today, I found myself on the ground of Patrick's wondering where my WEDDING SHOES were. As in the shoes I will walk down the aisle in. And as tears rolled down my face, I started to freak out (and not quietly).

Then I remembered I wore them for my dress fitting two weeks ago and, trying to be so smart, I kept them in my car so they would never be in a place of being packed up. SO SMART.

And then there's making sure passports, our marriage license, and other odds and ends we need to get married are in the right place of NOT going to California on Tuesday. So, if you encounter me in the next few days, I might be a touch frazzled.

Once it's all said and done, though, we're going to miss everyone SO SO much, but we're ecstatic to embark on this adventure together.

We'll be sure to keep you informed of these last few days leading up to the wedding and let you know how it goes out in Californ-I-A! Wish us luck!

Waiting to Say I Do: Tying up Loose Ends

Hey guys! We are getting so close to the wedding, it's crazy! Next week is the week before our wedding! Scary.

This week has been a little crazy as we try to tie up loose ends, finish up everything, and get everyone on the same page. Oh, also I've been fighting, like, a three week long bought of bronchitis. No joke, it just won't go away. I have a feeling it just might be from being a touch stressed, but I'm not sure.

Needless to say, the workouts have been rough and a little half-assed. But I still do them, and that's gotta count for something, right?

Anyway. This week, we worked on our church programs, something I never ever would have thought would take so much effort. But it does. They're expensive if you have someone else make them, so I took on the challenge. And was pleasantly surprised with the results. Then my sister Erin and I tirelessly tied them together with tiny little ribbons. There might be some parts missing, but overall I think they're cute and I'm proud of my sister and myself.

I also worked on some finishing touches for the centerpieces which involved wine bottles, lots of hot water, and Goo Gone. I'm very excited for them and I can't wait to see how the whole look turns out! This week, we also got our final headcount and tracked down the last of the RSVPs.

This weekend, Patrick goes on his bachelor party. I think the stories will be interesting and I'm...intrigued to hear about them when he gets back! I know he's going to have a blast.

Next week, I have my last days at work and then I am the best man in my friend Brad's wedding! So excited for him and his wife, and we're excited to have a very fun last horrah!

Waiting To Say I Do: One Month To Go!

So it's been a long time since we've posted again, but I think these last two months before the wedding have been like a whirlwind! It feels like just yesterday it was July and I could put some things for the wedding off until "next week".

Well. Now the wedding practically IS next week!

The invitations are out and the RSVPs are rolllllling in. We've been pretty lucky so far in that we haven't had to hunt too many people down! And one was a mailing error. So there's that. Otherwise, all the little ducks are falling in a row (so far).

I do feel like, at any given moment, there is something wedding-related on my mind. So I constantly apologize to all my friends and sisters for becoming "that bride" who can only talk about her wedding...sigh. But from finalizing when we can get in to set up our reception to picking out the EXACT right entrance song to deciding how we will indicate on place cards who has chicken or steak, there are a million little decisions that, like I said, we cannot put off anymore. Good thing they're all pretty fun decisions and I'm getting better and being a person who makes decisions.

This past week, Patrick and I were able to take a few breaks. We went to Mumford and Sons with a couple of friends, which was soooo great! We really just had a blast and the music was phenomenal! It kind of felt like a close to the summer.

Later in the week, I had my dress fitting, and I have to say friends, all this working out and no carbs made me so, so happy at my dress fitting. Did I feel uber skinny like I've always wanted to? Nope. But I feel really tight and lean...and pretty fantastic. I can't wait to wear the dress again!

However. I am not allowed to lose anymore weight as the seamstress shot me a look of death saying, "now you're all done with this dieting business, RIGHT?"

Trust me,  it's not hard for me to NOT lose weight as I'd been doing that for some time before all this. I just figure I'll keep doing what I'm doing, seeing as I haven't dropped a ton of weight.

But, oh my gosh, what if I become someone who just "can't keep weight on"? I will die laughing at myself.

I continue to work out 6 days a week mixing it up with Spin class, P90X, Jillian Michaels, and running. This past week I have also included a 30 day squat challenge and 30 day abs to my repertoire because, now, we're in crunch time (get it?!). I mean, the bathing suit I have to squeeze into in the middle of fall is just as important as the wedding dress, am I right? And as I'm doing the squats that suck so bad, I think of all the frozen, calorie-laden umbrella drinks I'm going to drink in Jamaica. 

Finally, this weekend, we had a wedding for our dear friends in Ohio. It was so fun and also surreal being at a wedding knowing we're going to be doing the same thing so soon! The bride looked beautiful and the groom so handsome. The whole day was just full of love and was just such a special day. 

Also, the bride faked a garter toss and threw the groom an Aaron Rodgers signed football! Nothing wrong with that! Go Pack Go! 

Hope everyone has a great week! Look at this great white dog! 

Get it right, Get it tight!

Happy Monday to everyone!

Patrick and I are at the point of our wedding planning where there is never an idle moment. There's always a thank you note to write (gotta get those out before they pile up, that's for sure!), a check to write (definitely less fun to write than thank you notes), or something to check up on. To be sure, we are in NO way complaining, these are #firstworldproblems.

Last week, we got our invitations out, settled on our ceremony, and we got to try some food for our rehearsal dinner, which was super fun! I gazed longily at Patrick and his mother's glasses of wine and sipped happily on my water while we talked logistics.

Afterwards, we walked over to the PAC to check out where the reception will take place in SO SOON. Officially? 54 days. But who's counting.  Can you tell I'm getting just so excited. I am.

Friday, I got to meet up with my mom and Victoria and talk about the rest of the decorations for the reception. Again, all this talk gets me super super excited. I wish we were getting married NEXT WEEK! I did treat myself to a glass of wine over lunch as Friday was my cheat day. I can't pass up anything Victoria makes, so I feel like I planned cheat day well this week. She made a beautiful salad with cantaloupe and avocado and some crab crakes. Yum.

So all this stuff is super fun stuff and stuff I really like doing! The only thing that gets hard is doing all of this AND finding time 6 days a week to work out. So far, I have been quite successful in this endeavor...but it's been sooooo difficult. To those who do this on a regular basis, I definitely salute you.

As I've told you all, we've been trying to mix it up a bit, dabbling in a few different things. This past week, we did P90X a few days. Well Patrick did it with me on Friday, I did it on my own Monday. Tony Horton said some really weird stuff to us as we sweat into Patrick's living room carpet and Memphis looked at us like we're crazy people. It was awesome. The thing about P90X is that I can definitely feel a difference in how things fit even though I haven't seen much change on the scales.

We have also totally fell in love with our Wednesday night Spin class at the WAC. We've had one cameo appearance of Gregger one night as well. We get all fat-kid sweaty (I am allowed to say that as a former fat child) and our legs are all shaky after we finish. I have to tell you, it might sound weird, but a shower after Spin class is, like, the best feeling. You've sweat so much junk out of you and then you get all clean. I'm thinking of trying a STEAM sometime! But I'm not sure, because I don't do well just sitting in hot weather. We'll see.

And then we keep up with our running routine. However, sad news, we are no longer doing the Lake Country Half Marathon. We've had a couple of things come up (more on that later) where it's going to be too much that weekend. Which is kind of nice because some of our running days, we really only have 30 minutes.

BUT this weekend, we did the Color Run which was SO FUN! I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to try out a fun 5k. This one is totally chill and you get splashed with color along the way and you look like a rainbow warrior at the end. The only beef I would have would be if you're trying to get a semi-workout out of the Color Run, get to the start line early so you don't have quite so many walkers to dodge. Nothing wrong at all with walking a 5k, but it does get hard to bob and weave the huge crowds. And it was a HUGE crowd. The run was definitely sold out, and I think there was something like 13,000 people or something.

So all that is well and good and fun and working out feels great. We hope we can keep up the good work!

We're BAAAAAAAACK!

Hello, everyone!

We apologize for our very long time away from our blog. Very long. The truth is, we get VERY bogged down in wedding preparations and have been incredibly busy!

A quick update on what we're doing! Fitness and health-wise, we've embarked on a "no-white-carbs-no-white-sugar" adventure. We get one cheat day a week (we're not SO crazy!) while working out for AT LEAST 30 minutes 6 days a week.

The working out has been the difficult part, BUT we've discovered some new things to keep us happy. We did a bootcamp last Tuesday and a Spin class last Wednesday with intentions of going back for BOTH this week! We've also been lent some P90X videos, so we have been trying those out as well. We're also still running a few days a week.

 I'm not sure if it's okay to not do the P90X workouts in order, but I can tell you that they're difficult and I enjoy them immensely. For those of you who are familiar with P90X and Tony Horton...you know what I'm talking about with his oddball personality that I somehow really enjoy.

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you know that the carb thing hasn't been a huge issue. We've had stuffed peppers, stuffed chicken, lettuce tacos and many sweet potatoes. So far, I've found that I have a lot more energy and while I haven't seen a huge weight loss yet, I feel...firm and tight.

The last thing we'll update you on is the fact we won't be weighing in on the blog anymore. Patrick and I discussed it and, if I'm so honest (which I am), it was reallllllly stressing me out. And making this not fun. So! Be ready for our blog to come back in a different way!

We'll be sure to post some of our workouts and meals these next coming weeks! The countdown is officially ON for the wedding!! We've been putting the final touches on everything and are excited for the big day! 67 days to go!