Unwind Time

The first phase of the holidays are over and it went over wonderfully! The Santa Clara invasion went over quite smoothly, everyone getting along and feeling much fuller after all the food, desserts, snacks and home-brewed beer that we offered. It was actually one of the best holidays that I've had in a long time spending so much time with my parents, grandparents and really getting to know my future in laws. Having a close knit family really reminded me of what giving thanks was all about.

It's that time for family and some stress...

I am not a fan of the big Thanksgiving. I love the gathering of the family and friends but was never a fan of the food. Turkey? Boo on that. Cranberries? No thanks. Sweet potato yams? Marshmallows destroying yams delicious flavors. Pumpkin pie? The only good thing. Oh, and fresh biscuits. Since this is the first year that I am hosting Thanksgiving, I am putting my foot down and changing up the menu.

Fresh vegetable lasagna with homemade pasta sauce. Roasted green beans with toasted almonds. Homemade garlic bread. Garlic cloves baked in the oven to accompany the appetizer of fresh Dutch cheese and bread. Fresh Italian salad. Finish everything off with desserts of homemade apple pie and cheesecake brownies. Yup, that's my menu for this Thanksgiving and I can't wait to start cooking everything early Thursday morning.

Hosting the first Thanksgiving is a little stressful. I'm not stressed for the cooking part. I'm more stressed on the...gulp...two families meeting each other! Marijn's parents is flying in from the Netherlands for ten days. My parents are driving up from Los Angeles. My grandparents are driving up from Arizona. And my lovely sister is staying in Los Angeles, she knew that it was smarter to let me enjoy this all on my own.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm really excited about seeing my family and my (future) in-laws but it's natural to also feel a little stressed. The two set of parents are meeting each other the first time which is great, except for the small detail of the language barrier. The (future) mother-in-law's English is limited. My mother can also be shy on her English and will speak Vietnamese. Of course, my Dutch is super limited and my Vietnamese is pretty Americanized. So these three languages in my home will be a little overwhelming. I'm thinking of only speaking Spanish during Thanksgiving so then there will really be four languages floating throughout our home!

All in all, I'm really excited about this Thanksgiving, it meant a lot to Marijn and I to have our families meet each other before the wedding. It takes a huge load off the stress parts of the wedding. Although I'm not even feeling any of the "stress" or "bridezillaness" that comes with wedding planning (yet), especially since we've successfully crossed off a lot from our daunting to-do list.

We've booked our wedding location, we've found a wonderful husband and wife photography team, I found my dress (heehee, there is no way I'm linking to my dress!), my super talented Aunt is hand making my jewelry, the wedding party has been assembled, our website is almost ready for launching, our friend has offered his graphic design services for our printing needs, we've picked out the invites and another friend is taking the challenge of marrying us off!

So all the big items are off the list and it's now down to the little itty-bitty parts of the wedding. Like taking an evening floral arranging class so I can see if I can do my own flowers and seeing if I can actually bake enough cupcakes so we can have that be homemade (still not sure about that challenge, that's a lot of work just before the wedding but it just might be possible).

Anyway, it's going to be a wild ride for the next couple of days (and months to come) but it's something that excites me but with a sprinkle of stress. So on that note, whatever your adventures are for this Thanksgiving, have a good one!

Scuba Diving Bonding

One of my new favorite things to do is scuba diving. If I had the time and the luxury to do it more often, I most certainly would. However what makes the scuba diving more enjoyable and special is that it has become a father/daughter bonding adventure.

Mai and Dad have their motorcycles so they get to go riding every weekend. My mom even joins them, they are the cutest motorcycling riding family. There is a little twinge of jealousy since I am unable to join them in these adventures. But now that I have scuba diving (and Mai doesn't enjoy it), it's become the perfect father/daughter adventure.

This past weekend, as a birthday gift from dad, he took me on a dive trip to Catalina. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning and trekked our way to the harbor. I am the worst morning person but watching the sun rise over the harbor is magnificent and makes the early wake up call worth it.

• long beach harbor, 6 am•

Although I have about thirty dives since becoming certified last year in Thailand, I still get nervous on the boat ride over. Maybe it's because I try to stay focused on not getting seasick or the worry that I will forget some crucial step with all the gear, like turning the air on.

• i always have that look of uncertainty at the boat's edge•

But once I descend into the clear blue water, I become a happy diver (one who will sing either the Jaws theme song or the Little Mermaid's "Under the Sea" happily in my head since I can't really sing underwater).

• so blue and perfect while i swim with the fishies•

On this trip, Dad didn't bring his spear gun so he didn't do any fishing (which I'm happy about, it's something I don't like to watch). Instead, he was the underwater photographer who kept trying to get me to do things for that cool shot. Do you know how hard it is to communicate when you're underwater?! It's very difficult and charades come in handy.

• dad kept flailing his arms, still not sure what he wanted
me to do but the photo came out nicely •

• garibaldi fishes are my favorite because they aren't shy•

Every once in awhile, Dad let's me snag the camera away from him so I can play. It a huge challenge trying to take photos under water, it takes a lot of practice and patience.

• i love that little fish to the side, checking my dad out•

Our underwater adventures are a lot of fun and I need to do them more often! But the water will soon becoming a tad cold for it.


• dad capturing me swimming with the sardines•

Beginning of Fall

It's my favorite time of year! Beginning of fall, fresh Oktoberfest beer, my "getting older and loving it" day and Halloween! It's all wrapped up nicely for me in the cozy month of October!

I have many recurring dreams. Especially of zombies. I have zombie dreams of me being a kick-ass woman fighting them. Or using my mad skills of trying to find unique places to hide from the apocalypse of the zombies. And I actually don't mind them. I'm so used to the silly recurring dreams (about once every other week) of zombies that it really doesn't bother me. It's the recurring dreams that I have occasionally (about twice a year) that sometimes bothers me. Like the one where you haven't attended class all summer long and you show up the last day and it's final time. You're not prepared, you panic, therefore waking yourself up from the nightmare only to remind yourself that you've been out of college for seven years.

I handle most of my recurring dreams quite nicely. They are familiar to me and they make me laugh.

Until recently. The wedding dreams have begun and they actually freak me out a little bit. So far, I've had about three of them (within the past week) and they are all sorted around the fact of me finding the dress. (Truth is, I haven't even started looking for it, I'll probably procrastinate since to me, that is the least important part of our wedding. A little backwards, I know). Maybe that's why I'm having these recurring dreams over this topic. It's almost frustrating because these dreams are new territory and I don't like them because I can't control them *odd side note is that I am a weird one with my dreams and when I become conscious that I am dreaming, can actually start manipulating them. Not sure how normal that is but I find it a little cool and odd at the same time that I can do that :)

In the meantime, can't I have dreams of zombie weddings? That would satisfy my inner weirdness!

Family Photos

One thing that I miss dearly about living in Southern California is the ability to visit my family whenever I want too. But this past weekend was all about reconnecting with all the loved ones. It was so much fun just being able to relax, have lots of laughs and most importantly, play! I just can't believe how quickly the "little" cousins grow up! Times like this when I start feeling like I'm (gasp) getting older!

• ryan is about to enter high school and jessica is no longer small enough to carry •

• playing "models" with kristy, she just started her first year at Cal Poly SLO •

• this is my dad's parents, isn't everyone so cute •

•jacob is the littlest one of the family and this is the best picture that I was able to capture from him. Three year olds don't like to sit still for very long. It's my favorite photo! •