Easter Sunday

To catch up on the rest of our honeymoon recaps, go here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

On Easter Sunday, we took a leisurely drive around the Burren.  With no set itinerary for the day, we were able to explore at our own pace.

The karst hills of the Burren

 
The Burren is comprised of a limestone pavement landscape, and is studded with historical and archaelogical sites such as portal tombs and stone forts.
 

We took a drive to Ailwee Cave, where we stretched our legs and looked around a bit.  Austin spied the ice cream from a mile away, so we shared a cone.

After our snack, we found the Poulnabrone portal tomb.  The gorgeous purple orchids immediately caught my attention!

The Poulnabrone portal tomb was constructed during the Neolithic, or New Stone Age.  Over ninety megalithic tombs are known to survive in the Burren; the earliest of these are the portal tombs built in the fourteenth millenium BC.  The Poulnabrone is one of two portal tombs constructed in the Burren.

We were impressed by the Burren fences that extended for miles across the land.  The fences were made of stacked stone with no mortar to reinforce them.

After some more exploring, we found the other portal tomb.

Across the street, there was a giant boulder.  We decided to take a few pictures with it, too.

For lunch, we had roast lamb with potatoes, a delicious Sunday lunch special at a local restaurant we passed while we were driving around.  Later that afternoon, we took a small walk around the coast.

We ate dinner in Liscannor, and I recall having a caesar salad and a delicious chocolate brownie for dessert.  It was a happy Easter, indeed.

St. Patty's Day

I know this is way behind schedule, but I wanted to post our pictures from St. Patty's Day.  It's one of our favorite holidays!

We went to the Mucky Duck in downtown Houston.  It was a blast!  There was Irish dancing, music, and beer of course!

We shared fish 'n chips and a salad for dinner, then we enjoyed the show!  I would definitely recommend this for a St. Patty's day tradition.

I can't wait to experience more of the Irish life during our honeymoon in just a few weeks!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Since today is centered around love, I have a wonderful poem I'd like to share with you.

“Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being “in love” which any of us can convince ourselves we are.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away. This is both an art and a fortunate accident to have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from the branches you realize that you are one tree and not two.”

-Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis de Bernieres.

We plan to include this as a reading in our wedding ceremony!

Instead of including the typical bible verse from 1 Corinthians or Romans 8, we chose something a bit more unique and personalized that relates to marriage.  I will enjoy looking back on this poem in the future, as a reminder of our wedding day.

We're also re-wording the speech our officiant will give before the ring ceremony because neither of us wants to hear how a ring is an unending circle like the sun, moon and earth or that love freely given has no giver or receiver.  Don't get me wrong, this speech might be just perfect for someone else, but for us, it's confusing and isn't very symbolic of the commitment we are making to each other.

A Third Year

The end of the year always brings things into a new perspective for me.  Usually around Thanksgiving, I start reflecting on the past year's events.  For the past month or so, I've been floating on a cloud of total bliss and thankfulness.  This year has been amazing.

Austin and I celebrate our 3rd anniversary of dating on Sunday!  I can't believe it's been so long.  We've been through so much together since January of 2008...

Our first picture together

Here is a quote I found that I truly believe captures our relationship.  As we've been planning our wedding together, we've faced a few hard decisions - but in the end, the sacrifices we make are worth it.

“Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being “in love” which any of us can convince ourselves we are.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away. This is both an art and a fortunate accident to have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from the branches you realize that you are one tree and not two.”

-Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis de Bernieres

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving 2010

Things I'm Thankful For...

• My fiance & I got engaged this year!
• My lasik eye surgery was succesful & I can now see 20-15 without glasses.
• We went on awesome cruise to celebrate my Grandpa's 70th birthday.
• My aunt & mom came to visit me and we had an awesome girl's weekend.
• I transferred to Houston for my job & now I get to see my fiance everyday.
• My fiance and I both have jobs we love.
• Our families are happy & healthy - and we are fortunate enough to get to see them often.
• We had the chance to travel many places this year, and we're planning a trip to Ireland next year!
• We have the best dog ever!
• Life is good.

"The most important moment is the one we are in right now"

-V. Frankl

Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!

The best way to celebrate Memorial Day is to grill delicious food and hang out by the pool.  That's exactly what we did all weekend!  I also squeezed in a shopping trip and found two new summer tops.

Austin is the grill master, so I give him all the credit for this excellent meal.  First, he seasoned these chicken drumsticks with an assortment of spices, including Stubb's BBQ rub.

Then he proceeded to grill them to perfection and slather 'em with Stubb's BBQ sauce.

Meanwhile, I steamed up some broccoli and heated up baked beans.  I also toasted and buttered our bread.  As stated above, my contributions to this meal were minimal and hardly worth noting when you consider the overwhelming deliciousness of the BBQ chicken.

I have no idea what made this chicken so tasty, but it was the perfect combination of tender, spicy, moist and amazing.

You know what else made this meal so great?  I got to enjoy eating with the grill master himself!

Then, I whipped up our dessert.  Our yogurt parfaits featured vanilla and raspberry yogurt layered with fresh blueberries and blackberries, sprinkled with ground flaxseed.

Last night, Austin and I watched Shopgirl, a 2005 release starring Steve Martin.  This was not a mainstream movie by any means.  We considered turning it off at one point, because the plot was dragging and it was truly lacking in the entertainment department.  It was about a young lady who becomes involved with two men in her life: one is an older, rich divorcee, and the other is a poor, aspiring artist/musician.  I don't want to spoil anything for you (ha!), but this movie doesn't have a turning point.  You know how some movies have a moment where everything clicks, makes sense and becomes interesting?  That never happens.  It just becomes increasingly awkward, strange and pointless!  If this happens to be your all-time favorite movie, I apologize for my negativity, but clearly we have strikingly different taste in entertainment.

Moving on, for breakfast this morning I had a blueberry bagel and a smoothie!

This might be silly, but I made a smoothie specifically so I could use this glass straw I won in a giveaway on Amanda's blog!  Check out all the other cute designs on the Strawesome website!  It's perfect for smoothies, and it's fun for summer.

Do you get excited about silly little things?

I do!  I love new stuff, especially when it's free!