Many Moments of Marital Bliss

Greetings in the middle of the night family and friends!

Well our good friend, Steve, is paying us a visit this evening. :) It has been WAAAAYYYY too long since he has last stayed over, so its nice to have him around. Im sure you all remember him from the wedding. He was one of our groomsmen. He was Doug's roommate senior year of college. Of course, other than me, he was Doug's best roommate! He has been the best friend to Doug and to me. We like to refer to him as our "wingman." This all stemmed from the convo he referred to in the speech he gave at the reception. We are thankful to have him. If any of you ever end up staying at our house overnight, just know that you are staying in his room. :) Lol.

Well it is that time.... I finally have uploaded almost all of the pictures to facebook. I am attaching a billion links. Just copy and paste them into a new url and you can see almost all of the pictures that Jonilyn Brown took. Jonilyn Brown is truly amazing. At a later date, I am going to be including some vendor information on a post. I need to be honest and say that I was so please with everything and everyone who helped us. :) You have already seen the AMAZING shots that Jacob Atmodjojo took. I am absolutely blown away by both of these photographers. :) I have memories to last me a lifetime.

Speaking of which.... today has been a super nostalgic day! Doug and I woke up very early and headed down to Huntington Beach. The June gloom lasted until about noon. We didnt even realize that we were there that long. We even got a little burnt today! OH NO! But we have been having the best weekend. We came home to our beautiful house. In the later evening Doug lit candles (from our wedding..hehe) and we listened to some classical music. One of the songs on the playlist was Canon in D. Of course, all if these emotions from the wedding came flooding back. As we were sitting in our beautiful bungalow, alone I was thinking "LORD I AM BLESSED!" My mom and I were having about an hour long conversation about the wedding, as she just got back from one of Julia's friend's bridal showers. :) So of course, that triggered the entire thing. A friend from college, Kelly O, is getting married very shortly! I know God is going to do big things in her and her fiance's life! Just reading her blog and her recent post on her bridal shower truly made me thankful for the experience that this wedding brought. But as Doug and I were sitting in our HOME this evening, I was overwhelmed with all of the emotions of the love that God has given us throughout our dating life, and more importantly, through our marriage. God has truly given us an amazing gift. :) So I wanted to title this blog "I wish you LOVE!" A while back my friend Holly Beeley sent out a forward with something to this extent. But as I was sitting near the warm embrace of my incredible husband, surrounded by soft lights, I said a short simple prayer for all of you out there. I asked the Lord to WISH you all LOVE. Especially right now I wish Kelly love. I wish Emma Love. I wish Nano/Lindsay love. :) The first two have a date coming up a lot sooner than Lindsay, but she has a BUSY year ahead of her! :) I wish all of you love out there. Really enjoy every moment of your lives... the good and bad. God has given us a gift. Though not everyone will find that same gift in a spouse, God does offer that love to everyone. I just praise HIM that I am able to experience a glimpse of it with my husband!

I really do wish all of you love! :) Have a wonderful rest of your weekend. :) Doug and I are thankful for all of you and love you all! :) Enjoy the pics (and if you notice the pic of me alone is from BEFORE the wedding! I have so many pics of the before wedding prep! This is at the bridal salon for my first fitting of my dress!!!! OH THE MEMORIES... but I digress). Good night! Sweet dreams!

THE LINKS:: If you want to view these, copy and paste these into a new window at the url spot. These are all the pictures from Jonilyn Brown!

Album Title: The wedding fun continues
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2256790&l=397d6&id=3304510

Album Title: More Wedding- More getting ready and start of ceremony
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2256853&l=bf020&id=3304510

Album Title: More, more more!- More getting ready
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2257392&l=daf58&id=3304510

Album Title: The fun never ends- focus on the ceremony
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2257511&l=c7070&id=3304510

Album Title: More of my faves:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2257533&l=ef8f8&id=3304510

Album Title: The last album
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2257533&l=ef8f8&id=3304510

Hello Family and Friends,

I am please to write to all of you that we have received our pictures from Jonilyn Brown. She is so amazing! I am absolutely in love with the pictures she took. I just cant step away from them! I am going to include some "teasers" of what she took. She certainly did take a lot, so it will take me a while to make a facebook album so you can see all of them, but enjoy this for now! :) I am just so excited!!!!!!!

If any of you are in search of a good photographer, I have both Jonilyn and Jacob's contact info. I have to say honestly, as I was looking at Jonilyn's pictures I felt all of the excitement of the wedding rush back to me! She caught so many of the intimate moments that I loved that day! If you are searching out a GREAT photographer, go for Jonilyn. Thank you Jonilyn for capturing the most important moments of our special day. You have some unbelievable talent and we are blessed to have you! Seriously everyone, I am a big fan of Jonilyn. He pictures get better each time you click on her blog! If you dont believe me, watch over a couple of weeks. You would be AMAZED. I hope some random bride-to-be in the Los Angeles/Orange County area stumbles across this and finds Jonilyn. She is truly a one of a kind photographer. If you click on Jonilyn's name, it will take you directly to her website. I am personally a fan of course blog. Basically, I stalk it everyday to see what she is up to next. If you want to go there, click on Jonilyn Brown. If you prefer to type these in manually, her website is jonilynphotography.com and her blog is jonilynphotographyblog.com. Check her out!

Well this week was a rather "tough" one. While I love my students a lot, the school year seems to be dragging. They are already on vacation, so its like pulling teeth to get them to do the work they NEED to do for the next 8 days! Doug had his finals for his classes at UCI. Needless to say, with this week ending, we are both so happy for the little break that he has from his classes. I miss him when he is gone.

We hope you all enjoy the pictures! Check back periodically. I am going to be adding facebook albums so you can see the entire thing.

Thank you again to EVERYONE who made our wedding day so special. As you can see, I relive it daily! :) We love you all so much, and count ourselves blessed to have you in our lives!

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this finds you happy and well. Time.... such an abstract concept! Lol. It's hard to believe that it's been 3 months since Doug and I have been married. I feel like March 2nd was so long ago, but in reality, 3 months is so short! We don't have too much to report on this our 3rd month anniversary. Doug and I finally feel like we have some kind of stability. It is such a nice feeling. I do need to interject here what an amazing husband Doug truly is. HE helped me DEEP CLEAN THE HOUSE YESTERDAY! Yesterday was our "spring cleaning" day. Boy am I thankful to him. As lovely as our little bungalow is, it gets SOOO dusty and dirty so quickly. It doesnt matter how many times we sweep or dust, it piles up. So Doug, being my hero, gets down on his hands and knees and scrubs the whole house! Wow.... whoever said that women need to train their husbands need to think twice!

Doug is going to roll his eyes when he reads this. He and I both got this INCREDIBLY adorable e-mail from his mom on our 1 month anniversary wishing us a happy one month marriage anniversary. His reply to me about that was "Oh you women." Lol. Doug isnt too fond of the little anniversaries. I find it humorous to goad him on and say "HAPPY SUCH AND SUCH ANNIVERSARY BABY." This morning when we woke up and had our lovely morning coffee and breakfast I got this HUGE smile on my face and said "HAPPY 3 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!" He had that same adorable face that he has had every time I would say something like that when we were dating. Some things never change. But through it all, the changes, the constants, and time passing by, I can honestly say that I am blessed to have found the love of my life. God is truly smiling upon us. I wish you all the happiness that God has given to us. So HAPPY 3 MONTHS! :) lol. Laugh, smile, live, love.... GOD IS GOOD!

Ps. This picture was from our honeymoon at the cutest little candy shop in Calistoga. It just goes to show how SWEET life is!

Happy Weekend to you Family & Friends!

I said that I would be posting some of my favorite recipes. Here is my very first one! I need to give credit to Rachel Ray. After all, I am an English teacher. I just finished up the research section of our requirements for the 9th graders and I must live according to what I teach them.... CREDIT SOURCES!

When I was a Junior or Senior in college I discovered this recipe. I do need to admit though that I definitely change up the measurements by adding or subtracting certain items. I will include her original recipe. If you want to go to the direct link you can click on the word Chinese Barbecue Chicken Wraps and it will take you directly to the food network cite with the original recipe. This recipe is intended to be an appetizer, but I prepare it as a main entree for Doug, myself, and any guests we may have. If you havent come over for dinner yet to try this dish, we would love to have you! Try it yourself though. It is AMAZING! I will note what I tend to substitute and take out at the end.
Ingredients needed/suggested:

• 2 cups fresh shiitake mushrooms (about 4 handfuls)
• 1 1/3-1 1/2 pounds thin cut chicken breasts or chicken tenders
• 2 tablespoons light colored oil, such as vegetable oil or peanut oil
• Coarse salt and coarse black pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 inch ginger root, finely chopped or grated, optional
• 1 orange, zested
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced small
• 1 small tin sliced water chestnuts (6-8 ounces), drained and chopped
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 3 tablespoons hoisin (Chinese barbecue sauce), available on Asian foods aisle of market
• 1/2 large head iceberg lettuce, core removed, head quartered
• Wedges of navel orange, for platter garnish

Preparation

Remove tough stems from mushrooms and brush with damp towel to clean. Slice mushrooms. Chop chicken into small pieces.

Pre-heat a large skillet or wok to high.

Add oil to hot pan. Add chicken to the pan and sear meat by stir frying a minute or two. Add mushrooms and cook another minute or two. Add salt and pepper to season, then garlic and ginger. Cook a minute more. Grate zest into pan, add bell pepper bits, chopped water chestnuts and scallions. Cook another minute, continuing to stir fry mixture. Add hoisin and toss to coat the mixture evenly.

Transfer the chopped barbecued chicken to serving platter and pile the quartered wedges of crisp iceberg lettuce along side. Add wedged oranges to platter to garnish.

To eat, pile spoonfuls into lettuce leaves, wrapping lettuce around fillings and squeezing an orange wedge over it ("Chinese Barbecue Chicken Lettuce Wraps" rachaelray.com).

Beth's substitutions and changes:

MUSHROOMS: Let's face it, shitake mushrooms may not be the most affordable item. I get the prepackaged sliced mushrooms. They work just great! Doug and I particularly LOVE mushrooms, so I often over do it. If you end up cooking the meal a little longer than the time suggests, the mushrooms will shrink up as well!

OIL: EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) also works well in place of the vegetable and peanut oil

Garlic: I LOVE GARLIC so I tend to double the cloves. It makes the dish far more flavorful!

Nuts: I tend to leave the nuts out. We have not missed them at all.

Scallions: This is a high class treat, that we poor folk often cannot afford. In it's place I use brown onion. Generally this doesn't cost anymore than 69 cents at the store!

Hoison Sauce: I have also found that I needed to add more hoison sauce then initially directed. You can add to taste. If you continue to add too much, make sure you have an extra orange or two. The zest really does add something!

I hope that you have enjoyed this first recipe listed! You can find it by going to Rachael Ray's website or by clicking in the link Chinese Barbecue Chicken Lettuce Wraps. I just copied and pasted the recipe from her site. Until next time, I hope you try this dish. It is extremely tasty, healthy and affordable!


The above pictures are actually from college. The ones of me (Beth) are from Senior year of college. The one of Doug is from Junior year. Obviously, our signature picture is from the wedding. Lol. I probably have enough pictures to post for the rest of my life! Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Greetings! I hope this finds you happy and well. Happy Tuesday! I hope it feels like Tuesday has come fast for you all and the week is going even faster! I did take a pause in posting this and now it is Wednesday. Technically the week has gone by a little faster. Lol.

About a month ago, I got the opportunity to host an interview between two of my students and an awesome "Best Selling" author, Jason Wright. As I was listening to their interview and his love for the profession of writing, I was truly inspired. I hope that you can all get a chance to check out his book, The Wednesday Letters or The Christmas Jar. I think Doug and I may start a tradition with The Christmas Jar. Christmas traditions are a whole other entry. I am in the process of reading Wednesday Letters and all I have to say is WOW! This one should have been on Oprah's book list AGES ago. Hmm... maybe she doesnt know that much about good books. Right Dad? Lol. Back on subject....Back to writing and books. The kids were so excited after this interview. They had a renewed faith in their own passions. It was so incredible to see. Jason, if you ever read this, thank you for what you did for those kids! Well I will go back to the Christmas Jar for a second. One of the students asked what his inspiration was for his books. He said the Christmas Jar was a gift to his wife. So recently I have been thinking back to that interview. Throughout my very short career of teaching, I am constantly reflecting on my passions, weaknesses, and strength. I am constantly evaluating what kind of story I will create with these kids as their teacher. Everyday seems to be a growing process whether it's in the classroom or other places. That growing process is not limited there though, of course it all starts and ends at home. What I have found is that, of course, the Lord is my ultimate passion. But I have also found how much I am thankful to my Savior for giving me a husband that I love so deeply! To some extent everyone writes their own stories, even if they never get published. If I could title my latest book, I would love to call it the "Wife Chronicles." I think this blog is turning into just that. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job, my students, and everything surrounding it, but I am finding I am happiest in the home with my hubby. I am finding that being a wife isnt just a title, an obligation, or a passing excitement. I am finding that it is my passion! I love to cook, I love to love, I love to enjoy the precious moments and so much more. So I guess, as you all read and witness the love that is unfolding and developing between Doug and myself, you get to witness my/our passion developing. By the way, I am not conceited. I posted Jacob's bridal portraits because the title is "WIFE" chronicles. Lol!

So where is all of this verbosity going? I have decided since a part of my passion for "wifehood" is cooking, I am going to start including some of my favorite recipes! Now here is a little background knowledge that you may not know. I come from a long line of amazing cooks. My Kailua was queen in the kitchen, as was my Auntie Healani. My mom is, of course, an amazing cook. My cousin Johnny is an executive chef in Oklahoma. I was talking to him about the possibilities of becoming a food critic. We were discussing culinary school and all that jazz when it said it perfectly. He went to a couple of different very reputable culinary institutes and he said "I learned how to cook with my mom." How awesome it is! So enjoy the stories and my version of the Wife Chronicles as I share with you some of my favorite recipes!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend Family & Friends!

We hope this finds you all happy and well! Doug is still struggling with that cold. I, Beth, am pretty bored right now, but it is nice to do NOTHING. Lately I have been really reflecting and savoring the memories of our wedding. I told you all that I would update with wedding pictures soon. So far, we have only received our photos from our primary photographer. I am supposed to get the other photos any day now. This will not be the only posting with pictures. These photos all come from Jacob Atmodjojo. Jacob shot over 1100 photos of the wedding day. We opted to not go with a "professional" videographer, so these pictures are very important to me. I am so blessed to have them. Thank you Jacob for all of your hard work on our wedding day! Many of you either noticed him or didnt. Our family likes to call him the "ninja photographer." Doug and I didnt even noticed that he took all of those pictures! THANK YOU JACOB! Those of you in need of a photographer, I would recommend Jacob for sure! He is always available to help, even when the big day is over! On a side note, I would like to thank Craig, Kevin, and Nathan Smith for video taping the wedding! I am so happy to have a wedding video!

I find myself laughing when I think about all of the words that people said to me before the wedding. They said it would be a blur and go by quickly. Honestly, a lot of that was very true. We completely remember our ceremony. It was gorgeous and everything that we wanted. Thank you all for coming and making it so special! The reception on the other hand was a blur. It just went by so quickly. We had a fun time, but felt like we arrived and then it was over. We didnt get to talk to everyone like we had wanted to. The food was amazing. All of the ladies in the church really made the place amazing. We couldnt have pulled off such a huge reception without all of their help! It was nice to dance with Doug. It was fun to cut the cake (even though we did it wrong), but the night just went by way too quickly. For those of you reading this who are getting married.... enjoy every second of it! IT GOES BY SOOOOO FAST. But really, the end result is what makes it all worth it. Being married to Doug makes me forget about anything that may have gone differently than planned or incredibly amazing. The man that he is and the life we are building together matches the adrenaline of one day and makes it INCREDIBLY exciting to face the future. Thank you GOD for giving me such a wonderful husband.

I hope that those of you who are married let your spouse know how much you appreciate them. That is one lesson that my parents have taught me. My dad always says he falls more in love with my mom everyday. I can see how Doug is emulating that as well. Sadly, there are also people who give horrible advice or words after the wedding. People often say "Oh you have only been married for two months" or "Just wait".... but I just dont think its going to be bad. Its not bad for my parents. Rough at times, I know, but bad... come on! A lot of people translate the word "rough" in so many negative ways! God has given Doug and I a PARTNER..... a one flesh union. Im sorry, but call me an optimist, I am sticking with God's divine will. Through the struggles he brings so many deep blessings and rewards! So long story short, let your hunny know you love him or her!

That is enough for now. I will post actual memories and more pictures soon!


Ps. It may take a day or two for the pictures to appear. The picture upload is not working on my current internet connection. Thanks for your patience.

Pss. If you are bored, copy and paste the following links. I uploaded MOST of Jacob's photos into a lot of albums... so check it out!

The wonderfully edited ones: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2235805&l=1cb36&id=3304510

The Boys getting ready:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237449&l=c9651&id=3304510

The Girls getting ready:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2235818&l=3515f&id=3304510

Here comes the bride:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237455&l=fcfec&id=3304510

Captured moments at the reception:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237471&l=40ed3&id=3304510

Moments after the wedding & Family portraits
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237715&l=ff766&id=3304510

Reception Recap:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237722&l=81e26&id=3304510

The Smaller Details of the Wedding:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237783&l=992fc&id=3304510

Some Wedding Favs and photos missed:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237759&l=9bc9c&id=3304510

Happy Tuesday Family and Friends!

I hope this finds you all in good health. Sadly, Doug has caught the horrible flue that I had last week! :( I am writing to share some pictures with you from our Sunday with Jeff and Doug's parents. Doug's parents know some pretty amazing spots in Northern California. I am always surprised when we take a scenic trip with them. Last Thanksgiving, Rich took us so close to the Golden Gate Bridge, we could touch it from a safe and enjoyable view. Gayle thought it might be nice to spend an afternoon out at Half moon Bay. Boy am I glad we went! It was so relaxing and beautiful! We hiked down to our own private beach. Hehe. I say that as though God made the beach specifically for us. It did feel like it that day. Afterwards, we went for a little bit of rite aid ice cream. Mmmm do I love ice cream. Gayle and Rich spoiled us and took us to El Patio to celebrate Doug's birthday.

The weekend was eventful, but very memorable. From seeing my best friends graduate to spending some quality time with the fam, I feel as though I had a little readjustment in my life to keep me focused for the time being! Doug and I really do cherish the times that we get to spend with friends and family.

I am not sure when the next time is that I will write. I will probably update with some wedding pictures in a few days or this weekend. For now, Doug and I am going to take a weekend off. If his flu keeps up, it will take him a while to recover! So until then, thank you for reading. All of you mean so much to us. Enjoy the pictures!