Happy anniversary eve!

Holy jeez, where have the last two years gone??  And yes, it's only anniversary EVE, not actual anniversary, but I needed something to write about tonight and was feeling a little mushy.  To celebrate two whooooole years of marriage, we took off to Seattle for a few days to celebrate (which I'll tell you all about in this month o' blogging), a little before our actual anniversary to make time for important things like University of Washington football games.  Last year at this time we were having red rocks adventures and relaxing in Sedona, celebrating one whooooole year of marriage...

...and then two years ago I'm certain I was having trouble trying to wind down and go to sleep because I was just a little excited about the whole "I'm getting married tomorrow!!" thing.  But it was all worth it for this.

Happy almost anniversary, husband!  And just when Craig is FINALLY HOME from the Great Houston Adventure, he's out of town again this week for work training in Orlando.  But I have some really wonderful friends who are going to celebrate birthaversary with me tomorrow (birthday dinner on the anniversary, of course), so I think I'll be ok.  Two down and many, many more to go.

NOLA

Girls weekend in New Orleans.  LAST SEPTEMBER.  Eight months ago.  I'm throwing it in here anyway.  Bachelorette kinda thing going on.  Not "ahhhhh, crazy, wooooooo!" bachelorette moments, more of the "hey, let's drink and eat and drink and eat some more in this tasty city and NOT have too many embarrassing moments" kinda thing.

Pat O's hurricanes MUST be involved.  This was our first stop after checking in.

Kami the animal-whisperer made friends with our tour guide.  Was his name Prince??  See, this happened WAY too long ago and I'm forgetting.  Or maybe that has something to do with the hurricanes...

They just got mah-wied and are doing that cool follow the band get in a line wave umbrellas dance thing!  We participated via balcony.

This balcony, actually.  It was lovely.  Except for my Sazerac, which is really just not to my boozy liking.  Oof, that thing packed a punch.

Beignets at Cafe du Monde.  Pure powdered sugar happiness.

The ridiculously awesome Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone.  It ROTATES while you sit and drink.  Too fun.

Had a wonderful weekend with my girls.  New Orleans.  Just do it.

Eleven for '11

Eleven pictures to oh so briefly sum up my 2011

I moved back to Dallas from DC...in the middle of a giant snowy disaster.  Which you'd really think would be much more likely to happen the other way around.  But I was home.

And not only did I move to Texas...but Zach did, too.  And his dad, of course.  And Harry thought this was pretty much the worst day ever.  I worried.  A lot.  And basically it's all ok now.

I bought a dress.  Not just any dress.  THE dress.  And they celebrated by attacking us with bubbles, which was fun and wonderful in every way.  I'm so glad my mom was there.

My sissy went and graduated from Duke Law School.  Kinda a big deal.  Just sayin.

So many wonderful times throughout the year with so many wonderful friends, and nothing says it better than four Fredericksburg pies.  Yes, four.  We needed alllll the flavors.  So grateful for these wonderful friends, and not just because they agree to four pies.

We celebrated this whole "we're engaged!!" business with some official photography moments.  And I've just never been happier.

I have two of the most amazing friends a girl could ask for in Carolyn and Kami, and our annual summer trip is always, always one of the highlights of my year.  And Beaver Creek in the summer is a TREAT with these ridiculous Texas summers.

Soooo....we bought a house.  A month before the wedding.  Much going on?  Nah.  Just the usual.  So we bought a giant, beautiful house to turn into a home and build our lives together.  Ok, maybe a touch more awesome than "the usual."

Last year I did some recipe testing for a cookbook...and the cookbook became real and a free copy was shipped to me and my name is in there and I think the whole thing is just generally cool because I absolutely loved the work and the whole experience.  I. love. food.  You know this.

Craig and I got married.  And we had a wonderful wedding.  Surrounded by family and friends.  And we had a FUN wedding.  One of the most amazing days of my life, really and truly.

And we followed up the wonderful, amazing wedding with a wonderful, amazing honeymoon to Costa Rica where we did ridiculous things like zipline through the rainforest.  Such an incredible trip, and really a very incredible year.

I carry your heart with me, I carry it in my heart

Have been kinda absent from the blog, basically because I went and got married to that Craig guy.  And it was pretty much the most amazing and wonderful day ever.  Not to be cliché...but it was.  And I wish I could relive that day over and over, buy my face would probably break from smiling, so it's probably a good thing that we can't make one day repeat itself over and over.

Enjoy the preview video, and pictures to come!  Also, if you were there, please send me your pictures - I'm dying to see them!!  It took every ounce of my being to not bring a camera to my own wedding...

* e.e. cummings, if you're curious, for the post title

When a task looms large...make ice cream. Really.

Task looming large:

 
Another task, but enjoyable task, that helps with task looming large:

When faced with addressing a rather large pile of wedding invitations...I recommend ice cream.  Homemade ice cream.  Courtesy of a wonderful shower gift from my future mother-in-law and a few key ingredients...including Guinness.  Beer ice cream.  Not beer with ice cream, which was extremely disappointing in Prague, but actual beer ice cream.  Potential kitchen adventure ACCOMPLISHED.  David Leibovitz's Guinness-milk chocolate ice cream.  So good.

And obviously the invitations have made it out by now.  Phew.  Because with two weeks to go, that would be kinda disastrous.  Now if only all the RSVP cards could come back...

I'm alive

Promise.

Showering, no shampoo needed

Last weekend...ok, wait, make that weekend BEFORE last since time is completely disappearing and sneaking away from me...I got to spend the afternoon surrounded by dear family and friends at this only-comes-around-once kinda thing known as a bridal shower.  And it was absolutely fantastic.  Craig's mom flew in, the amazing Dana made the journey from Virginia, my MOHSOB (maid of honor sister of the bride, duh!) trekked halfway across the country, Mom & Dad (although no boys allowed at the shower!) drove down along with a wonderful aunt and cousins...and then there's all the people here in the oven who made it a point to be there, too! 

To celebrate me.  Well, and this Craig guy.  It was pretty awesome.  Mexican food, margaritas, Bob Armstrong, and absolutely no games.  I'm not really a games kinda girl, especially when it comes to...myself.  But I do love board games.  Excessively, actually.

It goes against every ounce of my being to NOT take pictures at an event, but my goal here was to actually be present and enjoy the time with my family and friends. Which meant no picture-taking allowed - just soaking up the moments and memories.  Therefore, all of these pictures are courtesy of the amazing Sarah and her fantastic fixed lens that I just might go out and buy for myself.  And she's a pro at uploading and Picasa sharing in a timely manner.  Just one of the many, many reasons I love her dearly.

That being said, here's the one picture I'm contributing to this event, which was taken on my phone mere moments ago with a nifty little diddy known as Vignette, which I've completely fallen in love with.

Love love LOVE these invitations so much!!  Carolyn, you do good work.

And now...thank you, Sarah, photographer extraordinaire!

That sweet, crafty Sarah went and made me the cutest apron...with a "P" in the corner!  I think I wore it for half the shower.

Wonderful Sarah friend person crafter photographer amazing.  Just summing her up.

Diana was an absolute pro with the cake balls.  For bringing them AND for serving them so beautifully.  What a fantastic friend!



Ok, yes, I was enjoying my margaritas.  Amanda looks perhaps a touch concerned.

Quite a pile to work my way through!



My beautiful, amazing, wonderful beyond words bridesmaids (MOH and sistah friend is sitting next to me stage right, of course).  Love these girls more than you can ever know.

A giant thank you to everyone who could be there!  I had such a fantastic time celebrating with all of you!

Who gets married OUTSIDE in JULY? In TEXAS?

These people do.  And if I didn't love them both more...the sweat might not have been worth it.  But a truly touching, very personal ceremony in Nancy's Garden at the Arboretum really helped.  A fantastic lunch at Maggiano's to celebrate the happy couple was pretty nice, too.  Congrats to Nolan and Erin!  Full (minimal) photo adventure here. 



Sorry, unsuspecting guest sitting in front of me - I had to capture the sweaty moment.



The happy couple! =)

Ahhh, a cooling fan!

Yay, they're married!

Pendarvi weekend in The Oven

I'm no longer referring to Dallas as Dallas - it's just "The Oven" from here on out.  Probably through September or so.  And it's kinda unfortunate that my future in-laws visited a few weekends ago in the midst of this unrelenting heat.  Needless to say, we spent a lot of time in air-conditioning.  These oven conditions limit outdoor explorations rather severely, and a lot of my "fun" ideas get blown out of the water.
Sidenote - I think Craig is only mildly amused (perhaps bemused?) by my frequent use of "Pendarvi" rather than the appropriate plural form.  But I like it.  Deal with it, dear.

The Pendarvi and future Pendarvis (you know, me!) spent relatively cool time exploring the famers market, wandering Half Price Books, embarking on rehearsal dinner extravaganza planning, and indulging in LOTS of eating - Chuy's, Smoke, Big Al's, Y.O. Steakhouse, Manny's, Twisted Root.  My body STILL needs some vegetables.  Yes, even weeks later.


Momma Dale sits Texas-style at Y.O. Steakhouse

Minimal pictures from these weekend adventures, mostly because I'd still like my new family to like me and think I'm possibly normal instead of "oh my heavens, who is this crazy girl taking pictures of our hamburgers??"

Had a great time getting to know my new family a little bit better, and here's wishing you and yours LOTS of air conditioning.

Capturing moments

We had engagement pictures taken a couple of weeks ago by our FANTASTIC all-things-wedding-related photographers, Sara & Rocky, and I'm so excited to share some of the shots with you guys.  I 1000x love our photographers, and I can't wait to see what they capture on our wedding day (142 days to go!).  If you want to see many, many, MANY more pictures, just let me know and I'll send you the password to our share site.

Deep Ellum first, White Rock Lake second.  We had a fantastic time, even if it was a touch on the hot side.  I love that we'll have these moments captured forever.  And yes, photo overload to follow shortly after these words.