St. Valentine's Day Weekend - 2016

Hiiii peoples!

Well look at that, it's still February and I'm posting my Valentine's Day post in the same month that it happened! Am I good or what? You should be nodding. Are you nodding? Good.

This may be one of our best heart days yet! Mainly because instead of venturing out into the mad crowds of crazy people, trying to book a reservation and all that hullabaloo, we stayed HOME. 

Introvert. Heaven. *cue angelic singing*

Home is nice. It's my favorite-est place to be. A place where after being peopled out after a long week (my poor little introverted self can only take so much), I can just relax and be myself and not say a thing, if I want to. And Robert is my introvert buddy, so he understands!

We started out Saturday morning with this lovely breakfast:

GF Chocolate Chip Waffles WITH Chocolate Syrup (Mmmhmm, I did that) and Orange Slices.

 
We spent Saturday catching up on suuuper fuuuun things like dishes, and tidying up the house after the work week. Friday evening we went grocery shopping early because we didn't want to get caught in the crowds of men storming the store for last minute Valentine gifts :P Robert picked out a bouquet of flowers for me while we were there! Lol, we're such an old married couple. IT WAS a surprise! I wasn't in that area when he picked them out, BUT I did know he was going to get some for me before we left the house, cuz I hinted that there would be a better selection to choose from if we went early.  :) I HAVE picked out my own flowers before, but not until recently. It's because I'm an artsy person! I like looking at  all the different flowers and seeing what I'm in the mood for, but this time I wanted him to pick. And chose well, he did.

Are they not lovely? He knew exactly what I wanted before I did.

The spread for the next day.

Pink Moscato Champagne (Birthday present from my mother-in-law), Juniper Berry and Bay Leaf infused Olive Oil (Aldi's), Almond and Hazelnut stuffed Green Olives (Aldi's), Turkish Figs (Aldi's), Herb and Pepper encrusted Salami (Aldi's), Hawaiian BBQ and Himalayan Sea Salt Kettle Brand chips with Avocado oil (Krogers), Chocolove brand chocolate, "Spicing Up Married Life" book by Father Leo Patalinghug, and "The Vow" movie, one of my faves.

Aldi's had a BUNCH of specialty items on sale after Christmas and we stocked up for this!

 Speaking of Father Leo Patalinghug, guess who came to our church? You betcha, the man himself. HE WAS AWESOME! He came for our annual Mission and spoke at our Church for 3 nights and boy were they memorable evenings. If you haven't heard of him before, he is a chef and has a cooking show on EWTN called Savoring the Faith; he is also kind of a celebrity now after beating Bobby Flay on Food Network in a fajita cooking competition about 6 years or so ago.
 BUT THE WAY HE SPEAKS. OH MY GOODNESS. He just ignites you with a blazing fire for your faith And he's hilarious. He has published three books, and we have them all now, including the marriage one pictured above. They have recipes in them :) Including the fajita recipe he beat Bobby Flay with! Before priesthood he used to teach martial arts and self defense, and is pretty awesome at breakdancing. I mean, HOW COOL IS THAT?! Including videos below so you can get to know him:

Of course we got a picture with him! He told us we looked like we got married when we were 12 XD

Selfies with the marriage book!

Heart Strawbs, something I started doing last year. Just cut a V in the top of the whole strawberry before cutting and you'll have cutesie little hearts!

Breakfast on Sunday morning. Almond flour pancakes with strawberries hearts, part of a Pumelo (The ancestor of the grapefruit, and much better I think. Less bitter.), and pork sausage patties.

It's not a Valentine's Day post without at least one picture of us.

Champagne and Roses.

Foccacia Bread! I used the recipe in Cybele Paschal's ' The Baker's Handbook'. I loooove her cookbooks. Here is the link if you are interested in the cookbook. I added the grapes and majoram on top and it was amazing. It was hard to refrain from eating the whole thing between the two of us!

Ze romantic dinner. Complete with candles.

Bubbly in the candlelight.

So we ate our finger food, sipped the bubbly, watched The Vow, gobbled up as much foccacia as we could get away with, and it was such a nice evening, just being home together. We're realizing how precious moments like these are, so for us this Valentine's Day was more about making uninterrupted time for each other (and good food) instead of extravagant gifts. Not that I don't like extravagant gifts *hint hint*. Buuuut time is priceless and we never know how much we have until we lose it.

So cherish the people you love!

How did you guys spend your Valentine's Day??? I hope it was amazing whether you're are in a relationship or not :)

Cheers!

Engagement Day! - Gougane Barra, Ireland - October 10th, 2011

*waves* I'm back! Did you miss me?

So maybe the weekly posting thing isn't going to work out....? YA THINK?! It's been a MONTH and a WEEK since I last posted, guys. That's terrible. And if I think that's terrible than you must think it's horrid. Unforgiveable. Unbelievably sad.

I'm so sorry. This year has had far too much busyness for my taste. And not enough alone time. Or simply just being home time.Trying to fit in the things I've been wanting to do lately has been ridiculously challenging. We're almost half-way through October, people! I still haven't even posted what happened in July, August and September. *facepalms* Where does my time go? Seriously.

Anyway, I hope you missed me a little bit, but not so much that you're dying of deprivation. That wouldn't be good! I love you guys, I really, really do. I just don't think my life is going to slow down...and that makes it hard to make time to blog :P *sigh*

Okay, so awhile back, I promised Treskie that I would share pictures from my Ireland trip and seeing that the trip happend Oct. 6-16 of 2011, I thought this month would be a good time to post them! Today (Oct. 10) is actually the third anniversary of my engagement to Robert. He proposed to me in IRELAND, people! IRELAND. It's still hard to believe. He's just so awesome. I couldn't have planned it better myself :) So I will be sharing those pictures today even though that was our fourth day in Ireland.


October 10, 2011 - Gougane Barra in Ireland

Gougane Barra was in-between the drive from Kinsale to Killarney.



This was my first glimpse of Gougane Barra. I was in the backseat taking pictures on the way to Killarney, when I saw it. I then commenced to excitedly hyperventilate because I had seen it before. Four days ago. On the computer screen at my parent's house!!!! It was just a random picture of Ireland that we had found online and just happened to set that one for our desktop background. We had no idea where it was located or what it was called. AND I FREAKIN' GOT TO GO THERE!!!!!

The wallpaper background back home. Significantly better than mine. *sniffs*

The sign.

The no camping or picnics part just ruined that whole sign.

It was VERY windy.

The Loch. Gougane Barra is almost like an island, but not. It feels like one with all the water surrounding it.

The stone building turned out to be a small chapel! Which was awesome, since I'm Catholic. I love these kinds of places :) The walls were also painted in my favorite colors of course I loved it!

The altar was BEAUTIFUL! I have never seen anything like it. I'm a big fan of Celtic knot work and this was just breathtaking. I tried to convince Robert to agree that this was the church we should get married in, but he didn't go for it. I wonder why? ;) IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO AWESOME.

I forget what this was called, but apparently monks used to live in stone caves like these way back when. These were not the original caves, but similar to what they would have lived in.

The 14th and last Station in the Stations of the Cross. "Jesus was laid in the Sepulcher".

 See how windy it was?

I'm not sure what this was supposed to be, but it looked cool.

This is where I was standing shortly before he proposed.

I took this picture right before I turned around to find Robert on his knee with a ring in is hand! :) If I hadn't been so dumbfounded, it might have occurred to me to take a picture of him like that :P He couldn't have picked a better place or a better time because at that moment there were no people around and his Mom had gone back to the chapel (she knew he was going to propose in Ireland, and so did everyone at home because he had e-mailed my parents to ask their permission. That may sound weird, but it was kind of spur of the moment so he couldn't ask them in person.) I was sixteen at the time, and we waited about 2 years to get married.

My ring! It's a white gold ring with an oval natural sapphire in the middle, with two little diamonds on the sides. I love it :) It felt weird to have a ring on that finger and I was so afraid that one of the gems would somehow fall out and get lost in Ireland and I'd never see it again. I'm ridiculous, I know.

And here were are, a few minutes after the proposal. He was 19 and I was 16. That day will always be one of the most happiest days of my life :)