ONE YEAR and counting!!!

Today is our one year anniversary. We spent the weekend in Luray, Virginia which was FABULOUS but I'll post about that later. Just know that this:

was the best thing that ever happened to me. There's not a day that goes by that I'm not grateful for May 16, 2009. I love you, Neal! And thanks for finally warming up to the idea of marrying me!

My birthday!

My dad always says if someone forgets your birthday, if your fault, and I totally agree. Because of this, I tend to get a lot of attention on my birthday, and I love it!!! I was pretty nervous about being sick, since I went home from work early on Monday and felt MISERABLE all day. Luckily, Heaven smiled on me and I slept really well Monday night and woke up feeling great!!! (My faith in prayer is slowly renewing after the whole lost stocking fiasco). Neal and I had both taken the day off-- best idea ever!!!
Of course I wanted to open my presents the minute I woke up, so I did! I was so thrilled by all my gifts. My siblings had all sent gifts to the house, as well as my parents (we're pretty big on birthday spoiling in my family)! Neal got me the absolute most thoughtful gifts ever... exhibit A:

For the past YEAR I have been disappointed that Panera has apparently discontinued my favorite salad. It's the one with pears, feta, walnuts and dried cherries with a cherry vinaigrette. As you can see, Neal went to Panera and asked them everything that goes into the salad and dressing, and went out and bought all the ingredients. Also, he got me tulips!!!! :)

Here I am, in all my morning bed-head glory, so excited about the presents!

Then Neal made me a delicious breakfast of homemade Tapioca Pudding, fresh strawberries, and toast (white bread toast, no less!!!)

Then we went for a lovely walk and relaxed. Well, I relaxed and Neal cleaned the house. We then did TaeBo, and as you might imagine, Neal took it pretty seriously! We went to Cheesecake Factory for a late lunch/early dinner and had Chicken Madeira--- YUMMY! We didn't even get cheesecake because I wanted a different birthday dessert. Then, Neal took me to "Sur la Table" (LOVE IT!) and let me pick out a few kitchen things. Then we went home and Neal made brownies from scratch and homemade ice cream (sour cream vanilla-- AMAZING) and cut up some fresh strawberries. Then, Neal surprised me with the most thoughtful present in the history of thoughtful presents... tickets to go see "The Last Five Years!" I was SHOCKED and totally thrilled. Last summer when we went to Ohio, I made Neal listen to the all the music and told him the story. It's actually a really cool idea-- it's a musical about a relationship (a five year one... get it?) The woman's first song is after the divorce, and the man's first song is right after they first met. The meet up in the middle for their wedding and sing a duet at the end about saying goodbye-- she's saying goodbye after their first date, he's saying goodbye after their divorce-- it's AMAZING! Anyway, so last August we listened to it on our roadtrip and I told Neal I have always wanted to see it. I had NO idea it was even in town--Neal looked into it all my himself and bought the tickets. We're going on May 22 and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!! So that gives Neal enough bonus points to never get me a present again, but don't tell him! ;)

Cali and Josh came over for dessert, along with the cute Piper who PEED RIGHT ON OUR FLOOR but she's still pretty darn cute.



All and all, it was an absolutely AMAZING birthday, one of my best ever, and I'm so grateful for Neal, and for my wonderfully thoughtful family and friends! I am such a lucky girl!!!!

Current Obsessions...

First, as usual, Neal. And I really like the shirt I'm wearing.
Bracelet my Mom got me for my birthday a few years ago. I get comments on it almost every time I wear it! Thanks, Mom!
LOVE tulips, LOVE purple, LOVE putting tulips on our tulip embroidered table runner! (Thanks, Shelley!!!!)
LOVE Taylor's kids.....

LOVE Cali's kid....

LOVE these shoes! I bought them in France over 5 years ago and basically forgot about them. I wore them on Tuesday and got about 15 compliments. Thanks, France!

LOVE these! Although, when I was looking for this picture on the internet, it was in an article entitled "25 diet-busting food you should never eat"... good thing I don't believe in dieting..... or foods you should never eat... moving on.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet. We saw him perform last night at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra (he's a pianist) and he is INCREDIBLE! He performed Ravel's "Concerto for the Left Hand" and it was one of the most impressive things I have ever scene. Although this isn't him, you can click here to see this concerto being performed--it's AMAZING!

And lastly, I'm obsessed with the fact that Neal and I have almost been married for a YEAR! We are celebrating our anniversary by staying in a little Bed and Breakfast in Luray, VA. We'll also check out Luray Caverns and Shenandoah National Park. Can't wait!!!

11 month anniversay

Our 11 month anniversary was on Friday. Amazing husband: check.

Amazing idea to make Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue? Check. Amazing presentation of dippers? Check.

Amazing fondue pot? Check.

Amazing ability to make aforementioned fondue? NOT CHECK.

I know, it looks awful. It tasted fine, but I will probably never attempt to make cheese fondue again. . . it was the consistency of pulled taffy and very blob like--not exactly what I was going for. Luckily, I shrugged it off and we still had a great night. . . eventually. Boo to thoughtful surprises not working out! FONDUE FAIL!

Luckily, when all else fails, I still have an amazing husband. (awwwwwwwww)

EUROPE TRIP!

It's about time I blogged about our trip! It was WONDERFULLY AMAZING! I shall tell the tale as briefly as possible. We arrived in Paris at 11 AM and went straight here:

It was so exciting to see la Tour Eiffel!

Then we decided to go up to the top, since it was mostly sunny. When I looked at the weather before we left, it was rain every single day and COLD! So since it was mostly sunny, we decided to go up right then, even it was a 2 hour wait.......

Isn't this cool? The shadow of the Eiffel Tower! It is a very impressive view. Early the next morning, we took a train for here:

Bordeaux. As most of you know, when I was 16 I lived in Bordeaux with a French family. Almost ten years later, we still keep in contact and the daughter of that family, Capucine, is one of my best friends. Here we are:

I love this girl more than anything! Here's a pic of some of the family, note the stereotypical French mustache:

LOVE these people! Moi, Stéphan, Lodoïs, Patricia

And here with are with some of the most lovely people in the world: my French grandparents, BonPapa and BonneMaman. They took us on a special trip to Cap Ferret, which is one of my favorite places in the whole world. You can probably see why:

It was a gorgeous day, but still pretty cold, so we didn't get in the water. But we had fun!

After a few days, we left Bordeaux and went to Montreux Switzerland. The weather there wasn't great, but it was still GORGEOUS!

Bonus points if you know who this is! Okay, it's Freddy Mercury-- he lived in Montreux, that's how awesome Montreux is.

In Montreux we also discovered the coolest thing ever... Chocolate Chips... get it? The funny thing is, they don't have chocolate chips (like for cookies) in Europe, so they don't realized how funny it truly is. After Montreux, we went back to Paris, where we were nonstop for 4 days. It was awesome and exhausting! Here are some highlights:

Notre Dame

Montmartre at the Sacre Coeur--look at this lovely bereted woman who made it into the photo!

L'arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysées

Our friends from DC, Casey and Allie who also spent Spring Break in Paris.

The Gates of Hell at the Rodin Museum

The most overrated painting in the world.

One of my favorite paintings in the world, and subsequently, the topic of my thesis.

VERSAILLES! We spent 7 hours there!

Marie Antoinette's little village-- my favorite part of Versailles. It started pouring rain the second we got there!

The gorgeous Eiffel Tower at night... love it!

And we started our trip as it began.... it was definitely one of my favorite vacations of all time. It was so heartwarming to get to show this huge part of my life to Neal, and he LOVED it! Now we're back, jetlagged, and missing France like crazy!