dripping with passion

life is wild! there's so much buzzing around in my head - work is crazy busy, wedding planning includes so many trillions of details it seems (and the lessons i mentioned earlier aren't learned all at once!), the boy and i are headed to utah this weekend, and i am moving into our new place on tuesday. i am finding a center in the middle of this swirling, and i am really happy. here's some things i'm loving lately: -chocolate drizzled coconut luna bars. i'm kind of obsessed. -bodypump classes. i am determined to be in the best shape of my life for our wedding, and i am feeling strong. can i just share some self-pride for one second and say that i have been doing ten minute planks at the gym? yes - ten straight minutes of planking (switching to side planks at different intervals). -etsy. so many pretty things that are just what i want for the wedding. -almonds and raisins. i've been mixing raw almonds with the jumbo mixed raisins from trader joe's and...

last saturday, some of the best girls in the bay threw me a bridal shower at katie's new building's seventh floor terrace overlooking the bay bridge. i certainly missed many of my beautiful san francisco and palo alto friends, but it was such a lovely little celebration.  i do think it's pretty weird that i get parties and presents, just because someone gave me an engagement ring, but it is so fun to share and celebrate love with friends. it was pretty neat to be with friends from the both the city and the suburbs; from college, work and childhood that clear and pretty saturday.

last week was the boy's thirtieth birthday! we celebrated all week long, culminating in a party with friends and a huge chocolate cake with sparklers in it (which were a little too close for comfort in this picture...) you also might notice from this picture that the boy's name! i first started calling him "the boy" on this blog because i wanted to be sensitive to his privacy in some way, and honestly because i wasn't sure at all how i felt about him, and naming him just seemed too conclusive, i guess! and "the boy" just stuck! and then it became a bit endearing to those close to us. and then i kind of enjoyed continuing the mystery :) (although there were plenty of giveaways on my sister and mom's blogs, and even a clue on the post about his birthday last year...) i'm probably going to keep calling him the boy on the blog... and holy cow i am so glad he was born. i asked thirty people in his life to write him a little note of love, a...

my life has sort of been consumed by wedding planning. we are having several celebrations, and there are so many details, and so many choices, and so many options for every choice! but also, my life can't be consumed by this, because there's still so much else going on! it's a peculiar feeling to want time to slow down so we have more space to make plans but simultaneously want time to speed up so we can get to the exciting day and start our lives together. i don't think i'll ever feel this particular brand of mortality again, so i'm doing my best to chose to relish it, even when things feel really stressful. cutting through all the to-dos, i constantly remember how grateful my heart is.   a few things i am learning from planning a wedding: -just make a decision and decide it's the best decision. stop considering other options. the stress of everything being just right  is not worth it. i have to decide that it is  just right! i think this is a real...

in the middle of my workweeks, i'm sometimes dreaming of the long, crystal blue days at the lake. wish i could go hop in the boat with my siblings for some skiing on the gold... or freak out at spectacular sunsets with the people i love most... or hang out on the deck with that boy i have a huge crush on... but - on wednesdays in the office behind the school, i must simply smile on last summer and look forward to next summer!

miffy and i met each other within days after we were born - our moms were so excited when their baby girls arrived on the very same day. and the two of us june 12 babies have been friends ever since. she's my truest of an oldest friend possible! miffy came to the bay for a quick visit last weekend. i took hardly any pictures - what?! - but we had a really fantastic time. miffy was so nice to talk me through lots of wedding planning stress and it was wonderful to catch up on her life, which is taking on a big change soon!                             we went to the oakland temple, biked across the golden gate bridge to sausalito, barely made the last ferry back in time to peddle our bikes back to the rental place and therefore cruised along the piers and crissy field, stopped by north beach and chinatown, ate dinner at the coolest indian place on fillmore, took a lovely sunday morning walk around stanfor...

one of our first dates back together - the county fair! a few have inquired about how the boy came back. as i mentioned, it's a long, incredible, painful, beautiful, sacred story -- but this is what i'll share: -the boy had a realization of clarity and beautiful truth that taught him undeniably that love is always anxious work and that love is an active choice. -i was tremendously broken and it took an incredible amount of energy and faith to repair and rewire my mind and heart. real, abiding love, aided by the power of god (truly!) enabled me to put in that energy and faith. even now, my psychological reflexes borne out of heartbreak cause real challenges, and i am still healing. but i am  healing - and it is amazing and miraculous and awesome. -the boy left something - usually a flower and a treat and a note - on my doorstep every single morning and every single afternoon for several weeks. he sent me a letter in the mail nearly every day. often, i'd co...

last weekend my wonderful friends from high school threw me a bridal shower. it was in mallory's parents' back yard and it was just the sweetest, loveliest, darlingest little event. i am so sad that i forgot my real camera and only got a couple iphone shots of the enchanting charm! the set up was so adorable and the food was so yummy and the company was just the best . i sat there in the middle of the blithe utah summer evening, surrounded by dear friends, and just marveled at how happy all the air around me felt on my skin. i love these girls that i grew up with - some since elementary school, some since high school, some since college - so very, very much, and i could feel their excitement for me and the boy. we caught up on each other's lives, enjoyed sweet and savory treats, shared love stories, opened presents, and stayed hours until it was dark chatting and laughing. gosh, it was just so fun . seriously, i could hardly fall asleep that night just feeli...

i have been a little bit whiney about a few things in my life lately, which is absolutely ridiculous. it's funny how we can get caught up in the stressful or bothersome details of life and they can be like temporary but strong blinders of how much beauty is totally around us. when i strip everything away, i am deeply, immensely happy - i feel as if my fondest and richest longings have been fulfilled in a series of miracles. but that doesn't mean the challenges hanging around go away. i love that this culmination of my aches and dreams is still hard in beautiful ways. amidst the stress of complications at work and the complexities of planning a wedding and a new life and hardly sleeping, i've been thinking about the things i really like about my life right now, and decided it was time to make a new list. { here's all my similar lists of the past } 1. i have some super rad coworkers that inspire me. we have lots of new teachers at our schools (we opened our seco...

i had many inquiries about the recipes we used for our most recent garden dinner party. both of these salads are super delicious and perfect for the end of summer! mango, coconut and edamame quinoa (adapted from this website) 2 cups uncooked quinoa (we used the mixed quinoa from trader joe's, but you can use any color/type) 2 fresh mangoes, diced 1/2 large red onion, diced 1-2 large red peppers, diced 1 small bunch cilantro, chopped 1 1/2 cups shredded, unsweetened coconut 1 1/2 cups golden raisins 2-3 cups edamame (we used thawed frozen edamame from trader joe's) juice of 5-6 limes 4-5 tbsp balsamic vinegar *** 1. rinse quinoa well, cook as directed; let cool completely. 2. juice limes and wisk together with balsamic vinegar and a bit of salt. 3. add all other ingredients and toss. 4. enjoy! green salad with pesto chicken (adapted from my sister's blog ) for the chicken:  4-5 chicken breasts 1 cup pesto 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar ...

to celebrate our loveliest friend melinda, brittany and i got back into dinner-party-planning mode and put together a sweet fancy picnic in elizabeth gamble garden in palo alto {our previous garden party here }. the set up was about the splendidest setting ever - the old wood table with benches under the biiiig oak tree and the dappling evening sunlight - and we brought along some fresh-cut dahlias and some colorful, delicious food. some of our very closest friends, most of whom had never been to one of our dinner parties!, made the best company, and we enjoyed the perfect cool of the summer dusk.   on the menu: –fresh berries, artisan cheese and pita crackers – heirloom caprese salad – mango coconut and edamame quinoa – green salad with pesto chircken – honeydrop, salted caramel and powdered lemon cookies.         there is something so special (trite word, but fitting) about entertaining like this. just to enjoy some finer things and to create beauty and s...

my first sunday at church in san francisco, i was introduced to another new girl named kelsey. i remember telling her that i liked her hair. something told me we were going to be good friends. honestly, since the moment we met. the next week, in my new place wanderlusty and also nearly friendless state, i was looking for someone to have an adventure with. i asked kelsey if she wanted to go to santa cruz with me just to explore. she agreed without any hesitation. and i knew my initial suspicion about our friend compatibility was correct. on that day trip down the coast, we quickly got into deep conversations and realized we were actually fantastic adventure buddies. we fell in love with san francisco together, and over the past four years we’ve done all kinds of spectacular exploring around the bay area and beyond. we’ve discovered different neighborhoods and random nicks and crannies of the city, road tripped along highway one as far north as seattle and as far south as los angeles, ...