Haven't Seen You in a While

Wow! Has it really been since VALENTINE'S DAY since I last posted???

The other day my Daddy mentioned I should start blogging again. In all honestly, I never really stopped blogging; I would just cause it a little pause. It was always in the back of my mind, but I got so busy doing things worth blogging about that I let the actual blogging slip a little. Okay, a lot. Ooops! Oh yeah, and I got a job, so those Mondays I used to spend blogging while Mike went to school are days of old.

I am a legal assistant for a local attorney here in Monterey. It's been great for me! I was nervous about going back to work, but it basically fell into my lap, and I firmly believe things happen for a reason. Plus, it has a great schedule--9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.  A friend and her husband PCSd (Permanently Change of Station) to Germany, so when they started interviewing for her position, I applied, not thinking they would hire me since I had NO legal experience at all. I guess it helps when you know someone on the inside though! Eric specializes in trust and estate planning. It's not quite as exciting as say criminal defense, but I find it quite interesting, and I'm learning a lot about the necessity of having a trust, will, durable power of attorney and healthcare directive in place. Got any questions about all of that? Shoot them my way!

Needless to say, Mike, the Pups and I are loving California, and I can't wait to share our adventures with you soon. It's already been seven months since we first pulled into town, and I find myself wondering how it's flown by sooooooooooo fast. With that said, this time next year, we won't be here, so if any of you are serious about visiting and seeing beautiful California, you better get to planning your visit soon!

Until next time....which hopefully won't be five months from now.

Love to Wine

In "Tastes Like Wine to Me," I introduced one of our favorite things to do....wine tastings! This area is conducive to producing so many beautiful wines, and we're doing our best to taste our way through all of them.

Because of Mike's school work, we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day the Saturday before rather than on Tuesday.

We ventured out to Salinas Valley for the River Road Wine Trail's "Valentine's Passport."We arrived to our first winery and each received a "passport," wine glass and chocolates.

To sum it up, the 14 wineries along the river road wine trail offered tastings with suggested food pairings. We visited six of the 14 :: Marilyn Remark, Paraiso, Hahn, Wrath, McIntyre and Boekenoogen. We had tasted some of these wines before, but only in tasting rooms. Here we actually got to visit the vineyards and see the estate, and the views were breathtaking! It was a perfect Valentine's Day celebration!

Paraiso Vineyard

My Valentine 

His Valentine

Who wouldn't love to taste yummy wine, food and play cornhole all while enjoying beautiful scenery?

 

Hahn Vineyard

Wrath Vineyard 

(McIntyre and Wrath teamed up for the event)

I really liked the McIntyre sparkling wines (aka champagne).

And my favorite is....

Doggies like wine tasting too!

Steel Barrel. I prefer wines aged in oak barrels over steel. 

Mike with Mr. Dave Boekenoogen

One question for you

Tastes Like Wine to Me

 It didn't take long for us to find something we love here in California. After our first time wine tasting, we've been hooked ever since! We love it! We do, after all, live in wine country. Oh you thought only Sonoma and Napa were wine country??? Think again! California has more than 3,000 wineries, and Monterey County alone has 75 of them. We'll make our way to Napa one day, but until then, we'll enjoy wine country right in our own backyard!

The thing about wine tasting is that you can make an all-day event out of it, meet friends for a tasting our two, or just pop into any of the (what seems like) million tasting rooms and enjoy a tasting to pass time. The opportunity for it surrounds us, and we certainly enjoy it!

One sunny, Saturday afternoon a group of us hopped on the Grapevine Express and ventured to Carmel Valley with about 15 tasting rooms at our disposal. No, we did not make it to all 15, which just means we have to go back again.

Georis :: Our first wine tasting

Mike is a beer man. His first impression of wine tasting? "It all tastes like wine to me."

The Ladies of the Corkscrew Crew 

The Corkscrew Crew Men (minus one).

By the end of the day Mike started tasting the differences in the wines, and it didn't just "taste like wine." 

One thing I've learned is that just because you think you don't like something, doesn't mean you won't like something. For example, I say I don't like merlot, any other red wine is fine, but I don't like merlot. However, through our wine tastings some merlots have surprised me! The same with Mike, he prefers syrah, but sometimes he'll find a pinot noir, cab, or a blend that he likes more. 

Cheers!

Stay tuned to "O: What a Life!" for more wine tasting adventures!

More Today Than Yesterday...

I love you more today than yest-er-daayyyyy. But not as much as tomorrrroooow!

Those of you that were there know, but for those that weren't this was the song we danced to for our first dance at our wedding. I had always loved the song, but to be honest, it was never a part of our courtship. It wasn't our staple song. Actually our staple song was/is Ron Dante's "I go to Rio." Oh you don't know it? Look it up! It's quite fantastic! Anyways, we really wanted to dance to "I go to Rio," but the band didn't know it, and I'm not sure we gave them enough time to learn it. So, after much thought, it just came to us! "More Today Than Yesterday!" It was perfect!

Over this past year, I've found myself singing it in my head and aloud to Mike. Most the time he just rolls his eyes at my beautiful singing voice, but I always catch a little smirk on his face. The lyrics are so true for me though. I really do love that man more each day! Some days we may have to dig a little deeper than others, but the love is always there.

We've had a spectacular first year of marriage! After our wedding, I joined Mike in Fayetteville, N.C. Many friends had forewarned me and told me exactly how much I was going to hate it there. I was nervous. Boy were they wrong! It was a great place! Granted, traffic was terrible, but that aside, I loved it. It had some great local restaurants and a charming downtown. I met some wonderfully women inside the Army and within the community. I found myself working part-time at Betty Kelly's Gift Shop and the Cape Fear Botanical Garden Gift Shop. The people I worked with were amazing! What more could a girl want in a duty station? Better shopping? Okay, I'll give you that one, but Raleigh was only a little over an hour away.

I'll keep the rest of the year short and simple. Here we go:

We went to Wilimington, N.C. Charleston, S.C.; white-water rafting and ziplining in Colorado; Jamaica for a wedding; Asheville, N.C. and drove across the country to move to California! 

How fun it was to celebrate our first anniversary in sunny California! The best thing about getting married on MLK weekend is four-day-weekend anniversaries!!! Even though we already have three-day weekends here because Mike doesn't have class on Fridays; it's still fun to have an extra day. :)

The celebration started Friday morning at 9:30 when this package arrived at our door.

Our wedding cake was here! Because we had cupcakes and one small cake to cut into on our wedding day, our sweet baker, Mary, from Mary's Cakes and Pasteries made a replica of our small cake, wrapped it up and ready for us to put into the freezer. A year ago, we had no idea we'd be moving to California and would have to figure out a way to get it there. 

My sweet Mother (anyone who knows her, knows she's the best!) thought for months on the best way to get it to us in California. We thought of overnighting it, but it was way too expensive. It turned out the best bang for her buck was to just ship it standard via Fed Ex. It took 3.5 days to get here, but it came! I was so excited, that is, until I opened the box. It had a suspicious smell to it, but not too bad. I thought, we just have to take a bite. And who says we have to wait until Sunday? Still, I was so excited to see it! And this is what we got:

It probably would have been okay, if it hadn't been put into the Fed Ex box already upside down! D'oh! Oh well, Momma tried! And for that, I love her!!!

We took one bite of our cake right then and there, and then shared some with the pups. 

 They thought it tasted just fine!

Saturday was wine tasting at a beautiful winery, Chateau Julien. They were having a special event Barrels and Futures tasting. We got to taste some yummy wines that will be released at the end of this year.

Sunday was our actual anniversary. We had dinner at Peppoli's at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach. Before dinner we had cocktails by the firepits overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At the end of the golf day, a bag piper walks around Spanish Bay and performs for the patrons. Unfortunately, we missed the bagpiper, but the cocktails and fire were still quite enjoyable. 

We sat down for dinner, opened our menu and saw this:

Of course it brought tears to my eyes. It doesn't take much to make me cry.

Then we capped off the down with some more time by the fire, except it was too windy outside by that point, so we had to sit inside. 

Because our cake didn't quite make it in whole, we celebrated with homemade cupcakes and champagne. What a spectacular year we've had! 

A California Christmas :: Part II

(continued from "A California Christmas::Part I")

Christmas Day

We woke up on Christmas morning and started with the Rosenfeld's Christmas Morning Cheese Danish breakfast.

And mimosas

After breakfast Amelia & Andy wanted to see if Santa came.

Which he did!

He even left us one of his helpers...

SANDY Claus

Amelia wanted to help Mike open his stocking, hoping there would more doggie treats in it.

I got a Chick-Fil-A giftcard....

But the nearest Chick-Fil-A is 5 hours away!

Amelia sporting her Christmas bow. She was falling asleep sitting up!

Then it was time for our Christmas naps! 

The whole house took one.

Andy's favorite napping spot...

is under the couch!

So, our first Sunday at St. John's Chapel, we met Mrs. Glori Evert at the bake sale. About 30 seconds into meeting her, we found ourselves with plans for Christmas dinner. I was thrilled! Here was this sweet, little British woman so kindly opening her home to us on Christmas, and we were more than open to going. 

Glori also invited another family for Christmas dinner too: Kenny, Brenda, Virginia and Eli Enny. We had a lovely five-course meal, complete with fig pudding en flambe! I wish I could have taken pictures of it all, but I thought it would be rude to pull out my camera all through dinner. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Here's her Christmas table

She had Advent calendars and a little gift for each of the children. Can you see the cylinder-type things next to each plate? Those are called crackers. You pull them apart and out pops a present. I got a mini-screwdriver, and Mike got a manicure kit!

Glori is one of the most enthusiastic people I know. She truly loves her life and is grateful for all of her blessings. She loves her husband, "My Bill" more than anything, even still after he's been gone almost 5 years. How sweet! Her spirit is contagious! She has quickly become one of my best friends in Monterey. She has lived here for 46 years! She knows the area well and has been so kind to introduce it to me. I am thankful to God for bringing Glori into my life.

The O'Donnells and Glori

The Enny Family and Glori

 

What a spectacular first Christmas we had!!! I cannot wait for the many, many more to come! Though Mike will most likely be deployed for some of them, we'll always remember our first Christmas!