Two years and counting

I missed my blog's second birthday! I missed Christmas! I missed New Years! I missed the second anniversary of my big move! Things have been pretty awesome around here, but busy busy busy. Of course December is a busy month for everybody, but this last one year really takes the cake! Within only a few weeks, there were several birthdays, holidays, and other major life events that required a good party.

Was that vague enough for you? ;)

Let's try again...




We got engaged!

I apologize for the long absence, and I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season. Cheers to a fresh and new and awesome 2013!

Michigan in Fall

My gosh, fall came hard and fast this year! We barely got any typical late summer days where it's warm and sunny and the nights are crisp and cool. Instead, it went straight to COLD, day and night. Meh.

Not being a fan of cold and snowy winters, fall makes me melancholic and anxious. This summer really passed in a flash and the weather has pretty much been messed up since last winter. The only cure to the "fall blues": walks in the sunshine and admiring the beautiful fall foliage.

I really love our neighborhood! It's so cozy, quiet, and homey :)

PS: Speaking of Michigan, the Michigan Singalong (which I wrote about here) can still be viewed here: Pure Michigan Singalong. Go check it out!

Travel mode *OFF*

We were lucky duckies this year. Between my boyfriend and I, we got to go on several golf trips (BF), to New York City (me), Germany (together), San Diego (together), and a few weekends back we started a new tradition in South Haven, MI. You might remember, I LOVE SOUTH HAVEN!

This is the second time we have traveled to South Haven on the weekend after Labor Day. It's an awesome time to go: it's not as stifling hot anymore, the kids are back in school, so there aren't that many tourists anymore, and of course: it's ALWAYS a great time to go to South Haven <3

While it was too cool and windy to swim this time, it was still great to take walks on the beach and downtown, and also see some neighboring towns.

Lookie, it was so windy, these guys were lifted into the sky for several seconds at a time!!! Looked so fun and a little bit scary!

Michigan pride!

I can't believe they took the video down. You'd think with a big production like this, they would have cleared copyright issues beforehand. Disappointed :(

EDIT: Here's a different source for the video. Hope it stays up :)

Check out this video!

It just looks like all the teams representing the different Michigan cities/location had SO MUCH FUN! I remember singing in choirs/choruses and it was always a blast and I miss it so much. Besides performing in musical groups, I've also participated in quite a few public events like demonstrations, flash mobs, raves (it was the 90s, OK?), yoga, and the energy participating in a large group event like that has always been fantastic and very moving to me. So yeah, I might have teared up a little when watching this video the first few times. I guess I'm a softie and/or I have developed a little bit of Michigan Pride :)

Back to the video, I think they did an amazing job with it and I'm sure it was a blast to film/produce/perform. IT'S ALWAYS A GOOD TIME!!

PS: Just one question, where is South Haven?!?!

Favorite winter pastime: Puzzles :)

The days are so short already and tonight we even had a slight frost! I guess that means that fall has truly begun, and winter is near. I'm not a big fan of winter, but I was excited to pull out a new puzzle! It has 1500 pieces and will be quite a challenge.

Starting this puzzle made me miss my mom though, because we usually did puzzles together around Christmas time. So much fun! :) Maybe I'll see her later this fall/winter though!

Bavarian Breakfast

With the Oktoberfest upon us we thought we'd celebrate with a Bavarian breakfast! We found Weisswurst locally (!), pretzels too, and after my last trip to Germany I smuggled in the world's best sweet mustard! What a way to start the weekend :)




Not the healthiest, but yummy and we did have a green smoothie before this extravaganza. Oh and we skipped the beer this time ;)

Outside Bikram class!

My studio had a 60 minute Bikram class outside at a local street/art/food fair today. There were about 100 of us set up on a closed off street between some downtown buildings. And IT WAS SO AMAZING!!!!

I hope I can post a picture soon. Since I was busy practicing and getting ooh and aaah-ed at by bystanders, I wasn't able to snap any myself :)

The most AMAZINGEST thing of all was doing the Half Moon back bend outside, going back, way back, all the way back... and seeing sky, sky, skyyyyy, and then people upside down! So cool :)))

I hope it inspired some watchers to come and try a class soon :)


EDIT: And here is a photo of us doing Balancing Stick  :)

And another one in Full Locust:

Bikram Birthday!

I almost forgot my Bikram Birthday is coming up in a couple of days! Wheeeee!!

For celebration this year I have (unknowingly) made practicing a priority again. And I'm really enjoying myself in the hot room, yay!

I am sending big big THANK YOUs out to the Universe, to all Bikram teachers, my family and friends and my self, the Bikram community, and to Bikram (the man). I am so thankful for having all of you in my life.

~~~~~~

And wouldn't you know it... Bikram Yoga Teacher Training (Fall 2012) is starting in a couple of weeks :-o
I'm rooting for all of you, trainees! Best of luck!

Grandma's cooking: Stuffed Green Pepper with Orzo Noodle Rice and Yogurt

We got tons and tons of green peppers in our CSA this month and really didn't know what to do with them. Then came the bestest idea: try to make stuffed green peppers, just like my grandma makes. My mom and grandma were so lovely, skyped with me for a couple of hours and shared a few of her signature recipes. On Sunday we gave it our best and tried it for the first time:

HOLY MOLY! It turned out soooo good! We all know that normally, even if we use our grandmas' recipes, they never turn out quite as good as grandma's. This one turned out really well though! We were quite proud of ourselves :)

Thank you grandma! <3

Puppy Update!!!!

YAY, I was so pumped to visit the puppies the other day! Are you as excited as I am?!?! Haha, probably not. Anyway, they are 10  months now and pretty big. They still behave like puppies though, so they stumble all over each other:

... and sit on your lap asking to be snuggled:

No problem there! I'll snuggle them all day long :)

They are pretty lively, so it was hard getting a good picture of them... They are still as adorable as they were as puppies though. The characters are still the same. Boy-puppy is clumsy and super-excited about us visiting and playing, and prefers my boyfriend. Girl-puppy (in my lap in the second pic) is super-snuggly and calm and prefers me.