he's done, (I feel like WE are done!)

Let's face it, this past year was a team effort! But yay! We just got home from Joe's last grad school celebration, he got the official okay on his thesis and wam, bam, thank you ma'am he's f***ing (sorry for the profanity, but this is a big deal!) done!!! Yay, we get Saturday afternoons back - real two day weekends people. AMEN! In all seriousness though, I truly couldn't be any prouder of my man stud for getting through this year and balancing his roles as math teacher, department chair, grad student, job seeker, boyfriend, friend, brother, son etc as amazingly as he did! Joe got awarded the Happy Feet award tonight by his grad school classmates because you can't contain his feet (apparently he's got some rockin' dance moves) or his SPIRIT - and that's the truth- that guy has got an unbelievable amount of passion, enthusiasm and life inside of him - I'm so lucky to witness it!

on a totally unrelated note, here's the song of the day...

letting it all sink in...

My head and heart are once again swirling with so many feelings of love and gratitude and there is just not nearly enough time to share all that is running through my mind, so here are just a few snippets of some of the thoughts that have been sticking in my head as of late...

beautiful things are born when something is broken...

let the blood flow deep into the belly of your muscle...

if you want something, you will suffer...

acknowledge and let it be...

Song of the day....

And here is a pic of our flourishing tomato plants - i just heart watching plants grow...

Look how much bigger the garden is today!

we heart Clare!

So not only is Joe the coolest boyfriend in the world - he also has the coolest family. Joe's little sister Clare spent the weekend with us and I just have to say - I adore her! She' s a super smart, sassy, fun-loving and full of life young woman and I just treasured getting to spend time with her and getting to know her a little better this weekend. Clare and I first met about a year and a half ago when I made a work trip out to DC - at that point Joe ad I had only been dating for about 2 months - she was the first member of Joe's family that I met, and I thought it was pretty cool that she was willing to meet up with me without Joe being present. We ended up chatting over dinner for about 2 hours and well, right then and there, the girl stole my heart.

We spent this weekend going out for spanish tapas, touring Stanford, sipping bubble tea, hanging out at a local park, checking out Joe's new school, catching up on the last Harry Potter movie, brunching with Clare and a few of her college friends and cooking up a mean pot of chili and cornbread for dinner.

Clare - if you're reading this (and I KNOW you are), we can't wait to have you back!

Clare and Joe - love the sweet relationship Joe and his siblings share :).

The weekend trio :).

Joe remaining calm of course in the midst of a couple of crazy girls :).

Lovefest

Words can't even begin to describe what a beautiful weekend it was. Lindsey and Nate's wedding was bursting at the seams with love - they packed meaning into every detail of their wedding and the end result was an evening full of the essence of who they are as individuals and a couple and so many other intangible things that are beautiful in life. What a truly special day spent with some of my favorite people in all the world. Lindsey and Nate - I'm so happy for you guys!

The happy couple :).


ooooh and one more happy couple :)

AND, here is the 1st song that Nate and Linds danced to - loved it and had to share!

Our dreams have come true!

We just finished building our very own raised vegetable bed!!!!!! Since we first met, Joe and I have always talked about wanting to have our very own bit of soil to grow things in and well after just a couple of hours in the back yard today, we've got one!!! Voila!

We've got lavender, lemon verbana - two things that I LOVE the smell of and so does Joe. I think we'll also use the lemon verbana for some teas eventually. And for edibles, we're starting with basil and tomatoes - two big basil plants and 4 tomato plants - yellow tomatoes, purple tomatoes, sun gold tomatoes and red cherry tomatoes! I hope we can actually get them to grow!!

Here's the before shot as we started to dig up a patch of grass to make room for the new vegetable bed.

Did I mention that it was hot today!!! If this was a close up you'd be able to see the sweat pouring off of me!

Once we got the grass cleared we built the frame of the bed. Credit goes to loverboy for engineering this beauty!

Joe came up with the idea of making stakes for each of the four corners to make drilling a bit easier and to add some stability. They worked perfectly - we built the frame upside down and then flipped it and hammered the stakes into the ground. He was pretty excited to get the electric saw out today to cut up the pieces of wood that we bought at OSH. That boy loves his power tools and I think it's adorable!

The frame in place!

And one more cameo from the new star of our backyard. Can't wait to share pics of what we grow!

On a side note, here are a couple of projects that kept me busy this weekend....

Kat inspired this - I had a surplus of dum-dums after Joe's bday pinata and Kat sent this brilliant idea for the left overs. I bought a styrafoam ball at Joann's (I felt a little guilty about that) and stuck those suckers in it and made a dum-dum astroid - how cool is that! hah - probably not nearly as cool as it is in my head.

Joe made this refreshing sun tea today!

We hung these guys in our kitchen. A while back, Kat, Laura, Lindsey and I got together and painted these for Kat's kitchen. When Joe and I moved into our new place, Kat passed them on to me as a house warming gift. They add so much color to our kitchen and I love that every time I look at them they remind me of the girls.

Alright off to enjoy the yummy teriyaki chicken that Joe has grilling along with some grilled veggies and pineapple!

Happy 4th of Julying everyone!

just a silly story...

So here's a little sneak peak into our room - I hesitate to post a pic of our room because it's not quite fully decorated yet but I just couldn't resist posting the story that goes along with this pic (Warning: this story may be more entertaining to me than anyone else). I got home on Friday afternoon, to a boyfriend who had the afternoon off and discovered that he had taken it upon himself to do some redecorating. I had made Joe a "welcome home" card when he got back from DC and hung it up with some heart sticky notes in our living room. We ended up leaving the card hanging for the week, but I guess by Friday, Joe was ready for a change of scenery because when I walked into the bedroom, this is what I saw...

The heart stickers that were in our living room had been moved to our bedroom and thoughtfully placed 2 on each side of the bed! Joe calls it his environmentally conscious recycled decorating. I call it adorable.

oooooh and good news! The Farbielecki cannery has officially re-opened for the season. We found these beauties at the Farmer's market today and just finished making our 1st batch of Strawberry Jam. The kitchen smells amazing.

One more side note - I started an incredible class last Tuesday at Stanford. It's called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and is based on a program founded by John Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts. It basically centers on the connection between mind and body and I have to confess, I am loving it. During our first class, we went around in a circle and shared what brought us to the class and I was in tears for at least half of it. I am awe-struck at what we as human beings endure in our lifetimes and I am even more awe-struck by the courage it takes to share these experiences. Along with a number of other things, the class guides us through developing a meditation practice. I am going to try to be disciplined about this to give it a fair shot. More to come on this for sure. For now, it's off to a Bikram Yoga class - eeek, wish me luck, it's been a while since I've done heated yoga.

Happy Birthday to the sweetest man I've ever known

It was Joe's birthday this past week and so I am going to guiltlessly take some time to brag about him. Joe is hands down the sweetest and most amazing man I've ever known. I've never known anyone who is able to handle life as gracefully and fun-lovingly as he does. The guy knows how to buckle down and "GSD" like no one I know - it's no wonder that he has been able to handle working full time as a teacher at KIPP - a crazy, super high standard charter school, serve as Math Department Chair, go to grad school, move in with his girlfriend and line up a job at another high achieving charter school for next year. I swear he gets more done by 8am than most people do in an entire day and somehow he manages to do it all with a big, bright blue eyed smile. He somehow seldom allows the craziness of the world get in the way of just enjoying himself and making sure that the people he loves know it. He's one of those people that just has his priorities in life straight - he spends his days working towards something that he whole-heartedly believes in and although the work is exhausting, I have witnessed how fulfilled he is by the it and I have to say it's absolutely inspiring. His dedication to teaching is so courageous and the strength that he puts forth in working with kids makes me fall deeper and deeper in love with him. Joe squeezes so much out of every moment of life - no matter how crazy things get - he does an incredible job of not allowing any of the craziness to take away from his ability to savor every last drop - whether that's in his beloved cups of coffee/beer, sunny weekend mornings, kick ass trail runs, U2 songs, cooking up something delicious or just snuggling me! I feel luckier than I could ever express to have found someone who inspires me to do what I love, enjoy life and love those around me. He is more than I could have ever dreamed of finding in a partner. Joe spent his actual birthday in DC with 55 8th graders :) - so when he got back it was only fitting that we had a big celebration. Here are pics from yesterday.

Backyard - before the birthday BBQ makeover. Super sunny day - yay!

Morning light and limes and bouganvilla - I'm loving this color combo.

I spent an evening watching the Bachelorette and making these fun hanging mason jars one night while Joe was in DC. I love them - and just a girly side note - these are going to be everywhere at my wedding one day - maybe even full of the same exact flowers - I was loving the bouganvilla this weekend!

Joe's grilling station - that boy doesn't need much to create some major deliciousness for dinner! oooh and we bought a Costco pack of limes so the extras became decoration.

All set :) - backyard post Bday BBQ makeover - hanging mason jars, outdoor Italian cafe lights (I've always wanted a backyard to hang these in!) and a super colorful table runner - I didn't want to leave this place last night.

I heart our table runner!

The carne asada didn't last long.

Joe's famous black beans - these were amazing!

Margaritas in mason jars :).

Our truly amazing friends. Kat' head is being blocked by the Margarita pitcher and Erik an Julian's Margarita's are the only evidence that they were present.

My love in the tree hanging the AWESOME pinata that Kat brought - totally pumped up the party!

The birthday boy with his blindfold.

Erik giving it his best shot.

Lindsey takes a swing.

Julian goes to town on Toro the pinata.

We found some clowns :). Photo credit to Laura!

Lighting the candles

Sunset, twinkly lights and Joe with a Dum-dum from the Pinata.

Birthday BBQ afterglow - this completely matches the way I felt inside after last night. Love Joe, love our friends, love our home and love having all three of these things together.