Bridal shower, take 2

Funnily enough, as soon as I posted my blog on bridal showers, my mom sent me the pictures from my big one. I'll just give you a few pictures...My mom and amazing bestie Debbie threw me a huge bridal shower with a bunch of my friends, some of my aunts and cousins, and a bunch of Jantz's aunts and cousins that live in Utah (I was so surprised to see them walk in! it was seriously so sweet that they drove over an hour to come :)

We filled the gym, had delicious sandwiches and brownies, and the present opening began...

This is how many people came...just to get the idea

Jantz helped us get ready, like a good fiancé

My darling aunt and uncle and their 5 kids flew in from New Jersey to see us before the wedding. 

They really are so adorable.

Some of Jantz's fam

Some of my fam 

Somehow I agreed to let them tie all the ribbons in my hair...oh and wear those glasses...

Debbie wrote everything down :) she is such a doll for planning this thing

turning draft of thesis in...check :)

I forgot to mention that we went to a Christmas party for Jantz's work (which also happens to be my dad's work...but he was in Japan, so we missed him) on Wednesday. They had delicious food and gave away a lot of prizes. We got a really nice new blender, which we're excited for mostly just to make shakes, which is all we ever use our blender for. We drove up with one of Jantz's co-workers and his wife, with their darling new baby. They were tons of fun. So much fun, that we just got back from a lunch date with them to Chipotle. haha.

So, I turned in the first official draft of my thesis yesterday. And it felt really good, I'm not gonna lie. I ended up with more pages than I expected, and just as many images. Jantz took me out to PF Changs to celebrate :) it was probably the best PF Changs I've had a long time. so good.

Now I get to work on checking off the rest of my to-do list, which is pretty lengthy, but after next week, things will get a lot easier, and then it'll be off to Disneyland for Christmas :)

Tonight we're off to a Christmas party with some friends. It's gonna be real fancy, so we get to dress up - I'm definitely more excited for that than Jantz is. haha. I'm bringing some roasted potatoes...which are soon to be in the oven. I'm hoping to return with some great pictures.

Here's a sneak peak at a wedding picture...I've been trying to sift through them all:

thesis schmeesis

The first draft of my thesis is due on Friday. So basically I've been spending every day for the past couple weeks frantically trying to finish up what I've got. I was so far ahead in the middle of the semester that I kind of slacked off, thinking getting all my pages together wouldn't be too bad. If you can guess, I was wrong. haha. It really hasn't been too bad, just really stressful, but it wouldn't be grad school if it wasn't stressful right? I'm just excited to get this all wrapped up so I can move on to defending my thesis and graduating :)

So, here's to seeing you again after Friday

bachelorette parties :)

I totally forgot that pictures were taken at both my lingerie and bachelorette party! (I'm sure my mom has some from the big bridal shower she threw for me, but I don't have those haha). So here are some pictures...just a little late:

Lingerie Party


hosted by these two lovely ladies, 
ria and b (in that order), they're the best:

 they blindfolded me and i had a certain amount of time to put on everything in the suitcase (i think the story went something like, what if the lights went out on our honeymoon and we had to get dressed really fast)...

everyone loved that all the clothes got tucked into the bikini bottom. scandalous. 

nikki, me, debbie, daisy. friends since elementary school

Lish, Andrea, and Suzie were also there. And they all gave me amazing gifts. because, well, they all are amazing friends. they may have even made me try on some of their gifts...haha, it was a really good time, to say the least.


So here's a waaay late blog post thank you :) 
from both me and jantz (haha)

Bachelorette Party

The night I got into Colorado (Monday before the wedding), my wonderful (then future) mother and sister in-laws and some CO friends threw me a bachelorette party. It was so very sweet of them to do so. First we went to Cheesecake Factory (can you tell yet how much we love it there? haha), and I opened gifts, which were great, by the way, all very thoughtful. Every gift I opened, bridal/lingerie/bachelorette, all of them, I felt more and more blessed to have such amazing/wonderful/special friends and family. 


Okay, here's some of the pictures:


Oh yeah, and they made me wear that crown. it says bride-to-be and it lights up! I wore it all night :)


Larke gave me these hot heels.

I didn't know at the time, but jantz loves those plates and cups in the bag.

our delish cheesecake for desert. i think it was red velvet. it was so good.

Then we went bowling. it really was such a good time. exactly what i needed.

So, there you go :) I guess this could start the recap of the wedding. can't wait.

adjusting to life after thanksgiving vacation

Jantz and I got back last night from a great vacation in Colorado. I'm not going to lie, neither of us wanted to come home. Getting to play with family all day and not having to worry about work or school was just too much fun. Especially when I was supposed to be finishing up my thesis.....yep, didn't do that. Instead we shopped, played games, and ate lots of good food. Definitely worth it :)

While we continue to recover and get over our sorrow of being back in the grind, I'll share this brief tidibt.

Since it has started getting cold, we've been making stops at Starbucks every so often to get their caramel apple cider. (and now I have to preface. you know when you go to a food place and you have to give a name (think ordering pizza, putting your name down at a restaurant, or telling the Starbucks man your name so he can nicely write it on your cup)? Well, you may be surprised to know that Jantz isn't the most convenient name for these such occasions. No one ever gets it right. So recently Jantz has been trying out some new names to use....so far it's pretty entertaining, mostly because he forgets what name he said by the time they actually call it. Ok, preface done).   So one particular time, we went to Starbucks for their delicious caramel apple cider. Jantz gave the name Chad, and I gave the name Ali (because that's my name). This is what we walked away with:

Chad and Ally, happily ever after.

This story sounded better before I wrote it all out. haha.

birthday fun

Here are some pictures from my birthday :) remember when I said that Jantz took me to Cheesecake Factory on Saturday? Well somehow we didn't take any pictures. But trust me, it was really good, and really busy, and really delicious.

Monday my mom took us to Macaroni Grill 

(and of course she showed up with balloons; one of these years I won't be surprised haha):

Then Tuesday came around. I was sleeping when Jantz left for work, but he still made sure to say happy birthday. I worked on my presentation (that I gave Wednesday) all morning and then went to work for a bit, but ended up coming home early to finish up my paper. 

Jantz thought I wasn't going to be home until after him, though, so he I kind of ruined his surprise, but not really. He walked in with a bouquet of these beautiful roses:

I really don't know what it is about flowers...they don't really do anything...but when Jantz gives me flowers, it's pretty much the sweetest thing ever.

Anyway, apparently he was going to bake me a cake and have it baking when I got home (he even bought everything to make one - including a huge bottle of sprinkles (my favorite!)). I only felt a little bit bad that I was already home, because it meant I got to watch him make it!  

the end result was quite impressive. he even bought icing to decorate it. pretty good piping skills if you ask me:

Then my dad and stepmom took us out to dinner at PF Changs. It was so delish. and fun to just hang out and talk to the parents.

look how cute they are:

Here's me opening and showing off the presents Jantz got for me

(this one is the Lion King on Blu-Ray. I've wanted it since I found out we could buy it!):

I hope this doesn't make Jantz seem less manly, but he is amazing at shopping for me; he seriously buys me the cutest clothes...

blowing out the candles:

Jantz thought he could do a better job at blowing them out, so we did it again 

(and he totally kicked my trash):

I think this is the most pictures I've put up in one post ever. haha

Newsflash

We officially have ALL of our wedding pictures! And they are amazing, let me tell you. So amazing and so numerous that I couldn't even chose one to post on here. But I am so excited to look though them all over and over again, and eventually I'll choose some choice ones to put on here :) hopefully sooner rather than later. I have to give a big presentation to tomorrow, and once that is over, I will be really happy and totally consumed by reliving our great day.

Just for funsies, here's a bridal picture I quite like, if I let myself be vain enough to say so haha:

Tonight my parents are taking us out to dinner for my birthday. Yes, I turned the big 2-4 today. My mom took us out last night for a birthday dinner (at Macaroni Grill. yum), and Jantz took me to Cheesecake Factory on Saturday (one of our all-time faves).  It's actually been a really great birthday this year. Made even better by my incredibly loving parents, in-laws, and of course, my sweetheart of a husband.

Carving

Over Halloween weekend we carved us some pumpkins. It took a while, but it was a lot of fun! Here's some snapshots:

mine

Jantz's (1st prize for sure)

Instead of dressing up this year, we went to our friend's house and watched Coraline and ate lots of popcorn and candy. 

It was a great Halloween.

flying by

October literally seems like it went by in a day. I can't believe it's already the 4th of November! Time is going so fast. How is it already Friday??? (I mean, I love Fridays, so it's good exasperation)

I'm teaching my class about Baroque art today. It's my absolute fave, so of course I took way too long preparing for my lesson. Needless to say, I don't care if everyone falls asleep today, I'm going to have fun. haha. (in their defense, there is rarely any sleeping in class :)

Snow keeps threatening to fall out here, and I pray every day that it doesn't. Jantz on the other hand, is very excited for when it does.

More later on our pumpkin carving :)

Pretz

Do you guys remember this episode from friends? Joey is such a keeper. (ps, my favorite part about the youtube video is that it looks like it's going to be in spanish, but then it's not)

I made pretzels last week for my German class (where we learn how to read German but not how to understand or speak it...good thing my teacher is an actual German with an excellent sense of humor). We were having a "German" food party for class and I decided to make homemade soft pretzels. I found a super easy recipe here. And when I mean easy, I mean I had never used yeast before or made real bread (ok ok, aside from working at a bakery for two years...but that was different!), and they turned out amazing both times I made the recipe. 

They were pretty delish, and there weren't any left over. They were no mall pretzels, but they were pretty good.


Here's some more tidbits of our weekend/week:

• Jantz's good friend came into town from Colorado, so we've been doing lots of fun guy things (aka watching sports, staying up late, and going out to eat). Jantz has been extra sweet and let me skip out on lunch to go shopping. I haven't been shopping by myself in a long time. I found some nice dress pants and a cute top. It's funny how even just one new piece of clothing can make a girl feel special.

• My mom took me out for breakfast this morning. I love breakfast food. especially hash browns, and pancakes/waffles/french toast, and sausage and bacon. pretty much all of it. I love it. and when my mom gives us a bag of halloween goodies to take home, you just can't go wrong.

• I had a huge breakthrough with my thesis this week. And by breakthrough I mean I found out some really great news. While talking with my advisor and going over my progress, she let me know that first, I was right on track, and second, that the length I had assumed my paper had to be was totally off. And hey guess what, I'm really close to being done, and I still have a couple of months before deadlines. Huge. weight. lifted. off my shoulders. I can't even tell you.

some wedding picture gems

So, we got our pictures back from our Utah reception (a week after the wedding). I was SO excited!!! finally some pictures! Here's just a few gems I found:

just after jantz took my garter off...this was the second time, and i didn't realize how high i had it haha

i love jantz's face in this picture

 my big fam, who graciously flew out to Utah. love them

my adorable friend and photographer, becca, from Rebecca Clary Photography

weekend recap

The weekend was much needed. I have been getting more and more stressed as the weeks go on. Writing my thesis seriously might kill me. Thankfully through every breakdown Jantz is there to remind me that it will all be worth it and that it's almost over. It's really sweet...if only it got me more pages per week haha.

We skipped our Movie Saturday and opted instead for Back to the Future on our DVR. I think it was a choice well made. But last week we saw 50/50. loved it. and definitely got teary-eyed. (Joseph Gordon-Levitt has always been a fave since 10 Things I Hate About You)

It seems I've forgotten about about our camera recently, since it was Jantz who had to remind me that we should start taking pictures again (him? a boy? asking if we could take more pictures???). Honestly I had forgotten where the camera actually was...if only I had checked our dresser haha. So, I guess we've resolved to take more pictures. Which is definitely ok with me, especially because now you don't get to see the delicious dinner we made yesterday, which I will now have to describe :)

While grocery shopping last week, Jantz had the brilliant idea to make a roast for dinner on Sunday. And so we bought all the necessary props (meaning a roast and potatoes. i begged for carrots, but he refused), and Sunday morning before we had even eaten breakfast, he asked if we could put dinner in the crock pot. haha. Since neither of us had ever attempted making a roast in the crock pot before (all we had were memories of our mothers' delicious results), we pretty much winged it. Jantz was in charge of searing and seasoning the meat, while I cut up potatoes and garlic. After a good six or so hours, and only a tiny bit of worry that it would not be good, it turned out to be really good. Perfectly seasony and garlicy, and not dry at all; and the potatoes were so flavorful. Really guys, it was good, and I only brag because I have yet to actually be proud of something I made for dinner and couldn't wait for the leftovers. This may turn out to be our Sunday dinner tradition.

thesis progress=0 dinner-making skills=1   see, it all works out

little something

I've been really antsy to post about our wedding, but it just won't be the same without pictures, so I'm trying my hardest to hold out until we get our pictures back :)

Not much to report this week...it was pretty filled with homework. I spent all day yesterday grading tests and prepping for my lesson. I gave a test last Friday (first time I'd ever written a whole test!), and gauging from the results, I think it was a success (we'll see what my students think about that...haha). I am so ready for the weekend, work cannot go by faster!

People keep asking me how married life is. And I always say that's it's great (kind of without thinking). But, you know, it really is great. the greatest, even. Jantz is the sweetest husband I could ask for. He's not one to make a huge production out of things (which I think is how most guys are, right?), but he does a million little things every day that make me realize just how lucky I am. Everyone says you should marry your best friend, and I certainly married mine :)

home sweet home

Our apartment got all put back together last Monday, and since then we've got our living room and kitchen all organized and filled with furniture. I even spent a few hours on Sunday decorating! No pictures yet, but a few vases with flowers and other decor stuff. considering I've never really decorated a house in my life, I think I did a pretty good job. haha. Jantz hasn't complained yet, and he comes from a family of the most amazing home decorators I've ever seen.

Here's how it looks now (as for before shots, just picture no carpet, bottom of the walls torn up, and pretty much no furniture haha):

the husband and his job

I just realized I never told you the good news about Jantz's work!

Since he got this job, he's been working 2 to 10 every day. Which meant we pretty much only saw each other after 10 on weekdays (since I usually have to be to school/work in the mornings). It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it certainly made it difficult to go do anything unless it was on a Saturday.
BUT
last week they gave him a new shift! He now works 8 to 4. Which means he usually gets home before I do, and we get to spend the whole evening together! Like Tuesday, we went grocery shopping and then went home and made dinner together. Never happened when he worked until ten. I seriously feel so blessed that he works earlier now. Even though I usually have to do homework when I get home (leaving Jantz to find something to do), I love the fact that he's home.

....obviously we're newlyweds haha. We're really excited about this new change and feel so lucky. hopefully now we don't get sick of each other haha.

dislike

Last week left me feeling completely drained and defeated.

I failed at something. Not just "didn't do well", but literally failed. And it was something really important (like graduating or not graduating important). I've failed at lots of things, but never at art history. I don't really know what to think now... only that I remember why I have a sever love-hate relationship with grad school.

And (it doesn't need to be said, because it's always the case) I've been feeling totally lost in my classes - like, the dumbest one there. I guess I'm just not completely invested in school this semester...maybe it's due to the fact that I'm trying frantically to write my thesis; or maybe it's that I would rather watch a movie with the husband than think about school.

That really took the "happy" out of last week.

So you can imagine how pleasantly surprised when I came home after teaching my class on Friday to find Jantz all dressed up (in my favorite shirt of his) with surprise reservations to PF Changs (after a quick stop at a friend's birthday party). It was seriously exactly what I needed. It may have even been better than flowers (but don't tell him that haha).

Basically, this semester is proving to be the hardest. I just have to believe that somehow I'll make it through. If it wasn't for the class I'm teaching (I think I'm falling more in love with teaching by the week), I may not be able to make it through. It's nice knowing that what i want to end up doing is actually something I enjoy doing...it makes all this stress seem like it will be worth it when it's over.

Here's some more pictures of the wedding (that also happen to cheer me up). we've now passed the one month mark (woot). Jantz loves the picture of our rings:

flip flops

anyone who knows me knows that i do not wear flip flops. to me they're like the most awkward shoe creation, on and off. i've never really owned a pair. ever. because i've never been able to stand them. 

until recently.

now i keep seeing them and thinking, i really want a pair. they look so cute.

and of course this happens now that fall is starting and soon it will be too cold to wear such things...maybe that's why I want them, because I know I can't really have them.

so, flip flops, you almost won the fight this summer. maybe next summer?

some more pictures...and updates

Gosh it's been a while...things have been super busy these past couple weeks. To name a few...

Our apartment flooded (thank goodness we have two floors, we've been able to hide upstairs most of the time). We're going on a week and a half and it's in the process of being fixed, but so far the downstairs is pretty much unusable, meaning the living room (and our beautiful new couch and tv stand) and the kitchen (which equals lots of going out to eat). It's been really stressful and a huge pain, but we're trying to just take it all in tow and be excited for our new walls and carpet.

I started school and taught my first class (all by myself). I won't lie, it was scary. but really fun too. I just hope I can keep up with it... as for taking classes, I only have two this semester (and then two thesis classes next semester and then i'm all done. whoa), so I'm looking forward to a lighter load than last year. but I'm also setting a goal of one page a day (during the work week) towards my thesis. That way when December comes around, I'll have it all written out, and I'll just need to edit and revise. Our deadlines for thesis defending are like in January...meaning I need have it done by the end of this semester. yikes is all I have to say about that.

On a much happier note, Jantz found out some (possible) great news about work, all of which will hopefully pan out. It would make both of our lives a lot better :)

Here are a couple more pictures (once again by Jessica) from the wedding. Mostly set up stuff and then my dad walking me down the aisle. towards a teary-eyed future husband. precious.