Matt & Amanda...

Moved to new URL

2011-06-27T21:23:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

I have moved my blog over to Wordpress, since their site is a little easier to use. My new URL is http://amalou83.wordpress.com/. Hope to see you there!

Wow, where did 2010 go?

2011-06-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have not posted forever!

Lots has happened since my last post. So here are some events to catch up on:

On May 27, 2010 we welcomed Jacob Daniel into the world at 6 lbs 12 oz, and a full head of hair.

Jacob Daniel

Throughout the summer and into the fall he had some very special visitors come to see him:

Jacob - 1 week old meeting Grandma Judy

Jacob - 1 month old meeting Grandpa Chris & Uncle Kyle

Jacob - 1.5 months old meeting Grandpa Mike

Jacob - 1.5 months old meeting Grandma Debbie

Jacob - 4 months old meeting Uncle Joel

Throughout the year he managed to get to do some fun things including

His 1st Mariner's Game from the 5th Row behind 1st Base:

Jacob - 3.5 months old

He got to dress up as a Pumpkin for Halloween

Jacob - 5 months old

He got to experience his 1st Snow

Jacob - 5.5 months old

He enjoyed his 1st Thanksgiving by sticking his hand into the sweet potatoes (and loved them!) - of course we didn't get a picture of it :(

Jacob - 6 months old

Had a tasty 1st Christmas

Jacob - 6.75 months old

Enjoyed his 1st airplane ride and 1st visit to California, including a whirlwind tour starting in Orange County, heading to San Bernardino, then to Santa Maria.

Jacob - almost 7 months old

Got to meet more very important people (he actually got to meet all 4 great-grandmas, and 1 great-grandpa!)

Jacob - 7 months old with Great Grandma Pat & Great Grandpa Dave

Jacob - 7 months old with Great Grandma Shirley

First Trip to the Beach (his Mama LOVES the beach, and it just doesn't work if you can't put your toes in the sand)

Jacob - 7 months old at the Beach

Well, that gets us through 2010... 2011 updates to come soon, hopefully!

2009 Veggies

2009-09-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

veggies

Once again we decided to join a CSA (community supported agriculture) for the summer. Since we live in a condo and don't have a ton of sun it is the best option for us to get fresh grown veggies every week. Each week you go pick up your share and you never know exactly what you will get. The picture above is this week's veggies and is a pretty good sampling of what we get this time of year. The last few weeks we got corn instead of spinach and summer squash (zucchini or crook-neck) instead of sunshine squash.

Dinners this weekend

2009-03-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we didn't have anything planned, which is an anomaly. So when Matt asked what I wanted to do I said we should pick something to make for dinner that is different.

I asked Matt what he would like the main part to consist of, and he responded with Lamb. So we flipped to the Lamb section of my Meat cookbook. We looked at many recipes and settled on a leg of lamb recipe.

So we wrote our list and off to Safeway we went. Safeway did not have Leg of Lamb, so we then went to Trader Joe's after picking up other groceries. Again, we picked up groceries at TJ's and got to the meat department to discover they too did not have Leg of Lamb, but I did see they had whole chickens, so I picked one of those up for Sunday's dinner. So off to TOP we went. TOP did have Leg of Lamb (and only one of them), so we finished our shopping there.

Came home and made the rub for the lamb, let it sit, and then put it in the oven. It took about an hour and a half to get to temperature. In the meantime I chopped up some red potatoes and tossed them in olive oil with the rest of the rosemary, garlic & onions to roast up. Made some green beans *the last of the ones from our Co-Op this summer* with caramelized onions.

Dinner was delicious. Later this week we will probably have gyros out of the leftover lamb.

The reason I picked up a whole chicken is because the other day Matt mentioned the butterflied chicken I have made, and I thought, great tomorrow I can do that and we will eat leftovers this week :)

So I used Alton Brown's Broiled, Butterflied Chicken The hardest part about this recipe is getting the Keel bone out of the chicken. Also, I have found his cooking times are quite a bit shorter than it ever comes out for me.

With our chicken I served Sourdough Garlic Bread and Salad. Later this week we will be having tacos with the leftovers.

Life

2009-02-11T19:55:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile. So here is a recap on what is happening in my life.

I am still working at BlueKai, and loving it. I stayed very busy in December when we were working on due diligence for the round of funding we received. We are very excited to continue to see growth throughout the rest of this year.

We are still working with the high school youth group at church and that keeps us busy. There is Bible Study once a week, Fellowship nights twice a month and a communion Sunday service once a month. We love all the kids and are excited to see what God is doing in their lives, but will definitely miss the seniors when they graduate and head off to college. For the first time our youth group is going on a mission trip this summer. We are going to the Yakima Indian Tribe in eastern Washington.

For Christmas we went home to California for a little over a week. It was great to see our families and some of our friends. It is always amazing how quickly the time goes when you are home.

My older brother, Joel, is getting married in June, so we will be down to San Diego for that. We are excited to have Cindi join our family!

Food!! We love food, both homemade and restaurants.

We have gone to a few fun restaurants within the last six months:
Poppy - Indian Inspired, owned and operated by the former chef at The Herbfarm (a fantastic restaurant)
Olivar - French and Spanish influence, a great place to order many different dishes and share them among the table
Matt's in the Market - a Pike Place Market tradition, fresh food from the market
FLO - a Japanese restaurant/sushi bar, off the main drag, but wonderful. We did the Omakase, and it was amazing
Splash Cafe - this is a must when we are back home

These were all good and fun.

Some things I have made lately:

Fish Tacos
Chicken Pot Pie
Pork Saltimbocca - butterflied pork stuffed with prosciutto and sage, with a sauce that has mushrooms, wine, stock and parsley
Red Beans & Rice
Lemon Chiffon Cake (for one of our high schoolers 18th birthday)
Seared Swordfish
Smoked Salmon and Dill dip
Christmas Candy (toffee, peanut brittle, peppermint bark, fudge, pistachio craisin bark)
Stir-fry - nothing like what mom made us when growing up though - no bean sprouts and rice, instead noodles and lots of different veggies with a sauce made with Hoisin Sauce

We are also excited because we got reservations to French Laundry in March. We are hoping to try at least one of the other restaurants by Thomas Keller while down there.

I have received a couple cookbooks in recent months and am excited about both of them:
The Complete Meat Cookbook - this talks about how to prepare different cuts of meat and also different recipes. The Saltimbocca I made came out of this book
Baked - I haven't made anything out of this yet, but the recipes are making my mouth water
Grill It! - this has some yummy recipes in it and just sparks my creativity

Well, that is what is going on with us, maybe I will try to post more often ;-)

Life goes on

2008-09-05T22:23:00.001-07:00

I know it has been forever since I have blogged. So I decided I would finally take a little bit of time and do so. I am thinking of changing up what I post. I used to mainly posts pics of what we had done, but at times that is overwhelming, so instead I will try to post short blurbs about what we have been up to or maybe a recipe that I have made that we enjoyed (thanks for the idea Becky!)

So I noticed last time I blogged was last December, so here is what has happened since then.

The company I was working for went out of business, therefore I spent a couple months helping close out an office. This was a new and very different experience. One thing that was frustrating was timing. We made the announcement to everyone at the beginning of December. Thankfully God has blessed us and we do not need my income to pay our bills, so I was more worried for all of my coworkers who lived paycheck to paycheck.
In March I started working for another start-up, which I definitely had to think about before taking the job. I am the Office Manager and HR Generalist, but I do a bunch of different things. This company is more in the advertising realm, therefore I have learned more about that and continue to learn more. I work with a great team which is so key in any position. Last week I traveled for work to work on setting up our Bay Area office. It was a busy couple days trying to get the basics pulled together for them to start working in the office on Tuesday, but they were able to work out of the new office this week. While I was in the Bay Area I was able to go to dinner with Kim who I worked with while at 3Guppies. It was so much fun to go spend some time with her, she is such a blessing!
This summer we decided to join a CSA farm (Community Supported Agriculture). We joined Root Connection which is only about 5 miles from our house. It is so much fun to go out there on Saturday and pick up our vegetable share. When we arrive we have no idea what we are getting that week. Normally we get about 6 different items. Last week we got yellow beans, green beans, carrots, beets, and lettuce. The variety has been great and to see different varieties is fun, a few weeks ago we got some gorgeous rainbow carrots which I had never seen before. Because of all the veggies we are getting every couple of weeks we have a night where all we eat are veggies. We did this last night, here was the menu:

Green Beans with Mushrooms and bacon
Yellow beans with just a touch of butter
Caramelized Onions (went great with the green beans)
Roasted Fennel (this was something I had never done before but it was tasty)
Sauteed Carrots with just a tad of butter
Garlic Bread, because I need some carbs with all those veggies :)

A few weeks ago I decided that I would like to add a fruit share to our veggies share, so for about $20 per week we get a bag of organic fruit. It has been nice to get ripe fruit that you can eat right away. Tonight I made banana bread from some of the bananas we got last weekend. Since we have the fruit in the house we have been having fruit as our "dessert" in the evening. One evening I sliced up nectarines and tossed some blueberries with it and sprinkled it with just a pinch of sugar. It was a delicious snack and good for us :) The only thing we have a hard time with is getting a whole melon because we don't always remember to grab some and put it into a container for work, so it is hard to eat the whole thing in a week.

I finally joined a gym back in July Costco was offering a two year membership for 24 hour fitness for $300, so I took advantage of it. My goal is to make it to the gym twice a week, but that doesn't always happen. I figure any time I get to the gym is better than not going at all though.
Family Visits - Matt's parents came and visited near the end of June, then my parents came, left, came back, left, came back then went home. It was great to see the family and they enjoyed seeing the Seattle area. We fed them lots of good food and even took Matt's parents to one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Juanita.
Since I mentioned restaurants I will talk about some of my other favorite restaurants we have been to this year. Herbfarm is an absolutely amazing experience. It is a 9 course meal with 5 wine pairings. For my birthday & celebrating my new job we went for the Steak in Seattle menu. It was amazing, but definitely not for the non-meat eater. Another wonderful restaurant in our area is actually in Seattle and has a gorgeous view of Lake Union and Gas Works Park from their dining room. This is Canlis which has made Northwest Cuisine what it is today. All three of these restaurants have won a James Beard award. We don't eat out too often, but when we do it tends to be very nice.
In March we went to Leavenworth for a long weekend. Originally it was going to be a Valentine's thing then with the job search we pushed it back and finally I said we just need to book this. We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast called All Seasons River Inn. The breakfasts were amazing, the rooms were very nice and our hosts were wonderful. It ended up snowing the day we headed out there. This was surprising because the snow had already melted quite a bit, though we were thrilled. One thing we had wanted to do was go snow shoeing, which we got to do. It was a wonderful relaxing weekend.
We have continued to be involved with the high school youth group at church, and plan to continue with that this coming year. This keeps us busy, but it is such a blessing.

Well, now that I have babbled on for quite some time I will stop for now. I hope you have enjoyed getting caught up with some of our adventures.

December Snow

2007-12-01T22:09:00.000-08:00

So instead of posting all of my photos from the snow we had today on my blog, I have placed them in a gallery on Matt's SmugMug account here.

This picture is one of my favorites from the day.

snowy branches

My greenhouse

2007-10-09T13:46:00.001-07:00

3Guppies Mobile Blog

2007-09-07T17:24:00.000-07:00

I work for a company that allows you to take pictures on your cell phone and send an MMS message to an e-mail address and your pictures on your blog are instantly updated. Check it out.

Weekend away

2007-04-23T20:51:00.000-07:00

This was Matt's favorite picture from our weekend away.

Branch in the Water

What came in the box?

2007-04-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

That would be a Tiffany Necklace

My husband is so sweet and bought me a necklace from Tiffany & Co. for my birthday. And that was on top of a wonderful dinner at Canlis, and a weekend getaway. I married an awesome guy!

Awesome boss

2007-04-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

My boss is so sweet!

She believes flowers are a vital part of any girls birthday, so she ordered me flowers for my birthday. Of course she said they were from everyone, but everyone asked who they were from, so no one else was in on it.

A dozen yellow roses

A comical story from my birthday...

From what I hear, there were three different people who thought about buying me cake for my birthday at work. Since I am the person who normally does that stuff, they wanted to make sure I got a cake! So Kate is the one who eventually ended up in charge of the cake, after they realized that 3 people were all going to buy cake. We had a conversation about cakes a few weeks ago, and I told her my favorite is lemon chiffon (especially if it comes from TanTop Bakery in Orcutt, CA). Kate decided she would not settle for getting me anything less than lemon chiffon. She called the first bakery the night before my birthday, and the told her they need a minimum of 48 hours notice, which she didn't have. So she continued her search and called the next one, who told her, "our baker has gone home for the day, but I will leave her a note to see if she can accommodate the request". When Kate checked in with them on my birthday they said "we didn't have the ingredients for lemon chiffon, so she make strawberry chiffon" . Therefore Kate continued her search because she wasn't sure if I liked Strawberry, therefore wanted to try to get Lemon. She calls another bakery and is told, we don't have plain lemon chiffon, but we have a coconut-lemon chiffon. This was close enough, so I had a coconut-lemon chiffon cake for my birthday along with cookies & cupcakes.

My coworkers are awesome! They made my birthday grand!

Happy Birthday to Me

2007-04-11T19:34:00.000-07:00

guess what was in here

Today is my birthday, and I got this cute little blue box this morning. I finished showering and getting dressed to find I had this on top of my vanity where I do my makeup. So it is up to you to guess what came in this box ;-)

Pelicans from Christmas

2007-03-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

When we went to California for Christmas the one thing I wanted to do while we were there was take a trip to the beach. So a couple days after Christmas we headed over to Pismo Beach so while we were there we took some photos and had lunch at Splash Cafe for some of the best clam chowder ever that is served in a decadent sourdough bowl.

But before we got lunch we did take photos, and here are some of a Pelican that was standing on the edge of one of the pier railings letting people get somewhat close considering how they normally fly away when people get near.

Up Close & Personal with the Pelican

As I said he stayed for quite some time, so I got a number of different shots, but he never flew away so I could get a shot of him flying

Content on the Pier

The Base of the Vase

2007-03-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

So one of the things I like about my arrangement of flowers is the bottom of the base where I used an assortment or rocks & pebbles to hold the stems in place and give some bottom weight to the arrangement. Therefore I present you a picture of just the base.

Rocks and Stems

Decorating

2007-03-01T18:44:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of my first bit of decorating our new home. On Sunday afternoon while Matt & I waited for HalfPrice Books to figure out how to give us back almost nothing for 100 books we went into JoAnnes to look for silk flowers for me to make an arrangement out of and this is what we ended up with.

Decorating the House

One more Kyle photo

2007-02-06T20:48:00.000-08:00

Kyle loves the Chronicles of Narnia, so when he saw the blanket with the characters he told Mom he wanted to buy it. Therefore he was surprised when it showed up on Christmas morning as one of his gifts. And I thought this was a very fitting photo of him, so here you go :-)

Kyle Peeking Above

Kyle as a fan

2007-02-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

When my family came to visit this past summer we had the opportunity to enjoy a Mariner's Game, and Kyle dubbed the Mariner's his team. It happened that the game was against the Angel's which was the team my dad was rooting for, so they had a great time, and Kyle's team won the game!

So for Christmas we made sure to get him a Mariner's cap, and he wore it the rest of the week. At first tags and all, but by the time we left I think they had all been taken off

Mariner's Fan

Fudge Time

2007-02-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

In my house we made candy at Christmas Time instead of cookies. One of my brothers favorites to make is Fudge...The alternative reason on why can be seen below. Many of the other candies we always make are Peanut Brittle and Toffee which you cannot eat when they are hot.

Kyle and Marshmallow Cream

Umm...can I get some of it?

Maybe the force of sucking will pull it off

Got a little bit, doesn't that taste good!

Haircut time...

2006-12-05T21:10:00.000-08:00

...so yesterday I called the person who has cut my hair the last few times to hear on her message that says she is now with Holly James Salon. So I asked her about it when she called me back, and she ask "when was the last time I cut your hair?" to which I reply "a few months ago" and she goes on to tell me she has been working at this salon for 9 months now! Then I felt bad that it had been that long, but she said my hair was really healthy so guess it really wasn't a problem :-)

So you can go here to see the pictures my husband took of my new 'do.

Multi-Colored Hydrangeas

2006-09-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

I love hydrangeas, especially the rich blue ones, but for some reason I really like this one and the way it had blues & greens and hints of pink.

BiPlane Rides Available Today...

2006-09-14T21:03:00.000-07:00

We took my family to the Museum of Flight while they were here a few weeks ago. When we were wandering around outside there were signs for biplane rides, so while I was up in the "control tower" this one was taking off, and I thought it looked cool against the sky.

Russian Space Capsule

2006-09-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

This was a Russian Space Capsule, and it blows me away that someone could spend more than a couple hours in this. I would go crazy if locked into something this small, especially knowing that I didn't have anywhere else to go.

Blue Angels~Old Logo

2006-09-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of an old Blue Angels logo. I thought it was neat to see since we saw the Blue Angels not long ago.

A confused Dad

2006-09-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

Dad can do lots of things, but this plane looks like it is confusing him :-)

I think he eventually figured it all out...

Big Stud

2006-09-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

There are tons of WWI & WWII planes at the Museum of Flight. The planes are really cool, but hard to take photos of because of the lighting & all the background stuff, but I like this one...

Old Wooden Plane

2006-09-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Here is one of the planes in the WWI exhibition at the Museum of Flight in Tacoma. It blows me away that people were okay with how little is around them in a plane like this. We have become so used to the jumbo Jets that we fly in now. Such a stark contrast.

SeaFair 2006

2006-08-13T22:44:00.000-07:00

My husband and I went to watch the Blue Angels at SeaFair. While waiting I decided to take pictures of the waves splashing up against the cove. This was my favorite of the pictures.

We had an opportunity to see the Patriots before the Blue Angels flew, so there is one picture from that. The rest are the angels. Hope you enjoy :-)

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Sailboat

2006-08-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

P.S. We had 3 photos left after watching the Angels (out of our 4 gigs) so I decided to take a couple photos of the sailboats that I liked.

single flower...

2006-07-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

Awhile ago Matt & I went to Discovery Park & I took all kinds of flower photos, so here is one that I thought was unique & I liked.

One lone elephant

2006-07-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

This elephant posed so nicely for me, unlike his counterpart who was off playing with a beer keg & not cooperating at all. This & the past few photos are from Point Deception Zoo & Aqarium down in the Tacoma area. We decided we like Woodland Park Zoo better & Woodland Park is a whole lot closer.

sleepy cat

2006-07-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

This tiger was sleeping, but for a brief second he lifted his head just slightly, almost as if he wanted to see if he had an audience, and then promptly went back to sleep.

fishy stars

2006-07-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

There were some pretty cool star fish, but this one I was able to get all the detail of its underside being up against the window, which I thought was pretty cool.

spiny, hairy thing

2006-07-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what to call these things, they were really cool and swayed all over. The light was hitting them in such a way at times they looked almost clear.

An Enemy...

2006-07-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

...or how about anemone? This guy doesn't look too scary, so I don't think he is an enemy, at least not to me who is much bigger than he.

Coral the color of the animal?

2006-07-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we were at a friend's house who runs an aquarium care business, both Matt & I sat and looked at her "show" tank forever because it was so cool to see all the corol types, shrimp, crabs, snails, etc. So when I saw this tank I thought of Melissa and tried to see if I could capture how vastly different the coral types are.

Big Red

2006-07-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

This little guy was had such bright colors in contrast to everything else in the tank, it made me wonder how he would stay alive if not in a protected tank.

Horsey

2006-07-20T22:31:00.000-07:00

Matt keeps asking for a pony, so I told him that while we were at the aquarium we would have to see the ones that live in the sea. They actually had quite a few different ones, this was one of the more traditional ones.

There was one that looked like a plant, maybe later I will post that one. He definitely could blend into his environment.

Tropical Fish

2006-07-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

I loved the way this yellow fish looked. He looks like he is ready to eat pebbles, which made me think of some of our friends who have fish who pick up the pebbles then drop them to make a kerplunk noise.

Happy First Anniversary to Us...

2006-06-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

My husband took me to a wonderful dinner at a well known restaurant called the Herbfarm. There we enjoyed a 9 course meal with 6 wine pairings. Here is a picture that shows our menu. We also stayed at the Willows Lodge which is at the same location, and had an opportunity to stroll along the Sammamish River.

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Water Droplets

2006-05-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

This was a cool photo because you see the spray of water coming off the water wheel. I had a couple of these, but I like the fact that I have zoomed in a bit more on this one.

Water Flying off the Wheel

Water Wheel & Tulips

2006-05-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

Another photo of the water wheel, but this one shows the gorgeous tulips and a little more of the grounds. It rained off and on over the weekend, but it took a break Saturday afternoon so I could go wander around with my camera.

Water Wheel & Tulips

Water Wheel

2006-05-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went on Women's Retreat up at Cedar Springs near the Canadian Border with my church and got some good photos, so I will share some of them.

This one is of the water wheel that is connected to one of the pond and river.

Snoqualmie Falls on a Blustery Day

2006-04-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

So I know I haven't posted anything for a while, but I am going to try to blog some of my photos over the next few weeks. We finally got Aperture this weekend, and we got our new Intel iMac so now I should be able to go through my photos easier, and edit them as I see fit. This group of photos is from Snoqualmie Falls in Snoqualmie (near North Bend). We had wanted to go out and take photos, but it was raining. I decided, lets go to the falls regardless. Last year when we took a trip out there during one of my visits everyone said it was a dry year and normally there is a whole lot more water in the falls, so I decided that we needed to go again. Because of the rain and mud we didn't hike down to the bottom, but I still got some great photos with my new 18-200mm lens with Vibration Reduction that I got as my early birthday present.

This first one I took as an afterthought on our way back to the car, and it is one of my favorites.

Waterfalls behind the Branches

This second one is of the bottom of the falls where the falling water hits the pool of water at the bottom.

The Bottom of the Falls

Here is a picture of the top of the waterfalls. I love the way you see the texture on the rocks next to the water.

Top of the Waterfalls with Texturized Rocks

Ok, that is good for photos today. Maybe I will post more in the next few days :-)

Work, Work, Work

2006-03-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

So if you read my past post you know that I started work this week. So far things are going well. Today was my second day and I felt much more productive than my first day. Still don't know everything, or everyone's names, but it will all come with time. The people I work with are great. They are all friendly and helpful. I am doing a lot of small projects right now, and doing some travel arrangements and such. I will keep you all updated as exciting things take place.

Job...

2006-03-16T19:55:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone... I know some of you were wondering if I gave up getting a job, but no...I have taken my time looking, and was waiting for the job God wanted me to have. Well, this week that job came along. I had a phone interview last Friday, and an in person interview on Monday and was offered the job after the one on Monday. The job is for a Venture Capital company that does mobile communication, and bought out 2 different companies. One is a company in Indiana and the other was in Vancouver British Columbia. The new company currently is going by the name VantagePoint Mobile. It is located in downtown Seattle right next to Pike Place Market (anyone familiar with Seattle, knows the Pike Place is like a huge farmers market open 7 days a week). I am starting off as an office administrator, but there is room for growth (a key to my job search, which is why I didn't find a job sooner). So I will be starting in about a week and a half. I am very excited to embark on this new adventure.

Tea Time...

2006-01-22T14:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Matt and I went to The Country Village in Bothell, and were amazed by how unique of a place it is. It would have been fun to wander around on a sunny day. While there we had tea at the Peach Tree Bakery & Tea Garden It was so much fun and delicious. We ordered Sir Mumford's Grand Afternoon Tea, which includes for each person a pot of tea (each person can choose a different type--I had apricot peach black tea, and Matt had Rose and Black Cherry Blossom Green Tea), two pieces of scones with lemon curd and cream, a cup of soup, 5 different tea sandwiches, fresh fruit, and an assortment of cookies and cakes to finish it off. We did not manage to finish all of our cookies and cakes, but the whole thing was delicious.

We have decided we definitely have to go back. It was very good and very enjoyable. We did this in place of lunch, and it was a great choice, and a grand time.

Pittsburgh...

2006-01-18T15:07:00.000-08:00

Well, this weekend we took a trip to Pittsburgh to attend the wedding of one of Matt's good friends. I didn't take too many photos, but Matt did if you want to see them visit Matt's Blog.

I took some of the city though, and this is one of my favorites. It is just outside the Carnegie Science Center, and shows one of the 12 bridges in Pittsburgh.

We enjoyed visiting Pittsburgh because of the people there, but it is not somewhere we would return to just for the sake of going there. The city was gorgeous with all the bridges lit up at night when we came in on Thursday evening though.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2006-01-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

Well, it is officially January. We have returned from our trek to California to celebrate Christmas and New Year's. So I am posting some photos from our trip. Also, for those of you interested, I did cut my hair again before Christmas, and you can see those photos on Matt's Blog.

So first off is a picture Matt took on Christmas day of a group of bows that had come off various packages. It is a really neat photo, so I thought I would post it.

Next I figured I would post one of my Dad and Kyle since they were excited to receive the next season of Star Gate SG-1, which they will spend many hours watching. It seems to be one of those addicting shows (like Star Trek) for those who are into that kind of thing.

Lastly, I thought I would post the photo Matt took of my mom and me. Throughout the week people commented on how much we look alike, and how everytime they see us we look more alike. This photo shows that pretty well. The photo didn't come out quite as well I would have liked, but it is still neat.

Well I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas celebrations and hope the New Year is a good one!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

2005-12-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

Well it is officially winter here. It started snowing around 11:00 today and has been continuous all day. It isn't really building up other than on the trees and grass, but it sure is pretty.

Everyone around here gets pretty excited when it snows. I was teaching the 3-5 year olds for Thursday Morning Women's Bible study when it began, and one of the kids noticed it during the Bible story and yelled "It is snowing outside!!!" To which everyone else was excited and there went the end of my story for a few minutes while they marveled at the fluffy white stuff falling from the sky.

Some of the kids that I was talking to after Bible Study (there is a home school co-op that meets at the same time) were very concerned that it was going to stop snowing by the time they got home, and the moms did not want them playing in the snow there because most of them did not have gloves or really heavy jackets. Also, I am sure most of the mothers realized wet clothes leads to hearing them whine and cry the whole way home.

One of the other teachers earlier started singing "Let it snow" and a couple of the kids promptly chimed in--it was so cute.

Baby Julian...

2005-12-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

Since Matt has posted the pictures of me holding the babies in the group that we hang out with, I just had to post this since I handed baby Julian to him on Thanksgiving (it was the first time Matt held him).

Happy Halloween...

2005-10-31T19:45:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is enjoying their halloween and not getting sick on candy. We went to a Halloween Party on Saturday, so there are some photos from that posted on Matt's Blog for you guys to see :-)

Enjoy!

A Crisp Fall Day

2005-09-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Matt and I decided to go visit the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (also called the Ballard Locks) and botanical garden.

Here is a picture of the boats being crammed like sardines into the Small Locks.

Because of the amount of time and the number of boats that come through the Locks they put as many boats as possible (safely) into the Locks at one time. One neat thing about the Small Locks is the fact that the walls that the boats tie onto actually move up and down, so the ropes do not have to be pulled throughout the lock experience, instead they tie in and wait for the water levels to change.

Here is a picture looking under part of the bridge that runs along the dam between Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

It was fun to get out and enjoy the crisp blue sky and see the beautiful fall colors. So I decided to take some photos of the yellows, oranges and reds that remind me that fall is here. I think fall is so beautiful, that I had to at least try to capture it on "film" -digital that is- So this first photo is me standing at the base of a gorgeous tree, that is going through the transformation of spring to fall to winter, looking straight up through the branches at the levels of leaves.

This second one is of the same tree, but focusing on the top leaves against the crisp blue sky.

Now we will move onto the botanical garden photos that consisted of a number of different flowers and leaves. Yesterday I had a fascination with the colorful leaves, so the first two photos are of just different leaves that were growing together in the same planters and looking really pretty.

Here are some more leaves...

Then of course I took photos of the flowers because they are so pretty. I really liked all the fuschia bushes. This first one reminded me of water droplets hanging on to the ends.

This next one was pretty cool because of the fact that the fuschia flowers are in focus, but the rest is not really.

And for good measure, here is another picture of a fuschia plant with some begonias along with it.

The next photo is some dahlias that we came across on our way to leave. The vivid colors were so magnificent.

These next flowers I believe are geraniums, but if I am wrong anyone...feel free to correct me. I forgot to look at the signs telling me what they were, instead was caught up taking photos of them. These I liked because of the leaves edges.

Now we have moved on to the purple flowers that I have absolutely no idea what they are. Again....was focused on the flower and not the name, therefore I really have no idea what these ones are. This first one was a tree.

And this next one was a bush. The center flowers are out of focus, but the leaves were very crisp, and the photo still had a cool effect.

Lastly, what is a day out and about without at least one picture of my husband. Mind you I took others, but liked this one. He was walking back towards me because we were ready to head back toward the other side of the lake, and I was able to snap the picture quick enough that it came out looking rather good.

Hope you enjoyed seeing about our day at the Ballard Locks and botanical Garden.

New Appliances...

2005-09-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

Finally we have purchased a vacuum which we have been wanting for a while now. Having a decent Bissell 3594 Vacuum seems to make us want to clean the carpet. It was amazing at how much dirt was picked up in our first run-through of the downstairs.

Our second appliance that arrived today, I have not had a chance to use yet, but it is a KitchenAid Professional 600 Mixer in Cinnamon. It is gorgeous, and I am looking forwards to using it. Probably in not too long I will purchase some of the attachments that go with it including the Ice Cream Maker Accessory.

The other appliance that we bought a little while ago now is our Oster 6-in-1 Blender which works great. We have mainly used it to make smoothies and milk shakes so far.

All three of these appliances are awesome. The mixer is so pretty and I am really looking forwards to using it!!

Hair Cut

2005-08-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

Almost two weeks ago, on July 26th I went and cut over 13 inches off my hair. As you can see in this first photo my hair was quite long... it was to the point I wanted to chop it off.

The reason though that I had allowed it to grow this long and did not cut it any sooner, was because I had decided I was going to donate it to Locks of Love, which requires that you donate a minimum of 10 inches. So I went ahead and cut it all off, and here are the pictures of me afterwards.

And for those of you who wonder what Matt thinks of it...

...he loves it. It also helps that I wear it down much more regularly since it is so much easier to deal with. Imagine this...it only takes 10-15 minutes to blow dry it, and it will dry naturally in about an hour opposed to when it took at least a half hour to blow dry it and many-many hours to dry naturally (can't tell you how many times it would be damp all day when I pulled it up)

Honeymoon

2005-08-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

I know we have been home for more than a month, but I was busy unpacking...You should have seen our dining room after my stuff arrived.

So here are a couple of photos from our honeymoon. We went to Kauai and we had a fantastic time. We went snorkeling, kayaking, horseback riding, relaxed and just had a good time.

First is our photo from the horseback riding. Here is Matt after we remounted after our lunch and swim at the waterfall. It was a nice crisp swim especially in comparison to the ocean water.

Second is a picture of the Blow Hole which was pretty cool to see. It is variant upon the tide, and the tide was not spectacular that day, but it was still fun to watch, and I picked up many video clips from it.

Matt's Blog...

2005-07-13T20:23:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, you can also visit Matt's Blog. He and I post very different things, therefore I encourage you to check out both blogs. Matt's blog is updated much more often than mine.

A Wedding in Short

2005-07-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

I decided to post a series of photos that will show you our wedding in short. This is for those who either a) were not able to make it or b) just want to see the photos.

So to start with of course everyone was seated and then the men walked in and waited my attendants walked down the aisle. So the first photo is one of my little brother (Kyle), my groom (Matt), his best-man (Jason) and groomsman (Brandon).

Then my attendants walked down the aisle followed my father and I. So next is the picture of my daddy and I walking down the aisle. This is about the point when my dad asked me "do we really know all these people?" and around us many snickered.

Then my dad gave me away. Followed by vows spoken to each other and to God. This is a covenant that Matt and I both take very seriously. This closes with the exchange of rings. The ring is a symbol of eternity because there is no beginning or end to it, but it is also a symbol of love and devotion.

Next we were pronounced as Husband and Wife and Matt was given permission to kiss me. Followed by the introduction of us as Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Swann.

Our attendants are the following pictures:

This is my best friend (sister) Erin and Matt's best friend Jason as our Matron of Honor and Best Man

This is another set of really good friends. Amy as my brides maid and Brandon as Matt's groomsman.

Our Ring Bearer and Flower Girl were both cousins of mine. Our flower girl is Jessica and our ring bearer is Stephen.

The of course the ceremony was followed by many pictures with family. Next was dinner that was delicious. It was catered by the Vocational Training Center and they did a fabulous job!! After Matt and I finished eating we got to go take more photos. Next were toasts offered up by Jason, Erin, My Dad and Matt's Dad. Then we cut the cake (which was tasty, but was not decorated exactly as I ordered it). Then our first dance, which was, I Will Be Here by Steven Curtis Chapman.

This was followed by a Father Daughter Dance to Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlisle.

And followed by a Mother Son Dance.

Then we had the bouquet toss, which to my surprise was caught by one of my best friends.

And then also there was the garter toss, which again I was surprised at who ended up with it. So here is a photo of the people who theoretically will be the next to marry if tradition holds up.

Then we went on to open dancing and mingling. I am sorry to say that I did not get to see everyone that came to my wedding. I made a concerted effort, but some people had to leave right after the ceremony and other had to leave right after dinner. So next are some photos of the dancing and such.

My parents dancing.

The kids having a blast dancing away to one of the fun songs. This photo is awesome because it caught the kids jumping in mid air.

This is the Hokey-Pokey of course. What is dancing without the Hokey-Pokey?

But it was my parents who hosted this whole event and are a great role model at them having been married for 28 years. Thanks mom and dad!!

Then after mingling for a while longer we had our last dance, where everyone blew bubbles at us, which gave a pretty cool affect for this photo:

This was followed by us leaving in a clean rental car. Thank you everyone for not decorating the rental car. We really did not want to have to clean it early in the morning before driving to Los Angeles to get to the airport in time.

My Shower...

2005-07-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

At my bridal shower, they decided to create a wedding gown and veil for me. So I figured with the fun of it, I may as well share the photos that went along with it. I hope you all enjoy me dressed up in a tissue paper gown. Following is a picture of the rehearsal, because they insisted that i wear the tissue paper veil to my rehearsal.

Dressed in the finery of Tissue Paper

Amanda and her best friend/sister Erin at rehearsal

Me the Graduate

2005-05-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

I had to post a picture of me as a graduate.

My sis'

2005-05-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Erin my best friend and sister since preschool. We have known each other now for 18 years and are still the best of friends despite distance and a few moves in between.

Mom and Me after graduation

2005-05-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of my mom and me after graduation

Graduation...

2005-05-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

As many of you know I graduated from Vanguard University on May 7th. I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration with a minor in Mathematics. So this and the next few pictures are pictures from graduation.

Here is the picture of me walking across stage. According to my parents I sprinted across the stage, but oh well.

Finally, Shoes!!

2005-05-05T19:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Erin found me shoes for my wedding!! Being the best friend that she is, she had been keeping her eyes peeled for a pair of shoes for me. The shoes she called to tell me about seem to work perfectly, we will know for sure on Saturday when we pick my dress back up at David's Bridal.

So, hopefully the shoe saga is over!

In just a couple of days I will be officially graduated from college. On Saturday is my graduation, and I am so excited. The my focus will go to wedding plans since I won't have any homework to do :-) (Oh darn!!)

Wedding Plans continued...

2005-04-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

So, I may have a pair of shoes, we will just have to see if they fit correctly and are comfortable. Erin, being the good friend/sister that she is, has been keeping her eyes out for shoes for me. This morning I got a call around 10:45 to tell me about a pair she found at the Carlsbad Premium Outlets. So she picked up two sizes for me and tonight I get to see whether they fit.

So officially I have Jewelry, a Veil, a Dress (the all important part), my bride's maids dresses, their jewelry (but still need to get my flower girl jewelry), a site, a officiant, a caterer, a honeymoon destination with plane tickets, and a fiancé who loves me very much.

Only 56 days to get the rest of it together, and only a week till graduation :-)

More Shoe and Jewelry Shopping...

2005-04-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my best friend/matron of honor and I went shopping for shoes and jewelry. You would think that with all there is out there, especially here in So. Cal. You could find these two fairly easily, but let me tell you.

We returned shoes that I had ordered online through Nordstroms that did not fit correctly, and since they do not carry them in store I had to order them to determine whether I liked them or not. Then we went and returned another pair that I thought, maybe would be a possibility, but they did not fit right and were a bit too casual. So then off to lunch we went. On the way we racked our brains to think of places to look because we had already hit Nordstroms and Macy's to no avail. So we went to Ruby's and enjoyed out lunch tremendously and used my birthday coupon for a free burger so our bill was less than normal.

Then we headed back to the mall to look to see if there were any stores we should check out and in Macy's we are accosted by the lady selling the Microabrasion kit. She insists on demonstrating, and through it I tell her I sell MaryKay and sell a similar kit for less and I think it works better. She did not do a very good job of showing off her product or demonstrating it either in both Erin and my opinions.

Off to David's Bridal we head because we had a 3:00 appointment to have bustle loops added to my dress. During this the alterations lady tries to convince me I should spend $85 to have a small part of my dress hemmed because she says it hangs slightly longer on one side...I think this is a mistake on their part, so if they notice it, they should fix it without charging me because it means they did not cut it straight to begin with. I decline and stick to just bustle loops. Then Erin and I go to see what shoes they have to offer. There was really only one pair we liked and they did not fit right. They were too tight through the toes and the wide width was huge! So we figured we better move on to jewelry looking. We found a necklace and earrings that match my dress almost perfectly! So we made our purchase and headed on to our next stop.

Our next stop was the Marshall's in Tustin that advertises having more shoes than a normal Marshall's. They did have more, but nothing that met our criteria. So we decided to look at purses while we were in there. I ended up leaving with an adorable Franco Sarto purse that is Black with White trim. It is all leather and the right size. While at that shopping center we also checked out Shoe Pavilion and they didn't have any white shoes either...

On to the Tustin Marketplace we went and looked at T.J. Maxx to see if they had gotten any new shoes. Still nothing. So we went to Claim Jumpers and split the House Salad, which is a favorite, and split the spinach calzone. It was not that great. It had too much Ricotta cheese and not enough spices. It was even lacking garlic.

So we decided after that to call it a day since it was already almost 9:00. So the shoe saga continues, and hopefully I can find shoes by June 25, 2005. I have 69 days left to find them...I know they are out there it is just a matter of discovering them.

Shoe Shopping...

2005-04-03T21:24:00.000-07:00

I know, if you are like Matt you are thinking, oh no, she can't need another pair of shoes...

...But these are special shoes :-)

Yesterday, I went in search of shoes to wear with my wedding dress...there are some major problems with this:

1.) For some reason, even though it is spring and white is a spring colored shoe, there are few white shoes out

2.) Despite the former, the ones I did find were either:
a.) Very Casual
b.) Had no back strap (I do not want to loose my shoe under my dress)

3.) In order for my dress to not be hemmed I need a 2.5" to 3" heel
(then today my mom told me she could hem my dress, and I should buy shoes that are comfortable...)

4.) I do not have wide feet, but the sandal style dress shoes are cut so narrow through the toes, and I hate getting blisters from shoes.

5.) Stores such as Nordstroms, have a line of Bridal Shoes that they do not carry in the store, so you have to order them in order to determine whether you like them, if they fit correctly, and if they are the shoes you always wanted.

Therefore because of these 5 reasons I did not come home with any shoes, but I did order 2 pairs on www.Nordstroms.com and intend to return at least one of the pairs to the store, when I determine which ones I do not like.

Why, oh why, does shoe buying have to be so tough?

Veil...

2005-02-23T21:35:00.000-08:00

So over the 3 day weekend I spent way to many hours in the car to get home on Friday, and a little bit to long to get back on Monday, but I had a wonderful weekend. My little brother was thrilled that I was home. I got to see one of my really good friends, have dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Quitos, and have some down time. Also, got my taxes all done :-)

While there mom and I went looking for decoration ideas for our wedding. Found some great stuff and good ideas. Then on Sunday Michael's had a 50% off coupon, so I went and bought my veil for $8, where an almost identical one was shown to me at David's Bridal for $100. Makes me wonder why people spend that kind of money on a simple piece of fabric that is gathered together on a comb. Now I just need to find a tiara, or maybe I will make it. I did play with some possible ideas the other day. But my friend Katy suggested looking for one at a costume shop, which I thought was a novel idea. So I will have to do that!!

Photo Time Line-Almost 3 Years

2005-02-12T17:53:00.000-08:00

I went to visit Matt for my first excursion to Seattle. He took me on a dinner cruise on Puget Sound. We enjoyed a full meal and enjoyable relaxation, picture taking and feeling the cool air (when we ventured outside). It was definitely something I enjoyed and had never experienced anything quite like it.

Dinner Cruise on Puget Sound

Just ignore the guy behind us...We didn't think about what was behind us when our waiter took the photo for us.

Photo Time Line-About 2 Years

2005-02-12T17:50:00.000-08:00

This was Christmas Eve 2003. My mom was busily cooking dinner and dad, Kyle, Matt and I were playing with my dad's new digital camera that he had received for his birthday a week and a half earlier.

Christmas time is such a fun loving time...

Photo Time Line-1 Year

2005-02-12T17:38:00.000-08:00

After dating for one year Matt decided to take me to the Biltmore in Montecito for a five course dinner. It was so enjoyable.

Matt and Amanda headed to the Biltmore

Photo Time Line-6 Months

2005-02-12T17:29:00.000-08:00

I decided that I should put up a Time Line of photos of Matt and I, since a number of people have asked about photos. So I decided this was a good way to satisfy people's curiosity while being fun.

This first photo was when Matt and I had been dating for 6 months and we decided to go to Solvang for the day, and then go see a play at PCPA. So before we left Matt's house his dad was playing with his digital camera, and therefore we ended up as the subjects of a picture.

Matt and Amanda after 6 months of dating :-)

My dress...

2005-02-06T14:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my best friend, Erin, and I went in search of my wedding dress. We had called David's Bridal to set up and appointment, and they said there were none available but I could walk in. So, we decided what they heck, we can go and wait. We got there at 11:15 and were taken back within 10 minutes (we expected to have to wait forever). Kat, our sales associate, sent me to look at Tiara's and shoes to go with my dress (neither of which I bought), and then into my gown I went. It looked so pretty, sophisticated, elegant and gorgeous. Erin and I were still so impressed and knew this was the one. So, I went ahead and purchased it. We were out of there about an hour after we arrived. They sent me home with my dress, and I have to return to have the bustle loops put in and if there are any alterations that need to be done.

After our fun at David's Bridal, we went on to go get food. Decided we should do our usual and go to Claim Jumpers and get a barbeque chicken pizza and the appetizer house salad with ranch. Then decided we wanted cheesy garlic bread, but our waiter told us that the order of it is huge, so instead he brought us each a few pieces "on the house" which was cool.

Then off to wander the mall. Eventually left there and headed for our favorite clearance store of all time, Kohl's, where you don't buy unless it is at least 40% off original price, and you better like it a lot to pay that much for it :-). Erin and I each walked out of there with a few items. I found a purple sleeveless turleneck to wear with my black suit, and I also found a periwinkle blue long sleeve collared shirt to wear with my suit. Both of which will look very nice with other clothes also. I also found a pair of Nine & Company boots. They are very classy and were only $20. Next winter I will have a new pair of boots to wear. Erin and I had a blast and enjoyed the chance to get out and just have fun together!

Wedding Plans...

2005-02-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been busy putting together guest lists to send out Save the Date cards. Also, picking out decorations, flowers and such. Invitations are chosen, and then we had to figure out wording. All the little details...

For flowers we are looking at Stanley's Flowers.

Invitations are coming from Pear Tree Papers.

Many of the decorations will be gathered from products bought at Michael's.

My dress will come from David's Bridal.

Many more details are still being worked on, but all the excitement is overwhelming.