sunshine!

After almost 2 weeks straight of heavy rain and dark clouds, we have a day of blue skies and sunshine! I took full advantage and sat by the pool, reading my book. I also got to talk with two of my closest friends from back home! It's crazy how just a little sunshine and hearing from friends can boost your mood.

 

One thing I'm really excited about is starting a hobby. It's something I've always enjoyed and am thrilled to have the opportunity to put some time into it and eventually develop it into something. Thankfully I have the help from my friend back home to get me jump started! Once I get started, I'm sure I'll write more about it.

 

George is working all weekend so nothing planned. Hoping to at least get some more sun. Hope everyone enjoys the Super Bowl. With the lovely time difference, it'll start around 8am Monday morning for us!

 



meh

I was watching an episode of Buying and Selling on HGTV today and they kept referring to the home as meh, which apparently is their professional term for blah. And I realized that's exactly how I've been feeling lately. Not sure if it's homesickness or boredom or just a general funk I'm in. Moving overseas is an adjustment in so many ways. The other night I stayed up until 4:30am to call back to California to handle some things. The time difference and the distance alone makes you feel rather helpless in a lot of ways.

 

I've been trying to exercise more not only to fill my time but to help pull me out of the meh feeling by the occasional endorphin high. I went to sunset Yoga at our condo tonight and my mood was apparent in the class. I felt so ungraceful, like my body couldn't balance. Luckily the instructor said she didn't notice! The Yoga does help in a meditative way. The breeze flows through the patio where the class is and you can smell the ocean too. I'm grateful to have this class offered right downstairs from our condo!

 

Last night I got an unexpected call from a dear friend. It feels so good to reconnect with friends back home even if I can't be there physically. I love her spirit and talking with made me feel better. I love hearing from friends or anyone else who've made the switch to housewife or who have moved far away with their husband. The fact that they experienced the same range of emotions as I am puts my mind at ease.

 

So now I'll sip my glass of vino while I cook dinner and look forward to the forecasted sunshine tomorrow!

 



wedding wednesdays-the planning begins

 

 

So you just got engaged. How do you go from new fiancé to bride? Where do you begin? It can be really overwhelming when you first begin the planning process. There are so many options out there now and with Pinterest, you have access to millions of ideas from other brides. Now, I'm no planning or wedding expert by any means, but I do want to share what I learned along the way and my thoughts on wedding planning.

 

Let me start off with saying that we loved our wedding. Everything went as planned and we didn't have one single hiccup the entire day. I know it's rare that brides say that. There's usually always some story about someone not showing up or something going awry, but not for us. I'm very grateful and so happy with all the vendors we chose because in the end, it all went off without a hitch. I think with good planning and doing your research, your day can be just what you and your fiancé want.

 

More than likely, you're first step is to set a tentative date. I say tentative because once you start looking at venues, you may need to move your date a week or two if the venue is already booked. We had to do this, but received a discount from our venue for moving our date! Keep in mind that while you can have any type of wedding theme you want, it is your wedding afterall, but some seasons will be better for certain themes. If your heart is set on a winter wonderland themed wedding, picking a date in July may not work out too well.

 

Aside from picking a date, I think one of the first things you should do is decide on a theme. Now, your wedding doesn't need to have a straight forward theme like under the sea but you do need to have some sort of overall feel to your wedding. This will help you in picking out everything from your dress, to the venue to your décor. Think of how you want your wedding to feel to guests, what image and emotions do you want to portray? We wanted our wedding to have a simple, elegant and classic feel. This helped with picking out colors because theme/feel and colors can work together or work against each other. It would be hard to have a country chic wedding if your colors were black and neon green, ya know?

 

our colors were dark teal, white and grey

 

When planning all other details, we kept in mind our colors and our theme. It can get incredibly overwhelming researching wedding ideas on Pinterest. While I think it's a great way to do some research and get ideas for what you like, I think it can also create stress. As the bride you feel like you want everything that you see and that's just not feasible. When on wedding planning overload, it really helps to think back to your theme and your budget. Sure, you love those custom mason jar favors, but if your theme is hawaiian luau, they're not going to fit in. Now, I don't mean that you can't do whatever you want. But sticking to a common theme can really help you from feeling like you want everything you see at your wedding, but can't afford it.

 

guest book table

 

Speaking of being able to afford things, you and your fiancé must also set a budget. If your parents are helping out, all of you should sit down and talk about a budget before you begin making any plans. My fiancé and I paid for 90% of the wedding ourselves so we really had to sit down and talk about what we could afford and what aspects of the wedding were important to us. We had quite a small budget and were still able to pull off an amazing wedding that made us both happy and our guests enjoyed. When mapping out your budget, there are lots of tools online that can help you plan it out. I got ideas from The Knot but ended up creating a spreadsheet myself using Excel. Talk to your fiancé about what you feel more of the budget should be spent on and what things neither of you care about or can eliminate. For us, we did not feel the need to spend any money making programs. While these may be an important detail to others, we felt like our guests would probably just toss them out afterwards and wouldn't even notice their absence from our wedding.

 

centerpieces

cake and cupcakes

 

In order to save money, we did a lot of research with big ticket items like venue, photographer, DJ, etc. We also did a lot of DIY projects to help keep our costs down. I'll go into further detail about our vendor searches, little details and our DIY projects in the following weeks. There's just too much to write about in one post!

 

One last thing to keep in mind is that while this is your day, you want your guests to enjoy themselves. This really is a day of celebration for your new life together and you want to share this love and happiness with your friends and family. Also, things may go wrong the day of or the weeks leading up to your big day. Don't stress about it. Do the best you can at planning and anticipating any snafus, but in the end, no matter what happens, you're still married to your best friend.

 

 

 

All these pictures were taken by our amazing photographer, Nikki, owner of Nikki Marie Photography. She did sign over a copyright release to me for all photos taken at our wedding. Oh, and she's AMAZING!

 

 



dirty thirty

I totally failed. I had the best of intentions to update this blog on Monday with all the details of my birthday weekend. However... the hangover gods decided otherwise. My level of hangoverness was at the frozen pizza and ramen for dinner level. So, I'll write about my weekend today.

 

George got us a room for Saturday and Sunday night at the Hyatt in Tumon. My plans were to have a low key night Saturday, lounge by the pool in the lovely Guam sun all day Sunday, then go out Sunday night with a whiskey bent and hell bound attitude. All went as planned except for the pool on Sunday. The powers that be decided to dump about a million inches of rain on us this weekend (and it keeps coming!). No joke, I just looked it up and in the past week we've received about 10 inches of rain.

 

Saturday before we checked into the hotel, George and I went to one of our favorite restaurants, Pika's Café in Upper Tumon. Of course we had a great lunch and some yummy mango mimosas. If you're ever in Guam, I highly recommend eating at Pika's. The food is super fresh, with an inventive menu and they buy local produce!

 

mango mimosa at Pika's

 

Afterwards, we checked into our hotel. We got the top floor! The view was great even though it was cloudy and raining. The color of the water in Tumon Bay is so pretty and bright.

 

view from our lanai

 

I've made one friend on the island and she joined us this weekend to help me celebrate. Saturday night we went to Ban Thai in Tumon for dinner. It's always busy and feels sort of like a tourist trap, but the food here is actually some of the best Thai food I've had. I wish I had some pictures of the food to share, but we were so hungry we ate it before I could snap any photos. After dinner, we went to the bar across the street from the hotel, The Green Lizard. There's a decent mix of tourists and military usually at the bar. It's a nice atmosphere and it's open air and a patio type setting. If anything, it's great for people watching! Oh, and the best part... they have Coors Light!!

 

typical military guy trying to pick up tourists

green lizard logo

coors light, I've missed you!

my love and I

 

The next day (Sunday) my friend Erica had some surprises dropped off to us for my birthday. She made us jello shots and jello shot cupcakes and got all these fun 30th birthday things to wear! Since Sunday was my actual birthday, we wanted to go out and really celebrate. We started off at Hard Rock Café for a late dinner. The bartenders were really friendly and gave the three of us 2 free shots of tequila to celebrate. Of course, after that we were feeling great! We headed back over to The Green Lizard and the ladies there kept feeding me these birthday shots. It's crazy how different the mentality about drinking is here. There's no way back in the states that bartenders would give out free shots just because it was my birthday. They didn't even check my ID to see if it was really my birthday! Of course, I gladly accepted all the free drinks!

 

getting ready to go out

 we made George dress up too

after a few cocktails... not sure who the lady on the right is!

it's a classy joint...

 

So that was my dirty thirty birthday weekend. We definitely tied one on Sunday night, and I felt it the next day! Luckily though, George surprised me with an hour long couples massage at the hotel right after we checked out! Best husband, ever, right?! It was so relaxing and we both almost fell asleep.

 

 After everything, we came home to a home cooked meal of ramen and frozen pizza and relaxed on the couch to watch a movie. And then I slept for 13 hours because I'm old now and can't party like those young'ns.

 

 





thirty?!

It's here. My birthday weekend. And I'm turning thirty. While some days my body feels 30, I mentally don't feel 30. Didn't I just celebrate my 21st?! Anyways, the weather has been really rainy all week and the forecast for the weekend remains rainy. I woke up this morning and it was blue skies, yay! Then we drove out to base and I realized the blue skies were just a little break...

storm up ahead

Guam's bipolar weather. Sunny and pouring!

While I would love to have a huge dirty thirty party with all my friends, it just isn't going to be possible. California friends: you still have time to book a flight and get here in time! Instead, George and I are staying in a hotel in downtown Tumon for the weekend. My friend Erica is going to come out and celebrate with me too. I went to a hostess party with her a couple weeks ago and bought myself a cute wristlet that fits everything I need to go out in it. I bought it from another girl I just met, Brittany. It may sound lame, but I'm excited to use it bar hopping this weekend!

little birthday present to myself

I also got a birthday card in the mail today from my parents. I sure do miss my mom's humor...

oh mom...

Looking forward to our little staycation. Hopefully I'll get a lot of fun pictures to share on Monday. Hope everyone has a good weekend!



domesticated

I've been starting to feel better, I think I'm finally kicking this cold! And since I've been cooped up all week, I was starting to go stir crazy. So I decided to make a trip to the base and go grocery shopping. Wooooo hooooo! Ahhhh... the exciting life of a housewife. I was also feeling the itch to bake but since I don't have any of my kitchen gadgets here, I had to find a no-fuss recipe.

So off to Pinterest I went! I searched through my mountain of pins for a recipe. Doesn't it seem like everyone always pins millions of recipes and never actually makes any of them? Not this girl! I try to make most of the recipes I pin.

I eventually found this recipe for Lemon Crinkle Cookies on another blog. The recipe was simple and didn't require any of my kitchen gadgets that are en route on a boat somewhere between Japan and Guam. Of course, I still had to improvise. I have no mixing bowls so I had to use a large cookie container that we have. My friend Erica gave us a batch of cookies for Christmas in one of those plastic seasonal cookie boxes so luckily I kept that and use that as my mixing bowl. The cookies turned out great and George took most of them to work with him. The guys loved them and directed him to direct me to make more!

sticky batter in my fancy snowman plastic bowl

nom nom nom



wedding wednesdays-engagement

George and I had quite a whirlwind romance. Our first date was in December, we became "official" in January, went on an international 10-day vacation in March and moved in together in April. By June we were looking at rings. George knew my basic style but still wanted to get it just right. We made a couple trips to jewelry stores and he had me pick out and try on a bunch so he could get a better idea of what I would like. Turns out my favorite was the one he had already found online and thought I would love. Crazy how he knew me so well, so soon, right?

 

About a month later, he texted me on his trip to Roseville to "hang out with his friend" and said he needed to be sure of my ring size. I'm no genius, but I'm pretty sure he was buying a ring that day. When we looked at rings, all the stores said that it would take 8-12 weeks for delivery so I wasn't expecting a proposal any time soon.

 

Towards the middle of August we were discussing what we should do for the upcoming holiday weekend. We had some friends going to Reno for the rib cook-off but decided to stay home to save money. Then, about a week before Labor Day weekend George starts suggesting we take a weekend trip to Tahoe. I wasn't too sure because it was last minute and we had already decided to stay home. I had a slight feeling he had something planned because he was so adamant about going. Of course, I hoped he was planning to propose, but it had only been 3 or 4 weeks since the day he ordered my ring and I knew there was no way it had arrived already. So we made reservations for the Mont Bleu for Friday and Saturday night. George then suggested we do the sunset dinner cruise on the Tahoe Queen. So we made reservations for that as well. I thought for sure if he was going to do anything, it would be on the dinner cruise so my suspicions crept up again.

 

We checked into our hotel Friday night and went to the casino to play a little. I ended up having a few too many captain and diets and didn't feel the greatest the next morning. We decided to lay low Saturday and relax before the sunset dinner cruise that night. He remembered that I had never ridden to the top of Heavenly and suggested we ride the gondolas up to the top and have lunch. So we're riding in the gondola and I'm looking out over the lake and taking pictures and I turn around and George is all nervous and says, I was going to wait until we got to the lookout, but I can't wait. He then gets down on his knee and asks, Corinne Nicole Epley, will you marry me?

 

So what does a girl who just got proposed to in a private gondola, overlooking the beautiful Lake Tahoe, say?

 

Duh.

 

Yep. I didn't say "yes" and scream and get all giddy like the girls do in movies and TV. I said "duh!" It's a funny story to tell and definitely unique to us and that's why I love it. I'm glad I didn't just say "yes."

 

at the lookout right after he proposed

 

After he proposed, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the sunset dinner cruise that night. Now remember how I mentioned me drinking a little too much the night before? Well, did I also mention I get sea sick? Yea. I'm very glad he didn't propose on the Tahoe Queen! The dinner cruise was nice and the views were pretty, but I spent most of my time dealing with my sea sickness, if you know what I mean.

 

on the top deck of the Tahoe Queen

 

So on September 1, 2012 we got engaged. It was simple, it was unexpected and it was us.

 

 



feelin' like home

Having lived in the same area my whole life, it's taking some time for Guam and our condo to feel like home. I knew it wouldn't happen overnight yet it still is hard feeling out of place most of the time. Our household goods were picked up from our old apartment back home the first week of November and they still aren't here. We aren't expected to have our things until the middle of February. That means we've lived without our stuff for over 2 months at this point and still have 1 month to go.

 

Our bedroom started out with an air mattress and we figured we'd tough it out until our bed got here. That lasted about a month. There are no words to describe how your body feels after sleeping on an air mattress for weeks on end. We finally broke down and bought a bed. We needed one anyways since our old bed was over 10 years old, but we planned on using our old bed a few more years. But oh that first night on a REAL bed was amazing. We also had no dresser so we hung up what clothes we could and everything else stayed in the suitcases. I've never owned a dresser. I've used those large Tupperware drawers for all my clothes that couldn't be hung up. I'm about to turn thirty so we figured it was damn time I grew up and got a real dresser. So now we are able to put our clothes away and aren't living out of suitcases.

 

Our living room is where we really felt classy. We sold our couches and TV before we left and our plan was to buy some over here. Well, apparently most stores do not carry couches in stock, you have to order them. Which takes 6-8 weeks... So we done got ourselves some campin' chairs!!!

 

our super classy living room

 

I'm not sure how clearly you can see this picture, but yes, the TV is sitting on an ironing board. Don't be jealous. A few weeks later the BX called and the couches we ordered were ready for pickup. I guess someone had ordered the same set a few weeks prior to us, but didn't want them anymore so it went to the next in line, which was us. We were so excited to have couches!

 

George is going to kill me for this picture

 

Things are starting to come together. We are still waiting for a household goods shipment, but since we didn't ship everything we needed, we were forced to buy some things here. We found some rugs (in stock!) and a house plant at the Home Depot and our friend sold us his dining room table that he was getting rid of for cheap.

 

 living room coming together

dining and bar area

 

It really is starting to feel quite cozy and homey. We're still eager for the rest of our stuff though. It's hard to live with nothing except a few pieces of furniture. Cooking with no cookware is interesting (I've gotten pretty good at improvising), plastic cups/cutlery/plates makes it feel like college and wearing the same couple outfits day in and day out is not ideal. But we're getting there. And it's starting to feel like home. Our home.

 

 

 



weekend fun

Whatever cold I've caught seems to be holding its ground regardless of the amount of Motrin and DayQuil I throw at it. Which trust me, is quite a bit. Don't worry, it's all within the prescribed amounts. I'm not gettin' crazy with the Motrin over here. Anyways, the stubborn girl in me wasn't going to let this cold ruin a perfectly good weekend so we made plans for both days.

 

Saturday we decided to take it easy since I wasn't feeling too great still. We went to our favorite beach right down the road, Ypao. We relaxed in the sun for a couple of hours and of course, got some good people watching in.

 

Ypao Beach, Tumon hotels in the background

The clouds and the colors of the sky here are incredible

George's picture of the day

 

Apparently Saturday we had great timing because as soon as we left the beach, it started to rain. Which of course produced one of Guam's awesome rainbows. I actually was able to catch a picture from the car too!

 

  

Rainbow in Tumon

 

When we woke up Sunday I was feeling a little better so we decided to try out Onward Beach Club down the street. It's a waterpark attached to a hotel resort on Agana Bay. It's not as large as some waterparks back home, but it is a lot cheaper and less crowded. They have four water slides, a lazy river, a wave pool, various kid pools and an awesome slide called the Manta. I didn't get any pictures because we left our phones in the car so they wouldn't get wet. However, the Manta is like a large "U" shaped slide that you ride down one edge in a tube and the momentum shoots you all the way to the top of the other edge. This repeats 3-4 times before you eventually stop at the bottom. It was pretty scary for such a simple slide. We rode it twice! The second time George made me ride in the front of the tube and all I'm going to say is, never again. I'll stick to riding in the back of the tube from now on!

 

I'd also like to mention a few events that happened to others on this island this weekend. Sunday after we left the park and headed to the Navy base we noticed a lot of commotion at Asan Beach. There were firefighters, paramedics, search and rescue boats and a helicopter searching the waters. After reading the news online, it seems that two fishermen got knocked into the water and required rescuing. It seemed as though the search went on into the evening (we could still see the rescue boats from our condo). I did read this morning that both men were accounted for. In addition, this morning a tourist nearly drowned at Ypao Beach. The same place we were Saturday morning. She was also rescued and is doing well. Both events serve as a reminder to really respect the island and its waters. We're always safe when we snorkel and never get into waters we are unfamiliar with.

 

While we had fun both days, I'm still feeling sick and thinking I probably overdid it yesterday by going to the waterpark. So today I'm just relaxing on the couch while George goes to work. Hoping that my body will kick this cold soon!

 

 



tgif

Yay it's Friday! It's funny how even though I'm a stay at home wife, I still get excited about Friday like I did when I was working full time. George and I have plans to make it to the beach both days this weekend. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. It's been cloudy and rainy today, not unusual for Guam, but today's rain has been a little different. Normally when it rains, it's this heavy, quick downpour. Not a light misty rain like back in California. However, when we got up today the weather had a very Northern Pacific Coastal feel. It was misting and appeared foggy. Looking out the window I felt like I was back home... until I stepped outside and the heat and humidity smacked me back to reality.

 

misty day in Guam

 

Yesterday I woke up with a slight sore throat but I still went to yoga last night hoping it'll help with whatever cold I may be getting. I woke up this morning not only achy and sick but sore from yoga! I can barely walk around! So today I'll just hang around the house, eating soup and trying to kick this cold. Maybe if I turn the air conditioning down a few degrees and stare out at the misty foggy weather, it'll feel like I'm back home on a winter day!

 

I'll enjoy the rain for today, but I'm crossing my fingers it's nice and sunny out tomorrow so we can get some beach time in!

 





swing shift lasagna

 

My husband works swing shift and isn't home for dinner every night. Instead, he'll bring whatever I made for dinner to work with him the next day. This limits what type of food I cook since not all dinners are easily packed up to-go nor does everything reheat very well. When planning dinner, I like to meet these minimum requirements:

 

1. It has to be husband approved

2. It has to be easy to pack up and take to work

3. It has to reheat well

4. And it has to be fancy. Because we're fancy people, folks. Fancy.

 

This lasagna meets all those requirements. But wait, you're thinking, what makes it fancy??

 

Two words: fresh basil.

 

 

I've been cooking since I was little and always watched my dad create meals out of random ingredients in the fridge. That's exactly how I cook today. I do follow recipes from time to time, but usually I cook out of my own creativity. One thing I've learned is that using fresh herbs in any dish can impart a richer flavor and up the fanciness level.

 

I rarely measure anything. I've tried to keep track of the amounts of each ingredient I used so I can share this recipe. Feel free to add more or less of any item and make it your own!

 

Ingredients:

 

 

1 lb. Hot Italian Sausage

9 sheets of Barilla Oven-Ready Lasagne

1 8 oz. package of shredded Italian cheese blend

1 24 oz. jar of pasta sauce (I like Prego Traditional)

1/2 to 1 cup of Ricotta cheese

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

8-10 leaves of fresh basil, chiffonade

Salt & Pepper

 

Directions:

 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375°F

2. In a large skillet, brown the sausage over medium-high heat until cooked

3. While the sausage is cooking, chop the onions and garlic, slice the mushrooms and chiffonade the basil. To chiffonade, stack the leaves on top of each other, roll them up then slice the roll into little ribbons

4. Once the sausage is cooked, remove from the pan and set aside

5. Lower the heat to medium and add your mushrooms and onions, cook until soft and slightly browned

mmmmm...

 

6. Once your veggies are done cooking, add the sausage back to the pan, stir to combine and remove from the heat

7. Add the garlic and basil to the ricotta cheese. I don't like as much ricotta, so I use about 1/2 cup, but you can use more. Season with salt and pepper

ricotta mixture

 

8. Spread about 1/2 cup of pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish

9. Top with 3 sheets of the noodles (it may not cover the dish, but they'll expand while baking)

10. Top the noodles with half the ricotta mixture, half the sausage and veggie mixture, 1/3 of the remaining sauce and 1/3 of the shredded cheese

11. Repeat this once more

12. Top with the last 3 sheets and top with the remaining sauce and cheese

 

13. Cover with foil and bake for 25-30 minutes.

14. Remove foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes to brown the cheese. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before cutting

 

Enjoy!