Rants, Recipes, and Running

Living in North Dakota my whole life, and Ryan for a good portion of his life--we both grew a STRONG hate for one thing. It is the thing that causes escalating energy bills, ruins your morning, makes you late for class/work/whatever you need to get to, makes your day miserable, doesn't let you wear cute shoes, and turns VERY ugly from the polution of the city.....SNOW. However, for some reason--our minds became quite tainted when we moved to Arizona, for we both found ourselves saying "Man, I miss snow..." In all reality, we know that the SECOND we move back to the midwest, and had to deal with it interfering in our daily lives--we would find ourselves bitching and complaining at the exhausting winter weather. However, I found a great beauty this winter. I wake up to a cool morning where i get to wear sweaters, it stays in the 50-60 degree range (sometimes making peaks into the 70's), and we look up into the mountains and see the snowy caps in the air. Being lovers of...

Our first Christmas together was definitely an enjoyable one :) Although some family and friends were definitely missed--we found the days to be quite merry. Christmas Eve started it off. Ryan had to be up early at 4:30 for Guard, and I was up that early as well baking bread for Christmas Eve dinner, and chocolate pie for Xmas day :) We had Ryan's Christmas party that afternoon at his shop for guard, and it was great for me to see where he works (one weekend a month, anyways), and I finally got to see what an F16 looks like. It was a warm sunny day that day, so after the party we went to a park and enjoyed the beautiful day accompanied by some fresh air. We then went to Chris and Lora's house (his dad and step-mom) and enjoyed some hor'd oeuvres, and went to Christmas Eve mass. The meal was amazing. We did a tradition which is an Italian one where we enjoy 7 different fish on Christmas eve. The fish we savored on were: a wonderful crab dip, shrimp cocktail, broiled shimp, f...

My Grandma, Valeria McDougall passed away when I was about 4 years old..and I never got to know her. However I feel like i have fond memories of her, from the stories that I have been told. She mothered 8 children-- 5 boys (2 of them twins), and 3 girls, she was a teacher, and kept up the household of a farm. She was just as much of a dedicated, hardworking, metitculous clean-freak as my mother (mom, this is a compliment--I am so glad to have inherited your great jeans); and the BEST baker in town. I have heard endless nostalgia about how wonderful her baking was .... so last night -- I connected with her. As this blog has been progressing..it is about my story of Ryan and I..but since Ryan can't see it yet (the wedding dress photos are stricly OFF LIMITS), I am also talking about my journey to becoming that cute, domesticated wifey.....so : Dear Grandma Valeria, I hope you can take a break from scrubbing the floors of heaven to read this--for I KNOW heaven has taught you of the te...

No long boring elaborate stories this time...just some pictures of the christmas cookies and tree to add to my preview blog :)

So as Christmas has been quickly approaching us, many feelings and views on this holiday have entered my thoughts. This Christmas has been different for me this year because 1) I'm in Arizona where no snow, cold, or frost appears. and 2) I will not be choking down the ole' thick, milky, fishy grog we call "Oyester Stew" with my family up north. The first feelings I had experienced this christmas were of somewhat sadness this Thanksgiving. I went to the movie "Four Christmases" with my sister Lisa and sister-in-law Emily. The take-home message of the movie was that family is the essense of Christmas. Although the movie was something one would consider comedy (and believe me, I laughed until I hurt)...I remember one point of the movie I had tears rolling down my face in wonder of what Christmas will be like without the pickled herring, mom running around the house in a frenzy, and watching all my nephews enjoy the holiday. However, after we returned from Th...

The month of July was approaching, and we both knew we had to plan a trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico to get a taste of the beach, sunshine, tequila, and some carne asada......... so we planned sort of a last minute trip finding a beautiful resort, international car insurance on Ryan's car, and made our plans to leave July 10. It was the last weekend in June, and I had to work both days; and Ryan was at home. (I had nooo idea this was going on....) Ryan suddenly got the motivation to head to the mall and go ring shopping. We had talked about getting engaged, but figured it would happen in the future. Well, we walked into Kays, found the perfect ring, and bought it on the spot. This SAME morning while I was at work, I recieved a text message from my mom. She and my dad were attending mass at a church in Henning, MN--and there was a sign on the wall reading "God Bless Ryan and Abigail"........kind of eerie!! When I told Ryan about this sign, he just replied saying "...

We returned to UND for our spring semester both knowing that we were giong to be moving to Tucson in May. However, we kept this a secret between the two of us until things would be come finalized. We spent more and more time together; in fact, we were basically inseperable. The little things that used to seem like a chore became fun. Ex: working out, going to class, studying....however, we found that doing those things together made them pleasant. Ryan came to my lake cabin for the weekend to go ice fishing and meet most of the family. This was the weekend we would break it to my mom and dad that I was going to be moving to Tucson. We spent a fun Saturday out on the ice, and Ryan bonded with my dad and brothers--but had fear in the back his head the whole day. I will NEVER forget watching him ask my father's permission to bring me to Tucson. My dad was stoking the fire in the fire place with a hot, iron rod in his hand; and Ryan approached him in our living room with the utm...