Christmas Tree

This week we bought our first Christmas Tree! We decided to go with artificial because we like white trees but hate the flocking material they use on real trees to make them white. Tessa just added the ornaments today, and it looks beautiful.



We also put some sticky Santa and Reindeer decorations on our sliding door:

Turkey Day!

Zach and I had a great Thanksgiving this year, albeit not without its own drama. We woke up bright and early to get a head start on cooking for the day. We threw the pumpkin pie in the oven and began preparing the other dishes, including our 11-pound turkey whom we nick-named Tiny Tim. After the prescribed cooking time we checked on the pie, only to find it liquid and completely uncooked. The oven wasn't even warm! We tried setting the temperature again, only to determine that the igniter on the gas line wasn't working properly. We made 10 or so attempts, then decided that Thanksgiving would have to be postponed until we could get someone in to fix the oven. We left a message for the maintenance folks at the apartment, hoping they might take pity and help us out.

No sooner had we wrapped up all of our half-prepared dishes and declared Thanksgiving canceled for the day than who comes knocking at the door? The jolly maintenance man! We let him in and of course when we try the oven it works immediately. Thankfully he was a good sport and told us this happens all the time and that our oven should be fine for the rest of the day. Thanksgiving was back on!

We spent the remainder of the day cooking and eating our delicious food. Not without a few more scares from the oven, but we persisted. All in all, a very successful Thanksgiving.

Here is a picture of our spread (we won't post any of us with the food, we look pretty haggard from our first Thanksgiving cooking experience):


Here was our menu for the day:

• Roast Turkey with Truffle Gravy
• Grandma Erma's Spirited Cranberry Sauce
• Maple-Pecan Sweet Potatoes
• Wild Rice Stuffing
• Brussels Sprouts Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette
• Vanilla-Bourbon Pumpkin Tart

The Cleanroom

As most of you know, Tessa and I work for the same company, in the same department, on the same manufacturing floor. Our company makes medical devices, and this means that our manufacturing floor is not located in a dimly lit , grimy factory. Instead, we work in The Cleanroom!

In the cleanroom, hairnets, gowns, and gloves are required; handwashing and shoe-covers are a must (see picture above for the upper half or our stylishly immaculate digs). Before entering, we have to go through a process called "gowning" which involves donning our hairnets and putting on our shoe-covers in an elaborate dance across an imaginary line separating "clean space" and "filthy space". We then have to thoroughly wash and air dry (paper towels give off particles) our hands, then suit up in our choice of white pinstripe, sky blue, or janitorial navy (seen above) gowns. If we need to bring anything into The Cleanroom it must be wiped down with 140 proof alcohol (actually it's 70% isopropyl, not so good for drinking). Needless to say, my computer is spotless. After checking the door light to make sure the exterior door isn't open, we enter the chaotic yet productive atmosphere of The Cleanroom. We pick up gloves on the left and snap them on as we walk to the makeshift engineering workstation ahead. And thus our day begins.

We wanted to bring you a glimpse of the place where we spend nearly half of our lives. Notice we are smiling in the picture above. Despite the long hours and stressful situtations we love our jobs and the people we work with. The Cleanroom is our home away from home.

Summer is Finally Here!

4th of July in Phoenix

Tessa and I went to Phoenix to visit my parents for the 4th of July weekend. We had a great time swimming and chilling by the pool. The weather was relatively cool (still 100 degrees!) for this time of year, so the water was still cold enough to be refreshing. We went to see Cheap Trick in concert on Saturday in Scottsdale. They were awesome! We took the video below while they were playing Dream Police. The quality of the video isn't very good, but the band sounded great.

On Sunday we bottled some wine my dad made (picture above). We had some drama when a few of the bottles exploded while we were corking them, but nobody got hurt and the wine tasted good.

The weekend was much too short. We enjoyed seeing my family and celebrating Independence Day together. The next time we see them will be for our wedding!

The Picture Frames

Zach and I spent a good part of this past week working on a craft project, so I thought I'd go ahead and share the details of that with you all this week. As I mentioned in a previous post, we are finally in a position to buy some of the things we want (instead of just basic needs), and that includes decorations for our apartment. I got this idea from a Martha Stewart book of creating unique picture frames by decorating the mat in the frames with ribbon, and I've been wanting to make some of these frames for awhile. The project is very simple and requires just a few materials: picture frames with thick mat, ribbon, and fabric glue. The idea is that you create different geometric designs on the mat of each frame with the ribbon, and then when you hang them on the wall, the design adds a nice, unique flair to the pictures.

So I started assembling the ribbon on the mats while Zach looked through our pictures to find some good photos for the finished frames.


We decided to fill the frames with our favorite pictures from our favorite places in the world. We chose the following cities:

Barcelona, Spain - Zach and I visited Barcelona on our study abroad in 2006, which is where we met each other. This picture was taken on top of the Casa Mila apartments, one of our favorite places in the city because of it's unique and groovy architecture.

Florence, Italy - We visited this city on our study abroad as well, and I took this picture while we were walking along the Arno, returning to our hotel after a pretty boring ballet. At this point in the trip, our romance was budding, so we have very fond memories of our time in Florence.


Mykonos, Greece - Eden and Kate dragged us to Greece and Turkey with them at the beginning of the summer in 2009. At the time we were skeptical and not quite sure if "cheap airline tickets" was a good enough reason to go on a spontaneous European vacation. We had an amazing time though, and along the way found Mykonos, one of the most relaxing places I've ever been to. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time there, but we've all vowed to meet there again in the future.

Kangaroo Island, Australia - Zach and I went on an epic trip to Australia and New Zealand after graduating in December. Kangaroo Island was by far one of our favorite destinations from that trip. The island was empty, which made it really peaceful, and also provided us with long stretches of highway for Zach to practice driving on the "wrong" side of the road. I took this picture on one of those relaxing drives.

We hung all of the finished frames in our bedroom, across from the bed. I'm really happy with the end result, because not only have we gotten rid of a boring, blank wall, we also get to look at all of these pictures and reminisce whenever we walk by them. Fun times...


Good bye for now, have a great weekend!

The Mysterious Gift

Hey all,

I was on my way to the store just now and on my doorstep I found a wonderful surprise that I wanted to tell you all about. There was a Harry and David box on my doormat and I was wondering whether someone had sent me pears or something, so I immediately start going through everyone I know who might send me something, and I couldn't imagine who it could be from. Well I opened up the box and it ended up being this beautiful arrangement.

And even better than the cute arrangement of boxes, was the delicious Harry and David treats that I found inside of the boxes.

Well as you can probably tell from the ribbon, the gift was from Edwards welcoming me to the company! How cute is that?! The card said, "Tessa, We look forward to having you join the Edwards Lifesciences family." And it was signed by my boss. Well Zach got a similar gift from Edwards when we first moved here, so I was expecting something. But Zach just got a generic, off-brand gift basket with some candy in it. This is a quality, Harry and David gift box collection, much more impressive. The card from Harry and David expressed it this way, "Someone has chosen to give you this gourmet gift from Harry and David. We think this shows impeccable taste." Even though that's a little obnoxious, I have to agree with them, it does show impeccable taste. So I guess Zach's going to need to watch out, it looks like they already like me better, and I haven't even started work yet! Just kidding, there's plenty of work there for both of us.

I'll be back in a couple of days with a more lengthy post for the week. Have a good day!

The Wish List

Those of you who have visited our apartment have undoubtedly noticed the wish list we have posted on our refrigerator. The list contains all of the items we want to purchase once I get a job and we have enough extra money lying around to be able to afford things besides rent and food. The list started out as a practical tool to help us remember things that we want to buy. At first, I'd think of something for the home that we needed, and rather than feeling sad about not being able to buy it, I'd add it to the list, wish served as a promise of good things to come. As the job search became really slow for me, the list took on a whole different meaning. Zach and I hated it, because it was a reminder of all of the things we couldn't have because of my inability to find a job. At times the list served as a pity list to our parents, and they tried to catch glimpses of it and buy us things from it to try to relieve our burden. Well, I am happy to report that that stupid, funny, daunting, and ever lengthening list is no longer a "wish list," it's a shopping list now!

That's right, I finally got a job and now we can finally start hacking away at that stupid list. First item: a new mattress. Zach and I were really lucky to have all of the furniture in our apartment donated to us by Angela. Rather than having to buy sketchy things off of Craigslist or flimsy things from IKEA, we had a quality bed, couch, TV, etc. to bring out with us. So while we are extremely grateful for all of the furniture, one item we have had particular trouble with is the mattress on our bed. To put it simply, this mattress is now being used past it's life cycle, and we need to let it go and move on with a new, younger mattress. There's a kind of sinkhole in the middle of the mattress, so Zach and I struggle all night to stay on our sides of the bed and not fall into the sinkhole in the middle together. As a result of our struggles, we don't sleep that solidly at night, and we both wake up each morning with a sore back, shoulders, or neck. So yesterday we got my job offer, and today we are heading out to buy a new mattress.

In my new job I will be a Manufacturing Supervisor for Edwards Lifesciences (Zach's company). Once I start work Zach and I will have to wake up each morning at 5am to be at work by 6am. So with such early mornings, we cannot afford anymore sleepless nights, and with the help of our new mattress, that shouldn't be a problem anymore. I am so happy that we're finally getting a chance to tackle the list and really start living our lives. I don't have to sit at home all day idling away! Worry not though, I'll still make time to update the blog. So stay tuned, we'll be back next week...

The Long Overdue Update

Hello. I apologize for not updating the blog for over a month, but not much has been going on with wedding planning. For that reason, I'm going to re-purpose this blog a bit and post about general updates with me and Zach and our new life in California, along with wedding updates as they happen. Here are a few pictures to illustrate how we've been spending a lot of our time here since we moved in February:

During our cross-country drive from Georgia to California, we got a chance to stop by the Grand Canyon and we were lucky to get to see it covered in snow. If you're coming to Sedona for the wedding, you can visit the Grand Canyon too, it's less than 2 hours north of the city, so don't forget to make time for that in your trip if you're interested.

When Bonnie came to visit at the end of February, we went to Thousand Steps Beach in Laguna. From the first picture you can see where this beach gets its name, but after getting down all of the stairs, the beach is very beautiful and empty. I'd also like to point out that Bonnie remains the only person from the east coast to come and visit us, so the rest of you better get on it, and come out to California!

Zach and I spent a whole day straight working on a 3D puzzle, so we were eager to take pictures afterward.

Our apartment complex offers free yoga classes every Saturday morning, so here are me and Zach on our way to class with our mats. Recently we've started doing yoga at our apartment instead, since we prefer to spend our Saturday mornings sleeping in and then cooking elaborate breakfasts.

Zach and I had a lot of fun coloring eggs on Easter. We also had a contest where each of us hid plastic eggs around the apartment for the other. We got a little too into it and some of the hiding places were impossible to find, and the game ended up being more frustrating than fun. For next year we'll just have to make the game a little less intense.

This was taken while we where on a hike in the hills about 30 minutes away from where we live. We got to hang out with two guys from Zach's work, and also enjoyed feeling like we were immersed in nature without having to drive very far from home.

This is Zach enjoying carrot cake on his birthday. We also grilled BBQ ribs for the first time that day to celebrate.

Zach and I go to nearby parks about every weekend. We usually bring a picnic and eat there and then throw the Frisbee around and enjoy the nice weather.

Our apartment is less than a mile away from the Orange County Performing Arts Center, which houses all of the visiting Broadway shows. We were lucky enough to get tickets to see Dreamgirls, and this is us before walking over to the theater. The show was really entertaining, if you haven't seen it: it's like Jersey Boys, except with girls who have the added obstacle of racial prejudices to overcome. We'd recommend it if it comes to your city.


These pictures are from Yosemite National Park, which is about a 6 hour drive from where we live. The whole park is actually in this gorgeous valley with mountains and waterfalls everywhere. You can see a bit of the valley in the first picture, and the second picture was taken a the end of a long hike we took to the top of a waterfall. The scenery was beautiful, but we got pretty wet on our way up.

I hope you enjoyed the update. I'm going to make a point to update weekly, so please check back soon. We miss you all!

The Bridesmaids' Dresses

Hello all. As you know, I found my own dress a while back in November and I've been looking for a good bridesmaid dress style to complement it since. I've finally settled on a dress for Erin and Heather from Nordstrom. Here's the dress:



The color is perfect and is just what I wanted to contrast the red rocks of the landscape and the yellow flowers we'll all have. And the fabric, silk chiffon, is the same as my dress so it will go well with what I'm wearing. And most importantly, the strapless dresses will look very flattering on both Erin and Heather, so this really wasn't a tough decision once I found this dress. Right now I'm trying to find a good salon for us to get our hair and make-up done, but other than that all of the fashion/beauty parts of the wedding are taken care of since Zach worked out which tux he wanted in February.

Thanks for reading and I'll try to continue posting updates, but it seems that we've taken care of most of the planning. Now we're just in a waiting period since more tasks won't crop up until closer to the big day. Don't forget to get your plane ticket, rental car, and hotel booked!

The Gift Bags

I know in an earlier post I said that I wouldn't say anything about the gift bags because I wanted them to be a surprise. However, I just got the bags in the mail today and I can't resist showing them to you all. They turned out so well!

I wanted to find a bag that was sturdy and would last for the duration of everyone's trip, but I didn't want to have to spend $20 to get everyone a fancy tote bag. So on discountmugs.com I found these blank, thin canvas bags that are like the reusable shopping bags that you can buy at the grocery store. Then I made a little design in photoshop for them to print on the bags and it was as easy as that. I think they turned out really well and I'm excited to fill them up with goodies for all of the guests. I'm going to keep my promise and not let you know anything about what's going inside them, so enjoy this one-time gift bag sneak peak.

The Money Saving Tactics

Since Zach and I are living off of one salary and saving for a house and the wedding, we've had to employ some creative money saving techniques. We thought you'd enjoy seeing how we're managing to save money:

We always keep our thermostat off. When it gets too hot, we open the sliding door. When it gets too cold, we warm ourselves by lighting candles and using blankets.


We don't bother paying for cable each month, we just hook the computer up to the TV and watch online shows and movies.


We take extra condiments when we go out to eat and use them later so we don't have to buy them from the store.


When there's a sale at the store, we buy in bulk (that's right, we currently have nine cereal boxes).


We use office supplies to seal our food (who needs to spend money on chip clips or tupperware?).


We track all of our spending on Mint.com. Since we've been using it we've already identified over $100 in faulty charges.

We hoped you enjoyed this insight into our current lifestyle. We miss you all and hopefully we'll see you all at the wedding in October!

The New Apartment

Hey all,

It's been awhile since my last post because we kind of took a break from wedding planning after our super-productive trip to Sedona. Currently we're working on getting the gift bags together for all of the guests. We've been designing the bags and ordering cool little gifts to put inside, but I haven't been posting any pictures of those because I was them to be a surprise.

Zach and I have also been busy fixing up our new place. The apartment is gorgeous and we have some really great pieces of furniture in it. Our next step is to buy some patio furniture and curtains. I hope you enjoy these pictures of the place.

The Wedding Cake

Sorry I've been so slow in updating this, but Zach and I don't have internet at our apartment yet, so I have to wait until I can get to a place with free wireless before doing anything. Here's a little bit about the cake we are getting designed. Enjoy!

We decided to go with Donna at Sedona Sweet Arts for our wedding cake. Donna really loves making sugar art and usually makes flowers for cakes, but I think we were able to challenge her with something a little different. When we first got to the bakery we sampled some of her cakes and almost immediately decided on carrot cake (Zach's favorite) for half of the cake and then chocolate mousse (my favorite) for the other half of the cake. The carrot cake half will have cream cheese icing while the chocolate half will have a chocolate mousse filling and both will have a thin layer of buttercream on the outside for decoration.

The cake is going to be relatively simple with a tuscan finish with ivory frosting on the outsite. And the most extravagant part will be the topper, which will be a bride and groom cactus. You can probably get a better idea from the pictures below. The first one is an example of what the tuscan texture will look like, except that ours will be ivory and won't have flowers. The second picture is what the topper will look like, and Donna is going to make that part entirely out of sugar.