marriage

I meant to post this on Thanksgiving Day, but we’re without Internet at our new place until next week, so I had to wait until I could get access elsewhere today.

I count my blessings everyday, but Thanksgiving just seems to be the day we all set aside to express our thanks.  This year….Wow. This year has been both a whirlwind of life changes and also a year my heart is overflowing with thanks.  I can’t even begin to list them all, but I feel that I should at least publicly share 3 of the most important ones:

1. Marriage.  My husband. I love him so much.  And while we can be so different in our unique personalities, I can’t imagine my life without him. Certainly there are times of struggle and stress, but the joyful times and experiencing married life together are far more significant.  It is a bit odd to think that at this time last year, we weren’t even engaged, and now here we are enjoying our 76^th day of marital bliss.

2. God.  I was baptized this year on Easter, and we are so blessed to have a wonderful support system in our church, especially our young adult small group.  We’ve developed honest & caring friendships with so many of them.  And while I still have lots of spiritual growth, I feel like I’m finally at a point in my life with God where I’m not struggling to keep my head above water, but I’m swimming with the current and living in Jesus’ love.

3. Family & Friends.  For their continued love, support, and overall health.  I can’t fathom as to where I would be in my life without every single relative, friend, and most importantly my parents, brother and sister (in-law).  I am who I am because of my wonderful family.  I don’t express my thanks for them as much as I should.  And friends from all stages of my life, all different from each other, but each one important to me in their own special way.  New friends close by and old friends far away.

This year for Thanksgiving, Todd & I stayed here to enjoy a quiet day together. Our first Thanksgiving as husband and wife, just the two of us.  While spending it with our families would’ve been ideal, that wasn’t possible this year so we made the most of our holiday in our new home.  I told him not to have very high expectations.  I couldn’t easily convince myself of the same thing—my memories of Thanksgiving with my family are filled with love, fun, and lots of delicious food.  I had very high expectations of myself for my first Thanksgiving dinner attempt as a wife. 

A turkey would’ve been too big for the two of us, so I stuffed a whole chicken with veggies and finished off the meal with my own version of green bean casserole (homemade crispy onions on top too- none of that unhealthy French’s canned stuff), mashed potatoes, and gravy.  I finished the feast with yummy pumpkin pie and real whipped cream.  I wanted to do as much of the food from scratch and with fresh ingredients as I could find. 

A Homemade Harris Thanksgiving

Disclaimer: the pie crust and canned pumpkin were from Whole Foods and the gravy came premade from Trader Joe’s, but other than that….all homemade.  I’m not brave enough to attempt gravy just quite yet.

I think I exceeded my own expectations. 

thanks for the flowers Mom & Dad!

We tried a new Washington wine— Holy Cow Riesling— to go with the meal and decided that if we couldn’t be with our family and friends, how better to spend the evening than watching every FRIENDS Thanksgiving episode?  Oddly, season 2 didn’t have a Thanksgiving episode, but we laughed our way through the other 9 seasons.

Today we woke up early to walk downtown for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade (Seattle’s day after version) and came back home for some buttermilk waffles and Home Alone.  

Here comes Seattle Santa!

A nap sounds good, but we have to finish moving a couple last items out of our old apartment and do a final cleaning.  Great way to burn off the past 24 hours of yumminess.

Autumn in Seattle has been sunny and relatively warm, perfect for enjoying the city and its lovely scenery. So when Todd told me he was leaving work early on Monday, i said “we’re going on a field trip!!”  No brownbag lunch required.

I’ve wanted to go to the Olympic Sculpture Park with him, but our weekends have always been busy with other things.  And everytime I’ve been there, it’s just been me running through, so I’ve never taken the time to stop and enjoy the park.

He got home at 5:00 (after an hour on the bus) and we headed out for our field trip.

First stop: Uptown Espresso.  

Next stop: 

We spotted an open bench on the edge of Elliot Bay and sat and watched the sun set behind the Olympic Mountains as we discussed our days.

The park closed a 1/2 hour after sunset, so we’ll have to make another trip back to take time to look around at all the art.

After a couple more stops browsing furniture stores and trading in old video games, we walked back home for dinner, which ended up being ‘make your own meal’ night.  Beef & bean burritos for Todd, spaghetti for Katie, ice cream for all.

I get to enjoy a 10 mile run on a lovely fall day.

He gets to sleep in until 10:30.

I decided to go back to my old ’stomping ground’. Its been awhile since I’ve ran the Lake Union Loop and up through UW on the Burke Gilman trail. It was nice, the sun came out and all the vibrant leaves made for a colorful start to the day.

We’re off to tour several apartments today. Should be fun.

You know those little things you avoid talking about because bringing up that subject always ends in disagreements? (ie: I don’t talk to my husband for hours…yep, that’s me, totally passive-agressive)

That 800 pound gorilla sitting in the room?

The thing that you can’t seem to discuss without getting frustrated?

*hand raised real high*

Yeah.

We have one subject that we tiptoe around.

Her name is Silvia.

Todd talks about her every once in awhile, shows pictures of them when they were younger, smiles as he remembers all the wonderful times they had together. She was there for him in high school and college, he even moved her to Seattle when he got a job up here. She was perhaps his first love. I think our best man’s toast was more about her than me.

In the years that we dated, Todd started spending less time with her, and she eventually just sat by and stayed mostly out of the way. Never made a move to win back the title of his favorite girl.

But I know she’s still around. Sometimes he even reminds me just how close Silvia and I are in his ranking of favorite things. Thankfully I always rank just a wee bit above her.

Oh yeah, Silvia is a car.

You may think “Its just a car, why get so irrational over it?” Ah, yes, excellent question.

But to fully explain this, I’d have to go back in time to when my Dad began collecting his cars (no time for that- it would take an entire book to tell about all of his cars). And then my brother followed in his footsteps. I’ve seen the stress it causes my mother and sister-in-law. I never wanted that for myself.

But sometimes, things work out in ways you never wished for. I fell in love with a man who loves cars. Just like the other two favorite men in my life.

*sigh*

I suppose I could learn to love Silvia if I’d have the chance to actually go for a ride in her or drive her somewhere, but instead she has been locked in a storage unit for the past several years. Gathering mold. Going nowhere. She has no seats. No battery. And her rent is not cheap. I liken it to flushing your money down the toilet every month. What is the use in having a car that doesn’t run? Why not get rid of it? Touchy subject indeed.

This past weekend, much to my delight, we put Silvia on a trailer and hauled her off to Idaho where she can be close to her grandparents.

We can go visit her whenever we want, which makes Todd happy. And we’re paying 75% less each month for storage, which makes me happy. Perhaps we can put that money to good use and get her some parts.

And sell her. Muahahahahaaa!

I kid, I kid. I know how much he loves her. And as long as he loves me more, I’m fine if they stay friends and keep in touch every once in awhile..

If there’s one thing I never understood about my husband (hmmm…still feels a little weird calling him that), it is his odd eating preferences. Or, mostly his dislikes. Seafood, tomatoes, mushrooms, feta cheese, etc….and STRAWBERRIES!??!

*GASP!*

I’m the strawberry girl, after all! My birth announcements were strawberries that said ‘its strawberry season and we picked a sweet one’.

awwwwwww…..how cute is that?

They’ve always been my #1 favorite food, and to find out recently that he’s “not too fond of strawberries” was a major shock to my system and everything I’ve ever believed. God really led me to marry this man??

But learning his eating habits, I’ve realized how fortunate I was growing up.

My grandpa and dad would take us fishing and we’d clean and fry up that day’s catch. Catching a fish with caviar (not the fancy expensive type, mind you, this was pond fish) was a special treat and my brother and I would fight over the little yellow egg packets. My grandparents were all farmers and gardeners so fresh veggies and fruits were what we ate on a daily basis. We prepped for the winters by canning and freezing the summer’s produce.

At the time, I thought it was such a pain to have to pick the corn, shuck the corn, clean the corn, cook the corn, can the corn, freeze the corn….now I miss that.

My mom always did such a great job of fixing meals with a wide variety of ingredients and flavors, giving us a varied, well developed flavor palate. Plus, if I didn’t eat my food, my brother would scarf it down and there was no peanut butter and jelly sandwich waiting for me instead.

Back to my original point….my seafood disliking husband. This has been an ongoing struggle for me since we’ve lived in the same city and I’ve been cooking for us. We are blessed to live in one of the best places to get fresh seafood in the world. Even so, we don’t frequent many seafood restaurants, except on special occasions or when friends/family come to town.

I make this sacrifice in hopes that some day he’ll realize he loves seafood. I leave my sushi eating to going out with friends. Besides, I can find some decent seafood in restaurants where he can have his chicken and beef. It’s not always so easy the other way around.

I’ve been limited on what I cook for dinners. No tomato based products either (this is equally as difficult….i LOVE my parents’ garden grow cherry tomatoes, those things are like candy to me).

Well yesterday I didn’t feel like having chicken again. Didn’t want to walk to the grocery store in the rain. But I did have some frozen Tilapia I’d picked up at Trader Joe’s awhile back. I’d mostly intended to save it for when we’re not able to eat dinner together, then I’d make it for myself.

Should I make fish? This was my dilemma for awhile and when he called me, I tiptoed around how to tell him I was thinking of making fish for dinner.

“I’m wondering if you…”
“What if I make, um…”

Oh for goodness sakes, he’s your husband, he can eat it or make his own food!

“Is it okay if I make fish for dinner tonight?”

“Yeah hun, that sounds good.”

What a sweetheart I love him.

I made fish. It was delicious. And he even said he liked it.

There’s a bright glimmer of hope even in the darkest places….

Just a quick post to announce that we’re married!!

Everything went fabulously and I could not have imagined a more awesome day. I’ll get around to posting more pictures later, but for now, I’ll focus on enjoying our honeymoon in San Francisco (I already had a yummy In-n-Out burger and strawberry milk shake…MMMM!).

These past couple of weeks have left me with very minimal time to do any worthwhile blogging, but I figured I’d leave an update now, lest I don’t get around to it any other time within the next week.

Someone once told me that 3 of the biggest changes you’ll experience in a lifetime are:
1. Getting Married
2. Moving
3. Starting a new Job

Well, I’m doing all 3 of those (kinda) within the next two weeks. I’m not STARTing a new job, but I am quitting my current job and figuring out what to do next with my occupational life.

Tonight, we’re moving my stuff out of my apartment and into Todd’s. I am sad about this, as I’ve loved living in my Eastlake studio the past year. It was the only year in my life that I lived completely by myself. No parents or siblings or roommates. (not saying I liked it MORE than living with others, it was just different) The location was perfect to jump on several of my favorite running routes, and I was just a 3 block walk to Lake Union. I’ll miss it.

But its bittersweet, as I’m moving my things to start my married life together with Todd. For that, I’m uberly excited and it makes moving a little less painful.

As one can imagine, it’s a little stressful around these parts, but thankfully work is not busy any more since I’m phasing myself out of there, so I get to do the majority of my wedding communcation during work hours

Just looking forward to getting everything finalized and seeing our family and friends together for our wedding!