Sunday Nights

Well, I'm happy to report that I have made it through the first week of 2011 

 and it has been really great. We were very busy and had a lot going

 on (as usual) but it was still nice and a perfect start 

to this new year. Last Sunday was Paul's and my two year wedding

anniversary and we spent the day in two fun places. The day 

started out in L.A. at Alcove for lunch and it was so 

delicious. It was the best veggie burger I've ever had, really!
We went to a fun bookstore near the restaurant that we ate at and read
some really interesting books. On our way home, we stopped
in Pasadena to take a little peep at where we got married, had a
hot cup of coffee and did some shopping. It was
good to be in our city... or at least it feels like our city. :)
We got in early and I made vegetable risotto for din din, it was
quite good. What a day.

This weekend has gone by so fast. We have been pretty lazy today,
with the exception of going to the farmer's market this morning
and getting our grocery shopping done. It feels good to start the new
week out with a full refrigerator and full cupboards, so thankful
for that. Paul recently expressed that he wants to start
cooking with me every night. Can I tell you how nice that is?
I'm loving it and I can tell he is too.
Tonight we made paninis with my new panini maker that
my parents gave me for Christmas (such a good gift!).

Sorry for the terrible cell phone photo.. I'm workin' on getting a new camera!

Our paninis were paired with a brown rice and cannellini 

bean salad with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts.

It was so good, not a bite left on the plate.

We're winding down with a movie and then it's time for bed

to get a good night's sleep for the new week.

And A Hello to 2011

Starting on the right foot here, I decided to write a little update for 1.1.11

{I think it is very exciting that today's date is all the same number!}. 

I know everyone has said it today and so I am going to have to agree, I 

cannot believe that 2011 is here! Can you? Last year flew by and

now, January is back.. so good to see you. Tomorrow is

our 2 year anniversary of wedded bliss, which is just mind blowing.

My dad was right, the older you get, time scoots quickly by.

Last year, I wrote a little post of goals for the new year and 

I think I did pretty well to conquer over half of them.
I think I will update my list for this year, but not until later.
I need time to think about it.. also, I need to get
ready to go. My parents are taking Paul and I out to dinner
for our anniversary {yay!}. Talk to you soon. :)


I decided it might be nice to give my page a little design change in light 
of the new year. Hope you like it too. 

Well..

I was going to start out this post by saying sorry again for my absence..

but then I decided that I need to stop doing that. If I am able to blog,

then I will and if I can't because I'm busy living my life, then I won't. Easy, simple. 

I'm not going to feel guilty whenever I think about this thing,

knowing I haven't updated in a while. Done. :)

Here are a bunch of random things that have been happening
as of late in a list because I don't feel like
using complete sentences.. hehe. :)

-busy with work(s)
-in September, my love and I celebrated 6 years together

-my sweet friends, Chelsea and Brandon, got married -- and I danced for hours

-remembered, partook in and celebrated a few High Holy Days

-got a perm.. yes, I really did
-became very afraid of the perm
-perm relaxed.. A LOT
-fell in love with the perm and became a little too obsessed
-friendsies visited and stayed with us :)
-moved from brewing sun tea to hot tea
-have been successfully shopping, cooking and eating vegan for the past month or more
-feelin' well, eatin' well
-my love is moving to a new position in his job in two weeks
-listening to Christmas music for the past week and a half (I can't help myself)
....
I think that's it. :)

Before I go, I wanted to share this video. I am a huuuge lover of music
and one of my favorite musicians is Feist and she just so
happens to be coming out with a documentary in the next week or so.
I'm pretty excited. Very excited. Are you?

Flowers in the Window.

These white lisianthus are also from the Claremont farmers market. (I kind of love
lisianthus.) Pretty cute with the pink tips.. and they lasted so long!

That's Mr. de Partee in the background, watering the lawn. Cute.

P.s. He texted me this today:
"6 years ago today I was in class and wrote a letter telling you that I loved you.:)"
He never did give it to me. He took me to Pasadena and told me a month later...to the day.
:)

Venticinco

I turned 25 a couple of days ago.. and I feel different. Every other time

I heard someone say they were 25, my initial thought was "Whoa, old". So when the day

came around for me to turn 25.. I'll be honest, I wasn't thrilled. In my own head

and heart, I still feel like a 15 year old girl in high school. (Can anyone relate?.. Pretty please?)

Now that I'm here, I feel good. I celebrated the day with my closest friends (missing

Mal and Jonathan of course), with family and my love. On the evening of my

actual birthday, I came home to a candlelit picnic in the living room

and a homemade dinner prepared for me by my love. It was beautiful, romantic,

lovely, yummy and everything I could have asked for.

So, all in all, 25 is feeling pretty good right about now. I am blessed.

June 18th

My darling husband turned 29 in June, he's so handsome.. .. .. Anyway, the day

was incredibly beautiful: the weather, the breeze, the sky. I planned a surprise outing

in L.A. (Los Feliz area) and did the things he loves most. We went to

Skylight Books, have you ever been there? It's worth the trip out there to visit.

There is a beautiful tree that grows in the middle of the store

that you can sit around and read. Paul is a major bookworm, so we really

enjoyed exploring the store, grabbing books off the shelves and sitting under the

tree to relax and read.

We walked around and shopped a bit and then headed down the street for dinner

at Alcove. I think this was the highlight of the day. Originally, Alcove

was a duplex built in the early 1900's that was completely renovated into this glorious

restaurant. There are so many little details that we both really appreciated

and their food was so yummy. We think about it often and want to go back real

real soon! Oh, and their baked goods... Oh My Gosh!

I was really bummed that we didn't get a 29. :/

After dinner, we got a chocolate cream cupcake and coffee to go for later. We

drove around the hilly neighborhoods and looked at the massive

houses and picked out the ones that we liked best. When we were done, we

headed over to Griffith Park to enjoy our dessert.

That was our nice day.. and I want to go back.

Afternooning

Freshly squeezed strawberry lemonade. "Yummy in the tummy" as my grandma would say.

Agenda for the weekend:
-Going on a date tonight with my Love. We're going to see Babies (please watch the trailer if you haven't already)!! I feel like I've waited forever for this to come out. :)
-Lily's 3rd birthday party. <3
-Packing for days and days.
-Hang out with some good friends.
-Watch Paul write his 15 page research paper (that is due Monday - oye).
-Finish reading my Real Simple magazine.

That's it. Happy weekend. :)

I'm growin' some scallions in our kitchen and they are coming along! This picture was taken 2 days ago..
you should see them now. I'll try to update on these little babies. I'm proud of them. Grow grow!!

Sun-dazeeee

It's Sunday, the day that I have the house to myself and the day that I (normally) get things done around here. In going to bed last night, my plan was to sleep in and then get started with my day and my chores. There was laundry to be done, counters to be wiped down, dry dishes to be put away, a new Martha Stewart magazine to be read and my brother's birthday painting to be finished.. but but but, here I sit on the couch, at 3pm, in the very same place I have been since I woke up. What a shame. And all I have gotten done today is read my magazine and baked a new loaf of bread (and ate two slices)... oh an watched 10 Things I Hate About You, My Best Friend's Wedding and Man vs. Food. -- and I have enjoyed every moment of it. But the time has now come to get myself up, start the laundry, jump in the shower, clean things up and get ready for my darling husband's homecoming. I like him. :)

It's a short update, but it's all I got right now. The weekend is almost over.. hope you've had a good one.

We're going flying in the rain.

I can't even believe how long I've been away from the internet. I haven't sat in front of my computer in over a week.. Which I think is a record for me. I know I always talk about how busy life is but, truly, this has been the busiest time of my life with bachelorette parties, friends visiting from far away, weddings and very important Holy-days. Right now, I'm in the car with my husband (blogging from my blackberry..lame?) on our way to the airport. We are going to San Francisco for 6 whole days and 5 whole nights to celebrate our year of marriage. We are so excited to have some time away from this busy life and spend time together looking at tall buildings, eating amazing food, seeing old friends, sleeping in a fun hotel, walking in the park, shopping and going to the Jewish contemporary museum (woo!).

Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely week, as I know I will be doing the same. Stories and photos to come. :)

Flowers, For Me?

Paul has been working a lot of overtime the past few weeks, which puts him home much
later in the day than I'm used to. Last week was a stressful week at work for me
(and for him) and with Paul coming home later, it kind of bummed me out.
Today, he was supposed to be getting off work at 6 (starting at 6am mind you),
and so my plan was to run all of the errands I needed to do, in time for his
homecoming. Well... at 3ish, I was in the kitchen doing some dishes
when unbeknown-st to me, the front door opens and in comes walking
my darling husband with a lovely bouquet of flowers, just for me.
Yellow ranunculas and wax flowers.. I just love them. I could not have
been more thrilled at that moment. He told me that he had canceled his overtime
that morning and wanted to surprise me tonight. We ran our errands together
and then treated me to sushi (my favorite!) and Golden Spoon. Now we are back home
and are about to start a new (for us) episode of Heroes. And I am really happy.
I just love this man.

Our carrots are in love.

Upland has started up their farmer's market again and this past Thursday was the first night. We made a date night out of it and had a really nice time. I wrote about Farm Fresh To You a couple posts back and about how we get a shipment every other Friday morning. Well, we realized that it doesn't last us the full two weeks so we had to stock up on some veggies. We bought some really beautiful asparagus, swiss chard, red lettuce, cherry tomatoes (the farmer told us that they never had to plant these on his farm, they just grow wild and they are delicious) and carrots. Paul wanted to pick out the carrots because he is the one who eats the bulk of them and when he came back, he had two big bunches with their pretty greens still attached. He showed me one of the bunches and said that he had picked it because of the two carrots that had grown together to look like a heart. I thought it was too cute and I just had to take a picture, and here I am sharing it with you all. It made me really happy. :)

I trust that you are all having a nice weekend and I hope you are enjoying the rain and the sunshine.

A long day that ended with potato dumplings.

Today was busy. My class and I went on a fun field trip to a walnut ranch in West Covina. There were a lot of fun, hands on activities for the kids to do and they really enjoyed it, so did I. After the field trip, I went to my Grandma's house to take care of her (as I do every Wednesday) and she was especially confused when I came walking through the door. I think having a Grandma with Alzheimer's is something that I have gotten used to.. either that or I'm just calloused. It's all just very odd.. very sad. I think it's something that I have already grieved over. She doesn't know me at all anymore, I am a stranger to her.. but there are those random times when she looks up and she smiles and looks at me as a familiar face. She's very sweet. We played cards, put together a puzzle and sat outside and looked at the trees and the flowers.

Later, Paul and I went to the farmers market and did our grocery shopping. We were tired and hungry when we got home and decided that something hot was the way to go. I had some left over mashed potatoes from a couple nights ago and decided to make potato dumplings in tomato soup. The process is pretty easy, all you need is some flour and your left over mashed potatoes and you're in business. I sprinkled flour on the board, plopped a big handful of potatoes on it and needed it until it felt more like a dough that could be rolled out, adding flour until desired consistency. I rolled it and cut it into bite size pieces and put them in the hot soup to heat them through. All it needs is some freshly ground black pepper and a spoon, total comfort. I served it along side a fresh mixed green salad and it was the perfect pair. It was super easy and it hit the spot.

Bed time.

Quick update

I find her to be quite lovely.

I had thee busiest last 7 days, which is clear by my recent absence. I have no idea where the weekend went. It was wrapped up in the moving out of old furniture and the moving in of new, a sweet rainy wedding, a bridal shower and minimal amounts of sleep. I still haven't recovered. Oye. So for now I am back to my normal life. I cleaned the house, got caught up on some reading and made sure the house and dinner were ready by the time Paul opened the front door. Broccoli and tofu in a garlic sauce served with a heaping spoonful of mashed potatoes... all organic I should add. :) Yay for that. More updates to come.. hope you all had a nice weekend. Happy Monday evening. :)

(via la boom!)

Mr. Grad Student

Paul with my family on his graduation day.

This week, Paul officially started his Library Science Masters program with San Jose State and I couldn't be more proud. We have been through a lot of loops, ups and downs with figuring out what to do for school and I am so happy that we have finally reached the place where G-d intended for us to be. There is an overwhelming peace that comes with knowing that we are where we are supposed to be and I am so thankful.

Paul and I with our lovely friend Courtney at Biola.

Good Morning

Paul bought me a box of my favorite tea last night and all I want
to do is sit and drink cup after cup after cup...

(via aaronmace)

One.Five.TwoThousandTen

Paul should be home in approximately one hour. He picked up 20 extra hours at work this week (which totals to 60 hours - yipes) and I am trying to be a good wife by making sure the house is clean, dinner is on the table and that I am dressed in my sweetest apron as he crosses the threshold. Real Simple's orange chicken with bulgar pilaf (sub quinoa for bulgar because the grocery store didn't have it, darn) will be served on our dinner table this evening and I hope it turns out just right. I am really trying to commit to my "2010 try to achieve" list this week (one week at a time) and I am doing that by staying in tonight and cooking for the two of us instead of going out. Feels good. :)

Another way that I am sticking to my list is by taking a picture everyday. So for today's picture, I give you this: my new favorite pillow. This was gifted to us by Mallory and Jonathan for our Christmas present and I couldn't be more thrilled about it. Here it rests on our couch and I look at it fondly every time I enter the room.

The little sign in front says "de Partee" (!)

I wish the picture could be better but as we know, the photo booth camera is going to have to have to cut it until something better comes along. Is this not the cutest thing? I have a lot of love for this little pillow. Please excuse Tootsie's behind, she was not willing to move for the photo. Happy Tuesday. :)

One.Two.TwoThousandNine - One.Two.TwoThousandTen

Under the chuppah just one year ago.

We were married exactly one year ago this past Saturday and I can hardly believe it. What a great day that was. To celebrate our anniversary, we spent the day in Pasadena, lunching and walking around the Norton Simon Museum, shopping on Lake and Colorado and dining at Green Street Tavern (just around the corner from where we got married) and it was marvelous. It was a slow moving, hand holding, take everything in and enjoy each others' company kind of day. I am so blessed to have been able to marry someone perfectly handpicked for me by our L-rd, who just happens to be my favorite person and best friend. It's mooshy but true. Pictures of our day later to come. :)

One.One.TwoThousandTen

I'm here at this new destination and I like the feel of it. I love having something new to work on and look at, so I am bringing in the new year with lots of new things and new improvements. Last night was New Years Eve and Paul and I spent it with some of our closest friends - singing loudly, laughing until our sides ached, dancing, hugging and kissing. It was a really great way for us to end the year. I can't believe 2009 is over. Did it fly by for you like it did for us? In looking back on all the we did, it blows my mind. Tomorrow is mine and Paul's one year wedding anniversary.. u n b e l i e v a b l e. I can't really put a feeling into words other than saying that my tummy flutters when I think about that day and thinking about what I was doing right now, one year ago. I saw my parents a couple of days ago and my dad asked me if it felt surreal thinking back on a year ago and seeing and experiencing how quickly it came and went. My dad has always said that time goes by quicker the older you get and I always listened but never knew quite grasped what he was saying. He talked about how their first year of marriage flew by for them and how the years following seems to go quick too. Now that I have grown up (just a bit), I know what he is saying. And it is a slightly eerie but at the same time, comforting feeling to be in the same place that my dad was in years ago.

So let's see... I'm going to make a quick list for what I would like to see happen in this new year. This isn't a resolution list, just a strive to achieve list. :) I've never been really good with resolutions. Here we go, I would like to..

...become a stronger woman of G-d.

...take more walks.

...read more books.
...buy fresh flowers weekly.
...write more hand written letters.
...wear my apron everyday.
...love Jesus more.
...make sun tea in my backyard.
...maintain a healthier lifestyle.
...stay home in the evenings more with Paul rather than us going out.
...craft a little bit everyday.
...bake flowerless cakes.
...travel!
...make handmade gifts for family and friend's birthdays.
...make more chicken tortilla soup.
...light more candles.
...take at least one picture everyday.
...grow closer to the L-rd everyday.
...finish all of the projects that I start.
...love my husband more (which isn't hard to do).
...make the bed at least 3 days a week.
...get control of my road rage (yipes).
...get more exercise.
...blog 1-2 times a week.
...help someone in need.
...spend more time with my grandma.
...love more.
...become a better wife, daughter, sister and friend.

I hope that everyone had a fun, safe New Years Eve. I am excited for 2010 and all that it will bring. And for now I leave you with this, of course it's Sufjan Stevens. I guess maybe he sings the theme song of my life. I love how he writes, how he sings and his creative ability. I hope you enjoy the song. Happy New Year and love to you all. :)