Life with Zak and Rachel.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

In Which I am a Terrible Blogger

Hi all,

Sorry it's been like, half a year since the last update. For a while life wasn't super exciting, and then the holidays hit and since 2014 started, it's been just insanity. I will try to capture the magic and memories from the past half year with this update...mostly by going through my phone and looking at pictures.

Fall semester went well for Zack--he made it on the Dean's List again! We also celebrated his 25th birthday; I got him a record player...and definitely opened a can of worms with it, because now he talks about getting records all the time! It's been pretty fun though. We also went to Amber's 1920's/Downton Abbey party, which was fun! For Halloween we went down to Lewiston; Kandace's parents have a crazy awesome party every year, and we got to go this year. It was pretty fun, they decorate all the rooms and have great food and music. And for our last-minute costumes, I think we looked pretty great. Zack was The Dude from The Big Lebowski, and I went as Minnie Mouse.

1920s style?

me & birthday girl Amber

being SERIOUS about the 1920s

Penny thinks she's a lap dog because Zack pulls her up onto his lap to scratch her belly

Minnie Mouse top half

not bad for last minute!

Zack as The Dude

at the party

In November, we got to see Glenda, she came out for Thanksgiving and stayed with us for a little bit. It was nice to have her around and to have some family time; we went to WA for Thanksgiving and brought Penny with us. Zack's cousin brought his cute fluffy dog and we had a great time playing the dogs and baby Rachel and enjoying the joy being around family brings.

driving to WA

Thanksgiving in WA with Glenda

chasing Penny around

of course this is the best picture of us from the trip...

For Christmas we stayed in Moscow, which was a nice change from the past few years, where we've been traveling across the country. It was so great to not have to worry about packing, or airports and jetlag. And, as fate would have it, of course, our transmission blew out like, the week before Christmas, so we were more or less stranded anyway. But have Christmas with just us and Penny was very nice. We got a big tree and used all our childhood ornaments to cover it, and I put up decorations and had music on all the time. We had steak with mashed potatoes and I made a combination yam/sweet potatoes & apples casserole. Everything was great, and for dessert we had chocolate mousse! We had a nice, quiet Christmas the next day. Penny was overwhelmed and thrilled with all her new toys and goodies we had bought her. We tried to get her to open some of the things we had wrapped, but she didn't understand it...oh well. Zack and I exchanged perfect gifts: he got me a beautiful set of brushes from Lancome (including ones I didn't have, but wanted and couldn't justify to buy myself), and I got him a big box set of Neutral Milk Hotel records and goodies. So he spent the whole day listening to those, and I played with makeup, perfect! My 26th birthday was great-Zack made me breakfast and I opened up presents, talked with my family and later we went out to dinner.

our beautiful tree

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve dinner

NMH box set

brushes

we got Penny some booties for winter walks...it's hilarious to watch

birthday breakfast

Zack made me German chocolate cake!

pre-birthday dinner

Other highlights from December includes the Digilent party at the new SEL event center. It was a frustrating evening, because the cab company we were to use completely dropped the ball and was late picking us up in Moscow and also leaving the party. We spent most of the night angry at them, but I enjoyed getting dressed up and all that. Also, Amber and I had a girls' day in Spokane and got makeovers at Sephora (we each had vouchers for free ones!), lunch and enjoyed being girly.

Christmas party look

um...I couldn't get over Clint's face on the M&Ms at the party

pretty ladies @ the party!

post-makeovers

after mine

I had the lady work on my eyebrows, and help me figure out the gold/purple eye that I tried again for the Christmas party

one night we took Penny out for a winter walk

she has to be in the middle of us at all times possible

Since 2014 hit, work has been insane for me. With the start of the school year, for about 2 straight weeks I was doing over 120 orders every day. And handling quotes (the guys who normally do were both out of the country/town for 3-4 weeks) and answering phones and about a zillion other things. And then once the orders got down to a more "reasonable" number of like, 70 a day (I usually average 20-30 orders an hour), we had one of our biggest boards go out of stock. It's been like that this whole year, something big will go out of stock, and we'll build up a ton of backorders and then it'll come in, and something ELSE major will go out of stock. It's been increasingly frustrating at work, there has been drama within other departments and I'm getting fed up with how things are around here. But I'll deal with it until we leave the area. So all of a sudden, I blinked and it's now March. Every day at work for the past two months has been so exhausting and draining for me, and now it's finally starting to kind of slow down.

For Zack, he's in his final semester at UI, hooray! He graduates in May and we are so thrilled! He has been applying for jobs and thinking about all the possible avenues for the future and we still aren't sure where we'll end up just yet. Once we have a better idea, we'll be sure to let everyone know.

I'm sure I forgot some things, but that's a rough overview of what's been happening for us. Also here's a cute picture of Penny in the snow because she's so adorable it hurts.

Monday, October 14, 2013

The Summer of Weddings

This summer was the Summer of Weddings for us! We were honored to be involved in some way, big or small, for all the special couples that were married this summer. It was often stressful trying to coordinate with so many people in different states about a multitude of topics, but in the end, everything came together. This post will mostly be full of lots of pictures, which is what everyone wants when they hear about a wedding.

Wedding #1: Chad Cook & Bryan Stafford
Date: July 27
Locations: Moscow, ID / Pullman, WA
Roles: Z-Groomsman for Chad; R-Bridesmaid for Bryan

Chad & Bryan at their reception

Our first wedding event was for Chad & Bryan. Zack was one of Chad's groomsmen, and I was one of Bryan's bridesmaids. Both guys each had four groomsmen & bridesmaids, so it was quite a large bridal party. The ceremony was beautiful and on the University of Idaho campus, by the Admin building. The weather was perfect and it was just a wonderful day. The reception took place in Pullman, which was a lot of fun. Lots of food, dancing and a photo booth with goofy props. We were both so happy and honored to be included in Chad & Bryan's wedding day, they make a terrific couple and we love them both!

Wedding #2: Delaney Reilly & Rich Gittings
Date: August 16
Locations: Boston, MA / Avon, CT
Role: bride's family

Delaney & Rich outside the LDS Boston, MA temple

The next two weddings were within 4 days of each other. On opposite sides of the country! Zack's sister Delaney got married to Rich in the LDS Boston temple on August 16. And my brother Kenny was married in California on August 20. The Reilly/Gittings wedding was a day filled with family, fun and several hours in the car. First we drove from Connecticut to the Boston, MA temple, about an hour and half away. Family pictures were taken on temple grounds. Delaney was an absolutely beautiful bride (I love her dress so much!) and it was obvious that Rich was so happy to be her husband. After temple pictures, we loaded back into the car and drove to Avon, CT (near Hartford, a really rich, snooty-type part of CT). The drive took about 2-3 hours, and we arrived in time to have a light dinner with all the family that had traveled there for the wedding. I finally got to meet the Reilly grandparents who live in Florida, as well as some of Zack's cousins and aunts I had only briefly met, when we first started dating. It was nice to have some time with the family to catch up before the ring ceremony and reception started. Zack played the guitar with Liv (violin) and a boy from their ward, Preston (cello) for prelude before the ring ceremony. It sounded great and created a nice atmosphere for the ceremony. The reception followed, which included lots of dancing and a cheesecake bar. I loved watching the younger kids from the Reillys' ward dance all night.

Wedding #3: Kenny Van Vliet & Kristen Paetz
Date: August 20
Location: Clayton, CA
Roles: Z-Groomsman for Kenny; R-Bridesmaid for Kristen

Kenny & Kristen

Our next wedding in California was also a lot of fun and full of family and friends. Kenny and Kristen were married and had the reception at a beautiful, huge house that belonged to the bishop of my parents' ward. Both Jenna and I were bridesmaids for Kristen, and Zack along with my cousins Matt & Jordan were groomsmen for Kenny. The ceremony was for close friends and family and it was very nice. I tried not to cry as I watched my brother get married, but it was hard not to tear up. The reception was fun, it was nice to see old friends from the area. Plus, the cake was amazing. They had a Swedish princess cake, which was incredible. There was a great turnout and it was plain to see how happy Kenny and Kristen were.

Wedding #4: Emily McCormick & Michael Allen
Date: September 1
Location: Moscow, ID
Roles: Z-Asst. to Rachel; R-Food Captain

Emily & Michael cutting their cake

The last wedding we were involved with was for one of Chad's best friends, Emily. She was also a bridesmaid in their wedding, and we've hung out before. She's the sweetest girl and several months before her wedding, she asked if I would be in charge of the food for her reception. I was glad to help, and understood the importance of making sure things ran smoothly for her wedding day. Thankfully, Zack offered to help me, and I was so glad to have him around. He was so helpful, as well as Bryan, who offered to help when he could. Before the reception started, I set up the food tables, organized it and made sure everything would be prepped and backups would be ready to go once people started eating. It actually went smoothly, there was a ton of food and I received praise from all of Emily's family for my help. It was a lovely reception, and it was nice to be able to help.

And now for the best part, pictures!