Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts

Friday, January 9, 2015

happy friday

Freezby

a belated christmas gift from a vendor at work? flattering.
my (old) last name spelled like THAT? priceless.

also, this hilarious spelling was sort of comical given the current weather conditions outside (so cold the air hurts my face kind of cold).

my brother-in-law is coming to town this weekend and he said he just wants to eat ramen... eat ramen all weekend.  i think this sounds like an excellent plan.  i mean, delicious rich pork-y noodle soup every few hours after walking around NYC? yes. yes i like the sounds of that.  (well, except for the fact that i finally ate right and went to kickboxing everyday this week, eating all that ramen would totally make up for any effort during the week and MORE! sigh... if only i had infinite metabolism when i wanted it...)

happy friday!
jenn

Monday, December 22, 2014

happenings

....and so the holidays have begun.  our new-to-us car has already seen some miles, and there are more to be clocked, but as long as there are smiles and laughter and good food and good company, we can claim a successful holiday season. 

in light of my absence on this space, and likely more to come, here's a recap of the holidays for us so far.  between thanksgiving, friendsgiving, a wedding, a friends chrismakuh, holiday parties, and birthdays, we've been busy.  but we can only be thankful to have each of you in our lives!!  so, thanks, friends and family, for being so awesome :)

 photo DSC01143.jpg
 photo DSC01126.jpg  photo DSC01148.jpg
^^^this one is smiling on the outside (but thoroughly upset that that girl beside him was the ping pong champion of the night)

 photo DSC01159.jpg
^^^missing those two for christmas... but thankful that weird one in the back is driving to see us (and to deliver our newly-reupholstered danish modern chair!!)

read on for more.....

Monday, November 24, 2014

binge listening

 photo DSC00999.jpg

even though we just finished an 8-hour to ohio and back, gosh am i excited for the holidays this year! seeing family and friends (even in the saddest of times) never gets old, even if it means driving 11 hours to get there.

last week we had the unfortunate news that one of our good friends lost a parent.  unexpectedly, we dropped our weekend plans to drive to ohio for the funeral.  the road ahead for their family will be emotionally rough, but we were fortunate enough to bring some love and smiles to them in such a rough time.  that's what friends are for, right? 

on our drive, we started listening to this podcast that i actually wasn't very excited about.  our friends came over for dinner last week and told us about this podcast called 'cereal' .  they were so into it they couldn't help but talk over top of each other in excitement and couldn't get their words out fast enough (i later realized it was 'serial ,' not 'cereal' haha).  murder mysteries are just not my thing (and i certainly didn't think that 'binge listening' would be either), but after listening for, oh, about 5 minutes i was already hooked.  so much that we are 100% caught up already.  yep, we listened to all 9 episodes.  if it wasn't for starting it late into the drive TO ohio, we would have listened to it all in 1 sitting.  fortunately for us, we got to listen to the last 6 episodes in 1 shot on the way home.  the most enticing thing about the podcasts is that they are nearly live.  the investigation is happening NOW. 

serial is brought to us from the producers of  This American Life , for FREE.  there's really no reason to NOT try it right? i mean, there's only so much music i can listen to before i just tune it out.  this was the perfect roadtrip time-passer! now, if only we could find something similar for our next upcoming roadtrip!! (this american life, maybe? has anyone listened to it before?)

any suggestions for podcasts (or any other roadtrip time-passers) are definitely welcomed ;)

cheers!
jenn

p.s. for kicks, a photo of where we were LAST year at thanksgiving.  no turkey in sight, but it was worth the trade for 1 year to have crystal clear blue waters and white sand in our toes!

 photo DSC05294_zpse9e2c5ed.jpg

Friday, October 31, 2014

happy friday

city hall wedding, jersey city by cheynne mojica
(flashback friday... back to OUR wedding day.  this is right after we got married at city hall in jersey city.  gosh that was a great day!!) image c/o cheyenne mojica

hey friends! it's friday! we'v e got some pretty awesome things to be thankful for this week, despite the fact that i got in a 6-car accident on one of the busiest highways in the NYC metro area (causing probably hundreds of thousands of people to miss their flight, be late for work, miss an appointment, etc. etc. etc.) and i sliced my finger cutting a bagel this morning (in my defense, the knife was dull and it was difficult to cut the bagel, sharp knives are safe knives people!!)

  1. hung gets to be the best man in his best friends wedding, a 3-day indian wedding bash that we're SO excited for....  mostly for two great people in love and getting married, but also the food.  yeah, definitely the food.
  2. we got OUR wedding photos from our photographer, cheyenne mojica , this week! i'm beside-myself-excited about them (if you couldn't tell already from my instagram feed)
  3. we got to host friends for dinner on wednesday, teaching a non-fish eater that fish can be good! (remember the claypot salmon recipe i posted a while back? if you haven't tried it yet, you need to)  being around THOSE friends always makes us feel so inspired to take a leap and follow our dreams.  so thanks, john trigonis , eightymag , and milk sugar love !
  4. i got to try filipino food for the first time kamayan style at a potluck dinner for an eightymag photoshoot! photographer greg pallante did an awesome job catching everyone mid-huge-bite, including me with a whole rambutan stuffed into one side of my cheeks like a hamster. look for his work in the next issue of eightymag !
  5. on the bright side of the car accident, i get to "test drive" a mini cooper countryman until my peanut is fixed (aka i get to try out a nice 4-door, small, baby-friendly, fits-in-our-tiny-driveway car for when we will actually need to get a new car in a few years when we start making baby phans :P)
ok now, let's get this party started! i've got two bright-and-bedazzled sarees ready to go and i'm crossing my fingers i'm there in time tonight to get my hands all hennaed up... indian weddings are the best, and we can't wait to celebrate with these two awesome people!

cheers.
jenn

Monday, September 29, 2014

babies

nearly everyone around me knows how much i want to have kids of my own.  if you look at our fridge, you'll see many faces we are constantly saying that we don't see enough.  but sometimes even i get that feeling of "do i really want kids? when is the perfect time? we've got a good thing going, why mess it up? will we be able to afford them? who's going to take care of them when we work?"  as much as i love kids and as much as i say i can't wait to have kids, i have to admit that i get a bit of anxiety when i think about that pee stick telling me "there's no turning back now."

but then when we visit friends who just seem to have it together, i realize we've got nothing to be afraid of.  those rare times we get to be around babies and little kids just makes us so happy.  we visited friends in virginia to see their 7 week old baby, and we got to see family in the area too.  the second the new proud parents carried the tiny girl down the stairs the morning after we arrived, hung had her in his arms.  it's so cute to see him being so sweet with kids, whether they are newborns or rowdy pre-k bundles of energy.  hung's cousin and kids live nearby and are at that age where anything he does is funny, and their tiny giggles are so contagious.

a few photos from the weekend, reminding us that yeah, we want "that" one day.

 photo 2014-09-29babies7.jpg
we started off the weekend at the neptune festival in virginia beach.

 photo 2014-09-29babies16.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies17.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies18.jpg
snuggling his little bug into a burrito.

 photo 2014-09-29babies19.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies20.jpg  photo 2014-09-29babies21.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies22.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies23.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies24.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies25.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies6.jpg  photo 2014-09-29babies1.jpg
i instagram med this adorable photo of hung, and he posts THAT gem of myself.  thanks, babe.

 photo 2014-09-29babies12.jpg
after visiting with our friends with the newborn, we ventured over to chesapeake for a quick stop with hung's cousin and her two adorable little ones before driving back to new jersey.

 photo 2014-09-29babies13.jpg  photo 2014-09-29babies14.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies10.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies11.jpg
 photo funnyfaces1.jpg  photo funnyfaces2.jpg
 photo 2014-09-29babies9.jpg
seriously, do they get any cuter than that? especially that big one in the middle...

cheers.
jenn

p.s. do you want to hear the most adorable 3 year old say the pledge of allegiance? go to @beyondthestoop on instagram... you won't be disappointed ;)

Thursday, August 28, 2014

wedding brunch

our wedding brunch was different than your typical wedding brunch.  normally it's full of tired, stayed-at-the-reception-too-late, drank-too-much crowd eating their last meal before parting their separate ways.

ours? it was practically the opposite! our ceremony was at city hall (during normal city hall hours, of course), which meant we were out the doors by 10:30am... and brunch was immediately after! well, after cheyenne took some family photos of course ;)  brunch was held at our favorite weekend breakfast place in jersey city , sam a.m.    we were greeted with the smell of bacon and coffee and the sound of james brown.  our table was ready, with freshly-squeezed orange juice and chilled champagne we took over the night before.  the bar was lined with fresh summer salad, pastries, and a giant plate of smoked salmon.

sam_am_wedding_brunch_jersey_city_1.jpg

see more after the jump...

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

pre-wedding pre-gaming

it's sort of hard for even us to believe this, but prior to the night before our wedding , some of my family had never met hung's family .  we figured that instead of having a super awkward situation where they had to introduce themselves when they walked into city hall, we organized a casual outing at zeppelin hall  beer garden in jersey city the night before.  it was the perfect setting for everyone (including kids til 9:30pm!) to eat what they wanted, when they wanted, grab beers when they wanted, stay as late or leave as early as they wanted… and it really is a great place for our group of 15.

the night before THAT though, we snagged a night with just my mom's side of the family , and hung whipped up a quick ratatouille with seasoned rice and steak.  it was nice to spend some time with them before the craziness started.

 photo DSC08493.jpg

after everyone started arriving thursday afternoon, we started to feel the "rush".  flowers were being delivered to the house, people filled our living room.

 photo DSC08502.jpg

but the night at zeppelin hall was so fun.  we think our families are so different from each other, until we put them together with food and beer, and the conversations and laughter didn't stop until we left.  maybe they aren't so different after all!  see more after the jump.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

"his" family

"his" family has treated me like one of their own since day one.
"his" family has values that put family before anything else.
"his" family is a bunch of goofballs (and welcomes my goofball-ness too)
"his" family has such rich history that excites me to learn about and become a part of.
"his" family has a bunch of DAMN good cooks (and a mother who tells me the secret recipes)

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family10.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family9.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family8.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family7.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family6.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family5.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family4.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family3.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family2.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family1.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family13.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family11.jpg

 photo 2014-08-12_his_family12.jpg

....and i'm excited to say that "his" family will soon become "our" family!!

cheers.
jenn

Friday, July 11, 2014

city lights

 photo DSC07975.jpg

some of our best summer nights are those where we make dinner at home and go for an evening stroll.  lots of times we're too busy caught up in what feels like a race during the week.  there's rarely an evening that we relax and slow down.  if we're not going to kickboxing, we're going to dinner with friends, we're working late, we're making plans with friends we never get to see enough.  if we've got a half hour to spare, it's enough time to walk to the bodega to pick up those two things we need.  it's sort of our "thing" that we're on the go with no looking back.

 photo DSC07974.jpg

but when these two came to visit,

Thursday, July 10, 2014

well hello summer!

somewhere between moving to a new position at work and jersey city having the BEST weather this summer, a whole month has flown by since my last post! it's not that we haven't been doing anything fun, it's actually quite the opposite.  our home is now dinner-party-friendly, visitor-friendly, and project-free (for now).  the weather is great for evening walks, sundays at the beach, and bike rides in the city.  hung and i spent the majority of last summer traveling, so we're trying to fully take advantage of being at home this summer.

a few weeks ago my dad and stepmom visited from florida.  they were the first family to see the new house , and what a blast it was! while hung and I are used to being on the go and walking til our legs fall off, it's pretty typical that visitors who don't live in a city get pretty zonked by the end of the first day.  it was sort of nice to be able to come home around dinner time, eat food at home, relax for the evening (instead of staying out until the wee hours of the morning) and sleeping in.  we still got to enjoy the best hours of the day and do everything on the list.  

we took a trip on the circle line for the very first time for all of us! surprisingly, this super-touristy-but-must-do adventure turned out to be pretty awesome.  i don't think i'll be doing it again, but i'm glad we did it! who knew that the northern-most end of manhattan was so forest-like? and that there are so many islands around it? i mean, really, most of the time you even forget that manhattan itself is an island!

 photo DSC07915.jpg

 photo DSC07916.jpg

for lunch we headed over to brooklyn to eat outside at surf bar's back patio/garden.  you might as well call it a beach without the water, because the floor is sand, even in the inside part! what a perfect setting for one of the most beautiful days of summer.

 photo DSC07920.jpg

 photo DSC07923.jpg

 photo DSC07931.jpg

 photo DSC07933.jpg

on the way home we walked to milk sugar love , my first time eating it! first of many, i mean.  we've been there a few times since, and are never disappointed (how CAN you be with THOSE flavors!?) i'm so in love with that place, and the idea that now i can get it any day of the week, not just on the days they are at the farmer's markets :) :) :)  they are located right on hamilton park in jersey city , what a perfect spot to grab a cone and stroll through the park!

 photo DSC07947.jpg

 photo DSC07948.jpg

 photo DSC07951.jpg

 photo DSC07955.jpg

 photo DSC07956.jpg

 photo DSC07958.jpg

the next day we headed to pier 13 in hoboken, where we enjoyed gorgeous views of manhattan, the hoboken waterfront, and ate brick-oven pizza from a food truck (practically hung's dream).

 photo DSC07959.jpg

 photo DSC07960.jpg

 photo DSC07962.jpg

the rest of the time was spent cooking at home and re-watching the entire first season of orange is the new black (now i've got THEM hooked on it too!) because i needed a good refresher before i started in on the second season (who's finished with it!? omg the last episode was good!)

of course when family visits they can never stay long enough, but at least we get to see them again in august.

cheers.
jenn

p.s. can you tell we got a new camera lens!? we're loving the low aperture if you haven't noticed already :P