.dishin' with dietzen.
Because of my love to cook, bake, try out any new recipe in the kitchen, I decided to make a blog to post some of my recipes! So check it out and enjoy :)
.slacker.
Well I am officially a slacker when it comes to updating our blog. We have been so busy this past month...I haven't had a chance to sit down and spend some time blogging. So here is my effort to update you on our lives over the past few weeks....sorry for no pictures :(.
The beginning of the month started off busy as it marked our 1 year wedding anniversary on December 1st. Then the next few weeks were full of busy work schedules, Nick studying for the CPA exam, Christmas shopping and many other eventful outings. Then Seattle decided to have an identity crisis and turned into the North Pole for a few weeks.
It started the weekend of December 14th, as I was supposed to run in a 12K called the 12K's of Christmas that Sunday. It snowed about 4-6 inches the night before the race and by the next morning much of that snow had turned to ice, therefore, causing them to cancel the race. Nick was volunteering on the parking team at church and spent all Sunday morning manually pouring salt all over the parking lot so that people could make it to church and park without a problem. So as disappointed as I was in not being able to run in the race, I was able to join Nick at church. That night, we had the Lemaster Daniels Christmas party at Maggiano's in downtown Bellevue. It was a lot of fun to dress up in a formal dress and for Nick to wear his suit. I still feel like we are pretending to be grown ups :) It was a casino theme, so everyone received a ticket for chips when you came in and were able to cash in at the tables and play. It was great because it wasnt real money (I am so not a risk taker, therefore, I never gamble with real money) and I was able to learn how to play some fun card games without worrying about losing my life savings.
The snow melted from the first dusting, and then come Thursday it got pretty crazy! It snowed so much for this area...I think at one point we had over a foot of snow on the ground and let me just tell you that the Seattle area was not ready for this one! The entire area pretty much just shut down...abandoned cars were everywhere...no one left their house. You would have thought that it was armageddon. People freak about the snow! Let me just preface it by saying that I moved here from California....so I am not an experienced driver in the snow...but come on people..common sense!!! haha. I couldnt believe how scared everyone was of the snow. I was able to make it into work because I have a 4 wheel drive vehicle but I was one of a few people who made it in. There were people who missed over a week of work because of the snow. Since we never get snow like this, there is only 1 snow plow for every 60 miles and they refuse to use salt (gotta love the 'green' seattlites). This caused the roads to just become a complete mess...sometimes with 8-10 inches of snow in the middle of the roadways. Not a good situation.
As much as everyone else in the area despised the snow...I loved it!!! I thought it was so fun to have snow, and I learned that driving in the snow really isn't too bad. I was able to get around just fine and since most people stayed home, the traffic was great :) It was so beautiful. Sometime about snow is so peaceful....I hope we continue to get more snow!!
Spokane also got hit with a TON of snow around this time (they now have over 5 feet on the ground). My sister and brother in law, Lindsay and Derek, were trying to get back home to Moses Lake from school in southern california, but were unable to make it to Spokane because the airport was closed. So we picked them up at the Seattle airport on Thursday night and then drove to Moses Lake on Friday after work. We spent the weekend with the whole Dietzen family and celebrated Christmas since we were going to be with my family for Christmas. It was a fun weekend filled with lots of laughs, good food and fun.
We drove back home on Sunday to even more snow in the Seattle area and this continued through Wednesday, which was Christmas eve. On Wednesday, we were able to get out of the airport with no issue and fly to Sacramento to spend Christmas with my family. We had a wonderful time being with my family and Ashley and Joel even spent the night at my parents house on Christmas Eve. We had the whole family under one roof again :) We spent the weekend just hanging out, playing games, eating wonderful food and shopping. It was so fun and flew by wayyyy too fast. It was sad to go :(
We were home for work on Monday-Wednesday and then Wednesday night we drove back over to Moses Lake to spend New Years with the Dietzens and to spend time with Derek before he heads back to school for Baseball. We didnt get there until about 10:00 on NYE, but we played games and hung out with family and friends to ring in the new year. We had a nice long visit from Wednesday night through Sunday and just hung out and relaxed...did lots of reading, we even got to go sledding since Moses Lake has about a foot of snow on the ground.
Now we are back in Bellevue for a few days until we fly down to Newport Beach for one of my best friend Sarah's wedding. Sarah and Adam are getting married on Friday January 9th, in Newport and I am soooo excited for them. They are a wonderful couple and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for them in the future!!!
It has been a whirlwind of a month and I feel like we have been all over but it has been a great time to be surrounded by friends and family. We are so blessed. We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season as well :)
The beginning of the month started off busy as it marked our 1 year wedding anniversary on December 1st. Then the next few weeks were full of busy work schedules, Nick studying for the CPA exam, Christmas shopping and many other eventful outings. Then Seattle decided to have an identity crisis and turned into the North Pole for a few weeks.
It started the weekend of December 14th, as I was supposed to run in a 12K called the 12K's of Christmas that Sunday. It snowed about 4-6 inches the night before the race and by the next morning much of that snow had turned to ice, therefore, causing them to cancel the race. Nick was volunteering on the parking team at church and spent all Sunday morning manually pouring salt all over the parking lot so that people could make it to church and park without a problem. So as disappointed as I was in not being able to run in the race, I was able to join Nick at church. That night, we had the Lemaster Daniels Christmas party at Maggiano's in downtown Bellevue. It was a lot of fun to dress up in a formal dress and for Nick to wear his suit. I still feel like we are pretending to be grown ups :) It was a casino theme, so everyone received a ticket for chips when you came in and were able to cash in at the tables and play. It was great because it wasnt real money (I am so not a risk taker, therefore, I never gamble with real money) and I was able to learn how to play some fun card games without worrying about losing my life savings.
The snow melted from the first dusting, and then come Thursday it got pretty crazy! It snowed so much for this area...I think at one point we had over a foot of snow on the ground and let me just tell you that the Seattle area was not ready for this one! The entire area pretty much just shut down...abandoned cars were everywhere...no one left their house. You would have thought that it was armageddon. People freak about the snow! Let me just preface it by saying that I moved here from California....so I am not an experienced driver in the snow...but come on people..common sense!!! haha. I couldnt believe how scared everyone was of the snow. I was able to make it into work because I have a 4 wheel drive vehicle but I was one of a few people who made it in. There were people who missed over a week of work because of the snow. Since we never get snow like this, there is only 1 snow plow for every 60 miles and they refuse to use salt (gotta love the 'green' seattlites). This caused the roads to just become a complete mess...sometimes with 8-10 inches of snow in the middle of the roadways. Not a good situation.
As much as everyone else in the area despised the snow...I loved it!!! I thought it was so fun to have snow, and I learned that driving in the snow really isn't too bad. I was able to get around just fine and since most people stayed home, the traffic was great :) It was so beautiful. Sometime about snow is so peaceful....I hope we continue to get more snow!!
Spokane also got hit with a TON of snow around this time (they now have over 5 feet on the ground). My sister and brother in law, Lindsay and Derek, were trying to get back home to Moses Lake from school in southern california, but were unable to make it to Spokane because the airport was closed. So we picked them up at the Seattle airport on Thursday night and then drove to Moses Lake on Friday after work. We spent the weekend with the whole Dietzen family and celebrated Christmas since we were going to be with my family for Christmas. It was a fun weekend filled with lots of laughs, good food and fun.
We drove back home on Sunday to even more snow in the Seattle area and this continued through Wednesday, which was Christmas eve. On Wednesday, we were able to get out of the airport with no issue and fly to Sacramento to spend Christmas with my family. We had a wonderful time being with my family and Ashley and Joel even spent the night at my parents house on Christmas Eve. We had the whole family under one roof again :) We spent the weekend just hanging out, playing games, eating wonderful food and shopping. It was so fun and flew by wayyyy too fast. It was sad to go :(
We were home for work on Monday-Wednesday and then Wednesday night we drove back over to Moses Lake to spend New Years with the Dietzens and to spend time with Derek before he heads back to school for Baseball. We didnt get there until about 10:00 on NYE, but we played games and hung out with family and friends to ring in the new year. We had a nice long visit from Wednesday night through Sunday and just hung out and relaxed...did lots of reading, we even got to go sledding since Moses Lake has about a foot of snow on the ground.
Now we are back in Bellevue for a few days until we fly down to Newport Beach for one of my best friend Sarah's wedding. Sarah and Adam are getting married on Friday January 9th, in Newport and I am soooo excited for them. They are a wonderful couple and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for them in the future!!!
It has been a whirlwind of a month and I feel like we have been all over but it has been a great time to be surrounded by friends and family. We are so blessed. We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season as well :)
.hope.
Nick had me read this article he found on ESPN...it is a great story of hope and I highly encourage you to read it :)
.one year of wedded bliss.
One year ago on December 1st, 2007, I married my best friend. For some reason, God decided to bless me with the most patient, loving, witty, caring, most amazing man I have ever known. I don't know what I did to deserve Nick's love, but God loves me and blessed me with our marriage. This past year has been more fun than I could have ever imagined. Marriage is so much fun and I love learning more and more about Nick everyday. I cannot wait for the many more years to come.
We saved the top of our cake and when we saw my parents over Thanksgiving they brought it down for us. It definitely did not look or taste like it did last year...but it was still fun to have for tradition. Nick wasn't quite as excited as I was about our cake...but he was a good sport and took a few pictures with me :)
On our actual anniversary we flew out of California at 7:00 am so I didn't go into work. I actually took a 5 hour nap :) It was wonderful!! Nick went into work for a few hours and then we went to Salish Lodge nestled in the Cascade Mountains overlooking Snoqualmie Falls. It was dark so we could barely see the falls, but it was still beautiful. We came home and crashed because we were both so tired from our vacation to California.
It was a wonderful day, and I am so proud to say that I am Mrs. Nick Dietzen!!! Happy 1 year babe! I love you :)
This is what the cake looked like at our wedding....
Nick literally SMASHING the cake alllll over my face..
This is the cake one year later....no so pretty anymore!
The directions as to how to save the cake...
On our dinner date at Salish Lodge...
.training.
Working out week after week can become kind of monotonous sometimes. Lately I have been so bored with my usual workout routine. Run, abs, and some weights. I tried to mix it up with some kickboxing and circuit training classes but that just gave me shin splints...so that didnt exactly work in my favor :) So in order to have motivation to work out and push myself I decided to sign up for a run. I was looking online at 10k races and half marathon's but ended up finding a 12k right in Kirkland on December 14th. I figured this would be a good way to push myself because I run almost everyday, but never push myself to run 8-10 miles. So I have been training for this 12k and it has been really fun! I know you are probably thinking, "how could running ever be fun?". Its more than just the running that I enjoy but I am pushing myself and doing things I never thought I could do. I feel so accomplished and am so proud of myself when I go that extra mile, or drop my time by a few minutes. And I am finding that it is pouring over into other areas of my life as well and I am pushing myself in all areas of my life. It is an amazing feeling and I hope that my training pays off on race day. I highly suggest trying something like this, you never know what you are capable of until you try :) And I am always looking for a running partner so if you are interested...let me know :)
More to be Thankful for...
Sunday morning the boys decided to go golfing again so the girls and Derek who is recovering from Tommy John surgery decided to go to San Francisco for the day on a little shopping excursion. I seriously love San Francisco and the shopping is wonderful. It might be one of my favorite cities I have ever been to. I was able to get some Christmas shopping done (and a little shopping for myself too :)). On Sunday night we just kind of laid low and relaxed before we flew out bright and early on Monday morning.
It was a wonderful weekend and it makes you step back and realize how much God has blessed us with great friends and family. The Gabberts were so gracious to open their home to us and spoil us while we stayed with them. It was amazing spending the holiday in the California sunshine and surrounded by the ones we love most.
In the "heart" of San Francisco...
In front of the Christmas tree in Union Square...
The huge tree!!
I have been blessed....
For Thanksgiving this year we flew down to the San Francisco bay area, Pleasanton to be exact, to spend the weekend at Nick's Aunt Judy and Uncle Joe's house. We flew in on Wednesday night on a quick and easy 2 hour flight. The entire Dietzen clan came from all over to meet in Pleasanton to spend the Holiday together. My parents and brother even drove down from Sacramento to spend Thanksgiving with us. It was so wonderful to have everyone together. Talk about being thankful....I am so blessed to have an amazing family and married into an amazing family as well...and they all get along :)!!!
Thanksgiving dinner consisted of 22 people, lots of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, wine and dessert. It was a wonderful time of fellowship together and eating and just enjoying each others company.
On Friday we were all still stuffed from Thanksgiving dinner...I literally think I could have rolled out the door on Thanksgiving night. So we decided to go to the gym to work it off...it felt so good to get a good cardio work out in and burn some of those insane amounts of calories we consumed (It was well worth it though!). We all then went to see "Four Holidays" with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn. It was a cute and funny holiday movie and even the guys enjoyed the movie :)
Saturday we went to the greatest farmers market in downtown Pleasanton. If I could choose any place in the country to live, I honestly would choose Pleasanton...its such a cute city and so beautiful all the time. I fell in love with the character of the city and the farmers market was amazing. I could definitely see myself doing some grocery shopping there on Saturday mornings! Saturday afternoon the guys went golfing and so the girls went for a hike in Pleasanton Ridge...it was the perfect day for a hike! Then Saturday night Nick's Uncle Joe made homemade Italian meatballs and spaghetti and had a ton of families over for dinner. It was another fun filled night of fun, food and fellowship.
Saturday night food preparation. Nick was in the kitchen as Joe was teaching them how to cook...I had to document this momentous occasion :)
The "sisters" on our hike (minus Linds) and Mishal was taking the pic...
The Dietzen girls (minues Linds again...she is busy kicking butt in Iowa at Nationals)...
The Berceau Family picture (minus Joel and Ash...we missed you guys!)...
The Dietzen family...
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