Sunday, December 16, 2012

This year, to save me from tears, I gave it to someone special...


Part of me feels like apologizing for neglecting this blog recently, but the realistic side of me knows that blogging consistently nowadays is a rare feat.



The past month has been crazy and wonderful at the same time.  Crazy because as the semester was winding down I was struggling to complete my internship hours while balancing working and completing my endless class projects, but wonderful because I am now a college grad. :]  Not too much to comment on about that except that I'm stoked and I am glad to finally be afforded time to catch my breath, enjoy being a newlywed, and truly refocus on the things that are important to me.


My after-finals-week sentiments exactly.


For my Christmas/graduation gift my sweet hubby upgraded me to an iPhone 5, which was perhaps not the smartest thing to do during finals week.  I couldn't tell you what it does (more than the iPhone 4) but I know it's nice to have storage space again, seeing as my old phone had reached its capacity and could hardly take pictures anymore.  The camera on this phone is super spiffy, and I'm sure you'll reap the benefits of that here on my blog, especially since the last time I charged my real camera was on our honeymoon.  :P


Can I just comment on how much I am loving this holiday season? Last year was unfortunate, having to work through the holiday and being depressed as all get out, but this year has been so much more enjoyable and I am embracing it full on.  We put up our tree the week after thanksgiving and we have been playing Christmas music ever since, which is a first for me.  Being on our own has been nice too, because we can decorate and celebrate however we like.  We've even been to a few Christmas parties!  Last weekend we holed up for our first holiday movie of the season, sweetly aided by the lovely rainy weather we've been having.  Even in SoCal, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!


This past week was exciting because one of my best friends got engaged.  Heather and I became neighbors when I moved into my apartment in June and since then we have really meshed together.  She has known James for close to 10 years and its always fun for me to listen to them reminisce about times past.  I am excited for what's in store for them and also to participate in the wedding-planning process from a different position this time... ;]


On Thursday James and I get to travel "home" to San Diego to be with my family a bit before returning to LB for the holiday.  I can't believe how quickly Christmas creeped up this year, but I suppose that just means 2013 is coming even sooner, and oh how I am looking forward to next year! 2012 has been good to me, probably the best yet, but I know 2013 is going to be a year of even more change for us, which is always exciting.  

More updates to come, check back soon!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Holidays are Upon Us

Confession: Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and while I am extremely thankful for my many blessings, this may or may not be my least favorite holiday.  I think it started with the fact that I don't really like turkey (or stuffing, or cranberries, or giblets, or pie) and compiling that with being made to watch football all day, it's just not my ideal.  Of course I still eat and of course I enjoy my numerous tryptophan-induced naps, but my favorite thing about Thanksgiving is the fact that it signals the start of the CHRISTMAS holiday season!  I don't know why I get so excited about that one, probably something having to do with classical conditioning at a young age, associating this time of year with presents (which for a young child is just the top of the tops), but I am ALL ready for tree-decorating with my husband tomorrow night... :P

Speaking of husband, I can't believe it has been almost an entire month since his birthday! His birthday is usually the day that signals the start to "our" holidays, and this year was followed closely by the election, halloween, veteran's day, and numerous other family birthdays.  I tried to convince him to go to the Stinking Rose, which is a lovely restaurant in LA that specializes in....garlic (we LOVE garlic and using way-too-much garlic in our dishes), but he only desired an afternoon in and to cook dinner for some of our close friends.  So that was that...
James would much rather have a waffle and bacon birthday cake over anything else... Hence :]  

Happy 24th, my love!

I can't believe we have been married almost four months now...time really does fly. I can't put into words the type of change that takes place but I see it when I look back and I see it when I hang out with old friends.  We've been so busy over here--I graduate in 1 month!!--but amidst the busyness we are still having so much fun.  This year I am so thankful for James, for our tiny home together, for our close friends who have stuck with us and encouraged us every step of the way, and ultimately for our heavenly father who has done more in our life together than we could have ever done on our own.




Monday, October 22, 2012

We like it here under our rock.

This year has been quite different for me, in regards to years before and especially any other election year.  James and I don't have a working TV let alone cable, so we haven't seen a wink of the debates, or any other political or national news for that matter.  I don't watch any of the TV shows that you post about and I have no idea who all these new celebrities are.  I didn't have cable when I lived with the Post's last year either soooo make that 2 years without TV now.  How do we manage?  Well in all honesty we just always have better things to do with our time.  I'm not saying that in any attempt to sound pretentious, but really, TV does little to edify a person (all I hear is bitterness!) and I feel like there are always more constructive ways to spend a morning or an evening.  This will definitely be an interesting election seeing as we will have no coverage of it and we'll most likely receive all of our news from reading other people's Facebook outrage, so we are counting on all of you!  Post good stuff!



Thursday, October 4, 2012

Holy Crock Pot!

Tonight we unwrapped a most dangerous wedding gift--our crock pot.  We hadn't cooked anything in it before tonight, but after tonight we are surely addicted and will likely be using it for almost every meal from here on out.  Plus, while the weather remains quite toasty, it saves us from having to heat up the house by turning on the oven and/or stove full blast.  Question to the crock pot pros (see: Moms): Does running a crock pot do any serious damage to your electric bill?  Because that's pretty much the only thing preventing us from using it every day....

Tonight/this morning I wanted to try something simple, and since we LOVE buffalo sauce in this house we decided to try a Pinterest recipe for slow-cooked Buffalo Chicken.  It was the easiest thing ever, but James gave it an A++, which means a lot coming from such a picky eater.  We did them sloppy joe style and piled it on some toasted burger buns, but boy was it delicious!! Also, as an aside, normally we use mild buffalo sauce for everything (because it's just that, mild), but when using buffalo in the crock pot it amplified it about 5 times more and we ended up going through over a half gallon of milk trying to cool our tongues during the meal!

This morning I put 6 [thawed] chicken breasts in the crock pot with 1 whole bottle of Frank's buffalo sauce.  I also added 1 packet of dry ranch dressing mix.  Placed the lid on top and let it cook the whole time I was at work.. anywhere from 7-9 hours on low heat was recommended so I gave it 8.
 

Once I got home (our house smelled delicious) I removed the chicken and shredded it on a cutting board, then dumped it back in the sauce and added a little bit of bleu cheese and 2 tbsp of butter.  Then I let it cook for about an hour more until James came home from work.





I removed the buns from the oven where they were merely warming and I piled the marinated chicken on top.  Armed with our milk glasses we dug in, and it was all gone in 10 minutes.  I repeat, I got an A++ on this dish, and James said it was one of his top 2 we have ever made!  It was so simple I couldn't believe it!




We are excited to try more "difficult" recipes and will definitely be putting this crock pot to good use in the [near] future...

We have been having friends over almost every other night for dinner these past two weeks and our menu is rapidly expanding.  Besides buffalo chicken (which we did make in our traditional style), we've made lemon-garlic pasta, chicken parmesan, 7 cheese ravioli (okay, we didn't "make" these, Costco was a big help), and for my vegetarian friends I made tortellini and zucchini boats with tomato, garlic, and cheese.  All of these dishes were delicious (or so we are told).  We have also been dangerously experimenting with desserts and lets just say, our pants are feeling a little tight around here.  Curse you, Pinterest desserts!!

My first stab at a vegetarian meal... I got two thumbs up!

Tis laundry week this week in the little Doskocil house, which means washing it on monday, folding it on tuesday, complaining about it on wednesday, and ironing it on thursday.  I just really like to drag it out for masochism's sake.  Kidding.  I just don't have a whole day to devote to this type of thing!  That is one thing that has changed exponentially since being married.... two or three times as much laundry as before (more towels, more sheets, more napkins, more clothes), and my husband wears dress shirts 3 or 4 nights a week!  That's a lot of ironing....but I'm getting quicker at it ;]
My Tuesday view.

We've also gotten to go on a couple fun trips lately--most notably to Bishop and home to San Diego.  Short but sweet, cuz that's all we can afford :P

Road Trippin



Tending his fire...
9,500 feet



Bristle Cone Pine forest



Pt. Loma Seafood before the Padre's Game.


Beautiful San Diego

Monday, October 1, 2012

How to look HOT at the DMV

So last week I had an extremely awkward experience at the DMV, and here is my vlog to document it. Don't judge! :P



Learning the Hard Way from Amanda Doskocil on Vimeo.

Friday, August 31, 2012

The Day I Became a Mrs.

Sorry I've been holding out, here is what you're all waiting for...

So three weeks ago today we got MARRIED! For anyone who is blind or doesn't have a Facebook, it was a beautiful, beautiful (but hot) day and it was truly the happiest day of my life.  Everyone told me it would fly by, everyone told me to let the little things slide (which I never thought I'd be able to do), and everyone told me to take time to soak up the moments passing by--they were all right!  Man does the day fly!  I mean, we're three weeks out now and I'm like, where did the time go?  I seriously can't believe it.


I'm happy to report that I got a full 8 hours of sleep on the night before my wedding, and I was greeted that next morning with a phone call from my future-hubby (to calm the nerves we thought we were going to be battling).  Getting ready was extremely..peaceful?  I don't know what to say about it; I wasn't freaking out or stressed, it was just so surreal all I wanted to do was leave that little room and go give James a hug.  I don't know if my stylists could believe how un-nervous I was.  I couldn't believe we'd be married in just a few hours.



And the next thing I know I'm getting finished with makeup and they want me to get in my dress, and then we're taking pictures, and then I see guests start showing up, and then I'm stuffed back in the little room....



And then it happened.  After a pre-processional pep-talk from my dad, "Here Comes the Bride" began to blair and it was time to walk.  There are no words to describe that moment, you just have to live it to know.  It was amazing and happy and scary and fun and nerve-wracking and exciting and so much more.  And then I saw James and how happy he was, and I tried to keep my eyes on him like everyone told me to but it was just so overwhelming, it's hard to stick to the rules.



Neither of us remember a word that Jeff (our pastor) said, but what I do remember is how hot I was and how much my cheeks were hurting from smiling--I couldn't stop!  I shakily said my vows, I forgot my bouquet, and I walked way to fast back down the aisle, but that's all small potatoes if you ask me.  Our cake reception was hellish, in the temperature sense, but the fun that ensued afterwards will not be soon forgotten.


I can't remember having a better time than I did at my own wedding reception, and I can't remember a time that I got so much positive feedback.  I think everyone liked it, right?  I mean, everyone danced the whole time and we had to shut it down! We paid for 5 hours of a DJ thinking no one would be there at the end, but people wanted to stay longer!  Sadly (truly sadly) we ran out of there and off to our wedding night; I can't lie, we reminisce about the day all the time and how much we wish we could go back and do it multiple more times, no matter how impossible that actually is.



Married life isn't exactly what I thought it would be.  Besides the fact that our bed is way too small and a source of contention every night, and besides the fact that we have not had a single night where we have both been home and with no plans, and besides the fact that my whole apartment is more disheveled [by gifts and unpacking] than I can bear, and besides the fact that life has a secret stash of lemons that it keeps giving us, we are ecstatic.  I could not be happier to be living every day with James.  It really is like having a sleepover with my best friend every night.  We stay up talking and laughing until one of us falls asleep (which is pretty much the only way to fall asleep in our unfortunate bed situation) and it is a pretty awesome feeling to wake up together every day.  I don't have to go to work as early as he does so I get to stay cuddled in bed while he brushes his teeth and gets ready, chatting and talking about our previous night's dreams.  Not gonna lie, I also love the fact that my bed permanently smells like him.  Is that weird?  The growing pains are being felt, but we take them as a challenge and an opportunity to grow into this new life together stronger than before.


Our toasting champagne flutes were inscribed "Today I Marry My Best Friend" and it couldn't have been more true.  We are so excited to start this journey together and to see what God has in store for our new life.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Thursday, August 9, 2012

I'm Getting Married in the Morning!

Well, tomorrow is the big day -- the one we've been waiting for (for what seems like forever) and I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that this is happening!  Tonight is the rehearsal dinner and I suppose after that we're home free :]


Since I'm 99.99% Sure I'm not going to be online tonight or tomorrow, see you later bloggers!  I hope to have many photo-blogs from the honeymoon upon my return :]

xoxo

Sunday, August 5, 2012

I'm No Model, But...

Hey guys, in case anyone [in the future] is wondering about our wedding photography, we chose to go with Isaac at Love Knot Photography.  He is so nice and we love his work, not to mention his packages are an incredible value for brides watching their budget, if you know what I mean...

Here are just a very few of the engagement shots we took in May at Pt. Fermin (I think we probably took about 3,000 photos that day!), please excuse the web quality as the full resolution files would probably turn your browser into molasses:























 
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