I'm Headed Back to Cali, Cali, Cali!

Good food, wine and/or beer, guitar playing, oh and more beer...we must have spent the weekend in California! Dillon and went out to California last weekend to welcome my little brother home from Afghanistan. I'm super proud of him and love him for giving me the excuse to get out of dodge and see the California Dudziaks. It's been a long time since I've been out to California to visit my family out there and it was obviously long over due. We got to see all of our cousins, their kids, Tom and Connie's new house and of course, my little Emily! It was a great time. We got out there on Thursday night and then Friday had an impromptu dinner party at Tom and Connie's. Then Saturday was Tom's homecoming party. It was mostly all family and just what I needed. We made fajitas and drank beer and sat around the fire pit later in the night with Bryan playing his guitar. Talk about a perfect night. We all toasted Tom and he and Connie even took a moment out to toast Dillon and I for our engagement. (Thanks guys!) Dillon got to spend more time with that part of my family than he ever has. I think he may be reconsidering the engagement now...hahaha...just kidding. Actually I think that I was just right and he and the California cousins got along greatly. He did however see just how many kids there are in my family and got a little taste of the craziness that will surround our wedding. It's going to be so much fun though.

So, California...it's been to long and I promise we won't let it be that long until we come back again. Who knows, maybe Dillon will work at the Orange County Airport someday!!!!

Abilene Snowmaggedon

Day 4 of the Abilene snowstorm. Things here looks bleak and it's getting a bit ridiculous. On Monday night, the storm that dumped rain, ice and snowon most of the county hit us here in Abilene. Since then we haven't been above freezing, evenduring the day with sunshine. My hometown, Chicago, got 21 inches of snow. It was the 3rd worst storm ever in Chicago. Now, they got the worst of it on Wednesday, my best friend's 30th birthday. They were up and running the next day there! Here in Abilene, it's a differentstory. Apparently, even though we get snow every year, this city is not prepared for a snowstorm. We have 3 inches of ice on the ground and then snow on top of that. Most of the schools and businesses have been closed since Tuesday and the airport has even been closed. How, how, can they not have been prepared at all. My boss tried to come and pick me up to take me to work,we didn't feel like my Scion was going to be safe and because the wind created a drift of snow behind it a few feet high. When they got here, the ice was so bad that they couldn't get into the complex and actually got stuck in the snow. They had to have someone pull them out, thank you good samaritan! So now, basically, we are stuck in our apartment complex. Dillon and Evan ventured out and walked to the gas station nearby to get some beer, necessities really, and poor Dillon slipped and feel on the ice. He busted up his chin, but being a boy, is hoping for a scar! So my message to Abilene, please, please do something about the crazy ice on these roads so that the city can get back to work. I've run out of things to clean here at the house and soon, we're going to have cabin fever! People in the north are probably laughing at us!

PS - These pictures were taken Tuesday morning, and currently, it looks EXACTLY the same outside! Well, maybe more ice now!

New Job!

So I’ve started a new venture in my life. Since moving to Abilene I haven’t really found much to do here in the way of work. I had given up on finding something in my industry and thought that I was going to have to resort to bartending, waiting tables or being a secretary or assistant or something along those lines. Now, I should emphasize that these are great jobs and allow a lot of freedom and flexibility sometimes and I would have been happy doing one of those. Really though, I wanted to be doing something at least somewhat related to what I was doing before in Houston and to still feel like I was working towards a career instead of just biding my time while here in Abilene.

Well good news, I've found a job! I've been hired by a company called Travel Leaders and they are a travel agency here in Abilene. My first thought was, travel agency, who uses those? Actually, what I'm finding out is that alot of people use them and after learning more about what they do, most people should! So now I'll be training with them and will eventually be booking vacations for people. How fun! Actually, we're hoping to use my wedding experience to work more with destination weddings which will be fun. Plus, I'm finding lots and lots of ideas for mine and Dillon's wedding. This may actually be a much harder process now because I'm learning so much and seeing all of these amazing places. I want to get married at all of them!

My first day a this job was actually last Saturday. My new employer (Joe) picked me up and we drove to Dallas. Talk about plenty of time to get to know your new boss, 3 hours in a car together. It was great though and thankfully we didn't have those awkward silences while driving, just nice conversation. The reason we drove to Dallas was because on Sunday morning I met him at the DFW airport and we flew to Cancun, Mexico!! My first week on the job was spent touring different resorts in Cancun and the Riviera Maya. By the way, it was totally safe and everyone should go. I can't even begin to describe the water and the beaches. I can only say WOW! Now we are back to the reality though and I'm training and learning lots. Plus, part of this training is research so I'm looking at lots of pretty places all day! Yeah!

So the moral of this story is...if you are going to book a vacation you better call me! I need to make my new bosses happy and I need to make some money! Love to you all!

Chicken Again???

In my search for new recipes I have found that I seem to be gravitating way to much to chicken. Since I've been unemployed and in a new city without gaggles of friends to hang out with I find myself doing a lot of cooking. It's been fun and I think that Dillon's certainly loving it. I spend a lot time on the Cooking Light website, trying to keep us healthy and it's been working. I now find that I'm in a rut though. Not in cooking the same recipes over and over again but with my main ingredient.

I've always known that chicken can be one of the healthiest proteins you can cook with but there is really nothing more boring to me than a plain grilled chicken breast (well, maybe a plain poached chicken breast). Oh, and here in Abilene we are not allowed to have grills on our apartment patios so grilling a chicken breast is out of the question anyway. So, I've been making healthy chicken dishes cooking it in other ways and working on developing good flavors from it. Now I find Dillon asking me what we're making for dinner and then answering the question right back, chicken.

Basically what I need are some good recipes for beef or fish maybe. The key here is healthy and it cannot be grilled either because that isn't an option for us. We're open to pork but really aren't big fans as much of that, probably because I don't really know how to cook it well. I'd really love to get my Dillon interested in fish more so maybe I'll start trying that but overall, he's never been a big fan of fish.

So cooking gods out there - please help me!

Goodbye 2010

Wow, 2010 is basically over!! I can't believe it! This year has been crazy and brought alot of changes. Thinking back to the beginning of 2010, well I was pretty miserable. That is, I found out I was loosing my health insurance at midnight on new year's eve and I had just gotten into a car accident a few days before that totaled my car. It was pretty intense. So Dillon and I had a quiet evening of watching TV, hanging out with his brother and the dogs. I also had to open the bar the next morning so there was no crazy party going to happen anyway but still, I usually would have done more. It was an okay night but I was in no way looking forward to a better year since 2009 basically sucked!!

Well this time, looking back, I've had an amazing year. It's great how you can start the year feeling pessimistic and end up with, well, a glowing feeling at the end of the year. This year we started out living in Houston and working at a bar, really just waiting for the call for Dillon's job. Well, we got that call in June and everything changed on July 19th. We moved from Houston and Dillon started his training. My wonderful parents took me in so that Dillon could go to OKC and focus and I could basically spend 3 months traveling and playing Monopoly City with my Mom (the most wonderful game ever!). After an exhausting search we found a place to live in Abilene and moved there on October 19th. Come to think of it, the 19th was basically moving day for us this year. Now, we're living in the exciting town of Abilene and Dillon is doing amazing at this job. He's found the job he was meant to do and it's so fun to see that playing out for him.

With so many exciting things this past year (have I used the word exciting too much in this post) I'd have to say that the most exciting is obvious. We got engaged!! It's great because I have learned something, I got what I always wanted. I always said that I not only wanted to know I wanted to say yes but that I wanted to be more excited about being married than the wedding. Well, I got that! It must be meant to be!

So now we all know what 2011 will bring. It might not be a wedding yet (you all may need to wait until 2012) but it will bring wedding planning and hopefully a job for me to help pay for that wedding. Happy New Year everyone and cheers to you for a great 2011!!

Hooray!

What a great way to spend the holidays! As many of your already know I am engaged! Dillon asked on Wednesday the 22nd of December and it was great. We went to exchange Christmas presents and I gave him the complete box set of the television series The Wire, little did I know that was a completely small gift compared to his plan. Then he handed me a massive box wrapped in bright red paper with a big green bow on it. I ripped off the paper and started digging through the massive amount of packing peanuts enclosed to try and find what I then thought was probably a gift certificate or an ipod maybe at the bottom of the box. I kept digging and just wasn't finding anything. He then asked me "Oh, is it not in there? Where is it?" My response was something about trying to find it and I must be missing it in the box. His next response was "Oh, wait, that's because it's right here!" He then pulled out the box and opened it. He asked me, with a huge grin on his face, to MARRY HIM! Then the cutest thing was he said, oh wait, sorry, and then got down on one knee and asked me again! That was so great.

So, obviously, with the picture of the ring below I said yes. I'm in love with the ring, it's the 3 diamond style in white gold. The stones are princess cut because he always calls me his princess and he thought that's what they should be. I honestly had no idea that it was happening until he opened the box. It didn't come in a regular ring box so when he pulled the box out I thought it was maybe earrings or a necklace. He said that I starred at the box for a while but I really don't remember just sitting there. I remember saying yes and it all happening so fast!

So now we're enjoying the holidays with our families and we'll start making plans in the new year for what we are going to do and when. I can't believe it's finally here and it's going to be so much fun to plan our wedding now! Check out the ring below!!

I Know Them!

I'm so proud! Check it out, Matt and Melina's restaurant and food truck made it to the Wall Street Journal! They've been working their butts off getting this going and creating a huge following so check it out. They are so the people that I will someday get to say "I know them!" Well, maybe sooner than someday, maybe today!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704008704575638842201629742.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_LeadStoryNA