Tiny Prints celebrates the holiday season with great cards and great deals!

It's been a busy year, we got married! So, it was a pretty easy decision that we would use one of our wedding photos for this year's holiday card. The hard part? Deciding what Tiny Prints card to select!  I've been a fan on Tiny Prints for a while, they are known for high quality, great selection and always have great deals! But this year they were really in the giving spirit....Blog about their products and get 50 cards for FREE! Their selection is amazing, it's hard to narrow it down!


Here are a few of my favorites that I am considering: 


Love the white graphics that they incorporated on this card!





Who doesn't love this card's color combination?



Then I noticed their "Vintage" collection and fell in love with the pop of color this card provides!




Itching to start your holiday card? Head on over to Tiny Prints http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm and start browsing!

Fork in the road

Well, my whole idea of updating this blog of mine only lasted about 4 months and I'll be honest it wasn't 100% consistent at times. Its hard for be to believe that I went 3 months without  posting a blog. But, its true I went from Kellie's bday to Bryn's bday. Now what to do? Do I just make this a birthday shout out blog??? Or do I go back to my weekly posts about random facts and stories? Which route should I go?

Since I'm already logged in and typing, I feel as though I should include a random fact that I learned this week. Anyone have any idea how old William Shanter is? Yes, I am talking about Captain James T. Kirk aka "the guy from the priceline commercials".  This was brought up during lunch on Friday with a couple of co-workers and I thought late 60's early 70's. Well, it turns out Billy Boy is 80 years old! I was shocked, he looks pretty good for being 80. I didn't believe my co-worker, so I quickly googled it and sure enough, William Shanter was born on March 22nd, 1931!

Go ahead you can google it too! Tyler did :)

Happy Birthday Bryn!

I have this friend, her name is Bryn! Today is her birthday, so first and foremost Happy Birthday to my amazing friend Bryn!!!

Now you're probably wondering what makes her so amazing?

1. She has a pretty cool job, but can't discuss it with anyone. Sounds like a female James Bond to me...AMAZING!

2. She bakes the best cupcakes and cakes. AMAZING for my taste buds....not quite so amazing for my waist line.

3. She suggests we run a 5 or 10K....AMAZING, because now she is helping with that waist line issue her baked goods have created!

4. Let's say you have a wedding coming up and you are trying to find a great hair stylist, well sure enough she can work a curling iron just like the rest of the cast of Jerseylicious......AMAZING!

5. You casually mention you are thinking of creating a website. Four hours later you're receiving a link and she has already started the project.....AMAZING!

6. During Thanksgiving she enjoys white rice and adds gravy on top....AMAZING!

So I'm sure you now see why Bryn is such an AMAZING friend. Life in Nor Cal would not be the same if I had not met Bryn! Here are a couple of examples of some of the fun times we have had during the past 4 years!

This is Bryn......

Back in the day when we went and danced the night away in the city....wait that only happened once :)

Spending the weekend in Las Vegas!

Getting ready for our AMAZING Thanksgiving Dinner

Camping at Pine Crest Lake has become a yearly tradition!

Bryn inspiring me to run my first 5K!

At Nick and Bryn's Wedding!!! (I thought I should have one with the guys!)

Bryn throws a great Bachelorette Party!!!!

Happy Birthday Friend!

Happy Birthday Kellie!!!!!

In honor of Kellie's birthday here are some pictures of us over the year!

23 Years Old: Gilrs Weekend in Vegas!!!

24 Years Old: Jess and Kellie Meet
*Note: Oddly enough one of the few pics I have with Kellie in 2007, was taken by Jess. Thanks Jess!

25 Years Old: Wine Tasting in Livermore

26 Years Old: Kellie's last hours as a Burton



27 Years Old: The NorCal Ladies in Cabo for the Miyaloper Wedding

Looking forward to the pics that will be taken this year!

P.S. Kel, looking at the photos I noticed you are like a fine wine and get better with age!

6

This will be short and sweet......the number is I am currently thinking of is 6. Any guesses on why I am thinking of the number 6? I think your first guess might be 6 months until the wedding....nope, that's not until Friday. Then you may think 6 is the number of times I checked Facebook today.....wrong again, I probably checked it 15 times today. No more guesses? Well, I have to tell you that 6 is the number of cavities I have!

I cringe while I am typing this, because it is so embarrassing. But, admitting that I have a problem is the first step to recovery and clearly  I have a problem! A problem with flossing, or rather lack of flossing! A problem that is going to cost me $388, so if anyone thinks we that we went "light" on decorations at the wedding you'll know why ;)

P.S. In case you were wondering I am now starting to brush twice a day, floss every day, and am going to start weekly fluoride treatments!

Why are they called "deviled eggs"?

In preparation for Easter Brunch, I signed up for Deviled Eggs. Not really what I wanted to make, but Tyler asked if they were on the menu and since no one had claimed them, I decided to try something new.

As I predicted, deviled eggs are not the easiest to make. There are multiple steps, all of which are quite easy, but for me peeling the eggs was the hardest part. Normally peeling hard boiled eggs is fun, but seeing that these eggs need to look presentable it was quite time consuming and by time consuming I mean pain in the butt! Plus the eggs were being stubborn and not peeling very easily. Which after doing some googling,  I learned that was because the egg white was sticking to the shell. 


I was becoming quite frustrated and thankfully Tyler decided to help.  It took us 45 minutes to peel 15 eggs and as each minute passed I thought, "now I know why they are called Deviled Eggs, they are devilish to make"!

As you see below they ended up turning out ok. They were tasty enough, but if you look close you can see a lot of imperfections. All in all, I don't think I will volunteer to make this dish again!

Oh and in case you were wondering  below is the official definition of deviled eggs: "the term deviled, in reference to food, dates back to the 19th century, it came to be used most often with spicy or zesty food, including eggs prepared with mustard, pepper, or other ingredients stuffed in the yolk cavity".

P.S. Not sure how I feel about the term "yolk cavity", it's a bit graphic when describing food!!

Presidio 10K

Last year I completed my first "race", the Susan G. Komen 5K Run in San Francisco. Tyler and I were pretty good about our training, but it's pretty easy to fudge your way through 3.2 miles. We were somewhat inspired and thought we would try out a 10K run! We signed up in February thinking that 2 1/2 months would be plenty of time to get ready for the10K, but life kept getting in the way. We would have a really good week and run 3 times and then nothing the next week. I also realized while "training" that I HATE running outside! And I know hate is a strong word, but really I HATE it! I can run inside on a treadmill without a problem, but for some reason you stick me out in mother nature for a run and I just can't wait for the run to be over!

As the race was approaching Tyler and I couldn't decide what to do, but we knew we wouldn't be able to fudge our way through 6.4 miles. Bryn and Lisa also signed up for the race and after realizing that none of us were quite as ready as we hoped, we decided to do our own thing and made it Ladies Day! Bryn was going to run/walk, while Lisa and I decided to power walk. Bryn, the trooper that she is ran the whole thing!

While Lisa and I managed to complete the race in about 90 minutes, not too shabby! Plus, there were still 100 people behind us! All in all it was a pretty productive morning, woke up early, walked 6.4 scenic miles, caught up with Lisa, and enjoyed a breakfast burrito with Bryn afterwards :)

Getting ready for the race!

Just a typical Sunday walking the Golden Gate Bridge and wait, is that Bryn?!?

Yup that's her!!!

Lisa let me take a quick photo break to capture these shots, but it was back to business once I put my camera away!

Bocce Ball

This Friday we did something new and different, we played Bocce Ball! A few months ago a new restaurant opened in Livermore that incorporates Bocce Ball during your dining experience, it called Campo de Bocce. We were celebrating Lisa's bday and had a great time drinking, eating, playing bocce ball and enjoying each other's conversation.

Tyler and I had never played bocce ball before, but thankfully each court has their own referee. Our referee looked like he was 12 years old, but was an "old soul" at heart. He was very entertaining while he was explaining the rules, telling us while he wasn't a legit bocce ball player, he did own a few sweat bands!

The entire object of the game is to get your team's ball closet to the little silver ball, the pallina. We played boys vs. girls and I'm pretty sure the girls ended up winning! By the third game we were a bit chilly, hungry and got distracted when our food arrived. All in all it was a great evening filled with good friends, food and fun! I'm pretty excited to take our next Nor Cal visitors there, any takers?!?

Our ref, making the call.......

Scoreboard

Giving Lisa a pep talk!

Bryn and Raf taking measurements to see who is closer!

Worst Idea Ever

This weekend Tyler and I finally decided that after four years, our $90 grill was done for. On Sunday we spent the day price shopping grills. We went to Orchard Supply Hardware, Target, Home Depot, Lowes and even Wal-Mart. Even though Tyler thinks Wal-Mart is the devil (his words, not mine), we decided to check it out. They actually had a decent grill selection. Much better then Target's selection which was rather disappointing, especially since I just learned that a recent report found Target's prices to be better then Wal-Mart! Anyways, I digress......we ended up buying a nice 3 burner grill from Wal Mart.

We get home and start the grill assembly process. I voted to partake in Wal-Mart's Free Assembly, but Tyler wasn't so sure about the assembly quality that Wal-Mart would provide. We actually assembled it quite quickly. In fact we were just under the hour mark when we put in the last screw!

That is when we realized that the ever so intelligent people at Wal-Mart (or I suppose it could have been the grill company) had placed two labels on the grill, one on the side and one inside the grill! We carefully start peeling the labels, but they began to rip.

My hubby to be decided to MacGyver a solution! Tyler boiled some water and then placed the pot inside the grill, hoping that the steam would help to "peel" off the sticker, but that didn't work. So we resorted to good 'ole Goo Gone. While we didn't want all of the chemicals inside the grill we didn't have many options. Finally after about 30 minutes of srapping Tyler was able to get the last of the sticker off. To be safe we cranked the grill up to 500 and let the chemicals burn off.

Ending on a good note, we grilled steaks that night for dinner and the grill worked GREAT!

244 Days

Yes, 244 days! No, I didn't repost my entry from a couple of weeks ago, but Thanksgiving is only 244 days aways! Thanksgiving happens to be my favorite holiday and not just because of the amazing meal.

When I was little Thanksgiving was always close to my birthday, which was always exciting. Who doesn't love pumpkin pie and birthday cake on the same day? In college Thanksgiving Break was a great excuse to leave Big Rapids, spend time with my family and not have to worry about my International Finance class for a few days. These days, I love Thanksgiving because of Nick and Bryn!

Tyler and I moved to Nor Cal about the same time that Nick and Bryn moved to Nor Cal from Seattle. Working with Nick at Ford it only seemed appropriate that we should spend our first Nor Cal Thanksgiving together, I mean cripes who wants to make a Thanksgiving Feast for only two people? Bryn and I worked on the menu and by the time we had everyone's favorite "Grandma Dish" on the list we literally had enough food to feed at least 10 people. Over the years, the feast has expanded its menu and could now probably feed at least 14 people ;)

Mind you we don't let it go to waste, we have 2 rounds of helpings, then go for a walk (to relax the stomach muscles), come back for round 3 and dessert! Sure, its a lot of food, but Bryn and I work off most of the calories while we are out bargain hunting on Black Friday!

In just 244 days, we will be celebrating our 5th Nor Cal Thanksgiving Feast!

Pen Pal

Tyler and I have been busy scoundering the web looking for key items to put in our Welcome Bags. Tyler happen to find an item that he especially liked, but the seller was based in China. We decided to take a risk and make this over seas purchase.

After 45 days (good thing we're planning in advance) our package arrived safe, sound, and in great condition. To my surprise the package even arrived with a greeting card. A nice note from Nancy Chen, thanking me for my order and letting me know that while we order 72 pieces, she gave us an extra 3 for a total of 75 pieces! Better yet, she referred to me as her new friend in the US! She was so sweet, I decided to email her thanking her for the extra pieces. One email turned into an email chain between Nancy and I. Not really sure why and I kept writing back to Nancy, but if Tyler and I decided to go to China for our honeymoon, I will make sure to meet my new friend from China!

244 Days, 21 hours, 27 minutes, and 6 seconds (now 5 seconds, now 4 :)

That's right we are only 8 months away from our wedding day! Hard to believe that just a few weeks ago, I was on wedding stress overload. Just like my friends said, once you have the venue booked its all down hill from there and they were right. After Tyler and I got back from Mexico all of the details fell into place.

Venue? Nuevo Vallarta, Dreams Resort....check!
Date? November 6th, 2011....check!
MI Reception? December 30th in downtown Grand Rapids, check!
Wedding Website? www.tylerandcaresse.com......check!
Dress? check!
Tyler's suit? check!

Hmmm, now I guess it is just a waiting game until November. This should give me plenty of time to scout out some great deals for the welcome bags! Not to mention the fact that I should have all this free time to blog ;)

Happy Birthday Tyler!

As you can tell by the title today is Tyler's birthday! Seeing that his bday is on a Monday we aren't doing anything too exciting today, but we've been celebrating all weekend. We went out for dinner in San Mateo on Saturday and Tyler had his pick for our Sunday dinner, hot turkey sandwiches and tiramisu!

Tyler relishes the four months in which I am a "year" older then him. During our trip to Mexico, one of the resort's staff members commented on how young Tyler and I looked. She asked our ages and when I said 27 and Tyler said 26 she said, "oh wow you have yourself a younger man", Tyler was ALL smiles!

Tyler and I always seem to get each other bday cards with an "old" joke inside. Well, this year was no different. I found Tyler a funny card about being old and finding hair in your ear....it made me laugh, so without giving it a second thought I purchased it. Turns out the joke is on me! As I was signing his card, I realized that I bought him this card last year for his bday!

Two things came to mind when I realized this:
  
     1. I myself am getting old and can no longer brag about my amazing memory

     2. After celebrating so many bdays together, there aren't any more funny cards left!

I am going to go with the latter and start sending in ideas to Hallmark :)                

Not many words needed...

This has been a really busy week, but not many words are needed to describe how I feel about this....

Sunblock Much?

Tyler and I have officially picked our wedding venue, the Dreams Resort in Nuevo Vallarta. Better yet we were able to spend the past weekend in Mexcio checking out the property! After meeting with our wedding coordinator on Saturday morning, we were free to spend the day soaking up the rays!


I was so excited to be in the 80 degree weather that I didn't spend enough time properly applying my sunblock. I have a Silver Dollar sized red circle on my left hand, two more red blotchy spot on my both of my knees, and fingerprints on my left arm! Exactly how that happened, I have no idea. However I told Tyler I would need to work on my sunblock application skills before the wedding. Tyler agreed and then informed me that he would be in charge of applying the sunblock on our children!

Editor's Note: I attempted taking a picture of the sunburn on my hand, but it looked gross so I decided to keep that photo to myself :)

Brand Snob?

Being a savvy shopper and always looking for a good deal, I usually don't mind off-brand products. In fact Target's Archer Farms line is great! I love their 3-Bean Salsa and its usually .50 cents cheaper then Tostidos.

Being that the big day is now less then 9 months away (yikes!), Tyler and I have both been a bit more budget conscience, especially during our last Safeway trip. Since we hadn't been grocery shopping in a couple of weeks, I knew it was going to be a big grocery bill. So I had my coupons and weekly ad and was ready to get in and out of the grocery store.

Tyler and I were going up and down each aisle, only putting "on-sale" items in the cart. Tyler even sacrificed his love of Triscuits for the White Cheddar Cheeze-Its which were $2.00 less! We made it to the cereal aisle and I immediately grabbed my beloved Cheerios, on-sale for $1.99! Tyler started browsing realizing his cereal of choice (Raisin Bran) was not on sale he decided to go for the Safeway brand which were "Buy One, Get One Free". Tyler decided on the first cereal, Blueberry Crunch but was having a hard time with the "free" box, so he suggests that I go for the Toasted Oats in-leui of Cheerios. Remembering the Triscuits, I decided that I too should make a "sacrifice" and go with the Toasted Oats. I mean whose to say that the Toasted Oats aren't going to be just as good as Cheerios, maybe even better??

The next morning, I pour my first bowl of Toasted Oats, hoping that they will provide me with the same great Cherrio taste! I take my first bite and....yuck! What were these awful Toasted Oats? These are no where near the same level of Cheerios.

Lesson learned? Some off-brands are not worth it! For Kellie its Coffee Mate creamer, for me its most definitely Cheerios. Next time Cheerios are on sale, I will be stocking up!

Time Management

I used to wonder why brides hired a wedding planner? Sure its a little work, but if you like to plan (like I do) and are able to organize, planning a wedding shouldn't be too much work.....WRONG!

Wow, I had no idea what I was getting myself in for when Tyler and I decided to plan a destination wedding. I thought, "oh this will be so much simpler and less stressful". While I think in the long run it will be less stressful, I'm not sure how simple it is to plan an "international" destination wedding. Especially considering the fact that there is a 2 hour time difference when speaking with the hotel and a 3 hour time difference when speaking with the travel agent.

There are a lot of logistics to work around. Between working full time and planning our wedding, I have become a slacker when it comes to returning phone calls, replying to emails, and blogging! Every time I think I am tackling my to-do list 4 more items pop up!

Lessons learned?

1. If possible hire a wedding planner: This way you won't loose any friendships over a delayed email. (Although that could help to reduce your guest list, so that's up to you)

2. Start planning your wedding before getting engaged: Contrary to popular belief I didn't really have anything planned for our wedding. Thinking about my compulsive "Type A" personality, I guess I too would have thought I had everything planned, but I didn't. Sure purple has always been in color scheme, but I think that is the only thing I really had planned! If you think you are going to be getting married in 6-9 months, pick up a bridal magazine every now and then. No longer will I judge the girl on "Say Yes to the Dress" who is buying her dress at the sample sale, why not save 75%?

3. Use your friends and family: It amazing how many people are willing to help you out, take advantage of this. Thanks to both my "moms", friends and sisters I have been able to bounce off a lot of ideas on them and make some quick decisions.

Ch-Ch-Changes

So, this blog is suppose to be about Tyler and I, yet this entry is about Kellie and Chris. Although that being said a lot of my "Tyler and Caresse" stories/adventures/memories include Kellie and Chris, so I think its fitting.

About 5 years ago, I met my dear friend Kellie. It was friendship at first sight! Really, I think it was destiny for Kellie and I to meet. We ran around Orange Co. without a care in the world!

Then Tyler came along (well actually he was around before Kellie, but he moved to the OC after Kellie......well, you get the point) But as you can see we quickly became the "Three Musketeers".

In the crazy world of Ford Relocation, Kellie and I both managed to be transferred to Nor Cal within 4 months of each other (see it's destiny). Moving to Nor Cal was the best thing that could have happened. Kellie went from being a great friend of mine to becoming one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world! 

Oh and then Chris showed up (technically he was in the picture before I was, but he plays baseball and travels a lot)! But as you can see it didn't take long for Chris and I to become friends. In fact, I kinda like the guy ;)

So "Three Musketeers" became the "Four Amigos". 

Tyler and I like these two so much, we decided to move in next door! No, really we can see their house from our deck. So, what does all of this have to do with the title "Ch-Ch-Changes"? 

Well, as you can tell by the pics and timeline, my friendship with Kellie has and is continuing to change.  Tomorrow our dear friends are officially moving away from Dublin, starting a new chapter in their lives. A chapter filled with Spring Training, followed by heading to Seattle and then hopefully finding their new home in Reno. And while selfishly I want them to stay here and never leave, I started thinking about all of the changes that have taken place in the past 5 years. Clearly, Kellie and I can handle change, in fact life's changes have strengthened our friendship. So, while we won't be able to have dinner together on a random Wednesday night, I am looking forward to our future visits to Reno for long weekends! Kel, please make sure that you have the guest room finished ASAP!

So Good Luck to the Gimenezs and remember don't forget about us Dubliners!

What's next?

This is where this whole "blog thing" gets tricky, you actually have to think of something creative to blog about. Maybe it doesn't have to be creative, but it needs to be somewhat entertaining. So here is what I came up with...."Tylerisms".

Tyler is quite entertaining and not everyone has the pleasure of seeing this side of him, and because of that I thought I would share one of my favorite Tylerisms from the past couple of weeks.

My New Year's Resolution was to help Tyler out in the mornings by making him breakfast and lunch every day. It sounds a bit like the 1950s, but the guy works really hard and I wanted to be able to help him out a bit. Tyler liked this idea, but honestly I don't think he expected it to last too long! Here is how the first few days went:

Tyler on Day One: "Thanks for making me breakfast and lunch, that was nice"
Tyler on Day Two: "Oh you're making me lunch again?"
Tyler on Day Three: "Wow, I'm getting used to this"
Tyler on Day Four: "You know Caresse, I think I'll have an English Muffin with Nutella for breakfast this morning!"

He was so matter of fact about the whole "request", it made me laugh. I was surprised that some smart-aleck comment didn't come out of my mouth, but I just went ahead and made the breakfast he requested. I mean he doesn't ask for much!

Now let's fast forward to Week 2 of my NY resolution. I hopped in Tyler's car on Friday night and sitting on the seat is his lunch! I was shocked to see that my "hard work" had gone uneaten. Tyler immediately tells me, that it was the first time he hadn't eaten his lunch, but then I remember him telling me the day before that he had gone out to lunch with his boss....hmmm??? Who knows how many lunches he has actually eaten, but I'm still going to continue to make them :)

Round Two

So about a year ago I had a great idea of starting a blog. I know how much I enjoy reading about the lives of my dear friends; Lynn, Kellie, and Bryn and I thought, "Hmmm maybe they would like to read about my life?". Well, after one blog entry I was done. Although looking back on it, I think I spent too much time writing my first post and exhausted my writing "skills" for the year. That was until I read (on Lynn's blog) about 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly! The catch? I had to blog about their products. Being a sucker for a good deal, I went ahead and posted my second blog of the year! True, it was in November (8 months after my first post), but it took my blog from being an "annual blog" to a "bi-annual blog". What a milestone for www.tylerandcaresse.blogspot.com :)

All that being said, I have decided to give it another shot. Seeing that this year will be filled with many exciting milestones; Jess having a baby, Kellie moving to Seattle, Bryn's first year of wedded bliss, Lynn chasing a fully mobile toddler around, and oh the fact that Tyler and I are getting married, there should be MUCH to blog about!

Keep those fingers crossed and check back to see if I can update this bad boy once a week :)