Another Bowen....?

So the popular question after you get married is "when is there going to be a new addition? *wink wink*!"

Well, the time has come to announce that there is indeed an additional Bowen in the house!
.... And his name is Trevor!  That's right, Aubrey's brother is staying with us.
What did you think I was gonna say?  ;)
Anyway, it has been fun having a third Bowen, although now I am outnumbered. But I do have someone to team up against Aubrey with (mwah ha ha). And, since I didn't grow up with siblings, it's definitely a new type of experience, but in a good way.
I will post pictures soon!

Are we there yet?

This time last year (well 5:30 pm August 3... I wrote this yesterday), I was hooking my hand into my dad's elbow, preparing to walk down the aisle toward my fiancé. I was surrounded by gorgeous bridesmaids, handsome groomsmen, our adorable flower girl, loving parents, our amazing pastor, family, and friends. Everyone was waiting for me there. Normally, I'm not one for attention, but on this day, it didn't matter because all I was there to do was to place my hand in that of my husband -in front of God- and to show loved ones what He had ordained. Just like life, there are ups, downs, laughter, tears, a time for everything, yada yada - all those (true) cliches. Marriage reflects those things well. But what we are learning to do is to let our marriage reflect the love, mercy and grace that exists between Christ and the church. Love that is innervated only by the Holy Spirit who guides us, and nothing that the other can do for us. It is beautiful. I'm so grateful for this year, and for everyone who has loved us through this transition (which is still in progress)! Although we dated for a long time, there are a lot of new things that have been reserved only for marriage and it takes time to learn how to respond to each other, family and friends, how to shift our relationships accordingly and how to be purposeful about the way we love each other and those around us. 

Thank you Aubrey for being SUPER honest, for being just as excited to be near me as when we first met in Berry College Church Choir... and for the little things like still opening the door for me (after 9 years!), always pulling me closer and waking me up with a kiss on the forehead. I'm still learning how to be such a hopeless romantic, but thank you for loving me anyway. After waking up next to you for 364 days, I can't wait for the next 365. 

I'm grateful for this year - for getting a chance to learn how much I didn't know already. Everyone says the first year is an adventure and it is. Here's to a hundred more :)

<3 

  

  

 

R.I.P. Charles

Cake

February was an interesting month for us. We celebrated our 6 month wedding anniversary, and our first married Valentine's Day consisted of watching Rent (first time for both of us), eating a delicious pizza from Peace, Love & Pizza, and a very special dessert ... Our wedding cake! 

We thought it was a special enough occasion, especially since we also celebrated our first 6 months or marriage. It was actually Aubrey's idea, and I liked it because the thought of eating 1-year-old cake, as sentimental and meaningful as it may be, well.... it really grossed me out (I'm gonna keep telling myself that 6 months is totally not gross). I'm sure I'm not alone on that. We received the top of our cake in a small white box upon our return from the honeymoon. Mom had kept it for us, but whoever packed it at Payne-Corley didn't wrap it according to the directions (I can't blame them... It was a super busy night!) so I wrapped it in Saran Wrap and foil and placed it back in the box, fully intending to convince my new husband that we should go ahead and enjoy the cake while it was still fluffy and fresh and moist! So, as according to plan, we decided to eat it on our 1 month anniversary .... Oops, maybe on our 2 month anniversary .... Ok maybe on our 3 month anniversary? No. We are procrastinators in the truest sense of the word (working on it though). 

I must say, I appreciated the timing of this moment. (Warning: I'm about to get sappy on ya) Physically, I'm sure the cake would have tasted better months ago, but emotionally, the flavor improved with age. I knew my wedding day would come and go, and that I might want to hang onto that special feeling that I will never feel exactly the same way again. It's bittersweet. 

I know we have a limited time to experience life as newly weds- with fresh and exciting perspective on our lives ahead - and even as newlyweds we have already become busy enough to forget reminiscing about the day our covenant was made. A kiss the night we shared a toast with loved ones and cut the very first slice of that cake, and now on each others lips we alone shared the taste of the very last slice.  

Oh yeah, and the cake was coconut with buttercream frosting and coconut filling ... Still tasty :)

Charles 

So another thing that happened in February is that we got our first pets (my mom had given us Boo and Darlin but these are the first pets we picked out)! Aubrey surprised me with them this past Tuesday, but he had to point them out because I didn't see them at first. He got us 2 fish! They were beta fish, or Japanese fighter fish. We decided that mine was the feisty bluish-purple one in a tall glass votive holder and that Aubrey's was the orangey-red one in a recycled glass honey mason jar (wedding gift from his parents). 

Today, I happened to get particularly excited about caring for the fish after we returned home from dinner. I had noticed that Aubrey's fish had been moving slower, and days ago, Aubrey noticed some spots on it. I took it as a challenge to give them a proper home (bigger, cleaner vases) and care for them. We decided to give them names finally. Aubrey thought his fish looked like a "Charles" and I named mine "Chris Brown" because - well it's a long story. But anyway, we had fun with that. We figured out that they like warm water and sunlight, and that the water needs to be cleaned frequently. I got to work on the Internet and found some info about remedies for fungal infections, which was our diagnosis of Charles. For whatever reason, I spent a lot of time on this- I guess I was excited about watching how they would respond to our care. 

I knew something was wrong when I saw Charles starting to float sideways.... So I tried the saltwater remedy, but long-story-short, I accidentally killed Charles. I mean, maybe he was already dying but I think I sped it up in the process of trying to help. Aubrey was half asleep and tried to comfort me, saying "maybe he's just tired". Yeah, tired of me messing with him. I feel bad that I killed Aubrey's fish, and also that it was our first pet together- the first life we have been responsible for together, and I managed to kill it the same day I really started "helping". At least Aubs was sweet about it like he always is (and it sounds a little sweeter in half-asleep hubby voice): "It's ok. I'm proud of what you did, honey. We'll give Charles a proper burial in the morning ". That's the kind of thing teammates say to each other. Of course we've had much tougher times than these within these first months, but little things remind me that I have a great teammate for whatever else may come.

We're ALIVE!!!

We made it!!!! Through what, you ask? 

Well, the Snowpocalypse of 2014. On Tuesday, Diana was dismissed from work at 12 pm due to the impending doom, I mean, weather. Approximately one hour later, she came to the grim conclusion that her keys were very unfortunately situated inside of her locked car on the passenger seat. After another hour, the keys were retrieved, thanks to some very kind CDC employees who were skilled at that type of thing.   

After about 3 hours of "driving", Diana had made it a whopping 4 miles down the road and was finally getting on the highway just in time for her car to epically overheat. No big deal. She would just have to stick with it another 12 hours, nursing one water bottle and a random bag of sugar to keep energy up til she made it home. (Bad day to skip lunch)

Aubrey, on the other hand was in hero mode, rescuing damsels in distress who overestimated the ability of their cars/trucks/school busses to make it up a ginormous icy mountain of death. In the process, he became quite familiar with our neighboring apartment residents and proved to himself firsthand that it is, in fact, possible to get frostbite in Georgia, 3 days before playing soccer, wearing shorts and a T-shirt in 70 degree pseudo-summer weather. Who woulda thunk it... Georgia winters are always an adventure. 

Long story short: it was rough but we made it! 

Twenty Questions

• 1. When you wash your hands, do you use the cold or hot tap (faucet)? DEFINITELY HOT. I can't take that whole cold water thing. Ugh .

  • 2. What is your favorite show on tv? (I just made up this question because I didn't want to answer the original one!) Right now: SCANDAL. I know it's scandalous and dramatic and all kindsa wrong, but there are so many things I like about it. I like that it makes me question WHY I root for certain characters (who I totally would not like or condone in real life!) and it makes you think about how you define right and wrong - and why! ... it's like I have an alter ego when I watch that show!
  • 3. What is the biggest injury you’ve ever sustained and how did you do it? Ripped a ligament in my left (?) ankle playing soccer in high school ... And I was right back on the field the next week (or two weeks?) when we had a tournament!
  • 4. What is the most unusual food you’ve ever eaten? Maybe squid. I'm not sure. One time in Russia I almost accidentally ate beef tongue but I narrowly escaped...
  • 5. What is the most unique animal you’ve ever touched? Who knows? I mean I don't just go around touching animals. And it's been a pretty long time since I did that I guess. Maybe some exotic fish in the aquarium or a zoo animal like elephant or something.  Guess it wasn't memorable.
  • 6. What’s the most expensive gift you’ve ever bought for someone? How much did it cost and who was it for? If we're strictly talking about an item I bought, the most expensive was probably the ipod touch I bought Aubrey on our 6 year anniversary  tv I surprised my mom with for Mother's Day (couple hundred $$) .... but I spent more on the surprise 65th birthday I threw her this year at Canoe (couple thousand $$). It was worth it.
  • 7. Which 3 countries would you LEAST like to live in and why? Ooh. That's a sad question. Well, I think Antarctica would be one. I hate being cold and I'm pretty sure there's not much going on there so that's my first pick. Also, Brazil because I think I heard its one of the most dangerous countries or something? And that's a shame because I heard it's beautiful too. The third one is... North Korea. Because, well, that's just scary. I mean I'm sure they're nice people but that whole totalitiarian Communist dictatorship thing is rough.
  • 8. If you could make just ONE change to this world, what would it be and why? That's a hard question I don't think I can answer the way I want to. But i'll answer just to say i answered the question. I would want everyone to be genuine- which is different from being honest but along the same lines. This includes governments, officials, celebrities, etc. I think a lot of things would be different in a good way. 
  • 9. If you could wake up tomorrow and be fluent in 3 additional languages, which would you choose?French, Spanish, Chinese (not sure what dialect). If I could pick a fourth it would be an Eastern European language like Russian or Eastern African language like Amharic. I think these languages are pretty different from each other and would give me the familiarity/basis to recognize/more easily learn other languages.
  • 10. Which would you rather out of these 3 options? A: Be good looking and extremely intelligent but so poor you live on the streets. B: Be extremely intelligent and a millionaire but what society classes as ugly. Or C: Be good looking and a millionaire but extremely academically challenged? Why? I'm already good looking and extremely intelligent. Obviously. But option C sounds good because I can just go to school and fix the "challenges". I'm too indecisive for this question. I could make  any option work!
  • 11. What are the top 10 movies to make you cry? (Or at least make you sad!) Wow I don't know if I can sit here and think  of 10 of these. I don't really cry in movies but: (1) Passion of the Christ (2) Titanic (3) Life is Beautiful (4) Seven Pounds (5) John Q (6) Changeling (7) Les Miserables (8) The Hunger Games (9) Pearl Harbor (10) Beasts of the Southern Wild ... Well that wasn't so difficult after all, thanks to google :)
  • 12. What’s the scariest nightmare you’ve ever had? Describe it in detail. It involved me getting hurt. Im NOT going to describe it in detail! It's always sad how in dreams you try to run and you're just incredibly slow :(
  • 13. Would you rather raise 25 children or have the chance of ever having children taken away? Why? Raise 25 children. I could almost imagine doing this - most of them would be adopted or foster children. If Aubrey ever reads this he will like this answer.
  • 14. Would you rather go on a relaxing beach type holiday to the Caribbean, a cultural holiday to Japan or an adventure packed holiday to South Africa? Hard choice. Maybe the adventure packed one. I've never been to any of those places so I don't think I'd be disappointed either way.
  • 15. If you went to a desert island for just 6 months but could only take one album with you, what would you take? Huh? Photo album or music album? I'd take a photo album with me full of pictures of everyone I love. 
  • 16. Put these in order of your favourite movie genre to least: Horror, action, thriller, adventure, superhero, romance, drama, comedy, musical and dance? Comedy, drama, action, superhero, romance, adventure, dance, thriller, musical, horror
  • 17. If you had to lose one of the 5 senses, which would you choose and why? Maybe smell. It's a hard choice - I enjoy food too much to say taste, but I know loosing a sense of smell would affect that :/
  • 18. What have been the top 3 most brilliant days of this year? Describe them in as much or as little detail as you like. Wow this will be hard to answer briefly but equally difficult to do justice to by just a description here. Obviously, our wedding day was on the top of the list of brilliant days EVER.  Another one of them was probably the day of my mom's birthday party this year. And for #3 I'm gonna go with a day that we had on our honeymoon. If the question hadn't said "this year" I would've said the day I went to Ethiopian church on the medical mission trip my first time. Absolutely indescribable.
  • 19. What do you believe we as human beings take most for granted in this world? Our humanity. I think this is true individually and collectively 
  • 20. How many concerts have you been to in your life and which was your favourite? If you’ve not been to one, who would you most like to see? I've really only been to one official concert which was MuteMath. It was incredible and I would like to go again.

Merry Christmas from the Bowens!

Man! Love is such a crazy thing!  I try describing it in one way and then realize it is something else also!  When I think of Christmas, I think of love. 
Now for the less serious....
Our first Christmas together!  Whoot!  We're definitely enjoying it!  Take care everybody!

         On our way to go find us a tree!

     Found a tree farm right down the road!

So our new tradition is to flip a coin to see what our dinner will be the night of the Christmas tree-picking!

Heads =pizza and tails=Chinese food ... Pizza it is! We are always going to use this half dollar to do the official flip

Pizza from Peace, Love & Pizza ... BEST PIZZA I HAVE EVER HAD. seriously.

BEST WINE I HAVE EVER HAD. Thanks to our friend Ruben!!

                    Awesome dinner :)

     The tree! (Not completed but still great)

What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

So, even though we've been together a while, we had never prepared a holiday meal together ... Until now! *dun-dun-DUN* (That was supposed to be the dramatic music in the background)

 As we speak, hubby is in the kitchen preparing his very first Thanksgiving turkey. As usual mom has been a huge help with EVERYTHING :)

Aubrey is the creative genius in the kitchen so he's pretty excited about making some non-traditional dishes. We're going to have a hodgepodge of friends and family this year and we're leaving our door open to anyone who wants to be a part of it!

           Hard at work in the kitchen!

           I'm obviously helping a lot...

Here's the menu so far:

*Mexican Thanksgiving Turkey with Chorizo, Pecan, Apple and Cornbread stuffing

*Squash casserole

*Triple corn bake

*Mom's collard greens

*Butternut squash soup

*Mom's super awesome legendary dinner rolls

*Over-the-Rainbow Macaroni & Cheese

*Sweet potato pie (or casserole... Not sure yet)

*Chocolate peanut butter pound cake

I'll make sure to post pictures when it's done!

EDIT: 

Here are some more pictures!

Aubrey spent a long time on this marinade and I was so glad when it finally went on the turkey!

      Being theatrical for the camera :p

 

            Massaging the turkey...

       And pouring more sauce on top!

             It smelled SOOO good!

           I prepared fresh cranberries 

 

And added a little lemon juice and zest for a twist - it was so easy!!

 Two of mom's delicious sweet potato pies!

         Butternut squash for the soup!

The hand emulsifier made it easy to blend the onions and squash

                     Final product!

 I peeled lots of potatoes for homemade mashes potatoes 

The most interesting part was covering the turkey in banana leaves to keep moisture in while cooking