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 

Get a Grip

So, if you saw the last (er, the first...) post I made, first of all thank you for stopping by!
Second of all, I am experiencing some technical difficulties (AKA I really don't know what I'm doing and the last time I had anything resembling a blog, Xanga was cool - actually, MY Xanga is still cool ... but anyway...).

So my mission is to eventually - sooner than later - get a grip on this whole thing, which will include fixing the unfortunate layout situation that's going on with the photos!  It will also include things like adding: captions for the photos, more wedding photos and more of our engagement and proposal photos ... right now there are only 1 or 2.

EDIT: So why did I name this post "Get a Grip"? ... well, (besides the obvious reason) it's because I just so happen to be drinking this awesome tea by Republic of Tea called "Get A Grip" ... not to be confused with "Get it Together", which I frequently call it. Same difference though. I need all that: get a grip, get a life, get it together, get your life together... But anyway, you should try it (the tea) - it's delicious.

Oh yeah, and in other news, greetings from Thailand! Here, hello = saw-wad-dee!
Hopefully my husband will also get on here and help out a little! I guess I shouldn't throw him too far under the bus... it was my idea to do a blog (especially since we didn't have a wedding website).
Anywho, I guess I'll know he actually visited the blog if I hear from him about this haha...

I'll make sure to update with pictures from Thailand and other fun details!
Until next time ... saw-wad-dee (also means goodbye)!!!

THE BEGINNING

Hello friends!

We would like to say thanks so much for checking out our blog! This is a new adventure for us (as is marriage!) so let's see what kind of fun we can get into...

I guess I'll start with an update:

Wow, how long has it been since the wedding?
November 3, 2013 marks 3 months from the day we said our vows (Awww!)
We dated from 2005 to 2011. We got engaged on our dating anniversary (September 2nd) and we had high hopes of getting married one year later on our 7 year dating anniversary. How romantic would that have been? (And of course, 7 is the number of perfection!) ... But it didn't happen that way and we actually ended up waiting 11 months and 1 day later for our LOOONNG awaited wedding day, August 3, 2013. I can't believe it's already been 3 months!

Did you go on a honeymoon?
Yes! That was an answer to lots of prayer because we didn't have arrangements for a honeymoon until probably a couple of weeks beforehand! It was so much fun and such a blessing. Since it was our VERY FIRST vacation together, it was a really special time.
Where?
We went to Grand Mayan Riviera Maya for 7 days ... and it was absolutely GORGEOUS. From the natural beauty of the beach and the Mayan ruins to the amazing resort accommodations, we could not have asked for a better location to spend our honeymoon.

What have you been doing since you got married?
Well, you're really brave to ask a newlywed that question! Hahaha ... well, besides the obvious (ahem), we have been adjusted to married life, of course. We did not live together before we got married and we also didn't do any of the other married people things ... so all of that has been fun to figure out together!
We have an apartment that we are still in the process of decorating/fixing up/learning to maintain. We don't have any pets because we have enough going on without throwing that into the mix! One day we will though (Ask Aubrey and he'll tell you we'll get a puppy and a kitten at the same time... we'll see haha.)

How's married life?
It's ridiculous! In good ways, OF COURSE! There are also challenges (I'm guessing this is not the 1st time you've heard this). Thankfully, we tried to prepare ourselves for that in a few ways so that we weren't completely naive. But, when it comes down to it, it's one of those things you just kinda have to go through - it's hard to explain all the facets. This blog will help me make an attempt at that though.

We're a little different from most couples I think, because we dated for so long before marrying, but also without living together. One good thing about that is that we've been together long enough to see each other at absolute lows and highs. We've seen how each other acts in front of friends, family, in major crises, in great accomplishments, in conflict, etc. There are not TOO many surprises in terms of WHO this person is that I married. I like that.

EDIT: The short answer to this question is married life is amazing :)

What does he/she do?
If you are a friend or family member of primarily Aubrey or Diana, most likely you haven't spent a whole lot of time with the other side of the family yet! Here's the abbreviated version:
Aubrey works with kids at an after school program and attends school; Diana works full-time as a lab tech. Aubrey likes to do things like play video games, talk about controversial topics, read, workout, cook, and sing. Diana likes to do things like take photos, surf the internet, cook, and travel. We're both sort of foodies-in-training, although Aubrey is much more open to what types of food he's willing to eat! We both love missions and our first mission as a couple was a medical mission trip to Ethiopia in 2012 (thank you again to all who supported us with prayer, finances, and medical supplies for the trip!). We hope to go back in 2015.

If you want more details, just ask and we'll be happy to answer!

I wanna see pictures!!
I know, I know. That's my favorite part too!
Our proposal pictures were taken by our good friend Kathy-Marie Kruszewski on Kennesaw Mountain at sunset, just moments before Aubs popped the question! She is super creative and talented!
Our engagement pictures were taken by our good friend Jeniffer Romero, who is also amazingly crafty and has a great eye for photography (not to mention, 2 adorable kids + hubby who we love too)!

Here are some of our favorites.

     

Our wedding photographers were Ben & Alex Thompson, who recently moved to New York. We found out about them through our friend Jenni who used them in her wedding as well.
They were fantastic and I would definitely recommend them.
You can go to alexandraphotography.com to see her sneak peek pics, but you can also look out for some of the official photos here on our blog :)

Are you gonna have kids??
That's for us to know and you to find out... Or maybe, for us to find out and you to find out too :)

Why did you choose that name for your blog?
Honestly? What had happened was....
Ok I don't think either one of us has too much creativity when it comes to this whole naming/blog thing (yet) but I'll try to break it down.
The New Bowens: obviously we're The Bowens ... not John and Dawn, but Aubrey and Diana (hence the "New") ... that was the easy part.
completely incomplete - apart from trying to be clever with words (fail) we wanted to do one thing in particular:
Challenge the idea that marriage makes you a complete person. In a lot of ways, we're not complete because we are a work in progress, individually and as a married entity. Even as newlyweds, we realize that, yes we are meant to be together, BUT we can never 100% complete the other person. Does that sound sad? It's not. Because that's not our job - that's Jesus' job. We can do a lot of things for each other but one thing we can't do is be ALL that our spouse needs. But the good thing is that the pressure is off and that we don't have to set our expectations up to fail.

Another way to look at it is that we were happy as single people and that we don't need to be married (or even dating) in order to be successful, productive, loved, important, etc. We're super grateful for marriage and it has been a blast, but I think people put too much pressure on it to do things it wasn't intended to do.
It changes a lot of things about the way we view marriage. I'm sure we will talk more about this in future posts.

What kind of blog is this going to be?
Like I said, this blog is a work in progress, so don't be surprised if we change the blog name, if we throw something crazy at you or do something unexpected.
I expect that we will post funny stories, questions, revelations, pictures, thought provoking questions, etc.
It's all an adventure, uncharted territory.