12 Cupcakes in 12 Months

My beautiful mother has many talents, but her strongest (and yummiest) is baking.  The smell of cookies in the oven immediately makes me homesick and warms my heart simultaneously.  It has always been a personal vow of mine to fill our house with as much warm cookie smell as possible.  In my attempt to step up my baking game, I have chosen to take on a new cupcake recipe every month for the next year.  I started in May with a vanilla cupcake with vanilla butter cream frosting.  I chose this one because I thought it would be a good starting point.  My mother's butter cream is one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten, so I had pretty big shoes to fill.  I think if she had been here to taste one, she would have been proud.  This month, I'm going to attempt chocolate with whipped peanut butter frosting (Grant's favorite flavors).  More to come!

Becoming Mrs. Carter

I have officially changed my name on all the required legal documents. (Just my passport left!)  When we decided to get married I knew I wanted changing my last name to be part of our marriage process, but I never anticipated feeling anything other than excitement when it came time to do it.  Not only is it daunting to think about how many things have your legal name on them and how many offices you need to contact, but the idea of changing your name, part of who you are, is a difficult thing to chew on.

We received our marriage license back from the great (arguably the best) state of Texas about a month and a half after we got married.  When we received it I knew it was time to start the time consuming, frustrating process of changing my name with all the government offices here in Chicago.  I was a little taken aback with how sad I felt myself getting over not having "Rios" at the end of my name anymore.

Rios is my father's name.  My daddy, who has provided for our family through the good and the rough times, who dropped parachuted army men from the second floor of our house in San Antonio with me, the man who has loved my mother for over 30 years and has loved me and makes sure I know it with his morning phone calls since the day I began on this journey of life.  It's the name my strong, beautiful mother chose to take as she promised her life to him, just as I have promised mine to Grant.  It's the name my sisters, two of my soul mates in this life, still have.  I'm so far away from my family, the people I love so much sometimes I can feel my heart hurt when I stop and think about the distance between us and somehow, having a shared name among us, made me feel like I was carrying a visible souvenir of them with me. And I was about to get rid of it. Standing in  line at the Social Security office (1.5 hours, plenty of time to think things over), it all hit me and a little sadness began to creep in where I thought only excitement would live.

So, I made the decision to take Rios as a second middle name.  The lady in the window told me people typically opt to replace their middle names with their maiden names.  I couldn't imagine doing this because Alyse was the name that my parents chose just for me when they welcomed me into the world.  So, I chose to take two middle names.  It's a little bit of a mouthful, but I couldn't begin to imagine having it any other way.  Being able to carry Rios with me everywhere I go is worth having people stumble over it a few times.

We've officially received our first piece of mail that's addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. Carter."  We received lots of wedding gifts addressed to us that way, but to see it on an official document was a really exciting thing.  Mr. and Mrs., for better or worse, for the rest of our messy, beautiful lives.

Lent in the Carter Household

The Lenten season is off to a great start in our house!  We've started visiting area churches (still haven't found the winner, but we know it's out there) and have given up and taken on some things in our daily routine.

I graduated with my MSW in 2010 and have been doing work in non-profit fundraising since then.  While I absolutely love what I do, I have recently felt called to begin the process of getting my license to practice clinically.  I have purchased all the necessary study tools and decided to incorporate studying into my daily routine.  I've always been told that studying was a muscle, but until I was two years out of Grad school, I never realized how true that is.  Mine was completely out of shape and it feels so so good to be exercising it again.

This routine couldn't have come at a better time because I chose to give up Facebook (and sweets) for Lent.  Crazy.  I know.  I realized that I was overlooking the daily devotional in my inbox and heading straight to Facebook each morning to see what everyone's up to.  Now, I grab my morning green tea, sit down at my desk and open up my daily devotional in the tab that would usually hold my Facebook news feed.  It has truly been a great past couple days.  It's definitely been eye opening as I've realized how often I clicked over to Facebook.  I feel so much less anxiety, not feeling like I need to know what's going on with everyone.  There's something very calming in having the freedom of not feeling guilty about not being connected 24/7.

Grant has made the personal choice to give up alcohol.  This decision came  a little before lent and isn't necessarily for lent, but it is certainly a sacrifice being made, as he has become a bit of a wine/craft beer enthusiast.  He's certainly refined that palette of his since his fraternity days in college.  :)  He has set his birthday as the date when he can break his no alcohol streak.  I know he misses his occasional glass of wine and am so proud of him for really following through on the sacrifice he's decided to make.

In our house, we've implemented a "swear jar."  I would like to think it's more for Grant, but if I'm being honest with myself, it's for both of us.  I figure we could work on our bad habits and have laundry money on hand at all times.  This will definitely be handy on those Sunday when we realize we have to do laundry because the hamper has exploded, but the banks aren't open and, I mean, come on, who carries cash these days?  My hope is that by the end of lent, it won't be necessary and we can toss it out.

We hope your Lent is off to a great start, and as you and your family prepare for Holy Week and for the Resurrection of our Lord, your hearts are full of joy and that you find yourself drawing nearer to God through the sacrifices you've decided to make or the new habits you've decided to pick up.

Addison

We have a furry cuddle monster in our house.  Grant began traveling pretty frequently for his job in September and although we had been talking about getting a dog for a while, the idea of having someone in the house with me during the week sped up the decision making process.  So, mid-September we made the decision to adopt a dog!  We went into Paws (a no-kill shelter here in Chicago) with two dogs we had picked out from their website.  We sped, broke traffic laws and road rage filled our car, because we just knew that the faster we got there the higher of a possibility there would be that they would have the dogs we were destined for! 

Once we filled out the survey to show that we were adequate parents, we were escorted back to look through glass doors and decide which dog we'd like to play with.  We found our way to the "Oprah Winfrey" room (as a fundraising professional, my eyes immediately went to the donor recognition plaques) and a little white fur ball walked up to the door and stared at us.  I looked at Grant with tears in my eyes and the rest is history.

The picture the shelter took before we brought her home

Her name was originally Anne Marie (lame), so naturally we picked the street that Wrigley Field sits on...Addison!  She has been the biggest blessing for our family and home.  She traveled with us to our wedding and rocked the airport and plane like a champ.  Her very favorite thing to do is to venture out with daddy into Lincoln Park and chase the squirrels up the trees.  I use the term chase because I want her to seem somewhat like a lady, but the truth is, she is on the prowl and won't stop until all the little guys are up in their trees...where they belong.  We are so in love with her and couldn't imagine our home without her.   

If you're in the market for a new dog please consider making it a rescue dog (or cat).  If you're in the Chicago area, please consider PAWS Chicago.

Our Honeymoon!

Grant and I were blessed to go on a 5 day cruise to the Yucatan Peninsula and Cozumel, Mexico.  The day after our wedding we woke up at 5am to begin a journey from San Antonio to Galveston to jump on a cruise ship that was set to leave that afternoon.  Needless to say, we were a little groggy and weren't quite sure how we felt about the decision we had made to start the honeymoon the day after our wedding.

When we finally got on-board it was completely worth it.  We spent the afternoon and evening trying to get used to being on a boat and getting well acquainted with the soft serve machines that were conveniently all over the deck.  The little boys next to us were adorable and would yell anytime they saw anything in the water.  My favorite was when they yelled "litter!" over and over with so much anger it was endearing. They also loved it when seagulls would show us their butts.  They were my favorite.  We met our awesome house keeper who later became our best friend on the cruise.  She made adorable little animals out of our towels every night and talked with me about Thailand, her family and her crazy work schedule.

The Yucatan was our absolute favorite part of the cruise.  We drove about an hour outside of our port in Progresso to a little town that's still 85% Mayan.  We toured a Cathedral, cemetery and an archeological dig site of a Mayan Ruin.  The Cathedral was gorgeous and their cemeteries are much like New Orleans, due to the soil conditions, they build everything above ground, and they're almost like little hotel rooms full of things that their lost loved ones enjoyed while alive.  The Mayan Ruin site was really neat to see and Grant loved it because of all the history in the town.

Cozumel was beautiful.  We went to a national park and snorkeled on a reef right off the coast and took a clear kayak out into the ocean.  It was so much fun until about 20 minutes into snorkeling when we were struggling to get the masks off our faces as migraines were building and water was seeping in somehow.  Where it was getting in still remains a mystery.  It was certainly an experience I will never forget.

By noon on the last day, we had hit a wall.  We needed off that ship and we needed off fast.  It was an amazing wonderful experience as it was our first real vacation together, but I think we've decided we are not "cruise people."  I was warned before I left that we would either get addicted or come to the harsh realization that we just aren't cut out for it.  We docked in Galveston and spent Christmas with my family in Texas.  Our first Christmas as a married couple.

The day we became a (legal) family!

For those of you who missed it, we got hitched! It was the greatest day of my life to date (I know I know...it hasn't been that long).  No one told me that you don't cry because of the reasons you think you do, but because there's so much love in one room and so many people there pledging their support as you start a new chapter of your life as a little team, together.

We've been married for almost 2 months now and have been having so much fun.  Grant has a pretty crazy work schedule that involves being on airplanes much of the time.  This has made for a little bit of a non-traditional beginning.  Everyone keeps asking me how marriage is going and when I reply "Great!" they look at me like I'm not telling them something.  With Grant and I being apart so often, we haven't gotten to the knitty gritty of fighting about the day-to-day things.  I'm actually looking forward to fighting about the little things that annoy us about living 24/7 with each other.  When that will happen is still TBD, but for now, we are loving the days we're together and missing each other on the days we're not.

We are so blessed and so thankful that God brought us together and that we get to tackle this life, however messy it may be, as a team.