Also- A quick congrats

Heard from one of my best friends today that's she's engaged- congrats Tess! 

Muhur,  I'm looking forward to dancing like this at your wedding:

Mr. Greg is one lucky guy!  We'll be having a celebratory drink for you tonight! And maybe one the next day too...

XO- Muhur

India, What a Country

Quick update:

Arrived in Delhi only to find our hotel was given away.

Saw the Taj Mahal, it was awesome.

Flew to Jodhpur, it is hot.  Like 110 hot. We're sweaty in every picture.

Saw a fort, temple, and a palace (300 rooms).

We have been eating delicious street food and our stomachs are only mildly worse for the wear. 

We have done a lot of shopping.

Our bags are packed and we are awaiting our flight back to Delhi.

Pictures our coming, we are having technical difficulties so please stand by.

We will update soon.

Doug with Bekah looking over my shoulder, then editing the post

Sneak Peek

Our lovely photographer was super nice and sent a few wedding pictures yesterday so we could see a couple before heading out. So exciting to have some good pictures of Doug & I. Enjoy all the kissing and canoodling shots- you know we just love to partake in PDA at any possible time!


*All photos in the post are by Crystaline Kline Randazzo. If you ever need a sweet, flexible and talented photographer, I'd highly recommend her! Check out her websites here: www.snappycamerastudios.com   or www.crystalinerandazzo.com 

A Most Excellent Father's Day

Saturday I headed home to good old Waynesboro to celebrate Father's Day with my most favorite father in the world. Before the celebrations began, Mom and I hit all the hot spots of the boro including Target, TJ Maxx and Kroger. Oh Waynesboro, such exciting times you always provide! Though there's not much to do, Waynesboro is quiet and relaxing AND Mom always makes extra delicious meals just for me! Too bad Doug had to stay home and work..


Sunday we celebrated Father's Day on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Dad recently got a new motorcycle and I had my scooter, so up into the mountains we went... Just like a gosling following father goose..

Like father, like daughter.

  
Highlights of the day:

1) Spending time with my wonderful Dad. I'm pretty sure most people out there can't say they have a dad as awesome/cool as mine-he rides a motorcycle (sometimes without a shirt on, as spotted by one Amy Christine Charley), plays in many bands (some of which are really good), is the best card player I know (and almost never cheats), always helps me fix/make/mend anything AND knows someone everywhere he goes (he seriously has a guy for everything). Pretty awesome guy!  Here I am with with my Papa: 

It's obvious where I get my good looks from!

2) Enjoying the valley. It's just beautiful and a motorcyclist/scooty  heaven with windy roads, fresh air and lovely views. Okay Waynesboro, maybe you're not so bad.

Mom & Dad on the parkway

3) Getting to ride my beloved scooter. Best couple gwaps I ever spent! NOVA is so unkind to my scooter ways, so it was nice to have a chance to scoot without fear of being hit by a crazed, texting, incompetent metro-area driver. Or sitting in traffic on hot asphalt, sweating while not moving (which is the more likely of these two scenarios..).

Scooter heaven!

Low points of the day:


A bug flew into my sunglasses and knocked out a lens. Somewhat difficult to drive with one eye shut. Regardless, I still kept things classy:

Sporting the style of next season

Cold weather- Mom and I had the shells of our ski jackets on with gloves and multiple layers. Brrrrrrr!


Unfriendly motorcyclists. They only sometimes give me the motorcycle wave (the open palm that only motorcyclists give/get) and Dad always gets it. So not fair! I'm bossy and in charge on my ride!   Perhaps they could see my perfectly manicured pink toes and decided that I was just not hardcore biker material? Who knows.. Maybe I should start considering an Americana-themed tattoo on my arm...



Overall, we all enjoyed a most excellent Father's day and I was glad to spend sometime with my parents before summer adventures begin! One week from today we'll be in India!!

Indian Wedding

A few weeks ago, my friend Shahrina got married in the most lively, colorful and delicious wedding ever.The night before the wedding, they had a henna night. Shahrina had a colorful tent that looked beautiful and she and Abhi (hubby) were fed food, covered in white something or another, and celebrated. While I had no clue what was going on or the tradition behind it, I loved being there and seeing it all.

Inside the colorful tent

My henna!

Covered in white paste.. Love the colors!

The happy couple

Decorations

 I was super excited for this wedding because I got to buy and wear my first (and probably only) saree! In theory, the saree was an excellent idea, however once the big day came, I quickly realized I had no clue how to wear the thing... YouTube was of little help because I could not make my fabric fold the way the woman in the video did.. In the end, I wrapped it around myself and threw it over my shoulder. If I ever buy another saree (India here we come!), I will be demanding that whoever sells it to me shows me how to wear it. 

Hot, tired, and ready to go home.. Until we remembered to take a picture from the day.

Loved every second of this!

It was an awesome wedding and was so much fun. The food, music and dancing were fabulous and I'm so glad we got to go! I totally should have had an Indian wedding!

A Knight in Sequined Armor

Yesterday on the way out the door to work, Doug casually mentioned that he had to make a costume for the Medieval Festival Today. From years of celebrating my most favorite holiday (Halloween),  I told him that a stellar costume cannot be made in one night. He didn't think this was true and then told me his plan  to roll up some plants and wear high soccer socks to cover his exposed legs with a long shirt to be a knight... I said no way, Jose! After getting him to agree to make a better costume  we hit up Goodwill to find some pieces to make him royal and regal. I'm not so sure he turned out royal and regal, but hilarious and hot (it's supposed to be in the 90s today) he will be. At Goodwill we found a 2XL polo shirt and a classy ladies belt.. the makings of excellent knight wear! As my hopes for something shiny were not met, we then went to the store and got some super sequined fabric and some metallic fabric.. Then spent the rest of the night making him into a knight. Unfortunately for Doug, neither one of us measured anything, just starting cutting, and his costume ended up with one arm much smaller than the other and one leg much smaller than the other. THEN they got attached to opposite sides of the costume.. hilarious. I told Doug he should tell people he's a knight that survived Polio.. Any-who, here's a few pictures of a one-night knight costume- I'm sure all the princesses of the festival will just swoon for him!

Since Doug likes to "think outside of the box" he covered his shoes in fabric and duct tape and then figured out how to get his feet into them after.. Very amusing!

Monitoring the kingdom for unwanted intruders..

Every proper knight needs a good cape.. Check out the pen- since he can't have any pretend weapons at school he'll be wearing a pen. The pen is mightier than the sword!

Loving being bedazzled

Grrrrrr!

The Adventures Begin

And so it begins.. I've joined the world of blogging in attempt to share our lovely little wedding story and the adventures sure to follow. I write this with good intentions to update the blog & share our stories as we vagabond around Asia, but can make no promises! Elephants, beautiful beaches, delicious street food and colorful people are sure to be excellent distractions. Anywho, back to the story..

Friday, June 1st was our BIG day. The day before our wedding the weather was perfect. Cool and comfortable- ideal for a perfect wedding day. Not the case for Friday though.. Friday's forecast: severe thunderstorms and possible hail and/or tornadoes. Yes, tornadoes. Luck of luck! A sign from the Gods perhaps? 

All I wanted from the entire day were a few pictures of us scooting around the city in our wedding wear. Sadly, the Vespa doesn't do so great in tornadoes. Regardless of the abysmal weather forecast, the wedding was still on. As D & I drove to the courthouse the storm clouds started rolling in. Along with our families, we made it through the metal detectors, past the court rooms of all the things that can go bad in a marriage (domestic abuse anyone?) and up to the marriage bureau. Once we got to the marriage bureau they sent us into the "chapel" room, a tiny little room with a very dated arch of faux flowers and poor circulation. Then the wait for the officiant began.. At this point, I was very nervous and being kept in a tiny room with stale air while sweating profusely, watching a mega storm roll in, as you wait for fifty minutes for the turkey of an officiant to show up does not help with wedding jitters. I was not a fan. Regardless, the officiant showed up forty minutes late and five minutes later (was it even that long?) I got myself a new huuuusssband. Now we're officially Mr. Rodgers and Ms. O'Dell!

(Here are a few pictures from the courthouse- thank goodness we got a photographer because these family pictures didn't turn out so great. Sorry Mom to knock your skills...)

All dressed up and ready to get this over with...

Less than pleased to have to wait.

   

Enjoying my pockets

Watching the storm make its way in

Ready to get started

My Mom & Doug's Mom

Since the storm was blowing in and we wasted 40 minutes of prime picture taking time waiting for the less-than-considerate officiant, we scrapped our plans for cake and photos outside at a cute little park in Capital Hill and headed to the Building Museum to do family pictures. Just in time too- right as we got inside the rain started pouring down. After we got the family pictures done and were ready to leave, the museum staff rushed us down into the basement of the building because a tornado had been spotted in DC! Talk about memorable.. Who gets their very own wedding tornado? This girl! Thus, we spent our first hour of wedded bliss in the utility room of a lovely building with a bunch of rando strangers. Someone even toasted me with a delicious red Starburst. I'm sure after reading this, little girls across the world will be hoping for a wedding as awesome as mine! 

Inside the Building Museum

 

Taking some "realistic" photos because we just love to kiss anywhere, anytime

Watching the weather

Wedding guests

After the worst bit of the storm passed, we were released from our holding tank and sent back into a soggy DC. We headed to a nice little French Bistro on Capital Hill, had a delicious dinner with our families and then ate our fabulous mango wedding cake. All in all, while there were quite a few unplanned events in our day (read: tornadoes, missing officiants, abandoned plans for the day, non-stop rain all afternoon & night), D and I were still happy with how things worked out. I got to marry my best friend, taste tester extraordinaire, and main source of amusement. Tornado or not, that's a pretty darn good day! 

Mango deliciousness

It seems that with us everything is always an adventure... Stay posted for more adventures as we start married life with our lunita de miel to India, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Fingers crossed we survive being married AND being together 24/7 for the next two months..