End of Spring activities

Yet another long block of time since the last entry.

We left off last time with an entry about all of our wedding information. The planning for that is still right on schedule. The final few RSVP's are coming in now as the deadline approaches. Seating is being worked out, as are the small details.

Early May was buzzing with activity around here. Leah was busy with work and starting classes. She is taking classes through ACC to earn her webmaster certificate. She will literally be a "MASTER of the WEB". Not really, but by the end she will have her very own, self-made, personal, promotional website. Right now she is a print graphic designer, which quite literally means that she produces graphics that will go into print. The missing link is producing graphics that she can then place on the internet. These classes should close the gap.

Early May also brought preparations for closing the school year out. That was busy and rather stressful but it passed just as those times always do. I did manage to build some speaker stands during that time. They ended up being more involved than I planned, but since I never really "plan" projects, that comes as no surprise. They have helped both the aesthetics and acoustics of our living room.



I also broke May up with a quick weekend trip out to LA to visit my newly married friends Jeff and Katie Dambrun. The goal was to watch the Tour of California bike race, which we did. We also had a beautiful 50 mile mountain bike ride and a super nice road ride into downtown LA to view the time trial stage.



The trip was filled with two great friends, great food and great times.

Shortly after the school year ended Marie and I drove to Michigan for a couple of weeks. It was a long and boring drive that neither of us has any desire to repeat. Our time back home was mostly enjoyable, except that between the two of us we spent a combined 6 days being stupidly sick. Half of the trip was spent at the cottage and the other half was spent in Holland. Leah took a long weekend and flew up to take care of some wedding details and appointments, as well as attend her shower.

Spring has come to a close and we are now heading into summer down here. I've been on vacation for a while. During my time off I have been trying to start my days with a nice bike ride and then some work on a recent project of mine. We have received a few gifts now for the wedding and some of them are just too big for our already packed kitchen. So I decided to build an extra cabinet that we could store things inside of. It took a while and was as usual more involved than I initially "planned". But the final product is functional and matches Leah's color requirements. Success.



Leah has been working and working and working. She finished up her first class towards her webmaster certificate. That involved a few late nights but she ended up scoring really well on the exam and producing a nice final project. She is going to take a break from classes until after the wedding to maintain sanity.

Future outlook is good. Summer school starts in about a week and a half. I am truly not looking forward to going to work. But, it's only four days a week, the days end at 2:30 and the money is good. Deposited directly into a special untouchable account for a new bike!!

Slightly further out but approaching very quickly is the big day. We are looking forward to it and the anticipation is growing every day. Thank you to everyone who has helped in any way or sent gifts already. We truly appreciate the involvement and generosity of everyone thus far.

We are looking forward to seeing you all in a few weeks.

Love Leah and Jay.

The Wedding Edition

Registry Information:

Pottery Barn

Click here to go to the Pottery Barn Registry Site

This should bring you to a screen that asks for the information of the registrant.

First Name: Leah

Last Name: Breslin

Month: July

Year: 2010

State: TX

The reason it is under Texas is that we registered our shipping address in Texas to simplify the moving of things.

Macy's

Click here to go to the Macy's Registry Site

First Name: Leah

Last Name: Breslin

Click "View Registry" near the right hand side of the screen.

Bed Bath & Beyond

Click here to go to the Bed Bath & Beyond registry site.

On the tab titled "Give a Great Gift" type:

First Name: Leah

Last Name: Breslin

Click on our names and you should be brought to our registry.

Additional Registry Information

All of the registries should be set-up to automatically ship to our address in Texas. If there is any confusion, please send to our return address.

We will also gladly accept gift cards to any of the following: Lowes, Pier 1, Home Depot and Target.

Honeymoon Information

Leah and I are planning on taking a honeymoon sometime during the winter months, most likely over Thanksgiving break.

If you would like, we are very willing to accept donations towards the funding of this as opposed to a traditional wedding present. Our goal is to have a once in a lifetime vacation that is worthy of the title "honeymoon". We are looking seriously at Costa Rica. Feel free to help us get there!

Click here to check out the resort that we are interested in.

____________________________________________________________________

The Big Day

Date: July 31, 2010

Time: 5:00 pm

Place: Felt Mansion

View Larger Map

If you have any further questions, please contact:

Carla Breslin: cjbreslin@gmail.com

Thank you all so much. We are very excited for our fast approaching wedding day. We can't wait to see all of you there!

March has passed and we are now into April with many things to note from the past month and a half or so of silence.

We left off with Leah just returning from her cousin Tasha's wedding. It was indeed a success and the couple have been honeymooned and are reportedly very happy. Leah did make it back late that night and the next Monday was indeed a tired one for her chauffeur. Definitely should have taken that Monday off. Maybe next time.

Leah's inevitable end at Green Mountain has come and gone. Fortunately it came on the eve of her accepting a temporary position at a newpaper named, "Community Impact News". The temporary position has turned out to be not so temporary. Upon the sudden and unexpeted resignation of another employee, Leah found herself accepting a position as lead graphic designer. This all occurred in March and Leah will be starting her second full week as a full time employee tomorrow.

March also contained SPRING BREAK. I was able to relax for a week and enjoy myself. Leah had to work all week, which was both good and bad. I felt pretty good about waving goodbye and not going to work. On the other hand, I found myself quickly bored without her. Lot's of bike riding and cooking. We also got the wedding invitations done and ready to mail. Look for those in the next couple of days.

More recently, Leah and I escaped the hustle and bustle of the big city for a relaxing weekend. We booked a bed and breakfast in the town of Fredericksburg, about 90 miles west of here into the hill country. The place itself was an original house built around the turn of the last century. The interior was appointed in period pieces and refurbished to a "t".

The most impressive part of the trip was the food. Until then we had been somewhat disappointed with the food in Texas. We had excellent dining experiences 4 out of 5 times in Fredericksburg. We found a restaurant with true diner food for breakfast. What a relief, exactly what we had wanted. Saturday's dinner took place at the Hilltop Cafe. We were harried into the weekend and so were subject to the mercy of our lackluster visitor's guide for information. The Hilltop was listed under family dining and was on the highway north out of town. Off we went. One of the most beautiful times of day in the hill country is the night. Black, black, black. There are so very few lights out there. A couple of miles down the road we see some very bright lights off in the distance. Around another bend we see that it is actually a huge bonfire. Around another corner and we see a sister fire to the south. Blackness does strange things to depth perception but after a few seconds we decided that they were certainly a long ways off. No less strange however. They seemed to be at least a mile apart and much too large for a typical s'more party. After 8 more miles through the blackness we saw a beacon of fluorescence. Upon closer inspection it was indeed the Hilltop Cafe. It looked like a dive bar.

Lot's of corrugated steel construction, junk decorations and a dirt parking lot. The interior was on par with the exterior. Tacky decorations and a wait staff that looked like they had been transported directly from a 50's soda fountain. Once inside, everyone was well-dressed and seemed to be having an exceptional time. There was nothing less than $25 on the menu and the wine list went on forever. Shortly after we were seated, two elderly gentleman sat down in the corner, one at a drum set, the other at a microphone. They began to play, and beautiful music would continue to flow all night. And finally, the food was awesome. The best that we've had in Texas by far.

All in all, a great weekend.

This photo was taken at a charity event for Safeplace. It is similar to Women in Transition. Leah became involved through her work and we both volunteered on April 10.

The next big thing that happened in the lapse between journal entries was my birthday. I turned 24 on April 12. My double golden birthday. We didn't celebrate too extensively. We decided to eat in on Sunday night for my official birthday dinner. We had filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. It was all delicious. Leah wanted to make my birthday cake and was considering many different great ideas. I took it down a notch by informing her that my birthday cake has to be confetti cake.

I love all kinds of cakes, chocolate, vanilla, german chocolate, cream filled, angel food, pound etc. But, the only kind that will suffice for my birthday is confetti. And it was great, exactly what I wanted. I received a few very nice things in the mail along with some cards.

As a sidenote, I grew a beard after Christmas. Here is a photo of that, along with a funny mustache photo. All clean shaven now though. The mustache lasted for approximately 30 seconds.

I apologize for the scattered nature of this entry. Perhaps in the future we will resume with our earlier consistency.

Look for an entry in the near future with official wedding registry information.

With love from the south,

Leah and Jay.

Our friendly neighborhood squirrel hunting for his acorns.

Not much to note this past couple of weeks. More work and more work. Last weekend (the one before Valentine's weekend) was spent working. Leah had some serious chores on the computer. Her goal was to make a mini portfolio to send to potential employers. It may sound simple but is far from it. The booklet is 5.5 X 5.5 in. That requires re-sizing all portfolio pieces to those dimensions, printing and cutting them to size. Printing involved purchasing ink re-fills, special 110 lb paper and slogging through the monotony of manual two-sided printing. When you turn the page of a booklet you certainly don't expect to see a blank page afterall. And once the pages were printed and dried, they required very careful cutting to size. This was where I got put to work. I used a metal straight edge and a plain razor blade. There were 20 pages in total and my hands only malfunctioned during the cutting of one. I suppose that puts my accuracy at 95%. And just when you think you're done, you have to hop in the car and drive to Kinko's to get the little booklets spiral bound. That project didn't require much writing just now but in real time it took the better part of our Sunday. The final product was great. The booklets are mini in size but not in content. They contain a well-rounded samplng of Leah's work, which is all excellent.

Since our last entry two scarily stereotypically middle American weeks have passed by us. The dreaded alarm clock rings in the morning and I work on getting caffeinated enough to see straight. The previous day's funk is washed off, shirt is buttoned, tie is tied; In the car and off to work I go; "Break" times are cherished and the end of the day can't come soon enough. Apparently this is just the way it goes in mid-winter for teachers. At least that is what all of my co-workers say. I am fairly sure that is over now though. I am just over halfway through a three day weekend and spring break is only four weeks away.

One week later.

Well, I really did mean to get this published earlier than this. But now that so much time has passed I suppose I will fill you in on this past week. It went fairly quickly as it was only four days long for me :) Leah and I had a couple of nice walks on the greenbelt as we were both able to get home at reasonable hours most days.

Leah had a busy week of applying for jobs and readying herself for a trip back to Michigan. Her cousin Tasha got married Saturday, Feb 20 in Zeeland, MI. Leah was bestowed the honor of being a bridesmaid and so made the trip back to participate. I would have loved to have been in attendance but left myself out due to outrageously expensive airfare to GRR. From what I've heard the wedding was a success and the bride and groom both had wonderful times. And that is what counts.

My weekend has been lonely but good for the most part. Saturday I had my favorite kind of morning, pajamas, coffee and a good book. That was followed by a very nice bike ride that kicked my butt and dinner with Ryan at a place called the Hills Cafe. I got chicken fried steak; I am ashamed to say that this is one of my favorite meals since moving to TX. Marie was in Galveston Friday through Saturday night and so her boyfriend Ryan was without his significant other as well. This afternoon (Sunday) Marie, Ryan and I met at the Barton Springs Pool. The weather was sunny and 75 deg. I got a nice long swim in and some time in the sun. Not bad for late February.

As I am writing Leah is in the air on her way back from the wedding weekend. Her plane was delayed and then moved and so on and so forth. Her flight finally took off and she is scheduled to be home ~5hrs later than anticipated. It will surely make for a rough Monday for her chauffeur.

That's all folks.

Love Leah and Jay.

Where to begin....

At the end of the last entry is a good place I suppose. We left you with a trip to Colorado Bend State Park shortly before Christmas Break last year. School came to a close and we three Texans hit the air. We flew in to Chicago where Leah's parents met us and hauled us back to Michigan. The beginning of Christmas Break was filled with wedding planning for Leah and only just a bit for me. Christmas Day was filled with presents and family.

Grandma Harrison was staying with us over the holidays so she didn't have to go far to find us. Grandparents Prescott were not able to make it due to unpredictable weather.

Christmas evening was spent with the Becks, Leah's aunt and uncle, as well as many other family members including Grandma and Papa DuPuis. It was wonderful to have the chance to see everyone. They have a huge family which is always exciting. Gatherings there stand in stark contrast to our small and quiet family events.

The rest of the break was spent with family taking walks in the dunes and dining out.

Shortly before we left for home we got the chance to tour the Felt Mansion, the venue for our wedding next summer.

Our time up north came to a close right near the same time that we were all getting used to being back. All three of us were quite ready to head home and relax before the new work year.

New Year's was very low key for Leah and I. We walked over to the top of our favorite parking garage roof and watched the fireworks. The distance between us and the show seemed much greater than on the 4th of July. We were about two miles away and looking down on the show from a higher elevation. I retrospectively suppose that is why they seemed so small.

The few days between New Years and work were beautiful. The weather was pleasant and we were able to enjoy it on a number of occasions. Rising and shining on that first day back to school was tougher than I had expected. The next couple of weeks passed with one notable landmark, the making of our first ravioli. The first batch was shrimp stuffed with a wine and cream sauce, still my favorite so far.

Soon afterwards we had arrived at our next camping trip.

Just about a week ago we were at Lost Maples State Park ~90 miles W of San Antonio. The Friday night drive was the longest one yet but very much worth it. Waking up in the fresh air to the sunrise on Saturday morning was superb. Saturday we took a great hike around the park's west loop.

The trail was a Texas standard mix of singletrack and two track. The hills were high enough to afford some good scenery and we hiked through places with names like Mystic Canyon. By the time we returned to camp the wind had picked up to a comical speed.

Half gallon jugs of water being blown off the table. We borrowed the groundcloth from under the tent and tied it over one side of the picnic table shelter as a windbreak only to see the grommets rip out one by one. With a little extra effort and some patience we fixed and ate our lunch of sausage and bean tacos, delicious by the way.

Sunday was an equally beautiful day with warmer temps and less wind. We had our soon-to-be-phased out traditonal bacon and eggs for breakfast and went for a second and last hike, this time around the park's east loop. The views from this trail were spectacular. For about a mile the trail ran along a high ridge with unobstructed 270 deg views.

Before long we were on the road back home. The drive was long and the arrival back to the city was not overly welcomed. I could have very happily remained in the wilderness for a few more days.

That more or less brings us to now. One more week of work under our belts and soon to be one more weekend as well.

We'll try and cover less time with the next one.

Write us something.

Love,

Jay and Leah

Colorado Bend

Leah and I had a wonderful trip to Colorado Bend State Park last weekend. I got out of work as fast as I could Friday and Leah was already home getting all of our things packed up. The weather was not exactly the best for the beginning of a camping trip, but we would not be stopped. We arrived around 9 o'clock in complete darkness. The sky was completely overcast and had been drizzling on us all evening. Fortunately we had a rather bright LED lantern complements of Marie and Ryan. They arrived later that night with parallel anticipation of better weather in the morning. We could see faint silhouettes of trees and hills around us and were looking forward to the views that we would awake to. I enjoyed the pitter patter of the light rain on the tent all night long. Leah was apparently not as confident as I in the waterproofness of the tent and so was worried that we were going to get wet all night long. We stayed dry though so that should not be a problem in the future.

The weather had improved slightly by morning; the rain had turned into the lightest form of precipitation that I had ever seen. Like an extremely thick fog slowly sinking to the ground. Breakfast was coffee and heaping piles of community oatmeal. The four of us took a well-intentioned hike up a trail next to a creek that ended in disarray. We lost track of the trail because of high water and decided that we could woods walk (meaning quite literally to walk through the woods where there is not a trail) to the road on the map. As it turned out we were not as far up the trail as we had thought and ended up walking much farther off trail than we had planned. It was mostly without incident and we saw lots of undisturbed plants and rocks that you don't usually see from the trail.

Not a bad detour when all was said and done. We were all wet and tired when we returned to camp so we made lunch and a fire. The fire was Boy Scout standard. One match with no artificial starters or materials. I was proud. The last two members of the camp-out (Christy and Tom) arrived early that afternoon and joined us around the fire for a while. Once we were fed, dried and rested the six of us took off for a trailhead to Gorman Falls. Daylight was approaching it's end and the walk was great.

The trail fell downhill all the way to the Colorado River where a spring fed creek empties over a 65 ft cliff. The water is very rich in minerals that have deposited over the years to form rounded cascades of water.

It was dark when we returned and got dinner started. The coals were still hot from the afternoon so the fire started easily. Dinner was barbecued chicken, vegetables and fried potatoes. Dessert was hot cocoa, cider and s'mores. It was a relaxing evening around the fire with good friends and easy conversation.

Sunday arrived with promising looking skies. There was dense morning fog with hints of sunshine to the east.

As the sun rose higher and came over the banks of the Colorado, the fog burnt off, the skies cleared and the temperature rose. Breakfast was bacon, eggs and toast. We all relaxed around camp while tents and gear dried out in the sun.

Marie and Ryan left early in need of productive time at home. Christy and Tom headed to the south end of the park for a walk up Spicewood Springs. Leah and I were left to our own devices and headed back to Gorman Springs for a walk out to the springs themselves. We had visited the waterfall the day before and wanted to see the springs and the creek. The walk was beautiful. The temperature was 75 F, the skies were sunny and there was a light breeze. Big dry leaves were falling from the last remnants of color left in the trees. Surely a late fall day to remember.

Christmas is right around the corner.

See many of you soon!

Happy Holidays,

Love Leah and Jay

Fall and the Family

Life certainly hasn't slowed down since the engagement. Thanksgiving break came shortly after the news. Parents Prescott and Grandma Harrison flew down for the holiday. That was a great time. They arrived on Thanksgiving Day so we moved our official dinner to Friday.

That afforded us some extra preparation time as well as some adjustment time for the family. As you all know, my sister Marie and her boyfriend live in Austin as well. The four of us split gathering time between our separate residences. Marie and Ryan have significantly more room but we opted to host the dinner at our place anyways.

Thanksgiving dinner was my favorite part of the weekend. We managed to make all of the necessary dishes in spite of our limited space. Friday was mostly an eating day. The weather wasn't all that great and seemed rather appropriate for the day. Before we knew it much of the weekend had passed and Saturday morning was upon us. Everyone was in agreement about having an easy morning and so I had time to hike the greenbelt and have Leah pick me up. Saturday was one of those fall days that will be stored in my memory forever.

The weather was perfect. It was 65 deg, sunny and dry with a light breeze. Leaves were either colored, fallen or somewhere in between. We all went down to Zilker Park to ride the Zilker Zephyr miniature train. It was absolutely great. I loved every second of it. I had wanted to ride it since we moved here.

Afterwards we took a walk through the botanical gardens and saw what roses were in bloom and a few other flowers. Saturday was also the "take the family to a real Texas BBQ day". We all drove down south to the Salt Lick BBQ for dinner. The food was not as good as it usually is but I thought it was tasty. The dessert was great and at the very least everyone got to enjoy the experience together.

Sunday came quickly. My Dad and I had a nice walk on the greenbelt in the morning. We all went to the Hula Hut with intentions of eating a light lunch in preparation for a good dinner at the Eastside Cafe. As we soon realized, you don't eat a light lunch at the Hula Hut. Leah and I split a meal and could barely finish our respective portions. Tasty it was, but the size was out of control.

Eastside Cafe was the place for dining in the evening. We have been there a few times and the food has always been great. Unfortunately this time was not so. My burger quite literally tasted like Lysol. Leah ordered crepes that looked and tasted like something an animal would forage for in the woods. I think most of the others enjoyed their meals though.

It would seem to the reader that our family and us ate our ways through Austin. After some reflection I suppose that is not far from the truth.

Since then we have been busy getting back in the swing of things. On the first Saturday of December we went for a very cold hike on the greenbelt.

Temperatures actually dipped into the low 20's which made for some interesting occurrences on the greenbelt. There is a lot of running water down there and as you can imagine some of it froze. We saw some real life icicles in Texas as well as some frozen puddles.

The creek itself is still running nicely and so crossing must be done in order to travel from our apartment to the trail's southern terminus. Crossing on that particular morning was not especially pleasant but we all lived to hike another day.

To wrap this up I thought I would give you all an eye into where I work.

Below is the outside of the building that I work in. The upper two windows on the right side are the windows to my primary classroom.

This is a picture down the hallway that I walk every morning. Science on the left, ELA on the right and social studies at the end.

This is a picture of the interior of my classroom.

This is the view out the classroom window. Football field, Opportunity Center and housing in the background.

Until next time,

Love Leah and Jay