Here we are.

Have you ever suddenly found yourself sitting in a large condominium in a Midwestern city, inexplicably listening to country music, and trying to revive a blog that you've sadly neglected for many months? I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything that has happened since I last posted here. This has been a weird and wonderful and packed 2011, but this website that Allison and I love so much fell through the cracks. And we are so sorry!

I feel like Al and I have both lived a lot of life in the last few months... Here's a brief update on my side of things, the back end of 2011 in review, if you will.

John got a PhD...
My peanut of a niece was born...

We got married!

This picture was taken on the wedding day. That morning, the power went out... In the entire town. Once we weathered that storm and the lights came back on, I went outside to check out the ceremony and dinner space... And I got stung by a bee. But who was right there, rubbing bee-sting salve on my foot and making me laugh? Allison!

Then we honeymooned...

And then, after a whirlwind summer of love, friends, tanning oil, presents, the ocean, and margaritas, it was time to pack our knives and go.



About three weeks before our wedding, John got offered his dream job, a post-doc at Washington University in St. Louis. It's hard to sum up my feelings about the move in a quick witty sentence. It's one of the hardest things we've ever done, and some of our final weeks in LA were really really sad. I am terrible with goodbyes, and I recall at least one drunken sobfest with my best girls.

But after being here for a couple of months, I can say with complete honesty that I'm glad we did this. St. Louis is charming the pants off me. There is brick everywhere, leaves are falling off the trees, and there is a real sense of community in our neighborhood. Our neighbor is a blonde girl with a pug. And our condo. Holy cow. We have two bathrooms. And in the kitchen, I have an island, and a stunning exposed brick wall. And best of all, we get great light, which means good food photos!And John and I have a neutral baseball team, go Cardinals!

So it's been a lot, but I feel like we're finally home. And the best thing about home is that the food tastes really good here. I'm happy to be back at B+C, and will have a lot to share with you in the coming year. Thanks for sticking around!
Love,
M