September 30, 2012

Pick Your Own

There are so many wonderful fall activities to do. It's almost hard to fit everything in on the weekends but so far Tyler and I have been doing a pretty good job. We've already been to Eckert's TWICE! Once a few weekends back to go apple picking and once again today to find some pumpkins to dress up our yard.

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When picking apples you can eat as many as you'd like while in the orchards, and I think Tyler had a stomach ache by the time we left. We limited ourselves in our apple picking because it's easy to come home with waaay too many apples so instead we spent a little extra time in the orchard just clowning around.

I learned how to juggle when I was about 9 or 10 I think, and it has been a wonderful talent to have. It's perfect for a spontaneous performance pretty much anywhere. Tyler said he always wanted to be able to juggle, and with so many apples lying around it was the perfect place to teach him. He's been practicing a lot since and we've started coming up with some complicated tricks! (Yes, we are a really awesome couple who comes up with juggling routines in their spare time...)
{ Obviously, I have stellar fashion sense ;) }

{ Practicing away }

Today while pumpkin picking both on the trailer ride out and back, we were just about the only couple who didn't have a baby. We were definitely the odd balls out, but we found some nice pumpkins to bring home and picked out some cute little gourds too (for more juggling of course)!






 

It's still early in the season and I plan on displaying pumpkins through Thankgiving, so who knows, maybe we'll go back a third time! 

The leaves are starting to change here and it's only going to get more gorgeous from here. If you haven't been already, get out and enjoy this beautiful season and maybe learn something new while you're at it!

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September 27, 2012

Back on Mainland

A quick overview of our move to get everyone up to date:

If you remember my last Learning to Be Hawaiian post, you'll remember that moving day was pretty sad. But getting back on the mainland soil helped dissipate a lot of our blues. Seeing family and sharing our joy at being newly engaged was very cathartic.

It was almost like coming out of hermit-tude... being so isolated in Hawaii and then all of a sudden we were surrounded by family and friends 24/7. I think some of my social skills were a little rusty, and I was occasionally overwhelmed and exhausted by all all the talking I was doing, but catching up with people has been so refreshing!

We landed in Arizona and jumped into the dry heat of summer while spending a few days with the soon to be In-Laws (!) and their clan. Then we road-tripped out to Colorado to see Cara (Tyler's sister) and our friends up in Fort Collins. Both stops were SO MUCH FUN! I wish we could do it more frequently, and with  lot less ravel time! Then once again we were on the road heading to our final destination of Saint Louis, my old and future home!

It was a whirlwind of familiar faces that Tyler called our engagement tour.

Once back in Midwest territory, we stayed with my parents until we were settled and on our feet (moved in really, but Tyler doesn't like using that phrase). Tyler found a job in a week working for a title company and an HR job that I applied for while still in Hawaii came to fruition in about a month.

Then my parents moved out and we really did "move in." Our commutes are in very different directions, unfortunately, and neither of us have found a location we'd rather be. The task of making my childhood house our house has been odd, but I have such a strong attachment to it that it trumps the odd-ness. Sad fact though, I STILL haven't unpacked all my suitcases...  whoops.

We are still very much settling and getting used to this new situation and the lifestyle of having "real" jobs, but so far I've been incredibly happy with our decision. A little stressed at times (because oh my gosh, we are also trying to plan a wedding!), but mostly I feel good, and happy, and full, and now IT'S FALL, BABY! (my favorite time of the year.)

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Malfunctions...

Uhhhh... so Blogger has been a fail so far... I worked so hard to get this blog lookin' pretty and wanted to have it all set up properly before announcing it to all my friends and family. Not as easy as it sounds.

It is supposed to be at www.lightlydappled.com but after I set the whole thing up and got it ready to go, Blogger has this mysterious error with setting custom domain names that has taken them forever to fix!! It's been seventeen days and I have just now been able to revert back to the .blogspot address, which up until now both addresses sent you to an error message.

I am normally a huge fan of google everything, but right now I am very frustrated. Not cool Blogger! So I apologize for the delay and the fact that my url is going to change after things get straightened out, but this will work for now.

And hopefully I will follow through on getting some posts up soon!

It's officially fall, and I LOVE FALL, so you should be getting some good stuff!

Update: They've changed some of their instructions and I went through some high-tech process and now have to wait an hour to see if my domain will work. Fingers crossed!

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September 10, 2012

Now Introducing...


It’s long overdue that I start up a new blog! I started thinking of setting one up before we left Hawaii. I even started brainstorming names for it sitting in our little kitchen a month before moving. But I couldn’t commit to a name...

I couldn’t keep using my old blog, that much I was certain of; I wanted to keep Learning to be Hawaiian in Hawaii. But I love blogging now and our families and friends love that I do it too. A name for a blog is tough though… I want it to be personal, but not too specific. I want it to be able to grow with me, but not be too generic. It was a long process and it wasn’t until recently I finally decided on something.

I was sitting on the deck one fine day and I was really feeling the itch to write something. I decided  I needed to bite the bullet and just pick something, and as the sun danced through the trees and mixed with their shadows on the deck in perfectly round dapples I decided: Lightly Dappled.

My life here is always dappled with light. And that’s what this blog will be; lightly dappled with stories, pictures, and experiences. Family & friends. Humor & emotion.  

I have some catching up to do. I will have to start off with the tail end of our move and work up to the present. A lot has been going on and I feel like we have hardly had time to breathe, but breathe we do and soon I will be writing more too.


{Morning  sun peeking through to dapple my life.}


Until my next post, I may be making some slight changes to layout and design. This is a different blog host than I used in the past so some things are different and I’m not quite sure if they are better or worse. You should still be able to sign up to receive email updates from my blog (though you may have to go through Feedburner).
Let me know what you think of the new digs and if you are having any troubles!

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