Yums!

This past week after our vacation, I had the week off from work. So I practiced some old and new recipes, making a slew of yummy foods! Here is a sampling (taken with my new iPhone)

Fried Rice in the makings:

Complete table with dumplings and fried rice:


French toast on Homemade Bread:

Brian grilling sausage and veggies for shish kebabs:

Shish Kebab, with jalepeno poppers on their way:

-Cat

Back from North Carolina!

Howdy, folks! Cat and I rolled into Austin last night – after a sanity-challenging 16-hour drive from suburban Atlanta. The week-long Outer Banks vacation was more than wonderful.

We relaxed (which included movie-watching, sunbathing, sandcastle-building, backgammon, and eating far more calories than recommended) in Duck, North Carolina for five days with Cat’s extended relatives! It was a great time…mainly because we had the freedom to relax in whatever ways we wanted. I enjoyed reading, cycling, games, and sandcastles while Cat enjoyed reading, shopping, movies, and swimming in coldish sea water.

Here’s a photo of the whole gang:

And of the sandcastle I built with Cat’s uncle John and cousin Noah:

The Hortons are serious sandcastle builders, as you can see. I’d only dug with plastic shovels before; John insisted that digging with shovels was preferable. I later found out the Horton clan had gotten in trouble with Duck’s beach patrol for digging more than four feet into the sand. We weren’t reprimanded for this project, though we could barely climb out of our main castle moat!

In other news, wedding photos are in. We’ll post after we catch up with Austin life!

Sincerely,
B and C

Our City

Snapped this shot of the Austin skyline from Zilker Park today – in between Cat’s work and our apartment. Beautiful day!

You can see some other shots here, on my photoblog.

A New Look + Our 1-Month Anniversary!

Greetings, friends!

Hope you like our blog’s new look! We haven’t updated in quite a while…the wedding/beginning life together thing was a little distracting.

We wanted to make our site look different to reflect a new, post-marriage feel. Catandbrian.com began as a wedding site, but we want to keep it as a way to stay in touch with friends – posting updates on our lives, kids…not that we’re having kids soon, but you know what we mean.

In other exciting news, today is our one-month anniversary! Honestly, it doesn’t even seem like a month. The days have gone by so quickly.

To celebrate, we’re finally cooking the chocolate pasta we bought on our Valentine’s date to Seattle last year (pictured on the right). I think we’d planned to have it for a bunch of other special occasions: an engagement celebration, engagement anniversary, this year’s Valentine’s Day, etc. Maybe writing this blog will help us remember it tonight?

We’ll cook the pasta and add homemade whipped cream and mini chocolate chips on top. There will be no talk of “should this really be our main course?” This is our anniversary, and we’re sparing the green beans.

Check back here for wedding photos soon – from our photobooth and from our professional photographer!

Love,
B (and C)

Honeymoon Pics

Pit stop in Idaho Springs. Cat was freezing and wanted to leave!

Found this frozen lake near Highway 91 - frolicked in the snow!

Cat with a huge bear in Snowmass Village.

Hope you enjoy these! I’ll post some more soon.

Love,
B and C

Brian’s new map blog

While we’re waiting for wedding photos, you can check out Brian’s new map blog. He drew maps as a kid (and as a big kid), and he’s finally starting to post them online for people to see.

Brian and The Cat

Wedding photos are a’comin!

Hi everyone!

Our wedding photos will be ready in a couple of weeks. We’ll post a selection of them on our photo page when they arrive for easy viewing.

In the meantime, hope all of you are well! We’re finally settling into a normal-ish life: I start work on Monday, and Cat’s already working and schooling from 7 to 3. It’s nice to finally have the wedding off our shoulders. It was a great day, but we’re glad we only have to plan a wedding once.

Hugs,
B and C

Wedding Memories (add your own!)

People warned us that the wedding day would go by in such a blur, we’d better take snapshots in our minds of the important moments. But we want to remember it all! Ever since we got to the airport after the wedding, we’ve shared our memories of conversations, guests, feelings, food… so that we don’t forget. What kills me is that I wasn’t at every table enjoying everything at once. Some people I never even got to talk to! Here are our favorite moments from the day, and please- post yours to, so that we can add your memories to our stock!

• Cat sleeping through her alarm, waking up an hour and a half late, and thinking she’d missed the wedding. “I had pure panic in my stomach when I saw the clock.”
• Cat, so nervous that it would rain, sat outside with her eyes closed for ten minutes during a sprinkly rain, without a clue. Laura her make-up artist, wisely worked extra long on her eyes so that she wouldn’t open them and see the rain.
• The moment, at 8:30, when Brian saw Cat still in a tie dye t-shirt, getting her hair done. The pictures were supposed to start at 8, and at that point Brian thought, “we’re screwed.”
• Brian, trying not to cry as he walked down the aisle. Cat, trying not to cry as she walked down the aisle. She says it was harder for her, since everyone stood up in a dramatic whoosh and stared at eye level.
• During the ceremony when Max made a cave with his hands to safely transport the rings to Jeff without dropping them into the lake.
• The ring bearer bursting into tears after the ceremony, thinking that we were moving far away after getting married.
• The guests wearing peacock feathers (thanks Hector, Joan, and Zoey!)
• The rather strong attempts of Kayla and Kacee to get Cat to a table for some food. I did manage to eat a breakfast taco, thanks to you guys!
• Taking pictures in the swamp and getting bug bites to thank for it.
• Cat’s Aunt Lisa: “Brian, get ready – you guys are getting out of here in five minutes.” Brian: “But I don’t know where our bags are – or who’s taking us to the airport!” Lisa: “Well, you’ll just have to run to the other side of the parking lot, and we’ll figure it out from there.”
• Having lavender thrown at us as we departed for the airport. We tried to close our mouths but had to scream for delight, so it got everywhere. We’re STILL discovering lavender flowers in our luggage!
• Cat’s bobby pins warranting a full-body screening at airport security – which escalated into a sequestered search of Cat and Brian after Brian illegally handed Cat her shoes while she was in the TSA search box.

Hi from the Honeymoon!

Hi from the Rockies! We’re sitting at the breakfast table, enjoying a relaxing honeymoon together in Snowmass Village, Colorado. We’ve had plenty of time to spend together reminiscing about our wedding and realizing that we’re…actually married. There is something special about declaring our permanent commitment to one another in front of our family and friends.

We’ve found the transition into married life to be strange, in that the change is instant. One minute we were looking forward to the wedding like we had for the last eight months; the next minute, we’re walking down the aisle thinking “wow, it’s done!” Suddenly, we’ve begun a new life of learning and serving together. We’ve started by watching movies while enjoying wine and chocolates.

While we don’t have many wedding photos to post yet, our photographer – Caryn Werner, of Caryn Werner Photography – has written a post about our wedding on her blog (with some pictures)! Check it out HERE. We loved working with Caryn – she does great work!

Also, sincere thanks again to all of those we saw at our wedding ceremony. It was so nice to have all of you share our special day with us. Another thanks to our outstanding wedding party, and to all who helped make last Saturday’s celebration happen. And finally, thanks to Brian’s parents for helping us go to Colorado for our honeymoon – it’s beautiful here.

Love,
The Nunnerys

DIRECTIONS

Hi everyone,

We’ve heard some unfortunate reports of people having a hard time finding our venue. While some GPS’s (notably Garmin) have had no trouble, others (notably iPhones and Google Maps) have run into trouble.

Fortunately, East Metropolitan Park is well-signed if you’re coming from Highway 290 – look for brown highway signs beginning at FM 973 and Blake Manor Road.

Here’s a set of hand-written directions for you to follow to be safe!

FROM AUSTIN:

1. Take 290 EAST toward Houston
2. Travel past 183, past Toll 130, and past Parmer Lane
3. After Parmer Lane, TURN RIGHT onto Murray Avenue (Loop 212)
4. Murray Avenue bends to the right – keep going. You’ll reach a 4-way stop in downtown Manor. Keep going.
5. You’ll cross railroad tracks after that 4-way stop. That’s your cue to look for a brown sign pointing left, directing you to East Metropolitan Park.
6. TURN LEFT on Blake Manor Road.
7. Travel a few miles down Blake Manor, following those brown signs.
8. Just past Taylor Lane, you’ll see a water tower on the right – next to baseball fields. TURN RIGHT just before the water tower into East Metro Park.
9. At the first stop sign within the park, TURN LEFT.
10. Our wedding is in the glass pavilion on your left. You may park anywhere!

Hope this helps you find us. If you’re coming from Houston or other points to Austin’s east, just turn left at Murray Avenue and follow the same directions. Can’t wait to see all of you in the morning!

Love,

Cat and Brian