Our engagement ring

Sometimes it is easy to get caught up with the conventional and the unconventional details of an engagement ring.   For Ed and myself it was pretty clear that we wanted something  heartfelt that reflected "us" as a couple.    Although the engagement can be a personal moment between two people, for us it was also a moment of celebrate the idea that we were merging our families, and becoming a new family ourselves.  

Ed captured this sentiment so completely that I wanted to share it with you all.  As you can see, our ring has three diamonds, one from Ed's family, one sweetly donated from my family, and the third from Ed.   Everyday for the rest of my little life I get the pleasure of looking down and seeing our beautiful ring and think about how happy I am to be a part of this new family definition. 

 

The design of the ring captures an unconventional - organic/natural style.   With leaves on the side and each diamond appearing like a flower bud irregular and angled - the ring looks alive. It is beautiful, unique and reminds me of the beauty of Gaudi and our time in Barcelona. 

Ed sketched some ideas and worked with a brilliant local artist to complete the design and construct the ring.

Scott putting the ring together

I feel like the luckiest girl in the world, and this ring speaks volumes to why.  It represents my family.  It represents Ed's family - my new family.  It represents the start of this new chapter together.  It is the idea that one day I may be lucky enough to explain why this ring means the world to me when I pass it on to my daughter or son.  It is the best blend of both conventional and unconventional.

Time of our life

Routines are hard to establish and easily broken.   I imagine that success establishing them depends on some discipline, attention to time management, and lack of any major distractions.   Sometime after our last post I was seriously distracted by projects at work, including a couple of talks in Europe and at least one major life event. As a result, our life-balance/daily routine went out the window…. and sadly, our little blog suffered.

...the blog is not the only thing neglected.

First and foremost for those of you who do not already know: Ed and I got engaged!!! 

Here’s the inside scoop:  Yes, I knew that it might happen in the near future, and yes I suspected that it may happen on our trip to Europe.  However, I had no idea when, or where, or how.  Unlike most of my adventures in the past, this trip was heavily structured around work – It takes some of the romance out when you are running around: Ed between IBM conference calls and me tucked into a conference/talks.  It really took losing my computer charger on the train from Paris to change the tone of our trip.  It also helped to go to Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera with the love of my life. 

Vernazza, Cinque Terre

This is our picture from our little apartment balcony.  No internet, just a cork screw, two wine glasses and a beautiful view.

On our first night we watched the sunset and headed up to have dinner in a castle overlooking the ocean by candlelight. 

You see, I had calculated that Vernazza might be the “where” for our engagement, and assumed that this very romantic dinner was “when”.   I just sat there smiling, waiting…drumming my fingers on my lap…  Every time the waiter showed up I would make small talk and then turn my attention back to Ed.   Ed, on the other hand looked really relaxed.  Too relaxed.  At one point he asked me if I had brought the guide book from our room to look at hiking trails for tomorrow (during our engagement dinner!?)   When he finally asked:  “so when do you think we will leave Italy” I stopped drumming my fingers,  poured myself another glass of wine and scratched that “where” and “when” right out of my head.  Not tonight, and not Italy. 

The next morning we had planned to take a 6hr hike.  We purchased the world's worst trail map and headed for higher ground:

Seriously?

      We took the high road; past vineyards and breath-taking views of the coast, and snapped some photos along the way.     

 At the top of the trail we found the best vista point for our little town:

 We decided to take our picture here -- however, this 'couple shot' was a bit of a challenge.  The camera, for one, needed to be stable and elevated enough  to capture both us and the town below us.   Here's Ed rocking out our camera stand:

 Secondly, that meant that one of us (Ed) needed to stand near the cliff at the bottom within camera shot and the other (yours truly) had to push the button and RUN down the hill to make it into the picture on time.  Easy right?  Well the first time I pushed the button and sprinted down the hill, barely missing the camera flash.

Shot #1

 Small setback.  I ran back up the hill and pressed the button again and sped back down managing to barely get in the picture when the camera went off:

Shot #2

 I turned right around and ran up that stupid hill, pressed the button and headed down full-throttle.  I got to the site and hugged up next to Ed and smiled just as the camera flashed.

Success.

Shot #3

  I looked to Ed feeling triumphant and he said four surprising words….

“let’s do it again”.

  What?!

Sure easy for him to say he wasn’t hightailing it up and down a mountain (I said to myself with an eyeroll).  As I ran back up I couldn't help but wonder "why" we needed to do one more... and then it came to me.  He wants to do a “fun” pose.  Not a normal one where we stand next to each other – but one where I jump on his back and smile.  I recognized that this may require even MORE time and I would have to get down there even faster than last time.  I hit the camera and bolted down the hill.    I came barreling down the hill ready to jump on Ed’s back, except he was down on one knee.  No problem - in that split second I recalculated and decided that rather than jumping on his back, Ed had gotten down to lift me up in the air - like Baby in Dirty Dancing...and with that I jumped on him, the camera went off, and he did a terrible job of lifting me in the air...which is when I realized that he had a ring out, and our engagement moment was captured.

Notice the thousand foot drop right behind Ed.

Classic.

Before I knew it, we were both on our knees with tears in our eyes.   We couldn’t be more in love or more happy about this next step in our life together. 

   Life has not fallen back into any kind of ‘normal’ routine.  I doubt it ever will...  but it is just crazy enough to where I have to force myself into more of a survival mode;) to keep all of the work, wedding, and migadventures going strong.  Needless to say, I hope to keep this in my new routine so that you guys can all experience this excitement with us as we prepare for our wedding in California August 17th!

July flies

Wow, July - I feel like I barely knew you.  The month started off with a bang: friends, fireworks, and firepits.  At one point fireworks found their way into the firepit, making the night especially memorable.

That was just the pre-show - as the highlight of the month was mom and dad gracing the land of banana slugs and giant trees.

Big Basin! Big Trees! Wait... Big Squirrels?

Mom and Dad in the heart of a CA-redwood

Tree hugger? Consider that box checked.

Here's Ed pointing out his birthday tree-ring.

We took a whale tour in Monterey Bay on Friday.  Pretty impressive to see a single blue whale, and lucky for us there were 10 out that day.  Heaps of humpbacks as well, we even were able to see one breach from the distance. 

Next we took mom and dad to see the Monterey Bay Aquarium with a back stage pass to the exhibits.  The 'spoiling dad with the best local aquarium' competition is on - yeah, David Hayden I am looking at you. 

On Saturday we took at short hike out to see the male elephant seals in Ano Nuevo. 

... and finished with flaming cheese!

Mom and Dad's first Mousakka!  I want to hang this picture on the wall behind them.

It feels like yesterday.  What a beautiful time - mom and dad we are so very happy that you could make it over and we cannot wait to see you again, soon.

xxox
k & e & scrappy
(ps. he misses you mom)

Rise up in the dirt

With sunshine most days, Ed and I decided to put together an above ground garden.  The seedlings practical overgrew their starter tray by week one.

I had never seen a plant so eager to live - here's one of our cucumber plants pushing root first out of the dirt:

Roots rise up in the dirt.

Here's Ed acting against his 'safety first' instinct for my camera request. 

Say "Garden bed"

Check out the automatic watering system that Ed installed, good-bye responsibilities:

Note the sweet water sprinkling system

I picked up the soil from home depot while Ed was out of town.  Nothing gets people's attention like a girl in high heels walking backwards with 18 cubic feet of soil and fertilizer. This stuff had all of the essentials - bats, cows, horses, chicken manure.  Heck, even Scrappy chipped in. 

Sweet garden success.

As for the 15ft water grand finale:

 

Ed and I found out pretty quickly that the watering system might need some adjustment.  The roof of the garage however, got a nice rinse.  

Two green thumbs up,

Karen and Ed.

June birthdays!

June has been a whirlwind of excitement.  Ed and I are so happy to celebrate the arrival of two adorable little babies - Baby Harrison and Sweet Lillian Miga!!! 

In chronological happiness;)  Many congratulations to my dear best friend Haley and her awesome husband Jimmy on their adorable little baby boy, Harrison Samuel Holden --  I cannot wait to meet him and spoil him with monogrammed gifts! 

Welcome Baby Harrison!

Ed and I have not stopped gushing over Lil' Miga.  August cannot get here fast enough as we are so looking to meeting her for the first time.  Ed got the best birthday gift in the world with his new beautiful little niece.  We (like all of Lillian's adoring fanbase), cannot get enough - and are thrilled to keep up with their Migadventures on Val's blog - "The Party Place".  Val and Eric are a riot and are going to make incredible parents  - I encourage you to read Val's account of  Lil' Miga's big day, such a fun read:)  Congratulations to the entire family (which I am so happy to be a part of!)
 

Welcome to the world, beautiful Lil' Miga!

Hugs!
Karen & Ed

Hair today, gone tomorrow

It's been a long time since high school - yet this mop of hair on my head has stayed about the same.

If only little high school Karen realized that her last graduation ceremony would be 16 years later. 

It was time for a change, so I decided to do something a little drastic:

Yikes!

I am not sure what I think about it yet.  The first day I really liked it.  Today, I thought 'is it uneven?' and reached out for the scissors that I had used to cut open bags of soil and began to snip pieces of hair away.   Somewhere out there a hair stylist was screaming.

I guess I just need to get use to it.

Walking into work, I tried to imagine the reaction and support I would have found back at Duke surrounded by my dear friends in the Willard lab.   However, as the only girl postdoc in the Haussler group I knew that I had to leave all expectations at the bike rack at the bottom of the hill.

I did get an occasional second look, and on my way into the post-doc office I did get a few comments.  However, once at my desk all was initially quiet...one person asked: 'did  you do something different to your hair, is it shorter?'  Later that day I got a 'your hair looks lighter - did you lighten it too?'

They did notice!   So I guess that means that it was a pretty significant change.

I have no idea how long I will keep it short or this color, but it is a clear change from circa 1996.  Plus I think I look more like my Mom, which is a nice bonus.

I am not sure which superimposed head looks creepier.  Either way, Mom looks beautiful

Ed should get a nice shock when he gets back into town tomorrow night.  He put an alarm on his phone to remind him that I had my hair cut so that he would not forget to say something when he sees me.   I have a feeling that sweet Migs will notice right away.

Hot Wheels

This was Trixie, my beloved little bike:

She was stolen from me from the base of campus.  Empathy, support, condolences...thank you, I appreciate it.  Since Ed is not around I will delay a bit before I share with you that I actually left the bike overnight...

... ok, I abandoned my bike for four nights at the base of campus.   And maybe Ed mentioned that we should have picked it up on the first night, and perhaps I said "it will be fine, I locked it" with some sense of certainty.  

*Sigh*  Well, goodbye dear Trixie and hello homemade, hipster bike, Poppy!

Daddy, please notice the UTK colors.  Maybe we will paint "Go Vols" on the side.

Ed constructed 'Poppy' from an old, rusted bike abandoned at our last apartment complex. I constantly give Ed credit for being able to fix anything.  Ed to my knowledge has never constructed a bike, he just took this bike into our home, documented all of the parts that would need to be put back together in working order...and then placed his Miga hands on it and transformed it into something great. 

Pre-Poppy Transformation

Both of you reading this might be asking yourself "Karen, what are you doing while Ed is working his Miga-magic".   I could post a picture of me in front of a computer looking centromere-tastic.  Or perhaps, I can share with you what I am really doing on the side...putting stuff on our cat.

Here's Ed fixing my new bike, and here's my artistic rendition of 'tomates sur chat'.

Here's  Ed adjusting the tires, and here's our cat, Scrap-burger:

This is scrappy's big pimpin' pose.  I think he calmed down once I hit $100.

Pimpin' isn't easy.

Now, I just need to take Poppy up the mountain next week (and hopefully she can handle the speed on the way back down).  Ed took it on a test run last week and some hipster gave him a high-five. Looks like Poppy already has SC community acceptance.  If only all bike-stolen heartaches could end on such a happy note!

Much love!
Karen, Ed, and Scrappy