Alyse French Photography | Houston-Based Wedding and Lifestyle Photographer

As I veg here on my couch, in an oversized Cape Cod t-shirt while watching the beauty that is Olympic figure skating (the best part of the whole thing!), I am also contemplating finishing that archaeology paper I have due in the morning. And as I sit here devouring a (no longer) massive bag of candy my future parents-in-law gave me for Valentine’s Day, I have decided: I’d rather blog.

Today marked our second Valentine’s Day together, and our last before being married. In light of this, Dylan and I thought we’d attempt cooking a real meal together – none of that Bertolli stuff. (Although, one day, I can totally see myself inviting friends over for dinner and pretending Bertolli’s shrimp scampi and linguine is my own concoction. That stuff is legit!!)

I won’t bore you with the recipe details, but if you’re into spinach and mushrooms and chicken and amazing yumminess all rolled into one, make this! Here are some pictures from our wonderful V-Day! :)

Dylan’s card, my insanely awesome/homemade/fifth-grade Valentine crafted from red construction paper and crayons, and our grocery list for our Valentine’s meal! (Dylan was a little embarrassed to carry this list around Wegman’s. Red permanent marker bleeds through both sides, ya’ll.)

My boy lookin’ all fine by the stove. (We even dressed up for the occasion!)

And ingredients up the wazoo. I cannot tell you how long it took to clean up the kitchen afterwards!

Ohhh love is a burning thing. And it makes a fiery ring! Bound by wild desire. I fell into a ring of fiiiire. :)

I’m sorry, but mushrooms are seriously good, so I thought they deserved a picture. Weird for a wedding blog? Nah.

Looking pretty decent right? We thought so too. But were very careful not to get our hopes up. I mean, we are AMAZING chefs and all, but everyone makes mistakes. ;)

When I flipped these babies over and saw that they had actually “browned” like it says they should in the recipe, I started jumping up and down. No, seriously. You can go ahead and picture it now.

Throw in a little white wine – no, make that champagne sauce.. (It is Valentine’s Day, after all.)

And you’ve got yourself one absolutely disgusting looking photograph, but a super-yummy meal of looove. :)

Hope your Valentine’s Day was fabulous! Mine was!

Now for that paper..

Number THIRTEEN?! My, my, time flies when you’re writing a bunch of random nonsense on a weekly basis. :) Who’s ready for more??

This past week started out as a good one, until I heard that one small nausea-inducing, headache-causing, panic-attack-in-a-bottle, five-letter word… Taxes. I will admit, I’ve been spoiled nearly my whole working-life, meaning, my dad has always taken care of my taxes. But now being self-employed, along with having two jobs back home, and one at school, things get a little hairy, and it’s about time I learn to sort it all out. Sometimes growing up is no fun at all. :P

So, I’ve spent the past couple weeks shooting a photo-story at the CNY Chapter’s Alzheimer’s Association, namely, focusing on their Kirkpatrick Day Program and the influence of music therapy on those with Alzheimer’s and dementia. It’s been such a sweet experience so far. The participants may not remember me from day to day, but they always welcome me with a wink and a smile. Not to mention, the entire staff is so dedicated to improving these participants’ quality of life, as if it’s their sole passion. I love capturing it all! When the project’s done, I’ll toy with putting it on the bloggity. :)

Here’s the part where I congratulate my dearest roomie, Maniya Pitts, ladies and gentlemen! She has been slaving away for weeks and weeks studying for her LSAT to get into law school after undergrad! Most nights, she would get home from the library when I’d already been in bed for three hours. She is one of the hardest working people I know. :) Took her LSAT on Saturday, and now I feel like a proud momma!!

So, my sister (and maid of honor) is planning my bridal shower, and it’s driving me crazy. Literally. It’s hard for me to keep secrets, so as you can imagine, when other people keep secrets from me, I go batty. Especially when Dylan is sitting on the couch, reading some secret email from Lorae and laughing just loud enough so I can hear it and wonder what in the world they are talking about!

Wedding details… I need to get a move on this stuff. Invitations and programs need printing. Envelopes need addressing. And I bet guests would prefer not to eat with their hands, so that needs some figuring out too. Hmmph.

The urge is already here. To start packing! It’s only the fourth week of my last semester in school, but I’ve already started gathering some things together to box up and move on outta here! (If I were some awesomely inspiring writer, I might say that this is actually an analogy for my whole life at this point. But that would be lame, right?) ;)

Funny story: A couple weekends ago, Dylan and I were home for my birthday. Upon leaving home to head back to Syracuse, I of course packed up my phone charger. When I got to school, I realized I had packed Dylan’s charger by mistake. Dylan took the charger back to his house, and didn’t realize until the following day that it wasn’t his charger either. It was my mom’s. For the better span of a week, three people were without their phone chargers, and it was all my fault. (But it was funny too!)

Wait, that was funny, right?

Favorite Superbowl commercials anyone? It’s a toss-up. This one, this one, this one, this one, or this one? We all know we go for the pizza, wings, and commercials, right??

And because posts without pictures are just dumb, here’s a super random picture from our impromptu Chinese dinner out last week. Complete with.. Frog legs.. It’s not easy being green.

Happy Tuesday!!