You're 24??! You're MARRIED? YOU'RE MOVING ABROAD!?! (Part 1 of many, I am sure).

A week ago, at this exact moment, I finished up my interview with the company I wanted to teach for in China. I was trying to figure out how to get to Tucker, who was across town, and the struggle was real. His team  having their annual team dinner at what looked like a delicious Greek restaurant. I am not big on cabs, too expensive, so I just opted to stay in our hotel until they returned.

When Tucker came back to our little hotel nest he was definitely a little tipsy. And Tipsy Tucker is the best Tucker. A waiter had confused "iced tea" for "long island iced tea" and Tucker was handed the mistakes. Yes, plural. At the game the following morning the parents fawned over the persistence of Hubs at the restaurant. Apparently Tucker was going to stop at nothing to make sure I got to experience the fabulous Greek food like he did. In reality, he knows how hangry I get and did not want to feel the wrath of hangry Jessie come down upon him that night.

He is seriously the absolute greatest.

Four hours later, from this moment a week ago,  I was offered a position teaching in China. And I took it. Immediately. Lord knows that if I gave myself more than thirty-seconds to think about it I would've rejected the offer. I mean, I took it immediately after I realized the email was sent directly to my junk mail folder. Gmail freaked out and didn't recognize the address of the HR woman that sent me the position. This caused minor confusions when the recruiter congratulated me in an obligatory 'welcome aboard' email that was answered with minor confusion (and a lot of happiness) on my end.

My week since accepting the position has been full of, "Oh my gosh! China is SO far!" and "That's amazing! Do it while you're young!" and a little, " I could never do that" which I call total B.S. on. You can do it, you just don't want to do it.

Among all of these questions, and my personal favorite, "What about your husband?" What about my husband? He has a name, you know. It's Tucker. What about Tucker?

Well guess what?
We will still be married.
We will be completely in love.
We will obsess over each other.
We will talk at every chance, just like we do right now.
We will tell each other the mundane play-by-play of our day.
We will grow in our marriage. Probably more than we ever have previously.
We will always have each other to lean on when times get rough.
We will still be together.
I will just live really, really far away for roughly fourteen months.

We chose to share our lives at a young age and we get that. We got that a long time ago... Like nearly three years ago when we tied the knot. What we didn't choose to do was to quit our dreams simply because we got married. Newsflash: we don't live in 1950 any more. You can still be married and live your life. Even if that life takes you in a direction you never thought you'd go, you can still be married!  No longer is it about being adhering to the societal norm of "marriage" to Tucker or I. To us, it is about being happy. It's about looking at our life 60 years from now and being proud of our accomplishments both as a couple and as individuals. We are still individual people. We still have individual aspirations. We both still have places we want to go and people we want to see. None of that disappeared when we paid $66 to the state of Oregon and signed a piece of paper that legally (and symbolically) glued our lives together. None of it.

We get one shot at this life thing. We plan on making our shot the best it can be. Even if that shot means having to spend time a world away to follow our dreams.

Success

I didn't exactly grow up living like Paris Hilton, which I am beyond ok with. My family provided more than enough to get by, with set backs of course. When I was 8 or 9 (I can't honestly give you an exact age because I I tried to block it out) much of our house was destroyed by a horrible flood. I know we lost a lot, but I was mainly concerned that my sand box had been washed away in the destruction. Granted we probably had three feet of water rushing through our living at one point, but I was pissed because my favorite plastic shark got washed away.

This huge life event was easily the catalyst in my urge to become some person who was wealthy and powerful. Probably because I felt so small and helpless at the time. All I wanted was to live in a big house. I wanted that damn Bentley. The prestige. All of those things. Graduating high school I was so determined to get out and become some high power lawyer who raked in millions. That's all I wanted. I didn't care about anything else, just that cash money or how I could grab as many material things as I could lay my hands on....

Now, here I am, nearly 25 (when the hell did that happen??) and working in a school district as a Teacher's Assistant. Not exactly what I imagined, but I'll take it all the same. My job is actually pretty great, tiny complaints aside. The shape of what I deemed as success has definitely (and thankfully) changed and is ever-evolving as I get older. As I get to experience the world in different ways I realize what I gauge as "success" is hardly a shell of what I started out with:

No longer is my "success" measured by how big a house I will have or how nice of car I will buy, but by how many stamps I can get into my passport? How many lives can I touch? How many lives can touch mine? How many adventures can these two legs take me on? What kinds of foods can I experience? What kind of cultural mishaps can I finagle my way out of? I may not have been able to buy a car by 25, nor will I probably be able to buy a house by 30, but I have got to dig up beads in the Philippines that were still just as bright and beautiful as the day they were buried. I almost died in Argentina during a freak rain storm that led us to traversing a mountainside and walking through knee-deep mud for nearly 5 (or more, who knows) hours. I've protested in Washington D.C. I got a stamp from Ireland in my passport dated March 17th. I got to watch a ritual pig slaughter. I've climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I rambled around the catacombs of the Smithsonian and accidently wandered into classrooms during lessons. I almost died on a flight out of Santiago, Chile. I've explored ruins of the Great Wall of China with my best friend. I've gotten lost in Nice, France far too late at night. I've gawked a Sun Fish in the Milan, Italy Aquarium. I've swam in waters beneath mile long waterfalls that simultaneously touched 2 countries at once (Argentina and Brasil). I've walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. I've thrown a surprise party for my best friend's birthday on a hostel rooftop in Montevideo, Uruguay. I've taken shots of tequila in Mexico. I've met some of the most incredible people on this great Earth.

My memories are as priceless as they are endless and I wouldn't trade or change them for the any amount of money (well, maybe some more plane tickets) or material wealth.  Success is such a fickle, fleeting thing. Right now my six month image of success involves climbing up and down rice terraces, digging in the dirt and impacting the history of South East Asia. And that image of success makes my heart beat just a little bit faster and my smile just a little bit wider.

We live in such a beautiful world and it would be a damn shame and waste to miss out on any of it because of some outdated indoctrination that I need a two story house with two kids, a Labrador and a white picket fence. I can work for all of those things when I am ready and willing. For now though, I am going to have fun experiencing this planet we call home.

Food. My Love Affair With Food.

If you follow me on Instagram, or hell you just know me, you will know that I am OBSESSED with food. Not just because you get to eat it and it is a building block of life and all, but I am OBSESSED with food. All kinds of food.

I play with my food constantly. Deal.

Right now I am obsessed mostly with spicy fennel sausages (no idea where that came from) and kale. I COULD WRITE LOVE SONGS ABOUT KALE!!! Tucker and I make this soup which we attempted to healthify (and succeeded I may add) from Olive Garden. We call it our Kale Sausage soup.... I will put the recipe at the bottom of this post. It is dangerously simple. Only four ingredients and full of flavor!

Back to talking about food: I love to read about it. You can find cook books littering the floor around my bed. They are just so fun to go through and get inspired!! Most of my Pinterest page is dedicated to various foods I cook and I have started to find a lot of enjoyment in stalking various food themed blogs.

I love to shop for food. It is a deadly addiction. Seriously though, I would rather go grocery shopping instead of shoe shopping. It is near blasphemous, but it is vintage Jessie. I try to go in with a grocery list to save money, but I always see something that looks fun to cook and just buy it on spot. Then of course I get home and think, "what the hell am I supposed to do with this?!!" . My newest endeavor was with lamb. I know it is nothing too extreme, but I had never ventured that way before. I ate lamb my last two days in the Philippines and became addicted:

My roasted lamb, mashed cauliflower and Worcestershire sauteed mushrooms. FANTABULOUS! 

But, MOST of all, I love to COOK. Oh my god, do I love to cook!!!! After spending a month and a half in the Philippines and NOT being able to cook it was alllllll I wanted to do when I got home. I would day dream about going home and being able to hustle and bustle around my kitchen. I even food planned dinners for the two weeks after I came home.... which I of course neglected to follow.

Cooking is everything to me. It brings people together in a way that other things in life can't. It makes my heart happy to cook a gigantic gorgeous meal and then be praised for all my efforts. For instance: this past Christmas my Gram Grams was ill so I took all the Christmas responsibilities for the family and just went to town on Pinterest!

Why am I talking about food? Because I have decided to document food I make and eat on here. Writing down recipes and sharing them with you. Just another facet of Jessie. And a pretty big one at that.

 Like I promised, my current favorite recipe! And souperrrrr simple at that!

Tucker and Jessie's Kale Sausage Soup:
1-2 cups Kale leaves (chopped, Tuck prefers if the steams are removed. I don't care)
3 cups Chicken Broth
3 Red Potatoes
1-2 Spicy Sausages.*

*This totally depends on your preferred level of carnivore. Or whatever kind of sausages you want. Tuck and I just realized the spiciness adds a bit of  a zing to the broth!

Step 1: Cut open spicy sausage and remove meat from casing. Put in pan to brown.
Step 2: While sausage is browning: put the rest of ingredients in pot. Bring pot to boil until potatoes are fork tender. Turn heat down. (I usually let it boil for a while. Just my preference.)
Step 3: Combine steps 1 and 2
Step 4: Nom on that tasty business. 


Obviously you can tweak this recipe however you see fit. It started as a knock off, but I didn't have any cream one day so we just rolled with the punches and made it anyway!

Another new healthy favorite meal: Poached egg on Arugula. Special thanks to Ms. Cassie Taylor, Ms. Stephanie Morris and my week in China for that little gem.

A perfect poach! After three tries.... shhhh!