Looking Back - Housekeeping

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Fiction
1981 Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Finished in April 1998
Rating: 1/5 (Poor)

Publisher's Blurb:

A modern classic, Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transcience.

My Original Notes (1998):

Boring! I don't know why I forced myself to read this book. Very little action and very little dialogue. 

My Current Thoughts:

I don't remember much about this novel other than the fact that it was terribly dull and very bleak. Looking at the reviews on Goodreads, I'm definitely in the minority!

Whiskey When We're Dry

Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison
Fiction
2018 Viking
Finished on February 11, 2019
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In the spring of 1885, seventeen-year-old Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on her family's homestead. Desperate to fend off starvation and predatory neighbors, she cuts off her hair, binds her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains to find her outlaw brother Noah and bring him home. A talented sharpshooter herself, Jess's quest lands her in the employ of the territory's violent, capricious Governor, whose militia is also hunting Noah--dead or alive.

Wrestling with her brother's outlaw identity, and haunted by questions about her own, Jess must outmaneuver those who underestimate her, ultimately rising to become a hero in her own right.

Told in Jess's wholly original and unforgettable voice, Whiskey When We're Dry is a stunning achievement, an epic as expansive as America itself--and a reckoning with the myths that are entwined with our history.

Whiskey When We're Dry was selected by my book club for this month's read. It is also the Newport Reads choice for 2019 and the author will be speaking at the Newport Performing Arts Center on April 11th. Westerns have never been my book of choice and none of my blogging friends have mentioned this book or author, so had my group not chosen to read this, I probably would have passed it over without a second glance. That would have been a terrible shame, as this will more than likely be one of my favorite reads of the 2019!

John Larison is a wonderful storyteller and his engaging dialogue and great sense of place pulled me in from the get-go. The pages flew and I kept looking ahead to see how many pages remained, not because I was eager to finished, but because I didn't want to reach the end. The characters are full of life, particularly Jess, Greenie and Annette and I was sad to see them go when I turned that final page. As one would expect from the genre and time period, there is quite a bit of violence, and yet I wasn't bothered by the gritty details of the gun fights.

My only quibble is that the book is divided into five parts, but lacks chapters, which I dislike greatly. I rely on chapter breaks to provide a stopping point, especially with a lengthy book such as this, which comes in just under 400 pages. But as I said, it's a minor quibble and was easily overlooked given Larison's beautiful prose.

Our kin homesteaded where desert met lake. The hills in the near distance wore blankets of pine. Patterns of aspen marked the water. Beyond them the mountains stood blue on clear days and devoured the sun long before it left this world. From the home Pa built us we couldn’t see the lake but we could see the willows along its edge and we could hear the wingbeats of doves.

Whiskey When We're Dry is a beautifully written tale, which will appeal to a broad range of readers, but most especially to fans of All the Pretty Horses (McCarthy), These Is My Words (Turner) and News of the World (Jiles). Maybe now it's finally time for me to give Lonesome Dove a chance.

A thunderclap of originality, here is a fresh voice and fresh take on one of the oldest stories we tell about ourselves as Americans and Westerners. It's riveting in all the right ways -- a damn good read that stayed with me long after closing the covers. – Timothy Egan, New York Time bestselling author of THE WORST HARD TIME

An orphan girl straight out of a Gillian Welch song, betrayed in every way imaginable by the brutality that 'won the West,' is left no way to hew a family or honor but to become a virtuoso cross-dressed killer of Manifest Destiny's men. As Jessilyn Harney takes on the great lies and liars with lyrical violence, her voice takes flight, becoming a sustained, forlornly beautiful, mind-bending aria for our age. – David James Duncan, author of The River Why

Looking Back - All New People

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

All New People by Anne Lamott
Fiction
1989 North Point Press
Finished in March 19998
Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

With generosity, humor, and pathos, Anne Lamott takes on the barrage of dislocating changes that shook the Sixties. Leading us through the wake of these changes is Nanny Goodman, one small girl living in Marin County, California. A half-adult child among often childish adults, Nanny grows up with two spectacularly odd parents: a writer father and a mother who is a constant source of material. As Nanny moves into her adolescence, so, it seems, does America. While grappling with her own coming-of-age, Nanny witnesses an entire culture's descent into drugs, the mass exodus of fathers from her town, and rapid real-estate and technological development that foreshadow a drastically different future. In All New People, Anne Lamott works a special magic, transforming failure into forgiveness and illuminating the power of love to redeem us.

My Original Notes (1998):

Fair to good. I finished it, so it wasn't that bad. It just wasn't very interesting. I only just finished it last night, but can barely remember the names of the characters. Basically, a story about a young girl (Nanny Goodman) and her life as a child. The struggles between her parents. Her uncle's illegitimate daughter. Divorce. Drugs. Puberty. Centered in Marin County, California. Almost on the verge of being boring.

My Current Thoughts:

Prior to reading All New People, I had only read one other book by Anne Lamott, (Bird by Bird) which I wrote about here. I have since read Traveling Mercies and Operating Instructions, which along with Bird by Bird are both nonfiction. I have mixed feelings about Lamott's abrasive tone, but am drawn to her books and her self-deprecating sense of humor. Perhaps this early novel would have been more satisfying as a work of nonfiction rather than a thinly veiled autobiography.

Blogiversary!

These anniversaries seem to come much more quickly than in years past! Time flies even when you're retired.

2006 seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it? When I began this blog, I never would've imagined I'd still be sharing my thoughts and photos with all of you for 13 years, but here I am! Now that we're settled into our retired life and daily routines, I have found my blogging groove and am enjoying it more than ever. My book reviews aren't nearly as detailed as in the early days, but I still like keeping track of what I've read and sharing my reactions to those books with anyone who's interested. I also enjoy blogging about new recipes that I've discovered either on the Internet or from the dozens of cookbooks I've accumulated over the years. I think one of the most fun things for me now, though, is posting all sorts of photo essays from our adventures in our RV. We have such fun exploring this country in our home on wheels. I've already met up with three blogmates since our move to Oregon and I hope to meet more of you in future travels. Thank you all for your continued readership, but most importantly I wish to thank you for your friendship and the conversations we share here in this little part of the blogosphere. I appreciate each and every one of you who stop by, whether you leave a comment or simply take the time to read my words.

For previous Blogiversary posts, click here. 

Texas Road Trip - Day Nineteen

Saturday, September 22, 2018
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, New Mexico

We love our non-travel days! Back-to-back days on the road don't give us much of a chance to relax and enjoy our time at a campground or RV park. A non-travel day allows us to sleep late, enjoy our morning coffee, catch up on laundry, pick up some groceries (and maybe a DVD at Redbox) and, if time permits, do a little exploring. In a perfect world, we would stay at most of our sites for at least 3 or 4 nights, but with several destinations scheduled for this particular trip, we don't always have that luxury. Today we did.

Enchanted Trails RV Park has a large, clean laundry room, so I was able to get a couple of loads washed before we headed out to run our errands. Albuquerque is a very large city, with two major freeway systems (I-40 and I-25) and very busy surface streets. Remember, we used to live in Lincoln, Nebraska and rarely had to get on the interstate. We now live on the Oregon coast and rarely get on any freeways, unless we have to travel in and about Portland. This country mouse isn't as comfortable on freeways as she once used to be in San Diego and especially not in a 26 foot RV. So, suffice it to say our "quick" trip to the grocery store was somewhat terrifying, especially when we had to merge on I-25 from I-40. Surface streets are the way to go!

After our errands, we headed to Old Town and found a large parking lot with plenty of space for the RV. Always on the lookout for a good Mexican restaurant, we were happy to find Church Street Cafe, which had come recommended by my dad and stepmom. We had a delicious lunch and would definitely go back, if ever in the area again.

Church Street Cafe

Sopapillas!

It was a long day and we were anxious to get back to the RV park and relax for a while before watching our movie. We took a walk around the park and checked out the vintage trailers (and cars), which are available to rent.

With our Passport America discount, we paid $18 per night, which is quite a bargain. The RV park isn't fancy, but it has a clean pool, laundry, showers and full hookups. There was a lot of road noise from I-40, but with the windows closed and our fan running, it's was just white noise. This was our first visit to Albuquerque and I'd love to go back and spend more time exploring the area.

Instant Pot Barbacoa Beef

I recently discovered this recipe on Taste and Tell and have a feeling it will become a favorite not only to have at home, but also to freeze and pack for our RV road trips. I'm slowly adding recipes to my Instant Pot file and this one is not only super easy and delicious, but the meat is incredibly tender and easy to shred with two forks. Very impressive! Tacos anyone?

Instant Pot Barbacoa Beef
(Taste and Tell)

Ingredients

2 pound chuck roast
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 cup beef broth
2-4 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced (remove seeds for less heat)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3 bay leaves

Cut the roast into 4-6 large chunks, removing any large pieces of fat.

Press Saute on the Instant Pot and add half of the roast chunks. Brown completely on each side. Remove to a plate and brown the second half of the meat. Remove from the Instant Pot.

With the Instant Pot still on Saute, add the onion and cook until it starts to become translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin and oregano and cook an additional minute. Pour in the broth, chipotle chiles, lime juice, cider vinegar, salt, pepper, cloves and bay leaves. Stir to combine, then add the roast back into the Instant Pot.

Place the lid on the Instant Pot and lock. Select High Pressure and 60 minutes.

When the pot beeps, allow the pressure to naturally release. Once the pin has dropped, remove the lid and, using a set of tongs, remove the meat from the Instant Pot to a cutting board. Use 2 forks to shred the beef. Once shredded, return to the Instant Pot and stir to coat the meat in the leftover juices.

The meat will be very wet once you stir it back into the cooking liquid. If you don’t want this, you can skip the last step and just serve it after you have shredded it. I like to use tongs to remove the beef from the liquid, allowing some of the excess broth to drip off. I love the extra flavor and moisture the liquid brings.

Serves six

My Notes:

In an effort to keep this somewhat mild, I skipped the chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. The seasonings were enough to flavor the meat. Delicious!

Shoulder roast is leaner, so there is less fat to trim and the juice isn't greasy.

Perfect for tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, bowls or machaca. This is going to be a great item to cook ahead of time and freeze for our road trips in the RV!

Please visit Beth Fish Reads for Weekend Cooking.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend.

Looking Back - Paper Wings

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Paper Wings by Marly Swick
Fiction
1997 Harper Perennial
Finished in March 1998
Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Everyone in Suzanne's family acknowledges her mothers instability, yet no one has any idea why she suffers these bouts of depression. They simply accept them as fact and enjoy the moments when she emerges from them, buoyant and energetic. With Kennedy's election, presidency and assassination as background, Suzanne tells the story of the dissolution, and ultimate redemption, of her family. Sure to appeal to readers of Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Hoffman and Mona Simpson, Paper Wings is a subtle and moving novel about a mother and daughter who struggle, hope, and learn from each other how to emerge from shadows of tragedy.

My Original Notes (1998):

Pretty good. At first I thought it was too simplistic, with a lot of trite details, but I got caught up in the story and really enjoyed it. It was fun to read about specific details of Lincoln (Swick teaches at UNL) and I wonder how much, if any, of the material is autobiographical.

My Current Thoughts:

I don't own a copy of this novel and I have no recollection of the characters or plot.

A Rule Against Murder

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #4
Mystery
2009 Minotaur Books
Finished on February 4, 2019
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

It is the height of summer, and Armand Gamache and his wife are celebrating their wedding anniversary at an isolated, luxurious inn not far from the village of Three Pines. But they’re not alone. The Finney family—rich, cultured, and respectable—has also arrived for a celebration of their own…

As the heat rises and the humidity closes in, some surprising guests turn up at the Finney reunion…and a terrible summer storm leaves behind a dead body. Now it’s up to Chief Inspector Gamache to unearth long-buried secrets and hatreds hidden behind polite smiles. The chase takes him to Three Pines—into the dark corners of his own life, and finally to a harrowing climax.

Any reader knows it's a great book when you stay up reading until 2:30 am. I'm hooked on this series and so glad I decided to start reading the print editions rather than listening to the audios. I began reading this fourth installment in the Three Pines series immediately after finishing the previous book, The Cruelest Month. In addition to finally getting a handle on the characteristics of and relationships between the main characters, particularly Gamache, Reine-Marie, Beauvoir and Lacoste, I can now also begin to envision their surroundings and the small village of Three Pines. I was born in Ottawa (Ontario) and we later moved to a small town outside of Sherbrooke (Quebec) called Lennoxville, where we lived when I was a toddler. Manoir Bellechasse, which is the main setting in A Rule Against Murder, was inspired by Manoir Hovel in the village of North Hatley, which is southwest of Lennoxville. I would love to take a trip to this area, not only to revisit an area of my childhood, but to also see the beautiful villages and lakes depicted in Louise Penny's mysteries. I know I wouldn't recognize anything about this part of Canada, and I certainly wouldn't be able to speak the language, but it would be fun to see where my family and I once lived.

Louise Penny's charming setting, lovable characters and the intricate puzzle of each newly imagined crime make for an addictive series, but her lyrical prose had me re-reading passages not just once, but two or three times, before moving on.

Within minutes they were on the dock, kicking off their sandals and dropping their towels like nests onto the warm wooden surface. Gamache and Reine-Marie looked onto this world of two suns, two skies, of mountains and forests multiplied. The lake wasn't glass, it was a mirror. A bird gliding across the clear sky appeared on the tranquil water as well. It was a world so perfect it broke into two. Hummingbirds buzzed in the garden and monarch butterflies bobbed from flower to flower. A couple of dragonflies clicked around the dock. Reine-Marie and Gamache were the only people in the world.

and 

The storm moved on, to terrorize other creatures deeper in the forest. And the Gamaches returned to bed, throwing open their windows for the cool breeze the storm had left as an apology.

Penny's books are addictive and binge-worthy and if I weren't already committed to reading my book club selection, I'd dive right into the fifth in this series. Sadly, it will have to wait at least a week, unless of course, I start staying up until 2:30 every night. 

Teriyaki Sirloin Steaks

My husband is your typical meat-and-potatoes guy. Quinoa and kale are not in his vocabulary and while he'll eat salmon and shrimp, it's not his first choice. If he were in charge of the meal planning and cooking, he would eat red meat, if not every day, at least 2-3 times a week. Don't get me wrong. I love meat, too, but in an attempt to serve more healthy meals, I try to limit our consumption of beef to once, maybe twice, a week. We love hamburgers, tacos (with shredded or ground beef), stew, stroganoff, spaghetti & meatballs, meatloaf and, of course, steak. But that steak has to be a good cut, with plenty of marbled fat to help keep it tender. I will occasionally grill a flank steak, but it's not my favorite. Rod and I both love a juicy ribeye, which is a little more flavorful than a tenderloin and just a bit more tender than a New York strip. So when we're at Costco, we stock up on ribeyes. If you've never purchased steaks at Costco, you're missing out. I overheard a shopper complaining about how expensive one package of ribeyes cost (somewhere around $42), but that breaks down to just a little over $10 per steak. I don't know about you, but I've never had a decent steak in a restaurant for that price! But back to this recipe. I'm not sure if I've ever purchased a sirloin steak, but when I saw this recipe in a Weber cookbook, I figured it would be just as good with ribeyes. I was right. My only complaint is that we didn't grill an extra steak. The leftovers would be perfect for lunch in a salad or sandwich. Serve these steaks with a side of risotto shrimp and you've got yourself an elegant meal. Yum!

Teriyaki Sirloin Steaks

(Photo Credit: weber.com)

Ingredients

1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup tamari or reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp. dry sherry
1/4 cup water
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
Garlic salt
4 top sirloin steaks (each 8-10 oz. and about 1 1/2 inches thick)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

In a small saucepan, combine the pineapple juice, tamari/soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 cup water, sherry ginger and garlic salt to taste. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 10-12 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely. You should have about 1 cup of sauce. 

*The sauce can be made up to 1 week in advance and refrigerated. 

Set aside (and refrigerate) 1/4 cup of the teriyaki sauce. Place the steaks in a large lock-top plastic bag and pour the remaining sauce into the bag. Seal the bag, squish the sauce around the steaks and refrigerate overnight.

At least 30 minutes before grilling, remove the steaks from the refrigerator. Discard the sauce and pat the steaks dry with paper towels. Season both sides of the steaks with salt & pepper.

Remove the reserved 1/4 cup of teriyaki sauce from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature.

Preheat the grill for direct grilling over high heat. Brush and oil the grill grate.

Place the steaks on the grill directly over the fire and cook for 3 minutes. Turn and cook for another 3 minutes. Turn again and cook for 5 minutes more for medium-rare or until an instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally into the center of a steak registers 135 degrees (F). 

Transfer the steaks to a cutting board and allow them to rest for 5-10 minutes. Slice against the grain, arrange on a platter, and serve at once. Pass the reserved teriyaki sauce at the table.

My Notes:

We used boneless rib-eye steaks, which were delicious and tender. I think any cut of beef would work just fine.

The original recipe doesn't indicate whether to grill with the grill lid open or closed. We always grill with ours closed. Our steaks were perfectly cooked to medium-rare.

This marinade would be delicious with chicken, shrimp or pork. It's super easy to prepare and very flavorful.

Original recipe from Weber

Please visit Beth Fish Reads for Weekend Cooking.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend.

A Month in Summary - January 2019

Little Whale Cove

Depoe Bay, Oregon

January 1, 2019

It's been a little while since my last monthly summary. I like keeping track of my activities, whether they include reading, working on puzzles, entertaining guests or traveling, but the last three months of the year were hectic, stressful and filled with great sadness. I do plan to continue with my travel posts from our two-month road trip (mainly for my own future reference), but I'm not so obsessive that I feel the need to go back and post these monthly summaries for the last quarter of 2018. And with that said, January proved to be a very good month, with regard to the quantity of books read. Typically, I read three or four books a month, but I was on a roll this month. And yet, I didn't read very many from my personal shelves. While picking up a couple of library books for my husband, I decided to wander through the stacks and see what might catch my eye. I wound up with quite a few and five of this month's books were borrowed. 

Books Read in January:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name by Heather Lende

And Every Morning, The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes

Ruby by Ann Hood

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny (January favorite)

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini

First Lines:

Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof. (Anne of Green Gables)

I have lived in Haines, Alaska, all my adult life but there are still times, especially winter evenings when the setting sun washes over the white mountaintops, the sky turns a deep blue, and the water is whipped into whitecaps by the north wind, that I can't believe my good fortune. (If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name)

There's a hospital room at the end of a life where someone, right in the middle of the floor, has pitched a green tent. A person wakes up inside it, breathless and afraid, not knowing where he is. A young man sitting next to him whispers: "Don't be scared." (And Every Morning, the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer)

I remember, in no particular order:
- a shiny inner wrist;
- steam rising from a wet sink as a hot frying pan is laughingly tossed into it; 
- gouts of sperm circling a plughole, before being sluiced down the full length of a tall house; 
- a river rushing nonsensically upstream, its wave and wash lit by half a dozen chasing torchbeams;
- another river, broad and grey, the direction of its flow disguised by a stiff wind exciting the surface;
- bathwater long gone cold behind a locked door;
This last isn't something I actually saw, but what you end up remembering isn't always the same as what you have witnessed. (The Sense of an Ending)

Olivia had so many things that she wanted to tell the girl who killed her husband that she wasn't even sure where to begin. (Ruby)

Kneeling in the fragrant moist grass of the village green Clara Morrow carefully hid the Easter egg and thought about raising the dead, which she planned to do right after supper. (The Cruelest Month)

My dear Marwan, in the long summers of childhood, when I was a boy the age you are now, your uncles and I spread our mattress on the roof of your grandfather's farmhouse outside of Homs. (Sea Prayer)

Movies & TV Series:

House, MD - We loved this show when it first came aired and have decided to watch it again with my mom, who until now, has never seene it. We are now into Season Four and are hooked. Of course, we're now all dreaming about the terrible diseases we could potentially contract... 

Gifted - Meh. Too sappy.

Cell - I haven't read the book (by Stephen King), but I'm willing to bet it's better than the movie. I do like John Cusak and Samuel L. Jackson, though. Without them, I probably would've turned it off.

Puzzlemania:

We've gotten back to our puzzles and finished a couple from Liberty Puzzles, which are great fun! These wooden puzzles look more challenging than traditionally cut puzzles, but once you get started, they really aren't that difficult.

   

Travel & Visitors:

The RV was in the shop for some miscellaneous repairs, so we didn't do any traveling for pleasure. However, we did drive up to the Seattle area for my father's funeral in the middle of the month. It was an emotional, yet uplifting weekend surrounded by family and friends, just as my dad would have loved.

Saint Mark's Cathedral

Seattle, Washington

And as often in life, there was a joyful event to offset our sadness. Our daughter, Amy (known to some of you as Fashion Jackson), and her boyfriend Will announced their engagement earlier this week. We couldn't be more excited or happier for them!