Yes.

Yes. I am sitting in the back of a pick up truck with a baby on my lap.
Yes. It is actually going down the road.
Yes. There are Christmas lights on this vehicle.
Yes. I do have too much time on my hands that I'm blogging twice in one day.

*Note: During Christmas time, in small town USA it's no big thing to get a bunch of folks together to sing in the back of pick-ups and trailers, while driving through neighborhoods, dropping off gifts. It's normal.

woe is me

So... If you're very perceptive, you may have gathered from my last post, in my appreciation for "Seriously So Blessed", that I might be feeling a little sorry for myself.

It's true. I am.

I'm not about to get on here and start airing my dirty laundry, but suffice it to say, I'm sorta sad about my current circumstance.

Life is just not all peaches and cream, Dontcha know!

But let me tell you what I have been painfully learning this week!

1. God is always teaching you, it's up to you if you are going to learn something.

2. If you pray long and hard and sincere enough, God will give you answers, and it's a wonderful experience.

3. Getting your sorry butt up a mountain can really cure what ails you, if only temporarily.

These are two of my wonderful brothers, Josh and Jared. (Yes, our parents thought it requisite to name us all with J names.)
Josh's wife is sick in bed (with a cold), and Jared has 2 little boys (and a wife too), but they both took time away from them to take me snowboarding, just the 3 of us. It cheered me right up. Love em.

Family. Isn't it about...time? ;)

Sorry, couldn't resist....but seriously.

hil.ar.i.ous.

So. I was blogging around and I saw one of my friends complaining about this blog site called "seriously so blessed"... about how it was rude and stuff... of course, that made me uber curious, so, I had to go read it. I'm sorry, but I'm going to bet about 90% of you will find it offensive. I thought it was hysterical. And I haven't laughed much in the past 4 days... just sayin'.

If I move to Utah...

...this is where I'd want to live.

Although the house is amazing, I almost don't even care! ~ Look at this garden!

here's some more "ewe" for your day.

Just for "fun"... I did a little bit of research on aphids. (Biology girl here, nerd alert).
I learned that there are 4,400 species of aphids and they all have a variety of ways they reproduce; some are asexual, some are sexual, some lay eggs. Would you guess that some of these BUGS give live birth??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? GRROOSSSSSSSS!!!!

Sufficiently sicked out? Here's a picture!

You're Welcome.

the things you do for your babies...

OK. Right. So I don't have any babies.

But, I do have a tree...

So, my tree got sick.  I don't really know how this even happened, but it got infested with aphids.  Aphids are the most disgusting little creatures. They are also known as PLANT LICE!!! EWE!!!! They reproduce faster than you can imagine and eat your tree.  They are the size of the head of a pin and they congregate on the leaves and buds.  From a distance they look like mold... Ewe.

So, as some of you may know from reading The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar, lady bugs are an aphids worst nightmare.

I ordered about 1500 or so in the mail after my aphid killing medicine failed me.

This is what that adventure looked like.

Behold:

disgusting aphids


disgusting aphid spawn


You can order live insects via snail mail, dontcha know.


Let the fun begin!


Coooool


I bet you are squirming now, right! haha


Little machines gettin down to business!


I didn't even realize, but there was aphid larvae all over the pot too, and the lady bugs took care of it!


Go, go, go!!!


My lucky little friends


Did I mention my roommate hates me now?

I just purchased a vacuum yesterday....

adult make believe

Last weekend was my friend Brianna's 30th birthday! So, we all got together to play murder mystery!
We all arrived in 1920's garb with memorized parts. I was a 19 year old jazz singer. I just married a much older man, who divorced his wife to be with me. I was using him to make connections while simultaneously having an affair with mobster Al Capone (Clint's character). People were suspicious of me when my husband is murdered, especially when I show up with a black eye (which I actually got from a fall). However, as it turned out, it was the jealous daughter who killed him (Crystal's character).
It was loads of fun.

And guess who won best dressed!? MEEEEE!

at this very moment

Just chillin' with my baby cakes, watching the Yankees kick some Phillie bootay
+ blogging...good times.

Note the matching New York Yankees Jeter t-shirts! Clint got me a souvenir! ;)

Halloween + new friends

Since Clint was far, far away in the land of Yankee Stadium, New York City, Friday night, I was here to fend for myself, and spend some always needed time with my girl Neda.

Neda already had a group of people going to the Ashland Berry Farms Halloween Haunt and so I happily tagged along! We also met up up with Clint's sister Crystal and her boyfriend Jordan too.

My very dear friend Marianne happens to be Jordan's sister. Yes we are all connected in the circle of life...ha)

There were thousands (I'm not sure if I'm exaggerating...) of people there. TONS and TONS! We waited in 2 lines for 2 1/2 hours to get in.  These are some action shots of us--in line.

Crystal and me


It was really a good time just standing in line catching up with my friends and getting to know Neda's friends better.  It was a good dynamic everybody was just talking each other's ears off, laughing, and joking, I loved it!

Scott and Juliette on the hay ride

Scott and Juliette are a ton of fun, and my new favorite people. (Their dog appeared in a prior post) which was the first time I met them. Scott works at West Elm, while being in grad school.  He and Jules both have a great eye for interior design. I totally picked his brain about ideas for my current projects. Juliette is so sweet and I feel I could talk to her for hours.

Neda's sister Mona and her boyfriend Stalone (he has a brother named Eastwood, [no joke!]) came too, and I got to know them a lot better too! Stalone is a huge Yankees fan! Mona, like me, is learning about it and finding that she enjoys it too. They're adorable, I can't wait to hang out with them again.

Of course, as always, I was excited to see Hassan and Hasham too. They're such sweet boys.

And so...
When we finally got in, we went through 3 separate haunts. The first one was an outside path that lead us through twists and turns and crawl spaces and paths. The other 2 were through "houses" with all kinds of big and very small passageways where you almost have to crawl through. There were dead ends and many doors to open and go through. It was dark with scary noises, and music and scary monsters that jumped out at you. I thought it was brilliant. At first when people started jumping out and trying to spook us, I was laughing. It was funny, but not scary. After, being in the spooky atmosphere long enough I did get frightened a few times, and screamed out (totally unlike me).
It was so much fun. It was totally action packed. You go through unsure of your footing (it goes way up and way down a lot) and where to turn. You have to feel your way through most of it with little to no light. Plus, it vacillates between being scary loud and eerily quiet. Everything is unexpected. You feel like you're trying to save your life by making your way through an evil enchanted place. Awesome.

After the first haunt I felt I got my money's worth, and was ready to go! It was a bonus that we still had two more to go through! It was all very well done.

This is Mona totally eating it as she was exiting while simultaneously being attacked by the chain saw dude...

It was perfect weather too. It was cool, and foggy, misting rain the whole time (which added to the effect.) (i.e. the dots in all my pics)
LOVED IT.

The girls: Me, Neda, Crystal, Juliette, Tanisha, Crystal, Mona

The boys: Stalone, Hasham, Scott, Hassan, Jordan

It was a perfect night with friends. I can't remember the last time I had more fun, I only wish Clint could have been there too!

Cute lil puff of life

Yay! They won!

I prayed that, first of all, the Yankees would win, and secondly, that it wouldn't rain on Clint and his dad while they were in NY. It worked! Hooray!
Now, they just have to win tonight, tomorrow, and the next night!... Clint and Pops will be in Richmond in an hour, I can't wait!

P.S. I had an amazing time with my friends last night sans Clint, stay tuned for that post later!

C'mon YANKS!!!!

I'm going to guess that about 90 percent of you girlies have no idea that the World Series started last night and that the Yankees are playing the Phillies. :) I wouldn't know either if my bf wasn't such a fan- I'll be honest. But here's some trivia. The Yankees haven't been in the World Series since 2002, so this is kind of a big deal.  Clint and I watched the Yankees play the Angels almost every night last week during the play-offs and it was intense.  I'm pretty sure if the Angels had won, Clint would be so mad he wouldn't even watch the W.S., but they lost and the Yankees won! World Series, here we come!

So... I was suuuper pumped to watch the World Series with Clint this week!  Unfortunately, last night was the most horrible/boring game I've ever watched. I basically fell asleep. The Phillies dominated... Their pitcher was amazing and we hardly even got on base, not to mention make any runs. Our pitcher, Sabathia, wasn't doing as well...

Tonight, Clint actually happens to BE in New York with his dad. They spontaneously decided to go and watch (lucky!)... They'll be watching the game in about 3 hours. I'll be watching it here. :( saaaad... I wish I could be there, but it's WAY cool for Clint! :) He's like a kid! He's getting to skip school, be in NYC to watch his favorite sports team play live in the World Series with his daddio and eat hot dogs and funnel cake.  I really hope the Yankees pull through and win it for those boys! Clint got me all kinds of emotionally invested in this team, and if they lose, I might cry.

I'm thrilled for Clint that he gets to be there with his dad, and it would just be the icing on the cake if the Yankees beat the Phillies! Go Yankeeees!!!! (and I hope it also doesn't rain or snow on them too while they're there too!)

What I'd really love to know...

is how I went from this:

-a degree in biology, minor in chemistry, minor in Spanish
+hundreds of dental volunteer hours and work with the dental school with plans to attend dental school


to this:

-teaching 10 ballet and tap classes a week to pre-schoolers.

Don't get me wrong, I am in love with my lil dancers...

You wanna know what's crazy? I am getting paid about the same if not more than if I was working in my field, (assuming I could actually find a job, in this market).

Books and Projects

I just joined a book club and we're reading Tipping Point. I've read Malcolm Gladwell's other two books, Outliers and Blink and I LOVED them. For some reason, I'm having a hard time getting into Tipping Point...

...Maybe b/c last night I watched the Jane Austin Book Club. I'm so in the mood for some Jane Austin in my life... I've always thought of myself as very much like Joe March from Little Women. She was the one who went off to New York to further discover herself and to write. She was the one who approached life differently than her sisters and other girls, to appease herself. Although, she wasn't always 100% sure of herself. She was the one who took her sweet time getting married and when she did, she married not the man everybody expected her to and pictured her with, but another who fulfilled her in ways even she didn't anticipate... Anyways. Yeah, I love Jane Austin's books...

Wow, so this entry took an unexpected turn... It's just me musing. That's all.

In other news I have several dyo projects that I'm wondering if I'm even going to bother tackling. I have a little couch-thingy that needs to be reupholstered, two books shelves that need a paint/stain job, (which I don't even have yet) and a dresser that needs something. I'm about 90% sure that I'm only going to be in Richmond for another year and a half... A year and a half. ...That's long enough to want to cutify my newly inherited stuff right?
Anyways, I'm open to ideas. I know I'm going to have to research my favorite blogs, like little green notebook for how to's... but here are my pieces.

Does anybody know where I can get wooden veneers for the front of my dresser?

So what do you think? What should I do to these hideous guys?

German pancakes

The first time I ever had German pancakes was when I went to ISU that one semester back in 2002 and my friend Jennifer introduced them to me. I feel like that was practically all we ever ate too!... Unfortunately, after I moved away I never made them ever again.
Recently, Clinton has happily reintroduced them to me and I love them! They are inexpensive to make and absolutely delicious. Furthermore, when I eat them I think of Jennifer and reminisce on that crazy semester that we spent togetha :) awe.

Here's the recipe

Put 1/4 cube of butter in a deep baking pan in a preheated oven at 350
Mix together
1/2c Flour
pinch of cinnamon
add
1/2c milk
pinch of salt
and 3 eggs.
Put in the pan and bake till the sides rise ~ 15-18min.

Enjoy with syrup, fruit, powdered sugar...jam...

OK...and p.s. I'm seriously the lamest blogger ever these days. I'm sorry. I have plenty of time to write, and have been doing lots of fun things that warrant the taking of pictures and blogging about it...but I just always forget to take pictures and blogging is really out of the question without picts... I vow to improve!

skype

I skyped for the very first time ever in my life last night. I talked with Dixie and Markus and it ruled, especially b/c at the end of the conversation Clinton came over and got to meet and talk to them too...
Apparently, I got awkward. I felt awkward. This is the thing. My 2 favorite people were meeting, what if they didn't like each other? Ugh. What can I say, I'm a loser sometimes. It still ruled!

...

Do you have skype? If not, totally get it, and then tell me your skype name and I'll tell you mine and we can talk, and I'll try not to be awkward.... eh...

Look good?

Here we have some baby spinach, butternut squash (mm), pomegranates, walnuts

And some salmon with ancho chili and maple sauce

Wanna try it?

Well then go make it. (Here's the recipe)

[courtesy of ahintofhoney.blogspot.com)

I'm expanding

So, I LOVE to eat...and I LOOVE to paint and do design projects...and I also enjoy rambling on about the little somethings that go on in my life that don't relate. I'm also an organization freak, so I'm compartmentalizing. I'm making a cooking blog, that I'll probably update once a week and a design blog that I'll likewise update once weekly, maybe more. I like to borrow ideas from other design websites and log them away for my future use.
So stay tuned. Recipes and nesting ideas to come~

enchiladas

A dear friend directed me to a blog of a fellow Richmonder who cooks. Her blog is called ahintofhoney.blogspot.com
Check.it.out.

I made her enchilada dish. Except, true to form, I made some changes... It was my first time ever making enchiladas....AND they were the best I've ever had. For reals. I get an A for this one. (especially since I made a scallop pasta the day before and Clint pretty much hated it.) But really. One of the best things I've made.

I should have taken pictures, but I didn't, so I'll steal hers...so you get an idea.

Her ingredients with my improvements ;)

INGREDIENTS
2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken (I used the whole thing actually ~ 4 cups??)
1 15 oz. can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups Monteray Jack, Pepper Jack, or Cheddar Cheese, shredded (Make sure you get a good expensive cheese people, the cheese will make it or break it)
1 medium onion, chopped (yes, the whole thing, and I did a purple one)
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (really you can go crazy with the olive oil, I always do)
2 15 oz. cans tomato sauce
1 14.5 oz. can low-sodium chicken broth
6 Tbsp. sour cream (I actually used plain yogurt and 6 ounces...ha)
dash of cayenne pepper (more for more spice!)
salt and pepper, to taste
6-12 corn or whole wheat flour tortillas (depends on the size)
cilantro, for garnish
pico de gallo, for garnish

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375 F. In a medium bowl mix together chicken, beans, and 1 cup of cheese. Set aside.

2. Preheat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft and golden. Add tomato sauce and simmer until thick, about 15 minutes (reduce heat if it is sputtering violently)*ouch!*. Add chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and whisk in the sour cream. Season to taste with cayenne, salt, and pepper. Pour about 1/3 of the sauce over the chicken mixture and stir to combine.

++ I added some dashes of lemon juice and like a handful of sugar to the sauce to make it mas delicioso.++

3. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Warm tortillas by microwaving them for a minute. Divide the filling between the tortillas, roll them up, and place them side by side in the baking dish. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas. Top with the remaining 1 cup of cheese.

4. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and a brown crust is forming on top. Remove from the oven and serve topped with cilantro and pico de gallo.

Serves 4+

DELISH!!!
This is one of Clint's new faves.

a friendly note

What is a friend?...


Somebody that you can never say enough nice things about. Someone who is down for whatever [crazy] idea you have in mind, and will tell you the honest to goodness truth. Somebody who makes you feel at home. (Love you Jen)


Somebody who knew you back when you were both a snot-faced 5 year olds; Who, besides getting taller, hasn't changed a bit and can still make you laugh till you pee your pants. [and who won't get too upset that you posted this hideous picture of the both of you...](love you deedee)


Somebody with whom you can be completely ridiculous, whether that means being emotional or being silly, and they get it, & they join you. (Love you Clint)


Somebody with whom you just have a connection and you never forget them. You keep in contact forever & make sure to visit once a year, b/c you just adore them and want to be a witness to their life. (Love you Jen)


Somebody who you believe to be your twin soul, who you recognize yourself in. You just want to eat them up b/c they just make you giggle and enjoy the pleasures of life. (Love you Mare)


Somebody who willingly shares themselves without pretense. Somebody who is always excited to see you, laugh about old memories, and make new ones. Somebody who holds you accountable. (Love you Traci)


Somebody who inspires creativity. Somebody who roots for your success even from thousands of miles away. Somebody who you can pick up from where you left off. Somebody who makes you laugh out loud from just thinking about them. Somebody who receives the telepathic messages you're sending out...seriously (Love you Dixie)

Somebody who is mindful.
who gives you the benefit of the doubt.
who helps you be your best.

These are the things that I value in my current & my future friends.

I have been blessed with some mighty good amigos in my day. I believe that if you want a friend, you first have to be a friend by concerning yourself with her needs. Of course, I'm not a perfect friend, but in recognizing how blessed I am in the friendship arena, I'd like to step it up. I want to more willingly serve my dear friends, being more mindful of their needs and loving them more unconditionally.

Let's be better friends.