Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Wedding Belle
Congratulations to SW and PK! Wishing you two many, many years of love, laughs, and happiness. It only gets better from here. <3
Monday, June 9, 2008
America the beautiful
We just got back from the beach Sunday evening, and all of us had a blast!
Of course, family vacation wouldn't be family vacation without a little drama. My sister's Ford Explorer had transmission trouble and was having trouble starting and going. Her husband ended up loading up all of the luggage Saturday night and left at 5:30 am to avoid traffic and try to get the truck back home in one piece. My sister and her two boys hitched a ride along with grandma and grandpa later in the morning, all of us worried about whether or not my brother-in-law would be able to make the whole trip himself. Thankfully, he called at around 10:30 am and confirmed that he had arrived.
John
and I brought up the rear end of our two-car caravan (the two friends that had come along this week went ahead in another car), and as our worry over the truck drama subsided, car conversation turned to dreamier musings about life, happiness, and the future. We have been driving around so much of the US these past few weeks and have seen so many things--scenery, botany, animal, funny misprinted sign. It's amazing what an expansive country we live in! We have mountains, deserts, rain forests, ocean life, not to mention the vast array of climate you can experience in any given day in any given state. Having finally started to realize this, John an
d I fully intend on taking one of those two-week cross country RV vacations as soon as we get the chance. We spend so much time dreaming about traveling to Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean, but I am starting to think we're missing what's right under our own noses.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
On the road again
Today, two weeks after our big trek home, John, a bunch of family, family friends, and I packed up and headed on over to the Outer Banks, NC for a little vacation. Thankfully, this trip was only 5 hours instead of 18! We didn't even listen to our iPod on the way down, but had fun talking, laughing, eating, and caravaning. We thought we had it good, filling up our tanks with $3.94/gallon gas, until we went a few more miles down the road and saw some for $3.83/gallon. D'oh! Better luck next time, I guess.
I've had bronchitis all week, so I'm not expecting to do much during the next couple days but relax and sleep--if the coughing will ever let me. Thankfully, it's been getting better day by day and I'll be up to horsing around on the beach soon. Poor John is looking forward to sleeping in since I've been keeping him up at nights with my cough and he's been going to work regularly during the week.
This week should be great fun though--vacationing in a large group is always pretty exciting. We're all taking turns cooking dinner for each other (there are 15 of us total, we split up in to groups) and I'm really interested in trying everyone's food! My group is making spaghetti and meatballs, a salad, and cheesy garlic bread--I figure you can't really mess any of those things up. For dessert, we're having the banana cream pie I promised I'd make my sister after she gave birth and got rid of her gestational diabetes, and my good friend is making crepes with a yummy mixed berry sauce.
You know how some people keep a Bible in their nightstand? I have apparently gone off the deep end. My beach nightstand is currently holding Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. Why do I even have it on vacation with me? I'm not quite sure.
Oh, and can you believe it's June already?
I've had bronchitis all week, so I'm not expecting to do much during the next couple days but relax and sleep--if the coughing will ever let me. Thankfully, it's been getting better day by day and I'll be up to horsing around on the beach soon. Poor John is looking forward to sleeping in since I've been keeping him up at nights with my cough and he's been going to work regularly during the week.
This week should be great fun though--vacationing in a large group is always pretty exciting. We're all taking turns cooking dinner for each other (there are 15 of us total, we split up in to groups) and I'm really interested in trying everyone's food! My group is making spaghetti and meatballs, a salad, and cheesy garlic bread--I figure you can't really mess any of those things up. For dessert, we're having the banana cream pie I promised I'd make my sister after she gave birth and got rid of her gestational diabetes, and my good friend is making crepes with a yummy mixed berry sauce.
You know how some people keep a Bible in their nightstand? I have apparently gone off the deep end. My beach nightstand is currently holding Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. Why do I even have it on vacation with me? I'm not quite sure.
Oh, and can you believe it's June already?
Friday, March 21, 2008
Nothing in particular
AS's visit came and went quickly, as did our spring break. It's already Friday, school starts Monday--where did the time go?
I have been very productive this week, though not with school-related things. This week has been devoted to house things, which has desperately needed a face-lift. I have been having serious motivation issues this semester, but don't feel like I can get my outside life in order without having my home fixed up first.
A few random things:
1. I can't wait to have a home of my own.
2. However, home ownership is still a little daunting to me.
3. I never thought having just one bathroom would be a dilemma, but it certainly can be.
4. I wish Red Lobster would quit having their lobster fest commercials; it's not like we have one nearby!
5. There's no cookin' like mom's cookin'.
John and I are trying to take advantage of the springtime weather Baton Rouge is throwing at us, before we get to 5000% humidity levels again in early May. We've been walking quite a bit and discovered that a nearby neighborhood has sidewalks, so we decided to explore it. It was surreal, walking in a real neighborhood again--people mowing their grass, children in backyards, and friendly couples waving at us from their cars and front doors. Baton Rouge isn't an unfriendly place, but it never had that suburban feel to it either. It was a nice change of pace.
In food news, I haven't done anything too new and exciting lately. When AS was here, I made a pasta salad one night as a side dish to a salmon fillet that I had topped with pesto and crushed crouton breadcrumbs (a trick I had learned from Giada on Food Network--pour a bag of good quality croutons into your food processor and ta-da--you have a flavorful batch of bread crumbs). I had a good volume of bread crumbs left over, so I poured it into my pasta salad (another trick I learned from Giada). I was afraid the breadcrumb theme would be too redundant, but it turned out really well! The flavor from the crumbs really complemented the pasta salad, and added an interesting crunch as well.
Anyway, speaking of food and sunshine, I'd better get some lunch ready and perhaps go out for another walk....or maybe I'll make a picnic out of it? Hmmm....
I have been very productive this week, though not with school-related things. This week has been devoted to house things, which has desperately needed a face-lift. I have been having serious motivation issues this semester, but don't feel like I can get my outside life in order without having my home fixed up first.
A few random things:
1. I can't wait to have a home of my own.
2. However, home ownership is still a little daunting to me.
3. I never thought having just one bathroom would be a dilemma, but it certainly can be.
4. I wish Red Lobster would quit having their lobster fest commercials; it's not like we have one nearby!
5. There's no cookin' like mom's cookin'.
John and I are trying to take advantage of the springtime weather Baton Rouge is throwing at us, before we get to 5000% humidity levels again in early May. We've been walking quite a bit and discovered that a nearby neighborhood has sidewalks, so we decided to explore it. It was surreal, walking in a real neighborhood again--people mowing their grass, children in backyards, and friendly couples waving at us from their cars and front doors. Baton Rouge isn't an unfriendly place, but it never had that suburban feel to it either. It was a nice change of pace.
In food news, I haven't done anything too new and exciting lately. When AS was here, I made a pasta salad one night as a side dish to a salmon fillet that I had topped with pesto and crushed crouton breadcrumbs (a trick I had learned from Giada on Food Network--pour a bag of good quality croutons into your food processor and ta-da--you have a flavorful batch of bread crumbs). I had a good volume of bread crumbs left over, so I poured it into my pasta salad (another trick I learned from Giada). I was afraid the breadcrumb theme would be too redundant, but it turned out really well! The flavor from the crumbs really complemented the pasta salad, and added an interesting crunch as well.
Anyway, speaking of food and sunshine, I'd better get some lunch ready and perhaps go out for another walk....or maybe I'll make a picnic out of it? Hmmm....
Sunday, March 9, 2008
It's gonna be a good week...
...because AS just flew in from Richmond last night to come visit us for his spring break! We've already toured the Abita beer factory and Oak Alley Plantation, and have eaten po boys, muffalettas, and turtle soup. More good times, good food, good laughs, and lack of sleep to come. Hooray for our first non-family out-of-town visitor, and here's to hoping more of you will come down to see us once you've seen what a great time he's had here (and it's not even Mardi Gras!).
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