The Middle of Nowhere

We are in The Middle of Nowhere, North Carolina visiting Spencer's PGGPs.  (The parental great-grandparents)  Life is slower here, but for some reason, I've been non-stop on the go since we arrived.  Maybe it's all the fresh fruit I'm picking or the dishes I've been baking?  Pictures and recipes will be forthcoming.  Tomorrow we are going into "town," which means a drive through the curvy and nausea-inducing mountainous roads.  I love being up here, but I'm not a fan of the carsickness I feel each and every time we drive anywhere.  

Spencer is having the best time- this morning she was playing with her Great-Gran and she turned to me and said "This is SO much fun! SO fun!"  We are staying here for the next week and half and I need some great fruit recipes.  Anyone have a particular favorite?  They have apples, peaches, blueberries and and raspberries.  I made a raspberry crisp last night and a peach cobbler tonight, so I need some ideas about what to make for tomorrow.  I was thinking about making an apple pie, but that seems a tad ambitious for someone of my limited baking caliber, ha! 

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

My baby brother Matthew

 (December 1991)

 Today was the day we took him to college.

He's going to be a freshman at Christopher Newport University, which is in the Newport News/Virginia Beach/Williamsburg area of Virginia. Since I knew that having Spencer and me there when they were trying to move everything in would be a DEE-saster, we left a few hours earlier than then and visited some of my friends in the area.

Our first stop was to see my friend Jenny, who just had her own baby Matthew two weeks ago.  I was so mad at myself because I forgot my camera, but trust me, he's a cute little guy.  He was born a few weeks early, so he's he very tiny, but I got to hold him and smell that sweet baby smell!  Spencer was actually really good around him- I thought she'd want to hold him and "play" with him, but she was more interested in playing with Jenny than Matthew, haha! She did give him a little kiss on the cheek and wanted to tickle his feet, but otherwise, she only had eyes for Jenny.  It was so nice to see Jenny and her precious little one. We stayed there for about an hour before heading off to our next destination- Casa Toni!

We went to see my friend Stephie at her parent's house and enjoyed an afternoon of swimming in their pool and eating lunch.  It was great to see her family again and Spence had a blast swimming.  They made us a lovely spread for lunch and it felt just like old times back in college.  Spencer had so much fun playing with Dylan, Steph's 6 year old nephew, and I think she has a little crush on him because she keeps on talking about him, haha! Hopefully we'll get down there one more time before the summer is over and when we can spend a little longer than a few hours.

Steph's parents only live a few minutes from CNU, so it didn't take us very long to get there- which was good, because Spence had had her fill of being in the car.  I found my brother's new dorm and as we walked to his room memories were flooding my mind of being in college.  Everyone looked so excited and for a few seconds I was jealous of them.  But then I snapped out of it and put on my happy face- because I really am happy for my brother.  I hope and pray that these next four years are as wonderful for him as my college years were for me.

 (Can you believe that's how my mom dressed us for Easter?  I thought I'd post this uber-embarrassing picture of me, circa 1993, so Matthew doesn't get mad at me for just showing his funny, but cute, pictures.)

It was mad chaos in his room- boxes, crates, trash, you name it, and it was in that tiny 12x10 room.  I helped do a few things, unpacked his clothes, hung up some things on the walls, and tried to organize his DVD collection- but it became pretty apparent that the less people in the room the better, so I figured we should say our goodbyes. I didn't cry, even though I wanted to.  I knew Matt wouldn't want me to cry because it would set off my mom's overactive waterworks (she was a tad emotional), so I bit my cheek, gave him a hug, and told him I loved him. Then, when no one could see, I let a few tears escape in the elevator.

Spencer slept for the entire hour and half ride back to Richmond and we finally got home around seven.  It was a long emotional day, but certainly one that I'll remember forever.  We said hello to new baby Matthew and waved goodbye to my own always-will-be-a-baby-to-me Matthew.

A Triumphant Tale of Two Cities

Friday could have possibly been the longest day of my life.  It was the day I had to take the TEAS Test, which is the exam you have to take to get in to almost any nursing school. Because of some scheduling problems due to the class I'm currently taking, it turned out that the only school in the entire state of Virginia that could proctor the exam on the days I could take it, was in Wytheville.  Wytheville.  Otherwise known as, four hours and twenty minutes from where I live; 260 miles.

Do you see it?  There's little Wytheville all the way out in the boonies of western Virginia. Don't be fooled by the big dot, it's a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. My testing appointment was at 1pm, and I didn't want to take any chances on being tardy, so I woke up bright and early at 6am and left home at 7am.  There's just something wrong about having to drive four hours and twenty minutes to take a three hour and 45 minute test and then turning right around and driving home again.  But that's what I did.

It was a good thing that I left so early, because there was a ton of traffic and I didn't get to Wytheville until 12:15pm.  By the time I parked, found the testing center, and signed in, it was almost time for the test to begin. There was no down time or time to think about anything- which was probably a good thing, because I most likely would have started to stress out. 

And then the test began and the next three hours and some odd minutes are a blur.  I guess it was a good blur, because I ended up doing much better than I thought I would do.  The scores are based off of the National percentile and my overall results placed me in the 91% National percentile.  And then they break it down into subject areas- Science, Math, English, and Reading and give you your percentile ranking in those subject areas.  They have to do it this way because many nursing programs won't accept applicants that receive below a 50% in any subject, even if they got perfect scores on everything else and their overall NP is 85%.  I wasn't really worried about that happening to me, but I still get apprehensive about any test that involves math (especially tests that won't let you use a calculator!).  So I can't even begin to explain how shocked I was when I read that I was in the 99% for math.  I did a double take when I saw the results because there was no way that could be possible.  I don't do math- numbers and I don't get along, especially when those numbers are attached to shapes and adjoining letters and other weird symbols.

I walked backed to my car with my results in hand and I actually wondered if my brain chemistry/neuronal synapse direction firing (I totally made up the aforementioned term) had changed.  When I told my mom, she thought there must have been some glitch in the computer scoring system.  When I told me dad, he said "you're joking? right? No, seriously, you're joking?" 

But it really did feel like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders- this test has just been looming over and taunting me for months now.  I almost fell back into my old buy myself something nice when I do well on a test pattern, when I saw the huge billboard for the Wytheville Outlet Mall Featuring 36 Stores, but resisted the temptation and kept right on going.  Finally, after a total 9 hours and 20 minutes of driving, plus 3 hours and 45 minutes of test taking, I got home at 9pm. 

My body hurt all over when I woke up this morning and my brain was begging me for a vacaction day.
But as my luck would have it, my physiology final is on Monday and I have a lot of studying that needs to get done.  I do see the light at the end of the tunnel though; I also see a really long, long, long nap.

Scenes from a Jersey Wedding

Where's Katie?

The last few days have been crazy busy! Saturday morning, before the sun rose, I was on the road to New Jersey for one of my very good friend's (Liz) wedding. Then I was on the road again early Sunday morning to head back home to Virginia. But before I could go home we stopped in at the PGP's for the evening. They had a little birthday celebration for me, complete with a Sephora gift card! So it wasn't until yesterday that we got home and since Day Light Savings Time is now over, Spencer is completely turned around. This morning she woke up at 6:30am, and that was sleeping in- the day before it was 5:45am. So I'm pretty tired. I don't have Spencer's Halloween pictures uploaded onto my computer yet, but they are super cute! I'm hoping to get a good night of sleep tonight and be fresh as pie tomorrow!

A Day at Aquarium

Two weeks ago Spencer and I went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. My college roomie, Beth, works there and she put us up for the night and the next day treated us to a lovely morning at the Aquarium. We got to her home on Tuesday evening and she had a delicious meal waiting for us! Spencer chose this night, of course, to not want to go to sleep, and she finally went to dreamland after 10pm. Then Beth and I enjoyed a yummy apple crisp she'd made from the apples she'd picked herself! What a domestic diva!

Wednesday morning we went to Tots and Tales hear a childrens group, Milkshake, sing and do fun things with all the kiddos. Spencer had such a great time- jumping around, dancing to the music, and sitting in Beth's lap - her new best friend. (See picture below) After that we walked around and saw most of the exhibits, Australia, the jelly fish, and the sharks and stingrays, before heading to the dolphin show. Oh, the dolphins, they are just so cute and human like. (Did you know that they're the only species, other than humans, who have "relations" for purposes other than procreation?) Spencer loved the dolphins, but she wanted to go down to them while they were performing. Of course this wasn't an option, so we had to step out for a for a few minutes while she had a temper tantrum. After she calmed down we went back in (to our front row seats!) and enjoyed the rest of the show.

We did a little more touring after we left the dolphin arena before going to lunch. I wish I had a picture of what happened next- Spencer squeezed out her entire yogurt on her grilled cheese sandwich... and then ate all of it! She never eats all of her food, but I guess that yogurt, cheese and bread combo was just too enticing for her :) When lunch was over we had to say our goodbyes and head back home. Spence was in desperate need of a nap and we had a four hour drive ahead of us. (Which actually turned into a six hour drive because of traffic, detours, and an accident.) I would have written about our delightful whirlwind excursion, but a few days later we were afflicted with H1N1. But I couldn't not write about our trip to the Aquarium and how it's always so great to see and hang out with my roomie. Thank you Beth for a lovely trip and for not getting frazzled when Spencer wouldn't step screaming!

Without further ado, the pictures of our journey to Baltimore.

A Little Late

I am so late in posting about our wonderful trip to Baltimore. Unfortunately, I still have a little bit more to do on that post before it's ready, so this will have to do for now. On our drive up we took the "scenic" route and we passed some great photo opportunities. I could only take pictures when the car was stopped, so many of those pictures never got taken. But I did get this and it cracked me up! This was right after we crossed the Virginia border into Maryland and it was probably about 55-60 degrees outside.

Spencer Meets Sephora

She told me she wanted to look "preedee" when I asked her why she performed an Extreme Spencer Makeover. This was about two and half hours into our four and half drive up to Baltimore yesterday. I'm still not sure how she managed to find the ONLY makeup compact that wasn't safely stowed away by me, but she did. I'm also not sure how she managed to decorate herself so thoroughly. When I saw the beginnings of this masterpiece, it was about 1/4 of what you see now. I don't like to take my eyes off the road when I'm driving Spencer, so I had to find a place to stop. By that time, about 2 minutes later, that was what I saw. And let me tell you, she was "preedee" proud of herself!

Tots & Tales

This is where Spencer and I will be tomorrow.

I'm so excited for her! And well, for me too, because we get to spend the night with Bethie! We're driving up to Maryland this afternoon, so hopefully it will be a smooth car ride and she'll sleep most of the way.

Virginia is For Lovers

We're back! It was a LONG car ride, L-O-N-G. We left this morning at about 9am and we pulled in the driveway at 6pm. Right after we left we stopped at McDonalds to get some breakfast. We walked in the door, Spencer was in my arms, and she threw up ALL over me. Curdled strawberry yogurt- everywhere. We cleaned up as best we could, but I smelled like sour yogurt for almost 9 hours in the car.
I have a gazillion more pictures from our trip, but these are some my favorite ones. We're both pretty exhausted and a little sad to not be with the GPGPs. It's so nice to be surrounded with family, so tonight is a little lonely. But this upcoming is the first week of my classes! (My first one is Thursday) I'm super excited and ready to get back into school mode. And of course I can't wait to go school supply shopping- there's not much that beats buying new pens, notebooks, highlighters, and other "must haves!"

That's Leah, Gran's 8 week old puppy. She was trying to pull over Spencer's shorts.

Spence in her mini-chair. It makes her look like a giant!

The Middle of Nowhere, North Carolina

We are in the Middle of Nowhere, North Carolina. Yesterday was a long day, and last night was even longer. Spencer woke up in the middle of the night and was very scared because she didn't recognize where she was. I spent the next two hours trying to calm her down and get her back to sleep, but she was not having it.

She slept on my chest ALL night long (over 3o lbs of toddler) with her hand clutching mine. Whenever I tried to gently scoot her to my side, she woke up screaming again. My body hurts, my eyes are puffy, and my head feels like it weighs a ton. I'm hoping tonight is better, I don't think either of us can take a repeat performance.

I promise to get some pictures up here soon!

Stateside

When I think about all the places I want to travel to, it's usually to places abroad. But recently I've started thinking about all the places in US that I haven't seen. I've started making a list, some are a little random, some mainstream. If you have any suggestions, please tell me so I can add it to my list.

• Macinac Island- Michigan
• Traverse City, Michigan
• Gulf Shores, Alabama
• Destin, Florida
• Tybee Island, Georgia
• Sedona, Arizona
• Jenny Lake, Wyoming
• An Alaskan Cruise
• The Berkshires, Massachusetts
• Branson, Missouri (this one is just for my MeMa!)
• Ellicot City, Maryland
  
• The Ozarks, Arkansas
• Lake Champlain, Vermont
• Riverboat Cruise up the Mississippi
  

I promise a real post tomorrow, this weekend just wore me out. Hopefully the spring in my step will return shortly!

After All These Years

When I was in Italy, I was only 20, so recipes and cooking weren't high on my list of priorities. But there was one dish that our host made for us that I loved so much, I had to get the recipe. Somewhere in the jumble of life post-graduation, I lost my Italy notebook that contained the recipe. (Remember, I keep everything!) I was really upset when I couldn't find it because I could not, for the life of me, remember what the name of the recipe was.

I even went to the Italian grocery store in town here and tried to describe the contents of the dish, but they had no clue. And I don't blame them- I was like "It has these things in it that are like nuts, but they aren't, I think, and it can go with pasta, and it's REALLY popular in Italy!" I finally gave up, even though it's irked me all these years. Every time I go to an Italian restaurant I would always check to see if it was on the menu, thinking that if I saw the name written out, I'd recognize it. But that never happened either.

So last night I went into the attic to put some things away (to keep them from Spencer) and I saw an old crate filled with my things. I know I didn't put it up there, so I was curious and started going through it. Most it was junk, an old hula man that sat on the dashboard of my car during high school- type things. But as I neared the bottom, I saw it! A beat up old black notebook that had Italian words written on it. I could the Hallelujah Chorus of the Angels!

I didn't look at anything else in it, I immediately went to the page where I knew the recipe was written. There it was- "Farro Con Pesto." It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to remember, but it's name has alluded me all these years! It's supposed to be "Farro con il Pesto," but Italian grammar was never my strong suit! haha.


The funniest part of the whole thing is that I wrote it out in Italian and in the metric system! I guess I was trying to assimilate to all things Italian, but the first thing I thought to myself as I read it was "wow, pretentious much?!" Luckily I still know enough to understand the majority of it, so at least that part of my brain is working okay.

I know you're on the edge of your seats for the recipe, which is SUPER easy, delicious, and it will be a great addition to you Vegetarians out there.

Pesto

• A lot of basil, about 1 and 1/2 to 3 ounces, per your liking
• Handful of pine nuts, about 1.4 ounces
  
• 4 and 1/2 ounces of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tsp. of salt
• Pinch of garlic- per your liking
• 1 and 3/4 ounces of Parmesan cheese

Directions

• Take the basil, pine nuts, and garlic mix them together in a bowl
• Crush them together and mix well
• Add oil, salt and Parmesan

Farro

• Cook 0.55 quarts of Farro (that's a little more than 1/2 of a quart, it's exactly 17.6 ounces)
• Use a lot of water and salt, and cook for 30 minutes (remember to stir!)
• Drain the water and refrigerate
• Mix the farro with the pesto sauce
• Optional - add 4 tomatoes chopped in small pieces

Buon Appetito!

Some of the conversions are a little wonky, due to the fact that it was in grams. In case you don't know what farro is, or if they tell you it's not at the grocery store, it is sometimes called Emmer Wheat, more specifically, Triticum dicoccon. Here is a picture of it.

In Vino Veritas

One of my favorite blogs, Lilly's Life, really got me thinking the other day. She wrote about Erma Bombeck's If I Had My Life to Live Over after finding out a friend of hers had Ovarian Cancer. "What Are We Waiting For?" was the question she asked.

I don't think of myself as overly morbid, although I do think about death a lot more since becoming a mother. I have a living will, but I did that after the Terry Schiavo debacle- as I knew/know my mom would NEVER pull the plug on me and frankly, I don't want to be a vegetable or live in a vegetative state. But I don't have a Bucket List, or anything like that.

As I read some of things Erma Bombeck would have done over, it got me thinking about what I would regret if I died today. Since I know I wouldn't change any of the choices that led me to being Spencer's mom, most of the things were fairly trivial. But I knew right away what I would really regret- and that was saving my all my Italian wine I brought back with me from Italy.

I wrote about it here, but briefly- I brought back seven bottles of wine and gave away five of them. The other two I was saving for the right moment. Well, that was in 2002 and there have been plenty of great moments when I could have poured myself a glass of my GREATLY anticipated vino. But each time, I would say to myself, "No, wait for something even better, you'll be glad you waited!"

One of the bottles is a reserve wine, in a special box with a silk label- it's beautiful. The other is just a regular bottle of red, nothing fancy- I think it cost me 3 Euro. So last night, after seven years of waiting, and for no particular reason, I poured myself a small glass of my Italian wine. And I have to say it was worth the wait. I savored each sip. I swirled and sniffed and did all those things that fancy wine people do. Since I'm no fancy wine person, I felt a tad ridiculous, but who cares?


I'm still waiting on the other one, I'll probably be 60 before I can bring myself to open it, haha. But I'm proud of myself for finally being able to enjoy and savor the moment, for no other reason than living for today and not for an unpromised future. Gilbert Parker once said Tomorrow is no man's gift. And that is so true.

I have a really hard time living in the moment- I'm always waiting for the future or looking at the past. So that's one of things I'm going to work on, enjoying today instead of dreaming about tomorrow.


I'm still not going to make a Bucket List, yet, but I will try to stop waiting and start doing. If you get a chance, read Erma Bombeck's article (I linked to it up top). It's short and really gets you thinking about using the nice hand towels for yourself rather than your guests!

More Italia Pictures

I hope I'm not boring you with my Italy pictures, I'm just so excited that I have them on my computer now! Here are a few more, a little less exciting pictures.



This was the doorway to our house. All of the doors are like that- this one had a really cool wind-up locking mechanism.

Cinque Terre, Italia. This was one of the most beautiful cities on the Italian Riveria. Five cities make up Cinque Terre, and this is Vernazza.

Steph and me, again. Vernazza is known for their Limincello, which is what's in the yellow box/bag. I brought home 8 bottles of wine with me, and I still have two. I'm waiting for the right moment to open one of them- I'm not sure what I'm waiting for, but I think I'll know when it's the right time!

Sienna, Italia. The castles here were amazing, as was the hour drive from Florence. You can't beat Tuscany when it comes to breath taking, beautiful countryside.



The singing gondolier in Venice.

There are always people selling roses in the bars and restaurants, and one night one of our friends bought us these beautiful roses. I don't know why he isn't in the picture, haha.