Book Review - The Glass Castle

My latest read, The Glass Castle, is a wonderful story that really opened my eyes to how thankful I should be for everything I have.

This memoir, written by successful journalist Walls, traces her growing up as the second daughter in a family that was loyal and loving - but extremely underprivileged, always on the run, and making poor decision after poor decision. Her father, an alcoholic, and her mother, an "adventure seeker", cared for their children, but provided little for them. The book begins with Walls in a cab on Fifth Avenue in New York, looking out the window and seeing her homeless mother digging through a dumpster, and the story just explodes from there. The entire book written without self pity, despite the sometimes pitiful circumstances, and Walls' writing is completely engaging.

Overall, I would give this book an "A" as it was very interesting to see how other children survive in poverty with self-destructing parents that steal their money and don't care about their well-being or safety in the least bit. Definitely worth reading!

Anyone know a good roofer?

At 4am Friday night, Derek and I awoke to winds so loud that we thought our house was going to fall over. Somehow we missed the weather report yesterday that we were going to get 60-80 mph winds and the possibility of tornadoes (in December)! After about an hour, the winds died down quite a bit and we fell back asleep only to wake up and find a mess and parts of our roof all over our back yard....

Fun times.

My Favorite Christmas Food

Ever since I can remember, eating my mothers banana bread around Christmas made me the happiest person around. She makes it with maraschino cherries and chocolate chips and when it's warmed with a little butter, it's like a little slice of heaven. Growing up my brother and I would argue each morning about who got a bigger piece so that we both didn't get any more bread than the other. Even going away to college I would beg mom to make me my own loaf to enjoy with some egg nog!

Well now I'm making my own banana bread. In fact, this year, I will have made a total of 9 loaves to give away to friends and family and have one left for Derek and I to enjoy! I love to wear my pink apron around the kitchen, dancing and singing to Mariah Carey's Christmas CD while baking. And yes, I sometimes "accidentally" drop a chocolate chip on the floor for each girl to indulge..... can't leave them out of the Holiday spirit!

My hope this season is that in the years to come, I can continue this as a tradition passed down by my mother. I hope that our children love my banana bread and that it makes them enjoy this season that much more.

Santa at Petco

We didn't make it last year to take Bailey as a pup to see Santa, so we decided to take them together this year to get some pictures. After bribing them with Cheerios, we got their bandana's on and sitting next to Santa for a couple of decent pictures....

Tacky Sweater Day Winner!

I accept this award and would like to thank my mother-in-law for purchasing and saving this wonderful Christmas sweater which bedazzles anyone and everyone who chooses to look. If it wasn't for the large shoulder pads and 3-D horses mane, I would have not been among the three winners for tackiest Christmas sweater day on Wednesday at work. The actual balls on the Christmas tree and the entire novel told on this piece of work helped me reach the grand prize of some egg nog and rum. Although I wish the old balls that jingled still remained on the sweater, the natural musk stench from sitting in a closet for 20 years did the trick!

So thanks, Lesa, for thinking 20 years ago that this was a beautiful piece of work to honor the season we're in now.

Picture of the other participants.....


Picture of Earle and I that we used in a Holiday greeting for our reps......

Weekday Games

As much as I love driving up to Lawrence each home KU basketball game, five straight years of doing this has taken it's toll.... especially Monday through Friday. It's sort of an "internal struggle" you could say. On one hand, there are so many people who would LOVE to have tickets to every KU basketball and I'm SO grateful that we've been this fortunate. On the other hand, we've driven up to Lawrence probably 70-80 times in the past 4 years for home games and it's slightly starting to feel redundant. Don't get me wrong! I still get tears in my eyes at the video before each game and love the feeling of singing the Rock Chalk Chant at the end of a game we just won, but Derek and I are both also excited to have more evenings back to just relax!

That being said, these next three weeks are GREAT as there isn't another home basketball game during the week until 12/30! That means three straight weeks of planning my evenings how I want it instead of around each basketball game in Lawrence. Needless to say, December will be a good month.

PS - Matt - if you read this, I'm still your biggest fan regardless of where we watch the games! :)

Painting

For the past 2 years, we have gotten over the fact that our kitchen and living room wall color had a rosy tint to it. When daylight or our yellow lights hit the wall, there was a definite hint of pink/red in the paint. Well..... about a week ago we said 'why not'. What's 8-10 hours and about a $100 worth of paint to change the color to something we love!

After painting about a 6 ft by 6 ft patch on the wall, we noticed that the color "kilm beige" by Sherwin Williams was showing too creamy and light. We took the paint back and had them darken it to the next brown/tan level which we now LOVE! You can see the differences in the old and the new (and the test color in the middle).Before and after of the living room(pics really don't do justice!)

Turkey Day

Another Thanksgiving down without completely over stuffing myself! I just can't "two-plate" it like I used to be able to. I'd rather save room for a huge piece of pumpkin pie with my moms homemade whip cream!
This year, we had a wonderful dinner the night before Thanksgiving with Derek's side and headed to Lawrence on Thanksgiving for a feast with the Patch's. Fortunately, my grandma and grandpa were able to join us this year and enjoy the feast. Grandpa even joined in the traditional after dinner game of Catch Phrase which always seems to get ridiculously out of hand..... but in a good way!

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving with their families!

House Projects

We decided last weekend that our garage had too much junk sitting on the ground waiting for insects to find their way into the packaging. Thankfully, we had open wall to put some heavy duty storage shelves!This weekend involved hanging a huge, welded iron mirror that we found and fell in love with.

T minus 87 days

That's how long until Derek, some friends and I will be soaking up sun rays on the beach of Cancun. See, I have a problem which I now call VHED or Vacation Has Ended Disorder. It only hits me upon returning from places like Costa Rica, Europe, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, etc. After extensive research, I have come to the hypothesis that the only desirable cure is to actually plan another vacation and count down the days until I'm there. I'm actually, in the back of my head, I'm already planning our June anniversary vacation before even going to Cancun in February.

So in 87 days, you can think of us and the fact that where we're going, it will NOT be 20 degrees. Rather, it will be anywhere from 80-90 and we will be holding a margarita in each hand!

The End Has Come

Of flip-flop season that is. I had already tucked my trusty fav's into the closet in fear of big-toe frostbite, but the weatherman gave me hope yesterday morning when I heard him say "62 degrees". I immediately grabbed them from the rack and let my toes, once again, feel the glory of the open air. Yes, the walk into work was a bit cold for them, but those 60 seconds were worth the next 8 hours of heaven inside. Today, unfortunately, is supposed to get cold again so they are already back on their sacred rack getting ready for hibernation.

I have started an official countdown though.... and we're only 20 weeks away from pure happiness all over again.

2008 Champs are Back up and Running

Basketball season is back and we are beyond excited. When I wake up in the morning and realize it's another game day and that I get to wear a KU t-shirt again to work, it just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Tonight is an exhibition game against Emporia State and we are hoping that our favorite player will get a chance to play even more this week. Who is that you ask? ......

Although we know that the end of this year will not pan out as this last April did, we still live for these next few months.

Once a jayhawk, always a jayhawk.

Sunday = Fun with Dogs Day

What else do you do with an extra hour on a relaxing Sunday? While doing laundry, I thought it would be hilarious to stuff the girls in our laundry baskets. Needless to say... we did it and could not stop the uncontrollable laughter.

Don't worry... they still got the good end of the deal. We went out and got them some really hard bones that will take years to get through.

KU 52 K-State 21

My arms are still sore from waving the wheat so much! I believe this makes FOUR out of FIVE games beating those power-towel lovers. And I also believe I had about 4 bloody mary's in a 2 hour period before the game. And yes, that makes me pretty intoxicated seeing as how I simply do not have my college tolerance 5 years later. We ended up stopping at a total of four tailgates on Saturday morning all of which had friends, food and even a free can of Edge after shave for all the guys there!

Mole Hatred

No... I'm not talking about my hatred for sexy moles like the one that Enrique Iglesias got removed.

I'm talking about the creepy-looking rodents that tear up your yard and leave it so uneven that I'm afraid even my labs will start falling into the tunnels.
How did we find out we have moles? Let's turn to our wonderful four-legged, curious children to the answer to that question. Bailey (the baby) decided to make a 'friend' out of one of the young moles early Tuesday morning. At first I thought it was a mouse, but once I realized there was no ears, it had creepy hands and that the thing didn't really have eyes.... I put two and two together. Luckily, our yard isn't that bad meaning we caught the bastards early! I'm borrowing this contraption, that almost looks like it's from medieval times, to try and capture this animal before it decides to take a 4-month winter nap!

Book Review - Something Blue

After several hours in the car this past weekend on a visit to a family wedding in Oklahoma, I finally finished the book Something Blue by Emily Giffin. Just so everyone is aware, I've never been a big 'reader'. Growing up, reading gave me headaches, therefore leading to a distaste for enjoyable reading.

Lately however, with the help of some suggestions from friends, I've picked up this 'sport' and have become quite fond of reading... as long as the book is right! My favorite book so far was PS I Love You when I realized that books could actually make me cry like a baby in public places (yes... it was embarassing!).

Back to Something Blue. Emily is a great writer with a nack for knowing exactly what late 20 to early 30 year olds are thinking. From relationships to jobs to unexpected pregnacies, this book covers it all. The story of an extremely materialistic girl and her journey to modesty and true happiness was one that I really enjoyed. I would give this book an A and recommend it to anyone in that age category!

Well.... I survived!!!

Derek and I both ran the Kansas City Half Marathon Saturday the 18th and got two good times! My goal was to come in under 2 hrs 45 min and I finished in 2 hrs 29 min! Derek's goal was 2 hrs and he finished in 1 hr 58 min! I ran for 13 MILES STRAIGHT with not a single stop or walk!! First time in my entire life! Having both families there to support us meant a lot and helped us finish strong! I feel so proud to have achieved this, especially with the number of hills in the course! I will say though.... the last 2 miles were complete "mind over body". I had to pretty much yell at myself to keep moving and to not fall over! The crowds at the end helped you forget the pain and finish strong.... as well as remembering that I gave up Starbucks this week and can't WAIT to go snuggle up with one.

Derek and I both crossed off "complete a marathon before we die" from our bucket list though! This was plenty long enough..... and the fact that our bodies were shutting down at mile 12 meant that they agreed as well.

Honey Chicken Kabobs

We had some friends over this weekend and since I'm on the cooking kick, here's the kabobs that we tried and loved. They probably could have marinated even longer, but we didn't have time!

INGREDIENTS
•1/4 cup vegetable oil
•1/3 cup honey
•1/3 cup soy sauce
•1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
•8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes
•2 cloves garlic
•5 small onions, cut into 2 inch pieces
•2 red bell peppers, cut into 2 inch pieces
•skewers
DIRECTIONS
1. In a large bowl, whisk together oil, honey, soy sauce, and pepper. Before adding chicken, reserve a small amount of marinade to brush onto kabobs while cooking. Place the chicken, garlic, onions and peppers in the bowl, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 3 hours (the longer the better).
2.Preheat the grill for high heat.
3.Drain marinade from the chicken and vegetables, and discard marinade. Thread chicken and vegetables alternately onto the skewers.
4.Lightly oil the grill grate. Place the skewers on the grill. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes, until chicken juices run clear. Turn and brush with reserved marinade frequently.

Yummy Catfish Crabcakes!

I found an awesome recipe and made it last night for Derek. We both LOVED it and it was really easy to make.

Here it is in case anyone needs a good one -

INGREDIENTS
• 1 pound catfish fillets
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning, or to taste
• 2 1/2 cups coarsely crushed buttery round crackers
• 1 tablespoon creamy salad dressing (e.g. Miracle Whip)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup vegetable oil (for frying)
DIRECTIONS
1. Place catfish in a saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until fish flakes easily with a fork. Drain off water, and mash up the fish. Stir in the onion, mustard, salad dressing, Old Bay, cracker crumbs and egg. Mix until evenly blended.
2. Heat oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Form the fish mixture into patties, and fry in the hot oil for 5-6 min on each side or until golden brown.
3. Drain on paper towels, and serve hot.

EUROPE!

While writing this blog, I'm already contemplating getting some lottery tickets tonight so that I can win big and move to Paris! Although London and Rome were great, I fell in love with Paris and can't wait to go back there in the future. Here's the short version of our trip along with only a few of the 550 pictures we took. We arrived in London after 6-7 hours of sleep on the plane and were excited to just get to our hotel and hit the town! Our hotel was tiny but in Covent Garden (one of the best areas of London) and we had a great view on a main street. Over the next three days we managed to see almost all of the major historical sites in London. The best for me was Buckingham Palace! In August and September the Royal Family travels on vacation and their state rooms are open for tours. Those 19 rooms are used extensively by the Queen to entertain their guests and it was pretty interesting. London pictures below.
Ratings:
City: A
Sites: A-
Food: B
People: B-

Then, after 12 years of running smoothly, there was a fire in the Chunnel only 12 hours before we were supposed to ride it over to Paris. Without getting into the entire story, we managed to find a last minute flight to Amsterdam airport where we would then take a train down to Paris. We checked out about 3:30am and caught a taxi to the airport where there was not a single sole! 24 hours without sleep, not to mention the fact that our bodies were already messed up with the 6 hour time change! Regardless, we made it to beautiful Paris only a couple hours after we were originally supposed to and our hotel was so adorable. We spent the next few days touring the amazing sites, loving the perfect weather and enjoying being in the most romantic city in the world! I fell in love with the Eifel tower and was fortunate to see it two different days (once at night lit up and once during the day!). Pictures below.
Ratings:
City: A+
Sites: A+
Food: C
People: B

The last night in Paris was spent sleeping in our cabin on an overnight train! We ended up stopping in Switzerland (we were asleep) and Brussels to let other passengers on. Views of wine country also zipped by in the morning as we passed through that area on the train. Arriving in Rome was a big change as there was trash and graffiti all over the city! Our hotel was the much larger, however, and came equipped with an actual bidet in our room (Yes....I had been looking forward to testing one out!). The sites over the next few days here were the oldest we saw and definitely worth the trip. The Coliseum was everything you would imagine and I was very excited to see the famed Treve Fountain! We drank tons of wine, burned out the phrase "When in Rome" completely and ate tons of pasta. Rome pictures below.
Ratings:
City: B- (graffiti and trash everywhere)
Sites: A+
Food: A+
People: B+ (not sure if they know what deodorant is)

Finally – The last picture is of my personal tour guide that I was lucky to have with me the whole trip. He came fully loaded with backpack, water and our travel book and even gave short histories on every site we saw!

All in all we were very fortunate to have taken such a fabulous trip!

Test post to get this thing going!

Just trying to test this new blogging thing so that I can get it up and running! Meanwhile, let's post a picture of our two children!....

Testing out a video of the girls (Lacy is only at the end on the left).....