Far Away

Before we get to Christmas, let me tell you about Thanksgiving. (Obviously I'm a great procrastinator). This was the first Thanksgiving I've ever spent away from home, so it was a little strange. Not to worry though, I was taken care of; I had three different offers for places to go for dinner! It was never really a question of where I would go though, seeing as Spencer is family to me, but it was nice to know that there were others out there thinking about me.

Spencer and I started doing prep work for Thanksgiving dinner the night before because we had to marinate the turkeys. Okay, so Spencer was the one doing all the work; I was dead tired so I read the directions to him from a nice comfy chair. But the next morning we got up and started right in on the rest of the food. I now have new found appreciation for my Grandparents! That was a lot of work and we only did appetizers, the turkey, cranberry sauce, and desserts! I can only imagine adding more of the meal to our list of responsiblities . . . It was so worth it though, the food was delicious! See for yourself! :)


Our Maple Orange-Glazed Turkey. Of all the deliciousness that day I'm fairly certain my favorite thing was the apples that cooked with the turkey. Well, that and the bread pudding. Mmmm!


The desserts! Pumpkin Cheesecake with caramel and pecan topping, apple pie, and bread pudding. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!


A close up of my very first apple pie!


The table setting.


The flowers.

Now let's hope Christmas pics go up before Valentine's Day . . . ;)

The Way I Am

I realize a good portion of my posts are about the concerts I've gone to, but it's pretty much my favorite thing to do, so you get to hear about it. :) I think I've gone to my last concert for 2008 though. Just before Thanksgiving Spencer and I went to The Birchmere to see Ingrid Michaelson play the last show on her Be Okay tour. Of course it was fabulous, this is Ingrid we're talking about! She is one musician I will glady see over and over again for the rest of my life. This was my 6th Ingrid show and every single one has been top notch. Not only is she a talented musician but she is one heck of an entertainer! Here are some pics from the show along with a video of an unreleased song she sang at the show. Listen closely and you'll hear someone you know during the intro. ;)


Spencer and me waiting for Ingrid. I promised him it wouldn't go up online, so don't tell him. :)


David Ford, one of the openers. I have a couple of his songs that I really like, so I was excited that he was going to be there. Yeah, I didn't so much love him.


Newton Faulkner, another opener. I'd never heard of him before but was pleasantly surprised. He has amazing talent and was fun to watch. He's not anyone I would listen to on my own, but I'd go see him again.


And of course we have Ingrid!


And her friends. Note the creepy looking guy in the left hand corner. He's not real, just attached to the wall above the door. A little disturbing/hilarious.



Now the whole crew.


Blueberry Boy

It was a great evening and I'm looking forward to more Ingrid shows in 2009!

Living in Twilight

The books, loved them! They aren't the greatest work of fiction out there by any means, but they are definitely entertaining. In fact, for me, there's no better way to pass time on on the elliptical or bike, than to get lost in the world of Edward and Bella. No, joke, try it. Before you know it you're half hour is up and you'll likely add time to your work out so you can keep reading. It's fabulous!

The movie, hated it!!! I'm sorry, but when I read the book I was under the impression that Bella and Edward actually liked each other. Their relationship wasn't the least bit believable and that's what the story is ultimately about. I could go on and list the other reasons for my distain, but I'll spare you. I will say that it was a complete waste of $10.50! I knew I wasn't going to love it, so I just should have held out a few more weeks and seen a matinee while I'm home, but I caved. I know I'm in the minority when it comes to my opinion of the movie, and that's why I wanted to post about it. Twlight movie haters unite!


Now as to end on a positive note . . . I was super excited to use The Weepies song, Living in Twilight for the post title. I discovered The Weepies around the same time I was introduced to Twilight, and so I thought it was kinda funny when I listened to the song. They have three albums and World Spins Madly On is easily one of my top 10 favorite songs! They really are amazing, so you'll for sure want to check them out. :)

A Good Day

A few weeks ago I finally hit the big 2-7. I feel so grown up now . . . Okay not really, but maybe someday. I had a great birthday despite the fact that I'm thousands of miles away from family and the good majority of my friends. I thought I'd mention a few of the highlights of my day . . . or days because it almost felt like a week long event. :)

The cards-One great thing about not being by many loved ones is all the mail you get! I got so many cute cards from friends and family, and they started coming last Wednesday, it was awesome!

Phone calls-I hardly ever get phone calls these days, so it was a lot of fun to talk to a bunch of family and friends.

My "party"-The kids were so cute today. not that they're not cute everyday, but they were just so excited that it was my birthday. We went about our day doing most of our normal activities. When we got home from the library, Karen was already there (earlier than usual) and they had made me a cake and got me presents. We ate cake, well Karen, Matt and I did, Ingrid just eats frosting. Then Matt helped me open my gifts and sat on my lap the whole time. After that we went to a Mexican restaurant here in Arlington. It's highly unfortunate that I can't get to the picture of me in the Birthday sombrero, but here's me and the kids . . .






These are the beautiful flowers my parents sent me. :)

And I can't forget one of the coolest things about the day:

That's right, Greg Laswell took the time to wish me a happy birthday. (If you don't know who Greg is, then you need to look through my first posts). I have my good buddy Trent to thank for that one, he sent GL a message on myspace asking him to do it. If only everyone had a friend as cool as Trent . . .

Spencer ended up having to work all day Monday, so we decided to celebrate on Tuesday. We tossed around ideas of going on a little road trip, finding some sort of show to go to, etc, but nothing was really working out. We'd planned on giving my room a little makeover at some point, so we decided Tuesday was the day it would happen. We headed to Ikea, Potomac Mills, and Wal-Mart to get new bedding, lighting, curtains and other fabulous item that would help my room feel a little more like home. Something you probably don't know is that Spencer and I are two of the funniest people on the plant. No joke. So you can only imagine the kind of fun we had as we drove around and went shopping.

Before we could take the goods home and get to work we decided to stop and get something to eat. I'd been craving coconut shrimp and we thought maybe TGI Fridays could help me out. They couldn't. Don't worry though, I got this amazing jalapeno chicken popper sandwich that was beyond delicious and we actually re-created it last weekend, but in a healthier way. A little tip for all of you who are thinking to head on over to try it out: don't order a slushy! Number one, they're carbonated and it says nothing on the menu about that, and number two, all it is crushed ice and flavored soda. What a waste! Unless of course you get the Red Bull slushy, that was also delicious.


Here's me playing with our food. There were so many other good foods we were eating that we didn't have room for the potatoes. :)

We finally made it back to my place and Spencer proceeded to work his magic. Seriously, he has to be one of the most talented people on the planet! And I'm not just saying that because he's my best friend. You'll see.


I wish we took a few more before pictures, but I do have this one Karen sent me before I moved out here. It wasn't bad, it just didn't feel like me.

Here is what it looks like now:






And that's only part of the room! We're going to take a few more pics of my room for Spencer's portfolio, so when we do that I'll post those. There are a few finishing touches that need to be done, but I absolutely LOVE it!!!

Twenty-seven is definitely looking like a good year! :)

Love and Doubt

I'm a little behind on the blogging. A lot of fun things have happened over the past few weeks, so I'll try to play catch up. That means multiple posts in the next little bit; get ready. :)

We'll start off the blogfest with William. Fitzsimmons of course. He stopped by good Old Dominion earlier this month and my good friend, Spencer, and I went to see his show. I'll be honest, WF was not the greatest entertainer. In fact, he was pretty lame. I'm going to give him the benifit of the doubt and say he had an off night because all the things I've seen and heard about him don't match up to the William we saw. He didn't really have anything great to say and was overall pretty negative. His explanations of his songs were brief and vague. I have heard him say in the past that he likes to leave song interpretation up to the listener, but if that's the case he should mention that at all his shows. Also, there was the language issue. I worked at The Children's Center long enough to hear three year olds say every word in the book and then some, so unfortuantely I kind if go to hearing it, but this was just disappointing. Choose some more articulate words, you're an artist for crying out loud! I would never recommend going to a William Fitzsimmons concert (unless he's on the Hotel Cafe Tour, he might do better as part of an ensamble) but I would still totally recommend his music! Check him out here. You know if I'm endorsing the man after that show his music must be good. ;)

I will thank William Fitzsimmons for one thing: Slow Runner. A new favorite for sure. Check em out!


They have so many great songs, but I couldn't find either of my favorites, so you'll just have to settle for great. :) They have three albums. I bought their latest, Mermaids and have listened to Shiv. I'd recommend either of them. Oh, and in case you were wondering, that is William Fitzsimmons on guitar. He played most of their songs with them, which I thought was pretty cool.

Spencer and I decided to make an event of the evening so earlier in the day we went shopping for new concert attire at the greatest outlet mall in the world, Patomic Mills. I love that place . . . We both scored big time, especially in the shoe department!

FYI-I have not picked up any dirty habits as this picture may accidentally indicate. :)

Halloweenhead

It's a week late, but I wanted to write about all the Halloween fun that went on around here. Let's start with our visit at Cox Farms. A couple Fridays ago Matthew, Ingrid and I headed to Centreville, VA to have ourselves a little adventure. It's always quite the experience for me to take the kids places when I haven't the slightest clue where they are and what to do once we get there, but somehow it always works out and we end up having a great time. Cox Farms was no exception. Pumpkins, slides, a corn maze, the best apples I've ever tasted in my entire life, a hay ride . . . Well, just see for yourself! (click on the image for better viewing)


Then there was the haunted gingerbread house we decorated. The kids had a blast coming up with ways to make it "scary." Most of all I think they liked eating the icing . . .


I also made it to a couple Halloween parties this year. And I dressed up; not something I ususally do. Remember when I got drenched in the rain after coming out of Target a few weeks ago? Well, when I was nice and dry, inside the store, I ran into a couple girls in my ward who convinced me to go to a Halloween party with them. I was having a hard time coming up with a costume, when I remembered that my Mom made me a Harry Potter scarf a couple years ago. It was an easy costume to put together. A black skirt, white button up shirt, sweater, wand, the scarf and there you have it! I also used the occasion to get a new pair of shoes. They aren't exactly what you'd picture Hermione wearing, but they worked perfectly! I wore the costume twice, once for the party I mentioned and then again on Halloween. I'm not the biggest fan of Halloween and I pretty much hate dances, but where did I find myself on the 31st? In a barn where a bunch of young single adults dressed up in costumes, put on some loud music and decided that it'd be a good idea to re-live junior high. I'm not so sure why we feel the need to torture ourselves like that, but we do. And we call it fun. Sure it's entertaining, but fun? Not so much. But hey, it gave me something to do on a Friday night and I made a few more friends in the ward, so I guess it was worth it. :)

Monday!

For all of you who have yet to hear the amazing and talented Joshua Radin perform live, here's your chance! And if you are fortunate enough to have had a live experience with Josh, I know you're going to want to hear him again. ;)