Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Home Style Cookin'

Tonight I got home and Catherine had made delicious chicken fajitas. Mmmmmm... Grilled chicken, red and green peppers, onions, salsa, etc., etc. So good.

Then for dessert I just had some girl scout thin mint cookies along with fudge tracks ice cream. Yummmmmy.

I didn't know when I married Catherine what an amazing cook she is. We've now been married a year and a half, and so far there's only been one meal we couldn't finish. That would be the time she made a half-portion of meatloaf with a full portion of salt and seasoning. When you took a bite you could literally hear all the moisture being sucked out of your body. Not so yummy. But other than that meal, I have been a well fed (and loved) man.

If it were up to me to cook, here is what we would eat every night:

Monday, February 18, 2008

Pennsylvania for Jamie's birthday

We took off early from work on Thursday and went out to PA to see Jon, Celeste, Izabella, Caleb, Joshua, and Johnny. Bella and Joshua had been diagnosed with strep by the time we got there, but I think we got away un-infected, although I did keep feeling slightly off today...probably more a symptom of hypochondria than strep.

Anyway, it was definitely a good trip...we got to see our godson looking like a boy again, discuss camera options (Jamie wants a better one for his birthday), and spend more time than normal with Joshua and Bella because they were both home from school due to possible contagiousness.

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Johnny is now communicating a lot, but really not stringing any words together except a very rare "light on" or some such thing. He knows that he is "two", and can almost get his fingers to show you that. He says "up" for up or down and likes to repeat the last word you say...which makes him always right when you ask him difficult math questions like 10-5 or 4/2.

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We slept in Joshua's room, while Joshua bedded down in his mom and dad's closet. In the morning we played with the karaoke machine in his room.

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That's Johnny with the microphone.

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We drove into Pittsburgh with Celeste, Bella, Joshua and Johnny to shop for Jon's birthday and just go out together. We also went to  what is apparently a Pittsburgh classic, Pamela's diner, for lunch.

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Oh yes, she definitely looks too sick to be in school!

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Johnny hiding from the camera on the shelves of Banana Republic.

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Poor sick kids and their sprite. :)

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Should I get the banana chocolate chip stuffed pancakes or the grilled chicken, spinach, and feta pita?

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A real dog in a store full of fake dogs.

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I forgot to mention that Johnny LOVES school busses, so when we saw this really cool one in the variety store, we had to get it.

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On the way back we stopped by Ambridge to take a picture of the place where Jamie's Oompa grew up.

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We made dinner for them that night. That gross looking white stuff is cook-in-the-bag rice, the REALLY lazy way of making rice.

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Studious girl.

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"Studious" dad.

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The next morning we spent some quality time watching Hannah Montana on Jamie's phone. Johnny LOVES Hannah Montana. Like, he knows the last word of all the lines in her songs and immediately shouts "Hannah" and grins when he hears the opening beats of her songs, or even her picture on a package at the grocery store.

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We went for a walk and Celeste told Johnny that if he took his gloves off he would have to come right home. He was SO careful about his gloves. If one seemed to be slipping off, he said "uh oh" and tried to get it back on, or have me help him.

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And then it was back home again, which also held some joy as we had lunch yesterday with some families from church and had a great time! CUTE kids and adults who I really want to be friends with!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Cambridge for my birthday

On my birthday (Dec 29th) Jamie gave me an itinerary for a trip to Cambridge, MD January 16-18. I left early from work on Wednesday and we drove out there in the afternoon. Once we got out of SE DC (we detoured a little...) it was a beautiful drive with all the bridges.

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We stayed at a Hyatt right on the water. Once we were checked into our water-view room, we walked around a little bit. (And again Jamie was the one with the camera which means almost all the pictures are of me...sorry!)

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That's the hotel behind me.

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It was so peaceful and beautiful...the water and the grounds of the hotel. (There was even an outdoor hot tub - not that we ever used it, but it was nice!)

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With the room, we got $40 towards hotel food each day. So, we took the opportunity to order room service for breakfast. Ah. It reminded me of our honeymoon...except colder.

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After breakfast it was time for the day of luxury that Jamie had planned for me: a haircut and a pedicure in the morning, lunch with him, then a massage and a facial in the afternoon. It was AMAZINGLY relaxing! (Although slightly awkward because there were NO other people in the salon except the hair dresser and the front desk lady.)

While I had my haircut and pedicure Jamie took a walk and captured more of our beautiful surroundings...plus the snow that we had prayed for since my birthday.

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This was Jamie at lunch with me.

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And then in the evening we ate out at a restaurant that Dr. Sellers had recommended.

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Friday morning, we played some pool, walked around one last time, and then came back home.

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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Trying Windows Live Writer

You may have noticed that Jamie and I rarely update the blog. Ha. Its partly because, after an entire day on the computer at work, I'm just not in the mood for staring at a computer screen some more. But, its also because whenever we have pictures to post it takes extraordinary patience to get even five of them uploaded. I usually wait until I have an entire day to be home cleaning and cooking and coming back to the computer ever 30 minutes to add pictures. Quite annoying. So here's hoping that Windows Live Writer can end at least the picture woes. I'll add some beautiful pictures as an experiment and then a real update will be up next if this works.

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Friday, January 11, 2008

James Goes Back to the UK

Tonight, James flew back to England, to begin a new job in Cambridge. Happy for him, sad for us... We'll visit him soon, we hope.



Friday, December 28, 2007

Christmas 2007

:) I thought you might be interested in some of Jamie's artistic shots of Christmas morning at our apartment...and the rest of the day.







We're not big fans of the huge angel on the top, but I got it at TJMax for cheap just in case it looked good and we didn't get a chance to take it back before Christmas.




Jamie gave me like a bzillion amazing gifts. I was so excited! And just one of them was this beautiful glider/rocker bench for our balcony. :)


Unfortunately, Jamie was the only one taking pictures, so there are none of him. And we didn't get the camera out at my parents' house, so there aren't any of our time there. But we had a great time there, as well as at Jamie's parents' house. We were at Jamie's parents' house first to give them the scrapbook I made for them, then we went to my parents' house. We opened gifts with them and ate a delicious dinner! Then back to Jamie's parents' house for dessert and opening gifts there.
Matt and the virgin Mary.

Matt and Jesus.

Patti in the cute hat and scarf that Sarah made for her!