iridescentindigo: family

Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Monday, May 14, 2012

Adventures

Today, I can barely walk. We're going to the Bahamas for my birthday, and I made Chris promise to make me exercise this weekend. I sincerely regret my decision. I am NOT a runner. Saturday, we went on a long run and Sunday, we did a shorter run followed by climbing the steps on Federal Hill repeatedly. Needless to say, I'm in a bit of pain. I'm sure one day I'll appreciate it, but today is not that day.

Chris and I spent as much of the weekend outside as was possible. It was gorgeous out. We grilled, did projects around the house, ventured over to the Eastern Shore to visit my aunt's antique shop and visited a quaint little town, Rock Hall, where Chris' family used to keep their boat.

My sisters and I all got together for a photo shoot last week for my mom. My younger sister, Suzannie, left to spend the summer in England the day before Mother's Day, so we wanted to put together some pictures for my mom before she left. I think they turned out pretty well. Downtown Annapolis has lots of fun places for pictures. Next time I am going to avoid white pants though. I found myself hovering awkwardly to avoid sitting on dirty surfaces. Oh well!

We all got our acts together, which is a feat in and of itself. My mom was thrilled when we gave her the framed pictures. She has no recent pictures of us and I think she really liked these.

What did you do for Mother's Day? Did you get to enjoy any of this sunshiney weather?

I'm loving the fact that it feels like summer. Summer weekends are by far my favorite.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Journey Forward: Describe Yourself

Hm. This Journey Forward assignment is difficult! I could tell you what I look like, or what I believe. I could tell you my occupation or my location. I could tell you my loves and hates, my likes and dislikes, my age or my strengths and weaknesses.

I could tell you that part of my scalp is currently a terrible shade of orange due to a stupid 2 week hair rinse thing I did...

Or I could ask the people who know me well to tell you! I asked them to give me one word, and here's what they came up with...

So this describes the wonderful side of me - I promise there's an equally not as wonderful side that they neglected to mention :) We'll leave that for another day though!

Don't forget to check out the other posts in the Journey Forward challenge!

P.S. Cutest Thing EVER

P.P.S. Great Ideas for Surviving Busy Weeks

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thanksgiving

Wednesday afternoon, I headed to my aunt and uncle's house in St. Mary's for a much needed break from real life. Their home is right on the water and always provides an escape.

The rest of the family came down on Thursday to celebrate the holiday. It didn't feel much like the start of the holiday season, with temps in the mid-70s. I'll take it though! Any holiday you can spend in the warm sunny outdoors, is a good holiday by me.

My aunt set out all of the autumn decorations. Everything looked perfect.

I was reminded once again how blessed we are to have such an abundance of food and family.

My cousin went hunting on Wednesday and brought us home duck. We also had stuffed ham, turkey, oysters and more. There's nothing better than fresh oysters. I hadn't had wood duck before and the taste was much sweeter and less gamey than I expected. My uncle told me they have that flavor because they feast on the farmers' sweet corn.

The turkey was so moist after cooking on the Big Green Egg.

Isn't that turkey a beaut!

I made these Cookies 'N Cream Oreo Brownies for our dessert.

To call them chocolate nirvana might be the understatement of the century.

We were missing Lou, Patti and Lauren, but got a pretty decent picture of the rest of the Gibbons' girls. It's rare to find one that everyone likes, so we go with whatever we can get!

What was your favorite part of this Thanksgiving? Do you have any favorite recipes to share?

Friday, November 11, 2011

10 Day Challenge: Day 2

Day 2 of the Challenge! Nine loves.

These will not be any type of particular order.

9. My family:

As much as they drive me crazy, it really is a blessing to come from such a large family. I have such a network of support, whether I want it or not. :)

My mom is one of 5. My dad is one of 4. I'm one of 4. There are 16 cousins on one side of the family and 11 on the other side. SO MANY PEOPLE.

It's fun too, now that we're older, the age differences don't seem to matter as much.

And the newest addition to the fam:

Vivi Kitty

8. Water:

For years, I swam on swim team year round.

One of my winter coaches dubbed me with the most awful nickname, Reba, which has stuck, to this day.

Sailing also took over a solid portion of our summers down at Indian Landing.

Most people don't get the Landing. It's sort of a time capsule.

A lot of our parents grew up there, and we've all taken our turns working there.

I spent a summer coaching swim team with Bree & Richard.

It's a boat club, not a yacht club or a marina.

There is a pool, tennis courts, basketball and woods to explore. We spent every summer there.

Every parent was everyone else's parent.

When people ask how I met some of my oldest, closest friends, they are shocked that I didn't meet them in school. To this day, I won't give up my membership.

7. Bright Colors:

Yes, we had an inflatable pool full of play place balls at our house in college.

No explanation necessary.

6. Sequins & Sparkles

5. Storms:

Specifically, that crazy still moment right before a storm.

4. Travel adventures:

3. Books:

The smell of old books.

The way you can get lost in a novel.

Wandering through a library.

Challenging concepts and ideas to tackle.

I could get lost in here for hours.

2. Churches:

Old, elegant Churches with traditional liturgy.

I think my favorite so far is the Duomo in Siena.

1. Crabs feasts and Beer:

What can I say? I'm a MD girl at heart!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Happy Birthday to Elisabeth

Yesterday, my sister Elisabeth turned 22 and we entered into our annual 7 month span where she pretends I can't boss her around nearly as much because she's only a year younger than me instead of two. Having your kids 17 months apart means that they will alternate between being best friends and worst enemies, likely within 5 minute intervals. You would think this stops when they become adults - you're funny.

Elisabeth was my best sidekick growing up. Don't tell her that I called her my sidekick, she'll flip and say she was running things. It's not true.
Anyway, I am was a bit of a nerd growing up, so I read a lot of books. These books contained lots of brilliant ideas, ripe for misinterpretation. One such book was about Amelia Earhart. She was a thrill seeker and built a roller coaster in her barn.

We had a barn.

Did I mention yet, that we had way too much unsupervised outside playtime?
Brilliant, beyond brilliant idea. So, I found some long planks of wood and propped them up against the roof of the barn. We found a cardboard box and decided it would be perfect.

It was just a matter of getting up there.

Luckily, right next to the barn was a fence post with a large metal gate attached to it. If I could stand close enough to the fence post, the gate would support my weight.

Now, obviously, since I was the older sister, I was stronger. It made way more sense for me to boost Elisabeth onto the roof.
(It had nothing ~~everything~~ to do with my overwhelming fear of falling and getting hurt.)

We got Elisabeth up onto the barn roof and I passed the box up to her. While we were strategizing, read: bossing her as to the best way to line up the box with the edges of the wood, my mom walked around the corner of the barn and saw what we were doing.

"WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK YOU'RE DOING?!? You get the 3 Ds, DUMB, DUMB, DUMB!"

My mother never yells - ever.
She yelled. A lot.
Shockingly enough, she also wasn't convinced by our insistence that we wouldn't need a ladder to get Elisabeth down from the roof.

So, you know, our ~~harebrained scheme~~ project didn't fail, it was just interrupted.

Elisabeth did not always take to being bossed around so easily. One time, I had devised this awesome game. I was the queen, and she and Suzannie were my servants. It was SO MUCH FUN. I ruled from the top bunk and they got me whatever I demanded. They brought me books and pillows and snacks. Life was good, let me tell you!

It was such a demanding game that I got a bit parched.

I ordered my loyal subjects to bring me water.

They were great! They brought it in so quickly, with big smiles on their faces.

I took a sip and right before I swallowed they burst out laughing saying it was...

TOILET water.

Pause, reflect. Take a moment to think what you would have done. No, murder is not a socially acceptable option.

Naturally, I spit the toilet water all over them and ran to tell my mom.

20 minutes later, after waiting anxiously while she called poison control, we found out I would live. Were it not for my remarkable self restraint, my sister may not have lived past that day.

All this to say, Elisabeth has always been fearless. She always takes things as far as they will go, never worrying about the repercussions. So Elisabeth, here's to you. I hope nothing stops you from your fearless escapades as you go forward. I love you (even when I don't like you). Happy Birthday!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

10 Things About Life in a Relatively Big Family

Okay, so there are actually 11 things, but 10 sounded better.

I'm not one of 8 or 9 kids, but I am the oldest of 4. And I have a bajillion cousins. So I feel qualified to speak to the topic of growing up in a big family.

Colleen being silly

1) To this day I cannot eat slowly. If you didn't eat frantically or make some ridiculous modification (such as mustard and ketchup on your fries at once to deter any potential food snatchers), your siblings got more of the best food.

2) Germ-phobia is a luxury. Every drink, lip gloss, and yes, on awful occasions tooth brushes are likely to be shared at some point.

Colleen & Suzannie at the Landing

3) If you can make someone laugh you will escape all sorts of trouble. ~~Once~~ Okay, more than once, I tripped my sister and made her cry. This one time, I was desperate to make her laugh before my parents heard. I knew they were a bit cranky that day and I'd really be in for it. My solution was to make a complete spectacle of myself by singing the song from Titanic. So there I was in our basement, dancing on the cement floor in socks going, "Near, Farrrrrrrrrrrr" at the top of my lungs. To really spice it up, I decided to add a dramatic leap sideways. Unfortunately, being the picture of grace and elegance at all times, I landed on a doll house rocking chair and managed to break my arm and my foot. Moral of the story: even if she doesn't laugh, if you try hard enough, sometimes you still might not get in trouble.

4) There will likely always be dollhouses or some other small toys littered around your house. Even if you guys are grownups.

Suzannie in NYC

5) You don't own anything. Even the things you think you own, the things you bought with your money, are not yours. Nothing is sacred. It will be "borrowed". No matter what you do. Learn to share, quickly.

6) The only way to shut up a car of screaming children is to make them sing, loudly. You can make any song fun and lively, even John Denver songs.

Elisabeth & Dad

7) The waiting room is actually a very interesting spot for people watching.You will never go to the doctor or dentist unless there are appointments available for at least half of your siblings.

8) It is possible to hate someone with your whole being and then laugh so hard you cry with that same person in less than 5 minutes.

The 4 of us

9) Spending any extended amount of time alone will result in anxiety.

10) Years after you've moved out, you will find yourself hiding your favorite things for no apparent reason.

And finally, there will never be a family photo that pleases everyone.

Do you have any fun facts about life in a large family?

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Wine & Work

I work two jobs and am in grad school. It is a rare night when I am home before 9:45 / 10pm. When I get home, I've used so much adrenaline to keep going throughout the day, that I am too keyed up to sleep.

3-4 times a week, I'll have a glass of wine with my late night dinner. My housemate is in law school and she often joins me. It's a good way to unwind a bit, and catch up on our days.

The Wine Market where I work in the evenings.

We joke about it a bit, and sometimes suggest we should maybe feel guilty for it. Immediately, though, we've justified it based on the long day we had or the hard work we did. Plus, red wine is good for heart health, right?

Turns out, no need for guilt! Having a drink a day is good for women! Apparently, women who have a moderate amount of alcohol 5-7 days a week were significantly healthier in old age than women who didn't. Women who have 1-2 drinks a day are 28% more likely to age successfully.

Dad's vineyard

Good news for my dad, he can keep making wine for us to drink :)

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Men are Definitely from Mars

Stumbled across this on Pinterest and laughed a lot.

Everyone knows guys and girls think differently. I ran into this the other day, talking to my friend about an upcoming trip. He didn't want to think about what to pack, so knowing he definitely would pack significantly less than me, I thought through what I considered to be the bare minimum for a 10 day trip:

8 shirts

2 shorts

shoes

flops

bathing suit

phone

Meanwhile, he had decided what to bring and sent me the list at the same time I sent my helpful little list over.

2 shirts

shorts

bathing suit

flops

phone

I immediately laughed out loud. It never ceases to amaze me how differently our minds work!

My dad and I run into this, pretty much every conversation we have. The poor guy went from growing up with three brothers to having four daughters. He's catching on slowly but surely. There were years upon years (teenage years) where my sisters and I would have total meltdowns about friends, boys and homework (read hormones).

He always wanted to find a way to solve the problem, fix whatever could possibly be fixed, and be the hero. It took him ages to finally catch on to the fact that we didn't want a solution! We just wanted to cry, rant, be heard and be loved.

The one thing he caught onto very quickly: how to answer us when we asked how we looked!