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.

Monday without Diet Coke

Good news, I'm still alive.

I know you were worried.

My lack of attention comes from the fact that we're nearing the end of the worst month ever invented. February has been worse than normal just because despite the constant gray we haven't even had a good snow. This yo-yo ing between 60 degrees with rain and 40 degrees with sun is quite capricious. Mother Nature - get your act together, you're toying with my emotions. No one likes a tease.

However, by the end of the week, annual awful will have ended and I can get back to sorts.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with all of my sisters. We celebrated the youngest's birthday with lunch, mani/pedis and some new jewelry for her.

She's 15 and it is VERY STRANGE. I left for college when she was 8 years old and now she's most definitely a teenager. It's hard to start treating her as more of an adult - I just barely started seeing my 19 year old sister as an adult! But, her life is full of boys, cell phones, parties and new clothes so I'm pretty sure it's time I get over it and let her be as old as she is. This was the first year I had to check her schedule before I planned her birthday festivities. 

So Weird

As far as life without diet coke, I hate to admit this, but I think I actually am starting to survive without it.  

Wednesday was bad, headaches and shaking hands. 

Thursday was crippling. 

Friday the headache didn't kick in until noon. 

Saturday it didn't kick in until 4pm. 

Yesterday, no headache just exhaustion. 

Today, going good so far! 

I think I'm beating this thing!

Anyways, here are some pretty and happy things to help you survive the last few days of the most terrible month.

Since we've had a serious lack of snow this year, I thought I'd share a snowy paradise, straight out of a fairy tale.

Source: flickr.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

When I went to Germany, we visited the Neuschwanstein Castle. It's the castle the Disney castle was modeled after and is very bizarre.  When you visit it, you feel like you're visiting a museum - everything is ornate and over the top. 

It was built in the late 1800s by King Ludwig II of Bavaria - at the same time the first skyscrapers were being built in America . He was a huge fan of music and theater and adored Wagner. His castle celebrates his love of art and he apparently had elaborate sleighs built so that he could travel around the countryside in historic attire.  It struck me as strange that such an old fashioned building decorated lavishly was built so recently. 

The location is gorgeous though and the castle really is magnificent.

I'm hoping spring is just around the corner. As such, I'm planning my garden for this season. One of the problems I've encountered with planting seeds is I always forget what I've put where.

Source: shineyourlightblog.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

I saw this idea on pinterest and can't wait to try it. We have plenty of corks at my house and I think this looks so much nicer than seed packets that get bleached and torn in the elements.

Finally, Easter is coming very quickly. I'm really excited to try Martha Stewart's spin on traditional Easter Eggs. These eggs are so sparkly and I think they will be really fun to make!

Source: marthastewart.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

While I Was Away...

How was your holiday? I spent lots of time with my sisters and was lucky enough to have my friend and boyfriend join us for Christmas.  



I wish I had taken pictures of Christmas dinner. We sampled homemade hummus and crab & cucumber canapes before the meal. My dad made beef bourguinon, and we served it with chickpea fritters and roasted fingerling potatoes.  My mom had made her famous caesar salad and we never even got to it. It was a feast for 20 rather than the 8 we had!

I didn't take many pictures on Christmas, but it seems that my sisters found my phone. I glanced at it and found this lovely shot as my background. 

Got them back by sharing this flattering photo with the world!

 Kath and I made some fun holiday crafts. 

Vivi Kitty especially loved the sparkly ornaments!

                             

Chris and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather on our day off, Monday. We wandered down to the harbor for a bit. 

I didn't edit this photo at all, isn't the sky gorgeous! 

 Later in the afternoon, we made our way over to Ft. McHenry for a picnic.


Lucien, the wine director at the Wine Market (where I used to work) recommended a delicious Cabernet/Sangiovese blend for us to enjoy with our prosciutto and mozz snack. 

Chris came up with a creative  bottle holder. I forgot to bring glasses for us, so we opted for the sip sip pass method. Super classy. 

I thought the weather was relatively mild, but I didn't take into account that I had positioned Chris to block the wind. As soon as we stood up to leave, I started violently shivering. The poor guy didn't say a word about how cold he must have been the whole time! He claims that it was "a little chilly." There I was, loving that it was almost warm with the wind blocked and the sun shining on me and he was taking the brunt of the cold!

We had a great date day. Sometimes you just need a low key lazy day. We made a tasty dinner of Chilean sea bass and I successfully passed the test of cooking seafood for Chris! He's a pretty avid fisher and although I'm a pretty good cook, I was terrified of bumbling it!


One of the things my family discussed at our Christmas dinner were our best and worst moments of 2011. Last year I worked two jobs so that I could go to Bali. It was something that I really looked forward to, and with such high expectations, it could easily have let me down. Luckily, everything went beautifully. I had so much fun and got to spend time with great people. The worst moment of 2011, probably was when I broke my foot two weeks before the trip. Once again though, everything worked out really well. I was able to put weight on the foot and crutches became optional the day I left. The only things I couldn't do while I was there, were volcano hiking and surfing. 


All in all though, it's been a great year. I've made some major life changes and feel as if things are going in the right direction. Things got a bit hectic when I added school onto the two jobs, but I went back to just one job and life has calmed down significantly!


If you had to sum up your year in two sentences, best and worst moments of 2011, what would you say? I'd love to hear what your best and worst moments were.

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!