Something to think about
Friday, January 16 2009 - 0 comments
Po Bronson, author of What Should I do With My Life? , had a quote on the side of my Starbucks coffee cup this past Wednesday morning: “Failure’s hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you’re successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.” This really applies to me as I think about decisions to make in my life right now.Winter Recap Part 2 – Christmas in Prague
Tuesday, January 13 2009 - 0 comments
Peter and I flew to Prague on the night of the 23rd just in time to make it to Prague for Christmas with his parents. This was our first Christmas together in Prague and my first Christmas away from my parents. It was exciting and different for me at the same time. Despite only staying for a little over four days we had the chance to do a lot of touring, and saw three musical and theater performances, including the Nutcracker Ballet! We woke up to this beautiful sky on Christmas morning… I loved how the city of Prague had many Christmas decorations like these beautiful (real!) wreaths throughout the city. My favorite part of this image is the little boy in the background – he was practicing his marching as the Czech guards marched by. I told Peter I had to get my picture with the Euro Christmas tree – this made him laugh. On Christmas day we saw an exhibit of different nativities for the past couple of hundred years. Like Pre-United States Nativities. It was really awesome to see. Can you believe local Czech middle school students made these? I love image – especially because they are eating my favorite Czech poppy seed cookie. This sign made me do a double take. So of course I had to take a picture. I mean seriously - “Happy Package” – seriously?! Haha. Different processing here – love the cool vintage feeling. Milka Chocolate. Yummy. Enough said. Czech grocery stores are awesome. You should see the collections of chocolate, sausage, and breads. Yes, there are other things, but those were the three food groups I was concerned with. At the Christmas Market… Enjoying a sundae at a historic Ice Cream shop. Heading home…even the airport is decorated. I really love visiting Prague – I seriously think I could live there one day. Maybe we will.Winter Recap Part 1 – My birthday!
Thursday, January 08 2009 - 0 comments
My poor neglected blog. A lot has happened since then, but since one of my resolutions is to blog more, I’ve decided to catch up on the last month plus in several blog post….hope that’s not cheating! First, my birthday…I turned 27 on the 21st of December. The past several years, Peter has always planned something special for me on my birthday and usually it’s been some sort of traveling. This year, I decided that I really wanted to spend my actual birthday day with my parents and Peter since we knew that we would be going away for Christmas (more on that in the next post!). When Peter announced that we would be doing something together the day before, I figured we’d be doing something low key, maybe seeing a movie, going out to eat, etc…I had no idea that he had a whole special day planned! Below is my birthday weekend in pictures! a) I woke up to this sweet message on the fridge from my hubby b) Us at the Amtrak station – Peter surprised me with a trip to Washington D.C. for the day c) Our train is here! d) Me under the Delaware Street sign e) At the Julia Child exhibit f) At Winterthur with my parents on my actual b-day g) Decorations at Winterthur – during the holidays I wish we had a huge house with a ton of rooms – then I could decorate more! h) A self-portrait at Winterthur – I’m 27! i) Jasmine helped me unwrap presents – aka played with the wrapping paper, bows, and ribbonStanding up for breakfast
Tuesday, November 11 2008 - 0 comments
Today, I started my day by eating breakfast with my husband. I sat at the table and ate my whole wheat toast with one over easy egg (trying the healthy lifestyle thing), and Peter ate his breakfast of oatmeal AND yogurt (dude, I so wish I could eat like that and stay skinny, sigh!) standing up in the kitchen. I realized half way through eating that he was doing his stand up and eat breakfast thing again. It makes me internally giggle - I have no idea why he does this. Sometimes he stands in the kitchen, as if it were the most natural thing on earth, leans against the counter, and proceeds to eat his oatmeal and yogurt without a care in the world. No crumbs, no mess, as if it were a very normal thing to be eating breakfast standing up. Meanwhile, I'm seating at the table eating breakfast and leaving crumbs.Election 2008 and a Family Visit
Tuesday, November 04 2008 - 0 comments
Bright and early this morning I made my way to my assigned polling place and voted. Then, I drove down to Dover to pick up my Mom before driving down to the beach to have lunch with my two favorite aunts: Aunt Kitty and Jean. I don’t see enough of these two dear relatives. Normally, Mom and I make sure to stop by for a visit around Christmas time, but because Peter and I will be going away for Christmas this year (more on that in a few weeks!), we wanted to make sure to visit now. Both former teachers, Aunt Kitty and Jean have amazing attention to detail and manage to put together an elaborate lunch with some every day items. Some favorite images from our visit: China settings like this are set up throughout their home – love the red! Silver cream and sugar service – at lunch time?! I feel like such a failure – I’ve never used something like this at lunch time. Can you believe this spoon? It’s for serving slices of tomato. Jean was a Home Economics teacher for 30 some years. She shared some really interesting stories about what life was like growing up for her. Aunt Kitty – Aunt Kitty was my Mommom’s sister. My Mommom passed away in 1997. I miss her so much every day. Aunt Kitty reminds me a lot of her – the way she smiles, and especially the way she laughs – she has this cute giggle that you totally wouldn’t expect. Love taking family pictures. Mom’s attempt – she’s still learning to hold her breath when she shoots to keep the camera still but she’s getting better! That’s why this is black and white though :) Had to share my new Anthropologie hoodie – picked up this past Saturday on a date with Peter – love sales!Halloween at Home Recap
Monday, November 03 2008 - 0 comments
This year we celebrated Halloween just the way I like it – quietly at home with my husband. I sound like such homebody – I know I do – but after a busy week, I wanted nothing more than hanging out with my hubby, eating a nice meal, and watching some TV with cats curled up on either side. I would have been happy to give out some candy to trick-or-treaters but we live in a community of mostly more mature individuals, so we actually didn’t have a single knock on the door. While cooking, I had some fun taking pictures of Jasper and Jasmine. I thought it would be cute to get some pictures of them together with my fake Pumpkins AKA Funkins. As you can see, they really weren’t that into it at first. I think they thought I was strange. Then, Jasmine started to warm up to the idea and decided to pose for me: Jasper wasn’t keen on the idea of posing, but I managed to capture one: Like my Halloween napkins? Yea for holiday decorations 50% off when purchased on the holiday at Acme. After putting dinner on the table, I discovered Jasper had found himself a comfy location to hide from me and my camera -the chair.Halloween 2008 – at work
Friday, October 31 2008 - 0 comments
My students were super happy with me today!Mailboxes and Magazines
Sunday, October 26 2008 - 0 comments
Growing up, for the first 12+ years of my life, my family had a post office box instead of a regular mailbox. The main reason for this was because we lived on a rather rural road (aka we lived on a farm in the middle of almost nowhere), and every time my parents attempted to mount an actual real mailbox at the end of our driveway, someone would drive by, racing recklessly or otherwise, and knock it down. They got tired of that so decided that having a post office box would be the best thing. Anyway, the one thing I felt that I missed out on by not having a mailbox was checking the mail. I remember being at friends’ homes and racing outside when the mailman arrived to see what came in the mail that day. Somehow, I didn’t get the same joy during the weekly trip to the in-town mailbox at the Post Office. Peter and I have a mailbox. I love checking the mail – something that he finds to be quite funny. Usually one of my first questions to him in the afternoon is: ‘Did you check the mail? Did we get anything good? What did we get?!’. Despite the fact that we’ve had a mailbox for the past almost 8 years, I still get excited to check the mail. Probably because all of my bills are online so I don’t get those in the mailbox, haha. One of my favorite things to get in the mail is magazines. A couple of years ago, as a birthday gift, Peter ordered me a few magazine subscriptions. I can’t remember what the original magazines were, but every year since he’s continued to add additional subscriptions each year. With the exception of the one I ordered myself, Self, all of the rest are courtesy of my sweet hubby. So whenever I check the mail, and pull out the latest magazine issue, I tell Peter it’s like getting birthday gifts every month, all year long!Sweetest Day 2008
Saturday, October 18 2008 - 1 comments
One of our favorite traditions is celebrating Sweetest Day . We usually just exchange cards, but this year Peter surprised me:I'm thankful for...
Friday, October 17 2008 - 0 comments
crispy calamari with chunky marinara sauce, veal parm with the best spaghetti on the planet, cannoli, and spending time with Peter talking over a half carafe of Chianti about life, love, and plans for the future.