Polish Festival 2015

Last weekend I was super excited to be off of work because it was the Polish Festival down in Castle Hayne! Ryan and I went to the festival in 2012 during the first year we lived in NC but hadn't been able to make it back since... mainly due to silly things like work, shows, and deployments. So when this Saturday rolled around and we were not only both in the same country and off of work we decided to go back. It was super hot that day, nearly 80 degrees, and I was glad we both wore shorts. I don't think North Carolina got the memo it is November but I am so not complaining. The downside to the nice weather was that the festival was packed.

 

 

This was the line for food. Well, lines, one on each side of the booth. We sweated it out waiting for our chance to buy the mixed plate of food like we did last time and it was worth it. Ryan also got us some potato pancakes to eat while we waited. I was glad he did as we missed out on those last time!

 

I wanted them with sour cream but Ryan is on a health kick again and insisted on apple sauce. Sigh. My inner fat kid is so struggling to fight out!

 

We finally got to the front of the line and they loaded up our plates for us. The prices obviously went up a bit but it is so worth it. Sure, I just had Polish food with my Babci and Poppy a few weeks ago, but I can never have too many pierogies!!

The food was the same we got last time, sauerkraut with a roll, kielbasa, glumpke (beef and rice stuffed in a cabbage leaf) and pierogies with plenty of butter and onions.

 We also stopped by the bakery tent and got Chruściki (also called Angel Wings). My Babci's chruściki is definitely better, much crispier! This one was more like funnel cake strips than the yumminess that is chruściki.

 

After we ate we wandered back to the music tent to listen to the live Polka music and to try and at least dance together for one of them. It was crowded even on the dance floor so we mostly hopped around in a sort of two step that looked like it could maybe be a polka... if you were drunk enough.

 

Overall we had a fantastic time and I was super happy to indulge in some Polish food and traditions. It makes me feel like a little kid again visiting my grandparents. We didn't stay too long after that but it was definitely a fun afternoon.

15th Annual Polish Fesitval

A few weeks ago in our church bulletin I saw a notice about the 15th Annual Polish Festival at St. Stan's, a Catholic Church maybe an hour or so away. For those of you who don't know me too well, I am very Polish. My Babci (Polish for grandmother) is 100% and is fluent in the language, as are her sisters. We always knew they were talking about something good when we were growing up because they switched to Polish so us grandkids couldn't understand. Every birthday on my mom's side of the family we sing in English and then in Polish (Sto Lat) and all of us know a few phrases at least. My Babci makes the most amazing Polish food that I miss dearly so I knew we had to go to the festival.

Saturday we slept in and made our way down to Castle Hayne NC. The festival went from 11-5 and we arrived around 2:30 or so. It was perfect! Free parking and free admission. There was a ton of Polish food, crafts, beer and music... a live Polka Band! We naturally started off with the food.

Clockwise from the top we have potato pierogies (dough like dumplings with potato inside) with buttered onions, glumpke (meat, rice and spices wrapped in a cabbage leaf with tomato sauce) and kielbasa (a sausage) with sauerkraut and a roll. Ryan and I split the plate and were perfectly content. After we ate we walked around for a bit.

We did miss out on the potato pancakes (by the time we were hungry they sold out) and only managed to get some small cookies from the bake tent. Still delicious. We also browsed the crafts (I got a Coca Cola airplane made from a can to put in my bathroom) and it made me really miss my Babci. The afghans and blankets were like the ones she knits. We skipped out on the silent auction and made our way to the music and dancing.

 Have you ever seen andyone Polka before? My grandparents did it at our wedding (and many times growing up) and let me tell you, there is no such thing as a fat Polka dancer! It is fast and fun and those old people can totally cut a rug! They were spinning around us like it was as easy as walking.

 Obviously in a still picture you can't see the speed, but these people were flying around the floor!

 We joined in for one or two dances. I know some basic steps and Ryan and I basically just hopped around a lot! Luckily I was able to bribe him with Polish beer so he was much more cooperative about dancing than usual.

The band was fantastic too. I heard songs I remember hearing at Babci and Poppy's house on the radio growing up and they even made some modern songs into a polka (see Boot Scootin Boogie and You Are My Sunshine). Naturally I wanted to get a tshirt, and a Christmas ornament, and my husband only rolled his eyes a little at my cornieness.

 Regardless we had an amazing time and definitely plan on going back next year! I also heard Jacksonville does a Polish Day in January that we also may have to check out.

Normally you don't see a lot of chubby cheeked, blonde haired, blue eyed people in one place but you could tell at the Festival that I was among my people! I was a dime a dozen in Castle Hayne!

Sunday we donated blood to try and help with the shortage from the Hurricane. Ryan is O- (and naturally afraid of needles) but we both knew we had to try and help out. We also have made financial contributions to the Red Cross and Americares. Please donate if you are able; whether it be time, money, blood, clothes or prayers all are appreciated in New Jersey and New York and all the areas hit by Sandy.

Post blood donation we made our way to the Olive Garden and had a nice dinner (and did that special deal where we took home dinner for another day, awesome concept) before coming home to watch the Giants lose. Sigh. Can't win them all! Overall we had a wonderful weekend and hopefully many more like them to come!

And if you didn't already, don't forget to vote today. I am off to the polls.... hopefully the lines aren't too long.

My give away is almost done! Have you entered yet?? Another awesome give away will be up later this week!

Mum Fest

Rehearsals are going well. We have officially entered Tech Week... aka Hell Week. So there was rehearsal this morning and run throughs with lights and cues, a "cue to cue" run, and a lot of time of me up on a ladder! When I got home Ryan and I got in the car and headed off to New Bern for the Mum Festival. North Carolina is big on festivals and I was pretty excited for this one! All of New Bern was covered in booths and tents... everything from food to games to sellers to rides. We spent a good bit of money but we planned it in advance so we were prepared!

We arrived in the late afternoon and the place was definitely busy!

Neither of us had really eaten anything big beforehand (luckily!) and the first thing we did after getting a lucky free parking spot was hit the food.

All this for $20! Ryan got a gyro and I got a "steak and cheese" which we swappedx back and forth. Then we got dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) with greek salad and wing chips. Delicious! We found a curb at the bank drive thru and chowed down. Once that was finished Ryan went on a mission to get some fresh lemonade and not have to spend $6 on it. He was gone for awhile and I was starting to get antsy, I had his phone to boot, but he came back with not just lemonade...

He had fried oreos too!!! They are a huge favorite of mine and I rarely get them! I was so excited that I didn't even glance at the $4 lemonade. Good job Sweetie! After we ate about 3,000 calories each we walked around to all the tents and made our way to the rides.

Ryan tried to get me on the ferris wheel but I am terrified of them. It was 4 tickets each and a dollar a ticket so I was not spending $8 to do something I am a little petrified of. Then Ryan made the mistake of talking to the carnies at the games. Big Mistake. We got suckered in to no less than three games.

Check out my $15 bounty! $5 each and if we played just one more time it could have been bigger. No thanks. Ryan caught on and we walked away with the little gang I had collected. We picked up some more food stuffs to take home.

Naturally my husband found the hot sauce guy and bought a bottle of something he had gotten many times before at Firehouse Subs. I also got a box of beer bread from a Tasefully Simple lady after I explained to my husband the concept. We also hit up the NC Lotto area and bought a bunch of scratch offs, won a tshirt and then won back $12! We had maybe a total $2 profit since Ryan used his to buy more but I held on to my bounty proudly.

As the sun and the temperature dropped we made our way back home. I jokingly started to play Pididdle with Ryan in the car and by the time we got back to Jacksonville we were both shoeless, shirtless and Ryan was beltless. Forget mid twenties, we are kids at heart!

Now Ryan grilled up some chicken and we are going to watch the Gamecocks take on LSU. Go Gamecocks!!!!

Happy Weekend all! And thanks for sticking with me in my lack of bloggingness lately. A review and give away will be up shortly as will more information about my show.

The Weekend We Actually Did Stuff!

As you can tell from the state of my blog my husband and I have been kind of homebodies living in North Carolina. We spend our weekends together, usually watching Netflix (PS - Anyone else watch Doctor Who?? SO obsessed!), going to the beach or occassionally a movie. Well this weekend we socialized and got out of the house... and it was terrific.

Friday was a mandatory fun day with Ryan's unit, a beach bash. The sky was gray and rainy all morning so I wasn't thrilled to be going, but I am glad I did. We always heard the beach on base was terrible and drove to South Topsail. Wrong! We loved it! The surf was pretty rough from all the rain and storms but it is a nice beach. There was good BBQ and other things like horsehoes and a rock wall behind the dunes but we stuck with the beach. We played football and swam mostly. Well I tried to swim but it was a really strong current. Ryan would get in and end up a mile down the beach trying to body surf.

I actually got to meet some other wives/girlfriends and I got along with them.... alleluia! It has been a sloooow process for me meeting people so I am very thankful. Ryan recently got a new guy Ben in his shop and he and his wife Chelsea are great, we all stayed at the beach way after everyone else left and have the sunburn to prove it! Chelsea got me addicted to a new beach habbit, searching for shark teeth!

I was nowhere near as good at spotting them as she was but I have a nice little start to our collection. Whenever we go to the beach on base I know what I will be doing! After frying in the sun the four of us went back to our house and had a nice cook out together and lit a fire in our firepit to enjoy some wine with. For once it didn't rain! So Friday was a good day!

Once again Saturday loomed all gray and rainy. We had planned to meet Nicole (from Flip Flops and Combat Boots) and her husband Danny at the Snead's Ferry Shrimp Festival but the weather was not looking promising. We gave it some time and the downpour started to fade so we decided to chance it! Glad we did!

Sure most of the day was spent at the beer tent, so obviously we had a blast! I had some good peach beer and we all tried some shrimp at some point throughout the day. It is a small world and a smaller Marine Corps, because Ryan ran into one of the guys who worked in the office that recruited him. The last time this guy saw Ryan was when my husband was seventeen years old! But he does have a very distinct walk that makes him completely identifiable. We sat with him and his wife and friends and had a great afternoon.



Nicole's picture... I am stealing it because I was camera-less and didn't take any phone pictures!

As you can see my right shoulder is already quite burnt.... after sitting in the sun on that bench for hours my back went from the red of my shoulder to straight up lobster. It is that fun sort of tingly sunburn that is very very uncomfortable! We wore sunscreen at the beach but I now know never to ask my husband to buy sunscreen because he thinks SPF 15 is acceptable. Have you seen how pale I am!? Blonde hair is a sign of the permanently untanned.

After a few hours at the Festival we went back to Nicole and Danny's and ordered pizza. Nicole and I took a trip to our house to get Rylie so Rylie and Miley finally had a puppy play date!

I think Rylie sufficiently annoyed the bejeezus out of Miley but she was a very good sport! They ran around and shared toys and whenever Miley laid down Rylie bothered her again until she got up. She is still such a  puppy! I think Miley also got a thorough spit bath from the neck up from Rylie's tendency to give kisses and chew on ears....

Sunday we went to church and sat on the couch and watched Netflix. We were beat!

Fantastic weekend though and totally worth the sunburn.