Spring Adventures

Now that the weather is warming up finally in Eastern North Carolina our family gets to do some of the outdoor things we love... like strawberry picking at Mike's Farm. Nothing like a sun warmed berry right off the vine and eleven pounds of your favorite fruit to make a weekend wonderful.

 

Plus, did I mention the chocolate cake? They are famous for the ten layer cake and I can see why. It literally melted in my mouth. My husband went for the chocolate ice cream, but I will not regret that cake. I hope we meet again very soon.

Plus, warmer weather at the coast means days at the beach. Sure, sporting a bump in a maternity swim suit is a little different than any other summer, but it is still awesome to read a book in a chair on the sand as your crazy husband goes into the frigid ocean.

Rylie had a better time than any of us, swimming and running to her heart's content. She came home that evening a very sleepy, happy Dup Dup.

Soon our trips to the beach will be very different, with sand toys and tents and bags of things, but for now we will continue on as we do every summer since we have lived here. One bag, two chairs, an umbrella and a good book or two until our load gets a little bigger... we cannot wait!

Christmas in NJ

Yes, I am behind, what else is new? :P

For Christmas this year we got to drive up to New Jersey to see my extended family for the first time since my best friend's wedding back in May of 2014. I was super excited to say the least! I hate going so long without seeing my family, and even though I didn't get to see everyone this time around, I did get most people, which is a plus. 

The Tuesday before Christmas we drove 2 and a half hours to my parents' house and spent the night before leaving early Wednesday to continue the drive to New Jersey. I got kicked out of my car and Stefan and Ryan drove together where I rode in the van with my parents. I see how it is boys! It took us about 8 hours with a long stop for lunch but we finally got to New Jersey! 

My uncle Dave was visiting from Florida and he had some home made chili and sourdough bread bowls waiting for us and many of my aunts and uncles and cousins came over, so we got family right away. It was so wonderful to see everyone it just made my heart happy. One of the big things about going to New Jersey for me is the food!

I have to get a taylor ham egg and cheese sandwich on a roll, it is a breakfast must that my mom went out and got for everyone the first morning. We also have to order pizza at least once, because lets face it, Jersey pizza is the absolute best! We had that as our last meal when we left. Then the bottom two above are our Christmas Eve and Day meals, which are always fantastic. Since we are Western European (Polish) we tend to do a meat free Christmas Eve with pierogies, fried fish and mushroom soup. Christmas Day we go crazy with ham, smoked turkey, lasagna, beef wellington, more pierogies and tons and tons of cookies. So many cookies! Ah the food. So thankful for such deliciousness!

Another big highlight for us was finally being able to meet our niece Adrianna. She was born on the 4th of July to my oldest half brother Sean and we finally got to visit and spend some time with her. She is definitely a little firecracker, like her fitting nickname suggests! I loved being able to snuggle her and spend time with her and my brothers and their family.

My heart was also happy to spend Christmas Eve mass at my home church that I grew up in. This is the church I attended from the time I was in about second grade on. It is the church I was a lector (reader) in, received my first communion, confirmation, and got married in. I have lived many places over the past ten years since I left home and none have had a church that compares to this one. I hope someday I find one that will, but until then when I return it is like coming home. Everyone still knows us and treats us like family and it is just a tremendous blessing. It felt like a second reunion being there. 

My best friend Sam met us at Mass and then all of us went to our good friend of the family's house afterwards to catch up. We were there until almost 3am on Christmas Eve! My parents ducked out around 2:30am and us "kids" followed not too far behind afterwards. We still had a long drive back to my grandparents' house after that. Needless to say Christmas Day we slept in a bit before the rest of our family descended on us for dinner.

When my extended family gets together every room looks like this. People are setting up and stealing food in the kitchen, talking in the dining room, and watching TV in the living room. Everywhere you turn someone is there and you bump in to a lot of people and it becomes a hundred degrees in the house but it is wonderful. It was a very balmy Christmas in New Jersey, in the 70s most of our visit and the 50s maybe when we left, so the windows were wide open the entire time! All the people tend to drive my husband nuts but he loves everyone so he tolerates being crowded for me!

I was flipping through some old albums and I found this picture of my Poppy (second from the right) from 1928, when we was about six years old. My Poppy was one of thirteen children, but only Ethel, Emil, and Grace are in this picture with hum. For some reason I just loved this picture and had to take a snapshot of it to have. 

I was a little concerned on how the Dup would do with so many people, but she was utterly fabulous. She only almost jumped on Poppy's visiting nurse once and my cousin's aunt another time. Oops. But everyone basically loves dogs in my family so she got a ton of snuggles and treats and food sneaked her way. She was very unhappy with us when we returned home. One, she hates the car and sticking her in there for ten hours made her miserable, and two she missed all the attention she got for three days straight! Rylie literally spent all day Sunday hiding from us and refusing any treats we offered her. 

As always, the trip was entirely too short. Ryan and I had to leave Saturday to get back to North Carolina. We both had work Monday and knew we'd need Sunday to get stuff done. I hate saying goodbye to my grandparents, it always breaks my heart, and I sobbed as Ryan and I got into the car. And continued to sob most of the way down the New Jersey turnpike. It was a rough, long drive back. We left around 3pm and drove through rain on and off and didn't get home until 1:30 in the morning. We stopped briefly for food and gas but had to take a lot of smaller highways as the 95 area and cities were just a mess.

So it was a really terrific trip and I am so happy we were able to go and spend time with my family. It truly was a wonderful Christmas because of that. Hopefully not so much time will pass before we can get up there again.

I hope you and your families had a great holiday season.

Time Spent

Exhibit D (for Dup)

Lately I have been working a lot, our normal library Reference staff of four is now down to two temporarily. Because of this my schedule is all over the place (especially nights and weekends, sigh) to fill in the gaps... hello working every other weekend again. I had not missed you these past few months! Ryan is in school for his B-Billet so he tends to also have a weird schedule too, so our weird schedules coinciding has been a rarity. When they finally do line up we are usually too tired to do much of anything, especially with me still getting over being as sick as I was. We usually are like this (see Exhibit D).

 

But this past weekend, even though I had work, we both knew we HAD to get out of the house and do something. Even better, get out of J-ville. So we did. We went to one of my favorite nearby little towns, Swansboro, for dinner. Ryan looked up a few places and we decided on an Irish Pub that was rumored to have some delicious sandwiches. They did not disappoint. Our timing was interesting because we wandered into town during their Swansboro by Candlelight night, so most streets were closed to cars and it was packed as the small town lit their Christmas tree. Luminaries lined the streets and the historic district was gorgeous. We managed to find a place to park, find the pub AND get a table. Talk about a lucky break! It was packed too.

 

 

They had one of my favorite ciders and even though I need to watch my alcohol intake with my gallbladder I could not resist having one! I also had a yummy turkey and avocado sandwich with some pasta salad. Ryan naturally had a reuben which I was drooling over (and risked a bite of!) and we had a really nice time. I used to love going to Irish Pubs when we lived in DC and there are a depressing lack of them around here. I usually just love the atmosphere they have. This pub even had a "wall of regulars" where they each have a numbered cup that they come in and use! We thought it was just a display but then number 26 came in, said excuse me, grabbed his cup from over our heads and went to the bar! We were both instantly jealous and wanted to be regulars with our own numbered cups. Some day my friends, some day.

 

I also had Granny Smith Caramel Apple Pie for dessert that made my tastebuds dance for joy.

 

After we ate I grabbed a hot chocolate to go and we strolled through the town looking at the Christmas lights and window displays. Yes, it was a little early, but it was a really nice much needed night out for the two of us. We came home and sleepily watched some Big Bang Theory reruns before I went to bed since I had work the next day. Hopefully our schedules will match a little more often in the coming weeks and we can do some more of this "spending time together" notion! ;)

Chaos

Since Ryan has been home it's been all over the place! Naturally I got sick within a week and ended up on two rounds of antibiotics. Antibiotics always kick my butt so I've been even more sick than when I was "sick"! These darn pills cause terrible stabbing headaches, nausea and of course no alcohol. No alcohol until Christmas even though I'm done taking it I can't drink until they leave my system. Sigh. 

So that's been fun!

But having Ryan home has been great. Even carpooling hasn't been bad. Surprise!!!

A week or so after Ryan got home we went to the beach on base and watched the meteor shower. It was cold so we bundled up and laid in the sand and saw about half a dozen of them. They were so cool. Even with the some clouds that were out the meteors were so bright we saw them through the clouds!!

We've gotten Ryan all caught up on How I Met Your Mother too. And have seen Hunger Games and Thor 2. 

The weather this past weekend was gorgeous so we took Rylie to the beach. She had a blast!!

Of course at one point Rylie saw another lab at one point and went to run after him. Ryan told me to grab her since her leash was on but I couldn't get a grip. So I went to stomp on it and the next thing I know I'm in the Atlantic Ocean. In December. On the rocks. Ouch!!! Luckily aside from being dirty, wet and covered in sand only my dignity was wounded!

We all cleaned up nicely and then opened presents from my parents so we didn't have to cart them to my inlaws. My brother made Ryan an amazing plaque they he absolutely loved. It was all handmade and relevant to this past deployment. 

Homecoming Photos

Here they are!!! Kaylah from Laure Love Photography did a fantastic job once again. I also just made our Christmas cards featuring these pictures... fingers crossed they arrive in time for me to send them out. I am so so behind this year. No cards, no presents, no tree... at least we have an excuse! (:

Enjoy the pictures. I sure have! I cannot wait for our prints to arrive!

Complete happiness.

We are slowly getting back into a routine, a few snags here and there but nothing too terrible. I did catch a horrendous cold yesterday but hopefully the medicine the doctor gave me will zap that fast! Our main missions at the moment, in no particular order are; to get the hubby a passport, figure out a trip, decorate for Christmas, get Christmas presents, and various other things!

Happy happy happy.




Edit 12/15/14 PERSEC