While driving in the car last week heading home from the grocery store after seeing the first signs of frozen turkeys, I had a great Thanksgiving Day flash back from the yesteryear. When my sister and I were kids we used to spend every Thanksgiving with our Dad’s side of the family while spending Christmas Eve with my mom’s side of the family. For Thanksgiving we’d do a city swap. One year it would be in Portland to celebrate with our Great Uncle and his family the next year they’d come up and we’d celebrate Thanksgiving at our Grandparents house.
This tradition went on for years. I got to experience giblet gravy every other year (something I hope never to repeat ever again… blech), LONG car rides, and lots and lots of over eating. As a kid, this was probably the most boring event in childhood experiences ever. We did get to see our cousins, but there were only 4 of us. Being the youngest pretty much guaranteed me to be ignored for most of the day and made the day extra boring. Not to mention having to sit at the “kids” table all the time. And by “kids” table I mean the little table off to the side. It was a lottery drawing every year to see who had to sit at the “kids” table. Guess who got picked almost every year without any other kids there? (Is my bitterness showing yet?)
Where is this story leading, you might ask? I’m just about to get to the point. About 20 years ago (give or take a few years, my childhood memory is a bit fuzzy from time to time) the last family Thanksgiving came to a screeching halt. (Insert huge smile here. I know what the punch line is and it makes me smile every time). The last Thanksgiving get together was held at my grandparents place. Their old house wasn’t very big so for sure we had to separate tables. One in the dining room, the other table in the living room. The 2 rooms were separated by walls and the kitchen. This time the kids table was an actual kids table! We got to sit out in the living room. I think it was a cleaver ploy of my Grandparents doing. Then they didn’t have to listen to us all complain if we didn’t like the food this year…
As we sat down to eat, a very interesting thing happened. One by one, our plates started arriving in front of our noses. One by one, we all got a very confused look on our faces. My grandfather apparently had begun to hold a grudge against the thanksgiving traveling tradition. This year was his retaliation against the family and tradition. On our plates that year there was no turkey and no gravy.
NO TURKEY!!!
What did we get that year for Dinner? Stuffed pork chops.
Thus ended the Portland/Seattle Thanksgiving tradition!
I always knew Grandpa was a crafty man. It’s taken me 20 years to really appreciate how crafty he was!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Family Events *shudder*
So this weekend there will be a large family event going on at my parents place. We are celebrating everyone and their dog's birthday this weekend. What can I say, we're a family full of Aries. (that in of itself should make you all shudder and run screaming from our family events!!). We'll, we can only blame it on our parents for it!
Anyhoo, back to my story. So, there will be a rather large event going on this weekend. We're celebrating 6, maybe 7 birthday's (not sure if the littlest girl sprout/niece's birthday will be celebrated at this event or not, but that's beyond the point). I love my family. I love family gatherings. You get a chance to see family you don't see on a regular basis. I finally get to meet my newest nephew!!! Family gatherings can be lots of fun...
Can be... I'm a titch bit worried about this family gathering. Why?!? Because I'm introducing my future parents-in-law to some of the close and extended family. They've never met anyone other than my parents. I'm not worried about the in-law's. They can more than hold their own. What I am worried about is all the different personalities we bring to this pot luck of people. Welcome to my world, a world of very strong personalities. That's what you get for having a family full of Aries (and a lawyer) ;o) We are very opinionated, loud, and possibly obnoxious.
Yikes!!!
Anyhoo, back to my story. So, there will be a rather large event going on this weekend. We're celebrating 6, maybe 7 birthday's (not sure if the littlest girl sprout/niece's birthday will be celebrated at this event or not, but that's beyond the point). I love my family. I love family gatherings. You get a chance to see family you don't see on a regular basis. I finally get to meet my newest nephew!!! Family gatherings can be lots of fun...
Can be... I'm a titch bit worried about this family gathering. Why?!? Because I'm introducing my future parents-in-law to some of the close and extended family. They've never met anyone other than my parents. I'm not worried about the in-law's. They can more than hold their own. What I am worried about is all the different personalities we bring to this pot luck of people. Welcome to my world, a world of very strong personalities. That's what you get for having a family full of Aries (and a lawyer) ;o) We are very opinionated, loud, and possibly obnoxious.
Yikes!!!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Gag and Barf Day
Well folks, it's about that time of year again. Gag and Barf day is swiftly approaching. For all you non-mind readers, that would be Valentine's Day. Blech...
I'm not a bitter person. I've had a "Valentine" for the last 6 years, and will for the rest of my life. But I still DESPISE Valentine's Day. Why?!? Because it's a STUPID holiday. Why... why, on only one day a year am I supposed to celebrate love, filled with crappy chocolates, stupid cards, and wilted flowers? Pointless!!! Absolutely pointless.
Everyday should be about love, not just 1 day a year. And WHY is the holiday about love with a significant other?!? I love my family. I love my friends. Why isn't the holiday about them too?
Thank you commercialism for making me loath Valentine's Day. I think for the holiday this year, I'll stay home once again and make dinner for my boys, like I do most days.
I'm not a bitter person. I've had a "Valentine" for the last 6 years, and will for the rest of my life. But I still DESPISE Valentine's Day. Why?!? Because it's a STUPID holiday. Why... why, on only one day a year am I supposed to celebrate love, filled with crappy chocolates, stupid cards, and wilted flowers? Pointless!!! Absolutely pointless.
Everyday should be about love, not just 1 day a year. And WHY is the holiday about love with a significant other?!? I love my family. I love my friends. Why isn't the holiday about them too?
Thank you commercialism for making me loath Valentine's Day. I think for the holiday this year, I'll stay home once again and make dinner for my boys, like I do most days.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Engagement
As requested by Not the Queen (aka my sister) she asked me to blog about my engagement. I suppose it’s a natural progression from how we met, to the engagement, to well, the wedding (eventually).
So as promised, here’s the story of the engagement.
I first need to preface this story with everyone and their dog knew Corey was going to propose to me in Disneyworld, except myself and my sister (thank you mom and dad for letting me get to tell her!). I mean everyone, my parents, Corey’s parents, his sister & brother, his step siblings and their spouses, the girls he works with, even our travel agent. I’m still miffed that our travel agent knew… But such is life.
Anyway, back to the story.
About a year and a half ago, Corey and I began planning our latest trip to Disneyworld. We started planning shortly after our first trip since we had an amazing time! This trip, we decided to invite people along thinking it would increase the fun (yes and no). So after all the planning and cajoling, we managed to get my parents and Corey’s parents, sister and brother, to agree to go with us. All the rest of our invitees backed out of the vacation for a variety of reasons.
We planned, schemed, worried, fretted, reserved, argued, revised, and finally made it there all in one piece! Few… So we played in the park the day we arrived having as much fun as you can with pouring Florida rain, dashing from store to store, ride to ride, hoping you don’t drown on the way. And no I’m not talking about the daily summer showers where after 10 minutes of rain it’s dry and warm again, I’m talking about the daily summer showers where it just continues to pour non-stop. Welcome to Disneyworld…
We made the best of what we had. That evening, Corey and I had dinner reservations at Ohana at the Polynesian resort (the resort we had stayed at the first time we went to Disneyworld). The food was tasty. It was almost like a buffet. They start you out with salad, then deliver bowls of sweet “buffalo” wings, pot stickers, veggies of some variety, and noodles. The wait staff then brings around with, what I can only describe as, meat shish kabobs and portions you off some of the pork, beef, chicken and shrimp. It’s all you can eat and the food was terrific. They even brought each table a set of dipping sauces that were scrumptious. After dinner, they served a bread pudding with “burnt” banana caramel sauce. Ohhhhhhhh, so heavenly. I stuffed myself silly, but the food was mmmmmmm, mmmmmmmmm, good.
We finished up dinner with time to spare. Every night the magic kingdom has a fire works show. You can see the show from the 3 lagoon hotels (the Contemporary, the Polynesian, and the Grand Floridian). The beaches in front of the Hotel are the perfect place for viewing the fireworks. They even pump the music through the outdoor speakers in time to the fireworks so you can get the whole effect. So we wondered around the property. I thought it would have been a good idea to view the fireworks from our hotel (the Grand Floridian) thinking we could take my parents, but Corey convinced me that we should stay at the Polynesian with a little trouble (hey, I had no idea what was going on). We started out at the dock, and then decided to wander to the beach since the dock was crowded and it had stopped raining for a few moments. We wandered through the beach area, but there were no seats available, so Corey “suggested” we wonder further along the property. We hadn’t done a whole lot of wandering of the property last time we were there since there were obviously more important things to do like go on all the rides. So we wandered past the beach to a place they have called Sunset Point. Sunset point is this little point on the beach where there’s a circular cut of land that kind of juts out into the water, ringed by palm trees. So we wandered our way out there just in time for the fireworks to start. There’s this great view where the castle is framed by 2 palm trees and you get a fantastic view of all the fireworks.
So we were standing there, watching the fireworks (mind you, we had the point to ourselves) and Corey starts poking me in the back (not unusual) halfway through the show. I turned around to poke him back and he disappeared. As I turned around to find him, there he was, down on one knee, fireworks all around, holding out the ring box (thankfully not upside down. He was a little worried about that) and then he asked me. It was so sweet and uber romantic. Obviously I said yes.
So as promised, here’s the story of the engagement.
I first need to preface this story with everyone and their dog knew Corey was going to propose to me in Disneyworld, except myself and my sister (thank you mom and dad for letting me get to tell her!). I mean everyone, my parents, Corey’s parents, his sister & brother, his step siblings and their spouses, the girls he works with, even our travel agent. I’m still miffed that our travel agent knew… But such is life.
Anyway, back to the story.
About a year and a half ago, Corey and I began planning our latest trip to Disneyworld. We started planning shortly after our first trip since we had an amazing time! This trip, we decided to invite people along thinking it would increase the fun (yes and no). So after all the planning and cajoling, we managed to get my parents and Corey’s parents, sister and brother, to agree to go with us. All the rest of our invitees backed out of the vacation for a variety of reasons.
We planned, schemed, worried, fretted, reserved, argued, revised, and finally made it there all in one piece! Few… So we played in the park the day we arrived having as much fun as you can with pouring Florida rain, dashing from store to store, ride to ride, hoping you don’t drown on the way. And no I’m not talking about the daily summer showers where after 10 minutes of rain it’s dry and warm again, I’m talking about the daily summer showers where it just continues to pour non-stop. Welcome to Disneyworld…
We made the best of what we had. That evening, Corey and I had dinner reservations at Ohana at the Polynesian resort (the resort we had stayed at the first time we went to Disneyworld). The food was tasty. It was almost like a buffet. They start you out with salad, then deliver bowls of sweet “buffalo” wings, pot stickers, veggies of some variety, and noodles. The wait staff then brings around with, what I can only describe as, meat shish kabobs and portions you off some of the pork, beef, chicken and shrimp. It’s all you can eat and the food was terrific. They even brought each table a set of dipping sauces that were scrumptious. After dinner, they served a bread pudding with “burnt” banana caramel sauce. Ohhhhhhhh, so heavenly. I stuffed myself silly, but the food was mmmmmmm, mmmmmmmmm, good.
We finished up dinner with time to spare. Every night the magic kingdom has a fire works show. You can see the show from the 3 lagoon hotels (the Contemporary, the Polynesian, and the Grand Floridian). The beaches in front of the Hotel are the perfect place for viewing the fireworks. They even pump the music through the outdoor speakers in time to the fireworks so you can get the whole effect. So we wondered around the property. I thought it would have been a good idea to view the fireworks from our hotel (the Grand Floridian) thinking we could take my parents, but Corey convinced me that we should stay at the Polynesian with a little trouble (hey, I had no idea what was going on). We started out at the dock, and then decided to wander to the beach since the dock was crowded and it had stopped raining for a few moments. We wandered through the beach area, but there were no seats available, so Corey “suggested” we wonder further along the property. We hadn’t done a whole lot of wandering of the property last time we were there since there were obviously more important things to do like go on all the rides. So we wandered past the beach to a place they have called Sunset Point. Sunset point is this little point on the beach where there’s a circular cut of land that kind of juts out into the water, ringed by palm trees. So we wandered our way out there just in time for the fireworks to start. There’s this great view where the castle is framed by 2 palm trees and you get a fantastic view of all the fireworks.
So we were standing there, watching the fireworks (mind you, we had the point to ourselves) and Corey starts poking me in the back (not unusual) halfway through the show. I turned around to poke him back and he disappeared. As I turned around to find him, there he was, down on one knee, fireworks all around, holding out the ring box (thankfully not upside down. He was a little worried about that) and then he asked me. It was so sweet and uber romantic. Obviously I said yes.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
How I met Corey.
I feel as thought all I do is pour out my sob stories and complain about my life (OMG, I’m starting to sound like my Grandmother, eek!!!). So in effort to put something cheerful down, I thought I’d start today. Granted I’m in a foul-ass-mood today thanks to my wonderful boss and job… So, here’s an attempt at making my day feel a little less crappy and a little more cheerful!
How I met Corey, my fiance (tee hee hee, It's still weird calling him my fiance).
This is a cute story, I think. Most people think it is too. Corey and I met in college. We had a class or 2 together before we really met, so we kind of knew each other through association but neither of us really talked to each other. December 2001, there was a school field trip for credit going to Hawaii (yes, the actual Big Island of Hawaii). We had both signed up to go, along with some other people, some from our major, some not. I didn’t really know anyone on this trip. I had just really started into my major and knew only 1 or 2 people. I figured it’s Hawaii, I’m going to have a great time regardless of who I know.
Well yes indeed, I had a wonderful time. It was my first and only trip (so far) to Hawaii. We traveled to the Big Island to play, hike, swim, and make lava spoons (those were a complete failure. I never would have imagined that lava doesn’t like to stick to your mother’s metal spoons. Who would have guessed?) Partway through the trip, the teachers had planned a few days of pure fun. Where we could go play on the beach, go swimming, sun bathe and all around screw off. The rest of our trip was full of hikes and extremely interesting geological sites, like old lava tubes, the green sand beach, fire hoses, surface lava flows. You name it, we probably saw it. So mid-way through the trip, the teachers took us to Kona and Hapuna Beach for 2 days. We body surfed in Hapuna Beach, and shopped and snorkeled in Kona. It was fantastic.
In Hapuna Beach, we stayed at the Hapuna Beach State park A-Frames (http://www.cabinweb.com/menu/hawaii/hawaiipics/hihapuna1.htm). They were a little special looking, but did the job. There was enough room for about 4 people to share an A-Frame, more if someone wanted to sleep on the floor. So (besides the addition 2 sleepers, we unfortunately inherited) Kim (our mutual friend), Corey, and I shared a cabin. The first night we were there, our entire group went out for margarita’s and Mexican food and then we spent most of the evening wondering the beach by moonlight. It was gorgeous. The 2nd day, we spent body surfing and relaxing. That evening was the evening Corey and I really met. Kim and I had purchased a bottle of rum in the exchange at the Kilauea Military Camp (where we had been staying for the majority of our trip) before we’d left for Hapuna Beach. That 2nd night, Kim, Corey and I mixed some Rum and Cokes to enjoy. We mixed Corey some rum and rum, with a hint of coke. He’s the one who asked for it!!! Needless to say, Kim and I got Corey a little tipsy. When Corey get’s tipsy, he gets chatty. That was the night we both really got to know him.
After Hawaii, began the Thursday night bar nights (with a small portion of our Hawaii group), where we’d go out and bar hop (yes we always had a dd), play some pool, and end up back at Corey’s place to watch moves. And well, the rest is sort of history.
We had our first date on April 14th, 2002. Corey made me chicken parmesan and potatoes au gratin. I got the stomach flu for the rest of the week afterwards (it was just bad timing) but he did bring me orange tulips when I was sick. Automatic keeper!!!
And that’s the story of how Corey and I met!
How I met Corey, my fiance (tee hee hee, It's still weird calling him my fiance).
This is a cute story, I think. Most people think it is too. Corey and I met in college. We had a class or 2 together before we really met, so we kind of knew each other through association but neither of us really talked to each other. December 2001, there was a school field trip for credit going to Hawaii (yes, the actual Big Island of Hawaii). We had both signed up to go, along with some other people, some from our major, some not. I didn’t really know anyone on this trip. I had just really started into my major and knew only 1 or 2 people. I figured it’s Hawaii, I’m going to have a great time regardless of who I know.
Well yes indeed, I had a wonderful time. It was my first and only trip (so far) to Hawaii. We traveled to the Big Island to play, hike, swim, and make lava spoons (those were a complete failure. I never would have imagined that lava doesn’t like to stick to your mother’s metal spoons. Who would have guessed?) Partway through the trip, the teachers had planned a few days of pure fun. Where we could go play on the beach, go swimming, sun bathe and all around screw off. The rest of our trip was full of hikes and extremely interesting geological sites, like old lava tubes, the green sand beach, fire hoses, surface lava flows. You name it, we probably saw it. So mid-way through the trip, the teachers took us to Kona and Hapuna Beach for 2 days. We body surfed in Hapuna Beach, and shopped and snorkeled in Kona. It was fantastic.
In Hapuna Beach, we stayed at the Hapuna Beach State park A-Frames (http://www.cabinweb.com/menu/hawaii/hawaiipics/hihapuna1.htm). They were a little special looking, but did the job. There was enough room for about 4 people to share an A-Frame, more if someone wanted to sleep on the floor. So (besides the addition 2 sleepers, we unfortunately inherited) Kim (our mutual friend), Corey, and I shared a cabin. The first night we were there, our entire group went out for margarita’s and Mexican food and then we spent most of the evening wondering the beach by moonlight. It was gorgeous. The 2nd day, we spent body surfing and relaxing. That evening was the evening Corey and I really met. Kim and I had purchased a bottle of rum in the exchange at the Kilauea Military Camp (where we had been staying for the majority of our trip) before we’d left for Hapuna Beach. That 2nd night, Kim, Corey and I mixed some Rum and Cokes to enjoy. We mixed Corey some rum and rum, with a hint of coke. He’s the one who asked for it!!! Needless to say, Kim and I got Corey a little tipsy. When Corey get’s tipsy, he gets chatty. That was the night we both really got to know him.
After Hawaii, began the Thursday night bar nights (with a small portion of our Hawaii group), where we’d go out and bar hop (yes we always had a dd), play some pool, and end up back at Corey’s place to watch moves. And well, the rest is sort of history.
We had our first date on April 14th, 2002. Corey made me chicken parmesan and potatoes au gratin. I got the stomach flu for the rest of the week afterwards (it was just bad timing) but he did bring me orange tulips when I was sick. Automatic keeper!!!
And that’s the story of how Corey and I met!
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