Ode to the Fit!

Anders brought many wonderful things to our marriage! Happiness exuding from every pore, kindness beyond belief, a crockpot, and an adorable little Honda Fit. When we first met, I honestly wasn't too sure about the car. It is tiny, bright red and a hatchback - three things that don't immediately sweep me over. However after one day of driving it I was sold. It had pep and attitude. Push-button windows and one of those "beep, beep" car remote unlockers. For someone who was still driving the Dirty Civic from 1999, crank windows and all - this was very high class.


My love affair with the Fit didn't end there! We pushed that little car to the limit - loading it with a yard full of mulch and sod, so heavy the wheel wells almost touched the tires. We were able to fit our dining room table and six chairs in the Fit. I think Anders and I have talked three friends into buying Fits! If it isn't already clear...I LOVE THIS CAR!!




So you can just imagine my horror, when yesterday I got the Fit in its first big accident! Big might be an exaggeration, but accident none the less! It did prove that the Fit loves me back, because it blew an airbag to protect my little dome. Luckily, it was a pretty minor bumper to bumper hit, so the airbag wasn't actually needed, but an airbag to the face can really shake a girl up. In the end, it could have been much worse. I was totally fine, as were all of the passengers in the other car. Minus the airbag, and a slightly off-kilter bumper you could hardly tell the Fit had any issues. The Jetta didn't do as well, but the owner was so nice about the whole thing. And best of all - my sweet husband came rushing to the scene was just awesome and so supportive the whole time. He didn't even make me feel bad about testing the airbag and the fact that our insurance will undoubtedly get hiked!


So my friends, safety first this holiday season while driving! Please don't zone out while thinking about cooking a turkey, like I did!

Hello holidays!

We are just up to our eyeballs in holiday cheer! Add to that just a dash of over scheduling and you have the chaos that is the next two weeks! I love this time of year, but it always feels completly crazy! Things got into full swing this week where we went with a big group of friends to see A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like 30 of your closest friends causing a ruckus in the balcony!

After a big night out on the town with friends, we followed it up with a Saturday fit for an old married couple. We went furniture shopping and after weeks of research finally bought a couch! And, man oh man....it is going to be sooooo nice. Big, soft and cushy! Everything you could dream of and more, if you've been like me and have been dreaming of couches.

On Sunday we went to the Army Band Christmas Extravaganza 2010 with some friends. It was at the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Constitution Hall, which was just beautiful! It was hard to drag myself out of the house on a cold, rainy afternoon, but I am so glad we did. It was just awesome event! It will definitely be working its way into our annual holiday tradition rotation!

All of this holiday goodness is followed up with a JMU Alumni Holiday party tomorrow at Blackfinn. I am so excited to celebrate with many of my favorite JMUers, some of which I haven't seen in years! GO DUKES!

++=LOVE

But wait...there's more! Did I mention we are hosting TWO holiday parties next weekend?

And babysitting my 3 cousins all under the age of 7 (eeks! Any ideas for an afternoon of fun)?

And hosting my Women's Leadership Retreat at our house?

And going to a wedding shower in Richmond?

Add to that more Christmas shopping, goodwill purging, house cleaning, Christmas cookie baking, wrapping, traveling to Illinios, and fixing a small leak in the roof!! Yeah - its going to be a busy couple of weeks! I simply have to be thankful. My problem is too many good things, and not enough time. We are am overwhelmed with blessings this holiday season, and that is a very, very lucky place to be.

My mother-in-law...

This sums my mother-in-law Nancy up just perfectly. Full of energy, enthusiasm, and fun. On thanksgiving day we went to the field across from our house. First she just wanted to play with Hux. Then she wanted to play frisbee and football. To round things out - she just wanted to see if she could still do a cartwheel. She did three. Anders almost had a panic attack. No bones were broken in the making of this film!

Holiday cards...

Thanksgiving was a hit! It was so fun to have everyone together for a weekend filled with good food, games, movies, walks, wine and lots of family time.

I also was able to check the ol' holiday card off the list. This will be our first - and I am pretty excited about it! I found this awesome website http://www.minted.com/ and there were so many designs I just loved. You will just have to wait to see the final selection in your mailbox, but these were some of the ones we considered:

We also created a Top 10 of 2010 for the back of the card. I was inspired by this funny top 10: http://www.hellolucky.com/wordpress/?p=6081 . What would be on your list?

Thanksgiving

I am really excited about Thanksgiving about this year. It is my absolute favorite holiday. The food, the family time, the chance to think about the things that you are thankful for. It is just perfect. We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house with both sets of parents, Drew and some family friends.


In fact, I am so excited about Thanksgiving I woke up at 6am to make not one, but two types of cranberry sauce. The first is sort of a cranberry “slaw” and the second is a cranberry-raspberry compote. I am not particularly good at following recipes. I tend to just throw things together until it tastes good to me. It’s a cooking style that serves me well, but can be sometimes a challenge to duplicate. However, these are so darn easy I thought I would share.

Cranberry Slaw
1 bag of fresh cranberries
1/3 cup of orange juice
1 orange – grate a bit of the peel zest
¼ to ½ cup of sugar (or more!) to taste

Throw it all in your food processor and chop. Just a few quick blends will get it to the right consistency. You want to be able to clearly see some fine white and red parts remaining. Be careful not to over chop it and turn it into a soggy pink mush! This is great for cranberry purests. This is my mother’s recipe, because she definitely falls into the cranberry purest category. Varieties have included an chopping apple slices in with the rest of the ingredients, or mixing in pomegranate seeds after the rest has been chopped. Yummo!

Cranberry-Raspberry Compote
1 bag of cranberries
1 cup of water
¾ of a cup of sugar
3 tablespoons of orange juice
1 container of raspberries

I just made this recipe up, but it was pretty tasty this morning when I was done. I am looking forward to trying it out on Thursday. Add the water and sugar together and bring to a boil. Add the cranberries – I blended about ¼ of them in the food processor, and left the rest whole – so it would be a chunkier sauce. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce to a slow boil for 10 minutes or so. You want to make sure you regularly stir this mixture. It seemed like the sort of sauce that could burn easily. Once the cranberries have softened and some have burst, add the raspberries and keep on a low boil for another 5 minutes. After the raspberries have cooked a bit, take it off the burner and transfer to a storage container. I would let it cool completely before you serve it!

That’s it! I will be serving cranberry sauce three ways on the big day – both of these, plus a can of the jellied stuff. You just can’t knock the classics!

Hello again world...

So much has happened since last I blogged. All of the things in life seriously swallowed me up, swirled me around and then suddenly I am on the other side! There are plenty of things that have happened over the past 6 months or so - but the BIG ones are:

1. We are MARRIED! While I didn't love wedding planning - it was worth every bit of stress, money, tears, frustration, excitement etc. It was a perfect weekend, perfect ceremony, and a real celebration! I am thrilled to spend the whole rest of my life with Anders! To put it quite simply - he is just amazing.

2. Drew is living in DC! In our house! Right down the hall! Perhaps my new found desire to blog will get Drew back on the wagon too? We shall see. It has just been so much fun. Anders summed it up best last night "Living with Drew is making memories we will have the rest of our lives." It really is so awesome to get the chance to live together again as adults. We should throw more parties! Get back to our teenage roommate roots!

3. Anders and I went on a FANTASTIC honeymoon. Its really the kind of honeymoon that makes people say "Whoooah!" We took almost three weeks and traveled half-way around the world to Thailand. It was such a romantic and fun adventure. We were so lucky to be able to take that much time and to be able to really enjoy our first few weeks of married life together.

So those are the highlights! One month in to wedded bliss, and it feels like we still have a lot of settling down and catching up to do. It will all happen soon enough!

Before I Got the GW Job I wrote this:

I've entered that nervous point where I'm second guessing everything about my interview and potential job. I will retell the story so that I have it all in one document and maybe that will relieve some of my stress. I flew out Thursday for the job interview that happened on Friday. The interview was from 10am to 3pm which is by far the longest interview I have ever engaged in. There was no requirement for me to present anything and while that relieved some of the nerves, I felt like I couldn't really do great interview prep with such a long span of interviewing. I was staying with my sister and her fiance and it was really a great visit, so when she and I took the metro in that morning I was feeling okay. DC is hot and I was wearing a suit, but I got to the interview and felt okay about it. What I didn't feel good about was how I have been treated since I told my current employers about my participation in the interview process. My boss and supervisor in particular has been difficult to deal with and has pulled big guilt trips, been condescending and abrasive (while trying to pretend like she doesn't care) and then finally she set a pretty unrealistic ultimatum of giving her a decision seven days after my interview -- which is definitely a power play and totally unrealistic for me and my interviewers. But I decide I'm going to deal with that once I get there.

I had one hour with the Director, one hour with the Assistant Director, and 30-45 minutes with the remainder of the staff. Then I was to have lunch with the Director and finally meet with the newly appointed Dean of Students after lunch. So, in with the Director and things go smoothly. He is a bit of a talker and so we move from one tangent to another, but at the same time I feel like I am learning a lot about the position and the center. And while I don't think any of my answers were life-changing 10/10's, I did feel like I was hitting solid 8/10 for most of the questions. And it is becoming more and more appealing to me. Hearing about the (lack of) politics in the center sounded like a great relief. Hearing about how the staff turnover created new positions and that many of the staff were at similar places in terms of working toward licensure was a huge boost. And then the things that were expected for the candidate: 20-25 clients, minimal crisis work, running groups, lots of outreach support, and running the Peer Educator program where Psych student get course credit for doing outreach about mental health issues. Finally, he told me that I could be dually hired as faculty in the Psych Department and teach there (as he does) and that made it hard not to become more interested. The meetings with the Assistant Director and the rest of the staff who were in town on a Friday in the summer confirmed my good feelings.

So, I decided that lunch with the Director is probably the best time to bring up my situation. And I think that it may be reasonable -- on the phone interview they indicated they were interviewing the previous two weeks, so if I'm the last interview that might give them enough time to make a decision and let me know. It would be a tight squeeze, but possible. I decide to do some recon with the administrative assistant who booked my flight and I casually ask if lots of interviews have been happening and how that has been. And I find out that I am the FIRST interview. At this point, all hope is lost. If I am the first interview, there is no way they will be able to make any decision by the next week and then I will have to stick with the postdoc I have been offered. But I know that I need to at least try to talk with the Director about this reality at lunch. We sit down and before we even have ordered drinks I ask him to tell me about the interview process and their anticipated timeline. He has a big facial reaction and I think maybe I've made a misstep but he says that it is a good question and he tells me they are interviewing the next couple of weeks and will try to bring someone in by August. Well, he says "weekS" and I figure all hope is lost. If they are interviewing beyond the coming Friday, I have no chance. And even though my hope is dashed, I decide I have been upfront throughout this process, and I'm going to continue that strategy. And since I have nothing left to lose, I tell him about my situation, my current employer and the ultimatum. Again, I assume I have ruined my chances, but his first response is telling me that he is sorry I am in that position and then says that after the phone interview they had "strong feelings" about me. And that as a matter of fact, the last interview is scheduled for Friday and given the time difference, he thinks he could let me know before the end of the day. And my spirits lift. I really hope it works out. And I think it might.