NaBloPoMo comes to an end

Well, I admit that I wasn't the best NaBloPoMo'er...I did skip a couple days here and there, but tried to make up for it by posting multiple posts in one day. I did enjoy the challenge of putting up a post each day. Sometimes, I really didn't have anything interesting to write about. I hope that I can continue in this tradition to keep my blog going strong and keep my readers interested.
So long NaBloPoMo - hello December!

Here's a little political cartoon for a Sunday giggle:

Adventures at Hot Dog Johnny's

Back at the beginning of the month, as you may recall, we took our youth group paintballing. On the way home, we were going to stop for something to eat. The choices were: Burger King (blegh), or Hot Dog Johnny's. Not knowing about the amazingness that is HDJ's, naturally the kids picked Burger King. So, as we sadly drove by HDJ's on the way to BK, I promised some of the kids that I would take them to HDJ's at another time.
Now, we tried all month to work that out, and it finally came together yesterday afternoon. Three girls: Becky, Alge and Erin met me at the church and we excitedly headed for HDJ's in Buttzville, NJ. That's right, Buttzville.
It was about a 45 minute ride, and we played the "punch-buggy" game, as well as a new game I had never heard of. You give one punch for every new state license plate you see. For example, if you see a New York plate, you give one punch to everyone in the car, and then if someone else sees a New York plate, they cannot punch again. You get the idea. We made the ride fun and short.

We finally made it to HDJ's in all it's glory. It was rather crowded, but we shuffled in and ordered our hot dogs. We also got Birch Beer floats, which were amazing. The hot dogs and french fries warmed our bellies as we basked in the hot dog glory. We were also sitting at the table that had a picture of Hot Dog Johnny himself. We were at the king's table. (Well, sort of)
All in all, it was a worthwhile experience. Lots of fun. Maybe next year after paintballing, we will be able to go there instead of yucky Burger King.

A Meme for You

Ok, so my cousin-in-law Beth explained that there's this thing called a "meme" which is: "in blogspeak, an idea that is spread from blog to blog." Sounds like fun! So, following in Beth's footsteps, I will try this one:

Go to your sixth picture folder
Select the sixth picture
Tell the story behind the picture

So here's the picture:
This is a picture of Wrigley Field. Evan, Karl and Steve went to a worship conference back in June which took place in Chicago. So, while they were there, Evan and Karl decided to go to a Cubs game. Unfortunately, they were not playing the Mets, but the Mets' all-time rivals - the Braves. So they went in hopes that the Cubs would beat the Braves, which they did. They had never been to Wrigley Field, so this was an exciting thing for them. And apparently they got a little lost on the train coming back from the game. They misinterpreted where the train was headed and got a bit turned around.
So that's the story! Hope you enjoyed it!

Bad News

So Evan and I met with our mortgage guy this week, and we started crunching some numbers. We had already been pre-approved for the mortgage, so we were optimistic. So, the guy asked us a bunch of questions, we started putting the numbers together, and we realized that we cannot afford the house. Well, we can afford the house, but nothing else. Plus after seeing the house again when we got the house inspected opened my eyes to a lot of things. The house needs a lot of work. There is foundational damage that needs repairing, the windows need replacing, the outlets and electrical work needs replacing, there is some sort of asbestos in the basement. The list goes on...
Of course, our realtors are going to do everything they can to try to make the sale, but after careful thought and prayer, I'm not even sure I want this house anymore. There's too much work that needs to be done, and we can't afford it. And all that was counting on the fact that our families would help us out with the down payment. I hate begging for money because I'm a big girl and I should be able to take care of myself. And, even if we did get some help with the down payment, it wouldn't help with the monthly payments.
It all just seemed too good to be true. All the signs seemed to point in the right direction. Maybe this is a lesson in perseverance or patience. Maybe God has something even better in store for us. Who knows. But please, keep praying for us - this is not going to be easy.
So long house...we hardly knew ye.

Happy (Late) Turkey Day!!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was very nice. Just four of us, and me cooking. It was great. So, I told you about the "salting" technique that I was trying out this year. Well, it turned out great!! The skin was nice and crispy and flavorful, and the meat was nice and juicy and tender. It was perfect! We actually only ate about half the turkey, but that's fine...more for soup and sandwiches! I do not have a picture to share with you, sadly, but just know that I would HIGHLY recommend the salting technique. Just rub the seasoned salt on your turkey the day before, shove him in the fridge overnight, rinse him off and dry him off, shove him in the oven and roast as usual and voila!
I have also decided that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. So there.

A Salted Turkey

Last year, my mother and I tried a technique for cooking turkey that we had never tried before: brining. This is a technique wherein you soak the turkey in a seasoned broth so it soaks up all the nice flavors and makes for a moist turkey after it's done cooking. I must say it worked very well. The turkey was flavorful, juicy and tender. Altogether a hit.
This year, I am trying a new technique that is all the rage in Bon Appetit magazine: salting. Basically, you make a seasoned salt (mine had salt, pepper, bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, sage and lemon zest) and rub it all over the turkey, let the turkey sit overnight like that and then roast as usual. Apparently it makes for a nice crispy skin and a juicy tender meat.
I am always up for new challenges when it comes to cooking, so I hope this one proves to be a success. I will let you know how it turned out!

Turkey Day is Coming...

I have often referred to Thanksgiving as the "Superbowl of Cooking," for me because it's the only day besides Christmas where I can go all out on the cooking and make tons of food for my family. I love Thanksgiving. I love cooking, I love being with my family, I love eating pumpkin pie, I just love it.
This year is going to be rather quiet. Evan and I are staying home and I am cooking for us, Evan's mom, and Grandpa Price. May I add that Grandpa is still talking about the stuffing I made two years ago. That was one of his two requests for this year: lots of stuffing, and lots of gravy. OK - no problem!

I think I love the leftovers even more than the meal because I get to make turkey stock, cream of turkey soup for Evan, a post-Thanksgiving casserole with what I've got left, and any number of turkey sandwiches depending on how much turkey we've got left. This year we got a free turkey thanks to Mom's frequent shopping at Acme. We have a 15 lb. bird to feed 4 of us. That's more than 3 lbs. of turkey EACH! Leftovers, here I come.

I hope that each of you are planning a wonderful Thanksgiving with the people you love, and know that our thoughts are with you, and we are thankful for each and every one of you.

Here's a shot of me from 2005 - my first turkey after Evan and I got married. Looks good eh?

We've been inspected...

So, we are yet one more step closer to getting our house. Today, we had the house inspected - inside and out. We also got to meet the executor of the estate, which was nice. Apparently it was his aunt that owned the house, and she never had children so he wound up being the executor. We learned a lot about his aunt. Her husband died back in the 70's, and so she became a world traveler and took up painting. We saw lots of things that she had collected from Egypt, Japan, Paris...all over. We also learned a lot about houses that were built in the 50's, which our house was. Turns out that there aren't a heck of a lot of repairs we have to do to the house. Everything was in pretty good shape.
Anyway, the real magic happened when Ron (the executor) started asking us which of the things left in the house did we want. He pointed out the things we could have for free - the mirror in the dining room, the bookshelf in the living room, all the paintings in the bedroom, an original Victrola record player (whoa), all the little knick-knacks hanging in the kitchen, and some others. Then we bought some things from him - another set of bookshelves, a secretary's desk from the 1930's (wow), a rocking chair, an 18mm camera, another mirror and umbrella basket. All in all, we spent $60 for all of it. Most of this stuff is worth way more than that. It just kept getting better and better.
WE LOVE THIS HOUSE!!!

We're Officially Under Contract

Got a call from the realtor yesterday - we are out of attorney review and the house is officially under contract! Not really sure what that means, but I'm told it's good. Now we have to get the place inspected. We're one more step closer!!

The Clam Chowder was a hit!

The soup supper went really well, and my soup was the first one to be gone. People were ordering multiple bowls of it and it was gone within 20 minutes. It was so good, in fact, someone PAID me to make the soup again and bring it to her. She is then going to bring it to her father who lives in Boston where he has New England Clam chowder all the time. She said, of all the N.E.C.C. she's had, my soup was the best she's ever tasted. Wow! That's the best compliment I've ever gotten about my food.
Ok, I'll come down off of my soapbox now.

Soup Supper is back!!!

Well, only for one day, and then it will go away again until Lent. Each year, our church has Soup Suppers: one every week during the Lent season, and one the week before Thanksgiving. I LOVE soup suppers because it allows me to show off my culinary prowess as a soup-maker to somebody besides Evan and perhaps Karl. Whenever there is a soup supper, they always ask me first because they know I will say yes.
During Lent, I try to make a different soup each week so as to show of my diversity as a soup-maker. I have made everything from Pasta e Fagioli to Tomato Bisque. I also try to make a not-so-well-known soup because everybody makes Chicken Noodle, Split Pea, and something called "Presbyterian Soup."
I did have one flop though - I made Garden Vegetable soup and loaded it with veggies. It was good until I decided to put some dried rosemary in the soup as an added seasoning. MISTAKE. Now, instead of tasting like vegetables, it tasted like a pine tree. Evan and Karl claimed they liked it, but I will never make it again.
Anyway, for this soup supper, I made my famous New England Clam Chowder.
Last year I made it right after the Superbowl, and called it "Big Fat Loser Clam Chowder." (Get it...cuz the Patriots are from New England and they lost to the Giants in the Superbowl) It was a big hit.
Making soup is so much fun. And eating the soup is even more fun.

The Saga Continues

We got a letter from the lawyer today about the house and our contract. It's just a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo that I don't totally get. I just hope our realtors can help us through it.
We're one step closer to our house!

This one goes out to Beth....

My Latest Project

Since Evan and I will be moving into a new house soon, and we won't exactly be able to afford new furniture just yet, I have decided to give my dressers a "makeover." These dressers were my mom's. She bought them when she and my dad got married back in 1981 because they didn't have a place for all their clothes. She passed them on to me when I was in college, and I have had them ever since. They were originally gold, and my mom painted them white, and now they are still white, but rather, um, "weathered" let's say.
So, I decided that I would sand them down, paint them a nice new color and give them new handles. I started with the little one, so just in case I didn't like it, I could stop there and hide that dresser in the basement. So far, so good though! I am painting them "Lemon Ice," a nice bright color, and I picked out shiny silver knobs for the drawers as opposed to the dreary brass ones that have since turned almost black.
This should be fun! I'll post pictures once I finish.

By the way...don't forget to vote on which color you think Evan and I should paint our new bedroom!

Adventures in Babysitting

I babysit my pastor's kids fairly regularly, but tonight was special. There are three kids: Natalia, Jhony and Angela. Natalia and Jhony are twins and Angela is the youngest. Tonight, Angela was going with her parents to see High School Musical at the Paper Mill Playhouse, while I got the opportunity to take N&J to see Madagascar 2. I was only half looking forward to seeing the movie, but was excited to be taking the kids out. They always say that when I take them places that people must think I'm a really young mom. I love that! 

Anyway, we sat down with our popcorn and bottled water that cost $4 a piece! and waited for the movie to start. Let me tell you, this movie was hiLARIOUS! I think I liked it more than the kids. There were lots of great jokes for adults and tributes to some old movies. It was great. We had a blast. Plus we realized that we got way too much popcorn for the three of us. At $7.95 a bucket, we made sure we ate every last bit. 

I highly recommend this movie. Grab your kids and go see it. If you don't have kids, go see it anyway - it's hysterical!!!

Josie and Slinky

Allow me to introduce to you, our two kitties.
Josie:

and Slinky: 

We got Josie for free when I saw an ad in the Courier News for free kittens. I jumped on the opportunity and we headed out to Neshanic to get her. She was so cute - she still is. 

Evan found Slinky at PetSmart. He called me and said there was this little black & white kitty that was nuzzling him and totally wooed him. So I said, get it! A week later, she was ours. Originally named "Paris," we decided to change it to Slinky because that's what she does...she slinks around. 

Both cats have very unique personalities. Josie is clearly the queen of the house. She is a Jersey cat through and through - you don't mess with her. Slinky is more timid and spends most of the day hiding in various crannies throughout the house. She has the most high-pitched meow you will ever hear. And it's not really a meow, it sounds more like "kee-koo!" She loves to jump on the bed in the morning after I get up to get ready for work and head-butt Evan in the face, as if to say, "Ok, you get up too!" 

Josie likes to snuggle in between Evan and I at night, and I can't tell you how many times we have rolled over her or inadvertently knocked her off the bed. 

Both cats bring so much joy to our lives, and they are excellent listeners. I hope they like the new house :)

The Movie of my Life

My cousin-in-law Beth posed the question, "Who would play you if your life was made into a movie?"
I didn't have to think very hard about who would play Evan. It's pretty obvious that it would have to be this guy:

In fact, sometimes Evan says that people stare at him in the city because I think they think he is Adrian Brody.

I did have to take a minute or two to think about who would play me. But then it hit me. It would HAVE to be:

I have always loved Drew Barrymore. And as my fellow "Angels" will recall, she is my Charlie's Angels alter-ego as Dylan. My favorite movie with her is "Riding in Cars with Boys." Aside from the whole getting pregnant as a teenager, that movie reminded me a lot of my own life.
I also think that Drew would totally embody my personality. She would be perfect.
And Adrian would really be able to portray the melancholy, struggling artist that is Evan.

Who knows, maybe one day when Evan makes it to Hollywood, we can actually make this movie!

This is so cool....

OMG - We Got It!!!

So, the long and arduous journey of looking for a house has finally come to an end. But yet, this is only the beginning! Evan and I - though discouraged from our recent lack-of-luck with houses - went to look at some more houses last night in Manville. The first one we saw was pretty much the same as two other houses we already looked at, plus the people were home, so we were out of there pretty quick.
Let me sidebar for a moment. At lunch yesterday, I was telling my coworkers that Evan and I hadn't yet found a house that we felt was "THE ONE." Every house we've seen, even if we liked it, there was always one or two things that we thought about later and didn't like. Like, the kitchen was too small, or the bedrooms weren't big enough, or there wasn't enough space for all our stuff...you get the idea. So we were still waiting to walk into a house and say, "This is IT!"
Ok, back to the story. So, the next house we looked at was just around the corner, and of course it was dark out so we couldn't read the numbers on the houses. Once the realtor found the lockbox, she let us in, and immediately we both went, "Wow." We went in the side door which led into the kitchen. I remembered seeing this online and remembered that this was the one with the nice kitchen. Then we discovered that there was a dining room - I've never had a dining room!! There was a beautiful chandelier in the dining room and beautiful window treatments. Then we saw the living room. Spacious, bright, nice hardwood floor. The master bedroom was perfect. Not too big, not too small. Plenty of closet space. There was a half-bathroom next to the bedroom. Nice. Upstairs was the full bath and two extra bedrooms. Both very spacious with lots of opportunity. Plus, all the appliances are included! The basement was nice. Clean, spacious, and complete with a washer/dryer.
This was it. Our realtor immediately called to find out the scoop on the house. It was recently lowered in price and had been on the market for over 5 months. There were no current offers on the table - yay! So, we hung around and soaked up the house for a little while longer and headed right back to the realtor's office to make the offer.
I got a call today right after a meeting at work. Our other realtor Paul said "I have good news and bad news." "Ok, gimme the bad news." The bad news was that we are going to owe him $1000 soon, but that also meant that they accepted our offer and we got the house!!! AAAHHHHH!! Here it is:


So, please make your checks out to Evan and Aubrey Walter this Christmas because we're going to be broke!!! But we got a house!!! I will let you all know when the party will be.
Thanks to all who prayed for us!

Cats

And now some fun with kitties....

Too stressful...

I didn't post yesterday either! Here comes another two posts in one day.

I didn't post yesterday because I was too busy watching the Giants almost lose to the Philadelphia Eagles. They played a great 1st half, with the Eagles only having the ball for 90 seconds in the 1st quarter. They started to lose a bit of momentum in the 2nd quarter and they began to play rather sloppily. (Is that a word? If it's not, I just made it one.)
They came back after halftime and managed to stay ahead of the Eagles for the whole 2nd half. I had to avert my eyes a few times because the Giants are great at making me nervous when they play.
But thankfully, the Giants went on to win 36-31. They are now 8-1. Thank God.

My Life as a Runner's Wife

My husband Evan occasionally runs in 5K races in our area, ranging from the Dunellen 5K run for education to the Draft Day 5K at Giant's Stadium. I try to go with him as often as I can. The Draft Day 5K is rough because it starts at 8am, and we live at least 30 minutes away. Most races start at 9am, which is nice. The races are all generally the same. They usually give away t-shirts and sometimes a goody bag with pens, and other random trinkets. They always have doughnuts and coffee and water for the runners. When it's time, the gun goes off and so do the runners. Evan gets very serious when it comes to the races. He wears special racing shoes, a racing outfit complete with short-shorts. (Ooh la la!)
I love to go with him to the races. I usually take pictures of him running, and have got some pretty good action shots over the years. I just love to be there at the finish line when he comes in. He typically runs the race between 19 and 21 minutes, which I think is good. Much better than I can do, which is why I take pictures. Karl sometimes comes with us, and I take pictures of him too. Once in a while, we get one of the men from our church to run. Our friend Mike Heffernan ran in the Columbia Park 5K, and did really good! Our other friend Tony Schatz ran in the Watchung 5K, slowly, but he made it to the finish line!
It's a lot of fun going to races with Evan. He usually wins 1st place in his age group. I'm just waiting for the day when he wins 1st place overall!!
Go baby go...

Forgot to Post Yesterday!!

I was out all day yesterday and when I finally got home, I went right to bed and didn't post a blog for the day! So, I will be posting two blogs to make up for my loss yesterday.

So...what was I doing all day yesterday, you ask? Well, I went with 20 students from our youth group to my first ever paintball trip! I got up at 6:45am and threw on some clothes so Karl and I could go get the rental van that I would get the privilege of driving. I was hoping to get the black one, but sadly, they gave me the red one. Poo.
We left church at about 8:15 and headed for Jim Thorpe, PA. The drive was about an hour and 45 minutes. Loooong drive! And I discovered that Karl is not a good driver when he's driving the church van.
We finally got there - by the way, this place is called Skirmish, in case you ever want to go - and we had to check in and get all the gear and stuff. I wasn't planning on playing, so I had to sign a waiver that said, if I get hit with a paintball, I can't sue. I was planning on taking pictures of the kids getting lit up with paint balls.
We took the hike up the hill to get the guns and masks and stuff. They even gave me a mask and a bright orange crossing-guard-type vest so I could walk on the fields to take pictures, and the kids wouldn't shoot me.
There are over 50 playing fields at this place. It is amazing. Here we are at "Tippmann City" - the first playing field. They played a total elimination game.








Then we went to "The Castle," where they played a capture the human flag game.








Then we went into "The Thicket" where they played a Kill the President game. Karl was the President and he won the game without a splatter of paint on him.








Then, they went to this field called "The Pentagon" where they played capture the flag.








Lastly, they went to "The Airfield" where they basically played a game where they could waste the rest of their ammo. They played a game where if they got out, they had to come tag me and I could "respawn" them.








It was a good day. Next year, I will definitely play. But I was glad I got such good pictures.

Watching "Ghost Hunters"

Every Wednesday night, I am home alone from the time I get home from work until about 11:45pm. Evan is at school during this time, so I consider this "me" time. During said time, one of my favorite shows, "Ghost Hunters" is on. In case you don't know anything about the show, it's basically a group of (mostly) guys that go investigate supposedly haunted houses. They videotape, do voice recordings, use thermal imagaing, all that good stuff. Then they watch all the tapes, listen to all the audio, and pull out anything they believe to be "paranormal" and then bring it to show the homeowner or whoever owns the building they are in.
Last night, they were showing the results from the live broadcast they did on Halloween. I don't believe in ghosts, but I do believe in demons and they are capable of doing some crazy things. While they were showing the results, they had caught three separate incidents of one of their investigators getting his coat tugged on by an unseen entity. There didn't appear to be anything like fishing line or like they somehow faked it. Ok, so I'm a little freaked out.
The second thing they caught was what they call EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon). This is where they have a digital recorder and they ask random questions and hope to catch voices that cannot be heard by the naked ear. Twice they caught a "inhuman" voice saying, "You're not supposed to be here." rather angrily. Ok, now I'm REALLY freaked out!!! I was really missing Evan, and he wasn't due to come home for another 2 hours!
I had to change the channel. I don't know how real everything was, but it freaked me out.
Let this be a lesson to all you wives....don't watch Ghost Hunters alone at night.

Election Day - The Aftermath

OBAMA WINS!!!!
I can't tell you how privileged I feel that I was alive to witness the first African-American president. Watching the news last night, I began to feel slightly guilty for not voting. People had been standing in line for hours just to push a few buttons to cast their vote. That hit me hard. In retrospect I probably should have voted, but the guy I wanted to win, did!
I pray that Obama will be able to turn this country around and that he will make an excellent president.

Greater things have yet to come, greater things are still to be done....

Election Day!!!

Ah yes, another 4 years have gone by and election day is here again. They say two things you should never talk about is religion and politics. Which is precisely why I regretfully did not go out and vote today. I rarely ever watch the news, and I especially do not follow politics. Therefore, since I did not know nearly enough about either candidate, I felt that my vote would not be fair. Besides, voting for the President is just a glorified high school popularity contest. Why do you think John McCain chose Sarah Palin? I know that there are plenty of people that will yell at me and tell me that it is un-American to not vote (most of them in my family), but that is not the case here. I don't feel that it would be right for me to vote because I am not knowledgeable enough about either candidate.
It would not be fair of me to vote for Obama because he is better looking.
I'll come down off my soapbox now.

Why A Minor is the best chord...

My husband Evan believes that A Minor is the best chord that one can play either on guitar or other instruments that allow you to play chords. He is quoted as saying that "Stairway to Heaven is nothing without it!"
I would tend to agree that A Minor is a nice chord. But the best? Go find a guitar or a piano and find out for yourself...
Here's our friend Cory...probably playing an A Minor chord.