between here and there

Monday, December 2, 2013

On Turning Twenty Seven and Thanksgiving

My birthday and Thanksgiving usually get lumped together. I ~~always feel cheated~~ don't really mind, I'm used to it. At least my birthday isn't shared with Christmas.

My idea of a perfect birthday: good food, good company, good drinks and a good movie. Steve made reservations for Lily's on Main, and then got tickets to see Catching Fire {what happens to Peeta?! This is a rhetorical question} at the theater below the restaurant {it's all in the same building}. Which is perfect when one drinks two manhattan cosmos. Let me tell you, it was delicious. As was the lobster mac and cheese and chocolate mousse for dessert. Dear Lord have mercy. Also, I have become quite the fan of bourbon. More specifically Knob Creek bourbon. Smooth as a baby's bottom. In fact, we stocked up our ~~jelly~~ liquor cabinet with this deadly stuff just so we could make our very own manhattan cosmos from the comfort of home. The best part, it's easy! Here's the recipe:

3/4 part razzmatazz liquor

1 1/4 part bourbon

1 part cranberry juice

Add to an ice filled shaker. Shake and strain into martini glass.

Cheers!

All in all, turning 27 wasn't as dreadful as I had imagined. After all, this IS my last year in the "mid-twenties". Sigh. The celebrations did not end with dinner and a movie. But, that's for another post.

Now to the latter...Thanksgiving! One of my favorite holidays because, well, the meal is delicious and it means Christmas is coming. It also means it's around my birthday, so really, all good things are happening around this time of the year for me. As far as warm fuzzy feelings go.

The day usually starts with sleeping in. Then I make green bean casserole, and we head on over to my parents.

Once the clock strikes noon...

...well, you get the picture.

Then we eat. And we sit on our bums for hours. Some Christmas movies are watched{this year we watched White Christmas! The men were not impressed}, lots of football is watched and that's about it. It's always been a very relaxing, low key holiday for us Stayers. What's important is that we're together, right?

*Miss you Allison and Leesha! Wah :(

^aren't they just the cutest?

^^^he can't be trusted during meal time

^^^I feel it's worth noting this 21 pounder was walking around two days prior

^^^and this pretty much sums up our day. eat. drink. sleep. repeat.

"It is not joy that makes us grateful. It is gratitude that makes us joyful." -David Rast

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Remember me?

To be quite honest I feel like my creativity/writing juices have all but about dried up as of late. Hence the two plus month blogging hiatus! You see, life has been, well...how do I put this? It has been crazy. There's been a lot on my plate. When it rains it pours. Put one foot in front of the other. Etc etc. Any other cliches you can think of? Add here. In other words, I've been exhausted emotionally and mentally {more on that another time}. Quite frankly, blogging was at the bottom of the priority list. It IS just a hobby after all. But, when you feel like you're in survival mode, hobbies get pushed aside. Am I right? Or, am I right?

I digress.

Today is my birthday! And in two days it's Thanksgiving. 'Tis the season! So I thought I'd wrap up this post by being grateful and giving thanks.

Side note: I felt this picture was blog worthy because even though I am now 27, I am obviously still cool and trendy. I mean, check out those leggings! Also, my post needed some pictures, and well, this was the most recent picture I took of myself on my phone. As you can see, I live a very exciting life.

I have so much to be thankful for. I could go on and on. I want to say that even though life just plain sucks sometimes, my heart is also full at the same time. I can't help but hum to myself the classic hymn..."count your blessings name them one by one..." as I'm writing this. I think we all need to get into the practice of doing this. It helps, honest! It helps even when circumstances are less than ideal. It helps when you don't want to get out of bed and face reality. It helps when you longingly look at another persons life, wishing you had what they have. I can honestly say I am in a better mood when I focus on the good rather than the bad. This is no new theory, just a great reminder for us all as Thanksgiving approaches.

I am thankful for my family. This is a nobrainer! Thank you, Lord.

I am thankful for my naughty, silly goldendoodle, Jake. Because he's a good snuggler and keeps a girl company.

I am thankful for my new house. Because it just fell into place so perfectly that I knew it was all Him!

I am thankful for the Peace that passes all understanding. Because when the storm rages all around me, He calms me with His presence.

I am thankful for my friends. Because they encourage my heart and make me laugh.

I am thankful for my dear sweet Steve. Because he's taking me to dinner in 30 minutes and is willing to watch movies with me that he doesn't really care for {ahem, Hunger Games}. Yay! ;)

And on that note...I'm outta here! I hope to get back into writing more regularly but no guarantees! After all, it's the holidays!

Friday, October 18, 2013

The Bramble Banks

Also known as the Outer Banks.

I figured it's about time I share about our lovely family vacation to Hatteras Island, NC. It was a first time for us all. All as in all twelve of us. Two sisters and a friend flew in from Montana. All five Stayer sisters together at last. Add the two Steves, two dogs, two parents, two grand parents and a partridge in a pear tree. My mom was on cloud nine. It’s been close to a decade since we have all gone on a family vacation together. I know what you’re thinking. This could go well or poorly. It went extremely well! And I’m not being sarcastic.

And whose bright idea was it to bring the dogs anyway? This is where “bramble” comes into play. Is this a real word? I don’t know. I think it is. What I do know is the terrain is very cactus/desert like in the Outer Banks. At least where we were staying. Not at all dog friendly. There were little prickly tumbleweeds everywhere. They got stuck on the dogs paws, they stabbed us in the feet {mostly my dads feet}. It was a pain literally and figuratively speaking. My dad called them brambles. Just so we’re clear. By the end of the week we were calling them brumbles {blame the alcohol?}.

We had fun. Lots of fun. Plain and simple as that. I don’t think I’ve ever been as relaxed in my entire life as I was on this vacation. There was nothing to do, people. Nothing. Like the only touristy thing we did was go see a lighthouse. And we didn’t even climb up the stairs to take in the view because we are a} too cheap b} scared of heights c} ain't nobody got time for that.

Our day looked like this:

9 am-2 pm: rise and shine, drink coffee, eat breakfasts made by the father, drink mimosas, apply sunscreen, go the beach, drink mojitos/gin and tonics/beer/wine/whiskey and cokes, walk back to the house to make fluffernutters, go back to the beach, take a nap, talk about life, throw around a football, play catchphrase, jump in the waves.

2 pm-6pm: get tired of the beach, make more coffee, go to the pool, re-apply sunscreen, try to get dad to say the word “bramble” or "brumble", grab a beer, go in the hot tub, take a shower, drink five glasses of water, apply aloe vera, put on something nice.

6 pm-midnight: Go out to dinner, order a water, eat seafood, take pictures of each other/yourself/the scenery, go to DQ for buy one get one 99 cent blizzards, change into comfy clothes or swim suit, resume drinking alcohol of any variety and/or coffee, sit around and argue about what we should do next, play a game such as apples to apples “winner takes a shot” version, have drunk conversations about how going back to work and reality will suck, laugh until your sides hurt, go night swimming in the ocean, go in the hot tub, go to sleep to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. Insert happy sigh {here}.

Repeat for seven days. And that's all you really need to know.

And since pictures speak louder than words…