Sick Start to the Week

Hey loves! I hope your week has gotten off to a good start. Not to complain Mine hasn't started off quite the way I would've wanted it to. 


I'm sick. :(


I absolutely hate being sick. I'm a huge baby when I am sick. If I wasn't doing this long term assignment right now, I'd probably be in bed. 


Seriously, I run away from sick people. When I live with someone who is sick, Lysol becomes my friend. 


My sister just got home from college last week. Apparently, I didn't get the Lysol out fast enough because I caught her cold.


Well when preventative measures don't work, here's how I deal with my cold. 


1. First wave of defense: The magic VapoRub. Something my family swears by and apparently los cubanos do as well. In my house, we each have our own jar by our beds. 

Source

2. Chicken Noodle Soup

3. Medication

4. Naps

5. & 6. Ice Cream with maraschino cherries and Potato Wedges (So I spoil myself a little bit...)

Food Lion Potato Wedges!

What?! It soothes my throat!

What's your best cold remedy?

Weekend Recap

This weekend was actually kinda busy for once. It was my little sister, Aspen's last weekend home on her Spring Break from Virginia Tech. Also, that whole losing an hour due to Daylight Savings Time made the weekend go by faster, thus seem busier. 


On Friday, we didn't do much. Two of Aspen's friends from high school came over and one of them attends JMU (my alma mater). So I talked to him for a bit to try and live vicariously through him since my freshman year of college seems so very far away. 


On Saturday, I met up with Jeremy in Colonial Heights and I finally got my fantasy football trophy and banner. That's right! Remember that weekend when I was drafting this team. And remember how I said I was going to come out on top. Well I did! 

My Bdub's Banner!

Doesn't she look like she's saying, "Touchdown!"

We had a steak dinner to celebrate Lynn's birthday, which was the 12th. Then after we all went to the mall, she made red velvet cupcakes. We also had pineapple upside down cake! So much for me trying to cut back on the sweets; I cannot fight my sweet tooth.

I also did a lot of shopping this weekend. On Saturday, I got a new sports bra; talk about motivation for running! On Sunday, I went to Target and bought some awesome new socks! Aspen and I also went by Sweet Frog on her way out of town. I have no pictures of that because I can't stop myself from scarfing that down long enough to take a photo!


What did you do last weekend? What are you doing this weekend?

My Family's Food Mecca

I'd imagine most families have a certain restaurant they always frequent.


At least, mine does.


Our place is Cracker Barrel. 

That's where I spent a couple of hours last Sunday celebrating my Uncle Jamie (February 25) and Uncle John's (March 5) birthdays.


My family goes there for every birthday, wedding, funeral, or just because we're hungry. Okay not every. That might just be a slight exaggeration. 


Why Cracker Barrel? I think we're all fans of the home-cooked Southern foods and how much food they give you. I always have enough left over for a second meal. We also take home a ton biscuits when we leave. 


Also, there's probably that space issue. Cracker Barrel always has enough room to accommodate "Kennedy, party of 17." That, my friends, is not an exaggeration.


Where does your family congregate to eat? Do y'all have a specific place y'all always go?

Tis the Season for Baking

WARNING: This post will make you drool. You will see many photos of sweets and then you will be hungry! Don't say I didn't warn you. 


Or so it seems in my house! I'm packing on the winter weight. =/

It started on the Friday before the busiest Saturday in my life in awhile. Seriously I never do anything on the weekends and all of a sudden I'm invited to two parties on the same Saturday! 

The first party that I was invited to was a graduation party for Santana, who has been my cousin's roommate and best friend at ODU for forever! The 3 of us have celebrated all of our graduations (all at 3 separate times) together!

The second party was cause for all the baking. I was getting together with a couple of my Dinwiddie Girls for a Tacky Sweater/Cookie Swap party. 


Which led to baking all Friday night! Thank goodness I had the help of my youngest sister because I certainly know how to make a mess while baking!


Leave it to me to choose something I'd never baked before, something that required strange ingredients like light corn syrup and kosher salt. 


I chose Mini Black and White Cookies. 

I was baking until 11:15 p.m. And that icing is super messy!

Ever since that night, the baking has not ceased in this house since. Aspen and Lynn made a ton of chocolate cookies on Saturday night. And I brought home so many sweets from the party!

Then my mom's boyfriend is a track coach and Aspen is an architecture major and this is what happens when you add those two together and the fact that the store didn't have the cookie cutter they wanted. 

Yes, they made that themselves. They used this cookie cutter and several others for a couple of batches of gingerbread cookies. 

Then Dani made peanut butter cookies with chocolate Kisses and Aspen made more sugar cookies!

Needless to say, we haven't been at a loss for dessert at all this week!

What are you favorite holiday desserts?

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Thanksgiving comes with several traditions. This year I woke up super early (no idea why!) and showered! Then I got ready while I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

 I kept getting on my mom's nerves because every time they showed Macy's, I'd say, "I've been to the Macy's" or "I've stood in Herald Square." I can't help it! Every time I watch the parade, it makes me want to go back to New York City. Also, it makes me think of the time that my roomies were in the parade with the James Madison Marching Royal Dukes, back in 2008. That was definitely my favorite time watching the parade!

Anyway after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, my family always watches the dog show! We always root for the West Highland Terrier since that's what kind of dog Rascal is. The Westie came in third in the terrier group! I also learned that the dog show is pre-recorded. Who knew?


Then began the stress of Thanksgiving. This year we were having Thanksgiving at our house, which has it's advantages and disadvantages. Advantage: I don't have to go anywhere. Disadvantages: We have to clean the house in anticipation for our guests that never notice the vacuuming or dusting.


Other disadvantage is that our house is like Bangladesh in relation to population density. I think that's why my family is so close 0r gets annoyed with each other so easily. We practically sit on top of each other at family events.


Thanksgiving this year included my immediate family: Mom, Dad, Dani, Aspen, and Raina (Did you note that? Mom and Dad...that's a first since...well let's just say I don't remember the last time!). We were joined by Hollie, Dylan, Uncle Charles, Travis, Uncle Dale, Uncle Steve, Granny, and David. 


We had to sit in the 2 different rooms as well as setting up a table outside! But the food was great, the company was superb and I got to watch some good football!


Now for the fotos of my gringo Thanksgiving, most of which I took for my guatemalteca, Candace, because the day before Thanksgiving she was tweeting about not understanding cranberry sauce!

Cranberry Sauce right out of the can!

Sliced and ready to eat!

We had an assortment of food at our Thanksgiving! Let me tell you about! Turkey (of course), country ham (my personal preference), stuffing, mashed red potatoes, gravy, corn pudding, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, potato salad, green beans, rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin cake, coconut pie, and lots of sweet tea!

My plate!



The copious amount of sweet tea that is brought to a Southern Thanksgiving!



The cake my sister made!

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was wonderful! What kind of Thanksgiving traditions does your family have? What did you eat on Thanksgiving?

Truckeroo

Do you ever have friends that you want to hang out with but they are so busy that it takes forever to make plans with them? I have friends like that.

I've been trying to hang out with Mike since June but he's soooooo popular and in such high demand that he just now finally had a free weekend. So on Friday morning I headed up to Arlington.

Except I decided to make a pit stop and eat lunch with Patti in Ladysmith! So I met her at Subway and we run into her best friend Leslee and her family, whom I've heard so much about in the last four years! It was cool to finally get to meet them.

After a long lunch break (I couldn't bear to leave Patti even though I'll see her this weekend, hopefully!), I got back on the road and finally got to Arlington around 3.

Anyway someone had worked all morning (obvs not me cuz I'm jobless) so in lieu of a nap (cuz I woulda slept hardcore and we never would have made our evening plans), we hit the pool! It was uber hot there but we laid out, attempted to read, watch some crazy rabbits hop around, and got in the water for a bit.

After the pool, showers, and some resting, we finally decided to head to Truckeroo. What's Truckeroo, you ask? Well it's a monthly food truck festival held near Nationals stadium.

I must admit I had no idea what to expect but Mike was really excited about it! So we got on the metro and headed that way. And then began the standing in lines. We stood in line at the ATM. We stood in line to get in the festival.

Once we got in there, it was unbelievingly overwhelming. The food trucks were arranged in a circle around the venue, there were lines going every which way, and way more people than I was expecting, which made it hard to see what different food trucks were there. Mike kept asking me what I wanted and I couldn't decide or see what was there.

We finally settled on the BBQ Bus!

We both opted for pulled pork sandwiches, though Mike chose to have pickled onions on his. I think they look like worms (see below). I also forgot people put cole slaw on BBQ sandwiches but it wasn't that bad like that. We choked down on pulled pork sandwiches without drinks while sitting on the ground! They were good!! =]

Mike's pulled pork sandwich

We finally found sodas and then we decided on a cupcake truck for dessert! I had a lemon cupcake and Mike had a snickerdoodle cupcake. They were delicious and we devoured them; that's why there are no photos of them! 

And that concludes our first Truckeroo experience! =]

When in Maine, do as the Maine-iacs do...

Not only did I want to experience the whole being in a new state thing, I also wanted to experience some new things!

My first chance came on the night of our first full day here, Friday. We were graciously invited to the Weber's for lobster, or in Maine, lobstah!

Now I don't know if you've figured it out, but we don't have much lobster in Dinwiddie. I mean, you can probably buy it at Wal-mart (that's not in Dinwiddie) but it's most definitely not the same I am sure.

Here is one of the several trays of LOBSTAH shared between the 3 families invited to this shindig!

 

Lawrence, my lobstah of choice!

I did manage to poke myself while trying to crack open my lobstah. Lucky me got a hard shelled one. =[ But for those of you who haven't tried lobstah, it was pretty good! The tail tasted like shrimp! I must say I wasn't much for dipping my lobstah in the buttah!

Me, trying to figure this lobstah thing out. Look at Patti, she 's a  pro!

Me and all the leftover lobstah! 

Are you a fan of the lobstah? What's the newest food you've tried lately? Did you like it?