Hello There.

Good news! I'm am not stranded in an apple orchard. No, in fact I left the apple orchard that day and simply hung up my blogger hat. As it turns out, blogging takes up a good bit of time and life was picking up the pace. Something needed to give. Family, work, sleep, and home all take precedence. And if I'm being honest, it was really work that was suffering. I realized one day that what I really needed was more sleep - and guess what keeps me up past a normal bed time? Writing.

So, I'm back. But only on a self-imposed probationary period. We'll see how well I can stick to a reasonable bed time.

Now, where to begin?





Back before the snow, I suppose. TC and I moved! We bought a house that is perfect for us. It's just across town and has marvelous features like no neighbors living directly above and below us! A garbage disposal! A GARAGE! More than one tiny bathroom and a linen closet that actually holds all my towels! It's a miracle, I tell ya. Oh, and get this - we no longer have to keep my dresser in another room. Our bedroom can actually hold both dressers. Crazy, right?

Every single wall needs to be painted and there is definitely some furniture to be bought but for now I'm just enjoying the new space. Actually, even though I promised I wouldn't touch a paintbrush for a few months, I caved over the weekend and painted my office. I'll be sure to show you the before and afters soon.

We've had an unbelievable amount of snow this winter so it was extra nice to catch a plane to Atlanta for the holidays and escape the constant blizzards. I spend most of my fall getting excited for our holiday trip and this year was just as wonderful as always.





We spent an amazing Christmas with my family. Gift were opened, mimosas were consumed and a lot of time was spent sitting around the kitchen just hanging out and talking about a whole lot of nothing. There is definitely no place like home.

In Atlanta we also got too see all of my friends - we went out to breakfast, we had dinner, we went to a home inspection, we went on a Ferris Wheel, we sat on living room floors to play super heros with the kids, and we ate lunch at the Food Truck Park.





A little bit of everything as we spent time with all my girls. Perfection, really. And let's be real - you know how much I love ferris wheels.





After leaving Atlanta we spent a few nights with friends in Maine for New Years Eve. It was a mini reunion of sorts and was the perfect way to spend the last day of our holiday break. For some reason the snow looks prettier down in Maine than it does here at home. But that's probably because there was a lot less of it there.

I've got a few projects in the works, a few new recipes, a discovery or two and a couple of adventures that I'll fill you in on in the near future.

It's good to be back :) Thanks for being patient with me.

Home.

I'm back. You've missed me, right?

Back blogging and back in Canada. For now, at least. Just two more weeks until I head to the great state of Maine for the summer!

I spent the past week down South in Atlanta and South Carolina where I got to spend tons of time with my family and see some of my favorite people in the world.

Getting back to Atlanta is quite possibly one of the best feelings in the world. It's the house where I grew up and everything is familiar.

I made sure to stop by all of my favorite places that I am deprived of in Canada. Namely, Chic-Fil-A and Target. It is truly a miracle that I survive in Canada.

My mom and I had some girl time for a belated Mother's Day celebration while we got pedicures, ate fro-yo and did some shopping.

I also had time to see some of my oldest and dearest friends. Jen and I played with her kiddos one night. Sally and I drank wine and built a tree out of balloons and PVC pipe another night.

Then, of course, there was the wedding in South Carolina that reunited old high school friends for a weekend of chaos.





Lucky for me, my dad lets me borrow his fun little convertible while I'm home. As I was driving around town I realized that I don't even have to think about where I'm going. It's like I'm on auto-pilot. I've been driving those roads for so long that I know every twist, turn and bump. I've been in Canada for almost three years and everyday I still have to think about which way to turn out of my driveway. Now granted, I'm directionally challenged, but still...there is something to be said for knowing your home town like the back of your hand.

Right before I left for the airport yesterday I walked down the driveway and was hit with the smell of our yard. I've never noticed it before but it smelled like heaven. The flowers, the grass, the morning dew on the yard...it smelled like home. I wonder how many times I've walked up and down that driveway? Probably at least a million and I've never noticed that sweet smell until now. Funny how those things work.

I landed last night and luckily TC didn't forget to pick me up at the airport. The poor man has been living off of a frozen batch of cookies I left for him, so I was glad to see that he hasn't withered away into nothing.

I had a blast in Atlanta, but it's good to be home and see my favorite guy.

Wedded Bliss.

On this day, thirty five years ago, it was snowing something awful. Chicago was being punished by one of the worst storms of the winter. That's just the forecast that every bride hopes to hear on her wedding day, right?

My poor mom, that couldn't have been easy to wake up to on the morning of her nuptials. She's swears she didn't care and that she just wanted to get married, but I'm not convinced.

The wedding went on despite the weather and the snowed-in/missing groomsman. Nothing was going to stop the long sleeve white polyester wedding gown, the fantastic 70's tuxedos with diagonal striped wide ties, and the $35 emerald green polyester bridesmaid dresses from coming down that church isle.

How do I not have a photo of their wedding glory? It's priceless.

It was also my dad's 24th birthday. He had promised himself that he wouldn't get married until his twenty third year was over. By the ripe ole age of 24 he had already backpacked Europe, graduated from business school, landed his first real job and popped the question. He was ready to get married on his birthday.

Fast forward to right now. Just a few years older and many years wiser, they're off enjoying a quick trip to San Francisco in celebration of the occasion.

And, they'd like to point out, the weather is perfect.

Also, no one is wearing polyester.

Happy Anniversary! and Happy, Happy Birthday!

A Treasured Christmas.

TC and I have been back in Canada for several days now and I'm still recovering from all the fun we had in Atlanta.

As usual, my parents put on a fabulous Christmas. 

Shortly after landing on Christmas Eve we got dressed up and headed to church. We then came home and my dad got to work on our traditional pomegranate martinis. 

For dinner my mom ordered steaks from my grandpa's favorite butcher in Iowa. Grandpa's not with us anymore but when he was alive he never missed a Christmas at our house. He would have loved it.

The next morning we slept in since my sister, TC and I stayed out late having drinks and catching up. When we woke up it was presents galore. Thanks to my parent's recent trip to Paris we all were gifted fabulous French treasures. 

This year I got creative and had a special gift made for TC. I searched high and low before finding a wonderful woodworker on Etsy who was willing to create a custom toy version of TC's Land Rover. I was beside myself with excitement about it and I think it is safe to say that TC loves it.

For Christmas dinner we headed over to my parent's best friend's house. Dotty set a beautiful table, complete with mercury glass ornaments for each of us.

Jim carved the turkey to perfection while entertaining all of us with his outrageous stories. The running joke is that the advent of the iPhone has ruined Jim's stories because now we can catch him in his exaggerations. Lucky for Jim, we all put our phones away for the evening and let him tell his stories in all their exaggerated glory. 

For the second year we all popped our poppers and donned colorful crowns for dinner. It's a new tradition for us, but I think it sets a really fun atmosphere for dinner. Which, by the way, is perfect for this crew.

The next night my parents shipped us kids off to see Cirque du Soleil's Totem. It was my first Cirque experience and it was amazing. We must have asked TC to pronounce Cirque du Soleil with the proper French accent a million times. It sounds so much more elegant when he says it. 

The next evening we all headed back downtown for a trip to see the lights at the Botanical Gardens. 

My family has lived in Atlanta for 20 years and somehow this was the first time we visited. I sense another new tradition in the making...

To keep ourselves entertained in the afternoons we did some light shopping. For cowboy boots. Obviously.

I'm not sure what prompted the trip to Horsetown, but don't you think TC looks pretty fancy in these boots? We probably should have bought him a pair in every color.

There's a great beer brewery in Atlanta called Sweetwater that is a personal favorite of mine. For one of our last nights in town we went down for a tour with my best friend Sally and her husband. I use the term "tour" very lightly, because it was 15 minutes of tour and two hours of taste testing all the delicious brews.

Afterward, the four of us headed to a cute downtown area for dinner. It's a part of town that has recently blown up with great bars and restaurants but hasn't lost any of it's old Southern charm. 

The wait wasn't too long so we huddled up with sangria to keep us warm while we hung out and waited for our table. 

Let me tell you, the shrimp tacos were worth the wait.

I can't tell you how much fun I had hanging out with my friends and seeing all of those faces that I miss so much.

My parents are the absolute best. Once again, they gave us a magical Christmas and I can't wait to see them again in May. I'm already counting down the days.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope that everyone has enjoyed the holiday season but mostly, I wish you each have your best year yet in 2013.

If you're on my family's holiday card list than please pretend you didn't see this photo. While this is the photo we used, it is a different version. Maybe you won't recognize it? That would be good.

I'm not sure it has always been like this, but for the past few years the best part of our holiday card photo is the process of taking the picture. Actually, my dad told a story tonight about one Christmas card from when I was a baby that makes me think that it hasn't always been as much fun as it is now. Apparently I was a bit of a pain in the ass as a toddler. Who would have guessed.

So, a few weeks ago my sister and I decided that sparklers would be fun for our New Years themed card. Well, that is all fine and dandy as long as you have approximately 8 million sparklers, good weather and at least one bottle of wine to help keep everyone's stress levels low.

By the end of this it took one self-timed camera, two different evenings, 90 regular size sparklers and 15 jumbo sparklers to finally get a photo where everyone looked somewhat normal. Someone's sparkler went out, someone blinked, someone's hair blew in their face...you name it. I'm not exaggerating when I say we went through over 100 sparklers. Wine, people. Bring wine to your photo session. It makes the whole thing so entertaining!

The moral of the story is that I worked too hard getting this photo to just send it out on our awesome Shutterfly cards (the surprise photo on the back is awesome!). I had to share a version with you too.

Get those resolutions ready and bring on 2013. It's going to be a good one.

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays.

Once again, the holidays have been absolutely fantastic and a huge success. TC and I have been down in Atlanta relaxing and having fun with my friends and family - it's just what I needed.

We've had delicious meals, done some shopping (new boots for me!), spent time with my wonderful friends and logged many hours doing a whole bunch of nothing in my family's kitchen.

We had a wonderful Christmas morning full of all our usual family traditions. We also all had a good laugh while desperately trying to get a decent family photo for the belated Christmas card. I tell ya, there is never a dull moment around here.





Assuming we can stuff everything into our bags, TC and I are headed back to a very snowy Canada for New Years Eve. Luckily, we will still have several more days off that I can use to catch up on uploading photos and filling you all in on the details of our trip.

My boots and I will be back to your regular scheduled blogging soon. Hang in there.

Grateful.

I've got this idea for a November project floating around in my head. But I haven't worked out all the details yet. And I can't commit to a project. But I'm thinking about it.

Anyway, the project has to do with being thankful. Isn't that the theme of November, what with Thanksgiving and all?





Well, it's October. I know it isn't quite November yet, but that doesn't mean I can't be grateful this month too.

Anyway, tonight I'm feeling particularly thankful for my dad. He's a pretty great guy and basically the best dad ever.

Love you, dad.

Marissa Big Teeth.

My sister has an Indian name. Marissa Tiny Teeth.

Side note: Is it politically incorrect to use the term "Indian name?"





It's true. She has tiny teeth. Remember the gum, Chicklets? That's what her teeth look like.

It's not really noticeable because she has such a great smile but I guess we all have our insecurities and things that we wish we could change.

Lucky for her, tooth size can be changed. Did you know that? It's not something I think about very often, but I guess I had heard somewhere that it was possible.

So the other day she booked herself an appointment with a cosmetic dentist to have her teeth...how shall I say...enlarged.





We got the the dentist's office, a pretty swanky place actually.

Marissa filled out some paper work and I promptly left her ass and went to Starbucks, like the good sister that I am.





An hour later she came out with a new Indian name: Marissa Big Teeth.

While she was back there, and I was sipping my coffee in the waiting room, the dentist x-rayed her teeth, gave her a million numbing shots in her gums and then took a laser and cut back her gums to reveal more tooth with perfectly arched gums. She swears she felt no pain and only smelled the faint scent of her flesh burning. Her gums burning!

I shutter at the thought.





When we got home her mouth was still numb. The dentist told her to drink cold water to help with swelling. Let's just say that didn't go well. It was, however, hysterical to watch her drool the water all over herself. The water would go in her mouth and then spill right back out. Definitely the highlight of my day.

Now, the photo I'm about to show you is a little gory. It's not bad, it's just a little vampire-ish.





New Indian name: Marissa Bloody Teeth.

Instead of drinking coffee, perhaps I should have been thanking God for giving me normal sized teeth.

Recap. Here's the before and after of the four teeth she had work done on.

Makes me want to vom.

Lobster for Dinner.

I know I've been MIA but camp has been an especially busy place this summer. Actually, the other day I toted my camera around all day to document every event that happened throughout the day. I'll show you soon.

Anyway, my parents finally came to visit camp last week. I've been working here for eight summers now so we figured it was finally time they see the place where I met The Canadian. 

To give them the full Maine experience we headed down the street to the Naples Lobster Pound.

It doesn't get much more Maine-y than this place. Indoor picnic tables. No air conditioning. Plastic silverware. 

Classic.

My dad had his first legitimate lobster experience. He's had lobster before but never where he had to don the lobster bib, stare at his new friend's eyes and tear it open.

Fortunately, The Canadian grew up on lobster and could crack one in his sleep, so he was able to walk my dad through the whole process.

Have you even cracked you own lobster? I've had lobster on multiple occasions but have only cracked my own once and it was an experience that I don't care to repeat. There is some super nasty stuff in those little guys. Ugh, I can't even think about it...

This place is legit too. If you look at this photo closely you can see a greenish-blue sink in the back where the living lobsters are chillin'. The steam on the right side is where the lobsters are meeting their untimely demise upon your order. 

Poor little guys, kinda brings a tear to my eye.

After dinner we headed over to the closest town which is downtown Naples. It sits on the intersection of three lakes and serves as a cool hangout with a few restaurants and bars, a souvenir shop and a couple ice cream parlors. 

Since Maine is known for blueberries too, my mom wanted homemade dessert to round off her Maine experience. The four of us went to another restaurant and ordered a round of drink and a blueberry crumble and blueberry cheesecake. Let me tell you, it was delicious. Definitely the perfect end to the evening.

Up until the beginning of June I hadn't seen my parents since Christmas and I've now seen them twice for dinner this summer. In another month I am going down to Atlanta for a visit and I can't wait. Hanging out with them last week was awesome. Not to mention that I really appreciated the cookies and bathing suits my mom brought me. 

Moms always make the best goodie bags.

If you want to send me a care package or some mail, I definitely wouldn't complain.