A door handle!

I'd just like to send a huge shout out to my heroes, Stephen and Andrew, for fixing my car door handle tonight.  After living without a proper door handle for the last 3 weeks, it's pretty exciting being able to perform the simple task of opening my door with one hand/swift movement.  I won't go into the tragic details of how I came to need a new handle, but let's just say it was a tragedy and more than a minor inconvenience.  Tonight, however, that inconvenience was rectified and I am so happy that I am baking a double batch of braided bread as I type! (Half with chocolate chips since it's one of Stephen's fav things that I make.)

I am excited about my handle being fixed, but also SO embarrassed/amused because Stephen and Andrew both came into dinner (we were at Crystal/Andrew's house helping them with various yard projects before they set out to work on my car) shaking their heads and saying that my door was hopeless and that I would need to go to the Nissan dealer to get it fixed ($$$$$$$).  I HATE going to the dealer, and HATE having to spend money on my car (probably part of why it's not in the best shape, Stephen is convinced I don't take good care of my car and he's probably right...but shhhh, don't tell him I said that).  I reluctantly accepted my fate as we ate a delicious pork roast and played cards.  As we were leaving, however, Stephen and Andrew both insisted on walking me to my car in the garage.  "Well, just open the door!"  I walked around my car and stared in confusion at my door avec door handle.  I thought it was a trick, that maybe the handle was just wedged on the door somehow and that it would fall off as I opened my door, but no, it was really attached!  AHH!  I don't really know when I became so easy to trick, but this trick had a happy ending so I can't even be mad.  I'm just so happy to have my handle back.  :)

Gotta go check on my rising dough.  Keep it real folks.

My baking addiction

Hey friends.  It's been a while, sorry.  I could give you an excuse but I think I've used up every excuse in the book, so, yeah...sorry.

Recently I re-discovered the joys of baking.  If you don't live locally you might not have noticed, but I've seriously revamped my food habits in an attempt to live healthier.  I'm actually amazed at how little changes can really add up.  I don't like to talk about it, but I've actually lost a substantial amount of weight just by packing smarter lunches and snacks for work, and cutting out most of my carbs (which used to be about 80% of my diet, sigh).  I also stopped buying coffee and I guess those couple tablespoons of soy milk I used to get at starbucks make a difference.

Anyways, where was I...oh yeah, so, I haven't been eating many carbs lately, but I've really been craving good bread.  I don't want to buy it at the store, because I either have to shell out the big bucks for fancy bread, or buy bread that's more air and cardboard than bread...so I've been baking!  I made challah the other day, and I was super impressed at how easy it is to braid the bread.  It was also pretty relaxing kneading the dough by hand.  In the past I've done it with my mixer, but there isn't really anything quite like kneading dough by hand.  (If you're wondering, this is the recipe I used with the addition of an egg wash and 3T of wheat gluten added to the dough http://www.thechallahblog.com/2011/04/eggless-challah.html).  I gave away half of the bread I made and plan on feeding Stephen my remaining loaf when he finally gets back from work (more on that later) so today I'm trying out a braided white bread recipe (http://breadbaking.about.com/od/yeastbreads/r/Braided-White-Bread.htm).  It's currently rising so I'll let you know how it turns out another time, but so far it smells good and was easy to throw together.  I plan on braiding this into small loaves (like dinner roll size) so that I can take them to work this week with my mexican chicken soup (loosely based on this recipe http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-taco-soup-40022, but made with chicken and cutting back on the canned items since I just need to feed myself and maybe Stephen).  Anyways, that's my cooking adventures summed up in a paragraph.

It's really starting to look like spring out here.  (Sorry to all of you trapped in Snow-England.)  Things are already starting to bud and bloom.   It's pretty cool watching the season change early.  It's like a little reward for moving away from the North East (ouch, sorry again guys!  I'm just super happy to not be dealing with all the snow you guys are getting!)


As great as the weather has been though, I've been in a bit of a funk lately.  Various things are going on which I can't really get into on this blog, but they've just been annoying.  Nothing super terrible, just little things that make you go "Really?!".  I'll also selfishly throw it out there that Stephen has been working long hours all week, and basically hasn't even been in the same town as me since Thursday AM.  He's been staying out by work and doing long hours.  Now, I should be happy.  He's working, his boss is great, he enjoys it...but honestly I just miss him.  We haven't even really been able to talk on the phone because he goes to bed pretty much as soon as he gets off of work because he's exhausted.  I feel like I'm being whiny about this, but whatever.  This blog is for me and I just want to get this out there.  I don't know how people handle long distance or military partners/spouses.  Maybe those people are just better equipped for this kind of thing than I am.  Whatever it is, it just kind of stinks.  Hopefully he'll be able to come home tonight though, and that makes me happy.

My bread also just finished it's first rise.  Time to punch and knead and braid away my self-pity.  Put on your big girl pants, Molly.  It's just a little while in the long run.  Forever is a pretty long time.

Jet lag

Hello friends.

Last night I slept the best I've slept in a long while.  Seriously, Stephen and I had a LONG day of traveling (with a delayed/almost cancelled flight across the country, and bags that just didn't seem to want to arrive on the baggage claim belt) and got home at about 10:30pm.  I wanted nothing more than to fall into my bed, however I had absolutely NO food in the house, so to the grocery store I drove!  I spent maybe 20 minutes wandering around the store, and then assembling my pathetic lunch at home (somehow I thought a good snack would be an entire cup of cherry tomatoes?...interesting sleep-deprived-Molly) before falling into my wonderful bed.

Now, my bed isn't fancy.  Most of the blankets aren't the right size, the pillows don't match and my cats like to hide all of their toys in it...but man...I really missed my bed.  I'm glad my cats can't talk because they probably would have made fun of me for sighing "my bed, my bed, oh I love you my bed" as I fell asleep.  (And you're probably going to make fun of me for posting that here, but oh well.)

I slept for a glorious 3 hours before waking up and panicking that I hadn't set my alarm.  I double checked, and fell back asleep...then woke up again...checked my clock, fell asleep, wash, rinse, repeat until my alarm finally went off at 6:30am.  Needless to say, I brought an entire pot of coffee to work with me again today.  Hopefully the kiddos are nice to me on my first day back.

My house is an utter disaster.  I literally threw my bags in the front room, opened them both up to grab some random junk, and left them where they sat.  My poor cats (who missed me so much that they both tried to block me from going out the front door this morning when I left for work) no longer have a front room to play in; it's more of a disaster zone.  CAUTION: ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.  I'll have to make some extra coffee when I get home tonight so that I can clean up a bit and make myself a real lunch for tomorrow.  (I cheated for today and brought microwave soup...WOW.  I haven't eaten this stuff for YEARS.)

Uh, so, Boston.  Our trip was great.  Too long and too short all at the same time.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone, but it was kind of sad that the time we did have with people always seemed too short (plus the fact that we saw most people in group settings so we had to divide our attention across a billion people).  I'm glad to be back home away from the snow, but I do miss the people.  It was great to see my family and have them meet Stephen in the flesh.  I never doubted that they recognized our connection, but it was nice that they could see for themselves just how perfect we are together (awww, how mushy and touchy-feely).

But in all seriousness, it was just great to see Stephen clean the driveway with my father, play cribbage with my mother, attempt to wrestle with my brother, joke around with my sisters...he just fits into the family so well.  I really am lucky to have found such a great guy.  I'm losing steam with this blog-post, but I'll make one final comment.  I've been thinking about the concept of "love" a lot lately.  There are a lot of cutesy sayings about what "love" is.  There are funny postings online about little kids giving their definitions of "love" (and they're hilarious) but I'll add my 2-cents.  Love is still wanting to be around your fiancé, even when she's blowing her nose 24-7, hacking up a lung and refusing to wear makeup because she's "dying of the flu".  I brought the nasty flu/bug that's been going around at work back to Boston with me, and looked like death for a solid 3 days.  Stephen must really love me because he didn't make a single comment about how terrible I looked or how nasty my nose-blowing and lung-hacking were, even though I was snotting and phlegming all over him during our flight out.  (Sorry for that disgusting detail, but it's true.)  He must really love me.  I am so blessed.

Peace out folks.  It's almost time for me to pick up my first client.

Love.

Hello from Boston!

Hello friends!  Last night Stephen and I boarded a plane, and this morning we arrived in good ole Boston MA!  It wouldn't be a proper Massachusetts welcome if we did't encounter some sass right off the gate, and I was not disappointed.  Naturally our first stop on our journey to my parents house in Tyngsboro was Dunkin Donuts.  Their coffee is just as awesome as I remember.  I downed it in a matter of minutes (well, with Stephen's help of course).

Let me just say it is totally surreal to be back home in the 01879.  The trees and grass are all dead, for one thing, and there is SO MUCH FREAKING SNOW!!!!  Plus we're supposed to get the blizzard of the century tomorrow, this was not in my plans!  Oh well, if we get snowed in it will just give us a chance to hang out with my folks more since people won't be able to shoot off to work and school etc.
Our plane rides were decent.  The man in our row on the way to San Francisco was super chatty and friendly.  Our seatmate on the second flight took a sleeping pill and was out like a light, haha.  I decided to bring my wedding dress along so that my mom could see it in person, and it's fantastic how nice people are to you when you walk onto a plane and say "I have my wedding dress with me...is there any chance we can hang it up somewhere?"  The one downside to our flights was that neither of us got much sleep (in fact, Stephen is taking a nap as I type) and I seem to have succumbed to the flu/cold/deathly illness that has been going around work.  It's been a 3-day thing, and I'm on day 2.5 or so, so I'm crossing my fingers that I will recover quickly and that I haven't passed it along to Stephen.

I'm a little jet-lagged right now, and hyped up on cold meds, so I'll leave you guys there.  I might post more this week, or owe you a long post when we return to Damascus.

Until next time.

Sorry

Hey friends.  I owe you a post, but I'm kind of at a loss as to what I should write about.  Life has been pretty busy lately, but hey, no real complaints here.  The busier I am the less time I have to think about the fact that my wedding is in less than 200 days!  Ahh!  This is still completely surreal to me.  I mean, I've been an *adult living on my own for a few years now; I know how to pay bills, go grocery shopping, pay my taxes, etc. but in some ways I still feel like a kid...and now I'm getting married?!  Is this real life?

Anyways, wedding planning took kind of a stand still for a bit.  Hopefully this weekend Stephen and I will get a chance to sit down and bang out a few more details.  We're also going to visit my folks in about 2 and a half weeks, and I'm so pumped!  I can't wait to show him around and introduce him to the crew back home.  I'm also super excited because we get to take out one of my old students while we're there (probably for sushi, which is great!) so I'll get to say hello to all my old boys.  I miss them so much it's kind of ridiculous.

We're currently looking into photographers and were supposed to meet with one today...unfortunately my email SUCKS and didn't actually send my email asking if we could meet tonight...SO we'll just have to meet next week which is fine too.

Ok running out of ideas to write about now.  Bye.

I could't let Stephen be the only one with a mustache...

Happy New Year!

Ok, so, it's 2015 guys.  This means I owe you a "what I accomplished in 2014" post.  I will be doing this through pictures since I didn't even realize all that I'd done until I started thumbing through my digital photo album to pick out my favorite pictures (half of which were taken after I moved, but whatever).  The pictures aren't in any sort of order since blogger decided to upload them randomly and it's a pain in the butt to reorganize them.  Sorry.  

Bootsie and I met Stephen.

I celebrated Thanksgiving

Stephen and I slowly (well, quickly) fell in love.

I got ENGAGED!

I shot my first bullseye.

I got to work at NEFC one last time and had some of the most fun campers ever.

We smiled...a LOT.

I shot a milk jug!

Stephen and I skyped with my parents a lot, and made funny faces.

I got to host some of my favorite boys at my new house.

I got a new cat!

My (our) first Christmas as an engaged couple...and our last as singles.

Celebrating Christmas.

I had a blast with my future niece.

I had some fun times with fun people (like Monica)

I played with babies.

Bootsie and I drove across the country.

Stephen and I visited the coast.

I drove 3000 miles by myself.

Bootsie tried to jump into a lake/canyon/gorge.

We bonded over stupid faces and late night chats.

We discovered that we both clean up nice.

My favorite band visited me in my favorite city!

My cats decided to become friends.

I sat on Buddha's lap.

It snowed A LOT in MA.

Like...A LOT.

My Oregonian family visited me in Boston.
 

Hannah and I bonded with otters in Portland.

We visited some old friends.

I went to the beach with some favs.

I climbed a really tall tower and thought I was going to die. 

We took the obligatory teen-girl selfies.

Karen and I had a romantic dinner date with BF Skinner. 

I had some really good hair days.

Karen and I attended our first (of many!) professional conference for ABA. (Though this picture is from the dinner we went to, not the conference)

I ate my weight in nachos.

I sprained my ankle and had to use a whole week of sick time.

Bootsie learned how to drive.

We went to the beach and got really tan.

I had some fantastic new coworkers.

We celebrated this hottie's birthday.

I passed my thesis defense!

I graduated with my Masters!

Of course, I did many other things as well...like getting my BCBA and hugging my family and watching movies, cooking, dancing, crying, laughing, etc...but I'm sure you're tired of seeing my face.  Go outside and watch the birds or something.  I'm going to go back to lazing around since I have an unexpected day off.

Love you.