Real Housewives of Annapolis

Jennie and Mere legitimatelly look like "real housewives" of Annapolis. I have never seen a "real housewives" show, but I imagine this is what they would look like.

These pictures are from when my friend Jennie visited and we went downtown for icecream after Bible Study. We then broke out into song in the icecream shop. I believe we were belting out renditions of Beatles songs. I can't help that we are awesome like that.

That was the night before the nightmare that was getting Jennie on the right bus back to Boston. Dang Megabuses never really say where they are picking up their riders.

The picture above was the only good picture I got of me and Jennie those few days. In all the other ones we are making ridiculous faces. Now I just need photoshop to crop my sister out of the middle. I could just replace her with a dinosaur or something. Sounds reasonable.

Puppies

Interacting with dogs seems to make things always a bit brighter. Aside from when the dogs in my house are spastic nutcases, they can be very therapeutic. Which is good right now. A lot has been going on recently in my life. A lot of change. A lot of surprises. Some of it wonderful. Some of it very hard. Money has been weighing on my mind a lot. Unfortunately. There are a lot of unexpected expenses coming my way. 

So, because I am feeling slightly overwhelmed, here are some pictures of my puppies.

Can you tell which one is my favorite?

Claiming My Italian Heritage

Here is an important question which is normally answered in a negative fashion.

  Have you ever consumed fresh pasta? 

I say a negative fashion because when I generally ask individuals they answer with a resounding "no". This makes me quite sad. Being an Italian myself [mostly. i'm actually more irish, but let's not dwell on that small fact], I am aghast when I discover that the majority of my friends have never consumed homemade pasta. Aghast I tell you.

Once you eat fresh pasta, you will never ever want to go back. I am assuming this. Maybe you will want to go back, right away, to that comforting starchy mess of a meal. But just maybe you will want to run into the future flying the banner of homemade deliciousness to which your belly will gratefully thank you.

My brother and I worked together to turn out around 4 pounds of pasta. It was enough to serve eleven individuals and still have leftovers. 

 Bryan made the dough for me. I tried to make the first batch and kind of failed. He is the dough master. This picture depicts him trying to crush an egg in his large hands just by squeezing it. A rather difficult task. Harder than you might think.

I ran the pasta through our handy dandy little machine. First you flatten out a piece of dough and run it through the first part of the machine where it is made even flatter and thinner. Then you crank it through the second part of the contraption which cuts it into linguine. 

Bryan and Lauren eventually cracked the egg while giggling the entire time. It was kind of a mess. They splattered egg on the cabinet and floor. The dogs enjoyed the mess thoroughly.

After letting the pasta dry for a time, we floored the pieces so that they wouldn't stick together and threw them on a pan. Since it was around 11pm at this point, we stuck it in the freezer for lunch the next day.

My grandma made her wonderful marinara sauce for lunch. We took the pasta out of the freezer and boiled in for literally three minutes and it was done! Best meal ever. Fresh pasta really is the best.

Flashback Friday - The Kimmy Edition

Sometimes I just can't handle small children. I feel like I've said this before. I suppose this is because they aren't mine. It has to be different if they are your kids. 

Also, I love when people adopt. I think it is incredibly special and meaningful. All of the adoptive parents that I know really really love their kids. When I was in high school I had the privilege of nannying for the cutest kid ever. I was lucky enough to be at the airport when they got back from China. 

How cute was she? This must have been right after they got her since my album is labeled December 2006. Every time I see these pictures I just want to squeeze her adorable cheeks.

It's crazy how fast kids grow up. It seems like just yesterday I playing with her one year old self. Now she's five going on thirteen. It's too crazy.

My Obsession

I can't help it. I love baking cakes.

Aaaannnndddd... I am so proud of this one. 

My first time making marshmallow fondant [or any fondant for that matter]. My co-workers boyfriend is from England, so she wanted a union jack for his birthday. The best looking cake I saw on the internet with a union jack was a fondant cake. So I made it. I used my go to chocolate cake recipe and layered it with toasted marshmallow icing and chocolate buttercream. For kicks and giggles I added a layer of ganache on the very top and then covered it in the chocolate icing. Apparently people thought it tasted like a giant hoho. I couldn't be more happy. Those were my favorite hostess cake growing up.

Perhaps a Flashback Friday later? We will see.

Flashback Friday - Reflections

Indulge me for a brief moment [errr... post. whichever you prefer] as I reflect on post graduate life. If you have been reading for a while, you will know that I graduated from college a year ago this month. If you haven't been reading for a while, I just told you everything that you need to know. This past year has been hard. I've struggled with my job. I've struggled with being away from my friends. I've struggled with more than I had bargained for.

But it is all good struggling.

It was necessary for me to grow up in many ways. Being flung into the real world is more shocking and unexpected than most people would like to admit. Perhaps the hardest bit to grasp onto is the whole "working forty hours plus some" a week. I've done the whole full time working thing before. But not like this. I always had it split up between multiple jobs. That way I could bounce from place to place and not feel like I was continually doing the same thing. I worked mostly with people in food service and I nannied. And I was good at both. I'm a people person. I know how to throw a huge smile on my face and actually care about others even if they are just walking through my Starbucks for five minutes.

The job I have now I am not very good at. Which was a slap in the face. I knew that I would have a lot to learn. But not this much. I knew I would struggle with enjoying a desk a job. But not this much. For months I would sit at my desk and feel weighted down by everything expected of me and all the things that I didn't understand at this job. My attitude was slipping.

But it was good to struggle.

I cannot say that I am perfect at my job now by any stretch of the imagination. But I am catching on. I have changed the way I view my work, and that helps with attitude.

I certainly still have rough days. But they are are getting better.

So what pictures would I attach to something as morose as this?

Summers will never be the same now that I am employed full time. As my mother said, "The only way you get summers back is to have kids and be a stay at home mom."

Thanks Mom.

So, since I will never swim on a swim team again:

Nor will I ever be this tan again [my sister will always be pale as a vampire though!]:

Here's to the glorious summers that I did enjoy! Complete with swimming at the pool 24/7 and riding my bike to 7/11.

Adult summers are going to be wonderful as well if I have anything to do with it.

Here's to adventures with friends on nights and weekends. Cold Sangria. Ice Cream downtown. Weddings.

Bring it on.