Sep 11, 2012

Never Forget

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No, I don't think I'll ever forget 9/11. I was home in Utah visiting my mom. At the time I was living in Philadelphia working my first nanny job. I flew home the weekend before it happened and I had to fly back the weekend after.

I remember my mom bursting into my room and waking me up shouting about the World Trade Center. Admittedly, I didn't know what or where the World Trade Center was. But I stumbled out of bed and went running to my moms room where she had it on tv. I don't really remember what I was thinking when I saw it, but I do remember watching live as the second tower fell. I remember my mom just started crying and said "All those people!" I think I was just numb.

I remember hearing nothing but news coverage that day and for days to come. No TV shows, no music...just 24/7 news and the image of those buildings going down over and over again. I remember i went to the dentist that day and as I sat in the chair the whole office was listening to the radio.

I remember how everyone wanted to do something...like a lot of people my mom and I donated blood.

I remember how the fear set in that day as we learned it was a terrorist attack and it was happening all over the East coast. I went to downtown Salt Lake to meet my best friend and was scared to be around tall buildings (even when Salt Lakes buildings aren't that big) and how most of them were shut down because of what happened.

I remember crying that night and being scared it was the end of the world...or at least the beginning of the end.

I remember flying back to Philadelphia. I remember getting to the airport hours early to be sure to make it through security in time. I remember being told not to worry because after what had happened it would be the safest time ever to fly...but that in spite of that, I felt nothing was safe and secure. It was too soon. The airports and airlines were still trying to work out all this new security and restrictions. It wasn't really organized yet, I felt. When I flew home again a month later security seemed much better. They'd had some time to catch up and get it right. I remember that first flight itself...how I was scared of the middle eastern passengers...I feel bad about that now, but at the time you simply couldn't help it. Everyone was eyeing them...how hard it must have been to be them! And I remember how, regardless of who they were or how they looked...if ANYONE stood up during that flight...restroom break, to get a book from their carry on or just to stretch their legs...the whole plane went quiet and still and watched them like a hawk.

I remember all the fear of that day and the days that followed...but I remember something else. I remember how our country came together. I remember flags...so many flags! They were everywhere! Yards, buildings, bumper stickers, t-shirts...you name it, it had a flag on it.

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I remember the memorials, and the candlelight vigils, the benefit concerts and the fundraisers for the victims and their families. I remember the firefighters and policemen and how appreciated those professions became. I remember feeling proud to be American, and that feeling has stuck. I love my country, I love my people, and I love how we all came together in the face of tragedy. I pray we will all remember that and keep that unity alive!

Totally Lost

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For the past few months Phil and I have been watching the TV series Lost. Phil had seen a couple seasons but I had never watched a single episode. It had always been on my list of things to watch though so when it popped up on Netflix we started at the beginning and got very hooked! Finally we are to...

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As of last night we are down to 2 episodes left (which we should be watching tonight!) I'm very excited to see how this all ends and maybe get some dang answers!! Lol I'm also very glad I watched this series after it was over so I didn't have to wait weeks and months between episodes....that would have been lame!!! Haha

Sep 6, 2012

Favorite Time of Year!

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Anyone else already super excited for Halloween or is it just me? I don't even get annoyed that there's been Halloween stuff appearing in stores for weeks now and it's still 2 months away! I LOVE Halloween! This marks the beginning of my favorite time of year...Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years! Holidays galore and they're all super fun ones!

I love Halloween probably just as much as I love Christmas! (and I love Christmas a lot!) I love having an excuse to dess up in costume and not seem like a total freak! Hehe I love candy and parties and haunted houses and picking pumpkins and carving said pumpkins and house decorations and scary movies and Halloween music! The works! I love it all! Luckily I married an awesome guy who loves it too!

Last year we threw a Halloween party. We both dressed up as vampires, decorated the house, carved pumpkins and had a blast and I was so happy Phil was doing it all with me! He even suffered through a load of scary movies with me even though they're not his favorite.

This year I'm already planning our 2nd annual Halloween party and I can't wait! Phil and I need to decide on our costumes for this year. I have tons of ideas but not sure which I'll go with. Whatever we end up deciding, I'm just so excited for it all!

One of my favorite things is holiday cooking and crafts! This year Phil and I are trying to eat healthier which is putting a massive damper on my holiday cooking creativity....especially now I've discovered Pinterest! But that's a whole different blog entry! Lol) So I'm not sure how I'll reconcile that one. At least the party will give me an excuse to splurge a bit and make some fun stuff! As for Thanksgiving and Christmas....I'll have to negotiate with Phil a bit. I am on board that we need to eat healthier and lose weight....but I am of the opinion that Thanksgiving can simply NOT be a diet day! I'm already collecting Thanksgiving recipes and I intend to use them!!!! Hehe

For now....happy holiday season everyone! Hope you all enjoy it! I know I will!!!!

Sep 4, 2012

Gardening...Its not for everyone

This year Phil and I decided to have a garden (Okay...honestly, PHIL decided we'd have a garden...I just sort of had to go along with it) We bought some seeds, planted them in empty egg cartons filled with compost we went and gathered from the city (helped shovel it and everything!) watered them...and watched them grow.
(Not actually photo of our egg cartons...not sure where those ended up on my computer lol) Despite my begrudging attitude toward the MacDonald garden, I actually started to get really excited when our little plants began to sprout up! Next came time to plant them... Phil gets all the credit for that...he planted everything! Together we kept them watered and weeded and watched them grow and it was all rather exciting for me! My favorite thing to watch was the corn...I LOVE corn on the cob! I was so totally excited about eating my own corn on the cob that we'd grown all ourselves! As the stalks grew from their tiny little seeds I had quite the sense of garden pride. The peas were the first thing to be ready for picking and they were so yummy we were eating them straight out of the pods...but when all was said and done...we only got enough peas for about one meal. That was a bit of a let down, though they were delicious! However both Phil and I began to think our little garden just wasn't big enough to give us the results we hoped for. Still it was a fun to have a little taste of home grown veggies. But that all changed...when the racoon came! Remember those beautiful corn stalks I was so excited about? You should have seen the excitment the day we could see the actual ears of corn finally start growing! I couldn't wait to harvest them...but before we got the chance to, we woke up one morning to find that a racoon had visited our garden and knocked over our stalks of corn and eaten off of our little corn ears! Seriously!?! All that work to feed a RACOON!?!?! Well...that was it for me. Once that dumb racoon ate my corn I lost all interest in the stupid garden. We went on vacation and didn't even bother asking anyone to water it for us. After we came back, Phil went out one day and started to clear out the garden which was overrun with weeds and dead or half eaten veggies. He mananged to salvage a few cucumbers which honestly did pretty well (One is HUGE! I want to make it a giant pickle! hehe) but the funniest part of our garden is the item doing best of all...the tomatoes!
Why is that funny....because we didn't PLANT any tomatoes!!! After we started growing our plants, Phil noticed that some tomoto plants were sprouting up in odd places. Turns out they came from the compost we'd gotten from the city! So he started digging them up and transplanting them into a nice tidy row at the end of our garden. Now, those tomotoes are growing great! Nice and big and delicious! Today we had some of them roasted with olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesean herb seasoning! DELICIOUS! Gotta say though...its a pretty big slap in the gardeners face when the only plant to do well is the one they didn't plant! Haha Needless to say...we won't be gardening next year...I'll stick to getting my fresh produce from local farm stands. Gardening is NOT for me! :)