Three years ago today I got a text mid day from the guy I had a MAJOR crush on - and who I had a date with on Thursday night.
It said: "Anyone up for the Baseball game tonight?"
I rushed into my friend Kristi's office, while my heart sped up. "What do you think? Should I go?"
YES! was her answer.
So i replied-"I'm in" and butterfly's started to turn in my stomach.
After work I headed over the bay to St. Pete, found a parking spot and started walking up to the stadium, where Adam was waiting, with my ticket. I spotted him, looking cool with his baseball hat and cargo shorts. He smiled at me as I approached and we gave each other the cordial "hug".
"Who else is coming?" "Just us" he informed me
WHOA!!! Is this a date?!?!!? I thought as those butterfly turned into a tornado.
We headed up to the bar his friend was working at-and after they said their hello's he introduced me and she did a double take with him (Are you on a date?!?!) she asked him..... he just smiled.
So we mosied up to the bar and he asked what do you want?
"I'll take a Coors light and a shot of whiskey" Whoa! this chick doesn't mess around they said.
Now, to be clear I don't usually take my beer with a side car of jack, but i had a horrible cough and needed to kill it.
The night proceeded with us hanging out at his friends bar and Adam was even chosen to be the "Cash King" for the game and ended up wining some $!
I don't know who won the game-or even who was playing-he does though. We decided afterward to go to limeys for a bite to eat. He wanted to make sure I was OK to make the long drive back home.
When we finished up we headed out to the parking lot and it was there at the door to my Civic that we discussed our "date" for later in the week.
And then Adam leaned in and kissed me good night.
Our first kiss on our first "unofficial" date in the parking lot at Limey's three years ago today.
It still makes me smile.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Well If you name is Stephanie, it grows something like this:
The aloe plant came with the condo-7 years ago- so I'd say it's doing pretty well. Seeing as I've never watered it.
The crockery pot had an African violet in it.
It was a gift from my mother,
who's garden looks like this:
And if your name is Adam your garden looks like this:
Basil, Cilantro, Green Beans and Onion....Chives didn't make an appearance :(
And he was inspired by Grandpa Ray....who's garden looks like this:
Adam's dream is to someday have a large garden where he can grow vegetables like his grandpa does. By the looks of his mini patio garden (Complements of Kmart) I think he'll be able to do it-just as long as I stay far away. I don't want my brown thumb poisoning the soil.
He's back
Finally-after not having a husband around for over a week-he came home.
He loved Seattle, and I cannot wait to visit with him someday.
He took me out for lunch-which is always a special treat.
And we made dinner togeather then toasted to 9 months of wedded bliss.
New recipe we tried Champagne Pork Chops. mmmm they were tastey. And you have to drink up the left over champagne-or it will go flat ;)
He loved Seattle, and I cannot wait to visit with him someday.
He took me out for lunch-which is always a special treat.
And we made dinner togeather then toasted to 9 months of wedded bliss.
New recipe we tried Champagne Pork Chops. mmmm they were tastey. And you have to drink up the left over champagne-or it will go flat ;)
Friday, June 18, 2010
36 hours & a White Dinner
A while ago I discussed my desire to cook chicken like my Grandma Hamel, who by the way is 94, and doesn't remember that she used to make chicken.
Luckily for me my Aunt Annette does and it sounded pretty easy.
So last Friday night, while I was flying solo for the weekend, I headed over to Publix to stock up. The same situation that always happens when I'm solo in the meat department of course happened...but I’m getting better at getting in and out. I scoped out the chicken and grabbed a large package of "Hind Quarters" with the intent on making it like grandma would have. After I got home I figured why not just put it in the fridge-I'll make it sometime in the next couple of days, it will be fine.
Fast forward to Monday night, Adam & I are at our friends house on Treasure Island for one last dinner before they head back to Switzerland and I ask
"How long can chicken stay in the fridge?" I tell them I bought it Friday.
"OH! you need to cook that!" they all say.
hmmm Ok.... Well I guess I'll have to make it for tomorrow night.
Tuesday, Adam, after leaving for work at 4:30 A.M., informs me he's working late.
"The truck leaves at 11p.m. so I should be home by midnight."
He also asks what our plans are for the weekend....Trick question I can feel it....
"N O T H I N G...." I say.
"Well they want me to go to Seattle on Thursday for five days."
Humph. "Ok," I say, "That's fine" It's work, extra money and sounds to me like if they like him enough to take on a trip he should stay on their good side.
So back to my chicken...
I look at the chicken package sitting in our fridge....
Sell By: JUNE 16
I didn't really feel like cooking a big meal and sitting down to eat it all myself and it was ONLY the 15th...so I decide-I'll do it tomorrow.
Around 11:30 Adam calls-I'm assuming he's leaving work.
"We're not close to being done-we're going to work all night"
Huh??
"ummmm I thought the truck left at 11?"
"Nope, I guess it tomorrow at 3pm."
"Ok I say, be careful."
I wake up a 4:30 am (24 hours AFTER Adam left for work) and his side of the bed is empty.
I wake up at 7 am and call him.
"Still working away! I'm not tired-as long as I stay busy", he informs me.
(I'm tired just talking to him)
"Well be CAREFULL!"
(Adam doesn't have health insurance, Adam works with power tools.)
I go to work and keep waiting to hear that my husband is going home.
5:30 pm I leave work...so does Adam-36 hours AFTER he got to work.
"You must be exhausted" I say
"I'm alright" he says as he sits down on the brown couch after his shower.
I head into the kitchen and get out all my stuff for dinner and inform him I'm going to make a Yummy dinner for him and why doesn't he go rest-I'll wake you up when it's time to eat.
I rinsed the chicken, dried it off and rolled it in flour.
Now-I am supposed to do this in a Dutch Oven. I don't have a Dutch Oven, A. Annette informed that I REALLY need one, but what am I to do.
I have a 13" deep fry pan that can go from stove to its permanent house in the oven-so of course that's what I'll use. I LOVE that pan.
The chicken goes in the pan (which has Crisco melted in it) and I brown it, then cover and stick it in the oven at 325 for "about an hour". I look lovingly at my husband sleeping....and begin to make my ceviche for book club the next night. (Which I promise to blog about at some point)
After I've watched the miracle of shrimp being cooked by Lime juice! I move on with the rest of my dinner; Mashed Potatoes and Cauliflower.
DING!! Dinners done-Smells phenomenal-Tables set, and I'm starved.
"Adam, honey time to wake up. You want to eat?" (FYI he's moved onto the guest bed)
"Hmmm"
"Adam, get up, I made dinner and it smells so good"
"hmmm"
I look at him and feel so bad for waking him up....but I just made this great dinner and he's leaving for 5 days in the morning!!
"Adam, come on get up you have to eat"
"hmmmmmmm" and he rolls over like a 3 year old and buries his face in the pillow.
So I admit my defeat and quietly close the door behind me and take my place at the table.
I look down at my plate and a voice from my past comes flooding into my head:
"You have to make it Pretty "
Granny.
Sitting on my white dishes is white chicken, mashed potatoes, white gravy and cauliflower! It is the furthest thing from a pretty plate.
Always, always, always have some color in your food-"It makes the plate Pretty"
Oh I can hear the way she said "pretty"
It sounded Italic.
There I sat, alone at my table, yet BOTH of my grandmothers very present.
I smiled as I shook my head, you should have known better Stephanie-always make it pretty.
So I did the next best thing.
I grabbed my glass of Red wine and moved it really close to my plate.
There.
Pretty.
Adam did get up and eat around 10-then fell quickly asleep afterward. He is now in Seattle and I'm preparing for my second weekend solo...only this time my girlfriends are away too. So it's just me, my sewing machine and two very lovey dovey dogs.
Happy Friday.
Grandma Hamel at Christmas 2009
Luckily for me my Aunt Annette does and it sounded pretty easy.
So last Friday night, while I was flying solo for the weekend, I headed over to Publix to stock up. The same situation that always happens when I'm solo in the meat department of course happened...but I’m getting better at getting in and out. I scoped out the chicken and grabbed a large package of "Hind Quarters" with the intent on making it like grandma would have. After I got home I figured why not just put it in the fridge-I'll make it sometime in the next couple of days, it will be fine.
Fast forward to Monday night, Adam & I are at our friends house on Treasure Island for one last dinner before they head back to Switzerland and I ask
"How long can chicken stay in the fridge?" I tell them I bought it Friday.
"OH! you need to cook that!" they all say.
hmmm Ok.... Well I guess I'll have to make it for tomorrow night.
Tuesday, Adam, after leaving for work at 4:30 A.M., informs me he's working late.
"The truck leaves at 11p.m. so I should be home by midnight."
He also asks what our plans are for the weekend....Trick question I can feel it....
"N O T H I N G...." I say.
"Well they want me to go to Seattle on Thursday for five days."
Humph. "Ok," I say, "That's fine" It's work, extra money and sounds to me like if they like him enough to take on a trip he should stay on their good side.
So back to my chicken...
I look at the chicken package sitting in our fridge....
Sell By: JUNE 16
I didn't really feel like cooking a big meal and sitting down to eat it all myself and it was ONLY the 15th...so I decide-I'll do it tomorrow.
Around 11:30 Adam calls-I'm assuming he's leaving work.
"We're not close to being done-we're going to work all night"
Huh??
"ummmm I thought the truck left at 11?"
"Nope, I guess it tomorrow at 3pm."
"Ok I say, be careful."
I wake up a 4:30 am (24 hours AFTER Adam left for work) and his side of the bed is empty.
I wake up at 7 am and call him.
"Still working away! I'm not tired-as long as I stay busy", he informs me.
(I'm tired just talking to him)
"Well be CAREFULL!"
(Adam doesn't have health insurance, Adam works with power tools.)
I go to work and keep waiting to hear that my husband is going home.
5:30 pm I leave work...so does Adam-36 hours AFTER he got to work.
"You must be exhausted" I say
"I'm alright" he says as he sits down on the brown couch after his shower.
I head into the kitchen and get out all my stuff for dinner and inform him I'm going to make a Yummy dinner for him and why doesn't he go rest-I'll wake you up when it's time to eat.
I rinsed the chicken, dried it off and rolled it in flour.
Now-I am supposed to do this in a Dutch Oven. I don't have a Dutch Oven, A. Annette informed that I REALLY need one, but what am I to do.
I have a 13" deep fry pan that can go from stove to its permanent house in the oven-so of course that's what I'll use. I LOVE that pan.
The chicken goes in the pan (which has Crisco melted in it) and I brown it, then cover and stick it in the oven at 325 for "about an hour". I look lovingly at my husband sleeping....and begin to make my ceviche for book club the next night. (Which I promise to blog about at some point)
After I've watched the miracle of shrimp being cooked by Lime juice! I move on with the rest of my dinner; Mashed Potatoes and Cauliflower.
DING!! Dinners done-Smells phenomenal-Tables set, and I'm starved.
"Adam, honey time to wake up. You want to eat?" (FYI he's moved onto the guest bed)
"Hmmm"
"Adam, get up, I made dinner and it smells so good"
"hmmm"
I look at him and feel so bad for waking him up....but I just made this great dinner and he's leaving for 5 days in the morning!!
"Adam, come on get up you have to eat"
"hmmmmmmm" and he rolls over like a 3 year old and buries his face in the pillow.
So I admit my defeat and quietly close the door behind me and take my place at the table.
I look down at my plate and a voice from my past comes flooding into my head:
"You have to make it Pretty "
Granny.
Sitting on my white dishes is white chicken, mashed potatoes, white gravy and cauliflower! It is the furthest thing from a pretty plate.
Always, always, always have some color in your food-"It makes the plate Pretty"
Oh I can hear the way she said "pretty"
It sounded Italic.
There I sat, alone at my table, yet BOTH of my grandmothers very present.
I smiled as I shook my head, you should have known better Stephanie-always make it pretty.
So I did the next best thing.
I grabbed my glass of Red wine and moved it really close to my plate.
There.
Pretty.
Adam did get up and eat around 10-then fell quickly asleep afterward. He is now in Seattle and I'm preparing for my second weekend solo...only this time my girlfriends are away too. So it's just me, my sewing machine and two very lovey dovey dogs.
Happy Friday.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sew Busy
The last week was extremely busy for Adam. Between extra practices and work I think I saw him maybe one night. By Tuesday he had already logged 26 hours of Overtime!! But they made their shipment on time. Friday he left early to head up to Georgia for an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. He called after the 1st day and said they were the #1 seed and had beat ever team (there were 5 others). The next time I heard from him it was midnight and they were drinking in their hotel room....
The call Sunday morning was "We're done-we lost our 1st game" Hmmmm maybe your whole team shouldn't have stayed up late drinking.....Just a thought. Will boys EVER learn? He returned home after 9 p.m. and quickly fell asleep on the couch. Nice to see you too honey.
While he was away I had a pretty relaxing weekend. Now if I were the world’s greatest wife I would have cleaned the floors and scrubbed the toilets. But I’m not. shucks.
I did clean up the dishes and attempt to fix our Dishwasher-with no avail. I took the whole front off of it!! Had my dad on the phone and everything and can't figure out why it's not draining completely.
Saturday I headed across the bay to Tara's for a yard sale she was hosting. Found some good finds-the best being an alarm clock for the guest room! Not sure if the "Alarm" part works, but the "light alarm" does :) At least now we have a clock in that room. I'm such a clock Nazi. I have 4 in my kitchen and can't stand it if one needs resetting.
Sunday I woke up semi early and decided I needed to get the sewing machine out and start the gifts for the other new girls in the family.
I worked until 3....took a break then decided to head to Joann's to get buttons.....well I can't go in there w/o looking at the clearance fabric. (The only place I'll buy it now!) I got soooo much fabric-but how can you say no to $1/yd + 20%!!! Hello! I think I had 8 bolts....and of course the store was closing so as the women (who was really slow) was cutting my fabric I'd run over and get more of that Biased Tape (love that stuff!) then I’d run back and give her my next size...then I'd run away again.
I made it out of there under $40 and had a 5lb bag of goodies. When I got home I started looking at ideas for the last outfit. I selected the fabric, but decided I didn't like any of my pattern choices. So I finagled two together and came up with my own.
I quickly realized that it was WAY too wide-since I was skipping the "gathering" part. So I added some folds or I think the correct term is "pleats"? Anyway, finished it up in no time flat! I'll have to remember that one for next time :)
So here is my Sunday...in dresses. They will get shipped out tomorrow to three special girls. I hope they fit!
The Ashlynn
The Brenna
The Genna
I'm debating on adding a second pocket on this...thoughts?
My "pleat" detail :)
Monday, June 7, 2010
Updates
It has been a busy few weeks for Adam & I. Adam has been working long hours at his new (temp we hope) job building furniture for the Church of Scientology. I joke with him that he should etch pictures of the Virgin Mary of Jesus someplace on the desks...see if we can't convert a few ;) This tidbit is always fun to tell people since TCOS has its head quarters next door in Clearwater. They are a hot topic around here and I’m getting very curious as to what this "church" really is. Now don't go getting worried...I'm not going over to the dark side. I've just always been intrigued by other religions; yet I’m finding it hard to understand why Scientology (Science=Knowledge; -ology=Study of...) Is a "religion". Adam explains it's a tax loop hole-that makes more sense. All the while he has been working overtime getting the space machines-I mean desks-ready, I've been trying to keep up house, socialize and get better.
I've been battling a sickness of some mutant sort. Started out on memorial day with a fierce sore throat. Worked its way into a killer headache. Then moved into my joints and a fever which kept me out of work one day. I NEVER stay out of work. But after the fever receded and the throat got better it had migrated to my nose and my chest. And here it is 1 week later and I’m still hacking away. Hopefully this will be the last of it because I'm not enjoying my 3 a.m coughing fits that last 30 minutes.
Oh! and I have to throw in "Greatest Husband Award" here. So I came home early from work when I was sick - Luckily Adam didn't work late that night. I told him soup sounded good for dinner as I crawled into bed. He came in a little while later with some hot tea and ice cream and said dinner would be awhile. I asked why and he said "because I’ve got to make the soup". I was confused...soup takes like 3 minutes. Put it in a bowl add a can of water and nuke it for 3:00. He said "No, I have MAKE it, we don't have any". So my sweet husband MADE chicken noodle soup-the long way. How sweet is he? It was soooo good. I did inform him that he was super sweet, but if it were he who were sick, I would have went to the store to buy some Cambell's.
This past weekend was a whirl wind of parties. Friday night we surprised our friend Tara for her Birthday at her favorite restaurant. She was super shocked and more so to see me standing there as I had spoken with her 30 minutes before and told her again how sick I was. Little did she know I was dressed to the nines picking up candles for her cake at the Publix next to her house! We had a great dinner, great conversations with friends and an all out fun time. Midnight rolled around and poor Adam's eyes started to close-so we headed out.
Surprise!
The Whole Gang
Enjoying a Night out
Tara's Fabulous Cake!
Tara & Alex
Ben Enjoying lots of ladies
Hot Tired and Having fun!
Saturday we had our friends Baby shower/BBQ. It was a lovely day-super hot-but had again good food, friends and times. It was great to celebrate with Kris & Paul-as this is their "3rd" child. She lost twin boys a year ago April at ~20 weeks-so it has been a bumpy ride for them and to see happiness in them both again is magical.
The Beautiful Mommy to be-Kris & Proud Daddy Paul with the shirt we bought them.
Adam making his entrance.
Enjoying time with new friends.
This week will hopefully go by as quickly as the last-but will still see Adam working overtime (which is good for the wallet) and end with him heading to Georgia for a tournament on Friday and coming home LATE Sunday. That just means I'll have lots of "Stephanie" time and have already planned a "girls" night on Friday. Maybe I'll get the sewing machine back out and work on some long over do projects.
Happy June!
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